Diary of Captain Nomed Oppenheimer - Entry Number 2
Friday, October 13th, 907 of the Third Age
Sometime around 10:30 pm
We are almost done with this “holy” town. We are making money fast, and soon we will have the supplies to repair the Wench and set sail. But I get ahead of myself, as there is much to do yet, and there is much to write about. Last night, after we solved the puzzle box that gave us the log book for the ship, some of us decided to sleep in the traveler’s quarters for the night, as we were all rather depleted from the escape, but not before we resolved to block off the captain’s quarters from the rest of the ship. Java decided to go upstairs and be our lookout from the crow’s nest, and I resolved to lay down in a better bed than I had grown accustomed to the past few weeks.
The night was a blur, but from the words of my companions, two major things happened. The first, was after our two holy men had finished sleeping, which apparently for their kind only requires one hour, they went above decks and were beckoned by a stranger on the shore. They went and talked with this very rude rogue by the name of Slip, who represented The Family. She had been told to invite us to The Family, and Chironomous and the priest agreed. Only later did we find out that this was the local thieves’ guild, and that they were competitive rivals with our other allies, the local assassins’ guild, the Dark Path. Slip told us to meet her at the Lantern and Gargoyle at dusk, for a job opportunity.
The other half of the night was a bit livelier. Java decided to explore the hold of the ship, and immediately found herself a rather large and angry friend in the form of a green fey dragon. The commotion was enough to wake me from my rest, and I joined the festivities. Apparently, the dragon was a friend of the quickling fey that we dispatched upstairs, and when we told it that he was dead, he was not amused. We explained that the paladins in the city were responsible, and he made off to get his revenge. Just as I was about to fall asleep yet again, he returned, and accused us of trying to steal his silver, of which he had amassed a small hoard for himself in the cargo hold. He could not be dissuaded from attacking, and a fight ensued. Though the beast was tough, it was Wrane who finally struck the killing blow. I gathered various raw materials from the corpse, and finally went to sleep, which was rather peaceful the rest of the night.
When I awoke, our little band prepared to clean out the rest of the ship, starting with the captain’s quarters. Knowing that we needed a little more muscle, I introduced the group to Demon, my mutagenic concoction that gave me immense physical abilities, if a bit of a bloodthirster. We opened the quarters, and inside was a female ghast that attacked us. We quickly dispatched it, and discovered that this was Claire Whitworth, the wife of Lord Whitworth, our rich compatriot. We knew this from the brooch around her neck, which would probably be worth a pretty penny to Lord James if we saw him again. With the ghast destroyed, we searched the captain’s quarters, and the only thing truly of note was a rather strange mirror. It was emanating evil from it, and inside, was the image of a skeletal man. Upon closer inspection, it was broken, missing a sapphire on the border, that looked like it was pried out, disrupting whatever magic the mirror was originally intended for. Trying to destroy the mirror, only harmed us, and trying to remove the mirror from the ship only made it reappear in the quarters, so I threw a sheet over it to cover it up and we resolved to find a sapphire to fix the arcane portal.
The next order of business was near the front of the ship, a door was sealed shut, with a coin from one of the human’s holy orders on it. We proceeded to pry it open and inside was the ship’s kitchen and a ghostly woman, presumably the Wanton Wench herself. From her movements, she wanted the ship to return to the sea, and most likely made whole again. We agreed, and she disappeared.
About this time Lulu arrived back with our personal supplies, as well as a lifeboat with my name on it, solidifying my name as captain. We grabbed our gear, and prepared to wait until dusk, when we were supposed to meet The Family, but Java found something else. Hidden inside the hold, was a rather brusque woman by the name of Tamara Truthteller. This women was knocked unconscious and brought here and had been hiding ever since, including while we were fighting the various monstrosities. We decided that she would help us escape this town, as we were kind enough to rescue her from the horrors above. She ridiculed us, then accepted.
The day passed without incident and at dusk we made our way to the Lantern and Gargoyle. Inside while waiting for Slip, we were given a secret note that a man by the name of Jonathan Frakesworthy wanted to offer us a job. When we told the innkeeper we accept, he went to the back and brought out a rather burly man, accompanied by soldiers in full plate armor. He told us that he wanted us to open a chest for him, given to him by his late father, and that for this he would give us 600 gold. The only condition was that we must be blindfolded to the destination. We said we would, and at about that time, Slip walked in. She scolded us for taking a job while working another job, and then told us what we were there for.
There was to be a party tonight at the former governor’s mansion, and that we were to use this demon masquerade to sneak onto the property and steal a chest of demon artifacts from a vault of demon artifacts. Our way in was as performers, as if a performance was good enough, we would be invited to stay. We dressed up in various entertainer’s garb and made our way to the party. Outside the mansion, in the garden there was a stage set, and there we met the stage mistress, Rebecca Strange, who sent us up to the stage after a rather nice aria by some singing sisters.
Chironomous started us off and was our master of ceremonies, by impersonating the vile Jana Blackfire and cracking jokes at her expense. Java and Tamara followed up by “singing” a tune that when amplified by magic enthralled the audience. Afterwards, Juju decided to recite a poem about a ship or sailing or something of the like. I might have dozed off after the 10th stanza. Wrane used his athleticism to perform acrobatic tricks, which for the most part he succeeded at, and I finished by using my alchemical tricks to make myself seem to be a ferocious demon, and tried to scare and wow the audience. The crowd cheered for us, and we were let in to the party.
