102 Blue Suit for a Red Dress:
Xia, a mysterious warrior-mystic, and Myno, a gnomish accountant, join the disparate company. An alluring woman in a red dress comes to the Inn with a tale of woe: her recently deceased husband had run up a large number of gambling debts to a well known loan shark who is now leaning on her for the cash. She’s heard of a stash of gold hidden in the Depths but needs some muscle to retrieve it. With easy money glinting in their eyes, the PCs descend into the Depths but find the series of ante-bellum chambers to be more securely guarded than they expected. They kill a number of guards and drive off an important looking orc mage in a well fitted blue suit and long jacket. Too battered and bruised to press further into the complex in pursuit of the blue-suited orc, the PCs return to Lower Dura. The woman in the red dress does not return to inquire as to the expedition, arousing suspicions.
103 Dar San:
Two brown-coated men, one large with an eye-patch and scar, the other short and animated, arrive at the bar and speak to its owner, Cor Vicaune. He calls on his sister, Kayeth and the men leave. Garret introduces the PCs to Leecler who hires them to collect a package a merchant in Precarious named Gillebish. The PCs break into the merchant’s house in Dar San, the Reidran quarter of Precarious, beat Gillebish unconscious, steal the package and evade the Reidran militia. After receiving payment from the thin man, they are the victims of an attempted mugging, and, despite their inebriation, see off the thugs.
104 A Pain in the Dragon:
A suave man with a thin moustache, an expensive blue-green glamourweave suit and a fake limp hires the PCs to kill a dwarven business associate, Bikone Oko. The hit must occur at the Laughing Dragon while Beraia Aine, a half-elven bard, is on stage.
The PCs start a brawl, knock out Bikone and fight their way out, avoiding significant conflict with the crisp-suited heavies who arrive to restore order indiscriminately. Rather than kill him, the PC interrogate and extort Bikone and convince him to leave town. Their employer delivers payment to Cor at the Inn.
105 Mr Tinlea:
A small group of goblins arrive at the Pride of Breland to request the PCs presence in Malleon’s Gate, the goblin and humanoid dominated ward of Lower Dura. Their host is Tinlea “The Breaker” who employs the PCs to rough up Parrane Jotta. Parrane is quickly roughed up in his Highwater home, a search of which reveals no apparent motive for the job, except perhaps that he notarised the sale of a shop at a suspiciously low price to one Gaiza Lon. As the PCs leave Tinlea’s “office”, they pass the blue-suited orc entering. Later that night, a hopeful pair of goons attempt to break into the PCs room and murder them in their sleep. Interrogation reveals that the goons’ employer is paying by the ear and arranged to meet them nearby. The PCs lay an ambush and kill a single skilled warrior wearing a pendant carved in the shape of two snakes coiled around a sword. Within a few days, they hear rumours of a renowned warrior, Denell who was killed in the same alley.
106 Mr Tinlea Don’t Like Being Fucked:
While selling his wares in The Bazaar, X00 is given a package by a warforged with a strange hand shaped etched on his shoulder. A few seconds later, that warforged is thrown through a sturdy stone railing by a dark figure wielding a red energy weapon. The bag radiates abjuration magic. Tinlea’s goblin messengers return and request the PCs presence again. This time Mr Tinlea is not so friendly and demands to know why the PCs double crossed him. Apparently the ante-bellum complex they raided earlier was a Daask dreamlily operation and 200gp was stolen, unbeknownst to the PCs. Mr Tinlea doesn’t care for their pleas of innocence and orders his bugbear goons to kill them. The PCs escape into Malleon’s gate...
107 Local Gods:
Pursued by bands of hobgoblins, the PCs escape Malleon’s Gate through the sewers before Mr Tinlea’s net closes, only to find The Pride of Breland trashed by bugbears and goblins and Kayeth badly wounded. They strongly suspect Daask but Cor thinks it may have been some former business associates of his. Word soon gets around the neighbourhood that the PCs are the sort of brave heroes who are willing to stand up to Daask. Garret makes a social call to congratulate the group. Soon some local shopkeepers ask them to track down a local gang running an extortion racket. The PCs track down the gang and a bloody battle ensues when the PCs raid their headquarters, leaving most of the group seriously hurt. The gang turns out to be a quite wealthy cult of the Dragon Below.
108 Some Enchanted Evening:
Carl Nianate, a wealthy and well-connected businessman, wants Clovis Garbale, a young rake, found. Clovis frequented The Shattered Diamond in Callestan and left followed by two heavies trying to look inconspicuous. He is eventually found dead in a Callistan flop-house with a photo of the woman in the red dress clutched in has hand. His other hand was covered in a dried black paste of some sort. The faint remnants of illusion magic lingered in the room.
