Session 23: A heist given away, and lots of fire.

Everyone is celebrating and having a good time. Joe sees silver envelopes being handed out and just as she goes to get one, Blackwood stops her and explains these are gifts for children from family. Joe thanks her for stopping her from looking foolish.
 
Elias starts taking in the sites and thinking how he was in diapers the last time he was here. HIs mom starts privately talking to Blackwood. Elias is able to over hear. She asks if The Peasant still has a seat on the council. Apparently he has an uncle that is a council member. Elias's mother has been trying to protect him his whole life so Elias knows little of this.
 
Andromeda seems to know about all this and explains his name is Passin. He explains that their are lords of the city here with a central council where everyone reports to. That position is held by one of 7 people, usually lords themselves. Elias's father WAS a councilmen there. Elias's father apparently left everything to Elias. His uncle is acting regent. He spills so much tea. Andromeda thinks Elias's uncle wants to kill him....but the reasons are uncertain. Maybe it's due to the fotuned his father left him?
 
Was Elias's family actually rich? Elias is going to keep his head down and see what else he can learn. Meanwhile Bael is playing some fun festival games and having a great time.
 
Andromeda tells us that he used to work for a lord here when he was alive. When adventurers come into town, they are noticed, because they are usually Warriors. Warriors hold pretty high status in Eldoria, just under the lords and government.
 
Elias then uses his magic mage hand to steal a mask to put on to hide his face since it is possible our presence here has been noticed.
 
Blackwood wants to report back since she's back in town and explain everything that is going on. She asks that we join her. She reports to someone named Aria Silvermist.
 
Franz invites Blackwood back to him. They seem to have a little argument and go separate ways.
 
Bael has been gambling and we find him in a gambling room. He's up 50gp. He's pretty excited. He's surround by all kind of folks and pretty ladies blowing luck onto his dice.
 
A well to do fancy man walks up and wants to play against him. HE wants to play for 10GP, and Joe gives Bael a hand picked Lupel to gamble with. This makes the fancy man curious about Bael and Joe are. Joe says he should add a rare item to match it. He throws down $500gp to match.
 
Just as they are about to roll, a bunch of footsteps approach and this causes this causes everyone to leave. Including the fancyman, leaving his gold behind.
 
Elias tries to sneak us out seeing that it was a guard that was here. He and Bael escape, but Joe and Ashe are caught. Apparently gambling is illegal here. Elias rushes to find Blackwood. He finds her trying to have a drink and enjoy herself. She leaves her drink complaining that she can't be alone for 5 minutes and goes with him to save the day.
 
She approaches just as we are about to leave. They are surprised to see her and address her as Captain Blackwood. She tells them we were her freelance agents trying investigate something for her, and she is out of sorts and will bring the appropriate paperwork tomorrow to the chief, but they are to release us to her immediately.
 
They question her authority and decline and say they'll see what the chief says.
 
She tells this guard Marcus that he'll be out of job tomorrow and to do what he will. He doesn't buy it though and takes us away.
 
They scoop up all of our items having taken our weapons and take us to jail.
 
They start questioning us all. Ashe doesn't give up any information. The guards tell JOe tha Ashe sold her out as the ring leader.
 
They tell Joe that Ashe holds a lot of weight in this city because she's a shadowthorne and Joe will go to jail due to Ashe's testimony. They then bring Bael in and tell him that Joe and Ashe both testified that HE was the ring leader of the gambling town.
 
Bael tells the the guards what family he is from. His family are high end designers.
 
They then tell Bael that if he gives each of them $1kgp each they'll let all of us go.
 
BAel then turns the whole thing around on them about being friends with Ashe and he'll make sure to speak with her about it. They find out that Bael has $5kgp, Once they remember this, they whisper among themselves and decide to let everyone go (with the intent of keeping all the gold)
 
They then go to release everyone.
 
Bael says he's not going anywhere. He's waiting for blackwood. Ashe also says she's not oing anywhere without Blackwood. JOe decides to leave. They hand her back an empty backpack and when she questions this, they say it was empty when they found it.
 
Joe disputes this and says they need their stuff back.
 
Meanwhile, on the outside, Elias is making a plan to get his friends out. He sees the culprit who is trying to steal everything walking out the back. Elias knocks him out. The guy never sees it coming. The guy falls down face first in a puddle of water. Elias drags him away to conceal it somewhere. He then gets all of our stuff back.
 
HE can't lift everything and Blackwood approaches. Elias explains to her that it seems that the guards are shaking his friends down inside and he had to get our stuff back. She turns a blind eye due to the circumstances and calls a cart over and helps him load everything up.
 
Blackwood shows up to demand our release. They let us go and give us our stuff, but it's all empty. Ashe makes notes of their faces and is going to exact her revenge eventually.
 
They go outside, Blackwood tells them Elias was able to retrieve our stuff. she takes us to an inn where she pays for our stay. She explains that the city is dangerous and many of the warrior class are big headed and bullies, and we need to be careful.
 
She warns us that the merchants trade cheap shit here, to beware.
 
