Episode 5: Green with Apprehension
General Summary
The session began as everyone arrived in Ignix, capital city of the Fulminarian Empire, one week before the Artisan's Faire. Upon arrival, Tyra and Charles both sent letters containing some of their money through the Silver Bird to their respective destinations. There was a brief stop at the Arcane Sanctum, where Beedle Darebin was working again. He offered trade deals for magical items, allowing trades for equal valued rarity from his inventory. More shopping was done at the Swan's Feather, where Tyra and Valeria purchased new shiftweave and Valan purchased glamerweave before everyone went to settle in at the Dancing Trout inn. Valan bought out someone's reservation for a room that faced the ocean, and promptly closed off his ocean view when he saw figures in the fog in the middle of the night.
In the morning, everyone got to work hunting down the Vagabond. It took them a week to do it, but at in the end they finally caught up to a lead from Old Salty Sven, the bartender at the Turtledragon Byway, who told them that a man matching the Vagabond's description did indeed pass through there. He had spoken to the gentleman in the corner, Eamon McGreggor. McGreggor is the sturdiest ship captain that has ever sailed the waters of the Thunderer's Coast; he's been out past the Ghost Line more times than anyone can count and he's planning another trip out soon. Through the luck of persuasion, they find out that McGreggor promised the Vagabond a ride out with him the next time he went out to sea, and the party books passage on The Ghost of Fire as well; Tyra, Valan, and Charles paid extra to just get rooms on the vessel, while Valeria paid a discounted price with the promise of working on deck to cover the difference.
The next day, the festivities started out in proper; booths were set up in the town's main square offering all sorts of carnival games, exotic wares, and foods of every variety. Our adventurers availed themselves to a variety of games, starting with another game of Goatball against the goliath merchant enclave, in hopes of winning themselves a round of free magic items from their wares. Unfortunately, the Iravek and his goliaths are much too good at this game, and beat the party. But it was close.
Everyone had their own way of enjoying the festivities; Dahlia promptly left to indulge in drinking games, Callisto disappeared to who knows where, Tyra expanded their tattoo with Iravek, Valan partook in a sharpshooting game and enjoyed the cuisine, as Valeria did as well, and Charles made a fool of himself, winning a meal voucher in a fencing match against a child and then trying to use it in a bread stand. After convincing the motherly halfling woman that this was the first meal that he had eaten all year with several very good deception and persuasion checks, the woman attempted to get some food into his belly, which was met with protest from Charles. After further insisting, the woman realized that the shallow-cheeked, hollow-eyed visage of Charles was not but a façade put on by a disguise self spell, the woman chased him around the festival with a rolling pin, an act which drew a fair amount of attention to himself and would come back to bite him.
Towards the end of the night, all of the fest goers began to gather in the huge tent in the middle of town. The first event that was held in the grandstand was a travelling circus called Cirque de Stille put on a stunning performance. As everyone entered, their beast master was putting on a show with hulking mammoths adorned with jewelry while a sky full of bright motes stirred above them. Then, the Ringleader, a large man with a scar on his cheek and a beard covering his face, strode into the scene beginning the show in proper and welcoming everyone to the performance. The first act was a knife juggler with uncanny control of his knives. As he juggled fourteen of them, trapeze artists swung around him, some jumping in and out of the rings that he created with his knives as he did dangerous tricks with the blades. Then, he began flinging the knives at the targets, nailing the bullseye on each one. Then, he flung one at Charles' face, pulling the spotlight to center on him within the rest of the group, and stopping the blade when it was only six inches from his face. Then, the Knifemaster recalled every blade at once to his belt, and left the stage.
Next up was the fire dancer. The night sky was brought down around the audience as she danced amongst the flames, twirling fire all around her and filling the ring with flames while simultaneously balancing a skewer of fire upon her chin. As she danced, the room filled with the warm light of the motes, until finally her dance came to an end and the popped the skewer up into the air and swallowed it in one go (waht dat mouth do) and breathed fire around the room, turning the jet of flame into a great dragon, which raced around the room and caused the motes of light to explode. During this time, Tyra also took a moment to check around the room for threats. Unfortunately, the Vagabond had rolled a 40 on his stealth check, and went undetected by this sweep. But, Tyra did see the group of satyrs that had been summoned to run the ropes for the circus.
Throughout this whole performance, everyone was a little on edge and anticipating a violent move against them.
