Session 22: 1/28/2024

Cormak’s player is out. The party is priestless. It’s business for Thor…

Anarg meets Reynald and the party in a small courtyard (about 30’x60’). There are two alleys giving access, one of which the party comes down. One side of it opens onto the river, where there’s a derelict but floating ship tied semi-permanently. A member of the Amnish City Watch sees the group moving with purpose and weapons ready, and follows them….

Anarg confronts the party and asks how they stole the cup so easily in broad daylight. They dissemble and lie, but lie poorly. This goes on for a little while. Anarg, the Captain of the Fallen Paladins, still has sources. He says they made a deal and are betrayers. They counter-argue that the Order told them about Anarg’s dealing with slavery and illegal substances. Reynald acts surprised, while one of the other FPs chuckles behind his helmet. Anarg asks who he trusts more (or something) and Reynald falls in with him. Initiative is rolled.

They really screwed this up. I was planning on having Reynald and one other swap sides, but the group failed to display any sort of consistent honor or honesty. I gave them plenty of chances and they failed all of them!

Anarg goes first and advances on the chief liar, Ludwig the rogue, unleashing a flurry of attacks (he attacks 3 times with his halberd blade and once with the haft, being a PAM Fighter 11). One hits Mergand, who had moved up to the front to talk, and a couple hit Ludwig the AC 17 but lots of HP rogue.
The enemies:
Anarg, 11th level fighter (AC 19, HP 99, hits at +9 for 1d10+6 with a Halberd +1 3x plus PAM)
Reynald, 7th level Cavalier (AC 18, HP 60ish, Greatsword +7 for 2d6+4ish x2).
Fallen Paladin x 4 (AC 18, HP 48, Greatsword +6 for 2d6+3 x 2)
Since they were a man short, I removed the Paladin’s reactions (Interception style) and Anarg’s Heavy Armor Master DR, Parry (+4 to AC) reaction, and Pole Arm Master opportunity attack on people moving into range.

Mergand fireballs, hitting everyone except Reynald, and retreats (OA misses). I don’t recall precisely what everyone does, but all four Fallen Paladins move up on the only valid target, surrounding Ludwig and unleashing 8 greatsword attacks. He’s surrounded in a C-shaped formation (with Anarg being at one corner). Ludwig uses his one/day Shield amulet (from the De’Arnise keep), and only takes one hit. He disengages and casts Burning Hands, hitting 5/6 enemies for 8 damage (most failed their save, they have +0 on Dex saves).

The next round, the Amnish Watch member moves up, uses Bait and Switch to swap positions and move Ludwig farther back, then moves up and unleashes a flurry of sword blows against the Paladins, most of which miss, but killing one that had been badly burned twice. He then moves off to the side, and after Anarg moves up and attacks him, everyone is grouped together so that Mergand can Fireball all of them except Reyald. This wipes out the remaining Fallen Paladins and puts the enemy down to two. Terry, the Watch Member, claims loudly to have been watching Anarg and verifies the party’s accusations of human trafficking. Anarg’s responses are unconvincing, and Reynald ends up stepping back from the fight. Still, Anarg presses forward, launching a ferocious flurry of misses (thanks to bad dice and Shield) and cornering Mergand, who eats an OA to drop off the corner into the water 20’ below. On his next round, he Misty Steps up onto the ship and then fires a Lightning Bolt at Anarg. More damage is dealt, but he eventually falls.
Mergand has used all 3 3rd level slots, 2 2nd level, and 3 1st level slots. Not much left in the tank, but the two Fireballs knocked out a lot of enemies.

The party, the Watch member, and Reynald board the ship and free the slaves. They agree to all meet later at the Copper Coronet.

