Desdichado
Hero
The next morning, the whole group was surprised by Eladkot's appearance; wearing a bandage wrapped around his head that still had a bloody red mark where his ear should be, and with dark circles under his eyes as if he'd slept very little. After he gave them a few warnings about plans they were making, they put two and two together and realized that he'd been out to see the oracle. (A brilliant moment for me as DM, I must add.) Their shock and horror (and curiosity) were all equally piqued, but for the moment, they put that aside. Eladkot also shows them the book he got at the library, and they decide that going there is a good idea.
Unfortunately, they won't be able to hire on with the captain they've been sailing with; not only does he need a few days to unload his cargo and make up for leaving Jekara with only a single night in port to his crew, but to reach the caves in question, they'll need to travel up a swampy bayou and the ocean-going vessel wouldn't make it. They decide that these sea-caves are what they're looking for, and that they need to head to the docks to hire, buy or steal a ship that can hug the coast and make its way up the bayou.
Sadly, it was not meant to be as easy as this. As they approached the waterfront, they started seeing folks running away; before long a press-gang stumbles into view. They see the small group and think they look like an easy way to finish their quota in one go. After trading a few insults, glares and other macho stuff, they charge into combat.
Sven, manly fellow that he is, charges up to the front of the combat and stalls the advance of four or five of the press gang. He finds that he's not quite heroic enough to handle that many combatants all by himself, so he takes a ton of damage from all of their attacks. However, his noble sacrifice means that the rest of the group is easily able to mop up those who didn't converge on Sven, and when they turn their attention to rescuing him, they find that a relatively easy task too.
At the end of the fight, the only one seriously injured is Sven. Fairlight—who's relatively stingy with healing (a factor of her being a Favored Soul instead of a Cleric; can't swap out prepared spells for healing)—brings him back. Teren'Kol took a few hits, but he's OK—he's got his ring of fast healing 5 after all—except that suddenly a sharp pain rips through is hand and he stumbles to the ground, pale and weak. He pulls the ring off, down 3 points of CON and looks at it—where before it was plain gold, it now features a small red gem—perhaps a ruby—that looks bizarrely like an eye, looking at him. He can almost sense a malevolent being inside the ruby, willing him to put it back on. He doesn't.
Instead, he rummages through the press-gang's stuff, and finds two of them that are not fully dead. He stabilizes them and chains them up. "Eladkot! Where was that oracle?"
Although Sven and Fairlight decline (and go to see about hiring the boat) the rest of the crew drags their two captives with them to Diellza's house and offers them to her for more divinations. For payment, she notices Teren'Kol's lovely elf-skin belt. "Oh, that is darling! Give me that belt for payment, and I'll divine for you."
Teren'Kol has a very special, sentimental value associated with that belt, but he figures that at least where they're (eventually) headed, he'll probably get plenty of opportunities to make another one.
They find out—most importantly—that the ring is a conduit for Fulcrum, the god Fairlight worships, to come back into the world. It will slowly drain CON from Teren'Kol until it's "full" at which point a special unbinding ritual could free him. The ring will still function normally, also, although he needs to use it quick and take it off before it's "aware" of him and attempts to drain some more CON (Every time he wears it for more than one round, I roll a percentile roll to see if it notices that it's been put on yet. If it does, 1d2 CON damage (not drain, luckily). Every round that he successfully wears the ring without getting its attention increases the probability that it will notice by 20% (it starts at 40%.))
After a bit more mucking around in the intestines of their prisoners, they head back to report their findings to their collegues. When they tell Fairlight that Fulcrum himself is reforming in the hobgoblin's ring, she looks like she's been punched in the face. "Holy
, it's all true!?"
But she quickly decides that that only increases the value of the artifacts she's looking for, after all, and Fulcrum will no doubt be generous to the only one of his followers who went looking to restore him, so she carries on. The group boards a small, flat-bottomed boat and leave the dark fjord of Blackwater behind, hugging the coast and consulting Eladkot's map for the bayou their searching for...
Unfortunately, they won't be able to hire on with the captain they've been sailing with; not only does he need a few days to unload his cargo and make up for leaving Jekara with only a single night in port to his crew, but to reach the caves in question, they'll need to travel up a swampy bayou and the ocean-going vessel wouldn't make it. They decide that these sea-caves are what they're looking for, and that they need to head to the docks to hire, buy or steal a ship that can hug the coast and make its way up the bayou.
Sadly, it was not meant to be as easy as this. As they approached the waterfront, they started seeing folks running away; before long a press-gang stumbles into view. They see the small group and think they look like an easy way to finish their quota in one go. After trading a few insults, glares and other macho stuff, they charge into combat.
Sven, manly fellow that he is, charges up to the front of the combat and stalls the advance of four or five of the press gang. He finds that he's not quite heroic enough to handle that many combatants all by himself, so he takes a ton of damage from all of their attacks. However, his noble sacrifice means that the rest of the group is easily able to mop up those who didn't converge on Sven, and when they turn their attention to rescuing him, they find that a relatively easy task too.
At the end of the fight, the only one seriously injured is Sven. Fairlight—who's relatively stingy with healing (a factor of her being a Favored Soul instead of a Cleric; can't swap out prepared spells for healing)—brings him back. Teren'Kol took a few hits, but he's OK—he's got his ring of fast healing 5 after all—except that suddenly a sharp pain rips through is hand and he stumbles to the ground, pale and weak. He pulls the ring off, down 3 points of CON and looks at it—where before it was plain gold, it now features a small red gem—perhaps a ruby—that looks bizarrely like an eye, looking at him. He can almost sense a malevolent being inside the ruby, willing him to put it back on. He doesn't.
Instead, he rummages through the press-gang's stuff, and finds two of them that are not fully dead. He stabilizes them and chains them up. "Eladkot! Where was that oracle?"
Although Sven and Fairlight decline (and go to see about hiring the boat) the rest of the crew drags their two captives with them to Diellza's house and offers them to her for more divinations. For payment, she notices Teren'Kol's lovely elf-skin belt. "Oh, that is darling! Give me that belt for payment, and I'll divine for you."
Teren'Kol has a very special, sentimental value associated with that belt, but he figures that at least where they're (eventually) headed, he'll probably get plenty of opportunities to make another one.
They find out—most importantly—that the ring is a conduit for Fulcrum, the god Fairlight worships, to come back into the world. It will slowly drain CON from Teren'Kol until it's "full" at which point a special unbinding ritual could free him. The ring will still function normally, also, although he needs to use it quick and take it off before it's "aware" of him and attempts to drain some more CON (Every time he wears it for more than one round, I roll a percentile roll to see if it notices that it's been put on yet. If it does, 1d2 CON damage (not drain, luckily). Every round that he successfully wears the ring without getting its attention increases the probability that it will notice by 20% (it starts at 40%.))
After a bit more mucking around in the intestines of their prisoners, they head back to report their findings to their collegues. When they tell Fairlight that Fulcrum himself is reforming in the hobgoblin's ring, she looks like she's been punched in the face. "Holy
, it's all true!?"But she quickly decides that that only increases the value of the artifacts she's looking for, after all, and Fulcrum will no doubt be generous to the only one of his followers who went looking to restore him, so she carries on. The group boards a small, flat-bottomed boat and leave the dark fjord of Blackwater behind, hugging the coast and consulting Eladkot's map for the bayou their searching for...
