Session 2: Take a Dive
Winter 24 - 25, 6840 CA
The group continue trudging through the mirky sewers beneath Thules until eventually they find themselves wading waist deep through the sewage. Eventually they find their way to their destination and are able to climb up onto one of the walkways again. Wally eagerly leads the group onward, but shushes them when he spots some sleeping goblins through a small hole in the wall. They carefully make their way up to them and Valia tries to take one out before it wakes, but just misses. The two goblins awake and are amazed at first at how easily they are able to dodge attacks, but the law of averages does not favor the two scouts. Party: 1, Swordrunners: 0.
Emboldened by their victory, the group loot the goblins and carry on. Getting to the next area requires crossing a loose plank on the ground that forms a makeshift bridge. Yuriel is eager to be the first to cross and show his bravery. Zed sees what's about to happen and reaches out to stop him, but is just an inch too late to keep Yuriel from falling facefirst into a river of sewage. Valia uses her spear to pull him out, but he's now completely covered in things best left undescribed. Gross.
The group hear muffled conversation in the next room and get closer to listen. A man and a woman are arguing over how best to barricade the door. One says it needs more furniture, the other says the cracks need to be sealed. Whatever it is, the party decides to just play 'wait and see'. But Wally's peculiar odor attracts attention and he soon hears some heavy breathing on the other side of the door and some light scratching. A dog? A cuddly dog? An adorable dog they can adopt and have forever memories with? The group elect to throw caution to the wind and open the door.
A large mangy looking dog covered in scars and bitemarks looms over Wally before licking him in the face. Rather than face the incoming danger, the group uses all manner of techniques at their disposal to win the affection of this dog... and the other dog that soons follow when it smells treats being handed out. With the dogs pacified, the group moves into the next room. The two Swordrunners spot them and bring out their weapons, only now without their canine backup. A goblin on the other side of a barricaded door takes a shot at the group, but flees when he sees the battle going badly.
Heartbreak ensues as the dogs see their dog-dad get brutally murdered! But Valia is there to keep them calm. She also tries to use telepathy to convince one of the bandits to stand down. That bandit does start to stand down, moments before an ochre jelly breaks out of the room they were trying to block off. Zed heroically races forward to kill the Swordrunner so the Ochre Jelly doesn't have to experience the guilt of murdering another living creature. The group then turn on the jelly and kill it as well. Victory! Party: 2, Swordrunners -2 Dogs
Dogs adopted. Time to go rescue Tarin Vongard. The group moves forward and despite Wally's stealthy movements, he finds himself being pointedly watched by a group of individuals in the next chamber. Oh, right. The goblin that ran off. On a huge chair sits a tall and lanky giant and in his company is the halforc Bruno that they had encountered at the bakery, along with a human mage and the bloodied and bruised Tarin Vongard. The giant demands to know why the group has intruded and is annoyed that they have interrupted the interrogation.
"That's not who you were looking for!" the group declare.
"No shit," the giant says. He's annoyed that his liutenant has failed to get the right person and was about to exact his own punishment, up until the group decided to interrupt things. The party is not worth his time and he's equally annoyed that Bruno has also showed up whining about some debt that went badly. He charges his liuetenant and Bruno to deal with these intruders and leaves. He makes enough of an impression that the party decides to not impede his path. As they see him casting some complex teleportation magic, they feel well justified in that decision.
Things look bad when he mage starts casting spells and one of the Scorchbringers steps out with a flamethrower. The group was already badly bruised after their last few scrapes. The group smartly focuses fire on Bruno, before moving onto the mage. Valia puts one of the goblins to sleep and the Scorchbringer succeeds in blowing itself up when the flamethrower combusts. Valia puts a goblin to sleep to mercifully exclude him from the battle. Ursa decides to mercifully send him to an eternal sleep by bludgeoning it to death. After Zed shoots the last goblin that is running away, the group catch their breath.
Tarin is pleased to be free! It was a lot of violence, but he's overwhelmed with emotion that Onzo sent Hero Bakers out to save him. The bodies are looted and they find some extra gold and healing potions. Wally starts to Decompose the bodies, but the halforc catches his hand. He doesn't want to be mushrooms! He had saved the nearly fatal blow thanks to his Halforc endurance. He doesn't want to be killed, he has a family to think of! If the group will spare him, he could even help them settle their debt. After all, the Swordrunners they killed here weren't the same faction that Bruno belongs to. Valia is in the room this time, so the group decide to take him along with them.
The group emerge from the sewer and are releived to be out in the open again. They realize immediately that they are covered in sewer water and smell awful. They're getting a lot of stares. Ursa leads them into a back entrance at the bakery where they can all get washed up. Everyone except Wally, who refuses to be cleaned. Zed throws a bucket of water on him anyway. It helps. A little. Once they are feeling refreshed, they make their way to the Wanderlust. Tarin is reunited with his friends and they are all overcome with joy. Havmos rewards the party with 400 gold pieces for his rescue. Onzo has 100 gold... and nothing else. The money he was expecting to receive fell through, so he only has a property deed to offer. The group reluctantly accepts. By the way, did he mention it was haunted?
