# Sail South From Sasserine



## Dantardis (Sep 30, 2007)

The messenger travelled the streets of Sasserine, he'd been asked by his mistress to meet various individuals and pass the message on to them.  By noon he was finished.  In various parts of the city the recipients of the message read its brief details:

"Greetings, and I hope this missive finds you in good health!  My name is Lavinia Vanderboren, and I humbly request your attendance at dinner at my estate on Festival Street and Blue Skink Lane tomorrow evening.  I think that I can present you with an opportunity uniquely suited to your skills.  Please inform the carrier of this letter of your response to this invitation and I hope to be speaking to you soon.

Lavinia Vanderboren."

At the appointed time, several individuals met in the atrium of Vanderboren manor, there was a fighter, a female elven knight, some kind of druid, a male wizard, a hooded male figure, an aventi dressed in wizardly robes and a female warrior.

They were greeted by the Vanderboren's butler and taken through to the dining hall, where they were greeted by Lavinia Vanderboren herself.  After the sumptous banquet was over, the talk became more serious.  Lavinia spoke first,

"As you may have heard, I recently inherited my parents' estate.  Along with this fine house, unfortunately came a fine amount of debt owed the Dawn Council, the harbourmaster, and quite a few guildhalls.  It seems my parents, for all their sucess as adventurers, were not skilled at finance as one might expect.  If I'm to get these taxes paid I'll need to access my family's vault under Castle Teraknian."
      "And that's the problem, you see.  The vaults are magically locked-keyed to special signet rings.  Both of my parents had these rings, at least, until recently.  My mother lost hers a few months ago.  She arranged for a replacement, but it won't be done for another month or so, too late for me.  Which leaves my father's ring.  He never wore it-he had a thing about men wearing jewellery.  He kept it hidden somewhere on his ship, the Blue Nixie.  The problem there is that the harbourmaster's seized the ship until someone pays for the last four months of mooring.  I've paid the fines to the man the harbourmaster's put in charge of my ship, a brute named Soller Vark.  Yet when I went to claim my ship, Vark's men wouldn't let me board, claiming that I hadn't yet paid the fines.  I spoke to Vark again and he denied ever receiving my payment.  My complaints to the harbourmaster have fallen on deaf ears-he's a doddering old fool who trusts his man and won't relent."
       "Vark and his men are up to something on my ship, I know it.  What I  need is to find out exactly what they're up to.  Unfortunately Vark's not the type to react well to diplomacy or logic.  I need someone who speaks his language...which is where you come in.  If you can find out what he's using my ship for, or even better, recover the money I paid him, I'll pay each of you 200 gold in return once I've access to my vault."

At this point the knight, Erin spoke up, "How do you want us to deal with this Vark character when we get near him."

Lavinia smiled grimly,  "I would rather you didn't throw the first punch if possible, but if Vark and his men show you force in return to your enquiries then surely they must be up to something."  I can tell you that the Blue Nixie is currently anchored in the middle of the estuary, so you will need to hire a rowing boat to get out to it."


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## Dantardis (Oct 1, 2007)

Two hours later and the group were at the docks, arranging the hiring of two rowing boats, to get out to the Blue Nixie.  After some haggling they agreed to a price.  The group waited until two hours before dawn before setting off.  The fighter, Bato and the aventi wizard Nimo muffled the oars of the rowboat to help lessen the noise of the boats as they moved towards the caravel.  In the distance they could see the dim torches around the Blue Nixie and see the crew moving around on deck.  

Luck seemed to be on their side as the rowboats pulled alongside the caravel.  None of the cre appeared to have seen them.  The hooded figure, Grey quickly climbed aboard  and crept up behind the crew member on the quarterdeck.  With one quick hit the thug fell unconscious.  At the same moment Nimo uttered some aracane words and suddenly the thug in the crow's nest fell over as the crow's nest became extremely slippery.  Meanwhile in the rowboat, Aust, the other wizard in the party cast a spell on himself and his body was surrounded by a glowing nimbus of energy.  Nimo, who had climbed aboard the caravel to cast his Grease spell, jumped back over the side and into the water, swimming underneath the draft of the ship and reappearing on the other side of the deck near a surprised thug.  Meanwhile a third thug struck Aust severely with a rapier, fortunately the blow was not mortal.  Grey loaded his bow and hit one of the thugs near the focs'le of the ship.  Bato followed up on the same thug by hitting the thug with his longsword and the thug fell with a screen.  Grey shot and killed another thug who had just appeared at the top of the stairs leading below.  A fifth thug appeared behind the knight, Erin and hit her severely, the wound being mortal in nature.  Fortunately at this point, Morning the dragon shaman, switched her aura to one of healing stabilising her comrade and healing all her allies who had so far taken damage.  Another thug struck Grey and drew blood.  Seki, the druid, who had moved towards the focs'le of the deck was struck by one of the thugs but this thug was in turn struck by Seki's snake animal companion and fell over.  Poison coursed through his veins and he lay still.  By this time, another figure, who the group recognised as Soller Vark from Lavinia's description had appeared and attacked Bato with his rapier.  Bato clutched at his chest and fell over, blood pouring from his wound.  Fortunately Morning's healing aura was still present and Bato stabilised.  There was a scream from below and a strange spider-like creature appeared and started to attack.  Vark by this time had moved towards Morning to attack and so the creature moved towards Seki and his snake.  Fortunately the snake was quicker and managed to attack the creature.  Seki followed up with a vicious strike with his staff and the creature was dead.  Meanwhile Grey and Morning finished off Vark who fell unconcious under their blows.

Once everything had gone quiet Aust and Erin went below, together with Seki.  They found the dead body of one of the thugs, together with a host of caged and very dead exotic and mundane creatures.  In a chest to one side Erin found a pouch containing some platinum pieces, a silver ring and a piece of paper which seemed to contain some kind of riddle:

CHIMERA LOOKS TO SUNRISE
CYCLOPS LOOKS TO SUNSET
MEDUSA LOOKS TO SUNRISE
UMBER HULK LOOKS TO SUNSET
BASILISK LOOKS TO SUNRISE.

Not knowing what to make of this Nimo and the others sailed the Blue Nixie bak into the harbour, where they were greeted by Lavinia and the captain of the Watch.  The Watch quickly took charge of the prisoners and led them away.  Lavinia thanked the group and asked them to accompany her to Castle Terkanian to visit the vault of her parents.  Shortly afterwards the Vanderboren carriage appeared on Ancestor Island.

Lavinia led the way, with the group following behind.  They found themselves in an atrium with the double doors leading to the vault itself in front of them.  Before they could move into the room proper there was a hissing noise and a snake slithered down a pillar.  It did not appear to make any move towards Lavinia, who was in the lead, but instead attacked Seki's snake, who was immediately behind her.  Bato moved forward and hit the snake that was attacking.  CLANGG!!!  Although Bato struck a goodly blow his weapon did not appear to have done any damage.  Nimo and Erin similarly managed to strike the cobra but again to little effect.

"It's some kind of construct", said Grey, "grapple it".  He successfully managed to grapple the cobra.  Morning quickly joined the grapple and pinned the cobra to the floor.  Erin and Aust, noticing simultaneously  that the cobra was making no move towards Lavinia suggested that she order the cobra to return to its guarding place.  Lavinia did so and Morning and Grey released the cobra to retun to the top of its pillar.

Moving through the double doors the group found themselves in the vault proper.  They found themselves facing a final door with some kind of combination lock.  Frecoes on the walls showed various stylised monsters of various kinds.  After several random attempts, Erin spoke up:

"Of course, the riddle from the ship's the combination."  She pointed out that each of the creatures mentioned had a different number of eyes and the sunrise/sunset part of the riddle referred to either clockwise or anticlockwise.  With a couple of clicks she moved the lock in the required combination.  The vault opened and the scene that greeted the group was one of disarray, almost all of the chests had been emptied.  Finally in one hidden corner, Lavinia discovered a chest which contained somewhere in the region of 20,000 gps, together with a ledger listing all the debts owed to the Vanderborens, together with a journal written in a strange language.  Lavinia paid the group and they went off to spend their winnings.


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## Dantardis (Oct 2, 2007)

A few days later, the group received a summons from Lavinia.  On their retun to House Vanderboren they were greeted by Lavinia and a human male whom Lavinia introduced as Aubreck.  "As I don't have any work for you currently, I wondered if you would consider helping a frined of mine."

Aubreck continued, "You see I am a merchant.  Unfortunately I am in something of dire straits.  My last cargo vessel, the Emperor of the Waves disappeared about 2 weeks ago.  I have recently learned that it has run aground about 3 days sail from here.  The ship itself doesn't concern me, it's the cargo that matters, specifically a large metal box inscribed with my seal.  If you would be willing to sail out to the Emperor of the Waves for me and retrieve my cargo I would see that you were suitably recompensed for your time."

A few hours later the group were aboard the vessel that would transport them to the stricken merchant vessel.  The first day at sea passed uneventfully.  During the afternoon of the second day, whilst he was on deck, Grey noticed that there were some shapes readying to climb aboard the ship from all directions.  He motioned silently to his companions and they stationed themselves at various corners around the ship.  Grey's warning came not a moment too soon as a large number of strange fish and lobster crossed humanoid figures appeared on deck.  Two of them headed towards the captain at the wheel whilst the rest headed towards the companions.

Before the creatures could attack the captain, Grey loosed an arrow and one of the creatures fell dead.  Meanwhile Aust managed to reach over the porhe vessel, where two of the creatures were still readying to clamber aboard.  Muttering a few arcane phrases, he leaned over and a burst of bright colours sprouted from his fingertips.  The two creatures appeared stunned and sank to the bottom.  On the starboard side of the vessel two of the creatures attacked Erin and Morning, doing some considerable damage.  Fortunately Morning's healing aura was still radiating outwards and the wounds quickly started to heal.  On the foc'sle another creature swarmed aboard and dodging Seki's snake attacked Seki himself, drawing blood.

Nimo, near the stern of the ship shouted, "I think they're Sahuagin" and shouted at them in Sahuagin.  When they didn't respond, he let a bolt of glowing energy fly from his fingers and one of the creatures fell down dead.  By this time Seki's snake had attacked the creature which had harmed his master, the creature falling down as posion coursed through its body.  Grey launched another arrow at another creature which was trying to leap over the side and it fell backwards into the sea.  Finally Seki struck the final creature and it fell.  Silence reigned over the ship.

