Put her in the hands of the PCs. Do they really want her back? Give them the chance of deciding what to do with her so it's all their decission but give them options to do so. On what point of the adventure is your game?
If the players resurrected her it could mean a change on her view of the world. This strangers have resurrected her. Why do they care?
My players made a big effort on changing Isabella's mind. I'll be telling how it went soon, but she was touched because they told her she was free and could go wherever she wanted to. She realized she had nowhere to go so she decided to stay with them. At first she was very hostile and distant, but after many weeks of roleplaying she started to be more open and even making some jokes. She ended being a good friend for both Kiani and Darren.
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New update!
RICKETTY'S SQUIBS, PART TWO
(I'm not very imaginative today)
A few days passed, and Selissa was completely recovered. The weather remained the same, though: a relentless scorching sun.
It was about noon and people were working when a buzzing sound came out of the jungle. A swarm of giant wasps clouded the sky. They were raging because of the heat. Most workers panicked, rolling to the ground or trying to reach for cover in the near buildings.
The PCs rushed to the main building, while trying to avoid being swarmed by the giant wasps, Fox and Kiani stayed next to the door, calling all the workers to come inside and making attacks of opportunity to any wasp trying to enter the building. Darren used his spells to provide some help to the workers that still were outside and allow to reach for cover alive, while Sandara helped some workers in through the windows and healed the most wounded ones.
The swarm left as quickly as it had come and, thanks to the party, there were no losses.
Without any time to recover the PCs spotted a ship approaching the docks. It had the flags and the shape of a Nerakese ship. Ricketty Hake was very worried, as the watcher on the entrance of the river hadn't warned him of this new arrival.
The captain of the ship came down, with a bunch of armed men on his side. The PC's were worried, but decided to wait to see what were these newcomers up to.
They didn't look like Dark Nights. In fact their captain, a well built man with a peg leg, was wearing a worn out coat with the sigils of the Knights of Solamnia and despite his tired looks still had the bearing of a knight, even though he looked more pirate than knight.
The captain spoke abruptly, demanding to have his ship remodelled as soon as possible. When he learned that the Man's Promise was already on the dry dock he wasn't pleased.
He adressed Kiani and presented himself as Merrill Pegsworthy. Despite looking like he was in a hurry he was rather polite. The PCs were expecting him to threaten them, as all the pirates they had known before would have done. Instead, he explained his situation to them.
He and his crew had attacked and captured a ship from the Dark Knights, but Merrill's ship was sunk in the fight. He couldn't sail around with a Nerakese ship without getting all the wrong attention.
Merrill was one of the Free Captains by his own and offered to rechristen their ship as long as it was finished if they allowed him to go first. The PCs aggreed, part because they thought it will bring them good luck, part because they liked Captain Pegsworthy.
With the deal made, the workers proceeded to take Merrill's ship to the dry dock and Ricketty Hake asked the PCs to go check if the watcher was OK. He offered them a discount on their ship if they did so, but they might have accepted anyway out of boredom.
It was a long path across the jungle, and they were attacked by wild boars in the way, but they dealt with them with ease. When they were close to the watchtower, a visibly altered parrot came on their way, insulting and flying around.
«Filthy bird! Fly away!» said the parrot in an old croaked voice. «Don't bother me!»
The bird didn't attack, but harassed them trying to guide them to the watchtower while crying out curse words seemingly directed at itself.
«Silly parrot, stop bothering me! Shoo! Shoo!»
With the parrot's unvaluable help they finally reached the watchtower. The door wasn't closed as it didn't even had a key, and there was nothing inside but an ermit's life belongings. There was also a wooden ladder to the watchtower's rooftop.
The party was suspicious, and they prepared themselves for the deadly menace that could await on the top of the tower. They had Sandara casting some buffs and Fox opening the trap door with care. Nothing. No demons from the Abyss. No undead hordes. Just the corpse of an old hapless man that had been stinged to death by giant wasps.
Everybody was silent for a few seconds until the parrot broke it with a «silly parrot» that sounded impossibly sad.
«There's nothing to do here. Let's get back.» said Kiani.
And they went back to Ricketty's Squibs with the bad news and the parrot. It would join the crew, alongside another parrot they had rescued from the Wormwood. They made an interesting pair, one more young and lively, constantly saying curse words, the other an old, calm bird, always singing pirate songs. Kroop adopted them, as he usually adopted everything that came to his hands (remember Cookie the Grindylow?), so you can imagine the mess he had in the kitchens.
Back to Ricketty's, the PCs spent the rest of the day making friends with Captain Pegsworthy and getting to know him better.
He told them he had been a Knight of Solamnia and commanded his own ship. He had fallen overboard in a battle and his leg was trapped on a nest. His first mate and best friend had jumped to the water to save him. He had to cut his leg to realease him, but Merrill was saved. His First Mate wasn't so lucky, as he was wearing his armor. He couldn't make it to the surface, and the badly wounded Merrill couldn't help.
After that, Merrill was reassigned to do paperwork. No matter how hard he tried, they wouldn't allow him to get back to his ship. He made a last attempt by directly adressing his superiors, who mocked both him and the sacrifice of his first mate.
He still believed in what he fought for and in the teachings of his Order, but he felt betrayed. So he reunited his loyal crew and stole his own ship, convinced that it was his right. Then he sailed to the Blood Sea where he'd become a pirate, but he'd only attack Minotaur, Nerakese and slaver ships.
The PCs were touched by his story. They had never thought that one could be a respected pirate and still have a high moral ground. But Merril was a moral man and still a Free Captain. From that day, Kiani was even more convinced of living up to her own ideals of freedom and not to become a cruel, sadistic captain who ruled by fear like Harrigan or Plugg.
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SET SAIL ACROSS THE WAVES!
A few days later, the ship was finished and ready to be rechristened. The party had a nice rest at Ricketty's Squibs but were already willing to set sails and start their new lives as pirates.
They had made some improvements to the ship: a broad rudder, hidden ballistae, a corvus and a ramming horn resembling some unknown sea monster. Kiani claimed it to be the Mustakrakish, the terrible creature she had invented for her stories and that had already terrified most of the crew.
They made a ceremony to rechristen the ship, and Captain Pegsworthy attended it as promised. The ship was rechristened as The Mustakrakish, to honor the powerful (and non-existent) sea monster.
Merrill had become a good friend in those few days they spent at Ricketty's Squibs. He offered some lore to the PCs before they departed: «Good fortune and sure sail await what one can crack the Tidewater Rock».
As a Bard, Kiani knew all the rumors and stories from the Blood Sea so she wasn't unfamiliar with the story of that place. As a well placed fortress and now poorly defended, it could make a good base of operations for some new pirates. But they didn't feel the urge of settling themselves at that time. They still had too many ships ahead to ride and some seas to travel.
They parted ways with Merrill and started their new life as pirates. They took the naga Selissa with them, as Ricketty's Squibs was not a good place for her. They hoped to get her a new home soon.
They were excited about raiding some ships, so they started looking for prey as soon as they could. What they didn't know was that there were not the only ones doing that. The night after leaving Ricketty's Squibs some stealthy raiders made their way to the deck from the surrounding waters. Darren was on watch and spotted them: three fish-like humanoids armed with tridents. Sahuagins. Before they could attack he gave the alarm by sounding the bell and them he defended himself until the rest of the party arrived.
They weren't very tough, and despite the high damage that Fox dealt, they managed to take a couple of them alive. They tried to interrogate the first, but he swallowed a puffer fish spine that he was hiding in his mouth and killed himself. Before awakening the second one Sandara removed the spine from his mouth and they could interrogate him.
They learned that they had their lair on Mancatcher's Cove, a place where a legendary treasure was hidden or so did stories say, and that their leader sent them to slay everybody sailing on HIS sea. As it seemed, they had already conquered most of the Blood Sea under the waves and now they were coming into the surface. The PCs were not impressed. They cared most for the treasure than for their foolish plans of conquest. After some harsh interrogation they even got a route to find Mancatcher's Cove... so bad all landmarks were underwater ones, as the sahuagins always traveled underwater. Without enough clues for finding the treasure, they just finished off the sahuagin and kept sailing.
Not much time passed before they spotted their first vessel. Really excited about it, they started the chase inmediately. It was an elven merchant vessel from Silvanesti. The superstitions said that Zeboim hated elves and any ship that had one of elven blood on board risked to face her fury, so the elves had to fleet their own ships, as most human vessels wouldn't want them on board.
