Aballo
A famous crossroads in the middle of Faloura, Aballo is a hub for traveling merchants. The large town is known for its multiple inns and bath houses that makes Aballo a perfect stop off for traveling merchants.
The Town Square
A large square set up with market stalls in the center. The cobblestone square is surrounded by small shops and a couple of inns.
The Shattered Hammer
A cozy little inn made up of a few tables, the multi floor building has a few small rooms to stay in. It is a modest inn.
Rena Plana
A small female halfling, she is middle aged with short brown hair and green eyes.
The Quickest Fowl
A well kept inn, with large round tables for food and drink. A fireplace warms the room on cold nights, there is a small stage where a tabaxi bard softly strums on a lute.
Milko Ancel
A human male in his 40’s, short black hair with a receding hairline.
Pai Chup
A leopard print Tabaxi, wearing fine silks with a fine made Lute.
Rayder Store
A neatly arranged store that sells an array of goods for travelers and merchants alike.
Rayder Burell
A human male in his late 60’s, thin white hair, he is wearing a pair of reading glasses on the end of his nose.
Warring Smiths
Just outside the square down an alleyway tucked in is a large smith with a shop attached to the side, the shop is lined with weapon racks. The forging shop is an open air room with a large anvil and a massive forge at the back of the shop.
Dimick Dorst
A large green ork, bald head, wearing a leather apron. He's in his 30’s. He is the smith.
Henrict Warring
A female halfling with light brown hair, she runs the shop.
The Mermaid Gland
The town's apothecary, it is a thin but tall shop covered in jars filled with dried goods for making potions.
Yuna Featherwinkle
A purple skinned tiefling, with curly hair, she is soft spoken.
The Silk Barracks
A larger building that has guards posted up outside, this 2 story building houses all of the guards and their equipment. Inside there is a basement level with cells to keep criminals, the main entrance has a reception counter.
Sidwell Warly
The captain of the guard in Aballo, He is a human male in his 50’s. He has short gray hair neatly cut and has a mustache. He is a cold man, whose only interest is getting promoted to a spot in Vimot’s Rose Ward.
Veryl Orbal
An Orc guard, he is in his late 20’s, he has dark green skin and wields an axe. He is part of the Orbal family, he is a nephew of Tulgan.
Butchers
A small butchers shop, a single counter sits in the center of the shop, the room has freshly butchered meats hanging on hooks in the window with smaller cuts on display.
Wallas Adger
A Dwarven male in his 40’s, he has dark black hair braided. A friendly demeanor.
The Abollo Ripper
Staying in The Quickest Fowl, a merchant passing through Aballo called Volkan Gil is waiting for a shipment to arrive, this shipment is a day late. Volkan is paying 150 gold to anyone who can recover the cart, he wants no questions asked and the crates unopened he is secretive and doesn’t go into much details. The cart should have passed through a road to the north east of the town. When the party returns to town they are to drop the cart off at Philp Rene’s silk shop. Once they’ve done that Volkan will ask them to meet him at his booth in the restaurant at The Quickest Fowl.
The cart is about 15 miles out of town; it has been attacked by bandits who are currently loading the crates off a destroyed cart onto one of their own. Once the bandits are dealt with the party can make an Investigation 15 to find the cart holding crates of fine silk. A few of the crates hold 500 parcels which are wrapped in brown paper, inside is a brown plant bulb a Nature 17 will identify it as ‘Dry Root’.
When the party returns to The Quickest Fowl, they wait in the restaurant for at least an hour with no sign of Volkan. If they go to check his room the door is locked STR 19 to break it down or Slight of Hand 17 with thieves tools to pick the lock. Once they are inside they will find Volkan sitting in his chair behind a desk dead. His throat has been slit down to the bone. The blood has soaked through his clothes and it is still slightly warm (he has been dead for 6 hours, Medicine check 22). In his hand he is holding a blood covered knife. The room shows signs of a slight struggle, the rug on the floor has been distrubed and the table has been moved.
Clues & Leads
The Boning Knife
The Knife is a boning knife that was stolen from the butchers two weeks back. If they decide to chase that lead, the party can go ask the butcher about the knife. He will tell them two weeks back he had a robbery one night 100 gold was stolen from the shop. He had two Silk Legion soldiers stop by to check on the shop to gather evidence. The knife has been missing since then. The case has gone cold and the money seems to have gone, the Silk Legion are calling it a petty theft.
Dry Root
Dry Root is a drug that can be found all over Tel’estria, it is a heavily addictive drug. Volkan was secretly running a massive chunk of the Falouran market for this drug. He was able to sneak the raw roots into the country using pirates. He’d then distribute it to the gangs to process and sell the drug. Due to his grip on the market he had rivals who were slowly getting choked out of the market. One of these men is Reginald Price, he is another smuggler who lost his contract with Philp after being out bid by Volkan.
Reginald is not responsible, he actually had plans to buy into Volkan’s business, He saw this as the only way to stay in the game. While he despised Volkan for running him out of business he was willing to set his hatred aside.
Other Cases
There has been a few cases of murders like this through out Aballo over the last nine months, four other cases have fit the MO. The first was a traveling merchant named Sherby, a female halfling, she was found down an alleyway in the early morning, slit throat to the bone she was found holding the knife used to kill her. The knife was a letter opener. The letter opener was stolen from a traveler who had been robbed the day before. The second was a Sailor called Rodney who was traveling back to his family in Ader Village, he was found in his room he was staying at the Shattered Hammer in bed with the same slit throat as the others, he had a dagger in his hand. The dagger was from the blacksmiths. He had been visited by the Silk Legion after he had been receiving threats. The third was an adventurer called Percy who was found killed up stairs in the grenal store, they were the nephew of the owner. They were found with the same distinct slash on the neck, he was found with a bread knife in his hand. The knife was stolen from the store below a week before the attack. The forth was a Rue she was an information broker found in a store house with the same slit throat she had a fine made knife that had been stolen from the Mermaid Gland an apothecary that had been robbed the month before, a few potions were stolen and they didn’t notice the knife had been taken until the murder.
The Killer
The Killer is a Triton guard called Vondrew, they are a psychopath whose motive is only to kill for the sport. They use their calling card of leaving the murder weapon as a taunt to the guards. He had been stealing the murder weapons from other places that had minor crimes.
NPCs
Volkan Gil
A human male, he has jet black hair slicked back, 46 years old. He wears a fine black coat over a waistcoat. He is a rich merchant who trades silk as a cover for his drug trade. He’s been smuggling ‘Dry Root’ through all of Faloura, he ships the drug in from Vergerath and then distributes it throughout Faloura.
Rena Fillwalker
A female half elf, light red hair with green eyes, she wears a fine made vest, the shirt underneath has a white ribbon tie. She is the assistant to Volkan and helps run his books.
Philp Rene
A Human male, 38 years old, has long brown hair tied into a ponytail. He is a fabric trader. He is on Volkans payroll, he sorts the silk crates and gives them all official paperwork so that it’s easier to sneak the Dry Root into the port cities.
Reginald Price
An Elfish male, young looking but at least 140 years old, he has long blonde hair and always wears fine suits made by Vimot’s finest tailors. He runs a small smuggling company which has been recently priced out by Volkan.
Noah Mantel
A Human male, 26 years old, tanned skin, brown eyes, he has short neet cut hair. He has been a soldier since he was 15. He investigated the butcher's robbery but wasn’t able to drum up any real leads.
Vondrew Morla
A Tiriton guard with seaweed green hair, and yellow eyes. He’s pretty cold to people he doesn’t know, but becomes quite nice. He is the serial killer who kills for fun.
Appendix
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