Kiss the cook

This message is a little slapdash and non-specific so we don’t get too bogged down in details…

Friday September 23rd, 402 (2:45 a.m.) [9]:

     “Hey boss, you got me wrong,” Bishop deflects breezily, “Just business is all, you’re a handful of glister to me, no blood no bile, you see? Sercate’s she that wants your breath in a bottle, all corked up tight. You rooks are cooked if you peck too hard, I’s the one that makes the pie, I’s the one that lets you fly. But don’t spit in the dough, right?”

[Is there any answer here? We can continue the conversation here, of course, but I’ll move on to the other matters for now]

[I’ll gloss over details here somewhat to move things along]

     There’s a feeble but sincere cheer that rises from the hold when Ydoran announces the news of the slaves’ fate. Turning back to the search of the ship, Ydoran and Konishi return to the captain’s chamber to further examine it. In the second drawer [recall that the first drawer contained the potions] Konishi pulls out a number of charts of various sea and coastal localities, all of them obviously prepared by professional cartographers, judging by their detail and thoroughness. Behind them, though, is a sheet of paper with a crudely drawn map on it showing Blackwater (marked as BW on the map – sorry, I don’t have an actual map to show here!) and a route along the coast that leads to an X on the map with the initials FR beside it. The X is on the coast, right beside a river delta, and the land near the shore is marked with little bulrushes, indicating swampland. The map is otherwise devoid of detail.

[Showing the map to Caleb later, he’s able to overlay the crude map on the professional nautical charts to come up with an approximate distance of perhaps fifty miles, somewhat less than was estimated by Bishop when he mentioned it was a few days away. Caleb feels it would be easy enough to reach by water if they could hire a crew for the ship. Traveling by water seems safer than over land, since whatever path Sercate has (presumably) taken must cut through considerable swampland to reach Fenwood Reach, and would no doubt be guarded. Caleb estimates that hiring a ship’s crew would take no more than a day or two (if that’s what the party wishes to do, of course)]

     In the chest Ydoran finds nothing but various items of clothing including pants, shirts, underclothing, and a nice pair of well-worn but comfortable-looking slippers. Upon opening the box under the couch [using one of the captain’s keys to unlock it] Konishi lets out a cry. “Faff! Trapped, I’m cut.” He holds up his right hand, bleeding from the thumb and index finger. “Scythe sprung out and got me.” Examining the blade he concludes, “Doesn’t look poisoned, but be ready to do something if I pass out. I feel fine now.” [1 hp] Inside Konishi pulls out a large handful of coins. “Another thousand pieces of electrum, I’d say*. Not bad.”

     Pulling aside the bearskin rug, Ydoran discovers that there’s a small trapdoor beneath it. Cracking it open, he sees it leads to the room beneath, which appears to be another slightly smaller private quarters, currently unoccupied. Since he can see that the room is also accessible by a standard door, he closes the trap door (presumably) so that he and Konishi can finish the current level before moving on, knowing they’ll reach the room by in the more traditional way (i.e. by the main door) later.

     The layout of the room next door is a mirror image of the captain’s chamber. It is clean and neatly laid out, with a single bunk having its headboard against the bulkhead. In the center of the room is a polished wooden table that has been bolted to the deck, on which rests a bowl of fresh fruit, a silver carafe half full of a light red liquid and a silver goblet. There are two wooden chairs at the table and a single chair fitted with padded leather. Hanging from a chain over the table is an unlit hooded lantern. Underneath the porthole is a wooden, brassbound chest, beside which is a pair of highly polished black leather boots**.

     Opening the box, Ydoran catches a whiff of what smells like mustard, and then finds his head start to spin. Within a few seconds, he passes out***.

[There were a few secret doors connecting adjacent chambers in the ship, but nothing else was detected by the wand]

7:00 a.m.:

Ydoran’s eyes flutter open and he finds himself in the infirmary with the others, Kai still sleeping in one corner of the room as she was when he and Konishi resumed their search. The little dragon is curled up like a cat beside him on a blanket, snoring away. Before long Konishi enters the room and says, “Ah, you’re up! And better, you’re not dead! It’s morning, you’ve been out for maybe four hours. I’m done with the search****, you’d better start memorizing your spells now if you’re feeling up to it. We’re still in port, I’ve met up with Grizwick, he’s going to try to set up a meeting with the town council for later today.”

[Konishi and Kai will see to the release of the slaves while Ydoran rests. Kai’s healing spells are sufficient to bring Wulf, Whispin and Eos back to consciousness, but the three of them, as well as Caleb, will need bed rest for the next four to seven days before they’ll be back on their feet and ready for adventure again, at which point we can assume they’ll all be back to full hit points]

[We’ll shift your plans, Ryan, to a few hours later to accommodate the memorization of the spells and, frankly, just to give him and the others a chance for more sleep, since there seems to be no realistic possibility of hunting down Sercate in the near future. Bishop can be stored in the hold in the meantime]

2:30 p.m.: 
[Only Ydoran and Konishi will be at the meeting with the town council, as those who have been unconscious need more bed rest and Kai will remain behind to take care of any ship-related issues and to guard those at rest]

     “Well, let me first say how grateful we are for all you’ve done here,” mayor Dalwip Istur says warmly to the two party members [Konishi and Ydoran] sitting at the council chamber’s desk, with four members of the town council filling out the rest of the table. “I don’t know what we did to be so lucky to have you here, but we won’t question our good fortune. We will take charge of those you rescued and make sure they find their way home safe and sound. And we can offer you a reward of five thousand gold pieces for their rescue, along with our thanks.”

