Session Summaries; Vol. 23: The Succession Crisis @ 24 Sep 2007 06:33 pm by Kevyspice
The party returns to Freeport to find it on the edge of violence (again).
More flavor text to follow…
Session Summaries; Vol. 22: Falisci @ 24 Sep 2007 06:28 pm by Kevyspice
Ceseli managed to sneak away for a moment to wish her guests a good night. The group quickly told her their suspicions about the noise they had heard earlier in the evening and asked if they could station themselves in the house to help protect Ceseli and her mother. Ceseli warned them that her mother would not be amenable to them dirtying up her house, but that they could probably lurk outside if they chose. They reluctantly agreed, bade Ceseli good-night, and headed around the corner to discuss the situation.
As it happened, a couple of city guard patrols were in the area, so the party talked with them regarding the Dell’Orto house and the welfare of its inhabitants. The guards, impressed with the professional and obviously experienced demeanor of the young group, not to mention grateful for an offer of assistance in a tense time, agreed to let Richard and Isaac walk patrol with them, to show Chow a good stake-out location, and to keep the party informed of any strange happenings around the house.
After several hours of vigilance, the party congregated back at the ships for some rest. They were awakened by crewmen a relatively short time later, somewhat surprised to see William Teach and Edo standing on the deck of the Primrose. The young investigator and strange druid greeted their friends and confirmed suspicions that they didn’t come bearing nice, relaxing news.
Apparently, the party’s adopted home city was on the verge of another crisis similar to the post-Lighthouse dock riots that had eventually given the Freeport Four their name. Swagfest was fast approaching with still no Sea Lord named and the Captain’s Council locked in endless discussions. Representatives from Montaigne and Castille were in town vying for the right to issue Letters of Marque to Freeport’s fleet of privateers, while representatives from the other seafaring nations sought to keep Freeport out of the fight. Without a Sea Lord to authorize the Letters, none could be issued. The orcs and half-orcs the Council had brought in to refurbish Milton’s Folly had started causing trouble, inciting fights and threatening to organize themselves into a labor union. The crime rate had steadily increased over the last couple of months, and word on the street was that someone was organizing the city’s various gangs into a single entity the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the Back-Alley Wars many years previous. The Sea Lord’s Guard was seen to be ineffectual, in collusion, or both. One of Finn’s lieutenants had approached Will to investigate some strange drug-related behavior by some lower-ranking Syndicate members. In short, the city was a powder keg, and Will thought that the Four and their associates might want to know and perhaps join him in trying to keep a lid on things, or at least help “guide” the city in the aftermath after some inevitable jackass struck the spark.
The party grumbled again that just once, they’d like to go on a simple trading voyage, with no demon trees, no stolen airships, no interdimensional portals, no mass murderers, and especially no insane cultists of any description. Life seemed to have become nothing more than a string of bizarre, increasingly absurd occurrences punctuating strings of nondescript shipboard tedium that seemed simultaneously to take days to live through, but also to pass in the span of a couple of breaths. They shuddered to guess at what fresh insanity lurked in the next port of call, waiting to try to kill them or drag them screaming into the gibbering night.
Will let them wind down a bit. They explained that they were in the middle of trying to save yet another set of hapless civilians from yet another horror, but that the twist this time was a personal link to the civilians involved. Will and Edo offered to help expedite the matter while they were in town so that they could get back to Freeport in time for whatever idiocy awaited there. Back in business mode, the group hatched a quick plan and bedded down to get what rest they could, still muttering about demon trees.
More flavor text to follow…
Session Summaries; Vol. 22: Falisci @ 24 Sep 2007 06:24 pm by Kevyspice
The group spent the rest of the afternoon securing fashionable dress and accoutrement for the dinner party, checking in on Kumar, following up on another couple of trade contacts, and discussing the sad state of affairs at the Dell’orto house.
Later in the evening, the group rented a couple of nice coaches and arrived at Dell’Orto Manor in high style. Barnsworth, the halfling butler, showed Carmina and Spike into a sitting room, where they met a Giambattista Sapienza, a local banker; Nina Guaraldi, one of Lady Auraluna’s contemporaries; and Carlo Guaraldi, Nina’s nephew. The guests shared a quarter hour of polite conversation while the ladies of the house finished dressing and “the help” (Barnsworth, Chow, Richard, and Balama) put the finishing touches on dinner.
Judging by the guests’ expressions of approval, Chow did a good job for what he had to work with, Lady Auraluna’s complaints of excessive spice notwithstanding. The dinner conversation, however, left the Four Gulls representatives a bit uncomfortable. The nephew leered at Carmina until Spike subtly but firmly indicated that such behavior was neither welcome nor conducive to an unbloodied nose. The banker, on the other hand, had interest only for Ceseli. His advances, encouraged by the elder Lady Dell’orto, became more overt as the wine continued to flow. Ceseli bore the attention with as much good grace as she could muster, but had to excuse herself when the banker and the nephew turned the discussion to the Swan Street Slicer and Mikael’s unfortunate demise. By then, Spike had had enough and suggested that the male guests retire to the porch for cigars and brandy, while Carmina and her “servant” Balama accompanied Ceseli upstairs to help her regain her composure.
