Campaign Journal Catchup 2: Sneaking and Scrying

(4/13)

Oh look, the gang is prepping for another heist:

• Jax
• Rondel
• Frederick
• Slick

Time for intelligence - gathering. 

Some quick questioning of Solange - she confided that the "doll" had been secured by a third party, but that she or her contacts had no direct information on who may have tipped off Stonewill. Even though allegiances were fluid, the various guilds in town recognized that they had better odds coexisting, so direct conflict or betrayal was not in their best interests. That said: Ejnar Winther is a powerful member of the Merchants Guild. A half-elf by heritage, who keeps his skills and talents close to the vest. I'm sure a break-in will be a trivial affair...

Easy enough. Party members reconnoitered the half-elf's somewhat ostentatious residence - a converted temple, formerly of the Temple of Combris, a deity of merchants and messengers. An informant notified the party that Winther and other guild members were gathering for an emergency meeting that evening. 

Was the party going in through the sewers again? Nah. Wouldn't want to stink up the carpets. 

Rondel did some invisible flying about and spotted a rooftop hatch on the building's tower. Good enough. Nightfall, and well, there was a lot of overly-complicated sneaking, climbing, flying, and manipulation of various spheres of invisibility and silence to reach the roof of the temple. I won't belabor the sequences. We've all watched (or taken part in) a party taking 30 minutes to breach a door.

Artist's rendition of the suspects...

Finally, the roof. Slick inspected the hatch, noticing a rune or two. Best leave it be. Down the side of the building to a less securely-trapped window. More shuffling and sequencing. 

Down through a couple of chambers, converted from the building's religious past. The party did some major filching in Winther's office, avoiding a trapped bookcase and clearing out his petty cash.

No apparent scrying device, though. Down we go to the main level. 

It's dark, too dark. Dammit.

FOOM, and light! And Winther with two of his guild compatriots sitting and waiting for the party. Took you long enough. We're famished. Drinks and hors d'oeuvres, perhaps?

Of course, I knew you were coming - He revealed a crystal ball... 

This GIF again...

The image wasn't definitive, but I saw you talking with Stonewill. I figured he was up to no good. I wasn't certain of when you were going to attempt, so I set up a ruse with a lookalike servant to hasten your visit.

Anyway, let's talk.

By now you've heard of the Duchy's loss of troopships. And you know that they've been investigating the Chaos mutations and seeking ways to level the playing field, so to speak. So those lost "troopships" were carrying other resources, shall we say. Not that we haven't been seeking out our own protections. 

With that, Winther did the usual curtain-pull to reveal a massive clay golem. We purchased this at great expense to protect our own resources. And we suspect that there were a few more on those lost ships. By the way, don't mention this to the Legate, he'll want to commandeer it. 

source

The party shared that Stonewill, too, had been gathering "resources" in the form of the soldier-manikins, and had contracted the party to test them out. One of the other guild members suspected this, as Stonewill was from Xegam, where certain alchemy and constructs were known to be crafted. She revealed that, as the party suspected, the manikins were built using donor organs and parts from the recently-deceased. Mostly those of accidental death or condemned criminals. 

And since unrest often gave cause for more crackdowns, arrests, and perhaps fabricated charges - there could be a ready source of pieces-parts. Henry stated his disgust and resistance to this idea of harvested parts.  

Well, enough of this - We have gathered information. You can keep those things you found upstairs. Except that one wand. It's my favorite. 

Oh, you'll need something to make Stonewill believe you succeeded in your efforts here. Good thing I keep a spare crystal ball on hand. It will detect as magical, and should be amusing when he attempts to use it...

With that, the party departed (by the front door). The "crystal ball" was delivered to Stonewill, with the promise of six soldier-manikins for testing.

DM Notes:

Really. They were told that Winther had a scrying device. What did they expect would happen. Good thing everyone is more interested in protecting their own resources and gathering intelligence than wantonly murdering burglars.