All posts by jon

Marlowe's Menagerie

Session 3 – The Pendulum Heist

Celestiah researches and finds out more about the Star’s Return Blades. The master who made them was Lyra Stellarum. He collaborated with an astromancer from the Etherian Academy. The noble who commissioned them was Lord Deverus. This was meant to protect his daughter from the Shadowtech Consortium. They were trying to recruit her for her natural talents in celestial magic. Lyra forged the blades under a meteor shower. The astromancer then built the blades under 3 different celestial events so they are bound to the cycles of the stars.

Lupin greases some palms and finds out some information from Xavier Copperhand, a halfling. He says that the security is extremely tight. At the Rusty Nail Tavern, after the fourth ale he says that the wards flicker momentarily when the sound changes. Prof. Helena Vale carries the key to the wards. The champaign toast at 8:30 is a good time to strike; most of the guards will be in the main hall during this time. The exhibit runs until 11pm.

Gordon goes to the Dwarves’ Guild and talks with his people. Unfortunately he doesn’t find anything.

Felric goes to the city archives and finds the building’s blueprints. The 7 main areas are the Grand Foyer, the Central Atrium (with glass dome), East Wing (pendulum is here), West Wing (manuscripts archive), North Gallery, South Gallery, and Staff Corridors. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of a second exit but we could look into the sewer layout. He tries to look into the main city’s drainage system but is not successful.

Korgrath snatches a servant and finds out that the servants will be freshening the flowers at 5:30. The shift changes every 30 minutes.

We aren’t sure that we have a plan, but we will try our best. We head to the event right on time. There are many academics here in fashionable attire, and aspiring students.

Lupin recognizes Orla Brightgear, she has a shop with precious instruments. He chats her up and she says she’s interested in the device but doesn’t know much about it. She says that the hostess was here earlier but she hasn’t seen her in a bit.

When we go by the pendulum, it creates a sense of calm here. We notice that we are feeling others’ emotions and also their thoughts. Celestiah assenses the item and the wards. She thinks that she would be able to remove them with her abilities. She sets up an illusion that makes the room look like everything is normal at the threshold of the door. She then removes the ward from around the main pedestal, and then puts a sack over the device.

Korgrath and Gordon start a brawl and draw the attention of the four guards. One of them runs out to get more help. Felric tries to stop him but fails. The dwarf and ork try to leave through the servant’s wing.

Celestiah and Lupin hoof it out of there.

Marlowe's Menagerie

Session 2 – The Harmonic Pendulum

Lupin purchases a sword cane for defense.

Felric purchases a set of knives called “The Stars Return Blades.” These were made by a weaponsmith who worked with an astromancer to create the weapons. I’ve heard rumors that the blades dissolve into light after thrown and then rematerialize in their case. Felric negotiates and brings the price down to 60 from the original 70.

Gordon the Dwarf looks for a handaxe that will help him as a healer. He considers a couple of options and settles on the Life Mender’s Hatchet, which leeches the life force from a downed foe and captures the energy as a healing spell for later. Gordon negotiates as well and pays 110 gold.

We head back to the Menagerie and speak the password “teapot” again. Celestiah shows Marlowe the item and he is able to see through the illusion. He inspects it and is extremely pleased. Celestiah asks Marlowe what he intends to do with it, and he says that it is one of the most powerful and useful magical items in existence, and that he would never sell it; it will be kept here so it is safe and can be used for our adventures.

Marlowe goes to the register and gets us the rest of our money — 600 gold each!

We see several more curious things in the room. One is a “temporal stabilizer”. There is also a clockwork songbird, musical mechanical flowers, focusing lenses, and a consciousness vessel. We see some blueprints that say “experimental device” and it looks like he was working on something to do with memory capture. He explains that the sphere it’s a consciousness vessel that can hold parts of personality for preservation. He shows us a crystal that can capture more of a mind and preserve it.

Felric asks him why this is important to him. He says it’s his life work. He gets more serious and asks if we’ve ever lost someone. Lupin says yes. He says that he lost his sister Evelyn, and it’s her song that is playing on one of the other devices. He wants to bring her consciousness back, as a final end goal.

He goes to a spider-looking device with a crystal on it. He activates it a holographic map appears. The Thaumaturgical Society event tonight is hosting an item called the “Harmonic Pendulum” that can help to hold consciousness patterns. He says that he has tickets for us, and our job is to retrieve this item. The pendulum will be in the east wing under moderate guard. He gives us a small bag of mechanical scarabs that could provide a distraction for us.

