18 December 2018
We got to know each other and the crew aboard the Thunder Frog. Lena Mendenhall was visited by her lover and confidante, Aren, at which point she sold off all cargo and announced that the ship would sail directly for Westcrown. We could not wrangle any information from the crew as to why.
We reached the Rifardona and anchored there for several days - apparently waiting for a signal from Aren to proceed.
On the morning of the 13th, we were woken by a clamour of activity from the crew. The ship was finally moving; Mendenhall was bellowing orders with impatience. Using long oars for leverage, the crew was able to push the ship over the reef by cresting a wave, shortening the journey considerably.
On arrival in Westcrown, a pilot boarded the ship and informed Leda that it was being commandeered. His imp gouged out a piece of railing, ate it and flew away. The ship had been ‘catalogued’. Everyone aboard was welcomed to the city, but encouraged to conduct their business swiftly.
As we disembarked, a handful of armoured guards appeared, having dropped their disguises as dock workers and civilians. They announced that we were all being taken into custody by the Warden of Westcrown. They thanked Bellis ‘for her service’, then gagged her using Lipstitch and promptly beheaded her. A troop of city Detari arrived and separated Leda from the crew, and Aren and the three of us to one side. They asked in anyone else was on board; a contingent boarded the ship and returned with the remaining two crew members, visibly beaten.
As the cook, Odulf, was removed from the ship and detained with the rest of us, he began foaming at the mouth, fell down and died, as Leda screamed in despair. Then she was led off in one direction, Aren and the three of us in another, and the rest of the crew in a third.
We were escorted swiftly through the city to a large and imposing building, bearing the iconography of the Hellknights. Inside, we were placed in four separate interrogation rooms and questioned at length on our countries of origin, our reasons for visiting Cheliax, our relationship with Leda and Aren, our personal divinities/faiths, our relationships with Cheliaxian citizens or servitors, and our knowledge of the current Imperator of Cheliax/Warden of Westcrown.
He asked us to consider ‘whether we would consent’ to having our memories of our time in Westcrown wiped, should we be found innocent, then departed. Slaves came in, took our belongings and wrapped them in a peace-bonded sacks, then gave them back to us. The four of us were then shepherded into a single holding cell and left there.
Xiao’s interrogator came up to the bars, thanked her for the ‘information she provided on her fellow passengers’, then left. Before we could say anything, Aren hushed us and checked the cell for listening devices. He apologised for what was about to happen over the next few hours. Everything we said would be overheard here, he explained, so we said nothing of substance, playing an ad hoc board game using hay instead.
Food and water were brought. Aren took all four plates; we saw him checking the rim of each plate, then scratching (with a spoon) lines that divided each portion according to our relative sizes. He redistributed the food, then handed the plates back to us. He told us that, if we ate, we’d be ‘committed’; he began eating, and we did too.
Finally, having eaten, he rose. He turned the plate while moving about the cell, until he seemed to find a significant position. “This way,” he instructed, then walked right through the wall. We followed. There was an unpleasant sensation as we passed through stone and dirt, and then we found ourselves in a sewer.
Aren told us that he was a Bellflower, then led the way again, climbing ‘through’ the floor. Again, we followed. He led us through a third wall, and then we were in an old basement. He attempted unsuccessfully to open his peace-bonded sack (apparently breaking some of his possessions in the process), then sang a work song that seemed to orientate him, and led us further on.
Finally, after much scrambling through tunnels, we were set upon by the Warden’s guards; we managed to (messily) dispatch them, then continued following him through the sewers. He asked us to help him find the entrance to a concealed tunnel; Aryam was able to find the markings at its entrance. Beyond it, he pulled on an oar that opened a hearth above us; we clambered up into a large kitchen.
A half-orc woman appeared, calling for Uzelazia. She and Aren exchanged information through rapid-fire coded phrases. She appeared concerned that we’d encountered members of the city guard on our way there. She said, “Overnight, no longer.”
Another woman - a lady’s maid, Goufurt - brought us down into a cavern beneath the manor, where we bathed in the hot springs to remove all the filth. She brought us nice, clean clothes, food and wine.
Eventually, Aren came and joined us in the pool. He attempted a quick dip and dry, but we pulled him back in and made him clean himself properly. While soaping his back, Aryam found an infernal curse mark, freshly made.
We began peppering him with questions about the Bellflowers, and what had happened to us since arriving in Westcrown. He explained that they were a freedom railroad; Leda was a Bellflower sympathiser, helping the cause. He had thought it was safe to enter the city, but apparently not. He had no idea whether Bellis snitched, or why the cook died on leaving the ship, or where Leda or the crew were now. He assumed that they were already dead.
