ZEITGEIST The Hounds - a Zeitgeist Campaign

[MarkM]

As a quick editorial comment, I've been playing D&D for more than 20 years as an adult (with the same group) plus a few years in high school. I think the Dying Skyseer is one of the most interesting and well-done adventures I've ever seen or done. I wouldn't recommend it to new DMs or new players, but for anyone who already has some dungeon crawls under their belt and has mastered the basics, I think this adventure gives a masterclass on design and interesting intricate plots and investigation. I added a couple of small additional storylines to tap into or set up things from player backstories and also just to try to slow down a little to give time for Digging for Lies to come out on Roll20. This chapter was long and did have some frustrating moments for the players, but I think they were "good-frustrating" and will made their eventual triumph over the "Shadowman" and future rematch with the Steelshaper (who they just hated with a white-hot passion!) more rewarding.

 

[MarkM]

Session 9 (3-18-21):

We slept for the evening at the RHC and awoke the next morning to report in with Delft. Bell went off to his lab to run tests on the blood and potion vial while the rest of us met Delft as soon as he got in.
Delft congratulated us on how much we were able to find out in only a day but urged us to keep at it and see if we could bring resolution sooner rather than later.

As we were about to leave his office, a letter arrived for us from Security Chief Le Brix. It was a list of items missing, all mundane, but it included a message in Danoran that seemed to suggest continuing our investigation would be a good thing.

I don’t remember who it was that brought up speaking with the dead girl but Delft told us we definitely had people who could do that. The reliable spell wouldn’t be available for a day or two but he had a… less reliable means of having it done immediately if we wanted.

We figured that was better than nothing at this point and so Delft sent for a man named Gaethan.

When he arrived, it was obvious why Delft described him as “less reliable.” He was very odd. We told him we needed to know any associates the woman had, what she stole from the embassy and what she said to the Doctor just before she died.

He wrote it all down but then looked at me and said, “You need to find out who killed your loved one. Their soul is in a very bad place right now.”

How he knew anything about me… I recovered quickly but I’m sure the others could see my troubled face. They didn’t press it however and we moved on.

We talked to a couple other constables who were going to do a little searching for the “family wharf” situation but they also asked if Heward Sechim was related to the skyseer Sechim? I’m not sure how we missed that connection but we did. It was an interesting lead to track down.

But first, we planned to stop at the Parity Lake police station and see what they could tell us about the victim’s recent arrests.

That turned out to be the right call as Sylvia and Vic were able to get ahold of her arrest record that included not only her address but the address of Heward Sechim! And, they were the same location!

We made our way there immediately and found it was a factory. Two other factories close by had protestors outside but Sechim’s didn’t. Sylvia got on a soapbox about working conditions in factories and made it very clear where her political leanings were on the subject.

That carried over once we got inside and found Sechim as she started the conversation off by talking about his factory. We moved further away from the task when Gyldiel jumped in and started asking questions about his relationship to the Skyseer. I pulled the team back to why we were actually here though and we got down to questioning him about Nilasa.

Apparently she was his adopted daughter. He was afraid we were here for the reason we were as his uncle, the Skyseer, had told him she would fly to her death about a week ago.

He told us she came from a rough background and that she ran with the wrong crowd sometimes but he thought all that was over. He did say she’d become enamored with Gale and he thought perhaps had tried to reach out to her.

He also told us a couple of men had come by in the last week trying to strong arm him into selling them strong corrosive materials off the record. He asked us to help him with that if we could.

We thanked him for his time, searched her room (producing only a book on how to learn elvish), and made our way out.

We decided to meet up with Bell before heading out to the Cloudwood in search of the Skyseer. Heward intimated that the Skyseer knew Gale and could potentially get us an audience with her.

Following the instructions from Heward on getting up to his uncle, we made our way out to the Cloudwood.

A bit of excitement occurred when, at one point in the mountains, we heard sounds of a fight up ahead.

We found an overturned wagon, three men with guns beside it and a host of others with crossbows firing at the men.

Not quite sure what was happening, we spent a few tense seconds getting everyone to cease fire. When we finally accomplished that, the men in the wagon had kidnapped a woman from the other side. The kidnappers worked for Lorcan Kell and this was a power move to try and branch out into the Cloudwood. The others were little more than bandits themselves but they hadn’t broken any law we could tell and so we let them go. In thanks, they showed us the fastest way to the Skyseer.

