Feral's PFS Plunder and Peril (Inactive)

Game Master Feral

Zinkyudo joins in the meal, though a bit distractedly. He's never particularly felt himself to be related to birds, knowing he's descended in some way from the garuda, but he's not sure the lizardfolk would trouble themselves with such a distinction. As he realizes they're not making any moves towards eating him, he relaxes a bit, saying to Fahd, "Well, this is a lucky turn! Good thing Balooo mentioned we knew Warvil's wife, eh?" Noting that his shipmate is holding back on the meal, Zink urges him on, "Come on, Famished Fahd, eat up!"

"We don't know any fey, evil or not. We do know the monstary you speak of - a great stone house southeast of our village. It is protected by a mighty spirit. The spirit slays any that enter the great stone house. Warvil taught us the secret to entering without angering the spirit but he made us swear not to share the secret outside of our tribe."

"What if we were part of your tribe? You could share it with us then."

Krentak considers the idea. "You are very smart, just like Warvil! Tonight you feast with us and become members of our tribe!"

"That was surprisingly easy."

"Good thinking, Baloo. I'd be trying to fight my way through the monastery right now as we speak! Very clever..."

"Perhaps too easy," Zink says under his breath, glancing over at Ushaka as he eats his fill and wondering what this evening will bring.

Ushaka likes the sound of feasting better than being feasted upon or other unsavory tasks.

"Let us prepare for the feast!"

1d3 ⇒ 2

The lizardfolk spend the rest of the day making preparations. As the sun begins to set, the feast begins! Into the late hours of the night the party is treated to a wild celebration featuring dancing, pounding drums, and copious amounts of potently alcoholic fermented coconut milk. Krentak translates for the party where it's necessary (with Melina needing to correct his translations only a handful of times).

At one point when the warchief has stepped away, a tall female (notable from the males only by her slimmer build and short head-frill) approaches Fahd and takes his hand.

She seems quite insistent on dragging Fahd away from the celebration.

Recalling his evening at the Caydenite festival, Zink is moderate in his drinking, 'accidentally' spilling a coconut or two to make it seem like he's keeping up. As a result, he's mostly sober when the tall lizardess approaches Fahd and begins to drag him away. Though he speaks no Draconic, her intentions are clear, and he asks in puzzlement, "Wait, is that even possible? Melina, do you know?"

Just to be on the safe side, Zink studies the short head frill and the face below it for any but the obvious intent, but he's not much of a judge of lizarfolk facial expressions.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10

Melina spurts coconut alcohol up yer nose, yelling in disapproval at the sensation. "Prince of law have mercy! It seems your charms cross the boundaries of species, Fahd. She's asking for a.... a... donation of your most, and least precious treasure. Your, ahem, seed.

"I'd wager I've done worse in my time. What the heck, sweetie...lets see what happens!". Yes, Fertile Fahd has been drinking quite a bit after the agreement was made with the tribe.

Zinkyudo can't really make heads or tails of the female lizardfolk. It turns out reptiles don't have terribly expressive faces even as she escorts Fahd away from the celebration's bonfires.

The celebration goes on late into the night and even into the early morning. As dawn's rays break on the horizon, Krentak approaches the party with a handful of wooden tokens.

"You have shared our drink and danced with us. You are all now members of the tribe. Welcome!"

He hands each member of the party one of the tokens. They're etched with a simple image of a leaf filled with water. "The spirit of the stone house will not attack anyone carrying one of these."

Fahd scratches his head as he wakes up the next morning. He didn't remember much, except the lizards really knew how to make a drink. He looked around the enclosure and saw the female lizardfolk. Oh yeah, and her... Fahd quietly gathered his belongings and tried to slink out to join his mates.

Ushaka will take a bit of time to paint crude leaves and waves on smooth stones to gift to members of Ushaka's new tribe.

And Fahd has created a new template: Half Lizard-Folk.

Balooo drinks long into the night. He chuckles as Fearsome Fahd is taken away for a private celebration.

"You have our thanks, tribe mates."

Zink gladly accepts the wooden token, glad they didn't end up fighting the lizardfolk. "Wow," he comments to his companions, "we got through that with no loss of life on either side. If anything, Fahd helped create new life! How long until your babies, um, hatch, Frisky Fahd?"

Fahd turned a bit pinkish. "Um, I don't rightly know. I was pretty drunk. I think beings worked properly. No mention to the Chelaxin quartermaster about that. It's probably break her heart."

Going to move things along. It might not have been obvious but Ushaka would recognize the wooden tokens presented to the party by Krentak as simple holy symbols of Gozreh.

Exhausted and hung over but with the lizardfolks' blessings and their tokens in hand, the party returns to the trail and resumes their trek to the monastery.

Everyone's currently fatigued from not sleeping.

After crossing over another bridge (a less perilous wooden one this time), the party finally reaches the ruined cliffside monastery. As they approach the monastery's entrance, the party's almost immediately interrupted by a gust of powerful winds. The winds rapidly gather and coalesce into the shape of a vaguely feminine enormous humanoid wrapped in swirling winds and waves. The guardian looks down as it appraises the party.

"Do not take another step intruders, or suffer my divine wrath", she/it says in a voice like crashing waves.

Balooo presents the wooden token given by his tribe.

