Session 4

Fact sheet: on the road with Saatia and Santiago

Date: wed 03-08-22

Date in game: an unspecified Tuesday

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our DM.

Major developments:

Notes

While Saatia is still beguiled by Storm's courtier-moves, we learn:

she's part of the Sable Serpent
- this is a criminal organisation that appears to operate from a caravan. Travelling around would probably make them harder to catch
- Saatia reports to Na'Dir, the head of the organisation. This man knows no human values like mercy or restraint, he's only interested in money and the rewards of their crimes
- Simeon Ibn Seif is a long-standing connection to Na'Dir and has a better reputation within the Sable Serpent than Saatia, who indicates she's past her prime and thus no longer trusted with the most demanding or prestigious assignments
- the Sable Serpent is involved in a politicially sensitive negociation in Koh'Shar. Since it's not moving in their favour & the other party (who she refuses to name) could potentially wipe out the Sable Serpent, they hired Simeon as an outside contact: his assassinating the other party would give them an advantage, without leading back to them.
she confirms Simeon is a deranged serial killer who kills for fun
when the Sable Serpent learnt of Ghorann's demise (see session 1), she was sent to this hideout to collect any incriminating correspondence or documentation & to generally loot the place
the Sable Serpent has an unexpected surplus of prisoners whom they plan to sell as slaves. Probably these people are other survivors from Nawa, Enza's village. Might they be her family, friends and neighbours?
if we want to travel to Cresent Cove, she advises us to find a convoy in Koh'Shar to The Vale and cross the Spine, because trouble is brewing in the Sea of Storms & the Chelmian Sea, where war fleets appear to be gathering due to changes in Rosaria (the kingdom in the northern half of the Hammerhead peninsula)
- the king died a few months ago, reportedly of natural causes, though he wasn't particularly old
- though not yet crowned, the crownprince has already started gahtering a fleet to attack the nation Kharkorin, which he blames for the destruction (6 months ago) of the holy city Lharsam, where Soliman is worshipped. The conflict between Rosaria and Kharkorin has been festering for half a century, when Kharkorin's fleet crossed the Chelmian Sea to invade the Bay of Beasts and sail towards The Perch... It's in the defeat of these invaders that Eluviel gained his reputation as war hero and venerated servant of Lunaire

We assume this information is mostly correct.

Hali's starry form goes out, through the hatch sunlight filters down, along with the sounds of Fyllion crying in a panic. Frei and Hali go to check. Frei is furious that Simeon got away, but doesn't particularly blame Fyllion. Sarcastically, she suggests he can write a song about the duel, and Fyllion takes the suggestion to heart.

We start discussing our next move (for the next morning, we'll need rest and recovery first):

killing Saatia is against our code, although she grins that it's the only sensible proposal she's heard
Eldrin would like to let her go & is willing to buy her freedom with his share of the loot we found. Saatia appears agreeable to this, promising she won't tell anyone we were there... but we're too worried about Saatia retaliating, and we wouldn't accept his payment anyway
we can go to the Sable Serpent's current hideout and free the enslaved prisoners. This would of course please Enza & taking the freed people to Koh'Shar would set up our reputation in that city. Saatia warns us we're no match for Na'Dir, so we're worried about the odds of survival. Additionally, can we really change the culture of slavery in this area?
we can take her to Koh'Shar and
1. try to convince her to help us stop Simeon's assassination (given he fled with a horse, he'll probably reach Koh'Shar without any problems)
2. try to exchange her for a reward, similar to Frei's plan with Simeon, although we have no info if such a reward for Saatia exists, or would be sufficient to allow Frei to return into Koh'Shar society
3. allow her to escape, either upon arrival, or secretly arming her before handing her over to the guards (Fyllion's suggestion that he shift into Simeon till he's alone, we don't seriously entertain)

We decide to vote in the morning. Fyllion insists Storm gives him the massage he's owed. Storm obliges, but there appears to be a mismatch : Storm only knows physio-therapeutic massages to improve one's physical condition, while Fyllion was expecting a more sensual experience... When the first roll of the game turns out to be a NATURAL ONE for Fyllion's constitution, everyone can hear him whine over Storm's whispered instructions to "just breathe through the pain". Using lamp oil on Fyllion's delicate skin doesn't improve the experience, poor dear.

