A New Horizon Sessions 21 - 30

Session 21 Having rested within the relative safety of their ship, the party again set out into a muddy, rainy day to see if they couldn't arrange a meeting with Captain Rankor the Giant of the Black Sun Clan. On the way, they came across a market peddling a variety of exotic animals, including an owlbear locked in a dented, bent cage far too small for it. Leigh-la took interest in it, tried to establish trust with it, and vowed to return to free it. In addition, Lir found himself being profiled by a trio of Dragonborn hunters seeking a fugitive triton. Lir agreed to the questioning at a relatively public locale --the Lucky Duck Pub-- and even willingly imbibed truth serum. Fortunately for him, his cooperation proved beneficial, and he was able to clear the air with the Palaxi hunters, who requested they seek him out should they find any info relating to their search for a renegade triton who sank one of their ships.
As the day progressed, Snips and Lir were able to track down a fence for the Black Sun, a hobgoblin called Orbue. The fence proved helpful, and for just a small fee, was able to get them into Vrogar's Boarding House and arrange a meeting with Rankor the following day. With nothing for it but to wait, the party enjoyed the "services" that the bar/casino/brothel had to offer, much to Tess's horror and Zuno's enthusiasm.
The following day, Orbue proved again true to his word, and the party met with the suitably named Rankor the Giant. The hulking hobgoblin indeed possessed Captain Ransford's old lucky anchor. He claimed he had sentimental attachment to it, but was willing to haggle. Ultimately, Lir traded his shiny moon-touched sword for the fancy anchor, which then went right into Snips Bag of Holding (how it's going to come back out is going to be interesting). With a "free" means of passage back to the city, the party was prepared to pass the next few days relatively peacefully. They caroused about town: Lir followed up on a lead for a dragon's wrath sword, which he purchased as a replacement for the moon-touched blade. Flea and Leigh-la came across a poor merfolk that had been captured by pirates and was being paraded around town, whom Leigh-la "purchased" from them with the goal of freeing her. They found Lir and brought him to her to act as a translator, and they were able to convince the mermaid that they were going to help her return to the ocean by way of the gross, polluted bay (only briefly having to wave off a few Tempest Clan guards in the process). Lastly, Leigh-la succeeded in freeing the owlbear by making a deal with its captor. She would allow herself to be "sold" as a prized warhorse and then sneak away. She succeeded, and the man honored the agreement, giving her the key to the owlbear's cage. The owlbear showed its gratefulness by not trying to eat her and even allowing her to get on its back before it promptly tore off into the wilderness.
All seemed well, until the day they were due to return to the NHC Intrepid and depart for New Providence. On their way to the dock, they were approached by an exhausted, filth-covered dwarf who sought Tess, who was travelling in disguise to avoid detection by the Magpie. Unfortunately, the brief time she was visible as a harengon was enough to draw attention, and the Magpie had deployed this poor boy as a trap. A group of Black Sun pirates in possession of a "tamed" dinosaur and led by one of the Magpie's right-hand men surrounded them and offered a simple deal: Tess comes with them and the rest of the party is free to go, along with the dwarven boy, who would be given gold and passage on a ship to start a new life. The party reacted with suspicion; enough so that the lieutenant attempted to speed up negotiations by drawing a pistol on the boy, prompting the party to spring into action.
Fortunately, the party was able to overwhelm their assailants. Tess pulled the boy away from the lieutenant as Leigh-la drew focus by transforming into an angry bear. Zuno, Snips, and Flea pelted the lieutenant and the pirates with deadly projectiles and Lir and Leigh-la squared up with the dinosaur. In the end, the lieutenant was killed via headshot from Snips, the dinosaur was slain by Leigh-la, and Tess was able to shield the boy from an onslaught of Black Sun cutlasses. When the lieutenant and the dinosaur fell, the rest of the pirates cut their losses and ran, though a few were still picked off by the party's ranged combatants.
