ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Yellow Dogs play Zeitgeist (Adventure Logs)

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GM's Note:
Unfortately after the two sessions this write-up covers, the guy who played Murdoch had to drop from the group as he was struggling with commitments and multiple late nights; likewise, the guy who played Vash (who was absent for most of this adventure) also decided to call it a day to focus on his nursing career since that was increasingly taking up more of his time. We have a couple of new players joining us in just over a week, so hopefully they'll enjoy it and have time to play and our little group can stop changing players!

The players couldn't get their head around the idea of a 25ft high stage, btw. I don't know if the intention was for it to be very tall, but I had a very difficult time convincing them it was perfectly normal >.>

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Adventure #2 - The Dying Skyseer
"Flayed Panthers and Frying Pans"

The party set off to Nevard Secombes much anticipated prophecy making performance art event. They arrived to find the venue packed with Flints citizens, mostly from the poorer areas of the city, who were eager to hear some good news and see a good show . The square hosting the event was dominated by a huge stage, over 25 feet high, on which various druids and magic users were preparing spells to amplify the now rather weak and croaking voice of Secombe. The Skyseer was having a lie down somewhere, gathering strength for what may well be his final performance.

The party split up and looked for potential trouble in the crowd.

Maisie failed to spot anything during her undercover pie-selling operation, but did sell a lot of pies. Regan sidled up to the stage, flashed his security pass and got in the front row. Looking up, he realized that this was not the best seat in the house. He could swear he detected wisps of cloud drifting across the distant top of the stage. Murdoch decided to take to the rooftops and settled down with a glass of sparkling wine to view the entertainment. Tobal and Knuck moved as inconspicuously among the revellers as a Gnome riding a 6' high Axe Beak could, while Vash and Gideon kept an eye open for troublemakers.

Secombe eventually arrived on stage to a great roar from the crowd. He paused for a while, getting what little breath remained in him back after the exhausting climb to the top of the stage and spread his hands wide in a gesture to calm the excited masses. Flags and 'We Love Secombe' banners were lowered and a hush spread through the expectant throng. All the party except Murdoch started to climb the steep unforgiving stairs to get closer to the Skyseer.

Then all hell broke loose.

From out of wagons parked to either side of the stage spilled gatecrashers in the form of skeletal panthers, flesh partialy flayed from their bodies, and hooded undead skeletons. The Hooded figures drove into the assembled spectators, striking whoever stood in their way and triggering off a major crowd surge. The flayed panthers bounded up the stairs, their intention it is assumed was to finish Secombe off. They probably shouldn't have bothered, because on top of the stage Secombe had been struggling with altitude sickness and his strength was starting to fade.

Maisie fulfilled a secret dream by unslinging her Ukelelie and striding to the front of the stage. As she banged out a particularly loud and emotional version of her favourite uplifting song she failed to notice, or maybe didn't care, that virtualy the entire audience were screaming and running directly away from her.

Like a true artist, Maisie played on.

Just as well, because the flayed panthers leapt easily up onto the stage, ignoring Regans pathetic attempt to hinder them by dropping a bag of marbles down the stairs, and crashed into the party.

The ensuing melee was short and brutal and resulted in the panthers being flung to bloody ruin from the dizzyingly high top of the stage. The party sped down the stairs to head off the Hooded skeletons who were still sowing panic among the crowd.

Regan paused briefly to tap Maisie on the shoulder, who was still playing her Ukelelie with tight closed eyes and flamboyant hand gestures, her golden locks whipping back and forth as she threw her head from side to side with gay abandon. As she stopped playing and turned with a slightly annoyed expression on her face to eye him, Regan suggested that she might like to help him try some resuscitation techniques on Secombe, who was lying motionless at the back of the stage.

Meanwhile below, the rest of the party set about the hooded skeletons. The assumption that after dealing with large, fearsome, flayed, sharp toothed and clawed felines so easily they would not have much trouble scattering the bones of a few skeletons was proved unpleasantly incorrect.

The skeletons turned on them with such ferocity that Knuck was overwhelmed and the others were hard pressed. Only a suicidal intervention by Murdoch, swinging from some bunting that had been hung between buildings in the square directly into the scratching biting skeleton hoard, saved the day. It did unfortunately result in the valiant half-orc being trampled into unconsciousness, but he was quickly revived by the rest of the party after the battle.

