Beale the Goldenpiper, Rosy Claster, and Ulrike sneak into Hobnail prison, the secret police prison, to look for Rosy's uncle Jimmy and Urike's boss Lars. Inside they find secret police journals and memos, some seeming to incriminate the party members themselves, and they question each other accusingly. They find Jimmy being interrogated by the secret police and the Globster, which has infected the secret police and prisoners with its viral consciousness. They kill the Globster, the chief Inquisitor Alisandre, and two tontine subscribers: the secret police chief Durer and the spy master Guilder, who is also Lars.
Amy, James, and Nick played. Amy and James had played in different runs of the previous adventure, The Tontine, and continued as their characters Beale the Goldenpiper and Rosy Claster in this game. Nick hadn't played The Tontine, but had already played this adventure as his normal character Melek Valentooth. Nick kindly agreed to play again as a different character, the Hobnail Ulrike, who had been an NPC in the previous runthrough.
Rosy had finished The Tontine in the Temple of Night in the Phyla House Moonwell, where her party had just killed Lolani Phyla. Her party now made their way up the Moonwell spiral, which was quickly filling with Phyla House vampires. She talked briefly with Gunita, who said she would be Lolani's successor as the head of Phyla House, and Gunita told her that her fight with Lolani was her own business and that she could go. Lolani's enforcer Tamara Marshall, who the party had beaten at the beginning of The Tontine, was also there, now by Gunita's side. Rosy and her party exited the Moonwell and Phyla House's manor and found themselves back on the street in Hollin's foreign quarter.
Amy said that Rosy suspected that her missing uncle Jimmy was in the secret police prison, Hobnail Prison, and Rosy went to ask Beale if he'd sneak in with her. James said that Beale lived at Mooncalf. We briefly discussed how Rosy and Beale would know each other, and we decided to assume that they'd been in the same party in The Tontine. In the spirit of full disclosure, Beale said that he'd previously worked for the secret police chief Durer, who (like Jimmy) was a tontine subscriber.
Beale and Rosy decided to go to the Great Council Hall to warn the Master of Revels Helmholtz (yet another tontine subscriber) and Durer about the chaos surrounding the tontine. Helmholtz asked them how they were enjoying his Brief History of the Anhault Charter Company, which he'd given them in the previous adventure. We talked briefly about the Master of Revels's duties - regulating entertainment in Hollin - and James speculated that Cankerblossom wouldn't like the Master of Revels.
Durer wasn't at the Great Council Hall that day, and Helmholtz told them that Durer also had an office at Hobnail Prison. Helmholtz told them that it wasn't publicly acknowledged that Hobnail was the secret police prison, so they shouldn't just go there directly looking for Durer. Instead, he suggested on the sly that the Hobnail second-in-command Ulrike could sneak them in.
Nick said Ulrike would probably be at a seedy bar, and Beale and Rosy found him indulging his Goodberry habit at the Whipsaw. They asked if he'd help them sneak into Hobnail Prison to find Jimmy Claster, but Ulrike said he was busy drinking and pushing Goodberries.
To grease the wheels a little, Beale offered Ulrike some names from his little black book. Ulrike started to warm up, and asked how Beale and Rosy felt about violence. Rosy said she wasn't opposed to it, and Ulrike told them that there was someone he'd like to get out of Hobnail Prison "in a bag," and soon said explicitly that he might want to murder someone in the prison. Rosy replied coolly, "Do you know Lolani? We just came from murdering her."
Ulrike told them that the Hobnail gang leader Lars ran the gang from Hobnail Prison, where he was supposedly a prisoner, but Ulrike suspected that Lars actually worked for the secret police. Ulrike said he wanted him dead. Rosy was incredulous, and agreed to help kill Lars, and Ulrike agreed to help look for Jimmy.
Beale asked why Ulrike suspected Lars was working for the secret police. Ulrike said that he and Lars had a mutual friend in the Hobnails who was planning to attack the secret police spy chief Guilder, but this mutual friend went missing. Ulrike thinks Lars is actually Guilder, and killed this mutual friend to protect himself.