And with that, the party was able to make it back to the docks and board the Intrepid. All they had to do now was ensure the ship made it back to New Providence. They'd get paid and would be able to return to the pirate hive for as long as they merry well please…
XP earned: 350 each
Session 22 The party embarked aboard the NHC Intrepid with the hopes of a smooth journey back to New Providence. Unfortunately, those hopes did not come to pass. No more than a day out, the party spotted a ship in the distance that seemed to be loosely following them. Zuno sent his familiar to investigate, and at the same time, a silvery bird was spotted seemingly investigating them. Snips shot the bird down and found that it was the product of a Figurine of Wondrous Power. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that a similar fate must have befallen Mike the Hawk, as he failed to return from the reconnaissance mission he was sent on.
Then, under the cover of night, the mystery ship attacked. It caught the crew of the Intrepid unawares, as no one keeping watch saw it approach until it was too late. The ship was revealed to be a Maqanan pirate vessel. It used a pair of tethered harpoons to pierce the Intrepid's hull and lash the two ships together. Then the pirate boarded.
A fierce melee broke out, and as the party shook themselves from sleep and assessed the situation, they saw that it was not going to go well for their outnumbered allies. They started to cut their way through the chaos and aimed to take advantage of an opening the hobgoblins left: their boarding planks and ladders were mostly unattended. One by one, the party made their way onto the Blind Scorn, some stealthily, like Zuno who crept around invisibly, and some less so, like Leigh-la who launched herself aboard in the form of a bear. Only Lir remained behind for a time, determined to fell a particularly stubborn hobgoblin with whom he had locked in single combat.
As the battle aboard the pirate ship kicked up, the identity of the pirates became clear as "Iron Eye" himself stepped out of the captain's quarters along with an Iron Shadow monk. Snips took the opportunity to land a lethal shot on the hobgoblin captain before he could act, however, which very much tipped the battle in the party's favor. Lir also joined the fray at this time, not wanting to take a shot at the man who slaughtered his village. Ultimately, he was the one to deliver the killing blow to Iron Eye.
Unfortunately, the death of the captain did not demoralize the remaining hobgoblins, who continued to fight on with militaristic ferocity. However, as the party slowly wore down the hobgoblins, the first mate opted to call for a retreat. Initially, the party sought to make a quick exit as the remaining pirates were about to flood back onto the ship, but a grim realization hit them: if the "Grasping Claw" harpoons were removed, it would swiftly sink the Intrepid. And so, battered and bruised (Leigh-la and Tess had both been knocked down and resuscitated at this point), the party made a mad dash to the lower deck in a desperate bid to throw the emergency release switches of the Claws. Against all odds, they were successful, with Snips and Flea being able to land a few well-placed shots to throw the switches along with Lir and Tess manually releasing them. Lir and Tess were KO'd during the effort, but Zuno, Flea, and Snips were able to get them back on their feet well enough to make a hasty escape through the ballistae windows and back onto the now safe Intrepid, who bid the Blind Scorn farewell with a salvo of cannon fire.
The rest of the return journey proved markedly more relaxed, and the party safely returned to New Providence, earning both the payment for the escort job as well as the hefty bounty of Iron Eye. However, one thing still nagged at the back of their minds: Both Leigh-la and Lir had first hand experience with Iron Eye, and the man they fought and killed had a decidedly different face than what they remembered. Perhaps then this was merely an imposter or a body double, and the real Iron Eye was still out there somewhere…
XP earned: 600 each
Session 23 The party did a bunch of shopping upon their return to New Providence. In so doing, they also noticed the city setting up for a massive festival that even included illusory snow. Upon investigation, they found that the holiday Conscendice --one of the most revered holy days of the Aonian faith-- was upon them. As per usual, Snips was grumpy about this, though the rest of the party seemed happy enough to indulge in some revelries.
Before they could go to bed, though, it was of the utmost importance that they investigate the contents of the "used" Bag of Holding they purloined off of the family of a recently deceased adventurer. They took it up to Flea's room at the inn and turned the sucker inside out, letting fly an assortment of interesting knickknacks, a magic sword, and a deadly combination of brown mold and a necklace of fireballs. Fortunately, nobody died, but the sudden blast of heat and subsequent absorption and expansion of the mold left the room "uninhabitable" to say the least. Naturally, the innkeep was furious, but some cold magic and 20 gp from Leigh-la smoothed everything over.
