Pirates of the Mezzovian Main -- UPDATED May 12th

The Player Characters (updated):

• Teren'Kol -- Hobgoblin Barbarian 4
  
  
• Caden Bar Harland -- Mongrelfolk Spellthief 4
  
  
• Sven Svensson -- Human Duskblade 3/Bard 1
  
  
• Jek -- Human Rogue 4
  
  
• Fairlight the Fair -- Human Favored Soul 4
  
  
• Eladkot -- Human Wizard 4

The conceit of this game was that I wanted to utilize the D&D rules to emulate "swashbuckling horror" of the kind that movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy or even Van Helsing managed to do. I made a few mechanics changes, most notably adding Action Points (with a d10 instead of a d6) and using the swashbuckly Defense bonus to AC rules from Unearthed Arcana. Another notable houserule was that I removed the LA +1 penalty for hobgoblins, and made goblinoids an important component of the setting. As you can see above, I did have one hobgoblin PC. I didn't specifically allow mongrelfolk as a race, but the 3.5 version of the race is much less intrusive and freakish than prior editions, and the player sold me on the idea.

I whipped up a quick n dirty setting, stealing a bunch of names from Lovecraft, particularly The DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath, although that was more of a running in-joke than an actual description of what these places are like, and borrowing a few other things from Iron Kingdoms, I sketched out a map and set them loose.



Here's a "digital sketch" I made from the page in my comp book---this is really quick and dirty Microsoft Paint sketch, so it's not terribly pretty, but it does give you the lay of the land.

I told the players that their characters would be starting out on a ship from Razina, bound for Jekara. The game begins just a few hours from their destination when a quick squall hits the ship… right as another sail is spotted to the aft, closing fast. They decided that as the only passengers (except for a mysterious guy who stayed locked up in his cabin the whole voyage) they had talked together and become friends while at sea and had decided to kinda "hang" together after arriving at their destination, assuming that their various goals were sufficiently compatible. A few of the characters had some background elements and motivations to work through, such as:

• Teren'Kol's city, Kushat, was once an independent hobgobber kindgom before being conquered and assimilated into the Leng empire (same fate befell Sinharat and Hu.) He managed to escape from slavery at a young age and was subsequently protected and raised by orcs. Revenge against Leng is a priority for him.
  
  
• Caden Bar Harland looks a bit like a pale and short Ron Perlman---he's pretty certain that orcs feature in his heritage somewhere, and as he's been on an extended "roots check" trip for the last little bit, he'd like to experience their culture somewhat and see if he can find any long-lost distant cousins among them.
  
  
• Sven is one of those typical "third sons" nobility---he inherited practically nothing other than a snooty attitude. He's looking for his fortune so he can continue his practice of hanging around the rich and famous, as he is convinced that that's where he belongs.
  
  
• Jek is on the run. He fancies himself the world's greatest thief (as a 16-year old layabout) and bit off a bit more than he can chew. He left Razina in a hurry before he found himself floating in the bay.
  
  
• Fairlight considers herself a prophetess of an obscure god named Fulcrum (actually, a rather… eccentric PC from our last campaign.) I'm still not sure how much she believes her own hype and how much she's just a shyster and con-artist, but she's out looking for money and converts… especially converts with money. As well as some rumored holy relicts.

Sven and Fairlight are originally from Iclezza, Caden is originally from Mnar, but has spent the last few years just outside Razina, studying with a master spellthief.

"What's that?" Fairlight pointed over the railing towards a small white dot bobbing in the choppy seas. The rest of the crew was too busy shortening the sails, tying down anything free, or in Captain Brogan's case, simply white-knuckling the wheel. The wind was whistling through the masts, the ship was heaving up and down like a panting whale and the sky was a hard iron gray. Lightning flashed not far away and the rumble of thunder made everyone pause and look up for a second. The Gilded Albatross bounced in the waves, barely able to keep a steady course.

"Just another ship," Jek said, unconcerned. "No big deal. We're nearing Jekara now; of course there's going to be more traffic."

"No, I think it's actually coming towards us." Fairlight straightened her red fez and walked up to the rail. Hanging in a pouch bolted to the side was a spyglass. She lifted it out and looked some more at the ship.

"Anyone ever heard of a black flag with the skull of a rat on it?"

