Slavers by Night

Set Up

* A halfling PC has family members in Elmshire who ask for help.

* The PCs escort a merchant caravan to Elmshire and there, find out about the kidnappings.

* The PCs are commissioned by a halfling ex-patriot of Elmshire to investigate the troubles in that land.

Plot Summary

Halflings have been disappearing from Elmshire. Night watches are kept along the Midbay shoreline, and several groups of guards have disappeared without any sign of a struggle. This utterly baffles the Mayor and others. The background to the disappearances is as follows. The halflings are being kidnapped by Rhennee, then are shipped to the lands of Iuz as slaves and for rituals. While on watch, their food is drugged with a powerful soporific poison introduced by other halflings—members of two families in Elmshire. One of these family members is evil, and the others are hopelessly addicted to the drug and obey their evil fellow out of fear and desperation. The PCs may be able to learn something of this, and they should certainly be able to discover who is organizing this terrible slave trade.

Introduction for PCs

Upon arrival in Elmshire, the history of the kidnappings (as noted above) is explained to the PCs. Some forty halflings have disappeared in the last two months. The PCs should make some queries about these disappearances; here is what they may discover by inquiring of various halflings within Elmshire (the Mayor and the elders will provide most of the general information):

Times: There is no pattern to the times of disappearances. The last disappearance was of five halflings, four days ago.

Selectivity: It does not appear that members of specific groups, families, etc., have been targeted for disappearance.

Who Arranges the Watches?: The Mayor!

Unusual Circumstances: No particular sign heralds the disappearances—storms, bad seas, etc. However, if the PCs ask a negatively oriented question, it is revealed that disappearances do not occur unless the weather and the sea are calm.

Survivors: On two occasions, members of a watch have not all been kidnapped. A few were apparently knocked unconscious and left behind.

The last point is important. If the PCs check this out by talking to a number of halflings, they will find that the survivors come primarily (but by no means exclusively) from one family, the Merrifoots. This is one of the collaborating families.

The PCs may also ask about general social life in Elmshire, whether there are special problems, etc. A successful Charisma check will be required to elicit the information that (1) a drug addiction problem exists, especially among the elderly, a result of the halfling blight, and (2) three suicides have occurred in the last month, which is highly unusual. The halflings are ashamed of both facts. Two of the suicides occurred among the Proudhair family and one among the Merrifoots.

The PCs may now target these two families for further interrogation. If they do, allow them to see that several family members are nervous and jittery or else dulled and weak. The PCs won't get any confessions, just evasions, and after they have talked with several of them, the Mayor will summon the PCs and ask what they are doing. If the PCs voice suspicions of these families, the Mayor will ask them to bide their time. He will arrange nighttime watches with the Merrifoots on one watch and other halflings and the PCs stationed not far away. If the PCs don't follow this line of inquiry, this happens anyway. The investigation should come down to a nighttime vigil.

The Rhennee and the Priest

On the map, five Merrifoots and five other halflings should be stationed at point X; the PCs should be behind some dune cover anywhere within 100-200 yards, simply observing (with an Elmshire halfling along). Just before midnight, it will be apparent that several of the other halflings appear asleep; they don't react when a Rhennee barge drifts into the bay and drops anchor at point Y. A row boat then heads for shore in response to a halfling's signal of six short lantern flashes. The PCs should sit tight and wait (the halfling with them suggests this). Five men disembark from the ship, and together with the five Merrifoots, drag the sleeping halflings to the boat.

The PCs can now attack, or they can wait until the boat leaves (in which case they will have to extract the plot from the halflings who remain behind, and should receive a reduced story goal XP award). If they attack, they face these opponents:

Rhennee thieves (4): AC 5 (leather armor, Dex MV 12; T2; hp 11, 10, 9, 6; THAC0 20; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6 (short swords Dmg 1d6; AL CE; SZ M; ML see below.

Priest of Iuz: AC 3 (chain mail + 1, Dex bonus Pr3; MV 12; hp 15; THAC0 19; (#AT 1; Dmg 1d6 + 2 (quarterstaff + I, Str bonus SA/SD spells; AL CE; SZ M; ML see below. Spells: bless, cause light wounds (x2), curse (reversed bless), aid, hold person (x2).

Halflings (4): AC 6; MV 9; HD 1; hp 7, 7, 6, 3, 2; THAC0 20; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4 (daggers AL LG; SZ S; ML see below

Permen Merrifoot (halfling thief): AC 5 (leather, Dex bonus MV 9; T3; hp 14; THAC0 19; #AT 2; Dmg 1d4 + 1 (dagger +1) and Id4 (left-hand dagger AL NE; SZS;ML13.

The five ordinary halflings have a wretched morale (5) and will flee if more than one of them, or more than three of the total NPCs here, are slain. The Priest of Iuz will surrender if reduced to 5 hp or below, and shout, "Diplomatic immunity! You cannot kill me, it's against the laws of Greyhawk!" The Rhennee will turn tail and try to row away if more than two of them are slain. In this combat, space the NPCs well apart to minimize the havoc a PC sleep spell could cause. Treasure: the priest of Iuz has a gold bracelet worth 50 gp and 85 gp in a pouch.

Terrain: Shoreline

Total Party Levels: 15 (average 2-3)

Unravelling the Mystery

The PCs shouldn't kill everyone out of hand. The story goal involves them finding out what's been happening. They should spare the Merrifoots, who are too terrified to talk for a couple of days. The Iuz Priest, Jontaer Greymist, is the key man.

Smirking, he produces a highly official-looking scroll stamped with Greyhawk's seal and claims that he is part of the diplomatic entourage of Ambassador Pyremiel of Greyhawk. He claims that halflings have been sabotaging legal Rhennee trade from Iuz to Greyhawk and that this attempted capture of halflings has been to obtain witnesses to the crimes. He waxes highly indignant, blusters that he wants the PCs' names, and tries to talk his way into being allowed to row back to the barge.

The PCs' best action is to take Jontaer to Greyhawk City and check the story out (this man will be wholly disowned by Pyremiel Alexane; the documents he carries are forgeries). Second best is to hand him over to the Mayor of Elmshire. Killing him or letting him go will not gain story goal XPs.

Perman might also confess to his role in organizing the drugging and kidnappings, but he's an evil little creature so he will take some breaking down. He says nothing about the priest's story. Any captured Rhennee also endorse the priest's story.

Variations

You may have to vary this encounter depending on PC actions—they may expose Perman through forced interrogation of other Merrifoots, then set a trap for the Rhennee and the priest. However, they must specifically ask about signalling to the Rhennee to force Perman to give this information, and Perman might lie. In this event, the PCs may need boats at the ready to attack the barge, in which case there should be 5 + 1d6 extra Rhennee thieves (one of at least 4th level) aboard.