Fate and Glory on the High Seas...

After many a long year, I've finally gotten involved with a stable RL D&D group. To celebrate, I've figured I'd try my hand at this whole story hour business.

FYI, names have likely been chanced due to my new-ness to the game and the fact that what little I did write down are things I didn't know how to spell to being with. I'll try and update these first couple of posts when I can get the details down more firmly in my mind.


The setting is a custom world, standard races so far, but new deities and world. There are two main continents plus lots of islands. The groups (there are actually two games going on in the same area, but are, so far, totally unrelated to each other) are both located in a small island chain that sits between the two main landmasses.

The southern island of Dae Bo Darren is dominated by the Dwarven city of the same name which, in turn, dominates trade in the chain as well as between the continents. The Nolbeck fleet serves as the navy/pirate enforcers of the city.

Of late, navigation has become a bit of an issue, as the stars are no longer in the correct positions and the weather has been locked at the hottest day of summer for several months longer than it should have.


My character, Tasmia, will serve as the PoV for this tale, since I play her and came into the game late, so a good bit has transpired that she has no information about. At some point prior to my joining, the main group had ended up on Shatterhold Island and been forced to do the bidding of the islands Queen - a Silver Dragon. Vampire.

They had just finished clearing out an enclave of some type of beholder-kin on the island and were waiting for the promised boat to leave.

The Characters

I play Tasmia “Ironfist” Vætildr (Swordsage 4/Warblade 2), an exotic looking and highly tattooed former gladiator currently employed as the Master-At-Arms on the trading vessel Taskers Drift under the seemingly bi-polar Captain Mervermars. Raised since a child in the arena of Dae Bo Darren by her adopted dwarven family, Tasmia was trained by them how to fight to save her from her slated fate of being a 'reward' for other gladiators. She is torn between seeking where she is really from and returning to the family that raised her. Does not react well to being treated as a 'weak woman', leading to certain... conflicts.

Bargier (ECL 10, classes unknown), a pale and totally hairless human, was, not to long ago, just a man with a good number of addictions, primarily to dosalis, the local weed of choice, as well as ale, womanizing and gambling. Ended up as the sacrifice demanded by the Queen of Shatterhold Island when the group trespassed (was shipwrecked, I believe). He got better. However, he also contracted a case of vampirism from the incident. Somehow he is able to go out during the day, so the rest of the group hasn't found out yet, though several suspect his condition. His main issue with the change is that all his former vices have no affect on his undead body.

Magnious (level 9, fighter/legendary commander) is a proud solder of Arane, where men are SPARTANS and women are property. Skilled with both sword and shield and a talented commander, in spite of his lack of interpersonal skills, every battle is a chance for both personal and national glory. However, his battle ready mentality has twice lead him to attack his other party members in combat. And that's before Tasmia arrived on the scene...

Hoskol (fighter), another Aranian, serves under Magnious, though lacking the other's skill and valor in battle, he'd much rather be drinking. He obeys out of both respect and fear of the fact that Magnious has a history of decapitating large monsters.

Barier (cleric?, and I'm certain I've got his name wrong), the third Aranian is a more upstanding solider than Hoskol, though his primary devotion is to the Gods rather than to personal glory.

Aleyna (half-elf wizard), is the current object of Magnious's affections.

Illdrill (assimar druid) <ok, I'm drawing a total blank on her... she's a druid and has a wolf... yeah, that's all I got...>

Quin (human ?cleric?) an exile from a small island protected by a magical storm, who seeks a way to depose the current tyrant who rules it.

Djorn (human rouge) was unlucky enough to have been suck on a ship whose crew was taken by a plague, lucky enough to be the only survivor, unlucky enough to be adrift at sea with no food, lucky enough to ground on an island before starving to death, unlucky enough for it to be Shatterhold Island, lucky enough to be found by the party, unlucky enough to be considered to still have the plague by Magnious, lucky enough to wind up in bed with the Queen of Shatterhold Island and unlucky enough to have been affected by a spell which caused him to try to hit Magnious and proceeded to fall down a pit. Magnious proceeded to pour oil and drop torches on him.


At this point, I should also mention that the 'Queen' is a Silver Dragon. What most of the party does not know is that she is a Vampric Silver Dragon. Some time before I joined she asked the party what each of them most Wished for (note the Capital W on Wish, though, at the time, none of the pcs had a clue about what they were getting into).

Maginous: “I wish to die in glorious battle for Arania!” That's not going to end well.

Aleyna wanted an array of spells unknown to her - and got a new spellbook, sans her previous spells.

Quin wanted the power to return home and restore the island, causing his grandfather to die and the power to control the magical storm to pass to him (the former holder of the power has to die to pass it on, so the current ruler had imprisoned the grandfather and faked the mark of power on himself).

I don't know what the others wished for.

Session 1

Shatterhold Island. Not exactly the best sounding name for a stop on a trading run, but it was exactly where the Taskers Drift was headed, once again. Of course, for this ship, it was a normal run. Despite the fact that the place was, apparently, only inhabited by the self-styled Queen, for whom the ship was named, and the earth elementals that served her, Captain Mervermars did a good business, finding and selling antiquities for the reclusive elf woman.

