![[BtS-9-1.png]] Bow, attempting to put the fire out, stopped, dropped, and rolled. Unfortunately for them this was of no use and as they moved for some cover they marked [[Badda]] as their target, likely because they were the only one she could see. Staff moved in from behind to start healing Bow, something none of us were a fan of. To group up with everyone and make space for [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s spell I ran across the hallway to the group, skipping some lightning to Bow and Staff as I ran. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] grabbed [[Badda]] to pull them out of the way from the impending blast as [[Arkai]] moved up to join us. [[Badda]] prepared a shot yelling "WHO ARE YOU" to the assailants. They were met with no response except for a Hyena sprinting into the room which [[Badda]] promptly shot perfectly in the head. Hammer turned the corner, raising his shield and yelling back that we were all bunched up. Axe seemed to run up to the wall along side him, preparing to rush into the room. This is when [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] finally unleashed his attack, slamming a lightning sphere into Hammer, definitely doing a number on him and seemingly catching the toes of Axe around the corner. Still worried about Hammers comment on bunching, we began to break apart with Gideon being the first to do so. The room was dark so he lit a torch while doing so, definitely helping the next bit of combat. [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] started by landing a hit into Hammer's shield with her crossbow before I skipped lightning around the corner from Hammer to Axe. Axe seemed to get hit hard by that one, Hammer not so much. This did prompt Axe to just run in after me, managing to get a single slice into me as Bow yelled "Don't run in you idiot!". Clearly this group is just as dysfunctional as ours, even more so indicated by the fact that nobody seems to have cared about the dead Hyena. [[Arkai]] moved in, slamming into the shield of Hammer while trying to press through. [[Badda]] got a shot into Axe before backing off as Hammer moved forward towards [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]]. He leaned in, intimidating her by saying "Your blood would make a nice ingredient". While this was still intimidating, it did leave us with some relief that we weren't in the wrong for just attacking these people. He did land a hit into [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] though, not too bad though. Following this was a wave of missed attacks, with [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] missing two scorching rays, Bow missing three arrows and [[Arkai]], and staff missing an acid attack as well. This ended with [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] landing a solid hit into Hammer, then [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] basically shooting off Axe's leg after telling him to "Watch \[his\] step". With this Axe fell to the ground with Hammer shouting "Riko's down!". I used the brief distraction to flip over Hammer and get a good stab into a gap in his armour before he began to back off. He got a swing into [[Arkai]] as he did so, clearly putting a toll on [[Wilborin|Wil]]. We weren't about to let them run as [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] ran forward to throw a torch into the now dark room allowing us to see. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] frightened Hammer, telling them to surrender or we would kill Riko. He didn't seem to bothered by the threat but was clearly scared of what [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] could do as a bullet went right through his shield. I moved up, landing a single hit into Hammer as [[Arkai]] moved to rush after the now running Bow and Staff. Hammer leaned into me, claiming that "Blood never surrenders" before catching my leg with a hammer swing. [[Badda]] stabilized Riko as [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] shot three scorching rays at each of the remaining enemies. While he missed Bow, both Hammer and Staff fell leaving us with only one person to catch in a dead sprint. [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]], [[Arkai]], [[Wilborin|Wil]], and I rushed out of the tunnel to try and catch up with Bow. [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] managed to catch her with a couple magic missiles and combined with the insane speed of [[Arkai]], Bow decided it would be best to just surrender. Knowing that leaving them alive is the best option we tied her up and began to walk back into the facility. I tried to have a conversation with her on the way back but she just refused to speak back to me. She did seem amused when I called the Crimson Brand "Just some sword", and didn't really seem to care that her group had been defeated. I wonder if some of them are here against their will, or perhaps they are just completely insane. As we arrived back in the facility the rest of the group had already stripped most of the goods off our assailants. Our spoils are as follows: - Bow - Bow - Arrows - Tracker's googles - Riko - Hatched - Studded Leather Armour - Hammer - Crossbow - Dagger - Warhammer - Breastplate - Signal Whistle - Crossbow Bolts - Staff - Staff - Thieves Tools - Spellbook On top off all the goods from the enemies, someone noticed that we had missed a magical item when first going through the area. On a bench off to the side there was a crafter's eyepiece which ended up in [[Badda]]'s hands for logical reasons. [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] got the trackers goggles as they are already the dedicated tracker. The spellbook ended up in [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s hands, although I am fairly sure neither of us are capable of using one. While [[Badda]] was able to stabilize Riko and Hammer, Staff unfortunately did not make it. Everyone was tied up and put into the room next to the enchanting apparatus. I began to patch myself up, planning on following up with the hostages. On top of the fact that we don't want them dead by the time we get back, we might have a better chance of getting information out of them if we are kinder. While [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] and I stayed with the hostages, the rest of the group went into the other room to get a more detailed look at the magical apparatuses used to craft the Crimson Brand. After some theory crafting they landed on the conclusion that something has gone wrong with the magic in the sword over all these years, causing it to leak into the surroundings and create the vines on the floor. While he couldn't gleam the exact purpose of the room, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] was able to identify a rune smithing apparatus built into the table. He reckoned that given a day or so he would be able to remove it, allowing us to have a portable rune forge! Due to the nature of the forge however someone would need to sit with it and