The session begins with the Dungeon Master retconning a small detail from the previous combat: instead of biting down on a fake poison tooth, the gnome assassin, Stubb, cracked a poison capsule hidden inside his cigar to kill himself.
Meil rejoins the group in the hallway, standing over the dead bodies of the assassins, Vane and Stubb.
Disposing of the Evidence
Realizing they need to hide the bodies before the ship's guards arrive, the group searches for a disposal method.
Craig spots a bottomless garbage chute integrated into the walls that leads to the bowels of the ship. Taspar drags Vane, while Mali and Craig carry Stubb, and they successfully dump the bodies down the chute.
The Bank Heist
The group decides to steal the 150 gold piece payment Vane received and identify his mysterious employer.
They head to the Aria First Line Bank. To pull this off, Craig and Mali cast Disguise Self to perfectly resemble the deceased Stubb and Vane.
Mali (disguised as Vane) tells the bank teller they want to re-transfer the gold to a new account (Taspar's account). However, to find out who originally sent the money, they need to look at the teller's ledger.
The Distraction: David and Taspar burst into the bank. David acts as a frantic lawyer representing Taspar in an inheritance dispute, dumping a massive pile of confusing, half-stamped paperwork onto a nearby table to pull the teller away from her desk.
The Theft: With the teller distracted, Mali uses sleight of hand (assisted by David's clockwork mouse) to slide the ledger away. Craig quickly searches the book and discovers the mercenaries were paid by an account named “Ninefold Interest and Trust”. They return the ledger unnoticed and finalize their gold transfer.
The Boxcar & The Informant
Meili reveals that Ninefold Interest and Trust is a corrupt, greedy organization that acts as a front for organized crime.
Seeking more information, the party heads to the lower decks to visit The Boxcar, an impromptu gambling den run by a hospitable man named Julian.
While David and Taspar gamble on a dice game called “Caper” (which David wins by secretly using magical tinkering to cheat), Julian quietly tells Mali that her informant is located in Cargo Bay 5.
Cargo Bay 5 & The Manifests
As the group approaches Cargo Bay 5, a fire mysteriously breaks out in the nearby crew quarters. Taspar and Craig rush to help put out the fire, creating a perfect distraction for Meili and David to slip into the cargo bay unseen.
Inside, Mali spots three men frantically searching through boxes of paperwork. One of them is her informant, a young man named Sid.
Sid confesses that his crew (under the authority of the “Brimari”) was hired by the “Governor's Son” to steal ARIA Corp cargo manifests via a dead drop, but they failed the initial theft and are now desperately searching the cargo bay.
Mali and David help them search and successfully locate all five pages of the cargo manifest. Mali strikes a deal with Sid: she will deliver the manifests to the dead drop for them in exchange for a cut of the 100-gold-per-page reward, sparing the men from the Governor's Son's wrath.
The Dream Singer Encounter
While searching the bay, Mali hears stringed music and discovers Creativity, one of the multi-armed feline Dream Singers.
Creativity is wandering the bay, plucking his instrument and tapping the metal walls with a hammer to test their acoustic resonance. He tucks away a large scroll of sheet music when he spots her, politely invites her to watch him perform at the Boxcar later, and leaves.
Post-Game Revelations & The Forgery Plan
The group reconvenes at the Boxcar to read the stolen manifests. Craig immediately recognizes a serial number on Page 4 (XM 110) as an ARIA Corp weapon system—the same model as his own rifle, indicating heavy weaponry is being smuggled.
They also notice other highly suspicious items, including 5,000 pounds of corporate archives and massive quantities of magic-blocking lead sheets.
Realizing that multiple factions (ARIA Corp, the Hillish Republic, and the Tirwyn Kingdom) are making secretive power grabs, the group decides they cannot give the real manifests to the Governor's Son. The session ends with the party plotting to use David's forgery kit to alter the documents, replacing the weapons shipments with mundane items (like industrial lubricant) to collect the bounty while keeping the weapons a secret.