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Raiders of the Overreach
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8557105" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 54: UNDER THE SEA</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 13</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 18/psychic warrior 1</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 19</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 19</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 23 February 2022</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>Marlo cast the spell and the five heroes teleported to the beach of Yondall's Bay, a place they had been to once before when tasked with rescuing the diviner Lauren from the people trying to kill her. It was windy, the wind whipping the hair of those who had such, which included all but Jhasspok the lizardfolk. But it did include the bearded man standing ankle-deep in the ocean's surf, clad in nothing but a kilt. His hair was dripping wet as if he'd just been swimming and he looked over at the five newcomers as if having been waiting there for them.</p><p></p><p>Marlo called over to him. "Were you expecting us?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"Aye - it's one of the benefits of having a leader skilled in the arts of divination," replied the man. "I have been sent to fetch you and take you to her."</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok looked up and down the beach, seeing no one but themselves. There were also no recent footprints in the sand indicating where the man might have come from. "Where is she?" the puzzled reptile asked.</p><p></p><p>"Under the sea," replied the man in the kilt. "Follow me." And he turned back to the ocean, diving into an approaching wave.</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast a quick series of spells upon himself before he followed: <em>longstrider</em>, <em>moment of prescience</em>, and <em>tongues</em>, then cast a <em>water breathing </em> spell upon all five heroes. "Okay, let's go," he said, striding purposefully into the ocean. Jhasspok needed no prompting, eagerly leaping into the water; the others followed with slightly less enthusiasm. But once underwater, the lizardfolk was puzzled again almost immediately, for the kilted man had somehow lost his legs and now had the back half of an enormous fish somehow attached to his waist.</p><p></p><p>"Ssssssssssssss," hissed Jhasspok, letting a long, slow breath out of his muzzle as his eyes widened in surprise and shock. The others, walking along the ocean floor behind him, weren't sure what he was on about until he finally burst out into his more standard reptilian laughter: "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"</p><p></p><p>"What's so funny?" asked Khari.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok could only point helplessly at the merman swimming before them, making sure he wasn't moving so far ahead his guests couldn't keep up. Between snickers, Jhasspok explained, "That man! He's half human and half food!"</p><p></p><p>"That's a merman, Jhasspok," Marlo explained. "That's how they're built. They all look like that."</p><p></p><p>"Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss! Why hasn't anybody mentioned this before? Are there people who are half human, half potato? Or half human, half loaf of bread? Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"</p><p></p><p>"It's not polite to laugh at others," Marlo chided. "We're here because one of the questions answered for us said the merfolk of Yondall's Bay knew the location of the underwater Writhing Gate. If you make fun of the way he looks, he may not help us!"</p><p></p><p>"I'm sorry, Marlo," Jhasspok replied, properly chastised. He knew how important it was for them to be able to sever the connections between all ten of the Writhing Gates and the Material Plane, so the Dying One couldn't return to the world and destroy it in the process. They'd already taken out eight such gates, with just these last two left to go. But then he got another look at the merfolk's fish-tail and started snickering to himself again.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, the trip wasn't very long and by the time they made it to a coral structure grown to look like ruins, Jhasspok had pretty much gotten his snickering under control. Floating at the center of this coral structure was a female covered in a white robe.</p><p></p><p>"Welcome," the woman said. "I must apologize, for the other two Diviners are busy with other duties for the village and are not available to greet you." Then a current lifted the bottom flap of her robes away from her lower body, revealing the green scales of a mermaid's fish-tail.</p><p></p><p>"Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"</p><p></p><p>The mermaid Diviner frowned at the group. "Is there something wrong with your...lizard?"</p><p></p><p>"Please ignore him," pleaded Cramer. "We are here because we understand you may have information about the location of an underwater Writhing Gate." He described what the gate would look like, explaining the tentacles would now be inert since the Dying One had been slain and would take a decade or two to fully reform. He also emphasized how important it was that they be allowed to take the two remaining Writhing Gates out of commission.</p><p></p><p>"I know of something fitting the description," the mermaid admitted. "However, having only just met you, I'm not sure you're entirely...trustworthy." She looked over at Jhasspok in irritation, who had both hands over his muzzle and was helplessly letting out a long, sustained "Sssssssssssssssssss" as he tried to stifle his laughter at the sight of the "food-lady."</p><p></p><p>"It really is very important," pleaded Marlo. "Is there something we can do to prove what we say?"</p><p></p><p>The Diviner thought it over. "I'll tell you what," she decided. "There is a sunken ship at the edge of town, straddling a trench. It has recently become haunted by a crew of ghosts. I would see the ghosts put to rest. Do that and I will lead you to the Gate of Rylethek."