We then split up, to avoid drawing attention, as we made our way to the vestibule, where we were told a secret door to the vault could be accessed. Tamara and I went through the parlor, where the biggest thing of note was a painting of a fight between a night and a sea monster overlooked a book inside a glass case, that was very old. We unfortunately had more important things to do, and so continued. Chironomous, Wrane, and Juju all went through the main hall, where they overheard a séance. The being they were talking to said that the storm was not natural, and that the only way to stop the storm was to find the Staff of the Undying. The person leading the séance collapsed, and the crew moved on. Last was Java, who overheard from the next performers that they were in fact members of The Dark Path, and they were here to kill Miranda Clay, the daughter of the household. They had sent her a message from an old friend to isolate her in the gardens and then one of their members would assassinate her. Java decided to warn Miranda, and the mercenary guards hired for the event doubled their watch, and Miranda had the men thrown out.
Once we had gathered in the vestibule, which had an enormous sapphire trident protected by strong magic as a centerpiece, we set about opening the secret door. It required moving chess pieces on the door to a correct position, and once that was done, the door swung open. There were red robes along the wall, and a staircase leading down. We took some robes and as we descended, we heard chanting at the bottom. Apparently, at the bottom, was a group of men and women, who wished to sacrifice a mermaid to appease the demons and stop the storm. Since our prize was behind the demonic altar that this rabble were using, I decided to provide a distraction while the crew went for the vault door.
I went down among the cultists, and put on a show of force. As I approached them, I realized that their “mermaid” sacrifice was just a little girl in a costume. I raged at them, and in my most demonic demeanor, told them to flee, or suffer my wrath. Most of them went, but the leader stayed, and so I disabled him with my alchemical spittle. With fear in his eyes, he told me his name was Oliver Hilltide, the local Metalsmith, and he just wanted the storms to end. I told him for this offense, he would either pay in blood or in gold, and he chose gold. He agreed to give me 300 gold pieces by tomorrow or he would suffer the consequences, so that is something Lulu can do for us. When I returned to my compatriots, they had finished unlocking the vault door, and we were close to our prize.
Inside, we found a treasure trove of all things demonic. Of note were three things. The first was a mummified demon. We had no interest in him, but the fact that you can mummify a demon was rather disconcerting. The second was an old map, and when us with demonic heritage approached, myself and Wrane, a light showed to the Northwest, around the area of Tegal Manor. We wrote down the coordinates and went to the main prize, the box that we were looking for. We grabbed it and made our escape. Leaving was easy, as the robed cultists had created quite a stir leaving, and so we made our way through the courtyard and made way for the Inn. We were stopped about halfway there by Slip herself, and we exchanged the chest for 600 gold.
We made our way back to the Lantern and Gargoyle to work on the Frakesworthy chest, when we were stopped by a rather gaunt man by the name of Mr. Dourmoor. He needed transportation for himself and his family away from Portsmith, and was willing to pay for passage. We agreed to help what we all believed to be a vampire, as we needed the money, and he agreed to pay when we met him at the Wanton Wench.
When we finally got to the Lantern and Gargoyle, Frakesworthy was nowhere to be seen, but we were offered two more jobs in that remarkably crowded inn for killers and thieves. The first came from the innkeeper himself. He told us of the treasure of the Six Sisters, an abandoned brothel that was supposedly cursed, but also supposedly held a large treasure trove for anyone brave enough to get it. He gave us a set of keys that supposedly opened this trove, in exchange for half of what we find in it. We said sure, as what’s a little curse compared to treasure.
The second was from Nick the Flick himself, who seems to be a go-between for The Family and The Dark Path. He offered us a job in order to get on The Dark Path’s good side again after we messed up the mansion job for the assassins. It seemed that a man by the name of Byron Bigby, the local tanner, had gotten on the wrong side of some people by dumping his tanning waste into the ocean. He needed to be brought alive to a location by the shore, where we were to exchange him for a bundle, which we were to return to Nick for our cash reward. This one we agreed to do immediately.
We found Bigby as he was leaving another inn and heading towards a local poker game. I cast darkness on the area, blinding his guards, while Chironomous blasted the area with his dark energy. Bigby tried to use his familiar crow to escape the darkness, but Java quickly dispatched it with her color spray. We took out the guards, grabbed Bigby, and made our way to the rendezvous. There, we met up with multiple mermen, who said this man deserved to die for his crimes. His punishment was to drown in a barrel of his own tanning waste, a nasty but fitting way to go. The Merfolk gave us a small package and we left, soon running into Nick, who we exchanged the package for our money.
It is now 10:30 at night and we are sitting in the Lantern and Gargoyle, deciding where to go next. We have three options available to us:
- Find Lord Winsworth, who was last seen at his wife’s grave and deliver the brooch of his late wife, and maybe clear his name for what must be a sizeable reward.
- Find Frakesworthy, and open his magic chest.
- Go to the Six Sisters, and grab the treasure within.
Our band is tired, but we are close to our goal.
