Session Seventeen - Recap

Session Seventeen - Recap

The crew of The Broken Promise finally arrived at Port Peril, the infamous Capital of the pirate region known as The Shackles. While they had been here once before--Port Peril was the location where they were pressed into Captain Barnabs Harrigan's crew--this time it was on their own ship. They landed at Crescent Isle, the receiving area for ships to the town that lay to the northwest of the city. While Jax tried to keep a low profile to avoid dock worker relatives who might have recognized him, the rest of the crew debated their plan for applying for a Letter of Marque from the Pirate Council while they waited to clear the Crescent Isle customs check (a once-over the crew and cargo to make certain it doesn't carry anything dangerous or contagious).

And what a pleasant customs island it is...

The crew decided to send an offering of tribute to the Hurricane King, Kerdak Bonefist, at his island of Lucrehold (the small island between the point of Port Peril and Crescent Isle). They sent gems, a share of Captain Wolfe's treasure horde, fresh vanilla pods, and spidersilk. Dovan of Nisroch was tasked to lead the endeavor, and joined by Jax, Druna, and Scolvus the Quartermaster. They went and met with the Harbormaster of Crescent Isle, Tsojmin Kreidoros, and explained their task. He seemed to almost recognize Scolvus, saying that if he had the patch on the other eye and grayer hair that he would be a dead ringer for the aged Pirate Corvus O'Shaughnessy (who is, in actuality, Scolvus' father). Otherwise, the arrangement of the tribute was effective enough--the crew was ferried to the small isle and dropped the materials and request for recognition off with the gate guard.

The next morning, a crowd began gathering at the docks around the crew's ship--apparently word got out about the application. The ship next to them was even displaced from its berth to allow another one to take its place as the spot for the testing, an old tub named The Stingray.  Eventually, a representative from the Hurricane King--a full orc named Tsadok Goldtooth--arrived and said that he was there to conduct the testing. The officers of The Broken Promise would have to prove their mettle and worth as pirates in order to get the Pirate Council's recognition.

Tsadok Goldtooth, first mate to Kerdak Bonefist, the Hurricane King

The first test was a test of ability to climb rigging. Tsadok threatened to pick one of the officers at random (worrying both Scolvus and Sadie), but he ended up decided to test the first mate of The Broken Promise: Jax. Jax would compete against a skilled sailor from The Stingray to see who could unfurl and set a sail quickest by themselves. With a shout, the contest was off. While Jax and the competitor climbed at the same speed, Jax realized that if he set one side of the sail before the other, it would flap in the wind and slow him down. He was jeered at first, seeming to zig-zag back and forth in the rigging--but Jax stuck to his plan. At that moment, Captain Gilbert Sullivan noticed that a deck hand of The Stingray was near the boom, and had pulled a knife to surreptitiously cut a rope and send a heavy crossbeam swinging into Jax. Gilbert shouted a subtle warning to Jax, who recognized it in the nick of time. He actually hopped up onto the swinging crossbeam and rode it down, finishing his setting of the sail in a crowd-awing flourish. While the crew tried to make a point about the saboteur, Tsadok simply said "We're pirates, you should expect a little friendly cheating."

Tsadok announced that the next test was one of talent and luck--a game of Bastard's Fool (a card game) atop the aft deck of The Stingray. However, there was one complication: the players would have to drink a glass of Gutburn Rum with each hand they won. The crew discussed who would play as they practiced a hand to remind themselves of the rules. They selected Captain Sullivan to be the participant. Figuring they might face some cheating on this one as well, Sadie the Goat cast a delay poison spell on the Captain just before he went to the challenge--which would last him a good six hours of protection.

Bastard's Fool: a game where players combine whatever decks they have into one, and hope for the closest to twenty without going over, betting all the while. 

The game began with a friendly drink of the Gutburn Rum to get started, and then the first hand was dealt. Tsadok didn't seem to notice the drink, and while the Captain certainly felt the terrible burn of the stuff he was protected from any ill effects thanks to the spell. Captain Sullivan also got very lucky in his early hands, winning each of them--and another full glass of the rum with each--with precision. He noticed as they played that there seemed to be some chicanery going on with the dealer, as if better cards were arranged to benefit Tsadok. The Captain tried to get rid of him with a weak threat, but that was received only with jeers by the onlookers. So the Captain decided to just use the system against Tsadok: drawing more or less than expected, in order to throw off the count and get the good cards himself. Captain Sullivan won a number of more hands (and imbibed more drinks) until Tsadok's initial pool of 100 platinum coins was lost. The Captain then invited him to a final cup together of the stuff.

With two wins under their belt, the crew was feeling confident. Tsadok announced to the assembled crowd that they should climb up the nearby riggings of ships to see the next event: the officers would take their place on the main deck of The Stingray and prepare to "repel boarders!" The crew wasn't certain what this meant, and cast some protective spells and took defensive positions on the deck--fearing they'd have to withstand an assault by the assembled crowd. Instead, Tsadok started chanting--and the crowd joined in. "Fishpork! Fishpork! Fishpork!"

The Stingray  lurched on the far side as an enormous hand rose from the water and dragged a towering creature onto the deck. It seemed to be some sort of huge, advanced, aquatic giant, and as it lumbered onto the deck it let out a dreadful belch--which surrounded it in a strange mist that seemed to settle onto the deck. The crew began to attack the the giant, and it began to stab at them with a massive over-sized trident and assail them with strange arcane curses uttered in giant-tongue.

Fishpork! Fishpork! Fishpork!

