Chapter 3 - Friends and Foes

Overall Summary
The New Dawn was stopped in a harbor city called Zaxaph Landing and taken into custody by Taryn and his team of guards for dubious reasons. After surrendering most of their items (some characters managed to hide away key items for later), they are taken down into separate cells. At first, none of them have much cause for alarm, or a reason to escape, but when Kitrick overhears that someone from his old monastery may be after him, he tells the group they need to leave after slipping out of his own cell.

Medericus manages to use a disguise and clever wit to get himself and many others out of their cells.The team escapes, finds their items, and successfully retrieves them with some recon from Kitrick and Tally, along with animal companions Little (belonging to Crawler the green dragonborn ranger) and Gnawdy.

After the team solves the riddle of the locked rooms with their magical items, Relentless and Medericus learn a little about Taryn and that he'd been somewhat empathetic towards them because Havine reminded him of his deceased husband, James, who was also a cleric.

Crawler parts from New Dawn with Little, telling them she's looking for her father Calaprax. Chamunda, a half-orc fighter who was jailed along with them, opts to come with the group for vague reasons, possibly keeping most of them to herself. She helps them find a ship in the next town and they sail off to Zhayeria.

Session One
The group finds themselves divided and without their gear in individual cells below Zaxaph Landing. Crawler and Chamunda have been the jail for several days at the start of the adventure. Roughly 20 minutes after finding themselves in the slammer - and complaining in bulk about the lacking amenities of their confinement - Relentless, Medericus and Kitrick all individually hatch plans to escape.

Relentless tries to ritually summon an unseen servant using the bucket in his cell and accidentally alerts the guard to his summoning. He very unconvincingly tries to tell the guard that he was just in fact admiring the well crafted bucket, but is surprisingly bad at lying. The guard takes his bucket.

Medericus calls over one of the guards and asks about lunch, occupying his time in an attempt to keep his attention off of the other members of the party in case they were trying to break out. He notices that the guard is sporting a spiffy arcane-looking necklace. Meanwhile, Kitrick has taken a big ole' swig of some Oil of Slipperiness and is preparing to squeeze through the bars to go carousing around the jail at his leisure.

Crawler, who has been lounging in her cell up until now sees Gnawdy hanging upside in her cell and uses primeval awareness to learn that she is looking for something. Crawler then casts animal friendship by offering the spider food and charms her. She asks Gnawdy, "Hi, do you come here often?" Gnawdy is confused but relays that she's looking for a person. Crawler tells Gnawdy that if she can bring Crawler's snake-friend then Crawler can help find her person.

Kitrick slips out of his cell in the quickest jailbreak ever and sneaks down into an alcove and hides.

Havine politely asks a nearby guard if there has been any word as to how long they're going to be down there and whether anyone is going to be coming for them any time soon. The guard replies that Taron, the head honcho, had said that someone was looking for them and that it had to do with a "Moon something." Havine asked for clarification but there wasn't much to give.

Chamunda, outrageously bored, kicks the door and tries to break it and doesn't exactly, but immediately attracts the attention of a guard. The guard goes to find someone to come and manacle her. At the same time, Gnawdy has returned to Crawler with Little, her snake, in tow. She tells the animals to go hide while she attracts the attention of the guard patrolling outside her cell. She asks the guard when she will be released and is given a noncommittal answer and dejectedly sits down to pet Gnawdy.

Medericus this whole time has been arguing with the guard in an attempt to persuade him to get him some food and the guard, exasperated, walks away. Relentless stops the guard as he walks past and asks for some general insight about why they are being held and when someone might be coming to talk to them. The guard reinforces the information revealed by the other guard and says that the people they were being held for were looking for a halfling. Both Kitrick and Medericus heard that and Kitrick enters full panic mode. The guard wanders away and Medericus casts disguise self to make himself look like Taron.

Kitrick sneaks down the hallway after the guard and - after learning that there were other guards - sneaks back to his alcove. Meanwhile, Crawler takes off her shirt and hands it to Gnawdy in hopes that she'll drop it down onto a guard's head and muffle him. This just confuses Gnawdy so Crawler instead tells Little to be ready and, shirtless, muscles just absolutely rippling, gestures to the guard, acting like she's coughing. She instructs Little to trip the guard towards the bars but that doesn't work so she continues acting like she can't breathe but the guard understands that she's a green dragonborn and isn't effected by poison. She sits back on the cot and stares down the guard, shirtless, as Little curls back up with her.

Kitrick, meanwhile hears two guards pass by. Havine sees a woman in the cell across the way and she asks why group is there. They converse about the area and the guard and Havine learns that the guard has become increasingly suspicious, recently staffed a bunch of new members, and that the alleged thief has been down in the cells for weeks.

Crawler threatens the guard by suggesting that while she is resistant to poison, the guard is likely not. The threat doesn't go over well and the guard exclaims, "Oh! It's your pet!" and Crawler blushes. After that Crawler sighs dejectedly and suggests to the guard that Little is hungry as they've been apart for a while. The guard says that there are plenty of rats in the jail and, believing that the snake is harmless, allows Crawler to keep her in the cell. She tries to get Little to snatch the guard's arcane amulet but she fails and the guard returns to patrolling.

