Hunting Slaves

Head Druid Grover Tackett

The head druid of the grove, the wildman Grover Tackett, got busy straight away with the vial of Most-High Priest Igor Lightmouth's blood. With suitable dilution with unguents and elixirs, dancing, chanting, urination and copious mixing, he turned the single vial of blood into a whole cauldron's worth of potion concentrate.  Moonlight [Chris] ended up filling one thousand vials with slightly pink water, late into the night. Grover took an armful "for the grove" and Moonlight got the rest: 550 vials. Not a bad haul. 

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Priestess Rita arrived the next morning with the sad news that Igor had died during the night.

The time of death was during the Head Druid's cauldron mixing. Coincidence? Surely...

A Detect Evil and Detect Magic was cast over Moonlight's collection of vials. They all radiated magic! And there was no evil.

Lammy [Kevin] took one vial to the Wizards' Guild and paid for an expensive Identify (one COIN). It turned out that the only magic in the vial's liquid was "magic for magic's sake" (i.e. doesn't actually do anything except radiate magic). The wizard's scathing comment "very much like Nystul's Magic Aura" and mocking laughter rang in Lammy's ears as he trudged home.

That night, the two vampires, Carmilla and Magda, returned. They weren't particular insistent on feeding nor even coming inside, but sounded very pleased with themselves. They had heard of the death of Igor (this news had spread around Scabport like wildfire). They now wanted a vial of number two's blood, Most-High Priest Joseph Bullock. 10 COIN.

"You didn't pay us last time," said Huilam.

"So, piss right off," said Madagascar.

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The next morning Rita arrived again. She had more bad news. Igor's body, which was lying in state in the main temple, had risen as some foul undead. It didn't get far, as the paladin guards, whose raison d'etre IS undead destruction, made short work of it, but the shock of this had some how had affected  Joseph Bullock (the new REAL head), and he had taken ill. He was now resting at the Panadines to recover. Bullock's deputy, Most-High Priest Richard Dial, had taken the up the reins.

The group wasn't particular interested in this turn of events. They went out to reconnoitre the Elwins

They spotted an Elwin's wagon doing a corpse run - taking corpses from a warehouse storage to dump them in the Scab river. This wagon had two of the runaway slaves that they were hunting (the male fighter 8X21 and the female thief 08K4) and two Elwin elves.

With a clever use of fighting tactics, magic from both Madagascar and Lammy (Spook, Sleep, et al), and trickery, they captured the two runaways. No party member was significantly hurt, the two Elwins were not harmed, and in fact didn't even know how the two runaway slaves vanished, and Tylin [Ian] did not even break his relationship with the Elwins.

The two gagged captives were delivered to Agnes Thames of Simon's Slaves, and the 4 COIN recovery fee was paid.

Tidying Up

Some more book-keeping was done:

Huilam [Jamie] did his Downtime.

The group got four cohort guards with the two coins saved from not moving base (see last entry). Cohorts are obtained via the Downtime "Acquire Asset" activity. Quality is the group's Tier (2). These cohorts are temporary and only last until the next Downtime.

They can be made permanent if done as a long-term project (or a Crew Upgrade). This would be the plan.

Faraday Cage

The Faraday cage got livened. This required a scroll from the Wizards' Guild, which consumed a party COIN. First Lammy [Kevin] tried, assisted by Madagascar [Darryl], but he failed. So, they had to buy another scroll (with a second COIN). This time Madagascar cast the scroll, and Lammy assisted. And the process succeeded.

The group had two magical communication devices: the Wizards' Guild conch and the Blue-tooth skull (from the vampire). Despite not shifting bases, they still elected to store these two items on the notice board of the Luscious Pixie tavern. Lammy tested the now-active Faraday cage by trying to use it inside the cell. As expected, there was no reception, and he could not contact Sly Dunbar (of the WG). Even so, they did not want to risk storing the conch and skull in it. So, back to the Luscious Pixie it went.

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8X21

The group decided to get back onto the slave recovery job (one of the few outstanding jobs left). They knew that three of the four (male fighter 8X21, male scribe A724, female thief 08K4) were working for the Elwins. No-one had any idea where the child slave was. But the slavers didn't seem to care if a full compliment was delivered or not.

 

Only Tylin [Ian] actually knew where the new base of the Elwins was, but he did not tell the group (but they did know that he knew).

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Tylin observed the Elwin base the next day, while others of the group were scouting around the district to try and see if they could spot the runaways travelling about on the Elwin wagon.

