World of Greyhawk: Company of the Grey Chain

Quote from Ben_Evolent >>

Xanrym initially remains hidden in his corner...

Xanrym is glad that the "Greens" appear to be from the Order of the Hart and likely allies in anything The Company is doing in opposition to Iuz.  He remains hidden for now -- possibly simply forgetting that his cloak makes him very hard to spot when he's not moving -- and listens to what Sir Kipeien Rahlden says in response to the others.

Sir Kipeien blushes as Khessa offers her hand, "Yes of course, open transparency will get this done as quickly as possible..." He seems somewhat lost for words in the presence of the tall adventuress, clearly not something he's used to. The direct question from Avery brings him back to the moment and he launches into his proposal. "The head priest of The Horned Society delegation on board is our enemy this day, but Iuz is, as always, our ultimate adversary. We have intel that a note is being delivered by their head priest to Iuz with information about the missing Prince Thrommel of Furyondy. As you likely know, Thrommel went missing soon after Battle of Emridy Meadows, just before his marriage to Lady Jolene of Veluna. If we can get that letter, we may be able to eventually locate the Prince, and form an alliance to finally put down The Old One. Of course, if you can get me that note, I will give you my Crown Token."

"The missing Prince Thrommel!" Khessa's blue eyes widen in wonder, preventing her from fully noticing her interlocutor's momentary embarrassment. "Finding him and making the alliance possible could really be a turning point!"

"Very good!" the blonde arcane warrior muses aloud. "Shuro (the captain) has already noticed the Wegwier and Horned Society on board aren't getting along. There's already been a few scuffles... If we all attack and eliminate them together, Company and Knights, it's likely the others will be suspected—and not us. But I have the feeling that even if we were suspected, it wouldn't make much difference to Shuro... she was worried about the peace on the ship, so I don't think she'd mind too much if we also assured them... in a brusque manner."

"But Shuro also wants to find out what you're up to, Kipeien" The tall adventuress focuses on the knight again. "You've inadvertently attracted his attention with your mysterious demeanor. So, you need to think of a plausible identity and purpose for your journey... so we can lie—and keep Shuro from worrying about you any further."

"If we are creating the lie, I would suggest we leave the greens and us as having a mildly hostile encounter to put the captain off our trail."

"Sounds like a good idea, Coriana..." Khessa muses (inadvertently letting her cloak open slightly, perhaps unintentionally increasing the guest's embarrassment, as she focuses on her planning). "We could finish our rest. First thing in the morning, pretend to argue with the Knights—perhaps they might accuse us of flying too close to them. After the argument, we could reveal to Shuro the agreed-upon lie about the Knights (made more credible by the fact that, by spying on them, we also aroused their suspicions) and ask Shuro to lower the flight altitude for the diplomat's benefit. After that, we secretly join the Knights and together eliminate the Horned—if possible, shifting the blame to others, otherwise it probably doesn't change much. Then we send the diplomat down... and that gives us a total of three tokens."

Quote from drumdigby >>

the missing Prince Thrommel of Furyondy. As you likely know, Thrommel went missing soon after Battle of Emridy Meadows, just before his marriage to Lady Jolene of Veluna. If we can get that letter, we may be able to eventually locate the Prince, and form an alliance to finally put down The Old One. Of course, if you can get me that note, I will give you my Crown Token."

Xanrym is still listening quietly in his shadowy corner.

Sir Kipeien assumes that we know about the kidnapping, but we don't know what he knows about us.  If Sir Kipeien thinks that we were traveling from the City of Greyhawk, the "Battle of Emridy Meadows" must have happened a little while ago.  News doesn't travel that fast!  The Company spent the last two weeks in Pedestal, but we were trying to gather news and information for potential jobs before that.  Maybe the news of that battle, if not the Prince's disappearance, reached Free City of Greyhawk before we left the city for Pedestal.

