01/21/2024 -- Operation Lethal Talon

Date: 47 Lionnir 715AR. Starring Thomas (commander), Talisman (marshal), Elise (quartermaster), Damon (spymaster), and Ari (lorekeeper).
Mace Crane has offered us all a job, but we have time before going to his cabin. Talis and Thomas use 2 recovery each to heal some health blocks.
Varos goes to Margaux, who’s pissed he’s been avoiding her. She convinces him to “fill in the fucking bubbles”, and Varos fills in the bubbles honestly, with a blue colored pencil (that he brought himself, which got him some additional negative points).
Ari goes to talk to the people they rescued from Malig Forge. He finds the older dwarven man who told them about Enola before – the group has set up in Alstride Camp. Ari asks how they’re settling in (the guy says it’s better than being in the forge), before asking if Enola ever mentioned any family. The man tells him she said she had a strained relationship with her mother, and had bounced around the Primordial Ring, before finally settling in Tpres for a few years. She hadn’t mentioned a spouse or children. She’d arrived at the Forge about a week before him, and the group had gotten to the Forge in early/late spring.
- As Ari leaves, he keeps getting glimpses of shadows moving out of the corner of his eye. He tries to hang out in a more well-lit area, but he still feels watched, so he retreats to his tent.
Elise is hanging around the Golden Devils camp, just waiting to head to Crane’s. She’s hoping this group isn’t as weird (there’s a lot of out-of-character laughing at her for this).
We cut back to Varos, and Margaux, looking over his questionnaire, tells him he’s a really fucked up person, and really off of his baseline. She asks if he’s been experiencing hallucinations, and after asking if a couple specific things were hallucinations, says he hasn’t been. His mom’s ghost is brought up, and Margaux immediately wants to set up an exorcism for him. After saying she’s gonna go tell the rest of the Hounds he needs an exorcism, she dumps some water on him, throws some sand on him, and asks him to drink an orange jello-like substance that blocks telepathic communication. If his mom’s a ghost, it won’t block her out. He’s resistant, but after saying she’ll make him sit out the mission if he doesn’t drink it, he drinks it. It tastes like straight grease.
The group heads to Crane’s cabin shortly before 1pm, and we see at least one new face for most of us – Elise has blond hair currently in a ponytail, and a longer dress. She doesn’t seem to be carrying a lot of weaponry/armor. She’s nervously looking for the people supposed to arrive.
Mace Crane is happy with the group he has. He says what he requires from all of us is simple but important: he requires the bones of a creature known as a Netter Kreen. He tells us to draw it out with grain, and once we kill it, recover the body. We’re supposed to do as little physical damage to it as possible, because the creature’s parts are valuable. He tells us he’s set aside 50lb of grain, and has left it over where most of the rations and supplies are. He introduces Elise to the Venerable Hounds (and Ari).
Elise introduces herself, as do Ari and Talisman. She recognizes Talisman as knowing Anahi.
Ari and Talisman go to Lucky Eight’s, and introduce themselves to each other, as well. They’re interrupted by Margaux, who is very angrily storming towards Talisman. She asks what he’s done now, and the two of them step aside. She asks what new deal he’s done, and holds up papers with numbers and figures, saying there’s been lots of Infernal activity. He says he hasn’t done anything, and she doesn’t believe him. She ends up handcuffing herself to him. They continue to Lucky Eight’s.
Elise, Thomas, and Damon all go to the Rat Races. Varos goes to the Bitter Swill to chase away the taste of the potion.
With the spymaster rolls [2, 6, 6], we get +1 supply and +1 recovery. The quartermaster grabs the grain, and uses a supply wagon.
We spend 1 intel, and ask for a useful item. We’re told “grain”. The spymaster asks what kind of enemies we’ll be facing, and we’re told “Netter Kreen”. It’s not very productive. We roll engagement [3, 4, 2, 6] and set out from camp, wandering to the southeast. We did learn that some telltale signs of the Netter Kreen are large mounds of earth, and felled trees stuffed with food like fruits and grains. It’s like a big squirrel stash. By 3pm in the afternoon, we’ve found a few telltale mounds of dirt. Ari makes a phys check [Benefit I] and gets 3 successes, but doesn’t find any tracks. We know this isn’t something that necessarily walks a lot, but this seems like somewhere it comes back to a lot. Damon puts his ear to the ground, and hears nothing.
