Session 68:
As they began hauling the treasure out, they discussed how to deal with the ghost. Lillit stated that ghosts remained in the world because of something left undone when they died. They decided to speak with the ghost and find out what they would need to do in order to set her spirit free. Will spoke to her when she manifested again. They learned that she needed the treasure in order to move on. They tried to explain that she had no need, but she wouldn’t listen: she wanted a full share.
They agreed to give her a full share, but they had to use plane shift to give her a mithral crown. The ghost accepted this and her spirit departed, leaving the crown behind in the ethereal. Isobel then picked up the crown and returned to Golarion. They then had Minerva cast treasure stitching to help haul the hoard home.
After arriving back at Fort Hazzard, Eudonius Estal—the major domo of the Fort—requested a meeting with the Hurricane King and her fellow officers. A quick inquiry revealed that Eudonius was a Taldan butler brought in at great expense by Kerdak Bonefist to handle all the affairs he and his trusted friends and advisors had no interest in.
A pompous man with small spectacles, Eudonius had hoped that with Isobel’s upbringing she would be easier to handle that the uncivilized Bonefist. He was disappointed. He pointed out that she now had to dispense three islands: the Isle of Empty Eyes (with its communities of Westtower and Octopus Bay), Tarin’s Crown, and Gannet Island.
Gannet Island was given to Captain Merrill Pegsworthy, Octopus Bay to Silas “Iron Fist” Rand, Westtower to Captain Pierce Jerrell, and the new fishing community being established in the north eastern bay to Dahryen Moon. Tarin’s Crown was considered far too dangerous to anyone except maybe Lillit as the vegetation would kill anyone without significant power. As it was outside the Shackles, it wouldn’t need a Free Captaincy or Pirate Lordship to go along with it anyway, but Lillit’s name became attached.
Isobel made Pegsworthy and Silas both Pirate Lords. She kept the Risky Venture as her vessel and made Captain H’ongr Hy’y’yth ii’ Smiles, Dahryen, and William “Fancy Will” Tellastrum Free Captains. She then gave the Filthy Lucre to Silas as his own vessel.
Eudonius then went on to cover new matters of state: first that Cheliax had declared they would get revenge for their defeat. From this they could expect more pirate hunters patrolling near the Shackles. Additionally the Carthaginians of Cheliax had suffered some embarrassment over being distantly related to the Hurricane king, and were no long welcome at court—not that they were all that welcome before this.
The multiple day celebration for the coronation was scheduled for the summer solstice as everyone would be in a good mood anyway. The Sargavans would be sending Isobel’s father to try and renegotiate the deal between Sargava and the Shackles. The Daugustana family would also be sending a representative to discuss the “captive runaway” that Isobel apparently had as part of her crew. Teela coughed and backed into the background as this was discussed.
There was news out of Bloodcove of a new pirate named Dwali the Bloodcove Butcher, who wears a long powdered wig and a frightful Tian demon-faced mask. He is noted for attacking Sargavan vessels and Shackles pirates. His predations were bad enough that they warranted notice, especially since he was avoiding hitting Aspis Consortium and Chelish ships.
Finally, High Priestess Laharra Seaspray of Besmara had left Besmara’s Throne and would be arriving in the morning and was demanding a private meeting with the Hurricane King. When informed that there would be no special requirements for this august meeting, Eudonius rolled his eyes and asked what else was required of him as all court business was concluded.
Isobel asked about Lady Cerise Bloodmourn and her actions of late. She was informed that Lady Bloodmourn was questioning the legitimacy of a “young tart” getting the Hurricane Crown, but was otherwise not involved in anything nefarious. With that out of the way, Eudonius excused himself to go work on the preparations for the coronation.
In preparing for Laharra’s visit, they asked Aakin about the globe. He said he wasn’t sure what it signified, but it was the clapper of a ship bell of large size. The next morning, Laharra Seaspray arrived and greeted Isobel and Aakin. They then went into a private meeting in the great hall. Laharra was able to identify the clapper as that of the ship bell of the Seawraith, the pirate ship of the goddess Besmara. How Turpin Irons got it was a mystery. Still in conjunction with the Pirate Queen’s Pearl, it was ideal for the ritual to locate the Pirate King on Golarion.
