ZEITGEIST The Flint Irregulars, whose portraits you may have seen

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They have some suspicions. In the post above where I mentioned my alternate lyrics for Working-Class Hero, I was actually performing each line as Rackus, guitar in hand. We'd talk/RP for a while, then I'd do a new line. Once we had a fourth line, I did the whole stanza.

So I think they do eventually expect a full performance of at least the alternate Working-Class Hero. But I've also been riffing idly on Uprising in the background during their conversations with Rackus, to lay the groundwork for that. I won't be changing the lyrics there, the existing lyrics work just fine. I'm mulling over additional songs at the moment.

 

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More Planar Trails
Last night they split up: Viveen, Reginald, and Vesta went to Xambria's apartment, Bela went to report Caius death to Delft, and Murdok stayed at the crime scene until they could turn it over to RHC/local cops.

Murdok fiddled around with the trunk for a while, but couldn't find the false bottom. Since she only failed her Perception check by one, I deliberately hinted heavily that there was a secret compartment, but that Murdok just couldn't quite figure it out. That earned me a couple of middle fingers from Murdok's player.

Delft was distressed to learn that yet another person of interest in the case had turned up dead, but he did observe wryly that "at least they didn't die in custody for once." After updating Delft, Bela set off after his comrades to Xambria's apartment.

At the apartment, the first three constables to arrive found signs of a struggle, but no signs of forced entry. After some looking around, interviewing neighbours and the dormitory caretaker, they finally tried the planar energy ritual, and found a strong trail that they could follow. It led them to the back wall of Lady Saxby's extravagant estate on the North Shore -- they declined to talk to the guards or even alert the guards to their presence. Instead, they followed the trail away from the estate to an empty dock.

Bela followed the same trail and made the same decisions, not too far behind his colleagues.

The constables sought out records of which ships had been moored at the now-empty dock recently. Bela caught up while this search was going on. The most recent ship, a chartered cutter called the Dagger, matched up with the timeline of Xambria's disappearance and Caius' death.

DM Notes
That was where we stopped for the night. I expect they'll most likely return to HQ, talk it over with Delft, and decide whether to take their own boat or requisition a faster one.

The players all reported enjoying the whole planar trails sequence a great deal. They seemed to like how open it was, even though once or twice they weren't really sure what they "should" be doing next. I'm pretty impressed that we've spent two full months on 4 pages of adventure content (planar trails, the chat with Rackus, the assassination attempt, and Caius' death). It made my life extremely easy -- not a lot of prep at all.

 

[Raak]

This was a great read! Thanks for posting it.

What version of maptools do you use? I'm trying to get your campaign file to load on the one I have, but can't seem to get it to work.

 

[Ajar]

Thanks! We use 1.3b86.

We've had one session since I last posted, but it was mostly spent on planning our upcoming August get-together. I have a lot of prep to do before then so I'll be ready to run at least the rest of Digging for Lies live! We'll see how that goes .

After some discussion about what to do next, the constables called in a favour to hitch a ride on the RNS Impossible instead of trying to take their small cutter so far beyond its base range. With some timely intimidation of military functionaries, they succeeded! So I'll get to drop some more of Miller's philosophy as Captain Rutger Smith. Should be a good time.

We're going to have a short session next week to wrap things up in Flint -- notably the ball to which the Lord Viscount invited Viveen.

 

[Ajar]

One of my players snuck up to the seal of Mavisha while the rest stayed on the RNS Impossible and sailed it at the rear of Il Dracon De Mer.

So now I get to run two encounters at once. And this week, we're playing around a live table. THIS IS MADNESS!

 

[Ajar]

My players broke the whole Mavisha seal sequence.

They obtained passage to the seal site on the RNS Impossible, which allowed for some enjoyable philosophizing with Captain Rutger Smith. Since we just had the conspiracy poll, I mentioned that Captain Smith had just acquired a new Millerite text: a thought experiment about a hypothetical civilization where people were just a little bit more empathetic (hello, Miller's Pyre). My players responded with the obvious "mob mentality" reasoning, but I held back and didn't include the other Pyre elements. I'm going to introduce those and other conspiracy possibilities as they interact with Smith and other Millerites in the future.

At the seal site, the Impossible kept her distance so as not to be fired upon by Il Draçon de Mer. They signalled the Dagger and pulled alongside to confer with Xambria. They noticed that Xambria was clearly uncomfortable with the attentions of Captain Jack, so the constables offered to let her come onto the Impossible. She agreed, but as soon as the Dagger sailed away, they immediately began pressing her about the amulet. Reginald explained very patiently about what the constables found at the ziggurat, their interaction with the Voice of Rot, and their concerns about Xambria's Golden Icon of Apet -- he wanted her to take it off so that they could determine if the Apet energy they sensed was from her or the icon.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party devised a plan whereby Paco, the goblin archaeologist on the the Dagger, would take a pyrotechnics scroll and use it to distract Il Draçon so the Impossible could close.

