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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tor Bladebearer" data-source="post: 570890" data-attributes="member: 4939">(Run 1 begins) March 21, 295 YF From their favorite spot, high atop the ancient watchtower, Tala and Milo Taproot watch a spring thunderstorm roll in across the island. The storms are always a good show, but the two halflings spot something very unusual from the tall tower; a large ship sailing towards the island! Neither of them can remember a ship ever coming to the island before, making this a very notable occurrence. They quickly realize something must be wrong, for the ship is headed directly towards the Serpent’s Fangs, a devastating area of jutting rocks and treacherous reefs on the South side of the island. Realizing that there is a disaster in the making, the two set off back towards the town of Gray Cliffs to try and tell someone about the ship. Enter our first two PCs. Tala is a 1st level Druid, while Milo is a 1st level Rogue. Tala is fairly level-headed, and has befriended a Red Kite Hawk, named Barav Kree. Milo is energetic and has an over-active imagination. He keeps notes about his adventures in a small journal. The siblings are children of the town’s tavernkeepers. The pair heads to the Mayor’s house, but cannot find the Mayor himself. They do manage to find the Mayor’s assistant, Malcolm. Concerned about the news of a ship headed for the Fangs, he begins to put together a small group to go look for and help anyone who makes it to shore. Going to the docks, he drafts two of the local fisherman, Torix and Ug, to join the halflings. They are instructed to head to the South shore, while Malcolm goes back into the city to try and find the Mayor and organize additional help. Enter the next two PCs. Torix is a 1st level Barbarian, and Ug is a 1st level Fighter. Torix has flaming red hair, and uses a vicious harpoon as a weapon. Ug is somewhat, um, mentally challenged, and has trouble understanding anything complicated. Milo heads off to try and find the town’s resident cleric, Jakob. The other three head directly to the coast, with Ug carrying Torix’s rowboat. Daylight is rapidly fading, and by the time they get to the coast they are peering around in semi-darkness. Having failed to find Jakob, Milo manages to catch up to the others a little while later. The storm begins to intensify, and the group can see that off in the distance strange energies are coruscating in the sky and odd, colored lighting is striking out in the ocean. During one particularly brilliant flash, they are actually able to identify the ship out at the edge of the Serpent’s Fangs, perhaps a half-mile out. While they can’t tell much from this distance, it appears to have broken in two, and the back half has been grounded on one of the large stone outcroppings. They can only barely see the other half of the ship sinking under the waves. There is some consideration of taking Torix’s boat out into the Fangs, but they quickly realize that would suicide. Instead, the party begins to move along the beach, looking for anyone who might have abandoned ship. It is slow going in the torrential downpour with almost no light. They think about lighting a torch, but the heavy rain prevents them from doing so. After trudging along the rocky shore for over a mile, they spot two bodies, unmoving, lying in the surf. Tala invokes Light, and a cloud of fireflies manifests and then settles in on the head of the torch. They rush forward to the first, but find the stocky man has already died of unknown injuries. He was still clutching a shield, with a sunburst pattern with flaming fist in the center. Beyond their ability to save, they immediately turned their attention to the other body. As they approached, he jolted awake, began coughing up water and trying to get to his feet. Enter our fifth PC, a 1st level Sorceror. He is a human in his early 20s, and speaks with a strong foreign accent. The man is unable to remember what he was doing on the ship, where he is, or even what his name is. He is somewhat surprised to discover that he has an odd silvery tattoo on the back of his left hand that he’s never seen before. Searching around the beach, he manages to find a few pieces of equipment that he recognizes as his. While the rest of the party is busy talking to the newcomer, Milo searches through the belongings of the dead man. He finds a few coins, and a small scroll, drenched to the point of being almost illegible. Showing the scroll to the rest of the party, they try to read what of it they can. “-- Sunscorch: By the holy vestment of the Order of – -- vital that you find and research these defenses, such that the city of Rak Shaol -- -- immemorial. In the pursuit of such goals, you are empower to employ whatever means you see fit to -- -- happen. As you know, these enchantments are focused on two specific artifacts. The first of these, the Warding Stone, should still be -- -- of the Warden of the island. The second, you should be able – “ The bottom of the text is fairly clear: “May the Protector watch over you, Hadrian DaybreakHigh Prelate, Church of Helias, Solara”As the group is discussing the letter, a huge bolt of lightning strikes very close, just