Campaign Log -- Day Two

The 8th day of the month of Obad-Hai
The 110th year of the second Ravensblood dynasty

The next day, three of the PCs meet to formulate a Plan. (Makpov’s player is absent, so it’s decided that he’s recovering from an… occupational disease.) Once again, they decide to go the “reckless” route. (In my head, I’ve started imagining them talking like Baldrick from “Blackadder” when they do this -- “I have a cunning plan…”) Having discussed for a minimal amount of time, they spring into action, and head back to the Broken Stone. They have decided that, in order to confront the Kech conspirators, they have to ensure that the rest of the patrons of the inn (and, by extension, the tavern setup on the ground floor) are suitably distracted. Quimarel approaches Drugoz the barkeep and leverages her position in the community to get him out of there for a while. Specifically, she offers him a free sample of her… ahem… wares back at the brothel. He gets a few hours with the twins, and she gets free run of the bar while he’s gone, no questions asked. (The “twins” in question are Ztola and Uddylyna, goblin sisters who are described in the NPC write-up as being kind of creepy and off-putting.)

Drugoz takes the deal, and Quimarel escorts him back to the brothel, where she fills her employees in on the deal and gets one of them -- a halfling by the name of Foxglove Winemist -- to follow her back to the inn. Foxglove is described in the NPC write-up as having an eye for the trappings of wealth, so Quimarel figures she can get her to help out with minimal questions asked if she gives her a few extra gold pieces. She takes Foxglove back to the inn with her, and stations her behind the bar. “I’m about to buy a few rounds for the house,” she explains, “so just stay here and give a mug of ale to anyone who wants one, and I’ll give you a few extra gold pieces this week.”

“Right, right, sure,” Foxglove replies, as she examines her fingernails and takes out a little nail-file. It’s hard to find good help these days.

The PCs proceed to buy a few rounds for the house. (Since two of them own their own businesses, they’re some of the wealthier non-nobles in town, and can afford this kind of extravagance.) Eventually, everyone except the PCs and Foxglove is collapsed into a drunken stupor, and Foxglove is too self-absorbed to really care what the PCs are doing. (And the boss-lady said “no questions”, so that’s that.) The Kech haven’t come downstairs yet, so the PCs jump into Phase II of their Cunning Plan.

Phase II is as follows: The PCs will go to the Kech’s room upstairs, beat up the Kech, and then search the room for documents, plans, and any other clues. It’s a masterpiece of subtlety and Machiavellian misdirection. And, naturally, since their best fighter is taking a sick day, they assume they have the tactical advantage: a halfling madam optimized for social conflicts, a mutant tailor with an alchemy habit, and a priest with butterfly wings squaring off against four foreign operatives of an unfamiliar species and unknown capabilities. What could possibly go wrong?

So they sneak upstairs and break into the Kech’s room, taking the occupants by surprise. This is the only part of the plan that goes right. It turns out that the Kech are much more savage fighters than the PCs expected (I hadn’t planned for the PCs to take the “frontal assault” route), and the fact that Tamarie had forgotten to prepare any of her alchemical tricks ahead of time didn’t help.

Hiddlebatch, the best melee combatant among the three of them, rushes into the room and engages with the Kech directly. Tamarie hangs back in the doorway and swipes at them with her giant insect claw, while Quimarel takes potshots from the hallway. The Kech are initially stunned by this brazen attack, and none of them are armed. One rushes to a big chest in the corner, and starts fiddling with the latch. The other three decide they have no problems with unarmed combat, and turn to start pummeling the three invaders. The PCs are discovering that the Kech have very sharp teeth and no qualms about biting people when the third Kech finally pulls a longbow and a quiver of arrows out of the chest in the corner and starts firing into the melee.

Less than thirty seconds later, Tamarie and Quimarel are in full retreat, covered in scratches and bite marks and sporting a few arrow wounds. Hiddlebatch has been backed into a corner. Two Kech are pummeling on it mercilessly, and a third is nocking another arrow; Hiddlebatch is quickly running out of HP. It decides that it would really help to get away from the biting and clawing at least, so it shoves past the Kech in melee and leaps out of the window. Hiddlebatch attempts to continue the fight from its new position, desperately trying to hover outside the window. This lasts for about one round, at which point one of the Kech follows it out the window and tackles it to the ground ten feet below. Hiddlebatch uses Command and forces the Kech to flee, then follows it long enough to see it climbing into an abandoned well in the field behind the inn. (There was some face-palming at this point, as the players remembered I had mentioned that there were a few abandoned wells back there, but they had chosen to only investigate the one that was still in use.)

While Hiddlebatch is following the fleeing Kech, two of the others climb down the side of the inn and book it straight to the garrison of the town guard. After all, they were just attacked in their room by hooligans with unknown intentions. Even among a savage and occasionally xenophobic people, their actions would surely be interpreted as self-defense once the appropriate bribes have been handed out.

Tamarie and Quimarel check in with Foxglove and the drunken goblins downstairs. Everything there is much the same as when they left. They exit the inn, and run straight into a squad of town guards, accompanied by a pair of Kech. The sergeant insists on knowing what in the Nine Hells is going on here, and why these polite & affluent travelers were just assaulted without provocation. Quimarel responds by reminding the guards of her status as a pillar of the community (it’s become somewhat of a running joke that Quimarel is a “pillar of the community”, since her type of business is perfectly legal in this town, and she’s one of only a few independent business owners, making her fairly influential) and accusing the Kech of conspiring to commit some unspecified crime. Sgt. Donyul is unconvinced. Quimarel subtly reminds the guards that arresting her may lead to their ability to visit the brothel on their off hours being restricted. Sgt. Donyul and his men are substantially more convinced, and decide to let Quimarel and her friends go for now. They instruct Quimarel and Tamarie not to leave town, and say they’re going to talk to the Kech about this supposed conspiracy to commit… whatever. They head back to the garrison. The Kech go with them, looking unconcerned. About now, Hiddlebatch rejoins the group and tells them about the fleeing Kech and the abandoned well.

Off “screen”, a generous donation was made to the coffers of the town guard, and the Kech were allowed to go freely about their business.

At this point, Hiddlebatch, for reasons that I cannot possibly articulate, decided to go back to the Kech’s room and see if it could take the remaining occupant in a fight, despite the fact that Hiddlebatch had almost no HP remaining. Hiddlebatch was rendered unconscious almost immediately, and when Quimarel & Tamarie came upstairs to see what had happened, both Hiddlebatch and the remaining Kech were gone. So the end result of the first session was that there were three missing people instead of two, and the PCs had a vague, fuzzy idea of what was going on. But at least they knew where to start looking.