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Message: <blockquote data-quote="amethal" data-source="post: 3958259" data-attributes="member: 22784">Out on deck, it becomes clear that the wind is definitely picking up.A pair of orcs axe-wielding orcs are now stood on the deck. One of them wears a wizard’s robe, but looks particularly unintelligent. The other is clad in plate mail. Our heroes remember that they mete the same two orcs at the home of Lee the druid; the orcs and Paradigm Dogwood, the biomancer, had been leaving as they arrived.Strangely, there are now four barrels on deck – everyone is pretty sure they weren’t there earlier.At first there is no sign of Giorgio, then he emerges from the captain’s cabin. Suspicious behaviour indeed.“What were you doing in the captain’s cabin?” asks Jonathan.“Nothing that need concern you,” replies Giorgio. “I have various duties to take care of.”Gribron decides to head back below decks and check with the Guildmistress (who is also the captain) as to whether Giorgio is allowed to enter her cabin. Much to his surprise, the hatch won’t open – even though the party just came up that way. There’s no obvious locking mechanism; it must be magic of some kind.The orcs and Giorgio all seem quite nervous, and it is rubbing off on the party. Jonathan concentrates and a translucent scarf appears and wraps itself around him. Gribron and Ambar mutter defensive spells which have no visible manifestation. Solsus takes to the air, and Agatha sidles off to one side.A low-pitched humming noise starts to come from the captain’s cabin. It is growing in intensity. “So, how do you like our play so far?” asks Giorgio in a loud voice.Jonathan remembers that the Wayfarer’s Theatre is able to teleport itself. Doing so is a bad idea given the “Burning Sky” effect which is currently causing extreme fire damage to those who travel any distance by such means. Also, the majority of the town’s dignitaries are below decks watching the play. Presumably the controls are in the captain’s cabin, which Giorgio has just come out of ….Gribron and Jonathan exchange glances, and Jonathan gives a slight nod.This is all the encouragement Gribron needs. He rises twenty feet up from the deck and unleashes a bolt of searing flame at Giorgio. It strikes home, but the Wayfarer is not even so much as singed. He obviously has some kind of magical protection. The flame does illuminate the metal armour under Giorgio’s costume – it appears he has more than one kind of protection.In passing, Gribron notices from his elevated position that there is now a rowboat tied up alongside the ship. It appears to have some occupants, who are either dead or sleeping.Ambar leaps forward, drawing the sword of Anyariel as she does so. She slashes at the orc “wizard”. He is unarmoured, and does not seem to have troubled to cast any defensive magic – if indeed he is able to do so – and her blow strikes home. However, the ship is rocking in the storm and the uncertain footing robs her blow of some of its force. The orc snarls, and reaches for a scroll tucked in its belt.Solsus creates a ball of flame in the palm of his hand, and hurls it at the orc. He takes the blow without flinching, and it appears he too is protected from fire. Solsus bites back a curse – profanity is a poor response to such a serious situation – but he is very unhappy. The ability to create such fire is his major offensive ability, and if two of his opponents are immune to its effects it seems likely the third will also be protected.Jonathan judges that the armoured orc is likely to be the weakest in will power, and unleashes powerful blast of mental energy at it. The orc reels under the assault, but remains standing. Jonathan considers taking cover behind a nearby barrel, but he is somewhat suspicious of their recent appearance. However, he does not trouble to move away from the one he is adjacent to.Agatha views Giorgio as the primary threat, and unleashes a blast of eldritch energy at him. It strikes home, and his face contorts in pain. However, he seems to be a resilient character, and he nimbly climbs up the mast into the rigging. From this vantage point he utters a loud, ringing noise.“That’s a spell of shattering,” thinks Jonathan. “What’s the point of that? Unless …” At that moment, the barrel next to him explodes in rain of fire and splinters. Fortunately for Jonathan, his translucent scarf blocks the splinters, and his belated realisation enables him to dodge the worst of the flames. Whatever is packed into those barrels, it clearly responds badly to being shattered.The orc “wizard” finishes extracting the scroll from his belt, and reads it aloud in a halting fashion. He is surrounded in magical energy, and for a moment it seems as if he is going to suffer a backlash, but he finally manages to get the spell off. Immediately he and his two allies start moving more quickly, energised by the magic of the spell.Moving swiftly forward, the orc warrior swings at Ambar with his battleaxe. The blow connects, and the catfolk reels backwards.Jonathan fancies he can hear chanting, as if another spell was being cast, but glancing around he can’t see anybody else. Shrugging, he launches another mental attack on the orc warrior but surprisingly the orc manages to resist this time.Gribron, twenty fete up in the air, looks across at Giorgio in the rigging. “So, you think you have an advantage up there do you? See how you like this!” The