The Tenth Session

July 28, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

1. In the Captain's Quarters
2. Theren's dream
3. The Ambassador's Warnings
4. Tennult
5. Moonlight Infiltration
6. Sunrise Appointment with the Empress

Marnoc has the helm. The corpse of the former captain is floating in the waves behind us, a grayish amorphus blob.

Ship calls the First Mate up to explain the change in command. "Yessir?" "See that grey blob? That's your captain." "That is terrifying," says the young, half-elf boy of an unexperienced first mate.

Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to amplify his call of "All hands on deck!" and follows it with Detect Good and Evil. Of the crew that comes up on deck, he doesn't detect any fiends, undead, celestials, undead, or whatever the spell dictates.

Fulwin arrives on deck and looks around. "We're missing one, two, …" he counts.

"And the captain," says Belmac. "He was a vampire.""

"Well me, I'm commandeering your ship, because you had a vampirate captain." says Marnoc to the crew.

The hands talk about stuff, with the on-deck hands explaining to the others what happened. And then eventually everyone disperses back to their tasks or their hammocks.

In the Captain's Quarters

Theren and Marnoc explore the cabin. It's well-furnished with food and water and a slightly-better bed. The desk is covered in maps and notes. Marnoc knows maps and star charts, he recons that he could navigate the boat pretty well. He notices that there's a hidden closet, and there's a dead dragonborn body in there, completely stripped of equipped of clothing and equipment.

Fulwin, who is in the room with them, is scared. "Ah, so it wasn't a vampire from the start" ruminates Marnoc. Theren and Marnoc haul it out onto the deck and heave-ho it overboard. "Blessings of Noidesop upon you," he says, and turns to see if anyone noticed. Nope.

It's getting now to dusk.

Marnoc checks the navigation tools, and it looks like they're headed for the right place based on the maps and stuff. Marnoc settles down in the Captain's quarters for the night. The first mate has the night watch on deck.

The night passes without incident, other than ….

Theren's dream

Dolfir, his patron, rarely speaks to him. Theren generally feels bits of raw emotion and images.

But since the ambassador told him of his father taking leadership, Theren sees in a dream his father, and the city, and wilting plants in the outskirts and the surrounding rural areas. They wither slightly, the crops look less bountiful.

Something is happening back in Afinor, and it's not good.

The Ambassador's Warnings

This night passes. The next night passes.

We're 2 days' travel away, we start to see ships in passing now.

Marnoc eats only the captain's saved rations; he tells Belmac, who is extremly subtle and shouts out lod, "You have better food!?"

We start seeing ships flying the flag of the Florian Technocracy, which Fulwin points out.

Fulwin pulls us aside. "There are some things you might need to know about Drow culture which are very different. This is a nobility-based system. People who are mages or wealth hold a lot of power and sway. If you anger or slight the nobles, they will try to find ways to punish you as outsiders. It will be difficult for them as you're with me, an emissary, but try to keep out of their way. They don't worship the sea god; they worship Lolth exclisively."

Marnoc and Belmac tuck their holy symbols away.

Fulwin continues: "Slavery is very common here; much different from the Elemental Collective, you'll find that people keep and beat slaves. It's cheap, common labor in the Florian Technocracy. Their outlying islands all follow this. Tennult also has a different method for keeping their economy going during the night. The undead rise. Necromancers in the city control them; they act as guards and the militia and really anthing else needed. Typically each group of militia undead are accompanied by a necromancer, who controlls them as thralls.

"They're primarily matriarchal; they see power coming from a male as … wrong."

Marnoc cracks a joke about his ex-wife, and is advised not to do so.

"The city of Tennult and the nation are ruled by the Empress Trissnae. You address her as 'Empress' and you will bow. It's very diffcult to hold sway as non-royalty, but someone of influence might hold sway. I will be holding a meeting with her in several days; I'll have two guards with me." Our preliminary stack is Theren, the noble half-elf, and Zoltar, the Aasimar mage.

"The moral of my story is that it would be very easy to get put in jail or be arrested, if you should do something against the Empress. So don't make them angry. We're here for a non-routine diplomatic mission, doing our best to cleanse relations."

