Storm To Port
Storm to Port
Time: Winter 807
Days: Saturdays, long sessions, probably start after lunch, 3 - 5 sessions.
Level: Medium High.
Plane: Farwey
Plot
Following a summer of unseasonal and continuous storms, the weather has gotten even worse, with conventional ships unable to travel and even a number of mage powered ships going missing. The Merchants of Farwey fear that someone is trying to seize control of the sea trade, which while not large, covers a number of rarities and wish to hire a band of competent adventurers to look into this matter, having already attempted to get some locals to do so.
The situation has now reached desperate proportions in the winter, with fierce hurricanes battering up and down the coast, destroying outlying hamlets and causing significant damage to the major coastal towns. As a result of the Hurricanes flying is difficult to impossible starting from as far as 100 miles inland, and getting worse as one approaches the coast.
It is strongly recommended that anyone investigating this matter have at least one water mage as no suitable watermages are currently available for this work, the few remaining water mages brave enough to still go on the water anywhere being of little skill, and utterly non adventuring sorts.
Pay: Some cold hard cash, some investeds. Plus usual loot rights. Approx 20k pay each deposited with the Guild already. (Details and exact size of pay will be sorted closer to the writeup time, but that gives you a ballpark figure of pay before loot.)
Risk: Considerable risk of Temporary death, Some risk of Permanent Death, Xp will match.
Party
- Aqualina - Scribe (Keith)
- Flamis (Jacqui)
- GoK (Hamish)
- Thorn (Helen)
- Vanderhan Le Vircourt (Scott)
Questions for the Employer
((For planning so we are set up for the first session))
You will be met in the guild meeting room by Marvin, an Agent for Duke Argant, who will explain the above situation quickly
Thorn now has Rk 20 Enhanced Vision (the illusionist vision talent) she's going to give Marvin a good hard look to see if he is what/where he appears to be. She knows he's an illusionist and the last time she had dealings with him he was 'undead', an' trying to escape from her and the rest of a guild party who had taken at least two spec grevs while capturing him.
Marvin is entirely human, and a quiet word to guild security will confirm he's even illusion-less for this visit, and isn't projecting image around the room at all.
As for a Question
Whats the word from those coastal Duchies that are further away?
Unnatural Storms are usually either summoned or sent. I'm wondering if there is a pattern that might tell us where to start looking for the summoner,sender, cause.
We certainly believe thats the case that brigands are taking advantage of the situation under the storms. We aren't entirely sure as scouting such conditions is very difficult with scrying magics being well.... useless due to visibility. As for patterns, and behaviour, we are still working on second hand information here, as are the Merchant Houses who have approached us, but the storms seem up and down the entire coast line, as for if they come in from sea or anything, I'm afraid we simply don't know that. We only became involved personally at the appeal of the townships, and no official word had been sent to us from the Empire on it. The behaviour of the storms would be one of the things we'd appreciate it if you can find out if you aren't able to stop them.
How are relations between the Duchy and the Empire at present?
I was just considering how the King or any of his officials we might meet are going to view the Ruler of a former Duchy sending Aid in the form of a guild party into the Empire.
Is it likely his Grace will be seen a good neighbour helping out; or would it be seen as some sort of interference or an attempt to expand the succeed territory. I was just wondering if it might not be better for his Grace and the Duchy at this time, if most of those we meet in the Empire have the impression we are working for the Merchant Houses or those Towns you mentioned.
Party Buffs/Combat Orders
Personally, I'm rather low on potions, can you do me another six pack please.
Gok has strength of darkness, but as he also does defense spells... its a question of ft and as he has trouble drinking potions including restoratives, a few permanent Waters of Strength might be an idea unless you enjoy restoratives.
Introductions
Aqualina
Because there is a high risk, I borrowed the Aqualina puppet off Thaeuss. If something happens to me, my soul with jump into the puppet until the body can be resurrected, and it doesn't matter how long that takes. Thaeuss wants it back in one piece when we're finished by the way so .. please help me look after it. My life might depend on it.
Thorn
She is dressed in a dark blue shirt with green trim, black trousers, long black boots, silvered spurs. Her belt is some sort of lizard hide with bulls head belt buckle, and a little large for her.
She is armed with a matched pair of mithral katana like H&1/2s, and a silvered dagger. She also has a few rings and amulets etc.
I'm Thorn. I'm a Master Warrior & a Master Healer Rk 8 in both.
I'm a non mage, I also have Rk 6 Mil Sci (80sec and D+ 37) and a few other skills at lesser ranks.
I have the illusionist Enhanced Vision talent at Rk 20 so I can see invis and other stuff out to just over 200 ft, but I can't see in the dark any more than any other human.
I'm not pacted. I do have these runes on my right hand (3 blue 1/2 inch runes on her palm) but unless your planing on poisoning any waterways they are not a problem.
