#source: seamaiden

[seamaiden]

Benedict when Violet finds out that he asked Sophie to be his mistress: You don't have all the facts.

Violet: Which are?

Benedict: I love her.

Sophie: He was horny.

[dragon-heisters]

Session 16: 6 Aug 2022

Lots of baby talk this week; our DM is an uncle and now I’m an auntie! Lovely news all around. We do some levelling up, and off we go.

We start with Faction quests, beginning with The Grey Hands. Nuri and Thessalie receive messages from Vajra about a bronze dragon. We are to use potions of Water Breathing to find out the dragon’s intentions. We are to go to the Docks Ward, to the harbour. We find Lif guarding the potions when we return to Trollskull Manor.

The Docks Ward stinks, and the inhabitants have maybe five teeth between them. The first thing we see are the gigolos and trollops:

We start asking around about the dragon. Thessalie pops Aurix out, her gold pseudodragon. He tells her that metallic dragons are good and chromatic ones are bad. So this one’s probably a good one then…?

Nuri approaches a trollop or gigolo.

“Are you interested in it?”

Nuri explains that he’s not really here for ‘it’. He will give the man four copper pieces to tell him about the dragon.

“What dragons?” He doesn’t know anything.

We move on. Thessalie asks a trollop, who also doesn’t know anything. Pfenig says that sailors like to gossip, and are more likely to have seen it anyway. Let’s try the pub!

Thessalie sends Aurix up to find the way to the pub. There is an enormous beached ship that has been turned into a tenement. We make Arcana checks; Nuri and Thessalie can sense background magic. Thessalie knows it’s Arcane magic. Odd; there is a spell caster somewhere in the vicinity.

Pfenig casts Identify; the source isn’t within 30 feet so he wanders around for a bit. Thessalie sends Aurix up again.

There is a hand on a door on a very suspiciously well kept building. Garloth residence. Thessalie has heard rumours about this woman. Polite folk would call her an eccentric. She’s a wizard who uses her gifts for treasure hunting. Human, older, She is a member of the Watchful Order.

Nuri knocks on the door. She says, “Do come in.”

She assumes we’re here about the apparatus?

Yes, Nuri says. He makes a persuasion check. We may have use of the apparatus if we use it to hunt for treasures for her. She will take 50% of the profits.

20, Nuri counters.

50 or no deal. She drives a hard bargain, but alright.

Half a day, no less. We are taken to see the apparatus:

Forget the campaign, this is what we do now. Undersea adventures!

Do we have potions of water breathing? Yes. She gives us a scroll of water breathing, but will have to increase her cut to sixty - no, no that’s alright. Actually Thessalie and Nuri can transcribe a scroll into their spellbooks! Wait - it’s too high a level, she can’t do it yet. It would be cheaper to get it through the Guild than to buy it from her anyway. We decide to take it just in case, and can return it unused for the full 50% cut. Break glass in case of dragon, that sort of thing.

Has Grinda heard about a dragon in the area? We’ve been listening to some elf, known bandit, who is known for drinking and tall tales.

Right, she can have the apparatus ready in an hour! Let’s go and ask around about this dragon then. Thessalie swaps some spells, and Nuri comes to the realisation that he will be pretty useless if we have to fight, because everything he knows involves fire.

We head to another upturned ship. from which we hear singing. And more singing, in elvish, further in. It is tuneless, and about mermaids and pufferfish. It isn’t bawdy, but it is terrible. We follow the path out the pub to a ship out the back, and see the elf swaying on the deck.

He warns Nuri to keep away from the water. Bless. It’s full of dragons! Absolutely lousy with them. Nuri suspects some sort of Charm spell; he wants to cast Detect Magic.

The elf says he saw the dragons last night, on a ship in the deep harbour. He was fishing, and a whacking great drago came up and started asking about the Seamaiden’s Faire. (The one we were on last week!) Very interested in it. What colour was the dragon? Bronze! What did it want to know about the Seamaiden? Something about a secret, and who the performers were, what sort of performance they put on. All sorts. Rude!

