February 13, 2021

Game Master
Ben Mirvish
Adventurers
Sten (I like cheese! Want a hat?)
Nys-With-Violet-Eyes (Human Mimic (Changeling))
Erica Wiren (Chitter, Chitter)
Pakul
Vesryn
Midna

Hook

Adventurers needed to help me transport some rare goods. Meet at the Silver Chalice in Koth. -Lady Valerie

Plot Synopsis

Party was instructed to meet at the Silver Chalice bar and restaurant. Midna, Nys (In their Zeph identity) and Pakul all showed up an hour early to scope out the place, with Nys and Midna watching the rest of the restaurant from the bar, while Pakul stuck with Midna. Midna and Pakul informed the host that they were there for a hiring, while Nys decided not to do so. As such, when Valerie showed up an hour later, Midna and Pakul were escorted to the back room, and Nys had to briefly explain themselves when they tried to follow. The rest of party slowly trickled in, except for Sten, who chose to arrive late, so that he wouldn't have to listen to the entire hiring speech. At noon, Valerie explained the hiring. In order to secure the inheritance of her family estate and ensure that someone could reboot the manor's wards if she were to die in her attempts to gain power in Koth, she needed to move three vials of her blood out of the island chain. However, with the Gulgari bankers seeking to destabilize her rise, and controlling almost all positions of power in the city due to a previous purge of all other factions by an adventurer, she needed help preventing the vials from being captured. As such, party was asked to help get the vials onto the ship and ensure the ship was able to get away from the coastline, where it could properly cloak itself and escape. Party was given a box with three vials, and an obsidian mirror by which they could contact the ship's captain to arrange the landing site. Party was warned that the mirror transmitted a very identifiable magical signal that was associated with Valerie, and as such, would alert the city guards to the user's location when they placed a call through it. Erica then put the box with the vials inside herself for safekeeping. Party decided to arrange a meetup outside the city, and while the rest of party set out to scope out a meeting spot, Midna teleported to the Ra'ite sanctum in Rogueterro to place the call, which caused a major problem. As the mirrors signal is strongly associated with Valerie, and the Gulgari are necromancers, they falsely concluded that Valerie was colluding with the Ra'ites to force a coup in Koth, and as such started a witch hunt for Valerie. Midna was alerted to this via her mirror, and, after confirming that Valerie could get to her mansion and the wards should hold out for a while, decided to finish the mission, set their mirror to "Do not Disturb", and teleported back to party, where she informed them of what had happened. Party agreed that they should finish dealing with the vials first and that Valerie could handle herself, so the pressed on to the cove they decided to meet the ship at. Party then set up camp for the night, and the time passed mostly uneventfully, aside from Pakul deciding to go fishing and pulling up an armored diving zombie trooper, which most of party decided to let him handle, although Vesryn did help him out using their Scorpion robot. Later that night, around 30 minutes before the meetup, a squadron of Koth city guards on patrol walked by along the nearby road, and in attempting to spy on them, Zeph and Pakul both failed their stealth checks and alerted the guards, who opened up with their crossbows, double critting Pakul, who was saved by a tactical application of lucks. Other than that opener, however, party was able to successfully stop the guardsmen, capturing their commander for interrogation, and successfully handing off the package. After interrogating the captured necromancer, they figured out that he knew very little, other than that the entire city was going paranoid over a possible Ra'ite invasion via Valerie, and decided to kill him, bypassing his automatic self necromancy by pulling his thigh bones out and scattering them away to prevent the spell from working properly, under Sten's suggestion. They also ditched his tracker badge, which had activated upon his permanent death in the other direction from where they went. Pacakage delivered and witnesses silenced, party set out to return to Koth. Upon arriving back in the city, they discovered several districts near where they had met Valerie to have been destroyed by fighting, with some of the city watch securing the area. Midna teleports back to the Ra'ite sanctum, where she gets back in contact with Valerie, who is hunkered down behind her wards, preparing for a last stand, and double checks payment. Valerie confirms that pay will be transferred through an outside bank, and agrees to give the party a bonus if they can get the Gulgari to stand down. Midna agrees and heads out, after picking up a deferred spell from one of the priests at the sanctum. Meanwhile, in the city, the rest of party has been sneaking around, spreading false rumors amongst the thoroughly corrupt city watch, who begin to suspect each other of colluding with Valerie and being traitors to the city. As cohesion amongst the city guard begins to break down and local commanders begin to fortify themselves in their patrol areas, falsely believing that their fellow commanders are out to get them, the rest of party begin to sneak into the higher areas of the Gulgari leadership to find members of the Gulgari leadership, who they find. With faces and voices to copy, the parties two shapeshifters, Nys and Vesryn, begin to sow even more discord, preventing the authorities from bringing the city watch under control. With the local leadership imploding and the city watch balanced on a knife's edge, Midna enters the Gulgari Bank, their primary headquarters, and places a new call to lady Valerie, with one of the shapeshifters taking the form of a Gulgari commander. By taking the call on the edge of the Wards, Valerie sets her attackers against each other. As Midna heads out of the bank, she warns Valerie to prepare to call a construction firm she knows, then after confirming Valerie does know one, she ends the call and heads out of the bank, activating the deferred spell she left behind in the bank, a Sunstrike. And with that, all hell breaks loose and the streets run red and black with blood and ichor, as city guardsmen turn against each other and the Gulgari leadership collapses..

Noteworthy Postgame Events