We plan to make some snare traps. As we’re talking things out, Thomas, Damon, Ari, and Varos are prompted to make mental or spirit checks, Damon’s at Benefit I. Thomas gets 2 successes, Varos 1. Everyone else gets 0. Thomas notices there are no more animal calls or noises – the surroundings are deathly silent. Talis asks Margaux to set up the telepathic conference call, and she does for everyone (excluding Varos).
Elise goes to set up the grain and the snares. The snare takes a physical check at Benefit I, and gets 1 success. It’s rough, but workable. At the same time, Damon finds a small stack of little bones (chipmunk, squirrel, pixie, etc) in a tree, with no idea what did it to them. Talis attempts to make himself and Margaux invisible with light rune magic, and gets 1 success, making a visual distortion, but nothing close to invisibility.
Margaux rags on him for not being able to do rune magic after a few years of practicing it, and Talisman eggs her into trying to use a light rune. She tries to make a ball of light, and gets 2 successes – Talisman uses his full reroll to force her to reroll, and she still gets 2 successes. It glows, alternating between different colors, and flashes out “Fuck. You. Priest.”
She then eggs him into trying some psionic magic. Talisman tries to sense the Netter Kreen [1 success], and feels another presence close to Damon in the mound he’s trying to hide in. He telepathically tells Damon to run, and Damon gets 0 successes on his physical check [Detriment II]. The ground beneath him shakes, and this large mole-like creature leaps from the ground. We roll for order. Everyone does badly – no one, including the Netter Kreen, gets over a 6.
The Netter Kreen goes first, immediately attacking Damon in three separate attacks [27 for a tusk attack, 15 each for two claw attacks]. Ari’s Blink Strike, on his turn, seems to disorient the creature, since it doesn’t have great eyesight. He continues to feel extremely watched.
Elise is very distraught that things aren’t going to plan, and turns into her magical girl form – electricity flows through her veins, and comes off of her, including out of her eyes. She’s absolutely covered in electricity now, and flies into the air, hurling some lightning at it. She does some damage, but its blubber seems to be protecting it. She gets the feeling her attacks might be more effective when it’s more hurt.
Damon takes the first health block with 6 successes, shooting it in the foot [in an attempt to shoot somewhere non-vital to preserve it]. Talisman tries unsuccessfully to flashbang it [its spirit save beasts his power score]. Margaux uses her Phantasm of Woe to give it visions of sunlight.
At the top of the round, there’s a warbling effect in the air above us, and three Seeker Devils covered in bells emerge out of fiery balls about 30ft up in the air. Their bells infuriate the Netter Kreen. Elise realizes we aren’t normal, either, and doesn’t believe us when we all try to tell her we are. The Netter Kreen attacks Ari and Varos, before diving belowground. Thomas makes a physical check [2 successes] and figures out the general area the Netter Kreen went. He goes over there, and hucks a spear at the devil flying there. It has Resistance I to nonmagical dmg, but he still does 8 dmg, and it readily gives up a health block.
Ari moves near Varos and the devil he’s facing, and sees on a physical check [Benefit II] a small bird, maybe a hummingbird, flying amongst the trees. He panics over there being a bird here when all the other animals have left, and when it flies by him, whacks it with the flat of his dagger’s blade. Elise is upset about this. One of the devils asks Talisman if he happens to be Talisman, and says they just needed to know – they take their infernal chain and coat it in red paint they carry in a pouch, and strike Talisman with it.
Damon tries to drink the blood of one of the devils, and earns a point of blood, but it tastes weird, and his breath now smells of sulfur. Talisman tries to attack one with fire, which does nothing, because they have Resistance III. When he asks who sent them, they say the broker of despair.
Margaux finds the Netter Kreen with her telepathy and strikes with Phantasm of Woe. Thomas hears it cry out directly beneath him. The devils dance around, before leaping back through their portal, and the Netter Kreen comes up below Thomas. He loses a health block [minor injury: prone] and the last of his sp as he’s grasped in its jaw. On his turn, he successfully makes a physical save to get out of its jaw, and uses his background action to ignore the minor injury.
