Table of Contents
Session 1 [08/30/09]
Cast
Events
- Time of year: autumn
- [9pm] Grey's research in library: elementals and their interactions with mortals
- Boyce's research: demonology
- Boyce then went to go cheat at games of chance
- Cassie's a workaholic at the inn
- Trent was studying drunk people
- Grey unsuccessfully mugged (no money)
- Cassie was unsuccessfully mugged by the same people; one had an opened stomach for his trouble
- Cassie got first blood with a sword swipe
- Next day, Grey began work on an ale delivery system: a pressurized hose and spigot
- Grey made fire-roasted tomato soup, it was a hit
- Boyce divined masked bandits attacking a visiting personage's daughter
- Grey and Cassie rigged the front door to quick-close
- Patrons were replaced with combat-capable buddies of Bagram's
- Cassie swapped places with personage's daughter
- Trent pus bird lookout on roof
- [12am] 10 bandits rode up on horses
- Trent got first kill with a sniped arrow
- 3 dead ambushers, 6 incapacitated, 1 escaped and followed by Swiftwind (Trent's bird familiar)
Wrap-up
Group will interrogate surviving assailants and determine the destination of the remaining runner.
Session 2 [09/27/09]
Cast
Events
- Town guard showed up, debriefed witnesses
- Non-dead thugs revealed name of their employer: “Mr. Larkis”
- Swiftwind reported location of thug camp: “Dragoth's Huntman's Club”
- Reconnoitered Larkis' bar
- Grey and Cassie knocked at the front door, Trent and his spirit posse guarded the back
- Grey and Cassie retrieved the town guard
- Interrogated club manager “Dragoth,” determined lone rider went into the kitchen for a few moments then left to go on the main road
- Party left the club, leaving the tree spirit
- Tree spirit suggested Dragoth is not guilty due to observing his behaviors covertly after party left
- Interrogated the late night cook “Jean Pierre”
- Seems like the runner ate an apple then Jean Pierre gave him a key before the runner left
- Runner's name is Robert (French pronunciation)
- Party accepted 10kgp bribe to remain silent to the law [Resources 1 and fancy clothes]
- Party set up in Dragoth's club to meet Larkis
- Boyce talked to Larkis during gambling
- Trent lowered Larkis' alcohol resistance while Grey gradually upped the potency of his drinks
- Boyce cleaned Larkis out of 5kgp gold (kicked back 500 of it to Dragoth) while interrogating him successfully
- Hilda, the target daughter, was the target; human trafficking in women matching her description has been going on
- Located warehouse with secret passage, entered through hole in holding area, Boyce gibbed one hostile guard
- Other three guards killed, two girls rescued and restored to health and cleanliness
- Escorted girls to party's inn
- Magistrate (father of one of the girl) legally deputized the party for a fortnight to bring down Larkis
- Cassie was refurbished as a hooker to infiltrate Larkis' home, Grey went zephyr form (invisible+inaudible), Trent went spiritform, Boyce sneaked in the old-fashioned way
- Located 3 hidden compartments with incriminating evidence (deeds, receipts, ledgers of illegal shipments, riches)
- Defused ledger's explosive runes
- Ledger revealed caravan went to Kalin's Pass in Samphrin (sp?) Hills
- Everyone slipped out of the mansion and regrouped
Wrap-up
Raid mansion with our official deputized hats on and locate the already-uncovered incriminating evidence.
Session 3 [10/04/09]
Cast
Events
- [5am] Awakened a drunken Larkis
- Charged Larkis with slave trading
- Searched premises, retrieved evidence
- Larkis offered bribe to Grey for silence
- Larkis and his lawyer are escorted to holding
- [7am] Magistrate came in next morning, negotiated the plea bargain
- Larkis openly said he'll give up a corrupt elector (Baron Jain Talpin) in the bargain for a lesser penalty
- Most of the smuggling Larkis and done has been through a particular pass (hand-off point), he just sent ten girls through there in a caravan
- Boyce robbed Larkis' mansion while the opportunity presented itself
- Jain reportedly always has two “beautiful creepy women” with him, per Larkis
- Grey paid Bagram some money to alleviate any charity debt and invest in the business
- Trent possibly invested in some peyote and performed a multi-day commune with the spirits by imagining he was a literal “lump on a log”
- Traveled to the northern-most fortress on the hilly borderlands
- Told to get in touch with an officer named Wil Hintermarz (of the 103rd Pathfinders) as a guide
- Went to Pathfinder camp out of town to the north; Wil is blatantly supernatural in his resplendence
- Wil drew picture of black wings and a sword stabbing a domed building; that is the flag of the “bandit nation”
- Cassie and Grey went to buy supplies for the trip
- [First night] Viewed green campfires of the spirits, warned of the danger of being pulled into the spirit realm
- Spent the night camping, set two watches of two people, uneventful
- Boyce slowed down travel slightly; not used to roughing it
- [Second night] 40 kobolds attempted to ambush camp
- Wil whipped out a lighting bolt sword
- Grey dropped 3 kobolds and one shaman, who had cast a Death effect on Grey (shrugged off completely, silly kobold)
- Boyce dropped the other shaman, kobolds scattered
- Trent tended to everyone's wounds
- Wil revealed to be of elemental and celestial bloodlines
- [Third day] Cassie mentally taught the slowpoke Boyce about wilderness survival
- Boyce performed a scrying to determine the caravan will appear on the morning, 8 guards (some on foot), 2 carts (2 horses each cart)
- Grey created a minor rock slide that didn't block traffic then will trigger into full road blockage on cue
- Third night passed without incident
- Ambush set
- Wil attacked two footmen in the rear of the caravan, Grey attacked the four up front, Boyce and Cassie took out the two guards on horseback and the two carriage drivers, Trent was back at the camp “guarding it”
- Only Boyce's targets were killed, the rest were bound in the cages used to transport the girls and left there mostly naked (clothes went to the girls)
- Girls were in bad shape, needed to be cleaned up and brought back to health
- Trent tended to everyone's wounds
- Took the two wagons, hooked party's horses to them, sent the other horses off to live/die in the wild
Wrap-up
Journey through spirit-infested countryside in an attempt to get the girls back home.