rigging is now coated with a thick, greasy goo. Giorgio tries to hold on, but loses his grip on the now slick surface and falls to the deck. However, his acrobatic prowess has already been demonstrated during the first two acts of the play, and he lands nimbly on his feet.Agatha takes a pot shot at him as he falls, but misses.Solsus flies down behind Ambar, and uses his healing wand to repair her wound.Giorgio appears to have taken umbrage at Agatha’s repeated attempts to blast him. He responds by aiming a cacophonic burst of sound at him. Agatha falls to her knees in pain, her hands over her ears.The orc “wizard” chants another spell, and tries to touch his comrade. Its easier said than done, given that the orc is in melee with Ambar, but he manages it. Instantly, the orc’s muscles bulge and he seems to grow in strength. Encouraged by his new power, the orc warrior launches a mighty swing at Ambar, sacrificing precision for power. However, she anticipates it and sways out of the way.However, at that moment a halfling appears from hiding, and scampers across the deck towards her. (“That must be the spellcaster I heard,” thinks Jonathan, wise after the event.) Ambar does not see him coming, and his shortsword is thrust with supernatural accuracy into her kidneys. With a grunt of surprise, Ambar collapses senseless to the deck.Gribron view the orc fighter’s magically enhanced muscles with some consternation, and lets fly a ray of black energy. It strikes the orc squarely in the chest, and his muscles deflate. Solsus tries to use the healing wand on Ambar, but it cannot overcome the severity of her wound and she remains unconscious.Agatha staggers back to her feet, having managed to overcome the effects of the burst of sound – at which point Giorgio hits her with another one. Once again all thoughts of attack vanish as she tries to cover her ears against the sound.Jonathan lashes out with a storm of crystal shards. The two orcs and the halfling all take damage.The orc “wizard” casts another spell, and a sheet of flame springs out from his fingertips. It is aimed at Jonathan, but by pure fluke it also hits the invisible Solsus. Jonathan is distracted by the flames, and the orc warrior swings his battleaxe at the open target. The blow should have decapitated Jonathan, but the healer is able to use his prodigious mental strength to create an impromptu shield of protection. The orc howls in rage as his blow suddenly passes through quicksand and loses much of his force. However, it turns to a howl of triumph as Jonathan nevertheless falls to the ground clutching a grievous wound in his neck. As Jonathan is about to pass out for the pain Solsus quickly touches him with the healing wand and keeps him conscious. With the last vestiges of his mental powers, Jonathan manifests another shard of crystals, again injuring both orcs and the halfling.Gribron moves forward and engulfs the orcs in a stream of bright lights. The “wizard”, possibly being more experienced in this area, manages to shut his eyes in time, but his comrade is blinded by the light.Agatha manages to throw off the effects of the sound burst, and appears Giorgio has exhausted his ability to cats that particular spell. Instead he takes a leaf from Gribron’s book, and a layer of grease appears below her. Her feet fall out from underneath, and she lands on the ground. Fortunately, her ability to manifest eldritch energy works equally well from a prone position, and a blast flies out from her hand and strikes the orc wizard squarely in his back. With a grunt of surprise, he collapses to the ground dead.Jonathan calls upon the power of his magical belt, and some of his wounds are healed. He clambers to his feet, only to be stabbed by the halfling. Fortunately for him, his vitals are protected by the translucent scarf, and as a result the halfling cannot do any meaningful damage with his little shortsword.With one orc dying and the other blinded, and having taken a fair amount of damage himself, the halfling then leaps over the side of the ship. Gribron note that although the halfling is close to the rowboat he chooses not to land in it. Instead, he falls into the harbour and sinks without trace.Agatha finishes off the orc fighter with another blast, and Giorgio is left without allies. “Curse you all,” he says. “This is not over!” He disappears, only to re-appear five hundred feet away on a ferry moored in the harbour. There is a puff of flame as the Burning Sky takes effect on him, but his fire protection saves him from damage. With a rude gesture toward our heroes, he pulls out a potion from his belt pouch and drinks it. His wounds heal slightly, and then he jumps over the side of the ferry into the murky waters of the harbour.Solsus agrees with Giorgio that the conflict is not yet over, and flies towards the ferry. The winds have become very strong, but for some reason Solsus is able to fly through them with ease.Meanwhile, Jonathan pours a healing potion down Ambar’s throat and the other search the bodies. The two orcs each have a potion of some sort, and an empty potion bottle. Jonathan identifies the potions as granting the ability to breathe under water; it also appears the empty bottles previously contained a similar potion.Gribron begins to strip the bodies whilst Jonathan heads for the captain’s cabin. It is dominated by a large table, which contains a map of Sarlonna and a number of buttons. As far as Jonathan can tell, the ship