Trust Goes Both Ways

Barakas, by queer fish

"**Trust Goes Both Ways**" (1x31) is the 31st episode of Dun-Johns and Dragons.

## **Synopsis**

### **Previously on *Dun-Johns and Dragons***

Half the party had left Skip with a band of mercenaries called the Black Marauders, sailing back to the western half of the continent in search of the kidnapped Prince Durrian. Stopping to resupply in Westerhaven, they were joined by a tiefling claiming to have information on the Prince's whereabouts; he later secretly revealed himself to Magpie as a member of her family's guard, sent by her parents to return her to her duties as princess, to which Magpie was not the slightest bit acquiescent. The group sailed upriver toward the Fierfoot Mountains, and at the point where they were forced to leave their boat, they were set upon by a band of hobgoblins, which they dispatched with ease. Back on Skip, at the request of the Pirate Lord, Dugluss had uncovered evidence of unethical experimentation at the Mechanists' Guild; he made plans to set up a printing press in hopes of ginning up controversy and giving the Pirate Lord enough leverage to take on the powerful guild. Yoolna, meanwhile, attempted to deliver a letter unseen from a mysterious pirate named Fortune to the headmaster of the Arcanists' Guild in exchange for information about the island's sewers and tunnels; she made it into the Guild, but once inside ran into a wizard named Drusilia Sithreth. Drusilia took a liking to her and they had a late-night chat over tea in her office, but in the morning she took her to the headmaster; he had no interest in the letter and after a brief, cryptic conversation, had Yoolna escorted from the premises.

### **Part I**

While Yoolna takes a nap after her all-night excursion, Dugluss builds the best version of Folar yet [OOC, there was some confusion over whether he had done this previously or just talked about it, so he went ahead and did it again just in case] and sends him off with the message to the rest of the party that there are untoward doings at the Mechanists’ Guild and they should return ASAP. When Yoolna wakes up, she fills him in on the events at the Arcanists’ Guild. She mentions the headmaster’s cryptic warnings and the hints about the as-yet unknown power of her medallion. Dugluss examines the medallion with the Identify spell and learns it is a Medallion of Thoughts, which can cast Detect Thoughts, but doesn’t learn anything else of note.

They decide to go in search of Fortune, Dugluss hoping that the promised information about the sewers might provide a hidden underground location large enough in which to build a printing press. They locate him in the Hooded Maiden, sitting at a table with Magpie’s half-elf friend. He invites them to sit and asks if Yoolna delivered the letter; she confirms that it was delivered, though not quite as stealthily as he’d hoped. He is disappointed, but agrees to give them the promised information. He says some parts of the island’s underground are largely unexplored, but the area around the Mechanists’ Guild has had relatively recent sewer work, and he knows someone who would have more detailed information. He says to give him a day or two and he will find them at the Equal Rope Inn with what he can gather.

Dugluss and Yoolna decide to make preparations for a possible underground excursion. They go to the magic shop where Yoolna bought her Winged Boots in search of some healing potions, but their funds are woefully short. While speaking with the shopkeeper, she spots some would-be shoplifters; they try to flee, but Dugluss shoots one in the leg with a coin with his Catapult Spell, and Yoolna chases down the other, picks him up bodily, and brings him back into the shop. They empty the thieves’ pockets, recovering several stolen items, and in thanks, the proprietor (reluctantly) sells them a small Potion of Healing for 50 gold.

They ask around at the docks to see if they can learn any rumors or information to give them an idea of what they might find in the sewers. [There was some buffering at this point and a few minutes were lost from the VOD, but it was confirmed in the next episode that they got a tip that the Huntsmen’s Guild were the ones bringing the creatures into the city.] They learn the Huntsmen’s Guild does not maintain a building on Skip, and there’s not a direct way to reliably get in touch with them, so lacking any other leads, they go back to the inn to await Fortune’s promised intelligence. They pack Dugluss’ printing press supplies into the Portable Hole in case a quick getaway is needed, then turn in for the night.

Meanwhile back on the continent, Stone, Magpie, and Zander are continuing northward on foot with the small contingent of Black Marauders after their encounter with the Hobgoblins. As they walk, Magpie messages Barakas, “Are you actually willing to die for me?” Barakas responds he would rather not, but he will do his duty. They reach the edge of the forest as the sun sets and make camp. The night passes uneventfully, but when they wake up in the morning, Stone and Magpie’s weapons are missing (Zander did not have Carrot summoned, so it’s safe). Barakas is standing over Magpie; also without his swords. The members of the Black Marauders are standing slightly farther away, surrounding them; Captain Vala, leaning on his scimitar, says, “Ah, you’re awake. I think it’s about time we had a little chat.”

