Session 13 - Death of the Emperor Report

General Summary

Sunday 23 Patchwall (Continued)

  Several hours after the sun sets, the party stirs from their rest. In an attempt to signal the Soul of Winter, Kyra locates a piece of metal and summons her arcane energies causing it to shine brightly before tossing it high into the air. A moment of silence passes, then the party hears the winches on the Soul of Winter creak into action with the jollyboat being lowered toward the sea. A small splash can be heard as the party heads back into the bowels of The Emperor of the Waves to finish their search for Aubreck's chest.   Upon reaching the kitchen, Leeroy unbolts and opens the trap door heading down into the bilge of the ship. As he steps off the ladder, he splashes into waist deep murky water. Trudging forward, the rest of the party climbs down, except Nar who uses her spider slippers to walk along the ceiling. Seeing Nar walking comfortably upside down, Kyra activates her flying boots and walks atop the water.   Trudging forward, Leeroy leads the party forward into the dank dark bilge. The water pushes back against the party's progress and, with each step, ripples of disturbance ring outward. Leeroy's halberd meekly sheds light through the gloom as the party searches for Aubreck's hoard. Suddenly, four creatures surge upward out of the water at the bow, paralyzing Leeroy with shock, as the party is suddenly thrust into battle. The two sides trade hits as both parties work against the resistance from the the water and engage. Leeroy, quickly recovering his wits, stands side-by-side with Mina who raises her Golden Spindle, the sigil of Istus, to force the ghasts away. As the monsters flee away from the terrible glory of the holy mother of fate, the party quickly dispatches the hulking brutes. At last, Nar's arrow pierces the final ghast causing the body to burst and covering Karia with it's gruesome fluids.   Karia looks up at Nar and sarcastically states, "Thanks!"   Nar smiles, cheerfully responding, "Least I could do! But on the bright side you can just duck into the water to clean off."   Karia's face scrunches into an unpleasant grimace as she imagines ducking into this dirty bilge water.   As the agitated waves slowly diminish and return to calm, Mina spots a gleam from within a crate stacked against the port hull. Leeroy and her trudge through the water and break open the crate revealing an electric blue large chest with no visible lock, hinge, or handle. Leeroy lifts it, but, due to its unwieldy shape, struggles to keep it balanced.   Suddenly, the Emperor rapidly jerks side-to-side as if a young boy has rocked his toy. Then, just as suddenly, the starboard hull blasts open showering shards of planks inward as a huge tentacle slaps across Leeroy's back knocking him face first into the water. Karia yells, "Let's put the chest into our bag of holding!" and slowly, unsteadily makes her way toward the port side as another tentacle lashes above just grazing her.   Meanwhile, Kyra begins flying towards the stern as Nar follows scrambling along the ceiling. A tentacle whips wildly through the bilge space and the ship groans from pressure. As Karia reaches the port side she opens the bag of holding. Another ship tremor knocks Mina down while Leeroy hurriedly jams the chest into the open bag. As soon as the chest drops into the boundless bag, Karia moves as fast as she can through this murky water toward the stern.   Kyra floats back up into the kitchen with Nar just a little bit behind her. Karia, Mina, and Leeroy struggle with the deck tilting further towards port as more water floods inward. The party scrambles in a race against drowning as the Emperor slowly gets dragged under the ocean.   Finally, Leeroy reaches the ladder managing to just hold on as the ship rocks and rolls yet again. He then helps Mina and Karia climb up into the kitchen.   Kyra bursts out from Lolth's altar cabin into the open sky. She jerks upward as a massive tentacle sweeps across the main deck destroying the main mast as it whips. Kyra looks in horror as a gigantic elder octopus contracts itself around the Emperor of the Waves almost as if the ship it's mortal enemy. Kyra immediately swoops upward toward the port edge away from this enormous monstrosity. While hovering near the ship, she also sees that the jolly boat is already en route.   Nar comes running out just a few seconds later and doesn't blink as the tentacle sweeps over her head, she leaps off the port edge grabbing the cloak of the manta rayoff Kyra's shoulders then splashes down just outside the turgid waters. Both Kyra and Nar start heading toward the incoming jolly boat and soon board it as their companions continue to escape the sinking ship.   Meanwhile, beneath the deck in the kitchen, water starts lapping at the heels of Mina, Karia, and Leeroy as they struggle upward toward the stairs leading to the top deck. The list has become considerable as more water floods inward. Leeroy gains the stairwell first and using his formidable upper body strength begins to pull himself up the stairs. Mina, however, loses her footing, falls, and slides ten feet backward and away from the stairs. Karia braces herself in the stairwell and offers a helping hand toward Mina as Leeroy starts running towards open air. Together, Karia and Mina are able to slip and scramble up the stairwell as the ship continues sinking into the ocean.   Leeroy bursts full speed from the aft cabin and dives over the edge of the Emperor. Seconds later, Karia and Mina flee the interior of the ship one behind the other. Unfortunately, the wildly whipping tentacle collides in succession with both of them. The tentacle first collides with Karia launching her forward through the air narrowly missing Leeroy as she splashes down, then it whips backward and flicks Mina over the starboard edge next to the octopus whose attention is solely on dragging the Emperor down to a watery grave.   From the jolly boat, Kyra reacts to this display by grabbing the cloak back from Nar and flying full speed back toward the Emperor as she flies over the decks, she hands the cloak off to Mina who then uses it to swim aft to escape the tempestuous waters. The jolly boat slowly rounds up Leeroy and Karia while Mina rapidly swims toward them. The jolly boat then starts working toward the Soul of Winter as our heroes take a few moments to collect themselves. Upon reaching the Soul, Leeroy starts climbing the rope ladder while Kyra glances at it before launching herself upward to the deck using her Winged Boots.   