For the Paladin and the Ranger – it’s a difficult town for them because it is NOT a lawful town – and they have to tread carefully or find themselves on the wrong end of the Marshall.
Write up follows:
The group was up bright and early on Spiritmonth the 4th. The temperature had been steadily dropping as the end of fall loomed its head, making their window to travel the 12 miles south to Dunwater get smaller if they hoped to return before the first snows. Already the frost was forming in the morning and the group made sure they had a few articles of cold weather gear at the ready.
The met with the page and runner for the Council and made their way to the Saltmarsh Courts and Council House where Sire Archibald, Dowager Lynn, Durban Thatcher, Oralif Fendelstone, and the Notary Pinelaquin Goldenrod were waiting for them. Another 10 or so citizens of Saltmarsh were here but they seemed to be on other business.
We were thanked for our efforts in sussing out the smuggler operation as it entails here – removing the safe house and the origin smuggler. But the end buyer was still in Dunwater and we were being sent there to find the end buyers of the smuggling operation and bring them back to Saltmarsh for justice. The reward? 100 nobles for each member of the party if we succeeded. The Mayor of Dunwater was a man known as Isvar and we should speak with him if we needed help. As for the smuggler contacts, the only name that had appeared on Captain Siggurd’s notes was the name Dru’uz Thorson; most likely dwarven and was a direction we could follow up after talking to Mayor Isvar.
As for the next issue, the lizardman threat as it may be. The smugglers were using the ill-gotten gains from the sale of the brandy and silks and were using it to arm the local lizardman tribes, 3 or so of them who were united in this endeavor. We were to find the chief of this tribe and dispatch him, bring proof, and without a head chief, the tribes should scatter and revert to their more individualistic ways and size.
The reward for this? 250 nobles for each member of the party if we succeeded. Very nice. They were going to have a boat take us down to Dunwater and be there for us for 14 days – day and a half to get there, day and a half to get home, 11 days or take care of both matters. We thanked them and took the offer. They also supplied us with food and water for the trip and assured us that room and board when we returned to Saltmarsh would be taken care of.
We gathered all we would need and on the morning of Spiritmonth the 5th, we arrived at the dock and met with Captain Skaddi and his crew of 4 who would be taking the party of 5, Ned Shakeshaft, and Oceanus the Seaelf from Deepcove to Dunwater. While we were loading up, we heard a call from the quay and running down towards us was Handaring, Darveig’s elder brother.
He was thankful to us for our efforts in taking care of his mother, ending her disease and giving her new life. He was thankful for us bringing Darveig back and having Tyr watch over him. Was thankful for the large stipend we brought as well to his family. But he had two spears with him and a rucksack full – and told Magnus that he would take his dead brother’s place as the paladin’s squire if he would have him.
The party was quiet and Magnus had to wrestle the right words, eventually telling Handaring that although he was honored for the offer, this was not the right time for him to abandon his mother and Magnus did promise Gjulprid that he would not bring further misery to her family by way of the sea.
Handaring was dismayed but understood and Magnus assured him that when they return, he would be happy to meet with him then about another opportunity. The party finished loading up and they all thought Magnus made the right call.
We sailed out to the deer waters of the Mastelic Ocean and Captain Skaddi turned the schooner south and we were on our way. During the trip Deja was keeping up with her lessons and had asked Veldryn if she can copy some spells from her book to the one that the Halfling had purchased. In addition, Valerie used the Bifrost Gem to question whether the lizardman holdings were between Saltmarsh and Dunwater – getting a negative answer for it.
We took an anchor in the evening and then went back out to sea and continued our way south, arriving at Dunwater around 11ish on Spiritmonth the 6th. Our first glace of the town was it was in poor condition. There were three long quays and docks, but two of them had been damaged and were not suitable to draw up to, and the last one seemed to be in sorry condition. In addition, no longshoremen were waiting for us on the docks, but a few were near a series of burned out warehouses and watching us.
Our guess was the town would probably house 1,500 people, a bit smaller than Saltmarsh but given there were barely 11 boats on the docks, the lack of serious crowds that we can see, and the number of burned buildings that had been collapsed in place and left there, we would be surprised if the town had half that number in it.
As Captain Skaddi was tying the ship up to an empty spot on the poorly maintained dock, two of the longshoremen came down the planks and stopped nearby. There were scarred, rough, and menacing looking. There was some back and forth with the Captain and a touch or two about some outrageous docking fees that numbered in the CROWNS, not the Nobles as was expected and customary. While this was all going on, the party was disembarking, casually helped by the two dockworkers. Eventually Captain Skaddi paid the exorbitant fee and told the group they were going to continue south the Eider, drop off some cargo there and then return here in 2 or 3 days’ time. To avoid further fees, there were going to drop anchor out of the harbor and await the group’s return and desire to be picked up by a series of lantern flashes.