The captain of the elven ship was a good sailor, and Kiani had a difficult time chasing it, but she finally caught it and rammed it. The boarding was swift. The orders of Kiani were clear: «don't kill anybody who has surrendered or fallen unconscious but don't hold your hand against the ones who are fighting». They captured the ship's cargo, tied the elves and gave them a speech trying to recruit some of them for their crew.
When they asked Sandara if Zeboim really didn't want elves on her sea she shrugged and smiled: «Who knows? If she doesn't we'll know»
So they a couple of half-elves who weren't very happy among their elven kind decided to join them and live a new free life as pirates. Some of the members of the crew were worried for having elves on board but Kiani and Sandara calmed them down... for now. The rest of the elves were left unharmed on their ship so they could return to home.
The following weeks were good for them: they raided some more ships, sold their booty, boasted in taverns, the typical pirate fashion. They also saved another pirate crew from being burned to death by Death Knights, and disarmed a trap from the sahuagins and killed some more of them. One of them was wearing a curious necklace made of some dark unknown metal. It looked valuable so they sold it. They were good weeks, as I said. If it wasn't for the ghost ship that haunted them. But we'll talk about the ghost ship next time.
Keep saying that the Mustakrakish doesn't exist and it will awake and go for you! Come on! I want to see how brave you are!!!
Not so brave, uh? Then shut up that big mouth and stop summoning the Sea-Breaker!
And keep writing my story so I can be famous!
Yarrrrr!
YOUR story? What about us?
And I don't believe the Mustakrakish exists either. You made it up to look interesting.
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Keep saying that and he'll rise from the depths to swallow us all whole! I can sense him coming!
And if it was your story it would be a short one: he lived happily ever after doing nothing at all!
How can you live happily doing nothing?
BOO-OOO-RIING!!!
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FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL
Our pirates had already been sailing on their own for a week. They were in the middle of nowhere, heading to Sea Reach to sell some plunder and boast their infamy. It was late evening when something appeared in the horizon, outlined against the setting sun they saw the silhouette of a whaler ship moving against the direction of the wind. It was just a short glimpse, as the sun set and the ship disappeared.
Some of the members of the crew started to speak of a ghost ship. They were unsettled, but as nothing more happened the PCs managed to calm them down. Until next night.
The next day was busy, they had to rescue some pirates that were about to be burned to death by Dark Knights, so they hadn't a lot of time to worry about ships that didn't obey the laws of physics. But when the night fell and a bank of fog surrounded the ship the crew was terrified again. They could hear the sound of a bell in the middle of the fog.
«It is coming for us! It's because of the elves! Zeboim doesn't want them here!»
The hull of a whaler ship appeared from nowhere in the middle of the mist. The hull was rotting and decayed, and a name could be read on the bow: Deathknell.
As soon as it appeared it was gone, apparently swallowed by the waves or vanished into nothingness.
With terror, the PCs realized that some of the members of the crew had grabbed the two half elves and were trying to throw them overboard.
«What the Abyss are you doing, for Zeboim's sake!?» Kiani shouted in disbelief.
«Zeboim has sent that ghost ship as a sign of her displeasure! We have to get rid of these elves!»
The PCs looked to Sandara, asking for help.
«Do you think The Goddess needs to send a damned ghost ship to punish us? We're on Her sea! She'd just send a giant wave or a sea monster! That... Thing belongs to the Lord of the Bones and has nothing to do with The Goddess.»
«This is my ship!» Kiani went on. «And these elves are my crew. If they are harmed in any way, the one who did it will end in the bottom of the sea as a sacrifice to the Goddess!»
She had been so nice until then that she caught all the crew unawares. They didn't know she could be that tough. The half elves were released unharmed, but someone else had something to say.
«You are all idiots.» She was Badger Medlar, an old swab who was always distant, moody and silent. She always wore a scarf on her head. «I've been sailing for more than 60 years and not a single ship I have been to has sunk.»
Said that, she revealed her pointy ears that marked her as a half elf. Nobody but the PCs knew that, so the crew was shocked. The members of the crew who attempted to sacrifice the half elves were given lashes after that (Fox was happy to be on the right side of the whip this time) and no one thought ever again of harming the elves or any other crew members.
As for the ghost ship, Darren was a bit worried, Fox was excited about fighting a ghost ship and Sandara wanted to «take that rubbish out of our sea». Kiani knew about the legend of the Deathknell and its cursed captain Whalebone Pilk, who had caused the doom of all his crew in an obsessive whale hunt (Moby Dick anyone?). She had a clear idea of what had to be done:
«We are going to board that ship and loot it. Imagine the stories we'll be telling after that!»
The legends said that the Deathknell would haunt them for two nights and hunt them in the third, so they prepared for the next night, more excited than scared.
The next night started like the previous one. The fog rose as the sun started to set. The sound of the bell in the middle of the mist announced the Deathknell. The sunken ghost ship rose from the depths, prepared to ram the Mustakrakish. Bad idea. The PCs were not scared of ghost tales. Their first idea was to maneuver so they were the ones to ram the Deathknell.
As they came close to the Ghost Ship the dead arose from the depths, climbing to the Mustakrakish. The PCs ordered their crew to stay out of reach of the slow zombies. Their piercing weapons could not harm the rotten flesh easily, but they took them down with ease taking profit of their slow movement by relocating them with Hydraulic Push and similar effects.
After some maneuvers, they rammed the Deathknell and used the corvus to rush to the enemy's ship. They were not the kind of people who knew how to fight defensively: they fought to win.
While a horde of brine zombies tried to take over the Mustakrakish, the PCs fought their way to Whalebone Pilk. As they were close to him, the undead captain stared at them, focusing on Sandara's medallion of faith. He had a skeletal grin on his face when he lifted a hand holding his harpoon and threw it at the priestess, impaling her. Trying to avoid to hit his friend, Darren missed to hit Pilk with a scorching ray. Meanwhile, Fox and Kiani fought their way against the zombie horde to reach their undead captain.
A spectral force, commanded by Whalebone Pilk, started to pull the air out of Sandara's chest, who started to suffocate. She couldn't use her morningstar on a grapple, so she summoned a spiritual trident to attack the undead captain. Finally, Fox and Kiani got into melee with him, quick to defend Sandara. Whalebone Pilk kept stealing her breath while making claw attacks against Fox, but his fate was clear with all the PCs focusing on him.
In the background, the ominous bell kept sounding, even after defeating the captain. All the zombies fell to the ground, lifeless, and the ship started sinking. Before they left the place there were two things they had to do: loot the ship and destroy that headache-inducing bell. They tried to break the bell by sheer force, a difficult thing to do as they had all low strength scores. They had to hit the bell for many rounds until they broke it and it definitely stopped sounding. They kept the broken bell as a token, not having time to recover any other loot. Later, they'd go underwater to recover the plunder of the now permanently sunken ship.
When they got to Sea Reach, Kiani told this story in all the taverns, always exhibiting the broken bell. And each time she told it, she added more zombies and more ghost ships to the story. At this time, I think there is already a fleet of ghost ships in her version of the story.
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TIDEWATER ROCK
Finally, the PCs decided to do something about Tidewater Rock. They probably took the resolution when they realized they were getting plunder faster than they could sell it and soon they wouldn't be able to store it all on their ship. Also, they had already recruited a big crew and they didn't need so many people at a time on their ship. So having a base didn't seem like a bad option.
They approached Tidewater Rock thinking of taking it by force, but they also thought that speaking with the widow Agasta Smythee would allow them to recognize the place and it defenses before striking them.
Agasta was initially suspicious of the pirate visitors but after some tough negotiation (where the PCs didn't want for any reason let her take a hostage from their crew to ensure their good behaviour) she invited them to parley while having lunch.
Even though the place had good natural defenses, the PCs realized that Agasta didn't have enough guards to defend the place against a serious attack. They could see how coming to an agreement could benefit both sides. The PCs could have their base and Agasta would gain someone to defend her home, as well as some of her lost prestige.
But she was a tough negotiator. She wanted to make sure that the agreement would be equally beneficial for both sides. She offered the deal of marrying one of the PCs so all their belongings would be shared. Nobody would be so fool to break the holy vows made to Zeboim, so it was a good way to ensure both sides played fair. The marriage wouldn't even have to be forever, they could set it for just one year.
