Session Fourteen - Recap

Session Fourteen - Recap

In the dark of pre-morning, the entire crew stood expectantly on the deck watching in every direction for the signals predicted in the verse from Isabella "Inkskin" Locke's tattoo: "From the Bright Blue's Embrace / Spy the Grave Lady's prize tooth / with the Dawnflower's first kiss / Climbe the Captain's wayward orb / To claim the old king's hoard." And as the sun (the Goddess Sarenae's dawning flower) rose over the tiny blue lagoon that embraced the ship, a sliver of light suddenly illuminated a rock formation, catching off a pyrite deposit formerly hidden in the foliage to cast a reflection that appeared exactly as a grinning skull with a gold tooth up on one of the cliffs. A cheer went out on the ship--treasure was close! The officers of the crew formed the shore party, taking with them one other sailor--a sturdy lad named Azak who carried pick and shovel to do the digging (he was a perpetual drunkard swab that joined their crew at Bloodcove, who was on punishment duty for being drunk on duty).

[GM Note: Azak is the character of a new player joining us for the game, Michael, playing a sword-wielding fighter.]

The officers--Captain Sullivan, Jax, Druna, Sadie the Goat, and Scolvus--and Azak climbed up the cliff face to the spot that had been revealed, Or rather, most of the crew climbed up and then they fashioned a rope chair pull to haul up Sadie and Scolvus, whose climbing abilities were not phenomenal. After puzzling over which eye could be the "wayward eye" the crew guessed the one on their right. Unfortunately, Captain Cyrus Wolfe had lost his right eye, so the leftmost tunnel was the appropriate one. The first hint came with a log trap that was triggered as they entered the cave. The crew sent the two Dwarves in first--Druna and Sadie--and it severely injured them as it swung down upon triggering.

 Pretty much not at all like this. 

They had Azak dig all around in the back of that cave, but the ground was very rocky and he sweated and labored for hours just to recognize that it was unlikely that this was the spot. So they turned their attention to the other eye socket of the skull-like rock formation. Being careful to look for traps, Jax led the way this time. After a short bend, he found a strange formation where a massive root structure of an old tree protruded into the cave: leaving the distinct impression of a king wearing a crown with an immense flowing beard. Checking the ground beneath, where the view of the "king" was pointed they found a loose sort of soil much different than the surrounding rock. Azak started excavating, and after an hour's struggle he was no lower than about a foot. The good sign was that there was a definite pit cut in the rock that had been filled with dirt, but how much lower it went they didn't know. The crew decided upon Sadie the Goat's suggestion to rest the night and use their druids' magical powers in the morning to cast expeditious excavation a few times to do the digging. 

Thus in the morning the officers and Azak again--if there was more digging to be done--assembled in the eyesocket cave. With two bursts of druidic magic the dirt was cleared, and they saw a set of dust-covered ancient lumber at the bottom of the ten foot hole, stacked to provide the base covering. Azak scrambled into the pit and carefully removed the timber, as the rest peered from above to see the treasure inside. As he pulled half aside (to leave himself a perch) they saw down beneath, where there had once been a short ladder into a natural well. A small platform had been built once, no doubt, where the treasure rested above the water below. However, the wet salt water had decayed the wood considerably, and all that were left was the suggestion of the former platform attached to the wall, with the water thirty feet below. 

Jax dived in to check, and found only the remnants of the decayed structure in the dark water below--but no treasure. Just an entirely submerged channel leading away under the island. Captain Sullivan cast some light spells for everyone, and Scolvus produced a water breathing potion from the quartermaster's supply and divvied it up amongst the crew. Sadie and Druna then cast swimming spells onto Captain Sullivan, Jax, and Azak to enable them to move quickly should underwater combat be reached. They lept into the waters below. Druna transformed herself into an electric eel, and the group made their way carefully forward. 

They came to a junction, with one path leading up and out of the water. Druna remained in eel form to guard the intersection, while the rest went up to investigate. They found a small living quarters for a humanoid, complete with bed and dresser. Scolvus and Azak investigated that area, while Jax and Sadie went deeper, around a corner to where the occupant had kept a strange underground garden. While searching the habitation spot, Azak and Scolvus found evidence that it was indeed the berth of none other than Captain Isabella "Inkskin" Locke. They found a small locked box containing a single virulent sea urchin spine, similar to the one that she ingested to kill herself. They also found a head in a jar underneath the bed. The carefully preserved head was from a Tian man with prominent temple tattoos that matched the legends of the Pirate Captain Soshimira that had made the enslaved Isabella Locke into his living treasure map long ago. It seemed like she had gotten her revenge.

