Session 28: Mo Money, Mo Problems

Vikrit: "Then why do you fucking lie all the time?!" Cornerio: "I speak many truths."
 * After the party, we are heading home, into Lower Dura. Sarienne scouts ahead and spots the small square where the young orc girl who was pretending to ask for help is currently passed out.
 * We wake her up and she's confused, asks if Geremiah sent more dreamlily. Vanesse, Vikrit, and Sarienne recognize her. Vanesse (Dan in the meantime) is drunk so tries to "heal" her and hurts her arm.
 * She gets scared, starts talking about the assassin. Human-appearing female, black hair, purple sword.
 * Vikrit leaves 20 sp on the ground for her while she backs away and leaves.
 * We return to The Reef. Cornerio is in his room; Vanesse is wasted (rolled a 1 on fort save).
 * One of the 4 goblins there at night approaches Mogen. House Sivis gave us a message from the government of Sharn.
 * Mogen opens it and recognizes her brother's handwriting. It says "Mogen, we need to talk. Family problems." She then passes out face-first in her room.
 * Sarienne walks to the vault. The door is wide open - the magic lock has been deactivated/turned off. The money hasn't been disturbed. "After that I stop looking." One of the cases of dreamlily has been opened - 1/3 is gone, worth LOTS of gold.
 * She goes to her room and runs into Cornerio triumphantly holding a sandwich. Vanesse destroys half the kitchen in jealousy and goes to bed. Sarienne and Vikrit are the only ones awake.
 * Sarienne finds Vikrit and tells him we have a vault problem. They go to the vault. "Don’t get mad, Mogen and I have been keeping dreamlily here… to sell!" "WHERE DID YOU GET IT?"  "Halek Boromar!" Vik's frill goes up.
 * Dispell magic, counterspell, etc. It probably was someone magical… Drek?
 * Cornerio has bad dreams about climbing the Tower of Boldrei and it not being the right time.
 * Next morning, Getafix is swearing in the kitchen… because of Vanesse.
 * Mogen tells the party she needs to go deal with family business, thinks she agreed to let Cornerio come with him.
 * Cornerio: "A gnome's as good as his word."
 * Cornerio freaks out about his spices being fucked up. Vikrit and Rio determine the kitchen culprit was Vanesse. Rio gets all up in her face about it and picks her up.
 * Tork has been moving things in the background to see if anyone's noticed.
 * Meanwhile, Sarienne tells Mogen about the missing dreamlily in the stables. Jusk comes out of his room and tells Sarienne that a gnoll came to tell Sarienne that her ship has come in (the music box!), we would see her at the temple.
 * Vanesse and Rio are fighting. Cornerio goes to make himself some breakfast.
 * Rio tells Vanesse she needs to fix what she did, she refuses. Rio is very mad about a space in their home getting fucked up.
 * Rio knocks Vanesse over Cornerio into the dining room with Vikrit flailing and yelling at them to stop in the back.
 * Note: "The Breakfast of Towers" is the official breakfast of Sharn.
 * Vanesse throws some stuff on the ground and Rio jumps them; Vanesse rolls a 1 and spins Rio around, knocking dishes off the shelves. Tork and Vikrit back away. "Did you see the ghost???" "…What?"
 * Gettafix is just standing there looking at the broken plates sadly. Cornerio walks out with a sandwich and says, "There's a big mess in there, you better clean that up."
 * Mogen goes alone to her brother's office, eating her breakfast. Her brother asks her what the hell is going on, there's "some issue with Dad's paperwork" and boss is auditing his paperwork… which came from above. He blames her and says she is the family problem.
 * Meanwhile, Cornerio realizes she's gone and dashes over to follow (having decided that he's going to 'help', getting into an argument with someone at the front desk. Mogen just walks past him.
 * He sneaks through a window and finds Mogen's brother's desk, claiming to be her representative in family court.