Sandara didn't like it. She thought that making a vow in the name of Zeboim as a way of sealing a contract was somewhat blasphemous. Kiani wasn't very sure of it either. Fox simply found Agasta too old and unattractive and didn't like her dominant behaviour. Darren instead thought she was kinda hot, and wasn't against making the sacrifice of marrying her if he got to know her better first. Agasta made it clear: it hadn't anything to do with love or romance. They didn't have to change anything on their lifes, it was just business. But Darren didn't want to marry her without knowing her better.
So the PCs left to spend the rest of the day on the Mustakrakish and left Darren and Agasta knowing each other until the next day. What happened there remains unknown, but the morning after Darren was very convinced of marrying Agasta and she seemed satisfied with marrying him too. Just for one year.
They had to convince Sandara to carry on the ceremony, but she finally reluctantly aggreed. It was a simple ceremony with the crew and the inhabitants of Tidewater Rock involved and then they made a pirate party, because everything is a good excuse for a pirate party.
The next day The Mustakrakish left Tidewater Rock to sell some more plunder at Sea Reach and left Darren behind to spend some time with his new wife and check the accounts of Tidewater Rock.
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...and then they made a pirate party, because everything is a good excuse for a pirate party.
Heed these words of wisdom!
I must say that I only aggreed to officiate that marriage because they looked like they could end having... something.
The idea of marriage as a contract still seems offensive to me.
Old fashioned Sandara Quinn! Who would have thought that!
The whole idea of marriage is offensive to me.
And that's why I'm happily married and you are not.
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Nope. We are just happy.
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My party behaved just about the same. Only our party shaman was more than happy to marry her, and the wizard was still upset that his crush Isabella (who tried to kill him) was dead. They even left a small army of undead to stand guard, buried under a thin layer of sand, of course.
Edit: Also, entertaining as always!
Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying! I like the undead solution. My players left part of their crew as they were too good at recruiting people. Sandara was the only one able to create undead and she hated them (a bit more after encountering Whalebone Pilk).
I hope I can get into the part where they met Isabella next chapter. I was busy writing for «unforgettable encounters» and left this thread a bit abandoned this days.
What are you planning to do with Isabella in the end, by the way?
Still unsure. I really want her to come back, just not sure how to do it and make it believable. Maybe Besmara (Goddess of Pirates) took pity on her and gave her another chance to rule her own life. She could initially go after the PCs for some misguided vengeance, but then realize that they are the only ones who truly treated her as an actual person, and not just a walking map. What do you think? Any other ideas?
You can always rule that Isabella didn't use real poison and instead she used some kind of alchemical sustance to fake her own death and then hunt the PCs when they won't expect it. Something like Romeo and Juliet.
It's a little cliché, but it can work.
I don't know... If you really want to stick to her backstory, maybe you could have some of the enemies of the PCs resurrect her to use her as a weapon against them. Maybe they know one of your PCs has a crush on her. Maybe they want to follow them to Mancatcher Cove and want to take the information she knows about the place. Maybe they want her knowledge of Tidewater Rock as she has already attacked them there.
Whatever the reason, she is treated as a thing again. They just use her as a weapon against them and don't care for her. You can have her confront the PCs again following orders of her new boss or even run away from him to the PCs with information of her boss plans, wanting to betray him just because she realizes she's being used and she has got sick of it.
Just some ideas. I don't know how they could fit your game.
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You can also have her raised spontaneously as an intelligent undead and make her haunt the PCs. If the PCs show enough pity and interest for her they may try to redeem her and recruit her as an undead. Later, when they have access to a Resurrection spell they can free her of her curse and restore her to live.
Thus, they would have to prove that their crush is not just because how pretty she is and that they really appreciate her. That would surely touch her.
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Finally, I'm introducing Isabella Locke. I liked how this whole encounter came out specially how the aftermath played out.
THE TREASURE MAP
After the PCs spent some time in the city, selling their plunder and doing Kiani’s favorite thing (boasting in taverns), they were back to Tidewater Rock to meet again with Darren.
They found that the island had been attacked last night. Darren, alongside the garrison of Tidewater Rock and Selissa (who had made the bay her new home) had been able to repel the attack.
Darren told the other PCs how a big group of sahuagins had entered the bay at early evening and attacked the goatherd before the guards arrived to protect him. Mardus Siggs, a young boy from Tidewater Rock, had his leg seriously wounded, and risked death if it wasn’t treated. Fortunately Sandara combined some questionable chirurgy to remove the infected flesh with her own and Kiani’s healing magic and he was saved. The boy was really grateful, and when he was recovered from his wounds he asked to join the crew. He loved pirate stories and wanted to live a story of his own. After convincing his grandparents that they would care for him, they allowed him to join and he signed in as a cabin boy.
But the danger was still not over. When the workers were coming back from a day of work, eight sahuagins came out from the bay and rushed to the castle’s open doors, ignoring the non combatants. The PCs, after what happened last night, were ready to battle and easily defeated the sahuagins. As they already know of the venom spines they held in their mouth to kill themselves if defeated, they left one of them alive, removed the spine and interrogated him. Again, he confirmed that he came from Mancatcher Cove but couldn’t provide accurate information about its whereabouts. He told them that they had come to recover the pendant which belonged to the tribe’s chief’s son. They laughed at him while telling him that they had sold it and gotten a good price for it. After that, they killed him.
After two consecutive attacks the party was sure that the sahuagins would be planning to strike again so they decided not to leave Tidewater Rock for the next week, waiting until a new attack happened. They coordinated the defenses of the place and waited. They had to wait the full week until the attack finally happened.
The night was specially dark, as the two visible moons were in low phase (In Dragonlance there are three moons, but only two of them are typically visible) and the sea was calm. It was a pleasant night, and Kiani was on guard, as she had night vision and used to do the watch in the darkest hours. She was able to see nothing but a thick mist coming out from the black waters, but it was enough for her to raise the alarm. As the party assembled, Kiani watched the mist approach the doors of the castle, and a beating sound started. They were trying to bring down the doors! The PCs had given orders to confront any attackers inside the castle by hitting them with AoO as soon as they crossed the doors, and try to keep them from going further while reinforcements came.
A female voice was heard inside the mist before a powerful lighting came out from it and hit the door, leaving it weakened so the other attackers finished the job. She pronounced arcane words again (which Darren recognized as an Invisibility spell) and, unknown to the PCs yet, she flied towards the top of the tower. Seeing the PCs on one of the windows, watching and prepared to strike, she summoned a salt mephit on them to keep them distracted while she took care of the defenders at the tower. It was a mistake. Darren had readied an action to cast Glitterdust as soon as he heard someone casting a spell. Soon the attacker was covered in glitter. Without her invisibility she couldn’t infiltrate the tower so she decided to engage the PCs. She was flying, they weren’t. She still had an advantage.
The PCs responded to her attacks the best they could. The archers on the tower couldn’t harm her with arrows, as she was protected against them. That kept the PCs from trying non magic ranged attacks against her as they realized they would be inefficient. While Fox and Sandara fought the dust mephit (who was hitting Kiani and specially harming her because of having the aquatic subtype), Darren focused on the sorceress, targeting her with scorching rays. Kiani tried to bull rush her to the window with Hydraulic Push but failed.
A lightning bolt came out of the woman’s hands, hitting Darren and Sandara, who were in a line. Mimicking Kiani’s attempt, Sandara used her Surge power from the Oceans subdomain and dragged the sorceress to the window. Kiani moved a step to let Fox come close to her and used her Watersinger powers to debilitate her. She didn’t even try to back away. Seeing Darren already weakened by her previous attacks, she casted a Vampiric Touch defensively on him and almost knocked him down. She didn’t look scared or furious, just determined to cause the most damage possible before being defeated. Darren backed away, tried to hit her with a Scorching Ray and failed because Fox was in the middle. Kiani healed him.
Sandara and Fox engaged her on melee, but a lot of failed attacks kept the fight going on. The sorceress casted another Lightning Bolt, trying to finish Darren. He made his reflex save, and thanks to Kiani’s healing he wasn’t knocked out. The fight was over, Sandara and Fox put her into negative hit points before she could react.
