Episode 15: The Guilty Party Part 2 Report
General Summary
Prequel to The Enemy Within Episode 15 - “The Guilty Party (Part 2)” 4/18/2020 Post-Game Notes Day 59 - Festag, 11 Erntezeit, 2512 IC
- Crew spends the bulk of the journey into Bogenhafen sleeping off a major Bugman’s hangover (except for Kris who again practices his lute, again poorly)
- The journey is so peaceful, however (Idle Time), that the Crew wakes up feeling refreshed, and attempts further endeavors:
- Kris practices lute (nope)
- Beau practices lassoing (also nope)
- God and Karl gather information
- The inn just within the city gates is packed, and all people seem to want to talk about is the upcoming autumn Schaffenfest.
- Crew drinks and eats, and Kris’s terrible singing riles up a nearby table of foreign merchants. The woman who looks like the leader (according to the bartender: first name Keiti, last name unpronounceable) sends over one of her bodyguards to ask Kris to stop. Kris smooths things over and offers a fist bump of reconciliation.
- Clearly heartened by their brief trip to the big city, the Crew sets off on the next stage successfully practicing their lute, lasso, watchfulness, and acting!
- They pass a group of robed pilgrims headed towards Bogenhafen; a close look at one reveals red blotches on his face. Run away…
- In the bar, Karl gets suspicious looks from a quartet of humans at a nearby table. They whisper a few strange encouragements to him, drop off a bottle of brandy, and head up to their quarters. Karl’s attempt at tailing them is unsuccessful.
- Uneventful trip; quiet small-town tavern with no gossip to be gleaned.
- En route, Crew encounters a band of goblin wolfriders circling a merchant wagon.
- They chase off the goblins, and come to the aid of Josef, Lottie, and Wolmar.
- Josef follows them to the inn, where his barge is waiting, and after tending to Lottie’s arrow wound, treats the Crew to drinks, food, and stories late into the night
- Much talk about how, in Josef’s twenty years of moving goods up and down the Reik, he’s never seen greenskins so bold in the daylight
- He tells lots of boring trading stories
- En route, Jan has to stop the coach because of multiple potholes (intentional, by the looks of them) in the road
- He starts at them with a shovel, while the Crew carefully scouts the area, checking for an ambush
- Beau is pretty sure something is in the forest watching them…
- After twenty minutes or so, Kris lends a hand with a spare shovel, and they get the hell out of there before it gets much darker
- It rains harder...
- En route, crew spots evidence of a coach accident along the side of the road
- They find the coach a few yards into the treeline, and signs of a battle
- They follow a path into the woods, trying to be stealthy, again aware that something may be watching.
- Just prior to a clearing, their rampaging gait alerts some goblins and a ululating alarm is raised
- Waaaagghh! Eleven goblins await them in an isolated clearing! Some archers approach from behind them on the trail; others scramble for the wolf pens to mount their beasts. The goblin who looks like the leader shouts orders in their bestial tongue.
- God and Karl attempt to deal with the archers blocking their path back to the road, while Kris and Beau charge headlong at the erstwhile riders, attempting to incapacitate them before they can get mounted.
- Things are going well for the Crew, but eventually the sheer number of greenskins plays a factor, and luck runs out: Kris narrowly escapes a serious wound not once, but twice, sacrificing portions of his sexy new armor in the process.
- Karl somehow avoids a killing blow from a wolf-mounted goblin that looked like it was surely going to cleave him from armpit to collarbone (“How did that miss?!?”)
- After confirming the half-eaten remains of some humans and horses, the Crew cuts off the head of the lead goblin and heads back to the coach…
- Beau starts journaling (because he can read & write, you see)
- Kris starts singing and playing his lute (because he is now convinced that all problems can be solved through song, you see)
- Still raining…
- En route, something on the coach snaps, and Beau helps Jan corral the horse in good time; they still make it to the Inn by dusk
- A fancy Cannonball coach is parked conspicuously outside the Inn
- Inside, Andreas greets the Crew warmly and arranges much food and drink before going to check on Jan
- An hour later, they head up to the suite to give their report
- Gershwin excuses his men-at-arms and other associates, and starts grilling the Crew for almost two hours (Godabert, unsurprisingly, takes the lead on the recap)
- Crew punctuates the punchline by rolling out the Goblin head; Gersh is pissed
- Andreas is at a loss -- says something along the lines of, “there’s no way we can pin this on Elicha…”
- Gershwin was apparently promised otherwise, and he storms out with his retinue. Andreas says he thinks the Crew deserves pay regardless, and heads to his room to “fetch it.”
- He actually climbs down a rope, out the window, gets on his horse, and rides off for Altdorf. Thanks to Karl’s elf-like hearing, they get to the window in time to see Andreas wave and mouth “thank you.”
- Gersh is gone; Jan is gone; Andreas is gone. Crew still needs to get north of Altdorf… so they arrange with a late-arriving armed coach that is due to drop off two Tilean
gangstrespectable businessmen in Altdorf tomorrow. Thanks to Karl’s racounteuring, they lower the price to 6 shillings apiece in order to deliver them to the Coach and Horses just north of Dorchen. Thanks to Kris’s songcraft, the younger Tilean convinces his older partner to deal with company for just one day.
Rewards Granted
XP:
- 20 pts for helping out Josef
- 10 pts for helping Jan fix the road before something bad happens
- 50 pts for taking out Gobrat’s goblin band
- 35 for a splendid session
- Godabert: 115
- Beau: 115
- Karl: 115
- Kris: 115
- A decapitated Goblin head
- A nice velvet bag with assorted rags
Character(s) interacted with
Locations scouted and new NPC’s engaged: Bogenhafen, Artisan’s Quarter - The Journey’s End
- Keiti (last name unknown) and her bodyguards
- Unnamed suspicious fans of Karl’s
- Josef Quartjin, merchant
- Lottie Shortcrust, merchant
- Wolmar, merchant
- Gershwin Fischgrätenmuster, Fleet Master of Cannonball Express
- Frau Bastel, his secretary
- Dino Sansovino, respectable businessman
- Paolo Innocenti, Dino’s nephew and respectable businessman in training
