2022/08/10

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms, preparations were made to deal with Waernuk.

The after receiving Waernuk's ultimatum, the party decided to begin seeking allies to prevent the rogue High Captain from reaching the port. The first stop they decided to visit was Captain's Hurley's jail cell to see if he had any opinions about the situation. Hurley was remarkably amicable to the party that put him in that cell, having no love for Waernuk and not wanting to see the city of his birth burned at Waernuk's hand. Hurley stated that Waernuk was old and very capable of violence, something that Waernuk's underlings exemplified. In addition to their proclivity for violence, or perhaps because of it, many of those underlings tended not to be the smartest jacks in the unit. Those above base grunt were at least smart enough to realize that anyone too smart didn't progress too far or last too long. Hurley suggested playing off of that to try and sway some of Waernuk's men and ships. Hurley also offered his help if they would let him out, though acknowledged that the party and their benefactors were unlikely to take him up on the offer. Eventually the party left, with Charlotte making arrangements for the Dragon's Tongue Herald, the main newspaper of Five Fingers to be delivered to Hurley.

From there the party went to visit the name that Atrixia was able to provide off of the short list of potential High Captains, one Captain Sebastyan D'Lamsyn. D'Lamsyn is the captain of the Twisted Blades, a prominent mercenary company based out of Five Fingers. Gazza had not worked with the Twisted Blades though knew they were at the top of the second tier of mercenary companies that specialized in direct combat either fighting smaller battles by themselves, or supplementing other forces in larger ones. Gazza didn't know much about D'Lamsyn, aside from that he had a reputation for being on the battlefield or in the command office. Whatever the leader of the company is like, the party went to the offices of the Twisted Blades to have a meeting with the potential High Captain. The party was let in to see D'Lamsyn after they said that they were there on behalf of Atrixia Tideswell. Upon being let into the captain's office they were greeted by D'Lamsyn who aside from the large map of the Iron Kingdoms on one of the walls was one of the few things in the room. After the party explained why they were there, and asked if D'Lamsyn would be able to provide aid to the cause of defending Five Fingers, they were told that even with the discount for the short distance as well as a beneficial cause, hiring a ship to engage hostile pirates wasn't cheap. The party was prepared for such a response though, and Xavier informed D'Lamsyn that they got his name off of the short list for potential High Captains and that his assistance would be beneficial for such a position. D'Lamsyn wanted a few more assurances from the party that they or Atrixia would be able to sort out though would provide them a ship to engage Waernuk's Wailing Farrow. The party was informed that the final fight would likely be via boarding action as the twisted blades were likely not as good of sailors as professional pirates and thus they'd likely have to turn the tide in hand to hand.

Finally the party decided to look into seeing if the Knucklebone Boys could be turned. With a little bit of work, they found that crew's captain Tassar Firetongue drinking with his crew at a local dive bar. The party commented that Waernuk must not care for them given his intentions of burning the port, and that if they were smart they would help Five Fingers preventing such an event from coming to pass. Additionally if the Knucklebone Boys were to deal with Waernuk and his old crew there would be more space for them on the high seas to plunder. The Knucklebone Boys were skeptical though eventually told the party that they were in though if the party wanted to succeed they needed to deal with some of Waernuk's other gangs and crews still in the city would send word if a large armed fleet left the port. Tassar mentioned the Salter Crew, Waernuk's second in command that was still hanging around Five Fingers. Tassar was no friend of the Salter Crew and thus if they were to have an unfortunate accident at the hands of the party it would be no skin off of his back. To that end he told the party that the Salter crew would be meeting at the Grinning Gator bar on the Wake Islands tomorrow night.

Before the party went to deal with the Salter Crew, they wanted to scout out the Grinning Gator. So they went back over to the Wake Islands and sent Gazza inside to poke about. Gazza found his way to the back and noticed that there was what looked to be a meeting place amongst the backstock. While looking around, he found a back door that led to the waterfront as well as a couple of hidden stashes of drugs. While sketchy that wasn't what the party was there for and with a plan in place to have Abe block the back door with something heavy the party waited the night and then burst into the bar to deal with the Salter Crew.