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We’ve recently started up a Savage Tide campaign here, too. We have five players and are aligned a bit away from the arcane power. We’ll see how things progress as we get farther along the path. Right now, though, I’m really excited with how my players have been doing. We have a couple of rank novices, one guy who’s got a good amount of RPG experience, but not done much recently, and a couple who have a good amount of experience. And the all seem to be meshing well!
Elarina - a Wild Elf ranger from the Tiger River area. Her father is a hunter and guide of great renown and has helped members of the Seekers many times. As the story opens, she is leaving Hokar with her friend Anabelle after they attended a series of lectures given my the Seeker mage Uvlagard ResTalt about the southern wild elves, their split from their northern cousins, and their interactions with the Olman civilization. Having turned down ResTalt’s offer of marriage, she decides to head back south with Anabelle.
Anabelle - A Changeling beguiler created near Onwall. A intellectual descendant of a Suel Su-Doppelganger program, the creature known as Anabelle (among other names), was rescued from her incubation vat by others of her kind. They spirited her far away from Onwall and she learned stealth and magic from them. She currently lives in the Sunrise District of Sasserine and leads ‘excursions’ down into the jungles to enjoy the exotic offerings of the Amedio. It was working in this capacity that she met Elarina and the two got on well. She accompanied Elarina on the trip up to Hokar with the Seeker mage and now she accompanies her back south.
Dorias - a Dwarven Cleric of Moradin, Dorias is a bastion of righteousness and propriety... up to a point. Dorias is strong in his aims to help expand the Shrine of Moradin, almost as strong as he is in his passion of beer. He loves beer in a depth of manner that can only be properly performed by a dwarf. Dorias is a budding brewer and is looking into the realms of alchemy to help him fortify his keg of beer into holy ‘water’, thus making every sip a true benediction and act of praise. Dorias also has eyes to being a mover and shaker on the Dawn Council
Finnias - a human rogue, Finnias chooses not to talk about his past. Ever. He’s a Shadowshore lad. And he just has the resources the party needs. That’s all, nothing to see here... Although Finnias only has a few ranks in Profession (Sailor) his knack for throwing nat 20s on the checks have kept them safely afloat a couple of times.
Kainna - the sweet and strong, but dim as an unlit candle, Kainna the half-elf fighter is already making a name for herself in Zelkarune’s Horns. The Arena rat has already been pulled out of her duties cleaning cages and shoveling sawdust to have private conversations in Mr. Grankus’s office. Despite being slow on the draw mentally, she is a good person to have oat your back.
The characters started off just south of the large city of Hokar in the Hold of the Sea Princes. They had all signed on to help guard a caravan headed to the small port town of Hethrol’s Landing and then on to Sasserine. Dorias was sheparding a load of minerals important for his church, Kainna was ushering a doped-up owlbear back to the arena, etc. The made it to the small mining and shipping community easily and set in for a long afternoon drinking at the Clipper’s Eel. They sat and sipped (well, hefted, in Dorias’s case) and talked (or not, in Finnias’s case) about themselves and Sassarine until the night had fallen. Just before they headed off to bed, however, a hew and cry rose up in the street and a beaten-up halfling was ushered into the establishment with a tale about a dragon turtle that wanted to raise the town.
He told of the bo-whee-moth monster smashing their ship to flinders and eating almost the whole crew. He and three others were caught and put in an old tin mine on the coast while the beast slept off his glutting. He managed to slip out a small air vent and run to the town in order to warn them to take to the mines inland and barricade themselves inside for the next couple of days.
Almost everyone believed him. Except Anabelle and the towns mayor. Anabelle scored a blazing Sense Motive win vs. the halfling’s substantial Bluff. She couldn’t tell where his story broke down, but you shouldn’t play a player and his facial tells and body language said he was trying to pull a fast one. He grew increasingly despondent as the characters talked the mayor into putting the town on alert and being ready to move assets, but not until they had a chance to check things out (for a nominal fee). The mayor has one of the guards lock the suspect halfling in a room upstairs (to make sure his wounds are well tended, of course).
The hike to the cove where the dragon turtle is resting is uneventful and the group makes it there in short order. Upon seeing the form of a turtle shell sprawling on the beach (a real snapping turtle shell that I own, placed on the board, dwarfing the players), they think there may be some credence to the halfling’s tale. Upon seeing a cave seemingly blocked with a rock further on, they think that there must still be some captives hidden inside. They skirt the beach and get over to the cave, making plans to push the boulder aside, but they hear strange noises coming from the dragon turtle. Suddenly, there is a wooden sounding thump and a cachinnating yelping as two nasty looking hyenas charge up the beach. Elarina pegs one with her bow and Anabelle manages to get a sleep spell off before the second beast can chomp down on Kainna. Dorias casts bless on the group and Finnias holds back till things are at closer range. As this furious action is unfurling, four orcs shove their way... Out of the dragon turtle???
