Date: 09/19/10

XP Awarded: 450

Start: The city of Tashluta, dry season (Alturiak) in early 1369 DR.

As the campaign begins, Tilan Entrin and Laurrens Lukasz sar Errant have recently completed their long journey that started in the coastal cities of the Vast on the Sea of Fallen Stars far to the north. Arriving in Tashluta's harbour aboard the caravel Seabreeze, Laurrens is returning to his childhood home after a long absence, while Tilan has never been this far from home before. The harbour is a busy place - the shriek of brilliantly-coloured tropical birds, the thud of barrels slamming onto the wooden docks, and the sounds of hammering from the nearby shipyards all compete for attention. Porters and slaves lugging bulky crates and sacks march down the docks in single lines. Cutting through the activity, the paladin and priest head straight from the harbour to Knight Errant Manor, where Laurrens' brother Jeans warmly welcomes them. Once settled in, they are surprised to receive an employment offer so quickly after reaching Tashluta - apparently news of their arrival has preceded them! Laurrens tips the message boy and sends word that the two adventurers accept the invitation.

Meanwhile, Taark has also arrived in the city aboard the halfling trading cog Sheela's Favour. As the ship slides past the rugged sea cliffs and weathered walls of Stormwall Keep, the enormous stone blocks loom over the seemingly tiny caravels and galleys below. Gliding between the massive columns that used to support the mighty Seagate, the nearest of which having been reduced to stubs barely rising above the frothy surf, the cog enters the almost perfectly circular harbour. The city of Tashluta spills down the slopes of an ancient crater, from the ornate temples and palaces atop the ridge, to the crowded and dirty buildings facing the docks. In the hazy distance beyond, the green slopes of the mighty Hazur mountains loom over the gold and olive green countryside. Once safely on dry ground, the priest offers a quick prayer of thanks to Moradin and begins searching for a suitable room. Upon choosing a convenient and solidly-built inn named "The Sundered Shield", Taark is startled to receive an invitation from a messenger who has apparently been looking for an adventurer such as himself. The dwarf sends the boy off with a tip and an acceptance of the invite.

Later that same day, the widely-known whaler Xanthos enters the same harbour, bearing lead harpoon Memnon of Ithaka. With a heavy heart, he says his goodbyes to the captain of the ship, his father-figure and uncle Captain Helikaeon. The shipmates he's travelled with for years wish him luck and success as he sets off to seek his destiny in the streets of Tashluta. In the crowded alleys of the Azure district, he finds shadowy relief from the midday sun pounding down. The scents of exotic spices and perfumes mingles with that of unwashed bodies and refuse. Greetings come at the flame-haired sailor in all languages, and the olive-skinned people are quick to flash a smile as they pass. The crowds part as four large Chultans carrying a canopied palanquin pass, followed by another group of Chultans bearing an enormous panther strung up on a pole, it’s body pierced with dozens of arrows. Memnon soon finds a suitable room at The Sundered Shield, as well as an offer of employment. He gives his acceptance to the messenger boy and then sets off to explore the city a little before dinner.

Further up the slopes of the city, Nather Amprapbel is receiving his acquaintance Azaad who has just arrived from Tethyr. As the two share a drink under the shade of a palm, a messenger boy arrives with an invitation for Nather. After reading the note, Nather sends a reply mentioning that he will bring his guest and fellow adventurer Azaad.

The next evening, the three groups of adventurers separately make their way to Vanderboren Manor on the border between Noble District and Merchant District. Below the intimidating gargoyles of the House of Night's Embrace, the several-story gothic mansion is surrounded by a seven-foot stone wall, but the front gate is open and the house is brightly lit within. As each group arrives, the adventurers approach the front door, knock, and are greeted by an elderly halfling woman who leads them to a well decorated atrium with a request to wait.

