[Marmalading: Argile(Richard), Ronny(Deacon), Dee Dee(Steven) & Burrito(Darryl). ]
Daisy Crown was spending all her time at the Wizards' Guild, so the group decided that her score was too difficult. They finally relented and gave up on her, and chose to go for another one of their potential jobs; the Michael Stringfellow score.
The entire party went to the Scabport Town Council headquarters to contact Knives Lieutenant Chung and tell him the news. They confirmed that they would drop the Daisy Crown job, and take on the Stringfellow score. Chung was disappointed, but he understood.
The job was to remove prisoner Michael Stringfellow from Scabport prison leaving no trace, and to execute him; "vanish" him. Chung said he could arrange to get some of them into the prison as trainee guards to scout things out.
The Scabport Prison is a small prison on Prison island, in the middle of Scabport harbour. It was mainly for political prisoners, hostages and important people whom the Knives wanted out of the way.
Most "normal" criminals in Scabport were dealt with summarily by the roving patrols of Knives (and, to a lesser extent, by the TGP - Thieves' Guild Police). Either they would be severely beaten up in the streets, or just killed in situ.
This job was from higher up in the Knives' management, and they wanted secrecy, so even though the Knives ran the prison, the normal rank and file of the Knives would be kept in the dark. So the party would get no help from the lesser ranks, or the prison staff.
It would pay 11 COIN.
The next morning, at first light, Sorrow [Jeff] and El Cid [Shane] reported down at the docks. They were greeted by a Sergeant Skipper from the prison. He surveyed them with disdain. He approved of the build of El Cid, but scrawny half-elf Sorrow was not so good; and those creepy black eyes - eww!. So, he gave Sorrow a spar to test him. Sorrow managed to stand up for himself remarkably well [lucky 6 rolled]. Satisfied, Skipper invited them to board the prison shallop boat. The shallop sailed out into the Scab river and, after a 30 minute trip, arrived at to Prison Island.
The prison was a stone structure half-carved into and half-built onto Prison Island. It was about 80 paces by 50 in size, four storeys tall, with two towers. So was quite small.
The shallop docked at a wooden jetty, and they entered the prison through a large sturdy door - the only door. There were a few windows high up.
The boat unloaded some supplies and the passengers (Sorrow, El Cid, Sergeant Skipper and another guard), and then left again. Sergeant Skipper said it would return tomorrow.
There were 21 guards here, of which 2 were women and 3 were half elves (and one of the women was a half-elf). The commander of the prison was Second Lieutenant Sharples (another woman).
So, with El Cid and Sorrow, this brought the number to 24 in total.
There were 20 cells and 11 prisoners - all male (2 half-elves, 1 elf, 1 dwarf).
There was a kitchen, store room, armoury, a "lounge" and barracks, a central court-yard, and Sharples' office. The actual cells were around the outside wall of the prison, with no windows except for a small pipe to the outside for waste. At one end, of the guard lounge ("mess"), there was "the Plank", which was a thick board, two storeys up, above the Scab harbour. Skipper said this was used for executions - the wretch would fall into the river and be eaten by Scabport eels or sharks. More often than not, it was guards who were the ones executed.
The two towers had two ballistas each. They were continuously manned by three guards each. They would shoot any boat that approached closer than a set of buoys moored in the harbour about 200 paces in all directions. All Scabport shipping was directed to avoid this Prison Island area, of course.
Prison Island was close (500 paces) to the Scabport lighthouse, so during the night, the beam would shine over the prison and its surrounds every minute. So the prison had no need to have their own search lights.
Michael Stringfellow was identified by Sorrow & El Cid. He was in cell 11. Most of the prisoners were harmless, except for the ones in rooms 2, 3 and 4. They were marked as "insanely dangerous". One was the dwarf Churl Harken Rockbrother.
There were three watches per day and each guard needed to serve in two of them (so, 14 per watch).
Ballista practice was held daily, where they would try to shoot the buoys. (Replacement bolts were brought in with the supplies each morning.)
With the best wind, it was a five minute trip, by boat, from the buoy line to the prison jetty, but in that time, your boat would be raked with ballista bolts. They could fire 3 bolts a minute. Even at the best approach, you would still have two ballistas able to target you (better than all four). In theory, a bolt had enough power to easily penetrate a shallop's hull.
Second Lieutenant Sharples was a bitch and a bully, because she was bitter that she was only a 2nd Lieutenant. She would beat or punch any guard who looked at her funny. All the guards were terrified of her. El Cid and Sorrow ended up with black-eyes and fat lips within the hour. Now they understood why the Plank was used on staff.
