Sessione 9 -- The Night They Went Clubbing

The adventurers had gleaned crucial information from Orsini's body, pointing to a wealthy Genoese merchant allied with the Byzantines, smuggling contraband to spark rebellion in Venice. This trail led them to a Carbonari lair, a hidden dungeon beneath an abandoned warehouse, where they hoped to uncover the merchant's identity and thwart the plot.

The adventurers pressed deeper into the Carbonari dungeon beneath the abandoned warehouse. They had already battled through guards, cultists, and fire elementals, but the vital documents eluded them. After a brief rest, Fancy downed a healing potion to mend her wounds, and the group soldiered eastward, wary of traps that had already bloodied them.

Nico took the lead, hugging the wall to inch along the bricks. He spotted etched Carbonari symbols — a flame and a dagger — signaling danger. He was able to identify a pit trap ahead, but by skirting the edge, he avoided it. Rounding the corner, he faced a chained skeleton reaching futilely. "Just wants a hug," he quipped. Guido, cleric of the group, turned the undead with holy power, reducing it to crumbling bones.

Rifling through the skeleton's tattered clothes, they found a bloodstained scrap: "Verona shipment from Mantua, late June." Mid-June now, the note linked Genoa to the plot. Gianna and others scoured for secret doors but found none. Volpeo, exploring alone, retraced steps to dead ends and traps in darkened passages, rejoining with warnings of lightless halls ahead.

Fancy heard male voices talking and laughing up ahead, and Volpeo joked, "Fancy is hearing voices again." Nico, cloaked in invisibility, crept forward at half speed, toes and fingers gripping bricks to avoid the floor. He reached a circular chamber with a large central pillar. The voices emanated from guards dining nearby, in a chamber just east of the pillar.

The party readied ranged weapons. Nico sneaked around a central pillar, Intelligence guiding him past distractions. He discovered a jail: wooden stockade, metal gate, elevated platform with ladder. Inside slumped a man, beaten and starving. Human bones littered the grim floor.

Nico picked the gate lock successfully, shushing the prisoner. The man introduced himself as Emilio and whispered pleas for freedom, revealing chains. Nico failed to open the manacles but signaled with a bird call Guido had taught. Fancy approached but triggered a dart trap Nico had missed by climbing on the wall, taking minor injury but successfully resisting the poison.

Fancy tried the manacles, too, but she also failed. Emilio begged not to be abandoned. In trying to get back to Gianna to see if she could use her strength to break the restraints, Fancy's step set off an alarm bell. The guards shouted, "What the heck is going on?" and all three rushed out, clubs swinging. One struck Fancy hard.

Combat erupted. Fancy backed off, firing her hand crossbow but missing. Nico stabbed a guard, wounding him. Volpeo slashed with his rapier, but missed. He caught him with his main gauche, however. Gianna's crossbow bolt felled one. Guards flailed, missing Guido, Volpeo, and Nico.

Fancy's next bolt missed wildly. Nico's dual strikes both failed. Volpeo feinted with rapier, then struck with his dagger for heavy damage, downing his foe. Guido charged, his mace connecting solidly. The last guard swung at Guido -- a miss.

Fancy's bolt struck true. Nico missed twice. Volpeo's rapier missed, but, again, his dagger sank deep, felling the final guard. "Float like a butterfly and stink like a bee," Volpeo boasted.

Fancy found keys on the body of one of the guards, unlocking Emilio's shackles. He devoured guards' stew and bread, grateful. They asked him why he was in prison. He told them that he was working on the dock, unloading shipments, when he overheard something he wasn't supposed to and was caught pausing to listen. "I overheard Capulet's envoy promising weapons from Genoa to fund the rebellion. Their Verona meetings will seal Venice's fall -- you have to stop them before it's too late!"

The Genoese merchant in question was named Capulet, a Veronese noble funding the contraband.

The guards' bodies yielded 15 gold pieces and a document confirming Capulet's role. Nico poisoned the stew for future guards. Exploring further, Nico rolled bread down halls to test traps. One dead end had dagger-carved floor tiles, so they skirted those tiles.

Another passage caved in from loose stones, but Nico's rolling loaves of bread help them to avoid the crush by causing a minor cave-in which could then be avoided.

At the end of that corridor, a rubble-choked room hid a half-buried satchel. Gianna dug it free, but the rubble pile shifted, and she was hurt in the process.  Inside was a turquoise gem and map of Verona identifying the location of Capulet's estate.

The dungeon exhausted, they exited with Emilio, who grabbed a club. "I always wanted friends I could go clubbing with," he said. The party reported back to Francesco Dandolo. They healed up, and Dandolo rewarded them with healing potions at Guido's request.

Their next objective was clear: overland to Verona, roads west, and potential encounters along the way.