Session 7: The Bank Report

Our story continues with Rothgar and Vadania following the bank delivery wagon into the alley behind the bank where suspected robbery is occurring. They fail to see Andry up in the balcony of the adjacent apartments. As they sneak, Vadania and Rothgar talk about who will cause a distraction so that the other can get Andry to sneak into the bank. They also are attempting to gather intelligence about the wagons, but aren't gaining much from where they are.   The wagon stops in the alley, and one man jumps off the wagon, immediately seeing Rothgar and Vadania blatantly checking out the wagons like creepers, before he continues on with his job. Andry sees the wagon pull up in front of her, seeing the worker looking at something on the street, but she can't tell what, and then he goes back to unloading the wagon. The driver gets out, looks around, and then helps unload. The door to the bank gets unlocked and one guard is standing near the door. Both the worker and the driver pick up bags and start taking them in. At this point, nothing looks amiss to Andry.    Rothgar and Vadania go inside, thinking they may find Andry there. Nothing looks out of place to them, and Rothgar brings up opening an account in order to have a reason to scope things out and not look sketchy. Four tellers stand at the counter, and a guard is in the corner. Rothgar walks up to one of the tellers and says that he wants to open an account. The teller sounds interested, and says he will get someone that can help before turning around and walking through a door to the far right of the teller's counter. Vadania tries to see something through the door, but it closes too quickly.   The teller comes back with an officious looking man, who leads them into the back side of the bank. There's a long hallway that goes left and right, and a big iron bound door is in front of them. They take a right and go into an office. He sits behind a desk, gesturing to the two of them to sit in the chairs across from him. Rothgar and Vadania say that they are new in the area, and the banker (Brice Fletcher) asks for someone who can vouch for them. He asks what they are interested in depositing, informing them that there is a 100GP minimum, but they do hold gems in a safe location. Brice seems to think that they are gem traders. He did let them know that he'd have to talk to the others about storing something large in size. Vadania asks him how they ensure that belongings are kept safe at this bank, and Brice says that they've never had any robberies, etc. Vadania then asks about safety at the bank, and Brice tells them that everything stays double locked, that it takes two people to open safes, and other safety measures are in place. He also admits that the bank is part of the Circle, which keeps anyone who would be interested in doing the bank ill from doing so.   Vadania then asks for a bathroom, hoping to explore, but it's back in the lobby, so she decides to wait. Rothgar and Vadania appear to be hesitant, so Brice asks what else he can do to assure them of the safety of their stuff. Rothgar says that they came into some gold, thinking it was a lot, but given the down payment, they need to reconsider and come back a different day. Brice tells them to ask for him when they come back, and walks them out.   As Vadania and Rothgar come out of the office, one of the wagon guys passes them in the hallway and definitely recognizes them as the people from outside who were being creepy. Rothgar and Vadania see large boxes in the hallway, which looked to be coming from the large iron door. They then leave the bank, trying to be inconspicuous outside. Andry is still in the alley, and after a few minutes, the wagon guys come out, get in the wagon and drive away with nothing in hand. Andry keeps an eye on the door to see if anyone comes near the back door. She then sees a figure coming down the alley in a dark purple (almost midnight) cloak. Normally she wouldn't notice them, but happens to just see them as they walk by, watching the figure lean down and scoop up a bag that hadn't been noticed before by the door, and continue on. Andry realizes if she hadn't been specifically looking at the alley for something sketchy, she wouldn't have seen it. The figure in purple had come from the left, where the wagon departed to, and walked to the right toward the main road.    Andry rushes down the steps, trying to follow the purple cloak. "Purple" has made it to the main street and is heading into an unnamed alley to the south. Andry is heading towards Purple, Rothgar and Vadania are looking for Andry, when Vadania sees her all but running across the road while trying to look nonchalant. Rothgar is looking in the wrong direction and misses Andry. Vadania and Rothgar then head after Andry, catching up quickly and getting in Andry's view.    