Has Xanrym heard anything about the Battle of Emridy Meadows?  Or about Prince Thrommel of Furyondy and his fiancée?
History: 20

Avery pauses and thinks back, "The tale goes back some time, back to the time when the Temple of Elemental Evil was built. No one was safe as the evil spread like a plaque across the land. It was learned that the dark forces had constructed a Moathouse, an outpost east of Hommlet meant for further raids, then agents of Good also discovered that not only was the Temple mustering a small army but that the cult of Elemental Evil was actually under the direction of a powerful demoness."

"To meet this threat, Prince Thrommel IV, Marshal of Furyondy and Veluna, and the Viscount Wilfrick of Verbobonc marched with an army of 1200 humans, 200 dwarves, 100 gnomes, and 200 elves. They faced an evil horde of some 3500 orcs, 550 humans, 500 gnolls, 20 ogres. When the allied forces closed to within a day of the Temple they first encountered the enemy on the open fields several leagues south of Verbobonc City and northwest of Hommlet called Emridy Meadows."

"By the end of the day, the enemy horde had been crushed by the combined allied army, after their cultist leaders had been slain and they tricked them into an ambush of waiting Elven archers. There was no shortage of heroes at the Battle of Emridy Meadows. Viscount Wilfrick attained fame for his part in commanding the campaign. His fortune and gratitude was shown to Hommlet through the construction of a temple of St. Cuthbert and the beginnings of a walled castle bestowed upon Burne the wizard and his friend the warrior Rufus, both veterans of Emridy. Another fighter earning fame at Emridy Meadows was Ricard Damaris who lost a finger on his left hand and suffered a wound that left him the distinctive triangular scar on his face."

Sir Kipeien rests his chin in his hand as you talk, "You're plan is a good one Khessa, The Horned Society should surely be purged from this world, but there are a few wrinkles I think. If a fight breaks out on the ship, The Broken Crown will find out about it, and I doubt we'd be able to trick them into believing a lie. Then we would be two small parties against a host of Horned Society priests and a company of Broken Crown mercenaries. My initial thought was perhaps something more clandestine. You don't have anyone in your party that could lift the letter off their priest without them knowing about it?" 

"Hmmm, more clandestine might be wise.  Well... we could make someone invisible," Theldrin speaks up.

At Theldrin’s comment Syllen will take a moment before chiming in.

“It might be a little difficult to steal the letter if it is always on the priest but if we need to go unnoticed we do have many tactics we could utilize. Have you seen the note on the Head Priest’s person or is it possible that they have it stashed away somewhere?”

Khessa reconsiders: "Since Shuro herself had complained about the problems the two warring factions were causing, I didn't think she'd unleash the mercenaries on us while we 'solved'—but I admit it's possible the captain had a less drastic solution in mind. All right, as far as the Horned are concerned, we'll replace violence with stealth or subterfuge."

Quote from drumdigby >>

You don't have anyone in your party that could lift the letter off their priest without them knowing about it?" 

(OOC: I think that Xanrym is in that little alcove on the map, to Sir Kipeien's left and a little behind him.)

At this, Xanrym moves from his shadowy corner while the others speak, moving quietly until he's standing right next to Sir Kipeien, right behind his left shoulder.  He suddenly claps his hand on the knight's shoulder as he says, "Yes!  Our Company does has someone who can often escape notice as he gets close to people.  I'm no cutpurse although I am reasonably good with my hands.  But as Syllen suggests, there may be other tactics we could use to get the note."  

Xanrym moves away from Sir Kipeien to stand with the other members of The Company as he continues.  He begins in his usual, polite way, giving time for Sir Kipeien to recover in case Xanrym startled him: "Thank you for coming to us, Sir Kipeien Rahlden.  My name is Xanrym Balhorn, and we are known as The Company of the Grey Chain.  I have heard news of the Battle of Emridy Meadows, but I have yet to hear the story told 'properly.'   If there is time before we part ways, perhaps you could share your first-hand account of it?  But I had not heard that Prince Thrommel IV was missing -- that is grave news!  It sounds as though the prince was a good and true knight and a capable leader.  From what I've heard, his tactics and personal bravery were instrumental to the victory in Emridy Meadows.  A marriage that unites Furyondy and Verluna would be a great bulwark against Iuz. From what I've gathered, it sounds like the armies of Iuz have been testing their neighbors, and people talk as though an all-out is coming to the Border Lands, as though it's not a question of 'if' but 'when'."

