Swashbuckling in Freeport Returns

[Morrow]

How'd They Do That?

All right, fun facts that are only fun for me. Rewind a bit to the confrontation with the Sculptor in the lair beneath the Lord Mayor's mansion. As I mentioned in passing the place was full of statues, people turned to stone by the beholder. It didn't get much attention in the recap because it didn't make much impression on my players. They briefly considered returning some of the petrified adventures to life solely for the purpose of killing them and taking their stuff. Since it truly is a neutrally aligned party, and not an evilly aligned one they didn't go through with it, but without a good character in the bunch no one suggested saving all those poor saps for purely altruistic reasons.

I was pretty confident that the party wasn't going to go crazy with the stone to flesh spells, but I couldn't be absolutely sure. So I felt the need to have some idea of who all those people were, but didn't want to spend a lot of time on it. So I decided that they would all be versions of characters from games I had played or DMed. I jotted down a list of names and a few details so I'd have someplace to start if I needed honest to goodness D&D 3.5 stats for anyone. Just for kicks, here is the list:

From the very first campaign I ran, back in my 'red box' D&D days:

• Hawk Falconside (CG human Ftr 7/ Holy Liberator 5) - My brother's first character.
• Sparrow Falconside (CG human Sor 10) - Hawk's sister and cohort, in 3.5 terms.
• Kira (N halfling Rog 3/ Ftr 2/ Drd 7) - My sister's first character.
• Flynn (N human Rog 12)
• Garth (CN human Wiz 12)

From a one-on-one campaign I ran for a friend of mine in junior high. The most memorable event of a the campaign was a romp through X2: Castle Amber.

• Rax (NG half-elf Wiz 5)
• Subatai (N human Rog 3/ Rgr 2)

Yet another short lived campaign set in the Known World's (or should I say Mystara's) Serraine, the Flying City. I'm afraid I don't remember the names and would have had to scramble if the PCs actually ended up talking to these folks.

• (NG tauric elf pegasus Ftr 1/ Wiz 1) - A pegataur, an elf/ pegasus centaur-like creature.
• (CG halfling Rog 2) - Originally a wood drake, a faerie creature who transformed between halfling, elf, and dragonlike forms.

A campaign I ran in college using the Rules Cyclopedia, this one also spent most of the campaign in Castle Amber.

• Tsien (LN human Mnk 5)
• Tristan (NG elf Ftr 5) - Poor Tristan started his life as a human, but was killed by the Beast of Averoigne and reincarnated as an elf toward the end of the campaign. Comically under those rules it meant he came back to life with potent spellcasting abilities.
• (CN elf rogue 5) - Another wood drake with a forgotten name, she was a compromise with a player whose original position was that she would only join the group if allowed to play a demon.

From a D&D 3.0 Forgotten Realms campaign that ended too soon, "The Beacon Covenant."

• Hern (N human Rgr 1/ Drd 4) My first 3.0 character. Yahoo! I'm too lazy to dig up my campaign notes, so he's the only one that gets a name.
• elf Ftr 4/ Wiz 1
• half-elf Brd 5
• half-hobgoblin (don't ask) Clr 5

From the much loved Against the Elves campaign.

• Thar (NE goblin Clr 9 of Aster) - Originally a cleric of Maglibyuet, but different game, different pantheon. What are you going to do?
• Rhuun (NE goblin Rog 3/ Ftr 4)
• Moroku (CE orc Sor 9)
• Atarax (CE goblin Brd 9)
• Kriggle (LE kobold Pal 7) It made sense in Against the Elves, but I'm glad I never had to explain Kriggle in the context of Swashbuckling in Freeport.
• Kriggle's loyal riding lizard.

And finally, gone but not forgotten characters from The Knights of Ill Fortune. It looks like by the time I got this far down the list I stopped trying to come up with classes and levels.

• Shinobi Killfist (CN half-orc Rog 1)
• Thror Greedybastard (LN dwarf Clr 1 of Maal) Knights of Ill Fortune used the same pantheon as Swashbuckling in Freeport! I'm saved!
• Throgdizar Thickskin(CN half-orc Brb 1)
• Gwa~ yah, whatever (LG elf Pal 1)
• Kid Presentable
• Geese Fly South In Winter
• Aeieielieilo
• Throgdigar the half-orc cleric
• Stumpy the dwarf wizard
• Featherkill
• Cedric
• Duh, the gnome farmer (gnome commoner 5)
• Kale, Agent of the Empire
• Throgdazurg, Brain Splasher of Clan Throg (CN half-orc Brb 2/ psychic warrior 3)
• Amid
• Kale, Agent of the Empire
• Evand Stoneheart

And finally, the last of the adventurers turned statues.

