Session Five - Recap

Session Five Recap

In the room with a swirling vortex of water, facing off against the vicious Brinebrood Queen, and watching their two bound allies fall into the water and start sinking toward the ghouls chained to the floor of the chamber below, the party sprung into action. Jax immediately began climbing up the wall, then across the roof stalactites to try and grab the severed vine to haul Sandara Quinn and Shivikah away from the ghouls. Sadie the Goat cast a spell of swimming onto Druna, who raced across the water with ease to engage the half-grindylow-half-octopus Brinebrood Queen. Frighteningly, swimming from the small recess in the back of the room came a massive, bloated grindylow. This "whale" swam with horrible speed, heading toward where Gilbert and Sadie were swimming.

He's going to swallow you...

Scolvus cast a grease spell on Sandara Quinn's bindings, hoping to allow her to struggle free on her own. Meanwhile, Gilbert faced off against the Whale. The big beast was up on him in an instant, its enormous maw clamping down directly over his head. With a savage gulp, the Whale swallowed Gilbert nearly whole. In the process, one of the beast's massive teeth pierced through Gilbert's skin and tore a huge gash all the way from his chin down to his chest (sure to leave an impressive moderate scar). 

Sandara Quinn, thanks to the spell from Scolvus, managed to slip free--lightening the load on Jax who was hanging upside down trying to keep her and Shivikah suspended above the ghouls as best he could. She swam back to try and help Gilbert, whose one leg was horribly still hanging out of the Whale's mouth, as it seemed the beast could only barely swallow its prey.

Scolvus swam to where Shivikah dangled and cut him free. But one of the savage ghouls below finally managed to struggle free of its chains (breaking its ankle horribly to pull it free). It swam up and quickly paralyzed both Scolvus and the big Mwangi sailor with its savage attacks. Jax, thinking quickly, threw a rope around them to try and haul their paralyzed forms upward.

Druna found the Brinebrood Queen rather difficult to hit, and seeing her friends paralyzed and in danger from the ghouls swam back to fight there. Meanwhile, the Whale was set upon by foes from without and within. Sandara cast a spell of healing on Gilbert's dangling foot--awakening inside the beast, he drew a dagger and slashed at its guts causing the Whale to vomit Gilbert back out in disgusting fashion. Turning on the Whale, Gilbert, Sandara, and Sadie finally manage to finish it with a series of dagger slashes.

Scolvus recovered quickly from his paralysis, and attempted to cast a spell at a foe, only to lose his grip and sending himself and Shivkah plunging back into the water into the midst of the ghouls. Thankfully, Druna continued to fight and managed to defeat both the ghouls before the trio were too further damaged. 

The Brineblood queen, enraged by the death of the whale, swam to the entrance of the room--likely torn between preventing her foes' escape and thinking of escaping herself. While she managed to summon an octopus and two dolphins to fight for her, the attacks began to start getting though. Jax lashed a rope to a rock outcropping and swung over, to leave the Queen pinned between his and Druna's savage attacks. Finally the nasty druidess was slain. The party looted the place, finding most notably a massive 50 pound whale scull carved with scrimshaw that worked as a scroll. While huge and bulky, the spells were certainly powerful enough for Scolvus to carry it along.

Like this, but with spells. Deadly, deadly spells. 

The crew swam back to the dinghy, to find that they were not the only ones who had fought grindylows. The craft contained the corpses of two of the creatures which had snuck on and tried to kill Pluck the Parrot and Anastasia the Spider. One lay clawed to death from the parrot's sharp talons, while the other was slumped in the corner paralyzed from spider venom and dead from its venom-liquified innards being consumed by the beast. The group took a moment to swim down to the wreck of the Infernus below, where the cage with the initial "weapon" ghoul lay bent and broken at the bottom of the sea. While the party searched for treasure, a shark approached--no doubt attracted to some of the residual blood on their clothes from the battle. The shark was driven off after taking a bite out of Scolvus' arm, and spotting more approaching from the smell of blood the group scooped up what small treasures they could find and swam back to the dinghy. 

