Session 9: Things Happen...

Winter 29, 6840 CA

The Voyage Home

With the battle won, the party takes some time to get their bearings and to ensure that everything is all in order. The captain of the captured crew is grateful for the rescue and offers to cut them in on the profit from the ship's cargo. He offers a generous 10%, but Zed insists that they deserve 30%. He can't afford that much, he has a crew to pay! Yuri is willing to compromise with 25%, but 20% is the best the captain is willing to do. Ursa and Wally are more than happy with that! They even help the crew get loaded up.
Briefly the party considers catching a ride back to Thules with the crew of the ship, but Arturo reminds them that Captain Cynthia is waiting for them. The group is somewhat wary about taking the ship back with her due to certain debts she owes and the group takes up a vote to go along with Cynthia. Before departing, they return to the lighthouse and return the Bowl of Summon Water Elementals to Lucien Skyhorn. He's grateful for their help and offers them each a Mariner's coin in thanks. He also offers a magical skyglass to the leader of the group, which he assumes is Arturo.
"You should give that to your student," Valia suggests. Arturo gives the spyglass to Zed, but only because he was planning to anyway. Not because of any pushy paladins. Rude.
They board the ship and make the journey back to the city. There are no attacks on the ship during this late night journey, but Valua and Ursa are able to talk. Ursa is concerned that she's starting to lose a bit of herself with all this fighting and killing. She just wants to be a friendly baker! Valia suggests that maybe she just start hitting enemies with the flat of her hammer instead, just for a change. Zed is approached by Cynthia, who recognizes that Zed was taught by Arturo. She warns Zed of Arturo's shady past and that he might be mixed up with some dangerous people.
Upon making port, the group make their way to the docks. A crossbow bolt is fired and lands in Zed's shoulder. It's an ambush! The two other captains that accused Cynthia of cheating have brought an even larger group of hired hands to get their revenge. Over the course of the battle, the group is initially overwhelmed. Wally thorn whips one of the captains into the ocean. While the captain attempts to climb up to the dock, Yuri attacks and takes the captain's hand. The man soon vanishes into the dark, murky water. The others beat back the other sailors, kill the other captain, and eventually the remaining hired hands flee into the night.
Valia convinces the last orc sailor to surrender, but Cynthia uses the opportunity to simply close any loose ends with a knife along the throat. Zed loots the body while Wally waits impatiently behind her to do his favorite thing in the world - melt corpses into mushroom blobs. Arturo promises to deliver their payment tomorrow. The group heads home, leaving the cleanup to Cynthia and her crew.
Winter 30, 6840 CA

Morning Business

The next morning, Zed slips out early without notice by the others. Soon after, there's a knock at the door. It's Percy, one of the staff at the Maralys estate that the others had met previously. Valia's brother, Arturis, asked him to help out with her affairs and take messages for her. Percy even gathered all their messages! Valia is suspicious and thinks that Percy is only hear to snitch. "Do you know what happens to snitches?" Valia asks. "They die," Yuri answers.
Percy promises not to snitch! He opens up their messages to deliver them. Ursa has a summons to deliver a statement on her alleged crime at the Norwind Manor. Macalum Asylum has provided Valia an address for Isabela Bracemark's current location. Finally, Havmos has asked the group to meet them at midnight with their contact from the Brass Whispers, the oddly named Robbo. Percy is given some coins for his trouble and sent on his way.
After Zed returns, the group go out to take care of their morning errands. They sell off their collected loot for 450 pieces of gold that they split up. Their damaged tailored clothes are retrieved and they have their magical items identified at Julia's shop. Zed now has a Dagger of Venom and Wally's dice turn out to be a set of magical dice used for cheating. Julia is happy to see Yuri and looks forward to their date later!