The crew heard that and spat over the side. The captain swore. "Aye, lass, I know it. 'tis the pirate captain Ghask, and he's a mean one. We're making hard for Jekara, but even odds are 'eel catch us before we can make port."

While the crew seemed near panicked by this news (they almost threw overboard their cargo of rare and expensive wine casks to lighten the load---greedier heads prevailed) the passengers took it in stride. Teren'Kol sharpened the blade of his gyrspike and stretched, Sven laughed off the threat. Caden went below decks to roust the other passenger from his cabin. He knocked on the door.

An older gentleman with the look of a butler or valet about him answered, and he caught a quick glimpse of a finely apportioned cabin with rich furnishings and a thick haze of perfume in the air. A thin, pale man with long oiled curls sat on a divan in the center of the room fanning himself slowly.

"May I help you?" asked the butler.

"Aye, there's a spot of trouble. Captain Ghask and his pirates seem to be bearing down on us. There's poor odds that we'll make port before they catch us."

The door slammed in his face and he could hear the sound of multiple locks and latches being fastened, as well as a near panicked and hysterical cry from the butler! "Pirates, me lord!"

No help from that quarter. He loosed his sickle on his belt and went up above decks.

The ship was drawing up very near now. It had started to rain fat, cold drops, and waves were crashing up over the railings, occasionally nearly causing someone to be washed overboard. They could just make out vague shapes on the other ship, and a few dark forms were diving over the near railing as if to swim towards them.

"What the bloody 'ell…" Jek started. Then with a motion and mumble of words a taller figure on the deck cast a spell. A bolt of sickly greenish magical energy launched from his hands to impact Jek's chest, sizzling and burning him. He cursed and shot his crossbow at the man---a tall figure with a golden mask and white hair. He could just hear him curse. A hit. Sailors on the other ship leapt from the railing; they had tossed ropes with grappling hooks on them into the Albatross' rigging and now swung easily over the gap. At the same time, coarse furry shapes climbed up out of the sea… the furry shapes they had seen were large, dog-sized rats. One creature was nearly ten feet tall; a ragged, anthropomorphic rat with arms the size of tree trunks and nasty yellowed claws and teeth. Scraps of clothing and armor still clung to his bedraggled fur. He roared a skittering cry and turned to the hobgoblin, slashing him viciously with one paw swipe.

Caden crawled up under an upside down lifeboat, seeking shelter. Captain Brogan was there first. "Find yer own hidin' spot, boy!" Caden shrugged and rolled out, attempting to stab one of the pirates, but missing. Fairlight shot off two bolts from her heavy repeating crossbow, sticking one of the pirates where the sun don't shine and causing him to yelp in pain. He turned around with murder in his eye and crossed over to her. Another pirate charged across the poopdeck into her as well. With a clatter, she fell down the stairs to the main deck, but got off two more shots, dropping one of the pirates completely.

Teren'Kol howled in goblinish rage himself and attacked the monstrous rat-thing with his gyrspike, slashing ineffectively with the blade, but crushing the thing's head nice and hard with the flail. It spat blood, and slashed and bit at him some more. He felt momentarily dizzy as the huge dirty teeth clamped down on his shoulder, causing blood, filth and rainwater to drip from the wound as if poured.

The sorcerous pirate captain cast another spell and the poopdeck became ensnared in a sticky spider-like web. Jek and Caden found themselves unable to move and attacked by giant rats. Caden took a nasty, filthy bite (and failed his Fort save, so he'll catch a nice case of Filth Fever next session!) while Fairlight stepped back and finished another pirate with her repeating crossbow. Teren'Kol attacked the hideous rat-giant creature again; combined with Jek's missile fire, he managed to bring it down. He yelled a triumphant battle-cry to the sky, but then turned and completely failed to hit any of the pirates or rats that were now mobbing him. They poked, prodded, bit and scratched him and he yelled again, this time in pain and frustration. He soon found himself sizzling with acidic magic and unable to keep his balance when a nasty Grease spell caused the deck to become slippery. A cresting wave knocked most of the combatants prone; they were now stuck in waves, soaking wet and prone and unable to stand due to the slippery surface. The sorcerer smirked and laughed… until Jek and Fairlight's combined missile fire as well as Sven's own flaming magic managed to put him down. Between that and a flask of alchemists fire, the pirate ship was now burning pretty heavily. Sven, Teren'Kol and Caden all struggled to fight the slippery rodents of unusual size, but finally the last of them was dispatched and tossed into the stormy deep.

