| drsparnum |
Session 20 Summary (July) Written by Sushi's player
The off-key singing in Port Peril is the worst wake-up for those nursing a rum hangover. But how else could Sushi forget the surprise attack by Red Mantis assassins, other than the tumult of Hei-Feng’s favored pastime? But while enjoying a greasy fish breakfast at a dockside vendor, Badger Medlar’s shrill voice carries over the seabirds and stevedores. Sushi gives Badger a glance as he steps aboard, calming his temper before saying a word, but even Badger has grown accustomed to his occasional scowl. “Can’t do anything right today,” she mutters as she hands over pilot duties to Elara and trudges off to her bunk. Badger snores loudly, as the ship makes way, and Sushi recounts the troubles the crew of the Isendrek have and will face over the coming months. As he and the ship’s medics care for the injured as best they can, he tries his best to organize his thoughts. The crew of the Isendrek obviously has plenty of enemies in the Shackles, but who had deep enough pockets to afford the Red Mantis? On top of that Tessa Fairwind had been calling on Taur’thalian more and more, and hinting that Captain Knox should be assembling a fleet to move against Harrigan, our one-time captain. And it did seem the rumors were true that Harrigan and his raving lunatic crews were moving on Stormhaven. Chelaxian spies be damned I suppose, because it was time to set sail, finish our recruiting, discover whatever artifacts we had time to pull up from the seas, and make it to Stormhaven in less than a month.
On Desnus 19, the Jester’s Grin left port, and with our full crew complement we cruised easily towards Firegrass Island and Kelizar’s Atoll. During the liminal hours of pre-dawn on Desnus 23, Batrachus woke from a vision, and had Badger Medlar change course to return to Little Oppara, to find the cursed black pearl that nearly destroyed Kraken’s Cove, whose fragments were sold there. We discuss options, but Batrachus is adamant, Elara agrees, and Sushi and Adolfo know that some time in Little Oppara may give the crew time to hunt for appropriate trinkets to give to the Taldor-obsessed brine dragon, Kelizar. Vasile Drustan, who came into possession of the fragments in Little Oppara tells us that he sold them to Tara Var, an occult collector who lives in the East Highwind section of Port Peril.
The next day we were sailing back to Port Peril. Never let anyone say the portents of a frog have no effect on this world. On Desnus 27 we were back in Port Peril. Tara Vor has a sprawling manor in East Highwind and Elara speaks to nobility well. She leads us into the golem-served home and Elara and Tara have a long conversation about Elara’s history. Tara is very interested in the connection that Elara has to Aroden’s death, and knows why the aboleths seek her. She also gets a good reading of Batrachus. We buy the pearls for 3000 gp. We give Buttcavage the fragments of the pearl for safe keeping. Before we head back to the ship, we do discover that a purple-armed freak is wanted for murder in Port Peril, and it’s probably OUR purple-armed freak.
On Sarenith 1 we finally arrive at Goatshead. Merill Pegsworthy is ready to serve us, but we have to convince his crew. Adolfo and Elara convince them with heroic tales, and we gain a squadron to take on Harrigan.
On Sarenith 2 we arrived at Kelizar’s Atoll, bearing gifts of knightly romance novels, knight miniatures, a knight statue on a horse, and other gifts of Taldane heraldry. Kelizar is impressed by the gifts and by the silver tongues of Adolfo and Elara, and lets us explore the ship he guards crashed beneath the atoll. We are attacked by sea cats, and take them out quickly. Adolfo spots the third piece of the Three Reasons to Live. We rejoice at our good fortune and head back to the ship.
