I've been running Serpent's Skull bi-weekly for a couple months now and my party has finally made it to Eleder. First things first, I didn't start a campaign journal previously because I ran Souls for Smuggler's Shiv fairly by the book. The party pushed their way through the jungle, encountered a bunch of animals and monsters, and made it off the Shiv alive. Now that we are hitting Racing to Ruin, this adventure is going to start taking some major turns from the way it was written. Whether it works or not will be interesting, but this will be a lot more fun to write about rather than going through the book verbatim.
Second, I think all of us were getting tired of being stuck on that damn island and my party utterly failed to kill Yarzoth in the final battle. But before I get into the gritty details of the island escape, let me describe the party who fought and barely made it away from the cursed island.
Shinon Irandil, Half-Elven Ranger
Technically, the only original member of the party who traveled on The Jenivere to make it to Eleder. Worked as a shiphand on the Jenivere. Lived in Ilizmagorti with his daughter, Miran, who is currently the cutest, smartest 7-year-old to serve drinks in a bar back home. Shinon is currently trying to make enough money to send his daughter to school, hoping for her to turn out better than he has since his Intelligence leaves much to be desired. Also, missing his left eye due to a previous experience in Ilizmagorti. Has recently gained his animal companion... of a lone Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Mira, Ghoul Noble Drow Oracle of Lore
Technically, the second original member of the party who traveled on The Jenivere, but she was killed by Yarzoth (through use of domination of Shinon) as Yarzoth was already hoping the Drow had died on the boat. Though originally stand-offish from the other passengers, she grew to fight for them and become a bit closer to them. Grew up in a monastery, attempting to learn about her past and her very active shadow that seemed to grow and reshape under times of great stress. Would have been dead for good if not for Mira and Shinon both contracting ghoul fever the previous day to them finding the temple. It is the most unsecret secret within the party that Mira is currently undead, though she is still relearning what she was like in life using her Brain drain ability to gather other people's memories of her. Now that she is a ghoul, Mira is hoping to find new life in her undeath.
Tymble, Gnome Alchemist
The first addition to the party since the original shipwreck. Really smart, really capable, really reckless when necessary. Lives in Mira's backpack for most of the time, taking pot shots at whoever seeks to do the party harm. Currently searching for a way to return his twin brother Grange back into being after a terrible accident, and hoping to find some solvents and alchemical means to bring him back.
Kakashi Hatake, "Human" (and not at all Aasimar) Ninja/Magus
The second addition to the party since the original shipwreck. Obsessed with honor, duty and claiming his birthright. Trying to impress the Supreme Draconic Emperor of Xi Hoi, Pham Duo Quan, and reclaim his honor after being caught with a room full of dead recruits ala Anakin and the padawans. Jumps into the fray of a battle whenever possible, even when it's unnecessary. Came from the far off lands of Tian Xi and was trasported to the island through a Thor-like portal in the stars. He literally fell from the sky. Currently searching for the demon that killed the recruits and kidnapped his master.
This is his second character and, somehow, I'm guessing not his last of this adventure.
Finally,
Caboose, Half-Orc Barbarian
Just joined the party when they arrived in Eleder. Has the strength of a behemoth but refuses to use it unless someone hurts one of his friends. Has been half-searching for his original tribe of traveling orcs but seems to find new friends wherever he goes. Is always looking for new friends yet has the social skills of a child (with too much strength). Will follow the party for as long as they are considered friends. Currently under the employ of Gelik Aberwhinge (who could not be happier to have a bodyguard).
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And, now, we sing our praises to the remembered dead/lost of Smuggler's Shiv...
Milo Leroung, Chelaxian Wizard with Greensting Scorpion familiar
A member of the noble Leroung house from Cheliax, Milo was a passenger on The Jenivere and crash landed with the original party. Milo was an explorer from the get-go, working his way through the jungle before hopping on the boat with his mentor to travel the Mwangi. Though his family had moved away from Cheliax proper, they still revered some of the old Chelaxian values that they grew up with. This was evidenced when, upon seeing the NPCs passed out on the original beach, Milo pulled out his dagger and attempted to slit Jask's throat while he was manacled and prone. If not for Mira's quick use of deeper darkness, all of the NPCs probably would have died on the beach.
