Twenty-Fourth Session

At the start of the session Sol takes Alice aside and breaks the spell on her anklet like he did for the others. Alice sees the laceration that opens on his face and thanks him, promising she won’t let him down. Also, “I wouldn’t want you guys in front of a firing squad.”

Talith is awake and aware but she’s struggling and can’t speak — her wound is healed over but it looks like very fresh scarring. She’s having a bad time so Sol will have to do most of the talking for the guards. He thinks all they’re going to have to do is look like they were hit hard and that’s not exactly a stretch right now. Sol and Fishboy are going to take turns letting Talith ride piggy back on them.

Alice didn’t clean her shield from the night before so it’s still got scorch marks on it. They all look messed up and Talith isn’t walking on her own so it should look like they had a hard fight. Fin looks freaked out by the fact that someone was brought back from death but also he likes Talith so he’s okay with this.

They split off from the others and the four of them head to Thracien. It takes a couple of hours.

Alice: Are you sure you’re okay with the part of this plan where we need to lie a lot?

Fin: I will do the best that I can, it should be doable to tell them what happened. […] I think I will let you talk and I’ll just stand behind you and look intimidating.

Alice: Alright then, that’s… that’s a plan.

Sol says they’ll have to make a report at the guardhouse and then get transit back to the Keep so Talith can be seen too. They won’t *all* go but they want it to look like they are. He was planning to take Talith back to the keep himself and let them rejoin the others alone, but is hesitant to leave everyone so he’s torn right now.

Outside the city Sol is worried he doesn’t look messed up enough so he puts mud on his face even though he’s still bloody. Fin assists him in smushing mud on himself. “Now you look like you’ve been attacked.” Sol thanks him profusely.

They enter the city through the west gate at 10:30-11am, there’s no patrol and the gate is open. Sol points out the tavern we stayed in last time and says they need to get Celia some diamonds and leave them there. Fin notices that there are a whole bunch of posters around, the face that’s drawn on them belongs to a centaur they know, it’s declaring a fight. He grabs Alice’s arm and demands that she reads it to him.

“For his final championship fight, Solomon the Great will take on Brutus, Destroyer of Worlds.” Apparently this’ll take place at the Thracien Colosseum. Fin is very upset that he shouldn’t be fighting and Alice asks why not/how he knows him, Fin says “I got him out” re: the fighting ring. Alice says they’ll figure out when the fight is after they conclude their business.

People are staring at them, they’re definitely being noticed. This is fine though.

They head towards the northern gate towards the main guard headquarters. It’s made of grey brick that doesn’t match the yellow brick of the rest of the city, purposely standing out. The guard sigil is on the door. Sol gives them a look that says good luck and then opens the door. There’s an older gnome (appears 60 for a human but is est 230, with spectacles) at the desk inside and asks if he can help them. Sol says they need to make an official report and they’re taken farther inside to what looks like a fantasy interrogation room with slits in the wall to look through.

Alice is very unhappy about being in this room. They’re left to wait about 20 minutes before anyone shows up, an elf with dark hair in the same uniform as talith and sol. He looks very worried and glances between the guards and says he needs to know exactly what happened. He either casts a transcription spell or has a magic pen that writes on its own whatever the people around say. Sol explains first, says we were jumped and runs down the fight. He’s not the best liar but he’s so shaken that it comes across like he’s upset rather than anything else.

Fin says he was asleep and heard the sound of Talith being stabbed, then sticks to the truth as much as possible when describing the fight. He’s more omitting things like who died vs survived. Alice follows suit but adds in detail about the fireballs and does say “they died,” letting the fact that she’s rattled by being in an interrogation room add to her performance. The elf seems to buy it.

Sol says “understand that this is a code maroon” and the elf looks startled and tells the pen to remove code maroon — it blots out a line of text.

Elf: Alright well what do you need from me?

Fin: Out friend needs to be taken care of, she’s in injured

Elf: I can arrange transport for this evening and she can stay here but we don’t have room for all of you.

They agree to go to the Inn instead, and the elf says the “gilded periwinkle” will give them a discount for being guards. As he’s leading the party out he stops Sol and asks him something privately. When Sol replies the elf nods, looking worried. Talith stays at the HQ while sol, Alice, and Fin head back out. The dark haired elf makes sure that the party gets paid for the bounty on Verdun.

Sol: I think that’s about as good as it’s going to get.

Alice: Are you going to explain the thing you mentioned in there?

Sol: not out here I’m not, we need to find diamonds.

He gives them each 100 gold and sends Alice and fin into different shops to buy the diamonds. Alice buys an extra 100 gold worth of diamonds out of her own pocket — Celia actually has 300 gold worth of diamonds. They go back to the inn at west gate and leave the diamonds, now they’re just kind of aimlessly wandering not knowing what to do. It’s now about 1pm. They decide to go to the gilded periwinkle and get some food so they’re seen there. The name seems to be ironic since the bar is just a guard drinking spot, it’s not fancy. Fantasy cop bar. Alice continues being uncomfortable.