     When they’re informed of the possible attack on the town, all faces in the room fall and, after a moment or two of contemplation, Dalwip says gravely, “I don’t know why we would be targeted like this, but the lizard people are known for their ruthlessness and truculence, they must have a reason or see an opportunity. Do you know, at least, when this attack is supposed to happen?***** I don’t suppose you would consider heading an expedition there to get more information and, if possible, eliminate the threat?”

[How will Ydoran answer?]

5:00 p.m.:

[At this point Ydoran has his full spell power back. Kai has used all her magic on healing and will need another night’s rest to regain it again. She will continue healing tomorrow and repeating the process until she’s done all she can do.]

     The party reconvenes aboard ship at the dinner hour, lured to the former captain’s chamber by a sumptuous repast that was recently delivered after being prepared by some of the town’s more renowned chefs. Once Ydoran and Konishi disclose what happened with Bishop, the captain’s map and the meeting in town, Caleb speaks his mind in a quiet voice, his throat still extremely tender despite the magic healing. “Well that works well for us, doesn’t it? Is he really saying he can cancel the hit on us? Spread the word around to the right people that there’s no more reward and we should be in the clear.”

     “Don’t trust him,” Whispin says, “Believe me, I know guys like this. He might be the one that put out the contract, but he has nothing to gain by dropping it except the wrath of Sercate. She’ll find out, no doubt at all about that, and then it’s his head. He’s just trying to fish some money out of us. He wouldn’t have been trying to escape under the bridge if he was that eager to really help us.”

     “We are sitting on a lot of money,” Kai says, “I wonder how much it would cost to at least try? Maybe not a lot, and you would have a lot to gain.”

     “He is offering information on Sercate,” Konishi muses, “That’s already putting him at risk and sort of makes him seem sincere, right?”

     “Or it’s just a ploy to make him seem sincere,” Whispin counters, “He might get more from us if he throws out some information, true or not.”

     “It seems true enough, the initials on the map, FR, match the name he gave,” Eos reminds him.

     “True, true,” Whispin concedes.

[Feel free to continue this line of talk, of course, but I’ll move on to another topic for now]

     “So let me say something about the ship,” Caleb whispers, “I’ve been all over it today – couldn’t do any heavy work in the state I’m in, but had a look where I could, and it’s in good shape, very good shape. I think we could get five thousand gold minimum for it, but with the right buyer maybe as much as ten. But the question is, do we want to sell it or keep it? I think we should consider holding onto it, at least for now, in case we need it to use it to find Sercate. But I like the idea of having it long term. We’d need to hire and retain a crew, but I can take care of that and I don’t think it would cost that much if we pool our resources.”

     “I’m all for that if we can afford it,” Konishi says, “Seems like a safer place to stay than in Brightwater these days, between the guys trying to kill us and the plague. Plus it smells a lot better than the sewer. Anchor not far from port like the slavers were doing. Is it fully seaworthy?”

     “Like I said, I’ll need to be in better health to do a full inspection,” Caleb informs him, “But so far yes, it seems completely seaworthy. Keep in mind that Sercate was probably planning to go some great distances with it with all the stuff we found on board.”

     “I’ll admit,” Konishi replies, “I have a dream of someday revisiting my homeland. If you think we could do it with this thing, well…” Konishi trails off with a smile, leaning back in his chair to consider the possibilities.

[Moving on again, but feel free to continue this line of conversation]

     “But now if we do decide to go after Sercate,” Whispin begins, “And I think we should, since our lives will still be in danger – I don’t trust Bishop for a second – when do we do it? It’s not like we need to go after her today, we’ve lost the trail and she knows we’re after her, so going after her right away isn’t a good idea. Better to lay low for a while and then strike again when we have a better idea of her location and her plans, when her guard might be down.”

     “Plus that will give us time to train******,” Caleb points out. “And aren’t you signed up to go to sea with Omnisterra soon?” he asks Ydoran. “Maybe we should wait to do this until after that to try something.”

     “If we can trust that they really will strike in November,” Eos says warily, “We’d better not wait too long, that seems risky.”

     I’ll finish off here and let Ydoran and Wulf add to the discussion. What are their view on how the party should proceed in the days and weeks that will follow?

J 

* Konishi’s getting good at this. There are, in fact, exactly 1000 e.p. in the box.

** The value of these items is as follows: 150 g.p. for the silver bowl, 150 g.p. for the silver carafe, 100 g.p. for the silver goblet.

*** He fails a saving throw vs. poison with a roll of 2. For once being poisoned comes in handy, because it’ll allow me to zip past the search of the ship (I’ll have Konishi do it all) since it would involve a lot of writing!

**** Here’s a list of the things of value that Konishi found during the remainder of the search:

• 50 g.p.
• 700 s.p.
• Two books: One entitled Principles of Navigation, and the other entitled Legal Distinctions in Letters of Marque. They’re worth 10 g.p. each.
• The metal from the cages can be sold for scrap for 250 g.p., and miscellaneous equipment from the crew can be sold for 250 g.p.
• Crates of miscellaneous weapons (none magical and none of exceptional quality) worth a total of 2500 g.p.
• Several crates of silk, alcohol, spices and other contraband goods worth (brace yourselves) a total of 15 480 g.p. Because of the illegal nature of the goods, a 25% excise duty will need to be imposed on the goods when they’re sold (presumably in Brightwater) so the actual value will be 11 610 g.p. in the end.

***** Konishi, in further interrogation of Bishop, has learned that the attack may happen at the end of harvest time, so probably sometime in November.

****** Since we’re essentially at the end of the adventure (this stage of it anyway) we should probably tally XP here (Ryan, can you give us a rundown of the treasure?). It’ll take me a little while to work things out so I won’t include it here, but considering the haul of contraband and the worth of the ship at a minimum each character will get 5000 XP, I would think, which means everyone will very likely gain a level here. I’ll try to give exact values in the next campaign message.