Last time on the mystery campaign, the party shopped, escaped a burning building, and scried the assassin Tajana. We ended on something of a cliffhanger, and this time, the party focuses on the endgame and face off against Tajana.
In the final moments of the previous session, Ais had cast "Invisibility" on the party in order to aid their unseen travel through the city. The group returned to Ais' house and planned. In particular, the party was pondering questions about how to face off against the incriminated Riviel Jassimir, and whether there was much hope that their interference would be a positive for the city. Would the end of the chaos storms even be a good thing, for instance? And what were they to do about Tajana coming to kill them?They decided to take these questions up with Portia, and headed for the guard headquarters.
On the way, a chaos storm struck. Montana evaded the bolt of chaotic energy, but Ais and Beor were struck, resulting in Ais' being instantly hogtied and Beor's saturation with magical power, allowing him to cast 2nd-level spells at will. The party completed the journey to the guard headquarters and began speaking with Portia. The group took a fairly hostile tone with Portia, who seemed to balance sympathy for the party with a limitation on how much she could help them. The heart of the disagreement was about how poor the organization of the guards is, and all agreed that things could be better, though the disagreement continued. Portia offered city guards to defend the group, but they turned this down to protect the city guard.
The party changed the subject and requested a courier. Portia sent for one, and the courier agreed to take the diamond from the party and deliver it to Lyssbetonk Cogswagon. Meanwhile, Beor demanded that the linking spell that connected the party be magically deactivated, wanting to speak with Chief of Police Horace Barnes; Porita sheepishly revealed that the spell had been ineffective for a while--it only lasts three days. This caused some frustration in the party, but Portia tried to deflect that they could more safely and strategically face Tajana without the link.
The courier returned to the guard headquarters, saying that she could not deliver the diamond because Cogswagon would not open the door. Fearing for the worst, the party rushed to Cogswagon's lab and discovered Tajana disassembling the Weather Controller. Thinking fast, the party unleashed a series of spells that magically bound her, at which point Beor shattered her arm and the Undoer with his hammer. Montana then used "Polymorph" to turn Tajana into a slug and deposit her in a jar. Meanwhile, Ais found Cogswagon killed in her bed, her throat slit and her eyes lifeless.
Beor transformed into a large hound and delivered Tajana to the guard headquarters, where she was placed in a high security cell. Back at the lab, Ais reassembled the Weather Controller save for the diamond and began to work on fixing up with Antigravity Boots. Beor returned, and Montana began to cast "Raise Dead" on Cogswagon. While Montana worked through the ceremony, Ais added the diamond to the Weather Controller, completing it, and switched it on to the setting to prevent chaos storms. Moments later, however, the storms struck again, the party each able to narrowly avoid its effects.
Montana completed the "Raise Dead" spell on Cogswagon, who was disoriented. She was not sure how she felt it, but suspected she had died, but could not remember it. The party explained that Tajana had killed her, going into fairly grisly detail. Cogswagon was extremely vulnerable, and it was a rather emotional moment for all involved. She was surprisingly focused on learning the details of the Weather Controller's first run, and she said that the failure to work clearly indicates that the chaos storms are not weather at all. She went to rest, and the party said they would check in with her again soon. They turned to go to the guard headquarters again to interrogate Tajana, which is where we ended for the night.
This was a bit of a departure for this campaign. Where I began with some notes guiding sessions and recently transitioned into more reactive planning, this session represented a complete reliance on improvisation. That's more or less where my sweet spot for DMing is, but I have been wary of acting against my own best interests when it comes to long-term planned story events--a mystery just relies on more structure than improvisation is really geared towards. But we're in the endgame now. The remaining reveals are in place and I won't get in their way, so now it's just down to the players to see their agendas through and end this story as they see fit. I envision between 2 and 3 session more before the wrap-up, but of course, that remains to be seen.
I also want to note for a second that I completely forgot that "Raise Dead" existed. I had Tajana kill Cogswagon and thought that would be a tragic way to reveal Cogswagon was innocent after all and get some emotional energy flowing. But Montana almost immediately resolved that problem with minimal complications. When we were done for the night, the players remarked on how Tajana's ease of being captured was surprising, and I was still hung up on how Cogswagon was alive again. Specifically, they said that I seemed quite alright with Tajana being captured--and in a way, I was. She's not the BBEG, and they planned well and then executed the plan well when facing off against her. They earned their victory, so I had no problem allowing for it. I mention these two things together because both were cases where playing along like nothing was disrupted really helped, and it even earned compliments from the players, which is always a great feeling.
Next time on the mystery campaign, the party will interrogate Tajana and try to learn more about the mysterious Riviel Jassimir. They seem to have finally gotten the upper hand--what will they do with that power? Until next time, happy gaming!
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