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welcometoels · 3 years

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Session Seventeen - RupeMaster

Time to hit the road again.

The party travels north for a couple of days, to meet with Ebeneezer’s contact and complete the handover of the Thornhelm.

Harry - Ebeneezer’s lushly bewhiskered right hand man - has the artefact safely at his side in a special bag, and members of the bandit crew flit between the trees, on watch for creatures and other, more dangerous bandits.

The journey is quite peaceful, though, and Harry encourages the group to tell tales of their adventures thus far. They fill him in on all the details, from their sudden arrival in Dogwood, to the clash with Slathiel, and on to their experiences in Monthend.

After a day of travelling and telling tales, the group beds down. As they dream, they all hear a voice - the same voice they heard after the gems and lanterns they collected turned into the trinkets they now wear. It reminds them of its presence, and that it is still watching, waiting for the time that they meet again.

Back on the road, after a breakfast of bacon-flavoured rabbit and fish-flavoured fish, some of the party expand on their background. Cailynn in particular tells the group about the circumstances of her family’s death and how she survived since: The blackmail and the murder, her apprenticeship to renowned artificer Banto, and what followed.

She was naturally somewhat adrift since losing her family to a mysterious and shady organisation, and fell into petty crime and thievery. Her magical ability, though, caught the eye of Banto, and he took her in as an assistant. It was there that she learned the basics of the artificer’s craft - and more besides.

It transpired that her magic was not all that Banto wanted her for - he also had an eye of her light-fingered thieving skills. He’d become aware of a set of blueprints that were being brought over by the Dwarves to help foster peace and trade with the Elven nation: Blueprints for a series of devices known as the HelpForged.

Banto sent his young apprentice to steal the blueprints. This turned out to be an easier task than she’d expected, since the Dwarven envoys had entered into a spirited drinking contest with some local Elves, and the documents had been left unattended in their lodgings. After picking the lock, she left the premises with her quarry.

A short while afterward, she was visited by Felix - a representative of a major Tabaxi crime syndicate known as The Mau. Felix - a Sphinx cat who was clearly as dangerous as he was hairless - had come to discuss the theft with Cailynn, since his organisation had set up the drinking contest in order to steal the blueprints themselves. However, due to a lack of expertise in the field, the thief they sent took the wrong documents.

Felix made Cailynn an offer - join The Mau. A clear threat lingered unspoken - this was not an offer that should be refused lightly. Cailynn accepted - thereby narrowly avoiding the raid on Banto’s workshop, which the HelpForged 38/12 told the team about a couple of weeks ago - and has been working for The Mau ever since.

While in the spirit of sharing, Oddsock also talked about his home in Chew, where hops grow freely, beer aplenty is brewed, and the owlbears are soft and cuddly. He has no idea how to get back, and he misses it dearly.

Julius too is in a sharing mood, and talks about his old Pa and the cottage they used to share before he went away. He too misses his home, but has been learning a lot while out on the road.

Talion chooses this moment to talk about Julius’ grasp of Dwarvish, and the Otter is alarmed to learn that all of the friendly greetings he thought he knew are actually swear words. Sensing that he has upset Julius, Talion offers to help tutor him in a few Dwarvish phrases, with the help of his Tongues spell.

Dodging the matter for the moment, Julius asks Harry who the contact for the handover might be. Harry is unwilling to give out any details, but after getting lost in Oddsock’s big brown eyes, he does reveal that it’s just one person, and they will be meeting at the Burning Man Inn.

Oddsock celebrates this success by letting the fiery sparks crackle through his magically charged fur. Harry is impressed, so Oddsock follows this up by Prestidogitating a flurry of fireworks in every colour he knows. These are mostly grey, but very pretty regardless.

Also in grey is the small town emerging through the trees ahead. Greysnipe - for that is what it is called - is little more than a church, a couple of inns and some simple shops, serving the farms that make up most of its land. One of the inns is the Burning Man, and it is towards this that the party ventures.

As they tie their horses to the rail outside - Talion taking care of Oddsock’s, and earning a Mage Hand pat on the back for doing so - Harry swaggers in. He invites the others to follow, but advises them to sit well away from him, as the contact is only expecting one person for the hand-off. Oddsock tries to follow, but for once his persuasive arts fall short, and he joins the rest of the party at a corner table.

From here, they plan. Sticking to the idea of stealing back the helm after it is paid for, so they can return it to the Gnomes, they cook up a few ideas for how put this into action.

Firstly, Julius sends his fey weasel companion Rupert over to Harry’s table. Being small, Rupert very effectively stays out of sight, curled up under a chair. Once he is in position, Julius transfers his senses to the weasel, so he can hear all the conversations as they happen.

[DM’s note: This is what Edward (Talion) referred to as “Riding the RupeMaster”, in case you wanted to know who to blame for the session title]

While Julius listens to Harry giving his drink order to the friendly Half-Orc waiter, Talion outlines his plan. He wants to turn the remaining party members invisible, so that they can take up positions around the room unseen.

Mostly, the plan is well received, and a lot simpler than the last plan they made. Only Oddsock refuses, preferring to instead float up to the rafters so he can drop down on the contact from above. Talion, with a sigh, agrees, on the condition that Oddsock relays the plan to Julius via Message.

Communicating magically with a fey weasel who is magically linked to an Otter person turns out to be an unusual experience. There is a touch of echo and feedback, but the message gets through.

With everyone in place, Talion leans forward to cast Invisibility. However, the magic fizzles in his fingers, as a door at the far end of the pub opens. Through it enters a peculiar figure: A tall, slender Human with deep brown skin, wearing a soft, powder blue robe, glasses with silvery lenses, and fluffy shoes fashioned after pink rodents. His thick, silvery-white hair stands high upon his head, and his beard descends past his chest.