After the guard leaves, Crawler sends Little to explore the prison. Kitrick wanders down a hallway once the coast is clear and passes Relentless who prods at him with his mage hand to catch his attention. Relentless passes on the information that the guards are looking for Kitrick and he goes back to find Relentless a piece of wood so he can try summoning an unseen servant again. Relentless also points out to Kit that Medericus is in the cell next to him and Dickerus calls out, as Taron, for Kitrick to hide. Medericus, as Taron, then yells out for the guards as Kitrick sneaks into Relentless' cell and hides.

Little wanders her way into Tally's cell while Tally climbs onto her bunk in concern. Little slinks up onto the cot and searches around Tally's neck and waist, finds Tally's 3 lockpicks and snatches two of them from her. Little then slithers back to Crawler and hands them over.

Meanwhile, Chamunda decides to kick down the door to her cell. Upon leaving the cell, rather loudly, she wonders to herself, "Where's my stuff?" and then asks Havine, "You wanna bust out? What are they gonna do, take away your birthday?" Chamunda and Havine work together to to pull and push on the door and Havine tries to squeeze through the bent bars before getting stuck.

While this is happening, Crawler unlocks the door with her big clunky hands and the lock picks and is immediately noticed by the guard who is distracted by "Taron" shouting from down the hall. Crawler and Havine both hear the shouting and several members see guards run by. Crawler says to her guard that the door has faulty locks and as the guard locks her back in, she discretely snags the medallion from around his neck. The guard resumes his patrol.

Medericus, when the guards arrive, insist that he is Taron and that he was tricked into the cell when "the handsome dragonborn" disguised himself as the Captain and called him over. Then the disguised dragonborn took off running after locking Taron into the cell. He tells the guards that he'll cover the prison and they need to go hunt down the captain and bring him to "Taron". The guards immediately let him out and begin looking for the captain. Medericus tries to intimidate the guard into giving him the key to the cells but fails and the guard explains that it's standard protocol to return the keys to a centralized location immediately after use to prevent them from being stolen by inmates. Medericus, as Taron, praises the guard for knowing his protocols so well and the guard happily totters off to return the key and then goes to help the other guard pursue the captain.

Medericus, after the guard leaves, comes over to Relentless' cell and Kitrick squeezes back out through the bars. Kit then trails the guard down a hallway, while Havine finally wiggles her way out of the bars of her cell and Relentless finally begins casting his unseen servant again. At the end of the hall, Kitrick sees a guard break room and finds the keys on hooks and the party's non-magical gear. Little also enters the room and hides under a table.

Havine tries to make her way down to where Kitrick was jailed but hears clanking around the corner. Chamunda offers to help the other woman escape but when declined, follows after Havine and offers some additional muscle.

Crawler, while a guard wanders by, dangles the amulet under the bed to see if Gnawdy recognized it and is wooed by how cute she kitty-paws it. Meanwhile, Little steals the key in the break-room while Kitrick tries to tie his shoes together. Crawler, now in possession of the key, unlocks her door and heads out towards Tally's cell.

Relentless finishes casting his unseen servant and commands it to reach inside the lock and wiggle the tumblers loose. The door unlocks and he and Medericus begin investigating the crates at the end of the hall, looking for their stuff, and discover a secret tunnel under the crates. The two of them look for Kitrick's cell and find Chamunda and Havine, who panics terribly at the thought that it's Taron before she sees Relentless. Everyone compares notes.

The group finds Crawler and Tally and everyone is reunited. A guard up the hallway sees the group and begins coming towards them. The guard asks "Taron" what is going on and Medericus tells the guard that there has been a mixup and that these aren't the people they were looking for and as such they're being released. The guard believes him and walks off while Relentless calls down Gnawdy from the ceiling. Crawler gives Medericus the keys and Tally is released.

Medericus calls the guard back and tells him to get fetch the party's items from holding. The group follows the guard to the break-room where their gear is spread across a few chests. Kitrick, seeing the group walk in, discretely unties the guard's laces again and the group is reunited with their non-magical items. The guard tells Relentless that their magical items are upstairs.

Kitrick again tells the rest of the party that they need to leave now and is visibly on edge. The group decides to go upstairs and Kitrick tells Gnawdy to stealthily bite anyone who tries to get in their way.

The group, unable to settle on a plan, agrees to send Little up to look for Taron. Meanwhile Medericus asks asks the two guards in the break-room who generally patrols upstairs at this time of day. After a shared look of confusion they answer that generally, it's Taron himself. Little, having gone up the stairs is met by the heavy double doors and is unable to proceed further. Crawler figures out that the guards must be able to easily open the doors thanks to the amulet that the guards have and approaches the doors wearing the amulet that she lifted off one of the guards. Relentless suggests that the Unseen Servant wear the amulet and open the door since it's invisible and Crawler expresses concern because she doesn't even know anyone's name. The team introduces themselves and Tally and Crawler briefly converse in Draconic.

The unseen servant walks to the door and a sigil lights up as the doors open.