In which our adventuring crew, Eachra, Relaeryn, and Arithel arrive to deliver a package to the harbormaster of Islas. After locating him in the bar of the island of Juniper Landing, the Rat’s Nest. They uncover that the package was a retrieval of a dead elf – actively tracked down and murdered. While they’re holed up in the bar – they catch a glimpse of a massive black cloud with a white patch in it. The ‘island’ the group finds themselves on appears to be under attack from a corsair’s ship.

====SESSION ONE====
The three of you find yourselves on a boat, a large, spacious affair – you had boarded some three days prior from a portal out of Elysium. You can barely feel the boat move under your feet as you sail across the endless ocean – it has been calm sailing across the surface of the Elemental Plane of Water. You’ve been catching a fair bit of wind from the Elemental Plane of Wind, and have been feeling the heat from the Plane of Fire beating down on you. To your port, there’s a giant column of earth sprouting from the endless sea, stretching towards the sky. Ahead of you is the sprawling city of Islas, a magical and physical construct sprawling across several interconnected islands – it is a bustling port, surrounded by ships of all designs and sizes. Your ship pulls up to a dock and the crew begins hastily unloading.

You have been tasked with delivering your special cargo to the night harbormaster of Islas.
Kiergath (Relaeryn): query, was gold to be paid on delivery, or on return to sender?
Alex: On Delivery
Relaeryn: Any sign of the captain, an officer, or anyone else who might have any ability to point us in the direction of the harbormaster?
Relaeryn: Perhaps a better question – is it night time, or is the night harbormaster not on duty yet

Arithel: I will go about my normal duties when docking into port.
Eachra Branogeni Silathdiir: goes looking for Rel
It is currently, by local standards, the middle of the day. The captain points you in the direction of the Rat’s Nest, a bar on one of the nearby ‘islands’.
Relaeryn: Is there an apparent way across to said ‘island’?
Nick (Arithel): took my question.
Relaeryn: We already came here on a boat, I’d rather not have to take another boat just to get to the exact destination.
Kiergath (Relaeryn): I have a feeling I’m over-complicating what should have been a simple “K, lets go”
The ‘islands’ are all part of the city – there are various bridges that connect them.
Relaeryn nods in thanks to the captain before heading over to the ‘cargo’ and making sure the donkey is still secure.

The donkey looks quite excited to get onto ‘land’, despite it being more floating lumber.
Eachra Branogeni Silathdiir heads over to Rel and greets her
Arithel disembarks from the ship and waits patiently.
Relaeryn glances up at Eachra from inspecting the donkey, “Well, we’re here.. seems a bit of a waste, this much security for a box, and nothing happening so far..”
Eachra: Yes I agree. We had some wonderful weather for the trip though. I would have enjoyed a nice storm but sunshine has it;s place too.
Relaeryn: “Ship. Storm. No, thank you.”
Eachra: Does the package look undisturbed?
The package looks secured – nothing seems to have disturbed it at all.
Relaeryn: “Looks fine from here. No sense waiting around.”

Kiergath (Relaeryn): Lead the donkey off the ship and over to Arithel, whom I know nothing about.
Eachra: “Well I supose we should dis-embark then. Let us find this harbormaster and get this dropped off”
You head over towards your erstwhile companion, who I want to hear a bit about too.
Eachra follow’s Rel off the ship
Relaeryn: Eryn.
Doug (Eachra): Okies
Arithel: Arithel stands at just over 6 feet tall. He has a weathered but soft look to those who know him. His speech is soft and thoughtful and at times a bit shy. In your travels with him, you have realized he is a practitioner of the arcane which seems to come to him both n
Arithel: aturally and through study.
Nick (Arithel): as soon as I find a suitable pic I will post it.
Arithel: Also during your travels Arithel seems to have no memory of his past. He says he awoke from what seemed like a dream remembering nothing but his name.

Arithel: He expressed he is confused as to why he is here, and so far you have no reason to doubt his word.
Arithel: If he can be said to have one thing about his personality that stands out, is that he has a great disdain for those who harm others for their own selfish benefits.
Relaeryn nods at Arithel, “Well, we’re unloaded.. shall we get this over with?”
Arithel: “Surely, did we know what exactly it was we are delivering?”
Eachra: A box
Relaeryn: “That’s pretty much the whole of it.”
Arithel: “How matter of fact.”
Arithel smiles and continues on.
Relaeryn: Lead the poor donkey off to this bar.

