ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
As we expected, the team returns to the site in the early morning. One person, who we think might be the druid gets all angry about his missing shark. We seize the opportunity to overpower the team leader, a Tiefling they call Finona, to KO her bodyguards (Mr. Carlyle's job) and to send the druid and the specialists to the realm of dreams (Auryn's fey magic).
We tie up the excavation team and heal those we had to hurt in the process. Auryn tries to talk to Finona to get more information and maybe get her to their side. She tells the Tiefling about the gruesome death of her employer, Bergeron, at the hands of some unknown entity and suggests that she surely wouldn't want to end like him. However, Finona doesn't respond as we had hoped as she gets all silent and says that she doesn't want to believe what Auryn said. Only when we explain that we are RHC agents, Finona starts to see the truth in our words.
She seems both shocked and depressed when she starts to explain what she was trying to accomplish. She says that Bergeron sent her to secure this portal and to seal it up for good. He trusted only her to get the job done as there have been mishaps with similar excavations in the past which had disastrous results for the archaeologists. She herself is an expert, so she'll use a method which surpasses the "only temporal" sealing methods of the Ancients. She says she can even prevent the forming of planar pocket dimensions, so it'll all be safe and the golden seal can be secured safely afterwards.
Finona also says that Bergeron has been more interested in the seal's engraved scriptures which seemed a bit odd to her as the man was widely known as a sponsor of museums. Mr. Carlyle and especially Auryn are still not convinced that removing the golden seal would be a wise decision as they both fear that some disaster could disturb the permanent wards Finona mentioned in her process and opening the portal is something that should be avoided at all cost. We offer the now unemployed and seemingly grieving Finona to ask Delft for an occupation in the RHC research team, as well as professional protection should she turn out to be loyal to us and our cause and the Tiefling seems to be generally interested.
We return to the surface and bring Finona and her team to the Inspiracion, so that the three archaeologists may discuss further proceedings. The Tiefling releases the crew of the Dracon of their service as they are no longer needed and the privateers happily sail away as they have already been paid for. ( Basically a win-win-situation for us all. Also, good riddance!). Finona also mentions a letter from Bergeron which she promises to show to us later. But first, we all have to discuss what to do with the golden seal.
After a lot of options were talked about in more or less heated discussions (for example, warning the government of Ber as the seal is basically in front of their border, employing a constant watch/outpost so no one can disturb or steal the seal, building a stone sarcophagus so that no one can reach the damn thing, placing more magical wards around the seal to prevent natural disasters from breaking the seal etc.), we finally agree that too many people already know of the seal's existence. And as the thing is made out of pure gold, it might attract a lot of thieves who care much less about the consequences than Paco. So it would be wise to recover and replace the seal and bring it to the RHC HQ where it can be safely stored and analyzed. Finona explains that the portal will be secure after her ritual and we can still bury the site under heavy stones should we feel the need to do so, even if the seal already survived centuries. After a bit back and forth, even Paco de los Loros can agree to this plan.
We decide to secure the seal in the morrow. Because Mr. Carlyle is in serious need of some quiet time and we don't want to leave the seal without surveillance, both he and Auryn decide to spend a night at the bottom of the sea. ("Sleeping with the fishes", eh? We really shouldn't tell Cippiano too much about our undersea adventure)
We wake in the middle of the night as something above the surface seems to have caught fire. When we return to the ships, we see that the crew of the Inspiracion, plus Margit and Flying Spark are in combat with slimes and a hydra. Meanwhile, Dr. Meredith's cutter is burning brightly.
As the situation is in utter chaos, we take the matter into our own hands. We ask Margit to stop shooting at the slimes and save the wounded while Auryn and Carlyle take care of the hydra who's about to snack one of the dwarves of the crew. Flying Spark is tasked with eliminating the slimes with his magic. Thanks to our precise strikes, we are able to save the dwarf and keep the casualties on deck to a minimum level.
However, the three archaeologists are nowhere to be seen, so we search for them below deck. We find two of them in one of the ship's common rooms: Both are dead, lying in a puddle of blood with their jaws wide open and their brains missing. Auryn needs a moment to pull herself together and call for Margit. Carlyle is more quick to react and he finds a very strong aura of Apet energy emanating from the whole room. Dr. Meredith is nowhere to be found, so was suspect that the creature Sijhen might be still possessing her and found a method to hide its own aura and deceive us all.
We ask Margit and Flying Spark what in the name of the Titans happened and whether they have seen anything suspicious, any sign they could have missed. The two say that everything was peaceful and normal until suddenly fire broke out aboard the cutter and then suddenly monsters appeared on the Inspiracion. We all come to the conclusion that the suspected amulet could be pretty harmless and was a cleverly laid trap by Sijhen.
The moment the cutter is about to sink and stops burning, Carlyle takes a last look inside and finds signs that someone teleported away from there. We don't know where Meredith could have gone, but Sijhen is surely up to no good.
Then we find the letter Finona mentioned earlier. The letter confirms all she mentioned previously and also reveals that someone of Bergeron's men must have been watching us. He also mentions agents of the unseen court which we haven't seen for ourselves yet (or maybe he refers to Auryn as member of the Vekeshi? She suspects this might very well be the case, but plays as surprised as Mr. Carlyle).
Bergeron ends with an invitation to a trip by train in winter and a meeting he'd have to attend to. He says something about a mysterious group he seems to be part of. To our surprise, Bergeron seems to be familiar with a certain "Master Rackus" whom he doesn't seem to be too fond of as he caused some ruckus in the ziggurat of Jiese (so that's where he got that mysterious amulet from!).
Mr. Carlyle gets the impression that Bergeron didn't think too highly of anyone besides himself and was basically an arrogant pig while Auryn disagrees with his judgement. She says that no sane person would speak highly of Rock Rackus, especially not Mr. Carlyle himself, and that she is sure Bergeron simply wanted to show his admiration and deep care for Finona. She adds that Finona's death was both tragic and wasteful and that she'd have surely deserved better than this.
(this initial exchange about Bergeron's character was kind of amusing... "So after what happened at the exhibition, would you, especially you, have used any other words when speaking about Rock?" "Probably not" "And to be honest, after what we've seen in the bayou, this expedition was a disaster, and even if he could have mourned the loss of life, you surely wouldn't add 'be careful or you'll die in a horrible way like these guys' into a letter to your cohort" "Well yes, that would have been... distasteful". So even if he indeed sounded pretty arrogant in some parts, he did speak the truth. And Mr. Carlyle can sound really harsh when he's pissed.)
Carlyle seems to take what happened to his heart as well. He is filled with guilt and says that it was his fault for not keeping a closer eye on Dr. Meredith. He's just been too self-assured and confident in their mission's sucess and not cautious enough. On top of that, he feels like death has been following him for quite a while now and that he's not sure whether anyone is safe in his company.