The man sits down opposite Harry, and an exchange is made. First, the man puts a small purse upon the table, which Harry peers into. After a quiet moment, during which Harry is clearly startled, the helm is dropped onto the table. The man picks it up, and moves to leave.

As the man stands, Julius touches a paw to his necklace and lets his friends know, in a low whisper, that the exchange has been made.

Oddsock, high above, moves forward into dropping range. The Human looks up at the Golden Retriever, and simply says “No.” A magical compulsion is woven into this word, but Oddsock brushes it off. He readies himself, leaps forth, and snags his collar on a chandelier.

While the waiter moves to unstick the hound using a broom, the mystery man leaves through the door through which he entered. As he does, Talion tries casting Invisibility again, this time with immediate success. He moves out of the pub’s front door, with Kadis and Cailynn, intending to catch the Human at the side as he leaves.

Instead, they find a plain side wall with no door. Cailynn sends Moo the clockwork wyvern into the air to investigate, but beside an old well, a couple of rickety outhouses and a rear door, there is nothing.

Julius, regaining his senses, takes a more direct approach. He opens the side door inside the inn, and narrowly avoids being struck by a loose broomhandle. Beside a few cleaning supplies, he finds a small rectangle of card. Upon the card is written:

Not yet - JD

Other than the peculiarly uniform handwriting, there is nothing unusual about the note. There is also no sign of the strangely clad Human who presumably left it.

The three invisibles return to the inn, and as they do, Talion catches sight of the sign at the front again. This time, it triggers a recent memory - of stopping for a drink, meeting a beautiful Snowy Owl Aaracokra, heading upstairs for a little leisure time... and suddenly being somewhere entirely different.

Acting upon this information, he heads upstairs with his hidden friends, and Julius and Oddsock follow, trusting the dog’s senses. There are only three rooms, and it doesn’t take Talion long to find the right one.

Instead of knocking like a regular person might, Oddsock tries the technique that worked exactly once in the past - Acid Splash. Sadly, possibly due to his light-fitting related embarrassment, his acid is ineffective, and the door remains closed tight.

Cailynn tries next, using her lockpick to much greater effect. As the lock clicks open, the door swings, revealing the luxuriantly befeathered form of Bubo Scandiacus. The Aarakocra is outraged to find a Golden Retriever and an Otter causing a ruckus outside their door, and even moreso when Talion lets his Invisibility slip.

Today, Talion discovers that being slapped by an Aarakocra is no more pleasant that being slapped by anyone else. The slammed door in his face is also less than enjoyable.

Inside the room, Bubo turns to find Oddsock, who managed to sneak in through Talion’s legs. He looks up at them and asks for the petting he feels he deserves. Bubo initially resists, but after a dramatic monologue about their woes, they brush Oddsock’s fur with a soft hand.

Oddsock, satisfied, offers his Ball of Compulsive Throwing, which Bubo gamely throws down the hall for him to chase.

As this is going on, Julius fills the team in on his discoveries. Talion has a good long think about the type of magic that must have been used and, based on what knowledge he has, thinks it must have been a Conjuration spell such as Dimension Door.

Cailynn decides to bring the power of her criminal contacts to bear on this matter. Outside the pub, she looks for the crow that has been following her, and finds it peering down from the roof. Writing out a quick message about finding a powerful conjuror, she adds the symbol of The Mau to the bottom right corner, and attaches the message to the crow’s leg. With a tap of its beak against her hand, the crow takes flight, and Cailynn returns to the inn.

Outside the Burning Man, Oddsock finally catches an odour other than old cider. It is a very familiar smell, which he eventually recognises as his own urine. Following the trail, he finds a very familiar looking church next to an equally familiar tavern called The Hanging Lock.

From around the corner of the tavern appears another familiar sight - a cheerful Jack Russel, who greets Oddsock in the manner of all canines. Once the sniffing is complete, the Jack Russel leads Oddsock into the pub via a dog door. This time, Oddsock finds himself where he expects to be - another inn, furnished in a very similar fashion to the Burning Man.

Jumping up onto a stool, Oddsock drops his metal dog bowl on the bar and asks for an ale. The barman panics at being spoken to by a dog, and Oddsock sighs. This is getting tiresome...

Julius also spends some time outside the Burning Man, and sees Oddsock’s trip to the other end of town. Letting his eyes drift along, he sees a couple more buildings, and with a start he realises that he knows them.

Though he has never been into Greysnipe proper, he has been to its outskirts on many occasions, to trade his books and pebbles for supplies. It is exactly this Dwarven-run supply shop that he sees now, and inside it, the Dwarf who taught Julius so many profanities in the guise of pleasant greetings.

Julius goes to berate the Dwarf for being so cruel, but the storekeep just finds it funny. After a few withering words about dull books about weeds, he sends Julius on his way.

Happily, there is a much warmer greeting to be had across the road. The Halfling woman who owns the greengrocer welcomes Julius back, though she is confused as to how he managed to disappear last time.

The two spend a few pleasant minutes chatting. Though she doesn’t know anything about Conjuration magic, she does know plenty about herbs, and gives Julius a little bundle to be used in a fish stew.

Back in the Burning Man, Kadis sits alone, thinking. Obviously, nothing here is familiar to his eyes, but from the back of the room comes a familiar voice. Its oily, obsequious aspect matches perfectly with that of the man who tried to lead him into a pub for drinks while he was still an aimless wanderer.

Kadis greets the man, and takes up the offer of a fresh ale, now that he has finally seen the inside of the pub he failed to enter those few weeks ago.

The group has much to consider here, in the town of Greysnipe. Now they know where they started, how will they proceed?

#dnd #5e #dnd homebrew

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