The pendulum is encased in a hexagonal crystal display. It is brass and silver alloy and emits a humming sound that changes pitch every 3 minutes. The exhibit will close tomorrow, so this is time sensitive. He gives us 250 gold each as a down payment, and says that we can choose an “uncommon” item from his collection once the pendulum has been collected.

We decide to go to Lupin’s haberdasher, Madame Lillian’s Emporium. Marlowe says that he has arranged for reasonable pricing for us. After we get fancy clothing that would fit in during the event, we head back to our homes and get to sleep for the night.

Marlowe's Menagerie

Session 1 – The Chronologist

We sit down, and suddenly Gordon knocks over a small item. It crashes to the floor and a strange liquid splashes everywhere. In an instant, we are outside and about to knock on the door again. All of us remember being inside, but it appears that time has rewound somehow. Celestiah probes the magic with her senses and it seems that this was a charm that was imbued with magical power and made us believe through an illusion that we were actually inside.

Felric, instead of knocking, speaks the password “teapot” as we were previously instructed. The door slides open of its own accord. Inside it’s dark and noticeably more sparse than what we just saw. Venturing inside, we hear someone shuffling down the stairs. It is the same man, but he looks older and less glamorous.

He says “Let’s have tea for real this time.” We do introductions and he offers us 4500 gold with 1500 up front (300 apiece) for retrieval of the first magical item that he wants us to find. Then, a percentage of the sale price of the items.

We need to seek out the Chronologist to find the item. He has an item called a Chronometric Resonator that could help us. He is in the Shadow District, in the Shifting Market part of the city. The way we find him is using an item that the man hands us. It looks like a pocket watch with 3 hands, gold, silver and copper. They all spin at different speeds, but when we’re close to the Chronologist, they will all come together and point toward him. The marketplace randomly appears in one of the districts of the city, during the 3 nights of the New Moon. Day 1 is actually today, and it will be in the Shadow District.

The item we’re looking for is a compass, but rather than pointing north, it points toward important things. This will help us to find other items that have magical potential.

He gives us all contracts to sign. We look them over and find that there are several binding runes and hidden sections that can only be seen if the paper is held up at an angle. One says that we are bound by the agreement across timelines. Celestiah negotiates with him about several of the items. He takes a moment but then he agrees, and the contracts are magically changed. We sign and take a moment to enjoy drinks before we leave.

It is about a 30 minute walk to the market from here. When we arrive, the street doesn’t look any different than normal, but as we enter we see that the market is made up of many spheres — cobblestones, or sand, or grass. Each of them is from a different area of the world and each is easily accessible to us. The market is very active with many people buying and selling.

We ask some of the merchants where the Chronologist may be, but they seem to either not hear us or get distracted with another customer rather than answering us. Celestiah uses her “Star Sight” to find out where we will need to be to find them. Apparently in 17 minutes, when a star aligns with the spire of a building, the Chronologist will be revealed.

We wait for the appointed time, and the nearby clocks all align as reality seems to twist. The compass hands all point toward the door. Passersby go around this space and don’t seem to know it exists. A door appears. Celestiah checks it magically to see if it is dangerous. She gets a bad headache but apparently it’s not a threat. We go in and see a strange room with impossible geometry and shelves lined with many items. We see on a throne a young boy with white hair and clock faces in his teeth.

Felric helps Celestiah up and walks her into the room. He feels a strange catlike kinship as he gets near to her. Peering into her magical amulet, he sees an avatar of a cat.

The boy remarks “Ah, Marlowe’s associates. And on time, this time!” Maximillian asks him if he can help us. He responds cryptically saying that we need to help him deal with Helena Vale first. Suddenly a woman comes into the room. She has jet black hair with a streak of copper in it. She is nearly 6 feet tall and in her early 40s. She has a stiff posture and looks almost militaristic. We see others who dressed like her come in as well, in total there are 2 men and 2 women.

Lupin introduces himself to the woman. She responds with her name and says that she is with the Thaumaturgical Society. He says that we are here looking for a “Time Turner” that will allow a person to go back and fix one mistake. She finds this interesting, but will not reveal what her group is looking for at first. He charms her a bit and she mentions that they are trying to find a compass.

Celestiah looks around the room for the compass and, using her magical ability, she’s able to find a small box. The Chronomancer looks up with surprise and mutters “An astromancer with star-sight, fascinating.” He gestures and the box floats over to the counter. He calls it the Chronometric Compass, crafted by Captain Elias Timewell during the convergence of the spheres when the barriers between universes were at their thinnest. It has rings on the outside with a shining crystal inside. It has runes that shift when not observed.

