The Bogshark Fiasco

Game Master Lord Grey

A couple of minutes pass before Grimgar shows up. Grellik is still yet to be seen.

"Not bad. Learn anything useful?" he questions Adrien and Ozz grimly.

"I don't know what she was on about."

He nods to Grimgar, "Where's Grellik?"

"Not sure..." Grimgar said, looking over his shoulder. "I got a glimpse of him on the building you were talking under. Nearly missed him, he's really tucked in there. Maybe he's waiting for a better time to sneak away..."

Have you EVER failed a stealth check?!

Using his well proven stealth, Grellik makes it safely to the group of Adrien, Ozz and Grimgar not far away from the meeting spot with Grimgar's contact.

Grimgar gives Grellik a nod before turning to Adrien. "I hope you got your fill of info from them. It's too late to ask any follow up questions. Let's go. You can fill us in somewhere safe."

If anyone wants to do anything before returning to the base with Feng, speak up. It's up to you lot when you safely return back to room off of the alley. Expect no diversions or distractions not of your own making.
Either group of you can get to the base first. It seems about even odds that either would get their before the other, so I have no preference.

"Good. Let's get going."

No stops for Cavell

Wasn't there that creaky step when we made our way into the safe house shortly before meeting the Bane cultists? Or maybe that was someone else? Gonna assume that Grellik gets there after GrAdriOzz just due to having to be careful at first. No clue as to when Trissae gets back, and I don't have too much preference either way. Though he is not making any detours

There was the creaky step, but I'm pretty sure that that was just fluff. The two on watch, the young couple, didn't notice you even then. If I remember right, they were too busy looking at a scarecrow near Dart's and talking about how creepy it was.

Haven't heard back from Trissae yet, so I'll just narrate this.

Trissae makes it back to the hideout first, to find Feng drawing on the walls of the room with charcoal. Large depictions cover a single stone wall, showing shadowy forms dotted with massive eyes.

They only have a couple of minutes together before the others all show up in one group, Grellik included (you would have met up with the others not far away from the meet up spot, you seemed to miss that they waited a a bit for you).

Cavell nods to Triss then waits for everyone to settle in before recapping what he learned from their informant, leaving nothing out.

...

"So, we have some options. Triss, what'd you learn?"

Gain the benefits of a short rest as you all trade information for an hour.

is a bit restless, as Cavell relates his story. He listens but something is bothering him. He will defer to Trissae as well, not wishing to interrupt.

"Good news! The Counterwits have some kind of fantastic contraption they're going to use for a distraction when we signal them. It sounds pretty intense."

She smiles and cracks her knuckles.

"So when are we gonna roll?"

"There's two places we need to get to: first, the upstairs gallery with Giant and the main bulk of the bullywugs plus their king. Second, the bureaucrat office with Caira," he looks meaningfully to Grellik but doesn't say anything.

"I see two ways in: the partially flooded riverside entrance, or scaling the side wall. Either way we have to cross that river."

He waits a moment for the others' input.

Holding NPC interaction from Grellik. It seems like he's got something to say. If not, let me know Grellik and I'll post.

Grellik asks Grimgar, "How well do you know our contacts? I ask because we," he motions to Adrien, Trissae, and Ozz, "are certainly acquainted." he will relate what he saw in his spoilers; The TL;DR is that Rybick Smythe was there, in the shadows as well as members of the church of Bane that we certainly have met, and that they definitely recognized us"At this point, I am not going to be picky where we get our information from, but there must have been some reason for the subterfuge. Why would they pretend to not know who we were?

"Yeah, they are Bane cultists. A dangerous bunch, but valuable contacts all the same. I've never told them who I work with, throughout all of our dealings. I suppose until today, they never knew I was a Bogshark. That's over now, from Cavell's insistence with telling everyone who we are!" He growls this last, clearly annoyed with the human's indiscretions.

"They were ready for me to start shit. They weren't necessarily ready for Bogsharks."

Grellik smiles in spite of himself, well aware of what Grimgar is feeling this time. "It may be well, then, that Adrien seems to want to shout our name from the highest rooftop--we can ill afford unnecessary battles.

Feeling that solidarity with Grimgar reminds him of all the other feelings he has toward him right now, and he suddenly thinks again of the letter tucked in his clothing, wishing for a chance to read it.

"So, how do we cross the river?" Ozz says, trying to pull attention away from Adrien. "The bridge seems foolish. We'd be right out in the open. And the waters are violent. How can we cross?"

