Party Hard

September 10, 2015

Zac, Kris, Liz, and Kam have a lot of questions for the group.  Can they cheat people at the games?  Can they steal from them?  Can they start doing some second story work?  Is it okay to annoy Grohlyn?  Do they pay them their guild dues or do they have to go back to guildhall for that?  Do they get a take if they bring people to Grindhouse?  The group answers the questions as best as they can.  A few give contradictory answers, which Zac, Kris, Liz, or Kam clarify, but otherwise find the answers they need. 

Grindhouse is quite busy over the next few weeks.  Cress is getting his lab set up, where he has not only started making potions, but also different kinds of brews for the tavern.  Lazarus is fine tuning his performance area to give him the best and most flattering light.  Niko is hearing that more refugees are going to be showing up.  The elves have apparently been driven or left their home and will be coming here.  The rumor is that the queen gave them the north part of East Shore to settle as their own.  More rumors say that Harse or Palin's Cove also has refugees showing up for the city.  Grohlyn has been working as a bouncer, learning how to spot a cheat.  Sveinn works the room with Grohlyn.  Cress has the group really come down hard on any cheaters.  He spends a day using Detect Thoughts to catch any.  Zac helps with this at cards, while Liz does this with the dice.  Between all of them, they set the reputation of Grindhouse as not allowing cheaters and coming down hard on them. 

Aunt Matilda, their informal patron, stopped in one night.  The group made her feel quite welcome, which she appreciated, although she was quite out of her element.  Cress presented her with one of his own brews, which she seemed to like, and Lazarus said he would perform, which he did and did a song for her.  Aunt Matilda told them she was worried about her nephew, Ruan.  He is an up and coming performer as well with the lute and she had helped get him a job at Carowyn Manor for a party they were holding.  However, that was two days ago and she hasn't heard from him since.  She has visited his place and the manor to no avail and is quite flummoxed at the whole thing.  She was hoping the group would look into it.  They agree to do so. 

When they get to the manor, they can hear people moving around but the place is surrounded by a thorny hedge, and so they can't see anyone.  Climbing a nearby tree reveals more thorns, although Niko avoids them.  Niko can see people and they are moving oddly but he's not sure why.  Finally, Sveinn tells Niko to open a window so they can get inside, since no one is answering the door.  They go into a nice study only to find a Carrion Golem waiting for them!  While they do manage to destroy it, it inflects several diseases on Grohlyn.  Moving out into the main hallway reveals three zombie couples, all doing some macabre dance.  They try and sneak by them by are noticed and the zombies attack.  In the middle of the attack, Jolistina makes her presence known by appearing and shooting at them with her crossbow before disappearing again.  They aren't happy when she isn't there after they have dealt with the zombies.  They go upstairs and find more zombies.  Again, Jolistina attacks them while they are otherwise distracted and gets away.  The third time, though, she isn't lucky as the group all work to capture her, which they do. 

Grohlyn and Niko threaten her with violence and though she seems unconcerned about it, it obviously got to her.  When Lazarus comes forward and plays nice, she lets slip that the one teaching her, a necromancer named Rolth is the one that sent her here.  She sent Ruan to Rolth as a test subject than stayed to play with the party goers here.  She lets slip that something is going to happen at the Temple of Pharasma as well.  She doesn't know the exactly when it will happen, though. 

After the group gets the information from Jolistina, there is quite the discussion about what to do with her.  Some want to hand her over the guards but the others are convinced the guards are corrupt and nothing will happen or she will get away.  In the end, the group wanting to alert the guards wins and they turn her over to them. They do let magistrate Jaggere about what has happened and he promises to look into it personally. 

Epilogue:  Jolistina's trial happens a few weeks later and she is found guilty by Magistrate Zenderholme and ordered to be hung.  No one comes to Jolistina's rescue. 

GM Notes

• I spent a lot of time having their help ask them questions about what they could and couldn't do.  The ideas was for me to learn what the players wanted from their help so that I could have that happen in the background as needed.  
• We used d20Pro for the manor stuff and it worked out well.  Drew, the remote player, really liked being able to see the map as he could say more and interact more, rather than just saying he ran and punched the next person.  
• I should have allowed an intimidate roll on Jolistina to let the physical violence be more effective than it was.  It worked out that Lazarus was able to "charm" the information out of her but the other two should have gotten some information.  
• This is why I have the epilogue on what happens to Jolistina, as I wanted that resolved and didn't want to forget about it.  However, they will have more happen before then, so the epilogue allowed me to finish that story.  
• Hmm.  Maybe it will work better to pick up after the trial instead.  I will have to ponder that.   
• The title comes from a video game I have been playing.  You are a serial killer upset at the 3 am party and so the game is a puzzle game of how to kill everyone at the party! 

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