Episode 103 - Torture Intervention

## Intro

**Episode description:**
That Escalated quickly.

**Opening Quote:**
*"This is just why you don't help people."*—Stephanie

**Player introduction:**
Sean - "Hello and welcome to another episode of the Tabletop Champions podcast, I'm Sean your dungeon master and with me tonight we have:"

Matt - "Where's the beef?"

Ben - "Greetings"

Stephanie - "Dead men don't tell tales"

Kyle - "Looks like we made it, look how far we've come my babe"

Lauren - "Fight me Helen!"

## Episode Summary

### d20 Rolls

* Kyle = 6
* Stephanie = 2
* Matt = 10
* Ben = 7
* **Lauren = 19**

### Lauren's recap

What happened last time was: We were exiting the cage that we fought a lot of shit in, and we grabbed clothes for the kids on the way out, went back to town, met up with the council. They decided that we should probably sleep on what actions we should take next. What kind of holds in store for Haven, because there was a bit of debate about, should we take the money and fuck The Burning Arrow, or should we take the money and do something in return  for them. So eventually we kind of came up with the decision of, well at least we can open up trade with The Burning Arrow, so maybe that way they won’t be super pissed at us. Upon that decision, New Doladon decided, “Hey it’s time to ride into town, to see what’s going on. You know, we gotta take these guys over to hell”. Colin very stealthily went over the gates, set the caravans on fire, came back over, and they left to get reinforcement. Which brought us to the decision to go to Trenton, to see if we could get some assistance from them. So we were on the road and we ran into a drunk bard by the name of Glomb Traubadour, The Bard of the North. And he is performing for the baron, Gerbo Namfoodle, in Trenton. And that’s where we left of at.

### Summary

#### Arrival

The PCs and Glomb Troubadour arrive in Trenton. Outside the city there are big signs announcing Glomb Troubadour's show this evening. When the PCs and Glomb enter the city gates, they are welcomed with horn and crowds of people. Both men and women faint in the present of Glomb Troubadour.

Glomb thanks the PCs for their help and invites them to the concert in the evening. The players accept the offers and use it as an opportunity to have an audience with the city’s baron, Gerbo Namfoodle. Even though the majority of the city’s population is old races, the PC’s notice that nobody in the city is eyeing them weirdly.

All the way to the baron, Glomb Troubadour has been dancing and playing around. However, when they reach the baron’s building Glomb straightens and suddenly his appearance is very serious. He almost looks sober.

#### Meeting Gerbo Namfoodle

Glomb presents himself to Gerbo Namfoodle and presents the PC’s as the people who made it possible for Glomb to arrive in Trenton in time. Gerbo Namfoodle explains Glomb Troubadour shall be performing in the streets, where the city celebrates their independence from the queenship. In order to show his gratitude to the PC’s, Gerbo Namfoodle asks the PC’s if there is anything he can do for them. Minos explains that the party originally came to Trenton hoping to seek an audience with the. They wish to talk about a possible alliance or trade agreement between Trenton and Haven. Gerbo Namfoodle agrees to an audience the next day after the evening’s concert.

#### Splitting up

As Glomb Troubadour can see the PC’s don’t have any more to do this evening, he asks them if they wish to help prepare for the concert. Ren excitedly exclaims “Yes, Yes, I wanna help!” She also convinces Minos to come along to help her. Glomb explains that he had sent a shipment with a stage ahead of himself. He asks if Ren would go pick it up and bring it to the capital building.

As the PC’s are leaving Gerbo Namfoodle, Alenia secretly receives a letter with information from her spiderlings. The letter says:

> “*Salis Writ is nervous of you. He knows that you unearthed some information about him and he is nervous it’s going to get to the Queen.*”
>
>
>

The players decide to split up and search around the city individually. Colin goes around in Trenton exploring the scenery and the people in the city. He finds a temple to Skrag where he stays for some time. Alenia goes “people watching” in a tavern called The Burnished Chalice. It’s emptier than normal because of Glomb Troubadour's concert and Alenia doesn’t learn much. Elyron use his time to go around in the city talking with people about how it is to live in Trenton. Generally people are pleased, but there are some worries about the independence from the queen. There are also a few racist remarks, but not many.