After boarding, Captain Windrune eagerly approaches asking, "Where you successful? Did you recover Aubreck's chest?" The party proudly assents as the Captain continues, "That's great! Let's get the chest into my cabin where it'll be safe."   Again, the party consents and Karia hauls the gleaming blue chest out, astonishing the Soul's crew with its brilliance. The first mate quickly orders two deck hands to carry the chest into the Captain's cabin as he escorts the party down the stairs and back to their quarters near the bow. The party relaxes within their quarters for a few hours, when a bell starts clanging constantly. There's a stampeded of feet throughout the ship, then a loud twang reverberates through the cabin, followed by several loud thuds.   Leeroy mobilizes and throws the door open to find the passageway deserted. Without hesitating, he rushes onward. Nar and Mina and quickly follow after as Karia looks at Kyra who shrugs and remarks, "I'm not sure, but I'm guessing we should follow along as well," as they then start down the passageway.   At the same time, Leeroy makes his way through the mess hall where stairs provide access to the main deck. The sounds of jumbled shouting reaches his ears, along with twanging bows and clash of steel. Pushing open the hatchway reveals a small crowd engaged in close combat with another ship along the Soul of Winter's broadside. Roughly a dozen dwarven crew members can be seen defending against colorful pirates whose swords light up with flickering blue flames upon each strike. Through the tumult Leeroy overhears, "Find the blue chest! That chest holds our future!" Nar and Mina are just starting up the stairs when Leeroy relays, "They know of the chest! We need to secure the chest before they find it!"   Nar scurries out onto the deck, ducking behind some cargo as she begins to snipe the invaders while Mina moves abreast of Leeroy and battles her way into the thick of the melee. There are several different styles of fighters on deck. While the main vanguard seems to be these raiders with flaming blue swords, there are also pirates using short bows and others trying to hide in the cover of the darkness.   The party sees the dwarven line weakening as the brave crewmembers begin to fall beneath the flaming, blue blows. Sensing the desperation of the situation, Captain Windrune rallies forces on the poopdeck to stall the advancing enemy forces there.   Kyra and Karia team up finding the chest and scuttle along the bulkhead aft of the main deck to start searching cabins, while Mina and Leeroy step forward into the empty gap left by fallen dwarves. Karia and Kyra stumble into the captain's quarters and quickly stuff the chest into their bag of holding.   Meanwhile, Leeroy and Mina down several invaders. The tide of battle turns as they whittle away at the invaders. Other pirates sever grappling lines and leap over the gap between ships as the pirate ship starts to disengage. Kyra now turns her attention to the battle as well and launches upward using her winged boots to assess the confused melee.   As yet another raider falls to Leeroy's halberd, Nar dashes through a gap in the melee and leaps over the open ocean onto the pirate's ship, The Gladiator, where she immediately shoots an arrow into the captain behind the tiller.   The captain summons a deckhand to the tiller while issuing a challenge at Nar, "Really little one? You dare to test yourself against me?"   Nar quickly retorts, "Don't underestimate me just because I'm tiny!" As the pirate captain stalks forward, Nar dodges and scrambles up the center mast to escape captain's deadly spear.   Responding to this new threat, Leeroy and Mina leap across the widening gulf between ships to square off against the captain. Kyra flies alongside using her arcane energies to witch bolt the captain as Karia follows in leaping to the pirate ship. Leeroy moves to strike the captain, but the captain parries the halberd and does three quick brutal strikes on Leeroy knocking him unconscious.   Mina quickly calls upon Istus to heal Leeroy, while the rest of the party distracts the Captain by continuing the attack. As Leeroy rejoins the battle, slowly, but inexorably the party whittles the hulking captain's health until Nar's arrow pierces his chest that kills him. Nar quickly scrambles down the mast, grabs the Captain's tricorn hat and dons it while climbing up Leeroy to straddle him and scream "I'm the captain now! Does anyone dare challenge me for this ship?"   The remainder of the crew still peeking out from mostly closed doors, watching Leeroy strut around with Nar on his shoulders, until slowly one after another, they yell out "All hail Captain Nar!" With that capitulation from the crew, the party the party searches the Captain's quarters and in addition to a strongbox, they find a scribbled note stating "Aubreck's ship found. Chest has 100,000gp of notes. Find and recover chest!"   As the sun begins to rise, the party declares that the new name of this, their second ship, will be "Friending Boatship".

Rewards Granted

Experience Awarded:
5 Sea Raiders - 700 xp/ea - 3,500xp
1 Cult Fanatic - 450 xp/ea - 450xp
1 Pirate Captain - 450 xp/ea - 450xp
1 Gladiator - 1,800 xp/ea - 1,800xp
2 Scouts - 100 xp/ea - 200xp

Total xp: 6400/5 = 1,280 xp/ea

Campaign Total = 5,151 xp

Treasure:
Ever-Full Sails on "Friending Boatship"

Captain's Cabin (Gladiator):
Small Mirror set in silver frame
Gold locket with painted portrait of a unknown lady
Pair of engraved bone dice
Potion of Supreme Healing
Small bag containing 150gp

First Mate's Cabin (Pirate Captain):
Small chest containing 18sp

Cult Fanatic's Cabin:
23cp

Sea Raiders' Cabin:
9 pale purple gems 10gp/ea

Hold:
Various sundries and cargo 300gp total

Missions/Quests Completed

Retrieved Aubreck Drallion's Chest from Emperor of the Waves
Escaped the Emperor of the Waves
Defended Soul of Winter

Related Reports

Session 12 - Aboard the Emperor Report
Session 14 - The Voyage Home - The long way around Report