After Raoden ruined their reputation and destroyed their life, the session started.
But before that can happen Oliver went to visit Finley in his lab. They discuss the stealth cloak that Finley said he could possibly make, Finley replies that he needs a full day’s notice if they want to have it.
Oliver let’s Finley know about the new quest they received from the harpers, so Finley starts preparing to make the cloak.

Sergor and Aria go to the seatower of Balduran in an attempt to ask for their hard earned money. They head towards Bernham’s office.
After a nice plea by Sergor explaining how vicious and tough the opponent was and how it destroyed their armor, Bernham didn’t give a shit and just gave them the original reward of 750GP each. Aria asks him about looking at the prison and seeing where the escapees were, and he directs them to his assistant.
Sergor then asks about the other two serial killers. Bernham lets him know that one of them is in Wyrms Cross. They’ve found victims left in their rooms. Locked inside with no signs of break in. Their throats were slit, and there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the victims, seemingly random.
The other serial killer is in the upper city so they are the Watch’s responsibility.

They then go with the assistant who recommends they go talk to Commander Dernham who is in charge of the prison.
Commander Durnham is a muscular warden looking man, and told them about the bounties emphasizing that Xzar is extremely dangerous and they think he is still in the vicinity of Baldurs Gate, as opposed to Leah who is a mass murderer who they think is headed towards Neverwinter.
Aria and Sergor convince him to let them see the cells and he leads the way down the prison, which seems like hell on earth with barely any light and in some places no light at all, with everything being damp and wet from the waves crashing against the tower.
They arrive at the deepest floor of the prison where the most dangerous prisoners were kept. Durham tells them that 13 prisoners escaped from this wing, Xzar and Leah included but they already caught 4. Aria looks for any markings or writings but can’t find any, so Sergor looks for magic and finds out the walls are now magically reinforced.

Aria then asks to speak to a guard that was there at the time of the explosion, so Durham brings over a young guard called Leeroy.
He was on the way back to the barracks when the explosion occurred so he lived through it. He tells them that the guild helped some of the prisoners escape and some got out on their own. But they don’t know who was guild and who wasn’t. He starts talking about some people swimming across the river but is quickly shushed by his commander. They then thank them for their time and leave.

Once they are out of the tower Sergor asks Aria about why she wanted to see the cells and she tells him that the Watch were told about 14 escapees and they know there were actually 15 escapees. Aria compares the two lists and finds out that the missing name is Handrel Gloom. She also remembers that the gloom family are a noble family from never winter that used to have a branch in Baldurs Gate until something happened. She also tells Sergor about Matt.
She then goes to stalk Leeroy after confirming with Gerald he is the guard he talked to.

Oliver goes to talk to Raoden once he comes back to the workshop.
Raoden yells at Finley that he did good, but is then interrupted by Oliver before he can explain what good did he do.
Oliver tells Raoden he has made good progress, didn’t succumb to drugs and did some good (but not the one Raoden just referred to doing) such as stopping a serial killer and didn’t do drugs. He also didn’t kill his competition just to win but instead killed his competition because it was for the good of the land.
Raoden thanks him and elaborates on the good he did earlier letting him know that he talked with the Baldurs mouth about their rebrand to the So Far Group.

He tells them that they even interviewed him, and that it’s going to be a fantastic issue. He tells them it’s a personal touch interview so the people of Baldur’s Gate can know who we are and show the human side of the group, making us relatable. He described it as a feel good fluff piece. Raoden then says he is going to read a book about dungeon survival.

Oliver goes to Nelly, and waits until she is done with her customer. Once inside Nelly lets him know that there’s been a reporter there from the Baldurs Mouth asking about him. She is mad at him about it because she doesn’t like the publicity and doesn’t want to end up like Evie. Oliver apologizes and says Raoden’s went to the Baldur’s Mouth to inform them about the rebranding of the group and he said they asked him questions but he has no idea what they asked, what he said, or why they would come there and ask her questions specifically.

She asks him what’s up and he says he just wanted to hang out, and she says OK whatever money is money. He says 6 years is enough time living in fear, and has been thinking about going to find out what’s going on with his ship. They discuss the Bitch Queen. Nelly says that she is still worried about Umberlee possibly being mad at Oliver for using her name. He replies that considering he was the sole survivor from the ship she may have had her eyes on him in a good way prior to this, and she might actually have a hand in what happened. Nelly replies that maybe Umberlee had a reason to keep him alive. Nelly asks if this is Oliver’s way to say goodbye but he says it’s not as it’s only going to be 6 years in 3 months. He discusses his plan of first gathering information before doing anything rash (a revolutionary new strategy that has never been tried before). Nelly says she doesn’t know his crew mates but they probably don’t deserve their fate of being undead pirates.
She asks him if by telling her he’s asking her to gather what information she can about the ship from sailors and he says he did not think about it but if she is willing he would love that. She says OK if she still has a job the following day as she is scared of the Baldurs mouth.