By midday on the third day the Emperor of the Waves came into view, it had become lodged on a set of rocks, protruding from the surface of the ocean.  Launching the longboat the group quickly came aboard the stricken vessel and had a look around.  There seemed to be a number of strange tracks and Seki examined them.  "One seems to be a slithering creature, I'm unsure what it was, the second seemed to be similar to a spider and the final one appeared to be humanoid wearing boots, which was going below into the hold.  The group decided to head left,following the slithering track towards the cabin on the left.  Using the spears they had taken from the bodies of the fish creatures, they surrounded the doorway, whilst Grey tapped on the door.  The next moment the door was burst off its hinges as a huge sized centipede burst through.  Although the door was broken, the doorway was still intact, meaning the centipede was squeezing, putting it at a disadvantage, meaning the group could quickly finish it off using their spears.  Inside the centipede's cabin they saw a crude altar.  Aust had a quick look at the runes and symbols that were all around and recognised them as belonging to Tharzan, a demon lord associated with vermin and insects.  They also found a ledger which showed that the Emperor had landed by an island and that the crew had been attacked by large number of orcs.

Leaving the centipede's cabin they headed towards the other cabin.  Opening the door they saw a large spider.  It nearly managed to poison Aust as he opened the door, but fortunately Seki's snake managed to attack it first.  After a mighty spear thrust by Erin which went through the spider and out the other side, all became still.


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 8, 2007)

(You know, I'm going to tell Erin that you called her an elf, and she'll never forgive you.)

Good stuff, though. I'm glad someone's keeping track of the adventure.


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## Dantardis (Oct 8, 2007)

True, but I couldn't remember the exact name for her race.


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 8, 2007)

Heh. She's Raptoran, I believe.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Oct 8, 2007)

Wow, cool ... we just started the campaign, and I'm starting a story hour as well.

Sadly, that means I shouldn't read here or risk spoiling my game.  

Best of luck with your campaign!


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## Dantardis (Oct 9, 2007)

INTERLUDE

In the lower depths it waited.  That strange fish lay above it but it couldn't go near it at the moment.  Some strange voice in its head was telling it to stay away, but it could wait.  The fish did not appear to be going anywhere.


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## Dantardis (Oct 9, 2007)

On the Emperor of the Waves the group looked down into the grate leading to the main deck.  The floor was covered in a large nest of spiders, and various swarms scuttled about.  Bato and Morning lifted the grate, whilst Nimo threw a vial of Alchemist's fire down into the swarms.  The first swarm quicky caught fire and dispersed and there was some splash damage to the second swarm.  However, the second swarm climed up the ladder and swarmed over Nimo and Erin.  They quickly moved out of it's area, Erin, who was nauseated,  by gliding off the deck of the ship onto the rocks below.  Meanwhile Grey threw a second vial of Alchemist's Fire at the swarm and again it caught fire and quickly dispersed, the remaining spiders scuttling away into the dark recesses of the vessel.
   Heading down into the ship the group moved towards the bow of the ship and came to a door which was closed but not locked.  From withint they could hear a shuffling sound.  Readying their weapons Morning opened the door and was attacked by one of the dead Orcs that lived within.  Morning quickly stepped back and closed the door before the zombies could respond.  Erin took the time to wedge the door with her longspear and ensured that it was firmly shut.
  From the stern of the ship the group heard some chanting and moved quickly towards the stern, after noticing that all of the other cabins and rooms appeared deserted.  Bato moved to the door first and opened it.  Within he saw a half orc together with a snake.  Before he could act, the half orc muttered a few words and threw a feather into the air.  As the feather hit the floor near Bato it transformed into a huge sized whip, which attacked and grappled him.    Nimo and Aust both tried to cast a spell at the half orc but were unsuccessful.  The half orc, in retaliation, tried to cast a spell but fortunately, Grey had readied for this event and shot an arrow at the half orc, disrupting the spell.  Bato who was still grappled was being constantly wounded by the whip.  MNorning stepped forward to help Bato and changed his aura to one of healing, allowing Bato to stabilise.  In retaliation the half orc moved forward and hit Morning with his club.  Nimo tried to cast a spell at the half orc but at the last moment the half orc dodged out of the way.  However, Aust also cast a spell and the half orc screamed as a ball of acid hit it, burning it horribly.  Grey followed up with a hit with one of his arrows and the half orc fell dead.
  At this point the half orc's snake moved forward and was hit by Bato, as the whip which had been holding him had dissolved as the half orc died.  So mighty was Bato's blow that the snake was cleaved in two.
   After pausing to get their breath back the party moved onwards and in the galley, they discovered the grate leading down into the inner hold which appeared to be flooded.  At this point the vessel gave a sudden lurch and knocked Erin, Nimo and Bato over.  When they had picked themselves up, Bato, Erin, Aust and Nimo jumped down into the inner hold, into water that was knee deep.  In the distance they could see a wooden crate and Erin and Bato moved towards it.  Before they could move completely towards it, they were surprised by a group of four ghouls which had been hiding in the water.  Bato and Erin were both hit and were paralysed and the ghouls moved towards Aust and Nimo.  Morning moved down into the hold and managed to kill one of the Ghouls who was moving to attack Nimo.  At this point several tentacles appeared to make holes in the side of the ship.  Nimo cast a spell at one of the ghouls and it took some damage but kept advancing.  Grey, who had sneaked towards Bato without being seen, healed Bato with a wand.  Erin who had just recovered from being paralysed was hit by a ghoul and was paralysed again.  Grey meanwhile broke the crate and carried off the box within.  Bato killed one of the remaining ghouls and the final one was destroyed by Grey who had been using positive energy.  The group quickly moved the box out of the hold as the tentacles started to attack the Emperor of the Waves much more frantically.
   Getting back aboard their vessel the group saw the Emperor of the Waves sink for the final time beneath the waves as it was attacked by a giant squid.  Heading back to Sasserine they returned the box to Aubreck and received their reward.  They then headed off into the city to train.


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## Dantardis (Oct 11, 2007)

Some time later the group received a message from Lavinia asking them to return to House Vanderboren.  She told them that she was worried about her brother, Vanthus who had been missing for some time.  Vanthus had changed in the time he had been away from Sasserine, becoming bitter and twisted in nature.  Lavinia believd that Vanthus had fallen in with a crowd of smugglers and theives, and was believed to have a lover called Brissa Santos who lived in the Azure District of the city.  Eventually Aust managed to discover that Vanthus did tend to stay in the Azure District.
  Whilst in the district a shady figure  who introduced himself as Shefton Rosk informed Aust that Vanthus tened to hide out on Parrot Island in the area where there were some smuggler tunnels.  Shefton went on to relate that Vanthus regularly hired a boat from a company called "It Still Floats" to row across to Parrot Island.
   Hiring a large raft the group sailed across the bay to the island, which appeared deserted.  As they landed the raft they were surprised by a group of sand coloured crabs, one being large in size and two that were medium in size.  Fortunately Seti's snake managed to attack one of the medium crabs but only did some minor damage.  Erin tried to hit the large crab but missed.  In retaliation the medium crab hit Erin.  On the other side of the raft the large crab hit Morning and grappled her, doing some considerable damage.  Seki's snake managed to poison one of the medium crabs, weakening it.  Nimo, who was still in the raft, whispered some arcane words and a spray of various colours hit the large crab, but the crab appeared to resist the effects.  The large crab, meanwhile managed to strike Seti's snake and killed it.  Morning changed her aura to one which produced flame, doing damage to the large crab whilst it was holding her, effectively roasting the large crab as it held her.  The final medium sized crab  was killed by a mighty blow from Seki.
   Shefton led the group across the island to a large trapdoor with a twisted rope hanging down from it, which Shefton stated led down into the smuggler's tunnels below.  The group clambered down the rope, taking Shefton down with them.  As Aust, who was at the back of the group reached the bottom, he saw a bearded face appear by the trapdoor, whom he recognised as Vanthus.  
 "Goodbye fools", shouted Vanthus, slamming the trapdoor down.  A few seconds later Aust heard the sound of boulders being rolled across the opening, trapping the group inside.  From within Grey and the others could hear a shuffling noise.  Moving through the tunnels, the group eventually came to a door, which seemed to be the source of the shuffling noise.  Grey readied a shot as Nimo opened the door.  The room that was revealed showed a hulking group of dead figures that moved toward the group.  Aust quickly turned on his turning effect and the dead figures cowered away and moved towards the end of the room.  A tenth figure who seemed slightly different to the rest, was also turned and cowered in the room.  Through a combination of slashing weapons and positive energy attacks the group quickly destroyed the undead.  
  In one of the rooms they discovered a chest full of treasure and a dead body who appeared to be carrying a note, which was written in blood and read as follows, 

"These bones once be Penkus, so if ye read this, I be dead, laid low by the sick put on me by that foul dead thing!  Yet even as me flesh wracks, know t'was not the dead what brought my doom, but one I 'til recently called friend!
  Vanthus Vanderboren!  Your name fills me with bile!  Spineless, treacherous cur!  You left us here to die.  You left ME here to die, after all what I done t'get ye into th'Lotus!  Yer designs on the Lady of the Lotus be clear now, and with meself out th'way...ye doubtless move even now into power, slithering amid my vacancy like a hermit crab in a shell, or a cadaver worm to still-warm flesh.  CURSE UPON YE!
  To th'one what reads this.  If ye have any honor or vengeance in yer soul, know that Vanthus must die.  He dwells in the lap o' th'Lotus, below th'Taxidermist's Hall.  Seek him there, but 'fore he dies he must ken it were Penkus what undid him and guides yer killing blow.
  And if, by some cruel spite of fate, it be ye what reads this, Vanthus, know with certainty I wait for ye in Hell, where I intend t'rival the pit itself in yer torment."


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 15, 2007)

Regarding the comments made last session, no, I'm not a megalomaniac. Definitely not.

Erin might be, though.


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## EpicFailure (Oct 15, 2007)

Seki doesn't see the Lady Erin as megalomaniacal, just a bit stuck up and with a bit of a hero complex

Oh and he's getting frustrated by the lack of success of his "romantic" advances towards the ladies morning and erin, so far alls they've earned him is one broken nose and one death threat


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 15, 2007)

Really? I don't remember making any death threats.

Besides which, I don't think Erin noticed anything she considered romantic advances. Certainly nothing involving getting married and having children together*...

