When my Ships come in

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Summary

Adventure:When my Ships come in
GM:Bernard
Session: Summer 813
Night: Monday
Location: West Harbour
Level: To suit party

Party:

• Wordsmith played by Errol Cavit. Leader
• Rowan played by Helen Saggers.
• Sau Rus played by Ian Anderson. Scribe
• Roderigo played by Michael McFadden
• Drum played by Jason. Mil sci

House Rules: Opposed rolling combat system play test
Web Calculator GM will bring some copies, don't stress about this.

Employer:
Destininian Shipmasters Association.

Mission:
As yet we have few details but the basic's are; A merchant fleet has gone missing, go look for it.
Recovery is expected as possible, honest failure is acceptable, but may be verified by truth magic.

Pay:
50,000sp each (advanced to the guild). Expenses for each individual are expected to be paid from this, so no further payment is planned.

Diary

We have our meeting with the employer. He is very Destininian and more than a little evasive. Roderigo is convinced that he is being deceptive but it seems more likely that he is merely hiding his ignorance. What we do manage the find out is that there are Six Galleons three weeks over due. They are lost some where between Pacifica and Delph. We arrange to go down to their Seagate offices and inspect their models and pictures of the Ships and their captains. We also arrange a letter of introduction to the Captains.

On our way out some of us notice the observers watching the Destininians. Roderigo went back to watch the watchers and after a conversation with the watch follows them to a decrepit house in Old Seagate. That night we set up base nearby and send in Titch to investigate. The little fellow discovers that the place is solid, Illusioned and hidding secrets. I went in through the walls and discovered that it is traped and that they are using Blood and Spirit magics. I left before getting trapped or discovering the big secret. We inform the Watch without informing them about how we found out about it.

The next morning we left for Pacifica via the Sea of Grass. Once there we split up and go about gathering information. We uncover such gems as it has been three months since the last ship from Delph. The full moon was quite red and the local prices of small art works.

After much debate we decide to sail to Delph on the fastest ship we can find. We are told that the Untouchable Angel can make the delph run in 20 hours. 2000 miles in less than a day, must be sailors exaggeration but we check it out anyway. It is a large cog 120 feet long with a black iron winged angel on the front. After we get on board and set off we divinate and DA the boat. It has or has had on it the following

Ship Strength
Scry Shield
Enchant Armour
Enhance Enchant(rank)
Walking unseen like effect
Invested Storm Calling
Mass Charm like effect on everyone on the boat

Rank 50 , MA Demonic

I spend the time racking my brains to figure out which Demon it is we are dealing with and when did Drum start being an Elf. If I could remember the former I would know how much trouble we are in.

We arrive in Alexandria near nightfall. We decide to take up residence in a nice solid inn. In the night however we are attacked by a substantial force employing firemages crossbowmen and many thugs including some throwing poison. After a short while several of them were dead and a building across the road had caught fire.
Soon after this point, before proper inspections of the enemy dead, the watch invited us to use their accommodations. In the morning we are left in the morgue deep underground while breakfast is arranged. After some post mortem questioning we discover that they were hired very recently and that they attacked us to stop us finding the ships. And they wanted our bounties. Officially it is a robbery gone bad. They had remarkably few earth buffs on them.
Captain Paterpolis invites us to stay a while at his uncles vineyard. As we are not welcome at any inn in town we take up his offer. On nightfall we ride the 5 miles or so out to the vineyard at a quickish pace. The guards are wearing lizard scale and there is something stalking us.Shadow magics are inaccessible and the wraith cloak is starting to fail.
We make it safely to the vineyard and have an entertaining evening talking to the Uncle (even if our Halfling Lord started to snore).The Uncle is quite the scholar and it turns out that there is work for us to do out here. They are having problems with strange elementals and need mages to make sure that they are actually there and deal with them.
Current favourite Demon for the boat is the Duke of the Bath. Is it relevant or is it 'short grass'. Is Drum insulted they only sent three fire mages after him. What is that language the locals seem to speak. I am familiar with most language groups. Could it be Ellenic or Themiskryan.
The next day we tour the vineyard looking for traces of tainted elementals and inspecting the production processes. We discuss during the evening the possibilities of our dealing with the issue of proof of the existence of these elementals. In the morning I study the vineyard to become familiar with the ground we might be fighting on. The others devise tactics for the upcoming battle. After some rest we go out into the darkness of the evening. The logical bait for the elementals is me.
We realise that we are about to be attacked when the ground becomes unfamiliar and our defence spells go down. The vines started to attack us. The Namers went about their work turning them off (they were enchanted plants)and the chopping crew got to work. Then there were magical dark bolts firing at us. The shadow elemental started to attack and it took the combined efforts of Rowan and Roderigo to drive him off. It seemed to have been possessed by some sort of Half devil.
After a day spent recuperating and philosophising we have diner with the captain and the uncle. We get recommendations on local customs involving dinner with your ememies and dining establishments. We decided to go back into the town the next day. we want to have dinner with the Uncle Marcus of the bandit leader that attacked us. He is a trader of spices with the natives on the mainland.

