Freeport

Having slept like a log after the previous day's exertions, I awoke, dressed myself in padding and armour, and broke my fast with the others in the group. Our first priority was to recover the identified magical items, and go shopping. Both the orc and I took magical daggers, whilst the rapier was sold for the group's benefit. A set of protective bracers was claimed by Huey Morgan, who is simply not built to wear the chain armour he has been struggling around in for so long.

A good deal of shopping was done by all. I traded in my existing guisarme for an extremely fine-crafted one I had spotted whilst walking through the Old Town quarter. Although it shames me to admit to coveting the weapon, I spent virtually every coin I had just to obtain it.

Once we had gathered again, we went to meet Brother Egil at the temple to Boccob. He was ready and waiting for us, and led us across town to a small home which belonged to Lucius.

Two rooms and a cellar were swiftly searched. There were papers everywhere, seemingly from unbound books. The cellar held several book-cases and glass-fronted cases, all of which looked fairly new, but had been emptied.

In our searches, I came across a short note, in the form of a 'to do' list. This mentioned a Diary, some 'travel logs', one 'Captain Scarbelly', and 'turnips'.

We then went over the room with a fine tooth-comb looking for the diary which was mentioned in the list. This was hidden in a niche in the bed, located after much looking by Veit the sailor.

The diary showed that Lucius, the missing man, had suffered from dreams of towering buildings and strange creatures. He then disappeared for 5 years, returning to his diary with no memory of the intervening time.

We decided to follow the 'to do' list; most of the group headed to the temple of the pirate God, to look into Captain Scarbelly. Friar Porpington and I headed to the temple of Boccob, where we met with one 'Milos' the Deputy High Priest. He was quite helpful to us on most points, explaining that he was not at the temple when Lucius went missing. He could not allow us to speak to the High Priest, as he was closeted in preparations for the inaugural ceremony of the colossal lighthouse which is nearing completion.

As we left the temple, we commissioned a researcher to look into the names of people who were still at the temple when Lucius disappeared.

Another researcher indicated that Lucius had 'bought' his re-admission to the temple by donating a large number of books. This would be supported by the empty bookshelves under Lucius' home. Unfortunately, these books were completely illegible, and were stored in the 'sanctum', where they could not be seen by the public.

After reuniting with the rest of the group, we headed to the docks, looking for Captain Scarbelly, who was apparently the captain of an orcish vessel, the I Can't Remember the Name.

Reaching the docks, the ugly, scarred, vessel sat at anchor, two guards on the dockside, and five others across the boat.

I refused to be a part of any negotiation with orcs, and as none of us spoke the language, it was agreed that Hrodash, the half-orc, would have to speak to them.

He uttered a few words in their despicable language, when they roared back at him in common to depart. Their language, however, was so base, so despicable, that I found myself immediately planning their destruction.

They repeated their blandishments; an act all the more reprehensible as we had a woman travelling with us. Then the evil creatures called for their First Mate - a large orc named 'Aggro'.

Even Huey's honeyed tongue, and a most reasonable request, was insufficient. This latest orc told us to leave - again using the most low and vile language. He then made the mistake of insulting Hrodash, who; enraged, charged him with greataxe raised.

The fight did not go well for Hrodash, who was badly wounded very swiftly. Rhia, the elven bow-maiden was viciously effective, dropping two orcs in two shots (does the woman never miss?), whilst Huey's swift melodic chanting caused Aggro and another orc to fall fast asleep before more blows could be exchanged.

Although my sole shot with my crossbow went astray, I was quick to seize the initiative, grabbing Aggro and dangling him (in his armour) over the side of the dock. The orcish Captain soon saw sense, and commanded his 'men' to cease fire, and we were able to talk in relative peace.

Captain Scarbelly was gracious in defeat. He allowed us to ask our questions as well as keeping Aggro's excellent scimitar. Lucius had indeed travelled on board ship with the orcs. He had been curious about their methods, and had even stopped for a while at another port. After several months of this, and without wishing to join in the looting and pillaging, Lucius had eventually left the orcish vessel.

The captain also mentioned something about Lucius' interest in snakemen, which struck us as peculiar.

We returned to the temple of Boccob, and commissioned still more research, this time into the highlands which Lucius had stopped at, as well as into 'travel logs' and the snakemen, who supposedly used to live in the region of Freeport.

I also asked questions about the 'turnips' referred to on Lucius' 'to do' list. Turnips are a very common vegetable in Freeport, and there is no real trading or storage market for them. This would therefore seem to be something of a dead end.

Unfortunately, none of us could think of what else to research. Most of us are fighters, not investigators. There followed a long period of thinking, which resulted in a decision to go to bar and have supper.

As we made our way across town in the dusk, we were suddenly met with a barrage of crossbow bolts, and were leapt upon from both sides by a group of attackers carrying yellow shields. Hrodash, although grievously wounded, withstood two spells which were flung at him, and my polearm had claimed the life of a man before I was even truly aware of being under attack!

Some good manoevering and efficient bladework, and we had dropped our opponent - Rhia managing to shoot the mage who attacked us from some 40 yards' distance!

We had managed to take a prisoner, who was questioned before being knocked out. He knew very little, but his boss (and the gang leader) had received orders to attack us from a man in a tavern. Wishing to avenge ourselves immediately on the man who had tried to kill us, we set out to the bar ourselves.

Overpaying the landlord in the bar was a straightforward way to ensure his memory was clear. He remembered a man in a clerical cloak, meeting with the leader of the Yellowshields gang in a corner booth. We told the landlord to direct the man to the same corner-booth, whilst I set about claiming it for our own.

The booth was occupied by an attractive young woman and her suitor. I claimed that we needed to use the booth to hide our orc from view, and the woman claimed to be of orcish descent herself! Plainly she was good looking despite her heritage rather than because of it, but after taking my words to be of great insult, she left.

The contact arrived, and was deeply intimidated by the group in very short order. He was a weak-willed, but thoroughly corrupt young tailor by the name of 'Elmo', who knew very little about the conspiracy in which he found himself. He had, apparently, joined a cult to 'find himself'. A shadowy 'master' had ordered him to hire our assailants.

Elmo knew little else, other than that he met the master at a certain warehouse, and that he had been taking food there in recent days.

There was some discussion about leaving Elmo on the street for press-gangers, but we reluctantly had to allow him to walk free under orders to leave Freeport immediately. We did, however, claim his cloak.

Before attacking a warehouse filled with cultists, we decided that it would be best for us to heal ourselves somewhat. We therefore headed to the temple district, where we interrupted father Pellegro's supper and demanded that he heal us. He was most ingracious about it, and charged a great deal of money for the service. I was unable to afford it, and therefore owe Friar Porpington the sum of 50 gold pieces.