A Songbirds Campaign Retrospective: Part 1

 

This week, I did something that is probably rarer than it should be in the tabletop RPG sphere: I ended a campaign, rather than let it fizzle out or changing tracks and leaving it hanging. I have had a few people ask me about the campaign and my thoughts, so I figured I would write it up as a blog post.

I have previously written my thoughts on the game, Songbirds 3e, and my overall thoughts on the game haven't changed much, so if you're more interested in review-like thoughts, that's the post you should be reading. In this post, I'll rather instead be focusing on the campaign itself, taking a bit of a bird's eye view on how it ran, the choices I made, and a write-up of the general story. I'm not very good with keeping session notes (read: I don't take or keep any notes), so I will be relying on my memory for this, as well as looking at the prep I did. Relying on the adage of "prep situations, not plots", many of the situations I prepared are gathered in my Songbirds miscellany, Fragments. If this is useful or inspiring for you, great! It might also give you an indication of the type of prep I do for myself when DM'ing, as these are essentially my notes as I wrote them for myself, but put into layout (largely because I prefer reading from something nice-looking and I thought it was fun). 

If you're not interested in the real-world circumstances or my thoughts and just want the play report, you can skip straight to the campaign recap, otherwise, just read on!

Meta-information 

In terms of general background information on the campaign, it started in mid-January 2024, so it ran for roughly a year and a half. In principle, we scheduled to play every week, but of course there were cancelled sessions along the way. The player group also underwent a bit of change with some players being replaced for normal life reasons. In August of 2023, I had moved to Germany from Australia and thus left my previous play group behind. I joined a Discord server for local English speakers (a godsend for someone in Germany whose German is rough at best), and there was a sizeable group of people in the server interested in playing "DnD" - a meet-up was organised at a local cafe/bar and around ten people showed up. Most had unsurprisingly come with the expectation that they would play a 5e campaign, while I came armed with a backpack full of alternatives (if memory serves me right, it was Songbirds, Mörk Borg, and Hard Wired Island) - if nobody took the bait, I would have been okay to play 5e, but I would much rather something else, and my secret weapon was that I was willing to GM it.

In the end, the group split in two (ten people is probably too much for a non-open table/West Marches game anyway - unless you're Gary Gygax or Matt Finch), three people were keen try my alternatives to the elephant in the room, and we spent the rest of the afternoon deciding on which game to play (landing on Songbirds) and making characters. Repeating myself, the random character creation is fantastic and also warmly embraced by players used to the big OC backstory style associated with 5e play.

Unfortunately, one of the original players had to leave after a few months, as their life got too busy to sustain a weekly game - fortunately, I had made some more friends at this point and was quickly able to replace her. Around the same time, we also decided that we'd like to expand the group to GM+4 players - as it was, continuing the campaign with only 2/3 players felt like a bit too few when there was cancellations. We relatively quickly managed to get another player from the Discord server who was keen.

This continued well for a while, with us playing as usual on weeks with only one player cancelling, but eventually one player went on indefinite holiday back to his home country and another had an extra busy time coming up with work, so had to step back for a few months. We quickly brought in another friend and operated under the assumption that the second friend would return soon. To keep their seat open, we decided that on weeks with someone missing, we would just play one-shots of something else instead of continuing the campaign with only 2/3 active players. In the end, our other friend never found the time to return, so this is the way the group has run until now (one shots played include Mörk Borg, Cairn, and CBR+PNK). We will be bringing in another player for our next campaign, but this was a very successful solution to make sure we played something (almost) every week.

Starting the campaign I had a few principles: I did not want anyone to do a lot of homework, and I did now want to prepare a big world or plot in advance (keen minds will immediately notice that these two are linked). Especially because, if a canon setting is established, it's nice to know about it as a player - meaning homework (I have previously written my thoughts on implied settings, and how it is good if players have an understanding of the world to the extent it is defined). This meant no big map with predefined locations, but this needed some in-fiction justification: why doesn't anyone know where anything is? I came up with some explanation involving some vague disaster that broke the world so geography is no longer constant: this gave me the justification to just randomly generate the map on the fly, which I did by drawing random tiles from the Hexcrawl Toolbox whenever the player characters were scouting (I had also been looking for an excuse to use the toolbox, so this was two birds with one stone).

