02 - Investigation of the Raid

General Summary

The Adventurers receive a list of names from Lieutenant Kasim and investigate what has gone missing and if someone aboard The Clockwork Colossus was involved.

The afternoon starts with Veridius Claudius Julius Smit making some excellent lunch for his new found friends, and John Liu tending to his wounds. After this moment of rest Lieutenant Kasim enters and explains what he could do for them. He hands them a list of names he suggests they question, some of the names they receive from the Cargomaster;

1. The guards (2) who were on look-out duty
2. The guards (2) who left their post at the cargo hold before the next shift arrived
3. The guards (2) who were late to their shift at the cargo hold
4. Master Thaloran, the ships cargomaster
5. Tira D'Atar, highest ranking member of The Institute aboard
6. Stephan Eisenberg, a bureaucrat from the Ironclad Syndicate
7. Elsa Rosenrot, a servant who checked in the chest labeled "Dawnstrider"

Besides these people, they have the opportunity to investigate the body of the dead Ember Corsairs pirate.
The adventurers split up to investigate the different people connected to the raid or the missing items.
First Ta'zimus Gaiapatus and Pílar Hilká Holmqvist go to the freezer where the body is stored behind a locked door. Kasim is the only one who has the key. After some investigating they conclude the following:

• The pirate has tattoos, one of a black tree, semi-recent, and an older tattoo of a misspelled rune that could have been intended to say "Strength" but now means "Miso Soup". (sidenote; runes in this world are written in a stylized form of Draconic. Even if you don't speak Draconic, the usage of runes is not very rare, so with a successful Arcana check you can find out what a rune does (or was intended to mean))
• They find some loose change in his pocket, not much, but if someone would have searched the body before them, they'd probably taken the gold pieces.
• He is from Nordheim and looks like he's been living the pirate life for a while. He has the charactaristics of someone training and shooting with a bow for most of their lives.
• His gear is very generic, good and reliable quality, but nothing you couldn't find in a decent smithy in any city. No defining marks or hints of its origin.

In the mean time John Liu Daniel Schultz and Veridius Claudius Julius Smit go to the cargomaster, Master Thaloran. He presents them with the original of the list they got from Kasim, and checks who was responsible for bringing in the crago that has been robbed and adds those names to the list. They ask if something out of the ordinary has happend during the loading, and after some thought he mentions a crate under the name of Blackwood was added last minute to the manifest. It is still in the cargohold, shipping label A11. He gives them permission to investigate that crate, as long as they don't make a mess. He has enough trouble as it is.

The party meets up and they compare notes. They decide to split up again, this time Ta'z and John go interview the guards, while the other three discuss if they should investigate the hold or talk with The Institute representative. Eventually they decide to go to find Tira D'Atar.
Ta'z and John give a marvelous performance playing bad cop, badder cop, and the guards who left early shake in their boots, barely hold back their tears, and tell them everything they know.

• Cargo hold duty is boring. They were hungry. They are sorry about what happend. BUTTTTT it was the other guards' fault, they were late.
• Kasim is responsible for the duty roster, but he problably delegated this to someone else. They are not sure who.
• They have been employed on the ship for a while and they see it as a dream job to save up some money.
• Kasim already reprimanded them.

After that they interview intimidate the guards who were late for their duties. They learn the following:

• There was a last minute change in duty roster and they had to come from the bow barracks, that is quite a walk. That is why they were late.
• The change in roster was communicated by Sergeant Gelenora Darin, the right-hand of Kasim.
• John is a dangerous man.

In the mean time Daniel, Pilar and Julius visit the representative of The Insitute, Tira D'Atar. She seems friendly but very busy. Her first class quarters are a mess, set up as a moving laboratory. She is in the middle of an experiment to create a solvent, acid based, to clean dirt, rust and grime without leaving a mark on the item. She answers all the questions the group asks and they learn the following:

1. She does not know what exactly was inside of the crate, but it was from the department of Etheric Communication.
2. She heard rumours it is a prototype device to communicate (still) images over long distances almost instantaneous. Besides the scientific interest and practical use, this item would be incredibly valuable from a commercial perspective.
3. She was supposed to deliver the crate to The Institute embassy in the Silverridge, the rich and governmental district in the city of Brasshaven.
4. She travels a lot to and from Brasshaven, and is usually the highest ranking Institute member aboard. She likes working on the ship, because usually nobody disturbs her.
5. The Institute owns the Clockwork Colossus and often ships gear to The Shimmerlands that has been created (or bought) on the mainland. These items are mostly difficult or impossible to create in The Shimmerlands.
6. She is originally from Bharatan, and her family has strong ties to The Institute.

John and Ta'z check with Kasim, he confims he delegates duty roster tasks of the whole ship and the management of the bow guards to his trusty colleague (for many years) Sergeant Gelenora Darin. They meet up with her, and she explains that the original guards that should have taken over the guard duty at the cargo hold are missing since last night. She has trusted guards searching the ship, but no sign of them yet. Also, their belonings in the guard barracks have been taken. Gelenora asks the adventurers to report any sign of them, be it bodies or otherwise, to her or Kasim as soon as they discover it.


The party meets up, discussing future steps. Julius woud like to investigate the cargo hold again, and they still have to talk to the Ironclad Syndicate and the person that shipped the Dawnstider box.

Report Date

28 Feb 2024

Related Characters

• Daniel Schultz
• John Liu
• Pílar Hilká Holmqvist
• Ta'zimus Gaiapatus
• Veridius Claudius Julius Smit

Related Historical Events

• 1225 AEA
  Investigation of the Raid