About twenty minutes in they hear the door of the tavern open and two people walk in. They recognize one of them instantly as Sir Faran. Beside her is another woman they don’t recognize who’s in the same style uniform, and is also a Sky Knight. Both are present to make good on Faran's end of the bargain when Ishaq made a deal with her as part of his plan, when he surrendered the warlock to her. Faran: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/460211655667537733/ The new sky knight: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/460211655667561007/

They beeline for the party. They both have excellent resting bitch faces and look angry but they’re not. They sit down at the table with our three. Alice signals for two more but the barkeeper is gone. They disappeared the minute the sky knights came in. Faran introduces her companion as Sir Nyoka.

Faran: I take it things didn’t work out very well.

Alice: No… (she looks from sol to the sky knights) We had a slight downturn of fortunes.

Fin: We were ambushed. We were attacked in our sleep, they knew we were there.

Faran asks what happened to the others and Fin and Alice struggle to communicate what’s actually going on…

Alice: They aren’t with us anymore.

Faran: That’s vague.

Alice: Perhaps we should go somewhere else for a time.

Fin: We must be in danger of being observed constantly.

Faran wants to have some small talk and chats with Fin about what he’s doing with this group in the first place. “There don’t tend to be many altruists in Raith.” “I’m not from Raith.” “That was very obvious, friend.” When Faran turns her focus on Alice she says she’s a prisoner and gives her name. There’s some recognition there, and Faran says they should finish their meals and go elsewhere, then leans back to awkwardly watch the party eat. Everyone is uncomfortable and Fin just keeps stuffing food in his mouth so he doesn’t have to lie. Alice eyes Faran right back. Sol looks vaguely ill. It turns out the bartender was eavesdropping from somewhere but he gives them a room key which Faran takes and leads them upstairs. She goes straight to the window and checks outside, then checks the rooms next door for other people before closing the door and shutters and starting conversation.

Faran: Now I expect you to tell me exactly what’s going on.

Alice: So… they’re all alive, for the moment. But we were attacked in the night, we killed almost all of them. One escaped and one agreed to work with us so the rest of us have gone to pretend to turn Ishaq in in hopes of securing information.

Faran: Who is they?

Fin: The group that ambushed us? They told us that they had been employed by someone that Ishaq says is another name for our mutual friend.

Faran: Do you know the names of them in particular?

Fin: At the time we were more concerned with our lives but I believe we did get some of the names.

Alice: Uthra is the one we took captive. There was a wizard who could teleport, her name was Seras.

[Faran and Nyoka nod]

Faran: So these people attacked you with the intention of abducting Ishaq?

Fin: And also one of the guards.

Faran: Well that makes sense. […] It’s lucky for most of them that they aren’t alive, now isn’t it? SO where are the others now?

Alice: They were to come into the city behind us and pose as the attacking party that we killed. We have the location of the tavern they were supposed to deliver Ishaq to.

Faran: And that was?

Alice: The wild goose and crow.

Faran: I am aware of it, that is the collector’s territory. He sets out bounties as they’re offered to him. Which is good because it means there’s a paper trail but bad because it’s unlikely to be the drop off point.

[they discuss when the party is arriving and from which gate]

Faran:  I should put eyes on them, I have a feeling this is going to come to a head today. If I’d had a little more time to prepare it would’ve been easier to do this quietly.

Fin: I understand, but we were ambushed and attacked and we had no way of knowing how many more times our friend would attempt.

Faran: The resolve is almost admirable. Nyoka. I need you to activate the eyes. I assume they won’t come in how they normally look?

Fin: They will be in disguise.

They give descriptions of the rest of the party and faran describes ishaq and raul to nyoka, the latter as “the uncasted dwarf.” Faran and Nyoka have a conversation in draconic that the party recognizes but can’t understand. nyoka then leaves the room.

Faran: I think we should head towards the wild goose and crow, don’t you?

Fin: Certainly, if we can catch up with the rest of the party.

Faran: We should keep our distance but at least have an eye on them.

Alice: that seems like the best idea.

Fin: Do you believe we have enough information to handle our friend?

Faran: I have a feeling we’re going to catch her red handed today.

Alice, Fin, and Sol head to the wild goose and crow with Faran. Nyoka is officially gone. They take a circuitous route there and then suddenly nyoka is back, whelp. They take some weird alleys and the sky knights take their coats and turn them around, so that now they’re kind of battered grey and brown undercover coats. They and sol all cast disguise self. Alice and Fin are both terrified of them. It’s much busier out now but people don’t seem to be noticing the group now that the sky knights and sol are undercover. They go into a general store kitty corner from the tavern and the keeper lets them use a room above the shop to keep an eye on the place. Every now and then Nyoka gives a hand signal to someone on the street, usually paupers or beggars, and one signals back eventually. She turns and tells them that the other half of the group is coming. The party watches the group enter and waits with an eye on the tavern, when everyone exits they also spot max and a disguised Celia. That’s the cue to leave the shop and follow the party, Faran and Nyoka leading ahead. They get close enough to see max and the “other person” trying to peek in the window of a house. Within seconds they’re breaking into the house and all five hear a lot of yelling.

Note: DM later said that "code maroon" is code for "this report is inaccurate," Sol was basically saying it's all lies but he'll explain later.