</p><p></p><p>She indicated the direction of the sunken vessel and the group headed that way, following a coral pathway more or less pointing the way. "Nice one, Jhasspok!" grumbled Cramer. "Now we're off on a fool's errand because you couldn't stop laughing at merfolk!"</p><p></p><p>"I'm sorry, Cramer," Jhasspok apologized. "But they're food people! How can they even resist eating each other's tails?" Try as they might, they couldn't get the concept of merfolk being born that way across to the lizardfolk, especially once it became apparent he had interpreted the merman's magic kilt - which allowed him to transform his fish-tail into a pair of human legs when out of the water - as the merman being able to remove his own legs somehow and slap on the back half of a fish. Jhasspok couldn't figure out where the other half of the fish was, and where the merman had put his legs in the meantime. Utred finally put the matter to an end by informing him, "It's magic, Jhasspok."</p><p></p><p>"Oh," Jhasspok said, understanding immediately - magic was weird.</p><p></p><p>They approached the trench and sure enough, there was a sundered ship sitting atop it, one half on one side of the trench and the other slightly askew on the other side, the whole thing looking as if the ship had been sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor when a giant axe had cleaved the ship in two, cutting a deep rent in the ocean floor beneath it.</p><p></p><p><I count eight,> Marlo informed the group after having cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> upon them all so they could communicate amongst themselves telepathically.</p><p></p><p><Eight what?> asked Cramer.</p><p></p><p><Eight ghosts. Four look to be archers, the other four look to be armed only with swords, including the one up in the crow's nest.></p><p></p><p>The men in the group peered through the clear water, trying to see what Marlo had described. <There's nobody there,> Utred observed. <And there's no crow's nest - there isn't even a mast on the ship.></p><p></p><p><She's looking into the Ethereal Plane with her <em>eye of robes</em>,> Cramer surmised. <None of the ghosts have manifested yet onto the Material Plane.></p><p></p><p>Marlo cast <em>stoneskin</em> spells on the others while they decided their plan of attack. She then cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell on herself, while Cramer cast the spells <em>detect evil</em>, <em>spell turning</em>, and <em>death ward</em> on himself. Utred asked the gnome to cast that latter spell on himself using one of his last three such scrolls, but when the cleric opened the waterproof scroll case the ink was washed away before he could make sense of the contents and the scroll was wasted. Marlo grabbed each of the two by their collars and used her <em>boots of levitation</em> to pull them back up to the surface so Cramer could cast a <em>death ward</em> spell on Utred using a scroll without it being destroyed in mid-casting. By the time they returned to the sea floor, Khari had activated his psionic <em>offensive prescience</em> and was ready for the attack.</p><p></p><p><We still can't see what we're attacking,> Utred pointed out.</p><p></p><p><I'll flush them out!> Jhasspok promised, darting forward through the water, powered by strokes from his reptilian tail. He swam directly over the trench, into the 10-foot gap between the two halves of the sundered vessel, up at the level of the ship's upper deck. Not wanting to miss out on any fighting, Utred activated his <em>winged boots</em> and flew along behind the lizardfolk. Each of the two had their primary axes out and ready for combat, as soon as any of these ghosts made themselves visible. Khari followed behind at ground level, pretty sure his <em>earthglide warhammer</em> would allow him to burrow beneath the seabed floor but realizing that wouldn't actually get him anywhere when the ghosts were all up on the top deck of the sunken ship. But he smiled at the thought that he'd be getting to try out the recent <em>ghost touch</em> enhancement to his warhammer very soon now....</p><p></p><p><They're starting to react!"> Marlo warned over the link as four of the ghosts - the archers, who had been looking out for danger, three at the front of the ship and one at the rear - started to manifest onto the Material Plane. Four arrows went whizzing past Jhasspok and Utred, the arrowheads buzzing with jolts of electricity. One of the four actually passed harmlessly through Utred's body, leaving behind a momentary feeling of chill as it flew through him. Such, it seemed, were the vicissitudes of dealing with ethereal creatures.</p><p></p><p>Marlo targeted one of the ghosts who had yet to materialize and shot it with an <em>empowered maximized magic missile</em> spell, knowing full well the force effects would be able to reach into the Ethereal Plane and harm her foe. She had more powerful spells at hand, but casting any of them at a ghost meant a distinct possibility of having the spell be as useless as that arrow that had pierced Utred without actually making contact at all.</p><p></p><p>Cramer moved forward and cast a <em>mass bear's endurance</em> on the assembled heroes while they were all still clumped together close enough for him to catch everyone in the radius of his spell. That, he knew, would give each of the five a bit of additional "staying power" in the fight to come. Khari felt the additional power surge through his body as he climbed up the side of the ship's back half and scrambled on deck.</p><p></p><p>Just then the other four ghosts - all of them elves, just like the archers - joined the combat, phasing in from the Ethereal Plane. One swung a blade at Jhasspok's head, but the lizardfolk dodged it easily. Then he went all-out at the offending ghost, snapping his teeth at it and swinging his battleaxe back and forth through the ghost's body. Jhasspok couldn't sense any rhyme or reason to it, but about half of his attacks passed harmlessly right through the spirit while others connected as solidly as if the ghost had been fully alive. He just assumed it was some sort of weird magic effect and pressed on with the attack. At his side, Utred did likewise against another ghost who had tried attacking him with his own curved sword - a cutlass, if the barbarian wasn't mistaken.