The 2nd chapter of our heroes adventures in Freeport. The previous part can be found here.
The Characters
Nienna Roughtide - Level 1 Halfling Warrior with Battle Axe, Crossbow, Short Sword, Dagger and Heavy Leather Armour. After fighting through the sewers all Nienna wanted to do was sleep, drink and burn down the Singing Lamp, hopefully with the Barkeeper still inside.
Petra Cobbles - Level 1 Gnome Mage with Quaterstaff and a Novice of Healing and Lightning Arcana. More level headed than his companion, Petra is looking for a way to make money out of the Barkeeper, hopefully turning a bad situation to their advantage.
Volraith - Level 1 Half-Orc Warrior with Bastard Sword, Maul, Throwing Axe and Heavy Leather Armour. Volraith looks mostly human but his huge size and slightly Orc-ish features still give him away as not 100% human. An only child and spoiled by his parents Volraith is a true narcissist, everything he does is ultimately for himself and he thinks that the world owes him whatever he wants.
The Game
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| Freeport |
Waking in the early afternoon, still sore from the previous night the party find that Leando has not fared well spending a night in the sewers. The filthy conditions seem to have given him something and now he can only add to the sewer. Desperate for revenge Nienna and Petra head downstairs to the bar to decide what to do.
In the bar only a few seats are free because the lunchtime rush is on. Joining a table with a Half-Orc they ask him how the food is. "Foods good" is the reply as he continues eating. Ordering some food of their own Petra and Nienna introduce themselves.
While eating they get to know Volraith and between them come up with a plan, the Half-Orc is massive, easily bigger than the barkeeper at the Singing Lamp, someone of his size could be helpful to frighten the barkeeper and get what they want out of him. They decide to tell Volraith their story and ask if he would be willing to help. Without much else to do that day, and with the promise of coin, Volraith agrees to join them for the day and help them scary the barkeeper into paying up some compensation for last nights issues.
The Eastern District
Leaving the inn the party quickly realise that they got here through the sewers last night and have no idea how to get back to the Singing Lamp above ground. The streets are too busy now for them to go back into the sewers without being noticed so have to make their way back some other way. They are quickly approached by some street children who offer to show them around for a copper or two but the group decline and start walking towards the walls of the Old City.
Old City
Reaching the gates to Old City they find a few members of The Sea Captains Guard guarding the gates in and out of the district. Trying to ask for direction the Guardsmen seem uninterested and just ask them to move along. Thinking its a good idea Volraith pulls a few coins from his purse and goes to hand them to the Guard hoping for help. As he does his wrist is grabbed from behind and a merchant waiting behind them to get through whispers urgently in his ear "Idiot, these aren't corrupt Guardsmen like the City Watch, that better be a massive bribe or the Sea Captains Guard will take it as an insult and arrest you for bribing a watchmen".
Passing through the gates Voraith offers the coins to the merchant instead asking him if he knows where the Singing Lamp is. The merchant gives them some rough directions, telling them it is past the Sea Captains Palace and the party head in roughly the right direction.
The Singing Lamp
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| Bordon Spalding The Barkeeper |
Inside Volraith orders a drink and sits at the bar. The problem is that working alone the Barkeeper is so busy that unless it is to serve someone he isn't stopping to talk to anyone. Every time Volraith tries to talk to him he just brushes him off and moves to serve someone else that is waiting there.
Outside a patrol of The Sea Captains Guard pass by and stop at Nienna and Petra. They ask them why they are just hanging around outside in the evening. Nienna quickly lies and says they are just waiting for their friend to finish his drink and meet them but are told to move along quickly and stop loitering. The Guardsmen warn the pair they will be back around and will arrest them if they catch them still there.
Volraith knows he isn't going to get anywhere with the Barkeeper while he is busy so comes back outside to join the rest of the group. Nienna and Petra need to get off the street before the Sea Captains Guard come back around so they decide that the Gnome and Halfling will go inside and try and hide in the crowds while Volraith looks for the cellar entrance.
