A River Into Darkness - GM Justaworm (Inactive)

Game Master justaworm

"An elven ambush," Selena huffs, her disguise wearing off. "We must go back for Stig..." she pauses, wishing she didn't have to clarify. "He... didn't... um... He, he's, um..." She swallows hard and sighs heavily, blinking rapidly. As if she is on a stage, she recounts, "He fought bravely against foes overwhelming, but alas, did he fall."

She adds, "What we did not find, however, were bodies, living or otherwise, other than an unfortunate gnome. And whatever they had for wares here has been either soiled or stolen."

”They were unable to breach the armory. It would be prudent to recover the weapons lest they be used against us.”

Waseem will grab a mw light crossbow, hanbo and sling before returning to the boat

"Unfortunately, its what we did NOT find that is most important. We did not find the inhabitants, nor their bodies. We did not find the plant that we need to advance. We DID find some maniacal elves who attacked us to the death. We need to track them down and find the villagers and the plant"

The captains countenance falls and he shakes his head. "I am very sorry for the loss of Stig. Dying out here so far from home is a terrible price to pay for adventure and some gold. We should certainly take care of his body and the other you found hanging. As for the elf bodies, they should be tossed in the river as far as I am concerned."

[b]"It is very curious that you found no bodies but the more I hear of this tribe the less I am inclined to believe they are still alive." He looks over at Speraggo."Sorry friend, but we cannot madly trounce through the jungle and look for them. What if we do find them? They took out all of Whitebridge for Rova's sake. That party of nine elves you fought was probably just a small part of the raiding party. How many would it take to carry everyone away?"

Separaggo nods in uncomfortable silence and after a moment speaks up, "Take me to Nantambu Captain and let me go. I am through here. Someone there will help."

The captain frowns for a bit and then agrees, "Yes, we should head to Nantambu, it is not that far. Though, I do fear we don't have the magical fuel to make it there. We must get somewhere to get word back to Aspis as they will need to staff up this entire station again."

Captain looks over at you all, [b]"Have you any way to get a message hundreds of kilometers back to bloodcove?[b]"

”Seal it in a bottle?”

Seeing Waseem eye the crossbow in her hands hungrily, Selena hands it to the catfolk.

At the captain's inquiry, Selena shakes her head.

Seeing Waseem eye the crossbow in her hands hungrily, Selena hands it to the catfolk.

At the captain's inquiry, Selena shakes her head.

Thanks, but Wassem exchanged his weapons for masterwork versions in the armory befor we returned to the boat. He already has a crossbow.

Oh, I was under the impression there was only one of each of those masterwork items in the armory since the other masterwork items had a number next to them.

"I have a method but I'm certainly not volunteering it"

"Sorry, I have no magical way of communicating across distances that form"

Selena Shadethorn wrote:

Seeing Waseem eye the crossbow in her hands hungrily, Selena hands it to the catfolk.

At the captain's inquiry, Selena shakes her head.

Thanks, but Wassem exchanged his weapons for masterwork versions in the armory befor we returned to the boat. He already has a crossbow.

Yes, sorry for the confusion but the only masterwork weapons were the ones I listed. There was a good chance any mundane, simple weapon was available.

---

"Alright, lets take care of business at the station and then, Nantambu. Either lock the armory magically or bring the quality weapons and armor back here. Let's also get whatever crates and barrels that aren't spoiled loaded up. How will you handle Stig and the servant gnome?"

As far a loot goes, all of the elf stuff is yours. The items in the armory belong to Aspis, however the captain is fine with you keeping anything that is an upgrade. The rest of the masterwork items will go to Nightfall. Anything else found is yours to handle.

"Does Stig's people bury their dead? If so, we should do that. If we have time. I can dig the hole."

Shakaro offers to to do the digging after the boat is loaded, which he helps with.

Shwarto helps in the various chores but is eager to press on

Selena helps gather weapons and whatever supplies they find as she is not strong enough to help with Stig.

Putting the bodies of Stig and an unknown gnome to rest underground, you all quietly get about with the business of loading up the salvaged goods and get back on the River Queen.

Faruq pulls the anchor and the boat continues on upriver. "We must be ever cautious, the river narrows up ahead and the trees completely envelope the river." The river does perdiocally narrow and widen, leaving the crew feeling on high alert.

Despite the warning, nothing significant happens over the next day or so. At some point during the journey the Captain strikes up a conversation with Shwarto regarding the spores of Acrophage he found. "That amount won't help keep us going; we need more. However, please keep them for your studies as I promised. Maybe you can figure out a way to make them reproduce. If we had some plant creature, we could implant them, but that is all I know about it."

After a couple of days, you pass by a major fork in the river. "This is where the Kurka river meets the Vanjii (which is what you are on). The water here is disgusting out of the main channel and the Kurka swamp stretches out for 3 or so miles up along the Kurka. Nantambu is just upriver but we may need to come back here. We'll almost certainly find plant creatures here."

The main other point of interest is that over the last few days Faruq has taken ill. Until today, he has trudged through it, "just a bit of river sickness" he quips. However, this morning he is barely able to get up from bed due to the fever.

It is the morning of Day 9 on the journey. 8 days on the river and you basically lost a day at Whitebridge.
For some reason, I just get and error constantly when trying to edit the Campaign tab.

River Overview Map

"How much do we need the plant creatures? Can we just pole our way up the river without them? While I'll go into the swamp looking for plant creatures if we must, its not high on my list of things that I WANT to do :-("

Shakaro gives Faruq a look-over.

"His skin is too thin for jungle. Mosquitos can bite him too easy."

Shakaro begins to mix a variety of herbs into a small bowl, and he begins crushing them with a pestle. He hums as he works, and occasionally waves his little bone rattle above the mix. Once they have turned into a paste he stirs it into some boiling water.

"Here, make him drink this."

Profession (herbalist): 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25

If this works like Heal and it beats the save DC of the disease, then Faruq should get a +4 to his next saving throw.

"What kind of plant creature you want? Like a tree? We need some kind of pot to put it in. And shovel to dig it up would be good."