We resumed in the middle of the panic after the boat explosion.
Our Assassin tailed Maurice into the basement and witnessed him being dragged off by a Vitruvian Stitcher. She then tried to disable the gaslights and caused an explosion. As a Tiefling with high Dex, she tool 3 damage. She then went snooping into the secret basement, made some amazing Stealth rolls and scouted out the hallways without touching anything, then went back upstairs. It was unclear to me on whether there would be a gaslight flare in the cellar, so I had it only happen on the two main floors, allowing her to see Maurice getting nabbed.
Our Barbarian went with Marlot and Budwati to the dock, and then joined Marlot in chasing the Res-Mors all the way back to the basement. I did things out of sequence, but it's likely that they were investigating the Immortalitorium at the same time the Assassin was outside of it. Since the Assassin had already heard nothing at the door, I kept all the monsters at bay and let them poke about until they were too spooked and had to leave. When they broke the lead pipe from the well to the Machine, I had everyone make the second wave of remorse save (since I'd already leaked Red's story when the Cleric went to the Library before dinner and I wanted something to give him for his research).
Our Sorceress went with Julius up to his room, to collect her gun as well. When the lights flared, she established a telepathic connection to Julius and then cast Detect Thoughts as he went off to Trilosa's room "to check on her." She was able to listen in to his "Oh gods, what happened here? Welp, I'd better grab these papers," thoughts so she knew he wasn't the killer (First pass of "the football"). She then successfully cast Suggestion on him, suggesting that no one would suspect the teenage tiefling girl of having stolen rocketry plans, so he had her hide them on her person (second pass of the football). Since she had already made an Asset of him, I assumed that he was also working her as an Asset, and thus wasn't too far off from an idea he might have had himself.
Our Cleric stayed with Nargio, trying to manage his PTSD by closing curtains and doors to calm him. When the lights flared, he rolled a natural 1 on his Perception to follow Nargio out and ran full speed into the wall, knocking himself out cold until the lights were out.
Our Monk hung out with the VIPs, chit-chatting with Red and eavesdropping on the other conversation, so he was there to hear Pritchard and Heid dive out the window, and he also ran with Red to the hallway to try to intercept Nargio, leaving Delkovich suspiciously alone in a room with a secret passage.
After everyone's vision came back, the three in the main floors of the house reconvened with the NPCs in the house, did a head count, realized they didn't know where Trilosa was, and went to find the body. The monk got all of the physical evidence, including (eventually) finding the secret door. As everyone was pointing fingers, the Sorceress used Thaumaturgy to make a loud bang downstairs, sending the more belligerent NPCs (Kvarti, Budwati, Julius) to investigate, while Red, Pritchard, and the two VIPs holed up in the Master bedroom, leaving the party free reign over the crime scene. They stole some of Trilosa's random papers and gave them to the Sorceress, to give to Julius when he asked for his papers back, and the Monk took the actual papers (pass #3). I asked several times if anyone was taking her satchel, but no one wanted it.
The Monk and Cleric investigated the secret level and found the hammer and book, and agreed that all signs currently pointed to Delkovich, but also feeling the signs were a bit too convenient to be true. Then the wave of remorse hit and the Monk and Sorceress were both called to the basement. The Monk handed the papers off to the Cleric (pass #4) and made a beeline for the basement.
The Assassin emerged form the basement as the Barbarian and Marlot came in the front door and the three NPCs from upstairs came to investigate the loud noise. They were still sorting out their stories and sharing information when the Monk and Cleric came out of the Conservatory and the Sorceress came down the stairs. All of the guests except Budwati went into the basement along with Kvarti and the Monk, Barbarian, and Sorceress. The Assassin went with Budwati to find Nargio, and the Cleric settled down in the Dining Room to go through the papers.
