d20 Adamant Entertainment Gangs of Freeport.pdf

Introduction

to rebuild the guild, to unite the gangs into a new

great power. All have failed. Today’s gangs are

too violent, too petty, and too intolerant of one

another to ever come together under a single

leader. Even were they to do so, the Sea Lord’s

Guard is not the corrupt and useless institution it

once was, but a true police force that would come

crashing down like a tsunami upon any such

nascent organization. No, any attempt to forge

the gangs into a force to match the guild of old is

doomed to failure.

“‘E wuz a pirate, sure ‘nuff ‘e wuz. ‘E wuz a liar,

an’ a cheat, an’ a scoundrel, an’ ‘e’d put a cutlass

in yer belly soon as look ye in the eye. But gods

bless ‘im, ‘e wuz never no thief.”

—“Black-Eyed” Pete Winfrey, First Mate of the

Feeding Frenzy , waxing eloquent about his

former commander and best friend, the late

Captain Jacko Ronson.

Freeport. Many who speak of it kindly call it “the

city of adventure.” Those who prefer accuracy

to poetry instead use phrases like “pirate haven”

and “nest of vipers.” Corsairs ply the nearby

waters, and though they prey on merchant

shipping and drive prices up, they are viewed

with some measure of grudging respect by many

of the city’s citizens. Anyone who can eke a

living on the unforgiving waves has proved some

measure of worthiness.

That’s the funny thing about Freeport, though.

The city’s come a long way, and “doomed” just

isn’t what it used to be.

About This Adventure

Not so the criminals who infest the city’s streets

and alleys, much like rats (and just as welcome).

The gangs of Freeport are objects of fear, but

also of derision. They are pests, petty criminals,

violent thugs unworthy of a second thought—until

they’re holding a knife to your throat, of course.

Freeport has seen gangs rise and fall, criminals

come and go. They are a fact of life, nothing

more.

Yet this was not always so. For a time, the

thieves of Freeport were a scourge the likes of

which the worst pirates could only envy. They

were dangerous. They were organized. They

were smart . For years, a powerful thieves guild

thrived in the city of adventure, growing ever

richer as the honest citizens—well, honest er

citizens—suffered.

In Gangs of Freeport , the PCs ﬁnd themselves

swept up in events as a mysterious power,

making use of techniques both mystical and

malign, shows signs of succeeding where

others failed. The various gangs of the city

work together, and the Sea Lord’s Guard

proves helpless to stem the rising tide of crime.

Only through keen observation, determined

investigation, and the judicious use of bloody

violence can the characters uncover an old evil

behind the threat, and take steps to put him

down.

Gangs of Freeport is suited to a party of four

characters of approximately 6th-level. You

might run it for a larger group, or for characters

of slightly higher level, by toughening up the

various challenges. Be particularly careful when

heightening the adventure for higher-level parties,

as certain spells of 4th-level and above provide

easy means around many of its challenges.

It was a century gone by that the Sea Lord

Marquetta engaged the guild in the so-called

Back Alley War, breaking their back and

scattering them to the four winds… or the gibbet.

The gangs that plague Freeport today are a pale

shadow of the guild that was. Men and women of

great vision and limited morality have attempted

Throughout the adventure, you will encounter

sections of boxed text. This is information

for the players, which you can read aloud or

paraphrase as you wish. Statistics for creatures

and nonplayer characters (NPCs) are detailed in

Appendix A: NPCs, with abbreviated information

presented in each encounter. The Encounter

Level (EL) rates the encounter’s difﬁculty, as

deﬁned in the DMG . Gangs of Freeport assumes

that you have access to Freeport: The City of

Adventure (or F:tCoA ). While you can run this

module without it, you will miss a substantial

amount of detail, and may not be able to make

use of the characters and locations to their fullest

potential.

rewards for his efforts. With every failed gambit,

his resentment grew, and he became convinced

that the Captains’ Council, and his replacement,

Commissioner Xander Williams, were pulling

political strings to keep him down, no matter

where he went.

Tillinghast made few advances, but he did make

contacts and connections across the scummy

underside of mainland society. And ﬁnally,

Tillinghast came to a decision, the only he could:

Freeport was where he belonged, where the true

opportunities were. He simply had to ﬁnd a way

to seize them once more. If he could not thrive on

one side of the law, he would dominate the other.