Darren and Fox went out to help defending the castle against the other attackers. Kiani managed to see the silhouette of a ship in the entrance of the bay, it was leaving. Whoever was on the ship, he was abandoning his people. Sandara stabilized the dying sorceress. If she was an ally of the sahuagins, they though she could be hiding a puffer fish spine on her mouth too. They were shocked when they found out that she didn’t have a single tooth of her own. She was wearing a set of sharp fake wooden teeth, which they removed from her mouth to find that one of them was hollow and hiding a poison sea urchin spine.
Sandara also realized that some of the many tattoos the sorceress was wearing seemed to cover older and cruder tattoos as well as many scars.
Suddenly, they felt more pity than hate for their prisoner. Who was her and why was she working with the sahuagins if she was? The rest of the group came back. When they moved her to tie her to a bed they realized she had some kind of map tattooed on her back, but a bigger snake tattoo covered it so it was impossible to decipher.
Kiani healed the prisoner, just enough so they could interrogate her. She looked shocked when she realized her wooden teeth were missing. She looked at the PCs with hate and said nothing. They started questioning her, but at first she refused to speak and kept looking at them with a permanent scowl. They didn’t question her about Mancatcher Cove or the treasure. They just wanted to know about her and why she was working with the sahuagin.
«Give me my teeth back and I'll speak» she finally said barely moving her lips. They realized she was ashamed of not having teeth. Having removed the poisonous spine, they helped her to wear her wooden teeth.
«I was a slave. Thanks to the sahuagins I was released. I owe them.»
She wasn't pleased with having to talk about herself, but they managed to get her to tell some parts of her story. Her name was Isabella Locke, also nicknamed as «Inkskin» because of her tattoos. She had been enslaved by an ogre pirate when she was 11 years old. He abused her and, in her own words «liked to use her as a notebook». He had found the map to Mancatcher's Cove and tattooed it on her back so he could always carry it with him and didn't lose it.
They found Mancatcher's Cove with the help of the map, but the inhabitants of the place were ready to defend their lair. The sahuagins killed all the pirates, but Isabella had managed to survive by turning on her master and then casting Charm Monster on the leader of the sahuagin tribe, Krelloort. Having him charmed, the sahuagin made her one of his concubines and, after some time, she managed to manipulate him to get her own ship and sail on her own.
The party was shocked by Isabella's story, which she told in an unemotional way, as if it was irrelevant. Kiani and Sandara struggled to convince her that she hadn't been released from slavery, she just had changed one slaver for another. The sorceress aggreed that Krelloort actually didn't really care for her at all but at least he was weak willed enough so she could control him, so it was fine.
Isabella couldn't fully understand the party's arguments, but they made her think. She was touched because they aggreed to release her if she didn't try to fight them again. Finally she aggreed to let them see the way to Mancatcher's Cove with two conditions. They expected her to ask them to spare Krelloort or something similar. That wasn't what she wanted at all.
«I know you will kill Krelloort. I don't care. I have a room there. It's the only one that isn't submerged so you'll recognize it. I have left something valuable there.»
«What is it?»
«A jar. I want you to bring it to me.»
It was a weird petition but they aggreed.
«Also, my first mate, Knuckles, is probably coming for you. He has left me behind and left with my Thresher. He's a dead man. I want him dead.»
They did not only aggree, but tell her that they'd try to bring him alive so she could punish him personally. The PCs hated traitors.
They untied her and she commanded Moto, her snake familiar tattoo, to animate and come out of her back, letting them see the treasure map. I have to say that they were more interested in the strange familiar tattoo than in the map at that time.
They asked Isabella to behave while they were away and left her on Tidewater Rock while they were out to stop the sahuagins and claim the legendary treasure.
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OUTSIDE MANCATCHER'S COVE
Before they left, Isabella gave the PCs some information about the Cove. She had always reached the caves from underwater, so she didn't know some of the dangers they'd have to face.
They knew they were going to face a lot of sahuagins, that Krelloort had some of his concubines there (two sahuagins and a locathah) and that he was a four armed mutant sahuagin who used a powerful trident named Zul as his weapon of choice. They also expected to find Isabella's first mate, Knuckles, somewhere around the place.
They weren't disappointed. The Thresher was hidden behind a near island, but after some searching, the PCs spotted it. Honestly, Knuckles didn't give much of a fight. He surrendered and the party captured him, his crew, and the Thresher. He was willing to swear loyalty to them, but the party was adamant: they were going to put him in Isabella's hands. When she was done with him, maybe they could come to an aggreement... if there was enough of him left to aggree with.
After dealing with Knuckles, they anchored the Mustakrakish and the Thresher in the bight, surrounded and covered by a shroud of vegetation. They had to wait until the red moon, Lunitari, was on its top, as according to Isabella's tatoo, it would reveal the entrance of the cave.
The riddle tattooed on Isabella's back was the following:
From blue bight's embrace
Spy the Lord of Bones' prize tooth
With the Veiled Maiden's first kiss
Climb the Captain's wayward orb
To claim old king's hoard.
The light started to fade as night came. And with it, the guardian of the cove awakened. When the canopy creeper animated its vines to attack the crew on the deck of the Mustakrakish everybody was caught unawares. The plant creature attacked from a long distance, and they could barely spot it in the middle of the dense vegetation. Sandara helped to get the crew below deck so they would be safe while Fox started cutting the vines. Being highly resistant to damage, bows couldn't harm the plant, so the only one who could damage the body was Darren with his Snowball (which caused some neat extra damage to it). Kiani tried to get the ship out of the cave, only to realize that the rudder was disabled. They couldn't escape.
As they had cut the creature's vines it could only hit once per turn, and it kept grappling different members of the party and moving them towards it to try to eat them. They easily cut the vines, but each time they did it, the grappled one would fall to the shark-infested waters. Fortunately, Kiani's trick of animating the water proved to be as useful as always. They were coming to an impass and the plant didn't seem to retreat, as it wasn't taking a lot of damage and kept regenerating. But it grew impatient. As soon as it extended a new vine, they severed it. It was hungry. So it finally fell over the PCs, allowing them to close into melee and finish it.
The PCs went below deck to check if everybody was OK and suddenly the two girls heard a strange sound coming from the ship's hull. It was like something was pounding on it from the outside. Someone was trying to break the hull!Quickly they went up again and jumped to the water, just to find 3 sahuagins and 3 sharks willing to defend them. At this point the PCs were becoming experts in underwater combat, so it wasn't a difficult combat: Fox was a good swimmer and had a ring of swimming, Sandara had both her hat and her spells, Darren had got a swim speed from his aquatic bloodline as well as Silent Spell and Kiani... Kiani is an amphibious undine, that's enough to say.
After defeating the sahuagins and their shark minions, Sandara used a scroll of Make Whole to mend the breach on the hull (from the inside, as scrolls and water don't mix well) and they sent the ship's carpenter (a draconian engineer recruited at Ricketty's Squibs nicknamed Scaly) to fix the rudder.
Soon after that, the red moon came into the right position, and the entrance of Mancatcher's Cove was revealed, the shades of the moon resembling a smiling skull with a gold tooth. One of the caves, the one resembling the skull's right eye, was the one where the treasure was supposed to be hidden.
With this knowledge, the PCs decided to wait until next morning to start exploring the caves.
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JARS, EGGS AND MAD SEA MONKEYS
The party entered the caves in the early morning, a short time after dawn. They climbed to the «eye of the skull» and found an old tree whose log and branched resembled an old king. After some searching they found that there had been a way under the tree, but it had been covered by roots and dirt since a long time ago.
They brought some of the crew to clear the way and after some time they managed to get to the place the treasure was buried. There were some wooden planks that hid the way to a small shaft. Inside the shaft, it seemed obvious that something had been kept there until recently, but someone had taken it away. The PCs weren't disappointed, as they already expected the sahuagins to have looted the treasure. Some extra search revealed a hidden access to the lower level caves. The party went on with their exploration. They were all well prepared to go underwater with water breathing spells and ways to get a swim speed.
One of the first thing realized was that the whole place was adorned by statues and all sorts of things that seemed to have been recovered from ancient Istarian ruins. As they advanced exploring the caves, the PCs guessed that the sahuagins had been recovering stuff from the ruins of the sunken city of Istar.
