# Morrow's Savage Tide Adventure Path



## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

From the Star of Against the Elves  

and creator of The Knights of Ill Fortune and Swashbuckling in Freeport 


In association with _Persevering Productions _ and _Total Party Kill Films_

And sponsored by Never-Say-Die Healing potions​


Comes 
_
Morrow's
*
Savage Tide Adventure Path*_



_Starring_

Tim as Garnham

Beth as Margaret Teech

Sean as Dexter

and Sarah as Elyosha Tatanya Fyorovna 




With special thanks to Dungeon​


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

Morrow's Savage Tide Adventure Path takes place fifty years after Swashbuckling in Freeport in the same campaign world.  In fact, most of the PCs in Savage Tide are the grandchildren of the PCs in Swashbuckling in Freeport.

I'm going to try to get the players to contribute updates for this story hour written from the perspective of their characters.  With any luck, I'll be able to offer multiple perspectives on the events of the campaign.  I'll add DM commentary from time to time.  Enjoy!


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*Elyosha Tatanya Fyorovna (NG Elf Druid)*

Elyosha Tatanya Fyorovna (Lady Fyorovna to those who wish to show
respect, Elyosha to friends, Elyoshenka to her grandmother) is a
refugee druid from Druzistan. About two years ago, the landed elite
and wealthy manufacturers of Druzistan joined together to install
Yefim Novy, a charming yet despotic half-elf, as the Supreme Leader of
the arctic nation. Those groups have benefitted greatly from his
Efficiency Initiatives and strong leadership style, but the druids,
fey, barbarians and others who resist his dictatorship have been
driven into hiding or out of the country altogether. Elyosha was
secreted out of Druzistan in order to spread word about the secret
pogroms taking place there among the educated of other nations, in the
hope that they could help. She also seeks to improve her own druidic
skill so that someday she might return to her country to aid the
resistance.

Sadly, she did not find the warm welcome among the better families she
had hoped for. This far south, no one has even heard of the
prestigious university where she took her double degree in botany and
divination, much less her family's storied legacy as powerful shapers
of natural magic. She is living rough outside of Sasserine. She may
just have had the breakthrough she was hoping for, however, for she
managed to calm and heal a dangerous wounded crocodile that was 
terrorizing families on the east side of town.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*Dexter (CG Half-Orc Barbarian)*

Dexter Black was born into a life of servitude to an orc servant woman named Fema Fraksha. They served together in the house of a wealthy family in the Sunrise section of Sasserine. He led a sheltered life compared to most young half-orcs. His mother told him his father was the grandson of a heroic pirate named Nate Black. Sometimes she would sing him songs about his heroic ancestor, but she spoke little of his father. From time to time his mother's friend Misa would visit and Dexter would play with her son Garnham, who she told him was his half brother. When he was about ten he left the home of the family he and his mother had served all his life when he was apprenticed to a master carpenter named Rook.

Ashe got older he started to get into trouble. People would pick fights with him for no reason. He usually won. Whenever it seemed like he was about to lose, a wild energy would overtake him. He would get his second wind, and start fighting with renewed vigor. Eventually the few ruffians who made their way to Sunrise learned to leave him alone.

At 21 years of age Dexter is good natured, and still a little naive. As a journeyman carpenter he still lives in his master's home, still visits his mother once a week, and sees his half-brother Garnham when he can. He spends most of his days harvesting lumber for his master or selling his master's wares in their small shop. He spends his evenings with his friends, sitting outside one of the taverns of Sunrise where for some reason the tavern keepers let him drink for free as long as he sits outsider near the door. His life has settled into a comfortable routine.

"Maybe too comfortable," he said tohimself in a rare introspective moment, patting himself on his slowly growing potbelly. The crowd in the tavern broke into a song about a great pirate who stole a cannon from a war vessel, and sold it to feed hungry children living in an orphanage. Dexter thought about his great grandfather's exploits, and his own life, and felt like maybe something was missing. Maybe someday he could be a great hero too. His master would laugh whenever he talked like this, and send him out to gather lumber.

Dexter looked down at his axe, which he had leaned up against the wall. There was a small old woman standing there. She was smaller even than his axe. When she held out a letter to him he squatted down so he could look her in the eye. "What's it say?" he asked, adding "I don't read." She read it to him and he thought about it. "Okay. Tell your boss okay, I'll be there." He smiled, "Thanks". As the old halfling woman walked away Dexter quietly whispered tohimself "Festival Street and Blue Skink Lane, Festival Street and Blue Skink Lane..." He didn't want to forget the address.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*Garnham (LN Human Rogue)*

Misa was a dancing girl in one of the seedier dance halls in Shadowshore when she met Garnham's father. He made many promises to the young woman and soon the pair became lovers. One afternoon while in the.. shall we say heat of the moment.. a large orcish woman burst through Misa's bedroom door and violently accused him of cheating on her. He had time to gather his rapier or his pants as he bolted for the door. A true gentleman he choose to preserve his dignity. The orc-blooded woman gave chase, but he quickly lost her in the streets.

Misa and the orc actually bonded over their disdain for the wretched cheater. A few months later they discovered that they shared similar mementos from their times together.
Misa gave birth to Garnham. The orc birthed Dexter. The two boys weren't raised together, but they grew up together.

When he was ten Misa started running contraband between Shaowshore and the Champion's district. Her contact was a brutal man named Barker. He discovered that she had skimmed some off the top and came to her in her small home, threw her down and slit her throat.
Unknown to him Garnham was in the other room. He quietly crept up on Barker and stabbed him in the neck with a bread knife three times.

Shortly after that he was taken in by Rhyner another criminal and rival to the deceased. Rhyner taught him the business of being a rogue. Garnham never got involved in violent crime, but has killed two others in self defense over the years.  Through all this Garnham still has the rapier his father left behind, badly in need of serious repair.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*Margaret Teech (N Human Cleric of Aster, God of the Undead)*

Margaret's father is the son of the legendary pirates Catherine "Bloody Cate" Sullivan and "Bonny Bill" Teech.  Her mother is the daughter of Bloody Cate's long time ally, the wizard Miranda Swallows.  Margaret was raised in Sasserine.  Her parents were devoted followers of Aster, so it seemed only natural when Margaret chose to enter the priesthood.

Only sixteen, Margaret is optimistic and naive.  She aggressively proselytizes for Aster and doesn't understand why some people become upset when she suggests that their dead loved ones might be happier as undead.  Margaret is unwavering in her beliefs - she's right and doesn't mind if she has to break a few heads to get her point across.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 1  (Dexter)*

Bern whistled quietly to himself as he wiped down the bar in his nearly empty tavern. As it was not yet midday his only clientele were a handful of truly dedicated drunkards. He might as well have been alone. When the double saloon doors slammed open simultaneously and an enormous axe-wielding half-orc stormed into the bar Bern's first instinct was to dive for a weapon, but he recognized Dexter and stopped himself mid-dive. "Dammit Dexter, you scared the piss out of me, what the hell are you doing here so early?"

"Sorry Bern" Dexter practically bounced in his bar stool in barely contained glee.

Eyeing Dexter up and down and noting his new armor Bern replied "It's okay. What's gotten into you? I hear you don't work for Rook no more."

"I got a new job"

"Doing what?"

"I'M A HERO!" hebellowed, exploding off his seat, sending the barstool skittering across the floor and out the door.

Somewhere in the dark bar a drunk slumped out of his chair and onto the floor in shared excitement. Another snored a throaty cheer in Dexter's honor.

Bern looked up at Dexter's gleeful addled smile, stood up on his toes so he could lay a hand on his massive friends shoulder and said "Okay, well sit down, I'll pour you an ale and you can tell me all about it. And take it easy on the furniture."

Dexter sheepishly retrieved the barstool, sat back down, swallowed half a pint in one gulp and leapt into his tale.

"Me and my brother Garnham and this elf lady with a fur hat and a pet dog and a really long name that I can't remember so I just call her ma'am and this girl named Maggie who works for the church of Aster saved this young noble girl from this guy who stole her money and we think maybe hurt her parents and so she hired me and I gotthis armor and we went down into the basement of this castle and OH there was a boat and I fought these thugs and they shot me with arrows but it didn't hurt and then there was a big spider and a fire but it went out and we got her stuff and I killed a couple guys and I felt pretty bad about that but then we went to the basement and there was a big snake and it was made out of METAL and it bit me but it didn't hurt and we got her money back only not all of it and her brother is up to no good and Garnham found some paper that I couldn't read and he didn't tell our boss about it but she wasn't mad and now we think maybe her brother is up to no good because her parents died and they were on this boat and it caught on fire and they died and everyone thought it was an accident because their boat caught on fire while they were in it and they died because they got all burned up and DIED and her brother is missing and now I work for her isn't thatGREAT?"

"Great. Have another beer."


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 1 (Garnham)*

The following is translated from the Vallosan.

From the Journal of K. Garnham Apprentice Seeker

This may prove to be my first entry in this blasted thing that is, in any way, interesting.
A few days ago I received a the following message:

_Greetings, and I trust 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_

It was delivered by an elderly halfling woman named Kora.

I accepted.

I made the usual inquiries, but had no luck in finding out anything about Lavinia Vanderboren or why she would need the services of a small time crook such as myself.
I hadn't even entered the house when I came across my brother Dexter entering through the same gate having received the same message.

My brother believed he was being called upon for carpentry work. I do not think that he is aware of just how deadly he can be. He is, in many ways, so much better a person than I am.

The pair of us were brought into a sitting room by the same elderly halfling lady who had delivered our invitations. Already present was a young woman in the priestly gear of Aster. Dexter lit up at the sight of a priest of his favorite faith.

Her name is Maggie Teach. Looks to be sixteen. Idealistic. Very... earnest. Still, she saved my life later that night, so maybe there's a place for earnest in the world.

We were next introduced to Aliosha. An elven woman of good bearing with foreign accent and clothing. She was introduced as Lady and preferred to be called that when I asked for a shorter form of the 20 or 30 syllables that seem to form her name. Her bearing suggested dignity, but her clothing was not in proper repair. She has a wolf named Bolk as a traveling companion.

Before our hostess arrived a group of four adventurers passed by the room we were in. One of them looked us over and said "So you're the help Lavinia's hiring to do the chores." or something close to that. I instantly disliked that man. Were they another group who turned down the offer we were about to hear? Or something else? Time will tell.

The only servant visible was Kora and it was obvious that the room was underfurnished. Signs of poverty in a prospective employer is never good. We were than introduced to our hostess. She is slightly older than I and Dex with excellent bearing. Quiet beautiful.

After dinner we were told that Lavinia's parents had died recently. Her inheritance was in a magically locked vault under the palace. The only keys to the vault were a pair of magic rings owned by her parents. Her mother lost hers before the accident (!!!) and her father left his aboard the family's ship the Blue Nixie.

The family owed docking fees for the Nixie in the amount of 500 platinum. The harbor master was(is) too old to do his job, so he'd hired on some outside help. One of those persons was Solar Vark. Vark was the person that Lavinia gave the fees to. He pocketed the money and told her to shove off. She wanted us to reclaim the money, ring and teach Vark a lesson.

We accepted.

We bought a few drinks and some information. Vark had a bad reputaion. He also had moved the Nixie from it's usual berth to a point a bit further along the docks. There were reports of people moving about on board. We also discovered the circumstances of Lavinia's parent's deaths. A new ship they had purchased had burned to the waterline with them on board.

We made our way to the docks. A borrowed rowboat got us to the Nixie.  I scouted ahead. There were three guards on deck. It was a quiet night and I could make out the sounds of a couple having sex in a cabin towards the rear of the ship. Also the sounds of snoring. A creaky set of hinges gave me away as I entered the antechamber outside a pair of rooms. While the guards came closer I entered the snoring filled room.

My companions, having heard the guards take notice, climbed up and confronted them.
I managed to sap one of the sleeping thugs before the other woke. I then drew first blood on the other thug forcing him to surrender.

It turns out that Vark was one of the sex partners that I had overheard. By the time I finished with the two thugs he and his woman had joined the battle against my teammates. Vark had joined in hand-to-hand while the woman was further back using a light crossbow.
In retrospect I should have used my bow from cover, but I moved forward to engage her with my rapier. I managed to sneak up on her, but missed my shot. She, on the other hand, hit one of my favorite arteries.

By the time I came conscious, thanks to Maggie's magic, my companions had beaten or driven off the remaining force. Vark was captured alive. Another guard who was in the hold had tried to start a fire and was killed by the cargo. Vark was using the Nixie to hold contraband animals. A giant spider-thing had gotten loose and killed the woman as she was setting the blaze. We killed the spider before it could eat Bolk.

They took Vark back to Lavinia while I got in contact with R about the animals.
We were offered longer-term employment by Lavinia. She asked us to join her when she went to the vault. In three days we were patched together and went to the vault. There I noticed her house symbol. It was on the vault door-the Seeker symbol. So many questions.
In addition to the rings there was a guardian construct resembling a snake. We, mostly Dex, beat it down.

Then there was a very large locking mechanism. Aliosha figured out the trick to the lock and we were in the vault proper.  

Which had, of course, been ransacked.

Lavinia spent about an hour going through what remained. Afterwards she tore somebody a new one. He claimed that the only person to be in the vault since her parents had died was Lavinia's brother Vanthus. He had the ring and was known to be a member of the family so he was allowed through.  It turns out that he's been "missing" for about a month. She said that had been acting differently, even hitting Lavinia before his vanishing.  She wants us to find him and bring him to her. She hopes that she can find out what's going on. The only lead we have right now is an unknown lover that Valthus has in Azure district.

More later.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 1 (Margaret)*

I was looking forward to beginning a rewarding career in the church of Aster, but I've hit a bit of a detour. It started when I was invited to Lady Vanderborn's house. I thought she wanted to make a donation or something, but I was mostly wrong. 

Two boys showed up shortly after I did. They were very nice and seemed to know each other,but I didn't know they were brothers! I'll need to hear more of that story, I think. I'd really like to meet their father because I'm sure he's a kindred spirit, having had lovers of different races. I plan to have lovers of every race, and I should probably spread it out evenly between them, and I'll have to try to keep the numbers pretty even between men and women, and between those of different life preferences, so I should probably make a chart...

Anyway, then this real nice lady with a foreign accent showed up. Apparently, there's some really awful opression going on in her home-land, so I think that once I'm a more powerful priestess, I'll really be able to help her out.

So then Lady Vanderborn showed up, and she wanted to hire us to find out what was going on with the ship she inherited from her parents. They died recently, but apparently, Lady Vanderborn hasn't even considered bringing them back, and it's not like they've experienced undeath yet, so how could she possibly know their preference? She seemed mad when I suggested animating them, but I think she overreacted and was a bit rude. I was just trying to be helpful. If she continues being mean to people who are trying to help her, I don't know how long I can continue to work for her. Mother Anna told me that I should go out and experience the world and stuff, but intolerance is something I cannot tolerate.

So we rowed out to the Blue Nixie, and snuck onboard. Apparently, this guy Vark had tried to steal Lady Vanderborn's money AND her ship so that he could illegally trade exotic animals. We tried to take the ship with as little bloodshed as possible, but when dealing with thugs who have no regard for personal property and no respect for the freedom of wild beasts, there is no reasoning. I could have died. So, we took the ship back, found the money Vark stole from Lady Vanderborn and the ring she was looking for, and we claimed our reward.

Then, Lady Vanderborn asked us to go to her vault with her, and with good reason. There was a really big silver snake in there, and it tried to eat us! And then, there was this really complicated puzzle, and Lady Aliosha figured out how to turn the room around so the walls opened up! She's really smart. But then, Lady Vanderborn said that most of her stuff was missing, and the vault guys said that her brother had taken stuff out of the vault, but he's been missing for a week, so who knows what happened to him! I guess we know what we'll be working on next...


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## Morrow (Feb 7, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 2 (Garnham)*

The following is translated from the Vallosan.

From the Journal of K. Garnham Apprentice Seeker

The search for Vanthus took several interesting turns.

I received confirmation from R. that the elder Vanderborens were Seekers. Apparently children of members aren't offered membership until the children reach the age of twenty-three. I'll have to remember that if I ever have kids.

The lead on Vanthus' lover in the Azure district lead us to a name and an occupation, but little else. Her name is Brissa and she's an artist. Of course the man who described her as such used the word "artist" in the way most people say "whore."  Elyosha and I played man and wife for a few hours looking for anyone who had any of Brissa's work to sell. No dice.

We did find out that Vanthus was seen with a known smuggler named Penkus in Shadowshore. Apparently whatever they were doing involved them doing something to irritate the owner of "It Still Floats!" a used boat shop.

We continued to search for shreds of information when we were approached by a shabby man claiming to know where Vanthus was hiding. He generously offered to tell us for 5 gold. We greased his already greasy palms and he said that Vanthus was holding up in the old smuggler's tunnels on Parrot's Island and for an additional 5 gold he would take us to them.  My brother put the fear of Dexter into the enterprising informant and we soon found ourselves on Parrot Island, He led us to the opening of a series of tunnels, cleverly concealed beneath a large rock.

Elyosha's wolf confirmed that Vanthus had passed that way recently. We left the wolf on guard and proceeded down. We had gotten to the first of a series of doors when we heard a commotion coming from above. Racing back we heard the sounds of a struggle and found the rope had been severed.  Elyosha yelled orders to her wolf while Dexter and I climbed up the back-up rope that we had secured before going down. We hadn't gotten too far up when the corpse of our informant came hurtling down on us.

I, of course, ended up on the very bottom of the pile.

We started up the rope a second time. Before we reached the top we heard "this'll teach you to mess around with my sister, say hello to Penkus' ghost for me" or similar, just before the rock was returned to block our escape.

Maggie climbed up to help shift the rock, but we ended up taking another tumble. As we were picking ourselves up Dexter gave Maggie a slap on the ass and she responded favorably.  Overwhelmed at the possibilities I throw up my hands and hope they enjoy themselves.

We proceeded to make our way through the tunnels which were, of course, crawling with zombies. Not just any zombies, but zombies with gigantic mouths who grabbed you and pulled you close for a little nibble of flesh.

The tunnels were flooded in parts. At one point we came across a pool with a (nonmoving) corpse floating on top. We fished it out of the water and were searching it when we were attacked by several very large crabs.  We won the battle and as reward had both the fine silver dagger that lay at the bottom of the pool and fresh crab meat. I don't think there is anything more satisfying than sinking your teeth into the flesh of some critter that had, minutes before, tried to eat you; relishing the sweet flesh as it glides over the pallet and going in for another bite.

We spent the night sealed up in one of the rooms to give ourselves time to rest and heal.
The next morning we returned to the tunnels to find more zombies and a zombie priest of some sort. It was a hard fight, but we won again.

The zombie priest had, apparently, brought his remaining forces with him; we encountered nothing else.

We knew there was sea access in some of the flooded areas so Dexter swam out and did recon while tethered to a mooring rope. He found a promising spot and we all swam for it.
At the other end we discovered Penkus' disease-bloated corpse. The shade of the old bastard told us that Vanthus had gotten him out of the way to take his place beside the Lady of Dragons. He also told us where to find Vanthus.

Elyosha's Elven eyes found a secret door that led to a small fortune in coin, gems and magic items.

Dexter performed another recon and discovered the path that led to open sea. After some rest and the consumption of swimming elixirs we made it back.

Now we have to plan our confrontation with Vanthus.


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## Morrow (Mar 12, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 3 (Dexter)*

Bern whistled a happy tune to himself as he walked east along Crown Street. Life has been good of late for the proprietor of The Hungry Gorilla. The tavern has been packed to the rafters practically every night. It had been ever since Dexter, the young half orc he used to view as little more than a cheap bouncer, had started regaling the regulars with stories of his exploits. Of course the stories were pure lies. Bern no more believed Dexter,a half-orc standing nearly seven-feet-tall, was descended from the pirate Nate Black than he did the elaborate tales of Dexter's "crusade against the forces of evil in the service of a beautiful helpless young noble woman". As he mounted the stairs to his tavern a resounding cheer echoed inside. Whatever tale Dexter was spinning tonight would certainly be good for business. When he opened the door and looked inside he immediately reconsidered that assumption.

Dexter stood at the center of a growing crowd, eyes hidden by a thick mop of black dreadlocks, grinning like a maniac. Two men lay at Dexter's feet. A third charged in at Dexter from behind. The big half-orc spun faster than his size seemed to allow and took the man out at the knees with his axe.

"NO!" Bern shouted, nearly drowned out by the cries for more.

"OH, HI BERN!" Dex shouted over the din, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"This is MY tavern, what are you doing?" Bern's stomach flip-flopped as Dexter felled another drunken patron and the crowd still called for more. He caught his breath and calmed down a bit when he saw the men on the floor slowly crawling to their feet, and noted the lack of blood and limbs on his floor.

"PRACTICING!" was Dexter's incomprehensible reply, throwing a halfling across the room with his axe.

Bern took his life into his own hands, ran in, and stood in front of Dexter, eyes clenched shut, teeth gritted, arms spread wide, and waited for his death.  "Bern, you could get hurt doing that." Dexter's voice was friendly but still disquieting.

"Dexter, please, what are you doing?"

"Well, see, here's what happened." The crowd cheered as Dexter went into his story for the second time that night.

"Yesterday me and my brother Garnham and Maggie, that girl I was telling you about, and Elyosha Ubgrovna Tupovna... uh... and that elf with the wolf, we found Vanthus, the evil brother of that beautiful good-hearted noble girl who we serve. Well, we almost found him. See, Garnham is a great tracker and knows the whole city like the back of his hand and he has powerful magic so we found the hide-out of the evil band of thieves he took up with. Garnham used his magic to be invisible and went inside to snoop. And we're pretty smart so we went in and there were all these animals. And we pretended to buy them. Then we were worried the bad guy might see Garnham even though he was invisible, so then uh... so, uh, MAGGIE broke one of them and we got locked outside. There was a dragon and a giant bug and a bat. There was this evil guy guarding the place. He was pretending it was a real business. But we knew he was a liar because he had this long mustache and he
kept twisting it. So that northern elf told him she wanted him to do it to her wolf and he looked at her like that was kind of weird." Dexter leaned in, "To be honest I thought it was a little weird too, I don't think she was really clear on what he does in there." 

He raised his voice again. "So anyway we beat that guy up and broke into the hideout which was downstairs. It was a pretty good time. There was a giant spider and there was a dragon and we killed them. OH THE DRAGON! It's name was Gut-Tugger! It was monstrous, fangs dripping venom and evil eyes! Garnham used his magic to summon a dirt monster! It was even bigger than the dragon. We fought ferociously. I almost killed the dragon's evil mistress but she got away by turning into a cloud and the dirt monster chased her into the wall. So all in all, it was pretty good. But in the time in between tying up the villain and killing the evil lady OH! there was a dead thing. We smashed it. It smelled like it had just been dug up out of the ground. It had bloody eyes and sharp teeth and claws! But we smashed it." 

Dexter's voice became somber. "But in between the dead thing and the dragon there were these other guys. I don't know about them. I think maybe they were just doing their job. Seems their job was to kill us so we had to kill them first. I felt pretty bad about that." Dexter looked down at the floor for a moment. Never one for long bouts of introspection, he looked back up grinning. "So I decided I better figure out how to stop guys like that without killing them. Now see, I could just pound em," Dex held up a ham-sized fist, "but nobody takes a body guard seriously if he don't have a big weapon," he hefted his axe in his other hand. "But sometimes in the heat of things I have a hard time not killing somebody when I chop them in half. Most of the time when you chop someone in half with an axe they die. So I'm practicing smashing guys with my axe and not killing em. THAT'S what I been up to."

"Okay, Dex, wai..."

"OKAY!" Dex shouted, the crowd started shouting again and Dexter knocked another one of Bern's patrons unconscious.

Bern squinted and walked into the back room, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Dexter was a good draw and told a good story, but Bern was getting a headache.


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## Morrow (Mar 21, 2008)

*There is No Honor Part 3 (Garnham)*

From the journal Of K. Garnham apprentice Seeker. Translated from the Vallossan.

I have in my possession a number of letters written by Vanthus Vanderboren to Rowyn Keilani. In between honeyed promises and lustful comments he tells Rowyn how he arranged the deaths of his parents. He boasts of the brilliant way in which he had arranged their new ship to burn with them on it.  His parents were a stumbling block for what needed to be done and he writes of their death in the same manner a hunter might describe a successful expedition.  I don't understand this man. Loyalty to family is the first loyalty. Above church, state or guild. Family defines us. What Vanthus has done defines him as a twisted man.  We obtained the letters from the Lotus Dragons' lair.

The assault went better than I had expected. The entrance to the stronghold lay beneath the Taxidermists Guildhall. I used a potion of invisibility to enter the shop with my visible companions. Elyosha spoke to the guildmaster about having Bolk stuffed, Dexter and Maggie made sufficient noise to help cover my footsteps as I searched for a hidden door.  Elyosha and I had found the door at just around the time that the potion wore off. The guildmaster started to attack, but we rendered him unconscious before he could do any serious harm to us.

The door led to the Lotus Dragons. There were obvious signs that a thieves guild was here; practice areas for pickpocketing etc.  We killed eleven Lotus Dragon thieves. They were novices, but very well equipped. Hand crossbows don't come cheap and they were all carrying one as well as two vials of poison and a healing potion.  There was also a large humanoid undead used to guard the way to the inner sanctum.

We then came to a richly appointed room with a well turned out woman and some sort of dragon-dog creature. She appreciated the ability it took to get to her and offered us positions in the guild.

We declined.

An earth elemental summoned from a magical bauble forced her to retreat. The dragon dog died trying to give it's master the time needed to escape.

Then we found a sizable stash of money and the letters from Vanthus. In them we discovered that the lady we fought was Rowyn Keilani.  Further scrutiny of the room showed that it was furnished like a brothel. Better carpeting, nicer decor, but it still could have passed as a room at the Mermaid's Secret. The few books on the shelves had such titles as "Paladin Prostitute," "The Naked Barbarians" and "Virgin Sorceress."

There is one area of note that I haven't gone into at this point. A strategy room. In it was a map of the city with various colored flags pushed into different buildings. The Vanderboren estate was marked in gold, the Taxidermists Guildhall and Keilaini estate (among others) were in blue, the Islaran manor and the temple of Maal in red.  The harbormaster Lord Islaran was killed that night and the temple of Maal has never been friend to thieves so red would seem to indicate a target or an enemy. Blue appears to be allies.

Now for some speculation. Islaran was on the Dawn Council representing Azure district. His children have either expressed no interest in continuing the family legacy or HAVE GONE MISSING. His death opens up a seat on the Dawn Council. The Keilani family hails from the same district and are prominent enough that they might be considered for the position. Especially if the port was in chaos from numerous ship sinkings (a planned list of which we found in the strategy room) took place after the harbormaster's death.  Heldrath is rumored to be in poor health. Rowyn has no problem working with someone who killed his parents for personal gain. Could Rowyn be behind this "illness?" Her thugs certainly were well supplied with poison.  Islaran dies. Heldrath takes over than succumbs to her "illness" leaving Rowyn on the council.

Very speculative.

We have a lead on Vanthus' next move. He claims in one of the letters to Rowyn that he is set to betray Brissa and steal a cargo from her. A location and date are mentioned and I believe that we can make it if we hurry.  Lavinia will need to go to the authorities with what we have.


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## Morrow (May 23, 2008)

*The Bullywug Gambit Part 1 (Garnham)*

From the journal Of K. Garnham apprentice Seeker. Translated from the Vallossan.

For our service to the city we were awarded the Spire of Sasserine. There was a party. I wore a new suit and shook the hands of people who wouldn't have acknowledged my existence last week. There was punch and small cakes. Several people thought I was a wizard for some reason.

After the pomp and circumstance we departed Sasserine for Kraken's Cove aboard the Flying Fish, a fishing ship under the command of one Arlen Huxley.  We made landfall opposite the cove itself and crossed overland. We hadn't gotten too far into the jungle when we were attacked by monkeys. Deformed abominations some barely able to breathe through twisted throats.  

That was just the beginning. We made it to the cove in short time. We saw the smoke long before we arrived.  Several ships had been set on fire. Debris littered the beach and you didn't need to be a tracker to tell that several people had made their way to caves in the rock face.

We made our way down to the beach and were attacked by a small group of people just as deformed as the monkeys we encountered in the jungle. At first I thought they were undead. Some had wounds that I thought would be impossible for a living being to endure, let alone stand and fight. In close combat it became obvious that they were living albeit twisted. Tainted. When we put them down they dissolved into some sort of acid.  We made our way through the caves and found more tainted people and beasts. There we met Brissa; what remained of her anyway. Dexter's ax put her out of her misery.  

Eventually we came across an untainted survivor. And what a specimen she was. She was in the midst of fighting half a dozen of her former companions when we first saw her. She was wading through them. Our group may have dispatched as many as she did in the same amount of time, but I doubt it.  This was Captain Harliss Jarvel of the Slippery Eel and from her we found out what happened.  Vanthus was caught stealing from her. He had a black pearl "as big as your fist" in his hand, Jarvel bloodied him, getting some on the pearl which went overboard. Once it hit the water it exploded. Captain Jarvel says that her vision went green for a while and when it cleared her crew were living undead.  Vanthus resisted the taint and, charmer that he is, pushed the tainted Brissa overboard to make his escape.
Jarvel sent her first mate Drevanaz to seek revenge on Vanthus by killing him and his family. We managed to convince her that Lavinia is innocent. Jarvel gave us a letter to give to Drevanaz in order to spare her.

