Previously on Lost in Navir

[lurkingcat]

Ash and Beth creep around the Mansion of Undead and scout the place out. They listen at doors, open locks and discover treasure and traps (at least one Restoration spell is used up during these discoveries). Eventually they come across an alchemical lab. Unfortunately it is inhabited by a rope Golem who is not very pleased to see them. Beth breathes fire all over it, which turns out to be a very good way of damaging the creature but not so good for the survival of the contents of the lab.

The rest of our intrepid band of heroes spring to the rescue, declining to hang around and fight the cook and his sword of Extremely Nasty Wounds. Somehow everyone ends up in the lab barricading the door against a couple of iron Golems who are out in the corridor. Laura belatedly realises that Create Water can be useful for putting out fires and Jaic manages to get the trap door escape route open.

It is dank and slimy underground and eventually the passageway opens up into a cave with an underground lake. Karl uses Dimension Door to get those members of the party like to fall into the lake across to the other side. Alas, the rest of the party are attacked by an undead Kraken on their way around the edge of the cave. Since it has successfully grappled Drenak there is little hope of any of the other victims breaking free and for a moment it looks as though the Kraken is going to be getting a tasty lunch of Adventuring Party.

Karl saves the day by casting a Mass Heal spell at both it and Drenak. While it is still reeling from that, Laura finally gets to hit something that is undead and Ash finishes it off.

Kast Shayla is discovered in a cell at the other end of the passageway and one of her uncles promptly tries to have an argument with her. He is only dissuaded by the sound of the iron Golems stomping towards our heroes. Laura Stone Shapes the corridor door shut and Ash lets everyone out through the secret door in the cell. Meanwhile, Drenak gives his war axe to Shayla. Apparently this is very culturally significant when you are a Dwarf. Awww.

With the careful use of Invisibility and Silence spells the party escape over the walls of the Mansion of Undead. Ash shivs up the one guard that looks as if he might spot us, catches the lantern and then uses her l33t disguise skills to fool a Changeling (or Doppelganger?) into thinking she is a guard.

Sadly by the time they get back to town our heroes discover that they are already Wanted for assaulting the Lady of the Manor. Which was rather fast work on the part of the inhabitants of the Manor. So apparently the Lady concerned spends part of her time cosplaying as either a Golem or an undead Kraken.

Dorvak is helpful but unhappy at having to deal with us. Fortunately the city guard are more concerned with the dramatic escape of the Devastation Guild. Even more fortunately the first Lightening Rail train out in the morning is going to Scjaarn. It does not take the party long to conclude that hanging around in Holt to be imprisoned on charges of assault (and possibly also aiding and abetting the Autok if the Dragon Cultists are feeling particularly vindictive) is unlikely to be conducive to retrieving the remaining bits of Dragon Gate.

Cunningly disguised they return to Scjaarn and start the painful process of trying to find somewhere else to live and staying disguise while trying to discover a way of retrieving the last bits of Dragon Gate.

Recent excitement in Scjaarn has included a fire at the Morngrave University and an attempt on the Professor's life. He is now in protective custody visiting some distant relatives.

Gathering Information is clearly in order so those members of the party that have the relevant skill set are now attempting to do just that. Possible things to do next session:

1. Karl has potentially gotten embroiled in the local underworld while looking for the cell of Dragon-Cultists-who-are-possibly-also-Changelings. From this we have an opportunity to go and lay some undead to rest (Laura, who was the very model of restraint during the visit to Holt, is quite keen on this).


2. We could make another attempt to find out more about the Floating Fortress of Reality Disruption and it's inhabitants.


3. Find out what the Warder of Dreadhold was doing in Scjaarn? Was he there to collect on his Chocolate Mousse debt and fight crime or was it something more important?

Any other thoughts?

Comments

[ankaret]

I can't remember whether we finished with Karl about to hear the details of the mission from the Friends of Boromar Laughing Blade, or whether anything else happened after that. I also can't rememer exactly what Drenak hired consulting inquisitive Tharashk Tyrial to do, though I think it was to look into the fire at the university.