What direction did it come from? From underwater, and he assumes it went back there. Very rude.

We are close to the deep water harbour, so we decide to begin our search there. Off we go!

Only one of us can pilot the device. Grinda suggests the one with the highest Investigation score. That would be Thessalie, with a plus 7.

She rolls a 20 with Guidance for the first check. Does anyone speak Primordial? Nuri does. The voice is female, and it says “Fresh meat!”

Looking out through the window we see who she is:

… Obliteros???

She was awoken by a man, who she ate, and he was delicious, and she thinks we will be too. We roll Initiative…

Nuri is up first, and he hates everything about this. HE drinks a potion of water breathing and climbs out of the apparatus. He tells Obliteros to bugger off, or we’ll do something about her. Or words to that effect. He is trying to Intimidate her. She grins.

Hazel gets out, and drinks her potion presumably. She can use a shortbow, but will be at Disadvantage (the attack misses if it is beyond normal range). We also discover that Nuri’s fire magic WILL work underwater, but the targets have resistance to the damage.

She hits! 6 damage. Thessalie uses Magic Missile, and does 15 damage, also taking her potion of water breathing.

Pfenig is torn between being a fish and using a potion; he can only be something with a CR of 1/2 - but that category does include a reef shark so he does that. Also he has necrotic spores around him. He gnashes his teeth.

Obliteros makes for Hazel. and bites her for 14 damage. Yikes.

She disengages and swims away, heads back to the Apparatus. Thessalie uses Mage Armour, having seen the great big bite Hazel just took. Pfenig swims right up to it and does a massive big bite.He tries to spin Obliteros and rip a chunk out of her. She returns the favour and bites him right back.

Top of the round, Nuri. He decides to change tack. He Hexes Obliteros and Firebolts her, with a middle finger raised.

Thessalie casts Magic Missile, this time at level 2 for 12 damage, and Pfenig bites it again for 10 piercing.

Nuri hears the shark say, “Too rich for me,” and she swims away - Shark-Pfenig tries to get one more bite in, but the bloodlust gets the better of him and he misses.

She is now in our player journals as an NPC - worrying.

The good news is that we have been very good at treasure hunting - we will get to keep 500gp of it. Woohoo! We return to Grinda to drop off the treasure before returning out to look for the dragon.

We tell her about Obliteros - “Oh, not her again.” Ah. Okay.

We head back out.

[thetradeway]

Session 10

We debate how to figure out how to flush out whoever is creating and sending these scarecrows; we’re pretty sure fire is the answer somehow but not sure exactly how to utilise it. Kessler wants to look around to see which is the ‘headsman’s’ house?

We decide we can’t get any further in the dark (eventually) and decide to set up camp. Kessler casts Detect Magic while we set up. She doesn’t Detect anything. Melaina and Gideon and Ahleqs take watches - the first two don’t see anything - Ahleqs starts to see activity as the farm/village starts to wake up.

Tarragon notices that there’s a meadery, but we haven’t seen any hives. She finds a bee and asks it to show her its home; there is one natural hive in the woods nearby. Not enough to support a whole meadery. Suspicious, or a red herring? She wants to look in the meadery; we decide to let Kessler make some inquiries about it first.

A halfling emerges from the gift shop and puts up a sign saying “pick your own grapes for 3 silver pieces”. Gunna is suspicious. Do they mean they want him to work picking grapes, and pay them for the privilege? Ahleqs asks how you make mead out of grapes. The halfling says this is a wine and meadery; they make both. Gunna pays his silver and gets a basket, goes and picks some grapes.

Kessler is still looking for the headsman; she decides to ask a passing halfling. (It turns out she means mayor, not executioner.) The halfling goes off and gets another one called Blossom Snobeedle. This is the mayor. Kessler explains about the attacks we were asked to investigate, and asks if the halfling knows anything. Says we tracked a scarecrow back here. Snobeedle accuses the Stoutfellows - says they are suddenly flush out of nowhere (this is the farm that was attacked). Kessler makes an insight check as Snobeedle mentions scarecrows - the woman looks shifty and a bit nervous but denies all knowledge.