Meet Terry Gallagher, Human Battlemaster 6, and Dhampir.
The player and I talked about where his character was from, and one of his language choices actually provided the key inspiration. He picked Undercommon off the list of languages that could appear, and then asked what it was. After answering, I asked how he learned it, and that helped him build the entire story out.
Terry was a City Watchman back in Baldur’s Gate (I think). He was capture during a drow raid on the surface and enslaved for several years. At some point, Irenicus wanted to buy some “test subjects” from the drow (his dealings with the Matron Mother of Ust Natha didn’t come out of nowhere, did they? Not that the player knows this). Terry got half-turned into a vampire, and managed to escape around the time the party did. He knows he’s hungry for blood and is very afraid to go home, even though he’s been gone for years.
Given his background, working for the City Watch was a natural stopgap, his experience letting him sign on even though they knew he might not stay long. This was his introduction point, and him getting Reynald out of the fight helped substantially.
He has invested both of his ASIs into strength, hitting Str 20. Between actually spending some gold, and pulling from the party stock, he now has a Shield +1, Full Plate (and the Defense style), a Ring of Protection +1, and the Frostreaver (Battleaxe +2, +1 acid/+1 cold damage). At level 6 he has AC 23 and attacks twice at +10 for 10-17 damage. A real tank for the party! He only used one maneuver during the initial fight, and didn’t have all that gear then, though.

Terry goes off to resign from the watch. Reynald precedes the party and starts drinking at the Coronet. The group goes back to the Order and returns the cup, giving their report. Sir Ryan Trawl gives them Gloves of Healing, which are traditionally given to novices in the order. They allow the wearer to cast Cure Wounds twice per day. Mergand takes them.

Returning to the Inn, they discuss what to do next. Ludwig goes over to buy some stuff from Bernard (the Shield +1) and is told there’s a message, Harper stuff. Decoding it, he finds out that the Harpers know where Xzar is, but can’t guarantee he’ll be there tomorrow. They do their shopping. There’s also a discussion of whether to take Reynald or Nalia. They decide to stick with Nalia because she has spellcasting, and also because Reynald’s character arc is probably “he can build himself up to worthiness again wherever he is,” where Nalia’s is “She’s lost her family and doesn’t know what to do with herself, and maybe an adventure will be good for her.”
(They don’t know Isaea will show up soon, maybe I’ll foreshadow it).

After a short rest, Mergand converts some Sorcery points to spell slots and they go do recon. Xzar’s current house is two stories, part of a row of cheap townhouses that back up to more cheap townhouses (all occupied). There’s a front door and one window on each floor, with curtains drawn. The two neighboring houses both appear to be occupied. The group picks the one without a fussing child, and knocks on the door. No answer.
Instead of knocking again, they pick the lock, and are greeted by a bleary-eyed man who is quite surprised and a bit disoriented. A good persuasion roll and explanation makes him willing to take their coin despite it being handed to him by a guy in a robe carrying an entire bandolier of daggers (Mergand) who just broke into his house. Money talks.
They check out the layout and decide it’s probably going to be the same in all of the houses. This house has 8 men who live / sleep there, but 6 are out working and the other two work the night shift, which is why they found someone barely awakened by their knock.

They listen at the walls, but hear nothing. I decided that given this scenario, Xzar would no doubt have put some runes on the wall (probably in blood) to prevent sound from carrying through to neighboring houses, since he has zombies and ghouls and is teaching magic to two apprentices. The group hears nothing, and discusses cutting or breaking through the walls. The sound wards would have helped them for a while, but they don’t realize this and decide it’d probably be too noisy.

Someone points out “Hey, haven’t you met him? Did you meet the halfling he’s looking for?” This leads them to settle on Mergand disguising himself as Montaron to lure Xzar out, or at least to get him to open the door so they can get the lay of the land. The others will wait out of sight on the porch or nearby.

That’s where we end for the night.

They will level up as soon as they long rest. Since their last level-up they have completed one major quest (De’Arnise Keep) and two minor quests (Kidnappers & Fallen Paladins), but I didn’t want to have them level up in the middle of the day.