We learn about a Academy of magic here and that is where Elias's Uncle Passin is the headmaster.
 
Elias was in line to be the new lord and head of the estate, and Elias's mother was afraid that his uncle would do something to Elias, and she had to flee with him.
 
Elias asks if it could all be a misunderstanding. But his mom confirms it is not and that his dad was also not a good person. He made "DARK" dealings. He had a patron, a devil that he worked for. The devil's name was Mammon. That's how his father died initially. He decided not to pay Mammon.
 
Elias asks that since his father is no longer dead, what does that mean about the estate? His mother says, if he comes back he could possibly claim it.
 
Since things are getting out of hand, Blackwood is going straight to the council, because someone there has been letting things slip.
 
Blackwood says if we make our presence known here, Then that would actually afford us some kind of protection, because then people would actually know about us.
 
Blackwood suggests that we go to the castle and offer a tribute to the council. Elias wants to make posters to distribute posters declaring his presence and who he is. He wants to get in good with the peasants and the farmers so that he can get their backing.
 
Blackwood tells us we are not doing any of these things and we wink and say for sure.
 
She needs to go find out if she even still has a job.
 
Room Service comes and Bael offers 50GP for 300 packs of paper ink and quills. They deliver it quickly to us. We buy some scribes to help us get the posters made quickly. We tip everyone really well and we tell them to spread the word about the Greatness of Elias Harcleave.
 
We make friends with workers and they tell us about the fancy man we met in the gambling hall. He's a bit of a hero amongst the lower classes. His name is Dawles. They are going to write a letter for us to Dawles so we can meet him. Bael says to tell him that we have his Lupal.
 
There is a box on the wall that blinks blue. We open it and find fancy clothes for all of us to put on to meet the council. We get rid of the frills and remake the clothes
 
Blackwood gets back. She's upset that we ruined the clothes, but she jsut deals with it. She still has her seat, but she doesn't know exactly what that means. She has to meet with Aria Silvermist about it.
 
We head out, but before we do, Elias pays the scribes to hand out as many of the posters as possible.
 
We head out to the festival.
 
WE get to the castle and they start to announce our names. They announce "Lord Elias Harcleave" and everyone just kind of goes quiet and stares. We also see some of our posters out in the crowd, so they recognize him.
 
We go to the council room and there are 7 people sitting up there.
 
Their names:
Thora Ironfist Leader of the hammer and anvil guilde (dwarf) yes
Valteir Windrider Captain of the Cities commerce (half elf) no
Aria Silvermist (human) Head of the city military yes
Passin Hawcleave Head of the Cities' magical academy (human) yes
Tarcus Stoneheart banker and treasurer (dwarven) yes
Rake Hazzelstone head of artisans and farmers (halfling) yes
Emelia Nightshade (no representation or title. dressed in all leather. looks like a ruffian) (human) no
 
Passin greets Elias and says how great it is that he has returned. He walks up and gives Elias an awkward hug and offers a feast when he gets home. He's being quite deceptive.
 
Elias speaks to Emelia and learns that she is indispensable and looked down upon by her fellow councilmen.
 
Aria asks Blackwood where she has been. Blackwood explains she went to look for QM and explains he's been doing an amazing job with the assignment she gave him. Blackwood tells them of the black dragon that we defeated. Elias explains that he is seeking to liberate the people who were victimized by this dragon. He also offers a lupal each to each councilman as tribute.
 
Arai invites Blackwood to be the head of the guard for the city as their current head has just retired. Blackwood seems taken back by this and surprised that Gavin retired.
 
Aria tells Blackwood that she would be perfect for keeping the riff raff in check, as she side eyes Emelia when she says this. The council puts it up to vote. She is voted in with a 4 to 2.
 
Joe is able to detect that many of the council people are using illusionary magic, possibly ot make themselves look better.
 
As we all go to leave, Aria has Blackwood stay to start her position right away.
 
We leave. We go talk to the Sage who set up the meeting with Dawles for us. We are going to meet up with him a local bakery.
 
We go meet him. He's eating a croissant.
 
He explains to us the government and hierarchy of things around here, and it is the reason for a lot of the corruption and terrible things that happen here. He tells us that Emelia is on the council so that they can keep her under control. She's the leader of the thieves guild.
 
He does have plans to help the people here, but since he doesn't know us, he doesn't share all of his information.
 
He does tell us we can help him though, but it's not necessarily legal. If We help and it goes well, then he can bring us into his plans more. JOe notices Dawles eyes vibrates when he talks and he gives us an uneasy feeling. He seems very dangerous in an unpredictable way.
 
He seems the type that would stop and nothing to accomplish his goals.
 
Bael asks if there is a way to get a meeting with Emelia. If we prove that Dawles can trust us, he can set up a meeting.
 
He tells us that we will receive a letter in our mailbox at a random time, and if we get it, we can act on it or not.
 
He leaves coins on the table, and we notice that the currency has a lotus petal with 6 stars around it with a picture of Eldoria's castle on it.
 
