Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch confidently strode into the wharf district's 27th warehouse to find it nearly packed with Pathfinders of all stripes. Hellknights grudgingly rubbed shoulders with buccaneers, twitchy humans bent over their traveling alchemical laboratories, and a small menagerie of trained war beasts looked about hungrily as if more eager to start the mission than their humanoid companions.
"As you know, Pathfinders, more than a month ago a band of Riddleport pirates captured our shipment of Chronicle sheets, determined that they had little resale value, and announced an impossibly high ransom. This is a mistake they shall regret," she promised her motley army. The crowd responded appreciably by waving blades, cheering, and shouting grim vows. Motioning for everyone to be silent, Heidmarch continued, saying, "Fortunately, in the intervening time our long-time friend Guaril Karela has been asking questions around the city to determine exactly when we should strike our enemies. He assures me," she added as the slick Varisian flashed a crooked smile and twirled his moustache, "that his methods were clean enough to make a paladin weep in admiration." Guaril Karela smiled reassuringly for a moment, but his grin melted away in horrified mock innocence when nearly half of the assembled troubleshooters all spat in disgust and disbelief.
With a glance to ensure that there would be no trouble, the venture-captain continued. "I am glad to have this intelligence, for it shall make the operation a safer one. As you well know, I would never send you into dangerous territory underequipped or uninformed—"
Illustration by Daryl Mandryk
Mouths fell open in incredulity. More of the seedier Pathfinders spat upon the floor to express their displeasure, a few tore back sleeves to point at terrifying scars acquired on recent missions, a tall human warrior pointed at the venture-captain and shouted "doppelganger" in open accusation, and a tearful gnome waved a sheet of parchment that bore the names of no less than a dozen deceased animal companions—each name differentiated only by a different ordinal epitaph. As the mutinous din grew louder, Guaril stood and quickly laid out the plan. "There are two ships—The Sanguine Sahuagin anchored in the harbor and the Bog Nixie at a dock to resupply. We know that the Chronicle sheets are evenly split between the two vessels, so we're sending in two teams."
As the Pathfinders' display of defiance died down and a few put away their banners bearing the slogan "Shadow Lodge for Life," Sheila Heidmarch picked up where Guaril had left off. "We intend to put an end to these villains' piracy, so it is your job to run them off or run them through as quickly as possible before they can destroy the cargo. Secure the ships, and from there return the Chronicle sheets here for distribution."
Their orders received, a handful of Iomedaeans and Hellknights shouted their vows to deliver justice, competing with the projected confidence of a halfling who challenged all of the offending pirates to single combat. As almost everyone prepared for the upcoming bloodshed, a Taldan lady reached the front of the crowd, flicked open a fan, began questioning much of the operation's premise, and proposed an alternate solution that might secure a nonviolent resolution. Her well-reasoned oratory began to calm her colleagues, and several of the Iomedaeans began to look somewhat sheepish as if questioning their rash announcements earlier. Nonviolence enjoyed a brief period of popularity before a powerfully built man raised his sword in a battlecry to Gorum and rallied the more bloodthirsty Pathfinders to join him in striking out at the Sanguine Sahuagin. Wayfinders held high, they marched out to board the personal ship of one of the Pathfinders.
Amused, Guaril leaned over to Sheila Heidmarch and inquired with some amusement, "Are they always this rowdy and uncontrollable?" Out of her sight he slipped a handful of faction missions to one of his loyal agents.
"Almost every time," the venture-captain sighed with exasperation. "Sometimes it's a wonder that they listen at all."
Only a handful of Pathfinders remained behind, including the orator, a few delicate spellcasters (both humanand elven), and a handful of others with more exotic lineages who were debating when it is right to kill, what the pirates' motivations might be, whether redemption was out of the question, and the merits of judging others at face value. The small entourage worked its way to the docks and hailed the Bog Nixie's crew, where the three diplomats and their philosophically inclined bodyguards presented a small purse of 50 gold pieces in exchange for all of Chronicles.
The assembled pirates drew cutlasses and shared in a hearty laugh at the paltry offer before one of the pious Pathfinders cradling a heavy scimitar shot back, "If you cannot agree to our terms, and do not wish to seek redemption for your vile acts, then you shall have but one last chance to surrender before we are forced to give you redemption of a different sort."
The pirates simply sneered evilly at the small group before one of them pointing out into the harbor. "Just remember that we only has to signal our pals out there, and all your bits of paper will go sinking straight t'the bottom!" The villains chuckled and shared a few iconic "yarrs" to remind everyone just who was pirate and who was prey.
Just at that moment, the Sanguine Sahuagin's sails burst into flames, and its crew quickly followed suit before diving into the water. The barely perceptible glimmer of wayfinders about the necks of those souls who then climbed aboard and made for the cargo hold were all that the Bog Nixie's crew needed to see to know that their plan had failed. One of the negotiators flicked open her fan to hide her look of disgust at her fellows' tactics before repeating her offer to the befuddled buccaneers.
"Fifty gold?"
Well, it seems we were able to reclaim what was rightfully ours, and the Pathfinders gave a fine thrashing to the pirates on one ship and an inspired proselytizing to another. The Chronicle sheets for the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path are either already up on the Additional Resources page and respective product pages.
I had a good time reading the posts that people made in character, and I was certainly impressed by some of the character profiles attached. Seeing some names that I haven't see around the Pathfinder Society forum was also good fun.
Thanks for participating!
John Compton
Developer
