Session 4 Log - Leif's Interrogation

Topic: Arc 1 - New Allies
Session: Session 4 - Leif's Interrogation
Session Date: 2022-09-16
In-Game Date: 07-20 -> 07-24
Prev | Next

Synopsis

Took Leif's unconscious body to a nearby abandoned building to interrogate him
Learned that his boss, Lucien is planning something to do with the orc tribes east of town
Got another message from the Torch
Cleared out some gnolls that had attacked a caravan - retrieved a Tuner

Detailed Notes

The pair went back into the mine after reading the message left on the torch, taking Leif's unconscious body out with them, and exploring the nearby slums to find an abandoned house - tying him to a chair. Strix woke him after composing herself.

She didn't learn much from the interrogation. It turned out that Leif was really only read in on things as they were happening, and until then was mostly relegated to hitting up businesses that were behind on their payments, and he really didn't sign up for this to get killed, gladly giving up his boss's name (Lucien Vanko) and even telling them that he'd heard rumblings about some sort of job to do with the |nearby orc tribe.

When asked about Artyom Nebulosa, Leif didn't have many details, but shared that he was around when it went down - the two men involved were members of The Order of the Blade, a regional adventurer's guild who had allied with the Circle for a little extra coin. They were celebrating a job well done, and more than a little drunk. From what he knew, the men didn't even have the intention of mugging Artyom, and were only bullying him out of spite. One thing led to another, a miscalculated shove, and Artyom cracked his head on some stairs - he probably didn't suffer. If it helps any, the men were reprimanded by the Circle when they were found out, and moved from Kaledorei to avoid the consequences.

Realizing that Leif was just another pawn, and appreciating that he'd been cooperative, the pair let him go, and he stumbled off into the night.

Several days later, Strix found another blue torch and another note, indicating that the secretive group had been watching them since they chased Leif across town, and that they believed Strix's and Nilkas' goals were aligned, and offered to help with the Scarlet Circle if the party helped them out first by taking out some gnolls on a nearby farm, and retrieving the cargo from the attacked caravan.

The next morning, Strix met Nilkas outside the Wayfarer's Inn again, and departed from town to the nearby farmhouse they'd been instructed to investigate. What they found was more or less what they expected - a recently-abandoned farmhouse and a covered carriage pulled off the road, with a number of gnolls around a campfire and crates from the carriage broken open and scattered around the field.

They delt with the gnolls and their leader before looking in the wagon and finding a huge, unbroken crate, reverberating slightly with arcane energy. After breaking it open, they found a Tuner, mostly undamaged in its crate, Nilkas realized why he didn't like that particular crate, and the two of them transported it to Strix's farmhouse, where Strix allowed Nilkas to sleep for the night (in the barn with the Tuner, of course)

Strix's Notes

We dragged an unconscious Lief with us out of the mine and into a run down building on the south side of town. He was surprisingly cooperative when we woke him up, though I’m sure he was just happy to be alive. We found out his boss is a man named Lucien, who probably works somewhere in the capital, and seems to be planning something big involving orc tribes. Lief himself seems like he only has enough of the city in his pocket to do what he needs to do without kicking up much of a fuss. He gets info about their jobs about once a week in his red mailbox. Asking him about Artyom really only confirmed what I already knew. Even if I could find the individuals responsible I don’t know if I could bring myself to do anything…

Am I in over my head?

We got another note from the mysterious blue torch group, right outside the farmhouse of all places. They say our goals of rooting out corruption align with each other, and they could help us out if they got a show of faith from us. They want us to clear out a group of gnolls from a farm west of the city. They attacked a caravan, and we are to retrieve the cargo along with any survivors.

We cleared the gnolls out of the farm, along with a rather big ugly one. Nearly both died again, another lesson to be more careful before we get ourselves killed. We didn’t find any survivors, but we did find the cargo. For some reason they were transporting a tuner. Haven’t figured out why yet, but we brought it back to the farm. Time to wait for further contact from the blue torches.

Nilkas' Notes

We brought Lief to an abandoned house to question him. Seems like his leader is only lackey to this organization as he only gets jobs in mail with no direct contact. Strix asks about what happened to her husband, seemed like she already knew the answer but wanted confirmation. To my surprise she let Lief go. Not without him mentioning something about the nearby orc tribes. Strix seems distraught but I decide to not open that door. Seems like she just wants alone time. Can’t blame her. She allows me to stay in her Barn for the night.

We get another message from the blue torch. Gave us a job to clear Gnolls from a nearby farm that was overrun. We summarily cleared it but was attacked by a huge one that nearly killed both of us. The pain really does never get easier to bear. Found one of those damn tuner stones. We brought it back to the farm but those damn things make me sick. Awaited further instruction on the stone.