It's loosely inspired by a quest from Skyrim. Hey, inspiration has to come from somewhere, right? There were two other options for where they could go from where they were, and I determined that this wasn't at all the way to run things. In all future weeks I guaranteed I had a route forward for them so that I could plan much better adventures. Planning three only to have two completely nuked out of existence on contact was too much.
Returning to the Pirates, they meet again with Black Jake. He and his companions are surprised that the adventurers are still alive, having sent several groups to their deaths, and even more surprised to find out that a dragon was the reason the kobolds were acting up. He explains that the kobolds had been taking credit for things that the pirates had been doing and doing things that the pirates were getting the blame for, and he’s glad the nest has been exterminated.
Black Jake tells the adventurers that the dragon explains a
lot of things around here recently. It also suggests terrible things for their
Fennican division, but he won’t go into detail. He asks if they are still
adventurers for hire; on the subject of slavery, the Porton Pirates don’t go in
for that vile act.
If asked about the Dragonflight Union he suggests Sholtar’s
tower; the old geezer was supposedly run out of town a year or two ago, but his
tower might have some useful information in it.
Black Jake sees something in you, a certain glory that he
doesn’t see in any of the other people around the table, and he offers you a
place in the Pirates; in fact, a high-up place in the Pirates. He’d have to
seek the permission of the Pirate King, of course, but…
If the adventurers are interested, Black Jake flicks them a
gold coin each. The coin has a P on each side. “This will identify you to any
that need to know who you are. Keep hold of it; don’t spend it by accident.”
There is a lot of good-natured laughing around the table.
Black Jake shows you a map of the city. A lot of the map is
coloured in red, but there is a small pocket of grey, a small pocket of blue
and a small pocket of brown.
“We’re the red. As you can see, we own this city. The other
colours are… different problems. The grey one, no-one owns that land. It’s
Knockdown Lighthouse; perhaps you saw it as you came in? There are all sorts of
kooky legends about that place, but the truth is that no-one who has been there
in years has come back to tell the tale of it. We want it.
“The blue, that’s the SIC. Those damned scientists are so
principled, no gang has been able to get them on side. Even this lily-livered
lot you see sat around this table haven’t come up with an idea. We don’t even
want money from them; we want whatever weapons they’re researching, plain and
simple. Oh, they keep saying they’re not researching any weapons, but hey, how
could they not be?”
“The brown. It’s the smallest, see? That’s the Half-Full
Crescent. It’s a bar about a mile from here, right next to the Council House.
How they’ve managed to stay there I don’t know, but we keep finding their work
everywhere we go; it’s always the same. People butchered, blood everywhere;
they’ve been responsible for the deaths of fifteen of my men this month alone.
We want them neutralised.” He labours the point that the Lighthouse is probably
the best one to start with because that will help not just the Pirates but also
the people of the town, and that is, after all, what the Pirates are all about.
Quest reward is 200gp and 400xp on returning the key to
Black Jake. If they don’t do the full adventure but return to Black Jake, he
gives them 50gp but later on they have to deal with his rage at having men he
placed there killed by giant ants…
If they choose to go to the Lighthouse; the upper levels are
deserted; the flame cannot be lit; every time they light something the wind
blows it out. The lighthouse gives every impression of having been occupied.
There are toys scattered around one empty bedroom which is covered in dust;
there is food on the table, the bed is neatly made in the master bedroom, cups
stand empty and a book is half open. Every so often they hear a scuttling
sound. There is a locked door in the main area which combines kitchen, eating
area and hallway.
Careful searching in the childrens’ bedrooms finds a journal
under one of the pillows. Written in childish hand it depicts the two parents
fighting about keeping a key safe, and the child is unsure why they are
fighting again.; why can’t daddy keep his pets in the main area? A second entry
reveals that the child has found mummy’s diary hidden in one of the cookpots
right at the top of the cupboard, even though daddy doesn’t know where it is,
and feels proud. A third entry reveals that his sister Jenny has gone missing and
the mother is sick with worry; there are no more entries.
The mother’s diary has a few entries but the last few talk
about arguing with Alvor again over his pets; they give her the creeps. The
next entry is short; Jenny has gone missing.
The third entry is written in a shaking hand and tells that
Alvor is refusing to go down to the cellar because there’s no way his ‘precious
babies’ are responsible, so he is instead assuming she went for a swim and
drowned. A fourth entry reveals that the younger child, the boy John, has left
a note in childish handwriting; it says ‘Heard you talking in your sleep about
the demons in the basement. I’ve gone to find Jenny. I took my stick so don’t
worry.’ The entry ends ‘Oh gods, what am I doing writing this, I have to go
down there! Alvor changed the code, but it’s even easier now; DECIDE.’
The door has a combination lock, six dials. The code to
unlock it is a a=1 b-2 c=3 etc code, so the correct code is 453945. If the PCs
are struggling, they can do a perception check and note that the first dial
sticks slightly on 4 and the last one sticks slightly on 5.
