The Gathering Storm

[Kerrick]

Rather than post a recap of the story so far, you can read the first post in <this thread>. The party consists of: Krevik, human male Adp 5/Wiz 3/Spiritbinder 3; Kariann, human female psychic warrior 7/Spiritblade 2; Zargo, human female Brd 6/Singer of the Dead 5; and Pal 6/Hunter of the Damned 5. NPCs: Demetrius, human male Clr 7/Servant of Heaven and Hell 4 (a former PC, slightly modified; he is very old, has Strength 4, and rides a mule); and Cornelius, human male Blk ??/Doomguard ?? (in our world, blackguard is a base class). Also included is Osanga, another blackguard, who will be written out shortly (he was played by someone who is no longer with the group).

All the PrCs are homebrew; The Hunter of the Damned appears in Crimson Contracts, and the Singer of the Dead is in Arcane Strife. The two spirit PrCs were developed in the course of the first part of this campaign. Spritbinder is someone who summons, controls, and communes with spirits; a Spiritblade is one who combats spirits, laying them to rest or destroying them where necessary.

Unfortunately, my notes are a bit sketchy - and memory is even worse - so this first post will have a few gaps in it.

Our story begins the next morning, after the call has been given. Most of the group has gathered downstairs, and they saw the call and knew what it meant. Cornelius and Osanga exchanged grim looks.

"We must go," Cornelius said, and Osanga nodded agreement. With that, they turned and left through the rear servants' entrace, which led to the stable.

At the same time, Kariann, who had come down later than the others, emerged from the kitchen. "Someone's here," she said. "We need to go, now."

"What?" Zargo asked. "How do you know?"

Kariann waved toward the kitchen. "Someone made breakfast, and it isn't for us."

Sure enough, the kitchen is redolent with the odors of cooked bacon and eggs. The table is set for one; the remains of a meal of ash falcon eggs and naka bacon, which no one present made, is still cooling. Sitting in the middle of the table is an item that chills the PCs' blood – a crossbow bolt made of bone, in the form of an intricately carved snake skeleton, topped with a shrunken human skull with long flowing hair.

They knew well enough that this meal was one of Pliazli's favorites, but the crossbow bolt was the clincher. Pliazli, leader of the Wraithkillers, the most feared assassin organization on the planet, had been here.

"You're right," Zargo said in a faint voice. "We need to go."

With no further ado, they followed the two blackguards out the servants' entrance to the stables.

"We're going with you," Zargo announced to Cornelius.

He shrugged. "Fine with me."

Everyone mounted up on their horses (and Demetrios on his mule) and set off southwest toward the Red City. They stopped the first night at a medium-sized roadside inn. Osanga decided to ride ahead; the call was still burning in his blood, and he couldn’t rest. Zargo, who has quite a reputation as an –up-and-coming bard, parlays a night's entertainment for a suite of rooms (set aside for wealthy guests like herself). When they all get settled, they go downstairs and get something to eat, and Zargo performs [an outstanding performance, by the way – she racked up 16 gp].

During dinner, Kariann noted a dwarven merchant near the back of the room selling crystals of all sizes and colors. After some negotiation, she bought a green one that could be inserted into the hilt of her sword [the first ability she gained is a bonded weapon – her sword acts as a ghost touch weapon in her hands only].

After the performance, they retire to the suite. At this point in the campaign, none of the group sleeps alone – they have been attacked by assasssins too many times. Zargo and Cornelius, of course, share a room; Krevik and Demetrios share a room; and Kariann and Gareth share the last room.

Krevik awoke sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Something's not right, his senses told him. There are strange spirits nearby. He nudged Demetrios awake and whispered a warning to the old cleric. Demetrios climbed out of bed and grabbed his staff, a gnarled length of wood with a tangled mass of roots on one end, carved with figures all along its length.

At the same time, Gareth awoke to the sense of strong evil nearby. He quickly and quietly threw on his leather gambeson and readied his morningstar. He awoke Kariann, who manifested inertial armor as she readied her longsword, then detect hostile intent. The latter revealed three beings in the suite's main room.

Krevik readied a magic missile as Demetrios quickly drew a circle of power on the floor with his staff. He mumured words of summoning, and a spirit wreathed in the flames of hell appeared. "There is one here who does not belong," Demetrios said. "Find and detain him."

"The monk?" the ghost hissed.

"Yes, him."

The ghost bowed and vanished.

Cornelius snapped awake. He had a sense of magical power, very close by. Someone had summoned an undead being. He reached under the pillow for his snaplance, but it wasn't there.

"Where's my snaplance?" he asked Zargo. She shrugged and helped him tear apart the bedding to look for it.

Kariann and Gareth were the first to encounter the assasssins. Their door opened, and a human wearing a comedy/tragedy mask stepped into the room and threw his kama at Gareth, scroing a hit along his arm. Gareth replied with a brutal strike to the stomach, another to the back, and a final crushing blow to the head, dropping the assassin to the floor.

The door to the room Krevik and Demetrios shared opened, and the mage let off his readied magic missile. The bolts of force punched into the assassin's head and chest, flinging him back and out of the fight.

"Found it!" Cornelius said triumphantly. His snaplace had gotten tangled in the sheets on the floor sometime earlier that night. He picked it up and activated it [think of a light saber-like weapon with a blade that snaps out and locks into place] as the door opened and the final assassin entered their room. He finished the hapless attacker off quickly with a straight thrust to the chest. Zargo snatched the mask off his face before the body fell.

Kariann pushed past the dead assassin in the doorway into the main room. One window was open, and a rope dangled down from above. Her psionic sense did not reveal any other presences; she called out an all-clear to the others.

"These are Followers of Silence," Zargo said, rather unnecessarily. All of them knew who their attackers were – they had wiped out the main chapter for this side of the continent three years ago, after the Followers had discovered Zargo was attempting to put together Electulu's lost epic and tried to stop her. The other chapters had promptly declared vendetta on her and her companions, and thus they had suffered attacks ever since. The Followers were dedicated to the destruction of music and musical arts, as well as those who promoted them – bards, performers, etc.

"Why didn't their bodies dissolve?" Kariann asked. Followers of Silence were notable for their distinctive masks, which also served another purpose – when one was killed, the magic in the mask dissolved the body (and all its equipment) into a poisonous vapor that induced nausea.

"I snatched the mask off this one," Zargo said. A quick examination of the other bodies showed that Gareth's blow to the head had broken that assassin's mask, and Krevik's magic missiles had put a hole in the other one.

"Can we summon the spirit of one, so we can question it?" Zargo asked.

Krevik shook his head. "They can't speak, even in death."

"Can we still summon one and bind it into, say, a crystal?"

"I could, but we don't have a crystal," Krevik replied.

"I know where we can get one," Gareth said, and left the suite. He headed down the hall to the dwarven merchant's room and banged on the door.

"Eh? What d'ya want? It's the middle of the night," the dwarf growled.

"I wish to buy a crystal from you."

"People in Hell want to buy ice water, too."

He held up a pouch that clinked. "I have money."

The dwarf opened the door and stepped aside. "Come in, then, good sir! What kind of crystal do you want?"

Gareth returned a few minutes later, 150 gold pieces poorer but bearing a chunk of smoky quartz the size of his fist. The spirit of the deceased assassin hovered in the summoning circle, eyeing his former potential victims with a dire stare. Krevik took the crystal and, with a few words, bound the spirit into the crystal and handed it to Zargo.

 

[Kerrick]

The next morning, they awoke early and continued on their journey to the Red City. The remainder of the ride passed without incident, and they arrived at the gates a week and a half later. The line of people attempting to enter the city was longer than usual, due to the sheer numbers of those attending the call of the Blossom of Death; it took them nearly three hours to get into the city.

Inside the walls, little had changed since the last time they had been there; they rode down the broad avenue where they were ambushed by nearly a dozen warriors on the rooftops, and were saved only by the fortuitous appearance of Cornelius [in those days, before he became Zargo's lover, he came and went as he pleased; he is now a permanent member of the party].

