Story

## **May 2015**

### Receiving the Mission

The setting for this session was the acceptance by the party to sail west from the frontier island of Heagate.  The party had agreed to accept an Imperial charter to explore to the west.  The vessel the party had was a living vessel of the elves that was assigned to Talvan as part of his druid circle’s dues to the Empire.  The vessel’s description can be found in a separate record.  Since the part was just starting out, the Imperial officer, a man named Helwy Parre, swore them to the oath of Imperial agents and provided them with some basic trading goods worth about 350gp in value to take on their journey in the hopes they could trade the items and make a profit.

As part of the discussion the party learned that almost no one had ever come back from efforts to find anything to the west, and those who did typically reported that they ran out of food and water over 2-3 months and turned back without ever finding anything.  Undaunted the party agreed to go.  So that they could check in occasionally with Mr. Parre, he provided the group with a basic sensing stone.  This minor magical device allows the user to contact the holder of the matching stone once per day to have a brief conversation.

### Heading Out to Parts Unknown

The party prepared the ship and set sail heading due west of Heagate.  For the first several weeks there was smooth sailing.  It almost reached a point of boredom for the party.  About the only excitement early on was watching Pascal trying to catch fish in the open water.  On more than one occasion Pascal came close to being pulled overboard by large fish that struck his lines.  Over the course of a few weeks Pascal refined his fishing techniques so that he actually started catching fish to provide some fresh meat for the group to accompany the bounty of fresh produce the ship provided.

### An Un-natural Phenomena and Creatures Made of Steam

As was recorded in the daily journal by Pascal, he was in the twin trees that served as the watchtower on the ship.  Off starboard side of the ship he spotted a column of steam about 10’ around rising from the ocean.  It appeared to about 300-400’ out from the ship.  He tried to get a better look at it through the spyglass, but couldn’t tell anything more than what he first observed.  He called out to the others what he saw and everyone moved to places they could see the column of steam.  When Liam got to the side of the ship and looked at it he immediately raised alarm that in his early time with the Imperial marines he had seen something like this before and flying monsters made of steam had attacked his ship.  The two druids took a bit to observe the phenomena and both agreed whatever was causing the steam was not of nature.  The steam simply rose out of the water without any boiling of the ocean’s surface to indicate that there was a heat source causing it.  Doyte sought insight from his ancestors, but they provided him with no real help in understanding what was happening.

As Liam had feared, seven small flying creatures that seemed to be made out of pure steam appeared out of the rising column.  Talvan, instructed the vessel to turn away and go to full speed away from it.  The creatures flew quickly and were soon closing on the ship.  Talvan called Liam over to him and cast a simple enchantment known as “magic stone” on three small rocks he had pulled from his spell components pouch.  He handed one to Liam and they both threw them at the approaching creatures.  While the two stones hit a couple of the creatures, they passed through them but wisps of steam trailed after them indicating they were effective.  Doyte called forth a small blast of fire on one of them, as it was struck, Doyte could see that the creature seemed to revel in the heat and he knew that fire would not harm them.  As the creatures began to reach the vessel, combat changed to melee for the most part.  A couple of the creatures breathed out small cones of steam that burned the party members struck.  Luckily Liam had warned of this type of attack and everyone was able to avoid the worst of these breath attacks.  With everyone engaged the creatures were quickly dispatched with little harm to any of the party.  It was noted that when the creatures died they just vaporized, leaving nothing behind.

The druids curious about the column of steam that was still rising in the distance halted the vessel and wildshaped into reef sharked to swim out and investigate.  As they got close to the column of steam, five more of the creatures appeared underwater and attacked.  This time the battle was a little harder for the the druids.  Both had to call on their reserves of energy to stay in the fight.  At one point Doyte became so injured that he had to revert to his human form and back into a shark to stay alive.  Finally they managed to kill the five creatures.  The followed the column down deep to the ocean floor.  The column of steam appeared to just come from the ocean floor with no obvious heat source.  After a bit of other checking the returned to the vessel.

### Moving into Uncharted Waters

As the crew headed out of known Imperial territory the waves grew larger, the living vessel seemed to do fine, adjusting itself to the larger waves with minimal problems for the party onboard.  Between Liam and Talvan’s navigation skills they managed to find a westward flowing current that helped speed the vessel along.  For several weeks there was nothing but open ocean to be seen.  Liam worked hard to insure that the navigation charts were carefully recorded so that they could find their way back to Imperial waters and others could use these charts to travel west if they chose to.  Talvan checked on the charting frequently and by and large agreed with what Liam had drawn.

