Episode 4: Dran Enterprises

The attacks on Acquisitions Incorporated franchises have left signs indicating that Dran Enterprises is involved. The characters (now 4th level) head to Luskan, seeking to find that organization’s secret headquarters, infiltrate it, and determine what Dran Enterprises is up to—and what plans they have for the Orrery of the Wanderer.

The search for the headquarters takes the characters first to the rough-and-tumble Fishbone Tavern, then to Arla Razortongue, a disgruntled Dran Enterprises ex-employee running a well-known peg and hook shop. After dealing with thugs sent to quiet Arla, the characters learn the location of Dran Enterprises' secret headquarters, and can plan their infiltration.

That headquarters is a seemingly small and unimportant ship at the Luskan docks. But Dran Enterprises' magic has filled the ship with portals leading to some of the faction’s many franchises, ships, and business locations. When the characters visit, those portals lead to:

• A dead ship being consumed by the power of the Far Realm—which quickly threatens to consume the characters as well.
• A faction warehouse whose overworked attendant will help them only if they help her.
• A Dran Enterprises cargo ship caught in a raging storm, and which will founder on rocks unless the characters lend the crew a hand.
• Another cargo ship whose well-armed crew will finish the characters off in short order unless they make their way through the rigging unseen.
• A Dran Enterprises pirate crew under attack by undead at a remote dock.
• An array of merchant barges that must be crossed while moving along a busy river.

Only by traveling through a sufficient number of these portals can the characters key themselves to activating the portal to Dran Enterprises' true headquarters—a palatial ship named The Maverick. There, they are met by a Dran Enterprises operative who is aware of their quest, and who informs them that Dran Enterprises in fact has nothing to do with the attacks against the two Acquisitions Incorporated franchises. Moreover, Dran Enterprises is also aware of the dark power of the Orrery of the Wanderer—and its operatives have collected two of the orrery’s components, hoping to keep that power in check. But the characters are not alone as they seek this information. Operatives of the Six are already within the portal network, and are racing to claim the orrery components collected by Dran Enterprises before the characters do.

Traveling to Luskan

The City of Sails is located far to the north of the Sword Coast, and the journey there can be as eventful as you desire. If the players are hankering for random encounters, the wild lands of the North can certainly oblige them. Or you might wish to have the journey pass in relative peace while the players coordinate franchise tasks left over from the previous episode.

Luskan rests upon stone escarpments on either side of the icy River Mirar. Three bridges, named Upstream Span, Dalath’s Span, and Long Span, cross forty feet above the river to connect the two sides of the city. The Open Shore docks sit on the northernmost edge of the river, while Dragon Beach holds docks to the south. As they seek out Dran Enterprises' secret headquarters, the characters start in the south and work their way to the Open Shore docks.

A key aspect of Luskan life is its rule by groups known as Ships. Five High Captains each rule a Ship made up of pirates and other Northlanders. Ship Kurth, under High Captain Beniago Kurth, is the First Ship, which controls the city’s docks and trade. Ship Baram is the Second Ship, operating the fishing industry. Third Ship Suljack leads piracy and raiding, handing down less-desirable opportunities to Fourth Ship Taerl. Fifth Ship Rethnor acts as the city’s guard—an unprofitable enough duty that many of its members look for other ways to earn coin.

The order of mages known as the Arcane Brotherhood is the other major power group in Luskan. Though its members include ambitious arcanists of any and all genders, the newly restored order maintains its original name as a reflection of its past power—and as a sign that it seeks to restore that power once again.

If you want to make Luskan a bigger part of your campaign, more information about the city can be found in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.

Searching for Dran Enterprises

The characters' main goal in this episode is to find Dran Enterprises' secret headquarters. However, owing to that organization’s habit of breaking the legs of anyone who talks about company business, this information is hard to come by. Thankfully, the characters are able to learn that Dran Enterprises employees often frequent a specific tavern in Luskan, giving them a starting point for seeking the information they need.

The characters can learn the name and location of the Fishbone tavern in any number of ways, including talking to other tavern owners, seeking out merchants and mercenaries who’ve done business with Dran Enterprises, and the like. Two example encounters are provided to help the characters find the tavern. You can add similar encounters to increase the complexity of the search as desired.

Trouble at the South Gate

The characters are assumed to enter Luskan from the south. Modify the text below as needed to fit their arrival.

A sharp, icy wind whistles through South Gate as you enter Luskan. The shops and taverns lining the main thoroughfare of the City of Sails are as battered and weathered as the grim customers entering them. At first glance, the city’s reputation as a den for pirates and raiders appears well earned.

Just ahead of you, a wagon has broken down in front of a tavern. The elderly human driver calls out for help, but passersby ignore her. As she calls out once more, the tavern door behind her opens and two guards toss a young male human in bright clothing out into the street. He tumbles into the old woman, sending both of them sprawling to the ground. The door closes, then opens once more as a mandolin comes flying out of the tavern.

If the characters want to lend a hand, they have ample opportunity to step up. Catching the mandolin requires a successful DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, and if no party member tries to do so, it crashes to the ground at the characters' feet.

The tavern is called the Last Dregs, and the owners don’t care for strangers. Allow the characters a quick look in if they like, but there are no leads to Dran Enterprises to be found here.

Where Is the Orrery?

At some point before the party arrives in Luskan, ask the players whether their characters are bringing the orrery housing and any components with them, and if so, who carries the relics. If they plan instead to secure them elsewhere, ask about that location and their security measures. For the purpose of the adventure, it’s best if the characters keep the orrery components with them, rather than leaving them at headquarters. (Certainly, reminding the characters of what happened to the last two franchise headquarters that held orrery components should be enough to inspire them to hold onto the components themselves.)

You don’t need this information now, but it becomes relevant in episode 5. Asking now gives the players time to forget you asked!

Failed Minstrel

The minstrel Noriel (NG male human commoner) has spent a rough month in Luskan. He believes that his father was once a pirate working for one of the Ships, but he’s had no luck so far tracking him down. Noriel’s poor sense of fashion, nervousness, and lack of musical skill have not helped his efforts. An impressionable (and starving) teenager, he faithfully serves anyone who takes him under their wing, and can provide comic relief as desired.

Having been thrown out of countless taverns, Noriel knows the general rumors talking of how Dran Enterprises has a secret headquarters somewhere in Luskan. He also knows the even more widespread rumors of how Dran Enterprises punishes anyone who talks about the organization’s business. However, he has heard and shares that many Dran Enterprises employees wander the northern part of the city in their off hours.

Always Be Branding

As long as they’re in Luskan, the characters might take the opportunity to try to extend their franchise’s reach into the city. A formal presence in this far-flung territory is far beyond the scope of their charter of operations, naturally. And savvy franchisees might have heard rumors that Head Office is working to open a franchise in the City of Sails. However, clever players could work to increase their own franchise’s notoriety and add a few more customers without unduly violating the terms of their contract. You might tie such attempts to future franchise tasks or downtime incorporating the shady business practice activity, as the characters try to keep an official distance from any Luskan opportunities.

Driver in Need

Dabahl (NG female human commoner) works as a wagon driver out of Neverwinter, and her hired help all fled after a failed bandit attack during her most recent run north. She made it safely to Luskan alone, but her wagon wheel has just given out.

Repairing Dabahl’s wagon takes at least 1 hour and requires a successful DC 18 Strength (Athletics) or Wisdom (Survival) check. The DC drops to 10 if the characters spend 20 gp on replacement parts, if any character knows the mending cantrip, or if any character is proficient with land vehicles.

Dabahl cannot afford the repairs or offer to pay the characters for their service, but in her gratitude, she can share that Dran Enterprises has a nefarious reputation. The location of their headquarters is a closely guarded secret, but the organization’s employees are said to favor a tavern frequented by fishers. Dabahl sells her goods to Ship Kurth and could also introduce the characters to its merchants, though she does not have any influence with them.

