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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 513732" data-attributes="member: 2591">Adventure 4An all-expense paid trip to a hive of scum and villany...Gann’s story, as told to his erstwhile employer, Oinn, the dwarf...So, I went to the Pheasant, like you suggested, and met with those outlanders that were looking for an able-bodied deckhand. Pretty odd group, a human wizard, a weird looking Hob, and half-elf and one of those lizard men, Kulkans or whatever they are called. They were hiding something, I guessed pretty quick, but I didn’t know what. Have to say, that cimbri runt, Malcom or whatever his name is, he sure has a mouth on him. But more about that later.Yeah, they needed a sailor. Looking to hire a sword, as well. Figured I’d be a good enough fit, seein’ as how I can do both jobs. They were sort of evasive at first about what they were up to, until I made plain I already knew they wanted to go to Kostelna. I could tell right off none of them knew anything about the place, so I filled ‘em in. I told ‘em all about the old ruler, Borysko, how he was overthrown by the “Holy” Triad and put on public display. I told ‘em all about the city guard and their idea of what law enforcement meant, even mentioned that for a measly 100 gold they’d arrange to crucify someone for you. They seemed to get the idea that Kostelna was a sort of rough place, if you can imagine, heh heh. ‘Course later on when we got jumped in the street, they knew it for a fact, but that turned out all right, too.They seemed interested in the Triad’s ban on worship services, and just like everyone else; they jumped right to the conclusion that the Holy Triad in Kostelna and the Three Mothers are one and the same. Maybe they are, I’m not all that interested in finding out, you know? But anyway, I eventually got through to them that Kostelna isn’t really all that great a place – the Rolgulkans don’t even claim it, for Loki’s sake – but they still wanted to go.What’s that? Their ship? Uhh, yeah. About that, you were right, it’s, uh, it’s sort of unusual. Look, I can’t really say. I know I told you I’d find out all about it, but I pretty much swore an oath to keep it to myself. Yeah, sure, I know, it’s not like it would be the first promise I’ve broken, but this is – different. I can’t explain, at least not yet. Just trust me, boss, on this one.So anyway, I signed on for a share o’ the take, if any. Not sure why I didn’t hold out for some hard coin, I guess they just seemed like the sort of folk that would make out alright in Kostelna. Sort of ruthless, you know? They had some caper in mind, I’d no doubt of that. Something to do with the Porphyry house – I thought when they hired me they meant to rob the place – risky, but we both know how much gold that place rakes in, so I figured it would be worth it. If I’d known then what I know now, I might not have been so eager, but anyway.We shipped out the next tide. Made pretty good time, too – the human and that loudmouthed Cimbri weren’t bad hands, really, and that Dekkalfar woman they had on board was an old sea dog, or I’m the Kraken. I helped ‘em pick a path in through the harbor and we docked down at the end of the wharf nearest the Shunt. Took ‘em there first, got rooms, made sure they knew the rules. Old Lars asked about you, by the way.Went on something of a walking tour after that, showed ‘em the Porphyry House, of course, but also the Bone Tower and the Skindancer Academy. What’s that? No, didn’t get to see the Bone Tower repairing itself, but I warned ‘em not to stray too near, unless they wanted to become part of the second floor or something. I tried to convince them it would be worth hanging around the skindancer area long enough to see if we might catch one of those crazy performance-torture things they do, but they didn’t seem to like the idea all that much. I just thought it would help them get a better idea of what Kostelna can be, you know? Huh? Well, hell’s bells, of course I took them to the Ogre. How could I let them miss that? We went by the place later on, after the little fracas we got into by Kedward’s. They weren’t too wild about that scene, and I have to say, it’s gotten even more depraved than before, if you can imagine. I guess seeing him sliced open night after night wasn’t vile enough - now they’re trimming little pieces off Borysko and eating them raw.But before that, we went by Kedward’s tower. This group, they knew about Demon’s Breath already, you know? So I thought maybe they might want a word with the man who controls everything else in the drug trade. That’s where Durzen and his goons jumped us. That little lick<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, he’s such a coward, brought damn near a score of his thugs along. That human sorcerer, though, he fried about half of ‘em right off, and after I tore a piece off Durzen he turned tail and ran. The kulkan priest or shaman or whatever he is, he’d glued a few of the other lads to the ground, so they couldn’t run themselves. We let ‘em go free, sent ‘em after (orc bandit leader), heh, they were none too happy about Durzan leaving them there to get killed.As it turned out, old Kedward saw the whole thing from his tower. The human sorcerer fellow, he seemed to want a word with Kedward, so we went over. That’s when the Cimbri shot his mouth off about Matylda, Kedward’s familiar, being some sort of freak. I’d, uh, guess I’d neglected to mention to them about Kedward and Matylda making the beast with two backs. You can imagine how he reacted —  I thought the old man was gonna’ turn Malcom into a goat, or a corpse, or something right then and there. He did hit him with some sort of magic, not sure what it was, and I thought that idiot Cimbri was gonna’ get us all killed, but then he backed down real fast and apologized. Anyway, Kedward seemed real keen on finding out what was going on in the Porphyry house, which worked out well enough since that’s what we were there to do as well. He didn’t really offer any help, though, just promises of rewards if we could tell him anything. We went by the House last of all. Went inside those purple walls, got a good look at the guards and the set up – as far as the main lobby, anyway. That place is built like a fortress. The human and the Cimbri, they hired some of the girls for a few hours, I went outside to case the joint a little bit better and see if we could maybe climb the walls from outside. They met up with me afterwards, and we thought up a plan on how to have the run of the place…</blockquote>

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