Session 2: Birds of Prey

General Summary

Session 2: Birds of Prey The year 3311 (AtF). Session time between 25nd and 27th of Lathian

25th of Lathian, The Owl, the Bitch and the Bookshelf

During the night leading up to the 25th of Lathian, the party found some crucial information, but were incredibly tired, so they made their way back to The Rusty Cup.
As they approached the Rusty Cup, the group immediately noticed a figure standing right outside the door. As they moved towards the figure. Outside of the inn was a tired looking Killian, he looked to be awaiting someone, which the party could only assume was them. They walked up to him and were told to either follow him to the Havion estate, where lady Havion would like a word with them, or to go directly to the town jail. They asked him why and were informed that they were accused of attempted murder. The party decided to go have a word with Lady Havion.
  When they arrived at the estate they were met by a not very concerned looking Anabelle Havion. They approached her and she started to explain her plan to them, seeing as Dirk did not kill her husband because of the group, she then wanted the party to do it for her, or there would be consequences. The party accepted her request and headed back to the inn to get some sleep. The next morning Althea and C0R-TX headed to the herbalist to get the stuff C0R-TX needs to summon Anton, his horn owl, again. After this was done, they walked down to the trade hall and looked at the posting wall, where they saw a note from Killian requesting that someone come fix his floorboards. They returned to the inn where C0R-TX did a ritual to resummon Anton.   The party then gathered downstairs to start the planning of what to do with Lady Havion’s request. they concluded that they would send Anton to deliver a letter to Lord Havion about his wife’s affair. They then got informed of the note by C0R-TX and Althea, which caused Mustafa and Evelyn to go down to the board to see if there were a hidden message within the request, but when they arrived the note has been ripped off and they returned to the inn and informed the others. C0R-TX then showed the message via minor illusion. The group were quick to decipher that it said “Transport not yet needed. Wait. Something is under the board for pick-up.” This raised curiosity amongst the party, but they decided that it could wait. After a lovely breakfast at the inn, the party started heading towards the Havion estate. They sneaked into the forest right by it and sent Anton along to see if Lord Havion was home. On his way to the estate Anton got attacked by a black bird that started following him around the manor. Althea tried to shoot it down but failed, and just as it was about to make another attack, Evelyn shot it down with something that looks like a miniature tornado on fire. The black bird, which was now smoking, flew away. Anton knocked on one of the windows and flew away just enough to see who opened the window, Lord Havion. Anton flew back to the group, got equipped with the note and returned back, this time without getting chased and he safely delivered the message to Lord Havion.
Then it is a waiting game, Althea and C0R-TX stayed by the house as Gandant, Suri, Mustafa and Evelyn went to the trade hall. When they arrived at the trading hall Suri started rummaging around with one of the pillars, eventually ending up pushing down the ground, but the ground around it was not soft and mushy. She quickly pulled it back up, and out fell two keys, a big key, and a small padlock key. She picked them up and reset everything back to normal. Evelyn and Mustafa headed for Killian’s house which was right by the trading hall. Evelyn knocked whilst Mustafa stood a bit in the back. She asks about the floorboards and learns that Silas Shepherd was the one who fixed them. The two of them left Killian at his house and went to the docks, where they met with Silas Shepherd, they asked about the floorboards and learned that they were moldy, and he fixed them for Killian. Evelyn however thought this was complete bullshit, since the house was clearly built recently and it would have taken a lot longer for the boards to mold.   Meanwhile at the estate Althea and C0R-TX were keeping watch, when suddenly C0R-TX heard Lord Havion say “Why would you do this? You are ruining our entire…“, as it cut, no other sounds came from the estate. They sent the birds off to get the rest of the party, which then gathered up with them. The group then talked for a while about what they should do, as three birds suddenly flew at a high speed in three directions, they were quickly shot down by Althea, C0R-TX and Evelyn and they took the note that was on one of the birds. Seemingly the only note that survived the shooting, seeing as the bird that was shot down by Althea landed in the water and Evelyn roasted the other one. The note said ”Lord of Thanatos be wary! The Lord Havion has fallen dead”. As the party decided to burst into the estate, Suri ran to the door and attempted to kick it in. The first kick dented it and on the second one her leg came through. From the other side of the door a scream was heard, shortly followed by an axe that slashed Suri’s leg. When the group finally got inside, they were met by a very panicked looking Anabelle Havion, which is fair since they just broke down her door.. On the floor layed Lord Mallark Havion II, without any visible physical injuries, so the party concluded that it most likely was magical. Suri and Gandant rushed to get the guards and when they arrived, they got an explanation from both sides as to what had happened. C0R-TX searched for any magic on the body of Lord Havion and discovered that it had a strong sense of necrotic magic on it. The party were quick to spot a ring that didn’t quite look like it is from a noble house and is one that Althaea didn’t recognize. They took it off the body and kept it as evidence. They also asked the recently widowed Lady Havion about it and she informed them that he might have some friends in Oea that know something about it. They also learned that it did not seem to be cursed. On the body they also found a piece of parchment which seemed to have been a spell scroll.   Just as the party was about to leave, Gandant ran to the secret bookshelf that he had heard could be opened, and he opened it. Inside was what looks to be a room for sexual activities, but it did also seem to contain many spell scrolls. The party quickly apologized and left. As they went out the broken front door, they saw that a cart had arrived, and they were putting the body on it. Gandant, who was being held in the arms by Evelyn and Althea, quickly escaped their grasp and slid underneath the cart, his mission was however quickly shut down, as Evelyn called out his position and ruined his sneaking. The party returned back to the inn to plan for the coming day and get some rest.

