Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Freedom and Commerce

18 May 2014

Continued… As the two pirate vessels began to separate themselves from the Gleaming Endeavor, without hesitation, Gabriel leapt across to the deck of the nearest ship, followed by Merasiël, then Dane; Rainald instead found a loop of rope and cast it across to catch the anchor-post of the enemy ship, and using all his strength, held the ship fast, such that they could not escape. Two sword-wielding pirates charged across the deck to meet Gabriel but immediately fell to his blade; the two enemy that remained above-decks were wizards, and they each cast Water Jet to sweep the Heroes from the deck, but they avoided the attack. Then, one of the enemy wizards cast an Ice Slick upon the deck, and Gabriel and Merasiël, already charging, kept their footing and slid toward their enemy upon the ice. Dane loosed a captured meteoric arrow, which, to the great surprise of the wizard it struck, was not deflected by his defensive spell, just before he fell to Merasiël’s thrown blade. At the same time, Magnifico flew close by atop Primus; now panicked, the remaining enemy wizard cast a magical Fog to cover his escape, as he dove over the side of the ship into the ocean, never to be seen again.

Below-decks, the ship’s slave-master surrendered himself, and the Heroes released the slaves from their bonds. Magnifico cast Mind Search upon the slave-master, and discovered that he had indeed seen Lord Wallace, as these very pirates had captured him and taken him to Sa’Azraq, though they knew not who he was; Magnifico also discovered from him a flag-signal that the pirates use to signify a “protected” vessel. The Heroes siezed what they could from the enemy ship, and after much deliberation, Dane reluctantly gave the order that it should be sunk—too much trouble for a small crew in such a hurry to keep it—and take the former-slaves aboard the Gleaming Endeavor to be delivered to their freedom as opportunity could be found; the slave-master was released in the pirate-vessel’s boat and pointed north, to fend for himself.

The Gleaming Endeavor sailed for a day to the northern shore of the Sa’Azraq Straits, to Megalan lands. As they sailed, Brother Mendel cast a weave-spell to remove the slave-brands from each of the former-slaves’ arms. The Megalans were put ashore at a fishing village, and given a share of the monies and supplies recovered, and were wished a good journey home. Then the ship sailed south another day to Sa’Azraq, a renowned trade-city on the Wazifi side of the Straits. Within the walled city’s harbor, Captain Finn refused to dock, fearful of ill-treatment of Christians here, but instead anchored the ship out in the harbor. The Wazifi former-slaves were taken ashore by the ship’s boat and released, with a share of the recovered goods, as the Megalans had been, and wished well on their way.

It was decided that they should send a small, non-threatening team ashore to (initially) gain permission to dock; Magnifico, Gestlin, Brother Mendel, and Dane volunteered. Their boat was met at the docks by some curious guards; Magnifico, speaking Arabic, assured the guards they were no threat, and they allowed the Heroes to pass, though Dane was made to leave his arms in the boat. They entered the city to find out what they could; it was not like Bannock, a mixture of Christian and Islamic cultures, but solely Muslim, a marvel the less-traveled among the Heroes had never seen. As they traveled, Gestlin spilled a great number of a vendor’s fish upon the ground, and angered the vendor greatly, though he clumsily attempted to clean up the mess he continued to make. The guard arrived to attend to the ruckus, and Gestlin was made to pay the vendor two gold coins for his loss. The four continued to the slave-market, hoping to find someone in charge there that might tell them of Lord Wallace. They observed the market for some time, and noticed a strange fellow purchasing slaves—he treated his purchases with unusual kindness, and spirited them away immediately afterward. The Heroes decided to follow this man, and he arrived at a small Christian chapel in a poor district. The Heroes knocked on the chapel door and introduced themselves to the man, a priest, and were invited inside. The priest told them of his mission to free what slaves he could, one by one, and of the “abolitionist” movement operating in secret within the city. When asked, the priest recalled having seen Lord Wallace here a year ago, though he knew not who he was, only that he was “important” and fetched a high price at the slave-market. He agreed to contact his fellow abolitionists, and to send them to tell the Heroes what they might know of whom it was that had purchased Lord Wallace. Then, with the priest’s blessing, the Heroes returned to the ship.

Meanwhile, as those that had remained behind at the ship passed the hours in waiting, they noticed a familiar ship some distance down the docks—the very pirate galley that had escaped the Heroes’ retribution. They took no action against it, but observed it carefully, lest they raise an alarm.

As the evening sun lowered, some time after those that had gone ashore had returned and told of what they had seen in the city, a boat approached the Gleaming Endeavor, bearing two men who called after Brother Mendel. They were the abolitionists sent by the priest, and were welcomed aboard. After ensuring there were no spies aboard, the men said that a year past, Lord Wallace had been sold here to the Templars, through an intermediary, for Templars are not tolerated in this country; this intermediary was a merchant named Jaffa who lived in the city—the men described where he could be found. Satisfied, the men were sent on their way, and the Heroes planned amongst themselves how they might cause this merchant to tell them what he knows.

In the darkest hours of the morning, Gabriel, Merasiël and Magnifico slipped into the waters of the harbor and quietly swam to a secluded area of the docks, where no guards were. As they donned their clothes and weapons in a nearby alley, [redacted]. Then they crept through the darkened streets to the house of Jaffa, avoiding the night-watchmen. Gabriel climbed to the open window of the upper story of the house while Merasiël picked the lock to the front door, and they all entered the house and made their way to the merchant’s bedroom. There, Magnifico performed a Mind Search spell as the man slept, and learned that Lord Wallace had been sold to a hooded Templar he knew only as “Adi,” and was taken into the desert to the South under an armed company, provisioned for a long journey. Upon hearing the name, Gabriel knew that the hooded Templar was Auqui, his former protege and sworn enemy. The three then crept back out of the house as they came, arousing no one, and made their way back to the docks, and the ship, without incident.

The Gleaming Endeavor left with the next tide and made her best speed to Hadaton, a journey of three days. Before, the Heroes had been expecting to spend some time in Hadaton, but knowing the Templars had crossed the desert on foot, no doubt, to Tredroy, they now had no cause to tarry, and so they provisioned the ship and continued up the Blueshoal River to Tredroy. Six days at-sail against the river current brought the Gleaming Endeavor to the massive city of Tredroy, a magnificent sight to behold for those that had not before experienced it. The ship was docked, and the Heroes immediately set about their business of locating the Templars and Lord Wallace.

Notes

• It was decided to end session 6.26 in prose, so we worked out the details on the forums between sessions and wrapped it up “officially” here; that wrap-up only covers the fight above-decks
• Everyone really wanted to keep the captured ship somehow, even if just to sell it at the nearest port, but we didn’t have near enough crew to cover both vessels (there were only two “sailors” amongst the slaves) and still make good time
• As the swim-team was gearing up in the alley, they were approached by a talking dog (voiced by Gestlin’s player) asking for food or whatnot—the result of Magnifico’s Weirdness Magnet. It said “woof” at a passing night-watchman. Then a strange blue box materialized nearby, with a rhythmic screeching noise, and a man with a colorful scarf poked his head out and called the dog inside, before the box disappeared again. The PCs swore never to speak of this again—hence the “redaction.” 😛
• It’s noteworthy that the sneak-team managed to get the info from Jaffa, not only without killing anyone, but entirely without being discovered at all
• The PCs long-awaited arrival at Tredroy signals the ultimate climax of the campaign; but a handful of sessions remain. Whether or not the same characters continue in a new campaign to come is still being settled