Session 4 - 7/17/19 - Chris's Group

General Summary

Downtime

The party returned from their previous adventure and took a couple weeks to rest and recuperate after defeating Sanbalet and his smuggling goons. The city of Neverwinter collected the contraband from the Adventurer's Association and bequeathed upon them a reward. But it wasn't long before the people of Saltmarsh would need our adventurers' help once more.

Meeting with the Council

The Council of Saltmarsh called an emergency meeting shortly after the party returned, and invited representatives of the Adventurer's Association to attend the meeting.
The council consists of the following people, all prominent folk in the town:

• Anders Solmor. The young man who the party previously helped by investigating the haunted house.
• Gellan Primewater. An eccentric and successful businessman.
• Eda Oweland. The current senior member of the council. Her family runs a fishing business.
• Manistrad Copperlocks. The female dwarven leader of the newly established mining operation in Saltmarsh. Was placed on the council by decree of the Lord Protector of Neverwinter instead of being elected.
• Eliander Fireborn. Captain of the town guard. A well-liked individual in town.

Here it is explained to the party that, though the land-based operation of the smuggling ring has been quashed, there must be a seagoing vessel by which the contraband was originally conveyed, and this is still at large. The council, fearful that any surviving smugglers could seek to reestablish their operation from some other base, asked the party to apprehend this vessel and put an end, once and for all, to the smuggling.
The council has sent scouts to keep an eye on the haunted house, and as far as they could tell, the smugglers on the vessel were unaware of the deaths of their land-based colleagues, and a return visit by them might well be expected. Since the last consignment was offloaded only a short while ago, another one is not expected for some time — perhaps during the next new moon, which begins in about two weeks’ time.
In the meantime, additional scouts were be sent to patrol potential rendezvous points each night for the next two weeks in case the smugglers returned earlier than expected.
The council provided the party with a small fishing boat and provided them with some provisions. The boat is large enough to accommodate the entire party plus two. The council also provides the services of two members of the guard to sail the boat for them when needed.

Stakeout

The group left to the haunted house. Once there, they brought their small fishing boat inside and met up with one of the scouts who had been watching the horizon for ships. The party spent a couple days here, cleaning up bodies from their previous adventure and making the haunted house into a more suitable base of operations for this mission. On the second night, the boat appeared, and flashed a signal towards the haunted house with some kind of lantern.
At first, the party wasn't sure what to make of this, but one of them remembered the sheet of parchment they found in Sanbalet's private quarters during Session 2 that described codes using a series of long and short signals. They also remembered the bullseye lantern with a shutter underneath Sanbalet's desk.
They worked out that the smugglers on the boat were asking if everything was safe. The party responded with the signal for "Everything safe.", to which the smugglers responded with "Ready to unload. Come to the ship."
The party was expecting the smugglers to come to them. This new development was a surprise. But they had no further way to communicate with the smugglers than to approach them with the small fishing boat.

Paddling to the Boat

In the end, Stout hid inside a crate while Dvun and Jack paddled. Ghost tried to stay hidden by holding onto the rear of the fishing boat, partially submerged.
On the way, Dvun cast disguise self to take on the appearance of Sanbalet.

Talking the Talk

The party gets on the boat, pretending to be Sanbalet and his newly-hired goons. The party gets into the storage hold of the ship.
Ghost sneaks onto the deck and does some eavesdropping. The captain and the first mate discuss something. It's hard to hear exactly what but Ghost heard them say the word "lizards" more than once.

I Could Sure Use a Good Stout Right About Now

The going gets tough. Dvun utters the phrase "I could sure use a good Stout right about now.", which Stout Kegsworth correctly-identified as the signal to hop out of the crate and spring to action. However, the first thing Stout attempted was to pacify the smuggling pirates with his words.
It wasn't particularly effective. Combat began. All of the pirates on the ship were involved: The captain, the first mate, the deck wizard, the bosun, and a number of other pirate underlings.
After a long and difficult encounter, the party defeated all of the hostile pirates.

Tending Wounds and Wrapping Up Loose Ends

One pirate surrendered during the fight. He promised to go straight as long as the party allowed him to go free on the lifeboat aboard the ship.
After that, the party took a breather and rested.

Rewards Granted

Every player character who participated in this session receives:

• 2 Apprentice-level Artifice Coins (provided by the adventurer's guild when you return from the adventure)
• 5 downtime days
• 0 gold pieces

In addition, the party has found a number of item(s).

• A hell of a lot of contraband stolen by the pirates from the city of Neverwinter

All players characters advance to 3rd level, regardless of whether or not they attended this session.

Report Date

17 Jul 2019