Campaign:Gatecrashers

Gatecrashers is a homebrew urban crime Pathfinder 2e campaign. The campaign takes place within the city of Verascourn, a major trading port and site of the Taldoran Empire's primary shipbuilding facilities. The city is incredibly prosperous, but beneath its shining surface lies the truth, a tangled web of corruption and crime that controls the real power in Verascourn.

Pre-Campaign
Much of Verascourn's history is lost to the ages, due to the sheer amount of time that some settlement has stood at the mouth of the Sellen river, but most recently its origins can be traced back to about 7 centuries ago, when the great heroes of the realm freed the enslaved populace from a vile dragon god. Their leader, Lord Veran, was named King, and the heroes rebuilt the city anew, bringing prosperity and peace to the land and the Inner Sea. The Veran line died out only a few generations later, when the last royal heir disappeared suddenly almost 600 years ago. Then followed a period of unrest in the city, as tensions within the remaining noble families, descendants and members of the original heroic party, fell to bickering over the ascension of the next royal family. Ultimately, the decision was removed from their hands as the newly founded Taldoran Empire stepped in and claimed governorship of the city and a figurehead title, The Rook, was created to manage the general populace.

Due to lax governing, poor city leadership, and easily bribable city watch officials, Verascourn fell under the sway of a handful of gangs who began to rule from the shadows, gathering power and pocketing noble influences over the next few centuries. Currently, three great criminal families stand proud, often openly flaunting their disregard of the "proper" Imperial laws. They are known as the Cornixian Triad, composed of the Dwarven Helmetshrikes Clan, the Elven Tamaki Conclave, and the Human Micrasturs.

Campaign Start
The fledgling criminals Cecaire, Kyrielle Kapino, Anjay Nevermoure, and Anjay's personal guard Hemakshi Volati, meet for the first time as a group attempting to complete a job for Gilded Talents, a powerful part of the Micrastur family. They are instructed to ambush a smuggled shipment coming in to Verascourn, which turn out to be crates of goods from an expedition in the Feywilds, all marked with the sigil of the noble Crecerelle family. The goods are transported by members of the Leach, a goblin tribe that does odd jobs like shipping and cleaning around the city. The ambush goes off moderately well, with most of the goblins dispatched and the crew still standing, though Anjay did take heavy wounds from the fight and one of the Leach, Pibitti, escaped the ambush and ran off into the night with something from the cart. The last moments of the ambush are interrupted by the arrival of the Magpie, a hooded figure with a bird-like mask and a disguised voice. The Magpie launches into a spiel stating they are here to rob the Leach, then drops the speech when they notice that there are no goblins to be found. The Magpie apologizes for the confusion, and takes off on wings that spring from a contraption on their back.

The crew drop the goods off at the established point, and are given letters of congratulations, inviting them to the Cracked Glass Inn and asking them to "have a drink, discover its secrets, and join the ignoble Talents." They arrive at the bar, a rundown hole-in-the wall, where they are served only one type of drink, despite whatever they attempt to order. Ultimately, they discover the secret of the bar, and step through a password locked door into the back rooms, a warm and cozy establishment and the true hideout of the Gilded Talents.

Nisus Nevermoure, Anjay's older half-brother, congratulates the group as they enter, and leads them into a rear meeting room. There the crew meets Mr. Orev, the boss of the Talents, and Salem, who had been watching their progress with the ambush and excitedly rushes to meet everyone. Orev formally invites everyone to join the Talents, with Salem as their "... I would never use the word 'Leader,' to refer to Salem, so I guess, 'Handler,'" as Orev puts it. He promises that whatever they wish for, the Talents can help it come true, whether that be a good life, riches, fame, or anything beyond. The crew ask questions about their contracts, with Cecaire opting out of both medical and dental coverage. Everyone then agrees to join, signing a contract for the Talents with imps' blood, after which a small tattoo of a coin that marks them as members appears somewhere on their bodies. Salem immediately wants to know where everyone's is.

A night of celebration follows, with Salem and the rest getting to know each other and meeting a few more members of the Gilded Talents. Olena Carrigan, the hideout's clever bartender, serves everyone a shot that magically heals their wounds and restores their energy for the night. Leona Carrigan, Olena's twin sister, steps into the hideout to join the revelry, shedding her disguise as the haggard spinster that worked the faux bar at the Cracked Glass and immediately jumps up onto the bar and begins to dance. Nisus divvy's up the crew's loot from the ambush, and the group play icebreakers at Salem's behest, each naming an animal they would like to be. Nisus hates every moment of interacting with Salem, offers another set of congratulations, reminds Anjay of their upcoming family dinner, and quickly leaves the hideout with an excuse of getting home to his wife.

Bromseth Lescault, a dwarven forger and bouncer for the Cracked Glass, approaches Salem and the rest and bemoans that he can't remember what he was supposed to do the next day. He had copied down Nisus's instructions into a small journal, but is illiterate and can't read what he copied. The crew offer to help, and learn that after a recent gruesome event involving another gang's members being hung from a bridge, there are opportunities in the Rosecoin Market to snag a protection racket and start making an income. The crew decides to head into the Market the next morning and work on finding a racket.

