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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cypherblade" data-source="post: 9693551" data-attributes="member: 7048389">Sixth session already.The players risked their lives to capture the 'shadowman' on Cauldron hill, but the sheer number of ghost drove them back to the campfire. After that they got back to McBannin and avoided Lt. Dale and his squad, because they didn't want to waste time on administrative hassle.When arriving at Heward's factory they saw some delivery being unloaded, and when they hailed the workers, Valanda saw his moment by casting a Wall of fire including the players, the cart and the people unloading the cart.After that the Brothers retreated (or it would have been a TPK), Staf recognised the content for what it was and the party ran like hell...At this point in the story the party never met the Waryeyes, they don't know where the delivery will be, they don't know where Von Recklinghausen is being kept. But Gale and Cippiano are still 2 NPC that can point them in certain directions.It think the players will try to get Gale to refrain from using the wands, which will leave Cippiano with a lot of sellable material. So he might push the inspectors in the right direction....[spoiler]We walk to the other hilltop in the dark, but again three spirits notice us. Ayleen stays behind with Sechim and the orc in the firepit. She studies the cauldron, which is decorated with figures—skeletons eating people. It also has a crack in it. Ayleen thinks the cauldron could be used for a ritual; the fey wouldn’t like that, our elf muses.On the other hilltop, the place is swarming with spirits. Kane doesn’t see Agent X among them, so he tries to blend into the mist. Felix deals ice damage with a chromatic orb, but the ghosts he hits are immune. Staf holds completely still, believing that the spirits won’t see him that way. Kane climbs back to the first hill while a spirit tries to possess Staf, but the amulet protects him. However, when he tries to break through the wall of spirits, they take him down. Lion Sarïa dodges the next attacks and drags Staf’s body back up the hill, where Kane heals the bruiser. But as he gets back on his feet, a ghost knocks him down again—our veteran once again shows remarkably little combat experience. Fortunately, we all manage to crawl back into the firepit. Sarïa drags the unconscious Staf into the circle, where Kane revives him again.Felix heals using the last jar of goat’s blood, reapplying the circle of blood around our pit, which had been disturbed by our movement. He pours the last bit over himself—a bad decision, says Kane, as the blood actually attracts the spirits. We remove the stuff using prestidigitation. Felix says that just before the shadow threw the flare of light, he had a vision of Nilasa, warning him that her killer was on the other hill. So we now have additional confirmation that our attacker was Agent X. The halfling then lies back down to study the night sky. Luckily, the spirits are once again distracted by the circle of goat’s blood and leave us alone.[HR][/HR]12 Spring 500 AOVAround two in the morning, we receive a vision through the bond with Sechim. The stars stretch into lines. To the north, toward Parity Lake, we see a building on fire with yellow and red dancing lights. Two red dragons are sitting on the building, watching the blaze, while screams of fear and pain echo from inside. The next scene shows the building reduced to ashes. The sun is just rising, and on a scorched board we see the name: “Sechim’s Alkahest and Etchings.” Then the vision abruptly ends. Seer Sechim wakes up with us and points to the planet of fire, Jiese. The seer interprets the vision as a warning of something happening tonight or early tomorrow, and suggests we hurry back down the hill.We consider strategies for making such an escape. Magical light could distract the ghosts. The druids know pass without trace and daylight. Pazamu first heals Ayleen’s hand using a scroll.Nevard cloaks us with pass without trace. Ayleen’s bat, Pipistrella, lures the ghosts away from the circle using a glowing stone. Then Pipistrella scouts ahead and we begin to creep downhill, slowly but surely. Along the way, Felix and Kane stumble in the dark. Felix nearly falls into a ravine, but Pazamu catches him in time. However, a ghost-worm hears the noise and heads toward us. The creature bites Sarïa, but we manage to take it down fairly quickly.We continue until we spot Mayor MacBannin’s mansion: clearly a lot is going on. Pipistrella flies ahead