Episode 20: Natural 20

Took place on 02/23/2020. The crew met for brunch and all ate breakfast tacos.

**Session Summary**

The Nowhere Knots fled the burning house after Roh was carted away by the Shadow Hunters and began to run towards the Bunch of Grapes. As they approached, a massive explosion erupted from the general location of the Bunch of Grapes - a bad sign.

“You approach a small, gnomish female and...if she had pearls, she would be clutching them.”

A massive voice burst out and said “Nara, you will come to me...or die!” Peony looked very worried about this and said she had to leave - Nara was the name that Madam Zeeta gave her in captivity. She decided she needed to go confront the source of this voice, and the party would not let her leave without them.

They approached the Bunch of Grapes and saw that it had been thoroughly explodiated. Five figures appear to be magically paralyzed, Egwene, K’ryen’s magic therapist, among them. A looming figure is pacing around them, notices the party, and approaches - it is Faro, the mage who was liberated from Madame Zeeta. He appears to be furious at Peony for murdering the master. He readies a spell, presumably to attack, but K’ryen intervenes, attempting to convince him that Madame Zeeta would not have wanted this. Faro appears to waver as the party readies their weapons, and K’ryen approaches, continuing his attempt to speak Faro out of this. Faro, weeping, releases his magical captives and slumps to the ground. He appears to almost surrender, when several magical blasts riddle his body with holes.

Egwene had arisen and blasted Faro with killing magic - she tells K’ryen that they lost control of the mage. Pixie is presumably dead, and Egwene needs to leave before the authorities arrive - she tells K’ryen to meet her at the Yellow Leaf if he needs to contact her again.

\*\*\*

Roh awakens in a darkened room tied to something. A bright light temporarily blinds him, and a dark figure with a glowing orb begins to interrogate him about his adventure into the sewer, refusing to reveal any details about themselves. Roh is at first very obstinate, but something magically charms him and he reveals that they went into the sewer to kill the spider and save their friend because they were enslaved by magical collar things. At that point he fights of the charm and begins insulting the figure:

“Ye couldnae catch a crab if you had a whole box of shrimp!”

“Your shell is so full of barnacles ye couldnae touch the bottom of the ocean for ye’d float up to the sky!”

“You have no ears!”

He’s then struck by a blow and passes out again.

\*\*\*

The rest of the party begins to formulate a plan with Peony to find a place to hide and regroup. They decide to make their way towards the Blushing Mermaid and everything seems to be operating as normal. Clyde seems to miss Roh :(. They rent a couple of rooms and Tony drinks heavily - he has three Seafarer’s Grogs, which tastes like the bottom of the sea and fucks him right up. The party finally goes to sleep and gets their long rest.

The party is awoken the next morning by a banging on the door from the city guard.

Fjænder answers the door dressed in his guard uniform and attempts to bluff his way past the guards and convince them that the party had escaped. The guards reveal that the party had been seen at the sight of the explosion and are being sought for questioning. Through an obstacle course of deceptions, he convinces them that his name is Gerald, his supervisor is Joe Oakenshield, they are looking in the wrong rooms, and that the innocent dragonborn in the next room is K’ryen. As they escort him downstairs, Fjænder, sneaks away and jumps out the window after the rest of the party. They decide to find one of Tony ’s cousins at a Crime Den for help and in the hopes of finding Roh/locating an uncorrupt cop to help them.

They remember that they have the conked out courier laying across Clyde’s saddle and wake her up to ask questions. She told them that her name was Min she was ambushed but that she had been told that they could meet up with Marc, Lady Gek’s son, at the Captain’s Log Tavern in the Water district, in order to connect back up with Lady Gek. They arrive and a terrible bard is singing a ballad that everyone is heckling, which the party joins in on. The bard smashes their lute and it is revealed that it is Marc. Fjænder makes him feel better and guide him over to another bar. Marc reveals his stage name is “The Marvelous Mr. Thom,” which...yikes. Tony, K’ryen, and Pio stay to sing bar songs and inquire about crime dens/, while Marc, Fjænder, Peony, and Talon leave. When Marc sees the courier prostrate on Clyde with her throat scar, Marc freaks out. They calm him and make their way to The Low Lantern, a quiet and small inn nearby. The crew fills Marc in on what has happened and Marc eventually uses a device to contact Lady Gek to let her know that he needs help - this device (which looks like an artificed time-turner) will apparently alert her of his location and bring her to him. Talon retrieves the crew from the Blushing Mermaid as they are displaying K’ryen’s fire breath to the crowd.

\*\*\*

Roh awakens again to the glowing orb and darkened figure. He is threatened by the figure - it knows what is inside his shell (apparently enough destructive magic to destroy an entire Tanchican district), possesses the trigger, and knows how to use the shell for mind control. He presents Roh with a choice: tell him all he knows and die a soldier’s death, or refuse and be mind-controlled into telling everything and killing his friends. The figure also reveals that he knows a great deal about the entire crew, even Pio. He also reveals that he knows a party matching this description also caused him a great deal of trouble on the Rainbow road. Roh tells him that he might as well kill him, because he knows his friends are on their way now to remove his trachea from his throat. The figure then asks him about the A'dam - Roh reveals that a mage named Alanna took them, although he has no idea where she went or how to get ahold of her.

\*\*\*

Returning to the The Low Lantern, the entire party reconvenes. Lady Gek and Alanna arrive in hooded cloaks. The party explains all the events that have occurred to the pair. At one point in the conversation, Alanna seems to recognize Peony, but does not explain their connection. K’ryen inquires after the the location of the A'dam, and Alanna replies that, while not destroyed, they are secreted away somewhere safe - she cannot entrust them to the Aes Sidiai.

Lady Gek believes that Lord Aginor must have Roh, and knows of a stronghold - a city guard outpost - where he might be holding Roh. The party discusses a variety of options to move forward - allying with Lord Fen, sneaking into the stronghold, incurring a revolution among the refugees in the Gate District as a distraction, and other options.

Lady Gek reveals a new piece of information: her agents have received intel that Lord Aginor may have the ability to mind control small groups of people to add to his forces, which would explain the disappearances in the Gates District. This kind of magic cannot be maintained by a single person for a long time - Alanna believes it would either have to be a great number of strong mages working very hard around the clock, but most likely a powerful magical artifact which, if disrupted, would impact Lord Aginor’s hold over any of his mind-controlled subjects. Peony and K’ryen seem to think it sounds very similar to the A'dam.

Lady Gek is willing to set up a meeting but it may be easier for the party to locate him in a brothel - he frequents the Crooked Crane in the water district. Marc hands over his time-turner device at the behest of Lady Gek, which, when turned in a particular sequence, will send a message directly to Lady Gek, as well as the user’s location - if she receives a notification, she will do everything in her power to send a representative or head there herself. Lady Gek and Alanna depart with Min in tow

Peony raises a glass as they leave, turns to the group, and says, “Well...let’s start a riot.”