2025-02-11 - The Masquerade Report
General Summary
Figuring it was a bad idea to be present on Leira with a bag full of his possessions when the authorities find the thoroughly mutated and hacked up Warrick, the crew take their newly acquired statue and make for Bral to lick their wounds. Art from Leira being a relatively common commodity on the Rock it didn't take long for the crew to find a buyer for everything they liberated and after which they settled into the ship for some well deserved rest.
In the early hours of the morning while Ulfric was taking his watch on deck, a fire broke out on the sterncastle. Rousing the rest of the crew they began to fight the fire, and notice pieces of an incendiary device in the embers. Realizing this fire was more than an accident Ah-tun peeled off from the fire fighting and starting searching the ship for any intruders. Senyo and Tor'vay-nel make it to the deck and start to combat the blaze while Ulfrick makes for the docks cistern. Delegating validating the statues were safe to Enki, Senyo runs out to assemble the hoses and drag them to the fire as Ulfric maned the pumps.
While the crew dealt with the fire he started, Kit the halfling, slinked around the cargo deck trying to find Sune in Silver. Playing cat and mouse with Ah-tun, Kit snuck up on Enki and eviscerated the poor lemur after he checked one of the doors to the extradimensional holds. As Ah-tun tends to the dying lemur Kit bags the statue and makes his break. The halfling was fast but Ah-tun was faster; the confrontation ending in a duel on the forecastle between a thief trying to run and Ah-Tun trying to incapacitate him. Senyo joined the fight, mind set to vengeance for Enki. Kit trying to leverage his superior balance moves the fight onto the bowsprit figuring if he could trip Ah-tun the orc would fall overboard, but Ah-tun's monk training allowed him to keep his feat and between the pounding fists and Senyo's cantrips they managed to subdue the thief. While all of this transpired Tor had taken the hose and completed putting out the fire on the ship. Taking a minute to assess the situation and deciding they did not want to talk to the port authorities about a ship fire they cut ropes and dropped into wildspace.
Tying up Kit in the rope locker/makeshift brig the crew jam over to the far side of Toril and discuss what to do with their captured thief. Kit for his part argues that his career on Bral is over after botching this job and if the crew were to deposit him somewhere relatively civilized he would answer what ever questions they had. He even offered to buy the first round, thought the crew would need to take it out of what they took off of him. The crew argued a bit, some members wanting to make an example of the halfling, but Kit continued to advocate for his release, as dead thieves cannot spread word of their prowess. The crew finally agree and landed a few days down the coast from Waterdeep to begin the questioning. Kit it seemed had been doing assorted odd jobs lately for Soma, weird stuff like swapping out silver manacles that Soma had gifted to the House of the Lovers, even having him disassemble a bed and replace it's headboard. Soma hadn't told him what the statue was, just that the crew had it stolen it from an associate of his and he didn't want to involve the authorities. The crew kept their word and let him swim to shore with his armor a dagger and some rations, a deal he thought was more than fair for his life.
Heading back to Bral with a mind to confront Soma the crew discover he has been in and out of Bral lately, currently out, but that he was getting ready for a masquerade to unveil a new statue tonight. Tor never passing up an opportunity to hob nob sets out to see if she can acquire an invitation. She ended up making friends with a one Belladonna Starbow, the child of a Waterdeepean merchant that was attending the bards college on Bral . Belladonna had an invite so she could talk to Soma about patronage and she was more than happy to let her new friend be her +1. Tor managed to get a good enough look at the invite to forge a second one that Senyo and Ulfric used to get in; using an illusory Disguise to hide the bulky orc's plate mail and arms. Ah-tun for his part just planned on hopping the wall and fashioning a loincloth to blend in with the wait staff. Once everyone was inside the hedonistic nature of a Soma party was obvious. Most of the guests were wearing scant clothing, dark corners held paired bodies, and plenty of rich food and wine were being handed out. Many of Soma's friends that the crew met earlier were present and they took measures to avoid them. Investigating the house they found multiple busts for Sune though all were just fine stone representations. They did find upstairs two mirrors what had the familiar blue hue to them, and in Soma's studio they found the proof of Sune in Silver that was mentioned in the correspondence between Soma and Warrick. The crew bagged this proof and anything else they came across that they thought was worth anything such as all of Soma's instruments and his entire wardrobe.