Next to the entrance of the cave they found a way up to a small place that wasn't filled with water. That should be Isabella's chamber. It was spartan, small, wet and dark: not a place where anyone should enjoy living. At least some beautiful purple flowers adorned the place, making it look a bit less depressing. Kiani was the one scouting ahead, and she recognized the flowers for what they were: xtabay, carnivorous plants able to release a soporific pollen and then devour its victims alive. Kiani thought that Isabella had a curious choice for a plant to oxigen the place.
The xtabay released the pollen, but only Kiani was above water level, so she was the only one affected by it and she made her save. The rest of the party came when the pollen was cleared and finished the plants. There was a broken fence in the back of the room, so they guessed the xtabay had escaped from there. With it defeated, they went on searching for Isabella's jar. They were really curious about what kind of valuable item she was keeping in a jar.
They found it behind her bed. It was a huge jar made of glass, containing the alcohol-preserved severed head of an ogre with a kraken tattooed on his forehead. All of his teeth had been broken one by one.
The PCs were shocked at first, realizing what kind of spiteful woman Isabella was, but as Sandara said: «If someone did to me what this guy did to her I wouldn't settle by just breaking his teeth and keeping his severed head in a jar». Even if our pirates were nice when treated nice, they were a vengeful lot too.
They PCs left the room with Isabella's jar and continued exploring the place. In the next room a group of six sahuagins was waiting, but the PCs reacted quickly. They stepped back to the narrower tunnel and Darren casted Mad Monkeys on the attackers. It was a mess: imagine a bunch of monkeys grabbing all they can find, disarming enemies while trying not to drown. It was the first time Darren used this spell and everybody found it hilarious. And efficient, as the monkeys almost defeated the sahuagins all by themselves. I think the Mad Sea Monkeys made the whole dungeon not to be completely serious. When they went done with the sahuagins, the drowning monkeys spotted another creature that the PCs couldn't see from their position and they went on attacking on their own. When they entered the next room, they found the Mad Sea Monkeys fighting a giant crab. The PCs had a conversation about whether the monkeys were mad monkeys or psycho monkeys and continued their way.
After fighting some more sahuagins, this time accompanied by hammerhead sharks, they reached a wide room full of floating eggs hold together by mucous filaments. Kiani recognized them as locathah eggs and remembered that one of Krelloort concubines was a locathah, according to Isabella's words. The PCs approached the next room cautiously, but the locathah matriarch heard them.
«Don't harm my eggs!» she said from the adjacent room. The party prepared for a fight and entered the room, leaving Darren behind to threaten with destroying the eggs if needed.
What they saw inside the room was apalling. The locathah matriarch was in a deplorable state. Her legs had been crudely removed and stitched. Someone had carved twisted tattoos on her body. She had a defeated look on her face. That wasn't what the PCs expected to find at all, and the fact that Isabella never mentioned that the locathah was an unwilling concubine made them wonder at what degree had the sorceress learned to see that kind of things as normal.
After talking to the captive locathah matriarch and convincing her that they weren't going to harm her or her eggs, they promised to come back to rescue her as soon as the place was safe. She told them she'd do her best to have her eggs collected when they came back.
Now more convinced about ending the sahuagin menace than ever, they continued exploring the caves.
The next place was some sort of feeding room, with pieces of flesh and fish floating all around. They caught the sahuagins there feeding on the remains of some locathahs and moray eels. Even if not all of them were combatants, they slayed them all so they didn't raise the alarm, but also because after speaking to the locathah matriarch seeing them feeding on her kind wasn't a nice thing.
Kiani (the only one who was stealthy and could see in darkness) scouted into next room, just to find a bunch of sleeping sahuagins. She borrowed Fox's rapier, which had previously been Isabella's, and coup-de-graced them one by one. As I said, the PCs could be nice, but they were still pirates and they weren't afraid of being reckless if so needed.
When they entered next room Sandara suddenly became paralyzed in surprise.
«I feel like something in this room is calling me!» cried the priestess, looking somewhat scared.
The PCs were worried, but they had to fight more sahuagins and some sharks, so they didn't have a choice but leaving Sandara's concerns for later. They decided to secure the surroundings before investigating the call, which Sandara described as «some sort of magnetism» towards one of the walls of the cave.
The sahuagins in the next room sent a tojanida against the party, but as soon as they were defeated the tojanida surrendered. In Aquan, it explained it didn't have any real loyalty to the sahuagins aside from getting some free food from them. Kiani, the only one to speak Aquan, let the tojanida live in exchange for some information about the place. It informed her about an old female sahuagin who nursed the young ones and fed the tojanida and told them too that the only thing they would find ahead was an underwater alternative entrance to the cave. While the tojanida departed, the PCs went back on their feet to investigate the strange call that Sandara had experienced.
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THE KISS OF DEATH
Back to the previous room, Sandara started feeling the call again. As she came closer to the western wall, its intensity grew. Kiani realized that there was a well concealed passage behind the rocks, that looked like they had crumbled down a long time ago. Moving the rocks would take some time.
So, for the second time, they decided to secure the whole level and then come back to clear the way. They fought and defeated the old, bloated female sahuagin who nursed the sahuagins' eggs and knocked down the famished non combatants in a near room so they didn't awaken in a few hours.
With the whole level secured, they proceeded to clear the rocks. None of them being the muscular type it took them quite a time. The best thing I can say is that Darren didn't complain a single time. Not that he did a lot anyway.
Finally, they unblocked the access to a long time forgotten cave. Inside there was an anchor with an ancient corpse chained to it. Remembering the lesson that the hanged man had taught him, Fox entered the room very cautiously and didn't come close to the chained corpse. Sandara followed, still feeling the call.
A suspicious corpse is rarely a mere corpse, and this wasn't the exception. Releasing himself from the chains effortlessly, he charged towards Sandara. He wore a rotting mariner coat over his blueish skin and a deep platinum necklace around his neck. The only sight of the creature evoked fear, and all the party but Sandara was paralyzed. Fortunately, Kiani was suspicious enough to have her bardic song on and used her Saving Finale to release herself.
The drowned man slammed Sandara, grabbing her, closing his rotten lips around hers and regurgitating foul water into her lungs. Sandara struggled, but she couldn't break the grapple. Kiani started a new song just so she could release Fox later. Things didn't look good. Finally Fox was freed and made a full attack on the dead mariner. Even if his dead flesh was highly resistant, Fox's hits were well placed and caused a lot of damage. Enough to get the mariner's attention. Turning his back on Sandara, he slammed Fox and gave him his foul kiss.
Sandara felt like she was drowning, with the dark water taking over her lungs, but she recomposed herself and prayed Zeboim for help, summoning a spiritual trident to attack the drowned mariner. Fox was in a grapple and trying to cough out the water so there was nothing he could do. Darren managed to break the paralysis by himself and hit the undead with a Snowball spell, which clearly had much more effectivity than melee attacks. Kiani used her Inspire Courage ability and closed into melee with her rapier while the mariner kept focusing on Fox. The bardic song made a difference, as they started to deal a fair amount of damage. Combined with Darren's Snowballs, they returned the undead back to death.
But Sandara and Fox were still drowning. Sandara managed to cough the water out by herself, but Fox couldn't. Kiani spent a lot of spells and rounds of bardic performance granting him rerolls, most of them to no effect, while Fox did his best trying not to panic. Finally the drowning curse ended and Fox was still alive. It took many charges of a CLW wand to get him back in shape.
After making sure that Fox wasn't goint to die, Sandara examined the deep platinum necklace that the mariner was wearing. The call came from there. She was wearing a deep platinum brooch that they had looted from Isabella (letting her live was a thing, but letting her keep her gear was not a very piratey thing to do). The two deep platinum pieces seemed to call for each other.
Kiani thought that it was a pretty cool thing and wanted to get more deep platinum so all her crew could wear it and have them all share some kind of bond. The rest of the party found the deep platinum kinda creepy and didn't think it was such a good idea.
With a lot of their resources spent on the last fight, they continued their way.
Kiani, of course, has a different version for what happened in that fight, and her versions are always far more interesting than mine.
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We were exploring that dangerous cave, because treasure. A legendary cave must have a legendary treasure, you know.
We found that secret entrance. Sandara was all up: "My treasure sense is tickling", so we cleared the entrance and found that old salt. Ewww.
"I will eat your flesh and devour your souls." -he said- "Because I am ultimate evil. Bow down before one who was old when..."