A short time later, the double doors down the hall open and an unusual group emerges. A jaunty half-moon elf dressed in leather armor and armed with a half-dozen daggers of different shapes, a dark-skinned gold dwarf with a sour expression dressed in green and brown robes with a large curved spear, an attractive but haughty-looking woman dressed in dark purple robes and a tattoo of seven stars on one cheek, and lastly a tall and handsome man dressed in a polished breastplate carrying a bastard sword. This group passes the gathered adventurers in the atrium as they file out the front door, with the last man stopping to size up the party for a moment. "Hmmm. You must be the help Lavinia's bringing in to do the chores. Best of luck to ya!" before he also heads out into the evening streets.

The halfling woman leads the party down the hall and through the open double doors into a comfortable and cozy dining hall softly lit by wall-mounted lanterns. A window overlooks a central courtyard and the carpeting is thick and soft. A large portrait hangs on one wall, a fine work depicting a handsome young man with a short beard. Standing before the portrait is an attractive woman wearing a long, flowing blue dress. She smiles as the group enters, introducing herself as Lavinia Vanderboren.

Lavinia goes on to explain that she's recently inherited her parents' estate, along with a good amount of debt. In order to pay these down, she needs access to the family vaults under the temple of Helm, the House of the Warding Hand. However, the vaults are magically locked, and she needs one of the signet rings her parents owned. Her mother's ring was lost several months ago, and while a replacement is being made, it won't be ready for another month. Her father's ring was kept aboard his ship, the Blue Nixie, which has now been impounded by Tashluta's harbourmaster pending payment for the past four months of mooring.

Lavinia paid the fines to the man the harbourmaster put in charge of the ship, a brute named Soller Vark, but when she went to claim her ship, Vark's men prevented her from boarding, claiming that she hadn't yet paid the fines. She spoke to Vark again, and he denied ever receiving the payment. Her complaints to the harbourmaster have fallen on deaf ears, and she suspects Vark is up to something on her ship. Lavinia needs to find out what they're up to, and needs someone who speaks Vark's language. She offers the group 200 gold pieces each once they're able to get her access to the family vault.

The party asks a few questions, and Azaad negotiates the fee up to 300 gold pieces each, but the adventurers accept her offer of employment. The group are served a fine dinner, and later that evening leave the manor. Azaad and Taark walk through the moonlit streets down to the harbour in search of pier five (where Lavinia mentioned the Blue Nixie is moored), which takes over an hour to locate. Meanwhile Nather has used his superior knowledge of the city's layout to arrive at pier five long before them. The waterfront is pretty quiet at this time of night, and soon Nather discovers that the Blue Nixie is not moored along the pier as Lavinia informed the party - instead, it is anchored about 30 meters off the end of the pier. As soon as he discovers this he also notices Azaad and Taark coming down the long pier, inspecting the moored ships as they walk. Nather hides himself among a stack of crates and barrels, and observes the two approach.

Azaad and Taark soon make the same discovery that the ship is not moored at the pier, but instead anchored out in the harbour. Azaad suggests "borrowing" one of the tied up rowboats, but the law-abiding priest of Moradin refuses to consider the idea, and the couple decide to return to search for Nather's home to accept his earlier offer of hospitality. Once they are gone, Nather continues to observe the Blue Nixie and notices some type of activity on the deck. Though there are no lights, the almost-full moon is bright enough that he can spot bulky cargo being moved aboard. With this information, he threads through the silent streets to his home higher up in the Merchant District. Arriving at his doorstep, he finds a sleeping Azaad curled up and invites him in to sleep in his spare room.

The next morning the party gathers at the appointed hour at pier five and hire a large rowboat with two rowers for the day. The group head out to the Blue Nixie and Nather speaks with one of the guards aboard the ship. He refuses the party's request to come aboard, and tells Nather that Soller Vark is not interested in talking to him. The party's rowboat backs away from the ship while they discuss the next course of action. Upon reaching a decision, they instruct the rowers to merge the boat in the busy harbour traffic and come around to approach the Blue Nixie from the rear, pulling alongside unnoticed.

