Report: Two Torches in the Night

General Summary

Against my better judgment, we made our way to Malaster. Elron, Jene, Robin, and Patrick were going to dangle me in front of Captain Brinestone like a worm on a hook to try and get an audience with him. Stiks had had some vision from Virgil (who was Virgil and why did we care what he thought?) about the guy, and it was imperative that we speak with him. If it was so important, then Stiks ought to have come along, in my humble opinion.

I could grumble on forever, but regardless, we arrived in the city without too much hassle. I disguised myself so that no one else would see me and try to claim Brinestone’s meager bounty. I thought of the most unassuming person I could and ended up with an uncanny resemblance to my buddy Dodo Diggles. Elron even went so far as trying to treat me like his squire, but I wasn’t having any of that.

It was early afternoon, and we wouldn’t be meeting the pirates until midnight. To pass the time, we went to the black market to look for potion reagents. Patrick had gathered up most of what he needed to fix Timber the Quartermaster’s arm, but he was missing a gnarled claw. We found some hag peddling the thing for a fortune. Out of the generosity of my heart, I forked over the gold. I wasn’t feeling guilty or anything about my conduct with Timbers, but it just felt like something I ought to do.

Our next stop was the city guard. Patrick wanted to make sure the guard wouldn’t interfere when the pirates rowed up to meet us. It would sour negotiations if the guard captured them and the Hell Razor tore down the city to get them back. He was surprisingly persuasive, or the captain of the guard, Dame Greengate, just had a lot of faith in him. Either way, the way would be clear for us in the night. Though one other thing did catch my attention - mention of Hal Telamon. I still hadn’t gotten any resolution from when he’d literally stabbed me in the back. Maybe once this was all over, I’d get my chance.

We turned in at the inn, the Forked Tongue, and Patrick got down to making that potion. The rest of us sat down for a meal of stew. Jene’d heard that some other folks from Gravesend were staying there, so he went to visit them. He returned with a shifty guy named Malorious. Malorious did not like me, but maybe it was the fava bean scent. It was Dodo’s favorite, so I couldn’t make an authentic disguise without it.

Malorious revealed that he was looking for Brinestone as well. He’d been tracking the missing villagers from Blackwater, working directly for Lord Harys. He’d found their trail among Orcish slave ships and then followed it to the pirate’s ship. He suspected Brinestone had taken out the slaver and kept the captives for himself. Malorious was intent on getting to the bottom of it and requested that he join us.

The guy clearly didn’t like me, so I didn’t want to put my safety into his hands. But the others obviously didn’t care about that (I wouldn’t even be in this city if they did), so they agreed. Interloper in tow, we made our way to the Bite.

We didn’t have to wait long before Timbers appeared. I wasn’t exactly glad to see her; if anyone would want my hide, it would be her. At least Patrick took the initiative so that I wouldn’t have to say anything to her. I wasn’t scared per se, but I didn’t want to risk blowing my cover.

My cover as Dodo stayed intact, but the Vinny cover was blown pretty early on. Curse Jene - he was a good kid, but he just couldn’t keep names straight. If things went south here, I’d have to come up with a new alter ego.

Patrick offered Timbers the limb regeneration potion in exchange for clearing William Offer’s name…and a meeting with the captain. Timbers seemed wary of the deal at first, but she got a good look at Malorious and changed her mind. I guess he was her type (I didn’t see what the big deal was, but apparently everybody loved Malorious).

Patrick handed her the potion. With the goods exchanged, I figured my part in this plan was complete. The holy mission types had their ticket to Brinestone, so there was no need for me to stick around. Timbers might have said she accepted the deal, but I didn’t trust her not to change her mind once we were out on open water.

I started backpedaling out of there, but then Patrick and Elron fenced me in. They grabbed my arms and practically dragged me into the row boat with them. With the deal done, I couldn’t imagine any...beneficial reasons for me to continue tagging along. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with the current arrangement.

In the rowboat, I noticed a few things. First, most of the rowers were just animated cloaks. Second, the only rower who wasn’t one of these was a tiefling named Hotshot. Foreboding. The rest of the way to Hell Razor my mind raced with what could be in store. And of course with exit plans. I’d prepared a few ways to get myself out of a sticky situation - would any of them work with these new variables in the mix?

We arrived at the ship. It was a thing of beauty, huge and heavily enchanted. The deck was immaculate, and the crew was in a good mood. The only thing spoiling the scene was a set of gibbets hanging from the mast. Three of them were occupied.

“We’re going to need to take him,” Timbers stated. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but then I noticed that she wasn’t looking at me. She had her sights set on…Jene? Yes, they wanted the champion of Excoria.

Robin immediately objected; the kid was her nephew after all. But Jene acquiesced. He went with Timbers into the ship, leaving the rest of us to twiddle our thumbs nervously.

