Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Hindered by wind and rain, the Defenders make their way over the rough seas towards the Dockside Royals’ ship. Several people try to run and end up tripping over waves, splashing face-first into the frothing sea.
Meanwhile, Agar has teleported into the cabin. Before anyone can react, he casts a spell and focuses his power on the concentrating doppelganger. Power courses down his arm and out his hand, striking the doppelganger in the small of the back. With a soft *POOF*, the creature explodes into fine dust, its clothes settling to the ground over a large sapphire that it had been holding. “Nice use of a disintegrate,” thinks Agar to himself, and then he realizes that the half-orc and minotaur have both stopped arguing. Agar’s tentacled familiar Proty begins to wiggle nervously against his neck, and Agar shrinks back as the two hulking forms draw their weapons and back him into a corner.
Outside, it’s been slow going for Mara, since she’s still made from iron. Shara casts fly on her; elated, Mara takes to the air and flies above the ship. Tao is clambering up the anchor chain as the water elemental lifts several members of the Defenders up on to deck. One glyph after another spit and hiss as the Defenders run across the rocking deck, but the magical wards aren’t powerful enough to have any effect. Malachite wrenches the cabin door open and piles down the stairs into the minotaur. He’s closely followed by Tao and a dimension sliding TomTom. The rest of the Defenders are close behind, crowding the entrance and trying to get line of sight. Shara notices that although she’s seen this cabin before in her scry, the magical ship in a bottle is now missing.
Once again, the battle is joined.
The Defenders clearly have the advantage now, but the bulky humanoids are putting up a fearsome fight. The minotaur cleric has healed them already, and the half-orc swings his greatsword in lethal arcs as he tries to kill at least one of his opponents. Then mentally, the Defenders hear Mara asking, “Where’s the half-orc?”
“In the far corner at the back right,” someone answers. “Why? Where are you?”
Mara doesn’t answer. Sixty feet above the deck of the ship, she lets herself fall, aiming her one ton iron body at what she hopes is the correct point. She smashes through the wooden planks of the poopdeck as if they were balsa wood and miraculously comes down directly on top of the half orc. The floor beams groan and bend but somehow hold, and Mara finds herself facing a number of surprised Defenders and one very horrified minotaur. “That went well,” she says, dusting her hands off with soft clanging noises, rain splashing down on her through the jagged hole above. Then she looks around for the half-orc.
She’s standing in his stomach.
“Whoops!” she says primly, and moves her foot. Before long the half-orc is fully dead and the minotaur is knocked unconscious. The Defenders look around with satisfaction, only irritated that the dark-haired woman is still missing.
“Oh, I absolutely can’t believe this is happening.” The Defenders spin. A morose man in dark clothing is leaning up against the wall of the cabin. His face reminds you of the kind of animal you’d see poking their snout out of a sandy hole, and he’s pinching his nose in irritation as he looks around the room. “Is anyone left alive?” He looks around the room, a pained expression on his face. “What happened to my ship?”
Malachite looks at him and growls, “We were… redecorating.”
“So this is it? You’ve killed all of them?”
“Not all of them,” answers Tao, as she kicks the unconscious minotaur in the head. *THUNK* “Who are you, anyways?” Mentally, she hears TomTom say, “Whoever he is, he isn’t actually there. See, he’s leaning through the wall! I think it’s an illusion of some kind.” Silently, Agar slips away, shifting into wind walk form to explore the ship; by his reasoning, anyone using project image must be relatively near by.
Not answering the question, the man looks at the babies with a sneer on his face. “Babies,” he says with disgust in his voice. “I can’t believe they used babies. I hope you killed them all. They’re responsible for their own actions, but I have to say I’m quite disappointed. Oh, what a mess.” He shakes his head morosely. “Lady Tao, you should kick him again.” Tao gladly complies - *THUNK* - thinking, He knows my name! The man sighs. “I must apologize. You’re visitors in our fair city, and you don’t deserve this sort of rudeness. I hope you’re all alright; none of you badly hurt?” He raises an eyebrow politely, not looking very hopeful.
“Some of us are dead,” answers Velendo. “Who are you, anyways?”
The man frowns again, long nose wrinkling. “These people reported to me. They run the docks. Without them things wouldn’t get accomplished. Of course,” he sighs, “I expect we’ll find that out. They were very efficient; they kept people in line, collected the appropriate bribes, kept out the wrong element, and made sure that things flowed smoothly. Hmmm…. Are you going to keep their valuables and bodies?”
“We might,” Nolin answers over the screaming infants. “We deserve them. Why, do you want them? And why do you think we aren’t going to simply track you down as well?”
“Me?” the man answers wearily. “You’ll never find me. It’s not as if this is my real appearance. But I will say you’re thorough. The Dockside Royals were idiots when they thought they could ambush and kill you. I know better. You’re important people, valued guests, not the kind of people I like to annoy. I at least know better. How’d this come about, you mind telling me?” He looks at them nervously, as if half-fearing the answer.
