The Exploits of Javelin Company, RHC Flint Chapter [Starting Cauldron Born!]

[al_fredo]

Screaming Malice

Well, it's been a while!

Just a quick update. Lots of roleplaying and tailing suspects. Keeping track of who is where and when it is happening is a bit of a challenge for the DM in this mission, but so far so good. I also threw 2 red herring NPCs in the mix, but it's tough to roleplay and have them interact with: Luc, Ottavia, Bree, Boone, Verzubak, Elanor, Isobel, Malia, Damata, Cardiff...and any other minor characters!

At this point, they hate Elanor...think Bree/Boone are shady, but not working together, and have had limited interaction with Luc (I think he got on last stop). They pretty much know Damata is just sightseeing at this point. They carry or wear gold rings with fake Obscurati messages (that are actually really good, "Opulence Breeds Kings" for example). The last words are either 4 or 5 letters long, so while the 5-letter wearers may get away with it, the 4-letters I feel SHOULD be somewhat known...especially to Lya. I know the Ob is compartmentalized....So I'm guessing Ottavia would be fooled, since she is not Golden Cell - but would certainly think it odd that another cell is on the train. Bree likely will be fooled. Certainly, the party can't pose as Caius, but maybe Finona. It depends if they think of this and how deep cover they want to get. Though...it seems as if Ottavia gets tipped off no matter what. That's fine, they only had a partial success on covers.

Anyways...they are close to tipping their hand they they are actively following them. They were thwarted by the dock barricade in the last town. Then we get to the Malice...and they immediately charge into the fight. This will potentially blow their cover, or at least the non bodyguard types and those that fought in the open. The defeated the Malice...and saw the robbers up ahead. We ended there at about round 14, a few train cars away, and the bandits spot them on the train's roof.

I figure they'll mount up quickly, and bolt, and there will be no battle - but we ended on that cliffhanger.

The Malice was tough...but I'd advice making sure DM's move it as close to the train without the 'order' damage (so 1 sq?). I had it start farther out, but the heads' range is that big, and it turns out it's hard to target multiple PCs. They were REALLY mad when they put a ton of conditions on one head, only to have to explode into spawn, and have those conditions be cleared. In the end, the wizard rolled 34 on Arcana, so he new about how the creature takes damage, and specifically that killing spawn hurt the main creature. Useful! They also intervened quickly, keeping the civilian deaths to around 16.

 

[al_fredo]

Trekhom to Naalam

Next Session:

No combat with the robbers, although they get close. They sit tight to Trekhom. Another round of recon, doing the whole "sit in the lobby and watch as people pass by, decide to tail or not" routine. It's getting hard to maintain cover at this point, but at the very least the rogue is nailing her Stealth checks.

Irieaga (our rouge) follows Cardiff to the warehouse. Stays out of sight and sees the deal go down. She doesn't interfere. She's kinda bummed that the lead was a dead end.

Riardon (our wizard) decides to tail Luc/Ottavia. The group had at least one 'fail' on the crew of bodyguard tailing them...so when Riardon followed them out of the bar to the lighthouse, guards were there and made sure he dispersed. He left without any info. Back at the bar, he was able to eavesdrop in the private meeting with Elanor. Riardon is Eladrin himself, so he is very interested in this situation. He drunkenly challenges her in the tavern to release her, but Elanor just waves him off. Riardon was a bit drunk (in game, and IRL!)

Cleric and Fighter (Keyln & Bo): Decide to tail Olivert. They are pretty sure he is the serial killer at this point. Olivert decides to hit on Keyln and playing it up, she decides that maybe she can get info or at least stop him from killing. They go back to hotel and they have sex! This was a first for me in a D&D campaign! HAHA
Olivert decides that Keyln isn't a good target for his curse...she's too visible. He says he has to go, and heads to the bar.

Bo was keep watch, and decides to aggressively tail Boone. When he fails his Stealth check, Boone challenges him to stop folllowing him. Bo says "No, what are you going to about". Boone, frustrated, heads to bar..tries to wait out BO, but it doesn't work. He returns to the hotel, frustrated that he didn't get his kill. On the walk back, he has the quick run-in with Mr. Mapple.

====To Nalaam

Luc's crew try their tricks. Bree name drops Caius' name..and I have the party roll Bluff checks. I don't think they completely rolled well, but at this point....they've been pretty obvious that they are not 'normal' first class passengers. Damata approaches our fight and explains his predicament. The party is UNMOVED! They decide he must live with his bad choices, they aren't mercs for hire...and don't want to further blow their cover. Sorry Damata...but you are on your own. Also...no cash was a problem!