constantly feed it magical power, but this is a small price to pay for the extreme utility that comes from making runes on the go. While [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] couldn't really tell how the entire system was meant to function, [[Badda]] certainly could. It appears that the [[Mithral Empire]] was using planar portals to cast the spells on different planes to pull from a deeper pool of magical energy. This energy was then shoved onto our plane and into the items, allowing them to be enchanted with significantly more power than normal. This would explain why the Crimson Brand has become so unstable, it was overcharged and possibly even unfinished at the time the [[Mithral Empire]] fell. A couple of hours into the removal of the rune forge, Hammer began to come to. Unlike Bow, Hammer was very willing to speak to us. [[Wilborin|Wil]] was taking a break from the forge removal when this happened, taking a closer look at the Crimson Brand. While wondering aloud what the instability may cause, Hammer offered to let us test on him. [[Wilborin|Wil]] was extremely against this, knowing that the potential repercussions could spell disaster for the rest of the group. [[Badda]] went up, gave [[Wilborin|Wil]] a pouty face and asked nicely if they could stab Hammer with the sword. [[Wilborin|Wil]] was steadfast in his decision but as he continued to explain his reasoning, [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] somehow managed to slip the sword out of his possession. We only noticed this as she got close to the hostages, immediately causing a standoff between her and [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]]. I considered interfering, however I honestly wasn't too concerned with the potential problems it may cause. What's the worst thing that could happen, he's transformed into a monster? ![[BtS-9-2.png]] After [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] refused to put down the sword, [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] made an attempt to shoot it out of her hands as a statement of the lengths he is willing to go. While it did not knock the sword out of her hands, [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] did give it up as a result. [[Badda]] was furious with [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] for stealing from [[Wilborin|Wil]], moving over and actively starting an argument. I don't really understand the analogies they were using however it's clear that [[Badda]] is deeply concerned with the safety of themselves and [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] and believes that [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] has continually been putting them in unnecessary danger. I assume they were referring to the thefts in [[Khanwhur - Capital|Khanwhur]], though it does seem like they have had a conversation about this before. [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] didn't really have anything to respond with and it seems that if they do something like this again [[Badda]] may stop helping them in fights. While I agree that the theft today was completely uncalled for and dangerous, the previous thefts really don't pose a risk for the rest of the group. Sure, [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] may end up arrested for them, but that would just be the end of our story with them. This situation really doesn't help with the already somewhat shaky foundations of this group and I worry about what problems this may pose for me later. Hammer seemed very happy with himself, causing all this conflict with a few words. [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] in all his glory decided to just shoot him for hit, instantly killing him and scaring the crap out of Bow. That totally isn't going to be a setback for interrogations. With the conflict over however, the rest of the group went back to working on the rune forge while [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] and I began to help the hostages. ![[BtS-9-3.png]] Eventually Riko woke up, although he was a little loopy due to all of the medication we had to give him. Bow seemed greatful that we were helping her, especially considering that those burns looked quite painful. During this I llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. I hope that was good enough. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] seemed to notice this, but I was able to make him think it was just some perverted though. Might hurt me while I'm interrogating Bow, but I'm sure it's something I can deal with. After the rune forge was finally removed, we did some cleanup of the area and final identification of all the items mentioned earlier. We also worked out that there were likely more Crimson Brands than just this one, though this one is clearly special in some way. [[Badda]] also took this time to chip off another accuracy stone off a crystal formation in the other room, deciding to not push their luck considering how toxic the material seems to be. During this time I heard the sound of pen on paper from my backpack. We received some new rules in relation to the investigation. The revision is as follows: ``` You are NOT allowed to: - Publicise any part of this investigation or the larger project.  - Kill people outside of self defense situations. (Even then, you're encouraged to injure and capture, not kill.) - Torture people. - Interact in any way with anyone's souls without approval from the Voll Necropolis. - Join any cults without prior approval from your managing Regis. - Say you are members of the Siromarian government. (You are allowed to claim you are working for it) - Progress any agenda benefitting the subject of your investigation. - Cause undue panic or baseless concern. - Keep any potentially dangerous artifacts without explicit permission from your Regis. You are REQUIRED to: - Regularly report back your progress to your managing Regis. - Disclose any long term effects or ailments that occur to you as part of your participation in this project. - Accept assistance in removing harmful effects from you, even if you at the time would not want the harmful effects removed. (Example: mind-affecting curses.) - Regularly check back on this document in case there have been changes. - Allow your managing Regis "First Purchase Rights" to any potentially dangerous artifacts you come in contact with. - Exercise utmost discretion in this investigation, and prevent your inquiry from knowing this investigation is taking place. - Allow your managing Regis "First Purchase Rights" to any artifacts you come in contact with. ``` The group was mainly focused on the first purchase rights of this, though I guess there was no reason for them to think about the other ones. I'm sure everything's fine. With that we were finally ready to go to sleep. I hope we can make sure that Bow doesn't escape during the night, I'm sure she will try. >[! Recap Note] >The title of this session is a reference to the shot that started the battles of Lexington and Concord.