Freeport Campaign

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 1000
• Treasure: None to speak of

As the Colonel watched, a couple guards left the Fortress of Justice. A quarter hour later one of the guards returned, accompanied by Thorgrim, Lord Defender of the Wizards’ Guild, and a couple of other mages. The Colonel sent a well-paid urchin off with a note to his waiting compatriots at the Last Resort, notifying them of the likely impending guard visit. As suspected, two dozen guards emerged a few minutes later with Boss Tillinghast and marched toward the Merchant District.

In the meantime, Chow recognized Angelo Stampfel, the Shipping News reporter who had covered the party’s activities at Swagfest, lurking about the hotel’s dining room and tried to engage the journalist in conversation. Angelo hinted none too cryptically that his story was on its way and positioned himself to watch the imminent confrontation. As if summoned, the guards and Boss Tillinghast arrived at just that moment. The Commissioner announced that Will, Spike, Chow, and Gor-bob were under arrest. Lady Elise retorted that the named parties were under the protection of the Captain’s Council, and that the Council no longer recognized Tillinghast’s authority. Tillinghast opined that the party must stand trial for their crimes, to which the Councilor responded, “Yes, the events that occurred that night at the Lighthouse should be a matter of public record.” She announced that the trial would be held in two days at a venue specified by the Judges of Freeport, and that the party would confined to the Last Resort until then. With that, she dismissed Boss Tillinghast in as cold a manner as she could manage. As the commissioner and most of his cronies returned to the Fortress, a suspiciously accurate seagull dive-bombed Tillinghast’s bald spot with a well-placed wad of excrement.

The party spent that evening and the next day spreading the story of the “Freeport Four.”

Will followed Stannis’s admonition to “look in on your employees,” and attempted to scry on Agnes, Maggie, and Peter with his crystal ball. He was eventually able to look in on Peter, and was unsettled to discover that the youth was pulling lines on a ship, surrounded by some sort of bizarre fish-men. The group immediately suspected that the reason Sesamin had not been able to meet with Enzo’s employees was that they had been sold into slavery by someone within the Fortress of Justice.

The trial was held at the Freeport Opera House, with all four judges presiding. As soon as the party left the Last Resort, a mob of supporters and other onlookers gathered and followed them to the venue.

After the opening statements, Sesamin Anders delivered a measured, professional performance, to with a dozen character and expert witnesses, and a steady procession of corroborating evidence. The party presented their story convincingly and stood up well to cross-examination by the prosecution’s attorney, Yusef Chigaru. The prosecution, on the other hand, managed only to produce two hostile witnesses, Sigur Hilmarsson and Stannis Alensin, and two bereaved relatives of the slain Council members: Melkior Maeorgan’s sister Marilise, and Brock Wallace’s son Buster. The party expressed sympathy for the family members, but reminded them that their relatives were mixed up in some nasty business, and that “cultists tend to bring the most pain to loved ones,” or something to that effect.

The judges retired to their “chambers” backstage and deliberated for a few hours, calling in both attorneys and eventually five Council members for further discussion. After the lengthy negotiations, Sesamin emerged with a carefully neutral expression on her face. The judges finally took the stage again and pronounced their verdict: the party was found not guilty of the murders of Sea Lord Milton Drac, Captain’s Council member Melkior Maeorgan, or Captain’s Council member Brock Wallace. They were, however, found partially liable for the ensuing chaos and turmoil in the city precipitated by the power vacuum left after the events at the Lighthouse. The judges also warned Boss Tillinghast that they were troubled by the revelation that the Commissioner had used public funds to pay off Captain Lydon’s gambling debts to Finn, and that they were going to launch an investigation into the matter. They then adjourned the court and left the two sides to greet the throngs massed outside the Opera House.

Sesamin explained to the group that their “sentence” would consist of certain hours of public service, retroactive to the party’s arrival in Freeport, and that Tillinghast’s remaining political pull meant he was being allowed to leave the city. The group grumbled somewhat about being found even partly responsible the fallout from Tillinghast’s gross malfeasance and misconduct, but satisfied themselves that they would probably meet the Commissioner again in more favorable circumstances.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 450
• Treasure: None to speak of

The group docked safely at Scurvytown pier, handed their prisoners over to the assembled Sea Lord’s Guard, and met up with Chow. As they talked, the party noticed a cadre of Temple Quarter denizens approaching with several more Guardsmen. High Priest Egil and Peg Leg Peligro took charge of the recovery efforts, ordering acolytes to see to the wounded and sending Lucius to summon the nearby followers of Mormekar to collect the dead. After speaking briefly with the clerics, the group boarded the former hobgoblin ship, the White Rook, and sailed to the docks on the opposite side of town.