During the trip down Smuggler's Shiv, the party found the body of Milo's mentor, Magister Tellen, stuffed in a large sack and chopped to pieces with cannibal bite marks in the flesh. They also found two notes on him: one to the Sargavan Guard about the possibility of Aspis trying to seed themselves into the government, the other to Aspis Consortium about finding a way to seed more Aspis members into Sargavan noble houses and wallets. Milo took Magister Tellen's ring from the bag of body parts complete with the symbol of the University of Egorian and continued travelling, though mortified.
The next morning, the party heard a loud "POP" come from Milo's tent. When they checked, there was blood sprayed across the inside of the tent and Milo was gone. It appeared that Milo had exploded over the course of the night. Mira, however, investigated further and found that the blood along the walls was a permanent image and that the faint magic left behind was caused by a plane shift. The ring that Milo had messed with was a Ring of Feign Death and Milo was stuck in a parallel plane as he obviously couln't figure out how the ring went off or how to get back.
Shinon, however, was even more mortified as he had signed a contract with Milo to help his daughter get into a good school and it might not be as valid with Milo appearing to be dead.
Erianna Dahast, Elven Bloodrager with Abyssal bloodline
Sent into the jungle to learn about the world by her parents, Erianna was on The Jenivere to continue her studies and become a more learned individual. Also, Erianna had a bit of a rage problem that almost never came up. Nobody disliked her, she had no enemies, and she was striving to be both the smartest and strongest person who crash-landed on Smuggler's Shiv. She also wanted an animal companion and went into conflict with Sasha when they both saw a troupe of dimorphodons near the edge of a cliff. Neither was happy when the party did away with the dimorphodons but Shinon attempted to hand a dimorphodon egg he found to Sasha since she seemed more hurt about it.
Erianna's player stopped showing up. This also almost ended the game as Milo's player had to leave as well and we were having issues with getting everyone to show up for over a month. Luckily, Tymble's player showed interest and his character crash landed on the Shiv the next session.
Erianna Dahast has been in a coma for the past "five days" and has been transported to a local church in Eleder for the clerics to look after. Odds are, that is where Erianna's story ends with this party.
And finally....
Professor Leo Archibald Gibson, Halfling Summoner with a Triceratops-looking Eidolon
Hoping to prove his worth to the other teachers at the University of Three Winds at Stokenhime, Leo always longed for adventure. He joined The Jenivere hoping to search the Mwangi for all of the many tomes and uncharted civilizations that it had to offer. He also had something to prove to the rest of the academic community as many of his fellow professors did not believe he could make it out in the wilderness. It turns out they may have been right...
If not for Leo, however, most of the NPCs probably would have left the rest of the party. Leo was the most sociable person out of all the survivors and always looked to keep people's spirits up. He's the reason that the party was able to help Jask find the papers that proved his innocence; he's the reason that Ishirou showed the piece of treasure map that he owned to the rest of the party and they were able to dig and find pirate treasure; and he was the reason that Sasha accepted the dimorphodon egg from Shinon instead of throwing it in his face (after he blatantly roasted the dimorphodons that they found and killed for dinner the previous day). Leo did a lot of damage control and his talking Triceratops-like companion brought a lot of laughs to the party.
Leo, however, had very little regard for his own life.
When the party found snake tracks leading into the brush, he joined to go tackle them. A Summoner at Level 2. And while everyone else (and his eidolon) took down one snake, another came out of the brush and poisoned him. For the rest of the game, he had less than 7 Constitution from all of the Con damage of that one snake.
When the party is looking for the entrance to Captain Quellig's treasure, Leo goes off on his own to the ship near the rocks away from the beach. His plan was to ride out to the ship on the rocks, somehow climb up to the ship itself, and at sunrise (when the entrance to the treasure reveals itself) he will light the ship ablaze to signal that the sun is rising. With some very lucky rolls, Leo fought a sea urchin by himself and took it down, grabbing some gold for himself. Also, the ship was lit on fire to signal the sun rising. For reasons.