Scolvus and Azak then noticed that they hadn't heard any noises from Sadie and Jax for a bit, until finally a shout from Sadie summoned them. They rushed around the corner and found a set of tiny moving plants expelling a strange musk. Jax lay on the ground, covered in the plants that were absorbing his blood--while Sadie showed signed of having them affixed to her. "We were checking out the flowers, then a puff of pollen, and I woke up with them feasting on me!" she shouted. "Help me save Jax!" And yet when Azak and Scolvus rushed forward, the puffs of pollen overcame their senses as well--rendering them asleep. Realizing it was up to her to save them all as she was the only one who managed to overcome the poison, Sadie dragged Scolvus free, then Azak, and then finally Jax. He was the worst for wear, with the tiny flesh-burrowing root suckers having drained a considerable amount of his blood. Scolvus, from a safer distance, incinerated all of the remaining flowers with his magic. They discovered that there was a fence that once kept these flowers penned in, but recently a Sahuagin must have broken through it to explore inside, as they found the desiccated body of a recently-dead fishman inside with the broken lumber. With this deadly garden a dead end, but confirmation that this was a shared lair of Captain Inkskin and the sahuagin tribe that had been plaguing them, the crew pushed forward back into the watery tunnels.

 Such a tiny flower, but so very deadly. At least for those who cannot resist the poisonous pollen.

Moving deeper into the complex, the crew sent Druna ahead to scout in her eel form as it was less obviously out of place in the waters of the tunnel. She came to a large opening in the side of the tunnel, seeing up ahead a strange stick that was tied with some sort of seaweed near a rough patch of wall where seashells were inset. Puzzling about its use, she swam forward only to find herself assaulted by a large burrowing crab. The crew managed to finish off the crab before it retreated into the sand. Unable to speak underwater, they pantomimed their best guesses about the stick and seashells, coming to recognize it was a way to perhaps cause the crab to not attack passers-by who wanted to move deeper down the tunnel.

Deeper into the complex they found another offshoot of the path to explore, arriving in a room with strange "stacks" of large fishmen eggs adhered to strange jelly-like strands that ran from floor to ceiling. Presuming it to be a hatchery of the sahuagin, Druna gulped down an egg. Finding it delicious, she ate two more. While Sadie recognized the eggs as not sahuagin but locathah--a different race of much more friendly fishfolk--she couldn't communicate the idea to the others. Druna meanwhile proceeded to feast on more, polishing off a full ten before her eel form was full. Jax sampled an egg himself, and while he found it far too salty to be good, faked a good taste with a smile and belly rub, convincing Azak to gulp one down himself. While some of the crew thought about destroying the rest of the "sahuagin" eggs before they went, they decided to explore further before doing so--a good thing.

In the next chamber they came upon a pitiful sight. A female locathah, heavily scarred from torture, was chained by both arms to the wall. Even more horrible, her two legs had been amputated and crudely sewn shut. With a groaning voice, she spoke to them in Aquan: "My children. My children. They've taken them." Scolvus was the only one able to respond in Aquan, a language able to be spoken underwater (obviously). As a slow language, the conversation took them some time [click here] but the Locathah Matriarch was able to tell her tale. She and some of her warriors were recently captured. They were killed, but she was taken and crippled, and forced to lay her eggs for them. Some were to be eaten, while others would be raised as slaves for the cruel sharkmen. Scolvus managed to successfully lie when asked about her eggs, saying that "some sort of animal got into them and ate some, but many remained." He then told her to wait a few minutes, and they would return.

 The crippled, legless Locathah Matriarch, her skin scarred by Sahuagin tortures. 