The Broker

With a couple of initial clues at hand, the characters can start the search in earnest for the tavern frequented by Dran Enterprises employees. Unfortunately, most folk in Luskan are smart enough to not talk about Dran Enterprises too openly, and the characters are rebuffed or ignored during their initial inquiries. Eventually, though, the party is referred to Eriss (N female gnome commoner), said to broker deals between guilds and other organizations.

Eriss works with Ship Taerl, and can be found in a small but well-maintained curio shop on a busy street just north of the city’s central bridge, Dalath’s Span. An enormous half-orc thug named One-Tusk stands guard outside the shop. Eriss is inside, polishing bottles containing miniature ships. She claims that these were once real ships, forced into the bottles through powerful magic. A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check suggests that this story isn’t worth a ship-in-a-bottle’s 100 gp sale price. However, Eriss answers the party’s questions only if they buy one of the models or another equally expensive curio from her shop.

What Eriss Knows

Speaking with Eriss is not without risk. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check confirms that the gnome is a broker for criminal organizations, trading information and helping stolen goods find their ways to buyers. A result of 15 or higher on this check also imparts that like most fixers, Eriss is hesitant to engage with the enemies of any company she wants to stay on good terms with.

When the characters inquire about Dran Enterprises, the gnome asks why they seek the organization. If she gets any hint that the characters are opposed to Dran Enterprises, she sends a message warning operatives of the organization as soon as the party leaves her shop. If the characters suspect this, they might need to attempt DC 15 Charisma checks (using Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion, depending on the situation) to talk Eriss down.

If the characters stay on her good side, Eriss confides that she doesn’t know where Dran Enterprises has its headquarters. However, she can share that the employees of the organization sometimes gather at a watering hole known as Fishbone Tavern. They keep a low profile, but the tavern’s bartender, Fryer, might be able to identify a member of Dran Enterprises or help the characters further.

Extending the Luskan Experience

NPC scenes can encourage cooperative roleplaying, so give the players lots of space to discuss how to help characters like Noriel and Dabahl—and then run with the players' ideas. A desire to help Noriel could lead to helping the bard land a paying gig at a tavern, or seeking out one of the Ships or the loremasters of the Arcane Brotherhood to learn of his father. Helping Dabahl could lead to an encounter with a guild of teamsters or a disgruntled repair shop employee. Such efforts could lead to additional roleplaying scenarios, to which you can add ability checks and combat encounters as desired.

Of course, some players will simply ignore Dabahl and Noriel. That’s okay. Let the characters' reactions take things in a different direction, and have a different NPC provide the same information. However, always feel free to have Dabahl or Noriel make another appearance. Maybe the two team up, with Noriel helping improvise the repairs (soon to fail at any time), while Dabahl teaches Noriel a song or two. Their story can move forward, intersecting with the party’s story at a later opportune moment.

Fishbone Tavern

Any fisher or laborer in the north of the city can provide directions to Fishbone Tavern. None of the NPCs currently at the tavern know the location of Dran Enterprises headquarters, but they can provide pointers to someone who does.

Fishbone Tavern is located a few blocks from Luskan’s Open Shore docks, close enough that you can smell the sea air and hear the cries of gulls swooping over the fishing ships. A few lazy snowflakes fall from a cloudy sky as you approach the tavern’s front entrance—and a sign decorated with an actual rotting fish nailed to a board bearing the tavern’s name. Standing before the door is an immense figure who beams a smile missing most of its teeth. He squints his eyes as if trying to make sense of you. “What… uh… what’s your business here?”

The dimwitted bouncer is Zurb (CG male human thug). Zurb’s job is to keep any potential troublemakers out of the raucous tavern, including enemies of Dran Enterprises. Fortunately for the party, he can be fooled very easily with some skillful roleplaying or appropriate ability checks.

Zurb knows (and absolutely shouldn’t share but does) that employees of Dran Enterprises drink at the Fishbone frequently, though he hasn’t seen any of them in a few days. He ponders a while on how that’s rather unusual. Zurb can suggest the characters talk to Fryer the bartender to figure out why. (She earned that name when she hit a would-be-thief with a searing-hot frying pan.) Zurb can also describe any of the tavern’s regulars, including warning the characters that Rakeem can’t be trusted.

When the characters decide to enter, Zurb opens the door for them. If the characters have befriended him, Zurb announces them as “really nice people that talked a lot.” This causes Fryer to shake her head in weary disbelief.

The interior of the Fishbone Tavern is cramped and shadowy. Only two of the eight tables are occupied, one by two fishers and another by a lone figure in a dark, leather-patched cloak. One wall holds a small, smoky fireplace, while a long bar of dark-stained wood stands along the opposite wall. Standing behind the bar under oval plaques set with yellowing fish skeletons is a heavyset human bartender. She pours ale for a half-elf seated at the bar, quietly engaging him in conversation.

Friends of Dran Enterprises

Fryer (N female human commoner) is the owner of the Fishbone Tavern. Any character with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 12 or higher might hear her refer to the half-elf as Rakeem as she talks to him. She is in the service of Dran Enterprises, receiving payment for keeping an eye on the organization’s employees and reporting any lack of loyalty to their management.

Although Fryer is tight with Dran Enterprises, she carries a certain amount of guilt over an incident from a few months ago. She reported a former friend and Dran Enterprises operative named Arla Razortongue to her bosses for speaking out about the organization’s unethical practices. (See “The Peg and Hook” below for more on Arla.) Recent word on the street is that Arla continues to be a thorn in Dran Enterprises' side—and that she’s been marked for exile or elimination. A character might sense Fryer’s remorse over having sold Arla out with a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check, and could encourage her to share what took place and where to find Arla with appropriate roleplaying.

Rakeem (N male half-elf spy) is a regular drinker at the Fishbone, a friend to Fryer, and a professional snitch. Though not in the employ of Dran Enterprises, Rakeem tries to sell any information he overhears regarding the organization. If the characters talk openly about Dran Enterprises while Rakeem is anywhere in the tavern, he overhears them and alerts company operatives as to the characters' intentions.

A character notices Rakeem spying on the group with a successful DC 13 Wisdom (Insight or Perception) check. Rakeem is not eager to fight, though, and once confronted, he can be persuaded or intimidated into keeping anything he heard to himself—at least until the party leaves town. He might also be convinced to share what he knows with appropriate bribes or well-worded threats.

Word on the street is that Dran Enterprises has “turtled up,” retreating into wherever they hide due to some trouble known to the company’s higher-ups. Rakeem doesn’t know what that trouble is, but one person who keeps her ear to the ground about Dran Enterprises is Arla at the Peg and Hook (area see below). He can share Arla’s story and provide directions to her shop.

Working-Class Rumors

The two fishers drinking at a central table are Milo and Tortuk (both N male human Commoner). Both are deep into their cups, lamenting their inability to find employment on the better fishing boats owned by Ship Baram. Even inebriated, they know enough to be wary at the idea of talking about Dran Enterprises to strangers. They do offer up, though, that they haven’t seen any Dran Enterprises employees in going on a tenday now. It’s an easy guess that there’s a big operation in progress, but neither fisher knows what that might be.

The lone figure sitting at a corner table is Velos (N male human bandit), nursing a glass of rum and rubbing his hand. A pirate by trade, Velos tries to conceal that his hand is turning black with infection after an injury during a recent raid. Without treatment such as a lesser restoration spell, he will lose the hand, and he can’t afford treatment. Velos knows Arla and her story, and knows that he and his hand will be bound for the Peg and Hook shop before long.

If the characters help Velos and mention their interest in Dran Enterprises, he shares that he recently overheard a melancholy employee talking about how a friend “got invited to headquarters but accidentally took a wrong door. They managed to scoop up what was left of him.” His gratitude also makes him a solid potential hire, especially if the franchise has future business in Luskan.

