Hais and Lows

*In-game Date*: June 26, 6804

*Participating Members*: Dhalia, Ray, Howell, Roz, & Vincent

*Base Status*: Living Quarters + Secure Base + Storm Shelter + Hidden Base

*Hired by*: Mr. Suit, leader of The Syndicate; Goblin Hai

*Mission Request*: Find Goblin Hai and retrieve the black notebook from a fallen Syndicate ally; handle the bodyguards of Argyle Swint.

*Payment/Rewards*: 5 amulets of protection from detection & location; the black notebook

*Mission Result*: Killed a bunch of bodyguards. Retrieved the notebook. Alerted and killed some bluecoats. Made an enemy of dragonborn mercenary Kurt Blackridge.

*Discovered Places*: Goblin Hai's hideout, Argyle Swint's home.

*Achievements*: 5080xp (per player)

*Unfinished Business*: There were some witnesses that may need to be silenced. Goblin Hai should probably die because she killed innocent children.

## The Story

In The Drunken Phoenix, Howell hears a voice in his head tell him to go to the North Docks and meet someone at Dock 17. The rest of the party is pretty bored so they tag along to Howell's meeting. It turns out to be Lynch standing in a light rain with an umbrella. Howell sasses him, and Lynch leads the party into a boat shed where they hear the last few screams of someone being torture. Mr. Suit walks out of a back room and wipes hands off of blood. He explains that he needs a black notebook from someone from Howell's past, the "Goblin Hai". Apparently the person came into possession of the notebook by killing an ally of The Syndicate who was also a government official for Commissar Tarkus. Although Howell does not want to work for Mr. Suit, they didn't really have much of an option because he was going to turn The Stormguard in for their bounties if they did not cooperate. Dhalia now sees Mr. Suit as a, somehow, lesser evil compared to the corrupt government and has grown to dislike him and the organization less. Vincent liked Mr. Suit very much from this first meeting. And Roz was polite to him, but also very distrusting, which makes sense since her employer is at odds with The Syndicate. The party agreed to the deal in exchange for receiving *five* amulets of proof against detection and location .

They dutifully followed Howell toward the last known location of the Goblin Hai. They found her in an abandoned house in Oldtown. Despite her name, she is in fact not a goblin. She is skinny with long stringy hair and some kind of bandages or scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. Howell and Hai seem to have some weird flirtation as Howell was not at all scared by her attempt to stab him and instead laughed it off. He introduced her to the group as the BARNACLE GANG, but she already knew of their reputation as The Stormguard. Howell asked Hai for the book, but she was not willing to give it up for free. If they wanted the notebook, the party was required to help her "handle the bodyguards" of a merchant named Argyle Swint. He works for Talia Salt, the government's Minister of Coin. As there was really no alternative, the party agreed, but not before Dhalia made sure Hai really had the notebook.

The party takes a long rest and waits for nightfall to scope out Swint's estate in Coinbiter's Row. Roz casts pass without trace to help the party sneak close to the house. They met Goblin Hai in an alley near the home. Roz then snuck to the back and used her special monk powers to teleport through the shadows into the house's dining room where she unlocked a window to let the rest of the party in. She and Vincent alternated using minor illusion to create rat squeaks to grab the attention of any guards that might be in the house. Roz was able to spot at least two who were intrigued by the sound. The party was able to lure one of the guards into the dining room, where Goblin Hai quickly slit his throat and Ray cast silence to keep the other guard from hearing the commotion. Dhalia cast alter self to look like the first guard, but many of the party members then informed her of the arduous task it is to put on armor so the spell was quickly dropped. Instead, Howell cast disguise self to look like the now dead guard. Silence was dropped and minor illusion was used again so it could sound like the dead guard was responding to his friend on the other side of the door. Because Roz made it sound like the guard needed help, the other one rushed into the room to find the BARNACLE GANG and his dead friend.

