Grim’s Gang begins their tour of the Deadfire, party setup and notes for the run as detailed in my earlier post on the Gang.
It was supposed to have been an easy run. “Free money” he had thought, “Getting paid to travel where we were already going”, He should have heeded Grim’s Guideline 23. “Free Money is usually Expensive”.
It all started with a simple business proposition. Grim had been outfitting his ship – the Defiant – for a voyage to the Deadfire – a notorious lawless region of islands and peninsulas where mercenary work was in high demand. He had just finally finished scraping together a worthy crew to supplement his normal band of mercs, when he was approached by a hooded man on the docks.
The man wouldn’t give a name, referring to himself only by title. “The Watcher of Caed Nua”. Grim didn’t care if he called himself Lord High Codpiece of the Flaming Fruit, as long as he offered suitable work. As was his custom, he let the mark do the talking. They often let slip more than intended when fishing for him to respond. And he could tell that this one *badly* wanted to go somewhere – immediately and quickly.
He was apparently an adventurer of some renown, and wanted to book passage for himself and his companion – a tall blonde man calling himself “Eder”.
They wished to travel Neketaka – the capital city of the Huana natives of the Deadfire. Since that was Grim’s intended destination anyway, it was a practically no-cost gig. Not that he would ever tell that to a mark. He’d have to make sure to caution the others to be suitably circumspect. He could count on most of them, but Blur sometimes had a bit of a loose tongue when she got going. And you never knew *what* Star might take it in her head to do.
The majority of the trip had been pretty uneventful. The Watcher and Eder kept mostly to themselves, although they spent a lot of time staring at the horizon and whispering. Ace tried to get Eder talking – to see if he could pump him for more information – but the man mostly just deferred questions to “the Boss”. As they approached the island of Maje – one of the outlying western islands of the region – there were signs of a storm brewing. And then, of course, the price came knocking.
He could see it in the distance long before it caught up. A large ship, flying black colors. It was making no attempt to be stealthy. The problem was it was too big, too many sails. Too fast to escape. The Defiant was a pretty bare-bones ship. He’d known they would need better. But he had counted on being able to complete a few jobs and upgrade a bit before needing to contend with Pirates.
It was rather odd though, he thought. His ship clearly wasn’t a merchant vessel, the pickings would be slim. And taking the chance of attacking with a storm imminent seemed… foolhardy. This was either a reckless and stupid pirate, there was more going on than it appeared…. Or both.
As the ship drew alongside, the apparent captain – a large blonde man – jeered across. He would be claiming their vessel, and wanted them to know how scary and merciless he was before sending his men over. Yep. Reckless and Stupid. He wasn’t even hanging around to oversee the capture! Simply sending boarders across to capture the ship, offering a bounty on the Defiant’s crew, and then sailing off to “more important matters”.
Well. They may have been outnumbered, but there wasn’t a man among the dregs that climbed aboard who had the slightest idea how much more they had bitten off than they could chew…
As the last of the pirates fell, the storm was getting stronger. And even worse, in the distraction of fighting them off the Defiant had been allowed to veer off course! They were headed straight for a rocky shore! Grim had just enough time to roar out a warning, when everything *crunched*! He saw Chitupec – one of his deckhands – being slammed overboard by loose cargo. He made a desparate lunge and grabbed the man before he was flung into the churning sea. He struggled to reach the wheel as the Defiant spun in wild waves. The “Watcher” was attempting to steer the sheep, but was clearly out of his element. And Grim did not quite make it there before the entire ship slammed sideways into a rocky outcropping. Grim had just enough time to see the Watcher washed away and think “there goes our pay” before he too was slammed into the water. And all went black.
When Grim awoke, he found himself in an odd location. The trimmings of a simple wooden table and chairs, the framing of walls, stone floor… floating in a starry void. But there was no mistaking the form appearing before him. Berath. The Pallid Knight. The Goddess of Death, Well. He’d always avoided truck with Gods and religious nonsense. But if he was going to be stuck dealing with one now, at least it was the “honest” one. She merely killed you. He wondered what sort of judgement she intended to pass.
