November 15 Game Notes

Gameplay begins with the party recovering from their fight with the Fist of Set at the Wayfarer’s Guild Hall in Ostrogoth. Floyd takes the loot from the fight that was not claimed by any of the participants to the guild shop for sale; all told, the party receives 115,000 gp for the lot.

Brix takes the head of Thumb and casts Speak with Dead. Unlike most corpses under this spell, Thumb appears as a lucid, fully aware entity. The party questions him about his cohorts’ getaway, and Thumb reveals there had been an underground cavern beneath that hill where One and Three were able tor recover from the fight before making their escape. Thumb’s spirit then possesses Virgil, but it is quickly subdued and abandons his mortal host, inviting the party to summon him again anytime before he vanishes.

The party spends the remainder of a week recovering before purchasing four horses (Scaramouche rejoins the party and remains Floyd’s primary source of transportation) at rock-bottom prices and heading north to Beckendorff.

Arriving in Beckendorff, the party finds a city built partially underground, and with a second level of interconnecting tunnels and passageways between commercial and government buildings. Upon entering, Floyd is instructed to remove his hat, which he does to avoid suspicion. The party makes their way to a tavern, where they discover that puppet shows licensed by the bardic consortium occur regularly and that a parade celebrating the town’s pantheon religious structure is coming up in a couple of days, and that the parade will feature a large Floyd Fiftynames puppet, which Guy is eager to see. Brixmroe and Guy are disheartened to learn that the Universal Church does not have a presence in Beckendorff.

The party books a room at an inn for the night. Floyd disguises himself and goes with Axe to the bardic consortium, where he is given a tour as a novice hoping to join. Floyd learns that within the bardic consortium is housed the 49 Gnomes headquarters, and therefore, Mitchell. Floyd and Axe tour the facility (as much as is shown to the public), then head back to the inn, where they encounter Virgil. Virgil, Floyd, and Axe have a long discussion about the best way to infiltrate Mitchell’s headquarters. Many facets of the plan are considered, but most importantly, the objectives are to rid the town of its religious heresy (Brix & Guy), capture and kill Mitchell (Floyd), and take the Bellmaker out, alive and intact (Virgil & Axe). Several options are weighed, from overt stealth to shock and awe, until finally, Virgil determines that the party does not have enough information to proceed. His solution is to attempt to ferret out a thieves’ guild, hoping they will be able to help him – albeit for a price.

Virgil takes to the streets of Beckendorff, where he is surprisingly not killed or beaten. Instead, he finds a beggar who happens to be a former priest of the Universal Church, forbidden from practicing in the city. Virgil gives the beggar some money, and the beggar gives Virgil the name of a tavern, telling him to look there for a way into the 49 Gnomes quarters.

Virgil rounds up the party, and they head for the tavern in question, where they are greeted with suspicion upon entering. Virgil makes friendly with a large group at a table, and the leader of the group recognizes the party as the Order of the Abbey. He agrees to get the boys into Mitchell’s quarters for a price – he needs a book, and he insists that Mitchell not be killed. In addition, the party will agree to sneak a group of Universal Church deacons out of the city. The party finds they cannot agree to leaving Mitchell alive, nor are they comfortable getting a book whose title cannot be revealed until the pact is made. The party politely refuses the request and offers to take the deacons out of the city anyway, an offer declined by the group leader.

The boys set out on their own to infiltrate Mitchell’s quarters. They come within a few blocks of the bardic consortium, then wait as Floyd approaches the guards outside in the guise of the novice from before. Floyd tells the guards that he came for a tour earlier and left something important inside. The guards buy this, and agree to send someone who can take him inside. The gnome who comes out, Blinkin, takes Floyd inside the consortium walls, where Floyd charms him. Together, they go outside, and come back in with the rest of the party, passing by the guards with Blinkin’s permission.

