FocusWolf413
2016-02-29, 01:27 AM
Chapter 1: Screw CR, We're Murderhobos!!!
Yesterday's session was incredible. Just... wow. Gotta hand it to the DM. He did an amazing job. Thank you, pieman, for not pulling your punches. That would have cheapened our victory.
Just a warning, I don't write a lot. I'm not very good. I'm probably going to switch tenses a lot. I might drift in and out of character in terms of PoV. While that might be strange, it's how I look at the game.
We're a fourth level party. We were allowed to take three gestalt levels and we're using a mixture of Grod's rework of 3.5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?329161-Giants-and-Graveyards-Grod-s-collected-3-5-revisions), Path of War, Spheres of Power, and some homebrew. We make it work. Our party is the following:
Hadrian: Wood Elf Ranger 4 // Savage 1 Warlock 2. It makes sense in character. I focus on stealth, twf/switchhitting, and poisoning. I took the Urban Companion ACF to get a racist raven that speaks Elvish and swears like a sailor.
Tiny: Massive 7 foot tall Blue Lizardman. I'm not so sure about his levels. I think he might be something like a Dragon Shaman. He's our go-to lightning and hammers guy. Pretty great to have in the party.
McStabbins: Human Elicter. She has lots of mind altering spells that activate on a touch. Very useful. Very scary.
Lorde McReginald: This one's a piece of work. He's a classist, pretentious, somewhat insane archaeology professor. He's a Ritualist 4 // Roguetotem 3. He gets a surprising amount of miles from his ranks in Profession(Mathematician). Decoding, regaining his sanity, navigating. You name it, he's done it.
We're on a mostly uninhabited island in an archipelago that's somewhat like the Philippines. We were hired by the city guard to clear out the dangers of the island. We found some very old and very dangerous artifacts, so Reggie called in some of the professors and their slaves D Class citizens student athletes interns to come help.
A few sessions ago, my evil ranger got tricked by Reggie into putting on a hat of opposite alignment. This completely changed the game. My character was an "employee" of an evil empire that wanted to get a foothold in the region. I was supposed to kill this one guild leader, Pollaren, so his pro-empire Lieutenant could become the new leader. Not one to take my reformation lightly, I started planning to assassinate my good friend in the guild.
Last session, we found a ship in a hidden harbor on the far side of the island. Some people were taking the extremely dangerous items from some nearby caves and piling them onto a ship. McStabbins tried to talk to them, but after several rolls under a natural four, it turned into a murderfest. Most of them got away, but we left their ship burning as they sailed off. It wasn't all a loss; we got the name of one of their contacts in the city: Farren, the same person who sent scouts after us before.
When we got back to our base, we spoke to our eagle scouts. When asked if they saw anything, their exact words were "Not D class twolegs over there, and then not, and then there again. Gimme meat."
Tiny and I decided to do some scouting. We found the spies, alright. They sent their regards and suicide bombed us. There was nothing left but a crater.
We were pissed. There was reckoning to be reckoned.
After a day of crafting Hats of Human Guise, disguising ourselves thoroughly, and hiding weapons all over our bodies, we went over to Farren's office to chat with him. We were ready for a fight.
Imagine our surprise when they didn't even check our names or ask for our weapons when we went inside.
We were ushered into a waiting room, then after a few minutes, Farren decided to speak with us.
"Greetings, my rather abrupt friends, what may I do for you?"
Luckily, we played it smart. I bribed him with a really nice bottle of vodka and McStabbins got a 31 on diplomacy to talk to him and see if we could exchange our services for information on where that ship went, who he's currently working for in terms of the artifacts, and who sent assassins after us.
He seemed very dismissive of the services we could offer until Tiny, our illiterate savage, said "Just mind control the information out of him!"
*internal swearing*
"Well, that explains the erratic behavior of my employees."
*swearing swearing swearing*
"I think I could use your services."
What?
"Please escort the young lady out of the room. As useful as she is, I cannot risk her touching me. We can resume negotiations once she has left the room."
I guess she doesn't get to be in the room where it happens. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdBOsk8D7A&index=28&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4avCXPg6tPgdZzu--hBXUYx)
So, our talky person was out of action. *swearing*
I looked at Reggie.
"Do you guys think I can clip this page out of the magazine? Well, you didn't say no! hehehe." *Takes out safety scissors.