In the morning, it was time for the festivities; at least it would have been, were it not for the fact that someone or something had stolen every last bit of décor, food, and party materials from the town square. Leigh-la and Zuno got straight to investigating, and the rest joined shortly after when the Governess herself offered a hefty reward for finding the materials in time for the Great Cauldron.
The party followed the trail of discarded décor, broken candles, and torn fabric to the square's well. Below, they found a cavern carved into the rocky wall of the water shelf. Within, they found clouds of noxious gas and passageways covered in yellow mold, which detonated a cloud of toxic spores when it was so much as touched. This did not waylay Snips from retrieving a stubbornly locked lockbox from the stuff, though he did inhale an (un)healthy dosing of poisonous spores for his trouble.
Farther in, they found some of the party supplies hastily stashed in crates and barrels, which they took a moment to take back to the cave entrance. From there, they came across a cistern of saltwater. Zuno went to simply swim through it, but unfortunately for him, a giant crocodile was lurking within the murky waters who was all too happy to chomp down on the tasty morsel. Zuno managed to get away with 1 hp to his name while Tess and Leigh-la (in giant octopus form) grappled with crocodile. Meanwhile, Snips and Flea took potshots from the surface. This proved to be a winning strategy, and the croc was defeated.
Finally, in the heart of the cave, the party found the rest of the stolen goods. From within the depths, a deep, gutteral growl filled the room. The intimidating growl was halted thanks to Leigh-la's quick offering of food to the beast, who in turn was chastised by another disembodied voice. A dialog was struck up, and the voice revealed that it has lived here for decades --even before New Providence was settled-- and was sick of all the noise that carried through the well and the caverns into his home here. Eventually, the party convinced the voice they meant no harm and perhaps they could even work out an arrangement. The voice revealed itself to belong to an old bugbear (though likely not a normal bugbear) called Rejilla. The party convinced him that times have changed and that the people of New Providence would welcome him to their celebrations if he wished. Having learned the true meaning of Conscendice, Rejilla returned with the party with all the goods in tow, as well as the body of the crocodile to serve as a main dish for the festival.
With that, the holiday was saved and all was well in New Providence. Now it was time for the party to turn back to their unfinished business in Kamakisqa and perhaps pick up a few newly posted odd-jobs along the way…
XP earned: 845 each
Session 24 The party started off their day opting to check out what all this "League of Keen Eyes" was about, having recognized the name of the poster as the same one who thought his wife was being impersonated by a changeling but in actuality was just being cheated on. They were welcomed in to his home and quickly learned that the man had gone quite off his rocker: sleep deprived, delirious, and full-blown paranoid. He believed their was a deep op conspiracy of changelings/doppelgangers afoot and he was the only one seeing it. He wished to hire on the party to start finding and killing as many changelings as they could. Realizing this guy was cuckoo, but also wanting that sweet 50 gp signing bonus, the party "signed" their contracts and agreed to do what they could. Snips, who had established a report with the butler (who was very concerned for Master Kiligrew's wellbeing), went and purchased some Essence of Ether to put the poor man to sleep for a bit.
Meanwhile, Tess and Zuno went to see if they couldn't find Kiligrew's wife, who he claimed went missing after he "ran off" her "doppelganger" after she tried to claim she was using a body double to get away with an affair (aka, the truth). They found her lovers apartment quite abandoned after requesting a tour from the landlord. Their neighbors claimed they heard a commotion before he and the wife both vanished into the wind. During this, Lir was off carousing and doing surprisingly well at gambling and Flea began constructing herself a blunderbuss. After Snips got done blowing Ether in Elric's face, he was unable to find the rest of the party and went carousing himself. In so doing, he encountered the enemy he made on a previous night of debauchery and shot him dead the moment the enemy claimed he was gonna kick his ass. A productive day, all in all.
The following day, the party began to make plans to sail to Kamakisqa again. They returned Captain Ransford's lucky anchor, of which he was overjoyed to be reunified with. He pledged to sail the party wherever they wished for the remainder of their days, which admittedly probably wouldn't be that long, but still, the sentiment was there. Snips also received another missive from Lord Blackwell requesting that he kill a pirate in Kamakisqa as his next job. From there, they pursued the posting regarding a "chindi" haunting the Palaxi ambassador's estate. The dragonborn informed them that it was a spirit brought about by her brother's recent sudden death. She also seemed dismissive of the party's odds of success, as other adventurers had tried and failed to expunge the ghost from her residence.