"They looked ready to fight, so I discouraged them."

And that settles that, as far as he's concerned.

"Unless anyone has a better idea, I say we scout out the river, look for options."

"Well, Tease seemed to imply that what ever distraction was needed, it would need to be perceived as a genuine threat for the bullywugs to leave their post. He seemed confident this contraption would do the job.. Originally I was going to suggest we use it before charging their leader, but I guess it could be used to cover our infiltration." she says musing.

After Adrien suggest scouting she begins to twiddle her hair nervously.

"And.... Umm.. I guess I should bring up, on my way to the Counterwits I overheard some distressing news. Wen is set to siege the Citadel some time before noon... And if he can't retake it he has orders to destroy it, regardless of who remains inside. So we don't have a lot of time really." Triss winces in preparation for the response.

"Oh, hells. We better think fast. We can try to hit them before Wen shows, or use Wen as a distraction--it'd be tight, but we might pull it off."

Grimgar sighs heavily when Trissae mentions the time frame. He rubs his eyes, clearly beyond tired.

"Right." he says, speaking with his hand still over his eyes. "If they say before noon, we probably have at least a couple of hours, so let's not run out the door to try and swim across the river."

"The only idea I've got to cross the river, besides just running across the bridge like a bunch of idiots, isn't much better. Beldabar has a smuggling port beneath the bridge we might be able to use, but he isn't too likely to take a request from me."

He thinks about this, and shakes his head. "F&$$!" he exclaims. "You lot might be able to talk him into using his port, maybe a boat if he's still got one working. But if I'm with you there's no way he'll lend the favor. You'd have to go without me, and I'd need to find my own way across."

He lets go of his face, and looks at everyone. "Any other options?"

Feng looks over from her charcoal drawings. The eye-covered form of whatever being she's drawing has taken on a giant perspective, like of some massive creature looking down at her.

"What of potionsss, or ssscrollss? If you obtain ssomething usseeful, you might have an easier time of it."

"Don't think I've got anything useful on me. We'd have to go shopping, and we probably don't have enough time to be thorough.
Esklindrar’s IS close though, and she's know to keep scrolls at times. Maybe. What else?"

Usually Cavell would be lounging or eating for this conversation, but he looks ready to leave immediately.

"What sort of potion or scroll would we ask for? What do they do?" He looks at the four magic users. "Pardon a layman."

"If we could secure Beldabar's aid, then really we'd only need one of these potions, for Grimgar. He could pick it up while we negotiate with the old adventurer."

He looks at the door, eager to leave, eager for a fight. "Hows this: We get over there as soon as possible, making use of Tease's distraction to get inside. We get into position, close to that throne room, ready to strike--and we for Wen. There's a hole in the ceiling that ought to help track the time. When he attacks, they'll all be defending against one direction, and we hit them hard and fast, get our people out."

waiting for grell before responding

Just noticed typo. Should be: "--and we wait for Wen."

"Hmm, with the right potion, we could change Grimgar's appearance, so that his presence would not be an issue."Just what did you do, Grimgar, to cause such a problem? Or does Beldabar have an allegiance that might put us in danger?"I trust, Grimgar, that the story of whatever caused this rift with Beldebar holds no nasty surprises or revelations that are relevant to our current situation?

sorry for the delay. I will be on later to post teh rest of the response assuming that Grimgar confirms that it is not relevant. if he does feel it relevant to tell us, then it might change my post, but I can post a hypothetical in spoilers anyway

"Fencing can be messy shit. It's not important what happened." he waves his hand for Grellik to continue.

Grellik nods. he figured as much before he even asked.

Grellk understand how cavel feels, or at least he thinks he does. But he is not satisfied yet.
"Using Wen to our advantage is appealing, however, his instructions are to destroy the place if he cannot succeed. We do not know how long that will take. We have to reach the other Shields and make our way to where Giant is being held. I don't think we have the time to wait for Wen to strike. we will have to strike as soon as we get into position. We should get some potions, disguise Grimgar, and ask Beldabar to use his port."

"Let's hurry then. Who knows how long all of that will take."

Trissae has wandered over to the wall where Feng has produced her art. Triss wrinkles her nose at the many-eyed beast, then leans forward and thumbs away an overly large grin to make the beast less intimidating. "Bogsharks boys always over thinking things yea?" she says with a chuckle to Feng, then nuzzling Fengs head to hers.