As Taark and Laurrens climb the knotted ropes hanging on the side of the ship, one of the guards on the deck above notices and begins yelling for Soller Vark as he picks up a crossbow. Two other guards with cutlasses race across the deck to where the two heavily-armored characters have just pulled themselves up, shouting "Landlubbers! Get'em!". Below, Tilan is attempting to climb but cannot get a foothold in the rocking rowboat.

As more thugs emerge from below decks, Taark and Laurrens fend them off while Nather scrambles up the side of the ship to take up a firing position with his crossbow. Azaad continues to help Tilan try to free his leg which has become tangled in the ropes. A couple of thugs with crossbows are at the stern of the ship firing at the rowboat below - the hired rowers try to duck behind what little cover there is inside the rowboat.

As Laurrens and Taark continue to cut through the guards, the wounded ones panic and jump overboard to escape. A door slams open at the bow and Soller Vark - a bald man with a large gold earring - comes out, bellowing "You picked the wrong jacks to mess with, squiffy!" Taark wheels and charges him, effectively blocking him in the doorway and preventing the additional toughs from coming out.

With Azaad's help, Tilan finally frees his leg and climbs up to the ship's deck where the fighting rages on. With the tide of the battle clearly turning, Vark roars at his thugs "Don't flee, you lily-livered bilge rats! Burn them! Burn them all!" The sound of breaking glass can be heard from the hold below deck, the excited screams of birds and animals comes out of the dark hole that leads below, and wisps of smoke begin to emerge from the grating that covers the cargo hatch.

Meanwhile, Nather has positioned himself for a clear shot and fires a crossbow bolt into the top of Vark's head, immediately dropping him to the deck in a bloody mess. The foul-mouthed thug behind him drops her cutlass and surrenders as the rest of the crew does likewise. From the hold, there is a crash and the sound of splintering wood, followed by a woman's high-pitched scream and a strange, shrill keening. Nather slides down the ladder into the hold to find out what is going on - thick clouds of smoke make it difficult to see, but he can make out a shattered wooden cage, the body of a female thug, and a huge insectoid creature that notices him and skitters towards him. He quickly races back up the ladder he just descended and shouts out a warning to the rest of the party.

The creature springs up the ladder and out onto the deck of the ship, and everyone jumps back with surprise. Azaad quickly conjures a spell that covers the deck below the creature with a slippery layer of grease, and its legs slide all over as it flips onto its back. Taark, Tilan, and Laurrens work their way between the creature and the other party members and deliver a series of powerful blows that quickly destroy it before it can put its frighteningly oversized jaws to work.

Now the battle is truly over, Laurrens rushes over to Vark's crumpled form and begins emergency first aid, while Nather and Tilan enter the captain's cabin and begin searching. Azaad descends to the hold and carries out a more thorough search to verify that there's no other dangers, and finds many cages full of tropical birds, monkeys, and snakes. Laurrens uses his healing magic to fix up the worst of the party's wounds. In the captain's cabin, Nather has found a sack of 100 platinum coins - the money given to Soller Vark to pay the ship's fines. He also finds the Vanderboren signet ring with an attached note, but when he gives the coins and the ring to Laurrens, he uses a slight of hand to replace the signet ring with a simple silver ring from Vark. While the rest of the party continues to search the ship and interrogate Soller Vark, he slips down to the rowboat and instructs the rowers to take him back to the pier, from where he sets out to Vanderboren Manor. There he finds Memnon speaking with Lavinia, and turns over the signet ring for the party's reward money before returning to his house in the lower Merchant District.

The others learn from Vark that he was using the Blue Nixie as a staging point for the smuggling of dangerous and exotic animals, but he has no other information of real value. Once the rest of the group come to agreement on what to do next, they discover that Nather is gone along with the rowboat and signet ring. Leaving Tilan to guard the ship, the others use one of the rowboats from the deck of the Blue Nixie to take the bound Soller Vark to the Azure District guard, then head to Vanderboren Manor where Lavinia tells them that she's given their reward money to Nather. She asks the adveturers if they will accompany her to the family vault the next day, and the group agrees. The party then heads straight to Nather's where they confront him on his sneaky actions, and Nather gives the party their reward money.

