We begin this week’s session at the Bonded Mind in Paola harbor
hashing our plans to travel to Zebbug which includes acquiring a covered wagon
and a team of horses from a man named Buzzard in return for our good deeds as
he has taken on some of our survivors as low paying employees; as a matter of
fact our driver’s name Ferd, an adept to Poseidon, and is one of individuals we
saved. Overnight a slow steady rain visits Paola, at sea the weather seemed
worse but otherwise the night passes uneventfully.
Our characters are taking chests ‘five’ and ‘six’ from the
GemCutter including the golden idol of Tefnut wrapped in a tarp as well as 50
silver bars at 10 gp each, 50 gold bars at 100 gp ea, 4 platinum at 1,000 gp
each and 2,000 gold and 2,000 silver pieces; as we load the wagon our
characters find a recessed bottom that functions as a secret compartment, this
helps us downplay our hefty and illicit cargo.
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| Black Druid Goblins |
Our characters leave the docks confident that our property and
ship will be well guarded for as we steer towards the Bard College to retrieve Lete’s
chain shirt ‘Sure Step’ from the Professor of Calligraphy’s daughter. When we
arrive Melissa presents the armor, quite proud of her work and invites Lete to
return for a conversation on the story of the previous owners. To Lete this
sounds splendid. While our characters were stopped Jabari notes someone coming
close to our wagon (possibly flying); the only clue that stands out for Jabari
is a mundane object out of place. He alerts the party, and Lete reminds the party
of his past feelings of being watched while at the College before.
When we leave the slow rain continues but our progress is
even and steady as we travel about an hour out of Paola before our characters
realize our path will take us through what we surmise is the Black Druid’s
territory; it is here we are soon set upon by eight goblins bearing the barren
tree symbol on their tabards over masterwork chain shirts. The combat was
difficult, taxing our toughness greatly, but none of us were killed or permanently
wounded. We gather 60 unkempt throwing axes and six masterwork battleaxes, and
6 small sized masterwork chain shirts each bearing an Eye merchant mark.
The second hour we see a solitary women walk/limping in our
direction. She wears a traveling cloak and serviceable leathers; on her back is
a light crossbow and at her hip is a club or rod. We slow but intend to pass we
as we warn her of the goblins; she shares a similar warning of danger behind
her (further up the road for us) of a murderous Halfling and a cannibal she was
in pursuit of and had captured. Claiming to be a diviner she has been contacted
by more than one city’s leader to peruse this cannibal until she was set upon
by the Halfling who enabled the cannibal to escape. She introduces herself as
Marple. Having sympathy for her, our characters offer to escort her back to
Zebbug. She explains she tracked the cannibal through Zebbug but her divining for
the creature all started in Bugibba five miles away. The ‘cannibal’ is, some
would describe, a large human of deep African descent with a predator’s
intellect who preys upon small comminutes with strong ties to the larger
settlements. She believes him to be operating in Malta for about a year.
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| Marple |
Marple had captured him near Zebbug and was preparing her
journey to Paola but not long after she was surprised by an ambush and thrown
from the wagon- the Halfling’s attacks where deadly and she chose to flee and
live to fight another day. Lete asked her about the symbolage the Halfling
bore; she did notice a dark tree token the Halfling had. For Lete this connects
the Black Druid to this deep African cannibal.
Back on the road we eventually encounter Marple’s prisoner
wagon along with curious folk looking about the scene. Marple thanks us for our
help and hopes that someday she will find us well in Hagar Qim or Mdina. After
saying our goodbyes and well wishes, characters enter Zebbug whereby Jabari soon
departs for a location on his own.
Jabari’s scene cuts to a nice three story adobe/ apartment
building with a convenient outside stairway and his patron Loshe. She says she
has found something that is time sensitive and wants our group’s help. She
describes a familiar empty house near here and explains it is one of a series
of homes constructed about Malta, places filled with wonder and rumor. She
needs a team to help her access one of these residences. Not to be diverted Jabari
gifts her scrolls toward a fruitful relationship. He admits to our newly
acquired wealth and the problems marked Egyptian capital looking to Loshe for a
solution. Jabari comes to her with the hopes of fixing this problem as well as
avenues to opening our inaccessible chests.
She tells Jabari she took quite a chance with him and wants
to take him to Ghallis Rock and Naxxar as an ally. Nevertheless she agrees to
look into the spells protecting the two remaining chests our characters brought
with us. In the meantime she offers the second and third floor for our
characters before Jabari meets up with the rest of the characters who are in
the city.
**Ghallis Rock: Naxxar rules this rock, which is incredibly
easy to defend from other ships due to the path ships have to travel through
sea debris and other land masses. Naxxar is an elven wizard whose piracy
is unique in that he harasses the Egyptians. There is a rumor that Naxxar is
willing to train other pirates in wizardry if they have the talent.
