Redbadge's Campaign (there will be spoilers)

[Isklexi]

Cauldronborn Start

The adventure begins with the constables getting to ride a royal carriage to a meeting with the king in Hotel Aurum. Things quickly turned sour when their carriage was attacked on the road, and their driver was killed. The royal warhorses immediately broke into a gallop while their assailants pursued them in carriages of their own.

The gunmen in the nearest carriage opened fire while Bellicose and Maddox fired back with their alchemical launchers loaded with grenades. Irony wasn't pleased with their decision to fire at the horses pulling the carriages, but it was the fastest way to stop pursuit. The first wagon crashed and splintered in a cloud of fire and shrapnel from their grenades while the other carriage continued to chase them. Doran climbed on top of the royal carriage to draw enemy fire away from the others while Kirk climbed into the drivers seat to regain control of their carriage. Kirk maneuvered the carriage to keep their assailants from pulling up alongside them and getting clearer shots. Unfortunately, a swarm of zombie crows flooded into their open carriage and made things generally unpleasant.

The constables in the carriage had to beat off the crows while their enemies drew closer. The bad guys managed to attach a time bomb to the royal carriage. Doran scrambled down the back of the carriage to dislodge the bomb while Bellicose and Maddox disabled the other carriage with another volley of grenades. Kirk decided to double back and try to capture some of their pursuers while Bellicose and Maddox frantically tried to disarm the bomb. The constables were able to quickly pick off the thugs that had been severely injured when their carriage had rolled over and caught fire. In desperation, the technologist fired another time bomb at their carriage before being disabled. With another bomb and time running out on the first, Rai jumped on top of the first bomb and activated his magmasoul power to render himself impervious to flame when it exploded. Kirk, Bellicose, and Maddox managed to disarm the last bomb while Doran and Irony apprehended the last of their assailants.

GM: This worked out really well. They captured Rufus Hammerton, and the gunsmiths in the party made quite a splash with their grenades. Rai actually got to use a new racial power right away. Rai used his wish from Cal to unlock more of his elemental powers. This gave him a third Genasi manifestation (cindersoul, windsoul, magmasoul) and allows him to use them all at once (but he can only use 2 racial encounter powers in a given encounter). This was also the very last "free" wish the party had with Cal, so they have to bargain from now on.

The constables finally arrived at Hotel Aurum. Delft had the Kell thugs taken into custody and took the group up to see the king. King Aodhan, Minister Lee, and Chief Inspector Delft debriefed the constables on their newest mission. The king wanted them to root out the Obscurati hiding in the Bleak Gate here in Flint. To get to them, the group would need to dismantle the Kell Guild and discover their means of dealing with the Ob. Since the constables had assassinated Kell previously, the Guild had come under the control of a new secretive figure. This new leader has maintained a great deal of secrecy while pulling the guild back together. Delft believes this new leader must be an Ob agent based on all the secrecy around him. This means the guild is their best chance at getting into the Bleak Gate. The king also wants this accomplished before the Danoran delegates arrive for the peace conference in a mere 4 days!

The constables have been put in charge of a police task force to accomplish their mission. They are confidant they can handle this mission in the time allotted. After all, it's not like something else will suddenly happen that could exponentially complicate their investigations...

 

[Isklexi]

GM: At this point, we start getting into the B team. I'll put indicators of when the action switches between teams.

B-Team
The constables arrived at the docks to meet with the Beran diplomat. They were greeted by the brusk Lizardfolk Bosun, Cruusk, who demanded they prove who they were. Cruusk then proceeded to supervise the unloading of cargo while mostly ignoring any questions the constables had. Serena attempted to mediate an argument between a docker and a goblin, but since neither of them spoke the same language, the docker eventually gave up and let the goblin operate his crane.

The constables noticed some thugs watching them from a nearby bar. Before they could move to investigate, the goblin operated crane experienced mechanical failure. The cable on the crane snapped spilling its oversize load onto the stone pier. The crate smashed open and released its occupant, a large dire bear. After a brief staring contest with Carlao, the bear was called to heel by its owner Brakken of Heffanita.