Without stopping, Andry tells Rothgar and Vadania she is following someone, and they see him. Rothgar lifts Andry up for confirmation, and gets a, "HEY, put me down!" in response. Rothgar splits off and tries to go on a parallel road to Andry and Vadania, keeping up with Purple. Vadania and Andry nonchalantly follow Purple, trying to stay inconspicuous. The girls see Purple hang a right on North Branch Lane, and as Rothgar comes around the corner from Two Harbors Road, he sees Purple going east on North Branch Lane. Right as he turns the corner, Rothgar hears a sudden honk from a building next to him, and a goose appears suddenly honking at him from the alcove entrance of a shop. Rothgar kicks the shit out of the goose, yeeting him into a window, the goose honking in distress. There is a muffling movement from behind the door and Rothgar quickly steps back into the crowd. Purple doesn't even react to the commotion.   Vadania and Andry make it onto North Branch Lane and continue following Purple. Purple starts to take a left on Dix Street (like the fort, not the appendage). As they do, Purple glances back but doesn't notice anything sketchy. Rothgar can tell that Purple looks vaguely orc-ish, might be a half-orc. Purple yeets himself casually into a building (it's a triangle building on Dix Street). He walks in the front door after a brief pause. The building looks very dark inside, the shutters are closed on all the upper floors. It looks like a private residence, but is distinguishable by the triangle shape and light grey trim.    The Party decides to go back to Elcas and report on the information that they found. Rothgar makes a statement about Dura possibly knowing Purple since he's only seen two half-orcs this whole time they've been in the city. They arrive back at the Temple of Moradin a few hours after leaving. They run into Bob the secretary again, and he goes to find Elcas for the Party. Rothgar looks at the books in the meeting chamber, finding a screaming book first before quickly putting it down and moving on to the next book, Moradin & You: A Guide to Your Faith.   Elcas shows up, leading the group into Keldor's office again, telling her he owes her lunch for stealing her office again. Rothgar wastes no time, asking if the mission was supposed to be one that no one knew they were investigating. Elcas says that's correct, and then confirms that they didn't tell anyone about him (*whew*). He then makes a distasteful comment about Vadania's wings adding 30 pounds, offending her. Andry then gives a full recap of everything that she saw at the bank. 

There was a “really” big person, (like Vadania’s size) was walking right in front of me. There was a bag, that I hadn’t seen before, but there was a bag. The person picked it up and stuffed it in the folds of their robes. So I bolted down the stairs, and I was darting this way and that way (it was awesome). Then I see her (pointing to Vadania), and he (Rothgar) had the audacity to pick me up! but I told him I was on a mission, and he put me down. Then he went that way, and we went this way, and then the person in purple took a right, but I was so concerned about following, and she was following with me. But then I heard a honk, and I looked and it was Rothgar.

Rothgar interrupts, explaining that the goose got sent into a shop, maybe…, then says, "anyways, we found an individual who found a planted bag. They left it outside the door of the bank, but we think that was the skim money. The wagoneers might have left the bag outside the door, and it seems like the person didn’t miss a beat. They had a dedicated path. We followed him to a building, we can tell you where it is." He then follows up with the fact that they came back to talk to Elcas about everything and plan something, maybe an ambush, since Elcas didn’t want the Party to handle it physically if possible.   Elcas asks what the figure looked like, and Rothgar said that the person had purple robes, and looked to be an orc or half-orc. Rothgar then asks how often money is left with the wagon, and Elcas tells them the deliveries happen 2 to 3 times per week. After more conversation, Elcas asks if they can get into the building, to which Rothgar responds yes, although there is no guarantee about what happens once the Party gets in.   The Circle wants to apprehend the skimmers. Elcas pays each of them 2GP, and their next task is to infiltrate the triangle building and apprehend the thief, ALIVE, to receive the additional 10GP each. The Party asks if there is anyone they can turn to if shit hits the fan, and Elcas pulls out a pair of sending stones, explaining that they are HIS and he needs them back after this. He says they can send him a message if shit hits the fan, but it only works once a day for a single message, so don't waste it.   