The party was weakest in Arcana and Medicine, so I suggested they take along Casca, Beale's friend from the Far Shore; and Ulrike's friend Patience, a lay doctor from Meade Hospital who worked with the Hobnails. James controlled Casca and Nick controlled Patience.
Ulrike said that he regularly snuck into the prison to meet Lars and get direction for the Hobnails. We said the prison was just to the east of Hollin on the Volm River, and consisted of four towers.
Hobnail Prison
Ulrike said he normally went in through Hollin's underground storm drain network, the Cisterns. Among other things, the Cisterns supplied water to Hollin's public fountains, including fountains near the Mooncalf and Foundling Gate, and one more secluded fountain in the Shipyards.
They entered through the Shipyards fountain's maintenance door. They went down a steel ladder there and found themselves at (5).
The Cisterns
They saw a few street urchins scatter as their eyes adjusted. Ulrike led them north to (4) then east to the Grand Cistern (7). There was an island of junk and found objects in the middle of the pool there, with four upright chains aligned along one side. However, Ulrike rushed them along to (8).
In (8) they climbed a ladder into the basement of the prison's north tower. Beale cast Invisibility on himself.
Hobnail Prison, north tower basement
Ulrike expected to find Lars in his cell here, but Lars wasn't there. Instead, in the cell at the end of the hall, they saw and heard a small group crouching around someone laying on the floor. They cautiously approached, and the group seemed to be a mix of secret police prison guards and prisoners. They overheard the person on the floor say:
I was in the water.
And one of the people crouching nearby said:
Yes, I was in the water, and it was cold.
The party briefly discussed how Lars could have left and where he would have gone. Rosy was doubtful that Guilder and Lars could be the same person - wouldn't some Hobnail have seen Lars working against them? But Ulrike argued again for killing Lars, saying he was the Hobnail gang leader, he was working for the secret police, and/or he was a tontine subscriber. Rosy suggested they search further, saying she wanted to find her uncle Jimmy.
They went east to the circular part of the basement, then up the spiral stairs into the north tower. The north tower was empty, except for some neglected cannons and a giant chain - remnants of the tower's history as a boom tower protecting Hollin from approaching ships. Rosy looked for gunpowder for the gunpowder weapon she'd taken from Tamara Marshall in The Tontine, but didn't find any.
They went down into the circular basement again, then followed the tunnel south to the east tower basement.
Hobnail Prison, east tower basement level 2
They arrived on the map in the northwest tunnel, and approached (5) from the east. There, they found some rubble that seemed to be the remains of an ad hoc brick wall that had been built across the hallway to the west of (5) - and a cannon. A few people, apparently secret police, were laying the rubble unconscious or in a daze. They said:
The water was cold. The water was the ocean.
They crossed through (5) and in the hallway east of (5), they again found a blasted wall with a few secret police laying in a daze in the rubble. They said:
There was life there, and I learned from it. I fed on it, and grew strong.
Room (6) was abandoned but appeared to be a desk officer's room. Rosy searched the desk there and found two memos.
Durer: Vesper Cotton told us Christopher Cotton was "consorting with witches," but we're still working to extract Christopher's confession. Christopher has a surprisingly strong will, but our new friend will break him. --Alisandre
Durer: The previous Master of Revels Ella has been missing for a few days. --Guilder
They went north to (3). The room seemed to be a supply or marshaling room for interrogation, and they found truth serum injections and journals of the secret police interrogators, the Inquisitors. Like the hallways east and west of (5), the door to room (2) had been walled up, but blown down; Beale wondered aloud why it had been bricked up. They went into (2) and found an interrogation room proper, and some prisoners there told them that Jimmy Claster had been there but had been taken away two days ago. When they asked more about Jimmy, the prisoners said that Jimmy had seemed genuinely confused about why he'd been taken prisoner and was being questioned.
Scanning the Inquisitor journals, they found some scant notes about Jimmy, which concluded that "...our new friend will break Jimmy."
They looked into (1), where they saw two Inquisitors looking down on a prisoner strapped to a gurney. They overhead one Inquisitor say:
One day, Company fisherman pulled me out of the water in...a net. They took me to Gregor the Naturalist. Gregor had a strong mind and he resisted me.