is set to teleport to the north eastern coast of Shahalesti, a distance of many hundreds of miles. The humming is becoming increasingly loud, but Jonathan is eventually able to figure out the sequence of the buttons and cancel the imminent teleportation of the ship. He also locates the button which turns off the ward on the hatch to the theatre.Solsus uses the power of his fey heritage to transform himself into an impressively sized dogfish, and dives down into the harbour in search of Giorgio. He methodically searches the area around his last sighting of the wayfarer, and his persistence pays off – he spots Giorgio walking along the bottom. His costume is billowing in the water, and it is clear he is wearing a chain shirt underneath it which is weighing him down nicely.The pixie is not aware that the others have discovered potions of water breathing on the ship, but it is obvious that Giorgio must be using some form of magic to allow him to breathe on the harbour floor. Once more Solsus calls upon fey magic, and dispels Giorgio’s ability to breathe water.Instead of providing life giving oxygen, the wayfarer’s next breath pours water in his lungs. Coughing and spluttering, he swims up frantically, weighed down by his metal armour. With a supreme effort, his face breaks the surface of the water, and he gulps down a lungful of air.Solsus, however, has not finished with him. The various clumps of seaweed floating in the harbour suddenly come alive, and grapes hold of Giorgio’s limbs. Now that unable to swim, the weight of Giorgio’s armour carries him back down to the sea bed. His struggles grow increasingly weak as he heads for a watery grave …..While this is happening, back on the Wayfarer’s Theatre Gribron has opened the hatch to the deck below. He is faced by Guildmistress Larkins, who seems somewhat distressed. “What is going on?” she demands. “Who activated the wards on the hatches?”Jonathan emerges from her cabin, and explains the situation. Simeon, the head of the Lyceum, comes up as he does so.Gribron investigates the rowboat attached to the ship. Its occupants appear to be elves, dressed as Shahalesti sailors, who have died by fire. However, his keen eyes soon detect that they are in fact humans who have been altered to look like elves – presumably by the biomancy practised by Paradigm Dogwood.“I think we were intended to blame the Shahalesti for blowing up the ship,” sys Gribron. “We saw the biomancer Dogwood at Lee’s as well as the orcs. I think we should pay Lee a visit.”“It sounds like you and your comrades have performed very well,” says Simeon. “If those orcs and the biomancer were seen associating with Lee, then it would appear Lee has some questions to answer. I suggest we drop by his home before this storm becomes unendurable.”The short trip to Lee’s little island proves something of a strain for Simeon, as he is battered by the growing strength of the storm. However, our heroes appear impervious to the effect of the winds. Jonathan speculates that this might be a side effect of the boon they received from killing Indomitability, the spirit of the Fire Forest. In any event, it’s a welcome development – but Solsus is becoming more and more convinced the storm is not a natural phenomenon.Lee’s home is deserted, and its sparse accommodations seem too frugal even for the famously ascetic Lee. The druid has left home. “Let’s head for the Lyceum,” says Simeon. “I have various items of equipment there which will enable me to quickly track down our wayward harbour master.”****Simeon, headmaster of the Lyceum, is a powerful diviner. Divination is far from being the most high profile of the various wizardly disciplines, but used correctly it can produce extremely useful results.“I’m having no results at all!” says Simeon in disgust. “That’s not possible. How can Lee be protected by such powerful magic?”Jonathan pulls together in his mind various events which have occurred during the party’s stay in Seaquen, and comes up with a theory. “Something appears to be happening in the Fire Tomb which has stirred up the rats. Could Lee be hiding there?”“Of course!” says Simeon. “The legendary Fire Tomb is supposedly protected by numerous wards against scrying. That’s one reason why no one has ever found it. However, there’s no way I can send out people to look for it in mundane fashion with this storm going on.”“Its clearly not a natural storm,” says Solsus. “However, we seem to be immune to its effects. If you recall, we came across some witches in the swamp who were brewing potions which protected against high winds. I imagine the Ragesian agents are also immune to the storm.”“Not a natural storm, you say,” says Simeon thoughtfully. “I wonder if I can identify where it is emanating from. Please excuse me while I test out my theory; in the meantime I will have the college healers tend to your wounds.”Simeon disappears into his study, and returns some time later. “This storm has an eye,” he says. “It is centred over an area of the East coast. I don’t suppose you know this, but the East coast was the site of the original town of Seaquen. It became unstable following an earthquake several hundred years ago, and the town moved further west to its current site.