Back to Fort Augmentin

The Budgie Smugglers (Huilam [Jamie], Sorrow [Jeff], El Cid [Shane], Tylin [Ian], Argile [Richard], Burrito [Darryl]) were worried about the vampire Magda, so they went to the Wizards' Guild and told Daisy Crown that they would take the Fort Augmentin job. Although it wasn't paying much (4 COIN), it would at least get them out of Scabport for a while. The current job, to track down the murderer of the two Kliban priests, would just have to wait.

Daisy told them that the Wizards' Guild needed to get the magical trunk (that the group had delivered a week ago) out of Fort Augmentin and transport it to the next town Winjammer up the coast. 

Plague flag

Fort Augmentin was apparently still locked down for "plague reasons", and wasn't allowing anyone to leave. Sly Dunbar was in the Fort Augmentin wizards' tower at the moment, and unlike Daisy, he could not teleport. So the party was to use him as a contact when they got there.

Planning to use the Smoking Loon boat to get to Fort Augmentin, Tylin asked Daisy about the weather. Like the Gelding priests, wizards have weather-predicting spells, so she told them the forecast for the next few days: Today the wind was fresh and strong towards the fort (perfect for sailing), but there was a change due tonight with rain and stronger winds for the next few days, blowing the wrong way.

Back at their new base, Huilam was still carrying the promissory note that he had been given by the pirates a week ago (by gentleman pirate Captain Jack of the Debonair). It was only now that Huilam realized that the note was magically cursed. If he burned it, tore it up, or left it somewhere, it would find its way back to him. He tried putting it in the faraday cage (in the old party base), but even that didn't stop it returning. However, that faraday cage and vault had been vandalized and graffitied by the undead (a few nights back), so he wasn't certain if the faraday field was broken, or if the curse worked despite it.

Lammy [Kevin] and Moonlight [Chris] were marmalading.

Burrito, now a Panadine supporter, went to the Panadine temple and told them that he was headed to Fort Augmentin, and if there was anything he could do for them. Priestess Greta Carmichael asked him to take a Panadine shrine to Fort Augmentin. She also gave him another 5 vials of holy water, bringing the party supply up to 9.

They loaded the solid marble (half a ton) Panadine shrine onto the Smoking Loon, and also three chests of silver (3 COIN) in case they needed to pay the pirates. The pirates' "bill" was 4 COIN, so this would be a down payment.

The name of the party's shallop Smoking Loon was on a rotating block and had a set of changeable names, so this trip the boat would be named the "Pepper Jack".

The boat trip to Fort Augmentin was very fast. The sea was running high, but the little shallop was stable enough. Only El Cid was ill. They passed the beached brig Witch of Endor from the other storm last week. It was now half dismantled and still surrounded by carts of salvagers and looters. There was no sign of the pirates.

2nd Lt Pigeon,
Fort Augmentin
Knives Commander

The Fort Augmentin jetty had two ships moored to it, and there was a squad of soldiers milling about, so Sorrow sailed past and headed up the coast for half a league to a beach. Here, they pulled the shallop up above the breakers and settled.

Tylin and Burrito walked to Fort Augmentin. The gate guards were okay to let them in, but they would not be allowed to leave until the REAL Priestess Delaney (replacement for the ill Deirdre) checked them for disease. The Wizards Tower was a no-go area.

Tylin knew the commander of the fort, Second Lieutenant Pigeon, from last time, so he and Burrito sought an appointment with her. She explained that the wizards were under strict quarantine; they, and their henchmen the Budgie Smugglers, were suspected as the cause of the plague. No physical contact was allowed with the wizards, but she would allow oral communication through the spy-hole on the wizards' tower sally gate.

So Tylin and Burrito talked to Sly Dunbar (out of earshot of guards). Yes, he had the trunk here, and, yes,  as soon as the party could smuggle it out, the better.

Burrito left just before dark (they close the gates at dark) with the tale that Tylin was staying the night at the inn connected to the barracks, the Fort Augmentin Travellers' Inn. Priestess Delaney had to be summoned to scan Burrito (with a Detect Disease spell) before the guards let him out. Burrito headed back to the party camp by their boat.

wizard Sly Dunbar

When it was dark, Tylin sneaked to the wizards' tower. There were a few guards on the fort walls and in the compound, and there was a searchlight on the barracks high tower to scan the compound, so Tylin had to avoid these things. Inside the wizards' tower, he chatted to Sly Dunbar face to face. 

After the meeting, Sly gave Tylin a drink of an Invisibility potion, and that allowed him to get out over the walls unseen, and back to the group. To contact Tylin later, if necessary, Sly would use the Whispering Wind spell (which allows LoS communication).

It started to rain during the night. And the wind changed to blow from anti.

Just before light, Tylin tried to sneak back inside the fort. He failed utterly and was captured by the guards, and thrown into the barracks cells.

______________________

The night was peaceful, apart from the rain and wind.

As an experiment, they tried storing the nine vials of holy water inside the hollow Panadine shrine overnight. As guessed, this stopped them going off.

Burrito headed back into the fort, and he spoke to Priestess Delaney about the Panadine shrine the group was transporting. She was happy to find a spot for it inside the fort, and she would consecrate the ground below it. That would last until a Panadine priest arrived sometime in the future to dedicate it formally to Panadine. But she needed to get it delivered. Burrito wanted to get a cart from the fort, but Delaney said just take it to the jetty via boat, and unload it there. She would organize a cart.

He also mentioned the trunk to Delaney. There was no way she would sanction it being taken from the wizards' tower.

"Those bloody wizards started all this," she growled.

So, Burrito headed back to the group with the news.

After a night in the cells, Tylin didn't have any illegal substances nor useful information, and he complied to all their demands, so the guards let him go.

Wizards' trunk

The wind was even stronger when the Smoking Loon was pushed back into the surf.  But they got in floated and made their way down to the jetty. It was shielded from the big seas by a break-water. Delaney and some guards were there with a cart, and the shrine was successfully loaded onto a cart, then driven into the fort. El Cid stayed hidden inside the Smoking Loon, but everyone else went with the cart, and into Fort Augmentin.

The Panadine shine was unloaded to the consecrated spot. So Burrito's Panadine job was done.

Since the weather was still stormy and rainy, they decided to plan for the wizards' trunk job tonight.

[ ... and hoping Lammy would awaken from his marmalade.]