DM Elanmorin's Hell' Rebels

Game Master Nathan Hartshorn

Two more guards and what appears to be a sergeant come rushing out of the building, furiously brushing insert insect of particular disgust here off their bodies. The sergeant's face is turning very peculiar shades of red and purple, his thin mustache twitching with every facial tick. "I want to know who's attacking this station, right now! Get on it!"

The guards nod along and begin spreading out to search, leaving their barracks to its fate. Apparently catching you is more important than saving the barracks.

Two of the guards spot Oren and Valrani and move to intercept while the sergeant goes to confront the cloaked Kruglunn.

Let me know if I see any of this, if I can from my position, then I will react. Otherwise, I'm more worried about containing the fire to just the barracks.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27

Valrani continues down the street, not making any obvious moves to try and avoid the guards until a convenient side street or alleyway presents itself...

Oren has 40’ movement, so when it becomes apparent that her cover was blown, she tries to outpace the guards.

From your position, no you can't see these things going on.

The guards begin maneuvering to stop Oren and Valrani, shouting now, "Stop in the name of Thrune!"

In another alleyway the sergeant approaches Kurglunn, screaming, "You there! What are you doing hiding cloaked in an alleyway?! Come out into the light where I can see you!"

Back at the barracks the blaze has fully begun consuming the building. One last soldier stumbles out of the soon to be inferno, half dressed and coughing violently.

As Oren hurries away, Valrani nips into an alleyway and transforms... into a raven.

If the building looks well and truly lit up, Lirotha will dismiss the small fire elemental.

She will then verify she has not been spotted, stalked, or being sneaked up on...

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25

She will then pull out her 'Silver Raven' Figurine of Wondrous Power from her sash.

Rocco steps out from behind a trash bin and raises his arms as the invisibility drops from around him. "We were just waiting for you, handsome!" With a downward stroke, the image of Kurglunn growing into a massive undead monstrosity appears before the guard.

Cast Scare (Will DC17) - If the guard is 5 HD or less, he is panicked for 5 rounds. On a successful save, he is shaken for 1 round.

Elurius watches as the many guards come flailing out of the building. Seeing one final guard exit, she takes a moment to check noone else is watching before slipping behind a corner and disappearing. She keeps her half orc guise under the invisibility and moves up behind half-dressed-and-half-cocked, giving a loud and as low and rumbly as possible, ♫"Boo!"♫ She then starts to cast a spell, her invisibility dropping showing a hulking half-orc who commands, with a magic force behind their words, ♫"Now Run!"♫ She then contemplates turning invisible depending on how far the man might get or how he reacts.

Casting Command (will save DC 17 or flee for one round)

Sergeant: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
Grunt: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

The sergeant lets out a horrified scream and flees at top speed. In another alley a guard also bursts from it at top speed, though this one is not screaming in terror. All in all, I'd say this has been pretty successful.

Activating the 'Silver Raven' figurine, she will send it to buzz the main entrance a few times as both a symbol and a message. She will then have it return to her.

So that's two of four guards right? The other two chasing Oren and Val right? Oren just walks away safely and Val turning into a bird and flying away? Sounds good. Sadly there's not much Elurius can do to help with the 'this is the work of the Silver Ravens here... though I guess her letter was more than enough.

With the barracks ablaze and the other buildings nearby safe with a bucket brigade on standby your group manages to extricate themselves without issue.

Rumors float back to your base about the ceremony. A large band, Thrune himself, and only a slightly inflated number of guards. On a stage set up in front of the balcony were 5 velvet lined boxes, proudly displaying belts and headbands, wrought in silver and chased with raven iconography. It is said that Barzillai wasn't quite looking himself, pale and withdrawn, lesser even, long before the appointed hour of your arrival. The messenger managed to bring some color back to his face, though the pale splotches and red anger made a strange polka dotted mess. He announced that anyone bearing a silver raven could retrieve his gifts from the church of Asmodeus who would be safe-keeping it.

Bokar goes over what you explained to him from below the Lucky Bones now that he's had time to research it. "Seems you lot managed to find a pumping system down there. In all likelihood it'll drain the water from the underground channels and allow you to set up shop. To activate it all you have to do is..." His descriptions, like his personality, are terse, blunt, but efficient. You feel you'll be able to activate the pump on your own now with those directions.

Rocco wonders aloud to the other Ravens after hearing about the ceremony, "Those belts and headbands...what do you all think? Could they be artifacts from the original Ravens? Or do you suppose they're just some junk that Thrune or his lackey's put curses on to kill us? I gotta say, I'm almost curious enough to try our luck at the church to see if they're worth recovering."

Lirotha shakes her head sadly, and frowns angrily.

"Its a misguided attempt to pacify us at best, a deadly trap at worst. Anything Thrune wants is bad. Keep that in mind: Ignore it all. We move on. Real work!"

The next day comes and once more your group dives below the Lucky Bones, this time with the knowledge to repair the pump. The apparatus truly is ingenious, managing to pump all of the water out of the main areas except for the well near the prison cells and the small docks leading out to the river, in about an hour.

