Episode 5 Part 2 "Have Fun Storming the Io'Galiroth!"

Session #9: 8/3/2019

21 Myonastas 2350 of the 5th Age

Recap

 * The session began with the party standing in the Forward Encampment on the front lines of the battle between the Elberethian forces and the Arkinian City-Ship the Io'Galiroth.
 * The party discussed their plans to sink the city-ship with the Paladin of Corellon, Ver Runningwood.
 * Liosynth decided to drop by the supply tent, where the party picked up 10 minutes of fuse and a small barrel of gunpowder; then headed back to town for an evenings rest at the Callion Inn.
 * Skord had taken the liberty of arranging rooms in the inn for the party.
 * Kandra and Thokk played a round of Kobolds Knuckles with some of the other mercenaries in the bar before heading up for a nights rest.
 * In the morning the party spoke with some of the mercenaries who had already tried and failed to destroy the Io'Galiroth. They found the story of an injured gnome particularly interesting, as she had paid Loray Sirothian to teleport her onto the crow's nest of the ship before climbing down into the ship.
 * The party inquired about the cost of a teleport to the ship, and Sirothian agreed to perform the job for a simple 1000gp.
 * The party spent 6 hours preparing as Sirothian gathered information about the ship from the Dragonborn prisoner, Xafiq.
 * As night fell, Sirothian gathered the party together in the cobblestone courtyard and performed the teleportation spell. However, his aim was slightly off, and the party found itself not in the crow's nest, but rather in the bunk room of an Arkinian sailor.
 * Kandra and Thokk landed on top of the sleeping dragonborn while Liosynth was teleported into a dresser, causing it to explode. Vendrin and Zevah landed in the center of the room without issue.
 * Thokk quickly and quietly killed the dragonborn; then the party hid as another dragonborn peered into the room to check on the loud noise. After a moment of tense waiting, the second dragonborn decided his peer was simply sleeping and left him be.
 * The party stealthily made their way through the halls of the ship, discovering they were on one of the lower decks and narrowly avoiding discovery during a shift change.
 * Aftering wandering the maze-like interiors of the city-ship for a while, the party happened upon a dragonborn who had been drinking in his offtime and was beyond drunken.
 * Vendrin used the Hat of Disguise to make himself look like a smaller version of Tajir Vantajaar, the Sea King the party had slain in Selunim City, ordering him to report to the powder room immediately.
 * The party followed behind the drunken and confused soldier, who led them to a pully operated elevator which dropped down into a cavernous hold, filled to the brim with treasure.
 * Continuing to follow this drunken dragonborn, they found themselves at the powder room, and after a short altercation with the guards, they managed to make it inside, while blocking off another patrol with a gigantic elk that Vendrin had pulled from his Bag of Tricks.
 * Hurrying to complete their work, the party positioned a bottle of alchemist fire on a magical shelf that would disappear after an hour, or if Vendrin lost consciousness. Beneath the shelf, they placed one of the larger barrels of powder, ensuring a reaction.
 * But the party could hear the other patrol of guards hurrying to find them, and so the party used their Dust of Disappearance to hide, while Lio stuck the fuse in a barrel of powder and lit it for the guards to find.
 * The dragonborn patrol fell for their ruse and snuffed out the fuse, assuming that it was all the party did before absconding.
 * Lio was nearly caught as she made too much noise trying to sneak away, but Kandra used her ball bearings to make a noise farther down the hall, distracting the guards.
 * The party hurried back to the hold and tried to quickly grab as many magical items and valuable objects as they could before fleeing.
 * But just as they were readying to leave, the green dragon that was working for the Arkinians entered the hold and sensed them.
 * It demanded of them why it shouldn't just kill them, to which Vendrin replied that if he were to die, the ship would explode. Which the dragon believed.
 * The party negotiated briefly with the dragon named Vivithrax, before bolting after throwing the small keg of powder at him and blowing it up in his face.
 * The party fled down the hallways and quickly managed to make it to one of the firing decks on the outside edge of the ship. They quickly quaffed their water-breathing potions as Liosynth cut down the dragonborn in the way of their escape. She dive of the firing hole with Kandra, Thokk, Zevah, and Vendrin following close behind.
 * Kandra attempted to use her grappling to slow her descent, but sadly failed and the party crashed into the water as Vendrin released his concentration on the shelf, blowing the Io'Galiroth to pieces.
 * The party found that the sun was rising as they leapt from the ship.
 * The party slammed into the water and slowly swam back to shore, but sadly Liosynth had to abandon her plate armor as she never would have made it to shore with it on.
 * The party was greeted by the jubilant Elberethian forces celebrating their success and were quickly brought back to the city of Kybell and given their promised 20,000gp. The next morning they would be able to spend their 1 hour in the local diamond mine.
 * The Elberethian forces quickly packed up and moved on, mobilizing to liberate the island of Loflor from the now weakened Arkinian forces.
 * The party took a moment to celebrate their victory, and gave Roland and Skord each a small diamond that paid in full their wages for several months to come.
