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Ghourmand Vale (3.5 campaign)
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9381760" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 55: ALISTAIR'S DREAM VACATION</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Orchid, elf druid 12</p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 19 June 2024</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>"So you were dreaming about a naked man?" pressed Chaevaris, smiling at Alistair's discomfort.</p><p></p><p>"Well, no -- I mean, yes, technically, but it wasn't anything like that," insisted the flustered young nobleman, recounting the dream he'd had the night before to the other members of the Trained Professional Adventurers. "The dream started out normally, and Holyrood Carp and I were sitting in the Dark and Light Club, talking."</p><p></p><p>"Only he was naked?" asked Ageratum.</p><p></p><p>"What? No, not then, no," Alistair insisted. "We were both fully clothed. Carp said he was glad I was such a deep sleeper and that he needed my help. He'd made it to Greyhawk City and chartered a boat with a bunch of other bards headed to some sort of conclave in the Isles - that's all he said, 'the Isles' - and they made it as far as Woolly Bay, 20 days south of Greyhawk. They were almost past Highport when they spotted an island, only then heavy winds came up out of nowhere and the ship was attacked by something battering it from below, something with tentacles that were attacking the crewmen. The ship finally broke apart and everyone was thrown into the sea. Carp was separated from the others, and he managed to swim to shore. He wandered inland, found some sort of villa, and was drinking water from a crystal goblet when he heard a voice behind him. He turned, and then everything went black. That was his description of what happened, only in the dream everything went black as well, and we were no longer in the Dark and Light Club. I was still seated, but Carp was naked in front of me, and he said he wasn't sure exactly where he was, but he had been stripped of all of his possessions. Then, all of a sudden, he was cut off in mid-sentence, and that was it."</p><p></p><p>"And you woke up?" Orchid asked.</p><p></p><p>"Well, not immediately," Alistair admitted. "I was back in the Dark and Light Club, and E. L. Grimwade was there, showing me a book she was writing about me. But then I woke up shortly thereafter."</p><p></p><p>"And your suppositions about this dream?" asked Harlan.</p><p></p><p>"Well," Alistair began, "the bit with Carp - I'm pretty sure that wasn't a normal dream--"</p><p></p><p>"You don't normally dream about Carp naked?" Chaevaris interrupted, continuing on with her teasing.</p><p></p><p>Alistair chose to ignore her, and continued, "--but a <em>dream</em> spell cast by Carp. That part of the dream was very detailed, as real as if it had really happened. I think Carp's shipwrecked somewhere and needs us to come rescue him."</p><p></p><p>Harlan rubbed his chin in thought. "I think you're probably right," he offered. "Is there any way we can check on his current status?"</p><p></p><p>"I can cast a <em>scrying</em> spell," offered up Orchid. "It would have a better chance if we have something of his, something that has a personal link to him." Alistair emptied his coin purse and handed over a coin. "Here you go," he suggested. "Part of the payment from the last song he bought from me."</p><p></p><p>"That's likely not tied to him enough," the druid advised. "Do you have anything of a more personal nature?" Alistair thought about it and then went back into his room, returning with a few letters. "Here we go," he said, handing them over. "Personal correspondence, when I first started writing songs for him." Orchid looked them over and said they should do nicely.</p><p></p><p>Heading outside to a natural pool of water, Orchid wildshaped into a dire bat (in case the image was all dark, she'd be able to see with her darkvision in that form), and cast the <em>scrying</em> spell. An image of Holyrood Carp started to take form in the pool of still water. Carp was naked, in a dark cave of some sort, then walking up a set of stairs, walking through a narrow opening into a sunlit room, where stood a table holding a crystal pitcher and two goblets. There was a pair of statues off to the left - what looked to be a monk and a fighter, both human - and a big mirror on the wall. Carp then entered a room where his own gear was stored, and he started dressing, unaware he was being watched hundreds of miles away by an elf druid in dire bat form.</p><p></p><p>"Well?" asked Alistair when the spell ended and Orchid resumed her elven form. "Did you see him? Is he alive?"</p><p></p><p>"Was he naked?" added Ageratum.</p><p></p><p>"He is well," Orchid replied, answering the sorcerer's questions and ignoring the halfling's. "He seems to have the run of the place, so he isn't quite imprisoned. But he seemed, well...not quite all there. There's a good chance his mind is not his own: <em>charmed</em> perhaps, or <em>dominated</em>."