Thus the campaign properly begins, with the fledgling crew assembled and their initial goals clear: rise up through the ranks of the underworld through theft, blackmail, even murder, and grow the power of the Gilded Talents. In exchange, Orev promises that their power can be used to "make their dreams come true."

A Racket in the Rosecoin Market (Sessions 2 - 4)
The next day, the crew head out and explore the Rosecoin market, a hub of trade and small businesses that line the main thoroughfare of Verascourn, the Stem. They notice lots of members of the city watch, the Jackdaws, asking questions and patrolling, seeking answers as to the violence done to the River Vultures that fled the area only a few days ago. After asking around and subtly scoping out businesses to see which need new protection, they finally discover the Farlight Forge, a blacksmith's shop that is brand new. They knock at the door, and finding no answer, decide to break in. Cecaire notices a small figure watching the group from the alleyway, and wanders over to find a young girl, River, who has been told to watch the alleyway and blow her whistle if anyone strange comes. Salem wanders into the alley as well, and the pair talk with River, discovering that her friends and fellow "Iron Falcons" Jason and Bello and down on the canal level, talking to the nice lady who owns the Forge. As the others successfully break into the Forge, all hear a yell and a splash coming from the canal level below the shop.

Cecaire, Salem, and River run down the stairs in the alleyway and see a few things simultaneously - a tall, broad shouldered woman standing near a stack of crates of supplies, two young men struggling to stay afloat in the water and then disappearing below, and a figure rushing past them all and diving into the water. Cecaire and Salem do nothing to help the struggling boys, and instead watch as the scene plays out. After pulling the two men out of the water, the figure is revealed to be a young half-elven woman and a member of the Jackdaws. Her name is Purnima, and she helps persuade Harley Farlight, the owner of the Forge, to hear out Salem and the crew's proposition. Jason and Bello, the pair of Iron Falcons, make vague threats to Salem, having been humiliated and losing out on the racket. They rush off, with River tagging behind.

While the scene at the canals below played out, the rest of the crew investigated the interior of the Farlight Forge. A knock at the front door from another member of the Jackdaws looking for his partner forces Anjay, Hemakshi, and Kyrielle to make a snap decision. Kyrielle opts for simply opening the door and shooting the guardsman with her crossbow, Anjay seeks a more peaceful approach. He puts together a hasty disguise and pretends to be the shop's apprentice, opening the door and meeting Lt. Rasnic. He tells the crew inside that if they see his partner, a young half-elven woman with silvery hair, to let her know that he will be asking questions at another shop in the market. Lt. Rasnic grows a little suspicious as he talks with the disguised Anjay and Hemakshi, but Kyrielle quickly shoots a bolt off into the alleyway adjacent and Rasnic leaves to investigate.

When the two groups reunite, Harley Farlight is frustrated to find them snooping around her shop and it comes to light that Purnima is Hemakshi's older sister! Purnima pulls Hemakshi aside for a quick chat, congratulating him on joining the Gilded Talents and recommending he keep a close eye on Nisus, while she does the same with her captain in the Jackdaws. Anjay fails to eavesdrop on them. The crew convene with Harley Farlight downstairs and have tea, doing their best to convince her they are worth paying protection money to. Salem weirds Harley out, which actually helps their case, and when Kyrielle notes all the weaknesses they exploited to break in, Harley sees some value in having them protect the Forge. A deal is struck to sign more official paperwork as soon as Salem draws up the final contract, and Harley asks for one quick favor, to run a small hammer over to the owner of the Bejeweled Bovine, a small jewelry shop in the Rosecoin Market.

The crew heads out for the jewelry shop, and notice a few odd things upon arrival. First, unlike almost every other shop in the Market, there is no mark of protection, which means the owner doesn't pay money to keep anyone from torching the place. Second, the door is slightly ajar. Finally, Cecaire notices a figure watching the shop from the rooftops nearby, though they disappear from sight. Inside, the strangeness continues. The torches have burned low, and on a closer look, while nothing has been stolen, all of the jewelry in the cases have been slightly moved. Salem goes to investigate the small back room, and discovers a pool of nearly dried blood. As the crew looks over the entire shop, Kyrielle discovers a strange piece of a stone arch with divine glyphs, and Cecaire pages through the owner's record book and discovers that the business did well, and was recently looking into expanding into a second store in another part of the city, Scuttleshire. In the back room, Salem tastes the blood and learns that it is a few hours old and comes from a gnome, and Hemakshi discovers a secret trapdoor under the workbench.