As I wanted to play a game with lots of overland travel, I ended up jettisoning the parts of the rules that assumed the Songbirds would return home to The City after every session. Similarly, I didn't want my players to feel obligated to do anything between sessions (remember: no homework), so I likewise got rid of the Dream Journeys and Downtime between sessions, role-playing them in-person during the sessions as well. I think this type of game elements is really cool, but it was not something I wanted to throw at a newly formed group of players whom I didn't know well yet.

This brings us to what happened in the actual campaign:

Campaign Recap 

The City and Surrounds 

The original party consisted of Inigo the Moon Child, Lucius the Fang, and Petra the Dragoon. Lucius and Petra shared and ex, while Inigo had once saved Petra's life. Petra had recently come back to life as a songbird, and did not have any memories of her death, while Lucius and Inigo had both been around for a while. Inigo is a musician, earning his keep by playing in taverns, while Lucius is the type who does unsavoury odd-jobs. Petra is not yet established enough to have a profession. All three of them lived in the Cricket Quarter of the City, essentially a ghetto/slum with a large Songbird population. They would frequent the Songbird bar The Cage, whose proprietress Hasandra gave them a task: The blue dragon scale whose magic helped keep the tavern calm was losing its power, so she asked them to find Cyrael, the blue dragon of peace, and bring back a new scale.

After saving the cartographer's daughter from some unpleasant types, they paid her and her father a visit, though after the rending of the world, the maps were no longer really useful: what point is there in drawing the lay of the land if it is going to be different tomorrow? Not finding any useful maps, they instead got a good deal on some special sodas and a magical tent that would protect them from wind and weather, in exchange for the service of delivering a letter to the central districts of the City, which proved to be a trivial task. The group also visited the horse trader, but found his prices to be outrageous and opted to not buy any animals. 

Leaving the city and venturing out into the wilderness, the group happen upon a lone horse, drinking from a stream in the hills. Inigo spooks it by taking out his bow, but Petra manages to calm it down, and they manage to bridle it with rope. They are still close enough to the City that one of them heads back to buy a proper bridle and harness to pack their things on the horse, which they name Dragon, before they press on. Making camp on a hill that evening, the party is set upon by a group of goons in the night. There to steal their stuff, Inigo shoots one with his bow, while Lucius violently kills another with his two hatchets, and the remaining goons flee. The memories of these killings would haunt them for a long time.

[GM's note: I am using the Songbirds random encounter tables, rolling for encounters once per day and once per night during wilderness travel]

Moving on the next day, in the late afternoon the group happens upon a large intricate stone circle. The three Songbirds feel a draw to venture into it. Inigo is immediately suspicious, and wants to quickly move on, while Petra and Lucius are more curious and venture in. As they proceed towards the centre, they are filled with a feeling of safety and contentment, so they continue and make their camp in the centre of the stone circle, drinking the water from a wellspring there and feeling pleasant and relaxed. Inigo still feels the pull of the circle, but resists it, climbing a tree near the perimeter to keep watch over his companions. In the night Lucius is plagued by terrible nightmares of the man he killed, while Petra sleeps the best sleep of her life. Inigo is exhausted after a night of wakefulness.

[GM's note: this next part is already written in greater detail as a play report here]

Lucius tries to hide his sorry states after a night of terrible dreams, but is unable to. However, after a few hours of walking, Petra seems to have vanished into thin air while neither of the other two were looking at her. As they have a mission and no clues for finding Petra, they opt to continue walking rather than search for her. [GM's note: This is because Petra's player had to step away from the game.] After some further hours of walking, the group comes upon a young woman lying just under the surface of a small creek, deathly pale and with a big scar across her neck, wearing army fatigues. She suddenly wakes up with no memory of her previous life, and the group deduces that she must be a freshly awakened Songbird. Inigo has a feeling that he has seen her before, but is not saying (the relation roll decided that she was Inigo's sister). She joins the pair rather than be alone in the wilds.

The group pass through the lavender fields, putting a dampener on all aggression, making their bickering difficult. They camp here for the night before moving on, the next day's travels having them cross a small stream. Lucius is paralysed with self-doubt while wading through, while Lee is carried across by Dragon, as she has a fear of water after her experience in the stream. After some encouragement from the others, Lucius finally manages as well, but is exhausted by the ordeal. They make camp by the stream, and in the night, two goons appear on the other side, but are prevented from crossing the stream, similarly to Lucius.

