Freeport Campaign

The party talked with Drak Sockit, Gor-bob, and Torya about how to approach the orc/half-orc work camp on T’Wik. Drak mentioned that he’d been intending to visit the camp to see how his boys were holding up in the less-harsh-than-expected storm. The group hatched a quick plan to send Will in ahead of the main group to surveil the Lighthouse, while the rest accompanied Drak, Gor-bob, and Torya on a slow boat ride to the island.

Will disguised himself as a half-orc worker, magically transported himself to the island, and made his way through the camp, looking for the telltale aura of transmutation that would give away Oruck and his cronies. Finding no such auras in the camp, he headed into the Lighthouse proper. Bitterly remembering the last time he was here, he staked out a position on the second floor to watch the doors leading to the inner temples of Terak and Harrimast, which hid secret doors that granted access to the higher floors of the structure.

A flurry of shouts and cheers outside the Lighthouse greeted the arrival of Drak and his entourage.

More flavor text to follow…

The party shut down the “serpent house” in Drac’s End, killing a gnomish wizard, several apprentices, and a couple of local gang members. They captured one gnome apprentice who eagerly gave up as much information as he could regarding the white smoke “project.” The serpent house produced scrolls of charm person, which were combined with snake weed to create white smoke at the alchemical lab located on a wrecked ship on the northern end of A’Val. The apprentice also volunteered the name and location of the leader of the white smoke organization, one Garrus Oruck, who disguised himself as an orc and mingled with the workers camped out on the island of T’Wik, where Drac’s Folly stood.

Peg Leg used a scroll of Raise Dead to bring Carmina back to the land of the living. The group also used a scroll of Speak with Dead to interrogate the leader of the guards who had operated the magical ballista that had destroyed the third floor of the House of Serenity. The fellow’s temporarily animated body reported that they had been hired by a priest named Saul Hawthorne. Peg Leg Peligro mentioned a run-in with such a fellow over at the Rusty Hook, a drinking establishment and inn over at the intersection of the Warehouse, Merchant, and Docks districts.

On the way to the Hook to investigate Hawthorne, the group stopped at the address given for “Mrs. Safe’s House” in Soderheim’s ledgers. They were greeted by a sweet, confused elderly lady whose late husband had been a carpenter in Arias Soderheim’s employ. “That nice young man Arias” continued to pay the rent and send contractors to maintain the house for Mrs. Safe, and even visited her every once in a while. The group explained the reason for their visit and requested permission to check the house for evidence related to the investigation, to which she readily agreed. Although they found nothing overtly condemning, the party figured that Soderheim had probably used the nicely furnished bedroom in the basement to conduct discreet business without the lady’s knowledge. This avenue of investigation closed, the party thanked Mrs. Safe and headed to the Rusty Hook.

The proprietor, an affable, foul-mouthed chap named Karl Wine, informed the group that Hawthorne had indeed roomed at the Hook for the last several months, but that he had checked out earlier in the day. “Good riddance,” he added, as none of the regulars had liked Hawthorne.

More flavor text to follow…

With the storm still 6-12 hours out, the group decided to track down Soderheim before he had a chance to get away. Will scried on him using a lock of hair procured from the Councilor’s house. The crystal ball showed Soderheim making his “O” face at the House of Serenity – getting in one last poke before his likely arrest and/or demise.

The group headed to the House of Serenity, which was just down the street from Teach Investigations. They noticed a nondescript fellow make a relatively unobstrusive hand gesture, which triggered the door to the establishment being barred from the inside. Will, of course, used a dimension door to skirt this rather pedestrian method of security, and Spike and Chow made quick work of the lone guard on the other side of the door.

Chow peeked behind a nice silken curtain to discover four toked-up guards in the House’s snake weed den. He offered to allow them to walk out and join their compatriots at the Soderheim house, who Will had bought off a half hour previous. Instead, they all fired crossbow bolts into the curtain and the wall around Chow. In return, Chow stabbed one of the guys and repeated his offer. With a chorus of, “Dude, you killed Donnie!,” they dropped their crossbows and grabbed the hookah mouthpieces.
About that time, somebody dropped a barrel filled with beer-smelling rocks and dirt on Will as he tried to ascend the stairs to the second floor. Will responded by floating up the third floor and dropping a shrapnel globe on the 5 guys assembled up there. They looked like 4 bodyguards and a leader of some sort, all dressed in Soderheim’s livery.

The leader appeared to be something other than human, as he flicked a fireball from his finger and regenerated the damage the shrapnel had done. As Will and Spike pressed the attack on him, the guy studied their faces and teleported away.
Meanwhile, Chow found 5 kitchen workers locked up in the cold-storage pantry behind the kitchen, and Balama used a Detect Thoughts spell to scan the second floor. Will followed the same tack and scanned the third floor for people, narrowing down the locations of the guards up there.

Chow had the good idea to tie the doorknobs of two adjacent doors together to keep the guards in one of the third-floor rooms trapped, but the plan failed when the guards heard him, opened the door, and jiggled the door to dislodge the rope. At that point, a thoroughly fed-up Will said, “Drop your weapons or everybody dies.” That’s when the third floor exploded.

An enormous fireball reduced the top floor of the House of Serenity to smoldering cinders. A quick search revealed that Carmina had been burnt to death, along with all of the guards, patrons, and workers on the third floor.

With a newly clear view of the surrounding area, Will spotted a heretofore unknown ballista atop one of the Old City towers 500 feet away. The four-man crew (who all had their hands pressed to the ballista, strangely) were still aiming the ballista at the House of Serenity. Without another thought, Will scorched them with a delayed-blast fireball.

While everybody else descended to the first floor to recover, Spike acted on Balama’s guidance that she had found Soderheim in one of the back rooms of the second floor. Spike killed guard after guard at the top of the stair, all the time keeping Soderheim in sight as the Councilor tried to make his way down the hall to the stairs. The elf tried to cast several spells on Spike, but none of them seemed to work. When the crowd thinned enough, Spike leapt from the stairs and impaled the Councilor with one rapier stroke.

With the House cleared, Will flew with Carmina’s body to the Temple of Harrimast, while Balama sprouted wings and flew to the top of the recently unmanned tower to investigate.

1500 miles away and several hours previous, while having a nice lunch with Finn and Lady Elise aboard the Sea Wind, Richard suddenly felt as tired as he ever had in his life, as though he’d been up for two days straight. He excused himself and retired to his cabin.