We loot the bandits:

for everyone, desert-ready garb including eye protection
leather armour with handmade serpent insignia - Saatia has studded leather armour, clearly of better quality... but none of us dare search her, never mind strip her of her armour
4 waterskins, 4 rations
daggers, 2 crossbows, 3 scimitars, which Fyllion takes to use & sell

We loot the skiff (sort of a husky sled):

it's mainly empty cages, crates & boxes: they were hoping to find exotic animals in Ghorann's hideout
thick linnen to shelter the horses from a sandstorm if need be

While Ezra chooses silks to sew new pants, Fyllion goes to find his personal manacles (Simeon threw them somewhere in the pit).

How can we keep Saatia contained through the night? Wrap her in all the chains we can find (Eldrin objects)? Stuff her in one of Ghorann's crates (Ezra objects)? Finally, Hali interrupts Storm's brainstorm of cruel ideas and ties a bell to Saatia's manacles, so we'll have a warning if she tries to move too much.

Fyllion and Ezra build the shelter for the one remaining horse. Ribbing Fyllion, we suggest he make a balad of all his bad ideas : asking Hali to turn into a chicken for eggs to supplement our rations, asking Storm for a restorative massage without establishing a safeword, suggesting Hali becomes a horse to help pull the skiff through the desert...

Hali asks Saatia if tomorrow is Saturday, so she can play bagpipes, but it turns out to be Tuesday.

During the first watch, Fyllion (outside) notices there's still (or again) coming a smoke plume coming from Nawa, while inside Ezra and Saatia have a hate-filled staring contest. Saatia tries to rile up Ezra, but they have the last laugh when Saatia falls asleep without managing to get any closer to escaping.

During the second watch, Hali keeps watch with the horse upstairs: in the far distance, she sees shapes moving - they're hunched over and galopping... they're more dretches! Probably, they're not directly on our trail but maybe they're still looking for us...?

During the last watch, Frei keeps watch with the horse upstairs. Eldrin gets into a quiet and intense conversation with Saatia about the value of every life and about the pirates' code to not work with authorities: Eldrin boasts about the Young Kraken & she promises to remember the name. Since she lives in the Sand Sea, far away from any ocean, this feels more like a threat than a promise. She wonders if we're actually pirates, or just wet wannabe bandits, and in Eldrin's subsequent explanation, she gets them to spill the beans about our magical memory loss, connected to the circle near Nawa. She repeats her warning that most of us aren't cut out for the ruthless life of banditry in the desert: she claims might makes right & that's the only way to protect your life and privileges here.

Saatia suggests this is their chance to let her go... but Eldrin rejects her with a moving explanation they'd never betray the family they found in our crew.

To settle the vote, Fyllion turns into our captain Magpie & proposes "we do the right thing": go to Kohshar, hand in Saatia, look into either helping Enza free her people or stopping Simeon from his assassination. Ezra, Frei, Fyllion, Hali and Storm agree, so with an apology to Saatia, Eldrin also accepts the plan.

As we prepare to leave, we fill the skiff with 250 gold pieces' worth of supplies: the letters in the tiny luggage, several bolts of silk selected by Ezra, some small gold items and spices, the weapons, the most valuable-looking magic ingredients (for Hali to use & for us to sell), as well as a barrel Hali can fill with 37 liters of water 3 times a day.

Enza wonders if we can pass by Nawa, but we prefer to go straight to kohshar

For day 1, Storm rolls a NATURAL ONE for our travel weather : the air is unnaturally clear ahead of an approaching sandstorm

We use the linnen, the bandits' desert garb & the silk

Only Enza, Ezra and Storm make it through, everyone else takes damage

Fyllion sings us a marching song so we avoid exhaustion

by the evening we get into a long stretch of desert - sand everywhere, shelter nowhere

when we crest a dune, we see a caravan with people on horses. The carts have lamps & the leader is another polecat

the others hide & Storm approaches the leader.

so rare to see our kind, Santiago would normally rob but now just wants a lively conversation