Brakken introduced himself as the Beran diplomat responsible for mediating the upcoming peace talks and introduced his pet dire bear, Feroz. The constables then escorted Brakken to the Beran consulate on the edge of town where they met Gerax, the one-legged Orc consular. Brakken assured the constables that he would keep Feroz stabled at the consulate, and then they left for a late lunch that Brakken had planned ahead of time.

A-Team
The planning session with Sergeant Macon was interrupted by a commotion in the hall. Asrabey Varal, the Eladrin dreadnaught, was barging his way in to see the king. The constables moved to briefly intercept him but ultimately let him pass. Asrabey revealed that a rogue fey lord named Ekossigan has come to the area with an unhealthy interest in the city. Asrabey told the king that Ekossigan was not acting on behalf of the Unseen Court and requested aid in ending the threat to Flint. Bound by his oaths to the fey court, Asrabey isn't allowed to harm Ekossigan, so it's up to the constables to do the dirty work.

B-Team
The constables escorted Brakken to Pardwight University where they met Steffan Eberhardt, the Drakren representative for the peace summit. They settled down to lunch after some geopolitical humor that was somewhat lost on the constables. Things suddenly took a turn for the worse when an explosion derailed the a train passing through the area. The constables quickly moved to evacuate the diplomats from danger. The constables witnessed a suspicious dwarf get hit by falling masonry while they took stock of the situation.

Serena went to investigate the dwarf while the other constables rushed the diplomats out the rear entrance of the building. Serena managed to stabilize the dying dwarf and confiscated his belongings: a broken pocket watch, a newspaper, and a repair work order. Serena ran to catch up with the other constables after telling a passing medical student to tend to the dwarf and detain him for the police later.

The constables escorted the diplomats directly to the police station southeast of the campus. At the station, the constables went over Serena's findings. The newspaper was dated for tomorrow, so they reasoned the dwarf must have visited the printing presses on the campus. The work order was contracted to Soknik Repairs for the bridge that exploded. The watch was broken and set several minutes fast. The constables believed that there may be another bomb. The constables debated on what to do. They didn't want to leave the diplomats unguarded, but they also didn't want to risk taking the diplomats back to the area of a terrorist attack. They decided to let the police handle the attack while they ensured the diplomats returned safely to the consulates.

GM: The players put a huge emphasis on the safety of Brakken and Steffan. I was surprised how they handled the B-team completely different from the primary team. I had expected them to charge headlong into stopping the attack. Many of the players were disappointed with the outcome though. I'm not sure whether it's a good thing that they are upset over the bombing (from an immersion perspective), or I should be concerned over their behavior around Brakken. I don't want them to come to resent Brakken as some kind of burden that they have to babysit instead of pursuing investigations. After all, protecting Brakken is the primary job of the B-team in this adventure. I'm open to advise if anyone has some.

 

[Isklexi]

A-Team
The constables used most of the day to organize their plans for the task force the next day. The constables then split up to scout the Kell Guild strongholds while they called in a favor with the Dockers to get some early recon in the districts. The Dockers managed to locate den of thieves in North Shore and a front in Bosum strand, but they got run off in the other districts. Likewise, the constables were able to scout most of the guild strongholds, but the Theatre of Scoundrels proved to be too heavily guarded to get near.

While the others went scouting, Irony accepted an invitation to speak with Morgan Cippiano at the Brave Hall fashion show. Morgan offered to help them reach the new leader of the Kell Guild using an inside man the Family had within the guild. In return, Morgan asked for a moratorium on murder investigations, the release of a famous serial killer, and information on what if any interaction the constables had with the prisoner of Odiem. Irony told Cippiano that she would consider the offer but would not agree right away.

GM: To help keep track of the passage of time, I decided to break each day into 4-hour time blocks. That gives the players 4 time blocks each day to do things in (the last two time blocks are used for sleeping). These blocks roughly correspond to morning, midday, afternoon, and evening. This way I can ask them what each member of A and B team are doing in each time block as well as how they are deploying their task force in each block. This also allows them to case districts in the morning, scout their findings at midday, and then perform stings in the afternoon. This also allows me to hand wave travel time between districts. It’s a simplification of how long events take in the game, but I think it will help keep things moving.