Session 4 [10/18/09]
Cast
Events
- [first night with the girls] Found bear in shelter-based cave, killed it for food and skins
- Boyce predicted an attack from some sort of fire elemental with bloody snow
- Set up shelter against the overnight snow
- Snowed in, two feet
- Grey jury-rigged the bear carcass into a snowplow and re-engineered the wagon wheels into snow tires
- Determined caravan was being followed by a rider on a black horse over a mile back
- [second night with the girls] Grey resculpted the landscape to make a fort
- Dark rider appeared, wanted his property (the girls) back
- Rider said if the party left the girls he would be fine with that, Grey said no
- Rider teleported away via demonic powers
- Grey closed off road behind the caravan
- [noon of that day] Boyce teleported girls into Liri's bedroom with a note for Bagram
- Trashed the wagons, struck off across the open land on horses
- [night that day] Camped in the wild in a gully
- Campfire began sputtering and gained sentience
- Grey kicked snow over the fire; no effect
- Trent attempted to command the spirit of the fire, Grey put it out with magical controls too
- Trent determined that something from the spirit world was being influenced to attack the party
- That something was the man of burning ash in the spirit realm
- [next morning] Snow melted, uneventful night
- Uneventful day too
- [next night] More uneventful
- Party spotted three airships flying to Alestia
- Party arrived at Wil's outpost to drop him off
- Boyce teleported everyone back to Alestia
- Collected rewards
- Party spontaneously became directionless
- Grey researched that all of the clerics of Aya seem to have red hair
- Most famous redhead in history (dead arch-devil Azrosomething), all of these women share traits so could be of that bloodline
- Grey researches up a method of determining a manifest's bloodline, which consists of burning a drop of their blood and observing it with a Prime 1 effect
- Travelled to Magridal (WTF) castle
- Ogres attacked in swamp
- Grey had a lot of fun playing with a telekinetically animated log, bashing it into ogre heads
- Arrived at the castle
Wrap-up
Discuss the finer points of demonic/deific heritage
Session 5 [10/25/09]
Cast
Events
- Dinner at the Madrigal keep: Poul Villier (responsible for the day-to-day of the keep) ate with the party
- Poul is a cleric of Lilim and sported a holy symbol of thereof
- Philip was called away suddenly, leaving Hilda in charge
- Grey asked Philip what the urgent business was, Philip apologized and said he couldn't speak of the official government business
- Trent attempted to recall the elemental messenger that called Philip away but could glean no information from it
- Boyce divined that the attack would be delayed until a week out
- Hilda held “court” to resolve civic disputes
- The court had mention that the elemental water miners are being attacked by some sort of humanoid swamp raiders
- Grey discussed with a miner the technical details of their operation, and it did not seem as if it would antagonize any spiritual forces
- Grey and Trent performed the heritage test and determined Hilda's bloodline was infernal; Hilda was disturbed
- Traveling carnival appeared outside the gates
- Lorie, a halfling and mistress of the carnival, touts their troupe
- Grey suggested Hilda send them away
- Hilda said the troupe can stay outside the walls tonight and be on their way
- Boyce saw no metaphysical links between the dark elf acrobats and anyone in the castle
- Cassie read no hostile or suspicious minds
- Carnival reported two items of news: Upper Thalia is on the border of collapse because a month ago the Thalian Lord Marshal died so there's rampant looting; the unrest has spread to Upper Cheslia (sp?)
- Boyce and Willow guarded Hilda, Boyce and Grey patrolled
- Uneventful night, carnival left
- Grey mentioned to Poul that it is increasingly evident that this protection will be ultimately fruitless unless the party is getting compensated significantly, Poul said he couldn't make that decision
- Grey built a panic room for Hilda
- Party made a showing that they'll be leaving, so made off towards the swamps then teleported back
- Cassie disguised herself physically as Hilda, Trent disguised her magically
- Cassie drowsed in Hilda's bed with Willow on overwatch, everyone else hid in the panic room
- Willow reported that enemies were attacking in the middle of the night
- Defeated and captured the four drow kidnappers, who were very open to interrogation due to professionalism
- “Braithe,” an elderly human male, six foot tall, white hair, beard, very tan, blue eyes – hired them at 2000 hours three weeks ago in the Happy Jolly Dancer tavern in Endelbar for “Resources 2”
- Negotiated that the dark elves would be kept in prison for two weeks, giving the party time to catch up to Braithe
- Party left for a week-long journey through the desert on a trade road to Endelbar, stocked with supplies provided by the Madrigals
- Grey pimped the ride
- Wyvern attacked, swooped down and took a horse (and Cassie, who was on the horse)
- Trent got bitten, Cassie was dropped, Boyce was torn up, one horse was killed. Grey was unhurt because he spent the combat buffing the hell out of Trent's bow and arrows
- Tore the wyvern down for mystical parts, which were sold to replace the lost horse
Wrap-up
Locate “Braithe” and interrogate him
Session 6 [11/08/09]
Cast
Events
- Cassie disguised herself as the dark elf leader, set up group mindlink
- Grey walked into the bar first, followed by a disguised Cassie; Trent covers front entrance, Boyce covers rear entrance
- The wait was a bust; left a message with the bartender that we'd be back for a few days
- Teleported back home
- Cassie calmed mobs, Grey and Trent put out fires & mitigated famine (and looted on the side); this primarily happened on the docks
- Boyce went to Judge Falric's house
- Grey was about to be attacked by a disturbed mob of twelve while he's in full-on nimbus flare, as they took exception to him putting out their fires
- Mob escorted the apparently-surrendered Grey away
- Grey found out that the fires were rebellious attempts to protest the withholding of food, so after the conversation died down he went invisible and walked back to the fires
- Cassie got invited to see the rioters' leader (?) by turning a rock into an apple
- Trent dealt with the situation in an oblique manner by attacking the spirits of hunger and rage
- In addition to putting out fires, Grey started minor fires where the rioters had their women/children/sick held up
- Trent and Boyce went to scout out Talpin's fortified home
- Boyce set up sympathy in a closet and was discovered by the two witchy women (quote: “Okay, what do you do?” “I run at 40.”)