Eachra follow along
You make your way across several bridges connecting the islands. Along the way you see many scoundrels of all races in the alleyways, including a water elemental holding an impromptu shop.
You arrive at the outside of the Rat’s Nest and are forced to leave the donkey outside.

Arithel: “Perhaps one of us should wait here with the cargo?”
Nick (Arithel): how big is the box alex?
Eachra: “Might not be a bad idea”
Relaeryn: “Shouldn’t be a problem.”
Alex: The box is like a very large coffin.
Nick (Arithel): right its staying here.
Relaeryn: “Viresse will be here in a minute or two I’m sure, she can keep an eye on it.. I somehow doubt most people will be curious enough to still look.”

Arithel nods then enters the Rat’s Nest.
Eachra: “I will have Scream observe it until she gets here then.”
Relaeryn nods and then follows Arithel in.
Eachra gives Scream directions to watch the box and give the alarm if someones comes to take it besides us.
Eachra then she enters the pub
Nick (Arithel): who is scream?
Doug (Eachra): A rather large hawk
You step into the bar and find a lone man looking a bit deep in his cups, a little tired for drinking this early.
Relaeryn: “Do you think we should assume that’s him?”
Arithel: “I do not know. Were we given a name or should we simply ask for the night watchman?”
Eachra: “I am not sure, maybe”
Arithel: “or was it night dock master. I seem to have forgotten. Oh my memory…”

Eachra: “Night harbormaster.”
Relaeryn: Is there a barkeep?
Arithel: “Harbormaster yes… thank you again Eachra.”
There is indeed – a scrawny looking elf-girl with a massive scar crossing her face.
Relaeryn approaches the bar, “Pardon, but, we were told the night harbor-master could be found here. Given the lack of other candidates, I presume it’s the drunk?”
The girl nods at the drunkard and smiles.
Relaeryn turns to the party, “That’s him.. for whatever its worth.”
Eachra: “Well then, lets get this dropped off and paid then.”

Arithel nods and then approaches the man. “Excuse us good sir, but I believe we have a package to deliver to you.”
Relaeryn leans her polearm up against the bar and grabs a seat, “This could take awhile…”
Eachra grabs a seat as well

The man looks up and you, grinning, showing a-near complete loss of teeth.
Harbormaster: “About time! I’ve been waiting for this fer a week!”
Harbormaster: “Lets see the goods! How much did they agree the payment to be this time?”
Arithel: “Right this way friend.”
Relaeryn: “Kindly make sure you see the money before you deliver the goods.”
Arithel: “Was I given an invoice for the amount to collect?”
Arithel checks his pockets.
Eachra follows both outside to collect her’s and Eryn’s payment

Doug (Eachra): Was 500 each, yeah?
Kiergath (Relaeryn): yes
Alex: Yes.
Relaeryn: “Is this a particularly slow night, or is it just that kind of bar?”
Eachra Hands the harbormaster the invoice withthe stated payment of 500 gold each.
Arithel: “Ah good Eachra has the invoice, again you save me the embarrassment. Yes it says there 500 gold each.”
Harbormaster: “It’s just that kind of bar.. during the day, anyway… easy to drink in peace.”
Harbormaster: “Five hundred each… okay, okay…”
Harbormaster: “It should be in the shipment… can I see it?”
Kiergath (Relaeryn): ^ my question was actually to the barkeep
Kiergath (Relaeryn): I’m not going outside

Arithel heads over to the donkey where the box is. “It is here. Let us open it and find out.”
Viresse paces agitatedly back and forth near the shipment.
The barkeep shrugs at you, proffering a mug of beer.
Relaeryn peers at the barkeep a moment, realization dawning, and accepts the mug.
The harbormaster fetches a crowbar to crack the box open. “The donkey is yours in addition to the payment. I don’t need it.”
Eachra steps back to near the door as they open the package
Nick (Arithel): if the box can be opened and inspected while on the donkey then fine. If not I will help him unstrap it and set it on the ground next to the wall of the bar.
Viresse eyes the donkey, then watches curiously as the harbormaster goes to open the box.
Nick (Arithel): sorry didnt mean for that to be ooc

Nick (Arithel): who is Viresse?
Kiergath (Relaeryn): my mount.
He cracks the box open, revealing what appears to be a wrapped up corpse in a bag of ice – there are a few bags inside. He pulls the bags out and hands three to whomever is nearest to him.
Viresse is a rather large, perfectly normal white horse, with gleaming golden mane and tail and a perfectly normal spiralling horn coming out of her forehead.
The box was being pulled behind the donkey.
Arithel accepts the bags, “Who is that, and why are you receiving it?”
Eachra takes two of the bags from Arithel
Viresse nods at Arithel’s statement, peering at the harbormaster.
Eachra then heads into the bar and gives Eryn her bag

