RPM:6 Shoot Him Like a Teenager

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Starring: 🏹 Ehsan, 🐺 Ildefons, 🐘 One-Tusk, Hugo
Guest Starring: Evette Lussier, Jean-Louis Gantier, Clément Cailler, Bashaarat al-Faheed, Orion Pandis, Thief with Beer, Otterfolk
Challenge: Planning a Safe Summit for the Guilds; Escorting the Guildmasters; Confirming the wreck of the Folkeston.
Location: Le Roux Mansion, La Magie de Prison (Secret Waterway)
Date Played: 10 Jan 2017

Prologue

The last month has been a busy one for the Royal Pride of Musketeers. With her final appeal, Zephryine’s words encouraged a few individuals to reveal key information about the workings of the Sorcier in the city and the Royal Pride of Musketeers struck hard and fast. This unexpected rush pushed the Sorcier back on their heels and Captain Hernaut is confident that it’ll be a while before they regroup.

For the past week most of the pride has been rotating through a well-earned furlough as the Festival of Saint Theodoros approaches. The festival itself was based on the teachings of Saint Theodoros of the ancient Zodiac faith but it has been a secular celebration since long before living memory.

The modern incarnation of the festival is a celebration of the diversity of the world. It is commonly called the Bizarre Bazaar by most and is a showcase of the oddities and quirks of the world. In the city of Lisway the marketplace is filled with stall after stall of the strange and bizarre…

🎲 DM: It was later added that the Festival of Saint Theodoros is also a time for games of escaping and masquerades which represent Theodoros fleeing from persecution.

Festival Oddities

• An object from a demiplane that has four intersecting lines that are all perpendicular to each other.
• There is some fruit available from the Peace tree. These rarely make it to market.
• There is a rare gemstone from Palimar, the Blue-Violet Tashnogen, a fist sized transparent black gemstone faceted to look like a heart.

Summit Location and Security

🎲 DM: Two aspects were created by the players

• Security by Scoundrels as they have hired the Guild of Forgotten Guards to supplement the event's security.
• Renovations in Progress as Hugo is using funds to repair his family home and they are doing the work during the event.

🏹 Ehsan: Captain Hernaut (note: I believe it was him anyways, please correct me if wrong) informs us of a gathering of the Guild Masters to discuss plans on what to do moving forward with the famine striking the land. Our job is to handle security and well-being for the guests along with making the meeting as discreet as possible, seeing as Hernaut would like to prevent wide-spread panic among the people if word got out that such a meeting was taking place. After some discussion we decide on having the Guild of Forgotten Guards, led by Rosalie’s friend Alyn, to head security due to their ability to keep hidden and keep discrete. Hugo will be holding the meetings at his estate, which will be brought up to better standards through guild funding and provide a sufficient cover story for hosting the guild leaders.

🐘 One-Tusk: Operational security is something that I've had some experience with, and these Guild Masters need a sense of paranoia. Effete nobles sashaying around to parties and looking to be comfortable- it's like babysitting children.

🐺 Ildefons: Captain Hernaut issues us an assignment. In short, farms are predicting an extraordinarily low harvest this year. It's been kept under wraps to prevent an uproar. We are to protect a quiet interguild meeting where they'll discuss and, hopefully, resolve some food supply issues.

This is not my forte, but I pull some strings to see to it that Hugo is put in charge of this task, as it is his, and he needs a "win". With it, he gets some funding to repair his family estate to host there, on friendly territory.

Ildefons loads his blunderbuss utilizing soil from graves of those recently deceased in the terrorist attacks.

Escort Quests

Worshipful Company of Vintners

Guildmaster Primus Jean-Louis Gantier

🏹 Ehsan: Our escort for the Vinters Primus did not go quite as smoothly as we would have wanted. With discretion being our largest priority any attention drawn to the movements of the Guildmasters could be disaster, but it seems that the movements of Jean-Louis Gantier did not go unnoticed. He has apparently a bit of notoriety about him though unproven claims and a group of thugs saw to do him harm. I dealt with the matter easily, killing one and capturing the others for detainment.

🐘 One-Tusk: Of course, there's an attempt on Gantier's life. That's a great start to this- but apparently this was a personal grudge, not counter-revolutionaries looking to disrupt the summit. Ehsan is… unreliable in handling this. She's effective- but there are too many bodies left behind.

🐺 Ildefons: We failed to secure the route properly, and there was an attack on our charge. It appears to have been opportunistic however; just some teens attacking a rumored (and disproven) Sorcier loyalist. Ehsan took care of them.

Worshipful Company of Basketmakers

Guildmaster Tertius Bashaarat al-Faheed

🏹 Ehsan: I take to personally escorting Bashaarat al-Faheed, a dragonkin hailing from my homeland and also Tertius of the Basketweavers. She had already had a bit of a escort system in place in the form of a doppelganger, but I won’t lose this opportunity to talk with in some privacy someone from my homeland. The others escort the look alike while I accompany Bashaarat to Hugo’s estate. News from home has slowed as of late and letters from my sisters have been arriving with more space in between each than I would like. It worries me but with news that my younger sister Khadija (note: can’t quite remember who was named but this makes sense to me) is to be married within a few months I suppose my family is busy with the planning and arrangements. Why I am hearing of this from someone that is not my sisters, I do not know, and that does cause me some concern. While I don’t fully reveal my hand, I do share with Bashaarat that I could possibly provide her with an invitation to the royal wedding. It may be helpful to have the favor of one of the guildmasters in coming times.

🐺 Ildefons: Ehsan takes duty escorting the basketmakers, who basically refuse to speak to any of the rest of us. The rest of us escort a body double (or is it a double-double?) and the entourage to the location.