Their concern was perhaps more for his mental health than his battered, bruised body but they tended his physical wounds nonetheless.

On top of the stage, the Skyseer had shuffled off into Limbo and was on his way to wherever Skyseers go when they depart their mortal life. The sense of panic in the crowd had started to pass and was replaced by a general disappointment that the great spectacle they had come to see had been ruined and they were none the wiser about pending developments in Risur.

Some muttered that the woman on stage with the banjo had put the mockers on things.

The party shuffled off back to RHC HQ and got a warrant for the arrest of Mayor McBannon, which was the main thing on their minds before the Secombe festival flop had side-tracked them. With half a dozen of the toughest Constables as back-up they set off for Cauldron Hill and the Mayors estate.

They expected trouble and were not disappointed.

Gideon strode purposefully up to the front door and hammered on it. When the Mayor opened it Gideon entered into a polite conversation about the merits of coming quietly to help with enquiries. Exasperated, Regan left his post under some trees in the courtyard and approached the scene of the debate. 'You're nicked', he said and in perfunctory fashion clapped a hand on the Mayors shoulder.

Just as he did so everyone in the vicinity ducked involuntarily in response to a huge explosion from somewhere behind the Mayors residence. 'Hmm….', said the Mayor and winced. This was obviously a signal for doors and windows on buildings lining the courtyard to be flung open and an onslaught to be directed at the party and their Minders. The onslaught consisted of a barrage of household goods, from pot plants to frying pans, being hurled at the party by the Mayors household staff. Vash, swatting aside a viscously thrown feather duster, noticed two Gardeners drawing some weapons that were not at all suitable for gardening but very useful for inflicting severe stab wounds.

He recognised the short sword wielding former horticulturalists as Lorcan Kels men and waded in to attack them.

Regan had meanwhile drawn his pistol and delivered what he described afterwards as 'warning shots' into the door frame behind the Mayor. The Mayor stepped back and muttered the words of a spell which rendered Gideon deaf but fortunately not blind as he was now flailing his sword around in an attempt to intercept a volley of dinner plates (with delightful enamel work depicting a rural scene). Murdoch had leapt again in kamikaze fashion into the midst of the Mayors hirelings and had received a rather nasty stab wound from a Marsh-Mallow fork for his trouble. In a counterstroke that was amazingly successful in disarming his opponent, though highly unconventional, he engaged the fork-wielding footman in a discussion about why he should think seriously about alternative employment.

Great gushes of Witch Oil welled up in the Courtyard, threatening to drag Tobal and Knuck to gloopy ruin and the barrage relented as the Mayors staff ran out of anything small enough to throw out of the windows. 'If you want to stop the explosion…you need me to help', said the Mayor. Regan handcuffed himself to the Mayor and placed a pistol at his throat (from which range it was unlikely he would miss). 'Come on then…and no tricks', he said in as threatening a manner as possible. The Mayor gulped and directed them to a shed on the other side of the Courtyard. Within, from under a pile of fallen timber and masonary, stuck a human arm and hand, in the rictus grip of which were half a dozen brass amulets.

'Take one and follow me through this door… it is a portal to the Bleak Gate' said the Mayor.

Without hesitation the party donned amulets and entered the infernal place from which untold evil had been spewing in barely manageable quantities for the last few weeks.

True heroes

Or they had misheard 'Bleak Gate' as 'Back Gate' and thought they were making a sneaky escape from the Witch Oil disaster unfolding behind them.

'There is some machinery down here that we need to activate to control the explosion', noted the Mayor. He led them down to a chamber where they were assailed (again) by flayed panthers. During the altercation, Regan managed to rip off the steel chest plate adorning one of the beasts, resulting in its instant demise. Something useful to remember, he mentally noted to himself.

At the Mayors instruction they collected various bits of machinery that the Mayor knew were needed but did not understand the purpose of. Thankfully the lock picking and disarming skills of Murdoch and Regan combined managed to assemble the machine parts into the required configuration and the exploding Witch Oil issue was resolved.

Next thing on the agenda was to get the Mayor back to RHC HQ……………..