#### Ren and Minos' interrogation

Ren and Minos ask a guard where they can find Glomb Troubadour's shipment and are directed to a warehouse up the street. The guard tells them to ask for Charles. In the warehouse Charles tells Ren and Minos that the shipment has been picked up by Glomb Troubadour. It turns out, that Charles’ apprentice Arthur had given the package to Glomb Troubadour, earlier that day. Charles believes that Arthur is at The Burnished Chalice, so Ren and Minos go there to ask him some questions. In the tavern Ren and Minos find a very drunk, almost unconscious Half-Orc lying on a table.

Initially when Ren and Minos question Arthur about the shipment, Arthur insists that he gave the shipment to Glomb Troubadour. Even after dunking Arthur’s head under water, he is just making racist remarks to Minos and not giving much information. It isn’t until Minos threatens to cut off Arthurs’ arm that he confesses what happened. However, Minos is ashamed of his act, feeling like he betrayed his honor.

It turns out that a local bard, Blarg Balladeer didn’t like Glomb Troubadour coming and taking the spotlight. So Blarg bribed Arthur to give up the shipment, in order to make Glomb Troubadour's concert a failure. Arthur thinks Blarg might have taken the shipment down into the city’s catacombs.

When Ren and Minos leave the tavern, Arthur is still “muhh’ing” after them. Ren decides to go tell Charles about Arthur’s misdeed. However, Charles doesn’t believe her and he just gets angry. As Ren and Minos leave the post office they run into Colin. Ren brings Colin up to date with the situation and asks him to come along to help retrieving the shipment. Elyron and Alenia also join the group now.

While the group is convening, Arthur walks out of the tavern and he starts “muhh’ing” at Minos. Minos is about to engage in a fight, however he constrains himself and ignore Arthur. Colin on the other hand, confronts Arthur and asks him stop. When Arthur continues to make fun of Minos, Colin punches Arthur so hard that he get unconscious. The players agree to go search for the stage shipment in the sewers.

#### Blarg Balladeer

Before they go, Elyron picks up the unconscious Arthur and the PC’s then start walking toward the sewers. When they enter, the PC’s spot some footprints and follow them further into the sewers. After some time, they find an empty broken crate, where Glomb Troubadour's shipment had been stored. Elyron leaves Arthur in the crate before the PC’s follows the path further.

Eventually the PC’s find something that looks like a stage set and sitting on it they see a turtle-person playing a lute while singing to himself: “Glomb Troubadour the worst bard there is, rime, rime, rime, something there is”. The music is very bad and slow, but the sight of Blarg Balladeer sitting alone is also very sad.

Colin walks up to the stage, attempting to clap to the beat of Blarg’s music. Blarg is surprised and happy to see that somebody came to see his performance. Colin says that the music was nice, but he has to bring the set stage back to Glomb Troubadour. At first Blarg very much against it, but Colin manages to persuade Blarg into giving the stage back to Glomb Troubadour. In return Colin promises to make Glomb Troubadour stop playing his mocking song about Blarg Balladeer. Blarg also makes Colin promise to ask Glomb to allow Blarg to perform with him.

Blarg decides to that he wants to follow the PC’s to the capital building, because he thinks he’s going to perform with Glomb. At this point, Elyron use telepathy to suggest knocking Blarg unconscious and taking the stuff. However, the PC’s decide not to hurt Blarg but they will not wait for him. The players take the stage pieces and start running back to the capital building.

#### Concert

When the PC’s reach the capital building, Glomb Troubadour gets some people to set up the stage. He asks the PC’s why they used so long time to retrieve the shipment. Ren quickly makes up a story about the shipment being stolen, but Blarg helped find the shipment and give it back to Glomb. In order to show his appreciation, Glomb brings Blarg with him on the stage and Blarg has the best day in his life. The players enjoy a night with music and fireworks.

## Memorable Quotes

*(add your favorite funny/epic lines here!)*

## Trivia

### Combat

 Episode body count
 Total body count

* Colin: Arthur got knocked out by Colin's upper cut.

 Episode knock outs
 Total knock outs

* Nobody got knocked out.

### New NPCs

* Charles - Halfling, warehouse master
* Arthur - Half-Orc, apprentice to Charles
* Blarg Balladeer - Turtle-person, bard from Trenton