 * "Are you here to serve me?!" "I'm here to serve the both of you."
 * He thinks Mogen is suing him, threatens to sue back.
 * "You all know each other right?" "Excuse me?" "I meant lawyers, not gnomes."
 * Vikrit casts Alarm on the vault. Vanesse overhears them talking about the drugs. Sarienne goes to talk to her fence.
 * The team talks with Kalti about the plan for the gala.
 * Sarienne goes to talk with her fence in the meantime. There's a raft at the end of an alley, there's a hobgoblin with one arm and a Braelish army cap, operating it. Has a basket for alms, she donates and descends into the Cogs (the guard has no presence down there).
 * She can tell she's being watched--has been being followed by 2 buff halflings who are obviously Clan Boromar. She tries to lose them but they see her and run after her. No other people around except for mostly goblins watching from their windows.
 * She whaps one in the face. They confirm she's Sarienne and try to intimidate her. She tries to hit the brawler and he gets out of the way, then punches her. The other one tries to grapple her and fails. She whaps one with the sap in the face and gets out of the way when both brawlers dive at her, missing and hitting each other. After they demand she comes with them, Sarienne throws one into the other guy, who hits his head on the wall and passes out. The other guy gets kicked while getting up.
 * She asks who he is, says he's from Boromar and Halek wants her dead. She puts him down and he starts dragging his friend away. She says she has a message for Halek she wants them to send instead of killing them-- "no more". He spits after her and she leaves.
 * Mogen reassures Sarienne: "I'm working on what you guys talked about." Rio: "WHAT DID YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT??" Vanesse: "The DRUG thing?"
 * Now everyone knows about the drugs.
 * We go into the Temple of the Six. We see Ash and the pews, and Keshta and Kavallah. Vikrit suggests to Tork that they maybe.
 * They go talk to Kavallah. When Vikrit says "Iago" she suddenly looks angry but half the party doesn't notice. She says maybe we could help her - looking for an escapee from Droaam. She says to go talk to Nev the medusa (medudesa?).
 * They mention the fugitive - a little half-orc from Greywall who has hired "The Burnt Hand" to protect her. They're trapped in a warehouse near the walls - fairly defensible - in Broken Arch. She has an artifact - find out what it is and then kill her; something portable from a vault in a bank in Greywall (very well-known mage in Droaam). It's an international incident… it means it comes from one of the three sisters.
 * Her name is Skaldi. :(
 * Kavallah would ideally bring her back in one piece; says we're welcome to her allies' goods.
 * We mention the gala and the enslaved monsters in reference to balancing power in their direction. He says not to assume the sisters' motivations, Tork says this came from Iago.
 * Vikrit asks if any mercs attacking Burnt Hand survived, he says one orc named Jasper did and gives paperwork with his address in Broken Arch.
 * Sarienne goes to talk with her fence about the prewar music box. He says minus his fee, 36,000 gold. 6000 off the top for his fee.
 * "How about 2000 and the Cannith goggles?" "…You'll sell ME the goggles?" Gets fee down to 5000.
 * Sarienne does 2k for the goggles, 5k for vest, 24000 left over.
 * She pockets the goggles and puts on the vest, briefly comes out, then walks back in. Rio notices the extra lumps and follows to ask where she went and goes into the shop, notices the changeling shop assistant (Cask). They ask if they're a friend of the Tyrant, and they respond with hostility.
 * Rio wants the Meteoric Knife - they bargain to get it down to 2400. Mogen takes the True Strike gauntlets out of her own money.
 * Cornerio leaves when he tries to sell his +2 Shock Nunchucks and the party wants the money.
 * 2500 for the quiver for Vikrit! Tork gloves! Amulet of retributive healing for 1500! 1 x Porcupine Elixer, 1 x Rhino Elixer, and 1 more thing (?).
 * Sarienne and Mogen talk with Cask about selling the Dreamlily we stole for a LOT of money (and letting him know how much, and where it is…). 2100 gold left.
