Session 2: Warm Isle Cold Seas Report

General Summary

The Captain tries desperately to steer his ship around the mysterious island, however animate waves work against him and force the vessel ever closer to land. The party tries by persuasion and the by intimidation to coerce the captain to stop fighting the waves and instead to steer into them, but the pride of Johannes Friedrich is too great. Convinced he can steer his ship out of the turbulence. He cannot however, and the ship is dashed against the rock-face of the isles sheer cliff walls.   Having braced themselves adequately, the party maintains consciousness as the ship bursts asunder, launching them and the crew into the lagoon that they were drawn in towards. Upon the beach, funny semi-amphibian creatures are waiting armed with nets and spears. Ronn recognizes them to be Kuo-Toa, malevolent and duplicitous monsters of the waves; he elects to disguise himself as one and tells the rest of the party not to put up a fight. As the wounded crew begin to make their way on land they are surrounded and captured one by one, and dominated with cruel looking contraptions with spikes at one end to grab a neck, and a handle at the other to push or pull the prisoner.   As they are captured, the party see Captain Friedrich gallantly struggling in combat with four of the Kuo-Toa, the last they see of him he is chopping off their limbs with successive, artful strikes of his curved longsword. Grik and Ramus are loaded into a prisoner transport vessel upon a nearby river as Ronn sneaks away from the beach, he finds Jon slightly away from the beach.   The Prisoners are brought north via the river to a sunken temple in a lake. The boats anchor at a stony shore and the prisoners are led one by one up a series of steps as water cascades down from the top of the structure. At it's peak it can be seen that the water flows from a never ceasing fountain in the middle of a shrine. Surrounding the shrine is a wide moat of water with steps leading down into it. The prisoners are forced down the steps but are surprised to learn that the water can be breathed the same as fresh air. Below the surface, a complex of born out tunnels filled with all manner of treasure and loot lead to a central chamber dominated by a rectangular stone platform in the middle. Seated on the platform, illuminated sickly by bio-luminescent fungus hanging off the cavern walls, is a truly horrific monster. 12 foot long with the head of a fish, legs of a crab and tentacles of a squid, black eyes seated in pinkish scaly skin, the master of the sunken temple looked over it's new charges with hunger and curiosity in it's cold deep eyes. One by one the prisoners were brought before the monster and his Kuo-Toa translator, and given the same order:   "You stand before Xojoradu, the great collector, master of the sunken temple and the Mooring Isles. You now submit yourself for survey, to see if you might be a unique addition to Xorjoradu's collection. What is your worth?"   Only unique humanoids will be accepted into the collection. One pirate, the Godi of the Frey Brotherhood, and Grik will be the only one's accepted, all others eaten. Grik's last image of Rammus is the Half-Orc being vicously swallowed whole by the monster. Within the gallery/prison, Grik get's to know the prisoner across the hall, a Tiefling named Kayrus.   Ronn and Jon steal a boat from some Kuo-Toa, and make their way torwards the temple. Ronn's familiar followed the prisoners all the way to the underwater entrance so he knew at least that much. However upon entering the sunken temple they find themselves lost in the warren that is Xorjaradu's lair. The monster, seemingly able to sense their presence, made it's way to the intruders location with his translator and posed the same demand to them. Both Ronn and Jon were then accepted to the collection and brought to the Gallery.   The party made some attempts to understand the nature of their bondage. The cages that held them were simply furnished, and the bars and locks obviously enchanted. The magic that powered the locks seemed to emanate from a single source nearby, Kayrus took it upon himself to escape from his cell with a spell, and eliminate that source of magic. The Gem that powered the system was marked by a blinding white light but when removed from its seat the locks did indeed power down.   The session ended as all the prisoners escaped from their cells.

Rewards Granted

200 XP

Character(s) interacted with

Captured by: Xorjaradu and Kuo - Toa Servants

Created Content

The Mooring Isles