Beiinors Campaign/Session 16

## [ Session 16 — 09/17/2023 ]

**Transcription Notes from Paavo’s Recording Library, RecallBox #1.01.0144**

**(“You can’t be serious, Pete.”)**

*Deadly serious. I know exactly how it sounds to you, using a moment of vulnerability to gain some leverage over me, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on. It was almost pathetic. As far as I was concerned, as I was dragging him in there, I was happy to let him rot in jail. Getheron’s—let’s say encouragement—wasn’t helping Ozy’s situation either.*

**(“The medic? So… what would you say... he does here?”)**

*At that point? Complain, mostly. As much of an enigma as Ozy was back then, Getheron was even harder to read. They insinuated that I was trying to stand on some moral high ground and look down on the rest of the crew. Now, I may, as some people claim, have a stick, or a bug, or whatever, up my ass about certain things. That doesn’t change the fact that we needed to stick together to keep chasing our leads. All I wanted at that point was to convince them to work with me, even if only for that night.*

**(“And let me guess: in your haste to sort things out you gave that stupid speech about fighting tooth and nail for the survival of those around you for the fiftieth time?”)**

*…It wasn’t that many. Shut up. I was trying my best to connect with them as people. At that point, they didn’t seem to want to reciprocate, so I went into my backup plan: I played up to Ozy’s ideas, and I tried to get a better understanding of the GorthBoiClique… thing. Obviously, he wouldn’t go into detail with me, but I at least convinced him that despite the… four times he referred to me as a murderer that night—*

**(“You let him get away with the last time? For shame.”)**

*I had to. The guard outside could clearly hear everything we had been saying. And yes, despite that wasted attempt to get under my skin, we lowered our voices and came to some semblance of an understanding. Getheron kept yelling, but he didn’t say anything inflammatory. He might not have been paying any attention at all.*

**(“Ok, so walk me through your grandiose escape attempt to bust this scumbag out of a situation he willingly threw himself into like an alcoholic into an ale barrel.”)**

*Hold on. Your analogies are terrible, what?*

**(“Tell me about the escape from the hospital, you dimwit, ignore the comparison.”)**

*We didn’t bust him out.*

**(“What? Why not? I thought you had this crusade to protect the people around you like some kind of martyr, consequences be damned!”)**

*And then what? Lose all our contacts and reputation in Qendra? Alienate the literal noble benefactor who put us together in the first place? Go on the run from the guard? Fuck that, we had to do this the right way. I asked the guards outside what the charges and sentencing would be like. The guard captain, Andersen, was hell-bent on making an example out of this attempted bribery—*

**(“Yeah, we get it, corrupt guards are really cliché, and he has a tree trunk up his ass about stereotypes like that. Yawn.”)**

*A tree trunk? At least downgrade that to like… a quarterstaff or something. Ozy was facing up to six months in jail, which we couldn’t allow if we were going to work with him. And yes, despite his obvious detrimental conduct, he would turn out to be helpful eventually. I told the guards I needed supplies and went back to the manor, but everyone had fallen asleep by then.*

**(“Good, you can finally get back to all the fun your friends were having without you.”)**

*You’re in peak form today. Publisher deadlines on your ass again?*

**(“Get back to it, this isn’t my story.”)**

*Fair enough, I owe you for helping with the explosion cleanup. I don’t know that much about what happened while I was gone. The Sempso family was winding down with some drinks, as were the rest of the crew. CharlesGorth had been chatting with that researcher, Fionna, and I guess he tried to shoot his shot, as it were.*

**(“Those folks over at TIME are already married to their work as is, aren’t they?”)**

*Well, she let him down gently. She did spend the night at the manor taking notes and drinking though.*

**(“But Paladins don’t get drunk.”)**

*No, of course not. And oh boy, I really wished I could after that night. Anyway, after being rejected, he and Maria spend their time copying each other’s spells. Bolt managed to grab some of Charles’ top-shelf stuff—*

**(“Speaking of shooting their shot, how has he not made a pass at Maria yet?”)**

*Don’t care. None of my business.*

**(“Lame.”)**

*I’m not a gossip mill, talk to someone else for that. So, the next morning rolls around, and we—minus Getheron and Ozy—plan how to get him out. My main concern was getting Charles on our side, and he was willing enough to listen and put in good words with Andersen. I think he asked CharlesGorth for input too, and it sounded like he also vouched for Ozy being… well…*