 

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Adventure #2 - The Dying Skyseer
"Problems Sorted"

Despite turning off one machine in the Bleak Gate sub-basement, there were more things that needed doing according to the Mayor, who was becoming increasingly flippant in the face of Regans attempts to intimidate him. The handcuffs still in place, the Mayor led them deeper into the basement to a room with a large Reservoir of Witch Oil. After identifying the correct machine the Mayor turned a few handles and pushed a few buttons and the reservoir started to drain. 'Such a waste… it was all for the benefit of Risur', he said. The party pretty much ignored him, they had heard it all before and were well aware of the price some citizens of Risur had already paid at the hands of the Mayor and his cronies. The involvement of Lorcan Kell particularly rankled with Regan and the criminal gang-lords hand again showed itself. As the party started to make their way out of the building, which was by now becoming increasingly unstable, they had one more obstacle to cross. In the room where they had previously dealt with the flayed panthers, they saw the prone body of Murdoch on the floor. He had left earlier with the Doctor, who they had found imprisoned in the building, but obviously run into trouble. Clutching the Doctor was the Shadow/Man creature that had given them such trouble earlier and to either side were a pair of roughs identified as Kells men by Vash.

'You must let the Mayor go. I will trade the Doctor for him, you don't know what you are doing' said the Shadowman.

While Regan engaged in meaningless banter with him, Tobal resolved to end the conversation as dramatically as possible. He conjured an ominous, bubbling storm cloud above the blabbing Shadowmans head. This writhing mass of charged air and water satisfactorily unleashed a bolt of lightening directly onto his unshielded pate. With a screech his grip loosened on the Doctor, who fell to the floor, still talking uncomprehendingly as he was wont to do.

Regan, wishing he had removed the handcuffs linking him and the Mayor earlier, swung the dignitary around behind him and took careful aim with one of his pistols. The benefits of a single dedicated shot rather than spraying as much lead around as possible became abundantly clear as the bullet he fired glanced off the Shadowmans distinctly solid forehead.

While this exchange was in process, Maisie had gone forward to see if Murdoch was alright. Her movement triggered an aggressive response from the hoodlum ex-gardeners, one of whom fell on her with a flurry of dagger thrusts. Breaking tradition, Maisie deftly drew her fearsome looking Rapier and attempted to skewer her opponent. She hit nothing but air, though the whirling blade did make her opponent hesitate. The bandit was unsure whether the intricate patterns the rapier traced through the air were the prelude to a fatal killing blow dealt by a master bladeswomen or whether they were simply the random movements of someone particularly incompetent with the weapon. Knuck put an end to her rumination by soundly knocking her out with a hefty blow from his beak.

The Shadowman leapt forward at Regan, attempting to claw his face off, but Regan skipped deftly aside. The Shadowman found himself confronted by Vash, who had spent more than a few seconds wondering how to put an end to the conflict. The option he eventualy chose involved firing a magical bolt of blazing flame directly into the Shadowmans face, which put a comprehensive end once and for all to this constant source of annoyance to the party. The remaining bandit, hopelessly outmatched, surrendered. Maisie took the chance to interrogate the fleeing spirit of the Shadowman. In response to the question 'Who do you work for?', she got the response 'The Mayor'. In response to the question 'Who does the Mayor work for', she got the response 'I don't know'. As usual, the party remained utterly in the dark about the motivations of their enemies.

Maisie was pondering a third question when Gideon grabbed her arm and pointed at the ceiling, which was starting to heave and crack in a number of places. A rather alarming rumbling was growing in volume behind them as the party headed up the elevator and back through the portal to Risurs plane and safety.

The Mayors residence and grounds were a hive of activity when they arrived. The earlier explosion and fireball had alerted anyone and everyone in Flint that had responsibility for such matters and had drawn them to Cauldron Hill. There were also a number of gawping onlookers drawn to the spectacle of destruction. RHC officers moved people on, the Witch Police searched in the corners for supernatural activity, soldiers looked at everyone as a potential enemy and the Flint Fire Department poured bucket after bucket of water on the flames.

The party, Mayor still cuffed to Regan, were approached by the biggest cheese in the RHC who congratulated them on a job well done and instructed them to hand over the Mayor to him for interrogation. The party did so reluctantly, they were hoping for a little 'truth session' with the Mayor themselves. Inspector Delph arrived and after clapping everyone on the back told them to take some time off. Chief Inspector Saxby told them to take more time off, they were no longer on the case. The party retired to the nearest Inn and spent quite a lot of time over the next couple of months in similar establishments. They were satisfied they had got their man, though they didn't know why he had embarked on his campaign of violence and destruction. Nor did they know the extent to which the Danorans were involved, all they knew was it had all started after a failed robbery attempt at the Danoran Embassy during which incriminating evidence had been taken.

