Bellwether bellows out, "Commander Zaufanie, take charge. Spell casters are to be relieved in 6 hour shifts. Head to Bral. I am retiring to my cabin and I am not to be disturbed."
The party enters down time. Zaufanie can answer questions, though the crew is somewhat aloof and strange, being enchanted animals.
After 24 hours of travel time, the party will arrive at Dragon Rock and dock. Bellwether will yell out, "Commander, take charge and give out the officer assignments. I'll be in my cabin. I am not to be disturbed."
Zaufanie will issue the following orders:
- One must find a cheap fighter for the ship.
- Gunners must get more ammo and weapons.
- Helmsmen needs to find a place that sells Rejuvenation Potions
- Deck Officer (Captain) needs to find new cartographic tools and star charts
- Boatswain needs to find repair supplies and conduct repairs.
The party should meet at the Laughing Beholder and to not stare at the barkeep. Zaufanie will stay with the ship and he gives each party member 100gp to accomplish their tasks. Leftover funds need to be returned.
The party can go about together or separately. Appropriate checks are needed to come away with more of the 100gp they are given.
There is a goblin named Rudewart with a booth on the docks with a giant sign in goblin that says, "Fighter for Sale" and in common "Fyter 4 Sal."
There are a number of guns and ammo shops along the in the main market, but one that Zaufanie recommends is Craig's Crate and Barrel. He knows the owner.
Helmsman will be directed toward the Golden Market. There is a booth there called Marvin's Magical Market. Marvin will pretend not to know what the potions are. Upon insistence and namedropping Bellwether and Zaufanie, he will relent and take them to a sewer hole under their booth where they offer to sell the potions.
The Seeker's Library has charts available for copying and cartography supplies for sale.
An auction block stands in the dock ward where ship Boatswains offer their ships for supplies since it’s a buyer's market. In a reverse auction, the Boatswain goes lower instead of higher.
After all the tasks are complete, the party arrives at the Laughing Beholder. 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. Bustling about tables is a large Beholder, serving drinks and giving a deep throated laugh as he serves drinks and tells jokes. He smiles and waves to Zaufanie. The giff leads the party to the bar to interact with the creature who Zaufanie introduces as Large Luigi.
Luigi will talk about how there was a merchant on Bral who was gaining a large following and buying out other merchants for pennies. It is inexplicable since just one year before, the merchant was a failure and went on a hairbrained expedition to an ilithid colony for treasure like so many other desperate souls. He returned with wealth and began charming investors. His name is Silas Dargel.
There are a number of other bar patrons.
A human with a purple tattoo of an octopus. He is a former member of Thrak Highboots crew, having escaped mind slavery.
A couple talking about the new gaming room on Selune.
An art critic talking about the amazing sculptors of Gareth Stoneturner on The Citadel. Other patrons talk about how the homeless population has been almost eliminated there after a new poverty program.
A pirate had taken out a Man of War with nothing more than a galleon.
Zaufanie will tell the party that he will go back to the ship to oversee the resupply and potentially get some contracts There are notices for cargo jobs that the party can take as well if they look about town. If the party asks Zaufanie why they are coming after Dergal, he will say he does not know, only that the captain gave a description of someone exhibiting specific magic powers. The ability to charm people is one and Zaufanie says it fits the description.
The party can take a number of cargo contracts and for each contract, roll on the random encounter chart. There will be some downtime for the party to better understand the situation and talk to the crew. The crew all seem odd. They are polymorphed animals with basic sentience. They all tell the same story in sundry ways: Bellwether rescued them from cannibals who intended to eat them after turning them into animals. They have no memory of this and believe the story Bellwether gave them.
The ship's operations is divided into three watches and Kark instructs Zaufanie to place the party on separate watches. Divided into pairs, one party member is placed with Zaufanie. Kark will change up who is together each day, a clue to his paranoid nature as a beholder.
The party will be able to investigate the ship, but Kark has set up countermeasures against discovery. Zaufanie can be found, while not on watch, in his bunk reading or practicing his fighting techniques.
Depending on the route taken and the contracts taken, travel back to Dragonrock will take a number of days. Upon approach to the asteroid, Captain Bellwether will come on deck and say, "Ah, the Dragonrock magnificent sight. Commander Zaufanie, do we have our target?" Zaufanie will say, "Aye sir, we do. A merchant. Brassons confirmed it for me. I will endeavor to be diplomatic." "Like hell you will, unless you are using gunpowder diplomacy. And don't let me catch you at that cesspool again." Commander Zaufanie will demure.