We spent the next two days talking to mages of the house of Diamedies about elementals and dining with merchants and harbour officials. The restaurant looked to one in which assassination would be difficult. We manage to intrigue our dining companions with the tale of the missing Destinians. The spice merchant Marcus tells us of his dealings with them and decides to enquire with his factors in other ports for news of their travels.

After the dinner with the Harbour master we shop for magical trinkets for trading with the mainland natives. Most of them are destructive. After another day and night we are invited to speak with Marcus. One of the trading posts is not answering. His local warehouse manager is to meet us at the docks. He is wearing enchanted silver armour and takes us for a rapid sail without a mast to the mainland.

The next day in the afternoon we find that off the trading post there is a horde of undead under the water. There are vast numbers of skeletal fishes below about 500 feet down. After going around them we make our way overland to the trading post.

The place is deserted and the forest around it is quiet. Inside there are bodies that have had their souls devoured. All the food is rotten and the only organic matter intact we found was the harbour log. It confirmed that the Destinians had been here. There was a small amount of loot on what was bodies. The disease that they carried very nearly killed us all. Rowan cleansed the village with suicidal golems. After a quiet night out on the boat we go up the river in daylight to try and find out what the Destinians annoyed. Three hours up stream we find a village. Using Ellenic we speak to them and find out that they have seen the Destinians and that they had gone further upstream. Their shaman also summoned a spirit to fix up Wordsmith. It was Amusias the Unicorn Duke. They advise us to keep away from a sacrificial temple to unnamed thing a ½ day by foot from here.

The next village is 60 miles upstream. They initially seem more concerned about the wild life. They have also seen the Destinians and they traded a spear of corruption. It is a black iron spear with a barbed head that does not block the flow of mana. It bestows on the wielder rank 20 Necrogeny and rank 20 resist pain. It also has rank 15 Stream of Corruption, rank 10 Necrosis and Rank 5 TK Rage. It will also cause a rank 20 Putrid Wound if stuck by it and there is a hint that it will hypnotise the wielder. It had been curse removed recently.

After spending a curious night we head on upstream. The next village has been attacked. It is burnt out with corpses armed and armoured. Seems to be after the Destinians had been through. There are signs of Dragonfire, Necrosis, Energy bolt and Draining on the bodies. There are no souls again and the village is under the effect of Creeping Doom.

We follow the path the Destinians had used. We find scales of a chimera and a former Destinian informs us that they were on the way to the temple when they were attacked. They had mages and local help. After finding more evidence of a chimera and a basalisc we find their old camp at dusk. About 3am we abandon that camp to avoid the 17 headed Rotten Hydra.

The next day around mid morning we find a clearing. It looks to be about a mile across with tree branches reaching completely across to the middle. The shadows look odd and the distances are off. There is a shadowy ziggurat in the middle.

We send in a Rowan owl. She reports it is more like five miles to the middle. The base is 500 feet across and the top is 100 feet across. Around the base are gouges and scorch marks. On the top of the ziggurat there a dome on top for a larger than human creature to pass through. A skeletal dragon had asked Rowan "Why are you here." She answered "I am looking."It then said "Then Enter." Rowan does not remember what she saw after that.

We decide to take the 5 mile walk to the ziggurat. There are signs of battle and it now looks to be 6-700 feet tall. It is a place of power for Necromancers and Mind mages. It is dedicated to a nameless one.

We climb to the top and say we want to talk. On entering we find that the interior is a mile across. There are strange swirls that move and hypnotise. I put my black suede gloves on and see the hideous sight of a Rotting Dragon. After a brief moment we walked towards the middle. The dragon tells us that they stole the artefacts. It also tells that "All they have is forfeit. All their children shall have their souls devoured."
Roderigo volunteered to take the knowledge of the major items taken. He did look a little peculiar for a while.

