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Session #5 05/24/15

Lebienne awoke with a start, her eyes glowing red and her hands immediately wrapping around Lapu Lapu's neck. However, as quickly as it began, it was over, and she returned to her normal self before the party had time to strike out with their weapons. When asked how she had recovered from the mouther so miraculously, she gave a vague, non-commital, surely evil answer. Phobos gives the order to cast "Detect Good and Evil" as soon as possible.

The ghostly woman appeared again -- the same one from the Sebastian rescue mission, and earlier in the temple -- telling us that we would never take the temple, or uncover its secrets. She disappeared!

The ground began shaking, and water began rushing into the room. Typhon was able to blast apart the heavy stone doors with a thunderclap spell, and we squeezed through the narrow opening. In the hallway, we came to a stairwell, but lacking the time and means to dive and explore the now-flooded lower levels of the temple, we opted for not drowning, and took the stairs up to the surface.

 

Back at the port, civilians of Madden rushed to the dock of the Ol' Kyle, crying out for refuge from their rapidly sinking island. Taking pity on them, Mr. Pug allowed as many onboard as he could; about 40 or 50. They were allowed to stay on the condition that they remained calm. Fladuk eagerly scanned the crowd for any who weren't, and would thus be fair game to throw overboard.

 

As the dungeoneers made it to the surface, the temple disappeared into the sinkhole, and the rest of the island seemed to be following suit. Typhon drew the conch shell given to us by Ol' Tiberius, and summoned the rafting druid, who lamented the loss of his finest poophole, but rescued the group anyway. The island now nearly entirely submerged beneath the waves, Tiberius navigated his raft to reconnoiter with the Ol' Kyle, where we boarded our ship.

 

We elected to head back to Caldwell (aka Mattias) with the refugees and what information we'd gathered. During the voyage, a female gnome took sick. In an effort to swiftly prevent infection, Fladuk picked her up to toss her overboard. Mr. Pug drew his sword on Fladuk, saying that only the Captain had the authority to throw anyone overboard. Phobos reminded everyone that he was totally the captain, and that they had totally unanimously agreed on it at some point in the past that definitely happened.

While these negotiations where underway, the gnome sprouted nasty fungal growths from her head. Lapu Lapu stabbed the gnome, and Fladuk threw her overboard. The party then fell into a debate about how to deal with an infection, and who exactly was captain, anyway, when a mushroom monster jellyfish was spotted climbing up the side of the ship.

Battle was then met, against a large psychic jellyfish monster and some of its minions. Fladuk was nearly killed in melee combat, and any contact with them resulted in psychic visions of death. Phobos opted to stand back at a safe distance and lob magic missiles at the big one. It should be noted that we might be advised, in future battles, to concentrate on one target at a time. Phobos landed a killing blow, and the jellyfish exploded into truffle oil.

However, during the fight, one of the jellyfish-mushroom-spores infected Mr. Pug! Pug had visions of a peaceful field, but, knowing that his mind and body were no longer his own, attempted to throw himself overboard! Another jellyfish floated out of the water, caught Pug in its tentacles, and dropped him safely back on deck. Not wanting to join these slimy sea denizens, Pug then attempted to commit seppuku with his cutlass.

The jellyfish explained, as best it could in psychic images and visions, that it meant no harm to Pug or us. They had been a coastal colony on the island, and escaped its sinking by clinging to the bottom of the Ol' Kyle. Starving, a rogue member of their group had infected the gnome woman, and it and its band of renegades attacked us. The remaining jellyfish men were simply refugees as well, same as the dwarves and gnomes of Madden.

As an act of good faith, they provided us with some information about previous visitors to the island: three sailors, a Wei-Shen male with a long, thin beard; a Tiefling of Hajar; and a Lothair man bearing a striking resemblance to Bernard Beaucard. On their shoulders was the same symbol we had seen on the cultists' robes: three swirling stars. In exchange for this information, the jellyfish claimed another, already infected dwarf, for further dining. The ethical implications of this are...troubling.

 

The jellyfish men back in the water, Lebienne revealed herself to, in fact, be evil!

"Hey," said Phobos, "Why didn't we cast 'Detect Good and Evil' like I suggested?"

"Well," explained Typhon, "I don't actually have that spell. I just said I would do it, because I have an intelligence of 7."

Lebienne calls out in an ethereal voice, "You fools have been a bother long enough! Now, I turn my full attention to you!" Phobos facepalmed. Lebienne jumped overboard, or something, surely to never be seen again.

