Adventure 4 – GM's report.
So first off, the group had some personnel changes again. Regan's player and I weren't really getting on too well, so he parted from the group; this is why there's been no player write ups. Also Maisie's player is still having lots of real life issues, so whilst she did manage to make a few sessions, she hasn't been able to attend a game since January
. However the group added a new player, playing a necromancer called Boris.
So the group is now:
Toble – Gnome Skyseer Druid (only player left from the original group)
Bonnie – Half Elf Cleric (joined Adventure #3)
Samuel – Half Orc Eschatologist Monk (joined Adventure #3)
Boris – Human Necromancer (joined this adventure)
Maisie – Human Spirit Medium Bard (joined Adventure #1, been very infrequent since Adventure #3).
Setup had a bit of a false start, ended up writing and printing a fairly detailed description of what prepping for a spy mission entailed based on what was written in the adventure. The players struggled a bit the first time round, second time round was a lot smoother. They had a pretty good plan, had a guard on the train called Reggie and a teleporting wizard sitting in second class called Bobble (don't ask...). They ended up posing as a wealthy Clergywoman ('Juliet', Bonnie's cover), with an entourage including Shelly, a poet (Maisie), battle butler Geoffrey (Samuel, who snuck a Fresh Prince reference without me knowing), notary Boris (not even bothering with a disguise since he wasn't officially RHC anyhow)... and whatever Toble's disguise was, I forget – I just remember him looking very dapper, and he temporarily replaced his axe beak with a tamarin animal companion called Mo.
The adventure went on for nine sessions, so lots to cover, so I'll just detail how each NPC went down and the core encounters:
Verzubak
Vez ended up being a bit of a party favourite, being a regular drinking buddy + possible romantic interest for Maisie. Despite the fact he was working for the Ob, he ended up being played as sympathetic and even warned the party at Nalaam not to get back on the train.
Cardiff + the Great Malice
Cardiff was mostly an uninteresting character until the Malice Lands, where everything went a bit pair shaped. Cardiff led the guards on the offensive, whilst Samuel + Bonnie jumped a bit too far into the fray. Samuel nearly died – TWICE – fighting the creature and Bonnie went down for the count.
Meanwhile Toble was more distracted by Mister Mapple fighting the bandits, and sent Mo to steal the briefcase off of Cardiff (who had not reattached the briefcase as he was too busy shooting at the time). Mo managed to steal the briefcase, ran to the back of the train, and handed the briefcase to Maisie who was at the back with Vez. The pair of them snuck back into the party's carriage, where Vez managed to break into the briefcase (he 'luckily' managed to guess the combination), and they started reading through the documents. Including Page 9 – which blew up the briefcase (Vez was unhurt by this, because again, lucky!). They cleaned up the briefcase, but it was obviously wrecked.
Once the Malice left, Boris + Toble intimidated Cardiff out of a reprisal. That was the last of Cardiff.
Grientos.
More or less the Grientos kept out of the story. There was some interaction with Samuel + Vlendim Heid, but otherwise they ended up being less interesting than some of the other characters. Which is a shame.
Elanor, Isobel + Mister Mapple.
Most of the players didn't catch on to what Elanor was when she showed up, though Boris's player immediately did. Isobel's identity as an eladrin slave was confirmed by about the second session when Toble started spying on them at Cherage. His second attempt at spying on them in Orithea didn't work out so well – he tried to spy on them at the potion shop, but failed an animal handling roll for Mo and Mo ended up jumping all over Elanor and breaking lots of potions. Whoops.
Mister Mapple's first appearance – running from the hotel in just a bathrobe and smelling of soap, whilst proving how super powerful he was – made him an instant favourite and probably the most liked character in the campaign so far. Oh boy, that reveal at the start of Adventure #7 is going to be intense. Toble + Mister Mapple ended up being fast friends, and Mo took a bit of a shine to him too. They would all terrorize Elanor's hotel rooms as a trio.
The Arena encounter was fairly brief, thanks to a somewhat one-sided duel of the necromancers (Boris was far more powerful than Nikolai), and the others not having nearly enough strength to cope with the assault of the players. Mister Mapple ended up using the distraction to escape the Pyrecat and jump into the booth too. In the end, though, it was Mo who killed Elanor.
Lord Kulp ultimately let the players go and helped Mister Mapple escort Isobel to Elfaiver. Mo, rather fond of Mister Mapple, choose to go with them.
I'm looking forward to the return of Mister Mapple + Mo in Schism.
Boone
The players really hated Boone, even when they didn't know what he was. His attempts to seduce a clearly underage girl (who got named Marie) were thwarted by Maisie + Bonnie, who took Marie under their wing until the next morning.
Otherwise he flew a bit under the radar, with the murders mostly ending up being flavour. His death was not mourned.
Boris currently had the gun under wraps.
Bree
It took a while before the players realised that Bree was working for the Ob; the big reveal turned out to be one of the best scenes of the adventure – her entering their carriage, offering a drink, telling them she was waiting for Caius Bergeron.... and then a whole bunch of failed bluff checks and passed sense motive checks. Everyone knew who everyone was and everyone knew what was going on. A real 'oh crap!' moment. I think that was her contribution to the adventure though, at least from the players perspective.
Luc + Ottavia.
I think Ottavia was my favourite character in this adventure. I found her to be very interesting as she is a very different perspective on the Obscurati. She didn't get to actually talk to the players until the very end (more on that later), but I tried to give plenty of clues that she was a fairly warm, heartful character. Boris could speak sign language, so I let him understand most of what she was saying to Luc.
Luc was pretty much a plot point I think!
Lya
Oh boy... Lya. That chain-sabre man.
So the party wisely saw through Ottavia's trap at the Isle of Odiem, and opted not to follow her. They had to use Bobble to teleport to Vendricce, then onto the fuel cart after it left for the depot.
Samuel managed to see Lya on the platform (but didn't recognise her as he hadn't met her). Once the lantern was turned on, the Ob moved into the depot to greet Luc, whilst Vez chatted with the train driver. Unaware that there was lots of guards now on the platform, Toble walked out of the train... but stealthily enough to avoid detection. Unfortunately, his casting of Damp Powder was less stealthy, and the guards were alerted to their presence.
The musketeers were only mildly effective, and outright useless against Samuel. Boris ended up exchanging spells with Ottavia for a bit, whilst Lya made her way towards Samuel. Unfortunately, Bonnie got in the way – my intention had been for Lya to use her sabre to cut one of Samuel's arms off, since I knew that would be dramatic but not character-breaking. Instead she charged Bonnie, cutting off her weapon-arm and then leaving her for dead. Only through some quick action from Samuel did Bonnie manage to stay alive!
Most of the Ob backed away from the fight; Nicodemus 'died' from a fireball early on, and Lya got blinded so she struggled a bit to get further attacks in. Lya eventually had to use her gatecrasher charm to remove herself form the fight, and Ottavia found herself ghoul-touched and captured. The party failed to capture Luc or the lantern, but at least they got a consolation praise.
Ottavia told the party they were on the wrong side, that they had witnessed horrors on the train (Elanor, Boone, the incident with the Malice), and that the Ob were going to try and change that, using Luc's lantern and knowledge. That was as much as she could explain without breaking the geas. She is now in Gale's custody (Toble has gotten too savy to let someone like Ottavia go in a proper jail cell after what happened with Reed MacBannin, Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, Xambria + Kaja Stewart).
Vez officially changed sides and got the party out of dodge by driving the train to the harbour.
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Next we'll play Crypta Hereticarum before jumping into Adventure #5. We'll have a new player joining to bring us up to 5 (6 if you include Maisie).