Near the docks, there is a large pavilion set up. A banner above it proclaims, "Join the Iron Legion – see the world, crush the Lich Kings." One long line of people wound its way into the front of the tent; two more came from the side and back.

"The Iron Legion?" Zargo said. "They haven't existed for five hundred years."

"Well, someone's putting it back together," Kariann noted. "Look, there's a ship in the harbor bearing the Legion's standard. Looks newly made, too."

The party split up to go to their respecitive guilds – Krevik to the mages' guild, the paladin to the church of Drax, goddess of life, Zargo to the bardic guild, and Kariann to the psion's enclave to report in and catch up on things (it's been awhlie since they were last at their guilds). Cornelius went to report to the Iron Legion commander for duty.

Zargo and the paladin decided to investigate the pavilion, while the others split up. She stopped a man walking away from the tent and asked him what they were doing.

"Recruiting for the Iron Legion, of course," he replied. "Those as can pass the physical exams, they give platinum and send out the back of the tent, to the ships. Those as can't, they give a few gold lions and send on their way."

"They give you gold even if you fail the physical exam?" Zargo asked incredulously.

"Just because you can't serve in battle doesn't mean you can't serve," the man said. "I rated high enough to get a campaign notch" – he held up a notched bronze bar about the length of his forearm – a campaign bar – with one of the notches filled with iron – "but not high enough to actually participate." He didn't sound angry about it He didn't sound angry about it – merely getting a campaign bar from the legendary Iron Legion was an honor in itself.

"How does that work?" Zargo asked.

"It means he was capable enough to serve under normal circumstances, but this campaign, whatever it is, is far too dangerous for him," the paladin said.

Zargo nodded and thanked the man, and he went on his way.

That evening, they all met at an upscale feasthall for dinner. Cornelius, strangely enough, rejoined them, saying that he been sent back with a mission for them.

"Do you really have anything better to do?" he asked. "Besides run from the Followers of Silence?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads.

"What's this mission?" Krevik asked.

"Five hundred years ago, by the end of the Lich King War, the armies of both sides were nearly decimated," Cornelius began. "The armies were lacking any real leadership, and had been going on sheer hatred for centuries. Now, the dragon armies were still mostly intact - or at least moreso than other units. They still had commanders, however, and the commanders realized that nothing but death awaited them f the war kept going. So they did something highly unusual – they made an agreement to exchange dragons, riders, and keepers, then lock them away in stasis until the time came where they would be needed again. The commander of each side, along with his staff, would oversee the 'storage' of the other side's forces, thus ensuring that everything went smoothly.

"Dragons are also tied to their wealth," he said after a sip of wine. "The commanders knew this, and so they also locked away the vast hordes that each army had gathered with the dragons, so as to sustain them in their long sleep."

"So why hasn't anyone unlocked them and brought them out before now?" the paladin asked.

Cornelius held up a finger. "I am not done yet, my son. Patience." He took another sip of wine and continued. "The commanders selected a different location for each color dragon, someplace not likely to be found by accident. Even if they were, the lairs themselves are filled with guardians, traps, and other magical and mundane defenses. In addition, each dragon species can only be unlocked by a creature of the opposite alignment – an evil being for metallic dragons, and a good being for chromatic. Trouble is, no one is sure how to unlock the neutral dragons – the gem dragons. We know they were locked up first; all the research Ralts Bloodthorne, NahaJawen the Wanderer, and others have done indicates that each lair holds a key that can be used to unlock the neutrals, but you have to have all ten keys. And, no dragon can be awoken until all the seals have been breached."

He sat forward. "The mission I have for you, if you wish to accept it, is to return the dragons to Shtar. I was given the rough locations of each of the tombs, but if you want anything more exact, you're on your own."

Zargo's eyes lit up. She was obviously thinking of the potential for an epic in this. "I'm in."

After some discussion, the others agreed.

"So where are they?" Kariann asked.

"Not here," Cornelius said. "There are too many ears to hear. I'll wait until we get back to our rooms."

They spent the rest of the meal discussing their immediate plans. Since they would be leaving on a potentially world-spanning trek, they would need supplies. They decided to stay for a week and get what they needed, make connections, and gather more information.

At last, they returned to their suite. Once everyone had gotten situated, Cornelius produced a scroll and laid it out on the table.

"This is the list I was given," he said. "It starts with the chromatic dragons, though nothing I have heard indicates that we have to do them in any sort of order – as long as the good and evil dragons are unlocked first."

[The following is the list, as read off the scroll by Cornelius:

White: The Angel's Mercy Plains, Vak Cinter;

Red: Great Carved Glacier, in the lands of the former Lich King Molinux;

Green: The Steps of Breketh-Khan, on Lister'in;

Blue: Beneath Lake Fairiespark;

Black: In the ruins of the elven Kingdom of Bright Sharp Leaves;

Gold: The Fens of Hope's Woe;

Bronze: The Great Poison Desert;

Silver: The ruins of the kingdom of Hakim-Stelit;

Copper: The Grimweird Backlands, NNE of Von Lon;

Brass: The Valley of the Stacked Skulls;

Amethyst: The Plains of Blood;

Crystal: The Eye of Karghast;

Sapphire: The Great Grass Sea;

Topaz: The Great Sandy Shallows, the ruins of the Kingdom of the Sea Elves;

Emerald: The Ruins of Anteniele-Traxx.]

There was a few minutes of silence as the group silently digested this information. Some of the locations were already known to them: the Great Poison Desert, for example, was famous throughout Shtar as an uninhabitable wasteland that no one has ever been known to return from. The Valley of the Stacked Skulls was the site of the single largest battle in the Lch King War, where the Armies of Light were ambushed and lost 90% of their forces. Even in the present day, very few ventured there, as it is the home of fiends, undead, and restless spirits.

"The Ruins of Anteniele-Traxx," Krevik said. "It figures."

Zargo chuckled. Their first mission, the rite of passage into adulthood for their tribes, had been for them to go to the ruined city and find out why the magic sustaining their valley was failing. Along the way, they had slain a giant ape worshipped as a god by a band of goblins and had reawakened the magic of the city. They had also found the first pages of the legendary bard Electulu's lost epic there. There was a certain symmetry in this, events coming full circle to return them to their beginnings.

"So where do we start?" the paladin asked.

Cornelius pulled out a map of Shtar and spread it on the table. "My suggestion, for what its worth, is to go west, to Vak Cinter, up to Von Lon, head up to the Valley of the Stacked Skulls, and then over to the Eternal Empire on the coast of Abinay. After that… well, we can play it by ear."

[The actual discussion was a little longer and more involved, but I decided to gloss over it for simplicity's sake.]

"Sounds good to us," Zargo said. "We'll need to gather some more information on where, exactly, these tombs are located. The Plains of Blood, for example, covers half of Balikimayn."

"Simple enough," Demetrios piped up. "I have contacts in the planes above and below; if anyone knows, they will."

"So be it, then," Cornelius said. "I will inform my superiors tomorrow that you have accepted the mission, and that we have a preliminary plan laid out."

"We have a week," Zargo said to the others. "I'd suggest we use it productively."

The next day, the heroes split up and went to their repsecitve guilds and churches and informed their guildmasters/elders of their upcoming mission, and asked for suport. Each was allowed to borrow magic items, up to a certain limit in power and cost. Krevik set aside some time to craft a staff of the spirits, using several of his own spells. The paladin's elder mumbled something about not attending ceremonies often enough, and falling behind in his ecclesiastical duties, while rubbing his holy symbol, so he spent the week at the temple, performing church duties appropriate to one of his rank and status.

[Me: "You stole that from the 2E PHB, you old hack!" Ralts: "Yes I did!"]

Demetrios summoned and questioned various denizens of the upper and lower planes, gathering the exact locations of several of the tombs.

At the end of the week, the group gathered once more, armed with information, magic items, and a plan.

Up next: the party embarks on the beginning of their next epic campaign!

 

[Kerrick]

Before the heroes left, some of them were given henchmen, of a sort. The mages' guild sent along Sepeth, a wizard of the first circle, to accompany Krevik as an apprentice; Gareth had an acolyte, Gregor, to serve as his squire on the journey, and Zargo got a scribe to keep records of the quest.

