Old Friends
11/19/369 O.L.G., 6 p.m., Captain Laodegan’s stateroom on his lead ship
The clanking of cutlery and forks on fine Imperial china mixes with the sounds of chewing and the decanting of fluids into thick naval cups. The tablecloth is functional if not fine, and the napkins are clean and soft. The food, though mostly fish-based, includes some fresh vegetables (maintained, though our heroes don’t know it, by a magical larder that would make them salivate), rice and hard biscuits.
The group chats with Laodegan, and it is abundantly clear from the start that their old friend (well, at least
some of them know him from their journey to the Asylum of Advanced Mental Treatment) is rising quickly through society.
From what the halflings have discovered over the course of their adventures, the Dark Emperor, long the absolute master of Strogass and its satellites, died (or at least vanished) sometime in the last few years. Things on the continent have begun to fall apart politically, with some provinces going so far as to try to break away. (Zacradose, where they are headed, is one such place; and though it nominally governs Dyshim, the isle they have departed within the last few days, Dyshim has- with their aid- broken even from Zacradose).
The party mentions the ruler of Zacradose, former governor and now self-styled ‘king’ Stackler, who has tried to conquer Dyshim already. Laodegan nods. “We’ll deal with him,” he promises firmly.
It seems that Laodegan’s faction backs his own father, who was the administrator of the Imperial capitol for the Dark Emperor. He was in a perfect position to make a grab for the reins; Laodegan describes it as a bid to maintain proper order in society. He admits there are a lot of ‘separatists movements’ on Strogass at the moment, but insists that, when al is said and done, “daddy will put them down.”
Laodegan is clearly glad to see those of our heroes that he still recognizes, and though he looks at them with a jaded view, he happily meets the other halflings in the party. The truth is, he is glad to have a new set of voices for a few hours- a group that isn’t slavishly devoted to him. As nice as that is, it grows monotonous after a few months at sea.
When Ari remarks that the Strogassian vessels are patrolling far afield, Laodegan nods. “Yes, we’re looking for arms smugglers. There are a lot of weapons being trafficked at the moment. Obviously that’s a problem. So we’re keeping an eye out on the extended trade lines. My men tell me that they didn’t see anything suspicious on board your vessel. I’m sure we can waive some of the other inspections and fees.” Laodegan smiles magnanimously.
***
8:30 p.m., on board the Proud Pentor
The journey continues. Grey Jorn informs the heroes, “You saved us some money there.”
“What do you mean?” asks Nara.
“Their captain pulled them off of us before they could steal much or charge us a bunch of fees. You guys are good to know.”
The
Proud Pentor travels only a short distance before dropping anchor. It is full dark already, and a cold, light rain rattles down onto the deck off and on. Our heroes rest, and bright and early the journey continues through the rain.
***
11/22/369 O.L.G., Noon
Most of our heroes are on deck. Erasmuz prefers to stay below decks; it’s more like the caverns he is used to. He finds all the open space somewhat unsettling, and he’s never seen open water like this, dancing with waves, thick with fish. Yes, below decks is better for now.
Up above, Ari spies a whale. The great creature seems to be approaching the vessel.
Whales are usually friendly, the druid thinks to himself, and shouts to the crew. “Hey, there’s a whale!” He gestures off the port bow.
Grey Jorn hurries over and squints out across the water. “Looks like he’s wounded,” the half-elf remarks. Soon the vessel and the whale are next to each other.
The whale
is wounded. Moreover, as our heroes hail it and begin to talk to it, it becomes evident that it is Weeweerinwee, who towed them to Dyshim after their long marooning in the small cluster of uncharted isles that they named the Dogtooth Islands.
Nara, Erasmuz and Ari all apply some healing to the whale as it tells its tale, begging for the party’s aid. Weeweerinwee had been traveling with “a beee-YOUUUUtiful mermaid friend of mIIIIIIIIne” when they came upon a fishing vessel under attack by “deevil men of the DEEEEEEEEEP”. The whale’s voice rises and falls, extends some sounds while truncating others. Were it not for Weeweerinwee’s desperation, the effect would be almost comical.
The whale and the mermaid intervened in the attack, slaying many of the sea devils and driving off the rest. Then Weeweerinwee rescued two elven fishermen and was going to return them to another ship. Unfortunately, the monsters returned and managed to wound Weeweerinwee badly, taking away both the mermaid and the elves.
“They went intooooo a lair tooooo smaaalll for me to enter,” the whale laments. “I once helped YOOOOUUUUUU, now yoooouu must help meeee.”
“What are these devil men of the deep?” Erasmuz asks nervously. “They don’t sound like fun.”
“Sea devils,” grumbles Grey Jorn. “
Sahuagin. Very dangerous. They’re devil-worshiping fish-men.”
“PLEEEEAAASE,” begs Weeweerinwee.