"Are you all alright?" Fairlight asked, brushing her wet hair out of her eyes and wringing rain and sea water from her fez. A few healing spells later, and they more or less were. Caden coughed slightly, but his filth fever still had yet to manifest. Jek pondered briefly the pirate captain's strange fascinating with rodents. The captain and crew of the Gilded Albatross came out and thanked the passengers for saving their lives and their cargo. A quick search of the pirate ship, before the smoke and fire made it impossible to stay below decks, found a fair little stash of gold and a few magic items on Captain Ghask's corpse; his mask, and a few potions (of Cure Moderate Wounds, they determined.)

Sven congratulated the group for fighting fairly well, for peasants (he especially sneered at Caden's sickle as a peasant implement). Teren'Kol chopped off the rat-things head so he could later make a trophy of it… when asked why he wanted to turn it's head into a helmet, he said, "Wouldn't you?"

Uh, no.

Jek and Caden deflated Sven a bit by lifting some healing potions off of his belt without him noticing just as the butler from below invited them all to come below decks and accept the congratulations and thanks of… none other than the King of Jekara's own brother, Prince Darlanian who had been traveling incognito.

Sven was particularly interested in following the butler. "Finally; someone of my own social standing to mingle with!" and he followed so quickly as to almost leave the rest of the group behind. The little group of unlikely heroes filed into the cabin after Sven. Prince Darlanian was lying on his divan, looking somewhat pale and faint and sipping brandy. When the heroes walked in, he raised himself up on one arm.

"My good fellows! (and lady!) I must thank you for your intervention. Although I was traveling incognito, I am none other than Prince Darlanian, brother to King Netalathian, Lord of Jekara." He said his brother's name with a poorly repressed sneer of contempt. "I was traveling on state business at my brother's request and without my usual guard, so your intervention is most welcome."

"My lord," says Sven suavely, "I am most happy to serve you. I, too, am a nobleman, as you can plainly see, from the kingdom of Iclezza. In fact, I believe your brother has married to a dear friend of my sister, your Queen Solestris. The rabble here is also pleased to help, as is their duty."

Teren'Kol decided that perhaps showing the Prince the head of the rat-thing was a good idea at this point. Fairlight escorted him out, telling him that perhaps that was a task better suited for being done on deck. Caden swiped one of Sven's potions and attempted to plant it on the Prince, perhaps in an effort to sabotage their high-brow conversation and get out of an uncomfortable situation. Although he wasn't spotted taking the potion, the Prince caught him trying to put the potion into his own belt.

"My good fellow! What are you doing?"

Caden stared at the Prince blankly, a potion in his hand, the Prince's belt in his other until the butler led him away as well. By that point, Fairlight rejoined the Prince and the paupered nobleman from Iclezza, leaving Teren'Kol to his taxidermy and Caden to his… whatever he did with that free time.

"I'd very much like to invite you to the palace once we reach Jekara," the Prince says. "I like you. You're also outsiders, which means you haven't been corrupted by any power source in the city yet. Allow me the honor of making you the first offer: no doubt there are some things I can find for you to do that will prove profitable and exciting, as well as further the interests of the Jekaran state abroad.

"If you come with me to the palace, my fool of a brother will no doubt want to congratulate you in person for saving my royal blood from being spilt by those filthy pirates."

Sven and Fairlight assured the Prince that they would be more than happy to accompany him to the palace. He tells them that he's made special arrangements with the captain to dock at the Royal docks where a carriage will await them. Sven's horse can be taken separately to the palace by the butler.

When they conclude their audience with the prince, the squall has completely ended and the Gilded Albatross is sailing on a gentle breeze under sunny skies into the Jekara Bay.

The city of Jekara itself is a wonder of architectural engineering. It's located in a bay at the mouth of a river, and it is built almost entirely on large rocky islands that jut out from the river's mouth into the bay (I actually showed the players my poster map of Five Fingers, told them to ignore a few names, but that otherwise this was pretty much it) connected by bridges and build up to several stories in rickety wooden buildings from timbers harvested from the dry, juniper forests to the south. At all times no fewer than several dozen ships and boats were in sight; large naval craft, traders that cross the Mezzovian, local fisherfolk, and ferries and barges that cross the channels between the islands and the mainland.