Scolvus managed to summon some air elementals to assist them, which cleared the deck of the fog that was protecting the creature (and gained him a cheer from the onlookers whose spots were too low to have seen the action in the cloud cover). Jax suffered a debilitating curse from the creature, causing his very movements to stutter until the next full moon. And Sadie suffered a massive strike from the trident. She managed to get her hand up in time to protect it, but the full force of it tore through the flesh of her palm and nearly cutting the four fingers off from the rest. While she healed it with magic, a major scar was left on her hand. Finally, Jax was able to shake the effect of his curse for a moment and strike true in the creature's belly--a critical hit sneak attack that not only savaged the creature's insides but burnt its aquatic nature with a burst of salt from his magic rapier.

With the great beast falling to the deck to much cheering, Tsadok clambered on deck and announced that the crew were good sports and that they had successfully completed all three tests. They were to attend a gathering held by Hurricane King Kerdak Bonefist that night at his personal castle: Fort Hazard on the Lucrehold Isle. The crew retired to their quarters, and Sadie the Goat tried to make certain that the Captain wasn't going to suffer any ill effects from the delay poison and the Gutburn Rum. She cast spells and checked him over, and seemed to think he was just fine--a good thing, because the dinner with the Hurricane King was due to happen that evening right around when the spell would expire.

With Jax suffering the curse--and all the horrors of having 50% of all actions interrupted every six seconds--Scolvus inquired about a place on Crescent Isle to get a scroll to break the curse. He was informed that the best place was the Mystic's Redoubt, a public arcane library. He was told of the steep fee for membership and usage of the library and small arcane goods store inside, and the crew discussed how they might leverage some of their plunder to pay for a membership. They settled on trying to use the Deep Platinum Crown they found in Captain Wolfe's lost treasure to buy their way into the place: it was more than the cost of entry, so Scolvus thought he could work out a deal. Plus, they reasoned that it meant that any marauding Sahuagin attracted to it would have to deal with the significant port and arcane defenses.

He found the representative of the arcane library to be most interested by the alternative membership fee. The scholar, a man named Obard Marsh, stared at the crown with his wide bulbous eyes and said "Oh yes, yes. That would be a great addition to our collection." Professor Marsh explained to Scolvus that he understood the great value of the piece, both on its own and for its historical significance, and that they would make a considerably sweet offer for the chance to house it at the six-story library. Scolvus would be made a peer of the library, given the title of Professor, and be given a tenure of sorts if he agreed to regular yearly speaking events where he would give lectures on his findings about the strange metal and the strange cult it represented. Scolvus agreed, and was led upstairs to a secret seventh floor of the building, where "the more special and rare treasures were housed." There Professor Marsh showed him two other deep platinum items were stored: a strange and magical rod carved with runes, and a decorative loop of metal (a "gill ring" the placard surmised). Scolvus was given  an office in which to conduct his research and store his notes, as well as special magical regalia to wear as an academic (a slight prestidigitation kept the robes perpetually clean). Scolvus looked at the other treasures, and saw one of particular interest: a rather ordinary felt hat marked "The Blackest Hat", resting in a glass case with numerous "wear only at your own peril" signs surrounding it. Professor Marsh and Scolvus discussed the nature of the deep platinum effects, and the strange "Esoteric Order of Dagon" that would be interested in such items. Of course, Professor Marsh said that such riff-raff were turned away from his establishment.

They may all dress the same at the Library, but they're totally not a cult of Dagon or anything

Professor Marsh revealed that he had some magical power of his own--he was a cleric devoted to knowledge and history who started this library-museum. He accompanied Scolvus back to The Broken Promise to cure Jax's curse for free, as a favor from one academic to another. Scolvus checked his holy symbol, worried that it would a symbol to Dagon--but it was an ordinary symbol of Besmara, the Goddess of Pirates. He cast the spell on Jax, and Jax was freed from the effect the strange giant had placed on him (whether he was also free from his other curse of sorts--Besmara's "blessing" that his seed would always find purchase--was yet to be seen).

Finally, evening arrived and the officers of The Broken Promise attended the celebration at the hall of the Hurricane King, Kerdak Bonefist. He was there, and his fist was nothing but moving and animate bones. The Hurricane called for silence, and eventually fired his pistol with its echoing explosion to get people to listen. He then congratulated the crew, but asked for one more display: "Favor us with a tale of your adventures and plunder." Captain Sullivan launched into the story of Dead Tree Island and the Feydusa. Scolvus passed out samples of the strange mushrooms to all onlookers as part of it, while Druna and Jax both stopped some hecklers who were interfering with the Captain's story. He finally finished it, and ended with the flourish of pulling out the Medusa's head from a sack to punctuate the story. There were cheers from everywhere, and the Hurricane King got up and walked over the Captain Sullivan to congratulate him. It was at that exact moment that the duration of the delay poison spell that Sadie had cast on Captain Sullivan expired. With a sudden lurching gurgle, he vomited a belly-full all over Kerdak Bonefist's beautiful leather and platinum-buckled shoes. The crowd suddenly froze and fell silent, aghast at the stream of vomit--and associated curling plumes of smoke from the deadly acidity of the Gutburn Rum.

Kerdak Bonefist, the Hurricane King and lord of all Pirates of the Shackles, looked at Captain Sullivan's queasy and green face. He asked:

"From the contest?"

"Yes," managed Gilbert with a gulp.

"Delay poison?"

"Yes," Gilbert replied again.