I looked at Tiny. He shook his head.
"Come on, Hadrian. You're the leader," he said.
"I never asked for that."
"Do you really trust me that much?"
I sighed. "No... I guess I don't. I hate all of you. So, Farren, let's talk business."
"Lopez, the captain of the ship, borrowed money from many people to gain access to the artifacts. As a precaution, we all sent some people to work on his ship. His loyal crew outnumbered them, but that was never a concern. Over the past 24 hours, all of the people third parties sent to work with him were found washed up on the beach. As far as everyone is concerned, he's fair game."
The rest of the party and I immediately started talking strategy on how to kill him. We were discussing magic items and strategies when we heard a cough.
Oh, right.
When restarting the conversation, I somehow managed to curse at the DM in character, insult Farren's bald spot, and act like a total dunce. My charisma is not good.
Farren continued on with, "His actions reflect poorly on me, as well as everyone else here. We need to send a strong message that I am not to be crossed. I trust that once I give you more information, you can take care of him. That's not what I need you for, though."
"And?"
"In two days, there's going to be a meeting among many of the major and minor players in town. It's big. Very big. All of the major gang leaders will be there, as well as their seconds. They're renegotiating their treaties. I will be there because I need to negotiate contracts. Some people paid me to get in. They need to set up their contracts too. It is very important to the stability of the region that things run smoothly."
"How do we get in?"
"Each person is allowed one bodyguard. You guys will be guarding the people who paid me. Your friend will be my guard. I need her powers to get an edge on the competition."
"I understand."
"Prepare yourselves. I will send someone to you in two days."
It was indeed time to make preparations. I contacted my "boss" and started my own plans. Commencing Operation Walleye.
This plan concerned my DM for a long time. I mentioned it in passing and he became very concerned. He knows that I have a tendency to Henderson things. I promised that this would not be more than a quarter Henderson.
Reggie started crafting scrolls of web. McStabbins just sat around. Tiny was twiddling his thumbs and seemed hopeful, yet concerned, when I walked up to him.
Start Stage 1.
"Tiny, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Should I be worried?"
"No, you should be thankful. I tracked down a pretty terrible person. He's a higher up in one of the guilds. He's very involved with the drug trade and dabbles in trafficking."
"Slave trade?"
"Uh, yeah. Something like that."
"Where and when?"
"Later today at [location in the woods]. I can't help you personally, but you can handle him."
"Uh... okay."
Perfect.
Stage 1 complete. Start Stage 2.
I went to the guildhall and spoke with my friend, the Lieutenant.
"I need to talk to you. Privately. Meet me at the veggie market at one. Dress in bright colors. Don't look like yourself."
He nodded and went back to work.
I dressed in a bright, frilly dress and tried to pose as a human female. Somehow, it worked. I was hidden in plain sight.
"I have some news, Seifer. Mostly bad. Walk with me."
"Lay it on me, Hadrian."
"You know as much as I do that I have no real loyalties to the guild. I'm a freelancer. I take jobs where they come. One place that I get a lot of my jobs from took out hits on most of the leaders of the guild. Boss, his right hand man, lieutenants.... They're powerful, they're big, and they're really wealthy. All of the safe houses have been located, the guards will be paid off and they'll be killed. It's happening tomorrow."
"And you're springing this on me now???? Oh, this is bad. I need to make plans. I need to get away. Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I couldn't before. I didn't have a definite date and I couldn't let you make plans. Someone would find out. They always find out. They always know.
A better question is why I'm telling you this at all. I like you as a person. You're kind of an a******, but you're respectable. You've always treated me well. You've overlooked a lot of my rowdiness, smoothed things over with the others (namely Billy), and a bunch of other things that I don't even remember. I like to think of you as a friend. I've been around long enough to know that the only help you can trust comes from friends you can trust. People that can't be paid off."
"Oh, Billy? Billy loves you! It's kind of weird. You give him a hard time -and a hard time ;) - but he likes the challenge. Anyway, okay, I'm listening. What should I do, Hadrian?"
"I think it's best that you lie low for a few days. I have a safe house in the woods that people don't know about. I'll lead you most of the way there, then point you in the right direction. It's probably one of the most secure places on this island. There's some traps, but you're pretty good. You'll manage."
"Alright. I trust you. Lead the way."
Stage 2 complete. My character led the way, hiding his tears.
Start Stage 3.