The newly expanded party made its way to the docks, where Cornelius had secured passage on a gnomish trading vessel heading downriver to the coast. It was a week's journey to the coastal city of Preven, which passed largely without incident.

Preven was a medium-sized walled city; the captain announced that they would be stopping there for two days to pick up supplies before continuing on. Most of the party members decided to stay on board, but Gareth decided he wanted to exercise his horse. He had the mount brought up out of the hold and rode it into the city, alone.

Gareth was riding through the town, admiring the scenery, when a child was pushed out of the crowd and landed under the horse's hooves, and was trampled. Gareth immediately dismounted as a woman screamed. The boy's body was badly twisted, and a pool of blood spread from beneath him. He was obviously dead, but the paladin laid his hands on the body.

A woman (probably the same one who had screamed earlier) shrieked, “Pervert! He tmurdered my child, and he’s going to do vile things to his body!”

Gareth protested that he was only trying to help the boy, but before he could make any effect on the crowd, someone touched his back and uttered a vile word. He cried out as negative energy coursed through his body. The (supposedly dead) child reached up and grabbed him by the throat in a crushing grip. Gareth tried to stand, but the child wouldn’t release his grip, and he couldn't dislodge the little monster.

The boy's mother cried, “He’s trying to steal my baby!” and zapped him with an empowererd smite good from behind, dropping him.

The city guard arrived on the scene shortly after and received reports from witnesses (and the boy's mother about how Gareth “deliberately swerved to trample the boy” and then attempted to “sexually molest his corpse in the street.” It was fortunate, perhaps, that Gareth was already dead, and thus could not be taken into custody. Word is sent to the ship of the incident, and Cornelius and Gregor go to retrieve the body.

Fortunately, Demetrios got a few scrolls of resurrection from his temple before the group left, and he used one of them on the hapless paladin. Unfortunately, the gnomes now think that Gareth is a sexual deviant; they won't allow their children on deck, and the captain has guards posted on the family quarters.

(A side note: on Shtar, gnomish vessels are crewed by extended family groups – there can be two or three generations living and working on a ship.)

Later, when Gareth is sitting (alone) on the deck, Demetrios approaches him. "Have you considered unburdening your sins to me, my son?”

Gareth glared at him. “How would you like me to push you overboard?”

“Oh, now you are threatening the elderly in addition to your other sins!”

The paladin cursed and stomped off to his room, saying that he would read his scriptures. Zargo took advantage of this and told the captain that he would be remaining in his room, performing penitence. Part of this, she said, was that all furniture (except for the bed) should be removed, and that he could have only bread and water, and meat once a day. The captain was only too happy to comply.

That evening, the characters sat down to dinner when Kariann cried out in disgust. "There are meal worms in the biscuits!"

More cries rang out as others discovered maggots in their meat and other vermin in the rest of the food. Demetrios cast purify food and drink and felt a strange resistance to the spell, which he overcame. They finished the meal with a little trepidation.

None of the group could understand Gnomish, but at this point, the mutters from the crewmembers were getting ugly; the sailors they saw on deck were casting dark glances at the passenger hallway.

Zargo gathered the others together in a quiet corner of the deck. "I've got an idea," she said. "If we perform a purification ritual on Gareth, maybe it'll get the crew to settle down a bit."

"Who's going to do it?" Krevik asked. "Cornelius?"

"I don't think so," Cornelius rumbled. "I don't think 'I call upon the power of my dark god' will go over too well."

Zargo turned to the cleric. "Looks like you're it."

Demetrios shook his head. "He threatened to push me overboard. I say we should do it to him and have done with it."

Zargo sighed. "We need him, for the moment at least. Just go do this, and we'll have a talk with him later about how stupid he's been acting."

"Fine." Demetrios tottered off to his room, muttering something about "no respect for his elders."

When everything was in order, Cornelius, Krevik and Gregor accompanied Demetrios to Gareth's room to perform the purification ritual on the paladin. Kariann took up a post outside the door as a guard, and Zargo decided to remain on deck while the ritual was going on.

She was approached a few minutes later by the captain.

“As you know, one of your entourage is... suspect,” he said.

“We’re doing a purification ritual.”

He nodded, but didn't look reassured. “We checked the stores in the hold; someone has broken into them. We have two days’ worth of good food and water left. Tell me, do you recognize this?” He held up a steel gauntlet.

Zargo's stomach sank. It was Gareth's. “It’s his. When was this found?”

“About 15 minutes ago.”

“You do realize that I requested all the furniture be removed; he’s in a penitence cell, after all," Zargo said. "He’s been there all day. Someone moving the furniture out could have grabbed it without anyone else seeing, and planted it.”

“But we only had the guards there since dinner. As soon as this ritual is finished, we will go search his room for more evidence. If we find nothing, I will let the matter go. If we do…” He left the sentence hanging. Zargo could easily imagine what would happen.

Belowdecks, Demetrios was halfway through the ritual when the door opened. Krevik and Cornelius looked out to see Zargo, the captain, and two burly guards standing in the hallway. Once the ritual was finished, the captain announced his intentions. A quick glance at Zargo confirmed it, so the trio stepped out of the room, leaving Gareth on his own. The gnomes entered and conducted a thorough search.

"Captain, look at this," one of the guards said a couple minutes later. He had pulled a satchel from under the mattress.

"That's not mine!" Gareth protested.

The guard opened it and dumped it out on the floor, revealing childrens’ underclothes, a doll, and a sketch of the hold, with the food stores marked. The doll belonged to a young girl who’d complained about losing it a few days ago. The captain's face darkened, and he opened his mouth - probably to order the paladin thrown overboard - but Zargo quickly interrupted.

“I request that he be placed in a locked room, under guard," Zargo said.

The captain agreed. “But only because of who you are, and your reputation as a diva.”

“Can we go to the hold and see the food? Maybe we can purify it.”

“Aye, and bring along the paladin of perversion, so he can see what he has wrought,” the captain added with a glare at Gareth.

So the captain and the party members, accompanied by the two guards (who stay close to Gareth) all troop down to the hold. Sure enough, most of the food stores have been corrupted – they are rotten and crawling with maggots and worms. Demetrios examines it for a few moments, then takes Krevik and Zargo aside.

“We have a problem," the cleric rasped. That’s not your normal corrupted food and water – I’ve read about something like this before.”

Krevik looked at the food a little more closely, using his magic sense. “This looks like the effects of one of Nomak’s blight spells. Anything we bring onto the ship will be irrevocably corrupted.”

“We can still destroy the maggots,” Demetrios said. “I know a spell that will work.”

He went above and returned a few minues later with the ship's cleric. Together, they cast parasite purge, destroying all the maggots, then tossed the corrupted food and water overboard.

Afterwards, the captain took Zargo aside. “After seeing that, I don't believe the paladin was the cause of this – he doesn't have that kind of power. My sailors have families, though, and the Cargomistress has nine grandchildren on this ship. I cannot afford to offend them, you understand.”

Zargo nodded solemnly.

“There are three ports nearby; since I doubt the paladin’s guilt, I will put you off at your choice of one of them. They are all on islands, so you should be able to catch another ship from there.”

"Let's go to your cabin and discuss this in privacy," Zargo suggested.

They left the hold and went to the captain's cabin to have a discussion. Once they were settled, Zargo began.

“If we go ashore, it’ll be a trap,” she said. "Whoever is after us is expecting this."

The captain shrugged. "I've got the lives and welfare of my crew to consider, my lady."

Zargo looked at him for a moment, but he was resolute. She sighed. "Fine. Where can you drop us?"

“I can take you to Aiger’s Knuckle...”

“We want the one most isolated by water.”

“Well, woman, we be a week and a half from land. We can go to the Seven Jewelled Isles, but there be no port there. Or the Green Mast, that’s a port. But I be expecting compensation – every ship landing there must hand over 10% of its cargo as a tariff.”

“Whichever island is least known would be good,” the paladin put in.

“That would be the Seven Jewelled Isles,” the captain said.