• Plumbob, the garden gnome (NG gnome Wiz 2) - Poor Plumbob isn't a re purposed character, I just thought that the idea of a gnome wizard in a pointy hat who was turned to stone while under the effects of a reduce person spell was funny. Apparently I was right. Sully put him in her handy haversack and plans to use him as a doorstop or something. Why is he named Plumbob, you ask? Some time ago my wife and I decided that all gnomes should be named after objects. I don't know why.

 

[Morrow]

Session 34

The party returned to Aster’s temple battered and demoralized. Elias reported that Bronson had a visitor, a loremaster named Arakel. Suspicious of her late arrival the party used a battery of divinations to determine that the diviner meant no harm. Arakel apologized, explaining that she had approached at such a late hour assuming that Aster’s followers kept a nocturnal schedule. She explained that she had only recently come to the city. She was curious about the teachings of Aster and had heard good things about the party’s work defending Freeport. Brother Norton, from the Temple of Tinel, had recommended seeking them out.

Tavaari remained suspicious but the rest of the party recognized the trustworthy glow that only comes from a new player character and quickly accepted Arakel’s presence and turned their attention to the vampire spawn. The spawn, who had only recently been turned could offer little information. They knew that the vampires were lead by someone they had never seen and knew only as The Lady. However, they were able to confirm the location of the vampires' lair, an abandoned smuggler's cave beneath the docks near the tavern known as the Black Gull. Protected by a maze of flooded tunnels, the vampires felt reasonably safe. They accessed the caves in gaseous form through a narrow crack connecting to the sewers.

After a quick consultation the party agreed that they were unprepared to enter a nest of vampires after dark. Bronson and Queg stayed at the temple while Nate, Sully, Tavaari, and Arakel went to seek out Tavaari’s sister, Arla Fairwind, at the Scholar’s Quill. In spite of the late hour the party was concerned that delaying would leave Arla vulnerable to the vampires. Bill returned to the Big Booty, Jack left to attend to Tavaari’s criminal enterprise, and Marcus went his own way.

Nate, Sully, Tavaari, and Arakel soon reached the Scholar’s Quill, a small inn in Drac’s End where Bronson, Nate, and Sully had lived when they first arrived in Freeport. Tavaari had recommended it to Arla as a quiet out of the way place to stay. Upon arrival they found the front door standing open, and Dezi the proprietor dead on the threshold, her throat torn out. A search of the house found Arla’s room abandoned, with tell tale signs of a struggle including a scorched mark on the floor that Arakel identified as the result of a call lightning spell. They found another room whose occupant had been killed before even leaving bed. A third room bore signs of a struggle and the window was shattered from the inside.

Finding no further clues the party left the Quill, only to have Tavaari’s familiar, Kitty, discover another body in a nearby alley. The body was that of a warrior, his blade shattered at his side and his body showing the signs of having been killed by repeated energy drain attacks. His clothes and gear identified him as Dezi’s border who had tried to escape by throwing himself out the window.

While the rest of the party was investigating Arla’s disappearance Bronson received another visitor. Sonsimoth returned with a tall dark woman in expensive clothes. She identified herself as Lady Lydia Ducanes, the leader of Freeport’s native vampires. Lady Ducanes responded coolly to Bronson’s enthusiastic greeting, admitting to avoiding his prior attempts at contact. However, she the current situation was a special case. The vampire hunters had already killed one of her children and represented a considerable threat to Freeport’s undead population. She observed that it was only a matter of time before the Temple of Aster became a target. She encouraged Bronson to eliminate the foreign vampires and their hunters and explained that she had instructed her children to lie low until the situation was resolved. At Bronson’s insistence she agreed to meet with him again should he successfully resolve the current difficulties.

Arakel, Nate, Sully, and Tavaari returned to the temple of Aster just in time to see a tall woman pass through the gates, pause, and transform into a cloud of bats who flew off into the darkness.