I've got these swords that glow a bit, if the glow gets brighter then there are demons or undead nearby. The light makes them more likely to attack me first.
I've also got my shrinking expanding Tower, its useful for storing none magical, not alive stuff that you might not normally take on adventure. Its only draw back its that it only works for me, and it needs the space to expand.
Its doesn't work on a ship although we have had it up under water, and the lower floors got flooded out, which was a bit of a pain.
Also putting up a magical tower often has the effect of attracting the nearest big bad thing; as they come to investigate.
I've been to Farwey before, I 'rescued' Marvin and his two surviving companions who were all some sort of ghouls at the time, and brought them back to seagate to be unghouled.
Scribe Notes
Session 1
1st Frost 807
Met up with Marvin in the meetimg room who, basically, told us what the situation was. Storms were raging up and down the coast. Ships could not sail. Contact had been lost with many of the coastal regions. Marvin's Duke had sent him to get our help to find out what was going on and fix it. Incidentally, if unclaimed lands could be obtained for the Duke, that would be a fortunate side effect for him.
There was at least 600 miles of stormswept coast involved, but there could be more, and the effects were being felt up to 100 or so miles inland. Marvin didn't know of any aquatic intelligences in the ocean but there were flocks of harpies off the coast. Not many of them were known to have magics, especially not anything on this sort of scale. I was wondering if there was another continent that they didn't know about which was sending storms against them as a prelude to invasion.
If only it was that simple. Flamis used her Contact Other Selves ritual and obtained the following:
- Are the storms magical or natural - You have yet to find out
- Are the storms caused by an entity? - Yes
- What is the name of this entity? - The entity has no name
- What is the nature of the entity? - (Complete and utter silence)
- What provoked the entity? - Desecration
- Where is the object desecrated? - (More silence)
- What is required for placation? - An offering
From those replies, we got the impression that none of Flamis's Other Selves knew the details either and were relying on Flamis to find out.
"We consorts get everywhere you know" - Flamis
I was having a really bad thought. Had someone really annoyed Tangaroa, or at least the local equivalent, and he was now unleashing his fury on the land. Suspicion pointed at the previous parties. Unfortunately the scribe notes for Oh Not another Bard hadn't even been lodged in the library and The Ghoul Preservation Society were incomplete, so messages were sent out to members of those parties in order to find out what had happened. The results of those enquiries indicated that Father Rowan was largely responsible. Typical!
I also arranged for a Lesser Enchantment, a Greater Enchantment on spells and weapons, and made up a six pack of Waters of Healing and a six pack of Waters of Strength to go, finally getting ten Restoratives - just in case. When I finished doing all of that, I went looking for the others. I found them in the Tower of the Lord of the Bats, Vance. It had been a clear night as I crossed the courtyard but, when I got to the top of the tower, I discovered that a mark of a lightning bolt on the ground. Ooookay .. that's NOT a good sign. It got even worse when GoK DAed the residual and discovered that the GTN of the bolt was Vengence and the MA of whoever did it was off the top of the scale, even more than a Power. So much for a Reading the Night Sky ritual.
However, we were able to get an astrology reading from the wiccans which said:
- Friends to be made
- Victims to be saved
- Storms to be quelled
- Gold to be taken
While we were out in Seagate, we were told by Guild Security that we had to leave immediately otherwise we might have to take a dip in the Sweetwater to reach the portal. Given that area of the Sweetwater, that would not be a good idea so we did. Plus, we wanted to bring horses. I was going to get Waverider but she needed more training to get used to magic so I left her with Basalic's lot and borrowed one.
The portal trip was literally exhausting and, unlike the last time I had been here, I remembered a very long walk. By the time we popped out the other side, all I was interested in was a bed. We were in a fortress, most weapons pointing out, but some pointing inwards, towards the portal. I guess that's a sensible precaution. Several guards were pointing deadly weapons at us but, once Marven vouched for us, we were let through. Several checkpoints later, our horses were led to the stables and we staggered off to waiting beds.
2nd Frost
It had been morning when we had arrived so, after a sleep, a bath and a meal we basically rested during most of the day. Late in the day we spent six hours with a Namer, making sure we had the actual Name of the Plane. Hopefully it would come in useful later. Once that was done, we rested the night.
3rd Frost
Next morning Flamis fireran our horses to Oldridge the trip was uneventful and we arrived shortly after noon. When we got there, we could see the stormfront running north/south on the eastern horizon. The winds were gusting all around in a very chaotic fashion. We even noticed a cat lounging in a tree. That peaked my curiosity. There had been a cat in the stables when we left as I had to remove it off my horse, and a cat had been hanging around us in Seagate just before we left. Somehow I was thinking it was the same cat.
