TBD
The party travels back to the town of Fallcrest after defeating the Vuul. Once there they either arrange a meeting with or are called to meet with the Duke and his wife. There they discover that the green crystal orb they hold is a channel for communicating with the green dragon Om-Vertithrax. They also receive a mission from the Baron if they choose to accept it, a number of villagers near Gurig's Port have been press-ganged by pirates. The Baron would like to insure that this does not happen again and if possible recover the captives. The PCs can proceed either as representatives of the Baron to Gurig and request rectification diplomatically, and/or attempt to recover the captives by other means.
The party will then travel to Gurig's Port where they will discover that the Cobalt Killers, the pirate faction of Methalion the eldar warlock, have the captives. If they discuss this with Gurig he will indicate privately that the removal of Methalion as a rival power in his town would be acceptable and offer a 500gp reward as long as any actions taken cannot be traced back to him. Gurig will offer no other support, nor will he agree to reign in Methalion or his men since it would probably provoke open warfare (nor does Gurig particularly care about the fate of peasants, though he would as soon not have trouble with the Baron).
Further action depends on the choices the party makes. They can easily determine the location of Methalion's ship, which is docked on northwestern-most dock in the harbor. The kidnapped peasants are actually being held in the hold of the ship in irons. If they proceed to the ship or find out where the victims are they will have to overcome the dozen or so crew members currently aboard the ship. If they proceed against Methalion directly they will have to make plans to assault him in his lair, the northwest fortification.
Another plot hook which will develop is the arrival in Gurig's Port of a final shipment of residuum required by Methalion to make a soul knife to assassinate Gurig with. Akitaka the Oni henchman of Om-Vertithrax will arrive in Gurig's Port 2 days after the PCs. He has already heard about their mission from the Baron and will seek them out in his guise as Throckmorton the dwarf. He is equipped with a scroll which can be used to place a disguise on the party, which may be useful in getting them into Methalion's lair.
Should the party succeed in offing Methalion or otherwise thwarting his plans Akitaka will line up some members of the Red Tide to help him do away with the party. The PCs at this point know about the existence of Om-Vertithrax and the location of the Adamantine Horse of Xarn, which the dragon will attempt to insure is never recovered. Akitaka has a lair in town near the garbage dump (in Red Tide territory) which he will surely try to lure the party to. One weakness in Akitaka's plans is that the local street urchins can see through his illusion. The Sons of Albara are also watching the party and Throckmorton, though they will not do anything unless they are tipped off to what is going on. The urchins could easily tip them off by spreading the story of a horrible monster wandering around town. One of the Sons' agents, Ferrin Cooper, will in that case warn the PCs that Akitaka is a monster and to beware of him.
In no case will Akitaka risk his neck too much. He won't participate directly in an attack on Methalion, nor will he fight to the bitter end if he does end up ambushing the party.
Methalion's Lab Copyright © 2022 Tod G. Harter. All rights reserved. No unauthorized distribution without the express written permission of the copyright holder. This document was prepared using Hairball version 0.5.1 on 2022-02-26 License