Triss then stands and confronts the others, standing confident with her hands on her hips.
"While I like Adrien's plan, it's thoughtful and considers our resources, allow me to provide an alternative option." She smiles and steps between them, waving her arms to weave traces of arcane energies.

"First, we make our way to just out of eye shot of the Citadel.. here I weave a spell of invisibility on all four of you, rendering the need to aquire stuff from Beldabar moot." having stepped toward Grimgar she taps him on the nose making a small magical discharge as she says this.

"Then! The four of you cross the bridge unchallenged, once on the other side you signal me that the coast is clear and Bam! I pop into existence, having used a teleportation arrow to circumvent detection." She emulates the firing of the arrow and hops to represent the teleportation.

"Next we use your invisibility to gain the advantage against the foes waylaying the Shields in the Dungeon. Having saved them we will give them the option to assist us in liberating their fair Citadel, or stay out of our way." She says with a roguish grin.

Turning and pacing excitedly she becomes more animated.
"Then we rescue our pint-sized pyromaniac to produce the added pyroclastic punch to help defeat our ponderous opponents profoundly."

She then begins pretending to skulk about each of them as she continues.

"Then we creep our way up the Citadel toward our unsuspecting quarry, creeping ever so closesly then... Bam!" in a quick motion and a strum of her lute she sparks a light from her Dancing Light spell.

"We signal the Counterwits to unleash their mechanized horror, and in the chaos we make our move on the throne room!."

She rushes to Grellick's side.
"Grellick's is first in, his gallant charge and massive ferocity shaking the enemy's resolve to the very core!" She takes his arm and puts herself in a faux-headlock. "At one point he has three! Ack ARG! NO four! Bullywugs in a choke hold!" she pulls away and runs over to Ozz.

Taking his hands in hers, she wrestles it like in a grapple.

"Meanwhile Ozz has engaged the Bullywugs elite guard, the king's bodyguard, in a test of might. His muscles ripple and buldge as the half-Ogre half-Bullywug attempts to crush him, but Ozz is too much for him.. but Oh! What's this!?" she races away from Ozz between him and Grimgar.

She pretends to have a bow in hand, aimed at Ozz.
"The fiends have notched their cruel poison tipped arrows at Ozz's back and are about to fire! But Grimgar, the Spectre of the shadows leaps forth! He brutally slams his daggers into the fiends back and lurches!" She jerks and pretends to release the shot away from Ozz. "Grimgar's fast thinking causing a cascade of friendly fire slaying a dozen filthy archers."

Trissae then steps out and in front of Adrien. She approaches him slowly and draws an imaginary sword.

"Then there is Adrien, eye ever on the prize. The Bullywug king full of confidence draws his blade, intent on finishing this foe in one on one combat." She lifts his hand to hers and pretends to clash blades. Several tense seconds of fingers clashing and grunting she pretends to be decapitated by Adrien's blow.

"Bested by Adrien the king's head tumbles through the air! Adrien nimbly slides the crown off the falling head and places it upon his own brow." She says pretending to place a crown on his head. "And with their mighty monarch fallen the remaining bullywugs scramble to the waterways in full retreat." She walks back to the center and turns toward them.

"All of this before Wen even arrives. And you might ask yourself, 'Why before Wen?' and to that I have one answer." She says throwing her shoulders back and her hands on her hips in a heroic stance.

"We Bogsharks are Rogues of the highest calibur, seeking only the greatest of riches. As we all know the greatest riches are neither of gold or jewel! No indeed the greatest treasure of all is GLORY! To steal the glory of liberating the Citadel from the Shields and save Yartar will make the Bogsharks a gang of legends! One that will be told for generations to come! Ha ha ha! Triss bellows comically a moment then puts on a serious face.

"But really, after we save Giant we should get out of there fast as hell. It's probably in our best interest to not get stuck in the Citadel with a small army of Shields and Wen... So, What do you guys think?." She puts on a simple smile, but her chest puffs from the long take and she's a bit purple in the cheeks.

Adrien thinks a moment, a little overwhelmed by Trissae's sudden 'performance'.

"Well, magical invisibility...won't say no to that. Hows that work exactly--can we attack people...?" He's a little hesitant, but it's clearly just his inexperience with magic.

"You'll be invisible until you swing basically. So you'll want to make the most of it." She says as she turns to gather her gear.