"Hahahaha! We've got ourselves a true Pirate, folks!" shouted the Hurricane King, and he burst out with laughter at the sheer gall and impossibly bad timing of the situation. The crowd of the room let out a massive cheer, louder than can be imagined. The Hurricane King grabbed Gilbert and told him he was official--and handed him his letter of marque. The crew now had protection in The Shackles themselves, and could prey on any ships that passed under Shackles law--except for those of other Free Captains. With smiles and relief, the crew retired to The Broken Promise eager for some shore leave before starting their new phase of piracy.

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 16
Disrepute: 16

Port Infamy list:
Port Peril: 3
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1 (favored port)
Besmara's Cradle: 2

Session Sixteen - Recap

Session Sixteen - Recap

The crew set to sea, seeking more prizes and plunder to give them enough to make a good impression when arriving in Port Peril for their Letter of Marque. It was not long until the sea offered them a prize: on a rather rough and choppy day they spotted a large, two-triangle-sailed Mistico named The Mary Deare. The Broken Promise gave chase, closing on the smaller and fewer-masted ship quickly. The helmsman of the quarry tried to lose their pursuit by narrowly skirting a rocky reef formation lying off the shore of a small island.
As The Mary Deare drew closer a broad wave caught it and it lurched too close to the rock formation--with a sickening crunch it settled into the center of the rocks, the waves still moving it side to side even as it settled and stuck. The crew of The Mary Deare quickly launched a single boat on the far side of their ship, perilously lugging it across the rocks in an attempt to put the reef between them and their pursuers--with such haste that a member of their crew lost his footing in the rush and was dragged under to drown. The crew of The Broken Promise launched three of their boats as well to give chase. When it was clear that they were not going to get over the rocks themselves in time to stop the prey crew from making an escape into the woods, the officers decided to stop and investigate the ship first, saying "where are they going to go?" about the fled crew.

The sails tore with the strain of the wind and the crumbling masts, while the ocean began to grind the ship against the rocks

Reaching the ship, Captain Sullivan and Sadie the Goat investigated the Captain's quarters, while Scolvus and Jax led some of their boarding crew below to appraise the cargo. In the Captain's quarters, they find a strange ledger detailing the transactions the ship was making: ordinary cargo of course, such as sacks of vanilla and boxes of glass phials and beakers, but also a strange set of entries that seemed to be names. Further, they found that among the charts one seemed to be missing--the one detailing the southernmost portion of this ship's journey.

Meanwhile below, the crew did indeed find the sacks of vanilla and crates of glassware--all locked on one side of the cargo bay. Through the window to the other locked portion, they saw something far more disturbing: seventeen halfling slaves all chained to the walls. It was at that moment that a sudden shift was felt and crack sounded: the ship was breaking apart, and the hold (where the slaves and cargo were) was filling with water at an alarming rate. Jax rushed to unlock the door to the slaves' room, commanding a few of the crew to grab vanilla sacks and the rest to start freeing slaves: using their boarding axes to hack the chain hooks directly from the wall. They begin freeing them, a desperate affair trying to get them all out. Jax continued picking locks, while Scolvus used his Grease spell to try and free them. One crew member, a burly Mwangi woman named Mu-oa who had been recently recruited was particularly spectacular in freeing the halflings--tearing the chains right out of the wall with her bare hands. While it was touch-and-go, and all of the glassware cargo was lost as the ship finally cracked and broke under the beating of the waves, the crew and all seventeen of the halfling slaves escaped unharmed.

Back on the deck of The Broken Promise the officers used Ratline Rattsberger to translate with the captives, as none of them spoke Halfling. It turned out that the group of them had been born into slavery in the far south (some spot that none even know the name of). They were all barely of age and all only spoke Halfling, only a handful of words in common: Help, no, yes, quiet, sell, and all sewing-related words. The one who spoke for them was a young woman named Calwyse, who confirmed that for their whole lives they thought things were normal in their small schoolroom/bunkroom where they lived and learned their trade. When they exited for the first time ever to be brought to the now-sunken ship, they saw that there were a number of other rooms that were similar to theirs. Calwyse spoke of the times when one of their number would act up or protest only to subsequently "disappear" to the strange, tall masters. The crew then realized that they had been specially bred for  tasks suited to them and their small fingers (hard labor sewing), and would have fetched a high price in Absalom’s garment quarter.

Calwyse, the slave who spoke for them all

With renewed drive to find the crew of The Mary Deare--or at least the segment of maps that showed the spot where they picked up these Halfling slaves--the officers took a launch back to the island. Mu-oa and Crimson Cogward rowed the boat and were ready to defend it on the beach. Jax decided to nickname Mu-oa, with her impressively broad frame, "the Truck" as they rowed.

The island itself was marked on the crew's maps as "Dead Tree Island", but seemed to have ample foliage from their view. As the crew landed, they found the place to be full of both plant and animal life, including many perfectly ordinary trees. However, as they followed the tracks of the slavers inland, they found strange trees that indeed appeared to be dead scattered throughout the island. Usually found in clumps of two to four, but occasionally alone, stood hideous dead trees that bore a passing resemblance to oak trees. Yet they were stony and grey, almost petrified, and were cool to the touch. They also seemed to be strangely bent or misshapen, crooked in odd ways that gave the vague impression of  almost humanoid shape.

As the crew pushed further, they uncovered traps in the underbrush: Scolvus stepped on a crude caltrop. Jax then uncovered a small pit trap, the bottom of which covered in spikes just long enough to impale the foot of a passerby and hobble them. They then found traces of blood, and signs of frantic searching, in the tracks of the slaver crew they were following. Pursuing further, they found the trail went cold--not a single thing except for the jungle, punctuated by an odd crop of four of the strange dead trees.

