Mouseferatu
Hero
Olaf the Stout said:
Don't mind at all.
I'd say it's roughly as combat-heavy as the first adventure of the trilogy, but I can't swear to that, as it's been a while since I've read that adventure. There is a substantial amount of investigation and putting together clues, especially since the villains deliberately try to make it seem like someone else is behind their activities. Scaling isn't too difficult--in most cases, it's just an issue of toughening up the opposition--but certain divination spells of 4th-level or higher can really shortcut some of the investigation, so I'm not sure I'd advise scaling upwards too much. (It's intended for a group of 6th-level characters. Shouldn't be too much of a challenge for a 5th-level party if they're a bit bigger than average.)
As far as an overview, what say I just copy-paste the module's sections on "Adventure Background" and "Adventure Synopsis" for ya? Be warned, if you're likely to ever be a player in Gangs, you don't want to read this. Spoilers ahoy.
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Adventure Background
They had been the best years of his life, full of wealth and power and, above all, respect. And then the Freeport Captains’ Council had stripped it all away from him, and given his office, his position, his life to a man who deserved not a whit of it.
For years after his dismissal from office and unofficial banishment from Freeport, “Boss” Dutch Tillinghast, former commissioner of the Sea Lord’s Guard, seethed with anger and resentment. Who were they?! Who were they to take from him what the great Lord Milton Drac had granted? Every last one of those ambitious bastards used his or her position to advance a personal agenda, but let Dutch do the same—let him skim just a few pieces worth of gold from the Guard’s funds, let him take a few tiny gifts from powerful friends, let him use the Guard to handle just a few personal grievances—and they were up in arms. It was a horrific injustice, that’s what it was.
He made every effort to regain some of the riches and prestige that had been stolen from him. For years, he scoured the mainland, moving from city to city in an attempt to obtain an office not unlike the one he once held in Freeport. In every one, he failed. Few cities were corrupt enough to let a man like Dutch Tillinghast anywhere near political office, and those that were provided insufficient rewards for his efforts. With every failed gambit, his resentment grew, and he became convinced that the Captains’ Council, and his replacement, Commissioner Xander Williams, were pulling political strings to keep him down, no matter where he went.
Tillinghast made few advances, but he did make contacts and connections across the scummy underside of mainland society. And finally, Tillinghast came to a decision, the only he could: Freeport was where he belonged, where the true opportunities were. He simply had to find a way to seize them once more. If he could not thrive on one side of the law, he would dominate the other. The former Guard commissioner returned to the city that had turned its back on him. He came on a rundown, broken ship, one rag-clad passenger among many. He returned without fanfare, without welcome. But he did not return alone. He brought with him a small force of mercenaries hired on the mainland, soldiers who would protect him and serve as his muscle during the early stages of his scheme. He brought with him, as well, a shriveled creature called Mentirre Aboir, and several of Aboir’s apprentices. A native of a small isle many miles south of the mainland, the gnome was a spellcaster of the foulest sort, a manipulator of minds and tormentor of souls. Aboir and his apprentices were the key to Tillnghast’s plans, and the gnome was thrilled to participate for little more than the promise of many minds to command. Finally, Tillinghast had allies waiting for him in the Fortress of Justice, guardsmen who had avoided the new commissioner’s purge of the corrupt, but had never forgotten the man who helped line their pockets.
With the insight they offered, the mercenaries as his enforcers, and the wizards as his hidden ace, Tillinghast insinuated himself into Freeport’s illegal narcotics trade. It was simplicity itself to supplant other, established suppliers, because Tillinghast was willing to work at a loss in order to undercut his competitors; profit was not, at this stage, his goal.
Working through a local arranger named Geoff “Sky-High” Paulow, Tillinghast introduced a new narcotic to the market: white smoke. (See Appendix B: White Smoke for more details of the drug, the alchemical and arcane procedures required to create it, and its mechanical effects.) White smoke’s hallucinogenic properties, combined with its deadening effect on the will, made it the perfect tool to enhance Aboir’s own mind-controlling magics.
They began with the Buccaneers, the gang which controls the Docks themselves. Many gangmembers were all too eager to sample this new narcotic delight, while those who proved more reticent were forced to comply, compelled through magics, or simply “disappeared” by Tillinghast’s mercenaries. They worked their way up the ranks, using the white smoke to pave the way for more arcane methods of persuasion, until every one of the gang’s leaders, including Patch Carty himself, was under their command. And then they spread further still. Utilizing the same proven techniques, they moved their influence into other districts of Freeport, other gangs. Some of the smarter criminals grew suspicious, certainly, but it has been a simple matter to eliminate them and move on. By the present time, Tillinghast and Aboir control the Buccaneers, Finn’s Syndicate, and most of the smaller gangs. They have recently set their eyes on the final great prize, Bloody Jack’s Cutthroats, and are slowly working through the ranks. Tillinghast is on the verge of accomplishing what no one has managed since the days of Marquetta: the creation of a true, unified Freeport underworld.
The nascent organization has prospered greatly in recent months, and not merely because the gangs are now cooperating, rather than battling one another. Tillinghast still has allies in the Sea Lord’s Guard, and even higher political circles—possibly even as high as the Captains’ Council. Select guardsmen, once again in his pocket, provide him schedules and patrol routes, ensuring that the gangs always strike where the Guard has little if any presence.
Ever paranoid of betrayal, determined never again to lose his power, Tillinghast has deceived even the gang leaders themselves, in case they should ever escape Aboir’s domination. He always sends the wizard, or one of the gnome’s apprentices, to communicate directly with the criminals, rather than doing so himself. These spellcasters routinely disguise themselves through spells such as alter self, transforming into the semblance of the region’s serpent people. Thus, even should an investigation reveal a power behind the newly allied gangs, it should appear to be just another scheme of the serpent people yet loyal to the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign. So far as he is concerned, Tillinghast is untouchable, his plan unstoppable.
It is up to the PCs to prove him wrong.
Adventure Synopsis
Gangs of Freeport sets the player characters square in the middle of the rising crime wave. What seems initially to be a simple opportunity for profit swiftly transforms into a struggle to save Freeport from the consequences of Tillinghast’s efforts. Should the PCs fail, the city of adventure may well descend into a sewer of rampant crime the likes of which it has never before seen.
As the adventure begins, the PCs have been recruited for a simple task: escort a shipment of foreign silks and textiles from the docs to a merchant’s warehouse, clear across the Warehouse District. On the way, they come under a surprisingly well organized and orchestrated assault by gangmembers intent on stealing the shipment. Although the opponents are not impossibly tough, their tactics make them a threat to be reckoned with.
Having witnessed the battle, a criminal by the name of Cristophe Cirgall, one of Bloody Jack’s lieutenants, approaches the party. He explains to the PCs that he has discovered outside influence in the gang, and was nearly murdered for failing to partake of the new narcotic. Obviously, he cannot go to the Guard, so he offers to compensate the characters if they will assist. During their investigations, the PCs likely visit a Cutthroat hideout, the Broken Mug tavern, and a capsized ship currently serving a sinister purpose. By combining the clues they should obtain in those locations (assuming they survive the threats that wait them there), the PCs can begin pointing fingers, and evidence, at those responsible.
Of course, they’re not through there.
Commissioner Williams still cannot trust his own Guard, so it remains to the PCs to follow through. Only once they have confronted the so-called “serpent priests” in the Eastern Quarter, and captured Tillinghast himself before he escapes his hidden camp, will they truly have broken the back of the nascent guild, just as Marquetta did a century gone by. [/sblock]