We have rejoined the Flying Fish and are returning to Sasserine to prevent Lavinia's assassination.  As to the pearl itself. Jarvel claims that she was to deliver it to a buyer who was to come to the cove. She wouldn't reveal their name and, actually, seemed frightened of them.  A scary thought given her amazing ability with the sword.  I think that arrogant, amoral jackass Vanthus may have saved Sasserine. This pearl was a city destroyer. A little blood and water and zam; anyone who resists the taint ends up getting killed by those who didn't.  There's a short list of people who have that kind of hate for Sasserine. The top of that list has an embassy there.


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## Morrow (Jun 5, 2008)

*The Bullywug Gambit Part 2 (Garnham)*

From the journal Of K. Garnham apprentice Seeker. Translated from the Vallossan.

We returned to Sasserine aboard the Flying Fish to find the city in the midst of Empire's Fall celebrations. The streets were lined with drunken revelers making clear travel tricky. I ran ahead using a complex mix of grace and punch-the-drunk rudeness to get to the Vanderboren Manse. The others were slightly behind me.

I found out about what happened to Dexter and the others after the fact. Shortly after I left for the mansion they were approached by a group of stiltwalking street performers who turned out to be assassins sent to kill our group.  The stiltwalkers were beaten thanks to warp wood spells cast by Elyosha, blunt trauma delivered by Maggie and some general ass-kicking from Dexter.  The surviving stiltwalker confessed that he was hired by Heldrath Keilani as revenge for our work against the Lotus Dragons and her daughter Rowyn.

I made it to the manor and found my way inside. I wasn't that stealthy about the whole thing; I had believed that we had beat Drevanaz to Sasserine. When there was no response to my knock I picked the lock and entered the main hallway.  

There were three man-frogs in the foyer. I later identified them as bullywugs.  They and I had a little disagreement; they thought that I would look better with their handaxes buried in my chest and I preferred the classic lines of undamaged studded leather armor.  I had killed them by the time the others arrived.

Elyosha and I searched the manor; she tracking their slime and I opening locks.  We found, and killed, other bullywugs before entering a secret armory where we discovered the near-dead body of the dwarven druid from the Jade Ravens. We revived him and he told us what he knew.  They had received the warning that Elyosha had sent via ensorcelled bird. The Jade Ravens were preparing to lay in the defenses when the manor was besieged by bullywugs who had entered from a decrepit access tunnel in the basement.  In the assault Keskus Kull (the dwarf) lost his animal companion.

We followed the trail and came across a large female bullywug smoking some of the finer Vanderboren cigars. We killed her guards and captured her. It turns out that she is Lorb Lorb Tub, mate of some clan leader who was elsewhere in the manor.  We left her unconscious under Kull's guard and proceeded upstairs to find Lavinia and the others.

There was one room that was occupied. I tried to get a peek inside by climbing around from the other room, but the place was in darkness.
Elyosha and the others went in to try to negotiate Lavinia's release with the letter given to us by Captain Jarvel. I remained outside the window in case things went the way they usually go.

Drevanaz was there with a bullywug shaman. Lavinia, Cora and the 
other two male members of the Ravens were tied to chairs; Cora's throat had been slit and had been dead for some time.  Drevanaz conducted his part of the negotiations while holding a blade to Lavinia's throat.  Elyosha showed him the letter and explained things but Drevanaz wasn't having any of it. According to him Jarvel would have sent a token with the letter to prove it's authenticity. No token, no release of prisoners.

I managed to crack the shutters on the window open quietly enough to throw a blade at the half-orcs back. It was a solid, if not fatal, hit and it forced him to stumble forward and away from Lavinia. She, it seems, was playing possum. She had gotten her bonds loose and used the distraction to tumble towards a nearby sword and arm herself.  We fought. The shaman summoned demons that we killed. The shaman died. We captured Drevanaz.

We still hadn't found the sorceress Liamae. That meant she was probably down in the basement.  We revived the other Ravens and left them to guard Lavinia before heading down to the lower level.
I wasn't prepared for what we found there.  The sorceress was there all right. They had stripped her and put her in a sheet that had bits of silverware sewn into it. There was some sort of metal eating beast that was nipping at her whenever she stopped dancing. Tub's mate reminded her that if his pet got every piece then he would kill her.  We killed the beast and his guards. The beast destroyed Dexter's magical breastplate.
We took the clan head prisoner.  In the end we turned Drevanaz over to the authorities and let the bullywugs leave after they had given us their equipment in recompense for the damages.  

Lavinia has set us up on the top floor of the Sultry Siren so that we are closer to her when needs arise.


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## Morrow (Jun 6, 2008)

*The Bullywug Gambit Part 2 (Elyosha)*

Dear Mother,

I cannot believe the barbarism of this swamp where I must make the case for Druzistan.  I am only here because of the hope I have for bringing the local elves over to our cause.  This is no safe place for free people.

I have taken employment as a bodyguard and adventurer with Lady Lavinia VanderBoren, and I am coming to have respect for her.  She keeps her head and is a shrewd leader of her family’s interests, even as her psychopathic brother tries to kill her and anyone else who gets in his way.  My work for her has also resulted in the Knowlern clan promising some money for our Druzistani cause.

Last week we exposed a plot by local pirates against our Lady’s life.  These pirates believed wrongly that Lady VanderBoren was to blame for the destruction wrought by her murderous brother, Vanthas.  The pirates had dispatched frog-people from the swamps outside the city to capture Lavinia in her home.

We had to fight our way through a street festival to get to her house, even battling crazed acrobats in the open streets.  No law enforcement bothered us during this entanglement, so at least there is some basic respect for individual freedom here.  When we got to Lavinia’s house, it was overrun by the frog-people.  My companion Garnham had already single-handedly downed three of them, so they presented no challenge to the four of us working together.

We bested Lorb-Lorb Tub, a frog-woman fighter who was the most capable of their kind we encountered.  We met another druid hiding from the frog-people; he and his colleagues also work for Lavinia, and had fallen to the frog-people only because of their overwhelming numbers and their surprise attack.  Together we mourned the loss of his badger companion.

We found Lavinia and some of her other bodyguards bound upstairs.  We killed the pirate Drevoraz and frog-person shaman who held them captive, but we were too late to save the kind halfling servant who had been loyal to Lavinia’s family for years.  The cowards killed her because she was the weakest captive and posed the least threat.

In the cellar the true debased nature of this frog-person clan became clear.  Their leader, Lorpth, was allowing his monster to torment one of the other bodyguards.  Instead of tying Liamee upstairs with the others, he singled her out for torture.  I shudder to think what he would have done to her if we had not arrived.  I had hoped to live my life never seeing a man use a woman for his own sick purposes like that, thriving on her fear and helplessness.  Naturally we killed the monster and captured Lorpth.

I have met men in Sasserine who treat everyone they encounter as tools for their own furtherance and pleasure.  Men who would not survive among our people, because any civilized society would drive them out.  This is a culture that survives on a system of oppression and control.  

Lavinia, in her kindness, has allowed Lorpth and Lorb-Lorb Tub to go freely back to the frog-people village.  I will not be so merciful.
Bolk has grown to her full size, and is even bigger than her mother.  She is a fine companion and reminds me of all that we are fighting for in Druzistan.  Give my love to father and our sisters, and, as always, to you, dear mother.

Your daughter, Elyoshenka


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## Morrow (Jun 9, 2008)

*The Bullywug Gambit Part 2 (Margaret)*

“I'm no good at this, “ said the young girl, her blue eyes piercing the dim candle light.

The old woman took her hands in her own and cradled them in her lap. “What is that, my child? Release your burden.”

“But I'm no good at this, at remembering. All my life, I've followed my heart. It led me here... to you, but I feel that I've lost my way, Mother Anna.”

“My dear Margaret, do not feel that you have lost your way. There are many paths that one may take, but they are all equal in the eyes of Aster.”

“I fear that may be the problem,” said the girl. “I have been protecting my friends and the Lady Vanderborn, but I have shed much blood, and I fear that the lives I have taken cannot be justified if all paths are equal.”

The high priestess laughed. “There is no shame in death. You should know this by now. And there is no shame in taking a life when your own is at stake. You have chosen a noble path in life, and it is important that others hear your voice. If you should fall, we would welcome you back. I know that you would embrace your undeath and continue in your faith. Please, tell me what has happened that has shaken you so.”

“I don't know. It all happened so fast. We were on our way back to Vanderborn Estate to warn Lady Vanderborn...

_
Empire's Fall was just getting into full swing. As we made our way through the city, we saw the revelers, costumed as the dead, and I so wanted to join them, to rejoice in the celebration that the living and the dead can co-exist in harmony. Garnham had gone ahead, and suddenly, Elyosha, Dexter and I were overtaken by those I had been so entranced by. There was an acrobat and some stilt walkers. They accosted us with burning oil and knives. I was so confused, but my heart beat quickened, and I knew I must fight them to defend my friends. We overtook them easily, but it felt wrong... feeling so alive and jubilant one moment, and smashing in skulls the next.

I had very little time to reflect. It was clear that Lady Vanderborn was in danger, and we feared that Garnham may have been attacked as well. In fact, he was, but he too prevailed. The house had been overrun by bullywogs under the command of a man named Drevoraz. Captain Jarvel had given us a letter that should have ended things peacefully, but the bullywogs were not prepared to negotiate. When the first battle was over, most of them lay dead. I saved those I could, but what makes my life better than theirs? We are no different. Even worse, I felt entirely inadequate, unable to even heal my friends entirely.

We came upon a dwarf named Caskus Kell. He told us that his friends had been captured along with Lady Vanderborn, and he joined us in our quest to save them.

As we made our way into the courtyard, there was a female bullywog smoking a cigar in the dining room. I tried to talk to her, but she said that it was fun killing adventurers. Killing for fun! Imagine that. It was a shame to fight such a strong woman, but she gave us little choice. Eventually, she surrendered and told us where the others were being held.

We made our way upstairs and arranged a surprise for Drevoraz and his lackeys, with Garnham planning his attack from outside the window. Lady Vanderborn was tied up along with Caskus's friends. And Cora... poor Cora! Her throat had been slit! I am certain that dear woman has never harmed anyone, and yet there her tiny body sat, still warm and covered in her own blood. I have never been so ashamed of my humanity.

Drevoraz's shaman had some nasty tricks up his sleeve, but when I saw Cora, my blood began to boil, and I had very little mercy for them. I could tell Dexter felt the same way. Garnham busted in through the window, and hit the shaman soundly from behind. We defeated them, and released the captives, but there was one still missing- their sorceress.

We found her in the basement, being tortured by Lorpth, the leader of the bullywogs. He was using a poor, defenseless creature that destroys metal objects to frighten her, but the creature could not help what it was. I was so ashamed that we had to kill it, lest leave ourselves defenseless. At any rate, we defeated them and freed the sorceress.

Lady Vanderborn was very grateful and set us up with new lodgings at the Sultry Siren, and now she has commissioned us to accompany us to the Isle of Dread, to the Farshore Colony on the southern peninsula, rich in natural resources, but very dangerous..._


“Mother Anna, I have done as you have said. I have experienced the world, but I don't see how this violence furthers our cause. I don't see how this new mission serves Aster.”

The old woman looked down at the poor creature and sighed, smoothing back her hair. “My child, you have developed talents that may serve Aster in ways I had not expected. I would like you to bring Aster's teachings with you to this godless colony. It may be dangerous, but who would be more qualified to defend herself while spreading the word of our god?”

The girl looked up into the high priestess's wise, old eyes. This time, she looked hopeful.

“You will fight, young Margaret, but you will fight for Aster. You will fight for equality and respect for all. You will be our first missionary in Farshore.”


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## Morrow (Jun 9, 2008)

*The Bullywug Gambit Part 2 (Dexter)*

Dexter sat in the Knowlern family garden. He'd just finished dinner with his mother, a servant of the well to do elven family. He was on his way back to the Sultry Siren when he ran into Dmitriy Ivanov, a cousin of the Knowlerns he'd befriended of late. Ivan insisted Dexter wait for him in the garden, telling him he had a friend Dexter must meet. But it was growing late, and Dexter was growing bored. He'd rather be tossing back a few rounds with his friends at the Hungry Gorilla. He hadn't been there for a while and Bern was probably worried about him. He stretched out on the grass and looked up at the stars. It was a good night for waiting anyway. Just as he was beginning to doze off he heard someone approaching and sat up. Ivanov was walking through the garden with a diminutive elven woman. Dexter stood as Ivan spoke, “Dexter my friend, allow me to introduce Lady Silvermane, of the Church of Whirling Fury.”

“Uh, pleased to make your uh... quaintance, your ladyship.”

The lady smiled and sat on the grass, indicating Dexter should follow. “Dmitriy had told me of your exploits Dexter. But I've heard whispers in the jungle, things you've done of which I've not yet been told.”

“Well, did he tell you about the nasty monkeys with the bony bits and the poisoned jungle and the fire?”

“Yes. I wish to hear, Dexter, of your exploits since you returned, and of your meeting with the bullywugs.” She removed a backpack and reached inside, pulling out a wooden tray three cups. She gestured to Ivanov who handed her a ceramic pitcher.

“Well, we got back to Sasserine right when the festival was starting, and this lady we worked for, we thought she might be in trouble. So my brother, he had some note or something, I wasn't really paying attention to that part, but he decided to run on ahead to her house.”

The lady poured something from the pitcher and picked up a cup with both hands and held it out to Dexter. The small cup was tiny in Dexter's hands and he threw it back like a shot of fire brandy at the Hungry Gorilla. It was bitter and metallic, and smelled of the Knowlern's root cellar. Ivan and the lady sipped theirs slowly.

“Well Empire's Fall was in full swing. It looked pretty good this year, but we had to go help Lady Vanderboren so we didn't have time get dru... ah... join in the festivities. So... whoa, that stuff's pretty good, can I have some more?”

The lady smiled and held out the pitcher. Dex grinned back and took a pull straight from the pitcher, smacking his lips. He looked up at the stars which were burning brighter than he remembered... ever.

“We were almost at the house when these acrobats and stilt-walkers attacked us. Well me and Maggie and Elyosha, you know her Ivan, she comes here some times but I don't know why, are you related? Anyway we killed them all except one who spilled his guts about why he was attacking us. I would have listened more but I didn't really care, and anyway at this point I was getting kind of antsy about Garnham, thought maybe he was in trouble, and you know, he was. So... are there more stars then there were before? I feel kinda... so... where was I? I... right, so, right, so we got to the Vanderboren house and Garnham had killed a bunch of bullywugs, frog men, you know. So we were worried about our Vanderboren, about our lady. Our... charge. So we charged! Around! Did you see that monkey? Bat? Monkeybats!”

“Dexter?” the lady prodded.

“Right, sorry. So, we went around and did our thing, you know, killed bad guys and took their stuff. That's where I got this great armor by the way. It's made out of the skin of... something. Right, so we saved this druid. His pet died, felt kinda bad about that. He helped us out some. Helped us find this big frog lady, she was a fun sort, beat her silly we did. Worked our way upstairs next,” Dex gritted his teeth, remembering how angry the incident had made him, “And our lady was tied to a chair, and Kora, she was dead.” Dexter's hands curled into fists, and his caloused knuckles cracked. “So Garnham snuck around and shot this ugly frog, and we killed a pirate because he deserved it. He deserved it twice but he could only get it once. The ugly frog brought evil friends, fiends, fearsome foul but finally feeble.” Dexter looked to the sky, distracted, as the stars crawled about like beetles, making odd shapes.”Well, we, the... lady got out and helped us kill them all real good. And we went downstairs and killed some more frogs, and there was this girl who was wearing a dress made out of knives and forks which seemed strange to me but no one else seemed to think so. What was even weirder was this crocodile thing with feelers that ate my armor. That was bad. Ruined my axe too and it was a good one. But we defeated their chief who gave up and I took his club and this armor, it smells funny and its made out of some kind of skin, I can't really tell, maybe an owlbear or an ostrich. So ah... the... you know I'm really having trouble concentrating, the stars...”

The lady and Ivanov stood. The stars danced, like sand, silver sand that moved in the wind like a tornado, he thought he saw a dancing elf but that didn't make any sense. The lady told Dexter about the Court of Stars, and Gwynharwyf, and divine fury. He listened as close as he was able. He must have fallen asleep because he had a dream, vivid dreams he could never put into words later.


Somehow Dex must have made his way into his mother's room, but he didn't remember how. His mother wasn't there, probably already doing the washing. Dexter stumbled out into the street, rubbing his head and cringing at how incredibly loud the morning sun had gotten. The world looked different this morning, and he got turned around several times on his way back to the Sultry Siren. When he finally made it there he fumbled with the handle on the door to his room until Garnham got up and opened the door for him. “Where've you been Dexter?”

“Sorry, late, uh... they moved the inn.”

“I see. Here brother, take my old armor,” he looked Dexter up and down, “you may need to have it let out. But I'm not using it anymore and it smells better than...” he turned his nose up at the grubby hide armor his brother had appropriated from the bullywugs, “...that.” Dexter collapsed on the floor, and began snoring, and talking in his sleep, “Stars like sand, dancing like beetles, like silver... beetles.”


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## Morrow (Jun 9, 2008)

*What I Did Over My Six-Month Break: How to Defeat Patriarchy in Three Easy Steps*

Dear Mother,

I hope you enjoy these goodberry poultices.  Although Sasserine is a dreadful place to live, the Knowlern family has given me several berry 
bushes superior for casting goodberry.  You’ll note how substantial the poultices are.  The Knowlerns have been quite helpful, and sincerely hope that these poultices might support the ailing in the forests of Druzistan.

I have befriended Liamee, whom I mentioned in my last letter, and together we have brought Lorpth of the bullywugs to the justice of the sword.  The frog-people we encountered, as it turns out, call themselves “bullywugs,” which translates as “the people of the swamp” in their language.

My conscience would not let Lorpth go free after his cruel treatment of Liamee in Lavinia’s house.  Yet I thought his capture should properly be Liamee’s and not mine.  I paid her a visit to find her, as I would have been, seething with anger over Lorpth’s treatment of her.  She was under no delusions that her capture was her fault, or that she had been shamed (although Lorpth tried to shame her).  She was already planning an infiltration of the bullywug swamp with the goal of capturing Lorpth.  She was happy to see me and readily accepted my help.  We considered bringing our companions on the trip, but ultimately decided that unsuspecting bullywugs were well within our capabilities.

We waited until my scapulomancy told us the day was auspicious.  Liamee cloaked us both in invisibility spells and we sneaked to the bullywug village under cover of darkness.  The bones did not lie--Lorpth was sleeping alone in his tent, drunk, from the smell of him.  I hit him about the head with my quarterstaff.  Liamee brought out her scroll of hold person and was about to read it when bullywug guards entered Lorpth’s hut, under the command of Lorb-Lorb Tub.

They were all ready to engage us in combat, but I called out to Lorb-Lorb Tub.  I commended her on her cunning in noticing as we entered Lorpth’s tent.  I suggested that there must not be too much love lost between them, or she would have been sleeping in his arms.  I complimented her on her leadership in Lavinia’s house, and especially on how she treated her enemies with honor (instead of torturing them, say).  I wondered if there wasn’t some way this could end that would be beneficial to all of us women.

Lorb-Lorb Tub smiled and bit her cigar.  She said, “In our tribe, leadership passes when someone beats the chief in single combat.  That person then chooses the next leader.”

“A very wise system,” I said.  “Liamee, wouldn’t you like to challenge Lorpth in single combat?”

“I challenge you, Lorpth of the bullywugs,” Liamee spit at him.  Lorpth snored.  Apparently the bullywugs brew strong liquor in the marshes.
Liamee put away her scroll of hold person and raised her hands instead.  Darts of energy shot from her fingers to Lorpth’s heart.  He lay dead in his stinking hut as befits a coward and a fool.

Liamee appointed Lorb-Lorb Tub to be the new chieftan of the bullywugs, of course, and we left them to tend to the body of their beaten leader.  I believe it is bullywug custom to leave dead bodies outside the village for the alligators to eat.  I plan to send Lorb-Lorb a box of nice cigars to congratulate her on her new position.

In other news, my friends and I are to accompany Lavinia on a mission to a colony her family planted on the Isle of Dread in the South Seas.  She assures me that the natives were in no position to look after this island themselves, and that civilized colonists are a boon to everyone.  I have my doubts.  Nonetheless, I have been teaching Bolk to be a wolf at home on a boat.  She is getting her “sea legs” remarkably fast.

I give my love to you and father, and to all our sisters in Druzistan.

Love,

Elyoshenka


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## Morrow (Jun 18, 2008)

*Sea Wyvern's Wake Part 1 (Garnham)*

From the Journal Of K. Garnham Seeker translated from the Valossan

Lavinia has decided to undertake an expedition to the Isle of Dread.
Apparently her parents founded a colony there some time before their deaths. They were planning on resupplying the colony and bringing in new colonists, but were stopped by Vanthus' treachery.

We've been invited along to assist with violence prevention and to provide an additional ship. It seems that the abandoned ship we left in Kraken's Cove hadn't been claimed after all these months, so we sailed down, laid our claim and brought her back to Sasserine for crewing and some patch-ups. Some of Dexter's carpenter friends came and changed the Sea Wyvern into the Bronze Dragon.

None of us are sailors so a full crew had to be hired.

Our captain is Amella Venaklie. She's a widow and former smuggler. Tough. No-nonsense. Dislikes gnomes.  Our navigator is Urol Forol a gnome who has been trying desperately to get the Captain to like him. Urol is a naturalist and has a certain .... musky aroma about him. Neither that nor his attempts to get into her good books have changed the Captain's views.  Others include our first mate Augustus Wendt, able seamen Lirith Veldirose, Lyle Underfoot, Skald and Jess Mobley as well as cabin boy Tavey Nesk.  Tavey has already developed a fairly strong crush on Maggie.

In addition to ourselves we have ten passengers. The Warren family (Elsa, Arlis and daughter Brianna), the sisters Therese (tailor) and Beatrice (cook) Thoms, Father Feres a cleric of Darmon and a potter named Yelda are soon-to-be colonists.

We are also joined by nobleman Avner Meravanchi, his two servants Chisk and Asper and Avner's ego.  There's also a war horse named Thunderstrike taking up space in the hold.

We set out from Sasserine under blue skies and steady winds.
Three days out the Nixie sent word that Lavinia wanted Captain Venaklie, Avner and the Silver Beetles to join her for dinner that evening. That evening the two ships pulled in close to one another and used a tether line to bring us across.

Dinner was an excellent affair all around. I was seated beside Lavinia. She was, if possible, even more radiant than usual.

I sat opposite Tolin from the Jade Ravens. He was amiable enough and we didn't exchange words.

Liamae sat on my other side. I have to admit that I was a bit concerned at first. I had been trying to avoid her since the bullywug affair. After Lorpth was defeated I offered her my cloak and got her upstairs. At the time she seemed a little too grateful for my comfort. I didn't want to take advantage so I kept myself away.  Apparently she and Elyosha had an adventure of their own.  The two snuck into the bullywug village and came across Lorpth alone in his hut. He was drunk and the two planned to spirit him back to Sasserine and justice when they were interrupted by Lorb Lorb Tub. Reading between the lines it seems that Tub wanted Lorpth's position and was willing to accept a challenge from Liamae on behalf of the drunk, unconscious, Lorpth. Liamae killed him easily and appointed Tub the new leader.  One person's revenge is another frog's political assassination.  Liamae was in excellent spirits and there was none of the awkwardness I was afraid of.

We also discovered that Keskus had found a new animal companion to take the place of his fallen badger. A dolphin; don't ask me for it's name.

Also of note was the fact that Avner was seated on the opposite end of the table from Lavinia. The captain of the Nixie was directly opposite her and Avner was to his right.

Dinner ended and we made our way back to the Dragon.  Dexter took the rope first and went into the drink. The rope had been shot or rigged to fail. Then a mephit flew up into the air. I heard sounds of spell casting going on aboard the Dragon and so imbibed a potion to give me the wherewithal to make the jump between ships.

I landed on deck at the same time that a shark appeared in the water beside Dexter. I looked, but could see no sign of anyone casting or who had just cast, so I went below decks to investigate.

Nothing.

Elyosha dealt with the shark and the mephit didn't stand much of a chance.  We either had a turncoat or a stowaway.

The next day we rounded up the most likely turncoats and placed them in Maggie's zone of truth.  We did discover that Feres was a con man pretending to be a cleric of Darmon. Apparently things had gotten too hot for him and he was traveling incognito.

We couldn't find a turncoat.

I turned the ship upsidedown and found evidence of someone else living on board. The next day Maggie went through the ship with an invisibility purge and we found our stowaway.  Rowyn Keilani.  We took her alive and decided to place her in service aboard the ship in lieu of imprisonment.

A few days later we arrived in port and took on supplies,
While taking some shore leave Elyosha, Maggie and I heard a scream from a nearby alley. Investigating the scream we discovered a man being assaulted by what looked like halflings. Elyosha later identified them as Redcaps; evil fey so named because they dipped their hats in the blood of their victims.  When they died the flesh quickly burned leaving behind nothing but one tooth.  Elyosha has started a necklace with the three we defeated in the alley.

Volk was sent back to the ship to gather Dexter. Elyosha backtracked to the redcaps lair where we fought an older, more powerful redcap.


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## Morrow (Jun 18, 2008)

*A Note to Keskus (Garnham)*

Sent via messenger to Keskus of the Jade Ravens.


Keskus,

We ran into a band of Red Caps outside one of the local taverns. We beat them off, but it was harder without cold iron weapons.
I don't know if this is a sign of things to come, but I'm picking up a few items while I can.

I don't know if the Raven's have any cold iron or desire it, but if you don't and do, there's a shop called Pyrites Cove three streets over from where the Nixie's docked.

Yours truly,

K. Garnham


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## Morrow (Jun 18, 2008)

*Reincarnation Musings (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham Seeker translated from the Valossan.

While we were getting our preparations made for the trip to Farshore Dexter, Maggie and I were approached by Elyosha with an interesting proposal.  She believes that she is fairly close to a breakthrough in learning a new level of spells. It is possible that she will be able to cast reincarnate sometime after we reach the distant colony and she, quiet reasonably, requested some funds for the very rare components needed to cast the spell so that she would have them available should one of us die on this mission.  It's been a long trip and I find myself wondering about what the implications of this are.

How strange would it be to wake up, a sword tearing through your stomach the last thing that you remember, and find yourself perfectly healthy, looking at the world through new eyes. To get up from my grave in clothes that no longer fit, rest my weight on feet that had never walked the earth and breathe in the night air with lungs that had never known the stench of the Burn Houses, the smell of good roast beef or the scent of a perfumed wrist.

Would I still be Garnham?

Would I act differently if I was half a head taller, half a stone heavier, was farsighted, was blond?

Possibly.

What about a more profound change?

What if that virgin flesh coalesced into an orc? What if elven legs lifted me from that grave? What if it was a woman's face looking back at me from the looking glass?

All so different from what I perceive as "me." Such profound physical changes would surely change the way I perceived myself, but how much does that perception alter my core; what it means to be Garnham.

How much of what makes us who we are is defined by the soul and how much the flesh? Will the soul remember the lessons the body has learned or have them fade into some dream?

If the new hands had never spilled blood; would I still be a killer?


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## carborundum (Jun 18, 2008)

Morrow said:
			
		

> If the new hands had never spilled blood; would I still be a killer?





Oooooohhhh - nice one!


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## Morrow (Jun 18, 2008)

*Sea Wyvern's Wake Part 1 (Dexter)*

Dexter and Urol the gnomish navigator sat on opposite sides of the barrel of coconuts they were using for a table, playing dominoes.  "So the captain is so mean to me because of something some other gnomes did to her and her husband a long time ago??"

"That's what she said," Dex replied, laying down a tile.

"But that's not fair!"

"I know but she seems a good sort.  She'll come around eventually."

"Well, there's only one thing to do. I'll have to be extra nice to her!"  Urol hopped down off the coil of rope he'd been using as a stool and scampered off to find the captain. Dexter watched him run off and scratched his chin in contemplation.

"You know, that's a good idea," he thought to himself. He gathered up the tiles, and went off in search of Rowyn.  

He found her hard at work swabbing the foredeck under the watchful eye of the first mate. "Hey Augie," he greeted the sailor, "How's she doin'?"

"She swabs a deck better than anybody called 'Lady' ever did before, I'll give her that." Rowyn shuddered under the strain of not being able to decide who to scowl furiously at first.

Instead, continuing her work and staring at the deck she muttered, "I thank you not to speak of me as if I am not here, you fools."

Augustus reached for the scourge of knotted rope at his hip but Dexter reached out to stop him, "Hey Augie, how about you take a break, I'll keep my eye on her for a while."

"Well thanks Dex, I'll bring you back some grog." Augustus Wendt left Dexter alone with Rowyn and went below deck. Rowyn looked at Dexter as if considering the best places to insert and break off a mop handle. Dex just smiled and took the mop from her, set it down on the deck and sat down, leaning up against the bulwark.