</p><p></p><p>Then the ghosts shifted their tactics, with two of the archers using a corrupting gaze against the three melee combatants on the back half of the broken ship while the other two continued firing their arrows. Fortunately for Utred, Khari, and Jhasspok, none of the attacks had any effect on them whatsoever. Then Marlo fired off another of her supercharged <em>magic missile</em> spells at the ghost rogue she'd been attacking, hitting it full-on in the chest.</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast two spells in rapid sequence: a <em>blade barrier</em> that sprang up through four of the ghosts followed almost immediately by a <em>quickened divine power</em> spell he cast upon himself. Two of the three ghost rogues caught in the spell's effect dodged out of the barrier while the archer and the other rogue weren't quick enough to respond in time, and as a result the force-blades chewed through their insubstantial bodies to full effect.</p><p></p><p>The first of the elven ghosts to fall was the rogue that Khari Hammerslammer had been beating upon with his <em>ghost touch earthglide warhammer</em>. Upon being slain, his immaterial body lost full cohesion and he dissipated like a dust cloud in a wind storm. Two other rogues stepped up and tried to flank the dwarven fighter, but Khari was having none of that.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok took a moment to look about him and realized while the dwarves could easily deal with the ghosts fighting on the ship's deck, he was best suited to deal with the one up at the top of the ethereal mast, in the crow's nest. With a kick of his powerful legs, he leaped above the heads of the ghost rogues near him - they reacted too slowly with their blades to tag the lizardfolk as he flew past them - and used his tail to spur him higher and higher. At the level of the crow's nest, Jhasspok activated his <em>tail-band of the raptor</em> and went full-out dinosaur rampage on the ghost up there, snapping with his teeth and slicing madly with his battleaxe. Down below, Utred slew one ghost rogue he'd been fighting and brought his <em>Elderwood flaming greataxe</em> slicing into the other one nearby.</p><p></p><p>Then the archers changed their tactics again. Two of them leaped from the front half of the ship to the back half and tried using their draining touch attacks on Utred - but they had chosen their victim poorly, for the dwarven barbarian was protected by the <em>death ward</em> spell Cramer had cast upon him from the scroll. Another swam up to Jhasspok and managed to get past the reptile's defenses to successfully drain off some of his vitality, but he didn't lose as much as Cramer had magically enhanced in the lizardfolk's body earlier with his <em>mass bear's endurance</em> spell. All in all, it was a rather ineffectual attack - about as successful as the arrow the fourth archer sent whizzing past Khari's head.</p><p></p><p>The heroes were faring much better, especially Marlo, who literally couldn't miss with her <em>maximized empowered magic missile</em> spells. Another such casting took out one of the archers, exploding his body into a fine mist which quickly dissipated in the ocean currents. With all of the ghosts readily engaged with one or the other of the heroes, Cramer took the opportunity to crawl up onto the ship's deck.</p><p></p><p>The battle didn't last very much longer, nor did the tides turn at all in the ghosts' favor. One by one, they were taken out, either immediately by Marlo's spells or Khari's <em>ghost touch warhammer</em> or more slowly by the weapons of Jhasspok and Utred, whose attacks occasionally passed harmlessly through the ghostly spirits. But eventually all eight were slain, the deck empty of all enemies. The group was already starting their celebratory congratulations to each other over the telepathic link when Cramer suddenly remembered something he'd been taught about ghosts back when he was still studying at the Temple of Fharlanghn in Grover's Comb: ghosts often come back days after having been "slain" unless either whatever it was that had kept them from finding their final rest had been dealt with or a full exorcism was performed. <Guys, not so fast,> he warned them, then filled them in on his suspicions.</p><p></p><p><I'll go check the lower hold,> offered Jhasspok, activating his <em>slave-light cloak</em> and swimming into the lower level of the front half of the ship, looking for anything that might have upset the ghosts. The rest of the group opted to search the back half of the ship, since that's where they were all standing at the time. While Jhasspok did a quick scan in the front and found nothing suspicious, Marlo opened the door to the captain's quarters.</p><p></p><p>That was quite illuminating - in both senses of the word - for the open doorway allowed the sunlight drifting down to the ocean floor to light up the room and it showed Marlo the three elven figures standing there, arguing. She could tell they were all three still fully on the Ethereal Plane for despite their mouths moving no sound reached her ears; her magical <em>robe of eyes</em> allowed her to see into the Ethereal Plane but she couldn't hear across planar boundaries. From what she could see, though, the first figure was dressed as a ship's captain; the other male was garbed in pirate's clothing, as had been the eight ghosts outside on the deck; and the woman standing between them, seemingly trying to stop them from coming to blows, was dressed in a flowing gown that accentuated her slim figure.</p><p></p><p><Three ghosts, still ethereal,> Marlo told the others over the link as they noticed her noticing them. They could also see the other three male heroes beside Marlo, but none of them was making eye contact or indicating in any fashion that they could see the three elven ghosts as Marlo obviously could. Still, warned by the sorceress of their presence, Khari gripped his magic warhammer tight, ready to strike out at any ghosts that might manifest in the small cabin.</p><p></p><p>Jhasspok gave the rest of the front hold a thorough look before heading back towards the others, since he'd gathered the room with the three ghosts was rather small and the other four heroes were already crowded around the doorway. Utred threw caution to the wind and entered what appeared to him to be an empty room. At once, the three ghosts manifested all around the dwarven barbarian; entering the Material Plane allowed their voices to be heard - they spoke Elven, with the captain's voice picking up in mid-sentence, "--trying to mutiny while allowing <em>vermin</em> to board the <em>Stormsea!