Session 5: Going Once, Going Twice

**Session 5 of the Campaign.** [Played on 12/13/16]

* Taman - Kyle Heisler - Human Ranger
* Renaia - Leah - Gnome Rogue
* Slaplen - Kyle H-S - Tiefling Warlock
* Krusk - Eddie - Half-Orc Paladin
* Oras - Brian - Human Monk

## Scene 1

The party reconvenes after a week spent more or less apart pursuing their own respective goals in Yan's Landing. Renaia and Slaplen have successfully established themselves as practitioners of the Learned Circle. The gnome has also identified herself to the local representatives of the Night Guild—aka the Family—and has offered the requisite tribute to operate in the area. Oras has gone to the local temple of Anoch in the city’s religious quarter, where the local Shepherd of Souls (priest of Anoch) has given him some information about the comings and goings of the Hands of Anoch that reside in the Cloudwood, and also furnished him with modest lodgings, a small domicile near the temple. Krusk went to the local cathedral of the Troika where the Athenian priestesses generously outfitted him with plate armor, a new hammer, and a lustrous kite shield bearing the symbol of Athenine. They’ve also given him respectable lodgings, especially reserved for knights of the church. While there is not a local branch of his knightly sect, there is one in nearby Telunel, which is no doubt working with the Crown to respond to the recent threat issued by the nigh-infamous dark elf. Taman has been living light, or at least, in so far as the need to spend money is concerned—he has crafted for himself a decent dwelling in the nearby forest, where he has been living off the land, feeding himself with what he can grow or catch.

## Scene 2

That night—the party decides to meet at an inn called the Boar’s Yawn, identified with help from the Greenback soldiers upon arriving in town a week before.

En route to the meeting, Slaplen and Krusk meet at the Crow Bridge, which crosses one of the tributary streams where the nicer part of town (adjacent to the religious ward) meets the edge of the slums of Mudtown. From there, the half-orc and tiefling weather criticism and open hostility from some emboldened citizens, who have targeted them because of their race. Slaplen continues blithely on his way, oblivious to the insults, and while Krusk hears the taunts, he does not rise—or rather, lower himself—to the challenges issued.

## Scene 3

At the Boar’s Yawn, the party meets and regales one another with their respective exploits over the past week, sharing drinks and stories. Oras in particular shares frustrations over his inability to make contact with his order—the merchant who has normal routes to the House of Life and Death is overdue to return to the city, and neither the Prospectors Guild nor Merchants Guild seem to know when to expect him—or any of his expedition—back. Slaplen and Krusk have been doing well enough for themselves, the former advancing his abilities and station at the Learned Circle and latter acting as a defender of the faith and awaiting a sign from his deity—despite the racism they have semi-regularly been suffering,

It turns out that Renaia has good news, or at least, a lead for the party. Through her contacts at the Family, she has heard of a masked auction being hosted by the Night Guild in collaboration with the Buccaneers’ Alliance. And what’s more, she found out that the smuggler Taren Rothbane, a name the party should recognize—the smuggler from the meeting with the Black Knight from the first session, wherein Oras’ master was slain and the Teeth of St. Abeline were last seen.

It seems likely that the smuggler also recovered the two scrolls that Oras lost in the warehouse during that fateful encounter with the Black Knight. Krusk and Oras are interested in this opportunity, and as it just after sundown now, and the auction is to take place in the small hours before dawn, the party decides to disperse and get some rest before the event.

## Scene 4

Renaia goes down to talk to one of her Family contacts—specifically, the broker Poleo Winesong, who it turns out will be hosting the auction. He confirms for her that she can bring contacts that she knows provided she follows the Night's Creed (law of the Family)—and provided they do intend to participate in the evening’s activities. All in all, a positive exchange, and it’s good for her to be on good terms with leaders of the Family.

Another contact that Renaia encounters: The young roof-runner (messenger), Garen Rook. His services are not needed at this time, but it’s good for her to know upon whom she can call for assistance. Renaia also makes a point to fence the pearls (all but one) that Kindo retrieved from the goblinoid encampment, for a total of 275 gold pieces, to have money to participate in the auction.

## Scene 5

While returning to the religious ward to rest, Krusk, Oras, and Taman are set upon by a throng of emboldened peasants—recent converts to the Living God that have been riled up by one of the zealous street preachers. While the commoners, armed with clubs and kitchen knives as they are, might not be the most intimidating force that’s ever been fielded, the adventurers quickly discover that there are a handful of better armed assailants amid the rabble—half a dozen men with crossbows and the deadly intent to use them. After bottles are thrown and threats called into the night—and finally, a crossbow bolt is fired—the three adventurers decide to make their stand, at the same Crow Bridge where Slaplen and Krusk had linked up earlier.

The melee is brief but violent. Taman answers the horde’s archers with deadly arrow fire of his own, while Oras seeks out the leader, invoking his ki to force his way through the mob more or less uncontested. He is soon swarmed, though, and suffers a number of lesser injuries from knives and clubs—lesser, but left to continue, surely enough to add up to something fatal. The paladin and ranger see their friend in peril and respond accordingly. Krusk wades into the fray with his hammer, breaking bones and scaring away a number of peasants—facing such powerful combatants, the mob begins to lose its nerve. And when Oras delivers a savage deathblow to the halfling preacher that had spurred them to action, the mob’s will erodes entirely, causing them to disperse into the night. While the edge of Mudtown might not be heavily patrolled by the town watch, there are still a half a dozen or more bodies in the street that need to be answered for. Krusk, Oras, and Taman withdraw quickly and quietly, making their way to the temple of Anoch, where Oras makes a point to tell the Shepherd of Souls about the encounter, should anyone come calling or looking for the combatants responsible for the deadly altercation. The priest is sympathetic and agrees to speak on their behalf should it become necessary; he denounces the so-called “bleeders” converting to the worship of Mortalis, and shares his concern over how dangerous they’re becoming.