"Why don't you take a break?" The former Lady of the Lotus Dragons was not one to take charity from an enemy, but neither was she a fool. If not for the brief respite offered by this oafish half-orc she knew she'd be toiling under the sun until it set. She sat down a few feet from Dexter and brushed her sweat soaked hair out of her sunburned face.

Until foiled by Dexter and his friends, Rowyn Keilani had been the Lady of the Lotus Dragons, an up and coming guild of thieves in Sasserine. After her defeat at their hands she, "stowed away on the Bronze Dragon, intent on killing the adventurers once and for all. But they foiled me once again and rather than having the common decency to slit my throat and toss me overboard for the sharks, they instead spared my life and put me to work for that cow of a captain Amella Venaklie and her sniveling toady of a first mate, Augustus Wendt, names I'll not soon forget, names I've added to my list, ..."

"Uh, you said that last bit out loud, Rowyn." She only glared in reply.  "So, uh... so that last time we fought, well, the time before last, not the time when you dropped me in the water with a shark and summoned that little salt water demon, the time..."

"The time you invaded my lair, killed my henchmen, toppled my guild and left me for dead?"

"Yeah! That time! So that time, I noticed you had a lot of books.  Garnham, my brother..." Rowyn laughed. "Why does everyone laugh when I say that?"

"Obviously you haven't stood next to each other and looked into a mirror."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm bigger than him.  We have different moms."

"I'd no idea."

"Oh yeah, we do. So anyway, Garnham said you had books about women of questionable something or other, I wasn't really paying attention, I don't like books all that much. But anyway last time we were in port I got you this. I asked the guy for a book ladies would like. I figure its the same thing."  He reached into the small bag containing all his worldly possessions, pulled out a small leatherbound book and held it out to her. She took it from him and looked at the title, _A Treatise on Wynged Insekts of Freeport and It's Envyrons, Volume 5 of 9, Butterflyes and Such_, by Egil Korkim, Tinelian Scholar, Twenty-Third rank. She flipped it open and silently read the dedication, 'To my friend
Lucius in thanks for his invaluable assistance in researching this volume'.

"Thanks. This is right up my alley."

"Great! It has pictures." She looked out at the sea and silently plotted her revenge. Dexter continued to stare at her, grinning from ear to ear.

"WHAT? What do you want? Why don't you leave me alone?"

"Well, I figure if we keep going the way we are, eventually we're going to fight and I'd hate to have to kill you."

"The feeling is not mutual."

"So I figure we could try and be friends. Work it out. You know. You want to hear about my adventures?"

She leaned her head back against the gunwale, "If you don't require my reply, talk all you want."

"Great! So the last time we went to shore the Silver Beetles..."

"Silver Beetles?"

"Oh, yeah, I had a dream. See, Maggie wanted to call our company the Pretty Little Violent Ponies, Garnham thought that was silly and said we should be the Quarry Men, don't ask me why, but then Lady Fyorovna said that it was just like a patriarchal stooge to choose a name with the word 'Men' in it and then I had this dream and so now we're the Silver Beetles. It was some dream."

"What is it with all you adventurers and your silly names?"

"You mean like the Lotus Dragons?"  Rowyn snorted at this and leaned back against the gunwale. She seemed to doze as Dexter continued. "So Lady Lavinia wants us to go to the Isle of dread, right? Well, we went and got this boat and I got my old boss to help me shape it up and now we call it the Bronze Dragon. We filled it up with coconuts so I would have something to do and we got all these colonists and this jackass named Avner... that reminds me."  

Dexter opened a small keg strapped to his waist. If Rowyn were awake she would have been surprised to see him pull out a live monkey, small, but still too large to live in a keg so small. He held up the small black spider monkey, and looked it in the eye. "Hey, go find Avner, and stuff grapes down the back of his pants," he whispered to the monkey who squealed in apparent delight and bounded off. Dexter continued his story, "Well, we went out to sea an you tried to kill us, you know that bit. Then we stopped off at shore and I got you that book, but then I came back to the ship because I was worried you'd get up to no good. No offense."

A light snore was Rowyn's only reply.

"But you were sleeping. I guess Augie worked you pretty hard that day. So when Bolk came back to the ship and started tugging on me, and Elyosha wasn't with her, I thought maybe Maggie fell down a well again, so I went with her. Turns out there was nothing to worry about after all. Nobody fell down a well, they were just fighting some evil faeries with red hats. So we killed them and took their stuff. That's pretty much what we do. Find evil people, kill them, take their stuff. No offense."

Rowyn continued to doze so Dexter got up to go find Augie.  She woke with a start to Augustus gently tapping her foot with his. "Wake up Roe, breaks over."

"I'll have your liver for this Augustus."

Augustus sighed, "Every time you say something like that it just adds days to your time here. If you do your part and work with the crew, the captain could take it easy on you, maybe let you go on the docks instead of the Sasserine Gaol."

She just glared at him, picked up her mop, and returned to the regular boring routine of life on the Bronze Dragon. The gulls wheeled overhead. The sails vibrated like drum skins. The ship creaked and sailed along on calm seas under a strong wind. Avner Meravanchi ran up and down the deck screaming, a brace of monkeys chasing after him with handfuls of fruit. Other than that damned half-orc's clumsy attempts at diplomacy, things were back to normal.


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## Morrow (Jun 19, 2008)

*Garnham Goes Out on a Limb*

There was a bustle of activity aboard the Blue Nixie. The sun had risen a short while ago and the best tide would be an hour from now.  Garnham came on board and asked to see Lady Vanderboren. It was early, but he suspected that she would be awake by now. Half a dozen sailors cussing and throwing their weight around doesn't lend itself to lingering in bed.

In a short while he was lead in to see her.

As he had suspected she was already awake and dressed. She sat in what had been the dining room studying charts and drinking pungent tea.

"Good morning Garnham." She looked up from the charts. "This is unexpected. I hope nothing's wrong."

"No." He seemed distracted for a moment and repeated, "no."

"It's just that it will be some time before we're in port again and I'm not certain when I'll have the opportunity to see you again. I have something that I'd like to get off my chest."

"Go ahead."

Garnham steeled himself.

"What I'm about to say isn't easy. At least not for me. I hit the streets, I find hidden doors, I bypass traps, I deliver quality violence when the need arises. I'm not much of a people person."

She waited patiently for him to go on.

"I'm interested in you. Romantically."

"Ga..

Before she could respond he said, "of course this means that I can no longer accept pay from you. I'm still committed to the cause, but I wouldn't feel right taking your money. I can make do with my share of the spoils the Beetles rake in."

"I.."

"If you've already allocated the funds than you could just give my share to the others. I doubt they'd mind."

"Can.."

"I came across a journal that Avner keeps detailing his conquests both real and imagined. I could get it to you if you're in need of leverage."

"How does that have to do with anything?" She finally managed to get out more than a syllable.

"Nothing. I panicked."

He took the leather bound package off his back and placed it on the desk in front of Lavinia.

"I am Kai Garnham. Son of Misa Garnham and Emil Black. The only thing I have left of my mother is her name; the only thing of my father, this sword." He pulled away the leather to reveal a rapier in it's scabbard. It's hilt was a masterfully wrought iron rose. "If I have even the smallest chance of winning the heart of a lady of your caliber than I would be deeply honored if you would wear this." He removed the sword from it's sheath. It's polished surface caught the early morning light. "It's a good blade and will strike true."

He returned the sword to it's home. "And if you choose not to wear it then I will know that I have no chance and you won't hear another word on the subject." He placed the scabbard back on the table.

"I should leave now," he said and bolted out the door.


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## Morrow (Jun 20, 2008)

*Campaign Connections*

I have described this campaign as something of a sequel to the Swashbuckling in Freeport campaign.  One might reasonably ask how the two are linked.  So for the benefit of our readers I’ll try to call out those links when they appear.

The players are responsible for many of the connections between the two campaigns.  The player characters represent the first set of connections, obviously.  Garnham and Dexter are the grandsons of Nate Black.  Margaret Teech is the granddaughter of Catherine Sullivan and Bill Teech on one side and Miranda Swallows on the other.  There have been other references as well.  Dexter’s most recent recap references both Lucius the librarian and Brother Egil from the Temple of Tinel, both of whom featured prominently in early Freeport adventures.

I have introduced some non player characters with connections to the first campaign.  Arlen Huxley, half-elven captain of the Flying Flying, is the son of Huxley, first mate of the Albers when Bronson, Nate, and Sully come aboard at the beginning of the campaign.  Augustus Wendt, first mate of the Bronze Dragon is grandson of Wendt, ship’s cook of the Albers during the same period.  Lyle Underfoot, a halfling sailor and carpenter aboard the Bronze Dragon, is a member of the expansive Underfoot clan that has popped up in various games I have played in or DMed.

Other events and organizations connect the two as well.  The festival of Empires’ Fall celebrates the destruction of the Empires of Atlantis and Cthonia, both of which featured prominently in Swashbuckling in Freeport.  (Long time readers will notice the spelling shift from Thonia to Cthonia.  Elyosha’s player suggested it.  I rather like it.)  The story of the downfall of those two great powers will have to wait for another time.  In this campaign the malevolent Scarlet Brotherhood seeks to return Cthonia to its former glory.  The Crimson Fleet, which appeared in a single adventure of Swashbuckling in Freeport, promises to take on a more prominent role in Savage Tide.

More connections between the two campaigns will become apparent over the coming months.  In addition to my own plans I’m sure the players will continue to introduce connections of their own.  For example, does the iron rose design of Emil Black’s sword indicate that it is the work of  Kushervrick, Arakel’s lover who crafted her an iron rose amulet before his tragic death?  Even I don’t know, but I look forward to finding out.


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## nerdronomicon (Jun 20, 2008)

I thought Wendt was the first mate of the Bronze Dragon. If he's not I messed up my recap.


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## Morrow (Jun 20, 2008)

nerdronomicon said:
			
		

> I thought Wendt was the first mate of the Bronze Dragon. If he's not I messed up my recap.




No, you're right.  Good catch.


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## Morrow (Jun 21, 2008)

*The Caerdel Rose (Garnham)*

Sasserine Eight Months Ago

The smithy lay on an unassuming street in the Champions District. Garnham entered through the heavy front door into the weaponsmith's showroom. The walls were covered with common blades of ever shape and description. Furthest from the door stood a line of locked glass cases and the till. A steady pounding of iron on iron could be heard from behind a thin door at the far wall.

A young woman stood behind the farthest case refining the edge on a silvered short sword.

"Hello. Anything in particular you're looking for?" She smiled slightly. Her hair was red and she had both human and elven blood coursing through her veins.

"I have a rapier in need of repairs." Garnham placed a scabbard on the case.

The woman removed the blade from its sheath and inspected the scarred and pitted rapier. An iron rose formed the end of the pommel.
"This has seen better days." She said looking up from the work. "What crypt did you find it in?"

"It just wasn't well treated for a long time. Anything you can do?"

"I'll have to get my mother. I'm just apprenticing. This is a bit beyond my skill." She opened the door and called through. Garnham felt the temperature rise 10 degrees.

The steady pounding ended and the smith came to the door. She stood slightly over five feet. Long black hair with streaks of grey were pulled back and held in place with a leather cord. The points of elven ears were obvious. She wore work pants, a sleeveless black shirt and a heavy leather apron, well creased from where she bent and pivoted. She still carried the heavy hammer. Her shoulders and arms were whipcords of sinewy muscle. She was sweating more than any elf that Garnham had ever seen.

If she was human Garnham would have pegged her as being forty years old. Elyosha was 140 and looked twenty. Garnham did some quick math and came up with old.

"Hello ma'am." he started. "I was told that you could repair my blade. It was neglected for a while and I've finally raised the money for restoration."

The half-elf put on another leather apron, took her mother's hammer and went into the smithy. Soon the pounding resumed.  The elven smith turned to Garnham.  "My name's Livinda not "ma'am." I was a regular in the third light infantry for more years than your great-grandfather has been alive and I stayed a sergeant. Unlike the officers I work for a living. Don't call me ma'am. This your sword?"

"Yes."

"Looks like you 'plucked a Caerdel rose.'"

"Pardon?"

"Caerdel is a small city two days ride from Octenbrook."

"Where's that?"

"About three days north of Techan."

"And that's...?

"The cartographer's guild is on the other side of town. I'd draw you a map, but I've just established that we aren't the cartographer's guild." She hefted the rapier into the air and juggled the pommel from one calloused hand to the other. "Caerdel is a rustic town built up beside a series of mines. The iron from those mines has a higher than normal sulfur content making it ideal for high quality weapons manufacture."

"And the rose?"

"Making an iron rose is tricky business." She turned the blade pommel up to demonstrate with the iron rose at it's hilt. "To make individual petals that look like the real thing is the work of a master. Any fully trained weaponsmith can craft a blade that will hold a dweomer, but this," she nodded the rose, "this is art."

"Is it worth more?"

"Maybe a few silver. It's art, but few appreciate the difficulty in making it. That's the thing about Caerdel, almost everyone there does."  She was animated now. She placed a length of leather on the nearest counter, placed the rapier on the leather and began to pick at the iron rose with a fine tool retrieved from an apron pocket.  "Just a bit of build up to pick away and I should be able to tell you the caliber of the master that made this."

"How?"

"The number of petals. The Caerdel masters used the rose to not only signify the place of origin, but to tell the quality of the maker. Six petals was the minimum; the most I've heard of was thirteen maybe fourteen. The more petals the harder to make. This has at least eight, but there's so much crap in here it's hard to say. There's a lot of silversheen build up here and mud." She looked disapprovingly at Garnham.

"I've never used silversheen."

"Well somebody did and they were sloppy with it. Here we are. Twelve petals."

Livinda paused at this for a moment. Garnham caught her looking at the palm of his right hand.

"Nice tattoo."

"Thanks." He turned his hand away from her gaze. He didn't correct her mistake.

"I can take care of this for you. The cost will be three hundred gold."

"Not a problem."

"There is one thing more. My daughter Ressadriand will be joining the Champions District watch after she's finished her apprenticeship with me. I can't be found taking stolen goods."

"The rapier was my father's. He left it behind."

""Every sword that comes in here belonged to somebody's father."
She reached under one of the cabinets and pulled out a small wooden box. She carefully unlatched it revealing a fine pair of white gloves.
"I picked these up a few years ago to save me some trouble. If I hold the sword while wearing them I'll know how you came to own it. I'll also know some things about the people who had it before you. I'll throw in the history of the blade so there's no hard feelings."

"I'm not worried." Garnham said eying the magic gloves as she stretched them across calloused fingers.

She held the sword in front of her horizontally resting the flat of the blade on her extended palms. For a full minute the only sound to be heard was the rhythmic pounding of iron on steel from the smithy beyond.

"The blade was forged by a human named Kushervrick for an adventurer named Khasthyr. It was Khasthyr's desire to one day enchant the blade, but he spent his money on horses and never did. The blade passed to his daughter Nystoir after Khasthyr's death. Nystoir gave the sword as a gift to her lover Emil Black. The rest you probably know."

"That's my father for you," Garnham sighed.

"I'll have the rapier done in two days."

"And the payment?"

"I'll take it when you collect the blade. If you don't come back in a month I'll sell it."

"Fair enough." he shook her hand. "I'll see you in two days time."
Garnham left.



Livinda sat down hard on a backless stool.

She hadn't been completely honest with Garnham. Some of what she learned she uncovered with the glove's magic; other things she had known already.

Memory is strange she thought. The tale of the twelve petal rapier came to mind so easily. Yet she had to concentrate to remember Emil's face, the sound of his voice.

The gloves also told her about the man who now owned Emil's sword. He wasn't evil, but he also wasn't good. Like his father, but less wild. And he was an adventurer, she'd seen the type before. A dangerous job. Very exotic for a young girl.

Should she tell Ressadriand? It was just as well she didn't see the familiar birthmark on the human's hand.

Just then the steady sound of metal-on-metal rang with a sour note.
"RESSADRIAND EMILY BLACK!! If you've just ruined the breastplate I've been slaving over for the last two hours I'll tan your hide!"

Livinda rose to her feet. She'd already decided to tell her daughter the truth once Ressa reached her majority. That would be a little over half a year from now. Until then she didn't need to know she even had a brother.


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## Morrow (Jul 8, 2008)

*Sea Wyvern's Wake Part 2 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham Seeker translated from the Vallossan

Today I witnessed a miracle.

A treasure map sold to a rube on the streets of Sasserine actually led to a real treasure.

Today the Nixie sent a long boat to the Dragon carrying Lavinia, Liamae and Tollin.

We were told that our navigator Urol had made an arrangement with Lavinia to explore ancient Olman ruins that lay on an island en route to Farshore. We were asked to accompany him with the two Jade Ravens.

Urol told us that a one-legged sailor sold him the map. The sailor told him that it was delivered to him by a dying elf who claimed to be part of an expedition that had met strong resistance from a basilisk. He ran before he was turned to stone like his comrades.

As soon as I heard this I was in a good mood. I personally know three people who run the map scam and know of half-a-dozen more besides. The chances of us coming across anything resembling danger or treasure were remote, but I'd grown tired of being stuck on board ship for the last several weeks. The idea of walking on dry, unmoving ground was very appealing.

We made our preparations and departed for the island.

We trekked for a time through the jungle and came to the ruins. Arrayed in the opening passage were a series of very life-like "statues."

The basilisk was drawn out and we defeated it without any of us being petrified. Urol had brought the magical means to restore two of victims and we decided to help our predecessors once we were certain we wouldn't have need of the slave ourselves. Liamae and Elyosha believe that the eyes and liver of the beast may be used in other restorations.

Heavy plant growth and centuries of collapse made all but two passageways impossible to explore in the time available.

We travelled down one until we found a room with a deep well. Something crawled out of that well. Something amorphous with dozens of eyes that darted around everywhere and many mouths that formed a bedlam choir. Tollin called it a gibbering mouther.

It attacked our minds. Some of us froze, others turned on our own, still others attacked it with a beserk fury. Only Liamae proved completely resilient to the madness. In the end we survived ourselves and silenced the strange voices.
Dexter and I spent an hour going through the mass grave that had formed at the bottom of that well. While we were busy with our charnal duty Laimae and Elyosha harvested the basilisk's eyes and liver.

We went down the last remaining passage. It led into a map room warded by the first significant magical trap I've encountered. Liamae confirmed it to be a class five incendiary, possibly mobile. I started with a standard Caldwell matrix. That suppressed the cardinal harmonics allowing me to access the dweomer imprimatur. I wasn't completely certain that the trigger was stripped so I dragontongued the base pairs and Liamae was able to confirm that the trap was clear.

I've enclosed a copy of Urol's paper on the subject of the map room and the other things we uncovered of an historical nature. For all of his eccentricities Urol might make a fine addition to our ranks.

We then came across a room barricaded by a wall of stone spell. Liamae and Dexter provided us access. Beyond we found a burial pyramid and a crazed man-bat. The man-bat launched itself at us and while we fought it was joined by a will o' the wisp. It was a hard battle, but in the end we won.

Exploration of the pyramid revealed a mummified corpse. I was quiet happy to discover that it wasn't the walking, Garnham attacking, type of mummy and was content to lay there all ancient and shriveled.

The man-bat had been guarding the treasure of an ancient Olman bat god. A golden bat statue weighing several pounds apparently made of solid gold. It radiates a slight magic, but we have yet to identify it.

We spent several hours letting Urol take notes and etchings. Before we left we restored two of the adventurers, a dwarven woman and a woman wearing the symbol of the Witchwardens. They seemed healthy enough, but are too disoriented to talk right now. We've secured their friends.

On a personal note I have fallen in love with Lavinia. My objectivity cannot be counted on in regards to her. I can tell you that I have believed for a while that she will make an excellent Seeker. She is a master at statecraft, a steady swordswoman and possesses an indomitable spirit. In my eyes she eclipses all others of her sex.


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## Morrow (Jul 8, 2008)

*A Letter to Lavinia (Garnham)*

Lavinia,

I have never been accused of being an optimist.

The kind of hope needed for that attitude is rare where I come from and is quickly beaten down when it does appear.

I have found myself hopeful since leaving Fort Blackwell. While my worse, if wiser, self steeled itself for your rejection another Garnham dreamed of other futures.

Then I saw you coming aboard the Nixie wearing your new sword. You are stunning wearing my greatest hope.

I apologize for my behavior in Blackwell. Not what I said, but the way I thrust it upon you. It was rude of me and I'm sorry.

I have been interested in you for some time now. I saw your beauty at the dinner table that first night, your strength as you discovered the truth about your brother, your wit as you dealt with the Dawn Council and your skill while dueling devils. You are amazing.

It took me until Blackwell for my fear of not telling you my feelings to overcome my fear of your rejection. I tried to put this down on paper, but the words weren't right and it was best that I tell you to your face.

I'm writing this in the heart of the Olman ruins. Urol is busy with his etchings and Liamae has agreed to play courier for me so I'm taking advantage of a few quiet hours to write the first love letter I have ever written.

If we were still in Sasserine I would ask you out dancing, but that won't be an option.

I would very much like to walk with you on the beach, share a good bottle of wine and watch the sunset together.

Yours truly,

K. Garnham


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## Morrow (Sep 29, 2008)

*Sea Wyvern's Wake Part 3 (Garnham)*

From the journals of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Valossan.

   I am in prison.

   The walls are the ocean stretching out to every horizon and my cell the confines of the Bronze Dragon.

   Less than a week ago a storm caught up the two ships of our expedition.  When it had passed there was no sign of the Blue Nixie and no way to know if any of her crew or passengers have survived.

   Not even Lavinia.

   I have spent the past three days pacing out the length and breadth of my cell like any diligent prisoner, searching for signs of a way out; looking for signs of hope, but none have appeared.  My mood is foul and I have separated myself from my companions to avoid venting my bile on them.

   I have been negligent in my journalling of late and will use this time to update events.  Hopefully it will help keep my mind off things that are, frankly, beyond my control.

   After returning from Tamoachan the two survivors we depetrified were able to tell something of their tale.  The dwarven woman is Ilsa Baldrick

a warrior and member of Zelkarune's Horns.  The human woman is a Witchwarden abjurer named Sabine Taskerhill, the fifth or sixth child of Kalmadar Taskerhill, Cudgel District's representative on the Dawn Council and quiet possibly the richest man in Sasserine.  Neither had any recollection about the elf who supposedly escaped the basilisk and started the chain of events that led Urol to direct us to the the ruins.

   Taskerhill has some knack for alchemy and believes that she can use the basilisk liver and eyes recovered by Liame to make more of the depetrifying paste.  She has been working on that in the hopes that she can return and recover her other comrades who are still stone statues on Tamoachan.

   The next week and a half was uneventful.  We encountered something odd at the mouth of the Havekihu River.  I heard it referred to as a flotsam ooze.  It was a large mass of living clear floating glue.  Over the years of it's life it had accumulated debris which stuck to it's surface.  It became attached to the Dragon and would have dragged us over the edge were it not for Dexter's great strength and a generous dousing of universal solvent.  It was beaten and we found some valuables amongst the filth and corpses that covered it's gelatinous body.

   What a glamourous life.

   Some fine sailing from the Captain and magic from Elyosha allowed us to completely avoid a Scarlet Brotherhood blockade and in two weeks time we came to Fort Greenrock.  What little there was that remained.  All of the physical evidence showed that the fort had been attacked en masse by lizard people.  There were no building that remained intact and no sign of the populace.  Elyosha and Dexter found this odd.  Lizard people don't usually coordinate strikes of this size.  I personally hold a theory that the Scarlet Brotherhood aided the assault in some fashion.  If not physically than at least tactically.  I have no evidence to substantiate that and we lacked the resources to risk a direct confrontation with the lizard folk in their own domain.

   Four days later we came to a waterfall where the Atikula river meets the sea.  We stopped to take on fresh water and had to deal with a seven headed hydra.  Ilsa demonstrated her skill with a weapon managing to sever multiple heads.

   Two days later we made port at the last corner of civilization before Farshore, the Ohlman village of Renkrue.  It proved a very pleasant locale and we set about some much needed shore leave.  Lavinia and I were able to steal away for a few hours and enjoy paradise.

   Avner also attempted to enjoy paradise; in his own loathsome fashion.  It had become obvious that he and Lirith,one of the crew members, had been having a sexual relationship.  Apparently the company of the young swordswoman wasn't enough for Avner and he attempted to purchase a native woman from her parents.  This didn't sit too well with the locals and it took some quick negotiating from Elyosha and Maggie to keep the peace.  In the end Avner was given to the village for one days indentured servitude.  A day he spent toiling in the tropical sun.

   I had previously made plans to steal Avner's diary of conquests, but had decided to wait.  Fed up with the overbearing lothario I took the journal and substituted a similar one that had been through a wine related accident.  Avner wrote of his encounters with Lirith.  His tone and choice of words were far from pleasant so I passed them on to her.

   Now Avner has the rest of the journey to recover from sunburn, practice celibacy and not drink fine wines.

   We set out from Renkrue the next day.  There was one change in the passenger allocation.  Ilsa and Sabine transferred to the Nixie while Liame and Tolin joined us on the Dragon.  I'm unclear of the exact reason, but I suspect that Sabine, who hasn't been enjoying sea life at all, didn't want anything else to do with Avner.

   As expected we encountered the Pearl Current.  It cost us eight days of hard sailing and skilled navigation.  We passed, but did not stop at the island of Ruja.

   Three days later we hit the storm and lost sight of the Nixie.

   That was three days ago.  I will now try to get some sleep for the first time in those three days.  I pray that the dawn brings better news.


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## Morrow (Nov 18, 2008)

*Sea Wyvern's Wake Part 4 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Valossan

    It's been three days since my last entry. 

    We found ourselves caught in a strange morass of seaweed that stretched out for miles around us, dozens of shipwrecks visible in the grim sargasso.  The sailors referred to this as Journey's End.  Scores of ships were supposed to have been lost to this place.

    The weed was thick and strong; the crew dulled axe and blade trying to hack a path to open sea.  They made no discernible progress.

    Elyosha placed a blight on the weed, weakening it to the point that the Dragon was nearly freed.  Some members of the crew went down to work at the blighted weeds when the remaining vegetation rose up into vine horrors, shambling mockeries of people.  

    Suffice it to say that they weren't friendly.

    We fought off that attack with no casualties.

    The Dragon was free of the immediate seaweed, but was still surrounded by Journey's End.  Elyosha needed time to recharge her magics to make another go at the weed so we decided to rest the night and see what success we'd have in the morning.

    There was another attack and we lost Yelda.

    In the morning Elyosha made a concerted assault on the weed.  Unfortunately it became obvious that we wouldn't be able to escape that way.

    We had previously noted a ship near our position that seemed more intact than most of the other vessels.  We decided to investigate.  Dexter, Elyosha, Liamae, Tollin and I left the Dragon to visit the Rage while Maggie stayed behind to defend the ship.

    What parts of the ship that we could access had been plundered.  We barely were able to recover a journal kept by one of the former passengers, a monk named either Anhelm or Auhelm, water had made the script hard to decipher.

    The journal recounted the Rage's fate after encountering Journey's End.  It detailed attacks increasing as time passed.  Eventually there was an expedition formed to find the heart of this place and kill it.

    It had not been successful, but it gave us the information we needed to find the heart and mount our own expedition.

    We went on.

    As we approached we saw greater concentrations of the vine horrors.  We kept ahead of them and made our way to the ship in the heart of the green web, the Thunderer.

    We fought our way through several vine horrors until we finally made our way to the lair of the abomination.

    We won out, but it was close.  Bolk didn't make it.

    With the death of the green heart the sargasso began to disperse.  The Thunderer began to sink.  Fortunately I had a boat in my pocket and we were able to return to the Dragon without having to swim for it.

    While we were away the vine horrors launched an assault on the Dragon.  Maggie, Captain Venkalie and Rowyn led the defense, but we still lost Jess Mobley from the crew and the colonists Therese Thoms and Quenge Asper.

    There is a part of me that hopes that Rowyn's defense of the ship and it's crew is something more than self preservation.  Dexter has made the effort to rehabilitate her and I would like to see something come of it.  My worst, if wiser, self will be watching with a far more skeptical eye.

    I can also confirm the fates of thirteen ships.  I was on the Rage and the Thunderer.  I passed the Vesper, the Desperado, the Basher, the Lamprey, the Landfall, the Broken Promise, the Albatross, the Argent Gate, the Maiden's Lament, the Longshanks, and the Trollop.  The others were either too far away or too decrepit to identify.


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## Morrow (Dec 7, 2008)

*Here There Be Monsters Part 1 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham Seeker.  Translated from the Valossan

    Some time has passed since my last entry.  We have found ourselves on the Isle of Dread, our situations greatly changed by new magics.

    Five days after escaping Journey's End we were beset by a storm more potent than the one that separated us from the Nixie.  I have to confess that my stomach, not bothered by average sea travel, betrayed me and I rode out the worst part below decks.

     The Dragon found itself stuck on the reefs near the Isle of Dread.  The situation turned bleaker when a giant eel-creature leaped from the choppy waters and attacked the crew.  We fought it off, but not before it killed first mate Wendt and crewwoman Lirith.  Maggie managed to get us off the reefs by magically raising the water.  Elyosha used her magic to warp-wood-patch the largest holes in the hold.  