Turning to Sir Kipeien's request, Xanrym says, "I agree with Coriana that we should not be seen openly cooperating with your group, Sir Kipeien.  The Captain actually asked us to spying on you and find out what you're really doing here, but that could work to our advantage since it gives an excuse for us to talk to your group that won't raise the captain's suspicion.  You'll just have to tell your group to talk to treat us as though we might be spies from your enemies.  But I agree with you that a quieter approach may be needed here.  Not a big fight, but maybe just some shoving or harsh words, as though we pushed a little too much?  I would like to avoid anything like an open fight while we're aboard the Malachite Hierarch.  I mean, unless we wrest control of the ship from the captain, it seems like any fight in such close quarters could quickly spiral out of hand and draw in the Broken Crown, other passengers, and the crew."

Xanrym would want to talk through some details with The Company and Sir Kipeien.

• We have a deadline to get Lord Alaric and Clayton off the ship tomorrow morning.
  • To accomplish that, The Company needs to convince the captain to fly the ship low enough for Khessa's Feather Fall to work.
  • To gain Captain Ironsmile's confidence, The Company needs to provide some information to Captain Ironsmile about Sir Kipeien's Greens.  (More on that below.)
  • Lord Alaric will give us his Crown Token before he jumps overboard.
• After Alaric is off the ship, then we can try to get the note from the Horned Society priest for Sir Kipeien.
  • Do we need to give the note to Sir Kipeien?  Or he just needs to know what the note says?  For example, could we still the note, copy its contents, and then put it back so that the Horned Society doesn't know that it's missing?
  • Does Sir Kipeien plan to stay on the ship all the way to Iuz?  If not, do the Knights of the Hart have a way to get off the ship?  Or do they need help with that?
  • Did the Knights of the Hart store anything in the cargo hold?
  • Sir Kipeien will give us the Knights' Crown Token once we get him the note.
• Then we can focus on getting the Forgotten King's bones
  • We'd like to get the relics off the ship before it gets too close to Iuz.  I don't know what the Empire of Iuz is like, but Xanrym would rather be carrying the relics through the wilderness of the Border Lands instead of having to smuggle them out of the Empire of Iuz!
  • With the Crown Tokens from Sir Kipeien and Lord Alaric, we just need to steal or borrow one other Crown Token to get into the hold where we hope the Forgotten King's bones are being kept.  Maybe from the Wegwiur if we cannot steal the Horned Society's token.

Xanrym asks Sir Kipeien, "What did you tell Captain Ironsmile when you boarded this ship?  I don't think she believes that story, but we'll need to act as though you told us the same story."  We need Sir Kipeien's help to come up with a lie about who "the Greens" really are and what they're doing on the ship. 

Does anyone else have suggestions?  We need something plausible enough to be believable and interesting enough to satisfy Captain Ironsmile, but it probably shouldn't hint at their real mission.  And we don't want it to be anything that would cause the Captain or Nithrissa to attack or capture the knights.  (The lie will also probably depend on whether the knights are planning to escape the Malachite Hierarch before it reaches Iuz.)

I'll give an abbreviated answer for this, Kipeien will tell you:

• He wants the note itself, but will settle just for it's contents if that's all you can get.
• The Knights of the Hart have a way off the ship, which they'll be doing once you trade the letter for the Crown Token
• They've stored their weapons and armor in the hold. Although that was similar to Alaric, a ploy so they could check the Horned Society's cargo. The letter wasn't in there.

Xanrym thinks that they have most of what they need to know from Sir Kipeien. 

Quote from drumdigby >>

They've stored their weapons and armor in the hold. Although that was similar to Alaric, a ploy so they could check the Horned Society's cargo. The letter wasn't in there.

