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#session #chapter-11

Jaag's Journal

Chapter 11, Episode 1

Right then. New chapter, apparently. The DM seemed very pleased about that. I don't know what it means practically, but I suspect it means something is going to go very badly for us very soon, and in a more dramatic fashion than usual.

Let me write this down while I still can.

We've been in this marsh for about a month now. I've slept in worse places. Brixton prepared me well. The lizardfolk keep their distance and we keep ours, which suits everyone. Lord Hector runs the camp like a garrison, which means it functions, but nobody's exactly laughing. Morale is what it is. We got out of a city that was eaten by a dragon. You don't bounce back from that overnight.

The resistance inside the city has three heads worth mentioning: a Blackfist captain named Greycastle who's kept some soldiers together; a man called Gleveth running the Welcomers underground; and the Lord Sage, who runs Mantor's Library and, as it turns out, knows rather more than he lets on. Communication with all three is patchy and dangerous. We have fewer than sixty fighters we can actually count on. The occasional adventuring company swings through looking for dragon-slaying glory and then swings back out again when they clock the odds.

It's fine. I've worked with less.

Kastra Brandywine turned up at Hector's war tent. Pug's old supervisor at the library. Cheerful, ink-stained halfling energy. She said the Lord Sage needed to see us urgently, that very night, at Denlor's Tower.

Hector doesn't drink at meetings, I'll give him that. The man has discipline if nothing else.

We picked up supplies from the camp stores. I found two magical arrows buried in a basket of ordinary ones. Investment of a natural 20. I handed them off for evaluation, kept the transmutation one for myself, and charged Kei a nominal ten gold for the pleasure. He absolutely lied about how much gold he was carrying. I respect it. I'd have done the same. The transaction was completed in the spirit in which it was intended.

Getting into Flan was easier than expected. The crystal shard, the password, a wall that stopped being a wall. Kral let us in. Tea was offered. The Lord Sage arrived looking exhausted and unwell, cough like wet gravel, but his eyes were sharp.

He told us about Sorcerer's Isle. Short version: a transmutation archmage named Yarish did experiments that corrupted half the island's wildlife and water a few centuries back. The hero of Flan eventually had to go up there and kill him. Most of the damage was patched up. The permanent bits they learned to live with.

Now it's happening again. Worse this time. Trees growing upside down. Fish swimming through the air. The cult is sending a party to the pyramid on the island, and the Lord Sage wants us to get there first and stop whatever they're planning.

Standard fare, really, except for what came next.

The cloaked figure at the end of the table stood up.

Look, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't paying attention. I was. She introduced herself as Welsey Tarantay, Viper of the Zhentarim, and the room changed the moment she spoke. Low voice. Very deliberate. The kind of deliberate that tells you every word is doing exactly what it's meant to do.

She asked for Charisma saves. I rolled fine. Petra was fine. The rest of them were... less fine. Lavinia was absolutely gone. She looked like someone had hit her over the head with something lovely.

I clocked two things: Kei noticed fangs when she smiled. I noticed she had no reflection in the mirror across the room. Vampire. Obviously a vampire. I said the word out loud, which I think the Lord Sage found mildly irritating, but I am not going to sit in a room with a vampire and pretend she's a regular person.

She took it well. She said something to the effect of: are you really going to let what I am get in the way of obstructing the cult? Which is a good line. I'll concede the point.

Here's what she wants, on top of what the Lord Sage wants:

She has an agent inside the cult's expedition. His name is Thylren Saj. One of her best, apparently, and a risk-taker, which is code for "I'm not entirely sure he hasn't done something stupid." He's been sending intelligence through a one-way ring. They can receive. They can't reply. He's now gone quiet, and she doesn't know if he's been compromised.

Our job, as far as she's concerned:

Down payment: a lump of platinum, thrown onto the table. Base payment on return: 1,000 gold. Increases depending on results.

I attempted to negotiate. I said we'd need half up front. She looked at me like I was a mildly interesting insect and said the offer was take it or leave it. I looked back at the rest of the party. They were no help. Tiz was working through the charm. Lavinia was still pink in the cheeks. Kei was having some kind of internal conflict about hating vampires while also being fascinated by this one.

We took the platinum.

