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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jydog1" data-source="post: 5342455" data-attributes="member: 48156">Session #11 - October 4, 2010 - But I Don't Wear Hats!notes: bloody good session with a little something for everyone, including an absolutely hairy shipboard battle that didn't leave us too beat up physically, but had on on the edge mentally.  Different characters using skills they normally don't and wild conditions made for a great time.  Kudos to the DM for a great job prepping (right down to notes about what we were thinking based on a saving throw made or not).  I may interrupt the flow of the narrative with more OOC comments than usual just because I feel some stuff needs to be told.edit: oh hell, I almost forgot to mention the scale model of the boat we used, made by the GM, with a crane and bridge and so on.  All kinds of awesome.  If my wife posts the picture somewhere I'll post it here or at least link to it.From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:Riddleport stinks.Maybe I've been spoiled by the relative cleanliness of Sandport but Riddleport just seems like a squalid, nasty place.  Of course that's probably because it is a squalid, nasty place, home to countless pirates and so on.  It's also where Trixie's from, so I'm keeping my opinions to myself.  She's much like a nest of hornets - you're much better off if you don't annoy her with pokes.We found our ship, the Barnacle, and met with the captain, Bert or Bort or something like that - I'll just call him the Captain.  He planned on shipping out tomorrow morning on the tide at 7am, so we headed up to a casino Trixie was very excited to got to, the Dragon's Hoard (on the way we saw the Cyphergate, a huge stone arch that spans the river and is covered with Thassilonian runes.  The only thing I recognized was the sihedron at the keystone, but that wasn't uncommon - there was a whole tower full of folks trying to figure out the runes).  The place was over the top tacky, but also loaded with every delight imaginable.  Owned by the local crime overlord (and thus the head honcho of Riddleport), it was almost too much.  Almost.  We hung together for a while before drifting off to our own interests.  Once I felt that none of my friends were around I made my way over to the parlor dedicated to Calixtra and found myself a gorgeous woman, an elf with honey brown hair and a kind smile.  It had been a while, and I just wanted to relax with a woman that I didn't have to worry was working for the Scarnetti's, who could show me a good time, and wanted nothing more from me than her payment.  Plus I didn't want to hear about it from Trixie and Tofa.  Things worked out well, for once.---Four days out, and I was starting to get my sea legs.  I had only needed to take one of the anti-nausea potions so far, due to foul weather and high seas.  My mending cantrip was coming in extremely handy, as was mage hand.  Tofa looked absolutely at home, and she took great delight drinking me under the table on the 2nd night with a couple of the crew.'Three degrees to port, you dogs!  Tie down that mizzenmast, do ye' want that coming loose?'That was the first mate, a huge half-orc.  I had no idea what he was talking about, but the crew did.  I got to know them as we headed down toward the southern edge of the Arcadian Archipelago, looking for the Serpent's Horns.  The crew was so varied and interesting that I feel I have to list them here, if only to preserve their uniqueness for others to read:- Gennet Baudrin, the runaway bride, still wearing the remnants of her wedding dress.  There might be something between her and the Captain in a  'grunty noises coming from his cabin' way.- Sing Song Sone, who sings constantly.  I haven't heard a repeat yet, but that doesn't mean he couldn't stop for a while.- Cruel Kate, the Helmsman.  helmsperson.  Whatever.  She yells such foul things at everyone I don't know if she's serious.  And yes, I'm aware at this point that i am a landlubber.- Zaruis, a gnomish troubadour, who might be a little miffed at Trixie after hearing her sing absentmindedly the other day.  His voice does not compare.- Big Dill, which kinda says it all.- The Bletcho Brothers, who work in the rigging like spiders in a web.  Incredible.- Blind Jake, who also works up there, with two eye patches on.  Because he's blind.  That's why they call him Blind Jake.- Ferin Thorne, the wizard with a bilge rat for a familiar.  I've been around wizards and I think Ferin here was probably not the valedictorian of his class.  He doesn't seem too interested in talking shop.- Labella Lure, the lookout, who apparently lives in the crow's nest.  Trains seagulls as well.  Not sure what she trains them to do, and I'm not climbing up to ask.- Voris Auld, the dwarven navigator.  Pretty good with scrimshaw.  He and Firendrin seem to get along well, when Firendrin isn't heaving over the side of the rail.- and Old Bonesy, a skeleton with an oft-refilled jack of grog.  He died on watch and they left him there for good luck.  Must have been a fun few weeks when he first went.We also went past the Hollow Mountain, which looked a lot like the face we saw on a statue under Sandport.  I think it's of Alaznist, some sort of traitor or separatist back in the old days.  I drooled at the thought of checking it out.  Trixie just rolled her eyes.  All in all, this wasn't going too badly.  The Barnacle - I suppose I should say something about the ship - was a low-slung salvage ship with a massive crane in the center.  It was well-maintained and I had no doubts that some of the things they salvaged had been put in that condition by that very ship. Still, we were just hired employees, doing a job, and a pretty easy one so far.Then came day 5, and all hell broke loose.Labella spotted land and shouted.  The Captain was at the till and swung in that direction.  I was on deck mending ropes, a task that earned me a lot of favor with the crew that no longer had to reweave them.  Standing up, I dusted myself off and tried not to grimace as spray came over the gunnel and got me in the face.  Wiping with my hand, I had just opened the door to the cabin to tell the others when a strange sensation washed over me:You are good-looking, but you'd look better in a hat.  the captain has a nice hat!!  Go take his hat and steer the ship onto those rocks over there so you can show your new hat to the pretty naked woman on the beach.For a second that almost sounded reasonable, aided by the alluring song coming from somewhere.  