Sessione 3 -- On the Waterfront

After resting and healing, the party was summoned by Doge Pietro Ziani for another task. He expressed his gratitude to everyone for saving his life, and he told them that they have earned his trust and confidence. Because of the information they uncovered at the party, it's now known that there's a Byzantine smuggling operation, bringing in weapons and contraband to foment unrest and rebellion among the dockworkers. They aim to disrupt Venice's ability to maintain their merchant empire -- and perhaps destabilize the entire republic itself.

Pulling on the threads of his own network, the Doge realized that one of the his trusted informants has disappeared. Aside from the fact that he wants the information this informant has, he's worried that if he were captured and divulged information under torture, it would serve to discourage other informants from continuing their work as well as possible unravel other nodes of the network, leading to an intelligence collapse.

The informant's name is Luca Rosso (yes, that Rosso...he's a cousin of Matteo Rosso, the would-be assassin from the party). Ziani would like the party to infiltrate the docks where the informant works, locate him, and rescue him.

As the party agreed to the mission, Guido Falcone spoke up.  "We are happy to undertake your mission, but it should be known that we never received any just compensation for our work at the party. Additionally, given the nature of this dangerous work, work which left one of us near death, we'd like to ask you to give each member two healing potions before this mission."

The Doge was aghast to find that the party had not been paid for the previous mission in which they saved his life. He replied, "Oh, yes, yes! The workman certainly deserves his wages!  And your request for healing potions is also most reasonable and would facilitate your success in this and future missions, besides."  He gave each member of the party 20 platinum pieces and two healing potions.  

The party arrived to the docks in the evening to find it still a buzzing hive of activity. Nothing overtly illegal, just ordinary dock work stuff.

The area where they were was piled high with crates and barrels, with a high wooden fence along two sides with a door at the far end. Beyond that lay the private part of the dock and warehouse.  There were three dockworkers moving cargo around between the party and the door.

Nico flipped up the hood of his elven cloak and proceeded past the first two, toward the third in the rear. Salina strolled up to the nearer two and began to engage them in witty repartée.

The two dockworkers thought Salina was out "strolling" for the night and were very...happy...to see her.  She employed her ESP spell while talking to them. She was actively trying to get them to tell her the location of Luca, either with their words or their thoughts.

As she distracted them, Nico slipped past, but he was noticed by the third dockworker. The third dockworker stopped him and told him he didn't belong at the docks. Nico started to back off.

Volpeo crept forward toward Salina but maintained concealment.

Gianna and Guido started forward as well, trying to take advantage of Salina's distraction to see if Nico needed any help.  They caught up to him just as he backed up to where Salina was, and the third dockworker joined the other two.

When Salina brought up Luca directly, the two dockworkers became visibly uncomfortable before playing it off. Her ESP picked up a thought from third one that since she mentioned Luca, "the Boss wouldn't want us to let her walk away."

Having heard most of the conversation and perceiving that Salina was getting into trouble, with the three dockworkers closing in and maneuvering to cut off her escape, Volpeo stepped out of the shadows, and said, "Hi, Fancy, it's me, Luca!"  His intention was to play along with her story and set up a situation where the dockworkers might think that her inquiring about Luca was merely coincidental to the name of the informant.

Unfortunately, he had missed a part of the conversation where Salina had already given a description of the man she was looking for, and Volpeo didn't match it.

"Luca!" she replied, "have you seen Gaspard? I've been looking for him."

The conversation continued that way for a bit, with both Salina and Volpeo trying to homogenize their improvised stories. Salina's expertise in deception succeeds in fooling the dockworkers for the time being. Volpeo whispered out the corner of his mouth, "Who the heck am I?" Salina just grabbed his arm as if he were her oldest friend in the world and said, "We have to find Gaspard. We're here to meet Gaspard," and she began to move the two of them away from the dockworkers.

Gianna stepped forward as Nico managed to enter the area as well. They converged on the place to which Guido had already managed to advance. The dockworkers, now surprised to be surrounded and outnumbered, are visibly nervous.

Guido stepped forward and interjects, "Gentlemen and lady, I don't recall seeing you at church this past Sunday."

"What's going on here? Did everybody decide to have their social engagements at the docks tonight!?" one of them yelled.

"I was told by the priest to get these guys into church!" Guido continued.

"I have found that I'm not welcome at most churches," Salina replied, flatly, the moonlight glinting off of her Tiefeling's horns.