Marnoc asks, "How far will we be from the docks?"

"In the past, the ambassador has stayed at a house owned by the Elemental Collective."

Ship tries to get the Noidesopeans to stay in the ship, to avoid embarrassing the Ambassador, but no, the city is laid out in such a way that The Party will all have to accompany the Ambassador.

Zoltar and Theren know Celestial; the Ambassador says he can cast a spell that will allow him to understand Celestial.

Tennult

The next day, we get close enoguh to the coast to see fishing ships and the coast. They send out a pilot who points us into the appropriate berth. Fulwin signs us in as a diplomatic boat, and we dock.

A group of plate-armored guards meet us at the dock as we lower the gangplank. They stop us, and Commandant Corbin introduces herself. She will search the ship and lead us to our quarters. "Have fun," says Marnoc. "We will not," she says, and her soldiers search the ship. After 20 minutes' search they say it's fine. They lead us to the ambassadorial house for the Elemental Collective.

We travel by cart into the city of Tennult, first passing through the slums. There are lots of Drow with meagre livings. Some businesses have heavily-scarred elves, dwarves, or humans working at tasks, gaunt and harrid. There are street urchins, trying to be joyful. A little Drow girl approaches the cart we're riding in and holds up her hand. A guard kicks her in the face.

Eventually we reach the great wall of the Militia District, through which we are quickly afforded passage as we're accompanied by the Commandant. It's getting to be late evening; there's a guard transition going on and the necromancers are coming out of the barracks, with zombies and ghouls and other terrible creatures. A nighttime cloud bank approaches.

There's not a lot of land in this thin Militia District. The militia that move are moving circumferentially, not radially in or out from the city center. The militia district surrounds the Noble District, and gradually fades into it. Utilitarian walls fade into finely-crafted walls, and residences gain towers that increase in height as we get close.

The Commandant points out places as we travel, but doesn't name taverns or libation-houses. Belmac asks if there are places to get libations; she explains that the culture isn't into public drinking, and adds that it's a very common thing to do. "You're not commoners, are you?" Marnoc looks at Belmac, says, "No, ma'am, but we are alcoholics." She suggests with some distaste that the house-servants may be able to acquire ale.

The people on the streets now wear purple and red, the colors of Lolth. They're almost all Drow; the few well-dressed slaves are in shops or running errands, wearing insignia around their neck. Each slave's insignia differs in a way that Theren thinks they might be family crests.

The ambassadorial house is surrounded by walls and gates; it has two great big evergreen trees. There's a balcony at the front of the house where the cart lets us off.

The commandant tells us to be ready to meet the Empress at sunrise. There are servants inside to get things, who must be paid in coin to acquire items but who carry the crest of the Empress and will serve us expeditiously.

Marnoc asks about going out into town; the Commandant says that people would look down upon him. She also says that maybe she could give the Empress' symbol to him to wear around and about, but that people would look at him as a slave. He takes two.

They don't have Solar Balaar's Bazaar, but the Commandant says that the servants would be willing to run purchasing errands.

Marnoc casts Detect Magic as a ritual.

The bear climbs one of the evergreens. They're well-trimmed. Ship leans aganist the tree.

Theren stays outside; Zoltar and Belmac enter.

The things that stand out to Marnoc's spell, besides the Party's items, are Fulwin's enchanted necklace. Inside the house there's a small bedroom for the servants, a large closed-off dining room, a wide open space that combines the laundry and kitchen and lobby, and a stair going up.

         1st floor
+--------+-------+-------+
| dining | stair   wash  |
|        | stair         |
|        |               |
|        |       +       +
+--------+ lobby         |
|servants|       kitchen |
+--------+ -   - +-------+

ship's
tree                tree

Marnoc sees something magical upstairs, in the ambassador's quarters. He tells Fulwin and Theren, and they go to look.