Perhaps everything would come out at the Mayors trial, a high profile event scheduled for some weeks later.

The party busied themselves with various activities in the meantime.

Maisie was given a wide berth while she shut herself away and practised with her Rapier. From the opposite side of a safely closed door, if you chose to listen, you could hear various martial sounding shouts and accompanying crashes. There was also a fair amount of indecipherable muttering and the occasional expletive. Practice may well make perfect, but a Ukelelie doesn't have any sharp bits was the sum of collective wisdom acquired.

Tobal fiddled around with the design for a multi-shot hand crossbow/dart launcher, Gideon had eyes on an exotic sword and Vash practised enhancing his bullets with magical fire. Regan went off into the dark streets of Parity Lake and returned a week later looking a bit worse for wear after an extended Fey Pepper abuse session. He also had with him a small Rat called Nicker who he had found rooting around the detritus of Parity Lake. The little rodent had made itself comfortable in the inside pocket of his cloak and instantly started enjoying itself playing the dangerous game of hide-and-seek with an Axe Beak. Knuck never quite spotted the Rat, but found himself constantly thinking about food for some reason.

One evening the Party all got together to discuss the upcoming Flint Arms Fair. Maisie had her eyes on a Badger Gun, the twisted invention of a pair of psychotic gnomes who had created a firearm that on a successful hit magically teleported a Badger onto the target to follow up the attack. Regan was gripped by childlike desire to get his hands on a fearsome weapon called 'The Nock'. Designed by and for use of a Giant, the weapon was fearsomely destructive and alarmingly dangerous for its wielder in equal measure. Pleas with Inspector Delph to grant him more money to purchase the item as a means of boosting the effectiveness of RHC operatives fell on deaf ears. Instead he managed to get promises from other party members to make up the balance of the 7k gold piece asking price for the weapon. Whether they were just trying to shut him up or whether the offers were genuine remained to be seen. All would be resolved when the Arms Fair opened in a few weeks.

In due course, the matter of the Mayors trial intruded on the Parties Rest and Recuperation.

They went along to both testify on certain matters and in a personal capacity to try and get some clarity about what had been going on in Flint the past months.

Their hopes of getting any resolution faded away when the Mayor decided to apparently commit suicide in the holding cells beneath the main Flint Courthouse. He had asked a guard for a cigarette and then somehow through an exceptional act of will managed to smash his brains out on the wall of his cell. Lots of theories abounded covering the hows and whys of such a disappointing end to the trial. One particularly salient point, it seemed, was that Maisies attempt to contact the departing spirit of the Mayor failed. His spirit was nowhere to be found, which triggered a new set of questions without answer.

In time honoured tradition the party retired to the nearest Inn, to discuss the real rather than imagined usefulness of Regans proposed Nock gun purchase and the ethics of firing Badgers out of a projectile weapon. By the end of the evening all questions had been asked, unfortunately when everyone woke up in the morning no-one could remember the answers.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm curious how your players responded to Macbannin's demise. I assumed genre-savvy players would know that they would eventually get a chance to crack the case, and that this is just a setback, but I've read a few accounts of players feeling like the GM cheated them. How did your group feel?

 

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I don't think they felt cheated; that they are still in the dark and don't have all the answers is pretty much a state that they've kind of accepted. I'm very excited for when that changes! I think they were more puzzled as to what motivated Reed + Cillian; and they seemed to latch on to the hook of Reed's soul not being there (resulting in desperate searches for Witch Oil which might have been placed nearby). So I think the end was a good, dramatic end.

If there was a part of adventure #2 where I felt I was losing the players a little, it was when the players had lots of evidence of things going on, but they weren't necessarily adding up to much; and I think the players were still looking at the overall story as black vs white instead of a lot of shades of grey. However, I think they are starting to realise things are much more complicated than that.

Adventure #3 is about two sessions in and after having four weeks off and enlisting two new players, we should be resuming play again next week. So far it has been off to a very good start, everyone has settled in really well now

 

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GM's Note:
Again, Vash's player told us he was going to have to drop from the group at the start of this adventure, as he could no longer commit to playing due to his career (he had only managed to show up for about half the sessions so far). Two new players joined us playing pre-gen characters (Gut the Eladrin cleric who has become a minor recurring NPC, and Martina the Orc barbarian) and will be playing new characters tomorrow.

