Session 75: Meet The Dagger (February 20, 2025)
Last session, our heroes performed a rare interrogation that didn’t end in a murder! Ash, under the influence of Elias’s Juicy Shaft (single entendre), revealed the series of events that lead to the Scouring of Shaenor and, eventually, to her showing up here in Bad Zamdorf. She had, through inexperience, allowed herself to be found out and tracked by the Mistguard. Filled with guilt and under a closer watch from her father, she made a pact with Hooded Beth, an arch fey held captive in the tidal dungeons beneath Scythcrest Reef, gaining new powers in exchange that she see to it her father dies. She then was brought by Kogar on his trip to the material plane, hoping to trade her off in some political marriage. Learning Elias was also on this plane, she tried to see him, but lost her nerve in the fog outside Kolonie, running away and seeming to Elias to be just an illusion conjured by the fey carapskit.
Heph questioned whether she had any qualms about killing her father, to which she responded she did, but she knew it was the right thing to do. The nature of her pact was such that she was fated to see it through, however the specifics of that turn out. Elias, concerned for her, argued they should be taking it easy on her so as not to end like other interrogations have; see above.
It was about this time that the CCTV Silent Image dropped, and Elias saw Aelos and three Mistguard approaching. Ana disguised Ash as Maho, and the party attempted to draw the Mistguard away while allowing Ash and the Eladrin to escape. However, that was unsuccessful, and a skirmish ensued. In the fight, 17 Eladrin died to Mistguard blades. Aelos chased after Heph, then Elias, then Maho (still disguised as Ash, which Aelos never really figured out even when she got big and started fighting him). Maho held the hourglass gifted to Aelos by the arch fey knows as the Hermit, and which was tied mystically to his years of life. The party discovered that accelerating the flow of sand rapidly aged Aelos, and after a few tricks culminating in Maho swinging it above her head, he was reduced to dust.
The party then stood, the remnants of battle around them, and prepared for next steps. Maho looked at the hourglass and discovered that in its place was the bottle of wine she had gifted to Tertel, opened and partially drunk, with a note affixed to it in the same handwriting as was engraved on the base of the hourglass, reading “The wanderer finds home in others’ hearts”.
- Heph recalls Karrl and messages Ash to come
back, and she arrives back a moment later
- Ash asks if we are all okay, and glancing at Elias she seems a bit worried
- Heph cleans some of it up and tells her it’s not as bad as it looks
- She sees the blood in the building, and runs over to the Eladrin
- There is a lot of blood and 17 dead Eladrin, but they managed to do pretty well and hold their own
- Heph tells Elias to go with Ash and rally the troop, while Heph and Maho hide the dead bodies
- Elias heads inside, glad they have defeated so many Mistguard but
simultaneously sad so many of his people died, and unsure what to say to the
group, he defers to Ash, looking ashamed
- Ash notes his reaction, and immediately jumps to action, helping to bandage up wounds of the various fighters
- Rather than making any grand speech, she is trying to be of service and provide comfort to the fighters through trying to help them
- The Eladrin are at first nervous Ash is helping them, and they see Elias not running away and experiencing the loss with them, still largely covered in blood
- There is a feeling of commiseration and camaraderie in the room
- Wynn says “We need to get out of here soon, but this was a learning experience for all of us. We are learning the area and we can probably be more strategic next time, but this was a win. We took out Kogar’s most powerful lieutenant and several of his men. This is the closest we’ve ever gotten to him, this is a win.”
- Maho drags the bodies into the house, and Heph uses
Prestidigitation to clean up the blood off the street
- While doing this, Maho hears heavy armored footfalls from the adjacent street
- She tries to hide in the nearby building, but the door is locked
- Heph asks Elias to use Silent Image to hide Maho
- Maho sees movement on another nearby building, wearing nondescript clothing, and readying their bows at the approaching guards
- Maho throws the Mistguard’s body over her shoulder and runs down the street, tucking in along the building on the far side of the street from the house the Eladrin are in
- Elias pokes his head out, and runs over to Maho, casting Invisibility on her, turning her and the corpse invisible, and runs back into the house
- The Central Command guards round the corner onto the street, and are suddenly
ambushed by the individuals on the roof
- Elias noticed when he turned Maho invisible that the individuals on the roof are familiar with the area and operating with stealth, this seems like a thing they do often, they seem like seasoned criminals
- A number of them jump over the edge of the roof, climb down, pull out swords and start pushing back the guards
- One of the individuals from the roof climbs down while the fight with the guards is ongoing and approaches the house we are in with weapons sheathed, carrying a scroll
- None of them are wearing swordfish pins, however the scroll has a wax seal with the emblem of a swordfish on it
- Heph steps out, asking Elias and Maho to stay close to help if needed, and Maho steps outside, still invisible
- The approaching person seems unsurprised to see Heph, nods to him, and keeps approaching
- Maho recognizes Markus Edelmann, a high ranking “problem solver” / Eiche (lieutenant) for TK
- Maho crouches down and whispers to Heph that it is one of TK’s men, “The Dagger of Laugen”, TK uses him when someone needs to die quietly, and to head inside if things go south
- Heph says “Oh, you’re The Dagger. Your reputation precedes you.”
