Finding the Burning Marauder

The Adventure:

After crashing on a small island, Clary, Moose, Killian and Milo discovered a frightening secret. There appears to be a powerful artifact out in the world that according to everything they heard, seems to be attracting powerful attention. The news on this artifact has been fairly minimal, except that it was last being held on a ship called the Burning Marauder. Unfortunately a group of sailors managed to take the only clue that had been found so long to track the Burning Marauder. However, there must be still be a way to follow these sailors, or find the Burning Marauder itself before them. Allowing this artifact to fall into the hands of those that would use it for evil is just too dangerous.

Clary:

After we got off that island, Killian and Clary spent their time searching for any word of the whereabouts of Jeffrey and his crew or the evasive ship, The Burning Marauder. One day in a pub they met this bard who seemed quite knowledgeable and well known. As they were talking to Seraph, Mystsplitter shows up out of nowhere and offers them a location of a man who knows the location of the ship. Seraph invites his friend Drusilla to join but she can't meet up with us till after so the 3 of us decide to go to Cascow. Mystsplitter transports us, not a very pleasant experience..

Seraph seems to know the city quite well so we find the house quite easily. Clary knocks on the doors and spouts off how a mutual friend mentioned how he might know the location of the Burning Marauder and would appreciate if he could help us. He didn't appreciate that and quickly pulled Clary in, her friends close after.  Apparently he had spy's watching his house, oops.

Cassius was willing to give us all the information we needed with only one thing in return. Get him safely out of Cascow. Apparnelty Jeffrey got to him first but  Cassius didn't like him much so he told Jeffrey to long way to the ship. So he figured we have a bit of an advantage on them if we move fast. He told us how Seraph and his companions are wanted and how Killian and Clary looked familiar too. So we figured out a way to get out of the city quitely.

Seraph cast his cloaking magic on himself and Cassius since they are the most recognizable. Clary and Killian slowly walked through the maze of the city with occasional directional whispers from Seraph. They came to a crowded block and Clary had a bright idea! She grabbed Killian's arm and started staggering and slurring incoherent sentences. She thought this was fun. They got to the edge of city without incident. They saw a guard posted at the city limits but they got past him quite easily. And now came the choice, by land or by sea.

We needed to save as much time as possible so we decided to get a boat. Cassius had connections so he helped us out with out. Everything went smoothly until we decided to pass directly through Falonde where there was a check stop at the entrance of the city. Thankfully Killian is familiar with sailing and their protocols, unfortunately he doesn't have much of a silvertongue. He almost got them to leave satisfied but one poor lie caused them to be a little to curious. We didn't want to kill anyone but we needed to get them off our boat! So we did with very few casualties, I'm sure they can swim :)

We sailed around the city and got off where no one was. Drusilla heard about our little tussel and found us here. Cassius was satisfied with this and left us with one more gift. He handed Clary a journal, it spoke of a man who hid the amulet (assuming the artifact that is hiding on the Burning Marauder) and he spoke of God's, religion and faith. How he hoped that whoever got their hands on this journal would use it properly and make good decisions. This journal told us how to safely get to the boat. We grabbed some horses and rode hard the rest of the way.

We arrived at a structure. It seems like we are the first ones here, we beat Jeffrey’s crew! We walk in, Not much to look at but watch out for the giant hole in the floor!  After examining the room, Drusilla decides to jump onto one of the platforms in the hole. It moved a little bit but seemed solid, so one by one we all jump on a platform in the hole. It starts descending. Worst elevator ride ever.. there was a pendulum blade swinging around, vents spewing fire and not to mention the oily water pouring in and catching on fire periodically.. but we survived long enough apparently and got to the bottom.

The next room had six doors with different colours on them; green, blue, red, white, black and the final had 5 slots. We all walk into the first room. We see a black glowing orb sitting in the wall. Seraph being obsessed with riches and shiny things it seems, grabs the orb. The door behind us slams shut. After our sudden shock wears off we notice that there is a bowl like circle in the middle of the floor. Seraph puts the orb into the bowl. The rest of us feels a stab of pain in our heads. Seraph feels like he just got a burst of energy. The door opens.

