DivineDetritusInKindaLovingMemory
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Summary
Drow attack...
Leaving the Swamp of Despair, the party travels for a few hours and then camps for the night. During the night, Fi hears the rustling of chain armor and spots a trio of Drow along with a few bats, ready to ambush the camp! The female Drow wearing chainmail is quickly crushed by Norvi’s charge, while Fleir almost dies distracting the male Drow with twin scimitars. The other female Drow in the back is wearing naught but a cape, and enjoys flinging mud at the party, blinding them further. When Claire is hit, she approaches the Drow, who points at her and immediately grows demonic claws. She is defeated quickly, but not before using her silver cape as some kind of protective barrier.
After dealing with some very annoying bats, the party gathers up the Drow items. Norvi decides to tie up and interrogate the Drow who pointed at Claire, but it turns out she only speaks Undercommon and some broken Abyssal. Hawk took this opportunity to cast Comprehend Languages so he could understand her.
According to Hawk, her name is Abraxinar and she accompanied her brother and sister to visit the Swamp of Despair and find a magical headband. The male drow decided to ambush the party first though, and paid for it with his life. She noticed the magical headband Claire wore matched the description and tried to steal it. Now defeated, Abraxinar expects to be sold into slavery, but considers Hawk her master. Hawk is pretty uncomfortable with this idea and decides to escort her to town and deliver her to the guards. Fi argues they should bring her to Merki.
Loot from the Drow (magic items identified by Nidri)
- 2 Scimitars
- 1 set of Studded Leather armor
- Longbow
- 20 arrows
- 2 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
- 10 gp
- Shortsword
- Light Crossbow
- 20 bolts
- Scroll of Shield
- Silver Cape - (used to be a Cape of Catching)
- Morningstar
- Scalemail
- Light Steel Shield
- Shortsword
- Wand of Cure Light Wounds (10 charges left)
As the party approaches town, they notice many more guards than usual outside the city gates. One soldier named Eldrick greets and salutes Vegeta, using titles like “Sir” and “Lord Sir”. He joined the Imperial Army and plans to set off to fight the “Dragonlord”, which is a top secret mission he shouldn’t have mentioned to the party.
Merki's goodbye letter
The party heads to Merki’s office to deliver the headband and see if Merki can help. As they enter the unusually quiet office, they find Merki’s corpse. He has been almost decapitated, and his body is slumped over the desk. They manage to pocket a box that is for the “headbang” team- probably them.
The party delivers the terrible news to Adrias Stonebottom, Torras Lendolay and Marjorie Mel. Marjorie says she will do what they can to revive Merki, and they should take the day off. She suggests the party stays at the Golden Chariot, all expenses paid.
The party first goes to Hawk’s Inn, the Flying Pig and opens the box in a suite. They find 30 platinum pieces, as well as a letter:
Dear you.
I prepared explosive runes this morning.
If you survived that, you are either a badass spy or the team I sent out to find that special something. Either way, I am gone from this world. That sucks.
I was onto something big- something really big. A friend of mine had passed on a rumor and some information that was too good to be true. I wanted to confirm there was an Angel in the nearby swamp, and hoped to ask her a few questions. Hopefully you have her in tow.
I prepared explosive runes twice this morning!
Still alive? Well you may still be a badass, so I’m not going to divulge my friend’s name. One thing you should know is that this friend is a Noble and lives in the Cliffsides of Harvest Wharf. Once you find that special someone, say “Death comes to thee” and you should get a response “for all, it is free.” I know, cheesy spy stuff. Indulge me, please. It’s my last request.
I finally made my biggest find yet and I won’t live to see it. Man. Merki
The next morning, everyone goes to the Company and talks to Torras Lendolay, who promptly escorts them to the President’s office. Melvin Mel asks the party if they noticed anything missing from Merki’s office - they noticed one of Merki’s lock boxes was missing. The party confessed they took the box, but Melvin seemed too distracted to ask what was inside. Respecting his last wishes, Melvin invited the group to a celebration after the funeral, where several nobles will attend.
Party time! Team Magmere strikes!
At the party everyone hobnobbed with the guests there. Lady Terria and Claire chatted about the various restaurants she owned. Jovias Dewleaf was strictly here to talk to the Mel family, but he did talk to Fi about his homeland the Krimson Forest. Lord Dakan was quite interested in Norvi’s war stories. As for the Mel family, Claire was able to talk to Marjorie about the race divide, while Melanie and Hawk had a jam session. Melvin seemed to be too distracted to pay attention to Nidri and Hawk, while Vegeta didn’t have much time to speak to Melodie.
