01/16/2024 -- Special Operation Enola 2

• Date: 40 Lionnir 715AR. Starring Guy (commander), Bee (marshal), Kuno (quartermaster), Damon (spymaster), and Ari (lorekeeper).
• We begin with everyone entering Zetian’s cabin. Zetian is waiting for us in a very nice 3-piece suit. They say it’s business time (but not business as usual, because he doesn’t do usual). He tells us we’re going to the Malig Forge, and asks if we’ve been before. We haven’t, and we’re told it was once a reputable place where business happened and things were made efficiently. Firmin had to go and be problematic, and now we’re going to go yoink out his prisoners, because the jigger-wagger said DING. Ideally, we will then get out. We’re not supposed to tell Cordell about this.
  • Additionally, we’re told to keep our little peepers out for a young gal named Enola, and bring her here if we find her. Bee knows of Enola’s connection to Cordell, but the rest of us don’t. Cordell doesn’t know we’re in her business, so that’s why we have to have our business suits on*.
    • *Our current clothes count as our business suits. Zetian declares it as an Archfey.
• Additionally, Zetian tells us to beware thorns that are not our own. Be smart, don’t prick thorns. At the top of towers is where birds lay their eggs. Be snakes and eat them up. All of us here are hungry for omelets. Once you’re done doing business, you need omelets. They then ask Kuno if he’s been writing all this down, and give him “money” when he says yes (they throw seeds at him, which he takes).
• Outside, Damon asks if any of us would be willing to donate some blood. Bee volunteers, and he’s a bit concerned about the quality of her blood, but no one else will step up, and he doesn’t want to ask his family, so he ends up taking a bite out of her. She loses 20sp, and her blood tastes absolutely foul – his blood level goes up by 2, but he also gains 2 points of corruption, putting him at 9.
  • Bee asks if it tasted that bad, and becomes very distraught when Damon says he almost died. He hugs her, reassuring her he’s not dead yet.
• Bee then says she has something for Ari. He’s a bit uncomfortable, but she says that while she’s not so good with weapons, she thinks he is – with her left hand, she gives him the sapphire dagger. He takes it, and glances over his shoulder, feeling extremely watched. Everyone else sees him do the crackhead whiparound, before wrapping his cloak a bit tighter around himself and pulling the hood up.
• We then go to visit Hester, and find her Lucky Eight’s. She greets us, and hugs Bee. Damon asks if she can heal his sickness, and she offers to make us some tea – we all agree, and go to her tent, where she brews us some sparkroot tea. It doesn’t heal anything. She agrees to go on the mission with us, and says she’ll find us when it’s time to leave.
  • She gulps down her entire boiling cup of tea. Bee tries to mimic her, and it doesn’t go well.
• Kuno asks Hester if she’s an angel, and she says not anymore. He asks if she knows magic, and she says some – she can fly, and do many other things, but only when she needs to. He asks if she can show him sometime, and she says maybe. Guy tries to determine how mentally okay Hester is, and with 1 success on his spirit check, he determines she seems functional. She does seem to really love gambling, though.
• Damon tries to speak to his patron, but he can’t, so he just spends 2 recovery and goes off to the Rat Races. Kuno gets a whistler made before joining him, and taking notes on who’s winning. Ari and Guy join Hester at Lucky Eight’s, and Guy loses 50gp. Hester turns a massive profit, and talks about converting her winnings to copper, because when you use copper it takes longer for them to kick you out.
• We then get ready to go on the mission – Damon purchases another spy, and is immediately vetoed when he tries to name them Bob. He instead chooses Mark, and sends the three spies to gather supply, recovery, and information on the Choir, respectively. He rolls well, and gets +1 supply, and a question he can ask about the Choir. He asks if there’s an element that would do more damage, and is told Antoinette has gathered that spirit damage seems to be more effective.
