(Or, how the druid tanks half a dozen Dwarves without using wild shape)
Maeglin remains in his “supernatural ‘time out’” as we open gameplay. Death comes to him in the Shadowfell, only to realize that Maeglin is alive, despite being in that particular plane. So, after refusing a drink Maeglin offered him, decides it would nice to have a little game of chess.
(He resoundingly beats Maeglin in the first two games, but Maeglin manages only to be thrashed resoundingly in the third.)
On the Material Plane, the remainder of the Anti-Saturday Squad are placed under arrest when the guard discover one of their charges missing.
There’s is an argument between the “banged up” Dwarves and the “polished” Dwarves, and the “banged up” Dwarves end up surrendering the charge of the Anti-Saturday squad to the “polished” Dwarves.
They find themselves in a cell block with four cells. The first is occupied by three humans, who it turns out have been sent to bring Bruni and Kahseer back to Ur-et-Scatia with or without the payment and signature from Baron Saturday.
(Note: These are, for future reference, members of the Glass Bottle Men, a notorious gang in Ur-et-Scatia, led by the even more notorious gangster Liquid Len. How they got there, exactly, is something that might be explained, provided none of the three are killed by the Anti-Saturday Squad, the Dwarves, or… well, we’ll get to some of that next game, maybe. Everything’s up in the air with the Anti-Saturday Squad.)
Dani and Bruni are placed in one cell; the rest are placed in another.
After some time, another prisoner is brought in, chained, gagged, and under heavy guard. This prisoner is placed in the last cell. The prisoner sits. From time to time, the prisoner glances at the Anti-Saturday Squad, but mostly this goes unnoticed.
The Anti-Saturday Squad is interrogated by Thuradir (“polished”) and Fritha (“unpolished”). They want to know:
1. Where is the half-elf spy;
2. Why the half-elf spy is dressed in the garb of the military nobility of Grand Fenwick;
3. What role Grand Fenwick plays in the current troubles facing the city;
4. And, what has become of a Rhayader?
The Anti-Saturday Squad tries to explain that they think Maeglin might have gone to the Shadowfell, that Maeglin stole the attire of a dead man found in the hold of a ship they… found themselves on… and that they didn’t know who Grand Fenwick was, as they’d never met the person. When it was explained to them that Grand Fenwick was a place, the Anti-Saturday Squad explain that they’d never been there. When it was explained that Rhayader was not a place but a Dwarf, it was explained that they never met the fellow.
All of these answers actually made thing significantly worse for the Anti-Saturday Squad, and Thuradir and Fritha (who didn’t see to get along particularly well) leaving in mutual agreement that the members of the Anti-Saturday Squad needed to be tortured.
Shortly after that, Thuradir and Fritha depart together, in something of a hurry.
And, shortly after that, a ‘boom!’ is heard far away, but it is big enough to shake the stone mountain the city is carved into, with dirty and dust settling from the roof.
It is noted that the elfin creature that had been brought with chains and a gag was standing.
And, then, he disappeared.
(Technically, what happened is that the creature, which turned out to be a Shadow Dancer, inflicted one hit point of damage on himself and used the successful attack to move through shadow to the armory where his razor whips were being kept. He handily dispatched the two Dwarves in that room in a pre-rolled fight.
Honestly, it was not a good day for the Dwarves who were undone by necrotic damage. And, the pre-rolled fight with the Dwarves in the Common Room, he went through them like a hot knife through buttery Dwarves; but that was a fork in the road untaken.)
The creature freed the Anti-Saturday Squad, but left the Smash Bottle Men in their cell to rot, before proceeding on the next stage of his mission — dispatch the dwarves in the common area…
… and this is where Leroy Jenkins comes back into the story.
Bruni attacks the Shadow Dancer, suspecting… it’s like this… I mean… look, we’re talking about Bruni, okay?
Bruni rages.
Dani frees the Smash Bottle Men, but they are hesitant to pick a side until they feel the outcome is more certain.
The company rushes to the amory to secure their gear and weapons for what comes next.
And, what comes next is pretty much the standard issue chaos that follows the Anti-Saturday Squad in all of their endeavors.
The Shadow Dancer, having no loyalty to a human in general or Bruni in particular, turns to face the biggest of his threats in the room: Bruni. He manages two attacks on Bruni that she shakes off in her rage, but rage doesn’t help her from the necrotic damage she suffers when she fails a dexterity save (ouch!).
Bruni and the Shadow Dancer fought it out, until the Shadow Dancer… thinking things weren’t going as planned… shadow stepped to a safer place (so he thought).
The fight become both chaotic and confined, much it happening in the ten by twenty passage between the Common Area and the Cells.
Bruni and Kahseer are exposed and in grave danger in the hallway, or would have been if Dwarves didn’t shoot like Storm Troopers — seven shots on Kahseer with heavy crossbows all missed, and all by a wide margin.
Bruni bashed the daylights out of several of the Dwarves, but Kahseer — unable to wild shape into a powerful beast in the narrow hallway, clubbed the daylights out of the Dwarves with Shillelagh.
In the armory, the Shadow Dancer realized his tactical error, when it turned out they, too, continued on the good work that Bruni started. And, here, luck really failed the Shadow Dancer who failed to hit Celeana’s summoned dire wolf, and couldn’t bamphf out of danger again.
Dani tried to reason with the Dwarves, who weren’t in a reasoning mood…
There was a successful charm, which was broken by a successful scorching ray…
There were death vows to Kord cried out by the Dwarves, who knew themselves out matched, but refused to flee like cowards…
… And, there are lots (lots and lots) of Dwarves massing in the hallway to press the fight to re-capture the cell block of Secret Police of Her Lordship’s Reign.
At the end of the first round, Celeana was readying a fire ball to hurl at the next wave of Dwarves.
And, we ended with Death thanking Maeglin for a delightful time, but he really needed to get going as all of his friends were just about to die.