The next day the adventurers meet at Vanderboren Manor and share a coach with Lavinia across town to the House of the Warding Hand. Along the way, Lavinia explains that all the city's nobility have vaults under the temple, but she's never seen the Vanderboren family vault. She's heard they are usually guarded or trapped and can be quite extensive, which is why she's asked the party to accompany her. At the heavily guarded temple of Helm, Lavinia speaks with one of the priests who leads the group down a series of passageways and stairs deep below the temple. Lavinia displays her signet ring to another priest in full plate armor, who verifies her identity and then escorts the group to a large circular stone chamber with many hallways radiating out. One of the passageways ends at a solid iron door emblazoned with an eight-pointed star under a polished silver plaque that reads simply "Vanderboren". A single handle protrudes from the door, just below a circular depression bearing the mark of the Vanderboren signet. Tilan takes the signet ring from Lavinia and presses it into the depression, and there is a flash of blue light as the door slowly swings open on creaking hinges.

Inside is a domed chamber with a polished green marble floor and two wide alcoves on either side. Taark cautiously enters, investigating the stone for any sign of traps. He notes that the thick columns supporting the ceilings of the alcoves are carved to resemble coiling snakes, matching five similar pillars embedded in the walls of the central chamber. The sound of metal scraping on stone brings the party's attention to the alcoves, and when Tilan moves up to investigate he sees a two-meter long cobra made of iron rearing up to strike, hood flared. Thinking quickly, he holds the signet ring in front of himself and commands the snake to stand down, and it freezes.

In the other alcove Taark slowly backs away from a second iron cobra until Tilan arrives and presents the signet ring, forcing the creature to stand down. With the threats neutralized, the party spreads out to search the otherwise empty chamber. Taark's keen eye for stonework notes that the chamber and decorations are many centuries old, and that one of the columns seems formed in a way that indicates it is movable. After another search, he finds a hidden trigger. The rest of the party stands well back while Tilan cautiously flips the trigger.

The snake designs on the column writhe aside like living creatures, forming a coiled archway that leads into an octagonal room dominated by a single large pillar lined with deep vertical grooves. The seven walls of the room are decorated with fantastically detailed bas-relief carvings of exotic monsters in threatening poses, with each monster's eyes consisting of a glittering red stone. The ceiling hangs low over the room and is decorated with the same eight-pointed star motif encountered on the door of the vault, with the arm pointing at the entrance a bright red.

The adventurers soon determine that the central pillar rotates with a heavy clicking sound, and the red arm of the ceiling's eight-pointed star rotates along with the pillar, pointing at each of the seven carvings as it is turned. The party spends some time trying different ways of turning the pillar before Nather reveals the slip of paper he'd found tied to the signet ring. The adventurers figure out that the number of eyes depicted on each carving increases from one to seven, and that the note could be interpreted as a code for turning the pillar one way or the other to points corresponding to the number of eyes of each of the listed creatures.

After some guesses about how many eyes the creatures in the note have, the party stumbles upon the correct combination. The entire room rumbles as the alcoves rotate, revealing several coffers and chests. As the group open chest after chest, in each case they discover it's completely empty or has just a handful of coins scattered in the bottom. Lavinia grows increasingly distraught until the party reach the last alcove, where several of the chests remain unlooted. One of the chests is filled with a large number of ledgers, and a small iron coffer contains a thick pile of documents. Azaad looks in the ledgers and finds that they seem to be lists of debts owed the Vanderborens. Meanwhile Taark looks through the documents and sees that they are a collection of notes written in Espruar (elven) in a graceful female hand, mixed in with several maps of jungles, coastlines, and other regions that seem to represent some unknown tropical location. Several dozen sketches of strange, exotic creatures accompany the maps. Lavinia takes the coffer, and the others carry the chests and ledgers out of the vault to the central chamber where the priest of Helm waits.

