Josh paused for a second as I caught up on my notes. He seemed noticeably calmer than when we started our conversation, and with the zone of truth humming around us he decided to ask a question of his own. He was curious why I was going to such great lengths to record these events. I pondered how to respond, and eventually decided honesty was my best course, not that I had much choice.

I explained that once upon a time I was a fledgling scholar at the Bard College in Endgar. However, I was only admitted because I faked my identity, and once this was discovered I was immediately kicked out. Since then, I have been looking to prove to myself and my former colleagues that I am worth of the title of Bard. I figured the best way to do this was to write an epic tale of my own. This party I have been following has a chance to accomplish great things, and I have resolved that I will chronicle their tale for the world.

The conversation paused for a moment when I was finished. The look on Josh’s face conveyed both bewilderment and amusement. After a moment of silence, Josh cracked a smile, and continued to recount his version of the tale without asking any further questions of me.

Sorry Were You In The Middle Of Something?

Campaign Log Day 2 – Part 3

15th day of Kythorn – Evening

Year of The Rebuked Storm – 1574 Dale Reckoning

Endgar Commercial District – Blackheart Agriculture Underground Warehouse

The room became still the moment the man’s body hit the stone floor. On one side of the argument was Renlia, accompanied by two hulking men, and on the other was two thugs, some smaller bandits, and a small human wielding a long bow. Before the two sides turned to the party, Elle was able to cast a charm person spell on the closest person she could see, one of the large thugs next to Renlia. Both groups shared a look of dread the moment they saw the hooded body on the floor. Before any blood could be shed, Renlia began talking.

Many truths regarding The Flock’s operations were revealed over the course of this conversation. According to Renlia, Zayn initiated the shakedowns during the riots, but the Flock was not supposed to kill anyone. Marco and Gurash pursued a more aggressive approach as a protest to what they perceived as an overly cautious approach to organized crime. Renlia claimed she was generally kept in the dark regarding the Flock’s operations, but admitted to requesting more action during the festival to capitalize on an “opportunity” that had arisen.

After further prodding, Renlia finally revealed she was driven to crime in an attempt to gather enough coin to perform a resurrection on her husband, who had died years before. She had located both a scroll of resurrection and someone capable of performing the spell, providing the opportunity she spoke of.

Power Play

Renlia’s opponents in the argument seemed surprised by her revelation, and noticed Renlia gaining some small degree of favor with our heroes. The larger human opposite Renlia turned to the party and made an offer: Renlia was no longer needed for the Flock to function, and he and his followers would be excellent partners in crime. If the party helped faciliate a “leadership transition”, he promised to give them a substantial cut of The Flock’s profits. Before the party could respond, Renlia jumped into the middle of the defecting criminals and unleashed a powerful Thunderwave spell.

The party decided to rush to her aid and helped her dispatch the defecting members of The Flock. While Kiddo, Kroul, and Ungoldor charged into the front line, Elle transformed into a tiger and pounced on the enemies in the rear. During the chaos, Bellamy was able to use a mage hand spell to successfully pull a magical sickle from Renlia’s belt. The party incurred some scrapes, but quickly dispatched the defecting members of the flock.

Roll Initiative Party: Bellamy(Sor 2), Kiddo(Ftr 1/Wlk 1), Kroul(Clr 2), Lilyth(Drd 2), Ungoldor(Rog 2)

Enemies: 2x Bandit, 2x Thug, 1x Scout

Difficulty Rating: Easy

Expected Outcome: Minor HP Loss

Actual Outcome: Minor HP Loss

Loot: 12 GP, 30 EP, 15 SP, 20 CP, 1x Herbalist’s Scythe +1 Tactical Considerations: Depending on who the party sides with, this fight could go in several directions. If the party started making attacks on both sides, then the fight could devolve into a free for all. Otherwise the party would need to hope that the group they sided with acknowledges them as allies and doesn’t attack them when their guard is down. The room itself is relatively open, but there are some standing shelves that could be used as cover on the west side of the room. How It Went Down: Kiddo and Ungoldor held the front lines in this fight. Lilyth wild shaped into a Tiger and was able to harass the back row while Kiddo and Renlia’s Thugs tanked the other enemies. With the extra firepower provided by Renlia’s thugs the party was able to take down the defecting bandits without too much of an issue. Behind The Screen: This fight had the potential to be very challenging depending on how the party handled the negotiations. Had they offended both sides, the encounter would have been nearly unwinnable. Throwing in with Renlia and her two thug bodyguards made the fight fairly trivial.