    Despite expert sailing prowess and Maggie and Elyosha's magic we still ran aground a hundred yards from shore.

    We awoke hours later on the beach.  

    The only confirmed survivors were the members of the Silver Beetles, Arliss, Avner, Avner's horse, Rowyn, Captain Venkalie, Urol, Tovey, Lyle Underfoot and Barnaby.  

    We were awake for only a few minutes when a t-rex burst out of the jungle and attacked Arliss.  The beast swallowed Arliss whole before we had a chance to rescue him.  We fought the monster,but Dexter didn't survive.  I crawled down it's throat, but it was too late.

    We killed the bastard and spent time searching for survivors and supplies.  Elyosha used newly mastered magic to reincarnate Dexter.

    It was so strange watching his flesh both heal and...warp at the same time.  After several minutes Dexter's hair and skin looked healthy, but he had lost a fair amount of weight.  A few minutes more and it became obvious that Dexter's new flesh would be Dwarven.  There was a brief moment that I thought I was going to have a sister, but the flesh coalesced into a male dwarf.  He still had the birth mark on the back of his hand.

    Dexter has taken his new situation well.  I think he's a little disappointed that he didn't come back as something more exotic.  I'm slowly getting used to his new face.

    We spent the night healing.  Elyosha took the opportunity to summon a new animal companion, a sun bear that she named Medvedya.

    Rowyn has agreed to behave as long as her life is dependent on our mutual survival.

    In the night we were attacked by a pack of terror birds and lost Lyle Underfoot.

    The next day Maggie cast a spell and sent a message to Lavinia. 

    Lavinia is alive and well and in Farshore.

    Urol estimated that we were about 10 days away from Farshore.  We set out that morning for Farshore and Lavinia.

    The day passed relatively quietly.  Elyosha used her wilderness skills to avoid the worst of the jungle.  We avoided a confrontation with half a dozen terror birds hunting a baby dinosaur.

    The next day we caught sight of ancient Ohlman ruins.  I'm curious about what we'll find there.  We have the magical golden bat idol from the other Ohlman ruins.  Elyosha identified it as some sort of magical key.  I wonder if the lock is somewhere here on the Isle of Dread.

    As we moved closer to the ruins we noticed layers and layers of cobwebs.  We eventually came across an open air room with a stone throne.  On the throne sat an ancient woman.  Oddly enough, I caught the faint whiff of gingerbread in the air.

    The old woman spoke to us in Sylvan which ELyosha translated.

    She identified herself as Lithira and asked us about our purpose there.

    We spoke with her a time.  She told us that "four eyes have gazed upon you and his servants seek you out."  She also gave us some practical advice for going through the mountains.  She told us of an underground passage that would take us "safely" through the mountains.  She warned of birds that nested outside the mouth of the passage.

    With Lithira's warning we were prepared for the terror birds.  Elyosha used her magics to hide herself and the castaways of the Dragon.  The rest of the Beetles attacked and killed the terror birds.

    We are now camping at the cave mouth.


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## Morrow (Dec 7, 2008)

*Here There Be Monsters Part 1 (Dexter)*

Dear Mom,


A dear friend of mine named Urol wrote this letter for me. He did so even though I've made some tragic errors in judgment lately, because he's kindhearted and didn't like the idea of you worrying about me, not because I threatened him with any sort of physical harm if he didn't stop whining about a stupid dinosaur and write the damned letter already. I'm working hard like you said. Miss Lavinia made it to Farshore safely so we're doing a good job. We got stuck in a storm and attacked by giant eels, then our ship crashed and got destroyed. Most of the people on the ship died. The people who made it to shore are all fine. Except the ones that got eaten by dinosaurs. And the ones that got eaten by giant birds. Other than that everyone is fine. Garnham sends his regards.We're lost in a jungle thriving with fascinating indigenous life that for some unfathomable reason I completely fail to appreciate. You'd like it here. It reminds me of the stories you used to tell me about your childhood.We got directions from a kindly old woman who lives here on the island. She spoke a language only Elyosha understood. Then she turned into a spider and went and hid in some old ruins. The old lady, not Elyosha. Other than the spider thing she seemed okay. I will send money with this letter as soon as we get to Farshore. There's really no place around here to spend it and I figure you can use it better than I can. If you decide to donate it to charity I suggest the Ingalgete Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Abominations or the Foundation for the Promotion of Responsible Adventuring on Cauldron.


Your loving son,

Dexter


PS. A dinosaur ate me and I died. It didn't hurt though. And Elyohsa reincarnated me so I'm a dwarf now. But it's okay, I think I like it.


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## Dr Simon (Dec 8, 2008)

I'm glad you're continuing this after the long pause. I loved Jollydoc's telling of the campaign, and I'm interested to see how your characters handled it. I like the various viewpoints.


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## Morrow (Dec 15, 2008)

Dr Simon said:


> I'm glad you're continuing this after the long pause. I loved Jollydoc's telling of the campaign, and I'm interested to see how your characters handled it. I like the various viewpoints.




I'm glad you're enjoying it.  We only play Savage Tide once a month, so if we miss a game it makes for a LONG break.


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## Morrow (Dec 29, 2008)

Morrow said:


> We only play Savage Tide once a month, so if we miss a game it makes for a LONG break.




Speaking of which, thanks to some nasty weather here in NH, December's installment of Savage Tide was canceled.  We're going to try to make it up by playing twice in January, so expect a double helping of Isle of Dread related madness in a few weeks.


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## Morrow (Jan 27, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters Part 2 (Margaret)*

Dear Diary,

What can I say about the Isle of Dread except that it’s, uh… dreadful. Hahaha. I crack me up. Anyway, we finally met some intelligent undead, but I’ll get back to that later.

About a week ago, I guess, Dexter died, and Aliosha brought him back AS A DWARF, which actually came in really handy because after we shipwrecked, we had to go through a pass under a mountain, and so his newfound stonecunning skills came in handy. Of course, he’s still annoyed about it, but I told him to embrace his new body as the blessing it truly is. He told me that I should embrace it, but I think he was joking. All the same, I could check “live male dwarf” off my list if I did, but if he’s really willing to help me with my list, he should have started helping me when he was still a half-orc, and then I could’ve checked off two, and it would have been much easier than doing it with two people. Speaking of my list, I really need to get moving on it because so far, I don’t have any checkmarks on it. I don’t think Aster would be pleased.

Anyway, we went under this mountain, and it was mostly just a really long tunnel, and then there was this throne room or something, which was pretty boring, and then there was a crypt, and I was a little disappointed because the people who built it were clearly worshippers of Meculatectli, who’s kind like Aster, except not as awesome. So, not only do these people already have their own god of death and undeath, but they clearly have no respect for him either because there were these mummies, and all they wanted to do was kill us, which I found quite rude. There was also this gross, oozy thing, and I try to respect all beings, but it was clear from the start, that all this thing wanted to do was undress Dexter, and he did not consent, so I thought it was quite rude too.

After we killed the ooze, we went outside and got on this coastal road which was fine, except that some rocks and skulls fell on us, and all of a sudden, Garnham got all surly and started throwing skulls around. It was kind of weird. Then we got attacked by gargoyles, and they were quite rude too. At first, I thought they were pretty goof judges of character because one of them pushed Avner off a cliff, but then Avner lived, so they probably didn’t do it right, and then when we got attacked again, they did it to Barnaby (who died) and tried to do it to Garnham, which I did not like at all. It wasn’t really too bad, though, because they left us alone most of the time, and only one of us died. 

Oh, and then there was this thing with crucified birds. It was really weird. I don’t know why anyone would want to crucify a bird, but one morning, we woke up, and there were a whole bunch of them just outside our camp. I think it was Garnham who came up with the theory that they were crucified by other birds, but what could a bird do that would make other birds so angry, they’d crucify it? Maybe they were cannibal birds that ate the other birds’ eggs. That’s why I think everybody should just be a vegetarian. It would prevent a lot of bird crucifixions; that’s for sure.

So, we’re going along the road, and then there was this path that went inland, which Avner thought was a good idea, and Aliosha talked to a bird who told her the shore road ended ahead, but we checked it out anyway, and it did, and there was this Ullman guy who stabbed himself in the chest and fell off the cliff, which wasn’t very helpful at all. So, we went back to the other road, and Aliosha turned into a giant eagle and soared high above the land, and she said the other road looked safe, and really, it was fine, but then we got to the guy.

So finally, the guy. There was this dead guy, upside-down on a cross, with a big wound in his chest, and then he started talking to us, and I thought that was great because most of the undead on this island are so uncivilized, but then he told us we couldn’t leave, and I thought that was unfair, because people should really be able to do what they want. I mean, he should know that considering the degree of discrimination he surely faces on a daily basis, that people should be free, whether alive or dead. It’s just really a big letdown, but I think I can probably convert the guy. I just need some time, and he doesn’t want us to leave, so it should be easy. Should be…

Yours,

Maggie
xoxoxo


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## Morrow (Feb 2, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters Part 2 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham, Seeker translated from the Valossan

  There was a time, not long ago, when I knew the name, the face and basic biography of every person that I'd killed; the abomination Alden, Mathias Carruthers and Damned Barker.  Now I have trouble remembering all of their species.

  We continue to make our way to Farshore from the other end of the Isle of Dread.

  The old woman's advice on using the mountain passage turned out to be good.  Five or six miles of very straight tunnel saw us through without too much trouble.  Elyosha's new pet got nervous part way through, as if something were following us.  We took precautions, but didn't encounter anything until we got to nearly the end.

  We finally came to a carved stone room with what appeared to be a stone throne towards the middle.  On it was a human skeleton pinned to the solid rock by a longspear.

  We travelled further finding two large bridges leading across a chasm to a pair of large earthern doors.  Our combined strength was unable to budge them so Elyosha used her magic to turn the stone around the doors into clay.  That was messy, but effective.

  We then came upon some sort of burial hall.  Multiple dessicated corpses were placed into alcoves along the path.  At the entrance was a statue that Maggie identified as Mictalantechtihi- the Ohlman god of the undead.

  A mummy fight ensued.

  While searching the area after the fight we came across a hidden door, behind which was the tomb of an Ohlman priest.  There was a trap, but it was avoided.

  Maggie and Elyosha had concerns about desecrating the grave, 

  In the fight with the mummies Maggie had turned one.  It had run in the other direction, bolting into rooms we hadn't explored yet.

  We followed it's trail and saw no sign of it.  I scouted ahead.

  The final room seemed, initially, to be empty.  A plain space with water pooled into one of the corners.  As I approached the water an amophous pseudopod reached out and tried to grab me.

  Fortunately it missed.  I pulled back.  Medvedya charged the blob and Dexter followed the bear.

  Two minutes later the blob is dead, Dexter is naked and Maggie is telling him that he should embrace his body.  Dexter had a counteroffer.

  A pulley system we had found in the room before the one with the blob opened the exterior doors.

  As an aside I would like to point out the sophistication of the Ohlman society that dug this place into the mountain.  Tunneling that many, relatively straight, miles through that much mountain is a feat that I would normally only associate with Dwarven engineering.  The trap I bypassed and the mechanism for opening the exterior door were efficiently made and managed to survive the centuries while maintaining their functionality.

  The open air was welcome to us all.  Especially Captain Venkalie who didn't take to underground travel that well.  

  The doors led out to open beach.  A man-made path led up and skirted the mountains and sea.

  We travelled along the path for some time and rested.

  The next day the path ran along a sheer cliff face.  As we passed rocks came tumbling down upon us.  Among the rocks were several human skulls.

  I assumed they were dropped on us by the servants of the four-eyed being that we had been warned about.  I wrote my innermost feelings about Four-eyes on one of the skulls and threw it over the cliff.  I sincerely hope that Four-eyes has a reproductive system, otherwise it may not understand my heartfelt message.

  Nothing else happened that day.

  The next morning we awoke to find a dozen bird carcasses had been crucified Ohlman style and left at the edge of our camp.  Elyosha and Urol could find no trace of anyone putting them there.

  I used the wood of the bird crucifixes to repeat my message to Four-eyes.

  On the road that day we were attacked by a pack of gargoyles.  Gargoyles with Ohlman symbols on their stony flesh.  

  Avner was knocked off the edge by one of them, but we managed to save him before he drowned.

  The next day we were also attacked.  This time one of the pack stood out from the others.  He wore a stone crown and bracers.  Know Dexter wears a stone crown and bracers.

  We lost Barnaby in that attack.

  We made further progress and had a peaceful night.

  The next day we came to a decision.  The path passed open jungle.  There was a man-made trail.  Avner was set on re-entering the jungle, but the path we were on seemed safer.

  Elyosha spoke to some birds and learned that the path we were on came to an end.  Maggie asked for divine guidance and was told that the jungle trail wasn't a good idea.  We followed the path to confirm the bird's story.

  When we came to the end of the trail we saw an Ohlman man on the edge of a cliff.  He stabbed himself and plummetted to his certain doom.

  Or so it seemed.  Elyosha detected a hint of illusion magic in the area.

  Seeing no way to continue forward, we turned back and went along the jungle trail.  Elyosha became an eagle and scouted ahead.

  Over the next two days we weren't attacked by anything significant.  

  A fog descended upon us and the animals we passed grew increasingly odd looking and miscolored.  Urol caught some lizards and tried to make them into a stew with some wild herbs, but the meat was tainted and the spices held no flavor.

  Finally we made it to some ruins.  Ohlman ruins if I have the architecture down.

  There was a corpse tied to a wooden X in the middle of all this.  As we approached the corpse spoke to us, welcomed us, told us that we would never leave this place.

  Maggie is having a word with it right now and I'm taking a moment to get this up to date before the next round of violence.

  I miss Lavinia so much.


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## Morrow (Feb 2, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters 3 (Margaret)*

Dear Diary,
I have to tell you all about my new best friend!  His name is Golnura, and he’s a zombie, and he’s super-nice!!  I was a little worried at first because he said we couldn’t leave, but I think he just wanted us to stick around because he was lonely.  Dexter hates him, but I think he’s jealous.

Anyway, I told you already about when we met him, but I didn’t tell you how warm and friendly he was right from the beginning.  He welcomed us right into his home.  It was a little broken down, but I can cozy it up for him when we get back from our quest to free him from his oppressor and rescue Urol.  I untied him and took him down from his crucifix right away because it didn’t look comfortable at all.  He said that somebody named the Master of Fogmeyer was his master, so I decided right away that we should free him, but he didn’t really seem to care. It doesn’t matter, though, because once he gets a taste of freedom, he’ll be so happy that he won’t be able to stop thanking me and praising Aster’s name. I can’t wait!

The others decided we should not spend the night with Golnura, but we couldn’t seem to find our way back to the last clearing we saw.  Just when we were about to settle in for the evening, three demonic monkeys came out of nowhere and attacked us. One of them took Urol, and one of them killed Taavi, Aster curse them!  Unfortunately, all of them got away.  I animated Taavi as a skeleton. It was the least I could do considering the devotion he showed me in life.

Thankfully, we were able to sleep through the night, but I couldn’t find Golnura after my morning prayers, and then we left right after to go find Urol.  He probably went ahead of us to help us out. I hope he’s okay. 
We wound up at this cave, and Avner threw a huge fit about not coming with us, which was fine with me.  He just slows us down anyway, and alerts our enemies of our coming the ways he’s always crying and screaming like a little girl. We wandered around in the caves for a little while until we finally found some doors which led to a small chamber.  Aliosha discovered its purpose right away, but we didn’t get it quite right on the first try. She lit a candle and then had to sit on a bloody chair, and then she touched a mirror, and all of a sudden, there were two of her. There was one trapped in the mirror and another one that was wild and tried to kill us. After we knocked out the scary one, everything seemed to go back to normal, and then Aliosha asked me to do the other one because she was afraid it would happen to her again. I lit the other candle, and had to sit in the other bloody chair.  It was awful and humiliating. It reminded me of that time a few years ago when Megan McDermitt came to school wearing a new white dress, and then, well you get the idea.  Anyway, it was horrible, but then I touched the other mirror, and I didn’t turn weird.  Well, I didn’t turn weirder.  

Then, we went through the mirror and came out in another room with more demonic monkeys. This time, we were able to get some of them before they got away. Not me so much, but I helped.  A big mob of baboons jumped down from the ceiling and grabbed Garnham and me, but we got them too, and then we all went up into the ceiling and found a smelly room with a throne and a secret door.  There was a chest with a lovely dire flail in it, and I didn’t feel bad about taking it from those demons.  It was clearly a sign from Aster that I’m in the right place. 

By the way, Aster, thank you for the dire flail. I’m sure it will come in handy. I had planned on buying one for myself, but we haven’t been anywhere I could buy one for so long, and if you saw fit to send me some Celestial Armor, I certainly would be grateful for that too. I mean, if you don’t send it to me, I’ll understand. I haven’t converted anybody yet, but I’m trying so hard for you. My devotion knows no limits, really. 

Back to my story, though.  There was a naga, and it looked undead, but before I could even try to turn it, Aliosha killed it, and it didn’t turn out to be undead at all.  Tricky, tricky!  We were pretty worn out after that last battle, so we went back out of the cave to get some rest and make sure our traveling companions were okay.  

I’ll tell you more later, but right now, we have to go back in to try to find Urol and kill a demon.

Hugs & Kisses, 

Maggie


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## Morrow (Feb 28, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters 3 (Garnham)*

From the Journals of K. Garnham Seeker as translated from the Vallossan

    A closer examination of the ruins has shown that they are not Ohlman in origin as I had originally thought.

    The zombie proved to be fairly talkative.  Under Maggie's questioning he revealed that his name in life was Golnora and that he had been slain (and animated) by the lord of Fogmire to act as a warning for us.  

    Whether this was a warning for anyone who entered Fogmire or for us in particular was left open for interpretation.

    Maggie and Dexter had words over what to do with Golnora.  Maggie untied him and tried to teach him the ways of Aster.  Dexter was prone to take a more violent route.

    After resting and searching the place we decided it best to camp elsewhere that night.  Maggie wanted Golnora to come with us; an idea that had some merit even if it wasn't the one Maggie had.  In the end we left Golnora behind.  

    He seemed to think that we would see him very soon.

    Elyosha took us through the fog.  Keen eyes and finely honed tracking skills should have brought us to a point several hundred yards from the ruins, but Fogmire is warped and we arrived at our starting point.

    With little option, we bedded down in the ruins.

    During the night we were ambushed by demons.

    Barlagura to be exact.  Demonic scouts with the semblance of apes.
    They came upon us invisibly.  The largest one darted from opponent to opponent not focusing on any one of us for too long.

    Others went after the smallest of us.  One grabbed Urol and teleported away.

    The others killed Tavey.

    Unable to do anything for Urol that night we returned to our sleep.
    I almost wish that I hadn't.  Something about the place or the creature's we had just fought seeped into my dreams.  I found myself lost in a demon infested jungle surronded by a sea of damned souls.  A piece of my sanity has vanished.

    The next morning our spellcasters began their work.

    Maggie decided to animate Tavey's skeleton.  I'm not keen on the idea of travelling with undead, but it was inevitable given Maggie's faith and profession.  Besides, if she didn't do it the lord of Fogmire probably would have.  On the whole, I think Tavey would have choosen this way.

    Elyosha, meanwhile, was scrying on Urol.  Her magics revealed that he was held somewhere inside and near large Barlagura statues.

    Somewhere, during the spellcasting, Dexter beheaded Golnora without Maggie seeing him.

    Maggie used her magics to get a read on where Urol was (more precisely where his hat was) and we were off.

    We came to a hill with the heads of two gigantic apes carved into its side.  The mouths of the apes lined up with cave mouths.  We proceeded in after leaving the non-Beetles in as safe a place as we could find.

    Eventually we came to a room with a, to my knowledge, unique magical trap.

    It consisted of two mirrors, two thrones and two black tallow candles.

    First a candle is lit; one of the thrones fills with blood.  Then the throne is sat in; one of the mirrors goes swirly.  The mirror is touched and either the magical gate is opened, or the person touching the mirror gets replaced by an evil copy of themselves while they are stuck behind the mirror.

    Elyosha was trapped and we had to fight her feral doppleganger.

    Then Elyosha and Maggie went about activating the gateway.

    We travelled through to a large cavern with a stone bridge over a pool of (presumably) blood.

    More Barlagura attacked and were dispatched.  A swarm of baboons joined them in their attacks on us and their makeshift funerals.

     We climbed upwards to where the apes had advanced from.  After some searching we found two chests.  Among the coins and magic arms was a true treasure-- a tome of worldly memory.

A truly fascinating work.

    We continued on.  We encounterd what appeared to be an undead naga and destroyed it.

    At that point we were in no condition to continue so we returned to the others to rest and regroup.  

    As a side note Maggie mentioned something that got me thinking.

    Apparently she has this plan to make love to a very diverse group of people to express an aspect of her faith.  Only she hasn't started yet.

    When we met Elyosha she said she was too young to even start to date.
    The only flirting I've ever seen Dexter doing is with Maggie.

    I think we're all virgins.

    Odd theories start coming to mind at this point.  The Barlagura didn't attack Avner (who was hiding behing his horse anyway), Rowyn or Captain Venkalie.  Avner and Rowyn are looser than a slipknot and the Captain was married.  Not a virgin among those three.

    Tavey was too young to know the pleasures of the flesh and Urol isn't much of a ladies man.

    Disturbing line of thought.  I'm going to consult the tome.


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## Morrow (Mar 2, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters 4 (Margaret)*

Dear Diary,

After a much-needed rest, we continued our quest to rescure Urol. 
The door to the very next chamber we entered after our rest was trapped, and so we began the day injured. We knew there would be a battle, but we were not discouraged. The chamber contained a double monkey statue, and it was obvious, even to me, that the monkey paws we had found were the key to gain entry to the next. 

We proceeded with caution, Dexter and I engaging the monkey paws as we were the least injured among the party. Thankfully, Aliosha was cautious too, and discovered that the statues in the following chamber were rigged to sound an alarm, and Garnham was able to disable them.

I have to pause here to point out that I have nothing against monkeys. Generally, they are delightful and entertaining with their chittering, dancing and poo-flinging. I also have nothing against demons, as long as they’re not bothering me and my friends by constantly trying to murder and abduct us.  Murderous, demonic monkeys, on the other hand, are a different story. They have sharp teeth, and they can bite. Never underestimate the power of an angry monkey, and never, ever underestimate the power of an angry, demonic monkey that wants to turn you into an undead servant, because demons can be mean, and slavery is wrong. 

Anyway, the final chamber was ablaze with fire, coming from a huge pit in the center of the room. There were five huge monkey statues, and Urol hung above the flames like a boar at a flesh-eater’s back-yard summer festival. 
Aliosha quickly put the fire out with nature’s magic. Then, the master of Fogmeyer came out of nowhere and began to attack us. He said his name was Ulengru, but it was no matter. His name did not change his evil ways. I flew up and tended to Urol while the others took care of Ulengru. 

Upon his fall, Aliosha began to examine the area near the big, two-headed monkey statue at the end of the chamber, but the statue came to life and killed her. Actually, it didn’t really come to life. I had cast death watch earlier, so I could tell that it was neither alive nor dead, but like living stone. Aliosha knew something of the beast, but I have seen nothing like it. It’s certainly not on my list. 

Dexter grabbed Aliosha’s body and carried it to relative safety and then returned, seemingly to fight the monster. I summoned a celestial lion, and Garnham a giant beetle to fend off the monster while we escaped, and then Dexter told me to run away, so I did. The others were not far behind, and we escaped to safety where we were able to rest and plan our next attack.
Alisoha had a scroll of Reincarnate in her pack, so Urol was able to bring her back, but as a dwarf. Aliosha is having trouble adjusting to her new form, but she’s handling it much better than Dexter did. I don’t know why this is so difficult for them. I would be happy with any form Aster chose for me.

Anyway, we went back in with extra protections and killed the stone monster quickly. After it was dead, the fog lifted, and we were able to leave the area. I still don’t know what happened to Golnura. I hope that he was freed when we defeated his master.
We proceeded South and eventually came to some huge Ulmec gates. They let us through, and we went down to Mora where Ulmec guides escorted us to Farshore by canoe.

Farshore was under siege when we arrived. Pirates without style or grace were attacking the locals and burning their buildings. Again, Aliosha put out the flames, and we killed the pirates. I hated killing pirates, but they were really bad at it, so I got over it. Their leader was a very poor fighter. I think his name was Stinky Pete.

After we saved Farshore, Livinia and the Jade Ravens emerged. It was really very sweet to see Granham and Livinia reunited. It awakened the desire inside me to mate. I think that one day, I would like to find one mate to live with, but for now, I just need to mate. Hopefully, there will be time, but there is much work to be done.

We gathered in the chapel (which is non-denominational – I’ll have to change that) with the town council. They brought in a prisoner named Lefty who told us that the pirates were working for the Crimson Fleet, and we only have two months to prepare for their arrival.

As I said, there is much to be done…


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## Morrow (Mar 9, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters 4 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Vallossan
  After spending the night recovering from our encounter with the faux-undead naga we returned to the Barlagura lair.

  We passed through a series of doors each magically trapped or guarded.  I missed an obvious glyph on the first and set off an ice storm.  

  We finally made it into a large chamber dominated by a large statue of Demogorgon.  Perhaps twenty feet in front of this statue was a bonfire pit, fully ablaze.  Above the blaze hung Urol on a chain suspension.  He was being slowly lowered to his death.

  We were attacked by the large Barlagura that we had encountered before.  He identified himself as Ilangru, lord of Fogmire and claimed that Demogorgon would have our souls.

  He died.

  Maggie rescued Urol and we began our search of the chamber.
  Elyosha came close to the statue which animated and attacked her.  The wounds were grievous in and of themselves, but the touch of the statue withered flesh also.

  Elyosha died.

  Dexter grabbed her corpse and we beat a hasty retreat.

  The statue, a Lemorian Golem, gave chase for a while, but we eventually lost it.

  Urol used a scroll of reincarnate to bring Elyosha back the next day.  She reincarnated as a dwarf.  She is trying to be stoic about this, but much of her identity is tied in with her people, her blood and that blood is now dwarven.

  We spent some time healing and made another attempt to leave Fogmire.  We encountered the same space warping effect that we encountered before.  It was decided that whatever was causing this effect was in the Barlagura lair, probably the demon-golem.  We decided to take a day of healing and return, in strength, to destroy it.

  We were successful.  Summoned creatures and spell-enhanced adventurers proved too much and the four eyes that had been on us since we first arrived on this damned island were shut forever.

  Further search of the lair showed no signs of any other spell or magical effect that would be responsible for space folding in upon itself in Fogmire.  We left and attempted to leave Fogmire for a third time.

  This time we were successful.

  We found a trail and traveled until we came to the massive wall that blocks the wilds of the Isle of Dread from the Ohlman villages and Farshore.

  We identified ourselves at the wall and, after a translator had been called for, we were allowed to enter the Ohlman village of Tanora.  

  The Tanorans are charged with the defense of the wall.  It was obviously more martially oriented then the other Ohlman village we passed through on our way to Farshore.

  After a night of rest and trading we made our way to the village of Mora.  From there we made our way to Farshore via canoe.  Avner's horse was left behind.

  We crossed the channel only to see smoke in the distance.  The settlement was under attack by pirates.

  As soon as we made landfall we rushed to do what we could.  Elyosha used her magics to extinguish fires and strike down pirates with lightning bolts.  Dexter and Maggie attacked the pirate leader Slipknot Pete and a band of his goons.  I stopped an attempted rape of a weaver named Ruby.

  We were just finishing up with the last of the pirates when the force that was fighting in the inner part of the city broke through to us. 

   Lavinia was with them.

   Ilsa and Sabine apparently have joined the Jade Ravens, replacing the members who had died in the wreck of the Bronze Dragon.

   Also present was a tall man in mithral chainmail, Manthalay Meravanchi, uncle to Avner.

   Avner immeadiately came to his uncle and began his fawning ways.  I was able to take my eyes off Lavinia long enough to notice that Manthalay didn't seem too happy to see Avner although the elder Meravanchi didn't do, or say, anything overtly rude to his nephew.

   We then went into the town's meeting house to figure out what was going on.

   Damage reports came in steady stream.  There were relatively few casualties; the population now stands at 240 (241 when Jasmine Jennis has her baby, but she's not due for another month.)  

   Lavinia introduced us to the town council.  She heaped lavish praise upon us.  I noticed that the Ravens seemed somewhat put out by this effusion.
   We then received a report from the militia members who had searched the pirate's ship.  On board the Hellfish they came across papers indicating that this was a scouting mission for the Crimson Fleet.

   The room erupted into anarchy.  I don't blame them; the Crimson Fleet eats places like this for breakfast.

   There was one pirate who had been captured alive.  A malnourished, feverish man named Lefty.  Manthalay was all for torturing him before executing him.  Lavinia protested.   While the two sides fought over which protocols to use we Beetles got information from Lefty.

   According to him, Slipknot Pete was contacted magically by the Crimson Fleet.  They wanted information on Farshore in preparation for an assault that is now two months away.