The crew swam back to the dry tunnel where Inkskin had made her lair to discuss. Scolvus explained the situation, and they made plans for how to escort both the crippleand d Matriarch who could barely swim and the extremely fragile eggs that needed to remain immersed in seawater, back to safety. They agreed that Scolvus would be the one who centrally minded her and the eggs, and scooped the eggs carefully into a burlap sack so water could get in and out freely. Returning to the Matriarch, Druna--still in eel form--cast a spell of healing on the wounded Locathah, who out of gratitude promised to name her first hatched child after the brave eel warrior (not knowing that ten of her children were being digested in Druna's stomach as they spoke). The group refreshed some protective and movement spells, and swam forward into the complex with their precious cargo and enfeebled charge in tow.

They reached a room that was clouded with blood and scraps of meat--apparently a "feeding frenzy" room for the various sharks that served the sahuagin faithfully. A swarm of sharks emerged from the far end, intent on consuming new interloping prey. As the battle was joined, some sahuagin emerged from a further room--including a sahuagin druid mounted on a massive shark. While the group engaged the sharks, the druid blasted them with spells: trying to cool Azak's armor to freezing temperature, as well as to (mistakenly) dominate animal Druna in eel form, believing her to perhaps be Sadie's animal companion. While the fighters pressed forward, cutting a line through the sharks, the druid summoned an electric eel of its own to menace Scolvus and the Locathah Matriarch in the back. While the eel nearly finished Scolvus off, he managed to get off one last magic missile to finish it.

The battle swirled in the deep blue cavern, the blood of sharks and crewmen adding to the remains of the prior feeding frenzy.

Finally, only the sahuagin druid remained--surrounded by the crew. Scolvus intimidated the druid to limit its attacks, while Sadie summoned dolphins to assault the shark mount. Finally Jax and Druna finish off the druid, their strikes finally able to overcome its armored hide thanks to the flanking attacks of the summoned dolphins. With their foes dispatched--for now--the crew wondered what further horrors awaited them in the sahuagin lair underneath Mancather Cove.

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 11
Disrepute: 11

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1 (favored port)
Besmara's Cradle: 2

Session Thirteen - Recap

Session Thirteen - Recap

After the eventful afternoon of the wedding, Jax, Sadie, and Druna returned to the ship for the night. Scolvus chose a bed in the Rock, along with Shivikah and Dovan from Nisroch, as Lady Smythee had offered accommodations there to any of the officers. She also invited Captain Sullivan to remain with her for a late dinner.

That night, a deep fog crept into the small lagoon where The Broken Promise was moored. Unfortunately for them, the fog was hardly natural. It wasn't until those on watch sighted masts above the fog that the call of alarm was raised--and at the same time a broadside of heavy ballistae bolts struck the ship, damaging it severely. As the crew readied to give chase to the ship that was assaulting them from outside the entrance of the lagoon, it was only the sharp eyes of Druna and Jax that spotted a small group of buccaneers who had slipped aboard their ship under the cover of the fog, Led by a scarred man with spiked hair, the raiding crew slipped below deck quickly on some nefarious purpose. Fearing sabotage, Jax, Druna, and Sadie the Goat dashed after them.

 Knuckles Grype, the hard-hitting First Mate of The Thresher

Below deck, they heard crashing at the area of the Quartermaster's stores. The burly man had smashed down the door, and the trio engaged his thugs while he apparently was stealing some item from them. Knuckles emerged holding the deep platinum necklace that the crew had taken from the sahuagin leader of the ambush they encountered quite some time ago. They realized that there were rumors of Isabella "Inkskin" Locke working with the sahuagin, could this attacker be working with her? While they had felled the other buccaneers with ease, Knuckles proved a much more dangerous opponent. The Drow poisons on his spiked gauntlets managed to knock Jax unconscious, leaving him fist-to-club with Druna. Sadie worked to remove the poison affecting Jax. Once he awakened from her ministrations, Jax lept back into the fight. Knuckles, now cut and bloody from the combined assault, started to punch and push them out of the way--hoping to make his escape. However Druna turned into a leopard, and the flurry of attacks from her and Pluck left him reeling, to be finished by a scout's charge from Jax. The crew breathed a momentary sigh of relief, only to hear another broadside of ballistae shot strike their ship.