Reaching the ship again, the group found Captain Plugg hardly welcoming of their efforts. Instead, he directs his ire especially at Sandara Quinn and Shivikah. Claiming that they were derilect in their duties by getting captured, he orders them lashed with the cat-o-nine. Tying the two of them immediately to the main mast, Master Scourge chuckles as he tears Sandara Quinn's blouse from her back. She tries to cover her breasts which are now exposed, and begins crying. While Shivikah's back is already torn and scarred from prior lashings, Sandara's is smooth and undamaged.

As Sandara wept uncontrollably, and Master Scourge began preparing to slash her back with the nettled cat, the injustice was finally too much for the crew. Jax moved up behind Master Scourge as he stealthily drew his dagger. Druna and Gilbert were also in motion to help when Jax slid his blade into Master Scourge's ribs. With a shout of "At 'em lads, the bullshit's at an end!" Jax started the ship's mutiny.

Almost everyone drew weapons, with the two "factions" of the crew squaring off. Conchobar Shortstone, Badger Medlar, Maheem, Tam "Narwhal" Tate, and most of the Rahadoumi crew--those loyal to Captain Plugg--were set upon by the heroes plus Dovan from Nisroch, Jaundiced Jape, Ambrose "Fishguts" Kroop, Rattline Rattsberger, and Rosie Cuswell. Meanwhile others, including the two Rahadoumi riggers that Jax had made friends with held back and watched. perhaps weighing it was best to wait and join the winning side.

Similar, if you believe the "Bligh was cruel" story over the "let's have sex in Tahiti" story

The fight began rough, with Master Scourge being more the initial target than Captain Plugg amongst those who formed the shore party. Because they seemed to have the numbers, Plugg used his Tidewater Cutlass to try and push Jax off the ship, or at least to free Master Scourge. While it bought Scourge enough time to drink a healing potion, Jax remained on the ship. Scolvus used his whale skull scroll to blast his foes on the decks, but quickly forgot to compensate for being on the dinghy he remained hiding in and fell over the side. Captain Plugg crossed swords with some of the crew, before he dashed below decks. Gilbert began a rousing speech, trying to curry those who waited by the sidelines to jump into the fight.

Master Scourge fought well, but was brought down when he left an opening when trying to reach the dinghy, and Druna, Jax, and both druid pets got to strike him when he was unprepared. He was literally torn, clawed, stabbed, and clobbered into pieces as his bloody corpse fell lifeless to the deck floor. Jax grabbed Master Scourge's bloody cat, raised it above his head, and shouted "Scourge is dead, the ship is ours! Throw down!"

The fighting on the deck paused for a moment as people looked at Jax and seemed to weigh his claim (and their opponents' intentions). But just then the door to the Captain's quarters burst open and out roared the man called Owlbear onto the deck. Carrying a massive greatclub, he madly leveled a swing at the first thing he saw: Badger Medlar, whose head shattered from behind as it was caved in by the raving madman.

Captain Plugg, undaunted by the death of his botswain, shouted "Kill them my pet! Kill those who fight against me! The ship is still mine, you scurvy dogs!" Those frozen from Jax's words leaped back into combat, and the deck started to get slick with blood. Bodies were falling on both sides amongst the pirate crew. Notably, near the forecastle Ambrose "Fishguts" Kroop lay slain, his neck opened from the savage chop of a boarding axe by a Rahadoumi sailor. Nika crouched next to him, trying fruitlessly to staunch the bleeding and screaming as her companion lay dying.