However, the party proved more tenacious than the others and were able to overwhelm and destroy the wraith within the haunted, alcohol-soaked manor before it could do serious damage or scamper off. They were rewarded both monetarily for the efforts and were also able to pull some nice loot from the fallen adventurers still within the mansion. With that in the books, they contemplated whether they wanted to shove off for Kamakisqa soon or wait a bit until a few commissioned pieces of equipment were ready before heading back to the pirate city…
xp earned: 150 each
Session 25 The party took some downtime to complete some projects and await commissions to be completed. From there, they decided it was high time to return to Kamakisqa. They met with their personal boat guy, Captain Ransford, at the docks (who had hired on a rather green first mate and a gnome bard for sea shanties) and set off into the great blue beyond.
The trip was smooth sailing the whole way, and in no time, the party was back in the pirate town. In true pirate fashion, the Tempest clan pirates manning the docks demanded an exorbitant price for docking, which the party ended up agreeing to after talking them down to a "reasonable" 50 gp for the week. As they had arrived come evening time, most of the party opted to patronize the Jolly Parrot pub near the docks where they again met Ume the tortle monk who previously gifted Flea the gift of enlightenment. Meanwhile, Snips carried out a contract assassination at the behest of Lord Blackwell. He did this without hiccup.
The next day, the party tracked down their pal Wilkinson the Red Sea fence to get the lay of the land. On the way, they encountered a good old fashioned extortion racket, which Tess and Leigh-la intervened in. They paid off the shopkeepers debt and offered to help them move. Ultimately, the hobgoblin woodworker refused further aid as he could not uproot his family to live in a human colony.
With Wilkinson, the party learned a few neat little tidbits: 1) a Clansmeet has been called by Iron Eye, who was also rumored to have been killed, set to occur in three days time 2) the Holy Chain has a buyer: an Elen'nar collector who is due to make the exchange in four days time, and 3) purchased the most recent password for the Magpie's Menagerie. Armed with this info, the party deliberated on what lead to move on first. Their big conundrum was many of them would likely cause big ripples that might make completing the others difficult. Ultimately, they settled on the Magpie first.
They toyed with the idea of getting Zuno "kidnapped" in order to get a "man" on the inside. Unfortunately, the Black Sun pirates that found him genuinely wanted to reunite him with his "mother," whom he claimed he had lost. With that plan foiled, and Tess adamantly refusing to act as the bait for this (she and Leigh-la had a supportive conversation about her feelings where Leigh-la encouraged Tess to be strong), they opted instead to all just enter the Menagerie the next day to see what the underground ring looked like. That evening, Lir, posing as an interested "talent recruiter" had a chat with one of the Magpie's men at the bar in Vrogar's Boarding House and learned a bit more about the Menagerie's roster and how the operation worked.
The next evening, the party used their purchased password to enter the fighting pit where the reigning champ Grimtooth was set to put the beatdown on a bunch of new fighters. Not wanting to linger, the party quickly engaged in a spot of espionage. As far as they could tell, the only way to the Magpie's box was through the access tunnel to the ring, so Zuno turned Snips and Lir invisible so they, along with a wildshaped Leigh-la, could sneak into the back rooms and find a way to confront and shut down the Magpie…
XP earned: 125 each
Session 26 Snips, Lir, and Leigh-la scout out the backstage area while cloaked in invisibility (or as a rat, for the latter. Indeed, Leigh-la was even able to befriend the local rat colony of the boarding house's cellar). They were able to locate the door they presumed led to the Magpie's box, but it was locked and guarded. Not to be waylaid, Snips knocked over an armor rack to cause a big distraction, drawing one guard away from the door as well as the attention of everyone else in the room as the next Menagerie fighter that was being brought out attempted to escape. The second guard was KO'd by a puff of Malice to the face.
Inside, they found a small reception room watched over by a burly Ba'shad orc who was quite confused to see the door open and close by itself. Leigh-la scurried across the table and knocked over a bunch of stuff to draw this guard away from his post, prompting her to chase her around with is ax. Snips was able to pick the door open, but unfortunately, the orc landed a solid hit on Leigh-la and forced her back into fairy form. Lir jumped in to try to take the orc out before the alarm could be raised, but he proved too tough to subdue quickly, and he called out for backup. Then all hell broke loose.