They can also break the door down.
In the basement, a single room is found after a longish
corridor. All the way along the corridor the scuttling gets louder and more
worrying until, finally, they get to the main chamber. To one side are several
cages; the ‘pets’ were obviously kept in those. Now, however, it is clear to
see that the pets are loose and infesting the chamber; they are giant ants,
somehow. There is one hive soldier, two hive warriors and six hive workers.
They are currently gathered around what looks like bundles of clothing or rags
but as soon as the adventurers come in, they notice the intrusion and turn to
defend their home.
On successfully defeating the ants, the bundles of cloth
turn out to be the bodies of the family of Lighthouse keepers. Their bellies
are distended; the giant ants have been evidently been trying to breed an
entire nest here using their bodies as incubators. The adventurers can see
things moving under the surface of the corpse’s bellies. The corpses look
pretty good for being dead, almost as if incubating the ants is causing blood
to pump around their bodies for the good of the ants breeding inside them. If
the adventurers delay more than three or four decisions the boy’s belly erupts
and six ant minions come out ready to fight.
Finally, searching the cellar will reveal a small amount of
gold and the man’s journal, along with the lighthouse key which can be turned
in to Black Jake for the reward.
The man’s journal reveals that he was breeding the giant
ants because he wanted to sell them and make enough money to take his family
away from the poor life of a lighthouse keeper. When his daughter vanishes he
suspects the ants but doesn’t want to believe it. His son and wife going down
crushes his confidence completely but he somehow gathers up enough courage to
get his sword and go down there.
If the adventurers decide to go and visit Sholtar:
The magician’s tower is as described in the South Porton
file. His tower is made up of six floors, then the four that he inhabits. The
six floors have a variety of golems and treasures that are available for
looting. Ultimately he is peaceful and explains about the Dragonflight Union.
Sholtar is a tiefling and he expresses wonder that a
tiefling and a dragonborn are adventuring together; a successful history check
encourages him to expand on this as the Tiefling or the Dragonborn are vaguely
aware there is enmity between their races.
“The Dragonflight Union is just what we humans call them,”
Sholtar explains. As he talks his hands are constantly moving, rolling a ragged
cigarette, smoothing his beard or his robes or simply drumming on the nearest
available surface. “I’ve been in contact with them before, and we worked
closely in the past. The nasty business with the rogue automaton, they helped
with that, but that was two, three years gone now…”
If questioned about the rogue automaton: He reveals that the
SIC has less grip on its rogue scientists than others would believe. There have
been several engineers and researchers who
have been exiled from the College as their studies have become unethical. One
such researcher, Master Joseph Vorn, moved to Forest Edge and began his project
again. The product of his work was a mechanical slave designed to free humanity
from the drudgery of manual labour. In the event it went mad and began to
rampage through the town. A younger member of the Union was sent as a kind of
superweapon to prove his strength; The mechanical man nearly killed the dragon
but ultimately fell to a joint attack.
“I was in close contact with one of the Elder Dragons,
Vyzarrax, but I’ve heard nothing for over a year. They are incredibly wise,
dragons, you understand. I have his last missive here if you think it will
help.”
He gives the adventurers a piece of paper on which is
written, in legible human hand, a message.
‘To: Sholtar. Long has it been since last we spoke, and I
would that it were not so. I am anxious to hear of your advances in your work,
though I am still unsure why you labour in such a way for so long. That said, I
hope that the tomes of knowledge we sent to you have been helpful in your work.
We have found a most unusual thing here at Mountain’s Loft,
something you would do well to see. I cannot even begin to think yet how to put
it into words, save one: intelligence, where none was previously thought to
exist. I hope that I will have more to report in a future missive, but for now
I sign this off. Yours, Vyzarrax.”
If questioned about the golems, he becomes sad. “My wife,
you see… she died, five years ago, some sort of wasting disease. I… I don’t
know how to go on without her. She asked, before she left me, that I never
forget her and I never will. I am long-lived; my magic has cursed me with many
lonely years to live. I work in the hope that I can create an image of my wife
that is long-lived as I am. Those were just my failures. My countless,
countless failures…”
Essentially he suggests to the PCs that they head towards
the Dragonflight Union carrying his letter of recommendation. He points out on
the map where they should go.
If the heroes attack Sholtar, he is a level 4 tiefling
wizard character that initially wonders why he is being attacked. However, he
responds to violence. Searching his bureau the heroes find the letter detailed
above, but do not get a recommendation – the price of violence. They do,
however, find a wand, some robes and a scroll of indeterminate magic.
The adventurers have no idea who Teldorthan Goldcap is, but
he is the owner of the silver rod with the bulge on the end of it. It is
useless to the adventurers otherwise.
If they ask him about the Dragonflight Union, he has heard
of them on his travels and in his business deeds. A colony of dragons in the
mountains to the north of South Porton, they are peaceful and have always been
open to trade, up until about a year ago. Communications have shut down since
then. That said, the local expert on dragons is a wizard by the name of
Sholtar, but he hasn’t been seen for a long time either.