She was always a bit tall for her age, poor girl.

*or a clutch of eggs. Or adopting. Or _something_. To clarify, Erin's a bit naive regarding such things, and her real concern as per removing the chain shirt was the minute or so of having no armour on.** 

**She does wear a vest underneath it, by the way. Pervert.


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## EpicFailure (Oct 15, 2007)

poor girl, Seki too knows the pain of not fitting in as a kid if you couldn't tell  
and also, marriage, children? All's he asked for was shirts to be removed


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## Dantardis (Oct 16, 2007)

I'm just surprised no one's tried to hit on Lavinia yet.


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 16, 2007)

Methinks the DM wants some lovin'.


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## EpicFailure (Oct 16, 2007)

hmm yes, why hit on 2 people when I can hit on 3????
Sorry Kat but you are only going to get a third of my love now


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## Generic Strumpet (Oct 16, 2007)

What a _shame_.


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## EpicFailure (Oct 16, 2007)

tch you all love it really


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## Pale Morning Breeze (Oct 17, 2007)

*Semper Eadem*

Stop all this foolish chatter and concentrate on staying alive! Here I am soaking up all the damage at the front and you lot just drone on behind me. Buy wands and heal me!
The Spirits of the Gold Dragons will curse you if I go down ... (well actually they won't - but you'll be butter in comparison).
And another 2 things:
(1) why doesn't my deliberately intimidating/threatening behaviour towards dishonourable NPCs show up on the storyline,
(2) and sqishing acid monkeys with my bare (well skiped-gauntleted) hand?

On a personal note: Dan - can you telephone me on my home number, or arange to email me during this week please.


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## EpicFailure (Oct 17, 2007)

Is that the lovely lady morning I spy? Yes I too wonder where the tales of our epic bloodbath and my personal romances have gone too.
many hugs
your favorite druid


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## Dantardis (Oct 22, 2007)

After seraching the body of the dead Penkus, the group headed back up the T junction to the other door, from which they could hear a scuttling sound.  Morning continued to intimidate Shefton, who was cowering in the corner.  As they readied to open the door, Seki ponted out that the scuttling sound seemed similar to crabs, so the party all readied.  As Seki opened the door Grey readied and took a shot at one of the small crabs and killed one.  The crabs swarmed forward and hit Erin.  In retaliation Erin hit one of the crabs with her trident and damaged it quite severely.  Grey moved in to finishe it off with an arrow.  Morning, giving praise to the Duchess hit another crab and roasted it with his fire producing auar. Soon the fight was all over.  The party then retraced their steps back to the trapdoor, which was still firmly shut.  With Grey and Morning helping to lift him up, Aust teleported up through the trapdoor and arrived back on the beach.  He could see in the distance a man running away, who appeared to be Vanthus Vanderboren, running away back to the boats.  Aust saw him take a potion out of his pocket and drank it, his form becoming gaseous and he flew away.  Aust turned back to the trapdoorand rolled the boulders than Vanthus had set there aside and lifted the trapdoor.  "Vanthus is running off" he shouted.

The party ran back to the beach where they could see the gaseous form of Vanthus running off, getting onto their raft they gave a rope to Nimo who jumped into the waves and  started to tow the raft with the party on it back to shore, following the gas cloud.  After a lightning run through the streets they saw the cloud disappear through a chimney into the Taxidermist's Guildhall.  The party thought the best method of getting him was to stroll in.  The Guildhall was a strange sight, filled floor to ceiling with various stuffed animals and other creatures, in various poses and positions.  A smooth and lacquered man who introduced himself as Nemien Robach gave them a tour.  Grey had noticed that there were some tracks on the floor which led through another door.  Using hand signals he motioned for the rest of the party to crowd round Nemien, showing interest in what he was saying while he sneaked through the door.  He found a passageway where the tracks seemed to stop at the wall.  He snuck back into the main room and behing Nemien, hitting him with a cosh and knocking him unconscious.  They sat Nemien down in a chair and poured some of the embalming fluid over his clothing.  The party then moved down the corridor and into the secret passage, which Grey had found.    The passage led to another trapdoor which led below the guildhall.  From the passage and off to one side the party could hear the sound of lapping waves, together with a loud clanging noise.

Morning moved forward and saw that the passage ended in a room that was ankle deep in saltwater, that ended in a wall with a portcullis in the down position.   Morning started to move through the water towards the portcullis.  As she got about halfway across the pool a group of several squid like creatues ;ept out and attacked.  Four of them bit Morning and did some damage, the wounds bleeding quite badly.  Two further creatures moveed forward and bit Nimo and Seki.  Aust moved behind Morning and healed her with a wand of cure light wounds.  Three of the creatures hit Erin.  Morning, switched her aura to a glimmering aura of fire energy and it caught on fire.  The remaining creatures ducked back under the water and retreated.
Morning moved back into the water and was ambushed again, but fortunately only one of the creatures managed to hit her, but managed to stagger her  Erin was also attacked and fell over bleeding.  Morning managed to switch her aura to one of healing and managed to  kill two of the creatures.  As the creatues stormed forward Nimo tried to stop them but was hit several times and became staggered.  Aust moved behind Nimo and healed him, whilst Morning killed the final creatures.  The party noticed, after the fight was over that there were some traces of food laying on the surface of the water.


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## Dantardis (Oct 23, 2007)

Meanwhile, while the fight had been going on, Grey had remianed outside in the city, keeping an eye on the ship that Vanthus had stationed in the harbour, called the Sea Wyvern.  Grey saw a small longboat from a distance away, sail over to the caravel with a figure inside it who could only be Vanthus.   Grey saw Vanthus climb aboard the vessel and a short time later it sailed out of the harbour.  Grey followed it by moving around parts of the city wall, until he finally lost sight of it as the Sea Wyvern headed out of Sasserine in the general direction of Larmouth.
  Grey then returned to the rest of the party who had by this time returned to the Taxidermist Guildhall and tidied up Nemien, removing the statins of the embalming fluid with a handy prestidigitation spell from Nimo.  Morning managed to bluff Nemien very well that he had suddenly passed out and they had laid him in a chair.  The party decided to head back to Lavinia and report on all they had seen.  Lavinia told them that the Sea Wyvern had once belonged to her parents but that they had given the vessel to Vanthus for his eighteenth birthday.  She went on to say that she believed Vanthus was heading towards Kraken's Cove and if possible she would like the party to go after him.
   Deciding  that Vanthus was likely to expect them to go aftter him by sea they hired some horses and set off around the bay from Sasserine to Kraken's Cove.  The first past of the journey passed uneventfully until the evening when the party had settled down to rest.  As they were going about their normal camp routine they saw a group of strange fish like creatures coming towards them, murder in their eyes


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## Dantardis (Oct 26, 2007)

The fish creatures moved forward and seemed to group together in groups of four, a moment later a bolt of lightning speared out from this towards Aust and hit him, doing some damage.  Morning moved towards the group and with a mighty blow killed one of the creatures.  Seki and his snake also moved foward and went in to attack.  Morning reversed her grip on her weapon and a second of the creatures fell.  Grey, meanwhile concemtrated and tried to cast a spell at the second group of the creatures, which had appeared but this did not seem to have any effect.  The creatures had retaliated by this time and two of them struck Morning , whilst a smaller group of the creatures fied another lightning bolt at Aust.  In retaliation Aust cast a spell a an arc of clour spun out of his fingers, leaving three of the creatures stunned.  Erin, by this time had also moved forward and killed one of the creatures, with her trident.  Seki managed to critical one of the creatures and the remiaing creatures moved in to attack Erin and Aust.  Seki managed to kill one of the other creatures, whilst Grey finished off the other.  Soon all was quiet, but Seki noticed that there was a dark plume of smoke coming from Kraken's Cove.
     After resting the party headed off again towards the cove, moving through slightly denser jungle surroundings. They were about half an ahour away from the cove when they heard a screeching sound.  Grey, who was scouting ahead had just time to shout a warning before a group of monkeys swarme dout of the trees, jumping onto the party's horses.  Although their basic shape was that of a monkey they appeared more savage, with bestial features and strabge bony outgrowths protruding from their limbs.  As they moved forward to attack Morning was quicker and caught one of the creatures with one gauntleted hand, grappling it and using the other hand to continually damage it.  The monkey died but as it did so it burst into a pool of acidic goo, splashing Morning and her horse.  At the same time one of the creatures bit Seki whilst another bit Erin.  Nimo, who had been trying to dismount was carried off, back towards Sasserine by his horse as he had lost control of his mount temporarily.  Grey, taking out his longbow shot one of the creatures through the neck, killing it.   The rest of the party quickly finished off the rest of the monkeys and continued.


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## Dantardis (Oct 26, 2007)

When the party got to Kraken Cove they could see the reason for the thick plumes of black smoke.  What could only be described as a conflagration met their eyes.  Several large ships were aflame, together with a film of oil over the ship.  The only ship which appeared to have escaped the flames for now appeared to be a caravel, which was further out to sea.  A walkway led down from the top of the cliffs to a small beach, but as the party looked one of the aflame ships slipped itsmoorings and crashed into the wooden walkway, completely demolishing it.  Grey, taking the initiative, jumped from the top of the cliffs and featherfalled down to the beach.  Looking around Grey saw that the beach appeared to be deserted.  As he looked around, however, he failed to spot two pirates who had been hiding behind some cargo crates.  They too, appeared malformed and twisted and some sixth sense warned Grey to turn around just before the pirates could attack.  He quickly finished them off and motioned for the rest of the party to join him, which they did by utilising a rope to from a simple block and tackle system.
  Grey moved off into a cave system which seemed to lead from the beach.  From the right hand side of the system he could hear a bestial growling and headed in that direction, the rest of the party following behind.  He saw a medium sized dinosaur, which also had been affected by some strange energy, with bonespurs protruding from its flesh.  Although it moved fast, Grey was quickerand managed to hit the dinosaur with a mighty blow that seemed to do considerable damage.  Morning then, using true strike on her weapon managed to finish off the dinosaur, killing it.Moving in to the rest of the complex the party met little resistance, apart from the odd pirate until they reached a wooden door, from which they could hear occasional shouts and growls.
   Nimo opened the door and a strange sight met the party's eyes.  A tall, raven haired, striking woman, dressed like a pirate seemed to be standing behind a barricade and holding off more of the savage pirates.  She seemed to notice them, calling out, "Lend a hand there, me hearties.", before heading back to the fray, killing two of the creatures before more took their place.    The party moved forward and with the woman's help managed to finsih off what remained of the creatues.  All fell silent within the caves.


