This was a short little adventure I played out yesterday, using MUNE, The Adventure Crafter, and a host of other supplements. The perfect way to celebrate Empai Tirkosu’s anniversary.

Oh, and I did some shitty art too.

From left to right:

Elion, spy for the Secret Elvish Intelligence Agency and arcane armour fanatic.

Natina, starborn who made a pact with an astral entity that turned out to basically be cthulhu.

Maisie, fire mage extraordinaire. Also in training with the Elkore Circle Of Secrets.

Melody, recently named Tsethem of Ice. Recently escaped from the Infinite City.

The four friends spend a week in Rahm Oru, recovering from their latest adventure. The weather is quite miserable on the streets outside, but the patter of the rain upon the glass windows lends an aura of comfort to the place – and Melody is awed by how cooling water simply falls from the sky.

Elion spends some of his pearls gambling, and loses half the amount he wins.

Elion: I’m not gonna lie.. I see this as a win.”

Maisie: *Laughs* A win? So this is what you were aiming for? Why bet if your best outcome was losing?

Elion: …You, clearly don’t understand the intricacies of gambling.

Maisie: Pfft, sure. You feel free to spend your pearls any way you want, but I’m gonna actually put them towards something worth investing in.

Natina spends her time flicking through the pages of a book on pacts, most of which pertain to devils. She reads about the Vindicus slaying his demon patron to gain his powers, but that doesn’t help her – she wants to get rid of the connection, not embrace it.

Mune only gave them a week to have downtime, so I surmised that a city-based adventure was at hand. A city adventure in a rainy, cozy, bustling Rahm Oru! God damn, what a great way to start off the new Empai Tirkosu-year.

It’s been over two weeks since Melody had her last psi-shard fix – it looks like she’s finally kicked the addiction.

Melody: Everything here is so.. real. Compared to it, trips are like ghosts, or faint memories.

Elion receives a message from SEIA telling him to meet a contact within the city. She turns out to be a female human bounty hunter working for the Brotherhood of Arcane Tinkerers, with ties to the agency. She informs him that Mazequis, one of the people running for a council seat within the city, is none other than the cousin of Arkoth – the former head of BAT who was exiled for his involvement in the Hellbrid project. Her father was among the corpses desecrated as part of his machinations, and she would hate to see his exile nullified. Elion’s mission is to investigate Mazequis and find out if he’s still in contact with his cousin: and if he is, to ruin his chances of being elected.

The bounty hunter has some useful info; Mazequis lives in a penthouse in the residential area of the town, and each morning he leaves to get a shave. She also warns Elion to hurry: the elections are to be held in 5 days.

Elion returns to their lodgings and asks Maisie for help.

Elion: Infiltration isn’t really my strong suit, and.. it’s really yours. You even fooled me, which… Basically what I’m saying is, if you agree to help I’d be generous enough to donate a third of my wage for your effort.

Maisie: *Nods in disbelief* “Donate”?

She agrees.

Mel hears them talking, and wants to know why they don’t just head out there and kick his ass.

Elion: Be-cause, we’ll be arrested? Didn’t you have law enforcement on the astral plane?

Mel: Oh.. yeah. I mean no. I mean, kind of. You brawled with any of the lower class, and the sack-heads didn’t care. It was only when you targeted their own kind that they intervened.

Elion: Yeah well here, you step out of line, you get thrown in a cell for.. as long as they want. We need to take it easy.

Mel: But we’re Tsethem. I’m a Tsethem.

Maisie: *laughs* Look, awesome as they are, the Tsethem don’t make the law. They’re not allowed to run around beating up anyone they want.

Elion: Besides, we don’t even know he’s guilty of anything. You know, try explaining to a judge that you enacted vigilante justice on a hunch.

Mel: *hangs her head a little* You’re right.. I’m sorry, it’s all… So different.

She asks if she can help anyway, and Elion agrees: he’ll call on her if he has need.

Luckily there’s a decent spot on the street outside the penthouse that gives a good idea of the comings and goings, so Elion spends the next day mooching about to get a feel of the place. He also catches a bit of a cold.

He recognises Mazequis by his fancy clothes – a tanned man with a mutton chops beard. He only leaves his house for half an hour, but that’s more than enough time for what Elion has planned.

3 days to the elections. The weather’s died down as Maisie and Elion watch for their target leave on his morning routine.

Elion: Do you… What do you see yourself as?

Maisie: Woah, easy preacher. It’s too early for deep thinks like that.

Elion: No I mean.. Like, you want to become a spy, right?

Maisie: I prefer secret agent, but sure.

Elion: Is that what you see yourself as?

Maisie: *pauses, giving him a curious look* I guess? I don’t see myself as like, a flash, seductive agent or whatever, like in talesman stories. *chuckles* Though that totally was why I got into it in the first place. What do you see in yourself?