After locking the vault door behind her, Lavinia asks the priest if anyone else has visited the vault recently. He says that Lavinia's brother, Vanthus Vanderboren has visited several times over the past month. Lavinia is surprised, since he has been missing for a month and presumed he'd left town. She asks the clerk to inform her if he attempts to enter the vault again, then the group return to Vanderboren Manor with the recovered treasury.

At the manor, Lavinia reveals more information about her family. She points out the portrait of Vanthus and explains that they were very close when growing up together. Since their parents weren't around often, they grew to depend on each other and got into a lot of mischief. After one particularly complex and infamous prank that affected the city's water supply, Lavinia was sent to the prestigious Thenalar Academy in Calimshan, while Vanthus was sent to work on one of the family's plantations. When they returned to Vanderboren Manor a year ago, they had both changed. Vanthus no longer had time for Lavinia, spent all day sleeping, and spent the nights with what Lavinia recalls as "associates of doubtful character". Eventually he moved out of the house entirely, but when their parents died, Vanthus returned for a tenday to live in the manor. After a series of arguments, Vanthus struck her with his fist. Lavinia was shocked, and for a moment she thinks Vanthus was shocked as well, but an instant later he was back to his new self, all scowls and menace. He gathered his belongings and left, and Lavinia hasn't seen him since.

She knows something profound happened to her brother at some point to change him, but she's not sure what. She believes he's fallen in with a bad crowd, perhaps smugglers or thieves or even killers. She hopes it's not too late, and if the party can bring him back to her side, she may be able to talk some sense into him and redeem him before he passes forever out of her reach. The problem is, she doesn't know where he's gone, and asks the party to locate him. She offers each member of the group a retainer of 100 gold pieces per month to serve as her bodyguards, agents, and troubleshooters. After a moment of discussion, the group agrees and discuss how to approach the task before them.

It's decided that they will split up, with each party member searching one district of the city for information as to Vanthus' location. Taark heads out into the Champions District, Memnon takes the Azure District, Nather takes the Merchant District and Shadowshore District, Tilan takes the Noble District, Laurrens takes the Cudgel District, and Azaad takes the Sunrise District. The next evening after a full day of searching the party meets again to report their results. Nather is the only one who has had any success, and found several contacts who have seen Vanthus in Shadowshore in the past few tendays, usually in the company of a known smuggler named Penkus. Penkus is a semi-notorious figure known for his drunken binges and violent temper, though over the past year he's been less visible, leading many to assume he'd moved on. As recently as a few tendays ago, though, Penkus and Vanthus were spotted at a boat shop called "It Still Floats!" where they got into a loud argument with the proprieter, a gold dwarf named Oblar. The party decides to pay a visit to this business the next morning.

After passing through almost the length of the Shadowshore district, the adventurers come to a run-down shop with boarded-up windows and peeling paint. The faded sign reads "It Still Floats!", and inside the group see a dark-skinned dwarf whittling a block of wood. Taark starts asking questions but receives a poor response from the surly dwarf, until he offers some coin pouches. The dwarf says his name is Oblar, and admits that he sold a boat to Vanthus and Penkus when they came several days ago. He says they seemed excited, and loaded a lot of lamp oil, lanterns, and rope into the boat before they left. He's not sure where they went, just that they exited the Tashlutan harbour. Taark then starts to leave the shop, causing Oblar to shout at him about the promised money, but Laurrens pays him and asks about buying a boat. Oblar shows the party what's on offer, which range from almost-sunken wrecks to a battered but still usable rowboat large enough to hold the entire group.