- He looks impressed, and his eyes smile without his mouth moving, and he says “it is always good to meet a fan”
- Heph asks what brings him here, and he explains he has messages for our group from two players, and asks if Maho is around, he would like to talk to her too
- He asks to go inside, Heph lets him come in, and after Maho follows Heph closes and locks the door
- He first expresses that we have taken heavy losses, then he notices Ash-Maho and says oh hello Maho
- As Heph closes and locks the door he says “this is the scene of a crime and this isn’t a safe place to be” and he says he has a safehouse nearby
- Elias asks him how we know we can trust him, and is angry that they didn’t step in sooner while we were fighting the Mistguard
- Heph interjects and tells Markus we would gladly take refuge in his safehouse, and Elias looks rather angry at this
- Heph messages Elias telling him we’ll pick up that argument later, and Elias responds by sticking his tongue out
- Markus signals, and his people, dressed in plainclothes, approach the door
- Heph opens it and they run in and start gathering up the fallen, hiding them in what looks like hand carriage things carrying fruits
- At this, Maho expresses her relief in a surprised whisper that TK’s people are here, his cleaners are really good
- Elias tries to look for identifying characteristics, but they are very well disguised and have no sort of pattern to their dress to really blend into a crowd
- Elias leans in to Maho and says “these guys are good”
- We follow Markus and crew to their safehouse
- Ash is confused why Markus keeps looking at her, and Elias explains he thinks Markus knows Maho
- Elias tells her the disguise won’t last forever, and she says Ana explained that to her, and it’ll be like the mascots from a game on the Nor’Southern Isles that made children around them cry (I unfortunately said “Fairy Ball”)
- Markus’ crew leads various smaller groups through the streets to a dilapidated old building with broken windows, and heading inside the building is fully empty, covered in dust and cobwebs
- Maho thinks this is a great safehouse and it will work great when we lay down on the floor, nobody will be able to see us through the window
- Elias sees that the room is mostly empty, but on the opposite side of the room there is a dusty painted wooden sign nailed low on the wall, and underneath the sign is a perforation that makes it look like it could be removed, and the sign says “no boys allowed”
- Maho, always itching to take on Markus, strikes him with
Aelos’ sword from Invisibility, stopping just short of his
neck and nicking him gently
- He notices Maho, disguised as Ash, holding a sword to his neck, and he disengages and rolls back, pulling out two daggers, holding them out, ready to fight
- Maho puts her sword away, saying “My hands were shaking when I saw ‘The Dagger’ approaching but maybe you’re not so tough”
- Elias is angry with Maho because she looks like Ash, and uses Mage Hand to rip off the mask and reveal Maho, and explains Maho-Ash is really Maho and Ash-Maho is really Ash
- Markus is not listening to Elias at all, and is busy trying to figure out what is happening, but when Maho’s face is shown, his body relaxes and he just looks incredibly impressed that Maho pulled the attack off
- He puts his daggers away, rubs his finger through the blood she drew, and says well done
- Maho is very smug and says “yeah, I got smarter”, Elias glaring at her from the side
- Markus rubs the blood between his fingers and says “It is possible TK could have used you, your skillset wasn’t limited to how it was utilized. And it’s nice to finally properly make your actual acquaintance.”
- He asks if Maho can turn invisible now, and Maho says yeah, she does it every now and then, and he seems interested to compare notes with Maho, especially curious about her time in the Fey Wild
- He leads us to the wall with the “no boys allowed sign”, Elias
darting ahead and getting there first and saying “oh you’re going for your
secret door here”
- Elias uses his invisible mage hand to push on the wall and it falls back, revealing a hole leading to another room, that looks very cluttered at a glance
- Markus turns to Maho and says she’s doing well, a good leader surrounds herself with good people, and Elias glares at Maho again
- We enter the secret room, Heph fitting easily, and it seems the area was designed for kids to go through, and upon getting further in it seems to clearly be a disused childhood clubhouse
- The room is filled with boxes of bread and crackers, and there are posters of ACE fighters on the walls, Andreas the Half Giant, Tough Guy Randall Big Strong, etc.