The swirling winds and waves surrounding the guardian gentle slightly at the sight of the token.

"Welcome. I am Kahobeah, divine guardian bound to guard this holy place for eternity. How can I assist you?"

"Uh yeah, we were told about you, lady. The tribe called you "the spirit of the stone house." Does that ring a bell? Would you mind if we pass right by real quick? I've got a bit of a headache and would like to get back to my hammock in the ship as soon as I could," he grumbles as he produces his own holy symbol.

Kahobeah drifts aside and bows slightly. "As you wish."

Melina looks quizzically at the spirit. "Do you wish to be bound here spirit? Or do you crave your freedom?"

Zink holds his token up as well, ready to get past the windy lass, when he is struck by a thought. Oh, isn't there a thing on a ship called a windlass? I wonder if that's where the name comes from, this windy lass? I'm finally getting the hang of this sailor thing!

"My only desire is to serve The Wind and Waves."

"You serve well." Onward!

Stepping past the entryway, the party enters a large courtyard. The remnants of a magical fountain constantly pump out fresh water but leaks from the damaged basin have turned this area into a muddy bog.

Poking out of the mud are skeletal remains - a treasure-hunting explorer no doubt. Wrapped around the skeleton's waist is a remarkably preserved fighting girdle with the image of a bull embossed on the front. Belt of giant strength +2.

Moving north and exploring clockwise, the party finds what remains of the monastery's bell tower, monks' chambers, and a chapel but their contents are all long rotted and ruined.

Stepping out of what have must once been a back door, the party finds a large altar. The altar's top has been cracked by exposure to the elements revealing that it is hollow! Inside the party finds assorted coinage, gems, an ornate runed rod, a small lumpy bag full of tufts of fur, and a map of the Shackles inside a waterproof scrollcase. An island on the map is circled with the notation “Brightglass Island - Jemma Redclaw’s treasure" and the initials “W. L.” along with a sketch of a three-eyed cyclops.

Lesser reach metamagic rod and gray bag of tricks.

"This is good, but not what we came for." Balooo then gets an idea from out of 'nowhere'. He approaches the wind guardian again. "Have you seen a piece of horn around here?"

"A piece of horn?" Kahobeah say as she/it considers the question. "Yes, years ago a man lived on this island. He came many times to visit the monastery. At one point he came to me with a hollowed satyr's horn and asked that I guard it as I guard this holy site. I agreed but later he returned and took it back. I do not know what became of him. I have not seen him since."

"Do you know of an evil fey around here?"

"I only know this holy place and those that visit it. I've seen no fey, evil or otherwise."

"Alright then. Let's head back to the ship."

Wow, a whole monastery cleared in an hour and 14 minutes. That's some PbP pace!

Zink shrugs and says, "Well, that was easier than I expected. Glad your new friend was so helpful, Balooo."

Melina looks at the notes. "A triclops? O... K. Hmmm. Don't see that every day."

Who is it a monastery to?

"I hate to rain on the parade, but how are we supposed to find that last piece of the artifact now?"

"Well, we have a new map to Brightglass Island - I know that the Swords aren't strong on reading but we could - I don't know - try looking at the map first?"

It's hard to tell because there isn't much of the interior left but Melina does catch glimpses of Abadar iconography.

"We go back to the boat first." We go back to the boat.

Zink is excited to see references to Abadar in this backwater and studies them closely. "Such a shame, they must have had hopes of civilizing this island, bringing some order to the wilderness. Perhaps one day I can come back here, restore this place to the faith of Abadar, and achieve what they failed to do."

With a reverent bow towards the icons, he turns and joins the others, suggesting, "Let's take a look at the map on our way back to the ship, figure out how far we need to sail, that sort of thing."

Looking over the map on the way back to the beach, the party determines that Brightglass Island is a small island not far from where you are now.

That understanding is overshadowed by a terrible revelation as the party turns the last corner in the trail and the rocky shore comes into view - the Magpie Princess is no longer anchored within reach. Instead, it's barely in sight and at least a mile away.

"We've been betrayed! They left us here to die. We need a way to Brightglass Island. We're not losing the treasure that we're so close to."

Zinkyudo is less horrified to see the Magpie Princess sailing away than one might expect. Less time on a pirate ship sounds fine to me. And I can do some planning for my temple of Abadar here on the island. But I do wonder why they're leaving.

"Look at the map, Balooo," Zinkyudo suggests, "maybe we can get to Brightglass Island in our little boat, the, er, launch."

"Well, not a terribly shocking act coming from pirates. And if the launch doesn't look promising, perhaps Jenesara could lend us transport."

"That would be faster. And she owes us a favor." Balooo replies. He leads the party to go to the triton.

"They must have knocked my lady on the head and incapacitated her. No way she'd leave me knowingly. You all saw how she looked at me," Forsaken Fahd tried to justify.

Dangit, I never saw the doublecross coming! Stupid tricky pirates!

"Maybe she found out about your scaly mistress."

Returning to the lagoon, the party waits a moment and Jenesara reappears on the surface of the water. She's visibly distraught.

"Oh, it's you again. Did you need something? I'm dealing with a bit of a crisis."

"We need your aid. We need to borrow a few of your hippocampuses. We need to get to Brightglass Island."

"What sort of crisis? We've got one of our own! Not a great day for any of us."