- Grey and Cassie dug a secret tunnel between the food supply and an abandoned warehouse for purposes of sneaking food out to the public
- Tunnel was shown to the resistance, banked a favor from them
- Portaled back to Endelbar
- Knocked the crap out of Braithe, stole him away to a room
- Braithe interrogated; all signs point to Larkis
- Then Braithe was killed by infernal magical forces built in to silence him
- Rescued two captured girls, sent them on their way home
Wrap-up
Resume in Alestia
Session 7
Cast
Events
Session 8 [12/06/09]
Cast
Events
- Dragoons showed up in a 4am raid looking for the party
- Grey tunneled out for everyone to escape
- Sounds of possible physical torture were heard from the homes, the party decided that was enough excuse to attack
- Dropped a Forces manifest captain and her Death manifest sergeant as well as the ten footmen
- Cassie and Grey set up traps and confusing forensics for the followup patrol; Trent and Boyce coordinated and affected the evacuation
- Party spent 4 days to sell off the dozens of horses to pay for an airship
- Went to Dimmersdale, sought out the negative elements of society
- Trent is teh funnay
- Hooked up with Babbage, the underworld contact
- Babbage set up transport, which will leave in two days
- Two days passed without known incident
- Grey cuts off a day from the journey with a constant tailwind
- Secret plans to acquire the airship are mentally exchanged
Wrap-up
Steal the airship
Session 9 [12/13/09]
Cast
Events
Wrap-up
Session 10 [12/20/09]
Cast
Events
- Interrogated Talpin, turns out Varis supplied the names of the redheaded girls to him
- The kidnappings have been going on for the better part of 3 years, perhaps 50 girls had been taken to date
- Informed that there are bounties on the group's head in Alestia
- Baroness (of Felarch) Elector Nicele Hames will provide a safehouse in exchange for some problem-solving
- The problem is that some sort of magical entities have taken one of her village: Manderbel
- Two days of snowy horse-riding later, group arrived at the barony to speak with the Knight Captain (Searn Dreval, who carries a scythe)
- Black gem in the chapel may be the key to restoring the village
- Stayed the night, left at dawn
- Boyce attempted self-inflated bragging to impress Sir Searn, and ended up falling off his horse to crack his head
- Log across the road; ambush set up by kobolds (2 kobold shamans, 2 elementals, few dozen kobolds-at-arms)
- Kobolds dispatched; rough fight
- Entered town after sunrise
- Found a farmer's house with a door magically set to possibly entice people inside, apparently Grey was either targeted by it or vulnerable to it
- The mayor's office houses a pulsing black gem that seems to house a sentience
- The gem seemed to be some sort of agent of an obscure deity, and it attempts to weave Sympathy into those nearby
- After some experimental poking and postcognition, Grey disrupted the altar
- The group was apparently sucked into the gem, which was a prison for some sort of disoriented armored deity
- Agreed to help the deity (re)discover who he is in exchange for passage out of the gem prison
- The gem was transported to another village
Wrap-up
Yay us.
Session 11 [01/24/10]
Cast
Events
- Appeared in an unknown inn a week later. Extracted to another inn with the 70-pound gem.
- Attempted to gate the gem and Grey to the airship, but that apparently summoned some sort of clawed creature, so Boyce cancelled the spell.
- 12-foot-tall infernal black creature with foot-long claws seems to really want the gem.
- Boyce killed the creature, which promptly exploded and blew up the top floor of the inn.
- Party slipped away to regroup and tend to their wounds.
- Grey, Boyce, and Trent teleport to the ship while Cassie and her boyfriend get a horse.
- Grey re-engineered the ship slightly to reduce its silhouette down to a retracted “size 20” so Boyce will have an easier time gating it in the future.
- The boys set sail to rally up.
- Pernicdel!
- Ship vectored towards the town of Ward, buried the gem in bedrock, then teleported to Alestia.
- “Keepers of Enma”
- Weapons and armor of the dark figure in the gem are Masayumian
- Spoke to the Masayumian embassy and narrowed down the identity of the mystery figure. ~1800 years ago
- Betrayed companions of the figure were named.
- Enma is some sort of reference to underworld forces; apparently a diabolic subrealm associated with murder/revenge/assassination spirits
- Introduced to Saris
- Researched up Kaz a bit more
Session 12 [01/31/10]
Cast
Events
- Visited a larger temple of Aya, found out Aya had a friend named Miyoko
- Stayed in the pilgrims' campground to wait for a divination prayer to fill in the blanks the next day
- Aya was nice enough to teleport the party to the other side of the world
- Grey picked up a few snippets of the language while working a thatch job
- New local wardrobe!
- Linked up with a troupe of traveling merchants
- Choco party, good good
- Arrived at Crane ancestral home without incident
- CRAP LOST A BUNCH OF BULLET POINTS. Ah well.
- So anyway, we're like in the realm of shadows with burning skies and something because that's where the secret Crane family library is
- Oni cat attack!