When the party fought the cannibal camp and was almost overwhelmed, Leo came riding in on his triceratops and charged through Malikadna, the witch. And had his health sapped to help her last one more round.
When they went into the caves, Leo attempted to summon snakes to sit on everyone's shoulders to deter the festrogs and ghouls from attacking everyone because they might like the snakes. They did not.
And when Mother Thrunefang sent her final throng of children to take down the intruders on her lair, something very odd happened. Leo ran forward like a valiant knight (who isn't one) and made every single check to avoid getting ghoul fever. Every freaking one. However... He was paralyzed twice within that same battle (almost from the start). And every Will save versus Mother Thrunefang's 2d6 of channel negative energy hit him like a truck. He fell from the paralyzation after the battle, having already died the previous round.
Though quite a few have faced hardship over the course of Smuggler's Shiv, Leo had a full-on funeral service and pyre to light his body aflame. And ever since, whenever the group faces hardship, an NPC will turn to a player and say, "Think of Leo."
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And that's just the characters. But hopefully, that will give you a baseline for where this story is at thus far. It's a weird and wacky world out there and the serpents just want to rule it.
NEXT UP: How to Leave a Cursed Island
LEAVING A CURSED ISLE
After escaping the blood-ridden temple, traveling all night to return to the cannibal camp, and hoping for the best, Shinon, Tymble and Kakashi made their way into the thatched roof of the main building. Jask, still reeling from the red ache that continued to course its way through his veins, was still casting lesser restoration on himself to keep his Strength from being completely sapped and it was taking a toll on him.
Shinon, carrying Mira's body, assured Jask that the casting of raise dead from the mithral scroll case was just taking longer than usual. Shinon was lying. Jask knew that Shinon was lying, but also knew that he diagnosed the both of them with ghoul fever the previous day. To say the least, Jask was concerned.
Tymble made his way to the top of the still broken lighthouse and started getting to work. Kakashi had words with Ishirou about what they faced back at the temple with the flowing river of blood.
Shinon spent part of the day with Sasha, searching for an animal companion. And he found one that should shake up the game entirely. Currently, he was already fairly jealous that Sasha had received a dinosaur (a dimorphodon that she had named Talon). Well, he wanted a T-rex.
Along the trail, Sasha and Shinon found the body of a Dwarven woman in a grey uniform with a blue chest-pocket that read "NATIONAL PRESERVE OF ELEDER", apparently killed by the snake bite on her ankle. Nearby, they found a lone Medium-sized T-rex that looked lost. Shinon, who can speak with animals, asked what the T-rex's name was. "My mother called me her hero." Shinon was content, thoughts of his daughter riding a T-rex in his mind.
I can say I had a lot of fun with people's reactions to there being a T-rex added to the party.
As the day turned into night, Mira failed her final Fort save and the ghoulishness took over. However, as her body began to decay, her mind saw a small, whizzing ball of light. It said, "I like you." She said, "I like you, too." And the whizzing ball chirped and embedded itself within her body. As fast as her body seemed to decay, some of the color returned to her face as she awoke... and didn't remember any of the people she'd been shipwrecked with standing over her.
Shinon took Mira aside and Mira played along. Jask, for some reason, could not stop rolling 20s as he immediately identified what she was, but not exactly how she still appeared to be alive. In the meantime, Mira took Shinon to a different room and used her Brain drain ability to relive the events of the island... from Shinon's perspective. They spent the next hour mind-melding in the other room while the NPCs conversed about everything that was going on.
When the mind-melding was complete, there was a big reunion with the entire party. Tymble, who's been basically living out of Mira's backpack in battle, was ecstatic. Kakashi made tea for everyone because "honorable".
Now, the NPCs suggested that they ALL head back to the Temple of Blood. If anything, everytime the PCs have gone off on their own someone has come back maimed or worse. So, the entire party started heading out to the other half of the island.
