Session 27

When you awake, you're laying on a sandy beach with waves rolling up just short of your feet. Gulls cry overhead as you struggle to stand. Behind you, the sand quickly gives way to a thick temperate forest that stretches for several miles before swooping upward towards a tall mountain in the distance. In front of you the sea stretches out endlessly and as you peer, you can see no traces of either land or ships. Nearby, you can see your fellow teammates getting to their feet as well, though as you take stock of your situation, you arrive at a terrible discovery. Odin is missing.

Scrambling around, you quickly scan the water to see if he somehow materialized further down and might be presently drowning. Despite your best perception checks, however, you can detect no trace of him either in the water or anywhere near the trees. Racking your memories, you aren’t sure whether you saw him caught up in any of the white beams, and you come to the depressing conclusion that he was left behind in the collapsing cavern.

Unable to do anything for him at the moment, you take another look at the strange land in front of you. From your current vantage point, you can see the beach curving away from you for several miles in either direction. It appears that you've arrived on some sort of island. Off in the distance at the foot of the mountain, you can see plumes of smoke rising from some unseen source. Higher up on the mountain, you can see some sort of stone structure built into its face near the summit.

As you head inland, you quickly come across a narrow but well traveled trail which takes you on a twisting journey through the forest in the direction of the smoke in the distance. You don't see any traces of hostile creatures, and the journey is practically relaxing after your experiences on Chult. After some time, you emerge onto a wide grassy plateau. From this vantage point, you can see the opposite ocean, confirming your suspicious that you are indeed on an island. Beyond this plateau, the island's mountain rises sharply, and you can see a path leading upward.

The center of the plateau is occupied a considerable village. You can see several larger buildings composed of stone, but most of the houses are made of wood. Several extensive fields of produce are being tended nearby, separated from the village by the source of a creek, running into the forest. The residents of the village are out and about, going about their daily business. They're all bird people.

Trying to communicate with the bird people at first seems as hopeless as it has been in the past, but after a couple of attempts, you begin to feel as though the incomprehensible squawks are communicating a concept. Apparently, you're supposed to travel up the mountain and speak with someone called "the mayor."

Pushing the door open, you enter a large chamber, at least a hundred feet wide and filled with scattered boxes and tools. Passageways exit on the far side into what you guess are living quarters. The ceiling is much higher than you expected, forming a large dome. This dome is filled by a huge mechanical contrivance, centered around a long tube that you recognize as a gigantic telescope. The end of the telescope currently rests against a large iron plate that sits flush with the ceiling and it seems that the apparatus is kept indoors during the day.

As you marvel at this contraption, a clinking and clattering sound emerges from the machine. Gears and cogs begin to twist and turn, and a rope lowers from behind the telescope with a basket attached at the end. To your great relief, sitting in the basket is a human being, wearing a stained leather smock and a thick set of goggles. As he pulls them from his face, you recognize your old wizard friend, Thuroban.

"What do you want," he says with a scowl. The word "friend" may have been used a little loosely. "Oh, it's you," he says, "I hope this isn't your idea of a rescue. I've been here for months you know. Oh, but you didn't come here willingly, did you. Of course not. None of them do. Why bother seeking out missing innocents when there are so many monsters to kill and so little time. Whatever. You're here now, so I guess it's your turn to be thrown into the meat grinder these creatures are obsessed with."

"I know you're going to bombard me with questions in a moment, so let met tell you where you are and why you're here. This place is the commander of a special task force charged with the capture and arrest of certain high-profile criminals. Oh, and no, I don't expect you to follow any of this. I'll get to the part of the story where you kill things in a moment. Anyway, these creatures are sentient demi-planes. They say they're from the Far Plane, but they're awfully vague about where in particular their home world is, not that I can blame them. This world is filled with people like you. Several hundred years ago, four of their most notorious criminals escaped from a maximum security prison and fled here to the material plane. Three of them didn't survive the journey, and crash landed on the western side of Faerun. One landed in a mountain range above Amn, another in middle of the Calimshan desert, and the final one landed here in Chult. The taskforce is honestly not very interested in these three what with them being dead and all, but they have a keen interest in the fourth, and that's where you come in.

The fourth demi-plane is very much alive and active and has no intention of being recaptured by these guys. Despite their fearsome appearance, the taskforce doesn't have many tools at its disposal to try and apprehend the fourth and so far, their strategy has been to conscript adventurers to do their dirty work for them. First they try and convince you suckers that you'll be making the world a better place by arresting him. That's why I'm here. I guess I'm supposed to try and convince you to help out. When that fails, they just stick white spheres in adventurer's heads that explode if they don't carry out their missions.

You see, there's quite a bit more involved with capturing the demi-plane then just walking up to him and throwing on pair of shackles. He's been here for hundreds of years, and has built for himself a criminal empire that spans the planes. He calls himself the Crime King.

He is also the commander of a syndicate known as The Seven, made up of some of the most notorious gangsters alive today. He keeps himself hidden inside his fortress located underneath the City of Brass, and only the trusted members of The Seven are allowed inside. Each of them carries a key, and when all six keys are brought together, the door to the Crime King's fortress will open. I'm sure even your dim intellects can deduce where I'm going with this. You have been deputized by the commander of the taskforce to seek out these criminals and retrieve their keys so that you can arrest the Crime King.

So basically, looting and pillaging and killing, which should be right up your ally. Unfortunately for you, The Seven don't exactly advertise their presence, or even their proper identities. My other job is to figure out who they are and where they'll be, and to relay this information to agents such as yourselves. Each of The Seven is assigned a number. The higher the number, the less stature they have within the organization and the easier it is to fine them, so we'll be going after the lower tiers first, which should suit you four just fine since you haven't even reached epic levels yet.

Starting at the top at number one is the Crime King himself. Obviously he's the leader. Below him at number two is The Team. I don't know much about him other than that he's supposed to be fantastically strong. Number three is The Nobel, a thoroughly unpleasant fellow who runs a vast slaving ring. Number four is the Everyman. I've so far seen nothing to indicate that he even exists, though that may be the whole point. Number five is The Business Man. I have several leads on him, but you're not ready to go fight him yet. Your target is number six, The Aviator, aka Mr. Amadeus Sol. He's as close as the Crime King has to a public face. He operates a legitimate business known as the Continental Trading Company, but the bulk of his riches are earned from his involvement with The Seven. He launders the untold riches earned though crime and keeps the authorities from investigating too thoroughly in the Crime King's affairs.

He can regularly be found aboard one of his airships, though his personal guards are quite formidable. We've lost several assault teams already, so I'll be genuinely impressed if you can even acquire his single key. The seventh member is currently in flux. He used to be known as The Thief, but the githyanki behind that title died some years ago, though his key was never recovered. I'm currently following up on some leads that point to a possible new owner, but for now, our intelligence on The Aviator is the most solid. You don't need to kill him, though I'm sure you will anyway. Your primary focus is to recover his key. It should look something like this, with the number six inscribed on it.

Thuroban tosses down a sheet of paper with an illustration of a simple iron key. You feel as though you've seen something very similar to this sometime ago.

Reclining in his basket, Thuroban continues his explanation. "One of our recently deceased agents left behind a safe-house in the City of Brass where you can prepare for your task. I'll be able to safely contact you there, and you should be able to find a wondrous item that will allow you to plane shift back to the house whenever you find yourselves either lost or in a tight spot, conditions that I imagine you are well familiar with at this point. It's in a bad part of town, however, and nobody's checked in on it in awhile, so you might have to fend off a few squatters. Do you have any questions before I send you to one of the teleportation circles in the city's market district?