The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 10 - Keystone Crooks

There are two tick-tocks marching in front of the wings. The party disguise themselves before entering the bank. Bosley closes the door on the four waiting customers and secures it with a crowbar. There are two clockwork guards inside the building. There is a barred gate covering the area before the vault. There is a table off to the corner inside the vault, but the party members can’t quite see what’s on it.

Audrey Rose throws a bottle of lightning at the guard closest to her. The guard convulses and turns its attention to her. Hendra charges the other guard and does high levels of damage to it. The two guards start ringing loudly. Hendra and Zita are deafened by the siren. The two guards attempt to punch Hendra and Audrey Rose and miss. Sabrina is certain that there is more ringing coming from within the bank.

Bosley attacks the guard on Audrey Rose with Shocking Grasp. Dol summons snakes by the backdoor. Sabrina runs towards the tellers, “Let me in. I don’t want to die. They’re trying to kill me.” Zita strikes at the guard on Hendra. Audrey Rose takes a five-foot step and casts a shield spell. She hears someone yelling through the front door.

Two more clockworks show up. They pull out javelins; one falls on the floor and the other bounces off the wall. Bosley stabs at the clockwork and misses. Zita double-daggers the guard. Audrey Rose fumbles her bomb causing splash damage to the guard. Hendra runs the sword through the clockwork, and it collapses into a dismantled heap.

Bosley hears attempts to batter the door down. He ignores the sounds and slashes at the clockwork, skewering it right in the power supply. Sabrina examines the dismantled tick-tocks and fails to take a fist full of parts. Zita unlocks the teller’s gate, and Audrey Rose makes her way through the door. Dol summons a wolf and threatens the tellers.

Hendra sees a big, locked steel box on the table. Zita unlocks the backdoor and sees a room with tables and chairs. Audrey Rose throws a bottle of lightning at one of the guards outside the vault. The guard retaliates by attacking the wolf; it disappears. The second guard closes in on Audrey Rose and punches the wall behind her.

Dol attempts to vault over Zita and scrambles up the steel door, slipping, and falling on top of Zita. Sabrina helps Zita up. Zita tries to vault over Dol and grabs a hold of the vault door, but her foot catches on Dol, and she’s back on the floor. Audrey Rose throws a bottle of lightning at the guard; it gets hit by a turquoise cascade of flurries and falls into a heap of smoking parts.

Bosley attacks the other guard with Shocking Grasp. Dol stands up and offers to lift Zita. It doesn’t work. Sabrina walks into the conference room and starts opening doors. Zita stands up and disguises herself as one of the tellers. Audrey Rose blows the head off the last guard. The siren is finally silent, but all our ears are ringing.

Hendra yells at the tellers, “Down on the floor, face down, hands behind heads!” The tellers follow suit. Bosley runs into the vault and attempts to lift the box; it’s too heavy. Sabrina walks into the vault door and loudly announces, “This is easy!” Zita attempts to pick the lock on the door that Sabrina just vacated. She successfully unlocks the door.

At this point, the ringing in their ears stops and they can hear normally again. Audrey Rose tries to shove the box into the bag of holding but she’s not strong enough. Bosley also tries, but the box isn’t budging. Dol greases the table and pushes the box into the bag.

Sabrina goes to examine another door. Someone hiding behind the desk fires at her. A crossbow bolt sinks into her shoulder. A dwarven woman with a repeating crossbow is standing there. Sabrina casts Hideous Laughter on her, but the dwarven woman resists the spell's effects.

Zita goes to examine the escape route to ensure that it’s safe. She yells to us that the way is clear. Audrey Rose goes to help Sabrina. She throws a bomb at the dwarven woman; she misses but the woman still takes splash damage. Hendra steps into the room and yells, “Drop the crossbow, and you’ll be fine.”

Bosley goes to a safety deposit box to examine it; it requires two keys. The dwarf shoots at Audrey Rose and misses. Audrey Rose yells, “I told you to put the crossbow down.” Sabrina leaves the room and empties one of the teller boxes.

Audrey Rose throws a bomb and retreats per Hendra’s instructions. The front doors batter open and the sirens start again. The party retreats. Sabrina empties the last teller box. The dwarf yells at Hendra to get out. Hendra responds, “Anything for a lady,” and she runs out.

The tick-tocks attempt to chase us down and slip and fall on the grease spell. The four customers run into the room and yell, “Get them. We’ll be rewarded handsomely.”