Finally arriving at our destination, the Skyseer told us he could indeed set us up to meet with Gale but he needed a favor from us first. He wanted us to take him up Cauldron Hill so he could get above the smog for a clearer reading of the stars… Cauldron Hill! Yikes.

We agreed as it didn’t seem we had much choice. We decided to stay up here for the night and then try to get up to Cauldron HIll after that…

 

[MarkM]

Session 10 (3-25-21):

The next morning, we took a walk down the mountain to our carriage that was waiting. While traveling, Sechim spoke very directly to a few of my companions. What he said, though I didn’t understand it, actually made Vic tear up a bit and made Gyldiel angrier than I’ve seen him.

We dropped Sechim off at his nephew’s factory and made our way to the RHC to report. We interrupted a conversation between Delft and our senior leader, Margaret Saxby. We told them everything we’d learned so far and of Sechim’s request that we take him up Cauldron Hill in order to get him to agree to talking Gale into meeting us.

They processed all of that information and then Saxby recommended we take care of something for the mayor of the Nettles. He’d asked the RHC for help solving disappearances that had recently begun in his jurisdiction. We hadn’t taken it on yet but if we did this, it would give us a feather in our cap to ask the favor of him letting us up Cauldron Hill. She recommended beginning our search at Lastwatch Keep as it seemed centrally located to the disappearances.

Delft also told us the ghost whisperer reported back in. Unfortunately, he didn’t give us much we didn’t already know. New information was that she was attacked by a man with scars but no face.

We made our way to the Nettles and Gyldiel, who’d been placed in charge of this lead, began questioning folks we could find.

All of a sudden, there was the rumbling of an earthquake and a huge rock began tumbling down the hill towards us. When it passed, Vic noticed some shrieks coming from up where the rock had fallen. Running that direction, we found two goblins caught in a hunter’s trap. They begged us to let them go as their masters would be angry if they didn’t return to the keep with food. This seemed like a good enough lead…

We took them to the keep but just before we got there, Gyldiel took a swing at the goblins after they admitted to capturing and killing humans. He missed. Vic killed one and then the other started shouting. That’s when I acted and shot him dead with my crossbow.

At first, it didn’t seem like anyone heard and we made our way in. However, in the second room, an ambush was sprung on us. In addition to goblins, there were drow fighting us as well. They cast multiple faerie fires that eventually hit all my companions but me. I decided to drop a Fog Cloud spell as the enemy was about to shred us before we even had the chance to act.

It worked very well as it mostly protected us from their rain of arrows. There was a bit of chaos next though as Gyldiel ordered us all back into the hallway. The rest of my companions apparently don’t quite understand chain of command quite like I do coming from the military academy. They chose to ignore Gyldiel and pressed the attack.

The fight got a little scary as there were so many enemies. We held our own though and I eventually convinced our team to fall back to Gyldiel’s position. When we did, our enemies didn’t follow us though and, instead, set up their own defenses.

So, we pushed forward and eventually took them out after a long fight.

Interestingly, one of them seemed to recognize Gyldiel and called him “Slave 4031” or something like that. It left the impression that these Drow might actually be up here to capture or recapture Gyldiel. We decided to take a quick rest and perhaps have a little chat with our current group leader…

 

[MarkM]

Session 11 (4-1-21):

After taking a quick breather, we questioned the captured drow. He was a little more willing to talk than I thought but he still didn’t know too much. They were investigating something going on with the Bleak Gate? In addition, they were looking for the slave who was a “murderer.” This was later confirmed to be Gyldiel who admitted he’d been a prisoner of the Drow for nearly 30 years up until about 6 months ago.

Pressing on, we found a room with a goblin chained to the floor. He claimed he was left as food for whatever creature attacked the drow further in. Gyldiel wanted to kill him but Vic stopped it and let the goblin free. (Amazingly, I bet Vic wishes she hadn’t done this because the goblin is now VERY attached to her)

Pressing on again, we found a small cave with passages leading out to the North and the East. To the North, we could see a light and… the beast we’d all feared it to be… a Chimera. Fortunately though, it was sleeping. Gyldiel wanted to check the East first but found nothing.

Also to the North, we could hear the sound of light tapping… hammers on stone. We decided to strike the creature from afar and hopefully have it attack whoever was hammering. We hoped they were drow…

That part of the plan worked great. The creature was struck by a Sacred Flame. It woke up roaring and went immediately after what turned out to, in fact, be drow.