More guards came swarming into the reception room even as the orc was felled with a mighty smite. In the Magpie's booth, Snips located the man himself and tripped up some of his men as they went to investigate the commotion downstairs. From there, he shot out the window overlooking the pit, "signaling" Tess, Zuno, and Flea that it was time to leap into action. If a window blowing out wasn't enough to panic the crowd, Flea fired her weapon directly from her seat at the Magpie (missing both shots, naturally), which threw the crowd into a full blown riot.
In a frenzy, Tess made her way across the arena and through the broken window while the Magpie fenced with Snips (who discovered his fancy new sword was indeed a sword of vengeance) while Zuno lobbed firebolts. Together, they were able to wound the Magpie, but unfortunately for them, he possessed a cape of the mountebank, and used it to flee the scene in a puff of sulfuric smoke.
With their mark quite literally in the wind, there was nothing to do but make a hasty exit. At least that would have been the sensible thing, but Tess was still enraged and would not stop until she killed at least one of the Magpie's lieutenants in his stead. Meanwhile, Leigh-la (now in bear form) and Lir were still battling goons in the reception room. The latter laid down a fog cloud to cover their escape, and the pair retreated. Leigh-la was nearly captured by the Magpie's resident wizard who landed a successful Hold Person spell on her, but fortunately she was able to wriggle free. During this, Zuno and Flea were getting swarmed by hobgoblins who were able to overwhelm and Ko Zuno. Flea scooped the boy up in her bag of holding and ran away as quickly as possible.
Eventually, they were all able to blend in with the crowd and escape into the night as the Black Sun staged a manhunt. Opting to lay low, the party left town to camp out in the woods while Snips and Flea looked for some kind of cleric to help break the curse on Snips sword and Tess, in disguise, purchased some supplies (including disguise kits(. At camp, the party was surprised by Leigh-la's owlbear friend whom she had helped save from captivity. They had a nice chat and the owlbear brought them a nice dear carcass as thanks.
In town, Snips learned of a hobgoblin soothsayer who may be able to help, but unfortunately was usually found in Four Hearths, which was now hostile territory to them. He also discovered a small Aonian chapel that proved all but impossible to break into. Not to be deterred, he opted to sleep on its roof while Flea got lost in the sauce at a nearby bar. Late at night, the "owner" of the chapel returned: the mysterious self-called Cleric. He offered to help Snips with his cursed sword and Snips invited himself into his extradimmensional chapel as he searched around for a scroll. In a flash, he was back with a Remove Curse scroll and broke Snips attunement to the blade. He then offered a tidy sum of 253 gp to take the sword of Snips hands. Satisfied, Snips went on his way, returning from the golden light of the chapel much to the amazement of a likely very drunk Flea.
In the morning, the party met back up at the Damnation of the Tides to discuss their next moves. With the Magpie gone to ground, it seemed like their next course of action would be to listen in on this Clansmeet that was scheduled to occur tomorrow night…
XP earned: 400 each
Session 27 Fresh new disguises donned, the party went to scope out the overgrown temple in the Lawn to see if they couldn't find a decent way to eavesdrop on the Clansmeet occurring the next day. But first, Tess was given a telepathic message from the Magpie's wizard bidding her to meet in a few days time to discuss a "mutually beneficial arrangement." Tess tentatively agreed, but brought up to the party that she wanted to turn this pretty obvious trap against the Magpie. With that out of the way, they proceeded to the Lawn.
En route, they realized they weren't the only ones interested in the temple, as the Cleric's Chapel had materialized in the woods nearby. The mysterious traveler was again away from the chapel, but the party kept their eyes peeled for him.
At the temple, a small crowd of various clan pirates had already gathered to argue about security logistics for the coming meet. Snips snuck close and had an eavesdrop and then scouted the temple for access points; finding a hidden cellar entrance on the backside. Within the temple, he barely avoided detection by the squabbling pirates and found his way to the inner sanctum. He noted there were numerous holes and gaps in the ceiling and plentiful things to hide behind around the periphery of the chamber. Satisfied, he returned to the party.