Worshipful Company of Firefighters

Guildmaster Primus Clément Cailler

🏹 Ehsan: Talking with Clément Cailler, the Primus of the Firefighters, is rather uneventful. He seems to be a very relaxed and informal man, preferring to keep things to a first name basis.

🐘 One-Tusk: Cailler is someone who has a sense of the revolution's purpose. His attitude towards his fellow citizens is admirable.

🐺 Ildefons: Clement is an old friend of mine. He worked with my family's routes, and we spent a few seasons together. It's nice to see he was able to get out of the hard life and put our herbalism skills to greater use. He's still as much of a pacifist as ever.

Worshipful Company of Mercers

Guildmaster Primus Evette Lussier

🏹 Ehsan: Compared to Clément, Evette Lussier is all business and is the picture of formality, if bordering on rudeness. We find her at Sweet Cakes. She does not address us and keeps her composure calm but incredibly off putting. I do not believe she views us as worthy to address her as she opens up immediately upon seeing the other guildmasters at the estate. We’ll see how far that attitude gets her should things happen during these meetings.

🐘 One-Tusk: Which is a complete contrast to Lussier, who deserves to be pulled up before the Tribunal and given a push from the scaffold. She may not be working for the counter-revolutionaries, but she is, in her essence, a counter-revolutionary.

🐺 Ildefons: Her lady of the Mercers requested I not accompany her. I took this time to wander ahead and clear my mind.

Worshipful Company of Salters

Guildmaster Primus Orion Pandis

🏹 Ehsan: The meeting with Orion Pandis, the current Primus of the Salters guild, is rather interesting. He seems the reluctant leader and feels his position tedious and filled with politicking when he would much rather be ‘fighting the good fight’. More of a man of action but he finds himself in a bit of a sticky situation and cannot leave as Guildmaster at the moment. I ride in the carriage with Orion along with Ildefons (note: if I’m remembering correctly) and we discuss matters of the meeting. A rough bump causes one of my experimental arrows to go off in the quiver. Thankfully there is very little harm done but none the less, Orion is amused and tells me I should not be utilizing Florint’s experiments. I pay him little mind but I will discuss the accident with Florint regardless.

🐘 One-Tusk: Again, Ehsan is… dangerous. Lethal, but irresponsible. It's troubling.

🐺 Ildefons: All events here are properly logged by Ehsan's report. Read it. She is well on her way to getting self-injury (perhaps not self-inflicted). I attest to their accuracy.

Folkeston Favor

🏹 Ehsan: Later in the day after the Guildmasters have gathered and some light refreshments are served, Bashaarat approaches me with a bit of trouble that she’s having. Her position as Tertius is causing the other Primus’s to not take her presence her quite as seriously as she would like. The current Primus of their guild was unavailable to make it to this meeting but their Secundus seems to be missing. Last they had heard from him, he was aboard a vessel by the name of the Folkeston, which was to dock in the city some weeks ago with an important shipment of experimental containers. Trying to locate the ship has been unsuccessful as the ship was to make landfall around the time the Sorcier attacked the docks. Bashaarat requests that we investigate the matter. If we successfully find the fate of the ship that will elevate her position in the guild, though the circumstances tragic, and give her more say in the coming days during the meetings.

OneTusk is more familiar with the docks and their workings so I inform him of the situation and he seems to have a good handle of the situation as he comes back later that day having had success.

🐺 Ildefons: People are asking, why is the third -- not even second, let alone head -- of the Basketmakers present for the meeting? We [by way of Ehsan] were asked to find out about Mandro (the guild's second), who may have been lost in the ship attacks a month back. His ship was the Folquestonne, which was reportedly escoring special valuable containers.

I gather OneTusk to recruit the otters on a scouting mission. We are able to convince them (through some verbal shenanigans) to do so. We tread very carefully that we are doing this for the negotiations -- not for the basketmakers -- and not to show favoritism or create any elevated positions.

They report back to us that they found a nameplate reading "Fol", and some glass tubes that resemble green "lava lamps". They were addressed to the recently departed Kettleblack. One was returned to us, there are more down there, at least one of which is broken with the green stuff "oozing" out.

Rituals Best Left Lost - Milady Roasalie

"How have searching the records gone" asked Hernaut with a glass of wine pursed to his lips.

"Well enough," answered Archibald, holding a small stack of book in one hand and a small satchel of scroll tucked under a arm that ended in a gnarled stump. "The apothecary has a small collection of what we need. Most of it mundane, and we have enough of what we need that is rare. There are a few things, though, in a cryptic passage that we need to retrieve."

I gave a grim look. I had a feeling she knew what some of them were, and none of them would be a joy to retrieve. "The sanguine trio, right Archie," I asked, already knowing the answer.

Hernaut's face dropped at the mention of this. We knew the danger of this when we first started the ritual.

"Indeed, Rosie," confirmed Archibald. He laid out the original text, covered in runes that I could not fathom. He then laid a sealed piece of paper next to it.

The blood of a man's ultimate betrayal; the blood of man that consumes man; to blood of man that walks untainted; the sanguine keys for Umimana

After those of us in the room were able to commit them to memory, Archibald throw the translated words into the fire. A somber mood fell over the room. After a long silence, I spoke up. "I'm the only one of us in an active filed position. I'll do my best to find these reagents. Everyone else in town can work at trade contracts to get the other missing ingredients. If you'll excuse me, I have much preparation to do." With that I left the room.

As I exited the room and closed the door, I took a deep breath and leaned by back against the door, exhausted that I must take on this mission once again. While resting, I heard from the other side of the door a muffled male voice say, "I hope she can handle being the vessel again. The only reason she survived the first time was the coincidence of the death of a dragon. This time it will most likely kill her."

I could do nothing but chuckle. Maybe my time has some. May then, I could see all those I've left behind and finally see my family. My son...