We have a CUNNING plan!

From the Journal of Ahmok Silanaas

After much deliberation we decide to actually tell the other warlords in Lantern Wharf (Rasmussen's rivals that is) about the Mescal auction to be held that same evening. We figured that most of them didn't know about it and the prospect of Rasmussen losing face with his suppliers after losing the shipment would make him also lose his grip on power in this Passion forsaken, sorry excuse of a settlement of cutthroats.
We had to visit all warlords namely, T'Pan, a T'Skrang pirate who had one of the largest ships in Lantern Wharf, his inn was the 'Father and Robber'; Maildance, a dwarf whose inn was the 'Mercenaries Club'; K'Aninar, another T'Skrang residing in the 'Foul Flask' inn and finally Wothin, a troll from the 'Swaggering Giant' inn. It turned out that T'Pan was out at sea and therefore was out of the picture. Maildance was a rich trader and follower of Chorollis. Wothin was old and probably the weakest of them all while K'Aninar was an up and coming T'Skrang pirate who was making a name for himself here in Lantern Wharf.
The plan was a group combined effort pushed by Wolf's insistence to destroy the Mescal after contacting him through the magical stone Merrox had given us. It consisted in telling every warlord about the Mescal auction and how would Rasmussen lose face if he lost that shipment and also that our employer wanted the shipment destroyed as a revenge against Rasmussen crossing him one too many times. The warlords only had to gain from this situation as they would gain power as soon as Rasmussen is ridiculed in front of everyone. His suppliers would definitely contact one of them to continue shipping the drug. All they had to do for us was to indicate where the shipment was held, destroy the Mescal and create a diversion. At mission complete we are to contact Merrox or Wolf again to confirm success. Failure to do so would mean that they would assume us dead.
It was decided that only Elessar and me would go speak with the warlords. First off was Maildance. The dwarf proved to be a harder nut to crack than we thought. After hearing our demands he gave us an appointment an hour later to discuss his answer.
K'Aninar wouldn't trust us at all. He was very sceptic of our story. Although he had much to gain he also had much to lose. He was out of the picture as we couldn't give him more evidence regarding the shipment.
Wothin would have none of it. He claimed that he is content with what he has and wasn't seeking further power or wealth and also that he was old now, too old for this kind of thing. Leaving the Foul Flask Inn we saw a huge Theran ship moored at the south east quay. Disembarking from it was Vistrosh with his retinue of bodyguards. Vistrosh the hated jailer. In a manner of speaking though the five flames wouldn't exist without him. His presence here would have to be taken into account. Was he here just as an observer or for the Mescal? We still don't know if he is part of 'The Hand'.
After that brief lull we then went back to Maildance who invited us in a lavish room permeated with unimaginable riches. Expensive gold inlaid tapestries, golden decanters, pictures framed in mother of pearl, jewel encrusted weapons and armor, fine silver shields, silk curtains in gold thread and much more the eye could not take in.
Maildance had a counter offer. He told us to steal the shipment and hide it for him. For that he would give us two Orichalcum coins after the job is done and to be collected wherever we like. His offers were very tempting indeed.
After a surprisingly brief and private debate it was decided unanimously to accept the mission and destroy the Mescal rather than give it to Maildance. This would certainly not endear him to us but it was the right thing to do. We knew we would be hunted down eventually but that was a risk we were willing to take. After that the dwarf took us out on the walkways of Lantern Wharf where he indicated the location of the Mescal shipment; it was underwater behind the 'Wealthy Thief Inn'. It turned out that Maildance wasn't just a worshipper of Chorrolis but also a questor of the passion.
We parted and decided to investigate the shipment before acting. Meanwhile Cyrellion took some money off Maildance to hire an assassin to try and kill an ork merchant who was at the auction. This was to be our diversion.
Elessar geared up, stripped naked actually, to investigate the shipment. We used our newly acquired boat 'The Swamp Widow', to go down the river where we would part with Elessar. The swim to the underbelly of 'The Wealthy Thief' was quite uneventful except for the obscene amount of sewage and corpses littering the lagoon. holding back the gagging, Elessar made it to the hull of the aforementioned inn and dived under the layer of muck to find a huge Tundrabeast shell guarded by two chained, very hungry and aggressive lagoon serpents. Apparently the Mescal was held in the skin of the Tundrabeast. Elessar made it back to the boat and reported also guards holding crossbows on the ship's deck itself.
We had to act that same night so it Cyrellion and Elessar, who knew the location, prepped themselves for the important and perilous mission. We know the auction would take place some two hours after dusk. We bought two hunks of meat which we marinated in poison for a few hours to feed to the sea serpents; nightshade ought to do the trick. We then went back to the lagoon after sunset and Cyrellion and Elessar entered the mucky waters of Lantern Wharf once again. If we pulled this off, 'The Hand' would have been dealt a great blow. The idea was that after dispatching the serpents, Elessar would open a rift using his new talents acquired from his years with 'The Hand', to throw the Mescal in and lose it forever in the void.
Jarl!!!! cast the gills spell on the group so they could breathe underwater. The elven duo and the dwarf made it safely, with a few mishaps to the hull of the 'Wealthy Thief'. No sooner than they had arrived, the assassin Cyrellion had hired started his work. The commotion was audible enough and the two sprung in action.
Cyrellion swam towards the nearest serpent and coaxed him to eat the poisoned meat. It thrashed wildly for a while but went limp soon after. The other serpent needed a bigger push to eat the meat. Infact, at first, it ignored the meat completely and attacked Cyrellion who kept his distance. The furious beast then lost interest in its unreachable target and tore into the tainted meat. It died soon after. Elessar and Jarl!!!! acted at that moment diving for the defunct gargantuan beast. They used the kaetta to open its stitched belly up and found the mescal encased as a whole inside a sort of membranous sac. Cyrellion helped Jarl!!!! pull it out while Elessar opened the rift behind him and with a group effort they managed to tuck it in, close it and swim back to the hull of the 'Wealthy Thief'. Here they were almost discovered as Elessar and Jarl!!!! gulped a lot of mucky water and panicked but Cyrellion was there and helped them to safety before the guards could be alarmed. No sooner had they reached the hull when they saw a crane being lowered into the water. They swam across the lagoon to the attending boat where we were waiting for them. I steered the boat towards the strip mine on our map, our next destination.
The Mescal was destroyed, our mission accomplished; we also had made a new and powerful enemy, Maildance. The dwarf would use every resource he can muster to find us I'm sure of it, but we already have our share of enemies and I am confident that the passions are on our side in this grand scheme of things. My first concern though was to get my companions and myself out of this wretched swamp alive; our main mission has just begun.

