[April 28 – Shopping and a Midnight Fire]
[This game uses the Hero System Fifth Revised Edition (FREd) roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened October 2, 2023.]
[This adventure takes place on the continent of Terik, two years after the appearance of the Sudden Sea. The PCs are refugees seeking a better life through adventuring.]
Player Characters
Sorvia of Stavros – female human ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)
Tharduk Lavabreath – male dwarf glassmaker from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom, had a glass shop in County Modon that is now underwater, literally
Kadruth Worldbender – male dwarf priest, serving He Who Protects, from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Anomin – female human shapeshifter, from lots of places, most recently County Modon
Islo Redgrass – male elf ranger, local to County Modon (village of Stavros in particular)
Via Roll20
Inserrant – female human musician, player of zills (finger cymbals) and singer
Spring
April 28, 56 I.C. (Imperial Calendar)
Afternoon
After eating a pleasant meal at the Crossed Arrows Inn, where the adventurers had a room, the adventurers decided to take advantage of the town’s Market Day to secure supplies they needed for their next job. Inserrant felt the small throwing dagger she purchased at the logging camp did not send the right message in combat and she wanted a club so others would take her seriously. Not knowing much about weapons, she took Sorvia with her for advice. After some time searching, she found a club that had leather straps wrapped around it as a grip and was polished and aesthetically pleasing. Afterwards, Inserrant wandered the market and busked in several locations, using her musical powers to encourage people to tip what they could afford. She eventually collected 10 copper and a single silver.
Tharduk put his trading skills to use and secured two weeks of travel rations for the group, more than enough for the group to travel to the Mikros Dasos, spend a week there scouting and mapping, and then return to Nomi. This cost 1 silver per person per day, shaving 2 copper per person per day, but still used up most of the group funds.
Kadruth shopped among the armorers for a set of thigh armor. No one has a set available for purchase but he was able to commission a piece for 368 copper. This led him to realize that he received a good deal back at the logging camp for his armored sleeves.
Late in the afternoon, just after Inserrant finished busking in front of the Crossed Arrows Inn, an elf approached Inserrant and asked where she had learned the song she had just finished playing. Inserrant admitted she had no memories prior to fleeing the Sudden Sea. The elf introduced himself as Agosti of the Evening Eye and stated he had only heard one other sing that song before, a human bard playing for coin at Fort Agnatero on the border with Mercia. Inserrant asked what the bard’s name was and if he was a good person or not. Agosti said he called himself Arian Fireson, but believed it was an alias. Agosti felt that Arian was hiding from someone or something. Inserrant found this disheartening, not knowing why her father might be using an assumed name to hide, but it was the first clue she had of his current location.
The adventurers were also able to pick up some rumors during the afternoon. Several heard that the town of Legaries has disappeared. They were not certain exactly where Legaries was but everyone was certain it was to the south. Tharduk and the two rangers separately heard that the head of the Land Office had been recently murdered by a red-robed assassin.
After Midnight
An alarm woke up Anomin and Islo. The alarm was from outside the inn, so they opened the window to find out where. The window opened onto the courtyard just inside the County Gate but the alarm seems to be coming from a part of town behind the inn. Anomin turned into a crow and flew out to get more information while Islo woke the rest of the adventurers.
Flying a widening spiral around the inn, Anomin quickly spotted the alarm and the problem - a building the next block over was very much on fire! Anomin quickly flew back to the adventurer’s room at the inn and informed everyone what was going on. She then flew back out of the window to observe the fire. Kadruth immediately bolted out of the room to go help while Islo, Tharduk, and Sorvia took a moment to don their leather armor before heading out.
Back at the burning building, Anomin spotted two figures in dark clothing exiting a third floor window on the backside of the burning building. They climbed down to the ground and then sprinted across the common courtyard at the center of this block. At the far side, they used a grappling hook and rope to climb up to the roof of that building. Anomin chose to follow them from on high as they seemed familiar but she could not see their faces to place them.
