Session 5 - Party Time! - Dec 16

Session 5 finds our party leaving the dump and trying to get organized with their sudden blossoming to-do list.

*Mouse takes the goblin mech to Daryl, informs him of some of the information gathered while in the sewers, and collects some gold.
*Mavedora and Vale look into a series of 12 fires that burned within a short time the night before while the adventurers fought the Tinker Goblins. Mave uses spells to gather intel from dead tieflings at the site of a burned bakery, who baked bread for the army, complete with cages at the back of the facility. Apparently a mad tiefling, Verxom, used acid to start several fires in town, with the intention of killing humans. He alluded to a hell of chains and shadows, wrapped in stone, that the tielfings were heartbound to. The acid was provided to him by a human who offered to "ensure his passage". The human was working with Smokebeard, the blue dragonborn magical mentor and tutor who offered Mouse an escape from her castle life. The Plot thickens!
*Mave, Hush visit Lucy to update her and ask some follow up questions of her while Vale makes his space ready to receive some of the now homeless inhabitants of The Rock, and Tsapps mans the soup kitchens to feed those displaced by the fires. The duo learns from Lucy that Benny actually knew Old Washburn, and that the illusion peddling creep had access into places he shouldn't be allowed, including "prison", and was a known ex-smuggler. Benny wanted to locate Washburn to help Benny enter a prison to find a certain tiefling and ask him questions. Additionally, to help complete some of Daryl's tasks, Mave asks Lucy about the dangerous experiments that Benny was engaged in. Lucy reveals that there are young trees both within and beyond the Luciferian walls that were strange and possibly dangerous. Stupid seemed visibly shaken, or agitated.
*Tsapps makes a quiet trip to the temple district and hires some acolytes to heal the sick, in the growing homeless/desperate population of The Rock, on their off time. He also has some conversation and basic training time with the 18 or so goblin lackeys living in the safe house's basement. Tsapps and Shak become concerned with the fact that the safe house was entered and lightly searched by The Brians and took measures to further fortify the house against invaders, as well as train the goblins in the art of home defense.
*The party learns of a fundraising party to be held the following night at Kaylen Asimov's, The Rock's wealthiest and most eligible bachelorette, and daughter of an old and prominent brewer. They make plans to infiltrate the party on several levels to try to go fact finding in the upper echelons of Luciferian high society. A plan is hatched that involves the complete party. Hush will impersonate a minor royal from far away Dolnan while Shak poses as his personal bodyguard. Tsapps will infiltrate and investigate the carriages of the well to-do looking for valuables and intel, along with his three best goblin henchmen. Mavedora earned a legitimate invite based on her involvement with the healing community for whom the funds are being raised. Vale, after an extensive interview with Miss Kaylen's house manager, earns a spot within the evening's musical entertainment, while Mouse arranges to pull guard duty across the street from the party to ensure a quick escape for the party should the plan fail.
* In a zen moment outside the walls, Mouse calls on her magic and a fey spirit comes to her in the form of a giant eagle, Fernando, who lives for danger.

The to-do list being to-done, the members place themselves as planned and enter the party relatively easily. Mingling and questioning ensue, suggestive music and the scent of fried turkey legs fill the air, until things begin to go sideways. Lady Saldor, dressed in pale gray, who is ACTUALLY from Dolnan and has connections to the family related to Lord Ladrian, played by Hush, arrives at the party; Daryl shows up at the Blackcloak station across the street on surprise inspection/party attendance, pulling Mouse off her vantage point; Magical Mistofiles the Wizard arrives with wild entrance; Mave annoys Miss Faylen by not being the high level cleric she was expecting, but Mave manages to slide into Faylen's study, while Hush and Shak make a break for the kitchen to form an escape plan.

Upon some snooping by most of the party who pick up useful items or intel, Vale creates a musical distraction and finds himself partying with Mistofiles on stage, while Mouse tries to help her boss look, well, like a boss. Things seem to be recovering nicely, until Hush and Shak leave the kitchen. Shak recognizes Florence Kelly, attending the party as an envoy of Queen Phoebe, who drags Shak outside by his ear for a word, while Hush backlashes an attempted charm spell and becomes entrenched in a conversation upstairs with Lady Saldor who asks him to look at some artifacts. AT this point none of the party are together and all are vulnerable.