They were greeted in front of the Last Resort by Wilmario, the half-sea elf dockmaster for the Merchant District. While the group tied off the ship and paid the docking fee, Edo chatted with the exotic looking dockmaster about the sea elves. Wilmario agreed to inform Edo if any other sea elves came to town who were amenable to visitors, and suggested a couple of places in Freeport that might carry jewelry of sea elf design. With that, the party bid the dockmaster good day and headed to the Last Resort for much-needed baths and dinner.

The group spent the rest of the evening catching up with some of their contacts and friends. Spike, Will, and Gor-bob sent messages to their respective lady friends. Carmina joined Spike for dinner, informing him that the Daughters of the Guild had capitalized on the Guards’ diminished presence lately, but that she had confined herself to the Dell’orto compound for the last few days because of the mobs. Torya also met Gor-bob at the Last Resort, but her welcome was a bit less cordial. Gor-bob weathered the slaps and acrimony to explain that he would certainly have attended her premiere at the Opera House had he not been forced to flee town at dawn and consequently been turned into a pile of acidic goo. She graciously accepted his apology and listened with great interest to his version of the events at the Lighthouse, especially the gory bits.

Later in the evening, Lady Elise and Dirwin Arnig dropped by and briefed the party further on the current political situation in Freeport. The Captain’s Council was still fractious on the issue of succession, so there was still no Sea Lord. For the moment, Captain Roberts and his retinue were investigating the documentation and stories of the half-dozen or so claimants to Drac’s bloodline, but no strong contender had emerged. Will offered to speed up the process using his Know Bloodline spell, and Lady Elise seemed receptive to the idea. The party asked about Stannis Alensin and were a little concerned to hear that the diviner had been working frequently with Boss Tillinghast for the last couple of weeks. Regarding the guard commissioner, Lady Elise stated that her supporters on the Council were still looking for a way to get him out of office, and hinted that they would prefer to avoid bloodshed if possible. She suggested that a lawyer named Sesamin Anders may be able to help return the party’s impounded property and free their employees, who had been imprisoned almost a month ago for being “accessories in the kidnapping and possible murder of Sea Lord Drac.” Elise also said that she and her supporters would try their best to keep the Guards from arresting the party while they stayed at the Last Resort. With that, she and Dirwin bid the group good night.

Balama came by after dinner to discuss a possible business partnership with the party. Spike suggested selling the cargo they had secured in Coral Bay and using the proceeds to purchase food elsewhere to sell in Freeport, in order to capitalize on the current situation in the city. Balama and the group spent some time hashing out the details of the arrangement, and she left to see to the ships. Their business concluded, the group bedded down for the evening.

The next morning, they ventured to the offices of Sesamin Anders in Old City. She took down their statements and concerns, and promised to start working immediately on getting the Enzo’s staff released from the Tombs. She assigned one of her assistants to perform a title search on the two ships currently in the group’s possession, and sent another off to research the current laws on impounded property. Satisfied that their 500 gp retainer was already well spent, the group split up to take care of some other business in the city.

Chow, Edo, and the Colonel skulked up to the group’s house and were not surprised to find a couple of Sea Lord’s Guardsmen staking the place out. Meanwhile, Gor-bob, Will, and Spike visited Alcindair, principal tailor for the well-to-do in Freeport, at the Sharp Needle, also in the Old City.

After buying and commissioning some fine clothing, they headed back to the Last Resort. There they received a message from Husani: he was too busy to see them at the moment, but he sent a letter of credit in the amount of 500 gp, drawn on the Freeport Institute. While it was not the full balance the scholar still owed for the cache of Valossan artifacts, it was still respectable pocket money.

After the party regrouped for lunch, Chow helped disguise them, and they headed back out to deliver the Rain Tiger to Captain Lydon on his ship, the Gambit. The captain played along with the subterfuge, thanking the group for acting as “intermediaries” for the actual party who had recovered the gem. He agreed to meet the real group at the Last Resort later in the day.

True to his word, Lydon showed up at the hotel a couple of hours later and met with the party in a private room. The captain seemed reticent to talk and left without having said at all. Suspicious, the group sent the Colonel, sharing a telepathic bond with Will, to trail the captain. Lydon did not seem to notice his shadow as he returned briefly to the Gambit and continued on to the Fortress of Justice. Colonel reported back that he would stay around the Fortress and warn the party of any “mass egress.”