</p><p></p><p>"Did you get enough of a look at the area around him that you could <em>teleport</em> us there?" pressed Alistair. Ageratum had a <em>thieves' coil</em> that could instantly <em>teleport</em> them across the miles, but like any such magic, the user had to have a very close image of exactly where they were going or they could end up just about anywhere. Orchid admitted that she did not. "It could have been literally anywhere," she admitted.</p><p></p><p>So, with the understanding that they could at least <em>teleport</em> to Greyhawk City (a place all five of them were very familiar with), and that Alistair's older brother ran a fleet of merchant vessels, they decided they could at least avoid the 19-day trek to the big city. "It'll still be a 20-day journey down the river and into Woolly Bay before we can hope to find the island," Alistair sighed. "This is going to be a rather slow-motion rescue, I fear." But once in Greyhawk City, Atherton was able to offer them passage on a ship headed in that direction anyway. Alistair promised the captain he just needed to get them to within sight of the island (he showed them on the ship's charts that there was indeed an island in the location where Carp's ship had disappeared), and they'd use the <em>thieves' coil</em> to <em>teleport</em> to the island, so the ship could continue on its journey, hopefully unbothered by the kraken, giant squid, or giant octopus that had attacked Carp's vessel. Then they'd find Carp and use the last charge of the <em>thieves' coil</em> to <em>teleport</em> safely back to Ghourmand Vale.</p><p></p><p>The ship was called <em>Lady Gloria</em>. It was manned by a grizzled old captain and a crew of 19 others, all of them human. They left Greyhawk City the next morning with the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers, along with Ambrose and Carruthers, the shield guardian staying inside their extradimensional dwelling as he otherwise took up too much space on the cramped deck of the ship. To Chaevaris's disappointment, there was no crow's nest - she'd planned on making that her more or less permanent lookout station during the voyage - but with a <em>wood shape</em> spell cast by Orchid and a few choice pieces of wooden furniture from inside the extradimensional dwelling, the druid created a rather comfortable wooden platform at the top of the ship's aftmost mast. Ageratum created a comfortable hammock out of spider webbing from her <em>cloak of arachnidia</em> high up among the ship's rigging, where she stayed out of the way and had a good view all around her.</p><p></p><p>The days passed in relative ease, for all but Alistair, who discovered sea travel was not his thing; he spent a fair amount of time bent over the railing, heaving the contents of his stomach into the ocean. He'd been on a ship before, but that was on an Underdark river - heavy waves were not really a thing below the surface of the Lortmil Mountains. Ambrose spent much of his time in among the rigging, the better not to be accidentally spewed upon when his master's face started taking on that unhealthy shade that meant his seasickness was acting up again.</p><p></p><p>It was on the evening of the 19th day on the water - the captain had said they'd likely get to within sight of the island early the next morning - when Chaevaris, up on her perch, spotted an approaching vessel and called down a warning. It was about half an hour from full darkness, and the ship - which was approaching from the direction of Highport, a city notorious for its lawlessness, said to be ruled by a half-orc pirate king - approached without flying any flag identifying its place of origin, in violation of the laws of the sea. (The <em>Lady Gloria</em>'s Greyhawk City flag flew proudly from the ship's aft.) "Pirates, likely, approaching from starboard aft!" the elf called down to the crew below, as she readied her longbow with an alchemist's fire arrow; Alistair had earlier cast a <em>maximized flame arrow</em> spell upon the group's assorted ammunition as he had every day of their voyage thus far, the better to be prepared in eventualities exactly this.</p><p></p><p>The captain pulled out a spyglass and verified for himself the approaching ship's lack of colors and its determined interception course. He also noticed something odd: the deck was covered in an area of dark shadows, as if the crew desperately did not want to be seen. But the ship's three masts and flapping sails could be seen just fine, and he called up to Chaevaris to fire at will.</p><p></p><p>The ships were a good half mile apart, yet that meant little to one with Chaevaris's archery training. She could have fired off a flurry of arrows one right after the other, but she decided to go slow and steady, as she had plenty of time before they were close enough for them to have to worry about boarders. (Nonetheless, the captain called for the full complement of crew to ready battle stations, and the other heroes made themselves ready to repel any pirates who might make it close enough to try to board the <em>Lady Gloria</em>. The spellcasters cast their normal complement of preparatory combat spells, with Alistair adding five <em>darkvision</em> spells to ensure the heroes could still see after the sun went down.)