to investigate. About ten inconspicuous humanoids are lined up in two rows. They’re well-armed and talking with the mayor. MacBannin is justifying himself to someone he calls lieutenant, explaining that he let us up the hill without notifying them—which, according to the lieutenant, he should have done! The men prepare to storm the hill, so we hide. As they climb, they use hand signals to communicate. They split into a front and rear guard and blend partially into the surroundings. Fortunately, they don’t notice us and pass us by. According to Staf, these are special ops.Shortly after, we leave our hiding spot and cover the last stretch to the mayor’s house. In the shadow of our carriage stands a soldier guarding the vehicle. We knock on the mansion door, needing to be un-cursed. The soldier speaks to us, saying his colleagues saw light flashes on the hill and came to investigate. We say we’re from the RHC and will debrief the lieutenant tomorrow at headquarters. Meanwhile, Staf is un-cursed by the mayor. As we prepare the horses, we notice the soldier has various seals hanging on his shield. He seems well-protected and is also camouflaged.We ride into the city at a brisk pace and arrive in Parity Lake’s factory district before sunrise. At Sechim’s factory, four men are unloading large barrels. When we address them, they respond suspiciously. Suddenly, a red dragonborn casts a wall of fire from the rooftop, sweeping through us and past the barrel-laden cart. The four men in the alley are also caught in the flames and collapse immediately, while we’re badly burned. A second red dragonborn appears and breathes fire over the barrels, which now catch ablaze. Staf recognizes the barrels as containing an explosive substance. We sprint away, as do our attackers. Kane heals himself while a large explosion erupts from around the corner. Sechim’s building is on fire. Ayleen rushes inside to rescue any victims. Heward Sechim stumbles dazed down the stairs. We evacuate everyone! More explosions follow. Fortunately, we forced the attackers to act too soon, so their plan wasn’t fully successful. They didn’t manage to smuggle the barrels into the factory and had to light the fire before the full workforce arrived. As a result, the damage is limited and thankfully there are no casualties. Praise be!According to Sechim, there’s a water reservoir on the roof. Staf runs inside with a worker and climbs the stairs to the roof. Though they’re somewhat overcome by smoke, they make it. Meanwhile, outside, we find a tarp and prepare it at the edge of the building to catch any fall. Staf and the man hack open the large water barrel and water flows out across the roof, extinguishing much of the fire. The situation seems more or less under control. About a third of the factory is destroyed.We explain to Heward Sechim that his uncle’s vision made us rush over, allowing us to prevent the worst. Dragonborn usually come from Ber, but we don’t know what Ber has to do with our case. Dragonborn are extremely rare here—none of us has ever seen two at once. We take our leave from Sechim to get some sleep—we desperately need it.After a long rest, we reconvene at the RHC around 4 p.m. A Lieutenant Dale has already asked about us. His soldiers had responded to the light flashes and rushed up the hill. We tell the Chief what happened at Sechim’s factory—he’s already aware of an attack and immediately suspects Gale, but we say it’s very unlikely the fey was involved. We explain that the attackers were dragonborn and that we managed to prevent the worst; the damage is purely material.The Chief also says that Staf urgently needs to report to Lady Saxby. With a heavy heart, he heads to her office. Twenty minutes later, he returns. He says Saxby wants a report today! In the end, we manage to convince the Chief that our current mission takes priority. He sighs and says he’ll explain it to Saxby.Kane receives a message from Lobke: on the other side of the bay, in the harbor of Pine Island, there’s supposedly a house standing on stilts in the water. Some Crisillians are said to be there. Could this be the Family’s shipyard?As we exit, a small yellow canary suddenly flutters around us. We hear a woman’s voice with a Danoran accent: “A friend of mine recommended you. We have a common enemy.” The woman, almost certainly Gale, wants to meet us in the coming days. Ayleen says “now”—it’s urgent. The little bird flutters ahead to show us the way.[/spoiler]funny sidenote: Pipistrella seems to be Italian for bat.</blockquote>

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