As a splash of salt crashes over the bow of the Glorious Payoff, Calisro Benarry deftly steers her ship through a hidden channel, carefully navigating through the barely visible rock and coral that protrude slightly from the water’s surface. Behind the Payoff, a slightly smaller ship—the Sea Sparkle—follows, making every effort to follow Benarry’s course as closely as possible. Off the port hull, the deep green of the Garundi coast is illuminated by the late afternoon sun.
"See those gulls?" Benarry shouts over the flapping of the sails, [b]"that’s the sandbar we’ll be dropping you off at. Barely sticks up over the waves, but the seabirds flock over it to feast on crab."
"As I explained earlier, Vidrian—you might have known it as Sargava not that long ago—needs explorers to chart the trade routes to the south that they couldn’t use back when it was ruled by Cheliax. Simple enough bit of adventuring, but the new nation’s been having trouble with the Free Captains of late. Turns out when Vidrian broke free of Cheliax, the locals stopped paying the pirates protection money, and now they’re the number-one plunder target in the Shackles. What’s more, the pirates have set up a blockade preventing our ships from making it down to Vidrian to assist."
"Thankfully, we’ve got someone on the inside. Stella Fane, a Free Captain with ties to the Firebrands and the Pirate Council, has been in contact with the Society. She and members of the Society’s leadership have put together a fairly clever plan to help the Society’s ships pass through the pirate blockades unharmed. The Wind and the Waves willing, the Payoff and the Sparkle can sail to Vidrian, no problem. While we’re doing that, I’ve arranged transport for you to Port Peril to meet with Fane and get her to sign this contract making the whole thing official—she may be a pirate, but she’s the kind that holds to her word. You’ll need to avoid drawing too much attention until after the deal is done. Once she’s signed the contract her friends in the Pirate Council will ratify it and there won’t be much the lesser captains can do. Be careful. Anyone looking to put a stop to this need only ensure that contract never gets signed."
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Gwen sits up on desk letting the salt air whip her hair around. It was doing a number on her hair, but there was little she could do now and certainly not if they were going to be dropped off on a random sandbar. "You think we can trust Stella? I mean, getting people to do what I want is a bit of a specialty, if not."
"I'm not. No," Benarry answers Bashii. "We're hired a local to pick you up and deliver you to Port Peril. All very secret and hush-hush. Some people might try to interfere if they saw us coming."
Captain Benarry smirks and says to Gwen, "We’ve crossed the same seas and shared the same ports a time or two. You can trust her to deal fair. Just make sure you put your best foot forward."
"Very well. If you're ready," Captain Benarry says as she gestures toward a row boat and its two Pathfinders assigned to row you to the sand bar.
The trip to the sandbar is relatively uneventful. There you disembark on the little strip of sand and watch as the little boat rows back to the Glorious Payoff. The boat is hitched, raised, and the great barque sails further and further away until it disappears over the horizon.
Still, no one has come to get you.
You watch the sun creep across the sky with no shade on the tiny sandbar. The tide has risen enough that there is no dry space to stand or sit on the shrinking sandbar.
Still, no one has come to get you.
You wrestle the waterlogged crate out of the sand. It clearly will not float, so that will not save you. Cracking the crate open, you find several broken bottles as well as a few intact bottles. There is an intact bottle of liquor with a stylized dragon turtle stamped on the damp label. There's also a flask that looks like it holds foamy bear.
The sun continues to creep across the sky, and the water continues to rise. You stand ankle deep in the water, but still there is no sign of a boat. Is that a shark's fin in the distance?
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You catch something odd floating in the water. It bobs and weaves back and forth as it eventually is depositited onto the sandbar by the waves.
It is a four foot tall porcelan doll with several days worth of algae and seaweed caught in its hair. The eyes shimmer and gleam in the bright sun as her face shows lines and cracks all throughout from age. The doll wears a tattered and old victorian dress that expands out bigger and bigger around the feet as a matching stained bow is in her curled bond hair, all dripping wet from the sea water.
No matter where you look or move about her eyes seem to follow but the doll never moves, that is until she hears a few voices. Out of the corner of your eye you see the doll twitch ever so slightly as a sing song voice comes from within. The doll jerks its head around and around as it seems to get caught on small depositits of sand. The doll slowly rises as the cloth arms push the body upwards "Are you friends?" Comes a sing-song voice you have not heard on the ship yet. It sets a bit of unease about the sandbar as the voice goes silent once more.
The small poppet seems to get her sea legs. She lifts her self further with the broken leg of a once proud and majestic toy horse. She uses it as a sort of crutch as she looks towards each of you from the distance.
While you get accustomed to the waterlogged poppet, you notice a boat on the horizon. It meanders slowly toward your sandbar. Eventually, you can see the sailor leap into the water occasionally and then resurface and climb back onto the boat.
The boat nears, helmed by a dwarf woman with a rope tied around her waist. She tosses a line from the bow over to you and grunts. "Come aboard," she says in a tone that suggests she really does not care one way or the other before she leaps off of the boat. She is gone for a full minute before resurfacing. She tosses a clam onto the boat and then clambers aboard. "Let's go."
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Gwen helps pull the poppet out of the water, but nearly falls back into the water when it speaks. "Holy, s~@#! Uh, yeah let's be friends, ok? What's your name?" She watches the doll use the broken horse leg. "Are you hurt?"
When the spot the boat, Gwen sighs in relief. She waves to the dwarf woman. "You're late! We nearly drowned out here!" She points to the calf deep water on the sandbar. She huffs and then tries to help Grammy and the weird Poppet into the boat. "Don't ask questions! We're taking the doll with us."