Slaplen is unmolested in returning to the Learned Circle, where he rests up before the auction. A few hours before dawn, the party reconvenes in Shadewharf near the Family-owned warehouse where the auction is set to take place. Night Guild and Buccaneers Alliance protection is significant and conspicuous, but having already cleared her and her allies’ presence with Poleo Winesong, Renaia approaches confidently, her party in tow.

## Scene 6

Upon entering the warehouse, the party is given black masks (akin to falcon hoods) that completely obscure their features while still offering a mostly unobstructed view of the room and its occupants. The Night Guild’s presence is obvious: around the perimeter of the room, there are more than a dozen black-cloaked men and women with murder-pieces (crossbows) trained on no one in particular but only the tiniest motion away from finding a target. More than one unmasked Buccaneers Alliance pirate is skulking about the warehouse as well, and looking around, the party finds it is not unusual for each bidder to have one or two retainers standing near them.

Poleo Winesong welcomes all of the auction participants, lays out a list of general rules, and encourages active bidding amongst all the Family’s guests. The bidding is to be conducted in a respectful silence, each bidder having received a numbered marker with his or her cowl.

Winesong kicks off the bidding with a signet ring purportedly filched from the estate (or perhaps finger?) of one of the city’s prominent noble heiresses, the Lady d'Lusek.

The party takes note of several participants of the auction, both as key bidders and persons of interest:

* An especially short, cloaked figure in the corner near the stage.

* An exceptionally large (ogre-sized) cloaked figure near the shorter one.

* A violet-robed man, elf-sized, gloved hands and showing no skin—won the majority of significant items, including the relics of interest to the party: two sacred scrolls ostensibly tied to the faith of Anoch, as well as the teeth of St. Abeline.

* And, as Renaia had her familiar, Kindo scouting these persons of interest, she identified another, one halfling with very distinctive footwear—purple-buckled shoes—that she thought the raccoon recognized as Tashen Dasher, her former compatriot who was supposed to have died in Port Prosper.

Following the bidding on the first items, Poleo Winesong announces that a second, more exclusive phase to the auction, open only to those attendees that have placed bids on items. As the party made a point to spread their funds around and make bids, they remain to see what wonders the Night Guild intends to auction off to its affluent guests.

Though the party had nowhere near the requisite funds to bid competitively on these items, there are several significant—or at least interesting pieces—not the least of which was the fabled Glass Sword of St. Raelia, a vial of an extraordinarily potent airborne toxin, and a pair of trained—or at least mystically-bound—shadow mastiffs, which are purchased by the violet-robed man who had acquired the other items of interest to the party.

Following the auction, Renaia has Kindo follow the man who might be Tashen Dasher out into the Shadewharf district, while Oras goes to converse with the violet-robed man. As he does, the much larger, cloaked figure joins him, and there is a clearly implied association between the two. To Oras’ surprise, the violet-robed figure—elf, unless the monk misses his guess—is urbane and conversant, and far from hostile. He explains that he is there acquiring items on behalf of a patron, someone who has a special interest in religious artifacts for some kind of project or ritual. He implies that his larger compatriot serves the same patron, though may be less than enthused by the arrangement—or perhaps is less than enthused by life in general (he may in fact be just a large, bitter, mean monster person; hard to say). The elf does intimate that the shadow mastiffs were an impulse buy for himself, and that his patron would just have to deal with it. The way he speaks of his patron is fond, even affectionate.

Outside, Renaia follows Kindo just in time to see the halfling she believes to be Tashen drug her familiar and capture him in a cloth sack. When the halfling notices her, he flees with a handful of Buccaneers Alliance men. Kindo is fine; it seems he was dosed with powdered dreamwort, enough to render him unconscious for about an hour. Confused and more than a little angry about the mistreatment of her familiar, the arcane trickster tracks Tashen Dasher to the other end of Shadewharf, to a large ship, a vessel called the Crimson Sister—in fact the ship of the Pirate Baron Dreadmoore.

Thinking on that and all of the implications—Tashen Dasher and Dreadmoore, the ambush that nearly killed her and did kill her ally Bogren One-Eye—Renaia returns to her allies outside of the auction house. The party has lingered so as to follow the violet-robed man when he emerges from the warehouse. Renaia gives pursuit through the city and manages to follow him for several blocks, through more than one district even, until she realizes that he is moving in a large, deliberate circle. He turns and confronts her at the edge of the Guildhall District, where he quite civilly dismisses her, while letting it be known that he is flanked by the two shadow mastiffs he acquired earlier in the evening.

Investigating the wall of a nearby warehouse, Slaplen finds an embedded arrowhead, which he retrieves and gifts to Taman, calling it a “Shrilok arrowhead.”

The other adventurers note that that the larger cloaked figure never actually left the warehouse, or at least was not seen doing so. The party reconvenes as the sun rises, to plan their next move.