</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris took a deep breath, held it in, and released her first arrow before exhaling. Her arrow made a wide arc across the distance between the two vessels, before striking smack-dab in the middle of the pirate vessel's forward sail. The impact caused the alchemist's fire to splash across the sail and the <em>flame arrow</em> spell even further enhanced the subsequent explosion of fire. By then, Chaevaris had reloaded and sent a second arrow streaking across to hit the middle sail, followed shortly by a third arrow setting the aft sail ablaze. She could see several crewmembers scrambling up out of the darkness onto the rigging to do their best to try to put out the burning sails, but to no avail - and then, with the ships even closer, she took the chance of sending a cluster of arrows rapid-fie into each sail. She had purchased a full score of alchemical arrows while in Greyhawk, and a full 15 of them were put to use, with only three of them failing to hit their designated targets. By then the sails were full ablaze, and the orc crew were cutting them down from their moorings and using long poles to flip them into the sea, least the flames extend to the masts or deck itself.</p><p></p><p>The pirate ship was now dead in the water. Just to be sure they were in no danger, Alistair cast a <em>darkvision</em> spell on Ambrose and followed it with a <em>greater invisibility</em> spell, then sent his grackle to go fly over to the pirate ship for a quick look-see. Ambrose returned with a full report: the crew was orcs and four ogres, with a human wizard and a half-orc first mate, all of whom were scrambling to bring spare sails up from the lower decks. There were also two ballistae aimed in the direction of the <em>Lady Gloria</em>, but they either hadn't gotten close enough to bring them to play or the pirate captain didn't trust his crew's ability to target with the same accuracy as that possessed by Chaevaris. Ambrose estimated it would be hours before the pirates were able to resume movement. The <em>Lady Gloria</em> put a greater and greater distance between them until the pirate vessel was eventually lost on the horizon.</p><p></p><p>"Excellent job, Elfy!" called up Alistair, and for once Chaevaris didn't complain at the silly nickname, for she was pretty pleased with her own handiwork herself. And the excitement of watching the elf single-handedly taking down the pirate vessel's sails had helped Alistair to temporarily put the constant bobbing and rocking of the ship out of his mind; his stomach was actually somewhat settled, his attention being diverted from his seasickness.</p><p></p><p>Night fell, the night shift took over duties on the ship, and the heroes returned to their normal sleeping accommodations.</p><p></p><p>The sun was barely coming up in the east when the skies suddenly darkened back up and a wicked wind started buffeting the ship. The crew on duty called for all hands on deck, not liking the sudden appearance of such violent winds and waves - they were sure magic was involved. Orchid agreed, citing the likelihood that a <em>control winds</em> or <em>control weather</em> spell was being put into play.</p><p></p><p>"It could easily be the kraken, then," suggested Alistair, his face expressing queasiness at the rocking ship's violent motion. Before adding anything further to his supposition, he made a beeline for the railing and started violently heaving overboard. </p><p></p><p>Carruthers' tower shield had been strapped to the forward mast so the door to the extradimensional dwelling could be placed there and left in place. Orchid opened the door and Alistair called the shield guardian out onto the deck, then had Ambrose go inside, for the winds were threatening to send the little grackle flying hither and yon and the sorcerer feared for his familiar's safety. At least with Ambrose inside the extradimensional interior he was safe from this vicious storm.</p><p></p><p>That taken care of, Alistair cast a <em>Rary's telepathic bond</em> spell binding the five heroes together in a mental communication link, so they could communicate over the roaring winds. But he had no sooner finished casting the spell than a half dozen tentacles sprang up from the sea, three on either side of the ship. They slapped forward, two of them grabbing a pair of crewmembers and pulling them from the deck, while the other four grappled blindly, trying to find others to grab. </p><p></p><p>From up in her homemade crow's nest, Chaevaris looked down at the dark shadow beneath the front of the <em>Lady Gloria</em> and saw the kraken's head begin to emerge from the waves. She grabbed an arrow, fitted it to her bow, and aimed at one of grasping tentacles. She held her shot until it grabbed blindly at another crewman, then she sent the arrow flying, to pierce the exact center of the writhing appendage, severing it and releasing the crewman back to the deck.