Viresse nudges Eachra before she makes it into the door, shifting herself to bring a saddlebag closer.
Harbormaster: “Just some elf bint wot skipped out on her mooring taxes too oft’n.”
Eachra smiles at Viresse in greeting and then places the bag of coins in the proffered saddle bag
Arithel peers at the man searchingly.
Arithel: Skill [Sense Motive] [1d20+3 = 9]
You get a feeling that he’s telling the truth.
Eachra then continues into the bar placing her bag of coin in her small bag on her belt
Eachra walks to Eryn. “Viresse has your payment”
Arithel: “The body is dead I take it. What further use have you for her then?”

Eachra looks at Eryn and says in a soft voice “There was a corpse in the coffin, go figure.”
Doug (Eachra): Did I hear him say it was a elf before I made it back inside?
Alex: Given your insistance on getting inside, not likely.
Doug (Eachra): OK
Harbormaster: “To discourage others from skipping out – they have to know that there is no escaping the due.”
Kiergath (Viresse): He may not have.. but the unicorn did.
Alex: True.
Relaeryn quietly, to Eachra → “A corpse.. interesting.. we’re not leaving, even with this bit done. More to do here.”

Arithel: “What was the due exactly? coin? And furthermore how did she die? Tell me not that she met her demise by not paying a tax.”
Eachra says softly “My path is with you, whatneeds done?”
Viresse eyes the harbormaster with open dislike.
Harbormaster: “I had to pay a bit to get her tracked down, that’s true enough. Sometiems you have to in order to send a message.”
Relaeryn: “Not here, not now in any case.”
Eachra nods
Harbormaster: “We’re not having bandits operate openly in our ports.”
Arithel: “Yes justice must be done friend. But the punishment must fit the crime. This elf is now dead without given the chance to atone.”
Viresse: “Bandits? You said she did not pay her dues.. that alone does not seem to merit the term ‘bandit’…”

“She’s atoned alright – where do you think the coin I’m paying you with came from?” He continues on, thinking Viresse’s words came from Arithel, as he’s drunk. “She was sailing with Bartholomew Stormtamer – that is crime enough.”
Viresse: “Whom?”
Arithel: “I know not this Stormtamer. But the fact you now have her dead body troubles me. What are you planning to do with a corpse?”
Harbormaster: “He’s a raider and a brigand – hardly a man of honor – and he never pays when he comes to port. She’ll be put on display when we’re done preparing her.”
Arithel: “Message to dissuade others, yes. But what does a body have to do with that. And preserved in ice.”

Viresse: “Isn’t that obvious? At the very least, I suspect the ‘good’ man is speaking of a gibbet, either literally or of some related display.”
Arithel: “That is gruesome if that is what you are planning. You disgust me sir. Have you the consent of the authorities of this city for this ‘display’?”
Viresse: “He’s a harbormaster. I suspect that is the closest thing to authority this place has.”
Harbormaster: “Yes, related display. The horse has it right. As the Night Harbormaster, I happen to have authorization to put any display to discourage innapropriate behavior in my port.”
Harbormaster: “As for what I do with this elf bint, what business is it of yours? We paid you to deliver her, not ask questions.”
Arithel: “I will have no part of this. Already this very place makes me want to leave. What was the elf’s name at least tell me that.”

The harbormaster shrugs. “What matters the name of a stealing whore? You know her not, and want no part in this business. Fine. I have no more use for you.”
Arithel: “Lucky for you I did not know what it was I was delivering. I would never have agreed to this.”
Arithel leaves and enters the bar.
Viresse: “Alas, I fear our new relationship is just beginning – wherever it may lead in the end.”
Viresse makes a shooing motion with one hoof.
Relaeryn watches Arithel as he returns to the bar, “Went well, I assume?”
Arithel: “I will find the family of the elf and give them this coin.”
Arithel slams the 500gp bag on the bar.
Relaeryn: “Yes, and when you do we may have a head for them as well, but this is not the place to discuss it.”
Kiergath (Relaeryn): How big is the doorway?
The bartender looks at the three of you in a slightly worried fashion.
Eachra: “Elf?”
Alex: Big enough for the horse to get through, I imagine.
Relaeryn: “Yes, the body we had on ice.”