Sadie the Goat, seeing Scolvus floundering in the water below, lowered the dinghy down to rescue him. Wet but fuming with anger, Scolvus hauled himself into the small craft and raised it back up to be part of the fight. Getting back level to the deck, they saw that Captain Plugg was not easily defeated. While the hits from Jax and Druna started to add up, Plugg was giving as well as he got. Gilbert meanwhile squared off against Maheem, and managed to knock the Rahadoumi unconscious with a well-timed bash with the butt of his longspear. Conchobar Shortstone, with the stabbed and dying Rosie Cusswell lying at his feet, turned to fight Gilbert but was caught between attackers and brought down. And finally, Plugg's last ally Tam "Narwhal" Tate, was battling the mutineers when suddenly Slippery Syl Longergan slid up behind him and stabbed him right in the gut. Whispering something that sounded suspiciously like "My secret now dies with you," Syl's blade went right thru Tam's chest. He fell oddly over the deck, his neck craned on the other dinghy's edge leaving him dangling just a moment before his dead corpse plummeted into the ocean. And the druids both spoke to Owlbear, calming him down and reminding him that he was their friend--stopping his murderous rampage.

Seeing that the tides had truly turned, Captain Plugg leaped into the dinghy that his toady's blood just spilled across. He began lowering the ropes as fast as he could, when Gilbert stepped up and cut the ropes free--perhaps hoping to leave Plugg helpless and adrift or marooned on Bonewrack Isle. But both Jax and Druna wanted Plugg dead, not left adrift to potentially return. Jax cut a rope from the rigging and swung down smoothly, while Druna took a solid and slightly ungainly leap. Yet both were in the dinghy, on either side of Captain Plugg. With a few sharp sword slashes and club bashes, Plugg was reduced to a corpse lying in the bottom of the rowboat.

At that moment, Scolvus took a spot on the aft near the ship's wheel and loudly proclaimed the mutiny finished with Plugg's death, and that all should lay down their arms. The crew complied. Rosie Cusswell and Ambrose "Fishguts" Kroop lay dead, as did all of those loyal to Plugg except for Maheem. Someone mentioned that the ship now needed a new name, and Jax quickly quipped that The Man's Promise should now be named The Broken Promise, a name which suddenly and immediately seemed to fit and stick.

"The Broken Promise", moored near the cove of Bonewrack Isle

Sandara Quinn immediately spoke to those assembled on deck, speaking with the authority about "pirate laws" that only a cleric of Besmara can possess, saying that what needed to happen immediately was that a new captain should be chosen. She said that captaincy could be decided by blood or by vote of the crew, whichever they preferred. Most, seeing the bloodstained ship and former friends on both sides dead.

Nominations began, as anyone could nominate themselves or be nominated by others. Jax, Gilbert, and Scolvus were the three nominees from the shore party, while Dovan from Nisroch nominated himself and the two surviving Rahadoumi sailors Akphir and Mutnodjmet nominated each other. Sandara explained that this group would meet and discuss in secret, to see if any would drop out or lend their support to others. Retiring to the Captain's quarters, it became obvious almost immediately that the two Rahadoumi simply nominated themselves to assure that they would be okay and ask for kindness from whoever the new captain was should future Rahadoumi vessels or ports be raided. Accepting that in general principle, the two removed themselves from consideration. Jax also contemplated the position, but said that he was simply more interesting in sailing the actual ship than dealing with all the politics and planning that were the Captain's main tasks. The others, however, were resolute in their wishes to be considered for Captain.

Thus, the three candidates of Gilbert, Scolvus, and Dovan from Nisroch, were presented to the crew. Sandara Quinn fetched a holy book of Besmara and tore pages from it, as votes were to be done in sacred pirate tradition. They were distributed to all the crew, and all made their marks for the candidate of their choice. Finally, the votes were publicly revealed. Jax, Gilbert, and Nika had voted for Gilbert along with just under half of the crew. Sadie, Druna, and Scolvus had voted for Scolvus, along with the exact same number of votes from the crew. Dovan from Nisroch had received exactly two votes--one from himself and one from Samms Toppin. Worried about the situation of a tie and what that meant, suddenly a rather tired looking Galfire emerged from below decks. Seeming to not even notice the blood, nor having heard the commotion, he gave some half-formed comment about "tending to things below" to cover his shirking of work duties. The captaincy, with a clear tie, was left in his hands. Asked who he would vote for as Captain between Gilbert and Scolvus, he eyed the two candidates for a second. Judging both as feeble, weak, and neither being the kind of men he would actually take orders from, Galfire said "Gilbert. Better him than the one who falls in the water all the time."

