Elementia Game 5


Game Master: Jeff
Game Edition: D&D 3.5
Players: Andrew, Dave, Elijah
Starting Level: 1 

Quote of the Evening
"Who are you guys?!"
"We're Pirates."
"Awwww maaaaaan! You mean I actually fell for that!"

Introduction 

We left our party in Elementia Game 4 running through the sewers escaping the carnage they had just caused under the Colosseum.

Again Jeff wanted complete the write up for his so take it away Jeff!

Scene 1: Sewer Surfin'.

The party emerged from the bowels of the Colosseum into the vast sewer system of Genaya, desperately wearing the blood of the many men they had killed in their flight with the liberated elven gladiators and Lord Sylvain Greymere. Mäaar took the freed elven warriors a little ways up ahead so as to keep them out of the sight of Lord Greymere and his personal bodyguard Jyenna, and instructed them to part ways and travel to the underground elven sanctuary until their services were required.

The party followed Lord Greymere and his bodyguard Jyenna until they found themselves in the sewers of the cliff-city's massive second tier, which was of course Unbeknown to them at the time. Lord Greymere kept insisting that the party travel towards the faint sounds of the Royal Guard searching for them in distant tunnels, but Cyrano was able to convince him that the party was all the protection he needed and that he should keep leading them out of the sewers using his the escape routes known only to members of his class.

After, the party was able to eavesdrop on a conversation Lord Greymere was having with Jyenna as they walked ahead. They were discussing the importance of bringing House Kymek into the fold in order help sway the vote in the Senate towards keeping slavery alive. This need was especially urgent if members of his Senate Coalition lost control of Synivai District to an anti-slavery candidate in the upcoming elections. Cyrano had heard of House Kymek in passing, and knew that they were a moderately wealthy Genayen political family; infamous for consistently throwing their support behind the strongest leaders in the Senate. They were Populists.

Then the party came to a large circular room with a massive grate on the floor and sealed tunnels leading out in each of the cardinal, they assumed it was some kind of a drainage basin. Cyrano decided to try and acquire more information from Lord Greymere but only managed to arouse the lord's suspicion, with his unconvincing claims that he is not a terrorist.

As Jyenna moved her hand to her great sword, Lord Greymere went off on an epic tirade exclaiming “Do you peasants have any idea who the I am?” “No one makes a fool out of me! Blah blah blah blah!” As he angrily pontificated, he walked into the center of the room, and onto the grate. Mäaar got nervous and prepared to deliver an arrow to the Lord's face, when all of a sudden the ceiling above th lord opened and a thick gray ooze fell out covering Lord Greymere, he cried as the corrosive substance ate away his flesh, leaving nothing more then a pile of goo.

 The Repulsive Grey Ooze.

Jyenna jumped out of the way of the Gray Ooze, shocked at what had just happened. The party found itself in quite a messy situation as the Gray Ooze slid towards them blocking off most of the room. Luckily Cyrano still had a trick or two. He quickly used Bardic Knowledge to determine that the ooze was acidic, and  would eat through their weapons unless they succeed on a DC 16 save; should they attack.

Thinking quickly, Cyrano then used his Bardic Magic casting a Fear Spell on the goo, rendering unable to attack for multiple rounds. The party also noticed that when Jyenna dived out of the way of the ooze she knocked over a vase, spilling a viscous shiny silver liquid onto the floor.

Acting fast, Mäaar coated his arrows in the silver goo, and began rifling them at the ooze. The silver substance caused chunks of the ooze to begin break off and crumble slowly. Ghar made his way to the other side of the room, grabbing an unbroken vase filled with more silver goo and hurled the container at the ooze. the Liquid Splashed over causing most of the creatures body to dry and shrivel. Ghar then noticed a lever near him that looked rusted with age. He figured it was an emergency drainage switch, and began trying to pull it, but his strength failed him. Meanwhile, Mäaar managed to finish off the ooze by himself with a barrage of silver covered arrows.
A nearby search party of Royal Guards heard the ruckus caused by the fight and followed the sounds of battle right to the party, arriving just as they defeated the ooze. As the guards neared the room, Ghar managed to pull the lever causing the sealed tunnel entrances to open, and the soldiers came charging in. The ensuing battle was pretty epic and saw Jyenna left with no choice but fight alongside the party as the guards assumed she was with them.