Next up was a clown, a jester, a fool, who danced amongst the elephants that the beast master had swirling around him. At this point, Charles was suspicious of the mammoths, but did not roll high enough on his check to perceive if there was something strange about them. Following the Jester, there was a rope dancer act. She began slowly, lowering herself from the rafters above and gracefully swaying, tangling and untangling herself in her silken rope. Then, she slowly picked up pace, beginning to sway like a Galileo Pendulum and slowly picking up momentum as she moved her body. As she did so, the extremities of her body began to leave radiant streaks of prismatic light in the air which slowly circled around the stadium as she swung. While she swung, the illusory lights began to fade back into existence, coming up from below the seating and swelling to fill the space. As she dance, the motes of light danced with her, swirling in hypnotic patterns. In the end, the tassels of light expanded into brilliant pearlescent circles which the Ringleader, Knifemaster, Pyromancer, Jester, the Dancer, and Beast Master walked back through, thanking everyone for coming and concluding the show.
After the show, everyone began to split back off, but was abruptly called back together when someone stuck a gun into Charles' spine. That someone was the Vagabond under the guise of a pass without trace spell and an incredibly high Stealth check. Idris had Charles call everyone back to him, and everyone seemed to have a hard time focusing on him, due to the spells he was under. He aggressively, but politely, requested they meet back at the Turtledragon Byway to discuss what the party had come here for.
At the Turtledragon Byway, the tavern was crowded with festival goers, and was judged by the Vagabond's logic as a poor place for someone to get murdered by a group of goons. So, the Vagabond sat the party down and began to talk. After finding out they weren't here to kill him, he holstered The Jolly Green Dragon (his gun), showing that he was a little afraid of them, if he was being honest. While I have your attention on it, now is a good time to describe his weapon. It is a beautiful revolver, a little larger than normal revolvers, with a polished onyx handle that gives off a pearly sheen in the right lighting and a jade green dragon set into it. The jade dragon aesthetic continues up the barrel of the firearm, entwining the barrel with swirls of intricately styled scales.
After some discussion, the party learned that Idris admitted to killing the Emperor, but he had his reasons for it, claiming that he did it for both the Tenebric Vanguard and the Baerwood. However, he did not divulge any more information and struck a deal with the party; if they were to accompany him on his journey to "across the sea" and ensure that McGreggor didn't lose his nerve, in other words stage a mutiny with him if necessary, he would answer every question they wanted to know. It was also at this point of questioning that the Vagabond seemed to sniff the air and clock in that some of his things and some of his platinum that he left behind for the Vanguard had made it into the players' inventories. He didn't directly address it, but he heavily implied with vicious emerald green eye contact that he knew this had been done.
After the deal was made, the Vagabond ordered a round of drinks for the table, and the barkeep happily obliged. After the drinks arrived, everyone drank, and Tyra, Valeria, Charles, and the Vagabond all took shots together. Valan began to feel his fingers go numb. The Vagabond sort of didn't know where to go from here, he honestly thought he was going to have to kill some of his friends. Valan's mouth began to feel dry. Charles assured him that the coalition of every single other signer of the Accords didn't ask them to kill him, only ask him why he did what he did. A few people, including the Vagabond, noticed that Valan's eyes were strangely dilated. At this point, all attention turned to Valan, as he began to feel his heart race and his whole body go numb. The Vagabond asked if he was alright, to which Valan responded by falling over and going into shock. Tyra went into full healer mode, commanding Charles and Valeria to help Valan while they went to get help. Charles put Valan into shock position while Valeria held him there, and Tyra, recognizing this as nightshade poisoning, went to find something to counteract it. They collected green tea and brandy from the bartender, and went out to find pilocarpus fruit to neutralize it.
After creating the concoction to save Valan's life, everyone briefly pointed guns (some figuratively, some literally) at the Vagabond, who claimed his innocence. His innocence was proved by a note found underneath Valan's ale mug which read "[̴̯͚̠̫̥R҉̳͖̺̠e̦͕̫̦̥̘ͅd̪̳̼̱̟a҉̦c͉͡t̗̥͢e̹d͉͘]͏̤͕̩͕̗̞̠" and that is where we ended the session.
In the morning, everyone got to work hunting down the Vagabond. It took them a week to do it, but at in the end they finally caught up to a lead from Old Salty Sven, the bartender at the Turtledragon Byway, who told them that a man matching the Vagabond's description did indeed pass through there. He had spoken to the gentleman in the corner, Eamon McGreggor. McGreggor is the sturdiest ship captain that has ever sailed the waters of the Thunderer's Coast; he's been out past the Ghost Line more times than anyone can count and he's planning another trip out soon. Through the luck of persuasion, they find out that McGreggor promised the Vagabond a ride out with him the next time he went out to sea, and the party books passage on The Ghost of Fire as well; Tyra, Valan, and Charles paid extra to just get rooms on the vessel, while Valeria paid a discounted price with the promise of working on deck to cover the difference.