Upstairs, we sat with Uzelazia, Garm and two young halflings, nauseatingly smitten with each other. We saw them writing and addressing invitations in perfect imitation of Uzelazia’s handwriting. Uzelazia spoke to Aren about his contact at the Academy of Approved Sciences; he gave her a name, and she said that person was already dead. She asked him where he’d been for the past few years, while he was away; he said he had been working for ‘the bondsman’.
They went upstairs, and the two halflings explained the plan: the household would throw a ‘Topsium Tervyium’, a spontaneous upside-down party where roles and manners were switched. We were to slip away in the resulting chaos. One of the halflings gifted us a modified handy haversack, and proceeded to cram it with a variety of foodstuffs for the journey. He also gave us a bag of holding, and allowed us to fill it with a variety of saleable drugs as trade goods.
The other halfling, meanwhile, told Aryam a horribly exaggerated tale about the destruction of the Temple of Kalistria in Westcrown, reducing him to tears.
Aren and Uzelazia reappeared. The lady of the house returned as well: Camilla, accompanied by another halfling woman with a huge axe. She told us we’d be leaving this evening, and Uzelazia confirmed that our destination had been ‘taken care of’. She checked we had suitable supplies, and then used her magical knowledge (and claws) to open our peace-bonded bags.
Throughout the evening, the house became increasingly chaotic as the topsium tervium reached its climax. Several households full nobles and staff were packed in, with everyone irate or drunk or horny or throwing food at each other.
At the apex of the chaos, Aren gathered us up and informed us that we’d be slipping back to the Thunder Frog under cover of night. He split a coin in four and had each of us place a quarter of it under our tongue.
One of the halflings led us through the streets, as surreptitiously as possible, until we reached the docks. He wished us luck and departed.
There were three soldiers guarding the dock where the Thunder Frog was moored. Hatching a plan, we took a few doses of one of the drugs in our bag of holding - one that rendered the imbiber unconscious - and dosed some of Fabrizu’s arrows. He shot two of the guards; Xiao put the third to sleep, and we bundled all three onto the ship and tied them up.
Aren, now severely weakened by using his powers, had to be carried onto the ship. He weakly instructed us to spit on the mast, and have everyone else on board do the same. Before passing out, he made Xiao captain of the ship, and she was compelled to take the tiller. She saw phantom duplicates of everyone on board appear and start working the riggings. She was able to take the ship out of port.
Passing back over the Rifardona, we found ourselves suddenly encased in a malevolent storm. While Xiao fought to keep on its bearing (led by some kind of magical compass that fell out of Aren’s pocket when he collapsed), Fabrizu saw fins in the water and identified a school of enormous sharks, physically striking and pushing the bottom of the hull.
Meanwhile, in the cabin below deck, Aren’s infernal curse mark worsened. As Aryam tried to help him, he heard a voice, telling him to step back. A tall main with heavily braided hair appeared, dressed in a blue suit, and told him that Aren’s time was almost up. He asked that Aryam stay with him until he breathed his last. Aren spoke to him in draconic, and then he stepped through a doorway in the air and disappeared.
Lapsing in and out of consciousness, foaming blood at the mouth, Aren said to Aryam: “Find quack jackals. Tell the bondsman, ‘Lulintiz’romidpaarhparmakhkuurha.’” Aryam identified this broadly as a place name of some kind.
The storm continued to worsen. Xiao struggled to keep the ship on bearing as more and more sharks kept ramming and pushing the ship. Fabrizu took his bow and tried to shoot as many as possible from the railing. He managed to wound several; their blood spilled out into the water, and the storm got worse.
Fabrizu, meanwhile, found a cone of incense in Aren’s pocket. He burned it; the rosy smoke that filled the room caused both of them to slip into a deep slumber.
Over the next hour, Xiao fought the ship, which became increasingly difficult to steer. It seemed ‘drowsy’, somehow. As we entered the eye of the storm, things calmed for a moment, and we smelled the distinct aroma of a wheat field just before harvest. As we entered the other side (and the compass went crazy), we saw some kind of atoll up ahead with a large cinder cone volcano, and about 20-30 old ships wrecked upon the shore. The sharks went into an absolute frenzy, bloodying the water, as the storm reached its violent apex.
Some recollection tugged at the edge of Xiao’s mind - something begging to be remembered - but she couldn’t quite grasp it. All but losing control of the ship at last, she managed to careen it over the reef and wedge it between two other wrecks, beaching it against the shore. The storm abated.