Topside, Samms Toppin was minding the crow's nest and sent out a yell--she spied a single figure flying through the air from the fog mists toward the top of the Rock. In the commotion on deck as the ship weathered the fire from The Thresher and readied to give chase, her shouts of warning were lost. Landing on top of the Rock was Isabella "Inkskin" Locke, and the first that Captain Sullivan and Scolvus heard of the assault was the scream of the dying lookout above. Captain Sullivan rushed out into the hallway, telling Lady Smythee to be careful. Scolvus peeped from his doorway into the hall, and Shivikah emerged as well with cutlass in hand. Dovan From Nisroch, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen despite the commotion.

With a sudden roar of thunder, a streak of electricity blasted from between Captain Sullivan and Scolvus--Captain Inkskin had approached under cover of invisibility and unleashed a devastating
lightning bolt on them. As the Captain and Shivikah rushed to engage her in combat, Scolvus blasted back with spells from his room doorway. Her familiar, a small cobra, emerged from its own invisibility and struck out with a spell of its own, a vampiric touch onto Shivikah's foot. The power of the spell rendered him unconscious and dying, and further seemed to shrivel one of his toes with cruel necromantic energy. With a burst of her own necromantic power, Captain Inkskin rendered Captain Sullivan permanently blind, leaving her facing off against only Scolvus as an effective opponent.

 Isabella "Inkskin" Locke, Captain of The Thresher and reputed to have the treasure map to the secret hoard of Cyrus Wolfe tattooed upon her--a "gift" from when she was once a slave aboard the ship of Captain Soshimira. 

Lady Smythee rushed from her room, carrying a dagger and swinging it at Captain Inkskin, managing to land a hit in helping Scolvus press the attack back. Captain Gilbert, blind but desperate, plunged his sword blindly. While he struck flesh, it wasn't Inkskin's--instead, he had run his cutlass directly through the stomach of his new wife Lady Smythee. She crumpled to the ground, alive but screaming in pain at the wound directly in her belly (where unknown to Captain Sullivan, the three month old child of Jax was gestating). Recognizing his mistake, Captain Sullivan cast alter self to transform into a Trolodyte to use its scent ability to follow Inkskin as best he could. Scolvus meanwhile had continued his magical duel with Inkskin, trading blasts of spells with the vile Captain. Finally, a blast of burning hands manged to fell her--though the nonlethal damage inflicted on her by Captain Sullivan left her yet alive.

They rushed the wounded back to the ship, where the crew was still in a state of readying the vessel for sail. They had been hit by four broadsides of heavy ballistae, surviving serious damage to the craft and crew. The Thresher had sailed off in haste once it delivered the fourth fusilade, and it would take considerable time to ready the ship to pursue. On checking the deck when he emerged, Jax found that Murd had almost immediately manned his ballistae and returned fire--unlike much of the crew that sheltered in cover for fear of being maimed by the enemy's shots. "I hit 'em once," reported Murd--skewered a damn crewman square in the topsails. I was shooting to tear the mainsail, hoping that'd slow 'em." Lady Smythee had been cured by Captain Sullivan, but she was still in great pain and clutched her stomach. The Captain asked Sandara to take a look at Lady Smythee and make sure she was okay, and Sandara reported that nothing seemed wrong to her divinations. Shivikah also was saved, but his toe was surely lost for good due to the magical withering.

The crew then discussed what to do with Captain Inkskin. There on her shoulders and down her back was definitely a treasure map, along with inscriptions that seemed to yield hints about where the treasure was buried on the island. Discussing all sorts of deals they might offer, the crew finally awakened her to make their offer. She smiled a hideous smile, said nothing, and swallowed. She had opened a hidden compartment in one of her teeth and swallowed a virulent sea urchin spine hidden within. The poison killed her within seconds. Left with a corpse bearing a map, the crew discussed how to best keep her and find their way. They decided on a somewhat gruesome solution, employing Jack Scrimshaw's skills from his time apprenticed to a leatherworker. He skinned Locke except for her head, and created a wooden stretching rack that held the head in place along with the stretched-skin map as a reminder of their triumph as well as a navigation aid.

