(un)reason
Legend
The regular 4 were once again punctually present. Having tallied up all the treasure from the last adventure, they wanted to spend it before heading moonward, with particular emphasis on making sure they could survive whatever the atmosphere situation was up there. Nearly a full hour was spent on considering if they should and could get the mudship back through the portal. Looking at its movement rate and especially the surprisingly short amount of amount of sailing through rock it can actually do in one go, they decided getting it all the way through the needlespire tunnels and out the other side again would be tedious and impractical. Instead, they checked how much they could buff their strength, to see if they could simply fit the thing in their weight limit when they teleported. Looking at the weights of real life boats of that size, this was not an unreasonable question, as a crucial factor for boats is maintaining a relatively low density for their size. Eventually we worked out that the githyanki could indeed lift the boat singlehandedly, teleport back to the gate, squeeze it through, and teleport a second time to reach their airship, still thankfully floating above the needlespire where they left it. From there, they set about roping the mudship to the side of the larger airship so they could use it as a docking transport.
With that bit of logistics sorted out, they decided that the City of Brass once again seemed like a good place to spend their money, as they could buy 9th level stuff there and would have a bit more time to think about exactly what, if anything they'd report next time they went back to Tu'narath. The trip was much faster in the airship, taking them only 6 hours, which means they got there late afternoon by their time. This gave them plenty of time to split up and hit the markets. The githyanki forgot that water & ice magic is tightly controlled here and tried to buy an ice assassin, which got the notice of some less savoury sorts who took his money and said they'd get hold of a scroll, but may not follow through on that. The sniper spent even more of his money on scrolls, to the point where I was forced to say that no, they wouldn't have that many of several specific high level spells in stock, so he'd have to order them and come back later.
However, these minor setbacks were of little importance compared to the troubles they were about to face. While they were gone, a group of devils controlled by (or maybe the other way around) the wizards they performed the heist upon a week (of in game time) ago had managed to trace the gold they'd stolen here. They'd lost the trail over the past couple of days due to the minor issue of them having travelled outside the known cosmos, but were still in the neighbourhood and had picked up descriptions of the people who had passed through, flush with large quantities of bullion rather than regular coinage. The PC's returning here so quickly and once again throwing around large amounts of cash meant the agents among the crowd soon caught on and prepared to get their revenge. They waited until the PC's had all finished their shopping and went back to the ship for the night, sending a message back to their master, who did some scrying before they made a move. This did alert both the githyanki & binder, who have scrying detection spells up, but both of them independently decided to roll bluff checks to pretend they weren't woken and act like they were still asleep. Once they were firmly surrounded, the ship got a firm knock on the main entrance. At the other end of the gangplank was a pit fiend and several dozen lesser baatezu, all ready for trouble. Since they are still trying to follow procedure, they demanded their money back, or they'd collect the PC's souls as forfeit. The binder played dumb, pretending she was still half asleep and had no idea what they were talking about, they didn't have any of their gold. (technically true as they'd already exchanged it for lighter valuables last time, but not the point and everyone on both sides knew it) Things soon degenerated as the devils were forced to become increasingly blunt in their statements due to her word games. And so we conclude this session knowing that next one is going to go into a big battle, but one where they have some complex choices to make, as simply going full force within the city limits will result in them attracting attention from the Sultan and losing a good place to buy & sell stuff. Then once that is over, they have the equally tricky choice of whether to go back to prioritizing sealing the stuff beyond the gate, which may be a universe-threatening danger long-term but doesn't seem to have noticed them yet, or deal with the enemies they've made from previous adventures first, who might not be as strong overall, but are an immediate problem that is actively seeking them out and won't stop until dealt with one way or another.
With that bit of logistics sorted out, they decided that the City of Brass once again seemed like a good place to spend their money, as they could buy 9th level stuff there and would have a bit more time to think about exactly what, if anything they'd report next time they went back to Tu'narath. The trip was much faster in the airship, taking them only 6 hours, which means they got there late afternoon by their time. This gave them plenty of time to split up and hit the markets. The githyanki forgot that water & ice magic is tightly controlled here and tried to buy an ice assassin, which got the notice of some less savoury sorts who took his money and said they'd get hold of a scroll, but may not follow through on that. The sniper spent even more of his money on scrolls, to the point where I was forced to say that no, they wouldn't have that many of several specific high level spells in stock, so he'd have to order them and come back later.
However, these minor setbacks were of little importance compared to the troubles they were about to face. While they were gone, a group of devils controlled by (or maybe the other way around) the wizards they performed the heist upon a week (of in game time) ago had managed to trace the gold they'd stolen here. They'd lost the trail over the past couple of days due to the minor issue of them having travelled outside the known cosmos, but were still in the neighbourhood and had picked up descriptions of the people who had passed through, flush with large quantities of bullion rather than regular coinage. The PC's returning here so quickly and once again throwing around large amounts of cash meant the agents among the crowd soon caught on and prepared to get their revenge. They waited until the PC's had all finished their shopping and went back to the ship for the night, sending a message back to their master, who did some scrying before they made a move. This did alert both the githyanki & binder, who have scrying detection spells up, but both of them independently decided to roll bluff checks to pretend they weren't woken and act like they were still asleep. Once they were firmly surrounded, the ship got a firm knock on the main entrance. At the other end of the gangplank was a pit fiend and several dozen lesser baatezu, all ready for trouble. Since they are still trying to follow procedure, they demanded their money back, or they'd collect the PC's souls as forfeit. The binder played dumb, pretending she was still half asleep and had no idea what they were talking about, they didn't have any of their gold. (technically true as they'd already exchanged it for lighter valuables last time, but not the point and everyone on both sides knew it) Things soon degenerated as the devils were forced to become increasingly blunt in their statements due to her word games. And so we conclude this session knowing that next one is going to go into a big battle, but one where they have some complex choices to make, as simply going full force within the city limits will result in them attracting attention from the Sultan and losing a good place to buy & sell stuff. Then once that is over, they have the equally tricky choice of whether to go back to prioritizing sealing the stuff beyond the gate, which may be a universe-threatening danger long-term but doesn't seem to have noticed them yet, or deal with the enemies they've made from previous adventures first, who might not be as strong overall, but are an immediate problem that is actively seeking them out and won't stop until dealt with one way or another.