Much of the next day was spent preparing for the party’s coming confrontation with the vampires. Nate informed the authorities of the slaughter at the Scholar’s Quill and arranged a funeral for Dezi. Sully purchased a new set of armor. The others prepared in their own ways, and by late afternoon were ready. They rendezvoused at the Black Gull but quickly realized that there was no easy access to the sewers. While Nate used his lyre of building to construct a suitable access Arakel sent an arcane eye on ahead. She soon discovered the crack that allowed access from the sewers to the smuggler’s caves the vampire spawn had described. Unfortunately the fissure was barely an inch wide, sufficient for a vampire in mist form, or even an arcane eye, but hardly suitable for a party of adventurers. Beyond the fissure the eye found a small cave system filled with several mounds of earth. Protruding from several of the mounds were coffins.

Growing impatient with Nate’s approach, and realizing that surprise offered the best likelihood of success, Arakel cast greater teleport to move the entire party directly into the vampires’ lair.

The dual advantages of surprise and proper preparation proved decisive. Arakel’s maximized fireball started the festivities off with a bang. Nate and Tavaari made short work of the Guardsmen, a pair of spike chain wielding vampire fighters. Pyotar Umarov, the blackguard, hardly emerged from his coffin before falling before a withering series of blows from Sully. Even the formidable rogue Tarn Edis was on the defensive. One of the mounds of earth proved to be a gravedirt golem, but Queg was well prepared to battle another golem, and held the formidable necromantic creation at bay. Then the Lady appeared. Having hidden her own coffin in a rope trick she had time to prepare before engaging the party. She cut the battlefield in half by conjuring a wall of moaning souls. Sully and Tavaari were left to face the lady while the rest of the party faced the golem and the remaining vampires. Tavaari stopped dead in his tracks, “Mom?”

Sully found herself flanked by a pair of undead shadows. She nimbly dodged their grasping hands and retaliated with two quick slashes of her enchanted blade, dispersing the undead creatures before they could attack again.

The undead creature who was once Gabriella, empress of Thonia stood before her son. "I have found you at last."

"What happened to you mother? Why are you doing this?" Tavaari asked, his face twisted by sorrow."

"What did you think happened to me when I was thrown defenseless from the palace?" Gabriella asked. "Lorrem Erendyl is responsible for my fall. When I finally destroy him he will know that his line has been wiped out. His children have become my children. They will stand beside me when I destroy him."

"How many siblings do I have? How many of them have you killed?"

Gabriella smiled, her feral countenance seeming almost alive again. "Stand with me, my son. You have suffered as well. Together we will have our revenge."

"No," said Tavaari, sadly. "This cannot be allowed to continue. "Goodbye mother."

In the blink of an eye Tavaari's form shifted and grew. In his place was a great red dragon. Gabriella's eyes opened wide as her son's fangs and teeth tore into her undead flesh. She fought back fiercely, but her son's strength was to great. By the time Arakel dispelled the wall dividing the battlefield Empress Gabriella was no more.

The battle was over. As Arakel and Sully picked over the bodies retrieving magical baubles and gold Tavaari located Arla's coffin beneath one of the mounds of dirt. "She'll wake up in a few days." offered Bronson.

"I'll leave her a message to come find me when she wakes up." replied Tavaari. "And send a couple men down to wait for her. She'll be hungry."

Bronson openned his mouth to reply, but then stopped as he received a sending from Brother Norton at the temple of Tinel. After a pause he spoke to empty air, "Yes. Bring everyone you can."

The cleric turned to his friends. "The vampire hunters are attacking my temple. We have get back there."

After some hurried preparations the party gathered around Arakel. In a flash of light the party teleported to the temple of Aster. Except the office they found themselves in was not Bronson’s. They were in the temple of Tinel! A short middle aged human woman sat behind a large desk piled high with books. She looked up in surprise and Bronson recognized Mother Isabella, who had come from the mainland to take over the temple after the 'retirement' of Father Thuron. “I’m very sorry!” Exclaimed Arakel, flushing with embarrassment. “Wrong temple. My name is Arakel.”

“Oh, yes,” replied mother Isabella. “Brother Norton mentioned you. And I recognize the rest of you as well. You did give me a start.”

Bronson apologized effusively, but Mother Isabella waved away his explanations. “I can see you are in a hurry. You all know the way out.”

As the party hurried to leave Mother Isabella regarded Arakel above her glasses. “Perhaps you’d better practice that teleport a little more, hmm?” She held Arakel’s gaze for a moment before returning to her work. As the door clicked shut she jotted a note. “Dimension Lock my office.”