(Damn) Windlings Ambush

Their first swooping strike caught us by surprise. When we regrouped we saw there were only three - we could take them. Then the bad news started: one of them had two doubles of himself flying around him, effectively increasing their numbers to five. One of the standers-by at the Deck turned out to be an ally of the windlings and started casting spells on our fighters. After Ahmok engaged this spellcaster (who we later found out was a female dwarf illusionist named Nayra), three heavily-armored dwarf warriors turned up at the other end of the Deck.

It seemed that the cards were all dealt, nothing else was forthcoming. Not that we could breathe any sigh of relief. Ahmok was momentarily paralysed by the caster and at first could only throw daggers at her, before being engaged by one of the fighter dwarves. Cyrellion was doing his best to take them out of the sky, but the windlings were deft and agile. Ivor and Jarl took on the other two dwarves, while I shifted my attention between the windling that was targeting me and Jarl's dwarf adversary - to assist as necessary.

The fight was drawing on, with all sides using talents to avoid blows or strike back unexpectedly. The dwarf fighters' heavy armor repelled all but the heaviest of blows, but Ivor managed to hurt them. At one point I blindsided one of the fighters and dealt him some serious armor-defeating damage. This got me noticed, and his one answering blow left me unconscious. When I was brought to by Cyrellion I saw that the fighters had been reduced to one, Ahmok had disposed of his dwarf opponent, the illusionist and Ahmok were nowhere to be seen, and the remaining windling was frantically fiddling with the lock of the bear's cage. Jarl took care of the windling with judicious use of Icy Ball and Chains, which wrapped around the winged pest and knocked him senseless to the ground. The fighter countered by sending our elementalist to the brink of death. Immobilising the fighter with my Pain spell allowed Ivor to finish him off without further trouble. Turning round I saw a windling felled with an arrow through his throat, still clutching a vial. Nice.

When the dust settled and Jarl was given a healing potion, we heard strange, louder than usual gurgling noises coming from the muck of the lake. We went to the side and glimpsed a familiar T'skrang hand thrashing for the surface. We lowered a rope and out came Ahmok, stinking and gagging. We retreated to our rooms (Ahmok to a bath house first) to lick our wounds and decide on our strategy for the auction, to be held at dusk that evening.

of poisened drinks and glory

by Jarl Skalder

We woke up at the Foul Flask Inn, everything was decidedly a lot quieter than yesterday night's rowdiness. Seems like the denizens of the Lantern Wharf sleep their way through the day. After shaking off the fog in our heads we head out of the stinking inn and into the stinking mist outside. At this point a simple plan was made - Ahmok and Cyrellion where to try and procure a boat, the rest of us try to find out about Rasmussen and the Mescal shipment. Once we get the boat we can go find the lost city or beat a hasty retreat after we do a raid on the Mescal.