Grellik wait for Trissae to finish, then adds, "If you can hide us all from sight, then that will be a great help, though the reason to go to Beldabar's is for easy passage, not to obtain supplies. I agree that we should take the most direct route, and as quickly as possible.

The water entrance seems the best still, unless we wish to charge in the front door, though opening doors will rather spoil our invisibility. So it looks like the best bet is to disguise Grimgar still, use a boat, and then finally sneak in under cover of Trissae's arcane power"

Grellik looks to the others to see what they think of this, hoping to find consensus.

Hey, a question, for Trissae's player: not sure how you are going to get us all invisible? unless you have potions, I think the most you can do is 2 using a 3rd level slot, since its a concentration spell

I misread using higher spell slots that's how! Lol. To be fair Triss was clearly exaggerating a bit for affect... Though, if we got the materials she could make a scroll I think right? Then any of the crew could also cast the spell which would achieve similar effect. Good eye Grell :)

Sorry, not trying to be a spoilsport XD Just figured we'd want to have the plan clear before we left. Yeah, you can do a scroll, or we can pick up a potion or two, or whatever we can find if we go that route

Adrien shrugs. "That's fine. I want to get moving."

Ozz listens to Trissae's plan, giving her a bemused smile when she includes the Bog Ghost in her story, her scheme. His normally stern and rough feature breaks into a bit of a grin at the story of his possible heroic deeds.

His grin sways over to Grimgar as Trissae's attention does. Grimgar returns Ozz's smile, both mutually enjoying Trissae's personality lightening the burden of their situation.

Afterward, Ozz returns to listening to people discuss, thinking how he could possibly help discuss such a plan himself. Ozz knows his limits.

Still, he grunts at a pause in the conversations. "You all just point me at something to hit, when it's time to start hitting."

"If we can skip the shopping, I'd say we go for it." Grimgar interjects into the conversation, his keen mind thinking.

He gestures to Grellik. "Open doors? We can open doors, trust me. I've used that enchantment plenty in my work. Don't stab anyone and you should be okay. You can loot, open doors, eat, piss and screw without an invisibility enchantment dropping. Maybe don't kick anything open, I've never tried it myself, but you hear stories..."

He then turns to Trissae

"You really think you could pull all of that off?" he seems ready to grab his bag.

Feng approaches Trissae, reaching out and placing a hand on the drow's shoulder while her attention is lost to the side of the room, starring intently at nothing while interacting with her sister. She looks clearly dazed, while still somehow interacting with Trissae.

"Dear ssisster..." Feng starts, her voice a kind, low rumble in her chest. She didn't sound 100% better from the wounds of her formerly acidic nature. "While I am quite ccertain your skillss with spellcraft hass improved, I think cassting the enchantment that large would only be challenging."

She pauses, looking back at her drawing before reapproaching it while talking.

"None of you have asssked what I have been doing. I only asssume you think me invalid becaussse of my sstate."

Feng gives a low, growling chuckle.

"Foolsss." she chides.

"I am drawing sssomething I only began to ssseee before you pulled me out of the world of my subterranean maze. Your cure did not work. It helped me, maybe even sssaved my life, but I can feel the sssenssations once again coming upon me. Or rather... I could. While you left, I decided to return."

Above any accusations, she draws more chalk eyes onto the massive creature while turning to face everyone else. Her eyes look at nothing, yet seem to somehow take in all of you. She talks over any responses, as if unable to hear anyone.

"I'll just pretend I can't hear you ssso I can finish what I am ssaying. Thisss is important, Listen!"

"I realized that in my dazed ssstate, what I am in essence doing is... Speaking with another Plane." She grins. "It is like a spell I had heard of before. I spell made to gather information, and to gain favors with extra planar entities. While you lot have been doing your works, I have been doing mine. I have gained favorss."

"There isss something here. Something that knowsss about all the Mortalsss from Yartar coming over. I do not know who this being iss, but I sspoken with it at length. I have gained five honest answers from it."

"I asked it these things, and it gave me these anssswerss."

"Do you know what is caussing mortalss to come here? It told me, Yes."

"Is it the Vessel of Chaosss? Again, Yes. But this time It added that it wished to possesssss the Bowl."

"Why do you want the bowl? It isss His..."

"Will you help my friends and I confront those who wield it?"

"Yesssssss..." she draws this last word out for some time, enunciating its gravity.

