Session Recap 1/4/20 - Bird Murder, or Burder
Together, the party succeeded at deciphering the message that had been left with Amaranth’s things in the chest – correctly deducing out that the key it had been encoded with read “NOWHERE” – to find that it read:
My Dearest Callen,
Technically these little trinkets are a bonus—you didn’t ask, but surely you deserve some sort of interest on an investment that’s been missing for so long. D has recorded their value and will be sending along a full report. I intend to receive a signature from your representative upon delivery as proof I’ve upheld my end of our little arrangement. For your own part, do have fun with your new toy. She did lose one of her companions in the altercation—that pathetic little elf. I could have made her remember losing more, but I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the satisfaction of breaking her yourself.
Now, as agreed, I expect you to stay out of Veritas unless called upon. This is a delicate operation, and if your interference throws off the balance I am sure that neither of our patrons will look kindly upon it. You can resume your search for flotsam once everything is securely under control. It shouldn’t be long now. The demons are hardly bothering to hide, and the city is desperate for a savior.
Cordially,
The Lady of the Golden Brand
Amaranth, in particular, looked extremely nauseous at the text of the letter, but still managed to point out that there was a watermark of a white hart on the paper, suggesting the cult might be active at the White Hart paper mill. The group also discussed the fact that, according to the papers Thodri had given Kriv, there was an Elderberry Deckle at the Cavern paper mill who’d put an ad in the versos about looking for a tiefling named Dandelion Deckle.
Ditto asked Tiktik if they would be up for any spying that day, and when they agreed, transformed them into a beetle, so they’d be ready to snoop. The group discussed whether it made sense to deal with the devil cultists or the breaches being opened by the demonic cultists first—though the fact that Esmerelda’s letter made it sound like the former weren’t too concerned with the latter seemed potentially even more ominous than the breaches did. They also talked about the fact that it seemed like Tress was being kept at one of the paper mills, and agreed it probably made sense to investigate them. As the group prepared to head out, Palava called Erwyn over and cast Death Ward on him.
“Just a little extra protection,” he said, squeezing his shoulder.
Alembic suggested sneaking the party out of the city in the demiplane, which meant when everyone headed inside, they saw the sculptures of Volfred that Amaranth and Nora had made, which Kriv shrank down to a more manageable size and moved after heading over to his goat.
“What do you think of the images of me they have created?” Volfred asked him.
“That one is pretty good,” Kriv said, pointing to the one Nora had been working on.
“Yes, the dwarf has more patience for these things than your tiefling friend.”
When Ditto referred to Kriv by his alias, Volfred asked about it and Kriv explained the party was on the run, but did not elaborate on everything that had happened since. With the party waiting for a bit in the demiplane, Kriv did take the opportunity to look at the mail that he’d recieved
Voski, meanwhile, consolidated some of the skull lamps Tenny had made into a chandelier.
Eventually, the demiplane door opened up and Palava waved enthusiastically at the party to let them know they’d gotten outside of town successfully. On their way to the Cavern papermill, Ditto sent Tiktik to spy on the White Heart, but they really only saw workers hanging up sheets of paper in the mill. The group knocked on the door to the Cavern and were greeted by an elderly halfling who introduced himself as Elderberry. When Voski mentioned they were there because of his ad in the versos, his demeanor changed, asking if they knew anything about “DeeDee,” and the group asked if they could speak with him in his office.
Voski explained to Elderberry that the party was in a somewhat similar situation, searching for a friend of a friend who was also a tiefling that had gone missing. Elderberry explained that DeeDee had gone missing on Blomhath 18th, nearly a week ago. He said it felt as though the watch had just stopped trying to follow up with missing persons reports. It was also explained that he’d adopted Dandelion, whose parents hadn’t been expecting a tiefling.
After Voski asked if Elderberry had a working relationship with any moembers of the watch, and he explained that some of his employees had minor infractions in the past, which meant the city watch occasionally bothered them. Around that time, a goblin Elderberry referred to as Zero briefly interrupted the group to ask if everything was alright. When Voski asked about the mercenaries working in town, Elderberry admitted he didn’t have a very high opinion of them, but there was no curfew out by the mills. Kriv asked if anyone unusual had come into the mill prior to Dandelion’s disappearance. He said there wasn’t anyone he could think of, but that the other mills got more unusual clientele.
Suddenly, Ditto, who had been oddly quiet for much of the conversation, asked if she could have a look around the paper mill because she’d never been in one before. Elderberry agreed, but as she was zooming out the door of the office and into the mill, Erwyn Messaged her to ask if everything was alright.
“I think… that goblin…” she said, “I think that Tiktik knew them… bye!”
