Aboleth Group - "Flirting with Danger" - LMOP Session 13
30th Oct 2019, 7:45 – 11:00pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 9. End of session, day 11.
Our “Heroes” rest in Qelline’s farmhouse after a busy day ‘tidying up’ the Redbrands. Reluctant to return her half a ham, one of the few things Qelline has left after the Redbrands destroyed half her farm, Qelline decided to take it back herself while the party were sleeping, but offered some of it back to the party in the morning as part of a hearty breakfast.
Derrick gave Qelline one of his family’s emeralds as a minor (but at least an actual) contribution towards the rebuilding of her farm (Qelline notices that donations and sympathy seem to come from all members of the party EXCEPT her niece, Pruni, who at the mere mention of giving any form of donation to anyone, including her own family, seems to somehow cause her to melt into the shadows).
Feeling a little rested, the party head back to town, with the aim of confronting ‘Harbin’, ideally before news of the end of the Redbrands gets around. They decide to initially find Sildar to find out what has been going on in the town in their brief absence.
Sildar is found in the Townmaster’s Hall, where he has set up his centre of operations whilst continuing his hunt for Iarno. With the knowledge that Harbin, or at least someone who looks a lot like Harbin, has been dead for a number of months, despite the party having met him in the flesh only a few days ago, the party are all on edge, and very mistrusting of everyone. Including Sildar.
They explain to Sildar what has happened the previous night, leaving out any information on the documents and letters they found in Iarno’s room. Sildar seems quite surprised by the revelation that Iarno is in fact Glasstaff, and has been running the Redbrands in their nefarious activities. However, Pruni at first, and later the whole group, think Sildar is acting a little strangely, and they are not sure whether to believe his story that ‘Harbin’ left town a couple of days ago to visit his brother in a nearby town. Derrick demonstrated his suspicions in the only way he knew how, and punched Sildar in the face. Sildar was a little taken aback by this (the rest of the group pretty much expect it of Derrick these days), but doesn’t react, and tries to calm the situation down a little. He answers all the group’s questions, though is a little hesitant over some of the answers. Hesitant enough that the party’s suspicions grow.
Mallorn hears a distant shout from within the Townmaster’s Hall somewhere, increasing his suspicions, and he starts to interrogate Sildar further. When the questions come fast and direct from the group, and the accusations begin, Sildar suddenly attacks Mallorn, body-slamming him twice in quick succession and knocking him unconscious.
The rest of the group react quickly, their suspicions already making them alert, so they are not surprised. Pruni and Derrick both miss their attacks, however, but Esme blasts ‘Sildar’ with a sacred flame, though the damage was pretty minimal. Derrick is targeted by ‘Sildar’ next, and takes significant damage from a couple of slam attacks, whilst Mallorn continues to bleed out on the floor. Pruni and Derrick both miss again and Esme is forced to cure Mallorn to prevent him from dying. Whilst ‘Sildar’ again attacks, and hits Derrick, almost taking him down, Mallorn, freshly cured, blasts the enemy with an overcharged magic missile attack, which does considerable damage. Pruni follows this up with a sneak attack with her crossbow that finally hits, scoring a massive wound in ‘Sildar’s’ neck from a well-aimed bolt, and Derrick’s often-talked-about-but-rarely-seen fighting abilities come to the fore, with a quick second wind heal of his wounds, followed by a critical hit with his greataxe and a well-timed use of action surge to finally take ‘Sildar’ down, his head cleaved almost in two by Derrick’s greataxe.
As ‘Sildar’ lies dead on the ground, his features change, turning grey and losing all definition until he ends up a humanoid-shaped, uncoloured mass on the floor. He was a shapechanger! Derrick and Pruni spend the next 5 minutes trying to come up with a suitable humorous one-liner with which to punctuate the battle, but only manage “I never liked plagiarists.”, which really wasn’t worth the effort. Must try harder.
The party head into the cellar, which seemed to be the rough direction of the shout that Mallorn heard earlier, only to find another ‘Sildar’ lying beaten up in an iron cage in the cellar – conscious, but barely. As Derrick points out to the barely-alive ‘Sildar’ that they have saved him YET AGAIN, and puts another stamp in his “Rescue-count” clubcard, Esme tests if this is the real ‘Sildar’ by pretending she is Pruni. ‘Sildar’ passes the test, identifying her as Esme, before passing out.
