Session Fifteen - Recap

Session Fifteen - Recap

Pressing on in their exploration of the Sahuagin lair underneath Mancatcher Cove, mainly because of the crippled Locathah matriarch and her saltwater-dependent eggs, the crew swam deeper into the dim underwater catacombs. Faced with a crisscrossing intersection, they chose a path and came upon a small chamber. Inside was a massive "bed" of coiled and knotted seaweed, clearly a place where a creature the size of an Ogre slept. Searching about, they noticed a stone in the floor that seemed movable, and beneath located a small treasure cache. Inside they found some coin, and a small, crudely done soapstone statue of what the group identified as Kelizandri, the Elemental Lord of Water. In a relative hurry, they simply tucked the statue into Scolvus' quartermaster pack and swam forward beyond the room--finding the separation made by a sealed curtain of seaweed (as opposed to the more loose ones elsewhere. Pulling back the curtain, they realized why it was sealed. The room was evidently the nursery of the Sahuagin chamber, as it was swarming with hatchlings and fingerlings swimming every which way--plus the back wall was lined with thousands of Sahuagin eggs. More immediate, however, were some Sahuagin guards, and a massive Sahuagin female that began intoning spells at the crew: The Matron.

 The Matron, an oversized Sahuagin female who served as protector of the Sahuagin eggs.

The Sahuagin warrior guards swam forward and formed a defensive line, ready to strike any who assaulted them. As the crew swam forward, the Matron cast spells to hinder their attacks such as slow and mass reduce person. Eventually the crew managed to cut their way through the Sahuagin guards, and engaged the Matron herself. While she protected herself with mirror image, the weight of their attacks finally struck down her bloated form--a critical strike from Jax's weapon, Brine's Sting, sucked the water from her body with its magical power. 

Without conversation, as being underwater limited their speech, the crew seemed to sense that slaying the young of the Sahuagin was the consensus choice. Sadie the Goat decided to go for a grand sweep, and used repeated castings of purify food and drink to turn the seawater into fresh water--asphyxiating the hatchlings and fingerlings and killing all of the eggs. 

 How could they destroy us? We're so cute!

The crew swam forward deeper into the Sahuagin complex, finding a path that led to a cavern with a strange pen. Made of large bones, the structure held four hammerhead sharks which swirled about their enclosure with malicious intent. There was a crude door fashioned with a latch, but the crew chose to leave it intact--and the sharks contained--for the time being. While others were investigating the shark enclosure, Scolvus felt himself curiously drawn to the far wall of the chamber. There seemed to be something there, or rather something beyond there, that was calling to him somehow. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the wall was somewhat thin--and with minimal effort he and Azak were able to break through a thin lining of rock to reveal a passage beyond. 

Heading down the narrow passageway and around a bend, they found an abrupt end to a chamber--it seemed to vent upward, suggesting that once it had been a pool of water open to the surface above, but a large rockslide had covered it and buried this spot ages ago. More disconcerting was the figure before them: a man, utterly decayed by the seawater, strapped to a rusted and massive anchor. It seems that he was tied and left to drown here centuries ago, for some unknown purpose lost to time. Scolvus suddenly intuited why he had the strange draw to enter the room--around the neck of the drowned mariner was another strange necklace, designed to look like tentacles and fluke tails, made of the same whorled deep platinum as the first necklace they had found on the leader of the Sahuagin ambushers.

As trembling hands reached out to grab the necklace, with a sudden jolt the eyes of the ancient waterlogged corpse opened, and it reached forward to grab one of the crew. The crew began attacking the undead monstrosity, but their weapons seemed to do little--what had survived the centuries of seawater was not about to be undone by a few stabs from a cutlass. More horrifying was the manner in which the Ancient Mariner fought. It would grab a target by the head and neck, and then force its own lips over theirs. With a rush, it expelled a lungful of necromantically cursed seawater into the victim's lungs, leaving them drowning and dying for air even with their water breathing spells functioning. 

The disgusting, cursed seawater regurgitated into their lungs and stomach by the Ancient Mariner was the most horrific kiss that the Crew had ever experienced... so far. 

