Last time on the mystery campaign, the party interrogated Tajana, killed Portia, and began an uprising against Riviel Jassimir. This time, they face off against Jassimir and decide the fate of the city. All that and more in this session of the mystery campaign.
Picking up where they left off, the party decided to capitalize on the chaos caused by their revolt gambit and met Riviel Jassimir head on. Approaching her tower, Ais cast a glyph spell which was intended to discern the way one would access Jassimir's tower's second floor, and she saw a magical vision of a mechanical button inside a locket of Heironeous around Jassimir's neck. With the knowledge of how to ascend to the tower's upper floor, the party hastened in the direction of the tower. On the way, Montana magically communicated with Dirk St. Patrick, directing the sleuth to meet the party near Jassimir Tower to talk.
The party met with Dirk at an elven restaurant within walking distance of Jassimir Tower. Montana supplied some information about Jassimir, trying to get Dirk to join the party and take down Jassimir. Before Dirk could definitively say yes or no, Izzunech overpowered Ais, controlling her and forcing her to stab Dirk in the hand with a steak knife. Dirk announced he would be only able to help in small ways given the advances already made by the party, and that he was reticent to throw in his lot with a stab-happy demon.
Just as the party broached the topic of how they would make it into Jassimir's tower, a courier arrived and delivered a large golden key, conveying Jassimir's invitation to the party to join her at her tower. Once the party had arrived, she greeted them and cut straight to the chase. She knew that they knew of her deeds, and she wanted to be done with the game of it all. She opened her locket, pressed the button, revealed a moving staircase that descended from the ceiling, and led the party into the upper floor.
Upstairs was dark and drafty. The party noticed that one side of the tower was open to the city and the open air high above it all. Jassimir took a long, sharp prodding tool from the wall and thrust it repeatedly into the darkness. But the party each had darkvision, and they were all able to see that Jassimir's strikes into the darkness were actually connecting with tender spots on the body of a dragon with multicolored and translucent scales. When she prodded the dragon, it screamed in pain and released chaos bolts down into the city.
The party jumped into action--technically the third combat of the entire campaign, but the first true fight. Beor spoke with the dragon and ascertained that the chains holding him were magical in nature and that they were enchanted to keep him imprisoned. Ais used a glyph spell to remove the magical effect from the chains on the dragon, and Montana made a grand show of turning on Ais and Beor to fight with Jassimir. Jassimir, bolstered by Montana's assistance, reapplied the magic strengthening the chains on the dragon. Ais immediately countered this, though, both removing the magic from the chains and destroying them via rust and corrosion.
Still under the banner of fighting with Jassimir rather than against her, Montana cast "Dominate Person," playing on a technicality that allowed him to deny Jassimir a bonus to her resistance to the effect. Under the effects of the spell, Jassimir was magically forced to turn over control of her finances to people around down (liquidating financial groups she formed, dividing up her business among her competitors, and attributing her other assets to the poor of the city).
With binding paperwork turning her empire into support for the city, the party turned Jassimir over the the dragon she had spent centuries torturing. The dragon introduced himself as Tunder before taking Jassimir gently in his teeth and dropping her from the open side of the tower, the highest point in the city. Tunder turned to the party, asking them if he could reward them for their help in freeing him. At their requests, Tunder healed Beor of his lycanthropy (a chaos-driven effect) and exorcised Ais of Izzunech (a chaos-defined being). Montana requested a flute for his labors, and Tunder created a flute imbued with chaos--the instrument randomly plays a note which is unexpected but still pleasing to the ear. Content with his rewards, Tunder flew off over the city in search of starting his old life over again.
With the bulk of their justice served, the party decided to rest and regroup. They headed to the Briscoe Inn to decompress, get food and drinks from their trust barkeep friend Carl, and get a taste of some normalcy after a long while of chaotic work. On the walk over, Beor admired the night sky's stars and moon for the first time in years.
This session's ending was a challenge for me. I'll admit that when the party killed Jassimir (or rather, helped Tunder kill Jassimir), I was at a loss as to what to do. I genuinely forgot that the party was still standing in a room with a chaos dragon they had just freed--I was surprised when they reminded me that they wanted to talk with him. I planned things up to the moment that the players defeated Jassimir and nothing beyond; I really wasn't sure how to tie things up.
Fortunately, my players have plenty of ideas about what to do. They've spoken of completing the revolution, restructuring the guards, and going further with their business. Now that the mystery is resolved and they're working to satisfy their own narrative concerns, almost anything is on the table for epilogues. We've agreed to spend at least one more session playing through how it all gets wrapped up, and I am pretty excited to see where it all goes. I will admit that I didn't get the reaction I was hoping for with the dragon reveal, but that's okay. It's more important that my players are blown away by each other's actions than mine.
So although the mystery is solved, the story continues. Next time, the party will pick up the pieces, build a better Yamseth, and decide the future of each character. Until next time, happy gaming!
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