         2nd floor
+--------+--------+------+
|sitting  >stair< |      |
|        +-vvvv-+ |      |
+----+   | open | +------+
|    |   +------+ |      |
+----+            | amb  |
|     \           |      |
+------+-+      +-+------+
         | balc |
         |      |
 tree    +------+   tree

There are no upstairs windows facing the trees. The house is made of wood, rather like a log cabin.

The magical thing is a sending stone, confirms Fulwin. It's in a little cup behind a painting, and it's a used as a rocky-talkie. Theren sends a servant for a lead cup, on the theory that the lead cup would block the sending stone's magical transmission of soundwaves.

Marnoc talks loudly about how good the painting is. It's a painting of the sea. "I genuinely would want one to hang in my ship," he says.

We ask the servants what's in the area. There's stores. There might be slavery places. "They don't have to be slaves on the ship," says Marnoc, and the slaves perk up a little. "You should talk to the Commandant" says one.

Ship asks after arrows, gets told that the servant could accompany Ship to a store.

Marnoc asks after a black market, he gets told that it's not a question of where it can be found but who knows who knows who. He explains that he needs a deed of ownership for the ship. The slave doesn't know anyone who does forgery.

Ship goes with the slave, not wearing a servant badge. They go through winding streets; there are still places open. But blacksmiths don't stock magical arrows, and the servant leades Ship down narrower and narrower passages to an enchanter's place, a building with a small wooden sign reading "Gold's Dust."

"This is the only place that I know of," says the servant. "It's as close to the slums as you can get in the Noble District." It's a place that is obviously overlooked. Ship enters the place.

The store owner isn't a Drow. He's an elderly half-elf. "Um, yes, how can I help you?"

"I need magical arrows," says Ship. The store owner totters into the back. Ship looks around; there are lots of trinkets. Very eccentric trinkets, but there's nothing that's relevant to Ship's vision seen at camp.

Eventually, the owner returns with a bundle of arrows with runes inscribed in the tips. "Where are you from?" he asks, squinting at Ship. "The Elemental Collective," says Ship. "I see my good friend Amira has brought you here." He has 2 lightning, 2 force, 2 fire, and 2 "stronger than normal" (+1) arrows. Ship buys everything except the lightning arrows, losing a discount because Ship was short a few gold to match the discounted price of all the arrows.

And then Ship asks him for assistance in fencing the medusa head snakes, and gives him one for use in finding a buyer, though they are two weeks old. He thinks they'll find a good buyer. And Ship gets a glass jar to hold the remaining 9.

The half-elf accompanies Ship back outside, where he hides his door with a spell, diguises himself as a Drow, and totters off. Ship and the servant return to the house.

The servant returns with the lead cup, which Marnoc puts on the sending stone.

Belmac and Marnoc get kinda antsy, looking for their nightly booze. Theren pull sout a cask of Goofy Goblin. They decide to drink Belmac's rum, and get rather drunk.

Ship, hearing all the stuff going on in the house, kinda gives up. Turns to the servant and asks her to wash the satchel and its contents, and the person does so. And Ship climbs up with the bear, resolving to tell the story of the half-elf tomorrow.

Belmac and Marnoc are acting very intoxicated, though they aren't, and they eventually turn in for the night.

Tennult is near the Arctic Circle; it gets kinda cold at night. Ship curls up in the bear.

Theren talks to Fulwin.

Moonlight Infiltration

At night, Ship feels around, realizes their bag is still with the servants, wakes up and resolves to climb down the tree and talk to the servant to get it back. Ship wanders around the house, notices movement in the other tree. Zoltar, inside the house, hears it as well. There are two things scaling the tree. Ship ducks back towards the tree, not very stealthily at 10. The bear wakes up at 7 stealth, quite noisily. Ship isn't there; the bear is discomfited.

Zoltar and Theren, in the same room next to the ambassador, wake and hear the same rustling that Ship noticed. Theren moves stealthily to the middle of the upstairs hallway. The rustling continues.

Zoltar trips and falls, making a bit of noise. Theren trips Mage Armor.

Two figures jump out of the tree onto the balcony, and look at Ship. They're armed.