Joe asks his opinion of the council members. We also ask if he has seen any Duregar around here or has anyone ended up with a huge amount of money they didn't have already. He seems to know something, but doesn't reveal much. He says he'll see what he can find out. We explain we are trying to find out where it went, because it belongs to Joe's people.
 
We talk to blackwood. Shes gonna let us watch her fire the policeman who shook us down. We also ask about the lupals here and learn that they are used for making medicines. There is a lack of god worship here, so medicine is actually necessary since magical healing isn't all that common here.
 
We march up to the police station. The chief tries to run away. The rest of the place is raided. Bael trips him and is able to catch him.
 
He thinks we are going to kill him but instead he is arrested and sent to a dark, dank cell.
 
Blackwood is planning to clean up this city one corrupted police station at a time.
 
She says she's going to put in an order to give us this building since we are so skilled, it shouldn't be difficult.
 
Ashe is worried about Blackwood's safety, so she turns into a fly and lands on her back for a while. The rest goes back to the hotel. After a while the box turns blue and they get their letter.
 
On it is an address. That's it. They make a plan and head out. The get there and see a hooded figure standing next to this place. Bael talks to the guy and says that there is supposed to be 4 of us. He only sees Bael, because Elias is hiding and Joe is a snake.
 
The fellow gives Bael 4 bags and says they have to be delivered immediately. If anything happens to them, We will be held accountable.
 
The bags are almost 2 feet in diameter and has a face on it. He meets up with the other two and they work to deliver all the bags.
 
Joe turns into a panther because they can travel quickly that way. They take 2 bags. The man tells them to make sure that the recipients take the bags, and they cannot take no for an answer.
 
Joe gets to her first address. There is a family inside about to eat dinner. Joe puts the bag on the window sill and scratches at it. A man comes out and tries to decline the bag. He's already told them how he feels about it. He tries to storm away. Joe tries to intimidate him as a panther. It doesn't quite work. They try to leave it and the man throws it back at Joe. Joe pounces on him and scares him into taking it.
 
Bael gets to his address and sees a guy smoking a pipe. The guy takes it without issue and throws a coin to Bael for the trouble.
 
Elias gets to his address. He sees a woman who sees him coming. She just shakes her head. She says to him, "You realize this is going to cause quite a bit of chaos". Elias says Chaos does seem to follow him but asks what she means. She then says she doesn't know Elias. HE introduces himself. She takes the bag, She digs around inside and then throws some apples she has into it. It seems to be a bag of holding.
 
She warns Elias that somebody is taking advantage of Elias because nobody knows his face, and tells him to just think about that.
 
Joe gets to his second address. There is a nervous man sitting on a rock. He just shakes his head "no". He says "First you threaten me, and now what is this? a bribe? you think you can do whatever you want? you think you can control me? Do you know how much I've lost?' He then opens a vial on his necklace, drinks it and falls over.
 
Joe goes out of panther form and uses Lesser Restoration on him. It's a very strong posion, so his insides are completely destroyed. The man starts to wheeze and is barely breathing now. Joe asks whats in the bag, but the man can't speak.
 
Joe then looks in the bag in despite being told not to. They see blackness. Inside is gold and platinum coins. There is an insane amount of money in this bag.
 
The man has a tattoo on the palm of his hand. Its a symbol that Joe does not recognize. Joe leaves the bag on the ground and tries to take the guy to a hospital. Joe gets him to a place called the Ethereal Estate. It's a nice house and Joe starts shouting for a healer. A bunch of moon elves open the door. They advise they are going to help him as much as they can. Joe is very distraught. This life of crime is not everything they thought it would be. Joe does not have the bag and left it on his porch,
 
Meanwhile, Ashe is a fly with Blackwood. Suddenly Blackwood is approached by a courier. There is a massive fire burning down many houses on the south side of Eldoria. She has to gather up the entirety of the forces to get down there and help. Ashe flies down in fly form. This fire is very reminiscent of the fires we saw by the mountains. Ashe starts trying to help people.
 
Elias and Bael meet up at the hotel. They see the smoke as well and head over to the fire. Joe meets up as well. We all help people as much as we can .
 
WE stay up all night helping as many folks as we can. The common folk get to really see Elias's face. We talk to Blackwood and she asks about Franz.. We're like we don't know where he is. We take a long rest. Ashe prepares Purify Food and Drink as we have a feast to go to tonight.
 
Joe talks to Elias about the jobs they had to do, asking if he is used to that kind of work. She wonders if people try to kill themselves often and is very distraught? As we are talking, we hear a loud group of people outside. Elias meets a guy that says, everyone just got a delivery of gold and platinum. It seems the money that was delivered ended up going to the people of Eldoria.
 
Was this all part of Dawles plan? To give everyone more money than they could ever fathom? Blackwood seems upset about this. She leaves for a bit and comes back and advises that about 100kgp was delivered to every person of the lower class.
 
The gold was reminted, meaning that this is possibly the treasure from Joe's hometown. Also businesses are closed and not serving food or anything, because everyone is rich now.
 
It's chaos. and this is where we end.