Lupin introduces the woman to Felric and says that he is an expert who may be able to help her find the compass. Felric bluffs and starts helping her, though in truth he has no idea what he’s talking about.

Celestiah asks the Chronomancer what he would trade for something like this. He says that he deals in memories. She suggests a memory of when she was much younger living in the forest, gazing at the stars with her best friend. He accepts the trade. After the purchase, Celestiah enchants the box so anyone looking at it will see a sextant rather than a compass.

We exit the building and as we do, the place ceases to exist. No time has passed since we entered.

Lupin looks for a magical cane for himself.

Marlowe's Menagerie

Session 0 – The Curious Case of Marlowe’s Menagerie

(aka Women’s Linens)

A peculiar invitation arrives, penned in flowing script that occasionally sparkles with traces of arcane residue:

Dearest Potential Associates,

Perhaps you’ve noticed the recent changes at 73 Silversmith’s Row in the Merchant’s Quarter—the old Blackhaven Trading Post has shed its decades of dust and cobwebs. The creaking sign that once announced “CLOSED INDEFINITELY” has been replaced with a gleaming brass placard reading “Marlowe’s Menagerie: Curios, Curiosities, & Commodities Most Peculiar.”

I, Thaddeus Marlowe, formerly of the Collegiate Arcanum’s Department of Paranatural Procurement (and yes, that rather dramatic departure involving the Dean’s prized singing crystal was greatly exaggerated), have invested my life’s savings in this establishment. The previous owner, poor old Maurice Blackhaven, disappeared under rather mysterious circumstances involving a cursed music box and what witnesses describe as “an unfortunate incident with time itself.” The Merchant’s Guild assured me that after seven years, the property rights default to new ownership, and any temporal anomalies are strictly the previous owner’s responsibility.

But I digress! The shop itself is a marvel—three stories of aged oak and weathered stone, with windows that seem to peek into impossible angles and a cellar that, I’m quite certain, occasionally rearranges itself. The previous inventory is… well, let’s call it “eclectic.” Thus far I’ve catalogued:

  • Seventeen empty bottles labeled “Bottled Starlight (DO NOT OPEN INDOORS)”
  • One seemingly ordinary sock that keeps trying to hop back to its original owner
  • A collection of maps to places that may or may not exist yet
  • And a rather insistent cheese wheel that whispers stock market advice

While fascinating, these curiosities alone won’t sustain a proper business. This is where you come in, my enterprising friends. I require individuals of particular talent and discretion who can help me acquire inventory of a more… specialized nature. The Merchant’s Quarter is experiencing unprecedented growth, and the nobility’s appetite for the exotic and arcane has never been greater.

I offer generous commission rates, access to my network of collectors, and the protection of my various licenses and permits (most of which are even legitimate). More importantly, I offer adventure—the chance to seek out the extraordinary and bring it back to eager customers who possess more gold than common sense.

If interested, please present yourself at the shop’s rear entrance tomorrow at sunset. Knock thrice, wait for the door to finish its riddle (the answer is always “teapot,” regardless of the question), and enter prepared for a discussion of terms. Do mind the umbrella stand—it’s not actually an umbrella stand, and we’re still not entirely sure what it is.

With Anticipation,
Thaddeus Marlowe
Proprietor, Procurer, & Occasional Problem-Solver

P.S. If you happen to encounter a sock hopping down Guild Street, do be a dear and catch it. Its original owner has been quite persistent about a reunion.

—

Local rumors whispered in taverns and alleyways:

“That Marlowe fellow? Odd sort, but honest enough. Saw him talk down an angry ghost with nothing but a tea service and some compliments about its hat.”

“The shop’s got a reputation. Old Blackhaven was collecting things that shouldn’t exist. Some say the whole building’s like a puzzle box, with rooms that only appear on certain days of the week.”

“My cousin’s friend swears she saw Marlowe haggling with a dragon over the price of its shed scales. Used a pie chart and everything. The dragon apparently found his accounting methods quite persuasive.”

The strange note is received by the five of us. We are:

  • Celestiah Elunthiel, a High Elf Wizard
  • Korgrath, an Ork Fighter
  • Felric Ashfur, a Catfolk Scholar
  • Maximillian Lupin, a Human Thief
  • Gordon, a Dwarvish Healer

After receiving our cryptic invitations, which were addressed to each of us personally, we all gather at the appointed time at Marlowe’s shop.

This is the city of Vale’s End. It is a huge city, and we are in the bustling merchant’s corner, on Silversmith Row. There is a rich artifact trade here. It is twilight and the lanterns are glowing. There are strong scents of ozone, coffee and embers.

