Session Date: 09/15/2025
The Tavern
Tabby enters the Jovial Alembic Tavern and makes friends with the patrons easily, telling stories (sans the Seal of Infinity) and otherwise just getting along with everyone very well. At one point, he notices that someone was stabbed in the back. Tabby checks to see if he’s alive and finds that he’s not, but he also sits up and comments there must be a better way to do this thing. Tabby agrees and says he’d ask if he’s okay, but he clearly has a knife in his back so, no.
The gentleman suddenly sits up and comments that there must be a better way to do this and Tabby agrees: there must be a better way to do this. The man says that they have to stop meeting like this. He’d take Tabby back to his place, but his place is secret, and we want to take his shiny away. He explains that he had someone killed and now he’s talking through them. Tabby calls him creepy, and Kincaid agrees.
Kincaid asks for a truce or peace - he admits that he wants to be friends, but he doesn’t think we’re there yet. Tabby says probably not, our goals are mutually exclusive. Kincaid says that perhaps not: we have plenty of pieces, we can put ours in Jewel and keep the monsters away. Moreover, Kinacid also doesn’t like the Warhawks and they are quite pissed at us. Tabby admits that he is pretty proud of that, and Kincaid agrees with a chuckle.
He continues: he’s trying to meet us at our level: how about we put away the conversation about the Seal of Infinity for now, we don’t need to talk about it. He will do his best not to spy on us too much. If we go to his territory it becomes a problem and we will fight, and he doesn’t want to fight. He acknowledges that our party is rather competent, and he has no desire to waste the resources to… “Recruit” us right now, though we will ultimately join his side regardless.
He knows that we are currently hunting down the flesh amalgamation dealer, who is working with a local warden for the Adamant Guard, and he’s a very nasty man. Kincaid advises we do not trust the cops here, and he offers to get dirt on the guy for us. He then admits we likely do not want someone assassinated every time he wants to chat - Tabby agrees - and Kincaid comments that this corpse was a Warhawk, so it’s a good thing he was stabbed. Tabby is not particularly comfortable with him killing people so laissez faire, and Mary definitely would not appreciate it. Tabby admits we might work together on certain things, but he doubts that partnership is on the table. Kincaid says that he understands and he has hope.
Kincaid further explains that he cares about what happens after death, and he doesn’t need the entire Seal of Infinity to do it: he just needs a little help shifting things and changing the paradigm. He recognizes talent, which is why we’ve come onto his radar at this point.
Tabby points out that we are trying to get all of the pieces of the Seal, not just most of it, and Kincaid understands but disagrees with that. He does, however, say that he will take the corpse into the sewers so we can speak to him again if we need. Kincaid says goodbye and the corpse stumbles away.
The Party Together
We all meet up together and it’s clear that Tabby is a bit moody and a little more drunk than normal. Mary comments that she thought he was going to rest.
Bosch explains that we have a time and a date, and Mary explains that we have an appointment to see the seller of the flesh amalgamates. We give over the information about the date and time and Zurso’o.
Tabby explains that he had a conversation with Kincaid and describes the conversation they had. He also explains that Kincaid issued a warning about the Adamant Guard leadership that is helping the Breakwater Company sell the flesh amalgamates here.
We wind up retiring for the evening and resting up.
Testing the Seal of Infinity
We return to our testing area and we begin looking at the Seal, trying to decide if there’s anything more we can do the Seal now. (Formal descriptions of the abilities under the Seal of Infinity entry.)
Bosch begins trying again to figure out the new way to access the powers there. He adds some dramatic flair this time, doing a small performance of holding up a sheet and swooshing it away to reveal himself, and a little dragon appears there. Bosch makes up excuses to why we can’t look at it too closely - saying it’s easy to startle, that it’s shy. Mary can tell that he’s puppeteering it, but nobody else can.
Faylen is then given the Seal and analyzes the Seal, trying to figure things out. He keeps getting distracted by Bosch’s dragon (which he’s since dubbed Draco) and suddenly Bosch speeds up for a few seconds, then slows down again - Faylen’s apparently able to tweak time.
