Party Crasher

February 6, 2014

(Because of missing one player last time and one player this time, we backed up a bit and filled in some details.  Bob picked a very powerful family to be a part of.  When he was going to be gone, I had his uncle, Eirtein, tell his character that he couldn't go.  When he made it, I went with that and the players turned it into something brilliant.)

Eirtein tells Ricken that he is not allowed to go to the Cornucopia, even in his role as an actor.  Eirtein will be going and representing the Oberigo's at the party and he doesn't want to over represent the house or have Ricken's presence send any wrong messages.  However, Eirtein tells this to Ricken with more than enough time for Ricken to get a disguise.  After clearing it with Millech, who agrees to stay out of sight for a few days around the Cornucopia, Ricken has some of the make up people at the theater ready him a disguise.  They are so enamored with him, that they forgot to have him pay for the supplies!  

Ricken was able to join in the others as they arrived, although he did get a little wet and smear the disguise slightly.  When asked by Corsael who Ricken is, and it is explained that he's their servant, Ricken is asked to wait with the other servants at the moment until he can be dealt with.  At first, Ricken is not happy about this but then realizes that this will allow him to avoid his uncle and perhaps even do some searching on his own.  The others are introduced and sat in places of honor.  They noticed that all but two are quite impressed by their appearance.  Pritarius was dressed in full armor with a blood red cloak.  Galen also had his armor with a blood red cloak as accouterments.  Verus uses a bit of magic to enhance his entrance as well.  General Vourne and the women he was talking to, someone that no one recognizes but they all notice, don't seem impressed.  In contrast, most of the noble ladies swoon over their entrance and appearance.  There are many other noble families in attendance, clamoring to talk to the actors and ask them questions about the performance.  They are able to hold their tongues and answer civilly, even as the same question is posed to them again and again.  

The Feast of the Gluttonous Wolf starts promptly as the grandfather clock in the room, quite the antique that the Lord Mayor likes to preen over, strikes seven.  As food enters, so does wine, cordials, and some high end ales, as well as tobacco, Cabble-Weed, Qat, Pesh, and Yellow-cap Mushrooms.  Ricken, while waiting with the dozens of servants who were getting ready for the food, noticed the drinks and decided to speed things up a bit.  He manages to tip over a cauldron with a soup in it on the far side of the kitchen, causing an uproar as it's fixed.  Several of the servants are worried if they will have enough but as they discuss that, Ricken manages to sneak some of the Pesh and Yellow-cap Mushrooms into the wines and ales.  As the last of the food enters, Ricken manages to send a Message to Verus that they should avoid the drinks.  

After the course is served, most eat, although Vourne looks uncomfortable during it all.  After tasting some things, much gossip and talking happens.  Pritarius makes sure that the noble families know who he is and that he wants to join the Hellknights, should other sponsorship be needed.  Galen speaks to the Lord Mayor but the Lord Mayor seems more interested in being host and makes sure Galen speaks to the other guests.  Verus talks to Sascar Tilernos and learns from her the gossip about the Lord Mayor hiding a bastard child in the attic.  She also flirts with him and he leaves it ambiguous.  Ricken is able to sneak out and use Curator to get into a wing with private bedrooms and start searching but finds nothing of interest.  General Vourne mistakes Verus for a servant and demands drinks from him.  Before saying anything he might regret, Verus instead gets some of the spiked wine to serve to him, hoping this will loosen Vourne up a bit.  

The Worshipful Hog course including a dire boar that required twelve bearers to bring it in.  Again, food is eaten and then talking begins.  However, not long after, Vourne excuses himself.  Pritarius tries to speak with him but Vourne doesn't seem interested and leaves.  There is a definite change in the mood once Vourne is gone, as people seem to relax and start enjoying themselves more.  Galen speaks to the women Vourne was talking to when they entered and find out she is Chammady Drovenge, of the most powerful house.  Chammady also excuses herself from speaking to such an upcoming legend and says that she must go to other events this evening.  Verus speaks with Eirtein and learns the house does have secrets but not much more than that at this time.  Ricken searches the East Wing but misses finding all of the treasure and finds nothing amiss.  

As the Fat of the Land course begins, Ricken's tampering with the drinks is now evident.  Many of the nobles are quite tipsy.  Most don't notice that the fireplace or sconces will sometimes flare up.  Valen manages to speak to the Lord Mayor, who is not happy about the "gremlins" that seem to have gotten into his house in the past few days.  The Lord Mayor lets slip that if he was more like his ancestor, he might have the arcane knowledge to fix it but will probably have to deal with the Academy at some point.  Eirtein does speak to Pritarius about the two hiding places, one in the attic and one below.  However, the one below is accessed from this room, via two large black stone doors, and no one could open them without being noticed.  Crosael talks to Verus about poetry and when Verus can finish the line she started, Crosael seems quite shocked.  She immediately opens up to him.  In fact, she even asks if they would look into something for her.  A servant she hired, Sian, has gone missing and she's worried.  Would they be interested in trying to find her?  Verus doesn't commit to anything but does suggest they would be interested.  