“So be it,” Zargo said. “The Seven Jewelled Isles it is.”

A few days later, they arrived at the fifth island, one with a large volcano. The gnomes anchored offshore and put the party ashore with their horses, only too happy to be quit of the “perverted” paladin.

The heroes stood on a broad, white sand beach. The sea stretched out before them to the horizon, clear blue only a few shades lighter than the sky. Behind them, the beach led up to a near-solid wall of jungle, from which they heard the sounds of a wide variety of animal life.

"Well, what do we do now?" Gareth asked.

"We could always throw the paladin into the volcano and ask the island gods for a boat," Krevik muttered.

Zargo ignored him. "We might as well see if anyone's here."

They turned to the forest, only to see a half-naked woman walking toward them. She was very pretty – long dark blond hair, darkly-tanned skin, and a broad smile. She wore nothing but a grass skirt and a necklace of shells.

"Greetings," she called to the group. "You're new here."

"Yes we are," Zargo said when she had recovered herself. Several of the men were still staring (or, in the paladin's case, attempting not to). "We're looking for a port, so we can catch a ship off these islands."

The woman laughed. "There is no port on the Seven Jewelled Isles. I can take you back to my village, if you’d like...”

At the group's nods of assent, she turned and led them on a path through the jungle, stopping here and there to pick fruits from the trees they passed. They wound through the forest and up over a low rise to see a small village of about twenty huts below. A few dozen people were scattered about, engaged in a variety of activities, though most of them suspiciously resembled lounging in the sun. Most of the men were loincloths; most of the women wore just grass skirts, like their guide. There was a strange mix of races – elves, humans, even a female dwarf. One of the humans had a tattoo marking him as an exile from Novak Eck.

Krevik noticed one man in particular, lying on a mat of reeds eating grapes, and his eyes widened. “Shaklett the Venomous,” he whispered to the others. ”He disappeared about five years ago after a successful run as one of the vilest acid/poison mages the Red City had ever known; his apprentices said he’d gone on a mission to gather spell components for a powerful ritual and was never seen again."

Strangely enough, none of the "natives" seem surprised or alarmed to see the newcomers. Indeed, everyone smiled and nodded (those who were awake and not napping in the afternoon heat), then returned to their activities.

"You're more than welcome to stay here," the woman told them. "We have plenty of food. Our only rule is that everyone must build a hut to replace the one they take – that way we always have new huts for visitors. Feel free to find an empty hut to change your clothes."

“We can't stay," Zargo said again. She turned to the other people and raised her voice. "We seek a ship. Can anyone help us out?"

“Well there’s a ship out there,” one of the men said, waving in the general direction of the beach. “We hacked some holes in the hull, but it’s only been there a year or so.”

“And would any of you kind men care to help us?”

The men looked at each other. “You’re in that much of a hurry?”

Zargo sighed. “Just point out the ship.”

“It’s out there,” he pointed. “Out where the water turns green. A few hundred yards offshore – the water's pretty shallow out here.”

“And what should be aware of on the way out there?”

“Oh, crystal oozes, jewel crabs... oh, and Squishhead.”

“What’s Squishhead?”

“Oh honey, Squishhead’s not an it, it’s a he," their guide said. "He’s an octopus.”

“And how big is he?”

“Oh, about the size of a hollyphant.”

“But you don’t need to worry about him eating you," one of the men added. "Squishhead’s a big coward – he’ll just squirt ink at you and flee.”

Another man said, “Oh, and one of the ships rose from the bottom and sailed off about a week and a half ago, crewed by skeletons. It was an iron-keeled thing with a serrated prow.”

“Cornelius?” Zargo asked.

The blackguard shrugged. “I don’t know who it belonged to. I hated the water.”

“You must stay for dinner, at least,” one of the women urged. “Start out early tomorrow.”

The party conferred and agreed, and so they sat down to a meal of fruit and roast naka meat.

After dinner, Demetrios pulled Cornelius and Krevik aside. “Did either of you get that?”

“Get what?” Krevik asked.

“I sent a sending to each of you, but it appears that that kind of magic doesn’t work here.”

Krevik frowned and cast a detect magic. It worked; there were only a few minor auras, though, besides the party's magic items – some of the men’s tattoos, for example.

When the sun set, most of the villagers retreated to their huts for the night; a few remained around the fires, talking or drinking fermented fruit wine.

Zargo cast Leomund’s tiny hut and retreated inside it for the night. She was inside, studying her books, when a monkey appeared inside, snatched a hair clip, and ran out the side of the hut, carrying its prize into the forest. She spotted another attempting to break into a chest, and dispelled the hut. Another twenty monkeys dropped to the ground and scampered off into the forest, to the accompanying laughter of the villagers.

“Why’d you cast that spell?” one of the women asked. “Raven monkeys love extradimensional spaces.”

"And small, shiny objects," someone else added.

“Now you tell us,” Zargo muttered.

So the party spent the night with guards posted to keep the monkeys from stealing the rest of their gear.

The next morning was beautiful – sunny, warm, the water perfect. The only strange thing was a spider, about an inch long and two high, way out on the water. After breakfast, the group returned to the beach. They planned to cut down some trees and make a raft, then sail it out to the ship and see what repairs needed to be made to it to make it seaworthy.

It took most of the morning to cut down enough trees to make a raft and lash them together with vines to make a raft. Occasionally, some of the villagers would come down to watch for a bit, and a few passed by on gathering expeditions, but they were largely ignored.

Once the raft was complete, Cornelius, Krevik, Demetrios, and Zargo climbed onto it. The bladkguard poled it out into the sea.

They got 300 yards from shore from the shore when the vines came loose, and the raft fell apart, depositing the quartet into the warm water.

“Nice job, Krevik,” Cornelius sputtered.

“If the thing had been properly made of bones and lashed with tendons, it would have worked,” the mage retorted.

(No one had the relevant craft skill, so the DM had me, as the one with the highest Int score, roll for it – I rolled a natural 1.)

Once they got to shore, they were greeted with more laughter from the villagers. Cornelius stripped off his armor to dry and stalked off, but he returned a short time later. “One of the villagers said that the spider god drags the corpses of those he kills to a harbor on another island, over yonder.” He pointed to the east. “We could get there easily with a water walk, cast on the horses.”

Everyone looked at Demetrios, and he shrugged. “It would take a little time to prepare.”

"The day is almost wasted, anyway," Zargo said. "Why don't we spend the night here, get ourselves cleaned up, and we'll leave tomorrow morning."

The next morning (after another night spent guarding their gear against the thieving monkeys), Demetrios cast water walk on the party's mounts, and they rode off across the waves to the neighboring island.

As if by magic, dozens of raven monkeys appeared. One of them, larger than the others, waved a jewelled longsword over its head with both hands.

”Put me down!” the sword cried as the monkey screeched at the party, then ran into the forest.

Unlike the last island, there was no path evident in the forest, so they decided to walk along the beach. About a mile along, around a curve in the island's edge, they came over a low rise to see the harbor sprawl below them. A huge, partially-destroyed structure made of basalt blocks sat at the base of the cliffs on the island side of the broad harbor; a great wall, also made of basalt wound its way around the harbor, though this, too, had collapsed in places, revealing the remains of passages and chambers inside it. The water in the harbor was clear, permitting a view of a couple dozen ships at the bottom in various stages of destruction and overgrowth by coral. Entwined among the ships were also dozens of skeletons of large creatures – whales, sea serpents, even what looked like a dragon.

“Will that dragon skeleton make a ship large enough for us?” Zargo asked Krevik.

He squinted at it and thought for a moment. “Almost. We’ll need some other bones to finish it out, but it should do.”

Instead of building a raft, they decide to fly Krevik's flying carpet out over the water (okay, so I forgot about it the first time – sue me). Demetrios casts water breating on Kariann and Gareth, and they, along with Cornelius (who seemed to have some sort of water breathing ability of his own) dropped into the water to start bringing up bones. Krevik and Zargo remained above, pulling the bones up with ropes the others tied to them.