- Grey pointed to Irinewa after resighting the he saw over a bar, which is identical to the one in the village in which the gem was discovered
- The name of Kaz is revealed
- We updated Kaz
- Kaz recommends we investigate the hellfire explosion and lake of obsidian, so he teleported us to the library
- Electors are still safe, three have died in the middle of the night
- Library research finds a reference to a temple/tower that killed a large number of elves; occurred in Kaz's time
Session 13 [03/07/10]
Cast
Events
- Occluded Rainbow Inn family vanished, apparently from the black-armored teleporting demon (not Kaz, the other guy)
- Boyce located the captured individuals
- Party arranged a meet at noon in downtown Endelbar to negotiate
- Briefed Madrigal on situation, he stated that if a few more people died then the party may be banished
- Recommended to Philip that we be treated officially as outcasts from the city
- Party scouted downtown Endelbar
- Two high school witches show up
- Negotiated the possibility of becoming recruited by the Duchess
- Witches left to update their bound mistress (presumably Veris)
- Formulated a plan to capture the witches
- Brought witches to the Kaz-spot to capture them
- Boyce locked down the site from teleportation, Trent started wresting control over the girls, Grey & Cassie laid into the witches, their escort demons attacked the party
- Witches were KO'd, then Trent wrested control of them, then Kaz sucked the party to safety in the gem
- Grey and Cassie tunneled hastily an underground getaway with Trent masking the magic until Boyce gated in the airship
- Trent was awesome at covering the magical tracks so the party began tunnelling upwards
- Party relocated the ship and gem to another hiding spot
- Deal made with the captured (yet unbound) witches: help us defeat their previous conjurer and they will be set free
- Witches agreed to the deal and provided much intel
- Anja was the summoner, Varis seeks to steal the power of a female devil by absorbing the diffuse essence from all of the redheaded females they can get their hands on
- Message sent to faux-negotiate the hostage trade
Wrap-up
Plan to invade hell and rescue the remaining Bagrams
Session 14 [03/14/10]
Cast
Events
- Boyce offers to gate us to hell to meet a trustworthy demon.
- We ported into hell. It looks like Mexico.
- Grey bought a drink: a “Blood-Red Screaming Obelisk.”
- Trent “Bloodhound” D'Arbor and Cassie tracked down the trustworthy demon through the depths of Hell.
- Found the contact
- Camped out with the devil contact on the plains of Acheron
- Grey accidentally bypasses a bunch of random encounters by hooking Boyce up with portable gates
- (Out of game: Tara asked Chris to use the computer to figure out how many yards were in 3000 feet. HA HA HA HA, I taunt!)
- The party climbed the mountain, located the two prisoners chained up; two armored guards, and a dragon the size of a bus
- Trent and Grey killed the dragon, Cassie and Boyce killed the two guards
- Dropped the kids off with the Crane clan
- Set up a trap for possessed assassins with Grey as the bait in the library
- Four possessed merchant assassins showed up
- Captured an inhabiting spirit, interrogated it for the location and specifics of their home base
- Sent off a poisoned dagger to the medieval CSI to determine an antidote, if any
Wrap-up
Plan a raid on the summoning house in the rich part of town.
Session 15 [04/18/10]
Cast
Events
- Everyone in the party is technically a Baronet now, yay. That's Resources 2.
Wrap-up
Session 16 [05/02/10]
Cast
Events
- Entered town without incident.
- Went to a bar to begin legwork, Boyce defaulted to his social tactics by hitting on a homely serving wench for information.
- Boyce got a line on a mercenary who agreed to put in some inquiries on individuals who may have gone underground in the area.
- Grey found some hidden tunnels around the trade district and found they were owned by a tradesmaster named George Stelios Papadopoulos.
- Grey contacted George and attempted to set up some underworld trading contacts.
- Boyce verified Grey is trustworthy to the underworld guys.
- Grey and Boyce slipped into a non-Papadopoulos warehouse to steal items for Parnth.
- Theft of bath soaps and sundries successful without incident.
- New task: rescue the niece of Parnth from hostile and official interrogation. She is currently in a high-security anti-mage jail.
- Prison invaded! Successful. One female manifest prisoner, light interrogation then she was let go.
- Magic armor (armor 5 plate, chainmail), 2 mana-sucking wands.
Wrap-up
Session 19 [06/20/10]
Cast
Events
- Researched Vandriel to uncover her motivations and/or location in the celestial cosmology
- Theorized she dwells in Celestia City
- Celestial library run; oh neat the Library of Souls
- Visit the sub-Library of Deceased Souls, determine the locations and identities of the used-up redheads
- Found some of the redheaded victims and filled in some of the blanks on how the kidnapping and rituals went down
- 100 years ago Vandriel was summoned in the service of a wizard, Thrass Zal
- Subquest, Iron Chef: Celestial Paprika
- Went to Toril Dalelands
- HA HA ANDY we were bards in Faerun for the night
- Fun with comparative arcane systems
- Teleported to Thay
- Got translation bracelets (speak & understand)
- False merchant IDs generated
- Thrass Zal is located up the mountain at the School of Conjuring
- Pit fiend doorman shenanigans
- Gained verbal and telepathic access to Vandriel for the afternoon
- Pit fiend Janet did 4 damage to Grey
- Meteor Swarm! Grey takes another 2 damage.
- Red Wizard defeated, summoned creatures left, Vandriel freed and teleported party to safety
- Cassie healed everyone up
Wrap-up
Find out how we can leverage our new ally
Session 1 [08/30/09]
Cast
Events
- Time of year: autumn
- [9pm] Grey's research in library: elementals and their interactions with mortals
- Boyce's research: demonology
- Boyce then went to go cheat at games of chance
- Cassie's a workaholic at the inn
- Trent was studying drunk people
- Grey unsuccessfully mugged (no money)
- Cassie was unsuccessfully mugged by the same people; one had an opened stomach for his trouble
- Cassie got first blood with a sword swipe
- Next day, Grey began work on an ale delivery system: a pressurized hose and spigot
- Grey made fire-roasted tomato soup, it was a hit
- Boyce divined masked bandits attacking a visiting personage's daughter
- Grey and Cassie rigged the front door to quick-close
- Patrons were replaced with combat-capable buddies of Bagram's
- Cassie swapped places with personage's daughter
- Trent pus bird lookout on roof
- [12am] 10 bandits rode up on horses
- Trent got first kill with a sniped arrow
- 3 dead ambushers, 6 incapacitated, 1 escaped and followed by Swiftwind (Trent's bird familiar)
Wrap-up
Group will interrogate surviving assailants and determine the destination of the remaining runner.