There was a large ring of keys for all the cells, and this was kept in Sharples' office, but Sorrow tried and easily picked door 11's lock.
While Sorrow and El Cid were at the prison, that night, Tylin, Huilam and Lammy visited the Tower View inn (the inn across the road from the Wizards' Guild tower) to see if Daisy Crown would visit. Sure enough, around midnight, she arrived with four escort wizards. They drank and chatted. The three inveigled themselves into her group. Daisy took a charm to Tylin sharing his anti-half-elf racism (much to (half-elf) Huilam's annoyance).
___________________________________________________________
After the day and night, which was their trial, Sorrow and El Cid returned to Scabport on the morning boat.
Tylin [Ian] & Huilam [Jamie] went and saw freelance wizard Lance the Septum, and asked him about the Get Me Home teleport spell. He knew a bit about the mechanics of teleport, but this spell was outside his skills. He said only a handful of Scabport wizards could cast that spell. The two asked him if it was possible to tie that spell to an object, and he said maybe.
But he could make an Invisibility potion. It would last 30 mins, and would cost 8 COIN.
That evening, Tylin, Huilam and Lammy [Kevin] visited the Tower View again, and Daisy was there again. They asked her if the Get Me Home spell could be put into a one-shot item, and did she have the skill (and time) to do that. Yes, she could technically. It would cost 12 COIN, but WG jobs were contracted through the Wizards' Guild Liaison Sly Dunbar. Also, she would need the WGPS coordinates of the target location. But any wizard could get those if he visited the site of the target. Every wizard was taught how to calculate the 30-digit coordinates during Basic Training. She also pointed out them that if the destination or the source was in a Faraday cage, then the spell would fail.
The party had a plan.
The would get a Get Me Home item manufactured, and get Stringfellow to trigger it, and thus he'd teleport out. Even though they would lose money on this score (they'd be paid 11 COIN to get him out but would cost them 12 COIN for the Get Me Home), it was a matter of honour now to break him out. Besides, they might be able to leverage him in some way with the Scab sellers, if he was in fact Jack Sparrow the scabotanist.
There was a problem that if the prison cells had Faraday cages around them, they would need to get Stringfellow into a clear area, like the Plank or the open courtyard.
___________________________________________________________
The next morning, Sorrow and El Cid met the prison shallop at the docks and signed a contract to be a "trial guard" for a week, then sailed out to the prison.
Later that morning, Huilam, Moonlight [Chris], Tylin & Lammy went to see Chung, and asked him if the prison cells had Faraday cages around them.
"Goodness me, no," said Chung. "Those are far too expensive. And we don't keep wizards in there anyway."
That settled it. So Tylin & Lammy went to the Wizards' Guild, with the party wagon loaded with silver, and met with Sly Dunbar. They signed a contract with the Guild to make a Get Me Home stick for 12 COIN. They paid 6 COIN in advance and would pay another 6 on delivery.
 |
| Knives Lieutenant Anton Chung |
The entire party went to the Scabport Town Council headquarters to contact Knives Lieutenant Chung and tell him the news. They confirmed that they would drop the Daisy Crown job, and take on the Stringfellow score. Chung was disappointed, but he understood.
The job was to remove prisoner Michael Stringfellow from Scabport prison leaving no trace, and to execute him; "vanish" him. Chung said he could arrange to get some of them into the prison as trainee guards to scout things out.
The Scabport Prison is a small prison on Prison island, in the middle of Scabport harbour. It was mainly for political prisoners, hostages and important people whom the Knives wanted out of the way.
Most "normal" criminals in Scabport were dealt with summarily by the roving patrols of Knives (and, to a lesser extent, by the TGP - Thieves' Guild Police). Either they would be severely beaten up in the streets, or just killed in situ.
This job was from higher up in the Knives' management, and they wanted secrecy, so even though the Knives ran the prison, the normal rank and file of the Knives would be kept in the dark. So the party would get no help from the lesser ranks, or the prison staff.
It would pay 11 COIN.
The next morning, at first light, Sorrow [Jeff] and El Cid [Shane] reported down at the docks. They were greeted by a Sergeant Skipper from the prison. He surveyed them with disdain. He approved of the build of El Cid, but scrawny half-elf Sorrow was not so good; and those creepy black eyes - eww!. So, he gave Sorrow a spar to test him. Sorrow managed to stand up for himself remarkably well [lucky 6 rolled]. Satisfied, Skipper invited them to board the prison shallop boat. The shallop sailed out into the Scab river and, after a 30 minute trip, arrived at to Prison Island.
 |
| Scabport Prison |
The prison was a stone structure half-carved into and half-built onto Prison Island. It was about 80 paces by 50 in size, four storeys tall, with two towers. So was quite small.