[lurkingcat]

We might have finished with Karl about to hear the mission details - I certainly walked away with Laura going "Undead! They must be returned to their Harbringers!" but I may have missed something while Laura was being excitable :)

[sciolist]

And kicking the snot out of some undead will be a welcome diversion. Negotiating with cute halfling vampires could be an interesting test of faith.

'And why should I not just kill you, and keep the wookie?'
'Because I have this Thermal Detonator'

[sciolist]

I think that Tharashk Tyrial had revealed the involvement of the Warder of Dreadhold in the breakup of the incompetent University break-in and was happy to look further into it.

The Friends of BLB had just mentioned that the thing they want picked up might be in the crypts but hadn't gone into greater detail. Carl is wondering if they have halfling molls who do head rubs.

In no particular order - Carl's impressions of Holtese stuff:
1. That inquisitor would be quite hot if I was human-sized.
2. A Floating Fortress of that size ought to be Legend Lore-able or historic in other ways. Who else has assaulted it, escaped or whatever? Must gather information.
3. We have an artificer and a few medallions. Can we rig up some sort of Medallion detector? If it keys off micro-fluctuations in planar stability or something, it may be useful if we do need to go tunnel clearing.
4. We can't easily go back into Holt with the current level of APB. It seems like the dragon cultists have stitched us up royally.
5. The MorrowBride, and the Perceptor and 2 stolen medallions are in Holt, or on the Flying Fortress above Holt.
6. bugger.
7. Assuming that there's Holtese politics, and the Holtese Nationalists have a small or zero intersection with the Vendemiatrix cultists - we may be able to get a pass from the former. If the Powers that be are insidiously interwoven with the VD cultists we're a bit stuffed for diplomatic solutions.
8. Cloaked Airship technology? What's the viability of a small skiff with invisibility/silence on it getting close and deploying a small team of adventurers?
9. If we're goign to sneak around the Death Star, we need plans, and (ideally) a medallion detector so we can slip in and out under cover of our Distraction.
10. Papers of No messing. If we could get some from a monarch, or the Warder of Dreadhold or somewhere, we may be able to get onto the fortress as Diplomatic Ambassadors. It worked for Obi-wan and Qui-Gonn (sadly not so well for their transport).

This is not necessarily the sum total of Carl's train of thought. Hot edheads in thigh-boots or headrubs have significant derailing influence.

[sciolist]

Shocking typo. While Carl may have been originally thinking of a Redhead, the mental imagery now drifts towards Ed Martin in his Rocky Horror outfit.

That's not what I needed at bedtime (or edtime), at all.

[lurkingcat]

4. After previous imprisonment experiences Laura is highly motivated towards avoiding future imprisonment possibilities. So she's going to need quite a lot of convincing to go back to Holt under the current circumstances. Given that we did actually break into the Manor (even if it was only to rescue a kidnap victim), I'm not sure what the solution is to that situation. Clearing our names with the Holtese authorities looks like a Herculean task at present. Not clearing our names is going to make it difficult to go anywhere allied with Holt.

7. Diplomatic solutions will probably involve some level of bargaining. What do we have that is beneficial to the people that we might be bargaining with? For example: are they going to consider the possibility of disrupting the Autok spy network more beneficial than the possible hazards of our failing to kill Tess when she comes through the gate?

8. 9. & 10. Starwars solutions have potential but as you've already pointed out we need more information about the Floating Fortress.

[battlehamster]

Add to this that those of us who care about the war effort don't want to damage the Holtese defence against the Autoch. And also those of us who care about killing innocents don't want to have to kill their way through a whole load of non-Vendemiatrix cultists on their way to the medallions.

Drenak hired Tharashk Tyrial to investigate who was behind the fire and break-in at the University. Tharashk did indeed reveal that the Warder had turned up and killed the thugs hired to do the break-in and they agreed that why he had done so was also worth looking into...