Feng smiles, and opens her hands to show not chalk, but several gleaming jewels glowing with an internal light.

There are four. One is a shining blue, like a bright light gleaming through clear, thick ice. The next is a large ruby, twinkling like candle light. Then there is a white gem, a diamond perhaps, that has a streaking light racing around inside of it, the angle of its illumination changing rapidly. The last is dull, grey, and solid.

"Each is a small gift. Once used, you will imbued with an enchantment for a limited time. Ussse them wisely. The giver of these magic stoness didn't know who best to give to each, but I know. I shall pick."

Feng picks up the blue gem and hands it over to Ozz. It's cold to the touch. "Ozz, you have been chased for most of your life. Your heart exists as ice, frozen by those who made your life so cruel. You let us warm your chilly heart, but I know its root inside of you is deeper than any of us can truly thaw. Take the gift of Ice."

"If there is a a fire in our group, than it isss Trissae.
Her heart is warmer than any I've ever known before,
yet she has a passion that can burn hotter than the sun if she were only to let it out. Sissster, I believe you know of what I sssspeak,
even if you feel that this fire is something to recoil from.
You know it isss within you, and you mussst learn how to use it.
Take the gift of Flame." She hands Trissae the ruby, it is warm to the touch.

"Grimgar, you have been changed by the walls of this city into stone, as Trissae so astutely sssaid before. You have been hardened, ssso no one can ever hurt you. You, or thossse you care for. You have become granite for usss, and I know you have made many difficult choices. Be granite for us ssstill. Take the gift of Stone." She hands him the dull rock.

She then cocks her head, still not looking at anyone directly but clearly responding to Adrien's position. She holds out the strange diamond. "Had I thought about thiss before, I may have called you a hawk. A rider of fickle windsss who has made this place where he happensss to hunt. Never keen to ssstay anywhere, your home with usss is new, and maybe not permanent. I hope you will ssstay with usss, but I do not fault you for flying elsewhere. However, if you do leave, I know it not to be to ssseak new prey. You are a petal, Adrien, blown along by fate. Or if you mussst be a bird, you are one with bright feathers, the kind that sings to other pretty birds. In either case, you more than anyone understands what it is like to be blown along on the winds, on a tempest of life.Take the gift of Wind."

As each of you take ahold of the gem, you understand its abilities and how it functions.

Read the descriptions of the spells. It's an action to activate, but you are not the one concentrating on the spell. That portion is being taken care of by Something Else."

Feng looks around a moment, dazed, before speaking.

"I'm having a hard time concentrating on our home plane... But I believe you can ssstill hear me. I have two more giftsss... Grellik. Come here... I mussst whissper into your ear."

Finally, I can ussse some of his powers to bolssster my own. Go, while the sssspell lasts. I mussst concentrate to maintain it!

Feng gestures and makes an arcane utterance, and all five of you turn invisible. "I think we may be able to use these giftsss how we wish, even if we do not ssseak the bowl. Consider that. The Bogsharks may make an enemy, but the Vessel could get usss killed."

You each have a single use spell you have access to, assuming you all take your gifts from Feng. In addition to those, you are now invisible by her means. This may not be the best plan, but clearly Trissae had convinced Feng it was. Use her resources how you will.

Finally, I'd like to institute one other gift here, from the GM to the players via a bard to her party.
If anyone finds themselves in a situation similar enough to how Trissae described the plan unfolding that you can convince me it is valid, you may spend Trissae's Bardic Inspiration Dice (with her permission) while in that situation.

Let's resolve this scene. Please respond how you will, but give me clear direction on how you guys approach the citadel. I'll do a quick summary of how things go before I push you guys forward a bit.

"So be it." Grimgar says, pocketing the stone and standing... Invisibly.

"It's a raid, we're using raid rules. Grellik, you can order everyone but me. It'll be easier that way. I'll use my own best judgement. Consider this raid ran by both of us, you with three under you, me with none.
You three, take his f&$@ing orders like all of our lives depend on it. You won't take them from me, right? Well he's your raid leader, so f~~!ing follow every order he gives!
Besides that, you know the rules. Be strong. Be smart! And don't forget to Smile."

You can hear his voice muffle as he places on his grinning Bogshark Mask.

Please redescribe your masks as you put them on. Also, does anyone remember what Grimgar's was? I can't find it! Otherwise, I'm cool with ideas of what his might look like.