While they ruminated on the trees' meaning, a dart flew out of the underbrush and struck one of them. Leaving him suddenly woozy from a dulling poison, the group searched around for the assailant but found nothing. They pressed onward, now much more wary about their progress. After a while, another dart flew out of the underbrush and struck one of them. This time they heard a mumbling, in a language none of them spoke. The rushed to the spot where it seemed to have come from, catching the sounds of a second mumble as they approached. They found a clear patch of undergrowth where someone had been laying down, but no assailant. The odd thing was that two trees, both in a line, directly blocked the view between where someone had been laying and where the dart had landed. Suspicious, Jax motioned to the casters to investigate the trees. A quick set of detect magic spells revealed that both trees had magical auras. Jax suddenly struck one with his boarding axe, and the tree ran red with blood. Shifting out of their tree shape forms came two strange goblin druids. Their eyes were both completely milky white, and they seemed to use their sense of smell and hearing to "see" their foes. The battle was quick, as the goblin druids were unable to stand against the might of the crew in a direct fight.

While small and sneaky, they were no match for the crew in a pitched battle

While this explained what had been setting traps and harrying them, it did not explain where the crew from The Mary Deare had gone to. The crew of The Broken Promise decided to seek out the island's source of water, figuring that would be a likely spot where anyone would congregate. They advanced to a spot where a small stream emerged from an underwater cave. As they got closer to the cave entrance, there were more and more of the strange and petrified dead trees, forming a strange demarcation between the cave and the rest of the forest.

Heading down into the cave, the crew found a small village hidden there beneath the earth. A number of scurrying blind goblins ran from them as they advanced into the darkness. They could hear them skittering about just outside of the range of their torches--clearly frightened by the interlopers. At the center of the small village was a strange throne of sorts. It was seated atop a mound of dirt, with a path that wound upward at a steep angle with multiple switchbacks. There were thin wooden stakes set to discourage climbing up--instead those who approached would likely have to follow the path, which was in full sight of the throne at all times. It was also punctuated by a number of the dead trees, which seemed all the more odd because they had seemingly once grown underground without light.

As the crew approached, darts began to fire from a few Goblin druids hidden amidst the staked pathway. And a creature that was seated on the throne revealed itself. At first, the crew believed her to be the most beautiful woman they had ever seen. Clearly fey, she was almost perfect. Yet, when they saw her hair they realized that it was instead a mass of wriggling wood larva that grew directly from her head. And upon looking at her directly, they felt a sudden stiffness and crippling pain--their body began to harden and scale as if it were growing petrified bark on the outside. The crew correctly deduced the creature as some combination of Medusa and Nymph, and quickly started to close or avert their eyes when they could. The battle raged for some time, with the crew gradually triumphing but finally having to at least glimpse the Fey Medusa and suffering the ill effects of her gaze as they fought. Finally, they managed to slay the strange creature--Captain Sullivan cut off her head and threw it into a sack, to display as the finale of stories of the crew's derring-do.

The search of the underground goblin village proved to be more lucrative than one would think

The remainder of the civilians among the goblin tribe had scattered, so the crew took a moment to search their dwellings for plunder. They found a chest of jewels next to the Fey Medusa's throne, as well as large quantities of delicious mushrooms and smooth spider-silk cloth in the settlement--all of which added to their plunder. Leaving the cave, they followed their own trail back to where they lost the crew of The Mary Deare. Hacking open one of the strange dead trees that were arrayed in the pattern, they indeed found the recent corpse of a sailor inside. Using magic detection they searched a few trees for magic items, and also broke open one that seemed to contain the Captain of the prey vessel. They found on him the missing chart detailing where the settlement was far to the south where Halfling slaves were being born and bred for hard labor in the far distant lands of Absalom's garment quarter.

Fresh with more plunder, the crew returned to their ship ready to sail further. The question remained however: would they sail south to see about these slavers, or east through the Shackles to Port Peril to begin the process of claiming their Letter of Marque?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Below are the stats that I developed for the Fey Medusa for this portion of the story. This marks the official end of book 2 of Skull and Shackles, and the crew was still a little light on Plunder--so I did this portion of the story mostly myself (inspired by a roleplaying seed about an island with occasional strange dead trees--but changing a boring angry druid and his bear companion to a more sinister foe). Anyhow, here is the info on her--stored here because I thought she was a fun creation.

FEY MEDUSA CR 7
LE Medium Fey
Init +6; Senses: all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16

DEFENSE
AC: 17, touch: 12, flat-footed: 15 (+2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp: 84 (8d10+32+8)
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +9

OFFENSE
Speed: 30 ft.
Melee: dagger +10/+5 (1d4/19–20).
Ranged: mwk longbow +11/+6 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks: petrifying gaze

STATISTICS
Str 10, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 24
Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 20
Feats: Improved Initiative, Toughness, Iron Will  Weapon Finesse
Skills: Bluff +10, Disguise +10, Intimidate +13, Perception +16,Stealth +13; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages: Common

SPECIAL ABILITIES
All-Around Vision (Ex): A Fey medusa's worm-hair allows her to see in all directions. Medusas gain a +4 racial bonus to Perception checks and cannot be flanked.

Petrifying Gaze (Su): Turn to petrified wood. Fortitude DC 19. Each failed save slows the target, dealing 1d8 Dexterity damage but granting it one point of Hardness (up to a maximum of 5). A target reduced to zero Dexterity or who gains 5 Hardness becomes a petrified tree. Upon examination, the tree is “grown” from their skin, so recently petrified individuals can be carefully “cut out” of the tree that formed around them. A DC 25 Craft check can free them without damage, each failure causes the person inside to be dealt 1d6 points of damage. Once free the target can then be healed of the ability damage (any ability damage healing removes all accumulated Hardness bonus). Stone to Flesh immediately frees the target and removes all ability damage. If the victim is not 10 minutes of being turned into the tree or the victim suffocates and dies unless it does not need oxygen to breathe.