I led him through the woods for about an hour. In character, it was one of the hardest things I've done. I couldn't let the people who owned me use him. They're too evil. I had to deny them their way into the region. They'd break him. It was better to not worry about him.
I needed to give him a proper end. Like a gentleman. I just couldn't do it myself.
I wanted to do it. I really did. But there was always the risk of detect thoughts. I couldn't risk it. Not when I had so much to gain. Not when I had so much to lose.
Being good hurts so much.
"This is as far as I can take you. There's someone else up ahead who works with me. You know him, but you won't recognize him. Keep your arms up and don't make any sudden movements. He's a little twitchy, so he's going to need to check you out first."
"I understand. Thank you, for everything. I owe you."
I smiled a bit, and put my hand on his shoulder. "Good luck, friend, and godspeed."
I looked the DM in the eyes and said, "Atramen oil, no save, -4 to fort saves."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"
"What I need to do for my character."
Seifer walked forward, hands on his head. My raven charged him and hit him with sassone leaf residue. He failed. The attack boar I trained charged him and hit. Tiny grappled him. It was a rough twenty four seconds, but he died. He died fighting. He died with a weapon in his hand. With dignity.
It was the least I could do for this man that was my character's friend.
The DM was not happy.
End Operation Walleye.
We all knew this wasn't going to go well. There was no way. No way at all. We braced for the inevitable.
We met up with Farren, convinced him to wait until the end of the meeting to do the spying on his rivals, and went about guarding.
It went pretty well for a while.
We identified three people who seemed somewhat sketchy. After interviewing them, they seemed to check out. We each stayed behind one of them anyway. I stood behind one with a peculiar belt with runes on it.
We saw some of our friends from a previous adventure: a Dwarf Rogue sniper, a Human fighter(?) with a skull tattoo, and, my favorite, a blasty warmage we renamed Michael Bay. I chatted with Michael for a bit about going into the weapons, arson, and explosives business with me, and then went back to standing behind that one sketchy guard.
McStabbins extracted the necessary information from all of her targets with no issue after the meeting when everyone started drinking. Reggie started talking to another guard that also spoke archaeology professor jargon. Tiny stealthily sniffed people or something. I kept an eye on everything.
Then I noticed Belt Guy futzing with his belt.
I used detect magic.
OH SON OF A----
I used my reduce person item and had my familiar start screaming.
Everyone undestood what that meant. Farren sprinted out of the room. People started running and screaming. Pollaren and his gang started moving towards the exit.
I kicked the guard in the knee, and cut off his head with a neat critical hit.
Too late.
Reflex saves, everyone.
Tiny failed, McStabbins succeeded, Reggie failed, and I got a 28.
I teleported just as it went off, avoiding the explosion.
The party members lived, but they were in rough shape. There were parts of bosses, middlemen, and higher ups everywhere. Everything was red mist and bone shrapnel.
Some of Pollaren's guards got hit hard, but they were all standing.
This was my chance. I wasn't going to let him get away. I needed to be free of the empire.
He was surrounded by six people: One wizardy guy next to him, four battleaxe wielding brutes around him, and one wizardy guy on point. I knew he was a powerful fighter, but I didn't know just how powerful. Best to take the big guy out first.
My bird hit Pollaren with Sassone and Atramen Oil. I hit him with a DC 22 (26) stingray venom and a DC 30 (36) sea snake venom.
He just barely failed the stingray venom save, so he was nauseated for 2 hours. Lucky, lucky hit.
I rolled a 1 for sea snake venom damage, but no matter, he was out of the fight.
I dashed out of the way of most of the guards and yelled "take out the boss!"
Tiny understood that this Seifer's boss, hit them all with a maximized breath weapon, stabbed the boss with a longspear, and started his vitality aura.
Reggie dropped a web on the center of the group.
The mage in front made his save, ran up to me, and hit me with an empowered shocking grasp that he was holding for three quarters of my HP. Ouch.
McStabbins moved into position and hit someone with a crossbow bolt.
Roll initiative!
We all rolled about 18. Some of them rolled better. Shoot.
Two of the fighers attacked Tiny, bringing him from 42 to 8. Welp.
The mage that hit me before hit me with another shocking grasp. I failed on my AoOs. I was brought down to 1hp.
The wizard next to Pollaren cast a spell on the Boss and his skin became grey and stonelike...