Sandara was tired from all this nonsense, so she approached him and said:
"Do you thing we are afraid OF YOU?. Here, look how scared we are, you little worm"
And she kissed him. With tongue.
Fox, however had a different opinion:
"Hey, let something for me, Sandara. You and Kiani had already fun together last night. This hottie is mine!"
I am sure he believed it was hottie. You could tell just by looking at his pants. He waved Sandara aside and passionately kissed the old salt.
Darren and I were too bushy laughing. The undead was flattered by Fox words, so he tried to take him to the other life so they could be together forever.
We thought that life would be boring without our dashing swordsman, but the undead didn't listen to reasons. So we had to kill him.
Fox was very upset about it, but that night we made him forget his little "hottie". Of course, I didn't let him (or Sandara) kiss me for a few days.
Kiani, that's gross!
And Sandara is the real undead lover! Remember Whalebone Pilk!
Hey, Fox... What about the hanged man in Bonewrack Isle?
You looked kinda passionate there!
I hate undead and they are doing nothing to make me change my mind. My mouth tasted like rotting flesh for a couple of days.
And Kiani keeps telling her version of the story to anybody who wants to listen! She told it to my mother, go and figure out.
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Well, I am sure that because of me your mom knows beyond a shadow of a doubt how brave and fearless you are. She must be so proud of you!
You can thank me later (wink, wink)!
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Yeah, that plant was a beasty. It nearly took the party out, as the only one who could really damage it was the alchemist and the was grappled. It is a deadly hug, at that. I also think I like Kiani's version of the story better, so that is how I choose to belive it happened.
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The bard's version is always better.
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THAT WAS EVERYTHING?
After some more wandering the PCs headed to Krelloort's lair. They were a bit worried because of the resources they had to spend on the last fight. They didn't want to be short on resources for the last fight.
The antechamber was protected by Krelloort's shark, which was dead on the first round. Knowing they should be near the end, Kiani and Sandara used their buff spells before getting into combat and Fox activated his magic scarf to increase the reach of his attacks.
They realized they should have been heard from the next room, so they rushed into it.
Krelloort and his two favorite concubines where there, prepared to fight. Krelloort raged and charged towards Kiani, as he realized she was coordinating the attack. He didn't realize of Fox's increased reach and infinite attacks of opportunity, neither that he was wielding Isabella's rapier, specialized in dealing damage to aquatic creatures. He was already badly wounded when he came into melee. Realizing that Fox was too dangerous, he changed the target of his attack and tried to impale him with Zul, his magic trident. Fox smiled and parried the hit, only to counterattack with a critical hit that ended the life of the sahuagin leader. The concubines met a similar fate. The next days Fox had to be reminded many times how he had almost died against the drowned mariner to cut him from boasting about how he ended Krelloort without allowing him to act.
The treasure that Krelloort had there was impressive, even if Sandara was already happy enough with looting Zul (Zeboim's favored weapon is a trident) and she'd keep it as her weapon of choice for the rest of the adventure.
Krelloort's throne was probably the most interesting piece in the room. It was definitely magic, valuable, and very antique. Kiani recognized the Istarian manufacture. After a careful examination they realized it was cursed: anyone who sat in it was invaded by a need of conquest. Could it be the original Throne of Istar, tainted by The Prince of Priest's overwhelming ambitions that caused Istar's fall? Whatever it was the real one or not, it was an archeological piece. That should mean it would sell well!
A close examination of the loot revealed that one of the chests had a poison trap. None of them could disable it or open the locked chest, so Sandara casted Delay Poison on herself, asked the PCs to leave the room and broke the lock. Not having a rogue-like character made some things of this adventure much more interesting.
The treasure was so massive that they couldn't take everything with them in just one trip. They had to come back a few times to carry everything with them. But before they went back to help the locathah matriarch out, who was really grateful to the PCs and sent them a gift some days later (a helm of underwater action). They were sad about not being able to help her more than that, as she was still maimed and scarred.
Another thing they found was a small music box among Krelloot's belongings. It looked old and didn't work. It had an inscription written inside: «For my darling Isabella». The party thought it was a curious thing that she had asked them to retrieve the jar for her but not the music box, which looked like it had some kind of sentimental value.
Back to Tidewater Rock, they met Isabella again. She had done her best to behave, even if she hadn't done any attempt of socializing with Tidewater Rock's people and reacted with hostility to anyone who tried to approach her too much.
She looked genuinelly happy when she saw them entering the bay with the Thresher, was really grateful for having her jar back and didn't seem to care a lot about the music box («I got it as a child. I didn't even remember it was there» she said). But what really touched her was to know that they had brought Knuckles back... alive. She needed to have some words (and more than words) with him. She needed to know why he had betrayed her. Realizing that they only followed her because of fear and that Kiani's crew seemed to be loyal to the death to her made Isabella wonder what she was doing wrong. Not that she would consider letting Knuckles live, of course. The traitor had to die. She keelhauled him and enjoyed doing it. The PCs decided not to interfere as they thought it should be her decission what to do with him.
After that, the PCs offered Isabella a choice. She was free, she could decide what to do with her life. She could get her ship back if she wanted and live her life. She could also stay with them. She'd be welcome to the Mustakrakish's crew. A bit overwhelmed by the situation, Isabella decided to take some time to make a decission. For now, she'd stay for a few days with them.
Having so much plunder to sell, the party decided to sail to Palanthas, the biggest (and more Lawful) city in all the continent. The story about what happened there will be told next time, before we get into the next book!
Oh, yes! Fox does it again! Krell-whatever was just overwhelmed by my superior skill! He never knew what was hitting him, it was WHAM! and he was dead!
It was a glorious fight!
Here we go again...
I wasn't too happy with Isabella joining us. I didn't trust her. Kiani and Fox wanted to give her a chance. Sandara felt sympathy for her. I though she was dangerous, violent and amoral and didn't think she'd get along well.
I would rather let her go and forget about her.
In the end we became sort of good friends.
Shut up, Mom.
*Casts Hydraulic push to throw him overboard*
I don't even know what made me stay. I should have took my Thresher and sailed away. But they were different from everyone I had known before. I guess I was curious.
Admit it. You liked us.
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SHUT. UP. MOM.
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WE ARE HERE TO DRINK YOUR BEER
After a long trip, the Mustakrakish got to Palanthas. It was very different from the cities on the Blood Sea. It was governed by the Knights of Solamnia, so our pirates already expected it to be a very boring place with a lot of laws and regulaments for everything.
The first thing they realized was that they needed a written permission to take their goods out of the ship and another more permission so they could sell anything. It wasn't to be as easy as they had thought.
They had Scaly the draconian to forge some fake permissions and were allowed to sell their loot. Darren was entitled with the duty of finding a buyer for the Throne of Istar as well as selling plunder. Fox tried to find information too about possible buyers for the Throne. Kiani and Sandara took the oportunity to boast in all the taverns they could find to raise their infamy score. Isabella stayed in the Mustakrakish. She had been silent and moody during all the trip and she wasn't making any friends among the crew.
Darren was the most successful one, selling some plunder and setting an encounter with Jenna, the leader of the High Sorcery (the order who represents all the Wizards in the continent) to talk about the Throne. Kiani and Sandara's stories weren't as cheered in Palanthas as they were in the Blood Sea. And Fox... decided to imitate Darren and do nothing at all.
While asking for information in a tavern, he had met an old friend from his childhood, before the Dark Knights tore him apart from his family. Nancy (now named Lara) had become a prostitute to get some money after the Dark Knights ruined her family, but now she had left that life and was traveling with some friends. She shared Fox's hate for the Dark Knights. They spent most of the day chatting, remembering old times, sharing stories of their adventures and exploring each other's throats.
In the afternoon, when the pirates were enjoying a rest in the tavern, some of Lara's friends appeared. They had been called to a meeting with the Knights of Solamnia to discuss some serious problems about which the pirates couldn't care less. And after such a boring encounter they needed some relax at a friendly place.
They were drinking and partying together until late night and some of Lara's friends said that it was a shame that the party where they were going next evening wasn't going to be as fun. They were preparing an ellegant banquet at a local Knight's house to celebrate the promotion in the ranks of another Knight who was also the suitor of the first.
Suddenly the pirates had the best idea in the world: They had to crash the party to show the snotty Solamnics what a real party was... and steal them when they were too drunk.