</em>" The captain wore what looked like a robe made of a thundercloud over his nautical clothing and an expression of distaste at the sight of a dwarf on his vessel.</p><p></p><p>Now that there were visible targets for his warhammer in the cabin, Khari squeezed in and brought his weapon crashing down upon the closest figure: the elven pirate ghost. Marlo cast another <em>empowered maximized magic missile</em> spell at the same figure, the captain's erstwhile Second Mate and leader of the attempted mutiny. <strong>Captain Lethad Stormsea</strong> started fading away, vanishing not only from the sight of Cramer and the dwarves but also of Marlo, whose magical vision reached all the way to the Ethereal Plane. Whatever he was doing, it was more than just a return to the plane from which he'd just come....</p><p></p><p>Cramer cast an <em>ethereal jaunt</em> spell on himself and entered the room talking, his words being translated into Elven by his still-active <em>tongues</em> spell. "I hope you already realize this, but your ship is broken into two pieces and lying upon the ocean floor, you're all dead, and you're probably all doomed to stay here in this undead state unless we can help put you all to rest! Now, what exactly is it that's keeping you all here?"</p><p></p><p>"I won't rest until we've wrested the ship from Lethad here and put him to the sword!" snarled the Second Mate. "Same goes for all of my men above - we've sworn to make this ship ours!"</p><p></p><p>"Well, we've already slain your men above - four archers and four with cutlasses, yes?" replied Cramer. "All dead."</p><p></p><p>"They'll rise again, and we'll take the ship then!" promised the Second Mate, stabbing a <em>shocking rapier</em> at Utred. "In the meantime, I'll have my vengeance upon you!" A hand crossbow fired a bolt at Utred's face, hitting the dwarf right in the eye - and passing harmlessly through his body, as was (fortunately for him) often the case when fighting immaterial foes.</p><p></p><p><strong>Iliana Stormsea</strong>, the <em>Stormsea</em>'s First Mate (in more ways than one, for she was married to Captain Lethad) attempted to possess Cramer's body, but the seasoned cleric was able to fight off her mental attack. Then Khari's hammer took out the Second Mate and he dissipated away to nothing in the same way his men had done on the decks outside the cabin. By this time, Jhasspok had returned to the back half of the ship and he swam over Cramer's head and fully entered the room, bringing his battleaxe crashing down upon Iliana. Utred followed suit, slashing at her with his own axe-head. Marlo hit her with a supercharged <em>magic missile</em> spell, causing the elven ghost to stagger in pain and then Cramer, sensing she was about at her limit, hit her with the one-two punch of a <em>mass heal</em> spell - which had the added benefit of closing up the various wounds he and his friends had sustained thus far as well as harming the ghost couple - followed by a <em>quickened cure serious wounds</em> spell guided by his <em>moment of prescience</em> to guarantee Iliana's death.</p><p></p><p>That left only Lethad. <What's up with the Captain?> Marlo wanted to know. <He's not on the Ethereal Plane - I can barely make him out.> Talking rapidly among themselves over the link and using their shared knowledge of arcane and divine spellcrafting, they deduced Lethad was somehow only a fragment of a soul - not the full "self" that normally became a ghost. Cramer determined an exorcism would force him to return to the Material Plane, where they would be able to take him out with Marlo's <em>empowered maximized magic missile</em> spells, which would automatically hit him and deal the most amount of damage to him in the quickest time.</p><p></p><p><Do you know how to perform an exorcism?> asked Marlo.</p><p></p><p><It's been awhile, but yes.></p><p></p><p>That seemed to do the trick. Once forced back into manifesting, Marlo was there waiting for him and she blasted him to smithereens. "There we go!" approved Cramer. "With him gone, the other ghosts should be put to rest as well - they no longer have anyone to stop their silly mutiny!"</p><p></p><p>"What was this whole thing even about?" asked Khari, looking around the room for possible treasure and seeing nothing of interest in the cabin - although there were a few signs that someone had likely been living there recently: a real person or persons, not just ghosts. (They'd later find out the three mermaid oracles had made the ship their home until they'd been driven out by the ghosts.)</p><p></p><p>"Who knows?" answered Cramer. "Why do elf pirates do what they do? Bottom line, we cleared out the ghosts like the Diviner wanted, and now she should be willing to tell us the location of the Gate of Rylethek. Good job, guys - let's get back."</p><p></p><p>As the others walked back the way they'd come, Jhasspok swam over by Utred to ask him a question. "Diviner?" He couldn't remember who that was.</p><p></p><p>Utred thought a moment to try to recall the name Jhasspok had used for her. Oh yeah: "The 'food-lady,'" he told him.</p><p></p><p>"Oh. Her," Jhasspok replied. Then, recalling what she looked like, he couldn't help but snicker, "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!"</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>So, Logan built this whole adventure upon a back story he'd intended to use for one of the PCs in his previous campaign, "The Durnhill Conscripts." Joe, who runs Utred in this campaign, ran an elven wizard named Daleth Stormsea in that campaign and gave him almost no back story at all. So Logan had come up with something elaborate: Captain Lethad Stormsea was a noted pirate who dabbled in the arcane arts and had performed a magical ritual that was to have saved him from death when the time came; however, something went a bit wrong and when his crew mutinied and tried to kill him, he was reincarnated with no memories of his previous life. This reincarnation was, of course, Daleth Stormsea. Daleth was led to believe this "Captain Lethad" was his grandfather or something and he ended up gaining the man's "robe made of a thundercloud" towards the end of that campaign. (Now it turns out he was just reclaiming it from his former self.) But that's why Lethad's "ghost" was only part of a spirit; most of the rest of him had already been reincarnated into a new body.