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

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

Session Twelve - Recap

Session Twelve - Recap

With the jungle drums in the distance, Jax shouted an order: "Okay crew, time to loot and scoot!" The entire crew burst into activity, grabbing whatever they could of value from the small village. Sadie boosts Jax up and he pries the enormous gem free--a single point of plunder itself. The crew takes the unconscious priestess and the other captured women, along with all the goats of the tribe. They rush back to their ship, hearing the shouts of rage from the distance behind when the Mwangi men no doubt reached their sacked and empty village. Their shoreboats managed to cast off just as the enraged islanders approached, weathering a hail of spears and poison darts as they rowed to The Broken Promise.

Pretty much the experience.

On the ship, they searched the priestess and the natives for any further treasures. They found a rat tucked in the priestess' garb, and recognized the glint of intelligent behavior that marked a familiar. They took the rat far from the witch and locked it in a chest below deck. Shivikah and N'danho talked to the captive women, and learned the tale of what had happened. One of the women had become pregnant, an instance of great fear for the village. Babies in the past five years had all been born "wrong" and "bearing the white mark of evil on them". The group yielded little other useful information for the crew, saying only that the ritual was to "cleanse the village".

In the morning, the crew questioned the priestess when she awoke from her unconscious state. They learned that her name was Nu'oao, and they inquired about the sacrifice. The priestess told them that the children of the village were cursed, and that if they were not carefully slain with cold iron in their heart and the proper words spoken, they would erupt into horrible demons ("pepo" in the Mwangi tongue) that in turn attacked the town. The first such incidence was the firstborn son of the Chieftain. The boy was almost six years old, and suddenly one day he got upset and literally exploded in a shower of gore--leaving a horrible demon in his place. The demon's attacks started killing more children, who resulted in demons of their own. The village would have been destroyed had it not been for the brave Chieftain's might and Nu'oao's magical wardings. After that, there were more flare-ups: often when a child would get angry or hurt. Thus, the Chieftain declared that no one could have children any longer.

Nu'oao, Priestess of the island and banisher of demons.

This rule was not always followed, as accidents would happen to even those who used precautions such as only having sex during the moonblood or smearing the highly acidic oils from a "pillpi hoho" on their genitals. The rite that the crew had interrupted was to safely dispose with a tainted child that had been accidentally conceived. As the crew talked with her further, they learned that these tainted children were all who were born five or fewer years ago. The crew inquired about the timing, and whether anything happened at that point. Nu'oao said that the only thing of note was that they moved the tribe: they had once kept their village near the shore, but constant raids from pirates forced them to finally move inward. Shivikah, who was translating, shared that he left out a number of extra-venomous words she used to describe such pirates.

The crew decided to sail around the island to the site of the old village, to try and figure out a reason why this might have happened. They landed and found the tattered and unkempt remains of a village, which was located around a large and very shallow lagoon. Out in the middle of the lagoon they could see part of a large statue protruding from the water. When they inquired with Nu'oao, she said that the statue had been the prior one that her tribe had worshipped. As it was far to heavy to move, they just left it behind when they went inland and raised tribute to a new god: the god of the land. Conferring with each other and Sandara, and using some detect magic spells, the crew immediately sorted out the root of the problem: the neglected and now-fallen idol was likely the source of the curse on the tribe.

A sunken and neglected idol is a dangerous thing. 

The crew called for a block and tackle, as well as some sturdy men. Jax and Scolvus did the calculations, while Shivikah, Turd (Murd), and Jaundiced Jape did the heavy lifting. As they drew the statue upright, Sandara gasped. It was an ancient statue depicting the "mother-of-the-deep" version of the goddess Besmara. Sandara explained the connection between Besmara and the town's troubles to Nu'oao.

And with that, the crew hatched a plan. Jax suggested that they might be able to spin this all in a way that established a safe port for them as well as a place that can produce goods they can bear to the larger cities. They decided to have Sandara teach Nu'oao the real rituals of Besmara, and then to send her as an envoy to the village in the hills. She would explain about the anger of the neglected idol, and say that the disappeared women and livestock were taken for their safety. Under Nu'oao's leadership, they would move the town back to the shore--with the understanding that The Broken Promise would frequent the port and protect it from external raiders. The agreement would be sealed with a feast on the beach, and Captain Sullivan suggested that the village should be named "Besmara's Cradle"--an idea which everyone immediately agreed upon. And so Nu'oao set out to deliver this message to the tribe's menfolk.

This left the crew with a few days to cool their heels on the shore. They began by watching Sandara's demonstration of the Besmara rituals, painting elaborate murals on the bellies of herself and Portia D'Angelique and submerging them both in the waters. While Sandara knew that both she and Portia were pregnant with Jax's child, the rest of the crew just thought it was more of Sandara's sea-belief peculiarity.