In the Solarium they found a stairwell hidden under a planter, and descending they found his real study. A small damp cellar that had books of occult and a small writing desk. On the desk they found a few things of note; Soma's Journal, a strange book who's color seemed to fade as you looked at it, and an animated fountain pen that was pretending to be normal quill. Tor recognized the quill as an Inquisitive Quill, as her grandma had one and had used it to cheat her way through college. Into the bag it went. The journal explained how a blind man could write with the help of the quill, and also detailed his efforts to cure his blindness. It seemed that the local church of Ilmater was not able to cure him, but they had records of another that had a similar blindness in Waterdeep. They provided a name if he wanted to inquire of the individual and maybe combine efforts. Traveling there he found the mother of that individual and discovered the poor soul had drank himself to death some 28 years ago. Soma had put it together that he was born after this person had died, and when he focused his research on that he found records of the same malady over the last 500 years, 12 individuals never overlapping. His journal then details as he move from mundane research to esoteric. Communing with Oghma, working with a daemonoligest to summon a Venedaemon, and ultimately committing murder for answers. Those answers came in the form of a tome; the Rapax Obumbratio.
Using the tome Soma had summoned an Owb, a creature from another darker plane who he could continue his journey of discovery with. The crew had stumbled on this creature in the antechamber of the study. It approached asking menacing questions in the crews mind until Ulfric brought a light source into it's presence. It reacted viscerally and dropped a darkness zone on the study and started hostilities. The darkens was deep enough that even the Orc's vision was hindered, and it's magics devastated the crew in such a small room but the crew was able to prevail when it was outnumbered, and the mighty Gadget delivering the final one two punch, piercing the creatures skull and pinning it to the floor under one of it's pointy legs. When the creature darkens spell finally faded, Ah-tun found that he had not escaped unscathed, as he had been cursed with a sensitivity to bright lights. Taking a few min to patch themselves up and investigate the antechamber they found a summoning circle and some candles that ate the light.
Deciding that this needs to end now the crew decide that party or no they need to confront Soma and steel themselves for another fight. They all march up to the ballroom where Soma had been holding court all night just to hear him thank his guests and bid them to enjoy their night with his hospitalizes, then with his trademark flourish translocate out. Taking this as a sign things were going to get all tentacley they crew decide leaving was the best option.
In the early hours of the morning while Ulfric was taking his watch on deck, a fire broke out on the sterncastle. Rousing the rest of the crew they began to fight the fire, and notice pieces of an incendiary device in the embers. Realizing this fire was more than an accident Ah-tun peeled off from the fire fighting and starting searching the ship for any intruders. Senyo and Tor'vay-nel make it to the deck and start to combat the blaze while Ulfrick makes for the docks cistern. Delegating validating the statues were safe to Enki, Senyo runs out to assemble the hoses and drag them to the fire as Ulfric maned the pumps.
While the crew dealt with the fire he started, Kit the halfling, slinked around the cargo deck trying to find Sune in Silver. Playing cat and mouse with Ah-tun, Kit snuck up on Enki and eviscerated the poor lemur after he checked one of the doors to the extradimensional holds. As Ah-tun tends to the dying lemur Kit bags the statue and makes his break. The halfling was fast but Ah-tun was faster; the confrontation ending in a duel on the forecastle between a thief trying to run and Ah-Tun trying to incapacitate him. Senyo joined the fight, mind set to vengeance for Enki. Kit trying to leverage his superior balance moves the fight onto the bowsprit figuring if he could trip Ah-tun the orc would fall overboard, but Ah-tun's monk training allowed him to keep his feat and between the pounding fists and Senyo's cantrips they managed to subdue the thief. While all of this transpired Tor had taken the hose and completed putting out the fire on the ship. Taking a minute to assess the situation and deciding they did not want to talk to the port authorities about a ship fire they cut ropes and dropped into wildspace.
Tying up Kit in the rope locker/makeshift brig the crew jam over to the far side of Toril and discuss what to do with their captured thief. Kit for his part argues that his career on Bral is over after botching this job and if the crew were to deposit him somewhere relatively civilized he would answer what ever questions they had. He even offered to buy the first round, thought the crew would need to take it out of what they took off of him. The crew argued a bit, some members wanting to make an example of the halfling, but Kit continued to advocate for his release, as dead thieves cannot spread word of their prowess. The crew finally agree and landed a few days down the coast from Waterdeep to begin the questioning. Kit it seemed had been doing assorted odd jobs lately for Soma, weird stuff like swapping out silver manacles that Soma had gifted to the House of the Lovers, even having him disassemble a bed and replace it's headboard. Soma hadn't told him what the statue was, just that the crew had it stolen it from an associate of his and he didn't want to involve the authorities. The crew kept their word and let him swim to shore with his armor a dagger and some rations, a deal he thought was more than fair for his life.