Pascal noted the color of the water, the smells in the air and what few birds and sealife that he noted.  He hoped his descriptions of this new area would aid others down the line in reaching anything they might find to the west of the Empire.

Again things reached a point of near boredom.  Each day seemed much like the one before it.  A few minor squalls rolled over the vessel, but it seemed to handle them with little concern for the party members.  Talvan grew more comfortable in sensing the mood and desires of the vessel.  He and Doyte spent time each day tending to the vessel’s living plant structure to keep it in optimal shape.

### A New Floating Community is Found

As the days rolled by, everyone fell back into their routines.  Talvan had made a practice of using ritual magic to allow him to see through the eyes of sea hawk, Bernice.  It was during one of Bernice’s flights that Talvan noticed something in the distance floating on the surface of the water.  Bernard flew a bit closer and Talvan could see that it was a small floating village with tents of some kind and medium sized creatures walking around.  Bernice did not get too close so she would not alert the people to her presence.  Talvan shared with the rest of the party what he had seen.  They made a plan to get a little closer to the village and then he and Doyte would turn into snakes and have Bernice carry them closer to the village and drop them in the water so they could swim in, hopefully un-noticed.

With a plan in place, the two druids did as planned.  As they reached the floating village they noticed it was made of darkwood trunks lashed together with some type of natural fiber ropes.  The entire underside that they could see was shined with an oily substance.  The two swam up to the village and slithered up onto the sides of the platform enough for them to see onto the top.  They noted that the shelters on the surface were made of seal, walrus and whale skins carefully sewn together to make them waterproof on the outside.  The creatures themselves walked bipedally and were quite tall, most over 6’.  They wore hide outfits that also were made of skins like the shelters.  Their heads were clearly humanoid, but had elongated noses and mouths that made them have a clear canine appearance.  There were quite a lot of them, and they moved about such that getting an accurate count was nearly impossible.  They also noted that there were three multi-person rowboats that tied up to the platform.  They also were made of whale skin and shined with an oily substance.

The party sailed their vessel within visual range of the floating village and waited to see what the villagers did at the sight of them.  In the beginning there was a sort of a stand off with both groups just watching each other.  After about 40 minutes the gnolls sent out one of their large rowboats with 10 of their people in it.  All but one were wearing seal hide armor of a primitive design.  The one that stood out was wearing a vest and shoulder protectors made of polished shells fixed together to form a sort of scale like armor.  On it’s head was a sort of helmet or crown that was made of a large walrus skull that had been bleached while and set with a series of colorful small shells that no one in the party had seen before.  There were small circular type ones that were a deep blue color.  There were also strips of another kind of shell or coral that shined with a deep rose color.  All had primitive weapons on them, but none had them in hand.

They stopped their boat about 40’ from the party’s vessel and the one with the ornate armor and helm tried to communicate with the party.  The realized it was a male, but it could only communicate in a barking and yipping sort of language that no one on the vessel could understand.  Talvan tried using some standard trading gestures that often work with primitive peoples.  It took a little bit, but he did reach a point of basic understanding with the gnoll.  Talvan invited him on board and the two started to make gestures of communications again, but still could not find any language that both could understand.  Talvan resorted to basic gestures and offered the gnoll one of the daggers they had been supplied with for trading.  He gave it to the gnoll who sniffed, licked, touched and otherwise tested the dagger for some time.  Finally the gnoll gave what was believed to be a satisfied yip and called for a bag to be given to him from the rowboat.

As he pulled a small object wrapped in seal skin from the bag, everyone on the vessel had a good idea what was inside from the strong smell it gave off.  As the gnoll unwrapped it their suspicions were confirmed.  It was a 3-4 ounce piece of ambergris, the strong smelling substance that comes from whale stomachs.  It is prized for making expensive perfumes and special potions and alchemical agents that need a powerful smell for a base.  Pascal looked at it and told the others that it was likely to be worth close to 100gps back home.  The gnoll pointed to the dagger and indicated it wanted 5 of them for the lump of ambergris.  Talvan responded with the number two, the gnoll gestured 3 and it went back and forth until they settled on three daggers.  With trade now established the gnoll laid out other things that he had brought with him.  This included a set of the seal skin armor that the group noted would be waterproof and though very strong like hide armor was pliable and weighed only the amount of leather armor.  He also laid out some polished walrus ivory and a couple of pieces that had scrimshaw on them of a surprisingly high degree of talent.  There were a few other things of minor import.