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## Dantardis (Nov 5, 2007)

When the fight was over, the woman, eyeing the group warily introduced herself as Captain Harliss Javell of the Slippery Eel.  "My thanks for helping me.  I assume that you're not with that slimeball Vanthus."  When Nimo questioned her about Vanthus she went on, "Aye Vanthus Vanderboren, curse his name.  He was supposed to meet us in the cove to pay us for our smuggling operation, but then he tried to trick us by paying with false coin.  When I complained he pulled a black pearl out of his pocket and dropped it to the deck of my ship.  After that, everything went a bit strange.  When the pearl hit the deck a strange dark energy washed over everyone aboard.  It made me feel strange but I managed to shrug the effects off, as did Vanthus.  My crew were not so lucky, they changed into the creatures you just saw.  Vanthus ran away.. I think.  You can have all the goods I was going to give Vanthus, all I ask is that you let me go away from here."

While the party, together with Captain Javell, helped move the cargo back to the top of the cliffs above the cove, Nimo and Grey decided to go for a little swim.  Diving underneath the ships, which were on fire they used an adamanatine drill to make a hole in the ship big enough for them to climb through.  Going to each vessel in turn, apart from the caravel which was anchored further out they were able to discover various maps and charts.   The party then went back to Sasserine to train and sell the goods they had found.


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## Dantardis (Nov 5, 2007)

INTERLUDE

He lay strapped to a table, his benefactor standing above him with a manic look on his eye.  Though he tried to scream no sound emerged.  "My friend", said his benefactor, "don't be afraid, I'm going to make you faster and stroger than you've ever been before.  How, you may expereince some pain, well alright a lot of pain."  As huis benefactor's laughter ended his screams began......


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## Dantardis (Nov 5, 2007)

Lavinia had asked to see the party once they had finished their training.  "Greetings once again.  I have deciphered my mother's notes and charts.  They detail that my parents some five years ago set up a colony on a tropical island which was rich in rare minerals and goods.  They called it Farshore and it's many thousands of miles to the south.  It's my parents last legacy and I intend to travel there to turn Farshore into a going concern.  That's where I need your help.  I find that I am a ship short for the journey as I intend to carry some supplies and goods for the colonists.  I beleive that you found my parent's other vessel, the Sea Wyvern in Kraken's Cove.  I would like you to return to Kraken's Cove and recover the vessel."

A short time later the party found themselves back in Kraken's Cove.  Looking out into the cove they could see the Sea Wyvern at a distance.  Aust could see that there was a nameplate on it, covering up the name Sea Wyvern.  This new nameplate was written in orcish and simply said "Ours."  Following on from this Aust used a magical Lyre which he'd found in the cargo to fashion a crude raft.  Nimo dived under the water of the cove and swam beneath the hull of the ship.  Moving softly and silently on the raft the rest of the party swam up to the Sea Wyvern.  Aust tried to climd the deck and made some noise, the creatures aboard were alerted.  Nimo could see that they were Orcs.  The Orcs had been alerted but one was killed by Grey.  Aust, who by this time had managed to climd aboard successfully cast a spell at another Orc and it screamed as various parts of its body were burned with acid.  Erin climed aboard and issued a challenge to the Orcs.  Morning hit an Orc at the stern of a ship and it fell down and started bleeding.  The Orcs that remained tried to  hit Erin and Seki and missed.  A third Orc cowered in the corner.  Between them Erin and Seki finished off the last two aggressive Orcs.  Aust meanwhile questioned the prisoner.  The Orc revealed that the group of them had been on the run from a leader in a complex to the north, at the base of a mountain with a black rock on it, shpaed like a tooth.  They'd come down to the cove and found the Sea Wyvern and decided to use it to run away.  

The group searched the ship and found several mundane items but nothing of any real value apart from a crate containing a crested felldrake.  Seki attempted to use animal empathy on the creature but was unsuccessful.


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## Dantardis (Nov 5, 2007)

After recapturing the Sea Wyvern the party sailed it back into Sasserine, and headed the caravel back to Lavinia.  Lavinia thanked them and told them that it would take some time to stock up the ships, so the party decided to head out into the wilderness and try to find the complex that the Orcs had mentioned.  They weren't sure exactly where the commplex was, only that it was somewhere near Kraken Cove.  After the first day of travel they made camp.  Early in the evening while the group were making camp, Grey noticed that there was some movement from the north.  A group of seven lizards moved forwards through the undergrowth.  They seemed to walk touching each other and seemed to be harnassing some energy which they then released as a bolt of electricity, straight at Aust.  By this time the rest of the party had moved forward and Bato hit one of the lizrds, killing it.  Nimo did some chanting at the back and two were killed by his spell.  Bato moved around and killed a second lizrd, whilst Erin finished off another.  Althought the lizards tried to retaliate they were unsuccessful.  Grey tried to shoot one of the lizards who was now in melee but failed and accidentally hit Seki's badger instead.  Bato killed the final shocker lizard and everything became silent, the rest of the night passing uneventfully.


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## Dantardis (Nov 6, 2007)

The follwing day the party continued to head north, with Grey and Nimo taking the lead.  Up ahead they could see a large mound with a sharp, black almost tooth-like protrusion coming from the top of it.  A winding path led up to the top.  Some way to the west there was a large lake which seemed to have unnatural currents moving across it.  On the mountain itself there appeared to be some form of stone bunker with two Orcs patrolling it, alhough they seemed more intent on watching each other, rather than keeping an eye on the approach to their home.  Motioning for the rest of the party to remain hidden in some undegrowth, Nimo and Grey moved sneakily and silently forward, Nimo heading towards them, Grey sneaking around the bunker to drop down from above.  The Orcs were surprised as Grey  dropped down and quickly slew one of the Orcs.  He wasn't quick enough however, as the second Orc raised the alarm.  Grey quickly killed the second Orc and ran to the door, which a third Orc was hurriedly trying to close.  Grey quickly killed this third Orc an moved onwards through the complex.  Meanwhile the rest of the party quickly ran up to the opening.  Grey hurried down a passageway into another room which contained some more Orcs, killing one Orc but missing another that was present.  The Orcs moved forwards and hit Erin.  Erin retaliated by swinging her trident and slaying one of them.  Soon the Orcs lay dead.
 Coming to a T junction within the complex themain body of the party headed one way while Seki decided to head the other way.  Grey and the other came to a door, from which they could hear a low growling sound.  Bursting open the door they saw a large Ogre with two wolf companions.  Grey, who had been readying an arrow, immediately let fly at the Ogre.  In retaliation the Ogre moved forward and tried to hit Grey but missed.  Aust joined the fray, casting a spell at the Ogre, which causeed acid burns to appear all over its flesh.  Grey moved further into the room, hitting the Ogre again.  The wolves, by this time had started to move forward to attack the rest of the party.  One of them managed to hit Bato and tripped him up.  Morning struck the Ogre, killing it.  Erin joined the fray and with one mighty blow one of the wolves was dead.  The final wolf tried to flee and was killed by combined blows from Morning and Bato.
  Meanwhile at the other end of the corridor, Seki and his snake were finding things a lot more difficult than they expected.  As he headed down some stairs which led downwards he was ambushed by some gnat like flying creatures.  One of the creatures was hit by the snake and poisoned whilst Seki managed to hit another.  The remaining creatures managed to hit Seki and attaching themselves to him drained him of some of his vitality.  By this time Seki's screams had summoned the others and Nimo cast a spell causing a bolt of glowing energy to hit two of the creatures, killing them.  The party then continued.


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## Dantardis (Nov 6, 2007)

Moving on into the complex the party noticed that the walls of the areas they were heading into were much rougher and earthier than previously.  There was also a slightly foul stench in the air.  Moving into a chamber they saw a group of grey skinned feral creatures, which Seki identified as troglodytes.  Grey attempted to hit one of the troglodystes but missed.  Aust loaded a crossbow and fired, hitting one of the troglodytes.  Two of the remaining creatures threw their javelins and hit Erin.  Morning moved forward and killed one of the troglodytes.  One of the other creatures was hit by Seki's snake.  Aust tried to shoot his crossbow again but missed, the bolt boucing harmlessly into the wall.  By this time the troglodytes had started to move forward, one hitting Erin and another clawing Bato.  Erin retaliated by wounding one of the troglodytes.  Morning by this time had moved around the creatures and managed to kill one of the troglodytes.  Grey killed another one with an arrow, and the final one was decapitated by Morning.
   Some further troglodytes entered the chamber from a side passage, Grey managing to hit one with an arrow as it entered.  Seki had summoned a wolf which hit one of the troglodytes but failed to trip it.  Grey, whilst trying to shoot one of the troglodytes failed and hit Erin by mistake.  One of the remaining troglodytes was very unlucky, being hit and tripped by one of the troglodytes before being savaged by a second wolf, which Seki had summoned.  A further troglodyte was ripped apart by another wolf.  One of the remaining troglodytes savagely attacked Morning, doing considerable damage.
    A troglodyte who appeared slighly tougher than the rest had by this time appeared at another section of the chamber, near Erin, he appeared to try and cast a spell at Erin but failed.  Several of the remaining troglodytes hit the wolves, doing minimal damage.  Bato and Morning, working as a team managed to kill some further troglodytes.  The larger troglodyte cast a spell towards Erin and Grey, causing a sheen of glittering gold to appear, although Ern and Grey appeared unaffected.  Combining might and magic Nimo and Grey finished off the larger troglodyte, while the rest of the party mopped up the rest.