 

Finally, we made it back to Edon and paid Caldwell a visit. We filled him in on the happenings, and he was able to identify the aforementioned We-Shen as Kao-Su, a nasty war criminal. We suspected the Lothair human to be Vincent Beaucard, cousin of Bernard's, who we'd read about in a stolen letter. Caldwell wasn't aware of the cult's name, but he suspects it is related to the cause of the war and how various sides were able to gain new technology and drag the war on longer. Uncovering these truths is the purpose of our missions. As a reward, we were paid 100gp each, and given a Cloak of Displacement.

 

What missions will Caldwell send us on next? Who will get to wear that sweet cloak? Why didn't Typhon cast Detect Good and Evil? Some of these questions will be answered, some will be simply met with facepalms. Until next week! Eat oranges to prevent scurvy.

Session #4 5/17/15

Having defeated a small army of frog-men (a group of frogs is fittingly called an army), our crew decided to visit the local tavern. Since it was the only tavern in a small town of mudders, we were clearly outsiders and got some funny looks, but Hubert broke the ice by performing his hit single, "Halfling." The gnomes were instant Hube-lievers and cheered, while the dwarves just grumbled a bit. Typhon played a dice game with the locals and learned that the frog-men had been appearing in the swamp recently and taking some of their people.

Since there was still about a half-day's light remaining and we could see the rival ship approaching, we set into the swamp in search of the source of the frog-men and whatever other evils were invading the area. Eventually we came to a swamp-river that was too wide to cross on foot, but we found a raft and a gnome named Old Tiberius sleeping on it. Old Tiberius seemed to be a few cards short of a full deck from breathing in swamp gas over the years, but he had the raft and knew the area well. He agreed to take the group up river in exchange for Lapu-Lapu's gem trinket (it appeared to everyone else as a simple black rock, no one understood why Lapu-Lapu didn't want to part with it) which Tiberius stuck into the socket of his missing eye.

After a while we encountered some aggressive (and likely non-native) swamp flora on the river - plants called "screamers" that let out a nasty whine when hit with fire, and pods with tentacles that spit poisonous spores. We were able to take them down in part thanks to a very nice ricocheting knife throw by Lebienne and some magical taunts by Hubert that made one of the pods remember its days of being bullied in high school. At one point Phobos flubbed one of his fireball shots and lit a corner of the raft on fire; fortunately he also had the ability to manipulate water and just quickly doused it with river water.

Old Tiberius eventually dropped us off back on land and as we went further into the swamp we discovered an ancient stone ziggurat pyramid. Lebienne scouted and saw a bigger army of frog-men in front of it in some kind of prayer ceremony. There were some feathered creatures patrolling the area, but Lebienne learned their movement pattern and the group snuck past them into the pyramid.

We went down a long narrow hallway and reached a large circular temple room. Lapu-Lapu started toward a plate of jewels but stepped on a floor trigger - this caused a giant Indiana-Jones-style boulder to seal the entrance we came through, and poisonous gas started seeping into the room. Phobos grabbed a spear from one of the two stone statues in the room and determined that these spears could be inserted into the stone altar in the center of the room to create a sort of donkey wheel. Phobos and Lapu Lapu started turning the wheel which slowed the poison gas and spun an entire outer floor ring of the room. Lebienne then spied a newly revealed lever (on her way to the plate of gems) which stopped the gas completely.

The group kept shifting the room until a door opened again, but behind it was the same ghostly pale woman with dark hair that we saw floating over the ship in our first adventure. She muttered something about us being shepherds futilely attempting to protect some flock, and then she opened a pit in the middle of the room that was filled with fire. Out of it she summoned a Gibbering Mouther - an abomination of hundreds of mouths with nasty teeth screaming horror and obscenities.

Lebienne was closest to the pale woman, who she tried to stab but only hit air. She then took on the mouther but was tragically swallowed whole by it.

The battle with the mouther was fierce; its screams could affect enemies psychologically. Lapu Lapu was blinded and petrified because the mouther convinced him they were also under attack by the green dragon that terrorized his homeland. Hubert gave us a powerful attack-advantage against it by casting a spell (Faerie Fire? I'm noting this because it seems essential against large enemies). Finally after weakening it with fire and arrows, Typhon invoked a powerful thunder-wave and silenced the mouther for good.

Lebienne's lifeless corpse was spit out when the monstrosity died. Lapu Lapu thought she would appreciate the gesture of taking her loot, even though she was covered in mouther remains. When he started searching her body however, her eyes opened, glowing red, and she grabbed his throat...