The Albatross pulled up to a large, steady dock, and true to his word, a large black carriage waits for them there. They all board the fine vehicle, which seats all six of them comfortably, and head off through the clacking, cobblestone streets for the palace.

It doesn't take long for Jek and Caden to hear a suspicious clip-clop, clip-clop behind them. They turn to see four riders, cloaked and hooded, pacing the carriage.

"Oi!" calls Caden to the driver. "What's this then?" Then the prince notices that they're not even headed for the palace anymore...

Cool.

For a special reuinion tour on my desk, here's the entire pirate crew, including gold-masked sorcerer, dire rats, thugs and giant rat-thing. Crappy image quality, but hey---I just snapped a picture on my desk my my camera phone. That's what you get.

Teren'Kol and Sven swarmed up the sides of the coach (although Sven struggled a bit to get up there) and with a growl and the application of his boot, Teren'kol sent the driver packing; he crashed heavily into the side of a tavern as they went by. The footman threw a smokestick in through the rear window which may have hindered the attackers as much as it helped them, but everyone agreed that the image of a carriage running amok through the city streaming billows of greasy black smoke was a cool image, at least.

Coughing and spluttering, Fairlight stuck her head and hands through the window to get a breath of fresh air, and popped off a few shots with her repeating crossbow, but the bouncing, jerking motion of the coach made aiming difficult and her shots went wild. Two of the four horsemen behind pulled up alongside, while two others pulled up right behind the coach. Caden reached into his backpack and found his caltrops, saved for just such a need.

He tossed them out the back window; one of the riders leapt nimbly over them, but another rode right through them and with a curse, his horse slowed and cried out in pain. Jek followed the two burlier members of his group outside and up on top of the carriage. Since neither Sven nor Teren'Kol looked like they were about to attempt to drive the thing, he grabbed the reins, kept his head down and tried to keep the thing under control. And just in time, too! Right in front of him was… an old lady crossing the street with her fruit cart! He swerved hard to the left and managed to avoid crashing into her. Sven and Teren'Kol just made their balance checks to retain their footing on top of the carriage, while inside Caden and the Prince found themselves rolling around on the floor in the smoke.

Sven, meanwhile was tossing off fiery spells at every chance he could at the rider on his side of the carriage, while the hobgoblin jumped on the horse to the side, and grabbed hold behind the rider. He bashed the guy solidly on the head and threw him to the pavement, then took control of his horse.

"Stay down, your Highness!" Fairlight shouted, again sticking her head out and loosing two bolts from her heavy repeating crossbow into the footman. He snarled in response and threw a cask of alchemist's fire into the back window. Although it was nearly miraculous, none of the passengers managed to catch on fire, but the carriage was now streaming billows of greasy black smoke and was a blazing inferno as well. Nice. His Highness did not keep his head down.

Caden, hanging on to the door, let it swing open, with his head looking through the window. Two crossbow bolts hit the door slamming it closed again. Caden rode it back inside. "Are you having fun, Caden?" Fairlight asked. He nodded and smiled.

Teren'Kol pulled his horse back a bit to attack the other rider behind and they traded blows ineffectually for a few rounds. Fairlight used the favor of her patron to create water, but it did not completely extinguish the flames, although it did remove the immediate danger of everyone on the coach burning to death. Then she leaned out and shot two bolts at point blank range into the footman, who fell dead from the carriage.

Sven attempted to leap onto the horse beside him, but he timed his jump badly and crashed heavily to the cobblestones below. Caden decided that this carriage was a flaming death trap best exited, so he grabbed the prince and jumped from the door. He made a nice, graceful rolling landing, dusted off his clothes and stood up unharmed, but the Prince himself was considerably bruised by his landing. Caden could hear the approaching hooves of the horse that was slowed by the caltrops, so rather than stand in the street waiting for them to arrive, he grabbed the Prince by the collar and ducked into the closest doorway he could find. It was a busy tavern.

"A round for everyone, on the Prince!" There was a shout and cheer, and even the Prince himself was starting to look on his adventure with a more positive light once some brandy was in him.

