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--- paldegora:session_53_port_ahn_and_meeting_with_blackmoor [2025/05/29 12:04] – created davidm
+++ paldegora:session_53_port_ahn_and_meeting_with_blackmoor [2025/05/29 12:33] (current) – davidm
@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 **Summary**
+In the shadowy outskirts of a small town, a tense scene unfolds as Tobin, a young boy, accompanied by three guards and a wagon, ventures into the night, disappearing into the forest’s depths. Brynna, a key figure in the town, waits anxiously, joined by the Company. Cal remained outside town with their horses and wagons. Brynna, scanning the darkness, her expression betraying concern. Symon, noting her unease, probes about an unusual detail—someone with green skin, hinting at possible fey in the area, which Brynna dismisses, as she knows no fey nearby but acknowledges the oddity of green skin.
+Brynna, addressing the Company, requests their assistance as outsiders to scrutinize visitors during the ongoing festival, despite their original intent to enjoy the event. She assures them the matter is grave. Shortly after, Tobin returns, informing Brynna that the wagon is enroute. She sends him home, deeming he’s seen enough, and questions the guards, who reveal they’ve retrieved a dead woman’s body, as Tobin reported, now secured in the wagon. Brynna instructs the guards to watch the wagon briefly and asks the Company to wait while she consults with visiting merchants. Upon her return, she gathers everyone near the wagon to address the grim discovery.
+Brynna announces that a woman, not from Middlesfeld, was found dead in the woods with severe wounds—slashes and stabs—her identity and purpose unknown. She urges anyone who recognizes the woman to come forward to aid in bringing peace to her soul and justice to her killer. Francesca uncovers the body’s face, revealing Lina Ravenshadow, a half-orc known to the group. Angelique, shocked, identifies Lina as someone who attacked her in a bar, linking her to past conflicts. The guards confirm Lina’s half-orc heritage, and Brynna, apologizing for the disturbance, dismisses them. Cassandra examines the body, noting a deep gash, a chest burn, and signs of being run through, while Eryn questions the guards about the scene, learning they found no tracks due to poor visibility.
+Angelique, determined to investigate further, requests to visit the site and seeks out Cal, finding him where they'd left him. She gifts him a cloak for warmth, which he accepts, and briefs him on the situation. He agrees to skirt the town and meet them on the other side. Guided by a guard, the Company arrives at the discovery site, illuminated by a lantern’s continual light gem. The ground shows signs of a scuffle, and Cal’s tracking reveals only Lina’s tracks from the south, with no others departing, suggesting magical concealment by the killer. A wisdom check reinforces this theory. The proximity to town and the estimated time of death—within five hours, coinciding with the group’s snowball fight—deepen the mystery.
+Cassandra connects Lina to the Blood Moon Syndicate, recalling their tavern attack led by Kalandra, who, like Lina, escaped but was later killed. Symon speculates about the involvement of “the twins,” referencing a letter outlining Lina’s Syndicate mission to target the group, secure a map rod and artifacts, or face Aphobis’ wrath. Her failure likely led to her death, with the burn mark hinting at magical involvement, reducing the likelihood of the twins’ culpability. Cal, concerned that the group’s presence endangers the town, urges departure. Angelique, Symon, Eryn, and X’or inform Brynna of their intent to leave, while Cal and Cassandra retrieve their horses and wagons. Brynna orders the guards to move Lina’s body north under a black cloth.
+Angelique discusses her mother, Beatrice Blazecaller, with Brynna, who recalls meeting her years ago in Greyspire. Sharing their plan to leave to protect the town, Angelique requests prayers, and they pray together, sensing a divine presence akin to their experience with the Lotus Flower. Brynna gifts Angelique a scroll of blessing, urging its wise use, and assures her a place in town. Despite their plans, Brynna invites the group to the Frostfire Revel’s final dance. Cal and Cassandra stay with the wagons, but the others join the hour-long, firelit dance, which concludes at 10 p.m. Brynna blesses the town, and Angelique promises to return when safe, thanked Brynna for their inclusion.
+The Company departs, traveling south for an hour to camp. Angelique attempts to heal Cal, who resists, though she sneaks in one heal. The night’s watches—Cal, Eryn, and X’or—pass without incident. After two uneventful days of travel, they reach Port Ahn, a fortified city, by late afternoon. The warmer air carries less snow, but the city’s gates are congested, with smoke and yelling deep inside the city suggesting unrest. Cal observes from a distance, unable to gauge the guards’ alertness. The group debates splitting up but opts for their cover as researchers fleeing the northern chaos, citing lights in the sky and attacks.
+At the gate, Silver Spire guards inspect wagons, and the Company overhears a driver’s dispute over meat preservatives. Eryn and Symon present their story, supported by their wagon’s scholarly contents, gaining the token needed to enter. However, a rider delivers shocking news: Princess Seraphine Valoris was kidnapped by pirate Jessie Jack Johnson after her yacht was sunk. The gates close amid crowd protests, forcing the Company to camp outside. They discuss finding Captain Ambrose Hurst, a retired pirate hunter, to locate Johnson’s ship, the Blade, and decide to avoid guards and seek Hurst near the docks.
+A man, Willard (Weasel), emerges, offering to guide them into the city via a secret route, presenting a letter from Benjamin Blackmoor of the Thieves Guild. Despite Cal’s distrust, they accept, securing their wagons and following Weasel, who uses magic to render them invisible and leads them through a hidden passage. Inside, Port Ahn is chaotic. Weasel guides them to a warehouse where Blackmoor awaits with food and his crew, offering hospitality. Under a Zone of Truth spell cast by Angelique, Blackmoor reveals he knows their quest involves Gregory’s diary, dragons, and the Blade, and that multiple factions pursue them. He proposes helping them find Hurst, who doesn’t work for him, to locate the Blade, which isn’t in Port Ahn.
+Blackmoor shares Port Ahn’s history: fifteen years ago, pirates plagued the Emerald Sea until Silver Spire issued letters of marque, birthing merchant houses, with House Raven, led by the Primrose family, being the most legitimate. After Lord and Lady Primrose’s murder and Anita’s kidnapping, officially blamed on a half-orc pirate flying the flag with three "J"'s, House Raven's size and position declined. Blackmoor’s man, Elijah Burnside, aided House Umbridge, whose captain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was the true culprit. Jesse Jack Johnson later targeted Umbridge, while tinkerer Fritz Grim, who created an explosive powder, is forced by Umbridge to produce it in the sewers, possibly with his sister as leverage.
+Blackmoor proposes the Company rescue Grim and destroy Umbridge’s operation, offering to connect them with Hurst afterward. He reveals Cal’s father, John Laroque, was Hawthorne’s second-in-command, giving Cal a personal stake. The group agrees, and Blackmoor reunites Cassandra with his wife, Shea. Descending into the sewers with Eryn’s key, they face carrion crawlers, paralyzing several members, but defeat them. Further exploration yields dead bodies—likely Blackmoor’s men—and more crawlers, which they dispatch. A black pudding ambushes them, damaging Eryn, but they kill it. In a large room, another pudding destroys Symon’s dagger and X’or’s sword, but Cal finishes it, ending this session.
+Exp: 500 + 50  = 550 for accepting the quest from Blackmoor.
+Exp: 947 + 95 = 1,042 the killing.
+Please start the recorder.