Clary is scared of these things and stays in the main room while her friends checks the other rooms. Killian goes into the White one which makes him go blind. He uses his time spent with Milo to help him get through this one. Seraph and Drusilla go into the green one and have to destroy stone walls which hurt you when you hurt them. Thankfully they made it out with a tired but alive Seraph. Clary performs a quick prayer of healing, seeing her beaten and battered friends and they seperate to finish the rooms.

Killian and Clary go into the blue room. Once Killian grabs the orb it immediately slips out of his hand and falls on the floor, where hundreds of other ones appear. Finding a needle in a haystack this one, but thankfully they remembered the specific glowing of the true one and the others glowed slightly different. They starts breaking the false orbs and eventually found the correct one, letting them out of the room.

Seraph and Drusilla go into the red room. Once the door closes and mechanism shows itself. They figured out that they had to reach the orb through a 2 foot shaft through blades and traps to open the door. They tried using weapons they had but it didn't work. Drusilla looks at Seraph and tells him “I'll take this one” and sticks her arm slowly through the sharp enclosure. After finding the orb and placing it into its slot the door opens and her arm is released. A little worse for wear but she was ok.

The final door had all 5 colours, we grabbed the orbs, carefully, and put them into the door. It opened into a corridor and we see the orbs roll further down the hallway. We see a door which once again has the 5 holes in the shape of the orbs, so we go and follow the orbs down the hallway. There were terrible things down these hallways.. blades with poison on them, spikes in the floor and from the ceiling, scorch marks on most of the walls.. but nothing happening as we walk through it. Clary had an awful feeling about all of it. Seraph turns into a mouse and follows the little path the orbs took while the rest of us keeps following the main hallway. Once we get to the end we see that the orbs are in a bowl in the middle of a room. We all agree that we don't want to just take them, Seraph remembers about his friend, Thordin’s, spell dimension door. Killian and Clary run back through the halls to the main room. Seraph quickly grabs the orbs and puts them into his sack, the bowl they were in moves and they heard grinding. He grabs Drusilla and dimension doors to the main room where Killian and Clary are waiting. Clary looks around into the hall and sees all the horrors they just avoided. They put the orbs into their holes and continue.

The orbs fall through once again into the middle of the floor into a bowl on the floor. And then there's water coming into the room. We notice as the water rises there are lines being drawn on the walls. Clary splashes water onto the mantle where the orbs go and sees that the lines go to each one. Seraph found a symbol for the mind pantheon and traced it back to the slot for the blue orb. Killian used his water genasi traits to make the rest of the connections visible. They got the rest of the orbs into the right slots just in time, seeing as Drusilla and Clary wear very heavy armor and can't swim well.

Once the water dissipates a trap door opens with a ladder going down into a dark room. We continue on. The room is huge, but quite empty. It has stone doors along the walls and the 4 serpent statues in each corner. The serpents have red gemstones for eyes, Seraph immediately goes for one of them. Once he grabs the gem out of the eye socket, which comes out very easily, a pipe coming out of the serpents now open jaw. And the other 3 statues do the same. A poison is now coming out of the statues. While dealing with poison, nerve gas, wind storms, gas clouds.. we try to figure out how to get out this room and Seraph and Drusilla grab the rest of the gemstones. Killian manages to find out that the doors need to be dispelled and does one. Clary follows suite and does another. Seraph sends a thunderous attack at one of the dispelled doors and blows it open. We all go in. It requires the orbs.. Killian offers to go back to the previous room just incase moving the orbs causes more water. He gets them without incident.

