Clues of the Slaver's Operations

Illayana, Darvin, and Ned stand before a barred door. " 'DANGER' " Illayana reads and then continues, "I suggest we leave the bar on this door. You can tell something behind it has been trying to escape. Whatever it is it's damaged the bar and brackets."

"Agreed. Let's look in this room," Darvin says, holding the door open for the eladrin, "Ladies first."

Illayana steps through the door and heads over to the wooden table. She reaches up and pulls a book from the shelf above, "Seductive Whispers: A Collection of Sensual Verses," she reads and puts the book back on the shelf. The eladrin then picks up a naval almanac and opens it to read.

Darvin opens the wardrobe, sees a fancy-looking floor-length oilskin coat, and immediately pulls it out and tries it on. As he slides his hands down the sleeves he feels numerous empty pockets. The human then turns and looks at himself in the mirror.

Turning to see himself from different angles, Darvin says, "Fits perfectly," and then quieter, "These pockets will come in handy. In fact, Penelope, this one would be perfect for you." Darvin picks up a little mouse from out of a pouch and sets her in one of the pockets in his left sleeve. He gently tucks her in and the mouse gives him a little squeak of thanks.

"Darvin! This book lists the tide times for a hundred miles of the coast around Saltmarsh," the eladrin turns and sees Darvin in a green silk trimmed coat, "Oh! That is quite the coat."

"Mind if I keep it? It fits perfectly," Darvin holds out his arms to show her.

The Eladrin waves her hand in the air dismissively. Darvin takes that to mean yes, as the woman begins speaking about the book again and the use of a signal lantern. "All evidence this is the slavers' base of operations," without pausing she continues, "This other one is called, A Treatise Concerning the Demigod luz and its Minions."

"Interesting. Never heard of luz," Darvin shrugs and continues, "What is that last book?"

"Oh. A book of dirty poetry. I don't think we need that one," she replies and puts the other two books into her pack.

"Did you look in the box under the table?" Darvin asks.

"Not yet," Illayana replies and crouches down to look under the table. She sifts through the box silently.

"Well?" Darvin asks impatiently.

The eladrin stands up holding a piece of parchment and says, "There are some candles and flint and steel in the box along with this parchment. It has the details of the slaver's method of signaling ships. And the lantern they've been using is sitting on the floor."

"We need to get all of this evidence back to Anders. Let's see if Thamila and Kenku are ready to go," says Darvin.

Ned waited outside the room biding his time for the kenku and halfing to be distracted, then he began pushing the bar out of its place in the brackets. It was stuck in good from the warping and he wasn't the strongest man.

But you didn't need to be the strongest to play a character to perfection, Ned thought.

Just as the bar pops out, he hears Illayana yell, "What do you think you're doing?!"

Darvin grabs Ned by the shoulders, spins him around, and says, "Ned! Why would you open the door? Are you crazy!"

Ned replies, "I was just curious. What if the bar and sign are a trick and there are folks imprisoned? Like me. You said you were looking for slavers. They have to keep the people they've taken somewhere. I didn't want anyone to get left behind."

Darvin releases Ned and says, "Ok. Let's take a look then since you've opened it."

Both men look into the room and see a faint blue light coming from under what they assume is a door.

"I think there's a door across the room. Someone could be in that other room," Ned whispers.

"They could, but I need some light first. I can barely see in there," Darvin whispers and touches his holy symbol about to cast a spell.

In desperation, Ned pulls out the dagger Thamila gave him and attempts to stab the cleric with it. The dagger catches on a rivet on Darvin's studded leather armor. But it didn't matter, Darvin was caught off guard by the attack. Ned uses his advantage and maneuvers the cleric into the room.

Illayana creates her thorn-covered vine whip and lashes out at Ned. Then she tugs at it and drags him away from the door saying, "Deceiver! You'll pay for this!"

Darvin stands up and tries to turn around to get his bearings. But before he can, something attacks him from behind. The human pulls out his mace and swings at his attacker. Then Darvin backs out of the room fighting it off with his mace.

"Skeletons!"Thamila shouts, from across the room.

Kenku squawks, pulls out her scimitars, and races to protect her new friend.

Ned struggles to free himself of Illayana's thorny whip with no success. His struggles only helped the eladrin to tighten her hold on him.

Thamila sends crackling energy at the undead, blasting the skeleton apart. Then she yells, "Quick Darvin close the door before more come out! We don't have time for this right now. The slavers in the caverns are the priority."

"Agreed," says Darvin pushing the door closed, "Kenku help me bar the door again."

The kenku sheathes her scimitars, "Yes Friend. I help." She picks up the bar and together the two put it back in place.

Illayana interrogates Ned, "Are you with the slavers?"

Ned remains silent.

"TELL US!" Kenku booms with the voice from the spell on the trap door.

"You can't scare me little bird. I've heard you mimic that spell before," Ned says. Then he turns to Illayana and says, "Alright. Alright. I'll surrender."

"Who are you working for? Are you with the slavers?" Illayana asks.

"I'm no slaver. I was hired to cause discord and persuade you to leave. If I couldn't get you to leave, I could improvise and find a way to stop you," Ned answers.

"Who hired you?" the eladrin asks.

"Do you think I'm going to just tell you? I'd lose all credibility," Ned replies.

Thamila steps closer, letting the energy build between her hands, and mostly bluffs, "You had better tell us or I'll release this energy. I know you've seen what I'm capable of." She plays menacingly with the forming energy between her hands.

Ned puts up his hands, "Alright. I'll tell you. I was hired by Gellan Primewater. He runs a secret smuggling cartel. This gang is just one of many within his cartel."

"Impossible!" Darvin says, "He's on the council. And he's always using his wealth to help the community."

"Believe me or don't," Ned says with a shrug and continues, "Gellan Primewater hired me."

Darvin says, "You're lying. Gellan wouldn't be involved in something like this."

"We don't have time to argue. Let's tie him up and leave him here too. We can come back for the two of them after we deal with the rest. And then in town, we can sort it all out," Illayana suggests.

The others quickly agree to the eladrin's suggestion and leave Ned tied up across the room from their other captive.

Writing Ned into the story has been the band of my existence since I introduced him. I thought he would add intrigue to the house exploration. Which is basically a dungeon crawl. But I just struggle to figure out what to do with him and how to make him cause mischief. After rereading the chapters with Ned in them, I realized I kind of forgot about him, so I had to keep going back and trying to add him in more.

But mostly I didn't know what I was going to do with him once the group found out. I decided this chapter would be when he would make his move. And as I was writing he finally took on some life!

Also, I planned to follow the module that has the town of Saltmarsh and the Scarlet Brotherhood be an integral part of the story. This means I forgot that Ned was supposed to surrender and implicate Gellan Primewater as a key villain. So I had to go back through the chapters with him and "fix" him again.