STONESKIN!?!?!?! OOOOOOOOOOHH BOY.
Party's turn.
Tiny retreated to heal himself back to 35 with some weird ability.
I used my insane movement speed and spiderclimb to move up and over a building, then hit myself with Lesser Vigor. Rolled stealth. 43.
Welp.
My Bird hit the shocky douche halfling mage with a stingray venom, and he made the save. Sickened.
Reggie dropped a smoke cloud and backed up.
McStabbins, our saving grace, used some Elicter ability to dominate the stoneskin wizard.
He just barely failed the save.
He started his turn with Black Tentacles. Uhhhhhhhhhhh.........
Tiny fought two of the axe guys and kills one. Pollaren handed a note to someone and he runs. I took aim at the messenger and hit him with two arrows, doing about 52 damage. I love crits. He was dragging himself at about half speed because of where I hit him, so I had time to get him later.
Reggie used a lightning reserve feat and zaps some guys.
Three people from the government agency took aim and shot at Pollaren. Two hits, lots of damage.
We're somehow not dead at this point.
People started coming out of the woodwork. Guild members that I knew personally started fighting Agency members that I also knew. There's rioting, fires, and chaos. People are dying all around.
White mage goes first and uses glitterdust, blinding Pollaren, the two guards, and Tiny.
Tiny moves 5' and swings his hammer randomly, trying to hit someone.
He rolled randomly to see which square he targeted, and ended up on the zappy halfling's square.
He rolled against the miss chance and made it.
He rolled to hit and got a crit.
Rolled damage... 84.
There was halfling everywhere.
He dropped his disguise, unfurling his wings, spraying blood everywhere, and roared into the sky, shooting stray lightning bolts from his mouth.
"WITNESS ME!!!!"
The only guard that sprinted away. The rioters gave us a wide berth.
I shot two arrows into Pollaren. One of them critted, took him in the throat, and killed him.
Perfect.
I yelled out the codeword and started running back at them.
McStabbins made the dominated wizard commit suicide.
Tiny put a beating on another guard, killing him. Another ran. I ran up to him and yelled "they're all gone! Gather the bodies and let's go!!!"
They started going towards a safe spot by the docks, and I chased the messenger.
I spotted him when he was fifty feet from a small ship. The ship had two guards in front trying to keep people away, and one man on board... well, that's convenient!
My bird slammed into his wound, knocking the runner over. I sprinted off of the top of the building, hit him in the arm with my kukri, and grabbed the message as I teleported away.
I sent my bird back to the party to tell them about the ship and started taking care of the guards. They never saw me coming.
I teleported behind the last one, using my last maneuver of the day, and stabbed him twice in the back. He failed his save against drow poison and took a little nap in the water. I modified my disguise to look like the man I killed.
The party turned a corner with Skull Guy, Michael Bay, and Dwarf Rogue guy following them closely. The guards didn't stand a chance against 7 seasoned adventurers. When they got on board, McStabbins started untying the boat and moving it away from the docks, but right before we left, we saw some people we knew.
It was Billy, and he had some friends. They were waving and yelling to get on board.
What kind of person abandons his friends in a burning, rioting town? Of course we let them on.
I had to come clean to Billy, my good old friend. He seemed to understand the inevitability of things.
We sailed to the hidden harbor on the opposite side of the island and christened our ship Sanguine Surf. I'm the captain, Reggie's my first mate, and we have a fine crew.
I thought it was a very good end to a good session. We need to track down Farren again, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. Once we get our information, we'll set sail and track down Captain Lopez.
We also need to find a port where I can speak to someone that works for the Alliance that opposes the empire I worked for, but that can wait.
I spoke to the DM after the session, and he said that the only reason why Pollaren had that many guards was because one of his Lieutenants went missing the day before without a trace. All of the fighters were sixth level, the mages were seventh level, and he was ninth. That was a CR 13 encounter and we destroyed them.
We have Pollaren's body, the body of one of his guards, the two wizard bodies, the bodies of the two guards in front of the boat, whatever's inside of the boat, and that note.
Let me know what you guys think. I might start keeping a regular log if you guys want it.
I really look forward to next session.
EDIT: Look out for edits and more posts. I might add or change stuff if the DM tells me to.
EDIT2: I kind of just told my part of the story. I kind of glossed over everyone else a bit. I didn't mean to. They had some pretty fun dialogue and stuff too, but I just didn't remember all of it.