Santiago orders the caravan of polecats, elves and other people to make a camp

Hali crests the hill with the horse & Fyllion disguised as a polecat

Santiago welcomes them in this nomads' camp

Enza & Frei join them

Eldrin asks Saatia who Santiago is, but she doesn't know him

Ezra, Eldrin and Saatia join them

Santiago doesn't question Saatia's chains

he has all kinds of jewelry, incl a necklace with a big black opal

he pours wine for us from a weird earthenware alchemy jug

his arms from fingertips to beyond elbows are blackened

in exchange for music and stories, we get biscuits and food

fyllion sings & Hali plays the bagpipe

Santiago has heard of Fyllion & recognises the lute

a wonderful bard famous for the song "the lusty maiden and the goat", but why does everyone say he's an elf?

Fyllion says he can make himself look like an elf

don't tell anyone

there is a polecat dancer in Kohshar related to Reinsinger, Santiago met them in the Vale just over the edge of the spine : it's storm's brother!

the prince doesn't like magic, the king died of old age, only he wasn't that old

Santiago feels this is a good area to find cultural inspiration

perhaps Storm can perform for his name day, or on the eve of battle

Fyllion sings his famous song the lusty maiden and the goat

Santiago suggests Korjah the princess of pleasures in Kohshar, who runs the brothels and taverns. Fyllion preparese the lamp oil song for

we discover Saatia's accent is regional

Hali asks about Santiago's magical scarring on his hands : he tried to steal a magical artifact from a wizard

north of the spine he's called fox glove because of this Ezra relates the story of the chest that wasn't a chest

Ghorann's chessboard talks back at Hali : you have to beat me in a game before I respect you, or before you can use the pieces as tiny servants

Hali rolls a DIRTY TWENTY and earns the respect

Santiago explains the jug makes infinite beverages : lobster bisque, olive oil, champagne, wine, bedouin tea, water...

it's the key to the caravan's survival

He makes a decent cocktail from Ezra's home

He makes olive oil so a human woman can massage Fyllion

Storm is hurt - inspired by Fyllion's screams and his narration of this massage, the group decides a massage can count as torture

Eldrin checks Santiago's offer of hospitality : for one evening we can rely on him

Fyllion comes back from his massage, totally satisfied

Spurred on by Eldrin, Fyllion demonstrates the woman's massage techniques on Storm : Storm melts under his hands, a new world has opened for Storm - now we can play good masseur and bad masseur if we have to interrogate a prisoner

we get a long rest : health returns, no more exhaustion

no events during the night

the second day, we wake up to the caravan gone

we find our skiff, Saatia and some small rations on a silk handkerchief (with Ezra's family's logo embroidered : a saari brand (cf chanel)), as well as 2 waxy cubes of pemmikan (tallow, jerky and herbs) which function as tiny health potions

Our horse and any coins we found are gone

Can Hali turn into a horse, or into a camel? NO

May Fyllion sit on the skiff to sing a song while the others drag the skiff with the ropes? YES

We travel through the hot desert, but we manage

only Ezra really suffers and gets exhausted

we crest the last dune and see Kohshar

Eldrin notices it looks very different from the stories they'd heard : they thought it was a sizeable city with a bunch of greenery

it turns out to be very large with a lot of lush fields around it, a lot of the flora round the city appears perfectly, unsettlingly circular

Frei leads us past fields of young but very fertile looking agriculture

Storm notices everything is less than 2 years old : trees, teaplants, shrubs... even a lot of the buildings are new & just stacked on top of each other

Frei seems on edge but not surprised

on the ground we notice faded symbols, in a band around the fertile area

Hali, Eldrin and Fyllion recognise it as runes (not druidic) but can't quite decypher them

Frei mentions it was a circle 2 years ago : a city appeared within a forest, for a day or two

people came out & talked to Kohshar and a lot of water flew out, which remained (along with several plants & animals)

Subbor the cleric can tell us more - they might have been Soleiman followers, coming for trade, though subbor thinks they're messengers from the gods

Fyllion knows about plane shifting people (which he can do) or areas... plane shifting a city must demand a lot of power!