As Carmina tended to Ceseli, Balama examined the guest room where she and Carmina would be staying the following evening, so as to anticipate the amount of her “mistress’s” finery, toiletries, and other accoutrement to pack and bring from the ship. In the guest room, she discovered a broken window that had stood unrepaired for some time, a wardrobe containing a couple of sets of men’s clothing, and a weathered leather scrapbook beneath the bed. The scrapbook detailed various events and achievements spanning Ceseli’s childhood, adolescence, and recent marriage. Hearing the other two women preparing to go back downstairs, Balama toed the scrapbook back under the bed and joined them.
A few moments after the ladies had rejoined the rest of the dinner party, Baron leapt to his feet and began barking at something outside. The party investigated, but didn’t see or hear anything beyond a bustle in the hedgerow bounding the garden east of the house. Chow followed the minimal movement he had noticed, but whatever had made the noise had just enough of a head start to elude him on a relatively busy street a couple of blocks over.
In a quick conference on the front porch, Chow, Spike, and Richard speculated that the noise had probably been the halfling Slicer, come to finish the job he had started previously. They quickly formulated a plan to trap the murderer and headed back inside to inform Carmina and Balama of their roles.
With the excitement concluded, Lady Auraluna thanked her guests for attending the dinner party and bade them good night, as she was tired and wished to retire. She reiterated her invitation for Carmina and her “girl” to come back for another visit the following evening. Balama, Chow, and Richard helped Barnsworth finish cleaning the kitchen and dining room, while Spike and Carmina said goodbye to the other guests. Carmina motioned for Ceseli to try to meet her and Spike outside.
Session Summaries; Vol. 22: Falisci @ 24 Sep 2007 06:18 pm by Kevyspice
Ivan reported back that the fire giant was apparently an emissary from the new ruler of a fire giant kingdom to the south, seeking to open trade between the giants and the dwarves. Intrigued, the party asked about the possibility of meeting with emissary. Ivan expressed his doubts, but offered to talk to some people he knew. As a result, the party shared dinner and stories with the leader of the Tanners Guild, Hort Steelhide, at the Roc’s Nest, a nice restaurant overlooking Fairhaven Bay. The fellow mentioned a few particular items and commodities the city and his guild could use, and promised to keep the Four Gulls trading concern in mind in the future.
With their trading mission in Fairhaven amicably concluded, the captains of the Sea Wind and the Primrose ordered the vessels manned and loaded for the next leg of the Grand Tour. Four days’ quiet sail brought the small fleet to the next city up the coast, the Vodaccean port of Falisci, formerly home to Carmina Dell’orto’s family. Carmina informed the party that the port city was famous for its wineries and glassworks, the latter of which was also the Dell’orto family trade in Freeport, and that her great aunt Auraluna and great uncle Angelo still lived at the ancestral home on Swan Street.
After docking the ships and settling up with the harbormaster, the group set off to look up their trade contacts in Falisci. Upon hitting the streets, they became aware of a city guard presence that seemed a bit excessive given the town’s freewheeling reputation. They also noticed that Kumar, Richard’s halfling associate, seemed to be receiving an inordinate number of suspicious glances and muttered comments. Asking around, the party discovered that the town had recently endured a rash of mysterious killings and kidnappings, and that the killer, a “feral” halfling dubbed the Swan Street Slicer, had escaped his sentenced execution when the horses pulling his cart spooked and toppled the conveyance. The halfling was still at large, so all of his kith and kin were currently viewed with a higher than normal degree of suspicion. Talking the matter over with the guards, the party suggested to Kumar that he stay aboard the Sea Wind for the duration of the trip, to which condition the fellow readily agreed. Upon learning of Carmina’s lineage, one of the guards suggested that she should go and check in with her relations. Somewhat alarmed by the guard’s demeanor, the group headed to the Dell’orto house on Swan Street after seeing Kumar on his way back to the ship.
Dell’orto Manor turned out to be a dilapidated three-story house painted in a dismal brown-and-green swamp motif, with an overgrown hedge and unkempt garden framing the structure. All of the visible windows were either boarded up or heavily curtained, offering no view and probably no sunlight into the house.
Carmina and Spike knocked on the door and introduced themselves to the ancient halfling who answered. The nearly silent fellow ushered them and the rest of the party into the manor’s dining room. Lady Auraluna Dell’orto and her daughter Ceseli introduced themselves and the Lady’s two dogs, Baron and Sachi, to the group.
After some further initial pleasantries, the conversation turned to the guard’s veiled intimations regarding the Dell’orto family. The party discovered that Ceseli’s husband Mikael had been one of the Slicer’s first victims, and that the murderer had been trying to sneak into the Dell’orto house when the city guard caught him. After her husband’s murder, Ceseli had moved back into the family manor, both to get herself out of the house that she and Mikael had shared and to help take care of her mother during her father’s unfortunately-timed hunting expedition.
Perhaps trying to take her daughter’s mind off her recent loss, Lady Auraluna changed the subject and mentioned a small dinner party the Dell’Ortos were hosting later that evening. She invited Carmina and Spike, along with some of their friends and “help,” to attend the party and to come by for another visit the following evening, if they were still in town. The couple agreed and excused themselves to go procure appropriate dress for the soiree.