While the group wait for Sildar to come round, they search the building. Derrick finds, and pockets, the Townmaster’s seal of office and some sealing wax, hoping it may come in handy one day, and tests this aspiration by forging, very badly, a letter proclaiming himself as Mayor (not sure why, since the town doesn’t even have a Mayoral office). The group find a golden spider brooch, inset with a red gem, which Pruni stuffs in her bag. Pruni and Derrick find Sildar’s stuff, and look through his money purse, which seems to contain around 30gp. They leave it alone….for now. A detect magic ritual from Mallorn shows the spider brooch to be magic (divination), Derrick’s Tresendar Crest signet ring to not be magic, and the corpse of the doppelganger to radiate really faintly of magic, when he gets really close. Doing the same thing to the recovering body of ‘Sildar’ detects nothing.
When Sildar comes round, they tell him what has happened back at the manor and their battle with the shapechanger. Sildar realises that the shapechanger was a doppelganger and must have been impersonating Harbin for some months now, and then attacked him the previous night and then pretended to be Sildar. Doppelgangers can read minds, so that was how he was able to answer some of the pointed questions that the party were putting to it, and explains why it kept Sildar alive. Sildar is a little upset to find that Iarno is actually Glasstaff, but pleased that the Redbrand threat is now disposed of, and he agrees to pay the group the 200gp reward promised for dealing with that threat. When he then spots Pruni trying to steal his purse of gold, he calmly explains that she is welcome to that purse, and that the 150gp reward will be with them later that day. He is not angry, just disappointed.
Sildar agrees to ask the Lord’s Alliance to recompense some of the villagers, including Qelline, who are out of pocket due to the Redbrand’s activities, and vows to try to restore some semblance of order to the town, though it will be difficult with no real policing force available.
The group head out into the town, which, as word spreads that the Redbrand threat is no longer real, has had spirits lifted and seems a slightly happier place. They visit Halia, and receive half of the promised reward for dealing with the Redbrands – the rest of the reward will be given if Iarno is dealt with. Again, the party claim to have not found any lasting paperwork from Iarno and, both inwardly and outwardly, question Halia’s motives for wanting it. Halia replies that she just wanted to find out what was behind the whole Redbrand thing, which seems to satisfy the group, for now at least. Derrick “Flirts with Danger…. And Everything Else” Trebuchet sets up another date with Halia at the Sleeping Giant. The rest of the group do not think she will turn up.
Heading to the Sleeping Giant, they find it is not yet open, but they talk to Grista anyway and tell her they have rid the town of Redbrands. She has mixed feelings – it is good for the town as a whole, but she has now lost all her clientele. Time will tell if the Sleeping Giant manages to recover.
Sister Garaele is still at the shrine and has little further information to offer the group, though she is pleased that they intend to visit Agatha next. She does mention that the last time she saw any of the Rockseekers! clan was a number of weeks ago.
The group come across a young woman, clutching a very young child, begging in the streets. It seems that the Redbrands did not take kindly to begging, and the removal of the Redbrands has allowed beggars to return to the streets once again. Mallorn and Derrick express kindness to her and give her a good bit of coin. As she looks up, she seems to recognise Pruni and cowers back down, seemingly very afraid. Pruni also seems to recognise her and pulls the party away, quickly. As the beggar takes the opportunity to scurry away from the group with her child, Pruni reluctantly admits that whilst a Redbrand, she murdered the woman’s husband, an innocent man, having been told that he was guilty of a crime. The woman is now destitute and living on the streets with her young child. Again, Pruni hid in the shadows rather than face up to her deeds. The gift from other members of the party will keep her and her child in food for a couple of weeks, so that’s all good.
Despite it only being lunchtime, the group retire to the Inn to warm and comfortable beds, to recover from the recent events, before intending to head out in the direction of Conyberry to ask Agatha the information Sister Garaele was interested in.
And so we leave our ‘Heroes’, having punched a noble knight in the face, because they (rightly, it turned out) thought he was acting a little strangely, then stole what is possibly the real knight’s money right before his eyes, just as he was giving them a reward, and finally reeling from the revelation that Pruni is a murderer of innocent people. Just a normal day, then.
