Session 8 - The Smoking Crown

This is the 8th session of the campaign Echoes 2

## Summary

The session began on the 13th of Grantus, the day before the job that Dumont offered the group (see session 7). The Patrons decided to start planning the job. They cased the place and learned the general layout of the building, as well as the customs for auctions at the Quartermaster. They all thought it best to pretend to be other people. Autumn decided that he would try and sneak in with the band that would be playing during the event. Elias and Themus decided to pretend to be members of a pirate crew, Captian Crunch Redbeard and Blade respectively. The others decided to be nobles from Buyway, with Astraea playing the role of Lady Brown a hat merchant, Acaelus her advisor Cas, and Emeran as her bodyguard. The party acquired a horse carriage and a few horses to help them get around, and to escape with. The party also got some dress wear and connected with the Pennypot to get makeup and hair dye to not look like themselves. The teams split up with the pirate crew staying at Best Rest and the nobles staying at the Gabbing Hen, both places in the Riff.

Before the party went to sleep for the night Emeran went to Astraea's room and questioned her about her life. He asked her if this is the sort of life she wanted to live, and if she was okay with everything the group was prepared to get involved with. She told him that she was content with discovering more about the world and doing good things as well as helping people. Emeran had a very similar conversation with Acaelus when he got back to their room. The conversation was mostly about Acaelus's family history, their time during the war, and Acaelus's intentions with Astraea. Acaelus asked Emeran about his past as well, and Emeran said that he hasn't been himself in about 5 years.

The day of the job the party finished their prep and waited until the right time before getting to the Quartermaster. The group entered the open floor and was met with many different attractions. There was a boxing ring with two automatons fighting inside it, a menagerie run by the Culters were selling exotic animals, a catering company with pseudodragons cooking the food, a man named the Magical Farsworth predicting the soul coloration of people (Emeran tried this and was told his soul is Black heading to Green), and several gambling tables. The group interacted with a few people during this time, including causing a bit of a scene when Emeran and Themus pretended to know each other and got into a shouting match, required the auctioneer Bradley Reinvale to get involved, though the encounter didn't arise too much suspicion. At another point Themus and Elias convinced a desperate Coinmaster named Ignasi to drive up the price of the Smoking Crown, taking advantage of his desperation to appear prestigious.

At one point the group noticed that Vincenzo Carposi had made his way into the building and was at one of the gambling tables. He seemed amiable enough to the nobles playing with him, as many of them seemed to be brownnosing him. Themus took the opportunity to sit at the table and play with Vincenzo. Themus pretended to play bad even though he is a good gambler, and wasn't doing a good job at playing bad. During their conversation, Themus acted like he didn't know who Vincenzo was, and was promptly told by Vincenzo to "Get the fuck outta here." He did.

The auction soon began thereafter, and everyone assembled upstairs. The party took the time to speak with Dumont's contact in the money cage about the funds they can use and asked about how much Vincenzo had brought (50,000 gold pieces). Before the auction started one of the goons that Vincenzo arrived with approached Themus and asked him if he was part of the Carposi family since he looked familiar. Vincenzo seemed to notice a connection to the gold-skinned Tieflings.

The auction began and a few paintings were sold off, Elias snagged one. A couple of low-level items were handed out, and the party joined the bidding for some good ones, eventually leaving with a Cloak of Absorbing Elements, a Bowstring of Radiance, a set of Reaver's Scale, and a Bag of Holding.

The bidding for the Smoking Crown began in earnest with a bid from Vincenzo, after a couple of joke bids were thrown out there. The joking died down when Coinmaster Ignasi began a fierce bidding war with Vincenzo. Many times the party tried to signal Ignasi to cool it, and he seemed unflappable. Emeran at one point threw a bid in as well. The crown eventually was sold at 15,000 golden suns, much to the anger of Vincenzo, after Ingnasi seemed to get some sense into him.

The party shortly left afterward, noting both which carriage was Vincenzo's, and seeing from Martin's perspective where the Smoking Crown ended up within Vincenzo's party. The group tailed Vincenzo's carriage into the RIff, keeping just out of sight with Emeran, Acaelus and Astraea trailing, and Elias and Themus ahead. The party realized that they would need to force Vincenzo's carriage into a side street, so Themus and Elias rode ahead and began to have a convincing fake fight with each other, causing many of the drinking citizens in the nearby bars to flood the street causing a blockage.

The carriage peeled into an alleyway where Emeran and his carriage was able to cut them off. After convincing the driver to approach with Command, Emeran began to charge the carriage. At the same time, Autumn and Acaelus cast Sleep on the people within the carriage. This caused the four guards Vincenzo was with to be put to sleep, requiring Autumn to cast Hold Person on Vincenzo. The group was able to slip into the carriage and steal the crown, with only Autumn, Emeran and Astraea's disguised selves being seen by Vincenzo.

The party left via the carriage, hiding away the people seen while ditching some of their looks. After finding another good alley to hide in Acaelus decided to torch the carriage they rented as they all fled into the Gullies. Autumn went to hide in the Pennypot, and Elias to the Stone Center. The rest of the party made their way back into the Jaunt, paying Joy some gold to say that they were here all night. The party was seemingly unchased and got away for the night. The party debated trying to get rid of the crown tonight but decided t leave it in the Bag of Holding for now and wait it out. The session ended with the uncertainty of what was to come, but that for now, they had completed their job as flawlessly as possible.