Session 11 (2025-02-21) - Greg
Last time
We decided to return to the Lazaretto to confront Mother Verduna and stopped at Bad Doric on the way. Kira discovered the shadow elemental’s anger was linked to Verduna. We gathered more white skull scalps and continued through the Mirefen Swamp, noticing the emotional drain was gone. At the Lazaretto, we learned Verduna had left for Port Maraisa.
In Port Maraisa, Dominico Falcone welcomed us and planned a celebration at the Night market. We received a letter from Armitage del Veign, who wants to meet us in Riatavin. We visited the Big Tree Tavern and spoke with Delridge Berryroot, who expressed doubts about the recent developments.
We then met Albrecht Moray at the Gold Coin. He revealed his plan to disrupt The Auttencourt family by enraging the vampire Etienne Auttencort with poisoned blood, leading him to kill his fiancée Ottillie Rhindaun. We agreed to tentatively work together as we had some common goals.
At the Night market, we were honored and rewarded, but we confirmed Verduna’s true nature through Radovan’s and Hugh’s magic. Verduna threatened us, and we were left with a difficult choice: do we confront her immediately or hunt her down later?
Answer: We hunt her down later.
Some statements of fact:
- Verduna is a nasty piece of work and probably getting away with it.
- Port Maraisa wants us gone, probably the result of Verduna putting the screws to the Merchan’ts guild
- Armitage wants to meet with us and Falcone, discretely
- The Auttencort nobles are vampires, and there’s shit going on in Riatavin.
- Albrecht was prepared to sacrifice children to get Etienne.
Effectively, we have received a payout from Verduna to get out of dodge
Port Maraisa
After the Heroes Convocation, the party took care of business in town. Hugh brought Amara’s Dogma to Jorand’s Forge for some restoration. Hugh also found a Codpiece of Wound Closure at Bartolo’s for 75GP. Hugh stopped off at The Big Tree to give the Small Brothersa tithing of his share as the folks in town who he believes have been most victimized by the wealthy that have paid him out. Hugh donated 89 gp to the small brothers.
Kingsley the wine merchant made it back early with his Ankhapurian wine. Bikke wanted the wine and agreed to pay the 70GP we still owed on delivery. Bikke also bought a cart of rum from Kingsley for 20 gp (draft horse on loan).
Before leaving Port Maraisa, we stopped at the Port Maraisa City Hall to ask Dominico whether he’d be willing to discretely travel with us to meet Armitage in Riatavin. Scout Group Sling and Dominico left Port Maraisa for Riatavin
Road to Riatavin
On the road, we traveled under overcast skies as the weather starts turning to winter. Travel to Riatavin is happily uneventful.
Lore break
Tethyr has been ruled by the the Rhinduan for centuries. Under the dynasty’s rule, Tethyr was briefly prosperous, but has since struggled. The current rulers are weak and far to the west, leaving Tethyr a practically failed state. Aurelian Duchies and Amn charge high tolls for Tethyrian trade traveling through their territory, punishing Tethyrian trade.
Riatavin may be the largest city in Tethyr, but it is also a border city that has traded posession more than once between Tethyr and the Aurelian Duchies.
Riatavin is not a very economically successful city in recent times due to the extortionate tolls raising prices in the city beyond peoples’ ability to afford goods.
A lot of overland trade moves through Riatavin.
Riatavin
In Riatavin, Barrick and Bikke asked a street urchin about the location of The Pewter Shield. We learned that this tavern is popular amongst hireling guards. It’s a down to earth location for the working guards looking for work guarding trade caravans.
After an absurd amount of back and forth, the party decided to check whether Armitage is in town yet. Hugh, Bikke, and Radovan stayed at the [[Le’Kwin Ta]] inn on the main road to guard the trade goods (including the gold) and Dominico Falcone. Kira, Gavin, and Barrick left for The Pewter Shield to see whether Armitage is here.
The group heading to The Pewter Shield noticed that the tavern is in a rough part of town. They found the tavern by early evening . As they approached, they found the inn built against a city wall and on fire. There was no one on site to fight the fire and there’s a corpse lying in the street.