And with that, a new Captain was proclaimed for The Broken Promise. Where the seas would take Captain Gilbert Sullivan and his crew, no one quite knew. 

Session Four - Recap

Session Four Recap

With the sails of The Wormwood now in the distance, the crew found themselves on The Man's Promise with the new Captain, Mr. Plugg giving orders to all on the main deck. He instructed the crew that the ship would be heading toward Port Peril to be sold as a prize. Some of the crew who suffered under the harsh discipline on The Wormwood scratched their heads in puzzlement when Mr. Plugg said that "order on the prior ship was too lax." He explained that his ship was one of work: there would be no entertainment in the evenings, no gambling, no one allowed above deck without permission at night, and no rum ration. Violation of these would result in punishment with the cat-o-nine,  and the punishment for failing to work hard was increased to six lashes. Things looked to be very different, and far more miserable, under the command of Mr. Plugg.

That's "Captain Plugg" to you!

Captain Plugg also announced the new senior staff of the ship. Maheem would take over as sailing master, while "Badger" Medlar would be the botswain. And Master Scourge was promoted to First Mate, Captain Plugg's old position. With that, the crew was given their new tasks for their first day on the ship. Work that day was routine and rough, as shouting and occasional on-the-spot-lashes were far more prevalent. The galley crew in particular, Fishguts Kroop and Nika, were berated and yelled at by Captain Plugg for nearly an hour while the rest of the crew got to work--the demand of "you will cook until you get the food right" could be heard echoing below deck. Again, it seemed like they got the worst tasks, particularly Gilbert whose new boss Badger Medlar seemed to have not forgotten the terrible haircut he gave her. Jax worked the ropes, and did his best to make nice with some of the new riggers as well as Conchobar Shortstone--getting them involvled in a game of "point at it and say the name of it" language-swapping. The two new Rahadoumi Riggers, Akphir and Mutnodjmet, proved to be capable sailors who spoke only Rahadoumi, but were interested in learning the other words for parts of the ship. Meanwhile Conchobar focused on items of clothes, far more interested in learning the Rahadoumi words for "shoe buckle" and "sash". The swabs worked diligently for the most part, with Gilbert taking only a brief break to visit the busy galley. He found Nika slaving at the stove with Fishguts Kroop drunk again. Gilbert resumed his entreaties for Fishguts to put the drink aside for good, which ended with the old drunk weeping openly and for a second time swearing to quit.

Once dusk fell, a majority of the crew was confined below-decks. Sadie, Scolvus, Druna, Jax, Gilbert, Galfire, and Nika taking one corner of the cabin along with Shivikah and Jaundiced Jape. Badger Medlar came to the crew cabin and asked Conchobar Shortstone and Slippery Syl to join an "officers meeting." Jax, suspicious at this, quickly went to the door and when others were not looking in the busy and noisy cabin, popped the lock open and snuck out. He followed Badger and the two swabs up to the Captain's quarters, where Captain Plugg was holding a clandestine meeting.

With ear to the door, Jax heard Captain Plugg talking to selected crew members. Peeking through a crack in the door he could see the familiar faces of those pirates who seemed to be cronies or swayed with intimidation or reward to Plugg's side: Master Scourge, Maheem, Tam "Narwhal" Tate, Badger Medlar, Conchobar Shortstone, Slippery Syl, and a few of the higher-ranking impressed Rahadoumi crew. Plugg spoke, and Jax shuddered when he heard the plan: the ship was not headed to Port Peril as Captain Harrigan had commanded. Instead, Plugg was taking the ship himself, planning to go to a small cove on the southern shore called Rickety Squibb's, where the ship would get squibbed--the lines and sails superficially adjusted to make the ship look different and disguised. Plugg said it was time to start himself as his own Captain. Once the ship was changed, he would change his identity as well: from Mr. Plugg to Captain Shaft!