Over time the two traded several items.  For the most part this went well.  The one failure was when Talvan offered the gnoll a small cup of ale.  It sniffed it and eventually lapped up a bit and began coughing and spitting.  It was clear the ale was nothing he wanted.   As the party discussed what else they might hope to get from the gnolls, the idea that they might have whale oil, another greatly prized substance in the Empire.  It took some time, but finally the gnoll gestured that he had some back in their village and gestured for the party to come over and do further trading.  Doyte was suspicious of the gnolls and declined to go as did Liam.  Talvan gathered some trade goods and got in their boat.  Pascal went along to record the event.

Once at the gnoll camp the two noticed that there were about 40-60 adults and 7-14 young ones.  The place smelled horrible.  The stench was a mixture of old blood, dried and drying meats, dog smells and a few others that defied identification.  Doing the best the could , they returned to trading.  Talvan had hoped to gain a small cask of whale oil but settled for three small leather flasks of it.  They again did some trading of other items.  In the end the party also provided the group with one of the trade tokens of the Empire and to the best of their ability explained what it meant.

As the two looked around the floating platform they noticed harpoons with strange black blades and barbs.  They asked for permission to examine them but neither could identify what the black material was.  talvan again tried to call out in druidic as he had on his vessel.  This time an aged, white muzzled gnoll stepped out and in a crude form of the cant replied to Talvan.  Between them the two party members learned that the village was nomadic and followed the whales, seals and other sea-life that lived off of.  The gnoll was a moon druid.  The druid helped with some final trades and Talvan gave the gnoll druid one of the daggers as a show of friendship.  The gnoll in return gave Talvan what he would learn was a holy symbol for the tribe made of iridescent fish scales and finely carved animal bones. Trading completed they were returned to their vessel and tallied the results of their first trading encounter.  Pascal provided a number that guaranteed they would be earning a profit when they returned to Heagate.

### A Kraken Attacks

As the weeks rolled by, life took on a basic routine, Liam would spend nights walking the deck and alternately going up into the tower of the two trees in the middle of the ship to watch for anything out of the ordinary.  The other three would sleep in the huts after prayers and other matters they chose to attend to.  It was well into the night when with Liam walking near the bow of the vessel when he was almost knocked off his feet by the force of the vessel suddenly stopping and shifting to the port side for the rear of the vessel.  The three sleeping party members were jolted awake by the force of the impact.

Liam wondered if they had run into a submerged sandbar or other hidden feature of the sea floor.  As he steadied himself he saw a massive tentacle land on the rear of the vessel’s surface.  Within moments, there were two more tentacles grabbing the vessel.  Liam rushed to the rear and took a mighty swing with his greatsword at one of them.  He felt the blade bite into the rubbery flesh but was amazed at how little damage actually appeared to happen.  As the other three gathered their gear, came rushing out Pascal, whose hut was closest to the stern of the vessel was seized by another great tentacle and squeezed so tightly that he found it hard to breath.  Talvan could feel the vessel crying out in pain from the immense pressure the great creature was putting on it.  Actual damage was being done to it.

Using weapons and magic the party battled the creature who as it got a better grip on the vessel started to pull itself out of the water.  A massive eye could be seen on the creature’s head as it rose out of the water.  In time, Pascal would wiggle free and fall to the deck only to be seized again by the creature a bit later.  Talvan would also be grabbed for a bit, though he would quickly get free and move out of the area where the tentacles were grabbing at the party and the vessel.   Liam tried to run out to the head of the creature along one of it’s tentacles.  The slippery surface proved too much for doing so and he fell hard onto the deck.  Doyte and Talvan stood near the front of the vessel out of reach of the great creature and used magic and weapons to try and free it grasp of vessel.  In time, Pascal would get free again and make his way out onto the creature’s head.  The other three poured on the damage to the beast’s tentacles and as a group they managed to get it to withdraw from the vessel.