“Fish-men?” This seems to perk Erasmuz’ interest.*
The party discusses it, and the newer group, Ari, Erasmuz and Nara, decides to use some
water breathing magic and check it out. Grey Jorn and the captain are clearly very nervous about remaining in shark-infested waters for any length of time, and it requires a bribe of 150 gp to get him to agree to stay for a full 24 hours. “That ought to give us enough time to take a trip or two down,” Nara states.
“Dooon’t delay,” Weeweerinwee says. “Sahuagin eeeat peeeople.”
A combination of
water breathing on everyone,
freedom of movement on Nara and
wild shaping into a shark follows, with Nara and Erasmuz then grabbing onto the whale as it swims out to the sahuagin lair. There is deposits them, promising to stay relatively close, but warning them that it cannot enter the small passage. Plainly, this is nothing short of literal truth. The passage is shaped from a living coral reef, extending back into the darkness.
Ari slowly moves in- then jerks back. A starfish that is easily 6’ across starts to reach a massive arm at him from the ceiling. He returns to his halfling form, drawing out a dagger. “Starfish!” he cries. Both Erasmuz and Nara retreat, as well. Her hair waves in the water; he is shaven-headed and has no such aesthetically pleasing element. He does, however, cast
mage armor, following this with a manifestation of
force screen.
Nara strides forward. “What’s a starfish?” she asks as she enters the cave. “Oh- that!” She jabs her morning star at the creature, nailing it with the spike. Suddenly, several squids appear, summoned by Ari, and they begin trying to tear the starfish to bits. Nara continues to pound away, and taking heart, Erasmuz moves up with his wee little rapier. Poke! He pierces it too. The starfish is looking to be in pretty bad shape, but then suddenly our heroes have other things to worry about.
The devil men of the deep arrive.
Hideous shark-toothed brutes, green in color, the sahuagin are tenacious foes of mankind. They are shark-like in appetite, brutal in approach, without remorse in character. They serve the Great Shark, He Who Devours, the Eater of Everything, Sekolah. With them are a pair of large sharks. One of the sharks twitches its tail and shoots forward, chomping at one of the summoned squids. Behind it a quartet of sahuagin fire underwater crossbows, their bolts whizzing past. At the rear, barely illuminated by the
light on Nara’s morning star, another of the sea devils mounts the second shark.
Ari pulls out all the summons he can. The party turns to repelling this formidable assault, and more and more summoned allies pop out to help them. The sahuagin and their shark tear into the squids (mmmm, calamari) and eventually our heroes are driven off having only slain a single sahuagin. A timely
entangle keeps any pursuit from slaying and eating our heroes, and a quick call for Weeweerinwee soon leads to a quick departure back to the ship.
“We can’t do it,” Ari says pessimistically. “They’re too tough.”
“Maybe if we go in in force,” suggests Naomi. But she wonders:
Will my pyromancy work under water? Probably not.
“Well, either way,” Erasmuz says, “we should summon a bard and tell him all about it!” With a flourish, he produces his
wand of summon bard and activates it. A dolphin appears, dropping onto the deck with a squeal of surprise. An instant later, it shape changes into a silvery-skinned humanoid- a merellin.
“Who are you?” he demands. “Where am I? How did you bring me here?”
“Hey, relax, buddy!” exclaims Erasmuz with a smile. He explains the party’s situation (recounting some exaggerated stories along the way) and asks him, “Do your people live around here? Do you think they would help us?”
“I could ask,” the bard replies uneasily. “And we hate the sea devils- they are our worst enemies. Them and their shark allies.”
“When could you get here?”
“I don’t know where I am,” the merellin reminds him.
Fortunately, the ship’s captain has charts of the local hazards and features, and using this the merellin ascertains his position. He says, “If they left immediately upon my return and swam hard, they might make it by dawn.”
“We have until noon,” Erasmuz nods. “We have plenty of time.”
“We should go. This is asking for trouble.” Ari shakes his head balefully.
“All right,” says Martini. “In the morning, hopefully with allies, we storm them in force.”
Next Time: Our heroes make their strike on the sea devils!
*Terrible irony time here. Erasmuz is all kinds of multiclassed. He has one level of ranger, with the favored enemy of humanoid (aquatic) with the intent of using it against kuo-toa, so he thought, “Hmm, sahuagin = aquatic humanoid?” Well, I started to design these sahuagin encounters with half a nod to his favored enemy, and then discovered that sahuagin are monstrous humanoids, not humanoids. It was only after that that he looked up kuo-toan and realized that they are also monstrous humanoids.
So now it’s become part of his back story- he dropped out of rangering after he chose the wrong favored enemy.
Funny, but sad at the same time. On the other hand, mermaids are humanoid (aquatic) so if they find Weeweerinwee’s mermaid friend... who knows? (So are those tasty locathah!)