Valia tries to convince Ava to take the dogs and make them work at the Wanderlust, but she refuses. This is a respectable business! Valia is forced to wait outside with the dogs. While she presses her window to the glass. Hi Zed's mom! Limaera hurriedly takes her current client and finds somewhere private to sit. Kids!
Ursa and Yuriel sit with Bruno to talk business. Bruno says that the debt is held by his boss at a different warehouse next to the docks. He can help identify when the best time to attack is. If the group is willing to get even more blood on their hands, they could simply erase the debt by killing the person its owed to. Ursa is a little concerned about this, but Bruno does suggest they could try to be stealthy about it instead. Yuriel doesn't see any problems with either approach. There is still the problem with the giant, Boss Grumm having seen all of them. The group would do well to keep their heads low while he still thinks of them as only a nuisance.
Ursa and Bruno make an Orcish pact together and agree to meet up later and part ways for now. The group still have the afternoon to spend and they have money jangling in their pockets. Time to shop!
The group stop at all the best places. Valia wants to get a silvered spear at the Hard Hammer. Ursa takes the group to Wyverstone Outfitters where her old teacher works. Mirabelle Wyverstone was an old traveling buddy of Ursa's parents. The group wonders what else the group got up to. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Over at Old Dependable General Store, Ursa picks up a nice pouch of magical spices. At Bubbles and Brew, the group pick up some healing potions and try to convince Yuriel to get some endurance potions so he can be a better lover. He refuses. At the Infusion Emporium, the group find themselves woefully underfinanced to start looking at infusions. Zed finds herself woefully underprepared to flirt with Julie Heftwind, the cute and nicely dressed dwarf running the store. She does have nice buttons, though.
The next day, the group meet up at the Wanderlust before making their way over to their new property, Bracemark Manor. The three story manor is large, but in a state of disrepair and looks like its been around for as long as the city has been. Wally thinks its perfect, but the others think it will need a bit of work. Valia heads inside and stands in the middle of the building and reaches out with her divine sense. Ghosts. Lots of ghosts. Oh yeah. This place is haunted.
Into the Hideout
The group continue trudging through the mirky sewers beneath Thules until eventually they find themselves wading waist deep through the sewage. Eventually they find their way to their destination and are able to climb up onto one of the walkways again. Wally eagerly leads the group onward, but shushes them when he spots some sleeping goblins through a small hole in the wall. They carefully make their way up to them and Valia tries to take one out before it wakes, but just misses. The two goblins awake and are amazed at first at how easily they are able to dodge attacks, but the law of averages does not favor the two scouts. Party: 1, Swordrunners: 0.
Emboldened by their victory, the group loot the goblins and carry on. Getting to the next area requires crossing a loose plank on the ground that forms a makeshift bridge. Yuriel is eager to be the first to cross and show his bravery. Zed sees what's about to happen and reaches out to stop him, but is just an inch too late to keep Yuriel from falling facefirst into a river of sewage. Valia uses her spear to pull him out, but he's now completely covered in things best left undescribed. Gross.
The group hear muffled conversation in the next room and get closer to listen. A man and a woman are arguing over how best to barricade the door. One says it needs more furniture, the other says the cracks need to be sealed. Whatever it is, the party decides to just play 'wait and see'. But Wally's peculiar odor attracts attention and he soon hears some heavy breathing on the other side of the door and some light scratching. A dog? A cuddly dog? An adorable dog they can adopt and have forever memories with? The group elect to throw caution to the wind and open the door.
A large mangy looking dog covered in scars and bitemarks looms over Wally before licking him in the face. Rather than face the incoming danger, the group uses all manner of techniques at their disposal to win the affection of this dog... and the other dog that soons follow when it smells treats being handed out. With the dogs pacified, the group moves into the next room. The two Swordrunners spot them and bring out their weapons, only now without their canine backup. A goblin on the other side of a barricaded door takes a shot at the group, but flees when he sees the battle going badly.
Heartbreak ensues as the dogs see their dog-dad get brutally murdered! But Valia is there to keep them calm. She also tries to use telepathy to convince one of the bandits to stand down. That bandit does start to stand down, moments before an ochre jelly breaks out of the room they were trying to block off. Zed heroically races forward to kill the Swordrunner so the Ochre Jelly doesn't have to experience the guilt of murdering another living creature. The group then turn on the jelly and kill it as well. Victory! Party: 2, Swordrunners -2 Dogs
What Could Go Wrong?