26th of Lathian, Pure Mimicry

The following morning, the party was quick to pack up our stuff and leave the inn. They decided that they were going to head to Grautstett, which is a little north from Anchorage. They headed out of anchorage making sure to divide the stuff evenly amongst them so that they could move as quickly as possible towards their destination.   They headed into The Grumbling Woods, where they found a small shack with not much but a tiny kitchen area, a table, and a bed all in the same room. In the room there was also a chest, which Mustafa was quick to open, he immediately regretted this decision as it turned out to be a mimic, and it was now trying to eat him. The party rushed in and an epic battle started, it was six people versus one chest. They started attacking it shooting all sorts of spells, arrows, and a few amazing smacks. However, when Gandant approached it and attacked it, it let go of Mustafa, and was quick to swallow him whole. The party was now in a situation where an unconscious Gandant was stuck inside a mimic chest. As the party defeated it, they quickly fired some healing spells at him and he was back up and running in no time.   In the chest they found a bunch of torn up clothing and a pendant of Lathander. They assumed that the real Dirk must have been killed and eaten by the mimic, and the doppelganger Dirk might have lived in this tiny hut before taking his new persona. After this they headed a bit further up north, when we came across some downtrodden grass, they quickly switched modes and were now much more careful than before, they then headed into a presumably safe place in the forest and settled down to relax a bit before going any further. Suddenly they started hearing something coming their way, and they were quick to go into hiding. What they saw pass by them was these riders in common clothes with masks over their faces, heading towards The Whisper Wall. As they neared the Grautstett they found a place to settle down for the night.  

27th of Lathian, Are We the Pussy-Patrol?

As the party awoke, they were informed by Althea and Mustafa that the two had heard a giant humanoid creature with a club wandering around the woods during the night. The party then started to head towards the mountain, on their way up Althea noticed a mountain goat on one of the mountain sides and decided that the moment needed some goat feeding. As she neared the goat, it did not really want anything to do with her, but as soon as she took out the peas and tried to feed it, it neared her, ate the peas, and left up the mountain. She came back to the group and they continued.   As they got to the cave, they started to plan everything out. They sent Anton down to scout the area, and they acquired the knowledge that two ogres were eating their lunch down there. Mustafa, Gandant, C0R-TX and Suri, headed into the cave after tying a rope so that the group could secure an escape. When they got to the cave entrance they prepared a surprise attack in case C0R-TX and Gandant couldn’t reason with them. They quickly realized that they could not reason with them and ran out of the inner cave where the ogres were and out towards the surprise attack. The party killed one of the ogres and knocked the other one unconscious. When the unconscious one woke up, it started pulling its friend out of the cave. They looted one of the ogres, upon which they found an old (possibly) dwarven made copper coin (has a bit of divination magic in it), that was between its teeth.   Further in the cave they came across a circular stone door that seemed to not be openable. It had a big hand imprint that was missing its ring finger. After breaking down the door, with the help of Gandant and Suri, one with a pickaxe (Gandant) and one with pure force (Suri). They got into a small chamber, in the chamber there was a 30-foot rope hanging from the ceiling, some bowls and bones lying on the ground, two copper chalices and a bunch of rocks covering someone up. They learned that the rope was magically infused with transmutation magic.   They removed a bit of the stone rubble that was covering the body and revealed the creature whose hand was on the door; the creature was most likely a Goliath. As they were about to leave the room Suri said; Til Hvile (Rest Long, in giant) and a plateau raised from the ground and revealed a message that they deciphered to say “Although lost to the eternal darkness, we still hear your mighty footfall. Here lies the one who was and always will be.” It also revealed a pair of boots, with white fur edges, spikes on the bottom, that would make it easier to move in snowy, icy and mountain terrain. They also had some teal crystals where the laces would be. They once again returned to The Grumbling Forest to rest and prepare for the travel to Bret.