Xanrym asks Sir Kipeien whether they got a look at what else was in the cargo hold.  In particular, "Did you see any of Captain Ironsmile's cargo, or anything from the tiefling, Nithrissa, or the Broken Crown itself?"  We assume that the Forgotten King's bones are in the cargo hold, but it's always possible that they're actually hidden elsewhere on the ship.  Even if Sir Kipeien didn't see the contents of the other cargo, he could at least tell us how many chests and crates are in the cargo hold so that we can figure out how long it might take us to search through all of the cargo and find the relics.

From a timing perspective, we don't want Captain Ironsmile to the Knights of the Hart off of the ship before The Company gets the note from the Horned Society priest for them.  He proposes that we tell Captain Ironsmile that we've learned that "the Greens" are Knights of the Hart (true) and that they have a secret mission in Iuz (false, unless that's where Prince Thrommel is) and that they're on their way to meet a trusted contact in Dorakaa (false, I hope).  If Captain Ironsmile gives us more time, we hope to learn the purpose of their mission and who their contact is.

After agreeing to the bargain (i.e., exchanging the Horned Society's note about Prince Thrommel for the Knights' Crown Token), Xanrym decides to share a little bit of information with Sir Kipeien since the Knights of the Hart are clearly opponents of Iuz.  Xanrym says, "I hope that the note will help you locate and rescue Prince Thrommel.  It is good that he helped to stop the Temple of Elemental Evil, and I hope that he can continue to lead the opposition to The Old One.  But we have learned of a different threat to the world.  The Fiend of the North appears to be aligned with a different cult: the Vanguard of Sertrous.  Your demonolgists will know that Sertrous is an Elder Evil, a titanic serpentine demon.  We fear that the 'vanguard' may be trying to awaken Sertrous from his slumber and summon him to this world.  We hope to thwart the cult and put a stop to this madness, but if we should fail..."  He pauses and leaves the potentially catastrophic implications of that failure unsaid.  He continues,  "Well...someone else should know, and we haven't had time to send word.  Get a message to the followers of the Dweller on the Far Horizon.  Tell them that you met The Company of the Grey Chain here and that we were still following the trail of the relics and hoped to secure them soon." 

Finally, before Sir Kipeien leaves them, Xanrym reminds him that the Knights of the Hart should treat the members of The Company as strangers and potential spies.  They should talk to us but not in a friendly or familiar manner.

Theldrin is curious how the Knights of the Hart plan to leave the ship, but decides it's better not to pry.  Xanrym and Khessa seem to be doing a good job taking the lead for the Company in the conversation, so he mostly keeps quiet for the moment as he listens.

Khessa doesn't have much to add to what the loquacious bard has already asked and revealed, but she is no less curious than Theldrin about how the Knights of the Hart plan to leave the ship—and, unlike the war mage, she doesn't hesitate to ask: "But Kipeien... tell me one thing: how will you and your companions leave the ship, considering it flies at a considerable height and makes no stops? Do you have a way to teleport away perhaps? Or maybe means to fly?"

To Xanrym the knight responds, “The only thing of much note in the cargo hold was a huge crate put there by the Tiefling I believe. I will of course deliver your message on Sertrous, although I hope you aren’t too far behind us once you get what you need from the hold. And as for our method off this ship, let’s just say we have some air support that will prove useful.” He winks at Khessa with this. And if there’s nothing else, he’ll leave the cabin, noting that he’ll play along with your ruse.

So is the plan now a Long Rest? You can take that and wake early enough in the morning to accomplish your tasks.

Khessa smiles at the wink, curious to see, when the time comes, what kind of support the knight is talking about. A winged creature? A magical object? Who knows...

Meanwhile, once the guest leaves the room, the blonde arcane warrior takes a moment to renew the magical surveillance ritual that had gone off, then goes back to sleep. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day...

[[I'm pretty sure we just go back to bed.]]

Theldrin is happy to finally get some more much needed rest, getting up early to study his spellbook. (OOC: Preparing Feather Fall this time so Theldrin has it as an option as well, plus he still has a scroll).