Downtime 2:

General Summary

-regardless of how anyone spends their downtime, over the weeks after the incident the town gains a dripfeed of rumors as various Zhentarim agents are captured in town. It seems that Solmor's late father was a member of the Zhentarim's sinister Hand, the 5 leaders of the organization. Although Solmor himself was considered too emphatic to succeed his father, he was still assigned protection in Skerrin. With the death of the father, the organization maintained it as he was now considered a valuable asset for the organization.
In particular, more of Skerrin's deeds have come to light. Some are the ones you already know about who's ultimate goal was to create a puppet dictatorship over Saltmarsh using Solmor. Apparently, it almost came under fruition, where Fireborn would have been poisoned that very night, Ingo would be told to "arrange" an accident with Copperlock using his golem, and then releasing blackmail the next day to roil the town in anarchy that would lead to Primewater being arrested and Eda being killed in the ensuing violence. Somethings you didn't know have also revealed themselves. Skerrin also did a lot of the wet work to ensure Solmor was a successful businessman. Stories where he supposedly hid in the inside of a wall of a manor of a successful Fishmonger for 3 days straight just to perfectly drop a vial of poison on his head that perfectly mimicked blunt force trauma symptoms post death. All for the sin of starting a PR campaign against Solmor's labor practices.
If asked, people are more straight forward that people in the past that shit talked Solmor would end up in accidents or suddenly lose all of their possessions and connections. And seemingly this extremely masterful assassin would have gotten away with it if he didn't have a bigger ego to outweigh that skill.
The plague was initiated way too early in the plan, and seemingly because an unnamed Zhentarim agent, in a drunk night out of town, dared Skerrin to poison all four council members in one night.
-3 weeks into the Downtime, the party has gained some heat in town! It is reported that one "Reza Altscry" has been arrested for the crime of trespassing and attempted theft! Apparently, he had magically impersonated a good friend of one Magnus son of Walthe to gain entrance to his home and was caught rummaging through his personal bedroom while he was distracted making tea! Luckily for Magnus, the wretched Reza is a clumsy oaf! Tripping and breaking a replica Ollamh harp and alerting the noble.
There's a fury of rumors scattered about the situation, some saying that official story is somewhat false and that Reza was impersonating a lover! But what's more interesting is that Magnus is not just any noble, but the High Architect from the northern territories who is only here to oversee the construction of Erland's Temple to Goibniu! The connection is hotly debated in town! He has chosen to serve his sentence of 2 weeks in jail. Refusing to pay the 420gp fine or requesting an acquaintance paying it off.
-at around the 3 month mark of the downtime, some strange rumors start circulating in town. In the background, Saltrings have established trade routes with Othokent's tribe and some gossip has started that for some reason all of the hatchlings have been female.This is usually a good thing, from your previous research a tendency towards females means a prosperous period for Lizardfolk and a tendency towards peace. However, it's unusual for ALL of them to be so.
-3 months into downtime: News of brewing war has erupted through the Caribbean, apparently a Vinlandic raiding party sacked a settlement in Ireland! The Vinlandic Union claims it was an error of the raiding captain's navigation, but time will tell if the Celts decide to retaliate for this. Even if nothing happens, their relations will definitely be strained for some time

Report Date

20 Mar 2022

Related Historical Events

• 1245
  Downtime 2