This time it is Auryn who snaps her colleague out of his gloom. She says that he alone surely isn't responsible for what happened to the archeaologists and their team. They all were just not as attentive as they should have been and they should have probably not both kept watch over the seal. She says that now is too late to discuss what-ifs anyway as the dead cannot be brought back and they both don't know whether they'd have been able to stop Sijhen or whether they'd just both ended up like Finona and Paco. What is more important now is that they all learn from their mistake, take some time to recuperate and then find and stop Sijhen before it can kill more people.
Carlyle sees reason in her words and together they perform funeral rites for the deceased, so that they at least can find peace. Mr. Carlyle uses his ability to contact the dead to reach out to Finona's spirit. He tries to apologize that he wasn't there to save her and asks her whether she can explain what happened. Finona shows him scenes of her childhood when she lived in poverty and where she met a father-like figure, who was a tiefling, like her. This person, Bergeron, cared for her and payed for her tuition. She then shows him a more recent image where Bergeron grew a bit distant from her and was surrounded by mysterious shadowy people.Finally, she shows him a vision on the attack on her: A dark, tentacled beast performed a mental blast and then attacked her while she was unable to fight back. Carlyle thanks Finona for the visions and guides her spirit to the afterlife where she'll surely meet her beloved mentor Bergeron again.
Carlyle explains them all what happened between him and Finona. Now it is Auyn who gets eerily silent. After a while, she says that Carlyle has been given a very special gift and that she's sure Finona can rest in peace should she really be reunited with Bergeron.
(Ouch. Right in the feels. To be honest, when we found all the dead people below deck, we felt like we had utterly failed. We tried to find out what we did wrong or where we could have been more inquisitive, but Sijhen had been too intelligent. Meredith was acting all normal and the amulet was the perfect culprit. And even if we had split up our watches, we don't know whether or not Sijhen would have simply de-brained one of us as well (Sijhen's stunning attack seemed like some kind of mind blast, so fail your save and get eaten...). And losing Finona hurt. Even more as we got as glimpse at what kind of person she had been.
In hindsight, the narrative was spot on. We really reached our lowest point there. Carlyle was shaken. And Auryn couldn't get around comparing Finona to herself, as she also has a mentor she really cares about. She had to put herself together so she wouldn't cry – after all, Carlyle needed her strength this time. And so we had to recuperate and find a way to find and stop Sijhen...)
We tie up the excavation team and heal those we had to hurt in the process. Auryn tries to talk to Finona to get more information and maybe get her to their side. She tells the Tiefling about the gruesome death of her employer, Bergeron, at the hands of some unknown entity and suggests that she surely wouldn't want to end like him. However, Finona doesn't respond as we had hoped as she gets all silent and says that she doesn't want to believe what Auryn said. Only when we explain that we are RHC agents, Finona starts to see the truth in our words.
She seems both shocked and depressed when she starts to explain what she was trying to accomplish. She says that Bergeron sent her to secure this portal and to seal it up for good. He trusted only her to get the job done as there have been mishaps with similar excavations in the past which had disastrous results for the archaeologists. She herself is an expert, so she'll use a method which surpasses the "only temporal" sealing methods of the Ancients. She says she can even prevent the forming of planar pocket dimensions, so it'll all be safe and the golden seal can be secured safely afterwards.
Finona also says that Bergeron has been more interested in the seal's engraved scriptures which seemed a bit odd to her as the man was widely known as a sponsor of museums. Mr. Carlyle and especially Auryn are still not convinced that removing the golden seal would be a wise decision as they both fear that some disaster could disturb the permanent wards Finona mentioned in her process and opening the portal is something that should be avoided at all cost. We offer the now unemployed and seemingly grieving Finona to ask Delft for an occupation in the RHC research team, as well as professional protection should she turn out to be loyal to us and our cause and the Tiefling seems to be generally interested.
We return to the surface and bring Finona and her team to the Inspiracion, so that the three archaeologists may discuss further proceedings. The Tiefling releases the crew of the Dracon of their service as they are no longer needed and the privateers happily sail away as they have already been paid for. ( Basically a win-win-situation for us all. Also, good riddance!). Finona also mentions a letter from Bergeron which she promises to show to us later. But first, we all have to discuss what to do with the golden seal.
After a lot of options were talked about in more or less heated discussions (for example, warning the government of Ber as the seal is basically in front of their border, employing a constant watch/outpost so no one can disturb or steal the seal, building a stone sarcophagus so that no one can reach the damn thing, placing more magical wards around the seal to prevent natural disasters from breaking the seal etc.), we finally agree that too many people already know of the seal's existence. And as the thing is made out of pure gold, it might attract a lot of thieves who care much less about the consequences than Paco. So it would be wise to recover and replace the seal and bring it to the RHC HQ where it can be safely stored and analyzed. Finona explains that the portal will be secure after her ritual and we can still bury the site under heavy stones should we feel the need to do so, even if the seal already survived centuries. After a bit back and forth, even Paco de los Loros can agree to this plan.
We decide to secure the seal in the morrow. Because Mr. Carlyle is in serious need of some quiet time and we don't want to leave the seal without surveillance, both he and Auryn decide to spend a night at the bottom of the sea. ("Sleeping with the fishes", eh? We really shouldn't tell Cippiano too much about our undersea adventure)
We wake in the middle of the night as something above the surface seems to have caught fire. When we return to the ships, we see that the crew of the Inspiracion, plus Margit and Flying Spark are in combat with slimes and a hydra. Meanwhile, Dr. Meredith's cutter is burning brightly.
As the situation is in utter chaos, we take the matter into our own hands. We ask Margit to stop shooting at the slimes and save the wounded while Auryn and Carlyle take care of the hydra who's about to snack one of the dwarves of the crew. Flying Spark is tasked with eliminating the slimes with his magic. Thanks to our precise strikes, we are able to save the dwarf and keep the casualties on deck to a minimum level.
However, the three archaeologists are nowhere to be seen, so we search for them below deck. We find two of them in one of the ship's common rooms: Both are dead, lying in a puddle of blood with their jaws wide open and their brains missing. Auryn needs a moment to pull herself together and call for Margit. Carlyle is more quick to react and he finds a very strong aura of Apet energy emanating from the whole room. Dr. Meredith is nowhere to be found, so was suspect that the creature Sijhen might be still possessing her and found a method to hide its own aura and deceive us all.
We ask Margit and Flying Spark what in the name of the Titans happened and whether they have seen anything suspicious, any sign they could have missed. The two say that everything was peaceful and normal until suddenly fire broke out aboard the cutter and then suddenly monsters appeared on the Inspiracion. We all come to the conclusion that the suspected amulet could be pretty harmless and was a cleverly laid trap by Sijhen.
The moment the cutter is about to sink and stops burning, Carlyle takes a last look inside and finds signs that someone teleported away from there. We don't know where Meredith could have gone, but Sijhen is surely up to no good.
