Last time in the mystery campaign, the party hit the market and investigated Seven Fifteen, a corporate espionage agent. They planned to check into the abandoned shack in the marketplace that was associated with the mercenary Tajana. This time, they hit the market again and investigate the shack. Read on for the full account of the fifteenth session of the mystery campaign.
After rising at Ais' house in the morning, the party made plans for the day and headed over to Cogswagon's lab to check in. Cogswagon took them inside and showed them the newest fruit of her labors: the repaired Biometric Scanner. After a demonstration of its capacities, which include indicating whether someone is lying, Izzunech took over Ais. Montana covered for Ais, pretending that she hadn't had enough coffee that morning, and Cogswagon bought it. Then Cogswagon explained that she had witnessed a chaos storm terrorize a few people in the market and turned her attention to rebuilding her Weather Controller to turn the storms off. She asked that the party fetch her a diamond for the machine in order to complete it. Montana balked at this, countering that Cogswagon should just go to the market herself. Something of an argument unfolded: Cogswagon said her agoraphobia kept her from going outside, Montana believed she could conquer it if she tried, and Beor wanted Montana to accept that Cogswagon couldn't go outside. In the end, Beor carried Montana to the door.
Back outside and on the way to the market, Montana began to play a sultry song. (Out of game, he said that he wanted to be playing "Careless Whisper" by George Michael.) Because of an exceptional roll, he played so well that a random person in the crowd was overcome and kissed a nearby unsuspecting stranger. The stranger slapped the man, and Beor wound up and punched the man unconscious. The crowd dispersed when the song ended, and the crowd showered the party with coins.
They headed back to the leatherworker and commissioned a few custom items: Beor had a hammer holster made, and Montana bought a guitar case. The process involved the hiring of a spellcaster who used shaping spells to create stand-in items of wood and stone for the guitar and hammer respectively so that the party could keep their items.
Then it was off to Cuff Jewelers, a small jewelry store near the market. Inside, they bought a proper diamond for Cogswagon's Weather Controller--one cut for transmitting energy. Beor also asked to see a number of other items, among which were a beautiful statue of Ehlonna made from precious gems. Beor commissioned a custom holy symbol of Ehlonna, a gold-and-silver guitar pick in the shape of Fharlanghn's symbol for Montana, and an elaborate series of gold-and-ruby chains and clasps as decorations for Ais' horns (ahornments, if you will).
The party left the shop, headed for the abandoned shack, and a chaos storm struck. Beor was suddenly unable to recall any information from before the strike, including his name and where he was. For nine minutes, Montana and Ais tried to explain to Beor who he was and how they know each other, peppering in untrue details about how close they are as a group; Montana even claimed that both he and Beor were named Beor, which caused ample confusion. A few memories came back to Beor slowly, and then all at once, quite overwhelming him. After a moment of recovery, Beor was ready to carry one.
The group arrived at the abandoned shack and found a heavy padlock on the only door in. Beor smashed the lock, and they went inside to find a small room empty except for a few empty shelves. After some searching, Montana found a seam in the flooring which was connected to a wire which fed through a pully system and lifted half the floor to reveal a staircase leading down to a larger room. Inside that room, the party found a recently-used bedroll, six scroll cases, and a box of candles. Inside the scroll cases were spell scrolls (Chain Lightning, Mall Healing Word, Geas), maps of mining operations in the mountains nearby, blackmail dossiers on four members of the Above, and a pair of letters between George Turnbuckle and Hildy Analeth. Beor turned into a hunting dog and used his sense of smell to confirm that Tajana had slept here. Montana took a few stray hairs. Soon, they noticed that smoke was pouring into the room--the house above was on fire. If they stayed there, they would suffocate as all the oxygen burned. Using Ais' resistance to fire damage, they managed to lift the floor, magically open the locked door, and rush outside to safety.
Outside the burning shack was a crowd. People grew animated when it was revealed that people had been inside the burning building. A few good Samaritans came to help, but the party was fine. Nyril was also in the crowd. He was relieved the party was fine, but disappointed to tell them that two of the business' healers had quit. A private investigator named Dirk St. Patrick had shown up at the business and told the employees that Montana had killed his son, Beor had killed his wife, and Ais was possessed by a demon. Two healers had quit in disgust, but Nyril didn't believe St. Patrick, so he had stayed. The party doubled down, insisting that the stories were lies and resolving to seek out the healers to set things right.
Montana then used the hair from Tajana to scry her. He witnessed her riding an elevator up to a tower, where she met with Riviel Jassimir. Tajana explained that her cover was burned and she was leaving town, but Jassimir insisted that they still had unfinished business. Tajana argued again and again that no amount of money would convince her to stay, but she changed her mind when Jassimir produced two bulging bags of platinum pieces and threatened Tajana with some unspoken secret. When Tajana accepted the bags, Jassimir told her to "stop them" before she left town. Then Tajana entered the elevator back down, and Montana's scrying ended as she walked out into the city.
The party felt ready to take Tajana on but was unsure of how to follow her. Ais placed a hand on her compatriots, cast "Invisibility," and we decided to pick up from there next time. Sorry for the cliffhanger! Sometimes, you just have to call it.
A quick note about Dirk St. Patrick's return this session: I'm not really a "mean DM" at all. I'd rather give interesting problems to my players to see how they solve them than stump the players. But after the jokes about how toothless Dirk St. Patrick had become, my mind started going. "Okay, so he can't reveal their secrets to each other. And he knows how much they love their business. Why not have him strike at the employees?" Now, the party will have to work with the employees who quit or find replacements, which creates its own story angles. It also makes Dirk a threat again--what if he spreads word of that and the disguises to the Above? Before now, Dirk was a way to put pressure on the party dynamic. But since the party is completely integrated now, Dirk can be repurposed to threaten their interests in new ways, which also creates new story angles. I personally like the idea of the party losing a lot of their support from the people they've met as they approach the final chapter, which would increase the drama of facing off against the final boss even more. We'll see.
That's all for now. Next time in the mystery campaign, the players will hatch plans to deal with Tajana. I certainly don't know what is going to come next, and I think the players don't either. So you'll just have to tune in next time to find out how it all plays out. Until next time, happy gaming!
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