Session 31

At the inn, the door is barred and there are mercenaries clearly acting as guards. The innkeep lets us in, and offers to let us room for the night---on the house. We believe that he does so because he thinks we're refugees.

Clearing the Tunnels
Having negotiated a reward last session for clearing the tunnels, we return to Commander Wulfric and collect the men to go clear the tunnels. One of the soldiers is seriously injured by a giant lizard, but Beans stabilizes him and he pulls through.

We successfully clear out the tunnels, then return to the Commander for our reward. Xanie gains the spells:



Leaving Korvosa (Again)
We pitch the Commander on the idea of bringing one of his soldiers with us out through the "Smuggler's Entrance" to the tunnels and then bringing him with us to Bilge City / Salshear. There, we'd find a smuggler willing to traffic goods and food back to Korvosa (along with his soldier).

He's all for this, and sends a Cartographer, Elgar with us to map out the tunnels and the location of the Smuggler's Entrance. We head eastward from there towards the savannah, before turning north towards the road to Bilge City.

As we head north, we notice that it does not appear that more Chult troops have been arriving.

Once we reach Bilge City, we head to see Mandalf. Elgar is not a fan of the smell. Suleiman inquires if he knows anyone that would be interested in smuggling food into Korvosa for us. He does, but they haven't been around in a few weeks. We can't sit and wait for him to maybe show up again, but he's got a brother in Salshear named Clive Reese that might be able to contact him. We decide to skip talking to Carson and head for Salshear.

We rest at the Pig & Whistle for the night, then head off to Salshear in the morning, Elgar in tow.

Finding Clive
We go to our "home base" in Salshear, the old Guard Captain's House. We find a pile of letters. Much of the pile is nothing much, but there are two of note:

The Letter from Balciar
It meanders a bit, but he ends with "We have a situation. When you get here, come see me immediately."

The Letter from Prince Bard
There are many pages. Letter is perhaps the incorrect term. Novella? Memoir Chapter?

Nonetheless, he sounds like he's doing well---if a bit bored.

Meeting with Balciar
We go see Balciar. He isn't sure how to broach the situation to us, so Suleiman takes initiative and broaches our situation.

Balciar reacts immediately to our mention of Clive Reese. In fact, Reese is a pirate: "Brown-Teeth Reese" that has been plaguing the coast, taking gold and people alike.

We ask if he might know another smuggler willing to traffic goods into Korvosa for us. Elgar diagrams the cove entrance for Balciar, who suggests that the Baron may be interested in taking this on. We have an agreement from our involvement in the (see Session 19).

He informs us that the City has been doing well in our absence. It has only been a couple of months, but things are more stable, the mercenary-turned-guard-captain ended up leaving (with Balciar resuming his role), but lower taxes are being offset by lower sales due to the pirate problem. They're operating out of Gloomwatch, which used to be the base of operations for the Cerulset navy---and the things that made it good for that are now making it an excellent staging ground for piracy.

(The mercenary captain may not be totally gone---unclear.)

Finding a Way to Gloomwatch
We decide to head down to the docks with Knot disguised as a pirate to try to get information. We hit the taverns and get some drinks, pretending to be already-drunk and on a pub crawl.

Knot: "Two alcohol's please!" Suleiman: "He means ale. Get us some ale."

He tries to overcharge us, and Suleiman calls his bluff. He charges us 1 silver per ale, which might still be too much but :shrug:

Knot spots some possible pirates, and Beans (who is now legitimately drunk) heads over and opens with "you look like a goOod guy."

Suleiman carries Knot over in his chair, dragging his own chair behind. We negotiate a ride to Gloomwatch, ultimately agreeing to 100g (25 up front and 75 when we arrive). We have to stay below decks, and say nothing of it after arrival. We're to travel on the Maiden's Whisper, leaving at dawn.

Beans turns into a bear and makes a scene as we exit, before realizing that she can't fit out the door. She turns back into a Tabaxi, apologies badly, and throws some silver on the counter before darting out of the tavern.

We add our platinum to the bag of holding, which Xanie invisibly delivers to Balciar's office for safe-keeping.

The Bag's Contents
Misc. gems totalling 7027 gp

COINS: 193 pp 3978 gp 7037 sp 4492 cp Total Value = 6656.62 gp

Promissory note from Korvosa Mage Guild: 575 pp

Total Value = 5750 gp

Total Total Value: 18,433.62 gp

Player Money: Suleiman - 40pp Knot - 39pp 200gp Beans - 40pp 100gp Xanie - has no worldly goods

The Maiden's Whisper
The next morning, we go to the ship. The captain meets us, and ushers us belowdecks. We don't see a crew. Knot points this out, and the captain tells us that he doesn't trust us and doesn't want us to see the faces of his crew.

We go belowdecks, and he locks us in an unused room with 4 hammocks and a few empty crates. The ship is clearly well-made. There is no room for Rat-Beans to sneak around the ship. Spooder-Beans may succeed, though.