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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 292766" data-attributes="member: 2205">Alrighty, here's the update.  Like I said, I DMed, and we went just as late.  We actually started earlier, so this was an even longer session than our last very long session.  The exciting thing for me personally, is that it was my wife's first ever RPG experience, and she apparently had a good time and is willing to keep it up with me, at least as long as we're with this group, with whom she really gets along well.Anyway, enough of my gushing.  I think my last update showed the slight change in cast from our first night.  I think Rurik's player will be back regularly, but his wife, Ledda's player, is on bedrest until she has her baby, so we're expecting her to drop out for a few monthes.  As she's also a new player (who had a lot of fun, though) that's too bad, but I think she'll be a convert in the long run as well.OK, off we go:==============================================A few weeks after the safe delivery of DeLaine to Cuthbert, the group recieved a letter requesting their presence back at the guest-palace where he was staying.  They were asked to be discrete.  Silvern, a distant relative of DeLaine's was already there along with his friend Lellyn (pronounced like Ellen with an L, my wife says) .  For some unexplained reason, Falin was there as well, waiting in the reception area.  Bronwyn walked in in disguise, while Jillian snuck in through the roof, scoping out the palace.When Bronwyn arrived she told everyone that some strange man had approched her in the street telling her to beware the son of Lothar.  When she tried to question him further, he foamed at the mouth and then ran away.  The group was a little disturbed, as their betrayal of Lothar a few weeks ago wasn't exactly kept as discrete as they would have liked.DeLaine entered then, and told them why he had called them together.  Apparently the war being prosecuted against the pirates was "in danger" of being won before it even started.  One notable captain, presumably a former pirate, named Gothanius had risen in power in Kaitain, kicked the rest of the pirates more or less out of town and was trying to get recognized by the other island nations as a legitimate ruler.  DeLaine tells the PCs that they're actually in favor of this, but that Gothanius, the Sea-Lord as he calls himself, has faced stiff guerrilla opposition from the other pirates.  In order to broker the peace, DeLaine wants the PCs to scope out the city, find out where the pockets of resistance are, if feasible disable them themselves, if not, note the locations and forces so armies from the other nations can be sent to assist in quelling the opposition and installing the Sea-Lord as a pseudo-puppet ruler of Kaitain.When some of the PCs wonder why they should care, he also makes some vague reference to having a specialist mage at Pellor enchant their already masterwork weapons.A ship is chartered for them to travel incognito to the island, which turns out to be a relatively uneventful trip until they are only a few miles away hugging the south coast of Kaitain island.  There, the ship stalls due to no wind and runs aground in the shallows.  The PCs decide to take a rowboat to shore and walk the few miles to town.  Upon arriving, they find the road easily enough that goes into town.  On either side of the road, the ground is sunken and mostly partially underwater.  Big cypress trees and the like stick up out of the muck obscuring most of their view.  It's mid-afternoon.  After walking just a short while, one of them spots a dark patch, like oil or tar in a pool near the road.  They stop to investigate. (My wife at this point asks why we are investigating a dark patch in the water; wouldn't it be a lot smarter to just walk on by and get to the city?  Man, I love her! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />)   Sure enough, the dark patches mean trouble.  Two tar golems (from CC2) climb out of the water after Falin shoots an arrow into the pool.  These folks have never seen anything like them, and are quickly frustrated that most of their attacks are useless against the creatures.  Bronwyn, who actually has a chance at hurting them, gets her sword stuck in the creatures and it is wrenched out of her hand.  She also gets covered in tar, slowing her down considerably.  Jillian decides to try and flame the creatures with a spell, which only manages to make them much more dangerous, as now whenever they hit you, they cover you with flaming tar instead of just regular tar.  In fact, if one of them hadn't been entangled in the water, they might have been a serious problem.  Bronwyn gets her groove back, though, and finishes the guys off mostly on her own, since most other attacks are simply absorbed into the tar.After this fight, the group finds a small locket with the name Drago on it.  