Moving Things Along

If the characters need help connecting the dots, Rakeem could make an obvious mistake such as tipping his stool over from trying to strain to hear the party. Or Velos could fall unconscious from his wound, allowing the characters to see his predicament and win Fryer over to their cause with some beneficial healing. Alternatively, an NPC the characters have previously confided in might appear (perhaps Noriel or Dabahl), asking loudly whether the characters have found Dran Enterprises yet, and provoking a noticeable reaction from Fryer and Rakeem.

Once the characters have learned about Arla from any of the possible sources at the Fishbone, they can travel to her shop.

The Peg and Hook

Arla Razortongue (CG female human spy with iconic Dran Enterprises employee features; see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B) had a good thing going as an employee of Dran Enterprises. So when she was fired from that organization, the need to start over again in the cutthroat environs of Luskan inspired her to think outside the box. Way, way outside. Given the number of seedy sailors that call the City of Sails their home port, she knew that a shop helping pirates with limb replacements would always make money. However, she felt that a hook was more useful as a replacement for a leg (instead of the traditional peg leg), and that a peg was more useful to replace a lost hand.

Dran Enterprises ignored Arla at first, convinced that she would be a failure. Surprisingly, though, the plucky entrepreneur managed to convince enough pirates to try out her unconventional system that her business thrived. She has since developed a number of unique attachments (hook shoes, peg arm accessories) that provide surprising functionality—and even replaced one of her own hands and a leg to prove her point.

Talk First, Fight Later?

When the characters approach the Peg and Hook, first decide whether their previous investigation has alerted Dran Enterprises. If they allowed Rakeem to eavesdrop and report their conversations, alerted Eriss the broker of their antagonistic intentions, or asked too many strangers how to find the organization, a strike team is already inside the shop and attacking Arla. Go straight to “area Dran Strike Team” below and roll for initiative.

If the characters were discreet in their inquiries, Arla is alone in her shop and can be approached in any way they want. Then run the “area Dran Strike Team” encounter as the characters prepare to leave the shop.

Talking to Arla

Arla initially assumes the characters are customers, and points out various arm peg accessories, hook foot options, and other products she has developed. She then whips out a bone saw and asks which of the characters she can help first.

When she realizes the characters aren’t customers, Arla is disappointed, but she’s open to their questions. She despises Dran Enterprises, and is willing to help anyone who opposes that organization. Conveniently (for her), she’s also looking for investors to help her expand her burgeoning business. She initially asks for 1,000 gp for her information, or half as much if the characters bring her a paying customer. She can be talked down to 500 gp, or 250 gp with one customer.

Velos the pirate (from the Fishbone tavern) is a potential customer for Arla, but many others can be found around the city. Talking a stranger into getting a hook for a leg or a peg for an arm is best left to humorous roleplaying, but could also be accomplished with a successful DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check. Getting a limb replaced costs 25 gp, and Arla offers no-interest payment plans.

The Hidden Headquarters

Arla shares that Dran Enterprises' true headquarters is an expensive and well-appointed flagship called The Maverick. The ship sails constantly, rarely putting into port for security reasons. But the organization has a much more subtle and just as secret alternative headquarters that hides in plain sight at the heart of Luskan.

A tiny and unassuming ship named Dangerous Business is always moored at the Open Shore docks, and is more than it appears. The ship houses a series of magic portals leading to various Dran Enterprises warehouses, ships, marketplaces—and to The Maverick itself. Each of Dangerous Business’s magic portals is set with and activated by a differently shaped and colored stone. Employees memorize where each stone leads, but the configuration changes on a regular schedule. Moreover, employees are subject to enchantment magic that prevents them from sharing the information. Arla does not know the current portal configuration.

Being Noticed

As the characters rise in level and franchise rank, NPCs will begin to take notice of them, and not just vice versa. Rather than the adventurers constantly thinking about which NPCs might make solid prospective business partners, those NPCs might start showing up later in the adventure to pitch the franchise on commercial deals. Keep note of which NPCs the players have the most fun interacting with, and keep those NPCs in mind for future engagement. Conversely, the NPCs the players most actively dislike could become foes, joining Dran Enterprises or the Six, then appearing later in the campaign to pay the characters back for some real or imagined slight.

Dran Strike Team

A Dran Enterprises strike team has been sent to deal with either the characters or Arla, depending on how the characters got here. The team is led by a fixer named Hoffman (LN female human veteran with iconic Dran Enterprises employee features; see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B). If Dran Enterprises has been alerted to the characters' investigations, the strike team is already inside the shop when the party arrives, preparing to take Arla out. Otherwise, the strike team has been sent coincidentally to shake down Arla, as some of the higher-ups at Dran Enterprises aren’t happy with their disgraced employee’s success. In that case, the strike team enters the shop just as the characters start to leave.

The team’s primary objective is to convince Arla to abandon her business and leave town. If she won’t, they have orders to kill her. Hoffman focuses on attacking Arla, castigating her verbally and physically for being a traitor to Dran Enterprises. In combat, Arla’s shortsword attacks take the form of either her sharpened leg hook or a retractable blade attached to her arm peg.

Hoffman is backed up by three operatives named Pieter, Marks, and Molley (each a N male halfling), each using the spy stat block. The three spies use the mobility afforded by their Cunning Action to change targets, and can be easily goaded into focusing on the characters and ignoring Arla.

Treasure

The strike team members are dressed in fur cloaks and leathers, and their weapons and armor are well maintained. They have the equivalent of a priest’s pack and an explorer’s pack between them, plus a total of 180 gp.

Hoffman wears a round metal pin bearing the symbol of Dran Enterprises, and which radiates abjuration to a detect magic spell or similar effect. The pin allows passage through the portal doors on the Dran Enterprises ship (see the next section).

Infiltrating Dran Enterprises

Dangerous Business is a small sailboat with a single cabin rising from the center of its deck. It is docked alongside two larger sailing ships (named The Ghost and The Rogue). All three ships are owned by Dran Enterprises, with the two larger ships housing fishers, pirates, and others in the company’s employ.

Map 4.1 shows the layout of the docks where the characters make their initial approach to Dran Enterprises headquarters.

Racing Against the Six

As the characters seek an approach to Dangerous Business and the portals within, they are unaware that they are competing against the Six, who have already infiltrated the ship and are seeking Dran Enterprise’s main headquarters aboard The Maverick. The Six are initially at no more advantage than the characters are in their search for the headquarters, but the characters' actions might tip that balance one way or the other.

During this part of the episode, you’ll track a one-off mechanic called “failure points,” which are used to represent the race against the Six and determine which side finds the headquarters first. The resolution of that search is described in the “On Board The Maverick” section, but the characters will have opportunities before that to realize they are competing against the Six. When that becomes clear, you can underscore any situation in which the party earns a failure point, letting the players know that accumulating too many points means that the Six will pass through the final portal and arrive at The Maverick first.

In addition to you tracking the number of failure points, each time the party earns a failure point, you gain a pool of two Guard. You can add one or more guards from your pool to any scene within the “area Portal Nexus” section of this episode. Whenever these guards appear, they enter the scene aware that Acquisitions Incorporated and the Six have infiltrated their territory, and are actively looking for intruders.

The Other Kind of Winning

As always in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign, keep an open mind to alternative ways to advance the story, and don’t worry if the characters happen to lose an important fight. The face-off against the Dran Enterprises strike team is a tough encounter, and might not go the way the characters expect.

If the entire party is defeated or surrenders, Hoffman can order the characters to be kept alive and loaded onto a cart to be taken to Dran Enterprises for questioning. This won’t see the characters taken directly to the company’s main headquarters, but could provide an alternative means of reaching Dangerous Business. Once on that ship, one of the spies might mistakenly open the portal door leading to the Far Realm horror, with the strike team members alone dragged into that deadly trap to allow the characters to gain their freedom. See “area Infiltrating Dran Enterprises” for more information.

Dangerous Business

This humorously small ship is watched over by four Guard that stand a silent vigil around the cabin. The ship can be reached from the main dock or the smaller jetty leading out between Dangerous Business and The Rogue. A single door opens up into the cabin.

