This Little Bug of Mine

## SESSION RECAP

***Arc 1, Session 7***

***March 24th, 2023***

### Early Morning

The session opens to Locke finding Madame McGowley deceased in Ambrose's bed, this quickly leads Locke to begin to panic and frantically wake up Ambrose. Ambrose is horrified at this sight, unsure of what to do, the ruckus leads to everyone else waking up to face the situation at hand. Locke brings up that they can call either a local hospital or Vaidect Yard to report a body, this doesn't calm Ambrose down at all, whatever the outcome was the people in the pub downstairs would have to see a deceased person be carried out through the front door. Despite these concerns, Ambrose and Locke head to a phone in the kitchen of the Cask & Owl designated for private phone calls. After reporting simply "We have a body" to both the phone operator and local hospital receptionist, they are able to get some employees from the hospital and an officer from Vaidect Yard to come to check and take the body. The hospital staff arrive with Lt. Calvin Hodges, while it is confirmed McGowley passed away from natural causes and is removed from the area, Hodges begins to yell at the party for becoming associated with McGowley, where her ties to the criminal underground and her history with necromancy is revealed. Hodges threatens to fine each of the party members a hefty amount, but upon a successful persuasion check made by Ace, the party is able to convince Hodges only to dock some of their next paycheck each party member is receiving for helping Vaidect Yard in their investigation on the Red Petal Killer.

### Capturing the Pests

Through party conversation, Reid reveals that he has had many strange mechanical pests enter and exit his apartment as of late, Locke ponders if these are the same pests that he and Ambrose had encountered a couple of days prior while heading to the Embers & Ashes potion brewery. The party decides to investigate, and Reid and Ambrose are able to successfully guide the party to Rower's Valley, where Reid lives. Immediately, Locke and Ambrose recognize these as the same pests they had been ambushed by in the alleyway, the group chooses to try and take them down to dissect and look further into. During this, it is speculated and confirmed these pests are being used as drones by the Red Petal Killer. The party captures 2 of the 3 pests flying around the room and head for the Tinker's Ward, with the idea in mind to find the Talking Tommy shop, the place where Ace had gotten patched up after the encounter with the Rhinoceros Beetle.

### The Stelarite Converter

Arriving at the shop, the goblin that had welcomed Reid, Ace, and Myrr previously allows everyone in once more, jumping onto Ace to fix some wires in the back of his head that the unnamed shopkeeper had noticed, during this the party briefly explains their situation with a few white lies sprinkled in, just to push any suspicion away. The shopkeeper takes the pests and opens both of them on the operating table, revealing a stelarite converter inside the both of them which acted as a power source, but what stood out to the party was that the converter had the label of Eloa Gulissenthrua's company on it, one of the victims of the Red Petal Killer. Locke is the first to notice and passes a note to the rest of the party, this confuses everyone and they all stand in silence briefly before the shopkeeper asks what they were doing with military grade equipment. The party fails multiple persuasion and deception checks to throw the shopkeeper off of their trail, which is when they question why Ace is hunting down Gabe Matthew Bardell, as they had found the wanted poster on him when fixing the wires on Ace's head. Here is when it is revealed to the party that Gabe Matthew Bardell is another sentient Clockwork Automaton, a prominent leader from the second clockwork rebellion, the violent one, and is wanted for many crimes including murder, brainwashing, and much more, who is only known to be hunted by the government, it is then the shopkeeper reveals themselves to be anti-government. The party is unable to come up with an excuse and the shopkeeper pulls their gun on the party and orders them to leave, in which they do, without the pests.

### The Swarms

The party starts to head back towards Rowers Valley, each person making an athletics check to catch the already moving trolley in the direction the party needed to go, which everyone succeeds with the exception of Myrr, in which Ace jumps off of the trolley to join Myrr to hopefully guide them in the correct way. The two make it to the now burned down remains of the Embers & Ashes where they see seven large masses growing over the horizon, which turn out to be seven hordes of mechanical pests. The two take off while being chased by the pests, eventually the group is able to throw 6 of the hordes off of their trail, and Ace is able to freeze the final swarm in place, and the two head towards Reid's apartment. Ambrose, Locke, and Reid arrive at the apartment where they find now 9 of the clockwork pests, which are angered instantly and rush towards the gang, who just barely manage to scramble out untouched by the pests. Locke brings up the idea of heading to Eloa's home in Torysville, where they could potentially get information on the pests and their involvement in at least this batch of pests. The three of them head in that direction, meeting the rest of the crew on the way, and the session ends at the doorsteps of Eloa's Mansion.