Last time on the mystery campaign, the player characters prepared to make their business plan a success with help from Clover Loom and Lyssbetonk Cogswagon. This session, the group delved even further into their healing business plan and dealt with surprising discoveries forced by Dirk St. Patrick. Read on for more.
Having rested at the Briscoe Inn the night before, the party rose separately in their respective rooms. While waiting for Ais to wake up, Montana played his guitar and Beor tended to druidic rituals. Once everyone was awake, the party headed downstairs for breakfast. Chef Lynette Adoma took their orders and served heaping breakfasts. I again put a lot of attention into the players' ordering processes, having Lynette act as a short-order cook and making spectacular versions of what they ordered. Details like food orders help people roleplay, and Lynette's cooking was a showcase for how each character behaves.
The party had a selection of locations to visit: they wanted to check in at Ais' place to grab some blueprints for the business, they wanted to obtain Lyssbetonk's liquid multiplier, and they wanted to check in at the property where the business would be. I told the players that the most efficient trip between these locations would be in the order I listed them above, and I realized seconds later that I could have constructed any order that would fit my agenda as DM, but I had instead offered the answer that was most consistent with my mental geography of the city. I joked about this with my players, but in the end, I liked the order I had presented. It allowed the party to ramp up their goals, from simply picking something up to dealing with Cogswagon to building their business. I mention this because if players ever ask about ideal paths between various points, you have the ability to place them in the ideal storytelling order. Consider this when you answer, and you'll allow yourself the ability to guide the story to a certain extent.
The party stopped first at Ais' place and found another note from Dirk St. Patrick. It read, "If you need a little help fighting your demons," and a small magical dagger was stuck to the note. This prompted questions from Montana, who wanted to know if Ais was possessed. Ais slowly admitted that she was in fact possessed by a demon, which caused Beor and Montana to hesitantly tell Ais that it could be a non-issue. But the conversation swung and focused for a while on Dirk and what to do about him. Beor advocated for killing Dirk but later claimed to have been less than serious--he simply felt at the end of his rope with Dirk and his tactics. The party ultimately did not come to a decision on Dirk, but I was pleased to see that his prodding was getting a reaction. Dirk is supposed to be the force that destabilized their secrets, and ideally the players will hate or at least resent him.
Speaking of the players' secrets, this moment marked the first discovery of a player secret. Beor and Montana's secrets remain hidden for now, but Dirk will of course step up his game as the story progresses. But Ais' secret is out now--Ais can no longer benefit from statistical boosts from keeping her secret. She has access to respective +2s to Investigation and Insight/Persuasion, but as the players complete the next chapter of the story, Ais will not become any more powerful. Dirk's damage is done. I am sad to see that Ais won't be able to continue to become more powerful (although the party will level up before too long), but Ais' player is the very person who came up with the secret mechanic concept, so they will accept the consequences along with the decision to roleplay coming clean about her possession.
On the way to Lyssbetonk's, Beor used Wild Shape to turn into a dog, and Beor's player joked about the limitations of the spell considering the 50-foot limit on movement away from the rest of the party. Transforming into a fast creature, especially birds, becomes effectively useless for Beor when he has to stick with the party. This was an unintended side effect of the distance limit--I did not mean to hamper the druid's abilities, but then, a lot of Wild Shape's draw is as a combat ability, and there has been essentially zero combat in this campaign. From the beginning, Wild Shape was limited in terms of usefulness. But that doesn't mean it's useless. Beor could use a bird's form to gain a strategic perspective while staying close to the rest of the party, or use any of his intimidating abilities when combat eventually does arise (making it that much more dramatic). He could use a badger's ability to burrow in a variety of situations, including building improvements for the business. He could even use a dog or wolf's ability to track things to follow leads in the mystery. Wild Shape has not been devalued, but rather repurposed, and it will be up to Beor's player to decide how to adapt.