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Adventure #3 - Digging for Lies
"Arms Fair in Love and War"

The much anticipated Arms Fair was upon them. Regan had spent some time trying to convince Inspector Delft that it was in the interests of the RHC to lend him the 7k Gold required to purchase a particular bit of hardware but Delft was unmoved. He resorted instead to borrowing the money off his companions. He wasn't the only one after something. Maisie had her eye on an interesting weapon called a 'Badger Gun', not because it resembled in any way a Badger or was expressly used to hunt them. It was called a Badger Gun because the deranged Gnomes that had invented it thought it was a good idea, on a successful hit with the weapon, to magically spawn a badger at the point of contact and inconvenience the target a little more than a serious bullet wound could achieve.

The Arms Fair was in full swing when the party turned up, officially on-duty to identify and deal with any attempts to disrupt the fair and clamp down on any wrongdoers in general.

Regan made his way to the stall owned by a Giant who had invented the 'Nock Gun' he was after. His eyes lit up and hands trembled slightly as the Giant handed over the enormous, 7 barrelled weapon for a test fire session. Regan took a few individual shots, then unleashed the full 7 barrels in a massive blast. Concussion effects would probably have rendered anyone a couple of feet in front of the weapon unconscious, as it was the recoil sent Regan sprawling backwards. 'Just what I am looking for', he said and entered into a prolonged haggling session with the giant over final price.

All was proceeding well until signs of a disturbance appeared in one section of the arena. The party came together and raced towards the scene, as good constables do. They were brought to a halt by stampeding civilians and the sight of some semi-corporeal creature resembling a great disembodied mouth that hung in the air. Nearby, a Mage was firing Magic Missiles at it from a shiny looking Wand. The harmful effects of the Magic Missiles on their targets were counteracted somewhat by the fact that every time he fired one a large, semi-corporeal insectoid creature materialised in the air and set about anyone unable to flee the area fast enough.

Regan stepped forward, edged Gideon to one side and licked his lips. Taking careful aim he unloaded all seven barrels of his newly acquired Nock Gun at the target. The bullets flew with unswerving accuracy straight into, and through, the open maw of the giant Cloud Mouth Creature. Regan was thrown backwards in a heap. The creature was impervious to normal damage, so Gideon duly engaged it with whatever Holy spells he could fashion. Tobal joined in, enhancing Knucks beak with Magic Fang and sending the avian assassin to deal out retribution.

Maisie fumbled with the firing mechanism of her prized new Badger Gun, aimed and fired at one of the flying Insectoids. Due to the magic nature of the weapon the results were more satisfactory than Regans futile attempts. The bullet fired smacked home, the Insectoid squawked and found itself being savaged by a particularly vicious Badger that popped into existence.

At length the Giant Maw and its airborne attendants were dispatched back to whichever Plane they had been drawn from. The party approached the wand wielding Mage to work out what his part in the fiasco had been. It turned out the Wand he had used seemed to be both very powerful and very unstable, capable of causing enormous mischief. He had bought it earlier in the day, at great cost, from a woman whose whereabouts were now unknown.

Some collateral damage, in the form of an onlooker shot dead accidentally by the famous Docker/Entertainer Rock Rakus was attended to. In the midst of all this intelligence was received on two Fey Pepper smugglers who were trying to strike a deal. Regan went off to shake them down, but while he was preparing to arrest them a shadowy acquaintance of Vash made himself known. He advised, if Regan would lay off the two smugglers, that he could point them in the direction of the female seller of the Arcane Wand of Trouble Making. Ignoring for the moment the compromised state Vash seemed to be getting into with the Rizur underworld, the party went Wand chasing (though Regan did manage to extract a 'sample' of Fey Pepper from the smugglers for 'investigative' purposes)

The party were advised that if they wanted to meet the woman wand seller then they should go to a particular Jewellery Stand at the Fair and announce, 'I am looking for a present for my wife Ethel'.

Deciding that a large, burly Paladin clad in plate mail, wielding a huge sword and looking very pious should be the best person to ask such a question, the party delegated Gideon to carry out the mission. Probably a good idea in retrospect, because it was pretty obvious that such a person would not under normal circumstances be looking for a present for his wife Ethel. He would genuinely be involved in something more nefarious.