The sea elves spend the day preparing to return home, but swear to join your cause when they return in about a week's time.

Looks like you guys didn't get these as the story was going along:
Torrent Armigers: Once at least three armigers of the Order of the Torrent are rescued, they join the Silver Ravens as a bonus team. They function as a group of infiltrators, and thus grant the Reduce Danger and Rescue Character rebellion actions. When used to take a Rescue Character action, the armigers can rescue up to four characters at once from a single location. A failed Rescue Character attempt by the armigers does not increase the Silver Ravens’ Notoriety score.
Acisazi Scouts: The elves seek to return to their home to the west, but 1 week after being rescued, they return and pledge their loyalty to the Silver Ravens. When the scouts join as a bonus team, they function as a group of spies. Their ability to remain hidden and observe from the water, a place humans often forget to watch for spies, grants the rebellion a +1 bonus on Secrecy checks for as long as the scouts remain a part of the Silver Ravens.
Captain Cassius Sargaeta: In addition to promising a number of favors to your team, the captain uses his crew to watch and observe patrol patterns. As a result, as long as Cassius remains an ally, the rebellion is immune to the effects of the “Increased Patrols” event—if this event is rolled, treat it as no event and instead grant the rebellion +3d6 supporters.
Lictor Octavio Sabinus: The Hellknight’s advice to the Silver Ravens grants a +4 bonus on all Security checks to take the Rescue Character rebellion action. In addition, as long as Octavio remains an ally of the Silver Ravens, his presence and leadership bolster the rebellion’s morale—the rebellion is immune to the Low Morale event as long as the lictor remains allied with them.
Hetamon Haace: Hetamon leads an entire cult of Milanite worshipers that he can bring to bear—he and the cult are treated as a single ally. As long as Hetamon remains an ally, the rebellion’s Notoriety score automatically decreases by 1d6 points at the start of every Upkeep phase. Furthermore, as long as Hetamon remains an ally, the Silver Ravens are immune to the Sickness rebellion event. Finally, once per month, Hetamon can work with Silver Ravens members to generate a cache of healing supplies. The Silver Ravens must have a team capable of taking the Secure Cache action to take advantage of this benefit, and can do so only once per month, but this monthly cache is provided free of charge. The contents of each cache depend on whether the Silver Ravens choose a minor, intermediate, or major cache, as detailed below; the placement of the cache itself is left for the PCs to choose.
The number in parenthesis after the cache type is the total number of times Hetamon can supply these caches during this adventure before the cult’s resources run out; he’ll have more resources with which to supply the Silver Ravens during the next adventure.

A few questions, do these new teams count against the maximum number of teams we can have? I know some of the teams from book one didn't count against it, but I can't remember which ones. If I'm misremembering and all of them count against the numbers then we need to look at possibly replacing a team or two.

Next who wants to lead the new teams? Elurius would be willing to lead the elves if that is okay with everyone, but the Hellknights need a leader too!

Thanks Elurious.

According to the book none of the teams or allies count against team maximums the rebellion would normally have.

I say you do a random roll to decide the third action, Elu. I don’t know enough about this part of the book to advise, so I’d take your three suggestions, roll a d3 and let things happen as they may!

Okay leave it to the dice!
Options, 1=Upgrade helknights, 2=Upgrade Street performers, 3=Spread disinformation, 4=Reduce danger: 1d4 ⇒ 1
So that's upgrading the Hellknights but I lrealized that would take 1000gp and thus most of the money in the rebellion treasury. We would ahve enough money for the minimum treasury amount and could add in more next week, but it means we have to spend communal money so I thought would check. We also have a choice for them, either the cabalists which allows us to garuntee events and then pick one to resolve, which is powerful, OR we could get spellcasters, who allow us to spend the gold for the price scrolls of restoration spells and restore characters without needing a scroll or a caster, useful if the person needing healing is Elurius but otherwise, personally, questionable usefulness.

If we upgrade the Hellknights, I think the Cabalists would be best. If we don't...then spreading disinformation is always my favorite idea. I would rather not spend the money in the end yet. If we get too low, we start losing supporters quickly.

We'd end up at 266 gp of the 60 gp minimum, so it should be okay, but I'd want to then pump further gold into it to build things back up.

We can always put some of our own cash into the rebellion if we need.

Actually if we were thinking about upgrading the team then we could have put money in in Phase 1 and not worried about this at all.

Is the upgraded team that much better than its basic function?

Allows us to take actions to roll twice and pick what event happens which is good. Some of those events are straight up nasty! However we could save our gold and focus on getting another team upgraded for 50 gp instead, allowing us to spread disinformation much more easily.

Avoiding some of the really bad stuff sounds like an excellent idea.

I didn't realize some of this stuff was in the player's guide. Looks like the event is Inquisition. Thrune and the church have grown tired of the rebellion, and for the following week, the rebellion loses twice as many supporters as indicated whenever supporters are lost. In addition, the bonuses and penalties applied to Kintargo’s modifiers by the city’s martial law disadvantage are doubled for the week.