The ritual was complex and required Isobel and her officers to help. They set up in the meeting hall with candles and markings. It would take an hour to cast and require complex actions from multiple people to invite the spirits to locate Besmara. Isobel and her crew agreed and they began the ritual.
As they performed the ritual, they were assaulted by eight fast moving undead pirates that somehow made it into the hall: juju zombies. They moved in and tried to assault Laharra to disrupt the ritual. Chauncey, Will, Teela, and Silas moved in to protect the high priestess so she could continue the ritual. Lillit, Minerva, and Aakin worked quickly to bring them down. Though the zombies did harm the high priestess, she was able to keep up the ritual. Dahryen sang songs to bolster the courage of his fellows as Lillit and Isobel responded with lightning bolts and haste. Silas, Will, Teela, and Chauncey soon finished off the zombies.
The ritual completed, the casters collapsed exhausted. The clapper then rose in the air and gave off a gong that sounded like a funeral rite. Light came out of the globe and shone on the walls, placing the map of Golarion there. It spun around and swiftly zoomed in to a single location in the Shackles.
The location was the island of Raugsmauda’s Reach, the lair of the undead pirate sorceress Raugsmauda and her crew of the deadly pirate ship Naiegoul. The lich was a plague upon the Shackles and was the one responsible for Kerdak Bonefist’s final fate. Her flag, a black banner with the words Geghalle Omutapura, or “Hope Vanishes” in Ghol-Gan, was feared throughout the Shackles.
As the vision ended, there was a blast of fire and rock, indicating something else was going on. Minerva communed with Cayden Cailean and in conversation with the Drunken God she learned that the phylactery of the lich could be found somewhere in the Lurching Mountain and that the prison holding Besmara would be made of air and water. To disrupt them something of fire and earth would be required. That would be the purview of the volcano goddess, Great Pele.
They took a day to prepare for their expedition to Raugsmauda’s Reach through research and purchasing equipment. It became quite well known that the Hurricane King was going after Raugsmauda and the general consensus was a combination of hope and concern. Lady Bloodmourn was all for it, complimenting the new Hurricane King on her initiative. The fact that no one had ever returned alive form the Reach may have had something to do with it.
Lillit cast divination to try and get help and found that something was located in the sulfur pits of the Lurching Mountain that would help them summon Pele to their aid. But Great Pele was referred to as “our sister”.
Lillit recalled an obscure legend about three sister spirits: Besmara, Pele, and Xaponda. Besmara was a spirit of wind and water who was raised up to godhood by Mwangi natives praying for her intervention with sea monsters. Pele was a spirit of fire and earth who was raised up to godhood by the Tulita natives praying for her restraint from wiping them out with her volcanoes. Xaponda was a spirit of cold and lightning, a storm spirit, which never was fully raised to godhood. So Lillit gained some insight into her mysterious patron.
They got as much gear as they could find and then left Tessa in control for the short time they were projecting they would be gone. They set out the next day and took five days to get to the sulfurous and poisoned island.
Session 69:
Pielanga and Aakin took flight on Chauncey to peruse the island while avoiding Raugsmauda’s tower and were nearly taken out of the air by a pyroclastic bomb from the volcano known as the Lurching Mountain. Not surprisingly, they returned quickly to the ship. Further magical investigation revealed the entire isle to be dimensionally locked, meaning that only a teleport effect created by Raugsmauda herself and designed with the island in mind could possibly work.
Isobel, Chauncey, Pielanga, Aakin, Minerva, Teela, Silas, Lillit, and Will set out for the island in a ship boat and arrived on a shore filled with smelly yellow gasses. As they took in the twisted vines and shrubbery, three massive spiders broke form the underbrush and attacked, chittering like mad rodents as they charged.