The Party quickly leaves the Temple and heads back towards the triangle building. They get close, and Andry decides that she is going to try to sneak up to the roof and sneak inside from the top. From the back side of the building, Andry sees that the building has a covered pass through between two buildings, which is damp and kind of gross. Just around the corner, she sees steps leading to an entrance, but it looks dark inside. Just beyond that, there is a small fenced in area that Andry can't see in since she's too short. Going back to Rothgar and Vadania, Andry finds them bickering in the street. She explains what she found, and the Party goes around to the back where Rothgar peeks over the fence and sees a sad, neglected garden. Andry attempts to look through the window on the door but can't reach it. She tried to open the door, but it's locked.    Rothgar then goes up the steps, trying to see if there is another lock on the door, but can't tell. He then says fuck it and tries to bust open the door, succeeding VERY loudly. Vadania and Andry follow Rothgar; "it's time to hunt." The small darkened area looks like a mudroom. There is a door directly in front of them and a window into the garden to the right. Rothgar opens the wooden door in front of him and hears shouting coming from inside. They walk into a long, narrow galley kitchen (horizontal facing). Shouting is clearly audible from the door on the other side of the kitchen in the middle of the wall. Rothgar heads straight for the noise, with Vadania and Andry following. Rothgar opens the door: ahead of him is a long hallway. There are two doors on each side of the hallway in the middle of the hallway, and another door about 50ft away at the end of hall. Rothgar walks down the right side of the hallway, Andry hangs back slightly, and Vadania covers Rothgar.   As Rothgar goes down the hallway, shouting intensifies, and he can hear 3 distinct voices and footsteps moving loudly and quickly above him like someone was running towards the front of the house. As soon as Rothgar enters the room at the end of the hallway, he sees a stout dwarven figure off to the left, and two others to the right. The first figure immediately attacks Rothgar, as he is a stranger in the house, hitting Rothgar with a short sword and doing 2 slashing damage. The second figure also tries to stab Rothgar with a short sword, but misses as Rothgar was able to block. Vadania aims Eldritch Blast at the second figure, making contact and doing 7 damage. The third figure tries to attack Rothgar with a warhammer and only just misses. Andry runs up and tries to slide behind Rothgar, succeeding and making it behind the third figure. Since he was flanked, Andry used her advantage and did 4 slashing damage to the back of the third figure's legs.   Rothgar starts to Rage ("WHERE'S THE MONEY??"), then turns and slashes straight down on the third figure, doing 9 slashing damage. The third figure's speed was halved until Rothgar's next turn, and he has disadvantage on attack rolls. Figure 1 is really fucking angry that Rothgar hit his friend, and attacks with his short sword, but misses. The second figure is also pissed, but misses with his short sword as well, too angry to be accurate. Vadania casts Eldritch's Blast at the third figure, doing 9 damage, going straight through the figure's skull, killing him. Andry turned to the second figure, slashing at him with her rapier, doing 5 slashing damage and killing him by finding a hole in his armor and hitting a major artery.   At the top of the steps in the corner of the room, a female half-orc steps out onto the landing, turning to face the Party. It's Purple!   Rothgar looks at Purple, but backslashes his seax at the first figure. He does 17 damage, casually backslashing him in half, killing him. Rothgar starts going up the steps towards Purple, stopping halfway, and asks where the gold is. Purple stares down Rothgar with evil eyes. She came charging down the steps, putting her hands on Rothgar, and casts Inflict Wounds. Rothgar felt a slight tingle but nothing happens because Purple is so distraught about her friends ddying. Vadania casts Hex on Purple (on dex), and attempts to throw her dagger at Purple, but Purple uses her staff to block the throw. Andry decides to try to slide past Purple and slashes at Purple's legs, but misses. She casts Wrathful Smite as a bonus action. Rothgar grabs Purple's hands and attempted to grapple, succeeding and grappling Purple. Purple knew that she was pinned, and probably couldn't escape. She still has one arm free, and casts Magic Missile, sending a dart at each of the Party. Vadania passes her concentration check, but Andry fails hers, ending Wrathful Smite. Each Party member takes 3 force damage from Purple. Vadania decides to try to tie up Purple, which was a contested dex check, and succeeds.   Purple is finally restrained!!   Now what...?