After a few seconds, we sprung our portion of the attack. It… did not start well. Vic and Sylvia were immediately immolated by the creature and I don’t know how they were still standing when it was all said and done. Bell’s strange cannon with healing magic is the only thing that kept them on their feet I think.

But, they kept fighting on. All of a sudden, a drow woman walking on the ceiling from the East appeared and took some shots at Gyldiel. We were in a tough spot and fighting the battle on two fronts. I tried to cast a spell on the Chimera and turn it to our side to fight against the drow woman. But, it didn’t work.

It was touch and go until Sylvia finally brought down the large creature. Focusing on the elf now, Gyldiel cast a spell that dropped her from the ceiling and into our range. It did not go well for her after that. We surrounded her and despite her attempt to flee, we were able to cut her down. I expected Sylvia to knock her out and take her prisoner but she stabbed her through the heart… strange. She later said she did it so Gyldiel wouldn’t have to face any uncomfortable questions. That’s a good team move. I just hope the drow didn’t have information about an incoming force that would threaten Flint.

On the body of the leader found some instructions to the Drow Commander. She was to capture Gyldiel and return him to a Drow city in the Bleak Gate. It referred to allies on the surface who had given precise descriptions of where Gyldiel lived, worked, and might be vulnerable. It also said that the Drow can only pass through the Gate during rare celestial events, but that others with whom they trade seem to be able to pass between the "Waking" and the Bleak Gate as they choose. The Drow were to discover how their trading partners can do this, but do do so without them knowing that the Drow are watching.

After the fight, we cleaned the place out of anything valuable and then made our way to Mayor MacBannin to ask permission to ascend Cauldron Hill when the timing was right. We were met by his butler, Cillian Creed who took us to wait in the garden until the mayor could meet us.

While in the garden, a courier named Doro came out of the house and had a very odd interaction with us. He lit up a cigarette and started philosophizing about chaos and the people and how one wished he could do something about it and how the mayor with all his resources couldn’t even do anything about it… I don’t know. Even for me, it came across a bit strange.

But, he left and the mayor came to meet with us. This was also an interesting encounter. At first, he came off a tad stern and seemed as if he was going to come down on us for trying to trade the drow/chimera information in exchange for admittance to the hill… but then he laughed and said he was just messing around and of course we could climb the hill. That was easy…

He said he’d help us as he could and provide amulets to protect us as well as goat’s blood he said would occupy the ghosts at night. We thanked him, told him we’d be back in a day or two and took our leave.

We stopped by Sechim’s factory to inform Nevard about the plans but he’d already left. Instead, I asked Heward about the receipt we’d found on Nilasa’s body that had small amounts of substances that totaled to very large amounts of gold. He said it looked alchemical, but that he didn't know what those substances were for.

After that, we returned to the RHC to turn in the goods we’d acquired from our day and talk about how to spend the next 24 hours.

We were pretty sure going to the Thinking Man’s Tavern was our next step for tonight. We thought maybe in the morning we’d head out to the prison barges to talk to Nilasa’s former associates. Then, maybe Cauldron HIll? It would depend on what those other leads turn up. So, we’ll see.

I also mentioned the names on the note about the family wharf could be ship names and asked if someone could try and run that down. Anyway… too much to do and not enough hours in the day…

 

[MarkM]

Session 12 (4-8-21):

We made our way to the Thinking Man’s Tavern and broke into a couple different groups so as not to give ourselves away as constables. There was a lot of talk to sift through. Some musicians there seemed to know of Nilasa’s connection to Gale and the Cloudwood… interesting.

There were college students there who also knew of some of her activities and provided some guidance on next steps as well.

After our time at the tavern, we made our way to Vic’s house to stay for the evening. Frank, the goblin, apparently is taking his role as Vic’s personal assistant very seriously. Vic, it seems, has finally accepted it…

That night, a man from Lorcan Kell came by and told us Lorcan wanted to meet us at a theatre tomorrow night and that he had news on Dr. Recklinghausen.

The next morning, we went out to the prison barge and spoke to one of the men Nilasa used to run with. He tried to hold us to getting him out of prison for the information but he eventually agreed for weekly visits with his son and clean sheets weekly instead of monthly.

He told us Nilasa recently asked about a Fey Pepper contact and he told her about a group out on Pine Island that supposedly had a connection. He gave us directions to their location.

We traveled there and tried to “sneak up” on them… it didn’t work. It was a quick battle where one of the men was a former Reaver!

