Gotham

The Black Hand rides with the unconscious body of Thorn through a chilly night. It feels as though Arnal’s death has cooled the streets of Gotham.
The adventurers duck into an alley to secure and hide the body of Thorn and remove their masks to return through the streets to the Shadow Cave.
They imprison Thorn in a Shadow Cave cell and encounter Red. He helps the party rest while they explain their encounter in the streets outside the Pure Ladle.
Red fixates on the moment the guards abandon Thorn, finding the incident odd.
Red further adds to the party’s arsenal by granting them Formless Shape, which shrouds their forms in a vortex of shadows and grants bonuses to Intimidate and Stealth.
After further rest, the party dons their shadows and masks and confront Thorn.
Thorn threatens them at first, explaining that he will be found and the party will be in trouble.
But the party uses threats to make Thorn afraid, and his resolve quickly crumbles. He seems to be afraid of something finding him.
Chains inquires as to what could shake someone like Thorn, but Thorn reveals that he is not Thorn at all, but a “Face” of Thorn, and that Thorn will track him down and kill him to protect the information he has.
The party gets as much information out of the Face as possible:
- The princess has attacked Thorn’s men and infiltrated his loyal elite in the upper class of Gotham, for her own gain, and to Thorn’s detriment. She is associated with a group called “the Masquerade”
- Thorn’s influence grows more powerful with the Shine.
- Thorn associates with the Jackal, but carefully, as the Jackal is a dangerous force and power.
- Holly the pixie has been operating out of an abandoned church located in the Pass between East and West Gotham.
The adventurers hear a pounding at the Gazebo entrance to the Shadow Cave. They take the side exit to investigate, and find a dead Kane manor guard and guard dog, and a brown form pounding at the Gazebo.
It is a homunculus with necrotic and cold powers that seems to report to an unseen agent, and presumably has come to dispose of the Face.
The party engages the homunculus. Highlights:
- The homunculus hits hard with burst attacks and teleport abilities, as though existing between planes. It is difficult to move and saves when knocked prone.
- Jin dazes the homunculus early on, sending it into an insubstantial state that resists damage, but preventing it from taking its full turns.
- Ryviin and Arcarius team up to deliver ridiculous amounts of damage.
- Tamarin activates a special mode that allows him to attack from a distance, avoiding an aura from the homunculus. He also concentrates his powers to disrupt the homunculus’ focus, causing it to harm itself, and triggers Chains’ marking abilities for another free attack. Very damaging!
- The homunculus ends swinging, dropping several party members with its action points and burst attacks, but between a heal from Arcariu’s daily death save, Jin’s heal check and Chains’ Shield of Prator, the team stays alive and well in the end. Bravo!