Session 15: Sabastian's Five

General Summary

5th of Endhoste 21 2E
As Sebastian Braun drifted to sleep, The Regulators began considering things they could do to make the heist go smoother. Alaric and Malcolm decided to follow the patrolling guard that would circle the perimeter of the property for a couple hours. Both were caught following him at least once but were able to bluff their way out of trouble. They determined his patrol brought him by the property once an hour with a variance of about 10 to 15 minutes. Afterward, they went in search of a spyglass that Malcolm could use while standing lookout. Feeling the price of a new spyglass was too steep, they found their way to a second-hand shop, and still they were unhappy with the price. Alaric used the mask of many faces to become a nondescript human man and asked the shop owner for an item that required him to leave the house while he stole the spy glass and a book on weapon-smithing and slipped away.

When Sebastian woke up, he asked Malcolm about their plans now that they have their memories back. Malcolm gave him a non-committal answer, saying only that they would probably have to do something about the Temple of the Black Star. Sebastian suggested that they should get some funds accumulated before moving on and offered to hire the party from now until the end of the year on odd jobs, escorts, and training, promising the profit would be substantial. Malcolm promised they would take it under consideration.
Taking turns on watch, the party each observed that as darkness fell, the home of Nikola Jović remained dark, with only occasional hints of movement inside. Also, in spite of the low temperature, none of the chimneys showed sign of even a fire for warmth.
Alaric's Choice
As Alaric drifted to sleep, he experienced a Lucid feeling of sunlight beating down on his skin and a summer breeze. He tried to open in his eyes and found himself on his old cattle ranch. Across the yard he saw his deceased wife, currently alive and well. He ran towards her but couldn't close the distance as fast as he should have been. She looked up at him and smiled as her eyes, ears, and nose began to bleed. AS he got closer her skin began to melt off as if made of candle wax, and the exposed skeleton burst into flames. The sky grew dark and he had to stop as suddenly found himself at the edge of a 60 foot wide crevice. 200 feet below a river of molten rock flowed and bubbled with such intensity that fountains of magma sprouted in front of him. Across the crevice where is wife had been before was Lilith Smios staring at him with the same blade in hand that she was carrying when he saw her for the first time. He fell to his knees and begged for her to tell him why she had done it. She only returned a smile that could be best described as inhuman.
Alaric charged forward, defying the laws of physics to cross the gap, but just barely managed to grab the adjacent cliff. In the otherwise starless sky, he saw a distant point of amber light. When he looked at it, he felt a sense of comfort and guidance. Looking back at Lilith, a demonic sounding voice called out to him saying "power...revenge." His body was filled with energy, and he cast Eldritch Blast" at Lilith, turning her into ash before the cliff gave way. As he hit the river of magma, he woke up.
Meara was on watch when he woke. Her amulet vibrated briefly and she noticed the smell of sulfur as he coughed up ash. She asked what happened and he angrily waved her off. He tried to speak to the voice, asking how he could get this power. The voice suggested that the opportunity would come soon. When Alaric asked what it would cost, the voice replied, "your soul." His last question was "How do I know I can trust you." The voice simply laughed, and Alaric felt a presence seem to leave the room. Alaric demanded that Meara not tell anyone what she witnessed, which she reluctantly agreed to. Alaric left the room and went to the bar.
Meara woke Malcolm for his watch who then woke Zuko . Zuko realized at the end of his watch that Alaric was gone and woke Sebastian before he went looking for Alaric. He found him alone at the bar with a bottle of whiskey. Zuko asked if he needed to talk about anything but Alaric refused, and Zuko didn't push the issue.
5th of Endhoste 21 2E
The next morning, Malcolm walked to the woods at the edge of Nikola's property and climbed a tree to examine the home through his spyglass. He spotted Nikola through one of the windows pacing anxiously. He seemed to stop and look in the direction of the woods but there was no sign that he saw Malcolm. On Malcolm's suggestion, ALaric searched the woods for a secret exit from the home, but was fairly confident that he confirmed no such exit exited.
When Malcolm reported back to Sebastian seemed relieved that Nikola was in fact home, but was concerned about his seeming ability to sense that he was being watched.
When darkness fell again, Nikola finally left the house and headed toward the town square for the Freeflow Festival. As he neared The Grey Boar Meara's amulet was set off briefly. Sebastian's unease was growing but he suggested they get to work. Alaric searched for the patrolling guard and used the mask of many faces to turn into a human woman before ducking into a small patch of woods and feigning distress. The guard came to help and Alaric knocked him out with sleeping powder before killing him and taking his form, then reported back to the group using the Earring of Whisper. Meara coated two pounds of jerky in sleeping powder and slipped it to the Blink Dog which promptly fell asleep. She then joined Malcolm, Zuko and Sebastian in the woods to drop over the fence and approach the back left side of the home.