Yesterday's session was incredible. Just... wow. Gotta hand it to the DM. He did an amazing job. Thank you, pieman, for not pulling your punches. That would have cheapened our victory.
Just a warning, I don't write a lot. I'm not very good. I'm probably going to switch tenses a lot. I might drift in and out of character in terms of PoV. While that might be strange, it's how I look at the game.
We're a fourth level party. We were allowed to take three gestalt levels and we're using a mixture of Grod's rework of 3.5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?329161-Giants-and-Graveyards-Grod-s-collected-3-5-revisions), Path of War, Spheres of Power, and some homebrew. We make it work. Our party is the following:
Hadrian: Wood Elf Ranger 4 // Savage 1 Warlock 2. It makes sense in character. I focus on stealth, twf/switchhitting, and poisoning. I took the Urban Companion ACF to get a racist raven that speaks Elvish and swears like a sailor.
Tiny: Massive 7 foot tall Blue Lizardman. I'm not so sure about his levels. I think he might be something like a Dragon Shaman. He's our go-to lightning and hammers guy. Pretty great to have in the party.
McStabbins: Human Elicter. She has lots of mind altering spells that activate on a touch. Very useful. Very scary.
Lorde McReginald: This one's a piece of work. He's a classist, pretentious, somewhat insane archaeology professor. He's a Ritualist 4 // Roguetotem 3. He gets a surprising amount of miles from his ranks in Profession(Mathematician). Decoding, regaining his sanity, navigating. You name it, he's done it.
We're on a mostly uninhabited island in an archipelago that's somewhat like the Philippines. We were hired by the city guard to clear out the dangers of the island. We found some very old and very dangerous artifacts, so Reggie called in some of the professors and their slaves D Class citizens student athletes interns to come help.
A few sessions ago, my evil ranger got tricked by Reggie into putting on a hat of opposite alignment. This completely changed the game. My character was an "employee" of an evil empire that wanted to get a foothold in the region. I was supposed to kill this one guild leader, Pollaren, so his pro-empire Lieutenant could become the new leader. Not one to take my reformation lightly, I started planning to assassinate my good friend in the guild.
Last session, we found a ship in a hidden harbor on the far side of the island. Some people were taking the extremely dangerous items from some nearby caves and piling them onto a ship. McStabbins tried to talk to them, but after several rolls under a natural four, it turned into a murderfest. Most of them got away, but we left their ship burning as they sailed off. It wasn't all a loss; we got the name of one of their contacts in the city: Farren, the same person who sent scouts after us before.
When we got back to our base, we spoke to our eagle scouts. When asked if they saw anything, their exact words were "Not D class twolegs over there, and then not, and then there again. Gimme meat."
Tiny and I decided to do some scouting. We found the spies, alright. They sent their regards and suicide bombed us. There was nothing left but a crater.
We were pissed. There was reckoning to be reckoned.
After a day of crafting Hats of Human Guise, disguising ourselves thoroughly, and hiding weapons all over our bodies, we went over to Farren's office to chat with him. We were ready for a fight.
Imagine our surprise when they didn't even check our names or ask for our weapons when we went inside.
We were ushered into a waiting room, then after a few minutes, Farren decided to speak with us.
"Greetings, my rather abrupt friends, what may I do for you?"
Luckily, we played it smart. I bribed him with a really nice bottle of vodka and McStabbins got a 31 on diplomacy to talk to him and see if we could exchange our services for information on where that ship went, who he's currently working for in terms of the artifacts, and who sent assassins after us.
He seemed very dismissive of the services we could offer until Tiny, our illiterate savage, said "Just mind control the information out of him!"
*internal swearing*
"Well, that explains the erratic behavior of my employees."
*swearing swearing swearing*
"I think I could use your services."
What?
"Please escort the young lady out of the room. As useful as she is, I cannot risk her touching me. We can resume negotiations once she has left the room."
I guess she doesn't get to be in the room where it happens. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdBOsk8D7A&index=28&list=PLUSRfoOcUe4avCXPg6tPgdZzu--hBXUYx)
So, our talky person was out of action. *swearing*
I looked at Reggie.
"Do you guys think I can clip this page out of the magazine? Well, you didn't say no! hehehe." *Takes out safety scissors.
I looked at Tiny. He shook his head.