 

[Morrow]

Arakel Rossimun

Arakel Rossimun is the daughter and apprentice to the late Bannek Rossimun, wizard and former Lord of a small province named Techan. When she was three her uncle Asremac usurped the lordship from her father. Asremac was general of Techan's small army and had the support of the Lord of the neighboring province of Octenbrook. She has dim memories of her escape from Techan during the uprising. Fire, screams, her nurse being cut down just after getting the young girl to Bannek.

Father and daughter eventually took refuge in the Murmur Wood. A place where the barrier between this world and that of the supernatural was far weaker than it should be. Outsiders to the woods have trouble sleeping there as they can hear voices just beyond earshot. Making promises. The people who live there don't seem to notice the voices.

They found themselves in a community of outcasts and pariahs. Not bad people per se, but those who, for whatever reason, choose to make this place their home. Inside of a year they had made a home for themselves and Arakel was helping her father in his laboratory. When she was twelve he formally declared her his apprentice.

When she turned 17 her father told her the whole story of his brother's betrayal. Arakel soon left the Murmur Woods and adventured in the provinces bordering Techan and Octenbrook. She didn't know what she wanted to do about her uncle. She hated what he had done to her father, but hating the actions of a man is entirely different from hating the man himself. Especially when that man is blood kin. There was nothing she could do at that stage anyway. She was young, inexperienced and had no allies beyond the haunted woods.

She did make strong friends of her fellow adventurers. Most notably a warrior-smith named Kushervrick who could, through family secrets, forge magical items. This despite the fact that he was not a spellcaster himself. They loved each other deeply.

When she was 22 she sent a message to a ranger friend of hers in the Murmur Wood asking for his assistance and whatever other persons he could gather in helping her group stop the invasion of a border town. Tragically her father joined the ranger and was killed in an ambush en route to the town.

The death of her father effected her profoundly. Her uncle was no longer some distant problem, a thought from the back of your head that only comes out in the quiet, dull times. He now was the man keeping Arakel from burying her father in the family tombs.
It took her another year to gather the allies that she needed and then she moved on her uncle. In the end her uncle was slain in battle and her father buried in his rightful place. There was, of course, a high price for the victory; Kushervrick was one of many friends that died.

She remained in Techan long enough to bury her father and Kushervrick. A cousin, blameless in Bannek's exile, assumed the Lordship. She has spent some time grieving and has decided to explore again.

 

[Morrow]

The walls surrounding the temple of Aster were pierced by a large hole, a ten foot stretch of wall had been reduced to dust. Inside a great battle raged. Bronson’s undead followers, lead by Elias Scrimm, battled dozens of warriors and clerics wearing the symbols of Mormekar and Maal. Over the raging battle the party could see that the doors to the temple had been torn asunder, and a group, clearly experienced adventurers from their equipment and demeanor moving inside.

The party dimension doored across the battlefield, taking their opponents by surprise. They struck hard and fast against those who would violate the temple of Aster. A female cleric of Maal, walking through the air surrounded by a blinding white glow, was neutralized in seconds by spell and arrow. The leader of the band, an older cleric of Maal whose arms and equipment revealed his rank and power spoke a single word, and the dictum spell blunted the party’s charge. However, chaotic though they are, the party proved resilient, able to resist the worst effects of the spell.

The interlopers responded with blade, spell, and arrow, but they were unprepared for the savagery of the party’s response. They were slammed repeatedly with magical fire and lightning and Tavaari tumbled through the melee, his blade unerringly finding a vital spot.

As the battle raged on allies arrived to reinforce Bronson’s minions outside the temple. Brother Norton, Peg-Leg Pilegro, Morgan Erendyl, Miranda Swallows - all came to support the party in their hour of need. The common soldiers and clerics who battled outside the temple were brushed aside with ease.

The followers of Maal and Mormekar proved formidable foes, skilled with blade and spell, but they were no match for the power and fury that Bronson and his friends brought to bear to defend Aster’s temple. Soon most of the intruders had fallen. After the old cleric fell his lieutainent offered a truce. He and Bronson entered into a tense negotiation. Ultimately Bronson allowed him to withdraw with his fallen friends. In return he agreed to leave Freeport immediately, never to return.

As soon as the clerics and their troops had withdrawn Tavaari sent word to his followers to observe their progress and insure they left Freeport immediately. Bronson moved through the crowd, healing living and undead alike. He thanked those who had joined the battle in the temple’s hour of need.

