Dangerous Designs (2020)

Alton gives Balassar a nod, "Well, we were mainly hired to find Sken and bring her back. Speaking of, should we bring her body back with us? Or some sort of proof that she is dead? Like an ear, or her head? Then Sleese asked us to check on Nima after we talked with him, and we found Nima and are bringing her back. So, to answer your questions. I would say, yes we found the people we were looking for." Alton gives and affirmative nod. 

You head back, on the long, but potentially dangerous trip back into Hupperdook, escorting Nima and carrying the body of the slain Sken Zabriss.  Nima is not chatty, at least not on the journey, and she seems lost in her own thoughts most of the time.

You arrive without incident, and take Nima directly to her house.  It's late - sunset comes as you pass through the door, and you begin to hear the nightly sounds of fireworks and celebrations coming down from Upper Hupperdook, signalling the end of the working day. 

Upon entering the house, Nima drops to her knees, putting her head in her hands and shaking.  You are concerned for a moment, but then she looks up again and her face is filled with joy and relief.  Oh, thank you so much.  Oh, it's so good to be home.  I thought... I thought I would never see my home again.  She looks around.  Pah, this will all clean up in a day or two.  Broken furniture can be replaced.  I am tired, so so tired.  She gets to her feet and stumbles into the relatively undisturbed bedroom you all had seen earlier.  Sorry fellas, I'm done for the day.  Talk tomorrow?  Bring me some breakfast, and you'll have the whole story.  Slam.  Then the door reopens, and she comes out with stacks of bedclothes.  Make yourselves comfortable.  Don't leave me alone, will you?  Slam, and the door is shut again.

Will you spend the night on Nima's floor, or go somewhere else?

Wash indicates "I agree that I don't think we should leave Nima alone. That said, I'd quite like to sleep in my own bed tonight and to clean off some of the blood" he points to the dried blood from his near fatal (down to 1hp) crossbow bolt to the neck. He suggests "If you two don't have free accomodation, it might make sense for you to both stay here and I'll join you in the morning. I can bring breakfast." 

Balassar just look at him and nods walking over "Whole body weighs to much and she's dead." he just pulls out his sword and chops off the head stuffing it in his pack "This should be good enough."

Balassar just walks with his companions and when they get to the door starting to talk about sleep he just looks around "Maybe we could grab a pint after taking our proof of completion where it needs to go."

Wash laughs and says to Balassar, "How about I pay for us to go on a proper bender after we deal with whatever is behind that metal door in the cave? I like a drink, but I know how fuzzy headed I get after a big night. If you would prefer to go and speak to the watchmaster to provide the proof, I'm definitely ok with that, I just think you would be better than me at the whole 'protecting situation', whereas I am definitely better at talking to people than hitting them." 

What's the plan?

Alton looks at Wash and Balassar, "I'll stay here. No sense in turning down a free room to sleep, eh? So, you two can go celebrate, if you want too. We can visit Sleese and the Watchmaster in the morning after breakfast."

Wash responds "I won't be celebrating for the moment, only after we deal with whatever is behind the metal door tomorrow. If Balassar wants to head out, I'll stay here with you Alton. Otherwise, if Balassar stays here with you, I'll get a rest in my own bed and get cleaned up, then meet you back here in the morning with some breakfast."

[Whichever place he rests, Wash will spend an extra hour concentrating on and trying to attune to the ring. Just checking if the others took up the offer of the extra 4gp each, if so I'll deduct them from Wash's total. Also, as mentioned earlier, Wash has no issue if someone else wants the ring instead.] 

Balassar just looks at the two “Well you two know how to take the fun out of a job well done. I think we should all stay in the same place, just in case. If not though then I’ll just go find a good place to lay my head.”

OOC:

Balassar will either rest with them if they agree or just go to the closes inn and get a room and some drink.

Wash indicates "If you are concerned about splitting the party, I will stay here as well then, although I will try to wash some of the blood out of my top first."

Wash doesn't seem happy with this option, though unrolls his bedroll and sets it up for sleeping in later. He then suggests that they sleep in shifts, so they can keep watch throughout the night (which would mean 10 hours are needed for the long rest). 

Alton will find himself a spot to set up his bedroll and flop down onto it. "You both don't have to stay if you'd rather sleep in your own beds. I just know I would have to rent a room for the night, and besides I couldn't let Nima sleep here alone after she asked for someone to stay with her. But I won't stop you from staying either." Alton is fine with taking watch shifts if everyone wants to stay at Nima's house.

(OOC: Alton would refuse to take Wash's gold telling him that he earned his fair share of the loot with keeping them alive and finishing the fight.)

You rest for the night, taking turns to keep watch, but you see that the town's watch also patrols up and down the street outside from time to time.  

Despite your many wounds, you do feel the satisfaction of completing a very dangerous mission, and rescuing Nima.  Your wounds heal, and you wake in the morning feeling refreshed and with a renewed sense of confidence and purpose.  You all reach level two.

Nima pops her head out of her bedroom window just as you are waking.  Let's get breakfast.   She looks around the devastated remains of her home.  Not here.  Come on.  There's a tavern round the corner that does a decent breakfast.  Bring that, she says, pointing to the corpse of Sken Zabriss lying on the ground.  I'll explain to the owner.  Really, you see more corpses at this tavern than you'd think.

By now, Wash has spent enough time with the ring to know it as a Ring of Obscuring.

[Sweet and Sweet!]

Wash is starving, so hurries with Nima and the rest of his crew around to the tavern.

You sit together in the empty common room of the Five Crescents.  The body of your goliath quarry is propped up in one corner, being thoroughly ignored by everyone.  The three of you sit with Nima Cinnarid as she tells her tale.

Well, you know I work with blasting powder for Firemark's, right?  Well, I get some of the best ingredients from that cave.  Guano, you see.  You know what guano is?  Of course you don't.  It's this lovely chemical that helps make blasting powder.  And I get it from that cave.  I have for years.  I go up there every six months or so to get a fresh batch.  Except that this time, the cave was... occupied.  And they captured me.  The kobolds.  And their employer.  Huron Stahlmast.

So, Stahlmast used to be an engineer here in Hupperdook.  Got kicked out.  There was a scandal about immoral experiments.  People got hurt, maybe killed.  I don't know the details.  But he's angry.  He ranted a lot at me, said I would help him bring the Empire to its knees.  He has a plan.  I don't know the details.  But it's bad news.  And it sounded like he's working with Xhorhas, so that's not good, right?  Those little explosive seeds you have?  He made me make those.  But he's working on something bigger.  I've seen plans - for parts, I don't know what the whole thing looks like, but something big.  I think he's going to use it to attack Hupperdook.  

She pauses in the middle of her breakfast.  Shouldn't you go tell the Watchmaster about that?

Wash is shovelling food in his mouth [growth spurts make one hungry], though stops eating to answer and says "we have time for that after breakfast, for now, please tell us everything you can remember about the parts he had you working on. What did they look like? What were they made of?" 

They didn't really look like anything.  Just metal... bits.  Clearly very carefully designed.  But I think he made them to keep their purpose unclear.  In any case, what does it matter?  Go up there, kill him, take the bits to the Watchmaster and let him figure it out.  Nima flushes.  Sorry, that came out a bit ruder than I intended.  But I'm still right though.

Wash chuckles "Not to worry. I do agree that we need to take care of the problem and that the Crownsguard will make their own minds up about what the parts are for if it hasn't been finished yet, I'm just concerned that Huron might have finished whatever he designed already and want to prepare for that in case."

[Does Wash know anything else about Huron or was it before Wash arrived in Hupperdook?]

Make a History check.

Here goes nothing: History: 13