Hook

The six party members found themselves in familiar dungeon- a location where the origional four first met. The six party members had all equipment, weapons, armor, and companions stripped of them. Only their clothes remained on their backs. Each member was linked at the feet by chains as guards escorted them to the marshal's office.

A new Marshal had taken power and made clear her ability to execute any party member at the snap of her fingers. "I'm giving you one last chance," she told the group, "to prove my trust in you lot."

After Nahiko attempted to convince M she had planned all along to bring the party in this way, the Marshal stripped her of her privateer title and promised to sink her ship whenever it became found.

The Marshal sent the party north to the city of Bokalean, a major town of the Blue Kingdom. The dwarf men there wore plaid skirts and one of the local fishermen had washed up on the banks of the local lake murdered. The party members worked with two detectives- Fede Kanpai and Otsoa Watsemea. The victim had washed ashore with the word "Pirate" written on his forehead.

The party went around the town collecting clues about the victim. They found the victim had a recently deceased mother and a missing younger brother. They also found out the victim owed money to the local mob, and that the night the victim went missing a local skinny dipper saw someone dumbing a large bag out of a row boat into the lake.

The detectives found the victim had a missing hand with an also missing hook attatchment used as an artificial limb. The detectives wanted to learn more about the mob connection as they were now the lead suspects.

The party went to the mob to learn what they could about the man who owed them the debt. Nahiko learned during a game of lier's dice that Nyk- the victim- had paid the debt in full a couple days before and that the mob boss remembered him mentioning something about a brother.

The party also learned the missing brother had recently returned and that the two brothers had gotten into some kind of argument. The party also learned about a former group of runaways called the "Lost Boys" that was led by the victim's brother. Over time, the organization thinned due to growing concern over the founder's sanity.

Neith and Bonastre located the missing brother in an abandoned building turned opium den. The boyish man-dwarf was spouting things about slaying a pirate and huffing "fairy dust." When the two tried to grab the dwarf, he escaped and ran off.

The party reconveined with the detectives and told them what they learned. The detectives agreed the brother was now the lead suspect and they would return to the scene of the crime to find the necessary evidence to back their conclusion. They sent the party to find the suspect.

The six party members went back to the temple where they had spoken to a former member of the Lost Boys and intimidated them into stating the location of the suspect. The team learned the man had sent the suspect to his home and led the party there. Nahiko snuck her way inside, but Ranodip and Neith failed to sneak their way in. The drug-laden dwarf was now wielding the sword and hook of his deceased brother and Bonastre fell into a hole. The team isolated the suspect in the home.

Watsemea and Kanpai charged the building and apprehended the suspect. The two interrogated the suspect with the party present. He admitted to the crime, telling the story of the last seven days leading to how he killed his brother and dumped him in the lake.

When the Spessartite Guards arrived to detain the criminal and bring the party members back to the Marshal, the team had a decision to make. As they considered the posibility of fleeing back into the wilderness of the world, Detective Kanpai brough the group aside.

"It doesn't take a detective," Kanpai told them. "To know you lot are being haunted. I've been working on a side project even my partner doesn't know about. A demon is haunting you lot, and I don't know much; but I believe she's related to civil wars. I think she was released during the Gold Dwarf Rebellion when the peasents overthrough the vassals."

Kanpai warned the team they could not slay the demon with traditional weapons before sending them off with the guards. The team decided to go back to the Marshal. During the trip, the caravan was raided by gnomes who captured the sword and the hook that had belonged to the slain dwarf. The guards had all survived but could not remember they had just been attacked.

At the Marshal's office, M told the group in secret whe too was being watched and that any day now she would likely me assassinated. She told them she knew of a vast underground network controlled by the Gnome Empire called "The Warehouse" which holds artifacts of immense power. She believed the Gold Dwarf Invasion of the Gnome Empire was directly tied to the Warehouse and the Gold Dwarf Emperor would try to capture the artifacts and use them for the war. It would be up to the party to find the Warehouse.