Catch up with part one of the adventure if you’re so inclined…
Normally I write my own recap and David, the plucky thief that he is, STEALS it from me and posts it on his Livejournal (actually, it’s just a time-saver… not much point in having two long recaps). However, this time around I’ve been a little busy, so I’m stealing David’s write-up.
The Story So Far:
Mildly edited: “The following morning Nikos met with the Moll, who congratulated him and promoted him to ‘associate’ within the Whytelock Guild. The Moll then asked how he would start in pursuing the Gullwing Bandit, and Nikos decided the best method was to learn more about this mysterious assailant and potential marks the Bandit may go after. The Moll told him there were two shipments coming in soon: A shipment of iron and a shipment of wine, both coming in different directions.
Nikos parted ways with Kyma, who needed to lay low for a bit after being possibly spotted during the Greystreet heist. Nikos decided to seek out Mary at the trading market, hoping she might know more about the incoming shipments. On the way, he bought a new outfit–mostly all black clothes that he felt made him look even more roguish and debonair.
Mary ran into Nikos and he asked to speak with her in private. He tried to put on a mysterious cloak-and-dagger routine, but it didn’t seem to impress her much. In any case, she did tell him that recently Duke Garlin of Zadaraq (the capital city and where the iron shipment is coming from) decided to stage a trap for the Gullwing Bandit. The barge has been filled with heavily armed guards and everyone is being told the barge will sail late at night. The idea is the bandit will catch wind of this, try and attack, and find a nasty surprise instead. Both Mary and Nikos agree this is unlikely to fool the Bandit. Apparently the idea came from Captain Gunthar Silvermace, a dwarf in charge of the Duke’s soldiers.
Nikos returned to the Gullwing Tavern and upset the owner (Kyma’s ‘day-job’ boss) when he asked for a room for a few days, since Kyma managed to sweet talk him in getting time off by claiming she wouldn’t have the time to see her ‘cousin’ while he was in town. Nikos smoothed things over with some coin, and the tavern owner (Olaf) let slipped out that Kyma tends to entertain men in her bedroom after hours quite often. Scandalous!
Nikos checked out his room and then returned to the bar for some ’stew and a brew.’ He decided then he should seek out the ‘river minstrel’ he encountered before, Luci Janns, to aid him on his quest. The bartender claimed she traveled quite a bit on the river, and then Nikos noticed the gnomish lockmaster (Ebenezer Griswell) in the tavern. Likely, he would have seen Luci recently. Nikos put on an impromptu show, playing his lyre for the patrons. He got a few coppers for his performance (Olaf took a few for the ’standard fee for performances in the tavern’) and more importantly, acquired Ebenezer’s attention. The gnome claimed she tended to go to Turtlebay often.
Nikos remembered Turtlebay as the most extremely dull place on the planet, and wasn’t eager to return there. He went down to the docks, waited for the next boat to arrive, but luck was not with him as there was no sign of the river minstrel. He returned to the inn and heard a town crier talking about the recent Greystreet robbery and how someone sighted a female suspect (50 gp for any information on her, 500 gp if you actually capture her).
Nikos returned to the docks and decided to head to Hylock. He felt he would be safe, since apparently nobody had identified him during the heist. The captain of the barge he rode claimed that most of his business these days came from scoundrels who wouldn’t even tell him what they were shipping. Slightly curious about it, Nikos decided to try and catch a glimpse of the cargo, but decided better of it after seeing how well it was protected.
Upon arriving in Hylock, Nikos was stopped by the man he and Kyma had rented their escape canoe from. Nikos bluffed the man into leaving him alone, however. He went to the Black Oak Taproom and found people celebrating. The waitress told him this was pretty normal, except for the miners who were happy about a recent iron sale. Nikos then noticed a cute halfling girl in a green dress giving him a dark glare.
Nikos tried to talk with her, but she just sat down at his table and started flipping a pair of silver coins. Remembering the ‘procedure,’ Nikos realized she was with the guild and said the code phrase, “Two for two is a fair trade?” The halfling then abruptly left, confusing Nikos. Moments later, he realized that this is Hylock, not Whytelock. The Moll told him there were two separate guilds, and they were at odds. He had just blown his cover. Ah, well. Nikos decided he’d deal with the consequences if and when they came.
Nikos chatted up the barmaid some more and learned that the recent burglary at Greystreet is being credited to the Gullwing Bandit. He further learned more about the dwarf constable, Silvermace,and where he might be found. Following her directions, he headed to the barracks and asked to speak with the captain.