In the past there were 3 magical disasters here, so magic is restricted. The most recent one was the Brass Plague, which nearly destroyed the infrastructure of the city.

The future party members pleasantly exchange names. Most are just here for a job, but Celestiah and Felric seem to be here for arcane knowledge of some kind. Maximillian says that he wishes to employ his “particular skills” with this job. We are left to guess what that may mean.

Marlowe’s building is made of wood and stone, and the windows are in odd places. Felric notices that they shift when not observed. There is a humming sound within and frequent dlashes of light. There are enchantments and barriers throughout, which Celestiah senses keenly. We know nothing of the owner except what he related in his letter.

The door opens and a man with a false eye answers. The eye is mechanical and it quickly scans us all. He breaks into a friendly smile and welcomes us in.

There is tea set out for us. We sit down and partake, ready to hear what our potential employer has to say.

Cataclysm

Session 32 – The Rebirth

We take out the last of the cosplayers and enter the house. The hired guns watch outside while we go in. There are five hostages in here all zip-tied. Meaghan doesn’t know any of them but clearly they were abducted and mistreated by the cosplayers. We cut them free and ask if they have any place to go. They say no, as all of their companions were killed when the cosplayers snatched them.

We find Meaghan’s brother Blake in the other house and there is a tearful reunion. We organize everyone into the vehicles including the hostages and head back to the compound. Meaghan appreciates Simon’s efforts at the house and gives him a more-than-friendly kiss on the cheek.

Scotty has continued to work on the teleporter and he has people getting space suits together for us. He will come along to help with the technology we may find up there. We start training in the suits. They have grip so we will not fly around inside the ship if there is no artificial gravity. Ian tells us not to bring along any firearms as things up there will “not react well to bullets.” Meaghan will not be coming with us but Scotty does.

We teleport and Chet manages to keep his lunch down even though this was his first time. It is dark here and there is only one door. We manage to pry it open and we work our way through the ship. Ian checks to see if others have been walking around up here but there are no tracks.

We see all the way down toward the engine and it’s like a highway, very spacious and long. We work our way through and open several sets of doors. On the last one we see out into space as there’s a huge hole. We use our zero-g boots to walk on the ceiling across.

We come to the area with the pods and we see that there are around a thousand. This is the remainder of five planets’ worth of alien refugees. We should launch them all, because that would cause the ship’s orbit not to decay, or at least buy us time.

Simon and Alex determine where to send all of the 1000 pods and do math calculations on our orbit to make sure things land properly. Simon pushes the button and they start launching. It is a pretty violent process as the thrusters fire, and the whole ship lurches.

We find two space shuttles that seem to be operational, about the size of a fighter or shuttle. We wake up a group of 20 Talolans (and others) to help us.

We spend a few more days here and Alex creates an environmental bubble for us to take a break from our suits. After this we fly the space shuttles back down to the compound.

–end of this book–

Cataclysm

Session 31 – Bristol

We survey the crater and Simon consults Ser and he says that the engine or whatever it is seems to still be active, and the time pulses are going to continue occurring until we can shut it off.

He lets the others know and they start talking with AJ, who says that he was able to change the past and survive. We are also shocked to see Simon’s dad, Ian’s wife, and Dusty’s brother alive after all of them have been assumed dead for years. They explain that they had to try very hard not to make any changes to the timeline after they were saved.

We hunker down on the other side of a hill so the pulses don’t hit us again. They are occurring every 90 minutes but seem to be increasing by 15 minutes each time. During some of the pulses, animals appear from nowhere.

We call Scotty at the compound and ask him what to do. He says that it will take all of us to shut it down and we run scenarios to figure it out and train. After we feel confident enough we head back after the last pulse and start to work on shutting it down. It takes a very long time and we think we are making a lot of progress, but Simon accidentally hits a switch and things start to power back up. We work on it for another 45 minutes or so and are finally able to turn it off.

We talk with Scotty about what we could scavenge from here but he says not much. We decide to head back. AJ goes back to Milwaukee but leaves us a couple of Sno Cats.

As we return we see a bright star up above. It is apparently the main part of the ship that the Talolans call Rebirth. Simon asks if we can teleport up there, and Scotty says that he’s trying to work on it. We spend several months talking about plans and scenarios as he’s working on it.

April 10th comes around and Scotty gets abnormally excited and calls us down. He was able to connect to the ship with the teleporter. It may be how it is currently oriented in relation to Earth. We worry about getting back but he says that it should be possible.

