Here's the synopsis I wrote up for my players after their last game:
The Cast:
Commander Darwin DeWare, captain of the Maiden's Spearsoon
Lt. Cmdr. Jean Pierre Latour, 1st officer, paladin of Verun
Lt. Viktor Sluchesk, in charge of ship's Marines, archer
Marie Giavani, Ship's Wizard, Circle of Magic registered
Kevin, ship's cleric, newly assigned to replace Sindael, who was transferred
Marie got a lead on information about Darwin's sword. It took
awhile, but Darwin finally got orders that took him to near to where he
needed to be.
Basically, command didn't mind him investigating his sword (it's
good to know about one's weapons, but they weren't going to pay for a
straight shot trip). So he and the crew headed to the island Haraka, to meet a
wizard named Haraka. The wizard was visibly evil and had a thing for
blades.
So evil was he, that the paladin (who had a bad feeling about this)
went blind in his presence. The party spent the night in his tower.
Though nothing bad happened to them, it was a hard to sleep in the disarming
place.
The next morning, Haraka made them an offer. Fetch some tar from a
nearby island in exchange for the information. Darwin accepted. Jean
Pierre refused to help Darwin on this errand. So much so, he sent a
letter of resignation to the admiralty.
So Jean Pierre watched Viktor, Darwin, Kevin and Marie go ashore
and get attacked by a ettin. They were nearly overwhelmed so Jean
Pierre hopped in another launch and rowed over to help them. His aid surely
saved the day, though Viktor's arrows took the beast down. Jean Pierre agreed to help them if Kevin's Augury
gave a positive sign. Kevin had to wait until morning to cast it. So
they all went back to the ship and rested. Kevin cast his spell and got
a positive sign. So Jean Pierre accompanied the others back to shore, and
Viktor stayed aboard and watched the ship.
The 4 found a tunnel, explored it, got the tar, set the volcano
to erupt (the tar was acting as a plug, once the surface tension was
broken, the gases caused a chain reaction. The party ran back down the tunnel,
and all hell broke loose halfway down the tunnel. They had passed a chamber
with a flooded floor earlier. Kevin suddenly put the everburning torch
out by dropping it in the water. He then began attacking Jean Pierre
and Marie, who had slipped in the water. She cast a Flaming Sphere to shed
some light, just as some tentacles dove into the water. They were not
alone. She then watched as Jean Pierre and Darwin ran past the other exit from
the chamber, as if it weren't there. Jean Pierre then had some prismatic glowing
sphere around him, and he quit doing anything. Darwin began feeling his way back along the wall, at Marie's encouragement. Once he found the exit, Darwin had to race back
and drag Jean Pierre, while Marie ran from Kevin, into the exit. Soon lava began
pouring into the room, and the 3 ran, with Kevin chasing them.
When they got to the rowboat, Jean Pierre punched Kevin,
knocking him out.
The 4 then rowed back to the Maiden's Spear and headed back to
Haraka.
Kevin seemed to be normal again, it was unclear what had caused
his confusion. Darwin and Jean Pierre went together to see Haraka
one last time, to make the exchange. Darwin learned that his sword would
improve as its wielder improved. It would eventually provide some
protection from fire (which would have been helpful earlier), among other things.
Haraka had built it as "insurance" and all indications were that the sword
was not evil in nature. Haraka approached Jean Pierre and claimed to cure
him of his blindness. Jean Pierre no longer had the ability to detect
evil, the ability seemingly burnt out by Haraka's strong evil presence.
Jean Pierre insists that it was Darwin's fault and that it was a waste of
time to research the weapon.
Tune in next time, to see what happens to Darwin and Jean
Pierre. Has a friendship been ruined forever? Will Jean Pierre leave the
Maiden's Spear?