What are you doing now?
[b]"Set course for Quent, cap'n?" says Cass.
With a smile, Rhialla sets about overseeing the storage of their new cargo and takes personal possession of the Calistrian artifact for safekeeping, before setting the course.
You easily make sail for Quent, arriving and delivering the Golden wasp to the Temple of stolen kisses. Dindreann lives up to her
end of the bargain, and tells you that one of the temple’s patrons, a half-elf scrimshander in Drenchport named Jaymiss Keft, claimed to have knowledge of a spy operating in the Shackles. You should seek him out to learn the name of this spy.
From Quent Drenchport is the closest, just. What are you doing now?
What course are ye plotting?
"Sir," says Cass. She takes the brief downtime opportunity to clean her wetsuit and think about her prepared spells.
"Alright folks, you have two hours to get done what you need to get done then its on to Drenchport to see about a spy. Get moving."
"Two hours... Ash, Cass, shall we go take a tour and a drink or three?" - Herzag shrugged - "Maybe sell some stuff, buy ingredients for Cass?" - he added - "You need those right? To make people invisible, and flying and whatnot? Not running in fear, that I can do on my own..." - he snarled.
In search of the half-elf scrimshander Jaymiss Keft, you sail to the damp and gloomy city of Drenchport on Tempest Cay, making your way ashore as heavy rain washes the streets. Jaymiss is well known in Drenchport both as an expert scrimshaw carver and a shameless
rumormonger.
A successful DC 10 Diplomacy check to gather information reveals that the gray-haired old half-elf spends most of his time by the fire in the
Carvers’ Hall, a communal building where Drenchport’s scrimshanders work together on larger projects and sell their finished works.
Jaymiss Keft has an initial attitude of indifferent towards you.
How are you approaching him?
The elderly Half-elf does not look impressed. "You heard wrong then." He snorts.
He looks a bit more cheerful though. "Well you started the talk. So buy me a black-kelp beer and we can keep having it."
What now?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Well if you are a scrimshander then do you have any fishbone hair brushes? My hair gets ridiculously tangled after I've been swimming in the ocean. The fine bones are excellent for combing out the tangles," says Cassiopeia.
Jaymiss Keft happily displays a selection of fishbone combs. All artistically decorated with etchings of Merfolk, Sea Serpents & Kracken.
After being made friendly he reveals that he has suspicions about a man named Haddon Pike, a beachcomber, fisherman, and occasional smuggler.
The thing is, many of Haddon’s supposed smuggling trips down south in a
hired boat don’t actually involve moving goods. Jaymiss knows the black market in Drenchport pretty well, and he’s noticed that Haddon seldom buys or sells any contraband goods before or after these trips.
He gives you directions to Pikes cottage.
What now.
Cass is legitimately impressed with the selection and purchases two brushes, settling on an artistic one with menfolk on the handle, and a more practical one with decor of waves and sea foam. She spends 50 gold pieces.
”Need an extra in case one breaks.”
Outside the man's location, Ashlei puts her her hands on her hips again.
"Sounds like we might want to follow this man if we can surreptitiously. It could be he is meeting with his contacts that way. We could catch two birds with one knife possibly?"
Haddon’s residence is a small driftwood cottage perched on the rugged coast just outside of Drenchport. Haddon’s neighbors haven’t seen him recently, though he tends to keep his own company.
What are you doing now?
"Do we want to have a peek at his house while he's out....if he's out that is." Rhialla says, thinking aloud as they study the cottage.
"Meh, lets have a look" - Herzag shrugs, and moves over to the window, peeking inside carefully.
"Can someone squeeze through the window?" asks Cass. "Or shall I open the door with magic?"
"I can give it a try." Rhialla says, tugging on her sleeve, as her clothing changes to an even more form-fitting head to toe black outfit.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Slinky, but I thought that pirates and ninja were natural enemies."
Ashlei snorts.
"Stop emasculating Herzag any more than normal and let him take the chances! There could be deadly traps or...mean guard dogs or something. That's his 'thing' really...isn't it? I mean why else do we keep him around?"
She winks broadly at Herzag with her last statement.
@Herzag
A dead body lies inside the cottage. Two crossbow bolts protrude from
its back, and the head is submerged in a fish tank. The tank holds a piranha like creature with frilled spines, huge eyes, and lots of teeth, which has consumed most of the faces flesh.
Whatcha doing now?
Ashlei snorts.
"Stop emasculating Herzag any more than normal and let him take the chances! There could be deadly traps or...mean guard dogs or something. That's his 'thing' really...isn't it? I mean why else do we keep him around?"