The area of the docks around the three ships is patrolled by two groups of Dran Enterprises operatives, each consisting of four Guard and four Mastiff. Crates and equipment piled along the docks can provide cover, potentially allowing the characters to make a stealthy approach. Various booms and scaffolding can also grant access to the larger ships, from which the characters can work their way to Dangerous Business. The players might also devise any number of ways to talk their way on board. Dran Enterprises is often hiring, so the characters could pose as expert sailors or specialized consultants. Give the players and characters the freedom to develop a plan, gather information, and fail or succeed spectacularly!

If any of the guards see the characters as a threat, they shout out, raising the alarm and imposing one failure point. The alarm alerts all other guards on the docks, and can draw an endless supply of reinforcements from other ships over time. As such, the characters should realize quickly that a stand-up fight will involve more foes than they can handle.

The party can retreat and come back when the heat dies down, but this delay imposes another failure point. Or they can push past any threats to get to Dangerous Business and the portals within.

Portal Nexus

When the characters step through into the cabin on Dangerous Business, read:

The small square cabin’s interior is far larger than its exterior, opening up as an oval room thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide. Crumpled on the floor before an iron door on the far side of the room, the body of a guard lies in a pool of blood. Standing closed between you and the body, six other oval-shaped iron doors are the only features in the room. Each door has a heavy latch that bears the insignia of Dran Enterprises, but no lock is visible. Above each of the iron doors, a differently shaped and colored glowing stone is set.

The characters can examine the dead guard or investigate the doors and stones. However, the amount of time they have to do so depends on whether they had other guards in pursuit. If the characters were pursued, give them a round or two to investigate the portal nexus, then have an increasing number of guards burst into the area each round, forcing the characters to enter a portal.

If the characters infiltrated the ship without raising the alarm, they have five minutes before they hear a guard patrol approaching. If they leave this area to go back onto the deck of Dangerous Business for any reason, they immediately attract the attention of nearby guards.

Dead Guard

The dead guard is a male half-orc. Lying on his chest is a black business card bearing unintelligible symbols. More notable is that the unfortunate guard’s brain has been removed from his shattered skull. The guard was killed by the mind flayer leading the Six operatives (see “area Portal 4” and later for more information). The condition of the guard’s head makes it impossible to talk to him with speak with dead.

Aside from his grievous head wound, the guard’s body is untouched except where his shirt is torn over his chest. A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check confirms that a brooch or pin was ripped from that location. If a character thinks to check, the size of the round metal pin claimed from Hoffman after the fight with the Dran Enterprises strike team matches the size of the torn hole. (If the characters didn’t claim the pin from the strike team and you haven’t already arranged for a replacement to be found, this guard has a second pin in his pocket.)

Portal Doors

Each portal door is made of reinforced iron. A successful DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that the doors are mundane, but that each is magically trapped. A detect magic spell or similar effect reveals an aura of evocation on a door’s latch. If a latch is opened by anyone not wearing the round metal pin bearing the symbol of Dran Enterprises, the trap goes off. Each creature within the room must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 16 (3d10) cold damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one. Each trap can be disarmed with a successful DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana) check or a Dexterity check using thieves' tools.

Each of the seven doors has a glowing semiprecious stone above it, carved into a different shape: a green turquoise square, a red feldspar triangle, a white pearl circle, a purple amethyst oval, a blue aquamarine rectangle, a black hematite pentagon, and an orange tiger-eye hexagon. A detect magic spell reveals an aura of conjuration on the space beyond each door and on each of the stones.

The stones are coded markers indicating which doors lead to specific portals. That coding is changed regularly, with the portals reassigned to different locations and the stones swapped around to help keep their destinations a secret. As such, a portal still functions if its stone is removed, and a stone can be reattached to a door with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check. Placing a stone over a different door makes it harder for the operatives of the Six to know which doors they’ve already gone through as they make use of the portal network. Swapping one or more stones thus removes one of the party’s failure points. If the players don’t work out that the stones can be moved, a character infers this with a successful DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana) check.

Treasure

If the stones are removed, they lose their magical properties but are worth 25 gp each.

Portal Encounters

Each portal door leads to a different encounter. Opening any door transports all characters in the portal nexus into the area beyond, with the entrance portal disappearing behind them. The characters must navigate the scene that takes place in the new location, then find an exit portal (another iron door identical to the doors in the nexus) to return to the portal nexus. (Portal 1 is an exception, bringing the characters back automatically.) Eventually, the characters find the portal leading to Dran Enterprises' headquarters in this way.

As an advanced security measure, the magic of the portal network prevents a creature from gaining access to the headquarters on board The Maverick without a certain amount of experience traversing the network. As such, the first three portals the characters access will never lead to the headquarters.

The current destinations of the portals are noted on the Portals table. You can choose encounters you favor, or roll on the table to see where the characters end up, rerolling any locations already visited. For the first three destinations, roll a <wc-roll dice=“d6} to prevent the characters from reaching The Maverick. For subsequent destinations, roll a d8. Alternatively, you can allow the characters to reach the headquarters ship (see “On Board {@i The Maverick”>AI” below) any time after they’ve returned from three other destinations.

With the exception of the Far Realm horror, the specific locations of portal encounters are not detailed here. If the characters ask about where they are in any given encounter, or if they’re inclined to venture outside the encounter area, the choice of location is up to you.

Portals

Just Cut to the End

If the players are particularly clever, they might come up with novel ways to shortcut the search for the headquarters portal. Perhaps they use detect thoughts on a Dran Enterprises operative who knows which stone currently marks the headquarters portal. Maybe exceptional roleplaying allows them to talk an operative into using that portal while the characters watch. If this happens, the first time the characters try to use the headquarters portal, they are shunted back into the portal nexus.

Any Intelligence (Arcana) check made to read the portal’s magic reveals that the way forward is blocked except to those with experience using the portal network. The characters must pass through three other portals first, but you can say that their attempts to access the headquarters portal have locked it down temporarily, preventing the Six from accessing it. Remove one failure point from the party’s total.

Portal 1: Far Realm Horror

A month ago, an encounter with operatives of the Six led Dran Enterprises to try to fight that group using its own dark magic. Sadly, that attempt failed, and this portal now remains tied to a pocket dimension channeling the power of the Far Realm. Danger lurks on the other side of the door, whose stone has been marked as off limits for Dran Enterprises employees. If a character opens this door, read:

As the portal opens, a pulse of magic draws you forward. The door vanishes and you stand within an impossible scene. The deck of a ship opens up around you, but the shifting sea to all sides is the color of bruised flesh, roiling beneath a clear sky filled with unfamiliar constellations. Suddenly the door to the ship’s main cabin explodes out in a pulse of sickly ethereal light. With a horrid slurping sound, writhing tentacles spill forth through the open doorway and lash toward you.

This self-contained dimension is fueled by the power of the Far Realm. Planar instability prevents characters from moving beyond the immediate area of the deck (including jumping off the ship or fleeing belowdecks).

Creature

The mass of writhing tentacles is a Far Realm horror known as a chaos quadrapod (see appendix B). It uses its Chaos Cloud at the start of combat, then surges forward to lay into stunned characters. Each round, it focuses its grappling ability on whichever characters dealt it the most damage in the previous round.

If any part of the chaos quadrapod is pushed back through the door, it can be forced to return to its void of origin if the door is closed with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. If this happens, any creatures it has grappled are automatically released.

As soon as the chaos quadrapod is killed or sent back through the door, the unstable magic of this portal draws the characters back to the portal nexus, giving them no time to explore the ship. However, a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check identifies the strange surroundings and the chaos quadrapod as products of the nightmarish Far Realm.