The crew head down the trapdoor, and emerge from a rough carved tunnel into the underground passageways that run beneath the city known as the Roots. Salem and Cecaire attempt to follow a spotty trail of blood, but soon get lost and stumble instead upon a rats' nest. The crew retrace their steps, returned back to the entrance of the tunnel and try to pick up the trail again. They find a small, smooth marble that radiates with a hint of magical power, and Cecaire deduces that it can be used with the stone arch that Kyrielle found, also realizing that the glyphs are for the goddess of passageways and portals, Alseta. The crew pick up the trail of the missing shopkeeper, and discover the trail ends at a dead end. Upon closer inspection, they find a faint impression of a crooked obelisk, marked with strange runes. They solve the puzzle of the hidden passageway, power up the marble, insert it into the arch, which opens a portal through the brick wall.

The crew step through the portal and into a beautifully decorated entryway, with a hanging chandelier, two curving staircases, and a set of massive doors at the far end. As the group investigates the room, a muffled cry of pain echoes from behind the doors. Anjay and Hemakshi sneak up one set of stairs, while Salem takes a closer look at them, noticing a spell of warding that notifies someone when an evil creature climbs the stairs or passes through the double doors. Salem ignores the warding and takes off up the other set of stairs across from Anjay and Hemakshi. The stairs lead up to a balcony area that looks over a strange temple made entirely of a shimmering black marble. Rows of pews stand mostly empty, with some cloaked figures seated through out. At the front of the room, a hairless Sphinx catfolk man wearing glasses, a fine suit, and a bowler hair interrogates a battered and bloodied gnomish man, Langhorn. The catfolk man keeps questioning Langhorn about "the key to Heaven's Vault" he supposedly has hidden somewhere. Langhorn refuses to give any answers, and finally the catfolk man calls upon a strange holy power, forcing the truth "The Blade of Bones is Hidden in the Blasted North" from Langhorn's mouth. The catfolk man grimaces at the cryptic answer, and slits Langhorn's throat. A haggard looking drow man rises from his seat near the base of the altar, and with a glance in Salem's general location, informs the catfolk man that someone has broken into the meeting. The catfolk man looks annoyed, and orders the drow to eliminate the interlopers before pulling out a larger version of the Alsetan archstone and disappearing through a portal.

A fight ensues with Salem being targeted by the drow gentleman, Mr. Hyland, and the double doors bursting open, revealing Cecaire and Kyrielle to the rest of the cultists. The crew handily defeat the cultists, and start to whittle away at Mr. Hyland, when suddenly he raises a prayer to his mysterious deity and begins to transform into a werewolf as the temple begins to shake and chunks of the ceiling fall. Hemakshi and Kyrielle strike at the werewolf, but their attacks don't seem to faze him as he rains claw strikes down on Anjay. Suddenly the transform Hyland howls in pain as two silver bolts strike him in the chest, arcing electricity between them. The crew turn to see the source of the new attack, and find that the Magpie has appeared in the entranceway! The Magpie yells that it's time to evacuate, ushering everyone out through the portal. Hyland recovers from the Magpie's attack, and rushes after the crew, but the Magpie yanks the Alsetan stone from it's place and the portal snaps close, severing the werewolf's hand. Salem snatches it and puts it in their bag.

The crew and the Magpie rush back through the Roots, up through the tunnel, and back into the Bejeweled Bovine. The crew notice that the shop has been cleaned out, and three bags of loot stand by the front door. The Magpie offers the crew one of the bags, and when they try to ask questions, the Magpie throws down a smoke bomb and disappears out the door and into the market streets.

Downtime Week (Session 5)
A week of downtime follows, as the crew go about their own business - meeting with relatives, gathering supplies, or settling into their new lives of crime.

Salem gets taken by Orev to the Violet Hare, an upscale brothel in the heart of the Plumblossom district and the seat of Dawn Micrastur's power. As Dawn holds court in a well-warded room on the top floor, she reveals that a complaint has been lodged against Salem and the Talents by Jason, the youngest Micrastur son and a bastard. Dawn holds no particular fondness for Jason, and states that the right to have the Farlight Forge racket will go to the crew who preforms the best at the upcoming Lantern King's Tournament. Orev tries to argue against this decision, but is quickly forced to submit by Dawn.

Kyrielle visits her grandfather, Dioro Kapino at his cell in Verascourn's prison, Ciconia Heights. The two spar, conversing about Kyrielle's lack of success in killing her brother, with Dioro trying multiple times to catch his granddaughter by surprise and being handily defeated. The two then enjoy a nice cup of tea together, before Dioro scoffs at Kyrielle for not taking better care of her sword. As he cleans and sharpens it, he advises her to seek out a "blade forged in the fire of a dragon," as that will help her fighting prowess increase.

Hemakshi meets up with Purnima for a lunch of fluffy waffles. Nima reports that Mr. Langhorn was found dead in the same manner as the River Vultures, and the Jackdaws were all on edge because of it. Hemakshi gives away that he may know something about his death, and confides in his sister that the crew had discovered the strange cult under the shop, asking her to look into Langhorn and "Heaven's Vault, the Blasted North, and the Blade of Bone." Purnima agrees to do some digging when she has a chance to, though she is under the suspicion of her captain at the moment.

TBC

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