The point of this musing is to say that when we only get together for a couple of hours in-person every other week (if that), there isn't a lot of time for that stuff. Thus the players do what they do - which is barge the front gates and fight their way to the boss. As a DM, I knew this type of play would eventually get boring, just as people get tired of video games, and its a challenge to insert an interesting narrative into the middle of the chaos. But I think I am figuring it out. . .
After laying low for a few days in the ScumSlum, the party decided to disguise themselves as best they can and re-enter the city using the sewer passage that Oric showed them. Oric was able to tell them where some of the more important or interesting buildings in the city are, and an inn called the Sign of the White Knight, where, if the party was extremely careful and spoke to the right person, they may find some folks who are not allied with the slavelords that could be willing to provide additional information. He also shared what he knows about the slavelords, which is
The slavelords are never seen, and act on reputation alone. Its just one of those things where everyone knows they are in charge, but only officials of the highest rank have actually seen them. Some people say they walk among the citizens from time to time, and like to keep their anonymity for this reason. Some say the anonymity is because each slavelord is a title rather than a specific person, and if one gets killed, another takes his place. If no one knows their faces, this works very well.
- Eanwulf (fighter or barbarian - a real brute, larger than life)
- Nerelas (rumored to be the head of the assassin's guild)
- Stalman Klim (associated with the Temple of the Earth Dragon)
- Ajakstu (a mage, possibly - not much known)
- Edralve (rumored to be a dark elf)
- Brother Kerin (mysterious - said to be associated with the strange men in red robes and shaved heads that occasionally are seen in the city. There are ships with these same men that frequently arrive at the docks and purchase slaves)
- Theg Narlot (a fighter or assassin - ugly and short tempered. Said to be most brutal of all the slavelords)
- Lamonsten the Lazy (another magic user of some kind - also little known)
- Slippery Ketta (a thief, and said to have eyes and ears all over the city)
Oric also stated that there was no way the party would be able to take the slavelords on directly. Any one of them would be a challenge, but the nine together are unstoppable. He said they employ an elite guard force in three factions, known as the Brown Scales, the Black Scales and the Gold Scales. There aren't a lot of these guards, but they are an elite fighting force that are deployed for special missions, and they never fail. They also have strange men in red robes who fight with their hands and feet, and are extremely deadly. These men operate some of the ships that come to harbor to trade slaves and they will generally enforce the will of the slavelords when they are around. It would be best for the party to gather as much information as they can and come up with a plan.
And so the DM was done helping, and let the players pick up and decide what to do.
They emerged in the Thieves Quarter, where most of the inns, taverns, and houses of ill repute are located. They headed up toward the building that Oric indicated was the Sign of the White Knight. For good measure, Sarril cast Invisibility on Cassius, the thief acrobat, so he can scout from the rooftops as they walked. From his scouting position, Cassius was able to see two other buildings behind the inn with marking that he recognized identified them as an Assassin's Guild and a Thieve's Guild right next to each other - which was odd for guilds that tend to be rivals in most cities. He can also see there was a large slave auction going on in the middle of town, and this had a lot of people distracted.
While Cassius maintained watch on the roof, the rest of the party went inside the Sign of the White Knight and pulled up to the bar. After ordering drinks, Sarril began slipping money to the bartender for information. After upping the bribe a few times, the bartender made a point that "the nine have eyes and ears everywhere" but did casually point out that the party may want to talk to a man who was sitting back in the corner of the tavern, alone. Pontus went up and spoke to the man. Although his barbarian ways were a little gruff, Pontus' really high charisma made up for it. He was able to drive the conversation to a point where both men understood that they had it out for the slavelords. The man called himself "Erik the Red" (a nice northern barbarian name, though the man clearly was not from the north) and claimed to be a sailor from the Hold of the Sea Princes who once had a very profitable business before being forced into retirement by the slavelords. He has spent the last several years spying on them, looking for a way to disrupt their business. While he has gained a lot of intelligence about their operations, he is but one man and can't do much against them. But now that the party was here, they may be able to accomplish what he could not.
After further conversation and a few bribes, Pontus learned that the Sign of the Rose (a house of ill repute next door) is used as a way for the slavelords to come in and out of the city from their hidden base. This is based on the fact that certain people have been seen going in and not coming out over the years. He also said that the while the slavelords operate as a council, there is internal strife among them, and they are known to effectively be three separate factions within the council, each vying for power. The political fighting between them is reflected throughout the city. Erik says that he believes it wouldn't be hard to exploit these political divisions by unbalancing the council. Taking out a few of the slavelords one at a time, and dismantling their networks from within. He suggested starting with the assassin's guild, which is known, unofficially, to be run by the slavelord Narelas. Targeting him first will be important because the Assassin's Guild has eyes and ears everywhere, and they could easily kill the party while they sleep. Removing that threat would give the party some freedom to plan out and execute the remainder of their operations against the slavelords.