1. Round 1
   1. Ship looks at them. They're armed with crossbows and shortswords. Ship casts Spike Growth on the balcony. And then hides behind the tree.
   2. Goon #1 takes a step forward and receives 6 damage from the spikes' 2d4 damage per 5 feet movement. Goon #1 pauses momentarily, then moves to the edge of the balcony, walking around to see Ship behind the tree, taking another 10 before the Goon shoots at Ship. The shot misses.
   3. Goon #2 moves inside, beyond the spikes, taking 6 piercing damage.
   4. Servants downstairs shout that there are people downstairs.
   5. The Bear dashes down the tree and stands at the door of the entry hall. There's a goon looking into the servants quarters' and another looking up the stairs.
   6. Goon #3 turns around and says, "Oh shit, there's a bear," and stabs it with a poisoned knife for 9 damage and a poison constitution check that the bear passes.
   7. Theren attacks Goon #2 with the Hex curse: the Goon now has a disadvantage against strength checks. With a bunch of slashing and necrotic damage, #2 looks pretty damaged.
   8. Belmac dons his Bear Claws and activates them. He loses some health to their effect but gains a point of AC as he transforms partially into a bear. He moves from the back left bedroom into the hallway. He shouts back to Marnoc, "Zoltar is not naked!"
   9. Marnoc grabs his shield and his warhammer and moves level with Belmac in the hall. They're between Theren and Zoltar; Theren is closest to Goon #2.
   10. Goon #4 in the basement says to #3, "You can deal with a black bear," and runs upstairs to just behind Zoltar.
   11. Zoltar casts Magic Missile at 4th level using the Wand of Magic Missiles, spending 4 of its 5 charges, to deal 6d4 + 6 = 19 on Goon #4. He gets bludgeoned a bit, looks kinda damaged.
2. Round 2
   1. Ship rolls a natural 29 to hit Goon #1 with a +1 arrow, triggering the Bow of Twilight's cast of Hunter's mark's +1d6. So the roll is 4 dex + 2d8 magical pierce + 2d6 +1 arrow for 27 damage. But Goon #1 is not dead, and Hunter's Mark stays on the goon. Ship moves behind the tree.
   2. Goon #1 jumps into the tree, clumsily, and pulls out his shortsword.
   3. Fulwin in a nightgown walks out of his bedroom, says "What's going on? Aaah!" and then casts Hold Person on Goon #2, who passes its check. He turns to Belmac and says, "You can do it, get him!" and Belmac feels Bardically Inspired.
   4. Goon #2 runs over next to Fulwin, making two slashing attacks against him. One hits for 5 damage and poisons him for a little more damage. Fulwin looks kinda woozy from the poison.
   5. Belmac moves next to Fulwin and attacks Goon #2 to do significant damage before Action Surging to hit with even more, almost downing Goon #2.
   6. Bear attacks Goon #3 with slashing, then stays there.
   7. Goon #3 attacks the bear, but the bear isn't poisoned this time.
   8. Theren Hexblade Curses Goon #2 for a critical hit, splitting him in half. On the other side of Theren is the terrified Fulwin, now covered in blood. Theren then moves to Goon #4 and attacks with the sword for a 12 damage.
   9. Marnoc, hearing angy bear noises from downstairs, decides to stay upstairs and cast BlessBless:: You bless up to three creatures of your choice. Whenever a target makes an attack roll or a saving throw, it can add a 1d4 to it. on Fulwin, Belmac, and Theren, thereby adding 1d4 to their rolls. And then he moves around to block Goon #4's movement, and spits on him as a bonus action.
   10. Goon #4 attacks Zoltar, who of all who had attacked the goon had done the most damage, slashing and then missing.
   11. Zoltar casts Magic Missile with a spell slot at the third level for 22 damage, bringing Goon #4 close to the brink of death.
3. Round 3
   1. Ship backs off 30 feet, then shoots Goon #1 with a Force Arrow, using its 6 Force damage to knock #1 off the tree and into the wall. #1 is dead, so with a bonus action Ship moves the Hunter's Mark onto Goon #3 that Ship can now see through the front door of the house. The bear attacks Goon #3 but misses, as #3 dodges.
   2. Fulwin casts Cure Wounds on himself at the second level for 2d8 + Charisma = 12 and heals up entirely. He's still shrieking and covered in blood. He then Bardically Inspires Theren.
   3. Bear attacks and misses.
   4. Goon #3 attacks the bear, bringing the bear to 1 HP on his first attack and then missing the subsequent.
   5. Theren hits Goon #4, cleanly slicing him in two. He comes down the stairs, to the landing.
   6. Belmac jumps off the top of the stairs and takes 5 points fall damage as he punches through the stairs. Theren moves up next to the Bear. Goon #3 is confronted by one-and-a-half more bears than he was expecting in this building.
   7. Marnoc goes back to bed, but maintains concentration on the Blessing.
   8. Zoltar moves to the top of the stairs and casts Magic Missile again at the third level at Goon #3 for 16 damage.
4. Round 4.
   1. Ship moves to a better vantage point and shoots Goon #3 for 15 damage with a regular arrow. The bear attacks for 7 damage.
   2. Fulwin stands in his bedroom door, hyperventilating.
   3. Bear disengages and moves outside, to the outside side of the pillar supporting the balcony.
   4. Theren moves his Hex to Goon #3 and casts Eldritch Blast, with its 10 force and 6 necrotic the goon's rotting corpse is smeared across the wall of the entry.
   5. Belmac disengages his Bear Arms; he sees undamaged.

