| Session 09: Disguised and Distressed | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Real World Date | September 27th, 2014 |
| Game Date | March 22 - 23, Year 0 |
| Location | Duskorb Forest, Flowburg |
| Enemies | a hydra nbd |
| NPCs | Matthias |
| previous Session 08: Wildlife and Werewolves |
next Session 10: A Punishing Past |
The Party assists the local fauna and arrives at Flowburg, only to find that their reputations have preceded them! Kinda. Then Emilie Barrowman freaks out pretty majorly and everyone gets on a boat.
Synopsis[]
In the morning, The Party discovered that Tahlarien had vanished without saying goodbye. Isaac tried his best to gather information from the locals about the nameless town and its problems, but his best was a natural one, so The Party just left. They found a hydra attacking a nest of really cute lynxes, so they killed it. When they reached Flowburg, they discovered that they were wanted men! ("...and women," Emilie noted in metagame. "Women," Kal grumbled in metagame.) Namfoodle secured safe passage out of the city on a boat, but not before a soldier recognized Emilie - not from the posters, but from somewhere else. Emilie was visibly shaken by the encounter, but refused to speak of it with the others.
Full Account[]
The Party wakes up, and Tahlarien has left through the window. “Women,” says Kal.
Isaac critically failed his gather information check and alienated the entire town. The party decides to leave before the denizens grow hostile, and encounters a hydra attacking a lynx nest. They elect to take action to save the kitties, and a relatively clean battle ensues. Emilie impales the hydra as it attempts to grapple her, killing it. She notices something shiny in its gut.
Spoils:
- 94.42 gold, all in copper coins
- Several intact potions of some kind
- An opaline gem
- A faceted gem
- A lapis lazuli
- A masterwork greatsword.
Puzzled, Emilie takes the sword. Namfoodle asks Isaac to carry the potions in his bag of holding. Kal takes the gemstones. The party leaves the copper coins. Seriously. What?
The lynxes seem to know that the adventurers helped them. They give an adorable display of affection, and run off into the forest. Studmuffin tries to follow, but Kal is able to secure him once more.
In time, the party reaches the outskirts of the port city of Flowburg. Wanted signs have been put up for what appear to be our main characters, maybe. Despite the fact that the likenesses are terrible and that Tahla is no longer with them, the party decides to split up within Flowburg. They will reconvene later to make another plan.
Isaac, Kal, and Emilie go to a rowdy bar and inn, and buy a 2-bed room and add a cot. Emilie changes her look to avoid detection.
Nam and Vic find a smaller, cheap inn. A drow hosts them, but cannot offer them food or other goods. The night passes uneventfully for both groups.
The next day, the party meets up at the port to plan the next step. There are beleaguered imperial soldiers patrolling the docks, asking passerby if they have seen the party. Emilie recognizes one of the men and becomes panic-stricken. A few soldiers approach the party and ask if they’ve seen the notorious group of adventurers. Isaac says no, which isn’t completely false, because he has never seen himself while also seeing his five, now four companions. The guards are satisfied, but the one that caught Emilie’s eye has noticed her as well. Seeing this, Emilie swiftly attempts to lose herself in the bustle of the nearby market district. She slips into a shop and examines the wares closely to hide her face, but the guard finds her.
Emilie's player chats privately with the DM
The rest of the party is worried about Emilie, but they conclude that going after her will only bring more attention. A dockworker calls out that a large passenger vessel will be embarking in four hours. Namfoodle asks for the ship’s destination and finds that it will stop down the river in Trapden, from whence the party can then cross the ocean to the continent of Sangor to escape Enderland. Central Sangor, as luck would have it, is the location of the closest red circle on the map from the Tome of Time.
Concerned, Namfoodle now tries to find Emilie. He reaches the shop she ducked into just as the soldier is leaving. Emilie seems shaken, and asks Namfoodle to take her away from the area. This gives Namfoodle pause, but he obliges in spite of his confusion.
The party agrees to board the ship to Sangor, but government papers are required to register. Namfoodle forges papers for the group, and they each board separately to avoid detection, minutes before the ship leaves.
Kal finds a piece of paper in Studmuffin’s mouth. It has a message on it, but no signature.
"They are after me and you now, and they won't stop until they found what they're looking for. They follow orders from something vastly more powerful. Stay safe."
General consensus is that this largely unhelpful and unnecessary letter is from The Nightingale Bandit. The biggest question is, how did he get it to the party?
In the common room of the ship, Namfoodle attempts to discuss the soldier with Emilie. She insists that she doesn’t want to talk about it, but assures him that it involves strictly personal matters from her past, and that no one, including her, is in any serious danger from said matters. "I mean, it is serious, clearly," she corrects herself, "but not like... life-threateningly so."
Vic asks why Namfoodle doesn't just read Emilie's thoughts. Nam proudly tells the cleric that it is a matter of morality.
The boat sets sail for Trapden; a city of crime and a high-activity zone for the anti-government organization Southpaw. Who knows what fate has in store?
Notes[]
- Tahlarien is now a guest character who will join the story when her player is available.
- Isaac Coale was proxied by the DM this session, as was Emilie Barrowman until her player arrived during the hydra battle.
- By forging papers, The Party effectively chose the most boring (but effective) way to get on the ship, rendering a beautiful combat grid unnecessary.