Session 2 [09/27/09]
Cast
Events
- Town guard showed up, debriefed witnesses
- Non-dead thugs revealed name of their employer: “Mr. Larkis”
- Swiftwind reported location of thug camp: “Dragoth's Huntman's Club”
- Reconnoitered Larkis' bar
- Grey and Cassie knocked at the front door, Trent and his spirit posse guarded the back
- Grey and Cassie retrieved the town guard
- Interrogated club manager “Dragoth,” determined lone rider went into the kitchen for a few moments then left to go on the main road
- Party left the club, leaving the tree spirit
- Tree spirit suggested Dragoth is not guilty due to observing his behaviors covertly after party left
- Interrogated the late night cook “Jean Pierre”
- Seems like the runner ate an apple then Jean Pierre gave him a key before the runner left
- Runner's name is Robert (French pronunciation)
- Party accepted 10kgp bribe to remain silent to the law [Resources 1 and fancy clothes]
- Party set up in Dragoth's club to meet Larkis
- Boyce talked to Larkis during gambling
- Trent lowered Larkis' alcohol resistance while Grey gradually upped the potency of his drinks
- Boyce cleaned Larkis out of 5kgp gold (kicked back 500 of it to Dragoth) while interrogating him successfully
- Hilda, the target daughter, was the target; human trafficking in women matching her description has been going on
- Located warehouse with secret passage, entered through hole in holding area, Boyce gibbed one hostile guard
- Other three guards killed, two girls rescued and restored to health and cleanliness
- Escorted girls to party's inn
- Magistrate (father of one of the girl) legally deputized the party for a fortnight to bring down Larkis
- Cassie was refurbished as a hooker to infiltrate Larkis' home, Grey went zephyr form (invisible+inaudible), Trent went spiritform, Boyce sneaked in the old-fashioned way
- Located 3 hidden compartments with incriminating evidence (deeds, receipts, ledgers of illegal shipments, riches)
- Defused ledger's explosive runes
- Ledger revealed caravan went to Kalin's Pass in Samphrin (sp?) Hills
- Everyone slipped out of the mansion and regrouped
Wrap-up
Raid mansion with our official deputized hats on and locate the already-uncovered incriminating evidence.
Session 3 [10/04/09]
Cast
Events
- [5am] Awakened a drunken Larkis
- Charged Larkis with slave trading
- Searched premises, retrieved evidence
- Larkis offered bribe to Grey for silence
- Larkis and his lawyer are escorted to holding
- [7am] Magistrate came in next morning, negotiated the plea bargain
- Larkis openly said he'll give up a corrupt elector (Baron Jain Talpin) in the bargain for a lesser penalty
- Most of the smuggling Larkis and done has been through a particular pass (hand-off point), he just sent ten girls through there in a caravan
- Boyce robbed Larkis' mansion while the opportunity presented itself
- Jain reportedly always has two “beautiful creepy women” with him, per Larkis
- Grey paid Bagram some money to alleviate any charity debt and invest in the business
- Trent possibly invested in some peyote and performed a multi-day commune with the spirits by imagining he was a literal “lump on a log”
- Traveled to the northern-most fortress on the hilly borderlands
- Told to get in touch with an officer named Wil Hintermarz (of the 103rd Pathfinders) as a guide
- Went to Pathfinder camp out of town to the north; Wil is blatantly supernatural in his resplendence
- Wil drew picture of black wings and a sword stabbing a domed building; that is the flag of the “bandit nation”
- Cassie and Grey went to buy supplies for the trip
- [First night] Viewed green campfires of the spirits, warned of the danger of being pulled into the spirit realm
- Spent the night camping, set two watches of two people, uneventful
- Boyce slowed down travel slightly; not used to roughing it
- [Second night] 40 kobolds attempted to ambush camp
- Wil whipped out a lighting bolt sword
- Grey dropped 3 kobolds and one shaman, who had cast a Death effect on Grey (shrugged off completely, silly kobold)
- Boyce dropped the other shaman, kobolds scattered
- Trent tended to everyone's wounds
- Wil revealed to be of elemental and celestial bloodlines
- [Third day] Cassie mentally taught the slowpoke Boyce about wilderness survival
- Boyce performed a scrying to determine the caravan will appear on the morning, 8 guards (some on foot), 2 carts (2 horses each cart)
- Grey created a minor rock slide that didn't block traffic then will trigger into full road blockage on cue
- Third night passed without incident
- Ambush set
- Wil attacked two footmen in the rear of the caravan, Grey attacked the four up front, Boyce and Cassie took out the two guards on horseback and the two carriage drivers, Trent was back at the camp “guarding it”
- Only Boyce's targets were killed, the rest were bound in the cages used to transport the girls and left there mostly naked (clothes went to the girls)
- Girls were in bad shape, needed to be cleaned up and brought back to health
- Trent tended to everyone's wounds
- Took the two wagons, hooked party's horses to them, sent the other horses off to live/die in the wild
Wrap-up
Journey through spirit-infested countryside in an attempt to get the girls back home.