With a toast to Captain Shaft's plan, the meeting began to break up and Jax rushed back to his bunk below. There, in hushed tones, he told the basics of what was happening to his friends--as well as Shivikah and Jaundiced Jape who bunked close to them. As Conchobar Shortstone re-entered the bunks, he cast a greasy and transparent smile at Jax and the others as they tried their best to get to sleep with this disturbing news ringing in their ears.

And Jax had a bad feeling about what might happen to him and his friends in this new plan...

In the morning, both Druna and Sadie sense a directional change different than the path back to Port Peril, confirming what Jax heard the night before. The day of work was particularly nasty and rough, as the weather started to worsen. Many swabs and riggers performed their work poorly, and nearly half the crew was given lashes with the cat-o-nine during the bloody hour, with further punishment duties to keep the ship sailing during the night storm for some of the crew. However, the group found themselves not on evening duties--instead confined below decks under Captain Plugg's "no need for anything but work and sleep" policy. Sadie took time to heal the savage cuts on Ratline Rattsberger's back from the lashing, while Jax spoke with Slippery Syl and furthered Syl's hatred of Tam "Narwhal" Tate. Finding Syl quick to be willing to outright murder Tam, Jax felt he had found a dubious but useful ally for their side.

As night fell, the storms continued and the ship swayed terribly. Nearing morning, huge crunching sound and the ship lists to starboard, spilling them from their hammocks. Shouts quickly inform them that the ship hit a reef and has a huge hole in the starboard side. In the pre-dawn light, the crew could make out an island nearby, and the reef that the ship hit. For hours everyone worked the bilges just to keep it from going down.

As low tide finally arrives and the crew caught their breaths, a head count revealed that that two of the crew are missing: Sandara Quinn and Shivikah. Captain Plugg presumes they fell overboard in the storm, and announces that he's far more concerned about the ruptured water barrels, which are left dry. Both of the druids offered to create water, to which Captain Plugg responded "magic water don't last, and we might not always have ye on board" with a cruel smirk. Plugg commanded Druna, Gilbert, Jax, Sadie, and Scolvus to head to the island to find fresh water, and if they find Sandara and Shivikah, well all the better--but the ship leaves in 48 hours either way. As they ready for the expedition, Jaundiced Jape shows the group a medallion that belonged to Sandara Quinn, and indicates that he found it on the forcastle deck. Inspection of it reveals signs that it might have been ripped loose in a struggle.

The group set out on the ship's gig, first heading toward the nearest shore of the island where they could vaguely make out humanoid shapes in the water. Hoping to find Sandara and Shivikah waving for help in the shallows, the crew was horrified to find a pair of bound skeletons with strange language scrimshaw all over them.

 One of the strange, lashed-together carved skeletons that are tied in the shallows around the island

Seeing the jungle waiting at the edge of the shore and unsettled by the skeletal buoys, the crew guide the small gig to the a large hill at the northeastern point of the island. Landing and climbing the hill, they find the remains of long-disused signal fire. Searching about, they locate a cache of torches and tindertwigs. And scanning the island, they spy what looks to be a stockade in the hilly ridge along the western side of the island.

The crew decided to skip the jungle section, and sail to the eastern side of the porkchop-shaped island where a broader and safer beach lay. There, they found more signs of humanoid habitation: fields planted in an attempt at orderly fashion. On the edge of the field, they found two things: a path, and a gruesome decomposing head impaled on a pike--some sort of warning or scarecrow? Cautiously, they followed the path up the hill to the fort. There they find the gate open, and inside the walls of the stockade they locate a source of fresh water and a fixed spyglass. Jax peers through the spyglass and sees a hidden cove tucked within the hilly cliffs, which would be invisible to anyone sailing along the island's coast. More worrisome, he spotted two small aquatic creatures with gills and nasty, grabbing hands, on the beach. The group figureed out that these creatures are grindylows, strange little creatures that abduct sailors, leaving the group with a distinct feeling of unease about Sandara and Shivikah's safety.

