Session 12: Jaunty Jailbreak
Clarence has the cipher frames.Sartorii has a large key club.
The Sprite has five unidentified scrolls.
Bry mentioned we would level up Soon™.
With Rutana's hand no longer transparent, the party discusses semantics of Clarence's Lay on Hands cooldown! Turns out he has to spend ten minutes praying or focusing to get his spell back. It's the Sprite's turn to regain 6 HP!
The air in the room is significantly more dry now that Rutana's book has been wrapped up.
Sartorii sneakily peeks into the next room.
Within is a large pile of smashed up wooden shelves, a pile of skeletons in the back.
Sartorii promptly closes the door, scrawls "DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE," and directs the party downstairs.
The party makes it to the basement!
Rutana is the only one even vaguely perceptive, rolling a 26 from the back row.
She doesn't see much down the hallway. Up, howerver... Every ceiling has been 10 feet up. Here, there are outlines of people floating near the ceiling, as if the place had flooded.
The party proceeds toa door partway down the hall, locked steel bars. Within is a desk bearing a scratched-up ledger covered in ink stains. Some even appear recent.
Sartorii breaks the lock, the door creaking as it swivels open.
The Sprite makes a beeline for the bookshelf, while the rest of the party inspects some prison cells at the other end of the room.
A goblin and a man in his 40s inhabit the cells. The goblin wordlessly shakes the bars, and the man skeptically greets the party.
The man has been holed up here alone for a very long time. He may have stolen something, got locked up for thievery. He offers a deal; let him out, and he would answer all the party's questions.
Clarence is not keen on releasing someone from prison without knowing their deal. When asked his name, the man's eyes glaze over. He doesn't remember.
When asked about the goblin, the man reaches through the bars and pets the goblin's face, muttering about how the newcomer is not talkative.
The goblin is scared shitless.
Sartorii
The books are just ledgers and law stuff, nothing fun.
On the desk, there's a bottle of fresh ink next to the ledger, quill inside. Words have been scratched into the ledgerand the paper torn, a lot of the page crossed out.
There are two names, however. A name and a title.
Goblin: Graverobbing, eternity.
Asher Redstream: Horse theft, service on the wall/25g, 3 years.
The Sprite places 25g on the ledger. A hand manifests around the gold, and slowly, a body cascades from the hand, coalescing into a semi-transparent person with crystalline impressions of bone.
It looks at the coins in its hand, pulls the drawer open, and drops the coins in. Closes the drawer, looks at the Sprite.
"Free to go, then," it says, then vanishes.
The lock on Asher's door opens.
As Asher walks out of the cell, his skin swells and bloats like a drowned corpse.
"You weren't lying. I've been here far, far too long."
And then, he vanishes.
The goblin immediately starts chattering in Goblin, then when the party doesn't understand, babbles "Thank, thank!!"
Sartorii scrawls on a piece of paper, a plea to release the goblin into their custody.
Nothing happens for a long moment...and then the paper is dragged back across the desk.
The warden, not bothering to manifest save for the air parted by its words, allows it. "Good folk. Fine. Keep him out of trouble."
A large, red seal of House First appears on the bottom of the paper with a loud thunk.
The goblin immediately sprints out of its cell and clings to the hem of Sartorii's clothes, again shouting "Thank, thank!!"
The goblin is worried that Neeble will throw the goblin for coming back empty handed, but Sartorii assures him the party will take care of Neeble.
The goblin introduces himself as Wix.
("God we really are a group and a half, aren't we?")
The party leaves the dungeon and continues to the 90 degree turn at the end of the hall.
There's a whole lotta nothing until they reach a large stone door with a hole in the center, the crest of House First emblazoned around the hole.
Sartorii slides the key club through the hole with several resounding clunks. With a final click the key twists itself into an L-shaped handle.
Sartorii sees the silhouette of a man poring over crumbled maps on a table; the man is more here than gone, more present than the ghosts of the drowned. As Sartorii knocks the man grows more solid, shadows coalescing into armor. The man turns, approaches Sartorii, and asks the party who they are.
Sartorii introduces herself. Rutana states that Baron Segrid First sent them.
As the man moves he emits a creaking sound, like he'd been stock-still for a very long time.
The armor and sword are translucent, but within, an actual, solid body, a dessicated mummy of a corpse.
Sartorii explains how long it has been, how Segrid First wants to learn about his family and find their remnants, how the party wishes to know what happened here.
The man refuses to speak the creature's name, as it will see you if you speak its name. It came with a smell like low tide. It was looking for something, something that would give it power over man and god, but someone had already hidden that thing away.
Sartorii asks the man's name.
"It's okay if you can't remember, wouldn't be the first time." (he he, First.)
His title was Captain Doran, but he remembers nothing beyond that.
He sees flashes now and then, warm halls filled with light and life.
Clarence asks what the object was.
The only people who knew the nature of this powerful item were Sirian and his associate. It is a device, but Doran knows little else.
The party begins discussing amongst themselves about what they should do with this information, and what they should do about Neeble.
Doran observes the party, deep in thought.
"If you are truly agents of the family of First, then it is not my duty to keep you from this vault."
He muses, if the party removes the items from the vault, his duty to guard it would at last be over.
He steps aside and motions to the left corner of the room, which contains two chests and a sword.
The first chest contains:
200 gold pieces.
The second chest contains:
A number of items, including...
A sizeable bag, like a sack. (He he, sack.)
(The rest of the items will be named later on. The party would need to identify them.)