On April 25th, Meaghan comes in while we are having breakfast and says that she got a pager message from her dad just this morning. She had turned on her pager for the first time since the disaster and messages began popping up, and some of them are quite recent. In the oldest messages, her father advises her to get to a shelter and lists off several places near where she was staying with her brother Blake in Illinois but also in other states. In the most recent messages her father and brother give their location where they are in shelters. Her brother is in Bristol and are surrounded by the cosplay idiots that we dealt with last summer.

Meaghan says that she’s going to go right away to save her father and brother. Ian says that we will come to help her, and recruits a few others to come as extra guns. We pack up supplies and 12 of us go in one of the Sno Cats toward Bristol.

On the way, we ask Meaghan about her family. Her father was an executive at Northrop Grummen and also a survival nut. She went from base to base when she was a kid and wherever he went, he built a survival shelter at each place. She learned survival skills and self defense from him and took many classes, and though she resented it at the time she was able to survive on her own because of it.

We stop the Sno Cats more than a mile away and Ian and Meaghan and a few others get out and look for sentries. They find two and take them out quietly, then come back to tell us in the Sno Cat to come up the drive.

We drive up and Alex creates a barrier in front of the Sno Cat for protection. We start shooting at the cosplayers, and we manage to take them out except for two who start running away.

Alex hears the roar of engines from the house behind us and our hired guns turn around to face them and see what happens next.

The Ethereal Hand

Session 4 – The Demon with a Thousand Mouths

The crew investigates more into Veldren’s disappearance. They go to the headquarters of the Red Sashes. Eklipsis and Reynard meet with one of their sword instructors, Ms. Thena Sankara, who greets them and offers them tea. Eklipsis uses her Iruvian heritage to her advantage in the conversation and gets Ms. Sankara to look at the brooch that they found. She recognizes it as a symbol of the Circle of Flame, which is an underground organization that positions itself as a group of scholars, but Ms. Sankara explains that the Red Sashes have run up against them before and they have a darker side.

She doesn’t specifically know Veldren, but she mentions a nearby opium den in Charhollow that houses a lot of people like him, who use drugs to create visions and expand their consciousness. The place is at the cross streets of Taylor’s Ave. & Ash Way. Eklipsis thanks her and they head out.

Later at the opium den, which is a large but nasty place in the sub-basement of another building, the group finds a gathering of degenerates and ask them about Veldren. One man with an unkempt appearance and very few teeth offers that Veldren used to come here often, but hasn’t been around in a few weeks. He points out the bunk that Veldren usually uses, however he expects a payday for the information he’s given. Reynard finds a leather bound journal in a pile next to the bunk. The toothless man asks for payment for the info but Eklipsis just gives him a brass penny. The man isn’t happy but the crew just leaves.

Back at the lair, Eklipsis studies the journal and most of it is gibberish, but some sections actually make sense. There are references to an eagle, and that those who follow the eagle will use its eye, its claw, and its heart to destroy their enemies. It also says that “the seven are one, but the one in seven is a destroyer.” Reynard recalls that in his dealings with the Circle of Flame, since he knows some of them, they do mention ancient relics called the eye, hand, and heart that they are seeking. The party thinks that Veldren may have been kidnapped by the Circle because they think he has information about these relics, or perhaps because he knows too much.

Eklipsis goes to Stazia’s apothecary shop and lays out everything that she’s found so far about Veldren’s disappearance. Stazia is shocked to hear that the Circle of Flame may be responsible. He says that he doesn’t have much clout to go against a big organization like the Circle, but if Veldren were returned he would offer the group 2 coin. He is a good friend, and he also helps Stazia with testing out his concoctions.

The party considers having Reynard talk with the Silver Nails, who are a group of Severosis who oppose the Circle of Flame. However, it’s decided that this is too risky and they will try to take some turf from the Cabbies instead. They will break into one of their nearby hubs where the goats and carriages are stored and sabotage the carriages so they will break down and cause them to lose customers.

They slide over to the building from a nearby abandoned structure and Raven gets across expertly, but the other 3 almost fall and he has to catch them with another rope. Reynard sends Kit into the building to scout and she sees 6 guards on this level. There are storage crates and offices but most of them are locked.

Eklipsis and Raven sneak in, and Eklipsis uses her blowgun to deliver a dose of drugs to one of the guards at the top of the stairs. He becomes confused and starts to see shapes. His friend is distracted by this and Raven goes to take out his legs. He does knock the other man down, but his lantern shatters on the floor and the other guards are close to alerted.

