Venture-Captain Trotter Flaxseed tells you that you have won a coveted tour on the crew of Venture-Captain Calisro Benarry’s [i]Grinning Pixie, also known as the Arcadian Mariner’s Lodge and sends you off to the ship immediately. Once settle you into your bunks, Venture-Captain Calisro Benarry fetches you for a meeting in her quarters.[/i]
Muscular and imposing in a green-dyed longcoat, tunic, and puffed trousers, the half-orc Venture-Captain Calisro Benarry kicks out a chair for herself from under the massive oak table at the center of her well-furnished cabin and sits down. “Welcome to the Pixie, Pathfinders. Enjoy your tour while it lasts, ‘cause by Sunday night you’ll be off the boat.
“We’re a day’s sail from a rendezvous with a Pezzacki whaler, the Patience, which has permits to cross the Chelish blockade to fish. That town’s been locked down since the people upended the empire’s government five years ago, and those permits are hard to come by. We’d teleport you into Pezzack if the damned devil-folk didn’t have the place blanketed with spies, so instead we’ll throw you into the hold with the Patience’s catch. Which is good for you, trust me, because nobody in that town smells any better than you will.”
Calisro leans forward, and whispers gruffly, “You’ll be dropped off to my contact at the Academy of Applied Magic, professor Kalizandrex Poppo. He’ll help you track down a trapped Pathfinder named Olandil, who’s been stuck there for five years—your job’s to get him out. Be careful who you talk to, though, and how you ask questions. That place is more volatile than Gorum on a bender, and the more you poke around, the more likely you’ll be the next to burn it down.”
The venture captain pulls a sheaf of nautical charts out of a case at her hip and unfurls them on the table. “As for getting you out of the town, I know a thing or two about the sailing patterns of the ships around here. The Pixie can pick around the coast north of here for a week before Abrogail’s folk come asking questions.” The venture-captain smirks as she continues, “In case you hadn’t noticed, the Pixie, well, she looks an awful lot like a pirate vessel, and the Chelish navy doesn’t exactly welcome pirates with open arms. You’d better get back here by then. Any questions?”
You may already know the following information about Pezzack’s history.
You may already know the following information about life in Pezzack.
The following four factions constantly vie for influence
in Pezzack.
Docktown: Representing the stranded merchants in Fat Harbor, the tiefling “mayor” Bruck wants economic dominance over Pezzack—a greedy oligarchy made easier by the town’s well-honed smugglers and perpetual unrest.
Galtans: Violent revolutionaries fronted by the grey gardener Habar Curl, Pezzack’s pack of Galtan rebels want the town’s freedom to spring from the blood of dead Loyalists—and anyone who might be aligned with them.
Loyalists: Pezzacki still loyal to the Chelish crown believe there can be no peace until rulership of the city is returned to its diabolical masters.
White Thistles: These idealists led by Amalia Wraxton want a unified, free Pezzack and hope to win over the other factions’ hearts and minds through verse and acts of derring-do.
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"Well, this should be an interesting, if not dangerous, mission. My name is Inira. I tend to be pretty quiet, don't really like talking in front of, or to, people I don't know well. But I am trying..."
"Anyway, I don't know much about the Pezzack people, but I do recall reading some of the history. Five years ago, the city of Pezzack was burned to the ground, and the Chelish navy established a blockade that seems to remain. As I recall, it was started by a play!
"A revolutionary playwright, Amalia Wraxton, produced a play called Abrogail I, which portrayed the first Thrune Magistrix as Asmodeus’ lover and blamed her for many of the ills that have befallen Cheliax in the last century. Wraxton vanished that night, and rumors about her whereabouts are a favorite tavern debate topic."
"Hellknights, guards loyal to the empire, and strix burned the city to the ground in response. I think the battle was known as the Second Ashes. I am not sure what the First Ashes might have been."
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Joining the others is a slim, tough looking half-orc. One of those characters who has the feel of the street on him - not a nice street at that.
Great, I join the pathfinders to get out of the slums of Absalom and my first assignment is somewhere worse... M'names Torash. Looks like you fellows have been at this game longer than me, so if you don't mind I'll just follow your lead and try to stay alive.
He looks around the assembled group and tries to be attentive during the briefing.
Once the formal briefing has finished Torash chips in.
So, I think I remember some smuggler talking about this place - saying that there's 4 factions tearing themselves apart down there. Guess that's what we're being to asked to stick our snouts into. W'dyid he say again... oh yeah Merchants-cum-smugglers, chelexian loyalists, violent revolutionaries and a bunch o'idealists who want everyone to play happy families... I guess we should start with the pansies - s'pose a pathfinder is most likely to be hanging out with dem
Torash looks satisfied at having something to contribute.
maybe what i learnt on the streets will be enough to pull me out of them after all...
"What's trapping this Olandil? Why can't he (or is it she?) leave on his own?"
"Olandil's an old friend of Venture-Cpatain Drandle Dreng's but due to the Chelish blockade against the town Olandil hasn't been able to leave and we haven't been able to get anyone in until now. But this Pezzacki whaler, the Patience, offers us a unique opportunity to get in and out."
