Session Twenty-One Summary (Graveyard of Empires: After the Fall)

Session 21, November 25 2020

Introduction

We continue at 10PM on the 16th of Tenrilden with the party returning to House Herig from the Drow Arena after their meeting with a representative (Ilsske) of the conspirators planning to assassinate Jherlana at her triumph ...

Session Summary

Larry's Summary

We go back to House Herig and reveal the plot to Herig.

Herig agrees to "go along" with the plot, as long as he can send "delayed" warning. No one likes Jarlana and want her dead.

We ask for 20,000 gp in gems, but get 18K, with half up front. Plus the freedom of the two slaves, Timon and Azra, and the pech Seepa. We have no chance to buy the freedom of Aubrey Grotecop, The Righteous Halberd. He is too great an enemy of the drow.

We go to the war college and ask for Ilska. We are led there by Seepa with a new letter from Aqil Herig allowing us into the upper city.

We meet Ilska and the plan is for a priestess of house Herig to launch the assassination with a poisoned blade. We are sent to her chambers as a backup to the assassination plan.

We are led to a servant's chambers to wait. Sadi of House Teneliu is our guide. He is to wait with us until near the time of the assassination. He is to pull away some of the guards to ease our escape.

About halfway through our waiting time, a servant of House Thule forces their way in past Sadi, and turns to flee, but we stop him and kill him. We load him on Fisher as the "assassin" we leave behind. He has keys which we take.

When the time comes, Sadi leaves and we go to the chambers. One of the keys opens the doors.

We search the room, only one entrance/exit that we see and three rooms. We open the chest with TikTok and ask him to read the contract from Yellow Hat, and to alert us when Vikram is coming.

Laris searches the desk and finds some papers and a Spider carving that is very realistic. He puts it and the papers in his pouch/pack. He managed to prick his finger on the poison needle, but was unharmed.

Soon, TikTok warns us that Vikram is coming.

The door bursts in. Vikram is carrying Jarlana. She does not look poisoned.

Laris tries to sneak up and snatch the ring, but is spotted by Jarlana.

We all make preparations for a fight hoping to kill Jarlana and get the ring before Vikram can kill us.

Patrick's Summary

When Braadlur was first sent on his mission. he had no idea he would end up where he is right now. Dealing with the Drow House has been a step in a direction he didn't anticipate.

he is good with the deal they made,to play both sides, although i dont think theres was much of a choice in the matter. and securing a place for Seepa. and the 2 humans from the mountain was pretty cool. and hey 18k in gems, Not Bad,on top of the 6500 in gems for going to talk to someone.

any ways.we made our way to the war college. and set our tasks. we will be the back up team laying in wait for the priestess if the assassination attempt goes bad, it will be our job to take care of it.

i think our plan will work out. so se killed a servant and got some keys. so that worked out in our favour. those keys got us into the priestess's chamber. i noticed 2 candles on an alter. so i blew them out hoping it disrupts the prayers to Loth. it seems it worked. as we searched the rooms. our resident devil was spotting for us,and warned us Vikerum was coming. and BOOM the door flew into the room with Vikerum holding the priestess.

what happens next no one know. i just pray to the stone gods it works out in our favour.......

                                                        ~Braadlur Quartswarper.

Laris’ Journal

Operation Arachnophile Extermination

DVL Deliverance from Evil...maybe...

Tenrilden 16

10pm

We return to House Herig and relay Illsske’s proposal of assassination cooperation and complicity. Aquil is not much interested in the Dark King’s goal of waging war with the Spiderbox here in his own backyard. I heard that wise saying before in a different context when our crew was running jobs near Vargen. More direct and to the point, but same sentiment.

I stay out of the negotiations this time around. I’m not sure we’ll still be in a position to collect after whatever happens. It’s agreed that we’ll be paid 18,000gp in gems, half now and half on delivery of a dead Jherlana. If successful, Azra and Timon are to be freed, we’re unable to bargain for the Halberd’s stay of execution, his war against the Drow has sealed his fate. Seepa, our Pech guide, will be transferred to our Company upon completion and we all get black Drow cloaks that will help us blend in on our travels. Aquil is going to hedge his bets and let Thule know of an assassination attempt in time to be seen as helpful, but hopefully not in time to be successful in the thwarting of Jherlana’s untimely death. He sends us to Illsske to relay his approval and for instructions on our part to play.

The meeting with Illsske ends in a plan for us to be stationed near Jherlana’s quarters and to be the backup assassins. Sadi, of House Tanielu, red colored gem, is to be our guide. He speaks no common and Braadlur continues his role as our sole interpreter and slavemaster.

Xandor disguises himself as a Drow priestess and we make our way to the Temple. The general populace Drow give (her) wide berth and we make good time. As we enter the Temple stalactite in the upper city, we see hundreds of thousands of eggsacks on a bottom platform with spiders tending them. A giant eggsac of stone hangs in the center of the chamber with walkways leading up to it from the overlook to the breeding ground below. As we make our way in, Sadi points out our multiple exit routes downward. The basic idea is to head down, preferably along the ramps outside, and get lost in the confusion of the public assassination attempt and make our way back to House Herig.

We are going to be passing the Council Chambers where the Spiderbox is being guarded. We guess about 24 or so guards are outside the chambers and an unknown number inside. Sadi speaks with the guards and they’re quite friendly. We make it past without incident. Sadi leads us to the staging area, a servant’s quarters. We rest and prepare. Peronell surprises me pleasantly by agreeing to have her blade poisoned. She’s always talking tough about proper weapons, but isn’t persnickety in taking advantage when offered. She moves up a rung in my book. We wait and a servant with a purple sash comes by, Sadi attempts to dissuade him from entering but he pushes his way in and is quite alarmed. We dispatch him quickly before any shouts go out. Fortuitously, we seem to have killed Jherlana’s assassin! How nice for House Herig. Avenging Jherlana’s death! He also brought us a set of keys to the Temple. Very thoughtful. Sadi leaves just before we’re expecting to have to hold up our end of the bargain to peel off some of the guards at the council chambers in response to the raucous going on below. Can’t hurt to have less opposition to whatever path we choose after the expected events in Jherlana’s quarters. We head to our ambush and use the keys to open the door to her chambers.

We search the place in the time we have. Kauri talks to TickTock and learns that Vikram is near, TickTock agrees to read over the contract that Yellow Sombrero dude left with us. I miss a trap on one of her desk drawers and luckily the poison on the needle had dried. I’ve gotta pay more attention or I’ll be on the menu here, or baby spider food. I gather a spider trinket, all the papers from the trapped desk drawer those from the top of it, plus a vial of sparkly ink and the writing instruments. I was about to check out the chest when TickTock sounds out that Vikram is headed this way in a hurry. We set the ambush, hide ourselves with our cloaks and behind what cover there is and await their entrance. Vikram bursts through the door carrying an apparently unwounded Jherlana. I step on a splinter of wood from where I forced the drawer and…

To Be Continued!