Episode 23: Moody friends, information, and new tricks

When last we left this motley crew we had just helped the ousted residents of the town of Warwick defend their camp from the bad were-wolves' attack. We were then sent off to rest up for the rest of the night. We also leveled up so we all now have new tricks. This game consists of:

Fizzledorp, the Gnome Paladin of Epsu desperately trying to keep us on the straight and narrow

Vohn, the Kobold Gunslinger whose attitude far exceeds his size

Malek, the Tiefling Magus, quietly lofting magic via his arrows towards our combats

Lutor, the Asterion Cleric, boldly making friends wherever we go via food and booze

Thonk, the Orc Barbarian who believes he's a Mage, is not so bright, but oh so much fun to interact with

Meghan, the half-Drow Druid wondering what on earth she's gotten herself into

So the next morning we set off to find the blacksmith turned mayor to find out what's next. As we arrive we hear arguing and then 3 men in full armor leave his area and continue on to the exit of the encampment. Meghan asked her feathered friend Paul to fly up and observe where the men in full armor go.

We watch the blacksmith pick up his hammer, and an unfortunate piece of armor, and beat the snot out of it. He then set the hammer down and turned to address us. Turns out those men were from the army of the Southern Kingdoms and they were going to be a few days later than planned. He was not happy about this and wasn't too sure where to go from here, so we actually got a little wiggle room to start advising him.

To this end, we decide to interrogate the were-wolf that was captured during the previous night's attack. Fizzledorp of course takes the lead in this, as he's our diminutive people person. Through a combination of Fizzledorp's charm, honesty, and promise to treat the captive well/heal him the captive shared some information with us.

At this point the mayor is frustrated, the adviser is in control of the bad were-wolves, no one has talked to Trevor (the leader of the bad were-wolves) in quite some time, the assassination attempt on Trevor was a mistake, and basically its a hot mess of back and forth attacks. There's also concern now that the bombs will be discovered before the army arrives. Also, no one has seen Shinara since last night's fight. Malek was the last one to see her, she had gone over the wall under her own power though he doesn't know why.

Then we tried to formulate a plan. It wasn't going well. Fizzledorp came up with let's get a parlay flag and walk up to the front gate and ask to talk with the adviser. Vohn's of the opinion that we should just help defend the encampment until the army arrives. Also, Vohn's a bit salty with Malek and this contract in general. Ok, kinda beyond salty at this point.

Fizzledorp and Vohn go back and forth a little then Meghan chimes in with "Look, I honestly don't care if these humans get their town back from the were-wolves, or if the were-wolves own this town permanently. I'm still asking Feronia for guidance in general about the were-wolves, as I'm a bit uncertain of them in general. But ... I do care that these humans setting up home in these trees is harming the forest. I do care about this mystical advisor disrupting the normal rhythms of life. Especially as he seems to have ties with the unnatural stuff we've been dealing with from the dream-world. What can we do to get these humans out of this poor forest and neutralize that advisor?"

In the moment of quiet after that, Lutor chimes in with "That's a great point. I too am not as interested in one side regaining power over the other, I would just hope to restore peace and civility here...though I'm not sure that we have years to see that through. I agree with Meghan and feel it's in everyone's best interest to not have these people remaining in the wilderness. With that in mind, I think Fizz's idea about speaking with the were-wolf leadership under a peace banner would be best to cut straight to the point."

Meghan kind of smirk-smiles and responds with "We can certainly try the diplomacy approach. However nothing I've seen or heard tells me that this advisor will be cooperative. We should have a backup plan incase things go hostile. Especially if it goes hostile and we're inside their camp. "

This devolved back into Vohn and Fizzledorp going back and forth on their conflicting plans. Malek's acting all emo, and Thonk is getting antsy to "cast sleep" on the adviser. This, of course, involves more physical violence rather than actual arcane ability.

We definitely went back and forth a lot, and then Vohn comes up with the idea to go back through the tunnel to the mayor's mansion and check in with the friendly were-wolves, find out information. Everyone liked that idea, though Meghan threw the caveat out there that if we were to gather the information and decide to go ahead with the truce talks we would have to go back out of the town and approach the front gate so we don't out the friendly were-wolves.

We all actually agreed to this, though Malek is being one-word and rather a bit withdrawn.

So off we go to the mayor's mansion and signaled the guards (that we recognized) to come in and chat. Fizzledorp is getting better at talking to people. The friendly were-wolf didn't really have more information to add to what we knew but did add that he felt like getting Trevor may help tone things down. Basically, we're stuck in an escalating back-and-forth and none of us are too sure how to dial it back.

The friendly were-wolf did share that they keep prisoners in the third floor towers at the armory. Yes, the armory we broke into. So we decide to plan a way to find out if Shinara is in those towers. Vohn, he's still salty and questioning everything we discuss. And Malek is still rather silently emo.

After going around a few times we decide to ask Paul if he can scout about a little and tell us if there is even anyone in the towers. Now, Paul and Meghan can't actually talk, it's more emotion/basic really. So after "hunting" for awhile (and casually popping in on the 4 towers) he comes back to us, indicating 3 of the 4 are occupied by were-wolves. He is unable to sort out if he knows any of them though, but he does tell me which tower is empty.

This leads to part two of this plan. Now that we know which ones are occupied, we're going to sneak up the "safe" western path to the tree line. And then Meghan turns into a weasel. Lutor goes "So weasel, uh I mean Meghan-weasel, can I pray for you" and holds out his hands. Meghan just tilts her head at him and looks at her tiny paws. A little more throat clearing and he casts a spell on her. Then Malek makes her invisible. And off she goes!

So she scurries over to the building and uses her little weasel claws to climb the stone exterior up to the roof, then uses the roof line to go from tower to tower. In the first tower she finds a strange large male were-wolf she doesn't recognize, but he is shackled and has a big T branded on his chest.

Scurrying over to the next tower she hears voices so she pauses to listen. Turns out it's the adviser berating the lieutenant from last night's battle. See, he had the audacity to retreat with no order to do so. So she dares to peek in, but no one seems to notice her. There she sees the hooded advisor having a go at the chained were-wolf that had the misfortune to disobey orders. About this time the advisor decides to brand this were-wolf causing him to scream, a lot. Luckily the hood on the advisor slipped a bit so she was able to get a decent look at him.

The advisor isn't a nightmare as Meghan half expected. It's worse. He appears to be an Elf with gold eyes and skin so pale its almost grey. When his hood slipped she could see he has little to no hair on his head. At that point she decided staying would no longer be valuable, and she only had 6 minutes of invisibility.

Going to the third tower that Paul indicated was occupied, she did find Shinara. She's currently alive and unharmed, but shackled. Fearing she's going to run out of invisibility Meghan then scurries back down the building and off to the tree line where her backup awaits. Well, everyone but Vohn, he refused to come and remained in the mansion. Meghan would only agree to do this if at least one fighter type was nearby as her weasel form is best suited for sneaking, not fighting.

So when she got to the tree line she chittered and ran up Thonk's armor to sit on his shoulder. His giggling is what indicated to the group it was time to go back to the mansion.

Back at the mansion her invisibility had worn off and in a moment of sheer frivolity, she starts running up and down Vohn's armor, sitting on his helmet, whisker tickling his face, and the like. This totally worked, he started laughing and making cracks about her being smaller than him. She then returned to half-drow form and reported everything she saw in as much detail as she could.

And, that was the end of the session plus a bunch of stuff pulled from chat.