Good!Party: Crime Bosses

So, Ruin and Marshall and Martini have returned to Caristhium with King Mythrandril; Ruin and Marshall have no memory of Martini murdering King Luc, and Mythrandril isn’t about to mention. 

Tavros, Leira, Geddy, and Eva, meanwhile, headed off to Brightland to treat with the crimelords that took over there. There are three families in charge there. Paolo Carbone heads the biggest and most powerful family. Next up is the Sperito family, headed by Francois Sperito who run boats up and down the river. Third is the Benoit gang, headed by Julen Benoit: protection, hitmen, and the darker side of these activities. 

Geddy considers his bardic knowledge; these families are common knowledge and topics of theater. The Carbone family probably just wants more power and more control. They’re probably trying to position themselves as the new counts. They have the clubs and a lot of the nightlife. The Sperito family has probably taken a hit from the war, because the river isn’t as safe and the trade routes for smuggling are gone. The Benoit gang probably just wants to be able to have some stability and protection – maybe a respectable politician to hide behind. They have a lot of conflict with the other two, being more violent crime and less… disciplined. So the other two have been trying to keep them in line, which the Benoit gang kind of resents. 

The town of Brightland is pretty clean; it doesn’t look like the war has really come home here. There are some local militia and guards around, wearing simple but matching outfits – not Brightland, but somebody has bankrolled custom uniforms. Shops are open, and people are out on the street; there are even some merchants’ carts going back and forth. There are no beggars at all, which seems… wrong. 

We start looking around for an inn or tavern, and just generally sight-seeing; we’re obviously a group, but maybe not eye-catchingly purposeful. We step into a tavern at mid-afternoon; a bard is playing, a barmaid bustling. The barmaid brings us four mugs of ale. Leira manages to find someone who’s heard of Sacha. 

Apparently this guy talked to a merchant a while back, who was traveling through the Garamond area – which is lawless and wild. The merchant got jumped by a bunch of skeletons, when out of nowhere the guy with a flaming sword showed up and saved him. Told him to give thanks Helios for the help. 

Leira: “That must be Sacha.”

Tavros: “It does rather sound like him.”

We stop for an early dinner and listen to the chatter in the tavern. As we finish the first round of ale, a different server comes over and asks if we want more ale. 

Geddy: “Shift change?” 

Waitress: “No, Marsha just stepped out the back.”

Literally none of us believe that. 

Geddy sells the barmaid on the idea that we’re here in town looking for Sacha. She tells Leira that she’s seen too many people looking for lost loved ones. After a minute she comes back with our second round and some food. After about thirty minutes our first server returns and starts clearing the table like nothing happened. 

In the process, she knocks over a plate and stops to clean it up… and uses the motion to knock a note into Geddy’s lap. It’s an invitation to come to the keep and meet with the lords Carbone and Sperito. It’s addressed to King Tavros. It’s at exactly that moment that the bard begins playing Geddy’s song. 

“Well, I suppose we can hardly refuse,” observes Tavros. We finish our meal and head up to the keep. 

We head up to the keep, where we’re greeted by guards in that same simple uniform. “Please, come inside. They’re expecting you, lords and ladies.” 

Tavros and Geddy hold a quick strategy session, and then we proceed into the audience chamber. There’s a long desk inside, with several chairs; it’s covered with papers. There are a few people behind the table, and one of them stands and comes to Tavros, then bows. “My king. It is a pleasure to meet you when we have been administrating your lands.”

Tavros: “It is a pleasure to meet with such a loyal subject.”

He invites us to a more private setting. We follow him into a side-room, and take our seats. A servant comes in and places a book in front of Tavros. It’s a ledger of some sort. 

“It’s a gift: a ledger of all the transactions in Brightland since the death of the last lord of Brightland.” 

Tavros: “I am given to understand that the citizens are happy, and we could do far worse in terms of leadership.”

Basically, Paolo wants us to clear out Flowerhedge (vampires) and Rockdale (Iron Company, well-established mercenary company), so he can offer those as baronies. The Carbone and Sperito families are prepared to declare for Tavros if Tavros is willing to support him as Count of Brightland. Tavros is willing. Sperito would like to talk to us also. 

Francois Sperito is less polish, and brings his son Amboise in as well; he asks why we don’t want to recruit the vampires to our side. 

Tavros: “I have this horrible vision of us bringing a thousand vampiric foot-soldiers onto the field of battle, only to have them immediately turn their loyalties over to the solari-hunter known as Chuck. 

