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Player's Guide Places People History Beliefs

 
 


Fish In A Barrel
Sendor Port is a city filled with the castoffs of society. While it may have its virtues, I fail to see them. If this city was not a hub for commerce and trade, I could not see why anyone would want to live here.

Our contact is a man named Niall. Niall is a dark Elf and prefers to stay in the shadows most of the time. He seems to take sick pleasure in sneaking up on me. Niall tells us that he will provide us with whatever information he can scrounge, but cannot help us in any other way. He tells us that we are to investigate increased pirate activity within Sendor Port. The local constabulary has already seized a ship, and we are to see if it can provide us any further clues. The ship is at pier four, and is called the “Mornings Dawning”.

If this ship was used to smuggle weapons, they have long since been removed. The only remaining cargo is sea rations and foodstuffs. They are of interest however, as they are all labeled in strange writing which none of us can decipher. Gerard and Anna search the captains’ quarters and find manifests written in a language called Focacian. Having heard nothing of such a place, naturally I am intrigued. We make the decision that it is time to do a little undercover work. We head our to the bars as per usual.

Making our way through several bars, we manage to pick up scraps of information, and rumors about the weapons. The sailors who brought the Mornings Dawning to port are relaxing in a house of ill repute called “The Stranded Mermaid”. Oh such unique establishments this fair port city has to offer.

The Focacian sailors know something is wrong the moment we step in the door. Without a word they draw swords and attack in waves. These men are not warriors, they are sailors, and they fight as such. As many as eight attack us, and only two of them live through the fight. I hilt bash one man and drop him to the ground unconscious. My proficiency with nonlethal attacks has given us many opportunities to question the men we fight. I have found it is much easier to get answers from a live prisoner than a dead one… even if they do try to lead us astray.

The surviving sailors tell us of a man named Jonus Arctrod. He is a fishmonger who paid the men for the weapons after they were delivered. They refuse to tell us more, not because of loyalty or honor, but fear for their very souls. They say that there is a necromancer at or near the top of this pyramid of lies, and the things he does to traitors and snitches is a fate far worse than death. We turn the men over to the town guard and head out to find Jonus Arctrod.

Jonus Arctrod is a short, fat, shifty looking man who shouts bizarre things like “You guys better have all those fish monged and crated by the time I get back!” I do not know how exactly you “mong” a fish, but I do not wish to find out. We have all toned down our attire in order to look more like we blend in. The effort seems a bit lost on me, as my posture and manner of speech gives me away. I stand quietly and slouch when I can to try and look less civilized, and more like one of these people.

Jonus needs little persuasion, and readily cooperates with us. He tells us a woman named Lady Jasmine, who resides in Drackenhorn, paid him. She is a person of great importance, as she leads The Silent Blade Thieves guild. While Jonus is just a pawn, we try to get all the info we can from him. Gerard tells him that the Legion may be after him, and frightened, he fesses up a location to a deal going down tonight. This may be our break in the case.

Warehouse 7, Pier 14 is a rather nondescript building. Crates stacked to the ceiling and the stink of fish in the air. We notice a combined eleven men in and around the building. We are outnumbered two to one, but we are confident we can handle this. We rush through the door and realize immediately we have been had. It is a trap, and we walked right into it. They have snipers set up on the crates and we are left in a clearing, without cover, like fish in a barrel. The odds are nearly three to one, but through a tough fight we manage to take down everyone. We are all wounded, some of us grievously, and worst of all, there are no weapons here.

We nearly fell victim to their trap. It shall not happen again.

The town guard arrives far too late to help, save for clean up. Eleven dead and three prisoners in custody, we bandage ourselves and report to Niall. When we walk into his alleyway, Niall is lying on the ground with a bolt stuck in his chest. He is alive, but in need of attention. With quick action, a healer is summoned and he is once again well. We tell him of our adventures and he informs us that we should go back to see Jonus Arctrod again.

The scene at Arctrods' apartment is appalling. His throat is slit ear to ear, and he lies in a pool of his own blood. A letter is pinned to his body stating “you are part of the experiment now”. What that means I cannot say, but this all wrong. I have a hunch that this is not the only blood they will shed tonight.

In the morning, we go to interrogate our prisoners from the warehouse. The guards in front their cells are dead. Slit in a way similar to Arctrod. The cell doors are still locked, and bolted, but the men inside are dead. Something like a mist killed these men, but I know not of any mist that can slit throats.

Now we have only one lead: The Silent Blade Thieves Guild.

From the journal of Rothgar

Contributor: Chris Kordella