Session 04 “Splitting the party and bringing it together”

'*Session 4 recap:* “Splitting the party and bringing it
together”

After a nice soak, and
cleaning of your gear following your trek through the sewers, the group went
back to meet up with Devandra Kravandros at Muggy’s to give her a report on
your progress. After leaving Haylee’s (the bath house) Kohlam ran off to take
care of some errands while Tanek said he really needed to work out some plans
on his “Magnum Opus” and seemed lost in thought, sitting mostly silently
through the meeting with Devandra then heading to his room at Muggy’s to work
more (Tanek and Kohlam, mark off two gold for the night each pls).

During the meeting, instead of
really updating Devandra, you again asked her for information, however she
essentially told you everything she knew on the first meeting, but she did give
you the address of her father’s place in the Sceptor District, the richest
neighborhood in the city—though she did say the Arm of Ucerin had already followed
that lead to no avail. She also spoke of her father’s business, land owning,
and also of the smuggling her father had done in the past, but assured you it
was behind him. This was the one thing she had not mentioned to the Arm of
Ucerin during their investigation. After basically some in group tension at the
table in front of her, in particularly between Muffy and Bucket Girl, not to
mention the addition of Bucket Girl aka Bucky which Muffy said she would not
vouch for but Dorn said he would, Devandra began to lose her faith in her
decision to hire you all. Rhys telling Devandra that her father was probably
dead didn’t help much. You said you all needed more time and would meet her at
the same time of day in one week (the 25th) but if you needed to reach
her sooner you would contact her through Muggy. It was surprisingly Bucket Girl
who Devandra ended up bearing her soul to one on one, saying how scared she
was, how she regretted the state of her relationship with her father, and
Bucket Girl told her something to the effect of “in a way its good that you’re
not close, attachments just cause us pain.” To which Devandra was like “these
fucking people…”

Dorn said that the bar that
the Sewer King had mentioned “The Black Horse” would be a good place to go to
try to get some answers, one of the two leads the group had planned on
investigating before meeting up with Devandra, but Muffy was not having it. She
said Dorn hadn’t lead them anywhere good thus far and that the best course of
action would be to go to the Scepter District and investigate Nadir Kravandros’
place themselves. Dorn told her they’d never let anyone in this group into that
District, and so you parted ways. Dorn and Bucket Girl headed towards the Black
Horse in the River District on the northern banks of the river that divides the
city while Muffy, Rhys, and Rensig made their way towards the Sceptor District,
both groups traveling in the pouring rain that had begun to fall during your
conversation at Muggy’s.

At the gates to the Sceptor
District, Rhys flashed his paper’s from the Order of the Light and demanded to
be let in, to which the guard more or less told him where he could go. Muffy
then, golden tongued Muffy, brought out some identification, revealing to both
Rhys and Rensig that she had once lived here, and convinced the guards that she
still did and that Rhys and Rensig were her servants. The three then entered
the district and made their way to Nadir Kravandros place. The streets were
relatively empty in the early evening rain, the district itself extremely
beautiful with tree lined streets, and covered burning gas lamps throughout.
The homes were all beautiful with immaculate lawns, each fenced. Nadir’s home
was no different, and the locked fence proved to be somewhat troublesome to a
party without it’s two rogues. At first Rhys tried picking the lock with his
dagger which did absolutely nothing. Then he tried to help Rensig scale the
fence by throwing him over, but the little gnome got stuck, hanging from the
fence and eventually falling back into Rhys’ arms. Muffy brought out a crowbar
for Rhys to try to pry the door, and at that point was spotted by one of the
many guards of the district. He told them to stop what they were doing, and
when they tried to explain he blew a horn, ostensibly signaling other guards.
The three booked it. Muffy knew of the perfect hiding spot, but before you
could get there, you were surrounded by guards, four on foot, one on horseback.

That’s when Muffy again turned
on the charm. Instead of getting arrested, she actually ended up setting up a
date for herself with one of the guards, the one that had originally tried to
stop them in front of Nadir’s place. Her and Sedgewick of the Arm would meet
tomorrow. a little after noon at Josh’s Bakery. After Rhys nearly broke into a
fight with another of the guards, level headed Muffy got you out of there.

