First good squad session of the new year! And, really, the first session of the good squad working together since the party split! Let’s talk about what happened.

What’s SBotLL Again?

That’s the campaign I play in! You can read more about it here. The good squad is Allora, the tiefling ranger, Nala, the dragonborn rogue, and my character, Finnith, the elf bard! We’re 10th level right now.

Recap

Last session, everyone returned to being in the same place again! We’d been split up for quite a long time, so we told each other about our individual adventures after the remaining details of everyone’s journeys were resolved.

Now, the question: what will we do next?

During this session…

A new mission

The next day, the party was asked to retrieve some important Moon’s Eye* documents left behind in Alame’a, the elven capital currently occupied by the Coven of Eternal Light**. These documents were left in a cache hidden within the tunnels/sewer system underneath the city. We were also asked to, if possible, observe the outside of the main government building and get as much information as we can.

So, we had to make a plan! We decided to bring along a friend, an NPC tiefling monk named Verge. We planned for Allora to use her navigational skills to handle moving through the tunnels, to find the documents, and return to a building we figured would be safe—a small bookstore. The owner of the bookstore was the leader of the Moon’s Eye who gave us the mission in the first place, so it seemed like a logical place. Verge would then stay there and hold onto the documents as we scoped out the government building.

It’s very important that the party is as stealthy as possible. The Coven of Eternal Light is especially harmful towards tieflings and, at this point, any non-elves. On top of that, Finnith is wanted as a “dark sorcerer” and enemy of the Coven, so we’ve all got targets on us.

If anything went wrong and we were separated, we had an hour to return to Mehmen’s book shop, and then whoever made it would return with the documents.

This seemed like a good plan! We gave ourselves the rest of the day to prepare for the two-day journey to Alame’a and for the mission itself.

A strange series of events

After embarrassing himself in front of the whole group, Finnith used dimension door to immediately leave the scene. Nala happens to ask Verge about possible places to buy better equipment, or maybe even some healing items.

And thus, Verge leads the two outside the manor, into the woods, and suddenly they find themselves in a different place altogether—an otherworldly glade with a small, quaint house in the middle of it. An old human woman named Esmerelda greets them and leads them inside after Verge introduces Allora and Nala.

The house is, uh, bigger on the inside? There’s a foyer inside, with a huge tree growing up from the middle, its branches reaching out into various rooms. They buy some healing potions in a disorganized stockroom. Nala gets her rapier sharpened in a room with lava in it. They both purchase some sweets from a bakery. And that’s all in that house, apparently? Who knows. Anyways, Esmerelda has the manner of a kind old grandmother, and she tells the two that any time they want to return, all they have to do is have Verge lead them back here.

So, uh, that’s that?

Mission: start!

We quickly skip over the travel sequence and begin our mission at night. Using a secret outside entrance, the party infiltrates the city’s tunnels and start making their way towards the destination. There are speak with animals-powered negotiations with rat swarms. The party fights some guards under the cover of silence. Finnith explains what a dab is to Allora. We find some secret doors!

The party successfully navigates their way to a secret room that contains the lockbox with the documents within. Verge holds onto the box, and everyone proceeds to the tunnel underneath the safe house, the bookstore.

Everyone emerges into the back of the store, only to be greeted by one Antonio Aloro, a Coven member who Finnith has run up against several times.

Aaaaand we end on a cliffhanger! We’ll have to see what happens in February.

This was a fun session! We finally get to work together, use our strengths to help the party, and discover new things together. Should I have remembered Finnith’s disguise kit and armor? Probably, but it was pretty funny when we all realized I (and Finnith) had forgotten.

Our dynamic is always changing, and I think that’s really interesting! Different characters take the lead depending on the situation. Here, Allora’s outlander background and ranger abilities helped her lead us through the tunnels. We couldn’t bring a map with us, but she effectively memorized the layout of the city and the tunnels beneath. Nala had a bit of a difficult time with her lack of darkvision, but the guards were carrying torches, so she could see during combat. When we were in the hidden room, Finnith could cast dancing lights to help, so she was able to pick the lock on the lockbox to confirm that we’d found the right documents. Everyone’s gotten a lot stronger, so fighting those two guards went without much damage taken on our side!

I’m excited to see what happens when we pick back up next time!

*The Moon’s Eye: a secretive organization looking to oppose the Coven of Eternal Light. Finnith and Verge helped them secure a base of operations in a seaside manor house. The party is helping them investigate the Coven’s activities around Alame’a, the elven capital.

**The Coven of Eternal Light: an organization of sun elves that the party has run up against previously. They believe that tieflings are emblems of darkness and are, therefore, dangerous. With their connections to the elven government, they’ve centralized much of their forces in Alame’a.