   Manthalay was all for executing Lefty on the spot.  I managed to convince enough people that he'd be of better service to us fighting the Fleet with the rest of us.

   The Beetles were then escorted to Vanderboren Manor.  We bathed and had fresh clothing brought to us.  Lavinia met with us later and went over plans to improve our defenses.

    There is a lot to do and little time to do it in.  There are engineering improvements, diplomatic missions to at least two, possibly three, different groups, efficiency improvements, repairs on the Dragon and a host of other things too numerous to mention.

    Maggie made an excellent point during this meeting.  Why does the Crimson Fleet want Farshore destroyed?

    No one had an answer at the time.  Sitting here now, writing this out, flipping through the pages of this journal I think I might have something.
   The first question is how they know about us in the first place.

   Farshore's existence isn't exactly a secret, but it's hardly common knowledge either.  Lavinia approached members of the aristocracy in Sasserine for funds to mount the expedition that got us here.  They, presumably, would know.  I don't believe that the exact location or name of the colony were disclosed to potential colonists until after they were en route.  The Seekers know about the colony from the journals of Lavinia's parents.

   The nobility of Sasserine who turned down Lavinia believed that Farshore was doomed anyway.  I don't see any motivation to end Farshore from them.  Of course it is the nobility; their motives aren't always clear or reasonable.

   The Seekers aren't involved.  There's a Seeker lodge here and the opportunity to explore the island itself and it's many ruins.  

   Others may have found out about this place, but there is no visible motive for destroying it by force.  The chances of Farshore surviving without open assault are still low.  It would be better to just wait a year or two and let it fail on it's own.  Unless we were getting in the way of something that the Fleet deemed important.  But if the Fleet had interests in this area why wouldn't they destroy Farshore in it's infancy?  Why would they need to rely on the half-assed scouting of the cream of Rat's End?

   There is someone who (probably) knows about the location of Farshore, has had contact with the Crimson Fleet and has enough of a grudge against Lavinia to want to see her works destroyed.

   I'm loathe to mention it to Lavinia.  If I'm wrong then I've opened old wounds for no reason.  If I'm right the wounds are still open and I don't know if there is any benefit.

   I'll ask Elyosha if she can scrye on him tomorrow.  I still have the key and the locket I found in his room.  That should help.


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## Morrow (Mar 12, 2009)

*Here There Be Monsters 4 (Elyosha)*

Kaskus tells me that it needs that I write in Dwarven.  I want to learn this language, and this is the fashion to do it.  I do like not Dwarven.  I am an Elf.

	But I am an Elf in a body Dwarven.  A statue army tentacled tentacled statue attacked me.  My mother told me all the days that a druid must to rest outside of melee.  She told me, “Use your spells, not your hands!”  Truly, I was throwing spells, but the battle appeared finished.  I got a finger from the altar.  Then the statue enlivened.  Then it killed me with its touches.

	Urol searched again my scroll of Reincarnate.  He reincarnated me.  His skill with spells is getting bigger, and I appreciated him.  But I am now a Dwarf.  My people will understand, because the druids know Reincarnate.  Again, I prefer to be an Elf.

	We fought and killed the demonic statue.  We walked to Farshore, where pirates were burning the buildings and chasing the innocents.  I became a Pteradon (better than a Dwarf) and have quenched the fires.  For the first, I threw a spell, and for the second, I called an element of water.  Maggie and Garnham saved the innocents chased, and Dexter fought the pirates.  Dexter is a good Dwarf, even that he was a good Half-Orc.

	The pirate us told that the Fleet Crimson is coming.  Now we help Lavinia become of the mayor, and we prepare for battle.  I will find again parts of spells and send the animals to speak to the Olmans and the Araneas.

	Kaskus, please to correct my Dwarven.  I fear I have done many wrongs with this new language of yours.


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## Morrow (Mar 15, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 0 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham Seeker as translated from the Vallosan

    It has been two weeks since my last entry.  Tomorrow we depart to seek out martial assistance from the Ohlman and the Phanaton, to free access to tarpits and to repair the Bronze Dragon.  

    The time has passed too quickly.  There is still so much to do; even if we succeed at every preparation there is no gurantee that we will survive the coming of the Crimson Fleet.

    Dexter and I have moved to the Last Coconut.  Originally this was to improve morale among the Ravens, but I hardly spend any time there except to sleep and break fast and Dexter spends his evenings trying to woo Rowyn.

     It has worked out for the best however.  My relationship with Lavinia has entered the gossip mill and it's probably best for our reputations that we sleep under separate roofs.

    Dexter has had an opportunity to return to his first love-carpentry.  Sellis' Woodworks and Smithy had been in need of some serious reorganization.  He soon set things right.

    It was from Gunnloda Sellis that we purchased an intricately carved chest upon which Maggie has cast a sonic glyph of warding.  We have secured the chest in one of the warehouses, hoping that our mysterious thief gets curious and sets off the trap.  As of this writing there has been no sign of tampering.

    Dexter has also spent some time with Urol in the greenhouse.  Dex tells me that Urol is a different person after his encounter with the servants of Demogorgon.  There are moments when he seems his old self, talking animatedly about the impending hatching of the terror bird egg that he still has, flitting from topic to topic in his usual manner, but those times are few and far between and he spends hours in sullen silence.

     Maggie has been working in the local chapel.  I spent an hour listening to her sermonizing.  She's better than she was the last time I heard her.  If she keeps improving at this rate, I may find myself worshiping Aster.  She's certainly worked wonders on the public spirit.

    I've offered employment to Sabine.  We're short on arcane spellcasting and she's more than competent.  She joined the Ravens on one last mission to clear out the troglodytes.  Apparently things didn't go that well for her.  Kaskus and Ilsa have told the story over and over again frequently mentioning Zann and Sabine getting sick at the stench of the creatures.  Sabine has remained quiet on the subject and I have respected that.

     I have made overtures for her to join the Seekers, but she is dedicated to the Witchwardens and Seeker membership would hurt her standings with them.  I plan on respecting her wishes, but selfish reasons made me hope that she would say yes.  I'm rising in the Seeker hierarchy and will soon be assigned a chronicler.  I had hoped to have Sabine act in that capacity instead of some stranger.  

    I'm sure I'll be happy with whomever the Seekers send.

    It is through Sabine that I was properly introdued to Hevrik Aldwattle.  He is the head of the local Witchwarden chapter.  We discussed some spells that would prove useful in defending Farshore.

    The Library here is fairly well stocked for such a remote Seeker outpost.   Jeran Emrikad and I have spent some evenings going through texts trying to gain some advantage against the Fleet.  We have learned that the leader of the Crimson Fleet, Cold Captain Wyther, is reputed to have made deals with the Abyss to extend the power of his organization.  I had hoped to glean some idea as to the tactics of the Fleet, but we've found no evidence to suggest that anyone has survived an assault to record the details.

    Needless to say, we have kept mum about this with the general population.

   Jeran has expressed curiosity about our adventures.  He's gone over my journals and has asked for more details.  He has spent much of his spare time trying to piece together legends of an eighth Ohlman village that was on Temute, the isle where Farshore now resides.

   He has inferred that finding this lost village would be quiet the feather in my cap.

   Rowyn is proving to be an enigma.

   She has taken up rooms at the Last Coconut and is supporting herself somehow.  

   I attempted to hire her to spy on Avner's attempts to campaign for his uncle.  She laughed in my face before offering to do it "as a gesture of goodwill, offered in the hope that we can stay out of each other's business in the future."

   She reports that the only success that Avner has had is in seducing Ruby the Weaver.  In fact he's probably driven more voters away from Manthalay.  She offered the advice that we can't rest on our laurels though.  Manthalay is too good a politician to ignore.

    Rowyn seems to be warming to Dex as well, giving him campaign advice and letting him buy her drinks.  

    My first thought is that she is working for Manthalay and trying to throw us off track.  But if she was working for him she would have taken our money.  And her advice seems sound.

    Captain Venkalie has gone over the Hellfish with a work crew.  She's at least confident that we won't sink on calm waters.

    My time has been spent overseeing engineering improvements to the harbor and palisade, talking to people and making inroads with the local black market.

   In this case the local black market is Lannae, a human woman in her early 50s and Gertie her young apprentice.  

    Elyosha has spent her time working with Aldwattle's laboratory, recruiting for the militia and sending messages to the Tanaroa and the Aranea.

    She has released Medvedya and taken a dinosaur as an animal companion.
    She has cast the scrying on Vanthus.  It revealed him and another man in a cabin pouring over a map of the Isle of Dread.  It would appear that the rumors of the Fleet having dealingd with the Abyss are true; Vanthus is now horned and scaled, bat winged and tailed.

    I'm off now to have one last dinner with Lavinia before leaving in the morning.  I'm going to tell her about her brother.  I'm not looking forward to it.


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## Morrow (Mar 16, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 1 (Margaret)*

Dear Diary,

After spending a couple weeks at the chapel in Farshore and finally getting started on my list (thank Aster for a little down time in between saving the world), we headed up to Tanaroa to enlist the help of the Ullman natives for our upcoming battle with the Crimson Fleet.

Upon arrival, the Ullman were attacked by a scary bat god called Zotzilla who turned into a gang of fire bat things. Alyosha just turned on the rain, and they were gone. Then we met JaKal, the chieftess of Tanaroa. She told us that Zotzilla was angry because of a missing idol. We offered to find the idol and return it, but when she described it, it sounded like something we already had. Garnham took it out and showed it to JaKal, and we explained that we had found it and had not stolen it from Zotzilla’s temple. She didn’t seem very pleased, but she told us how to get to the temple so we could return it and said that if we did so, they would trade with Farshore and help us fight the Fleet. 

We took a detour to ask the Phanaeton for help. I don’t know why, but every time we go somewhere to ask somebody for help, they’re being attacked by something big and scary. The Phanaeton were being attacked by a big lizard, and not a friendly big lizard like Alyosha’s new friend Bolsha, but a real mean one that tried to eat Dexter and Garnham. It could have eaten the cuddly, little Phanaeton for breakfast and still had room for seconds, but we got rid of it pretty quickly, and the Phanaeton were grateful. 

I must pause here to tell you of my grandmother’s adventures with the Phanaeton. She once defended them from a forest of evil trees all by herself, and they were so grateful that they showered her with gifts. That tribe probably reveres her as a god, although she’s far too humble to formally accept such a title. She’s such a kind and generous woman. I wish more pirates were just like her, stealing from the rich to give to the poor and always more than happy to help the little guys, like the Phanaeton.

Anyway, they were going to take us to their leader right away, but we were committed to return the idol without further delay, so a couple of them stayed with us as guides while we trekked to the tooth of Zotzilla, which is pretty much a creepy bat cave. It was pretty hot in there, but we magicked our way past that, and went in to return the idol. Zotzilla was there, and not only did he allow us to return the idol peacefully, but he rewarded us with great treasures!

Garnham got a ring of invisibility. Alyosha got a luck stone. Dexter got some fancy armor. Sabine got a pearl of power. I got a fabulous belt. It was really nice of an evil god to give us that stuff. Never judge and evil god by its huge, furry bat wings, that’s what I always say, but Dexter took his gift reluctantly. I was pretty annoyed by that. I’ve been praying for Celestial armor for weeks, and had it been delivered by some other god, that wouldn’t threaten my devotion to Aster. Dexter’s really changed a lot lately, and I don’t like it. The way he talks, I feel like he thinks that his dedication to his god is better and more important than anybody else’s. What a big, stinky jerk! There was a time when I felt genuine affection for him, maybe more than friendship, but he’s become so hard-headed and self-righteous lately. I could never feel that way about him now, and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t feel that way either.  That’s fine with me if he’s going to imply that he’s somehow better than me.

Anyway, we got back to the Phanaeton Village, and Alyosha and Garnham went to negotiate with their leader while I took advantage of the festivities to check one of the less common races off my list.

The next morning, we traveled north to the Ricosta temple to find their cache of weapons. There was a big, scary snake in there, but it left us alone. Garnham noticed a big illusion in the middle of the room, and there was a big pit under it, but there was also a ladder down to a ledge, so we followed it down, and then there was this chamber with a big ranbow snake thingy. It was named Tanatea, and somebody said the creature was called a cloaca or something. We told it why we were there, and it just gave us the weapons and disappeared.

We teleported to the Bronze dragon with the weapons for our rendezvous with the Blue Nixie and got attacked by a corpru, another big nasty lizard and a big shark. Alyosha turned into an octopus, so the fight went pretty quick. 

And then we had pie and ice cream. Yummy!

Hugs and Kisses, 

Maggie


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## Morrow (Mar 26, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 1 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Valossan

   We set out from Farshore aboard the Hellfish.  Joining us was Sabine whom I had persuaded to work for me and Elyosha's new animal companion Bolsha, a well armored dinosaur.

   It took us less than a day to make the journey to the village of Tanaroa.  We made the final approach overland and came into the village while they were in the midst of some sort of ritual directed at a large bat totem.  The locals danced around a large bonfire, chanting.

   As we drew closer something strange occured.  The effigy of the bat-god (Zotzilla) came to life, rose from the flames and called out "return what has been stolen or burn!"  The only thing was it was speaking Olman.  I understood what it said though.  There was a strong tremor and several smaller fire-bat creatures rose up and began to attack the villagers.

  The Beetles intervened and Elyosha had quickly doused the beasties in magical waters.

  The leader of the tribe, an elder woman named J'Kal, welcomed us and invited us to her tent to parlay.

  We were naturally curious about what had just happened.  She and a local arcane caster named M'Vembi (probably undead, but not certain) told us that an idol of Zotzilla had been stolen some months ago angering the god.

  The description of the idol and my ability to understand Zotzilla made me think that the idol we discovered on Urol's quest might be one and the same.

  M'Vembi confirmed my suspicions.

  J'Kal offered Farshore military assistance against the Crimson Fleet if we returned the idol.  We readily agreed.

  We returned to the Hellfish and travelled to the cliffs leading to the tar pits that lay between us and the Fangs of Zotzilla, a pair of (now) active volcanoes where we were to return the idol.

  Elyosha's magic got us over the cliffs and we made our way overland to the tar pits.

  We arrived at the pits after a short hike.  All seemed quiet at first and then we heard sounds of a combat in the distance.  We rushed to see what it was and came across another thunder lizard.  This one was slightly larger than the first one we fought and was engaged in combat with a party of phanathons.

  We fought the beast.  It swallowed Dexter and myself.  Fortunately we were able to kill it without taking any casualties of our own.  Although I think Dexter is developing a fear of being swallowed.

  The phanatons were very thankful for our assistance.  Through Maggie's translation we were able to talk two of them to travel with us to the Fangs and then show us the way to their village.

   Captain Venkalie secured the tar pits and harvested the T-Rex skeleton for future animation.

   The trip to the Fangs went smoothly.  We needed to have protective magics cast upon ourselves against the high tempuratures we would encounter once inside the temple.

   We wound our way through the caverns and eventually came upon a central chamber.  There was a niche on the wall that looked to be the right size for the idol.  I walked it there under the untrusting eyes of the bat-god.

   Once it was in place the bat-god seemed to relax.  He opened a secret panel and showed us a deep treasure horde.  We were each offered to take something from here.

   While we were examing the loot to make our decision the avatar seemed confused about a certain item.  He didn't recognize a certain item, a large fang.  He told us to get it out of there.

   We made our choices and departed.

   An impossible treasure map led us to an idol that had recently been stolen and moved hundreds of miles away.  Once we return the idol we find something also out of place and are remove it.  

   Someone is going to an awful lot of trouble to get us this fang.  Is it the end of the link or does this lead us to something else?

   My head was swimming with theories that I could neither prove nor disprove.  The trip to the phanathon village passed in a whirl.  I barely noted the rising tension between Dexter and Maggie.

   The phanatons were overjoyed to see us.  We were welcomed as friends of the tribe and a great party was held in our honor.  The chief was more than happy to offer assistance to Farshore.  He also gave us a lead as to the location of the Rakasta weapons cache.

   We enjoyed the hospitality of the phanathons that evening (Maggie a bit more so than the rest of us) and departed early the next morning for the Rakasta temple.

   We found our way to the temple.  A gigantic snake was pacified by Elyosha and we found our way inside.  The area seemed desserted, but a passage was discovered under a cleverly placed illusion.

   We travelled until we came into a central area.  A feathered serpent appeared and identified itself as Tanatea a coatyl.  He asked us our business.  We told him and he seemed more than pleased to hand the cache over to us.  He even gave us three of his feathers to summon him in case of future need.

   From there we teleported to the Dragon.  A kopru druid had taken up occupation there, but he and his dinosaur animal companion were quickly put down.

   Maggie teleported Sabine and myself back to Farshore the next day.

   Things went very smoothly, on the whole.


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## Morrow (Mar 26, 2009)

*The Black Lodge - Garnham's Followers*

The Black Lodge

William Gan 
Lawful Neutral  Human Ranger 1

Str   17   Hide            +5     Feats:         AC   16
Dex  12   Move Silently+5     Track          HP   13
Con  14   Listen         +4      Toughness
Int   09   Heal           +6       Self Sufficient
Wis  11   Pro: Farmer  +4
Cha  08   Survival      +6       Wild Empathy


   Bill Gan is a huge bear of a man.  He spent his early days as an apprentice to Alice the Malice, a well respected member of Zelkarunes Horns.  She was both a terror in the arena and an expert hunter.
   In his third arena fight Bill came a hair's breadth away from death.  Fortunately a cleric was on hand and was able to stabilize him before he passed.  When he came to he claimed to have received a vision from his deity telling him to turn away from violence.
   This wasn't a popular stance to take among  his affiliation.  When he was approached to join a new far away colony he jumped at the chance.  
   Since coming to Farshore he has worked as a farmer.
   He agreed to join the Black Lodge as long as it was understood that he would take no hostile action against another sentient being.

T'Zon 
Lawful Neutral Human Ranger 1 (used to be higher)

Str   11   Hide            +5   Track         AC   16   
Dex  13   Move Silently+5   Endurance   HP   8
Con  10   Heal            +6   Diehard
Int   15   Survival       +6
Wis  14   K: Geography+6   Favored Enemy   Dinosaurs
Cha  12   K: Nature     +6   Wild Empathy
             Handle Animal+5
             Use Rope    +5

  T'Zon was the pride of Tanoroa.  A renowned hunter-warrior she raised a daughter who followed in her footsteps and was training her grandson in the family tradition when tragedy struck.
  She led an expedition to the tar pits.  Temauhti-Tecuani should have been on the other side of the pits when they arrived.  All the signs indicated that he wasn't about.
  To this day no one knows why the thunder lizard charged so ferociously across the pits, but he did.  The party was set upon by the beast.  T'Zon's daughter, who had accompanied her mother, was swallowed.  Three other members of the group died that day.  More would have if T'zon hadn't severed one of the beast's hands causing it to flee in agony.  
  Unfortunately the healers in the party were among the victims.  By the time the survivors were fit to travel back to the village T'Zon's wounds had become seriously infected.
   She was months fighting off the infection.  It drained her of strength and at the age of 60 she never recovered.  Now her arthritis made wielding two weapons hurt too much to bear, once keen senses had dulled.  
   Feeling adrift she took her young grandson (Y'Kern) to the Temute.  Some strange people had come to this place to form a new village and the old warrior and her young grandchild made a home with them.
   When the threat of the Crimson Fleet became known she presented herself to the militia captain and offered her services in the coming battle.  He turned her down.
   She was downcast until, a few weeks later, a ship came into Farshore carrying the bones of Temauhti-Tecuani.  Apparently a band of adventurers had killed the beast that saw the end to her career as a hunter.
   When one of them began to recruit for the militia she approached him and offered her services.
   It was her determination to help that gave Garnham the inspiration for the Black Lodge.  

Y'Kern
Lawful Neutral Human Ranger 1
Str   12   Climb          +5    Track         AC   17(18 w/dodge)
Dex  15   Jump          +5    Dodge      HP   9
Con  13   Swim         +5     Mobility
Int   10   Hide           +6   
Wis  09   Move Silently+6   Favored Enemy   Dinosaurs
Cha  12   Survival       +4   Wild Empathy

  The 15 year old grandson of T'Zon.  He was deemed too young by the militia captain.  When T'Zon was recruited into the Black Lodge by Garnham he insisted on helping to.  With T'Zon's blessing he was accepted.

Gertrude Bessand
Lawful Neutral Human Rogue 1
Str   08   Hide            +9   Stealthy      AC   18
Dex  17   Move Silently+9   Toughness    HP   9
Con  10   Spot           +3
Int   14   Listen         +3
Wis  09   Search        +6
Cha  12   Gather Info  +5
             Appraise      +6   Trapsense
             K: Local      +6   Sneak Attack   +1d6
      Open Locks   +7
      Disable Device+6

  Being half of the black market in Farshore would be enough for most 15 year olds.  Not so for "Gertie."  She has a desire to pursue a life as an adventurer.  Her aunt (the other half of the black market) didn't want to see her get killed fighting the Fleet.
  When Gertie found out that Garnham was recruiting a stealth paramedics force she was able to convince her aunt that she should join.

Tildenacre Medcap
Lawful Neutral Human Rogue 1
Str   12   Hide            +5   Persuasive
Dex  13   Move Silently+5   Skill Focus: bluff
Con  11   Gather Info   +8
Int   09   Bluff           +13
Wis  11   Sense Motive+8   Trapsense
Cha  18   Intimidate   +10   Sneak Attack+1d6
             K: local       +3

  Tilden Medcap has to be one of the great lovers of this age.  By the time he had reached the age of twenty he had seduced 137 women and 42 men.  Sometimes with lies so patently absurd that it's said that butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
  Eventually he was forced to leave Sasserine or be run through by the father of a young lady whom he had deflowered.  In his haste to leave the city he jumped on board the only ship that was leaving the harbor that day, a ship bound for Farshore.
  Tilden has managed to survive on the generosity of his new-found lovers in Farshore.  Many of them are taking an active roll in the defense against the Crimson Fleet and expect the dashing Medcap to do the same.
   When he heard about a way to serve while minimizing his chances to get hurt he jumped at the chance.  Not that he doesn't make it sound more glamorous and dangerous than it actually is.


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## Morrow (Apr 2, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 1.5 (Garnham)*

From the journals of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Valossan

   According to Maggie's divinations we currently have four days before the Crimson Fleet arrives. 

   Much has happened in the last few weeks.  

   Lavinia and I are engaged.  I will be damned before anything stops us from being together or raising a family.  Even the Crimson Fleet.

   Maggie returned to the Dragon after returning Sabine and myself to Farshore.  Once there Maggie animated the kopru and his dinosaur companion as zombies. 

   I asked Sabine if she could cobble together something that would help me persuade people.  Not a full out charm, just something that would help me get my point across.

   I began to actively campaign for Lavinia in the mayoral elections.  I've never been much of a people person, but I seem to have a knack for it now.  Maybe some of grandpa Nate shining through.

  In the middle of my third day of poiticing I was approached by an elderly Ohlman woman named T'Zon who I had seen about town.  She asked if I was one of the one's who had killed Temauhti-Tecuani, the T-rex that guarded the tar pits.

  I said I was and she asked for the details.  I told her what happened and when I had finished she offered her services in defense of Farshore.  At one time she was a great hunter and a warrior, but she wouldn't last long in a straight up fight anymore.

  I tried to let her down easily, but she was persistent.  

  For the next three days she followed me.  She never repeated her offer, and she made certain that her presence wasn't getting in my way, but she was never more than 20 yards away from me.

  You can't ignore that kind of person.  They may not fit into the standard army, but no one said we had to build the standard army.

  I came up with the idea of the Black Lodge.  Right now it's going to be the people who can't fight head-to-head, but can move around the battlefield and help others.  Later on it'll be for any defender of Farshore that doesn't have a place in the militia.

  I gave it the family name.  Just because I don't use it doesn't mean that there isn't worth to it.

  When the Fleet is repelled I'm going to buy a piece of land and I'm going to build the Lodge proper.  It'll be dark woods at first, but one day it'll be black stone.  I have my eye on a piece of land.

  I have found the first five members of  the Black Lodge.  There's T'Zon and her grandson Y'Kern, the pacifist warrior Bill Gan, the young thief Gertie Bessand and Tilden Medcap the accidental colonist.

  Each has been given a fine suit of studded leather, a darkwood shield, a healing draught, some magical bandages and a weapon in case they are forced to defend themselves.  Gan refused the weapon.

   Sabine came to me in a few days with a magical necklace.  She was able to cobble it together with bits and pieces we found through channels legal and otherwise.

   I gave her some funds for more scrolls and blast discs.

   I had planned to see if Sabine could identify the fang through the witchwarden library while I was involved in the political process, but Jeran was willing to due the research if I helped look for the lost Ohlman village.  

   Another thing to do after the Fleet comes.

  Jeran got back to me a few days later with disturbing news.  It seems that the fang is the tooth of Ahazu an artifact that is part of something called the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar.  The fang forms a connection with Ahazu the Seizer a demon that captured other demons and imprisoned them in the Wells of Darkness.  He got his comeuppance and is stuck there himself now.   If someone replaces one of their own teeth with the fang it ... will improve their wrestling skill.

   Jeran suggested that if I had no use for it, that it would make an excellent donation to the Seekers.  I politely turned him down.  Someone went to an awful lot of trouble for us to get this and I want to know for what purpose.

  Does someone want Ahazu out?  Are we supposed to get the other Teeth of Dahlver-Nar?  

  I have been spending some time each day familiarizing myself with the sea around Farshore.  Both above and below the water.  I have some ideas as to where to station the zombie elasmosaurus.

  The other two watchtowers are up.

  I have been putting a great deal of thought into how to streamline communications during the battle.  Of the two options I came up with the first is probably not practical given the time needed to train messenger birds and the second will only work for shorter range communication through a network of arcane spellcasters.

  Fortunately Lavinia had an ace up her sleeve. Jeran has a wand of whispering wind will be with her on the chapel bell tower to relay messages.

   I had a notion to send the Ravens after the giant snake we encountered by the Rakasta temple.  Unfortuately Kaskus believed the beast would have moved on by now.

   Urol has agreed to reassemble the T-rex skeletons for animation.

   Mora agreed to take in the infirm and the children of Farshore until after the battle.  The Hellfish made several trips back and forth ferrying warriors into Farshore and noncombatants out.  Thuderstrike has been reunited with Avner.

   Lithira, the aranea woman we had met inland, contacted Elyosha via sending.  She said that her people wouldn't help us, but offered her aid in return for sanctuary.  I don't know how powerful she is, but sending isn't exactly a parlor trick.

   She made it to the Dragon.

   The rest of the Beetles teleported back to Farshore after repairs had been completed on the Dragon.  

   Maggie Hallowed the cemetery.

   By that point I had been campaigning for three straight weeks.  I wasn't certain about the way the election would go, but I was certain about my feelings for Lavinia.  I asked her to marry me and gave her the best ring I could legally purchase.

   The election was close, but it fell to Lavinia in the end.  She announced our engagement at the celebration afterwards.  

   I think I asked Dexter to be my best man and Maggie and Elyosha to be my groomspeople.  I say think, because I got very drunk that night.  The only thing I really remember is talking to Dexter about building an exact copy of Farshore on the other side of the island so that the Fleet would attack there instead.

  And possibly Maggie going off with Tilden at some point.

  I had a meeting with Manthanaly Meravanchi the next day.  I got a little full of myself and did some diplomacy that really was Lavinia's place to perform.

  At some point Dexter actually learned to read.  He used the Tome to help him organize the greenhouse.

  Maggie spent her days ministering to the spiritual needs of the people and her nights building an army of undead pirates and dinosaurs.  Adwattle provided controlling magic for the larger critters.

  Elyosha and I worked on militia recruiting and in the final two weeks managed to add ten strong sword arms to Farshore's defense.

   I had a private word with Rowyn and I believe she will actively help in the defense of Farshore.  

   Dexter has been working on defensive improvements of his own design.  It would sure make me think twice before marching in.

   The Dragon and Nixie are back in port.

   We have discovered who the thieves are that have been getting into the warehouses.  A pair of ethereal filchers.  They finally got curious and triggered the trap we set for them.  They escaped.

   And now we have four final days to prepare.


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## Morrow (Apr 2, 2009)

*Garnham's Stump Speeches*

In a few weeks you are going to be asked to make a decision between Lavinia Vanderboren and Manthalay Meravanchi for the position of mayor of Farshore.

    It's not going to come as any shock to you that I support Lady Vanderboren in this.  

    Now I'm not going to say anything against Lord Meravanchi.  He's a good and noble man who has stood by Farshore when she has needed him.  He has been a fine steward these last several months, but he is not the person for this job.

   Farshore was founded on vision and faith.  

   Larrisa and Verik Vanderboren had vision.  The vision to see this place for more than what it was, but what it could be.  A city without slums, where people had a fair chance to fail or succeed on their own merits, not just the part of town where they happended to be born.  A place where force of arms didn't justify the actions of those in power.  A place where those who are different are not mangled into conformity.

    The Vanderborens had faith.  They had faith in you, that you would survive the crossing and build the city of their vision.  Faith that you could come together with the Olman, not as conquerors, but as allies, forgoing the sword for the olive branch.  Faith that the seed they planted here on these shores would grow into a strong and vibrant oak.