- There are also piles of comic books in boxes scattered around
- Markus follows us in and explains we haven’t had to use the safehouse in a bit, but they re-add dust and cobwebs every time they leave
- Over the next short period of time, everyone manages to squeeze into the room
- Elias asks if boys are now allowed, and Markus explains they have taken over the space and they now allow boys, and Elias seems very relieved
- Heph tries to bring the group back to task, Elias sad about the goofs being stopped, and creates an illusory rubber duck, which Markus is only mildly impressed by
- Coming back to business, Markus pulls out the first message from the
swordfish, an organization they are not part of but are affiliated with
- It is a report card for the assassination, which says we were successful but execution could be better, and tosses it to Maho, Elias catching it in mid-air with Mage Hand, pulling the bag in with a mimed fishing rod
- Maho says “oh yeah, he handles the money” and Elias pockets the 3000gp
- Heph messages Elias to tell him that he expects his 1000gp later, and Elias sticks his tongue out again
- Markus asks Maho what she knows about TK’s relationship with Central Command, and Maho says she doesn’t know what’s going on
- Markus continues to explain that they have traced the origin of their fight back to an interaction we had with Central Command, telling them Central Command was behind the attack on the library back in Eken
- TK’s group had always had a healthy competition with Central Command, and as they began to investigate TK’s group the rivalry heated up
- The skirmishes are not entirely against TK’s interests, and TK does not feel a need to cut off ties with Maho
- Markus offers to renegotiate TK’s deal with Maho, and Maho is not about it, as TK is involved in enslaving the goliaths and is dealing with Sentin
- Markus explains TK is a businessman and looks for business opportunities, and while he was working with Sentin, Sentin winning would be bad for TK’s organization
- They have made their money already, and it would not be against their interests for us to take out Sentin
- Maho expresses this is all too complicated, and tells Markus we’re going to kill Sentin, and asks if that’s okay, and he is okay with it
- Heph asks about Kogar, and Markus doesn’t seem to know who he’s talking about
- Heph asks to clarify the offer, and Markus explains we can have an unofficial alliance
- Heph, Maho, and Elias step aside and discuss
the offer
- It is good for us in the short term to be aligned with TK’s organization
- Elias suggests that TK might be willing to take out Kogar as a way of expanding his business
- We debate for a while about if we should offer TK anything to help with Kogar, Heph thinking making empty promises are a bad idea
- In the middle of this discussion, Morty sends a sending to Elias, telling him he’s on a boat heading out to negotiate a trade deal with the ships that have been interfering with Elias’ business
- Elias tells Morty he’ll get back to him in a minute, then turns to the group and fills us in on everything
- Heph proposes a plan: tell Morty the real plan is to spy on Kogar’s fleet while making money, and tell Markus if he helps us take down Kogar TK can probably have business with Elias
- Heph is having a bit of an identity crisis, he’s in league with so many criminals and he’s killed people but he’s doing it to help take out even worse criminals???
- Elias relays the plan to Morty, telling him not to reveal he’s working with Elias
- Elias turns back to Heph and Maho to clarify the plan, but Heph doesn’t answer, he’s borderline comatose from his identity crisis
- Elias approaches Markus, saying he has a business proposition for
him, and he replies he is listening
- Markus asks if he is talking on behalf of Maho, and Elias explains he is speaking on his own behalf, and Markus congratulates Maho on having entrepreneurial people working for her
- Elias explains he has a criminal business operation, and if TK helps take out Kogar it would put Elias in a better position to expand his operation, and TK gets first dibs on the new opportunities Elias will have access to
- Maho also adds in that Kogar is working with Sentin, and Elias expands that taking out Kogar also hurts Sentin
- Markus asks what Kogar is looking for, Heph calls out he is looking for the Blinds as well, and Elias explains that Kogar needs the Blinds to get himself out of a precarious situation
- Markus steps away to talk to TK, and Heph asks if it is beneficial for Maho to talk directly to TK, but she doesn’t want to get involved
- Markus comes back and says TK is tentatively interested in making a deal with Elias, and Elias asks if he can help by providing some manpower
- We have an inside connection, Ash, and Elias invites Mr. Dagger to the roundtable to help plan the assault on Kogar
- Markus says that they can keep Central Command off our backs, and may be able to provide some manpower when we do attack
- Elias and Maho ask about the swordfish, and Markus explains they work together and they have ties Central Command that is useful
- The Swordfish knew TK’s org had ties to us and asked them to bring the payment to us
- Markus says from the report card we have some room for improvement, and Heph pipes up and says “yeah we seem to be making a habit of killing people in the streets”
- Markus notes that Heph and Elias aren’t stealthy and Maho is, and Elias attempts to hide, but fails miserably, and Markus says maybe Maho can teach him some things
- Elias continues to lay in the comic books, and ends up asking Heph to help repair a rare first edition comic
- Markus hands Maho a sending stone to contact him when we are planning, and Heph reaches out to take it, since he has all the other stones
- Markus heads out, not wanting to stay in one place for long, and tells us to get in touch when we are ready
- Maho asks Heph if he is going to be okay, and he seems to try to rationalize killing people since the people he’s been killing are all bad people