Session #3 - 5/10/15

When we last left our intrepid adventurer's they had captured a slave ship from those evil tieflings, and were in the process of questioning the slaves.  The leader of the slaves was a druid of some sort, who suggested an island that they could be brought too that would be safe for them and less likely to get us in trouble.  We tried to tame Fladuk so that we could move the slaves over to our ship, but his bloodlust still drove him, and as we brought the slaves up on deck he set upon their leader and challenged him to battle.
Typhon climbed into the crows nest of the Old Kyle to scan the horizon for approaching ships, so that their ruse would not be discovered, but instead of ships, noticed 2 large black shadows circling the boats.  As Fladuk showed signs of brandishing steal 2 large octopi came to the aid of the Wai Shen druid.  From the watery depths they reached up and entangled Fladuk, banging him around on deck and quickly rendering him unconscious.  It was not his proudest hour.  
We ushered everyone onto the Old Kyle and set a black powder charge on the slave ship, watching it blow up in the distance as we sailed away.  
We dumped the slaves off on their island oasis near their homeland and were told that we always had friends there.
Then we decided it was time to return to Caldwell for payment of the job that we totally did exactly how he wanted.  There was a strange small warship pulled up to his dock when we approached and Mr Pug gave a groundskeeper a fortune to tell us where Caldwell was.  We went up to the villa and into a fancy marble columned room, to find Caldwell meeting with the party from the other boat.  There was a fine lady being fanned in a corner, which we never got real clear on the identity of.  The party consisted of a woman, a man in black armor, and a man with lots of tatoos, i believe.  Apparently they had taken the chariot race job.  
Caldwell was now giving us both the job of finding out some information about why the evil, shadow society(probably the guys we fought first session) would want to attack a small island nearby.  Caldwell also started bragging about how he wasnt actually named caldwell, but was the powerful right hand man of the local king during the great war.  He was well known enough that everyone gasped, and depending on  your country of origin had strong reverence or dislike for him.  
So we started our cannonball run with the other ship's crew.  they calmly walked to their ship as we sprinted to ours, jeering at them and casting spells on their ship to impeded their progress.  They were really quite civil...  I'm not sure we are the good guys.  
Anyway, we made it to the island, Typhon jumped up on the dock and went to talk to the dock master of this small town.  Before he could make it a frog person lept from the water, over the dock, tried to catch typhon in a net a plopped down on the other side.  A total of 3 frog people showed up around the dock and we met them with steel and spell.  Mr Pug made a dramatic show and left into the water, slaying one, but getting himself killed in the process.  We vanquished the rest, retrieved the drowning corpse of mr pug and met with the dockkeeper.  he told us that the frogs had grown more belligerent and more bold recently since they had been visited by some men in black.  

WeiShen

The WeiShen land is as vast and varied as any.  In the west are lush forests where the Gods are said to have first communed with the WeiShen, sending them east across the plains and mountains to maintain Harmony across the world.  The Gods instilled a strong value in the sanctity of life, and spoke of spiritual essence being handed down from one generation to the next.  Over time, the lessons evolved from Harmony to pride and honor in one's family.  The WeiShen set-up clans to protect prominent family lineages, and often employed eunuchs since they posed no threat to their own dynasty.

Religion still holds a major role in the average citizens life, but the higher positions tend to be both political and spiritual.  Commonly, clans pledge themselves to a specific God, and appoint favored eunuchs to lead a temple dedicated to them.

The Lothaire and Hajar thought the divided WeiShen would be easy to overcome, but the clans put aside their differences and created a war council to fight the heathens.  After the truce, the council disbanded and the clans returned home to rebuild.

Races:

Elf
Half-Elf

Hajar

The Hajar nation is not for the faint of heart;  Desert landscapes, rough seas, and a dispersed government leaves the law of the land up to the strong.  Tieflings have predominately held the highest seats of power, ruling over the dwarves and gnomes with little regard for their well-being.  Slavery plays an important role in the Hajar economy, and while there are no laws explicitly stating what races can own slaves, it's rare to see anything but the Tieflings mastering over the others.

Because of their lack of natural resources, the Hajar nation has turned to raiding and innovation to further their own cause.  During the war, the Hajar were on the brink of defeat when the invention of the cannon turned the tides in their favor until the truce.

The Hajar nation has been ruled by a council of twelve for as long as any history books have recorded.  Once elected, each member serves on the council for the rest of their lives.  While some of the members are public figures who rule openly, others keep their identity hidden and rule from the shadows of anonymity.   Rumors of a newly appointed dwarven council member spread through the Hajar nation after the end of the war, but no one has been able to confirm his or her existence yet.