Heading back to Bral with a mind to confront Soma the crew discover he has been in and out of Bral lately, currently out, but that he was getting ready for a masquerade to unveil a new statue tonight. Tor never passing up an opportunity to hob nob sets out to see if she can acquire an invitation. She ended up making friends with a one Belladonna Starbow, the child of a Waterdeepean merchant that was attending the bards college on Bral . Belladonna had an invite so she could talk to Soma about patronage and she was more than happy to let her new friend be her +1. Tor managed to get a good enough look at the invite to forge a second one that Senyo and Ulfric used to get in; using an illusory Disguise to hide the bulky orc's plate mail and arms. Ah-tun for his part just planned on hopping the wall and fashioning a loincloth to blend in with the wait staff. Once everyone was inside the hedonistic nature of a Soma party was obvious. Most of the guests were wearing scant clothing, dark corners held paired bodies, and plenty of rich food and wine were being handed out. Many of Soma's friends that the crew met earlier were present and they took measures to avoid them. Investigating the house they found multiple busts for Sune though all were just fine stone representations. They did find upstairs two mirrors what had the familiar blue hue to them, and in Soma's studio they found the proof of Sune in Silver that was mentioned in the correspondence between Soma and Warrick. The crew bagged this proof and anything else they came across that they thought was worth anything such as all of Soma's instruments and his entire wardrobe.
In the Solarium they found a stairwell hidden under a planter, and descending they found his real study. A small damp cellar that had books of occult and a small writing desk. On the desk they found a few things of note; Soma's Journal, a strange book who's color seemed to fade as you looked at it, and an animated fountain pen that was pretending to be normal quill. Tor recognized the quill as an Inquisitive Quill, as her grandma had one and had used it to cheat her way through college. Into the bag it went. The journal explained how a blind man could write with the help of the quill, and also detailed his efforts to cure his blindness. It seemed that the local church of Ilmater was not able to cure him, but they had records of another that had a similar blindness in Waterdeep. They provided a name if he wanted to inquire of the individual and maybe combine efforts. Traveling there he found the mother of that individual and discovered the poor soul had drank himself to death some 28 years ago. Soma had put it together that he was born after this person had died, and when he focused his research on that he found records of the same malady over the last 500 years, 12 individuals never overlapping. His journal then details as he move from mundane research to esoteric. Communing with Oghma, working with a daemonoligest to summon a Venedaemon, and ultimately committing murder for answers. Those answers came in the form of a tome; the Rapax Obumbratio.
Using the tome Soma had summoned an Owb, a creature from another darker plane who he could continue his journey of discovery with. The crew had stumbled on this creature in the antechamber of the study. It approached asking menacing questions in the crews mind until Ulfric brought a light source into it's presence. It reacted viscerally and dropped a darkness zone on the study and started hostilities. The darkens was deep enough that even the Orc's vision was hindered, and it's magics devastated the crew in such a small room but the crew was able to prevail when it was outnumbered, and the mighty Gadget delivering the final one two punch, piercing the creatures skull and pinning it to the floor under one of it's pointy legs. When the creature darkens spell finally faded, Ah-tun found that he had not escaped unscathed, as he had been cursed with a sensitivity to bright lights. Taking a few min to patch themselves up and investigate the antechamber they found a summoning circle and some candles that ate the light.
Deciding that this needs to end now the crew decide that party or no they need to confront Soma and steel themselves for another fight. They all march up to the ballroom where Soma had been holding court all night just to hear him thank his guests and bid them to enjoy their night with his hospitalizes, then with his trademark flourish translocate out. Taking this as a sign things were going to get all tentacley they crew decide leaving was the best option.
Rewards Granted
XP
Kit 60xpShip Fire 40xp
Debriefing Kit 60xp
Gaining access to the party 30xp
Exploring Soma's house 100xp
Owb 80xp
Total - 370xp
Treasure
Glue Bomb, Moderate (10g)+1 Dagger (35g)
Short Bow (3g)
Leather Armor (2g)
Thieves Tools (3g)
Spacious Pouch t1 (75g)
Pearl (5g)
Coinage, 2g, 27s, 30c
Platinum Hair Brush (30g)
Harp (8s)
Flute (8s)
Cornett (8s)
Virtuoso Lute (50g)
Soma's wardrobe (500g)
Total - 720.4g
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