"What a wonderful idea," interrupted Volpeo. "Why don't we go right now!  I have need of...confession"

Guido replied, "We could have Vespers!"

"I have need of finding Gaspard," said Salina.

"Maybe we'll find him there," continued Volpeo, tugging her away by the arm. "You'll love Vespers...they're delicious!"

"Well, I don't care you go to church or the brothel or back home or wherever, but you can't stay around here!" said the third dockhand.  "What kind of funny business are you up to?"

Salina responded by using a charm spell on him.

"What do you mean? Do you know Luca?" she asked him.

"Well, I know a Luca." The dockworker next to him, elbowed him and told him to shut up.

"Is there somewhere I can find him?"

"Uh...he's...uh...in the warehouse."

"Oh, he's working in the warehouse?"

"I don't know that I would say 'working'."

"Perhaps he is taking a break."

"Well, let's just say gettin' worked on and things breaking are probably part of what he's doing."

"Oh, dear, that sounds unpleasant!"

"Very, but you don't betray the Boss and have things go pleasantly for you."  The dockworker next to him gave him another elbow.

As Salina withdrew toward the door at the back end of the area, the charmed dockworker gently prevented the others from following his new friends.

Nico had already slipped through the door in the confusion. He found a small dock with a ladder on the other side, but when he rounded a corner to the larger area, he was noticed by another dockworker.

"Hey, what are you doin' here?"

Nico tried to play it off as if he got lost trying to follow the directions of the other dockworker to get off the dock and back to town. His deception didn't work.

Nico kept inching toward the warehouse until the dockworker grabbed his arm. As the dockworker started to drag Nico in the direction of the door, Nico took the opportunity of passing near the water to grab the dockworker and threw him in.  The man started shouting.

With that, the rest of the party filed through the door toward Nico.

They got through the door in time to see Nico throw a heavy crate down onto the man's head. Nico missed, and the dockworker was starting to climb up the ladder.

"Hey, willya help me? This guy's tryin'a kill me!" the man yelled as he reached up for Volpeo's hand.

Volpeo held him at swordpoint while questioning him. The man said his name was Orenzio. He confirmed that Luca was with "the Boss," but he didn't want to take them there. He was afraid of what the boss would do to him if he did. Volpeo told him that he should be more afraid of himself, and Orenzio saw the wisdom in that statement. Volpeo promised that "the boss would never know" it was Orenzio who helped them get to the right place in the warehouse.

Guido and Gianna blocked up the door with heavy crates, while the party moved on alongside the warehouse down a narrow alley stacked with crates on the other side of the high fence from where Salina had been speaking with the three dockhands.

They went around the bend, and they saw two doors to their right, a door straight ahead down the alley, and another alley to their left, opposite the second door on the right.

Orenzio whispered that the boss and Luca were in the second door on the right. Volpeo told him that if he led them into a trap, he'd see to it that he drowned after all. Orenzio then said that was as far as he could take them, and he went up the alley opposite the door he indicated.

Something about Orenzio's guidance didn't sit right with Salina.

In the meantime, Nico had slipped away from the party and gone around the other side of the complex. He opened a door to find two dockworkers stacking boxes and a third taking a nap. Through another door, he saw three more dockworkers eating in a dining hall of some kind. None of them saw Nico thanks to his elven cloak.

The party decided to open the first door on the right first. Gianna lit a torch, but all they found were shipments of linen and salt.

The time had come for the party to open the door Orenzio had indicated. Nico, who had by then caught back up to the party (and taken a pocketful of salt from the shipment), did the honors. Inside the room were several dockhands. "Hey, who are you?" one of them shouted.

When that happened, they heard Orenzio shout from the alleyway behind them, "Get them!" Orenzio had shown up with another dockhand, plus they faced the ones in the room.

After a chaotic combat, the party managed to dispatch all the threats, with Volpeo finishing off Orenzio.

As Gianna investigated the room at the end of the alley, Volpeo expressed his disappointment that he didn't get to make good on his promise to drown Orenzio if he double-crossed them.

In a small, locked room (which Nico opened with a knock spell), she found a partial map of Venice, showing a canal near a warehouse marked with an "O," a torn page from a ledger that said: "Orsini - 200gp payment," a dagger +1, and a worn pouch containing 50gp. The party shared the gold pieces evenly, and Nico took the dagger.

Volpeo dragged the corpse of Orenzio to the edge of the dock and threw it into the water near where he originally helped him out, making good on his promise to send him to sleep with the fishes.