Coming to Dragon Rock

You've piled into the lifeboat. Pushing off from the ship, you hear the last words of Captain Zaufanie, "Go my lads! Go to safety! Find Brassons at Ocean's Wake!" With that, a cannonball rips through the battered vessel, exploding in the magazine. The shockwave propels the lifeboat forward with a sharp jerk. Debris flies past the boat in a cascade of wood and metal. Drifting for a few hours, a large asteroid looms ahead, the lifeboat meandering into its gravity. A thin, blue tendril reaches out from what looks like docks and latches onto the boat and drags it toward the docks. Slowly, the boat is brought to a small dock and a rope is quickly lashed to the prow. Walking up the deck is a female human wearing a bright red kaftan with read braiding on the shoulders and a round fur cap with a quail feather affixed by a blue metal badge of a crossed anchor and quill. She is accompanied by a male wearing a similar kaftan, but without the braiding and with a helmet on. "Good afternoon, I am Sergeant Fedorov and I will be conducting your customs interview. Now, can I get your names, races, and occupations one at a time please? (Players introduce themselves) "Very good. Now, which one of you is the captain?" If the party decide to lie, they need to pass a DC 13 Wisdom save. If they fail, the other soldier comes forward and says, "Sergeant, they are lying. Their captain died on their ship." "I am disappointed in you all. Lying to a customs officer when you should know we have helms of truth. We shall add the fine to your docking fee." If the party pass the Wisdom save, Sergeant Fedorov will ask for their captaincy papers. If they are not produced, then she will assume they are pirates and demand they submit to probing from the helm or be sent to the inquisitors for more strenuous questioning. If the party tells the truth, Sergeant Fedorov will say, "I see, so you abandoned ship without the captain. Well, that simplifies my paperwork but I am not sure you will get much work as a crew now. Spelljamming captains don't take on crew that abandon their captains. Bad luck that is. Now, if you will each pay the docking fee of 2 silver pieces (plus 2 silver if they lied), I can let you go." The party should be able to get directions to the Oceans Wake or via a DC 5 history check to recall where it is. About them swirls the hustle and bustle of a large city with people and goods going about in rickshaws, litters, and carts pulled by magical constructs. On every corner and marching through the streets are kaftan clad soldiers keeping watch, citizens diligently staying out of their way or avoiding their notice Travelling through the streets, the party may make perception checks to see things along the way. Across the street from the Temple of Torm. The inside is a clear, well managed bar with wooden chairs and benches around round and rectangular tables. The ceiling is about 15 feet above the washed and polished wood floor with large wooden beams crisscrossing in geometric patterns. Wave motifs can be seen carved into the wooden beams, walls, and even the floors. The large bar takes up the entirety of the far wall from the door and the floor behind seems raised from the rest of the floor. Behind the bar is a creature about 4 feet high with a long neck, four spindly legs, four arms ending in a three clawed hand each, and a fat, hairy body like a spider. His face resembles a lizard; it is pointed, broad, and has a mouth rimmed with long sharp teeth. Brassons is a neogi who found Torm and is more fanatical about Torm than he was about being a slaver. He will welcome the party in and ask them where they come from. If they mention Zaufanie, Brassons will say that they go way back and ask where he is, getting sad if they tell him Zaufanie died, admitting that is how he would have wanted to go. He will offer them a place to stay. He has beds upstairs for people in need, especially druggies he finds, but they all inexplicably do not want to stay there. The reason why is obvious. It is covered in inspirational posters about Torm with a magic mouth repeating sermons from a priest of Torm every day at dawn. Shortly after the party settles on whether they stay at the Ocean's Wake or not, a loud commotion erupts outside. Brassons asks the party to see what was happening. The party will hear a commotion: several people are yelling and a child in the street crying and clutching their mother. The crowd that has gathered is yelling at an odd looking half-elf with the only definable feature being a wicked, mocking smirk. If the party approaches, the odd half-elf looks at the party and declares that he will pay compensation, handing a check to the party, telling them to give it to the woman with the child. He will say, "I am Mr. Popansa. I do not think we have met. Trust me, I am not a bad sort of fellow on the inside. Take this note to Galder Tindaleron and he will take care of everything. I am entrusting you to deal with this matter and Mr. Tindaleron will ensure you are compensated." The crowd will be shocked and insist that the party assist the woman. If not, the guards are called, the half-elf disappears without a trace, and they encounter the Streltsy. The Streltsy lieutenant will note that Tindaleron lives in the Elven district and asks the party to use their half-elf to gain entry. The Streltsy will reimburse them if they take on the case. If the party agree to help the woman, Mr. Popansa will walk away and they can just miss him as he ducks down an alleyway. It is a dead end and he seems to have disappeared without a trace as he turned himself invisible and ducked through an open window. If the party exit the alleyway, a brown haired half-elf servant approaches them and introduces himself as Yanny. He is Galder Tindaleron's manservant and wishes to bring them to the elf's home. Galder Tindaleron is the account manager for an alchemist named Dr. Farenfell Elvarion. They meet Tindaleron at his home near the Celestian District but still in the Elven District. He tells them that he has been trying to trail Mr. Popansa for weeks as he has been committing minor crimes and scandals while hushing things up with the money of his friend and client, Dr. Elvarion. He wants the party to see if they can find some more clues about what is going on. He asked Elvarion about Popansa, he said that he should not worry as he can deal with Popansa when he needs to. Tindaleron believes that Popansa is an illegitimate child of Elvarion and is blackmailing him with the knowledge. Several years back, Elvarion went on an excursion to Toril and came back saying he "found something lovely." He asks the party to do some investigations of their own to see if they can understand what is happening. Dr. Garth Harryfoot, a halfling alchemist on Dragonrock, went with Elvarion on the excursion and might know something. He has not been able to go see Dr. Harryfoot because he lives in Goldenhills District and does not know him personally. He is afraid Harryfoot might tell Elvarion that he is snooping. Another lead Tindaleron wanted to investigate, was Elvarion's lawyer. He had overheard Elvarion talking to his lawyer at a dinner party and Elvarion said he wanted to change his will. Tindaleron does not know what got changed, but the will change coincided with the arrival of Popansa. The lawyer is a female elf in the elven district named Galenda Fairwind. (If Josh's character goes to the seekers for answers, he can get the following information: there is no documentation about what exactly happened on Elvarion's excursion as both he and Harryfoot burned their journals. What is known is that Harryfoot specializes in the reconstruction of the humanoid form via alchemical treatments with few magical means and Elvarion specializes in alchemical metamorphosis to improve the forms of permanently disfigured people.) Talking to the Lawyer The party can find Fairwind at her home, an imposing townhouse with gabled windows inlaid with gold paint and brass plague on the iron gate, which doubles as her office. A human servant will conduct them to the parlor and asks them to wait. Fairwind will come in and ask them what they want. If the party asks directly about Elvarion, she will say that is protected under attorney-client privilege. If they ask about Popansa or say that Tindaleron sent them, she is dismissive. She says that there is no stock in what Tindaleron says. Popansa is not Elvarion's child because Elvarion was castrated 300 years ago in an accident that disfigured him and spurs his current research. Tindaleron would not know this since he did not know Elvarion before the accident when he was a notorious rake and womanizer. Popansa is no more than 100 years old, barely an adult. Fairwind will say that she does not understand Elvarion's preoccupation with the youth. She is concerned but nothing so far seems out of the ordinary. She suspects that Elvarion wants to guide this youth away from dissipation, seeing his own reckless youth in the lad.

Subplots