The Great Sea Road Campaign/Session 1

Sam Clementine, Grokkus Babooff, Ashleigh and Tarragon Hab, J.P. Hadid, and Simon Colton Graves are travelers making their way north on Koral's Great Sea Road. The convoy they're traveling with has 20-something people and is made up mostly of members of the Cult of the Deep (a local sea cult) on a pilgrimage led by Friar Dave and Deacon Beam. In addition to the pilgrims and the party members, the convoy also includes some fishermen, a couple of wealthy burghers, a man named Daeron who appears to be a mercenary, a woman in mendicant robes named Sister Leila (identified by Sam as belonging to another local sea cult called the Cult of the Foam), and a handful of other shady-looking people. The convoy tends to pick up some additional travelers whenever the road passes by a town.

The session opens with the convoy camped for the night. J.P. sits watch, Tarragon makes a poultice of herbs for her sickly old goat Juniper, A.Hab sharpens her harpoon, Sam and Graves sit by the fire, and Grokkus tries to find three other players for a game of Leyline. Grokkus, A.Hab, and Sam's assistant Gale Sternheart Jr. sit down to play, joined by Daeron (aka "Grimface") the probably-a-mercenary. A.Hab and Graves get into an argument about which is scarier--wolves or whales? Tarragon greets the cards players and introduces Juniper to Daeron. Daeron does not understand what's so special about this goat.

Most of the pilgrims in the convoy appear to be treating this pilgrimage as a sort of party/vacation, and have been spending the majority of their time either getting drunk or recovering from being drunk (specifically, getting drunk on "tarrg", a crude alcohol made from fish oil). The convoy has mostly been moving pretty slowly.

After cards, Graves, A.Hab, Tarragon (and Juniper), Sam, and Gale decide to go out for a late-night hunting/fishing trip. Graves goes off to hunt, A.Hab and Gale go fishing in a nearby stream, Tarragon just goes along to watch, and Sam does some water-themed prayers. A.Hab's harpoon is comically oversized for the sizes of the fish in this stream. She instead opts to whack some fish with the broad side of the harpoon point. Gale struggles a bit with the spearfishing (she has a perfectly good fishing rod but wants to try the spearfishing thing anyway). A.Hab decides to try exhaustion-hunting the fish. A.Hab is a very good swimmer. However, the technique does not work. Graves, off hunting by himself, spots a swamp deer, charges it, spears it, grapples it, kills it, and carries it back to camp. He decides to leave his spear and clothes covered in deer blood for some reason.

With everyone returned to camp, the party goes to bed. A.Hab has a dream about her parents. In the dream, A.Hab is in a boat with her parents in a cove off the coast of her hometown of Ofuk. Her parents are teaching her how to hunt whales, and in the dream, A.Hab spears her first whale. The dying whale looks at her pleadingly, then disappears, followed by her parents, and A.Hab is left all alone in the boat before waking up. A.Hab immediately wakes up Tarragon and tells her all about the dream.

The convoy sets out in the morning. The pilgrims and fishermen are drunk but are making their way along regardless. Tom does an aside explaining the history of elves and racism. Every 30 minutes or so we stop to let the drunk people throw up.

Sam decides to try to convert some of the drunk people to his own sea cult, the Cult of the Tides. In addition to his cult not tithing, and providing (in his view) excellent legal support, Sam sees the Cult of the Tides's main selling point as being its particular signature variety of tarrg, called "salted tarrg" or "tarrg butt", which is made by mixing regular tarrg with seawater. Sam doesn't necessarily gain any converts but he does find six people willing to give salted tarrg a try and maybe convert if they decide they like it. Tom explains that the sea cults are mostly drinking societies for sailors who feel they should pay some lip-service to the sea gods. ("Sea cults are the tarrg of the masses!" --Grokkus Babooff, c. 2000 B.U.)

While traveling, Friar Dave warns everyone about the dangers lurking at the north end of the Great Sea Road, where there is said to be a mysterious portal with strange magicians. J.P. tells him that, actually, it's not so bad up there. Friar Dave is curious and asks J.P. to talk a bit more about it, and JP tells a made-up story about a time he was up by the gate looking for an old book, which he then stole from a great wizard named Gamaralukkkidngjionon. Several of the other people in the convoy seem super interested in JP's story. Graves decides the story sounds fake. Sam notices that J.P. has a weird sort of weapon on him. Tarragon asks J.P. if he's ever met any wizards with healing powers who would be able to heal her goat. J.P. doesn't understand what's so special about the goat. The theme of this campaign is apparently trying to figure out what the significance of Tarragon's goat is.

The convoy stops for lunch, and A.Hab eats some fish while Graves, Grokkus, Sam, and Gale cook and eat some of the meat from the swamp deer that Graves killed the night before. Sister Leila also has some swamp deer meat, giving Graves a fancy polished clamshell as a token of gratitude.

In the evening, the convoy reaches a coastal town with a lighthouse. Friar Dave announces that this is the first stop on the journey, a port town called Fisherhome.