While aboard the ship, an eagle swoops down out of the sky and delivers a note to Karos.
"Any more questions I can answer for you?" the Venture-Captain asks.
The new moon and clouds keep the pre-dawn sky dark as the Pixie sidles up to the Patience. The ragged whalers silently pull person after person from their hold of scant fish-emaciated elderly people, several haggard-looking young men and women, and even a trio of children-each of them looking like they've gone years without rest as they listlessly cross the plank joining the ships. Venture Captain Benarry welcomes the refugees in a booming voice, and her crew sets to work bringing provisions to the newcomers. The Patience's crew lacks their ship's namesake as they hurriedly wave over the refugees' replacements-you!
Once the Patience docks in Pezzack, several crew members unceremoniously scoop and dump you and their fish cargo into a large wagon. The crew swiftly wheels the wagon across the town's poorly maintained cobblestones. Within a half-hour, a trap door in the wagon spills you and the fish out of its underside, down a metal chute, and into the larder of the Academy of Applied Magic. A gnome throws open the larder door once you land and starts to help you to your feet.
"Split me like Nethys' eyebrow! I'm genuinely surprised the Passfinders sent people! Sorry for the lack of a good cover story-didn't have room in the notes-didn't expect a response-and sorry for the fish guts and the bumpty roads and -oh, sorry for everything. If we had a little more time...."
"I'm Poppo, by the way. Follow me!" The gnome hurries you down several dimly lit stone halls and into the Academy's basement, which hosts cramped quarters for you to unload your gear and a single small tub of stale but clean water to help wash off the fish guts, if not the stench.
"Right! You're here for Olandil. It's... it's complicated. He's, well, he's not himself lately. He's four selves. Since your little Passfinder Society left him behind, he's had to make do-improvise-take on new names and jobs waiting for rescue."
"When I first met him, he went by Jax Telandril and needed me to enhance some goggles of disguise for some work in Docktown. He kept asking questions about Fat Harbor and the town's magic item economy. A year later he came in needing me to add some disguise charms to an eye path; I asked him why, and he spilled it all-so tired of keeping secrets-he was also Jacks Falger! The one-eyed Galtan spy!"
"He kept coming back over the years. He came in one day as Jaks Arunai, some hot-shot White Thistles poet. Last week, he comes in looking awful, and said he was a Passfinder named Olandil, and I just... I couldn't process it! Four people! One person!"
Poppo gesticulates madly, alternating between raising four fingers and one finger to emphasize his point. "I told him my own secret-I had been teaching a Passfinder vantage-captain as a correspondence student-and he told me to send her a message saying he wanted out of Pezzack. As though that's even possible! But I sent it, and he thanked me, he left, and I haven't seen him since."
"Night before last, I had Loyalists-" Poppo smothers the word with disdain, and doubles up on his digust as he repeats it. "-Loyalists in my office, telling me to stop doing business with Olandil, following me everywhere except the Guts because I bet they don't like to get their boots dirty. They knew who Olandil really is, too! And they've been outside the Academy since, watching, waiting. They don't know about my ladder to the Guts, but they'll find out eventually."
Poppo fishes a rolled-up map of Pezzack from his robes and spreads it out on the basement floor. He points out five places you are likely to get information about any of Olandil's public personas.
Gold Street (area 2): “The thieves’ guild operates out of here. Lots of information if you can buy it. You didn’t bring money with you, did you? Nobody takes money here. Maybe the Loyalists, but still, nobody worth spending it on.”
The Inkwell (area 3): “Literati hangout. Lots of rebels, lots of fights. Someone who knows Jaks the poet, the one in the White Thistles, will be there, I’m sure of it.
The Throne Defiant (area 4): “Loyalist inn. If you want to get to the bottom of Olandil’s connection with the Loyalists, you can try there.”
Auntie’s (area 5): “Big tavern in Docktown, and a good place for gossip. You can try asking about Jax Telandil around there—he’s the Docktown Jax—but mind who you talk to if you don’t want to spread rumors."
Madge’s Noodle Cart (area 6): “Madge doesn’t know anything except noodles, but she knows noodles! You have to try them.”
He explicitly recommends against the Governor’s Manse (area 9; “Loyalist fortress—no entry”), the Tenements (area 11; “total chaos”), the Glass on the Hill theater (area 8; “haunted and abandoned”), Whaler’s Point (area 14; “don’t draw attention to our arrangement, thank you”), or Shorewall (area 10; “Galtans won’t let you near it”).
The professor offers you school robes they can wear to try to blend in; the robes and a cover story should help you pass as academy artificers and students instead of strange outsiders in a blockaded city—not much less discreet, but at least less suspicious.
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Senjin happily munched on fish while the group was in transit amongst the stinky cargo. Once being dumped out, he squinted as the gnome told his story. Gnome talks alot. Madge makes noodles? Noodles are good. Tavern?
"How about the Tavern? Get drinks...find out stuff about human there? And then maybe noodles?"