Sully found herself chatting with Miranda, who stood nearby slapping at biting insects only she could see. Miranda explained that she had secured a new position, as lighthouse keeper at Milton’s Folly. Her magic allowed her to perform the work of maintaining the lighthouse easily and quickly and left her plenty of time in isolation to continue her studies.

The party was exuberant but exhausted, and soon they soon went their separate ways.

Over the following weeks the party rested and pursued their own interests. The temple was soon repaired. Bronson spent his time continuing to explore the path to lichdom. He had already advanced far enough that his features had taken on a deathlike pallor and the necromantic energies which he contained rendered his visage fearsome to the weak minded. To address this difficulty Bronson crafted a mask, a death mask of his own features which he took to wearing at all times. The mask, which had no holes for eyes or mouth was almost as disconcerting as his own face, although not as supernaturally disturbing. Bronson enchanted the mask so that he could see through its surface, and so that he could immediately recognize if nearby creatures were living, dead, or undead.

A ship soon arrived in Freeport, sailing through a dreadful storm. It bore a cleric, Alhandra, and several acolytes from the Temple of Aster in Cauldron. Bronson began the process of turning over running of the temple to Elias and Alhandra. His temple was well established, it did not need his management any longer, and wanderlust was calling.

Sully took up the Privateers seat on the Captain’s Council. She found the work dull, and livened her time on the Council by opposing any proposal brought forth by Buster Wallace. His attitude soon advanced from simmering resentment to ill concealed rage as Sully worked diligently to crush his plans to reestablish the sister community of Libertyville on a nearby island. Libertyville had been founded shortly after Captain Drac became the first Sea Lord of Freeport by... Francisco, the son of his late rival. For several years the small village had fancied itself an up and coming rival to Freeport, until one day when every man, woman, and child in the settlement had disappeared. Attempts had been made several times over the years to reestablish Libertyville, and each effort had ended in tragedy. Buster Wallace had allied himself with a group of merchants and free thinkers seeking to give Libertyville another try, but Sully’s efforts ensured that they would receive no support from Freeport.

Soon the party turned their attention to they mystery of the missing Albers. Of course, with experienced spellcasters such as Bronson and Arakel in your midst mysteries do not remain mysterious for long. Bronson cast a scrying divination to locate Old Pete and received an image of the old man chained in a ships hold, surrounded by other prisoners. Together Bronson and Arakel soon had a clear enough picture for Arakel to target a greater teleport spell. They gathered their companions, prepared for battle, and with a word crossed the hundreds of miles to Pete’s side.

Or so they expected. They arrived in the hold of the ship they had seen, but many of the prisoners, including Old Pete, were gone. Through the portholes they could see that the ship was at anchor near a jungle shrouded island. Tavaari quickly freed the handful of remaining prisoners. One of the prisoners, a foul mouthed young women, explained that they had all been captured by the slaver, Cuttleblack. The crew of the Albers had been taken off the boat only an hour before.

Sully climbed out of a large hatch and climbed up the side of the ship while the party quietly made their way up the ladder to the deck. Clearly they had not been as stealthy as they believed as the entire crew, consisting of humans and kuo-toa, was waiting for them. A piercing cone of cold washed over the party as they advanced across the deck, the work of a kuo-toa cleric. Most of the pirates proved little challenge, although the cleric continued to harry the party with potent spells.

The party was making short work of their foes, when one of the human pirates cast aside his broad brimmed hat of disguise revealing not a human or even a fish man, but a black garbed illithid, his tentacled face split into an inhuman grin. The mind flayer, Cuttleblack in his horrifying true form, hammered the party with mental energy. However, the group resisted his repeated attempts to crush their will and bring them to their knees. His most potent attack neutralized Cuttleblack soon fell to Sully’s blade, and his clerical lieutenant soon followed him into oblivion.

With all their foes slain, the party turned Cuttleblack’s nameless ship over to his former prisoners. They commandeered a pair of launches, and made their way ashore.

Queg spent some time examining the jumble of tracks on the beach, but soon nodded and wordlessly lead the group into the jungle.

 

[Morrow]

This space is being held for an account of the party's adventures rescuing the surviving crew of the Albers from Yuan-ti cultists in the Lost Temple of Demogorgon.

 

[Morrow]

Session 37 (Bronson)

Dear Nate,

So, I tried my hand at some poetry, and I'm sending you my first efforts to see what you think. I doubt that Aster is calling me to a vocation as a bard, but I always try to be open to new experiences. I'll see you on board!