It dove away so quickly that Pascal was sucked into the black depths by the vacuum the creature’s exit caused.  Luckily he managed to get a breath of air as he was going under and swam to the surface before running out of air.  On the vessel, Talvan began to worry about the vessel, it sustained a great deal of damage from the creature.  Both he and Doyte would cast healing spells on the vessel to try and start its recovery.  While they worked on the vessel, Liam noticed that Pascal was missing.  He yelled to the others on deck and Talvan had the diminutive fey use their power of illumination to cast a soft glow over the surface of the vessel.  Liam called out for Pascal and once he got to the surface and caught his breath, yelled where he was.  Once back on the vessel, they looked over the damage that the creature that both druids assured Pascal had been a kraken, caused.  They noted that not only the surface of the vessel had been partially crushed but so to had the underside.

Over the next couple of days the group healed themselves and began healing the vessel.  Pascal, once recovered, made detailed entries into his journal about the creature and it’s attack.  Liam and Talvan had some dispute as to where they were after the attack.  They both agreed the creature had pulled the vessel some distance off the course they had been traveling.  Over the next couple of days they would finally agree on where they were again thanks to the navigating instruments that they had been provided with.

### The Ghost Ship

Just a few days after the attack by the Kracken the party noticed a two masted ship in the distance.  As the got closer they noticed several things.  The first was that the ship appeared to built in miniature.  Everything about the ship was to proportion but on scale that only small folk could easily maneuver in it.  THey also noticed that the ship had been adrift for quite some time.  The wood the ship was made of was in great disrepair.  The sails that remained where just a few tattered strands blowing in the wind. The rigging was half gone and what did remain was rotted and completely unsafe to use.  The hull of the ship was heavily encrusted with barnacles and plant growth.  Beyond all of this, and perhaps the most striking aspect to everyone was that the ship was of a design that was unlike anything from the Empire.

The party maneuvered alongside the vessel and Doyte, Pascal and Liam went onboard.  Talvan remained with his vessel.  As the got onboard they noticed to an even greater degree that the ship was of an odd design and that it was clearly for small folk only.  They began to look around and noticed that the forecastle contained what was likely to be the captain’s quarters if this whip was anything like those of the Empire.  They saw a small door only 4’ high and about 26” wide on the port side of the forecastle.  As they were looking about they noticed that the two tiny portholes into the cabin were covered with boards from the inside.  They reached the door and not to their surprise found it barred from within.  The door was heavily damaged by long exposure to the salt air.  Pascal landed a kick in the middle of it and the door collapsed inward.  The small cabin was completely dark save the bit of light that came in through the now broken door.  Pascal lit a lantern rather than a torch out of concern that an open flame might set the entire ship on fire.

Pascal entered the cabin first followed by Liam who had to squat down to wiggle through the small door.  As they entered they both noticed the cabin had a foul smell of something long dead.  On guard for something that might have been brought to unlife through necromancy, they looked about cautiously.  At first Pascal who was in the lead thought for the briefest moment that he saw a person sitting at the captain’s desk.  He moved the light back toward the desk and nothing was there.  They both noticed that it appeared that the cabin had been undisturbed for several years at least. Just as they both started to relax a bit, Pascal shined the lantern’s light back toward the desk.  This time both of them saw an ethereal figure sitting at the desk.  The image was of a older gnome man dressed in some type of ornamental jacket.  The details were hard to make out since the ghost had no real color to him.  The ghost looked at Pascal and asked in a quite normal tone “Calvin bring me my lunch.”  Pascal was taken aback at this.  He was unfamiliar with how to deal with spirits of the departed.  He stutteringly replied, “sir..I..I..think you might be dead…”.  The ghost seemed a bit confused at this statement and said “Calvin what are you trying to pull?  I want my lunch.”  Liam watched this exchange and kept his tongue to himself.  Pascal retreated a ways and called for Doyte to come in.  Pascal thought that since Doyte said he spoke to the spirits of his ancestors and even carried what he said was his grandmother’s skull, he might be better suited to dealing with the spirit.

Doyte entered the room as, Liam had, crouched over and finally crawling in on hands and knees. As Pascal had hoped, Doyte did not seem as concerned about seeing a spirit and assured the others that this type of spirit developed without the aid of necromancy.  He went to tell Pascal that it is unwise to tell such spirits they have passed away as most don’t know it. After a moment of instruction to his fellow adventurers he told Pascal to go find the captain something to eat.  Pascal left the cabin and headed back to his own vessel.  Talvan asked what was going on and Pascal gave a quick overview.  Talvan, thinking the idea of taking food to ghost was preposterous gave Pascal an apple and sent him on his way.

