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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chrisheff" data-source="post: 5599348" data-attributes="member: 41064">The party: Avron, human warbladeZathras, half-elf rogueSolara, human cleric of PelorLucias, elf ?Glanrak, dwarf paladin  The party met with Daville Montbect, the son of a minor cloth merchant’s house in Lankhmar, and old friend of Avron. The Montbects have been having problems with their shipments coming from the south. Two sea-faring vessels and some other shipments have disappeared over the last few months on their way from the Hold of the Sea Princes up the coast towards Lankhmar. The shipments all disappeared somewhere in the vicinity of the village of Saltmarsh. The Montbect family hired a government Excise Man, Hollend Pogg, to travel to Saltmarsh to investigate the matter. Pogg is met with some resistance at Saltmarsh when dealing with the village council. They aren’t exactly uncooperative, but are very slow with their aid and burying Pogg in red tape. The Montbect family asks Avron and his companions to travel to Saltmarsh to begin their own unofficial investigation. Pogg will be on hand to aid the party and the party is to do everything as legally as possible and obey the village council. The party travels to Saltmarsh, and apart from one incident involving giant ants, they arrive after a quiet journey. Pogg meets with the party and informs them that the only lead he has not investigated is interviewing a local named Tommy “Two Times” who went to investigate some strange lights seen at Edward Grove, an old abandoned (and rumoured to be haunted) estate north of the village on the cliffs. The estate was once owned by alchemist Marcus Du Cormorant who died over 50 years ago. The house is still in his name. Tommy came back raving mad and speaking of demons and devils and that Edward Grove was alive. Solara visited the temple of Pelor in Saltmarsh to visit Tommy, who was resting comfortably within. Tommy talked of “little demons” and a “huge madman with a gigantic cleaver” running amok in the house. He said nothing of the strange lights, but said he was able to escape after a couple of days lost inside the estate by climbing through a window. The party decided to investigate Edward Grove themselves since the strange lights were originally seen around the same time period as the disappearing Montbect ships. They first meet with councilman Hargrail. Hargrail insists that his mercenary, Jed Slakescale accompany the party to keep an eye out for the village’s interests. The party travels to the estate and enters, beginning their investigation. The manor appears deserted as the party only finds giant centipedes and spiders in residence on the first floor. On the second floor however, the party is attacked first by animated puppets, and then by a large cleaver-wielding maniac. At this point Jed turns against the party for unknown reasons and is slain. The maniac is captured and proves to simply be a very large man playing a role to scare away unwanted visitors. He is a pirate, and he confesses that pirates have been operating out of Edward Grove. To keep people away from the estate, the pirates also hired enchantress Bronwyn who has a talent for making animated puppets. The party leaves the pirate tied up, and investigates the basement of the estate. There they find where the pirates have been living. Investigating further (after a nasty encounter with some rot grubs) the party finds Bronwyn, her gnoll guards, and her prized puppet, Jester. After a long battle, the party rests to lick their wounds. End of session 1.</blockquote>

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