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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9853820" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 14: SHAKEDOWN CRUISEPC Roster: Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 3                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 3                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 3                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 3NPC Roster:Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 3Game Session Date: 31 January 2026 - - -"There's a message for you," said Mrs. Geshuku as her five permanent guests returned to the boardinghouse at dinnertime.  She passed over a folded piece of parchment, sealed with a wax seal.Opening it, Shiroko read the following to the others:"I'm in," replied Brendan at once.  Lord Totterham was already in the young monk's good graces, after he paid them for rescuing Francis and the three other young noblemen from the Aerie kenku.  Anybody who had already proven to pay well was alright in his book.  The others were likewise willing to accept the offer, so the wu jen dashed off a quick response and paid a messenger boy to deliver it to the Totterham estate.Three days later, the group of heroes arrived at the specified marina and saw the Esmeralda being loaded up with provisions - mainly, two steamer trunks, one containing picnic goods and the other holding bathing accessories and a clean set of clothing for each of the Totterhams.  "Ah, there you are!" cried Lord Totterham with glee upon seeing the group.  (He scowled for a brief moment upon spotting Hoppy, but quickly suppressed his revulsion.)  "Come, let me introduce you to the captain!"The sea captain hired on by Lord Totterham was a seasoned veteran named Ezekiel Bainbridge.  His first mate was a weathered sailor by the name of Porter Shiavista.  Besides those two, there were five other male human crewmen serving on the ship, all having worked with Captain Bainbridge in the past.Once the Totterhams got their two steamer trunks aboard, Captain Bainbridge announced they were ready to set off.  The destination, Lord Totterham announced, was a deserted island about four hours away.  "My wife has dubbed it "'Picnic Island,'" he told them with a smile.Adrielle greatly enjoyed being out at sea again, and relished experiencing it from the point of view of a landbounder - although she greatly wished to revert to her mermaid form and frolic about under the ocean waves.  Shiroko pointed off to the port side, where a trio of porpoises leapt out of the water and kept pace with the ship as it headed out to deeper waters.  But after a few minutes, the creatures got bored with watching the ship and went their own way.However, the new experience of life aboard a ship soon played out.  Lady Totterham excused herself and went belowdecks to her cabin to lie down, the rocking of the vessel on the waves giving her a bout of seasickness.  But Captain Bainbridge's crew were indeed well-seasoned, and they tended to the sails as the captain himself steered the vessel from the wheel at the back.  Kruz stood beside him, as the aft portion of the ship was the highest and afforded the best view, in his mind.The higher elevation did come in handy, though, for it allowed the changeling to spot a serpentine shape pass by the ship underwater, along its starboard side.  Before he could ask the captain what that might be, he got his answer, for the creature emerged from the ocean, flapped a pair of wings it had been pressing closely to its side while submerged, and landed with a thud at the front of the vessel.  There it spread wide its leathery wings, roared in hunger, and looked greedily at the morsels arranged nearby: two crewmen and Shiroko.  Perhaps intrigued by Shiroko's foreign appearance, the sea drake went for her, snapping at the hengeyokai with a mouth filled with sharp teeth.The two crewmen next to the sea drake rushed forward to Shiroko's defense, whacking at the aquatic reptile with their clubs.  "Silislithis!" exclaimed Adrielle, using the name by which the merfolk knew this type of beast.  As she raced towards Shiroko, she pulled out the stiletto Galrich's fang and converted it to a shortspear, stabbing its business end into the flank of the sea drake.  It roared in pain, allowing the wu jen to extract herself from its mouth and stagger away, towards Brendan, who was unwinding the spiked chain he wore across his torso like a bandolier.  Kruz, in the meantime, loaded a bolt into his crossbow and fired over the heads of the crewmen, unfortunately missing the sea drake with his first, hasty shot.Shiroko targeted the sea drake with a hail of stone spell directly over the beast, pummeling it with falling rocks.  Then Brendan's chain came whirling its way, but the drake knocked the chain's end harmlessly to the side with a sweep of a wing.  Hoppy dared a snap from the sea drake's jaws to head over to Shiroko and cast a cure light wounds spell upon her, healing up the worst of her bite wounds.Two other crewmen grabbed the Totterham men by the shoulders and pulled them away from the danger, yelling for them to get to the safety of the lower deck while they took care of the threat.  Neither Totterham complied; they wished to see the battle as it unfolded, although they did have the wherewithal to hang back and let the experts deal with it.  (Each had a rapier, but they were back in the cabin; they'd go fetch them if necessary, but neither wished to miss out on the spectacle unfolding before them.)The sea drake lunged its head forward on a supple neck and grabbed up a crewman in its jaws, raking him with a set of front claws as he got a good grip on his screaming meal.  Two crewmen ran forward, striking at the drake with their clubs in an effort to get it to release their companion.  Adrielle advanced Galrich's fang to a longspear and stabbed its head deep into the sea drake's chest, pulling it back out again in a spurt of blood.  Kruz ran down the steps from the aft section and got closer to the target, hitting the drake with his next shot from his light crossbow.  Shiroko pulled out her wand of magic missiles and fired off a shot, which naturally hit instantly.  And Brendan got in a solid hit with his spiked chain while the drake was concentrating on the foes closer to it.  Hoppy helped pull the bitten crewman away from the drake and cast another cure light wounds spell on the sailor, pushing him farther away from the combat; the sailor, no longer bleeding but still heavily wounded, agreed with the strategy and stumbled further away from the combat, swapping places with one of the sailors who had been hanging back with the Totterhams.Deprived of yet another potential meal, the sea drake lunged forward at a third crewman, catching him in both sets of its foreclaws and biting down hard upon the side of his neck.  The man went limp almost immediately, if not fully unconscious then just at the very edge of fainting away.  More sailors' clubs went pounding against the sea drake's hide, while Adrielle - her weapon now a three-pronged trident - stabbed at the beast.  Finally, Kruz took it out with a crossbow shot to the back of its head, and it crashed forward lifelessly to the deck.  Hoppy pulled the bleeding crewman from its mouth and used up the last of his daily cure light wounds spells on him, bringing him back to full consciousness."What do we do with it now?" asked Shiroko.  Brendan half-jokingly suggested impaling it on the anchor and dragging it behind the ship to use as bait, but Lord Totterham ordered it to be tossed over the side and the bloody deck to be swabbed clean of blood at once, lest it disturb his wife when she came back above decks.  As it was his ship, the sailors bent to their tasks, and the sea drake made a plop as its corpse was dumped over the side, no doubt to be devoured by some lucky shark.  Hoppy used his lesser healing spells to heal up Shiroko and the two wounded sailors, and before too long it was as if the excitement of the attack had never happened.  But Lord Totterham was already congratulating himself on the wisdom of hiring on additional protection for this maiden voyage of his newly-purchased vessel.Close to four hours at sea, Adrielle spotted a pod of whales surfacing nearby, as Hoppy cried out, "I see land!"  And sure enough, his mismatched eyes had picked out a bit of green ahead in the vast sea of blue: Picnic Island could be seen in the distance.  The island grew in size as they approached it, and Captain Bainbridge steered the vessel towards a lagoon off to one side.  But then Brendan spotted something he thought a bit odd: one of two crewmen up along the side-beams sticking out from the main mast had lit a smokestick and was holding it up above his head, allowing a plume of white smoke to drift up in the breeze.  Is he signaling someone? wondered the monk, looking around.He got his answer almost immediately, for another ship of about the same size as the Esmeralda came rounding the far side of the island, heading directly towards them.  As it got closer, they could see the ship's name - Sea Cat - listed on its prow, and a black flag flying from its mast, with a white skull and crossbones emblazoned upon it.  "Pirates!" cried the monk aloud, looking up at the crewman with the smokestick, who was, he thought, likely in league with the buccaneers.Adrielle saw the approaching vessel, looked around, and climbed up onto the ship's railing, before implementing a perfect dive overboard.  Galrich's fang was back in stiletto form and sheathed at her hip, and right before she struck the sea she transformed back into her native mermaid form.  She stayed underwater, heading further out to sea, but running her weapon through its various stages until it was once again a trident.On board the Esmeralda, the heroes and crew were getting ready for the Sea Cat's approach.  Brendan drank down a potion of mage armor and followed it with a vial of antitoxin, while Kruz loaded his light crossbow and aimed it at the approaching vessel.  Captain Bainbridge's crew had all pulled out daggers and stood at the port railing; the pirates of the Sea Cat held planks of wood which it looked like they'd be placing across the ships to allow them to board from port side to port side.  Shiroko cast a still ice knife spell, remaining perfectly still as she did so such that there was no indication she'd been the one to cast it.  But it exploded among the pirates, sending ice shards cutting into the flesh of eight of the dozen assembled on the enemy deck.Lady Totterham screamed in fright, and Lord Totterham had his son Francis escort her back to the cabin to hide, with orders for Francis to return with their rapiers.  