 

[Isklexi]

Spring 9

Morning
Interlude
The constables convened early in the morning to investigate the golem previously recovered by B-team. The jovial royal technologist Justin Rollins decided to investigate the golem’s functionality by reattaching the head to the torso after securing it. After a brief pause, the golem began to rhythmically tap the table with its remaining hand. Kirk quickly recognized the taps as a form of code used by the Risuri military. The constables offered the golem pen and parchment to speed communication.

The golem claimed to be a man named Alexander Grappa. Grappa was a skilled enchanter and golem smith. Grappa had been recruited by the Ob for a special project. Unfortunately, the geas placed on everyone involved in the project prevented Grappa from sharing much information. He claimed to be willing to lead the constables to the Bleak Gate facility if they can repair his golem body and reach the Bleak Gate in the first place. Grappa’s skill with enchantment appeared to allow him some wiggle room in dealing with the geas, and Kirk plans on returning with a list of questions to ply Grappa with later.

A-Team
Irony and Rai set off for Cauldron Hill to meet with Captain Dale, the military officer in put in charge of the cleanup there. Dale told the constables he had been instructed by the king to offer whatever aid he could to their mission. Dale offered them protective amulets that would help protect them once they reached the Bleak Gate and spent time training Rai in various meditation techniques. The captain also said that his compliment of soldiers stationed on the hill is on standby to assist them should they secure a way into the Bleak Gate.

Kirk decided to track down Asrabey. Kirk was able to successfully find and tail the Eladrin dreadnaught. He tracked Varal to a garbage dump northeast of the Nettles. Varal appeared to hold a conversation with a pile of trash, asking for news of any strange occurrences in the area. After Varal left, Kirk moved to investigate the talking garbage. He discovered that it was actually a hunched old crone covered in trash. He questioned the hag himself, but her answers were fairly cryptic, and she didn’t appear to know where the rogue fey lord was. She did know that strange things were afoot in the Cloudwood and offered Kirk a gift. She handed Kirk a broken cuckoo clock. The clock was carved to look like a tree with children playing about the trunk. The clock showed the time as 12 (pm or am unknown), and the yellow cuckoo dangled sadly from its perch with broken wings. When Kirk asked the hag what it meant, she said neither of them would know until it mattered.

Maddox and Bellicose assisted the task force, and Doran assisted the B-Team.

B-Team
Doran went with the B-Team to investigate Soknik Repairs. They found the repair shop attended only by a bored human teenager named Doug. Doug was belligerent at first but allowed them to search the back room after they presented a warrant. Documents in the back showed that the business was hemorrhaging money and only had a few orders or clients: the Flint Tribunal, the Pardwight Skybridge, sewer maintenance, and architectural offices. When confronted, Doug claimed there was a trap door in the front, but the constables could easily tell he was lying. When Doug tried to bolt for the front door, Carlao grabbed him and bullets started bursting in through the front windows, sending glass shards flying.

Doran showed off his acrobatics by quickly scaling up the face of Soknik Repairs and locating the sniper across the street. Doran activated his Icon of Avilona to leap across the entire street and crash though the window where the sniper was hiding. He landed on top of the Dwarven mercenary Kvarti Gorbatiy who responded with, “you could have just used the stairs”. Doran Remembered Kvarti from the arms faire last year. It was quickly apparent that the mercenary wasn’t very invested in the terrorists’ cause. Kvarti had also recognized Doran, and he had made a big show of shooting up the repair shop in a failed attempt to help Doug escape (“he’s just a kid that fell in with the wrong crowd”).

Doug and Kvarti knew of an actual trap door in the back room, but neither of them had ever been down there. The constables decided to handcuff the two of them and went to investigate the tunnels below.

Task Force
Maddox, Bellicose, and 20 officers spent the morning casing districts. They managed to locate illicit transactions in Bosum Strand and the Nettles, but the missions in other districts didn’t go very well. 6 other officers scouted the den and front they’d found the previous day. They successfully scouted the den but failed to scout out the front. They lost 2 officers during the missions.

 

[Isklexi]

Midday
A-Team
All of the constables (minus Doran) decided to bust up the illicit transaction in the Nettles. They wanted to gauge the kind of resistance they could expect without risking the police officers. Unfortunately, they arrived at an empty apartment; the thieves had been tipped off they were coming! Irony was furious that she hadn’t considered spies before now and vowed to root them out before the day was done.