Kadruth ran to the burning building. It was three stories tall and had an ornate façade, the front of which was on fire on the second and third floors. [NOTE: US notations, so 1st floor is on the ground.] Once there he found people exiting all the nearby buildings and a bucket brigade reaching back to the well in the center of the market square. The bucket brigade was not very efficient, so Kadruth started organizing them better and focusing the water on the burning building. He used his Wall of Force spell to create a platform for him to stand on so he could be seen and heard better. Then he cast it again to create a ramp up to the second floor of the burning building so the bucket brigade could throw the water directly on the burning second floor.
By this time the rest of the adventurers arrived. Inserrant gathered up any kids standing around and took them over to the well, organizing them to assist in the return and filling with water the buckets. Tharduk started gathering information about the house and witness statements, which he wrote down.
Sorvia and Islo ran into the burning building to rescue anyone trapped inside. In the back of the house they found the house staff organized to rescue the house’s art and valuables. The butler stated he did not know where five members of the staff were. Sorvia and Islo went up the servant’s stairs to the second floor. The front of the second floor was on fire but it was creeping towards the back. They went up another set of stairs to the top floor and found the fire raging through the front and center of the building. They called out names of the missing servants and heard a reply near the flames. They checked a door close to the flames before opening it. There they found a young servant huddled in a corner. They hauled the servant out and retreated to the back of the building where Islo heard a cat in a closet. After grabbing the cat, the rangers and their two rescuees made their way back down to the ground floor, the third floor completely ablaze behind them.
Elsewhere, Anomin tailed the two people in dark clothes as they made their way across the roof tops, heading north. At the edge of the block they two figures paused and peeked down into a street they needed to cross. Satisfied no one on the ground was watching, they prepared to jump the narrowest part of the gap.
Anomin stealthily landed onto their target roof, her black feathers obscuring her from their sight in the darkness. One landed, she reverted to her human form and recast her transformation spell, shifting back into her cougar form. The smaller of the two people she was following made the leap across the street first, landing in front of Anomin and exclaiming at the very unexpected cougar, “Holy shit! How did you get here?” The man on the previous roof called out quietly, “What do you mean? Who’s there?”
Anomin recognized both voices as the two people the adventurers had let go after the ambush at the edge of the forest!
Anomin immediately attacked the woman. The woman attempted to dodge the attack but Anomin was better and clawed her across the shoulder. Anomin then released a shrill screeching noise to cow the two thieves [made a Presence attack]. She was very impressive. The man said, “It’s that fucking elf’s familiar. Sorry Seraphim you're on your own.” He then attached a grappling hook and line to the roof and slid down the line to the street. The woman Anomin had clawed raised her hands and said, “Don’t eat me.” Anomin made no promises.
Tharduk’s investigations identified the burning building as owned by Agni Michelakis. Amongst the witnesses he questioned, he hound an urchin who saw something but needed a little something to refresh his memory. Tharduk gave him a few copper. The kid reported he saw someone pouring something on the front of the building from the roof. The kid was of the opinion Timo Onosus, the person disputing the land boundaries in the forest, was behind the fire. The kid had a candelabra tucked under the back of his jacket that Tharduk suspected was stolen. Then the Sheriff arrived and Tharduk let the urchin slink away.
The Sheriff noted that Tharduk was talking to people and making notes. He greeted Tharduk with, “I'm the one with the badge but you seem to have all the witness statements. Mind if I read them over?" Tharduk handed over his notes to the Sheriff while warning the sheriff they are in Dentugog [the dwarven language]. Realizing he needed more light to read the notes, the Sheriff had his deputies clear a local bakery that was open to sell to the crowds watching the fire being fought. He then ordered some food and drink from the baker and sat and read the reports while his deputies kept an eye on the crowds of people so the bucket brigade could continue to work. After reading the notes, occasionally asking Tharduk to translate a word or two, he agreed the fire looked like arson.
Back on the rooftops, Anomin struck the other woman twice, once to knock her out and once to keep her unconscious. This also bloodied the woman considerably. Anomin turned back into a human and lowered the woman to the ground using a rope. She flew down to the ground as a crow before returning to human form to carry the woman back to the rest of the adventuring group. She ran across Inserrant at the well, who commented, “You carry someone who is almost a corpse.” "I'm helping,” Anomin replied brightly.
