Session 027 - The Calm Before...

Religious Revelations

Wu revealed to Fill and the party that he’d been captured by Samira before being contacted by a green furry entity who attempted to make deals with him. Fill recognised this entity to likely be The Grinch and those suspicions were confirmed after Wu showed him the mark left on his forearm; a garish wound that appeared to carve the word “HahahAHaHAahAHaA” until it became imperceptibly small.

Fill investigated the mark and unintentionally caused Wu to write in pain before nearly falling unconscious. Fill offered to help Wu for a favour in the future and healed the Human Monk once he agreed.

A Gnomish individual came forward and presented themself as a follower of Devos. They inspected the wound an attempted to aid Wu by casting Greater Restoration on it and the smaller half of the wound faded over time.

The Whisperers

As Wu rested on the ground, the Dragonborn man and woman in the room introduced themselves formally as Leo’kan and Delilah Nabal. They appeared to recognise the name Leodel that Mike had mentioned earlier and they spoke amongst themselves about it briefly.

”I am the leader of The Whisperers - a smuggling group that focuses on rescuing those trapped within this city since Dagult took over. When my father ran the group we had some more uncouth operations but we turned over a new leaf after Prince Dante encourage us to help those in need over those in power.” *- Delilah introduces herself and her husband to The Bussy Knights

The two asked The Bussy Knights to introduce themselves to ensure they could trust each of them in this time of civil unrest. The two of them greeted each party member kindly before openly recognizing Illsaiim and sharing a moment to reconnect with the Shadar-Kai male.

Re-Quinton-necting

Leo’kan and Delilah recounted their perspective of the day of The Ruining sixteen years prior and wondered what Illsaiim had been doing since their short meeting that day. Illsaiim shared a short recount of his activities in the city under Dagult’s rule before inquiring about Quinton’s whereabouts.

”We haven’t seen Quinton for over 16 years to be honest with you, we stopped by a few months after he’d fled, as we were doing the same ourselves…

I imagine his orphanage is still there - a day or so South East of the city, tucked into a clearing in the Neverwinter Woods.” *- Delilah talking about Quinton

A Leodel and a Lead

Leo’kan and Delilah shared a look with each other before Delilah plainly asked for more details about the Leodel that The Bussy Knights know. After hearing a bit about him, she plainly stated that she believed they were his parents and explained their story for leaving him with Quinton.

”I was mid-way through my pregnancy with him when The Ruining happened. I wanted my son to be born in the city so we stayed here but hid to avoid attention. Unfortunately; once the bridges were built and Dagult started to flex his power - he caught wind of our involvement in Quinton’s escape.

Word moved fast but we had to move faster and on the day Leodel was born - we had to flee the city for good. We only barely made it out with his men behind us.

We didn’t know how far he’d follow us, so we checked with Quinton for help. We decided to leave him there with only half of each of our names so that at least part of us was with him at all times.” *- Delilah explaining why they had to leave Leodel as a baby

The pair asked the party not to mention anything to Leodel if they ran into him before they did as they did not want him to feel as if they were forcing their way back into his life.

Suddenly; having rested from the shock pain earlier, Wu Tang sprung up and warned The Bussy Knights that he’d seen carts entering from the South gate of the city and heard the Masked Man from the Casino mention and receive a shipment of weapons before being captured by Samira.

Wu Tang’s Warning

Wu Tang’s 2nd revelations led Illsaiim to think of Marsha and Rowland’s plans with the Alagondar Trust and believed they might be in danger. He suggested to the party that they should head there to warn them before it got too late. At the same time, Delilah and Leo’kan were called by other person in a green cloak to attend to other business, the two Dragonborns offer their support against Oskar Kryme if anything were to begin.

Alberic and Salvador led the rest of the party members along the Western pathways of the city in a haste. Due to their speed they were caught off guard as two similarly dressed members of the Krymetime Krew appeared to flank a tall Human male wearing blue plate armour adorned with an unfamiliar device on his belt/waistline.

Ambush Outside the Hibernation Hotel!

The Bussy Knights were swiftly attacked by the oncoming forces as a red laser light targeted Fill in the backline while Alberic lessened a blow from one of the familiar Hand Cannons they’d seen the previous day.

The armoured man stepped forward and held position in front of the two gunslingers with him with a cocky smile and brash attitude. The Bussy Knights struggled early with the durability of this armoured man; despite landing strong hits against him. Illsaiim turned his attentions towards one of the foot soldiers behind him and dealt a significant blow to him before a loud BOOM filled the air.

Sniper!!