Vala says the newcomers have brought unrest to the group. He particularly mentions the apparent animosity between Magpie and Barakas, and asks if there’s some history there he should know about. Magpie replies that she doesn’t trust Barakas; the captain points out that he seems oddly protective of her, and asks why he seems so willing to sacrifice himself for an apparent stranger. Barakas, with Magpie’s glare practically burning a hole in his back, merely says he was raised to protect his own people. The captain, unconvinced, asks what they’ve been talking about in their “demon tongue”. Magpie, taking some offense, insists that it’s nobody else’s business, but Vala says since they’re in his employ, it *is* his business. He asks if it’s something to do with the reason they didn’t want to be seen in Westerhaven — perhaps there’s a substantial reward on their heads? Magpie denies this, and when he asks Stone and Zander, they echo her denial.

Stone mentions they don’t see how a big standoff like this will help with party unity. Vala gestures toward the rest of the crew and says they all trust each other with their lives, but the newcomers have not proven their trustworthiness. The captain says he will count to three and they will all at the same time tell him why they left the city of Westerhaven; Stone and Magpie both say “dragon”; Zander says “crime”. After some stammering, Magpie elaborates that they fought a dragon and destroyed part of the city; Zander adds that they were framed for murder *by* the dragon (hence “crime”). Vala, still unconvinced, says he will not harm them, but he is kicking them out of the group and keeping their weapons, and hopes he won’t see them again. He gestures for Kelpie to pick up a bundle, apparently full of their weapons. Magpie says to Barakas, “You’re just going to stand there and take this?” Barakas replies in Infernal, “I am ready at your command.” After a moment of deliberation, Magpie says to him in Infernal, “Kill him.” Barakas, unarmed, launches himself at the captain, throwing two punches but only doing one point of damage. The party rolls initiative.

### **Part II**

As the fight begins, Morgren and Alethra, siding naturally with their captain, essentially each go after whoever’s closest to them at any given time; Alethra lands some sword hits on Barakas, Stone, and Magpie, but Morgren has no luck whatsoever with his shoulder cannon. At one point, he tries to use Magpie’s confiscated Wand of Wonder against Zander, but it only casts Detect Thoughts and Morgren, horrified at what he hears going through the warlock’s head in the heat of battle, immediately drops it. Kelpie, clearly terrified, takes up a defensive position behind Morgren over the bundle of confiscated weapons; he makes one attack, shooting at Zander with Magpie’s hand crossbow, but it misses and he does not repeat the attempt.

Zander casts Fly on himself and Stone, then focuses his efforts on Morgren. Flying overhead, he casts Hexblade’s Curse, yelling, “I’m tired of people hurting me and trying to hurt my friends!” After landing four successive Eldritch Blasts, he finally downs Morgren via sword attack with Carrot. [Dave asks, “Do you want to take his head off?” Andy ominously replies, “No, I have plans for him.”] He then binds Morgren’s soul as an Accursed Specter and uses him to attack Alethra; the attack misses, but Alethra is naturally aghast at the sight of her friend’s shade.

Magpie, lacking her weapons, relies mostly on spells, first using Charm Person to prevent Captain Vala from attacking her, and later hitting him with a Firebolt. Barakas as usual shadows her closely and prevents her from being hit multiple times; however, without his weapons or armor, he is absorbing the blows rather than blocking them, acting largely as a damage sink.

Vala, for his part, infuriated at the initial attack, focuses his attacks on Barakas, using an action surge on his first turn to land four scimitar hits; Barakas is downed after the third, but Vala goes ahead with the fourth anyway, stabbing him in the chest and causing him to automatically lose two death saves. Stone manages to revive him with Mass Healing Word, but Vala continues attacking and takes him down again. Stone once again brings him back, this time with Aura of Life; however, Barakas’ own actions are thus occupied healing himself with Lay on Hands, though he does some defensive damage with a Hellish Rebuke.

Apart from healing Barakas, Stone does some major damage to Alethra with Inflict Wounds and ultimately downs her with Guiding Bolt. They also make a flying tackle on Kelpie (though being careful not to actually damage him) to get him to drop their confiscated weapons.