</p><p></p><p>None of this is known to any of the "Raiders of the Overreach" characters; I just mention it to fill in some gaps that didn't come out in the adventure itself. (Logan explained it all to us afterwards.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 8557105, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 54: UNDER THE SEA[/B] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cramer Appleknocker, gnome cleric 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Jhasspok, lizardman 3/barbarian 3/fighter 13[/INDENT] [INDENT] Khari Hammerslammer, dwarf fighter 18/psychic warrior 1[/INDENT] [INDENT] Marlo Pendragon, human sorcerer 19[/INDENT] [INDENT] Utred "Buckets" Butterflinger, dwarf barbarian 19[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 23 February 2022 - - - Marlo cast the spell and the five heroes teleported to the beach of Yondall's Bay, a place they had been to once before when tasked with rescuing the diviner Lauren from the people trying to kill her. It was windy, the wind whipping the hair of those who had such, which included all but Jhasspok the lizardfolk. But it did include the bearded man standing ankle-deep in the ocean's surf, clad in nothing but a kilt. His hair was dripping wet as if he'd just been swimming and he looked over at the five newcomers as if having been waiting there for them. Marlo called over to him. "Were you expecting us?" she asked. "Aye - it's one of the benefits of having a leader skilled in the arts of divination," replied the man. "I have been sent to fetch you and take you to her." Jhasspok looked up and down the beach, seeing no one but themselves. There were also no recent footprints in the sand indicating where the man might have come from. "Where is she?" the puzzled reptile asked. "Under the sea," replied the man in the kilt. "Follow me." And he turned back to the ocean, diving into an approaching wave. Cramer cast a quick series of spells upon himself before he followed: [I]longstrider[/I], [I]moment of prescience[/I], and [I]tongues[/I], then cast a [I]water breathing [/I] spell upon all five heroes. "Okay, let's go," he said, striding purposefully into the ocean. Jhasspok needed no prompting, eagerly leaping into the water; the others followed with slightly less enthusiasm. But once underwater, the lizardfolk was puzzled again almost immediately, for the kilted man had somehow lost his legs and now had the back half of an enormous fish somehow attached to his waist. "Ssssssssssssss," hissed Jhasspok, letting a long, slow breath out of his muzzle as his eyes widened in surprise and shock. The others, walking along the ocean floor behind him, weren't sure what he was on about until he finally burst out into his more standard reptilian laughter: "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!" "What's so funny?" asked Khari. Jhasspok could only point helplessly at the merman swimming before them, making sure he wasn't moving so far ahead his guests couldn't keep up. Between snickers, Jhasspok explained, "That man! He's half human and half food!" "That's a merman, Jhasspok," Marlo explained. "That's how they're built. They all look like that." "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss! Why hasn't anybody mentioned this before? Are there people who are half human, half potato? Or half human, half loaf of bread? Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!" "It's not polite to laugh at others," Marlo chided. "We're here because one of the questions answered for us said the merfolk of Yondall's Bay knew the location of the underwater Writhing Gate. If you make fun of the way he looks, he may not help us!" "I'm sorry, Marlo," Jhasspok replied, properly chastised. He knew how important it was for them to be able to sever the connections between all ten of the Writhing Gates and the Material Plane, so the Dying One couldn't return to the world and destroy it in the process. They'd already taken out eight such gates, with just these last two left to go. But then he got another look at the merfolk's fish-tail and started snickering to himself again. Fortunately, the trip wasn't very long and by the time they made it to a coral structure grown to look like ruins, Jhasspok had pretty much gotten his snickering under control. Floating at the center of this coral structure was a female covered in a white robe. "Welcome," the woman said. "I must apologize, for the other two Diviners are busy with other duties for the village and are not available to greet you." Then a current lifted the bottom flap of her robes away from her lower body, revealing the green scales of a mermaid's fish-tail. "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!" The mermaid Diviner frowned at the group. "Is there something wrong with your...lizard?" "Please ignore him," pleaded Cramer. "We are here because we understand you may have information about the location of an underwater Writhing Gate." He described what the gate would look like, explaining the tentacles would now be inert since the Dying One had been slain and would take a decade or two to fully reform. He also emphasized how important it was that they be allowed to take the two remaining Writhing Gates out of commission. "I know of something fitting the description," the mermaid admitted. "However, having only just met you, I'm not sure you're entirely...trustworthy." She looked over at Jhasspok in irritation, who had both hands over his muzzle and was helplessly letting out a long, sustained "Sssssssssssssssssss" as he tried to stifle his laughter at the sight of the "food-lady." "It really is very important," pleaded Marlo. "Is there something we can do to prove what we say?" The Diviner thought it over. "I'll tell you what," she decided. "There is a sunken ship at the edge of town, straddling a trench. It has recently become haunted by a crew of ghosts. I would see the ghosts put to rest. Do that and I will lead you to the