Bounty Hunters - Session 17

A Shiny White Fortress

• The group gives Fort Torrents a pass, instead opting to cross downstream (with magical assistance).
• They continue avoiding the main roads, and beeline toward Estrabule.
• Travel passes mostly without incident, until they reach the edge of the forest.
• There, there are haphazard skulls and rotting heads placed on stakes, in various stages of decay.
• The group spends a bit of time examining, but ultimately decides to try to go around. That's when the fireball appears.
  • The explosion knocks three of the five out cold. Anto immediately beelines towards the source--two skulls that have become wreathed in flames and started floating--to harass. His sword is resisted, but his booming blade is not, and the skull he harries gets a nasty surprise finding out how that spell works. That one blurs itself while the other summons a flaming sphere. Anto pursues, judging them to prefer ranged attacks.
  • Elian miraculously recovers, uses his dire wolf form to absorb damage while shoving potions into his teammates' throats.
  • Joana learns that she resists fire, then throws chaos bolts, missing with one of them. Madrin gets up and contributes an eldritch blast, and Bern manages a couple of very tricky shots with the shortbow.
  • After a very worrying first round, the skulls have mostly blown their load, and the party is able to finish them off.
  • They don't tarry, figuring that whoever set the trap might come to investigate.

• The rest of the journey passes without incident, and they approach the White Keep, a gleaming, impenetrable fortress overseeing farmlands.
• They spend a night in the village at its foot, exchanging gossip with the locals. Everyone takes advantage of the facilities to look a little less fire-singed.
• Rested up, they continue to Estrabule around midday the next day.
  • Along the way, a wagon has busted a wheel. They stop to help, and the caravan gives them 100gp for the trouble. The delay puts them at Estrabule late that evening, where they find accommodations and get the lay of the land.

Estrabule

• The party keeps a low profile, renting some out-of-the way quarters and collecting gossip.
• The Neo-Alexandrians seem much more established here, and have incorporated themselves into the community.
  • Madrin has a talk with the local Western Alexandrian temple, whose pastor is a very grumpy man.
    • He's been losing followers to Neo-Alexandrianism. The temple is in obvious disrepair, and he's very unsubtle about requests for donations.
    • Mentions that Neo-Alexandrians did a lot of homeless outreach and now there's basically no homeless problem.
    • Doesn't seem to have any suspicions that they're creepy or in any way not above-board.
  • Whip stakes out the Neo-Alexandrian temple.
    • There's a wedding today. It appears absolutely normal in every respect.
    • Whip watches for a while, then tails some Neo-Alexandrians. They live in town, and go to a perfectly normal house while being perfectly normal.
  • Elian does some intensive gardening, Joana and Bern take in the lay of the land.
• They regroup and decide on some strategy for the coming days:
  • Feel around in seedier areas (like the docks) for rumors that might not reach a bougie Alexandrian pastor's ears.
  • Get some intel on Nia-Agliare.
  • Check out that sweet, sweet library (Madrin, mostly).
  • They pool their gossip
    • Estrabule has a Prince elected for eight-year terms by five merchant houses who buy the privilege of being part of that electorate in a ritual auction.
    • The current Prince is a half-elf woman named Astlen (the term Prince is still used).
    • The Neo-Alexandrian head is referred to as the Sorcerer Queen by people who don't believe in her connection to the Omnity. This is a subtle dig at her, referencing Antioch.
    • A couple of the merchant houses have converted, to mixed results for the houses in question.
    • Neo-Alexandrians have been importing buttloads (technical term) of amber. Just gobs and gobs of it. It is evidently of ritual significance to them.
    • They also import inexpensive trade goods and tools, and export paper and bookbinding practice. The old bookbinders, being a niche craft, did not have enough vested power to put up a fight, and the flooded market has completely wiped them out.
    • North Coast has always had a bit of a pirate problem, but it hasn't been particularly bad lately.
    • Estrabule's primary exports are timber, and goods from the western interior. Nia-Agliare buys a lot of it, even though it borders a forest that has appeared recently (by forest standards)--it is said to be cursed.
    • Nia-Agliare conducts most of its trade by sea.
    • There are rumors that the dwarves are building up a big navy and army to come blockade and siege the city into oblivion.
    • Nia-Agliare's army doesn't have numbers, but all its elements are top-quality, including its own order of paladins, and a storied mercenary company known as the Bog Wraiths, who have sworn allegiance to the Sorcerer Queen.
      • This is roughly a thousand men-at-arms and a few hundred cavalry, presumably in addition to however many of the light skirmisher types the party has already encountered are sprinkled throughout Neo-Alexandrian concerns.
    • Even though the city's historic source of food has been cut off on the dwarven side, there are no reports of famine from the city, nor any reports of discontent or mutiny among her varied and quite newly assembled forces.
      • This is notable, and peculiar, for this type of force.
    • She removed the Thieves' Guild as a power base. Some even say she rooted it out, killing every member. This is evidently described in volume 1 of their texts.

Calendar

• 28th of Wintercusp, approaching the Festival of Anticipation

Awards

• 450 xp to all for the Flameskull trap
• 875 xp to all and conversion to checkpoints for Reaching the End of the Map