Races:

Tieflings
Dwarves
Gnomes

Lothaire

The Lothaire Empire formed some 80 years ago when the Emperor Thezar conquered the kingdoms through diplomacy, espionage, and military strength.  Each king was allowed to still rule their own territory and set laws, but all paid tribute to the Emperor, who in turn ensured the kingdoms were protected.  When a famine struck years later, Thezar ordered those with excess food to share across their borders.  When Hajar slavers raided the southern shore, he sent the Troll Walkers from the north to show them the true nature of raiding.

During the War of the Three Lands, the Empire managed to remain relatively intact despite their forces spread thin as the war waged on.  Only one nation, the Troll Walkers, managed a successful rebellion and remain independent.

The Lothaire Empire is now ruled by Empress Avita, who sits upon her throne in the Capital city of Edon.

Common Races:

Human
Half-Orc (Troll Walkers)
Halflings

Captain's Log - 5/3/15

Session #2

Assembled at Caldwell's manor, he gave us the option of two quests: entering, winning, and claiming the prize of a chariot race in Hadjar; or scuttling a ship from which he had had a valuable prisoner extracted.  After some prying, Caldwell revealed that the ship in question was a slave ship.  There was some internal debate, and it was decided that we would "scuttle" the slave ship, but in fact liberate its enslaved captors (likely elves from Wei-Shen) and turn the boat over to them, exchanging their silence for freedom.  Let the recap state that Phobos thought this seemed unwise, as word of our failure to sink the ship and the ship's very presence could very well come back to bit us in the ass.

While discussing these matters on the pier, Phobos made a comment about "shorties," an apparently out-of-fashion term for dwarves, who are used as chariot drivers in Hadjar.  Attempting some shred of retribution, Typhon attempted to shove him off the the pier into the water.  However, Phobos' noble grace (and retardedly high dexterity) instead resulted in Typhon himself falling off the pier, and into the boat of one Mr. Pug, an experienced first mate.  It became clear that the party -- while ambitious -- would have need to Mr. Pug's nautical expertise in their future endeavors.

Fladuk the half-orc staying behind to watch the ship, the rest of us made our way into town seeking gunpowder and common disguises to give to the slaves.  While still debating the ethics of our plan, a gnomish tailor's suspicion was aroused, though he was quickly convinced by Phobos that the discussion was merely hypothetical.  We purchased the clothes and some other minor provisions.

We set sail along the known course of the slaver ship, and came across it after several days.  We quickly overtook it, Mr. Pug aligning us to fire our cannons upon its deck.  Five slavers raced to the deck, and Typhon and [ahh fuck what is Jon's character's name?  I am in Vegas with no notes/character sheet] threw grappling hooks and began the boarding action.  While most of the party engaged in melee combat on the enemy ship, Phobos stayed back on the Ol' Kyle and assaulted them with firebolts and magic missiles.

The battle soon one, the party headed below deck, where they encountered roughly thirty slaves.  Of particular interest was a druid, whose hands had been chained and mouth gagged so as to prevent him from casting any spells.  We liberated him, learning that (IIRC) the slaves mostly came from the far west of Wei-Shen.  

What secrets does this mysterious druid know?  What will the crew of the Ol' Kyle do with the slaves and cargo?  Where will their travels take them next?  Find out Sunday, on an all-new Tales of the Three Seas!!!

Captain's Log - 13th Year from the war of the Three Lands

Our adventurer’s began when they were contacted by an individual named Caldwell.  He was secretive about the specifics, but he was paying well for the retrieval of a man named Sebastian Cornfallow, who was last seen on an island named ‘Slaver’s Respite’.  Caldwell chartered a ship named ‘the flying sparrow’, captained by Bernard Boucard.  The Flying Sparrow went from port to port, picking up each of the adventurers; 

Phobos Darkwater

Typhon Strongtide

Hubert Thistledown

Lebianne Caskale

Fladuk Redarm

Lapu Lapu

            After introductions (and Lebianne pick-pocketing a letter from Bernard), they arrived at Slaver’s Respite.  True to it’s name, the island was a hive of scum and villainy; pirates and degenerates were drinking, fighting, whoring and passed out on every part of town.  The team went to the harbormaster, who after a stunning rap by Hubert was so charmed he spilled the secrets about Sebastian Cornfallow.  Sebastian was a pirate who was locked up on charges of suspected mutiny of his crewmates after they had completed a successful raid, stashing the treasure for himself.  The ‘Governor’ of the island was a man named Esteban Flores, who had captured Sebastian and was threatening him with hanging unless he led him to the loot.  The crew scoped out the jail, but a catcall from the balcony of the whorehouse‘The Gleaming Rose.’ 