• Guy spends 1 intel, and asks what a useful item to bring on the mission is. He’s told something that can open locked doors, or something that can cause a distraction. We spend 1 scrap on a lockpick (given to Ari), and end up spending 4 scrap on binoculars (given to Bee, giving her benefit i on checks to see objects far away). We also ask about Malig Forge’s surroundings, and are told it was once a strip mine, and went 150 ft down. The surrounding area once had a town, but it’s been leveled and used for scrap, and is mostly grasslands and sparse trees the rest of the way.
• We roll 2d6 on engagement [2, 4] and start in a risky position. It gets very dark, and animals stop calling in the distance, allowing us to hear the sounds of metal working as we approach, but Bee also hears the sound of chains. She gestures for us to get down, and we see a line of about 10 prisoners bound by hand and feet, led by a death rider atop a bone-white horse with decaying, peeling flesh. The humans are being led down this great hole, and we see a forge below us, with multiple buildings around. Within these buildings we see the illumination of hammers and forges, work being conducted even in the night.
• We make out two workshops, and a 4-5 story tall spiraling tower, the headquarters. Gaunts are moving in and out of the buildings. On the far side, they’re leading the new prisoners across a bridge that stretches over a pit of iron spikes, into a small, cramped building. Damon transforms, and Guy uses his Augury power [Primordial source] to ask about the dangers of us circling left towards the prison. He’s told there’s a risk of us getting spotted, and that it’s probably safer for us to go down the path into the pit, but that we could try to rappel down into it.
• We decide to circle around from the right, to use the noisy workshop (workshop #2) as cover, and so we can use the binoculars to check out the prison and guard tower. We make a physical check for stealth, and Ari [4 successes – benefit iii], while feeling watched, is constantly looking over his shoulder, and notices that one of the bushes isn’t right. Bee echolocates, and finds a hole under the bush. She parts the bush, and finds a hole with a ladder that goes 7-8 ft down, exiting into a tunnel.
• She looks at the guard tower [2 successes], and sees it goes 3 stories up. The top floor has Gaunts shambling about, and we see a massive bell on top. The HQ tower seems deserted and dark. We go in the hole, and Kuno makes a few small, dim lights appear around him, before sending them to the front of the party. We see an old mining tunnel, maybe a passage that hasn’t been filled in, and see arrows scratched into the wall, pointing towards the exit.
• There are some branches, but always arrows pointing us in the right direction. Kuno dutifully maps it out as we go, and after about an hour of moving, we reach the end of a passageway covered with large rocks. Guy shimmies past Damon and carefully moves a few of the rocks, and we find ourselves at the base of the cliff face. The area looks relatively empty, and doesn’t appear well-traveled. We decide to go around the back of the barracks and have Hester fly a rope across the gap [we tie together all of our rope to do this]. We all make it across, except Damon, who is left behind with the binoculars. We sneak up to the barracks, and there’s a small window at the back. We see 150-200 people inside, sleeping on twin-size cots. There’s a small access door on either side of the barracks, and one Gaunt moving back and forth up by the front entrance.
• Ari picks the lock, and takes a look in, but there’s no way to go in looking for Enola – it’s impossible to walk through without stepping on either a person or a mattress. We decide to just evacuate people as we go, and Ari wakes an older-looking dwarven man first. He presses a finger to his lips, and feels a shiv that’d been pressed against his stomach retract. The dwarf thanks him, and is directed out.
• We continue evacuating people, with Hester flying over the old and sick. Most people seem to be smiths and craftspeople. Ari approaches one woman to ask about Enola, and is told she escaped 2 weeks ago – she woke up one night, said a storm witch had called out to her. A massive bolt of lightning shook the workshop, and she was gone. Guy asks another person what they’re working on in the workshops, and is told they’re working on the Blightwing, a large green dragon they’ve been strapping metal to.
• We ask what Enola looks like, and are told she had olive skin, hair that went green and mossy at the ends, and strange eyes (one color one day, a different the next). Towards the end, they’d been taking her blood and taking it to the lab. Whatever they were doing to her, she didn’t like it very much. She also had a scar on the right side of her cheek, something from her childhood. Ari recognizes this description, and is a bit shaken.