The sword is a scimitar with a thin blade and a curled guard appearing like waves. The metal looks like wrought iron but feels light when lifted. The wrapping feels like snake scales. An onyx gem adorns the hilt, appearing as the sea meeting sky in deep night. Script in Akhlo, Infernal, Necril, and Cestial curls down the scabbard.
Wix points at the Infernal text.
"Say... Black, wave."
The Sprite asks Captain Doran about the sword.
"The blade was a gift to Sirian First. As far as I know it never saw use."
Clarence draws the sword.
It comes out of the sheath with a sound like a wave crashing on a rock, like water hissing over sand as the tide retreats.
The blade is black as night and appears to collect condensation from nothing.
The Sprite detects necromancy and evocation magic from the sword. No ties to the ghosts around it, however. (Healing magic is technically necromancy.)
There is a mark on the hilt in the shape of the First symbol, a tag wrapped around the blade.
This is the heirloom intended for Segrid First, though the party intends to use it against Neeble first.
The Sprite asks about the maps.
Once upon the time, they showed the entire kingdom of Brevoy in all its glory. They reminded Doran of his home, which might not have been far from here. He should be dust, and his home may be as well. The maps kept him sane.
He might have had a daughter, but he does not remember.
The Sprite makes the connection that they know a Doran. Astrafel Doran.
Captain Doran sits, informs the party that the door will not be barred, though he does not know if the ghosts will harass the party.
He asks for one last favor, for agents of the family First to relieve him of duty.
The Sprite grants it, and thanks him for service.
Captain Doran salutes, then crumbles into dust.
The party takes a moment to pay respects, and for Clarence to heal himself.
The scrolls from the library are...
Air Bubble
Aqueous Blast
Briny Bulk
Detect Alignment
Penumbral Shroud
The items in the chest were...
Bag of Holding (Tier 1)
(There is 25 Bulk to store stuff. Whenever you reach in, whatever you need is just there. Living beings will suffocate after 10 minutes, but can make a DC 13 escape check. An object must be able to fit through the opening. Items will fall out if turned inside out. Magic objects inside cannot be detected because they are on a different plane.)
Three bottles of what appears to be fluid, but appears more like plasma when touched. Bottled lightning, a bomb.
Six-pack of lesser healing potions.
Two potions of water breathing.
A pendant in the shape of an unblinking eye, the cavity appears to have a piece of paper inside.
An ordinary-looking hat, a broad not-sunhat, like a wide-brimmed Red Mage Final Fantasy hat. Violet with gold thread through it.
Six-pack of small bottles. The first two have a picture of a flower (Belladonna), the second two have a picture of a snake, and the third a closed eye.
Belladonna, black adder venom, and lethargy poison
A claw hanging from an iron chain by a clasp.
Sartorii and the Sprite return to the dungeon.
Sartorii writes down a request for the names of everyone who died here, wanting to honor them.
After a long pause, the First seal thunks down onto the paper. All the books on the wall fall down, flip through and tear, a white-noise of flapping pages filling the room.
A scroll flies out of the drawer, lays atop the requisition form, and the quill frantically scribbles densely-packed names on the scroll. Sartorii asks the warden circle his name, and Justice Crew is highlighted.
Clarence attunes to the Black Wave. His next breath comes out as mist and his fur stands on end, a chill passing through him. He can hear the soft churning sound of the ocean in the distance, and breath feels less necessary.
The Sprite has no self control and puts on the hat.
It's a Hat of Disguise, and casts Illusory Disguise.
The party leaves the tower, emerging in the courtyard of Fort First. An hour has passed since they first entered the tower.
Mazkol greets the party warily.
"Oh, it's you. You made it."
Sartorii asks how things are out here. Mazkol peeks out the door, then lets it close. Asks if the party found anything worth finding.
Sartorii says it was haunted as shit, but Mazkol already knew that.
Mazkol thinks most goblins would sit around and watch, but Neeble does have two very powerful allies who he has treated favorably.
Zirex, the Houndmaster, and Grunk, who fancies himself a commander.
Ser Dori and Mazkol make some banter, Mazkol insisting that they not make him laugh as this is a life or death situation.
The plan is to lure Neeble inside by shouting about shinies. The party dragged the goblin corpses out of the tower and piled them in the corner to distract the hounds.
Clarence takes another 10 minutes to heal himself once more.
Sartorii shouts for Neeble to come see, they found shinies!
Neeble and his entourage start shuffling into the courtyard. The party rolls initiative....
Sartorii throws one bottled lightning at Neeble and his minions, then fires her bow at Neeble. She saves the other two for another round.
Clarence grips the hilt of First's Black Tide, turning his Death Gaze on Neeble. Neeble's fortitude staves off half the damage, but the rot chips away at him a bit.
Rutana raises her amulet, divining Neeble's weakness. It could be soap, maybe hand sanitizer? But no, Ogres have no weaknesses or resistances.
The Sprite launches a volley of Magic Missiles right at Neeble's face.
And then the surprise round's over.
Sartorii lobs another bottled lightning at Neeble And Friends.
And then, Neeble hours.
Neeble looks behind him at Zerex. He grabs the goblin and throws him at Sartorii as hard as he can. She and Zerex both take 5 damage. Neeble then saunters into the courtyard, right up in Clarence's face.
The hounds enter next, all but one of them charging straight to the corpse pile. The last dog launches itself at Clarence and bites at him, dealing 6 damage. Clarence is Sickened. Another bite, and another 8 damage.
The goblins move in to watch.
Pausing here, the battle continues next session!