Francois: “You’re not a fool, then. Good. Perhaps Paolo was right about you.”

We spend the evening moving around the town. Geddy and Eva go to check off a few dens of iniquity. There are definitely some issues, but the families still sound like the best deal going. They haven’t really had to fight off the demons yet – there are too many easier targets closer to Springmage. The protection money is higher than the taxes were, but at least some of the shopkeepers feel like they’re getting more out of it. They’ve also opened up some hospitals, so they apparently believe in keeping illness off the streets. 

Geddy decides to not share all of this with Tavros. Tavros and Leira take the opportunity to shop for clothes, so they can make the proper impression. We blow about 7,500 GP getting proper clothing for everybody: royal outfits for Tavros, and noble outfits for everybody. 

We roll into Flowerhedge just after dawn. The town is a disaster: houses shuttered and windows boarded up. The streets are strewn with broken barrels and wagons. The central keep of the castle in Flowerhedge is still standing, but all the windows have been boarded up and the balconies have been covered with curtains. 

Tavros detects evil, and there’s a lot of evil. 

A woman walks out of the gate and introduces herself as Elvira. She’s completely naked, and buxom, and appears to be human and not undead. She also appears to be possessed by a vampire. She starts pitching us on the idea of recruiting a vampire army, and they have apparently been keeping their numbers in check and keeping the humans as herds. 

Geddy takes point on talking to her. He tries to sell her on maybe moving somewhere else. They’re… not that interested. 

Tavros runs out of patience and starts forward, and the possessed shell being controlled by Elvira casts Horrid WIlting on us, followed by a quickened Fireball. Tavros steps over and slaps her silly; she drops, unconscious. Geddy heals Leira with a Mass Cure Moderate, bringing the group back up. Eva casts Shield on herself. Angry screeching comes from the gatehouse. 

Something tries to push into Leira’s mind, but she shakes it off. Tavros strides forward and shoves the gate up into the gatehouse. Geddy casts Haste. 

Vampire Spawn can come out in daylight. They emerge from the pond, the fountain, the barn, the windows of the gatehouse, A bunch of them fall on Tavros, swarming him. Eva Springs up above the wall and looses a cone of fire over the ones coming out of the pond. Swarms of vampire spawn catch fire; many of them fall. Leira casts a quicked Fly, rises into the air where she can see over the walls, and then drops a quickened Sunburst to fill the entire courtyard with sunlight. She follows it up with a quickened Greater Invisibility. 

Helios would be proud. 

Tavros swings his blade around, but the vampires are crawling all over him; he is buried in a pile of vampires. One of the vampire swarms moves towards Geddy, who has started singing. Eva tries to intercept them, coming down from the air with a crush attack. Leira drops another Sunburst inside the courtyard, and then drops a pair of quickened fireballs on the ones outside the walls, taking out two of the swarms. 

Geddy stops singing, which seems… out of character for him. Tavros is still taking damage from the swarm, and it’s… costing him character levels, which is bad. Eva takes some damage and also some negative levels. Leira takes out two of the swarms with a fireball, and also burns Geddy a bit. Eva is absorbing half of the damage he takes, so he’s doing better than he has any right to do. Leira drops two more fireballs, damaging more vampire spawn. 

“Geddy” casts a fireball up into the sky, and then casts a quickened Greater Invisibility on himself and moves away. Tavros takes more damage and loses more levels. 

Leira drops fireballs on everybody. One of the swarms goes down, then another. A spell slams into Eva but fails to get through her spell resistance, then another. Eva takes more damage from the swarm of vampire spawn. She sets fire to  the swarm under her, then flaps up into the air. Leira kills the swarm on Tavros with Magic Missile, then hits the one below her with Scorching Ray and follows up with a quickened scorching ray… and, miraculously, finishes it. 

Tavros gets hit with Finger of Death, but manages to shake off the death effect and survives. Unfortunately the Ray of Enfeeblement hits him, for strength damage. Tavros staggers over to under Eva. Eva bolts over to where she last saw Geddy do things, and casts Glitterdust; a Geddy-shaped outline appears. Leira casts Greater Dispel at him. 

Geddy shakes back to consciousness. Everybody’s glaring at him, and Tavros looks like hell. We withdraw, and find an inn with a hot bath. Tavros takes the formerly-possessed human with him, with the intention of getting her away from the vampires and back into clothing. 

We’re going to need Restoration, We teleport to Clovis Cloverfield for it.