We ran a marathon session yesterday to finish out the remainder of this adventure. Let’s get to it!
The group reconvened in the arena, where they saw Isobel’s reveal and Elanor meeting with the three vile men who would bid for possesion of the elven girl. They bided their time, not wanting to blow their cover, especially with Luc and Ottavia in the next box over. They watched the fights until Mister Mapple came out. Elanor called him out after his first victory, and he revealed his own name to be Andrei von Recklinghausen. Several of the players picked up on the connection to Wolfgang.
When the pyrecat attacked, the party started by trying to subtly aid him from the stands. Oliver cast glitterdust on the beast to blind it temporarily, and then when Andrei leapt up to their box, the witch used a healing hex to tend to some of his injuries. However, the pyrecat brought Andrei down with a blast of flames, and they realized they were going to have to get more involved. Will pretended to drunkenly stumble out of the box, falling to the sands below with minimal injury. He staggered to Andrei’s side and drew his sword in an apparently foolish attempt to attack the beast. Meanwhile, Oliver and Mariah turned invisible. Oliver climbed down to the arena to provide healing to Andrei and Will, while Mariah used spider climb to sneak into Elanor’s box. Stefan drew his gun and started shooting at the cat to keep it off of his “patient.” At this new turn of violence from the stands, Ottavia decided she had had enough, and she drew Luc away to go back to the hotel. Piotr followed them in bird form as the fight continued to rage.
With the healing from Oliver, Andrei found the strength to heft his greataxe. He brought it down on the pyrecat’s head in a critical hit that put it down for good. Will made a Bluff check to secretly convince Andrei to keep up the act, then pretended to swing on the former Mister Mapple in a drunken haze. Andrei obliged, pretending to knock him out with a solid fist to the face. He then swept the axe toward the spellcasters in the box and swore that he was coming for them next. With contempt, Balthazar, Nikolai, and Jaime began to cast preparatory spells. In the meantime, the witch had used her disguise hex to make herself look like Isobel and had quietly slipped through the door into the luxury box. With their attention drawn to the arena, she bumped into Isobel and Elanor, sending all three of them sprawling. At the same time, the invisible Mariah grabbed the real Isobel and used another invisibility spell on her, putting a hand over her mouth to keep the drugged elf quiet. Elanor got to her feet and chastised the clumsy “Isobel” while Mariah carried the real elf out of the arena.
As Stefan hastened to tend to the “fallen” Will, Andrei clambered up to the luxury box, dodging a flaming sphere from Jaime. He grabbed Balthazar in the midst of a summoning spell and hurled him to the sands below. He got scorched and slapped with a vampiric touch for his troubles, but he quickly vaulted into the box and hurled Nikolai down as well. Balthazar got to his feet and tried to cast another spell, but Oliver, who had by this point returned to his own box, cast pilfering snatch, tearing away the cleric’s holy symbol and pretending that some unknown force had caused it to fly past him. The priest demanded the half-elf throw it back down, and Oliver nodded, then pretended to be a total buffoon as he dropped the symbol behind him as he prepared to throw it.
Elanor tried to flee with “Isobel,” but finding the door locked, turned to use her magic on Andrei. The disguised witch kept jostling her, ruining her concentration. Jaime wild shaped into a giant beetle and prepared to go toe-to-toe with Andrei when the witch suddenly dropped her disguise. In tears, the witch claimed that the charade had gone on long enough and that she didn't want to pretend to be an elf anymore and why had Elanor forced her to do this to trick these wealthy men out of their money? The combat immediately came to a standstill as Elanor just gaped and sputtered and all the other men were completely baffled as well. At this point, Lord Kulp came into the box with his elite guards, claiming that the whole lot of the group was under arrest on charges of threatening the safety of the citizens and possible fraud and extortion charges. Elanor and the bidders were lead away among protests, while Kulp directed Andrei and the party to another location where he told them they were free to go. “The best revenge is to live,” he said, with a wink towards Oliver.