Ghar raged out and just hacked through the attacking gaurds, while Mäaar showered them in a hail of arrows. Cyrano found himself in epic dance of steel with a guard that almost killed him for his bravery. But, in true Musketeer fashion, he prevailed and yet another batch of city guards lay in a bloody mess at the party's feet.

They quickly left the scene but not before rifling through the possessions of the dead. Mäaar found a beautiful green cut elementia necklace paid for by the game-changing treasure dice -rewarded on a search roll of 19-20.


The Treasure Die.

Scene 2: Streets of Blood.

Following a very interesting deliberation as to whether Jyenna should be killed for the group's survival, which really humanized and highlighted the desperation of their current situation, and eventually coming to the conclusion that the mutuality of their troubles could be advantageous, Jyenna and the party agreed to temporarily join forces until the former could extricate herself from the city. Luckily for the party, they decided not kill her. After all she was a level 7 fighter.
Jyenna explained to the party the severe implications of Lord Greymere's death: basically that Sylvain Greymere almost entirely controlled the elementia trade in the Vexian Kingdom. He had a vast network of contacts, subsidiaries, and relationships with prominent slavers. Everything ran smoothly because of an unspoken fear of the resourcefulness of Lord Greymere and his house, but now that he is dead the monopoly would crumble into a bloody power grab for the mining territory. Such instability would assuredly hurt the Genayen economy, since elementia jewelry is the city's largest export. She feared the city would fall into chaos.

Jyenna explained she would be killed by the family for failing to protect Lord Greymere, so she had no choice but to flee. She had worked as Lord Greymere's personal bodyguard, military tactician, collector, and enforcer, for many years, and even had a background with the Royal Guard. AS part of the royal guard, she received military training including basic zeppelin piloting. However, she severed her ties with the Royal Guard, to pursue work with Lord Greymere. This was enough information to convince the party to reveal their plans to hijack a Zeppelin and take to the air. Jyenna realized the sky would be a great place to hide and revealed that she had a contact on the middle tier who may be able to provide them with a safe way to the airfield.

Emerging from the Sewers.

They emerged from the sewer tunnels in the a cavern behind the aqueduct waterfall a few hours later, and saw a market place with many people hurrying about. Cyrano overheard a herald in the distance proclaiming a great reward for the immediate capture of the band of terrorists who assaulted the Colosseum and liberated slaves earlier in the day.

Realizing that being covered head to toe in the blood of their victims along with the filth of the sewer would be a dead give away, Mäaar removed his cloak and armour and assumed his slave disguise once more. Cyrano used his magic to render the over sized and obvious Ghar invisible for 4 minutes, and Jyenna instructed the bard to stick close to her and keep his head down as they made their way to the Ghost Cavern, the tavern where Jyenna's contact Baison awaits.

 The Path to the Ghost Cavern Tavern.
 
Unfortunately, as the party approached the plaza with the Ghost Cavern they noticed it was heavily patrolled by Royal Guards and Walkers, seemingly a continuing symptom of the city lock-down our heroes induced with their body count. Two large patrols approached the plaza from streets to the party's left and right forcing them to try and sneak their way through the market place. Cyrano's invisibility spell really came through for the party, as a visible big bloody barbarian is about discreet as it sounds.

They came close to being discovered by the guards a few times and had to hurry due to the spell's time limit, but an overwhelmingly smooth wink from Cyrano at one guard who was harassing them proved charming enough to get them through undisturbed.

After botching an attempt to rob a poor old man of his lemon fresh laundry, Jyenna, Cyrano, and Ghar scurried into the bar while Mäaar stayed outside since his presence in the bar would almost assuredly end in his death: No slaves allowed.

Scene 3: The Ghost Cavern.

Jyenna instructed Cyrano and Ghar to take a seat at the table in the back corner near the entrance to the VIP section while she disappeared into it, searching for Baison. The Ghost Cavern was a rather seedy tavern with a look that crossed the feel of the Mos Eisley Cantina, and a Chinese Opium Den. There were hookahs on each table, and smoke hung in the air.

Cyrano overheard two older gentlemen at the table next to him gossiping about the attempted hit on the awful Royal Captain under the Colosseum earlier that day, and how the Royal Guard was now more determined than ever to find Cyrano and his terrorist friends, even if it meant tearing the city apart.

Ghar's invisibility wore off and Cyrano rented a room to go and wash the blood and dirt off himself. He even managed to have his clothes cleaned with some smooth talking with the Bar tender.