Gate of Rylethek." She indicated the direction of the sunken vessel and the group headed that way, following a coral pathway more or less pointing the way. "Nice one, Jhasspok!" grumbled Cramer. "Now we're off on a fool's errand because you couldn't stop laughing at merfolk!" "I'm sorry, Cramer," Jhasspok apologized. "But they're food people! How can they even resist eating each other's tails?" Try as they might, they couldn't get the concept of merfolk being born that way across to the lizardfolk, especially once it became apparent he had interpreted the merman's magic kilt - which allowed him to transform his fish-tail into a pair of human legs when out of the water - as the merman being able to remove his own legs somehow and slap on the back half of a fish. Jhasspok couldn't figure out where the other half of the fish was, and where the merman had put his legs in the meantime. Utred finally put the matter to an end by informing him, "It's magic, Jhasspok." "Oh," Jhasspok said, understanding immediately - magic was weird. They approached the trench and sure enough, there was a sundered ship sitting atop it, one half on one side of the trench and the other slightly askew on the other side, the whole thing looking as if the ship had been sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor when a giant axe had cleaved the ship in two, cutting a deep rent in the ocean floor beneath it. <I count eight,> Marlo informed the group after having cast a [I]Rary's telepathic bond[/I] upon them all so they could communicate amongst themselves telepathically. <Eight what?> asked Cramer. <Eight ghosts. Four look to be archers, the other four look to be armed only with swords, including the one up in the crow's nest.> The men in the group peered through the clear water, trying to see what Marlo had described. <There's nobody there,> Utred observed. <And there's no crow's nest - there isn't even a mast on the ship.> <She's looking into the Ethereal Plane with her [I]eye of robes[/I],> Cramer surmised. <None of the ghosts have manifested yet onto the Material Plane.> Marlo cast [I]stoneskin[/I] spells on the others while they decided their plan of attack. She then cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell on herself, while Cramer cast the spells [I]detect evil[/I], [I]spell turning[/I], and [I]death ward[/I] on himself. Utred asked the gnome to cast that latter spell on himself using one of his last three such scrolls, but when the cleric opened the waterproof scroll case the ink was washed away before he could make sense of the contents and the scroll was wasted. Marlo grabbed each of the two by their collars and used her [I]boots of levitation[/I] to pull them back up to the surface so Cramer could cast a [I]death ward[/I] spell on Utred using a scroll without it being destroyed in mid-casting. By the time they returned to the sea floor, Khari had activated his psionic [I]offensive prescience[/I] and was ready for the attack. <We still can't see what we're attacking,> Utred pointed out. <I'll flush them out!> Jhasspok promised, darting forward through the water, powered by strokes from his reptilian tail. He swam directly over the trench, into the 10-foot gap between the two halves of the sundered vessel, up at the level of the ship's upper deck. Not wanting to miss out on any fighting, Utred activated his [I]winged boots[/I] and flew along behind the lizardfolk. Each of the two had their primary axes out and ready for combat, as soon as any of these ghosts made themselves visible. Khari followed behind at ground level, pretty sure his [I]earthglide warhammer[/I] would allow him to burrow beneath the seabed floor but realizing that wouldn't actually get him anywhere when the ghosts were all up on the top deck of the sunken ship. But he smiled at the thought that he'd be getting to try out the recent [I]ghost touch[/I] enhancement to his warhammer very soon now.... <They're starting to react!"> Marlo warned over the link as four of the ghosts - the archers, who had been looking out for danger, three at the front of the ship and one at the rear - started to manifest onto the Material Plane. Four arrows went whizzing past Jhasspok and Utred, the arrowheads buzzing with jolts of electricity. One of the four actually passed harmlessly through Utred's body, leaving behind a momentary feeling of chill as it flew through him. Such, it seemed, were the vicissitudes of dealing with ethereal creatures. Marlo targeted one of the ghosts who had yet to materialize and shot it with an [I]empowered maximized magic missile[/I] spell, knowing full well the force effects would be able to reach into the Ethereal Plane and harm her foe. She had more powerful spells at hand, but casting any of them at a ghost meant a distinct possibility of having the spell be as useless as that arrow that had pierced Utred without actually making contact at all. Cramer moved forward and cast a [I]mass bear's endurance[/I] on the assembled heroes while they were all still clumped together close enough for him to catch everyone in the radius of his spell. That, he knew, would give each of the five a bit of additional "staying power" in the fight to come. Khari felt the additional power surge through his body as he climbed up the side of the ship's back half and scrambled on deck. Just then the other four ghosts - all of them elves, just like the archers - joined the combat, phasing in from the Ethereal Plane. One swung a blade at Jhasspok's head, but the lizardfolk dodged it easily. Then he went all-out at the offending ghost, snapping his teeth at it and swinging his battleaxe back and forth through the ghost's body. Jhasspok couldn't sense any rhyme or reason to it, but about half of his attacks passed harmlessly right through the spirit while others connected as solidly as if the ghost had been fully alive. He just assumed it was some sort of weird magic effect and pressed on with the attack. At his side, Utred did likewise against another ghost who had tried attacking him with his own curved sword - a cutlass, if the barbarian wasn't mistaken. Then the ghosts shifted their tactics, with two of the archers using a corrupting gaze against the three melee combatants on the back half of the broken ship while the other two continued firing their