Session 35: Ding Dong the Besh Is Dead
The game starts with the party slipping back in through the wall and sneaking around the building while Ser Dori distracts everyone with his duel. The party moves as far as they can within one turn, then DM rolls a round of combat for Ser Dori and Sly.Ser Dori starts the duel off by rolling low on Disarm, which Sly gets a critical success against, knocking Dori off guard. Dori spends his remaining action getting back on guard.
Sly throws a smoke ball to obscure himself. Dori fails his perception check, and Sly strikes him for 6 damage.
Sartorii flaps up on top of the roof. There she can see four windows. She peeks into the closest, seeing a laundry room with stairs going down.
She steps back to the edge of the roof and lowers a rope for the party to climb up.
Rutana approaches a window and is immediately ambushed by the need to roll stealth. Rolls 5, uses a hero point to roll 7.
A man inside the barracks wakes up and sees this fox face pressed against the window.
Ser Dori continues rolling low, as Foundry knows when protagonists are rolling against antagonists. This time, however, Sly rolls a nat 1 on attack and falls Prone, gaining Slowed 1.
Sartorii pries open the laundry room window and the party all scampers in.
The thug in the barracks presses his face to the window, but with a 3 on Perception sees nothing. He toddles back to bed and returns to his chili-cheese nightmares.
Time to loot the laundry room!
Crates of dirty clothes, boxes of detergent soap, and a cantrip deck of Produce Flame! Also rags, towels, a collapsible clothes hanger.
On the interior wall are violent, stained-glass windows.
Linden moves to the southern wall and presses his ear to the door there, rolling 25 on perception. He hears a man uncork a bottle and take a sip. "Cor, that lil sackcloth man can beat ass, don't think I've ever seen Sly on the ground."
Linden rolls 18 on Stealth to crack open the door and peer out. "I see one guard at a window watching the fight. What do you wanna do?"
Clarence looks out the stained-glass window. The entry hall has foliage, potted plants, and sitting room. There is a big fucking chandelier in the center. No one is in sight.
The Sprite looks down the stairs. From the top, he can see the whole of the room below. It's a large, well-appointed kitchen, with some servants at work. He returns to the group.
Ser Dori and Sly combat resumes!
Dori strikes Sly for 9 damage and another 10.
Sly stands from being prone and tries to move back. Dori gets an attack of opportunity and rolls a nat 20. Sly takes another 6 damage.
The smoke clears to reveal Ser Dori with his sword to Sly's throat, the duel over.
The Sprite advises not going downstairs, best not to bother the folks just working the kitchen, and suggests knocking out the guard Linden saw. Sartorii takes point, rolling 18 to sneak out the door. She bonks the guard in the back of the head with the pommel of her rapier and knocks him out. The party stuffs him in the clothes bin and moves on.
The party can see out the windows into the courtyard from here. They can see the duel from here. Ser Dori got only a small nick through the stuffing, meanwhile he absolutely kicked Sly's ass.
"That should have cut your jugular?"
"What jugular?"
The guards start filtering back in, followed by Besh, the Unknown Man, Sly, and Besh.
Everyone but Clarence can hear Besh say, "Latius, draw me up an offer, I want to make this doll duelist an offer! If he can beat Sly, there's no reason I shouldn't employ both of the greatest duelist in Brevoy!"
Linden puts his ear to the next door. Rolls 29, doesn't hear a damn thing. Sartorii approaches also and opens the door onto a hallway with three more doors on the east side.
Sartorii peeks under the first door. The room is completely dark, with an occupied bed inside. It appears to be servant's quarters. She tries to tie the doornkob in place, but rolls a 1. The servant is woken by the noise. He opens the door to see what the commotion is. Sartorii immediately knocks him out and tucks him back into bed.
Sartorii peeks under the next door. More sleepy servants, the womens' quarters!
Linden listens at the last door. Snoring ensues.
There is no other way to go from here other than out some windows or down the stairs.
The party heads back out to the roof and climbs into the empty barracks room.
(DM: "This door is locked."
Sartorii rolls.
DM: "Okay well this door is unlocked.")
Rutana rolls 28 to search the room. The room seems fancier than a barracks should be, appearing to be a guest room that is not currently in use. She finds a tin of mints and hands them to the Sprite. He pockets the mints immediately.
Beyond the door is an empty sitting room, which Rutana also searches. Finds nothing.
Sartorii opens the next door. She peeks out with a nat 20 on Stealth.
She sees a hall spanning the width of the building. There are several doors—one dingy, one glass, and one incredibly ornate—with guards at several of the doors.
Linden rolls 24 on Perception. "I must retrieve stationery from my chambers. I shall return," comes a posh voice from below.
The Sprite peeks out the door to watch. He rolls a 27 and successfully pretends to be a potted plant. He watches Latius walk up the stairs and enter the room at the end.
The Sprite follows him and casts Sleep, but Latius crit succeeds. He shuts the door, but Latius calls out, "Wait, come back, Hero of Greenwall."
The Sprite opens the door again. "What."
"I assume you're here to do your work, yes?"
"We had a job."
"I'm so happy that you came to me. You see, I have no intention of going down with Besh's ship. He's gotten too ambitious for his own good. So I tell you what. I'm going to walk out of here, just leave. He will be busy for a while with that...my, was that sackcloth doll a friend of yours? Just a diversion?"
Talk ensues.
Latius will leave and take some of the guards with him. He also mentions where to find Besh's office.
Besh's bedroom and office has a balcony overlooking garden to the south.
Latius walks out of the room and approaches one of the guards. "You, and your friend there, come with me. We're walking to town to find some vellum worth a damn."
"Yes, sir Kelso!"
The party lets him go.
The Sprite snatches a brush off the vanity in Kelso's guest room, planning to give it to their pathfinding friend.
