[Author] Intro

Our last scene saw the PCs complete the Livery delve and make for the Long Roads Coffee House as previously arranged with Rexus. Now we’ll find out what happens there.

[GM] Mythic Bookkeeping

PCs were largely in control of the previous scene and dominated the fight against Blosodriette, so we can reduce the Chaos Factor back down to 5.

There were no changes to our lists of threads and characters. The Livery delve advanced The Path, but did not eliminate it. All new characters were monsters or foes, and were killed on the same scenes where they were introduced.

Threads

The Path ***
Find Shensen (Rosalia, Arcturus)
Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
Get Organized (Jade)

Characters

The Dottari
The Chelish Citizens Group
The Red Jills
The Asmodeans
The Three-Legged Devil (location)
The Livery Grimples

I roll a d10 here and get a 2. That’s an Interrupt Scene, which means something happens on the way to the coffee house. I have a pretty good idea of what it could be, but let’s consult the Meaning Table for Actions in Mythic v2 just to for kicks. Result: “Punish Freedom”. Yeah, there’s plenty of that going around these days.

My first instinct is to use the Unsanctioned Excruciation encounter, but we’re still on day one of the adventure here, so that might be too early. Let’s do something a bit different from another combat.

From the Livery site it’s a straight shot north to Bleakbridge, and once they cross that they can head West until they’re at the Coffee House. Let’s say there’s a dottari patrol, four of them, near the bridge crossing. They’re ostensibly looking for people who took part on the riot, but what they’re really looking for is excuses to harass passers-by. They don’t recognize our party from the riot, but since they’re carrying boxes and look a bit frazzled and dirty from all that delving, they will be stopped and briefly questioned. So this is a social encounter.

These guards are Intolerant and react at -3 to anyone who isn’t obviously a devil-worshipping fascist. It seems Kintargo doesn’t actually have a lot of laws preventing citizens from carrying weapons, but I’m still gonna rule the party is well-armed enough that these particular guards react at a further -2 to them. Gotta give our socialites a workout.

I’ll make a reaction roll for their initial impression upon seeing the PCs in the distance, and another one once interaction begins. Jade’s Impressive looks help offset the negative modifiers for the first roll, but no other modifier does as those require more interaction. The final result here is a 7, a Poor reaction.

[Player] Dottari Bullies

So there our heroes are, walking along the street and trying not to stand out. There are some other people about but not too many. Arcturus is carrying two boxes, Urist is carrying one. The guards have just finished harassing some other pedestrian for a bribe. They spot our heroes and decide to harass them next.

They’re very cocky, thiking that these strangers look like troublemakers and that they’re either going to be a nice bust or they’ll pay handsomely to go on their way. Y’know, “Look what we have here!” “Where do you think you’re going with that box?” and so on.

Before anyone else can mount a reaction, Rosalia walks up to them and begins talking. And talking. And talking. She doesn’t quite know where she’s going when she starts, but it turns into a complicated yarn about a delivery to a boss who will be very mad if they’re late because he wants to sell this stuff to an Asmodean big shot and you know how they get when they don’t get what they want and…

This is obviously Fast-Talk, and since it’s an Influence roll it will take the place of that second reaction roll I mentioned earlier. Combining Rosalia’s usual bonuses to the reaction penalty mentioned above, that means she rolls at -1. The dottari have a Will of 10, as per their stat block. She wins by 4, which means the slightly stunned guards motion then past. Rosalia keeps talking for a while until Jania tells her the guards can no longer hear them.

Though we technically ended a scene I don’t feel like doing any explicit bookkeeping for it. Nothing changed.

[Player] The Long Roads Coffee House

The rest of the walk goes without incident. They arrive at the coffee house to find Rexus talking to its proprietor, a plump halfling lady. When they notice the PCs have arrived, the halfing goes to greet them as old friends and invites everyone to her office in the back so they can “catch up on old times”. Most of the party understands immediately that this is an excuse to go somehwere private, and Arcturus goes along because he sees the lady prepping a huge tray of pastries to take with her.

Once in the office, Rexus introduces her as Laria Longroad, the owner of the coffee house and also one of the most well-connected Bellflower Network operatives in Kintargo. Laria and Urist alread knew each other and share a nod of recognition. Jade and Arcturus can see that the “plump cook” exterior hides the kind of muscle that only comes from a life of hard fighting. Jania can see this is a canny person with a lot of experience on the shady side of the street…

Laria is generally happy that the PCs came along and saved Rexus. Her past interactions with him and Urist predispose her to trusting the party, and every PCs sees a reason to befriend her now, so I imagine that part goes well. They discuss their reasons for wanting to restart the Silver Ravens, and Rosalia regales Laria with the dale of their daring delve under the Livery.

