Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

I thought water elementals attacked as well, Cimu. I agree that invisibility on the body is our best bet. I was pointing out that Jax can no longer cast Vanish, so we need some method of bringing up the corpse without it seeming out of--Oh!

Doug! Are there any large barrels, chests or other containers in the immediate area around Dren, Cimu and Jax? We can stuff the corpse in something and carry it off at night after making it invisible.

Sorry I have been a little slow on the posting. We have been selling our home, so things have been a little hectic in RL. I will try to keep up as best I can, but there will be some days when I will be light on posting. Wednesday will be one where I will probably only have a few minutes here and there to post.

Assuming I began summoning Morsum the same round as I directed the water elemental to get the speaker's equipment, then Morsum should appear on round 14 I think.

Whisper (I assume that Cy has been keeping the Message spell up at all times on the boat.) - Cy, Dren and Jax, what is your status? The captain just destroyed the fishman and easily climbed back on the ship seconds later. Xen, keep the captain entertained.

Same here, I have been getting ready for a job interview/PT Test scheduled in the morning so I have been trying to focus on that.

Edmin stands on the deck watching the captain and his customer service with Xenfal and smiling at his companion's discomfort. "Any Idea why those things attacked us captain?

The Captain scowls at Sir Edmin. "As I said already, Axe-bearer, the fish-men have never bothered us before. It is a strangeness.

"But," he brightens, "their foolish attack has done us no lasting harm. Their wizard will go before me to Hell-Gate, to announce that Odenkirk is yet a man of mettle. His corpse will feed the hungry sea. And a nice bit of loot is a good end to any day." He smiles possessively at his new trident.

You notice that the Captain's wounds from the javelins almost thirty points of damage over several rounds have completely disappeared.

Meanwhile, the Judge is beginning to tremble and trying to resist the urge to retch.

Dang, look at the crazy high Bluff on the Judge! Okay, let's roll it. 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14 whoops. Okay, let's check the Captain's Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 1

well.

Okay, the Captain is completely distracted and not paying attention to the Judge. Why? Well, probably because -- after picking a couple of small, non-magical but shiny items off the Speaker's corpse -- he's hefting the pieces of the body up and throwing them overboard. As he does so, he speaks something in an unfamiliar tongue. It's not one that the Judge, Xenfal or Sir Edmin speak, nor is it Norspik. It's a strange, slobbery-sounding language, with lots of glottal stops and labials and plosives and long drawn-out vowel sounds. He could be saying a poem, a prayer, or just an elaborate boast. When he's done, he throws first one piece of the Speaker, then the other, into the sea.

That took two complete rounds.

I agree that invisibility on the body is our best bet. I was pointing out that Jax can no longer cast Vanish, so we need some method of bringing up the corpse without it seeming out of--Oh!

Doug! Are there any large barrels, chests or other containers in the immediate area around Dren, Cimu and Jax? We can stuff the corpse in something and carry it off at night after making it invisible.

There are both barrels and chests. The chests are all full but there's at least one empty water barrel.

That said, I'm confused. I thought the intent was to frame Morsum by having him be seen carrying the old man's body overboard? Or not?

Sorry for the delays, insane day yesterday. Flew across the country, looked at homes, got a phone call from the in-laws that our basement had flooded in our home which we had a contract to sell, looked at some more homes with an now super stressed out spouse, then flew back to Chicago where I spent over an hour (starting at like midnight) picking up the kids toys which the in-laws had left lying in the mud that came in. (Fortunately no sewage).

The Judge will play up the nausea for all it is worth (maybe he gets really sick at seeing fish people being dismembered (this is a LG society after all)).

Bluff: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (18) + 12 = 30

At the same time, as posted previously. Morsum will run up the stairs on the Judge's command, when there is a clear lane to run and jump overboard. He will then simply leap overboard and swim straight down into the water as far and as fast as he can. For special effects, he will take a big bite of the boneman's head, preferably removing the boneman's mouth to eliminate annoying spells like speak with dead, while running and jumping. He will also be speaking nonsense in Celestial about the seas wrath and the Soothsayer's revenge.

No reason to cast invisibility. I would hope that the rest of the below decks crew would run up after Morsum shouting about him taking the boneman.

Okay, so. Morsum appears belowdecks, grabs the boneman, runs up stairs. He'll get a surprise round, which means he'll have time to jump overboard; even encumbered, it's not that big a ship. And the Judge can guide him mentally to ensure he doesn't pass too close to the Captain. Okay...

Morsum pops up out of the hatch like a weird shadowy jack-in-the-box, except holding a half-decapitated scrawny old man instead of one of those stick-and-bell things. As the crew gapes in horror, the gibberish-babbling monstrosity strides to the edge of the boat and then throws itself over.

Okay, so two sets of rolls here. First, Morsum's surprise action takes him over the side. But someone could in theory still catch him if they beat him on initiative. So:

Morsum 1d20 ⇒ 11
Captain 1d20 ⇒ 2

Hm. Okay, the next roll will come a bit later. But first:

Captain Odenkirk rushes to the rail... just too late; Morsum is already vanishing into the depths, corpse in tow.

There's a terrible silence.

The Judge continues to play his role from before with his mouth hanging agape at the bizarre creature that just sprang overboard.

What the @#$@#$ was that?

Xenfal, who has never seen morsum, pops his other dagger out of his sleave and races to the rail, a good 15 feet from the captain, ready to throw if it comes back.

The others!

He turns and rushes to the steps down below

If the group agrees, the following will occur

Cуровую will use her bonded item to Summon a Water Elemental to begin causing damage and charge up and meet those on deck to further the premise of being assaulted while the attack was going on, or because the captain took the trident.

With regards to Morsum

'That thing ... I have heard of them from religious tomes. It is possibly a Revenant of Vengeance, only the death or desecration of a holy priest can bring them forth. Did you strike out at a sea priest?'

Bluff 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Cуровую will aslo cast Detect Magic before going onto the deck, so she is not seen casting. She will try to discern what both the captain's axe and trident are from a safe distance.

Edmin grips his ax and falls back to the rail watching the others scramble after Morsum. "What the hells is going on?"

Edmin, are you okay? Are you wounded? Let me help.

Did anyone take damage? If so I start healing people immediately.

Powers of Midnight, heed my summons, remove the wounds of this creature, cast them into the void!
Cast cure lights wounds 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Cast cure lights wounds 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Xen is almost bowled over by the water elemental charging up the stairs.

Xen needs a little healing

The Judge just stands there laughing uncontrollably internally, but with his usual solemn external demeanor.

Swim . . . Swim , , , Swim . . . Drown . . . Drown . . . Drown . . .

Ok, that is the first 20+ rounds. Morsum and the headless boneman should be pretty well under water by now.

Where you going Shadow Beastie?

Jax runs up the stairs after Morsum, scimitar drawn in hand. He'll follow it to the railing and scowl, looking into the water. "Captain, why do these mermen want your people so badly?"

Just stay out of great axe's reach Jax.

no join me evil word spawn!

The Captain's rage is volcanic.

"WHAT?! WHAT IN -- " He seems about to leap into the water after Morsum 1d20 ⇒ 1 but then turns and rushes down the stairs. oh my goodness you people are so lucky

He meets the water elemental coming up the stairs. 1d20 ⇒ 10 1d12 + 11 ⇒ (11) + 11 = 22 splat! "GRAAAHHHH!"

And now he's down belowdecks with you.

Picking a PC downstairs at random 1d3 ⇒ 3. Well, when I do random it's in alphabetical order. So that's Zimu.

Goblin scared for Witchy Witch!

The Captain glares at Zimu. "Witch-woman! What happened here? WHAT DID YOU SEE?"

This close, in this confined space, he is truly alarming.

Xenfal chooses not to follow downstairs, knowing that when it comes to lying he simply is not very good at it. Instead he makes his way to the cargo hold and gets another dagger to replace the one that went into the water, and another short spear. He also grabs a Longbow if there is one around, if not a short bow and a quiver of arrows. If no bows, then he grabs a light crossbow and some bolts.

I gotta say, I think this calls for an Intimidate check. This will probably make you Friendly, which means you'll want to tell him stuff. Not /actually/ Friendly, of course... intimidated Friendly. It doesn't make you suicidal, but... well, let's see.

1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

oh now that is just ridiculous.

Okay, well, Zimu coolly shakes off the Captain's attempt to terrorize her. Doesn't mean you're out of the woods yet, though -- if you're going to lie to him (which of course you are), you need a Bluff check. Others can pitch in with Aid Another, and then the Captain gets a Sense Motive check to see through you. So, you want to roll that. Are you going with the "desecrate a priest" story from above?

see DMDM you used up all your dice luck when you killed that beautiful character that was Bref!

Come to think of it, my last great crit since that was against one of my own NPCs. Hm.

Jax will assist Cimu's bluff check
1d20 + 10 ⇒ (12) + 10 = 22 to dc 10 for +2 bonus.
"I wasn't expecting..that thing. We should have reacted faster..