</p><p></p><p>Orchid cast a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell upon Harlan, ensuring he wouldn't be grabbed up in a tentacle - they counted on him to deal the creature a lot of damage with his <em>Starblade</em>. The paladin cast a quick <em>bull's strength</em> spell on himself to boost his combat capabilities, then moved to the front of the ship, his longsword out and ready for action. Ageratum scrambled up the rear mast to higher ground, planning to stay out of reach of the tentacles, and she pulled out an <em>elixir of swimming</em> and guzzled it down in case she ended up tossed into the sea after all. Alistair looked to the front of the ship, waiting for the kraken to rise up out of the ocean so he could send a <em>chain lightning</em> spell crashing into its head as soon as it became visible. At his side, Carruthers prepared himself to grab onto the nearest tentacle to present itself as a target.</p><p></p><p>Rising up enough for it to be able to see onto the deck, the kraken had a much better time of bringing his six smaller arms to bear against the people on board the ship. Alistair released his <em>chain lightning</em> spell, pleased to see the kraken didn't seem to have any sort of spell resistance - but failing to notice some of the damage he'd sent the beast's way was absorbed by a <em>resist energy</em> spell targeted against electricity. The enormous cephalopod grabbed at Harlan with two of its arms, sending a third after Alistair, and a fourth after a random crewman, with the fifth striking the ship below the water line and causing a horrendous groan of cracking wood.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris quickly aimed at one of the kraken's glowing eyes, sending an arrow flying at it. It just missed the great orb itself, but embedded itself a mere hand's-span away. Orchid backed away out of the reach of the elastic arms, and cast a <em>control winds</em> spell that caused the winds buffeting the ship to abate almost as if she had turned off a switch.</p><p></p><p>Then Harlan was within reach of the kraken. He brought the <em>Starblade</em> slicing deep into the junction between two of the cephalopod's flailing arms and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into the blow. Blood spilled from the wound before turning into a veritable torrent that stained the crashing waves. Up near the top of the mast, Ageratum coaxed a charge out of her <em>wand of magic missiles</em> and sent a trio of glowing darts striking the kraken's massive head. Alistair pulled out his newly-purchased <em>rod of maximize spell</em> - this one affected twice as many spells as his original rod - and sent a full-power blast of electricity at the kraken, courtesy of a <em>maximized chain lightning</em> spell. Carruthers slammed his stone fist into a rubbery tentacle, crushing it against the ship's rail.</p><p></p><p>The kraken hadn't expected this much fighting back, as Holyrood Carp's ship was taken down with hardly any effort. It slammed Harlan with a pair of its shorter arms and sent another after Alistair, who got caught up in the suckers lining the appendage and was pulled off the deck and constricted as the arm wound around and around his body, crushing his ribcage. Another arm grabbed another sailor, while the kraken's two longer tentacles made a play for Carruthers from either side, one missing entirely but the other slapping him across the face and chest.</p><p></p><p>Chaevaris took careful aim from her perch and sent another arrow flying toward the kraken's eye, and this one struck without error, piercing the fleshy orb and sending eye-goo exploding outwards in an exquisite agony of pain. The sonics from her <em>thundering longbow</em> rolled across the kraken's skin, but it failed to deafen the beast.</p><p></p><p>Aiming just as carefully to ensure she didn't encompass Alistair in her spell's effect, Orchid brought a <em>flame strike</em> crashing down upon the kraken's back half. Then Harlan went into flurry of attacks mode, swinging the blade of his <em>holy flaming burst longsword</em> into the kraken's flesh time and time again, the first strike infused with Pelor's smiting energy once again. The blood poured out of the kraken like wine from a slit wineskin, and the great beast gave a final shriek of rage, then began sinking lifelessly back down below the waves, threatening to take Alistair with him. The sorcerer frantically scurried out from the suckered appendage's now-loose grasp, then called up from the waves, "I say! Throw down a rope or something, if you please!" Harlan did him one better: he called out to his celestial pegasus Nova, and the winged equine flew down to the ocean, allowed the bedraggled sorcerer to climb onto his back, and then flew up to the deck.</p><p></p><p>Harlan helped Alistair to his feet as he slipped from Nova's back. "Are you okay?" the paladin asked him.</p><p></p><p>"I'm fine," Alistair insisted, before vomiting up a deluge of seawater onto the deck.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>After the adventure, Dan told us this was just a "travel to the plot" adventure, and that he never intended us to get to the island until the next game session. And I commiserated with him over the stat work he'd done with all of the pirates, which went completely unused. But Dan's come to learn - as my son Logan and I have over the years, as we ran our own campaigns - that you can never fully anticipate what the players will come up with, and sometimes they completely subvert the DM's expectations. (I think Dan had forgotten the ridiculous ranges Logan's elf archer enjoyed when using a bow, and thus hadn't anticipated her bringing the pirate vessel to a complete stop as we left them behind.) But in any case, this adventure took us into 13th level, so we advanced our PCs after the adventure was over.