Once inside the town, we went to see the mayor. He told us there had been no contact with their duke or anyone from the capital of Lemaine for several months. Plus that storm front had been there all through summer. That was definately not usual. He believed it was sometime last winter when the storms became abnormal.
During that discussion we were informed there was a priest of Andomalius, the Earl of Justice, in town. He was basically part of the City Watch and we found him in the marketplace watching the crowds. Somehow, he knew when someone was committing a crime. While I got lunch for the party, consisting of a selection of apples, the rest of the party spoke to him but, he didn't have any new useful information to impart. Besides, I'm rather suspicious of any of the 77. Mind you .. I'm not sure about the Powers of Light either. There was another cat in the marketplace rubbing around my legs as well as I was shopping.
4th Frost
Next day we headed off towards Lemaine. Around twenty to thirty miles out we were under the storm clouds and it was raining. That wasn't so bad. It was the fire running spell that was cutting in and out that was really getting annoying. I was barely hanging on to the horse. It also meant that the current spell wasn't getting us anywhere near as far or as fast as it should in the end Flamis called for a stop in order to renew the spells. Before that though, she tried her Radiant Light spell though and that started to flicker as well after a few minutes. I tested my magic and it was then I realised I felt as if I was on a boat out to sea.
I changed so I was dressed for wet (swimsuit and sash) which caused Thorn to comment that the last time I was dressed like that I was attacked by an octopus. No sooner she said that when ... THWACK ... and an small octopus landed on my head. I pulled it off and killed it .. intending to turn it into dinner. That was when we noticed the fish flopping around on the ground .. and they weren't dying.
Thorn tried to put her tower up on a spot she thought was strong enough. Most of it was but, when the tower expanded, it started to tip as one side was marshier than the other. Thorn was forced to collapse it. So we went on a bit further and found a more stable spot. We spent the night inside the tower.
5th Frost
There were watches all night but no one heard anything. However, when dawn arrived, the trees, we had put the tower alongside, were gone. Instead, running north/south was a shallow trench 100ft wide. Gok took a look at it and concluded that it was caused by water magics, specifically waveriding. Now, that was very interesting - but I had left my surfboard at home.
"There is such a thing as a free lunch" - Flamis after looking at all the flopping fish.
It took six hours to get to Lemaine, six hours of riding through the driving rain which was literally in our face, no matter what direction we went in. Finally we reached a rise overlooking the city. The rain was so bad that we could see the walls but not the buildings beyond ... or was there another reason?
Before we entered the city proper we checked out some farm houses nearby. All were deserted. Some had clawmarks on tne door. Vanderhan finally concluded, after examining the evidence, that something had burst in, killed the occupants, took the bodies and left. Flamis's flamesight ritual told us that the cause was harpies.
As we got closer to the city, we could see that the gates were open and the place was deserted. Several of the buildings were completely destroyed. As we searched we discovered that some of the buildings had been fortified from the inside as the defenders had to fall back and regroup. However, as with the farmhouses, there were no bodies. Ledgers were discovered that stopped at a date six months ago. The actual duchal keep was also wiped out. We did find a few bodies here though, the victims of Water Mage dehydration. There were also a giant octopus and some harpy bodies.
Four buildings had been left untouched. One was a Temple of Aim with a bonfire still burning in the courtyard. As we stepped into the courtyard, it was no longer raining and windy plus I no longer felt that I was out to sea. I didn't like it there at all. Also intact was a temple to Astaroth, a temple to Crocell and one to Furcalor. The only non-temple building intact was a gambling den which was more than likely to be dedicated to Seir *sigh*. Inside the gambling hall was a cat. The cat dashed out and we followed it, to the body of the octopus, dead for at least a week. At least we knew what it had been eating. So far, it was the only thing alive we had found.
We were getting highly suspicious of the cat and even more suspicious when we discovered it had an avatar aura. However, it wasn't the avatar of a known power which led us to conclude it was a minion. When we finally caught on, Seir himself showed up. Apparently we were amusing him.
"Let's see what happens when something tries to eat you" - Seir "I can just see that happening" - Flamis
The water coming down was so thick I felt I could nearly swim in it .. and I did, even managing to keep up with the others who were walking. It was a weird feeling. Anyway we headed for the gambling house. Inside was gambling equipment including dice and several packs of cards. Most of the magics on them was just preservation but there was one pack on a table which had special magic on it. Initially I was very wary of it, as I heard that strange things can happen when someone plays with magical decks .. usually bad things. However, after Gok said that it only contained invested Featherfall, I got more interested, especially since I dislike heights.
It was getting late by then so we camped out in the gambling hall
6th Frost
I had nightmares all night about being eaten by taniwhas. Since I was sleeping with an item that was supposed to prevent that sort of thing, this was rather alarming. And to add salt into the wounds, when I woke up the next morning, I was itching all over as if I was covered in salt. Thorn tried to cure it but all that happened was that her healing hand started itching as well. Fortunately that was easily fixed. Unfortunately I wasn't - at least not yet. Spellcasting is going to be fun .. not.