Stay tuned for the next update, when Cornelius says: "Do we really trust Krevik to make a bone ship? He couldn't even get a simple wooden raft right!"

Famous quote for this session: “I’ll get her back – I’ll become the ultimate meat shield!” – Gareth's player, talking about the woman who attacked him.

 

[Kerrick]

While I was writing this last update, it occurred to me that there are a few things that need explaining for this story to make sense. So, in the interest of fairness, I'll provide a brief recap of the campaign to date.

The characters started out in a remote mountain valley north of the ruined city of Anteniele-Traxx, members of several clans formed of people fleeing the First Lich King War - deserters, survivors, refugees, etc., who had settled there 500 years ago.

Now, things in the valley had been going pretty well until a couple years ago, when crops started failing, livestock developed strange mutations and some died mysteriously, and children were stillborn. The elders claimed the magic sustaining the valley was dying.

Enter the PCs. They were among a group of teens reaching adulthood, who had to undergo their adult rites. They were sent forth with the command to find the source of the valley's magic and fix it. So they left the valley (the first people to do so in a very long time), got past the valley's guardian (an old living war machine left over from the war), and made their way to the city. Once there, they encountered a tribe of goblins worshipping a gigantic ape (their "ape god") and killed it with a ballista.

Along the way, they also met an archaeological expedition; an old man stuck his head out of a window, and the party accidentally killed him. Whereupon his daughter, a pregnant blackguard of some power, attempted to kill the PCs. This is the woman who tried to kill Gareth in Preven (more on her later).

After driving the goblins away, the group found some caves and attempted to investigate. The first encounted a tribe of ratmen, which they drove out, and, further in, yuan-ti (who nearly slaughtered them). In the course of their exploration, Zargo found a few pages from a lost epic by the legendary bard Electulu. this set them on their course to finding the rest of the epic (more on this later, too).

Eventually, they restored the city's magic by clearing the fountains and cleaning four massive cat statues (Anteniele-Traxx is also called "The City of Lions"), also restoring magic to the valley. They returned heroes, and were given another quest: find civilization. The valley had been cut off for almost 500 years; for all they knew, civilization had been wiped out in the last war.

So the heroes left the valley again, travelled for awhlie, and found a city. There they bought an abandoned, supposedly haunted manor house dirt cheap and set about clearing it. Turns out the manor was being used by the Followers of Silence as a base of operations. In a series of battles, they wiped out the Followers and claimed the place as their own (whereupon the global chapter declared vendetta on them and has been dogging their steps ever since).

From there, they gathered more information on pieces of the lost epic, and travelled all over the world putting it together. Which brings us up to date, more or less.

Except for a few details. Sometime during or after the big battle in the Red City (which was mentioned a few posts up) Cornelius revealed that the blackguard whose father the PCs had killed was really his half-sister (they shared the same mother). And the child she was pregnant with wasn't a normal child - it was a demon-driven. What's a demon-driven, you ask? Think of Jason Voorhees. Now multiply it by five. A demon-driven is created by undergoing an unspeakably vile ritual (part of which requires the mother to copulate with multiple demons); the child gestates faster than normal, and though (s)he appears normal in all respects, matures much faster than normal. The child is bred for one purpose: to kill a particular being, or group of beings. In the first stage, the child is only slightly enhanced; if he is killed, however, he comes back as an unstoppable killing machine. Nothing, not even the will of the gods, can stop one for very long once it has reached this state, unless or until it has killed its target(s), in which case it goes dormant. In this case, fortunately, its target is not the PCs, but a demon-driven can be given a secondary target.

The PCs have found out that as long as they don't kill (or cause to be killed) either the mother or the child, they're all right - if the child dies by other means, or if the PCs manage to off the kid without the mother thinking they did it, it will revert to its original target, and they'll be home free. Or, they can find out who the original target is and get him to do it. The trick is finding this unlucky soul and manipulating him into doing the deed...

 

[Kerrick]

Sorry for the lack of updates - we skipped a week, then stopped last week's session in the middle of the combat, so I wanted to wait until I had the whole thing to post. As a sort of consolation, I'll make a double post - the Ecology of the Seven Jewelled Isles, and the next update.

The Seven Jewelled Isles.

Contrary to the beliefs of many, these islands are not named after any actual jewels, but instead on the log of the ship's captain who first discovered them during the Second Age. “Like seven emeralds upon an azure cloth,” is what the long-forgotten ship’s captain wrote.

Each island is covered with thick jungle that regrows nearly as fast as it is cut down. Villages dot the islands, and travelers to the islands can hear the sounds of the jungle wildlife before they even drop anchor.

Despite its beauty, not many people come to the Seven Jewel Islands, since rumor states that the natives are fierce warriors and cannibals, soldiers left behind when the Iron Fleet destroyed a huge fortress of the Stygian Wave, soldiers who turned to barbarism and cannibalism to survive, and now prey on anyone who comes to the islands.

The many lagoons, inlets and natural harbors have a vast array of natural life, from sea anemones to manta rays to moray eels and silvershell crabs. Living in the decades-, centuries- or millennia-old ship wreckage (many of the hulks bear the signs of deliberate scuttling) is a bewildering array of sea life. Small, brightly colored fish, fire coral, and a few small sharks live in each lagoon, inlet and natural harbor, moving about the crystal clear water.

At night, when there are one or more moons present, the water glitters, and the foam of the surf shows a bright silver. This is the most dangerous time on the islands, for the blackhearted ooze moves from tidal pool to the surf, from surf to tidal pool, or from tidal pool to tidal pool, and in the moonlight, it’s fairly easy to step on one.

Each volcano (each island has one) is active, sending out plumes of smoke that can be seen for over 100 miles out to sea, and although they shake and rumble, they are not anywhere near the point of ejecting lava or ash, since Earthwrack damaged their cauldrons and lowered the level of lava to the point it will still take a score or more centuries before it reaches dangerous levels.

However, each volcano does contain many caves full of crystals, metal laced stalactites, and the bodies of villagers who have died over the years, wrapped in vines that had been pounded flat into long strips and wound all around the bodies. The older of these bodies have obsidian, and in some cases, steel swords, and some of the ancient staves being held contain some magic (up to the DM, depending upon the power level of each individual campaign. This is an excellent place to hide an important semi-artifact).

The sides of the volcano are heavily overgrown with jungle flora, nearly up to the rim, and the bowl inside is rocky and often filled with poisonous gases. Each bowl has quite a few (1d10+15) active gas vents that shoot out shrieking tongues of flame at any given time. The villagers feel that these places are the realm of evil spirits, and will not come here.

On the side of one volcano is a vast carving, depicting a burning city with ships leaving it, crossing the sea, and finding the islands. At the far right of the carving, the ships are sinking, and the tiny figures rejoicing.

The islanders: The natives of the Seven Jewel Islands are predominately human, with a few orcs, elves and dwarves who have “gone native” after being on the islands for several months. On the whole, islanders have bronze or brown skin and dark hair, wearing grass skirts (both the males and the females) while leaving the torsos bare. The natives are peaceful, interested mainly in tending their nakas and enjoying each others' company, caring nothing for the wars ravaging the rest of the world, or what evil wizard plans to take over where. Despite the legends, these islanders were present when the Stygian Wave began building the coastal fortress, and before, when the long-forgotten ship’s captain discovered the islands.

The main diet of the islanders is roast naka, silvershell crab, ruby mangos and other fruits and vegetables easily found on the islands. They often ferment naka milk and mix it with devil’s bite to make a rather powerful alcoholic drink that often causes hallucinations.

The islanders live in grass huts and often can be found lying about the island, tending to one or two nakas and watching the wind move the vegetation or being amused by the ravenmonkeys screetching at one another while they fight over a pretty rock or two.

Islanders use log canoes to move from one island to the next, and are, for the most part, very friendly with one another. For the most part, they can be considered L1d4 commoners (average villagers), with each village having a shaman (L1d4+2 adept), 1d4+6 protectors (L1d4 warriors protectors), a headman (L1d6+3 warrior), and a wiseman/woman (L1d4 aristocrat). For the most part, levels do not really come into play, since the villagers will seek to avoid combat. While they may wrestle and conduct mock battles with spears, they are not really aggressive, nor do they practice cannibalism - the missing travelers are actually devoured by Umaktalatak (see below).