Cut to:

17th of Hammer
Baldurs mouth has come out. The streets are in uproar.
Raoden finds the paper and runs to find Finley. He accidentally wakes up Finley’s roommate and Finley and him both run to the steel dragon inn, they look for Oliver but can’t find him so Rickey directs them to the Coastal Paradise. They find Oliver on the way there. They then run together to the singing owl and try to find Aria, but she is not there. They then meet up in the Steel Dragon inn (with Aria in tow) and read the Baldurs mouth.

It begins with a report about the mass murderer. And then talks about the gem shortages, they believe the guild is smuggling fake gems into the city. Then the bad part starts with a special exposé. There is also an ad for “the Blinding” , a church of Tyr ceremony in front of the statue of the beloved ranger in 5 days. This issue’s exposé is about Oliver, saying that he is wanted for numerous crimes in Waterdeep, exposing his visits to the Coastal Paradise (which he never tried to hide) and mentioning Nelly specifically, and finally blaming him for the murder of Evie.

Oliver gets very mad at Raoden about the paper, asking what the hell he told them. Aria asks Raoden what they should be prepared for in the next few articles. He says it’s been a few hours so he doesn’t remember everything but they asked about her Surname. Aria then regrets not saying her name was Millie.
Raoden says a lot of things that he said and they ignored. About Sergor she asked if he threatened a patriar to marry his daughter to which he said idk. She asked if Finley got a girl pregnant in beregost. Finley said he did not use protection, to which Raoden replies that either she is pregnant and doesn’t know it yet or she is not pregnant. Aria suggests she is pregnant by someone else and is trying to say Finley is the dad, but Finley says Cera wouldn’t do that.
Aria then asks Raoden if he slept with his family, and he said no but he does know a few noble families that do it.
Raoden says next she called his dad the tyrant king, and he corrected her that he is a dragon king, she also asked him if he was expelled and he said that he left of his own volition. He also told her we all sleep together in the same room except for Aria who is a woman.
He is mad that he told her several times that they are now the So Far Group and not the Baldurs Gate Five, and she didn’t even print it or mention it once. Finley is mad they didn’t run his ad.
Raoden says the takeaway is that the preacher might appear in the Blinding and that they didn’t call them the So Far Group.

Oliver asks Aria if she knows a lawyer as he wants to sue them for libel. She asks him if he did piracy near water deep and he says yes meaning it’s not libel but true.
Finley suggests they dig into the reporter’s personal life as payback and print gossip about her.
As the conversation nears its end they suggest that the silver lining is Silvershield agreed to currently not extradite Oliver to Waterdeep.
Aria says we can’t sue them because they will win. Oliver suggest to do more positive things in the city to overpower the gossip, and Finley wants to do more bad so they won’t print the bad they already have.

Aria then pivots badly to tell the rest of the group about her brother escaping from prison. Finley also does a bad segue to give Aria a box with 4 cartridges that will SHOCK her aka a concentration helping thingamajig.
Aria lets them know about the lead of a guard who knew he was there. She is thinking of scaring him into telling them shit.

Aria then goes to the harbormaster to ask about the Gloom family’s business in Baldurs Gate. She gets a very thin folder with information, there’s a single page that says they were a merchant family that sold magical items and then a huge seal that says confidential by Duke Silvershield. The harbor lady says the Judicial Archives in the Judicial Palace might have more records but that’s a restricted area, where only high up folks can get access to enter.
She then decides to go look for old Baldurs Mouth articles about the Gloom family.

Sergor talks with Borm about the article and asks him if he can find out what’s gonna be written in the next parts of the exposé. Sergor apologizes about it happening in the paper but he is not going to stop associating with Oliver as he is a capable fighter and good ally, and if he stopped associating with all brutes he would have to deny his entire family too who are all brutes.
He then goes to try and talk to Silvershield who conveniently is busy at the moment and can’t talk to him right now, so he leaves him a note asking him 3 things:
1. Does he know or was asked to comment about the following day’s exposés?
2. What happened to Norrid after the bomb stuff? Was he in seatower and escaped? We want to know what happened after the Bhaal influence.
3. Can we get a note/recommendation allowing us to investigate the serial killing in the upper city? We are unsure if they would talk to us because of current circumstances but we want to help the city.
He leaves the note and asks the assistant to please give him the reply hastily, thanks her and goes to find the rest of the group.

The group then meets up (except for Aria) in the Steel Dragon and catches Sergor up about what Raoden did, so Sergor asks them to please not talk to the Baldurs Mouth again and that he has to go deal with the exposé that’s going to happen about him.

Aria finds some old articles about the Gloom family losing their license to sell magic items but not why or much else information about it.

Sergor went back to his uncle. He told him he found out that they are going to post that he threatened Kaleth to marry his daughter, and that the five are sleeping together. Borm said it’s probably going to be easy to deny it, assuming they would deny it as well. Borm said that he needs a way to go there unseen and tell them to postpone the wedding plans so the mouth doesn’t presume they are threatening them again. Sergor suggested getting a potion of alter self to make getting there unseen easily.