We kept him alive and he told us about a tribe of lizardmen who are growing the Fey Pepper. He also told us of a Danika he said was the alchemist Nilasa was taking the product to.

After all of that, I came clean to them about my former life with the Reavers. I told them I didn’t deserve to be in the RHC and they could and should tell Delft about it. They told me they would leave it up to me…

 

[MarkM]

Session 13 (4-15-21):

We had a few hours before we needed to go to the meeting with Kell and so we decided not to waste them. We knew the general area of the alchemist that was supposedly manufacturing fey pepper for the Family. So, heading to that part of the city, it took us a couple of hours but we were eventually able to locate the shop of one Danisca Waryeye.

She had a couple of guards we noticed when we entered. But, ignoring them, Sylvia and myself moved up to Danisca. We beat around the bush a little bit and she wasn’t biting. I even slid my “friend of the family” card over but, surprisingly, that didn’t even make a dent in her veneer.

That’s when Sylvia let her know we were constables which began a good cop/bad cop routine. I played the bad cop as I was genuinely getting a bit annoyed at Danisca. I told her we could have this convo “downtown” and Sylvia told her we’d prefer for it not to go that far. That’s when Danisca told us to follow her and she’d give us some “powerful chemical” she said Nilasa was looking for.

That was when my suspicions started to rise. It all seemed fishy… and I was right. Danisca threw some powder at Sylvia and Vic and then opened a secret door in the wall and disappeared.

While fending off her guards, Vic was able to discover she had gone invisible somehow but Vic had a bead on her. I moved to intercept but that’s when a second gnome revealed himself at the top of the stairs. He introduced himself as a magician known as the “house elf”... jackpot. Didn’t think we’d be killing two birds… or gnomes as it were… with one stone but that’s exactly what we did.

It got a little hairy when they both started flinging spells at us but we knocked her out and that’s when the male, her husband we found out, told us he’d talk if we made a deal. I agreed and wrote up misdemeanor charges for them.

That’s when the gnome told us more information about the wand meetup happening tomorrow night.

But, first… Lorcan Kell...

 

[MarkM]

Session 13 (4-15-21):

We had a few hours before we needed to go to the meeting with Kell and so we decided not to waste them. We knew the general area of the alchemist that was supposedly manufacturing fey pepper for the Family. So, heading to that part of the city, it took us a couple of hours but we were eventually able to locate the shop of one Danisca Waryeye.

She had a couple of guards we noticed when we entered. But, ignoring them, Sylvia and myself moved up to Danisca. We beat around the bush a little bit and she wasn’t biting. I even slid my “friend of the family” card over but, surprisingly, that didn’t even make a dent in her veneer.

That’s when Sylvia let her know we were constables which began a good cop/bad cop routine. I played the bad cop as I was genuinely getting a bit annoyed at Danisca. I told her we could have this convo “downtown” and Sylvia told her we’d prefer for it not to go that far. That’s when Danisca told us to follow her and she’d give us some “powerful chemical” she said Nilasa was looking for.

That was when my suspicions started to rise. It all seemed fishy… and I was right. Danisca threw some powder at Sylvia and Vic and then opened a secret door in the wall and disappeared.

While fending off her guards, Vic was able to discover she had gone invisible somehow but Vic had a bead on her. I moved to intercept but that’s when a second gnome revealed himself at the top of the stairs. He introduced himself as a magician known as the “house elf”... jackpot. Didn’t think we’d be killing two birds… or gnomes as it were… with one stone but that’s exactly what we did.

It got a little hairy when they both started flinging spells at us but we knocked her out and that’s when the male, her husband we found out, told us he’d talk if we made a deal. I agreed and wrote up misdemeanor charges for them.

That’s when the gnome told us more information about the wand meetup happening tomorrow night.

But, first… Lorcan Kell...

 

[MarkM]

Session 14 (4-22-21):

As we made our way out of the RHC to board our carriage, Dr. Kindleton surprised us by showing up and letting us know she’d received a letter from Dr. Recklinghausen. He apparently was starting to lose faith in whoever he’d hired to guard him, which he expressed in his letter. He let her know that he was thinking of escaping his current location which put a quick timeline on our ability to catch him before he rabbited again.

We thanked her and headed to the meet up with Kell. On the way there, we were stopped when up ahead we could see a carriage stopped, a woman on the street screaming, and a couple of thugs with a bundle in their hands. The woman said, “They’ve taken my baby!”

