We Built A Zoo

After their first night onboard the Bevan Merry tells the gang there’s a mission he wants to send them on to see how they do now they know what’s going on, and he wants people who are still unknown to the party too. It’s to infiltrate a library they think is being used to manufacture propaganda and intercept stones of farspeech messages. They think someone called Nicleigh is running the operation, but they’re not quite sure.

The party have a sick training montage during the sail to the library, and easily find it with no issues, with Merry giving them some scrolls of detect magic so they can attempt to pin down exactly where the warehouse is located. After a few false starts they figure out that the magic is coming from a few meters below the library, despite the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a way down. After some good distracting and sneaking the gang make their way past the librarian to the loft area of the library where they find some amplification runes which appear to be increasing the power of any magic used on stones of farspeech. Here they also find a portal which they yeet themselves through to find the warehouse staffed by scouts and shapeshifters.

The gang manage to avoid a fight by presenting themselves as inspectors, sent to examine how the facility is running, brushing away their non-human appearance by saying they’re all shapeshifters. This seems to work, and they get given a tour of the facility by Gibbins - who explains how they ship the product out to a storage facility in Reach via the portal. And that there’s another similar facility in Nodol Port to run farspeech interception on Leu. They bluff their way into taking one of the modified stones of farspeech for quality control, and set forth back to the Bevan, dodging past the librarian on their way out.

Upon returning to the Bevan some of the party have other personal matters to attend to, and so Merry gives the remaining group the option of either taking down the library immediately, or hanging fire. The remaining group decide to get a hustle on and just eliminate it, stealthily getting past the librarian again and getting though the portal, springing an immediate surprise attack and seeming to have the upper hand for a time, until the shapeshifters start to take full advantage of Drayke and Taeral’s powers after shifting to their forms. As the group start to be put against the ropes a dwarf appears through the portal and lends support, accidentally killing a few of the scouts despite a team agreement to keep as many as possible alive. Diana also begins to flex her new vampire abilities, discovering claws are pretty useful.

They manage to keep Gibbins the key guy alive, along with a couple of his workers - hailing Merry and the Abbott once the area is cleared. No new information is discovered outside of what they gained during their spy mission. The Abbott and Merry agree that the wipe is probably most appropriate, with the Abbott casting a spell of memory loss on the warehouse workers and explaining they will be sent to her family farm to help reeducate them. At the apprehension from the group at this she explains that it is essentially a summer camp where they try to subtly introduce non-humanist ideas in a controlled environment rather than…. Killing everyone they come across and the group is free to visit if they want.

The group return to the Bevan and are introduced to the murderous dwarf - his name is Ojo and he will be their cabin mate when he’s aboard the Bevan. He largely spends his time on the ground as he has infiltrated the party through playing the role of a jester, but he might occasionally be around to help if they need it.