109 Tomb Raiders:
A late night knock on the door of the bar turns out to be Barak, a dwarven friend of Cor who dies of poison before he can be helped. His notebook promises to lead to a treasure-filled crypt in the Depths. The PCs trek through the sewers, scattering vermin and bargaining with a goblin tribe who inform them that another group of interlopers was in the area recently. The crypt is full of undead guardians, grave goods and a well appointed corpse. They find the artefact Barak sought, the Scepter of Kaldoon.
110 Psi-Crystal Ball, Part One:
A local politician, Sherace Nepio, recruits to PCs to act as bodyguard to his young, wet-behind-the-ears assistant, Lon. Sherace confides that this is Lon’s first big job for him and that his influencial family would be very disappointed if anything happened to him. The PCs escort Lon to a hollow tower warehouse where he makes an exchange with a band of smugglers. No sooner has the exchange taken place than a mysterious band of archers attack, attempting to kill smugglers and PCs alike.
111 Psi-Crystal Ball, Part Two:
The next night an extended blood-curdling scream cuts through the hot air like a knife, alerting the PCs to the scene of a disturbing crime. Sherace lies dead in a nearby alley; he has been dead for days. Beside him lies Lon, alive but unresponsive. Lon’s clothing still conceals the package so recently purchased from the smugglers. It contains a psicrystal holding a number of images:
* A meeting between three men in a well furnished room. Portraits hang on the walls, and they are all sitting comfortably in plush looking chairs. The first man is Sherace Nepio. The second is dark haired and quite handsome and wears a well cut suit and several expensive looking rings. The third is Clovis Garbale.
* A meeting between two men, this time in a roof which attempts to give the air of class and sophistication, but falls somewhere between gauche and tacky. Again, the first man is Sherace Nepio. The second man is unknown, but somehow familiar.
* The next picture shows Sherace Nepio with an attractive young blonde half-elven woman at night in a clean looking street somewhere in the middle or upper wards.
* In the last picture, Sherace Nepio is seen in the hollow tower warehouse exchanging a parcel for a handful of coins with the leader of the smugglers.
After identifying the unknown man in the first picture as Dorethe Rick, a politician from Middle Dura, the PCs attempt to arrange a meeting. Mr Rick, however, proves exceptionally difficult to find. They eventually make contact with a man who claims to be his assistant, but this man, Mr Peldoth, is unhelpful. Ever direct, the PCs break into Mr Peldoth’s house in the middle of the night, kidnap him in an expensive carpet and bundle him down a steep sewer pipe where they proceed to interrogate him until they are satisfied that he knows nothing.
The unknown man in the second photo turns out to be Mika Aratega, the owner of The Laughing Dragon bar and dreamlily den. He too is unhelpful, claiming never to have met Clovis. Remembering his heavies, the PCs are more circumspect. Yaphet pays a visit to Beraia Aine, but she doesn’t know anything about Mika’s activities either.
Meanwhile, Lon is still comatose but seems to be unwounded. The PCs take him to a House Jorasco healer who confirms that Lon is in perfect health and suggests it may be a disease of the mind. Accordingly, they approach the Kalashtar, a race renowned for psionic prowess, for a diagnosis. A Kalashtar wise woman examines Lon and pronounces that his mind is gone, sucked out by some extremely painful process. The blood-curdling scream which awakened the group belonged to Lon, not Sherace.
While the rest of the group investigates, Yaphet disguises herself as Clovis and attempts to infiltrate the young man’s family. He is whisked into hiding at a tavern in Middle Menthis.
112 Psi-Crystal Ball, Part Three:
The next day, Beljon d’Denneith, a friend of Kava’s from her northern home turns up at the bar, badly wounded. When she arrived at the House Denneith compound, she was told that Kava had not arrived. Her attempts to probe deeper were not welcomed and she barely escaped from Tolan and his Black Blades with her life.
In an unexpected twist, Dorethe sends word that he will meet the PCs in a warehouse in Precarious. Expecting an ambush, they are not surprised when they discover they are not alone in the dark warehouse, but they did not expect the blue-suited orc and gang of gnolls who appear. After a fierce battle on the gantries overlooking huge vats of deep, dark liquid, a nearly exhausted Xia chases down the fleeing leader and forces him to surrender. Once captured, the orc, Kuust, seems willing to secure his continued life by offering information, particularly about Daask and Mr Tinlea, both now and in the future:
* He doesn’t know anything about anyone called Clovis Garbale
* He has seen, but not met, the woman in the red dress before, in the company of a well dressed man from the upper levels.
* While he has never met Dorethe Rick, he does knows that Mr Tinlea wants him dead after he pulled out of a potentially lucrative deal of some sort.