For Those in Peril IN the Sea...

Summary

Scribe Notes

Adventure: For Those in Peril IN the Sea...
GM: Jacqui
Session: Autumn 813wk
Night: Thursday
Location Mangere Bridge
Level: Medium/High
Party:

• Aqualina played by Keith
• Ben played by Ian A.
• Veor played by Bernard
• Serra Angelus played by Big Mike
• Imelio de Juran played by Poul Bowdler
• Vanderhan played by Scott Raymond

Employer: The Gentlefolks Exploratory Society

Summary: The GES have sent a second and a third team into the former Sahuagin lair in an attempt to clear their names from the stigma of releasing the zombie plague in Pasifika. However, they have not returned or reported back. Astrology readings say the team members are being held in some way.

Scribe Notes

1st Fruit

Turns out there's a job down in Pasifika. The employer is from the Gentlefolk's Exploratory Society called Professor Robert Hillenberg (please call me Bob) – a water mage who specializes in the study of sponges. He told us that the Gentlefolks Society was being blamed for unleashing the zombie plague when they were poking around in the sahuagin's abandoned city. Plus some of their members who were exploring in the vicinity were missing. Astrology reading were telling them that they were alive, sort of. That could mean they were undead, paralysed, petrified, in a coma ... or other stuff.

My fellow adventurers were:

• Veor – a 6ft tall Nordic looking woman – described as a troll shaman necromantic ice mage.
• Ben Gaul – shapechanger tiger person who also has trollish tendencies.
• VDH – a four armed individual, nearly seven foot high.
• Imelio de Juran - an elven mindmage with a sentient sword called Harry. Imelio said Harry continually talks mentally to him.
• Serra Angelus - female elven earthmage in a semi-permanent alcoholic haze.
• and me – Aqualina – 5ft 1 inch water mage with a weakened willpower to chocolate.

VDH became the Military Scientist, I was the scribe and Veor got to be the party leader, namely cause the rest of us were trying to hide behind her. Professor Bob was taking a ship back to Pasifika although Veor was wondering how they were going to get past all the drow ships in Confederation Bay without being seen. Veor also said that we should get a move on as it wasn't sure how long the missing explorers were going to stay 'alive' so, after some long discussions on various topics, we went to get our greaters and lessers with the instructions to meet at the Lord of the Bat's tower before dawn the next morning.

2nd Fruit

I will admit I'm not a morning person but I did make it on time and we got our bat wings. I was looking at the sheer drop from the platform when Ben pushed me off ... did I mention I don't like heights and I'm not a good flier? We flew our way towards the Beth Salem portal in the Sea of Grass and I made a splash landing in the large lake nearby. As I swam to the shore I felt something scrape my leg, probably a fish, but I was feeling rather tired as I made my way to the portal. That was when I remembered there had been reports of undead in that lake.

Through the portals and we walked to the trading post, about twenty miles distant around the coast. The landscape was rather greener than the last time I had been here. Coconut palms were growing between the path and the shore while grasses and flowers had established a foothold on the ground around us. It took us most of the day to get to the trading post.

When we got there, we were able to get a bunkroom for the night then settled back to enjoy a meal. Some of us also partook in their latest invention – something called 'umbrella drinks'. Basically they were alcoholic drinks flavoured with various fruit juices with a little umbrella on top. Not sure where they had got that idea from but VDH was looking a bit sheepish. I did a bit of troubadouring that night then, when we went upstairs Veor drew protective ruins on the floor.

Night was uneventful apart from Ben poking VDH every time he was snoring and VDH ending up sleeping on the floor because the beds were too short for him. I was quite comfortable thank you although I did miss having purring cats snuggling up.

5th Fruit

Veor wanted us to get up towards the last place that the missing explorers were. After some discussions on how to do it, we settled on waveriding around the western edge of Rangiwhero. Veor was also kind enough to make ice surfboards for the trip. It took three casts of Waveriding, and two days, to get up there and we had to avoid the coastal rocks and the large, natural waves that can form along the western beaches.

