Quest Summary
September 12, 2015
Campaign Days 5–6
Participants: Amai, Ceru, Hunter, Krazztar
Location: The Richard Nelson Pickle Memorial Public House, Riverside, Nestora
The day after raiding the CORNUCOPIA GROUP’s secret lab and taking GRAATH’EKK prisoner, HUNTER receives a summons for OSGOOD and he to report to the ORDER OF THE FORLORN HOPE’s regional base located just outside of NESTORA. The trip takes the full day between travel, debriefing, and medical examinations.
While at the base, HUNTER meets with commanding officer MICK FLURY, a grizzled and battle-scared veteran with an eyepatch and a no-nonsense attitude. FLURY gives him three assignments for proceeding with the investigation into the SEEKER ZENDRIEL and his strange chaos weapon: (1) find out more about the lab, who knew about it, who was in charge of the experiments conducted there, what other work was being done there; (2) follow up on the thief that aided ZENDRIEL, the RED RAVEN; (3) locate the scientist NIKOLAI BLACKSTONE, who appears to have deleted many of the records related to the chaos weapon.
FLURY encourages HUNTER to make use of his network of local allies to assist in the investigation while OSGOOD recovers. FLURY will also begin mobilizing reserve forces in case they are needed. In the meantime, a courier will be dispatched regularly to the safe house to check on HUNTER and OSGOOD’s progress.
Upon returning to the safe house at the DICK N. PICKLE, HUNTER finds a courier waiting with a message from CERU informing him about their appointment with the information broker LADY VALOURIA tomorrow morning.
Location: The Snake & Ladder Tavern, Allfeld, Nestora
The following morning, HUNTER arrives at the SNAKE & LADDER to meet AMAI and CERU for breakfast. While the trio eats, MISS SOPHIA interrupts them to talk with AMAI and CERU about the men who are looking for them. CERU mentions that FAENDAL and KRAZZTAR also saw the men asking around for them at TENT CITY. HUNTER seems surprised to hear the name of FAENDAL’s brother. The trio also discuss the instructions that HUNTER received from his commanding officer and decide that the business card given to AMAI by the CORNUCOPIA executive C’RISS EHVAANSE may prove helpful. AMAI then leaves her goldfish PICO to keep MISS SOPHIA company as the trio departs.
Location: Lady Valouria’s Boutique, Central Borough, Nestora
Upon arriving at LADY VALOURIA’S BOUTIQUE, the trio waits for LADY VALOURIA to become available. HUNTER spends the time questioning one of the gnome servants who maintain the boutique’s immaculate appearance, gaining general information about the nature of LADY VALOURIA’s business as an information broker, as well as about her powerful and influential clientele. Meanwhile, AMAI avails herself of the boutique’s hospitality to send another gnome out for two gallons of chocolate milk.
When the trio is finally brought before LADY VALOURIA, she explains that it had come to her attention that they intended to seek out her help in ascertaining the whereabouts of the thief who uses the nom de guerre RED RAVEN. Normally the three of them would not be able to afford her services, but fortunately for them, LADY VALOURIA is herself also looking for RED RAVEN, who recently stole something from her. The stolen item, she explains, is of a sensitive nature, and therefore she is reluctant to involve the authorities.
LADY VALOURIA therefore proses a trade—she will provide them with the location of RED RAVEN in exchange for them returning the thief to her alive so that she may recover what he has stolen. Once she has what is rightfully hers, she will turn the thief over to them to do with him as they wish.
The party agrees to this deal, and so LADY VALOURIA lays out her plan. She has arranged to employ the services of RED RAVEN through an unknowing intermediary. The thief has been hired to steal cache of valuable black market goods being held in a warehouse in the borough of RIVERSIDE. He has been told that the goods will be smuggled onto an outbound merchant vessel tomorrow morning, giving him only a single night as a window for action. Of course, there is no cache, as the heist itself is a ruse to lure RED RAVEN into an ambush.
Before they leave, CERU asks LADY VALOURIA if she has any information about the location of records from the DARK ACADEMY. LADY VALOURIA says that if her network of informants turns up anything, she will let CERU know.
On the way out of the boutique, AMAI finds the elf assistant whom she had seen interviewing C’RISS EHVAANSE on the previous day and asks her to tell him that she is interested in meeting with him.
Location: Riverside, Nestora
The trio returns to the SNAKE & LADDER to grab their armor and weapons. They find KRAZZTAR there and invite him to assist in their mission.