Melaina peeps in through the meadery window; all looks regular. She is still not convinced.

Kessler follows Blossom back to the house she emerged from - hears voices yelling from within. Sadly she rolled a poor stealth check so Blossom comes back out and asks if she can help her before shutting the door in her face.

Kessler goes back and hides again - Blossom is fighting with someone inside, saying she’s a pillar of the community, and seems outraged that she is being accused of ‘this’.

Gunna has eaten a lot of grapes by now; he makes a CON save and gets a 24. He’s doing okay - for now.

Melaina, Ahleqs and Tarragon go on a family outing to the meadery. We go to the gift shop to ask about tours. The halfling behind the desk is called Porrim; Ahleqs says he’s here to see their quaint country ways. for 20cp we can have a tour and a bottle of mead.

Gregor gives us the tour. Shows us fields with grapes (Gunna is shovelling handfuls into his mouth), the rental house, a big barn where others are stomping on grapes, then into the meadery. Explains mead making process and gives us a bottle of mead. Tarragon asks where they get their honey; he says they buy it in. Melaina insight checks him - seems legit. He offers us a pin as a memento of our stay for the low low price of 30gp. We decline.

We make a perception check - Tarragon nat 20. She and Melaina see Kessler hiding near Blossom’s house.

Blossom is talking in circles; she doesn’t deserve this, heads will roll. No new information.

There is a drinking hall behind the gift shop.

Tarragon asks about scarecrows; they’ve heard the stories about the scarecrows but the guides say they don’t know anything. Any of the other halflings on the farm could tell her something about them if she asks. Kessler joins us in the gift shop.

Ahleqs says we should go to the mead hall and have a drink to try to get info there; Gideon describes this as ‘constructive carousing’.

Ahleqs spots some halfling children pointing and laughing at Gunna and calling him piggy!

We aren’t getting anywhere. To the mead hall.

Kessler continues questioning the blonde halfling who introduced her to Blossom and rolls a nat 20. Says Blossom is furious that the Stoutfellow farm is suddenly doing so well. Kessler asks if she is angry enough to do something about it? Blonde says she’s all piss and wind, but she was talking to a lady with horns about a week ago. Kessler gives her 2gp and asks her to alert the city watch if she sees the horned lady again. She agrees.

Kessler fills us in. Gregor is asking if we want drinks - yes please! 6cp for a halfling sized mug of mead. Gunna wants a human-sized one. Rolls good persuasion - gets a big mug. The halfling kids are watching and snickering though the window, calling him a piggy. Melaina is highly amused.

Melaina sneaks over to Blossom’s house and sees her fiddling with a ring on her finger through the window; she continues to watch. Blossom goes as if to take the ring off but stops; she looks very stressed.

Ahleqs wants to talk to the locals about a lady with horns. Goes to ask Gregor; makes a persuasion check for a 13. Doesn’t know anything about a lady with horns. Rolls insight; another 13. Seems like he genuinely doesn’t know. He’s a busy man, doesn’t have a lot of time for other goings-on.

Gideon goes up to Blossom and knocks on her door. When she opens it, he grasps her hand and tells her an old man story, as he casts Identify on the ring she is wearing (it takes a minute to cast). (Gets inspiration!)

There is something very wrong and bizarre about the magic on this ring; but it is a ring of summoning. Melaina follows him in and apologises to Blossom, says Gideon is her elderly friend who has a bit of dementia. As soon as they leave, Gideon tells her what he found out.

Mr Pickles has told Ahleqs about the weave (which is the source of magic in this world); he thinks that the reason the ring was so bizarre had something to do with that. There are dead zones where magic can’t be cast and some other things that can go wrong with it.

Kessler wants to arrest Blossom, so she deputises us. Tarragon decides she hasn’t been deputised at all, thank you.

Blossom opens the door to us and Kessler says we have more information and we should go inside to talk. She looks nervous but lets us in. K. asks if there’s anything she wants to tell us. B. looks very nervous; asks how much we know. K. asks for the ring.

