| Session 10: A Punishing Past | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Real World Date | October 4th, 2014 |
| Game Date | March 23 - 26, Year 0 |
| Location | Trapden |
| Enemies | none |
| NPCs | Lizzy, Lady, and Face |
| previous Session 09: Disguised and Distressed |
next Session 10a: Forging Friendships? |
The Party arrives in Trapden and keeps themselves busy while they wait for a boat to Sangor to ship out. Once again, trouble finds them as they try to mind their own business.
Synopsis[]
Tahlarien rejoins the party without explanation for her absence, nor her return. The Party explores Trapden, and Isaac reunites with an old friend. On the last night in Trapden, this friend tricks Isaac into walking into the clutches of his old adventuring crew, with whom he has much unfinished business. Upon learning of Isaac's past with terrorist organization Southpaw, Emilie leaves Isaac to his fate. The remainder of the party aids Isaac in his escape from the furious ex-treasure hunters. Our six heroes secure their passage to Sangor the next day without further complication.
Full Account[]
Travelling to Trapden[]
Isaac asks Emilie if he can have the greatsword she found, after all. He says that it is actually magical and highly valuable. He offers to make her an enchanted shield at a discounted rate in exchange for the sword. She reluctantly agrees, and sticks with her sword-and-shield combo.
The greatsword is not actually magical. Isaac plans to cast a spell on it that will cause all but the most discerning appraisers to believe that it is a wondrous item. Then he will pawn it off in Trapden for a large sum. He spares Emilie these details, knowing that she may not be as cooperative if she knew his intentions.
Isaac and Namfoodle go topside on the ship to get some air, so they aren't present when Tahlarien wordlessly rejoins the party, hiding herself from the guards on board. Emilie asks why she left in the middle of the night several days prior. Tahla replied, “To answer your question, I can’t answer that question... Emilie, I know you don’t trust me, but just trust me." She offers her skillset to The Party once more. Those present have no objections. "I’d just really appreciate it if you guys would just not point me out to the guard with the face."
Isaac and Nam welcome Tahla, and the night passes without event.
The First Day in Trapden[]
The party arrives at Trapden at 4:30am the next day and passengers are asked to exit the ship to get out of the way of the workers.
Nam goes to a brothel to relax. The rest of the party follows Tahlarien to a very rowdy bar, where they hope to get a feel of the current events of the seedy town. A drunken half-orc immediately projectile vomits toward Tahlarien, and she barely dodges out of the way. The party has breakfast at the tavern, and Tahla washes it down with mead.
The party heads into the marketplace to make some purchases. Tahlarien does some secretive business with an apothecary. Emilie tails her in secret. She actually has no interest in Tahla's business. Rather, she has business of her own with the apothecary after Tahla left, and would rather no one else knew about it.
Meanwhile, Isaac successfully passes the dubious sword over to a merchant for a modest sum of gold. Afterwards, he meets up with Kal and Vic. The three of them hatch a scheme to hire every bard and minstrel in the vicinity to sing about Vic and his impressively shiny suit in hopes of birthing a local legend. The first bard they attempt to hire, an elf, is immediately headhunted by Tahlarien. The elf chooses to sing beautifully about her, and not Vic, to the disappointment of the others. The second bard is a tongueless old man who owns a broken cello. As an epic song is what the three are after, they quickly elect to move on to the next minstrel, but not before Isaac repairs the cello to the ecstatic delight of the old man.
The third bard, an accordion player, is a young boy insistently attempting to grab the attention of anyone passing by. After being paid, the boy improvises "The Man They Call Vic" about the radiantly clad cleric. Impressed, Isaac, Kal, and Vic hire the boy to follow them around all day playing his accordion for fair sum.
Emilie comes back to the market square to find that Vic is now a local celebrity with a theme song. Namfoodle, having stuffed hens to his content, arrives on the scene shortly afterward. Panicked by the public nature of Vic's real identity (the party IS composed of wanted supposed criminals), the gnome sets the young bard’s accordion on fire. This causes the crowd to startle and disperse. The boy is shocked to his core at the random act of violence: it was his father's accordion. Namfoodle hides so that the party does not know that he is responsible for the arson, but he messages Isaac and informs him of the deed. Isaac concedes to the gnome's logic by way of not informing the rest of the group that Namfoodle was the assailant, but he is unhappy that the merriment was cut short. The artificer and cleric heal the boy's burned hands and pay for a new accordion.