The other events of the first day of shore leave were less auspicious. Jack Scrimshaw shyly presented Sadie the Goat with the carved tusk of her former pet walrus Petunia. On the ship, Portia returned from the ritual and helped Scolvus appraise the massive red gem they had taken from the inland village idol. While the gem was very valuable (a full Plunder point itself), Portia was preoccupied. She asked Scolvus what was between Jax and Sandara. She explained her own recent history, that she had sex with Jax, and believed that she might be pregnant. She ended by asking Scolvus to talk with Jax for her--which left him rather uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Maheem approached Captain Sullivan and attempted to talk about the ship's strategy. He urged caution when casting their lot with the so-called "holy" power of Besmara. While Maheem recognized his bias (having grown up in Rahadoum, where all religion is illegal), he still urged the Captain to not fall into the spell of the "sea-witch".

That night, there was dancing and celebration on the beach. Samms Toppin was dancing closer and closer with Jax, with whom she had flirted a fair amount in the past. Between the rum and the music and the elation of some shore leave on a lovely island, she seemed swept up in the moment--culminating in him joining her in the nearby bushes. And another woman of the crew was added to the list of those Jax had sex with, Meanwhile at the celebration, Murd was a little drunk. He sat down on a log next to Druna, and started talking with her. She talked of her escape from Highhelm and other dwarf things. Murd asked "where's your beard?" to which Druna replied that "not all girl dwarves have beards... though Sadie does. She just shaves." With a laugh, Murd began to warm to Druna despite their past clashes. He talked of a map, and produced a ship-in-a-bottle which he said was a treasure map made by Poxy "Peg" Pearls. He passed out from the drink, and Druna took a look at the map (which depicted a spot that was four islands up of the big Motaku island in the Shackles). She then tucked the bottle into Murd's coat, and went and informed Captain Sullivan that they might speak to Murd about a treasure map.

In the morning, they formed an exploring party to search around the area and see if the village had any valuable resources located near by. As they got deeper into the jungle, Captain Sullivan discovered some Star Mangrove trees which could be harvested and regrown, and might turn a fair profit for export. As they searched, Scolvus tried to talk with Jax about the "Portia and Sandara situation" as he called it, but he had difficulty articulating his point and ended up saying little. He was unable to explain further, as suddenly a mated pair of Dire Apes came crashing down after swinging up via the copious vines in the jungle canopy.

Few creatures are more savage in the jungle than a pair of apes defending their territory.

The one of them tore into Scolvus, its massive thumb finding his eye socket and ripping out his eye with a rending swipe. As Scolvus fainted, Druna shouted advice to the group about territory and ape behavior. The group manages to get Scolvus back on his feet and ease their way backward with heads cowed in a submissive stance. The apes screamed and beat their chests, but didn't follow the group any further.

Back at the ship, they found a temporary eyepatch for Scolvus. Captain Sullivan set to work using his experience as a tailor to sew a nicer one for his Quartermaster. Scolvus, traumatized by the event, hid himself away below decks. Jax noticed this, and talked to Shivikah who spoke with the captured Mwangi women. They explained that Scolvus was in need of "cheering up." One woman, named Ovoala, explained that she was in a bad situation back in the village. Her father was poor, and thus any match she would get would be unfavorable at best or abusive at worst. She agreed to "cheer up" Scolvus if they promised to take her with them when they left the village. It was explained to the other village women, all of whom agreed that Ovoala's prospects were dire in the village. They agreed to cover for her, saying that she was eaten whole by the demon. Jax agreed as well, telling Ovoala that she needed to be "very persuasive" with Scolvus because of his injury. She went to Scolvus' berth below deck, and answered his "who are you?" by taking off her clothes. When he didn't protest to her undressing him, the two climbed into the pile of bedding on the floor and spent the night together.

In the morning, Nu'oao returned to the site of the prior village with the men of the village. The crew returned the goats and the captured women to the tribe, explaining that a few were killed by the demon. A beggarly old tribesman gnashed his teeth and cried when he was told that his daughter Ovoala was slain as well. Sandara and Nu'oao then led an example ritual for the tribe, to show them the new way to worship at their new village. She picked Samms Toppin seemingly at random from the assembled crowd to be her subject--as if Sandara somehow knew that Samms had slept with Jax the night before.

The tribe then exchanged gifts and arranged the rebuilding of the village as a small port with the crew. The Chieftain presented Captain Sullivan with a masterwork beaded shirt as a gift of thanks for rescuing his tribe and returning their ability to have children. The Captain also buys a tourmaline ring set in coral to use in his pirate wedding ceremony at Tidewater Rock. Seven young Mwangi men  and three Mwangi women agreed to join the crew as well. Many tales were told,with the story of the titanic crab and Sandara's lost arm, and the tale of the hugely bloated grindylow they called The Whale impressing the villagers the most (a gain of two Infamy over two days of celebration). Finally the crew decided to depart, as they planned on returning to Tidewater Rock for the Captain's wedding--confident that they were now renowned enough to be an agreeable match for Lady Smythee. As they sailed to the Rock, Scolvus talked with Jax again: this time about Ovoala's actions. He gets little from Jax, but Shivikah proves more helpful. Shivikah explains that Ovoala had limited options, and that Scolvus can certainly tell her that her sexual servitude is unneeded.

A return to the fort at Tidewater Rock, with hopes that they can finally seal the luck that was promised to them so long ago. 

The seas grew rough as they skirted the southern ends of the Shackles toward their destination, and both Portia and Samms were spied throwing up over the side of the gunwhale. They blamed different things (Portia the goat meat from the beach, and Samms the high quantity of rum from the night before), but it was odd as neither has been so sick before--and no one else in the crew showed signs of illness. In other news, Druna informed the crew that Murd was no longer on punishment and didn't have to be called "Turd" any longer--though no doubt a few of the crew might still use that nickname.

