Our last session ended after the party had tangled with the Green Lady for a second time. Like the first, she was driven off, but not killed, and one of the party was injured and drained. This time it was Aimar and he was unable to heal himself. Given the prior assessment of Pop’s injuries and the draining of his soul, the group had headed to the old Temple of Aroden again to seek aid. Aimar was just emerging from the temple as we ended. That is where we will pick up after the break.
RJ was missing this session and so Pop had run off. Jen was able to join us again after missing a few sessions.
13 Pharast
- Aimar exited and explained that the priest within could not assist him due to some sort of deity incompatibility or the like.
- So instead, Aimar will need to visit the Temple of Asmodeus. To expedite this trip, Stan carries Aimar to the temple much more quickly than the dwarf could do on his own.
- Acolyte Dio is manning the temple and he and Aimar come to an agreement for the exchange of services. Dio will heal Aimar and Aimar will assist Dio’s mother. A criminal element has recently taken up residence in her building and are causing problems for her and other residents.
- It is someone that Aimar may already have heard of…Gaedren Lamm! Lamm has some bodyguards and some children that keep coming and going. This miscreant is not always at the building, but Dio believes that Lamm will be there on 15 and 16 Pharast. He’ll find out more information and pass it on to Aimar.
- The agreement is, of course, sealed with a blood contract.
- The rest of the party finds Aimar healed, discuss the Lamm task, and retire for the night.
14 Pharast
- Mac receives a message that Ciro, the Cerulean Society representative would like to meet this evening at Eel’s End…the Goldenhawk specifically.
- Various mundane activities…like day jobs…are seen to during the day. Mac takes Matilda out for a nice dinner and gives her a warhammer for her birthday. (What a cute soon to be couple!)
- Aimar spends sometime at the Gold Market asking various contacts if a child of House Ornelos had gone missing or killed (in relation to the ghostly girl figure infecting the shiver users). None of his contacts were aware of such.
- The group gathers and heads to meet with Ciro.
- The group is quickly allowed on the Goldenhawk, despite a line of upper middle class types waiting, and escorted to a private dining room.
- Ciro enters soon after and begins to ask the group a variety of questions. The group fills in him and leaves very little out regarding their activities related to the killings in Bridgefront. He asks a number of questions to better understand where the group sees themselves in terms of the “gang politics” and motivation for their actions.
- Ciro shares that there was another disappearance from a shiver den this last Oathday (11 Pharast) in the Dark Shadows territory. He will see to it that the party gets aid from the gang in their investigation. He’ll make sure that all of the gangs know that they need to report up any happenings regarding these killings and to cooperate with the party.
- There are also rumors that a cult of Zon-Kuthon (god of pain and torture) is at the Sanctuary. Those that disappear from the street and taken into the Sanctuary are rumored to be subjected to painful torture in veneration of the Midnight Lord and that the Headmistress is an active participant in all of this.
- Ciro offers to continue to feed any information acquired back to the party and offers additional resources if they need them. (More along the lines of investigation and not really along the lines of give us wizards who can kill things.)
- He asks more questions regarding the party’s relationship with the gangs, particularly Elvo and the Street Serpents. Would they help Elvo take over more territory? They aren’t interested in gang stuff…just want to stop the killings. Would they help to take out Elvo if the Society would ask them? Only in self-defense. Would they be interested in working for the Society in the future? Depends on the job.
- As the group takes their leave of Ciro, he asks Darcy to remind Jero (her mentor) when he returns to town that there are individuals in the Cerulean Society that would like to speak with him.
- The group heads back to the roofs of Steel Union territory to try and deal with the Green Lady again. They don’t expect to have too much of a better result if they fight, but they hope they might learn more from her.
- A scream is heard from the roof of the nearby Crimson Wolves territory. They head their quickly and find a dead and drained body just out in the open. The Green Lady is spotted, in beetle swarm form, flying back to the Steel Union territory. The group chases after her and yell out that they just want to talk.
- Aimar ends up lagging just slightly behind and the Green Lady, having circled back around, approaches him without being noticed. They begin a conversation.