B. says ‘she told me not to take it off, I don’t know what will happen’. Kessler asks about the tiefling; she looks shocked. Blossom says she was promised they wouldn’t hurt anyone; didn’t know anything about killing goats.

She says that ‘they bribed that man’ to get ahead (the Stoutfellows). 

Kessler asks who is the tiefling. Blossom says she showed up and offered to help. She’s from the docks? I think?

What did she want in return? Blossom says the tiefling asked for nothing. Just wanted to help. She agrees to let Kessler and Gideon cast Identify on the ring, without her taking it off. Looking for more information about its origins. They feel the same resistance as before. Definitely a ring of summoning. They also find out that if the ring is removed it will crumble and be destroyed. Mr. Pickles is watching with interest - upon this revelation, he says ‘impossible’ and disappears into thin air.

Blossom is watching us - she wants desperately to take the ring off.

We need to find this tiefling.

Kessler arrests Blossom; she goes quietly.

Apparently the tiefling knew all about the rivalry between the two farms, and just showed up offering help.

Ahleqs uses the pendant to try to re-summon Mr Pickles, but it doesn’t work.

We don’t want to leave Blossom here with the ring. She is distraught, overwhelmed. If Kessler says she’s under arrest, she’s under arrest.

Gideon asks her to relay the story one more time; Stoutfellows rose to prominence out of nowhere, it isn’t fair. The tiefling showed up offering help, Blossom was assured no-one would get hurt. He rolls insight but poorly.

Mr Pickles reappears looking frightened. Explains that the ring is enchanted with magic that shouldn’t exist - it uses the shadow weave, not the regular weave. The shadow weave was supposed to have been destroyed - it collapsed years ago. Mystra (a goddess) was killed - She sacrificed Herself to save the weave. This should have destroyed the shadow weave, but resurrected the weave. Sha is the shadow weave, but should be dead.

Can Mr Pickles help us find whoever created the ring? He says yes.

Ahleqs makes an arcana check on the ring, he rolls low but might be able to identify shadow weave magic if he senses it again.

We make religion checks - Sha is the goddess of darkness. Responsible for having made the shadow weave; a Big Bad. Dominion over old but forgotten pain, bitterness, rivalries. Linked to the void. In constant war with goddess of light.

We take the ring from Blossom’s finger; it crumbles and is destroyed. We won D&D!!

Gideon wants to do a line of ring dust. He makes a sniff check instead. Smells like burnt flesh. He sweeps the dust into a pouch - or he tries. He gets a little bit.

We hang around to see if a tiefling shows up?

Maybe we could leave some of Kessler’s stones of far speech with Blossom, in case the tiefling shows up again?

We go back to the Stoutfellow farm and check out the fields for some reason? (We play over Discord so some stuff gets lost.) Back to the scene of the latest scarecrow attack. We arrive early evening. We smell bread baking. We knock on the door to chat with the Stoutfellows and let them know what’s happened.

Their winery has suddenly taken off after they were given a good review by Zardorz Zord of the Seamaiden’s Fair. Travelling fair, goes by ships. Happens yearly like the mop. Was this rivalry engineered?

We ask if Mary Stoutfellow bribed Zord? She’s never met him; he drank their wine in Waterdeep. Tarragon insight 24 - she’s telling the truth. Will we stay another night in case the farm is attacked again? Yes.

We wait and are attacked by a tiefling who immediately KO’s Ahleqs with a fireball.

Sophie has to go to bed so we pause there…

[seamaiden]

Kate doing everything she can to avoid having Anthony win monopoly again Kate: Benedict, I'll sell you all of my properties for just £1. Anthony: you cannot do that. that's--- Kate: it's my shit and i'll do it if i want to. Anthony: But you are my wife! Kate: not when playing!

[seamaiden]

daphne: who ate my leftovers? benedict: Are you really asking me? who do you think it was? daphne: COLIN!

...

Benedict talking to the camera: It was me. Colin is just the perfect one to blame when there is food missing from the fridge.