GM: Irony’s player actually plans to spend an entire time block using the Discern Lies ritual to question every member of the task force. The ritual only lasts 5 minutes, so her plan would involve a decent investment of money and time. I’ll allow it because I don’t see any reason that it wouldn’t work.

Task Force
24 officers were sent to bust up the den of thieves in North Shore. Negotiations didn’t go well, and it devolved into a shoot out. The den was taken out, but 4 officers died.

B-Team
Doran, the B-team, and their prisoners proceeded through the old underground tunnels. Doran didn’t have any trouble tracking the path that the terrorists used, and the team was able to handle both magic rune traps they encountered. Unfortunately, they were so focused on magical traps they didn’t notice the pit trap until Doran fell into it. They managed to jam the trap open with wooden planks so Doran could climb back out of it. Their preoccupation with magical traps did help them spot the danger in the final corridor. They discovered the words carved along the inside of the hallway’s first arch. Dima and Kvarti were able to work together to puzzle out the proper passphrase to deactivate the trap and allow safe passage.

In the hall beyond, the constables noticed a strange white powder and clean bones on the ground. Serena identified the powder as Sodium Borate, a chemical commonly used as a bleaching agent for cleaning, a pest repellant, in ceramic glazes, and to make moldable putty. Their puzzlement over the powder was quickly answered by a swarm of army ants crawling out from behind the walls. The constables managed to disperse the swarm with minimal damage thanks to Doran’s superior combat skills.

GM: Boy, these sessions have some dense notes. We’re barely halfway through the first day, and a lot has already happened. I had to look up Borax to give them a list of uses, so it wouldn’t be too obvious what it was for. Irony’s player (using Serena) even tried kicking the powder at the ants to deter them. It worked in that they ran from her and climbed up onto Doran. Fortunately, Doran had a stance that granted damage reduction.

 

[Isklexi]

B-Team, continued
The constables burst into the warehouse and were greeted by a small army of skeletons backed by shotgun wielding zealots. They smashed their way past the flimsy undead to strike at the dwarves. After they beat one into unconsciousness, Serena moved to garrote the remaining Dwarf. Faced with impending capture, the struggling fanatic chomped down on a suicide pill and quickly died.

A search of the safe house revealed several documents and a workshop. The documents consisted of several stolen schematics of Flint's sewer system dating back many decades. Each schematic had the new subrail system drawn onto it. The constables quickly deduced that the terrorists were going to use defunct sewer tunnels to gain access to the newer subrail system. They also found a letter referencing the opening of the new Baker street subrail station. The constables believe the terrorists plan to attack the ribbon cutting ceremony. The workshop contained a variety of alchemical and technological debris. Serena was able to identify the scrap as leftovers from making a large magical bomb. The alchemical admixture would be too unstable to prepare beforehand, so the bomb would have to mix its payload on site. She estimated that the mixing process would take approximately 26 minutes from start to detonation.

Afternoon
A-Team
Irony spent the better part of 3 hours and over 3000 gold to perform lie detecting rituals to find any possible leaks within the police task force. She uncovered 3 Kell Guild informants, 2 working for the Family, and 4 feeding information to the Vekeshi or Fey factions in the city. Delft deferred to Irony's judgement on how she wanted to proceed. Irony decided to have the 3 Kell informants imprisoned immediately, but left the other informants alone. She believed they still needed every officer they could get for the mission, and those informants were unlikely to be detrimental to their goal of dismantling the Kell guild.

GM: some of the players were surprised when Irony's player let the other informants go, but their characters weren't on location for the interrogations.

The remaining members of A-Team descended upon the illicit transaction in Bosum Strand. They couldn't quite get the thieves to surrender, but the ensuing gunfight was fairly short.

B-Team
The constables split into 3 groups and cased the three safest districts (Central, North Shore, and Bosum Strand). They discovered yet another illicit transaction in Bosum Strand and another den of thieves in North Shore.

Evening
A-Team
Everyone but Doran went to crack down on the new illicit transaction. Irony was easily able to clear the area of bystanders and convince the thugs to surrender without a fight.