Gideon returned from the Jewellery Shop with instructions to meet up with person or persons unknown at one of the under-construction rail terminals in Flint.

While the party waited for the arranged time of the meeting to arrive, Maisie contacted a professor of Arcane Studies she knew at Flint University. She established that the Wand was indeed an artefact of ancient origin, though not much else.

The party gathered and proceeded to the planned rendezvous. Vash was not with them, having been called into a Special Meeting of the RHC Audit Office who were trying to establish the whereabouts of a number of items acquired by the party in their travels.

They were accompanied in Vashs' absence by the cleric Guyt , the same man assigned to them by Gale during the 'Warehouse Witch Oil Incident'. He had been assured at great length by Inspector Delft that the parties use of him as cannon fodder in that incident were purely accidental and that they were a tight, close group that looked after each other and he was now one of them so had nothing to fear. The party nodded their heads a little too vigorously in agreement when the tale was recounted.

The party were also joined by a relaxed but fearsome looking female Orc called Martina. The contrast between her and the recently departed Murdoch (though he was only of 1/2 orcish blood) was sharp. There were some similarities, however.

They were both in the RHC.

They both carried weapons. (Murdoch had used a small, concealed craft-knife to assault his foes, Martina wielded an enormous Two-Handed sword that looked capable of felling trees but they were still technically weapons.)

They also both had two arms, two legs and a head.

There the similarities ended.

The party arrived at the rail sub-station sometime ahead of the planned meeting time and cased the joint. Regan melted away into the shadows, Tobal and Knuck hid behind a large rubbish bin with Gideon. Martina, Maisie and Guyt stood on the half-finished platform of the station and waited.

At the allotted time, their contact appeared. She was accompanied by a robed figure who carried, with little effort it seemed, a large chest. Maisie approached the woman and asked directly if she was in possession of any more artefacts of great value she was looking to sell. Once this had been established, with equal directness Maisie announced she was arresting the woman, unslung her Badger Gun and pointed it threateningly.

It has to be said that the exchange may have taken a little longer if the more diplomatic Gideon had been left to pursue the negotiations, but the party had had enough trouble trying to 'do the right thing' recently that no-one really cared.

The Hooded figure dropped the chest, the woman backed off cursing and all hell broke loose.

The party had ignored a number of shiny metallic domes scattered around the platform. At some unspoken command from the woman they suddenly raised themselves on stubby metallic legs and opened to reveal multi-barrelled projectile weapons. These were immediately trained on the party and fired. Martina received a full volley at close range. Under normal circumstances this may have been fatal, but the Orcs leathery hide and a physiology that seemed to lack pain receptors meant otherwise. Sparked into a rage that was fiercer and scarier than anything Murdoch may have imagined in his wildest nightmares, Martina marched towards her tormentors swinging her enormous sword. The sound of clashing metal and disintegrating robot sentry guns was eclipsed only by Martinas blood curdling battle cries.

Impressed by the Orcs exertions and glad to see an Orc behaving how he expected an Orc to behave, Regan slipped out of cover and ran towards the female Artefact Dealer. He fired two shots at the Robed Figure as he passed, whereupon the figures hood slipped to reveal a Golem similar to the ones they had fought before. The bullets bounced off harmlessly. Regan rolled his eyes and reloaded, on the run, heading towards the arms dealer, who looked a little more fleshy and susceptible to pistol shot.

At the same moment he gave a sharp whistle and Knicker, hiding in his coat pocket, popped into view and sprinted ahead. The rodent flung itself at the Arms Dealer, bringing forth a shriek and focusing the parties attention on her at the same time. This was fortunate in Knucks case, as he failed to spot his favourite bite-sized delicacy and headed with great speed towards the woman.

Maisie had in the meantime brought her Badger Gun to bear and managed to land a hit on the Arms Dealer. With great satisfaction she saw a cuddly badger appear and try to attach itself to its targets face and tear it off. After that the battle was over rather quickly. The woman surrendered and her Golem dropped its shoulders and stood motionless.

Martina stepped over to the great chest the Golem had dropped and levered it open with her sword. Inside were a number of Artefacts similar to the Wand the Mage had so destructively used at the Arms Fair.

Regan, with complete disregard for accepted RHC arrest protocol (knowledge of which was fading into oblivion for everyone in the party save Gideon), stepped forward and planted the business end of his seven-barrelled Nock Gun in the midriff of the Arms Dealer.