Finally after a week of sail, they returned to Tidewater Rock. Again, Jax was taken as a hostage to ensure good relations between island and crew. Jax found that the cell was much more nicely appointed, and there were two glasses and some fine brandy waiting there. Meanwhile, the Captain met with Lady Smythee in the great hall above. The Captain attempted to be quite charming, producing the tourmaline ring and being caring for the good Lady. She in turn seemed flattered that he wasn't treating it as simply a match of convenience. This became more evident when she presented him with a very handsome bridegroom gift: a magical "Farglass" telescope, that could "hear" what was seen once a day if the words "Bert's blessing" were uttered (a clairaudience effect). The evening was spent at a fine dinner, though it was marked with one bit of bad news: the goatherd of the island, Mardu, was attacked and injured by some sahuagin a day prior. The evening ended and pleasantries were exchanged, as the crew went back to their boat for the night. Jax, in the cell, expected Lady Smythee to arrive, but she did not. He sat with a shrug and drank brandy by himself instead.

In the morning, the wedding ceremony was planned to be held at the shoreline--the bride and groom would be barefoot in the water in pirate tradition. Jax was freed from the cell, and all assembled to wish well Captain Sullivan and Lady Smythee. In the milling about prior to the ceremony, Jax took moment to inquire with Lady Smythee and her aid Royster McCleagh about whether Sandara Quinn could convalesce at Tidewater Rock with them while she was expecting a child (a son to be named Halliard, or Hal for short). They seemed inclined to this, and the matter would be settled after the wedding--which Sandara was officiating.

Captain Sullivan and Lady Smythee wore their best clothes and were decked out for the wedding, standing under an arched trellis with their bare feet submerged in water. Sandara had run the ceremony, uniting them in the fashion of a true Pirate Wedding. Just as she reached the point where she said "Speak now for forever hold your peace," there was an eruption of splashing in the nearby water. An ambush party of Sahuagin attacked the crew and the wedding party. Lady Smythee was injured, and Captain Sullivan jumped to her defense. He taunted the strange fishmen to attack him rather than her. The crew quickly finished off the sahuagin, but were rattled by the attack. As they wiped the blood from their weapons and sleeves they wondered if this "red wedding" was a bad omen. But in any case, the bond was sealed and the crew of The Broken Promise had indeed "cracked the Rock" (earning them another point of Infamy).

A Red Wedding, but not The Red Wedding thank goodness.

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 Eleven - Recap

Session Eleven - Recap

The ship left Bloodcove in the morning, sailing back West further from the shore hoping to prey on the more cowardly merchant vessels that preferred to bank on a wide berth and extensive provisions rather than cutting closer to land. They spied one target in the distance after a week, but it was a Chelish merchant marine and the Captain and crew judged that they best let that one pass. They got further and further out, cutting North and West until they were even with the outermost "tip" of the Shackles, though still five days at sea from that point.

As the sun set that night, they caught a sudden glimpse of a ship's profile against the setting sun. It looked like a whaler that sat heavy in the water. With thoughts of plundering blubber and bone, the crew of The Broken Promise turned their heading to pursue. Yet as the sun sank under the horizon, they lost sight of the quarry. That left a bad feeling in Jax particularly, which deepened when he realized the whaler had been sailing against the wind when it was spotted.

The crew grew more discouraged as the next day was heavy with fog, starting shortly after noon. It thickened to the point where they were simply adrift, unable to sail effectively. The crew roamed the deck impatiently, hoping for a break and ability to sail safely. As night fell,they heard the clanking of a rusty ship's bell. The crew ran to the gunwhale and were shocked to see the hulk of a huge whaler loom out of the darkness above them. The boards were pitted and rotten, and they spied the ship's nameplate on the bow: Deathknell. Then as suddenly as it appeared, the ship was gone.

Panic spread through the crew that night and morning, fueled by the name on the ship. Crimson Cogward shared the definitive version of the tale; The Deathknell was supposedly a haunted whaler, crewed by the undead and lead by the ruthless and undying Captain Whalebone Plik. The ship is said to sail the seas to feast on pirate crews, stalking its prey for two days prior to attacking in order to instill fear in their prey. With dull menace in his voice, Cogward said "the fear makes the flesh taste better".

Whalebone Plik, the cursed whaler captain, was said to relentlessly pursue a massive bullhead whale to the point that his crew was ravenous from lack of rations--Plik refused to abandon the pursuit to refresh his stocks. The whale finally turned on them, sinking the ship and killing all the starving men. 

Anticipating the legends to be true, and expecting an attack at sundown, the crew of The Broken Promise prepared themselves for battle. Captain Gilbert hoped that perhaps the crew was simply hungry and that Captain Plik might be placated with a claim of "we got him" and a gesture to the whale skull mounted on their aft (actually Scolvus' strange scroll).

That dusk, with a fine spread laid out on the deck of The Broken Promise, the crew waited in anticipation. As expected, the massive whaler suddenly emerged from the water, and a crew of strange zombies cast boarding grapples. Whalebone Plik himself stood at the helm of The Deathknell, manically clanging the ship's bell and throwing a harpoon which magically returned to his hands after striking targets. As the zombies boarded the ship, the crew had a flicker of hope they would sit and dine. As one of them sank its fangs into the shoulder of a crewman they realized that this would be a fight. Scolvus launched a blast of lightning using his whale skull, burning down a number of the attackers. Sadie attempted to order her newly trained Walrus companion (Petunia) to attack, but the beast refused to engage the spoiling corpses at first.