Meanwhile, Jek noticed that there was a canal ahead, and the bridge that crossed it was out of commission. Rather than make a sudden turn, he hauled back on the reins and managed to pull off a hard stop. Teren'Kol and the rider he was fighting didn't even pay attention to it, and still traded blows as they rode right off the edge and fell thirty feel to the water below. The rider that Sven had tried to jump opened his eyes wide in alarm and pulled hard on the reins, but didn't stop in time; he and his horse went over the edge as well.

Fairlight jumped out the back window to the ground just in time to nail the final, slower rider with two well-placed crossbow bolts. He fell to the ground hard.

Teren'Kol kept fighting even in the water, the blood of his assailants darkening the filthy scum-filled brine. When two triangular fins approached he decided he'd made his point and started climbing up to safety, with some help from one of Jek's ropes. The screams of the two fallen riders and their horses didn't last long as the sharks moved in to feed.

The dripping and fuming hobgoblin, his weapon coated with the blood of his collegues, was a pretty intimidating figure, even if the rest of the group was somewhat less intimidating. Even so, the one rider that Fairlight shot down right next to the carriage wasn't able to provide any significant information; he had been hired by an anonymous contractor to waylay the carriage without knowing who the passengers or his contractor were. In a surprising fit of mercy, the group let him go, stumbling and limping off into the street.

The palace was now only a few blocks away, although they'd now have to go the longer way since the bridge was out. They collected Caden and the Prince---after having a few drinks themselves---and headed for the royal gates.

Subscribed!

Despite a few raised eyebrows from the guards, the presence of his Highness, Prince Darlanian, vouching for the odd assortment of hangers-on, was sufficient to get them through the gate. Without waiting to be announced, the Prince motioned for the group to follow him and walked through the hallways right into the King's audience chamber, causing all the palace servants to scurry out of the way, bowing as they did. One poor chamber maid, trying to bow and move aside at the same time after suddenly nearly running right into the Prince actually fell on her backside on the hard stone floor.

The King was a sour-looking man; thin, with dark hair and a permanent scowl. He was leaning forward in his chair listening to a hobgoblin in fine clothes speaking to him (picture Guy Rolfe's Prince John from the excellent 1952 movie Ivanhoe with Richard Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor. And George Sands as Guy du'Bois Gilbert. If you haven't seen it, you should! Anyway, I couldn't find any decent screenshots online, sadly.) Next to him was his Queen, a younger woman with sparkling blond hair done in a braid of the style that the northerners used. Indeed; she was distant kin to Sven Svensson, and the younger sister of the king of Iclezza, married to King Netalathien of Jekara to cement a political alliance. She looked up interestedly as the Prince and his guests walked in; the King barely gave them a flicker of his eyes, retaining his full attention on the hobgoblin delegate.

"Your Majesty, if you do not honor our alliance, our state will be yet another vassal to the expansion of Leng within a fortnight. And, I'll remind you, other than the little caravan stop of Sutaka, their eyes will be set next on you after they have finished with us. Now is the time to make your stand."

The King shifted, looked with annoyance at his impatient brother who had walked up nearly to the hobgoblin delegate, the rest of the group standing uncertainly behind. "My Lord Tokraas, we will discuss this further on the morrow. There are indeed dire consequences whichever course of action Jekara takes, and I will not allow my troops to be committed in haste to any course of action."

The hobgoblin looked frustrated, but he bit his lip and bowed slightly, turning and walking out. He made eye contact with Teren'Kol as he walked out, surprised to see one of his own race dressed as if he were a nomad orc from the desert. His steps faltered momentarily, but then he continued on his way.

"Dear brother," said the Prince sarcastically. "I have returned. I bring with me several talented individuals who saved my life from pirate attack only a few hours outside our harbor, where your Navy should have kept me safe. So that they may receive the royal congratulations and reward due them for sparing royal blood."

"Royal blood that would not have been at risk if you had not embarked on such a foolish venture!" she King shot back.

The Prince flushed red and raised his voice even higher. "A foolish venture that I undertook at your request, brother!

The King slammed his fist down on the armrest of his throne. "But the manner in which you undertook it was your own choosing! Spare me the misplaced accusation that any risk you undertook due to your own foolishness was my fault!"

The two stared daggers at each other, while the Queen sat quietly, observing the reticent adventurers with keen eyes. "Still," the King said in a quieter voice, "royal blood is royal blood, fool or no." He turned to the adventurers and managed a strained smile which did not reach his eyes. "Please, enjoy my hospitality for the evening here in the palace; in the morning I will see you suitably rewarded for your service before you go on your way."