They head off to the arena, and see the spectacle before them. Mr. Mapple is rocking it, and says his little speech, and the pyrecat shows up. The party is surprised to recognize his name. We ended there, with the party wondering if they should get involved to help Mapple, free Isobel...or do nothing.

 

[al_fredo]

Ok....Not sure what happened to my party. Wanted to lay low I guess.

Mr. Mapple at the arena. They like him, but didn't want to intervene. They see him get dragged off.

Auction for Isobel. Even our Eladrin male Vekeshi Mystic watches with indifference. While they hate Elanor, apparently this, plus Mapple calling her out wasn't enough to persuade them. They didn't want to blow their cover...never mind that they typically always get caught by Boone tailing him.

At the train station, they see the Griento widow. INDIFFERENCE!

The Nem trap springs, they run into Boone...and ignore him. They fight their way through the train, made easier because of only 14 vestiges. They get to the top, and are now fighting the Wraith. It's grabbed by the fighter, and can't do it's neat push trick, but oh well. I feel like this train fight scene is too easy - so other DM's feel free to ramp this up!

Anyways...we stopped in mid combat. I'm guessing my party figures that they have been made at this point!

 

[RangerWickett]

Boo.

 

[al_fredo]

@rangerwickett: Yeah, it's a bummer. They've avoided a lot of combat so far.

Question: They will likely try and take Ottavia prisoner and want to interrogate her. How much will she divulge, how wiling will she be able to stay in custody...or how will the PCs be able to keep her while still trying to get to Vendrricce?

 

[RangerWickett]

Bear with me. It's been a while since I worked on the first act of the campaign, so I might have forgotten a few bits about who's above Ottavia in the hierarchy.

Ottavia knows:

There's a group that is trying to remove the corrupt from power in Crisillyir. They recruited her.

They have wider goals that involve making the world a better place somehow. This has something to do with magic from other worlds. Luc Jierre was working on that research, and Caius Bergeron was arranging for him to meet the leaders of the organization. He wanted Ottavia to be a guard, and sent along other bodyguards too.

Han Jierre, sovereign of Danor, is at least sympathetic to this organization, if not part of it. But he's not going to be at the meeting. The meeting will occur at a private train depot in Vendricce at time X on day Y. Ottavia doesn't know who they'll be meeting.

As for the organization's operations in Crisillyir, take a look at the officers from Crisillyir who are mentioned in Adventure Seven. One of them is Ottavia's mentor/contact/what-have-you. Dealing with their activities would be exceedingly complicated since they're part of Clergy hierarchy, and the politics of Crisillyir are baroque and kind of secretive to begin with. I imagine most of what Ottavia has been up to is spying on the hierarchs to find out who would be receptive to the organization's recruitment, and who needs to suffer a fall from grace.

Ottavia knows nothing about Axis Seal rituals or the colossus in Flint.



As for getting her to Vendricce, Ashima-Shimtu could send her along with the party, and Risuri contacts in Vendricce could get her onto the party's ship to take back as a prisoner.

 

[al_fredo]

Next session.

Well, they finished off the Wraith, which got a bit hard under the figured out how to time their attacks with someone hitting it with radiant/force first. It got off the push, one missed the save and got thrown from the train. I ruled that she could jump back on, but I put her a just few cars back. The set-up of "PC will lose 10+rounds of combat" is not fun. As a DM, I would recommend using some other affect here.



They didn't really get the whole time issue of this battle. It requires knowledge of how planar travel to Nem works, and with no Skyseer - and no PC inquiring about it, they didn't know the danger. I kept mentioning the dimming of the sky.

Ok...so they smash the lantern, and pop back. They stumble upon Boone still woozy in the hall way, and drag him into a compartment. They find Bree's note. OK, so the beat him up badly (break his kneecaps)...and interrogate. Boone says about what he knows - Guarding Ottavia/Luc, the other body guards - yeah I'm cursed. Meanwhile, our rogue takes his pistol. I don't know how it's worded, because Boone is still the "last living wielder". I might have messed up here, but told the rogue she felt the weapon was cursed...she unloaded the weapon, and gave it back to Boone.