Bonewrack Island (signal fire C2, fields C7, stockade C8, hidden cove D)

As the group filled up their waterskins, they also started to inspect the small structure inside the stockade. Within, they found a grisly scene and a horrible smell. Hanging from the rafters was a rotting man in tattered remains of a Chelish sailor's outfit, the noose and overturned stool a sign of suicide. The group found a diary, and flipped through it despite the stink of the corpse and the flies in the air. The diary detailed how a Chelish warship sank about a year ago, and the survivors made their way to this island. They started to set up a habitation and signal fires. But they didn't realize that the "weapon" they kept caged on the deck of the ship didn't die when the ship sank. Instead, the weapon survived underwater and apparently eventually broke free, got to shore, and started attacking survivors of the shipwreck. The journal was fuzzy on details, but it sounded as if the Ship's Whores banded together with this "weapon" and turned on the rest of the survivors. Unclear what to make of that, but worried about the depressing final entry about the man unable to stand the whores returning each night to attack his fort causing him to kill himself, the group started to lift the man down from where he hung himself. 

At that moment, the corpse started to move--with a sudden burst of speed it lifted itself up using the crews' bodies for leverage. With a deathly hiss, the stench in the room suddenly worsened as dropped to the ground and lay about the group biting and slashing with claw-like fingers. The smell sickened some of them, and others found that the creature's strikes paralyzed them. More and more of the group were falling still from the ghast's attacks, when finally Scolvus managed to cast a spell leaving a slippery area of grease around the creature. The reanimated sailor fell to the ground, and in that moment Druna managed to strike downward with an enormous blow of her cudgel, shattering the creature's skull into pieces. The crew managed to escape mostly intact, with only Jax receiving a nasty bite from the hanged man. Healing themselves somewhat, the group started back down to their boat to explore the cove. 

Plenty of ghoulish fun yet to come!

Heading down the hill path, the group did not realize that eyes were watching them from the jungle. Yet as they walked along the strip of jungle at the base of the hill back toward the fields, the sound of sudden rustling in the path behind them was evident. Suddenly, four screeching, walking corpses burst from the treeline and rushed down the path toward the group. Their sallow, purplish skin glistened in the tropical heat, and their clothes jangled with jewelry--clearly the ship's whores the journal spoke about. Again, Scolvus' quick thinking with his grease spell proved to be the critical point of the battle. Placing a patch of slippery magical grease between the running ghouls and the group, a number of the undead ship's whores slipped and fell, sliding directly to the feet of the party. Sadie even managed to slay one as it slid past where she stood, caving its skull with expert precision. Druna fell herself, and managed so slay the final ghoul while wrestling with it on the ground--provoking no short number of snide comments about greased wrestling from Gilbert. 

Hurt, slashed, cut, and yet not having rescued Sandara and Shivikah, the group decided to return to the stockade to get some rest and recover. By that point, Jax's bite wound had started to become infected with a nasty--and frightening--purplish tinge. Sadie cared for him as best he could, but knew little about the process of the malady that was starting to sicken him. 

As they slept the night, those on watch and those trying to sleep noticed that the place was horrible with mosquitoes. While Scolvus had fun freezing one with ice spells, the group found themselves bitten up something fierce overnight. More disconcerting was the fact that Gilbert arose feeling quite sick--and with a similar purplish tinge to his skin around one of the mosquito bites as Jax had around his bite from the ghast. 

Wanting to get off the island as soon as they could to avoid further risk to others developing this "ghoul fever", the crew climbed into the cutter and sailed around the southern end of the small island. There, through the extremely clear water, they could see the wreck of the Chelish ship The Infernus. They could see a man-sized rusted cage on the deck, where likely the first ghoul was held. Being already dead, the thing didn't drown when the ship sank and instead eventually pried the bars free and must have swam to shore where it--and mosquitoes gorged on its blood--infected the other shipwreck survivors. 

