Session outline: Session 9

Plot points/Scenes

Getting to The Citadel

At the end of the last session, the group were led by Zelli Muckdrung through the sewers, towards The Citadel, a giant underground city that some would call a slum, but its residents, The Underground call their magnificent home.
As the group wind their way through the sewers, Zelli begins to ask them (in a friendly way) what they've been up to, what brings them to the sewers.
If the group ask her what she knows about the animal fighting rings, here's what she says:

• First, she hates them. She thinks animals should be looked after and loved, not raised to kill and be killed
• Nobody in the Citadel, certainly nobody that lives there has any links to any animal fighting rings
• They do know about them though, they hear stories, they sometimes try to use the sewers for various things - we try to patrol the entire system but it's very big and at the edge of the city, there are some blind spots in their patrols
• They do see some of the animals, however - when an animal loses a fight, very often the owner will need to dispose of the body, and they need to do this efficiently and discreetly. This sometimes means that the poor beasts pay a visit to the sewers. It's heartbreaking to see what these creatures have been through

After a while, the sewer pipe opens out into a larger chamber, with two pipes at the far end. The chamber, much like the rest of the sewer system, is lined with smooth grey stone, was well built, and has been well looked after by the people who like here, but they've added a small wooden jetty, and there is a small boat wooden sitting there.
Zelli gets in the boat, and says "hop in, this is our ride". Once everyone is in, she stands up at the back and with a punting stick pushes the boat towards the left hand pipe. Once the boat is in the pipe, she hooks the stick to the side of the boat and sits back down to join the group. She explains that the sewers all feed down hill towards the centre of the city, and that it where the Citadel is. They get around quickly using the maintenance tracks that were installed above the sewers to get out of town, and they've created a boat system to get back in again.
The boat ride is quite gentle, as the sewers aren't too steep, but over time picks up a bit of speed, and before long they're going at least as fast as Pia and Kiran's horse.
Along the journey, there are various points where tunnels join onto this one, and this one joins onto others, and the gang get the feeling there is a complex system of tributaries to make the the sewers cover as much of the city as possible. It starts to get warmer too. The top of the sewers was quite dank and cold, but it starts getting warmer and warmer as they go. By the time they are nearing the Citadel, and Zelli keeps them up to date with their progress, the tunnel is quite large, and the flow is more like a river than the shallow stream that they started in. They start to see a few fireflies dancing above their heads, casting light off the walls of the tunnel.

The Citadel

After about 10 minutes, the tunnel enters an enormous cavern, hundreds of feet high and wide. Unlike the rest of the sewer system, the walls here are rough cut, as if the cavern has been carved out of the ground. As you float through the tunnel's opening, you start to see buildings either side of the river. Colourful, tightly packed together buildings, made from rough cut stone, wood, sheets of metal. As you head further in, you start to see these buildings rise up from the river around the sides of the cavern, with streets carved into the rock winding up steeply through the slope of the cavern. You pick out lots of pillars with fires burning at the top, and alongside thousands more fireflies, a warm light is cast across the entire cavern. It's hot too - this place is a vast, bustling, tropical underground city. As you float further, your river is joined by two others, forming a single huge waterway. You see other boats coming in along the two other rivers, bringing people in from other parts of the city. Zelli moors the boat at a large, and quite impressive jetty system, and up the river you can see a huge water wheel turning slowly which powers, among other things, a chain lift mechanism  carrying lots of these boats up towards the ceiling of the cavern.
You get off the boat and Zelli leads you through into the heart of the city, and it's bustling with activity. You step out into a town square, and it seems to be lined with restaurants, pubs and market stalls. There are lots of tables and charis set out, with people eating, drinking and having a lovely time.
The gang can have a drink, talk to Zelli or other people, and interact with the city.
There are a group of pirates there, led by Captain Flint Karver, a tall minotaur, deep brown and red fur, long horns that protrude through his tricorn hat, playing pirate dice. If the group talk to them, they'll invite them to play. Their ship is moored in a secret cavern that centuries ago was joined to the sewers by pirates.
If the group asks about the food/drink situation, here's how it works:
There is a huge garden, with a translucent bubble over it, that is a greenhouse for a whole host of plant life. The plants provide us with all the food and water we need. If they ask how, Zelli doesn't know exactly how it all works, but basically, the river is channeled into an irrigation system for the plants, the manure is used to feed them, and they in turn somehow release water into the air, which hits the bubble, turns from air water into water water, runs down the sides of the bubble, we collect it and use it, and then it goes back into the sewers, back to the plants and so on.
The group can spend the evening at the Citadel, enjoying the atmosphere and meeting the people. They will be able to stay at an inn, and will be fed and watered, then the next morning, Zelli will take them to a manhole cover close to the university if they'd like.