Mariah, meanwhile, had taken Isobel to the RHC’s mage contact in the city. Andrei, Oliver, and the witch met up with her there, Andrei insisting on ensuring Isobel’s safety. Mariah and Oliver were still suspicious of the man’s true motives, and they asked about his relationship with Wolfgang, to which he was reluctant to divulge details. Andrei wanted to take Isobel to Elfaivar, but the witch argued that people had been making decisions for her all of her life, and that Isobel should choose for herself. Isobel said that she had heard of Gale in Risur and wanted to meet her, the party agreed to let the mage teleport Andrei and Isobel to Risur with a letter of introduction for Gale.
The next day’s train ride was relatively uneventful. Stefan and the witch engaged Luc and Ottavia in some light conversation, but they excused themselves before too long without giving much away. When the train approached Sid Minos, and the train guards gave their spiel about thieves nicking personal belongings, one of my players commented, “They keep saying that. It probably is going to be important.” Of course, that’s exactly the point at which Luc sprung his trap. During the coliseum battles, Verzubak had snuck aboard the train and planted the half-elves’ wedding ring in their suite, along with one of Will’s discarded handkerchiefs. Each item had been inscribed with the focus rune, and so the entire party was pulled into Nem by the replica lantern. Upon realizing their situation, the group made for the front of the train. They dealt with the waves of wraiths pretty easily, climbing to the top of the train after the first wave to make moving faster. I replaced the ruin wraith at the front of the train with a minor grim reaper from Pathfinder
#48 , though I removed its ability to summon more reapers and reduced the number of negative levels it bestowed with each strike to only 1. The group kept the reaper busy while Oliver rushed past it to get to the lantern. He made a Use Magic Device check to activate the lantern blindly, and with a blast of light, the group found itself back in the real world.
As the train pulled into Sid Minos, Ottavia and a lesser simulacrum of Luc made their mad dash for the Isle of Odiem. Piotr was able to easily keep pace with them in bird form, and as the rest of the party raced to their ship to get transport to the island, Piotr watched as the elf and fake tiefling approached the ruined lighthouse. Wanting to stop them before they got inside, Piotr began throwing summoned monsters and entangle spells at them. I had replaced Ottavia’s magic vestment spell with dispel magic, so she kept dispelling the druid’s tricks, looking for their source. Piotr’s player used his Plot Twist card of Wrath to instill Ottavia with frustrated rage. In her frustration, a poorly placed dispel magic reduced the Luc simulacrum to ice and snow. The druid then used soften earth to trap the elf in mud before wild shaping into a lion and pouncing on her. He quickly rendered her unconscious and stood over her as the rest of the group finally arrived.
The group debated whether to flee the cursed island before sunset or explore the lighthouse. The voice of Ashima-Shimtu beckoned them below, and while they dithered, I accelerate the sunset a bit for dramatic purposes. As the undead rose from the sea, they barricaded themselves inside the lighthouse, and then they followed the voice down into the vaults. There they encountered the lunatic Gene, but he didn’t get to do a whole lot before being hit by a slew of debuffs. He managed to hit Piotr all of one time during the battle for a minimal amount of damage. The demoness revealed her secrets to the party, including the fact that Oliver was a Vekeshi mystic (suspected but never confirmed) and that Stefan had murdered several people and now was possessed by the demon of Boone’s gun. When she offered to transport and shield the group, the party believed that she was telling the truth, surprisingly enough.
Before departing, they woke Ottavia and interrogated her. She told them about Luc’s lantern and how it was going to change the world for the better, and they felt alternately angry at her and sorry for her that she could be so deluded. She also told them where and when the meeting was supposed to take place in Vendricce. Armed with that information, the group stepped into the pool of holy water, finding themselves washing up in Vendricce in the early morning hours.