They continue retreating full speed ahead. Hendra sees that people are coming from both ends of the alley; they look like guardsmen. The party all run into the entrance of the scrapyard. Dol places another grease spell outside the scrapyard. There is a particularly tall tower of junk inside. Perched on top of an old folding chair is a goblin. He yells, “Come through here. Come through here.” Zita trusts him, so we go that way. As the last of them run past, the tower of junk collapses blocking the way.

The goblin leads us around a wall of junk. His name is Goback and is a member of the Nail biters tribe. He likes that they pissed off the guards. The Nailbiters have recently been joined by some War Forges. He wants to introduce them to Lord Glass. Goback leads them around a corner to an encampment. Goblins are sorting through junk and Warforges trying to fix things. There’s a goblin on top of an apparatus that is a cross between a bicycle and a roasting spit; cockroaches are being roasted. “It’s a Roachtisserie,” says Hendra. Everyone groans.

All the goblins surround us and offer to sell them thundersticks to fight gnolls. A goblin in a big floppy tophat introduces himself as Lord Glass. He’s wearing a shirt with embedded glass. He asks the group to fight the gnolls that are between them and the storm drain. Lord Glass offers to give them the best junk in return. He shows them a lump of metal that Audrey identifies as Cold Iron. There’s enough to make one weapon. The group agrees to take out the gnolls.

The way to the gnolls is blocked by a big metal box. Munsey (one of the goblins) knows how to operate the crane; he went to go do something about the gnolls and hasn’t come back. There’s also an airship blocking the way. We head to the crane.

There is a big box sitting in fetid water blocking the way. Dol summons crabs into the water. Bosley climbs into the cockpit of the crane. There are several handles. The control panel has been removed revealing the cables and wires underneath. Bosley goes to sit down and is ankle-deep in roaches.

Dol casts grease on the roaches. There’s now a swarm of roaches following Bosley. Zita goes as far away from them as she can. Audrey Rose throws a bomb at them. The others aren’t sure what to do and run away. Hendra runs to the goblin camp. Audrey Rose throws alchemist fire at the swarm. Hendra buys alchemist fire from the goblins; it’s a balloon made out of a rat. Zita also gets two rat bombs. They all return just as Audrey Rose destroys the swarm.

Bosley climbs into the crane and operates it successfully. The big metal box is moved out of the way, unblocking the path. Dol summons Tweetie-Bear. They proceed through the fetid water. Sabrina casts prestidigitation on the party members. What looks like an oil slick is moving toward them in the water.

The players get 1,066 XP

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 9 - Stupid COVID

 The group meets up with Bosley and Dol and catches them up on what they missed. Bosley knows about the dolgrim. A dolgrim is created when two goblins are fused together. They are the result of an interdimensional invasion that took place thousands of years ago when goblins were in charge. These things have been around for a long time. The Daelkyr are responsible for all the aberrations that are here. Bosley feels left out and wishes he had been involved in the dolgrim’s demise.

Cord is looking worn out and feverish. Our heroes bid him adieu and head back to the brownstone. Before they leave, Cord’s family pays them a thousand gold. Bosley asks Charlie if he’s heard of Black Sugar. He hasn’t, but he wants us to keep an eye out for it. He suspects that it will come into play again in the future.

As the party still had a credit voucher for furniture at House Cannith, they use it to outfit our rooms and the sitting area.

Zita goes to visit Ceseli. She shares with her that we are now a detective agency, the Townsend Agency, and shares the address with her. They agree to keep in touch and visit for a while. Zita still does not seduce her.

Bosley and Audrey Rose talk magic as they examine the spell book together. Audrey Rose discovers that she can learn to identify magic items and learn the spell false life out of the spell book. (She’ll have to try false life again in a week.)

Charlie messages us one day to tell us that we have a visitor. An envelope is under our door. The envelope contains a handwritten letter that says, “You seem to be doing a good job. If you want to do more good work come to this address at 7 pm. – Phoebe Dunsmith” Hendra and Audrey Rose know that Phoebe is a dwarf who owns The Broken Barrel located Downstairs (a tavern district).  Phoebe inherited this property from the previous owners some years ago and it has been a staple here ever since. 