The former Guard commissioner returned to the

city that had turned its back on him. He came on

a rundown, broken ship, one rag-clad passenger

among many. He returned without fanfare,

without welcome. But he did not return alone. He

brought with him a small force of mercenaries

hired on the mainland, soldiers who would protect

him and serve as his muscle during the early

stages of his scheme. He brought with him, as

well, a shriveled creature called Mentirre Aboir,

and several of Aboir’s apprentices. A native of

a small isle many miles south of the mainland,

the gnome was a spellcaster of the foulest

sort, a manipulator of minds and tormentor of

souls. Aboir and his apprentices were the key to

Tillnghast’s plans, and the gnome was thrilled

to participate for little more than the promise of

many minds to command. Finally, Tillinghast

had allies waiting for him in the Fortress of

Justice, guardsmen who had avoided the new

commissioner’s purge of the corrupt, but had

never forgotten the man who helped line their

pockets.

With the insight they offered, the mercenaries

as his enforcers, and the wizards as his hidden

ace, Tillinghast insinuated himself into Freeport’s

illegal narcotics trade. It was simplicity itself to

supplant other, established suppliers, because

Tillinghast was willing to work at a loss in order

to undercut his competitors; proﬁt was not, at this

stage, his goal.

Adventure Background

They had been the best years of his life, full of

wealth and power and, above all, respect . And

then the Freeport Captains’ Council had stripped

it all away from him, and given his ofﬁce, his

position, his life to a man who deserved not a

whit of it.

For years after his dismissal from ofﬁce and

unofﬁcial banishment from Freeport, “Boss”

Dutch Tillinghast, former commissioner of the

Sea Lord’s Guard, seethed with anger and

resentment. Who were they?! Who were they to

take from him what the great Lord Milton Drac

had granted? Every last one of those ambitious

bastards used his or her position to advance a

personal agenda, but let Dutch do the same—let

him skim just a few pieces worth of gold from the

Guard’s funds, let him take a few tiny gifts from

powerful friends, let him use the Guard to handle

just a few personal grievances—and they were

up in arms. It was a horriﬁc injustice, that’s what

it was.

He made every effort to regain some of the riches

and prestige that had been stolen from him. For

years, he scoured the mainland, moving from city

to city in an attempt to obtain an ofﬁce not unlike

the one he once held in Freeport. In every one,

he failed. Few cities were corrupt enough to let a

man like Dutch Tillinghast anywhere near political

ofﬁce, and those that were provided insufﬁcient

Working through a local arranger named Geoff

“Sky-High” Paulow, Tillinghast introduced a

new narcotic to the market: white smoke. (See

Appendix B: White Smoke for more details of

the drug, the alchemical and arcane procedures

required to create it, and its mechanical effects.)

White smoke’s hallucinogenic properties,

combined with its deadening effect on the will,

made it the perfect tool to enhance Aboir’s own

mind-controlling magics.

They began with the Buccaneers, the gang

which controls the Docks themselves. Many

gangmembers were all too eager to sample this

new narcotic delight, while those who proved

more reticent were forced to comply, compelled

through magics, or simply “disappeared” by

Tillinghast’s mercenaries. They worked their way

up the ranks, using the white smoke to pave the

way for more arcane methods of persuasion, until

every one of the gang’s leaders, including Patch

Carty himself, was under their command.

apprentices, to communicate directly with the

criminals, rather than doing so himself. These

spellcasters routinely disguise themselves

through spells such as alter self , transforming into

the semblance of the region’s serpent people.

Thus, even should an investigation reveal a

power behind the newly allied gangs, it should

appear to be just another scheme of the serpent

people yet loyal to the Brotherhood of the Yellow

Sign. So far as he is concerned, Tillinghast is

untouchable, his plan unstoppable.

It is up to the PCs to prove him wrong.