While Pascal was gone, Doyte spoke to the spirit in a calm even tone.  This seemed to work at first.  The spirit went about his business as if he was alive.  Pascal returned with the apple and tried to give it to the spirit.  To only the spirit’s surprise the apple dropped through his hands onto the desk.  The spirit tried in vain to grab the apple several times.  After a bit he became somewhat angry and said “stop with the illusions!  I’m hungry and in no mood for games.”  Doyte tried to talk to the spirit again and this time the sight of the witchdoctor appeared to be a great surprise to the spirit.  It reacted somewhat irritated and afraid.  the spirit began to look about at the three party members. In rapid-fire speech it started yelling loudly for Calvin several times.  Without missing a beat he questioning who and what the “giants” were (pointing at Liam and Doyte) to Pascal. Then screwed his face up and angrily challenged Pascal as to who he was, obviously realizing that he was not “Calvin”.  In Doyte’s mind he began to worry that the spirit might become violent.  He warned the others to be very calm while he himself spoke calmly to spirit in an effort to prevent it from attacking.  He succeeding getting the spirit calmed down and he offered that he and Liam would go look for Calvin.  Doyte realized that it was very likely that this spirit would never be able to truly rest since it was clear that no one had been alive on this ship for a long time.  Still he and Liam went to search the vessel.  he asked Pascal to remain with the spirit and learn what he could from it.

Liam and Doyte searched the ship thoroughly and only found a single room that was blocked from the inside.  Again the door was easily knocked open.  Inside they found four gnome skeletons with a few rags of clothing remaining on their bones.  After making sure they did not possess unlife they searched the cabin including the skeletons.  They turned up very little.  A couple of bronze cutlasses and daggers that were for small folk.  They also found two rings on the finger bones of a couple of the skeletons.  While not of great value they were clearly wedding rings.  One of silver and one of copper.  Liam used a cleaning cantrip to remove the tarnish from them.  After doing so he noticed the copper ring had the name “Thomas” engraved inside the band.  Doyte collected up the four skeletons and the small bit of loot that was in the room.

They returned to the captain’s quarters where the spirit still refused to tell them who he was.  He was now convinced that the giants and the conspirator halfling had his crew captive and he wanted them freed at once.  Doyte made his way over to the captain’s bed and pulled back the covers.  As he suspected, the bones of a gnome were there.  He was sure they were those of the captain himself.  He gathered his thoughts and began to help the spirit come to grips with his being dead.  He used several techniques including telling the spirit that the he had a crew member named Thomas and how he knew that.  As he guided the spirit to understanding and acceptance of its death.  AS the spirit finally came to believe Doyte it relented on talking to the party.  It told them he was Captain Odat, and this had been his ship.  Calvin had been his first mate for over thirty years.  He went on to explain at Doyte’s prompting that the last thing he remembered was that he had not been feeling well and the Calvin had told him to go to bed and rest.  At this Doyte showed the spirit it’s skeleton still lying in the bed.  This seemed to remove any final thoughts the spirit had about not believing he was indeed long dead.

The spirit of Odat then began to lament that he would never see his wife and son again.  At this Doyte offered to take his things back to his family if Odat would tell him where to find them.  Odat looked at Doyte and considered the offer for a few moments.  While Doyte had helped him realize what he was Odat still was a sailor at heart.  He turned to Liam who had properly addressed him as a sailor would several times and Odat asked him where he called his home port.  Liam answered and Odat looked confused and said that he had never heard of the place.  Likewise Liam and the others had never heard of Bremoor, where Odat said his home was.  He asked Liam to place his hand on the holy book of the great spirit that Odat pointed out on his bookshelf.  Liam did as he was asked and the spirit asked him to swear an oath as a fellow sailor that he would see his possessions to his wife and son.  Liam swore the oath and Odat gave over what little he had.  A personal journal he asked that no one read, the ship’s log, a small locked box he said had the things his family would cherish and the ship’s charts.  Liam collected everything and they bid the spirit of Odat goodbye.

Back on their vessel they examined the charts and logbook for Odat.  Liam was able after some time to develop what he believed were common places in the middle of the ocean where their charts and those of Odat matched.  From them, he plotted a course for the community of Bremoor on an island labeled as Sleley. Two other nearby islands, Aphransas and Tawic.  With proof that there was land across the Sirene Ocean, Talvan contacted Mr Parre back on Heagate with the news.  There was palpable excitement at this information and Parre asked the group to go and learn what they could about these places.  He promised them all big rewards for their success.