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Note: This adventure was adapted from “Box of Flumph”, by Tim Hitchcock, as published in Dungeon Magazine #118, January, 2005, pages 16-31.

Magistrate Aurus in the town of Stillsquall has a problem. A criminal known as “The Grackle” has been spotted in town. Wanted for a previous incident involving smuggling, some kind of con, and an assault on a merchant, the magistrate wants nothing more than to see “The Grackle” (real name Jonas Westman) behind bars.

However, with the town guards occupied by other matters, and with The Grackle's reputation as a skilled fighter with a short temper, the magistrate is not too keen to expend resources tracking this criminal down. His solution: Post a healthy reward (50 gold pieces) and hope the citizens step up to the task.

Enter our “heroes”…

Freyrik Ulthkell, a recently fired bartender with a dark secret, sees the wanted flyer posted in the “Central Wharfs”. Knowing that this criminal might be more trouble than he can handle, he draws upon a network of contacts he's developed over his years tending bar. He draws in Yosi, a hot-tempered, red-headed elf, the planetouched siblings, Ash and Allie, and the twins, Heilli and Líkami.

As Freyrik shows the new team the “wanted” flyer, Ketamine, a Crag Gnome Witch happens by and decides she could help with the mission. Since it is feared that “The Grackle” will have a gang of thugs with him, Ketamine's offer of assistance is accepted.

The party starts out by asking around town to see whether anybody has seen their target. They luck out by finding an old dwarf beggar named Goffi. After a gift of ale, and a promise of 2 gold if his information leads to the reward, Goffi tells them that he saw a man matching The Grackle's description loading a crate onto a small rowboat two nights earlier and then rowing it out in the direction of The Angelina, a merchant ship anchored in the harbor.

Allie and Ash locate Robert, a friendly sailor who is willing to ferry the party out to The Angelina at sunset. It is their hope that they can feign to row past The Angelina, then at the last minute turn and board the ship before the crew is able to react.

Meanwhile, Freyrik spends the afternoon watching the ship from the docks and concludes that there is a crew of perhaps two dozen. If the crew turns out to be hostile, they will likely be in over their heads.

The party climbs into Robert's skiff and heads out into the harbor. The first thing they notice is that the currents are swifter than their boatsman expected. Then, when they begin the “assault”, Robert panics and mis-steers. Instead of their stealthy assault, the skiff ends up slamming unceremoniously into the side of The Angelina, which alerts two of the sailors on deck.

Surprisingly (or Luckily), the sailors react as if the approaching skiff is “normal”. They call out to their captain, who steps out from his quarters to greet the party.

He introduces himself as Captain Sarim Pepper, and asks what the party is doing here. When Heilli says they are here to apprehend a criminal, the captain seems slightly offended. He claims to know his crew well and that none of them are criminals, let alone this “Grackle” fellow. However, some of the crew – especially a shady-looking half-orc – react uncomfortably when The Grackle's name is mentioned.

After a short debate, the captain agrees to let the party aboard so they can inspect his crew. Upon hearing this, the half-orc jogs down into the ship's hold – just as the captain calls every man on deck.

Heilli, Ketamine, Yosi, and Freyrik head to the bow, where there is a hatch leading below deck. Allie, Ash, Líkami, meanwhile, head to the stairs that descend into the common room.

Trouble erupts almost immediately, when Heilli drops through the hatch into the Anchor Room and is attacked by somebody hiding in the shadows. Heilli immediately falls unconscious, as his assailant slips through a door, closing it behind him.

Yosi drops into the Anchor Room, and seeing his companion on the floor, flies into a rage and barges through the closed door. As he does this, Ketamine drops into the Anchor Room to magically tend to the wounds Heilli has suffered at the hands of their new-found foe.

On the other end of the ship, the three who took the stairs into the common room make their way to the door on the other side of the ship's hold. Líkami is first to arrive at the door, and he decides to wait outside – expecting the villain to emerge.

On deck, the captain yells out that the ship is adrift and the sailors begin to scramble to unfurl the sails.

Yosi, meanwhile, finds himself in the ship's hold, but he sees nobody else here! With nobody's head to bash, he vents his frustration on a portion of the cargo. When he does this, though, “The Grackle” emerges from the shadows to attack, missing the elven barbarian by inches.

Hearing the noise from within, Líkami opens the door to see their target attacking Yosi. He leaps in to the fight, delivering a serious blow with his fists. Ash follows him in, but is unable to provide an effective attack due to the cramped quarters.

After Yosi barely misses the Grackle with his greatclub, Líkami lands a glancing blow, reducing the villian to near unconsciousness and minimal tactical options. Yosi's club hangs over him like a shadow of doom….

After the second blow, The Grackle goes down on a knee and sees that his options have dwindled to one: surrender. He sheathes his dagger and allows the freshly healed Heilli to bind him up with a rope – who relieves him of his dagger and secretly cuts his Achilles tendon¹⁾ to keep him from escaping. Ketamine tends to the nearly-crippled Grackle after Intimidating him with threats of additional painful and debilitating wounds from the vengeful Heilli and barely constrained rage of Yosi.

As the ship foundered, it was clear that the Grackle (and likely half-orc accomplice) had done more that just cut the anchor line, as the sail lines were also cut, causing The Angelina to founder in the strong currents. As the rocks loomed large, Líkami took a rope and swam to a nearby boat, stabilizing The Angelina for at least long enough for the crew to regain control of the vessel.

Ketamine thoroughly searches the villain's equipment and discovers a hidden pouch in his belt that contain 5 platinum pieces. Freyrik then intimidates their captive into revealing which crate was the one he smuggled on board. They then take their prisoner, along with his contraband crate to the main deck.

Back at the Town Hall, Magistrate Aurus is pleased at the Grackle's capture and, after a brief hesitation, delivers the 50 gold piece reward to the party. In addition to the reward, the party confiscated the Grackle's armor, weapon, belt, and money – all of which the magistrate allows them to keep.

As they count out their gold and distribute it amongst each other, Baron Johann Wildhurst makes a surprise entrance! The magistrate introduces the party by saying, “These are the people I told you about.”

Because of their brilliant success in capturing the Grackle, the baron invites them all to his keep to discuss a follow-on task. While he remains tight-lipped about what this job might entail, the party agrees anyway. In two weeks time, they are to travel to the baron's manor in the village of Feather.

Quite unexpectedly, this group of misfits has found their way to becoming a successful adventuring party.

Now all they need is a name…

She paced slowly around the long table, absent-mindedly inspecting the place settings. The dinner would naturally be perfect. The meal was already being prepared in the secret kitchen and the slaves who knew of the main ingredient would be executed before dawn. The guards were charmed and even the best of them were expendable. They were, after all, only human.

No, what troubled her was the meeting's agenda. It had been nearly three years since the shadowcoup and their progress was lagging seriously behind schedule. The window of opportunity, she feared, was closing fast.

Perhaps the king's bones would be the difference, but even that mission was (at best) only a stopgap. Real power eluded them in the north and even a complete takeover of the southern baronies might not be enough to hold these lands. Perhaps the others would have better news. The church warden, especially, had offered great promise.

As it had done many times before, the doubts crept into her mind. Was this plan worth it? Was this climate too inhospitable for them? Were the natives too organized? She regretted not joining her sister in the orc-infested elf kingdom. Orcs were so much easier to control than humans. Still… The prize was so great, it must be worth the risk. And there was over two centuries of groundwork to back them up.

No… This plan would work. It had to. The Serpent Kingdom was already faltering in the south. They needed this land to survive. And they would have it – no matter the cost!

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