Having scouted a bit, the group decides to press on toward a jungle, where they come across a skeletal caretaker of a grove of unusual fruit trees. The three each agree to trade a story for a fruit, not realising that giving away the story in the bargain means forgetting it. Lee tells a fable about greed, Lucius the story of how he got his bird, Bert, and Inigo the story of their adventure thus far. Eating the fruits, the three feel stronger and more resilient. The caretaker also shares some of his jungle-weed for smoking, and the group camp behind his shack.

On their next day of travel, they come across another Songbird, Qamar, as he emerges from a huge flower, newly reborn. He died in a far away land, fighting against oppressive forces seeking to extract oil from the Earth. He decides to join the three in their quest.

Pressing on through the jungle, the four arrive at an eerily quiet clearing surrounding a red lake populated with blind carps. It reminds Inigo of the one said to be the final resting place of the fair maiden Lynestra. Lucius throws caution to the wind and jumps in, finding her intact corpse, among the fish-eaten remains of others, her heart is pierced by the Blade of Regret, which Lucius retrieves, overcoming the feeling of melancholy when he grabs it.

In the night, the group fight off a massive mosquito, and next day arrive at a golden temple shaped as a cat's head. Inside, they find Arnold the Man-cat, a cat with the uncanny face of a man. They converse a bit, but he does not have much to offer that would interest the group, so they press on. In the night, they hold their breath as something that sounds like a massive snake passes by their camp.

In the morning, they pass by a little talking pony, just going by his business, eating some weed plants in the jungle, before they reach a huge gorge, with the only bridge across blocked by a figure clad in heavy armour. They say that any who will fight them in honourable combat may pass. There is some trepidation around this, before Lucius volunteers himself. They exchange blows, and Lucius ends up quite bruised, and is forced to yield, however, as this was honourable combat, he is allowed to pass. Realising that the figure is not intending to kill, the others each take them on, being quicker to yield than Lucius to avoid those extra bruises.

By the Steppes and the Sea

Past the gorge, the group leaves the jungle and arrives in a region of dry steppes. Here, they have to be more careful of conserving their water and finding water sources, not just food. Walking towards what appears to be a settlement, they are attacked by bandits. These are quickly dispatched, but the group chooses not to kill them, just take their weapons so they will not harm anyone else, as well as their valuables as compensation for attacking.

The songbirds arrive at the Porphyric Anti-Ziggurat, a tiered settlement carved into the earth, with stepped streets surrounding a central well in the bottom. It turns out that spending the night at an inn here would be expensive, but it can be had for free if they accept to take part in the water ritual. Inigo pays to avoid this, while the other three accept the terms.

Every morning, the water ritual is carried out on a platform in the centre of the well. The high priest uses the Blade of the Ur-Spring to cut open the forearms of those volunteering for the ritual. Rather than blood, water gushes from the wounds, replenishing the well and allowing the settlement to survive in the dry steppes. There is no lasting damage to those who take part, and the priests provide a healing salve for the wounds, so they should recover in just a few days. The three volunteer songbirds take their turns on consecutive days. During their stay, Lucius is invited to an orgy where he runs into his and Petra's shared ex, Sam. Coincidentally, Sam is also the person whom Lee believes betrayed her in the army, leading to her death. Lucius and Sam share a night of passion, the details of which Lucius opts not to share with the others. Lee acquires new clothes to get rid of army fatigues, buying the secret blue and white works of a seamstress tired of making the same black clothes traditional in the Anti-Ziggurat. Inigo and Qamar shop for supplies. Lucius drinks a Simulacrum soda and tries to get the small copy of himself to burgle an apothecary shop for him, however, after fetching some sodas, the clone turns on him, and Lucius destroys it. After this, the authorities start becoming suspicious, and the songbirds move on.

They make camp at a long dead tree adorned with handwritten notes instead of leaves. Each of the notes contains someone's wishes in the hope that the spirits of the tree will fulfil them. In the morning, they pass through an old battlefield, long-rusted weaponry and armour scattered around. Here, they meed Erica, the Blade-singer. Inigo offers her the gift of music for her to sing along to, and in return, she blesses a blade for him.