Shiroko cast the second of her still ice knife spells, this time hitting six pirates and dealing a bit more punishment than before.  But then the ships were side by side, and the boarding planks were put in place, with Captain Bainbridge's crew helping to stabilize them from their end while half a dozen pirates crossed over to the Esmeralda."Well," exclaimed Captain Bainbridge, "it seems your picnic has been canceled.  Imagine!" he called to the two crews, his own and that of the pirate vessel.  "Imagine having enough money that it's nothing to purchase a fine vessel like the Esmeralda and have it sailed across the sea for a picnic!”  The two crews erupted in laughter at the thought."It would seem," Captain Bainbridge continued, looking down at the Totterhams strapping on their rapiers, "that your days of idle wealth are now behind you.  You are now, as of this moment, slaves to our two pirate crews, and your vessel will be donated to the cause of piracy on the high seas!"  He then looked over at Shiroko and looked around for Adrielle.  "The two women adventurers, I am sure, will both be welcome additions to our ships: I think we'll give you the titles of 'Head of Crew Entertainment,' one for each ship."  He looked over at Kruz, Brendan, and Hoppy.  "I think we'll cut the sinborn up for chum, and as for the other two, you can willingly join our crews and live the pirate's life, or you can join the others in slavery.  Your choice, but after a few months at sea, some of the men won't find themselves very picky when it comes to their entertainment."  The pirates - those from the Sea Cat and those currently dressed as sailors in Bainbridge's crew - all cheered and laughed uproariously.Shiroko cast a sleep spell upon the Sea Cat's captain - a nefarious pirate named Stanton Locke - standing at the helm and steering his ship into position, but the spell had no effect; either the captain was too experienced to allow such effects to work on him, or he had just managed to resist the spell's effects through mere mental fortitude.  He apparently knew the spell had been cast, though, for he gave a wicked grin at Shiroko from across two decks.  The evil smile promised all kinds of retribution for the attempt, and Shiroko's heart sank at the thought of having escaped the advances of a Lord from her homeland only to find herself in a similar position here in her new home.And that's when the Sea Cat suddenly lurched up out of the water, tossing its captain and four of his crew out into the sea as the ship landed on its side and began immediately to sink.<Thank you!> said Adrielle telepathically to the baleen whale whose assistance she'd garnered upon approaching the pod and explaining the situation, using Galrich's fang's ability to allow its wielder to communicate mentally with aquatic creatures.  The whale snorted an acknowledgement and returned to its pod, not liking being in this shallow of water.  Adrielle stabbed her trident out and pierced the body of a floundering pirate, killing him instantly.Four of Captain Locke's crew and the first mate had made it over to the Esmeralda before the whale upended the Sea Cat, and now the heroes found themselves up against those five, plus Captain Bainbridge and his crew of six pirates disguised as reputable sailors.  The odds weren't insurmountable, but they certainly didn't favor the heroes!  Kruz, standing on the aft deck near Captain Bainbridge, decided to take out the leader and stabbed at the man with his shortsword.  But the wily sea captain was ready for such an attack, and dodged off to the side, pulling his own rapier out and engaging the changeling in a swordfight."Surrender!" demanded the pirate first mate, as he and one of his men advanced upon the Totterhams with rapiers drawn."Never!" replied Lord Totterham, as he and Francis beside him pulled out their own rapiers and took on defensive stances.Four of Bainbridge's sailors advanced upon Brendan, who stood at the very front of the sole remaining sea vessel in the general area, the Sea Cat having sunk beneath the waves.  There was a narrow stairwell before him, allowing only one foe to approach the monk at a time.  He swung the end of his spiked chain overhead, ready to strike whichever sailor first approached.  They looked hesitantly among themselves, each daring someone else to attack first, but eventually one took the plunge - and Brendan sent the end of his chain right at the man's face, bloodying his nose and making him think hard about his life choices.There were two of Bainbridge's men still up in the rigging of the main mast, and they started climbing their way down to join in the fun.  One of their companions stabbed at Shiroko with his rapier, catching the hengeyokai in her side.  She hissed in pain and stepped back, casting a flare spell - she was out of her more powerful spells for the day - at Captain Bainbridge, who was getting the better of Kruz in their swordfight.  She hoped she might at least daze him for a moment and give Kruz the edge, but the spell failed to have any effect.  Then the pirates' first mate stabbed at Shiroko with the point of his own rapier, as the hengeyokai had stumbled within range as she backed away from her first attacker.  When a third attacker hit the wu jen with his own blade, she realized she was too far away from Hoppy for the mongrelfolk adept to be able to heal her up, so she did what she had to do: she leaped over the starboard railing into the waters of the ocean.  