Sneaking inside Nienna and Petra take up position to watch the Barkeeper while Volraith quickly searches the alley ways around the inn and finds the cellar entrance. Just in time because the Barkeeper has just gone downstairs to get more ale for the bar. Rushing back he arrives and collects his new friends and leads them to the cellar door. Nienna is able to quietly open the doorway and because it is getting dark no light flows into the room to alert the Barkeeper that she is there. Dropping silently down into the cellar she gets into position. Volraith is next in and again manages to lower himself into the cellar without alerting the Barkeeper who is busy collecting barrels. Last in is Petra, the drop is too much for him and he slams into a nearby barrel letting out a shriek as he lands on the hard stone floor. The Barkeeper spins around but Volraith is fast and has his hand around the mans throat in a second pushing him against the large barrels that line the walls. Nienna draws her axe and starts casually spinning it around.
Recognising Nienna and Petra the Barkeeper says "you two? what are you doing down here? and who is he?"
"You set us up"
"Set you up? I don't know what you mean" says the Barkeeper and Volraith's hand tightens on his throat.
"Yes you do" replies Petra "we caught up with your thieves last night and found the note you gave them tell them where you sent us"
"Fine, you got me. Can't blame a man for trying to make a few extra coins can you? What happened to my son?"
"Who is your son?"
"The other guy that was with me behind the Bar last night, after you left he went to meet the other boys down in the sewer"
"A lot of people down in the sewers met my axe last night" said Nienna mockingly.
With that the Barkeepers face turns angry and he pulls a small dagger from his belt driving it into the side of the Half-Orc holding him. The sudden attack forces Volraith back letting go of him and the Barkeeper draws a long sword as well. A weapon in each hand he charges at the party, slashing at Nienna with both blades. Fighting back the pair of warriors both rain blows down on the lone Barkeeper. Petra shouts at the man to surrender before it is too late because they outnumber him but the Barkeeper shouts back "You killed my son, now I'm going to rip you apart!"
Finally a blow from Volraith's bastard sword drops the Barkeeper, almost severing his head with the swing.
It wasn't how they were hoping this would go since they had decided to try and blackmail him for some extra cash but revenge is revenge. Knowing about the hidden entrance to the sewers in the cellar they open the door and hide the body in there so it won't be found by anyone that comes down here looking for him. Checking the body first they find a gold piece and Volraith takes his long sword. Nienna has poured the contents of her water-skin out and heads over to one of the barrels on the along the wall to re-fill it with mead. Once the body is safely hidden and the signs of a fight cleared up as best as they can the group exit view the alleyway hatch again back into the streets of the Old City.
Old City
As the group emerge onto the streets of the Old City once again they see, sitting on a small wall opposite them watching the doorway, a street child, like the ones they had seen earlier in the day offering to be their guide around the city. The child looks at them, then says in a surprisingly deep voice "I think you'd better come with me, Finn wants to see you". The group try and ask him questions, "who is Finn?" "Where are we going?" "Why is your voice so deep?" but he doesn't give much away just telling them that Finn wants to speak to them so they better come with him to talk to him, regarding his voice he just looks at Nienna and says "she should know".
The group start to follow the Halfling out of the Old City and back into the Eastern District.
Eastern District
Walking back through the Eastern District they cross to the Fields of Honour, earlier in the day when they had walked through it had been busy with merchants selling goods and people walking around, now duellists are fighting in the centre of the open field. Still their Halfling guide wont tell them anything about what is going on, just telling them that he has been sent to fetch them.
They cross towards a plain looking two storey building towards the edge of the Field of Honour. As they get closer they see a sign over the doors saying "The Halfling Benevolent Society". Their guide leads them towards the building and shows them inside.
The Halfling Benevolent Society
Walking into the building Volraith is getting a few strange looks from the people inside. They are lead down a corridor past the reception area and left sat down on a bench in a corridor while their guide disappears through a door marked "records room". Waiting there for his return they start talking amongst themselves about what could possible be going on. Petra suggests that they hear out this Finn and see what he wants but be ready to fight if it isn't good.
After a while (long enough Nienna was desperately looking for a bar) their guide reappears from the records room and says "right, Finn will see you now. Follow me". The group get up and follow the Halfling into the records room. It is a small room with stacks of files and papers on shelves all over the place but no-one else inside. Walking over to one of the shelves the Halfling does something and the shelves swing out exposing a staircase down to a basement level. "Does everyone in this city build one of these?" says Nienna.
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| Finn |
"I guess you must be Finn" says Petra
"That I am, I guess you are wondering why I have asked you to be brought here? Well you see I look after the people of the Eastern District, when they want protection that the Watch can't provide they come to me. If they need a little extra coin to set up a business, they come and see me and I also make sure that nothing happens to the people under my protection. Recently a gang of thieves have been stealing from people around here that they really shouldn't have been, then last night a few of my boys saw you lot coming out of the sewers. Now even in Freeport that's odd behaviour so we sent a few guys down there to see what you were doing and what did we find? A thieves hide-out right under the streets of Eastern District."
"They stole from us to, we just went to get our money back"
"Well, see the problem is you took more than your money back, some of that coin belonged to people that I promised would be safe from thieves and if I don't get it back I'll have to give it back to them out of my own pocket, and I hate being out of pocket"
"Perhaps you should get some better guards in future then" said Nienna
The smile disapears from Finn face for a second as he says "Would you like to see how good my boys are?" before the smile returns to his face and he says "see all I'm asking is that the money you took from them thieves, that belongs to the people I represent is returned and then in exchange I offer you a little easy job that you can do to earn back some of that coin back and get into my good books, and everyone wants to be in my good books"
"How much is it you want off us"
"Those thieves stole 50 silver off people that they shouldn't have, so that's all I want back. Anything else you picked up down there I will assume they stole off you".
The party look between themselves and decide to hand over the 50 silver since they did get more than that out the sewers the night before and a gold off the Barkeeper earlier that night which Finn doesn't seem to know about. Petra pulls a purse out of his pocket and drops it into Finn's desk. With a smile Finn taps on something under his desk and the guide that brought them from Old City walks in, picks up the purse and walks out again shutting the door.
"Great" says Finn smiling. "Now onto our next set of business. I'm looking for a way of bring certain...products...onto Dreaming Street in Scurvytown from the docks. Now Scurvytown isn't famous for its tolerance of those that aren't completely Human so it's probably best that we don't start carrying them around in the open. But we have already found a way. A disused sewer my boys have been clearing runs right up that way and now we just need a way out into the district that isn't too obvious. Turns out this tunnel runs right underneath The Dead Pelican's cellars. All I need you to do is pop down the The Dead Pelican, talk to Shingle the owner and ask him if he doesn't mind letting me use his cellar"
"Why do you need us to do this? Why haven't you got your people to do it already?"
"Because we have only just found out it runs under his pub and you are the first people I have asked. I figured that since you have done me a favour getting rid of those thieves and getting my friends their money back I'd offer a nice easy job for you to do that I could pay you say...50 silver to do for me."
"Do you mind if we talk about it in private" says Volraith, looking at Finn like he expects him to leave the office while they talk.
"No problem" replies Finn, staying put and waiting for them to leave his office. The two look at each other silently for a few moments before Finn adds with a laugh "This is my office, you want to talk privately I think you need to go outside not me" turning to Nienna he says "Is he always this slow?"
"We only meet him this morning."
"Well they do say you should judge a man (or woman) by the company they keep, but I guess in this case I will hold judgement for a little while longer" said Finn with a smile as the party head out the office to talk.
Outside the party decide that the chance to get the silver back for a quick easy job sounds like a great plan. They agree they are going to do it for Finn and go back into the office. Again Finn is smiling at them as they walk in and says "Did you reach a decision?".
"Yes" say Petra "we will do it for you. So what are we allowed to offer this Shingle to get him to let you use his cellar?"
"Just tell him he will be compensated adequately by me each time any product is moved through"
"And if he says no?"
"All you need to do is go down and ask him. If he says yes, you come back here and tell me and you get paid. If he says no, you come back here and tell me and you get paid, then I might have another job for you as well."
"OK"
"Just a warning, like I said the humans of Scurvytown aren't the best example of their race and don't really like anyone that isn't one of their own. After the Great Green Fire when the Reclamation Project started most of the Orcs, Hobgoblins and Goblins from Scurvytown moved out to Blood Salt to live with the others of their kind that were brought in by the Sea Lord to help rebuild. This lead to a few problems in Scurvytown, it was never the nicest district anyway, but with most of its labour force and money now gone the people there got a bit desperate, this lead to them blaming and driving out basically anyone that wasn't human and now crews like the Blackened Knot try to keep it that way. It would be better to go during the day since none of you are Human, less chance of any trouble."
"I'm Human" said Volraith
"You have tusks" says Finn very matter of fact.
The group leave the Halfling Benevolent Society and head back to their inn in the Eastern District to get ready for their job the next morning.
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