In quick succession, the situation deteriorates into chaos as Tsapps inadvertently trips an alarm spell, who then uses a goblin bomb as a distraction while he and the goblins leg it to the nearest sewer entrance; Hush engages the drunken Mistofiles and is teleported into the unknown; Shak and Mouse get sucked into misdirecting the Blackcloaks search for an assumed thief; Vale heads for the safe house and Mavedora slides out of the study, observed by one of the maids. Such events put a damper on the party as people's nerves get the better of them.

Upon gathering at the safe house, everyone is talking over themselves to share what they found, but nobody has seen Hush in some time. The party fears the worst, and Mouse blames herself. Fleeing to the roof to weep, Dia, Hush's sprite familiar, reveals herself to Mouse to explain what happened to him. Meanwhile, Hush is teleported to who-knows-where at one of the many private establishments of Mistofiles whereby he asks some questions. He and the old wizard pass out with what is NOT Apple Joy. Hush is returned the following morning by the hung over wizard who is unsure whether or not to update his relationship status on Facebook.

As Hush returns, much to the great relief of everyone, things learned/accomplished this session stands as follows:
* A message will be sent to Phoebe to send a representative to meet with the party.
*Shak and Mouse indicate The Brians are responsible for the chaos at the party and are the thieves in question.
*LAdy Saldor is engaged in shenanigans with ancient dwarven artifacts.
*High Cleric Beluba, the head of the Raven Queen temple is somehow connected with some business shenanigans involving the Asimov family.
* Lycanthropy, specifically involving werelizards who are isolated in an asylum, is spreading in the city.
*The high cleric of the Temple of Zenith has offered Mavedora an alternate spiritual path.
*The Boatmurder dwarf clan is looking for new trade agreements.
*Mistofiles is in the teleportation business.
*Some interesting reading material -A ledger of treatments for local citizens was found, as well as documents from Kaylen's library, a historical account of Orc tribal movements.
*Other items of interest gained by the party: dwarven crafted eagle statue, gold key stamped Bank of the Rock, ancient dwarven puzzle box, sketchy map of the feywild and a fey library (under which is marked "Crypt of Evil", tiefling horn on a chain, a weird bag.
*Valuable/questionable items collected this session: a raven mask, 270gp for the goblin mech, a ruby encrusted necklace worth 500gp, 1 gold bar worth 1000 gp, a superior healing potion, a vaguely magical alchemy kit

It seems as if the party, instead of having questions answered, has simply uncovered a myriad of other issues previously unknown.

That concludes Session 5 and gives us a break until we meet again Dec. 30. We might consider discussing with the DM if there are downtime events that we might cover through the forums in the meantime.

Great session!! The Rock knows how to party!!

Priority Homework - WE NEED A DAMNED ADVENTURING GROUP NAME!!!!

Tossing this out here too for chewing upon...

1.) We saw a dwarf caravan at the party.
2.) There are DWARVEN artifacts that the lady has acquired (probably from the caravan)
3.) Do we really need to go see them in person or should we go to the source of the artifacts, the dwarves?

If the Lady Saldor is going to know that she was charmed, we don't need to send Hush into the lion's den again, especially if he is already under suspicion from Miss Kaylnn, as we know from her note that we thwarted. Mayv, Hush and Mouse should go talk to some dwarves. We need to know about the artifacts, and I'd like an audience with the dwarves to try to negotiate the next generation of trade with The Rock.

Are you likely to pursue finding out what business the ASimov's have with the head of your order?

I have no problem accompanying Hush and Mouse to the dwarves to investigate what they've found. While we do that, we can split and let Tsapps, Shak and Vale check out the fires and see if there's any relation to the previous ones (ie: slaves working in the buildings).
As far as pursuing what the bussiness is between my order and the fancy royals, I wasn't going to follow up with the assumption that it was just because they donated money to the cause, but now I'm concerned with Darle's recently found letters, there might be something more sinister afot. I'm probably going to talk to them and see what I can find out. Wouldn't hurt to have Hush and his friend join...