Once under, she paddled back up to the surface, then reached into the sleeve of her kimono to fetch out her wand of magic missiles - at least she could shoot at the foes who got near enough to the starboard edge of the ship for her to be able to target them.Adrielle slew another drowning pirate with her trident, then noted none of them - not even the fierce Captain Locke - seemed to be able to swim, so she ignored them and headed for the Esmeralda.Brendan was doing a good job at keeping the sailors at bay with his spiked chain, which had a larger reach than their swords and clubs.  But while he wasn't taking a lot of hits, they were trading places and he hadn't yet been able to take any of them down.  At least, he figured, he was keeping four of the enemy engaged with him and not attacking the others.Hoppy was frustrated, not being able to get past the pirates to cast healing spells on those who needed them, and being virtually ignored by the pirates who no doubt reasoned a disfigured sinborn was no threat.  But Hoppy's rat familiar, Scruffy, was eager for a fight, and leaped off his master's shoulder to bite at a nearby pirate.  That gave Hoppy an idea, and after his rat scurried back to him, he cast a cure minor wounds spell onto the rat, with orders for Scruffy to go transmit it by touch to Kruz, who by now looked like he could use it.  Scruffy was off like a shot, dodging the heels of the combatants and scrambling up the steps to the aft deck, where Kruz and Captain Bainbridge were still at it.The two crewmen dropped down from the rigging and swung their blades at the Totterhams.  But then one of them got quite a surprise as Adrielle, having swum deep down below the ship and then raced to the surface, popped up along the port side of the Esmeralda, stabbed him in the back with her three-pronged trident, and flipped him backwards over her head as she fell back into the sea.   He gasped, took in a lungful of water, and sank lifelessly to the ocean floor (where he was quickly discovered by hungry crabs).Shiroko fired off a charge from her wand, striking Captain Bainbridge as he battled with Kruz.  Scruffy showed up and discharged his master's spell, restoring a tiny bit of vitality to the changeling, but he was in dire need of much more healing energy than that.  One deck lower, the pirate first mate and a sailor were taking on the Totterhams, who were holding their own but taking on more wounds than they were dishing out.  And at the front of the ship, Brendan had managed to kill one of the four sailors he was facing, making the other three a bit more cautious in their attacks.Adrielle repeated her previous maneuver, leaping up out of the sea at the side of the ship, impaling a sailor on her trident, and flipping him bleeding into the ocean to drown while she fell back down into the embracing sea waters of her birth.  While her adventuring companions were unused to fighting on the deck of a rollicking ship, she was quite literally in her element.Shiroko, kicking her legs to keep her head and arms above water, cast the spell upon which she'd been working the previous week.  This was a spell of her own devising, using tales of creatures from her homeland of Sokoku.  After casting the coldflame foxfire spell, two glowing, bluish-white orbs materialized on the steps leading up to the aft deck.  There they remained, waiting to strike anyone who got within range; in this manner, the hengeyokai hoped to prevent others from coming to Captain Bainbridge's aid, as it was all Kruz could do to keep up with the older pirate's attacks.  The first mate glared down at Shiroko from the ship's railing; he was unfamiliar with the spell but he knew for sure who had cast it.Brendan swatted down the latest crewman to try to attack him at the bottom of the stairs, and the sailor was forced to back off.  The three hurled curses up at the monk, wishing they had something more substantive to throw at him.As Kruz duked it out with the captain, one of Locke's pirates decided to aid his own captain's cohort and dashed through the coldflame foxfire not knowing what exactly it was.  The orbs both headed at him but he dodged, ducking underneath them and joining Bainbridge in the attacks against Kruz.  Then he felt a sharp, stinging sensation in his ankle and looked down to see a wild-looking rat biting at him.  He looked down, then back up again suddenly as he heard Captain Bainbridge give out a bloodcurdling scream.  Three metal prongs projected from the front of the pirate captain's chest, and then he went flying back overhead; for a moment the stunned pirate thought he saw a mermaid floating in midair behind where Captain Bainbridge had been standing, but then she was gone.Kruz took immediate advantage of the pirate's confusion, stabbing at him with his rapier and then diving over the side of the vessel, to land over by Shiroko.  The wu jen sent a magic missile streaking up to hit the pirate, startling him enough to fall back into her coldflame foxfire spell, which finished him off with blasts of cold energy.  His body went tumbling back down the stairs, to land in a lifeless heap by where Lord Totterham and Francis were fighting off their foes.  But then a pirate got in a good hit on the side of the lad's face with the hilt of his rapier, and Francis went crashing to the deck as well.  