1 Marpenoth 1491
In the Inn: the Drowned Rat H’arald Fornax and Gaige speak to the guards at the red curtain and try to enter the backroom. But alas, no succes here for Gaiges deceptive crying doesn’t hold up to guard scrutiny. We all drink some pisswater beer and speak to the innkeeper Farn. He seems to know all about the stolen statues and tells the party that this is their great accomplishment and that they are not going to hand the statues over. He tells Gaige that she and Bear Moonmusk are infected with a form of lycantrophy, they will turn into rats in a fortnight or maybe sooner depending on their constitution.
He offers to let us keep the statues is we are willing to pay him, he will also point us in the direction of a possible cure of this rat-cantrophy-disease. But alas, Gaige is offended when he calls her a girl. But bar-fightress or not she recognizes a overpowering fight when she sees one. H’arald Fornax telephathically tells all to run for the nearest window and jump out. H’arald Fornax takes the lead and jumps out first, Saga Amberfall flies out and fireballs the bar which explodes with alcohol and ratbits. Peter fires up the doorguards and lits the red curtain on fire. Gaige punches Farn in the face and jumps through the window followed shortly by Peter Zonnestraal. When outside Farn jumps out and Gaige cannot resist the urge to punch him in the face again. Saga Amberfall and H’arald Fornax are now flying in the air. Peter comes to Gaiges aid and Gaige manages to snatch a magic amulet from Farns neck and runs away. After a mighty thunderwave old man Peter is pummeled to the ground by Farn and doesn’t get up again. Saga Amberfall fireballs all rats in his surrounding and with astounding courage Gaige runs in again and heals Peter. H’arald Fornax rams Farn back through the window with well placed Eldritch blasts. Next a rat-mage fireballs the group and Peter hits the ground again where Gaige manages to stabilize him with neat medicine skills and starts dragging him away from battle. He will remain unconscious for 2 hours.
Accomplishments:
The party manages to get Peter Zonnestraal to safety in a temple of a neutral god and healer Turijn magically heals him. After a large donation and a discussion about the ethics of fireballing friends when they’re down to stave of their attackers we head over to Captain Barnabus to receive the first part of our recovery fee for 10 statues (1600g/pp). He lets slip they once belonged to an important family and are very old. He knows his business for Peter also prices the total statues around 30.000g for all 17. Maybe we will return at a later time to deliver the rest of the statues Get back statues for Barnabus
Sailing along on the Hell and High water H’arald Fornax enjoys pirate life on the ship, mostly in the company of Moriana Duskwalker. On the first of Marpenoth after 6 days of sailing north we see the city of Luskan. With its large stone walls on the north and its humble wooden barricade on the south, it’s two main harbours and its large towers. One of which has a golden globe on top, a magnificent sight. On the docks we meet Master Bernard who advices us to sign the entry registry, which we all do. It is here we learn that people from Waterdeep are not easily trusted by the people of Luskan, there are some old disagreements between the two cities.
Sailing along on the Hell and High water H’arald Fornax enjoys pirate life on the ship, mostly in the company of Moriana Duskwalker. On the first of Marpenoth after 6 days of sailing north we see the city of Luskan. With its large stone walls on the north and its humble wooden barricade on the south, it’s two main harbours and its large towers. One of which has a golden globe on top, a magnificent sight. On the docks we meet Master Bernard who advices us to sign the entry registry, which we all do. It is here we learn that people from Waterdeep are not easily trusted by the people of Luskan, there are some old disagreements between the two cities.
We find a tavern named the Inn: One-eyed Jax (which is named after an adventurer Jax who lost an eye), with and above average number of drow mercenaries inside. Bear manages to pick a fight within minutes after arm-wrestling some random dude who is (not known by Bear hexed by H’arald). The dude holds a grudge, so much is clear, he even refuses and apologetic beer by Bear…rudeness in its purest form. But good beer should not be wasted, so Bear drinks alone.
Meanwhile Peter sets out with Saga Amberfall for some armor improvements and they meet up with a Dwarven smith Dwaine Rocksteel. A master forge who likes a challenge. Peter orders a special masterpiece with some extra special engravings and the like as a gift for someone who deserves it. He and Saga also upgrade their armors and Peter his weapon. During this time H’arald gets measured in his brand new pirate-captain uniform.
Back in the One-Eyed Jax we all enjoy a healthy meal and some beers when Moriana comes in. She has already started searching for the last known location of Grunswick sr but so far all she has managed to gain is the info that it will take approximately 5 days of information gathering.
Driven back by this setback the party learns there is a small in-between job they could perform. There is a captain Barnabas, a totally legit pirate captain WITH a ship called the Bloody Star, who lost his very expensive statues, all 17 of them. They are neatly packed in crates but got stolen en route by a man named Toyere from the Coinspillers Cutpurse Association. The only lead is that they usually hang out near the Clear light temple, which is dedicated to Timora. Arriving disguised at the temple, H’arald Fornax and Saga Amberfall magically find out that they don’t need to be at the temple, but in a villa some 300m to the left of it. Stangely the bandits did not lift al 17 crates to the attic but stored them in the basement. H’arald befriends the guard at the door, but not really for he storms in selling vaccuumcleaners (?) and makes his way down only to face 4 men and a shortsword threatening his soft abdomen.
In the basement of the “villa” 4 brave warriors face 2 humans, a dwarf and 2 rat-people. Bear is hasted and ping pongs around the room, there is a lot of shoving and stabbing and 4 of the 5 are hacked to pieces quickly. Alas, one rat escapes through a rat hole. In the other rooms we find a simple torture chamber, where Gaige finds the best torture equipment ever. In the other room a soon to be tortured man, named Harm. Harm is set free and escorted out the building by Peter Zonnestraal; meanwhile Gaige breaks down the door by power of the fist. In the next room they see Marius the rat-man leave the room with statues through a rat hole. After careful inspection of the crate by Peter he learns that there are exactly 7 statues missing. The remaining 10 he puts in his magic fanny pack. We also find 1500g. Next up: H’arald Fornax befriends the housekeeper who hides in the kitchen cupboard. She tells us about the Dead Rats and their hide out in the Inn: the Drowned Rat. Upon exiting the house we spot someone peeking around the door. Gaige makes a sprint and catches the dude in the middle of the street creating a lot of ruckus. Soon people start shouting for the city guard which we sort of promised not to get into trouble (at least not in the first few days…). H’arald Fornax charms the man, but he somehow makes a comment which Gaige sees as a personal affront and slaps the man. Who is called Thorn by the way. Peter manages to dissolve the situation by offering the dude a beer in a nearby pub. There we talk and Peter manages to lie and convince the man that the Dead Rats double-crossed the Coinspillers Cutpurse Association by stealing all of the valuable statues from the safehouse (we should have convinced them that the rats killed the coinspillers who where guarding them…). Anyhow, we part without a ruckus and head over to the Inn: the Drowned Rat. The bouncers are given gold by Bear Moonmusk, we drink wine, beer and liquor in this apparently burlesque inn. Gaige almost heads up the dancing pole, but H’arald Fornax tells her that kind of entertainment is usually a little less ‘dressed’. Bear and Peter go talk to a second pair of bouncers who are guarding a back room. Bear tips them a gold each and one of the guards gives Bear the blessing of Malar (a god of Rat people) pointing to a bite wound on his shoulder with a red lining around it. Sadly Bear and Peter don’t manage to lie themselves in the back room and go back to drinking beer and liquor and wait it out with the rest of the party.