• The sun has risen by the time we get the last of the people out, and we decide to sneak to the HQ to investigate Zetian’s egg-tower idea [after clarifying through a spirit check that Zetian did not, in fact, mean ringing the alarm bell]. We make a stealth check, and Damon gets 0 successes – the bell starts ringing, and the camp is now on alert, though we haven’t been found out. Guy peeks into a room that ends up being a war room. We’re allowed to make rummage checks for the tower, but because they’re on alert, we have to roll 2d6 and take the highest. Those with full rerolls are allowed to use the reroll here [as an exception].
• Ari makes the first rummage check [3], and finds map information – he gets the choice of finding maps to help us move north, south, or northwest. He chooses south, and sees a road leading to West Mare. The Impure seem to be heading there in particular.
• Bee goes deeper in, on the 2nd floor, and gets a 5. She finds a correspondence room, and gains +3 intel. On another 4 or 5, our location will be revealed. Ari makes another rummage check [2, after a reroll] and enters a room on the 3rd floor, an officer’s quarters. He realizes the Black Briar commands this site, and he’s currently in the BB’s room. He gains +1 intel, and sees a weapon on the rack – a black, monstrous ax. He takes it, and gets the Black Briar’s Ax (Dormant). He returns to the group, and gives the ax to Guy.
• Damon spends a trouble token on his next rummage check [6, I think? He failed]. We make it to the crow’s nest, and we find intel galore. Damon picks up a set of orders on a bloodstained desk, a letter from Rav the Flayed, saying he just resupplied and is following the Black Briar’s orders to head East to find Dernier, where they believe Enola has fled. He and his Death Riders are headed to that location now.
• The door closes behind us, and we all turn around, seeing the Black Briar and his cursed sword, a bone-white blade dripping blue smoke. The face is hidden by a veil, but we see two beady red eyes. He takes a step toward us, hefting the sword, and we feel he’s a wolf stalking his prey. “Meat for the forges.”
• Damon shoots out the window with his bow, and the Black Briar lunges. Bee holds out her right hand, wanting to protect Ari, and hopes the eye opens – it does open, and there’s a burst of light temporarily stunning BB. He still swings on her, for 135 dmg, and she loses an armor block + 2 health blocks. She rolls 3d6 twice, taking the lowest. She’s blinded for her minor injury, and for her major injury, all creatures get Benefit I on dmg rolls against her. She stumbles back from the impact, but the window is now open, and Guy grabs her. We all jump out the window.
• The seeds that Zetian gave Kuno activate, and they grow into long tendrils of vines and trees, creating a pad of greenery. BB is pissed at this, and calls out, “Kill them, bring me their corpses, add them to the forge.” We enter a skill challenge, DC 12.
• Bee uses her echolocation to help us move forward [physical check, 1 success]. Guy tries to just muscle his way ahead for us [physical check, 2 successes]. Damon uses his senses to help navigate [physical check, 5 successes]. Ari tries to use his Blink Strike to take out some of the Gaunt crowding us [physical check, 1 success]. Kuno tries to guide us by recalling what he mapped out, and Damon spends his peace token, finding arrows in the ground where Enola pointed out a faster route to her escape tunnel [mental check, 3 successes – got +1d6 for having roleplayed it previously, and Benefit I from Damon].
• We pass the check, time running out as the horde gets closer and closer, but Kuno guides us as one unit, and we hurry into the tunnel, Guy bringing it down beyond us – the BB almost catches up to us, but Hester swoops by and launches a rock at him, giving Guy the extra second to bring it down. We keep running, with Bee echolocating ahead of us, and the tunnel collapsing, until we see sunlight, and scramble up the ladder. The tunnel caves behind us. Hester lands next to us and urges us to get out of here.
• As we lead people back into camp, there’s cheering and cries of happiness. +3 morale, and our pressure decreases to 0. We head back to Zetian’s cabin, and he asks if we have eggs for an omelet. We give them the good news [and hand over the intel], and they go into an adjacent room and come back with omelets he made for us. They say not to tell Cordell, but we might have more business here. Bee asks if we did good, and they say yes, and give her a gold star. They’re pleased with Kuno for taking everything down.
• We end the session here, and everyone gets a level-up.