On investigation, Barrick discovered that the corpse has three crossbow bolts sticking out of their back through a corsi green vest. Barrick believes that the victim is a militant person, maybe a guard or a soldier (though the green tabard suggests soldier).
Barrick kicked open a door in the inn, but it’s messy ruined and effectively inaccessible.
Barrick shouted out “Fire! Fire!” There is nobody fighting the fire on site, and this could burn down half the city if it gets out of control. While shouting for help, Barrick was shot from the rooftops to the south of the burning inn, a successful brutal sneak attack.
Combat was joined with White Tiger ambushers.
In the fight, Barrick spotted Amelia while invisible and called out, “Snipers on the roof! What are you doing here?!”
Amelia: “I don’t know where you are! This way!” and she turned to dash down the alley. Barrick shouted out to allies, then ran to follow Amelia.
Gavin, realizing he was cornered in the alley and pinned down without enough cover, heroically dove through a window into the burning tavern. In the room, Gavin discovered a hatch in the tavern floor that he may escape through. The sublevel offers protection from the fire and access to the sewers that Barrick escaped to.
In the sewer, after Barrick rescued Amelia, he saved her. Amelia told Barrick that she was here because she’d been working at The Pewter Shield as a bar girl. She’d found the job based on a recommendation from Rosharandan Savelli. Tonight the White Tigers started breaking in through the windows and everything was just on fire. Farnar opened up the passage to the sewer and told Amelia to get the guests into cover. After saving the guests, Amelia came out to find any more victims, and found Barrick and Gavin (who had just escaped into the sewer as well). Amelia led them to the guests in hiding.
Kira had shapechanged into a rat to hide, she saw the ambushers leave, so she came back to [[Le’Kwin Ta]] to fetch Barrick, Hugh, and Radovan.
Gavin casts a sending to Hugh:
“We are alive. We found Del Veign wounded. Meet at Le’Kwin Ta. Barrick and I in sewers. Tavern on fire. Ambushed. Kira missing.” Hugh: “Kira’s here alive. Acknowledged.”
Bikke pulled Sinnamon back onto his lap after hearing the others are safe and he decided to ask the bartender about the city district where The Pewter Shield is. Hugh and Kira stepped out to find some caravan guards to ask.
Hugh, Radovan, and Kira don’t learn much new about the location of the pewter shield, but we do learn that the southeastern portion of the district there is generally abandoned and famously sketchy. Not necessarily criminal, but that’s where the squatters, beggars, and runaways generally end up. The pewter shield is like an anchor for the desperate, but there’s not much left to anchorit’s for the desperate.
Bikke asks the bartender why the “pale pussycats” would be chasing us. Bikke didn’t get much traction on that question, so he asked who he should talk with. The bartender, “[[The Sandstone Palace]] has been abandoned for decades. The last few months folks from Darrowmar moved in and pulled it back together. Your shit sounds like noble bullshit, so your shit has something to do with the sandstone palace.”
Gavin and Barrick, led by Amelia, entered the camp in the sewer. It’s evidently hastily fortified. They approach the wounded Armitage. Armitage is alive, but not well. Gavin gave Armitage a potion of healing (2d4+2) and Barrick asked what happened.
Armitage: “Thanks for the draught. Arrows through the windows, then fire. I didn’t see much in the attack, but we caught one of them” He gestured to a corpse on the ground nearby. “He worked at the inn for about a week. First sign of trouble, he poisoned the wine.”
Barrick examined the corpse, and found it oddly beautiful, though a portion of his face and neck are horribly scarred. He’s pale, he’s grayish, there’s a froth at his lips, and no clear sign of injury beyond the scars on his face and neck.
Barrick: “He poisoned you?”
“Forgive me if the details are vague. When we arrived at the tavern, Farnar told us he was a wine merchant pushing his wares. He seemed harmless, meek. Tonight though, when we purchased some of his wine, we realized everyone who drank was nodding off. Then came the windows. They hit both stories, glass tipped arrows that spread the oil. Following that, fire arrows that lit the place up. Farnar sent amelia to lead us down and he went with two of my men to confront them. I haven’t seen them since.”