Yours in faith,

Bronson

Bronson A. March
Temple of Aster
Freeport

Our cups flowed full of ale--Tavaari's rise
to Captain's Council table was our toast.
Miranda's sending came as a surprise:
the lighthouse was where we were needed most.

So, spirits warmed by drink, we made our way
to lighthouse door. Miranda was aligned
between wasps' devilish power and hell-hounds' bay.
The creatures of the pit o'erwhelmed her mind.

Nate scaled the lighthouse, lashed by wind and hail.
Tavaari flew nearby in dragon form.
Bear topped the tow'r--she fought to no avail,
as bard and dragon triumphed in the storm.

Foul weather brought invaders from hell's plane--
and what pow'r forced a bear out in the rain?


Queg, Sully, Arakel and I prevailed
and sent the devils back to hellish bower.
Outside, amidst the storm, the bear had failed
to stop our friends, who joined us in the tower.

In tower's heart we met a greater foe:
a druid, devil barbed, and hateful mare.
A second devil--on mare's back he rode!
They thought to catch us in their hellish snare.

But they could not withstand my banishment,
nor Sully's sword, though she's a level short,
nor Nate's brave song; and Ar'kel's magic sent
us vict'ry, with Naaldren and my cohort.

Our devilish foes lay vanquished 'neath our might--
but what else was to come this fiendish night?


Soon, from Miranda, we learned more bad news--
two sailors had arrived amidst the gale.
They'd left their fog-bound ship, for many clues
told them their captain's plans made good men pale.

Alas, the sailors brave had met their end
at devils' hands. But we felt we must learn
more of their ship. "Let Arakel contend
with storm!" She cleared it--then we saw their stern

entrenched and hidden in some ruinous fog.
We leaped aboard with help from teleport.
"Sieze them!" the captain shouted like a dog.
Spells, sneak attacks and sword are our retort!

We'll win against these trolls, I have no doubt.
What evil has their folly now let out?

 

[Morrow]

Session 38

The following is from an email I sent to Tavaari's player to bring him up to speed on the game he missed:

February’s game began with Tavaari leaving the group to seek out reinforcements in the city. The rest of the party cast preparatory spells and dimension doored to the ship. They appeared aboard a large warship, clustered around the mainmast. The crew was clearly prepared for their arrival. The name on the side was St. Asmod’s Hope, but Arakel and Nate recognized the ship’s captain, the bugbear pirate Mange, which meant the ship was actually the dreaded Rabid Dawn.

The deck was scattered with human pirates and trolls. Trolls manned ballista in the the bow and stern, pointing them at the party. Arakel’s true seeing allowed her to spot a pair of invisible ogre mage archers flying over the deck. A large monster, a tentacled mix of fish and crab stood in the bow. Captain Mange pointed at the party with one of his cutlasses, “Kill them.”

Bronson sprang into action, casting circle of death. A pulse of necromantic energy washed over the deck, killing a pair of trolls and many of the human pirates. Arakel polymorphed Sully into a stone giant. This drew the attention from the trolls manning the ballistas. One of them managed to pierce Sully’s magically enhanced hide with a massive bolt that crackled with lightning.

The ogre magi peppered the party with arrows. The party engaged the remaining monsters. Sully quickly dispatched the crab monster. One of the ogre magi fell quickly to Arakel’s lightning bolt. The other tried to flee, but could not escape the diviner’s scorching ray. Bronson eliminated Captain Mange with a well placed slay living and removed his mask, causing many of the remaining pirates to leap into the water in an attempt to escape.

The party soon mopped up the few remaining opponents and made their way below decks. Queg heard voices from a cabin but could not understand the language. Nate used his gold tooth of lies to take on the appearance of Captain Mange and entered the cabin. The cabin was well appointed, full of hanging silks, fine pillows, and lit by continual flame candles. A pair of scantily clad winged women lounged within, erinyes. Nate explained that the intruders had been killed, and soon withdrew. The party made a quick plan to take the devils’ by surprise, but when they burst back into the cabin found it abandoned. The erinyes had apparently seen through Nate’s disguise and teleported to safety.