We decided to head up the coast to a town where we knew refugees had come from so we could send a message containing our report to date. I guess Marvin's Duke would be very interested in moving in. However .. just as we were leaving ................
Session 2
6th Frost
.... an obvious military force consisting of a large group of men, some fifteen foot tall entities, and two giant octopi were moving down the street. We retreated back into the gambling hall with the intention of letting them pass unmolested as it seemed too many for us to take on. At Thorn's urging earlier, I had put my eog plate armour on, although that had the additional disadvantage of not being able to scratch, which was adding to my irritation. Fortunately I was able to create a Waters of Strength for Thorn.
Unfortunately, avoiding a combat seemed out of the question and it soon became apparent that we were their quarry as a sharp eyed individual called out "Oy! Found them."
"There's only fifty of them" - Gok's attempt at rallying us to combat.
The giant individuals and the octopi advanced upon our position while a volley of javelins and arrows rained down upon us. Flamis and I retreated further back into the inn in an attempt to support the others with magics, maybe not a good choice for me because of the itching as I was having difficulty getting my spells off. The octopi knocked Thorn off her horse and was immediately set upon by her and Vanderhan. It soon went down. Meanwhile Gok was hacking into the one of the giants. Thorn then took on another of the fifteen foot figures and had her sword arm lopped off. Meanwhile the other octopus I was trying to control was brought down by the others.
Geysers erupted around us and there was more evidence as casting as I could see two maelstroms beginning to form. I did manage to get a Mage Current off, hoping to use the local conditions to knock the rank and file over. However, it turned out there was a much stronger power controlling the waters so I couldn't influence it.
Gok teleported behind the mages to take them out. Meanwhile, one of the fifteen foot giants got up .. and was battered down by Thorn's horse. It either had a trollskin or, as it was later proven, it was a troll, as were the others. Gok sent nightmares at two of the mages while we gathered around Flamis and she teleported us all where Gok was. I fed Thorn an Emerald Moss. The mages do a runner while the surviving armsmen formed a skirmish line to cover their retreat. A burst of DTJ's also covered their retreat. Finally it was all over, we had two dead mages one in silvered plate and two unconscious captives as well as 5 dead men at arms, 4 trolls in plate and the two dead octopi. All of which we loot (see below).
The only place we could burn the bodies to prevent any subsequent use of them as undead was in Aim's courtyard, specifically the bonfire there. So Thorn did so. The fire got a bit bigger after that. We then headed out of town in a northward direction. Then we saw another group of armed troops including more octopi. Fortunately we were able to avoid them using the Wildfires and headed east in order to report what we had found.
That lunchtime, Thorn was able to remove the skin disease that I had. Thank goodness, that itching was driving me crazy. However her healing touch resulted in all my hair being burnt off, something else I was not happy about. Meanwhile Gok discovered that one of our live captives was pacted to Astaroth while the other was pacted to Crocell. Upon questioning we were told that the force against us had been ordered by a triumverate of powers: the Lord of the Bath, the Lord of Pain and the Lord of the Sea Serpent. When I asked who the Lord of the Sea serpent was he uttered his name three times despite my attempts to prevent this. After the third utterance, a giant sea serpent appeared.
He told us his objective was to reclaim the land for the sea, a piece at a time. Presumably the current piece is the one that is having the sea effects. The serpent demanded a tribute for him being summoned. The two captives were offered and accepted. They were taken and the serpent left.
We continued our journey back. Once we passed the border where the sea effect ended, Flamis's wildfire kicked in to full power. At the same time, Thorn's saddle caught on fire. She leapt off the horse. I insisted that Gok point his sword at Thorn as it glowed in the presence of demons or their agents. Fortunately it failed to glow which relieved me as I was worried that she had unwittingly became an agent of Aim by sacrificing all those water aligned beings in his bonfire. However, it was now becoming very likely that she had picked up the Fire College.
8th Frost
The trip back was uneventful and, upon arrival, we went to see Marvin. After making our report, he asked us to go back in and make contact with the town that had sent the initial message for help. I wanted a bath .. actually I wanted total immersion in calm water but a bath was the best they had. So I tried to relax. However, it didn't help when a two foot long crocodile mysteriously turned up in the bath. I played with it a bit but, decided not to confide in it as I would with one of my semi-pet stray cats at home as I was sure it was another demonic minion like Seir's cat earlier. Besides, the last time I had been followed by an animal on adventure had been a duck which turned out to be a spy for an evil entity (cf Dragon's Eye). So I was feeling a bit paranoid. My hair was growing back, thanks to all the cantrips I was using.