"Come on, Hadrian. You're the leader," he said.
"I never asked for that."
"Do you really trust me that much?"
I sighed. "No... I guess I don't. I hate all of you. So, Farren, let's talk business."
"Lopez, the captain of the ship, borrowed money from many people to gain access to the artifacts. As a precaution, we all sent some people to work on his ship. His loyal crew outnumbered them, but that was never a concern. Over the past 24 hours, all of the people third parties sent to work with him were found washed up on the beach. As far as everyone is concerned, he's fair game."
The rest of the party and I immediately started talking strategy on how to kill him. We were discussing magic items and strategies when we heard a cough.
Oh, right.
When restarting the conversation, I somehow managed to curse at the DM in character, insult Farren's bald spot, and act like a total dunce. My charisma is not good.
Farren continued on with, "His actions reflect poorly on me, as well as everyone else here. We need to send a strong message that I am not to be crossed. I trust that once I give you more information, you can take care of him. That's not what I need you for, though."
"And?"
"In two days, there's going to be a meeting among many of the major and minor players in town. It's big. Very big. All of the major gang leaders will be there, as well as their seconds. They're renegotiating their treaties. I will be there because I need to negotiate contracts. Some people paid me to get in. They need to set up their contracts too. It is very important to the stability of the region that things run smoothly."
"How do we get in?"
"Each person is allowed one bodyguard. You guys will be guarding the people who paid me. Your friend will be my guard. I need her powers to get an edge on the competition."
"I understand."
"Prepare yourselves. I will send someone to you in two days."
It was indeed time to make preparations. I contacted my "boss" and started my own plans. Commencing Operation Walleye.
This plan concerned my DM for a long time. I mentioned it in passing and he became very concerned. He knows that I have a tendency to Henderson things. I promised that this would not be more than a quarter Henderson.
Reggie started crafting scrolls of web. McStabbins just sat around. Tiny was twiddling his thumbs and seemed hopeful, yet concerned, when I walked up to him.
Start Stage 1.
"Tiny, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Should I be worried?"
"No, you should be thankful. I tracked down a pretty terrible person. He's a higher up in one of the guilds. He's very involved with the drug trade and dabbles in trafficking."
"Slave trade?"
"Uh, yeah. Something like that."
"Where and when?"
"Later today at [location in the woods]. I can't help you personally, but you can handle him."
"Uh... okay."
Perfect.
Stage 1 complete. Start Stage 2.
I went to the guildhall and spoke with my friend, the Lieutenant.
"I need to talk to you. Privately. Meet me at the veggie market at one. Dress in bright colors. Don't look like yourself."
He nodded and went back to work.
I dressed in a bright, frilly dress and tried to pose as a human female. Somehow, it worked. I was hidden in plain sight.
"I have some news, Seifer. Mostly bad. Walk with me."
"Lay it on me, Hadrian."
"You know as much as I do that I have no real loyalties to the guild. I'm a freelancer. I take jobs where they come. One place that I get a lot of my jobs from took out hits on most of the leaders of the guild. Boss, his right hand man, lieutenants.... They're powerful, they're big, and they're really wealthy. All of the safe houses have been located, the guards will be paid off and they'll be killed. It's happening tomorrow."
"And you're springing this on me now???? Oh, this is bad. I need to make plans. I need to get away. Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I couldn't before. I didn't have a definite date and I couldn't let you make plans. Someone would find out. They always find out. They always know.
A better question is why I'm telling you this at all. I like you as a person. You're kind of an a******, but you're respectable. You've always treated me well. You've overlooked a lot of my rowdiness, smoothed things over with the others (namely Billy), and a bunch of other things that I don't even remember. I like to think of you as a friend. I've been around long enough to know that the only help you can trust comes from friends you can trust. People that can't be paid off."
"Oh, Billy? Billy loves you! It's kind of weird. You give him a hard time -and a hard time ;) - but he likes the challenge. Anyway, okay, I'm listening. What should I do, Hadrian?"
"I think it's best that you lie low for a few days. I have a safe house in the woods that people don't know about. I'll lead you most of the way there, then point you in the right direction. It's probably one of the most secure places on this island. There's some traps, but you're pretty good. You'll manage."
"Alright. I trust you. Lead the way."
Stage 2 complete. My character led the way, hiding his tears.
Start Stage 3.