Prince Darlanian spun on his heel and stormed away without a backwards glance, while a seneschal stepped forward to show the guests to their quarters, so they could bathe, change their clothes and be fed and pampered… at least for one evening.

While they were walking slowly through the hallway, they were stopped by the Queen. "Pardon the interruption, my fine fellows. I'm sure you are eager to rest after your journey, but I would like to take a moment of your time, if I could."

"We would be honored, milady!" Sven stepped up, eager as a puppy. "Perhaps you remember me? Sven Svensson, from your homeland. My older sister I believe was a friend of yours in childhood."

"Ah, yes… I believe I remember your father. He was… someone in my fathers court. I don't recall, though… it has been many years since I have been to Iclezza, and I was a young girl when I was promised in marriage to the King here."

She ushered them into a private sitting room, dismissing the seneschal to wait outside. "So. You managed to save my fool brother-in-law from death. That is quite an accomplishment. I was certain that his hare-brained scheme of traveling incognito to the country northwards would be the last we saw of him."

"If you were capable of saving him, even from himself, then clearly you are not to be trifled with." Although her words were serious, laughter echoed in her eyes, but it faded as she continued.

"I have been looking for just such people for some little time now. I have an urgent errand that needs attending to, and my fool of a husband is unwilling to devote time or resources to it."

The group looked at each other uncertainly. Clearly this was not the happiest of families. "What would you have us do, milady?" Fairlight asked hesitantly.

The Queen sighed. "I know you have just arrived, but I need capable agents to sail to my home country of Iclezza. We have received word that it is under attack. The savage druids and fey that live in the woods to the north of us have come south, for reasons that we do not yet know, and they will not be negotiated with. Jekara has a long-standing alliance with Iclezza, but my husband," she stretched the word out to give it all the venom of a bitter insult, "will not budge. You heard him speaking to allies even closer at hand. He is an overcautious fool who would sit here planning while the world all around him comes crashing down. Bold action is required, my friends… but I have no access to troops I could send. A band of bold fighters, though, outsiders to Iclezza, yourself excluded, of course, might find a solution that the King, with his troops, even if he were to send them, would not."

The Queen dismissed herself after chatting a bit more and the group went back into the hallways. To almost bump headlong into the prince. "My saviors!" he laughed. "I was looking for you. Might I have a word?" The group looked at each other uncertainly yet again as he led them back into the same sitting room they had so recently vacated.

"I would ask your help," the Prince started. "My brother, fool that he is, does not esteem the intelligence that I gathered on my trip, but I have heard very disturbing rumors. The dragon-king's Empire of Cryx is supposedly slumbering very restlessly. I heard many accounts of troops massing in the islands, pointing towards the mainland here in the south. Mnar would likely be their first target, but we would be right behind, I believe."

"However, I need confirmation of these rumors. Although my sources are trustworthy, their information was also indirect and second-hand. I need someone to scout out what's going on in Cryx and send me back word. Now, I know that my fool sister-in-law just spoke to you, and I can imagine that she pled for aid for her homeland in the north. A worthy goal, no doubt! But, you can accomplish both without too much trouble! While sailing to Iclezza, you must sail very near Cryxian waters anyway… by making a slight detour, you could accomplish my mission, send word back to me, and continue on your way to do what my sister-in-law asked as well."

The Prince chatted with them a bit more, and then excused himself.

"The only thing missing now," remarked Jek, "is for the King himself to come to us, call both his wife and his brother fools, and ask us to go eastwards to spy on Leng!" That did not actually happen. As the group discussed what to do, Fairlight remarked that their task, essentially, was to discover which of these competing interests was the least -ish and try to attempt their task.

They decided tentatively to sail soon for Cryx, and from there to Iclezza. Teren'Kol was the only one reticent, as the plight of the ambassador of Punuwan had moved him; his own city-state had been conquered by Leng itself some ten years earlier.

These are the emails I sent after the session--

That night:

Fairlight

The first night in the palace of Jekara, you have a dream. Your dream is very rosy and red-tinged, as if you were inside some building made of red glass or ruby. You see a small figure with a fez---but indistinctly. He calls out to you, and thanks you... but tells you that he has need of help still.

