13/07/2021 - Cracking the Cipher, Sneaking through the Spine and Homeward Bound

## MEETING GABRIELLA

* Westgate got arrested last night, hooray!
* Captain of the Phoenix Armada – a communique was intercepted between a warlord, Artek the Defiler, in the Wastelands and the Captain but nothing more was found out
* Kidnappings in Ramsdale – completely redacted in the records. Law Master of Ramsdale – Evelyn Mara – arrested toymaker. She initiated the investigation into Crennick. She has now been shipped off to Ansgarth, very far away.
	+ About 6 months ago, adventures discovered toymaker, Ludvico, using his constructs to kidnap and capture children
	+ They apprehended him and saved the children but Ludvico was killed in the process
	+ Notebook written in Infernal appeared to make references to Crennick
	+ Evelyn sent a team to spy on Crennick but before her investigation was concluded it was taken over by the High Council and she was reassigned
	+ The next thing she knew was that Crennick was arrested and charged
	+ Evelyn thought there was more to find out
	+ Alexei Garth, Chief of City Guard, reassigned Evelyn (Empress’ great uncle, married to the Collector)
	+ The Admiral has a gallery in the Guild District and lives somewhere in the Noble Quarter
* Cipher – a pirate cipher
	+ Essentially grid coordinates, for a bay on the edge of the Empire tucked into the Spine
	+ Presumably the pirates were intending to meet the yuan-ti/potentially others there in 3.5 weeks
* Kunai received a letter – Drinnis Beltinaff?
	+ Nope not a clue
* There are attempts to recruit for the Caracuza but we’re all good thanks despite the pamphlets (which are now proof read)

## CONSULTING THE GODS

* Discussions about whether or not we should go see the Collector or not, and what we would say when we got there
* Elyan attempts to pray to Bahamut for a sign about what we should do but gets nothing
* Leo attempts to Divine with Rilifane instead asking, “If we investigate the Collector, will that be what Bahamut wants us to do?” Bahamut does not care what we do now
	+ Scribbles will instead go investigate while he’s here and check in with Elyan
* Instead we will go talk to the Professor. Scribbles becomes a sabre-tooth tiger to go visit him

## DO NOT TRUST TIGERS

* 3/4 Crimson Mages are dragging Lord Goldcott out of his house, including our buddy from the other night
* He tells us they investigated him and got enough evidence to deal with him
	+ Some weird notes of Feywild creature he was trying to contact
	+ Other dodgy stuff
* Lysandre approves. He mentally laughs at Goldcott for 8 straight minutes
* Kunai shows Lysandre his letter, saying that ‘The Darkness’ is an ancient Drow assassin that lives in the Feywild
* We carry on to Professor Xandar
* Xandar likes Scribbles the Tiger. Shiba the Tiger does not like Scribbles the Tiger, except that she does
* Xandar is half packed, debating whether or not he wants to leave. Tamsin and Elyan try to convince him he should, and that he can also bring his tiger with him. He will meet us at the docks in a few hours
* Tamsin is unconvinced that Shiba was always a tiger, despite being shown sketches of her as a baby tiger

## TIME TO ROCK THE BOAT

* Galdor and Elyan buy nice food for everyone
* We decide to go investigate the pirate meet-up – reconnaissance only but will need to get back to ship quickly if necessary; leave if it looks like there’s a lot of people there
* Scribbles is staying in Ilbidor L He is going to stay in Xandar’s house. Wilbur is very sad, as he is going to return to Ilbidor. Scribbles thinks it is too dangerous for Wilbur to be here.
* Scribbles says goodbye to everyone and gives them all a Goodberry

## MYSTERIOUS LETTER

* Kunai received a letter from the cleric from the contest
	+ He looked into his own records and identified the Darkness as Drinnis Beltinaff
	+ Last seen in the Empire 80 years ago on Ansgarth
	+ Associated with a number of high profile assassinations
	+ Lives in the Feywild, hard to contact, incredibly expensive to hire

## CERVICAL SPINE

* Gets very choppy as we get to the top of the Spine
* Kunai climbs into the Crow’s Nest and relays the best route through
* Bayul attempts to help row the oars but the current is too strong and the ship smashes into one of the rocks
* Elyan plays a sea shanty to encourage everyone
* Leo casts Enhance Ability on Trimaeus to help him guide the ship
* Lysandre summons Jeff to shoot some smaller rocks along the way
* Elyan turns himself into a Giant Octopus to help push the boat along and Tamsin Hastes him to feel useful
* It’s slow going but we make it through without further damage
* Leo casts Water Walk on himself and Bayul and they also push the boat

## ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

* It’s very misty but we’re in about the right place at the right time
* Kunai spots some sails emerging out of the mist, orange sails with the Prismatic Pirates symbol
* Tamsin sends Ellie out to see what she can see – a lot of people on the shore, several groups. Circles of people on the floor surrounded by pirates. Nearest the ship there is a massive orc chatting to pirates. Lots of little boats ferrying people from the shore to the boats
* A loud booming voice across the bay says we should turn around and forget what we’ve seen or prepare to engage
* The back boat turns to use and has a phoenix on the front with a cannon in its mouth
* Smaller boat has similar munitions to us; the bigger boat has a huge fucking cannon (not arcane)
* Lysandre suggests Fireballing their gunpowder storage to blow up the ship
* Kunai suggests trying to get them to stand down by reading out the bottom of the letter, but also notes that the ships are being loaded with slaves so there are civilians on the ship and we shouldn’t blow them up
* Phoenix comes to check on us so we’re outta there

## ALERTING THE AUTHORITIES

* Tamsin draws a picture of ships to pass on of the Phoenix Armada
* Bayul and Narko consider two-man guerrilla squadding the slavers
	+ Narko knows of the Defiler, one of the more grotesque chieftains in the Wastelands, and one of the biggest groups his herd deals with
* Elyan Sends a message to the Admiral of the Navy we met on the way in who does not trust it
* Elyan Sends a second message to explain who he is and a Third for luck. The Admiral says he’ll look into it

## HIVESWAP

* Eventually we see the Archipelago again, and turn towards the Wretched Hive
* Kunai’s cantina is burnt out :(
* The shops all have very punny names
* Pieces of Eight – lots of goblins and one pirate, Forkbeard
* Elyan tries to negotiate us a discount and does well J
* Bayul gets his moorbounder skin sewn on to his Cloak of Warmth

## THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

* Debrief with Dr T!
* She and Dr Page are very pleased to see Prof Xandar back on Ilbidor
* Tamsin and Kunai fill them in about what has happened in the last 3 months
* Discussions about what to do with the tablets – one in the wizard tower, and the other in the Steve Cube it is decided, as destroying it seems unlikely
* We are then dismissed to have further downtime shenanigans!
* CONGRATULATIONS JOSH YOU MADE IT TO THE END