The Story So Far

## Adventure 1: Tides of Retribution?

The party met each other on the beach of Palma Flora. they had some drinks (and some varnish), and were asked to judge the annual shark hunting tournament. They also each had some interesting encounters…

- WINKI (@Elendria/TropicalGM) met J’Marsha, a nice half-elf shark hunter lady who has potentially stolen his heart. Things were looking up until he lost her bracelet.

- GINN ( @GM | Daniel ) met a dog (and needs to name it) and successfully stole four thousand GP(!!!) worth of Spyglasses.

-  NIGHTWOOD (@lawr | DM) demonstrated prowess at soccer, fired a cannon (twice) and formed a pirate crew comprised of small island children.

- COCO ( @colin.c )  had a long walk on the beach with a parrot…who is not what he seems.

But right after the tournament began, a massive earthquake shook the beach and the island begin to sink into the ocean. To make matters worse, bipedal fish-creatures called Sahuagin rose from the waves to attack the village.

The party immediately ran away from some Sahuagin (leaving a shark hunter to die and avoiding the first encounter entirely), fought some others (when treasure and Ginn’s dog was on the line), ran to the harbor (avoiding a third encounter entirely…sigh) and then had an epic battle to save the last ship and the remaining villagers from more Sahuagin and some giant crabs.

Right before the ship departed the sinking docks, a freak accident killed the acolyte Coco, who had healed and blessed them during the final fight. But they all made it onto the ship, and everyone successfully escaped the island before it sank.

The adventurers all woke up (other than Nightwood, who kept snoring away) on the deck of the Wavechaser. Winki went and chatted up a half-orc hippie lady, Ginn scoped out the ship's crew, and Coco went and met the tabaxi Captain Jill Starling.

She told the party that the Wavechaser had been in the area because she was scouting out the location of a mysterious underwater treasure, a staff of great power that the Sahuagin leader had found and used to sink the entire island of Palma Flora.

Captain Starling offered the party a third of the staff’s value (amounting to 10K GP) to help retrieve it, but when they pointed out that to earn that bounty they'd have to be the ones to dive down to the Sahuagin territory and retrieve the staff, she raised the split to an even 50/50. The party surprisingly - despite the DM preparing a ton of game mechanics for how a mutiny would work - agreed to cooperate.

The Wavechaser stopped at the island of Jomo Cay to offload the islander refugees  and let the party gear up for their underwater heist. The adventurers were rowed ashore (Ginn wearing Nightwood like a backpack) and used a letter from Captain Starling (who was seeming more and more like a pirate) to intimidate a blacksmith into giving them four magical diving helmets…and a shortsword. And a crossbow. And a breastplate. And a hundred crossbow bolts.

They then went to an apothecary where the girl behind the counter raved about the book she was reading: the adventures of a dashing Lieutenant Commander high elf named Begolorf, who also happened to be the guy who Winki’s girlfriend left him for. Upon seeing this, Winki flew into a rage and smashed up the shop and ran out. Ginn and Coco pretended not to know him, and consoled the poor girl who gave them some free healing and animal friendship potions for their "kindness".

.

As they headed back to the ship, alarm bells rang through the village (potentially related to the party’s shenanigans) and by the time they returned to the Wavechaser, an IDCP (Island Dwarf Coastal Patrol) ship called the Margaritaville was moving to intercept..

After a fierce ship-to-ship ballista battle where both ships’ sails took heavy damage (and Winki and Ginn shot Lt. Cmdr Begolorf twice), the Margaritaville finally caught up with their quarry. A crew of half a dozen heavily armed IDCP dwarf sailors started throwing both grappling hooks and insults at the party (“overcooked lobsters!”) and leapt aboard the Wavechaser.

Session 3 will start in the middle of a huge on-ship fight between an IDCP boarding party and the crew of the Wavechaser. Captain Starling (who was nowhere to be seen during the ship-to-ship exchange) might have something sneaky planned for the intruders (or might just be hiding). Winki might be able to get revenge on the guy who seduced his woman. Ginn and Coco might put their new purchases to good use. Nightwood might actually wake up.

And if the party survives the battle, the next stop is the sunken ruins of Palma Flora for the underwater heist of a lifetime.

The battle with the IDCP was less dramatic than expected, starting with Winki seeing his ex on the cover of "50 Shades of Begolorf" and responding by kicking Begolorf in the face. With the party and the more experienced crew of the Wavechaser cutting down several IDCP sailors, the tide soon turned, and Begolorf and his crew were forced to retreat with the help of the traitor Moonshine, who spirited the IDCP crew away on dolphins as the Lt. Commander activated the Margaritaville's self-destruct sequence.

