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Dramatis Personae
Player Characters
- Taiyo – a forest nymph bard, who was implored by the voice of the forest to seek a replacement sun and save the world, and thus joined this mission
- Wilkins – former raven familiar to a now-dead master; an illusionist and informant to Princess Claire
- "The Druid" – A female human druid with no name
- Lieutenant Paragon Douglas – a human fighter, officer in the royal navy, and professional investigator
Non-Player Characters
- Lady Gavit Vesnool – A female zorakith, a powerful telepath and psion of the ruling "Mesmer" class. Middle aged with a slender build. She has long brown hair in intricate braids and wears light colored elegant gowns
- Brila Keiz – Female zorakith. A small-framed woman of early maturity and pale yellow fur. Wears unflattering, utilitarian clothing. An important breeder of dragons, who thinks Casarbon could stand to flex their military might some more.
- Solgen – Male zorakith. A portly, middle-aged zorakith of dark red fur. Proprietor of a public bathhouse frequented by guards and soldiers: apolitical
- Lord Berdek Nostrod – Male zorakith and Mesmer. Middle aged, large and somewhat overweight. Dark hair pulled back into a topknot. Always smoking a pipe, to which he is addicted. Not above sending armed thugs to intimidate or rough-up his enemies. Has a spindlefolk woman as a consort, which is considered scandalous.
Summary
The players set out from the Vasana Range to the land of Casarbon to search for a skilled telepath who can help them commune with the Sols. En-route, they found a hospital ship where the crew had all mysteriously died somehow. The hospital ship was crewed by a race of people they had never seen before, which were tall, pale, and had four eyes. They had apparently died from asphyxiation on noxious fumes which enveloped the ship.
They towed the ship to Casarbon. They found that Casarbon took the shape of an enormous tree with leafy crowns on either end of its miles-long trunk. The zorakith, the race of telepathic, anthropomorphic fox people, used mind-controlled monsters for everyday labor. In particular, there was a flock of mind-controlled dragons harnessed to the tree to pull it around.
Upon their arrival, they were immediately taken to an audience with the Mesmers, the council of the strongest telepaths who rule zorakith society.
The Mesmers agreed to give them a team of expert telepaths to help on their quest if they gave them the ship, and discovered who stole a clutch of special dragon eggs from the rookery, which would avoid a scandal. They went to the dragon rookery and met Brila Keiz, the lead dragon-breeder. She seemed evasive, and clearly knew more than she let on.
The Druid shifted into a bloodhound, and thus discovered a distinctive scent trail that led from the incubator to the back door, but there were no signs of forced entry.
The players followed the scent trail as far as they could go. It led them from the rookery to an alleyway to a bathhouse. The found footprints indicating it was a group of 3-5 zorakith who committed the theft.
At the bathhouse, Lieutenant Paragon Douglas interrogated the proprietor, a zorakith man named Solgen. Solgen suggested that the scent they found was “trail mask,” a chemical used by criminals to disguise their scent so they can’t be positively identified. He mentioned that the guards and soldiers of many noble houses used his bathhouse, and he didn’t keep too close of an eye on their comings and goings.
While they were there, they realized a nondescript male zorakith was eavesdropping on them, but he gave them the slip before they could confront him. They went back to the alleyway where the path turned to the bathhouse where they were ambushed. Six zorakith thugs in plainclothes, one of them riding a giant flying jellyfish (or “jellybird”), confronted them and said that they didn’t appreciate foreigners snooping around in their business, whereupon they attacked.
The players killed three of the thugs and the remaining three were sufficiently cowed that they surrendered. They said they worked for the Mesmer Lord Berdek Nostrod, and they didn’t know why he wanted them dead. They took the surrendering thugs as “interns,” and Taiyo (who had just taken the ranger animal companion move as a multiclass move), took the jellybird as her animal companion, naming him “Shroom.”
Thus, the party set about finding a way into Lord Berdek’s estate.
TL;DR
The players reached Casarbon, and the telepathic rulers of the zorakith people, the Mesmers, told them they would give a team of skilled telepaths if they agreed to find out who stole a clutch of dragon eggs.
The players were eventually jumped by a gang of thugs working for the Mesmer Lord Berdek Nostrod, and after defeating them, they plotted a way to break into his estate.
Concluding Thoughts
I feel like this side quest got a little bit off the rails. The random encounter I rolled up for the journey to get there took up a significant portion of time, so much so that they ended up spending three sessions in total on Casarbon. This is about the point where I begin to think of traveling from place to place, and having random encounters along the way, is more of an obligation than an asset to good game design. I may need to reflect on this point more.
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