Checking in with allies, leaders are being assassinated, and concern about friends and relatives were front and center at the start of this session. Oh, and an obvious trap that was still sprung and Hell Knights are now directly involved. This is also the fourth session during which it was the 1st of Gozran in the game. It has been a very, very busy day for the PCs. Details below the break.
Everyone was in attendance. Although I do not think there are any specific spoilers for elements of the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, there are potential spoilers regarding some of the movers and shakers of Korvosa. As usual, my GM comments are in italics.
1st of Gozran
- Isabella messages Lieutenant Divo and fills him in on their recent activities. Highlights include the death of Varra Ornelos, rescue of Captain Vindo, and stopping the existing supply chain for creating the Gray Maidens.
- Divo is aware of the “victory parade” that the Queen is rumored to be holding soon. The Guard and the Sable Company assume that it is a trap, to draw them out and put an end to the resistance.
- Leaders of both the Guard and the Company have been recently assassinated. (The players assume that the Red Mantis are responsible for this.)
- Pop messages Aunt Jenna. She immediately asks if he is safe and okay. She then starts to tell him to run and get out of Korvosa when she is abruptly cut off. Pop insists that he needs to go save her.
- Aimar is able to magically determine that Jenna is still in the Halfling Enclave and in her home.
- It is quite obviously a trap to draw out Pop, but Pop doesn’t care. Jenna raised him after his parents were killed.
- Pop insists on going and wants to create a distraction to get the attention of Jenna’s captors on him so the rest of the group can slip in and save Jenna.
- With this beginning of a rescue plan, Stefaneto leads to group through the sewers to the Halfling Enclave.
- While the main group remains in the sewers, Darcy slips to the surface and begins to scout the area.
- It is quiet, still under the 24-hour curfew effective across the city.
- Few buildings have any lights on within. A few voices, normal but hushed, can be heard in some.
- There are no lights on at Jenna’s home. Darcy can spot no one on watch in the area.
- She slips up and peers into a window. In the main room on the ground floor, Nico (who had moved in many, many sessions ago) is strung up naked and obviously badly tortured.
- Darcy spots no one else in any of the rooms on the ground floor.
- There are also no signs of struggle in the house.
- All windows on the second floor have curtains drawn over them.
- She returns and fills everyone in.
- As Pop approaches the house, the others position themselves to head in once he is able to lead Jenna’s captors out.
- He stops out front and starts to loudly shout for Jenna.
- Pop then hears a voice behind him. It asks for his name. Pop says who he is.
- The voice says to enter the house and that the Maralictor is waiting for him on the second floor. (Pop never saw the source of the voice…it was an invisible imp.)
- Pop enters and sees Nico. Nico stirs, sees Pop, and tells him that it is a trap.
- Pop goes up to the second floor and to Jenna’s workroom.
- Within, he finds Jenna bound to a chair in one corner, flanked by two Hell Knights. A third Hell Knight is sitting in a different corner, petting a hell hound.
- This third Hell Knight tells Pop to surrender and that any resistance or attempt to flee will be an admission of guilt on Pop’s part.
- Pop, of course, does not comply. He runs for a window and dives through it. As he does, he tosses an exploding stone at the Hell Knight and hell hound. Unfortunately, his toss goes awry (perhaps his arm struck the window sill as he threw).
- The stone explodes next to the other Hell Knights, catching both of them and Jenna in the blast. She was killed by the blast. The Hell Knights are only distracted by the blast, protected by their armor.
- Pop rolls on to the roof of the first level of the home (the second level was only over about half of the building).
- The Maralictor tells the hell hound to go after Pop and then heads out the window himself.
- Darcy and Isabella, bolstered by Aimar’s magics, head up on the roof to join the battle. Stan holds back, having already told Pop that he wasn’t going to get dragged into yet another of Pop’s foolish actions.
- The fight was brief. The Maralictor slipped and fell off of the roof. Darcy leapt down upon him and (as is becoming standard Rachel’s rolls against the Wild Card baddies) killed him in one blow.
- Pop, knowing that Jenna did not survive the blast, jumped down to the ground and magically burrowed down.
- Darcy and Isabella flee, reaching Stan and Aimar, and the four make it back into the sewers.
- Stefaneto leads to group away from the area. He can go and find Pop after the others are safe.
- Pop, of course, does not comply. He runs for a window and dives through it. As he does, he tosses an exploding stone at the Hell Knight and hell hound. Unfortunately, his toss goes awry (perhaps his arm struck the window sill as he threw).
- While the main group remains in the sewers, Darcy slips to the surface and begins to scout the area.
And that is where we ended the session.
Dang it, that makes two sessions in a row with a less than cheerful ending.
No one can ever accuse RJ of not being a proactive player and moving the game along. I had thought about Jenna being held by the Hell Knights on behalf of the Queen. I was not going to push this onto the group, but Pop reached out. Unfortunately, things did not quite go the party’s way. Of course, it didn’t help that some invisible imps were about and keeping watch. I did keep the forces involved to a relative minimum. It couldn’t be too few to make the rescue a fait accompli. I also didn’t want it to be so many that the group stood no chance of success.
RJ will be missing next session. He and I have had some brief discussions regarding this as well as how the death of Jenna…inadvertently at his hands…will likely impact Pop. As a result, I have an idea of what will be keeping Pop occupied for at least this next session.
The next move is for the rest of the players to come up with. They need to be proactive in deciding what they want to try to accomplish in this next session. Various ideas have been tossed about, but they need to pick one of those or some other goal. It really is up to them to decide what’s next.