arrows. Fortunately for Utred, Khari, and Jhasspok, none of the attacks had any effect on them whatsoever. Then Marlo fired off another of her supercharged [I]magic missile[/I] spells at the ghost rogue she'd been attacking, hitting it full-on in the chest. Cramer cast two spells in rapid sequence: a [I]blade barrier[/I] that sprang up through four of the ghosts followed almost immediately by a [I]quickened divine power[/I] spell he cast upon himself. Two of the three ghost rogues caught in the spell's effect dodged out of the barrier while the archer and the other rogue weren't quick enough to respond in time, and as a result the force-blades chewed through their insubstantial bodies to full effect. The first of the elven ghosts to fall was the rogue that Khari Hammerslammer had been beating upon with his [I]ghost touch earthglide warhammer[/I]. Upon being slain, his immaterial body lost full cohesion and he dissipated like a dust cloud in a wind storm. Two other rogues stepped up and tried to flank the dwarven fighter, but Khari was having none of that. Jhasspok took a moment to look about him and realized while the dwarves could easily deal with the ghosts fighting on the ship's deck, he was best suited to deal with the one up at the top of the ethereal mast, in the crow's nest. With a kick of his powerful legs, he leaped above the heads of the ghost rogues near him - they reacted too slowly with their blades to tag the lizardfolk as he flew past them - and used his tail to spur him higher and higher. At the level of the crow's nest, Jhasspok activated his [I]tail-band of the raptor[/I] and went full-out dinosaur rampage on the ghost up there, snapping with his teeth and slicing madly with his battleaxe. Down below, Utred slew one ghost rogue he'd been fighting and brought his [I]Elderwood flaming greataxe[/I] slicing into the other one nearby. Then the archers changed their tactics again. Two of them leaped from the front half of the ship to the back half and tried using their draining touch attacks on Utred - but they had chosen their victim poorly, for the dwarven barbarian was protected by the [I]death ward[/I] spell Cramer had cast upon him from the scroll. Another swam up to Jhasspok and managed to get past the reptile's defenses to successfully drain off some of his vitality, but he didn't lose as much as Cramer had magically enhanced in the lizardfolk's body earlier with his [I]mass bear's endurance[/I] spell. All in all, it was a rather ineffectual attack - about as successful as the arrow the fourth archer sent whizzing past Khari's head. The heroes were faring much better, especially Marlo, who literally couldn't miss with her [I]maximized empowered magic missile[/I] spells. Another such casting took out one of the archers, exploding his body into a fine mist which quickly dissipated in the ocean currents. With all of the ghosts readily engaged with one or the other of the heroes, Cramer took the opportunity to crawl up onto the ship's deck. The battle didn't last very much longer, nor did the tides turn at all in the ghosts' favor. One by one, they were taken out, either immediately by Marlo's spells or Khari's [I]ghost touch warhammer[/I] or more slowly by the weapons of Jhasspok and Utred, whose attacks occasionally passed harmlessly through the ghostly spirits. But eventually all eight were slain, the deck empty of all enemies. The group was already starting their celebratory congratulations to each other over the telepathic link when Cramer suddenly remembered something he'd been taught about ghosts back when he was still studying at the Temple of Fharlanghn in Grover's Comb: ghosts often come back days after having been "slain" unless either whatever it was that had kept them from finding their final rest had been dealt with or a full exorcism was performed. <Guys, not so fast,> he warned them, then filled them in on his suspicions. <I'll go check the lower hold,> offered Jhasspok, activating his [I]slave-light cloak[/I] and swimming into the lower level of the front half of the ship, looking for anything that might have upset the ghosts. The rest of the group opted to search the back half of the ship, since that's where they were all standing at the time. While Jhasspok did a quick scan in the front and found nothing suspicious, Marlo opened the door to the captain's quarters. That was quite illuminating - in both senses of the word - for the open doorway allowed the sunlight drifting down to the ocean floor to light up the room and it showed Marlo the three elven figures standing there, arguing. She could tell they were all three still fully on the Ethereal Plane for despite their mouths moving no sound reached her ears; her magical [I]robe of eyes[/I] allowed her to see into the Ethereal Plane but she couldn't hear across planar boundaries. From what she could see, though, the first figure was dressed as a ship's captain; the other male was garbed in pirate's clothing, as had been the eight ghosts outside on the deck; and the woman standing between them, seemingly trying to stop them from coming to blows, was dressed in a flowing gown that accentuated her slim figure. <Three ghosts, still ethereal,> Marlo told the others over the link as they noticed her noticing them. They could also see the other three male heroes beside Marlo, but none of them was making eye contact or indicating in any fashion that they could see the three elven ghosts as Marlo obviously could. Still, warned by the sorceress of their presence, Khari gripped his magic warhammer tight, ready to strike out at any ghosts that might manifest in the small cabin. Jhasspok gave the rest of the front hold a thorough look before heading back towards the others, since he'd gathered the room with the three ghosts was rather small and the other four heroes were already crowded around the doorway. Utred threw caution to the wind and entered what appeared to him to be an empty room. At once, the three ghosts manifested all around the dwarven barbarian; entering the Material Plane allowed their voices to be heard - they spoke Elven, with the captain's voice picking up in mid-sentence, "--trying to mutiny while allowing [I]vermin[/I] to board the [I]Stormsea![/I]" The captain wore what looked like a robe made of a thundercloud over