The party arrive a little before 7 pm to scout out the area. The bouncer is escorting two people out of the store. The place appears rowdy and busy. There are low-class workers coming in and out. Hendra appears extra tense. Sabrina leads the way in. The bar looks clean and the tables and chairs are a hodgepodge of styles. Behind the bar is Phoebe, a smiling dwarf. A skinny goblin stands up behind the bar and asks what he can get them. Sabrina orders three ales and hands one to Hendra. Audrey Rose orders a flaming whiskey. Zita asks for something pretty with an umbrella; the goblin offers a Dunsmith Dram. Zita suddenly notices that Audrey Rose’s hair is on fire.

After a while, Phoebe approaches the party and asks them to follow her. She leads them to a small sitting room. Hendra notices that there is a small hole the size of a thumbnail on the floor. She acknowledges that her name is not dwarven and that she has her reasons for changing it. She’s heard about us from the papers. She asks how the seven of them feel about robbing a bank. It’s the kind of bank that makes very high-interest loans to people who can’t pay it back and loans money to white-collar criminals. Ambrose Mugland owns the Gold Tank; it’s one of his enterprises. She offers us 10% each, and she’ll use the remaining funds for another venture. Hendra and Audrey Rose have reservations about the idea of robbing a bank. She needs us to do this before tomorrow afternoon. There are usually a dozen tic-tocks, but there are only six right now.

Phoebe produces a bag and starts to hand out hats; they are hats of disguise. She hands Dol a bag of holding type 1. There will be customers, bank tellers, and the bank manager, Icarius in the bank; the manager may be a problem because she is a good shot. Tic-tocks possess ropes in their shoulders that they use to hogtie their victims.

Phoebe gives us instructions for what to do when we escape. She tells them to empty the vault and go out of the employee exit in the back. Immediately across the road is the entrance to the scrap yard. The party will go into the scrap yard. In the yard, there is a storm drain entrance and the party must, take that all the way back here.

The party decide to do this early in the morning when there are fewer customers. The tic-tocks are constructs of the clockwork subtype. They are vulnerable to electricity. They are mindless creatures. They are not immune to anything. Audrey Rose creates three bottles of lightning in preparation for the fight, and Sabrina casts spells upon party members to assist them should they be bound. 

They arrive at the bank early in the morning. There are two tic-tocks patrolling outside. The front door is between the two wings. There are customers lined up outside the bank. Sabrina gives each of them three silvers and convinces them that the bank is closed. They leave, but more customers arrive.

We don’t receive any XP.

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Episode 8 - Down in the Dolgrims

The female halfling knocks back a potion. The male halfling pulls out a scroll and attempts to cast from it, but instead, it blows up in his face. Zita argues, “I don’t understand. What did my brother do to deserve a beating? And why are you taking it out on my friends?” The halflings ignore her and don’t seem to care. 

Audrey Rose takes a mutagen and becomes more graceful and air elemental-like. The halfling shoots a crossbow bolt at Hendra who nimbly moves out of the way. Two thugs draw short swords and close in on Hendra while the other two move in on Audrey Rose. The male halfling pulls out another scroll and sends a fan of fire toward Hendra and Zita who dodge out of the way. Zita flanks one of the thugs and double daggers him in his kidneys. Hendra attacks the thug with her longsword. Audrey Rose finishes him off with the splash damage from her bomb.

The halfling tumbles and attacks Hendra who rolls out of the way. Both thugs miss. The halfling pulls out a scroll and sends a magic missile at Audrey Rose. Zita double-daggers the female halfling, and Hendra follows up with a thrust of her sword. She then turns around and stabs the thug behind her, dropping him. Audrey Rose throws a bomb at the spellcasting halfling burning his eyebrows.

The male halfling throws a bottle at Hendra who takes fire damage. Hendra is on fire! Sabrina and the thug exchange blows; Sabrina bests him. Zita tumbles nimbly behind the female halfling and does devastating damage. The halfling is bleeding profusely but is still up. Audrey Rose throws a bomb at the male halfling knocking him out.

The female halfling, Bellis the Brave, drops her short sword and puts her hands up in the air, surrendering. Sabrina has her drop all her items, and Hendra makes her disrobe. Zita demands to know what all this was about. According to the female halfling, Cord showed up a couple of days ago with his friends, beat them up, and stole all her gold. Cord had a dozen small monsters with three arms and two mouths. Cord said he had to find Nori and go back. Bellis tells them that Cord is still at the Little Bowl of Boldrei.