Then we find the letter Finona mentioned earlier. The letter confirms all she mentioned previously and also reveals that someone of Bergeron's men must have been watching us. He also mentions agents of the unseen court which we haven't seen for ourselves yet (or maybe he refers to Auryn as member of the Vekeshi? She suspects this might very well be the case, but plays as surprised as Mr. Carlyle).
Bergeron ends with an invitation to a trip by train in winter and a meeting he'd have to attend to. He says something about a mysterious group he seems to be part of. To our surprise, Bergeron seems to be familiar with a certain "Master Rackus" whom he doesn't seem to be too fond of as he caused some ruckus in the ziggurat of Jiese (so that's where he got that mysterious amulet from!).
Mr. Carlyle gets the impression that Bergeron didn't think too highly of anyone besides himself and was basically an arrogant pig while Auryn disagrees with his judgement. She says that no sane person would speak highly of Rock Rackus, especially not Mr. Carlyle himself, and that she is sure Bergeron simply wanted to show his admiration and deep care for Finona. She adds that Finona's death was both tragic and wasteful and that she'd have surely deserved better than this.
(this initial exchange about Bergeron's character was kind of amusing... "So after what happened at the exhibition, would you, especially you, have used any other words when speaking about Rock?" "Probably not" "And to be honest, after what we've seen in the bayou, this expedition was a disaster, and even if he could have mourned the loss of life, you surely wouldn't add 'be careful or you'll die in a horrible way like these guys' into a letter to your cohort" "Well yes, that would have been... distasteful". So even if he indeed sounded pretty arrogant in some parts, he did speak the truth. And Mr. Carlyle can sound really harsh when he's pissed.)
Carlyle seems to take what happened to his heart as well. He is filled with guilt and says that it was his fault for not keeping a closer eye on Dr. Meredith. He's just been too self-assured and confident in their mission's sucess and not cautious enough. On top of that, he feels like death has been following him for quite a while now and that he's not sure whether anyone is safe in his company.
This time it is Auryn who snaps her colleague out of his gloom. She says that he alone surely isn't responsible for what happened to the archeaologists and their team. They all were just not as attentive as they should have been and they should have probably not both kept watch over the seal. She says that now is too late to discuss what-ifs anyway as the dead cannot be brought back and they both don't know whether they'd have been able to stop Sijhen or whether they'd just both ended up like Finona and Paco. What is more important now is that they all learn from their mistake, take some time to recuperate and then find and stop Sijhen before it can kill more people.
Carlyle sees reason in her words and together they perform funeral rites for the deceased, so that they at least can find peace. Mr. Carlyle uses his ability to contact the dead to reach out to Finona's spirit. He tries to apologize that he wasn't there to save her and asks her whether she can explain what happened. Finona shows him scenes of her childhood when she lived in poverty and where she met a father-like figure, who was a tiefling, like her. This person, Bergeron, cared for her and payed for her tuition. She then shows him a more recent image where Bergeron grew a bit distant from her and was surrounded by mysterious shadowy people.Finally, she shows him a vision on the attack on her: A dark, tentacled beast performed a mental blast and then attacked her while she was unable to fight back. Carlyle thanks Finona for the visions and guides her spirit to the afterlife where she'll surely meet her beloved mentor Bergeron again.
Carlyle explains them all what happened between him and Finona. Now it is Auyn who gets eerily silent. After a while, she says that Carlyle has been given a very special gift and that she's sure Finona can rest in peace should she really be reunited with Bergeron.
(Ouch. Right in the feels. To be honest, when we found all the dead people below deck, we felt like we had utterly failed. We tried to find out what we did wrong or where we could have been more inquisitive, but Sijhen had been too intelligent. Meredith was acting all normal and the amulet was the perfect culprit. And even if we had split up our watches, we don't know whether or not Sijhen would have simply de-brained one of us as well (Sijhen's stunning attack seemed like some kind of mind blast, so fail your save and get eaten...). And losing Finona hurt. Even more as we got as glimpse at what kind of person she had been.
In hindsight, the narrative was spot on. We really reached our lowest point there. Carlyle was shaken. And Auryn couldn't get around comparing Finona to herself, as she also has a mentor she really cares about. She had to put herself together so she wouldn't cry – after all, Carlyle needed her strength this time. And so we had to recuperate and find a way to find and stop Sijhen...)
RangerWickett
Legend
Indeed. These are some good players, actually creating characters who are affected by what they go through.
A funeral for three and a feast for sharks
As we prepare Finona's body, we find a golden ring on one of her fingers which looks very much like the one we found on Bergeron. But instead of "Old Bergeron Gold", the inscription on hers says "Original Brave Ideas". Now we originally thought that the first inscription could be linked to a jeweller's shop of the same name, but this seems more than suspicious. We decide to hand both rings over to the RHC crypto-specialists, but make our own guesses as well: Both rings share OB and LE, even if the former seems more likely than the latter. We cannot make much sense of the last variable though (G and I might be codenames like Q and M?).
After we comforted each other and made sure that we could bring the dire news to the rest of the crew in a professional, proper manner, we get back on deck. Margit resumes her care for the wounded and Flying Spark agrees to be petted by those who suffered mental trauma.
(He secretly enjoyed the attention, of that we are sure...)
After that, we perform Finona's ritual to close the planar portal carefully. Because we accidentally stayed too close to the emanating wave of energy, it leaves an odd feeling of pleasure (Auryn) and pain (Carlyle). As we thought, the golden seal is able to nullify planar energy taint, so we immediately use it to cleanse the amulet of Dr. Meredith and other items that could have been contamined by Apet energy. We still keep the amulet locked and the container under surveillance.
As we also noticed that Dr. Meredith/Sijhen teleported to an unknown place, we use one of the sending scrolls to warn Delft and ask to be escorted to transport the Seal of Mavisha safely in 8 days. We also tell him that Dr. Meredith is the "new Ragman" and that they should arrest her if possible. (Searching through my notes, the sending was something akin to this: "Found seal. Need secure transport in 8 days. Flint Harbor. Meredith dangerous, powerful creature, Ragman. Arrest and detain with caution. Please." Yep, Carlyle insisted on a polite sending.)
After eight long days of travel without any major occurrence, we arrive back in Flint harbor. To our surprise, the welcome committee recieving us is no other ship than Rear Armiral Dawkins' ship, the Aurora (Or Dawn? I think Aurora is the more poetic translation of Morgenröte). Auryn is more than happy to see her dear friend again after all that happened recently. Politeness and modesty demand that she waits until she, Carlyle and Dawkins are in private to show her joy about their reunion. The three share a good cigar and bring each other's information up to date.
We explain what happened aboard the Dracon de Mer and warn Dawkins that Dr. Meredith harbors an extremely dangerous creature which might stem, ludicrous as this may sound, from another dimension. We can give an all-clear for the status of the Kraken though as She who Writhes is still sleeping like a good baby Titan.
