In the first instalment of Wicked! A Fontian Adventure, our villains - Afro Apollo, Callahan Calamari, Maximilian Facsimile, Potina and Sir Crayon received a summon from Don Cordon, a crime boss in Colonna's Underbelly - a seedy, waterfront district in the seafaring nation's capital that is almost a nation unto itself.
Having sought the Don's patronage and protection early in their criminal careers, these five villains have been made an offer too good to refuse - retrieve a marked crate being shipped into town, and all debts are paid, all favors written off. After making their way to Whitebread Fisheries at Fisher's Wharf and making each other's acquaintances (some more violently than others) our five villains are greeted by the Don himself, and furnished with details about a precious shipment coming on the tide that night, from the Holy Empire of Garamond.
The ship, the Maiden's Fancy, will be making port at the 11th hour, with a crate the Don is interested in, as well as shipments of gold bullion and Edessan Pixie Dust. Information from the infamous Don suggested that the ship would be guarded by a heavy security detail - a whole contingent of Mostly Holy Knights from the Holy Empire itself. However, the Don was certain the the crate would be transferred to a warehouse across town, and suggested that the group formulate their plans with this in mind. With some wrangling, Maximilian managed to convince the Don to provide token material assistance, earning him an audience with Gustaf Thunderthighs, a shady alchemist based in Finder's Alley.
While Afro, Callahan and Maximilian approached the apothecary, Sir Crayon and Potina wandered around town, stealing candy from babies, making the acquaintance of street children, and gathering information about the state of the wharf's security arrangements. True enough, they discovered that the Garamond detail had hired not one, but three wagons. Potina purchased some paint so she could mark the wagons, while Sir Crayon purchased rope and lubricant, just in case.
In the meantime, Afro, Callahan and Maximilian realized that Gustaf was a sketchy sort of dwarf, and after some flirting and overt overtures, Maximilian managed to convince Gustaf to part with some of the Don's potions, which Maximilian naturally pocketed. Callahan proceeded to prepare his spells for the evening, while Maximilian visited a tavern to talk the toot and have a meal. Afro, still smarting with his encounter with an angry garden gnome, proceeded to visit leeches and temples, hoping for some magical healing. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have the money, nor the social know-how to secure the right kind of helpful mojo to make him go-go.
Once all preparations were made, the villains convened at Fisher's Wharf. True enough, a group of Mostly Holy Knights were already in place, keeping an eye on things. There was a particularly rough looking woman standing at the head of a column, watching the sea, and Maximilian approached her, hoping to seduce some information out of her. Sadly, his ruse failed, and she didn't even give him the time of day. Noticing this, Sir Crayon quietly left the scene, and headed to the warehouses across town to intercept the shipment, should it arrive.
At the same time, Afro and Callahan decided to ambush a patrol of Holy Knights, so they could steal their clothes, impersonate the guards, and maybe make off with the crate that way. Hiding in the back door of Whitebread Fisheries, they tried to jump one of several pairs of Knights making their rounds. As Afro attempted to distract the guards and allay their suspicions, Callahan performed a Sleep spell. The Knights were, unfortunately, made of sterner stuff, and shrugged off the compulsion easily. Callahan then tried to Charm one of the Knights, with equally poor results. One of the Knights made a quick break for it then, eager to raise the alarm about these suspicious folk, while one remained to threaten them with his halberd. Afro rushed out of the warehouse, after the running guard, leaving Callahan alone to deal with the armed one. Callahan, of course, did the clever thing. He turned himself invisible, snuck away, and dropped the shutter of the warehouse - effectively keeping the guard out, and himself safe.
The commotion at the rear of the row of warehouses provided ample distraction for Maximilian to gauge the reaction of the female knight, as well as the other knights milling about the place - and boy, were they slow. It also provided ample distraction for Potina to creep to the wagons the knights had driven to the docks, and to hide herself in one of them. As Afro made his escape over the rooftops of the warehouses, the guards finally started taking notice. Several clambered up ladders nearby, while others took some pot shots at him with crossbows.
Several guards, however, stayed near the wharf, and it became apparent once the ship arrived that there were not one but three crates. They were placed in the three wagons, and the knights quickly started heading out. Maximilian attempted to stall them by addressing the female knight as she mounted one of the wagons, and even went as far as to spook the horses with his magic, but to no avail. The wagons started making their way down Fisher's Wharf and across town. Dismayed, Maximilian pulled out his non-existent credentials as a city official, and stopped the final wagon before it could leave. Convincing the knights manning the wagon to allow him to inspect the crate, Maximilian discovered that it was, in fact, empty. The wagon was a decoy.