Teela got quite disturbed as she had an aversion to spiders. Chauncey charged the largest one while Will and Silas broke off to challenge the smaller two. As Will and Silas attacked their spiders, the largest one captured Teela in a web while she was trying to move into position to strike. With Aakin’s supporting fire and the strong attacks from Chauncey, Silas, and Will, they soon finished off the three terrors and began looking for a way to navigate to the volcano.
Teela found the best route was a dangerous one: up a lava tube. It would hide them from detection and lead them directly to the caldera; even so there was a chance of an eruption in which case they would have nowhere to flee from the oncoming lava. The other two routes were either exceptionally difficult or within sight of the tower. They decided on the lava tube, but Chauncey was too large and had to be dismissed. Setting out in single file they began the ascent to the caldera.
About halfway up, there was an earthquake and the roof collapsed on top of them. They all were able to dodge the central mass of falling rock so none were buried though most of them took some damage. They continued on their way and began to feel the heat coming down from the volcano. Lillit used her wand of endure elements to make sure they could continue without suffering ill effects. The heat continued to climb, eventually causing Lillit to cast resist energy to further protect them.
Shortly after that they found themselves in an opening onto the magma chamber. Teela located a six inch wide ledge ten feet below them that they could use to get to a small grotto some twenty feet to the west of their entrance point. Lillit flew over; Pielanga, Will, and Teela dropped down and moved along the ledge easily; Minerva used Will’s slippers of spider climbing to get there; and Silas carried Aakin and Isobel over himself.
In the grotto they found bubbling sulfur pits. Isobel summoned Chauncey and Lillit cast resist energy on him before he began to suffer from the heat. Upon casting detect magic, the whole area was covered in overwhelming necromantic magic as well as some moderate conjuration magic. Using an unseen servant and mage hand, they prodded around the sulfur pits and found a small round sphere of obsidian. Then the servant dissipated from taking damage from the pit.
The orb seemed to be full of smoky, swirling mists. Silas rubbed the orb and it became very warm and became a yellow fiery eye looking right at him. Silas assumed that the orb had now become a conduit to Great Pele as Lillit’s patron had told them a connection to Pele could be found in the Lurching Mountain. Silas tried to put it in his pack, but it reappeared in Silas’ hand and surveyed the group. As they tried to move on to continue the search for Raugsmauda’s phylactery, a wall of magma erupted to block their exit.
As Silas tried to address the stone, a powerful female voice filled his head and demanded to know who he was and what he was doing with one her stones. Silas explained who he was and what he was trying to do. Silas was engulfed in flame and his entire life and soul was read by Great Pele, an experience that he barely survived and stayed sane. She told him to throw the sphere against the barrier that held her sister and she would bring it down. She then removed the lava and the stone went dormant.
They all felt empowered with mythic energy from their encounter with Great Pele’s power; it wouldn’t last, but for a while they had access to great power. Silas searched the grotto and discovered a trapdoor leading to a corridor sloping down and away, encrusted with sulfur. They followed it down to a small round room with a stone pedestal on top of which was a golden chest. They got Teela to search the podium for traps, but she found nothing. Detect magic showed overwhelming enchantment and necromantic magic.
Minerva and Lillit began debating which spell effects could be found on the chest. Each person looking at it with detect magic and using Spellcraft were seeing different effects. Lillit tried casting greater dispel magic on the chest to subdue the magic protections. They got hit with a massive wave of energy from the chest that tried to cause irresistible dance on the party. Everyone danced for short time and took excruciating pain except for Pielanga who kept on dancing a little longer.
Minerva cast restoration spells from her wand to help fix the damage done. Will picked it up and then gave it to Silas to try and smash. As Silas began to crush it, they were transported to Raugsmauda’s audience room, filled with wights, juju zombies, Raugsmauda herself, her first mate Chouzbec the graveknight, and Pyrada Naulk a human cleric of Lamashtu. In addition, the skeletal champion form of Kerdak Bonefist and a nightwalker were present. To the side of the hall was a column of water and air with a feminine figure obscured within it.
