SESSION ONE. Time to Go.

Thanvas 2, 7005

Ty, Maeve, Crazy Bear, Rhys, and Kail spent the end of winter, spring, and the beginning of summer in the Eagle's Retreat in Bergstadt. The run-down but roomy mansion was a traditional rehab location for a noble family that no longer needed it, and one of Xerxes' cabaret contacts gave them access to it. They brought along Cassowary, Ten Tackler and his four marines, Dr. Xerxes, Lesandara, and Terrifin.

What have they been up to?

Crazy Bear built a workshop in the Eagle's Retreat, then worked on building a hook shot for Maeve. The local goatherds greatly enjoyed his painful process of trial and error, but he built a mechanism that was a greave with two springs; one to shoot the grapple, and one to pull the bearer to the new location. He also filled many hours with hunts in the local forests accompanying Cassowary. She agreed to help him in his goal of freeing the Beast Gods from the Ruinous Scar.

Ty successfully kept Dr. Xerxes attention focused mostly on Bergstadt so he wasn't lost to cabarets that were tantalizingly close, even though the two of them visited fairly often. Ty's main focus was working with the local Vistani, learning Reaverspeech. He lost money to them in gambling until they were friendly, then traded letters of introduction in Relmeenos to training in Reaverspeech; it only enters the mind through physical injury, so they battered and taught him for weeks. Wumba was his teacher, and Chumba was the sidekick. Ty also bedded a number of Vistani women.

Maeve looked for ways to contact her handler in the Shae Isles by networking with the vibrant fey community on the shoulder of Bloodtatter Mountain. Her first effort wasn't very successful, as she met with Hornswoggle, the murderous satyr. She told him about the flying ship, and he told her to kill her friends and bring it to him. She looked for other contacts, and through Lacewing, the stoner nymph, she got in touch with the Knight of the Gloaming, her handler with the Stone Circle Court in the Shae Isles. He gave her a bag of stone geodes, and told her they were eggs that must be fertilized in the mutagenic winds of the Scavenger Lands (a setting inimical to fey energies.) He did not know how long it would take for them to hatch, but he did warn her that it would be very bad for people when they did. She accepted the mission.

Kail immersed himself in the study of Baroque Logos, getting the oldest books their scholar network would let go or lend, and reading older stories that reflected theology that is not necessarily aligned with modern church teachings. He prepared himself through working with Rhys and his book, and studying the architectural magic, to begin to become a practitioner. He spent some time with the monks in the monastery on the slopes above the town.

Rhys spent most of the time not in town at all, borrowing Dr. Xerxes as was useful and going into the big cities to do networking and research with academics and scholars, building his expertise in scholarly works and preparing to codify his own experiences and research into academic papers that are sure to rock academia to its foundations. He also made a point to spend time with Lesandara, cultivating a friendship and trust; the road ahead will be dark.

It Was the Nicest Party

The Vistani and Ty were celebrating his success in learning Reaverspeech, and the others were pulled in to the celebration, so even though it was pouring down rain outside the coaching inn was bustling. Rhys returned from Spionhaus, and the party got that much better. 

Five heavily armored templar and their retinue of ten toughened soldiers arrived at the coaching inn, the soldiers on foot and the templar mounted. They marched into the party and demanded the bartender tell them who locally was buying old books; the bartender didn't even hesitate before pointing Kail out. The templar in the lead demanded Kail go with them for questioning, and he wasn't feeling it; Ty insisted the church men stay and drink with them, and the rest of the room was caught up in the spirit of the invitation; unwilling to do so, and facing the whole inn on the side of their targets, they withdrew sulkily to the coaching inn yard to reconsider their strategy.

Always Gotta Ice-Skate Uphill

Cassowary terrified their horses into bolting, and they were fuming; the Company decided to answer their call for confrontation, and swaggered out into the yard as the party-goers in the coaching inn crowded around every window to watch.

Crazy Bear and Rhys were not shy about drawing the templar attacks by revealing their abilities as shapeshifter and spellcaster; battered and burned warriors went flying, and Cassowary copied Crazy Bear's claws as she revealed her woad-painted nudity under her cloak and got murderous.

Ty defended Rhys as he cast spells, catching a hatchet in the face as well as fending off countless attacks as he bravely fought with his crutch and sword. Crazy Bear battered shields off his foes, and hammered them with his claws, bawling in rage. Kail had no armor, but bravely took on three times his number and kept them at bay, dropping them as their skill lapsed. Meanwhile Maeve circled around the treeline and hurled a killing dagger at the leader, who caught it on his shield and charged her, battering at the unarmored and lightly armed assassin as his armor protected him.

The tide of battle turned as more of the templar forces dropped to Rhys' firebursts and the blades and claws of the Company. They called a general retreat, but Kail chased them and others hurled weaponry as Crazy Bear and Ty cornered one Templar and prevented his escape, thrashing him soundly. Cassowary bent a tree onto the road to stop escaping templar forces, but they got further than she realized, and a couple templar got whomped.

Yeah, probably time to get moving. The Company finished out the party, but decided they wanted to leave Bergstadt before the templar's friends came looking for them. Cassowary dragged the dead (or dying) templar out to the woods to feed her friends, and Maeve menaced the barkeep for so easily snitching on Kail.

This Session Requests

• Prepare to sail east. (done)
• Fight. (done)
• Invention workshop. (done)
• Learn Baroque Logos. (done)
• Vistani. (done, and bonus, learn Reaverspeech)

Typical Elements

• Combat. (done) (spice: party was surprised and not fully armed and armored, numerous armored foes.)
• Exploration of forgotten spaces.
• Social interaction. (done)
• NPC subplots. (done; numerous downtime touches, fight with Cassowary) 

Often Elements (this time)

• Sweaty romance. (Vistani camp, Crazy Bear and his crazy girlfriend.)
• Word of your exploits spreads, good or bad. (The templar showed up because Kail was buying books.)
• Invent gadgets and enchant objects. (Hookshot.)

Most and Least Favorite Feedback

• Awful rolls are no fun.
• Enjoyed NPCs.

Leveling NPCs

• Simon leveled up Cassowary to 7.