The next day

The next day, Amira Tipett messages the gang, she asks them to go the the press room. She wants to talk to them about the Science block, and what they think. She didn't believe Dean Xuk Scargolg's story that it was an experiment gone wrong - all the debris has fallen into the building - surely that means the explosion happened from outside the building. And what's with the Head of Chemistry being off work for a week? Have they fired him? Was he hit by the blast? Is he dead?
If the group tell her what they found out, she'll suggest they could try to find Raleigh O'Maleigh and see if he knows about anything unusual being moved across or out of the city.
They might be able to find Raleigh at The Clean Slate

The Clean Slate

The group will be greeted at The Clean Slate by Sedona Fable, who will be very interested to hear what they've been up to. She'll ask what they're doing in the place, and if they tell her they're looking for Raleigh, she'll tell them that he's a little on edge at the moment, because there's someone new on the scene, someone fast... really fast.
Raleigh tries to keep on top of what's going where - there are other couriers that work in the city but he's got a large network among them and he tends to know what's going on. He's the top guy - people come to him first and if he's booked out or if the job isn't tough, lucrative, or dangerous enough to pique his interest, he will happily recommend another courier to take the job on. But Raleigh's work has been drying up somewhat recently - there's a new courier on the scene and they're taking some of the top jobs from Raleigh.
Raleigh says that the courier has never shown their face anywhere public facing - they have associates who set up deals for them.
How this could proceed - the group could help Raleigh investigate this new courier. They could set a sting - try to set up a fake deal and question them. Or something else that they come up with.
If they try to meet the courier, they can find their associates at a different pub across the city. If they arrange and go to a meet, they will be met by the associates with a couple of bodyguards. The courier will not be present, and the associates will try to take the package from the group, but if the group press the situation too much, or if they fight and defeat the associates and bodyguards, they will reveal themselves from a roof, grind down a fire escape and land in the street.

The courier

The courier is a slim, 6 foot tall person, wearing a black and deep red racing suit, with a streamlined helmet that moulds into an iron man looking mask that covers their face. The mask has a voice changer that makes their voice deep and menacing sounding. They ride a racing bike, with a belt driven engine sat inside the frame driving the rear wheel, painted the same black and red combo at their suit.
If the deal goes smoothly, the courier will tell their associates to get up and get out of here, and if they fought, say next time try actually winning a fight.
If the group start to question the courier too much, they'll run. If the group cast any debilitating spells, the courier will use a counterspell stored on a device on the handlebars of their bike to counter it. They have two stored counterspells. They can also cast grease on the road behind them once, first level magic missile once, and darkness once.
If the group's plan is to try to chase the courier, they won't be able to on foot. Fletch may be able to give chase in the air, but it'll be difficult to keep pace - they're really fast. If Fletch manages it, he'll follow the courier to a safe house where they'll go inside. Maybe in the future, they could make use of Milton Ashbluff's car to chase them.
If the group end up catching the courier and talking to them, the information they know is:

• They worked in Viper City, Turmerica
• They were brought over here for a lucrative job, but the client gave them some lower level jobs first so they could prove themselves worthy of the big job
• They will say they don't know what they were transporting, all goods were in locked boxes. This is a lie though, which they can find out with an insight check or something like that
• They've been delivering some pretty usual stuff - drugs, stolen goods like jewelery, magic items, weapons
• They say the big delivery was a letter. On further questioning, they say it was a magically sealed envelope in a locked briefcase
• They say they don't know who they brought it to, they had to put it in a lock box at the airship port

If the group go to the airship port, they can find the lock box on the departures side. There are guards that won't let them through - they'll have to get past the check-in desk somehow. If they manage to look inside it, either by lock picking (DC20) or other means, it's empty.

Plot type

Session

Parent Plot

Master Plot