Bounty Hunters - Session 11

Interview with a Mummy

• The group returns, triumphant.
• They are offered a selection of tattoos and potions for the trouble.
  • Elian is kitted out with a tattoo that is equivalent to a cloak of protection.
  • The rest of the budget is spent on two potions of suppress mark and three potions of hill giant strength, the former as insurance against delays and the latter as a patch for some deficiencies.
• While this happens, the Mark asserts itself. It cannot be concealed by any means they can muster, and takes about an hour to fully manifest.
• The rest of the hydra blood is spent bringing the lizardfolk's weird mummy advisor/god/thing out of torpor. By the time the party has done their business around the Temple, he us up and about, an attendant at each arm.
  • He characterizes the toe as a "voicsssssssse from the passsssssssssst".
    • He eats it, savoring its flavor.
    • He mentions that he was one of the people came to Wydmoor with, his first and only friend.
    • The group puts two and two together, realizing two things:
      • a) The toe is Gokar's. They were alchemists who worked together.
      • b) The lizard mummy was part of the founding story of New Wydmoor.
    • He mentions other people, few of whom are actually known to the party.
      • A "young and wild one", Apt, whom the mummy, Edi and Gokar traveled with before taking up the cause of New Wydmoor. He was killed in battle with an Otyugh Queen.
      • A "young ssssssummoner girl", Yoa.
      • A ranger, Sena.
      • The wizard Krin.
      • The many-facssssed man.
      • "I believe the chieftan of your village issssss the dessssendent of Assssstlen". He further reports that it was Meade and the Azure Geese who originally conscripted them as mercenaries, 115 years ago.
      • The archmage Eyndredell, who took Yoa and Krin into "another calling", using demon skulls in some way with the ultimate goal of crossing the Veil (and errand Russ regrets assisting with).
    • Wydmoor at the time was the lair of many creatures.
    • He offhandedly mentions a "raid against Kaine", which blows some of the party's minds right out of the water.
      • One team had to assassinate Kaine while the other raided the repository of Kaine's phylactery. This is incidentally when the party learns that Hedrafax Kaine, Finance Minister of Aden I during its time of conflict with a re-emergent Wydmoor, was a lich.
    • The group mentions that the Geese wish to reignite regular contact. He passes them a token they can use for safe passage.
• The conversation wanders a bit more until the party decides to stop badgering Russ and let him enjoy his torpor-less state, while they digest all this new information. At dawn, they leave for Moyria's Crossing.

The edge of the Duchy

• As they outrun its boundaries, the mark once again disappears.
• They achieve Moyria's Crossing just after sunset. The guards stop them momentarily, but standard application of the "weary travelers" routine gets them waved past.
• They do a bit of shopping.
  • The cultists' presence here is obvious, in the form of Neo-Alexandrianist street preachers and an established mission in town. They have become quite popular.
  • Madrin finds a bookstore. In addition to the usual fare (including a local history that she picks up), there are stacks of Neo-Alexandrian tomes for sale. Curiously, every character is printed with identical spacing, an impossible feat for human hands. The party wonders at the implications of this.
    • The title is The Millenial Gospel of Alexandria's Return, and it is (currently) three volumes.
      • The each title page reads AS DICTATED TO THE FAITHFUL BY THE METATRON OF ALEXANDRIA REBORN
  • They perform a sending back to the Geese, mentioning success with the lizardfolk and the token.
    • There is a reply, "SEEK OUT MALORAN HAGGR THE LUMBERMAN. TELL HIM 'SNAKES IN THE NEST.' YOU CAN TURN THE RELIC OVER TO HIM. TRUSTWORTHY CONTACT."
    • The party's sets their next task to finding Haggr.
• They find his foreman, who hasn't seem him for days. He mentions the Burning Cockatrice as a hangout.
  • He's nowhere to be found, but was last seen leaving with a lady of the night named Myn.
• While discussing next steps over dinner, a stranger buys them a round. They raise their glasses their mysterious benefactor, who nods once before leaving. The party immediately follows, except Whip, who rushes to make sure none of the precious ale is wasted before sprinting unsteadily out the door.
  • Like the opposite of a pass without trace spell, the stranger's footsteps are visible to those who have imbibed, fading away when noticed. The party follows the trail, eventually coming to the alleyway equivalent of a box canyon.
    • Bern, noticing the tight quarters, hides in the entryway instead.
  • The stranger steps from the shadows and berates them for being reckless.
    • Whip is thoroughly inebriated by now, and starts spouting non sequiturs
    • The stranger says thirty-seven crossbows are aimed at their position. Joana and Madrin both doubt this.
    • He introduces himself as Rish, and says they have something in common: An enemy in the Duchess of Wydmoor and the rest of the Meade family.
    • Madrin tries to get him to make his point more thoroughly, and starts becoming exasperated.
    • Rish seems caught off guard, but gathers steam while he discusses his desire to cast the yoke of Wydmoor off of Moyria's Crossing. He says he can offer a safe place, where nobody will enforce the Mark, and it would even be celebrated.
    • His group believes succession may be more imminent than it appears, and not entirely orderly. They want to enlist the Bounty Hunters to tip the scales in their favor.
    • There is a reference to the Geese here that the party pretends not to care about.**** Madrin expresses skepticism (and calls Rish "wet behind the ears")
      • Whip is thoroughly not paying attention, and beings urinating on the side of a building.
    • Rish seems a bit confused. Joana, who hasn't said much before this point, steps forward:

Joana: Rish, there's just one problem that I see with your plan.

She pulls a hand across her face, Subtly casting alter self while pretending to take off a mask. Her face is replaced with that of the Duchess.

Joana: Do you think I don't know what's going on within my realm?

• • • Rish and his still-hidden posse book it (much fewer than thirty-seven pairs of feet are heard fleeing in the darkness). Bern pounces, tackling him before he can get away
    • Joana comes forward. "But I am a merciful ruler, and there's no reason why the mistakes of youth couldn't be forgiven. Give us what information you have, and you may yet live."
      • Elian interjects with, "Give him a sigil, too, Duchess!". Whip finishes up and turns around, and could not be more confused. Bern barks at him to keep quiet.
      • Rish spills everything. Every member of the cell he knows. Everything he knows about the cult. Everything he knows about local politics.
        • The Cult is cornering the market on amber. Their staff at the mission house are as follows:
          • 2 Evangelists, 4 Glossillalists, 12 Castigators and 4 Scribners****** The revolutionary faction has the backing of some of the Old Families of Wydmoor (prominently, the Wydsommes), who seem to be willing to trade control over the Crossing to reassert control over Wydmoor Free City.
        • We get notes on sympathizers (Myn is one) and Geese (Haggr is mentioned, although his disappearance is not)
• Session ends with Rish high-tailing it out of Moyria's Crossing at double speed.

Awards

• 50 xp to all for Mummy Issues
• 100 xp to all for History of the Future
• 75 xp to all for The Lizardfolk Embassy
• 20 xp to all for Book Shopping
• 250 xp to all for Meade-sion Impossible Twist