She winks broadly at Herzag with her last statement.
"Everyone knows why you keep me around Cap" - Herzag replies with a chuckle.
"Dead body inside" - the half-orc adds, moving to the door to check if it is locked, or somehow rigged - "Probably tortured and executed"
|
"Gods damn it. Another dead end...literally this time."
He growled but motioned torwards the door.
"Lets get inside and see if there are any clues or anything that can be found as to who killed him and why. I've a feeling someone was tidying up loose ends, but perhaps its simular to us, a person discovering he was an agent of someone and took him out."
Ashlei makes a paranoid leap in thought.
"Boss...could this be a trap? They may be waiting around the corner to 'catch' us in the act of killing him. Or worse: Being in cahoots with a possible traitor. On the other hand my magic ring could tell us something about his death. Its your call."
"We should go in. I came prepared for the possibility of having to question the dead...though more out of expecting Ash and Herzag to get a little overzealous honestly. We'll see what his corpse has to say about the bastards that fed his face to his pet." Rhialla replies.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For a second Ashlei starts to get a little ruffled at Rhialla's suggestion.
"Hey! What did you mean by...OHHHHhh. Yeah. That was probably a good point about me and Herzag. Sure..."
"So is someone going to pick the lock on the door, or...?"
|
|
"I'll keep watch outhere for a bit, Most of you have sharper eyes than me. Go over everything with a fine tooth comb."
He moved about the building constantly scanning the surroundings Once Rhialla was ready for her spell however he moved back closer to the door, so he could listen in and perhaps add some feedback of his own if he thought of something they didnt.
Ashlei snorts.
"Don't look at me. I can barely pick my teeth!I've got some spinach between two of my back teeth that has been bugging the Hells out of me for days..."
Rhialla slips into the house, making her way over to where the body lies slumped over with the bolts in his back, head, and mostly eaten face in the tank. Carefully pulling back on his shoulders, she dumps the body on the ground, kneeling over it as she begins casting a spell. As a silvery ball of swirling spiritual energy coalesces in her hand, she completes her invocation to Besmara, dropping the ball of light into the corpse's open mouth, and watching the glow of awareness come to life in the previously dead eyes.
Cassiopeia stands watch outside with the captain, knowing that crowding the room with too many people will just make things tougher. She starts to ask a question, then realizes that Percival needs to keep his concentration so that he can pay attention to other things, and settles for leaning against the wall of the cabin idly with her arms crossed.
Clutched in the bodies hand is a piece of driftwood carved to resemble
a birdlike humanoid with a narrow beak, recognizable as a tengu.
If the PCs examine the body, a successful DC 15 Heal check confirms that Haddon has been dead for around a week.
A successful DC 20 Craft (alchemy) or Heal check identifies faint traces of poison on the crossbow bolts. The angle of the bolts suggests that Haddon was shot through the window.
A DC 20 Perception check made while searching outside discovers a discarded glass vial near a rocky outcropping about 80 feet away with a good view of Haddon’s window. Rain has washed away tracks and any residue from the vial.
While the cottage has been thoroughly ransacked, a successful DC 25 Perception check finds a concealed compartment in the fish tank’s heavily carved wooden base. Inside is a waterproofed bag containing 40 pp, 259 gp, and a scrimshaw walrus tusk scroll case (worth 50 gp). Inside the case are several rolled up scrolls of sheet music and lyrics, part of an old Chelish opera written in Infernal.
Besides the obvious incongruity of finding a Chelish opera in the possession of a beachcomber, a DC 15 Knowledge (history) check recognizes that Infernal would not have been used at the time the opera was written, a hint that the opera may hold a clue.
In fact, the opera
contains a series of instructions that have been encoded in a
complicated cipher. Cracking the code requires a successful DC 30 Linguistics check. A character who speaks Infernal, has 5 or more ranks in Perform (sing), or succeeds at a DC 25 Perform (any category) check gains a +2 bonus on the check.
The decoded instructions order Haddon to report on the movement of ships visiting Drenchport, especially those belonging to the Master of the Gales. The instructions also identify Haddon’s main contact, a woman named Roweena Kellet in Hell Harbor on Devil’s Arches.
Ashlei shrugs.
"In for a copper, in for a crown."
When she sees nothing else, she will allow Rhialla to finish with her magic and then use her favorite magic 'ring' on the corpse.
"Sorry to violate your peace again, but you seem to have gotten used to it now..."