This particular session was unique since we had two of our friends join our party. It was so much fun and really clever and innovative ideas were put to use in the battles we encountered. For a full album of photos, please join my Facebook group.
Thanks!
~Vee~
[Note some DM notes will appear in brackets]
Rising early in the morning, the party left with Finn and
made their way down to the docks. They
met Captain Goda, of The Grim Sharon, and were welcomed on board for a trip to
the Moonshae Isles. Heading below deck,
the party is introduced to Elsa, an elf ranger, and Artimus, a human wizard,
who are on their way to the Isles searching for special bark. They also meet
Ukat Glimmergold, a superstitious dwarven miner who is very chatty.
Two days later as the ship passes through Asavir's Channel,
they are attacked by a galley filled of orc pirates. The party starts to stack cargo up to act as
cover as Tarysia climbs to the crow’s nest. She immediately commands the sailor
next to her to begin making fire arrows using strips of her overskirt and
bottle of oil for the two rangers to open fire at max range with longbows,
catching a few lucky shots. Knowing they
are spotted, the orcs abando subtlety and increase speed. A pair of ballistae open fire and in the
first volley a lucky shot (natural 20) takes out the captain. Finn and Artimus try to steer the ship as the
crew breaks into chaos.
Remembering a locked room below deck, the party convinces
the crew to let them know what's inside, which turns out to be a large supply
of 'dwarven powder'. As the rangers
trade arrows with the orcs, the rest of the party gathers the powder and fills
several barrels and small sacks. Artimus casts an obscuring mist on the rear of
the ship, giving some cover and then the party drops the barrels overboard. As this happens, Eddenfall uses a mirror he
found a while back to reflect sunlight in the eyes of the captain and gunners
to help further distract the orcs. When they get close to the orc ship, volleys
of magic missiles from the two wizards detonate the powder filled casks. The
ship is rocked and after a few more rounds the pirate ship is left with a dead
captain, half the ship gone, and the rest on fire.
The Grim Sharon is damaged but manages to slip away, minus
its captain and a few crew.
[OK some notes from the DM here. This was supposed to be a
pitched battle that would end in both ships being destroyed and the party
floating away on debris. Well that didn't work out. The supply of dwarven
powder was the mechanism that would destroy both ships once enough fire spread
through them. But the party came up with the idea to start making their own
naval mines. After they had blown half the oars off the ship, silenced the
drummer and killed the captain, it would have been pretty hard to logically
continue the attack....so that lead to a small intermission as I adapted]
Unfortunately, in its damaged state and without a captain,
The Grim Sharon is unable to handle a sudden storm and is scuttled against the
rocky coast of an unknown volcanic island.
The party quickly sees that the ship is a lost cause, even if they
managed to repair the ship, it's too far up the beach to ever make it back to
the sea.
As the surviving crew sees what they can salvage from the
ship, the party decides to explore inland.
They eventually stumble upon an old jungle trail that leads them to an
abandoned camp. They find an abandoned
bag of holding with a few potions and journal that describes the past
inhabitants as Northman pirates who found gems on the island and decided to
stay, but there was some conflict.
While they explore the camp, they disturb a nest of giant
ants and quickly deal with them. During the encounter, a thunderwave goes wrong
and hits Ukat the dwarf causing him to be quite ticked with Eddenfall. Given
the choice to quite down and be healed or rest, he opts for the rest and turns
his back on the rest of the party. The party then makes their way back to the
beach, fighting off a small ambush of stirges along the way.
They eventually find an old longship and, tucked under a
bench, an old skeleton that had carved a curse into the wood targeting the
leader of the Northman pirates to seek riches even after death.
The party gathers the surviving sailors and prepares to fix
the newly found ship. They decided to
explore the island a bit and come upon a cave.
They can hear the faint sounds of metal on stone and feel warm air
rushing out upon closer inspection. Suddenly they are attacked by two huge
spiders. After dispatching them, they
discover the spiders were hollow and undead.
Ukat the dwarf spots some gems only he can see in the cave
wall and after 'reading the signs' in the rubble decides it is the mythic
motherload he has searched for and runs off into the cave.
At this point the party shakes their heads at the crazed
dwarf as he disappears into the darkness of the cave, look again at the giant,
undead spiders, give a collective "NOPE" and decide to quickly leave
the clearly cursed island.
[Ok so I had two other encounters planned out here. Deep in
the tunnel they would find the inside of the volcano where the Northman leader,
now a wight, had turned his former compatriots into zombie miners. The party would
arrive just in time to see Ukat killed by the wight's glowing sword, and then
witness him turned into a zombie. If the party intervened they would have a
good fight, and hopefully be able to pillage the accumulated hoard.
At that point a zombie spiders would attack, now freed from
their master's control. The party would
have a chase scene as they ran out of the cave followed by a wave of
spiders. By the time they hit the beach,
the boat would be floating and they'd have to battle the surf to escape off the
island as spiders poured into the water.
Soooo...that didn't happen.
Oh well.]
