Book 1: Chapter 1 - A Game Afoot in Stormreach

[flelm]

Having bowed to Tin Man upon being introduced, Gred remains quiet until Fletcher asks for input. "Aye, is there there anything ya can tell us about this Fenster? His affliations other thsn the Bilge Rats, his disposition, his capabilities? Other than that, no." Gred folds his arms and waits patiently for a reply.

[Vardaen]

Tin Man regards Gred, "The only thing I know about Fenster is where you might find him. In fact he is in a place well known to the Grey Company." He pause, something he learned helps add affect. "Former Councilman Dory's warehouse. A few months back the Grey Company raided this warehouse during and investigation into the Lantern Man killings. Councilman Dory it turned out was an undead monster and was working with Aboleths and Skum in an attempt to, well, let us say destroy Stormreach. The Grey Company defeated Dory as part of the solution to the problem. Since then his warehouse has been abandonded and tied up in various litigations with the tax collectors of Stormreach and the like. It has become a dilapidated building, dangerous to everyone who comes near." He then gives you direction to it down in the Harbor District in the ward known as The Styes.

OOC

Dory's Warehouse was a location fully explored by the other Eberron PCs in their last chapter. It is shown on the annotated map.

Map

LOCATION "I"

[mackaber]

Werz had remained in the background, always feeling a bit at odds around keepers of the law the Shifter merely nodded politely when introduced taking due not of all the information relayed.

[Eilandor]

"The way I see it, that warehouse is not abandoned at all..."

Once again thanking the Tin Man, "Come on, let's investigate this warehouse."

[mackaber]

Werz nods in accord to Fletcher and the four rookies of the Grey Company head out to find this warehouse.

[flelm]

"Aye, let's head out then. I think we're done here." Gred bows again to Tin Man and Kiosk, and follows his companions out, to the warehouse.

[Wayloss]

Shard says nothing at the iron watch, he finds Tin Man very odd. He nods his head at the suggestion that the group move out to the harbor district. As the group leaves he starts to speculate.
"If so powerful a force once lived in that warehouse, it is likely to have attracted more like it even after The Grey Company raided it. It may be likely that we will face more then a gang of thugs."

[Eilandor]

Looking to Shard, "Perhaps you are correct, in that case let us think the worst then be pleasantly surprised if it is just a bunch of thugs..."

[Wayloss]

"I would be pleasantly surprised to find our missing person sitting at a table having just finished a meal, ready to come with us to meet Colonel d'Orien."
Perhaps the Warforged has made another joke, perhaps they are stating the truth, Shard unfortunately is unable to give away his intent.

[Vardaen]

The group takes their leave of the Iron Watch and Tin Man and Kiosk. The small band already has several strong leads, Zogathry down in the Merry Tangle in the Styes, rumors of slavers and missing persons, and now Fenster the Blight at the old Councilman Dory's warehouse. Following up the lead from Tin Man the group crosses the city heading from Forgelight to the Habor District. First you pass into Respite which is in contrast to Forgelight. As you pass beneath the great arch (into the district), covered in flowering creepers, and enter Respite, you are surrounded by the sweet scent of blooming flowers. Here the ruins, plant life, and new buildings seem harmonious, one flowing into the next. Even the floating rubble—fragments of long-forgotten majesties—play their part, covered in blooming plants and small trees.

Respite

This district is home to the House Jorasco Dragonmarked Enclave where Major Azin also spends some of his time. House Jorasco is a house of halfling healers and one to be on good terms with. You circle around Coldwake Pond, a deep body of water near the gate to the ward. Fletcher comments, having passed this way on his way to the Iron Watch many times, "The pond—a cistern in centuries past—is much colder than other bodies of water in and around the city. Every day mist rises from the pond as warm, damp air meets its iciness. Speculation is rife about what causes the pond to be so cold."

Out of Respite and into Cross you go. Cross is all a bustle. The main streets lead to and from the city's other districts, making it a busy place to pass through. Above the streets hang clotheslines and rope bridges between ruins and the places where people have built precariously perched homes. Conversation flies everywhere, accent and idiom most typically from Cyre and Breland, while street hawkers, selling food, try to sound cosmopolitan, despite the parochial nature of their wares. You quickly get the feeling that Cross is the place you travel through to get other places, as people rarely slow down as they move. Those that are lingering about have the look of Brelish and Cyran refugees.

Cross

Then you reach the Harbor District. All harbors stink, but this—this is something special. All of Stormreach's great sewers, pipes, and drains lead, ultimately, to the harbor. The effluent doesn't seem to worry the wildlife; there's plenty of fish on sale for a hungry traveler. You're just not sure that you'd want to eat them. Away from the chaos and business of the harbor, the city rises uphill and in from the shore. From down here it looks as if toy soldiers have come to life and settled in a ruined city, and above it all stands a great statue, staring out to sea, a beam of light shining up from its outstretched hands.

Like every other part of Stormreach, the Harbor district is built on the bones of the past. The city ever was and ever will be a port, and time and tides have pushed the harbor farther and farther into the city, as neighborhoods have sunk or been washed away. The harbor is Stormreach's lifeblood, for the city relies on trade and its status as a free port, where rules are lax as long as you have enough coin. Without the harbor, Stormreach would be stranded and quickly die. Aside from taverns and a few shops, most of the district's businesses concentrate on loading and unloading vessels and storing cargo.

The directions from Tin Man take you to a ward of the Harbor District named The Styes. It is another small section of the harbor that officially is the Alchemist's Ward, that which folks call The Styes. Once ages ago a seat of scholastic and religious leaders, the Alchemist Ward comprises the southwest section of the Harbor District. This ward's once fine temples and universities have been replaced or converted into large factories and laboratories owned by prolific and often shady alchemists and artificers. A lack of regulation allows the alchemists to cut corners, producing mass qualities of potions and alchemical gear or focus on experimentation. Iron chimneys belch foul vapors and smoke into the air from the massive stoves used to boil and bake nefarious ingredients, and more solid wastes are simply tossed into the waters that surround this ward. This has caused a large section of this region to become so clogged with refuse and silt that the water has transformed into swaths of and channels of reeking mud, fondly called The Flotsam. Still, its not uncommon to see the truly desperate wallowing in the filth, scrounging for something of value that a careless alchemist might have tossed out wit the trash.

From here you should be able to locate the old warehouse.