Facing an unbroken sea cliff, the crew did some quick calculations and surmised that the cove would likely bereached through an underwater passage from the water's edge. With a bit of looking they located a crevice in the shore that seems to run deeper inland. Forced to swim, and to leave Druna's trained parrot and Sadie's trained spider on the boat, they swam out into the water.

Like this, but without the gear

While the distance should have been a mere 50 feet, the group found that the channel cut back and forth. Finally, they saw light ahead and above and burst gasping for breath into the cove. Unfortunately they only found a small ring of beach sunken in the deep rock walls--and a torn bit of Shivikah's clothing. Seeing no land entrance that took them further, the group located an underwater channel that bore them deeper under the island. They decided to split a water breathing potion to explore without having to worry about breathing, and then swam on into the flooded corridors. 

After a series of continued confusing turns, and sections that were both submerged and only slightly flooded (as it was low tide), the crew came upon a large half-flooded room choked with seaweed in a bed. Jax decided to climb around the wall rather than swim through the seaweed, and as the others waited and watched his progress they saw a number of grindylows emerge from hiding in the thick tangle of plant mass. Jax threw daggers from the walls, while others dived into the water to battle the creatures there. The fight was a struggle, as while the grindylows were easily slain if hit, their defenses and the slowing effect fighting in water has on swinging a weapon proved difficult. In particular, the grindylows seemed fond of grabbing their foes with their strong grip and pulling them downward into the water to drown. The crew's secret that they could breath underwater was their only advantage, and they managed to triumph after a rough fight. 

What followed was more twisted and flooded halls. One large room had a metal grate trap which fell upon Scolvus, Druna, and Gilbert. Designed to catch them and leave them drowning in the water, the trap proved mostly just a hindrance--as the water breathing spell kept them alive easily and Scolvus' grease spell created a slippery cloud in the water to ease their slipping free. 

Finally, the crew found themselves in a tunnel filled with more water motion than they'd seen elsewhere. Not only that, but they started swimming into chunks of strange, half-eaten deep sea fish as the water clouded with blood and gore. They swam out of the tunnel into a large room where a current spiraled in a vile circular motion creating a slow whirlpool filled with more of the chunks of prehistoric-looking fish. The crew immediately heard two things. First, chanting in a strange language from the back of room where a strange creature (half grindylow, half octopus) seemed to be conducting a ritual at an altar. And second, shouts for help coming from the cavern's ceiling. There, suspended by seaweed ropes, hung Sandara Quinn and Shivikah, both tied and bound with heavy silver ingots dangling from them. Below, at the center of the slow whirlpool, the crew could make out two more humanoid forms--these two seemed to be chained with loose chains to the floor of the cavern. And they carried the unmistakable purple skin tone and savage eyes of the ghouls the party had encountered previously. 

Hearing the captive's changed screams for help, the strange grindylow hybrid turned and saw the arrival of the crew into the cavern. Shouting in a language they didn't understand, the creature glowered at them evilly. Clearly whatever dark ritual it was performing, it was interrupted. With rage, the creature slashed its weapon--a nasty multi-pronged harpoon--across the seaweed ropes that suspended the two prisoners aloft. Sandara and Shivikah felt with a splash into the water, and began slowly sinking toward the ghouls beneath them who struggled with fury to reach this new helpless prey. Finally, and maybe even most worrysome, the crew could make out the shape of something enormous rise up from the bottom of the cavern floor and start swimming their way. Could they save their friends in time? Was the place where the lives of the crew might be perilously cut short? 

Next time: an encounter with the Brinebrood Queen

NPC Matrix

The characters have a basic idea of attitudes of the other crewmembers to them, which will be represented on this matrix and updated after each session. The (current) indicates where the attitude is, while the names in boxes show who influenced whom. (Permanent) indicates that the character is now permanently that status relative to the PCs. While they can still directly benefit from interaction with that NPC, the attitude is fixed unless something extreme happens to push the NPC the other way (cruel or insulting treatment of a helpful ally, for instance). Where movement goes back and forth, the names will be numbered to show the order of influence. I make this information public because living in close proximity on a ship really cannot hide their interactions!