Session 4 [10/18/09]
Cast
Events
- [first night with the girls] Found bear in shelter-based cave, killed it for food and skins
- Boyce predicted an attack from some sort of fire elemental with bloody snow
- Set up shelter against the overnight snow
- Snowed in, two feet
- Grey jury-rigged the bear carcass into a snowplow and re-engineered the wagon wheels into snow tires
- Determined caravan was being followed by a rider on a black horse over a mile back
- [second night with the girls] Grey resculpted the landscape to make a fort
- Dark rider appeared, wanted his property (the girls) back
- Rider said if the party left the girls he would be fine with that, Grey said no
- Rider teleported away via demonic powers
- Grey closed off road behind the caravan
- [noon of that day] Boyce teleported girls into Liri's bedroom with a note for Bagram
- Trashed the wagons, struck off across the open land on horses
- [night that day] Camped in the wild in a gully
- Campfire began sputtering and gained sentience
- Grey kicked snow over the fire; no effect
- Trent attempted to command the spirit of the fire, Grey put it out with magical controls too
- Trent determined that something from the spirit world was being influenced to attack the party
- That something was the man of burning ash in the spirit realm
- [next morning] Snow melted, uneventful night
- Uneventful day too
- [next night] More uneventful
- Party spotted three airships flying to Alestia
- Party arrived at Wil's outpost to drop him off
- Boyce teleported everyone back to Alestia
- Collected rewards
- Party spontaneously became directionless
- Grey researched that all of the clerics of Aya seem to have red hair
- Most famous redhead in history (dead arch-devil Azrosomething), all of these women share traits so could be of that bloodline
- Grey researches up a method of determining a manifest's bloodline, which consists of burning a drop of their blood and observing it with a Prime 1 effect
- Travelled to Magridal (WTF) castle
- Ogres attacked in swamp
- Grey had a lot of fun playing with a telekinetically animated log, bashing it into ogre heads
- Arrived at the castle
Wrap-up
Discuss the finer points of demonic/deific heritage
Session 5 [10/25/09]
Cast
Events
- Dinner at the Madrigal keep: Poul Villier (responsible for the day-to-day of the keep) ate with the party
- Poul is a cleric of Lilim and sported a holy symbol of thereof
- Philip was called away suddenly, leaving Hilda in charge
- Grey asked Philip what the urgent business was, Philip apologized and said he couldn't speak of the official government business
- Trent attempted to recall the elemental messenger that called Philip away but could glean no information from it
- Boyce divined that the attack would be delayed until a week out
- Hilda held “court” to resolve civic disputes
- The court had mention that the elemental water miners are being attacked by some sort of humanoid swamp raiders
- Grey discussed with a miner the technical details of their operation, and it did not seem as if it would antagonize any spiritual forces
- Grey and Trent performed the heritage test and determined Hilda's bloodline was infernal; Hilda was disturbed
- Traveling carnival appeared outside the gates
- Lorie, a halfling and mistress of the carnival, touts their troupe
- Grey suggested Hilda send them away
- Hilda said the troupe can stay outside the walls tonight and be on their way
- Boyce saw no metaphysical links between the dark elf acrobats and anyone in the castle
- Cassie read no hostile or suspicious minds
- Carnival reported two items of news: Upper Thalia is on the border of collapse because a month ago the Thalian Lord Marshal died so there's rampant looting; the unrest has spread to Upper Cheslia (sp?)
- Boyce and Willow guarded Hilda, Boyce and Grey patrolled
- Uneventful night, carnival left
- Grey mentioned to Poul that it is increasingly evident that this protection will be ultimately fruitless unless the party is getting compensated significantly, Poul said he couldn't make that decision
- Grey built a panic room for Hilda
- Party made a showing that they'll be leaving, so made off towards the swamps then teleported back
- Cassie disguised herself physically as Hilda, Trent disguised her magically
- Cassie drowsed in Hilda's bed with Willow on overwatch, everyone else hid in the panic room
- Willow reported that enemies were attacking in the middle of the night
- Defeated and captured the four drow kidnappers, who were very open to interrogation due to professionalism
- “Braithe,” an elderly human male, six foot tall, white hair, beard, very tan, blue eyes – hired them at 2000 hours three weeks ago in the Happy Jolly Dancer tavern in Endelbar for “Resources 2”
- Negotiated that the dark elves would be kept in prison for two weeks, giving the party time to catch up to Braithe
- Party left for a week-long journey through the desert on a trade road to Endelbar, stocked with supplies provided by the Madrigals
- Grey pimped the ride
- Wyvern attacked, swooped down and took a horse (and Cassie, who was on the horse)
- Trent got bitten, Cassie was dropped, Boyce was torn up, one horse was killed. Grey was unhurt because he spent the combat buffing the hell out of Trent's bow and arrows
- Tore the wyvern down for mystical parts, which were sold to replace the lost horse
Wrap-up
Locate “Braithe” and interrogate him
Session 6 [11/08/09]
Cast
Events
- Cassie disguised herself as the dark elf leader, set up group mindlink
- Grey walked into the bar first, followed by a disguised Cassie; Trent covers front entrance, Boyce covers rear entrance
- The wait was a bust; left a message with the bartender that we'd be back for a few days
- Teleported back home
- Cassie calmed mobs, Grey and Trent put out fires & mitigated famine (and looted on the side); this primarily happened on the docks
- Boyce went to Judge Falric's house
- Grey was about to be attacked by a disturbed mob of twelve while he's in full-on nimbus flare, as they took exception to him putting out their fires
- Mob escorted the apparently-surrendered Grey away
- Grey found out that the fires were rebellious attempts to protest the withholding of food, so after the conversation died down he went invisible and walked back to the fires
- Cassie got invited to see the rioters' leader (?) by turning a rock into an apple
- Trent dealt with the situation in an oblique manner by attacking the spirits of hunger and rage
- In addition to putting out fires, Grey started minor fires where the rioters had their women/children/sick held up
- Trent and Boyce went to scout out Talpin's fortified home
- Boyce set up sympathy in a closet and was discovered by the two witchy women (quote: “Okay, what do you do?” “I run at 40.”)