Eklipsis tries to shoot another dart but sucks it in by accident and drugs herself. Raven slams into the second guard with his elbow as he is trying to get up and both of them land in a nearby office unconscious.

Foggy calls a ghost and scares off one of the guards, but another one saps him in the back of the head.

Eklipsis and Raven head downstairs under the cover of their cloak but they trip and land hard at the bottom. There are four guards near them but luckily they are not seen. The guards hear the noise upstairs and rush there to find out what is going on.

While Reynard and Foggy continue to fight off the guards, Eklipsis and Raven rush past the goats and desperately try to sabotage the carriages. The acid is not working quickly however, and they are not making progress. (0 of 6 segments filled in on the clock.)

Reynard tries to hide from the guards, but in doing so overturns a cabinet in one of the offices and it lands on his leg, fracturing it.

Foggy decides to pull out the stops and produces the Spirit Focus, quickly attuning to it before the guards get to him. He immediately sees a landscape of a blasted plane and a clear sky, with the sun beating down on him. A shape descends from the sun, a pulsing sphere with tendrils reaching out from it, and at the end of each tendril is a mouth. They are muttering, singing and screaming. It turns to Foggy and asks him what he wants. Foggy asks for everyone to be scared off, and the thing agrees to do this but says there will be a price later.

No time has passed in reality, and the spirit focus activates, sending spirits crashing through the floor, breaking a huge hole into it. They stream out and go into the five remaining guards, possessing them. One man has so many spirits go into him that his head explodes and he dies instantly. Another is carried off by the spirits and the others pass out.

The noise has caused a lot of attention, as alarms go off and people come from the outside to see what is going on. Two of the garage doors open as well.

The Ethereal Hand

Session 3 – The Unquiet Dead

Foggy noticed that when attacking, the two ghosts could not go through the broken wall — they bounce off of it like it’s still there. He tries to attune to the two spirits attacking him again but they will not leave him alone. Reynard pulls his pistols and points them at the man at the door, saying that he should walk out of there and leave them alone. The man freezes but wonders what they are doing “in the master’s house” and tells them to leave.

Raven jumps under a desk, not wanting to be seen by the man.

Reynard goes after the man, closing the distance quickly but the man steps out of the room and trips him as he comes through the door. Reynard sprawls onto the floor and drops his pistols. Kit follows her master and tries to jump at the man, but also misses.

Foggy tries a different tactic and just tries to talk with the ghosts instead of attuning to them. They surprisingly respond and ask if they are not the master of the house, who are they. Foggy says that they are trying to help the ghosts determine what is going on. The ghosts seem to agree and hang back, watching to see what happens next. Their names are Nigel and Alex, and they can’t say why they want to go through the barrier downstairs, but they feel compelled to. They don’t remember what happened when they were still alive but it was something horrible.

The crew heads downstairs and notice a foul smell. They turn on the lights to find a huge laboratory with lots of equipment and potions, as well as torture devices that seem well used (i.e. still full of blood and gore). Toward the back of the room there is a large locked pen with at least 20 people in it.

Eklipsis looks at the potions and sees that some of these are highly dangerous and illegal — they may be used to separate someone’s soul from their body. Looking at the people in the pen, Foggy realizes that this is what’s happened to them, they are “hulls” which are people who have been separated from their spirit but have been left alive.

Eklipsis unlocks the cell with her lockpicks and they look at the people inside. Two of the hulls look similar to the two ghosts who were upstairs. They lead the hulls upstairs “Weekend at Bernie’s style” and the ghosts inhabit the bodies, and after a moment they wake up. They are very weak, filthy and starving, but they are alive.

With the help of Nigel and Alex, they bring the others upstairs and Foggy calls out to the spirits in the area to see if the rest of them are hanging around. Soon all of the spirits come back to their bodies, now that they have been brought through the barrier. In speaking with the people, the crew finds out that some of them were employees of the house, and some were visitors and guests who had come to Mr. Charles’ parties and were kidnapped and tortured by him.

Reynard spends some time looking for valuables inside the Charles residence before they leave. He finds a small safe in the office where the accountant was working. Eklipsis opens it with ease and finds 4 coin inside.

Reynard sends out a signal to Lady Drake’s security forces who were standing by to come in if needed. They pour through the front entrance, much to the surprise of the Bluecoats patrolling the area, and take the people to safety. They let the security men know about the accountant and they take him as well. The crew escapes through their entrance point on the second floor.