But apparently it wasn’t to be quite so simple. She told him that the Watcher had been on a quest for the Gods. Sent to follow Eothas – the former God of Healing and Light – who had apparently gone rogue, taken possession of a giant statue of magical ore, and was now wading across the Deadfire leaving destruction in his wake. The Watcher had been intended to find out what exactly Eothas was *doing*. And why.
The last Grim had heard Eothas had been “dead”. Or as dead as a God could be.
He asked what any of this had to do with him, but he was pretty sure he already knew. And sure enough, she stared at him and nodded. The Watcher had died when the ship had crashed. And he was not recoverable because Eothas had absorbed his soul as he passed. The job still needed to be done. And look who had arrived…
Grim protested. The affairs of the Gods were far beyond his pay grade. And he had no truck with the metaphysics of souls. But Berath cut him off. “YOU HAVE A COMPANION WHO IS QUITE CAPABLE OF FILLING THAT CAPACITY”. He had only one companion that could possibly meet that description, and it was the last name he wanted to hear. “Not only did he get to be the errand boy of the gods”, he thought, “but *Star* was to be his interpreter.” He resisted the urge to slam the table.
“I don’t suppose I have a choice?”. *NO* And with that, he awoke on the beach. To find Star desperately attempting to bring him back.
He started turning things over in his head to find an angle for whether to tell Star about his meeting with Berath… but he realized it was pointless. He could tell by the look in her eye. She already knew. Of course she did. She always did when he least wanted it.
He quickly sat up and changed the subject, asking the state and whereabouts of the rest of his companions and the crew. Fortunately all of his companions had survived, but not all of the crew were so lucky. There was no sign of the Watcher, but his guard had been helping search for survivors.
Ace, Blur, and Sapphire had forged ahead – looking for help at the small port town on the other side of the island. The surviving crew had gathered a small campfire on the beach. When his head stopped pounding Grim took quick stock of the situation.
The Defiant was a mess, run aground on the shore. It wouldn’t be putting back to sea without significant repair.
His crew wasn’t in much better shape. His most competent deckhand – the clever, incorrigible Irrena had survived. But her leg had taken a nasty gash and she couldn’t yet walk properly.
Eld Engrim – a superstitious old drunk of a dockhand – had come through relatively unscathed. He was unsurprisingly throwing back mass quantities of rum he had dredged up somewhere to “settle his nerves”.
Vela, a young Orlan girl, was busy trying to make herself useful cooking something to eat. She was very young and very green, but she was willing to work and willing to listen.
Chitupec – an Ixamitl tribesman whom he had rescued during the storm – had also survived, and was currently standing watch. He told Grim that Beodul – his cantankerous dwarven boatswain – had gone exploring a nearby cave looking for supplies. And had not returned. Grim supposed he should go looking for the old cuss before he left to catch up with his companions in Port Maje.
Eder, the Watcher’s companion, asked to accompany him. He appeared rather stunned by events, and Grim suspected he was looking for something to do to keep his mind occupied. He wasn’t sure what role the man might play going forward, but since Eder was currently the only link they had to the Watcher’s expedition Grim felt that it might be best to keep him involved for now.
It turned out Beodul had gotten himself cornered by a couple of skeletons guarding a small supply cache, and had laid so many traps to keep them at bay he couldn’t safely get out of his own killzone.
Grim just stared at him for a while, and then set off the traps by throwing rocks at them. Notes in the supplies indicated some connection to Benweth – the pirate captain who had ordered the attack. Grim still had a grudge to settle with the man, but for now he would have to satisfy himself with stealing his supplies.
The cave looked like it would provide a reasonably defensible shelter for the remaining crew, as well as supplying basic rations and supplies. Grim ordered Chitupec to keep an eye on things, while he took Star and Eder and headed north to catch up with the rest of his companions in Port Maje. He shuddered to think how much trouble they could have gotten themselves into already.
Author’s Notes:
As mentioned in the companion write-up, this run will involve some departures from the “canon” plot as I largely intend to let Grim and company be themselves and see where that takes them. Some of the official companions – like Eder – may end up involved in some way. But that will mostly depend on how Grim and the others end up reacting to them as they appear.
I think I’m going to enjoy letting Star irritate Grim on this one. Its the perfect set up for it
Leave a Reply