Malta Session 11: 10/25/2017 The 21st Survivor, Relocating the Bonded Mind, and An Idol to Tefnut

The Bonded Mind

Our session begins with the gladiator Lete stopping by the bard college and Melissa Mithna to check on the status of his new armor to be engraved, only to find out she has not been seen since the opera the night before. Her mother in fact asks the gladiator to have Melissa contact her as soon as possible. The meeting was short but when Lete leaves, he does so with the feeling of being watched.

Jabari meanwhile moves the Bonded Mind within sight of the Paola docks to hopefully identify their friend Lete when he finally comes looking for the ship. This merits onlookers to note the ‘new’ ship coming into Paola.

Meanwhile Lex postulates a plan to the characters: author two messages, one to Wassier and the other to the Church of Tiamat (to be delivered by Lex himself disguised as a messenger). The goal is to put our greatest two annoyances at odds; the message to Wassier would convey our displeasure with our dealing for the GemCutter revealing our knowledge of CSA and the Grey Warriors; Wassier possibly being responsible for these teams coming after us on the Bonded Mind. And a message to the church of Tiamat exposing Wassier to the heist of the GemCutter to hopefully put our enemies against us.

Back in the city as Lete walks to the docks the gladiator earns 6 silver by helping with minor tasks taking his time along the brisk streets of Paola’s docks, but when Lete eventually arrives he notices the Bonded Mind is gone from its berth.

It was Jabari and Carlo who first spotted Lete on the docks outside the city; however the gladiator could not see the ship in the glare of the morning sun. With few options Lete returns to the area of the docks where the Bonded Mind was originally docked to look for the ship there.

Meanwhile on the Bonded Mind, Lex is penning his two letters while Jabari gathers a few key magic scrolls, preparing the row boat to get to the docks rather than docking the ship. Marco and Evagara decide to stay with the ship; Carlo, Jabari (now wearing different outfit), and Lex (in disguise as the 21^st Survivor) row to Paola.

As they arrive the characters realize there is an air of benevolence as word of our heroics (saving 20 sailors) has quickly spread. The characters arrive just as Lete was about to give up and head to Garamaldi’s; it is here our characters reunite and exchange information while Lex set in motion his plan.

First, Lex passes off the message to Wassier to another messenger paying double (1 gp.) to have it delivered. Then Lex looks into ways to get a message to merchant prince named Ffahra Ffahra and the Church of Tiamat.

While Lete and Carlo say at the courtyard Lex walks the path to the Church of Tiamat. The path to the church is lined with lifelike stone carvings leading up to a magnificent dragon statue. The church building itself is very similar to the other 6 churches however Lex is quick to note this church has the least amount of activity. Gargoyles are seen perched around the uneasy scene.

The rest of us wait outside the grounds at ease believing Lex was going to the Egyptian Church. Inside the church of Tiamat Lex happens across a man and a woman in coitus; Lex recognizes the woman as Melissa Mithna before she flees the scene, embarrassed; but then at last Kasok, the man after pulling up his trousers approaches Lex and offers to take the offered message to Ffahra Ffahra.

Tiamat Don't Got Time Fo Dat. 

Messenger Lex waits for a response and patiently, casually looks around. At first glance Lex notices this is the most nonreligious ‘temple’ Lex has ever seen; dragon iconography is prevalent but many typical ceremonial items of a true church are absent, although there are areas that are being reinforced to accommodate heavy loads. Eventually Kasok comes back with no response but is paid 1 gp for a job well done.

When Lex goes to leave about a minute later he passes a group of stonemasons and laborers that note Lex’s passage as odd coming from the church of Tiamat.

We meet back up at the row boat and make arrangements to move the Bonded Mind to a new dock later that night; meanwhile we check up on our old berth outside the city. Walking separately our characters will see an individual publicly watching the comings and goings between the two dock areas. Once there Carlo and Jabari see two grey warriors keenly looking out toward the water; Lete notices a very well hidden individual wearing a black headdress watching our old berth (possibly a tengu). Lete immediately alerts the other characters who turn around and head back to the city. Lex continues with his messenger disguise looking for a message to retrieve on a nearby ship so he doesn’t attract suspicion. Meanwhile Lete maintains guarded stance and is the last to exit this area of the docks.

A short time later our characters find themselves back on the Bonded Mind it is around 9 am day 11 to get some rest setting a usual watch until 6 in the evening as the sun begins to wane. We successfully dock the Bonded Mind and refocus our attention on the chests that are still locked in the hold.