Meanwhile a healer had been found that could reattach Thorn's arm. She was then divinated by a sixteen year old Namer who determined she had the entire general knowledge of the Fire College at Rank 10, except for Extinguish which was missing and Fire Bolt at Rank 15. The downside was that there was no chance of spell failure. Instead, every potential failure was a backfire. It was temporary though as every three months, she would lose five ranks across the board. I also got the impression from the way he was following her around, that the kid had a bad case of puppy love.
Flamis was consulting with her other selves.
- What is the centre of the effect turning the land into sea? - The effect is.
- What is the cause of the effect? - Magic
- How may the effect of turning the land into sea be reversed? - Breaking the triumverate
- Who gave Aqualina the itchies? - Tangaroa
- How may the Triumverate be broken? - By breaking the power of their Agents
- How many? - As many as possible.
Gok, meanwhile, was communing with his Goddess, Varda. He received a stick of white wood Also, he was told that the base of the Triumverate was in the Lost Isles. The best way to weaken their influence was to take out as many of their agents as possible. If we could do that, Marven could arrange for troops to mop up. So we were looking at a trash and burn mission. Maybe Sven would have been a better choice for this.
10th Frost
We finally made it to Horwell. When we got there we could see that there was a good solid wall, the gates were closed and there were guards on the wall. The surrounding farmland was untouched and there was no activity outside. I was all for going up to the gate waving a white flag but, in case the town was occupied by the Triumverate, it was decided to have Gok teleport us in to the top of the wall. So, that's what we did.
We appeared on the wall .. much to the surprise of the guards. Fortunately, when we told them Marvin had sent us in response to their message they relaxed a bit. I think our answer of "Password? What password?" when asked for one convinced them we were legit.
They had been under siege by the triumverate but reinforcements had arrived in the shape of a Namer and three Water Mages on a ship that had a figurehead of a succubis dressed for war. Their request was for us to clear a twenty mile corridor.
"Right now, I think he's got other fish to fry - literally" - Flamis when the question of whether or not agents of Aim would interfere was asked.
Session 3
10th Frost
There were at least one hundred people that needed evacuated and what was required was a twenty mile wide extraction corridor. However we had no idea what forces were out there so our first priority was to gather info. My waterform worked, but, since I wasn't completely submerged, I looked like a humanoid shaped blob of water which wasn't hard to see. Waters of Vision was defeated by the poor visibility on the rain, even with a waterbreathing, and so were the crystals of vision. Flamis's fire elemental refused to go out in the rain but my water elemental turned into a shark and 'swam' off on a scouting mission. Gok summoned two actual sharks as well. I had the elemental in my orb but, when I checked on the spell in the orb, it was gone. Either it had been killed or banished by forces unknown.
That evening, Vanderhan and Gok went scouting two more sharks. The sharks went ahead and, they too, mysteriously vanished. At midnight, there was a roaring noise out to sea.
11th Frost
Purified, waterbreathings all around, cold resistance on me, shadowforms all around and witchsights except mine didn't work, which was a real nuisance as I was the one controlling the wave we were about to ride out on.
"Riding along on the crest of the wave, and the rain is in our eyes" - Flamis and Aqualina singing, much to the others annoyance
A watery creature was detected in our wave. When it realised it had been discovered, it left heading in the direction we had come. That was clearly marked by the furrow we were leaving.
Half an hour later, we swung by a wall which was manned by defenders . Gok teleported us inside their camp and the fight was on, between us, a large collection of man-at-arms, some mages and some wraith undead. At the end of it, we had won but Gok had been eviserated. Thorn was able to bring him back while the rest of us recovered. Just then a bunch of water spouts went for us one killed GoK. We blasted the mages back for that.
"Why are all my useful spells for this occasion all at Rank 0?" - Aqualina "Because you haven't ranked them" - Thorn and Flamis in chorus
Once they were all down, we secured the camp. Unfortunately there wasn't much loot to be had, weapons and armour mostly. I also created a couple of battlebarges, not as good as Sven's though, in order to shelter in.
It was decided to question a mage for more information so Thorn attempted a resurrection. When she did, the body exploded and a fallen seraphen appeared and attacked Gok. GoK struck it 5 times before he was hit and got eviserated a second time though he did not get killed this time. The rest of us ripped into it with what we had and it was finally my waterbolts that brought it down. That earned me a an ill luck death curse.
Flamis firewalked us back to Horwell but the Namer there was unable to help either. It was beginning to look like that the only way to defeat a death curse was death. That worried me a lot as there were demons involved and I didn't want to hand them my soul on a platter. Besides, we may have punched a hole in their defense line and I was arguing that we needed to take advantage of it as fast as possible before they plugged it up again. The rest of the party agreed but, the only surefire method of getting everyone out in one run was waveriding. So I finally agreed to being killed and raised again.