The next day, the festivities started out in proper; booths were set up in the town's main square offering all sorts of carnival games, exotic wares, and foods of every variety. Our adventurers availed themselves to a variety of games, starting with another game of Goatball against the goliath merchant enclave, in hopes of winning themselves a round of free magic items from their wares. Unfortunately, the Iravek and his goliaths are much too good at this game, and beat the party. But it was close.
Everyone had their own way of enjoying the festivities; Dahlia promptly left to indulge in drinking games, Callisto disappeared to who knows where, Tyra expanded their tattoo with Iravek, Valan partook in a sharpshooting game and enjoyed the cuisine, as Valeria did as well, and Charles made a fool of himself, winning a meal voucher in a fencing match against a child and then trying to use it in a bread stand. After convincing the motherly halfling woman that this was the first meal that he had eaten all year with several very good deception and persuasion checks, the woman attempted to get some food into his belly, which was met with protest from Charles. After further insisting, the woman realized that the shallow-cheeked, hollow-eyed visage of Charles was not but a façade put on by a disguise self spell, the woman chased him around the festival with a rolling pin, an act which drew a fair amount of attention to himself and would come back to bite him.
Towards the end of the night, all of the fest goers began to gather in the huge tent in the middle of town. The first event that was held in the grandstand was a travelling circus called Cirque de Stille put on a stunning performance. As everyone entered, their beast master was putting on a show with hulking mammoths adorned with jewelry while a sky full of bright motes stirred above them. Then, the Ringleader, a large man with a scar on his cheek and a beard covering his face, strode into the scene beginning the show in proper and welcoming everyone to the performance. The first act was a knife juggler with uncanny control of his knives. As he juggled fourteen of them, trapeze artists swung around him, some jumping in and out of the rings that he created with his knives as he did dangerous tricks with the blades. Then, he began flinging the knives at the targets, nailing the bullseye on each one. Then, he flung one at Charles' face, pulling the spotlight to center on him within the rest of the group, and stopping the blade when it was only six inches from his face. Then, the Knifemaster recalled every blade at once to his belt, and left the stage.
Next up was the fire dancer. The night sky was brought down around the audience as she danced amongst the flames, twirling fire all around her and filling the ring with flames while simultaneously balancing a skewer of fire upon her chin. As she danced, the room filled with the warm light of the motes, until finally her dance came to an end and the popped the skewer up into the air and swallowed it in one go (waht dat mouth do) and breathed fire around the room, turning the jet of flame into a great dragon, which raced around the room and caused the motes of light to explode. During this time, Tyra also took a moment to check around the room for threats. Unfortunately, the Vagabond had rolled a 40 on his stealth check, and went undetected by this sweep. But, Tyra did see the group of satyrs that had been summoned to run the ropes for the circus.
Throughout this whole performance, everyone was a little on edge and anticipating a violent move against them.
Next up was a clown, a jester, a fool, who danced amongst the elephants that the beast master had swirling around him. At this point, Charles was suspicious of the mammoths, but did not roll high enough on his check to perceive if there was something strange about them. Following the Jester, there was a rope dancer act. She began slowly, lowering herself from the rafters above and gracefully swaying, tangling and untangling herself in her silken rope. Then, she slowly picked up pace, beginning to sway like a Galileo Pendulum and slowly picking up momentum as she moved her body. As she did so, the extremities of her body began to leave radiant streaks of prismatic light in the air which slowly circled around the stadium as she swung. While she swung, the illusory lights began to fade back into existence, coming up from below the seating and swelling to fill the space. As she dance, the motes of light danced with her, swirling in hypnotic patterns. In the end, the tassels of light expanded into brilliant pearlescent circles which the Ringleader, Knifemaster, Pyromancer, Jester, the Dancer, and Beast Master walked back through, thanking everyone for coming and concluding the show.
After the show, everyone began to split back off, but was abruptly called back together when someone stuck a gun into Charles' spine. That someone was the Vagabond under the guise of a pass without trace spell and an incredibly high Stealth check. Idris had Charles call everyone back to him, and everyone seemed to have a hard time focusing on him, due to the spells he was under. He aggressively, but politely, requested they meet back at the Turtledragon Byway to discuss what the party had come here for.