'Where did you get those and who are you working for', he said without emotion.

The Arms Dealer spilt the beans without the need for further subtle interrogation. She also indicated the involvement of Mayor Reed MacBannon (deceased) and the crime Lord Lorcan Kell (still very much alive) in her less than legal dealings. Somewhat disturbed by this newly acquired information, the party headed again with Maisie to visit her illustrious friends at Flint University.

It appeared that the Wand and other Artefacts had been unearthed at a Ziggurat outside Flint city limits. The party of archeologists that had found them had been killed at the site and the artefacts had gone missing, only to reappear now on the streets of Flint.

The information was passed to Inspector Delft, who authorised further investigation.

To be continued……

 

[Tormyr]

Nock Gun


Nice.

 

[RangerWickett]

It's real, by the way. I didn't make it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhTBnRPNIA

 

[Karma Kollapse]

Meep that sounded scary!

The bartender got very excited and started showing us the wiki page for it when we were talking about the nock gun. I assume it wasn't designed by a real life half-giant called Nock, though.

 

[Tormyr]

It's real, by the way. I didn't make it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzhTBnRPNIA

Heh, I thought it was just a cameo, like a certain dictator of old in another of your adventures.

 

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GM's Note:
I swear Richard's hearing is worse than mine, as I've definitely been saying 'Xambria' and not 'Zandria'. Or it might be that I am mumbling through my GMing as well as pronouncing things wrong.

Two new players join the team, Nick and Gaynor playing Samuel (Half Orc Eschatologist Monk from the Anthras Mountains, from a monastery that guards against world-ending threats) and Bonnie (Half Elf Cleric with Family connections).

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Adventure #3 - Digging for Lies
"Swamp Thing"

After returning to RHC HQ and locking up the Arms dealer, the party found that even more personnel changes were being made. Regan was not impressed with the new recruits. One was a flimsy looking Elf maiden called Bonnie, the other was a serene looking half-orc named Samuel who was armed only with a stick. He thought back to the rampaging half-orc Barbarian Melanie and there was no question who he would rather have next to him when trouble came calling.

The party gathered gear together and set off for Flint Rail Station, where they had been booked passage by Delft to some gods-forsaken Town in the backwaters of Risur. It was quite literally a backwater, most of the countryside surrounding the small town of Bole lay beneath a gloomy swamp frequented only by hungry alligators and Silk Farmers, who braved the rank waters in search of the webs of Giant Spider.

After a tedious Train journey the party arrived in Bole, where Regan and Maisie were pleased to see a heavily used Saloon was welcoming new customers. Their first evening consisted of trying to stay out of brawls between Miners and Silk Farmers and scaring the locals with tales of Maisies ability to talk to the dead. Bonnie, after spending a while outside looking at the stars that blazed in the wilderness black sky, had a little more success gathering intelligence. The Ziggurat was away across the swamp and had been visited by three groups of travellers, including the ill-fated Archeology Team led by Zandria.

After a good nights rest the party hired a couple of shallow draught boats, got a map of the area off a local mad-eyed Silk Farmer and set off in search of the Ziggurat. Regan crouched in the front of one boat, eyes shifting between the rather obscure map and the grey, cold waters of the bleak landscape they paddled through. Initial progress was good, Regans confidence that they were 'almost there' went some way to relieving Bonnie and Tobal of the misery inflicted on them by the swarms of biting insects that obviously found Elf and Gnome blood a rare delicacy compared to that of smelly human Silk Farmers.

After the third transit of a path through the tangled, mold rotted vegetation ended up in a dead-end of thorny white bushes, Tobal insisted that Regan let him read the map. Trying hard to ignore this insult to his tracking prowess, but aware that Tobal was probably more at home in the grey-green swamp than he was, Regan handed the map over. With nothing to focus on now, he developed a low level nausea that was later diagnosed as a mild-form of sea sickness.