The next day, the group are travelling toward a lighthouse, visible in the distance. On their way, they pass an odd rock, which makes a humming sound, however, no explanation could be found. They arrive at the lighthouse in the late afternoon, and as they make their way up the winding path around the rock, there are spirits in the air and Lee is possessed. Arriving at the top, they are greeted by the ancient lighthouse keeper, who is a gracious host and offers old wine and good food from the sea. As the night progresses, the spirit-fueled storm outside worsens, and Lucius loses his lighter when he steps out for a smoke. In the morning, the group visits a shipwreck south of the lighthouse, where Qamar dives down and finds a wedding band belonging to the lost husband of the woman buried by the lighthouse as well as some money and rusted muskets. Bringing the wedding band to the grave, the spirit is helped to find peace, and the lighthouse keeper lets the group bring along a bottle of fine wine.

After leaving the lighthouse, the songbirds made camp for the evening in a patch of desert to the north, and in the night were set upon by a giant snake. Cutting it with the Blade of Regret, Lucius was able to trap it in a wallowing sadness, and the group were able to kill it. Being a Red Mage, Lee learned a magic spell from it, that had in turn been absorbed from wizards the snake had previously killed.

In the morning, the group keep north-east along the coast and encounter an old tower. At the top is a withered altar scattered with dried flowers and a smattering of coins. The group enters the sealed door at the base, entering a room filled with bas-reliefs depicting the victories of the ancient warlord Lorus. Proceeding through the antechamber, with Inigo and Lee standing guard at the entrance, Qamar and Lucius reach the burial chamber, where Lucius pushes open Lorus' sarcophagus. The body of Lorus immediately rises as a shade, wielding an ornate sword, while a dozen skeletons rise from the ground surrounding the tower-tomb. Unprepared for such a fight, the group runs away, hoping to escape.

They hurry North, through a forest, making a stop by a tree with sharp metallic leaves and blood red sap. Lucius gets himself a sexy scar by trying to collect some, but is not wholly unsuccessful, managing to gather a handful of blade-leaves.

Pressing on, the group arrives in a region of red mountains.

Hochstadt

Following a path along the mountainside, the group were surprised by the appearance of Wormjoe, the Wrestler. A local wrestling champion who was seeking ever more challenging opponents in the wider world. Lucius volunteered to wrestle him, and although he could not defeat Wormjoe, he received a healing soda as thanks for a good match. Travelling further along the road, the group met a wayward tax collector, who had lost her way and were unable to find her way back to The City for years. Rather than stay alone in the wilderness, she chose to tag along with the songbirds until finding civilisation, promising a reward for helping a servant of The Queen.

The next day had the songbirds meeting Ruban the Hairy, another athlete from a local mountain tribe, but this one a mountain climber rather than a wrestler. Qamar and Lucius both accepted his challenge to climb the nearest mountain, and although they could not best him, he still promised to vouch for them, should they with to join the games at the next meeting of the tribes. Lucius had also had the misfortune of spotting a Roc's nest, and being a bird lover, he thought he might steal an egg and hatch himself another pet. Carrying it down the mountain is no easy challenge, and unfortunately for Lucius, the mother Roc comes back and spots him before he has the chance to hide. The giant bird makes quick work of him, taking the egg back to its nest and leaving Lucius for dead, and one arm short. His companions manage to mount a rescue effort, but for the time being, Lucius is in dire need of medical attention. Ruban has poultices to stop the bleeding, but nothing to replace a lost arm.

Having said their farewells to Ruban, the group continue along the path the next morning, at a reduced pace thanks to Lucius' injury, in the afternoon, they come across a flail snail battering a gargoyle that just seems unable to die, even if totally messed up. The songbirds manage to take out the snail, but the still animate hands of the smashed up gargoyle creeps them out. As they hope for an opportunity to rest, these hopes are quickly quashed as they notice the sound of skeletons approaching - Lorus and his entourage have not given up their chase, and now they are catching up. Exhausting the last of their energy reserves, the four songbirds with the tax collector in tow manage to reach the wealthy mountain town of Hochstadt, and safe behind its walls get quarters at an inn.

They quickly realise that prices for everything in Hochstadt are extortionate, but as the tax collector presents them as her entourage, the tavern rooms are billed to Her Majesty's Government for as long as they are all staying here. And while the prices may be crazy, so is the quality of service - the food served is better than anything they have had before, and that's before mentioning the room service, spa facilities, etc... All topped off with delicious chocolate produced by the innkeep's daughter, Eclair.

