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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ltclnlbrain" data-source="post: 6070285" data-attributes="member: 12882">As our third session began, the party prepared to bring down Lorcan Kell.  With eight strikes, they knew about his gatecrasher charm and agreed to the given plan to lure him out into an ambush at the dimensionally-locked bridge. There was talk of various elaborate schemes to try to stop his carriage from fleeing the bridge. Ultimately, they settled on a basic barricade coupled with dropping a large keg of tanglefoot bag juice on the carriage to root it in place temporarily.  Will and Oliver hid on the stairs along opposite sides of the bridge. Mariah waited on the far side of the barricade, while Piotr perched on a building nearby, wild shaped into a peryton and with the keg close at hand.At 3 a.m., the mechanical carriage rolled up to the barricade. Piotr swooped down low, splattering the carriage with tanglefoot bag. I had replaced the pistoleers in the encounter with musketeers to make it a bit more challenging, so as the druid began to cast a summoning spell, they opened a window and started shooting out at him. Despite taking a hit, he maintained his concentration on the spell. The opposite door from the druid opened up as Lorcan Kell and Nick Reder stepped out, Kell realizing that his gatecrasher charm wasn't working. Will charged in to fight Kell, but the crime-lord dodged his opening strike.Mariah clambered to the top of the barricade with her slippers of spider climbing and pegged Kell with a vendetta bullet, scoring a nice opening hit. Oliver lobbed a sound burst into the carriage, stunning most of the musketeers and Kate Glenn. Piotr finished his summoning, calling three constrictor snakes into the carriage to grapple and constrict the musketeers. Seeing that they couldn't get close to Kell thanks to Kate's magic circle against law, the druid dispelled the circle.Kell cast back his coat, promising to slice out Will's eyes as he quick-drew his machete and kukri. He launched a furious assault, scoring a solid blow for 23 points of damage. With only 70-odd hit points, Will began to have second thoughts about charging in. The knight traded blows with the crime boss, dodging Nick's attempts to throw him to the ground.  Mariah continued to fire on Kell, scoring another pair of hits with her merciful rifle.Seeing Will in trouble, Oliver moved to his aid, casting pilfering hand and stealing Kell's human bane machete. With Kate recovering from the stunning sound burst, Piotr landed on the bridge and cast stone shape to raise a barrier and block off the door of the carriage. Having her hands full with the constrictor snakes, Kate channeled negative energy to wound them. Unfortunately, she only killed one of them, and the other two grabbed and and squeezed her into unconsciousness.Kell drew his back-up machete and continued to try to kill Will. I was rolling really poorly, though, and didn't score any more hits. Still, the players were already properly terrified of Kell. Oliver moved in to flank Kell, giving Will the advantage he needed. A few quick sneak attacks brought Kell down.  Nick Reder surrendered shortly thereafter.The constables brought Kell and his gang back to RHC headquarters. A charm monster from Oliver and a quick good cop/bad cop routine featuring him and Will got Kell to spill the beans about the canal route to the Bleak Gate and how to get to the Ob's facility. Delft congratulated the party and sent them home for some much needed rest.The next morning, the invitation from Lya Jierre arrived. The players tried to figure out what they had to do before the dinner tonight, and were a little bemused to realize that everything else had been taken care of already.  A day off is practically unheard of in these adventures! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />They met the Danoran delegation at the docks, and rode with Lya and her bodyguards to the Hotel Aurum. On the way, Lya tried to explain what had happened at Vendricce. The players didn't buy a word of it, and she and Will had an intense round of verbal sparring.  There were feints, parries, and ripostes of dialogue every bit as tense as an actual duel, with Will trying to suss out Lya's plans while she did her best to keep from revealing anything. By the end of the ride, the players were convinced that Lya was either planning to make a move against King Aodhan or Sovereign Jierre, to secure power for herself and whatever the other members of the Ob planned to do with the lanterns.The scenes at dinner had some fun roleplaying moments in them. All of the players got involved in the conversations. Will sympathized with Eloise Duffett, as they were both war orphans, but bristled at her insinuations that they were doing a poor job keeping the city safe. Mariah chatted with Pierre Riquier and Geoff Massarde about practical methods of combining magic and technology. Brakken kept the conversations going, even drawing taciturn Piotr into offering his opinion about balancing technology with the natural world. Everybody was paranoid and alert during the dinner, though, expecting an assassination attempt.It didn't come, of course, and eventually Asrabey barged in to ask permission from King Aodhan to enter the Bleak Gate. Oliver picked up on Brakken's anxiety, so when the Danorans left and the king pulled the party aside, the minotaur contacted Oliver to reveal his telepathic abilities. The bard convinced Aodhan to let the minotaur in, and the party learned about Han Jierre's involvement and attempt to warn the Ob at Cauldron Hill. A quick message to the B-team and the courier was intercepted, allowing them to maintain the element of surprise.Next session, the party goes into the Bleak Gate and exposes the secrets of the Ob!</blockquote>

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