After a broken night in the wilderness we take a long force march to the river.On our way down stream we inform villagers about the danger in the forest. They thank us by giving us a bone that can make a golem sentient. After a night spent at sea we go north up the coast while Hector dealt to the undead fish.

We find a village that include short humanoids(kharbi)with a curious mix of languages. After a vegetarian feast we sacrifice our fire investeds to make a strong and happy guide to the spirit world. After an explosion we go into the light. we appear as blobs around a ball of light. We form into a Rat,a Crocodile, a Blue furred Weasel, a Salamander and a pair of Owls.

We talk to a coral snake that is a sea serpent in the normal world. He likes to take down ships for their iron parts. After powering up our guide by putting my fire into it we get too ambitious in our travelling and the guide leaves without us. The coral snake eats it and offers to leave a ship for us somewhere as a trade.

Now lost we hunt shells to make colours for a map. We need to find a home or possibly a temple. The party starts off into the jungle where Rowan finds a troll print. After following it north for a while we are followed by a big black cat. There are greater undead to the east. The cat drops back as we encounter the Howler monkeys learning to be monkeys. Their teacher is up in the trees. MONKEY offers us a shortcut so rather than the steady course north after the troll we take a short cut to a temple.

The temple is surrounded by diseased grass blessing. Blessed by pestilence. Inside the temple there is a spectre. There appears to be several unwell and decaying persons that are being made right by the spectre. Roderigo has a nibble while we talk. Pestilence can get us back but we would have to pay the toll. This would either be some souls or spreading some disease around Pacifica. We decide against this and move on west. We of course have the flu and are now an hour South of MONKEY.

After spending the night at a troll's camp"fire" site we continue to follow the troll until the cat runs past us. Two "things" chase it then....Wordsmith seemed a little battered and the cat is licking him better. The cat's name is Simon and is some kind of elf.

We follow the troll and he turns west. Then we reach a 30 ft tall wall in the jungle that has stones that are suspiciously like scales. We decide to head to the head of SNAKE and find it is behind us. After a telling off SNAKE helps us through to the snake trolls. They want us to take the Ice Troll and the Fire troll to Pacifica. After having a wrestle with Drum the Ice troll agrees but not with the fire troll. At night the coral snake curls around our hut to protect us. He is apparently 150 ft long.

The ice troll takes us to Pacifica on a series of ice bergs. We are occasionally joined in the night by spirit travelling trolls. After being dropped off in a remote part of Rangifero we decide to avoid the humans and go directly to the merefolk. many gills seagull wings and seagull feet for our party. When we get there(300 miles south)we find that they have not seen the Destinians and that they not of the eastern approaches to Pacifica.

Next place is the smoking island of Palau. After taking off our feet we go to the temple. The priests tell us that the volcano is telling us about a portent. We go up to the crater to commune with the volcano god. we all make offerings and some of us get offered gifts. Rodrigo gets offered a glowing ball or a ball of ash. He chooses the glowing ball and nothing seems to happen. Drum gets offered a ball of light or a ball of darkness. He eats the light and turns into a golden dragon.

After a night healing up the damage from the journey into the crater we go off to do a grid search of the near by ocean. We find the ships beyond the Shahugin Line. At least our Enchanter detects them. After putting some feet on we start to investigate the seaweed rafts that are up to two miles across. I can detect undead but they are deep. Under we go. At 500 feet the arrow turns sideways. We find one of the smaller ships and it is crewed by two dozen skeletons and zombies,and commanded by two night guants. After much sneaking, lead by our able halfling we find that the other ships are crewed likewise except for the big ship that has 60 skeletons, 8 night gaunts, 2 Specters and a Lich.

A decision is made to try talking rather than fighting. Starting with the outer ships we find that they do not realise that they are dead so we show them letter from our employers and the crew hand over the special cargo. Using our affronted 'cargo lizard' and a binder raft we transport all 20 tonnes of special cargo to the surface. On the flagship we discover the correct form of address for a lich is your fearfulness. He is working for the Sea Witch Ursala. He is here to trade for the artifacts the Destinians took from the undead dragon of the nameless horrors.