    Their faith sustained them on the long ocean journey that we have all endured to be here today.

    I know they would be proud of what you've done in their absence were they still alive to be here.

    Their daughter is a woman of vision, a woman of faith and a woman of strength.

    Lavinia Vanderboren had the guts to put almost everything she had and more into coming here.  She had faith that the people who her parents had chosen had survived.  When next to no one believed that this settlement would still be standing she crossed half the world to find you here.  Thriving.
    She has held faith with you, I now ask that you hold faith in her.


*      *      *      *      *​

    The Crimson Fleet is coming.  

    Those are not easy words to hear.  It leaves a cold feeling of terror in your stomach.  

    Under the threat of this, two sides have emerged.

    There is the side that holds true to the principals of Larissa and Verik.  That we can cooperate with the people who came to this island in the distant past.  That we see them as brothers and sisters; the children of a people who made the same journey that we made.

     The other side believes that we should use our strength to bring the native peoples under our control.  This side believes that might makes right.  A view, I might add, that is shared by some people on ships due to arrive in a little over a month.

      I have made my decision.  I support the founding vision of Farshore.  I support Lavinia Vanderboren.


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## Morrow (Apr 2, 2009)

*Dexter Learns To Read*

Dexter learned to read. Read, Dexter, read! Veserin says it’s time to practice to write. Dexter doesn’t
like to practice to write. Dexter breaks his pen. Break things, Dexter, break! Dexter practices his letters,

A is for axe. Dexter will chop many demons with his axe. Dexter will axe them a question. Dexter is funny.
B is for battle. Battle makes Dexter happy.
C is for charge. CHARGE!
D is for Dexter. Dexter will smash his enemies beneath his feet. Dexter will kill every demon. Demons make Dexter angry. Devils and demons defy daring Dexter who deftly defies their designs and destroys them even though his is a dumb dwarf. Dexter borrowed Garnham’s dictionary for that one.
E is for election. This is important for some reason.
F is for fury. And fire. And foes. And ferocious. F is a good letter.
G is for good. Dexter is good.
H is for horror which Dexter will cause when the bad things see him charging at them coated in the blood of their friends.
I is for injuries which Dexter will inflict on bad things.
J is for justice. Dexter fights for justice.
K is for kill. KILL!
L is for lame. Reading and writing is lame.
M is for madness. Gwynharwyff shows how to use the madness of battle to fight against evil instead of just killing everything you see which would also be fun but not as nice.
N is for nice. Dexter is very nice. To his friends…
O is for onslaught. Dexter is good at that.
P is for pile. Pile is what you do with the bodies of your enemies.
Q is for quash. Quash is like squash but without the S so it’s easier to write.
R is for rage. Rage is what Dexter feels when someone who is supposed to be his friend makes him stay inside and practice writing when he could be outside in the sun chopping down trees and making things.
S is for slay. Dexter will slay demons.
T is for test. Don’t test Dexter.
U is for uproar. It’s like roar only up.
V is for violence.
W is for waste. This is a waste of time. Dexter will waste his enemies. Too much ale goes to Dexter’s waste which he works off by wasting enemies. Then he celebrates with ale. Dexter is aware this is a vicious cycle and is working on it.
X is for xterminate. Dexter doesn’t want to hear that’s not how to spell xterminate. He is almost done and if you don’t let him finish he will be very upset.
Y is for yell. It’s good to yell in battle. It lets your enemies know where you are so they can come over to you so you can kill them.
Z is for Zotzilla. Dexter should have killed Zotzilla when he had the chance but the volcano would have erupted and that would be bad.


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## Morrow (Apr 5, 2009)

*Young Love*

_(Setting: the evening before the Crimson fleet is expected.  Elyosha is sitting in a tent she has erected at the edge of the jungle, where she prepares her spells.)_

ELYOSHA: _(muttering to herself in Elven)._

KASKUS: It’s still strange to hear that fluid language come out of a dwarven mouth.  Even such a lovely mouth as yours.

E: Kaskus!  You are surprised.  Why you here?

K: Am I not welcome?

E: Welcome--of course you welcome.  Come in, come in.  I make place to sit.  _(Elyosha clears several scrolls and parchments off a small stool.  Kaskus sits down.) _ You are here to collaborate?

K: No, Elyosha.  I think we have done all we can to prepare Farshore against the Crimson Fleet’s invasion.  No, I am here to speak to you on more personal matters.

E: You want to check my Dwarven?  I practice, Kaskus.  _(In Dwarven.) _ “Where is the outhouse?  May I have the vegetable meal suitable for druids?  Please speak more slowly.” _ (Once again in Common.)_  I do well, yes?

K: Yes, Elyosha, you are doing well.  By the time we get back to Sasserine, you might pass for a very slow dwarf.

E: I have good education!  The best among my people!

K: Yes, I know.  I was teasing.  I enjoy trying to make you laugh.  You are even prettier then.

E: Kaskus, you blush me.

K: _(Taking Elyosha’s hand.) _ Elyosha, I must speak to you seriously now.  The Crimson Fleet will come soon.  We have marshaled all our forces against them, but we may not be strong enough.  You know this.

E: I hope only we have done enough.

K: All that we have done for Lady Lavinia may be lost.  Residents of Farshore will almost certainly lose their lives.  I may--or you--we may not be among the lucky ones.

E: You only tell me what I already know.

K: Elyosha, what I mean to say is that I must take this opportunity to tell you how I feel.  I cannot--you must know--I do love you, Elyosha, and I wish you were not going into this battle.  _(Stands up.) _ I know I have no right to come to you like this, and you may throw me out if you wish, but I couldn’t face the Fleet tomorrow if I didn’t make myself plain to you now.

E: Kaskus--I--

K: Yes, I’ll leave.  I’m sorry I had to shock you like this.  Whatever happens--

E: _(Stands.)_  Kaskus, do not leave.  Do not leave.  I--I love you, too, I have since I was elf and I thought you would never have me--

K: I have loved you almost since I met you.

E: --and I glad you have come to me now.  But, Kaskus, I must fight for Farshore.  So must you.  We have given word to stand up for Lady Lavinia and these people.  What kind of druid--what kind of person--would I be if I back out now?

K: _(Holds Elyosha.)_  That is why I love you, that stubborn spirit to do what is right.  We will join the battle tomorrow.  Of course you are right.  But stay with me here tonight, Elyosha.  We have done everything we can for Farshore--let this night be ours.

_(They kiss.  Fade to black.)_


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## Morrow (Apr 6, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 2 (Margaret)*

Dear Diary,

After all that planning, the Crimson Fleet finally arrived today, but we were ready! 

First of all, I have to say that having an undead army really comes in handy when you’re besieged by murderous pirates. They did an amazing job keeping those jerks at bay.

Anyway, Sabine and Alyosha used a bunch of magic to get us ready for the battle which was very helpful. They did it just as the fleet was arriving. There were five ships: the Hag (which is a word I don’t like to use because it insults women, particularly women such as myself who enjoy going to taverns with their homosexual friends), the Sea Witch’s Curse (which I believe makes mermaids turned human mute), the Kraken’s Claw (which is a ship my grandmother told me all about, full of mean pirates, not like grandma), the Stygian Shark (I don’t know what stygian means) and the Brine Harlot (which is a much better name for a ship because it honors working girls like my other grandma who share their gifts with all sorts of folks, but I don’t know why anyone would want to brine a harlot).

Alyosha sent a wind storm out to sea which slowed them down, and I raised the water around the tenders they sent to shore.  On the beach, Alyosha created spikes funneling most of the pirates toward the desecrated area with the caltrops and undead dinosaurs. It was a great plan, but then, some flesh golems showed up down the beach, so we had to take care of them.  They weren’t that bad. We used fire to slow them down, and then we just hacked at them until they were all dead. 

We noticed some explosions in town, and we received a message from town requesting that we take care of some of the ships’ cannons, so we teleported onto the Stygian Shark where we saw the mage Alyosha scryed. There were five Juan-ti onboard including the mage. Alyosha turned into an octopus, and Granham took the mage out with his whip. After that, the others didn’t pose too much of a challenge. We loaded up the front of the ship with blast discs, and I steered it into the Kraken’s claw, taking both of the ships out of commission. Gran would be so proud!

I sent a message ashore to find out what would help them most, and there were demons just near the Last Coconut, so we all swam to shore. I impressed the rocs with my righteous might, and Dexter took out one of them all on his own! 

After we destroyed most of them, Garnham went toward the chapel to find Livinia, and Vanthus showed up all demony and tried to kill us. What a jerk! I really hate that guy. I’m glad he’s dead. Anyway, he had some kind of black Pearl which he dropped on the ground, and apparently it would have destroyed the world or something, but Garnham shoved it into the extra-dimensional space in my backpack. I don’t think Vanthus understood at first that my backpack wasn’t just an ordinary backpack, but I think he figured it out just before Dexter took his head off.

Anyway, that was pretty much the end of the fight, and I think my backpack is okay. Now that Farshore is safe again, all that’s really left to do is pick up the pieces and make it the best colony EVER!

Love, Maggie 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox!


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## Morrow (Apr 9, 2009)

*Tides of Dread 2 (Garnham)*

From the journals of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Valossan

   An hour after dawn five caravels made their way to the Farshore harbor.  They were met by a windstorm called up by Elyosha's magic.

   The five ships of the Crimson Fleet pushed through, calming the winds with magic of their own.  They set off their long-boats and aimed their cannon at our defenses.

    Our defenses were well placed.  Undead in the waters hindered their long boats and those pirates who made it assure found themselves herded by caltrop and spikestone to the waiting arms of our terrestrial undead.

    We Beetles were poised to deal with situations as they developed.

    The first such was a disturbance along the beach.  We arrived and found what, at first glance, appeared to be four large undead humans rising from the waters.  Sabine recognized them for what they truly were-- flesh golems.

    At the first sign of combat Elyosha and Sabine had cast signifigant protective magics on us making this fight easier than it otherwise would have been.

   After dispatching the golems Maggie teleported us to the deck of the Stygian Shark.  The Shark had been launching fireballs into the town.  Flares had been witnessed just prior to the fireballs indicating that a pirate had gotten through the defenses and had been marking targets for the wizard aboard the Shark.

   The caster was yuan-ti and had several of his kind providing back up in addition to the human crew that waited below decks.

   After we killed the yuan-ti and drove the human crew into Elyosha's watery embrace, Maggie rammed the Shark into the Kraken's Claw.  Sabine peppered the Claw with fireballs.  Blast discs attached to the front of the Shark detonated on contact sinking both ships.

   Word reached us of demons attacking near the chapel so we made our way their with best speed.  We arrived to find four vrocks engaged in a dance of ruin.

   Dexter slew one in single combat.  The rest fell.

   As I was making my way to the belltower Lavinia passed me.  She was looking to the skies.

   Then Vanthus landed in all his demonic glory.

   He made an overture to Lavinia.  She told him he was so much filth wearing her brother's skin; her brother was dead as far as she was concerned.

   Vanthus tried to magically command us to go help others, but we were immune thanks to our magical protections.

   The fight with Vanthus went our way.  Then, as he was badly bleeding, he pulled away from me, took out a shadow pearl and threw it to the ground.

   Fortunately, Maggie had the foresight to purchase a handy haversack and the effects of the pearl went off harmlessly in another dimension.

   Dexter removed Vanthus' head.

   I comforted Lavinia.

   Of the five ships that came to Farshore, two were sunk, the Hag and the Brine Harlot were captured by Captain Venkalie and only the Sea Witches Curse escaped.


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## Morrow (May 4, 2009)

*The Wedding (Garnham)*

We open in the Farshore chapel.  Most of the townfolk are gathered in their best clothing which varies from really nice to their regular clothing cleaned up a bit.  At the front of the chapel stand the Silver Beetles, decked out in their finest outfits, arrayed in a line on the right hand side of the chapel.  They are, in order, Garnham, Dexter, Maggie and Elyosha.  Dexter carries an elaborately carved mahogany box.

In the front center stands Vesserin Catherly dressed in formal robes.

Maggie (speaking softly, as do the others in this exchange): I still say we should have done "naked wedding."

Garnham: No.

Elyosha: In Drusikstan no one has naked wedding.  Is too cold, groom parts fall off.  Bad for honeymoon. 

Maggie: Why not?

Garnham: The only person I want to see naked will be walking down that aisle in about five minutes.  When the naked part happens it's going to be between us.

Dexter snorts and smiles at his brother.

Elyosha: Not good for bride parts either.

Maggie: You should open your self up to more experiences Garnham.

Garnham: There are a lot of fine people out there today that I wouldn't want to experience even if I weren't getting married.

Elyosha: In Drusikstan no one gets naked on honeymoon either.  Always wear hat.

Garnham: This feels weird.

Dexter: Getting married?

Garnham: No.  Standing up here in front of all these people.  I've spent most of my life trying to stay hidden.  This is weird.

Dexter: Don't sweat it.  In a few minutes no one's going to be looking at you.

At this point Rowyn Keilani, who had been playing background music on the violin, plays the musical cue that signals the coming of the bridal party.  The Beetles stand to attention.  Rowyn begins playing Tcham im Lithicarnia a traditional bridal march.

The members of the bridal party proceed to march down the aisle.

First up is Hevrik Adwattle.

Next is Gina "Redfoot" Fiddlebiter a relatively tall halfling woman in her thirties dressed in a fashionable yet comfortable outfit.

Next is Sabine Taskerhill.  She carries a box identical to the one held by Dexter.

Finally Lavinia Vanderboren walks down the aisle.  Walking beside her, in lieu of her deceased mother, is Telda Syren a half-elven woman who was very close to Lavinia's mother Larrissa.

Telda walks Lavinia up to her place in the front of the chapel, hugs her warmly and stands beside Vesserin.

Rowyn stops playing.

Vesserin steps forward.

Vesserin: We are gathered here today, on this happy occasion, to join and witness the joining of Lavinia Vanderboren and Kai Garnham in the estate of matrimony.  To these two young people, this marriage signifies the birth of a new spirit, a spirit which is a part of each of us, yet not of any one of us alone. This "birth of spirit" reminds us of spring, the season when all life is reborn and looms again. It is appropriate, therefore, that this wedding of 
Lavinia and Kai be in the spring, Kai, Lavinia, I bid you look into each others eyes. Lavinia, Will you cause him pain?

Lavinia: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Lavinia: No.

Vesserin: Kai, will you cause her pain.

Garnham: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Garnham: No.

Vesserin: (to both) Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?

Both: We shall.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Vesserin steps back letting Telda move to the spot that he has vacated.  Dexter offers the box to Telda.  She opens the lid and extracts a silver chain from inside.  Garnham raises his right hand revealing a golden bracelet.  Telda attaches the chain to the bracelet.  Lavinia raises her left hand to reveal an identical bracelet.  Telda attaches the other end of the chain to Lavinia's bracelet.

Vesserin: Lavinia, Will you share his laughter?

Lavinia: Yes.

Vesserin: Kai, Will you share her laughter?

Garnham: Yes.

Vesserin: (to both) Will both of you look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?

Both: We shall.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Sabine offers her box to Telda who opens it, removes a silver chain and uses it to link Lavinia to Garnham.

Vesserin: Lavinia, Will you burden him?

Lavinia: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Lavinia: No.

Vesserin: Kai, Will you burden her?

Garnham: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Garnham: No.

Vesserin: (to both) Will you share the burdens of each so that your spirits may grow in this union?

Both: We shall.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Telda takes another chain from Dexter's box and binds Garnham to Lavinia.

Vesserin: Lavinia, will you share his dreams?

Lavinia: Yes.

Vesserin: Kai, will you share her dreams?

Garnham: Yes.

Vesserin: (to both) Will you dream together to create new realities and hopes?

Both: We shall.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Telda takes a chain from Sabine's box and binds Lavinia to Garnham.

Vesserin: Kai, will you cause her anger?

Garnham: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Garnham: No.

Vesserin: Lavinia, will you cause him anger?

Lavinia: I may.

Vesserin: Is that your intent?

Lavinia: No.

Vesserin: (to both) Will you take the heat of anger and use it to temper the strength of this union?

Both: We will.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Telda takes a chain from Dexter's box and binds Garnham to Lavinia.

Vesserin: Lavinia, Will you honor him?

Lavinia: I will.

Vesserin: Kai, Will you honor her?

Garnham: I will.

Vesserin: (to both) Will you seek to never give cause to break that honor?

Both: We shall never do so.

Vesserin: And so the binding is made.

Telda takes the final chain from Sabine's box and binds Lavinia to Garnham.  She steps back allowing Vesserin to return to his original place.  He places his hands on the six chains linking Lavinia and Garnham.

Vesserin: The links of this binding are not formed by these chains but instead by your vows. Either  of you may drop them, for as always, you hold in your own hands the making or breaking of this union. (Vesserin removes his hand from the chains.  Garnham and Lavinia join bracleted hands.)  I now pronounce you husband and wife.  

The couple embrace and kiss.  There are some hoots from the assembled townsfolk and some of the members of the wedding party.  Rowyn starts a spirited song on the violin.  The couple walk up the aisle hand in hand under a rain of the hats thrown into the air by the congregation.


----------



## Morrow (May 8, 2009)

*Reception (Garnham)*

Scenes from the reception (in no particular order)   


*1. Dancing*

The main festivities are taking place in and around The Last Coconut.  Tables have been set up outside and the town square has been set aside for dancing.

The Arrelion family have set up their instruments on the eastern corner of the block.  Galliana is playing the only piano in Farshore, a family heirloom brought over from Sasserine.  Tehrik plays guitar, Dantrik is on drums and Gerriss plays cornet.  They aren't as good as Rowyn, but they have the advantage of playing after the liqour gets served.

The newlyweds have their first dance and everyone else is invited to join them.

Numerous couples begin to dance.

Tilden, looking quiet dashing in a new suit, offers his hand to Ruby the Weaver.  She smilingly accepts.

Ruby: So you're TIldenacre Medcap.

Tilden: At your service.

Ruby: Quiet a mouthful.

Tilden: My friends call me Tilden.

Ruby: (looking over at the Garnham and Lavinia) They certainly make a nice couple.

Tilden: That's what I thought when I introduced them.

Ruby: I thought they met...

Tilden: ....when Lady Vanderboren hired the Silver Beetles?  That's the story that they want you to believe.  The truth is much more complicated.  Back alley deals and derring-do just a bit too sordid for the average person.

Ruby: Really!?

Tilden: Absolutely.  Perhaps I can tell you about it later at my place.  

Ruby gives him a knowing smile and they dance on.

Elyosha and Keskus might be dancing together.  It's hard to tell with all of the humans in the way.

On the edge of the dancing sits Y'Kern.  The young Ohlman man sits on the ground watching the foreigners dance.  Gertie Bessand walks up to him.  She's balancing two plates of food and a cup of wine.  She hands one of the plates of food to Y'Kern.

Gertie: I got you a plate.

Y'Kern: Thanks.  I was going to wait for the line to thin down before I got anything.

Gertie: I figured.  (she sits and begins to eat)

Gertie: You like the dancing?

Y'Kern: It's a bit tame for a wedding.

Gertie: It looks fine to me.

Y'Kern: Ohlman dancing is more spirited than this.  More energy.  Less clothing.

Gertie: Oh. (long pause)  I was wondering if maybe you'd like to dance with me.  After we eat of course.

Y'Kern: You'd need to ask my grandmother.

Gertie: I don't want to dance with her, I want you.

Y'Kern: (shrugs his shoulders) There is a proper way to do things.  Grandmother is very big on the proprieties.

Gertie: Oh.

Telda dances by with Rhyner.

Telda: So you're Garnham's foster father?

Rhyner: More or less.  I watched over him since his mother passed.  He could have turned out worse I suppose.

Telda: You're being modest.  I think you did an excellent job with him.

Rhyner: Thank you.

Telda: How long are you here for?

Rhyner: Just the wedding.

Telda: How did you get here?

Rhyner: It's complicated.  You see...

They dance off, Rhyner's explanation lost in the crowd.

Dexter and Rowyn dance by.

Dexter: Thanks again for playing the fiddle.

Rowyn: What can I say, weddings bring out the romantic in me.  Play your cards right and you could get lucky tonight.

Dexter: We're going to play cards?

Rowyn: Why not.  Ever play strip poker?

The gnome Urol Forol and the dwarf Gunnlodda Sellis dance by.  Urol has his eyes fixed on his feet obviously not familiar with the steps to this, or probably any other dance.  After he manages to get four consecutive steps in a row right he meets Gunnlodda's eyes, his face in a huge eager puppy dog grin.

Gunnlodda: Don't get cocky yet, the fast stuffs coming up. (She proceeds to twirl him around the dance floor.)

Captain Ulvar Kabbanja and Ilsa Baldrick dance by.

*2. A Wedding Present*

At a lull in the festitvities T'zon comes up to Lavinia and Garnham bearing a wooden club.  The club features an image of a (presumed) fertility goddess.  T'zon extends the club to Lavinia with both hands.

T'zon: A present to you Lady Vanderboren on the day of your wedding.

Lavinia: (accepting) Thank you.  (examining it) What is it?

T'zon: It is traditional for new brides to receive this on their wedding day. This (she point to the fertitlity goddess) is to insure children.  And this (she turns the club around revealing bits of what must be the Ohlman version of the Kama Sutra) is to insure pleasure.  And if your husband gives you neither (she grasps the club as if to attack) then he gets this.

Lavinia: (smiling) You've had to use it yourself then?

T'zon: My second husband.  I had to let him go.  He couldn't find the capstone of my womanhood with a map, a compass and a pair of hunting dogs.

Lavinia: I'm not sure that I could either.

T'zon: Dear Lady, I had forgotten that you lost your mother.  She was a good woman.  We spoke many times.  It was her responsibility to tell you of your body, but I can do this in her stead.

Lavinia: That's alright.  I..... have an aunt in Cauldron.  Probably.

T'zon: All the better.  It is best that family do this.

Lavinia:  Yes.  Thanks again for the present.  I hope you don't mind if I just put it in the other room.

T'zon: That is probably best.  That Bessand girl has her eye on Y'kern, and I don't want to put any ideas in her head.

Lavinia: Maybe we'll have another wedding in a few years.

T'zon: That's between her and me.

*3. A meeting of the minds*

It's later in the evening.  The band is still playing, but it is obvious that they are using alcohol to fuel themselves at this point.  There are a few couples still dancing in the square, but more are just relaxing, chatting, sipping drinks.

The main room of the Last Coconut is mostly empty.  The only occupants are Zan Oldavin, Jeran Emrikad, Bill Gan, Avner Meravanchi and Gina Fiddlebiter.  There are several decanters of wine and other spirits on the table.  The five are all at least two sheets to the wind.

Zan: I don't even know why I'm here?

Avner: This is a bar, if you can't figure it out then you're not trying hard enough. (he empties his glass.)

Zan: I mean Farshore.  Was a time when being a Jade Raven meant something.  Now the Lady's got herself new favorites.

Bill: And she ups and marries one.

Zan: Exactly.

Gina: A thief like you.

Zan: I'm notta thief.  I'm an adventurer.  He's a thief.  What am I doing in this drenhole town.

Jeran: Having an adventure.

Zan: Not me.  We're part of the B team.

Gina: And you fought for us just as well as the Beetles.

Jeran: Look at me.  Past my prime and still full of dreams.  You're doing it kid.  You don't see me going off to fight troglodytes or sword fight pirates.

Avner: There is too much liquour here for that much depression.  (He refills Jeran and Zan's cups.)

Gina: So Bill, they tell me that you're a pacifist.

Bill: A couple years ago I nearly died in a fight.  Saw me a vision from on high.  Told me to stop  fighting.

Gina: Even in self defense?

Bill: Yeah.

Jeran: Which god was it?

Bill: Dunno.  I'm not a particular religous man.

Avner: Let's keep religion out of this.  Tonight is about drink and women.

Gina: If that's the case you boys better drink up cause I can guarantee you that the only person at this table going to bed with a woman tonight is yours truly.

Zan: Can we watch.

Gina: I meant that I'M a woman and I'll be in bed.  By myself.  Gods Zan, are you this pervie when your sober?

Zan: Ask me when I'm sober.

Avner: None of us have the lifespan to wait that long.  (Avner drains his glass and looks to Gina.) Now what's this you say about going to bed alone.

Gina: It ain't happening longshanks.

Avner: You do realize that what they say about human men is true.

Gina: That you're twice as disgusting as halfling men?  Figured that one out on my own.

Jeran: Not all of us are that bad.

Zan: You're one of the good ones Jeran.

Bill: My god, whoever they are, just told me not to fight.  Said nothing about celibacy.

Gina: Avner, you've been in Farshore a few months and you've already seduced and abandoned all of the local girls who'll have you.  You know what they say about men who womanize like that?

Avner: That we're blessed by the gods.

Gina: No.  They say that men like that are trying to hide something.  Trying to hide the fact that they like other men.

Zan: You know he has been looking at me awful funny all night.

Avner: You're a man?  I'm sorry, my mistake.

Zan lunges at him from across the table.  The half-elven rogue knocks the young wastrel back.  Jeran, Bill and Gina stare back and forth at each other.

Bill: I'm a pacifist.

Jeran: I'm too old.

Gina: I'm betting 5 silver that Zan kicks his sorry ass around the island.

Bill and Jeran look at each other.

Bill: My god didn't say anything about gambling.  I'm in.

Jeran: Me too.  Except the deity speaking to me part.

The three refill their cups and turn their chairs around to watch Zan and Avner go at it.  From outside the Coconut we here the following:

Dexter: Look out, I'm coming through.

Maggie: NAKED WEDDING!!!!!!!! WOOOO HAAAAAAAA!!!!

*4. The end of the evening.*

Garnham and Lavinia are walking into the manner holding the hands that are still linked by their wedding bracelets.  Lavinia has T'zon's club in her other hand.

Garnham: You know, they used to take the chains off at the altar.

Lavinia: And then the bride and groom ended up getting pulled apart every five minutes during the reception.  I like it better this way.  I have you all to myself for at least one day.

Garnham: Amen to that.

They walk through the main hall and up the stairs.  Stopping at the threshold to there room.

Lavinia: This is it.

Garnham: Yeah.

Lavinia: We walk through that door and that room transforms itself from my parents' room to ours.

We'll be the grownups then.

Garnham: That's a scary thought.  (he pushes the door open with his left hand)  I'm ready if you are.

They walk into the room.  Just inside the doorway is a small wooden stand upon which sits a mahogany box almost identical to the ones carried by Sabine and Dexter.  On the top of the box there is a small golden placard that reads: 
"Kai Garnham and
Lavina Vanderboren
United together
In love and friendship
This April 14th XXXX"​
They step forward to the box.  Lavinia opens the top.

Garnham: So I undo you.

Lavinia: And you undo me.  It's good luck.

Garnham undos one of the chains on Lavinia's bracelet.  She undos the same chain on his bracelet and places it reverently into the wooden box.  She then undos one of the chains on his bracelet, he reciprocates and places that chain into the box.  They continue until all of the chains are in the box.

Garnham closes the box and Lavinia picks it up and carries it to a shelf along the left hand side of the room.  She places it there beside an almost identical box bearing the names of her parents.

Garnham embraces Lavinia.

Fade to black.


----------



## Morrow (May 11, 2009)

*What I Did On My Summer Vacation (Garnham)*

From the journals of K. Garnham, Seeker as translated from the Vallossan

It seems that the last journal that I deposited with the guild was damaged in a freak accident and that I will need to provide an overview of the last few months at the begining of this new volume.

The most important thing to happen during this time was my marriage to Lavinia.  I'm not certain how they did it, but my friends managed to get Rhyner to Farshore for the ceremony.

The service went smoothly, and aside from a fist fight and some drunken streaker, the reception went well.  We spent a week in Mora for the honeymoon.

All of this has gotten me interested in family.  I've asked Rhyner to ask around about the current whereabouts of my father Emil Black and any other possible children he might have had.  With any luck I'll be getting word when the Nixie returns.

My chronicler will also arrive with the Nixie.  I'm not so certain about this, but will try to have an open mind.

Shortly after returning from my honeymoon the Silver Beetles set out to find the legendary 8th Village.  Between Elyosha's and Maggie's divinations we were able to quickly locate the remnants of the old village, somehow dragged underground by the power of the ape idol.

We encountered heavy resistance from Aranea.  Unlike Lirithia we were unable to reason with them and were forced to kill them in our own defense.

In the end there was enough valuables to fill Maggie's haversack.  Approximately half of what we found was wanted by the other seven villages, the other half (including the ape statue that started this whole mess) was seen as cursed by the Ohlman and will be sent to the north once a ship is available.

Things have been remarkably quiet aside from settling into married life and killing 8 foot long spiders.

I sent word to the Seeker Lodge in Fort Blackwell about the mysterious goings on with our false priest and the agents he met there.
Rowyn has taken over control of the Last Coconut.  Witnesses confirm that the previous owner, Malfus Fariwind, was killed by three pirates in the attack on Farshore.  My worse, if wiser, self reminds me that Rowyn's magics allow her to look like someone else.