All the figures are Drow. Ship heals the Bear some.

Between the bodies, we find a combined 476 gp, a sending stone, and a note in Undercommon, which Zontar reads to all:

Quarry: Ambassador Fulwin
Location: the Ambassador's residence, the Elemental Collective

You will find your package at the Golden Sea, beneath the waves.

— V

Fulwin says it's been a while since he fought. The guards will be here soon; he advises Zoltar to hang onto the note. The guards aren't going to aggravate inter-house warnings by demanding it. Ship steals one set of studded leather armor, their AC is now 16. All the goons had crossbows and shortswords, but they are unremarkable.

Because of Wild Magic, Zoltar turns bright blue.

The guard arrives and sees signs of a fight, and asks what happened. Belmac wakes Marnoc up, Marnoc asks the guards if they know anything about it. The guards seem insulted by the implication.

The bodies, when searched, contain no identifying insignia other than Lolth's insignia, which is so common here as to be unremarkable. The guards say they'll conduct an investigation. Theren tells them that the assassinations mentioned "V". but that's not much of a clue. Theren eindicates that he'd like for the guards to leave now.

Ship is waiting at the gate, asks the guards if they know where the Golden Sea is, that the assassinations mentioned. The guards reply that it's an inlet nearby.

The servant girl who accompanied Ship earlier draws Ship aside and tells of the Golden Sea, a place in the city, a brothel. Ship asks if there might be anything interpretable as waves, of which the girl says she doens't know. Her previous master took her with when he went there once, when he was in need of their services. He was Fixten Kenami, no one of any importance.

"This is completely unrelated," says Ship, "But how did you know the store-owner?"

"Fixten occasionally needed magics that weren't from here," she says.

"Thank you," says Ship, who awkwardly pats her on the shoulder and then goes back outside to climb the tree.

Long rest overnight, and Ship retrieves the bag.

Sunrise Appointment with the Empress

The staff wake us and feed breakfast in the morning. Marnoc tries to see if the sending stone behind the painting is related to the one from the Drow assassin. It is! The Party now possesses a magical walkie-talkie that can also receive messages from anyone who knows the spell to send messages.

It is decided that Theren and Marnoc will escort Fulwin.

Fulwin and Marnoc and Theren ride off to the Empress' palace in a carriage gaudier than the one we used the day before.

Everyone levels up; the party is now of the sixth level.

Outstanding questions:

• Who is V? Why does V want Fulwin dead?
• What is beneath the waves at the Golden Sea?
• Will Ship get a decent price for the dried medusa-head snakes?
• How long will it take to get to Alfinor, Theren's hometown?