At Cogswagon's lab, she unveiled her improvements on the liquid multiplier: it can turn a gallon of a liquid into 128 gallons, which would then be piped directly into waiting potion bottles. Ais and Cogswagon shared some scientific theorizing about the device's sources of power, and the party worked out payment details (50 gold pieces) to take the liquid multiplier to their business location. Lyssbetonk explained a few details about moving the device and asked whether the party wanted her to finish work on the biometric scanner--the party eagerly confirmed this. The party promised to be back soon with a cart in order to move the device piece by piece.
On the way to the property, a chaos storm struck. Ais was affected and lost her ability to read, though she gained the ability to speak any language aloud so long as she hears it. The full scope of the effect was not immediately recognizable, but Ais soon found that she could not write anything and grew ever more frustrated with the chaos storms. The shock of losing her literacy caused Ais to freeze up and her demon, Izzunech, to take over. Izzunech greeted Montana and Beor and described his plan to overtake Ais once he was able. Montana and Beor were unsettled by this but were relieved when Ais returned to herself.
When they arrived at the property, the party found Nyrill working away, having unshuttered the building and cleaned it out; he was just about to begin painting the building. Nyrill's request for directions caused the party to consider details about the business they hadn't yet considered. In a lengthy conversation, the party worked out details like employee roles, wages, and prices for items as well as naming the business: Misty Morning Healing Boutique. Montana cast "Mending" at a heightened level, completely repairing one of the buildings on-site which the party planned to use. A brief aside about this spell: Montana cast "Mending" as a 4th-level spell, which means that it generates considerably more repaired damage than it does as a cantrip. I interpreted this to mean that his spell would heal most if not all of the building. Rather than have Montana burn a large portion of his magic to repair the building, which he would have done anyway, I let the first spell be enough, especially since it was cast at such a high level. It didn't strike me as narratively interesting to force Montana to cast "Mending" a half dozen times when he was already using his most powerful spell slot to repair the building. I stand by this decision, even if it isn't exactly in line with the rules provided by the book.
With the property starting to look better and decisions being made about the business, the party instructed Nyrill to tend to the inside of the main building first and then go find a cart to move Cogswagon's liquid multiplier. Then Davil Analeth, father of the murder victim Hildy, appeared to check in. He had rebuilt the floors in one of the smaller outbuildings and restructured the frame of the building; he wanted to get directions for the next step. The party informed him that after rebuilding the structure, Davil would be hired for bookkeeping and reception work at a steeply raised wage, for which Davil was thoroughly grateful. They told Davil that the long-term plan was to turn the building he was repairing into low-income housing, and Davil said he could turn the building into a four-family apartment given some time, which pleased the party. They told Davil he would need to help transport the liquid multiplier; he agreed and committed to serving the business as long as they would have him.
Let's address the elephant in the room. It's been two sessions since the players tended to the story. I had Edgar Hillerman send a courier in the morning to request an audience with the party; he said he was remembering saying certain things he didn't mean and wanted a chance to clear the air. But the players did not bite on this bait. They're invested in their business plan and how it will get them access to members of the Above. And while my players joke about how I sit listlessly while they plan, I am fine with letting the story drift for a few sessions. It makes sense that the characters would spend an evening and the following morning tending to building their pass to the Above. And my assumption here is that the players will resettle into the story once they have the Above cred to question people more freely. If I give them the impression that their business is starting to take off, especially by having the people they've employed succeeding in their support roles, it should free up the party to use their cover and pursue the story.
That's an assumption, though. The players could just as easily get distracted by some other detail or side quest or plan and lose the thread entirely. But I trust my players. I trust that I have done the work to motivate them. I trust that I will continue to adapt to their interests. And that's enough for me. The secrets they have yet to discover in this chapter will probably accelerate the story progression, so my mini-goal is really just to get them to speak with Hillerman again, and hopefully all should fall into place.
That's all for this time. Next time on the mystery campaign, the party will shore up their business plan and get close to members of the Above. Until then, happy gaming!
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