“This fucker,” he points at the wine merchant, “I grabbed him as soon as we went down, but he poisoned himself before we could question him. The shit was Ankhapurian wine. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the fucker who betrayed us in the tavern was selling the shit wine I told you to bring.”
Gavin: “Who else knew you were coming?”
Armitage: “You.”
Only other person who knew we were coming to Armitage was Falcone, but we didn’t tell him about The Pewter Shield.
Armitage: “Farnar seemed trustworthy and Bordric, my survivng man, are gone. Don’t know where they are. I trust you who are here, but I’m less trusting about those who aren’t.”
“Who knew your cover in Port Maraisa? Who knew I sent you to buy the Ankhapurian wine?”
– missed crosstalk –
“Lord Richard is interested in Riatavin. I can’t imagine anyone he holds close would have betrayed this. Someone in your group, someone in your confidence, or someone near you must have broken this trust. There’s a coordinated opposition.”
Bikke: “Who has motive?”
Armitage: “The Auttencort, at least. I want to hear your full report.”
Bikke: “Where’s a safe place to stay?”
Armitage: “The Pewter shield. We gave Farnar the money to buy that tavern for a reason. The building was a piece of shit, but it’s built on an abandoned stretch of the city wall with layers of barracks below ground. It’s a doorway to a fortified network that the city has forgotten about. We’re on the periphery right now, and the Pewter Shield is defensible if we can clear it and keep our guard up in the spaced below it.”
Armitage, Gavin, and Barrik agreed to senf Farnar’s errand boy and barback. Dunny the kid showed up at Le’Kwin Ta who introduced himself to us, “Rowan’s friend told you to come with me.” We follow him down into the sewers in a back, hidden way. He leads us on a winding path to the location where Barrick, Gavin, and Armitage’s crew are holed up.
Hugh introduced Armitage and Falcone. Armitage instructed Falcone to wait on his pleasure.
Bikke asked Armitage about the identifiable white tiger assassins.
Armitage: “I don’t know anything about them, that’s pageeantry I’m not used to.”
Gavin: “What about Etienne?”
Armitage: “Decorative and foppish describes Etienne, not usually competent.”
Bikke: “The barman suggested the Sandstone palace”
Armitage: “Princess Ottillie is the only marriable Rhinduan in this generation. The Rhinduan need Etienne because they’re broke. Etienne wants the Rhinduan title. An alliance makes a lot of political sense. Otillie has been in Darromar, their capital, and Etienne is in Riatavin, their largest and most precarious posession. I think they were planning to marry and live in the Sandstone Palace to establish a power base here. The marriage would also give the Auttencort a claim on the Tethyrian throne.”
Gavin: “They’re vampires?”
Armitage: “The auttencort have been extending their lives for a very long time. Vampirism is a rite of passage in their clan. It’s not an open secret, but some of us who are more informed are aware.”
Gavin: “Are there other families with similar pecadillos?”
Armitage: “No other vampires or bogeyman that I’m aware of.”
We shared our debriefing on Port Maraisa, not holding anything back.
Armitage: “News from AUreltaran. Eldred is dying. Calimshan was a fucking disaster. It weakened Thethyr, weakened Calimshan, and did a lot of harm. Richard believed we were doing something right, but we all saw alot of people get hurt for no good reason. Eldred and the dukes conceived of that campaign. That was when Richard started to see Eldred in a different light and he realized that these games of nobility have real impact on real victims, however they died. That’s why we’re here. That why we’re trying to igure out what’s going on. When Eldred dies, there will be a power vaccum and there will be fighting. It is Richard’s and my goal to understand who in the nobility will be a problem and who will be a force for change. We think we have allies in the younger nobles, in Riatavin and Calimshan. We know Amn and the dukes are corrupt. We are learning our allies, our enemies, and that’s why we’re talking in a sewer instead of at my estate.”