On the way back to Palma Flora, Nightwood led a mutiny against Captain Jill Starling, with the crew of the Wavechaser performing incredibly poorly in combat (as did Coco's poor Wildfire Spirit). Starling - down to 2HP - tried a Hail Mary of firing one of the ship's ballistae at point-blank range at Nightwood, but such was the barbarian's rage that he remained standing even after a direct hit. She was taken prisoner and her Captain's hat was thrown overboard by Winki, and Captain Nightwood won over his new crew members with promises of higher wages and dental coverage.

When the crew awoke after a long rest back amongst the floating debris where the island of Palma Flora once stood, Nightwood negotiated a truce with the former Captain Starling: He would spare her life, not turn her over to the IDCP - even give her a cut of the treasure - if she would tell them where it was. She conceded to these terms, even agreeing to go with them to the depths of the ocean. The exact location of the treasure was cleverly hidden in a map concealed on her person at all times: her Captain's hat.

Upon realizing that the only map to the treasure had been thrown overboard several hours earlier, the crew pondered their next move. Go back and search for the hat? Dive for the treasure anyway? Go off on a pirating spree?

## Adventure 2: The Tom Crick

### Chapter 1

The party was pirating around the sea, robbing ships of their cargo, when they came across a shipwrecked sailor (Randy) adrift at sea for some time on a piece of his ship's hull.

After being healed by the party, he informed them that his ship was hit by a rogue wave during a storm. His captain saved him, but ultimately died. He took a leather treasure map from the captain and gave him a burial at sea.

He had no interest in being on a boat anymore, and just wanted to get to dry land. He has PTSD. He gave the map to the party, who located the last waypoint on the map and dove down to find some treasure in a secret compartment of the ship. Most of the gold in the treasure was lost to the elements, but they were able to salvage a Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, A ring of protection +1, and a moon sickle.

While talking about what to do next, the storm that destroyed the other ship caught up to them, and a rogue wave smashed into the ship, destroying it.

The party awoke on a beach with all their equipment in tact, but missing their crew, as well as Winki and Randy. THey also lost all of their treasure. They followed some footsteps up the beach and went to a tavern, in which a major fight broke out, and escalated into a bloodbath when the party began hacking away at a half-orc. When the fight subsided, the party had found another treasure map on the body of one of the orcs, and were approached by a warm-bodied man  named Haines.

Haines told the group that they had a map, and that he had a ship, and that provided they protect him on the ship, follow the rules, and pay their way, they should be able to get the ship to take them where they need to go.

### Chapter 2

The Party agreed, and were introduced to The Tom Crick, a "merchant vessel" under the banner of the Palma Archipelago.

The Tom Crick has a weird cast of characters on it. Wallux, a half-orc with a 10ft sword, Modesto, a happy sea elf, Kenwood Sweet, the gunslinging, and very fair captain of the ship, who never reads, but has a captains quarters full of books, and you've been told that there's a gnome somewhere on the ship as well, that the party should steer clear of.

Captain Sweet's office also has an extremely ornate Golden Scimitar that sits mounted on a wall. Though decorative, the sword seems fully usable, and is possibly magic; when Jill Starling briefly held the sword it filled her head with ideas about treasure hoardes and high seas adventures. She and Ginn begin plotting to steal the sword from the wall. Ginn may also be plotting to steal Wallux's 10ft sword, which Haines has advised against.

Late at night, Captain Sweet and his crew were alerted to a large Island Dwarf Coastal Patrol (IDCP) vessel in the distance. After luring the boat closer, the pirates attacked it, and boarded the ship, killing all island dwarves, and looting the ship. Among the spoils of battle was a small primitive looking Island Dwarf Girl, who speaks no language that they can understand. She is thrown into the brig onboard the Tom Crick, and no one seems to care much about her.

### Chapter 3

Fresh off of the raid of an IDCP vessel, the Tom Crick sailed into Grey Water Cove, a pirate haven. They stopped briefly to rescue a marooned Water Genasi who was mutineed by his crew, and sworn to revenge. Captain Sweet informed the party that they have a long history of picking up marooned pirates, and gave him a bottle of rum as a gift. His name is Xango, and no one really knows how its pronounced. Upon arrival at Grey Water Cove, despite being told that Grey Water Cove would be a little rough, the party hopped off the boat and entered the island.