And indeed there was a naked woman out there, singing, on the rocks.ON THE ROCKS WE WERE TURNING TOWARD!I shook off the last of whatever had been cast at me and turned to tell the crew that . . . the crew was going berserk (OOC: a siren's song, and while I don't know what the DC was to save I know the men were at a -10 to our rolls.  MINUS 10.  Why, this sounds like a job for . . .natural 20!  I believe Firedrin had the same or else something very high - Londis and Pho failed.  Trixie and Tofa made it. The female crew members were also unaffected).   Some were fighting one another, some were cowering, some were just running around.  This wasn't good.  I could see things in the water that looked ominous, so I thanked my professors for being thorough in their teaching and summoned a dolphin, which sped off on the attack.  Up at the wheel the captain, first mate and someone else were battling over control of the ship.  I sprinted up the stairs as Tofa shot out of the cabin, looked around, and ran for the bow.  I wasn't too sure which one was craziest of the three, but as Trixie's voice suddenly rang out in opposition to whatever the hell was out there I decided it didn't matter.  Firendrin splashed the three with a little fire before my color spray dropped the first mate and the other guy - but the captain was obviously bewitched and brought us further around toward destruction.Bloody hell.Master Pho appeared at my side, and I breathed a small sign of relief until he waved his arms and filled the sails with more wind.  Double bloody hell!  I heard a crackling behind me and turned to see a pair of electrical elementals land on the deck.  My tattoos started to tingle and I started to get that way-too-good feeling in my bones.  "C'mon!", I screamed at the nearest one, gesturing broadly as I activated my amulet.  "C'mon, you want to fight something, come fight me!"I don't know if it was my tone or my waving, but one made a beeline for me, zapping away.  It hurt some from the sheer force, but the lightning was more of a caress than anything else.  I grinned as I triggered my gloves before pointing my palms at it and bathing it in fire.  Most of it steamed away to almost nothing as the ship lurched and I managed to keep my feet, barely.  Moments later it vanished with a pop, force expended on my protection and lightning just another lover's touch.  Trixie fired off a joke so ribald I didn't really get it, but the Captain collapsed in gales of laughter, relinquishing the wheel. Meanwhile quick-thinking Tofa had dropped the main anchor.  Londis came up to the bridge with an even more deranged-than-usual look in his eye and set about trying to kill the Captain.  Trixie and Gennet wrestled with the wheel for a few seconds before Firendrin suddenly became much larger.  He grabbed control and was rewarded by being smacked by some sort of ray from another elemental in the sea, one that appeared to be water.  My weak bond to the dolphin snapped - it had hit something before the spell expired - and I summoned another one.  Then the anchor caught and I tumbled off the bridge to the deck below, landing next to the drag anchor astern.  The captain was right on top of it, still laughing and still mumbling about a beautiful woman.  A conch shell was now being blown in addition to the song coming from an ever increasing fog cloud, and Trixie did something that seemed to counter it, somehow.  My dolphin blinked out of existence abruptly, and I dropped another one as I crawled for the anchor stays.  A few moments later I got it loose and it played out, spinning the captain like a top in the process.  The ship ground to a halt on either the bottom or a reef - not good, but also not the sound of smashing timbers and whatnot.  I scrambled to my feet and raced across the ship, trying to get a shot at what had to be a siren.  I drew near Voris, who looked in a bad way, before the singing and the conch abruptly cut off, managing to see the former naked woman dissolve into foam, washing away.  Pho, his head now clear, look at the dwarf before shaking his head.  We would not get through this unscathed.---I was on the beach of the island we'd run aground on. We were taking shifts gathering logs so the Barnacle could be floated off at high tide.  Firendrin was smoking his pipe when a wild boar sort of trotted up to him, then away.  Weird.  He followed, as did I, to discover a whole mess of boars, goats, and so on, all seemingly quite domesticated.  Hell, they could almost talk.  Then I saw one with an eyepatch.  Either someone here had a sense of humor, or we'd just found some missing sailors.  As night fell we saw light coming from the lonely mountain on the island, and after much debate (outvoting the reluctant Firendrin, mostly) we agreed we had to see what was up there and try to restore these sailors, if possible.  It should be noted their squeals certainly sounded like 'Help me,' and that when Tofa commented on how she'd like to make some bacon the one closest took off squealing into the brush.Rested and recharged, we headed out.  Our attempts to be quiet failed miserably, and suddenly we were face to face with a very large cyclops and some sort of poisonous drake.  It looked like things were going to get very ugly.  Then Firendrin smiled, waved, and said something cheerfully in a language I didn't know.  The cyclops stopped, surprised, and answered back.  The two of them began talking and and turned to ask Trixie to see if she knew what they were saying - and she was gone.  As was Tofa.  What the . . . ?Firedrin smiled and said, "He's going to take us to those in charge, up the mountain.""Really?""Really."So we went, although the women did a lousy job of following us and were discovered.  The cyclops would have turned them into paste if Firedrin hadn't rushed forward and said, "THERE you are, where have you been?"The cave we were escorted to bore the soot and grease of eons of inhabitants.  There was a huge cauldron emblazoned with lurid carnal acts, some of which my elven friend had practiced on me back in Riddleport.  Around it stood three women - one young, one middle aged, and one ancient - and I heard the name Circe mentioned, along with one us being named as 'handsome,' and some mention of us killing their siren.  At least they haven't offered me a hat yet.</blockquote>

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