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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 9352560" data-attributes="member: 12388">Back in September of 2023 I <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/jeremygrenemyer/p/adding-to-the-silent-sail?r=cw9a9&utm_medium=ios" target="_blank">added a little meat</a> to the bones of six members of the Silent Sail trading cabal of Marsember.Conceived by Ed Greenwood, the Silent Sail was featured in Dungeon #185 in an Eye on the Realms article of the same name.Now that this semester of college is over, I’ve taken the opportunity to write up the remaining five members of the Silent Sail from scratch.As before, the eleven members of the Silent Sail do not descend from old-money merchant wealth. None are noble. All own at least six sailing ships and all are loyal to each other and their common cause: trade. These five differ from their fellows in that their reach and influence is not as great.Rhynszeene “Deathgrip” DornalhondA slender faced, black haired, towering widower possessed of enormous hands, feet, and ears, and an iron grip. She wears a constant scowl of dissatisfaction and regards as a challenger anyone who dares lock eyes with her overlong. She supervises the transfer of wares, payments, rents, illegal substances and “folk better placed elsewhere” between the businesses owned by her numerous relatives in Suzail and their interests in Daerlun, Sembia. This has made Rhynszeene coins enough to live comfortably. What coin she makes beyond her cost of living she invests in “wagers”—Rhynszeene’s word for purchasing small quantities of goods and shipping them to market at just the right time to allow her to double her investment. Factors (trade agents) and sea captains alike report to “the widow at the center of her web” whenever they make port in Marsember.Baerebolt HarkmantleAn aging, pasty skinned, hulking, cheerful man with rose colored cheeks and a nigh endless sense of humor. Bearebolt has a knack for teaching and has mentored countless Marsemban orphans (whether by death or castoffs) who’ve gone on to sail the Sea of Fallen Stars and visit distant ports of call. Baerbolt’s is that rare shipping business that deals both in wares and people. Ship captains rely on him to provide trustworthy replacement sailors who follow orders and never need be taught how to perform a task aboard ship. Baerebolt has no interest in placing spies aboard a ship or selling information about its activities; he prizes the regard of his fellow sea captains most of all. He trains new sailors on his personal cog – the Bitch Queen’s Fancy. Rumor claims Baerebolt will swift-sail small cargoes on the Fancy, no questions asked, if the price is to his liking.Shulther ImmerbrightA broad shouldered, balding man of average height, with a horseshoe hairline and a pepper colored bristle brush mustache. His fleet of caravels sail mixed cargo to and from the port cities of Sembia and the Dragon Reach. The folk of Marsember remain unaware that Shulther, his three factors (business agents) and all but one of his housekeepers were poisoned in a single night. The surviving housekeeper, a doppelganger, was unharmed and took over its dead master’s business concerns the very next day. The creature is bone tired from doing the work of six humans. It fears a second attempt on Shulther’s life and hasn’t a clue who ordered his assassination.Elembrathra “the Viper” StorniviperA product of the Pirate Isles. A “sea brawler” and a born fighter. Later a sea captain. Her face, arms and hands are stamped in jagged, crisscrossing scars. She is never without a dagger in each boot and several knives hidden on her person. A loss of status among her kin saw Elembrathra retreat to Marsember, the place “most like home” on all the Sea of Fallen Stars. She holds a fierce hatred for Sembians. Elembrathra’s fleet of cogs sail to and from Westgate. She believes in the free flow of trade, works hard to avoid dock fees and taxes, and cares not for laws prohibiting the sale and shipment of drugs, contraband, or people. Her ship’s crews are rowdy by design. They spend their coins freely within the taverns and festhalls of Westgate and Marsember that haven’t yet banned them.Challeth Vorlwinter Of mixed Calishite and Turmish ancestry. Wears her long brown hair shot through with silver in a braid down her back. In a pair of sturdy boots she stands about eye level with a tall dwarf. Regularly clothed in boots, breaches, a cotton blouse and a worn leather apron covered in pockets filled with measuring strings, clasps, thread, chalk, fabric swatches, needles, buttons, thimbles, snips, scissors, a clapper, clothespins, and several razor sharp shears of different sizes. She buys bulk fabric, thread, and materials from sellers in the coastal cities of Turmish and Chondath. She resells bulk fabric and produces all manner of products in her busy shop (ship’s sails, tapestries, curtains, blankets, sheets, pillow cases, weather cloaks, etc.), located across the street from the Tankard of Eels tavern (hard by the King’s Tower). Sometimes referred to as “the Seamstress of the Wet Port.” Challeth owns six caravels and awaits construction of a seventh. Her largest caravel is captained by her eldest daughter.</blockquote>

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