Wow! That's a really appropriate event after our raid on the guardhouse and Thrune's failed little "celebration"!
I'm actually really into the idea of upgrading the Hellknights, but I understand it's a pretty steep monetary cost. Still, I think being able to bypass some of the nastier events potentially is really appealing. So my vote is to spend the money!

Elurius wakes up the next morning, a 1000 gp less, and streches. She then heads downstairs from the coffee house bedrooms into he hidden rooms below to see how the move to the new location is going. She then gathers up the rest of he leaders and sits them down with a cup of Laria's specialty.

♫"So what are we doing today? Do we want to try tackling that thingy bother Lirotha and my cousins? Try see what happened at that event? Dance to the music of our hearts? Wait on things to blow over?"♫

"Ugg. I hate trying to swim and spell-cast underwater. But we promised to help."

"And helping others is the best way to get help for ourselves." adds in Valrani.

Oren was happy to have been able to have laid low for a few days. The heat was getting really high, so waiting a bit seemed perfect for her. ”We can’t stay locked down forever. It’s time to get back to helping people. And causing a bit of mischief too, I suppose.”

"Yeah, I don't mind gathering more allies to our side," Rocco adds in. "At some point, it might be fun to give old Thrune a run for his money and see about going after those little presents he's holding for us at the Church of Asmodeus, but something a little less loud sounds good for today."

Reminder, your gifts from Thrune are still waiting in the church.

The relative lull in activity allows you to fully move your base of operations into the Lucky Bones basement. As more time passes Thrune seemingly becomes more greedy. He increases the price of the Bleakbridge tax from 5 silver to cross to 2 gold to cross, with a 10 gold day pass being offered. This has lead to a lot of discontent among the populace. Those with boats have begun smuggling people across the Yolubilis River, most charging nothing to fight back against the government.

Hetamon Haace, one week, mentions that he was approached by Lady Mialari Docur of Docur’s School for Girls. Lady Docur wants to talk to the leaders of the Silver Ravens about a possible alliance with her organization. He suggests the founding of a “Silver Council” to meet weekly as a venue for you and your allies to discuss future tactics and concerns.

Is there much known in the open about Lady Mialari or her school?Can someone do a Know(Local) check for me? Its one skill I don't have.

Know. Local 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Oren tries to recall the relevant names.

Forgive me, but I forgot. What are Thrune’s gifts at the church?

The gifts? That's what the big city thing was where he wanted us to show up. He was trying to pimp us out with some magical gee-gaws that he wanted us to wear/use. I wouldn't use anything he gave us. It probably alerts Thrune to our location and actions or some such thing. Or allows Devils to track us. Something. The church is 'holding' them for us if we want to claim them.

Aid Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Lady Docur runs a very prestigious academy for girls in Villegre. There are rumors that she has secretly been on the wrong side of the law before, but nothing you've been able to remember or confirm.

Lirotha agrees that a meeting with the lady of the school might be a favorable.

"At the minimum we should have nothing to fear with talking to a schoolmistress. Should we?"

Does anybody have any objections to see what the lady wants... specifically from us?

No objections here!

Rocco snorts at Lirotha's question, "Sure! Just like Thrune's lackeys should have nothing to fear from a tavern-keeper's son," he says, gesturing toward himself, "or from a potions shop owner (at Oren), or a performer (at Elurius), or even from a vagabond woman (at Lirotha, with a snide grin). Why, until recently, we had such dangerous personages among our number as...an itinerant lawyer!

"Point is, I wouldn't go in too carelessly. But still, more allies sounds like a good idea to me. Let's see what she might have to say!"

Oren agreed. ”More allies are good for the cause. I’ve not heard anything that makes me think she’d be looking to double cross us.”

We will set up a meet then. Maybe at the teahouse? That seems a good neutral place to meet and we can escape easily into the sewer if something goes wrong during the meet.

I know you guys are the ones to be concerned about this, but what defenses do you plan on adding to your new base? Also, what about Hetamon's suggestion to start a Silver Council?

Elurius comes downstairs, her hair having been done up and in a beautifully radiant silver bun. She pours herself a cup of coffee and looks at everyone else gathered around, discussing something. ♫"I miss something?"♫

She listens to the explanations again and then adds, ♫"WE should probably look at meeting with the woman then. Perhaps discuss what a 'Silver Council' would entail. Is it an alternative form of leadership for the city or something that controls the Silver Ravens? A group to organize and mobilize the forces of the Ravens or an information dispersal group? We would definitely have to define those before setting up the Council."♫

Laying her ancient cards on a table, Lirotha deals a simple hand to try and divine the future...

"We will definitely need some sort of clarification on a 'Silver Council's' position and what direct influence it has. I find the idea a bit odd at this point myself. We need more organization and voices to rise up against Thrune surely, but will the council be making decisions for the group, or will we still be the ones in charge?"

When asked Hetamon waffles for a bit before directly answering, "The Council would just be the leaders of the Silver Ravens and their closest allies. I imagine it would mostly be a venue to discuss current concerns and future tactics for taking down Thrune."

Ready to meet Mialari?

That fine for me.