They have the following
Orb - is a avatar of nameless one
Ark
2 Plaques
Statue of Horror
2 Suites of Heavy Jousting Armour
A Trident
Barbed Spear
Wicked Curved Knife
2 Staves

We make a deal that he gets the Orb,Ark and plaques and we get the rest. After this he offers to get us blessed by the Sea Witch and offers us a tow with giant sea serpents.
We lost track of where we were on the way to the witch cave. She helped us to forget where we lost track of the artefacts that the namesless dragon wanted back. She gave us a choice of four Blessings. There was Combat, Stamina, Magic or Mind. After a brief discussion we decide to have our minds blessed. As the blessings will not be ready for a few days we arrange to be taken back to our cargo and make our way to Rangifero.

After two more days we make it into the harbour at Rangifero. A guard for the boat is paid for and we all go a tavern for the evening. In the tavern we are offered a wineskin as a gift. It contained a rather nice wine and we became blessed. It did seem to go well with the giant rabbit stakes.

Late in the evening the Namers decided to Divinate the Artefacts we had remaining. Wordsmith was taken over by the Artefacts and had to have a sleep and become a statue. Our Halfling had to have a wee lie down as well. Those of us who did not look too close at the treasures procured an iron bound chest for them.

A quick boat trip to Delph is followed by an all day flight to the mainland. The next day after flying to the nearest village to the temple to the Nameless God we discover that artefacts are even corrupting the golems so much that we have to carry them ourselves. Every nasty thing in the forest starts to follow us to the temple. We wisely force march our way to the temple an arrive to talk to the undead dragon at midnight.

Wordsmith grew from the pocket he was stored in as we entered and the dragon managed to put on a set of armour we brought with us. He instructs us "Gaze upon the statue and learn and be rewarded for your faithfulness."We do so and new knowledge invades us. The hobbit is rewarded with a knife and we are all offered rewards for taking vengeance on the Destinians' children. We do find out that opening the ark is probably responsible for the current state of the Destinian fleet.

On the way out Wordsmith puts on the Artefact Armour and informs us that he could take control of the undead hydra and other horrors in the jungle. We start hatching a plan to fly some out with us until someone points out that they are needed to guard the approaches to the temple.

Two weeks later after flying, sailing and wagon making we arrive back at Seagate. Wordsmith is immediately set upon by guild security and is removed from his armour. This makes him go mad for a week or so. The hobbits dagger is a Dagger of Sacrifice and will probably make him a servant of the Namless Horror God. He will however get bonuses for sacrificing firstborns. His reaction to this discovery...

"I have shares in an orphanage."

Pity the weasel. It has turned black and is apparently as likely to slaughter the innocents as the undead. We assist in the preparations, Weasel is bound in iron and true silver on the Anvil of Heat and is struck using the Hammer of Weight. There is purple smoke and a large man in purple and gold robes arrives. He gives us gifts and departs giving us the feeling that we should be more just.

The Destinians offer us money for the chests of cargo. We take option b which turns out to be a scholarship and invitation to the Destinian Elite combat school. They are disappointed that we pass the basic requirements.

Standard Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	W	S	R	D	T	B
Greater Enchantment (R)	15	+ 16 on two areas	3 days(5 targets for 3 days)	Y	Y		N		Y
Shadowform (D)	20	+42% Def 1/2 in close	10 1/2 hours				Y
Wraith cloak (S)	12	+20% def -4 dam vs non magic/unsilvered + 13 stealth	6 1/2 hours	Y	Y
Armour of Ithan (B)	5	60 pts ablative armour, stops all forms of dmg	6 hours	Y					Y
Spectral Weapon (S)	12	+13 BC +4 dmg	17 mins
Weapon of Flames (W)	13	+14 BC +7 dmg +13dmg Undead etc	18 mins

Drums mil sci bonus

Constructs

Construct	Greater	Shadowform	Wraithcloak	Armour	Spectral Weapon	Illusion
Chester	Y					Y
Eyelor	Y			Y		Y
Bear	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y
Eeore				Y		Y
Other Golems		Y		Y

Calendar

Summer 813wk: Meadow
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Beltane Full Moon		1	Guild Meeting	2	This day we did...	3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17	"Meet Trolls"	18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28	Full Moon	29		30		1		2		3		4
Summer 813wk: Heat
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14	Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17		18
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30		1		2
Summer 813wk: Breeze
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	3	Day of Death	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