Each of the player characters have been given instructions to seek work at the Dangreena River Inn, in the city of Murann, in Amn. There, they have been instructed to meet with ‘Captain Degee’, who has a job for them. The captain is assembling a group with special skills to undertake a difficult task.
The player characters all separately arrive in the city, and shortly thereafter make there way to the Dangreena River Inn, a small establishment with a taproom, and rooms to let upstairs. Once they arrive, and announce themselves to the bartender, each is guided to private table, where they meet and introduce themselves. The party is made up of:
Fraeiyn – A Moon elf from the Sword Coast, armed with strange weapons.
Booth – A road-weary Half-Elf swordsman
Mardock Beestringer – A Gnome Diviner and scholar, and his familiar, an owl.
Qui Feng – An exotic Warrior from far off Kara-Tur.
Lord Tamikos – A Paladin of Lathander, and minor nobleman.
Robin Brightwave – A sea elf, and experienced as a sailor and scald.
Shortly thereafter, the group is met by a tiefling named Chance, Captain Degee’s first mate. Chance explains that the Captain’s been delayed, and he’s arrived to tell us a bit about the work that ‘s required of us. There’s some illicit activity going on at sea, and he’s been told to gather individuals of ‘certain skills’ to help. He’ll need stout fighters, and men familiar with Gnomish engineering and explosives. Familiarity with seafaring vessels is a plus, since this job may lead into deep water. Chance engages each of the applicants in turn, and seems to take a measure of them. Seemingly satisfied, he tells them to wait at the Inn, and someone will be along shortly to collect them.
After a short wait the bartender returns, and lets us know that the captain IS in the inn. She’s in the back room, and there’s a lot of noise coming from that direction! The group approaches, to find the captain under attack by masked assassins. The party fights off the assassins, capturing one and kill another. The leader escapes via some sort of magical means, but Fraeiyn pursues. After a tense chase in a busy, rain drenched market quarter, the attacker makes good his escape in the raging storm. While returning, Feng Qui is struck by lightning! Instead of being injured, he seems to take the lightning into himself. Unfortunately, none of his new companions are there to see this.
When the smoke clears, a few threats gets the captive to name the lead assassin as “Havilat”, a sailor (and assassin) of Zentil decent. He hired the other two men to kill help him the captain. Degee’ explains: The Zentharim are the ones that she’s investigating, and they’re out to silence her. The captain goes on to tell that she wants to hire the party to stop a shipment of ‘fake wands’ arriving at a cove a few days from now. Fraeiyn and Mardock, apparently the tinkers of the group, examine one of the broken ‘wands’ and find that they’re more like fireworks or pipe bombs… no wonder they’re exploding. It’s decided that the group will take the job…beginning with this shipment down the coast.
Chance leads the hastily assembled team a few days down the coast, by foot. The arrive at the the rendezvous point… a bare stretch of beach, with little to differentiate it from it’s surroundings. A reef prevents larger ships from approaching, and a cliff-face sits a few hundred yards away, providing a good vantage to see approaching ships. The group finds the remnants of a campsite, scouts out an ambush point and settles in to wait.
At near midnight, a ship arrives just outside of the reef. The party waits for them to come ashore, but they are ambushed themselves! Kobolds attack, keeping the group pinned down, while some sort of winged figures (Kenku? Aarakocra? Winged Elves?) fly from the cliff face to the ship, and begin to return with a chest. As the party contends with the kobolds, Captain Degee arrives by ship and launches an attack by sea. The party manages to take care of the kobolds, and a well placed shot by Fraeiyn downs the winged figure with the chest. Rob dives into the water, and defly recovers the case from under the waves. The ship, however, makes it’s escape. Degee’s borrowed vessel, it seems, isn’t much for combat, and is unable to pursue.
The party is left on the shore with a chest, and the ship floats, in flames, out in the bay.