 Smooth Talkin'.

When Cyrano was finished he sent Ghar to the room to do the same. An he returned to table around 7 p.m. A half hour later, Jyenna reappeared with Baison in tow. She informed him of their situation and he laughed at the party's plight insisting that if ANYONE but Jyenna had come to him about the groups troubles, he would have gladly handed them over to the Royal Guard and watched them castrate them in the streets.  Jyenna had helped Baison out years ago during her time with the Royal Guard. He had botched a heist involving tunneling to the airfield to steal gold being stored there. He had dug two tunnels but one had been discovered by the royal guard who executed the tunnelers on the spot. Jyenna had found the second tunnel to the airfield and met Baison in it before she could discover where it led to. They struck a deal: Information for freedom. He has been one of her underworld contacts ever since.

The tunnel had remained hidden, and was perfectly safe, but Baison wanted something in return. He told the group that in exchange for stealing a cache of elementia being delivered to the heavily patrolled market just outside worth about 36,000 gold, he would tell them where the passage was. Jyenna immediately protested, this was not part of their agreement, but Baison replied that nothing is free, and if they didn't like it they could always try sneaking in through the abandoned engineering tunnel freely accessible from the sewers. A bit of Bardic knowledge revealed that everyone believes something lives in that passage that preys on any living thing that dares to venture inside. Rumour said it was something that got loose during the invasion.... With that two of Baison's thugs appear and discretely put a knife to Jyenna's back and lead her back into the VIP section. It seemed, Baison was keeping her as collateral until the party finished the job. He disappears into the back room as well.

Cyrano and Ghar, steadied themselves for a moment before darting back into the VIP area to retrieve their pilot. While all of this was happening inside, Mäaar was hanging around outside, trying to keep his head down and out of trouble. It seemed to be working until he was suddenly approached by a guard who demanded to know who he was and what he was doing there.

“He's with me” came a voice from a hooded figure nearby “He's my property!” That was enough to satisfy the guard who left and the man who saved him, pulled Mäaar out of sight and told the elf to look at him and keep focused on him.Mäaar was being watched and those people were about to capture him. the man removed his hood and revealed himself to be Jarmir the bartender from Shantese's, the party's favourite local watering hole.
Jarmir scolded Mäaar for being so reckless and foolish; attempting to kill Captain Keithra beneath the Colosseum. The Captain retaliated by ordering an immediate raid on Shantese's. Apparently he recognized Mäaar's face, remembering him as the same elf that Jarmir had a slave. The raid took place a couple of hours ago and Jarmir barely managed to escape but his buxom bar maid Helga, yes the very same Helga that Cyrano passionately bedded two games prior, was not so lucky. Jarmir told Mäaar that the weapons shipment the group was supposed to retrieve the following morning had been delayed another day due to severe weather, buying them a little more time to get organized. Mäaar then filled him in on the party's exploits. Jarmir listened carefully and then explained that he had to leave the city, but needed a little extra gold to get started. He offers to sell Mäaar a scroll of Fireball for a desperate bargain of 50 gold. In a test of Mäaar's frugality, the elf proved a risk taker, and reluctantly parted with his 50 gold. he thought it was an outrageous price for the scroll, but was later delighted to discover that these scrolls are usually worth over 3000 gold!

Jarmir said he could get Mäaar into the Ghost Cavern to reunite with his friends as he does regular business with the owners there and could distract them. he even offered to arrange a meeting with Baison for them for another 50 gold to which Mäaar kindly tells him to no.

Upon entering the tavern, Mäaar heard the loud voice of Ghar harassing an opium addict for information coming from the VIP section and quietly made his way back, reuniting with the team. They were standing at the top of a staircase looking down at the thug guarding the door, who was looking back at the party with a look of disgust. This did not tickle Ghar's fancy, and it sent him into a murderous rage.

He barreled down the stairs, tackling the thug right through the door, crushing his spine. The others quickly followed the barbarian, finding themselves standing in the cellar of the Ghost Cavern; flanked by 4 guards. Standing in front of the party was Baison who held Jyenna at knife point. The party acted quickly and with style.
Ghar barricaded the broken door with a large and heavy keg, blocking access to anymore thugs who may come running when the sounds of the imminent butchering begin filling the air. Mäaar notched two arrows and sent them hurdling into Baison's face before he could even react. Cyrano was determined to perform a much better dance of steel this time around and dueled with one of the thugs. Jyenna, now freed from Baison, retrieved her weapon and joined in the fun. It was a sleek battle that saw Cyrano defy expectations and deliver multiple critical hits killing two level 4 guards by himself. Mäaar sliced up some guards with his dicing up a guards with his elven kukri, while Jyenna dealt with the rest.