Naxxar is fond of employing half-elves and halflings, among which are a
famous pair, a ship captain and his first mate. The elven Captain Vargin
is commander of The Sea Whiskey, a smaller agile ship recognized by most
sailors in the region. Captain Vargin's first mate, the halfling known as
Walker (the Mediterranean Sea Ranger), was widely recognized as the best cannon
shot in the Mediterranean.
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| Zebbug |
Meanwhile the other characters are looking to sell the
weapons and armor to IL-Kataniz, the lord mayor of Zebbug. At the mayors estate
our characters see several armorers and warriors training and are hard at work.
We are directed further into the estate partaking food and drink passing
several individuals and guards along the way before the man of the hour comes
to greet us and directs us and our wagon to a barn to facilitate our trade. IL-Kataniz
proves curious as to our affiliations but is pleased to at our demeanor and
discretion.
We show him 4 suits of masterwork full plate armor; 6 small
masterwork chain shirts; 4 masterwork longswords; 6 masterwork battleaxes; 55
hand axes; 6 masterwork battle axes; 4 masterwork steel shields; 3 masterwork
composite longbows (+3 Str) each bow comes with 20 arrows with very fine
quivers. Total value (without the full plate) 7,655 gp. Which he sees about
4,000 in coin, but in trade IL- Kataniz ‘sees’ 5,000 gp.
He offers free feat training of weapon focus as a trade for
the 4 suits of masterwork full plate and offers separate trade agreements for the
rest of the items.
This
downtime of feat training will take five days with IL- Kataniz personal
guards. This seems agreeable to Lete, Carlo, Lex and Marco.
Eventally Jabari arrives and IL- Kataniz immediately points
him out as a sailor. IL- Kataniz admits to not having a ship and expressed
sincere interest in what this relationship portends. He presses with more
questions of Jabari’s sailing prowess but gets back to the trade at hand even
offering repair services for broken items as well as an odd collection of wands
for trade. But what he’s really interested in is trading for ship-hold space.
He explains he has a shipment of items bound for the scandalous Selmunett
Island, and offers a fully charged wand of CMW CL 5 for trade of the space;
however, the soonest we could start on such a task would be a week from now. He
yields and suggests for our charactesr to go to Selmunett and experience it
first and come back to him ready to make his delivery.
**Selmunett Island: Northeast of Malta lies Selmunett
Island, this island caters to the darker desires and demands of the Maltese.
It is a local custom that those that stay on Selmunett after dark can
report no crime and have no crime reported against them. The priests of
Malta turn a blind eye to the gambling halls and houses of ill repute that
populate this island. Of late however word has begun to circulate of Egyptian
loyalists using Selmunett as a trade pipeline between Egypt and Greek
reformists in Korinthos Greece. Selmunett is also known for its black
tar, a bubbling fountain, located on the southern coast. The tar bubbles
up between a boulder called the bleeding stone. Selmunett Tar is coveted for
its waterproofing and ability to patch ships damaged at sea.
After some discussion between our characters we agree and
that we should travel and scout Selmunett and return to IL- Kataniz for a
delivery to one of the four ‘Great Corner’ gambling houses- each operated by a
different family, but far from the only powerful families on Selmunett.
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| Meanwhile... |
Before we depart Lex asks if IL- Kataniz knows Wally and is
directed to a woman’s abode. At the location in question we find Wally gingerly
exiting said woman’s abode. After an uneasy moment our characters introduce
ourselves and explain that our visit is business; Wally eventually boards our
wagon and immediately notices the chests. A deal is quickly struck, paying him
with 6 Egyptian gold bars. Wally laments the form of payment but eventually
dispels the magic on the chests and goes as far as shrinking the chains,
freeing the chests before making his exit with his payment.
Our characters then retreat to Loshe’s upstairs apartments,
Jabari revealing his wizard guild affiliation to the characters along the way
including her offer for the group. In the chests are masterwork books of
worldly crafts written by leaders in those crafts- at first glance it looks
like an elven collection of historic value; the other chest contains metal shards,
pieces of a metal spellbook; as well as finery and gemstones giving us an
additional 1,000 gp capital. *On a side note we give Ferd a masterwork scale
with a symbol of the Eye on it.
Eventually Loshe comes to the apartment and explains to our
characters the existance of an architect who designed several structures throughout Malta and the Mediterranean. His Elven designs were done under a variety of names which creates difficulty in locating his work. For those educated enough to recognize his architectural style, specifically a spiral crafting unique to his design, one can identify structures crafted by "The Architect". This architects creations are sought out for clues to specific complexes he created called a Portal House. It is believed that all of The Architects creations hold clues that reveal the locations of his many portal houses. Loshe would like to find a portal house and needs our help. She knows of only two people
to have discovered a portal house and wishes to take us to this local home looking for clues to a portal house.
