Characters
Aria, a paladin struggling with her true nature
Heck, an affable revenant looking for answers
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell
Garazi, up and coming witch with a bird familiar
Events
When we last left off, the party members were emerging from the druggy haze of "toiling the midnight bell" only to find that they were being watched by a woman willing to trade their services for the two remaining invitations they needed to get into the Myrastopol Gala. That woman? The legendary artist Pietra Sangino. Her offer? She would give the party the gala tickets if they stole one of her paintings from the gang that currently had it in their possession.
She told them that the painting was in the clutches of the Butcher Boys, a thuggish gang of extortionist dwarves who act as muscle for hire in Veil. The painting was a portrait of Helena Graymalk, the leader of the powerful Graymalk clan of witches. Also, Pietra was clear that she didn't care if the painting came back in one piece or in scraps--as long as she could verify that the Butcher Boys didn't have it, she would be happy. The painting was being held in the Butcher Block, one of the Boys' hideouts. When asked by the group if the painting was magical, she replied "Of course not." She was, predictably, lying.
Panthalassa also requested that Pietra paint a small paper ship black so that it would match the Dawnrazor. A potential gift for Thomasina Laurant at a later date? Meanwhile, the group also saw that she was currently working on a painting of a three-headed chimera. Folks, we call that foreshadowing in the business.
The Butcher Block was surrounded by a tall stone wall, but that couldn't stop Garazi's bird familiar from scouting the compound. She discovered that there were two buildings inside: a fortified house and a large stable. Txori was also able to spot two Butcher Boy guards posted in different locations with crossbows at the ready. From her familiar's overview, Garazi was able to determine that the area under the least surveillance was the easternmost wall by the stable.
The group also knew that the Butcher Boys were sending and receiving ravens bearing messages to and from the Butcher Block. Having Garazi's familiar follow the ravens netted them knowledge of the gang's correspondents: they were in contact with the local army under the leadership of Sonja Barbarez. Aria chatted up a guardsman at the cathedral Sonja had commandeered as her garrison; she learned that Sonja Barbarez was gathering an army to march on behalf of the demon lord known as Legion. The group had considered pitting the Butcher Boys against the Legion forces, but now it seemed that they were allied--so another tactic was needed.
Meanwhile, Daytona, Panthalassa, and Nightsong were studying the nearby streets to see if the Butcher Boys had patrols or reinforcements nearby. They didn't, but the group did notice that they were being trailed by someone who was keeping to the back alleys. They executed a pincer maneuver to sandwich whoever was shadowing them--and their "prey" turned out to be Patchwork Jack, the highly intelligent corpse golem who had caused Viktoria Frankenstein and Serafina to flee their chateau in Creedhall in the first place.
Patchwork Jack tried to get Panthalassa and company on his side, hoping to get them to give up Viktoria so he could claim his "legacy" (he believed that the "Frankenstein organ" attached to Viktoria and Pendleton's brains was rightfully his as the true Frankenstein "heir") but he was having no luck. After realizing that his gambit was doomed to failure, he shouldered past Panthalassa and stalked off into the labyrinth of back alleys.
A plan for the art heist was hatched: Nightsong would link all their minds so they could communicate telepathically, then Heck and Aria would scale the wall, head into the stables to release the Butcher Boys' war ponies as a distraction. Things went according to plan until Aria and Heck realized that there were rooms to explore inside the stables--which got them into trouble. They managed to not alert the stableboy to their presence, but when Heck tried to sneak past a "man" "sleeping" on the stairs it turned out that the man was a doppelganger (he was the gang's spymaster) and that he was only playing possum. He stabbed Heck unexpectedly, incapacitating him.
However, before the doppelganger could strip Heck of his clothes and steal his identity, Aria rushed in and conveyed the situation to the rest of the group via telepathy, so they all came over the wall and ran to Heck's aid. Nightsong punched the doppelganger in the jaw, bouncing his head off of the stairs in the barn. Daytona, now wielding a magical rapier instead of his usual pistol to avoid unnecessary noise, finished the spymaster off by skewering him through the heart. Heck's wounds were healed, but the group were shaken by this early brush with death. Still, they decided to push on.
Nightsong knocked out the stablehand so he couldn't raise the alarm and Panthalassa took out the crossbow-wielding guard. In another bedroom above the stables, they found Thorik Haval--a fence who helped dispose of the gang's stolen goods. Unwilling to take on a group of well-armed intruders, Thorik allowed himself to be bound and gagged. However, before they trussed him up, he told them a few choice bits of intel in hopes that it would stay their hands and keep his throat un-slit: he informed them that the painting was located in the garret room at the top of the tower attached to the house and that they should avoid the bedroom south of his because it was the domain of "Gowan," whom Thorik suspected of being a demon on loan from the Legion forces.
Finally, they were able to enact their plan of letting loose the ponies and causing some distracting chaos! And--it worked; Butcher Boys spilled out of the house to round up their wayward ponies, which gave the party clear entry into the safehouse. Making their way up to the garret entailed fighting another guard, whom they interrupted while reading Love's Fatal Alchemy, a spicy romance novel.
He was dealt with, but as they ascended they woke Leopold Daskin, the dwarf-in-charge of this location's operation, and Darvala Kohn, a cambion sent by Legion's army to seduce Leopold and get him to give them the painting. (The Legion forces wanted to get ahold of the painting because it was magical and could potentially be used to control or influence Helena Graymalk, possibly even getting her to switch sides from Satan to the unholy triumvirate opposing him in the "Hell War.") During the fight, Garazi's conjured chains did a tremendous job of locking the pair down while the rest of the group proceeded to murder them.
At the topmost level of the tower, the group located the portrait of Helena Graymalk and cut it from its frame. They noticed that the woman appeared to move on the canvas; despite what Pietra had told them, the painting was indeed magical. Upon returning the painting to Pietra Sangino, the artist promptly turned on them because she knew that there was a price on their heads. She had finished the chimera she had been painting while they discussed terms days before--but now the beast emerged from the frame and attacked!
They slew the chimera--when it died it turned into a puddle of oil paints--and Panthalassa managed to wound Pietra with a necrotic bolt. Pietra ran and touched one of her landscape paintings, which transported her magically to that place. Daytona attempted to follow, but he didn't possess the knack for traveling through the painting. With Pietra gone, the group proceeded to trash her studio. However, she had left the coveted invitations she had promised them on a table--alongside a paper ship she had painted black at Panthalassa request.
Next time--the gala awaits.