My players broke the whole Mavisha seal sequence.
They obtained passage to the seal site on the RNS Impossible, which allowed for some enjoyable philosophizing with Captain Rutger Smith. Since we just had the conspiracy poll, I mentioned that Captain Smith had just acquired a new Millerite text: a thought experiment about a hypothetical civilization where people were just a little bit more empathetic (hello, Miller's Pyre). My players responded with the obvious "mob mentality" reasoning, but I held back and didn't include the other Pyre elements. I'm going to introduce those and other conspiracy possibilities as they interact with Smith and other Millerites in the future.
At the seal site, the Impossible kept her distance so as not to be fired upon by Il Draçon de Mer. They signalled the Dagger and pulled alongside to confer with Xambria. They noticed that Xambria was clearly uncomfortable with the attentions of Captain Jack, so the constables offered to let her come onto the Impossible. She agreed, but as soon as the Dagger sailed away, they immediately began pressing her about the amulet. Reginald explained very patiently about what the constables found at the ziggurat, their interaction with the Voice of Rot, and their concerns about Xambria's Golden Icon of Apet -- he wanted her to take it off so that they could determine if the Apet energy they sensed was from her or the icon.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party devised a plan whereby Paco, the goblin archaeologist on the the Dagger, would take a pyrotechnics scroll and use it to distract Il Draçon so the Impossible could close.
Sijhen was very suspicious of Reginald, and ultimately refused to surrender the icon. When Murdok threatened to take it by force, Sijhen used the Icon's power to teleport off the Impossible into the water, and began swimming toward the seal site.
Five constables dove into the water after her.
Il Draçon noticed this, and began battle preparations, but Sijhen turned invisible immediately afterward and the constables were forced to head back to the ship... except for Murdok, who made a great Stealth check and was able to keep swimming unnoticed.
She swam all the way to the seal site without being detected. Reginald, a Psion, sent his consciousness fragment along with her to ensure that the party had eyes on her.
Captain Smith quickly asked if the constables wanted to put their plan into action. They agreed, so the Dagger set off and the Impossible began to come about to approach Il Draçon. Reginald's Bluff and Captain Smith's Command were more than enough to deceive Il Draçon.
So we had Murdok, the human ranger (scout), on the ocean floor, with only Reginald's consciousness fragment along with her. She dealt some damage to the team down at the seal before being knocked out...
...and then rolled a natural 20 on her second death save.
While the underwater battle progressed, the Impossible caught up to Il Draçon de Mer, so we had a boarding action on the surface plus a battle 50' below the surface down at the seal of Mavisha.
Murdok and Reginald's consciousness fragment, psychic anomaly, and whatever the heck else he can conjure ended up being remarkably effective against the underwater team. I wasn't prepared for this encounter (I was planning to just run the boats), so the sharks were a lot more ineffective than they should have been, but Murdok's ability to charge without worrying about hindering terrain or opportunity attacks turned the tide of the battle after she made her critical death save.
Up on the surface, the Impossible closed on Il Draçon from behind to avoid cannon fire. Once they closed, Bela (the gunsmith warlock) filled the Draçon's captain, Bernard, full of holes and then pulled him off the boat and into the sea, only to be basically keelhauled by the Impossible as both boats continued moving. (He failed his save even with the +5 for being pulled over a railing.)
Bela was riddled with crossbow bolts by the two dwarf mercenaries on Il Draçon, but Viveen (the runepriest) healed him before diving over the railing and swimming down to the dig site to help Murdok.
Underwater, Reginald noticed through his consciousness fragment that something was dragging Finona's corpse (Murdok got the last hit and decided it was lethal) away -- that would be an invisible Sijhen. He telekinetically levitated it up off the sea floor, but Sijhen will respond with telekinesis of its own... and that was where we stopped.
Since we're all on vacation together at a lake house, I should have another update tomorrow.
