I wrote this intro as my GM prep for a short Wildsea adventure.
The party shows up in Slitherbough, a city built under the massive, sheltering branches of a sprawling ironroot, one of the massive trees that grew early in the verdancy.
Captain Martell’s an older ardent, wispy gray hair protruding from some headbands and a small, round hat. There’s still color in his cheeks and a wry smirk on his face. He’s a good captain; he’s treated you well and he tries to take jobs that are on the up and up. Mostly, of course. You’ve seen things go wrong before, and somewhere in there, there’s a bloodthirsty streak when his ship or his crew is on the line–a cruelty that wouldn’t think twice of sending an enemy over the railing and into the under-eaves.
Captain Martell takes the party to The Sheltering Wing, a tavern near the docks built into one of the branches of the ironroot. A massive leviathan bird skull, probably about 10 feet tall, sits above the entrance.
- There’s a drunk challenging people to arm wrestling
- There’s a dart tournament going on, with the prize being an article of pre-verdancy clothing
- There’s a backroom poker game that is quietly revealed when a gau and a tzelicrae stumble out of a smoky side room, faces bloody, clearly in the middle of a fistfight.
The crew has been through at least a few times in the last couple of years. There’s talk of a rootquake to the north, not far from The Sporing Pools, a large spit of land controlled by the gau. Supposedly it opened up a rift in the wildsea going clear down into the under-eaves, and it might have some good pre-verdancy artifacts for salvage.
But the gau are being a bit protective of the area; it’s almost a sacred site, as its moist environment sheltered by its wild foliage is useful as a hospital for severely sick and injured gau. Supposedly, the city of Gau-Therimi has sent some privateers to run other wildsailors out of the area.
Martell ducks out to head to a meeting for a potential job. It’s an old friend, a mothryn by the name of Twill. He seems to be a bit squirrelly about this, like it’s sensitive. He’s being very selective about who he shops this out to.
Martell will be meeting on the other side of town, in a little dive bar called the Overlook. It’s a few floors up in one of the taller branches of the ironroot.
Martell, Twill, and an ektus meet and travel along a small, isolated loop in the boardwalk that runs around a small cluster of branches. Twill and Martell are stabbed by the ektus; “the rift belongs to us” is carved in Twill’s chest (or alternatively, on a note). The ektus is armed with grappling gear; he dives into the underbelly of Slitherbough and disappears.