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Ugh, this stuff stinks... thanks for the wash, even though we're going to stink worse than Chalin Street on market day...
So, these 'disguises' how many students of this school are there, will we actually blend in, especially myself and Senjin here, not sure if we look like your usual students. If the loyalists are watching you, would that extend to them watching members of your school too?
And one man playing at being 4, weird, but does it matter, don't we just make contact and get him out of here, or do you think some bits of him aren't going to wanna go?
All that said, happy to start in the tavern, i could use a drink!
"I don't think they have the resources to watch all the students, we have quite a few." Poppo responds. "Yes, you'll need to make contact with him and get him out but making contact is the hard part, especially with his many false identities and his secretive nature, especially now that he's being hunted. I wish you the best of luck though!"
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In Docktown's chaotic jumble of ships, Auntie's tavern still manages to stand out. Draped in bright curtains of white and red and bearing a huge, garishly painted former ship's masthead of a woman as its sign-creatively augmented to hold two foaming mugs aloft, the three-story converted ship's hold is perpetually packed with Pezzacki looking to drown their fears and boredom. The proprietor is an elderly halfling woman who goes by Auntie. She weaves gracefully about the room, conversing with patrons and intervening when tempers flare.
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Torash strolls into the tavern, takes a deep breath and smiles.
Ah, just like home... Now to see who's who in this jungle.
Torash slides around the room, making small talk with a few likely looking regulars and trying to get a sense of what's going on in town.
Smooth, Senjin, you must be a natural... Shesh, but look at the those teeth and muscles, I'm sure i'll be glad that he's in the front if... when we run into a fight...
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As a devotee of Cayden Cailean, Karos enjoys any tavern, but is partial to those with character, and Autie's reeks of character as well as swill and sweat. Unable to hide his unusual nature, the gunslinger makes no attempt to be subtle.
He bellies up to the bar. "Whiskey, neat," he says, pushing several copper coins across the polished wood. He makes a little small talk with those at the bar while eying the room.
Aside from drunkards swilling watered-down ale, Auntie’s also features a clear view of the former Manukirt Trading Co. warehouse. Auntie is quite friendly and brings the requested drinks in an astonishingly short time. "So, did you pass an exam or something? I don't get students often so I presume it must be a big occasion. What else can I do for you?"
"Oh, well, Jacks Telandril, he works odd jobs around Docktown. Usually I think he's building second and third stories onto new ships, something like that. I hear he's up to his ears in debt though and he's planning to start a new magic item business to try to get out. Maybe that'll interest you," she notes to Joesef. "I also heard that he's dating Amalia Wraxton, you know, the playwright."
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Is he normally in here of an evening. or would we be better off looking for him down on the docks?
Torash smiles, he likes this no-nonsense halfling and the vibe of her bar. He speaks more quietly to his associates.
Multiple lives, i wonder if he has multiple lovers too?? If not, he might have gotten attached to this girl, could be we're not just trying to get him out of here... So, shall we hang around here, go to the docks or check out one of his other persona's?
"No, Jacks hasn't been in here for some time," Auntie admits. "If he owes you money, I hope you aren't too hard on him. I do think he means well, even if he has been a bit unlucky or misguided in his ventures before."
"We'll just see how successful his magic-item business is, if he gets it off the ground. Not a lot of trade in such things, what with the city locked down and all." Auntie replies.
Poppo fishes a rolled-up map of Pezzack from his robes and spreads it out on the basement floor. He points out five places you are likely to get information about any of Olandil's public personas.
Gold Street (area 2): “The thieves’ guild operates out of here. Lots of information if you can buy it. You didn’t bring money with you, did you? Nobody takes money here. Maybe the Loyalists, but still, nobody worth spending it on.”
The Inkwell (area 3): “Literati hangout. Lots of rebels, lots of fights. Someone who knows Jaks the poet, the one in the White Thistles, will be there, I’m sure of it.
The Throne Defiant (area 4): “Loyalist inn. If you want to get to the bottom of Olandil’s connection with the Loyalists, you can try there.”
Auntie’s (area 5): “Big tavern in Docktown, and a good place for gossip. You can try asking about Jax Telandil around there—he’s the Docktown Jax—but mind who you talk to if you don’t want to spread rumors."
Madge’s Noodle Cart (area 6): “Madge doesn’t know anything except noodles, but she knows noodles! You have to try them.”
He explicitly recommends against the Governor’s Manse (area 9; “Loyalist fortress—no entry”), the Tenements (area 11; “total chaos”), the Glass on the Hill theater (area 8; “haunted and abandoned”), Whaler’s Point (area 14; “don’t draw attention to our arrangement, thank you”), or Shorewall (area 10; “Galtans won’t let you near it”).
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Thieves? I rather like what gold I have in my pockets. Though it seems we have to head there for information. May as well get it over with.
Standing up from the chair Quint thanks Auntie for the drink. Once outside he feels his robes to make sure that his gun is still set in place for easy access. May need this if we are going to willingly visit a group of thieves and miscreants.