Sijhen was very suspicious of Reginald, and ultimately refused to surrender the icon. When Murdok threatened to take it by force, Sijhen used the Icon's power to teleport off the Impossible into the water, and began swimming toward the seal site.

Five constables dove into the water after her.

Il Draçon noticed this, and began battle preparations, but Sijhen turned invisible immediately afterward and the constables were forced to head back to the ship... except for Murdok, who made a great Stealth check and was able to keep swimming unnoticed.

She swam all the way to the seal site without being detected. Reginald, a Psion, sent his consciousness fragment along with her to ensure that the party had eyes on her.

Captain Smith quickly asked if the constables wanted to put their plan into action. They agreed, so the Dagger set off and the Impossible began to come about to approach Il Draçon. Reginald's Bluff and Captain Smith's Command were more than enough to deceive Il Draçon.

So we had Murdok, the human ranger (scout), on the ocean floor, with only Reginald's consciousness fragment along with her. She dealt some damage to the team down at the seal before being knocked out...

...and then rolled a natural 20 on her second death save.



While the underwater battle progressed, the Impossible caught up to Il Draçon de Mer, so we had a boarding action on the surface plus a battle 50' below the surface down at the seal of Mavisha.

Murdok and Reginald's consciousness fragment, psychic anomaly, and whatever the heck else he can conjure ended up being remarkably effective against the underwater team. I wasn't prepared for this encounter (I was planning to just run the boats), so the sharks were a lot more ineffective than they should have been, but Murdok's ability to charge without worrying about hindering terrain or opportunity attacks turned the tide of the battle after she made her critical death save.

Up on the surface, the Impossible closed on Il Draçon from behind to avoid cannon fire. Once they closed, Bela (the gunsmith warlock) filled the Draçon's captain, Bernard, full of holes and then pulled him off the boat and into the sea, only to be basically keelhauled by the Impossible as both boats continued moving. (He failed his save even with the +5 for being pulled over a railing.)

Bela was riddled with crossbow bolts by the two dwarf mercenaries on Il Draçon, but Viveen (the runepriest) healed him before diving over the railing and swimming down to the dig site to help Murdok.

Underwater, Reginald noticed through his consciousness fragment that something was dragging Finona's corpse (Murdok got the last hit and decided it was lethal) away -- that would be an invisible Sijhen. He telekinetically levitated it up off the sea floor, but Sijhen will respond with telekinesis of its own... and that was where we stopped.

Since we're all on vacation together at a lake house, I should have another update tomorrow.

 

[Ajar]

Addendum: Sijhen is pretty close to the seal, so in addition to grabbing Finona's corpse, I think it will also open the seal, just to give the constables that much more to deal with while it escapes.

The jig may be up for Xambria, but it doesn't really change how Act 3 unfolds as long as Sijhen gets away here -- which seems likely.

 

[Ajar]

Session Notes
Sijhen and Reginald had a brief telekinetic battle over Finona's corpse, but Sijhen was more than a match for the psion. It moved over to the seal, broke the ward, and swam away with the dead tiefling in telekinetic tow. The portal opened and a water elemental poured out, followed by nine bizarre fish-men. Seeing this, the constables and their remaining enemy -- the mercenary druid Kranto - immediately ceased hostilities to focus on lifting the seal back into place and reactivating the wards.

On the surface, with Bernard effectively being keelhauled and the Impossible's crewmen with Vesta winning the battle for Il Draçon, Bela shouted at the crew to surrender. Combined with the slowly forming whirlpool, most of the mercenaries concluded that they weren't being paid enough for this , and gave in. A few of them shouted at Bela to take the wheel and help them get away from the whirlpool. The crews tossed grappling hooks across to enable Bela to get to Il Draçon and take the wheel. Captain Smith shouted at him to pull back and allow the faster Impossible to handle pickup of the underwater constables. It was at this point that Vesta leapt off Il Draçon to try and swim down to the dig site, having waited until the ship was as close as possible.

With some solid Command checks, both captains were able to evade the currents and dangerous rocks, and Il Draçon retreated while the Impossible continued circling the dig site. Vesta's swim check -- well, dive check, really -- was sufficient to get him most of the way down toward the battle, despite the currents.

Murdok and Viveen were blasted by planar energy from Mavisha, but Murdok found it surprisingly refreshing (high enough check result to get a healing surge and action point). Viveen was unaffected. Lucky for them, since the Mavisha elemental tore up the remaining octopus and began to pummel them as they alternated between attacking it and working on rigging the fallen seal to the nearby winch. Kranto swam up to the crank, and started hauling the seal up once the rigging was hooked up. Vesta swam over to the wards, and recognizing the magic as similar to what he'd seen in the ziggurat of Apet, began priming the wards so the seal could reset.

A survey of the overall scene, with the boats above and the aquatic battle below:



And then a closeup of the seal being raised back into position:



Just as Murdok landed a critical hit on the elemental, killing it, Vesta finished reactivating the wards, re-sealing the portal.

All six players breathed a sigh of relief. They had the Impossible pick up Bernard, rather than letting him get back on his (former) ship.