Name	Face	Hostile	Unfriendly	Indifferent	Friendly	Helpful	Description
Ambrose “Fishguts” Kroop				Start	Gilbert 1	(current) Gilbert 2	Ship’s cook, perpetually drunk, smells of rum Voice: Long John Silver
Aretta Banison							Swab, Bad tempered ex-harlot who escaped a pimp named Pepper Jack. Big ears. Drowned by Galfire.
“Badger” Medlar		(current) Master Scourge 7	Start Gilbert 4 Mr. Plugg 6	Scolvus 1 Master Scourge 3 Sadie 5	Scolvus 2		Botswain, Older woman who has shaved white stripes like a badger on her head. Voice: Woman’s Low rumble
Conchobar Shortstone		(current) Sadie’s Spider 1 Mr. Plugg 3 Captain Plugg 5	Start Gilbert 2 Jax 4				Rigger, overly dressy and fussy gnome Voice: Olaf Peterson (“Hello beautiful ladies!!!”)
Crimson Cogward			Start Mr. Plugg 2	(current) Nika 1 Sadie 3			Swab, Easily angered loner, impressed only by stories of bloodshed. Voice: dark and brooding
Owlbear Heartshorn		Start	(current) Sadie 1				Tarred-and-feathered simpleton lackey of Mr. Plugg. Voice: pathetic
Dovan from Nisroch				Start Mr. Plugg 4	Gilbert 1 Master Scourge 3 Gilbert 5	(current) Gilbert 2 Suspicion of Plugg 6	Swab, Colorful rogue mercenary captain, tells stories from Fitzburgh. Voice: Sexy guy voice
Fipps Chumlett							Swab, Fat, Pushy bully. Drowned by Galfire.
Jack Scrimshaw			(current) Captain Plugg 7	Start Master Scourge 2 Master Scourge 6	Sadie 1 Scolvus 3 Master Scourge 5	Gilbert 4	Swab, Talented young man always doing scrimshaw Voice: meek and mild
Jaundiced Jape		Start	Jax 1 Nika 3	(current) Jax 2 Scolvus 4			Swab, Humorless, greedy mute Voice: Mute
Maheem		(current) Mr. Plugg 1 Master Scourge 3 Mr. Plugg 5	Start Jax 2 Gilbert 4				Sailing Master, Rahaddoumi half-elf with a permanent scowl Voice: Arabian Nights
"Ratline" Rattsberger				Start	Druna 1 Mr. Plugg 3	(permanent) Scolvus 2 Druna (saved life) Gilbert/Nika/Jax (helped)	Rigger, Rat faced Halfling missing fingers Voice: Chuckles constantly (think heh heh heh)
Rosie Cusswell				Start	Scolvus	(permanent) Gilbert / Fiddle	Swab, Swears constantly. Voice: stream of expletives
Samms Toppin			Jax 1 Master Scourge 3	(current) Start Jax 2 Jax 4 Jax 6 Mr. Plugg 8 Master Scourge 10	Jax 5 Scolvus 7 Scolvus 9		Rigger, Former fisherwoman, never wears shoes Voice: Sweet melody
Sandara Quinn						Start (current) Nika Jax	Swab, Believer in Besmara’s guidance Voice: Moonbat
Shivikah			Start Master Scourge 2	Nika 1 Jax 3	Druna 4	(current) Scolvus 5	Swab, Mwangi ex-slaver Voice: Deep African voice, says “My friend” to everyone
Slippery Syl Lonergan    (or Greasy Pete)		Master Scourge 1	Start Mistrust of Tam 2	Jax 3	(current) Plot against Tam 4		Swab, Unhinged murderer who escaped to sea Voice: Dirty Harry (You feelin’ lucky punk?)
Tam "Narwhal" Tate		Start (current)					Swab, old friend of Master Scourge, Huge Nose Voice: Sniveling Toady