Dawkins on the other hand has some dire news for us: Just two days ago, Guy Goodson, his son and his son's wife were found dead in an alley after they had attended to a charity event. The news coverage suspects a case of robbery, but police investigation had been mysteriously quiet regarding their demises. He adds that Goodson's funeral is scheduled for this afternoon and that he knows that all of Goodson's business partners are invited, even if he fortunately wasn't asked to attend himself. Mr. Carlyle suspects that the young Lord Vantrys might be among the attendees and Goodson was among the sponsors of some of Auryn's concerts in the past, so we both plan to attend to the ceremony as well. First we'll have to get the seal to a safe place in the royal treasury though.
Before we part with Dawkins, he uses his usual farewell gesture to Auryn to secretly signal her that she's now officially on the hunt for "the creature from beyond". Which makes Carlyle in turn wonder just how close these two really are.
(Yeah, the Vekeshi are not fond of a brain-eating monster roaming free in Flint either...)
We make sure to get the seal of Mavisha to the treasury as discreetly and safely as we can and are relieved to get neither Dr. Meredith nor suspicious planar energy in sight. We give the order to have the damn thing be guarded day and night as the "new Ragman" could be after this object. Afterwards, we hurry to change clothes and attend the funeral ceremony.
When we arrive at the cemetery, we are astouned to see that so many people have come to say their final goodbye to Guy Goodson and his family. We know that Goodson was a pretty public figure and had many business partners, but this crowd is really huge. And among them all, like a small fish in a basin of sharks, stands one very confused looking Nathaniel Vantrys just next to the fiancee of the deceased, Cecilia Fordren. It seems almost like the young woman is trying to seek comfort from the heir of the Vantrys family and it also seems like the young Lord for once doesn't mind to be so close to a woman. But maybe these two are simply the only two who feel highly uncomfortable to be continuously stared at by the other businesspartners of Goodson. The ony one who is gloriously (and fortunately) absent is Francis Fordren.
The ceremony itself is pretty traditional and conducted by a coven of druids who give the deceased back to the land which birthed them. We take our time to offer Lord Vantrys and Cecilia our heartfelt condolencies. Lord Vantrys seeks Mr. Carlyle's support again and this time, he whispers that due to the special contracts and their clauses it seems like he'd might actually inherit a fortune from Goodson who leaves no heirs of his own. All of a sudden, his financial troubles could come to an end – a relief Lord Vantrys seems embarassed to feel. Now the whole scenery suddenly makes sense to us and we promise Vantrys to talk to him in detail later. Just when we are about to leave the pair alone, Mr. Carlyle's otherwise stern expression momentarily turns into a faint smile.
(This scene was intense as well. First, Auryn hates funerals. Especially when those involved are people she knew. Now Goodson was a pretty grey character to begin with, but he was a philanthropist and patron for several artists of Flint, even if he maybe only sponsored them to give himself a good name. We secretly called him Mr. Goodguy on several occasions because of that. So she's really mourning his death and will probably miss him. Carlyle on the other hand saw Goodson as an opponent of the Vantrys family and the main reason why his Lord lost touch with him and his dutys. So he's secretly happy to be rid of him and to have Vantrys out of Goodson's influence. Even if he knows it is utterly wrong to feel happiness at someone else's cruel demise. And he made it so that he'd be sure only Auryn would be able to percieve this "dark side" of his. Yeah, that's Carlyle's way of sharing his thoughts and feelings.
Also... Vantrys is okay with a woman being close to him, too? Who'd have thought that after all that Jack romance and his uneasyness when it came to members of the opposite gender?)
After the ceremony we and all the business-sharks accompany Lord Vantrys to the funeral reception at his estate. During all the chatter, we get the impression that Vantrys, along with Fordren (the uncle, not the niece) could be getting the lion's share of Goodsons's fortunes. This combined with Vantrys' known distaste for some of Goodsons' extravagant habits seems to stir the unspoken rumour that Vantrys might be behind the attack on the family. What adds spice to this rumour is the fact that the coffins of the family were closed during the entire ceremony, which seems really odd for a traditional risuri ceremony.
After the sharks leave Vantrys and Cecilia alone, the young Lord explains the mystery of the closed coffins: After the family was found dead, Stover Delft had him summoned to identify the dead bodies. And it turned out that they died by a sudden loss of brain – which was not really a beautiful sight to behold (and seeing Cecilia pale by his rather harmless description explains why Delft wouldn't have summoned the bride-to-be instead... seems like our boss is learning some empathy after all). We try to reassure Vantrys that everything will turn out to be fine and no one will believe that he ordered the assassination of Goodson as the culprit is almost certainly our new Ragman. And Delft will surely confirm that the Ragman has nothing to do with Goodson, Vantrys or their business.
We also talk a bit with Cecilia Fordren who all of a sudden has lost her fiancee and her financial security on top of that. She says that she'll get over Goodson as the two were not really close to begin with. The Carlyles offered to let her stay in their estate and the engagement contract she and Guy signed will guarantee her a monthly payment which is enough to cover her expenses. She says she's really fortunate that her fiancee thought of her security even if she had nothing to offer herself besides the Fordren family name as her own family branch is impoverished. This is why she was really surprised when her uncle offered her and her mother that Cecilia might get engaged to the famous Risuri businessman.
Vantrys asks us to stay in his estate and be his guests for tonight, an offer we gladly accept after all the travelling by ship. Mr. Carlyle counsels Nathaniel Vantrys for the rest of the evening and promises to make things right for his family. It seems like Lord and Butler are finally able to reconnect after having grown distant over the last months. We also promise to find and arrest the murderer, so Vantrys and Cecilia can find peace. Without wanting to go into further details, Auryn also warns Vantrys that Fordren might turn his interest towards him and his businesses, now that his original partner is six feet under. Carlyle agrees and adds that while Goodson might have been a nuisance, he was rather harmless compared to the predator that is Francis Fordren.
Later that night, Vantrys leaves Auryn and Carlyle with a fine bottle of Port (or whatever the drink is called in Risur). After a while, we get an unexpected visitor as Stover Delft was wondering where the heck we could have gone after the funeral was over (isn't that obvious?). We invite him to share a drink with us and he informs us about the latest Ragman activities, which ended in the untimely demise of the Goodson family. We also tell him about what happened at the excavation and that we at least managed to secure the seal. Delft says that he'd rather connect the Ragman murders to some other serial killer than to explain what really happened to the public as he fears that the people of Flint might panic at the revelation of some mysterious entity. We are not really convinced that this would be the best solution. After all, the Risuri are used to fey, the wild hunt and the Titans, so they wouldn't really care whether the person who's killing artists and philanthropists is a human or not. Still it won't be our job to decide which should be the official version of the story.