**(“Having a terminal case of the dumb, perhaps?”)**

*Something like that. He also asked us about the merchandising stuff, but CharlesGorth must have convinced him it was on the level. Meanwhile, as a backup plan, Bolt and Katamira went to see Turk. Katamira didn’t mention much to me about it, only that he was happy to see them and offered Bolt some lucrative side work in Farithlin City.*

**(“Him? It’s not a stretch to assume that work involves killing people.”)**

*That’s… also not my story to tell. Only that it was, conveniently enough, somewhere we already had to go once we got this bumbling idiot out of his mess. Something about another employee of TIME. You’ll have to track one of them down for the full details.*

**(“Assisting one while killing another. Did you end up pissing off TIME as well?”)**

*Don’t get ahead of me now, we’re not there yet. For the moment we were helping Fionna out with the mess at the cave. Once Bolt got his job and assurance that he’d get future work if this one went well, he asked for help breaking Ozy out of jail if he was stuck for an extended period. Turk agreed, provided he be paid for it.*

**(“You’re all covering your bases, so where does it go wrong?”)**

*Be patient. There are a couple of things we need to go over before the trial, and one of them you may find funny.*

**(“Because you found it infuriating, I bet.”)**

*…Yeah, sure did. While everyone was out working on getting Ozy out, he and Getheron just kind of… waited around. I’m not sure when Getheron got anything to eat between the party and the trial, but when I got back their conversation was… something.*

**(“I don’t like all that pausing, just get to the point Pete.”)**

*I guess they had been making their own plan to—and I stress I have no idea how the chat had gotten here—seduce Charles?*

**(Cue approximately two solid minutes of laughter.)**

*Maybe he was still thinking about trying to make a move on Fionna? He’d been bringing her up since the walk back from the cave, and maybe some wires crossed in his desperation-addled brain? Usually, I can offer up some explanation, but this time I just had nothing. Not at that moment, and not now. I felt a migraine coming on, so I tried, with MANY misunderstandings, to get Ozy to shut up and let us work, and to NEVER follow through with his plan.*

**(“Good luck with that. You didn’t only go there, did you? You mentioned something about information?”)**

*Right. I had traveled out with Maria and CharlesGorth but made that stop while they went to chat with Pernan. He was excited for stories, and they delivered, telling him about the zombie beholder we fought and the artifacts we scrounged up.*

**(“The Jesus memorabilia, the staff, and the spell book?”)**

*They were mostly interested in the spell book and asked if Pernan knew Legend Lore. Obviously, he did, but we were too strapped for cash to do that at this point. He was helpful enough to examine it for any potential curses. If there was anything on there, it would have had some kind of forced worship element, and Kelemvor isn’t all that bad of a deity to follow. Any information about Antara O’Bones would be easier to find at a local Church of Kelemvor. Maria didn’t seem interested in learning more about the staff, not for 250 GP per cast.*

**(“Oh, wow, you really were flat broke back then.”)**

*Tell me about it. I got back to Pernan’s to pick up the Spin Cycle. He called it something like “Pernan and Paavo’s Piece” at first, which doesn’t really roll off the tongue.*

**(“What, you don’t like wielding P and PP?”)**

*Do an open mic night if you want to spout jokes. The weapon itself was a real work of art, and he liked my name idea. It was surprising how dense it was when I first picked it up—*

**(“Aw, how sweet. Just like its owner.”)**

*Just let me finish this part, please. I showed Pernan the two Jesus artifacts we picked up, and while the beads were a decently powerful item with nasty side effects, he was both bothered and excited by the box of bones.*

**(“In other words, he got a bone for— “)**

*Finish that sentence and I’m throwing you out. The bones were apparently incomplete, as though we could add to the collection and make whatever malevolent force behind them even stronger. CharlesGorth said later he’d never seen Pernan so serious about anything in his entire life. He left us with some sage advice, too: establish trust in those you work with, and never let them go.*

**(“Alright, let’s get to the trial, you’ve hyped this long enough.”)**

*Nope. You need to wait, I’m starving.*

**(“What the fuck?! Why?!”)**

*Two reasons. First, it’s going to take too long to go over in detail. Second, I’m building suspense, so deal with it.*

**(The recording fades out with a tirade of profanity from the visitor.)**