Marriage and fidelity are an alien concept to the islanders, who take pleasure where they find it. While some villagers have no body piercing or ritual scarring, for the most part, they all display some primitive tattooing, scarring, or body piercing, most commonly the bottom lip, septum and nipples. The standard of physical beauty differs from tribe to tribe, but gray hair is seen as a sign of virility and wisdom, while a potbelly is seen as attractive.

At the DM’s option, there may be some adventurers who have “gone native” that are not accounted for by the above formulae. These adventurers will wear the same dress, and bear the same ornamentation as the other villagers, but their equipment will be hidden inside their huts, or buried near the village itself. They defend their villages to the best of their ability, and the villagers they live with usually have no clue that these adventurers were not born and raised in the village.

On one island is the ruin of an ancient coastal fortress, on the opposite side of the island from the village; villagers will not go there, warning any travelers that the area is not safe and it is considered taboo to venture there. The ruins are made of basalt, with many of the stones having collapsed into the ocean over the centuries. There are the ruins of the great wall that guarded the harbor, but much of that has collapsed to reveal a honeycomb of ancient rooms, now overgrown with ivy and shrubbery. Two great steel spools with several windings of a vast chain (a harbor boom) around each flank the mouth of the harbor; more chain leads out into the water, mostly rusted away over the centuries.

Many centuries ago, before the First Lich King War, this coastal fortress guarded the harbor, acting as a refit and supply base for ships of the Stygian Wave, then under the command of Gor DuMay. During the war, the Iron Fleet bombarded the coastal fortress for nearly a week, reducing it to rubble and sinking the ships in the harbor. At the bottom of the rather shallow bay (150 feet down) lie roughly 20 ships, ranging in size from small message carriers to one of the Stygian Fleet's huge battleships, which was in for repair and was sunk by a lucky firebolt from a heavy ballista.

The inside of the fortress was put to the fire and sword, and the supplies inside were transferred to the victorious ships outside the harbor and taken away. Inside the fortress are moss covered skeletons, broken weaponry and pieces of armor (at the DM's discretion, some few lost magical items can be found, but these would all be of low power).

This harbor is also the home of Umaktalatak, which the natives of all the islands know of, and whom they actually seem to fear.

Umaktalatak is a colossal spider that lairs in a cave at the base of the volcano. It spends most of its time
sleeping, dreaming of the days when it was the familiar of a mage long dead. Its intelligence is still very high (Int 12, Wis 16) and it knows what would happen if it were to prey on the villagers - they would hunt it down and possibly kill it. While it might take most of them to accomplish this feat, the spider would still be dead. Instead, it keeps one eye out on the only way into the harbor, and with the other, watches for ships. If he devours strangers, nobody is really going to care.

Umaktalatak for the most part, lives off of sea serpents, small whales, and whatever else it can catch. It hates ravenmonkeys, since they often invade its cave to try to steal the baubles left by fools who have come to destroy it over the decades.

Here’s some of the ecology of the Seven Jewels Islands that doesn’t really need to be statted. You can extrapolate and use the charts in the back of the MM to figure stuff out if you're just dying to have stats on these creatures.

Black-Tipped Tulip-This small flower grows at the edge of the beach and first break dune, in the tall grasses that hold the dune in place. The edges of this white tulip are an inky black, and it smells much like any other tulip. Natives of the islands often decorate the dead with a wreath of these placed around the neck. This flower is prized and gathered after its seed pods open and the flower begins to die. By steeping it in a tea and drinking the tea, the imbiber recovers one extra point of ability damage for the day.

Ruby Mango Tree-This large tree grows in abundance on the Seven Jeweled Islands, bearing fruit approximately 3 times a year in the tropical heat. It appears nowhere else. Besides the mangos being delicious, peeling off a small strip of the thin bark and chewing on it will give the chewer a +1 circumstance bonus to saves against ingested poisons. The bark is habit forming, and chewing it requires a Will save (DC10) to avoid becoming addicted. Addicts of this bark are calm and slightly listless, often with traces of bloody-appearing spittle at the corners of their mouths.

BiteUms-A small insect, roughly the size of a gnat, that bites exposed skin that is not rubbed with the juice from a morningweed (see below). The bite causes no damage, and does not hurt for approximately 6 hours. After that time, a small rash breaks out unless the victim makes a Fort save (DC 15). The rash itches fiercely, inflicting a–2 circumstance penalty to Concentration checks, and requiring a Concentration check for spellcasting. Scratching the rash causes it to spread rapidly (growing at a rate of 6 square inches per hour) until the whole body is covered (This increases the penalty to –4, and adds a –1 circumstance penalty to attacks, AC and Reflex saves due to the burning and itching). If the rash is not scratched (DC 15 Will save ) then it quickly fades in roughly 12 hours. The rash can be cured by bathing in salt water.

Morningweed-A thin, tall weed with a red tip, purple pod, gold stalk, and green roots, it is shaped much like a milkweed. By grinding up the pod and adding the sprinkles to bread dough, then making crackers from it, it reduces morning-sickness. By breaking the stalk and rubbing the milky sap on the skin, it turns the skin a deep brown (10 weeds for a Medium creature, -2 for each size category smaller, +5 for each size category larger) and prevents sunburn, as well as keeping away BiteUms.

Silvershelled Crab-Living in the corals off of the Seven Jewel Islands, these small fist-sized crabs live on microscopic creatures and the tiny rainbow colored fish around the coral. It takes approximately 4 to make a meal for a Medium creature (-2 per size category smaller than medium, 4 fine creatures or 2 diminutive creatures can eat one for the day, +8 per size category larger than Medium) and they taste pretty good. The shells, ground up and then smeared onto a blade or club after mixing it with the milk of a black tipped tulip, provides the ghost touch effect for up to 10 minutes.

Ravenmonkey-A tiny creature (use monkey stats and alter as follows) that sits in the trees and makes a loud, ravenlike squawk, this creature is viewed with amusement by the natives of the Seven Jewel Islands. This small creature is fast, but is attracted and mesmerized by glittering objects (it must make a DC 11 Will save or become dazed until attacked or distracted). The ravenmonkey steals these items as soon as it can (if it makes the save against the distraction, it will immediately steal the object and carry it off) and takes them to its nest in the trees. Ravenmonkeys also have the unique ability to jump through the ethereal plane for short distances, confounding visitors unused to them as the little creatures steal their valuables. A small tribe of savage kobolds on the island of Avikadium has the ravenmonkey as its totem.

Devil’s Bite-A waist high, bright purple bush that looks vaguely fuzzy. Touching this bush raises painful, burning welts. These welts fade after 15+5d4 minutes, and impose a –1 circumstance penalty to AC, attacks, saves and skills from the dreadful and exquisite pain the poison brings on. The natives of the islands often use these plants to ring corrals of nakas since no creature in its right mind chews on devil’s bite.

Naka-a small, stubby goat creature, both the males and females have milk giving teats, and can be milked three times a day (morning, highsun, evening) for approximately 3 liters of milk. These stubby creatures eat any organic substance but meat, and must eat rocks for their gullets to grind up hard bark and tough woods. Occasionally a small, 10 gp gem will be found in a naka's gullet, polished to a high sheen by the constant grinding of the stones. If this stone is ground up and drank with morningweed wine, the imbiber heals at double the normal rate for the next 3 days.

 

[Kerrick]

Once they had gathered enough bones, Gareth dug a pit on the beach, and Cornelius built a fire, which they used to dry the tendons and provide light for the camp that night.

Toward evening, some of the party members noticed a dark shape moving in toward the bay, coming off the ocean. Kariann noticed that it looked weird, like most of the ship was lifted out of the water. Krevik turned to the fire and fanned the flames, blowing smoke in Zargo’s face.

“That’s not a boat,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not a boat.”

She poked Krevik, and he turned to look. It was big, about six inches across, but judging by the broken towers on either side, it’s about a quarter-mile out, dragging a small whale. It looked for all the world like...

