Dicing With Death - 30/08/2022 - Archie’s Extracts

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There was a ransom note demanding one million gold pieces be placed in unmarked sacks in front of the Daring Academy building. Failure to do so, within three nights would result in the gamblers of the city dying.

My party were all a little incredulous at many things involved in the ransom:
Who has one million gold?
Even in platinum, how many sacks would we need?
Who can act on such a threat to target such a specific group of people? And how?
How could we verify if this was a legitimate threat or not?

These challenging questions were ours to answer, as Lady Aurelia from the Daring Heights Council assigned us to look into the matter.

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Ren -
I hope the coin she earned goes to good use. She was dressed and smelt as if she lived on the streets. She had a lean, athletic build and sound reasoning skills - I was perplexed as to why she was unkempt. She refused - and indeed was quite hostile towards - my help to magically clean her up with the Prestidigitation spell before we entered the luxurious establishment known as the Gilded Mirror.

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Ana-
Another pleasant Goliath has entered my life! This one also possesses Kavel’s innate ability to converse with animals. It isn’t a known Goliath trait, nor do I believe it to be on the Iron Strong strength and conditioning curriculum. So, fascinating that both of them share this same quality.

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Fog -
A familiar face! One I was pleased to see again, once again he was there to help me navigate the adventuring life here; helping me with my ‘tête-à-tête’ with Ren.

I did not notice the previous time that I adventured with Fog, that Fog is a little ‘foggy’ in personality as well as name. I was casting the Detect Magic ritual with Ren’s assistance, when all 8’1” of the extremely tall Firbolg bumped into me!

Something to question the dear fellow about - I couldn’t help but notice his ring gives off a rather unique sensation of magic...

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Lolli -
What a wonderful young wizard she is! Height-wise, she is on the opposite end of the spectrum than dear Fog at 2’1”. She has a cheerful temperament. Positively refreshing to be around. Her specialty is Conjuration magic. We are to have tea soon. I look forward to learning why she became a wizard, why Conjuration as a specialty and why the Dawnlands?

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Inside the Gilded Mirror, we talked to the proprietor-come stage performer, Mr. Leocanto Costoso. The gentleman pointed out several frequent patrons who we might wish to converse with. Mr. Costoso himself could not think why anyone would have a grudge against him or his patrons. Furthermore, he also agreed that 1 million gold was a ridiculous sum.

The three patrons my colleague’s interviewed were forthcoming with their time, while they gambled. Alas, they too were stumped and questioned; why would anyone demand such an impossibly high sum of gold from no one in particular and then threaten all the gamblers for it. I believe Fog reassured the patrons they should continue frequenting the Mirror, and worry not.

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We changed our approach.

Lolli volunteered a cunning plan, and also volunteered herself as bait. We acquired a number of hemp sacks, and visited a timber yard for wood chips. We took five of our sacks and filled them with the wood chips to bulk them up, and Lolli hid herself under a covering of gold inside one of the sacks. To pass off the idea that coins were uniquely, and entirely inside the sacks, magic was employed to create the sound of jingling when the sacks were picked up. Ana did the heavy lifting of placing the sacks on the Daring Academy steps close to midnight.
The plan had something of a nesting doll element to it. Fog gave Lolli his ring and was able to sequester himself inside the ring, on Lolli’s finger. Very fascinating! Knowing about this magical facet of the ring makes Fog’s whispering to the ring seem less concerning.
Ren and I hid within the Rope Trick spell a few feet away, courtesy of Fog.

The plan was, to some degree, a success

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I summoned my recently casted owl familiar while we staked out the front steps of the Daring Academy. Bobby, my owl sat patiently on the roof of the academy as instructed, I was impressed.

Kavel asked me the most peculiar question when I mentioned my owl familiar. He asked how we wizards make sure there is always at least one person who brings a familiar to an adventuring party, and how it is that this procedure can fail; since it has happened to him one time… I asked him if all the strong people, or ‘thicc-bois’ (a term he appears to have learned in the Dawnlands) organise it so there is always one of them in any given adventuring party? Kavel said they do not, but if you don’t have at least one thicc-boi you have a bad party.

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I witnessed a quite powerful spell used by some unknown adversary. I believe the spell was the Dimension Door spell. It has great utility! I must do my best to improve my skills and learn it!
The spell and its user successfully fled. Likely with the same spell.

I asked the guards at the front desk if they had a list of all the staff and guests that had been in today, and any that were still there. Unfortunately, there was no lead to follow here. All staff and guests could be accounted for and cleared of wrong-doing. Problematically, there are no restraints on teleportation magic in the Academy. Anyone could teleport in and out, which, again; is likely what the ransomer did.

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Mendal and Archie both shared a giggle at the lack of anything threatening in my adventure. They stopped laughing when I told them Lady Aurelia rewarded us 300gp each for our efforts. There was indignation in their voices when they pointed out that my party didn’t even apprehend the criminal, let alone identify the individual. There were protests too - Kavel mentioned he received nothing for rescuing High Diviner and council member Rholor from Phlegethos. Mendal raised the point that the Korvak Centaurs that forced the Githyanki land invaders to rout, were only there because of his party’s recruitment efforts, and he also did not see 300gp for his work. Whilst I soaked in their envy; I did see their point.

When the boys learnt that the ransomer had fixed the cards and dice with time-delayed explosive glyphs rigged to explode after the third night, and some credit was due to my party that this did not happen; they did congratulate me on my work.

I showed the boys the weighted dice one of the patrons at the Gilded Mirror gifted the party members. Mendal admired the craftsmanship, Kavel said, ‘you can cheat at gambling, but you can’t cheat at getting stronger’.

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