DM Dax| AoA Table 2| Breachill Bravos| OOC

[ScottGell]

And while we're asking OOC questions, I'll be honest ... I've forgotten the details about what we did with Voz.

Is there a link to the old site? If so, I'd love to go reread that part. Or would anyone care to summarize here? Pretty sure we captured her alive and turned her into the authorities, but don't recall any details. As for Voz's notes, pretty sure we found those in a private room in her bookshop, the Reliant Book Company. Is that about right?

On a side note, do we know if that store is still in business if she's been gone?

[Dax Thura]

Voz was captured and turned over to the authorities. She escaped the Breachill jail, killing a deputy in the process then a farmer to steal his horse and hasn't been seen since.

It has been closed. The Reliant Book Company was ran by Voz, who has escaped, and her traitorous halfling assistant, Calmont, who is still in jail. (edit)

Edited January 18 by Dax Thura (see edit history)

[Nwise]

I thought we killed Voz? She fled the town and we tracked her down trying to figure out what she was doing. She attacked us and we ended up killing her.

[Dax Thura]

No. You were busy clearing and rebuilding Citadel Alterein and did not go after her.

 

You have her notes. I don't think you've let anyone else read them.

 

Note that Calmont does not seem to be working for the same organization as Voz.

[ScottGell]

Don't mean to be dominating the in-game conversation here, but I'm just trying to move things along, since no one else is chiming in.

Now it's time to try something fun and see if it works ....

[ScottGell]

Sigh. Garion wasn't looking to start a combat here, so never mind. Since no one was doing anything, I thought it would be fun to use a minor non-offensive spell in a clever way. Sure, this guy would know a spell was cast, but it's 1-action and would be done before he knew it, since "time was stopped". But if it's really gonna send us into initiative, then never mind.

For the other players: I've tried everything I can think of (general conversation, answering his questions, offering drinks, Make Impression, non-offensive spell), but I'm out of ideas. Anyone else wanna jump in? Otherwise, Garion is ready to leave.

[Dax Thura]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that combat would absolutely ensue. However, your actions could have consequences. He is just as nervous in this situation as you are. He might react to any spell you cast; particularly if he can't identify it.

Who goes when is important in this situation. If you get your spell off before he goes, it could work. If not, things could go sideways. I only wanted you to know the possibility.

[Belabras]

Sorry, trying to be more present, but have had a busy couple of days.

 

I think we've been more than cordial to this guy who has taken a hostage in order to force a conversation with us. I vote combat.

[ScottGell]

Agree with Kyros that we've been more than cordial, when this guy has been threatening us the entire time. But before combat ...

Dax -- Regarding these notes that he wants, can you remind us what we know about them?

For instance, with those notes, could someone recreate gateways, like the one we used? Or like the others at the Citadel that have yet to be activated?

Before we even consider turning them over to this guy, we'd like to know how dangerous that would potentially be....

[Dax Thura]

The most immediate danger is that the notes would lead them to the gates. Figuring out how to use the gates would have to come after.

 

* PCs could not read her journal (written in Necril)

 

Journal

Once translated, the journal’s contents are mostly about Voz’s plans for an assassin’s guild and necromancer’s school, but several pages near the back contain her research and notes about Alseta’s Ring. The bulk of the information comes from old reports from the time of the Goblinblood Wars, when a group of soldiers confronted a clan of goblins who’d taken up residence in a series of caves near Breachill. These reports indicated that at the deepest portion of the caves, an entrance into a much older ruin that the goblins feared to enter was discovered. The soldiers explored a bit further, discovered a “ring of strange archways,” but
were ultimately driven away by powerful animated statues that “emerged from nearby doors” to attack.

Voz’s additional research, which includes copious notes on the necromantic ritual she performed recently to interrogate the spirits of the dead in the crypt below Citadel Altaerein, seem to confirm her theories that this ring of portals is an ancient elven ruin called Alseta’s Ring. Her research suggests that Alseta’s Ring was among the first of the aiudara— ancient portals created by the elves before Earthfall— and that the six portals that made up the ring linked six different sites. One of these she has confirmed as having once linked to Kyonin, but this section of Alseta’s ring has fallen into ruin and now leads to the goblin caves (providing a back door into the dungeons below Citadel Altaerein), but observations from soldiers in the Goblinblood Wars suggested the other five portals still stood at that time. Voz’s research indicates that for a portal to be activated, a key item has to be used. Where the remaining five portals might lead and what keys are required to activate them, alas, Voz has not yet been able to determine, but in her notes she is optimistic that, once she secures the site and has the chance to study the portals in person, clues as to their function will present themselves.

The final few pages of the journal cover Voz’s last several days spent exploring the caverns between here and the deeper Goblinblood Caves she suspects links to Alseta’s Ring itself. Her notes on the giant spiders and centipedes and other vermin slain, along with notes on her own undead minions expended, make it clear that much of the journey through the caves should be safe until the PCs are quite close to Alseta’s Ring. The final entry mentions an encounter with a “strange woman who seemed to be able to manipulate spiders as easily as I command my undead minions,” and that Voz was able to slay a few spiders before being forced to flee.

 

 

 

[ScottGell]

Necril? No problem. Garion has the spell Comprehend Language (heightened to level 4, which he used with our hellhound friend). With our time at the citadel, he certainly would've suggested the Bravos schedule a story-time session, in which Kuz'Arak reads to us from the journal.

Okay, if we assume our characters have all read that Journal link in the previous post?

Edited January 25 by ScottGell (see edit history)

[Dax Thura]

Yes. You know what's in the journal at this point. That's why I posted it.

[ScottGell]

Thanks for the clarification. When you said the PCs couldn't read it due to Necril, I thought that meant we hadn't read it yet.

No time to make a proper post now, but I'll post something later today, suggesting we leave to discuss the implications and plan to return with the notes.

Players: The notes seem to lead directly to our citadel. Not sure that's in our best interests.... But we can discuss that when we leave to retrieve them.

 

[ScottGell]

Trying one more thing before we either 1) start combat, or 2) leave to discuss/retrieve the notes....

Assuming we leave, there are some spells we can consider, which I'll suggest in my next Gameplay post.

[Mathota]

yeah I don't want to let the hostage get injured, but on principle I'm in favor of rushing the hostage taker.