Knowing that Nadir’s place
would be well guarded, Rensig then mentioned he might know a place to ask
around in the neighborhood, and so you went with him to none other than the
Royal Palace on the hill, the in city residence of the most powerful figure in
all of Athkatmon, Hazim Alibakar. Rensig had lead you to the home of the
Soverign. As you went up to the gates, Rensig immediately struck up
conversation with one of the guards, an old friend of his named Barry. That’s
when Barry revealed some shocking news, Hazim was missing, he’d been missing
for days. He said things were too tense inside and that now wasn’t a good time
to come by, but one thing was for sure, Rensig is clearly someone with friends
in high places…also his full name is apparently Rensignater.

Rensig seemed truly shaken and
at a loss by the news, explaining that Hazim was a friend. That’s when Muffy
mentioned she also knew a place where they could go, maybe get some answer and
potentially stay the night. The home of her father, but she warned that he
might not be too happy to see them. Still the other two agreed and so you made
your way to the home Muffy had grown up in, a rather impressive one, as all
homes in the neighborhood are. Muffy upon seeing it, however, was overcome with
emotion, just staring blankly at the house, before finally saying she couldn’t
go in, and that she needed to leave. She seemingly shut down entirely, and so
unsure of anything more you could do in the neighborhood, you made your way
back to Muggy’s to try to reunite with the rest of your group.

Meanwhile, Dorn lead Bucket
Girl in the rain to a stable in the river district, not the bar she was
expecting. Entering the stable, things seemed normal enough until a large
Bugbear appeared out of nowhere. She demanded you hand over your weapons, and
Dorn immediately acquiesced and told Bucket Girl to follow suit. Then he
entered one of the stalls, one containing a black horse, and seemingly walked
right through it, and right through the wall beyond which shimmered in a faint
outline as soon as Dorn passed through. Bucket Girl followed and found herself
in what was undoubtedly the nicest foyay she’d ever been in, like the most
upscale entryway to a hotel on the French riveira, large palms, high ceilings,
chandeliers, floating globes of light, the works. Before the two was a long
hallway with similar decorations, though darkly lit, and the raucous sounds of
a lively tavern beyond. They walked through the space and found themselves in a
crowded, but still very elegant tavern with transparent wait staff. Dorn
spotted three friends, Areldrian the elf, in fact a dark elf, a Drow woman with
a sense of high society about her, Galena Bayle a human woman in a black
clothing and dark short hair, who Dorn had formerly reported to and Ebon, a man
made of seemingly living charcoal with eyes that burned like embers who kept
taking the piss out of Dorn from the moment you met up until the moment you left.

Dorn introduced Bucket Girl as
Darcy, his girlfriend and after some pleasantries, the two went about the task
of trying to ply information from the three. Even without their more charming
members, they did manage to get some names of those who had been involved in
the smuggling trade Korag who had run things and Marteen who acted as the face
of operations for Korag. Then Dorn managed to get this out of Ebon—Marteen was
apparently setting up a meeting with some “rich asshole” at the High Harvest
Tide Festival in two days… at least that was the word on the street.

Dorn then asked if they knew
anything else, but they didn’t have anything else for them. He asked if anyone
else might have more information, and they were directed to a young man
ordering a drink at the bar, a man that went by the name of Moist or as Dorn
called him ‘The Moist”.  This time, the
lack of the groups more charming members being with them was heavily felt, and
Moist dismissed the two entirely before walking off unless they wanted to pay
him, and they simply didn’t have enough money to do so.

Eventually the five reunited
at Muggy’s soaking wet, trading stories of what they’d been up to, and all got
very drunk, especially Rensig but Bucket Girl too. The pair even went on stage
to perform a song together, Bucket Girl’s singing eliciting tremendous applause
from the crowd. When everyone was about to turn in for the night, Bucket Girl
suggested instead everyone come back to Dorn’s hideout, and maybe against some
of your better judgments you all agreed, and Dorn for the second night in a
long time, had company at his place. He lead you to Low Town aka, the Southern
Slums, a soggy little neighborhood right outside the city walls that was
falling apart and sinking into the ground. There you met “his dog” who he
called “Begbee” and also found out where Dorn has been living the past few
months, and we pick up the morning after (the morning of the 19th.) with all
five of you rolling constitution checks (actually not Muffy bc of her natural
20 on drinking towards the end of the night) but Rensig and Dorn, roll with
disadvantage as you went fucking hard. (Bucky, Dorn, Muffy, and Rensig level up
to 3)