Upon approaching the Tide Stone, everyone re-regarded the ritual to get the lake to sink down to manageable levels. The party of nine headed back to the front doors, back to the main hall of the sunken Zura temple. The three things that they had not dealt with in the previous run-through all hit the party at once: while half of the party dealt with the Gibbering Mouther, the other half dealt with the soulbound dolls. There is a brief moment where Kakashi was engulfed by the Gibbering Mouther, the party able to hear each of the mouths crunching at his body for a single round. But Tymble with a clutch crit tossed a bomb into the mouther, causing it to explode. The soulbound dolls, while tiny, were easily dealt with.
The dolls's soul gems, however, were a point of interest to the party. Kakashi (or should I say, his player) was extremely interested in the value of a gem containing the soul of a possible evil creature kept in the bones of what looked like dead animals and children. Mira, however, used her Brain drain ability again to an interesting effect: she was able to look back, far back, into the history of the gem and the soul of the serpentfolk that was kept inside of it. She could see the Azlanti (though she doesn't know that for sure) ships firing upon the serpentfolk village, the serpentfolk and human slaves being used by the Zura cultists, and the eventual transference of the soul into the doll. She even got a hint at a gigantic boom that seemed to shake the Earth itself, but the doll just kept on cleaning.
In the end, Mira has a gem and so does Kakashi.
Returning to the room where Yarzoth barely lifted a finger to defeat them, the party still saw the room as it was. However, they did notice the small swipe of blood on the Zura statue's lips. Mira and Tymble were the first to notice and immediately followed the clue, turning into gas. They followed where Yarzoth went to escape and found a single room. More prayers in Azlanti written on the walls and bits of old food left on the floor, but there's no sign of where Yarzoth went.
Kakashi eventually followed them up into the prayer room and, just when Tymble was preparing to disable the trap embedded in the wall, Kakashi set the trap off. Fortunately, Kakashi made his Will save and was not cursed to look like a transformed demon.
Finally, it was time for the final battle. Everyone returned to the main temple, Jask spouted a decree to sanctify this unholy ground with Nethys's power (consecrate), and the final battle began. Zombies started to rush to the bronze bars at the far end of the room and the from door they had previously entered. Anyone who wasn't slashing zombies to bits (which Kakashi was doing in spades) was breaking apart the unholy altar which starting to pour more and more blood into the trough lining the room. It got to the point where the blood overflowed the trough and made it difficult to move around.
With a final resounding smack, Mira burst open the altar and a wave of energy washed across the room. All of the undead in the room were immediately dissolved into dust -- all except Mira.
Those who were bashing at the altar watched as they could see her body beginning to break apart, her skin looking decayed for the first time. But within the skin that seemed to want to dissolve was a small burst of light.
Then, the rest of the party recounted memories of how they'd lived and fought alongside Mira. Everybody had to make a roll that would either increase or decrease the DC of whether Mira would be wiped out forever. In the end, most people helped, the DC was set and Mira made her roll: a 17 on the die. Mira's body reformed, solidified, and the decay across her skin retreated. She was still a ghoul, but possibly a ghoul with friends.
As everyone started leaving the temple, Gelik frantically made notes from all of the alcoves citing "all the lost information that needed to be recorded". Some stayed just long enough for him to get his notes done, but they finished with the temple and headed back to the cannibal camp.
Within the next day, Tymble, Gelik and Kakashi got the lighthouse working. By nightfall, they saw the light of passing boat start heading toward the island.
As the rowboat started ferrying people to the whaling vessel, Kakashi heard a small blast of flame erupt from the jungle. He went to go investigate and failed his Will save. The dark-haired, scholarly looking woman that he had never met before shook his hand and asked him to take her to the boat. As they shook hands, she shrunk a bit and turned into a disgruntled-looking Dwarven man in a grey uniform with a bright blue chest-pocket.
No one was any wiser as the Dwarven man slipped onto the boat.
NEXT TIME: WELCOME TO ELEDER, CIVILIZATION AT IT'S FINEST
WELCOME TO ELEDER, CIVILIZATION AT IT'S FINEST
As the boat was making its way to Eleder, the party meets a new person who was already traveling on the whaling vessel. Caboose was a fairly dim-witted half-orc who apparently has lost connection with the tribe of orcs that he originally left with. He was, however, extremely great at making new friends... except not with the party. After everything they went through on the island, they were wary of this optimistic half-orc and seemed to steer clear of him.