Nikos introduced himself as Grant Maddocks, the name he has been using in Hylock (in Whytelock, he’s been calling himself Horatio; the only people that know his real name at this point are Luci, Mary, the Moll, Kyma and Hap, I believe). He claimed he’s a bounty hunter who wants to help Silvermace capture the Gullwing Bandit, citing that having a non-soldier would be useful in gathering intelligence. The dwarf considered and asked him to interrogate a prisoner for him to prove he’s loyal. Evidently, Greystreet’s men were not cooperating in the investigation of the robbery and one of them actually got a tad violent with the soldiers, and was subsequently locked up. Silvermace wanted to know why.
Nikos pretended to be a Councilman and questioned the guard. He learned that the guard was the one who shot Kyma (but failed to get a good look at her), that he believed Kyma may have had an accomplice and that Greystreet wanted to conduct his own internal investigation as he lacked faith in Silvermace and his men.
Nikos reported this back to the dwarf, and so the dwarf agreed to share his information on the Gullwing Bandit. Silvermace noted that most of the robberies take place between Hylock and Whytelock, but mostly nearer to Hylock. He thinks the Bandit’s base is somewhere in the wild near the town, but he likely has spies in both towns. Also, there are reports the bandit often dresses in all black (somewhat similar to the outfit Nikos purchased, although this is a total coincidence – Ed). Silvermace put his best man, a Lt. Kon Bardiche on the case. Kon likes to hang out at the Witch’s Brew, so Nikos decided to head there and look for him for more information.
At this point, Nikos is now working for both the Moll AND Silvermace… on the same job. Anyway, Nikos doesn’t find Bardiche at the tavern, but the tavernkeeper suggested he try Qwik Thom’s barber shop. Thom persuaded Nikos into getting a light trim and when asked about Bardiche, suggested the bard forget about him. He said Bardiche is a foul man who’d just as soon kill you than look at you. Nikos noted how much this conflicts with Silvermace’s opinion of Kon, and Thom mentioned that Silvermace is just plain naive… or that perhaps Bardiche has something on him.
Nikos paid the man and headed back to the Black Oak to hear singing and music. A halfling with orange hair was playing the harp on stage. Nikos ran into the female halfling again, who questioned him on why he’s ’skulking around’ Hylock and asked if he works for the Moll. Nikos played dumb, but she didn’t buy it. She introduced herself as Miri Softouch and called Nikos out on his lies. Realizing he’d been found out, he claimed he means no trouble to Hylock or its guild and asked the halfling have a drink with him. She agreed (claiming her ‘boss’ wanted to speak with Nikos) and also suggested they have a card game as well.
Nikos accepted and flirted with her, but this invoked almost hostile reactions from her. While playing, Nikos spotted a card hidden in her sleeve. He casually called her on it, which infuriated her further. Miri flung the deck of cards everywhere and stormed off. The orange-haired halfling, having finished his performance, apologized for her behavior and said he was her boss and owner of the tavern. His name is Hap Bracewell (or Happi as his friends call him).
Speaking in private, Hap revealed he knows Nikos is going by two names and asks which to use. Nikos admitted his real name is Nikos and asked how a barkeeper would be so well-connected, to which Hap revealed his true profession: master of the Hylock thieves’ guild. They spoke in private and Hap asked Nikos for a favor: He wanted Nikos to go down to the Hylock warehouses at midnight and see if he finds anything of interest. If Nikos reported back to Hap, he’d earn 100 gp. He also told him that Miri, while sometimes a bother, is one of his top agents.
At midnight, Nikos did as he was asked. He discovered men loading wagons with weapons. Lots of weapons. Furthermore, he spotted and overheard people talking. One was the military man he saw when he was first leaving Greystreet’s mansion. There were also thugs dressed in black. Finally, there was Miri. They were discussing a coup, tricking the Hylock and Whytelock guilds into fighting each other, then finishing them off while weak. When that was done, they’d off Silvermace with the help of someone named Dag. The thugs in black said their master was almost ready, but needed more weapons and recruits.
Nikos wanted to hear more, but a guard approached. Unable to slip away, Nikos pretended to be a drunk and the guard just sent him away with a slight bruise. The bard reported what he saw and heard back to Hap, who was very unnerved by it all. He said Dag Saborus was, in fact, the mayor of Hylock! Hap asked Nikos to work for him, and he agreed. He then was offered a free room in the basement, and went to get some sleep.