Tabby takes it and he doesn’t see anything happen when he focuses, but he gets a feeling that were one of us to get hurt, he could redirect the damage to himself to protect his friend.
Mary tries to focus on the Seal but Talitha winds up pulling some acorns out of a pocket she suddenly has. The two of them discuss this for a little while and then realize that the acorns have healing properties.
This all takes up a full day.
Planning
(Reminder: Talitha is a real member of the Adamant Guard and has proof of such.)
Mary asks if we have a plan for the meeting about the flesh amalgamates, and Faylen comments that it’s hard to plan when we have no clue what the situation is going to be like or what to expect from this meeting. He also admits that we are quite good at winging it and figuring things out as we go, so perhaps we don’t need a plan.
Bosch floats the idea of digging into cops and seeing what we can find out there - perhaps we can acquire some uniforms and sneak around. We have determined that this city has the Warden from the Adamant Guard that strongarmed himself into being the head of police.
Investigating the Cops
Bosch thinks about it and he knows that there’s a dark-colored currency (that could be emulated by the shadow smith). It’s a script that many ne’er-do-wells use, but also people who want to avoid Commonwealth banks, or want to have a thrill or operate within specific parameters with people. For example, Faylen’s parents use this script with certain people not because they’re shady, but just because it is how some people prefer to operate.
Bosch dresses up as a merchant from the Hollow World and uses a skin cream to make himself look like a goblin from the Hollow World. He walks into the front door and asks to speak to someone important because he has information. The person helping Bosch asks for more information, “someone important” isn’t enough. Bosch asks for someone who can arrange a detail to help protect shipments that he needs to move through. The man helping him understands immediately and lets Bosch know that there’s a nearby cop bar with some guys that do this sort of thing as an after work kind of thing.
There will be a dwarven fellow and a half-ogre cop in a custom uniform - they’ll help Bosch if he arrives after a certain time.
Tabby goes up to Bosch and starts a gambit: commenting that Bosch shouldn’t trust the cops, no, it’ll upset him and the boys. Bosch comments that “some of us” are honest merchants and that he has nothing to hide, it’s all above board - Tabby and his boys can keep an eye on him if that’s what floats his boat. Tabby says that he’s just warning him, and that trouble will find him if he keeps leaning on the police. Bosch asks if Tabby’s trying to say something about these wonderful officers of the law here.
There’s a dwarven officer that comes up and tells Tabby he’s been harassing this “honest” businessman quite enough, and he should scram. Tabby gives Bosch a “this isn’t over yet” glance, then stomps away.
Bosch turns to the officer and explains he’s already being harassed and he’s just trying to have a security detail. The dwarf explains this is rather unorthodox, they don’t really do these sort of things, but since he looks like he needs assistance, he and his friend (the half-ogre) have been known to help citizens in need. Bosch comments that they look like the kind of people that even a Warhawk would not attack. The two ask why he’d say something like that - they’ve never had issues with the Warhawks (they’re not members, of course). Bosch backpedals and says he’s just paranoid - he’d be more comfortable to have some people make sure nothing happened to him, and he’d pay them a commission. Bosch uses this as an excuse to plant the seeds for the cops to investigate Kincaid and try to insult him with the Warhawks and make him turn on the Warhawks.
Dwarf: Dulmir Crackriver Half-Ogre: Elrod
Bosch comments that he was nearly accosted outside of town and ultimately asks when they can set out to transport his cargo from out of town to inside. Zilch Zolardo is the name that Bosch gives, which the cops recognize. The cops glom onto the name and suggest that they can go right now, actually. Bosch hints that the spy that was giving him trouble may have hidden away in the sewers.
These two are the most crooked cops, and the gentleman that sent him to the dwarf and half-ogre are the most crooked of the cops.
Bosch leads them out and points to an area in the ground that is supposed to be hiding a magically invisible cache of items. He explains that he, of course, did not leave it without protection. Bosch pretends to grab a cart and drag it behind him, perfectly fooling the cops.
Since I will likely be gone next week, the meeting with Zurso’o will happen the week after next, with the party doing investigative stuff next week.