Once we finally got to bed and found some sleep, some loud noise wakes us again. The culprit turns out to be a stone which was thrown through one of the estate's windows and which is inscribed with the word "murderer". To our annoyance, Vantrys' guards only managed to beat up the stone throwing idiot (a drunkard with far too much pocket money than reasonable) without asking him who gave the order to throw the stone in the first place.
We plan to continue our search for Dr. Meredith the next morning. During breakfast, we are visited by a disturbed looking Hans Weber who hands us a note he found earlier. To our surprise, the note contains a message from Dr. Meredith who tries to warn Weber that Sijhen wants the three relics, has something to do with "Gidim" and is interested in something called "Obscurati". Mysterious as this all sounds, it seems like we don't have to give up on poor Xambria Meredith yet.
As we prepare Finona's body, we find a golden ring on one of her fingers which looks very much like the one we found on Bergeron. But instead of "Old Bergeron Gold", the inscription on hers says "Original Brave Ideas". Now we originally thought that the first inscription could be linked to a jeweller's shop of the same name, but this seems more than suspicious. We decide to hand both rings over to the RHC crypto-specialists, but make our own guesses as well: Both rings share OB and LE, even if the former seems more likely than the latter. We cannot make much sense of the last variable though (G and I might be codenames like Q and M?).
After we comforted each other and made sure that we could bring the dire news to the rest of the crew in a professional, proper manner, we get back on deck. Margit resumes her care for the wounded and Flying Spark agrees to be petted by those who suffered mental trauma.
(He secretly enjoyed the attention, of that we are sure...)
After that, we perform Finona's ritual to close the planar portal carefully. Because we accidentally stayed too close to the emanating wave of energy, it leaves an odd feeling of pleasure (Auryn) and pain (Carlyle). As we thought, the golden seal is able to nullify planar energy taint, so we immediately use it to cleanse the amulet of Dr. Meredith and other items that could have been contamined by Apet energy. We still keep the amulet locked and the container under surveillance.
As we also noticed that Dr. Meredith/Sijhen teleported to an unknown place, we use one of the sending scrolls to warn Delft and ask to be escorted to transport the Seal of Mavisha safely in 8 days. We also tell him that Dr. Meredith is the "new Ragman" and that they should arrest her if possible. (Searching through my notes, the sending was something akin to this: "Found seal. Need secure transport in 8 days. Flint Harbor. Meredith dangerous, powerful creature, Ragman. Arrest and detain with caution. Please." Yep, Carlyle insisted on a polite sending.)
After eight long days of travel without any major occurrence, we arrive back in Flint harbor. To our surprise, the welcome committee recieving us is no other ship than Rear Armiral Dawkins' ship, the Aurora (Or Dawn? I think Aurora is the more poetic translation of Morgenröte). Auryn is more than happy to see her dear friend again after all that happened recently. Politeness and modesty demand that she waits until she, Carlyle and Dawkins are in private to show her joy about their reunion. The three share a good cigar and bring each other's information up to date.
We explain what happened aboard the Dracon de Mer and warn Dawkins that Dr. Meredith harbors an extremely dangerous creature which might stem, ludicrous as this may sound, from another dimension. We can give an all-clear for the status of the Kraken though as She who Writhes is still sleeping like a good baby Titan.
Dawkins on the other hand has some dire news for us: Just two days ago, Guy Goodson, his son and his son's wife were found dead in an alley after they had attended to a charity event. The news coverage suspects a case of robbery, but police investigation had been mysteriously quiet regarding their demises. He adds that Goodson's funeral is scheduled for this afternoon and that he knows that all of Goodson's business partners are invited, even if he fortunately wasn't asked to attend himself. Mr. Carlyle suspects that the young Lord Vantrys might be among the attendees and Goodson was among the sponsors of some of Auryn's concerts in the past, so we both plan to attend to the ceremony as well. First we'll have to get the seal to a safe place in the royal treasury though.
Before we part with Dawkins, he uses his usual farewell gesture to Auryn to secretly signal her that she's now officially on the hunt for "the creature from beyond". Which makes Carlyle in turn wonder just how close these two really are.
(Yeah, the Vekeshi are not fond of a brain-eating monster roaming free in Flint either...)
We make sure to get the seal of Mavisha to the treasury as discreetly and safely as we can and are relieved to get neither Dr. Meredith nor suspicious planar energy in sight. We give the order to have the damn thing be guarded day and night as the "new Ragman" could be after this object. Afterwards, we hurry to change clothes and attend the funeral ceremony.
When we arrive at the cemetery, we are astouned to see that so many people have come to say their final goodbye to Guy Goodson and his family. We know that Goodson was a pretty public figure and had many business partners, but this crowd is really huge. And among them all, like a small fish in a basin of sharks, stands one very confused looking Nathaniel Vantrys just next to the fiancee of the deceased, Cecilia Fordren. It seems almost like the young woman is trying to seek comfort from the heir of the Vantrys family and it also seems like the young Lord for once doesn't mind to be so close to a woman. But maybe these two are simply the only two who feel highly uncomfortable to be continuously stared at by the other businesspartners of Goodson. The ony one who is gloriously (and fortunately) absent is Francis Fordren.
The ceremony itself is pretty traditional and conducted by a coven of druids who give the deceased back to the land which birthed them. We take our time to offer Lord Vantrys and Cecilia our heartfelt condolencies. Lord Vantrys seeks Mr. Carlyle's support again and this time, he whispers that due to the special contracts and their clauses it seems like he'd might actually inherit a fortune from Goodson who leaves no heirs of his own. All of a sudden, his financial troubles could come to an end – a relief Lord Vantrys seems embarassed to feel. Now the whole scenery suddenly makes sense to us and we promise Vantrys to talk to him in detail later. Just when we are about to leave the pair alone, Mr. Carlyle's otherwise stern expression momentarily turns into a faint smile.
(This scene was intense as well. First, Auryn hates funerals. Especially when those involved are people she knew. Now Goodson was a pretty grey character to begin with, but he was a philanthropist and patron for several artists of Flint, even if he maybe only sponsored them to give himself a good name. We secretly called him Mr. Goodguy on several occasions because of that. So she's really mourning his death and will probably miss him. Carlyle on the other hand saw Goodson as an opponent of the Vantrys family and the main reason why his Lord lost touch with him and his dutys. So he's secretly happy to be rid of him and to have Vantrys out of Goodson's influence. Even if he knows it is utterly wrong to feel happiness at someone else's cruel demise. And he made it so that he'd be sure only Auryn would be able to percieve this "dark side" of his. Yeah, that's Carlyle's way of sharing his thoughts and feelings.
Also... Vantrys is okay with a woman being close to him, too? Who'd have thought that after all that Jack romance and his uneasyness when it came to members of the opposite gender?)
