I’ll Burn Your House Down

Year, Season, Month, Days: 5990 F.Y. Pishrin, Valicor 16-Wedroe 2

The party awoke to the smell of breakfast. Molly left early to grab an open-face sandwich but was interrupted by Mynor applying a nut-butter-esque poultice to their chest wound. Felicity awoke to a meal of seared swordfish and the party had a discussion about appropriate morning greetings and sleep.

Molly spoke with Greta, the crewwoman who pulled the last catch onto the ship, and showed her the basics of counting cards and how to cheat at gambling. She did learn several of Molly’s tells but Molly left the game feeling they failed to teach Greta anything of value. Molly then created a twisted ritual scene on their side of the sleeping space with the emerald beetles nailed to the wall to dry.

The party learned they would be landing in Midvane to collect supplies before meeting up with Pyris and sailing home. The party found the first mate, Don DeLot, who escorted them to the locked hold to inspect the cargo to see if they could identify the contents, only knowing it was destined for Raven Rock and had the potential to be related to a vampiric colony there. After attempting to pick the lock a couple times and encountering traps, Molly refrained from further attempts as she did enjoy living and remaining conscious. Felicity inspects the locked chests and found a symbol of a tower surrounded by a dark cloud.

Felicity recalled that Midvane was a mercantile-based system that highly valued legal trade and had issues with pirates as the goods were considered unlicensed. However, a loophole existed where any proof of goods captured from pirates would be considered licensed, which led to an interesting sub-market around Isla Midvane. The party’s ship switched flags prior to landing and claimed the goods they stole were from a ship controlled by The No Mercies which were licensed without incident. The Captain, first mate, and cook all left the ship in search of supplies as Felicity and Molly searched for jobs to complete overnight and encountered an international group, The Vast Tapestry, which hired individuals that recorded the deeds of their party and reported them back, this allowed for record-keeping, improved jobs via fame or notoriety, and headhunting for covert missions. The party found a job posted to protect a trade convoy destined for Raven Rock and believed this job to be counter to the job they took collecting the boxes currently held on the pirate ship for Pyris. The cargo was requested from Raven Rock through Revia, which was odd but not unheard of, and it was possible the cargo could be dropped off in Verenba rather than transported through the mountains to Valak a’tesh.

The party bribed the clerk to delay the job filing as it required their real names to ensure payment and also hired Tektun Glass, a fiery blue and green male grippli shaman, covered in scars (and his shimmering peacock companion) to record their deeds and aid them on their journey.

The now-trio decided they would board the pirate ship, stage a kidnapping, and steal the cargo with the intent to take the new contract. The party ensured passage on a new ship under a fake name and proceeded with their plan. After Tektun cast Pass without a Trace on the party, they snuck onto the ship, Tektun to destroy their quarters (including a precious peacock-feather sacrifice from Felicity’s hat), and Felicity and Molly to investigate the locked door; after finding they were missing two parts of the door keys the party regrouped and searched the captain’s quarters.

While destroying the quarters, the party stumbled on several locked drawers which Molly miraculously opened simultaneously, and revealed a ruby, a (trapped) key, a signet ring, and other treasures. Molly took the key and bypassed the explosive trap before moving to the mess hall to collect Juniper, Molly’s mule.

Felicity encountered a man sitting in the mess hall, having a drink, after introducing themselves, as well as Tektun under the alias of Jamie, and sent them out claiming Bertran required some muscle to move supplies. The party released the chickens from the coop to hide their presence from Mynor as they returned to the hold and successfully unlocked the door, collected the two locked boxes, and took an additional crate of stolen goods.

As the party made its way off the ship, Tektun ran back to trigger the explosive trap in the captain’s desk. The duo noticed the captain and co returning from their supply run and hid amongst supplies on the dock, as the cabins and helm erupted in a column of fire and the ship began to buckle and sink. The captain and co were preoccupied searching for Mynor as the party escaped notice and met up with a lightly scorched grippli with a chick they saved.

Felicity attempted to convince the crew to leave early but declined to bribe them; Tektun took the opportunity to pass them the ruby they snuck off Felicity’s person. The ship immediately left port sans supplies and the party recorded some stories with Tektun; they also learned the peacock’s name to be Evana.

Molly woke up first and immediately pressed for Felicity to wake up, per the two’s earlier conversation Felicity attempted to politely decline in order to sleep in but Molly continued to push, even through a Sleep spell by Tektun until Felicity relented to reel in any catch. Molly made the effort to catch food and miraculously caught a large bluefin tuna with the aid of others on the ship. Molly and Tektun clean and skin the fish. As much of the fish is saved and dried as possible but extra is tossed overboard.

After nearly a week the party saw a desert in the distance, the Glass Desert, and the ship moved into the river delta to move through Revia to the city of Verenba, the city of glass. Made of magical glass, the city appeared to be a large stained window, surrounded by a large, currently broken, glass dome. Although dazzling, it appeared the dome and the magic of the city itself prevented, or at least reduced, the oppressive heat of being in a bell jar.

The party met with their contact for their job, a halfling named Cosovo who claimed to be working with the Empress-to-be in Raven Rock. They were paid 2000 gold and took another contract to deliver a package to the Princess of Elysntire in the neighboring country of Shell Coast. The party entered into a blood oath to ensure delivery to the best of their ability. Molly agreed to meet Cosovo in 40 years to discuss poisons directed at undead. Felicity learned The Ruby Renegade had left several months ago for Gales for a contract, further details were unknown.

A donkey, Rascal, supplies, and a cart, Intrepid, were purchased for an overland journey to Elysntire.

The party leveled up!