The lich-lords of Cryx, the lieutenants of the Dragon-king, don't know it, but they have hidden in seaside caves of their island a book. This book has the rituals and incantations that will finally free him.

He asks you again for your help in finding this book, and setting him free...

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This particular dream is full of esoteric in-jokes; the reference is clearly to the character in our last campaign (who had a ruby that trapped souls) that she worships as a God. In fact, one of the things she would like to do is find some artifacts of her religion, including the big ruby that supposedly holds his soul.


Sven Svenssion:

The Queen makes a special visit to your chambers right before you retire for the evening.

"As one fellow countryman to another, I thought you might find this interesting," and she leaves you a scroll.

The scroll is a port manifest from some fifty years ago; an Iclezzan noble named Torvald Magnusson (your great grandfather!) passed through here with a caravan full of treasure that he had gained somewhere in the lands to the south. He loaded this treasure into a ship and sailed north for his homeland. He never arrived.

The scroll also has a map of the area, and a few small islands just on the east side of Cryx are marked as possible locations where he shipwrecked.

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His reply was to question if she fell for his attempt to seduce her, complete with a Bluff check result of 4 or so. Uh... no.


Jek:

While in the King's palace, you run across an old acquaintance; a crime lord who's subservient to the man whom you robbed in Razina. He is friendly to you; obviously he doesn't know that you just fled the city. He also mentions that he is heading back home himself in a few days. "I'll be sure and tell the whole crew that I bumped into you here, in the palace of all places! Who would have thought you'd go so far?"

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Caden Bar Harland:

As you make your way to your quarters, a royal seneschal does a double take when he sees you, and follows you towards your quarters. "If you don't mind, good sir, may I ask you something? Do you know Caddacus Serlin?"

(I'm going to presume you don't. There's no reason to expect you would.)

"How odd. I swear, you are the spitting image of him. Younger, of course, but the resemblance is uncanny.

"He was a friend of mine. But it's a tragic tale... he was always driven to discover his heritage. Not that I blame him; he looked odd, meaning no offense... difficult to place. I couldn't quite figure out what his features were, where he could have been from. He headed north, he did, saying he found clues that he needed to investigate right away. He chartered a boat for Blackwater... the pirate port on Cryx, and I never saw him again. That was ten years ago. I wondered if he had ever found what he was looking for... or if he met a bad end in Blackwater. Probably the latter, I fear. It's a rough town.

But you look just like him... I thought maybe you'd be his brother, or even his son or something. Really bizarre."

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Teren'Kol:

The ambassador of Punuwan, Kajim Tokraas seeks your quarters later in the evening, right before you retire.

"It's so good to see one of our brothers from the East still standing firm against Leng. Many of your countrymen were refugees to my country, you know. We welcomed them with open arms.

"I can see that revenge is a priority to you. That is good. Revenge is the natural order of things; the cost of the cruelty of tyrants. I have a tip for you. There is a legend; the legend of a weapon called the Blade of Souls, forged by the peoples who ruled this land even before the Empire of the Old Mezzovians. This weapon contains the souls of everyone it's ever slain, keeping them to augment its own power. The blade also attunes itself to the weilder, forming itself into the weapon that they most prefer to use. This is a blade that has the power to bring down Empires; everyone who's ever wielded the blade has become a hero of legend.

"For many years I scoffed at this story as merely a fairytale, but I now have reason to believe that this blade might yet exist after all. My sources tell me that it's been spotted, driven deep into a stone in the forests of the north country, only a few leagues north of Iclezza.

"The country 'round there is dangerous, but if this is true; this may be the best hope for bringing the Emperor of Leng to justice."

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Teren'Kol asks some keen questions (his CHA is only 6, but his INT is fairly high) and Lord Tokraas has to admit that he knows it's a long-shot, but hey, it's something to do. If there's any truth at all to the legend, they better find out, because they don't have many other options. Teren'Kol's further followed up with:

Teren'Kol indicates that he would prefer to travel north, favoring
Iclezza as our next step. He has no interest in returning east towards Leng just yet and has only recently departed the southern lands. After gruffly voicing his preference, he also comments, "We have spilled blood together...more of theirs than ours, thank the four winds...so I now choose to cast my lot with you. Iclezza can wait if the group chooses to go elsewhere.

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Good stuff! When's the next session and/or update?