Portal 2: Guarded Warehouse

As the portal opens, you feel a lurch as its magic wraps around you. The door is gone suddenly, and you are standing in a hot and humid warehouse filled with crates stacked to the ceiling. Windows high up on the walls let in light and reveal what look like tropical trees outside. The crates are organized in mazelike rows, making it hard to see how far the warehouse spreads. From somewhere to your right, you hear humming, running footsteps, and the squeak of a wheeled cart drawing closer.

Warehouse Worker

The guardian of this warehouse is Dagdra Deepforge (NG female dwarf), a long-time employee of Dran Enterprises. She has the iconic documancer feature (see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B) and uses the priest stat block with these changes:

• She wears half plate (AC 15).
• She has these racial traits: Her speed is 25 feet. She has darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. She has advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance against poison damage. She speaks Common and Dwarvish.

Dagdra Deepforge wears a tabard that is so worn that the bottom half of the image it bears is missing. A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Religion) or Wisdom (Perception) check determines that the holy symbol of Moradin was once on the tabard, but only a bit of the flame remains. She pushes a cart loaded with Chultan-themed tourist keepsakes and collectibles. All bear the logo of Acquisitions Incorporated, but these are actually knock-offs created as part of Dran Enterprise’s ongoing efforts to undercut Acquisitions Incorporated’s reputation and success.

Dagdra has made a lot of bad choices in her life, from leaving her church to joining Dran Enterprises and getting stuck with warehouse duty. Her job mostly involves running from one row of crates to another, filling orders for customers and grouping them for retrieval by other Dran Enterprises employees. She receives her instructions through her documancy satchel.

If Dagdra notices intruders, she is startled and begins to call for help. The characters must either silence her, overcome her quickly, or convince her to hear their story. Fortunately, Dagdra is open to reconsidering her life choices and allegiances—and is having a really bad day. If the characters agree to help her complete her tasks, she reveals the location of the exit portal.

Lending a Hand

Helping Dagdra Deepforge complete her tasks involves a specific process and a number of ability checks, all at DC 12. When an order comes in, it appears magically on Dagdra’s ledger, three items at a time (see the Dagdra’s List table below). The dwarf calls out the three items, and a character must make an ability check using one of the skills noted for an item to locate that item in the warehouse. Each check represents the act of either physically searching for the item or understanding the characteristics of the item. The narrow space between piles of crates means that only one character can search for each item.

Once three items are located with three checks, any character must then make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to place the three items in Dagdra’s cart as the dwarf races around the warehouse.

The items are found and collected regardless of the success or failure of the checks. But if the characters fail three or more of the four checks necessary to collect a group of items, their lackluster performance causes a bearded devil productivity specialist to appear and attack the party (including Dagdra) for 1 round. The devil then vanishes, and the party gains a failure point.

Dagdra’s List

Once all twelve items have been found, Dagdra leads the characters to a stack of crates that conceals the exit portal. Due to the standard Dran Enterprises enchantments placed upon her, she can’t share any information about how to reach The Maverick. She stays behind to slack off for the rest of her shift, but might show up at some later point if you wish. Having decided to make a new life for herself, Dagdra makes an excellent potential employee for the franchise.

If the characters did not befriend Dagdra, they must search the endless maze of crates for the exit portal. This search can reveal the various products noted above (which the characters are free to steal and later resell using the shady business practice activity). Either way, unauthorized movement in the warehouse causes a bearded devil to appear and fight the characters until destroyed. Only then can the exit portal be found. The party gains one failure point as a result of the time they spent in the maze.

Portal 3: Raging Storm

The moment you open the door, magic wraps around you, drawing you through the portal and into a raging storm. You stand on the deck of a ship that heaves from one side to the other as waves crash over the rails. Crew members pull lines and tie down cargo, as a heavyset, bearded captain calls out orders. Looking across the bow, you see tall spires of rock emerging through the storm—and the ship is headed straight toward them!

Captain Nuxoll (NG male human veteran) and the crew of the Dran Enterprises cargo vessel Liar’s Luck are overwhelmed by the storm. Though they recognize at once that the characters are not in Dran Enterprises livery, they are in no mood for a fight and need any help they can get. The characters can determine what needs to be done on their own, or the captain or first mate twins Travis and Benham (both NG male half-elf Commoner) can suggest useful actions.

Each of the tasks below involves one or more characters attempting specific ability checks to aid the ship’s crew during the storm. All six checks must be attempted by the characters. The players can decide which characters make which checks, but a character cannot make a second check until all the characters have made one check. A character with the sailor background has advantage on these checks. If the characters fail three or more checks, the party gains one failure point.

Lower Main Sails

The storm’s winds will shatter the mast if the sail can’t be brought down, but its lines are tangled. A successful DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check is needed to reach the tangled lines, followed by a successful DC 12 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to untangle them. A crew member named Streams (CG female halfling commoner) provides advice to any character attempting this task. A character who fails is tangled up and takes 3 (1d6) slashing damage.

Secure the Rum

Casks of rum are rolling around the decks, creating a short-term danger to the crew—and a longer-term danger to the crew’s morale if too much of the rum goes overboard. A successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check helps first mates Travis and Benham secure the casks. If a character fails, they are slammed by an errant cask and take 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.

Wave Lookout

The captain needs a sharp eye to call out when waves are about to strike the ship. An intern named Heian (LN female half-elf commoner wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Aeofel Lives”) is currently on this duty, but she needs help. A successful DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check provides timely warning for the next set of waves. If the character’s check fails, the next check made by any character to aid the ship is made with disadvantage.

Calm the Beast

A tiger being transported on the main deck in a large metal cage is frightened by the storm and trying to escape. Its keeper Bendari (N male elf druid) needs help. A successful DC 14 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check calms the tiger. Failure results in the tiger making one attack against the character through the bars of its cage.

Lift the Curse

A crew member named Incindorita (CN tiefling acolyte) claims that the ship has been cursed. They insist that one of the newcomers to the ship must offer up a prayer to calm the storm. There is no curse, but a character who succeeds on a DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana or Religion) check can go through the motions to calm Incindorita and inspire the crew.

Spot the Rocks

Captain Nuxoll needs someone to mark the distance and direction to the spires of rock along the shore, allowing the ship to pilot around them and to a calmer bay beyond. A successful DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check allows the ship to make a safe passage, or a character who succeeds on a DC 13 Charisma (Persuasion) check can give the captain the confidence to navigate the treacherous waters. If the check fails, the ship shudders as it grinds against rocks, and each creature on board takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.

Calmer Waters

After all six checks have been attempted, the ship passes through the storm. The crew hails the characters as heroes (or, if they failed, at least appreciates their attempt to help). Captain Nuxoll forgives the characters for infiltrating the Dran Enterprises portal network, and agrees to pretend that the crew never saw the party. He allows the characters access to the exit portal, which is located in his chamber.

While passing through the captain’s chamber, the characters can clearly see a logbook filled with records of Dran Enterprises trade transactions, which is worth 250 gp to Acq Inc Head Office. A character can steal the logbook with a successful DC 12 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. On a failed check, the captain and crew members spot and prevent the theft, and each character takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage from the beating they endure as they escape through the portal.

Portal 4: Amid the Rigging

The moment you open the iron door, a tug of magic leaves you clinging shakily to a triangular foretop platform, high above the deck of a gently swaying cargo ship. From your vantage point forty feet above the deck, you can see dozens of crew members below. All wear the livery of Dran Enterprises, and most carry swords and crossbows. Rigging and rope ladders connect your platform to the crow’s nest in the middle of the ship. Similar rigging connects the crow’s nest to a platform at the aft of the ship. On that far platform, you see an iron door—the exit portal.

Out of sight of the ship’s crew, the characters face no immediate threats but are nonetheless in a difficult predicament. The most obvious resolution is to try to cross the rigging in stages—first reaching the crow’s nest, then continuing on to the aft platform and the exit portal.