Hoppy went shambling over to the lad's side, casting a cure light wounds spell from his wand, healing him back to consciousness and whispering for him to stay down if possible.But Scruffy was still looking for blood.  He flung himself off the aft deck to land upon the face of the pirate fighting Lord Totterham, causing enough of a distraction for the elderly nobleman to cut down the foe.Adrielle, all out of foes close enough to the sides of the ship for her to continue on with her trident-stabbing maneuvers, swam over to Shiroko and Kruz and distributed well-needed healing potions from her extradimensional haversack.  They also grabbed up potions of spider climb, to enable the two landwalkers to be able to crawl their way back up onto the ship's decks.  Kruz took the opportunity to shoot up at a pirate who wandered within view, close enough to the starboard side of the Esmeralda for him to hit him with a crossbow bolt.  Likewise, Shiroko took out another with her wand of magic missiles.The pirate first mate was still fighting one-on-one against Lord Totterham, and was slowly getting the better of the older man.  Then Hoppy leaned in, said "Excuse me" to the pirate as he cast a cure light wounds spell on the nobleman through his wand.  The first mate cuffed the sinborn away with a jab of his elbow, but then Scruffy was upon him, biting at his feet.Adrielle leaped up out of the ocean again, this time on the starboard side, only instead of attacking anyone with her trident she pulled herself forward with the hand not holding her trident and activated her amulet of Kessaia, reverting back to her borrowed human form.  As she stepped onto the deck, the first mate gave her a double take: just where had she come from, and how did she manage to leap up from the sea without getting wet?  But he never got an answer to his unasked questions, for a crossbow bolt came flying up from the ocean to pierce him through his neck and up into his head.  He was dead before his body hit the deck, and Hoppy applied further healing to the elderly Totterham while advising the younger one it was safe to stand up now.By then, there were only two pirate foes still alive on the deck of the Esmeralda, and they stood in single file at the bottom of the narrow set of stairs leading to the small fore deck, where Brendan stood, brandishing his spiked chain.  The man in the rear - who had been, truth to tell, hiding behind his companion, thinking he'd avoid the chain in that fashion - yelped as he was struck from behind with a magic missile spell from Shiroko's wand."You guys might want give some thought to surrendering," suggested Brendan.  "You two bozos are the only ones still standing.""I'm not falling for that old trick!" scoffed the sailor in the front, keeping his weapons trained on the monk.  But the man behind him, not currently in combat, took a moment to look around and saw the chain-wielding freak was, in fact, telling the truth.  Once he convinced his fellow sailor of the truth of the statement, both opted to drop their weapons and throw themselves upon the mercy of Lord Totterham."The only reason I'm keeping the two of you alive," advised the elderly nobleman, "is because we'll need help steering this vessel back to Port Duralia.  Once there, you will be turned over to the authorities, to deal with as they may."  They all knew the penalty for piracy was death, but Lord Totterham didn't feel the need to emphasize that point.  Fortunately, the elderly nobleman knew enough about seafaring that he felt he'd be able to steer the vessel back to their home port.However, before they left, Adrielle got permission from Lord Totterham to explore the sunken Sea Cat.  Granting Shiroko the ability to breathe underwater with a quick kiss, the two women - Adrielle once again in her true form - swam inside the capsized vessel and returned with a chest they'd unearthed: the plunder from recent attacks.  Shiroko cast a detect magic spell upon it and found nothing; the chest was filled with coins of various denominations.  Lord Totterham agreed the heroes should split the treasure among themselves as a bonus for their heroic actions, but once they limped back into Port Duralia - much later than anticipated, and without having spent any time at all on "Picnic Island" - he paid them the salary he'd promised, 100 pieces of gold each."Well, that's that," Lord Totterham exclaimed as the city guard took the two pirates off to the city's jails.  "First thing tomorrow, I intend to sell this accursed vessel to the first buyer willing to take it off my hands.  I don't plan on ever leaving land again!"Lady Totterham vigorously agreed with her husband's assessment. - - -This was a short adventure, with one main fight and a shorter encounter with a sea drake to make it a little more than just the single encounter.  I added the baleen whale as a possible ally, should it be needed, intending to prod Vicki if the pirate forces were getting to be too much for the PCs, but she realized the possibilities immediately and had Adrielle go off to secure reinforcements at once.  That reduced the number of foes to fight off by five, including the toughest pirate of the bunch, Captain Locke - he was the highest-level foe with the most hit points. - - -T-shirt worn: A solid blue T-shirt, to represent the ocean upon which this adventure took place.</blockquote>

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