Similarly, the female knight's wagon trundled up to the warehouse district, and Sir Crayon spied the entourage waiting outside the warehouse. He also overheard, after sidling surreptitiously up to the wagon, that the female knight's wagon was another decoy. The real wagon was already well on its way.
True enough, the wagon Potina had hidden herself in was making it's way up towards Griffon Hill, past Finder's Alley, along familiar rows of rich terrace houses, towards, she noticed, the Colonnan Maritime Museum. Once the wagon stopped, she waited for the knights to unload the crate, and then slipped away to hide in the bushes nearby after disabling the wheels of the wagon.
Maximilian soon caught up to this wagon, after getting wind of it from Gustaf Thunderthighs. He also left news that he would be heading there with the apothecary for the others. Arriving at the museum, our villains, hidden or otherwise, discovered that the knights were trying to manhandle the crate into the entry way of the museum, and that they were supervised by a robed halfling in the vestments of Typo. It was a trigger happy sort of cleric too, as Maximilian discovered. The halfling had no qualms about calling down Typo's fires on his dark companion, which had sneaked a tad too close and had been detected.
To avoid further detection, he pried open a window, and made his way into the museum, ending up in a store room. Potina quickly followed, and put her sneaky skills to good use by unlocking a locked door, and disguising herself as a cleaning lady so she could spy. The halfling detected her quickly, however, and challenged her. The halfling then threw a fiery spell in her direction, causing Potina to scurry away and hide in a nearby pot. The pot exploded from the heat, and the commotion brought Maximilian running forward. The others, who had massed outside, got themselves ready as well.
Potina created a cloud of fog from her armor, and sneaked around, while Maximilian moved forward to try to snatch the crate. At the same time, one of the guards blundered outside, right into Sir Crayon. Sir Crayon, of course, tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to explode in a gory fashion. And then the battle was joined. During the confusion, the villains managed to dispatch or otherwise knock out the knights who had brought in the crate, and they had the halfling on the defensive. The halfling tried to summon a giant centipede, but the creature was quickly slain. In annoyance, the halfling vanished, seemingly teleporting away. This gave our villains a breather, and a chance to study their find. There was a lifelike statue inside, that of a half-elven wizard in the midst of casting a magic spell.
Packing it back up, the group hitched the crate to horses from the wagon, and fled. And not a moment too soon. As they pelted down Griffon Hill, they passed the female knight and her group of guards, driving up to the museum in a wagon at a ridiculously fast pace.
Stopping temporarily at Gustaf's, Maximilian again convinced the dwarf to help them stow the statue, while they proceeded to check out the Don's interest in this most curious bit of treasure. The villains then went their separate ways to dispose of the horses they had stolen, and then to gather information - Maximilian and Callahan to the black markets, Potina to the taverns, and Sir Crayon to the local newspaper vendor. Afro, of course, was lying low.
It soon became apparent that the statue was a rumored artifact, and there was ample speculation on the black markets about its value. It turned out that Boss Cromag, a local racketeer, was one of the interested parties. Potina and Sir Crayon also discovered that the Mostly Holy Knights were already out in force, and that even the Colonnan Watch had been mobilized. The noose was tightening fast, and their botched heist was affecting the already tenuous climate in Underbelly.
Ever the opportunist, Potina waited for some of the Holy Knights to cause a disturbance at the taverns, and then ambushed one of them as they were running away. She then proceeded to pilfer his treasure, making off with a Mostly Legal Writ and a key stamped with the Garamond seal.
A cursory inspection at the docks also revealed to our villains that Don Cordon's Whitebread Fisheries had been sealed off, and that the Holy Knights and the Colonnan Watch were having a field day gutting the Don's fishes and confiscating the arms he was trying to smuggle out of town.
With little else to do, our villains returned to Gustaf, and retrieved the statue they had stashed there. Callahan then shrunk it with magic, and they transported the now shrunken, pint sized statue up to Lantern Hill, where the Don had his home.