They then proceed to RIVERSIDE to scout out the location and surrounding environs. HUNTER stops by the nearby barracks of the NESTORAN GUARD. He speaks with CAPTAIN AVELINE, gaining her confidence and feeding her bad intelligence in hopes of diverting patrols away from the warehouse where RED RAVEN is expected to strike.
AMAI, meanwhile, convinces a passing sailor to give her his peaked cap in exchange for a kiss on the cheek. The group then reunites for lunch.
Once at the WAREHOUSE, they explore the layout of the building and take up their positions to wait for RED RAVEN to strike.
Hours pass and darkness falls, and then suddenly the mechanical door to one of the loading docks comes to life and opens on its own. Three INFILTRATOR DROIDS enter and discover HUNTER and KRAZZTAR, engaging them in combat. CERU stays hidden and sneaks up on the DROIDS, attempting to open one and disable it mechanically. While the battle rages, AMAI sneaks outside the WAREHOUSE to search for RED RAVEN, whom she finds protected by a TANKING DRONE and a TECHNOCCULT DRONE that bears a resemblance to RABBIT.
Inside, KRAZZTAR, HUNTER, and CERU struggle against the INFILTRATORS. While they finally manage to overcome their adversaries, the battle has taken its toll, leaving them in a weakened state. Outside, AMAI finds herself unable to contend with RED RAVEN’s defenders alone, so she retreats back into the WAREHOUSE to join her wounded companions. Luckily for the quartet, as RED RAVEN and his DROIDS enter the WAREHOUSE, he seems inclined to talk things over rather than resume the conflict.
While the foursome explain that they have been sent to retrieve him on behalf of LADY VALOURIA, RED RAVEN removes the hood that he uses to obscure his face, and CERU recognizes him as ISAAC, one of the drone pilots who was cast out of the DARK ACADEMY where she trained. ISAAC recognizes CERU and trusts her, agreeing to accompany them back to LADY VALOURIA as long as they promise to guarantee his safety and freedom. Grudgingly, the rest of the group agrees to his terms.
Location: Lady Valouria’s Boutique, Central Borough, Nestora
ISAAC reluctantly follows the quartet into the boutique, which is fully staffed and operational despite the late hour. They are taken back to LADY VALOURIA’s office, where the information broker appears to have been roused from bed for this meeting. although she still looks as fashionable and put together as ever in her fine silk pajamas and robe.
LADY VALOURIA asks ISAAC if he is ready to return what he has taken, to which the latter replies, “I wish I’d never seen the damned thing.” She then places her hand on his forehead and the group feels a vortex of arcane energy swirl around them as she psychically removes a piece of his memory. She then concludes that her business with them is at and end and entreats them to leave. HUNTER attempts to ask LADY VALOURIA what exactly ISAAC had stolen from her, to which LADY VALOURIA replies that it is precisely this time of question that she was trying to avoid by not involving the authorities. AMAI lingers briefly to ask the information broker a question in private, although the answer she receives perplexes her. This doesn’t discourage her from flirting a little with the elfin mage as she leaves and rejoins her group.
Location: The Snake & Ladder Tavern, Allfeld, Nestora
ISAAC refuses to return to HUNTER’s safe house, citing his healthy distrust of authority, so the group decide to take him back to CERU’s workshop at the SNAKE & LADDER for questioning.
ISAAC allows himself to be recorded by RABBIT, using his own equipment to obscure his face and voice, while he explains how he was contacted by ZENDRIEL THE SEEKER to break into a lab to steal a weapon. He described ZENDRIEL as a mage who also possessed formidable combat training. He found the elf to be off-putting and fanatically devoted to the occult order that he was a part of, about which ISAAC knew little. ZENDRIEL seemed to specialize in retrieving weapons and artifacts for his order, but was not well-versed in handling the kind of high-tech security system he would encounter in this job, thus his need to procure ISAAC’s services. ISAAC did the job and turned over the weapon about five days ago. He had not seen ZENDRIEL since, although the elf had mentioned that he planned to leave town shortly thereafter. HUNTER surmised this was about the time that he encountered him in TENT CITY. ISAAC did not know for sure where ZENDRIEL was going next, but he thought it might be the city-state of KARROS based on some documents he had seen in the mage’s possession.
After the recording ends, HUNTER asks ISAAC what he stole from LADY VALOURIA. He replies that while he was hacking into some files at the headquarters of the NESTORAN COUNCIL, he accidentally happened to see one that contained her true name, which has now been erased from his memory.
Once they were done questioning ISAAC, the party eventually parted ways for the night, although CERU invited ISAAC to stay behind with her so they could “catch up”...