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 1200
• Treasure: 6 potions of cure moderate wounds, 10 flasks of alchemist’s fire, 7 acid flasks, 9 tanglefoot bags, masterwork large steel shield, numerous mundane weapons (longswords, short swords, daggers, light crossbows)
• Unidentified magic items: longsword, chainmail, ring, 4 small feathers

The party interrogated the captured hobgoblin to find out that Draegar Redblade was probably holed up in one of four Cutthroat safehouses in Scurvytown, along with several bodyguards and other Cutthroats. Chow assisted the group in disguising themselves before heading into that rough district to track down the gang leader. After a few judiciously placed silver pieces, the party learned that several hobgoblins had been seen moving purposefully through the streets a few hours earlier. The search narrowed to an abandoned inn near the border between Scurvytown and the Eastern District.

Chow approached the walled compound quietly and got the drop on the single hobgoblin lookout he noticed peering through a hole in the wall. The sentry took a sleep-poisoned crossbow bolt to the eye but fell silently, thanks to a spell from Gor-bob. Chow watched as a few of the Cutthroats and new recruits training in the courtyard noticed the fallen sentry and raised an alarm. The rest of the party moved through the hole and engaged the gang members, with Edo causing a minor panic in the streets when he transformed himself into a hag. The fight was over quickly, with around a dozen Cutthroats, recruits, and hobgoblin soldiers lying dead or unconscious in the compound, and several more escaping from the stable and carriage house while the party investigated the inn itself. Aside from a pit trap that Edo triggering in the basement, the party encountered no trouble in searching the inn, but they discovered no sign of Draegar.

After a few minutes of searching, Chow found a trapped secret door leading from the basement into the sewers. He disabled the dart fusillade easily, and the party proceeded into the smelly tunnels. The Colonel soon picked up a trail of fresh splatters on the narrow walkway leading off to the southeast, and the group followed. Will enabled a spell that allowed him to detect any thinking creature nearby, but he picked up nothing except his friends. The group continued past several major intersections until Will detected a lookout a few dozen feet ahead. He and Edo caught and dispatched the hobgoblin quickly, but not before the sentry could whistle a signal. The group caught a flash of light in the tunnel ahead, and heard the familiar whoosh of alchemist’s fire cooking off, followed by a strange hissing sound. They approached carefully and caught a brief glimpse, at the extent of their vision, of a pair of sparks making contact with a couple of barrels placed at an intersection with a minor sewer branch. Before the party could react, the barrels exploded, collapsing the sewer tunnel.

The group backtracked to the nearest manhole and forced their way up onto the street. Will paid a street urchin to deliver a quick message to the Scriptorium, and the party worked their way around a couple of collapsed buildings to what they figured to be the next manhole cover on the main line beneath the street. While they did so, Edo changed shape and flew up for a better vantage point. He spotted a small sloop making haste away from the city, with what looked like hobgoblin soldiers manning the deck. He informed the group, and they concocted a quick plan: Will would use his dimension door spell to place himself, Spike, the Colonel, and Gor-bob on the deck of the ship, while Edo pursued on the wing and Chow tended to the injured on the street as best he could.

The group appeared on the ship and got the drop on Draegar and his cronies, taking out all but two soldiers and a bodyguard in less than 20 seconds. They secured their prisoners and turned the ship back towards Freeport.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 1150
• Treasure: None to speak of

After forumulating a plan with the marine leader and passing a restless night, the group led a dawn attack on the Docks District. They defeated two contingents of Cutthroats and hobgoblin soldiers, effectively neutralizing Draegar Redblade’s hold on the city’s food supply. They did not encounter Draegar himself, but learned from captured thugs that the hobgoblin leader was probably holed up in a safehouse somewhere in Scurvytown.

With the two warehouses secure, the group made their way to the Last Resort to consult with Lady Elise and other sympathetic members of the Captain’s Council about what they wanted done next. The consensus was that Boss Tillinghast could wait, and that no one would lose any sleep if the party capitalized on the current turmoil to rid the Docks and Scurvytown of their respective dominant organized criminal elements. Lady Elise intimated that if the city had to have such a presence, Finn had made himself the least offensive over the years. The party agreed, bid the Council good day, and discussed how to proceed.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 500
• Treasure: various trade goods

Chow spotted a lookout in the crow’s nest of the Freeport cutter just as the lookout spotted the Starchaser. After some discussion among the party, Edo transformed himself into an inconspicuous variety of bird and flew towards Coral Bay while Will scried him with his newfound crystal ball. The party soon learned that several Freeport Sea Lord Guards and marines were stationed aboard the Sea Skate and the Blue Heron. While Edo scoped out the town, he noticed a pair of fellows depart the cutter. One headed into town, while the other alerted the Freeport personnel on the other two ships. These fellows set about arming themselves and readying the ships for departure.