I do believe Cуровую will use her roll above (with additions by hopefully a superstitious sea faring captain and any aid others from the group.

With regards to Morsum

'That thing ... I have heard of them from religious tomes. It is possibly a Revenant of Vengeance, only the death or desecration of a holy priest can bring them forth. Did you strike out at a sea priest?'

Bluff 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

Cуровую will aslo cast Detect Magic before going onto the deck, so she is not seen casting. She will try to discern what both the captain's axe and trident are from a safe distance.

Meanwhile, while you're all having this pleasant conversation: suddenly something crawls across the deck. It's the old man's plump black lizard! You thought you'd rendered it hors de combat, but it seems to be doing much better.

Does Captain Odenkirk notice it? 1d20 ⇒ 8 Yes, he does. "What?! Grab that lizard! Bag o'Bones used to talk to it! It can tell us what happened to him!"

Initiative roll: 1d20 ⇒ 8
Saving throw: 1d20 ⇒ 6

The dice are with you guys tonight.

The Captain pauses. "It... what was I saying?" He shakes his head. "Damn... well. Men die, cattle die, nothing lives but a mighty name. Stupid fool." And with that sentimental epitaph the Captain dismisses the late Bag'o'Bones.

The lizard has scuttled between a couple of crates, making it much harder to spot. But the Captain does get another Perception check:

1d20 ⇒ 1

The Captain is completely distracted. "Revenant of Vengeance, eh?" He spits on the deck. "I need no revenant to teach me of vengeance. If it comes within axe-reach, I'll show it what vengeance truly is." He turns and stomps gloomily up the latter.

1d20 ⇒ 18

Silence falls belowdecks.

Captain Odenkirk strides across the deck to tower over Xenfal. "Witch-man. You are our healer now." Without another word he turns and strides away.

Edmin watches the captain walk away and grins as he shakes his head. "Master of his ship, that is for sure. I think I am starting to like him."

The Judge simply smiles at the proceedings.

Well done my team, well done. The bone man is gone. Perhaps we can gain some goodwill from amongst the ship's crew.

After the Captain moves to the upper deck, the Judge whispers to Cy:
Check out anything you got from the Boneman, no reason to let the Captain have it. If we can use it, we do. If not, we make sure the Captain cannot.

DM

Very quietly to the group when no one else is watching or within listening distance.

'We need to locate that lizard, quickly and KILL it. It has the means to communicate, and will probably do so.'

'We need to locate that lizard, quickly and KILL it. It has the means to communicate, and will probably do so.'

Do you have any plans for doing so? The downstairs is jam-packed full of crates, bundles and barrels, with infinite cracks between them in which a Tiny-sized creature might hide.

Nimpy the halfling will be very glad of any attention, including food or water. He's been rather horribly mistreated. The crew is all abovedecks butchering the dolphin and cleaning the decks, so if you want to talk to him, you have a few minutes.

'How are your wounds Edmin?' And then very quietly, 'Could you take on the captain in an unfair fight? He looks ... capable.'

Cуровую then turns to the Judge, while briefly above deck.

'We have made contact with the captive, and he was both helpful and talented. I believe he will prove of use, he can well be an asset to us. If we take precautions of course. Jax and I will bring extra food and drink from our rations to the halfling, if we hurry we may even ask him some further questions.'

'Would you care to join me and Jax? Once we are done we need to search out for that lizard.'

Cуровую thinks a moment, ' But we need to find that lizard, QUICKLY. Perhaps you should designate some of our group to begin the search now. It is a lose end that must be dealt with.'

Been so long since we were all posting I just now realized we are below decks, the conversation with Edmin and the Judge can happen later then, amended by what transpires.

'Jax, Dren, find food and water, from our own stores if necessary, give out a good portion to our new friend, quickly, if you can manage it.'

Cуровую will search for a blanket(s) for the halfling to use to keep warm in the damp space he occupies and perhaps a second to help pad cot or what he may be sleeping on (floor?).

While she does this she will try to ask a few more questions.

'Is there any further information you can tell us about the captain? Perhaps a physical weakness he has?' Could you charm him by chance?'

Cуровую has a thought.

'Is there any way you can coax that lizard back to us?

Edmin shakes his head at the others and squats down to pet his hound. "First, the Captain regenerates his wounds, if we cannot stop that we probably wont stop him. Second, Ragnar is a dog. He can hunt this lizard down, just stay back or he may mistake your thigh for something tasty."

Survival: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23