The Defenders explain what happened to them, and the skinny man becomes more and more morose as they do. Malachite steps forward, fists clenched, looming in front of the image and just oozing intimidation, while Nolin plays good cop, asking polite and respectful questions. Everyone else contributes in the conversation, except for Agar who is still searching for the originator of the project image. The man confesses that there is a bullywug shaman somewhere near the docks that has learned how to reincarnate without a body, although he isn’t cheap. The man never admits his true name, but he does offer to make a deal with the Defenders. They go through several iterations of bargaining as he tries to get the bodies of his fallen associates, including the minotaur (*THUNK* ~ "I could do that all day," says Tao), in exchange for the Defenders keeping what gear they want.
Interestingly enough, he also offers to trade the large sapphire and the ship for Brindle’s life. The man says that he is just going to turn the rogue assassin Brindle over to the Children of Lethe, the local assassins’ guild which wants him dead. Thinking that Brindle may still be of some use to them, the Defenders agree to the trade, assuming that the man isn’t lying and the sapphire is only useful for communicating back and forth with him.
As the deal is being wrapped up he suddenly disappears, and the PCs regroup. Nolin sings a glorious lullaby to the children, and they quickly fall asleep, nestled in his arms. He summons his onyx dog Angus to care for them while he helps search, and they systematically scour the ship for secrets. They decide that the magical ship in a bottle is actually gone; the best guess is that the dark haired woman, who was probably a wizard or sorcerer, took it before fleeing.
Standing on the low-floating ship (“Did Mara spring any timbers? I think we’re taking on water, and that might make the r-r-roaches come out in the open.” asks Agar worriedly), they take any treasure they can find and leave the bodies (including the half-conscious minotaur - *THUNK*) in a pile on the deck. Then as a group they wind walk back to the Temple.
And there, asleep in a back pew, they find Raevynn, bruised, exhausted, and covered with dried blood.
To be continued….
Tomorrow: a heart-to-hart conversation with Tao’s Goddess. Raevynn’s dilemma. Lots of loot! And a conversation with Brindle that no one expected….
Meanwhile, Agar has teleported into the cabin. Before anyone can react, he casts a spell and focuses his power on the concentrating doppelganger. Power courses down his arm and out his hand, striking the doppelganger in the small of the back. With a soft *POOF*, the creature explodes into fine dust, its clothes settling to the ground over a large sapphire that it had been holding. “Nice use of a disintegrate,” thinks Agar to himself, and then he realizes that the half-orc and minotaur have both stopped arguing. Agar’s tentacled familiar Proty begins to wiggle nervously against his neck, and Agar shrinks back as the two hulking forms draw their weapons and back him into a corner.
Outside, it’s been slow going for Mara, since she’s still made from iron. Shara casts fly on her; elated, Mara takes to the air and flies above the ship. Tao is clambering up the anchor chain as the water elemental lifts several members of the Defenders up on to deck. One glyph after another spit and hiss as the Defenders run across the rocking deck, but the magical wards aren’t powerful enough to have any effect. Malachite wrenches the cabin door open and piles down the stairs into the minotaur. He’s closely followed by Tao and a dimension sliding TomTom. The rest of the Defenders are close behind, crowding the entrance and trying to get line of sight. Shara notices that although she’s seen this cabin before in her scry, the magical ship in a bottle is now missing.
Once again, the battle is joined.
The Defenders clearly have the advantage now, but the bulky humanoids are putting up a fearsome fight. The minotaur cleric has healed them already, and the half-orc swings his greatsword in lethal arcs as he tries to kill at least one of his opponents. Then mentally, the Defenders hear Mara asking, “Where’s the half-orc?”
“In the far corner at the back right,” someone answers. “Why? Where are you?”
Mara doesn’t answer. Sixty feet above the deck of the ship, she lets herself fall, aiming her one ton iron body at what she hopes is the correct point. She smashes through the wooden planks of the poopdeck as if they were balsa wood and miraculously comes down directly on top of the half orc. The floor beams groan and bend but somehow hold, and Mara finds herself facing a number of surprised Defenders and one very horrified minotaur. “That went well,” she says, dusting her hands off with soft clanging noises, rain splashing down on her through the jagged hole above. Then she looks around for the half-orc.
She’s standing in his stomach.
“Whoops!” she says primly, and moves her foot. Before long the half-orc is fully dead and the minotaur is knocked unconscious. The Defenders look around with satisfaction, only irritated that the dark-haired woman is still missing.
