27 - Tour of Port Nyanaru

With the night fast arriving the party decided to rest for the evening with the exception of Lindal who had a date with Bonnie to see the sights. Bonnie had rented a carriage so they could tour the streets in style and be safe from pickpockets, etc. Bonnie was clearly nervous and rehearsing her 'casual' greeting but Lindal worked to put her at ease. There was an obnoxious street preacher outside the inn but they were able to mostly tune him out and get in the rickshaw and go on a journey where Bonnie marked out sights around the city from her many forays here.

"I got us a driver with a carriage so we can tour the city in style."

(On examination it is more of a rickshaw pulled by a small quadrupedal dinosaur Hadrosaurus managed by a dark skinned withered man (Mugway) with a couple missing teeth who clucks and coos to his beast as it waits. Bonny tells you he only speaks Chultian but she told him to take a long round about tour of the city.

"Its only a couple miles but this way we can see the sights in style and not worry about urchins trying to lift our pouches. Though mostly that is in just one or two districts."

"Up that way is the warehouse district. It is riddled with canals but there is a really complicated schedule so you never want to have a boat there unless you have a time slot because people get really upset when traffic doesn't flow properly. Plenty of graft and smuggling and that stuff goes on."

"Fishmarket - this is where you get the freshest catch. Well early in the morning you do. Right now is end of day stuff no one else wanted. On the hill behind it there is a coliseum And on the hill to the south is some temple called Gold something or other. Dunno. They always seemed stuck up to me and the gold on the roof is just paint so don't bother going."

"Fort nyanzaru is up here on the right and that funky round building over there is the public baths. They take their cleanliness seriously which is important when you live somewhere hot enough to make you sweat like a pig all year round. You can get some awesome massages there and apparently if you slip them a gold or two they get a kinda kinky according to the other crew. But you aren't gonna need any of that, ok?"

*she winks then blushes madly*

"Um up here further on the left is a really cool dye shop. Sometimes I like to buy really vibrant colors from this one guy called Omala... Oh there he is!"

(Lindal see a middle age man with hands and feet stained a deep vibrant hue. Stores on either side of him show cloth in may bright colors but the man doesn't notice Bonnie as he is crying and pulling at something on the door to his shop.)

"Over there in Tiryki anchorage you have really cheap inns and dino pens. But the the place is run by thugs as likely to shake you down as to stop someone from robbing you so Captain urges us all to stay out of there. Some bad blood between him and the prince that runs the place i think."

"Oh this place is awesome but not at night. It is rife with thieves and some or the poorest folk live here but they built hovels on the sides of a canon and all the places are connected by these ricketty bridges that would make you crap your pants on a windy day. You definitely need to go there someday but carry an empty pouch if you get what I mean. One bridge - wind devil's pass is 200 feet off the ground and known to roll like a crocodile in the heavy downpours. It is really freaky to walk out on. We used to make new crew walk across it until the captain forbid it. Grigg still lets us do it but we have to keep it quite so the Captian doesn't dock our pay. And we cant do it on windy days anymore since we lost Gahrum."

"Grand Souk - place is a freaking zoo. Too many people for me but others say you can get just about anything you want in there if you have the coin. Not the grey trade that is Old city or the Anchorage but all the legal stuff is in there. And all of it is legit and not diluted. The princes take merchants that dilute their wares and make them run the Executioners run up in Old city. It is like this 200 foot long pit they fill with raptors or tigers or goblins and if you make it to the end you are considered innocent but the thing is a total blood bath usually. Still there are a few folks who have become celebreties for breaking the rules and turning themselves in just so they can compete in the freaking executioner's run and this one effing legend has done it like a dozen times now. He puts on a show if you can get a good spot and assuming he hasn't bitten it since the last time i was here. Oh and that hill over there is where the princess sit and decide what they want to do with all their bribes or something like that."

"The executioners run is over through that gate beyond those zigger-naughts or whatever they are called. People have like put so many tents and shops on them that you can barely see the stone temples that supposedly lie beneath. The place is wild there are like 9 begger princes that claim to run the place. It is like a whole mockery of the whole 7 princes that run the city. Sometimes teher are only 3 sometimes a could dozen different gangs claim to rule. The legend I told you about before it one of the beggar princes. Calls himself. emperor norton os something like that. You may see him on top the pyramid playing bagpipes in the nude because that is just they kinda freak he is. Pretty cool honestly. Not the bagpipe music but the man. He never learned to play, he just does it to annoy the neighbors when he gets drunk. As I said he is a legend."

At this point some little girl screams and points at Bonnie "Alikuwa yeye. Nikamuona akizichukua. Mama na baba yangu wako wapi? Ilikuwa ile yenye nywele nyeupe." (Bonnie translated - It was him. he kidnapped them that one with the white hair.) This disrupted the tour. Lindal helped Bonnie slip away but the relatives boxed Lindal in and he quickly talked his way out by assuring them that they were only in town as of this day. But he learned that there is a silver haired halfling causing trouble and kidnapping people.

Latter he met back up with bonnie and she was all appologetic, "Ok, so that was weird. I am sorry I totally ruined your evening. I am such a screw up."

As they return to the inn again they are accosted by the obnoxious street preacher but this time Lindal starts to ridicule him and Eddie who is sitting inside provides some magical support. When ever the priest tries to speak he appears to let out a magically loud fart covering all of his haranguing. Soon there is a crowd of locals laughing and pointing and at this point the Terino street preacher gives up turning to walk away. Bonnie walks foward lifting his purse but right as the preacher starts to notice Eddie tweaks the threads of fate and a passing Stegasaurus has explosive diarrhea soaking the preacher from head to toe but sparing Bonnie who was sheltering right behind the preacher. She walks back having no idea that she was seconds form being grabbed by the guard and her and Lindal go inside to drink at the bar.

Celadon takes his leave and Freya accompanies him to keep him out of trouble and they go over to Kayla's house of repose in search for Soggy Wren. The place is members only but Celadon manages ot march them right past the Minotaur bouncers and waves Freya in behind him. Inside they see this place is WAY more posh than the Thundering lizard. There are magical spotlights, abundant attendants, magically infused cocktails and many other wonders. Celedon works his wonder at the bar and is pointed in Wren's direction whom he immediately recognizes as Reynold from the Vespertine Flame. D'oraah's adventuring group group. Reynold is three sheets to the wind and literally incoherent but Celedon orders up some black coffee and sits down next to Wren placing the mug in his hand.

C: We need to talk

Wren: WHAZA*hic*IDONTHINIKNOYOU*belch*

C: Last I saw you was when you boarded that ship with my master.

Wren: IHAVNEVERMETYOUBEFOR. NOIDEAWHOYOTALKINABUT

C: D'oraah

Wren: (looking taken aback) YOUKENILOVDHER

C: Here drink this (pushing forward the coffee again.) I have questions I need answered. I intend to find my master and bring her back.

(Elsewhere Eddie breaks into a sweat. Yanking very hard on threads of fate that are intending to go to a death by dissolution, after a heroic tug that almost wrenches his mind wren's eyes clear just a little and a spark gone for months rekindles.)

Wren: (downs coffee like it was a shot) "I... I.. rehmemhmba hew..."

(15 minutes later)

Wren: "This expedition was a disaster. Remember the expedition to Mezro? This journey was way worse. We would see forty fifty zombies at a time. In the rain in the dark. It's easy enough to kill them when you see them coming but when visibility barely extends past your tent and the tent collapses due to the weight of bodies piling onto it. I tried to convince her it wasn't worth it. We were having more and more close calls. I knew we were heading back so I deliberately didn't purify my water so I could fall sick. God it almost killed me." *laughs weakly* "Leaches in my throat blocking my airway. The shakes, shivering so hard I couldn't defend myself. That is the real killer. Between mosquitoes and the water very few expeditions make it anywhere anymore I was laid up for weeks while they set back out. I was barely back up when I got this message"

(he pulls out a sending stone with a black flame burnt onto it. He casts a spell and rubs the stone making it faintly glow. It then wakes up and D'oraah's voice comes from the stone)

D'oraah: Please give stone to Wren (9 minutes pass) Reynold, I am sorry. We should have listened. You were right. Know I loved you. I always have. Good bye.

(With a shakey hand Reynold reaches for a shot glass but Celadon pushes it away.)

C: Not now, I need you sober if I am going to find her.

Wren: But I need this....

C: No, you are trying to forget but what we need is for you to remember. It is hard but you need to sober up and be at the Thundering Lizard tomorrow morning because I have more questions for you.

Wren: (sighs) Ok I will be there.

Bartender : I have never seen anyone sober up Wren when he is in one of his funks. Pick any drink in the house and it is on me.

C: (Points at a drink behind the bar with a monkey in a bottle) How aout a glanss of that for the next patron who want something different.

(A few minutes later someone drinks the hot and goes into fits of involuntary dancing while Celedon sits and sips a Merlot nearby)

Meanwhile Freya sees a dwarven figure she recognizes in a booth nearby. It is a former squad commander from the dwarven guard. He looks like he has gone through hell. He is missing an arm, his head and shoulders are covered with scars and his hair is missing in patches where his head is covered with scars. Freya walks over and says "Hi Hew"

Hew: "Char my bones and smelt my soul if it ain't Freya all grown up!"

