[Day 47 – The Ratpack makes inquiries and gets into trouble.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened May 17, 2021.]
[SPOILERS! If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]
Player Characters
Via Roll20
Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja
Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger
Autumn
[We worked out Winston hiring Gridik to craft the pouch of Abundant Ammunition here and then retconned it and Gridik making the Pearl of Power back to the previous session.]
Day 47
After Sunset
The Ratpack arrived at the Outcast Fishery once it was dark. They split into a Roof group, who would stay outside and keep an eye on things, and a Street group that would go in and see if they could learn anything about Frederick’s kidnapping. [The PCs started using this dividing into teams plan more often as time went on.] The Roof Group consisted of Templeton and Winston, who had Zitch’s Ward cast upon him. The Street Group was Marativy, Roscuro, Zitch, and Swamprover. The Roof Group was told that if they heard Zitch’s cackle, there was trouble. Reciprocally, if the Ward on Winston dropped, the Street group would be warned there was trouble outside. Marativy warned the Roof group that the Outcast had guards up on the roof [of the fishery], so they elected to hide in an alley across the street and observe the front of the building from there.
As the Street group approached the guards blocking the entrance to the Fishery, Swamprover insisted she wanted to do the talking. As she was one of the most Charismatic of the Ratpack [which was not a high bar to clear at all], it seemed like a good choice to Roscuro. When the toughs guarding the door asked what the group wanted, Swamprover immediately told the they were here to talk to Frederick. This confused the guards to no end. Luckily, Marativy [lowest Charisma in the group] used her criminal knowledge, stepped up, and told the guards the group was her to speak with Donal. This the guards understood and they let the ratfolk and grippli inside.
The Outcast was a large open building, similar to a warehouse, where fish caught in the bay were deposited by the fishing boats and then sold. At night, the mostly empty building hosted agents of the criminal underworld, those looking to do business with them, and those providing services such as drinks and tavern snacks to both. Once the Street group was inside, Marativy explained to the others that Donal was the head of the Wreckwash Blades, information brokers part of the Sczarni organization.
Marativy guided the group to a table near an impromptu tavern. She explained that the people the group wanted to speak with were talking to others and they needed to wait. Roscuro bought a pint for everyone at the table so they would not stand out [nor get the stink eye from the person running the impromptu tavern].
While waiting, some other ratfolk were noticed at another table gambling. Swamprover decided she wanted to gamble while she waited, so she went over to that table. Marativy, never one to miss an opportunity to [cheat at] gambling followed, as did Zitch who wanted to watch. Not wanting to be separated from the group, Roscuro sighed and followed them over to the gambling table.
After a couple rounds [Swamprover was down 6 gold, Marativy up 12 gold], the people the group was waiting for became available. The Street group made their way to a table with a human and a dwarf sitting at it. The human introduced himself as Gavahn and asked what the ratfolk wanted to know. Roscuro explained that they wanted information on the kidnapping of a merchant, Frederick, a couple weeks ago by the Night Scales [I was more circumspect than that, but I didn’t get much in my notes as I was doing the roleplaying]. Gavahn explained that the information being asked for would take some time to gather as the Night Scales tended to kill those looking into their business. He also offered that the information could be expedited in exchange for a favor. Roscuro was not certain about owing a favor to a criminal operation and did not commit, but stated the group needed time to think over that part. Gavahn offered to provide preliminary information at a more private meeting the next day to let the ratfolk better estimate the value of the favor. Roscuro agreed to that and was given an address in Dockway to meet at Noon the next day.
During this conversation, Zitch noticed a human at a nearby table nearly spill his drink when the words “Frederick” and “runelord” were uttered. As the meeting with Gavahn concluded, the person also got up to leave. Zitch pointed him out to Roscuro and the Street group started off in pursuit. The human got out of Outcast ahead of the Street group, but the Roof group noticed that Roscuro was clearly walking with intent at the human who had left the building just ahead of him.
Winston stepped out of the alley and “accidentally” walked into the human, sending them both to the ground. The human got back up without speaking to Winston [who was pretending to apologize], so Winston grappled the human. Roscuro ran up to help Winston hold the guy, thinking they would drag him into the alley. Swamprover cast Flare to try and blind the guy but instead drew the attention of the guards up on the Outcast. [Whose purview extended much farther than the Ratpack thought it would.]
The closest guard yelled out for the group to halt what they were doing. [At this point there was confusion as to where the guard was. I thought he was above us on the building we were next to, but he was actually across the street on top of the Outcast. Things might have happened differently if this had been made clear sooner.] Swamprover went to put an Arcane Mark on the guy so we could find him later if he escaped, but the guard heard her casting and ordered her to stop. Roscuro whispered for her to complete the spell and she did. Roscuro did his best to stand between Swamprover and the guard to block the shot, but the guard hit her anyway.
At this point three more guards showed up on the roof [and I finally understood they were across the street and not directly over us]. Seeing this was getting out of hand, Roscuro whispered to the Ratpack to run down the alley and get out of there. The guards all shot at the Ratpack before any steps to escape were taken [and a big argument was had about them getting free shots before initiative was rolled].
Roscuro and Winston dragged the human back into the alley where Templeton was waiting. Templeton took the guy by the scruff of the neck and flew off with him. Zitch used his new flight power and followed Templeton into the air. Those two took a long loop to the south, flying over Keystone and Lowcleft before landing in a park in the Naos district.
The rest of the Ratpack ran for it through the alleys and back streets, gradually making their way around southern Beacon’s Point and then east to Dockway. Swamprover complained about the crossbow bolt sticking out of her the whole way. Once in Dockway, Winston used his healing knowledge to safely remove the bolt from Swamprover.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[This session was played remotely due to very heavy rains off and on all day. Not wanting to endanger the Other GM’s electronics (he runs off his laptop), it was easier to play remotely.]
[Sorry for this being a bit late – there is a lot going on right now. June has a cluster of social events with friends and family and this year my wife has a Significant Birthday and has asked me to put together the party. It’s fair as she planned mine, but this is really outside my comfort zone. End of the whine.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
…
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