I have spent my time doing the daily business of the Lodge and becoming more a part of the social/ political side of things.  The latter seems to be some help to Lavinia as she goes about her duties as mayor.
The first Black Lodge has been built.  We've had a number of new members join.  Mostly temporary militia members who want to defend their homes, but who aren't interested in the military life.

I'm learning the Ohlman language.

I have also formed a research group.  Jeran, Sabine, Adwattle and myself have been trying to work through a number of things.  The Skin Walkers, the Yarrash birthmark that Dexter and I have and the history of the Island.
There is the matter of the  teeth of Dahlver-Nar.  

Dahlver-Nar was a human cleric who, through means unknown, came to possess the teeth that now bear his name.  Each tooth grants the "wearer" a link to a particular being of great power who is either dead, trapped or otherwise inaccessible.  If a particular tooth is destroyed then it is somehow recreated elsewhere.

It's unclear if the full set of teeth would be able to be permanently destroyed.
The tooth we have is that of Ahazu the Seizer, demon lord of the night and abduction,  Ahazu is assosiated with the seventy-third layer of the Abyss, the Wells of Darkness as Ulricon the Necromancer called them.
This is how Ulicron describes the realm:

"The Wells of Darkness is habitable, but abandoned by most demons.  The stony ground is littered with inky black wells, spots of pure darkness at the bottom of each shaft beneath a steely blue sun.  Each well is said to contain an imprisoned demon, god, or corpse.  Some of the prisoners were overthrown by rivals, while others failed spectacularly in their conduct of the Blood War.

Those who wander from the marble path that winds through the Wells of Darkness risk incurring the wrath of the Abyss itself.  Those who linger more than a few hours risk gaining the attention of the Custodians, utterly silent wardens who relentlessly patrol the layer, dealing death with their baleful gazes.

Although it is possible to escape imprisonment in one of the Wells of Darkness, such escapes usually require the Lords of Woe or the intervention of a greater deity.  Those known to have escaped the Wells of Darkness include Bayemon of the Unhealing Wound, the marilith queen Shaktari, Siragle the Ineffable, and vaunted Zzyczesiya."

Now Ahazu is missing (presumed hoisted by his own pitard) and we have his tooth.

The string of events that led us to the tooth.

1.) Before leaving Sasserine Urol is sold a treasure map that will eventually lead to the idol.
2.) Sometime during our journey to Farshore the idol is stolen from the temple of Zotzilaha.
3.) The idol (somehow) ends up in the Ohlman ruins on Urol's treasure map.
4.) We find the idol.
5.) We return the idol to Zotzilaha.
6.) The representative of Zotzilaha seems surprised that the Tooth is among the items he offers us as a reward.
7.) He tells us to take it away.
8.) We do.

Who took the idol in the first place?  Who put the Tooth in Zotzilaha's collection plate?  Why us?  Why do they want us to have the Tooth?  After all these months I'm just running around in circles trying to figure it out.
What we can safely accept as fact:

1.) Whoever did this is at least as powerful as we are, probably more so.  At the very least they had to magically transport the idol hundreds of miles away.  I don't know how well guarded the idol was when it was taken.
2.) Whoever did this is familiar with us.  They knew who would be important enough to be able to negotiate a visit to the island, but gullible enough to buy a treasure map.  
3.) They plan long term.

One theory is that this is a plan to release Ahazu himself.  Perhaps there is some ritual that needs to be performed, something that we are qualified to perform.

I don't like this one.  It would have to be a pretty damn powerful ritual given the power usually required to escape the Wells.

The flip side of the coin is that someone wants to make certain that Ahazu stays in the Wells permanently.  Maybe there's a way to permanently destroy the Tooth on the Isle of Dread and doing so will make it impossible for Ahazu to escape.

Too many leaps in logic for me to be happy with this theory.  

Or this could have nothing to do with Ahazu beyond his dentistry.

Frustruating.

I have recently discovered a secret compartment in the Brine Harlot.  It contained Vanthus' log.  There are many interesting bits and I suspect that Lavinia will ask us to deal with a few of it's revelations.


----------



## Morrow (Jun 28, 2009)

*The Lightless Depths part 1 (Garnham)*

From the journals of K. Garnham Vanderboren-Black as translated from the Vallossan

   With the expected return of the Nixie in a month's time I decided to make a final inspection of the ships that we would soon be the core of the Farshore fleet.  While going over the captain's quarters of the Brine Harlot I came upon a hidden compartment that I somehow missed the first time.

   Within was a log kept by Vanthus detailing some fairly disturbing goings-on in other parts of the island.  

  It mentioned the Fleet meeting with Emraag the Glutton, a monstrous dragon turtle said to sink ships and eat whole crews.  It referred to a payment made to the beast in order to access the beach of Gallivant Cove.  It was on this beach that they met with the leprous Lords of Dread and received the Shadow Pearl that Vanthus tried to destroy Farshore with some months ago.

  Seventh Coil Yuan-Ti?

  Lavinia has had grave concerns about the safety of the Nixie and other ships traveling to and from Farshore for some time.  The Glutton's home is on the other side of the island, but it can range out far enough to be a serious threat to our shipping lines.

  Manthalay hadn't wanted to negotiate safe passage with the monster, but Lavinia wanted to ensure the safety of Farshore's supply lines by whatever means necessary.

  Since coming back from our honeymoon Lavinia had heard the rumors of a Vanderboren family curse that had been spreading among the townsfolk.  She wanted things to run smoothly for the colony so she loaded the Dragon down with treasure and asked us to deal with the Glutton by bribery or brute force and then investigate the source of the Lords of Dread.

  To summon the beast we were provided with an Ohlman musical instrument called a sea skirl, a long pipe that is placed half underwater while the musician blows through the other end.  Rowyn was convinced to join us and play the skirl.

  There was strong debate over the approach we should take with Emraag, diplomacy or the sword.  I was more in favor of killing the beast than bartering, but was uncertain if we had the strength to defeat it.

  We sailed for five days before reaching Gallivant Cove.  We dropped anchor and had Rowyn play the skirl.  In a few minutes the Glutton rose from the deep.

  He is far larger than any dragon turtle that I'd read about, gross and fat with power.  Dexter could confirm his evil nature.  

  We made an arrangement.  The treasure we offered him now for a year of safe passage for all ships sailing the Farshore colors.  

  The beast also directed us to the pier that Vanthus had travelled to when he came here months ago and mentioned the lizard folk that lived in the caves just off of it.

  We arrived.  Elyosha scouted the area and found tracks that indicated that they went to the pier regularly to fish accompanied by a large quadroped dinosaur.

  Elyosha and I scouted into the caves, soon coming across a cavern guarded by the large dinosaur.  There was a passage off the cavern leading further in, but it was blocked by a metal gate.

  Elyosha (in cat form) continued past the gate.  After a short while she came to another room.  This one had four snake people.  After that room there was a sloping passage covered in pictograms that suggested that the Shadow Pearls were created by the the snake god Yig.

  Elyosha magically neutralized the dinosaur.  We were then able to stealth closer to the snake people and confirm that they were evil.  

  We fought the four snake-men priests.

  They didn't survive.

  One point of interest.  The dinosaur and the snake men priests showed signs of deformity.  Their skins had scaled and scabbed over.  There was evidence that this was due to a disease or possibly the effects of Shadow Pearl exposure.  Amongst the belongings of the dead were several applications of black pulp poultice and bilestone geodes that were large enough to contain Shadow Pearls.

  Sabine and I have secured a sample geode apiece for study by the Seekers and Witchwardens.

  We then traveled for four miles when we arrived at a great cavern filled with small huts.  We discovered that most were filled with snake-people in various stages of the shadow-scourge.  Some were so cancerously overgrown that they couldn't pass through the entrance of their homes.

  We discovered six other priests attending a modified statue of Yig.  A second head had been added to it; the head of a toad.

  We came upon them as they were about to sacrifice an Ohlman man before the tainted effigy of Yig.  The priests died, the Ohlman man didn't.

  While we were tending to the wounds of the feral Ohlman man we heard the sounds of someone still alive among a pile of dead shadow scourge victims.  We pulled a snake woman from the corpse pile.  Interestingly she was not evil and showed no signs of the condition that had effected her fellow snake people.

  She told us that she was a former priest of Yig who had proven immune to the disease that now ravaged her people.  She was to be sacrificed to the abomination that had been made of her deity and was most grateful that we had saved her life.

  She told us that the Shadow Pearls come from the temple of the Ancient Ones and that her people receive the pearls from Kopru.  She offered to lead us to the temple.

  We rested for the night.  The Ohlman man, it turned out, had been under the effect of a Feeblemind spell and required serious magical healing in the morning.

  Maggie was able to restore his mind and he told us his tale.

  His name is J'Kara and he is from an Ohlman village closer to the central plateau not associated with the Seven Tribes.

  He had encountered a missionary from Farshore named Noltus.  Dexter knew of Noltus from his time in the temple.  Vesserin had spoken of him and was concerned that he hadn't heard from the missionary since he left Farshore to explore the heart of the island.  

  Noltus is a worshiper of the sun god Urian.

  J'Kara was impressed by Noltus' faith and dedication for the elimination of dark powers.  J'Kara is himself a demon fighter.  The faiths meshed closely enough that J'Kara even had the symbol of the Church of the Whirling Fury tatooed on his back..

  Noltus had asked J'Kara to take a message to Vesserin.  While crossing the plateau J'Kara was attacked by a band of skinwalkers.  He managed to beat them back, but not before one of them had cast Feeblemind on him.
  J'Kara wandered off and was eventually captured by the snake people to be used in their sacrifice.

  Both Maggie and Dexter have proven very interested in the Ohlman demon hunter.  Dexter for religious matters and Maggie for, I assume, more carnal pursuits.  The two have been a bit snippy with each other as regards J'Kara's attentions.

  We set off with N'Tel and J'Kara.  Providing them with what equipment we could before pressing further.  

  In the one fight we've had since they've joined us they've proven their worth.  J'Kara with a bow; N'Tel with warlock abilities.


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## Morrow (Jul 4, 2009)

*The Lightless Depths part 2 (Garnham)*

From the journals of K.Garnham Vanderboren-Black as translated from the Vallossan

  We decided to send J'Kara back to the Dragon.  Dexter had concerns about his safety and wanted to ensure that he relayed his message from Noltus to Vesserin.

  N'Tel continued to guide us through the tunnels and caverns of her homeland giving us good intelligence of a roper and steering us through a barrier seemingly made up of the spirits of Ohlman warriors that whispered to us in their native tongue.

  N'Tel told us about an isolated village called Barbas that she believed would be the last possible sanctuary before we made it to the temple of the Ancient Ones.

  Barbas, from what she knows, is populated by mongrelfolk and a few members of other races.

  We traveled to Barbas.  Elyosha steered us through a series of poisonous molds that seemed to have been grown specifically to ward out intruders.  As we grew nearer we became aware of six hook horrors that awaited outside the gates of the town.

  We convinced the guards of our peaceful intentions and were allowed in.  We were met by an albino mongrel man, heavily scarred, missing part of his right ear who introduced himself as Vertrum, the headman of the village.

  The citizenry seemed a bit put off by the strangers in their midst.  We did some trading with them and chatted.  Every once in a while you could catch them whispering the things that you had just said in your voice.  Weird.

  We were treated to a feast in our honor.  I think one of the components of good diplomacy is a strong stomach.  Their delicacies were ..... an acquired taste.  Nothing wrong, just very different.  Still nothing worse than the phanaton feast we attended.

  Vertrum told us a bit about the history of Barbas.  Many generations ago the forefathers of Barbas were held as slaves to demon-fish in the city of Golismorga.  There was a great war with the demon-fish and a tear from the rain god forced the water out of the demon-fish city.

  The slaves, now free, formed the village of Barbas and took up the worship of the Snake Father, a god that doesn't seem to actually exist as far as Maggie can ascertain.

  We spent the night in Barbas only to have our sleep disturbed by an assault from an umber hulk, two hook horrors and a grell.  They died.

  The next morning we spoke again with Vertrum.  With the assault on Barbas the night before he had decided to relocate his village.  We contacted Lavinia via Sending to see if Farshore would take them in.  We told Vertrum that we might have a place for his people and gave him some basic survival tips for the surface before we continued on.

  Before we left he showed us one of the devil-fish.  He said that it still lived and that particularly brave souls had placed their ears to it's side and can hear it's evil heart still beating.

  It turned out that the devil-fish was an aboleth.  Without water it seemed to have dried up and become inert.  Knowing what evil it was capable of we killed it.

  We traveled a day and came to the cavern N'Tel spoke of.  It was mostly submerged in water.   I'm not certain how this much water was supposed to be here given what we were told by Vertrum about the tear.  Perhaps it's a sign that the old magic is failing.

  Upon entering N'Tel walked to the center and said "They are here, the heroes you wanted."

  The spirit of a serpent-folk materialized over the water and said, "Thank you my daughter, you have served me well."

  He then proceeded to introduce himself as Seth and explained that the Shadow Pearl production could be stopped by reflooding the city and forcing the Kopru out.  He referred to the item holding back the waters as Tlaloc's Tear and that we would need to destroy it to stop the pearls even though it would reawaken the aboleth.

  He also said that Demogorgon was behind the Shadow Pearls.

  On arriving in the cavern we had noticed unusual writings on the walls and ceiling.  Most noticable of these was a rune on the ceiling that seemed to share some properties with aboleth glyphs.  Elyosha examined it with her monocle and determined that it suppressed an aboleth's ability to magically enslave others.  She was also able to tell that the serpent-folk spirit that we were talking to was an illusion.

  We confronted it and it revealed itself to be an aboleth.  It tried to convince us that we needed to destroy the Tear to get rid of the Pearls and it tried to convince us that it's people wouldn't be a threat to us for hundreds of years.

  We fought and killed it.

  We traveled on and have now camped on the edges of the fetid city of Golismorga.


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## Morrow (Jul 5, 2009)

Dear Mom,
Sorry I did not rite you sooner. I meaned to but since I riting is hard and you can not read good I
did not think you would mind so I waited til now cause we are gonna maybe die soon so I wanted
too rite a letter now while I still can. Do not worry. Things are good. If we die it will be cause of a
bout a hundrid dozen evil creatures we are about to fight. So that is good.
Things in Farshore are good. We are still working for Lady Vandahborin. She sent us to give
presents to a evil giant turtle so it would stop eating our boats. Remember those bad things I told
you about that those bad guys are gonna use to do bad things to where you live and where I live?
Garnham says I should not menshun names in my letter in case it is interseptid. We found out
where they are from and are trying to fix it.
I made a new friend on the way here. He is part of the same church as me. I could not talk to him
much because Maggie has a crush on him and she got jellis when he and me were talking about our
favorit way to kill evil things. Speaking of killing evil things we killed a lot of them on the way here.
Some of them were really neet. There were all these snake peepul that had dizeezis. And a spike with
tennacles. And there were giant bugs and then other giant bugs and there was a brain with a beak
and tennacles. You would have liked it. I know you do not approve of me always killing evil things
but most of the time they started it and I made sure none of them are your relatives.
We found an underground city of strange men. The longer I am a dwarf the more I like it
underground. It is kind of strange. Sometimes if I put my head on the ground I can almost hear
things in the rocks. I kind of like it. They were nice and we are bringing them to Farshore so they
can live with us.
We are going to go kill a bunch of giant evil mind control fish and snaky tennacle faced evil cult
guys now so I got to stop riting now.
I miss you. My girlfriend Rowan is doing good. You would like her because she is evil like your
favorite aunt Mildrew. Not just like Great Aunt Mildrew though because she doesn’t try to kill me
every time she sees me like Aunt Mildrew used to. Not every time anyway. Even though she is evil
Rowyn is usually nice to me. She is really good at things that Garnham says it is not propreet to put
in a letter to my mom so I will tell you all about it in person nest time I can get home to visit.
I will send you this letter as soon as I can unless I die furst.
Your son,
Dexter Black


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## Morrow (Jul 5, 2009)

*The Lightless Depths part 2 (Dexter)*

Dear Mom,

Sorry I did not rite you sooner. I meaned to but since I riting is hard and you can not read good I did not think you would mind so I waited til now cause we are gonna maybe die soon so I wanted too rite a letter now while I still can. Do not worry. Things are good. If we die it will be cause of a
bout a hundrid dozen evil creatures we are about to fight. So that is good.

Things in Farshore are good. We are still working for Lady Vandahborin. She sent us to give presents to a evil giant turtle so it would stop eating our boats. Remember those bad things I told you about that those bad guys are gonna use to do bad things to where you live and where I live? Garnham says I should not menshun names in my letter in case it is interseptid. We found out where they are from and are trying to fix it.

I made a new friend on the way here. He is part of the same church as me. I could not talk to him much because Maggie has a crush on him and she got jellis when he and me were talking about our favorit way to kill evil things. Speaking of killing evil things we killed a lot of them on the way here. Some of them were really neet. There were all these snake peepul that had dizeezis. And a spike with tennacles. And there were giant bugs and then other giant bugs and there was a brain with a beak and tennacles. You would have liked it. I know you do not approve of me always killing evil things
but most of the time they started it and I made sure none of them are your relatives.

We found an underground city of strange men. The longer I am a dwarf the more I like it underground. It is kind of strange. Sometimes if I put my head on the ground I can almost hear things in the rocks. I kind of like it. They were nice and we are bringing them to Farshore so they can live with us.

We are going to go kill a bunch of giant evil mind control fish and snaky tennacle faced evil cult guys now so I got to stop riting now. 

I miss you.   My girlfriend Rowan is doing good. You would like her because she is evil like your favorite aunt Mildrew. Not just like Great Aunt Mildrew though because she doesn’t try to kill me every time she sees me like Aunt Mildrew used to. Not every time anyway. Even though she is evil Rowyn is usually nice to me. She is really good at things that Garnham says it is not propreet to put in a letter to my mom so I will tell you all about it in person nest time I can get home to visit.

I will send you this letter as soon as I can unless I die furst.

Your son,

Dexter Black


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## Morrow (Sep 14, 2009)

*The Lightless Depths Part 3 (Garnham)*

The Chroicles of K. Garnham Vanderboren-Black
 as written by Conrad Horst

    Golismorga, the unsunken city of the aboleth, lay before the Silver Beetles and the Jade Ravens in all it's fetid glory.  

    Under the glow of purple flame lit millenia ago by elder evils whose names are now lost to mortals lay buildings pulsing with the last gasps of twisted life.  At the heart of the city sat the still festering wound inflicted by an ancient Ohlman god.  

    All the while cold blooded fiends sang hymns to two-headed Demo-gorgon.  Nagas slithered and sacrificed in their throbbing tower.   

    It becomes increasingly obvious that I've drawn the short end of the stick with this assignment.

    The Beetles and Ravens have spent two weeks scouting the anus of the Isle of Dread.  They've killed about two hundred aboleth at this point and there's no end in sight to them.  

    On the 15th day in Golismorga the scouting ended.

    We began the day expecting trouble.  The wizard Sabine had sent out those eye things to scout ahead and lost a lot of them when exploring the crater that Tlaloc's Tear had fallen into.  We got closer and the spellcasters boosted them with protections.

    They ended up fighting some strange aberration.  It was invisible at first.  It drove Elyosha's dinosaur insane and paralyzed Garnham.  Attacking didn't make it visible like you would have expected.

    The spellcasters broke the invisibility.  It was ugly.  It had extra brains bobbing around.  Sometimes it sucked down some of those extra brains.  I think it may have been using them to power-up it's magics.

    They killed it.

    The investigation of the Tear itself showed that it's cracked and old.  Dexter could probably cleave it in two with a lucky blow.  Course if he does this place floods and we have a city full of aboleth trying to boss us around or kill us.  

    We then travelled to one of the pillars of flame.  

    If you even get close to one of these they make you sick.  Maggie took a fly around one and left her trail rations over over a 20 foot line on the floor below.

   Elyosha used her monocle and said that going inside would kill you and that only the most powerful magics could bring someone back after that.

   We then went to the Kopru temple.  The Ravens made a distraction and the Beetles assaulted.  

    The Beetles kicked some serious ass.

    On making their way inside they met heavy resistance from a kopru priest of Demogorgon.  Nearly killed Garnham.

    Then there was the chamber below that held the shadow pearls themselves.  What we found there is too horrible to put into words.

    We are now returning to Farshore.


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## Morrow (Dec 27, 2009)

*City of Broken Idols 1 (Garnham)*

Dearest Lavinia,
  I hope this letter finds you well.

  We have had our first encounter with Demogorgon's skinwalkers.   

  We came across a group of Noltus' converts.  They told us that the cleric and a group of his followers had ventured out into a desecrated temple in order to  defeat the demons that laired there.  They revealed that Noltus had told them that certain spells were blocked for miles around this temple, spells that included Sending and Teleport.  

  While we spoke with Noltus' disciples the cleric himself seemed to return.  Fortunately for us, Dexter was able to see into their souls and glimpse a bit of their true nature before they enmeshed themselves in the camp.  "Noltus" turned out to be a powerful demon who (probably) had consumed the flesh and soul of Noltus.  The others in the returning group of disciples turned out to be skinwalkers.  Even the dog turned out to be a shapeshifted aberration.

  The fight was difficult.  We lost Sabine, my new scribe and a few of Noltus' real converts to the skinwalker's poison.  We reincarnated Sabine and buried the rest.

  We plan to assault the temple ourselves and are now preparing for the task.  

  There is one thing that has occurred to me that weighs heavily on my thoughts.

  Aster has told us that we will encounter Vanthus again.  Vanthus worked for the Fleet.  The Fleet worked for Demogorgon.  We're about to raid a stronghold of Demogorgon that is warded against the two spells that we are relying on in our plans to deal with his return.

  I believe that it is likely that our attack on the temple will precipitate Vanthus' return and that we will not be in a position to join in Farshore's defense until after he has had ample opportunity to attack the town itself and you personally.

  Sabine has decided to journey to Elyosha's homeland to help her discover her new elven nature.  She has agreed to help with one final mission before she departs.  I've asked her to stay in Farshore whilst the Silver Beetles launch our assault on the skinwalkers.

  I've discussed strategy at length with Sabine.  She can tell you what I've recommended.  She also has some items that may be of some use to certain defenders.  The final decision as to what defenses are made is up to you as mayor.  If I were 100 percent certain that Vanthus would return at that time then I would be in Farshore myself.  As it is I must choose the certain peril over the potential danger.

  I want so much to be with you now, but I must be here.

  I would also recommend that you appoint a Deputy Mayor in case the worst happens.  Manthalay might try to step into any power vacuum created by your death or abduction.  He would enslave the Ohlman and that is, in my view, intolerable.

  Sabine knows when we will launch our assault.  

Love,

Kai


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## Morrow (Dec 27, 2009)

*City of Broken Idols 2 (Dexter)*

Dexters War Journal 
FARSHORE, 1060, RAINY SEASON 

My name is Dexter Black. I am a soldier in a war most people never even heard of. Nobody knows it but devles and demens are trying to take over our world. Me and people like me fight to make that stop. There are these peepel living in the stars who help some of us down here fight them. Do not think it wise to name them but one is better than the rest. She helps us down here. I got this fire in my blood on account my mom is a orc. Gwyn My patron helps me use that fire to burn evil instead of everything around me like can happen with lots of my people. Got some friends I travel with who help me lots. Maybe they do not know about the war. I do not talk to them about it except for Garnham and he is my brother too. Everyone calls him Garnham. He has a different name only his wife uses but no one else everyone else calls him Garnham. I called him the other name once and I thought even though he is so much smaller than me he was gonna kill me. It was funny but I will not do it again. He knows bad from good but is not in the war like me. Got another friend who IS in the war but he is not so tough so he does it different from me. His name is Catherly. Not as much blood his way. Not sure I get it but he is wise and good and helps me lots. He showed me letters. I told him I do not do magic and do not need the knowing of letters but he thinks it is good for me to write and told me he might have something I should read once. Says I need to be better with letters before he shows me. I said he could just read it to me but he said it is something I have to do myself. My friends and me were in a deemin temple. I was there to fight the war. They were there for their own reasons. I almost died again 
but we made it. Lots of us almost died. Couple of us did die. My brother had two people following him around what died once. One of them even stayed dead. The other one woke up and went away to learn about being a elf. I do not miss her because I was never sure about her. I did not like her friends. After we were all almost dead Maggie made it better. She is good but she does not get the war. She thinks maybe we should not kill everything that makes my head hurt but I think it is OK for her to think that as long as she does not make me not kill something that needs killing. She is hard to understand sometimes but she is a good heeler. My other friend is Elyosha. She is also hard to understand sometimes but not because what she thinks is hard to understand even though it sometimes is but in a different way from Maggie. Elyosha is hard to understand because she is from far away and the words come out of her mouth all twisted up. She used to be a elf. She can be a big animal lots which is helpful. She is XXXxxxxx 
XXXX also good with magic but not book magic so it is alright. Some book magic is alright but some of it is with deemins or devles so you have to be careful of it. Elyosha used to be a elf. Now she is a dwarf. I was a dwarf once.  Did not like it. Do not understand why she likes it so much but she has a dwarf friend she sleeps with so maybe that is why. I have a human girlfriend but I do not want to be a human so I do not think that is why. 
She makes my head hurt sometimes because she is evil. Rowyn makes my head hurt not Elyosha. Rowyn does not make Elyoshas head hurt she makes my head hurt. Words on paper are stoopid. Rowyn makes my head hurt by being evil. It is a hard thing to think about so I do not think about it that much. I think about the war instead. After the fight with men who wear skins of demons I almost died. I died a few times before. It is never fun. It is hard. War is like that. Words are hard to. Harder than war or being 
dead. Being dead is easy. Getting dead is easy to. Not being dead is the hard part. I can only do it with help. After the big fight I found a book. Figure if I gotta right anyway I should keep a journal like I seen Garnham and those guys that follow him around do. Did not help the last one be not dead but whatever. If I die I guess maybe someone could find it. Maybe it will help them in the war. Found this book in the belly of a deemin temple. Figure I can use it. Garnham got upset when I started using it. Told 
me it might be important. I tore out the pages with writing on them already and gave them to him. Did not seem to make him happy. After the big fight we went underground and found some deemins in the water. They made my head hurt and the fire in my blood got hot and I killed them. My friends helped. The deemins were very strong. I do not think it is good to fight without friends. Now we are taking a break so I am writing in this war journal for Catherly. If you are reading this it means I am probably dead or 
this book is full. Look at the last page. If it is full of words that is why I am maybe not dead. I might be though. Because if I write this now and you read it later it could be lots later and I might be old and dead. Or I might have died fighting evil after this book was full. When I write in this book Garnham gives me dirty looks. He is usually good at knowing what is good and what is bad and if it makes him mad that I right in this book maybe writing is not good and I can stop. There are ten ways to say rite on paper and only one way to say it with your mouth which is why righting is dumb. I will ask Catherly next time I see him. So maybe if you are reading this and it is not full I am not dead. Maybe I stopped writing in here because Garnham is write about writning being a good thing to not do. I might be dead anyway though.


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## Morrow (Dec 27, 2009)

*City of Broken Idols 2 (Garnham)*

From the journal of K. Garnham Vanderboren-Black, Seeker as translated from the Valossan.

   I have just taken the time to review the journal entries made by my now deceased scribe.

   What a mess.

   Ten pages going into excruciating detail about the state of his bowels.  Twelve pages devoted to his retirement plans. Thirty-eight pages of tawdry sexual fantasies that pretty much boil down to- Maggie, a jar of orange marmalade and a running start.

   I trust that this explains the absense of the previous 60 pages of this journal.

   We are currently on the second day of our assault on the skin-walker lair.

   We've had mixed luck so far.

   On our first day Maggie turned into a mist and reconned the lair.  She was able to teleport us into the skinwalker chief's room.  Unfortunately the chief was able to see the invisible, misty cleric and was able to get some backup into his room before she could teleport us there.

   Unfortunately one of their spellcasters mindscrewed Elyosha.  Unable to cast spells she turned into a rhino.  We beat the skinwalkers, but their spellcaster's killed Elyosha and her dinosaur.  

   We waited the day out and Maggie brought Elyosha back from the dead and then restored her to her senses.

   We will be continuing into the lair shortly.

   I want to be finished with this place quickly, but that isn't likely to happen.  I have to force myself to focus on the task
at hand, my thoughts constantly turning to Vanthus and Lavinia.  

   Dexter is working on his own journal.  He found a partially empty journal among some of the discarded things in the chief's room. There's something about the book that rubs me the wrong way.  I mentioned it to Dex and he tore out the used pages and handed them to me.

   The pages don't make any real sense.  The language of the piece changes with every word in no discernable pattern.  Magical 
translation reveals what each word means, but it's still nonsense.  Here's a sample:

   "Vision entry block third insurance rendering mine domain.  Format trap crisis sock.  Nonmanneristic pimpernel! Verdant saxaphonist
doll check menstruation.  Forensic statement shipment; elaborated, cardigan vulgarity."

   As I sit here writing this I suddenly know what disturbs me most about the book-the ideogram on the cover.  I'm looking at the book now as Dexter writes furiously in his new war journal.  I've seen that image before.  In a dream.
   I don't remember much about it.  There was a gathering of people.  The youngest were toddlers; the oldest maybe 50.  All were human
or had human blood.  I recognized Dexter, a half-elven shop assistant from Sasserine and a member of the Seekers currently part of the 
Golismorga taskforce.  I remember a score of other faces, but have no idea who they are or what connection they might have with one
another, myself or my brother.