With the thugs dealt with, and more trying to break through barricade, the party frantically searched for the a way out. They discovered the entrance to Baison's tunnel towards the air field, behind wood paneling and ran through the tunnel towards the airfield.

Scene 4: The Airfield.

After about a half hour, the party emerged at the other end of the tunnel, and  climbed into the storage room in one of the airfield's hangars. as they hid, they over heard a team of three runway techs who were preparing to transport munitions from this hangar to another across the runway.

Wasting no time the group quickly ambushed the mechanics, stole their clothes, knocked them out, and surveyed the situation. Looking through the Hangar windows they saw a patrol of guards and a single walker outside of the hangar as well as transport platforms that seemed to run on a pneumatic track; shooting up and down the long runway at high speeds. These pneumatic sleds were normally used to quickly and easily transport cargo to and from the zeppelins, But the part had another idea in mind.

They had about 5 minutes until all the zeppelins took off, since as luck would have it, the party's hijacking occurred literally just before the night time security launch. They would need to act quickly. Ghar began hurling bombs at the walker through the window, killing more guards in the process, and causing enough of of a scene that many of the guards around the airfield came running. Meanwhile the rest of the party sneaked out through a different entrance toward the pneumatic platforms.

All seemed lost when the platform they were heading for shot away! But it was just a tease and it came sailing back as quick as it left. Wasting no time, the party clambered aboard. The walker managed to fire a single large ballista bolt at the party which could have easily impaled a party member had it not missed horribly. With that, the party was shooting down the runway towards the last remaining zeppelin, at breakneck speeds.

 The FSA Airships from Dystopian Wars made a good stand in for the Zeppelins in the Air.

With only a few seconds left, and the last zeppelin already pulling up off the ground, the platform reached its station. Ghar, followed by the rest of the party, quickly grabbed one of the a loose tow lines hanging from the airship.
One by one they were lifted off the ground as they gripped the rope as tight as they could.

The climb was arduous, dangerous, and full of excitement, with each party member losing their grip on the rope at least once. Each time they fell though, they were barely saved by another party member making a grapple roll to save them. Ghar was the first to make it up the rope safely, but Cyrano rolled a 1 on one of his climb checks, completely letting go of the rope, and almost falling hundreds of feet to an horrible death. He was miraculously saved  by Jyenna, who threw herself from Ghar's back, slid down the rope, and with a perfect 20 roll grabbed him.

Fed up with the slow climb, Ghar started to pull the rope up, helping his party safely reach the cargo bay of the zeppelin. They were on board, Now all they needed to do was hijack it.

Scene 5: Hijacking the Zeppelin.

Recovering from their intense and death defying climb, the party had a quick planning sessions, hidden behinds some crates in the hold. Jyenna gave them a rundown of the zeppelin's schematics and it's operation. On a nightfall security launch, a ship like this is typically crewed by no more than 15 men, sometimes less: 10 marines, An engineer, A helmsman, A cleric, A signal operator, and the Captain.

The party then took stock of their supplies and realized they still had one of the Viles of Sleeping Sand Elixir that the elf rebel Maikeo had given them at the Colosseum. Everyone agreed that turning Mäaar's bow into a tranquilizer gun would be the best approach. With Mäaar's arrows poisoned, the party worked its way through the corridors of the ship. Mäaar dropped any guards they came across, sending them into a deep slept while the rest slit their throats in his wake.

They reached a staircase they assumed lead up to the deck but noticed Jyenna was looking at a wall behind them be made of strange thick plexi-glass like material. She told the group that behind the wall was the signal room but that the only hatch into it is above deck.

“I swing my axe at it!” Ghar said,taking a great swing at the hard wall and only making the slightest dent.  They then heard an older gentleman's voice coming through the wall asking “who's there?”

Cyrano convinced the voice that pirates were attacking the ship and that they were coming through the wall to rescue him. Mäaar then very cleverly used the Scroll of Fireball he purchased from Jarmir earlier. it launched a massive fire ball at the wall melting it  and allowing them access to the Signal/Bomb room of the Zeppelin. The singed, shaken, and elderly Signal Operator asked “Who are you guys?!” To which Cyrano replied, beginning the quote of the evening: “We're Pirates.” The Signal Operator then replied “Awww maaaaaan! You mean I actually fell for that?"