If they ask him about more work, he says that he has
recently had a large amount of stock come in to the city, valuable stock.
However, he’s worried that the local gang of smugglers, the Porton Pirates,
will be interested in the goods and will make an attempt to steal it. He needs
some guards on the night when it’s most likely to be stolen, which happens to
be that very night, because after that the goods will be moved out.
If the adventurers ask what the goods are, it’s just some
exotic spices from Koru. In reality it is narcotics; the man has a double life
as a drugrunner. The Pirates have paid for the goods but Goldcap wants to sell
them twice to make twice the money, killing off the couriers from the Pirates
to reclaim the goods once they’ve taken possession.
Quest rewards 400xp and 200gold on turning in.
If the adventurers take this route: The warehouse is located
in the docks district. The goods are several large crates which can be moved
around with difficulty. There are no other guards. The crates smell oddly
sweet. When the time comes for the Pirates to approach, they do so without
taking great pains to sneak. Their leader, Randy Max, talks to the others as if
he has bought the crates, for example “Right lads, there they are, just like
the dwarf told us. Get them onto the wagon and we can get going.” Not being
spotted requires stealth checks.
If the adventurers engage them in combat, Randy Max
expresses disbelief: “What the hell d’you think you’re doing? Get ‘em, lads!”
If they choose to talk to him, he is suspicious of them, but
sticks to the story that Teldorthan Goldcap sold them the goods and this is the
appointed pickup time. Intimidate check, bluff check etc. DC15 or so.
If they choose to follow the shipment in secret, they are
led to another warehouse, then underground into a series of tunnels. There,
they are surrounded by Pirates and questioned about why they are there. If they
choose, they can fight their way out. Intimidation requires a very high DC as
the Pirates have the upper hand.
They can temporarily ally with the Pirates to get the upper
hand of Goldcap, as he is trying to screw either party.
If they succeed in killing the Pirates, they can begin to
systematically work through tunnels, though the tunnels do not extend far. As
the Pirates are very well-entrenched in the city, the final showdown would be
with a mid-level Pirate Boss in a two-level chamber.
The Pirate on the wooden platform has a long, curved sword
and as he smile you catch the glint of several gold teeth in the flickering
lamplight. In his nose a golden ring winks at you.
“What is this? You been hired by the city to clear us out?
Pull the other one.”
If questioned about Goldcap: “Goldcap? That thief.” He makes
a couple of subtle hand gestures, too quick to catch, and you hear someone
scuttling away in the tunnels behind you. “The word’s gone out; he’ll never
deal with us again. He’ll be lucky to live past dawn.”
The Pirate Boss is almost apologetic. “I’m afraid that I
can’t let you live either. You’ve only seen a tiny fragment of our operation
here, but that’s too much. Big Boss Hix won’t like that you’ve been here, but
I’m sure your corpses will be enough to get me some gold!” He attacks with
several minions.
As he is bloodied, he calls for parley.
“Parley! I call for parley!” he gasps, falling to one knee.
Blood runs from several cuts all over his body and his breath is coming only
raggedly.
“You’re really something, you know that? The Porton Pirates
could use someone like you. The government of this city, it’s weak. It doesn’t
know what the people need; surely you’ve seen the way people are allowed to
starve in the street and petty criminals dive in and out of crowds? The Porton
Pirates isn’t about that. We want a better deal for the people, an easier life
for them. You wouldn’t deny them that, would you?” He stands up. “I can take
you to meet Big Boss Hix…”
If they kill him, he has a PP gold coin in his pocket, a
small amount of treasure, a gold nose ring and a scimitar. The signet ring can
be handed in to the Council House for a bounty or can be used in subterfuge to
gain access to other Porton Pirates nests.
The constable at the council house has no idea about the
Dragonflight Union but suggests they talk to Sholtar at his tower; the Council
has used his wisdom in the past, although the Constable wonders if he is still
even alive as no-one has been seen there for several months.
However, the Constable has been looking for some dependable
adventurers to help clean up the city and is willing to continue giving you
jobs in exchange for your help. This means that you’ll be paid a fee for each
one but you’ll also be free to go about your business if you wish to. He
generally has a low opinion of the governance of the city and has found that
the Docks is almost gang territory now where his honest officers cannot go. He
has plenty of untrustworthy members as well that the Porton Pirates have paid
off to keep quiet or keep away.
The Constable’s first problem point is a series of rapes and
murders that have been happening in the Port district. He thinks they’re
related to the Porton Pirates but hasn’t been able to make the link through
evidence. In exchange for information that will put a stop to the murders and
rapes he can give you 100gp. If the adventurers manage to kill all of the
people implicated, that reward rises to 200gp.
Quest rewards 400xp and 100/200gold on turning in.
This leads to Adventure 3.
No comments:
Post a Comment