The party purchases the boat and oars, then retrieve their adventuring gear. It's nearing low tide, and the party hopes to find any sea caves that Vanthus and Penkus may have set out to explore. Before getting into the boat, Laurrens and Tilan carefully remove their armor and wrap it up in oiled skins to protect it from the sea spray. The group sets out and rows out of Tashluta's harbour, past Stormwall Keep and out into the Shining Sea. It's a warm, sunny day and the ocean is fairly calm. Taking turns rowing, the party heads west along the coastline, keeping a careful eye out for any signs of sea caves.

The boat passes many seacliffs, ranging in height from a few meters to a few dozen meters, but no sign of any caves large enough for a swimmer, let alone a boat. The land along the coast is dry, scrubby hills and the party spies a few flocks of goats tended by elderly goatherds. After a mile of this, the adventurers' arms are getting tired and they decide to return to Tashluta. The sun is getting low in the western sky by the time they tie their rowboat up to a pier in the harbour. The group agree to continue searching Tashluta the next day for more information about Vanthus' location.

The next morning the adventurers split up to canvas their respective Districts. Laurrens meets several people in the Noble District who say they've seen Vanthus around, but all assumed that he was still staying at Vanderboren Manor. Tilan gets a lucky break when a nervous-looking half-wood elf in a ragged suit of leather armor approaches him and introduces himself as Shefton. Glancing about, he asks if Tilan is searching for Vanthus. After a tip from Tilan, Shefton agrees to meet the rest of the party at "It Still Floats!" and lead them to where Vanthus is hiding out.

Towards the end of the day, after the adventurers have finished searching Tashluta, they gather to report their results (or lack thereof) and Tilan excitedly informs them about his lead. The group gather their adventuring equipment and meet down by their rowboat. Tilan sees the nervous looking Shefton loitering nearby and brings him over to meet the group. The party listens to Shefton suspiciously as he explains that Vanthus is holed up in some old smuggling tunnels under a nearby island.

The group gets into the rowboat and under the rays of the setting sun, quickly row out to an uninhabited island just off the end of Stormwall Island outside the harbour's entrance. Known as Parrot Island, it's little more than a rocky outcropping surrounded by seacliffs and thickly vegetated, with large flocks of noisy, scarlet parrots. After pulling the boat up at a narrow beach, Laurrens and Tilan get dressed in their armor while Memnon finds an overgrown trail leading up into the jungle.

The trail leads to a small, rocky clearing near the top of the seacliffs at the far end of the island, and Shefton points out a stone trap door covered with dirt and grasses. Memnon investigates the area and determines that there has been traffic through it recently. Taark levers the heavy trapdoor open, and peers into a thirty-foot drop that ends in what might be some sort of chamber below. A new rope hangs from a hook in the wall.

The group debate what to do with Shefton while they investigate. It's decided that the rowboat is far too heavy for one person to move, so the party pull it off the beach and hide it in the jungle under some brush. After returning to the trapdoor, Azaad is the first one down. Since it's completely black below, he uses a minor spell to cause a rock to glow brightly. A small brick room opens at the bottom of the shaft, and a brick-lined tunnel with a curved ceiling leads a short distance out of the room before turning right.

One by one the other party members shimmy down the rope, and Taark and Azaad have already gone around the corner in the tunnel, taking the only light with them. The small chamber is dimly lit by the fading sunlight coming through the trapdoor. The adventurers still in the chamber hear an exclamation of surprise from Shefton, and moments later he comes tumbling down the shaft, landing in a heap on the floor with a dagger protruding from his back. The dark silhouette of a bearded man peers down through the trapdoor and says "Say hi to Penkus's ghost for me while you're down there!" and then laughs uproariously.

As Azaad and Taark rush down the brick passage back to the entry room, Tilan pulls out his bow and fires an arrow at the figure, who gives a startled oath and jerks out of the way. A moment later the rope is cut and falls down the shaft, coiling in a pile atop Shefton's body. The person above, now recognizeable as Vanthus Vanderboren, yells "Serves you right for messing around with my sister, you thugs!" then slams the heavy trapdoor shut, plunging the room into darkness. A moment later, a heavy scraping sound is heard as something heavy is moved atop the trapdoor...