Meanwhile, Zuno spotted a strange man in a tree surveying the temple with Eagle Eyes. Zuno attempted to sneak up on him but was detected by the man, who was revealed to again be the Cleric. The party chatted with him and struck a bargain: if the party would help him nab Isaac Fowler, whom he believed to have orchestrated the theft of the Holy Chain, he would give them aid in bringing down the Magpie.
As evening approached, Snips led the party into the old cellar where they would camp out and await the Meet the next day. During the night, they were nearly discovered as the cellar was opened from the kitchens upstairs. Fortunately for them, it was merely the body of a Blood Hawk spy being disposed of (unfortunate in that they now had to put up with the smell).
Come the following night, the party set about infiltrating the meeting. Zuno made Snips invisible and had him carry his familiar while Leigh-la assumed an inconspicuous wild shape. They made their way to the sanctum with little trouble and found it filled with the leaders of all eight pirate clans of Kamakisqa waiting impatiently for the speaker to arrive. Fortunately, they did not have to wait long: Iron Eye (very pointedly a different guy to the one killed by the party. Indeed, Leigh-la recognized this as the man responsible for the abduction of her friends) and his men made a dramatic entrance and scanned the whole room with his prosthetic eye that was revealed to be capable of detecting magic. In a panic, Zuno dismissed his familiar before it could be discovered and Snips requested his invisibility be dropped.
Satisfied that all sources of remaining magic were now accounted for, Iron Eye began his impassioned speech; petitioning the gathered clans to join him in a campaign to "reclaim" the island of Soros as their own. From Snips and Leigh-la's vantage, they could tell the room was fairly evenly split on which clans agreed with the idea. Specifically, they spotted heightened tension between the leaders of the Black Sun and Tempest clans. Afterwards, the party discussed what they had learned and ultimately settled on "selling" this information to the Confidence Exchange back in New Providence and then warning Marshal and the Navy.
The next day, the party set about their next point of business: the purchasing of the Holy Chain by an Elen'nar collector. The ostentatious elven ship stood out like a sore thumb in the docks. First, the party set about sabotaging their anchor in the hopes of slowing down their departure. Leigh-la caused a commotion in the bay as a giant octopus while Snips snuck aboard and planted a few pieces of explosive ammunition within the mechanism of the ships anchor pulley. They then hightailed it to the Lawn so as to reach it before the elven delegation.
Back at the park, they spread out around the temple in the hopes of catching Fowler when the Cleric gave the signal, which ended up coming in the form of the Cleric shouting for them after he spooked Fowler out of his covert perch. Fowler proved illusive, becoming invisible and conjuring illusions, but the party was able to swarm him and bring him down. With that, the Cleric thanked them for their aid and took Fowler for questioning while the party prepared to "relieve" the elven collector of his newly purchased holy relic…
XP earned: 400 each
Session 28 The party set an ambush for the elven ensemble as they made their way back to their ship with their newly purchased holy relic. Not feeling confident in his stealthiness, Lir opted to pose as a black knight styled distraction; confronting the bladesingers and insisting that the relic belonged to him. This went over with the elves about as well as you'd expect.
The bladesingers attacked the party and the noble carrying his prize attempted to go around with one of the bladesingers acting as a bodyguard. Zuno tried to catch them all in a fireball, but quickly learned that these bladesingers were accomplished wizards with the ability to counterspell. During the struggle, Lir, Snips, and Tess all found themselves KO'd by a relentless barrage of fireballs and magically enhanced weapon attacks. Despite this, Snips was able to land a lethal shot on the noble, and in the confusion, Flea was able to grab the chest holding the relic and, true to her namesake, flee.
With their focus split between healing their escort, dealing with the remaining PCs, and going after the chest, the bladesingers were unable to fend off the party (who had been doing work to keep their wounded companions up on their feet). The revived noble was able to flee the battlefield, but three of the bladesingers fell and the fourth eventually gave up the pursuit of the relic as it was whisked away by Leigh-la in the form of a dire wolf.