In-game timeline: Start of session, day 9. End of session, day 11.
Our “Heroes” rest in Qelline’s farmhouse after a busy day ‘tidying up’ the Redbrands. Reluctant to return her half a ham, one of the few things Qelline has left after the Redbrands destroyed half her farm, Qelline decided to take it back herself while the party were sleeping, but offered some of it back to the party in the morning as part of a hearty breakfast.
Derrick gave Qelline one of his family’s emeralds as a minor (but at least an actual) contribution towards the rebuilding of her farm (Qelline notices that donations and sympathy seem to come from all members of the party EXCEPT her niece, Pruni, who at the mere mention of giving any form of donation to anyone, including her own family, seems to somehow cause her to melt into the shadows).
Feeling a little rested, the party head back to town, with the aim of confronting ‘Harbin’, ideally before news of the end of the Redbrands gets around. They decide to initially find Sildar to find out what has been going on in the town in their brief absence.
Sildar is found in the Townmaster’s Hall, where he has set up his centre of operations whilst continuing his hunt for Iarno. With the knowledge that Harbin, or at least someone who looks a lot like Harbin, has been dead for a number of months, despite the party having met him in the flesh only a few days ago, the party are all on edge, and very mistrusting of everyone. Including Sildar.
They explain to Sildar what has happened the previous night, leaving out any information on the documents and letters they found in Iarno’s room. Sildar seems quite surprised by the revelation that Iarno is in fact Glasstaff, and has been running the Redbrands in their nefarious activities. However, Pruni at first, and later the whole group, think Sildar is acting a little strangely, and they are not sure whether to believe his story that ‘Harbin’ left town a couple of days ago to visit his brother in a nearby town. Derrick demonstrated his suspicions in the only way he knew how, and punched Sildar in the face. Sildar was a little taken aback by this (the rest of the group pretty much expect it of Derrick these days), but doesn’t react, and tries to calm the situation down a little. He answers all the group’s questions, though is a little hesitant over some of the answers. Hesitant enough that the party’s suspicions grow.
Mallorn hears a distant shout from within the Townmaster’s Hall somewhere, increasing his suspicions, and he starts to interrogate Sildar further. When the questions come fast and direct from the group, and the accusations begin, Sildar suddenly attacks Mallorn, body-slamming him twice in quick succession and knocking him unconscious.
The rest of the group react quickly, their suspicions already making them alert, so they are not surprised. Pruni and Derrick both miss their attacks, however, but Esme blasts ‘Sildar’ with a sacred flame, though the damage was pretty minimal. Derrick is targeted by ‘Sildar’ next, and takes significant damage from a couple of slam attacks, whilst Mallorn continues to bleed out on the floor. Pruni and Derrick both miss again and Esme is forced to cure Mallorn to prevent him from dying. Whilst ‘Sildar’ again attacks, and hits Derrick, almost taking him down, Mallorn, freshly cured, blasts the enemy with an overcharged magic missile attack, which does considerable damage. Pruni follows this up with a sneak attack with her crossbow that finally hits, scoring a massive wound in ‘Sildar’s’ neck from a well-aimed bolt, and Derrick’s often-talked-about-but-rarely-seen fighting abilities come to the fore, with a quick second wind heal of his wounds, followed by a critical hit with his greataxe and a well-timed use of action surge to finally take ‘Sildar’ down, his head cleaved almost in two by Derrick’s greataxe.
As ‘Sildar’ lies dead on the ground, his features change, turning grey and losing all definition until he ends up a humanoid-shaped, uncoloured mass on the floor. He was a shapechanger! Derrick and Pruni spend the next 5 minutes trying to come up with a suitable humorous one-liner with which to punctuate the battle, but only manage “I never liked plagiarists.”, which really wasn’t worth the effort. Must try harder.
The party head into the cellar, which seemed to be the rough direction of the shout that Mallorn heard earlier, only to find another ‘Sildar’ lying beaten up in an iron cage in the cellar – conscious, but barely. As Derrick points out to the barely-alive ‘Sildar’ that they have saved him YET AGAIN, and puts another stamp in his “Rescue-count” clubcard, Esme tests if this is the real ‘Sildar’ by pretending she is Pruni. ‘Sildar’ passes the test, identifying her as Esme, before passing out.