They left Ottavia with a trusted contact in Vendricce as they planned for the coming meeting. After receiving orders via sending from Stover Delft, the party eventually settled on an unusual plan after about 2 hours of real-time strategizing.
Oliver and Piotr would be waiting in the station already to spy on the meeting. Oliver bought several scrolls of tree shape to disguise himself as a Christmas tree (it was Winter, after all!) and arranged to be placed in the depot’s office. Piotr wild shaped into a tiny bat and hid in the rafters.
The rest of the group was waiting on the hill north of the depot. They would try to infiltrate the meeting by taking out a guard and having the witch disguise herself as him. They had a note with a sepia snake sigil cast on it, and the witch would try to get Luc to read it. Once he was trapped, Mariah would cast pyrotechnics to fill the room with blinding fireworks while Piotr would cast obscuring mist. They would grab Luc in the confusion and run out. Meanwhile, Stefan would be disguised as Luc, and Will would put a bag over his head and drag him to a waiting handcart. Stefan’s technologist contraption would be waiting there to help pump the cart, and he and Mariah would make for the end of the line with the false Luc. Meanwhile, the witch would invisibly bring the real Luc to a storage building where they had bought and placed a large armoire set to be shipped with the train to Sid Minos. She’d stash Luc in the box with a nondetection cast on him, and while the Ob chased after the fake Luc, she, Piotr, and Oliver would slip away. The three on the handcart would leap off the end of the rails, where their ship would be waiting, and get away. The next morning, the others would ride the train back to Sid Minos with their “cargo,” meet their ship, and sail home.
Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Shortly before the meeting time, the wizard from the Cachalot, Glaz du Sang Magie, teleported into the depot with a hooded companion. After checking for hostile magic (and finding none due to Ashima-Shimtu’s protection), the companion removed her hood, revealing none other than Lya Jierre (to cries of “No way!” and “Oh sh**!” from the players). She greeted Luc and Bree, and Bree explained the events of the trip. Up until this point, the players hadn’t realized that both Bree and Verzubak were in fact connected to the Ob plot the whole time. The look on their faces was priceless.
Once the lantern was lit and the full extent of the Ob forces gathered here was revealed, the party had to think fast. Oliver and Piotr observed the introductions up until Nicodemus stepped out to smoke. He had Glaz join the guards outside to keep a watch for those meddling RHC members. Will, Mariah, and the witch crawled under the train to get close to the two musketeers on the platform. Will knocked one out with a sneak attack from his sap while the witch used sleep hex on the other. She then used her disguise hex to look like the sleeping guard and began to shout that she had “caught” a spy! The other guards rushed over to see her standing over Will Hawkins, seemingly dazed from a blow from the butt of her gun. The guards took Will’s weapons and dragged him into the depot before the gathered Ob members. Without his disguise, Bree recognized him as the kid who fought alongside the druid that had taken her limbs. Lya, of course, recognized him too.
For dramatic purposes, we are now shifting to present tense
:
Nicodemus: “So you’re Will Hawkins. And where are your friends?”
Will: “They died on that damned island.”
Nicodemus: “That’s funny. The sending we received from Ottavia made it quite clear that you all had made it off safely, and were here in Vendricce.”
Witch: “He had this note on him. I think it’s orders from his superiors.”
Lya: “Let me see that.”
Lya reads the enchanted paper, triggering the sepia snake sigil. She fails her Reflex save by 1. Lya is placed into stasis, triggering her contingency, and she vanishes from the room. Every one gapes in surprise. Will grins.
Will: “Well, it looks like my friends survived after all.”
