2020-05-19 – Closing down sail – Heret

One day when work stops kicking my proverbial, I'll hopefully do an in-character write-up.  Until then here's an out-of-character summary:

• Ghesh, Markas, Heret, Arkadius, Taz, and Sheryl responded to a request from Girelle Veluss to help investigate some intelligence about Vanguard activity.

• Having arrived in Zot Goran, the party were told by Girelle that although a number of high-profile Vanguard members, including two senators, have recently gone into hiding, other Vanguard activity (sabotage, raids) have increased.  On the positive side, the K'ul Goran intelligence service has been able to make better progress now that there are no secret Vanguard agents in government positions obstructing their work.  They recently intercepted a letter suggesting that the Vanguard have succeeded in gaining control of, or at least some sort of foothold in, Ramos Sails.

• Ramos Sails is a large sail-making company that supplies around 80% of the sails in K'ul Goran for sea-ships, hillsurfers, air-ships, &c., including for the republican navy.  The company is an old family business currently owned and run by Cloud / Claude (sp? pun?) Ramos.  Its main factory and warehouse are about an hour south-west of Zot Goran.  The party agreed to investigate.

• Markas and Ghesh succeeded in posing as job-seekers and gaining employment at the factory on a trial basis, as a guard and a cleaner respectively.  Meanwhile Taz visited the factory to ask about commissioning a set of sails for a galleon (which was only partly a subterfuge as he did in fact want to buy some sails for a galleon), with Arkadius, Sheryl, and Heret as his business associates / advisers / brokers.

• Markas and Ghesh investigated by making friends with other workers (or, perhaps more accurately, made friends with other workers because they're friendly people and then maybe slightly forgot what they were meant to be doing and just got on with their new jobs).  Taz and his entourage spoke to Mr Ramos (an aerotaur) and were given a guided tour and then allowed to have lunch with some of the workers.

• During the tour, the sail-buying group noticed one particular seamster working very intensely and seeming to be frightened of Arkadius.  Using various magics and conversational gambits, they (especially Sheryl and Arkadius) established that this minotaur was named Regulus Chuckhammer, had been working very hard over the previous two or three days to stitch a particular arcane rune into the corner of a large number of sails that were due to be shipped to the navy, and had been doing so on the instructions of some devils with whom he assumed Arkadius must be associated and who were holding his family hostage.  The party determined that the runes, when activated, would destroy the sails.

• Having formed the view that Mr Ramos was an honest man loyal to the republic, the sail-buying party told him (most of) the truth and asked him not to send out the shipment of sabotaged sails.  He was sceptical but said that the sails were not due to be shipped until the next day anyway; in the mean time, he would send a messenger to his friend who worked at the senate and ask this friend to check the party's claim to be working for Girelle / the republican government.  He also gave the party the location of the Chuckhammer family farm so they could investigate there.

• Once Markas and Ghesh had been reminded that they were actually spies and not factory workers, the party was reunited and headed to the Chuckhammer farm.  Arkadius, Taz, and Ghesh posed as members of the Vanguard while Markas and Heret stealthily took positions either side of the farmhouse and Sheryl did aerial reconnaissance on Astra.  Unfortunately the Vanguard agents at the farm had been tipped off by their operatives in Zot Goran that a party of Dawnland adventurers had arrived and then set off towards Ramos Sails, so they were ready and didn't buy Arkadius' deception.

• Meanwhile, in the air, Sheryl found the kidnapped minotaurs: they were high up in the air, hanging unconscious from large sails or kites held aloft by the strong winds, and tethered to the ground by ropes.  At that moment the Vanguard agents revealed themselves as cambions and cut the ropes, intending to let the hostages be blown away.  Combat ensued, during which Sheryl and Heret managed to grab all three ropes and save the hostages while the rest of the party kept the cambions occupied.  Seeing that their plans had been thwarted, the cambions returned to whatever infernal place they'd come from.

• Regulus was reunited with his family (his brother and the brother's wife and child).  Ramos, now convinced that the party were telling the truth, ordered all the sabotaged sails to have their destructive runes unpicked, and thanked the party with a gift of some magical goggles.  The party were unable to find any clues about the Vanguard cell that had been behind this sabotage attempt.

• The party stayed in K'ul Goran for one more day.  Heret negotiated the purchase of a set of sails for Taz's galleon.  Ghesh, feeling bad for bailing on his guard duty shift the day before, did a full shift on guard duty at Ramos Sails without accepting payment, and during his shift successfully shooed away a child who was trying to steal unattended tools and supplies, probably to make a home-made hillsurfer (apparently a fairly common pastime among local youths).  Markas and Sheryl visited the temple of Milil in Zot Goran and Markas bought a kite.  Heret had a drink and catch-up with Girelle.  Arkadius tried to find Cassandra.  Taz booked passage on a ship back to the Dawnlands.  The rest of the party returned by teleportation, except for Arkadius who remained a bit longer.