Once we open this door we can finally see the ship. Just by itself in a dark cavern. No sails, no crew, nothing. It is a ghost ship. But the name on the stern states Burning Marauder. Seraph boards the boat and doesn't see anything noteworthy. We all get on the boat and Clary goes below decks. She can see a pedestal at the far end of the boat, but nothing else. She quickly tells her friends about it and start walking towards it. The amulet is just floating above the pedestal, nothing special about it, just a very beautiful, intricate piece of jewellery. Seraph joins her and she just looks at him, not knowing what to do. Seraph grabs the amulet. Nothing happens. Clary takes it from him. And then they hear a bang from above deck and a familiar voice to Killian and Clary, “Hello Clary, looks like you've beat me to what I want again. Now come on up and give it to me.” Jeffrey. Clary freezes with rage and a bit of fear.. Drusilla very calmly casts Banishment on Clary knowing that the amulet would be safe. Seraph becomes invisible and Drusilla and Killian start climbing above deck.

“Ok who's next, Clary or the bard?” Drusilla states that there's no one else, go ahead and look. Jeffrey sends some guards down and they say it's true, no one is there. Meanwhile Seraph is standing behind Jeffrey ready to attack. “Alright they must have it, search them!” After throwing Killian and Drusilla’s weapons overboard, looting their gold and gems they find no amulet. Jeffrey points a crossbow at Drusilla and demands to know where it is. And there appears Seraph “Hello!” And casts hypnotic pattern. 3 of the 4 of the guards are stunned into a stupor, Seraph goes for the one that wasn't effected. They make quick work of the guards, Killian having a personal vendetta against Jeffrey takes care to attack him with the dagger Seraph gave him. But Jeffrey jumps ship. Knowing that Clary and Killian don't like this man Seraph goes to look overboard to see if he can see the man in the water and spots him. He sends some mocking words towards Jeffrey then notices the form goes limp and starts sinking. Seraph can't believe what he just did and is slightly stunned. Killian jumps into the water and grabbed their discarded weapons.

Shortly after the battle ends, Clary returns to this dimension and hears Drusilla call her from above. As she gets up the ladder she looks around “Where's Jeffrey!?” Killian throws her a gold pouch, “That's all that going to be left of him” torn between not wanting people to die and the sheer hate she had for that man she mumbles “good riddens”. Drusilla kept one man alive and is questioning him. He tells us it was just a job and he doesn't care about it anymore, now that his boss is dead. We ask him who they work for and he wasn't sure but Jeffrey mentioned a man named Tonar once. Seraph thought for a moment and said “Uh.. that sounds like Ontar” the man had no idea they were working for a God. He seemed honest enough so we decided to bring him up with us and let him go once we got out of there. As we walked he told us that they just followed us down, let us figure out the puzzles and draw the traps. Clever but cowardly. Climbing the ropes they left behind we got out easily.

Once we were out of the building we were slightly surprised to see nothing, our horses were still there and no enemies waiting. However a voice pops up from behind us. It's Ontar. He quickly kills his thug and turns to us. Talks directly the Seraph and then to Clary. Speaking of wanting to make a deal in exchange for the amulet. Clary played dumb. Not impressed by his promise for riches and power she just wanted him to go away. He threatened to hurt us and more, but left without anything else. Seraph gasps, Clary is in a bit of shock. She knows her God Soella but is not used to so many God's just popping up so frequently. “Did I just lie to a God!?” and suddenly Seraph gets put back on his feet and another voice pops up “I just missed him didn't I?” Azemus comes into vision and Seraph and Drusilla noticeably become more relaxed. Azemus introduces himself to Clary and Killian. He asks Clary if she knows what she holds, she says she knows that if it gets into the wrong hands very bad things can happen but into the right hands good things will come. He explains that in the right hands that amulet can protect everyone, also it can only be used by a God. He never actually asked for it but it seemed like a good idea. Seraph trusted him so she handed the amulet to Seraph and felt a weight lifted from her. Seraph handed the amulet to Azemus and we noticed a slight shiver go through the God before he thanked us and told us that we should try to find the rest of the artifacts before the wrong people do, and disappeared.