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## Dantardis (Nov 7, 2007)

The Party then came to an area which was laid out like a tomb, the walls and floors being of a more definitive workes stone.  In one corner there were several dwarven sarcophagi.  The party then came to a door.  They opened the door and saw a collonaded chamber.  Grey entered first and could see a grey skinned dwarf attempting to hide very badly in one corner.  He called out to it and was greeted in response by a voice saying, "Go away, this is our place!"  Grey retaliated by shooting on of the duergar through the doorway, killing it and called out for any others to surrender.  Two more of the creatures promptly came forward and surrendered their weapons.  The group then moved towards a door above a raised dias, which the duergar had indicated their leader lay behind.  Opening the door, the found the duergar leader together with two other warriors.  Grey moved in quickly and hit the leader, moving past the other duergar who failed to hit him.    Following up his attack Grey quickly killed the leader, whilst Morning moved in to attack one of the warriors, staggering it.  Erin. wielding her mighty trident also managed to hit one of the duergar, leaving Grey to finish it off.
  Grey then moved to another door leading from the collonaded chamber.  A draft beneath the door felt slightly cold.  Opening the door the party saw two large skeletal figures, a smaller and more savage skeletal creature and finallt behind them a floaing black cowed figure that seemed to be continually talking to itself.  This noise seemed to drill itself into Seki's brain and he ordered his dire bat to attack Grey, before moving off.  Erin, who had been at the front of the group as they opened the door was brutally attacked by the two skeletons .  Seki's bat, meanwhile hit Grey.  Erin was again hit by the skeletons twice before she could retaliate.  The black cowled figure, moving through the floor, reappeared next to Morning and hit her, draining some of her mental well being.  Grey moved up to one of the skeletons and hit it with a positive energy attack, whilst the allip hit Morning again with its drain attack, shortly before Morning finished it off with a mighty blow.  The skeletons continued their attacks on Erin, causing her to fall to the ground, mortally wounded.  Fortunately Morning's healing aura stabilised her, causing her to stabilise.  Morning then stood over Erin's fallen form and managed to kill one of the skeletons, causing it to crumble to dust.  In retaliation the other skeleton hit Morning.  Grey, who had been moving behind the main body of the fight moved in to attack the wight at the back and dealt it damage with a positive energy attack.  Meanwhile at the front of the fight although Morning managed to hit the skeleton in front of her she was again hit by it and fell over.  Seki, who by this time had recovered from the allip's incessant babble moved into the fray and hit the skeleton.  The dire bat also hit the skeleton and it was destroyedm leaving only the wight to be dealt with.  Seki moved in to hit the wight and Grey finally destroyed it with a mighty thrust.


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## Dantardis (Nov 7, 2007)

Coming to a chain ladder leading down they could hear the sound of lapping water although below was in darkness.  Lowering themselves carefully the party found themselves on a small beach, surrounded by a slow moving underground lake, in the middle of which was a small island.  Between the beach and the island were all manner of floating debris that formed a kind of floating walkway.  Morning mumbled under her breath and an area of the lake was illuminated in a series of glowing lights which moved and danced around the area.  Erin, who had been moving carefully across the walkway, was suddenly surprised as a fierce, black, draconic head burst out of the water and breathed  a cloud of acid at her, burning her slightly.  Grey, who had managed to sneak over to the island picked up his bow and hit the dragon with an arrow.  The dragon then retaliated by hitting Erin with its bite and claw attacks.  Aust, who had managed to load his crossbow fired and hit the dragon.  Erin moved forward to hit the dragon but missed.  Morning cast a spell and a glowing bolt of cold energy hit the dragon, which quickly dove back under the water.  Seki summonned two porpoises who also followed the dragon down into the water.
     The dragon reappeared shortly later, near the island and moved forward to attack Grey, but Grey was quicker, striking the dragon with a blow which would have killed a lesser creature.  The dragon breathed in and then spewed out a further stream of acid at Grey.  Seki mumbled under his breath and a flaming ball shot out of his fingers and hit the dragon.  This was immediately followed by Grey moving in to attack the dragon, and hitting it.   The dragon  tried to fly up at this point and flew straight into Seki's dire bat, hitting it.  At this point Aust cast a spell and a shower of golden light hit the dragon, making it glow.  Seki then cast a spell that made his hands glow with fire and hit the dragon making it staggered.  Grey then fired an arrow and hit the dragon and it fell to the ground, a combination of Grey's arrow and the fall finally being enough to kill it.


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## Dantardis (Nov 7, 2007)

Some time later the party had fashioned a crude sled to drag their treasures out of the complex.  Their journey back to Sasserine was uneventful until they were about 2 hours away from the city.  At this point Grey spotted some strange dog-like creatures hiding in the undergrowth and just had time to shout out a warning as the creatures burst out of their hiding place at speed.  "They're Runehouds", yelled Seki, "we need silver weapons to kill them."
  One of the runehounds had by this time already charged up to Morning and hit her with a bite.  Morning in retaliation hit the runehound, whilst Erin hit a second creature.  Aust, who found himself in the open with no protection from the creatures cast a spell on himself.  One of the creatures continued to hit Morning, whilst a third tried to hit Grey and Aust but missed.  Seki's dire bat moved in and with a mighty blow killed one of the creatures.  Grey, who had taken up a defensive position on top of the cart managed to hit one of the creatures which had climbed aboard after him, whilst Erin, reversing the grip on her trident gave a mighty thrust, causing the runehound to fall over.  The dire bat also hit the third runehound wounding it.  One of the remaining creatures, whose wounds had healed up slightly hit Morning.  Seki cast a spell and a ball of fire hit the remaining runehound before Morning dealt the killing blow.  The rest of the journey back to Sasserine passed quickly and without incident.


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## Dantardis (Nov 8, 2007)

On arival back in Sasserine they found that Lavinia had been bust stocking up both the Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie with goods and passengers.  Lavinia asked them if there was anything which they wanted to take along as they would be travelling for almost a month.  After making various purchases and training the party were ready and with a certain degree of ceremony both ships passed through the channel and into the open sea.  Erin at this time was not with the rest of the party, stating that she had personal business to attend to in her homeland, but she advised she did have a colleague called Sangaya who she did not hesitate to recommend.  With this new companion commanding the vessel the ship joined its companion vessel on its long voyage.
       Hugging the coastline of the continent both ships travelled easily together.  By the afternoon of the first day Grey and also Krash Goldragon, the ship's bos'n, who had been standing in the crow's nest with a telescope spotted a strange white crested formation in the sea behind their vessel, although some distance away.  Sangaya, on receiving the information took command, ordering that the ship's bell be rung and that all non-essential crew members go below deck.  Morning took charge of the ballista at the stern side of the ship whilst Grey readied to fire some salvos of arrows.  Grey managed to hit one of the creatures with an arrow although the ballista missed and caused a splash on its first firing.  As the creatures drew closer the ballista and arrows continued to rain down but this time were unsuccessful.  The creatures at this time dived below the surface although it was obvious that they were still coming.  Seki cast a spell on the water causing the immediate are around the ship to experience a sudden change of pressure.  By this time the creatures were readying to climb aboard.  From his position on deck Aust could see them quite clearly and called out to the rest, "They're Anguillans, a type of sea worm."   He then cast a spell and a bolt of glowing colour shot out and hit two Anguillans, causing one to become blinded.  The other creature moved forward to attack Aust, snarling and baring its teeth but Aust managed to teleport away before it could hurt him.  A second anguillan hit Krask Golddragon, wounding him slightly.  Seki's dire bat hit a third anguillan and killed it.  Morning switched on her burning aura, hitiing an Anguillan and killed it.  Sangaya, whispering a word to herself caused a glowing blade to spring from her hand and hit a further creature.  Grey picked up his weapon and hit a further creature.  Aust tried to luach a ball of acid at one of the creatures but it managed to dodge out of the way.  By this time, at the foc'sle of the ship an anguillan managed to critical Sangaya, hurting her most severely.  Seki's dire bat retaliated by hitting an anguillan, which was quickly followed up by another hit by Morning, causing it to catch on fire, killing it.  Sangaya hit the same creature at more or less the same time, quickly finishing it off.  The final creature tried to swim away but was hit before Grey and Sangaya beforeit managed to swim away.  And so, the fighover, the good ship Sea Wyvern passed on its way.


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## Dantardis (Nov 8, 2007)

INTERLUDE

In her home she waited, her children all around her.  They needed feeding again.  She knew that soon she could feed them.  Food was always coming in to this area, it was just a matter of time.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

It was a few days later and Grey, whilst on deck noticed that there were two areas of blackness which appeared to be moving towards the ship.  Drawing his bow he fired an arrow at the ship's bell causing it to ring and summoning the rest of the party to the deck whilst the main body of passengers headed below.  The black areas hit the Sea Wyvern causing it to shake, causing some of the people on deck to fall over.  At the same time Grey fired at one of the creatures with an arrow.  Seki had been standing near the bow of the vessel and fell over the side as the ship rocked.  Fortunately his dire bat flew down and picked him up but not before one of the creatures bit a chunk out of his bat.  Nimo muttered under his breath and a beam of energy flew out of his fingers and hit one of the creatures.  Aust looked at the creatures and shouted, "They're Blackskates, a type of undead fish."  Grey fired again hitting the second blackskate for minimal damage.  Seki chnated to himself and a bolt of lightning hit the blackskate on his side of the ship.  Morning seemed to be drawing power from deep within herself and lit up with flames.  At this point the blackskates hit the ship again and a surge of green water moved across the ship, washing Morning astern.  Grey hit one of the blackskates with a force effect.  Sangaya arrived on the deck at this point and gave orders to the crewmen.  By this point the Sea Wyvern was starting to list slightly to port as the blackskates attached themselves to the hull.  Morning moved to the port side, provoking an attack from the blackskate and then hit the creature with a beam of light.  Aust turned one of the blackskates causing it to to swim away.  Nimo cast a further spell causing a jet of steam it the final blackskate, killing it.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

That evening Lavinia invited the party for a banquet aboard her ship, the Blue Nixie,the wine and the conversation flowing freely.  On the return trip back to the Sea Wyvern Grey noticed a strange thing.  The two crews had set up a rope chair to transfer the passengers back to the Sea Wyvern and Grey noticed that the ropes had been partially cut through.   Calling out a warning to the rest of the party he walked quickly across the ropes back to the Sea Wyvern.  At this point there was a loud crash and two mephits appeared into the air.  At this moment Grey reached the topsail and cut it down, revealing an invisible figure beneath the sail as it fell to the deck.  Seki cast a spell with a bolt of fire, aiming it at the mephit but this missed and hit the invisible figure.  Sangaya drew her weapon and hit one of the mephits whilst Morning swam aboard.  Nimo withdrew back to the Sea Wyvern and tried to climb aboard but was hit by the two mephits.  Aust cast a spell and a beam of colour hit the mephits, blinding them.  Seki's dire bat was then hit by the mephits in retaliation.  Seki at this point muttered under his breath and changed into a medium sized dinosaur.  Grey hit the invisible figure, dealing it a mighy blow and meanwhile Sangaya killed one of the mephits.  Morning tried to hit the invisible figure at this point but missed.  The mephits hit Sangaya, Grey and Morning.  Seki and Sangaya both killed one mephit each.  Once the fight was over the party examined the body of the previously invisible figure, Aust was able to identify it as Rowyn Kellani, a member of one of the noble houses of Sasserine. They also noticed that she wore a tatoo identifying her as one of the Lotus Dragons.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