“A spider?” Krevik said in disbelief.

“Umm, guys... that thing’s dragging a whale,” Kariann said. “Maybe we should put the fire out and go hide.”

Krevik, Kariann, and Zargo disappeared into the bushes, and the five NPCs hid behind a log; the cleric sat there drinking his tea and moving slower, somehow.

The spider pulled into the harbor like a ship under full sail. It was probably 100 ft. wide across the legs and was dragging a gray whale, off of which it begins to pull the flesh.

One of the neophytes leaned forward and said, “That’s a water spider.. but it’s way too big.”

Krevik squinted at it. “There are lingering magical auras around it. It looks like a familiar bond after the master dies.”

“I thought familiars lost their power when the master died?” Demetrios said.

“It must have had some kind of bond,” Zargo offered.

Krevik shrugged.

“Maybe the master was really big,“ Zargo said. “You know, like storm giant big. Big master, big familiar.”

While the spider fed, the group took the opportunity to observe it from hiding. It sucked all the blood from the whale, then proceeded to tear chunks off it and bolt them down. It had metal bands on three legs, and a large yellow topaz stuck in the middle of its eye cluster.

Krevik examined the bands while the spider fed; they were not human make, nor were they normal size and enlarged. One is definitely a ring of elemental protection, one grants a bonus to armor class, and one is merely decorative with some sort of runes on it. The gem is not psionic – it’s magical, another protective device, though too small to tell from that distance.

Zargo cast comprehend languages and managed to read the decorative band. “’Property of Tanark Lightningrider. If found, you’d better return it,’” she read. “Sounds like a storm giant to me.”

It takes an hour and a half for the spider to devour the whale, then it skates off out of the harbor and vanishes in the distance. Sharks and smaller scavengers moved in to finish off the carcass. The PCs stoked the fire back up and returned to drying out the ligaments while the sharks fed.

Along the way, Krevik, after a suggestion from Zargo, decided to get a raven monkey as a familiar.* The one he gets has a human necklace tied around its waist, rings on its feet, and answers the summons by climbing out of Zargo’s portable hole. The necklace is Kyberian** make, but nonmagical. The ring on its right foot is an Iron Legion officer’s resist elements ring, dating from around the middle of the Lich King War (which would make it around a thousand years old). The other ring grants bonus to armor class.

Over the course of the next week, Demetrios, Cornelius, and Krevik create (rediscover) the spell Zubeck’s bonemeld, which enabled them to shape bones like putty. The spell worked, and they took another week to make the ship using the bones they dredged up from the bay. The neophytes spent the week gathering food and water for the journey to supplement what they could make with create food and water spells.

The spider came in and fed every three days or so, during which the group hid in the trees; at one point, it dragged a small boat into the harbor and ate the passengers. Krevik flew out on his carpet to get scraps of canvas from the ill-fated boat, and the monkey snatched up choice shiny objects from the wreckage. Most of it was already on the bottom by the time they got out there, but he managed to end up with a few gold coins and a huge glass fishing buoy.

The seventh day dawned bright and clear, as it had for the last six. The finished ship lay at anchor in the bay, bobbing serenely in the bay, a monstrosity of fused bones with a massive dragon’s skull on the prow.

“So where do we go?” Zargo asked. “Most ports would blast us out of the water as soon as they saw us.”

“Novak Eck,” Krevik replied. “They wouldn’t blink at us. They’ll think we’re answering the summons to the Iron Legion. I mean, look at that iron ship that rose from the bottom, crewed by skeletons.”

“He’s right,” Cornelius agreed. “But we need to go to Vak Cinter first. There are only a couple ports large enough to give us any trouble, and we won’t be landing at them.”

“Vak Cinter it is,” Krevik said. They got the horses aboard with some trouble, walking them into the surf and up the gangplank into the ship, then boarded themselves, set the sail, and moved out of the bay.

Three days passed without event. On the third night, Krevik, who was on watch, spotted sails in the distance, approaching quickly. The other vessel dwarfs their ship – its beam is the length of their ship. The crew of the larger vesel apparently didn’t see the group’s ship, because it passed by a quarter mile away and didn’t stop, flying the flag of the Karghast Imperium Navy***. Two days later, they came across a patch of water with burned wood, bodies, and other flotsam from a destroyed ship; any survivors, if there were any, are long gone, and there was nothing worth salvaging, so they kept on.

Two days later, during the day, Zargo spotted another ship, flying the flag of one of the Lich Kings. It was heading right toward them, which meant they had been spotted. The other ship was made of painted wood, and was being rowed (there were no sails).

Zargo immediately roused the rest of the party and informed them of the situation. They gathered on the deck and attempted to change course, but the other ship changed also and kept heading right toward them. The rest of the group stood by the rail and watched as the ship slowly drew closer.

A couple hours later, the ship finally reached spell range. It was a true Lich King ship, but it didn’t fly the personal sigil of any Lich Kings, thankfully. Cornelius, the person with the most knowledge of the Lich Kings, didn’t recognize the sigil that was flying, which meant that whichever one the ship belonged to, it was not an Elder Lich King. Krevik, Zargo, Demetrios, and Gareth could all sense the presence of undead on the other ship, including one powerful undead.

Armed with this knowledge, they made their plan. Demetrios cast water walking on Kariann, Zargo, Cornelius, and Gareth; he hopped on the carpet with Krevik and the monkey. The others leaped over the side and ran over to the other ship. Partway there, a fireball flies out from the other ship, catching Gareth and Cornelius in its blast radius. Both men dodge aside, Gareth coming closer to Kariann; whoever it is on the ship appears not to like him, as the second fireball is aimed at him again, and catches her as well.

Kariann was the first to reach the ship; she scaled the side, leaping over the railing onto the deck. There were four humans in half plate (gladiator armor – the type that covers one arm and part of the chest, along with a kilt and leg greaves), some ghouls, a horde of zombie rowers, a tattered and withered old man with a staff (the head of which glows with a sinister purple light), and, next to him, a floating skull with a grayish cloud surrounding it, bone fragments floating in the cloud.

Zargo was the next to reach the ship, but she slip on the side and landed back on the water. Gareth hauled himself up despite his plate mail; Cornelius easily scaled the side (natural 20!) just in time to catch a lightning bolt from the skull as he ran toward it and the old man. Then the zombies moved forward.

One of the men in half armor pointed at Gareth and yelled, “Kill the paladin!” A small group of zombies moved to engage Gareth, and he obliterated the leader with his morningstar. Two of the men joined the zombies, pushing their way to the front, but Gareth managed to deflect their strikes. The other two charged at Kariann, who easily evaded their clumsy swings.

Meanwhile, Krevik, on his magic carpet, attempted to cast magic missile at the old man, but the man's spell resistance caused the spell’s energy to backlash, clawing at Krevik’s mind. He cried out in pain as he lost control of the arcane energies and they grounded out through him, burning out the spell slot.**** Demetrios, behind him, pulled out a small statue and threw it down toward the deck, muttering what sounded like the words to a spell.

Zargo gave up trying to scale the side of the ship and instead attempted a discordant chant to disrupt the old man’s casting, but he shook off her feeble efforts (natural 20).

One of the men fighting Gareth hit him with a large sword that appears to be made of sharpened bone; when he hit, maggots and green ichor sprayed forth from the grievous wound, and the paladin went down. The other man got in a strike as he falls, nearly killing him.

The old man raised a hand, and suddenly all the blood on the deck vanishes.

"That can't be good," Krevik muttered. "He's a blood mage." He also identified the floating skull-thing. He had read of such things before, but had never seen one – by all accounts, they were extremely rare. It was a kazik'nok, an undead spirit formed from the minds of several spellcasters forced into one form and bound to a skull, and was typically used as a spell battery. He guessed that this was where the initial barrage of fireballs had come from. From what he could tell, this one was under the control of the old man; he would need to get it away from him before he used it to inflict even more damage on the party.

