Rise:01 Selling Fire Insurance

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Starring: Georgio, Marco, Polo, Stavros, Uristo
Guest Starring: Aliver "Pillbug" Podiker, Titus Malatesta
Challenge: Local Malatesta Family; Goblin Raiding Party
Location: Rusty Dragon Tavern, Old Light, Pillbug's Pantry, Fatman's Feedbag Tavern, Malatesta Manor
Date Played: 16 June 2013

Arriving at Sandpoint and Learning the Lay of the Land

Uristo: The Malatesta family finds itself in troubling circumstances. The current Patriarch's decision to pursue slavery-against the traditions of the Family-has lead to a schism, leaving many of us who belong to families who aligned with the Malatestas long ago in a position most awkward.

It is my luck that I found myself in the service of members of the Family who are on the proper side of Honor. Lead more or less under the personality of Mr. Giorgio, we escaped Magnimar and set out to seek more distant Family members who might be friendly to us.

Our first stop on our journey was in the small town of Sandpoint. I had, of course, gathered information about the locale beforehand. It’s most unprofessional to be unprepared. We introduced ourselves to a Family client, the Pillbug, and then we visited a tavern to gather local news. It seemed that the locals believe the Malatestas are behind the burning of several competing lumber mills in town. We decide to finally meet the local Don himself to discuss matters.

Stavros: Though it has been years since the events in Highhelm, I fully expect an axe of vengeance to bury itself between my shoulders. The recent fracturing of the Malatesta family has only exacerbated those fears. However, I am glad that though an outcast, at least I am not alone this time in my allegiance.

We have chosen a course to Sandpoint. I occupy my time by sensing the powerful ley lines that run along the roads into the town. It is truly amazing how humans seem blithely unaware that they crave to be near ley lines.... Some of the more gifted conversationalists procure Malatesta contacts in the town, and we seem to have decided to approach them. It seems like a poor idea to walk into a troll's lair without a proper fire. Bah.

Marco: Well, here we are. This little lakeside town in the middle of nowhere. These heathens don't even have a temple declaring the glory of our great creator, Torag. And the Malatestas here call themselves dwarves. Bah. At least my brother agrees that they are heathens. There's this strange lighthouse outside of town that caught my eye when we came in. It's much too big for this little squirt of land, and much too old. Not to mention that it's also a broken down, crumbling ruin.

Once we entered the town proper, we noticed their temple was under construction. That's not quite the right word. The construction itself was finished. It just had the scaffolding up around it still. We stopped one of the workers and asked a bit about it. Turns out it is just about time for the festival to celebrate the temple's completion.

We went to the local contact for The Family, A putrid looking human by the name of Pillbug. He runs an apothecary in town, and we thought it might be good to get a hold on how things are done around here. It's mighty important that we know where the local higher ups stand on the recent decisions within The Family. According to Pillbug, the leader here goes by the name of Titus. And he's a bit of a pushover, going with whatever The Family does. This could be a bit of a bother.

Going to see the Local Malatesta Noble

Uristo: At the home of the Don, I, being but a servant, was not allowed to be in the meeting with him. Instead, I and Stavros were exiled to the servant’s quarters. The servants seemed to be rather disesteemed regarding the Don, which was to be expected, considering his allegiance to the Patriarch. Additionally, it became obvious, both through servants’ gossip and the meeting proper, that the Don was involved in the lumber incidents.

Stavros: Well, I knew it. Walked right into a trap without a proper escape route. The Don is running his own milling racket, by "persuading" the competition to seek greener pastures. As in, if one doesn't find a greener pasture, the Malatesta family will just burn the mill down. Clever. It would be an excellent plan to join, if it didn't happen to be the case that the local Don is a loyalist. To recap, we have 1) walked into the den of the enemy, 2) had a parade, announcing we are here, and 3) asked them nicely not to chop off our heads, for old time's sake.

On the plus side, I spent some quality time with Uristo. It turns out that he is more resourceful than I originally thought (given the blunder with the Pillbug about speaking openly in dwarven). He was able to find out that those who work for the Don may not share his allegience -- a useful observation, without any doubt.

Marco: We went to the Malatesta mansion, to speak with Titus. As we thought, he's just going with whatever The Family says. And he doesn't take kindly to us being here. He gave us a few days to stay around, but after that he's said that our continued presence here would be met with pressure to get us to shove off. We're suppose to be gone by the end of the Swallowtail Festival, which is suppose to commemorate the temple. That's in two days time.

Swallowtail Festival

Uristo: The Don made it clear he wished us to leave town very soon, considering our Familial faction, with implications that the day after the Swallowtail festival should be our departure date. We concluded that if the Don could be overtly connected to the arsons that we might hold some leverage over him and gain the favor of the town, but evidence was hard to come by, and preparations in case this plan went astray took much of my time. The festival was quaint in its own way, though hardly fitting for my own tastes. Things became a good deal more unpleasant with the intrusion of some uncouth Goblins, with their heinous dissonant singing and murderous inclinations. We immediately set to making their presence more tolerable (via their death).

Stavros: Luck was on our side that Malatestan assassins did not find our throats in the past night. We were given enough courtesy by the Don to attend the Swallowtail Festival before leaving Sandpoint. The festival was largely boring, full of things that humans would find fun. No boulder smashing, axe tossing, or digging competitions here. What sort of fun is that?

However, the goblins changed all of that. Within moments, a boring festival became a tense battle for our lives. My Comrades were more capable than I thought they might be. Perhaps I did not choose the wrong side, for once. Perhaps.

Marco After we left the mansion, we got our affairs together. I went to the lighthouse with my brother in order to check it out. As I thought, it's old. And apparently I am not the only one interested in it. There was a journal there from a local export of sorts. He determined that this here lighthouse was suppose to defend some old nation, with giant fireballs and explosions.

The festival itself was fun, with great food and music and birds. The birds make sense, seeing the name of the festival. We managed to get to the evening without anyone sticking some iron between our ribs. Everything was going fine, but then of course we couldn't have an evening of fun too. Though, that's not saying slaughtering some goblins isn't fun. I just don't like getting a pumpkin smashed against my head by one of those little beasts. We're cleaning them up quickly enough.

Loot

None.

Wiki Rewards

• Fire Insurance You have convinced a few of the local establishments that your protection will keep them from harm. Gain 100gp. Uristo, Stavros, Marco