Veor wanted to visit the pixies that live in the forest that had sprung up near the northern tip in case the explorers had ended up there. So we entered what appeared to be a normal tropical forest and waited just past the boundary. I was sure we were being observed and it wasn't long before we were asked what we were doing here. Between my rudimentary pixie and Veor's elven, we got the message that we wanted to talk to someone. So they flew off to get a pixie who knew Common.

Another pixie, called Prilla, arrived along with her butterfly dragon friend. She told us that the missing explorers, led by a Professor Daniel Rutherford had been here but they had left to look at the sunken city of Atlantis and also the abandoned sahuagin city. The pixies had warned them about the 'scaly ones' but Prof Rutherford was sure they had gone. We shared some food with Prilla and the other pixies then left to scout out the area.

Since there was no idea what we were going to find on the seafloor, I decided to plate up in my eog armour which resulted in a bit of ogling from the male members of the party. The discussion on whether to take a mage created boat or an iceberg out to sea also resulted in one of the strangest conversations I had ever heard.

  Veor – "And when I've finished with my iceberg, I let it go to mate with other ones"
  Aqualina - "I've heard of icebergs carving but that's ridiculous"
  Veor - "Well yeah, where do you think the calves come from?"
  Imelio - "And there's a lot of bumping and grinding as well"

The iceberg was decided on and, once we were roughly ten miles out, we bailed off it, descending quickly to the bottom – some more quickly than others. Ben plummeted to the bottom while I made a more controlled descent. Upon reaching the bottom we proceeded to walk, Veor insisting that swimming might make us more a target.

We soon encountered a broken stretch of coral. The coral heads had broken and, when I stealthed around the area I discovered broken bits of bone, the remains of a skeleton, a spear with Pasifikan markings and a skull. Veor detected a spirit in the area which was tied to the scroll. So she picked up the skull and put it in a bag. I was wondering if this was the remains of one of the warriors I had lost during the attack on the sahuagin city a while back. We also found a haversack with the initials D.R.

Just then we spotted incoming sharks and sahuagin. I was setting up to control the sharks and turn them against the sahuagin when it was realised that both the sahuagin and sharks were undead. So I started waterbolting them. Before they closed on us, I had taken out two sharks and VDH was engaging a sahuagin, Two more sharks and two other sahuagin closed on me and I received a rather nasty spear wound, right through a chink in the armour, that rendered me unconscious.

When I woke up, I was inside an ice construction which sort of resembled a cage, presumably for my protection, and the fight was still going on. Imelio was using healing magic to keep everyone going while Harry, his sword, was off smacking our foes. I got back to sending out water bolts while the others continued hacking at the undead, Fortunately we managed to prevail although it was rather close.

We decided to retreat back to the beach to heal up surrounded by wards.

6th Fruit

Meanwhile, Sierra Angelus, who had elected to go down by Pasifika by the employee's ship, was suddenly visited by Prilla who apported into Sierra's cabin. The idea was for Prilla to 'fly' Sierra onwards to meet with us the following morning. This involved pixie dust and met with some rather unusual resistance from Sierra.

  "Fine!  You snort some first and if you don't die, I'll buy some" - Sierra to Prilla.

After a sprinkling of pixie dust, Sierra's insistence on a pre-flight drink, and Prilla's instruction to 'think happy thoughts', Sierra finally followed Prilla into the air and on towards Pasifika, following the 'second star to the right' and arriving just after dawn at our campsite. She then had to brave Veor's wards, which had no apparent effect on her before joining us for breakfast.

After breakfast we started divinating what we found, including the skull.

 "Let's call the skull Yorick, until we know who it is" - Sierra.

The spirit was trapped within the skull and the haversack was bigger on the inside than the outside – somewhat like mine. It contained standard Guild rations, leather bound books, a spyglass and even a collapsed camping table and a stool. The studs that were in the skeletons were some sort of necromantic relay device and removing them stops the control. According to the journal the zombie disease came from the sahuagin.

Four hours later, it was lunch time and Veor created another iceberg. This time we bailed out closer to the sahuagin city which was located in an undersea crater – probably volcanic. There was a steep dropoff to the floor of the crater and we could see activity in the city.