- As Aimar asks more about her origin, the Green Lady seems to reflect inward, struggling to understand concepts, and starts speaking pretty stream of consciousness. (The below reflects both what and how she shared the information. Anything capitalized were words that she emphasized. Each bullet point was a group of words as a single response before a pause on her part.)
- fear, pain, disgust, fire, need, brimstone, rape, violence, manipulation, hate, the girl…my divine, my creator..
- disgust, hate, rape, devil, horns, manipulation, violence, fire, magic, lack of control, spontaneous, wild, experimentation, defeat, HIM
- disgust, hate, rape, devil, horns, manipulation, violence, fire, magic, lack of control, spontaneous, wild, experimentation, defeat, HIM
- old, powerful, not what he appears, infernal, devil, name…Ornelos?
- Lorthact?
- Source, cause, enemy, experimentation, manipulation, torture, shiver, addiction, control…
- mother, Lorthact responsible…
- magic destruction, family gone, uncle, Acadamae, hope, failure, imprisoned, raped, hate, pain, rage, disgust, FIRE, escape…
- Lorthact, Yiri, tiefling, rape, hate, pain, FIRE, freedom…
- Volshyenek?
- wild magic, experimentation, control, failure, imprisonment, tiefling, Yiri, hate, disgust, rape, FIRE, freedom, birth, daughter, I am mother’s daughter and granddaughter of her mother, yes?
- Shiver…addiction, pain, love, grandmother, addiction, I am born of mother’s attempt to save grandmother, to stop addiction…
- magic, wild, uncontrolled, fear, I am bred from fear, many fears…
- Aimar asked what was it that she was feeding on when she feed on people
- I feed on their divine spark
- At this point, her hunger was growing strong again and it was clear that a fight was about to start. Darcy moved to attack, apologizing that they cannot let her continue to feed. The Green Lady burst into beetles again to fly away. As the swarm buzzed past Aimar, they whispered in unison…sunlight.
- Later this night, Ciro sends a message to Mac that Romo, the head of the Dark Shadows gang, is ready to meet and share whatever information he might have available.
- Romo is suspicious of the group and not the friendliest, but he does provide the information that the group asks about.
- The victim was a woman named Sanga. She’s married with three kids.
- Romo takes the group to her home. Sanga’s husband, Vel, and Romo verbally spar a bit. It is clear that Romo does not have the best relationship with those residing in his territory. The group asks Romo to go wait outside Vel’s home.
- Vel is more relaxed once Romo is gone. He was not there when Sanga disappeared. With three kids, they never did shiver at the same time.
- Sanga was terrified of crocodiles (thanks Jen!). Although Sanga had never actually seen one, as a child, she had gone to the museum and had been shoved into the mouth of one on display. That experience scarred her.
- The group asked if she had any places or locations special to her. Like most living in the Shingles, they don’t have much, but he shares three places. Here in their home, her work at the Thrift Shop, and their special spot on one of the nearby bridges across the Straits of St. Alinka…where she and Vel shared their first kiss.
- Vel asks if the group can help get him and his children out of Romo’s territory and into Elvo’s. He’s heard that people are treated much better there.
- Romo is suspicious of the group and not the friendliest, but he does provide the information that the group asks about.
That’s pretty much where we ended the session.
It was one of those horrible talky-talky sessions without a whole lot of action. (I’m only joking about it being horrible.) Lots of information and a lot to consider, especially with all that the Green Lady shared. On the other hand, the group’s resources are expanding beyond just them. They have a contact with the Cerulean Society who may be able to assist with some things. They also have local gangs “instructed” to assist them in their activities. The gangs may not like it, but they don’t really have much choice since they all report “up” to the Cerulean Society.
The group, Aimar specifically, has a completely different task that they need to see to as well…dealing with Lamm…again. I think most everyone is more than happy to get at Lamm again. Fortunately for me, we didn’t get to this during the session so I’ll probably prepare something for this. Maybe a little more dungeoncrawl style and give us all of us a break from the info and investigation intensive game when it comes up.