The party realized that their opponents must be somewhere below and, low on resources, withdrew to the main deck to prepare and plan. The spellcasters were short on spells, although they still had a trick or two up their sleeves. They soon made their way to the lowest deck of the ship. There the air was thick with smoke and a dozen bodies dressed in robes, their throats slick lay around a pentagram containing a tall robed figure whose voluminous hood did little to hide his glowing red eyes, prominent horns, and pointed beard. Next to the pentagram stood a man in crimson robes, holding an unstoppered iron flask covered in arcane runes. Between him and the party stood several pirates in cultist robes, the pair of erinyes, and a trio of women, clearly sorcerers.

The man introduced himself as Markosian and offered to negotiate, saying that he had no desire to fight and no designs on Freeport. Nate advanced to parley, noticing as he did so that the silent figure in the pentagram was not being contained by the arcane symbol. Markosian exclaimed that he had come to Freeport in search of the iron flask which housed the figure in the pentagram, Nyxthseht an aspect of Asmodeus. Nyxthseht personifies the Adversary’s persuasive voice and fearful countenance. The party did not believe that Markosian had no plans for Freeport. He explained that with Nyxthseht’s help he intended to crush the Thonian Empire. He seemed to know who the party member are, offering that he doubted that Nate, Arakel, or Tavaari would have any objection to the destruction of the Empire. When pressed, he admitted that he wouldn’t mind taking over if there was anything left worth ruling when he was finished.

The party agreed to withdraw and discuss the matter. Opinions were sharply divided, but eventually voices who couldn’t stomach just letting Markosian and his allies go won out.

When the party returned the cultists had taken up defensive positions - for all the good it did them. Bronson’s reply was resounding - a holy word. The spell immediately banished the erinyes back to their home plane and rendered the pirates and sorcerers deaf and blind. Nyxthseht responded with blasphemy, which blunted the party’s attack but couldn’t protect Markosian from Arakel’s feeblemind. Nyxthseht seized Markosian and the iron flask and disappeared.

The party killed the helpless pirates and sorcerers and searched the ship. They discovered a locked room and Nate attempted to break it down with his corsair’s cutlass, only to fall victim to a prismatic spray trap. To the party’s shock he disappeared.

Nate found himself in an alien landscape. The earth had the texture of skin and mountains ringed the horizon. The sky was afire. A forest with the appearance ribs sticking up from the ground was visible several miles away, and even further away a white mountain in the shape of a skull half buried in the earth was visible. Nate saw a pair of hulking green humanoids approaching, but he quickly fascinated them with his fiddle. Unwilling to fight unknown opponents alone he drank a potion of fly and fled in the direction of the strange forest. When the potion ran out we walked.

Some time later he received a sending from Arakel. He had been shifted to another plane by the trap. Arakel was scrying on him and with the help of Falthar the sage intended to find retrieve him. Several hours later Nate stopped, and using his lyre of building, constructed a great amphitheater with a hidden bunker beneath the stage. There he slept. The next day, if you could call it so beneath the never changing flaming sky, the rest of the party arrived. They explained that this was Occipitus, the 507th layer of the Abyss, and that Nate was unusually lucky to have avoided any further encounters with the natives. Queg had noticed a dragonlike creature watching them when they arrived, but they had teleported to Nate’s location without engaging the creature.

Bronson promptly plane shifted the party home. Of course home meant, ‘the middle of the ocean several hundred miles from Freeport,’ but after a little swimming another greater teleport soon rectified the situation.

The group parted ways. Nate campaigned for the last open slot on the Captain’s Council, but ran afoul of Sully, who was campaigning (with considerably less diplomacy) for the same seat. In the end they squandered their influence arguing with each other and an elven privateer named Arel Syrtis got the seat. Sully promptly went to see Jack to try to arrange to have Syrtis assassinated.

Months past. Bronson continued to wrap up his affairs in Freeport, turning control of the temple over to Elias and Alhandra. He cautiously inquired with Nate and Sully about taking over one of their ships. They are still arguing so he didn’t get a proper answer.

Sully continues working with the Council. The biggest problem lately is that the Thonian navy has started specifically hunting Freeport pirates, with some success. They’ve also pressured their allies to stop trading with Freeport. This is particularly harmful as Freeport imports the majority of its food. Bronson began working with the other temples to create as much food as they can to alleviate the crisis.

The rest of the party addresses the problem in their own way. Nate began organizing Freeport pirates to raid unprotected Thonian coastal settlements for food and bring it back to Freeport. With the help of Nate’s pirates and her magic Arakel began locating the sites of naval battles and raising sunk ships from the bottom. The ships are then repaired and added to Freeport’s growing fleet. Arakel also begins gathering information about Thonian leadership and troop movements.