I want it on record that I think we could have gotten more. I also want it on record that we were probably not going to get more, and I knew that, and chose to retreat gracefully. That's not losing. That's reading the room.

Lavinia is convinced Welsey is using us entirely for her own ends. She's probably right. The Lord Sage vouched for Welsey's alignment against the cult, and Petra checked him for compulsion and found nothing. The sage seemed genuine. So we go with it.

Tiz cast Calm Emotions on everyone, which broke the charm. Welsey took it as a compliment, I think.

Left the city through tunnels. Cassit led us. She used to be terrified of the crypts under the city. She said, with everything that's happened, she's not sure anyone has time to be afraid anymore. Fair point.

Lavinia left her spider familiar invisible in the kitchen to eavesdrop after we left. The Lord Sage addressed it directly and said he hoped we'd take things more seriously than we had during the briefing. Which, I think is fair. We were not at our most focused. In our defence: vampire.

We rode out the next morning. Uneventful during the day. The road was deserted, which is its own kind of ominous. Come nightfall, I took first watch.

Rolled a four. With advantage. My passive perception is 21. I would like to take a moment to simply acknowledge that this happened, and move on.

I could hear Draconic on the road. Armoured convoy moving south toward the city. Cult, most likely, or their allies. Too far away to understand. Too exposed to move closer. So I sat there and listened to the sounds of a language I speak, coming from people I couldn't reach, and noted it in my head and kept watch.

An owl appeared in the tree above Petra during her watch. It turned out to be Serenola the Whisperer, who gave us our contact instructions for Cobbles Hill: find a keelboat captain named Kell, his nephew Briek would meet us at the northern gate after sundown, and we shouldn't try to enter through the village itself. The Burning Banner orcs were occupying the town.

Good to have allies. Even ones that materialise in tree branches at two in the morning.

Cobbles Hill at dusk. The Burning Banner insignia on the shields by the gate. Same ones from Kingspire. I didn't say it out loud, but I noted it.

The occupation looked like what happens when you give soldiers an easy posting and no officer with any standards. Drunk orcs. A tavern doing excellent business. Guards gambling by the gate. Briek, the boy in the red cloak, was exactly where he was supposed to be. He's a good kid. Moved quietly, knew where the gaps were, got us down to the river without incident.

The Arbitus is a big keelboat. Kell runs it for cargo, which means the hold smells like decades of fish. We were hidden below. He gave us the briefing: Verthak, a half-dragon, commands the Burning Banner. He controls river traffic. All boats log their voyages. Any deviation gets "questioned" in ways Kell clearly didn't want to elaborate on.

He went back to town for the night. We took watches. The Leaky Bucket tavern could be heard until well past midnight.

Kell came back just before dawn. Started preparing the boat. Then: voices on deck.

Boarding party.

Kei caught it in Orcish before anyone else: they were challenging Kell about an unauthorised shortfall, and the last order given was "search the boat."

We had maybe thirty seconds.

Lavinia cast Minor Illusion to make the hammock room look like a wall. We all crowded in. The orcs came down and started working through the hold methodically, which I respected even as I was hoping they wouldn't. Kicking barrels. Stabbing nets. Poking tarps.

One kicked barrel rolled straight through the illusion and into the lot of us.

Natural 20 on the investigation. Nothing to be done about that.

I had my action held. First orc down the stairs got 31 points through the belly before he could finish his yell. Cold added. He yelled anyway. That's when we heard upstairs: "I knew you were a traitor."

Kei put a shortbow shot into the same orc. He went down.

I went up the stairs when it was my turn and found Kell locked in combat with a half-dragon in brown and green scale mail. Verthak himself.

Fancy Footwork. Got in close, put 28 points into him plus cold, repositioned out of his melee range without giving him the opportunity attack. He grunted and asked how many vermin we had hiding below.

I answered by extending my middle finger, because I thought the moment called for it.

Lavinia got the other orc downstairs non-lethal. One alive. One dead. Kell is still fighting Verthak. Tiz put a Guiding Bolt into Lavinia's back by accident, which Lavinia handled with extraordinary grace given the circumstances.

Verthak is bloodied. Not dead. We're mid-combat when the clock hit midnight and we had to stop.

Things to sort next session:

Things I'm thinking about:

Jag, signing off. Still alive. Technically mid-stab.

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