Elion: …I dunno.

Mazequis exits the building. Maisie shrinks back into a nearby alleyway and transforms into her mist-state. She filters into the room through a minute crack in the windowsill. She searches through the adjoining rooms and finds a vague reference to his cousin in a letter addressed from Mazequis’ brother – “Furthermore, winning such a position comes with the added benefit of providing status and sanctuary to our kin – specifically to those who society has turned their back on.” Otherwise, nothing seems implicitly incriminating. There are a few diagrams for some kind of crane marked Top Secret, but Maisie doesn’t recognise what it’s for: She snags it anyway.

Elion spies a hawk circling the roof of the penthouse – he vaguely remembers it flying by yesterday, but now it seems to be focused on the house as though hunting for prey. The bird spots Maisie exiting the building and joining him, much to his chagrin. He’s also pretty ticked off that she snagged the crane sketch rather than the letter, but decides they have enough proof to take action against him – although it’s still not enough to go through legal routes.

Maisie tries to trace the diagram’s creator, but it was made by a highly prolific artificer in the richer section of town – it would be highly unlikely she’d get to meet him. Luckily, the innkeep recognised what the sketches depict: a machine to collect bog soil, as part of an initiative to invigorate crops around Rahm Oru.

Maisie: Are the Piranai not good enough, then?

Innkeeper: Beats me. In my reckoning it’s most likely a publicity stunt.

He might be right – but Maisie has a hunch that there’s something fishy going on. If they can find anything suspicious on the marshes, they won’t have to forge any evidence. Elion agrees, and both Melody and Natina ask to tag along too. It’s been a while since they were outside the city bounds, and Mel longs to feel grass again.

It’s dark by the time they reach the marshes, well out of the planestable area. They’re allowed weapons outside of the walls, so Elion is geared up in his full feytouched mechsuit, and Melody has her new battleaxe.

Elion and Mel use their cloaking devices to appear as members of the BAT as they approach the dig site. Once there, they convince the workers they’ve come to take over their shift – all but one is happy enough to call it an early night. Elion is unperturbed.

Elion: Remember, we’re not doing anything illegal. Just spread out, casually, and start looking for anything suspicious.

He and Maisie head off in between the cranes and squishy soil, guided by the embers glowing in her hand. As realise the one remaining worker is following them, a spark of purple light ignites from out in the marshes. It travels swiftly towards them, taking the form of a human: the bounty hunter who’d set them on this trail.

Elion: What.

Maisie: Stay back! State your intent!

The ghost seems friendly, if sad. But that’s normal for a ghost.

Ghost: I was careless. And Mazequis was more ruthless than I feared. Once he learned of our meeting, my life was forfeit.

Elion: Holy Tiamat. He killed you?

Ghost: And disposed of me in the marsh. The council will believe it was an accident.

Maisie: *Shakes her head* No. No, they won’t. We can bring the town watch out here, you can testify to them!

Ghost: What makes you think you will be allowed to leave? Did you think you were led here by accident?

Elion: Led here..?

Behind them, the stalking worker slowly thuds into view. The size of the dude is quite impressive, even by Golath levels. He carries a giant flat-edged shovel in on hand. Natina and Melody scramble up the side of a ditch nearby, drawn to the light.

Elion: Oh.

The fight is fairly long, drawn out by the Golath henchman’s ability to soak hits like a sponge, dishing out some damage to Maisie before going knuckle-to-knuckle with Elion. Finally, Maisie teleports in between the two and stabs the enemy with a smoke blade. While Natina stabilises him and ties him up, Elion turns to the ghost of the bounty hunter.

Elion: I am.. So, so sorry. I’m gonna do my best to bring you back.

Ghost: *Shakes her head, smiling sadly* Even if I wished to return, I doubt you can pull off such a miracle.

Elion: I can.. Call in favours! I have contacts who can do that kind of thing, I can… I can save you.

The ghost slowly retreats across the marsh, still smiling. Inside, Elion is cursing himself. Another life lost, a death he couldn’t prevent. The faces of his teammates flashes before his eye, the faces of Nikito and the venerable one – and of the pilot kid.

Natina: Elion? Come. Is time to go.

Maisie and Mel are staying behind to keep an eye on the henchman, so the other two head back to the city. The guards at the gate are less than helpful, stating that their only jurisdiction is inside the walls. The whole team has to haul the unconscious Golath back to Rahm Oru before the officials reluctantly get involved.

And that’s where I left it for the night. This format is actually doable, cutting the line between notes and scene-by-scene prose. Might do more of these. Also, for those wondering: This adventure was 100% organic. I learned information as the characters did, so that final reveal was a surprise to me. I’ve not ran many investigation-type sessions, but this was really fun – and it tied up very nicely too.