Flint's Finest Entry-level Field Agents

• Eogan managed to ditch the guy he was supposed to bodyguard and rejoin the party just in time to recognize his brother, Asrabey, cutting his way through the Risuri ranks. He then spent the rest of the session trying to prevent his fellow constables from realizing he had a connection to the "fey terrorists."
  
• The player of Ulharaja (the dragonborn from Ber) had to leave early, so after the party did some snooping around the fort, Captain Rutger Smith came up to the party and gave them some magecuffs that they'd found while looting the fort. He offers to demonstrate how they work to the party and puts a pair on Ulharaja, then gets her to demonstrate how casting a spell deals damage to the caster.
  
  This, of course, was just a ploy did get Ulharaja into magecuffs, and which point he arrests her for sedition, sabotage, and arson - apparently, he has an eye witness in Flint who's seen her setting fire to Risuri factories with another dragonborn accomplice. He leads her off in chains.
  
  (In addition to providing a handy excuse for getting her out of the action early and nicely foreshadowing the arsonists in adventure 2, this sets the tone that Risuri think that all dragonborn look alike and even have difficulty distinguishing dragonborn genders. I believe that D&D is really just a creative exploration of racism.)
  
• Despite numerous hints that Gillie was only resisting the party because she thought they were trying to help Asrabey attack the Duchess, and despite the fact that at least two members of our party are deeply sympathetic to the fey, the constables cut Gillie down without hesitation. I think they are coldblooded sociopaths, every one of them. (Also, in my game Gillie was a girl because I grabbed the wrong lego minifig.)
  
• The party sent Zahn up to spy on Asrabey, and he overheard the conversation with the Duchess. He listened to the end, at which point Asrabey noticed him, called him into the light, and delivered his terms (guaranteed safe passage back to Risur, he keeps the tiefling, etc). The party discussed this, and decided to agree to his terms while actually planning to ambush him just outside the tower. Seriously, they are sociopaths.
  
• Asrabey emerged from the tower with his two hostages and was jumped, which did not go so well since no one could hit him except on a natural 20. Knowing that he couldn't flee while carrying two hostages, he immediately stabbed the Duchess through the head with his flaming sword. Two more rounds ensue with Asrabey standing his ground and dishing out damage before Stana realizes that he'd be running if he weren't trying to take Nathan with him. So, naturally, she puts a lightning bolt through Nathan's chest, removing Asrabey's incentive to continue the fight. Sociopaths.
  
• Asrabey runs away, and the party makes some heroic heal checks to bring Nathan back to consciousness before he fails his last death save. (The Duchess was beyond help.) They hand him over to Delft as a prisoner, but tell Lya that he was captured by the fey. I'm sure that there's no chance that lying to their future queen about her own family could possibly bite them on the ass in the future...
  

Samuel Cole said:

I think that when/if the party gets access to the Detect Planar Energy ritual from Gale, I'll describe Eliza's pockets lighting up like ornaments on a Christmas tree.

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Samuel Cole said:

Despite numerous hints that Gillie was only resisting the party because she thought they were trying to help Asrabey attack the Duchess, and despite the fact that at least two members of our party are deeply sympathetic to the fey, the constables cut Gillie down without hesitation. I think they are coldblooded sociopaths, every one of them. (Also, in my game Gillie was a girl because I grabbed the wrong lego minifig.)

Click to expand...

• The PCs escaped the abandoned church in The Nettles cleanly and without casualties, although they left the Kell thugs who'd been guarding Recklinghausen, and they were sealed inside with Quital blew up the front. Since it's impossible to die inside that church, they eventually woke up. Neighborhood children began to tell stories of the "haunted" church, and if you stand very close to certain gaps in the wall, you can hear voices crying for food.
• The party has gradually grown more and more suspicious of the Risuri government. Along with many primalists, they are convinced that King Aodhan is a puppet having his string pulled by Danor.
• This conviction has radicalized our mild-mannered Eladrin Warden, Eogan. At the end of the adventure, The Old Stag successfully recruited him into the Vekeshi Brotherhood.
• The party has cozied up to Cippiani and The Family, who offered to lead them directly to the place where the Kell Guild was holding Recklinghausen in exchange for the RHC not interfering with the wand smuggling operation. The party agreed, and the paper boats I'd made out of hex paper went back into the drawer, unused.
• Our Bard, Eliza, had to split as her graduate school workload took priority. We miss her.
• To fill in the gap, Seven-Foot Dan has been assigned to the unit. If you don't remember this character, here's the history...
  • 7FD was one of the crack team of infiltrators from the assault on Axis Island. He was the only survivor when the planar shift killed the team. (I know it was supposed to be some other person, but 7FD was the only name I could remember in the moment, so I went with him.)
  • The party dragged him onto a beach, gave him a healing potion, and then left him there for the rest of the adventure. Being stranded for so long without healing has left him with a slight limp.
  • After obtaining the stolen documents from Recklinghausen, the team turned them over to Delft for analysis. One of the PCs said something like, "Didn't Seven Foot Dan used to work in the accounting department?" to which Delft replied, "Oh, right! Good idea!"
  • After pulling an all-night pouring over the documents, Delft and 7FD have a pretty good idea what's going on. Delft sent 7FD to accompany the part to Dawn Square as extra support. (We were missing a few players that week, so the assistant DM played Dan as a re-skinned Dragonborn arsonist with a sword.)
  • Then, Eliza's player had to pull out, the assistant DM decided to switch over to full-time player, keeping 7FD as her PC. We built him as a Human Yerasol Veteran Tactical Warlord with a background in accounting.
• Ulharaja, meanwhile, our almost-a-Dragonborn-princess from Ber, has been doing all manner of political maneuvering and social climbing. After negotiating for political asylum for Recklinghausen with the Beran consulate, she arranged a meeting with Brakken and pressed him to bring her along for the peace summit next summer. He agreed to insist on an RHC escort, but stated that he couldn't tell Nigel Price-Hill how to run his organization; therefore, it's on Ulharaja to make herself so indispensable that it would be inconceivable to assign anyone else. (This also leaves open the door of sending the B-team to do this work, when we finally get to that part of the adventure.)
• Months later, Stana returned to the church and pulled away enough rock to get inside and rescue the three Kell Guild members inside. Starving in darkness for so long has made them go a little crazy, but they attribute their continued life to the grace of Triegenes and are in the process of founding a monastic brotherhood, The Order of the Undying. I'm not sure where this is going to go.
• The party pooled their money and boat themselves a steam excise cutter with two forward-facing cannons. The group has mixed feelings about using the naval rules since the game is already very heavy on mechanics, so we might just narrate future naval battles. Suggestions welcome.
• The maiden voyage of this vessel was around the coast to Ber to check in on Recklinghausen. They found him living in a cave struggling to cure a tribe of Goblins suffering from Dragon Worm. He's going under an assumed name and is still clearly concerned about something following him from Arrovia.