Freya: "I hope you don't take this wrong but you look like hell"

Hew: I have and then some but it is all better now that you and the guard have gotten here. I have found it a mine with nuggets of iron, gold and even adamantine nuggets as big as my head spit up by a volcano a few hundred years back. We need to reclaim it. And nearby there is a forge designed to work these materials I think it is Hrakhamar the legendary forge of Chult lost long ago. We will be legends if we recover it!

Freya: Wow sounds amazing! Why didn't you claim it already?

Hew: Well there is a red dragon named Tinder that bit off my arm and burnt my company to ash. It then went and sank our ships and I had to escape through tunnels to the forge some three days distant and it is completely overrun with fire salamanders. So it is a bit of a fixer upper. But now that we have teh full strength of the guard behind us we can slay the dragons and drive out the...

Freya: Hew, it is just me.

Hew:...newts and then we will have a new Dwarven kingdom. We will be legends Freya.

Freya: Hew, Listen to me. It is just me. No others came. And I am here on a different quest.

Hew: We can get mercenaries. Use your companions as fodder to lure the dragon out while we hit it with everything we have got..

Freya: Hew, it is suicide. We are not able to take on an adult dragon.

Hew: It isn't an adult. It is a juvenile A company or two of guards and we could bring it down with numbers and...

Freya: Hew, we don't have numbers. And my quest is important. I don't think I can help you.

Hew: Damnit Freya. Tinder took my arm I want mah revenge.

Freya: And I hope you get it but for now I can buy you a round but I can not offer you hope when I have none to give.

Hew: ....

Freya: ....

Hew: (Reaches for drink with his remaining arm)

Freya: Well I'll be seeing you.

Meanwhile back at the Thundering Lizard Seraph flies up to Kylorin and is going absolutely bonkers. She gets a ton of images but they are a confusing mishmash of Seraph flying around the city chasing an image of herself through the city. Kylorin understands that Seraph found one of her kind and Seraph just overflows with happiness. Kylorin gets an image of another Inn a much more posh inn and a lady Elvin in features but speckled with metallic scales. The lady strokes her lizard and looks out of the window at Seraph for a moment before heading deeper in the inn. Later when Celedon and Freya come back they do not remember seeing such a lady or a psuedodragon at Kayla's house of repose but that seems to be the location that the lady is staying.

The next well rested the group heads out to tour the city. Eddie (going by specialist DeVeers now) convinces the group to first check in on Klevin Van’Sheran at the Far Shores Outpost by the Grand Souk. The group say recisely the wrong things to Klevin and only some fast talk keeps him from knifing Eddie thinking Eddie was shaking him down with threats of making more of his merchandise disappear. It turns out that the last few of Klevin's ships have been hit by pirates AND he has seen other merchants selling his goods and Eddie said some of the precisely wrong things to Klevin. The group is told that Klevin understands what they are off and could help them but will not speak to them unless they do him a favor first. He has a lead on a tunnel from Tiryki Anchorage into the city that is being used to smuggle his goods and other more nefarious things. Rumor is something dangerous is coming in and he wants the group to shut down the smuggling route and show him the "dangerous cargo" to prove that they found the route. he then waves them away like flies and another clerk hurries over and explains where in the Tiryki Anchorage the entrance to the smuggling route is supposed to be located.

The party wanting to have their ship back goes to check on the smuggling route because kicking butts and taking names is their specialty. Scouting the area they find that several worker loitering around the are are actually armed thugs with clubs or crossbows hidden nearby. The party pick a fight with one of the scouts and pound him as he runs back towards the others. Celadon distracts him at a critical moment and he runs smack dab into a metal pole knocking himself out. Freya scoots forward and shoots hitting the same pole and several thugs further in return fire further pincushioning the pole. One rouge hidden in the shadows manages to get off a critical attack with sneak attack and nails Freya in the throat almost dropping her. Kylorin moves down and hits several thugs with a lightning bolt and Celadon tosses a well timed sleep spell dropping all but one of the thugs and pirates. The last pirate makes a break for a hatch on the alleyway floor, throws it open, and dives through. But Lindal runs and dives through after him and tries to drop the fellow but manages to miss. Eddie seeing the fellow getting away cast a spell and runs at incredible speed and manages to drop the rapscallion before he gets away.

The group then settles in to tie up the sleeping prisoners and bandage their wounds. Especially as Freya was very badly wounded during that fight. But with Celedon playing a healing melody she manages to recover decently.

Defeated

• 7 x Sailors 25

The party earned 175 xp with 0+ allies (37 each => 657 cumulative)

As well as the following items :

• 10 gp

Companions (not present):

• Captain and Crew of the Brazen pegasus

  • Captain Ortimay

  • First Mate Grigg

  • Bonnie "Sky Turtle" Skytle

• Seraph - a Psuedodragon traveling companion and his horde of 3 gp and 3 sp

• Undril Silvertusk - A Lightbringer and member of the Order of the Gauntlet bringing relief supplies to Camp Righteousness.