At different points during the crossing of the rigging, the characters might attract the attention of crew members on the deck. The first time the characters are spotted, the party gains one failure point, and each character comes under attack by two crew members firing crossbows (use the bandit stat block). If the characters are spotted during the first stage of the trek across the rigging, the attacks repeat during the second stage, though no additional failure points are gained.

Reaching the Crow’s Nest

Crossing the rigging requires a successful DC 13 group check using Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). If at least half the characters succeed on the check, all the characters make it across unseen, with characters who failed checks being grabbed and aided by the other characters.

If more than half the characters fail the check, each character who failed slips from the rigging but manages to hang on. The characters must then succeed on a DC 12 group Dexterity (Stealth) check to prevent the commotion from drawing the attention of those below. If at least half the characters succeed, the party reaches the crow’s nest unseen. If the check is a failure, crew members on the deck spot the characters.

Big Daddy Donaar’s Yum Yum Hut began as a braggadocious endeavor masterminded by one Donaar Blit’zen, when taking over the operations of the Dran & Courtier and attempting to rebrand for the night. Though the endeavor was an overall disaster, the brand remains unnervingly strong. Folks travel far and wide to sample Yum Yum Hut wares and merchandise. I yearn to know why.

• Omin Dran

Crow’s Nest

As the characters reach the crow’s nest, have the two lead characters attempt DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) checks to spot Bardok the ship’s cook (N male human commoner) currently lounging there. He wears an apron that reads “Big Daddy Donaar’s Yum Yum Hut,” which is the first thing visible if he is spotted. Bardok is too mellow to care about intruders, so that if the characters approach him carefully, they discover he’s a big fan of Acquisitions Incorporated and is willing to help them out. The characters could instead handle Bardok in other ways, but if the initial Wisdom (Perception) checks are failed or Bardok is attacked, the startled cook cries out and alerts the crew.

Trade Route Maps

When the characters reach the crow’s nest, even if they raised the alarm, they have time to look around. On the main deck below the crow’s nest, a female elf dressed in green leather armor has been studying a map of the Sword Coast marked with trade routes. A number of other maps are stuffed into a backpack at the foot of the mast.

The characters can attempt to steal the backpack and the valuable trade route maps within. Doing so requires a successful DC 12 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to reach a favorable position in the rigging, followed by a successful DC 12 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to use some kind of rope-and-hook setup to hoist up the backpack. A mage hand cantrip can also be used to retrieve the pack, and the players might come up with other suitable ideas.

If the backpack is claimed, it holds maps worth 500 gp to Head Office. If only one of the checks succeeds, the characters still gain the maps but a crew member spots them if they are not already spotted. If neither check succeeds, the crew is alerted to the characters' presence if not already alerted, and each character comes under attack by two crew members firing crossbows (use the bandit stat block).

Aft Platform

Traversing the rigging and the rope ladders from the crow’s nest to the aft platform requires another DC 13 group check using Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). Once the characters reach the aft platform, they face one final barrage of attacks if they’ve been previously spotted. They can then step through the portal.

As the characters step through the portal, read the following, making adjustments as necessary if they have already seen the Six operatives:

Even as your group reaches the aft portal, you see another group appear through the foredeck portal. Five humans surround a tall, purple-skinned creature in black and purple robes—and which has four tentacles where its mouth should be. Oddly, those tentacles are tied together into a stylish handlebar mustache. The creature’s companions fire arrows and swing down the rigging to do battle below. As your portal begins to close, the tentacled creature looks up to coldly watch you.

Choose one of the characters to receive a telepathic message from the mind flayer: “I will consume you and your companions. Your end comes soon.” More information on this Six agent can be found in “On Board The Maverick” below.

Portal 5: Pirates Versus Zombies

Opening this door brings the characters into the middle of a battle with undead. Map 4.2 shows the setup of the dockside pirate fight.

As you open the iron door, the magic of the portal wraps around you, pulling you onto the stern of a large galleon. The door behind you vanishes as the noise of a raging battle rises. A horde of zombies surrounds a dozen Dran Enterprises pirates, who are fighting for their lives. The ship is moored at an old and decaying dock, with a single building visible against a forest of thick trees. In the trees beyond the building, you can see a freestanding iron door with the oval shape of a portal entrance.

No zombies are present on the land, though they swarm every part of the ship. One group of undead turns in unison in your direction as they spot you. Then a strong voice calls out as the ship’s captain, wearing a flamboyant feathered hat and wielding a hammer decorated with seaweed, shouts to be heard. “Rally to me side, me crew! We fight still! Fight for our lives! No curse shall bring us down!”

The captain smashes a zombie with her hammer, then pulls a scroll from a satchel and reads words of power. A thunderous boom shatters the zombies around her, though more quickly press in. Several pirates call out: “Rally to Captain Torwyn!”

The ship’s hard-fighting captain is Aela Torwyn (LN female dwarf priest with no remaining spell slots and the iconic documancer feature; see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B). She brought a curse down on her ship, the Kraken’s Lament, when she found the hammer she wields. (That hammer uses the statistics for the priest’s mace attack.) Dedicated to a dark god, the weapon causes those it slays to eventually rise as undead that seek their killer. Torwyn does not realize this, merely believing that some dark curse affects the ship.

Creatures

The characters have an immediate problem with the group of six Zombie that initially engage them in battle. Once those are defeated, other options present themselves.

Quell the Curse

Any character caught up in the zombie attack who succeeds on a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana or Religion) check sees that the undead are drawn to the dark glow of the captain’s magic hammer. If Torwyn throws the hammer overboard into the sea, half the zombies follow it, reducing the forces the characters must face and ensuring the pirates gain the upper hand. However, convincing the captain requires a compelling argument and a successful DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check.

Keep a Low Profile

The characters can ignore the plight of the crew and work their way toward the docks and to the portal. This requires moving past three Zombie and one ogre zombie, which are facing off against a lone pirate named Davena (N female human bandit captain with 12 hit points remaining). The characters can help Davena or they can sneak past and leave her to her doom with a successful DC 10 group Dexterity (Stealth) check. If the characters haven’t made the connection between the hammer and the zombie attack, Davena can be overheard muttering about the curse, and how she’s sure it’s caused by the hammer Torwyn recovered from an old shipwreck.

Join In

The characters can rally to the captain while helping the crew. Pirates Fallinoor, Goldie, Whiskey, and Wemp (all human Berserker with 8 hit points remaining) are trying to reach the captain but face twelve Zombie in their way (or half that number if the hammer was abandoned). Defeating the zombies helps to unite the pirates, the characters, and the captain, so they can work more effectively against the horde.

Once they rally, the pirates and the captain working together destroy one zombie per round. The characters have advantage on attack rolls and ability checks, and the zombies have disadvantage on saving throws.

Aftermath

If the characters fought more than two groups of zombies but did not help the crew achieve victory, the party gains a failure point. If they stayed and helped the crew, Captain Torwyn thanks them effusively, and tells them that if they ever need a ship near Luskan, they can call on the Kraken’s Lament. Once off the ship, the characters can easily reach the portal, then return to the portal nexus. If the characters ignored the pirates to head straight for the portal, remove one failure point from the party’s total and have the characters think about their life choices.

Treasure

In thanks, Torwyn and her crew offer the party a wand of magic missiles, a Vicious +1 Rapier, and a rope of entanglement. The rope is seemingly made of seaweed.

Portal 6: River Barge Crossing

This encounter brings the characters into direct contact with the operatives of the Six who are also traversing the portal network. Map 4.3 shows the initial setup of the river barge crossing.

Read the following, making adjustments as necessary if the characters have already seen the Six operatives:

When you pull open the iron door, the view beyond shows another place—and you are suddenly there, the door disappearing behind you. A grassy slope leads down to the banks of a slow-moving river. A number of barges decorated in bright colors move up and down the river, bearing merchants crying out to attract customers. Those customers move from the river bank to the nearest barge, then carefully hop from barge to barge until they reach the merchant they want. On the opposite bank, you can see a small outhouse set with an oval iron door.