It looks like it's been dropped on accident off the side of the road.They make it relatively easily to the city after that: after all, it's not much more than an hour's walk or so.  The gate is open, although two half-orc guards in half-plate with halberds and big pistols at their belt eye them and ask them a few routine questions.  They pass through the relatively prosperous district called Riverside, turning south towards Old Docksides.  There is a gate and a wall around that district of the city, although at this time the gate is open and they simply walk through it.  They find a small bar right inside the district and decide to go inside to try and use their natural charm to get some information out of the patrons.  Severn tries to lead this effort, but the crowd, which is mostly extremely unsavory humans, orcs and half-orcs, doesn't take much of a liking to him.  Some of them try to order a drink and ask if they can provide entertainment.  The barkeep tells them that if they can outwrestle his bouncer, they can have all the drinks they want.  The bouncer turns out to be an ogre.Bronwyn think she's up the task, although "wrestling" would be a pretty loose interpretation of their fight, since it's mostly done with fists, elbows and knees.  Although Bronwyn is somewhat the worse for wear, she does manage to K.O. the ogre, and the entire party is now the object of some respect and admiration amongst the bar patrons.  They break up into a number of small conversations, each trying to figure something out about reistence to the Sea-Lord, who doesn't seem to be too popular amongst this crowd (perhaps because they're all out-of-work pirates.)  One conversation reveals that Lothar is reputed to be leading a band of hold-outs from a hide-out deep in the marshes north of the city.  Another conversation also knows about Lothar, and says the dwarf Carantoc (unfortunately quickly nicknamed Carrot-top) owns a boat and can take them up-river and off into the bayou where he's hidden.  These two folks have never heard of Lothar having a son.  However, another shifty fellow says that Lothar does have a son named Drago -- and that he doesn't appear to be all ogre by any means.  The group considers this to be sinister news.At this point, Bronwyn, who wants to rest from her ordeal with the ogre, takes a room and goes to bed.  The petite and quite pretty Lellyn joins her, much to the disappointment of many of the bar's patrons (who don't want to intrude on Bronwyn's room, that's for sure.)  Jillian and Falin announce that they've kinda "got a thing" going on, so they take a room together too -- although there's much questioning of the logistics of having a "thing" with a halfling.  Severn, who's not used to spending the night alone, spends a few gold on a companion, but by the time he's asleep, he's alone in a room next to Jillian and Falin.  The other two girls are across the hall.Much later in the night, Falin wakes up hearing folks walking stealthily outside and rattling their door handles.  Lellyn, who was keeping watch, also hears it.  They both wake up their companions and get ready for something to burst in on them.Which is exactly what happens.  Falin's door is thrown open and he sees two humans standing outside.  He quickly looses his bow twice and Jillian and the panther also get to work.  Inside just a few seconds they are both dead.Bronwyn and Lellyn are not so lucky.  A huge hulking figure, like an ogre but with hornds, jet black skin, huge claws and teeth and a massive flaming sword is right outside their door.  With a small gesture of his hand, he surrounds them in utter darkness and then lays into Bronwyn.  Lellyn shoots at him with her pistol, but misses, blasting a huge hole in the wall.  The blast wakes Severn who runs out in his long-johns to help the panther finish off the two humans.  Meanwhile, the half-fiend ogre keeps tearing into Bronwyn, and with two swift cuts with his massive sword he practically cuts her in half, ending her life instantly.  But Lellyn (or Falin -- can't remember which) casts light in the room, dispelling the darkness, and each of the combatants scores hits on the beast.  Seeing that he is in danger of dying here, he rushes past Lellyn and crashes through the wall, falling to the ground outside (they were on the second floor.)  Lellyn swears that she hit him as he went past and he appeared to fall through the wall unconscious.Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything to be done with Bronwyn at this point, so they try to investigate the body of their attackers.  A small pouch with a few gold and an amulet of a skull surrounded by ruby roses is on each of the humans, while the half-fiend appears to have disappeared leaving nothing but a scorch mark on the ground and some drag marks in the sand.  When the watch starts to approach, they decide to put some distance between themselves and the inn, as nobody knows exactly how "lawful" the watch of a pirate haven really is.</blockquote>

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