Zuko used the magic paint to create a new small door, and turned invisible to search the house for the servant. He found himself in the kitchen, and tried a taste of the food still sitting in serving dishes. He immediately realized that it had been sitting so long that it had gone bad. He noticed a drying puddle in front of a pantry cabinet. When he opened it, he found the contorted corpse of the servant woman. At his guess, she had been dead for at least a week. Sebastian and Meara came in as he continued to work his way through the dinning room (also uncleared after the previous meal) and the foyer.
Sebastian picked up a toppled grandfather clock and hid a large ornate coat of arms behind it. Zuko and Meara noticed it bared the symbols of the family of Jarl Rupert Wasser. This was the item they were going to report to the Cerulean Guard to make sure Nikola lost his position of nobility and had to run from the law as well. They proceeded into the the sitting room where they discovered another corpse sitting in an armchair by the unlit hearth. This corpse seemed to have been completely skinned, with the organs and muscle left in place. On closer examination, Sebastian was convinced that it was Nikola himself.
They proceeded into the next room which appeared to be a small study. The drawers of the desk were pulled out, papers strewn on the floor and books torn off the built in book shelves on the wall. Among the papers, Zuko found a letter to Nikola from a priest with the Temple of the Black Star, demanding Nikola agree to sell them a staff. Zuko pocketed the letter and realized that this was the only room so far with a lit fire. When he went to check how long the fire had been burning, he noticed that it was another magic fire, but this one gave off no heat. He reached into the flames and found a metal bar, which pivoted when he tried to pull it out.
The shelves on one of the bookshelves fell, revealing a secret stairway to a chamber below. As they descended into the secret basement, Alaric decided to get in the house and search the second floor. He first searched the master bedroom which was also ransacked. On the night stand he found a book titled A Brief History of the Great Guild Wars. Forgetting to check for traps, he unlocked and opened the chest at the foot of the bed, and was peppered with metal shrapnel. Inside he found a significant amount of platinum bars, jewelry, and a key.
At about this same moment, Malcolm noticed a flash of light through the door that led from the dining room to the foyer. He asked anyone nearby to check it out. Alaric was confident what he most likely saw was from the trap he set off, but when he was done loading his loot, he checked down the stairs and found nothing. Zuko, Sebastian and Meara found the staircase led them to a narrow dead end hallway with one metal door with a large mirror leading off the side. Zuko foudn that the door was locked and asked Alaric if he found a key in his searching upstairs. Alaric confirmed and, Zuko came to the bottom of the main stairs so he could toss it down to him. Alaric continued searching the upstairs finding several ransacked guest rooms and a conference room by the time Zuko realized the key did not open the room in the basement. Alaric found a locked metal door on the second floor and called for Zuko to bring the key back. Zuko slipped by him invisible to unlock the door himself, but Alaric heard him stepped away just as Zuko set off the poison trap.
Inside the locked room was a shrine to Fovdohr with a recent live sacrifice. Alaric and Zuko both found this disturbing, as the god of thieves and criminals was often asked for blessing, but almost never directly worshiped in this manner.
Alaric and Zuko returned to the basement, and Alaric out of pure curiosity bounced a copper piece off the mirror, causing it to shatter. He then checked for traps and picked the lock. When they found a small magically lit room with an assortment of items on pedestals and wall mounts. In addition to the Oracle Orb, the party picked up a small sack of cards, a rope, a long sword, and a set of boots. Zuko immediately noticed a staff with a purple crystal and pulled it off the wall, realizing it may be the same one the Temple of the Black Star was seeking, and whoever ransacked the house may have been after it as well.
While everyone was distracted by the horde of presumably magic items, Zuko was stabbed twice in the back, and the staff slipped from his hands. When everyone looked back, they saw Nikola smiling at them with the staff in hand. Sebastian warned him to run while he still could, because his career both as a baron and as a criminal were over. Nikola laughed and peeled off his skin, revealing an apparently undead individual in ornate black and silver religious robes, with the symbol of [Emmet's organization emblazoned on his chest.
He expressed his amusement at the prospect of telling his peers that "the heir's" were responsible for helping him get what he came for before he dashed away. Meara got a shot off at him before he got to the stairs while Alaric warned Malcolm that they needed backup. The cultist made it to the foyer where he had prepared some unique form of teleportation ritual and started to continue it. Malcolm dropped over the fence and ran for the house, unsuccessfully bursting through the dinning room window. He fired off two shots at the cultist, alerting the two guards at the gate, but successfully interrupting the ritual. The party bombarded the cultist, killing him before he could escape with the staff. Malcolm killed the responding guards while Sebastian and Alaric escaped out of a window in the sitting room and headed for the cart. Meara and Zuko loaded the cultist's body onto the Carpet of Flying and proceeded to the cart just as Malcolm finished off the last guard.
Before anyone could come to investigate, Sebastian suggested they take the eastern route out of town and the long way back to Palhas City.
To be continued... Session 16/17: Letzte Brücke

Report Date

12 Dec 2019