L2: The Assassin’s Knot

Dean (Thic Duc), Chris (Tiberium), Matt (Barron), Mariel (Leah), Coby (Warin), Jeff (Amathar), Leah (Ahira), and Brian (Pyrzival) are returning cast members.

We left the Band of Misfits watching Pyrcival climb the wall of the inner keep, only to be ambushed by ghouls and paralyzed. Barron polymorphed himself into a dragon and rescued him, dropping Warin off to try to turn the undead… but he dropped Warin right in between the two ghouls, who promptly paralyzed him. While the group was distracted by the undead drama, Ascue lead his guards in an assault on the party from within the guardhouse. Though his warriors were tough, they did not succeed; eventually Ascue surrendered.

Upon interrogation Ascue seemed to know little, being merely a warrior-cleric. Neither Tellish nor Arness admitted to anything, but under duress and threat of torture, Arness opened the wizard-locked door that had previously barred the party’s way. As it turns out the second floor of the keep was basically given over to quarters for Arness and Tellish.

Arness’s rooms contained a live raven and a spider under the bed, along with expensive clothing in a tall wardrobe. On top of the wardrobe was a fighting dagger, very practical rather than something suitable for a noblewoman. Arness was less than helpful about pointing out threats, particularly when opening her jewelry drawers – an explosion of poisonous dust resulted in Thic Duc, Pyrcival and Arness nearly choking to death. Pyrcival in particular was afflicted. Ahira took great risk upon herself by entering the dust cloud to drag out Thic Duc and Arness; Barron’s unseen servant dragged Pyrvical out. Warin tried to save Pyrcival by intubing him for air, but failed to do it correctly. At least his healing spell sealed the wound. Thic Duc at the least minute, still choking, remembered finding a magical apple in another dungeon that could cure poisons and disease; managing to feed a piece of it to Pyrcival saved his life.

Pyrcival promptly killed Arness while she was helplessly choking.

Shortly afterwards, the group explored Tellish’s quarters. Aside from a truly disturbing number of traps, including a dragon statue that breaths fire, they found a carefully locked compartment filled with disguise materials and armaments unsuitable for a cleric. Tellish was clearly an assassin, but fit the description only for the first murder.

After some discussion the party determined Arness was the best suspect for the second murder. She had a hidden dagger in her room, was known to be missing from Garrotten at the right time, was not officially attending the funeral as she claimed to be, and was clearly involved in the assassin’s ring as Holga had given her the lute string.

They returned to Highport and presented their report. The Party’s Conclusions

    Oscar- Paid to do side Jobs in the Ledger, had diguise kits, low level assassinations. Had disguise kit in room.
    Capt. Basram- Smuggler, Employed by the Assassins, Unwitting with plot. Two Assassins transported to High Port. Claims to be able to arrange assassinations.
    Holga- Acquired Items to frame Balmarrow. Student of Armax. Gave lute string to Arnes. Knew the lute string would make a good garrote. Assassin in training.
    Rogan- Arranged theft of button to frame Abraham. Gave button to Telish. Worked for Tellish.
    Lothar- Suspected of Acquiring Ruby to frame Harper.
    Stable Boy- Acquired Leather Red Button for Rogan
    Wilbur- Acquired Lute String for Holga
    Harmin- Knew of ruby theft and hid it.
    Armax- Cabinet items
    Falbor- Follower of violent god. Killed in self-defense. Cabinet items, not yet suspect.
    Balmarrow- Framed, in the middle of his plays. Leading thieving group.
    Harper- Framed, CRAZY but wouldn't have done it. Thinks too highly of himself and his deity
    Abraham- Framed
    Ascue - Access to the whole Keep. No reason to suspect, other than too important to not know what was going on beneath his nose.
    Arness- Mayor. Got lute string from Holga. Had common dagger. Probably killed Wizard Jim. No alibi. Skills and access to equipment. Invisibility spell. "wicked" looking dagger
    Tellish- Mayor's assistant. Assassinated Duke. Accountant type would keep ledger. No direct evidence. No alibi. Unusual change of schedule to be free for 1st assassination. Got button from Rogan. Handwriting matches the assassin's ledger. Had disguise kits for all three red herrings. Magical cloak of etherealness.

Upon interrogation by the Duke’s guard, with enthusiastic participation from the Princess, Harmin admitted he had noticed the missing ruby in Harper’s holy symbol and sought means to acquire a replacement. However, he claimed his motives were only to help conceal Harper’s growing dementia for the good of the church, and he had nothing to do with the actual loss of the ruby. This immediately made Lothar the prime suspect, but he could not be found.

Worryingly, Krak also went missing.

Balmarrow denied accusations of leading a thieving group, but admitted he had been teaching his stagehands sleight of hand for use on stage.

To be continued…

Treasure

For reference: 200 cp = 20 sp = 2 ep = 1 gp = 1/5 pp

Arness: Bracers AC 7, cloak of protection +2, robes, crown
Tellish: Bracers AC 3, cloak of etherealness, plate mail, shield + 2, flail + 2
Tellish's escape suit (concealed gems): 2950gp
Arness's jewelry and coin: 1950gp
Treasure: 4900gp (490gp each)

Experience

Base xp for showing up: 100xp each
6 guards: 1200xp
Ascue: 1,000xp
1 spider: 10xp
Not falsely accusing anyone: 1000xp
Identifying both killers correctly: 2000xp
Finding Tellish's stash of disguise gear: 1000xp
Identifying Holga, Rogan, Oscar, and Basram: 2000xp
Clearing Balmarrow, Harper, and Abraham: 3000xp
Arness's spellbook (Detect Magic, Charm Person, Enlarge, Magic Missile, Read Magic, Shield, Shocking Grasp, Sleep, Invisibility, Magic Mouth, Ray of Enfeeblement, web, wizard lock, dispel magic, fly, hold person, slow, fireball): 17500xp
Journal entries, sketches, or baked goods (): 500xp (individually)
Treasure: 4900xp
Group Total: 34410xp (4301xp each)

Roleplaying moments and quotables

Dangling Threads of Fate

The Duke of Highport is dead, killed on his wedding night, in a locked room alone with the Princess
The Wizard Jim is also dead, killed a few days later, by an unknown assailant
Pyro has fallen in battle...
How to invest your ill-gotten gains...

Experience

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