Unnoticed, Ulrike snuck into (1) and successfully pick-pocketed something from one of the Inquisitors, but as he backed away, three dazed prisoners came into (3) from (6) and discovered the party.
Fight in the interrogation room
The Inquisitors and prisoners rolled the higher initiative and attacked first. The prisoners choked Casca and Patience with a strangling attack, scoring a critical on Patience. The Inquisitors attacked Beale and Ulrike with a psychic attack - Mind Feed. Ulrike and Beale countered with their rapier and Dissonant Whispers, respectively. Rosy took out one of the prisoners with her Bat's Head Sword, while Casca took out another with third-level Sleep.
During the second round the remaining enemies attacked Beale Rosy, and Ulrike with Mind Feed. Rosy attacked with an arrow used as a hand weapon, scoring a critical and killing one enemy. Amy described the attack as (my notes):
I put the arrow through the back of its head and it comes out the front. Blood leaks down out of the hole, dripping down. It sees its own brain come out and collapses to the floor.
On his turn Beale cast Dispel Magic on one of the enemies, ending the enemy's daze, and Beale received an inspiration point. Patience cast Dispel Magic on another on her turn, ending the combat.
They questioned the Inquisitors they'd cast Dispel Magic on, and the Inquisitors told them that the prisoner on the gurney was Christopher Cotton. Patience cast Dispel Magic on Christopher. Christopher said he didn't know why he was a prisoner or how long he'd been there. He said he'd been questioned many times about witches, but he didn't know anything about witches or even think witches were real. The party released him and he fled the prison, promising he would find them again outside the prison and reward them.
The party explored the south group of rooms, (14)-(17), which contained jail cells. Most of the cells were open and empty, but they talked with two remaining prisoners. One begged them to release him, saying the Company had imprisoned him because his street puppet show was "seditious," while the other said he'd murdered eight people. The party released both.
They briefly explored the east group of rooms, (7)-(13). Generally these were workshops for maintaining the boom towers and the secret police prison, and Rosy found some gunpowder for her gunpowder weapon in a chemistry lab here.
The went up the spiral stair in (6), to the east tower basement level 1.
Hobnail Prison, east tower basement level 1
Like the circular room they'd come up from, (3) seemed to be a desk officer's room. They searched the desk there, and Rosy found a secret police memo that she read to the party.
Durer: The Whipsaw tavern hosts illegal bare-knuckle boxing and betting in the basement. We're allowing them to continue as long as the house pays us half their take. --Guilder
They continued to (2), which seemed to be an assistant's office. Rosy found two memos on the desk here, and read the first to the party.
Durer: Vincent says that Ella had an unfortunate poisoning incident yesterday and died. --Lavinia
She read the second memo to herself. She started to question Beale without immediately showing it to him, and Ulrike asked Rosy why she was keeping the letter secret. She asked if Beale was working with the secret police, and what abilities he had that would be useful to the Inquisitors, and showed him the note.
Durer: We've learned that Beale the Goldenpiper, the bard from the City of the Dead, has unique abilities that would be useful to the Inquisitors. We should recruit him. --Alisandre
Beale said that he'd already mentioned his previous task for the secret police chief Durer, and he could Detect Thoughts, which the Inquisitors might find useful. But otherwise Beale denied knowledge of the Inquisitors.
They continued to (1) - Durer's room - which was an office in the front and an apartment in the back. On Durer's desk, Rosy found the note:
Durer: The Hobnail second-in-command Ulrike told "Lars" that Jimmy Claster is planning to kill Guilder, so we've taken Jimmy off the streets.
The Inquisitors have been questioning Jimmy but he has a strong will. Our new friend will break him though. --Alisandre.
Urlike had said at the beginning of the game that he and Lars had a mutual friend that disappeared while planning to kill Guilder, and now Rosy asked again about the mutual friend. (I believe that she revealed the note to Ulrike and the rest of the party, but unfortunately I can't remember exactly how this discussion resolved.)