As her companions are taking down Morgren and Alethra, Magpie manages to hit Vala with Hideous Laughter and he falls to the ground, incapacitated with laughter. She and Barakas take the opportunity to retrieve their weapons from where Kelpie dropped them, and then they and Zander converge on the helplessly laughing captain. They prepare attacks in case he comes around, but as it becomes increasingly clear he will not be succeeding on any wisdom saves, they aren’t sure what to do. Magpie pulls some rope out of her bag and attempts to tie him up, but he’s flailing around too much and she can’t manage it. Lapsing noticeably into her “Crystarian princess” accent, she says, “Can anyone give me a hand here, please?”

Stone, meanwhile, has flown after Kelpie, who took off running after Morgren was attacked. They land in front of him, put their hands up, and say, “I’m not here to hurt you; please stop and listen. I’m happy to let you go, but can we talk?” Kelpie sobs, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you, but they’re my family!” Stone tries to apologize and emphasizes they mean him no harm, but Kelpie clearly wants nothing more than to flee; Stone says they can’t ask him to forgive the party for what they’ve done, but they hope he’ll understand why they acted as they did, and reiterates that they’re sorry. Stone dashes back toward the others, grabbing his hammer and shield on the way, and when they next look in that direction, Kelpie is nowhere to be seen.

Back with the captain, Magpie has had no luck in tying him up, even with Zander’s assistance, and Barakas has tried and failed to wrestle his sword away from him; even incapacitated with laughter, his strength is immense. With time running out on the spell, Barakas puts his sword to Vala’s throat and looks at Magpie, saying, “Maybe we should just finish him while he’s like this?” Magpie looks at Zander, who says that the captain tried to kill them first, so he doesn’t have a problem with it. Magpie agrees and they all prepare attacks. Magpie gives Barakas a nod and he strikes with his sword, enhanced with Blinding Smite. Magpie attacks with her sword and crossbow, and Zander hits with Carrot, as well as ordering the specter to attack. Stone, still uncomfortable with the situation, makes another attempt at tying him up and briefly succeeds, but Vala, blinded and prone but having finally overcome the laughter, immediately breaks free. He regains his feet; Stone makes one last attempt just to grapple him, but doesn’t manage it.

They continue attacking, doing significant amounts of damage and growing increasingly uncomfortable as the captain thrashes around, blinded and roaring with rage, looking increasingly bloodied but still not falling down. At last, Zander lands a blow with Carrot, enhanced with Banishing Smite; Vala initially appears to be falling unconscious, then an instant later comes roaring back to life, but just as he does, he is sucked into a void and disappears [OOC, Dave explains that he would have been at 0 HP, but his half-orc Relentless Endurance allows him to drop to 1 HP instead; however since it was still less than 50 HP, the banishment took effect].

Zander turns to the others and says, “Right, let’s go.” Stone, however, realizes what’s happened and isn’t so sure about leaving Vala to pop back into existence one minute later, free and presumably hungry for revenge. Magpie, unaware of the need for urgency, whirls on Barakas and demands to know if he was lying the whole time about having information regarding the Prince’s whereabouts; he insists he was telling the truth, that there have been strange goings on in the forests south of the town of Fale, and the rumors match the description of the creatures seen carrying off the Prince. “Right,” Magpie says, “We should probably keep going.”

She asks what’s happened to the captain; Zander replies, “Oh, he’ll come back. I’ve temporarily banished him.” Just as he says this, Vala pops back into existence, still roaring with rage; since Zander knew what was going to happen, he was ready with a double sword attack; Vala parries the first blow, but the second lands and he finally — *finally* — drops.

Zander lets out a massive sigh, then turns to Barakas and Magpie and says, “You two, what the hell is going on? I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Magpie apologizes. “I’ve kind of been lying to all of you. My real name isn’t Magpie. I’m not just —” She sighs, then continues, “Barakas is here to take me back to my family, and I don’t want to go, and I’m *not* going, but I’m kind of wanted back in my country.”

Barakas speaks up, “Princess, forgive me. I was wrong. As demonstrated today, it is you who knows how to take care of yourself. I have fallen woefully short. I will return alone and tell your parents you are well protected by your friends and by your own skills.”

Magpie bursts out crying, “Th-th-thank you!” and gives him a hug. They all collect their belongings and prepare to continue their journey.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Dugluss Deep-Forge
* Magpie
* Stone
* Yoolna
* Zander Brushspark