"So the first order of business is to kill Aqualina" - Vanderhan
Fortunately it went without incident, even though I had lost my Greater and Lesser. But, even without those, and 20 restoratives and 20 healing potions later, I was able to cast the required waveridings and get everyone out. We had to dodge some octopi, water spouts and pink elephants, although I suspect the latter was caused by some of my backfires. I had also lost my sense of taste and smell as well.
Once we were out of the area we had to consider how we were going to break the demons hold on this area. Somehow we had to find the agents and eliminate as many as possible. First thing we had to do was to determine exactly what resources we had to work with.
Session 4
11th Frost
Once the refugee camp was established we used our scrying and precognition spells etc in an attempt to locate another fort. After a few failed attempts both Gok and I got visions. We saw a mage doing counterspells, a water spout, and a starry sky. There was enough information to figure out where it was. Flamis confirmed the location so we did more scrying. It was a square walled camp in the rain zone,
It was decided to strike immediately. So I cast waveridings. Unfortunately Gok's one was running at half speed and Vanderhan's one cut out. It took another restorative and WoH to fix that and we were on our way again. once we neared it, we prepped up then teleported in and Gok cast Falling Star spells before we teleported out again to a safe distance. The resulting fireworks display was spectacular. Once everything died down we went back in again. Everything was wrecked but one of the battle barges was moving away westwards towards Horwell. So we teleported on top of it.
The battle barge basically consisted of a small fort on top of a flat deck and was being propelled by a mud equivalent of mage current. There was a hatch on top which we assumed led to the wheelhouse below. Unfortunately it was secured on the other side. Then the barge started shaking from side to side as the occupants became aware of our presence and attempted to shake us off. I ended up on the deck. Nearby was a door leading inside and some portholes. The door was secure so I peeked through the porthole. Inside were four mages. So Gok teleported us inside, triggering the agony ward. I was affected but the others weren't. So, it didn't take long to take out four rather surprised mages. We also found some more waveridings and pyrotechnic investments.
Also on board was an altar, dedicated to the serpent demon. The chair, that one of the mages had been sitting in, also had serpent carvings on it. We soon found out that the entitre boat was consecrated. I was able to steer the battle barge back to the fort we destroyed. One of the other damaged battle barges contained supplies so we commandeered that one instead, leaving the first one to burn.
I was able to steer the boat until we reached the edge of the rainstorm. Once there, the supplies were transferred to Thorn's tower, along with the bodies of the mages and we headed back to the refugee camp.
Flamis was using the bodies of the mages to do flamesight rituals. Among the visions was one of some sort of temple surrounded by pits which appeared to be used for ritual sacrifices by drowning. I found that totally despicable. The temple itself was on the coast - the real coast. Also there was a bridge which first appeared to lead to nowhere but upon further study, led into a portal. We also noticed that it was not actually raining in the vicinity of the temple. With all that information, I was able to get a vision of the place then, in order to get an idea of how far away it was, started reducing the effective rank of the spell. That told us it was somewhere between 80 to 95 miles away from our current location. We then moved twenty miles south and tried again. This time I could still see it at the 80 mile range. A bit more experimentation and we had it located.
We then spent the next three days testing our magics. Thirty miles from the geographic coast, I still felt like I was at sea. Also mage current had two forms. Under the storm cloud, all durational magic that had a fire attribute, would be intermittent, becoming more off than on as the caster got closer to the coast. Instant fire magics were unaffected.
14th Frost
While we were doing all that scrying, I had managed to calculate the location of a third fort using the other two as a guide. So we went out and flattened that too. We also sent a message back to the Duke, letting him know what had been going on. In reply, he gave us a detachment of twenty foot knights and five mounted celestial knights.
We couldn't scry inside the temple but we were able to get a general layout of the outside including the guards. If we could take them out, then the knights could blockade the bridge while we dealt to the forces inside.
Session 5
14th Frost
The temple itself was located 300ft from the bridge and two of the guards were guarding the bridge while the rest wandered about. Some of the guards were watching the prisoners, about 20 per pit, in the pits. Only four octopi could be seen with two in the water and the other two squiging around the bridge. Thorn and Vanderhan took the pyrotechnics wands. They also took two of the waveriding staves while I acquired the remaining one. I might keep it afterwards.
However we didn't go in straight away. The knights wanted to train in small unit tactics and Flamis insisted that I practice my Counterspells. So, for the next ten days, we plotted, planned and practiced.
25th Frost
I had a waterbreathing and resist cold on me, as well as having borrowed Flamis's magic resistance ring. We were also firearmoured as well as witchsighted, blended, walkingunseen. All my permanent Waters of Strength I have brought were used as well and Gok used the stick he got from Varda to gain a favour of adding more power to our weapons, including the knights. A very good thing as is turned out. Weapons of Light were put on our swords, or dagger in my case. Finally the extra high powered wraithcloaks were also used on us all.
