Freeport Campaign

Rewards Earned

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

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.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: A few
• Treasure: Three crates of stolen merchant wares; 4,000 gp each from the Cloud Ant consortium

While the wizard and the priest rested, the sentries heard what sounded like several large creatures trying to be quiet in the trees beyond the clearing. Apparently, a hill giant hunting party had seen the ship flying in and made the unwise decision to investigate. They compounded this choice with belligerence and poor impulse control, tossing barrages of boulders and siccing some rather large wolves on the party. The Four Gulls representatives dispatched the giants with little trouble, though Isaac got banged up again when he brought attention to himself by manning the ballista.

The group managed to track down the giants’ nearby lair, where they discovered the surprisingly intact results of a previous raid on a travelling merchant, including a large set of miscellaneous knives, numerous pieces of jewelry, a nice game board and pieces, and a detailed journal.

With the threat neutralized, the party patched up the ship with a combination of sailing skills and magic, and headed back northwest toward Fairhaven. They arrived without incident and docked on a strange net hammock designed to support the ship above the water on one of the steep cliff faces on a tall island in the bay.

The consortium of investors paid the party 4000 gold pieces each for recovering the ship, the captain, Declan, and the magical wheel all relatively intact.

While they were loading their new bounty onto their ships, the group heard a remarkable tale of a shooting star that had ended up being a fire giant riding into Fairhaven on a fiery chariot. The tall, ashen-skinned fellow was currently meeting with the town’s councilmen and various guild representatives, and Ivan was supposed to talk to him at some point in the near future. Suddenly not sure about the wisdom of coming back to the responsibilities of a High Priest, Ivan told the party that he’d let them know what was going on as soon as he could.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: A few
• Treasure: Various weapons and items from the former Cloud Ant crew

Richard beseeched Harrimast to help him discern the location of the Cloud Ant, and was gratified to receive knowledge of a bearing and approximate distance. The group turned back into mist, flew to the ship’s last known location, and set up a sprial search pattern. Within a couple of hours, they discovered the ship descending to a cleared riverbank a quarter-mile past the bottom of a hundred-foot waterfall. As they approached the ship, they noted what looked to be a couple of mages waiting on the riverbank, accompanied by a trio of warriors and another trio of carpenters.

As the group moved toward the aft of the descending ship, one of the warriors seemed to spot one of the barely-visible clouds of mist moving in an unexpected way. He reported such to the female wizard, who immediately began issuing orders. With the element of surprise gone, the party rematerialized for the short battle.

The ship’s defenders were no match for the party, though Isaac was a bit banged up in the process of driving off or killing most of the half-orcs that made up the crew. In the end, all of the defenders were slain except for the male mage who teleported away with two of the surviving warriors, the half-orc wizard who evaporated into mist and disappeared through some cracks in the ship’s hull, and the three carpenters who fled into the jungle.

The only moment of relative tension was when Kumar snatched Aerdane, the half-elf captain, from the wheel, thereby releasing the captive air elemental propelling the ship. Richard quickly summoned another air elemental to fulfil that task, but the ship began an alarming descent while the new elemental got up to speed. Chow took over at the wheel, achieving control of the bound elemental and preventing it from smashing any more of the barely-flying ship.

With the Cloud Ant under nominal control, the party took the ship a couple of hours away from the riverbank and set her down in a small clearing. They formally introduced themselves to Aerdane, the Cloud Ant‘s captain, and Vergus Hote, the dwarf who had been manning the ship’s lone ballista.

In questioning Aerdane and Hote, they discovered that the dwarf had helped in the inital assault that had captured the ship. He said that he had been pressed into service by the Crimson Fleet several years ago when the Fleet had raided the ship he was on. To avoid being murdered out of hand like several of the crew, he agreed to use his knowledge of siege weaponry to benefit the Fleet. Skeptical of his story, the party discussed the dwarf’s fate with Aerdane, who advocated turning him over to the authorities in Fairhaven.

Before that could happen, though, the group needed to get the ship back in good enough shape to make the journey back to Fairhaven. To that end, Spike, Isaac, Chow, and Kumar stood watch while Balama and Richard got some sleep.

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: A few
• Treasure: Trade contacts

At the meeting with Declan’s wife and a handful of “stakeholders,” the group discovered that Declan was aboard a prototype airship called the Cloud Ant, which was supposed to have arrived in Fairhaven from Stormhome a couple of days ago. Declan’s wife showed the assemblage a scrap of paper on which was written a message sent magically by Declan: “Ship stolen. Aerdane captured. Others killed or captured. Elf and I escaped. Hiding in caves near Dig’s End. Think I hear a bear. Help! Declan.”

Based on Oleg’s glowing recommendation, the stakeholders asked the Four Gulls group to help investigate the matter and recover Declan and the airship if at all possible, and Spike, Chow, and Richard agreed. They got directions to Dig’s End, turned into mobile clouds of mist using Richard’s wind walk spell, and set off.

They found the small farming village easily. Scanning the environs for a few minutes, they discovered a cave mouth north of the village and checked out the first few tunnel intersections before rematerializing and heading into Dig’s End. They told the innkeeper, Joachim, that they were looking for a friend of theirs who was supposed to be visiting the village, and mentioned that maybe he had gotten lost in the caves to the north. Joachim filled them in on the area’s history – the caves were actually some old, unproductive mines. Joachim’s grandfather had been one of the original prospectors, and when the mines had failed to produce, he and the rest of the miners stayed and started farming the small valley where the village now stood. Joachim then called over a kid named Derek, who reported that he had heard voices in the fog in the middle of the night last night. The group thanked them for the information, had lunch, and headed into the caves.

More flavor text to follow eventually…

Rewards Earned

• Experience Points: A few
• Treasure: Trade contacts

The group had a busy first afternoon and evening in Fairhaven:

• They had dinner at the Cross-Eyed Mermaid.
• They checked in with several trading contacts, who were looking for leather, apples, and various other goods.
• One contact, Declan Redwind, was missing. His cousin, Oleg, was aboard the group’s ship after having been picked up in Khemti. He recommended to Declan’s wife that the Four Gulls might be able to recover her husband. They agreed to meet with her in the morning.
• The group met Vittorio Oardipper, one of Ivan’s old pirating buddies. The two fellows had been co-commanders of a fleet of seven ships before a falling out a few decades ago, though they seem to have patched things up almost immediately.
• Spike, Camina, Isaac, and Chow headed to the Red Light District, where they were recommended to Jasmine Alley. Chow met a couple of his countrymen and a pretty young geisha named Kushi, while Spike and Carmina spent the evening gambling and carousing. The group also ran into a very intoxicated Ivan, who seemed happy to be home.
• Richard was surprised by a strangely emotive rat jumping on his desk. He quickly discerned that the rat was a polymorphed being, and helped remove the ensorcellment. The man, a human mage named Laranga, had inadvertently transmogrified himself with a magical knotted string, and thanked Richard profusely for helping him. The two grabbed dinner and drinks, and spent a couple of hours swapping stories.