As expected its very difficult to get any sort of straight deal here, everything is either taken by brute force, stolen or bet - even simple information. At the wharf the T'skrang and elven companion had a look around an area called 'The Deck' a designated challenge arena, where a bear fight was being organised. Two large ships named the Maildance and the Tarien are berthed here along with dozens of different sized sea craft -most of which are either not sturdy enough for the Swamps or too expensive.

In the meantime asking around for Rasmussen was harder than expected as the foul folk here wanted that information themselves. After much moving around the different Inns, I had a close shave with a rough dwarf by the nickname of 'Leasher' who wanted the crystal armor and shield off my skin. He proposed an odd bet - a poison drinking competition - I put in the armor and shield and he puts in his finely crafted axes. Clearly the guy had hell of a lot more toughness than my puny spellcasting ass, and I backed off - only to meet him pretty soon again. As fate would have it Ahmok and Cyrellion had found a sloop that fitted our requirements but who's captain was not around - asking where he might be it was none other than Leasher. Once the whole group was in the Inn we challenged Leasher again - Ahmok courageously took the bet - and a bet was struck. The stakes were heavy indeed; my crystal armor and shield and the Cockerel sword and anything on Ahmok's person against Leasher's ship and whatever was on his person including the axes.

With much pomp Leasher declared the time of the bet on The Deck and kept drinking. We learnt that the poison involved was four Hemlock and one Padendra drink - both lethal. For the first time Leasher's lack of fear and nonchalance was making us quite nervous - especially Ahmok - who had the most to loose. Wisely Ahmok bought a potion to annul the effects of one poisoned drink and fortitude against any others for a few hours. Obviously this was cheating but we had good reason to suspect that Leasher's magical tattoos would somehow grant him a lot of defence and possibly immunity to poisons. We also learnt he had played this quite a few times before against gullible first timers.

The Drinking hour arrived and the 2 contestants faced off - the deadly game began - The Deck was packed with hollering pirates and ruffians placing 3:1 bets against our lizard companion. After the first drink - to which he was immune - was gulped down; Ahmok immediately realised how tough this was going to be as the second drink sent him to the floor. Already crying victory Leasher was taken back when a visibly distraught Ahmok clawed his way up the chair and sat down again. The crowd was wild; the only impassive figure was Rasmussen himself - sitting on a makeshift 'throne'. The third drink was lifted and gulped, cracks where appearing in Leasher's mental strength and the drink had the better of him and floored him... but there was still fight in him and he came back up. Ahmok soon joined him on the ground; but probably calling upon the Divines for strength he came up again. Fourth drink, and this time Leasher was facing the prospect of a defeat as Ahmok drank the poison without batting an eye; belching out a toxic nauseating belch in Leasher's face. Drinking his fourth cup Leasher eats the floor again - and after quite some time regains his composure, one eye bloodshot. Fifth drink, and this time both contestants had obviously bitten more than they could chew and both hit the deck; Ahmok in paralyses and Leasher convulsing. With his last reserves of strength Ahmok crawls back up, hovering close to unconsciousness; Leasher fights strongly for quite some time but doesn't rise.... Ahmok had won!!! The crowd goes wild, we quickly pick up Leasher's possessions before others get it in the commotion and we head away from The Deck and back to the Foul Flask to put the visible very sick Ahmok into a bed.

After checking on out newly acquired skiff, divvied up the silvers Leasher had on him, and made sure Ahmok had recovered (which he certainly had judging from the sounds from his bunk, seems like some guy named Chani had bet on Ahmok to win and tripled a sizeable amount of money and paid Ahmok a personal massage from a sultry T'Skrang female) we where discussing our next move - Ivor took matters in his own hand and left off to talk to Rasmussen on his own. He managed to get an audience and learnt the auction time was the following night at the Wealthy Thief Inn (Rasmussen's own Inn).

We were making plans on how we should act - mostly we were thinking of burning the Wealthy Thief Inn down and hope the Mescal was being kept there, we even rented a room at the Wealthy Thief to have a good place to start the fire from. In the meantime a paper was slid under our door - by the time we opened no one was around. The paper just said 'The Deck at Dawn'. Thinking our cover was blown, or maybe a tipster was going to meet us with some clue, we all went to the meeting point - only to be ambushed by windlings led by the windling thief we had scorned a few days before. Damn good for nothing windlings.