Session 2, we lost Josh, but David joined the group with a Barbarian named Shao Goth (making the party 2 of those and my Rogue,) adding much-needed melee support (you'll find out why soon...)
When we picked up, I was unconcious and left to be found by the guard or rats or what-have-you until Shao Goth showed up, having arrived late to both our meeting with the fortune teller and our plans to make it to the docks to find Gaedren's hideout.
The two warriors ventured through the fishery that acted as the crux of operations for the lowly crime boss, but uncovered only some frightened orphans, which he used as general labor and slaves, but no more of his cronies. This prompted them to investigate the grounds further, ending them up on a boat moored at the end of a pier attached to the fishery.
Jasper found the hold the hard way, by crashing through a rickety grate on the top deck. There, he was set upon by spiders and quickly fell to wounds. Shao Goth jumped in to save him, killing the spiders somewhat quickly, but was unable to haul the heavy warrior out of the hold, and too weak and wary to venture into the closed door beyond the hold.
Pulling himself up and out, Shao Goth hefted me onto his shoulder and took me to his shack to rest up, and after a short period of supervised care, I was up and ready to go...so we decided to go recover Jasper, which to our surprise, was left where he was, undisturbed, and we were able to move him out and go to my loft to rest for a few days to recover.
After that, we went back to the area and thoroughly searched, pressing into a hidden catwalk and coming upon Gaedren's lair under the fishery. There, we took on the criminal and his pet alligator, only having Jasper take any serious amount of harm.
Here, we ended Session 2, and had a special session on the following Saturday because Steve was in town...
Upon exiting, however, we found Korvosa to be in a state of chaos, and was soon told by a student of The Academae calling himself The Magus, that the city was taken over by riots because the king had died, and the popular view of the queen had many not wanting her to take the throne, as she was seen as a gold-digger.
We quickly made our way to a temple of Shelyn, trading a abalone holy symbol recovered from Gaedren's hideout for healing services, then after a short conversation with the priestess there, were prompted to quickly make our way to the castle, as we had discovered that we owned a brooch belonging to the late king, and wished to give our queen a boost in confidence (and gain a hefty reward!)
After our meeting, the queen put us up at a local keep upon agreement to perform other tasks for the crown, first to bring to justice a deserter of the guard that had been making men defect and trying to cash in on the tumult following the announcement of the king's death.
Following the capture and detainment of the turncoat guard, and with The Magus parting ways with our small company to return to The Academae, we were given another, much more important task, this time to gather information on a Cheliaxian noble that was known to frequent a den of debauchery called the Eel's End, owned by a man known as the King of Spiders. The noble in question had been looking for a reason to enforce his suggestion of embargo and sanction on Korvosa, and with the civil unrest in the wake of the king's death, he would have his wish, unless he was...convinced otherwise by those who might hold information that would be embarrassing to him and his nation were it to get out.
We went to the Eel's End that evening, planning to meet with the King of Spiders to acquire this information in the morning, but taking the opportunity to blow off some steam before getting back to business the next day.
This was our mistake.
Each of us had our problems or vices, due to crossing paths with Gaedren in the past. For most, this wasn't a problem, but The Magpie was a drug addict who was trying to overcome her addiction, and they brought her to a place that houses an opium den.
So, while Shao Goth had some drinks and was content to wait out til morning to perhaps set up and appointment with the King of Spiders, Jasper, Gildor, and I decided that we would press on. At this point, Jasper had gotten confused about reasons for us being here and events, Gildor was new to the group and knew very little about our reasons for coming to the Eel's End, and I was blitzed. The drugs my character had partaken in were potent indeed (since I was failing saves left and right and Taylor was rolling almost max ability damage,) bringing me to 2 Wisdom...and they actually let me speak when Jasper bullied the guards into letting us by to talk to the man in charge.
This led to terse words, and finally to the King of Spiders hitting a lever, sending me down into a hold filled with spider webs. Gildor ran and when Jasper got lippy, one of the Spider King's guards bull rushed him into the hold as well. A short battle ensued and Jasper and The Magpie lost their lives in short order to a multitude of spiders and a spider-like creature (an ettercap, but neither Jasper nor The Magpie knew what it was.)
Gildor was able to locate Shao Goth, and shortly they made it back to the King of Spiders, where negotiated to gain a small bit of knowledge about our Chelaxian noble after he won a game of knivesies (a weird form of ring-out/flag capture) and agreed to give all treasure currently on the bodies of the two below for information on our mark.
That's where we left off. I've made a Human Wizard and Richie has a Druid for next game, though I'm unsure of the race.
Cast of Characters
The Magpie, Human Rogue 2 (Deceased) - Me
Jasper, Human Barbarian 2 (Deceased) - Richie
The Magus, Oread Magus 1 (Retired) - Steve
Shao Goth, Orc Barbarian 2 - David
Gildor, Human Fighter 1 - John
Thoughts
I'm
having quite a lot of fun playing this game, and the only thing that
has taken me aback in the least is how much the King of Spiders demanded
of Shao Goth when David was trying to mop up after mine and Richie's
(in-character) blunders. It seems like he made out with what I would
assume was 2,000ish gold in coin and gear, and he only asked for 700gp
to fork over the information. I understand that he had the upper hand in
the deal, but it seemed really steep and will no doubt harm the party
alot by stripping wealth that would help attain better gear, healing,
etc.
Beyond
that, I only have to say that I feel like we're missing things left and
right, simply because the city is made to seem so rich in detail and
Taylor is doing a good job conveying the scenes and mood. Perhaps it's
just because I want to do so much in the city. I might read the
adventure path, which I own, after Taylor completes his run, just to
compare our progress with everything the modules have to offer.
