Session 18: Wool Over the Eyes Report

General Summary

Recap:
After breakfast, the party headed for the Rollrigger's meeting place, a warehouse near the docks of Blasterpeck's outer-city. It seems they'd arrived early though, as the meeting was to be held at noon, so they had some time to explore the warehouse. Roscoe and Tadrel extorted a terrified relapsed Rollrigger for the promise of a free pistol, and Sam teamed up with Roscoe to snatch another pistol laying about. These guys really like stealing pistols.   Eventually noon crept closer, and Pops explained his plan to have the party eavesdrop on the meeting. The party was to be placed within barrels that would sit in the storage unit beneath the floor, with holes in the barrels for seeing through the grate above, as well as hearing the conversation, and most importantly, breathing. They went along with the plan, hopping into the barrels, and being rolled down below. After about a dozen minutes, the doors of the warehouse opened, and a troupe of Rousseau wizards made their way inside, with Pops leading them to speak above the grate.   During the meeting, the Rousseau Foundation revealed what they knew of the demon attacks, saying that they were deliberately made, and one such attack was used to attempt to target the Rollriggers directly. The wizard, whom the party recognized as the white-robed wizard from before, continued with a speculation that the Guidewind Corporate was also involved in the demon attacks, stating that the knights of their Guidewind have been actively thwarting the Foundation's efforts against the merrow, and the coincidence of demons showing up at the Rollrigger base would incriminate them so that the Guidewind could be sent in to finish them off. Pops protested the theory however, stating that the fact that the Guidewind knights eliminated the demons within his base proved they weren't affiliated; to which the wizard asked if he'd noticed anything suspicious. Pops thought for a brief while, considering the fact that they had been down there for at least ten minutes, longer than he believed it would take for them to handle the problem and return. Growing suspicious and turning towards the party, who he knew were directly below them listening in, he began to reach for his pistol, until an explosion rocked the warehouse.   A hail of bullets were heard above, until the party saw Pops collapse above the grate they were looking through, wounded in the abdomen. A dark, bluish chitin covered figure stood above him, and as Pops shouted angrily towards what seemed like the party, he was shot in the head. The figure turned, and walked away.   The party waited around five minutes, hoping to avoid whoever raided the warehouse, but still wanting to try to administer aid to Pops. As they rushed out to the warehouse floor however, several of what seemed like water-logged corpses roamed amid the aftermath, turning their attention to the now visible party, and bolting forward. As the party fought these creatures, they began to notice a strange protrusion beneath the skin along their backs, as well as bloodless cuts along the corpses' napes. Targeting the protrusion directly revealed that these corpses were not undead, but in fact demonic parasites controlling the bodies. These demons, much like the others they've killed, dissolved quickly into the black ichor they've now grown accustomed to.   After the demons were dispatched of, Roscoe attempted to render aid to Pops, but it was already far too late. Upon closer inspection though, it appeared that whoever the figure was, their bullets seemed to have some kind of magical property to them.