The dwarf diver gives Gwen a blank stare at the accusation of being late and then an uninterested shrug when the changeling asserts that they are taking the doll with them. The dwarf sets back across the sea in a long, meandering route. She frequently stops the small, cramped boat and leaps off of the boat only to return within a minute with a crustacean or mollusk to add to a sack.
You wander on the open sea for hours before the wind dies down. After sitting there bobbing for a minute, the dwarf woman signs and picks up two oars. She hands one to Kanbashii. "Make yourself useful," she says before sitting down and placing her oar in the oarlock.
It is sunset before you finally drift into a harbor. You can see--and hear--several sailors singing rowdily as they disembark their ships. The dwarf woman grunts and gestures toward another ship. The stern is painted with the name, Risen Albatross. "Fane's ship," the dwarf mumbles. "She likes a riotous night on the town. Don't know where kids go these days. Harbormaster, Kreidoros, probably has an idea." This is the largest number of words the dwarf has spoken to any of you in a single stretch.
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The dolls head jerks as it moves, the joint broken and not smooth as it once was from years of use and abuse. As her head turns to the side to get a better view you notice a sizeable hole in the cracked porcelain face and able to see within the hollow toy head. "I am Princess Sunset. At least that is what Emma called me..." Her face droops a bit "That was a long time ago. I have been sitting in boxes, basements and now that ship for a long time. Their love sparked something in me. I woke up in the dark...called out for my friend...why would they abandon me?" The poppet looks up questioningly.
The small poppet climbs onto Gwendolyn's shoulder, looking confused when asked if she is injured. She clings tightly to the broken toy horse leg. "No, I am not injured. This was Moondust, I had to take it to protect my friends." Princess Sunset half smiles as she is taken back to a new boat. She looks down at the wooden planks. "Is this the Boneyard people talk about?"
The harbormaster is easy enough to find. He is walking the docks with a ledger in hand while he inspects the ships. "Good evening! What can Harbormaster Kreidoros do for you?" he asks good-naturedly.
"You're looking for Captain Fane?" the harbormaster clarifies. "She's definitely around here somewhere. Could be anywhere, though. She likes a party. Not sure if I remember seeing her today." He lowers his free hand to his coin pouch and drums his fingers.
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Gwen tries to prop up the doll against a crate. "There, you'll be safe for a bit."
Then she turns to the harbormaster, swaying as she walks towards him. She hasn't lowered her indecently short skirt. "Hi, Kreidoros! It would be so much easier if you could just point us the right way." She gently lays a hand on his arm and gives him a wink.
Success The target is unaffected but thinks your spell was something harmless instead of charm, unless it identifies the spell (see Identifying Spells).
Failure The target's attitude becomes friendly toward you. If it was friendly, it becomes helpful. It can't use hostile actions against you.
Critical Failure The target's attitude becomes helpful toward you, and it can't use hostile actions against you.
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Grammy ambles up to the Harbormaster with her walking stick.
Greetings Kreidoros. I'm so sorry to bother you. Y'see, we've had a heck of a day. Almost drowned y'know! And we really need to find Captain Fane. Now, I know y'don't know where she is EXACTLY, but could y'do an old half-orc a favor and point to her maybe two or three favorite haunts?"
Kanbashii, having no interest in indulging the harbormaster in his greed, wheedles and needles the dwarf until he gruffly chews out the words, "Maybe Rivanti's Bar." His eyes get all round and watery as Gwen touches him on the arm. "Oh, my stars, you're a sight! Even without a beard! And being much too skinny. Let me escort you to Rivanti's Bar, my dear, please? It would be my honor and it's far too dangerous for such a refined lady as yourself."
Harbormaster Kreidoros leads you to a small skiff, which he paddles across the bay to the south side of the island.
"These are the slums," Kreidoros says. "Lots of unsavory types in the Beggarbriar." Several shadowed faces from just inside the alleys openly appraise you and the likelihood that they would come away richer by accosting you. They apparently choose otherwise, and you make it to a shack in a clearing. Rowdy drinking songs and raucous squawks emerge from the building.
"Fane said she was heading here to spend her gold," the harbormaster says. "And now I need to get back to my duties. Fare thee well, my beautiful stranger without a beard!"
Inside the bar--which is unbelievably larger on the inside than a shack--are crowds of tengu divided between those who are merely drunk and those who are extremely inebriated. The bartender lies passed out on the bar next to a pile of emptied mugs and a human woman with white hair wearing a burgundy coat and an obvious pirate captain's hat.
"Ah, you’re just in time! Like little baby cleaner fish, not knowing that the shark might decide it wants a meal more than sparkling teeth. Let’s see what we’re dealing with. But first, a toast!" the woman, clearly Stella Fane, shouts and slaps the bar. "Bartender! A round of drinks for me and my guests!"
The pile of mugs jostles under the force of her slap and the unconscious bartender only snores in response. "Oh bother. Fine! I'll get the drinks myself. Are any of you teetotalers?" She stares the creepy doll down. "You're up for a drink, right?"
"Hull Stripper is pretty good," Fane says as she fills six cups with a dark brown liquor. She slaps them down in front of you and grabs one back. "And, no, you can't wear my hat. To calmer seas!" she toasts and throws the drink back.
"That means it's good!" Fane says and laughs.
Fane wipes her mouth with her sleeve. "Alright. Why don't you entertain me while we get to the negotiations," she says. The pirate captian jerks her head over to a table where a large number of tengus make gestures as if passing something between each other. Eventually, the chair under one of them breaks spontaneously and spills the tengu on the floor. The table erupts in riotous squawks of amusement.
"They're having a jinx-eating contest," Fane explains to you. "They're trying to pass their bad luck off onto the other." The felled tengu dusts himself off and stands at the table. "I'll bet you that you can't guess who'll be the loser next. Best two out of three."