Acquisitions Incorporated: The Series - Episode 6

 

You can watch this episode here.

Force Grey started this week! Episode 1 was really good. It's also half an hour long. It is definitely worth seeing.

Last Time: The group stole a piece of the rod of seven parts, but Carrington the drunk NPC blew their cover. A big pile of dwarves is probably about to attack them.

The Party

(Jerry) Omin Dran - Half-Elf Cleric
(Mike) Jim Darkmagic - Human Wizard
(Scott) Binwin Bronzebottom - Dwarf Fighter/Barbarian
(Patrick) Viari - Human Rogue  

Carrington is drunkenly accusing the heroes of being impostors. Jim casts sleep and Carrington is out. The group stuffs him in the box, in a compartment above Jim and Binwin.

Ironbeard takes the bribe. He whispers that there is some stuff in the place that Viari might be interested in. Black Powder. Basically, gunpowder.

Viari says no thanks. The group has what they want and now they want to get the heck out of here. They make their way to the Hall of War, which is where those four big portcullises are.

Suddenly, an alarm goes off. Two stone golems are blocking the exit.

Guards go running. Some approach the group. They still don't suspect the heroes. These guards say that they will protect the heroes from whatever the threat is.

The portcullises will not open until the dwarf king opens them. The place is basically on lockdown.

The group has a map and knows there is a room with levers that control the portcullises.

Viari spots the secret door. The group knew it was there, but it took a bunch of perception checks to actually figure out exactly where it was.

The group watches as the Zhentarim get led into the hall of elders. Apparently they are being blamed for the theft.

The heroes learn that the Zhentarim stole a belt of giant strength from the dwarves and they are blaming the heroes! Ha.. what a great idea. The dwarves don't believe them.

The adventurers go before the king. The Zhentarim are there and they sneer at the heroes. Very condescending!

There's a dais in this hall. The group discusses how "dais" is pronounced. I always thought it was  "DIE-us" but I just checked. Listen to this and check out the weird second pronunciation.

Then I looked up Sigil, because it bothers me when people call it "Siggle." This lady says I'm right!

Omin suddenly realizes that the Zhentarim planted the belt on the group. That's what he thinks, anyway. Crazy.

The King is old and has cataracts. His wife is next to him. She whispers to him a lot. Looks like he can't hear very well, so she tells him what people say.

Jim and Binwin realize the sleep spell is wearing off on Carrington. He wakes up! We roll initiative to see who acts when.

Jim tries to cast sleep.. but it doesn't affect Carrington. It affects one of the dwarf guards. The dwarf topples over.

It took me a minute to understand why this happened. Sleep affects creatures within a 20 foot radius from a point you choose, starting with the one that has the least amount of hit points. So it looks like one of those dwarf guards was quite wimpy and had less hit points than Carrington.

It appears that things are about to get nutty. Carrington suddenly sits up and points at Omin, who is still in disguise as his sister. Carrington cries out, "He is not a woman!"

That's where we stop!

Timestamps

(17:07) Jim stashes a piece of the rod in a very safe place.
(31:44) The Jig is up.

Overall

Good show! This one is one of my favorites so far.

Twists: I really like all of the twist ideas here. I'll definitely try to use some in my games. Bad guys planting a stolen item on the heroes. A heist going afoul because someone else sets off the alarm. A drunk guy who knows too much and needs to be kept sedated under delicate circumstances. Really good stuff!

Sleep: I didn't really understand why the dwarf guard fell asleep until I looked up the spell. Chris is really on the ball. He didn't even hesitate. I never would have got that right.