At the Turtledragon Byway, the tavern was crowded with festival goers, and was judged by the Vagabond's logic as a poor place for someone to get murdered by a group of goons. So, the Vagabond sat the party down and began to talk. After finding out they weren't here to kill him, he holstered The Jolly Green Dragon (his gun), showing that he was a little afraid of them, if he was being honest. While I have your attention on it, now is a good time to describe his weapon. It is a beautiful revolver, a little larger than normal revolvers, with a polished onyx handle that gives off a pearly sheen in the right lighting and a jade green dragon set into it. The jade dragon aesthetic continues up the barrel of the firearm, entwining the barrel with swirls of intricately styled scales.
After some discussion, the party learned that Idris admitted to killing the Emperor, but he had his reasons for it, claiming that he did it for both the Tenebric Vanguard and the Baerwood. However, he did not divulge any more information and struck a deal with the party; if they were to accompany him on his journey to "across the sea" and ensure that McGreggor didn't lose his nerve, in other words stage a mutiny with him if necessary, he would answer every question they wanted to know. It was also at this point of questioning that the Vagabond seemed to sniff the air and clock in that some of his things and some of his platinum that he left behind for the Vanguard had made it into the players' inventories. He didn't directly address it, but he heavily implied with vicious emerald green eye contact that he knew this had been done.
After the deal was made, the Vagabond ordered a round of drinks for the table, and the barkeep happily obliged. After the drinks arrived, everyone drank, and Tyra, Valeria, Charles, and the Vagabond all took shots together. Valan began to feel his fingers go numb. The Vagabond sort of didn't know where to go from here, he honestly thought he was going to have to kill some of his friends. Valan's mouth began to feel dry. Charles assured him that the coalition of every single other signer of the Accords didn't ask them to kill him, only ask him why he did what he did. A few people, including the Vagabond, noticed that Valan's eyes were strangely dilated. At this point, all attention turned to Valan, as he began to feel his heart race and his whole body go numb. The Vagabond asked if he was alright, to which Valan responded by falling over and going into shock. Tyra went into full healer mode, commanding Charles and Valeria to help Valan while they went to get help. Charles put Valan into shock position while Valeria held him there, and Tyra, recognizing this as nightshade poisoning, went to find something to counteract it. They collected green tea and brandy from the bartender, and went out to find pilocarpus fruit to neutralize it.
After creating the concoction to save Valan's life, everyone briefly pointed guns (some figuratively, some literally) at the Vagabond, who claimed his innocence. His innocence was proved by a note found underneath Valan's ale mug which read "[̴̯͚̠̫̥R҉̳͖̺̠e̦͕̫̦̥̘ͅd̪̳̼̱̟a҉̦c͉͡t̗̥͢e̹d͉͘]͏̤͕̩͕̗̞̠" and that is where we ended the session.
Rewards Granted
Various magical item trades
Missions/Quests Completed
Questions for an Assassin: Checkpoint Reached
Character(s) interacted with
The Silver Bird, speedy one stop shop for postage delivery.
Beedle Darebin, back again at a completely separate city across the continent from where you first met him.
Old Salty Sven, bartender of the Turtledragon Byway and a little bit of a narc, not gonna lie.
Eamon McGreggor, ballsiest ship captain on the Thunderer's Coast.
Iravek Goatstriker, travelling peddler of arcane wares.
Krishe Verbose, goliath travelling partner of Iravek.
Cirque de Stille: Ringleader, Knifemaster, Pyromancer, Jester, the Dancer, and Beast Master, the whole crew. There was a gang of satyrs, as well as someone unseen ;)
The Vagabond, charismatic as ever, and still an ally? At least he didn't kill Charles
Beedle Darebin, back again at a completely separate city across the continent from where you first met him.
Old Salty Sven, bartender of the Turtledragon Byway and a little bit of a narc, not gonna lie.
Eamon McGreggor, ballsiest ship captain on the Thunderer's Coast.
Iravek Goatstriker, travelling peddler of arcane wares.
Krishe Verbose, goliath travelling partner of Iravek.
Cirque de Stille: Ringleader, Knifemaster, Pyromancer, Jester, the Dancer, and Beast Master, the whole crew. There was a gang of satyrs, as well as someone unseen ;)
The Vagabond, charismatic as ever, and still an ally? At least he didn't kill Charles
Notes
For this week's extra credit, message me on Discord and tell me who you think poisoned Valan. Daniel, if you're reading this, be specific; you've met them again.
Report Date
12 Jun 2021
Primary Location
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