The party then shut the signal operator in a storage locker, leaving Jyenna in charge of signal operation. The idea was that Jyenna would maintain signaling so as not to look suspicious to other nearby Zeppelins. Mäaar, Cyrano and Ghar climbed up  the ladder, opening the hatch leading to the main deck.

The Party leaped over the rails on the upper deck and rushed the guards that strolled along. Ghar, like a true savage, took on three level 4 guards by himself, and eve managed to kill the Captain. Mäaar continued to drop people with his sleep arrows, and even assisted Ghar is slaying the captain. It was a slick combo: Ghar risked an attack of opportunity from the other guard he was fighting so that he could do a cool spin-around and easily knife the sleeping captain, killing him before the sleep potion wore off.

Ghar was almost killed during this fight, but luckily his die hard feats kept him standing. After searching the deck for more foes, Mäaar encountered the genesis gun operator at the front of the ship, who came charging at him. However, the clumsy guard tripped over the railing he tried to jump, landing in a pile before Mäaar's feet. The elf finished the klutz and went back to searching the ship. Only the best in the Royal Air Force.

Cyrano Dealt with a gunner and a guard on the other side of the ship, again demonstrating his ridiculous luck scoring no less then 3 critical hits!

In the end, the party managed to take control of the Zeppelin and discussed whether the helmsmen should be kept alive. After 10 minutes discussion, Cyrano ran out of patience and put his sword the pilot's heart making the party's decision for them. With the ship secured, they went about assigning each new “Crew member” to a station. So, manned by a very inexperienced crew the pirated zeppelin sailed over the city of Genaya, and no one was the wiser.

The zeppelin quietly flew over the cultural district of Synivai, and under the cover of darkness lowered Cyrano down to the ground using a long rope. The plan was to have Cyrano procure a nobleman's outfit from a tailor he knew of in the district. Looking the part, he would then use it to gain unquestioned access to the Witcher's Tale, the academic tavern that Maikeo suggested he pay a visit to if he wanted to know more about the elven temple under excavation by wealthy Senator Nexin Roth.

Cyrano was to rest at the Witcher's Tale during the night in order to recharge his Bardic Magic and gain the required info. the next morning, his allies would pick him up, finding him on the roof of the tallest building in the district. How Cyrano was going to get there was his own business.

The rest of the party meanwhile would have to keep the zeppelin airborne all night, following its specified route so as not to arouse suspicion.

Scene 6: Cyrano's New Clothes.

Cyrano made it to the tailor's shop undetected and proceeded inside to examine the merchandise. While there, he overheard the tailor, and another customer he was helping, discussing the gala event Senator Roth was staging in the district that night to throw support behind the current Synivai Senator Lycan Diezes. Diezes stood to lose the next election to an anti-slavery candidate and was getting desperate, so Senator Roth was throwing the gala to show how his excavation of the ruins would transform them into a cultural attraction.  The customer said he was only going for the food and then departs, the two laugh and the customer left the store.

Lookin' good!

The tailor agreed to fit Cyrano with a nobleman's outfit and explained to him during the measurements that Senator Diezes was the one who helped Nexin Roth push the vote to excavate the ruins through the Senate but was being rejected by the district's populace for being too militaristic. Apparently Diezes' goons were threatening the merchants of the district with violence if he didn't get their vote and asked Cyrano to spread the word of their plight to any important people he should meet. In exchange for listening to the shopkeeper's problems he gave Cyrano a 50% discount on the new clothes, so his Nobleman's Outfit cost him only 100.

Cyrano walked out into the street, strutting in his new outfit.

Conclusion

This round provided some foreshadowing for the party, explaining elements of the fierce political turmoil currently at play in the city. The more time you spend in the shadows the more you will learn about various conspiracies. Funny how it works like that.

Now that the party has taken to the skies, the time has come to raid the temple and find out exactly what it is Senator Roth is digging for. Should go well, as long as Cyrano is able to recharge his spells, and the party comes across a few more health potions.

The Zeppelin crew better watch their backs as this is going to be a long night.



                         
Elementia Game 5 Elementia Game 5 Reviewed by JADE Gaming on 5/12/2014 12:45:00 pm Rating: 5

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