Last time on the mystery campaign, the players tended to their fledgling business as a means to infiltrate the upper reaches of the Above. This session, the players continued that work on the business and then interviewed Edgar Hillerman, who revealed information the players will find useful. Read on for the full account.
The last session had ended at the property where the business is located. Waiting for their new employee Nyrill to return with a cart for Cogswagon's liquid multiplier, the party occupied themselves; Montana played a tune, Beor inspected Nyrill's work and ate some peanuts, and Ais read about obscure forms of magic. Soon, Nyrill returned with the cart, and Beor transformed into an ox to pull it.
On the way to Cogswagon's lab, Ais asked Montana to hold onto the tiny dagger that Dirk had left her. She asked Montana to observe her behavior and use the dagger on her should Izzunech, her demon, take over. It was a solemn moment, and Montana was clearly a bit unnerved by the gravity of the request. Soon, they arrived at the lab and loaded up the first shipment of the multiplier: a collection of pipes moving the multiplied liquid to the dispenser. With the shipment loaded, they set off for the property.
They decided to stop along the way for lunch. The restaurant the party chose was a street food restaurant which provided meals in the style of all manner of street food from across the continent. As always, we took an indulgent amount of time describing food, which I recommend you do for your players. The party liked the restaurant so much that they asked the owner/operator, Marietta, if she was interested in expanding her business into a building on their property. Marietta was eager to do so and explained a plan for a fine dining restaurant to pull in people from the Above.
Suddenly, a chaos storm struck. I had decided recently that having chaos storms affect people only when they are outside would defeat the purpose of the towers. So I ran with the assumption that chaos bolts could strike through conventional buildings on the ground. Thus, the bolts struck in the restaurant. Montana grew a toe on his hand between thumb and forefinger, and Marietta's mind was affected in an unobserved way. (She was forced to question the truth of anything she hadn't personally witnessed in the last day, but this didn't come up as it was at the end of their conversation with her.) Content with full bellies and a deal done, the party continued to the property.
Beor transformed back into an ox and pulled the cart on to the property. They unloaded its contents, and Davil, who had been along to help, volunteer to assemble the piping while they completed the next trip. The party agreed to this plan and headed back to Cogswagon's lab. Along the way, they saw and avoided Edgar Hillerman, which they maintained was because he knew them only as their aliases, which they were not costumed as at the moment.
They arrived at the lab and quickly loaded the rest of the piping onto the cart. The return trip went off without a hitch, and the party discovered that Davil had already assembled most of the piping from the first trip. They left him with the rest and returned to the lab for the dispenser, the final part. On the way, they noticed Hillerman coming back in the opposite direction, now the same way the party was going. They slowed down to avoid him, again afraid that appearing without their disguises would be a mistake.
A brief aside on Hillerman's appearances here: I roll a d12 for random events when the party is in transit. Most results in the middle mean nothing happens, and very high results mean something eventful happens, including the possibility that a god intervenes. But a roll of a 1 means "Inspiration"--something happens that could advance the main storyline. In this case, Hillerman was the person the party needed to speak to in order to finish the chapter, so I had him appear, as I rolled a 1 both times he appeared. Even though the party avoided him, it did underscore the need for them to visit him, so it ended up serving a purpose.
Back at the property with the final load, the party helped Davil finish assembling the frame of the liquid multiplier. When they finished, it stood complete: a glass chamber connected to a snaking pipe that led to a dispenser poised over 256 glass bottles, ready to be filled with healing potion. Ais produced a potion of her own design and fed it into the machine as a test batch. Immediately, the level of the health potion in the chamber rose, and it soon fed into the piping and toward the dispenser. It appeared to be a rousing success, with hundreds of potions to be completed just from the test.
Meanwhile, Montana grew increasingly upset about his newly grow hand-toe. It prevented him from comfortably holding his guitar, and he did not like that it would interfere with his playing. At Ais' suggestion, he ultimately asked Beor to use Dirk's tiny dagger to cut the toe off, hoping that the magic in the dagger would heal the wound. Sure enough, after Beor had sliced the toe off, healing magic set in and formed a small scar over the wound. This relieved Ais, who realized that she had a sure way to combat Izzunech if need be.
The party donned their disguises and headed for Hillerman's tower. He received them, invited them in to speak, and explained that he was ashamed of his conduct the last time they had met. He did not mean to offer Beor a price on Cogswagon's head; he felt that he was magically controlled and had acted against his own wishes. In fact, he considered Cogswagon a friend. He wanted them to know that he would never act that way of his own volition.
The party asked him about the big Above party the night of the murder. He hemmed and hawed at first, but finally admitted that he was at the party, but no one could testify to it because he was in disguise as Below Joe, a crude caricature of people in the Below. He explained that he had been kicked, cursed, and spit on, which had changed his perspective on how he treated the poor. He said that some time during the party, he lost certain memories and became magically controlled.
Toward the end of their conversation with Hillerman, he mentioned his friend George. Beor confirmed that this was in fact George Turnbuckle, Hildy's employer. Hillerman described the varied nature of Turnbuckle's friends and acquaintances; he in particular mentioned that the night of the murder, he saw a figure meeting with Turnbuckle, wearing a black cloak and a purple turban. Intrigued by this detail, the party drew their conversation to a close and left Hillerman's tower.
And so ended the session. Ais has forfeited her secret about Izzunech, but both Beor's and Montana's secrets are intact, so they receive a +1 to Investigation and their choice of a +1 to Persuasion or Insight. All three characters level up in recognition of their completing half of the adventure. I informed them they would level up once more after the ninth chapter of the story, meaning they would head into the final sessions at level 10. I find it can be helpful to disclose to my players when they can expect to level up so that they aren't constantly wondering when, and with a story-driven campaign like this, chapters are as good a way as any to administer level ups.
That's all for now; next time the party will tend more to their business and address the question of the turbanned figure once more with evidence pointing to her trail. Until next time, happy gaming!
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