The others continued their conversation with Elderberry. Erwyn asked about some of the individuals that had been coming and going from the other paper mills, and Elderberry mentioned that the White Hart in particular had been so busy that Vatman, the proprietor, cancelled the papermaker’s subset of the stationer’s meeting for the first time ever last month. He also mentioned that there was a distinguished-looking fire genasi who’d been putting orders in there.
Ditto succeeded in finding Zero chatting with a big bugbear, and told them that she’d been together with Tiktik the goblin a long time ago. Zero immediately asked if she was Ditto, and suggested they duck into the rag-sorting room to talk. They told Ditto that Tiktik told a lot of stories about her, though they suspected that not all of them were all the way true – things like her tying guards shoelaces together, Goz the Great, how when she met Tiktik she shot fire at a guy and they had to flee. It turned out that Zero knew about the package Tiktik had left with Knife.
“Knife was sure you’d come back, but I didn’t know,” Zero said. “I kind of thought you’d just be a weird story.”
“Well I guess all of us are weird stories eventually, right?” said Ditto.
Zero told Ditto that Tiktik had been her adopted aunt. Apparently Zero and Brenga, the bugbear they’d been talking to, had come into town together and Tiktik had taken them under her wing. They told Ditto that Tiktik had talked about her a lot, but especially towards the end, and commented that a cuna wasn’t finished until the person it was intended for got it. Ditto told them it made her feel sosoceni – a goblin word she’d learned from Tiktik, though she and Zero both laughed at how she still struggled to pronounce it. She asked it it would be weird if she gave them a hug, but Zero said it was alright – though after giving them a tight squeeze, Ditto warned them that she and her friends were looking into some stuff and Veritas was really dangerous right now. She also told them about how she could cast Sendings, and that she’d try to warn them of any danger if she could.
“It’s magic. It’s like wizard shit. I can do so much wizard shit now, it’s crazy. I don’t know how to deal with it,” said Ditto.
Ditto then rejoined the rest of the party, who were preparing to leave. Once they were outside, Amaranth and Palava asked Ditto if she’d seen anything interesting, and she explained about the connection between Zero and Tiktik. She emotionally said she hoped everything turned out okay for everyone at the Cavern, because she was really fond of them all now. Kriv patted her as she explained.
As the group approached the other paper mills, Ditto sent her familiar Tiktik to snoop on the White Hart paper mill again, through whose eyes she noticed that the workers in the mill seemed to be working a little suspiciously in unison. Through a door, she also saw a white tabaxi with a black mark over their eye, who looked like the one the group had seen during the fight at Inner Truths—though they weren’t sure if he was the original or a duplicate.
Erwyn offered to try detecting fiends in the area, and the group settled down among some trees so he could focus. He picked up on something that looked like a raven on the roof of one of the paper mills, but that actually pinged as a devil. As his awareness spread and hit the city walls, he felt a building wave of demonic presence that hurt his head and eventually grew overwhelming.
The group discussed options for distracting or sneaking past the “raven,” deciding they should probably take it out before they headed into the mill. Since it seemed worth looking for ways to sneak in the building before engaging it, everyone did some investigation, but came up empty—though Kriv did manage to find some nice medicinal herbs in the process. Tiktik’s investigation at least turned up a door leading to the lower part of the mill, but with no windows looking in.
Amaranth hid some of the foliage nearby in order to get the element of surprise. Ditto linked to the Arcane Shuttle, in order to cast a distraction once it was placed, which she gave to Erwyn, who she then cast Invisibility on. He dropped it in an unassuming spot and hid himself in the foliage as well. Ditto cast a rustling sound through the shuttle, and the devil hopped off the roof and into the trees to investigate.
Once the devil was in range, Amaranth, threw the ice dagger at it, utterly obliterating it. The party then sprang into action. Ditto cast Mage Armor on herself as the group rushed to the door of the paper mill. Palava slipped slightly on the way, and Kriv helped him up and along. There was a heavy lock on the door, which Amaranth was able to pick easily. Kriv cast Aid on Ditto, Erwyn, and Voski as the group headed inside.
It was dark inside the mill, prompting the dragonborn to don their scarf and goggles respectively. There was another locked door inside, which Amaranth proceeded to check for traps before unlocking it. She opened the door and snuck in, entering a room full of manacled humanoid shapes–including the tabaxi proprietor. She silenced him before he could cry out, saying they were here to rescue him.