I led him through the woods for about an hour. In character, it was one of the hardest things I've done. I couldn't let the people who owned me use him. They're too evil. I had to deny them their way into the region. They'd break him. It was better to not worry about him.
I needed to give him a proper end. Like a gentleman. I just couldn't do it myself.
I wanted to do it. I really did. But there was always the risk of detect thoughts. I couldn't risk it. Not when I had so much to gain. Not when I had so much to lose.
Being good hurts so much.
"This is as far as I can take you. There's someone else up ahead who works with me. You know him, but you won't recognize him. Keep your arms up and don't make any sudden movements. He's a little twitchy, so he's going to need to check you out first."
"I understand. Thank you, for everything. I owe you."
I smiled a bit, and put my hand on his shoulder. "Good luck, friend, and godspeed."
I looked the DM in the eyes and said, "Atramen oil, no save, -4 to fort saves."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING???"
"What I need to do for my character."
Seifer walked forward, hands on his head. My raven charged him and hit him with sassone leaf residue. He failed. The attack boar I trained charged him and hit. Tiny grappled him. It was a rough twenty four seconds, but he died. He died fighting. He died with a weapon in his hand. With dignity.
It was the least I could do for this man that was my character's friend.
The DM was not happy.
End Operation Walleye.
We all knew this wasn't going to go well. There was no way. No way at all. We braced for the inevitable.
We met up with Farren, convinced him to wait until the end of the meeting to do the spying on his rivals, and went about guarding.
It went pretty well for a while.
We identified three people who seemed somewhat sketchy. After interviewing them, they seemed to check out. We each stayed behind one of them anyway. I stood behind one with a peculiar belt with runes on it.
We saw some of our friends from a previous adventure: a Dwarf Rogue sniper, a Human fighter(?) with a skull tattoo, and, my favorite, a blasty warmage we renamed Michael Bay. I chatted with Michael for a bit about going into the weapons, arson, and explosives business with me, and then went back to standing behind that one sketchy guard.
McStabbins extracted the necessary information from all of her targets with no issue after the meeting when everyone started drinking. Reggie started talking to another guard that also spoke archaeology professor jargon. Tiny stealthily sniffed people or something. I kept an eye on everything.
Then I noticed Belt Guy futzing with his belt.
I used detect magic.
OH SON OF A----
I used my reduce person item and had my familiar start screaming.
Everyone undestood what that meant. Farren sprinted out of the room. People started running and screaming. Pollaren and his gang started moving towards the exit.
I kicked the guard in the knee, and cut off his head with a neat critical hit.
Too late.
Reflex saves, everyone.
Tiny failed, McStabbins succeeded, Reggie failed, and I got a 28.
I teleported just as it went off, avoiding the explosion.
The party members lived, but they were in rough shape. There were parts of bosses, middlemen, and higher ups everywhere. Everything was red mist and bone shrapnel.
Some of Pollaren's guards got hit hard, but they were all standing.
This was my chance. I wasn't going to let him get away. I needed to be free of the empire.
He was surrounded by six people: One wizardy guy next to him, four battleaxe wielding brutes around him, and one wizardy guy on point. I knew he was a powerful fighter, but I didn't know just how powerful. Best to take the big guy out first.
My bird hit Pollaren with Sassone and Atramen Oil. I hit him with a DC 22 (26) stingray venom and a DC 30 (36) sea snake venom.
He just barely failed the stingray venom save, so he was nauseated for 2 hours. Lucky, lucky hit.
I rolled a 1 for sea snake venom damage, but no matter, he was out of the fight.
I dashed out of the way of most of the guards and yelled "take out the boss!"
Tiny understood that this Seifer's boss, hit them all with a maximized breath weapon, stabbed the boss with a longspear, and started his vitality aura.
Reggie dropped a web on the center of the group.
The mage in front made his save, ran up to me, and hit me with an empowered shocking grasp that he was holding for three quarters of my HP. Ouch.
McStabbins moved into position and hit someone with a crossbow bolt.
Roll initiative!
We all rolled about 18. Some of them rolled better. Shoot.
Two of the fighers attacked Tiny, bringing him from 42 to 8. Welp.
The mage that hit me before hit me with another shocking grasp. I failed on my AoOs. I was brought down to 1hp.
The wizard next to Pollaren cast a spell on the Boss and his skin became grey and stonelike...
STONESKIN!?!?!?! OOOOOOOOOOHH BOY.