At this point, Nikos is now working for the Moll, Hap, AND Silvermace! What a guy. He fully intends to cash in on all three, too.“
DM’s Comments:
I never really noticed it before, but this module is much more open and ’sandbox style’ than I first thought. There seems to be a multitude of ways a player could attack the investigation here, in addition to a number of little sidequests to get involved with. For the most part, I’m enjoying running it, although there were a couple of iffy moments earlier in the second part where David wasn’t sure what to do next, frustrating him somewhat. I don’t know if he realized he was off the rails at that point (he claimed his character was actually smarter than the player controlling him, which is not true), but eventually things were smoothed out and the adventure continued at a decent pace.
The build-up to the finish was pretty intense, especially the warehouse encounter. Being a bard, Nikos has no hide in shadows ability as a thief does, but the module describes the deep shadows around the warehouses awarding an automatic 20% chance of hiding in them anyway, so the plucky bard managed to avoid detection before sneaking up to the window to overhear the evil plotting going down. If he had been spotted before that, the adventure might look very different now (or worse, it might be over entirely). I’m pleased Nikos was able to hear the evil ones discussing some of their plans, actually. It’s definitely one of those “Shit just got real” moments.
Actually, the more I think about, the more I start to believe Thief’s Challenge is like a weird, medieval fantasy version of Grand Theft Auto, except we’re jacking barges and wagons instead of cars here. Seriously… every other NPC the main character meets is on the take from someone else, an almost equal number of NPC’s are prepared for some kind of treachery against their comrades (mostly for profit, but sometimes for power too), the officials in charge of keeping the peace and representing the people are either corrupt or blindly ignorant to the problems going on, and hell, my player even has ’safehouse’ areas scattered across the towns to duck into if the heat turns up too high! Tell me this doesn’t sound like a GTA game!
As for Nikos, I still wonder why David just didn’t take the charlatan kit for his character, because this guy seems to lie and bluff his way through life for fun. He’s known under three different names in two towns, he’s fibbed about his profession to more than one person, and he’s using three different employers at the moment for the same job. Nikos didn’t get any tail this time around, but it occured to me while he was hitting on Miri that Nikos is probably like a Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood type character – in that he has this omnisexual outlook that would lead him to bedding damn near anyone, regardless of race or gender, if it either worked to his advantage somehow or he just wanted a quick shag. Certainly a human/halfling union would be… interesting. Plenty of body hair between the two of them too.
Notable NPC’s:
Kyma the Axe – We didn’t see much of Kyma in this chapter. Not only was she injured during the escape from the Greystreet manor, but now the police in Hylock were looking for a woman matching her description, and she had to attend to her ‘day job’ duties as the cook in the Gullwing Inn, so she wisely decided to lay low for a bit.
The Moll – Again, we only saw the Moll at the beginning of this chapter.
Luci Janns, Chip Homsford, and Melbourne Greystreet – Did not appear in this section, although Luci was briefly sought out by Nikos, and the presence of Greystreet was felt during the scene where Nikos interrogated his guard.
Captain Gunthar Silvermace – He’s one of those high INT low WIS characters that I’ve talked about having trouble roleplaying before, although I think I’ve got a better handle on this character than others like him. He’s a typical lawful do-gooder type, but he’s been stretched to his limits by all of the barge raids recently, so he’s becoming a little more flexible when it comes to handling the investigation, adopting a ‘whatever it takes’ policy. Unfortunately, he’s still a bit clueless when it comes to all the corruption going on under his nose.
Qwik Thom – Nikos discovered Thom to be perhaps the best source of information he’s come across thus far. Thom and the old coots hanging around on the front porch of his shop are constantly gossiping, so it makes sense that practically every rumor within a fifty mile radius comes through their doors at some point or another (thanks to Thom loosening the lips of his customers). I don’t know that David realized it, but Thom has a very similar personality to Nikos – very charming but not many scruples.
Miri Softouch – The halfling girl was on to Nikos from the moment he stepped into the Black Oak, pegging him as a fellow thief right away. We learned that she’s got quite a temper and that despite Hap’s best efforts to steer her in a more orderly direction, she’s still very much a chaotic free spirit. Miri was also horrified at Nikos trying to hit on her, although we don’t know the exact reason for that yet. She was more than willing to offer her services as an assassin when the military man suggested offing Silvermace.
Hap Bracewell – This was another name from the module that I changed myself, in this case because it was annoyingly ‘halfling-twee’. At any rate, Hap is quick to make friends with Nikos, mostly because he feels he doesn’t have anyone else to trust after Miri’s apparent betrayal. He’s obviously not concerned about secrecy in the same way that the Moll in Whytelock is, and he appears to be a bit too nice, which is perhaps why he has underlings attempting to take advantage of him now.
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