Bronson began working with Brother Norton to find out more about Thonian history and the background of the Thonian-Atlantian conflict in the hopes of finding a solution.

Several months pass.

 

[Morrow]

DM's Note

Nate and Sully are awful politicians. Nate's diplomacy check is pretty good, around +20, which is respectable if nowhere near the top end for a 15th level half-elf bard. The party has saved Freeport from countless unspeakable fates over the years, you'd think getting onto the Captain's Council would be easy. Unfortunately, Sully, who already has a temporary (3-year) seat on the Council and hates it, decided that she should get the open permanent seat. So they bickered and both competed for the seat, and consequently both lost. Which probably demonstrates why they're the kind of people you want defending the city, but are absolutely not the people you want to be in the government.

The one thing they are good at (besides murder and mayhem) is making trouble. Nate has written a song about the man who actually got the seat, "Arel Syrtis is a Prancing Fairy," and has set about ensuring that it will become one of the most popular tunes in Freeport. I'd post the lyrics here but I don't want Eric's Grandma to show up at my house.

 

[Morrow]

Session 39 (A Message in a Bottle)

I hope you find this message soon. I fear we will perish here after a battle which has killed our leaders and disabled our vessel. All hands are at work repairing our ship, the Big Booty, but a strong storm would kill us all.

My name is Jennifer Twill. I left a promising, if dull, career as a library assistant in the Temple of Tinel to join Captain Catherine “Sully” Sullivan and her merry band of lady pirates. She sails with her constant companion, a half-elf bard named Nate Black, as well as a human cleric of Aster named Bronson March, a living skeleton named Queg who steers the ship, a half-elf jack-of-all-trades named Tavaari Naldren, and a young human wizard named Arakel. Their combined might was not enough to save themselves from the onslaught of the undead pirates who attacked us. Thanks to Naldren, the ship remains seaworthy--if just barely.

Captain Sullivan gathered us girls together in a hurry a few weeks ago in Freeport. She told us that Brother Bronson had tracked down a powerful artifact which could bring an end to this war between Cthonia and Atlantis. I have my doubts, as the two nations have been at war since before I was born. Captain Sullivan didn’t seem too keen on ending the war--it’s been good for us pirates--but she is fiercely loyal to Freeport and had been convinced that the new Atlantian blockade on Freeport might do damage to her adopted home. She said we sailed for Edairo, the place where legend last recorded the artifact’s presence. For two weeks, the sailing was fast and the winds steady. The girls worked hard during the day and enjoyed their rum rations at night.

On the seventeenth day at sea, we were attacked by a creature of darkness and evil, which was trying to eat us, I believe. It flew over the ship, invisible at first, seeking to pick us off one by one. Our leaders seemed sanguine at first, almost cocky, but they were hard pressed to kill it. It nearly got away.

After months of sailing, still two weeks or more from our destination, a pirate ship unlike any I had ever seen breached the waves from below. Black water dripped off of it and off of its undead crew. We exchanged cannon fire as it came alongside us, and skeletons made ready to board. I was in the rigging, trying to bring us around to bring our cannon to bear for a second barrage. I could make out its name, painted in white on its black hull: the Dreadnought.

I saw their wizard and a vampire woman appear on our deck, and soon after that Brother Bronson and Nate Black disappeared onto the attacking ship. The skeletons began to turn back on themselves, some trying to board while others beat them back, presumably under the control of the cleric. He has become terrifying of late, always wearing a faceless mask with no holes for eyes, nose or mouth. Nonetheless, he seems to see and breathe, if indeed he still lives. I try to keep my distance from him and his skeletal navigator at all times.

On our ship, the vampire cowered in place while a wight floated through the decks, attacking our leaders and disappearing before they could respond in kind. The wizard beat us back again and again. Queg began firing ineffectively at Captain Sully and Tavaari. Captain Sully suddenly disappeared. The wizard made some kind of brightly colored lights shoot out of his fingertips. When it cleared, Brother Bronson was nowhere to be seen and Nate Black lay dead on the deck. Tavaari became a red dragon and finally destroyed the wizard, but now I fear we are lost.

If you find this message, please convey it to my family in Freeport. I fear there will be nothing you can do to help us. Either we will have gone on to glory and an end to this endless war, or we will have met our end in the watery deep.

 

[Morrow]

Sessions 40 and 41

This space held for a recap of the next two installments of our heroes' latest adventure, "Talons of Night."