Captain Gilbert decided to use a silence spell on the deck of The Deathknell, stopping Plik from the incessant clanging that seemed to drive the zombies forward. This sent the undead captain into a rage. He flew forward, his body half incorporeal, and savagely pursued Captain Sullivan. Gilbert was "luckily" knocked out of the way of Captain Plik's ghostly strikes by Petunia who slid through the grease of one of Scolvus' grease spells. Instead, Captain Plik latched his ghostly hand onto Pluck's chest, seeming to squeeze the life out of the bird. At the last moment, Druna was able to bull rush Pluck to safety before the air was drawn entirely from its lungs. Meanwhile, Captain Sullivan cast a curative spell and touched the undead Captain--the positive healing energy inflicting destruction on the unliving form, turning Plik into a pile of ashes and a dropped harpoon.

Jax swung over to the deck of The Deathknell, hoping to find plunder. Instead he found a hold stacked with dead bodies. They all remained lifeless, tho each had the look of the undead crew that had assaulted their ship. Jax turned and pried the ship's bell free from it's post where Plik had been ringing it. He also ran to the front of the ship and wrenched loose the rotten and pitted nameplate of the ship (earning the crew 2 Infamy points).

As suddenly as it came, the fog lifted as The Deathknell sank rapidly under the waves. The crew rested the night and bandaged their wounds, having lost three deckhands to the attack with many others injured (the losses were three green pressed hands from their latest trip to Bloodcove). The next morning they sailed for the nearest island in the South Shackles, Scolvus, unnerved by the ship's bell, recognized it had a magical aura. He studied it the following day, and realized it was enchanted with something similar to a magic jar spell. With a gasp, Scolvus realized it was a phylactery, and that Whalebone Plik was likely to reform and re-awaken if the bell were not destroyed. Bringing it to the deck, Galfire smashed the bell with his Tiberolith greatclub and ended the threat of Whalebone Plik for good.

Sailing for three more days, the crew reached the Southwestern Shackles islands. Soon they saw smoke rising in the sky from the center of a small island. Looked to be cooking fires from a moderate-sized village up in the jungle. Druna transformed herself into a bird and flew to investigate. She found a small village there in the jungle. Notably, in the center of the village was an enormous idol with a fist-sized red gem embedded in its chest. Reporting this to the crew, they began to plot an attack. N'danho taught the crew the word for "surrender" in Mwangi, and the sailors landed with a plan to surround and attack the village to take crew for their ship.

The massive idol, a strange demonic-looking figure, which dominated the center of the village. 

Arriving at the town, the crew found that only the women of the village were present. They were gathered in the center of the town around the idol, performing some sort of ritual. Leading the ceremony was a priestess of some sort, her necklace adorned with feathers and gems. As they watched with horror, the priestess was handed a small baby. She drew forth a cold iron dagger from an alcove in the idol, and in a split second uttered some words and plunged the dagger into the chest of the tiny child. She continued chanting, and at this the crew lost the plan of waiting for the rest of their sailors and instead attacked the murderess.

Captain Gilbert cast a silence spell again, and the priestess looked in horror as she tried to intone words of magical power while holding the child--but the words went unspoken due to the magical interference. Jax began sapping women to knock them unconscious, while Captain Gilbert ran up and attacked the priestess herself. She seemed shocked, silently shouting something at Gilbert while pointing at the baby. He looked down and saw that it was indeed dead with the dagger right in its heart. As the battle ensued, more and more Mwangi tribeswomen were taken with nonlethal force.

Then the silence spell stopped, and everyone recognized the words that the priestess was shouting. Even though they didn't speak the Mwangi dialect, they knew enough to know that she was yelling "No! Oh no!" over and over. There was a strange burning smoke rising from the form of the slain infant in her arms. With a gasp, she threw it at the feet of Captain Gilbert. With a boiling rush, the baby seemed to almost "open". From inside crawled something enormous, so massive and dreadful to not be believed it came from the tiny form. Scolvus quickly recognized it as a Nabasu Demon, a great bat-like being from the Abyss.

Awww, isn't it a cute little baby? Goochie goochie goo. 

The beast suddenly screeched an unholy scream, causing everyone to shudder as if their souls were being torn from them. Two of the village women died instantly from the attack. Then more horribly, one of them started to lurch upward with her body animated with necromantic energy. The crew rushed into battle with the demon and its newly raised ghoul, managing to interrupt it as it tried to summon a second demon. Petunia the Walrus rushed up and managed to gore the demon badly. However, the demon turned its necromantic energy on the great beast, using an enervation spell to slay the walrus outright.

The demon's Abyss-hardened skin left it nearly immune to the strikes of the crew's weapons, but Scolvus' barrage of magic missiles managed to wound the creature. It turned its attacks to him, flinging objects at him with telekinesis magic. While Scolvus protected himself as best he could with castings of mirror image, the rest of the crew started to find their marks, with Captain Sullivan managing to land two critical strikes on the beast and Jax's sneak attacks inflicting pain as well. Finally they overwhelm the creature with small strikes, unable to get past its damage resistance (not realizing that the cold iron dagger in the baby's breast was exactly what they needed to strike true).

As the crew panted and bandaged their wounds after the fight, they looked at their plunder. Most immediately a number of Mwangi women lay unconscious or were held by their crew--including the priestess. It was at the point when they started wondering about where the men were that they got their answer: the sounds of drums in the distance. They looked and saw a column of the Mwangi menfolk, garbed for war and likely returning from some ritual in the mountains, snaking back down toward the village. They had to decide quickly whether they would stay and fight, or flee with their captives. And all the while the sound of the jungle drums grew closer.

And it sure wasn't the dulcet tones of the Morton Gould Orchestra...

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 8
Disrepute: 8

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1