Before the next course starts, many of the nobles, having had a lot of the drugged wine, excuse themselves.  Verus notices Crosael slip off as the course starts and follows her.  Crosael goes into the servant's quarters and meets up with Chammady!  They talk about how Crosael got Sian into the place and wants nothing more to do with it.  Chammady agrees and says not to worry about it and that Crosael's part is done.  After thanking her, Chammady leaves and Crosael heads back to the party.  

The Dance of the Engorged Vulture is another large course brought into the room.  However, when even the Lord Mayor can't keep yawning, most decide to call it a night and go to bed.  

Most.

Once the rest of the guests, the servants and the Lord Mayor are away, the group meets up to discuss what to do.  Ricken fills them in on the areas he saw and how there was nothing of interest there.  Verus says he was able to get Crosael's keys, so they can go anywhere.  They start by finding their way up to the attic.  After searching around for an hour, and using the key's to get past several locked doors, they find a secret room.  On one of the walls of this room, there are some double doors made of flat, gray metal.  They find a deactivated trap and wonder about that.  Ricken has Curator touch the door and is shocked when Curator keeps going and steps into them, passing through them as if it was a sheet of water.  Cursing, Ricken follows quickly after, as does Pritarius and Valen.  However, Verus stays behind to cast a few spells of protection.  

The members of the group that went through find themselves in a long, wood paneled hallway with a body.  It appears to be someone who died recently via stab wounds in the chest, clutching some scrolls.  The body also has robes and a haversack on him.  They take the items and search through the haversack, revealing that a Runecurse was in the haversack.  Unfortunately, they still activate it on themselves.  Ricken is able to identify that a demon is now watching them and will eventually be summoned!  Pritarius likes that but the rest of them aren't so sure.  As Ricken is finishing up talking about it, he is attacked from behind!  An assassin attacks!  However, it was very foolish as the four of them quickly overpower the assassin.  They force the assassin to tell them what happened.  From the information the assassin gives them, they are able to rescue Sian and send her back out.  (I had a slight time distortion happen such that she will run into Verus, just as he is ready to enter.)  

They continue to find a library with maybe a hundred books, spread out across many shelves.  As they are looking at them, they are attacked by some Howlers.  It is a very tough fight, and Galen almost dropped from a nasty bite attack, but they managed to defeat the Howlers.  

With that, we quit for the night.  

XP:  2600 xp for the role playing and 2400 xp for the searching and two fights they had as well as the rescue.  

Individual xp:  Bob:  600 xp, John:  500 xp,  Drew:  400 xp.

GM Notes

• This showed me how unprepared I was to run six NPCs that must be "interrogated" during the party!  Further, there should have been other NPCs mentioned as being at the party with some rumors or jobs for the party as well.  I think it went okay but this could have easily been something where I had a few co-DMs to help me give out the information needed.  
• Having said that, I did enjoy playing them but think I could have used more time to figure a few things out.  I think it went too fast but if I had taken the time to role play everything, I was worried it would leave too much dead time for players as they waited for their characters turn.  
• This has led me to the realization that I probably do too much action because action gets and keeps all of the players involved.  But even something like buying an item, no matter how interesting or crucial it could be, means focusing on one person and potentially losing the other player's attention!  I'm still working to find that balance between it all.   
• When Bob had Ricken search the East Wing, he didn't roll higher than a 17 on his Perception and missed a lot of treasure.  But he made up for it by rolling a natural twenty, playing as Verus, to see Crosael and Chammady meet.  
• Again, the CR system is definitely more of an art than science.  The assassin that attacks is supposed to be a CR 7 and with one party member less, I expected the assassin to last longer.  I think within two rounds, they had the assassin down.  In contrast, the Howlers should have been quite easy, as they are listed as a CR 5 at most, yet a lucky critical strike by a Howler led to nearly losing a party member.  Further, their attacks were bad enough that it wore down on them and they cast some pretty powerful spells to take out the Howlers not long after.  
• This also brings up one of the things that I still find tough, twenty years later, knowledge.  Runecurses are something the arcane players should have known about.  Indeed, the noble characters should know about them as well.  However, the players and DM are never on the same page with knowledge, in so many ways.  In this case, I'm talking about the gaming world.  Maybe a player knows about another area but not the area they are in.  I usually have one player who knows something about the game world but usually not the same things as me, or the same emphasis.  In the worse case scenario, the DM and player have read the same things but have very different conclusions about what it means.  What does this mean?  Well, basically that at times, when something new is introduced, like the Runecurse, it's very difficult to know how to really introduce it.  If I mention it early on, then the players are looking for it and argue that they would do what it takes to avoid it.  That's sensible but not terribly dramatic!  So, it's a fine line of introducing new knowledge and still using it against them in a dramatic, and hopefully fun, way!  I'm not sure how well it worked with the Runecurse in this case but they are cursed, so maybe it worked.    

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