While the group wait for Sildar to come round, they search the building. Derrick finds, and pockets, the Townmaster’s seal of office and some sealing wax, hoping it may come in handy one day, and tests this aspiration by forging, very badly, a letter proclaiming himself as Mayor (not sure why, since the town doesn’t even have a Mayoral office). The group find a golden spider brooch, inset with a red gem, which Pruni stuffs in her bag. Pruni and Derrick find Sildar’s stuff, and look through his money purse, which seems to contain around 30gp. They leave it alone….for now. A detect magic ritual from Mallorn shows the spider brooch to be magic (divination), Derrick’s Tresendar Crest signet ring to not be magic, and the corpse of the doppelganger to radiate really faintly of magic, when he gets really close. Doing the same thing to the recovering body of ‘Sildar’ detects nothing.
When Sildar comes round, they tell him what has happened back at the manor and their battle with the shapechanger. Sildar realises that the shapechanger was a doppelganger and must have been impersonating Harbin for some months now, and then attacked him the previous night and then pretended to be Sildar. Doppelgangers can read minds, so that was how he was able to answer some of the pointed questions that the party were putting to it, and explains why it kept Sildar alive. Sildar is a little upset to find that Iarno is actually Glasstaff, but pleased that the Redbrand threat is now disposed of, and he agrees to pay the group the 200gp reward promised for dealing with that threat. When he then spots Pruni trying to steal his purse of gold, he calmly explains that she is welcome to that purse, and that the 150gp reward will be with them later that day. He is not angry, just disappointed.
Sildar agrees to ask the Lord’s Alliance to recompense some of the villagers, including Qelline, who are out of pocket due to the Redbrand’s activities, and vows to try to restore some semblance of order to the town, though it will be difficult with no real policing force available.
The group head out into the town, which, as word spreads that the Redbrand threat is no longer real, has had spirits lifted and seems a slightly happier place. They visit Halia, and receive half of the promised reward for dealing with the Redbrands – the rest of the reward will be given if Iarno is dealt with. Again, the party claim to have not found any lasting paperwork from Iarno and, both inwardly and outwardly, question Halia’s motives for wanting it. Halia replies that she just wanted to find out what was behind the whole Redbrand thing, which seems to satisfy the group, for now at least. Derrick “Flirts with Danger…. And Everything Else” Trebuchet sets up another date with Halia at the Sleeping Giant. The rest of the group do not think she will turn up.
Heading to the Sleeping Giant, they find it is not yet open, but they talk to Grista anyway and tell her they have rid the town of Redbrands. She has mixed feelings – it is good for the town as a whole, but she has now lost all her clientele. Time will tell if the Sleeping Giant manages to recover.
Sister Garaele is still at the shrine and has little further information to offer the group, though she is pleased that they intend to visit Agatha next. She does mention that the last time she saw any of the Rockseekers! clan was a number of weeks ago.
The group come across a young woman, clutching a very young child, begging in the streets. It seems that the Redbrands did not take kindly to begging, and the removal of the Redbrands has allowed beggars to return to the streets once again. Mallorn and Derrick express kindness to her and give her a good bit of coin. As she looks up, she seems to recognise Pruni and cowers back down, seemingly very afraid. Pruni also seems to recognise her and pulls the party away, quickly. As the beggar takes the opportunity to scurry away from the group with her child, Pruni reluctantly admits that whilst a Redbrand, she murdered the woman’s husband, an innocent man, having been told that he was guilty of a crime. The woman is now destitute and living on the streets with her young child. Again, Pruni hid in the shadows rather than face up to her deeds. The gift from other members of the party will keep her and her child in food for a couple of weeks, so that’s all good.
Despite it only being lunchtime, the group retire to the Inn to warm and comfortable beds, to recover from the recent events, before intending to head out in the direction of Conyberry to ask Agatha the information Sister Garaele was interested in.
And so we leave our ‘Heroes’, having punched a noble knight in the face, because they (rightly, it turned out) thought he was acting a little strangely, then stole what is possibly the real knight’s money right before his eyes, just as he was giving them a reward, and finally reeling from the revelation that Pruni is a murderer of innocent people. Just a normal day, then.