A flash of light draws your attention to the right, where some fifty feet away from you, another group exits a portal that vanishes behind them. The group consists of five humans and a tall, purple-skinned creature. That creature’s face has tentacles where its mouth should be—with those tentacles oddly tied into a stylish handlebar mustache. The creature wordlessly looks at two archers accompanying it, who draw their bows. Its three other companions break into a run toward the riverbank as the creature vanishes with a popping sound.

Roll initiative. Having seen the characters (or having seen them again), the mind flayer has used its plane shift ability to get back to the portal nexus. There, it prepares for the assault on the Dran Enterprises headquarters, leaving its lackeys to try to get to the outhouse portal before the characters. Of the four human Scout among the Six operatives, two stay behind and fire arrows at the party, while the other two scouts and a human cult fanatic race toward the barges.

The intention of the Six operatives is to cross the river barges as quickly as possible and reach the portal before the characters. The running scouts focus on crossing, though they use their shortswords against any character who jumps into the same or an adjacent barge. The cult fanatic races across the barges as well, but casts spiritual weapon as soon as possible. He then uses spells such as command or hold person on any character who gets a commanding lead.

The river is 85 feet wide and filled with 10-foot-wide barges. At the start of each round, a barge moves either left or right 1d4 × 5 feet, either drifting with the current or being poled against it. The movement of the barges adds an unpredictable element to the characters' attempts to get across the river.

Each barge holds a merchant and 1d4−1 customers, and all its area counts as difficult terrain. Characters in one barge can jump to a barge within 5 feet without an ability check. However, each barge is filled with different wares, so that some of the barges require checks by both the characters and the Six operatives to successfully cross them. See the Barge Contents table for more information.

Characters are free to try to swim across the river, but doing so while avoiding the shifting barges requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check for each move made to swim. Any character in the water also attracts the attention of the giant poisonous snake from barge 1.

Between the characters and the Six, the first group to have half its members reach the riverbank wins the race and gets to the portal first. If the characters lose this race, the party gains a failure point.

Barge Contents

On Board The Maverick

When the characters have traveled through three other portals, they are able to finally make their way through the portal leading to Dran Enterprises headquarters. This portal can conveniently be the next one the characters pick after returning from the third portal, unless you want to have the characters run through more portal encounters.

When the characters enter the headquarters portal, read:

At last, you step through the iron door that leads into a palatial room on Dran Enterprises' headquarters ship. A placard on one richly polished wooden wall reads, “The Maverick.” Two dazzling chandeliers, fine paintings, and lacquered chairs and tables set with gold trim decorate this opulent and expansive study. Large, curved windows to all sides reveal that you are below decks and far out at sea, the ship’s wake extending behind it under clear skies. But you are not alone.

Who the characters find in this room depends on how well they navigated the portals. Total the failure points earned by the party and consult the following table.

First to the Meeting

If the characters beat the Six operatives here, the only person in the room is a businesslike lizardfolk wearing a collar, a bow tie, and spectacles. Bracus (N lizardfolk with the iconic hoardsperson feature; see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B) studies the characters, touching his fingers to his chin as he invites them to introduce themselves. He then states his own name, confirming that he is in the employ of the unparalleled Dran Enterprises.

Bracus shares information with the characters, pausing to allow for questions and posing queries of his own. He’s interested in what the characters encountered in the portal network, and responds favorably to any talk of assisting Dran Enterprises staff. He might ask what aspirations they have, or what it’s like working for Omin Dran and Jim Darkmagic. Use the following points to guide the conversation:

• Bracus has been aware of the characters and their franchise since the first time any of them made use of the orrery components the party holds. (If the characters have not used any of the components, it’s been the process of drawing them together that has enabled Bracus to get a sense of the party’s activities through the orrery components in his possession.)
• Dran Enterprises normally views taking over failed Acquisitions Incorporated franchises as a sound investment decision, salvaging those franchises for parts and turning them into proper businesses. Nothing personal, of course.
• In response to talk of what brought the characters to him, Bracus says he understands how Acquisitions Incorporated might have come to believe that Dran Enterprises was responsible for the destruction of its franchises. Nothing could be further from the truth.
• The true culprit is an enigmatic group known as the Six. They seem to be linked to dark gods and the Far Realm. Dangerous stuff.
• The Six came into the possession of the far gear just over a year ago—one of the components of the Orrery of the Wanderer. Operatives of the Six are now actively seeking the orrery’s other components, hoping to rebuild it for some dark ritual. But Bracus believes that even recovering a few components could be enough for the Six to accomplish their goals.
• In an attempt to foil the Six, Dran Enterprises secured two of the orrery’s components—the chronolometer and the dimensional loop. Dran Enterprises also knows that the last unclaimed component, known as the wheel of stars, has been securely stored in the northern holdfast known as Horn Enclave, and is under the protection of the dwarves who dwell there.
• Bracus is aware that the Six are attempting to gain access to the headquarters portal, and suspects they will arrive at any moment.

Bracus takes the characters' measure during the conversation. However, as long as the characters stop short of killing the lizardfolk immediately, the imminent appearance of the Six convinces him that the enemy of his enemy is now his friend. Reaching into his hoardsperson living loot satchel, Bracus retrieves the chronolometer and the dimensional loop. He then offers both to the characters in exchange for them defending him when the Six operatives arrive—as they do only moments later. See “area Operatives of the Six” below for more information on the fight with the mind flayer Szorrulax and its minions.

Right on Time

If the party arrives at the same time as the Six, roll initiative! Szorrulax prioritizes killing Bracus during the fight, forcing the characters to try to save the Dran Enterprises employee. If Bracus is killed, Szorrulax flees with his Living Loot Satchel and the orrery components at once. If the characters save Bracus, defeat the Six operatives, and force Szorrulax to flee, they gain the components and the information noted above. If Bracus dies, they might still find a valuable book and some treasure, as described below.

Unfashionably Late

If the Six operatives arrive at the headquarters first, Szorrulax easily defeats and kills Bracus. When the characters arrive, Szorrulax is claiming Dran Enterprises' two components, having destroyed the lizardfolk’s Living Loot Satchel to empty its contents. Roll for initiative, but Szorrulax’s first act is to plane shift away.

All is not lost, though. Once the characters defeat the remaining foes, they can investigate the cabin. In the spilled contents of Bracus’s satchel, they find a book entitled Great Dwarven Halls, with a page turned down. It mentions the dwarves of Horn Enclave as being noted for their work of securing items of great value. Written in the margin is the note: “The wheel of stars, hidden by its creator.” They also find the treasure noted below, since Szorrulax doesn’t have the time to take it.

Operatives of the Six

Szorrulax is the mind flayer the characters might have previously seen in the portal network. It has the iconic secretarian feature (see “Iconic Faction Features” in appendix B) and braids its tentacles together into a handlebar mustache. If Szorrulax kills anyone, it immediately drops a black business card set with unintelligible symbols onto the body as a calling card.

Accompanying the mind flayer are the Six operatives who survived the portal 6 encounter (originally four Scout and one cult fanatic). If all those foes were killed in that encounter, Szorrulax has two Bandit with it—a pair of guards held back from previous encounters, and who are now the last survivors of the Six’s forces.

In battle, Szorrulax uses Mind Blast on as many characters as possible, making sure that Bracus is in the blast if the lizardfolk is alive. The mind flayer prioritizes killing Bracus before turning to other targets, but it has no interest in a fair fight. It uses plane shift to escape if it can seize the components or if it is badly wounded, leaving its lackeys behind to deal with the characters.

Treasure

In addition to the book, the study holds 30 pp, 150 gp, two pieces of pink coral (100 gp each), a small gold bracelet (50 gp), five +2 Arrow decorated with green flames, a dagger of venom, an immovable rod, and two Potion of Greater Healing. Bracus gifts all this to the characters if they save him, or they can loot it if things go the other way.