Our arrival in Quent on Sarenith 4 was met with little fanfare as the small officer crew takes a dinghy to land and begins recruiting and looking for the whereabouts of Scags, Harrigan’s old first mate. Sushi and Batrachus hit the bars, using their liquored charms to attempt to find out more about the former bosun. They are met with many dead ends in terms of information, but enjoy the few nights out in Quent. Elara and Adolfo recruit a total of 37 crew members, with notable standouts Dad Murderin’ Tim, Bigger Johnson, Krab Rangoon, Washington Washington, The Rim Reaper, Itchy Toe Greg, and Crashmore. On our last day in Quent, Elara also finds out that Scags’ last known location was at Dagon’s Jaws.
We are asked to meet with Arronax Endymion, captain of the Tyrannus, the flagship of Hell Harbor. Endymion wants us to find out who is smearing his name. He gives us the location of a theater in Hell Harbor which is putting on shows disparaging him. Red Tooth vows to ally against Harrigan.
Back at sea, Elara has a dream of the great aboleth Mohl’o’mog, where she is told that Nalt Island is key to her destiny. On the morning of Sarenith 9 we arrive at Dagon’s Jaw, a set of two islands with a nasty inlet between them. We take a wide berth around with Elara masterfully steering the ship, and we identify the western island as having some landmarks that might be interesting. We take the ship’s boat to the island and begin an ascent up the plateau out of the jungle. We reach a set of a dozen huts on soil and crazed pirates attack! We are able to talk them down and their leader, Alise Grogblood, tells us that she was part of Scags crew and that Scags is now dead. We promise to get her off the island and she tells us that Scags has a journal on his broken ship in a sea cave on the eastern island. We go to explore some of the other landmarks of the western isle, in particular a spring dedicated to Pharasma which anoints our weapons with undead bane magic. We head to the southernmost point of the plateau to find an automaton named The Watcher. He tells us his name is Lakorian-Kriss and that if we can anoint the Duskwatcher statues he guards with water from the spring, he will be released from his duty as Watcher. We are not entirely sure why we are drawn to help the automaton, but we fetch the water and anoint the duskwatcher statues. He thanks us and departs, disappearing in a puff of smoke after he snapped his fingers. Afterwards, we find that we lose the ability to use the magic of the spring. Such is life.
We head to the eastern island, and find a ships’ graveyard inside the cave. We identify the Devilish Dutchess, Scags’ old ship, and Elara’s eye also detects some dolphins and ghouls floating around the ships. We head in to battle the undead, and the dolphins also attack. The dolphins are actually a kind of undead that can shape change called brykolakas, some kind of cursed watery undead from the Iobarian islands.
We leave the island, with Alise promising she will meet us at the Isle of Empty Eyes after repairing the Devilish Dutchess. We also recover 8 plunder from the various ships in the cave. When we arrive in Little Oppara on Sarenith 10, we gain infamy for our exploits at Dagon’s Jaw.
We spend days traveling overseas towards Hell Harbor. During this time we check out Scags journal, which details many of Barnabas Harrigan’s idiosyncrasies, as well as a hidden route into his base of operations! A guard named Barbara meets us outside the theater that is disparaging Endymion. The guard does not want to let us pass, and a bone devil appears to fight. We are able to put down the bone devil, and realize that Barbara was always an illusion. Inside the theater we fight Lady Nightshade, Isawyn, and Gorebeard Trench, members of the theater troupe. They are a tough crew, and Isawyn nearly charms the pants, hauberks, belts, chain mail, and other armors off Adolfo and Batrachus. Thankfully some chilly weather found its way inside to distract them and allow us to take out most of them slowly, with Carolina and Eubels, leading a melee fight against the remaining foes, and the lightning bolts of Elara putting them down for good. After the fight, Batrachus beheads most of the foes, and mounts their heads on stakes outside the theater; writing in blood, “Under New Management: Auditions Monday.” And this frog-man is wanted in Port Peril?
On the evening of Sarenith 16, we come upon a fleet of M’beke Dwarf ships, carrying gold towards the coast. Captain Grimothy flags us down and indicates that he wants to share in taking them in combat. They are a fleet of five, including the flagship, Storm’s Anvil, and our two ships do our best, but in the end we need to retreat and repair the ship.