 * Cornerio is hidden and tries to sneak off. Vikrit and Rio look around for him but can't find him. He waits until they leave and sells the nunchucks for a whopping 25k.
 * The party goes home before we head out. The weather has cleared up - presumably magically, for the gala.
 * Rio finds Geremiah, says they saw his girlfriend… he says doesn't know what Elandra told them, but he doesn't give dreamlily to her. He's been sneaking off to see her, doesn't want to get in trouble. Rio says they will keep this between them.
 * Vikrit asks Jusk to keep an eye on the vault and he'll give him more money for the glidewing races, then asks Mogen to talk to Dreck.
 * Mogen finds out that Dreck and Vesun haven't been around for a while. Dax thinks he's fallen off the wagon.
 * Cornerio comes home. Vanesse tries to shake him down, he says he put them in a safety deposit box.
 * Sarienne convinces Brutus to keep watch on the armory and will pay him double. Tork checks out Pepsi Max - he's still in a coma-like state but breathing.
 * Sarienne calls a house meeting to discuss the gala plan.
 * We discuss how we're going to get in. Vesun is probably off handling the issue with Noelle's brother. Mogen accidentally lets slip about the drugs but says we have a small amount, with the idea that we drug the guards with our dreamlily.
 * Vikrit suggests we go do the quest and NOT kill Skaldi.
 * Rio is investigating Vesun's lead with Noelle while the rest of us head to Broken Arch.
 * We go to Jasper's place - apartment building. Says they're in a warehouse - trapped bridge or skydock are only way in. There are arrow windows in guard towers. They've been holed up there for weeks. We then go scope out the spot. It's floating outside the city walls.
 * Tork mage hands the bridge, feels caltrops.
 * We walk a bit away to look for boats, glidewings to steal. Sarienne puts on the hat of disguise to look like a specific laborer (gondolier). Tork pulls off the guy's hat with mage hand and makes it float away to the other dock where he can't get it. A couple halflings help him. Sarienne goes past them and takes the boat.
 * We meet her back at the hideout and pile onto the boat. They may have seen us so we go fly around for a while and then come back to the dock.
 * There is a lizardfolk (Cold Sun) standing guard. Tork pushes some barrels back to distract him. We come in from below, Sarienne sneaks up and hides behind the barrels. The rest of the party sneaks on. Vanesse is about to tap the door when they hear "now!" and someone swings the doors open, hitting Vanesse.
 * Lizardfolk, dwarf with big axe, female human mage are inside. Then a hobgoblin bard comes out.
 * Cornerio tries to hit the lizardfolk monk and misses. Vikrit fires at the dwarf and misses, the monk fucks up Cornerio with his lawful nunchucks. Tork yells saying we don't want to fight, Sarienne jumps over the barrel she's hiding behind and perches on top of the door.
 * Skaldi runs back in. A halfling comes out.
 * The lizardfolk tells us Skaldi is under their protection. We give our names and she recognizes us, and they let us in. Skaldi is very scared and confused why we came, Tork tells her it's something from back home.
 * They agree to let us talk in private. We go off to another room. Brother Xoria is the lizardfolk monk. Skaldi takes out a perfect crystal orb - tells us she got pulled in to some friends robbing the House Kundarak vault. They forged her documents and got her out and gave her this as thanks.
 * Tork identifies the crystal: these are mainly used as a scrying focus - crystal ball of true seeing. There's a symbol of the 12 (the 12 most powerful mages) on the base. It is VERY, VERY valuable, and you can use it without actually scrying… She gives it to Mogen.
 * Vikrit asks where she hired the adventurers. She says she took passengers' shit, found Brother, he helped.
 * The halfling comes and says there a lot of people outside. There are 4 minotaurs with axes, gnolls, goblins, a large ogre mage floating there… Kavallah. Something is ramming into the back door… and they'll get in unless it's reinforced.