“Since you guys seem to be resistant to the high winds, would you be willing to check out the eye of the storm and see if you can find and stop what is causing it? If the storm continues to rise in intensity it will blow away the entire town.”Act 5 - The Fire TombScene 1 – The Sunken PrisonSome time later, our heroes find themselves amongst the sunken ruins of eastern Seaquen. The eye of the storm is above a courtyard to the extreme east, littered with statues of gargoyles. It gradually dawns on the party that this “courtyard” is actually the roof of the building, which from the inscriptions appears to have once been a prison of some kind.The party cautiously move onto the roof, then head down an external staircase to “ground” level. The staircase emerges on the edge of the sea, and it is likely that the prison is severely flooded. However, there is a door into the side of the building.Once inside, they encounter a large room with several exits. The water is waist deep, and the party proceed warily. However, only Gribron spots the approach of a pair of turtle-like creatures beneath the water. One of them is heading for Jonathan, the other is heading for him. Quick as a flash, Gribron vanishes and re-appears at the far end of the party. A creature lunges at his disappearing form, then snaps at Jonathan in its disappointment. Fortunately, the disappearance of its preferred foe puts it off, and its jaws miss the healer. Unfortunately, the other monster clamps its jaws on Jonathan and tries to drag him off to its lair. Jonathan digs in his heels and resists being dragged, then retaliates with a mental blast which staggers his adversary but does not cause it to release its grip.Solsus, seeing Jonathan’s plight, creates a flame in his hand and hurls it the part of  Jonathan’s captor which appears above the surface. The ball of flame strikes true, but the creature shrugs off the effect. It appears to be resistant to fire. Solsus successfully bites back another curse, but can’t help feeling very hard done by. Humans, orcs, turtles, is there nothing vulnerable to fire?Gribron casts a spell, and a wave of nausea flows over one of the creatures. It suddenly feels very ill and turns tail. The monster squirts ink at Ambar, narrowly missing her eyes, then swims away.The turtle holding Jonathan tries again to drag him away but once more Jonathan stands firm. Irritated by his resistance, the creature strikes at him with its claws but causes only minor wounds. This movement makes it more of a target, and Agatha successfully blasts it, causing it to sink down dead to the floor with Jonathan in tow.Whilst Jonathan is extricating himself from the dead turtle, Gribron follows the other creature. He hurls an orb of acid at it but it doesn’t seem to notice. However, it has recovered from its momentary illness and heads for the nearest target – namely Gribron. It bites him, but fails to achieve a grip on him.Agatha flies in above the water – who knew she could do that? – and blasts it. The creature roars in defiance, and Ambar thrusts the sword of Anyariel into its open mouth. The second monster dies. An inspection of the corpse reveals more evidence of biomancy – this is clearly no ordinary turtle.Gribron investigates the surrounding rooms.He finds one room contains only a lever – apparently connected to a trap of some kind situated to the north. A careful search of the corridor to the north of the room reveals a spear trap, which is a recent construction. Clearly there is more here than would be expected from an ancient prison; it looks like they are in the right place.Another door reveals a waterlogged room which is home to a horde of rats. They are happily swimming around, but occasionally give off sparks from their teeth and fur. Fire Tomb rats! Gribron closes the door.The last room is more interesting. The knee deep water is full of dead fish. At the far end is a large metal chest. Above it on a shelf are a dozen or so bottles which appear to contain alcohol.Jonathan fires his crossbow. There is a squelchy sound as the bolt strikes home, which doesn’t seem like metal on metal. Jonathan shrugs and starts to reload. Gribron hunts around in his pack and pulls out a vial of acid. He hurls it at the chest. It strikes home, but there is no effect – even though normally splashing acid on metal would give rise to some sort of reaction.“Are you done?” asks Jonathan.“For the moment,” replies Gribron.Jonathan fire another bolt at the chest, which again strikes home with an unusual sound. Even more unusually, the chest then starts to move through the water towards Jonathan and Gribron.“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” says Gribron. “Does the chest have hundreds of little legs?”“Can’t see under the water,” says Jonathan. He drops his crossbow and pulls out his mace, preparing to strike the chest once it comes within range. Unfortunately for him, the slow moving chest suddenly manifests a ten foot long arm, which swings out and bashes him. In addition to being damaged by the blow, Jonathan also finds himself stuck fast.Enraged, Jonathan strikes out with his spiked gauntlet – only to have that struck to the chest as well!Fortunately, Ambar and Agatha step forward at this point. The catfolk strikes the chest a telling blow, and nimbly avoids getting the sword of Anyariel stuck in its adhesive. Agatha follows up with a blast of eldritch energy which reduces the creature to an amorphorous pile of goo.There are numerous coins stuck to the creature’s base, but they turn out to be copper. However, the bottles of alcohol on the shelf behind it are worth some money.</blockquote>

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