   There was a great sense of purpose to what we were doing, but my waking mind can't quiet grasp what it was.  

   I dimly recall that music played in the background.

   And a smell like nutmeg on saltwater.

   I saw blood being spilt and was dimly aware that it was my own although I may not have been me at the time.  The blood spread out in a
circle on white sands.  The pattern it fell in matches the one on Dexter's new book.


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## Morrow (Jan 13, 2010)

*City of Broken Idols 3 (Garnham)*

From the Journals of K. Garnham Vanderboren-Black as translated from the Vallosan

   So much has happened since my last writing.  I feel a strong need to go directly into the gravest matter before us, to skip to the best part, but I will put that part of the story aside until it's proper time.

   On our explorations of the caverns we encountered a trio of demonic defenders.  Our encounter with them went much better than the fight with the skinwalker tribe.  

   Just after we defeated the final demon the cavern was rocked by a fairly strong quake.  Elyosha determined that the cause was most likely volcanic and most likely in the direction that we were planning on heading down anyway.

   We travelled for a time and came to an open stone room.  At the far end stood a large stone throne.  It was made of different stone than the rest of the room and it was well carved, unlike the rough stone about the place.

   Upon the throne sat the dessicated corpse of some long dead monarch.  Precious little remained to identify them.  Time had robbed this corpse of race and sex.  What clothing they had when they sat, for the final time, upon this cold throne was little more than colored dust and rust.

   There still was a ring on a finger and a sword in it's sheath.  Their obdurance in the face of centuries of decay told us that they were magical even before Elyosha confirmed what we already knew.

   I have a steady hand and I was able to leave the dead monarch's corpse intact while removing ring and sword.  At the time I did this to exercise my skill and out of no interest in honoring the dead.  What we discovered later made me glad that I had done chosen now to practice my fingersmithing.

   The ring was a treasure by itself.  A ring of telekinesis.  Rare, but not giving much indication as to the true nature of it's former wielder.

   The sword on the other hand spoke volumes.

   Elyosha revealed the bastard sword to be a Sun Blade, one of those rare golden swords dedicated to the destruction of evil.  It's anathma to undead and creatures that live on dark energies.  Nothing evil can wield it without weakening, at least a little.  This probably explains why  it was here for us to find after all these centuries, the demons and cultists didn't want to deal with it's toxic nature.

   Leaving this place we came to another cavern and were attacked by more demo-gorgon worshipping Kopru.  If it were not for my friends, whom I dearly love, I would have died in that fight.

   As it was one of my cold-iron short swords was cleaved in two by a Kopru priest.  He is the second of his ilk to call down his demon-gods damned power for unholy speed that I've encountered since coming to this island. 

   The kopru slain, we moved on.

  We travelled on from this place for a time and eventually came to the lair of Khala, an aspect of Demogorgon.

   Unfortunately Dexter took it upon himself to act as scout and, being the less stealthy Black brother, forced the fight before Elyosha and Maggie had the time to cast enhancement and defensive magics upon us.

   We charged after Dexter.  Khala stood on the other side of a moat.  On our side stood a pedastle on which perched a black pearl the size of Dexter's head.  In the moat lurked several lesser demons that swam and swarmed in the vile waters.

   Dexter tried to leap the waters and challenge Khala directly, but he fell short and landed in demon-infested waters.

   This brand of demons, we discovered, magically slowed all within their vicinity.  Fortunately Dexter's boots allowed him to neutralize the effect.

   Khala himself struck us with, what Elyosha later informed me of, a Greater Dispel Magic.  Suddenly the few magical effects that we had up were further reduced.

   It was hard to tell in the heat of battle, but it seemed that Khala's two heads provided him with a superior alacrity.  A trait that I've heard was common in other two headed creatures such as the Ettin.

   When we finally engaged Khala in melee his strength became obvious.  His skin blunted some part of any physical attack that wasn't holy, magical cold iron.

   At one point he spat a viscous blob of black venom at me that drained some of my lifeforce.  Consultation with Elyosha after the battle confirmed the necromantic nature of the bile.  She suggested that Death Ward would probably prevent it.

   Surrounded on all sides by us and our summoned soldiers Khala disappeared and was replaced by a Westerlith demon.  It was not the Westerlith demon's day however as he stood between my brother and me.  At this point there is precious little in this world or the next that can survive for long in that position.

   The westerlith disposed of, we awaited the return of Khala.

   We prepared ourselves for his return, hoping that he would materialize where he departed, but this was not to be.

   He returned and Elyosha used her magics to strip away some of the magics he had no doubt cast upon himself during his respite from battle.

   In the end he fell and in so doing alerted Demogorgon.

   As the corpse slunk down onto the cavern floor we became aware of four eyes focused upon us.  We could feel them before we could see them and they were terrible.

   After several moments regaining our composure we finished our explorations of the shrine and the remainder of the temple.  Nothing was said, but it was obvious that we were too depleted from our battles to return to Farshore and render aid if my theory about Vanthus should be correct.

   I can only hope that those  in Farshore have the strength and the tools to face whatever threat may or may not be coming for them.

   There was treasure to be found.  And the oysters that birth the shadow pearls.  There was an archive of clay tablets in Ohlman that appears to show the history of Thanaclan up to the time of it's fall.  The Seekers will go over that when there is more time.

   The gigantic pearl that was in Khala's shrine and the other pearls we came across had not been transformed into Shadow Pearls yet.

   Once we had explored the entirety of the temple Maggie used her magics to get us to the prison block that Sabine had identified with her divinations.  The tiefling and the skinwalkers had abandoned the place and the only thing that we found that was of any use was the tiefling's journal.

   The tiefling, named Throgriff, represented Crimson Fleet interests here.  It was his duty to make sure that the Shadow Pearls were harvested here and sent to Golismorga to be processed.  The Crimson Fleet seems to have a colonialist view of the worshippers of Demogorgon native to the island; that they are savages and not the favored of Demogorgon.

   Throgriff was of the opinion that the natives were quiet happy to provide Shadow Pearls to the Fleet and that his position was made as an excuse to punish him by sending him out to the boonies.

   Throgriff records that the skinwalkers have sacrificed 160 victims, with 23 marked as “special” since his arrival a year ago.  In that time 44 pearls have been “sent below” for completion.  He has placed checkmarks next to several of these shipments, indicating that all but nine of the pearls have arrived at the Crimson Fleet headquarters in Freeport.  

   We have bunked down for the night.  We return to Farshore in the morning.

   In trying not to think about what is happening now in Farshore I have had another disturbing thought.  Something manipulated us into getting the Tooth.  There isn't a direct connection yet, but collecting the Tooth on the Isle of Dread, which was a stronghold of Demogorgon seems odd; too much of a coincidence.  Someone wanted us to collect the Tooth, yet there has been no effort to collect it from us.

   Are the two related?  Is someone trying to steal this under Demogorgon's nose?  Is someone trying to get us to stir up a hornet's nest?

   If Vanthus does return the obvious suspect is Demogorgon or, more likely, one of his minions.  What if the being that manipulated us earlier is trying to frame Demogorgon?

   I'm thinking too much about things I either don't have enough information or can't control.  In either event I'm not getting much sleep tonight.


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## Morrow (Jan 13, 2010)

*A Letter to Garnham*

Dear Garnham,

I write to you because I wish to share my thoughts with you before sharing them with Lady Lavinia. In writing I can say what I mean without my difficulties with your southern dialect getting in the way. I have nothing but respect for Lavinia, but my meditations on the situation here on the Isle of Dread have made me doubt the goodwill of her late parents, especially her father and his family. 

I find it all too convenient that Lord and Lady Vanderboren established a colony on the very island that happens to be the center of shadow pearl production for the Crimson Fleet. (This leads to the disturbing thought that there may be other shadow pearl factories, located in other remote corners of the earth.)

It is clear from reading Lady Vanderboren’s journals that she approached this project with the naive delight of the colonizer. It is my impression that among Sasserine’s elite, women are themselves oppressed and “protected” from the business that supports their lifestyle. They are put in the impossible position of being complicit with the very networks of colonialism and oppression that support their privileged place in society. Some women, like our employer, have chosen to face their family’s business interests head on. Judging from Lady Vanderboren’s journals, and especially her naive trust of her husband’s interest in pearl harvesting, I take it that she was not one of these women.

Why, exactly, did Lord Vanderboren establish a colony here? What was his intention toward the natives of the Isle? What was Lord Vanderboren’s brother’s involvement? Lady Lavinia reports that Vanthus was a good-hearted, if rascally, boy before he went to apprentice with his uncle. What happened to him to turn him into the psychopathic monster we now know him to be?

I have been impressed with Lady Lavinia’s willingness to partner with the native inhabitants of the Isle of Dread. Far from being an all-powerful colonial governor, she is a fair and democratic leader. I shudder to think what would have happened if Meravanchi had won the election for the mayoralty.

My druidic training among my people taught me to recognize patterns of power and oppression. There are powerful forces at work here who seek only to crush and dominate all who are different from them. From the bullywugs who worked with the Fleet in Sasserine, to the Mother of All, to Khala, we have encountered foes symbolic of a deep loathing for and fear of women and women’s sexuality. The Mother of All and Khala attacked male and female foes equally, of course; but it seems to me that our larger enemies attract allies whose bodies or agendas display a hatred of women. 

Here on the Isle of Dread, we have found the native peoples co-opted for Demogorgon’s foul plans. We, along with the Common Folk of Sasserine, may now feel that we are not among the targeted groups. We must revise this opinion. I fear that Demogorgon, with the Fleet’s help, plans to embark on a campaign of genocide, through which they may make the Material Plane a home for demons bent only on dominance and power. I do not understand how the Crimson Fleet plans to protect itself from such an eventuality. I wonder if there is any way we can infiltrate their organization or spy on their plans. I fear we do not have as much time as we need to lay careful plans. 

My first loyalties are no longer to Lady Lavinia, but to those in greatest danger of oppression and destruction here on the Isle. They have too much in common with my own people in Druzistan for the situation to be otherwise. Although I plan to continue working with the Lady, you, Dexter, and Maggie to thwart the Crimson Fleet and Demogorgon, I think it is time for me to leave Lavinia’s employment.

My last recommendation to Lady Lavinia as her employee will be that she remove the human colony here and return this land to its native inhabitants. Her intentions may be good, but this colonial enterprise is too tainted to continue. Her strong mind and will can be put to better use among the nobles of Sasserine, who must either be in danger themselves from Demogorgon and the Fleet, or complicit with them. I only hope we are in time to avert total disaster.

I remain,

your companion and friend,

Elyosha Tatanya Fyorovna.


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## Morrow (Jan 14, 2010)

*A Letter to Elyosha*

Dear Elyosha,

   Thank you for the letter.  I appreciate you telling me what you are going to tell Lavinia and going into the other matters that you did.  I find myself unable to sleep.  Too busy thinking about those things that I can't effect that have happened in Farshore or soon will happen there.

    I'm also concerned about the plans that the Fleet have for the Pearls.  It has to be more than destroying any one place; according to the records we've seized they have enough to destroy whole civilizations.

    Your idea of the Fleet trying to create a hell-on-earth both intrigues and frightens me.  I think the answer to your question about the demons surviving the pearls was answered by Vanthus.

    Vanthus has shown himself to be a coward most interested in saving his own skin.  Yet he wasn't afraid to activate a Pearl at his feet.  It seems safe to say that he was probably immune to the effect and sadistic enough to want to watch us warp before his eyes.

    If Vanthus has an immunity then it's not hard to say that the other elite members of the Fleet (those who have been demonically enhanced) probably also share that defense.  I doubt that they care if their underlings would survive.

    Spying on the Fleet sounds like a good direction.

    You raise a good point about other Shadow Pearl harvesting areas.  I have been loathe to suggest asking Maggie to Commune again (it takes so much out of her and it feels like cheating), but knowing if this was the only place that Shadow Pearls were made might be important enough.

    You probably have a better picture of Lavinia's mother than I do.  Lavinia has told me of her parents and other family members, but it's her perspective, a journal allows you to get inside someone else's head and play with their memories.

    I can't comment on the intentions of the elder Vanderborens in setting up this colony.  The mention of pearl diving is ominous, knowing what we now know.  

    I do know that they were members of my organization and that the thought of what could be found here would be a great temptation to explore.  

    There is also the possibility that whatever force that has been occassionally manipulating us since before we arrived on this island also manipulated them.

    And I accept the possibility of a dark motive on the part of Lavinia's parents.

    Did the uncle turn Vanthus into the monster he is now?  This of course opens the whole question of nature vs nurture.  By the age that Vanthus had been shipped away to his uncle I had killed two men.  Not in self-defense either, pure revenge.  The rascal becomes the psychopath and the killer turns out.... alright (I hope.)

     I'm trying to remember if that uncle is still alive.  

    I think that it's too late to remove Farshore.  The sad truth is that there are other people (the Meravanchi's among several) who see the potential for this colony.  If Lavinia choose to pull up stakes then others would take over.  Other people who aren't interested in cooperating with the Ohlman.

    Then there are the people of Farshore.  I've gotten to know a good number of them.  A lot of them grew up in the same slums that I did.  They risked their lives getting here, survived without resupply for seasons and fought the Crimson Fleet.  Not everyone is going to leave because we ask them to.

   Even if the colony were to be destroyed tomorrow, I'd bet even money that it would be rebuilt inside my lifetime.  If not someone from Sasserine, maybe the Scarlet Brotherhood.

    It's a problem that has no easy solution.  I propose speaking with the Ohlman themselves, the leadership and the common man.  See what they want.  What they don't want.  I don't want to see them harmed.

    Sasserine doesn't enjoy an even split of power between the sexes, it's true, but I think that you are selling the women of Sasserine short.  

    Heldrath Kellani is a woman just as corrupt as any man sitting on the Dawn Concil.  In fact she'd be sitting there now if it weren't for our stopping Rowyn's plans.  Heldrath is FAR from the only politically savvy/powerful woman in Sasserine.  

    I'd say that half the temples in town are headed by women.  Including the temple of Aster.

    The Witchwardens and the Church of the Whirling Fury are headed by women.

    Still, it has to be said that more houses are lead by men and six of the seven seats on the Dawn Council are male.  I could easily say that there are no impediments to a woman holding the highest positions in Sasserine, but the truth is that most office holders have external genitalia.

    I'm not as familiar with Drusikstan's socio-political history.  From our conversations I assume that your country was a matriarchy before the troubles occured.

    How did your country's rulership work?  Was there an even balance between the sexes?  If so how was this achieved?

    I've been thinking of something that I read a while back.  It was in a book by Phillip Wylie called "The Disappearance."  It involved a world that split into two copies, one populated only by men, the other only by women.  Both wound up in total disaster.

    There is a passage towards the end of the book that I will end this letter on.

    "We-male and female- are the same flesh and the flesh is beautiful.  We have all the same organs, differing only in speciality.  The same chemicals course in us both.  When we love each other it is the same love.  When we lie together we are in solemn truth that One."

Yours truly,

Kai Garnham Vanderboren-Black


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## Morrow (Feb 7, 2010)

*Serpents of Freeport (Nadia Black)*

The Exploits of Kai Garnham Vanderboren-Black as recorded by Nadia Black


   And it came to pass that the Silver Beetles, the most feared and fearsome band of adventurers since Nate Black, Bloody Kate Sullivan, death-faced Bronson and dragon within a dream Tavaari last sailed, choose to attack the black heart of the Isle of Dread.

   The black heart that was responsible for the fall of the Ohlman empire, the blackheart that had turned the island foul and had made a sanctuary in this world for demonsand those who wore their skins.

   But before they made their final push forward they remembered the divine wisdom imparted from Aster (blessed be he/she/it) gained in holy Commune by the great clericMargaret Teech.

   Aster had let it be known that the Beetles would one day see the vile wretch Vanthus Vanderboren again.  Vanthus the cowardly cur who killed his parents and tried to  destroy the life and works of his sister the fair and noble Lavinia.

   In their last meeting the Beetles had put the demon-tainted Vanthus in a shallow grave in Hallowed ground.  A simple marker the only ornamentation for his final restingplace. 

   Since that time Lavinia took the fingersmith and Silver Beetle Kai Garnham as husband and had begun to plan a family.

   Concerned that their actions in confronting Khala, an aspect of the abominable demon-god Demogorgon, would bring about the anticipated return of Vanthus the Beetles sent the wizard Sabine and the Holy Serpent Tonatiuh back to Farshore to ready it's defenses.

   Sabine, a scion of a Sasserine noble house, had recently died and been returned to the world of flesh by the lady Elyosha Tatanya Fyorovna a druid of great power and skill.  Lady Fyorovna's magics had crafted Sabine a new body; where she was once human, she was now wore elven flesh.

   The heroes of the hour would be the cream of those in Farshore.

   There was Ilsa Baldrick a dwarven woman of stern contenance and unyielding dedication to those she called allies.  Perhaps the only dwarf I've ever met who prefers mead to ale.
Her axe would shed blood by the gallons by the time the battle was over.

   There was Kaskus Kell a dwarven druid and beloved of Lady Fyorovna.  It was not fated that he meet Vanthus on the day of resurrection, but his actions saved countless lives in the fire and chaos that ensued.

   There was Ntel a serpentfolk warlock who managed to remain free of the corruption that had overwhelmed and destroyed her society.  She was the first to face Vanthus.

   There was Jakara the Ohlman demonslayer.  His muscular arms pulled the string of his bow with such precision and grace that there wasn't a man or woman who saw him who woldn't give up a prime year of their life to be held in his oh so capable arms.

   The fifth defender was Sabine.  Sixth was Tonatiuh. And I was seventh.

   Watch was posted on the graveyard.  At least one of the seven stalwarts and some members of the guard.  Sticks with bells in them were planted in the ground to give some warning when Vanthus began to claw his way through the dirt.

   Ntel was with the watch when he finally tore himself from the earth. The warlock  confronted him, but his power was too great for her alone.  We charged to her aid and the coward fleed on a demon horse he had summoned before we could intervene.

   Wizard and warlock looked at the open grave and shivered.  Their arcane senses showed them that some dark power had hammered through the divine wards that Margaret had so carefully laid down.  Mostly they were intact, but there was a hole big enough for Vanthus to come back through.

   It was believed that Vanthus would seek revenge on Lavinia so we gathered her and the priest Vesserin Catherly into the chapel and made good our defenses.

   Most of the night passed until, in the wee small hours of the morning, we heard the sounds of commotion coming from the nearby tavern.

   The Holy Serpent went out and saw that the tavern was ablaze and that fleeing citizens were beginning to spread fiery havoc throughout the town.  Some dark force was compelling them to destroy all that they could touch.

   Kaskus and Ntel worked on containing the mayhem.  To their great credit they were able to do so without killing or even seriously harming anyone.

   The Holy Serpent returned to the chapel to find Vanthus advancing upon it sitting astride a fire-snorting demon horse.

   I've seen the portrait of Vanthus that Garnham holds.  In life he was a handsome man with eyes that promised a woman many thrills and pleasures.   I have walked this world for more than 
forty years and I know that all things that are beautiful are not good and that many an uglyvisage covers a saintly soul.  

   What we saw then was Vanthus as he was.  The fetid nature of his soul matched, in perfect reflection, his face and what few parts of his flesh not covered in dark armors.

   As the four defenders inside the chapel cast spells and drew weapons Sabine became aware of an invisible presence among us.  Into the chapel had crept four bar-lurga, the demon apes who rend the fabric of reality around them to charge from place to place.

   The fight began in earnest.

   The Holy Serpent reigned down holy wrath upon Vanthus.  The death lord shrugged this off, but the holy attack revealed the presence of other invisible bar-lurga.

   Sabine's warning came just in time.  Ilsa pressed the beasts with her axe, drawing deeply of their blood.  Arrows from the Ohlman man-god and puissant spells from Sabine laid the first wave low.

   More came.

   The Holy Serpent rushed to the interior of the chapel hoping to wisk Lavinia away to a place so pure, so good that the fiendish apes would dare not follow.

   More bar-lurga fell to axe, arrow and arcane might.  It had become obvious that the defenders were too much for the invisible brutes and the beasts switched to subtler tactics.  

   Three bar-lurga remained breathing in the chapel.  Before another blow could fell them they each charged an opponent, grabbed them up and tried to take them through the rend in space that they create.

   Sabine resisted.  Ilsa and Lavinia could not.

   The defenders turned their full attention to Vanthus and had their blows fall harmlessly off of his pitch black armor.  Later Sabine would tell us that she didn't think that he was even there at all; just a projection of the coward.

   The fires were put out, the city was safe, but it's mayor was now in the hands of her homicidal brother.

   The Silver Beetles returned the next day.  

   You can imagine their feelings.

   Between divinations and Communing with Aster (blessed be he/she/it) the party decided that they would take their time, heal, resupply and go after the kidnapped mayor with cooler heads.

   Sabine decided to leave the company of the Beetles and to explore her new found elven nature in Druzikstan.  The druids rebels lacked arcane spellcasters and the fledgling elf would have as much to teach them as they had to teach her.

   She stayed on long enough to repair and reenchant a Caerdel Rose short sword sundered by a kopru warrior priest of Demogorgon and create some new items to aid their cause.

   Lady Fyrovna travelled back to Druzikstan and obtained the services of one of the great white bears that populate that frozen land.  Though I have not spoken to her of this, I strongly suspect that she uses her magics to keep the beast comfortable in these tropic climes.

   Two weeks into planning Margaret had the strangest dream.

   In it she saw Captain Harliss Ellis as she was when the Beetles last encountered her, fighting for her life against a hoarde of Savage Tide tainted sailors.

   This time she spoke to Margaret of mutual interests in fighting the Crimson Fleet.  The captain claimed to have intelligence of the Fleet that she was willing to share with the Beetles.  We should  meet her at Red Foam Whaling in Freeport and she would tell us more.

   And so it was decided that the Bronze Dragon would sail to Freeport leaving myself and Sabine behind in Farshore to finish the enchantments we had begun.  I would be collected by Margaret and Lady Fyrovna would return to bring Sabine to Druzikstan; their magics being stronger than the vast distances seperating the ship from land.

   Warned of the dangers that now lurk in Freeport we arranged to have the Dragon concealed in a fog shrouded cove some miles from the main city.  

   It was decided to first contact the church of Aster (blessed by he/she/it) in the city.  Margaret's attempts at teleport were initially foiled by powerful wards, but we managed to make our way to a a point just outside of their protections.

   We spoke with the head cleric, a vampire thing of good taste and excellent manners.  He told us of the depravity that now runs the streets of the city I once loved.

   Bar-lurga openly walk the streets, the Crimson Fleet hold near dominion over all, cannibal monks prowl the streets in a grotesque parody of justice and no one is safe.

   He also told us of a wizard who was a crony of Nathan Black.  A man of some power who might be willing to offer intelligence to the heirs of his former sponsor.

   The walk to the mage's tower was a nightmare.  Cringing citizens, despotic beasts and everywhere the stink of death.  As we grew nearer to the tower we found the source of that stench.

   A whole street was festooned with chains upon which were strung up the dead and dying.

   Upon one of these chains we found the lifeless form of Ilsa Baldrick.

   We cut her down and placed her in a portable hole with the notion that we would reincarnate her later.

   At the tower a few honeyed words from Garnham allowed us an audience with the mind of the great wizard hosted in an impish proxy-body.

   We were told of the factions of the city.  The Brotherhood, the Fleet, the Protectorate, the half-fiend owned brothel Proffery House, the Seventh Coil.

   We learned that Nate, Kate, Bronson and Tavaari may have been lost fighting Demogorgon.  That last bit cost us a future favor.

   We went to Red Foam Whaling and found what appeared to be a wounded Captain Harliss.  Dexter knew her to be a demoness in disguise and she was dead before Garnham could land his final blow.

   The ambush was simple a handful of Yuanti assassins and a huge brute of a Yuanti wielding a great bow.

   My two boys put the big one between them.  Very little can survive coming between my two sons; Dexter with his impossible brute force and Kai with his surgical strikes.

   A polar bear, a wildshaped dwarvish druid, a powerful cleric and yours truly proved too much for the lesser snakes and we won with barely a scratch.

   And now we get to go to a brothel.  And I was worried that I might not fit in.


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## Morrow (Feb 7, 2010)

*Who is Nadia Black?*

Nadia Black is Garnham's new cohort.  She's a bard and a member of the Seekers.  She briefly claimed to be another child of Emil Black, the father of Dexter, Garnham, and Ressadriand (who appeared only briefly way back in Sasserine).  The truth turned out to be a little more complicated.  Garnham's player first explained it to me like this:



> My thought involves Emil Black, the father of Dex and Garnham.  If you have other plans for him then I'll change the background.
> 
> The idea I'm working with is that Emil Black ended up getting killed through misadventure.  He ended up getting reincarnated by an old adventuring friend.  Emil ended up coming back as a healthy young human.
> 
> ...


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## Morrow (Mar 14, 2010)

*Serpents of Freeport (Nadia Black)*

The Exploits of Kai Garnham Vanderboren-Black as recorded by Nadia Black

   And it came to pass that the Silver Beetles having triumphed over the Leach and his minions set about finding Captain Harliss Javell, the beautiful and deadly woman who called to Margaret in her dreams.

   Among the items belonging to the fearsome Captain (that had been used by the Leach to bait his trap) was a slip of paper.  A note to Tyrlandi, proprietor of Porphyry House, stating that the bearer was to be afforded special care.

  With little else to go on the quartet sped to Porphyry House.

  Porphyry House a brothel in the center of Freeport.  Porphyry House a gaudy gem in the heart of a dying city.  Porphyry House the home of Lelio DeQuay, a tender man with soft hands, strong chest and callipygian charms worthy of an epic poem whom I wasted several hours, and silvers, on.

   The note and a sweet word from Garnham gained us an audience with Tyrlandi.  

   Of all the women that I have known in my life I would easily say she was the most beautiful.  Her raven tresses stood in stark contrast to her milk-white skin.  Ten score and seven women and twice as many men had disappeared in her eyes.  Her voice was honeyed velvet.

   But the heart that beat beneath that perfumed breast was of two worlds, neither of which is this one and the hunger in her gaze clearly wasn't carnal.

   Tyrlandi admitted to seeing Harliss and being the agent that intruded the Captain into Margaret's dreams.  It seems that some time after that the dashing Captain was captured by enemies.  Tyrlandi knew where Harliss was being kept and offered the information for a lock of Margaret's hair.

   Lady Fyorovna knew that such a piece of our dear cleric could be used to create a lesser Margaret.  One that Tyrlandi, or her clients, could sate their lusts upon.

   Other offers were made and rejected in turn.  Finally, realizing that the life of Captain Javell hung in the balance, Margaret nobly sacrificed a lock of her hair to Tyrlandi.

   Captain Javell, Tyrlandi explained, was being held in the Birdcage a rival brothel on the other side of town.

   The brothel owner provided scant detail, only a cryptic warning to be careful of their pretty songs.

   Thus the Silver Beetles made haste to the Birdcage traveling through deeper and darker layers of the city than we had previously seen.

    Nearly to the seedy brothel's door we were accosted on the street by a man claiming to have magic items that he would sell cheap.

    Dexter, seeing through the ruse, put five pounds of metal through his chest.

    No sooner had the street pedlar been struck then we were set upon by Seventh Coil yuan-ti and the demon-ape bar lurgas.

    Garnham and Dexter gamboled through the streets killing with religious efficiency.  Margaret called upon the power of Aster and sent a host of bar lurga back to the pit that spawned them.  

    Fresh from quelling yet another assassination attempt the Beetles charged full-bore into the Birdcage.  A locked door was quickly bypassed with Garnham's picks and we entered the Cage.  I offered up my songs in defense against the anticipated sonic assault.

   We found that the owners of the Birdcage were harpies.  They clawed at our minds with weak words only to be rebuffed by my powerful songs.

    Margaret and Garnham met the pathetic beasts in the air, striking them down quickly.  One managed to call forth a guardian beast before her death.

    A great undead creature rose from the earth and struck Dexter.  It only took two swings of his ax and Lady Fyorovna's fire to put the beast down.

   We found Captain Javell in one of the cages.  Locked in with her was an abomination.  A twisted child turned undead and made more maggot than man by unspeakable abyssal forces.  The thing made to kill the unconsious Captain, but Margaret intervened and put the abomination out of it's misery.

   The Captain was quickly revived and after a survey of the Birdcage we all returned to the Bronze Dragon.

   Between the information that Captian Javell provided and Margaret's interrogation of the yuan-ti corpses we now know something of what to expect when we assault the Crimson Fleet headquarters.

   Lady Fyorovna has taken wing to scout the base leaving Garnham and I to tinker with magic.

   We are now safe from scrying whilst we are on the Bronze Dragon.  With that privacy Garnham has taken up an expensive line of questioning and come up with a most vexing answer.  An answer that I have been sworn not to write or speak of until the time is right.

    When Lady Fyorovna returns we will gird ourselves with magic and bring the fight to the Fleet.

    Even now Cold Captain Withers sits in his supposed safety unaware that he will not see another sunrise in this world.


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