One of the men fighting Kariann yelled, “Take the woman alive! Her psychic energy will help power the ritual!” He swungs and hit, a serious wound, but she held her ground, defending herself against the other man's attacks. Kariann hit him again with both her attacks, scoring serious damage, but her opponent weathered the damage too.

Krevik blew a lightning bolt at one of the wheels, blasting off a chunk of wood a couple feet long. The ship started turning slightly, its ability to maneuver slightly impaired. Right afterward, the state (now grown to 8 feet tall) landed on the deck, cracking planks. The wood held, however, and the creature turned to face the two men fighting Kariann.

Down below, Zargo changed the tune of her countersong, attempting to throw the old man, but again he resisted her music. The old man finishe his spell, and 3-foot spikes erupt from the deck. The two men lifted Gareth and set him on the spikes vertically; one lifts his faceplate, and the other pours a potion down his throat. He gasps, chokes, and revives, then screams as he realizes he’s been impaled. The men grab his arms and hold them behind his back, effectively pinning him in place. He starts to struggle, then freezes as he realizes that the men are holding him up – even if he could get free of them, he'd do even more damage to himself.

The old man held up his other hand and clenched it into a fist, and all the zombies and ghouls crumbled to dust.

“I think we’re in trouble,” Demetrios said.

"You think?" Krevik replied. "Why don't you do something useful besides offering witty commentary!"

The statue attacked the two men facing Kariann, scoring hits with claws and bite on the unharmed one and grappling it. He tried to break free, but the demon held tight. The other man continued to attack her, but misse.

Krevik cast spiritbind (a hold monster designed for incorporeal beings) on the ghost, but the multiple minds screamed at him and resisted the power of his spell. He cursed.

Demetrios began speaking the words to another spell, which Krevik recognized as a summoning spell. “Which do you like better, fire or ice?”

"You'd better not be summoning that thng onto my carpet!" Krevik yelled. They were still 100 feet above the deck.

“Ice sounds good,” Demetrios said, as if he hadn't spoken.

Zargo changed the tune once more and finally disrupted the old man's concentration; the spell cooked off with a flash of light, leaving the kazik'nok's skull blackened and battered.

Kariann’s sword bit deep into her opponent’s side; she pulled it out and thrust it straight into his chest, twisted, and withdrew. The blows should have killed him, but he stood there grinning and rolling his shoulders. Then, to her horror, he underwent a transformation. His jaw lengthened; there were hideous popping noises as muscles and bones grew and realigned themselves; spurs burst from his elbows; and his skin turned gray with black veins. He opened his mouth and let out a deep growl. The demon rent and bit the other man, killing him, and he underwent the same transformation.

Meanwhlie, up on the poop deck, the old man spoke a spell, and the water in a 100-ft. radius around the ship turned to blood. Cornelius, who has been battering at the mage's stoneskin all this time, hits him for damage, but doesn’t drop him.

Demetrios' voice rose to a crescendo and then ceased. Something large and heavy suddenly appeared on the carpet behind Krevik, and it began to sink under the added weight.

“What do you wish of me, master?” the thing said in a voice like cracking ice.

“Everyone under the age of 50 on the ship, leave alone," Demetrios ordered. "Kill everything else.”

The carpet continued to sink toward the ship, and Krevik seized the opportunity to wrest control of the ghost away from its master. He instantly learned all of the kazik'nok's capabilities – it has over three dozen spells stored in it, all usable at his order. He swiftly sorted through them, but could find little of immediate use.

Zargo continued to use her countersong against the old man; reelling from the loss of his spell ghost, his concentration wavered and he lost the spell, but it didn't backlash on him.

The demon lifted the struggling man, whom he still had hold of, over his head and threw him over the side into the bloody water (which was quickly drawing sharks). The carpet flexed as the creature Demetrios summoned hopped down to the deck. Now that it is out from behind him, Krevik saw that it was a large, four-armed, gorilla-like beast with icy white fur and blue eyes.

Krevik, thinking quickly, ordered the kazik'nok to cast magic missile at the old man; they strike true, punching through his resistance and delivering grievous wounds. Krevik notices something, however - the old man is not bleeding blood, but dust. After a moment, Krevik identified the effect as bloodguard, a basic blood magic spell that turns liquid blood that leaves the caster's body into dust, preventing it from being used in blood magic spells.

Cornelius twirled his snaplace in both hands then struck at the mage, punching it through his chest, and the old man went down with the lance through him. No sooner did the mage drop than both the men holding Gareth began transforming.

Without the mage to hold the spell's energy together, the blood surrounding the ship began to dissipate.
Zargo, who was still over the side, yelled, “Throw the other one over before the blood goes away!”

The girallon, on Demetrios' order, moved to attack one of the men (are they really men at this point?) holding the paladin. Two claws and a bite tear into him, but he remains standing.

Kariann scored another hit her opponent; he was looking quite battered by that point, but was still in the battle. This ended when the demon returned and punched him in the back of the head, dropping him with the crack of broken bone.

Cornelius leaped down the ladder from the poop and attacked the other guy, easily blocking his swing. His lance struck across the head, then punched through his chest, dropping him. The girallon grabbed the last man with all four arms and tore it apart. The ship abruptly fell silent but for the churning of water around the ship.

Zargo, seeing the feeding frenzy erupt below her, ran across the to the ship. A few sharks, drawn by the movement, snapped at her, but she skipped away from. Krevik, seeing that there was no further need for him, flew the carpet down to pick her up.

Krevik deposited Zargo on the deck, and she went below to find... nearly two dozen peasant slaves, none of whom know anything; 2 undead ogres, nicely preserved, their hands bolted to the cranks that drive the wheels; bone braziers, unlit; and 3-4 dozen small jars of blood, neatly stored on rows of shelves, each in a special holder.

She returned abovedecks to tell the others of her find, to see Demetrios, Cornelius, and Krevik striking deals with the summoned demon and fiendish girallon for their services. The demon made out with 3/4 of the blood around the ship along with the mage's head, whlie the girallon took the rest of the blood.

Krevik also offered the demon the blood from below. It thought for a moment, then rumbled, "You drive a hard bargain, wizard." With that, he hands the spiritbinder a translucent crystal statuette of a woman with long flowing red hair, arms and head thrown back, screaming (though he couldn't tell if it was in pain, fear, or something else). It then took the blood and vanished back to the Abyss.

Zargo and Cornelius set about freeing the slaves while the others discussed what to do with them.

"We can't take them with us," Krevik pointed out. "Our ship is not nearly big enough."

"So why don't we just take this ship?" Gareth asked. He was still moving gingerly, despite the application of healing spells.

"It's a Lich King ship," Krevik replied. "Whoever it belongs to is only a Younger Lich King, but he'll eventually find out what happened and try to track this ship down. I, for one, don't want to be there when that happens. Personally, I'd give the slaves the ship and leave them to their own devices. They'll find land eventually."

Gareth glared at him. "We're out in the middle of the ocean, Krevik. They're peasants – they don't know where to go."

"So we give them directions to the Seven Jewelled Isles," Kariann said. "It's the closest landmass, and they'll scuttle the ship when they get there."

The others agreed to that plan, as did Zargo and Cornelius when they returned. The former slaves were less than enthusiastic about the plan, but seeing that this was all the help they would get from their liberators, they accepted the offer. Since the [/i]water walk[/i] was still in effect, the heroes bid the peasants farewell and climbed down the side of the ship then headed back to their own ship, resuming their journey.


*We use the old version of find familiar, the one where you cast the spell and a creature appears.
**Kyberia, as we learned, is a nation that rose from one of the shattered Lich King Lands, SW of the Poison Desert.
***The Karghast Imperium is an orcish empire; the ship we saw was an Orcish Wavecrusher, one of the largest vessels in the fleet.
****One of the house rules we use is arcane burn (which also appears in Arcane Strife) – if your spell is disrupted, you must make a Fort save to avoid taking 1d6 energy damage per spell level, and a Will save to avoid having the slot burned out. In Krevik's case, I rolled a 1 on my caster level check, another 1 on the Will save, and a 2 on the Fort save. So not only did he lose the slot, he (permanently) lost the use of the magic missile spell.