Elise flies over to the hummingbird, and makes a check [Benefit I — 3 successes]. She sees a small insignia tucked into the underbelly, and recognizes one of Zetian’s hummingbirds. She flies up and looks around for danger, and feels something is off. She urges us to hurry up so that we can go. Damon makes a check to figure out what’s off, and notices an unnatural silence coming from the north. He calls this out to us.
Talisman takes another health block with his greatsword. It takes him, Ari, and Varos, and Talisman has to burn an armor block (everyone is very proud of Jamie for remembering to use it). Thomas takes yet another health block by dealing 60 dmg. Ari at some point in this also takes a health block.
Elise looks again for danger, and sees the shadows growing a bit long, something leaping between them. She again says it’s time to move, because there’s something wrong with the shadows, and then asks if any of us did something with the shadows. She won’t judge (she will, a little). She takes another health block, shooting a lightning bolt at one of its wounds. It hates this.
Damon bites into the Netter Kreen, and while he doesn’t take health blocks, he does gain a blood point. Elise is distressed by there being a vampire here. Talisman deals the killing blow by running it through. Margaux suddenly shrieks and passes out, and the Netter Kreen sits back up. Everyone is distressed by this. It claps its hands, and offers Thomas a hand, like it wants to dance. He backs up, and it offers the hand to Varos instead.
Varos takes it, because he has nothing to lose, and they go through a few ballroom dances. We ask Varos to dance it back to camp, and he starts to maneuver it towards the cart. It’s then that a figure appears – the Banker of Bones. He greets us, and says he’s looking for the Venerable Hounds. He flicks a finger and lifts Varos in the air. He refers to Talisman [“the one in red”, thanks to the devils’ paint] as Bob’s favorite plaything, and says he’s looking for one named Bloom, because a favor is owed.
He shoves his fingers into Varos, wondering what Varos actually needs in there. Varos says he can take it all, he doesn’t care, and the Banker rips open Varos’s stomach and starts to pull out his organs, listing them off as he goes. He melts Varos into the ground, and walks up to Damon, but Varos tells him he’s still alive, and that the Banker should finish with one snack before going to another. The Banker rips Varos’s tongue out and it flies over to him. He eats it and speaks to Damon in Varos’s voice.
Damon tries to bolt, but the Banker grabs him by the collar. Elise throws a bolt of lightning at the Banker in a panic, and he allows himself to be hit. He asks Elise if she wants a turn, and chucks Damon off of the map. Damon rolls 1d6 to determine if this kills him or not [only a 1 results in death]. He rolls a 3, and loses 2 health blocks being impaled on a tree branch.
The Banker tells us that we’ll bring Bloom to him, or there will be consequences – he teleports to Thomas, threatening to turn his son into a house. He decides Thomas needs to remember, and turns him into a guitar. He plucks the guitar, and each note is a different scream. He tosses Guitarmas to Ari, who reflexively catches him before registering what he’s holding. The Banker’s head turns 180 degrees toward Talisman, and he says that Bob has promised him Talisman if Talisman breaks a deal.
He tells Elise it’s been fun to see her again, and says he’s still looking for Zetian and his book. He pulls her down with his power to look her in the eyes, and asks if she knows where his book is. She confirms Zetian still has it, and that Zetian is in the camp. He tells her to get Zetian out of the camp for him, and taps the side of her skull, giving her a brain tumor. He then walks the other way and stops at Varos, ripping Varos’s tongue out of his own mouth and shoving it back into Varos. Varos is unmelted from the ground. Varos says the Banker could’ve just killed him, and the Banker agrees, before promptly eating him.
We all make it back to camp [including Damon, who eventually manages to free himself, and excluding Varos, who is alive inside the Banker], and Thomas is transformed back into a person as we cross the threshold. He promptly starts vomiting. The body of the Netter Kreen is dropped off with Mace Crane, and Elise goes to Zetian to both bury the hummingbird and tell Zetian about the Banker. Zetian goes pale, and appears terrified.
Morale goes up as Crane spreads the stories of us slaying the Netter Kreen, and with the organs and bones intact, we’re able to harvest those materials. After a few days, Varos finds himself stumbling back into camp. The session ends here, with everyone taking a level-up.