Ampersand [Shane] and Grey Wacke [Jeff] failed, but Tylin (with his intimate knowledge) spotted and followed the wagon as it did a delivery run (three escapees and two extra Elwin guards).

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That night, Carmilla and Magda arrived. Huilam, expecting this, wasn't in residence that night (he was appropriately worried about the drinking situation). Madagascar cowered in the far corner of the Faraday cage, shaking in his wizard boots, while the rest of the group put on a brave face and hoped the drinking would be kept to a minimum.

Carmilla offered the group another job.

"Use your REAL contacts to get me a cup of blood from Igor," said Carmilla bluntly. "We know he still lives. It will pay 10 COIN."

After this, Carmilla had good drink from Tylin, and Magda enjoyed Ronnie [Deacon]. 

When it was over, Tylin begged to get a night's rest. So the two vampire girls agree not to visit the following night.

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The next morning, Huilam, Grey Wacke, Tylin, Lammy, Madagascar, Ronnie headed to the REAL temple.

Ampersand was not so keen on this, so he mooched about on the docks. Here, he spotted the escapees (a good SCOUT roll)  driving down along a random street. He followed them to another building (not the Elwin base).

REAL temple

At the temple, the group met up with Priestess Rita. Huilam had a long and thorough chat with her, and attempted to convince and fast-talk her that they might be able to help Igor if they got some of his blood. Like, two cups would be good. Moonlight and they druids could do some magic organic tricks in the grove. She put a Detect Lie on him; intent is always true if you use qualifiers like "try" and "attempt". [And he did a good SWAY roll.] 

Rita said she would talk to the other REAL crew, and see what she could do. She seemed excited!

Then the group headed off to the Funken Wagnall temple to research vampirism. Already Tylin and Ronnie were showing effects. Like aversion to sunlight, and teeming with lustful thoughts.

[It was briefly discussed if vampire members of the party could function. True, they could only work at night. True, vampires are evil incarnate. That said, the BitD system can handle multiple characters per player. And the "neutral" status of the group was already compromised (e.g. the cold-blooded execution of Michael Stringfellow, and the delivery of half-elven children to the Canker temple) But, in the end they piked.]

The literature said that a blessing and sanctification from a goody-two-shoes temple would be required, plus the injection of bleach, catheterization for holy-water back-flow and a honey enema. The best place was REAL, but Panadine also did it.

They returned to REAL.

"We can't help you with this kind of problem," said Priestess Rita. "You reap what you sow. And anyway, the internal political temple strife is too much at the moment that I won't be able to find you a priest, or a paladin. Try the Panadines."

The Panadines agreed. They could do the daily treatment sessions. 

"We infuse our honey with Lake Placid Elderflower," said the priestess. "But we can not ensure your protection overnight. We are a peaceful religion with no temple fighters, so if the vampires strike, we can not defend you. Go see REAL. They have paladins."

REAL refused them again.

But Rita had some good news. She had some vials for them. 

"This is Igor's blood," she said. "Use it well! May your druid friends be fruitful."

She also gave them a bandolier of ten holy water vials.

One vial of Igor's blood was delivered to the Druids Grove. This was to maintain the lie.

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That night, all was quiet. Then someone remembered that Tylin did ask the vampires to stay away. So Huilam used the Blue tooth skull and summoned Carmilla.

"But they are not coming inside tonight," demanded Madagascar. "Our new guards can earn their keep, and deal with them outside."

Huilam gave the vials of Igor's blood to the guards to give to the girls.

Soon enough there was shouting outside. 

One of the guards poked his head through the door and said "Two vampire ladies. ... want to come inside, sir."

"No way!" squealed Madagascar.

The guard headed back outside.

Then there was some more shouting. Then a dull crump on the heavy iron door. Then a heavier crump, and then a solid bang. The door smashed off its hinges and sailed across the foyer, embedding itself, a hands-span depth, into the far wall.

The guard's head, sans body, soon followed, and bounced across the floor like a ball.

A vial of holy water was hurled back outside through the opening.

Carmilla's voice.

"Sank you for zee blood of Igor," she said. "Ees good and genuine. But we want to come in... to pay you."

This cliche about vampires having to be invited inside was actually a myth. She was just being polite. Well, that, and holy water does burn like acid.

"Uh... leave the money with the guards."

A second head rolled inside.

"What guards? I see no guards. So you do not vant your payment? No drink, no pay."

"Uhm.. Then keep the money and stay away please."

"Ees your final word."

"Y..yes"

All was quiet outside. They waited for ages. They were gone.

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The next day Ronnie and Tylin began the "purging" treatment in the Panadine Holy Cell, with intravenous bleach and honey enemas.