After the ceremony we and all the business-sharks accompany Lord Vantrys to the funeral reception at his estate. During all the chatter, we get the impression that Vantrys, along with Fordren (the uncle, not the niece) could be getting the lion's share of Goodsons's fortunes. This combined with Vantrys' known distaste for some of Goodsons' extravagant habits seems to stir the unspoken rumour that Vantrys might be behind the attack on the family. What adds spice to this rumour is the fact that the coffins of the family were closed during the entire ceremony, which seems really odd for a traditional risuri ceremony.
After the sharks leave Vantrys and Cecilia alone, the young Lord explains the mystery of the closed coffins: After the family was found dead, Stover Delft had him summoned to identify the dead bodies. And it turned out that they died by a sudden loss of brain – which was not really a beautiful sight to behold (and seeing Cecilia pale by his rather harmless description explains why Delft wouldn't have summoned the bride-to-be instead... seems like our boss is learning some empathy after all). We try to reassure Vantrys that everything will turn out to be fine and no one will believe that he ordered the assassination of Goodson as the culprit is almost certainly our new Ragman. And Delft will surely confirm that the Ragman has nothing to do with Goodson, Vantrys or their business.
We also talk a bit with Cecilia Fordren who all of a sudden has lost her fiancee and her financial security on top of that. She says that she'll get over Goodson as the two were not really close to begin with. The Carlyles offered to let her stay in their estate and the engagement contract she and Guy signed will guarantee her a monthly payment which is enough to cover her expenses. She says she's really fortunate that her fiancee thought of her security even if she had nothing to offer herself besides the Fordren family name as her own family branch is impoverished. This is why she was really surprised when her uncle offered her and her mother that Cecilia might get engaged to the famous Risuri businessman.
Vantrys asks us to stay in his estate and be his guests for tonight, an offer we gladly accept after all the travelling by ship. Mr. Carlyle counsels Nathaniel Vantrys for the rest of the evening and promises to make things right for his family. It seems like Lord and Butler are finally able to reconnect after having grown distant over the last months. We also promise to find and arrest the murderer, so Vantrys and Cecilia can find peace. Without wanting to go into further details, Auryn also warns Vantrys that Fordren might turn his interest towards him and his businesses, now that his original partner is six feet under. Carlyle agrees and adds that while Goodson might have been a nuisance, he was rather harmless compared to the predator that is Francis Fordren.
Later that night, Vantrys leaves Auryn and Carlyle with a fine bottle of Port (or whatever the drink is called in Risur). After a while, we get an unexpected visitor as Stover Delft was wondering where the heck we could have gone after the funeral was over (isn't that obvious?). We invite him to share a drink with us and he informs us about the latest Ragman activities, which ended in the untimely demise of the Goodson family. We also tell him about what happened at the excavation and that we at least managed to secure the seal. Delft says that he'd rather connect the Ragman murders to some other serial killer than to explain what really happened to the public as he fears that the people of Flint might panic at the revelation of some mysterious entity. We are not really convinced that this would be the best solution. After all, the Risuri are used to fey, the wild hunt and the Titans, so they wouldn't really care whether the person who's killing artists and philanthropists is a human or not. Still it won't be our job to decide which should be the official version of the story.
Once we finally got to bed and found some sleep, some loud noise wakes us again. The culprit turns out to be a stone which was thrown through one of the estate's windows and which is inscribed with the word "murderer". To our annoyance, Vantrys' guards only managed to beat up the stone throwing idiot (a drunkard with far too much pocket money than reasonable) without asking him who gave the order to throw the stone in the first place.
We plan to continue our search for Dr. Meredith the next morning. During breakfast, we are visited by a disturbed looking Hans Weber who hands us a note he found earlier. To our surprise, the note contains a message from Dr. Meredith who tries to warn Weber that Sijhen wants the three relics, has something to do with "Gidim" and is interested in something called "Obscurati". Mysterious as this all sounds, it seems like we don't have to give up on poor Xambria Meredith yet.
RangerWickett
Legend
I'm always thrilled to read where campaigns take a detour from the written adventures.
I'd never considered what a Risuri funeral is like.
I'd never considered what a Risuri funeral is like.
Well, thanks 
But to be honest, I'm seriously lagging behind in both, this and my WotBS campaign thread. For Zeitgeist, I'm basically just doing a translation of my own german recaps which are the aforementioned 5-9 pages per session. The WotBS ones are a bit more complicated as I take Tizbiz' recaps as a basis (he's playing Tinuviel) and retell them from a GM's perspective/make some small corrections.
I'm also thrilled where the whole Vantrys/Industrialist subplot is going and it is far from resolved. We still have no clue who might have ordered the attack on the Vantrys family which resulted in the death of Lord and Lady Vantrys alongside Mr. Carlyle three years ago. Plus the role of Francis Fordren/Fordren Industries and the Carlyle investments (they are also heavily involved in the Avery Coast railroad company) in a possible turf war in Risur is still unclear. (Auryn sees Fordren as an enemy and Carlyle is slowly reconnecting with his brother's family branch even if they are somehow opponents of Vantrys)
For the Risuri funeral... we didn't get too much into detail, but I imagined something like druids using their magic to bring the deceased back to the land. Maybe opening a grave, then calling on vines and roots to place the dead person down there where he is embraced by the roots. After that, the roots could grow into plants (memorial trees instead of tombstones?) to symbolize the circle of life. Risur has a strong druidic tradition after all.
But to be honest, I'm seriously lagging behind in both, this and my WotBS campaign thread. For Zeitgeist, I'm basically just doing a translation of my own german recaps which are the aforementioned 5-9 pages per session. The WotBS ones are a bit more complicated as I take Tizbiz' recaps as a basis (he's playing Tinuviel) and retell them from a GM's perspective/make some small corrections.
I'm also thrilled where the whole Vantrys/Industrialist subplot is going and it is far from resolved. We still have no clue who might have ordered the attack on the Vantrys family which resulted in the death of Lord and Lady Vantrys alongside Mr. Carlyle three years ago. Plus the role of Francis Fordren/Fordren Industries and the Carlyle investments (they are also heavily involved in the Avery Coast railroad company) in a possible turf war in Risur is still unclear. (Auryn sees Fordren as an enemy and Carlyle is slowly reconnecting with his brother's family branch even if they are somehow opponents of Vantrys)
For the Risuri funeral... we didn't get too much into detail, but I imagined something like druids using their magic to bring the deceased back to the land. Maybe opening a grave, then calling on vines and roots to place the dead person down there where he is embraced by the roots. After that, the roots could grow into plants (memorial trees instead of tombstones?) to symbolize the circle of life. Risur has a strong druidic tradition after all.
Going after a monster
Session 16
We ask the pretty confused and frightened Weber to accompany us to the estate's salon so we may discuss the matter of Dr. Xambria Meredith more discreetly. There, we talk about the contents of Dr. Meredith's letter. We try to make sense of her message but cannot really agree whether this is just another trick of Sijhen or whether the message is a genuine call for help. After a bit back and forth, we decide to give Meredith a chance as she might still be out there somewhere.