Almost immediately they encountered an Elven Historian who was working on her 24th volume in an anthology of pirates on the Warm Sea. She asked the pirates about their adventures so they could live on in infamy, and added notes about them in her notebook. The pirates mostly gave her fake names though, and it's unclear what ramifications that may have in the annals of piracy. She's kind of a chatterbox, and also told them about what's going on in Grey Water Cove (Pinned), and with that she left the island.

> *“Boy did you guys pick a weird time to come to the island! Not sure if this is your first time on Grey Water Cove, but things are a little bit tense as of late. Like most pirate coves, save for those hidden away in caves or things like that, this one was established when the Legendary Pirate One-Eyed Nelson's fleet arrived with his crew of Goliath mates, and "convinced" the island magistrate, Franco Trott, that the port could be a place where pirates could operate freely.*
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> *Magister Trott became rich off of this agreement, as did his successors, but they sacrificed any real sense of governance over the island, though technically still legally in charge. The newest magistrate, Finelius Bonny was elected two months ago under an anti-piracy banner. That's not exactly a weird thing though, because all of the candidates have always appeared to be anti-piracy, but Magister Finn has been different.*
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> *For starters, he has amassed a fairly well armed militia in support of his anti-piracy legislation, and they've made more than a gesture's worth of raids on fencing operations in a relatively short time. It's unclear whether Magister Finn is doing this to further extort the Grey Water Cove's pirate captain, the Honorable Sharktooth Lucinda, or if he really has the ambition to rid the cove of piracy once and for all.*
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> *It's kind of a powder keg at the moment. A recent raid on a fencing operation hit close to home, and Lucinda's first mate Bostaff Jonny was implicated, arrested, and shipped off to the nearby Fort Dolce for processing, and likely execution.*
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> *It's really causing a stir, and to make matters worse, there's a big fight planned tomorrow evening between two pirates Alinarr of the East and Alinarr Bonehand for who can be the best Alinarr. I hope that things work out and the fight can take place, but considering what's been going on, my money is on it being shut down quick... and on Alinarr winning, of course.*
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> *I'm getting on the first boat back to Palma Noor before things really pop off! I hope to see you all again some day, and look forward to learning more about your adventures! Stay safe on Grey Water Cove, and good luck on your further adventures.”*
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>

When the party came into town they almost immediately found a small fencing operation, and were warned about an incoming garrison of soldiers from the magister. The fencing operation packed up quickly, and everyone scattered when the soldiers arrived holding a chest with a dog's head inside it -- the magister's dog. The soldiers declared the end of the age of piracy on Grey Water Cove, but were quickly routed by the party alongside a group of pirates. Only Blue Nose Jonny (the guy that warned them about the soldiers in the first place) was killed. The party unveiled their special move, the "Spike Pit Special" in this battle.

The party was taken into the woods and told that there would be a party of sorts at the Magister's house, and that they were able to secure some invitations that were lost in the mail. There are several ways into the house, but the main ones are through the front door as guests (in which case they would have to check their equipment at the door), or through some hand-carved sewers underneath the manor.

The party chose the sewers, which open to the sea, and use the ocean's tides to clean it out occasionally. After wading through the sewers and fighting off a giant cave viper (and collecting its venom in two rum bottles they were carrying), the party encountered a large number of primitive "Angler Goblins", which are kind of like normal goblins, except that their heads look like Anglerfish, with a glowing lure that can charm people (but is mostly used to charm small fish).

After killing their way through the sewers they were able to climb/teleport up into the servant's bathroom of Grey Water Manor. They immediately met a pirate-friendly servant, who showed them around the kitchen, and helped them find the food prep areas, which the party promptly poisoned with the snake venom they had. After receiving their help, the party beat him up and left his body in the kitchen underneath a window before stealing his clothes and his face and entering the party. There are two masked party members and one with a changed face. They have left Haines in the kitchen, and largely forgotten about him. He's guarding the body for the time being.

The party entered the party through the dining room, and began serving hors d'oeuvres that were poisoned with the snake venom. The first aristocrat to eat one was immediately seriously poisoned, and collapsed on a suit of goliath armor, which then collapsed on top of her, causing a large commotion in the Great Hall. That's where we've ended the session, with the party having successfully caused a commotion in the opulent Grey Water Manor, which they're trying to use to smoke out Finelius Bonny, the Magister.