Once we arrived the guards were blasted with falling stars, meteor storms and a light sphere. I attempted to control an octopus but failed. There wasn't time to try again as we blasted our way through the minions and into the temple itself, working our way to the central chamber.
The central chamber was circular with three exits, the one we were about to burst through and two at the sides. The corridor had run all the way around it so I had left my water elemental on the left, while the other was blocked with a double layer of Walls of Starlight. In the center was a pit with four grooves in the floor radiating into it and at the back was a raised dais with an alter on it. Lots of minions were scattered around the place, many of which were mages in ceremonial robes, who were engaged in some sort of ritual. On the dais, along with some of the mages, was a demonic serpent and two fallen malachims.
Gok teleported us all right behind all three of them. As we arrived, we were hit by an agony spell, and I was the only one not to resist *sigh*. We also found out we were in their enhance enchant area so Flamis and Gok took full advantage of that to hose as many minions with dragonflames as possible. Vanderhan went for the nearest minion while Thorn went for the dragon serpent which turned around and smacked her back with a giant axe.
For a while it looked like we were in trouble as Gok was caught in the dragon serpent's jaws and looked nearly the worse for wear. I was able to send in my elemental, despite the pain, but it was largely ineffective, being quickly smacked down by a mass attack. However Vanderhan struck home and took out the serpent. We were also being attacked by geysers and necrosis spells. All I could do was roll out potions to those who needed them, and drink a few myself.
Gok fell down and Flamis was able to drag him towards me. Unfortunately I fumbled three of them but got the fourth one in him, just as Vanderhan took out one of the malachims. Soon after Thorn took down the other one and then they turned on the mages who were still tormenting us. I was trying to bluff them out into thinking I was cursing them and was feeling magic impact for my troubles. Many of the minor minions were taking the opportunity to make a discrete exit while we were occupied.
Finally Vanderhan took down the necromancer then finished off the water mage. He was deathcursed, twice. There were three mages left by the pit who were still working on the ritual and managed to complete it. They suddenly melted and flowed into the pit. Time seemed to stop as we waited for the large icky thing to come out of the pit but, nothing happened. Gok sent dragonflames into it, just in case.
Once the fighting was over, and the agony faded, we took stock. The pit was fifty foot deep. Nothing useful was left to loot but we were still expecting some demon thing to show up so, after Gok tried to deface the altar, and determined he would have to leave his sword permanently stuck in it to succeed, we decided to leave.
Outside, the knights were mopping up. There were two dead sea serpents draped over the bridge. A bunch of minions had managed to make it through the line and into the portal. The portal was DAed and it was discovered that the Plane of Destination was Farwey.
Upon the Knight Commander's insistence, we went back in the temple to examine the pit. Still no slathering monster demon, much to our relief. We discovered through Das that they had attempted a Call Master by sacrificing themselves, and three was the bare minimum, but the ritual had failed. The whole temple was dedicated to all three of the Triumverate. The portal direction was west with a faint detection of east. In order to deactivate the portal, all the ruins need to be destroyed. Vanderhan started to do so, but kept fumbling with the hammer and chisel. We estimated a week of labour to do it by a stonemason so the Knight Commader decided to organise to have it sealed. While that was going on I was helping heal up the knights.
There were lots of dead aquatics on the beach so I did a bit of beachcombing, picking up interesting shells for my collection. The storm was still overhead but it had taken a while to form so it would take a while to dissipate. While I was scavenging, Vanderhan was killed and resurrected.
2nd Snow
It was now becoming conclusive that the storm was dissipating. Already the magical water effect had receeded back by five miles. However, it would take a while before everything was back to the natural order. We had the Duke's Namer divinate the portal in the meantime but he was unable to provide no more information. So I suggested that someone quickly pop through the portal at high noon and measure the angle of the sun on the other side. Gok did so and discovered that there was a lot of defenses at the other end, five times bigger than we had encountered at this end. However, it was still noon which meant it was either a very short portal or something weird was going on.
There was not much more we could do here .. at least what was relevant to this mission .. so we headed back to Seagate, discovering that the portal exit was ten feet submerged in the Sweetwater by Old Seagate Harbour. Yuck! After that water, I was so looking forward to getting back to my own, clean, water in Dolphin Bay. And yes Flamis, I do plan to rank up my Counterspells .. as well as Geyser and Waterspout.
Names
Added names of assorted people of note to be placed into scribe notes where appropriate, will fill others in as I name them.
- The Captured Subcommander: Captain Penda of Alisar.
- The Celestial in charge of Horwell: Caelin Ricson
- The Mayor of Oldridge: Imric Cooper
- The Succubi Figureheaded Ship: The Hlothere
- The Captain of said ship: Linson Waverider.
- The Dukes 18 year old namer: Wilfrid Willow
Combat Intros/Loot Lists
To speed up things if at the end of a session a combat is impending, an Intro to give an idea for the party to discuss tactics before.
Combat One
At the end of the street a band of a dozen men, backed by two fifteen foot tall full plated figures can be seen just come from around a corner, picking their way through the rubble in the direction of the gambling hall.
They are currently about 200' away, working as an obvious group, though anyone trailing behind them would not yet be visible, and look well off, though at this range it is hard to distinguish weapons or type of armour, simply that they look fully equipped in general, not loin cloth and beggars kit.
No obvious cries of alarm, or gestures in your direction, are evident yet and it appears that the smallness of your group, and your high state of alert has allowed you to spot them first.
City Map
P.S. If someone has a print out of this it may come in handy.
GM's loot list
- 2*Pyrotechnic Wands, 3 Charges each, Rk 6. (used)
- A rod of Wave Riding, 2 Charges, Rk 20.
- Storm Calling, 10 Charges, Rk 0
- Wraithcloak, 5 Charged, Rk 20 (+32DEF, +6AP, +21 stealth) (used)
- Silver Dagger(+10 SC), Invested with Darksword, 1 Charge Rk 20.
- Rk 8 Silvered Improved Plate(+2 AP); Damaged
- Rk 10 Silvered Hand and a Half(+10 SC)
- 20*Javelin(+5 SC)
- 5*Scimitar(+5 SC)
- 8*Rk 4 Chainmail(+1 AP); Damaged
- 3*Composite Bows(+5 SC)
- 80*Silver Tipped Arrows
- 24*Healing Potion(10 Point) (used)
- 12*Restorative(8/16) (used)
- 3*Waters of Strength, Rk 6 (used)
- 4*Troll Sized Improved Plate(+1 AP) Damaged
- 4*Giant Axe(+5 SC)
Total Value: 136000 +/- a thousand or so.
Loaned Items
On loan from the Employers. Any unused equipment is expected to be returned afterwards.
4 Rk 6 Enhance Enchant Scrolls(Common)
4 Rk 10 Celestial Healing Scrolls(Common)
Combat Two
The Town of Horwell has requested a 20 mile Corridor be cleared east for them to remove the remaining townsfolk to safety.
((Any plan posted up in this space I'll be assuming to be finalised, requests to the NPC's for information/specific assistance can also be put here and I'll reply))
A request for any information of the forces that have them under siege.
Any known fixed locations, numbers & type troups or creature, any mages identified.
Also can their mages do any power ups to save ours ft for combat, and what counter spells can the namer do... with particular interest in those of identified mages and necro Special.
Whats known of the forces attacking them is that they have summoned water creatures, harpies, and foot troops. Also an odd lesser demon has been seen.
They aren't sure however of what they have in reserve as the scouts they have sent out haven't come back.
No specific targets have been identified either, the ranges involved have caused one figure to look pretty much like another through the rain.
They do know the enemy has water and air mages for sure.
The Water Mages on the ship can take care of Waterproofing(20)/Breathing(20)/Waters of Strength(10).
The Namer can do counterspells for water/air/necro, but will only provide 5 counterspells total.
Loot
2*Pyrotechnic Wands, 3 Charges each, Rk 6.
2*rod of Wave Riding, 2 Charges, Rk 20.
The Majority was destroyed in the mass effect magics used in the fights.
Final Loot
(Investeds valued by guild at cost to make)
Relevant Items(I removed all the mundane chainmail & stuff from this list, to make it simpler)
- Storm Calling(Air, 10 Charges, Rk 0, BC 60%), (1000).
- Silver Dagger(+10 SC), Invested with Darksword, 1 Charge Rk 20(BC 110%). 2650(Dagger 110, Investment 2500)
- Rk 8 Silvered Improved Plate(+2 AP); (25520 current value, Damaged Fixing and modifying that Plate will cost 25,000sp)
- Rk 10 Silvered Hand and a Half(+10 SC) (935)
- 80*Silver Tipped Arrows (100 per 20)
- 2*Pyrotechnic Wands, 3 Charges each(68% BC), Rk 6. (2700 each)
- 3*rod of Wave Riding, 2 Charges(100%), Rk 20 (6000 each)
- Pack of Cards (52 Charges Featherfall, RK 0, 50% BC): (5200)
Loot Each
28900sp each after tax & beer expenses. (beer expenses making it a nice round number rather than 1.1sp at the end)
2*Quicksilver Vials(Invested Quickness, Rk 15, BC 86%, One use) (2250sp each)
1*Silk Sash(Invested Invisibility, Rk 16, BC 101%, One use) (3600sp)
2*Arrows of Seeking(Invested Locate, Rk 20, BC 96%, One use) (2000sp)