Inserrant told the oldest kid with her that they were now in charge and to keep everything going. Then the two women carried the captive, looking for the Sheriff. Along the way they ran into a very smoky Sorvia and Islo. Anomin asked Sorvia to go find Kadruth so he could heal their captive. While Sorvia did this, Inserrant and Anomin found the sheriff’s temporary outpost in the bakery. Anomin took the captive in while Inserrant waited outside.
Inside, Anomin reported she had captured one of the two people responsible for the fire. The Sheriff asked Tharduk to take notes in Koine [the local common tongue] while Anomin related everything she had seen and done. The Sheriff looked dubious when Anomin talked about turning into a crow and a cougar, glancing over to Tharduk, who confirmed with a nod both times.
The Sheriff recognized the woman as Seraphim the Hare and the description of the man sounded like Kostakis, both swords for hire and known to be currently employed by Viktor Nicabar. The sheriff carefully searched Seraphim’s body, finding weapons and several empty vials of oil with fresh residue in them.
At this point Kadruth, Islo, and Sorvia arrived and Inserrant entered the shop with them. At Kadruth’s request, Seraphim was untied but shackles were put on instead. Kadruth started his healing. While that was happening, Anomin turned back into a crow. After a couple minutes, Seraphim woke up and looked around, fully healed but shackled and surrounded. The Sheriff asked Seraphim if she had anything she wanted to tell him. She said no and glared at Anomin and Islo. She remained silent when asked where Kostakis was, so the Sheriff instructed some deputies to go over to the Nicabar house and ask Mister Nicabar where Kostakis was.
The Sheriff turned to Anomin and asked if she could understand him. She answered in Koine, "Yes.” This surprised him, but he thanked her for bring in the suspect. He also thanked Kadruth for leading the bucket brigade. Inserrant asked if there was a bounty. The Sheriff said, “Not yet, but I’ll mention to Agni Michalakis that you helped.” At which point the sheriff and the remaining deputies left with their prisoner.
Anomin led Sorvia and Islo to where Kostakis dropped to the ground on the rope, which was still there. Sorvia and Islo started following Kostakis’ tracks down the street to the market square. Anomin took a moment to fly up and retrieve the grappling hook and rope and then followed the two rangers.
The rangers were just able to track Kostakis through the market square, mostly as his were the only tracks moving away from the fire. They lost his tracks on the bridge to North Ward. They crossed the bridge and looked around, hoping to reacquire his tracks on the other side. They could just hear a large argument with multiple people on the other side of the buildings. Sorvia, having reacquired Kostakis’ tracks, followed them eastward along the river side of the block. Islo walked towards the Bee Gate, intending to turn right and follow the buildings to the other side, where the argument was. Anomin instead flew over the buildings and was the first to see the three deputies attempting to enter the main house on the block. They are arguing with some toughs and a man in quality clothes on the building’s front stairs. Anomin can see additional burly men watching the argument through the windows of the house.
Anomin flew to the backside of the house, where Sorvia was following the tracks to stairs down to a servant’s entrance. Anomin observed that all the windows on the back side were shuttered or had closed curtains. Landing near Sorvia, Anomin spotted a secret door to the right of the servant’s entrance to the building.
By this point, Islo had laid eyes on the argument on the front steps and backtracked to Sorvia and Anomin. Anomin pointed out the secret door to the other two. The lower landing had been recently swept, so there were no tracks to determine which door Kostakis had entered.
The trio quietly talked over the situation and decided they should report what they had to the deputies. Islo jogged back around to the front of the building to speak with one of the deputies. While the other two deputies continued to argue to be allowed in, Islo quietly explained to the third deputy what he and his companions had located. The deputy explained that the Sheriff knew of the secret door but did not currently have the authority to force the issue.
Islo jogged back around to Sorvia and Anomin and explained that the three of them were on their own here. Anomin told them to wait and she would go fetch the rest of the adventuring party.
End of session
Commentary
[This one took a while to write up, partially due to the Day Job being busy, partly the delay in getting player write-ups, but mostly due to me slacking a bit (and by a bit I mean a lot).]
[The next session is the amazing one where The Accident happens and the PCs have to...well, just come back and read the blog entry for Session 8 when I post it.]
Sudden Sea Adventures
Sudden Sea Landing Page - Links to all the write-ups for this campaign
Last session: Session 6
Next session: Session 8
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