As the party wrapped up, a loud explosion rocked the palace! Melodie ordered security to protect the guests, while Captain Alexen Dakan organized a search party to find the source of the blast. He asked the party to help, and Melvin Mel gave him his blessing.
Out of earshot of the party (and also disguised by a riot), Lord Dakan reveals that he was Merki’s ally. He wanted to speak to them about Merki’s wishes, but he has to find the bombers. It’s clear the Magmere Construction Company did this, as the trail leads into the sewers. He asks the party to search one of the potential paths.
Two Magmere members have taken cover and quickly summon mudmen and hawks. No matter, Fleir jumps over their encampment. Unfortunately he isn’t able to finish off the summoner before her hawk and the sniper defeat him. The party eventually slogs through the mudmen and defeats her. The sniper, a Half-Orc by the name of Horkvin, soon surrenders after that. The guards are quite familiar with Horkvin and quickly gag him. According to Lord Dakan he is a very talkative thug for hire who will be invaluable in finding out more about the bombing.
Promotion
The next morning, the party reports to Melvin Mel’s office. He promotes the group and makes them official promoters for the Company. He hopes they will be able to find rarities and make connections where the Company has been unable to. He also has another assignment for them: He wants the party to deliver the news of Merki’s death to his parents. His father Allshai lives in the Krimson Forest, about 3 days north of Harvest Wharf. Merki’s mother Halgresh lives somewhere inbetween the two towns. Finally, he presents the party with some gifts donated by the patrons they managed to impress at the party.
- Wand of Mage Armor (50 charges)
- 251 gp
The Fifty Year's War
With the information about Gulliver's thieves and the headband, Captain Dakan theorizes angels, demons and Otherworldly beings may be trying to return. During the Fifty Years War (1166-1216 AD) the Mel family was accused of being Devils in disguise. The angel known as Retribution rallied the Army of the Norther Sky to kill the Mel family and cleanse Harvest Wharf of all sinners. The Soldiers of the Southern Land defended Harvest Wharf. While supporting the Southern Soldiers, Alexen Dakan found demon worshippers following the Lucavan, and exposed their treachery to frame the Mel family. The soldiers he fought had the same lifeless expression as the thieves, corrupted by the demons.
Post Mortem
Chat Log (Text only)
What went well
Party’s unique capabilities trumping encounters The encounters I build assume a standard party of 4 to 6 humanoids, so it’s fun to watch the non-standard party rip them apart. The campsite ambush, for example was supposed to rely on most of the party not having darkvision. Also, the leader, the Drow Cleric was supposed to hide and channel negative energy once she identified threats. Instead Norvi charged and instantly killed her. However the bats lasted far longer than I expected them to because the party doesn’t have much of a martial build - everyone missed. A lot.
Roleplay battle challenge
To mix things up a bit, I’ve always wanted to do a skill challenge. Gaining the favor of nobles at an event looked like a great opportunity. It also integrates into finding Merki’s inside man. To give everyone a chance to make an impact, I added a hidden skill that would be easier to satisfy, and using Sense Motive to discover them. A time limit was added so you couldn’t just stick the Bard in front of everyone. Turns out the party could have coordinated better to optimize things, but I didn’t expect everyone satisfied.
Taking Abraxinal prisoner
Didn’t expect this. At all. Expected the party to just kill the Drow, loot their corpses, then move on. Instead you captured one of them and Hawk tried to communicate with her. Damn your compassion! On the plus side it gave me a good idea on what to do with the Drow societies in general. Do you know there are at least 5 variants of “slave” in Undercommon? Hawk knows!
Pacing
Waiting a day for everyone to reply has helped control pacing paid off. I think it gave people time to post their thoughts and think up their next moves. I’m happy that improvement worked out.
What could go better
Party’s unique capabilities sometimes drag out battles
The party lacks martial prowess, so sometimes the fight drags out because everyone misses. The bats had an AC of 16 but only 2 HP. The party still missed them like crazy. The mudmen had an AC of 10 (they dealt much more damage, though) and they were still hard to hit because they entered melee (giving a -4 penalty to ranged attacks against them.) I’ll see what level 2 brings to the party.
Roleplay battle challenge
I realized several nobles had trained only secret skills as we started. That means many party members couldn’t participate even after discovering their hidden skills. Oops. I wanted to get more people to assist, because the DCs were still very high.