The shallop docked at a wooden jetty, and they entered the prison through a large sturdy door - the only door. There were a few windows high up.
The boat unloaded some supplies and the passengers (Sorrow, El Cid, Sergeant Skipper and another guard), and then left again. Sergeant Skipper said it would return tomorrow.
There were 21 guards here, of which 2 were women and 3 were half elves (and one of the women was a half-elf). The commander of the prison was Second Lieutenant Sharples (another woman).
So, with El Cid and Sorrow, this brought the number to 24 in total.
There were 20 cells and 11 prisoners - all male (2 half-elves, 1 elf, 1 dwarf).
There was a kitchen, store room, armoury, a "lounge" and barracks, a central court-yard, and Sharples' office. The actual cells were around the outside wall of the prison, with no windows except for a small pipe to the outside for waste. At one end, of the guard lounge ("mess"), there was "the Plank", which was a thick board, two storeys up, above the Scab harbour. Skipper said this was used for executions - the wretch would fall into the river and be eaten by Scabport eels or sharks. More often than not, it was guards who were the ones executed.
The two towers had two ballistas each. They were continuously manned by three guards each. They would shoot any boat that approached closer than a set of buoys moored in the harbour about 200 paces in all directions. All Scabport shipping was directed to avoid this Prison Island area, of course.Prison Island was close (500 paces) to the Scabport lighthouse, so during the night, the beam would shine over the prison and its surrounds every minute. So the prison had no need to have their own search lights.
Michael Stringfellow was identified by Sorrow & El Cid. He was in cell 11. Most of the prisoners were harmless, except for the ones in rooms 2, 3 and 4. They were marked as "insanely dangerous". One was the dwarf Churl Harken Rockbrother.
There were three watches per day and each guard needed to serve in two of them (so, 14 per watch).
Ballista practice was held daily, where they would try to shoot the buoys. (Replacement bolts were brought in with the supplies each morning.)
 |
| 2nd Lieutenant Sharples |
Second Lieutenant Sharples was a bitch and a bully, because she was bitter that she was only a 2nd Lieutenant. She would beat or punch any guard who looked at her funny. All the guards were terrified of her. El Cid and Sorrow ended up with black-eyes and fat lips within the hour. Now they understood why the Plank was used on staff.
There was a large ring of keys for all the cells, and this was kept in Sharples' office, but Sorrow tried and easily picked door 11's lock.
While Sorrow and El Cid were at the prison, that night, Tylin, Huilam and Lammy visited the Tower View inn (the inn across the road from the Wizards' Guild tower) to see if Daisy Crown would visit. Sure enough, around midnight, she arrived with four escort wizards. They drank and chatted. The three inveigled themselves into her group. Daisy took a charm to Tylin sharing his anti-half-elf racism (much to (half-elf) Huilam's annoyance).
___________________________________________________________
After the day and night, which was their trial, Sorrow and El Cid returned to Scabport on the morning boat.
Tylin [Ian] & Huilam [Jamie] went and saw freelance wizard Lance the Septum, and asked him about the Get Me Home teleport spell. He knew a bit about the mechanics of teleport, but this spell was outside his skills. He said only a handful of Scabport wizards could cast that spell. The two asked him if it was possible to tie that spell to an object, and he said maybe.
But he could make an Invisibility potion. It would last 30 mins, and would cost 8 COIN.
 |
| Daisy Crown |
The party had a plan.
The would get a Get Me Home item manufactured, and get Stringfellow to trigger it, and thus he'd teleport out. Even though they would lose money on this score (they'd be paid 11 COIN to get him out but would cost them 12 COIN for the Get Me Home), it was a matter of honour now to break him out. Besides, they might be able to leverage him in some way with the Scab sellers, if he was in fact Jack Sparrow the scabotanist.
There was a problem that if the prison cells had Faraday cages around them, they would need to get Stringfellow into a clear area, like the Plank or the open courtyard.
___________________________________________________________
 |
| WG Liaison Sly Dunbar |
Later that morning, Huilam, Moonlight [Chris], Tylin & Lammy went to see Chung, and asked him if the prison cells had Faraday cages around them.
"Goodness me, no," said Chung. "Those are far too expensive. And we don't keep wizards in there anyway."
That settled it. So Tylin & Lammy went to the Wizards' Guild, with the party wagon loaded with silver, and met with Sly Dunbar. They signed a contract with the Guild to make a Get Me Home stick for 12 COIN. They paid 6 COIN in advance and would pay another 6 on delivery.