Beware the Law

Ursa is nervous about seeing the Watch. Zed and Yuri take great pleasure in taunting her with all the things she will need to do while in prison. An increasingly panicked Ursa considers bringing some baked goods to the Watch Hall, but Valia points out that bribery is bad. It's decided that carrying Ursa's unusually large arsenal of weapons into the Watch Hall would project the wrong image, so she leaves it all with Zed and Yuri. She heads inside with Wally and Valia in tow where she is directed to the Warforged officer, Lt. Booth.
The Warforged Watchman interrogates Ursa on her actions during the gala. Although Valia helped coach her on what their cover story should be, she's still caught having to explain some uncomfortable details like why she had a stolen sword and was impersonating a noble at a party she was supposed to be working at. Booth does not seem overly satisfied with Ursa's explanation or Valia attempting to speak up for her friend. He points out that a significantly large robbery occurred and that nearly every noble at the party reported having their belongings stolen. No one seems to have a satisfying explanation for that. Because the Watch Commander spoke for Valia, there are no charges currently being pressed but Ursa is warned not to leave the city and that there will be an ongoing investigation.
Outside, Zed and Yuri have decided to have some fun with Ursa's weapons. Her hammer is so large and there's so many interesting things you could do with them. They decide to have a competition to see how far they can launch her weapons. Yuri fails to do anything impressive as he launches her hammer only a half dozen feet away into the grass. Zed swings her glaive and loses balance and destroys a nearby police box. Outside the Watch. In full view of multiple watchmen. The two immediately flee! Yuri books it into the distance, but Zed is apprehended and is walked into the Watch Hall just as Ursa, Valia, and Wally are leaving.
Valia follows Zed inside and is able to pay the fifty gold fine for property damage for Zed. All of this occurs in front of a highly amused Sgt. Angelica who appears to have witnessed the whole thing. She dangles the prospect of the famous crocodile mission, but suggests that the party might be too caught up with other things. Zed and Valia assure the hot watch lady that they are totally still on board for some croc time.
Yuri is long gone back at the house, so the group go to look for him there. He gets chastised for abandoning his sister, but Zed assures the others that they have a longstanding agreement that it's stupid to get caught together. As they discuss the events at the manor, they are all confused about the robbery that happened since no one saw it happening. Wally mentions that he saw it and that it was done by the leader of the band. They are all suspicious that Wally isn't saying more. Was it a spell? Perhaps.
But more important things are afoot... like date night! Zed and Valia waste no time making sure Yuri has a nice bath and looks dapper for his big date! Valia even goes to the effort of casting Find Steed so Yuri can show up riding a majestic white pony. Yuri asks Ursa if she has any wine he can bring as a gift, but it turns out that their friendly ghost Abanus had a wine cellar beneath the house. Very convenient!

...And Children Are Made

Yuri arrives at Julia's Emporium just as its closing. Julia steps out in a nice black dress with silver trimmings and a golden button. He offers her a gift of wine. She's eager to take off and is quite suprised that they'll be riding together on a pony across town. Yuri had his run of the town for options to pick, but ultimately settled on traditional dwarven food over at the Deepsteak. It's a cozy restaurant in the ground that gives that authentic Dwarven experience that can often be difficult to find on the southern side of Thules. She is quite happy to be able to load up on steak, ribs, sausages, and rock hard dwarven bread you can really crunch your teeth into.

The two make small talk. Julia is happy to talk about how things are going on at the Emporium and her ambitions to move to a larger shop on the bridge. Yuri shares his recent experiences in the sewers, how they adopted sewer mutts, his sister's recent arrest, and how fragile his knees are. Did he mention that kids are annoying? Julia's fascination turns into mounting horror as she wonders what sort of strange and bizarre creature she ended up on a date with. She steps away to get freshened up.
Meanwhile, Zed and Valia decided to sneak into the restaurant to observe the date. They managed to escape Yuri's notice, but Julia spotted them right away. While Julia tries to sneak away from the restaurant, Valia and Zed quickly intercept her. Julia wants a get away, but Valia and Zed convince her that Yuri is a stand up guy and is just very bad at explaining things. They were actually in the sewer for heroic reasons! None of this escapes Yuri's notice and he realizes he's completely blowing this date. Time to regroup!
Julia returns and continue to talk, now with Yuri being a little more thoughtful with his rambling. Things go well and she not only has Yuri drop her off at her home, she even leaves him with a peck on the cheek and an agreement for a second date. Victory!