Session 5 - A Night Job

This is the fifth session of the campaign Echoes 2

Summary
The group decided to try and break into Sazo Greatbelly's home in hopes to find something that will connect him with the Keggers, and with the kidnapping of Ziggy. The group cased the home of Sazo Greatbelly, and noticed the patrols, number of entranceways, and discussed how they might get past the perimeter wall. They rested and returned to the Jaunt to wait for the night to roll around. From past sundown and two hours after the District Warden meets with people from the city. The group notices that many of the people entering the building appear to be veterans from the war. They pull one aside named Graham and ask him some questions. He told them that he'd been demanding to receive the gold that he deserved, as his entire company, A-Company, had not been able to receive any of their pay since their commanding officer General Volduin Halbacht is currently on trial for war crimes. Graham was busy doing odd jobs and gravedigging. He currently resides at Fortunate Road which is a church dedicated to The Pilgrim and said that if the group wanted to contact him they can contact his CO named Bryden Dwyer.

The group went ahead with their plan. Emeran and Elias would get in the back of the line of people hoping to speak with Sazo and try to both distract him, and actually try and hash out the issues of the district with him. Meanwhile, Themus, Astrea, and Acaelus would try to sneak into the back of the building.

Emeran and Elias entered the estate last as they expected, and when they came into the sitting room found themselves met with a Detective from the Ministry of Murmurs named Deedrick Burnside. He was sitting with Sazo Greatbelly and listening to everyone else who had complaints and was going to speak with Sazo when the line came to an end. Sazo recognized the two and asked if they had come here to try and be deputies for the district. The two party members discussed many solutions with Sazo, and as what seems his usual Sazo was deflecting and trying to seek alternatives at every turn, however, Burnside seemed to be airing on the side of the party members. The hour was growing late and Sazo wanted to turn in, so he told the two to leave, and eventually, they did.

All the while the other three were sneaking in the back. Themus used his Slippery Step on the bars of the outer fence to help them get through, however, Astrea managed to get stuck for a time, and Acaelus as well. Eventually, the three made it through and when sneaking across the open field to the building Acaelus tripped and fell, being spotted by a guard on the grounds. Before the guard could react Acaelus put him to sleep. They tied him up and threw him in the barn while they snuck inside. Upstairs they put to sleep another guard and made their way into the District Warden's office. They found some small book collection, but more importantly, they found a stashed stack of notes and letters. Acaelus managed to read all of them, before taking some and escaping through a window.

The group reconvened at the Jaunt, got a room from Joy, and went through everything they found. With the evidence, they found they could say for sure that Sazo, and an unattributed Guard, likely Kincade, were responsible for the taking of Ziggy, though the intent of why take over the Jaunt was never established. The group decided to try and make contact with several people to try and get the story out. They planned on speaking with Dumont, Detective Burnside, and Delphine Gerhart who is a member of the Junaguage Arcanis that Astrea and Acaelus met on their way into the city.

The next morning Joy delivered a note written in Dwarven to the group. It read, "Tomorrow. Southern Stockade. Come midnight, we attack the next hour. If you let anyone know anything ahead of time we will hit the Jaunt first. Ronnie wants a fair fight. Ronnie wants you six." This seemed to be the warning that Ronnie was able to give the group about the next attack. The group then had a decision to make either deal with this attack, or go on the airship raid that Dumont had wanted the group to go on, as they would both happen at about the same time.

Before they made this decision they accomplish a few other things during this day. They stopped by the Padlock Tome where Acaelus bought some spells (Shocking Grasp, Comprehend Languages) as well as several books that were all mentioned in Sazo's letters (Vonne's Collected History of the Lost Library, Tenoch: Island City, Elwyndr the Untamed Widowlands, Paldae and the Shadow Isles, House of Wolves). Mabel told the group as well that the same man had been coming around her shop for the past couple of days, and she thinks it might be the same guy who put that weird book in her library. Elias asked her what she knows about his holy book, but she would have to take quite some time with it, so Elias hung onto his book.

The party left Acaelus at the Jaunt and went to the Stone Center to ask some of the veterans there if Burnside had been around asking questions, trying to ascertain his location. The group spoke with Builder Brightwood about Ziggy being saved, and he seemed very happy and relieved. The group questioned a soldier named Milos who told them that Burnside had been staying at the Lavander Closet, which is a fancy hotel.

Viron arrived at the Jaunt looking for Themus as he had sent out a message to Dumont that previous night. Annoyed that he wasn't there, she questioned Acaelus about why she has been called there. Acaelus told her the story and ended up giving her one of the stolen letters for her to take back to Dumont, in hopes that it would get printed in the Kronstrad Gazette and Sazo would possibly get jailed.

The other party members made their way to the Lavender Closet where they saw it swarming with guards. As they approached some of the guards stopped them, and began to question Themus and Astrea about where they had been the previous night. After being convinced that they were the culprits of the break-in the guards brought them directly to Burnside, which was their goal anyway. Burnside explained that he was trying to catch Sazo in something since the Ministry knew he was corrupt, and that the break-in helped him out. He let Themus off with a breaking and entering charge, that he would have to pay, but that's it. Burnside asked for some of the letters, and they told him where he can find the rest, as most were left behind, and Burnside thanked them, and let them leave.

When the group reconvened and swapped stories they decided that it was more important to help the Jaunt and the Buyway Triplets and to face Ronnie tomorrow. The group trained for the rest of the day (LEVEL 3).

The next day was prevalent with rain. The group did spend more of the day training, and they stopped by the Southern Stockade to ask the guards some questions, and so Themus could pay off his B&E charge. The group witnessed the three Keggers they arrested hanging from the gallows with visible bruises. Later in the day, just before midnight, the group arrived at the Southern Stockade to see the place alive with activity. Ronnie lied about what time they would attack, as the group witnessed several guards hanging from the gallows, Keggers putting more guards in the stockade, some small fires burning, and Ronnie standing over the corpses of the three previously hung Keggers. Ronnie turned to the group, pulled out his hammer, and said, "This is the end of the Keggers. Good luck."

Link to all of the letters found: https://imgur.com/a/Ftz7dhd