With their newfound prize in hand and nobody dead, the party beat a hasty retreat and found their way to the Cleric's Chapel, where they were invited in for tea (aside from Snips who returned to the docks to watch the elven ship, where he was briefly interrogated by the Black Sun pirates that had come to the aid of the elves). Inside, they had a nice little chat with the Cleric about the machinations of the Triumvirate Confessor they helped him capture, his motivations to undermine the Aonian Church, and what, if anything, the Holy Chain does (identifying it revealed no discernable properties, but it radiated a palpable warmth. The Cleric merely suggested that when enough people think something is important, it becomes important).
Satisfied in a good day's work, the party returned to the Damnation of the Tides to lay low. There, they found Cpt. Ransford and his first mate chatting with none other than the merchant Mercutio, who had been waiting to greet the party with an enticing deal: he could offer information and tools to help them (specifically Leigh-la) find Iron Eye, who was still present in the city. Leigh-la agreed to offer an unspecified favor to the merchant in exchange for the intel. Sealed by a gentleman's handshake, Mercutio revealed both Iron Eye's current residence as well as the name of his ship. He also offered either a pouch of dust of disappearance or a vial of a potion of gaseous form to aid in their infiltration. With that, he departed and left the party to plan for how they intended to deal with the Magpie during their meeting tomorrow and what to do with this information Leigh-la had bought…
XP earned: 750 each
Session 29 The party made preperations to meet the Magpie; stocking up on weapons, ammunition, and healing potions that they scrounged from throughout Kamakisqa's markets. Meanwhile, Leigh-la tracked down Mercutio and opted for the dust of disappearance in order to help her later in finding her friends kidnapped by Iron Eye.
As the sun set, the party made their way to the ruined temple once more. Snips took up a position on the roof while the rest followed the Magpie's goon led them into the Sanctum. There, the Magpie, who was seemingly only accompanied by a handful of thugs and his wizard, laid out his proposal: he would allow Tess to roam free if she would find a replacement fighter that could challenge his current champion, Grimtooth. He acknowledged the expense of "re-contracting" Tess was far too great, but he felt owed for the talent she freed from that New Providence shipyard.
Naturally, Tess was not particularly interested in this arrangement, but feigned agreement so as to "shake the Magpie's hand." Meanwhile, Flea casually planted a magic bean. As Tess shook hands with her old tormenter, she was able to slyly attach the dimmensional shackles to both her and him. Then, a vibrant, fruit-bearing tree sprouted from the bean. Naturally, combat ensued.
Obviously, the Magpie had some tricks up his sleeve as well. His wizard had been concentrating on an invisibility spell that concealed four of the Magpie's finest warriors, each of whom had been promised freedom in exchange for capturing Tess.
The battle was fierce: a halfling monk was able to run down and knock out Zuno, Grimtooth very nearly tore Flea to bite-sized pieces, and Tess was felled by a cavalcade of blows (a consequence of chaining herself to the Magpie). However, the shackles worked as intended, and the Magpie was unable to teleport away with Tess. At that point, he was trapped in a room with only one viable exit that happened to be covered by a direwolf-shaped Leigh-la. Additionally, once Snips dealt the killing blow to the Magpie, all the gladiators (save for Grimtooth) hesitated. The remaining henchmen ordered them to fight, but they too were quickly dispatched, with Lir getting the killing blow on both one of the goons and Grimtooth, who had been heavily "loosened up" by a barrage of gunfire from Flea. A few Black Sun hobgoblins came to investigate the combat within their "sacred' temple, but after carefully assessing the situation, simply told the party to clear out before their reinforcements got here.
With the battle settled, the party healed up and spoke with the now freed gladiators, who informed them that the Magpie had sent orders to kill those still locked up if he hadn't returned by midnight. With the clock ticking, the party took a short rest, dawned disguises, and made their way back to Vrogar's Boarding House.
They were able to sneak their way into Black Sun territory without much issue. At the raucous boarding house, they were able to distract the orcs guarding the doors to the cellars (Snips framed a patron for throwing a mug at them while Leigh-la in mouse form crawled up the other's pantleg) and quickly enter the closed-off cellar, requiring only a small barfight to cover themselves. Downstairs, they had a standoff with the remaining Magpie goons, who wanted paid off in exchange for letting the "talent" go. This led to a goofy back and forth that ended in one guy coming out into the vacant arena to find the money supposedly left behind. Then the party struck.
