Freeport Campaign

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 1250
• Treasure: four ceramic jar bombs; Parnass’s spell book; a Privateer FP model “pistol” from Kolter’s Clockworks (returned to its maker); scroll of disguise self; red garnet (80 gp); sapphire pendant on a gold chain (1,300 gp); 6 pp; 9050 sp; 4365 gp; one and a half barrels of black powder marked “Kolter’s Clockworks” and “Flammable! No sparks or flames!” (contents returned to Kolter); large tapestry map of Freeport (200 gp) with the first four bomb sites marked with chalk; Zelkema’s ledger; note listing the delivery times for the remaining ceramic jars; scrap of paper reading “3 – 5 – 7 – 2?; several barrels of ale; several crates of elven spices
• Unidentified magic items: battle axe; feather token; 3 potions; ring; wand

Used a lot of acid and a no-knock warrant to enter Ztorage. Defeated Klick and Klack, Zelkema’s flesh golems. Saw Zelkema flourish his cape and disappear. Triggered a trap that summoned a gigantic centipede. Figured out how to enter the main vault. Carefully recovered the remaining bombs and some other interesting items. Set a clever trap for Zelkema. Returned a strange crossbow-like implement and a large amount of black powder to Kolter’s Clockworks, next door to Ztorage. Discussed a tentative trade agreement with Kolter. Contacted Mother Lorilee, High Priestess of Shalimyr, to enact Lady Elise’s contingency plan – a scroll of resurrection.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 1000
• Treasure: alchemical lab equipment (700 gp); scroll of blur; scroll of invisibility; scroll of protection from arrows; 3 masterwork longswords; 4 masterwork light crossbows; 4 masterwork grooved daggers; 50 crossbow bolts; masterwork cutlass; note from Dutch Tillinghast to Zelkema; 187 gp
• Unidentified magic items: 3 chain shirts; 3 cloaks; 8 potions; heavy crossbow; wand

(Ventured to Parnass the Evoker’s house. Startled an orc as he was leaving. Chased him into the basement. Took out 3 orc soldiers, a priest, and a sorceror. Found a note from Dutch Tillinghast to Zelkema. Staked out Parnass’s house all night. Gor-bob spoke with the dead orc priest, to no avail. As he finished, a couple of explosions shook the Temple and Merchant Districts. The Scriptorium entrance had collapsed, and Lady Elise had been killed in her manor house. Found out that Zelkema owned Ztorage in Warehouse District. Talked to Stannis, who took the party to talk to acting Commissioner, who in turn took them to Judge MacGowan, who immediately deputized them. More flavor text as I have time to write it.)

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 500
• Treasure: None to speak of

(The Primrose sailed back to Freeport. Will disappeared for a few days to investigate a skin condition. The Last Resort exploded. Will found traces of the same weird substance that blew up in the Scurvytown sewers. Chow and Edo followed up the X-marked ceramic jar base at Xangy’s Pottery, and found out that Xangy had probably sold 8 jewel-stoppered jars to an evoker named Parnass. More flavor text as I have time to write it.)

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: 2700
• Treasure: Unnamed leaky merchant ship, 4 potions of cure moderate wounds, various mundane weapons

The group emerged from the Opera House to raucous cheers from the crowd gathered outside, and were quickly hoisted onto the shoulders of some of their more massive supporters. From this vantage they spotted Boss Tillinghast a block or so away, just in time to see a cloaked figure make contact with the Commissioner, wrap a cape around him, and disappear in a cloud of smoke. Frustrated but unsurprised, the party turned their attention back to their crowd until the wave of accolades and backslaps crested and left the Freeport Four standing outside the Last Resort. The group enjoyed a nice dinner, spent some time schmoozing with the other Last Resort patrons, and turned in.

The next day, they split up to take care of some individual business in town, with plans to meet up for dinner, drinks, and discussion about how to recover the employees of Enzo’s Tailoring.

While checking on the White Rook, Spike ran into Simon Carr, owner and captain of the Sea Foam, the vessel that had brought the party to Freeport three months ago. The two swapped stories for a few minutes and agreed to meet at the Last Resort for dinner and possible negotiations regarding Carr’s upcoming retirement plans. Carr mentioned that he would also bring along Tariq al’Fazim, the Sea Foam’s navigator and first mate, who happened to be looking for Gor-bob for some reason.

Meanwhile, Will caught up with Stannis Alensin and discussed the events of the last few weeks. The diviner intimated that his odd performance on the witness stand was precipitated by Tillinghast’s threat to expose Stannis’s identity to certain of the higher echelon thugs he had helped put away when the Sea Lord’s Guard had bothered to make examples of them. As to the Enzo’s employees, Stannis knew that they had not been seen in the Tombs (Freeport’s jail) for a few weeks. He didn’t think Tillinghast would dirty his hands in such an overt manner, so he promised to poke around and try to find out more information regarding the Boss’s underlings.

After his conversation with Stannis, Will retired to his room to try to check on the missing employees. After a couple of attempts, he successfully scryed Peter Mackinlay still working ropes aboard what looked to be a large ship. Will used the crystal ball as a conduit to send the youth a message stating that the party was working on finding him and the other two employees. Peter couldn’t provide any details about where the ship was, but managed to join Agnes in a cabin where she was doing some manner of paperwork in the bored custody of a kuo-toa guard. Peter quietly informed her of the continued contact with Will, and she surreptitiously scrawled some notes indicating that the ship was anchored about three days southwest of Freeport near a small island with some tall cliffs. With that, Will informed Peter that the group would move as quickly as they could and broke contact.

In another part of town, Gor-bob searched in vain for a vendor who had a particular magic item in stock, and spent part of the afternoon with Sesamin Anders, requesting a title search for the abandoned inn that had until a couple of days ago been used as a Cutthroat safe house in Scurvytown. She agreed to have her assistant look into the matter and get back to Gor-bob as soon as possible.

Edo and Chow spent the day investigating the remaining suspected Cutthroat safe houses in Scurvytown and looking around for any suspicious hobgoblins, but came up empty handed. If the gang was still active, they were keeping a very low profile.

That evening, the group met with Captain Carr and First Mate al’Fazim at the Last Resort. After swapping tales of the group’s exploits since departing the Sea Foam, Captain Carr mentioned again that he was thinking of retiring. He hadn’t quite decided yet, but told Spike he’d keep the former apprentice cook in mind if he decided to sell his ship. In the meantime, Tariq informed Gor-bob of why he was seeking the cleric. It turned out that Gor-bob’s ministrations on the power of Pawgma during the 10-day voyage from Redshore had affected the navigator’s outlook so powerfully that awoke one morning to find himself able to call on Pawgma’s will to remove the salt from a barrel of ocean water when the ship’s stores ran low. Now that the ship was potentially changing hands, or at least not venturing out for a while, he sought to learn more about Pawgma from the god’s earthly half-orc emissary.

(Long story short – crewed the White Rook, sailed to the island with the huge cliffs, kicked butt on the kuo-toa ship, and drove the captain (an “old man” who let loose with some suspicious mental powers) to flee the ship via some kind of plane shifting magic. More flavor text as I have a chance to write it…)

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.