Eachra: “That was an Elf body?”
Viresse comes in the front door and finds somewhere out of the way to park. Or near the barmaid, if she looks friendly.
Arithel: “According to dockmaster toothless out there, yes.”
Relaeryn: “Mm. And a pirate, but that’s no business of mine. For all I know, this place is run by pirates as well.”
Relaeryn: “It’s a rather subjective term.”
The barmaid looks fairly unfriendly, but it could be her disfigured face.
Eachra looks at Eryn. “Should I go talk to him?”
Relaeryn: “What good would that do? No, let him be for the time being.”
Arithel: “True, however that mans word that this Stormtamer is a pirate leaves me doubting at best.”
Relaeryn: “After this he’ll be on his guard – and speaking of guards, he’ll probably have some on the way to help deal with the body.”
Doug (Eachra): You would know her “talking” is subjective :P
Arithel: “Another thing, no more jobs lest we know exactly what we are doing.”
Relaeryn: “I can’t argue with that. I don’t know what possessed us to take this one.”
Viresse: “Five hundred gold a piece, perhaps?”

The bartender’s eyes raise slightly at the direction the conversation is going.
Relaeryn: “Ma’am, I’m aware you can’t talk, but feel free to nod or shake your head – is this your establishment?”
Relaeryn: “As opposed to you simply work here.”
Arithel Doug your char is a winged elf?
Nick (Arithel): oops meant that as ooc
The bartender nods.
Doug (Eachra): Yes
Relaeryn: “That chap who left with the body didn’t happen to have done that to you, did he? Because that would make this all so much better.”
Nick (Arithel): so they are blantantly visible yes?
Doug (Eachra): My wings? Yes
Nick (Arithel): k
Viresse: “Why do I predict we’re about to start planning something that will end up with us on the run from yet another bastion of planar ‘civilization’?”

She shakes her head and gestures to the nicked cutlass hanging above the bar.
Relaeryn: “Let me guess.. pirates?”
She smiles – not a pretty sight – and jerks her thumb at herself.
Relaeryn: “That was my next question.”
Relaeryn: “So I take it you’re not particularly liable to be upset if we took it upon ourselves to avenge a certain gibbet-bound elven corsair.”
Viresse: “Ah, corsair.. such a flowery, romantic term. Not at all like ‘pirate’.”
Eachra: “They are going to mount her like statue? What kind of barbaric crap is that?”
She shrugs at you.
Relaeryn: “I’ll take indifference in this case.”
She then rubs two fingers together, as if to say that a coin will buy her silence.
Relaeryn: “I was going to leave mine here in any case – given what it was for, I find myself not particularly eager to keep it.”

Kiergath (Relaeryn): ehm, lag?
Alex: Nossir?
Kiergath (Relaeryn): weird, that posted.. but my last emote didn’t.
Eachra: eh?
Doug (Eachra): eh?
Kiergath (Relaeryn): …sigh.. and again it fails.
Relaeryn testing, testing
Kiergath (Relaeryn): …
Alex: Hoorah!
Kiergath (Relaeryn): but the other one didn’t. fuck you, FG2
Relaeryn goes over to Viresse and retrieves the gold pouch from the bag before setting it on the bar top.
Kiergath (Relaeryn): huzzah.
The bartender shrugs again. She slides a mug of salty smelling ale across the table, next to a slender dagger.
Relaeryn arches an eyebrow, “What’s this for?”
Kiergath (Relaeryn): Inspect the dagger.
She makes a cutting motion across her throat.
Relaeryn: “Our friend, the harbormaster?”

She nods.
Relaeryn tucks the bracer in under a bracer. “Sounds like a plan.”
Kiergath (Relaeryn): …the dagger*
You hear a faint rumbling off in the horizon.
Relaeryn: “Thunder?”

Arithel: “Maybe. Lets see.”
Arithel looks outside either thru a window or out the door.
You look outside – you see a faint cloud of black in the distance in an otherwise clear sky.
Spot check?
Arithel: Skill [Spot] [1d20+3 = 12]
Arithel: wait another plus 2 to that
Arithel: forgot about my race bonus
You think you catch a glimpse of a square white sheet in the cloud.
Arithel: Ill keep watching, see if I can make out what it is.

You see a series of bright orange flashes ripple through the cloud as it grows closer, leaving a massive cloud of white and grey after the flashes – shortly after, you hear a high pitched whistling sound, followed by the splintering of wood as the exterior wall of the bar gains a large hole.

====

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