Barrick: “So why are we playing games for nobles instead of destroying this hag?”
Armitage: “I heard you say you left the hag to play the game. Nobody forced you to show up here.”
“I’m going to speak out of turn, if you repeat this to Lord Richard I’ll deny it. It is complex for Richard because this is his father. We are counting on Eldred living long enough for us to plant the seeds of change and foster their fruit to ripeness.”
Bikke: “Supposing [[Lord Richard]] has his heart in the right place and the citizens of Aurelian will benefit from his efforts. Let’s suppose we’re onboard with that. Are you going to win against the other major houses?”
Gavin: “I think that’s our job. Stopping Etienne will weaken the Auttencort influence in the power struggle.”
Armitage: “If Eldred dies tomorrow, Richard will have vast tracts of land, many soldiers, and wealth at his command with moderate political capital. If the other families want to, they can destroy him. The Corsi are dominant from Eldred’s trade, relationships, and influence. A direct confrontation between Richard and the other houses will detroy Richard. If we instead siphon away the junior members of the other houses, however we do it, we give Richard an opportunity to make positive change.”
Barrick: “What do we do now?”
ARmitage: “Break the alliance between the Rhinduan and the Auttencort. This is their plan to fund their family, not to save their country. Riatavin was a free country for years before falling under Tethyrian influence. I’d welcome Riatavin’s status as a free city once again.”
“I think we should find Farnar and my other man. Farnar is deeply connected to the city, if he survives we need him. There are not many dwarves in the city, so he stands out and is well known. I’d also search the burned remains of The Pewter Shield. After that, I think you’ll need to follow the leads you find. I’ve also brought you my scouts to help.”
“The marriage is scheduled to take place in 3 weeks, The Sandstone Palace is being prepared. Both families are extravagant, so sabotaging the palace’s restoration may buy more time.”
Bikke asked about Rowan and learned that he’s Rosharandan Savelli, the second eldest child of the Savelli family.
Barrick walks over to Amelia and chats her up to learn a little more about Rowan’s relationship with Amelia. He asked her if she thought Rowan had her best interests in heart when he sent her this way. She responds, “You’ve met him, you know him. It was the first time I met a man who didn’t seem to want anything, but made me want them. He told me I should go home, but I don’t want to go there. Didn’t really know how to get there. I told him I wanted to go to a city and he told me he knew people, so he introduced us. He told me Farnar was old, grumpy, an asshole, and that the pay would be better than I’d get anywhere else and that was all true. Farnar wasn’t kind, but he was honest and didn’t fuck with me. He paid me when I did the job.”
Barrick, “It’s odd we didn’t find Farnar. Any idea what happened to him?”
Amelia: “If you asked me yesterday, I’d tell you he’s an old man who worked himself half to death to buy a shitty bar with what little savings he had. Tonight? I saw he had a hammer under the bar that carried the weight of ages. He picked that thing up with determination and purpose that I never expected and he commanded thos men to follow. He was a different man.”
On Amelia’s suggestion, Barrick exposes a brand on the corpse’s left pectoral. The shape is a circle with two lines passing through it and the top line has a series of peaks. Barrick notices that this brand was likely applied in childhood. Gavin has heard this mark described as a brand of the Sharpstone Mines. They are in western Tethyr. Prior to The Rhinduan family’s rule, the mines were a source of wealth that were nearly exhausted. A Couple generations later, the mines were reopened as a prison, suggesting he was a prisoner in Tethyr, likely leased by a wealthy family or merchant as an indentured servant.
Barrick: “Did you know this traitor well? Did he mention where he lived?”
Amelia: “No, a traveling wine merchant. He’d been in Darromar, but you can’t get from there to here without traveling through Darromar.”
Hugh and Kira notice on the corpse that the burn on the face is a chemical and self-inflicted, likely by the fanatic’s own burned hand. Gavin and Barrick realize that life sentences for small crimes by young people in Tethyr became very common when prisoners became indentured servants, and particularly attractive young people were likely to end up in noble houses.
The party decided a sending to Rowan may help us learn more about Farnar.