Once the dust had settled, Renlia and her loyalists did not engage the party. Renlia did notice that her sickle had been stolen, but she decided to let Bellamy keep it as a token of good faith.

Magical Treasure Item: Homebrew – Herbalists Sickle +1

Item Type: Weapon

Description: A +1 sickle that adds the users proficiency bonus to any ability checks the user makes when identifying or applying herbs. This bonus stacks with the users existing proficiency bonus if it exists.

Recipient: Bellamy

DM Note: Breaking The Rules for The Rule of Cool Bellamy continued a trend of using mage hand in new and inventive ways, this time attempting to pick a weapon right off of Renlia’s belt. Technically, I shouldn’t have allowed this. The Rogue Archetype of Arcane Trickster has Mage Hand Legerdemain ability, which grants mage hand the ability to retrieve an object in a container worn or carried by another creature. This seems to imply that regular mage hand should not be able to pick pockets, but I decided to let Bellamy try anyway. I had him roll a DC 20 sleight of hand skill check to determine if he stole the sickle, and he rolled a natural 20. With help from the dice gods, Bellamy became the proud owner of a slightly used magical sickle.

Josh immediately asked Renlia if she knew anything about his kidnapped family members. She claimed to have no idea, but confirmed that the hooded man the party had managed to knock unconscious was in fact Zayn, and was confident he would know where to find Josh’s family. She offered to help the party detain and interrogate Zayn, but first she needed the party’s help with a more urgent task.

Nothing To See Here!

Renlia was certain that the warehouse fire Ungoldor set would attract the City Watch, and asked the party to help get rid of them. It was decided that the best course of action would be to don the workers’ uniforms they and pretend to be Renlia’s employees while she placated the guards. Josh was worried the guards would recognize him, so he stayed out of the cover-up. Once the party was in disguise, they took the warehouse’s main exit into the Endgar Undercity.

DM Note: Whoops, I Forgot to Mention That This was the first the players (and quite possibly you readers) had heard of Endgar’s Undercity. However, from a role-playing perspective, all of the PCs were fully aware Endgar had a vast underground space built to support the massive mining operations. This lack of disclosure was not done in malice, but rather as a byproduct of the city not being 100% feature-complete before launching the campaign. To this point the party had been following the trail of bread crumbs I was leaving them, so my failure to reveal this piece of information was a non-issue.

It only took about 20 minutes to reach the Warehouse District via the civilian tunnel, but by the time the party was above ground it was already crawling with members of the City Watch. Fortunately, Renlia managed to put on quite a good show. Her anger with the incompetence of the “night shift” was palpable, and she promised to see each and every one of them fired if they didn’t fix everything right away. It didn’t take long for the guards to realize that Renlia had everything under control, but the Watch told her they would be doing a full investigation in the morning.

Satisfied with how the events panned out, Renlia thanked the guards for their concern and told them she looked forward to seeing them in the morning. Once the guards left and Renlia had locked the warehouse doors, the party retreated into the secret passageway. After regrouping with Josh, they dragged Zayn into one of the jail cells. The party used this time to handle a few personal affairs, but agreed to regroup in the underground passage within an hour.

What To Do With You

After passing the hour and returning to the secret tunnel via the Undercity warehouse entrance, the party reunited as Zayn woke from his forcefully induced slumber.

Josh immediately started to question Zayn regarding the location of his missing family. Zayn, being the talented operative that he is, recognized the opportunity for a deal. He was willing to do an exchange: his life for Josh’s family. He requested that the party send one of Renlia’s henchmen to meet his man at the original drop point, and there they would set up a location for the revised exchange.

Unfortunately for the party, Zayn also noticed that one of Renlia’s thugs named Rick seemed to be staring down Elle with a vexed look on his face. People don’t like being charmed without their consent, and after the spell had worn off, Rick was in a very foul mood. Zayn insisted Rick was the only man he trusted to send the message to his operative. The party did their best to persuade and threaten him, but Zayn never caved. Needing time to mull over their options, our heroes decided to spend the night underground.

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