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9381760, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 55: ALISTAIR'S DREAM VACATION[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Ageratum Purslane, halfling rogue 12 Alistair Mandelberen Pastlethwaite, human sorcerer 12 Chaevaris Noarunal, elf archer 12 Harlan Starblade, half-elf paladin 12[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Orchid, elf druid 12[/INDENT] Game Session Date: 19 June 2024 - - - "So you were dreaming about a naked man?" pressed Chaevaris, smiling at Alistair's discomfort. "Well, no -- I mean, yes, technically, but it wasn't anything like that," insisted the flustered young nobleman, recounting the dream he'd had the night before to the other members of the Trained Professional Adventurers. "The dream started out normally, and Holyrood Carp and I were sitting in the Dark and Light Club, talking." "Only he was naked?" asked Ageratum. "What? No, not then, no," Alistair insisted. "We were both fully clothed. Carp said he was glad I was such a deep sleeper and that he needed my help. He'd made it to Greyhawk City and chartered a boat with a bunch of other bards headed to some sort of conclave in the Isles - that's all he said, 'the Isles' - and they made it as far as Woolly Bay, 20 days south of Greyhawk. They were almost past Highport when they spotted an island, only then heavy winds came up out of nowhere and the ship was attacked by something battering it from below, something with tentacles that were attacking the crewmen. The ship finally broke apart and everyone was thrown into the sea. Carp was separated from the others, and he managed to swim to shore. He wandered inland, found some sort of villa, and was drinking water from a crystal goblet when he heard a voice behind him. He turned, and then everything went black. That was his description of what happened, only in the dream everything went black as well, and we were no longer in the Dark and Light Club. I was still seated, but Carp was naked in front of me, and he said he wasn't sure exactly where he was, but he had been stripped of all of his possessions. Then, all of a sudden, he was cut off in mid-sentence, and that was it." "And you woke up?" Orchid asked. "Well, not immediately," Alistair admitted. "I was back in the Dark and Light Club, and E. L. Grimwade was there, showing me a book she was writing about me. But then I woke up shortly thereafter." "And your suppositions about this dream?" asked Harlan. "Well," Alistair began, "the bit with Carp - I'm pretty sure that wasn't a normal dream--" "You don't normally dream about Carp naked?" Chaevaris interrupted, continuing on with her teasing. Alistair chose to ignore her, and continued, "--but a [i]dream[/i] spell cast by Carp. That part of the dream was very detailed, as real as if it had really happened. I think Carp's shipwrecked somewhere and needs us to come rescue him." Harlan rubbed his chin in thought. "I think you're probably right," he offered. "Is there any way we can check on his current status?" "I can cast a [i]scrying[/i] spell," offered up Orchid. "It would have a better chance if we have something of his, something that has a personal link to him." Alistair emptied his coin purse and handed over a coin. "Here you go," he suggested. "Part of the payment from the last song he bought from me." "That's likely not tied to him enough," the druid advised. "Do you have anything of a more personal nature?" Alistair thought about it and then went back into his room, returning with a few letters. "Here we go," he said, handing them over. "Personal correspondence, when I first started writing songs for him." Orchid looked them over and said they should do nicely. Heading outside to a natural pool of water, Orchid wildshaped into a dire bat (in case the image was all dark, she'd be able to see with her darkvision in that form), and cast the [i]scrying[/i] spell. An image of Holyrood Carp started to take form in the pool of still water. Carp was naked, in a dark cave of some sort, then walking up a set of stairs, walking through a narrow opening into a sunlit room, where stood a table holding a crystal pitcher and two goblets. There was a pair of statues off to the left - what looked to be a monk and a fighter, both human - and a big mirror on the wall. Carp then entered a room where his own gear was stored, and he started dressing, unaware he was being watched hundreds of miles away by an elf druid in dire bat form. "Well?" asked Alistair when the spell ended and Orchid resumed her elven form. "Did you see him? Is he alive?" "Was he naked?" added Ageratum. "He is well," Orchid replied, answering the sorcerer's questions and ignoring the halfling's. "He seems to have the run of the place, so he isn't quite imprisoned. But he seemed, well...not quite all there. There's a good chance his mind is not his own: [i]charmed[/i] perhaps, or [i]dominated[/i]." "Did you get enough of a look at the area around him that you could [i]teleport[/i] us there?" pressed Alistair. Ageratum had a [i]thieves' coil[/i] that could instantly [i]teleport[/i] them across the miles, but like any such magic, the user had to have a very close image of exactly where they were going or they could end up just about anywhere. Orchid admitted that she did not. "It could have been literally anywhere," she admitted. So, with the understanding that they could at least [i]teleport[/i] to Greyhawk City (a place all five of them were very familiar with), and that Alistair's older brother ran a fleet of merchant vessels, they decided they could at least avoid the 19-day trek to the big city. "It'll still be a 20-day journey down the river and into Woolly Bay before we can hope to find the island," Alistair sighed. "This is going to be a rather slow-motion rescue, I fear." But once in Greyhawk City, Atherton was able to offer them passage on a ship headed in that direction anyway. Alistair promised the captain he just needed to get them to within sight of the island (he showed them on the ship's charts that there was indeed an island in the location where Carp's ship had disappeared), and they'd use the [i]thieves' coil[/i] to [i]teleport[/i] to the island, so the ship could continue on its journey, hopefully unbothered by the kraken, giant squid, or giant octopus that had attacked Carp's vessel. Then they'd find Carp and use the last charge of the [i]thieves' coil[/i] to [i]teleport[/i] safely back to Ghourmand Vale. The ship was called [i]Lady Gloria[/i]. It was manned by a grizzled old captain and a crew of 19 others, all of them human. They left Greyhawk City the next morning with the five members of the Trained Professional Adventurers, along with Ambrose and Carruthers, the shield guardian staying inside their extradimensional dwelling as he otherwise took up too much space on the cramped deck of the ship. To Chaevaris's disappointment, there was no crow's nest - she'd planned on making that her more or less permanent lookout station during the voyage - but with a [i]wood shape[/i] spell cast by Orchid and a few choice pieces of wooden furniture from inside the extradimensional dwelling, the druid created a rather comfortable wooden platform at the top of the ship's aftmost mast. Ageratum created a comfortable hammock out of spider webbing from her [i]cloak of arachnidia[/i] high up among the ship's rigging, where she stayed out of the way and had a good view all around her. The days passed in relative ease, for all but Alistair, who discovered sea travel was not his thing; he spent a fair amount of time bent over the railing, heaving the contents of his stomach into the ocean. He'd been on a ship before, but that was on an Underdark river - heavy waves were not really a thing below the surface of the Lortmil Mountains. Ambrose spent much of his time in among the rigging, the better not to be accidentally spewed upon when his master's face started taking on that unhealthy shade that meant his seasickness was acting up again. It was on the evening of the 19th day on the water - the captain had said they'd likely get to within sight of the island early the next morning - when Chaevaris, up on her perch, spotted an approaching vessel and called down a warning. It was about half an hour from full darkness, and the ship - which was approaching from the direction of Highport, a city notorious for its lawlessness, said to be ruled by a half-orc pirate king - approached without flying any flag identifying its place of origin, in violation of the laws of the sea. (The [i]Lady Gloria[/i]'s Greyhawk City flag flew proudly from the ship's aft.) "Pirates, likely, approaching from starboard aft!" the elf called down to the crew below, as she readied her longbow with an alchemist's fire arrow; Alistair had earlier cast a [i]maximized flame arrow[/i] spell upon the group's assorted ammunition as he had every day of their voyage thus far, the better to be prepared in eventualities exactly this. The captain pulled out a spyglass and verified for himself the approaching ship's lack of colors and its determined interception course. He also noticed something odd: the deck was covered in an area of dark shadows, as if the crew desperately did not want to be seen. But the ship's three masts and flapping sails could be seen just fine, and he called up to Chaevaris to fire at will. The ships were a good half mile apart, yet that meant little to one with Chaevaris's archery training. She could have fired off a flurry of arrows one right after the other, but she decided to go slow and steady, as she had plenty of time before they were close enough for them to have to worry about boarders. (Nonetheless, the captain called for the full complement of crew to ready battle stations, and the other heroes made themselves ready to repel any pirates who might make it close enough to try to board the [i]Lady Gloria[/i]. The spellcasters cast their normal complement of preparatory combat spells, with Alistair adding five [i]darkvision[/i] spells to ensure the heroes could still see after the sun went down.) Chaevaris took a deep breath, held