If the party asks Zaufanie about the exchange, he will try to brush it off and try to say tactfully that he and the captain do not see eye to eye about certain things. If pressed, he will say that he only uses violence when he needs to because, in his youth, the characteristic giff recklessness got a comrade killed. Insight will indicate that he is being honest.
Zaufanie will send the party out to find Silas Dergal while he goes to investigate something else. His only instructions is to find out whether Dergal has a magic artifact. There are a number of places he could be. He has a house in the noble district, on the corner of High and Noble street in a triangular plot. He has a shop near the grand market and an office in the docks.
Silas Dergal is a merchant that has been using the Charm Eye to advance in business. When the party first meets him, he will assume they are spelljammers looking for a contract. He will not try charming the party unless he thinks it is necessary. If the party takes him up on the offer of a contract, he will ask them to deal with another business owner in the city, an elf named Rhodian Windbreath. He will claim Rhodian is a cheat and produce some evidence of it. If the party does not, then he will ask them to help him in exchange for some serious coin.
A bill for services, written in common and signed by Rhodian, lists the price for ship repairs. A DC 10 investigation/history check will reveal the prices to be overpriced. (Forgery)
A price book that Dergal got ahold of from a friend in Rhodian's company that show that Rhodian charges far less for repairs from other ships. (Stolen by Dergal's inside man who is in on the plot)
Rhodian had to leave Toril to escape a murder charge (true, but out of context).
If the party ask about the artifact, Dergal will get cagey and say he has a lot of artifacts, but only brings them out to show people who demonstrate friendship. Doing this job for him would do that.
Dergal doesn't want anyone to get hurt, but wants the party to sabotage Rhodian's business somehow. He recommends setting fire that will destroy his tools and machinery. If the party report back to Zaufanie, he will recommend investigating more into the issue.
If the party tries to break into the repair yard, Rhodian will be there in a trance and ask them why they are breaking in. If they go in normally, he thinks they are customers and can be steered toward the conversation of the row with Dergal. If they go during business hours, Rhodian's assistant Yermak Ganderholt will greet them. If they ask him about the dispute, he will act confidential and confirm Dergal's story.
Rhodian does not know common. He speaks exclusively Elvish. If he is shown the bill, he recognizes the signature but says he did not write the order.
If confronted with the price book, he will admit that the prices are correct and that it is a copy of his price book.
He can be persuaded to show the copy of the bills he sent Dergal. They are written in Elvish and conform to the price book.
He will admit that he was charged for murder, but was allowed to accept exile on Bral in lieu of punishment because of the extenuating circumstances.
If the party confronts Dergal with their suspicion that Rhodian is not guilty, he will try to charm the party. If all of the party is charmed, Dergal will tell them to burn down Rhodian's workshop and meet Zaufanie on the way. He will ask them what they are doing and tell them that burning down Rhodian's workshop was a bad idea. The party probably will not all get charmed and see through Dergal. When pressed, he will get angry and demand they leave his shop, calling for the city guard.
If the party fight, they need to be Dergal and his bodyguard before the guards arrive, who will join Dergal's defense. If the party leave, Zaufanie will eventually find them and, upon being briefed on the situation, will suggest sneaking in at night. When sneaking in, the party will find Dergal with the Charm eye. In the light of the eye, he takes a more beholder-like appearance: buggy eyes and pointed teeth.
Silas Dergal has glyphs of warning set around the shop at night and will attack the party on sight. If the party subdue him and ask him about artifacts, he will tell his story of the eye. He was consumed by it and felt controlled by it. He will give up the eye. If the party kill him, he will have it on his body. Zaunfanie will then suggest disposing of the body by taking it to the ship and throwing it in the brig. He pulls out a bag of holding with a wide mouth and tells them to put the body in.
When back the ship, the party may have questions for Zaufanie. Bellwether will greet them and then go back to his cabin, not to be disturbed again. Zaunfanie can only tell the party that Bellwether contracted him to be the commander on the ship and that he will handle expenses and incidents like Silas, proffering the body bag. (Kark eats the dead bodies).
Whoever is the helmsman will get a note via one of the crew from Bellwether. He will ask them to come to the cabin. Bellwether will tell them to set course for Selune but to keep away from the moon's orbit and circle it. They are looking for a pirate named Highboots. After giving this info, Bellwether will transform into a bear and act embarrassed, not realizing he was going to turn this soon. He will explain he is a werebear and tries to stay from the crew to protect them if he goes berserk, something that has happened before. He will then tell the person to go and not tell anyone.
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