The party went upstairs in Bonny's mansion and dug around in his room for stuff. After being informed that a wild boar was running around the downstairs rooms, Haines went to investigate, and attacked the wild boar... with fire, which ignited the house. He ran upstairs and was sacrificed by the party to a group of Animated Armors so the team could fight Bonny in peace, which they did. After they killed him, the mangled his face, and cut off his hand, and presented this to Sharktooth Lucinda, as well as a plan to use the Magister's face and some of his clothes to issue some decrees about the future of Grey Water Cove.

As a payment for doing this, the party is given a box of paper birds that they can use to call some of Sharktooth Lucinda's fleet (though they can actually use them to call anyone, i think), depending on which and how many ships are close by.

The party then attended a fight between Bonefied Al and Black Ally for who is the best Alinorr on the island, a weird fight, given that neither of them go by Alinorr either, and made even weirder considering that Black Ally promptly LEFT the island after she won the fight, opting to join the pirate crew that helped her win her battle against the Goliath Skeleton, especially given that she likely would have been killed in a single blow, had it happened. The party also won a lot of money betting on her.

### Chapter 4

The party returned to the Tom Crick and were informed that there are huge bounties on their head for their fight with the El Presidente earlier on (the IDCP Vessel they sunk) -- 25k gp a piece dead or alive.

The pirates inform them that the ink is barely dry on these, so no one knows who they are yet, but that they can make them "go away", if they do them a favor. They then explain some more of their situation to them:

"Captain Sweet" is actually "First Mate Sweet" of the Branzo Pirates under the Aarakockra Pirate Captain Cock Branzo -- a throwback to the office smelling like an animal lived there, if you recall.

As a young lad, Captain Branzo was on a ship captained by a man named Henty Castlebroad, the Never Neverwinter. On one voyage the dastardly First Mate Monty Fisher plotted and successfully executed a mutiny on the ship. Only Captain Branzo stood up for Henty, and for that he was punished dearly. Captain Branzo is an aaracockra, and the mutinous crew held him down and clipped his wings as punishment, before marooning him and Henty onboard a small atoll somewhere at sea.

Henty died on that small island a day or two before The Tom Crick found the emaciated Branzo on the island, and after hearing his story they took him onboard as one of their crew. (Note -- this is also why they took on @Scratchings  when they found him).

Years would pass, and Branzo would eventually take over as Captain of the Tom Crick, bringing on board a new set of companions. A short while ago, Mose Wormington received word that Monty had become the head of Fort Dolce, an IDCP fort, and he and another one of our mates, Cardamom, the chef from the Tom Crick, went to Fort Dolce to assassinate him, but were captured in the process.

Since no one knows who these pirates are yet, they would like them to infiltrate the fort and extract Cock Branzo and Cardamom. If they can help, they will get rid of the bounties, either by paying them off or some other means. If they dont help them, they'll drop them off at their destination and they're on their own. The dense fog provides cover for them to enter and exit fort dolce at night without being seen provided they use a small boat.

Unbeknownst to the IDCP, Fort Dolce used to be an old Pirate Cove, and a subterranean system of caves exists underneath the fort and the island itself. The cove was abandoned a century ago after a raid of Sahaugin killed most of the pirates. The entrance to the cave was sealed, but the party can unseal it using two scrolls of transmute rock. They can also enter through the front door, if they'd prefer a more direct route to enter the fort.

The party is provided with a set of IDCP costumes, collected during the previous raid, and cleaned of blood.

### Chapter 5

Landing at the cave they saw that someone had already arrived at the island before them. An elven ship was beached nearby the entrance to the cove, and the cove entrance was already transmuted and opened up, so the party entered the cave.

long story short, because this is a really long update, the party entered the cave and investigated the ruins of the sahuagin attack on the cove. In their wake they left behind the ghost of a thousand betrayed pirates (Cutthroat Lenny the Wraith -- killed by the party), and four drowned prostitutes, awaiting the return of their mistress, who abandoned them during the attack on the cove.

They also fought and killed a Blood Salamander, and used a transmute rock scroll to open a collapsed tunnel to the pirate cove's leader's room, as well as on the ceiling above the blood salamander, which appeared to (and did) lead to a communal bathroom. When this happened, a secretary sunk into the mud, which hardened around her waist and trapped her in the rock. Black Ally chopped her head off to stop her from making too much noise.