Phobos made a beeline for the front door, and was greeted by the owner, ‘Big Helga’.  Big Helga was a tall female dwarf (2/10, even without a beard) and built like any pirate on the island.  She immediately ushered Phobos into the noble suite with not one, but two tieflings.  Lebianne saddled up to a kindred spirit in Big Helga, and began asking her about the state of affairs on the island.  While they were talking, Hubert played a song for the whorehosue “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”  Even though it was a strong performance, the song was met with scattered applause, as well as a few awkward glances.  Phobos returned, paying 50g for the services, and the group met in a corner booth of the house.  After conferring on the matter, Hubert cornered a whore named ‘Jeanine’, and bluffed by telling her he knew what they were up to in the house.  He pressed her for her real name, which turned out to be Diamond, and she spilled that she was being paid by Big Helga for any information on the Esteban Flores. 

The group decided the best course of action was to rat out The Gleaming Rose for an opportunity to get close to Sebastian.  They met Esteban at his villa, and after a few tense moments he agreed to let the adventurers speak to Sebastian for 5 minutes in exchange for the information on Diamond.  He sent two of his guards to pick up Diamond, and two guards to escort the group to the jail. 

The group passed the two guards station outside the jail, and once inside Phobos and Hubert casted sleep spells on the guards, leaving only one awake.  Typhon and Fladik made quick work of the last guard, and the group slit the throats of the sleeping guards.  They called in the guards from outside, and blasted them out into the streets with fireballs and arrows.  Lebianne unlocked a grateful Sebastian, and they spent 5 minutes disguising him in a guard outfit to sneak him out.  While he was dressing, the group heard commotion out in the street, and saw a brawl was spilling out into the streets from The Gleaming Rose.  The group ran back to the ship, but not before Big Helga saw them escaping to the boat.

Once aboard, they questioned Sebastian, who revealed that he didn’t mutineer against his crew.  A few weeks ago his best mate fell ill, and something terrible happened to the rest of the crew on his ship that he refused to speak about.  The ship crashed on the shore of an island, and he used one of the skiffs to make it back to Slaver’s Respite.  Upon refusal to return to the island, he was imprisoned by Esteban Flores until the group rescued him.  Hubert made him mark where the island was on the map, and the group went to sleep in their private cabin.

In the middle of the night Phobos was awoken by a man draped in ornate leather armor with symbols carved into it.  He held a struggling Sebastian tight with a knife close to Sebastian’s neck when Phobos used a spell to pull the rug out from underneath them.  Fladik was standing guard outside, rushed in, and threw a spear at the cultist but hit Sebastian square in the stomach instead.  The cultist spoke the cryptic words “I tear at a thread, that the veil may drop” before plunging his knife into Sebastian’s neck, bringing him close to the brink of death.  The group finished off the cultist, but heard the sounds of the alarm bell ringing and the crew screaming outside their quarters.  Typhon, upon hearing the screams, locked their door and healed Sebastian while waiting for the screams to subside. 

The group eventually ventured out, and saw blood streaks sprayed across the wooden walls of the hull, but no bodies.  They moved above deck, and saw that the ship was surrounded by green fog sitting atop a sea of glass on all sides.  On the bow of the ship sat a strikingly beautiful woman with long black hair and pale sin, who gave them a devilish smile before diving into the waters below.  From where she jumped off the ship erupted an enormous monstrosity of flesh and bones, swirling unnaturally together to form a humanoid shape.  Upon closer inspection, the monster was composed of the corpses of the dead crew, and began attacking the ship by ripping off pieces of itself and throwing it at the deck.  The hunks of flesh animated into zombies that attacked the group, before battling them back and eventually felling the beast with the spear soaked in Sebastians blood.

The group made their way back to Caldwell’s mansion, who thanked them for bringing Sebastian back, and paid them the agreed upon amount.  After hearing their tale, he laid the situation out bluntly for them;  Bernard was cousin to Vincent Boucard, the head of one of the most powerful families in Lothaire.  The fact that they returned would not have gone unnoticed, and while Caldwell seemed quick to believe the group about the attack on the ship most others would doubt their tale and assumed they killed Bernard in a mutiny.  Caldwell could help clear their name, but it would take time.  Meanwhile, he had use of adventurers with their particular set of skills who could operate outside of the law.  Caldwell motivated them with money, power, and in time, knowledge about the secret turnings of the world they had just captured a glimpse of. 

Their adventure ended with Lebianne pick-pocketing Caldwell for some extra cash.  What a bitch.