To my dearest friends, scoundrels, and newly anointed seafarers!
Though I am elated to hear of your return to our quaint little cliff-side capital, alas, there is little in the way of rest when the wicked are on the prowl. I apologize to put you to work before you've even had a chance to settle in, but yours truly has it on good authority that a soon to arrive merchant is not all they appear to be! They've been making rather frequent trips to the isolated islands of Koumazot Islands, and given the nation's, shall we say, guarded nature as of late, I suspect there's more than meets the eye to this fellow. Given this knowledge and our suppositions of foul play among the court of the Haskall, I humbly request that you find your way aboard their ship and conduct a quite thorough 'inspection' of their freight.
Elliot Strangford, Associate of the Unknown
Heroes
Summary
Meeting at Unknown after their long journey from Windfall Archipelago, the heroes had enough downtime for some shopping and revisiting with contacts in Evershoal. A letter from Elliot invites them to Strangford’s Storehouse of Supplies, Surprises, and Strangeties for a lunch meeting. Once there, he explains that a ship named the Twengu Mor from the Koumazot Islands has been on a steady trade loop, an oddity as most all other trade from the region had stopped. Elliot wanted the heroes to board the ship, inspect the cargo for odd, unusual or dangerous contents, and report back.
During their investigation of the ship about the docks, the heroes learned of a large Dragonborn woman with charcoal scales and purple horns that had departed the ship on arrival and not been seen since. Truthfully, no one could really tell the heroes what exactly the ship traded, which was again odd for a ship regularly put into port.
The decision was to board the ship under the cover of nightfall. Therin would transform into a giant octopus using his arcane arts and pull a dark boat covered in a tarp to the ship before going around to the other side to cause a distraction. The plan began well, with most of the heroes making it aboard during the distraction. Unfortunately, the savage beating the sailors gave the poor octopus broke Therin's spell, leaving the rattled wizard standing on a bow of the ship, surrounded by confused sailors. Not unsurprisingly, the plan really didn't have many steps beyond "get on the ship" and things quickly descended into chaos. Agga Inge rushed beneath the deck into the cargo hold, with the remaining heroes following out of instinct. Therin, being the furthest from his companions, took the brunt of the sailors' wraith on deck while an even more chaotic scene unfolded below in the hold.
Looking about for nefarity, all the heroes discovered were boxes of fruit and basic trade goods. In the confusion while everyone was separated and distracted, demonic shadows emerged from the darkness and laid into the heroes. Now beset on both sides by both the sailors and the demons, the heroes were in a fight for their very lives. Luckily, Therin managed to convince one of the ship's arcane crewmembers to also turn against the demons and by the time someone finally lit a lantern below decks, the heroes had survived, as had all of the sailors save one who died from the backlash of repeatedly hitting Lorsan. As the heroes and the sailors tried to figure out what exactly had just happened with the demonic waylay, the muffled sounds of a captive Elliot Strangford led to his discovery in a locked cabin. Captain Asgaul Denestro returned with the Slatebearers, Evershoals law enforcement, at this point and Elliot described his capture at the Dragonborn's hands and everyone else gave a confusing recount of the demon attack. Satisfied mostly with Strangford's willingness to vouch for the heroes, the Slatebearers departed.
Captain Denestro (and the crew) had no memory of the Dragonborn woman and his logs detailed simple trading, nothing nefarious at all. In searching the cabin holding Elliot and the rest of the ship, the heroes found various compartments hiding correspondence and arcane components. The ritual components looked not unlike those used in the ritual attempted against Xolo, but on a much greater scale. calculating the quantities, there was easily enough aboard to summon a very powerful, likely gargantuan, elemental. Other materials and scrolls detailed fiendish rites to lay waste using lava and fire. A letter discovered among the dark communiques read "Chaliya, I hope this is enough to get the job done." and was signed simply "V".
Piecing together Elliot's memories, it was some imposter that sent the heroes to the ship. The entire operation had been a trap intended to kill them, or at least incriminate them in the deaths of the crew. Some new enemy had reached from Koumazot to Evershoal, intending revenge and more.