it in, and released her first arrow before exhaling. Her arrow made a wide arc across the distance between the two vessels, before striking smack-dab in the middle of the pirate vessel's forward sail. The impact caused the alchemist's fire to splash across the sail and the [i]flame arrow[/i] spell even further enhanced the subsequent explosion of fire. By then, Chaevaris had reloaded and sent a second arrow streaking across to hit the middle sail, followed shortly by a third arrow setting the aft sail ablaze. She could see several crewmembers scrambling up out of the darkness onto the rigging to do their best to try to put out the burning sails, but to no avail - and then, with the ships even closer, she took the chance of sending a cluster of arrows rapid-fie into each sail. She had purchased a full score of alchemical arrows while in Greyhawk, and a full 15 of them were put to use, with only three of them failing to hit their designated targets. By then the sails were full ablaze, and the orc crew were cutting them down from their moorings and using long poles to flip them into the sea, least the flames extend to the masts or deck itself. The pirate ship was now dead in the water. Just to be sure they were in no danger, Alistair cast a [i]darkvision[/i] spell on Ambrose and followed it with a [i]greater invisibility[/i] spell, then sent his grackle to go fly over to the pirate ship for a quick look-see. Ambrose returned with a full report: the crew was orcs and four ogres, with a human wizard and a half-orc first mate, all of whom were scrambling to bring spare sails up from the lower decks. There were also two ballistae aimed in the direction of the [i]Lady Gloria[/i], but they either hadn't gotten close enough to bring them to play or the pirate captain didn't trust his crew's ability to target with the same accuracy as that possessed by Chaevaris. Ambrose estimated it would be hours before the pirates were able to resume movement. The [i]Lady Gloria[/i] put a greater and greater distance between them until the pirate vessel was eventually lost on the horizon. "Excellent job, Elfy!" called up Alistair, and for once Chaevaris didn't complain at the silly nickname, for she was pretty pleased with her own handiwork herself. And the excitement of watching the elf single-handedly taking down the pirate vessel's sails had helped Alistair to temporarily put the constant bobbing and rocking of the ship out of his mind; his stomach was actually somewhat settled, his attention being diverted from his seasickness. Night fell, the night shift took over duties on the ship, and the heroes returned to their normal sleeping accommodations. The sun was barely coming up in the east when the skies suddenly darkened back up and a wicked wind started buffeting the ship. The crew on duty called for all hands on deck, not liking the sudden appearance of such violent winds and waves - they were sure magic was involved. Orchid agreed, citing the likelihood that a [i]control winds[/i] or [i]control weather[/i] spell was being put into play. "It could easily be the kraken, then," suggested Alistair, his face expressing queasiness at the rocking ship's violent motion. Before adding anything further to his supposition, he made a beeline for the railing and started violently heaving overboard. Carruthers' tower shield had been strapped to the forward mast so the door to the extradimensional dwelling could be placed there and left in place. Orchid opened the door and Alistair called the shield guardian out onto the deck, then had Ambrose go inside, for the winds were threatening to send the little grackle flying hither and yon and the sorcerer feared for his familiar's safety. At least with Ambrose inside the extradimensional interior he was safe from this vicious storm. That taken care of, Alistair cast a [i]Rary's telepathic bond[/i] spell binding the five heroes together in a mental communication link, so they could communicate over the roaring winds. But he had no sooner finished casting the spell than a half dozen tentacles sprang up from the sea, three on either side of the ship. They slapped forward, two of them grabbing a pair of crewmembers and pulling them from the deck, while the other four grappled blindly, trying to find others to grab. From up in her homemade crow's nest, Chaevaris looked down at the dark shadow beneath the front of the [i]Lady Gloria[/i] and saw the kraken's head begin to emerge from the waves. She grabbed an arrow, fitted it to her bow, and aimed at one of grasping tentacles. She held her shot until it grabbed blindly at another crewman, then she sent the arrow flying, to pierce the exact center of the writhing appendage, severing it and releasing the crewman back to the deck. Orchid cast a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell upon Harlan, ensuring he wouldn't be grabbed up in a tentacle - they counted on him to deal the creature a lot of damage with his [i]Starblade[/i]. The paladin cast a quick [i]bull's strength[/i] spell on himself to boost his combat capabilities, then moved to the front of the ship, his longsword out and ready for action. Ageratum scrambled up the rear mast to higher ground, planning to stay