The group discussed various appealing options for taking out the guards if necessary, but they decided to try talking first. Balama hoisted a flag of truce and continued sailing into Coral Bay. The party tensed as the Starchaser rounded the tip of land that marked the corner of the town, but they were allowed to dock without being fired upon. When the ship was secured, a sweaty northman, backed by a squad of marines and Sea Lord Guard, announced that Will, Spike, Chow, and Gor-bob were under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Sea Lord Milton Drac, Captain’s Councillor Melkior Maeorgan, and Captain’s Councillor Brock Wallace. He further charged Balama, Hurm, and Terez with aiding and abetting known fugitives, and ordered some of his troops to seize the group’s weapons. The party consented without a fight, but requested that they be allowed to explain their view of the events at the Lighthouse, preferably in a neutral location and in the presence of a local priest. The Freeport investigator, Sigur Hilmarsson, agreed and ordered his personnel to escort the party to a nearby tavern for further discussion.

Thus relocated, the party and their captors waited a few minutes in relative silence until a local priest of Shalimyr showed up and explained that he was going to cast a zone of truth spell on the party. They agreed and began their tale. They explained in detail their encounters with Verlaine, Milton Drac, the rest of Captain’s Council, and the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, and described the fight at the Lighthouse and the suspected ramifications to Freeport if they had failed to foil the Sea Lord’s scheme. The priest and the investigator sat dumbfounded through this testimony, and the priest verified to Hilmarsson that the zone of truth had been in place during the whole tale.

Sigur collected his thoughts and admitted that he was out of his depth. He said that as far as he was concerned, the charges could be dropped, but that he was still under orders to bring the party back to Freeport. He also suggested that a “donation” to “defray the cost of supplies” for the Guard and marines would probably help ensure the group’s secure arrival in Freeport. After some discussion, the party agreed to the “donation,” and to the suggestion that some of the guards and marines accompany the group on their various craft on the voyage back to Freeport, both to maintain appearances, and to keep the party from simply sailing away. These arrangements settled, the investigator shared a drink with the party and bid them good day.

Balama told the party that she intended, after a hot bath, to spend the remainder of the day securing cargo for the return trip to Freeport, which the group thought was a fine idea. They spent the next few hours haggling in Coral Bay’s marketplace, eventually purchasing a box of uncut emeralds, 10 barrels of local spices, and large amounts of fruit and a fine local rum. They made sure that the cargo was safely loaded on the Sea Skate and collapsed into freshly sheeted beds for the first time in weeks.

The three-day voyage back to Freeport was largely uneventful. The party chatted up the guards and marines, and Spike and Chow taught the rest of the group a bit about crewing a ship. When the small flotilla finally got close the Serpent’s Teeth, it was obvious that something was wrong in the city. Dozens of ships were anchored outside the reefs that ringed the island chain, the Docks were almost empty, and a plume of smoke was clearly visible in the Merchant’s District.

The party consulted with the investigator and the commander of the Sea Lord’s cutter that had been sent to Coral Bay about how to proceed. The marine leader said that he’d try to get in touch with his fellow officers to see what had happened, and suggested that Hilmarsson do the same. For their part, Edo and William volunteered to try to get into the city and get a report from Egil at the Scriptorium of Tinel, and the rest of the group volunteered to talk to the captains of the nearby ships. Everyone agreed to meet back up at the Sea Lord cutter before nightfall to compare notes.

William and Edo used a combination of shapechanging and magic to get to the Scriptorium, and used a dimension door to get into the temple itself after finding the doors locked and barred. The startled librarians within were quick to summon Brother (now High Priest) Egil, who gave a quick rundown of the current situation:

• Sea Lord’s Guard Commissioner “Boss” Tillinghast was holed up in the Fortress of Justice with most of the guards after a couple of confrontations with the Captain’s Council, who had tried to remove him from office following his series of questionable actions in the days after the Lighthouse unveiling.
• The Docks District was under the control of the Cutthroats, who had driven the Buccaneers into hiding after a few bloody skirmishes. The Cutthroats were reported to be under new management: a hobgoblin named Draegar Redblade had staged a bloody coup in Scurvytown and emerged as the gang’s uncontested leader. In addition to the usual ruffians, Draegar also employed several hobgoblin soldiers in the gang, which explained why the battles for the Docks had also cost the city numerous Sea Lord’s guards and marines. Draegar and his thugs had set up a couple of warehouses to distribute the meager food supplies that were coming in to the city after the Longshoremen’s Union had gone on strike.
• The various priesthoods in the Temple District had tried to create and distribute food after the docks closed down, but were simply overwhelmed by the demand, and were forced to lock their doors when the mobs outside became unruly and then aggressive. The mobs had then turned to the few ships that attempted to dock in the Merchant District, but the private guards of the merchant families were a bit more brutal in repelling the attacks than the priests had been.
• The Captain’s Council was meeting at the Last Resort, but had been gridlocked for days.

Thus informed, the two returned to the ship to talk with the rest of the party and the Freeport personnel.