Getting Away

When the fight is done, the characters can exit through the portal, return to the portal nexus, and leave Dangerous Business. If they want to explore The Maverick first, that enormous ship is crawling with elite Dran Enterprises operatives (use the veteran stat block), all of whom know to kill intruders on sight.

If Bracus is alive, all Dran Enterprises personnel have been magically ordered to allow the characters to leave the Luskan docks unharmed. If such a message is not received, the guards on the boat and the docks react badly to the party’s appearance, and the characters must sneak, talk, or fight their way to safety. Once away from the docks, the characters can lie low for as long as necessary, then depart Luskan.

The Six? Don’t waste my time with fables. Yeah, there are people who don’t like Acq Inc. People with grudges. People with axes to grind. But they’re not some sort of… I don’t know, cult or gang or whatever.How am I so sure? Because I’ve been in this from the beginning. Do you have any idea what I know? What I’ve seen? The hits I’ve taken for Acquisitions Incorporated? If there were a cabal of subtle masterminds working the shadows, cunningly plotting the downfall of Acq Inc, they would have definitely recruited me by now.

• Viari

Conclusion

With their exciting portals-based adventures in Luskan done, the characters attain 5th level! Just as importantly, they’ve learned that Dran Enterprises isn’t the real villain behind the attacks on Acquisitions Incorporated franchises. If the characters spoke to Bracus or obtained the book from the lizardfolk’s satchel, they also have a solid lead indicating that Horn Enclave holds the final orrery component. If they failed to talk to Bracus and have not yet deciphered the book, see “area Enter Flabbergast” in the next episode to bring them up to speed.

When the characters complete the journey from Luskan back to their headquarters, they find their half-orc majordomo in a great mood.

Gilda Duhn is all tusks, grinning from ear to ear. “I just heard word from Head Office! The bosses have been watching how well you run the business, and your mission in Luskan is all anyone is talking about! Our license has been expanded to cover a broader territory around Phandalin! And even better, I’ve been crunching the profit statements, and I think we’re ready to expand this headquarters!”

Franchise Advancement

As the characters attain 5th level, the franchise attains rank 2! You and the players should all spend some time in the “Franchise Advancement” and “Company Positions” sections of chapter 2 to read up on the exciting improvements for the franchise, for its headquarters, and for the characters as their company positions yield even more powerful benefits.

Franchise Headquarters Upgrades

All the characters' hard work and luck to date is about to pay off in the form of headquarters upgrades! The “Franchise Advancement” section in chapter 2 has details of the cosmetic, expansion, transportation, and weapon options available to the characters for their headquarters. The available upgrades can cover literally any features that you and the players decide on, but always keep in mind the ways in which the events and developments of the adventure might drive those upgrades.

For example, the expansion option available to the headquarters might amount to simply digging out more space beneath Tresendar Manor. But it also might arise as a result of the franchise moving its headquarters to the Silent Sound lighthouse—or even claiming both sites as a joint headquarters. That latter option is even easier to set up if the characters' possession of the orrery and its components allows them to channel teleportation magic into their headquarters as their transportation option.

Hiring Staff

At rank 2, the franchise gains four additional untrained hirelings and one skilled hireling, allowing the characters to hire new staff to meet their needs. Such hires can be done in-character if the players enjoy those kinds of scenes—and the franchise could even set up a job fair for potential employees at a local market or tavern. If the characters have made any allies or hired NPCs during preceding episodes, those NPCs might be taken on as official staff members at this time. This is also an excellent time to bring in an NPC the characters enjoyed interacting with, making that character an official part of the franchise family.

Crew

In addition to staff, ten crew are hired to help with the franchise. In addition to working on the upkeep of the franchise headquarters, these NPCs might be part of the team necessary to operate a mobile headquarters (sailors for a sailing ship or airship, arcane engineers for a walking statue or teleporting tavern, and so forth).

Making Franchise Advancement Rewarding

Advancing a franchise is meant to be a major accomplishment for the players and their characters. This is a moment to celebrate and reward the party’s deeds and to help the players get excited about designing and selecting their franchise upgrades. Some players might focus on mechanics, while others enjoy the creativity of dreaming up how a franchise headquarters looks and feels. There is no wrong way to approach the process.

Headquarters customization is deliberately open-ended to allow for creativity. This might create some work for you as the DM, since you adjudicate the characters' customization choices. A good rule of thumb is to allow the players full creative freedom while sticking to the mechanics (however loose) presented by the rules in chapter 2. If the characters want their headquarters to be a giant bouncing rubber ball, let them go for it! In the end, that option can still make use of the general idea and mechanics of a walking statue headquarters, even if the description of the headquarters' appearance and movement is vastly different.

Once the characters are done planning their upgrades, Gilda the majordomo takes over the mundane task of hiring contractors and starting construction. The length of time it takes for upgrades to be completed is up to you, but one to two months is reasonable. During that period, the characters have plenty of opportunity to engage in downtime activities and franchise tasks.

Franchise Downtime

During the break between episode 4 and episode 5, the characters are likely to be focused on deciding their next move. The urgency of seeking out the final orrery component at Horn Enclave depends on whether the party successfully claimed the two components held by Dran Enterprises, or whether they watched the mind flayer Szorrulax vanish with the components in hand. Moreover, knowing that the Six are behind the attacks on Acquisitions Incorporated, the characters can learn everything Head Office knows about that faction—but what is known about the Six amounts to little more than rumors and their somewhat-trademark-infringing logo. You can tease any of the information from “Factions and Rivals” in chapter 3 as you see fit.

Since the characters are now running a rank 2 franchise, they can assign two franchise tasks to be run by staff in addition to any personal downtime activities they wish to engage in. If those downtime activities or franchise tasks involve actively seeking connections to and information about Horn Enclave, that information can be revealed in any number of ways.

All the activities mentioned in this section are introduced or talked about in the “Franchise Tasks and Downtime” section in chapter 2.

The Road to Horn Enclave

Characters or staff engaging in the research, marketeering, or scrutineering activities can uncover all kinds of connections to the dwarven Clan Horn and its fabled fortress. The characters might connect with customers or allies who know of caravans that make regular runs to the enclave, or who have heard rumors about local nobles or mages who have left relics there to be safeguarded.

The carousing activity can bring the characters into closer contact with merchants or nobles connected to Horn Enclave. One of those is a company called Dhargun Ironworks, who are sending a caravan to the enclave within the next month for the unlikely purpose of celebrating a wedding. Episode 5 has much more information on the Dhargun wedding—and the unique opportunity it offers for the characters to gain access to the enclave.

You can use the following guidelines to give the characters a quick overview of Horn Enclave. And as they learn about the enclave, they’ll also discover its storied and problematic (for them) connections to Acquisitions Incorporated:

• Horn Enclave is a dwarven stronghold run by the wealthy shield dwarves of Clan Horn.
• Lady Kira Horn and Lord Zardak Horn head the clan. Rizwin Horn is their daughter, and the public face of the enclave. Ironbeard is the enclave’s head mage.
• The dwarves of Horn Enclave are no friends to Acquisitions Incorporated. During a prior visit to/incursion of/assault against Horn Enclave by Acquisitions Incorporated, a number of regrettable incidents occurred.
• Those incidents may or may not have included impersonation, mendaciousness, and violence.
• Also, there was a major theft from the enclave’s vaults.
• And there was a thing about threatening Ironbeard. And sleeping with Rizwin, then stealing Rizwin’s jewelry under the pretense of wanting to remember her… it’s a long list, actually.

If the characters double down on research, you can share additional specific details from the “area Horn Enclave” section of episode 5 if you like. This might include information on residents and guards, gaining access to the hold, the general workings of its vaults, and so forth.

Continuing the Adventure

The more the characters learn about Horn Enclave, the stronger their understanding that getting inside will be a difficult task for most—and an impossible task for anyone openly connected to Acquisitions Incorporated. Thankfully, Head Office has some assistance it can offer in that regard as the characters plan their incursion!