In the basement, everything went pear-shaped. The Barbarian tried to figure out the direction to the Immortalitorium, failed miserably and opened the door to the Specimen room. The keys were grabbed, the awful Specimen swarm was spawned, and two Vitruvian Stitchers emerged from the ceiling. The first Stitcher grabbed Kvarti and dragged him away, pursued by Pritchard and Julius. The Barbarian and Marlot got their rages on and fought the Specimen Swarm, but when the Barbarian went down and the Swarm tried "Transplant," everyone hated it. The Monk dragged the Barbarian out and the Sorceress got the keys off the Barbarian and closed and locked the room (I'd forgotten that there was no key for that room on the key ring). Marlot was still inside.
The Barbarian was feeling some remorse about abandoning Marlot and got the keys back from the Sorceress to rescue her. The Sorceress, having already secured the documents and seeing multiple threats to her mission being dragged off by random creatures, then headed up the stairs. The Monk, seeing another Stitcher lurking in the ceiling, agreed and joined her. The two Barbarians took care of the swarm with Marlot 4 hp away from becoming a Zombie.
Meanwhile, as the Stitcher dragged Kvarti past the door to the Immortalitorium, I checked the game clock and decided it was time for decisive action. The Res-Mors burst forth and grabbed Kvarti, dragging him screaming into the darkness. Julius and Pritchard tired to help. Both Kvarti and Julius had failed their saves and had become Traitorous. They each took the damage for a while, but when Kvarti finally broke free from the Res-Mors (having burned all of his Legendary Resistance to resist being ripped apart), I had him shoot Julius to clear his Traitorous status. This left Julius at 3 hit points. Forced with a choice between dying to the Traitorous status or hurting an ally, Julius shot Kvarti, dropping him. The Res-Mors then made short work of Julius. A horrified Pritchard had already retreated when they started shooting each other.
At this point, we were very late in the day. The group seemed happy to get out alive. I felt like the Res-Mors was sated, having taken down Kvarti. Maurice never resurfaced (he might be in that library still). They found Nargio and the bomb cellar and the notebook. I gave them a short rest / Spycraft hour, giving them the opportunity to make more Assets in case Delkovich still wanted to accuse them. Then I let the group spin theories at each other for a while so they could present something resembling a murder investigation to Heid and Delkovich. They came to the conclusion that Kvarti had planned to murder Trilosa for being a spy and frame Delkovich for it. They got almost everything except for the idea that Kvarti would want to kill Heid.
I asked the monk player if he recalled what he had done the previous week while trying to make a connection with Maurice. His reaction when he realized Maurice had used him to plant the bomb on the boat was pure gold. This was the player's first experience in an actual Zeitgeist adventure, and I know he'll remember that feeling for a long time!
Everyone had a blast. I feel bad we skipped like half the content, but now I have something to throw at them if their main characters in 601 AOV come to investigate the ruins of Manor von Recklinghausen.
Technical Issues:
I misplayed the Specimen Swarm's Take Down attack. While skimming it in the heat of battle, since it had a saving throw, I assumed that was to prevent being knocked prone. In 5e Saving Throws are generally passive responses and Skill Checks are usually active, so seeing Saving Throw made me think it was to prevent an effect of the attack. It would make more sense to me mechanically if the move/stand up Strength effect was a skill check since it takes place on the player's turn.
The Remorse's grab should have an Escape DC included, as is standard for 5e monster blocks.
I would have liked some sort of Book Location matrix, a quick Book -- Location guide to help me remember where all that content is hiding.
We never got there, but the von Recklinghausen Handout in inconsistent with the adventure text. In the adventure, it is said to be the final entry of his journal. On the handout, it says it is found in an envelope labeled "in the event of my death..."
Overall:
We had a blast. I loved running it and look forward to using it as a one-shot to introduce even more people to the Zeitgeist world. My veteran players loved all the references to original Zeitgeist and loved a return to more intrigue-style play (I'll make a note for our main campaign). My new-to-Zeitgeist player really enjoyed the amount of character development and rich world background he was finally able to see first-hand after spending a year hearing stories about our previous campaign every time I include another reference in our main game.
Everyone asked when we could do it again.