A couple of days later, they visit Lady Drake at her office. She offers them drinks and congratulates them on a successful job. They outline everything that happened and she seems disgusted by the descriptions of the people in the pen who had been tortured. She says that in full disclosure, she had her suspicions about Charles but didn’t know the extent of his depravity. Thanks to the evidence that the Ethereal Hand provided, Charles was arrested and is pending charges.

The crew retires for some well deserved downtime before their next score.

(Eklipsis has her 2 downtime actions remaining)

The Ethereal Hand

Session 1 – Spirit Focus

The Ethereal Hand is an up-and coming gang in the Charhollow neighborhood of Duskvol. The current membership consists of Reynard, a hound; Eklipsis, a leech; Raven, a lurk; and Foggy, a whisper.

They reside in a tower in the Old Village section of Charhollow, which is an abandoned abbey. This area is teeming with working class people and they are high above.

So far they have been able to add quarters to their lair, so everyone can sleep there. However, the materials they used were stolen from the Cabbies, so that group is antagonistic to the Hand at the moment.

The Hand are looking to operate in the Charterhall area which is home to the government offices and university of Duskvol. They pay off the City Council (1 coin) so they can operate here.

The Council also provided to them some documents about local figures (double XP for training Insight skills) and the Hand pay 1 coin to increase their relationship with the Council.

Trying to decide what they could do for their first job as a gang, the Hand consults Fitz, a collector with a large antique store in the market district of Charhollow who also happens to be a member of the sect “The Path of Echoes” which believe that the traditional wisdom of the Church of Ecstasy is wrong. They often commune with the dead.

Fitz’ store is about to close for the evening, but the members of the Hand are waved in and led to the back room where Fitz is enjoying some kind of a drug out of a hookah. He blows a cloud of purple smoke and asks the gang what they are interested in. They explain that they are looking for work, and he says that he has just recently gotten in some artifacts from Tycheros, which is where Raven hails from. Raven seems interested.

Fitz explains that three of the boxes from his Tycheros shipment are being held by the bluecoats across the river in Charterhall at a warehouse. They often hold things that they consider contraband without any warning and keep them there as long  as they wish. Some of the items are war artifacts like old swords and shields, and some are vases that are quite old and fragile. One of the items is a strange relic called a Spirit Focus. Fitz says that if his items may be procured, he would pay the group for their trouble.

Fitz also has several other Tycheros artifacts like clockwork toys that depict monstrous people, and also some vases. Reynard asks for items from Severos, the nomadic tribes, and Fitz shows him a statuette of a horse rearing up.

Foggy asks for more information about the Spirit Focus artifact, and Fitz dusts off an old tome that is from the Path of Echoes’ own knowledge of arcana. It depicts the Spirit Focus as a square object with a hole sort of like a frame, that is made out of glass or some bright material. It is a beacon for spirits, and when activated they will approach the device.

Foggy reads more and discovers that with a skilled practitioner, the Spirit Focus can be made to not only call spirits, but direct them and cause them to harry or attack someone. He does not reveal this to Fitz.

The Hand accepts the job and goes off to find more info. First, Raven goes to his friend Darmot, a bluecoat, probably the only honest one in town. The man seems upset and he explains that his boss has been all over his ass about one of the local diplomat’s vacation homes (normally empty) who keeps getting broken into. It’s happened five times over the past several weeks and the bluecoats are stumped. Nothing is stolen, but windows and furniture are regularly broken. Raven asks Darmot about the warehouse and he specifies the location and says that it is heavily guarded.

The Hand case the warehouse and find that there are three entrances, one to the south, one to the east, and a large garage door to the west. There are normally three guards at the garage door and two at each other door during the night, and one less at each during the day. Reynard’s dog is able to see that the storage area is to the west and there are offices on the east side and pallet jacks in the middle area.

Searching through the canals, Reynard scopes things first and then draws a map for Raven. He notes that there is a spirit well and a group of spirit wardens nearby that Raven shouldn’t go near. Raven follows the map and sees a ladder that leads up to a barred doorway with a thick metal lock made out of a dark gray steel.

Eklipsis wonders how she can open the lock and visits Stazia, an apothecary friend of hers. Stazia is a short balding man with dark skin and a thick accent. He mixes Eklipsis a strong acid that will help her break through the lock. He says to only use a few drops and gives her a glass eyedropper.

Before Eklipsis leaves, Stazia asks her to check on their mutual friend Veldren, who was in a few weeks ago to buy a bunch of materials but hasn’t been seen since. Stazia is worried that he has overdosed.