Our first assumption is that Sijhen might be from a place called Gidim and that he/she might be searching for a people or place called Obscurati. As it seems intrigued by the word “Obscurati” we cannot be really sure though.
While we further examine the message, Hans Weber drops the ball and tells us about the upcoming and already announced Gala of the Ancients in the Museum. We are kind of shocked that he didn't immediately cancel the event and more so shocked that he wanted to exhibit the three artifacts without getting an all-clear from us. Unfortunately, he sees no way to cancel the Gala without worrying the populace of Flint, so we urge him to forge replicas of the artifacts and exhibit these instead (they'll be hidden behind glass anyway, so no one will be able to tell the difference)
We also point out that it would be wise to be more cautious and heed the warnings of the RHC regarding the dangers of certain artifacts. (Mr. Carlyle basically gave him a big speech about responsibility and the dangerous greed for attention he put on display. And he was dead serious. Does anyone ever bother to take a look at the bigger picture? Or even take our advices to heart?
Oh and "dead serious scolding Carlyle" is one of his scarier modes. He despises people who act irresponsibly and endanger others while doing so.)
Next, we meet up with our colleagues at the RHC HQ. We agree that the search for Sijhen has to be top priority and that we should talk to Rock Rackus about the expedition to the ziggurat of Jiese. After that, Auryn gives a small speech about the events on the La Inspiracion. She says that no one but Sijhen is to blame for what happened there. The creature managed to fool them all by using methods they didn't think to be possible at all. Still they'll always have to consider this in the missions to come, especially when dangerous or alien creatures are involved. Plus they all should never leave a suspect without surveillance.
Then we visit the seer Dr. Ricewind again as he was previously able to locate Dr. Meredith in the middle of the sea. We ask him for another vision of Sijhen/Xambria and he starts his rituals immediately. However, the ritual strains him a lot this time and it takes him about four hours to complete. He's still able to get a pretty scary and confusing vision of a sort of ritual circle in what must be a forsaken warehouse. His description of lighting, materials and style of interior are fortunately enough to narrow Sijhen's possible locations down to a handful of warehouses.
We find the room from Ricewind's vision in a warehouse not too far from the one where we found the three bodies before our trip to Ber. But there is no sign of Dr. Meredith or the Sijhen creature Finona saw and the blood stained ritual circle is left completely forsaken. We examine the circle and find that Sijhen was about to do something that's completely violating our laws of magic as this seems like a hasty attempt to open up a portal to another world.
We find visible trails of a heavy cart in front of the warehouse, so we assume that the seal of Apet must have been here as well. As we muse that Sijhen might have relocated after Dr. Ricewind's divination attempt, we ask Margit and Flying Spark to go to land registry to check the register for any kind of property owned by either Caius Bergeron or Jules' transport business in this district. Meanwhile, Auryn and Mr. Carlyle pay the still imprisoned Rock Rackus a visit.
We come across Rock's lawyer first who tells us that Rock might be released from prison soon as he accepted to pay a good sum to the victim of his stray bullet. We continue to said Mr. Rackus and find him being his usual carefree self in a pretty cozy cell. He's pretty happy to see us though and thanks us again for saving him from his “rabid fans” at the KATE (he's kidding, right?). When we ask him about his adventures with Mr. Bergeron he's more than eager to talk about his exploits.
It turns out that it was Rock himself who stumbled across old teleportation scrolls when he was visiting the ruined library of Pala. He says that these scrolls were strange indeed as they pointed to very specific locations near ancient ziggurats (he said something like “circle-lads” if I remember correctly). He knew that a closer look inside would probably warrant a fully fledged expedition, so he came across the Tiefling Caius Bergeron and planned a team up to go to the ziggurat of Jiese which is located near Sid Minos. He found some artifacts there (“like your amulet?” we asked. “Oh yeah, so THAT'S were that came from...” he answered.) and also saw the golden seal of Jiese. To our surprise he can offer us a pretty detailed description of the seal and its inscription. He then adds that Mr. Bergeron bought the seal from him as he had no use for that heavy object, but he kept the other artifacts. Oh and we can totally keep the amulet as it is completely out of vogue anyway. We'd have to ask the wardens though as they took all of his stuff!
When we ask Rock about the other teleport scrolls he says that he's still some of them left in his house and would be more than pleased to go on an adventure with the RHC for a change. We're not really sold on going on an adventure with Rock, but we'd surely love to take a closer look at the scrolls once we finish the whole “New Ragman” stuff.
Unfortunately, our search for Sijhen isn't really successful. So we turn to our tried method of planar detecting the nearby areas. After a bit back and forth we find some seemingly hot trails which turn out to belong to a red haired woman in a barge named “Apet”. She says she's been hired by another redhead named Xambria to hide a bottle in her boat. And the bottle is full of Apet ectoplasm.
(“Now that's ridiculous! Sijhen's totally crazy anyway and now it's making stupid puns to annoy us?!” Carlyle said while shaking his head in disbelief)
Still the bottle gives us a brilliant idea. We use the bottle's contents to give our now finished fake-artifacts of the ancients their final polish as we plan to use them as bait for Sjihen. We know that the creature wants the artifacts and probably plans to steal them once they are exhibited at the gala. As we don't want to endanger innocent bystanders and also don't want to risk the real artifacts falling into Sijhen's hands, we ask our press department to announce a nighttime transport of dangerous goods in the common newspapers and have some roads closed off for that occasion. We then place the three fakes and ourselves in the carriage in hope to lure the wanted creature out of hiding.
It seems like we got lucky this time as Sijhen totally takes the bait and tries to raid our secure transport carriage with its mind monsters. “Dr. Meredith” mind controls one of our carriage drivers who in turn attacks his colleague. To prevent casualties, Auryn jumps out of the carriage (seems like we get a pattern here), puts two flying stingers to sleep and sings an enthralling song which turns both drivers' attention solely to her. Margit whispers a short prayer to the primal spirits which turns the thoughtform beasts tangible and which are then roasted by Flying Spark's fiery blasts. This leaves the job of handling their leader to Mr. Carlyle and his martial prowess. Dr. Meredith surrenders surprisingly after only a few hits with the Kukris' blunt sides as she seems to regain control over her body. To show her sincerity, she reveals alien eyes on her arm, concentrates on them and kills off the remaining monsters. She then lets herself get arrested and loses consciousness shortly after.
As Sijhen fooled us before, we make sure to not go into the creature's trap once again and so we make sure to lock the still unconscious archaeologist up in the most secure antimagic cell the RHC has to offer. We also agree to have at least two members of our team present to guard her day and night until she eventually wakes up.
(Hah! Seems like we've finally scored our 1:1 there!)
Session 16
We ask the pretty confused and frightened Weber to accompany us to the estate's salon so we may discuss the matter of Dr. Xambria Meredith more discreetly. There, we talk about the contents of Dr. Meredith's letter. We try to make sense of her message but cannot really agree whether this is just another trick of Sijhen or whether the message is a genuine call for help. After a bit back and forth, we decide to give Meredith a chance as she might still be out there somewhere.