Will and Teela moved in and began attacking the undead minions that filled the area. Lillit then cast storm bolts filling the area and striking all the enemies present with lightning bolts. Silas tried to break the phylactery and began taking necrotic damage as he slammed into it. He broke open the gold plated adamantine chest to reveal a golden casket underneath. He attacked it and took even more necrotic damage. Badly hurt, he popped a cure serious wounds potion.
Isobel merged into Chauncey and then charged forward to kill the evil cleric and then struck the graveknight. Minerva cast undeath to death enhanced with mythic power and took out almost all the ghouls and wights. Aakin took out a few more before the minions struck, with Teela and Lillit taking some heavy blows. Kerdak moved in to attack Silas and was attacked by Chauncey, but only gave the skeleton a glancing blow. Kerdak sapped Silas of his strength as he struck, reducing the brawler’s chances of destroying the phylactery.
Chouzbec moved across and attacked Chauncey but drew a powerful blow from Silas. It didn’t stop him and the graveknight began shredding the dragon with his strikes. Raugsmauda cast a spell that tried to pull Silas’s heart out of his chest, but he proved stronger than that but was staggered. She then cast waves of exhaustion throughout the chamber, weakening the entire crew considerably. The nightwalker attacked Chauncey, doing considerable damage.
Lillit moved out of Minerva’s way and the summoned the kolyarut inevitable Lakorian-Kriss to aid in the fight. Lakorian-Kriss attacked the nightwalker on Lillit’s command. Lillit cast frightful aspect for its defensive bonuses. Minerva cast heal on Silas and restoration on Will. Will attacked the phylactery and Raugsmauda tried to rip Will’s heart from his chest, but failed before Will destroyed the phylactery. Raugsmauda screamed and collapsed as the exploding phylactery damaged Silas, Will, and Minerva with necrotic energy.
Teela attacked some of the remaining minions and took them down swiftly. Isobel/Chauncey moved in and began attacking the graveknight in an attempt to remove the monster from the battle. Aakin began being shredded by the remaining minions as he took some down with his arrows. Teela, Silas, and Chauncey were all hurt by the nightwalker, graveknight and Bonefist. Chouzbec channelled negative energy, harming the entire crew.
Lillit fired off a chain lightning spell followed by storm bolts on Chouzbec, Bonefist, and the nightwalker. The nightwalker was finally eliminated by this blast. Lakorian-Kriss then began attacking Bonefist as Minerva cast mass cure critical on the entire room, healing her crewmates and eliminated the graveknight and Bonefist. Will flipped over Minerva and took down the remaining minions in a flurry of strikes alongside Teela. Silas then came in and finished them off.
Lakorian-Kriss stated that the debt was fulfilled and vanished. Minerva used the last of her mythic power to enhance a mass cure serious spell to heal the entire group. Then Silas threw the smoky orb against the water and air column holding Besmara and discovered a force wall protecting it. Silas pounded on the wall along with Aakin and Will until it came down. The whole room filled with the sound of wind and water.
Silas threw the orb against the column and lava exploded out of the sphere and shattered Besmara’s prison. The feminine figure laughed and vanished. The lava blasted into the floor, and the whole island began to quake. The crew ran for the exits as fast as they could. They moved rapidly over the cracking floors and crumbling walls towards the docks. Silas carried Aakin as he was far too slow. They escaped the tower as it fully collapsed and saw the Naiegoul setting sail and getting away.
Lillit cast fly on those who couldn’t and they fled back to the Risky Venture and then set sail to get as far from the exploding volcano as they could. They healed up, set course for Port Peril, and rested for the night.
On the next morning a call from the watch announced three sails on the horizon. Two were large Chelish pirate hunters and the third flew a flag with an iron demon mask. They were able to identify the three vessels as Bonedeuce’s Pride, the Dominator, and the Bloody Terror, the vessel of Dwali the Bloodcove Butcher. They moved to the attack.