The Hand go back to Fitz and ask for a gondola to take them back to the access door in the canals. Fitz agrees but he says that the money will have to come off of their pay. Reynard has an idea to cause a distraction with a beer cart outside the warehouse. He plans to have the beer spill everywhere and cause a scene so the others can get to the score undetected. Again, Fitz agrees but says it will come off of their cut of the score.

At the appointed time, during the day, Reynard indeed drives by the east entrance and makes a big scene with spilled beer, drawing the attention of many bluecoats and also getting some of them to take the beer. He is totally convincing.

In the tunnels, the Gondolier named Billy brings the rest of the crew to the underground entrance though he is nervous to be here, knowing that the Spirit Wardens are nearby. Eklipsis tells him to stay put.

Eklipsis, Raven and Foggy go to the ladder and Eklipsis ascends, starting to work on the lock with his picking tools rather than using the acid first. She is able to loosen one of the bars that is holding the door shut but it falls and clangs loudly to the floor. The guards are more aware but not alerted yet.

Border Princes

Session 27 – The Changer of the Ways

After about a day’s travel, we skirt around to Castenea which is Giovanni’s territory. We don’t run into anything except normal traffic. Jean and the elves head up to take Hauptner to Giovanni. The dwarves hit up the first bar and start drinking.

Jean and the elves meet Giovanni who is in a smoking jacket and a fez drinking brandy and reading. The meeting between the two border princes is tense. Hauptner looks a bit guilty, and the catatonic state seems to be diminished.

Giovanni tries to sum up everything that’s happened and Jean asks why chaos warriors may be on his lands. Giovanni won’t answer with Hauptner here. We hear the story about how Hauptner was responsible for the death of Giovanni’s men and they still have bad blood. The old man lunges at Giovanni and Jean holds him back. Finally things calm down and they are talking.

Hauptner says that he thinks Sasha was behind the ork attack.  He says that he doesn’t recall things that happened with Sasha in the last couple of years. Before that she was getting the bandits under control and then she said that Gio was trying to assassinate him. She had the double brought in, and after that Hauptner doesn’t remember much.

Gio says that ships have come into port just two days ago from Duke Edelhard. The men were ordered to go under Jean’s command.

The dwarves see a bunch of men in flowery uniforms that appear to be Britonians in the bar. They have daggers at their belts.

We suddenly see larger and larger waves coming in from the Black Gulf and ships start capsizing in the harbor. A huge tsunami starts coming toward us and the dwarves make for higher ground. The elves, up in the keep, see a water spout and someone is at the top of it.

Brokk slips and falls but Tobruk manages to hold onto him and a stone column with the other hand. We see some strange creatures materialize from the water and start attacking people, turning into liquid and enveloping people. The woman on top of the water spout is wearing strange blue and purple clothes. After a few more waves she moves off and the waters become lower, and the water creatures stop attacking as well.

Giovanni mourns his city. The group starts to help pull people out of the water. Vedasi tells Giovanni to fortify the front gate because we’ve been hit at the back gate pretty strongly.

As we are working we see on the ground near the docks a strange symbol like a wave with a circle over it. Jean and Vedasi see it and believe it is the symbol of Tzeentch. He is the “changer of the ways” and many chaos worshipers follow him.

We continue pulling people out of the water and we see that only a handful of the Britonian soldiers survived. A few lucky sailors pull themselves out of the water, but most of them are gone. The richer area up on the high ridge hasn’t been touched by the water.

Giovanni eventually comes down to the docks by us and asks to talk. We head back to the keep with him and he takes us to a large council room. Two people are waiting for us there. We see a man in white robes and full armor and a huge warhammer. His armor has the sign of a twin-tailed comet (Sigmar) and he has a silver circlet that looks like it is riveted into his head. The woman has golden armor and the symbol of a shield and a spear on it (Myrmidia). They are two of the temple leaders in town. Hauptner is also here, but under guard. Giovanni mentions that they need to bring Celarin, a high elf. He is one of the newest loremasters of Hoeth. The high elves and the wood elves don’t generally get along. We may need to send word to him so he will help.

We start telling the group about what we’ve come up against and we mention the skaven. Gio says that this is how Slanesh will attack. The skaven are probably moving here right now. He needs Brokk as the stoneworker to help check the cellars on every home in the town. Tobruk as the armorer, he asks him to get weapons ready so people in town to wield them. He asks Hauptner for info about Sasha, asks Jean to update all of their maps, and the elves to teach his archers on the wall to shoot straight.

The elves head to the high part of town and visit Phandyth who is helping her neighbors. They ask her to get in touch with the wood elves near our keep and others that she knows. We need to gather all the forces to help defend the town.