Our first assumption is that Sijhen might be from a place called Gidim and that he/she might be searching for a people or place called Obscurati. As it seems intrigued by the word “Obscurati” we cannot be really sure though.
While we further examine the message, Hans Weber drops the ball and tells us about the upcoming and already announced Gala of the Ancients in the Museum. We are kind of shocked that he didn't immediately cancel the event and more so shocked that he wanted to exhibit the three artifacts without getting an all-clear from us. Unfortunately, he sees no way to cancel the Gala without worrying the populace of Flint, so we urge him to forge replicas of the artifacts and exhibit these instead (they'll be hidden behind glass anyway, so no one will be able to tell the difference)
We also point out that it would be wise to be more cautious and heed the warnings of the RHC regarding the dangers of certain artifacts. (Mr. Carlyle basically gave him a big speech about responsibility and the dangerous greed for attention he put on display. And he was dead serious. Does anyone ever bother to take a look at the bigger picture? Or even take our advices to heart?
Oh and "dead serious scolding Carlyle" is one of his scarier modes. He despises people who act irresponsibly and endanger others while doing so.)
Next, we meet up with our colleagues at the RHC HQ. We agree that the search for Sijhen has to be top priority and that we should talk to Rock Rackus about the expedition to the ziggurat of Jiese. After that, Auryn gives a small speech about the events on the La Inspiracion. She says that no one but Sijhen is to blame for what happened there. The creature managed to fool them all by using methods they didn't think to be possible at all. Still they'll always have to consider this in the missions to come, especially when dangerous or alien creatures are involved. Plus they all should never leave a suspect without surveillance.
Then we visit the seer Dr. Ricewind again as he was previously able to locate Dr. Meredith in the middle of the sea. We ask him for another vision of Sijhen/Xambria and he starts his rituals immediately. However, the ritual strains him a lot this time and it takes him about four hours to complete. He's still able to get a pretty scary and confusing vision of a sort of ritual circle in what must be a forsaken warehouse. His description of lighting, materials and style of interior are fortunately enough to narrow Sijhen's possible locations down to a handful of warehouses.
We find the room from Ricewind's vision in a warehouse not too far from the one where we found the three bodies before our trip to Ber. But there is no sign of Dr. Meredith or the Sijhen creature Finona saw and the blood stained ritual circle is left completely forsaken. We examine the circle and find that Sijhen was about to do something that's completely violating our laws of magic as this seems like a hasty attempt to open up a portal to another world.
We find visible trails of a heavy cart in front of the warehouse, so we assume that the seal of Apet must have been here as well. As we muse that Sijhen might have relocated after Dr. Ricewind's divination attempt, we ask Margit and Flying Spark to go to land registry to check the register for any kind of property owned by either Caius Bergeron or Jules' transport business in this district. Meanwhile, Auryn and Mr. Carlyle pay the still imprisoned Rock Rackus a visit.
We come across Rock's lawyer first who tells us that Rock might be released from prison soon as he accepted to pay a good sum to the victim of his stray bullet. We continue to said Mr. Rackus and find him being his usual carefree self in a pretty cozy cell. He's pretty happy to see us though and thanks us again for saving him from his “rabid fans” at the KATE (he's kidding, right?). When we ask him about his adventures with Mr. Bergeron he's more than eager to talk about his exploits.
It turns out that it was Rock himself who stumbled across old teleportation scrolls when he was visiting the ruined library of Pala. He says that these scrolls were strange indeed as they pointed to very specific locations near ancient ziggurats (he said something like “circle-lads” if I remember correctly). He knew that a closer look inside would probably warrant a fully fledged expedition, so he came across the Tiefling Caius Bergeron and planned a team up to go to the ziggurat of Jiese which is located near Sid Minos. He found some artifacts there (“like your amulet?” we asked. “Oh yeah, so THAT'S were that came from...” he answered.) and also saw the golden seal of Jiese. To our surprise he can offer us a pretty detailed description of the seal and its inscription. He then adds that Mr. Bergeron bought the seal from him as he had no use for that heavy object, but he kept the other artifacts. Oh and we can totally keep the amulet as it is completely out of vogue anyway. We'd have to ask the wardens though as they took all of his stuff!
When we ask Rock about the other teleport scrolls he says that he's still some of them left in his house and would be more than pleased to go on an adventure with the RHC for a change. We're not really sold on going on an adventure with Rock, but we'd surely love to take a closer look at the scrolls once we finish the whole “New Ragman” stuff.
Unfortunately, our search for Sijhen isn't really successful. So we turn to our tried method of planar detecting the nearby areas. After a bit back and forth we find some seemingly hot trails which turn out to belong to a red haired woman in a barge named “Apet”. She says she's been hired by another redhead named Xambria to hide a bottle in her boat. And the bottle is full of Apet ectoplasm.
(“Now that's ridiculous! Sijhen's totally crazy anyway and now it's making stupid puns to annoy us?!” Carlyle said while shaking his head in disbelief)
Still the bottle gives us a brilliant idea. We use the bottle's contents to give our now finished fake-artifacts of the ancients their final polish as we plan to use them as bait for Sjihen. We know that the creature wants the artifacts and probably plans to steal them once they are exhibited at the gala. As we don't want to endanger innocent bystanders and also don't want to risk the real artifacts falling into Sijhen's hands, we ask our press department to announce a nighttime transport of dangerous goods in the common newspapers and have some roads closed off for that occasion. We then place the three fakes and ourselves in the carriage in hope to lure the wanted creature out of hiding.
It seems like we got lucky this time as Sijhen totally takes the bait and tries to raid our secure transport carriage with its mind monsters. “Dr. Meredith” mind controls one of our carriage drivers who in turn attacks his colleague. To prevent casualties, Auryn jumps out of the carriage (seems like we get a pattern here), puts two flying stingers to sleep and sings an enthralling song which turns both drivers' attention solely to her. Margit whispers a short prayer to the primal spirits which turns the thoughtform beasts tangible and which are then roasted by Flying Spark's fiery blasts. This leaves the job of handling their leader to Mr. Carlyle and his martial prowess. Dr. Meredith surrenders surprisingly after only a few hits with the Kukris' blunt sides as she seems to regain control over her body. To show her sincerity, she reveals alien eyes on her arm, concentrates on them and kills off the remaining monsters. She then lets herself get arrested and loses consciousness shortly after.
As Sijhen fooled us before, we make sure to not go into the creature's trap once again and so we make sure to lock the still unconscious archaeologist up in the most secure antimagic cell the RHC has to offer. We also agree to have at least two members of our team present to guard her day and night until she eventually wakes up.
(Hah! Seems like we've finally scored our 1:1 there!)
Last edited:
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