As the crew turned their eyes to repair, Jax followed up on his plan to leave Sandara at Lady Smythee's fortress while she was pregnant, saying that a pirate ship was no place for a pregnant woman. When he spoke to her about it, she agreed, saying cryptically "because I am due so soon." She revealed to him that her belly was immensely swollen. Jax was taken aback, and did the math on the timing--there was no way she could be that pregnant already. She explained that the rituals she had performed in Besmara's cradle had hastened her pregnancy, and that of the others. With a sudden groan, Jax inquired about the "others?" Sandara revealed that Besmara had shown her that both Portia D'Angelique and Samms Toppin were pregnant with Jax's child, so she did the ritual on them as well. "So are all of us to stay with Lady Smythee?" Jax gave a noncommittal "I'll get back to you on that"and went to speak to the Captain.

Captain Sullivan seemed surprised but took the news well, recognizing the truth of Jax's comment that Sandara was nothing but "hippie-dippie Besmara rituals and nonsense" so how could Jax have known what was coming. Jax returns to Sandara and agrees that she can talk to Portia and Samms. She does, and reports back to Jax the difference between the two--but that both have agreed to remain at Lady Smythee's for their pregnancies. Sandara informed him that Portia was sad about the situation, but that Samms Toppin was merely inconvenienced. "She said that she had two orphans somewhere already," reported Sandara. Sandara then revealed to Jax that there had been two other children on the way, but now only one. That one was the Halfling woman--Berylla Goodbarrel--who was an alchemist and quartermaster at Rickety's Squibbs. When he inquired about the other, Sandara said that Lady Smythee had been pregnant, but the Captain's cutlass strike had terminated the child. Sandara finished the conversation with the assurance that the growing children were going to be just fine, and that Besmara's influence would see that they all were born at the same time--truly brothers and sisters of the sea.

 I'm sure that everything will turn out just fine with Lady Smythee as well. No problems to worry about at all...

The Captain decided to set sail for Rickety's Squibbs, as that was the nearest port, in hopes to finding a cure for his blindness. During the trip, Jax spoke with Scolvus about his situation. Scolvus detected magic, but found no ongoing curses or effects that his magic was able to reveal. Jax shared the comments that Sandara had made, that she had blessed Jax in a ritual on that first night they spent together. From that point onward, any time his seed found purchase it would produce. While it seemed like it could not be magically undone, perhaps some other method could help him.

Arriving at Rickety's Squibbs, they found another ship hidden in the dry dock--very hush hush, as ships undergoing squibbing tend to be. Captain Sullivan and Jax went to Berylla Goodbarrel the Halfling alchemist's office. She was able to produce a potion of remove blindness for the Captain to cure him. After the others left, she had a somewhat awkward discussion with Jax--revealing that she was pregnant from their encounter. Jax revealed his problem, and she immediately bursts into alchemist mode, scheming a way to help him. She created a sort of protective "rubber" sleeve for him out of pig intestine that would do the job--and showed him how to use it in somewhat "hands on" fashion. Afterward she discusses with him that a better one could be made from the entrails of an ethereal creature, as it would be less obtrusive. They also discuss his "blessed by Besmara" status. "When I have the child, do you want it?" she asked. They agree that she'll raise the child at first, but once it's of age to be on a ship it can join him--and settled on nautical names: Coral for a girl, and Jib for a boy. They parted amicably, and Jax wandered back to the ship somewhat less worried about what was in store for someone so "blessed" as he.

With repairs done and blindness cured, the crew set sail for Mancather Cove using the map made from Captain Inkskin's stretched hide. They near the island, one of a set of unremarkable ones with high bluffs on all sides. The map leads them to a particular hidden cove, and they sail inside the hidden inlet. They arrive in a perfectly cylindrical and crystal clear pool of water that seemed to sink to an impossible depth. Doing a sounding, it proved to be deeper even than their string. The crew sent Druna (in the form of a monkey) and Jax crawling up the steep rocky sides of the cove to explore the island above, but they found nothing. As dusk fell, the pair dove back into the water of the cove. Scolvus reflected on a verse on Inkskin's flesh: "with the dawnflower's first kiss". They would have to wait until morning to uncover the secrets of Mancatcher Cove and locate the hidden treasure of Cyrus Wolfe.

The entrance to Mancatcher Cove is completely hidden--without the map on the stretched skin of Isabella Locke the crew never would have recognized the location. 

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 11
Disrepute: 11

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1 (favored port)
Besmara's Cradle: 2