Once on the docks we made our way to the shore where the warehouse district showed the poor repair the town was in. Much of the beach was covered in greasy looking seaweed and deep ruts. The warehouses were shells of their former self, two of the three blocks looked like they had burned down months ago and after knocking down the exterior walls, were left alone to rot away from time. The sidewalks were muddy furrows, the streets were missing cobbles and seemed to be covered in a gritty filth. The entire town smelled faintly of urine and fecund mud. Based upon the lack of industry we saw around the area and the few people on the streets, we downgraded our estimate from half to maybe a third of the town was actually occupied.
The Sheriff’s office had some older fire scarred markings on the outside but still seemed whole. Deja did not want to walk in, was instead going to head down the block to “look around”, when actually she was going to find the local Thieves Guild and make her presence in the city known. It was supposed to be as a cobbler’s and the front person was a person named Agma. Valerie and Veldryn opted to stay on the street with Ned and Oceanus and keep their hoods up and out of the way.
The ranger and the paladin entered and almost immediately, realized that there was something wrong. The people in the Sheriff’s office were not wearing tabards, sported only a crude circular badge on their shoulder. Their armor was a mismatch of brigandine style cobbled pieces and too many of the men and women in here looked more like thugs than lawmen.
After introducing themselves they were told to wait for Marshall Traybor Thurgood. Marshall was a problem, since Marshall was either a military title, or most likely a populace elected official and not ordained by the Baron or the Count. Which meant that he was not necessarily tied to the Count’s laws – but merely the maintenance of order. Magnus was not happy and was feeling very unwell about this meeting.
In addition, two of the deputies in here were paying a noticeable amount of attention to us. One was a wood elf female, her face hard and angular, and body whipcord thin. She was honing the edge on a dagger while looking at us through her bangs, her expression was bordering on sneering. The other was a huge very orcish looking figure in too tight chainmail and sporting a 2’ long metal truncheon on his side.
The orcish figure came forward and identified himself as Deputy Crog Gunstock, his accent was thick, his mannerisms just on the edge of threatening. He took us to the back office where we met with a smiling late-30’s figure, Marshall Traybor. He shook our hand and then sat down. We discussed who we were and that we were originally looking for the Mayor Isvar but had not seen the home as it had been destroyed.
That’s where we learned many things about Dunwater. Some 9/10 months ago the town started falling apart as bandit and smuggling gangs were making more of a presence known in the town. The Mayor was growing concerned about this and was putting together a missive for Count Sedaris when there was a fire at his manor house that night. The Sheriff got involved in checking out this mysterious blaze that killed the mayor, his family, and his entire household staff.
That night a fire consumed the Sheriff and his family.
While strange fires were popping up all over town every few days, the spring rains had flooded out the road to Cymbarton, making travel to and from Dunwater either a slog through the swamps or viable by boat only. People began leaving the city while missives were supposedly sent to Cymbarton to get a new Sheriff appointed and a new Mayor appointed. No answer has come since then and the townsfolk elected their own lawman in the interim, Marshall Traybor Thurgood. Magnus didn’t want to accept the Marshall’s authority, the Marshall found the presence of a paladin in his town problematical, and the arrest and adventure warrant we had from Saltmarsh had little sway here but was bound to upset a number of the locals who that piece of paper might apply to.
The Marshall wanted the group to help him out as much as possible by conducting their business and then getting out as he “feels nervous with you all here. And I’m sure you being here also makes the rest of the goodly folks around here nervous.” It was while Talion was coming up with a bribe amount that Magnus was having none of it, telling the ranger to not pay as this man was NOT the law. This then had the Marshall call the paladin belligerent and increased the amount the group would have to pay.
As voices grew strained, the Deputy Crog came in and the orcish thug being in the room inspired the paladin to shake his head and say little more while Talion ended up paying 14 CROWNS, a ransom, to the Marshall. We knew that the Marshall was going to be watching the party now and we wanted to get our investigation done quickly and then get out.
We left feeling troubled and met up with the rest of the group. Deja was looking pale as she had wandered ahead to where the Cobbler’s shop was supposed to be, but saw only burned ruins in its place. Whatever misery had befallen Dunwater, had also taken out the thieves guild – which to the halfing’s point of view meant the town had too much criminal element running it and little order or control to temper it.
We made our way down the street to the town square, the green was a weed choked mess of garbage and a half dozen drunken louts lying about the place. Just off the square was the first inn we stumbled across – a two story structure in bad need of painting called the Leaky Tub. We were debating if it was worth trying to stay here or to cut our chances and maybe hole up in an abandoned building instead.
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