Session 4 summary

[chadsansing]

Key NPCs

• Dril, the silent partner, scales in the dark
• The Captain, military supervisor of the human district in Visus
• Naardor Gearsmith, Magmatic senior crafter referenced in Petra's schematics

Key locations

• The new safe house, a sea cave just west of Visus. Includes a blackout entry hall, a bunkroom, a kitchen/pantry, and a multi-purpose space with a library, Shardscape crystal, and exit to Visus's sewer system.
• Visus, a trade city split in two by the Ash River, west of Portia on the southern coast of Cineris. Visus has a human district on the west bank of the Ash River and a dwarven district on the east bank. A large draw bridge connects the two sides of the city.
• Sootbeard Mine, a dwarven mine near Kilvar's pass at the source of the Ash River.

Key events

• Kilvar teaches Psalt the Messeger spell.
• Kilvar builds a trap.
• Wally studies Petra's schematics and learns that a Magmatic senior crafter by the name of Naardor "Old Naardo" Gearsmith is somehow associated with Petra's work.
• Wally also learns that Petra used the old dwarven word for "scale" to describe the crystals in the artifact.
• The party employs a cell of corporate spies at Magmatic and sets up key phrase encryption to use over the Shardscape.
• The party sells its mounts and laves Portia on board The Weeping Angel. In return for Petra's cloak and its schematics, Dril agrees to deliver the party to a new safe house west of Visus.
• Passing Visus, the party sees that a fatty, necrotic oil pollutes the Ash River and sea around Visus. It's made of zombie fishmuck, the rotting, undead remains of marine life in the river and sea. Ob eats this stuff.
• The party makes it to its new safe house and discovers its key features, including a library, Shardscape crystal, and exit to Visus's sewer systems.
• The Weeping Angel leaves. Dril says it won't return immediately, but may be available in the future if the party needs transport.
• The library has dwarven, elven, and human texts dealing mostly with contemporary and old (but not ancient) accounts of the human conquest, the geography of Cineris, and the beliefs and myths of its inhabitants. Scrolls and tomes. A few texts in languages that no one recognizes.
• Psalt checks in with the Magmatic spy cell; no one from Magmatic seems to be after the party yet.
• Ob suspects that his old fishing frenemy Fishhook might be the mercenary Root eventually sends after the group.
• The party travels through the sewers to Visus, taking the second side branch exit into the city, emerging in a small square tucked behind buildings and alleys on all sides.
• Kilvar stays behind to rig some traps before joining the party.
• Faelin scouts ahead and meets a persnickety old zombie fishmuck monger who tells him, "The god fish is suffering," and, "The ending is still taking its shape." Then she extorts him before explaining that the humans and dwarves blame one another for this necromantic catastrophe and have raised the city's bridges to cut themselves off from one another.
• Faelin also finds the last barge in Visus. Its crew assembles on the high tide near dawn to pole and punt upriver.
• Wally talks with a dwarven member of the crew who confirms that the humans and dwarves are more concerned about blaming one another than anything else. No one is really solving the problem at hand. The barge is on its way to the Sootbeard mine to make its last pick-up: scavengers who have been looting the place. The dwarf just wants some money to last long enough to make it back to the dwarven side of the city after the crisis.
• Wally finds a cargo handlers' union hall and brings the party inside to gather more intelligence. It's not crowded.
• Faelin talks with the bartender who is rude to his companions. He learns that the Captain is responsible for raising the bridge on the human side of town.
• Kilvar slugs Ob to start a fight to summon the Captain and his guard. Ob gets knocked down and pukes zombie fishmuck all over Kilvar's pants.
• The Captain arrives. Psalt negotiates with him.
• The Captain confirms what they party has heard about the troubles in Visus and begrudgingly agrees to pay its way north to investigate the zombie fishmuck.
• The Captain says that no one who returns from the mine ever wants to go back because of a piercing sound that nearly drove them crazy.
• If the party resolves the crisis, the Captain agrees to sing its praises to the trade council on the dwarven side of the city.
• The party makes it to Sootbeard Mine. The barge and its scavengers leave as quickly as possible.
• Psalt takes the lead.
• A relentless, piercing clanging echoes throughout the mine from several levels below ground. It's almost mechanical in its perfect repetition. The dwarves in the party recognize the sound: it's a hammer striking something on an anvil.
• Wally and Faelin discover a patch of wall that seems out of place and asymmetrical with the rest of the mine's great hall. It's full of magic. Undead, twitching echo eaters are in jars piled against the wall.
• Wally and Faelin investigate. The way the wall feels to the touch doesn't match what they see, which seems more like a wall from Magmatic's corporate offices than a wall from the mine.
• Wally gets his hand painfully stuck in some kind of mechanism he can't see. Faelin pulls him free, flaying part of Wally's palm on the hidden mechanism.
• Wally drinks a healing potion.

Key understandings

• The Golem in The Weeping Angel operates oars below the water line that are connected to its chitin-shielded "wiring."
• The dwarves and humans of Visus have decided to engage one another in a stand-off over blame for the zombie fishmuck instead of working together to resolve the issue. The city will die soon without intervention.
• The Captain serves a general at a border fort between the Wasteland and the dwarven homelands. They both serve the human government further west. If Visus fails, so does the Captain.
• Dril and the party can spy on one another, as well as on The Weeping Angel, using the blue shards.

Key decisions

• What to do about the false wall and hidden mechanism.
• What to do about the clanging from the depths of Sootbeard Mine.

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 5 on May 15th, 2018!

[BeardedBurglar]

Kilvar is going to cut off some of his camo shirt at the bottom and stuff it in his ears to see if the ringing stops or is dampened

[chadsansing]

@BeardedBurglar, the sound is less sharp, but continues to reverberate in its cadence in your skull, making your ears and head ache.

[chadsansing]

Moved to https://github.com/chadsansing/cineris-campaign/session-notes-4.md.