ZEITGEIST The affirmative action racial recruitment team of the RHC

[Andrew Moreton]

The group returned to Flint and passed a few weeks on busywork before on the 1st of Summer being summoned to a meeting with Delft. Arriving they met with Drelft and Laura Cynberg the director of Infiltration who chided them for not having arrested the Collossus, Nevla laughed at her, Manuel suggested they needed bigger handcuffs. Delft made indications not to take her too seriously. They read the newspaper article and agreed getting their hands on Tinker was a priority and then teleported to Slate.

They were unsuprised to meet with Principle Minister Harkover as well as the Head of the RHC, so far as they can tell Harkover is the Kings left hand doing all the unpleasent and sneaky things a kingdom needs doing. They have had this opinion since he violated all of several criminals civil rights by using Dominate person or Vile Necromancy to interrogate them as appropriate. El Kevin wants to use this as a precedent for him to use mind control spells to interrogate people, the rest of the team point out this was an act either illegal or justifiable under some sort of Crimes against the state secret legislation.

They learn about the situation in Ber , not that there is much to learn and hear about Tinker's sending reply. El Kevin and Manuel wonder if you could use coded laughter to tranmit more data than the traditional 25 words but Manuel concludes the spell tracks the informational bandwidth of the communication and you would not be able to get extra information. They fail to notice the complete absence of mention of the Risuri embassy .

They consider arriving in disguise but decide not to as Brakken will be waiting for them and they have no disgusie for a 10 foot tall Mithril steam battlesuit which Manuel is taking with him. Manuel wishes he had one more level so he could wear the suit as an amulet.

To be continued

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The constables arrive in full uniform amid a giant protest march and are briefly overwhelmed by the spectacle , they are even more impressed by the natives ability to handle Wigs, and heavy tight fitting suits in a hot environment. Several people notice their arrival and they notice that Brakken is not in sight, Rodrigo a Minotaur and member of the Panoply greets them (Manuel and El Kevin try to remember if they have killed anyone called Rodrigo's father) they ask him about the protest and what is going on around them , the answers satisfy them and they finally notice the orc in a police uniform trying to get their attention, he demands their attendance at a trial at once they look slightly puzzled as he is neither their senior officer or a small army and so cannot really demand anything of them, the jeers of the crowd make this more clear.

After consulting with Rodrigo and remembering what they can about Beran law ,(again the lightning weasel demonstrated its growing knowledge base) they decided that they want to find Brakken he is at this trial and the Eduadors executionares Liberte (or whatever their name is) are not to be taken lightly even if this constable is. He tries to lead them proudly to the trial but it ends up rather looking like he is tagging along as the constables stride forward. El Kevin is puzzled by his complete failure to spot a single kobold in the crowd. He is split between paranoia about something strange happening to Kobolds or tha they are the super stealthy secret masters of Ber, Manuel points out that being super stealthy does not make you in charge as he is not in charge of anything.

They arrive at the court and are impressed by the dragon statue, El Kevin is saddened to see such a mighty being brought low. They are introduced to Glaucia who explains court procedures and the law they realise that they have a problem. While they immediatly deduce that it was a set up , Brakken did use telepathic powers and that is a crime, so initially they see only a scenario where everyone is found guilty. They think about this for some time and then realise that because the incident was a set up the orcs chose to stop fighting , Brakken did not in fact compel them to stop indeed they only stopped becuase they felt his psychic power and then chose to stop so that they could frame Brakken. Nevla interviews the orcs under the pressure of Glaucia's truth magic and the whole sordid story comes out , combined with the constables testimony about how Brakken was a hero who had saved thousands of workers lives in Risur through his use of psychic powers to warn them of the collossus and revealed a conspiracy all of which hs worked to improve the opinion of Ber of the common people in Risur it is enough to get Brakken off with a rap across the knuckles and to get the orcs beaten to a bloody pulp which satisfies the crowd. Glaucia informs them she will accompany them to the Bruse tommorrow and they feel it unwise to decline her 'offer' even though it is clear she is not a political friend to the Bruse.

They also managed to get the name of the man who hired them from the orcs and recognise it as Rush Munchausen bodyguard to Lya, this foreign connection further annoys Glaucia who wishes to speak with Rush
Still to be continued

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Brakken was rather grateful for their help even though it looks bad for his diplomatic career and he accompanied them and Rodrigo set out to find the Journalist Maria and he leads her to the Panoply house she dwells in. They collect their leaflet of millarite philosophy and remember that it was the thing the Captain of the Impossible talked about. They settle down for a chat with the Panoply and Maria and end up talking about the industrial trust they have set up in Flint and the efforts it is making to improve the lot of the workers and the environment. This interests Maria and they are starting to get on well. Manuel provides coffee from the epresso machine build into his steam suit fed by pure elemental water and heated by elemental fire.
El Kevin has crept off to try and find lurking Kobolds as part of his developing conspiracy theory about Kobolds in Ber , he does not find any but does discover the front door and returns to warn the others , they start to prepare as a darkness spell strikes. Things soon go poorly for the attackers Rush attacks Ulvaar with no real effect, 4 skulkers stab each of Nevla and Manuel , then Nevla triggers a daylight spell, El Kevin guns down 2 skulks , Manuel aims at the wizard to interupt his casting and Ulvaar starts to beat on Rush , who then gets backstabbed by Padme which triggers his gatecrasher charm.
on

The next morning Brakken , Glaucia and the constables set off to the Bruse's court and encounter the empty plinth commemorating 'El Extrano' once more El Kevin gets more paranoid.