A few days later Krash Goldragon sighted land and both vessels docked in Fort Blackwell.  After spending a few days training and buying equipment, they were contacted by the mayor of the Fort mentioned to the party that several of the Fort's druids had disappeared into the jungle and had not been seen for a number of days.  The party decided to investigate this development.
       After a trek into the interior which took about half an hour, the party came to a large clearing from which they could see several druidic figures who appeared to be tied to trees.  Standing in the middle of the clearing was a strange figure, which appeared to have no face, rather it had what appeared to be a large mouth.  It spotted soem of the party and started to emit a high pitched moaning sound which led to many of the party becoming shaken.  Grey managed to shake off the effects of the figure and so did Nimo who cast a spell causing an area of golden light to appear around the creature, but it did not appear to be overly affected.  Seki summoned two dire wolves and these raced towards the figure, one becoming shaken as it entered the area of the moaning effect, the other managing to hit the creature.  Aust cast a further glitterdust spell at the creature but again it managed to throw off the effects.  The creature hit both one of the wolves and Sangaya, who by this time had moved into the area.  Morning hit the creature in retaliation whilst Nimo cast another glitterdust which again the creature was able to shake off.  Grey, by this time had started to move around the perimeter of the clearing and started to free the druids, one by one.   The creature, meanwhile hit Sangaya.  By this time, however, the rest of the party had arrived and make short work of the creature.  Once the druids had been freed they told that they had been going about a druidic ritual when the creature, known as a gloom golem had appeared amongst them and made them tie each other to the trees.  The party were feted in Fort Blackwell for the rest of the day before they set sail again the following morning.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

The following afternoon the Sea Wyvern spotted a strange sight, in the water off the starboard side of the vessel, there was a mound of debris, from which two figures were clinging.  Once they had been taken aboard the Sea Wyverm they told their story.  They revealed that they were whalers from the north who had been blown off course.  On their way back north their vessel had been attacked and destroyed although some of the crew may have survived.  They asked Sangaya if she would be willing to sail back to where the vessel was attacked to see if there were any other survivors.  
      A few hours later, as dusk was approaching the party saw a further area of debris, with a great number of whalers holding it to it, about twenty in all.  When they saw the ship they cried out for the party to hurry up and rescue them as something was about to attack them.  Nimo dived into the water to see if he could spot anything and simultaneously the whalers all appeared to be pulled beneath the waves.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Diving down beneath the waves, Nimo noticed a strange transformation taking place.  In place of the human whalers who had been on the surface the creatures now appeared to be a type of wolf but with an aquatic body.  He had no time to react as the wolves ambushed him.  Meanwhile on the deck of the Sea Wyvern the two initial whalers had also transformed into some kind of hybrid form.  Grey and Sangaya immediately hit one of them whilst the other hit Sangaya and Morning.  Aust cast a spell and a bolt of glowing colours hit the two sea wolves on deck, this was immediately followed up by Morning hitting one of the creatures and Grey hitting another one twice.  Back beneath the surface Nimo cast a spell and a bolt of lightning flew out of his hands, hitting several of the sea wolves.  Sangaya and Morning quickly finished off the two remaining woves on deck and turned their attention to what was happening in the sea, particularly as the sea wolves were now on the surface.  One of the wolves moved near the port side of the vessel and hit Morning.  Grey hit this wold causing it to become stunned.  Nimo cast glitterdust on the sea wolves causing one of them to become blinded.  One of the sea wolves attempted to hit Aust, who teleported away whilst another one hit Morning.  Grey killed one.  Nimo had by this time climbed back aboard and cast magic missile at one of the wolves.  Sangaya and Seki's dire wolf hit a further sea wolf and Grey finishes off by killing it.  Nimo cast a spell at some of the wolves still in the water causing a jet of steam to hit several of them causing significant damage.  Seki, Morning and Grey quickly finished off the remainder of the sea wolves that had climbed on deck and the remainder swam away.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Out of Character:  I hope I remembered everything about the above fight but even to play through I seem to remember it being very involved and frenetic.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Later that same day Roger, the cabin boy, approached the captain and said,  "Captain, one of the passengers, Father Feres is unwell and our healers can do nothing for him."  The party walked down into the inner hold to where Feres' cabin was.  Here they found the priest sweating and rolling around his bunk, clearly in great pain.  Grey and Aust could see that there appeared to be a large mass pulsating in his abdomen.  Drawing a knife Grey quickly cut into the priest's abdomen and removed a pulsating egg which he threw against the far well, a demonic looking visage was revealed which Aust shouted was a Slaad.  The Slaad concentrated and a second Slaad also appeared.  Sangya quickly moved forward and hit the original Slaad.  Seki concentrated and quickly changed into his dinosaur form.  Morning, changing her aura damaged the second slaad with acid.   Aust and Grey both also hit the Slaad.  The Slaad hit Sangaya three times causing several greivous wounds to appear on her flesh.  Aust tried to dispel the summoning of the second slaad but was unsuccessful.  Grey hit the second slaad and did some subdual samage.  Morning chanted, putting a spell ability on her weapon and hit the summoned slaad.  The original Slaad moved forward and hit both Aust and Nimo, who quickly fell, pumping blood.  Seki and Grey both hit this Slaad and Morning followed up with a killing blow.  The second Slaad had healed up some of its wounds and hit Seki, but Seki and Grey retaliated finalling killing the creature.  After healing their fallen comrades attention turned towards Father Feres.
      Feres shuffled nervously, "My real name isn't Feres, it's Conrad Horst.  I'm on the run from Cauldron after several cons I attempted went wrong.  I decided to leave Sasserine and head south.  I had a package to deliver to the temple of Heirenous at Fort Blackwall.  But the temple is a sham, it's run by a group of Slaadi worshiping cultists who implanted something in my body.  If you will let me go at our nest port I will bother you no more."


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

A few days later the Sea Wyvern was nearing the mouth of the Havekihu River.  The fog was extremely thick and visibility was severely reduced.  Sangaya gave the order for the anchor to be lowered until the fog cleared and all was still.  Later that night the Sea Wyvern gave a sudden lurch.  Grey, who was on watch at this time saw a grey shape, surrounded byfloating debris and flotsam attach itself to the ship so he hit it whilst raising the alarm.  Sangaya, who was also on wtach did not react so quickly and was hit and grappled by the ooze, before it detached and moved back into the sea.  Aust cast a spell and a glowing weapon materialised near the ooze, hittibg it.  Sangaya was once again hit by the ooze but managed to hit it in return as did Grey, doing some damage to the creature.  Morning dived into the sea after the captain, and was also grappled by the ooze.  By this time the combat had become more organized, with Sangaya, Grey and Morning all striking the creature, reducing the creature to nothing.  All was still. Once the fog had cleared the two vessels sailed off southwards.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Several days later the Sea Wyvern arrived at Tamoachan, at which point Urol Forol the gnome became very excited as Lavinia had promised him that he could go ashore and investigate these ancient ruins.  Seki took the party aside and explained to them that Tamoachan was revered in his culture as belonging to the ancient Suel civilisation. As such he would prefer that any tombs or monuments that the party found were left intact.  Moving into the interior Urol found a pathway leading uphill which the party followed for about an hour.  They came to an area which was strewn with cobwebs, with a large sized web like creature standing in the middle of it which Aust identified as a Web Golem.  Morning quickly changed her aura, burst into flame and breathed on the golem.  The Web Golem moved forward after  taking the damage from the fire and hit Morning twice.  Aust, who had remained with the rest of the party started to chant and everybody felt more invigorated.  Seki, who had summoned his wolf made it move forwards.  The wold bit the Web Golem and tripped it over.  Sangaya attempted to follow up with a blow from her weapon but missed.  The Web Golem managed to stand up and hit both Morning and Aust.  In retaliation Aust, the wolf and Sangaya all hit the Web Golem.  The Web Golem again hit and scored Sangaya's flesh.  Aust and Nimo both cast a spell and the Web Golem finally fell, several orbs of acid finally killing the creature.

OOC:  Well this year seems to be the year of Orb of Acid as last year was the year of Glitterdust!!!


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Contuinuing along the path the party finally came upon Tamoachan.  The word "ruins" was more than appropriate, as several piles of rubble were strewn around, the only remainder of a once great civilisation.  Urol warned that there was at least one basilisk was living in the ruins.  Grey, looking over the area with some skill, spotted that there were two basilisks hiding in one pile of rubble.  Averting their eyes from the monstrous creatures' gaze, Grey fired two rapidly shot arrows at one basilisk, whilst Nimo cast a spell, allowing the party to communicate with each other silently without making any noise, allowing them to sneak up on the basilisks.  Grey hit the same basilisk again with two more well placed arrows.  The basilisks started to move forwards, but as they could not see Grey and did not know where the shots were coming from as the party had hidden in some trees on the edge of the clearing, they did not progress very far.  Grey killed one of the basilisks with a further well placed shot.  Seki's bat entered the fray at this point and hit the second basilisk.  Morning tried to hit the basilisk as it moved forward  but missed.  The basilisk headed towards Grey's tree and managed to bite him as Grey moved down the tree.  Nimo and Sangaya both hit the basilisk with a magic missile and a glowing blade of energy respecively and the second basilisk soon lay dead.


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## Dantardis (Nov 27, 2007)

Moving further into the complex the party came to a chamber in which there was deep well, whilst they were looking into it a creature slithered down the wall and tried to attack Morning but failed. Morning in retaliation breathed fire on the creature.  Sangaya hit the creature but the next moment it her hit back, biting her arm.  Grey attempted to shot an arrow at the creature but missed.  Aust's minion then moved forward to shoot the creature but missed the creature and hit Morning.  The creature tried to hit Grey and missed and Grey and Morning between them finished it off.
    Moving into a secondary chamber the party and Urol found a carved stone map of the city of Tamoachan which appeared to have been carved into the floor.  Urol immediately started to make notes and to draw a map of the map.  The party wanted to take the model back to the ship with them but Seki pointed out that this was in effect a memorial to the culture and should be left as it was as a monument to the Suel civilisation.  Reluctantly the rest of the party agreed.
   Moving to a final door Morning opened the door and everyone was hit by a burst of flame as a batlike creature breathed fire at the party.  Seki moved forward to hit the creature but missed.  In retaliation the creature hit Seki drawing wounds.  Sangaya and Grey both tried to hit the creature and missed.  Nimo tried to cast a spell at the creature but failed.  The creature breathed again doing some more fire damage to members of the party.  Grey and Morning both hit the creature who breathed again before the party finished him off.  Moving into the room that the creature had guarded the party found some items of treasure and a strange heart shaped crest carved into the earth.  Aust identified this as a Heart of Stone a magical location which gave spellcasters certain powers.  Once they had finished the party returned to the Sea Wyvern.