B-Team
Doran led the B-Team in an assault on the den of thieves in North Shore. This foray also ended in a gunfight.

 

[Isklexi]

Spring 10

Morning
Interlude
The constables met with Asrabay first thing in the morning. Asrabay had met with mixed results in his search for Ekossigan. He was unable to find the fey lord, but he had narrowed down the search to the Cloudwood where all of his informants had gone missing. Asrabay suggested meeting with Gale who operates out of the Cloudwood. The constables were able to contact Gale using the messenger wind, and she reluctantly agreed to meet them tomorrow at midday.

The Constables
Both RHC teams joined forces after the meeting with Asrabay to begin dismantling the Kell guild strongholds. The twelve member team assaulted Machete Hill. Maddox and Bellicose were able to sneak in close to disable the cannon emplacements with grenades. The elite RHC officers didn't have much trouble overpowering the remaining defenders.

Midday
The Constables
The RHC teams continued their efforts at Casa de Kell. Maddox and Kirk were able to dismantle the many booby traps in the area as the team swept through the building. The thieves' guild thugs were again no match for the best of the RHC. The A-Team also petitioned Captain Dale for the use of the soldiers under his command. The captain was readily agreed to send his troops to aid them in the afternoon.

Afternoon
A-Team
The constables (minus Doran) headed up a team of soldiers to crush the remaining stronghold, the Grand Suites. The team was able to seal up the sewer entrances, and the outlaws surrendered in the face of overwhelming odds and no possibility for retreat or reinforcement.

B-Team
Doran accompanied the B-team in their duties escorting Brakken for the day. Brakken had arranged for an informal dinner between Geoff Massarde, the Risuri arcanoscience engineer, and Rosalyn Taylor, captain of the Freux Rouge. The meeting took place at the Sunset Bench, a fancy club in North Shore. There was a bit of friction at the start when the bouncers at the sword/coat check demanded the officers give up their weapons. Josiah and Gaethan refused to give up their weapons and decided to remain at the club's door covering a possible escape route. The others agreed to disarm, but Serena and Doran were able to smuggle in some of their weapons.

The group had no trouble getting a seat right in front of the stage where Rock Rackus was giving a performance. While most everyone was engrossed in the performance, Serena spotted a known Kell guild officer, Quentin Augst. Serena was able to slip closer to Augst's table unnoticed to eavesdrop. Augst was meeting with an Ob agent called Norm. Augst was trying to convince Norm to send more Ob support to the guild to fend off the RHC and police, but Norm made it clear that the Ob were cutting their losses with the recent, dramatic reversal of fortunes for the guild. The argument grew increasingly heated until Augst began shouting at Norm and angrily stormed out of the club with his bodyguards.

The constables were debating how to handle the situation when Brakken came forward and mentioned he'd overheard someone planning to kill Augst soon. Doran decided to follow Augst while the rest of B-team reunited with A-team at the RHC headquarters.

Evening
A-Team
Maddox, Kirk, and Bellicose rushed to Augst's North Shore manor with directions from Doran (via messenger wind). The lawyer refused to surrender and the constables were forced into a gunfight with Augst's guards. Doran spotted Norm during the battle, but the Ob assassin withdrew rather than get drawn into a lost cause. The team was able to successfully capture Augst.

GM: I hadn't had an encounter prepared for Augst's home, so I handled the encounter with the Task force minigame rules instead. The rest of the constables intend to take the entire task force with them to stop the terrorist shipment. It was interesting to see the players plan out how they were going to dismantle the guild as quickly as possible. They'll probably take on the rogue fey plot next since the terrorists basically go to ground until their next attack.

 

[Isklexi]

Evening
Joint Operation
B-team and the rest of A-team coordinated to intercept the terrorist shipment. Serena and Carlao led the entire police task force to seize control of the docks where the terrorist ship was to arrive. The handful of terrorists at the docks were easily overpowered by the police forces, but the suicidal cultists still fought to the death.