- Grey and Cassie dug a secret tunnel between the food supply and an abandoned warehouse for purposes of sneaking food out to the public
- Tunnel was shown to the resistance, banked a favor from them
- Portaled back to Endelbar
- Knocked the crap out of Braithe, stole him away to a room
- Braithe interrogated; all signs point to Larkis
- Then Braithe was killed by infernal magical forces built in to silence him
- Rescued two captured girls, sent them on their way home
Wrap-up
Resume in Alestia
Session 7
Cast
Events
Session 8 [12/06/09]
Cast
Events
- Dragoons showed up in a 4am raid looking for the party
- Grey tunneled out for everyone to escape
- Sounds of possible physical torture were heard from the homes, the party decided that was enough excuse to attack
- Dropped a Forces manifest captain and her Death manifest sergeant as well as the ten footmen
- Cassie and Grey set up traps and confusing forensics for the followup patrol; Trent and Boyce coordinated and affected the evacuation
- Party spent 4 days to sell off the dozens of horses to pay for an airship
- Went to Dimmersdale, sought out the negative elements of society
- Trent is teh funnay
- Hooked up with Babbage, the underworld contact
- Babbage set up transport, which will leave in two days
- Two days passed without known incident
- Grey cuts off a day from the journey with a constant tailwind
- Secret plans to acquire the airship are mentally exchanged
Wrap-up
Steal the airship
Session 9 [12/13/09]
Cast
Events
Wrap-up
Session 10 [12/20/09]
Cast
Events
- Interrogated Talpin, turns out Varis supplied the names of the redheaded girls to him
- The kidnappings have been going on for the better part of 3 years, perhaps 50 girls had been taken to date
- Informed that there are bounties on the group's head in Alestia
- Baroness (of Felarch) Elector Nicele Hames will provide a safehouse in exchange for some problem-solving
- The problem is that some sort of magical entities have taken one of her village: Manderbel
- Two days of snowy horse-riding later, group arrived at the barony to speak with the Knight Captain (Searn Dreval, who carries a scythe)
- Black gem in the chapel may be the key to restoring the village
- Stayed the night, left at dawn
- Boyce attempted self-inflated bragging to impress Sir Searn, and ended up falling off his horse to crack his head
- Log across the road; ambush set up by kobolds (2 kobold shamans, 2 elementals, few dozen kobolds-at-arms)
- Kobolds dispatched; rough fight
- Entered town after sunrise
- Found a farmer's house with a door magically set to possibly entice people inside, apparently Grey was either targeted by it or vulnerable to it
- The mayor's office houses a pulsing black gem that seems to house a sentience
- The gem seemed to be some sort of agent of an obscure deity, and it attempts to weave Sympathy into those nearby
- After some experimental poking and postcognition, Grey disrupted the altar
- The group was apparently sucked into the gem, which was a prison for some sort of disoriented armored deity
- Agreed to help the deity (re)discover who he is in exchange for passage out of the gem prison
- The gem was transported to another village
Wrap-up
Yay us.
Session 11 [01/24/10]
Cast
Events
- Appeared in an unknown inn a week later. Extracted to another inn with the 70-pound gem.
- Attempted to gate the gem and Grey to the airship, but that apparently summoned some sort of clawed creature, so Boyce cancelled the spell.
- 12-foot-tall infernal black creature with foot-long claws seems to really want the gem.
- Boyce killed the creature, which promptly exploded and blew up the top floor of the inn.
- Party slipped away to regroup and tend to their wounds.
- Grey, Boyce, and Trent teleport to the ship while Cassie and her boyfriend get a horse.
- Grey re-engineered the ship slightly to reduce its silhouette down to a retracted “size 20” so Boyce will have an easier time gating it in the future.
- The boys set sail to rally up.
- Pernicdel!
- Ship vectored towards the town of Ward, buried the gem in bedrock, then teleported to Alestia.
- “Keepers of Enma”
- Weapons and armor of the dark figure in the gem are Masayumian
- Spoke to the Masayumian embassy and narrowed down the identity of the mystery figure. ~1800 years ago
- Betrayed companions of the figure were named.
- Enma is some sort of reference to underworld forces; apparently a diabolic subrealm associated with murder/revenge/assassination spirits
- Introduced to Saris
- Researched up Kaz a bit more
Session 12 [01/31/10]
Cast
Events
- Visited a larger temple of Aya, found out Aya had a friend named Miyoko
- Stayed in the pilgrims' campground to wait for a divination prayer to fill in the blanks the next day
- Aya was nice enough to teleport the party to the other side of the world
- Grey picked up a few snippets of the language while working a thatch job
- New local wardrobe!
- Linked up with a troupe of traveling merchants
- Choco party, good good
- Arrived at Crane ancestral home without incident
- CRAP LOST A BUNCH OF BULLET POINTS. Ah well.
- So anyway, we're like in the realm of shadows with burning skies and something because that's where the secret Crane family library is
- Oni cat attack!
- Grey pointed to Irinewa after resighting the he saw over a bar, which is identical to the one in the village in which the gem was discovered
- The name of Kaz is revealed
- We updated Kaz
- Kaz recommends we investigate the hellfire explosion and lake of obsidian, so he teleported us to the library
- Electors are still safe, three have died in the middle of the night
- Library research finds a reference to a temple/tower that killed a large number of elves; occurred in Kaz's time
Session 13 [03/07/10]
Cast
Events
- Occluded Rainbow Inn family vanished, apparently from the black-armored teleporting demon (not Kaz, the other guy)
- Boyce located the captured individuals
- Party arranged a meet at noon in downtown Endelbar to negotiate
- Briefed Madrigal on situation, he stated that if a few more people died then the party may be banished
- Recommended to Philip that we be treated officially as outcasts from the city
- Party scouted downtown Endelbar
- Two high school witches show up
- Negotiated the possibility of becoming recruited by the Duchess
- Witches left to update their bound mistress (presumably Veris)
- Formulated a plan to capture the witches
- Brought witches to the Kaz-spot to capture them
- Boyce locked down the site from teleportation, Trent started wresting control over the girls, Grey & Cassie laid into the witches, their escort demons attacked the party
- Witches were KO'd, then Trent wrested control of them, then Kaz sucked the party to safety in the gem
- Grey and Cassie tunneled hastily an underground getaway with Trent masking the magic until Boyce gated in the airship
- Trent was awesome at covering the magical tracks so the party began tunnelling upwards
- Party relocated the ship and gem to another hiding spot
- Deal made with the captured (yet unbound) witches: help us defeat their previous conjurer and they will be set free
- Witches agreed to the deal and provided much intel
- Anja was the summoner, Varis seeks to steal the power of a female devil by absorbing the diffuse essence from all of the redheaded females they can get their hands on
- Message sent to faux-negotiate the hostage trade
Wrap-up
Plan to invade hell and rescue the remaining Bagrams
Session 14 [03/14/10]
Cast
Events
- Boyce offers to gate us to hell to meet a trustworthy demon.