The next morning, the first order of business is to find someone to take care of Lucius. Word around town is that the best bet is Dirk, the Bodysmith. He lives in a mansion on the outskirts of the town and has a poor reputation, not for the quality of his work as such, but rather because what he does is deemed unsavoury by polite society. Arriving in his mansion, the songbirds are greeted by various automated skeletons, and watched by eyes mounted around the property, as well as a pair of disembodied hands playing an organ in the foyer. It is unclear if these are all moving of their own volition, or if they are directly controlled by Dirk, who is a mountain of flesh and metal, at least as much machine as he is man.

Replacing Lucius' missing arm with an ordinary one would be uninteresting to Dirk, instead, he offers a variety of alternatives, all of them exorbitantly expensive. Lucius does need a new arm, though, and he can buy on credit - they have a whole system for it here. Everyone always pays their debts in Hochstadt... In the end, Lucius settles on a black and red demonic looking arm, which allows him to draw extra strength when necessary, at a cost to his health. He also requests that Dirk implant the fang of the giant snake inside, as a hidden weapon to slide out when useful, something which adds to the cost and adjustment period, but which Dirk is more than happy to do. Inigo stays and watches the procedure, as unsettling as it is, Dirk certainly knows what he is doing, and this improves Inigo's knowledge of medicine.

With Lucius now deeply in debt, they explore the town, ideally looking for a way to make money. Qamar's desert clothes are also woefully inadequate for the cold mountain climate, so he buys himself a nice coat - also on credit. They try to sell some of their goods perhaps the numismatic will buy some of their weird old coins, or the smith might buy the metal leaves, but at the end of the day, it only makes a small dent in the debt accumulated. The group are going to have to work the debt off.

They go to the debtor worker's bureau to find work opportunities, a few sound more or less promising. In particular, a florist is looking for someone to find rare flowers in the mountains, while a local mining magnate is looking for someone to deal with worker-related trouble in one of his mines. The group approaches the latter one first, but with some trepidation, as it might be a bit sketchy, but also is likely to be the most lucrative option, potentially resolving the entire debt.

The songbirds visit the mining magnate, and indeed, he seems to be the worst kind of capitalist parasite, but he might also be the best way of avoiding lifelong debt, so Lucius agrees to take on the job, with Inigo and Lee joining him, mostly out of support for Lucius and a hope that the situation can be resolved without resorting to violence - something that seems more likely if it isn't just Lucius doing the job. Qamar instead  goes to the florist and takes on her task of finding flowers.

When leaving town, those in debt are fitted with a debtor's collar, which is magically set to strangle the wearer if they do not return to Hochstadt within their allotted time. Nobody escapes their debt. Lucius is particularly unhappy with having to wear the collar, but the only alternative seems to be getting shot dead by the town guards' guns.

Inigo and Lucius meet with a representative of the striking miners at the mine where a recent collapse has happened. They are striking for better safety, better pay, and better conditions in general. The miner is unshakeable in his dedication to the strike, and while Inigo is understanding, Lucius' situation is making him desperate and it almost comes to blows. However, a hidden group of miners pelt Lucius with rocks, knocking him out. After a more amicable discussion with the miners, where Lee is offering her support (with the response "no need, we have the situation in hand"), they take the unconscious Lucius back to town in a wheelbarrow. Getting back, they learn that Qamar's flower gathering was much more lucrative than expected, and decide to all pay the florist a visit  the next day.

The florist indeed had work for them: a rare flower growing only in caves on the mountainside - finding such a flower would wipe a solid chunk of debt. Leaving town, they once again reluctantly don their collars, and make their way up a mountain before finding a promising cave. It turns out to have been a wizard's lair, and contained a temple to Love, a handful of people trapped in talking masks, and the ghost of the wizard, as well as his wizardly treasures. In a cavernous chamber in the back as the Tree of Dreams, whose fruits send songbirds on dream journeys, and the rare flower in question. [DMs note: This was a mini-dungeon that I generated on the fly using the tables in the Songbirds book, and by rolling for the number of doors to other rooms whenever the players entered a new room. This worked well once, but I think it would lead to samey dungeons if I did it too many times.]

On returning to Hochstadt, it appears time has passed a bit different for our songbirds as they were in the dungeon. While they only felt like they stayed for a single night, a week has passed in the outside world, and things have changed: someone has blown up the mining magnate's home (with him in it, crucially), and the authorities are looking for anyone who has had dealings with him or the striking mine workers. This is a great reason to not be in town, so the group quickly signs on as guards with an anthropologist from The City and his research assistant who are seeking to visit the games at the local tribal gathering so he can write a treatise on this "primitive" culture. The assistant seems nicer, a bit exasperated with her boss, but this is what academia is like sometimes...