Raoden goes to a general store to buy something that would retain the shape of items he puts in it, to try and get imprints of keyholes. The merchant shows him why it’s impossible so he says he will take some more time pondering about this and rethink his strategy.

Oliver goes to the workshop for the list of ingredients for the spell Finley’s master made. He wants to ask the sorcerous sundries about what spell could they be used for, but Finley is a bit hesitant saying they probably don’t know more than him as he is a genius alchemist, and less importantly has been spending years trying to figure it out, but sure if he wants to try.

Aria goes to find Gerald on his patrol to talk to him, she messages him to get away from his group and catches him up about the Matt thing with the 13 prisoners having escaped not 14. She tells him about the Gloom information she has and they try to brainstorm ways to get into the archive but Gerald is an NPC so he has no solution for her. She also tells him about Leeroy and her stalking him. Gerald figures out that the people who had to swim were ones who the Guild didn’t want to take with them. They then talk about how Matt could have possibly made his way to a dungeon inside Seatower and not the one of the Watch, and not moved to the Watch. They must have kept the information about him very confidential. Someone very high up would have had to erase his name from the prison records and arrest records.

Sergor gets a potion and then goes to give it to Borm but meets Aria on the way and she asks to talk to Jefor so they go together. They first go and give Borm the potion and then go to seatower to talk to Jefor.

Jefor has been given a new higher office but not the position yet. Aria asks him who in the flaming fist would have access to edit arrest and prison logs, he says a few of the higher ups. Anyone with a rank of flame and above would have access to both of those, no more than 5 people in Baldurs Gate. There are 3 flames, 2 blazes and the Marshal himself in Baldurs Gate. They let Jefor know that they think they tried to cover up his existence and not specifically his escape. They say a lot of things allegedly and theoretically in an attempt to convey what they mean. They emphasize to please look into it very discreetly and he says sure he will let them know in a few days.
They then ask him to please deny and spin things to the best of his ability if he is asked about them from the Baldurs Mouth as one of them talked to the gossip lady there. He facepalms saying you never talk to her, but says he will try his best and wishes them good luck as they head off.

Oliver goes to the sorcerous sundries and asks about the ingredients and if they can figure out what some of the other halves are. They give him no answers. They said it’s possibly for multiple potions and spells rather than one big one
Oliver then told everyone about the guild caches then went to scout the one in Blackgate. He wants Raoden to come with invisible and flying so they won’t notice him but Raoden is busy working on his potion so he goes alone.

Oliver looks around the neighborhood and asks the stable owner about the stable and prices and leaving his horse there. He spots a homeless person watching the stable. He knows from experience that homeless people in the city always look out for information they can sell to the highest bidder so they are not necessarily guild members.
Finley makes 25gp from his actual job making potions and alchemy shit.

Raoden goes to buy a 50gp diamond from sorcerous sundries and buys it for 300gp, and then the rest of the party goes to hunt wolves.
We track the wolves, but after a while the ground vibrates a bit and Raoden’s and Finley’s legs sink.
A huge green insect-like creature bursts out of the ground after Finley. It is an Ankheg. Not long after another one joins.
We kill them and then we get acid for Finley and enough Ankheg armor for a single set of armor.

We resume tracking the wolves into a small cave, Raoden sends Max forward to check on them and sees there are a few cubs. Raoden feels conflicted about killing cubs but eventually relents and fireballs them, killing them all. He feels bad about it and then holds his sheep sleep doll.
One of the wolves was a winter wolf but we destroyed the pelts by burning them. We collect the pelts and go give them to the farmer. Raoden refuses the reward so Sergor takes it as the farmer insists. Raoden then pets one of the sheep and weeps silently while hugging it.

They then go to sleep and rest longly.

18th of Hammer
The party spends way too long discussing which stash house we are going to try and hit, they can’t come up with a good plan because they don’t know the size and how much stuff is in a cache. They ended up agreeing to go to twin songs. They all go to the preacher of Tyr to ask about the Blinding except for Raoden and Oliver who send Max as a pigeon to the bell tower to look in and see the cache. He sees a trap door leading to the tower itself. He flies in through one of the windows. There are two storage rooms where the cache could possibly be, one on the upper floor and one on the lower floor. They decide to table it until night time and instead ask the priest of Tyr about the blinding.

Apparently they cover their eyes with scarves in the wide and pray to Tyr. And then they celebrate. They have the watch on ready alert and moving through the crowd in case anything happens. Sergor thanks him for his time and donates a bit to the church and they head off.

The So Far group head to Keinen to pay him some more, he tells them that whoever wrote the book was a plane skipper, and Raoden gets very excited so he jacks up the price. He found several references about passage between the planes. We pay him for 4 more days which is the estimated amount of time for him to finish.

And then as the session is about to time skip to the night so the heist can commence it ends. See you next month, space cowboy.