During this time, my racing thoughts slowed down, and I took a closer look at what was in front of me. A good portion of the crew were tieflings. And nobody seemed to care, including Robin, Elron, and Patrick. That caught my attention. Didn’t the Celestine church disapprove of such characters?

I said as much to my associates. Robin explained that Jene and Stiks had uncovered some truths these past few months - namely that the church was a sham (big surprise). There was a “true” way to worship Celestine, which the boys were spreading to the good people of Gravesend. It was news to me, but I’d always kept my nose out of church business. Part of their new doctrine included Tiefling tolerance.

Timbers returned, without Jene. She led us inside to the captain’s chamber. It was shrouded in smoke; only Brinestone’s softly glowing, red eyes were visible through it. He had an offer for us. 100,000 gold for each of us if we agreed to leave Jene with him.

The first thing that happened was that Patrick gave me a hard stare, as cold as the bottom of the ocean beneath us. It was almost like the bard didn’t trust me…of course I wasn’t going to sell Jene. Sure, I was known to like my gold, and I wasn’t that close to the guy, but I wasn’t that cruel.

Regardless, I kept my mouth shut. The others bargained for Jene’s life with the captain. Eventually, they came to some kind of understanding. The smoke cleared, and it turned out that Jene was there the whole time. This had been a test; Brinestone wanted to know how loyal we were to Jene’s cause.

We got a clear view of the captain now too. Wow. The man was not what I pictured - he was a devil prince. His true name was Azazel, and he had some answers the others had been looking for. They talked for a while, most of it going over my head. It was a bunch of stuff about gods and angels, wars and riders. That last part caught my attention at least.

And I guess I finally caught Brinestone’s attention too. He hadn’t forgotten about me. He saw through my flawless disguise and knew who I was. Must have been those magical glowing eyes. With the jig up, I cleaned off my face so everyone could see the real me again.

To settle my debt with Timbers, and by extension him, he asked for one of my fingers. With all this talk of gods, and seeing how he shined on Jene, I made a confession of my own to dissuade him.

When I was cursed, I made a delivery to Hal Telemon. When it was done, he had me killed - either to tie up loose ends or send me somewhere else. That somewhere else being a conference with Ro. The goddess of death gave me a mission, to return her Riders to her. She promised that if I shirked my duties, she would wipe Gravesend off the map. Since Brinestone had been so forthcoming about all the Celestine stuff, I asked if there was anything he could tell me about my quest for Ro.

He did seem intrigued that I had made contact with her; I was the first man he’d ever seen do that. And he assured me that it wasn’t Hal’s doing. Hal was actually an agent of Virgil(!!!!). But he didn’t have anything specific that could help me. There were some things he’d covered earlier that were good to know - the original Riders had been defeated and their mantles stolen. The new Riders were living it up in Elysium. But how would I get there, and how would I get these new guys to give up their power (cause I guess that’s a thing - supposedly, the Riders have to give up their power willingly; but then how had the power been taken from the old Riders in the first place?)?

Brinestone suggested I help with the Celestine mission. That being to reassemble the shards of Benedictus so that the Archangel could turn the tide in their conflict. I wasn’t totally clear on what all that was, but at least I had some direction now.

All that being said, it still wasn’t enough to deter the salty bastard from wanting to take my finger. Jene jumped up and offered his own. The sod felt bad for forcing me onto this expedition. I couldn’t blame him, but it still felt wrong to force that on the kid. The devil prince wouldn’t have accepted it anyway.

So. I laid my hand down on his desk and Brinestone chopped. Off. my. Left. pinky. Finger. The blade was hot, as if it had been resting under a flame, and the wound cauterized immediately. The captain stowed my finger away in his pocket and offered, “Perhaps one day this will be returned to you.”

Fuck that guy. And fuck this ship. With our business done, I requested that we leave immediately. The gang took some pity on me and we left post haste. On our way out, we ran into Malorious. He had a young girl with him.

One of the fucked up things about this fucked up place was that if you ever wanted to leave the crew, you had to find someone to take your place. Turned out the missing villagers had indeed been on a slaver the Hell Razor had sunk. Brinestone’s crew had taken in the slaves and conscripted them into the crew. So there was only one way for them to get back home. Malorious had offered himself up for this girl, Clara Gyles. The rest of them were stuck.

Timbers waved goodbye - with her new arm. It wasn’t a product of Patrick’s potion. This one was a red, spectral conjuration. Probably Brinestone’s work. Was that what he had in mind when he spoke of returning my finger? It was pretty boss, but I would have preferred the original.

Thinking on it only made it hurt more. I would need to keep busy to take my mind off it for a while. Good thing there was plenty to do.





Also, Lord Harys is a tiefling?...and everyone else knew about it?....and now they’re only just filling me in…?
-Scribed by Vinny Maze
Adventuring Party: Vinny Maze, Elron Cartwright, Robin Foster, Jene Dark, Patrick Smith
Date: 19JUL23

Report Date

19 Jul 2023