Onsdagsdrager, Sess. 2 - 08.08.2018

Previous session: Session 1

Next session: Session 3

Recap:

The night sky is full of stars. Two moons hang in the firmament this night; Vena, the Feymoon and Atar, Wymrest.

Below, a seven-sided plaza is illuminated by the celestial lights. The Square of the Septarch. Once cobbled in an intricate geometric pattern, half of it is now broken open, and the beautiful paving stolen for building materials. Sheep graze on one side of it, and by daytime it would be a bustling bazaar. Not so now.

For at the side of the square is the gold transport, nominally belonging to the Platinum Exchange. It is assailed by wild bandits from the Red Hands, even now in the dead of night. The horses are all dead, and only a handful of mercenaries still make a stand.

Below a grate, in the sewers under the wagon hides the members of a felonius gang of thieves on a heist tonight.

They also want the gold. Our heroes.

The heist crew is waiting eagerly in the room beyond the reserve cisterns, where they ended session 1. We are quickly introduced to a few new faces; The entire crew of the heist now present and accounted for, makes:

Renart, the leader of the Riverside Gang, as well as Nordbert and Notker, his left- and right-hand-man.

Ezrah, the 12-year-old wheelwrights' apprentice who is the inside-man on the job.

Bela, a vicious looking, thin young woman with dramatic make-up and a black leather armour.

Tross, a Half-orc brute, and Ilvalin, a half-elven pirate, along for the excitement.

And spellcasters; Stonesinger Walschud, a svifnerblin stonesinger, Flastergast, a crazed-looking sorcerer, Cillian, an old and dignified wizard, and NikNak, a particularly ugly goblin with truly terrible social skills.

Besides these, the three we've already met; Aneurin, Aziz and Sammy

A great deal of debate begins in the sewers. The party takes stock of resources available, and considers whether the gold transport can simply be driven away if horses are aquired. Stonesinger Walschud has brought blackpowder. Lots of it.

While considering whether the tentacle creature in the cistern could be killed, Samuel notices a golden object, bobbing on the surface of the cisterns' water.

Meanwhile, a group follows the hallway leading up from the cisterns, eventually finding a double-door which opens onto a backyard, close to the besieged gold transport.

Cillian sends off his familiar - an owl, to scout, and the party discovers as much as 15 or more half-orc bandits are present. Too many to fight, perhaps. It is decided to attempt to cause a cave-in, bringing the roof of the cistern down, and with it the gold-transport. It may then, perhaps, be taken through the sewers to safety.

Before that can happen, a violent altercation occurs. During a discussion of the curse supposedly barring entrance into the safety-cage within the transport, NikNak gravely injures the pride of Ezrah, who shoves him in anger. NikNak responds with his magic, nearly killing the young man in a single blow.

Renart is highly concerned by the turn of events, and Notker & Nordbert nearly draw weapons against the goblin, but diplomatic intervention by others prevents things from escalating further.

All the same, Ezrah informs the crew that a bloodlock secures the treasure in the transport. Only the blood of the owner of the company, or his daughter, can open the cage. Cillian, calling upon his knowledge of all sorts of trivia, manages to recall that the Platinum Exchange is run by an ancient rockgnome named Oldegast Klinker.

While the crew sets to preparing the explosion, another player enters the stage for this night: The Platinum Exchange mercenaries arrive, and swiftly take the fight to the Red Hands, attempting to secure their wagon, and ride off with it.

Seeing that time must be bought, the crew sends off a detachment to distract the mercenaries. This strike-team skirts around the plaza, and ambushes the officer on site, as well as someone hidden within a carriage. The fight goes poorly, but does manage to serve as a fruitful distraction until the bomb detonates. It also costs poor Flastergast his life. The rest of the distraction team gets away, Aneurin carrying the unconscious Cillian.

In the sewers, the rest of the crew set upon the broken and battered survivors of the enormous blast, dispatching them all with little trouble. The poor otyugh Martha is killed by the falling wagon, and rubble. Two prisoners are taken from among the Platinum Exchange mercenaries, and stripped of weapons and armor.

The rest of the crew arrive back from their sojourn, and the entire crew piles onto the roof of the now-floating gold transport, save for Tross and Ilvalin, who deftly open the drainage hatch of the cistern, in a hail of crossbow.fire from the street above. Aneurin offers to leave behind Thropp, the prisoner the scouting party took, or to bring him along and give him a small cut of the job. Thropp request to be left, and Aziz tells him to let the world know that the great Aziz Swiftfinger did this daring heist.

Aneurin then murders Thropp, in the interest of operational security.

Immense water-pressure is released, as the drainage-gate slides open. The transports is thrown forward, swept along by the mass of foul sewage. The aqueduct steepens, and little control is to be had in the headlong rush of liquid shit.

The crew attempts to stabilize the floating wagon, but in the midst of their efforts, they are suddenly assailed by maddened troglodytes, jumping at them from side-tunnels. They brave these troubles valiantly, successfully stabilizing the wagon, and overcoming their attackers.

Finally, they find themselves below the Outcity. In a tunnel hidden behind the back of the Silk Ribbon Cascades, they bring the wagon to a stop. Through the splashing water from above, the faint first light of day can almost be sensed.

It is time to investigate the wagon. Much effort is spent on this task, and the crew discover that the wizard inside the transport, Skepilos, has died from previous wounds, although his pet pixie (Moptop Gurklob) still lives. Samuel decides to murder this pixie, through the deft use of spells, although the pixie appears amenable to talk. Aziz disapproves, and attempts to stop him, unsuccessfully.

After this, Ilvalin and Aziz set off along the river - towards the Whore's Mouth - a fishing village which is also a jolly hub of smuggling in the area. There they hope to find Andrei - an aquaintance of Renarts who captains a river barge large enough to transport the take onwards.

Cillian almost has one of the mercenary prisoners open the cage within the wagon, assuming the curse will affect only him. The man refuses, having seen the curses' effects before, saying he prefers death by Tross' sword. The crew learns from the guard that the curse is most likely to harm far more people than simply the one soul opening the cage, and perhaps more caution is required.

Thus chastized, they decide to await the return of Ilvalin and Aziz.