A dozen sessions already. Does it seem like it has been that long? Regardless, the crew continues to investigate a series of killings in Old Korvosa that have largely been centered on the Shingles of Bridgefront. Last session, they learned even more about the Shiver Killings, were unable to stop the tragic death of one of the witnesses, and began a stake-out of the Sanctuary. The players are pretty much convinced that the asylum has something to do with what is going on. During the stake-out, Pop was sent off to get some late night coffee. He received a message from Mac that some of the Sanctuary’s orderlies were heading his way and so he ducked down a dark alley. As the orderlies began to go by, a loud buzzing rose from deeper in the darkness of the alley. And that is where we will pick up after the break.
Adam rejoined us after missing a couple of sessions and Jen was unable to make it this session.
As always, my GM comments are in italics.
10 Pharast
- Thinking quickly, Pop uses his connection to Tarquin to summon a blob of water that he splashes to the other side of the approaching orderlies. Three of the four turn in that direction. (Treated it as a test of Pop’s spellcasting versus the oderlies Smarts.)
- Pop slips back onto the Jeggare Street, sticking to the wall and hoping the last guard won’t notice him.
- Lucky for him, these “mosquito-men” come buzzing out of the alley to attack the orderlies and definitely getting their attention. Most of the orderlies fall to the nearly sword long, needle-like proboscis of these creatures.
- As each orderly falls, the mosquito-man wraps its legs around him and flies back to the alleyway with the orderly.
- Unfortunately, one attacks and grabs Pop as Darcy, Mac, and Stan arrive on the scene, having come running after they saw the orderlies head Pop’s way.
- Some of the mosquito-men are defeated during the ensuing battle, but others escape with their unconscious orderlies.
- The party follows down the same alley and come across an open door. There are more mosquito-men within and the battle continues with the party prevailing.
- Pressing deeper into the building, a “mosquito-queen” is found in the next room. Her droning wings cause some of the crew to feel drowsy (fatigue) and she has a couple more mosquito-men companions.
- As this battle rages, another pair of mosquito-men exit a separate door onto Jeggare Street where the attack the lagging Mac and the just arrived Aimar. (I hated having Adam just sit through this, but Aimar was home on the other side of Korvosa. We brought him in anyways. We later decided that Mac had messaged him earlier in the night to let him know about the stake-out.)
- The mosquito-queen spits blood at some of the characters and also puts some to sleep with a different droning pitch of her wings. The characters do their best to counter all of this such as a conjuring a sound to mask the droning and, of course, Aimar’s healing.
- Eventually, the party succeeds in defeating the queen and all of her mosquito-men.
- The group checks out the orderlies, specifically looking for keys, and find a set on one of them. (It was news to me that they had a set of keys, but why not. It makes sense and the players wanted it.)
- The group heads back to the stake-out spot and resume their watch.
- About an hour after they got back, two orderlies leave the Sanctuary and head in the direction of the prior quartet. One is holding something in his hand that seems to be directing them where to go. Aimar concludes that it is likely some sort of location spell. This time, at least, it doesn’t appear that they are looking for the keys.
- Darcy stealthily follows the pair.
- They make a comment that the other orderlies better not be of getting drunk or they’ll get thrown in the pit (Whatever that might mean.)
- They use the item in hand to essentially triangulate the location of the quartet. They enter the mosquito-people den and come out just a moment later, sprinting back to the Sanctuary.
- Darcy makes her way back to the stake-out.
- Around 4am this same evening, more individuals come to the Sanctuary. Two appear to be from the Acadamae, likely one student and one professor, along with four tiefling guard types. The noble which Mudpuppy had described to the group previously was with them as well. They are welcomed by the Headmistress with a familial hug to the noble.
- Some ten minutes after entering the Sanctuary, the visitors exit along with three orderlies. The professorial looking member of the Acadamae tells the Headmistress that they will take care of things.
- This group heads down the street in the same direction as the mosquito-men den.
- Despite the risk of being spotted, Darcy follows. She can overhear the noble and the professor talking.
- The noble laments that finding the creatures after the fact does not help them get any closer to the source.
- The professor agrees and mentions that he knows that the noble has a history with her.
- Darcy started to hang back a bit farther to avoid being spotted. As she continues down Jeggare Street, she can hear screaming, smell smoke, and spot a soft glow coming from ahead…from the building with the mosquito-men den.
And that is where we stopped for the night. I don’t really have a lot of comments on the session…except, I suppose, one. What did the professor mean when he mentioned to the noble that he was aware of the noble’s history with her?
Updated to add the comment the set of two orderlies made about tossing the first quartet into something they called the pit.