They then signalled La Inspiración, so that they could talk to Paco and figure out what to do about the seal and the dig site.

Bela searched Finona's quarters and found a detailed letter from Caius Bergeron, with a clue about a meeting in early winter...


DM Notes
Sijhen escaped with Finona's body, which will allow it to eat her brain and learn what it needs to know... so I can run Act 3 basically as planned.

I was pretty amazed that all of my players survived this. When Murdok swam to the dig site alone, I was pretty sure she was going to die. And I did drop four of the six players, some more than once, but between Murdok's natural 20 on her death save, some timely heal checks, and the extra healing surge from a critical success on the hydromantic energy save, the dice were definitely in the players' favour.

Running the simultaneous surface/aquatic battle was pretty crazy, but the players loved it -- having to time things on the boats so that players jumping overboard could get to the dig rather than being swept out to sea.

When they get back to Flint, it will be time for the inaugural concert in Rock Rackus' JAILBREAK tour!

 

[Ajar]

Some notes from the final session of our week-long player/DM vacation.

Session Notes
They unloaded the Crisillyri mercenaries in Ber, and then returned to Flint with Il Draçon, captained by Bela and crewed by spare soldiers from the Impossible. Vesta, an eladrin, actually wanted to execute the Crisillyri, but the other constables dissuaded him, and Captain Smith noted that while commandeering Il Draçon might not trigger an international incident, slaughtering her crew likely would.

On the return to Flint, Delft wanted to see them immediately, having left a watch at the docks in case they returned. He explained that Reginald had been cleared and was reinstated, that Maitland had indeed quietly resolved the issue of Tyler Starke as promised, and that Hans Weber was planning a gala and had received a strange letter from Xambria Meredith. Finally, he added that a warehouse rented by Caius Bergeron had been found, and that they should check it out.

The constables took all of this in with their usual aplomb -- that is to say, they asked tons of questions. The letter in particular intrigued them, with its mentions of words like 'Sijhen' and 'Obscurati.' They asked if Weber had heard of either one, and he had not. They then went to visit the skyeers at Nevard's Henge, but they had not heard of such things either. Reginald asked if the seals they had found had any relation to skyseer lore, but the answers were fairly vague. The effects the constables reported did seem to line up with the view of the skyseers that the planes are other worlds that govern or predict our lives, but there was some disagreement about the implications of the seals.

Bela and Vesta investigated the warehouse, finding a box that looked to have been used to transport the Seal of Apet, along with some documents matching the train shipment that they tracked from Bole. This definitively linked Bergeron to the seal.

They also tried to detect planar energy, and caught a signature moving along Stanfield Canal. However, before they could pinpoint which ship it was coming from, they lost track of it.

Next, it was time to attend Rock Rackus' concert! I put on my best Rock Rackus duds and picked up the guitar that Bela's player had brought along to the lake house. Viveen's player, my girlfriend, recorded it on her phone for posterity.

ROCK RACKUS PRESENTS: WE HAD A THREESOME / RISURI DOCKER

The reaction at the table was... well, you can hear some of it in the video.

DM Notes
I reasoned that by this point, local cops would have come upon Bergeron's empty warehouse, and word of it would have filtered over to the RHC and Delft. This gave them an extra thing to investigate between their return to Flint and the Gala of the Ancients.

I'm also using the suggested diversion in the adventure, where Sijhen hires a redhead to captain a barge and run it up and down Stanfield Canal to confuse the PCs. That seems to be working so far.

 

[Ajar]

I've been working ludicrous hours since coming back, but we should be starting up again this week or next week. In the meantime, to complement the Rock Rackus video performance linked above, I thought I would post the lyrics of the closing song from his Jailbreak Tour set. As I mentioned, one of my players sent me a complete set of alternate lyrics around the "we had a threesome" theme, based on the verse that we came up with in a previous session. But after their talk with Rock, he had a change of heart, so he modified the song for the actual performance (which was recorded for posterity and is linked above, with yours truly as Rock Rackus).

We Had A Threesome / Risuri Docker (to the tune of Working-Class Hero)
Gather ‘round dockers, come one and come all
I'll tell you a story with words truthful all
A stirring tale of a gent who is not small
We had a threesome: Kate, Courtney, and me

Rock Rackus left Flint and left his barstool
He travelled about; made good use of his tool
He met half elven twins and they made him drool
We had a threesome: Kate, Courtney, and me

But Rock couldn’t leave Flint for long, as you know
No matter how comely the moon’s lovely glow
One man can on-ly take ten times in a row
We had a threesome: Kate, Courtney, and me

Rock came back to Flint but he found it was changed
The skies and the stars and the hills re-arranged
His be-lov-ed dockers, he found them in chains
But a Risuri docker is something to be

‘Twas too near en-slavement, Rock could not a-bide
The state of the dockers, while rich men were snide
What else could he do then but swallow his pride
A Risuri docker is something to be
A Risuri HERO is something to be
If you want to be a hero, then just follow me…