Before Fill could leverage his Divine Magic to assist in the fight the Elven Cleric felt his left shoulder splinter with pain. Fill managed to reverse the trajectory of the shot to a balcony on second floor of the Hibernation Hotel and communicated it to his commrades before channelling his faith to recover fully from his injuries.

Guiding Bolt

Fill then turned his attention to the armoured man and threw a significantly powerful Guiding Bolt in his direction and whilst is very clearly harmed the man - The Bussy Knights were caught off guard by his stalwart confidence despite being surrounded.

Graxious is downed

The armoured man pulled out a chrome plated hilt with no apparent blade attached to it and slashed in the direction of Graxious - causing the Leonin male to fall unconscious. The armoured male then pulled out a large red vial and drank its contents as his wounds began to close and restore. He also pressed on the mysterious device and those in close proximity to him felt some kind of field begin to surround them.

Continued Clash

Illsaiim followed after the source of laser light which had since targeted him and through a sheer display of skill managed to injure the foot soldier enough to force them to flee. A think cloud of black smoke billowed from the Northern balcony of the Hibernation Hotel as Illsaiim and the foot solider lost sight of the battle below.

Graxious was brought back to consciousness by Fill whilst Alberic, Wu, Mike, and Salvador continued to chip away at the armoured man and the grunts around him. Those attacking the armoured man felt their attacks dealt less damage than they had done the previous round.

Mike managed to down one of the grunts with the help of Wu Tang and they also turned their attention to the armoured man who was now retaliating with a lot more vigour and forcefulness. Eventually the party all saw him roar out in anger as those within 10 feet of him were pushed back. The field that seemed to be limiting their attacks had now perfectly encased him and he downed another red potion with a confident smile on his face.

Wu Tang eats his words

Wu Tang struggled to take the armoured man’s words seriously and he taunted him in the midst of the fight.

The armoured man turned towards Wu and in a swift strike of blows downed the Human Monk and turned towards the the Bussy Knights with a look of bloodlust and anger.

Devilbound Defiance turns the tides

Salvador rushed forwards to help his comrade and switched to using King’s Reach - a blade with a longer reach than normal. Assisted by the glowing light of a Guiding Bolt by Fill - Salvador managed to catch the armoured man by surprise and damaged the device on his belt. For the first time since the fight began; Salvador saw a look of fear the man’s face as the perfect cloaking of the field returned to the stage it was at several seconds earlier. The device was clearly still functional as Salvador felt his subsequent attacks against the man be resisted but the reaction gave the Human Fighter the confidence that the tides of the fight had turned.

Graxious’ Sword Seals their fate

Graxious; still severely injured from being knocked unconscious moment earlier, rushed forward to and made an unsuccessful attempt to grapple the armoured man - who twisted his body and deflected the Paladin’s approach deftly. Graxious noticed an opening had been presented and brought his greatsword down towards the already damaged magical device which imploded on impact - sending a shockwave through the surrounding area. Graxious’s vitality was tested as the force knocked him unconscious for a second time.

The Bussy Knights took full advantage of the opportunity with Illsaiim dealing the final blow to the armoured man - assisted by the each of the conscious party members. Fill and Mike tended to Graxious and Wu respectively. In a display of teamwork and skilled co-ordination; The Bussy Knights brutally felled the foot solider from the balcony as Salvador chased after the last foot solider - who had attempted to flee after sustaining severe damage.

Salvador offered the man a chance to live in return for answers about Oskar Kryme. After a short look at a pendant around his neck - the man declined Salvador’s offer and accepted his fate as death took him. Salvador seemed to have a moment of recollection as the other members of the The Bussy Knights saw a familiar fiendish aura appear around their friend.

Just a moment of quiet

A short moment of silence filled the air as The Bussy Knights gathered their things searched amongst the corpses for information and resources for their mission. Salvador inspected the man’s pendant and found it contained a picture of the man; at a younger age, alongside an adult woman next to him and a young child; presumably their daughter standing between them. Salvador pondered the decisions he’d made in the past and how not every enemy he’s faced has been an intrinsically bad person.

Mike rummaged through all the bodies to fight an amount of gold, silver, and copper coins and Illsaiim managed to acquire another type of Vaa’ruulian Weaponry.

As The Bussy Knights began to regroup; a sound from the centre of the city caught their attention.

A Storm Is Coming

They saw several tens, if not a hundred or more people wearing the colour of the Krymetime Krew marching in unison down the central street of the city. Illsaiim stepped forward to take a closer look and saw Brick and Samira Farrow leading a small army towards Castle Neverwinter; with similarly armoured soldiers to the man they had just slain surrounded by armed foot soldiers, and a handful of cart mounted devices that nearly caught sight of Illsaiim before he ducked back into the shadows.