up in the hills overlooking the shore. A series of powerful strikes lands all around the general area. The washed-ashore stranger spots a figure up on the hill, backlit by lightning. He is wearing some kind of robes and holding up a carved staff, but little more than that can be seen from the silhouette. Speculation on who that person was is quickly cut short by a two strange creatures running down the beach towards the party, one coming from each direction. Loping on all fours, these strange lizard creatures have green mottled skin, and look like a strange blend between a lizard and a frog. As they approach they switch to standing on just their rear two legs, and the party can see that their front two legs have long, wickedly sharp claws. Once the creatures get closer, the party can see that they are oddly somewhat translucent, and do not seem to be completely real or solid. Tala manages to Entangle one of them, seaweed shooting up out of the beach and whipping about. That slows its approach enough for the rest of the party to organize. Torix’s harpoon is quickly lost in the midst of the mass of flailing seaweed after a missed shot. The lizard-frog creature manages to extricate itself slowly from the fronds, and starts attacking Tala and Milo. Ug tries to whack it with an improvised club from a torch, not having brought any weapons with him. Torix, on the other hand, is a walking arsenal, using his scimitar once his harpoon is lost, and he and Milo quickly defeat the creature. When the last blow to it is struck, it dissolves into a cloud of dark dust and settles to the ground. Meanwhile, the shipwrecked newcomer faces down the other creature by himself. Spotting his lost crossbow in the surf, he goes after it, but the lizard-frog thing is on him before he can even get a shot off. Instead, he quickly casts a spell, and the creature is caugh directly in a Color Spray. It succumbs, and then Ug finishes it off with a crashing blow from a heavy rock. This one too turns into a cloud of dark dust once slain. Although none of the party has taken any damage, they are all tired, soaked to the bone, confused about what has just happened to them, and are unable to find any other survivors on the beach. Torix recovers his harpoon from the now-normal seaweed, and then shoulders the dead body. The group trudges back to Gray Cliffs, regrouping at Milo and Tala’s parents’ tavern, Aemon’s Forge. One of the notable elements of the tavern is the very large anvil that is one of the center tables in the common room. The oversized fireplace was clearly once part of a large forge, complete with bellows. They decide to go back into the tavern from the rear, leaving the body outside, with Torix standing guard over it. The rest of the party heads inside. It takes Ug a few moments to realize that he still has the boat on his shoulders, to the amusement of the rest of the party. Elda Taproot, Milo and Tala’s mother, is working in the kitchen, and is immediately concerned for her drenched children and their friends. Milo and Tala head out into the common room to see who is there. They spot the Mayor, as well as a stranger in simple robes, sitting in the corner with a gnarled old staff. The pair talks to the Mayor, who goes out back to see the body and talk with the others. It takes a little bit of convincing before the Mayor believes their story, having heard a few too many stories of “monsters” from Milo in the past. Eventually convinced, the Mayor sends for Jakob to come and take care of final rites on the body. As it is already late in the evening, with the storm still battering the island, they decide that they won’t be able to find anything further tonight. The Mayor instructs them to all meet back at the tavern in the morning, and they plan to mount an expedition at dawn to search the shore for wreckage and clues. Milo returns to the common room and tries to engage the stranger in conversation, who politely deflects Milo’s attempts. Milo then tries to surreptitiously spy on the stranger by doing “chores” next to him, but then a few moments later oddly decides to carry out his chores elsewhere in the inn. Tala has a brief confrontation with the Tain brothers, the town’s bullies, but she comes out victorious in their verbal sparring. The shipwrecked newcomer finally remembers his name, Fargo, though no further details on his background. Fargo arranges with Samwell Taproot to stay in the tavern over night, and they learn that the mysterious robed stranger is doing the same. Meanwhile, the old cleric Jakob arrives, and with Torix’s help they take the body back to the shrine of Neris. Jakob performs last rites on the body, then they throw the corpse into the ocean, where it immediately drawn out into the open ocean by the prayers of the cleric. Torix and Jakob briefly discuss theology, which Torix does not have a very good grasp of. Torix's lack of understanding of divine powers and Jakob's crotchety personality make for a pretty amusing combination... Torix: (shows Jakob the dead body) "Surely the power of Neris can still heal him?"Jakob: (kicks the body) "Nope. Looks pretty dead to me." The rest of the evening passes uneventfully. (end Part I)</blockquote>

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