OOC:  There we are guys, up to date now until Sunday.


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## EpicFailure (Dec 7, 2007)

heya dan, I was just crunching the numbers on holly and I've realised that she is going to be very unfun for everyone involved. I was wondering if I could trade her out before she becomes too entrenched and bring in a backup character Ive had ready?


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## Dantardis (Dec 8, 2007)

Hi James,

Yeah that should be Ok, what's the new character and what's the matter with Holly?


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## EpicFailure (Dec 9, 2007)

new character is going to be a mage, probably enchanter.
holly is mostly unfun because of the low risk levels she faces as a pixie and also the linearity and repetetiveness of her attacks. If i keep her, I'll end up rolling the same 2 d20s and 10d6 for the next 2 terms almost. when I built her I failed to differentiate between a strong character and a fun one


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## EpicFailure (Dec 24, 2007)

come on new update! Im sure everyboy is eager to hear about the exploits of dorian the grey and his magical enchanments


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## Dantardis (Dec 27, 2007)

Update is coming soon,all good things come to those who wait.  Due to developments in personal life not able to update sooner.


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## Dantardis (Jan 29, 2008)

After leaving Tamoachan the Sea Wyvern sailed onwards.  After a couple of hours they saw an albatross which flew over them and then circled away.  The follwoing day brought an even stranger sight, a pair of eagles were chasing what appeared to be an albatross.  In addition, in the distance the cre could see a large ship which appeared to be sailing in their general direction.  Changing into his eagle from Seki flew towards the eagle and tried to communicate with it.  The eagle revealed that she was a druid who was trying to escape from a band of pirates and asked for permission to land on the Sea Wyvern.  Seki flew back to relay this message and the crew's response, which was that the druid could land on the deck.


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## Dantardis (Jan 29, 2008)

On his way back to the Sea Wyvern for the second time he heard a chanting sound behind him.  At the same moment a bolt of lightning came down from the cloudless sky and hit Sangaya.  Sangaya at this point manifested a soulblade, readying to throw it when the eagle came closer.  Morning pulled out her bw and tried to fire an arrow at the eagle but missed, the arrow falling into the ocean.  Grey shot twice and hit the druid twice.  Aust cast a spell on himself, making himself less susceptible to attack.  The druid chanted again and a blast of flame struck the Sea Wyvern, mainly hitting Sangaya.  Sangaya, now the eagle was closer, tried to fire her soulblade at it but missed.  Nimo, towards the stern of the ship readied to cast a spell.  Grey fired another volley of arrows at the druid but missed.  Aust continued to ready in cast the druid tried to cast another spell.  Seki's bat moved forward to try and attack the druid but its attacks missed.  Seki, meanwhile summoned two more large bats to the fore.  Sangaya gave orders for the Sea Wyvern to move at double speed and charged her mindblade.  Seki tried to communicate with the other eagle and the albatross but had little success.  Morning shot a further volley of arrows and hit the druid as did Grey.  At this time the druid hit the water and appeared to disapper but the albatross and the other eagle kept coming forward. 
   Seki started to cast a full round spell and at the same time Seki's bat killed the albatross.  Morning dived into the ocean and cast detect magic, whilst Grey hit the eagle.  A furthe lightning bolt came down at this point and hit Seki.    Grey hit the eagle and it plummeted into the sea, quite dead.  The druid summoned another Call Lightning, hitting Nimo.  Seki summoned two porpoises underneath the ship and followed this by diving into the water.  Morning recast detetct magic and at the same time Nimo dived into the sea whilst Seki swam beneath the ship.  The druid, realising that she was in trouble changed her form to that of an icthyosaur and moved forward to attack. 
   Nimo cast glitterdust on the druid but this had no effect.  Aust cast a spell on the druid causing it to feel weaker.  Grey delved into his psionic powers and a blast of concussion hit the druid.  Morning hit the icthyosaur and in retaliation it hit Morning.  The porpoises and Seki moved in and hit the icthyosaur and Nimo cast a bolt of thunder on it.  Seki hit the druid and Morning finished the druid off with a final blow.


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## EpicFailure (Jan 29, 2008)

Aww one more post till sekis tragic death, damned 3 and 1 rolls on that save! Still Dorian is far more fun anway. Glad to see an update Dan


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## Silver Moon (Jan 30, 2008)

Interesting read - I'm currently running a Sasserine-based game myself ("War of the Weilded" from Dungeon #149) - nice to see the one from #139 being played out.  I thought of doing that one too but the plot hook to get the party interested would have been too heavy handed.


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## Dantardis (Jan 30, 2008)

Once the battle with the druid was over the party started to caat healing spells on themselves and readied for the more deadly battle to come.  Morning and Grey moved over to the ballista at the bow of the Sea Wyvern, preparing it to fire when the other ship came into rangs.  Even at this distance the other vessel was clearly flying the flag of the Scarlet Brotherhood, a splinter group of the Lotus Dragons.  As the ships came within long range of each other Nimo cast a spell and a ball of sonic energy hit the other vessel's rigging, although it still came onwards.  The other vessel, now identified as the White Shark fired its ballista at the Sea Wyvern but failed to do any damage.  At this point a caster on the White Shark created a storm of ice and snow immediately in front of the Sea Wyvern.  The Sea Wyvern, unable to change course quickly enough sailed through the icy patch, causing several of the crew to take damage from the extreme cold.  Seki, taking a lift from his dire bat moved forward, flying towards the White Shark.  At the same time Morning fired the ballista at the White Shark, doing some collateral damage to the other vessel's hull.  The caster on the White Shark, who had been identified by Nimo as a warmage cast a storm of sleet on the deck of the Sea Wyvern, making the whole deck extremely slippery and preventing easy movement.
   A group of fighters on the White Shark had spotted Seki flying towards them and opened fire with light crossbows, failing to hit either Seki or his dire bat.  The captain of the White Shark also fired at Seki, but likewise was unable to hit.  By this time the two vessels had started to move closer to each other.  Grey, standing on the prow of the Sea Wyvern, fired a shot at the wamage and hit, drawing blood.  In retaliation, the warmage cast a spell and a bolt of fire hit the crow's nest and rigging of the Sea Wyvern.  Unfortunately Nimo had been standing in the crow's nest at this time and his charred and lifeless body fell to the deck.  Meanwhile the dragon shamans fired another volley at Seki and once again failed to hit.  Seki, by this time had moved closer to the deck of the White Shark, hitting the warmage.  In retaliation the warmage mumbled to himself and a creature from Seki's worst nightmares appeared to come into existence, attacking him.  Seki was unable to resist the effects of the spell and dropped into the swirling ocean. literally frightened to death.  But by this time the tide of the battle was starting to change.  The warriors on the White Shark once again failed to hit Seki's bat and so did the ship's captain.  Sanagaya threw a mindblade at the warmage and he lost the spell he had been preparing to cast.  With a resounding crash both ships hit eah other, the Sea Wyvern ramming the White Shark.
  Scarlette, the cpatain of the White Shark, moved forward to hit grey but failed, whilst Sangaya hit a rogue who was trying to sneak aboard.  Morning failed to hit Scarlette as shemoved past and the rogue Sar Pios hit Morning in return.  Scarlette too hit Morning as the melee fighting intensified.  Working together Morning and Grey moved in to attack Scarlette and Sar Pios.  Aust's minion also joined the fray, trying to hit Scarlette but failing.   Morning, with a mighty roar criticalled Sar Pios and he fell to the floor, pumping blood.  Grey likewise hit Scarlette twice and she too fell to the deck, dead.  Soon the battl was over the remaining warriors either dying or surrendering before the advancing party.
    After resurrecting their fallen comrades who decided they would like to retire from adventuring for the time being, Aust used the Lyre of Building to restore the damage to the two vessels.  Placing Nimo in charge of the Sea Wyvern with a token crew, Snagaya and the rest of the party decamped to the new vessl which they christened the By Default.  And so the fleet of vessels commenced their journey southwards.


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## Dantardis (Jan 30, 2008)

OOC:  I must admit that last fight was a difficult one to describe, there was a lot going on and a lot of characters for me to keep track of.  So two party deaths in one adventure, which effectively was a random encounter.  But the players just rolled up some new characters and moved on.


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## EpicFailure (Jan 31, 2008)

Its proof that everyone can roll poorly on saves. And seki and nemo arent really gone, they are just elsewhere now.


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## EpicFailure (Feb 7, 2008)

Heya dan I thought I might as well ask here as I suspect im the only person from the group who regularly checks this forum. Anyway, im interested in using the disciple of dispater class from BOVD to bring in a new character who basically has been sent by Dispater to investigate the shadow pearls and help the group out.
I just wanted to ask, is it a. ok for me to retire dorian for a few levels just for fun?
and b. can If so, can I use the goliath race from races of stone. They are basically half giants from the psiionics books but the loose all psionic ability and gain strength instead.


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## Dantardis (Feb 9, 2008)

Hi James, both of these are OK.


