PotA Session 9

The anniversary feast of the Feathergale Knights wound down, and the party promptly demonstrated its propensity for splitting up.  Truth and Maendir camped on the roof level; Zook, Su'uvarax, Silaqui and Liliandra took bedrooms; Freyja and Thoril camped outside on the edge of the canyon.  If the knights had been inclined to turn on the party, they would have been in trouble.  Fortunately, the knights think they will be better used to mess with the earth cult.

The dice took a dim view of people sleeping outside a perfectly defensible tower, so Thoril and Freyja had a quick fight with three gnolls.  Freyja was somewhat encumbered by not being able to see in the dark, but fortunately charged off in the right direction and ran across an attacker.  Once the matter was resolved, one of the sentries arrived to check on things (it's not like the gnolls presented any threat to the tower), leaving Thoril increasing disgusted with their uselessness in battle.

The bedroom team exchanged information and decided that Something was Up with this halfling woman in the kitchens.  Silaqui and Liliandra decided to sneak down to the kitchen to talk to her.  On the ground level, they had three doors to choose from.  Silaqui fumbled her roll to stealthily open the chosen door, which belonged to the initiate dormitory.  They were discovered by the hall guard, not to mention all the initiates.  Silaqui claimed they were looking for a drink of water, and Liliandra wondered if they could present their compliments on the feast to the chef.  They were shooed back upstairs.

In the morning, Merosska was ready to send the party on its way, preferably to the Sacred Stone Monastery.  They had to stall by taking their time assembling the party and their gear.  Silaqui remembered to prepare Invisibility; in the general confusion she cast it on herself and snuck downstairs again.  This time she found the kitchen, where the halfling woman and various initiates were working.  She turned visible in the hall and stepped inside, on the pretense of looking for provisions for the road.  Then she said that the woman looked familiar and asked if they had met; the woman refused to look at her and said she was mistaken.  This is when disappointing Insight rolls became a running theme.  Silaqui got shooed back upstairs.

In the meantime, Freyja was downstairs with the hippogriffs and will need to be pried away.

At this point, the players discussed how to proceed -- do they go away and try to find out more about these knights and this halfling, or do they confront the knights?  (At one point, someone speculated that the halfling was a plant working for the knights to take out caravans, which was an unexpected turn.)  Two points seem to have tipped the consensus to confrontation:  first, it will be difficult to get back into the tower once they leave; second, since they were clearly interested in talking to her, the woman might not be available when they came back.  Also, Thoril is getting tired of all the talking and wants to hit someone.

Fortunately, the schedule worked out so the next session is just a week later, so hopefully we can transition from planning right into action.  I've worked out positions for the NPCs, based on the idea that they'd like to get the party outside of the tower, which allows them to use their mounts in combat.  The central spiral staircase is a good place for Merosska to hold, so they can't spread upwards, and most of the knights are on the stable level with their mounts.  So the main question is whether the party will descend to the drawbridge level before the fight starts.

PotA Session 8

Summer is still making it hard to get into the twice-a-month schedule.

I skipped the Tomb of the Moving Stones so there was nothing to stop the group from proceeding to Feathergale Spire.  I described how the tower rose up from a canyon, and offered them the choice of heading to the base or staying along the edge of the canyon; they opted for up on the ridge, so they arrived at the front door.  Then they were polite about seeking entry, so they got to meet the Feathergale Knights on good terms and visit the rooftop.

The sentries on the roof were accompanied by their giant vultures, which put Freyja on guard, but she didn't do anything overt.  Su'uvarax asked about the odd phenomena, but Merosska disclaimed much knowledge.  He did point the party toward the Sacred Stone Monastery as people who were probably up to no good.

Not everyone stayed on the roof.  In the hall, Maendir and Zook observed the preparations for the feast.  As the kitchen staff started bringing up food, Maendir recognized a halfling woman from his caravan from Phandalin to Triboar; this caravan continued south immediately and the party found the remains where it had later been attacked.  Maendir spoke to Zook quietly but again avoided any overt action.  Zook flubbed his Insight check and didn't notice how scared/nervous she was.

During the feast, Su'uvarax asked Merosska a leading question while Truth cast Detect Thoughts on him.  Truth read: He feels smug, they don't know anything, it will be fun to set them on those earth dolts.  Truth was not very subtle in his casting; Merosska didn't notice but some of the knights did.

We finished up with the manticore hunt, which is perhaps more intriguing in theory than in practice.  Freyja, Thoril, Silaqui and Truth took part.  The manticore rolled like a champ against the attackers's mounts and forced the knights to withdraw pretty quickly.  Truth used some healing spells to keep himself and Thoril in the chase a little longer, but the manticore rolled more consistently and escaped.

I'm still wrestling with the nature of the air cult.  The knights are described as law-and-order types who have been seduced by having the power to act against enemies of peace, but Aerisi is spoiled and self-delusional.  I'm tending toward the more childish side, people who feel special and entitled and thwarted, who construct fantasies of revenge.  However, this could be wasted effort -- does the party really need to understand the nature of the cult?  Or is it enough for them to get in a fight?

So I have a couple of conversations planned that might be set aside in the end.  Being into birds, Freyja helped out with the injured mounts.  So there's an opportunity for one of the knights to see if she could be recruited, and introduce the idea of seeking power to avenge herself on her oppressors (in Freyja's case, her backstory is that her brother's wife is trying to have her shunted into a more traditional woman's role in the tribe).  I think Merosska would feel out Su'uvarax as a possible recruit, and he'd have an eye on the bard for Aerisi.

The big question is whether the air cult would decide to try to sacrifice the party, and I think they'd find it more entertaining to use them against the earth cult first, with the thought of either recruiting or sacrificing the survivors.  But the knights are feeling a little suspicious and could tip over to sacrificing if they seem nosy.  The likeliest goad to a confrontation will be the party trying to investigate this halfling spice merchant in the air cult's kitchens.  So I'm waiting to see what the party does next.