Coco sent a flame spirit (?) up into the bathroom above, but its bright light alerted two guardsmen who went to investigate, and jumped down the hole after seeing the decapitated torso of a woman whose lower half was stuck within limestone. One of these men was drowned and thrown down a hole, and the other surrendered immediately and gave up information about the island. In particular, he drew a map of the island for them and explained the location of several buildings and the rough island defenses. He told them the entrances to windows, and where they might be likely to find keys (the warden or jailer might have them). He also warned them that the top roof of the fort has recently been used as a perch for GULLIGAN, the GIANT SEAGULL OF LEGEND. He doesnt work for the IDCP, and his presence is a threat to everyone.. but it's hard to tell where he is, or if he's there at all with all the fog.

While this was happening, Xango (under advice from a talking pirate sword named WHISKEY PETE) paid the dead prostitutes money to come with him, and told them their mistress was up in the fort. They ran up there to look for her, and the whole fort is now in a panic about these undead women running around, killing dwarves.

The party snuck through the fort, mostly unnoticed, and animated the dead body of a pirate from Sharktooth Lucinda’s crew named Bostaff Johnny. Together with the zombie they were able to break into the fort through an open window into the dining room, and murdered their way past the guards in pursuit of Cock Branzo. In the fort itself they would learn that the wanted posters that brought them to the fort in the first place were likely forgeries as well. Never trust a pirate, i guess.

On the second floor of the fort they met a woman named Miss Syndra, an undead wretch of a woman who was romantically involved with Bostaff Johnny, and was happy to see him alive(ish). She whispered something to him and turned him into a revenant, who was hell bent on killing the guards in the fort, and went on a murdering spree on the third floor, away from the view of the party. When the party arrived upstairs they were surprised to see that a group of aristocrats that had been watching organized prisoner fights had all been murdered by the revenant.

Freeing most of the prisoners (save for Onree, one of the orcs from chapter 1 that was imprisoned in the fort), they made their way to Captain Cock Branzo, and they went to the roof for a battle with the captain of the fort, Monty Fisher. Shortly after defeating him, however, GULLIGAN appeared, and the party was forced to escape by jumping off the roof of the fort, and gliding down to the abandoned ship at the beach below. When asked if it was their ship, Xango responded, “It is now!”. Gulligan chased them, now holding Cardamom in his talons, and the party took the ship out to sea where they were approached by two IDCP battleships ahead of them, and Gulligan to the rear. They were able to fight off Gulligan, but Cardamom was killed in the process.

Outgunned, and badly damaged in the sea battle that ensued, the party was convinced that they would die at sea, and abandoned their ship to the care of Black Ally, and sat on a rock in the sea, attacking the boat from a distance with whatever spells they could have. They used a small boat to attempt to board the ship, but as this was happening, explosions onboard the ship alerted them to the presence of the Tom Crick, coming to their aid.

A major battle ensued, but the Tom Crick had an ace up its sleeve, which had been foreshadowed in an oil painting the party had seen in the earlier fort. One of the members of the Tom Crick, the Sea Elf known as modesto, is apparently in control of an artifaact of immense power, the Water Seal, which can be used to conjure forth the goliath goddess of the material plane of water, the Olhydra, or the Living Wave.

The living Wave  crushed the ships, and the ensuing major storm brought about by its presence highly damaged the two captains (Booby Larsen and Esio La Monte, themselves part of Monty Fisher’s organization and members of the crew that initially marooned Cock Branzo back in the day) as they sought to kill the party themselves for interfering, but the party was able to fend them both off, specifically spearing Esio La Monte under water with a critical hit from one of their ship’s ballistas.

### Chapter 6

The party held a funeral with the members of the Tom Crick. They learned their boat belongs to someone named Hannus Willo, a sea elf, with a sea elf crew. They have a head start on him now, but he’ll probably come looking for them. Haines, now a respected member of the TOm Crick crew opts to stay with them, and says his goodbyes. Black Ally formally joins the party as a member of their crew.  They’re given an envelope that they are told contains instructions to fix their ship at a local shipyard, and the two crews part ways.

When the pirates return to their damaged, but still functional ship, they find an island dwarf girl on their ship. They’re not sure where she came from, but considering she had been in the brig, it seems likely she was released by the Branzo pirates and sent there as a joke.

Winki also returned from a whirlpool in the sea, followed by a group of angry mermaids, who swam away quickly.

The party heads off on their next adventure, to finally reach the buried treasure they found in chapter 1.