The party then attempts to purchase fare to Sangor. To everyone's surprise, the reptilian merchant recognizes Isaac, who addresses him as Lizzy. This talkative character invites Isaac to come get a drink with him at the Top Hat tomorrow in thanks, he says, for Isaac having saved his life in the past. Emilie protests, saying that the party will be out of town already, but there are no ships leaving for Sangor until the 26th - two days' time. Since that seems to be their best option, the party pools their gold to book an expensive 6-bed cabin on the next ship.
Artist's rendition of Lizzy
The adventurers go back to the inn they had breakfast in, The Twisted Foot Inn, and book rooms for the next few nights. Isaac works on the shield for Emilie, while Emilie decides to take up weapon smithing. After just one day, and using improvised tools, Emilie has made a pretty decent throwing axe. Tahlarien, meanwhile, practices her swordsmanship on Isaac's and Vic's beds, much to their chagrin.
The Second and Third Day in Trapden[]
Isaac, not wanting to go alone, convinces the rest of the party to accompany him to the Top Hat for his meeting with Lizzy. Namfoodle regards Lizzy with a calculating suspicion that some of the others find paranoid. The wizard checks the tavern for invisible would-be assailants, but finds none. Through Isaac's conversation with Lizzy, it is revealed that ten years ago, Isaac warned Lizzy that "they" were coming for him, and so Lizzy fled his home in Sinkoff and started a new life here in Trapden. Then Lizzy asks Isaac about another crew that Isaac had worked with until the previous year. After giving his opinions about individuals called Face and Lady, those very characters turn around from neighboring tables.
It seems that Lizzy had set Isaac up. Lady and Face attempted to grapple the artificer. Tahlarien, Emilie, and Kal unquestioningly try to help Isaac escape them, and Namfoodle, who was ready for something like this, casts a spell on Isaac that grants him temporary flight. Unfortunately, this is all for naught, as his old friends tackle him to the ground and subsequently tie him to a nearby chair. Now they have all the time in the world to talk. Lizzy announces that he has reason to believe that Isaac lied about the reptile's pursuers. Isaac denies this and defends his past actions to both Lizzy and his two more recent companions. Apparently, short-sighted and selfish decisions of Isaac's caused the bankruptcy and subsequent unrelated death of his closest friend, a woman called Traps. Furthermore, he made a bargain with Southpaw, the underground terrorist organization, in exchange for his life and those of his old friends. This particular piece of news is too much for Emilie, and she leaves the tavern, unconcerned with whatever befalls the artificer.
Isaac’s old accomplices wants to keep him in captivity, and they suggest that the rest of the party continue on their journey without him. They insist that they are doing the party a favor. Rather than take this offer, Nam casts a noxious cloud to cause chaos, and he tries to bust Isaac out with the help of Tahlarien, Kal, and Vic.
Kal cuts Isaac’s ropes, narrowly missing his wrists. Lady grabs for Isaac, but he launches upward using the effects of Nam’s spell. The assailants quickly retreat from the noxious gas, vowing to continue their revenge. The party in turn escapes from the bar, probably vowing never to pay for any damages incurred in the moments prior.
Isaac, upset, goes up to his room immediately, but the others hesitate in the lobby, processing what just transpired. Tahlarien breaks the silence, saying that everyone has secrets ("Yeah, but at least Isaac is cool," Kal interrupts.), and maybe the party should just sit down together and bare all so that there are no more surprises, and so they can all get closer. Kal protests with elocution: "Uuuuuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhhh women."
The next morning, the party checks in at their ship. Before settling into their cabin, Namfoodle confronts Isaac about trust and being on each other's side. Isaac readily agrees, despite expressing innocent confusion at the notion that two had ever not been on each other's side. The cabin is actually a very nice room with common areas as well as a sleeping area. Tahlarien has no forged papers, so she tries to sneak on board from the water. She can’t get a grasp on the ship though. Emilie reluctantly knots Isaac’s rope (without making eye contact with him) and throws it out the window for Tahla. Fortunately, there is a towel ready on each bed.
The party has this beautiful, luxurious room all to themselves, and three meals a day, all included in their package. “Worth the 500 gold,” Emilie comments. The ship begins to move, and the party is off on their eight day voyage across the ocean to Sangor!
Notes[]
- Many characters split off to do their own thing this session, so up to three scenes were happening in any given moment. This article may be incomplete.
- In particular, a good portion of Emilie's actions during day one of their stay at Trapden were done in Skype, and are unknown.
- It turns out, she was finding ways to preserve her body
- Kal's player expressed frequent consternation at Namfoodle during this session, wishing to punch him in the face.
- As of this session, only Kal's and Vic's backstories have not been addressed by the campaign.