The lone guy was eviscerated by an explosive blunderbuss shot to the back. The others in the backstage area were hit with another explosive round from Snips and tripped up by ball-bearings. Leigh-la was able to squeeze her way under the holding cellblock doors and surprised the remaining goon getting ready to "fire" the "talent." With those loose ends mopped up, and one more round of disguises as the Magpie's men, the party successfully led the remaining prisoners of the Magpie's out of the dungeon and to safety with the Damnation of the Tides…
XP earned: 1,000 each
Session 30 With only one more point of business to attend to here in Kamakisqa, the party set about snooping on Iron Eye, agreeing that a direct assault would likely go poorly. The plan was to send Leigh-la and Snips in to scout the place out and learn what they were up against; the latter even purchasing shiny new boots of elvenkind for the occasion. All this went out the window when Flea opted to eat another one of her magic fruits, and against all odds, assumed the form of a gaseous cloud. Calling an audible, Flea was sent to investigate instead. She was able to circumnavigate the guards and traps that kept the Black Sun penthouse secure, and though she was nearly caught by Iron Eye's magic eye, she was able to learn that the pirate lord was planning an attack on Soros and that forces were gathering at his secret sanctuary.
From there, the party pivoted to searching his ship for clues as to where this sanctuary could be. This time, the whole party went in, with Flea and Lir invisible, Tess confidently disguised as a pirate, Snips doing his thing, Leigh-la as a mouse and Zuno watching through the eyes of Long Mike. They scoured the ship, deftly avoiding the skeleton crew still aboard, and pulled some good loot from the hold, noted their brig was empty (still no sign of Leigh-la's friends) caused a diversion to raid their armory and yoinked two sets of Mariner Armor, and lastly, investigated the captain's quarters. Leigh-la was able to circumnavigate the glyph of warding sealing the quarters by assuming the form of an ant. Within, she found a map whose compass markings pointed to Mount Vaeros as a frequently visited location. On their way out, Snips simply tanked the glyph and raided the quarters for goodies, acquiring a few potions before launching himself out the window.
With a potential location for Iron Eye's sanctuary discovered, it was time to shove off and escort the Menagerie victims back to safety. The voyage was cramped, but relatively smooth sailing, at least in terms of external threats. In transit, Zuno pressed First Mate Quincy for answers (he had previously offered to use the magic aura spell to mask their presence from Iron Eye) on who he was, using detect thoughts to probe deeper into his mind. Zuno proved tenacious, and "Quincy" let it slip in his mind that he was none other than Zuno's father. Zuno reeled from this revelation and was altogether unsure how to react. Eventually, he asked for more information on the situation, but still remained at a distance. Otherwise, the only other notable event of the voyage was a brief encounter with some kind of dragonborn hermit chilling on a small island.
Back at New Providence, the party quickly learned the Haedian Empress was in town. A group of customs officers insisted on processing the party's ship, but thankfully a lengthy audit was waved off by the minstrel Machi Navalli, who the party was somewhat surprised to see have so much clout with government officials. Beyond that though, the troubadour was thrilled to see the party return with exciting new stories in tow. Leigh-la took a particularly keen interest in him, and the two went off to get drinks and share stories. Then, it was simply a matter of wrapping up outstanding business.
Zuno went to Eqora for some wizardly advice on his revelation (of which she had very little to offer), Zuno and Lir sold intel on Iron Eye to Aliva of the Confidence Exchange for a hefty sum, the whole group returned the holy relic to the Aonian Church, squaring their outstanding bill for their last resurrection, and finally, Tess made a shocking announcement: she intended to take the money she had accumulated and use it to begin a refugee shelter in New Providence in order to help those harmed by the Magpie and others. Because of this, she would no longer be travelling with the group. The party said their "see you laters," with Flea seeming to take it particularly hard, and went their separate ways.
Now, the remaining party has a meeting upcoming with Marshall to discuss Iron Eye's intended invasion, and Snips and Lir in particular found themselves in an interesting position: Upon returning to report a successful mission to Lord Blackwell, they discovered that the crime lord Warren Flint was there, having just concluded a rather tense-looking meeting…
XP earned: 250 each