MMC Summary: Session 27 - Drug Busters

Present Party: Keviks, Lupan, Nana, and Wren.

Setting: The city of Lanti, in the kingdom of Midtia.

Finnegan "Finch" Pomeroy
Human, College of Whispers Bard
(Art by Claparo-Sans on
DeviantArt)

Last time, the party was shocked to find that their adventurer friends who they'd brought on a mission - Finch and Kressa - had gone missing from where they were staking out the brothel that Lupan and Wren had gone into undercover. All Wren found in the alley where they left them were Finch's broken glasses.

When the fact was brought to the party's attention, they were shocked. Finch and Kressa had strength on par with Wren and Keviks. How were they captured? Who could have done it? Lupan turned into a wolf, and aided by Kevik's wolf companion, Kindred, they were able to pick up the scent from Finch's glasses. Nana also attempted to contact Finch via Sending, and found that he was having trouble communicating with her. He did manage to tell her something about pirates, and with the scent to guide them as well, the party rushed towards the docks.

Kressa Aryna
Aarakocra, Monster Slayer Ranger
(Art made by me, using Heroforge)

On the way, Nana received a Sending message from Boomer. He and Arcta were part of the same adventuring party as Finch and Kressa. He claimed that he was unable to move, and that people had taken Arcta as well. Nana replied that Finch and Kressa were gone too, but that they were already in pursuit. Boomer was a warforged, though not in great repair. He would need time to fix himself.

Arcta Ursu
Drow, Berserker Barbarian /
Circle of Spores Druid
(Art by u/arecsu on Reddit)

The party came to a warehouse by the docks that Kindred and Lupan had sniffed out. Nana sent her raven, Mond, to look inside from one of the second story windows. From inside, she could see one pirate, carrying a dagger and scimitar, and Finch, bound on the ground.

Lupan transformed again, into a mouse, and found a way to scurry inside. Keviks flew up to the window with the intent to break through it. Wren, Nana, and Kindred circled around to the front door. Lupan was the first to see that the other pirate had a partner, but that they were the only two hostile people in the warehouse. Kressa and Arcta were similarly bound over near him.

Our party burst inside, and Keviks killed one pirate outright in a single strike. The other attempted to run, but Lupan quickly subdued him. Just after, Mond alerted Nana to someone else approaching the warehouse: a gnomish man in a long, brown coat. As it turns out, he was Warryn - the drug dealer that the party had been directed to. He was unhappy about the fact that the party had broken into his warehouse and killed two of his men. They fought, dealing with Warryn's strange magical ability to somehow gain powers from drugs he was taking and summon slimes to aid him in combat. The party emerged victorious.

Boomer
Warforged, Evocation Wizard
(Art made by me, using Heroforge)

Boomer joined the group as quickly as he could, and the party attempted to rouse their friends. It seemed as though they'd been drugged, and that was how they were so easily subdued and able to be captured.

The party looted the warehouse, discovering many interesting things:

- Several kinds of drugs, which Nana would later identify as being ingredients for alchemy, as well as highly addictive and dangerous, especially when combined. As part of this, the party found the Dragon's Sugar they were looking for, and identified Warryn's magic pills as a drug called Snake Eyes.

- Warryn's coat had an emblem of a black cat stitched into the collar. The party did not know what it meant.

- One of the pirate underlings was carrying a map of the bay that had the markings seen below on it. Keviks, with his background in the military, was able to guess that the red line was a patrol route. The arrows were entry points, and the X's were important places.

Map of the Xandan Sea
(Map made by me, using Inkarnate, marked in
Roll20)

- There was a small office that had a bunch of miscellaneous adventuring gear, as well as the following:

- A druidic spellcasting focus, in the form of a staff.

- A spellbook.

- A holy symbol of Odin.

- A set of magic knives that could teleport to each other.

- A note, reading: "We will be gone until our target finishes their mission on the Small Island. Keep up the good work here. We need to make sure no one trusts him anymore. - The Storm." It was stamped with the same black cat symbol.

After that, Wren, Lupan, Keviks, and Boomer took their friends to the Apple of My Eye Tavern, where Wren knew the cleric bartender. She gave the party a free room and food and helped heal Finch, Arcta, and Kressa.

The party stayed the night with their friends (and for Keviks and Wren, their lovers.) The small half-tabaxi child that they were in charge of taking care of stayed the night with Prince Fang and Mirabelle Cromdor.

~~~~~

Nana stayed behind to Identify the items they found. She called on her eidolon Castilian and the elemental in her service, Cornelius, to help her. Castilian went to find the guards. Nana and Cornelius collected some of each of the drugs, and put them into a Vault of Amber. Nana, in opening up all of the crates, also found a flag. It depicted a forward facing silver dragon head in on a blue field with a red X. The dragon face reminded Nana of Keviks's Erdian army crest. She put that in the Vault of Amber as well.

Crown Prince Steel "Fang"
of the Mountain
Tabaxi, age 18
(Custom Art by
@WtfdoIdraw on Twitter)

Afterwards, she returned home, where she informed Fang of what happened. He was glad to hear that their friends were safe now.

As Nana left, he called after her, "Love you, okay?"

She stopped, and turned back to him... before walking back and hugging him.

"You know that I would do anything to protect you and your family, right?"

She went on for a bit, unsure of herself and the emotions that she'd been feeling ever since her encounter with Kalicosio, when he took the first 20 or so years of her life from her memory.

"You know," he remarked, "I think that you and I have the same kind of opinion when it comes to a certain... guildmaster, who... from what I understand... has done very terrible things."

"That lich..."

He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Nana... I don't want to lose you, in all of this, like he has lost himself. You're a second mother to me, and I don't want to lose you like that."

"I need someone now who I'm able to trust," she said to him earnestly. "I need to know if you can be that for me."

"I can if you're honest with me."

The way he looked at her, with sincerity and fondness, and with her heart on the verge of breaking - looking at this young boy who she'd raised, who wanted to help her when he was the one in danger...

She was honest. She told him everything.

- She told him about the rings, and how she'd been using them on Cornelius - how she'd even gotten them enchanted to be more powerful.

- She told him about the pact she'd made with an archdevil, which with her permission, he read. She told him about the mirror that she could use to contact that devil. He also saw the poster from the Hells, which showed the faces of Guildmaster DeMarco's associates: Veers, Liam, and Elicia.

- She told him about how she'd taken the drugs, wondering if she could use them to enhance Cornelius's raw power.

- She showed him the flag, which she believed had connections to Erdia.

Fang, as far as Nana could determine, was not upset with her... but he was definitely upset with the actions that she'd taken.

She insisted that if any of this upset him, it was his decision whether or not she continued down these paths.

He said simply, "I'm... going to need time to think about this. Give me until tomorrow night."

They hugged again, and Nana sank to her knees holding Fang, upset but unable to cry. He held her for some time before finally he insisted that the two of them should get some rest.

Before he left, he said again, "I love you."

~~~~~

ART LINKS

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