Kainna dispatches the sleeping hyena and Finneas kills the other as it closes with Elarina. The orcs charge up the sand, two with hand axes heading for Dorias, one with a nasty looking falchion heading toward Kainna, and the last, a barbarian with a huge stone greataxe getting pegged with an arrow by Elarina. Biting the insides of his mouth to ragged tatters, the barbarian enters a howling, bloody-spit frothing rage and charges the gulping wild elf.
As the orcs charge Elarina tries to whip off a shot at the charging barbarian, but her string breaks! My wife is now firmly convinced I want to kill her character off in the first game. I point out that she is in charge of rolling her own dice. She remains unconvinced. Anabelle steps up and hits one of the regular orcs and the barbarian with a color spray. The regular orc closer to her crumples, the barbarian shrugs it off as he charges past. Dorias and Finneas work well to get a good flank in on the other common orc and drop him. The orc with the falchion moves to meet Kainna and hits her with a nasty blow dropping her to nearly 0hp. Kianna returns the favor hitting the orc leader with a dancing rapier blade that slips through his armor and his heart (crit). The leader looks dumbfounded for a second as his falchion falls from his slackening hands. “But it wasn’t suppose to work this way...” he says dully and drops back onto the sand.
That leaves the barbarian who is charging Elarina. He leaps the last distance and brings the axe down in a cataclysmic arc hitting the wild elf archer for almost her full hp amount (full to 1hp in a blink). My wife is even more convinced I’m out to get her and starts contemplating how we’re going to divvy up the house, cars, and kids (this, of course, is almost entirely unabashed BS). Having no other alternative, she uses one of her arrows as an improvised weapon and shoves it deep into his shoulder. Kainna is close enough to close the distance and make an attack, but misses. Anabelle goes for her crossbow and Dorias and Finneas start heading to assist. But before that the barbarian gets a swing and... misses Elarina by a hair’s breadth.
As the others rush up the beach toward the two battered girls, Elarina grabs another arrow for an improvised weapon, but misses. Kainna arcs in with her rapier, scoring a small hit then with her kukri for max damage dropping the raging beast. Dorias promptly bashes the brains out of the orc that was dropped by the color spray, much to the irritation of the rest of the party who figured it would be good to question him about what their exact game was. Taking a breather, the group recovers and binds up their wounds then go to roll the rock away from the cave and examine the mine. Elarina is able to discern halfling and orc footprints that step into the cave about two steps and head back out. There are no signs of anyone being taken into the cave itself. They head back down to the ‘dragon turtle’.
Although they know something is off with the whole situation, they are still amazed to find that under a real dragon turtle’s shell there is a tub-like boat with oars fashioned to look like the turtle’s legs. It’s big enough to drive a wagon through and three of the five immediately want to start sailing it back (after looting a modest treasure inside). Elarina doesn’t feel up to water travel, and Anabelle heads back to town with her. They quickly find the mayor who sends for a Pelorian priest to heal the girl. They tell the mayor the whole story and let him know the rest of the group are wanting to sail their new plunder into the harbor for a grand entrance.
Talk turns to the halfling... he tried to stab one of the guards and is currently relaxing in solitary confinement tied to a bed upstairs. The girls go up to talk to him and he remains stubborn.
Meanwhile, back at the beach... Finneas, the only character with ranks in Profession (Sailor), mobilizes Dorias and Kainna to row the turtleshell boat back to Hethrol’s Landing. The first sailing check was a dismal failure... it took them about a hour to get the boat back in the water and in the tide. Once they were out in the water, though, he took another check and nailed it. Before long, the turtle was cruising toward the docks at Hethrol’s Landing while the anticipatory crowd cheered them on. The halfling was hung at dawn. The group was lauded through the day and treated like local nobility. The dragon boat was hauled up and the hull was taken out. The shell was dragged to the main entry to function as a gateway for the town from Hokar. The heros were encouraged to sign the passage to commemorate the marker being set up. Eventually, the boat to Sassarine came into port and the local heros were forced back into their roles as caravan guards loading their various wares for the voyage.
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THANK YOU RICHARD PETT for HOLLOW THREAT! I had to make it more serious, but it is a great little gem and I’ve wanted to use it since it was published.