We end the session there as we have no time for Tyrannosaurs.

By this time I have realised there is a distince potential for El Kevin to defect to El Extrano or more likely Pemberton when he is revealed as a dragon this is unfortunate but I am sure his replacement will be equally crazy as the player has form

 

[RangerWickett]

I love the kobold conspiracy.

Especially because I honestly forgot to include any in the scenes in Ber. We went back in the hardcover and added the 'inside joke pretending that kobolds don't really exist.'

 

[Andrew Moreton]

That does make it funnier

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The players have still not noticed the absence of the Risuri Ambassador , the Nock Gun strikes again twice and I underestimate the dangers of Goats.

We start with the Great Bison/Goat Stampede, the pc's scatter and Nevla hides in a tree to the east, Ulvaar hides up a tree east of the Road, Gluaci hides behind it. Manuel stands just behind the pit and digs his tower shield in , El Kevin climbs a tree to the west, Padme and Brakken hide South and West of the road.

A sea of Bison/Goats(we kept using the wrong term) fills the map, they tear El Kevin out of the tree as he has not gone far enough up and he gets trampled. Merton blows up the tree Ulvaar and Glaucia are in, it then falls on Manuel. Manuel fires his shotcannon into the stampede and avoids being overrun the tree hurts however. Ulvaar , Glaucia and El Kevin get trampled. El Kevin leaps acrobatically ontop of the herd and dances from Bison/Goat to Bison Goat , once he gets to his feet Ulvaar braces and avoids being knocked down, Nevla unleashes a blast of flame which drives the Goat/Bisons away from her.

2 Tyrannosaurs charge in from the west and attack El Kevin, both bite him and he is held between them, Manuel blasts one of the dino's with a Nock gun Vital strike but it lives!!, Nevla manages a burst of radiance which blinds both dinosaurs and El Kevin, El Kevin thinks he is in trouble so detonates a grenade in the dinosaurs mouth it drops him and he lands on 2 hp, thank to his boots of the cat which mean the fall from the Tyrannosaurs mouth does 2 hp rather than 2d6. Manuel activates rocket punch and punches the nearest tyrannosaurs head off (or given the height difference its leg off) the other blind tyrannosaur takes a lot of sneak attacks from Padme and lighting axe blows from Ulvaar and dies before it can see again. Murton slinks off because I think if he attacks I am likely to kill the badly inured Manuel and El Kevin.

The Goats crippled their movement and meant that the dino's were taking them one on one, if Nevla's long range spell had not blinded them they would have killed Manuel and El Kevin and Padme would have been in trouble.

Moving on from the ambush they reach the summer court and are offerred the challange of Adults they try to get Glaucia to arrest Murton but that would be a direct challange to the Bruse so she declines. Entering the Maze they soon loose Ulvaar who falls down several teleporter traps, they all wonder the maze and put down a number of bears managing to avoid killing all except one, Manuel uses a Nock gun firing none lethal ammo and the vital strike overkills the bear with Subdual damage.

Ulvaar on his own encounters the B.E.A.R and there is a fierce fight , the B.E.A.R goes down but not before mangling Ulvaar , they all manage to get out of the maze. Manuel stops to loot the B.E.A.R and is pleased to see Pemberton in the stands he likes Pemberton despite him being an amoral arms merchant........

I am looking forward to the Pemberton reveal no pc has a clue.

They are aware of the rail challange and discussed their future strategies and have decided to try to get the Orc on their team revealing their prior friendship and saying they do not want to put him on the spot be looking like he is going to throw things in their favour. They also decide to go all out on honesty and make sure that is published, they expect Lya or at least her bodyguards to try sabotage and want to catch them in the act .

 

[RangerWickett]

So I don't know if I ever posted this online, but if I had to pick some way to die, it would be for the first ever cloned tyrannosaurus rex to break free at the big press reveal, and before it can manage to kill anyone else, I distract it by waving a hand grenade in the air, and when it chomps down on me I pull the pin so right after it swallows me, its head explodes. I would love to be the first person every killed by and the first to kill a tyrannosaurus rex.

If anyone clones a dinosaur, yes, I'm going to smuggle a hand grenade into the press conference, just in case.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

My players have form for exploding T-Rexes.
During return to the Temple of Elemental Evil a gunslinger (also spanish) played by the player of Manuel was eaten by a T-Rex . Unfortunatly for the T-Rex he had a portable hole containing his Wine collection and a fully loaded Siege cannon , which he fired inside the T-Rex . He was deaf , tragically the wine collection was smashed and the T-Rex took 48 d6 damage and exploded

 

[Andrew Moreton]

It seems likely to me and the player that given a good chance El Kevin would defect to a dragon. This means in the final battle in the volcano he may well switch to Pembertons side. It looks like he will need to bring in a replacement character with El Kevin possibly rejoining them when they visit Pemberton on Axis Island in act 3 and he allies with them

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Actual write up to follow but during a conversation with Pemberton today Manuels player blurts out'He's a dragon and that means Harkover Lee is as well"

Totally surprised me all I had told them was that after a good sense motive roll that Pemberton was more intelligent than he was pretending to be, and from this revelation and the distrust of Harkover for Pemberton a revelation came. Manuel has not told El Kevin as he suspects El Kevin would defect to Pemberton immediately