 * Kandra decided she wanted to purchase a Bag of Holding with her portion of the reward. So, after Liosynth purchased some new armor, they went to find a magic item shop, but the store was closed.
 * Kandra feigned hearing a shout inside and picked the lock, but the party did indeed find the mutilated corpse of the gnome shopkeep in the backroom among several imps and a summoning circle.
 * The party did battle with the Imps, making quick work of them. Nearing the end of the fight, and seeing that the shopkeep was dead, Kandra decided to pop open the glass case containing a Bag of Holding and take it. But as soon as she did she was shot by two hidden crossbows in the rafters, which rendered her unconscious.
 * After the fight finished, Liosynth healed Kandra and the party decided they should attempt to take the gnome's corpse to the High Priest of Corellon they met, so she could cast Speak with the Dead and they could find out how he died.
 * Before they left the shop, however, Kandra and Thokk set about trying to figure out how to get the other magic items from the shop without dying, because no matter where they went, the crossbows could see them. They gave up for the time being, but plan to return for the Cloak of the Manta Ray.
 * The party rushed to the town hall but found that the High Priest was already at the docks. They did find out, however, that the Arkinian prisoner, Xafiq, was to be executed.
 * The party quickly rushed to the docks and just caught the High Priest before she left, she was happy to raise the gnome.
 * The party was able to discover that the gnome had been murdered by his friend Baelor.
 * With their new information, the party hurried back to stop Xafiq's execution, as Liosynth felt dutybound to help him.
 * Liosynth was able to convince Sirithian to release Xafiq into her custody, on the understanding that any crimes he committed after the fact would be her responsibility.
 * The party escorted Xafiq to the Red Lion, but met Skord outside of the Callion Inn on the way. Skord asked the party whether he should keep their rooms booked at the inn for another day, and told the party that Tyri was apparently something of a savant at Kobolds Knuckles, having cleaned out many of the full-grown mercenaries.
 * Kandra defused a potentially volatile situation by having Tyri buy everyone a round before bowing out.
 * Lio, Vendrin, Zevah and Thokk, accompanied by Skord and Rolan, took Xafiq to the Red Lion and locked him in the brig. During this time, Kandra took Tyri to the local woodworker and had a personal chest commissioned for Tyri who needed a place to keep her things and all of her newly-won gold. The chest ultimately ended up being a blue and white striped chest with an iron lock and Tyri's name engraved on the top.
 * The party met back up after Kandra purchased some meat scraps for Hermes.
 * Having done all they wanted for the day, the party returned to the Callion Inn and rested until the next day, when they could get the rest of their reward: An hour, unsupervised, in a diamond mine.
 * Bright and early the next morning, the party headed out to the Tharian Co. Diamond mine and were greeted by the owner. The owner agreed to give them an hour and a half in the mine if they could help him evict a group of squatters.
 * The party delved into the mine to find a small and disheveled group consisting of a gnome, an elf, and a human. The group tried to lure the party deeper into the mine, but the party sensed something was amiss.
 * Thokk grabbed the human, and the gnome and elf retreated deeper into the mine. Liosynth cast a spell forcing the human to tell the truth. The party found out that this was the human named Baelor who killed the gnome shopkeep. And that Baelor had made a deal with a devil that, if he could kill Vendrin, the devils would drive the Arkinians and the Elberethians from his island.
 * The party knocked Baelor unconscious and delved deeper into the mine. What followed was a harrowing battle between the party and several devils. But after a good fight, the Good Samaritans emerged victorious.
 * The party escorted the trespassers out of the tomb, but due to the terms of Baelors contract, he couldn't leave the mine until Vendrin was dead, otherwise he would die. The mine owner, Tharian, didn't want Baelor to die, and so decided to leave Baelor tied up in the tomb until he woke and ask whether he would prefer to live as an indentured servant in the mine, or die by leaving.
 * With the squatters evicted, the party was given their hour and a half in the diamond mine. And they made good use of it.
 * Vendrin spent all of his spell slots on the Shatter spell, mining huge swaths of diamonds in one fell swoop as Thokk helped to break them up and Kandra, Zevah, and Lio loaded the diamonds onto carts to be brought out of the mine.
 * After the hour and a half the party had amassed more than FOUR full mining carts of diamonds.
 * Tharian was lost for words, but Vendrin offered to sell him his diamonds back for half of market value, netting the party 80,000gp.
 * The party followed Tharian back to the bank where their winnings were counted out. They were given a hefty chest of 8,000 platinum pieces, which Thokk hefted onto his shoulder.
 * As they left the bank, Vednrin asked Kandra to pickpocket Zevahs doorknob so that Vendrin could examine it. Kandra succeeded in doing so, but also pickpocketed Vendrin and took the copper key that deactivates the crossbows in the magic item shop.
 * The session ended with the party discussing how best to spend their winnings, with the general majority agreeing that it might be a good idea to invest in a larger ship, as their group was getting large enough that the Red Lion may not be big enough much longer.