And then, on to Besh's office. Led by Sartorii, the party climbs out the window and up over the roof. They can see down into one of the gardens. One guard stands in the garden, making funny faces at his reflection in the fountain,
Sartorii drops down onto Besh's balcony and rolls a nat 20 to unlock the door, which just so happened to be one of the hardest locks in the mansion. She even succeeds in not pulling the alarm!
The Sprite takes the sheets and pillowcases off Besh's bed and stuffs em in the bag of holding. Clarence helps.
Linden does try to stop them, assuming Besh might notice something's off. Given the goal is just to kill Besh downstairs though, it's overruled.
Meanwhile, Sartorii checks the office. Within are drawers and cabinets full of papers. She rolls 13 on Perception. It's just a filing room. ("Eh, well, everyone else can start filing in.")
There's a lot of notes on totally legit business stuff. Donations to political campaigns, business records, etc.
Rutana notices they're all dummy books. They look legit, but this is just what would be shown to someone with a warrant. Nothing incriminating in plain view.
Linden checks the other door. He does not hear anything, but sees the door is locked. Sartorii time.
25 on Thievery. The door's open.
Everyone but Rutana hears a hefty kachunk, and the floor shakes a little bit.
The other room is a nice little office with a desk full of books for Besh to read.
The Sprite gets to searching Besh's office. He sees a scuff on the wall by a locked armoire. He summons Sartorii to unlock it, and the armoire has no back. Within is a ladder leading down...and down, and down and further down. Sartorii closes the doors behind them and the party all climbs down the ladder.
]"Now you know. You don't get as far as I have in life without a key nose for trouble. My lawyer just fucks off after your little stunt? Something's going on and you're going to tell me or I'll set you on fire, little doll boy."
"I...I'm insulted! Not only by your use of trickery by locking me behind these bars, but by your disappointment of a bodyguard!"
Sartorii sneaks up behind Besh. She rolls a 19 on Stealth, and Sly gets a nat 1 on Perception. Besh turns and sees her, however.
"Well, well, well. And here I thought that you vaunted heroes, you paragons of virtue, would never stoop this low. I gotta say I'm impressed! So let me know, how much do I gotta pay to make this go away?"
"Oh just your life, buddy."
"Come now, everyone has a price, you of all people should know that."
"You've already been making us pay."
"Sartorii, there are marks and then there are artists like us, surely we can work something out."
"How much do you think my life is worth?"
While they're talking, the rest of the party rolls stealth to get off the ladder. Clarence, Linden, and Rutana are all seen.
The Sprite sets Sly on fire with Floating Flame.
Alexei, still at the top of the ladder, hears an explosion from below.
Sly takes 13 damage, and then combat begins.
Sartorii attacks Besh, but misses.
Ser Dori tinkers with the lock on his cell door. He rolls a 22 on Thievery and the door swings right open. "I am free!"
Alexei safely descends the ladder! He surveys the room, concerned after that explosion. Of course it's a fight, why are they fighting, someone's on fire, wait no that's a flaming sphere that's worse, what's he even going to do here. He casts shield and waits by the ladder.
Sly tumbles between Ser Dori and Besh, because he knows Dori to be a threat, then he throws down a smoke bomb. He feints and stabs Ser Dori, dealing 28 damage, running his blade straight through Ser Dori's chest.
Clarence moves up to Sly, needing to roll a flat D20 to target him through the smoke. He succeeds and claws Sly for 10 damage, then raises his shield and ends turn.
Rutana makes use of her shiny new umbrella to cast Ray of Frost, dealing 9 damage to Besh.
Besh uses Fane's Fourberie; he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a deck of cards. In one hand he fans the cards out, and in the other he wields a card as if to throw. The gleam in the light, sharp as daggers.
He attacks Sartorii. She dodges.
He rolls Nature to recall knowledge about Strix in hopes of finding a weak point. He can't recall a single damned thing.
Linden's turn. Sudden bolt!
Besh passes his saving throw and takes 5 damage.
Linden then repositions to the other side of Sartorii and closes the door to the room.
The Sprite sustains his ball and moves it through Besh and onto Sly. Both of them pass their saving throws and take 5 damage. He casts Ignition at Sly, just to add a little more fire to the mix, but misses.
Sartorii slips into the smoke and attempts to disarm Besh, but fails. She rolls a 29 to hide in the smoke.
Besh rolls 28 on perception, just barely failing.
Ser Dori sputters around the sword in his chest.
He steps forward, the sword sliding further through his chest, and attacks Sly. First attack misses, second hits for max damage.
"Your body is so much more fragile than mine," he boasts as Sly falls dead. Ser Dori collapses next, too tired to continue combat.
Alexei casts a two-action Heal on Ser Dori. He's healed for 26!
Alexei casts Shield and ends turn.
Clarence turns his claws on Besh, rolling a nat 20. Besh takes 22 damage, and a persistent 5 bleeding damage from the Critical Hit Deck.
Second attack misses.
Raises shield, end turn.
Rutana fires another Ray of Frost at Besh, dealing 3 damage.
Besh starts his turn by taking 5 bleeding damage.
He then uses Fane's Escape; he flips his deck in a fluttering explosion to distract everyone and enter Sneak. Linden's Perception matches Besh's stealth roll, so Linden points him out to the rest of the party.
Linden fires an Acid Arrow at Besh, dealing 15 damage.
Besh uses a free action to beg for his life, sizzling, bleeding, and covered in acid.
Linden advises the party let him live, that Sartorii should take over his business.
The Sprite casts Magic Missile.
One through his shoulder, one through his stomach, and one leaving a nice, gaping hole through his forehead.
And the party levels up!
(Rutana sets herself back to 4 to deal with selecting an implement later.)