City of Coin/High Town
Day 30
While enjoying an evening meal in the Silver Arrow Inn, the party is interrupted by a commotion outside. They look out and see a shadowy, demonic figure attacking a young nobleman. The party intervenes and defeats the demon with some timely aid from the city watch.
The noble is Marek Golrianna the son of Becca Golrianna (leader of the guild of silversmiths, council member and head of a wealthy noble family). Marek promises a reward if the party would visit the family mansion in High Town.
The city watch meanwhile were searching the area for clues and find a pentagram in a side alley. It's been drawn with expensive gold paste and there are tracks of someone wearing soft-soled (posh) shoes.
Day 31
The party arrives at the Gorianna estate but are not welcomes and are directed to the servant's entrance. After some persuasion they eventually are lead to a reception room to wait for Marek. He hands over a reward but also offers a job to investigate the assassination attempt suggesting that the Charlsons are responsible. This need to be cleared with his mother but she refuses -- the party overhearing a heated argument. Marek decides to hire the party anyway, handing over 4 tickets to the Charlson family's fancy dress ball and suggests starting the investigation there.
On the way back to the inn, a city watch runner intercepts them and asks for their aid.
A supposedly empty workshop in Silver Street where all the silver smiths work has blood coming from under the door. The party gingerly opens the door to investigate.
The room is lined with grotesque corpses of strange and unnatural animal hybrids in large glass jars on wooden workbenches. One of the jars is broken, its bloody contents leaking onto the floor. In the backroom and mound of failed experiments has foudn some semblance of life and it is attacked.
With the building made safe, the party questions the neighbours but they didn't see much only a "rich toff" leaving the building on occasion. The party head to the city hall to find the current owner. It is owned by Izotz Kattalin who purchased it two years ago using freshly minted Forsy City Bank coins, from the Charlson family.
They head to Under Town to ask Mickey if the name is familiar. He says not but does say that two years ago they had to drive off a wizard conducting experiments in the sewers. The sewers are investigated and some hybrid rat-cat skeletons are recovered but no other clues are found.
The party heads to the university to ask Esmer if she recognizes the name. She says it is familiar and linked to some scandal from 4 or 5 years ago. The university records on Kattalin have been sealed and Esmer suggests Eskame Jalo the head of the magic department would know more and makes an introduction. Jalo acknowledges that Kattalin was ejected from the university for conducting unethical experiments but insists that any further investigation is conducted by his department. Puzzled by this the party presses for more information and Jalo casts suggestion to persuade them to drop it and to stay clear of his old rooms and the university and his city home -- Morty is affected but Yenkas is not.
Morty and Yenkas argue about what to do next but make their way to Kattalin's city home. A passerby warns that the home is haunted and Yenkas persuades Morty to intervene. A ooze is trapped in the basement, banging on the door. Once the ooze is defeated the cellar is found to contain more hybrid experiments and glass jars and a mostly empty jar of gold paste, and a letter, signed by "EJ", commending Kattalin for his successful experiments but emphasising the need for discretion.
An alchemist identifies the gold paste as tallow and gold dust and says a few days could determine the type of tallow used.
Day 37 -- The Charlson's Ball
A carriage is hired, fancy dress is donned and the party head to the ball. Barros as a fantastical bird of prey witha peaked mask and red-yellow feathers. Mortlac as a badger with a snouted mask with teeth. Gwin in subdued garb with a hawk mask.
They arrive "fasionably late" as the majority of the guests are also arriving. The party circulates around the party for a while before spotting Wendal Charlson discussing economics with a small group. The attempts to join the conversion are not particular successful but they do learn the Wendal is upset by the idea of competion.
An out of place person in travel clothes is spotted. He's directed to a side room and Barros negotiates with the guard to gain entrance (while Gwin sneaks in behind the guard's back). The mystery person is waiting for Valerie Charlson, the oldest daughter of Wendal but is pursaded to hand over an envelope recovered from a "job" at the Golrianna's. Barros conceals the envelope down his shirt and he and Mortlac return to the party.
Gwin sneaks through the servants corridors and along the way she notices Marek kissing a young woman later identified as Sandra Charlson. Barros opens the envelope in the bathroom and it's a business plan by the Golrianna's for a new bank targetting small businesses and working class people. It's full of detailed figures which Barros can't understand.
The party continuous with a dinner of fancy foods and shallow conversation and then dancing. Gwin is approached by a young nobleman for a dance but she doesn't impress.
As the guests depart the party decides they have enough information and leave as well.