At which point, the magic lantern explodes into a burst of blinding fireworks. Expecting the blast, Will and the witch have shut their eyes. Everybody but one of the guards and Luc is blinded. Piotr fills the room with obscuring mist. The guards start shouting and trying to find the enemy as the witch cuts Will’s bonds and gives him his sword. Glaz dispels the mist, and the one guard who can see shouts Will’s location. He parries several sword strikes as he makes for Luc. Luc grabs Bree’s hand to keep her close as he grabs the lantern. Mariah casts another pyrotechnics spell, blanketing the room in choking smoke. All the enemies fail their save. The witch hits Luc with a sleep hex, and he falls to the floor, snoring. Glaz dispels the pyrotechnic smoke. Piotr, still in bat form, flies down and grabs the lantern. Will trades a few sword blows with a blind and weakened Bree as the witch picks up Luc. The one guard who can still see moves in behind Will, but a critical bullet from Mariah drops him in one go.
Outside, the blinded guards are panicking. Piotr the bat flies out of the depot with the lantern. They fire several panicked shots in his direction. One clips his wing, but he keeps on going. Verzubak rushes out of the train to see what’s going on, taking in the chaos. Seeing the dwarf who conned the group, Mariah shoots him point-blank, taking half his hit points in one shot. He screams that he’s not getting paid enough for this and rushes back onto the train. Will and the witch rush outside, removing the amulet from Luc’s neck. Bree takes off her own amulet, and now no longer blinded, moves to follow. Glaz follows her.
The musketeers raise their guns for more shots when Piotr the bat flies away from the depot with the lantern. As the light moves out of range, all the guards fade from view. Nicodemus stands in the window, the light from his cigarette the last thing the party sees of him as he fades away as well. The only foes left are Bree and Glaz. Abandoning most of the original plan, Stefan comes out of hiding and helps the witch get the sleeping Luc on the handcart as Will once again trades blows with Bree. Glaz tries to slow him, but Will shrugs off the spell. Mariah casts grease upon Bree and Glaz, and both fall down.
Will: “You know why you fail, Bree? You’re just a mercenary. I fight for a just cause.”
Bree: “Damn you, Will Hawkins!”
Will and Mariah race to the cart. Bree fails three consecutive times to get out of the grease, continually falling on her butt. Glaz lobs a fireball at Will, burning him badly, but he stumbles onto the cart as the others have already got it on the move. Will drinks a potion of healing. Glaz prepares to drop another big spell on the party, but Bree shouts for him not to hurt Luc. Snarling, the mage puts a wall of ice directly in front of the cart. But Mariah blows a hole in it with a blast of flame, and the cart sails through the hole, its occupants slightly chilled but relatively unscathed.
Meanwhile, alarms have begun to ring around the city. Crisillyri soldiers on horseback start shooting muskets at the party, but Mariah conjures a wind wall to deflect their bullets. As they near the end of the line, construction workers dive out of the way and shout fruitless warnings. The cart plows through the barricade, and they hit the brakes just before it plunges off the unfinished tracks. The party’s ship is racing through the bay, with naval cutters in pursuit. It looks like they’re going to have to jump! Mariah’s feather fall brings the party to the deck of the ship safely, and the Roscommon runs the blockade, escapes the harbor, and is home free!
Sometime later, in a lull in the official investigation to the incident at the train station, a lone half-elf slips away, covered in holiday ornaments. Oliver takes the train to Sid Minos the next morning where the Roscommon picks him up before returning to Flint. Upon arrival, the group is “detoxified” of any lingering demonic taint, including a remove curse on Stefan to exorcise the spirit of the demonic pistol. Luc, Ottavia, and the lantern are in custody. Mission accomplished! But the party has learned that the conspiracy is much bigger than they initially realized…
After the session, I let the party know what the NPCs were up to on the nights they didn’t follow them. Everybody agreed that this was a truly awesome adventure. They loved the structure, pacing, and subplots. They loved trying to figure out what each NPC was up to, and they were truly surprised by the big reveals at the end. They can’t wait until the next adventure is released, and neither can I!
And of course, Bree, Glaz, and Verzubak escaped the events of the adventure relatively unscathed. I figure Verzubak wouldn’t want anything else to do with the Ob after this, but Bree and Glaz will likely harbor a grudge for being outwitted. Any advice on where they might show up again?