The halfling tells them about the general state of the city’s resistance elements. Lord Mayor Jilia Bailinus is missing. Laria doesn’t believe she would flee the city as the Thrune rumor mill says, so she fears for Jilia’s safety. Every other resistance-oriented group in the city seems to have gone silent since the Night of Ashes, either lying low or destroyed.

Her own Bellflower Network decided to pull out of town for the time being, as the risk of their secret routes being discovered was considered too great. Laria chose to stay to keep an eye on things and to help them return in time.

She knows the Sacred Order of Archivists was destroyed, a fact of which Urist is only too aware. Of the other “illegal” religions in town, she guesses the cult of Sarenrae took a major blow when Shensen was disappeared and her house burned down (Rosalia makes a pained face at that). Of the cult of Milani, goddess of righteous rebellion, there is no sign. They operated under the name “Rose of Kintargo”, but have gone completely silent.

So yeah, things are pretty bad. It will be up to the Ravens to rally the survivors here, as any who are still intact are too afraid to take the initiative. Laria is more than willing to help them with that, and she’ll start by letting the PCs stay in the bunkroom on the second floor of the building, and allowing them to use the secret basement as a base. It was normally used for Bellflower ops as a temporary place to store refugees and “harmless contraband” before they were shipped out of town. There is just one issue she’d like the PCs to look into before they can use the place though… though it’s best if the current occupants explain it.

Laria takes the PCs downstairs after they’ve left their stuff in the bunkroom, and calls out to the current occupants she mentioned: a group of three tengu women, who come out warily. Jade steps forward to greet them.

[GM] Reaction roll time! 3d6+6 gives us a 14, which is Good.

Jade is soon able to dispel their initial mistrust, and after brief introductions she knows the trio are sisters, traveling away from Riddleport for reasons that aren’t relevant right now. The eldest, who speaks for the group, is named Korva. They were being ferried by one Nan Comerivos, another Bellflower Network agent. He went out to find a buyer for the small shipment of Varisian cloth he was also smuggling, hoping to use the money to leave town with the sisters. This was a few days ago.

The sisters want to look for him, and so does Laria, as he’s a friend. However, the PCs are in a much better position to do it. They know the city a lot better than Korva, and they can move about without drawing suspicion a lot better than Laria. The sooner Comerivos is back and safe, the sooner they can stop sharing the space with the tengu refugees…

Before any more “practical” reasons can be stated for them to take this job, Arcturus effusively agrees. But of course we’ll look for your friend! It’s the heroic thing to do! The others either feel the same or agree those more practical reasons are worth it (Jania).

Before they can do anything about the underground, though, the party really feels they should go up to the bunkroom and finally distribute the loot! It’s getting dark, so the party decides begin their search in the morning when everyone involved is hopefully well-rested.

[Player] Loot Loot Loot

First off, we have the stuff that’s worth money. I kinda want to move along quicky so let’s say Rosalia and Jania can accurately evaluate its value over the time they spend sorting it.

A platinum signet ring worth $2500, found a the livery’s ground level.
A gold signet ring worth $1500, from Blosodriette.
An embroidered silk scarf worth $400, also from the imp.
A pouch with a dozen pearls worth $1000 each, from the boxes.

That’s a lot of money even taking into account the fact that this stuff needs to be sold for coin. They decide that Jania will try to sell the jewelry tomorrow, and Rosalia will try to sell the pearls.

Now we have the permanent items. Laria would have the skills necessary to evalue the weapons’ mundane properties, and Rexus can help with identifying the magic on them, if any. Full stats are in the previous file.

A Balanced Silver Coated Dwarven Mace.
A Balanced Pistol (from Pyramid #3/36).
A Suit of Light Leather Armor enchanted with Fortity 1.

Rosalia gets the pistol, and makes a note to buy ammo as soon as possible. Urist gets the mace, which is better than the axe he’s currently using. Jade gets the armor, which I’m going to say is black with raven motifs. She’s our least-armored front-liner, so she needs it.

Finally, the fireball wand and scrolls. I guess they decide to leave those stashed at the bunkroom for now.

This ends our scene.