Adventure Synopsis

And then they spread further still. Utilizing the

same proven techniques, they moved their

inﬂuence into other districts of Freeport, other

gangs. Some of the smarter criminals grew

suspicious, certainly, but it has been a simple

matter to eliminate them and move on. By the

present time, Tillinghast and Aboir control the

Buccaneers, Finn’s Syndicate, and most of the

smaller gangs. They have recently set their

eyes on the ﬁnal great prize, Bloody Jack’s

Cutthroats, and are slowly working through the

ranks. Tillinghast is on the verge of accomplishing

what no one has managed since the days of

Marquetta: the creation of a true, uniﬁed Freeport

underworld.

Gangs of Freeport sets the player characters

square in the middle of the rising crime wave.

What seems initially to be a simple opportunity

for proﬁt swiftly transforms into a struggle to save

Freeport from the consequences of Tillinghast’s

efforts. Should the PCs fail, the city of adventure

may well descend into a sewer of rampant crime

the likes of which it has never before seen.

As the adventure begins, the PCs have been

recruited for a simple task: escort a shipment

of foreign silks and textiles from the docs to

a merchant’s warehouse, clear across the

Warehouse District. On the way, they come under

a surprisingly well organized and orchestrated

assault by gangmembers intent on stealing

the shipment. Although the opponents are not

impossibly tough, their tactics make them a threat

to be reckoned with.

Having witnessed the battle, a criminal by the

name of Cristophe Cirgall, one of Bloody Jack’s

lieutenants, approaches the party. He explains to

the PCs that he has discovered outside inﬂuence

in the gang, and was nearly murdered for failing

to partake of the new narcotic. Obviously,

he cannot go to the Guard, so he offers to

compensate the characters if they will assist.

The nascent organization has prospered greatly

in recent months, and not merely because the

gangs are now cooperating, rather than battling

one another. Tillinghast still has allies in the

Sea Lord’s Guard, and even higher political

circles—possibly even as high as the Captains’

Council. Select guardsmen, once again in his

pocket, provide him schedules and patrol routes,

ensuring that the gangs always strike where the

Guard has little if any presence.

Ever paranoid of betrayal, determined never

again to lose his power, Tillinghast has deceived

even the gang leaders themselves, in case they

should ever escape Aboir’s domination. He

always sends the wizard, or one of the gnome’s

During their investigations, the PCs likely visit

a Cutthroat hideout, the Broken Mug tavern,

and a capsized ship currently serving a sinister

purpose. By combining the clues they should

obtain in those locations (assuming they survive

the threats that wait them there), the PCs can

begin pointing ﬁngers, and evidence, at those

responsible.

Of course, they’re not through there.

Commissioner Williams still cannot trust his own

Guard, so it remains to the PCs to follow through.

Only once they have confronted the so-called

“serpent priests” in the Eastern Quarter, and

captured Tillinghast himself before he escapes

his hidden camp, will they truly have broken the

back of the nascent guild, just as Marquetta did a

century gone by.

Part I :

Caught in the Crossfire

In which the player characters discover

that battling the criminal element may

attract the wrong sort of attention.

their attackers to go on, but if he’s desperate

enough—and he is—it should still ﬂy.

Player Character

Background

Gangs of Freeport assumes that the PCs have

already experienced a few of the opportunities

that the city of adventures has to offer. As 6th-

level characters, they’ve been around the block

a few times, and they’ve established a growing

reputation. Thus, it makes sense that when the

city’s various nobles and merchants start looking

around for extra protection, someone would

certainly think of the party. This also explains why

Cirgall has heard of them.

Hard days have come to Freeport. The city,

never short on violence, is in the midst of a

crime wave the likes of which have not been

seen in recent memory. Locals and travelers

alike are robbed, beaten, even killed with

increasing frequency. The streets are unsafe

to walk alone during the day, let alone at night.

The Sea Lord’s Guard seems helpless to

stem the rising tide of lawlessness, or even

to determine its cause. Already, whispers

circulate that Commissioner Williams may be

asked to resign if he cannot ﬁnd a solution

soon.

Still, in chaos there is opportunity, for anyone

willing to seek and seize it. For those like you,

If this assumption doesn’t ﬁt your campaign,

however, you have other options. Perhaps Lady

Sorya, Captain Matthias, or Cirgall have a prior

personal relationship with one or more of the

characters. Alternatively, the party may simply

have answered an open advertisement for extra

muscle. It stretches the bounds of credulity a

little bit that Cirgall might go to them for help

with nothing more than their victory against

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