So, we jumped out of our carriage and gave chase. In the end, it was a ruse as we were led into a building that turned out to be the theatre for our meeting. We even found ourselves out on the stage before the lights came up and Kell was laughing at us from a balcony suite while dozens of his men pointed guns at us.

He called us up to him while being entertained by a poor man being tormented on stage by his goons.

He told us he could not only tell us the doctor’s location but also the time and place of a shipment of “illegal” goods. All we had to do was let him keep the goods. Already knowing what he was talking about and what those goods were, we told him we couldn’t agree to that deal. So, he told us to make an offer.

We said we could have the sentences of some of his men reduced. He agreed if we’d let 7 of his men go by tomorrow. Then, he’d give us the address for the doctor.

It was a tough go to pull it all off but we managed and a boy showed up with an address in the Nettles.

Making our way there, I wasn’t sure if these were Kell’s men or Family men who were holding the doctor. I was hoping the former so we wouldn’t have to fight for him… too bad… when we got there, a fight broke out that was pretty tough.

The doctor didn’t trust law enforcement after his meet up with the shadowman and we had to knock him out just to stop him from running. His guards were tough too and we finally had to agree to let two of them go just to stop the battle before more of us got hurt. We still had a lot to do tonight after all…

We rested for about an hour waiting for the doc to wake up. When he did, we could tell he was surprised to be alive. It still took some convincing before he believed we might not be here to kill him after all. But, just as he was about to tell us where he’d hidden his papers… an alarm spell I’d cast on the entrance went off…

 

[MarkM]

Session 15 (4-29-21):

It didn’t take long for the ones who tripped my alarm to show themselves. Small, dark and shadowy figures seemed to materialize in front of my team and began ripping holes in us with vicious strikes of their weapons. Vic and Sylvia fell to their blows while the rest of us tried to fight them off while bringing our allies back to consciousness.

In the midst of everything, the shadowman made an appearance and tried to take out Bell. I jumped in to help but he, surprisingly, retreated after only a few moments. The small shadow creatures also began to fall back and they led us on a chase that took us to the temple entrance.

Sitting outside, there was a cocky looking gentleman who was pulling out a table and chair. He sat down and a bottle of wine and a knife to slice cheese floated up and onto the table. He told us his name was Leone Quital. We also found he’d somehow caused metal bars to grow and twist blocking the exit. We were trapped…

He said if we brought him the doctor and the stolen papers, he’d let us go. We told him we couldn’t let the doctor go but we’d give up the papers. However, the doc hadn’t told us where the papers were yet. Leone told us we had an hour to comply.

After hearing all of this, the doc finally showed us the hiding place of the papers. I began pouring through them to see what could be discerned in our short window. The others began looking for ways out. I don’t know who found it but someone found a latrine tunnel that seemed to lead out. However, unless we made the hole wider, only Bell would be able to use it. Vic got to work on that.

With the doc working with me, what I was able to pick up from the papers was that someone was purchasing materials from factories in both Risur and Danor. They were also purchasing factories by threatening owners here in Flint. The amount of materials we’re talking about are on the level of what it would take to build another Coaltongue… that’s a scary amount of material… who could have the funds to pull that off?

There was more I could have found if I’d had time but, unfortunately, time ran out. A wagon pulled up outside and two people were brought out of it. One was someone Bell seemed to know and the other was Vic’s younger brother. At the same time, he told us he’d blow the entrance to the temple if we didn’t comply.

We tried to buy a little more time but Leone’s response was to slit the throat of the one Bell knew. Bell had made it out through the latrine tunnel by this time and he was moving to either attack or perhaps save Vic’s brother. But, before we could find out which, the doctor called out he’d go. Unbeknownst to me, Sylvia also gave him all the papers to take out with him. I wish she hadn’t done that. I would have still tried to pull something off… maybe only sending half the papers out or perhaps getting the doctor to lie and say they were somewhere else and that he’d take them to them. But, heat of the moment… can’t judge.

Once the doc was let out, Bell and Vic’s brother were brought back inside. That’s when Leone double crossed us. He told him men to blow the temple anyway. We sprinted to the back, just in time, and the explosion rocked the building and popped our ears.

But, we were alive. In a relatively short amount of time, we were able to find another exit through a chimney and climbed out to the open air.

It wasn’t over between us and Leone but first, back to headquarters and on to our wand mission tonight…

 

[RangerWickett]

How did the players receive the 'get trapped and be at the villain's mercy' scene? It's often the sort of scene players rail against.