Big Trouble in Granz City – Recaps episodes 54-59

The party finally arrives in Granz City after parting ways with Cenari. There may be a budding romance on the horizon for Arguile but time will tell. After the party has a run-in with the city guard, who may have been disillusioned in their view of themselves, they make their way to the Shuffle Guild. They are met by a member named Osamu, a swarm-keeper fey fox, who informs them that Argo is somewhere in the guild and to make themselves comfortable. Eventually, they are greeted by Argo who takes Zechs and Galahad into his office to fill him in on recent events. They speak of the machines, the pincushion maker, and Antonius. Argo informs the two that Antonius is a follower of Tiamat and always has been. He theorizes that Galahad is his balance, like the two sides of a coin. Meanwhile, Brian aka Shanks makes his way to the guild and runs into Kyver and Arguile outside. Cereius, Glad, and Osamu begin to catch up. A drinking contest starts between Argo, Arguile, Galahad, and Kyver. Argo and Arguile are the last ones standing and splitting the pot, Argo confesses that he really only wanted to beat Galahad. After a couple of strained exchanges occur between Shanks and Osamu outside the guild, Shanks makes his way to the Shuffle Guild. A tense exchange between him and Argo takes place, where Argo agrees not to take him in for the bounty on his head. During the night, Elrin has a conversation with Arguile, revealing a lot to him that peak his interest. Meanwhile, Cereius has a lengthy conversation with his goddess the Moonweaver. Cereius receives a lot of insight into what it is he and the party must do in the days moving forward. Plans are made to contact the leader of the Silverlight Inquisition for safe passage to the underground of the Citadel, where one of the rumored portals is hidden. The party heads out with Argo’s blessing to seek out the leader of the Silverlight Inquisition, leaving Shanks behind at the guild. On the way there the rogues find the hidden entrance to their location. A deal is struck and information is exchanged between the party and the leader “Vanessa”. She will help them get into the Citadel and down to the underground in exchange for their help with a Kenku problem that has recently popped up. Upon exiting, the party decides to split up. Galahad and Arguile take Kyver to a brothel to “make the peak”. Cereius and Glad head back to the Shuffle Guild where Osamu and Shanks are playing an intense game of Dragon Chess. The two clerics have a few insightful conversations with Argo about their journey so far. Shanks and Osamu banter back and forth about their ideals and outlooks on life. Zechs takes a walk down memory lane with Duo through Granz City. He stops by a few of his old stomping grounds as well as making his way to the library for some research. All seemed to be going well until Kyver has Hold Person cast on him by the madame and is shoved into a bag of holding and kidnapped. Galahad and Arguile hear the commotion from the lobby and investigate. They’re then led on a chase through the city and into the Fey Steps. Kyver emerges from the bag of holding he was kept in and is informed that he was a means to an end. His captors? Worshipers of the goddess Tiamat. On the other side of town, Zechs is commissioning an enhanced bowstring for Jack of All Trades. Meanwhile, Cereius asks Glad to send Galahad a message to see what is taking so long, only to find out about Kyver’s abduction. Shanks asks what the problem is and Cereius takes him outside of the guild to have a private conversation. Shanks is none-too-pleased about this development and why they were even at the brothel in the first place. While this conversation is taking place, a shot rings out and Shanks takes a hit to his shoulder and is almost pickpocketed by an invisible assailant. Cereius and Zechs, who returned to the guild as the shot rang out, head toward Galahad and Arguile’s location. Meeting up, they find the bodies of the Tell-Tale Guild all slain, a note that reads “We know who you are and how to stop you”, and an effigy of Elrin. With the help of Zechs’ bestial spirit “Wolfy,” the crew follows the trail for Kyver to what they assess to be one of the machines that JM spoke of. They come to a pristine door on the wall of an ancient and forgotten summoning room. They go inside and find an endless hallway of doors leading to other planes and a single door that opens to a staircase. They head upstairs running into Kyver who recounts what transpired and all the while they unknowingly travel from underneath the Cathedral of Granz City to a mountain overlooking Dragonborn Valley. At the guild, Shanks collects himself and makes the tough decision to cut his hair and alter it. He then finds a private room and reaches out to his now patron Elrin about assisting him with his current predicament. He accepts but has conditions for Shanks, which he hesitantly accepts. He is granted the ability to alter his appearance with illusion magic. Heading back downstairs, in the guise of Zechs, he and Gald are met with Zechs’s summon, which leads the two back to where the rest of the party entered the machine. Meanwhile, the group finds themselves still separated by miles of Granzia. On the one hand, Shanks and Glad finally made their way to the machine that the others entered from. On the other, the rest of the party are all trying to get a sense of where they are and how this machine works. They find that the first floor is just an endless, winding corridor of doors, and the second is a large room filled with massive arcane crystals. The third is home to an open-air room with an arcane engine. The fourth floor is a barrack, the fifth is a tinkerer’s workshop, and the sixth is storage of some kind. Eventually, Shanks tries to reach out to Arguile to communicate with him via their connection. After a few attempts it succeeds and the group is able to relay some general info to each other. Shanks tries to open and close the door they entered repeatedly, hoping that he can find the door to where the group is. The party finally is able to regroup after a few dicey encounters. They are picked up by the Journeyman and fill her in on what they’ve found. They make their way back to Granz City and the Shuffle Guild to update Argo on the latest while Galahad, Kyver, and Arguile go back to the Silverlight Inquisition. They tell Vanessa that the Tell-Tale Guild problem is taken care of, but THEY were not responsible. Vanessa informs them of a Rogue Killer which troubles the group. The party starts to make their way back to the Tavern when two figures appear in the doorway of the guild.