He was able to shout for help before he was dealt with by the party. With their element of surprise gone, the party fanned out into the foyer where they encountered more guards and a spiral staircase leading upwards. The party quickly learned that whenever Howell is damaged, Ray is also hurt and vice versa. Despite this set back, they all went in guns-a-blazin' and made quick work of the guards. During the commotion Goblin Hai made her escape up the stairs and looked for Argyle Swint. Swint had a lot of fucking guards and more came rushing down the stairs, missing the rogue girl. Roz and Dhalia stayed on the first floor while Vincent and Howell crammed themselves at the top of the stairs to handle the second floor. Dhalia made good use of her new metamagic and cast shocking grasp on two guards for the price of one spell, and learned what cool effects happen when electricity strikes metal. Vincent learned sometimes the best fire power is ice and cast sleet storm to make it harder for guards to move in the area. Ray positioned himself in between the two floors and tested out his new spell destructive wave - it murders the shit out of people you don't like. He was also a great team player and and used his bardic powers to prevent Dhalia from being hit by a crossbow bolt. Roz used her monk agility to climb up the stairs to the second story and Howell confesses he never wanted to be a fighter. Vincent, Howell, and Roz meet the legendary black dragonborn mercenary Kurt Blackridge and he is as awesome as his name. Unfortunately, he also wanted to murder The Stormguard because they were clearly intruders. Ray and Howell learn their brofey bond has a benefit and can heal for the price of one. Dhalia maintained her position on the first floor to prevent others from ascending the stairs toward her friends. During this time, the rest of the party was congregated in the doorway of Swint's library. Kurt Blackridge tried to defend his employer, but Goblin Hai already got a few stabs at him. Vincent constantly swore in Draconic at Kurt with things like, "your mom was a lizard" and something about being a "toad licker" - it was hard for Dhalia to hear it from the first floor. She released her signature lightning bolt as soon as she saw some bluecoats rush into the house and they were disintegrated. She turned off her ring of fiendish concealment in hopes that the next bluecoats would see the very recognizable and extremely wanted fugitive Dhalia Thoravine and charge her so she could also fry them. Unfortunately she predicted wrong and one high-tailed out of the foyer as soon as he saw her. She immediately chased after the fleeing bluecoat out of the house past three guards. They were either terrible guards or, as Dhalia likes to think she was just too fast for them. She was able to exit the house without a scratch on her and cast another lightning bolt at two more bluecoats and the fleeing guard to prevent him from, most likely, getting any blue*cloaks* to the area. With the cops completely fried, Dhalia turned back on her ring of fiendish concealment and made plans to make her way back inside.

During this time, Kurt Blackridge was smacking the fuck out of the rest of the party, except Roz who is a tank. A final blow was dealt to Vincent and then Howell went down, which also caused Ray to perish. With the party members dropping like flies around her, Roz used her monk agility to disengage, jump down the stairs, and run out of the house where she nearly ran into Dhalia. Roz informs Dhalia that the guys of The Stormguard are all dead inside and suggests that they leave ASAP. While Roz's suggestion was the smart choice, Dhalia could not in good conscience leave her friends, especially when there was no way in hell they would be able to retrieve their bodies later. With surprising speed, Dhalia came up with a semblance of a plan to save the guys and shouted at Roz to get out of there before she used her quickened spell metamagic and cast dimension door (as a bonus action) to land on the second floor next to Ray's unconscious body. She administered a potion of healing to him, which also brought Howell back from the brink of death. Dhalia quickly explained to Ray that he needed to get one of the guys out of there ASAP with dimension door and she would follow closely behind. Ray hastily mentioned the alley before teleporting with an unconscious Vincent out of the house. Howell used misty step to move past the hulking dragonborn to where Dhalia was waiting. Roz intercepted a crossbow bolt that was shot at her and threw is back as she called the surprised guard a "bitch". The guard had no training in what to do if your projectile is *caught*, so he stood frozen in awe and terror at Roz's masterful reflexes. Roz then teleported through the shadows up to the roof of the building where she ran into Goblin Hai escaping through the chimney. Hai had just finished murdering Swint's family - his wife and two young daughters. Roz was able to retrieve the black notebook from Hai before the rogue fled the scene; Roz started making plans in her head to hunt down the Hai later. Before Dhalia was able to use another spell, Kurt hit her and Howell with his massive fuck-off greatsword. Howell went down again, which meant Ray was now unconscious in the alley. Luckily Dhalia was still very much alive and kicking and as soon as her magic recharged, she dimension doored out with Howell's unconscious body in tow. After recovering from teleporting, Dhalia gave Ray another health potion so that he could finally revive their kobold friend. Awakened, Vincent immediately cast fireball on the house in anger before they fled the scene. Ray and Dhalia were able to use their dimension doors a couple more times to get the gang out of Coinbiter's Row without being detected. Roz shadow teleported across roofs and was able to deliver the black notebook to Mr. Suit and retrieve the amulets for the party. They all met back at The Drunken Phoenix and Dhalia informed a concerned Roz about why the Goblin Hai alluded to The Stormguard being child-murderers. Ray has vowed to learn how to bake and Dhalia has plans to make the party *so* many health potions since many of the healers left after The Stormguard name was associated with deeply wanted fugitives.