- We ported into hell. It looks like Mexico.
- Grey bought a drink: a “Blood-Red Screaming Obelisk.”
- Trent “Bloodhound” D'Arbor and Cassie tracked down the trustworthy demon through the depths of Hell.
- Found the contact
- Camped out with the devil contact on the plains of Acheron
- Grey accidentally bypasses a bunch of random encounters by hooking Boyce up with portable gates
- (Out of game: Tara asked Chris to use the computer to figure out how many yards were in 3000 feet. HA HA HA HA, I taunt!)
- The party climbed the mountain, located the two prisoners chained up; two armored guards, and a dragon the size of a bus
- Trent and Grey killed the dragon, Cassie and Boyce killed the two guards
- Dropped the kids off with the Crane clan
- Set up a trap for possessed assassins with Grey as the bait in the library
- Four possessed merchant assassins showed up
- Captured an inhabiting spirit, interrogated it for the location and specifics of their home base
- Sent off a poisoned dagger to the medieval CSI to determine an antidote, if any
Wrap-up
Plan a raid on the summoning house in the rich part of town.
Session 15 [04/18/10]
Cast
Events
- Everyone in the party is technically a Baronet now, yay. That's Resources 2.
Wrap-up
Session 16 [05/02/10]
Cast
Events
- Entered town without incident.
- Went to a bar to begin legwork, Boyce defaulted to his social tactics by hitting on a homely serving wench for information.
- Boyce got a line on a mercenary who agreed to put in some inquiries on individuals who may have gone underground in the area.
- Grey found some hidden tunnels around the trade district and found they were owned by a tradesmaster named George Stelios Papadopoulos.
- Grey contacted George and attempted to set up some underworld trading contacts.
- Boyce verified Grey is trustworthy to the underworld guys.
- Grey and Boyce slipped into a non-Papadopoulos warehouse to steal items for Parnth.
- Theft of bath soaps and sundries successful without incident.
- New task: rescue the niece of Parnth from hostile and official interrogation. She is currently in a high-security anti-mage jail.
- Prison invaded! Successful. One female manifest prisoner, light interrogation then she was let go.
- Magic armor (armor 5 plate, chainmail), 2 mana-sucking wands.
Wrap-up
Session 20 [06/27/10]
Cast
Events
- Conferred with the new celestial advisor
- She advised that Varis' personality will eventually be subsumed by the original owner of the power
- She also advised that Kaz is untrustworthy and is probably secretly looking to escape
- The metaphorical Rug of Barely Understanding was torn out from under the party, more flailing about not knowing what should be done
- There are somewhere between 1000-1500 properly qualified offspring to gather
- Vanna said she can come up with a quick-collection system for the redheads, which will consist of ~95% of the progeny (bracelet)
- Popped back to Parnth, “something big is happening in a month”
- Evacuating 30k people then distributed them elsewhere
- Concentration camp burns down, terrible tragedy…. without bodies
- Hey let's visit a god
- We need the legendary lost sword of Hiroko to kill Kaz
Session 21 [07/18/10]
Cast
Events
- Time to break into the Evil Fortress of Evilness…. again
- Preliminary Boyce divinations
- Collapsible gate routine
- Entrance plan: all but Cassie climb into the Bag of Holding, Cassie is a bug on the bag, launch bag over the wall
- Wandering monster encounter in the courtyard: 1d4 sous chefs
- Chef retrieves 2 guards, we vacate
- Go to get the list in the library: Trent suppresses the two gargoyles (one of which has hiccups)
- Old guy librarian mentions the library is closed and it isn't safe to come in there after hours
- Melfir in the library reading
- Boyce's supply of daterape drug applied to Melfir's cocoa
- MYSTERIOUS GIRLIE GIGGLE FROM THIN AIR
- Spiked the librarian's whiskey too
- Proceeded to search for the list, more girly snickering
- List located. Hidden girl presence upset when Boyce and Cassie inexplicably draw weapons as if they're about to kill the unconscious Melfir.
- Boyce and Cassie go to the mother lode of redheads, Grey and Trent go pick up stragglers.
- Boyce and Cassie got 10 girls before evacuating under hostile fire
- Grey and Trent got 5 girls before having to clean up the other pair's mess in the holding cave
- Grey takes 4 aggravated damage from a death touch, ow
- Potion fixes that
- Boyce gets nabbed. Bye dude!
Session 23 [08/01/10]
Cast
Events
- Boyce said he got away after sex. Yeah right.
- Signed mutual non-aggression contract with Nemesis.
- Piddled about with some illusions for a while.
- Against Kaz: 1 will, 3 agg, 7 mana, 2 leth, HEAL 1 leth, 3 bash, 3 lethal, 3 mana, 1 will, 8 leth, 8 mana, POTION OF FULL HEALING whee, 4 bash
- Okay Kaz is dead and everyone gets an Eminence upgrade