The party had originally planned to stake out the Sign of the Rose to gather their own intelligence, but agreed that this information was too good to pass up and decided to go visit the Assassin's Guild. They would present a cover story that they wanted to pay to have a thief assassinated who had stole something from them. Once again, Pontus did the talking at the door. Flashing some gold got the attention of the assassin's inside, which were speaking through a slot in the barred front door. Using "detect invisibility" Sarril noticed two invisible assassins on either corner of the building, acting as guards, and moving around to the party's rear as Pontus engaged in conversation. The assassin's told Pontus to give them his name and where he is staying. Pontus refused, insisting now on speaking to their leader. Once again they asked for his name and where he was staying (this is protocol for the assassin's - they will send an agent to you, not the other way around). Pontus was insistent that they speak with the leader right away.
Sarril, sensing that things were going to go badly and wanting to have the upper hand, cast Knock on the door, then Pontus kicked it in. Two of the assassin's inside ran down a hallway to the back of the building. Two more inside sprang into dark corners in order to backstab the first person to walk through. The two assassins at the rear of the party sprang into action, the first one getting a lucky roll and succeeding on his assassination attempt against Jarrus, who was now dead.
Sarril, sensing that things were going to go badly and wanting to have the upper hand, cast Knock on the door, then Pontus kicked it in. Two of the assassin's inside ran down a hallway to the back of the building. Two more inside sprang into dark corners in order to backstab the first person to walk through. The two assassins at the rear of the party sprang into action, the first one getting a lucky roll and succeeding on his assassination attempt against Jarrus, who was now dead.
Note: I have never liked the idea that an assassin can just roll a percentile die and kill someone without the other person having any check against it. So I borrowed something from 5th edition and decided that, in cases of assassination, the character will get a Saving Throw vs. Death Magic. Success means they are reduced to 0 hit points and are bleeding out, but have the opportunity to be saved. Failure means death. Jarrus failed his save. He wasn't just dead, but dead-dead.
The rest of the party continued on, finishing off the two assassin's outside while Cadwin lit-up the assassins inside with Faerie Fire. Pontus chased down the two at the end of the hall, finishing them off before bounding back to help the others. On his way back, Pontus was back-stabbed by an invisible assassin who failed his assassination attempt, but still did 5X damage. But 5x6 is only 30, and that's a small fraction of Pontus' incredible barbarian hit point total. Pontus also saved vs. poison, staying in the fight, much to the surprise and frustration of the assassin who just stabbed him. As the party was finishing off the two assassins in the front room, six more came out from side rooms and filled the hallway. Knowing Pontus had the hit points to handle it, Sarril unleashed Boccob's Rolling Thunder down the hallway, killing all but two assassins and wounding Pontus, though not considerably. While Pontus engaged the last two assassins, the party shut the front door and barred it while Sarril used a Resurrection Scroll to bring Jarrus back to life with full hit points. One round later, Jarrus entered the battle and Jarrus and Pontus finished off the last two assassins, one of whom was clearly a leader - maybe even Narelas himself.
On the leader's body the party found a map of the sewer system, with traps and other things of interest noted. They also found some magic weapons and armor and a token with the symbol of the slavelords on it. After searching the rest of the Assassin's Guild, the party decided to follow a secret door in the back that led down to the sewers, eventually intersecting with the map they now had. Though wounded and having expended most of their healing and other spells, the party decided the course of action would be to follow the map in the sewers to see where it went. One of the tunnels on the map showed a long trek before a dead-end, and the party guess that there would likely be a secret door there leading to something important, as tunnels don't usually get built to nowhere. So off they went. They did manage to set off one trap and take damage, and got into a fight with a mimic, but pushed through to the end of the long tunnel, finding, as expected, a secret door in the north wall.
Opening the secret door revealed a large, 70x70 room. In this room were 9 thrones in a semi-circle facing a hallway coming in from the west. In the room were four people that the party could see and guess were four of the slavelords (from Oric's descriptions), and several guards around the room wearing brown or black scales. Sarril, who still had his Detect Invisibility up and running, could also see an invisible magic-user crouched in one corner, and a thief hiding in shadows in another corner. The six slavelords in this room knew the party was approaching and were waiting for them to open the door, triggering a surprise round in which we know that at least one thrown axe and one thrown dagger were unleashed, in addition to some number of spells at the party.
But we had to stop there, as it was 5 pm. It is still the 2nd Day of Goodmonth, CY 580, now late afternoon.
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