Party's turn.
Tiny retreated to heal himself back to 35 with some weird ability.
I used my insane movement speed and spiderclimb to move up and over a building, then hit myself with Lesser Vigor. Rolled stealth. 43.
Welp.
My Bird hit the shocky douche halfling mage with a stingray venom, and he made the save. Sickened.
Reggie dropped a smoke cloud and backed up.
McStabbins, our saving grace, used some Elicter ability to dominate the stoneskin wizard.
He just barely failed the save.
He started his turn with Black Tentacles. Uhhhhhhhhhhh.........
Tiny fought two of the axe guys and kills one. Pollaren handed a note to someone and he runs. I took aim at the messenger and hit him with two arrows, doing about 52 damage. I love crits. He was dragging himself at about half speed because of where I hit him, so I had time to get him later.
Reggie used a lightning reserve feat and zaps some guys.
Three people from the government agency took aim and shot at Pollaren. Two hits, lots of damage.
We're somehow not dead at this point.
People started coming out of the woodwork. Guild members that I knew personally started fighting Agency members that I also knew. There's rioting, fires, and chaos. People are dying all around.
White mage goes first and uses glitterdust, blinding Pollaren, the two guards, and Tiny.
Tiny moves 5' and swings his hammer randomly, trying to hit someone.
He rolled randomly to see which square he targeted, and ended up on the zappy halfling's square.
He rolled against the miss chance and made it.
He rolled to hit and got a crit.
Rolled damage... 84.
There was halfling everywhere.
He dropped his disguise, unfurling his wings, spraying blood everywhere, and roared into the sky, shooting stray lightning bolts from his mouth.
"WITNESS ME!!!!"
The only guard that sprinted away. The rioters gave us a wide berth.
I shot two arrows into Pollaren. One of them critted, took him in the throat, and killed him.
Perfect.
I yelled out the codeword and started running back at them.
McStabbins made the dominated wizard commit suicide.
Tiny put a beating on another guard, killing him. Another ran. I ran up to him and yelled "they're all gone! Gather the bodies and let's go!!!"
They started going towards a safe spot by the docks, and I chased the messenger.
I spotted him when he was fifty feet from a small ship. The ship had two guards in front trying to keep people away, and one man on board... well, that's convenient!
My bird slammed into his wound, knocking the runner over. I sprinted off of the top of the building, hit him in the arm with my kukri, and grabbed the message as I teleported away.
I sent my bird back to the party to tell them about the ship and started taking care of the guards. They never saw me coming.
I teleported behind the last one, using my last maneuver of the day, and stabbed him twice in the back. He failed his save against drow poison and took a little nap in the water. I modified my disguise to look like the man I killed.
The party turned a corner with Skull Guy, Michael Bay, and Dwarf Rogue guy following them closely. The guards didn't stand a chance against 7 seasoned adventurers. When they got on board, McStabbins started untying the boat and moving it away from the docks, but right before we left, we saw some people we knew.
It was Billy, and he had some friends. They were waving and yelling to get on board.
What kind of person abandons his friends in a burning, rioting town? Of course we let them on.
I had to come clean to Billy, my good old friend. He seemed to understand the inevitability of things.
We sailed to the hidden harbor on the opposite side of the island and christened our ship Sanguine Surf. I'm the captain, Reggie's my first mate, and we have a fine crew.
I thought it was a very good end to a good session. We need to track down Farren again, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. Once we get our information, we'll set sail and track down Captain Lopez.
We also need to find a port where I can speak to someone that works for the Alliance that opposes the empire I worked for, but that can wait.
I spoke to the DM after the session, and he said that the only reason why Pollaren had that many guards was because one of his Lieutenants went missing the day before without a trace. All of the fighters were sixth level, the mages were seventh level, and he was ninth. That was a CR 13 encounter and we destroyed them.
We have Pollaren's body, the body of one of his guards, the two wizard bodies, the bodies of the two guards in front of the boat, whatever's inside of the boat, and that note.
Let me know what you guys think. I might start keeping a regular log if you guys want it.
I really look forward to next session.
EDIT: Look out for edits and more posts. I might add or change stuff if the DM tells me to.
EDIT2: I kind of just told my part of the story. I kind of glossed over everyone else a bit. I didn't mean to. They had some pretty fun dialogue and stuff too, but I just didn't remember all of it.