Spoiler alert!------
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I’m currently using the adventure Gangs of Freeport in our game, it requires minimal work on the GM part, just change the location and NPC’s
it can be very easily placed in any zingarian, argosean or even turanian port
the adventure is written with a 5-7th level party in mind,
in my opinion this is one of the better adventures to adapt to Hyborea, not much problem with nonhuman or fantastic encounters, the main opponents are gang members and thieves, corrupt guards soldiers, a noble and an alchemist with a couple of apprentices making drugs that help him control the gangs, this can be easily made in to a scholar hypnotist with a new lotus drug everything is there for a good Hyborean adventure
Introduction
“‘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.
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, honester
citizens—suffered.
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
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.
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.
Adventure Synopsis
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.
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,
