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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 8537333" data-attributes="member: 7031495">Session 19The party follows Laurabec to the Lyceum, where the erinys is placed within an amberglass cage constructed by Kiernan, a dwarf who teaches abjuration at the Lyceum. There, they and Laurabec and Simeon question the erinys (named Jezska) about her role. Jezska plays coy, pointing out that she merely attempted to enter a room, and they attacked first. She admits she was there to take the intelligence from them, and tells Simeon that she has not killed anyone or harmed anyone, and should be set free. "I was not ordered to bring any harm to the citizens of Seaquen, and I have no intention to. The Ragesians have no ill will towards this small town."Simeon however reveals that he has no intention of letting Jezska go, and floats the idea of executing her in public. Jezska begins to be a little more amenable when Orwin suggest banishment in exchange for information, as opposed to execution.Orwin asks who is summoning the devils that have been plaguing the party. While she is unable to reveal who summoned and gave her orders, she is able to tell them she was summoned by inquisitors. This worries Simeon and Eluriah, for while the Inquisitors are their enemy, they are still nominally clerics.Eluriah asks her why no one can teleport safely, and Jezska says she doesn't know why. She compliments Gruz on his willingness to pass through the flames to get the job done.Mishka asks who will be sent as a replacement for Jezska when she fails. Jezska says she doesn't know, but her contract is for the next 5 weeks.Aripos asks what her favorite color is. Jezska says she would love to inlay gold in her black armor.Gruz asks if Jezska heard any rumors as part of her undercover act. Jezska reveals that she charmed the entire Auyang family and a number of dock workers throughout the city. She says the charm should wear off when she is banished.With questions done, a priest of Suijin, wearing the same blue and pink that Torrent wears, is brought in to banish the devil. As thanks for coming to her defense, Jezska breaks off the tip of her horn and gives it to Orwin, saying if he crushes it beneath his foot, she will come to aid them for a single day. When she is banished by Suijin's fishhook, her armor and weapons are taken with her, but not her scarf.The rest of the week, the party decides to take some time off. They set up camp out of town at the edge of the forest. Orwin begins learning tattoomancy from Tenga, and researches devils alongside Aripos. Aripos begins their career as a thief, but it doesn't go smoothly, and he barely gets away before being caught. He drinks his sorrows away at a tavern. Eluriah continues learning Sylvan from Tiljann so she can sing the Song of Forms, and goes exploring in the sunken ruins to the east, discovering that they warm up and steam when the tide is low. Gruz tries to join a fighting ring among the Dasseni soldiers, but General Xava quickly shuts it down. He does try and get the scutlebut, and learns that Sindaire is under attack by Ragesia for not giving up its mages easily, and legions are travelig close to Dassen in order to reinforce the Shahalesti front. However, he learns about the Royale, a ramshackle arena that's been set up in the ruins, and goes there to fight, where he runs into Mishka who had the same idea. They both do well in their bouts, with Gruz undefeated, and Mischka barely losing her last fight with a halfling rogue. Mishka brings her winnings to Madame Xendros and buys a potion of hill giant strength.Post-Session ThoughtsThe questioning was fun, but also funny how they went in directions I thoroughly didn't plan on. When they asked what part of hell she was from, I googled nine hells and said Asmodeus, and Orwin's player who knows D&D lore far better than I do gasped, and basically convinced themselves that Asmodeus is the big bad of the campaign. I pulled out of character a bit to clarify, but that was a roller coaster. Everyone was on board with going to hell to fight Asmodeus.Similarly, they are extremely interested in the specific name of who is sending the devils. Even though I know the answer, I find the question moot. Ragesia is sending the devils, its all that matters. On the other hand, they took everything she said at face value. To be fair, I think I only lied directly once, but still. To be fair, I abhor non-stop insight checks, so I'm glad they were simply asking questions and debating the answers rather than trying to play lie-detector.This was my first time using Xanathar's downtime actions, and it went pretty well! I essentially gave every player one mechanical activity and one RP activity. Mechanical activities give gold and new proficiencies, while RP just means learning and chatting. I was expecting our Artificer to start crafting, but I think they haven't really focused on getting components yet. Changes to the moduleI don't think I changed much, if anything? Not that it came up, but my headcanon Simeon never intended to brutally execute Jezska. One thing I want to emphasize at Seaquen is that the professors are scholars, not warriors. Well, most of them, at least. I tried to play Jezska as more legalistic than monstrous in showing that she wasn't acting against Seaquen, she was simply retrieving Ragesia's property. I think it did a good job of showing the players she wasn't a mindless killer. And even though they beat her, I guess she put enough fear in them that they're on their toes waiting for the next devil Ragesia sends.I've told the players that they don't get a long rest until they hit level 6, so maybe that will incentivize them to get moving on these sidequests and finish them quickly. I don't want to get bogged down, so I'm going to trim down the number of possible sidequests quite a bit, because from my experience with Curse of Strahd, this group will want to do them all.</blockquote>

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