Bellis provides directions to the Little Bowl of Buldrey which is a floating building. The party reached the dock to the building; it was damaged and badly washed out at the end. The building is in a severe state of disrepair. The damage is likely a remnant of the tsunami that hit last year. There is a large piece of plywood on the dock. It’s a sign for the Little Bowl of Buldrey with the same symbol that the halfling wore. Hendra opens the door and a chime loudly rings. The inside of the building is as dilapidated as the outside. The furniture is burnt and in disrepair. Laying on the ground is a teenage boy. Standing next to him is a green, lumpy creature with multiple arms and two mouths. It looks like an icky goblin. Near the boy is a trapdoor. Hendra hears something above her. She looks up and finds a dozen creatures hanging in the rafters. Zita asks to see Cord. The creature near Cord summons our heroes into the room. Sabrina approaches the creature and Cord. She notices something glowing under his shirt.

Sabrina asks about the glow. The creature answers, “The mark of Messerie. Daelkyr.” Sabrina walks past him and slashes open Cord’s shirt. There appears to be a tattoo on him; it takes up most of his shoulder, arm, and a portion of his neck. It glows blue and red. Cord is asking for Nori. He insists that he has to go back to save Nori. Sabrina pretends to be Nori, and Zita acts as though she’s Warem. Sabrina tries to get Cord to House Jarasco. Cord insists that no one can see him because they would want to hurt him. “You know about these things. We had the same history tutor.” The creatures are concerned that Sabrina wants to take Cord. Thr creatures exclaim, “Messerie tells us what Daelkyr wants us to do.” They all start drawing their weapons.

Audrey Rose drinks a Shield potion; Zita gets into a defensive stance, and Hendra draws her longsword and closes in. The creature blocks Hendra’s blow with its shield. The creatures in the rafters pepper our heroes with crossbow bolts, injuring them all. Sabrina casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter causing one to fall over in bouts of laughter. Audrey Rose throws a bomb into the mix and Zita knicks one on the cheek. Three creatures come charging at Audrey Rose, but their attacks are ineffective against her shield. Two close in on Hendra but are equally ineffective. The two that close in on Sabrina stab her. Sabrina skewers one through the mouth. Cord scurries into the corner. He appears frightened.

Audrey Rose throws a bomb into a cluster of three creatures. Two of them fly back and are destroyed. Zita tumbles behind the remaining one and attempts to strike at it. Hendra slashes at the prone figure laughing on the floor. Sabrina slices across the face of the main creature. It seems pissed.

Cord is in the corner mumbling to himself. Sabrina notices that his tattoo is glowing brighter and starting to pulse.

Audrey Rose continues throwing bombs. Suddenly, the trap door blows up and a ghastly figure emerges; it has multiple goblin faces and tentacles. Two of its giant mouths attempt to bite Hendra, and it attempts to grapple her. Prone Hendra attacks the giggling goblin.

The creatures attempt to attack but are ineffective. One of the creatures attempts to stab Sabrina but appears as though he attacked the big, ghastly creature. Audrey Rose throws a bomb and destroys two more creatures. Zita does a graceful tumble and then drinks a healing potion. Sabrina does her nifty trick again, killing a creature, and then falls unconscious. Hendra stands up and stabs at the air. Creatures ineffectively beat at Zita and Audrey Rose.

Cord looks terrified. His tattoo starts to glow and it pulses brightly forcing the group to make will saves. Audrey Rose begins to play with colors that only she sees glowing in the air. Zita and the creatures continue their fight, while the big creature focuses on Hendra. In a mad craze, Audrey Rose kills the creature fighting her.

Audrey Rose’s mind clears. She finds the big ghastly creature standing in front of her, and so she burns it with a bomb. Hendra’s head clears. She slashes at the creature; it gurgles and growls and falls over to the ground. The mark on Cord looks a lot like a dragon mark.

Sabrina and Hendra search the area. They find a box stashed behind the bar. It contains a very detailed, etched masterwork medium breastplate (350 g). They find a scroll case with a glitter dust scroll. There are assorted bottles of decent wine (26 g), and several bottles of fine olive oil (57g). There is 442 gold worth of gold, silver, etc.

Audrey Rose finds a piece of brown butcher paper in Cord’s pocket. Neatly stamped across the paper are the words Black Sugar. They take Cord to a House Jarrasco clinic. Audrey Rose goes to get Cords parents and returns with them to the clinic. It seems that Cord has developed an aberrant dragon mark. The parents are distraught but relieved that their son is alive.

Sabrina goes to sell things. Then she goes to tell the guard everything that has happened.

1500 xp and 506 gold