They continued to (4), the room and office of Alisandre, the head Inquisitor, then (6) the office and apartment of Lavinia, the head of the secret police assassins. Several fresh-cut white roses were laying on a table there, and a few were in vases filled with black ink, drinking up the ink and turning black.
On the desk there, they found the memo:
Lavinia: See that Ella, the previous Master of Revels, has an unfortunate accident this weekend. --Durer
And:
Lavinia: I was in the water, and it was cold. There was life there, and I learned from it. I fed on it, and grew strong. One day, Company fisherman pulled me out of the water in...a net. They took me to Gregor the Naturalist. Gregor had a strong mind and he resisted me. Soon after, secret police came to Gregor's and took me away. --Alisandre
In the back, Lavinia's apartment, they found several portraits of patrician-looking individuals, men and women, each painted with thought or warmth.
The continued to (5), which they deduced was the spy chief Guilder's office and apartment. Ulrike found Guilder's disguise kit, and recognized the "Lars" disguise in it. Ulrike immediately took Guilder's disguise kit and dropped his own, gaining an inspiration point. Urlike considered putting the Lars disguise on immediately but decided not to.
On Guilder's desk, Ulrike found a secret police memo, which he read to himself:
Guilder: Ulrike may have discovered that you're actually "Lars." Rosy Claster will lure Ulrike into the prison so we can deal with him. --Durer
Ulrike handed the note to Beale, who read it, then looked Rosy directly in the eye and gave her the note. Rosy said they already knew the first part, that was true, but denied the second part involving herself, and said that she hadn't asked Ulrike to join them. Ulrike said, maybe that was just convenient.
At this point Casca said the party were psychopaths and that she was leaving, but Beale convinced her to stay. The tension cooled a little and the three of them discussed the possibility that they were being set up by the secret police, and how the secret police could know that they would come to the prison together. Ulrike's position softened somewhat and he said, "I suppose they were going to approach you about luring me here and they hadn't done it yet."
They also found the memo:
Guilder: Quinton Smith, a trade ambassador from the country of Tharldon, has arrived in Hollin. We are working to locate Tharldon and infiltrate its government if need be.
Quinton is connected with an "Artimus Gordon." Artimus is purportedly a hermit, but actually a master of disguise, so likely a Tharldon spy working with Quinton. We should recruit him as a double agent giving us information on Tharldon. --Gower
Beale wondered aloud why they would be "working to locate Tharldon," saying "How could they have a country that they don't know where it is? It's very strange." (And we discussed briefly how Quinton and Artimus were Lou and Buck's player characters, respectively.)
The party went back to (3) and went up the spiral stairs, into the east tower's first level, into the actual tower. The tower interior was seventy feet wide, surrounded by a fifteen-foot stone wall. Seven embrasures (cannon portals) were equally spaced around the wall, but they'd been bricked up, and the cannons had been pushed to one side of the room.
They were alarmed to see the secret police chief Durer, the chief Inquisitor Alisandre, and the spy chief Guilder interrogating Jimmy Claster on a rack. But even more alarming, a twenty-foot high glass tank nearby contained a giant amorphous biomass - the Globster. Although the Globster had no discernable features, the party had the bad feeling that it was training all of its malevolence on Jimmy.
The party lept into action, mostly focusing their attacks on Guilder. Guilder and Durer responded with their crossbow and multiattack, respectively, but the party soon finished them. Alisandre hit Beale with Mind Feed, and the Globster followed up Alisandre's attack with a psychic attack of its own, which seemed to stagger Beale. Patience cast Cure Wounds on him.
Ulrike loudly called out Guilder/Las as a traitor, ran to Jimmy, and gave Jimmy a Goodberry to stabilize him. Jimmy started to choke and cough and Rosy questioned what Ulrike was doing, but Casca stabilized Jimmy and stopped his coughing.
The rest of the party focused on turning a cannon on the Globster, with Beale, Patience, and Rosy figuring out the cannon, loading it, and firing it respectively. The cannonball shattered the Globster's tank, killing the Globster and sending it onto the floor. The psychic shock from the Globster's death throes killed his remaining ally, Alisandre.