Day 38
The party head to the Gorianna mansion where they meet Marek and his mother Becca Golrianna. She is outraged at the theft of the business plan and attempts to hire the party to protect her economic interests. The party aren't keen but do eventually agree to find any direct evidence that the Charlsons are behind the assassination attempt on Marek. A fee of 3000 gp per person is agreed.
The party retire to their inn to formulate a plan to sneak into Charlson Manor and gather evidence. Barros and Yenkas will disguise themselves and deliver Monty's wolf (with Monty concealed inside the crate). Yenkas forges a delivery note.
Day 39
The plan works! A member of the household wizard leads Barros and Yenkas into a room in the cellars where they are instructed to leave the crate. The wizard is subdued and Monty and his wolf are released from the crate. The guard is tied up and left in the crate.
The party venture further into a cellers and encounter a sturdy locked door, trapped with a shocking door handle that is easily bypassed. Inside is a macabre laboratory with hybrid animals in large glass jars and benches littered with magical paraphenalia. One end of the room is sealled off behind a large glass window. A hideous creature, half dire boar with a scorpian tail slams violently against the glass, cracking it. Fused to the boar's back is a human upper body, the left arm dead and putrifying. The party have a few moments to prepare before the boar-scorpian hybrid crashes through the glass, the human casting spells with the boar lashes out with sharp fangs, the tail stabs downwards with it poisonous sting.
The beast is slain but the battle draws attention -- Izotz Kattalin! The party waste no time and although they are wounded from the boar-scorpian battle they attack! Izotz, however, commands powerful magicks and the room is quickly filled with the acrid fog of the cloudkill spell. The party is overcome.
Day 40
The party regain conciousness in a dark and damp dungeon, somewhere under the Charlson Manor. Izotz visits and give an ultimatum, join forces or die. The party decline and resolve to break out. The lock is picked and the guard, investigating a disturbance is overpowered. With stolen weapons and no other gear the party sneak out, quickly taking out the few guards they encounter. They dash past the guards at the back gate and are briefly pursued before evading.
With no weapons or other gear, they visit Mickey for some loaner gear before reporting to the Golriannons, bringing the evidence they recovered from the laboratory. [ I think -- my notes are missing here. ]
The Golriannas take charge and inform the University who are forced to take action, raiding the Charlson Manor and arresting the head of the house and recovering all the party's equipment. Izotz has fled and is still at large.
Day 46
After visting the univerity give another report on the recent events the party is just approaching their coach when Gwin spots someone suspicous in the crowd. The man turns and runs and the party pursues, chasing the man through the back gardens of this post part of town. He is eventually cornered and captured. The fight draws the watch and they insist on taking the prisoner to the watchhouse for questioning. The party accompanies them.
An explosion is heard which draws the attention of most of the watch and only two officers are left to escort the prisoner. Along the way, the cart is ambushed by sniper archers and the prisoner is killed.
The party returns to the univerity entrance where their coach is a smoking ruin. Examination of the wreckage yields a few clues that the explosion was magical in origin. A suspicious figure in the crown is spotted, followed and easily detained. The nervous young man, pleads for his life and swears he was only instructed by Valarie Charlson to report on what happened.
Keen to gather more information, Barros disguises himself as the hapless underling and gives to report to Valarie. There he learns that it was she who planned the explosion and ambush that went wrong, but she is also suspecious and sends Barros away on an errand with two of her guards. Barros is lead into an alleyway where he overhears swords being drawn and only just manages to get way form the execution.
Day 50
After a few days pursuing fruitless leads, a note arrives from an associate of Mickey saying they have useful information on the Charlsons and to meet at a dockside tavern.
On the way, a loud crash is heard on one of the docks. A crate carrying a basilisk had fallen and split open, releasing the creature. After it turned a dock worker, Gwin and Barros to stone it was slain (the blood restoring the petrified). The owner, the city council member _Lord Zoltan Arbury_, is displeased as the beast was supposed to be the centrepiece of the upcoming _Royal Hunt_ (which starts in a week). Morty pursuades Zoltan that they actually did him a favour as otherwise the creature would have turned half the dock to stone. Zoltan grudgingly agrees and gifts the party tickets to the Royal Hunt. The party also offers to try and find a replacement creature.
Continuing to the tavern the party meet with the contact who reveals that the Charlsons' are moving people and supplies into the woods where the Royal Hunt is to be held. It seems they are plotting something and the party would be advised to gain access to the Hunt.
When the party returns to the inn the meet Mareck and Sandra who have returned incognito to visit friends. They are greatful for the party's aid in allowing them to be together and offer what aid they can. On learning the party are monster hunting, Marek suggest they try the jungles south of Koubla and recommends a river boat captain who could get them over the border with less hassle.