But, as some kind of joke, they wanted to legitimate their presence at the party, so they got one of Lara's friends (who was the host's younger sister) completely drunk and made her sign a contract where she hired the whole pirate crew as artists and entertainers for the next day's soiree.
You can guess how it went, but I can tell it was much worse. When the dinner was over, most of the Mustakrakish crew crashed through the mansion's windows, singing pirate songs and wielding weapons, catching everybody unawares.
Some of the guests joined them (the ones who had been at the tavern last day) but most were really scared. They couldn't risk fighting the pirates as there were too many non combatants that could be taken as hostages or killed. Some of the crew went right to the cellar to bring the strongest drinks they could find. The others took over the place to make sure that nobody left to alert the city guard.
Chaos ensued. The pirates started a wild party while nobody was able to stop them. The host tried to coordinate some of the Knights to get the pirates out of his house. Isabella, who had remained uninvolved on the party and didn't seem to be specially enjoying it, casted Charm Monster on the host and confidently approached him.
She told him to command his people to stop resisting. She didn't want anybody to get hurt and they weren't going to harm anybody who didn't fight them. The best course of action would be to just enjoy and wait them to leave when the party was over. All the crew was surprised to see Isabella acting like a social predator when she had always acted like just a predator.
The host seemed to find Isabella's words reasonable, and instead of trying to get the pirates out he started to calm everybody down so anybody got hurt. Despite the presence of many spellcasters in the party, nobody noticed that Isabella had charmed the host (with all the chaos they didn't see or hear her casting the spell). But she wasn't still over with him. Having charmed him she also wanted to seduce him just as an act of domination against him.
Meanwhile, the PCs and Sandara were grabbing the more reluctant people and forcing them to drink until they KOed or were too drunk to start a fight. The Knight who was being honored (one of the RoW characters), as you could guess, was near desperate seeing how her party had been ruined and some barely dressed pirate woman was making very obvious attempts at her suitor while he didn't do much to remediate it.
The host's older sister, a very straightforward and serious wizard, was furious and willing to use violence to kick the pirates out of her brother's house. Sandara and Kiani approached her and made a veiled threat to her, insinuating that any attempt of violence would cause a lot of collateral damage to innocents. The wizard didn't step back and kept commanding them to leave, calling Kiani a «pirate whore».
«That's what she is and we love her like that.» answered Sandara, kissing Kiani passionately. The wizard was scandalized. «Don't you like what you're seeing?»
«I find you repulsive.» she answered with a harsh voice.
Sandara approached the wizard with a cocky smile on her lips and kissed her.
Then both pirates grabbed her and forced her to drink until she fell unconscious.
As the pirates dealt with everybody trying to stop them, only the ones willing to join the wild party (or the ones who were subtle enough to stay uninvolved) remained. They had taken over the party. Saying it was wild is not enough. Everybody was drunk. Some people were making out in public. That included the host, who'd have a lot to explain the next morning. There would be consequences... but not for our pirates. They just had the time of their lives. When everybody has passed away from drunkenness or tiredness Sandara casted Lesser Restoration on the members of the crew. Then they looted everything valuable except for magic items (that could cause them too much trouble), stripped the wizard who had insulted Kiani and Sandara off her clothes, took them to the rooftop and ran back to the Mustakrakish. They had to sail away before they woke up.
But before they left they had to try to strike a deal to sell the Throne to Jenna, the leader of the Wizards. She was waiting for them to negotiate next to their ship. She was willing to buy but the pirates asked too much for it. A natural 1 from Sandara on an appraise roll led to a hilarious conversation where the PCs insisted that a Tome to permanently raise an ability score shouldn't be more expensive than a headband or a belt (everything was in character, the players knew the difference but the PCs had pathetic knowledge rolls). They ended threatening with throwing the Throne back to the sea in a sacrifice to Zeboim, but Jenna wouldn't accept their conditions anyway. The more they said about dropping the Throne back to the sea, the better idea it seemed so they didn't come to an aggreement. At this time the Throne is still aboard the Mustakrakish, for what I can tell.
So the pirates left Palanthas after the wildest party ever and got back to their usual business. Now they had to claim their place among the Free Captains.
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Great... Now I want to know what happened to the other characters the next morning. Good times were had by the pirates at least!
I tried not to focus a lot on characters that don't add anything to the story, but the next morning was... chaotic.
Some of the consequences were told in this post but they were very varied:
Some of the characters (PCs and NPCs) really enjoyed. One of the PCs from RoW was a druid of Zeboim and had a great time with the pirates. The knight who was being honored definitely was pissed and broke the possible engagement with the host. The wizard wanted to take revenge on the pirates but was convinced to forget about it, so she tried to blame the ones who had invited the pirates to the party and tried to punish someone for what had happened.
Some of the characters who enjoyed the party were invited to more future pirate parties. There were also people who came to an agreement of not talking about what had happened again.
I might be writing the RoW story at some time so I might end telling it from the other side... maybe from the POV of my traumatised changeling witch (who has some degree of social anxiety).
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TESTS AND REWARDS
After a quite long trip from Palanthas, the Mustakrakish came to Sea Reach with some new stories to tell. They had already rested enough after getting the treasure from Mancatcher's cove and they were ready to claim their letter of marque to become legitimate pirates.
They asked for an audience with Kerdak Bonefist, the man who had held the Hurricane Crown for the last 38 years, sending Darren to negotiate with the proper bribe for the pirate king. He was told that they would be received the next evening so they spent the rest of the day having some rest and boasting on the biggest tavern in town. As their stories and songs brought so many customers, the party was invited to eat and drink for free.
In the morning Bonefist's first mate, the half-ogre Tsadok Goldtooth, made a visit to the PCs at the docks. He had brought some cronies with him, and a lot of people around the docks started approaching to see what happened.
The PCs didn't have any Free Captains to sponsor them into piracy, so they'd have to go through a few tests to check what they were able to do before the Hurrican King could grant them a letter of marque. Kiani thought it was a stupid thing to do, as their stories preceded them and she felt they needed to prove nothing. But she thought some games would be fun anyway.
After a brief pun war, the first test began. It consisted on climbing a ship's mast and unfurling the sails. Tsadok chose his own contestant and the PCs chose Fox, as he had been the only rigger among them. He also loved competition and was really excited about it. Sandara and Kiani lent him their shared tricorne to help with the climbing checks. Then both started to distract the crowd with jokes and stories to allow Darren to do his thing. He walked unnoticed to a corner and, taking advantage of the noise at the docks, he casted a Grease spell on the top of the rival's mast.
Fox's rival was slightly better at climbing, but Fox wasn't bad at it either. He made it to the top with relative ease while his opponent fell off the mast each time he got to the greased part.
«What's wrong?» asked Fox, laughing «Are you so afraid that your hands are sweating?»
Knowing he had a big advantage over his rivals, Fox calmly walked on the yard to unfurl the sails while showing off, mocking his opponent and bowing to the public.
Meanwhile, the other PCs realized that Tsadok had sent one of his men to hinder Fox attempts. He had made it to the ship and was trying to reach the line securing the forestay boom so it crashed to the riggings and made Fox fall. A well placed Create Pit spell from Darren kept the sabotager from reaching the line and Fox finished his task with a big advantage over his rival.
Their opponent acused them of cheating, but Tsadok shut him up: criers are not popular among pirates. If the PCs hadn't played fair he'd have to cope with it.
The next test was actually a card game called Bastard's Fool. Kiani had never played it, but as she was good at cheating she decided to give it a chance. She caught the rules quickly and started making high bets. Tdadok was a conservative and unimaginative player, while Kiani was able to trick him into making the wrong choices or believing she had a much better/worse draw than she had. She won all the games until Tsadok got tired and went all in. Kiani realized he was trying to cheat and, discovering what was his trick, she counter-reacted and used his own cheat against him, completely humiliating him in his own game. He couldn't complain, as he was the one who had cheated, but he tried to get his money back, claiming it hadn't been a real bet. Kiani laughed at him and refused to give him anything.
In their last test the PCs had to prove their fighting skills defending their ship against an attack. Tsadok's people brought a huge cage and released its content into the waters. It was an obese and scarred marsh giant who, according to the crowds cheers, was called «Fishpork».