We ended up circumnavigating the crater looking for an easy way down that would leave us unobserved but ended up dropping down the side. We then found a hovel on the outside of the city and hid in it while we observed using crystal balls. The ground had no aura and there were no fish about either. The 'sahuagin' about were all lesser undead and they were engaged in repetitive patterns.

So I attempted to summon an elemental spy and managed to get Aquee, a rather smart elemental, more like a sprite in someways. Apparently she's got sisters, Aqua, Aqui, Aquo, Aqul and Aquol which led Sierra to speculate whether the family name was Duct. Also she said that one of her sisters had been summoned by a water mage that had engaged in some .... interesting activities. Hmmmm ....

Anyway, before the conversations became even more lewd, I sent Aquee out to look for anything interesting, unexpected and different. When she got back she told us most of it was boring but there was stuff in the central pillar that was different including air pockets. There were also normal sized creatures and big ones, including some with four arms. The crystal ball showed four little ones and one big one guarding the top of the pillar. I then probed downwards with the crystal ball but all I saw was dark.

I dismissed Aquee and summoned a larger, and stronger elemental then headed for the top of the central tower. Looking at the undead sahuagin just below the lip suggested that their teeth and claws seemed longer than normal. None of them had weapons.

So, while the others dived in to engage in combat, Veor and I rained ice and water on them respectively. I sent the elemental in to keep the big one busy while our side meleed the little ones. We soon discovered that these ones had a paralysing touch which automatically stunned which had us worried for a bit but we were able to prevail. Now we had to descend into the darkness of the tower's interior.

Before we did though, Veor created seven zombies from the corpses. The rest of us were frantically searching for restoratives and it was soon discovered that Vanderhan was the only one who had stocked up. Fortunately he had quite a few so those that needed them, scrounged one and we set off again, descending slowly down into the tower with the elemental and the smaller zombies in front.

About 150ft down we hit bottom and our forward ranks impacted on a group of six sahuagin skeletons and two rather large coral golems behind then.

  "You should become a mind mage.  Then you'd be forewarned as well as four armed" - Sierra to Vanderhan.

We waded into them. I was providing covering fire from behind and also considering whether or not I should dismiss this particular elemental and get another one that was more like a Marine – like the one Basalic had got a while back that he called "Sergeant Rock".

The skeletons were, surprisingly difficult to get down, but since we were basically limited to piercing weapons, being underwater, that may have had something to do with it. Also, Veor observed that the coral golems were regenerating themselves and we hoped that this wasn't a trollskin effect. Fortunately this fear proved to be unfounded when the mass melee around one of them resulted in a pile of coral sand.

At the beginning of the combat, Imelio had managed to backfire himself blind while attempting to put up a Mind Speech. So Veor caused Imelio to be abducted by a couple of zombies to put him where he was most needed. All Imelio had to do was to have an outstretched hand with a prepared healing spell ready for who needed it, including Veor's zombies, to brush against it. My elemental was taking a bit of a battering so I had to take advantage of that.

Finally the fight was down to a mass melee against the last coral golem. Veor struck at it twice, and his second strike, a kick, sent coral sand flying.

I was nearly out of spell fatigue so, again, it was a rush for restoratives and healing potions before we started working our way down the passage in front of us. Doors led off from either side.

So I started checking the doors for traps before the others peeked inside. Seemed to be guard quarters for the most part although one off to the left seemed to lead to what could have been a forge. Nothing interesting was found. Up at the other end was a set of double doors.

The large room on the other side of the double doors was occupied by a large four armed sahuagin skeleton, six smaller two armed sahuagin skeletons and a skeletal serpent that was wrapped around a standing sarcophagus.

I've never been keen on snakes but this one had some sort of fear attack gaze and I got a tad hysterical. Ben had to slap me out of it. The next gaze attack sent me back down the corridor so I sent the elemental against the snake in order to maximise my safety. Unfortunately the snake ended up taking out my elemental. Meanwhile the others were dealing to the skeletons.

The snake tried to fear the others but failed.

  "It's attacking the males who are busy fighting and they can only do one thing at a time.  Try again when they're done" - Sierra.