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## Dantardis (Feb 9, 2008)

Sailing on the party headed towards Fort Greenrock, being joined by two new members, Morn and Holly.  When the vessel arrived there they saw a scene of devastation, buildings completely destroyed and bodies lying everywhere.  From a distance they could see a large shape which appeared to be made of coral which was relentlessly destroying the fort.  Moving the ship into a broadsides position Morning fired the cataapult which missed and the Golem retreated further inland.
  Getting into a launch the party landed on shore and moved into the fort.  Seeing the coral golm in the distance Holly mumbled a few words and hit the creature with a blob of acid.  Sangaya formed a mindblade and threw it at the golem but to no affect.  The golemm moved forward and tried to hit Morning but missed.  Morn and Aust, who had been standing back from the melee both cast spells simultaneously, hitting the golem with acid and cold at the same time.  Grey shot at the golem and missed and although Sangaya hit the golem it moved relentlessly forward and hit Morning, stunning her.    Morn and Aust both cast their spells again, hitting the golem with cold and acid respectively.  Aust's minion tried to hit the golem but missed as did Holly.  Sangaya did hit the golem with a mindblade.  By now th egolem was looking significantly damaged.  The golem hit Aust's minion and she fell over.  Morn and Aust cast thier spells again and Holly finally destroyed the golem with a well timed blow.  
  Once the battle was over the party saw a somewhat strange sight, three pale-skinned children were sitting in a corner, watching them.  Despite their best efforts the children would not communicate.  Suddenly the party heard a voice in their head of a young girl.  She revealed that the three of them had found a pearl which they had broken.  On breaking the pearl the golem had appeared and destroyed the fort, killing everyone.  With this the firl stepped back and a gateway opened which she stepped through.  Morn identified the realm on the other side as that of Nerull.


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## Dantardis (Mar 6, 2008)

NRPG:  Apologies all, I have lost some of my notes hence the place where I have started this update.


Some weeks later the ships sighted the Isle of Dread in the distance.  However by this time a heavy storm was blowing, pushing the ships towards the north side of the island.  Although the crew struggled manfully they were unable to prevent the ships beaching on the shore.
The following day the party examined the damage, both sides had taken some damage below the waterline but a few hours work by the lyre would soon fix that.  Whilst looking at the ships the party heard a loud roar from both sides of a nearby jungle.  Grey immediately moved towards the sound, setting himself up in a position to ambush whatever was making the sound.  At that moment two tyrannosaures burst through the treeline, roaring ion anticipation of an easy meal.  Sanagaya chanted, forming a soulknife in her hand which she then threw at one of the creatures.  At the same time Morning breathed fire on a second tyrannosaurus and it burst into flames.   Dorian cast a spell at the first monster and its eyes started to fill with tears, effectively blinding it.  Morn used a psionic effect and the other tyrannosaurus became shaken.  At the same time Grey unleashed a volley of aroows which struck one of the creatures.
 The creature which had only been staggared moved forward and grappled Sangaya whilst the other slowly retreated.  Sangaya, in retaliation attempted to hit the creature but failed.  Morning, moved forward, and voicing a mighty scream hit the creature.  Morn cast a spell and a blast of fire hit the creature.  Grey unleashed another salvo of arrows but these failed to hit their targets.  Morning hit the tyrannosaur again and it burst into flame.  Dorian followed this up by hitting the creature with a magic missile.  
 Morn cast a further spell behind the second creature and a wall of flame sprang up behind it, cutting off its retreat.  Morning unleashed a mighty blow and the first tyrannosaur fell dead.  By this time the second creature had move din and Grey fired a further volley against it.  Dorain followed this up by casting colour surge at the creature.    The tyrannosaurus tried to hit Morning but failed to bite her.  Morn mumbled under his breath and a shard of crystal flew out of his hands, striking the creature and criticalling it.  With further mighty blows Morning and Grey finished the creature off.


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## randomreggie (Mar 11, 2008)

Aha! Found at last!

Right, i shall hopefully be adding my own thoughts/descriptions at intervals in future.

Also Dan, it looks like we're not done in Scuttlecove just yet, Morn, Nnoitre and Othar are interested in visiting the Orphanage to sort some things out, and we might be swinging by the Violated Ogre as well, just warning you so that you can be ready.

For the orphanage, Morn wants to free the children and take them back to Farshore, while Nnoitre and Othar just want to rough about with the slavers/bad guys, and i believe Aust wants to tag along too, and i don't think it'll take much convincing to persuade Grey and Morning too.

As for the Ogre, i think our intentions differ, Morn wants to find out if he's Evil or insane, if he's good or otherwise not a threat to innocents he'll likely try to free him, and if not put him out of his misery. I think Nnoitre and Othar just want some havok and chaos, so not sure what they plan exactly.

Reggie


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

After using the Lyre of Building to repair their ships the party sailed off once more.  After a few more hours of sailing and after several months at sea Farshore finally came into sight, but there was something wrong, Farshore appeared to be burning.  The part looked on as several triremes and caravels, flying the colours of the Crimson Fleet swarmed ashore, ready to attack.  Two main groups appeared to be present, one attacking what appeared to be a chapel, one attacking some kind of mansion. Battle was once again joined.


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

Moving towards the group that were attacking the mansion Grey managed to sneak up and knock one pirate unconscious before he swung around and hit another pirate before he could reatliate.  Morning moved on and cathing four pirates in her field of vision breathed on them.  Looking behind the party's posisition Aust spotted another group of pirates coming towards them and cast glitterdust on them, causing all of the villians to become blinded.  As a direct result of this they all failed to hit Aust in reply.  Sangaya formed a mindblade, throwing it at a pirate, killing him.  Morn used a psionic ability and another of the pirates became entangled.  Grey, who had moved around into a firing position shot at one of the remaining pirates, killing him.  Soon this part of the battle was over.

Moving over to the chapel the party saw that a group of pirates were trying to ram their way in.  Grey fired a volley of arrows and three of the pirates fell dead.  One of the remaining pirates run towards Grey but a hefty blow from morning brought his evil life to an end.  The captain of the pirates shouted out orders as he came running towards the chapel as the party prepared to make a stand, Dorian casting a defensive spell on himself.  Morn cast a spell and three of the attacking pirates were thrown at their captain, Slipknot and all four went down in a tangle of limbs, uttering foul oaths.  Grey was hit by one of the remaiing pirates but the blow did little damage.  By this time Slipknot had got up again and moved towards Grey and Morning.  Grey hit Slipknot whilst Morning killed two of the pirates whilst Sangaya hitt another.  Sangaya criticalled Slipknot but he spun round and hit Morn.  Moving in closer both Grey and Morning struck Slipknot, killing him.  At this point the battle was over, the rest of the pirates fleeing in panic.


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

Once the battle was over one pirate was found sitibg by a tree.  He had been unable to run away as both his legs had been broken.  Once he saw the party surrounding him he began to talk.  He said his name was Lefty and he worked for the Crimson Fleet.  He also said that more ships were due to come at some point.

Pondering over this news Lavinia asked to speak to the party and explained that in order to see off this bigger fleet they neede to seek alliances on the island of dread itself, specifically the Olmans and the Phanatoans in order that materials could be bartered for and traded.  The party agreed to seek out these tribes and see if they could obtain their aid.


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

Deciding to seek out the Olman tribes first the party sailed to the island of Dread and landed near where they believed the Olman village to be.  After a short trek through the jungle they came to what was obviously the village, a small circle of reed huts, not far from two volcanoes.  The shaman of th tribe came forward and in halting common explained that he and his tribe worshiped Zotzillahah, an aspect of the earth goddess, Throff.

At this point something strange happened in the centre of the village, a large bat like shape materialised in the centre and started to speak,

"Return, return what was stolen from me.  I know you have it.  Return it to the heart of Zotzilaha  or worse will follow."  With this the shape disappeared and was replaced by several glowing fiery bats who started to fly down and attack.

Morn manifested a power and several bolts of extreme colf flew out of his fingers. striking the bats and killing them.  Dorian also tried to cast a spell but this had no affect on the creatures.  Grey moved forward and striking right and left the remainder of the bats fell dead.
A hush descended on the village, the Olmans crying in disbelief.  Finally the shaman spoke,  "I don't know why the aspect did that.  I only know that the only way to find out is by talking to him.  You must go to the Teeth of Zotzilaha, into the heart of the volcano."

A few minutes more trek through the jungle brought the party to the entranceway to the volcano.  Moving slowly in they were greeted by the aspect of Zotzilaha.  The aspect did not attack immediately but explained that one of the items that the party carried, a bat like idol was stolen from the shrine in ages past.  Agreeing to give back the token the party were given various items in replacement and then returned to the village.


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

On arriving back in the village the party found that an even more distressing event had happened.  The chieftain's daughter had been stolen by a large ape-like creature who had appeared from nowhere, grabbed the girl and then teleported away.  Searching around Grey noticed some signs of a trail hading east so the party decided to follow it.

After some hours of travel the party came to a clearing from where they could see a large temple like structure in the distance.  Suddenly they came under attack, several ape-like creatures moving in and trying to attack but failing.  Morn cast a fireball at the creatures and gaot quite a shock when it had absolutely no effect.  Aeowa cast haste on the party, allowing them t move quicker and with nore ease.  Grey moved in, hitting one of the creatures three times.  Nimo followed this up with a spell and one of the creatures fell dead.  One of the creatures tried to trip Grey but he managed to nimbly avoid this attempt.  Grey hit one of the creatures killing it whilst Aeow cast a spell.  The last of these strange creatures lay dead.  Examining the bodies Morn identified them as Bar-Igura demons, creatures which were known to be servants of Demogorgon.


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## Dantardis (Mar 21, 2008)

Moving on along the trail Morn and the others could see that it led to the temple.  If in any doubt before the party could see quite clearly now that this was a templed to Demorgogon from the statues of his heads that aforned the doorway.
  Moving theough the complex they found it largely deserted until they got to the final antechamber.  Here they could see the last Bar-Igura demon and on an altar in another corner of the room, the missing villager.  

Going straight to the attack Grey shot the bar-igura, Olangru but Olangru teleported away at the last second after screaming for his master to awake.  At this point a huge sized statue awakened  as it was a Lemorian Golem and started to attack, striking Nimo.  Aeowa tried to cast a spell on Olangru but was unable to get through his spell resistance.  Morn also tried to cast a spell but this also had no effect.  Olangru retaliated by casting dispel magic on Grey, causing some of his protections to drop.  Meanwhile the rest of the party had moved backwards shutting the door behind them.  The Lemorian Golem burst through the door and Olangru teleported into a better position to attack.  Grey hit Olangru whilst Nimo and the others started to withdraw.  Once again the golem burst through a closed door.  Aeowa cast a spell on Olangru but this provoked from the demon who then teleported behind Nimo, criticalling and killing him.  Grey followed this up by killing the golem and Aewa fired a miagic missile at Olangru.  With the demon in a sorry state Grey moved forward once  again killing him.

Taking the villager and the body ot their fallen colleague back to the Olman village there was much rejoicing and the Olmans pledged their support in the battle to come.


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