As the group set up camp for the night, they are once again greeted with the unpleasant sound of rattling bones, as Lorus and his skeletons are closing in. The professor refuses to flee, arguing that this sort of situations is why he has hired guards in the first place. He and the assistant retreat into their tent, which is magically warded, as the songbirds fight the undead. It is a tough battle, but they are ultimately victorious. However, after the battle, there is an altercation between them and their employer, as there is a dissatisfaction with them hiding in the tent, and then claiming Lorus' treasures as historical artifacts. This culminates in a fight, as Qamar punches the professor, who stabs Lucius with Lorus' sword, before being shot by Inigo. It is at this point the assistant reveals that she is a powerful sorcerer, slightly healing everybody's wounds and wiping the professor's memory of what happened. Due to her position as a young uncredentialed, she needs the professor's legitimacy to do her research, and this is not the first time she has had to clean up after his arrogance. Most of the songbirds agree to proceed as planned, but the professor had fired Qamar, the power of his words causing his collar to begin tightening as he no longer had valid employment outside the walls of Hochstadt. He had to make his way back, and would go his own way. [GMs note: it was at this point Qamar's player went on indefinite holiday]

Continuing the journey to the meeting of the mountain tribes, the group arrive at a large temporary city of tents, as the tribes have gathered to compete in their athletic disciplines, or celebrate their tribe's competitors. The spirits are high, and wandering around, the group runs into another outsider, practising for the games: Nia, a fellow songbird is climbing a rope incredibly fast, cheered on by her friend Punchin' Judy of the Badger tribe. They spend the evening together and get ready for the games, where Nia competes in the rope climb, and Lucius overexerts himself by competing both in the mountain climb and the boxing competition. He does reasonably well, but does not win. In the boxing, he is knocked out by a large, muscular woman, whom the quick and nimble (but still strong) Judy makes short work of in the finals.

On the last day, they watch the swimming and diving competitions in the nearby lake. Judy, as a competition champion, has won an audience with Remiel, the red dragon who lives in the mountains nearby. As this is not her first time, she is happy to share the prize with Nia and her new friends, and they agree to meet in the woods after taking the academics back to Hochstadt. Judy gives Nia a wooden locator tag, so they can find each other later.

Returning to Hochstadt looks like a more dangerous prospect than expected, however, as a massive black airship hangs above the town: The Queen's Department of Special Investigations have arrived and are leading investigations in the mining magnate's death, where the songbirds are now certainly persons of interest. They will need to find a way to leave town fast, once the collars have come off. Fortunately, the pay from the professor is enough to pay off their debt, and the innkeep passes some contact details under the table. The airship is also the tax collector's ticket home, and she's just about ready to end her weeks-long spa stay. Most of her time since arriving in Hochstadt has been spent in the bathtub, sipping champagne. They all stay one last night in the inn, finding in the morning that Lee has left in the night, leaving behind a note that she had to take care of something important. [GMs note: it was at this point that Lee's player had to take a break]

Inigo, Lucius, and Nia thus chat with the scrawny kid who's supposed to know what's what - he guides them through the backstreets to a shady basement bar, where people are already drinking despite the hour being around 7am. There are to different exits on offer, the "cheap" solution, where a sulphur-smelling gentlemen offers safe passage out in return for an unspecified later favour, and the expensive solution, where a more mundane smuggler offers to take them. Feeling uneasy about the implications of the favour owed, they opt for the expensive solution, and spend a half-dozen hours in the bar as they wait for the smuggler to be ready to take them. Nia has tea, while Lucius gambles away the rest of his money.

The three songbirds undress and are stuffed in beer barrels, which are filled with beer as well so they do not sound empty should a guard give them a knock to test, and so the correct liquid will come our should come out if a hole is opened. The solution passes muster, and the group passes safely through the guard checkpoint. When safely beyond the perimeters, they are let out of the barrels, naked and reeking of stale beer, but free from debt and Hochstadt. For now. Their clothes and items are also returned to them, and they find the closest stream to wash off the beer.

For my own sanity, I am taking a break here. Another post with the second part of the songbirds quest will follow soon.