Blinkin leads the group to the front of the 49 Gnomes’ headquarters, but they encounter a couple of gnomes who will not let them pass. Guy makes short work of them, and Floyd, not wishing to involve Blinkin any farther, instructs him to go out, get drunk, and forget about everything that happened this night. Blinkin acquiesces, and the party is left on their own to proceed in. Unfortunately, Floyd sets off a trap specifically designed to alert Mitchell if any member of their party made it in – a trap which affords Mitchell to escape (on Griffon-back, he claims), and to kill the resident of his holding cell, which the party believes to be the Bellmaker. Floyd tosses an ottoman through the window and leaps out, hopping on Scaramouche to pursue Mitchell, while the rest of the party makes for the cell.

The party arrives at the holding cell and discovers not the Bellmaker, but Doogal, face down and dead. They take Doogal’s body and head for Mitchell’s room, where they discover a large gem with magical properties and correspondence from Mitchell to Visgoth, offering make a deal with him for the information Doogal has provided.

Floyd, meanwhile, scours the skies for Mitchell, but it is for naught. When Virgil transforms into an eagle with See Invisibility, it only confirms Mitchell’s treachery and falsehoods have again provided him with a chance to escape. Having extracted everything they need from the 49 Gnomes headquarters, Virgil and Guy set fire to it, and leave it behind.

The party leaves Beckendorff and camps outside of town. There, Brix casts Speak with Dead on Doogal and confirms that he would come back if resurrected. A debate breaks out over whether or not to bring Doogal back, with Guy leading the “for” argument, and Virgil basically on his own in the “opposed” party. Finally, a few compelling reasons are listed for bringing Doogal back, including the fact that only he can call off the Wild Hunt on the party, and that he has information that the party needs about destroying Visgoth. Doogal is resurrected by Brix, while the party brings Axe into Abbott Teris’ communication circle.

Doogal returns, and agrees to call off the Wild Hunt as soon as he is in a place where he can do it. Meanwhile, he asks that the party catch him up with everything that has gone on until now while he was in jail. The party tells him about Visgoth and the hunt for his soul, which Doogal believes to be a hoax. They also tell him the details surrounding his Year of the Ram heritage, most of which Doogal had been heretofore unaware of, and Doogal attempted to explain his history as an entrepenureal child prodigy.

Meanwhile, Axe was beginning to feel the compulsion to complete his Geas to bring the Bellmaker back to the Apprentice in Oslov’s Bones, so the party and Doogal traveled to the cavern in the ruins of the town with the gem, which they believed (rightly) had the Bellmaker trapped inside. The Apprentice released Axe from his Geas, but decided he did not want to be around where the Bellmaker was released, so the party returned to the surface to do the job, thinking they stood a better chance of a fight in the open than in a cavern. However, there was no fight, though the Bellmaker proved to be batshit crazy in his own right, and revealed that he had long been at work on a device called The Apocalypse Chime, which, if rung, could undo creation. While the party was left wondering exactly how many world-ending devices were on this stupid continent, the Bellmaker explained to the party that the “Visgoth’s Soul” they were hunting for was actually the final piece of the chime, which was located in a tower in the north (correctly assumed to be where Elliott is located). Why Elliott was in search of the pieces – and why he hired the Halfling / Half-Orc party to get them for him. The party resolves to hold on to their quarter of the chime at all costs.

The Bellmaker takes his leave of the party, and they do not seem to be in a position to stop him. After he leaves, Floyd high tails it to meet with the people in Eagle’s Pea k to attempt to negotiate trade rights for the DeFeo compound. The citizens of Eagle’s Peak seem to have no proper knowledge of the difference between Half-Orcs and real Orcs, so Floyd offers the party’s services to dispatch of the Half-Orcs. The citizens of Eagle’s Peak are happy at hearing this news, and give Floyd details on the Orc King, which he brings back to the party.

Floyd finds the party and explains the situation, and they agree to take on the orcs. In the meantime, they relay what Doogal has revealed to them about the true way of destroying Visgoth’s soul. According to Doogal, the means necessary are located in Dr. Ethan’s journal, which has been split into three pieces, which are located in three different parts of the world (The Eastern Lands, Elliott’s Tower, and the Southern Continent of Issa). Realizing that another long journey is about to begin, the party steels themselves and gets ready to go Orc hunting.

End of Session.