As the party inexpertly paddled their craft towards the waypoint Tobal identified, creatures of the swamp significantly higher up the food chain than mere mosquitos began taking an interest in them. The first the party knew of this was when a pair of alligators suddenly launched themselves out of the fetid swamp water, sharp teeth snapping in a halo of spray. One of them lunged towards Maisie who squirmed sideways in the dangerously rocking boat. Bonnie lunged forward and aimed her Mace at the creature, but toppled sideways, her blow going astray. Samuel deftly hopped over the pair of them, immune it seemed to the lurching of the boat beneath him, and landed a solid punch right between the eyes of the hungry reptile. It slipped silently backwards and disappeared into the water. Regan watched with interest the chaos in the other boat and nodded in appreciation at Samuels unorthodox yet highly effective method of dealing with a large, scaley thing that was trying to rip his throat out. His ruminations were cut short by a Gnomish shriek from behind him. Whirling around he saw Tobal trying to prevent himself being dragged off to a watery grave by another alligator, which had a firm, toothy grip on his cloak. Rising unsteadily on legs more used to pounding cobbled streets than balancing on a bit of wood floating in muddy water, Regan whipped out a pistol and fired. By some miracle the bullet found its target and buried itself in the alligators brain.

Unfortunately the autonomic nervous system of the creature seemed to encompass the functions of gripping hold of and tearing something to pieces and it was left to Tobal to conjure a cloud of powerful electrical energy and destroy what remained of the creatures control mechanisms.

Tobal wrung swamp water from the Map he had somehow managed to keep hold of and the party paddled off in the direction of his pointing finger. Increased paddle speed and (at last) accurate map-reading brought them in due course to the Ziggurat.

The Ziggurat was a pyramidical structure that rose above the swamp on a small island. Scattered outside it, amidst supply crates and tattered tents, were the unburied corpses of various unidentified individuals. A large open doorway led into the Ziggurat and the party entered in search of some easily defensible chamber where they could rest and recover from the arduous journey through the swamp. On entry it was immediately apparent that the Ziggurat, or something in it, was playing with their minds. Descending steps that seemed to go down 40' or so, the party looked back to see the entrance no-more than 10' behind them. Samuel reported the existence of Gremlins or some other creatures, squeaking and cackling off down darkened passages. Tobal investigated and found nothing. Tobal himself, attempting to sleep, was plagued by nightmarish visions. Whatever unpleasant or unnerving thoughts that entered Maisies head were overwhelmed by a desire to sleep. It was so strong that the accompanying snores shook the walls enough to send tiny rivulets of sand falling from cracks between the ancient stone blocks lining the Ziggurats walls.

After an unsatisfactory period of rest, troubled by unpleasant thoughts and Maisies infuriating snoring, the party pressed deeper into the Ziggurat, hoping to find evidence of what had occurred there. The Diary of the archaeologist Zandria was in there somewhere, laying where she had dropped it when she fled the Ziggurat many weeks before.

The Ziggurat was as dangerous to the body as it was to the mind.

Regan, picking his way down a darkened tunnel, received a spear in the ribs for his trouble from some hidden trap. The narrow corridors were filled with various devices designed to deter intruders. The situation was so desperate at one point that Nicker the rat was persuaded by Regan to voluntarily enter the clawed grasp of a Hawk that Tobal had temporarily transmuted into, so the rodent could be positioned to gnaw away the controls of some infernal device. In one particular place Regan embarked on levering a small piece of stone from a wall which appeared to be part of a mechanism controlling a particularly lethal looking Spear trap. As he probed gently with the point of his dagger against the stonework, it yielded in spectacular fashion. The whole wall crumbled away as though someone had removed the bottom tile from a Tower of dominoes and revealed a very old, very aggressive and very animated, mummified corpse. The hideous creature thrust its spear at the stooped, gawking Regan, who jumped instinctively aside to avoid being skewered. Bonnie, sensing this was some Undead monstrosity they confronted, elbowed her way down the passage. As she advanced, she whispered a string of words that seemed to prompt a gathering of otherworldly power. The air in the passage grew thick, charged by some energy that seeped into the heavy Morning Star she carried. She raised the weapon above her head and brought it crashing down onto the skull of the desiccated horror she faced. As the monster slid to the floor, whatever force that animated it was utterly destroyed by Bonnies strike. Regan had the comforting thought that the fragile looking Elf maid was a lot more dangerous than she looked.

Bonnie further showed her worth by establishing that both Samuels hearing problems and Tobals night terrors were the work of some agency connected to the Ziggurat. Regan did not find this thought very comforting at all.

The party pressed on, past a chamber holding a map that seemed to indicate another location linked to the Ziggurat they were currently inside. A set of double doors at the end of a passage blocked their way. Gideon strode forward, laid both strong arms on the sleek stone of the doors and pushed………….