Dogs adopted. Time to go rescue Tarin Vongard. The group moves forward and despite Wally's stealthy movements, he finds himself being pointedly watched by a group of individuals in the next chamber. Oh, right. The goblin that ran off. On a huge chair sits a tall and lanky giant and in his company is the halforc Bruno that they had encountered at the bakery, along with a human mage and the bloodied and bruised Tarin Vongard. The giant demands to know why the group has intruded and is annoyed that they have interrupted the interrogation.
"That's not who you were looking for!" the group declare.
"No shit," the giant says. He's annoyed that his liutenant has failed to get the right person and was about to exact his own punishment, up until the group decided to interrupt things. The party is not worth his time and he's equally annoyed that Bruno has also showed up whining about some debt that went badly. He charges his liuetenant and Bruno to deal with these intruders and leaves. He makes enough of an impression that the party decides to not impede his path. As they see him casting some complex teleportation magic, they feel well justified in that decision.
Things look bad when he mage starts casting spells and one of the Scorchbringers steps out with a flamethrower. The group was already badly bruised after their last few scrapes. The group smartly focuses fire on Bruno, before moving onto the mage. Valia puts one of the goblins to sleep and the Scorchbringer succeeds in blowing itself up when the flamethrower combusts. Valia puts a goblin to sleep to mercifully exclude him from the battle. Ursa decides to mercifully send him to an eternal sleep by bludgeoning it to death. After Zed shoots the last goblin that is running away, the group catch their breath.
Tarin is pleased to be free! It was a lot of violence, but he's overwhelmed with emotion that Onzo sent Hero Bakers out to save him. The bodies are looted and they find some extra gold and healing potions. Wally starts to Decompose the bodies, but the halforc catches his hand. He doesn't want to be mushrooms! He had saved the nearly fatal blow thanks to his Halforc endurance. He doesn't want to be killed, he has a family to think of! If the group will spare him, he could even help them settle their debt. After all, the Swordrunners they killed here weren't the same faction that Bruno belongs to. Valia is in the room this time, so the group decide to take him along with them.
Stinky Heroes
The group emerge from the sewer and are releived to be out in the open again. They realize immediately that they are covered in sewer water and smell awful. They're getting a lot of stares. Ursa leads them into a back entrance at the bakery where they can all get washed up. Everyone except Wally, who refuses to be cleaned. Zed throws a bucket of water on him anyway. It helps. A little. Once they are feeling refreshed, they make their way to the Wanderlust. Tarin is reunited with his friends and they are all overcome with joy. Havmos rewards the party with 400 gold pieces for his rescue. Onzo has 100 gold... and nothing else. The money he was expecting to receive fell through, so he only has a property deed to offer. The group reluctantly accepts. By the way, did he mention it was haunted?
Valia tries to convince Ava to take the dogs and make them work at the Wanderlust, but she refuses. This is a respectable business! Valia is forced to wait outside with the dogs. While she presses her window to the glass. Hi Zed's mom! Limaera hurriedly takes her current client and finds somewhere private to sit. Kids!
Ursa and Yuriel sit with Bruno to talk business. Bruno says that the debt is held by his boss at a different warehouse next to the docks. He can help identify when the best time to attack is. If the group is willing to get even more blood on their hands, they could simply erase the debt by killing the person its owed to. Ursa is a little concerned about this, but Bruno does suggest they could try to be stealthy about it instead. Yuriel doesn't see any problems with either approach. There is still the problem with the giant, Boss Grumm having seen all of them. The group would do well to keep their heads low while he still thinks of them as only a nuisance.
Ursa and Bruno make an Orcish pact together and agree to meet up later and part ways for now. The group still have the afternoon to spend and they have money jangling in their pockets. Time to shop!
Mandatory Shopping
The group stop at all the best places. Valia wants to get a silvered spear at the Hard Hammer. Ursa takes the group to Wyverstone Outfitters where her old teacher works. Mirabelle Wyverstone was an old traveling buddy of Ursa's parents. The group wonders what else the group got up to. Wink wink, nudge nudge. Over at Old Dependable General Store, Ursa picks up a nice pouch of magical spices. At Bubbles and Brew, the group pick up some healing potions and try to convince Yuriel to get some endurance potions so he can be a better lover. He refuses. At the Infusion Emporium, the group find themselves woefully underfinanced to start looking at infusions. Zed finds herself woefully underprepared to flirt with Julie Heftwind, the cute and nicely dressed dwarf running the store. She does have nice buttons, though.
Spooky Times
The next day, the group meet up at the Wanderlust before making their way over to their new property, Bracemark Manor. The three story manor is large, but in a state of disrepair and looks like its been around for as long as the city has been. Wally thinks its perfect, but the others think it will need a bit of work. Valia heads inside and stands in the middle of the building and reaches out with her divine sense. Ghosts. Lots of ghosts. Oh yeah. This place is haunted.
Comments