Luckily, as they reach the shore, Caboose was distracted by a town crier expelling the vices and virtues of the Freeman's Brotherhood. They appeared to be operating out of a shop named The True Aura of Justice, which is littered with propaganda and pamphlets espousing their creed. Unfortunately for them, Caboose couldn't read.
The main party started to explore the intertwining allegiances of Eleder in the interim. The Pathfinders had a lodge in Portside and a shop near the Lower Harbor beach. The Free Captains had a franchised gem-trade and magical item shop named "Betty's Booty" with an illustriously lit sign. The Aspis Consortium seemed to have a hold on local casters and money management. And the Sargavan Guard held their own within the confines of New Haliad, albeit at higher prices.
Their first major find was the soul-crushed, monotonous rendition of Betty's Booty's cashier, "Welcome to Betty's Booty, where your booty isn't safe unless it's arrrr's." Everyone died laughing. Mira immediately had to help this poor woman and so birthed Josephine, the retail clerk. In the meantime, Shinon was struck by another woman who had been doing business in the back room and this nearly shocked him to death. The woman appeared to be his wife, Marceline, who had died back in Ilizmagorti after the birth of their daughter. She left and Shinon went after her.
It turned out that his wife had been part of Red Mantis before they were married and had faked her death. Shinon was appropriately mortified.
In the meantime, Caboose had been handed a handful of fliers to be passed out about the upcoming Freeman's Rally for Slave Rights on the following day. He couldn't read them, but he liked meeting new people so he spent most of the day handing them out. Most of the party moved on to The Benson Burner, an alchemist's tower that many of the residents appeared to think moved about the city at different times of the week. The proprietor, Bathilda Benson, was an eccentric Dwarven-looking woman with some Gnome-like features. She was happy to help them spend their island gold.
Kakashi, who had been tasked with delivering a katana to a father's son in Eleder, completed his quest though the son seemed to want nothing to do with his father's equipment. Kakashi, however, was told through a scroll that his work was not yet finished to reclaim his honor. By nightfall, most of the party found rooms at an inn and enjoyed the first safe night's rest that they had had in a while.
Caboose, however, had a more eventful night. He wandered into a bar and one of the patrons, Dune, challenged him to a drinking contest. Dune, thoroughly drunk, appeared to want to pay for most of what was happening. The drinking turned into arm-wrestling; the arm-wrestling turned into a broken section of the bar's counter top. Caboose had, however, earned some respect from this individual. Even after putting his arm in a sling.
That night, Mira (who doesn't need sleep because "ghoul") went to visit Josephine. This set some of the players on edge, but Mira proceeded to levitate Josephine out her bedroom and take her on a Peter Pan tour of Eleder, complete with falling hundreds of feet only to feather fall at the bottom just before hitting the ground. (Wisdom of almost 4) Josephine, having seen the option for fear-inducing but breath-taking adventure, decided to take Mira's advice to quit her job and become an adventurer.
The next morning, the party received word that the Pathfinders would like to speak with them. Apparently news of their survival and triumph over Smuggler's Shiv had started to make its way around town. Also, on the door down the hallway, many of them heard the Sargavan Guard banging on Jask's door. The Guard also seemed to have heard of his arrival. Quickly, Mira snuck outside and was able to levitate up to Jask's window and get him out before the Guard could get in. The rest of the party was able to make it to the meeting with the Pathfinders.
The leader of the Pathfinder Lodge, Kendra Leighton, is a passionate, but brutish dark-skinned woman who spoke of the Pathfinder's need to find the knowledge of a lost city and claim it to disperse throughout the world. The party was intrigued, but given a day to claim her offer.
Outside, the Freeman's Rally was just beginning as Mira and Josephine were passing through. The Freemen got mad at a passing gentleman and started to beat him into the ground.
NEXT TIME: OFFERS? WE'LL TAKE ALL THE OFFERS!