- --> You know how much damage a one-ton paladin does when she falls 60’? I’ll tell you how much: 16d6, that’s how much! That poor evil half-orc barbarian, already wounded, never had a chance once he failed his reflex save to get out of the way; Mara’s fall brought him down to exactly -1 hit points and triggered a massive damage save. That was all she wrote. Mara’s just lucky she didn’t keep falling out the bottom of the ship as well! Very, very clever tactic on Mara’s part, and with 50-point damage reduction she barely got hurt at all.
“Oh, I absolutely can’t believe this is happening.” The Defenders spin. A morose man in dark clothing is leaning up against the wall of the cabin. His face reminds you of the kind of animal you’d see poking their snout out of a sandy hole, and he’s pinching his nose in irritation as he looks around the room. “Is anyone left alive?” He looks around the room, a pained expression on his face. “What happened to my ship?”
Malachite looks at him and growls, “We were… redecorating.”
“So this is it? You’ve killed all of them?”
“Not all of them,” answers Tao, as she kicks the unconscious minotaur in the head. *THUNK* “Who are you, anyways?” Mentally, she hears TomTom say, “Whoever he is, he isn’t actually there. See, he’s leaning through the wall! I think it’s an illusion of some kind.” Silently, Agar slips away, shifting into wind walk form to explore the ship; by his reasoning, anyone using project image must be relatively near by.
Not answering the question, the man looks at the babies with a sneer on his face. “Babies,” he says with disgust in his voice. “I can’t believe they used babies. I hope you killed them all. They’re responsible for their own actions, but I have to say I’m quite disappointed. Oh, what a mess.” He shakes his head morosely. “Lady Tao, you should kick him again.” Tao gladly complies - *THUNK* - thinking, He knows my name! The man sighs. “I must apologize. You’re visitors in our fair city, and you don’t deserve this sort of rudeness. I hope you’re all alright; none of you badly hurt?” He raises an eyebrow politely, not looking very hopeful.
“Some of us are dead,” answers Velendo. “Who are you, anyways?”
The man frowns again, long nose wrinkling. “These people reported to me. They run the docks. Without them things wouldn’t get accomplished. Of course,” he sighs, “I expect we’ll find that out. They were very efficient; they kept people in line, collected the appropriate bribes, kept out the wrong element, and made sure that things flowed smoothly. Hmmm…. Are you going to keep their valuables and bodies?”
“We might,” Nolin answers over the screaming infants. “We deserve them. Why, do you want them? And why do you think we aren’t going to simply track you down as well?”
“Me?” the man answers wearily. “You’ll never find me. It’s not as if this is my real appearance. But I will say you’re thorough. The Dockside Royals were idiots when they thought they could ambush and kill you. I know better. You’re important people, valued guests, not the kind of people I like to annoy. I at least know better. How’d this come about, you mind telling me?” He looks at them nervously, as if half-fearing the answer.
The Defenders explain what happened to them, and the skinny man becomes more and more morose as they do. Malachite steps forward, fists clenched, looming in front of the image and just oozing intimidation, while Nolin plays good cop, asking polite and respectful questions. Everyone else contributes in the conversation, except for Agar who is still searching for the originator of the project image. The man confesses that there is a bullywug shaman somewhere near the docks that has learned how to reincarnate without a body, although he isn’t cheap. The man never admits his true name, but he does offer to make a deal with the Defenders. They go through several iterations of bargaining as he tries to get the bodies of his fallen associates, including the minotaur (*THUNK* ~ "I could do that all day," says Tao), in exchange for the Defenders keeping what gear they want.
Interestingly enough, he also offers to trade the large sapphire and the ship for Brindle’s life. The man says that he is just going to turn the rogue assassin Brindle over to the Children of Lethe, the local assassins’ guild which wants him dead. Thinking that Brindle may still be of some use to them, the Defenders agree to the trade, assuming that the man isn’t lying and the sapphire is only useful for communicating back and forth with him.
As the deal is being wrapped up he suddenly disappears, and the PCs regroup. Nolin sings a glorious lullaby to the children, and they quickly fall asleep, nestled in his arms. He summons his onyx dog Angus to care for them while he helps search, and they systematically scour the ship for secrets. They decide that the magical ship in a bottle is actually gone; the best guess is that the dark haired woman, who was probably a wizard or sorcerer, took it before fleeing.
Standing on the low-floating ship (“Did Mara spring any timbers? I think we’re taking on water, and that might make the r-r-roaches come out in the open.” asks Agar worriedly), they take any treasure they can find and leave the bodies (including the half-conscious minotaur - *THUNK*) in a pile on the deck. Then as a group they wind walk back to the Temple.
And there, asleep in a back pew, they find Raevynn, bruised, exhausted, and covered with dried blood.
To be continued….
Tomorrow: a heart-to-hart conversation with Tao’s Goddess. Raevynn’s dilemma. Lots of loot! And a conversation with Brindle that no one expected….
Last edited:
