The Wrathbreakers have returned from investigating what they thought was a band of wreckers, and are ready to investigate its patron. In the course of their investigation they discovered that Estona’s lost ships were not destroyed by wreckers, but by a small group of Selkie who were exacting revenge on the hunters who had killed their fellows and skinned them. Now, the Wrathbreakers have a prisoner and want to know more about whatever dirty little scheme had been enacted in the breakers west of Estona. Present for this adventure:

  • Bao Tap, human stormcaller
  • Calim “Ambros” Nefari, human rimewarden
  • Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
  • Itzel, elven Astrologer
  • Quangbae, wandering blacksmith

The Wrathbreakers took their prisoner to the myrmidon Kay, chief of the Estona marines, and had a short and fruitful discussion with him. They confirmed that the survivor’s band had been tasked with hunting selkie and extracting their body parts, to be delivered intact to Estona. They sought some organs, a strange gland from behind the Selkie’s thumb, and as much of their skin as they could flay, though they were given instructions to flay this within an hour of death, and in cold salt water. Such specific instructions and body parts intimated at an evil purpose, one involving magic, and Kay the myrmidon was concerned about what nest of sinister wizards were operating in his town. Though the gang had not committed any illegal act, Kay made clear to their prisoner that there would be consequences for the traffic he had been engaged in, and unless he coughed up the name of the fixer who had organized this gang, he would be in big trouble. The prisoner agreed and promised to make himself scarce until the entire storm had blown past, and told them that the gang of Selkie hunters had been put together by a man called Creosote, a fixer near the docks. In fact this prisoner was happy to tell them the man’s name on the promise that he would be hurt, because nobody had warned them of the viciousness of the Selkie they hunted, and after the first few successes – when the Selkie were not expecting to be attacked – things had turned very dark for the prisoner and his crew, and he wanted some revenge for being tricked into such a dangerous job without warning.

Perhaps that had been part of the plan, even? That after the first few deliveries of parts the Selkie would organize, and silence all the witnesses to the trade? A very convenient plot if so.

Kay was not happy with the idea that there was a fixer in town willing to trade in materials for dark magic, and decided that now might be an ideal time to put this oily man out of business. Again wanting to maintain some distance between himself and the investigation, he recommended the Wrathbreakers take a direct approach: visit Creosote’s hideout and demand he hand over the name of the person who paid him to fix the job. If he would not, they were free to take whatever measures were required to convince him to confess, and Kay rather relished the idea that he might refuse to talk immediately.

So it was that the Wrathbreakers found themselves at Creosote’s offices that same day, ready for violence. The office was a converted gambling den upstairs above a restaurant a block away from the docks, with stairs leading up to a common room where Creosote’s thugs lounged around. The Wrathbreakers walked in and pretended to be rival Selkie hunters prepared to sell parts to Creosote. This deception convinced his thugs, one of whom disappeared into the back to get Creosote himself.

Unfortunately the message did not put Creosote at ease; rather than coming to speak to the Wrathbreakers he sent his lieutenants to kill them. They burst through the noren separating the common room from the backrooms, and the battle began.

It was short and brutal, and they won. Half of Creosote’s men died, and most of the rest fled as the tide of battle turned against them. Finally Creosote and his last two lackeys surrendered, and he offered up all the information they wanted. Unfortunately, however, this was very little: the task had been given to him in a letter, by someone he had never met. He had gone about the task confident of being paid for it, because this was how these tasks always worked: delivered to him by letter, discharged according to instructions, and rewarded as promised. In this case the note had given him specific instructions about where to find and how to hunt the Selkie, what body parts to take and how, and where to deliver them. He had done as asked, and the parts had been delivered as requested, and he had received his coin.

Of course he had destroyed the letter, as he always did.

So the Wrathbreakers had no clues about who was procuring these parts, except that the instructions were delivered by note (as they always were by this particular employer) and the goods had to be delivered to a warehouse owned by a man called Gerald of Hamm.

They left Creosote alive, surveying the wreckage of his business, and left to find Gerald. Who was sending these notes, and what could they do to find this person? They would just have to keep shaking people up until someone told them something useful … or their mysterious correspondent took a direct, personal interest in them …