his nautical clothing and an expression of distaste at the sight of a dwarf on his vessel. Now that there were visible targets for his warhammer in the cabin, Khari squeezed in and brought his weapon crashing down upon the closest figure: the elven pirate ghost. Marlo cast another [I]empowered maximized magic missile[/I] spell at the same figure, the captain's erstwhile Second Mate and leader of the attempted mutiny. [B]Captain Lethad Stormsea[/B] started fading away, vanishing not only from the sight of Cramer and the dwarves but also of Marlo, whose magical vision reached all the way to the Ethereal Plane. Whatever he was doing, it was more than just a return to the plane from which he'd just come.... Cramer cast an [I]ethereal jaunt[/I] spell on himself and entered the room talking, his words being translated into Elven by his still-active [I]tongues[/I] spell. "I hope you already realize this, but your ship is broken into two pieces and lying upon the ocean floor, you're all dead, and you're probably all doomed to stay here in this undead state unless we can help put you all to rest! Now, what exactly is it that's keeping you all here?" "I won't rest until we've wrested the ship from Lethad here and put him to the sword!" snarled the Second Mate. "Same goes for all of my men above - we've sworn to make this ship ours!" "Well, we've already slain your men above - four archers and four with cutlasses, yes?" replied Cramer. "All dead." "They'll rise again, and we'll take the ship then!" promised the Second Mate, stabbing a [I]shocking rapier[/I] at Utred. "In the meantime, I'll have my vengeance upon you!" A hand crossbow fired a bolt at Utred's face, hitting the dwarf right in the eye - and passing harmlessly through his body, as was (fortunately for him) often the case when fighting immaterial foes. [B]Iliana Stormsea[/B], the [I]Stormsea[/I]'s First Mate (in more ways than one, for she was married to Captain Lethad) attempted to possess Cramer's body, but the seasoned cleric was able to fight off her mental attack. Then Khari's hammer took out the Second Mate and he dissipated away to nothing in the same way his men had done on the decks outside the cabin. By this time, Jhasspok had returned to the back half of the ship and he swam over Cramer's head and fully entered the room, bringing his battleaxe crashing down upon Iliana. Utred followed suit, slashing at her with his own axe-head. Marlo hit her with a supercharged [I]magic missile[/I] spell, causing the elven ghost to stagger in pain and then Cramer, sensing she was about at her limit, hit her with the one-two punch of a [I]mass heal[/I] spell - which had the added benefit of closing up the various wounds he and his friends had sustained thus far as well as harming the ghost couple - followed by a [I]quickened cure serious wounds[/I] spell guided by his [I]moment of prescience[/I] to guarantee Iliana's death. That left only Lethad. <What's up with the Captain?> Marlo wanted to know. <He's not on the Ethereal Plane - I can barely make him out.> Talking rapidly among themselves over the link and using their shared knowledge of arcane and divine spellcrafting, they deduced Lethad was somehow only a fragment of a soul - not the full "self" that normally became a ghost. Cramer determined an exorcism would force him to return to the Material Plane, where they would be able to take him out with Marlo's [I]empowered maximized magic missile[/I] spells, which would automatically hit him and deal the most amount of damage to him in the quickest time. <Do you know how to perform an exorcism?> asked Marlo. <It's been awhile, but yes.> That seemed to do the trick. Once forced back into manifesting, Marlo was there waiting for him and she blasted him to smithereens. "There we go!" approved Cramer. "With him gone, the other ghosts should be put to rest as well - they no longer have anyone to stop their silly mutiny!" "What was this whole thing even about?" asked Khari, looking around the room for possible treasure and seeing nothing of interest in the cabin - although there were a few signs that someone had likely been living there recently: a real person or persons, not just ghosts. (They'd later find out the three mermaid oracles had made the ship their home until they'd been driven out by the ghosts.) "Who knows?" answered Cramer. "Why do elf pirates do what they do? Bottom line, we cleared out the ghosts like the Diviner wanted, and now she should be willing to tell us the location of the Gate of Rylethek. Good job, guys - let's get back." As the others walked back the way they'd come, Jhasspok swam over by Utred to ask him a question. "Diviner?" He couldn't remember who that was. Utred thought a moment to try to recall the name Jhasspok had used for her. Oh yeah: "The 'food-lady,'" he told him. "Oh. Her," Jhasspok replied. Then, recalling what she looked like, he couldn't help but snicker, "Ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss!" - - - So, Logan built this whole adventure upon a back story he'd intended to use for one of the PCs in his previous campaign, "The Durnhill Conscripts." Joe, who runs Utred in this campaign, ran an elven wizard named Daleth Stormsea in that campaign and gave him almost no back story at all. So Logan had come up with something elaborate: Captain Lethad Stormsea was a noted pirate who dabbled in the arcane arts and had performed a magical ritual that was to have saved him from death when the time came; however, something went a bit wrong and when his crew mutinied and tried to kill him, he was reincarnated with no memories of his previous life. This reincarnation was, of course, Daleth Stormsea. Daleth was led to believe this "Captain Lethad" was his grandfather or something and he ended up gaining the man's "robe made of a thundercloud" towards the end of that campaign. (Now it turns out he was just reclaiming it from his former self.) But that's why Lethad's "ghost" was only part of a spirit; most of the rest of him had already been reincarnated into a new body. None of this is known to any of the "Raiders of the Overreach" characters; I just mention it to fill in some gaps that didn't come out in the adventure itself. (Logan explained it all to us afterwards.) [/QUOTE]
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