Eventually I was rallied by Imelio. A flurry of water bolts, powered by rage, announced that the water mage was back in the fray. The bolts plowed into the skeletons and, between that and the others actions, it wasn't long until they were brought down. The skeletal snake took a little longer but, soon, it too was down.

A closer look at the sarcophegus led us to wonder if it was actually some sort of cocoon as there didn't seem to be any way to get it open. Inside was one confused mind and a larger control disk was stuck in it. I couldn't find any traps but it was definitely magical. Veor tried to remove the disk in one piece but then discovered there were wires attached to it that disappeared into the interior of the sarcophegus. She ended up turning the disk to snow. Vanderhan then shattered the sarcophegus. A big blob of air erupted from the wreckage along with a human male wearing a helmet to which the wires were attached. I dropped a previous waterbreathing spell on him and we discovered this was Professor Rutherford. He told us he had been dreaming of conducting battles ... and losing. Military Science was not his strongpoint. Instead he was a Namer – with extras as well as a Master Alchemist and was the leader of the first expedition. They had been taken down by a large force of undead while investigating the sunken city of Atlantis.

The zombie plague was definitely necromantic and it's purpose was to convert the population to undead. The necromancer involved was female and she had been seen directing the undead forces. Some sort of humanoid mer-octapoid. I was starting to get very suspicious about who this might be.

Without their local controller, we suspected that the undead would be rather confused although Veor was explaining that the professor was more like a sergeant, relaying someone else's orders as the undead had been behaving more like they were being ordered by a master military scientist. So there could be commanders and even a general in the chain of command.

It was late at night by the time we reached our campsite. I was glad to get out of my armour. Rutherford tried to locate his companions but failed.

7th Fruit

Veor divinated stuff then we took an iceberg to the trading post. I went to talk to any Pasifikans about to see if there were rumours of any other places that had undead. There were rumours of some around the gyre to the north, and possibly some to the south. Again Rutherford's attempts to detect the missing 3 (or 4 counting the other warrior) or the six in the rescue party failed.

8th Fruit

Headed down to the twin islands of Mangere. This time Rutherford managed to locate all but two in the same place somewhere to the north east. That was when Veor realised that was the direction to the Sea Witch Ursula's cave lair. I was getting more suspicious while Veor, who had met the sea witch before, decided we should go with a gift. Not finding anything suitable there, we headed back to the trading post.

10th Fruit

Day to the trading post, day back by iceberg. Veor told her iceberg to stay and wait instead of going off to where other icebergs go. I made the comment that it looked like Veor's iceberg was sulking at that which lead to the following exchange:

  "Don't you dare ESP my iceberg" - Veor
  "Is whether or not an iceberg is sentient something that man ... or woman ... is not meant to know?" - Aqualina.
  "Well ... I don't want to know that" - Veor
  "I won't tell you then" - Imelio.

So we swam down and I noticed troops of undead on the seafloor – drilling. We had the feeling we were being watched but were being allowed to proceed. At the entrance to the cave we were met by a rather pretty female elf who conducted us to a well appointed cavern where we found Ursula lounging there on her throne. Also there was another pretty female elf floating nearby. Both Ben and I were appraising them while Serra had determined that neither of them were in complete control of their faculties.

Veor introduced us and told Ursula that we were on Guild business and we were looking for some missing people. Ursula looked Veor in the eye and told her that she hadn't seen any of them. I was inwardly seething at this as we had already recognised the two elves as Bella Waverunner and Bella Foamsong. Both are water mages. Waverunner was on the initial party while Foamsong was on the rescue party. Neither of them are aquatic elves.

Since Ursula wasn't open to negotiation, we headed back up to the iceberg and went back to the mainland. On the way, we discussed the situation and came to the conclusion that we couldn't take on Ursula in a frontal confrontation. Also, the captives must be crucial to whatever plan she was conducting. I was all for sneaking in and rescuing the captives but Veor believed that, even though there were probably more than one entrance, the place was probably laced with booby traps. She believed that we may have to seek assistance from some of the more powerful Guild members such as Engalton.