They see Bree, Luc and Ottavia get off the train. A long debate ensued. They wanted to search their compartment and/or just wait for them back on the train. They figure they know they need to be in Vendericce - so they figure they can just get there some way. But finally, they relent and decide to tail the carriage to the Isle.

At the harbor, once again, they debate just staying here and waiting. The foreboding Isle didn't help things (why go there?)...and giving them clues about lighthouses and lights didn't connect any dots for them. Nor the 500GP for going. At the end, they rent a row boat and get out there.

Ottavia starts speaking with them...and they decide to play the "Hey, were are Obsurati agents...why are you trying to kill us" angle. They say "Hey, we knew Caius, he hired us - we're supposed to be at the meeting in Venderrice". They roll Bluff, but I don't bother with it. How doesn't Bree know this. How doesn't Ottavia know of these people. She says, "Well, I don't trust you...but if you are who you say you are, you know where/when to meet in Venderrice. I suggest you leave the island."

We stopped there, with time enough for me to think about - do i have the dead spawn and for them to stay on the island? If they leave, then what? I don't really think they have convinced anyone that they work for the Obsucrati (though, they have gold OB rings they made that follow the formula of tier 4/5). I feel like Ottavia would know...and knows for sure that these are some kind of hostile agents. So want to do...maybe she just attacks right off the bat next session. Half the part seem determined to lay as low as possible, the other half want to kill anyone in sight. It's interesting.

Appreciate thoughts!

 

[hirou]

Ottavia wouldn't know anyone from Gold cell, they are secretive after all. If you want to strand them in Crypta, let the undead wreck their boat, they're supposed to be unable to leave until dawn. In my game PCs made Ottavia doubt her loyalty and they made a run throughCrypta together with much fun (Ottavia got burnt on the pyre to test her resolve, I think she got a few levels now...)

 

[al_fredo]

Continuing:

Well...I didn't have my best stuff last night! Anyways, they parlayed with Ottavia at the lighthouse, and I just couldn't see why she'd auto-attack at this point, if this group said they were in the Ob, and had decent replicate rings - that all followed good patterns. They weren't in her cell, so literally, the only thing odd was the fact they made contact in the first place.

Ottavia resigned. Said, hey - this is actually a trap, you should hide out in the lighthouse for the night (thus, at least protecting Luc.) The PCs never questioned her connection to Luc...and never saw her. They just were speaking with her in their minds. She stayed hidden at the top of the lighthouse.

PCs hear a voice from below, and the zombies start attacking. They barricade...and go below, pretty much confused as to why they want to walk into an obvious trap, but whatever.

They meet Gene, but dispatch him pretty easily. They knew Something was up with the mirrors...only 2 Dopplegangers were created. Our cleric as pretty good leader lock down, and fights against a single boss are pretty easy for my group. Even though I have 4 (not 5) PCs...and purposefully did NOT level them up yet mid adventure. This fight was STILL pretty easy. DMS: I say extend the radius of the mirrors to 4 squares...and adjust the max as you see fit depending on how your group is going. Gene has no ranged attacks, so against a group that bunches up, it's not all the great. He never got close to 6 charges on his ability. Oh well.

Gene died and we stopped there. On to Shimtu.

 

[al_fredo]

Boom boom...long hiatus, trying to finish Adv #4. Final act.

They meet Shimtu. So they are skeptical, and kinda want to get back to the train, but I reminded them there are 1000s of undead outside. Also, they never actually SAW Ottavia (she is hiding upstairs, waiting for morning). Anyways, they think they may want to free her, but also considering this is a side-herring...they just jump in and go to Vendricce.

They have contacts there, so they find the private depot and figure that is where the VIPs are gonna be. It's rumored that Lya is in town, so they are curious about that. They stake out the hotel, find that they are being watched, but find nothing. They split up, all to the main station, 1 at the private depot in the tree line. The train arrives and the main group see no VIPs, so they hustle over to the private depot in cover.

So...at this point I have 'shadowy people' arrive (realize this was a mistake). But the way this is set up is that everyone is in the Bleak Gate version, except for train passengers, Lya (who shows up out of nowhere) and the two mages in the buildings (outside the latern affect?). Weird. Our party is mostly staked out by those buildings, so I'm just shifting the mages in bleak gate near platform.

Lya and Luc embrace. The party breaks cover just as the latern activates to reveal a ton of guards in the newly revealed BG version of the depot...and we ended there. Might finish this next session.

My party is down to 3 PCs, so have to do some adjustments!