Meeting up with the Don proved to be a bad idea. The Don revealed his reasons for the caper easily enough. The statue was in fact a wizard called Az the Sodomizer, who had offended the Don several years in the past. It was all about getting even. Potina, though, noticed something about the statue. She had made a small mark before they left the statue with Gustaf, and now she observed that the mark was gone. This wasn't the real deal. Knowing that things were going to go sour fast, she made an excuse about going to the potty, and ran away.
The others, too, were dismissed. They left the mansion, and not a moment too soon. As soon as they were out the gates, they heard a loud, goblin-ny yell claiming that he had been double crossed and lied to.
Escaping the Don, our villains soon realized that someone had swapped the statues. Putting two and two together, they rushed to Gustaf's apothecary, only to see that the place was closed. A magical examination by Maximilian and Callahan revealed a glyph on the door, which Potina was able to erase with a bit of cloth and elbow grease. The glyph, though, wasn't the only trap. No sooner did Maximilian open the door, that he was almost doused in alchemist's fire. That wasn't the final trap, either. Sir Crayon sent his faithful steed in next, and the steed ended up almost decapitated by a spring loaded steel wire. It was only the horse's thick hide and keen reflexes that saved it.
Having noticed the traps, everyone decided to wait outside, across the street, while Maximilian investigated. The place had been swept clean, all the magical items looted bare. The house was also unlit and unoccupied. Maximilian's investigations soon turned up something however. The dwarf Gustaf was dead, and so was Gustaf's familiar - a cute kitty with white fur and a pink bow tie. The rest were informed about this development, and they proceeded to investigate. Callahan's magical lore pointed out that somebody with magical powers had killed the dwarf using necromancy - likely an arrow of bone, while a search of the chimney in the laboratory revealed a scrap of fine cloth.
Further investigation also turned up the bodies of Gustaf's apprentices, all killed in a gory fashion by crushing and suckering, as well as the fact that the crate was not only open, but that it's contents were missing. A scrap of parchment, scribed with ink describing a Stone to Flesh spell, lay nearby. It was obvious that something or someone had freed Az the Sodomizer, and it was likely the culprit who had done all the killing as well.
The group then quickly left, since they heard the Holy Knights, especially the angry female knight, coming.
The following morning, our villains discovered that the word on the street was an unkind one. Not only had Don Cordon put a price on their heads, the smelly goblin had also sold them out to the Watch. Bad news indeed! With the whole group becoming fugitives, they had no choice but to seek the help of the black market vendors, who suggested that Boss Cromag might be able to help them.
Meeting Boss Cromag at the train yards, the party convinces and swears fealty to him. Boss Cromag then suggests that they find out what happened to the statue, and fast. The group split up to do some leg work, and this time, they discovered several new facts. Az the Sodomizer was supposedly one of the most powerful wizards in Fontia, with knowledge of over 9,000 spells. They also discovered that the halfling they had spied at the museum was shady, that the museum had been closed for two weeks before last night's heist, and that the curator and workers had all gone on holiday at the same time.
They also recalled that there was a door set in the wall of the apothecary's home that they had not yet investigated, and that the door was the source of a third, unexplored chimney in the three chimneyed building. Making their way there, and kicking down the door, they discovered that the interior of the opening was concealed by magical darkness.
Maximilian, bearing a continual torch he had removed from Gustaf's home, entered the area to investigate. He turned up nothing, and felt rather tickled by something that left him chilled and weak instead. Afro blasted the room with a burst of supercooled air the minute it was reported to him, shattering an object that was tied to the darkness.
As the darkness dispersed, the group noticed three shadowy figures materializing from the walls and ceilings and floors. These were shadows - undead creatures that drained Strength with a touch, and battle was quickly joined. Several exploding flour sacks and exploding shadows later, the group noticed that the powers Afro was flinging had actually blown open a chunk in the ground, revealing a staircase.
What lies beneath? What's up with the statue? And will Afro Apollo get his Afro back?
All this, and more, in next week's installment of Wicked!
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Experience, Loot and so Forth:
Everyone gains 1,500 xp for Session 1, and 1,000 xp for Session 2.
1. Official Writ - Allows the bearer to search any premises for criminals pertaining to the stolen crate and statue case.
2. Garamond Key - A small, bronze key made from a clay cast. The original key belonged to a Holy Knight Potina mugged. It looks like it has the Garamond crest on it.
3. Misc gold and tasty bits - Stolen by party members.
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