As far as Tasmia was concerned, such things were for the captain to care about. The tanned and tattooed woman was like a beacon on the deck of the ship, a small woman in a black silk dress that hugged her form and left bare her arms and legs, which were themselves adorned with silver. An odd figure on a trading ship, to be sure. Over the year or so she had been on the ship, the crew had learned to adjust to having such a woman around as the master-at-arms.

The ones who didn't had been left at port to have their bones set.

So, Tasmia was left to eye the island as the crew readied to dock the ship. As the land drew near, she pondered why the captain was having her go with him. There would be a pair of the rock-folks to act as escort, as always, so he hardly needed a guard, and they didn't even have any cargo to unload this time. She respected the captain, but his moods went like the tide, and today he was nervous as he had ever been.

There was no reason to be worried. They had gotten the last things the queen had asked for, and the only reason he'd have taken the ship in empty would mean she called for him. He had done plenty of trading with her in the time Tasmia had been on the ship, so she just couldn't figure why he'd be nervous, aside from his normal shifty moods.

Once the ship was docked, Tasmia headed down the ramp to great the expected escorts. The mounds of somewhat-human shaped rock stood, impassive as their kind always is.

“Good day.” Tasmia growled out, as best she could. Her grandfather taught her Terran, but there were limits to how accurate a human could reproduce the sounds. One of the elementals was clearly puzzled by the greeting; they were simple creatures, so it didn't take much to baffle one.

“Dirt Head.” the other creature ground out, by way of explanation to the first. Tasmia smiled again at the nick-name. The rock folk had taken to calling her that due to her brown hair. They weren't talkative creatures, but the mere fact that she could speak to them at all was quite a significant feat as far as they were concerned.

As usual, that was the full extent of the conversation, Captain 'Mers arriving shortly after Tasmia. Still sullen, the quartet made the trek up into the foothills and one of the entrances to the underground demise of the queen.

Tasmia, waiting outside with the escorts, leaned back to try and meditate on her combat forms. She was interrupted, some time latter, as one of the elementals growled out “Play.” The mistress-at-arms quietly slid into the mouth of the cave, wanting to be well out of the way as the pair began to play a game of catch.

With a boulder.

They were simple creatures, and the fact that a bad toss could well kill her didn't even enter into there minds, forcing Tasmia to keep a careful eye on the game. She'd lived through enough battles and had no intention of being crushed to death out of boredom.

Eventually, Captain 'Mers emerged, smiling brightly. “Come on, Tasmia, time to pick up our passengers.” he stated as he strolled past her, leading the pit-fighter to blink for a moment as the elementals suspended their game, uncomfortable to play around someone other than her.

“Passengers?”
***

The 'passengers' were on the other side of the small island. Not a great distance, but there was a patch of jungle in the way. The now cheerful captain didn't mind, but he was wearing pants. Of course, it was over 100 degrees, as it had been for weeks, so it was hard to say who was the better dressed.

When the pair emerged from the underbrush, they were at the edge of a camp. On the nearby shoreline was the remains of wreckage, obviously explaining why there were passengers here to being with. Four humans, a half-elf woman and another woman with wings. A pretty rag-tag looking group as far as she could tell.

Almost as soon as they emerged, one of the armored humans had his blade out in challenge. “Stand back and identify yourselves.”

“Ah, Sir Magnious, I presume?” the captain started, calm and cool as rain. “I am Captain Mervermars of the Taskers Drift, and...”

'Sir' Magnious spat, interrupting the captain. “Another servant of that foul queen.”

Tasmia eyed the fellow. Armored. Sword and Shield. Defiantly trouble.

The captain, however, just chuckled. “Servant? No, my good sir, I am an independent trader and she is but a client, though I have to admit that she has been, by leagues, the best client I've ever traded with.”

The man looked unconvinced. “So you say. What errand does she have you on, then, to come out here with a girl?”

Tasmia's jaw clenched. 'Girl?'

“Tasmia?” The captain practically beamed. “Well,” he stroked his chin in thought. “I suppose you could say she's acting as my bodyguard at the moment.”

While the captain's grin was practically impish, the armored man sneered. “A bodyguard?”

“Of course.” 'Mers replied. “You seem doubtful. Care to test that? I'll put 50 gold on her.”

“Fight a woman?” The man flatly replied as his blade was sheathed.

“100 gold.”

“Ha. If you are so insistent, perhaps an arm wrestling contest...”

Tasmia had enough, striding up to the man. He had a good six inches on her, so it was no surprise he didn't seem to see her coming.

Or her fist.

The crack of the impact was as resounding as the spray of blood from the proud man's nose - or what was left of it.

[sblock='notes']Mountain Hammer = pain. 17 points of nonlethal.

The session went a bit past this point, but I came in after the combat and didn't do much interaction with the others for the rest of the evening, so I think this'll make for a nice cut off.

Next time:
A trio of trolls vs 7 PCs.[/sblock]