As the others entered the room, Ditto recognized some of the other figures in the room as the employees of the paper mill. Erwyn and Voski noticed several piles of papermaking rags in the corners of the rooms which had some kind of spherical glassware underneath them that looked suspicious and potentially magical. Kriv used Divine Sense, but didn’t detect any fiends nearby. Amaranth went to attempt to unlock a set of manacles, but Voski, who had noticed something carved into their edges, gestured for her to wait.
Voski asked if there was some kind of a spell on the manacles. Vatman, the proprietor, replied that there might be as “they” had a lot of magic, warning about oozes that could take you out of your mind. Palava knelt down to examine the manacles, then the glass vessels in the corners of the room, saying that they were linked–and the latter were triggered to explode if the manacles were tampered with. Kriv reassured some of the prisoners, asking them to stay quiet but promising they were going to get them all out. Palava put a hand on Vatman’s shoulder, making the same promise and casting Calm Emotions–though not before asking for permission, in case the prisoners had had enough of magical effects.
Voski had wandered back into the first room, where she had noticed some strange discoloration near a ladder leaning against the wall. She tried sending a Message in Esmerelda’s voice down below, since it looked like there might be a trapdoor, saying “Tressamine, darling, how’s my favorite assistant?”–to no response. Ditto investigated the trapdoor area and noticed that there seemed to be a metal layer underneath it, with some sort of spell on it. Voski tried casting Dispel Magic on it, causing the spell to vanish.
She tried sending the same Message, a little more irritably the second time, and heard back “Oh, I think we’re making very good progress.”
Voski informed the others Tress was down there, but might still be compromised. She tried messaging her in Esmerelda’s voice again, saying she was thinking about getting some food in town and asking if she wanted anything. Tress replied saying she liked the spicy dumplings at a particular stall. Voski then tried asking via another Message what the schedule was that day, and was told that Kereft was in, as usual–though Tress added that he was being unhelpful, as always.
“Kisses,” said Voski in Esmerelda’s voice, finishing the Messaging exchange.
“--W-what?” replied Tress.
After Voski let the others know Tress wasn’t alone, Kriv broke the trapdoor open to reveal a room with stacks of paper, and iron cage, and an oddly fancy chair, as well as a door to another room. Kriv tried Divine Sense again, and while it didn’t detect anything, he noticed an ooze flowing from beneath the bars of the cage. Quickly, he dropped the ladder down so the party could rush downstairs.
Amaranth went after the ooze and successfully beat back the smaller ooze that had flowed through the cell with a powerful attack. Kriv went after it next, hitting it twice and casting Diving Smite on the second of his attacks, which allowed Erwyn to run past, maintaining his Invisibility. Voski cast Vicious Mockery on the smaller ooze, saying “Oh, you’re still here?” and it recoiled, at this point barely holding itself together.
Kriv and Amaranth felt a tugging on their minds from the ooze, and while Kriv was able to fight it off, Amaranth ended up frozen in place, unable to move. Four tendrils separated themselves from the larger ooze and morphed into humanoid figures=–one of which took the form of Vatman-–that drew swords and screamed out incomprehensibly. Alembic then closed his eyes and focused on an aura that strengthened the minds of those standing near him. Ditto cast Magic Missile on the smaller ooze, which destroyed it, and then flew up towards the ceiling.
Palava remained up above, saying he didn’t want to leave the prisoners, but still was able to lean down and cast Sacred Flame on the larger, remaining ooze. Amaranth—who had regained the ability to move when Ditto destroyed the smaller ooze—tried rushing past the four gooplicates, meaning one got an attack in on her, but succeeded in attacking the larger ooze twice.
Kriv turned to Voski, “Do you want me to go get her now?”
“I think we’re beyond secrecy now,” she replied.
He ran to the door on the other side of the room, only to discover it was locked, so he busted it in physically. On the other side was a room filled with alchemical equipment, as well as as Tress and the fire genasi that Palette’s footage had shown in Inner Truths. Kriv attempted to position himself between Tress and the genasi, and as soon as he got close, there was a sudden shift in her eyes and she looked horrified. Furious, Kriv cast Wrathful Smite on his hammer. Erwyn followed Kriv into the other room and cast Ray of Frost at the genasi, causing his Invisibility to drop. He then asked Tress if she was okay.
“Physically,” she replied.
Voski attempted to whack one of the gooplicates near her with a sword, but failed. She then asked Ditto to give her the shuttle. Inside the other room, the genasi moved away from Kriv, who was at least able to smash him with his hammer, adding a Divine Smite for good measure. The genasi pulled something that looked like a tuning fork from his belt, and grabbed a flask with arcane markings on it that looked like the ones the group had seen upstairs.
“Put your weapons down,” the genasi said threateningly, “Or all the prisoners will die.”
