Letting go of Ghosts Part 3

## Episode 20 - The FeyWild West

Seline, Talia, and Rhenalle arrive in Kal-Kanar. Seline sidesteps questions about why they had to leave so quickly so they could book an airship. They decide that Seline and Rhenalle will go into the mansion while Talia buys the ticket. The dock itself is at the top of the spire. There's a winding staircase that reaches it along with a gilded platform that serves as an arcane elevator for VIPs. Most airships Talia has seen so far have used balloons to keep them in the air. One of the airships here has two giant chunks of gemstone with golden bands swirling around them at the fore and aft of the ship. The ships themselves are works of art adorned with the finest craftsmanship as wood is a scarce resource. Most of the people up on the dock are workers but the few who are not are finely dressed passengers. Talia (as Finn) listens to Merchants speak of places they intend to go including places outside the Confederacy and further south of District 3 like the jungles. Finn is stopped before reaching the gang plank of one of the airships headed to Breakpeak. Finn tries to purchase a ticket from the dock official who proclaims that these ships are hired to transport goods and those working under the 12. The dock official rudely requests a seal of the 12 intending to turn Finn away if Finn cannot produce one. Finn hands the dock official the sealed message that she got from Captain Saldar on her first visit with the diamond seal on it. After seeing the seal, the official blanches, apologizes, and ushers Finn through. Finn makes her way to the luxurious interior of the ship to find a room. One of the wait staff, Zeke shows Finn to a room, and Finn tips Zeke 10 gold before they leave. After being underway for 20 minutes Talia goes back into that mansion. Seline as Lorelei decides to explore the airship. She goes up on deck and sits on the railing with the wind in her hair much to the consternation to one of the staff. Over the next few days, Seline and Talia keep themselves busy in and out of the mansion. One night up on deck after discussing Brown, Talia spots a dire jackal running amongst the dunes. The jackal lets out a howl and Talia responds only to have her response echoed by others around the dunes. Seline, while speaking amongst the merchants, learns that a lot of business is taken to Breakpeak to not be under the influence of the 12th along with their taxes and tariffs. Up on deck, Talia and Seline can see the ocean for the first time and now are rapidly approaching a break in the mountain ranges. The airship itself is rapidly approaching Breakpeak which is built into the side of one of the mountains. As they approach the city, there are other kinds of airships present. Some are like the ones from District One that use a balloon. Others have billowing sails but no other discernible mechanism holding them aloft. There is one made of metal with large metal cylinders on the side that belch fire as it launches from the dock. As they disembark, Finn finds Zeke and asks them if they like this job. They say it beats manual labor but Finn has been the best customer he's dealt with in a long time. Finn thanks Zeke for their service and Finn gives Zeke 20,000 gold and suggests they retire. On the docks, the people moving around are more varied here than in Kal-Kanar. Along with the rich merchants and dock workers are passengers including some orcs and others. Few of these are more serpent-like people with smoother scales than dragonborn that seem to glisten as if they are oiled. They're also several people here with wings or more bird-like having also beaks and feathers. Breakpeak is a large trade port considering their traffic not just from Kal-Kanar but to the jungles to the south as well as other places across the ocean. As they're looking around they can see the older parts of the city look like dwarven architecture. The original dwarven city has been built onto and was replaced with more swooping structures. These structures have tall peaks that are intended to redirect rock slides and similar away from residential areas. Some of the buildings here look similar to that of Kal-Kanar however they use a lot more quarry stone and lumber. Here are they able to take more from the mountain than they were up north. Looking around there are no wanted posters or similar here and there aren't any buildings dedicated to the 12 either. In an effort to search for Brown, they start at a tavern not too far from the air dock. Bartender inside said they remember Brown but tossed him out a couple of months ago after he got too handsy. On the docks, Talia finds out some Brown Goods came through and were delivered to a warehouse close to the seaside docks. Trying their luck there, Talia and Seline immediately get the impression that not everything is legal happening on the docks. Spreading around some gold, they find out the Brown Goods were delivered a month ago. People that removed those crates were part of the 42nd. It's suggested that they try 42 Stallions, a bar in the older more dwarven part of the city. Fortunately in this seedy dive bar, no one seems to know anything. Back at the docks, people are now refusing to give information either lying or denying any knowledge of Brown. They even refuse gold in exchange for information. By evening they've made no further progress. Seline consults her cards pulling Knight of Cups (person who fancies himself as a romantic a classic gentleman often acting with compassion and altruism) and seven of cups (opportunity and choices). They make their way back to the first Tavern by the air docks. As Seline and Talia are talking to the barkeep, the Iron Horseman comes to them. The Iron Horsemen's eyes and ears about the city informed him about Talia and Seline. Unfortunately, they're searching for his brother. He introduces himself as Hawthorne Brown. While his eyes and ears prevented Seline and Talia from learning Brown's whereabouts they also did not inform Brown’s people were looking for him. Hawthorne asks for their help in killing Leroy. He explains that Leroy's been a thorn in his side since they were children. He originally came to The District 3 to get away from Leroy and his machinations. Now Leroy showed up on his doorstep and is spending Hawthorne's money and tarnishing Hawthorne's reputation with his bad business deals. At this, Seline's cards say nine of wands inverted (struggling to keep working toward a goal, being very frustrated with the setbacks and death change). Brown's father was Venassi but Hawthorne wasn't interested in it. After an accident necessitated his body modifications, the Venassi really weren’t interested in Hawthorne. Seline's third card is the three of cups (creative collaboration). Hawthorne wants our adventurers to kill Leroy and return to District 1. Leroy is hurting Hawthorne's business aspirations by selling cheap goods to high-end clients to whom Hawthorne has good business ties. Unfortunately, Hawthorne has promised his mother, he would not kill Leroy. He offers Leroy at noon in front of the Blue Beach Resort tomorrow with the express hope that they will kill Leroy and leave.

## Location

* Kal-Kanar
* Breakpeak

## Characters

### Players

* Seline Argent-Grey
* Talia Argent-Grey

### NPCs

* Rhenalle
* Zeke
* Iron Horsemen/Hawthorne Brown

## References

1. ↑ (Brown's mother is in her eighties mentioned Letting go of Ghosts Part 4)