11th Fruit

Back at the trading post, I arranged to get a message off to King Kierl about the situation then went to see our employer. Professor Rutherford was with him and we were told that they had found evidence that the plague was deliberately set. A contaminated abolith skull had been found and it was known that a previous party had given Ursula a dead abolith. Also, while we were down south, they had sailed around and discovered that one other captive was in Itimanuka Bay and the other was somewhere to the north east of Rangiwhero.

Some discussion was had on what should be done next. Initially Professor Bob wanted us to go in there and rescue all the captives with the help of the Orb of Disappation that Professor Rutherford was developing. This would require, among other things, a pearl from a giant clam, ink from a giant squid, and something called Death Coral. I was keen to help although there was this legend of a large oyster with a giant pearl that was guarded by lots of smaller oysters.

We finally decided to get the other two captives while Rutherford gathered his ingredients. I also planned to find out as much as I could about Ursula as I could in case we had to take her on.

The next destination was Itimanuka Bay – along with some Barrinor Knights. We also picked up six restoratives(R6), enough ingredients for me to make six Waters of Healing and twelve Emerald Moss potions.

Again it was a case of walking towards the target. I was expecting this bay to be rather vibrant with life as it had been sacred to Itimanuka but it still looked rather desolate. One of the sahuagin's outpost bases had been here and Grendel had blown the dome off it. Presumably the tunnels underneath it had been cleared by the merfolk/elven forces.

There was definitely a lot of debris strewn around but we soon discovered that there was still undead guardians down here as we soon found ourselves in combat with undead that had come out of one of the tunnels, consisting of zombie sharks, zombie manta rays and skeletal sahuagin – six of each.

  "We don't have blast magic – we have chip and whittle magic" - Imelio

Even with 'chip and whittle' magics, I was able to blast five of the sahuagin into oblivion while the others, with the help of the knights, defeated the remainder.

We then entered one of the three tunnels as we were fairly sure they all joined up underground. Exploring the passages revealed some rather interesting loot in what looked like a long, wide, trophy room with large doors at the end. Going through those revealed our destination.

There was an enormous flesh golem, two coral golems and six skeletal sahuagin. They don't move while we put up defensive walls but, once we attack, they move in. We managed to keep in within the Wall of Geysers and other damaging areas while we fought back.

Finally they were all down and we could see the sarcophagus. There was some discussion of how we were going to get it open. Veor removed the disk and we ended up dragging it back to the beach. As we did, I looked around at the desolation in the bay floor and prayed that now there would be a chance for the area to regenerate.

The magic on the sarcophagus was mostly non-colleged but there were hints of necromancy on it. Opening it was easier now we were in air and we soon cracked it open revealing an elderly bearded man.

  "Doctor Livingston I presume" - Aqualina.

Veor spent the rest of the day divinating the items we had brought back while the rest of us rested.

14th Fruit

It took us a few days to walk back to the trading post. Veor vetoed my suggestion of a boat in case we were attacked by Ursula's forces investigating the loss of this part of the command chain. At the trading post we planned our assault on the last missing person near Rangiwhero.

16th Fruit

We sailed up there in the employer's ship, taking two days for the trip, partly because we went around the west coast and partly because we gave the area around Atlantis a very wide berth. We also wanted to time our arrival to be at dawn. Veor also wanted to pick up the undead she had left near the fairy forest but all that was still usable was one skeleton. So the skeleton was ordered to guard Imelio's back, which led to the discussion whether or not Imelio would end up sleeping with a skeleton on his back. I commented that the skeleton wouldn't feel as heavy as my big black cat which led to the following conversation between Veor and myself.

  "How many cats have you got?"
  "Six – not counting the hangers on."
  "So you're a crazy cat lady then"
  "Erm ... I don't think so"
  "You've got cats ... and you're a lady"
  "Yeah ... but"
  "And you're in the Guild ... that makes you crazy"
  "Oh"
  "Which makes you a crazy cat lady"

I had no answer to that. Anyway, as the sun rose we could see the newly formed barrier reef marking the drop off to the abyssal plain beyond. The water here was about fifty feet deep and wee could see coral heads below.

