Sessione 7 – Glassworks Showdown

The party, Fancy, Nico, Volpeo, Gianna, and Guido, had reached the abandoned glassworks, knowing they had only a brief window to intercept the Society of the Red Scarf and their Byzantine allies before a cache of weapons was distributed to foment rebellion across Venice. Through sharp observation, magical stealth, and no small amount of wit, the party formed a plan for infiltration, with Fancy poised for charm, Nico cloaked in shadows, and Volpeo and Gianna ready for direct action.

Fancy led the initial approach, charming a nervous guard who became a confused but dogged ally, struggling to defend her against his own comrades. As she pleaded for help, the guard gave conflicting orders to his fellow thugs, resulting in chaos and opening for the party’s assault. Nico scaled the building’s exterior with athletic grace, scouting for a rooftop entrance while Volpeo called out orders and attempted ranged support. Guido’s voice cut through the noise, “Grab that girl!,” as missiles flew and arrows found their marks. Amid the combat, Fancy and Gianna darted through crossfire and magic missile strikes, exchanging witty lines about their predicament: “At least I can talk my way out of problems. At least I have a pretty face,” Fancy quipped after a miss.

Their first real foe, a mage in the courtyard, rained spells down on the party, Nico responded by hurling a grenade from his rooftop perch, taking down one of the Red Scarves in a spectacular blast that injured three others. Volpeo and Gianna pressed forward through the chaos, Gianna hewing with her axe and Volpeo his rapier and razor wit as he tallied his kills. Nico performed a daring quadruple-flip off the roof, landing with Olympic flair just in time to dispatch another would-be assassin.

A nearby window opened, and the party found itself taking crossbow fire from the tiny aperture. They couldn’t adequately attack whoever was in the building, nor could they use the small window to gain entry. They just scattered to keep clear of the line of fire, with some going to the north and others going to the south. They would need to find an entrance into that part of the facility eventually!

The charmed guard tried desperately to redirect the party from further danger, but ultimately fell to crossbow fire from his own comrades, sacrificing himself and lending a note of grim humor to the night’s actions.

They scouted the perimeter methodically: Fancy and Nico slipped around barrels and broken crates, Volpeo hunted for traps, and Gianna battered her way through a locked door. When she kicked it down, three henchmen answered with a volley of crossbow bolts. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the party came to their aid, carefully skirting the window from which they had taken fire earlier.

Their coordination and constant banter, especially about “quiet shouting,” allowed them to maintain focus despite the warehouse’s labyrinthine layout and the unpredictable attacks from hidden windows.

Within the next chamber, they discovered crates marked with red flame, the hidden weapons, confirming the plot they sought to undo. Deciding not to pry them open yet, the party pressed onward, knowing live defenders still lurked nearby. Fancy listened at each door, Gianna tested locks, and Volpeo investigated every noise with his usual dramatic bravado. The ensuing ambush was intense: Gianna burst open a door to surprise a trio of crossbowmen, quickly downing one with a powerful axe blow, while Volpeo and Guido covered her advance.

The fights grew more desperate as the party split up to clear rooms, and Gianna took a nasty hit from a hidden attacker. Fancy and Nico maneuvered to avoid lines of fire, calling out tactical tips while exchanging sarcastic encouragement. Volpeo, never out of witticisms, praised both the enemies’ stubborn defense and his own luck: “This is the most defensive guy ever. Why are you going to be so defensive?” Meanwhile, Gianna continued battling with her hand axe, supported by Guido’s sling shots and the occasional healing potions shared among the wounded.

After battling through multiple rooms and dispatching a mage and his guards, the party converged on the final Red Scarf stronghold deep inside the old factory.  They found two sleeping thugs in a small room. Gianna tried to grapple one and tie him up with the red scarves Fancy and Nico had been collecting. She managed to grapple him, but she couldn’t effectively tie him up at the same time. Guido moved in to help, as the other guard starting fighting to free his comrade. After a couple rounds of combat, a door in the room burst open as Orsini (who they recognized from the Shattered Goblet) bellowed – first about the noise and then, when he realized what was happening, for more help.

The leader, Orsini, confronted them with his rapier and a contingent of thugs, determined to stop the party from interfering with the weapons shipment. The fighting was chaotic and ranged from clever persuasion to brutal melee: Volpeo pressed the attack with his rapier and dagger in a dazzling flurry, Gianna charged with deadly hatchet swings, and Nico delivered a devastating backstab from the shadows.

Orsini, battered and stunned by the efficiency of Volpeo and Gianna, retreated through a back door, shouting for reinforcements. Another wave of Red Scarf thugs arrived, firing crossbows, Volpeo’s acrobatics and Gianna’s axe again saved the day as the party rallied for the final confrontation. In a memorable sequence, Volpeo delivered a deadly strike to a key defender. Gianna, refusing to be eclipsed, felled Orsini with a powerful blow, ending his reign and securing the glassworks.

Fancy negotiated with Orsini’s men: “We can guarantee that they don’t die. Take them to the Doje where they will be questioned…” was her bold promise, aiming for a bloodless resolution as the last defenders began to falter. The remaining thugs surrendered when faced with a friend’s grenade and Fancy’s persuasion, dropping their swords and begging for amnesty.

With the battle won, the party embraced a thorough search for loot and intelligence. Orsini’s body yielded a magical rapier, thirty gold pieces, and crucial papers; mages carried potions and scrolls. Volpeo, already armed with a magical rapier, suggested Fancy or Nico take the new blade. Tensions eased as survivors were tied up in bandanas and interrogated: they revealed the plan to arm the dockworkers and stir up Venice’s lower classes, confirming the party’s suspicions that the Byzantine Empire was planning widespread unrest using cheap blades rather than sorcery.

The evening closed with the party, exhausted, scattered, but victorious, receiving their reward from the Doge: 500 gold pieces for disrupting the Byzantine plot. They put their reward to good use, stocking up on healing potions and some weapon upgrades.

They would only have a brief respite to heal.  The Byzantine plot had been disrupted for now, but it would be necessary to trace the operation to its source in Italy, or the Empire would just continue to build the revolt!