out of reach of the tentacles, and she pulled out an [i]elixir of swimming[/i] and guzzled it down in case she ended up tossed into the sea after all. Alistair looked to the front of the ship, waiting for the kraken to rise up out of the ocean so he could send a [i]chain lightning[/i] spell crashing into its head as soon as it became visible. At his side, Carruthers prepared himself to grab onto the nearest tentacle to present itself as a target. Rising up enough for it to be able to see onto the deck, the kraken had a much better time of bringing his six smaller arms to bear against the people on board the ship. Alistair released his [i]chain lightning[/i] spell, pleased to see the kraken didn't seem to have any sort of spell resistance - but failing to notice some of the damage he'd sent the beast's way was absorbed by a [i]resist energy[/i] spell targeted against electricity. The enormous cephalopod grabbed at Harlan with two of its arms, sending a third after Alistair, and a fourth after a random crewman, with the fifth striking the ship below the water line and causing a horrendous groan of cracking wood. Chaevaris quickly aimed at one of the kraken's glowing eyes, sending an arrow flying at it. It just missed the great orb itself, but embedded itself a mere hand's-span away. Orchid backed away out of the reach of the elastic arms, and cast a [i]control winds[/i] spell that caused the winds buffeting the ship to abate almost as if she had turned off a switch. Then Harlan was within reach of the kraken. He brought the [i]Starblade[/i] slicing deep into the junction between two of the cephalopod's flailing arms and channeling Pelor's smiting energy into the blow. Blood spilled from the wound before turning into a veritable torrent that stained the crashing waves. Up near the top of the mast, Ageratum coaxed a charge out of her [i]wand of magic missiles[/i] and sent a trio of glowing darts striking the kraken's massive head. Alistair pulled out his newly-purchased [i]rod of maximize spell[/i] - this one affected twice as many spells as his original rod - and sent a full-power blast of electricity at the kraken, courtesy of a [i]maximized chain lightning[/i] spell. Carruthers slammed his stone fist into a rubbery tentacle, crushing it against the ship's rail. The kraken hadn't expected this much fighting back, as Holyrood Carp's ship was taken down with hardly any effort. It slammed Harlan with a pair of its shorter arms and sent another after Alistair, who got caught up in the suckers lining the appendage and was pulled off the deck and constricted as the arm wound around and around his body, crushing his ribcage. Another arm grabbed another sailor, while the kraken's two longer tentacles made a play for Carruthers from either side, one missing entirely but the other slapping him across the face and chest. Chaevaris took careful aim from her perch and sent another arrow flying toward the kraken's eye, and this one struck without error, piercing the fleshy orb and sending eye-goo exploding outwards in an exquisite agony of pain. The sonics from her [i]thundering longbow[/i] rolled across the kraken's skin, but it failed to deafen the beast. Aiming just as carefully to ensure she didn't encompass Alistair in her spell's effect, Orchid brought a [i]flame strike[/i] crashing down upon the kraken's back half. Then Harlan went into flurry of attacks mode, swinging the blade of his [i]holy flaming burst longsword[/i] into the kraken's flesh time and time again, the first strike infused with Pelor's smiting energy once again. The blood poured out of the kraken like wine from a slit wineskin, and the great beast gave a final shriek of rage, then began sinking lifelessly back down below the waves, threatening to take Alistair with him. The sorcerer frantically scurried out from the suckered appendage's now-loose grasp, then called up from the waves, "I say! Throw down a rope or something, if you please!" Harlan did him one better: he called out to his celestial pegasus Nova, and the winged equine flew down to the ocean, allowed the bedraggled sorcerer to climb onto his back, and then flew up to the deck. Harlan helped Alistair to his feet as he slipped from Nova's back. "Are you okay?" the paladin asked him. "I'm fine," Alistair insisted, before vomiting up a deluge of seawater onto the deck. - - - After the adventure, Dan told us this was just a "travel to the plot" adventure, and that he never intended us to get to the island until the next game session. And I commiserated with him over the stat work he'd done with all of the pirates, which went completely unused. But Dan's come to learn - as my son Logan and I have over the years, as we ran our own campaigns - that you can never fully anticipate what the players will come up with, and sometimes they completely subvert the DM's expectations. (I think Dan had forgotten the ridiculous ranges Logan's elf archer enjoyed when using a bow, and thus hadn't anticipated her bringing the pirate vessel to a complete stop as we left them behind.) But in any case, this adventure took us into 13th level, so we advanced our PCs after the adventure was over. [/QUOTE]
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