Family Heirloom

an adventure starring Armando, Zidane, and Sadie. 
==Setting==
Niqamui
==Short Episode Description==
Armando takes up a quest to find a mysterious book, recruiting Sadie and Zidane for it, inadvertently finding a relic of Zidane's past. Family Heirloom is an actual play podcast of Fantasy World.
==Non Player Characters==
*Professor Madeline Spark
*Jesop Zahdoc
*Hudson Steinhauser
*Merryweather Jones
*Ward Polo
*Nugh the Silent
*Nightshade Lobo
*Tommas Dexter
*Kris Redford
*Luis Porthos
==Plot Summary==
Our adventure begins in the Firebreathing Kittens Guild Hall where Nulisag both posts a now job on the job board and removes what he claims to be an unapproved flier. Armando approaches and offers to take the rejected posting in order to acquire additional honor though action. He then takes the newly posted flier from the job board and recruits Sadie and Zidane in accomplishing the goals. The rejected flier is an advertisement for a former gladiatorial champion, named Jesop Zahdoc, that is offering his protective services, specifically for caravans given an unusual uptick in undead activity. The approved flier is a vague request by a person named Madeline Spark to "prevent great injustice" and "recover a book" for Spark Industries. Upon looking at the first flier, Zidane recognizes the sword wielded by Jesop in his picture. Although a bit fuzzy regarding the memories around the time of with temporal stasis/imprisonment, he begins to gather that it was formerly his very own sword. Our adventurers choose to pursue this path prior to answering Professor Spark's request.
Knowing that Jesop is at the beer garden by the town gates where the caravan rally point is, they walk toward their first goal. The main gates to the city are closed and teleportation has been nullified due to the unusual undead activity. On the way, they pass through a market where Sadie purchases an expensive and beautiful necklace for her mother. Sadie, along with her guildmates, are surprised when Hudson appears and attempts to place the necklace around Sadie's neck. Armando prepares to ponce if necessary and inquires to the identity of this man and is only calmed when Sadie introduces Hudson as her fiancé. They have a polite chat and then continue on the path toward the beer garden. While still in the marketplace however, Armando sees a pickpocket steal from a local shopper. Unable to let this dishonorable person get away, Armando catches him and holds him up in the air. When the thief challenges his honor, Armando then threatens the thief with stripping him naked and selling his clothes to pay restitution to his victims. During the exchange, the thief admits he is part of a gang where each person looks exactly like the next, thereby helping them to evade justice. He also becomes afraid. Although Armando was being a bit hyperbolic, the scared thief begins unbuttoning his shirt and reveals the very necklace that Sadie bought earlier. Zidane slams the thief to the ground and threatens him further at which point the thief urinates all over himself, the ground, and a bit on Zidane's trousers. Sadie gets the attention of a local town guard (who is extremely apathetic about his job) to process this thief to be arrested. After some encouragement from the Kittens, the guard becomes overzealous and begins dragging and abusing the prisoner. Armando steps in to separate them and asks Nugh the Silent to take the thief to prison and reproves the guard for his abuse. After a short purchase of clean trousers by Zidane, they continue on toward Jesop.
They encounter Jesop regaling the small crowd of fellow mercenary guards with stories from his gladiator days when the Firebreathing Kittens arrive. Zidane approaches Jesop while Sadie and Armando hang back while they talk. Things begin to heat up as both Zidane and Jesop try to outdo each other in their claims at which point Armando suggests they speak in private as to not cause the other warriors present to tense up. Once isolated at the tree, the discussion becomes more level-headed. Zidane explains how he was trapped in a temporal stasis for 200 years and was the gladiatorial champion prior to being trapped by Jesop's father. Jesop recalls that he remembered Zidane from ages ago given his extended lifespan as an elf. Jesop struggles with the news and still stands his ground as a warrior deserving of the championship, but does yield his sword to Zidane knowing it is the right thing to do. The Kittens thank Jesop and they increase their respect for him. Jesop goes off to purchase a new sword and the group makes their way across town to Spark Industries to try and service the other flier.
They reach the building and enter the Spark Industries building. Inside, our heroes discover a dark and somewhat macabre style of decoration. There is no reception area so Armando shouts out for someone to point them to Madeline Spark. A deep gnome walks toward them from a back room and invites them to follow him. They follow. Once in a rather strange laboratory, they meet Madeline and she greets them. She speaks to them with careful language about the mission, leading the party to be suspicious. She says that the book that has been stolen from Atrios Academy is titled, "Consecration Last Hope of Eternal Struggles" and is very powerful/dangerous. She adds that the only way into the academy is via teleportation (which at the moment has been stifled to protect against the undead). She claims that she wants the book to be returned to the academy, which consequently kicked her out for some reason, but was most excited to get hold of the book prior to its proper return. She adds that since the book is out in the world with the thief, it could be a reason for the rise in recent undead activity. Although the party is skeptical, they try to figure out how to find the book.
The heroes decide to try to capture an undead zombie, restrain its arms and muzzle its mouth, and use it as a sort of divining rod for the book. The make their way back to the market area where they see the gang of pickpockets is now dressed in orange and doing community service under the auspices of the previously encountered town guard. Zidane acquires a muzzle from, let's say, a specialty shop and is recognized by the salesperson. She mentions he was a regular customer at the dungeon until he got married. This surprises Zidane as he has a very fuzzy recollection of his life prior to his temporal imprisonment. He thanks the succubus and returns to the party. After negotiating an agreement with the town guard with respect to their plan to capture and control one undead zombie, they make their way out of the gate. They travel for half a day when they encounter a small horde of zombies. Sadie elects to climb a tree but supplies Zidane and Armando with more of her potent medicinal crystals. They meet the zombies and fight. The battle is a difficult one leading to a scarring gash to cross Armando's back. They eventually out maneuver the zombies while Zidane has one in a full nelson. Sadie notes on oncoming caravan. When the caravan gets close enough for Zidane and Armando to see, they negotiate trying to hop on to escape the zombies. Once they do, Sadie takes advantage of their distracted state and dashes for the caravan, also.
Once muzzled and restrained, the have the zombie lead them to where the book might be. Unfortunately, their plan does not work at all and the zombie only leads them to high concentrations of people as that is his singular and undying focus (pun intended). They decide to revisit Professor Spark to ask more about the book while having the zombie in tow. She is so fascinated by the zombie that she reveals how easy it is to control zombies but you would need the missing book in order to exert control over the more powerful undead, such as vampires. Upon hearing this, the party understands the depravity she intends and reject the job.
After their day, they return to the guild hall to rest and recuperate. Jesop arrives and discusses briefly with Armando about the possibility of a friendship and asks for his advice. Armando states that both Jesop and Zidane are champions and it their is no dishonor in leaving it at that. However, Zidane and Jesop feel a strong desire to prove themselves and discuss how they will participate in an upcoming match to settle how truly is the champion.
Category:Episodes
Category:Season 2024