After our period of rest Lex brings up his contact Paulie and leaves the Bonded Mind to check in with a contact in the city guard ‘Charlie’ to find Lex’s associate. Lex eventually finds Charlie at a guard shack, he informs Lex that many people from the docks have been talking of a pirate who has brought in a war galleon. No one knows the pirate’s intentions but word from Gozo indicates that the ship was spotted NW of the island. Our characters may have actually seen this war galleon and saved some if its victims. Charlie tells Lex that Paulie can be found at the Golden Horn tavern, a tavern owned by Charlie’s very own uncle. The Golden Horn, a neighborhood establishment, is named for Charlie’s uncle who is an Italian horn player.

Outside the Golden Horn is a statue of a bronze boot appearing of being partially filled with coin; inside is a stage flanked with two real boots for tipping performers. The two story structure proved inviting and relaxed. We are soon accosted by a bartender who insists a round of ‘founders shots’ is necessary for the new guests. Jabari moves to tip the bartender and is directed to the boots to facilitate that and notices the boots bear a number of Roman religious symbols. Jabari receives a blessing after saying a brief word of reverence to Neptune.

Meanwhile Marco will exercise his performance skill telling a story of five simple lads and the two ogres retelling our characters encounter with the tobacco hill ogres. Suddenly an individual sits at the party’s table, an individual appearing quite like Aulus, who greets us in Italian he introduces himself as Farlie and states Paulie will return in short time and that Paulie speaks highly of Lex. Lex asks him directly if he was at the Church of Mercury two days ago impersonating Aulus. A response came to Lex as a lie. Lex explains how he believes he is being set up; to which Farlie responds he is sometimes mistaken for Aulus.

Carlo recognizes some sailors and some familiar faces in the establishment as well as priest- Cian of the Norse the minister of Frey. Eventually Paulie, looking a bit haggard, arrives and sits at the group’s table and asks, “If you steal something that was already stolen, is that stealing?” Lex answers “depends on who’s asking.”

Paulie begins by saying several months ago there were two ships in dock were constantly at odds. They were moved several times and both claimed to contain the same thing: a unique and valuable statue. The point is that one of the groups walked the plank and Paulie was looking for their hidden treasure but was too late the other group got there first and now the treasure is well guarded in a house close to here. He knows several members of this group left this safe house and headed to the docks, Paulie believes we must move quickly to hit the house and steal the stolen goods while their numbers are low. Lex mentions the locked chests to which Paulie responds that once this heist is completed Lex should have enough to pay Wally to deal with them.

Pauie leads our characters through Paola to a property as big as a city block where twenty individuals normally guard, however their numbers seem diminished to half that. It’s about 8:30 in the evening; Lex hands out simple blacks masks for our characters. As we approach we see a woman depart on a carriage leaving the door to the house ajar. We cautiously approach and when Lex opens the door we encounter an old Italian man who is very surprised to see us- he was not alone, in the house are crates ready to be moved as well as a group of well-equipped individuals.

We eventually prevail as some of them surrender after felling a few of them. We assure healing is applied to the injured and subdue the remaining hostiles all Carthaginians. The women we witnessed leaving where Agatha and Sarista arranging the delivery to the ship the Lisbon, they are the wife and daughter of Zabbar the pirate king.

Tefnut

Paulie moves and opens a crate containing an Egyptian golden idol of Tefnut of one of the Egyptian pantheon. (Tefnut is a goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut)

To our characters this indicates a set of idols representing each major Egyptian deity. The other crates, some contain jewelers boxes with uncut gems much of it is plunder from different ships gold, gems or magic up to 2.000 each (handy haversacks) plus a random roll (ring of spell knowledge II (Marco); ring of climb/athletics (Lete); +2 weapon (Carlo); +1 weapon (Lex); 3^rd level wand CL5 fully charged (Jabari)) as well as a potion of CLW and CMW each including Paulie and Evagara. Lete found a haversack that wasn’t empty: a map detailing a route seaport in Egypt and Korinthos in Greece including a stop in Malta including tide and navigational notes as well as another map has scrawled at the top ‘Tac-Cawl’ and looks like a pirates treasure map.

Paulie asks if Lex wants to invest into a safe house and proposes a location on the College Grounds. Lex agrees. Then our characters ask Paulie about Wally and learn Wally has a place in the Bards College. Our characters ask what would another Egyptian statue be worth? Paulie places the value is compared to the cost of a ship. As to finding Wally- he’s originally Zebbug and is popular in the city and shouldn’t be hard to find. In Zebbug our characters will want to deal with IL-Kataniz directly, he will help fence arms and armor. Then Lex shows Paulie the wolf’s head ring; Paulie’s reaction was plain to see. Paulie’s understanding is there’s some necromancer slave masters who control the spirits of slaves (the soulless) and the (sprit animal) ring is tied to that end.

In three days we arrange to meet Paulie at the Golden Horn to move another golden Egyptian statue, indicating to Paulie we are entertaining offers to improve our situation. We return to the Bonded Mind (Jabari identifies the last remaining magical amulet (made of a dragon scale) as an amulet of natural armor +1.