With crew members reeling from the vile kiss of the Ancient Mariner, they fought a retreating action--using the narrowness of the freshly-excavated entrance to limit their foes' assault. Sadie attempted to bond with the hammerhead sharks in the prior room, hoping to win their friendship and free them in an attempt to assist against the deadly assailant. With the sharks proving unwilling, it was up to the spells of Scolvus and cautious flank attacks by the crew to finally end the undead creature's tortured existence. With the Ancient Mariner finally ceased, Scolvus reached down and took the deep platinum necklace--placing it in his bag next to the prior one they found. 

At this point, the crew was beaten, bloodied, and near death. Some had suffered from the deadly kiss, and healing resources had run quite short. They still were escorting the crippled Locathah Matriarch and her eggs, and time was running short on their underwater breathing and swimming spells. They had entered the complex by the back entrance, and presumed that the front entrance had to be nearby--thus, they pushed onward. Pulling aside another set of seaweed chamber dividers, they came upon a room swirling with activity. A few Sahuagin guards were there, but the center of the room held a massive creature. The closest they could explain it was some sort of alien turtle, with Scolvus thinking it resembled a planar beast known as a Tojanida. In their bruised and hurt shape, the crew decided to put safety before valor and fled from the room--knowing that while the Sahuagin that were alerted could pursue them, the massive turtle-beast could not squeeze toward them. 

Nope. Not having this fight. Not today. 

The crew swam quick as they could back to where they first entered the complex, near Inkskin's small lair. They hastily sent a few of their number out, who hailed down to the ship to send up two of their water barrels. They planned to load the barrels with seawater, which would hopefully give the Matriarch and her eggs time to survive before they got them down the cliffs to the water below. With the barrels fetched and filled, and some of the crew above and some yet below on watch, they started hoisting the barrels free.

Just then, the enraged leader of the Sahuagin--along with his few remaining guards--swam into the chamber still below. The dread shark-man had four arms, and carried a vicious trident. With a bellow that rumbled underwater (and sounded like "Krellort" to their untrained ears). the leader and his minions attacked. Krellort immediately singled out Scolvus, directing his warriors to mark him as the primary target. Given their hurt state, and the fact that two of their number were up top hoisting the barrels out of the cavern entrance, the battle quickly turned against the crew. While they managed to slay the other Sahuagin, Krellort's attacks were savage and unrelenting. In desperation, Scolvus chose to try and appease the dread attacker. He pulled both deep platinum necklaces from his bag, and tossed them as far as he could toward the far end of the chamber. Krellort, who was also wounded, suddenly retreated back and grabbed them--he seemed to weigh his options briefly, then suddenly disappeared down the corridor from which he came.

I came for the Necklaces. Also to kill you if I can. But I'll settle for the Necklaces.

The crew breathed a huge sigh of relief at this, and themselves fled from the back entrance. They got the Locathah Matriarch and her eggs safely to the ship, where they were carefully guarded by the crew while in the water. The crew then crashed in their bunks, planning to return to the caverns on the next day.

When they returned, the crew found the place ransacked. Krellort had no doubt taken what he could from the rooms that remained unsearched by the crew (his throne room and a chamber for his concubines), and swam with his Tojanida guardian for the open seas under the cover of night. In his throne room, they found a massive stone throne carved in the manner of the lost cyclops empire of Ghol-Gan. They managed to shift the 8,000 pound stone chair and found a small treasure chamber hidden beneath that the Sahuagin chieftain did not know about (or was unable to reach because of the weight of the massive chair). Inside were two chests--one a trap, and one the original treasure of Cyrus Wolfe: a magical captain's locker chest that functioned as a Type IV Bag of Holding or could expand the cargo space of a ship. And inside that chest, alongside heaps of gold doubloons, was another deep platinum piece: a strange crown covered in the same whorls as the rest.

Having cleared Mancatcher Cove and discovered the ancient treasure of Captain Wolfe, the crew left the isle ready to spread the word about their successes. They were convinced that this would make them renowned enough to gain a Letter of Marque to become officially recognized pirates within the Skackles. However, they still needed enough plunder to enter Port Peril convinced that they had enough pull and draw to be able to bargain their way to that recognition. It was time to prey on more ships and villages!

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 13
Disrepute: 13

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

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