The rest of the join team patrolled the bay aboard A-team's ship, the Khalundurrin. Josiah was able to spot a rogue ship shrouded in magical darkness as it was entering the bay. The RHC ship moved quickly to engage the smuggler ship. The Cherno Bezna's engines had been shut down to allow for silent running by oars, and the team took full advantage of the slower ship to quickly close distance and open fire. They managed to damage the Bezna's propulsion as her crew frantically moved to restart the ship's engine.

The cultists immediately realized they would never outrun the Khalundurrin with their ship already damaged and moved to attack. The ships circled each other for several minutes vying for superior positions. The Bezna managed to strafe the Khalundurrin's hull once before she came about and hammered into the Bezna's broadside at close range. The withering volley of cannon fire breached the Bezna's boiler, belching a pillar of flame into the night sky. The Bezna was dead in the water and the explosion even destroyed the arcane apparatus that shrouded the ship in darkness.

With their quarry becalmed, the team decided to leave the Bezna adrift in the middle of the bay while they returned to the docks to retrieve the rest of B-team. They then returned to the Bezna and boarded her using the Khalundurrin's rowboats. The team didn't want to bring their ship up alongside the Bezna in case the terrorists had bombs aboard that they could use in suicide attacks. Upon reaching the Bezna's deck, the team was greeted by an eerily silent ship strewn with Dwarven corpses.

The team cautiously descended the stairs into the ship's lower deck, skirting the smoldering hole where the ship's smokestack once stood.

GM: The players really had fun with the ship combat, and their final attack was brutally decisive. They rolled a natural 19 on the attack roll at close range and scored a whopping 5 strikes in total. This whole encounter actually took three sessions to complete. I waited to post until we finished the entire thing. I'll post the rest later today.

 

[RangerWickett]

Glad to see this is still going on. Dare I assume there are monsters on the loose?

 

[Isklexi]

The Doomed Ship, Cherno Bezna

The constables had to use sunrods to see in the darkness belowdecks. The lower deck was littered with broken crates and barrels strewn amidst more corpses. The keen-eyed Josiah spotted something amiss in the gloom. One of the fallen cultists was wedged halfway through a door. The door was pulled mostly closed, concealing what lay beyond, and the prone dwarf appeared to be twitching. Carlao cautiously approached the dwarf and leaned down to see if he was still alive. Suddenly, the door burst open and a hideous, amorphous creature composed of darting eyes and wailing mouths surged forth to attack him.

The gibbering monstrosity barreled into the midst of the constables and immediately began lashing out at everyone on the lower deck. The constables were able to overwhelm the insane monster but not before several of them were injured. The party decided to rest briefly and search this deck carefully before proceeding into the ship's hold. They discovered the captain's cabin and his logbook. Scattered throughout the relatively mundane entries about the ship's course, they found diary-like entries that the fanatical captain had made regarding their mission.

The Eschatologists had captured beasts from the Malice lands and had intended to release them into Flint to cause panic and chaos. However, not everything had gone according to plan for the Cherno Bezna's captain. The logbook revealed growing unrest amongst the crew's engineers who spent most of their time tending to the engine in the hold. Starting with the engineers, the entire crew had slowly succumbed to paranoia and dread. Even though the monster's cages were magically warded to prevent them from affecting anything beyond their confines, the crew complained of mysterious whispers and flitting shadows. By the last entry, even the captain was eager to see the end of their mission and their cargo.

The constables decided to press on and make sure that no other monsters were left alive aboard the ship. Carlao was the first to jump down into the ships hold. He barely had time to stand upright before a horribly mutated displacer beast pounced on him from the darkness. It was joined by a spiked behemoth that quickly moved to feed on the fresh prey. The other constables quickly descended into the hold to rescue Carlao while Josiah, Kaea, and Gaethan remained on the upper deck and peppered the beasts with ranged attacks through the hole in the deck. The constables managed to defeat the twin monstrosities after a brutal fight. Carlao ensured their repose with multiple sword thrusts through their skulls after they went down.

The weary constables climbed back up the half-ruined stairs to the upper deck of the Cherno Bezna, but the ill-fated ship had one last surprise to spring.

GM: The players did a marvelous job mopping up the monsters on the ship. I wanted to the ship to have a more foreboding atmosphere, so I had all the dwarves dead before the players even got aboard and added the captain's log for some exposition. I wanted the spooky feel to set up for the big finale.