So we buffed up and headed down to the bottom as we were walking again. It was a rather eerie landscape with the sandy bottom and all these coral pillars around us and we had to walk around several of them. A short while later, we saw in the distance what we originally thought was a natural formation but turned out to be some sort of grown coral castle – probably elven in origin. I speculated it was one of the old border guard fortresses.

Usual Guild tactics when confronted with the unknown seems to be charge in – which was what we ended up doing with the aid of a mage current – which Veor commented wasn't fast enough. As we approached the castle we encountered three octopi and two giant starfish – all of them were living which meant that there was a possibility of us controlling them – unless there was something else already doing it.

However, instead of doing that, it was decided I would direct the mage current in an attempt to slow their advance while the others beat them up. I would then fire water bolts at them. That was basically what happened for a while until Sierra was affected by the starfish's toxin which caused nausea. So, once the octopi were defeated, and, since we were buffed with Waters of Strength, it was decided to close in with the starfish, pin them down with superior strength and basically stab them into submission. So, with a whoop of glee, I joined in the pile. Veor had transformed into a minotaur (now that's something you don't see every day) and Ben was in tiger form. For some reason, there was speculation on whether or not Veor was a male or female minotaur but I pointed out this wasn't really an appropriate time to sex a minotaur. Ben was also then affected by the starfish's poison which made it look like he was coughing up a hairball.

  "Crouching Starfish, Puking Tiger" - Imelio.

Since both of them had enough healing to fix it themselves, it didn't take long for them to recover and continue the fight – and basically – the starfish didn't stand a chance.

We advanced into the castle. The smaller buildings were empty and looked like guard quarters. Once they were cleared we headed towards the larger structure. The path was lined with coral and rocks and there was a sinkhole on one side – nothing in it though. The larger structure, presumably some sort of keep or manor hall was dome shaped and inside it we could see two large pillars, four sahuagin skeletons, two coral golems and a giant crustacean. No sign of a sarcophagus though.

They didn't move as we laid down geysers and a freezing wind in the entrance. Just then, the entrance filled up with squid ink then the coral doors slammed shut. By the time we battered them down with spells and clubs they had repositioned waiting for us, the geysers and freezing wind had been dispelled and a spell barrier had been put up. Great – the lobster is a Namer.

My water bolts were being absorbed by the spell barrier – which was causing me much frustration. Ben commented I needed to learn more swear words. Veor must have surprised the lobster as it scuttled behind a pillar when he successfully got a killer cloud in there. The others then went into melee as the other creatures advanced towards the entrance. I was trying to provide covering fire but only one volley got through, the rest being absorbed.

The others were trying to push forward enough or defeat enough of the minions in order for me to get in there and use my magic more effectively. Meanwhile Sierra had managed to teleport in there to engage the lobster directly with the help of Imelio's healing. At one point, they had to withdraw for a while but, by then, the others had driven the minions back. Three skeletons were already down. Veor was also attacking the lobster and it too went down just after I crossed the line. I was then attacked by a remaining skeleton and had to resort to using my battle axe. However, with the help of the rest of the party we managed to turn the conflict into a mopup operation. The lobster was broken open and the captive released and returned to the ship.

Not wanting to take on Ursula directly, we returned to the Guild but I pledged to come back as soon as possible to see what else can be done.

Buffs and Mil Sci

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Aqualina	Ben	Vanderhan	Veor	Imelio	Serra
Waterbreathing	20	Waterbreathing, See in Watermage fog	21 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Water-Proofing	8	Waterproofs Entity	27 hrs	Y	Y	Y	S	Y	Y
Buoyancy	7	Move up down at 19'/s	4 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Smite	6	D+7 Damage to one melee strike	7 hrs	N	Y*2	Y	N	N	Y
Armour of Earth	14	32% Defence, 1 DR	7.5 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Strength of Stone (End)	14	+14 End	15 hrs	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Watch Order

Marching Order

Calendar

Autumn 813wk: Fruit (4)
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Lugnasad		1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30		1		2		3		4
Autumn 813wk: Harvest (5)
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17		18
	19	Harvest Moon	20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29		30		1		2
Autumn 813wk: Vintage (6)
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17	Blood Moon	18		19		20		21		22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Beerfest