Fox and Sandara jumped to the water. They had time to cast some buff spells, so the fight shouldn't be very difficult. Darren and Kiani stayed on the ship to defend it. The giant tried to cast a Fog Cloud on the ship to keep them from using ranged attacks, but Fox was already close (with his magic scarf to grant him reach) and disrupted the spell, forcing the giant to close on melee attacks. The fight was quick, with Darren blasting the giant, Sandara and Fox on melee (Sandara wanted so badly to use her new trident!) and Kiani buffing and then closing into melee too. The marsh giant was killed, but Tsadok didn't seem to care at all.
If they had to prove anything to earn their letter of marque, they had proved much more than that.
Finally it was time to meet the Hurricane King. They got to his private island at the bay and headed to Fort Hazard, Kerdak Bonefist's home and meeting place for the pirate councils.
When they arrived, the King was having some sort of feast/meeting with other pirates and didn't show much interest on the PCs. He asked them to tell their story without really wanting to listen to it. It's so hard to be a king!
But telling stories has always been Kiani's speciality and she was able to catch the interest of most of the listeners really soon. She explained their adventures in her typically exaggerated fashion, having their attention and cheers. She didn't attempt to hide their mutiny, being completely honest at that point and explaining how Plugg really deserved everything that had happened to him and more.
But not everybody was happy with the story (I guess that a ressult of more than a 50 on a skill check is not enough to please everybody). Some of the listeners didn't believe what was being told or just wanted to share their own unrelated stories (more or less what I do so often on the messageboards), but Kiani was quick to mock them to keep their mouths shut and finally everybody enjoyed the story, even the reluctant Hurricane King. He asked for the approval of the audience to grant the PCs their place among the pirates. They cheered for Kiani to become a new Free Captain, and she was granted her letter of marque. They had a lot to celebrate now.
So they decided to spend a couple of days at Sea Reach while they planned their next move.
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The card game for my party was hilarious. They decided to let the youngest (17) play the game. Poor kid had no clue what he was doing. Between his lack of experience playing any sort of cards and his abysmal dice, not to mention not picking up on any of my obvious tells, he just kept losing more and more gold. I actually made another player leave the room because he was telling the kid what he needed to do, but was being ignored. I wanted it to be just the Inquisitor and Tsadok playing. So it was the only test they failed, but they failed in a spectacular fashion. It is now one of the many ongoing jokes we have.
Kiani's player, as you know, is also RoW GM. He loved the system for the card game, so he used it for a sinister card game that is played against a Daemon in the 5th book. We bet our lifes against him. We did awfully wrong and lost (all the players tried but we all lost). We didn't have the skills or were too honest or innocent to try to cheat. Finally we had to fight him so he didn't have to take the lifes he had legally won!!!
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Cheaters!
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BARROOM MADNESS!
After getting their letter of marque, our pirates wanted to celebrate and have some fun. They went back to the tavern where they had drunk for free the last time. It was a big place, and when they arrived it was completely crowded, yet they managed to get a table because pirates always get what they want, and the crew of the Mustakrakish was very welcome in this place.
They were eating and drinking when a young man appeared. Both Isabella and Kiani had caught his eye. You could tell he liked barely dressed tattooed girls (and didn't care about them being blue). He tried to take a seat next to Isabella, who greeted him with a very expressive «don't even look at me», so he sat next to Kiani. He claimed to be «Pierce, your good old friend Pierce» but no matter how hard he tried to socialize with the party, he kept being ignored.
Then Sandara spotted something: «Hey, isn't that Caulky, Harrigan's girl?»
The party never had a close relationship with Caulky, who had never showed interest on getting along with the crew. The PCs were sure that she was more than just a cabin girl for Harrigan, but never had a confirmation.
Caulky was stealthily slipping some powder into a mariner's drink and trying to go unnoticed, but Kiani didn't realize it or maybe she didn't care. She stood up and waved into her yelling her name, cheerfully greeting her. Caulky stepped back, spooking the mariner and making him spill his drink into another mariner's face. The second punched the first in the face, knocking him against a third one who was too glad of having an excuse to join the fight. Caulky, looking terrified, started running towards the back of the place, the front being blocked by the fighting mariners.
«Why is she running away from us?» asked Sandara, puzzled.
Kiani shrugged: «Who cares? Let her go.»
But Fox cared. He jumped from his chair to chase Caulky, only to accidentally trip on «your good old friend Pierce», who was eager to join the brawl and punched Fox. The whole party stood up, realizing they were soon to be surrounded by brawlers.
Darren pushed Pierce aside with a Hydraulic Push, while Kiani summoned an Aquatic Orb to engulf some brawlers. Ignoring the fight (and Pierce) Fox continued the chase, alongside Sandara. Isabella looked at Kiani with predator eyes: «Do you want me to take care of them?»
«Don't kill anybody!» warned Kiani.
«I'll just humiliate them» she answered with a smirk.
«Oh, that's OK»
So Isabella and Darren stayed behind, cleaning the path with their water spells while the other members of the party followed Caulky and Pierce tried to follow them only to be Hydraulic Pushed aside again, this time by Isabella.
They cornered Caulky on the first floor. She tried to fight them, but she was outclassed and after two failed attempts at stabbing Fox she surrendered. They realized she looked older and more tired than she looked when they were on the Wormwood.
The PCs couldn't understand why such hostility and fear against them and they asked her.
«So you don't want me dead?» Caulky looked confused.
«Why should we want you dead?» asked Kiani, slightly offended. «You have always been nice to us.»
Caulky looked surprised. They hadn't have a real conversation before so how could she had been nice to them?
«Because you don't want me to tell Harrigan that I've seen you here.»
«Go tell Harrigan if you want. We don't care.» said Kiani sincerely.
«But he wants you all dead!»
The conversation stopped at that point. Darren and Isabella had made it to the first floor using flying magic, but the brawl in the main floor was getting out of control. Pierce was in a near room yelling to the PCs: «The guards are coming! Come here, my friends, we can go out from the window!»
All the PCs looked to each other silently saying «This guy again!?», but as he was giving good advice, they did as he told. Fox and Kiani were pretty nimble, so they jumped out of the window and landed graciously. Darren and Isabella just made it flying to the ground. Sandara trusted her goddess to give her a fair landing, but her goddess probably found funnier having her hit the ground in the less elegant way possible. Caulky and Pierce followed too.
«Thanks for your help, whoever you are. Now get lost, we want to talk to our friend.» said Kiani to the young man. That was the last thing they knew about their good old friend Pierce.
Back to Caulky, she was still suspicious of them (even if Kiani had cheerfully greeted her she had thought it was a trap to lure and murder her), but she told them about how were things going on the Wormwood. Harrigan was mad because of the betrayal and wanted them all dead. He had lost most of his crew so Caulky had lost all her privileges and had to work hard as the other members of the crew did. But it was even worse: many people were jealous of Caulky having been under Harrigan's protection for such a long time and when she lost said protection they started being cruel to her. Harrigan realized it but didn't seem to care. Caulky confessed that her life in the Wormwood was now a living hell.
«Why don't you just leave?» asked Kiani.
«Where would I go? Harrigan would kill me.»
«You can come with us.» said Kiani.
The PCs didn't trust Caulky, as she had always been totally loyal to Harrigan, but they also wanted to help her. She refused Kiani's offer, though. She was too scared of Harrigan. Not willing to push her, they just let her leave.
«You're an idiot.» said Isabella as she left. «You shouldn't let anyone hurt you.» «I'd kill them all» she added to herself.
After killing some more time at the town they went back to spend the night on the Mustakrakish. When they got there, Caulky was waiting for them in their own ship. After failing on pressganging any sailors for the Wormwood she was about to get back to Harrigan. She started thinking of the consequences that her failure could have and she was too scared to get back to the Wormwood, so she had seeked them for protection. She had changed her mind and she was joining the Mustakrakish' crew.
Even if they didn't trust Caulky a lot, they greeted her. They knew that Harrigan wouldn't be happy but who cared? He already wanted them dead.
I decided to change things up with Pierce. He went after the ugliest crew member, the surely half-orc fighter. Pain Jr., the half-orc (or just Orc if you ask him) tried his best to ignore the persistent man, but the others in the crew found such delight in the flirtations of Pierce that they ended up striking up a lasting friendship. They also recruited Caulky, who has proved her worth more than once. They are two of the very few lasting friends that the crew has made. I plan to have Caulky with them when they finally go to confront Harrigan.