August 24th session

The group was told by Eleth that we now have a new second ship, the Tasman, and she began searching for warriors interested in combat competitions in the future, for which the prize(s) will be significant. The group went down to the docks to inspect the new Tasman as well as the Tentacle Terror to determine if she was seaworthy yet. The decision was made to rename the Tasman (a brand new ship) to Orrian’s Revenge, and Brandr was officially promoted to Commodore over our small flotilla. His first act was to promote me to Captain of Tentacle Terror. We then went into town and collected the bounty of the ship we had captured on our last adventure, 8000 GP. Brandr and I signed the paperwork for it and received the payment in full. The sum of money was then split up as such:
 
1500 GP - Tentacle Terror repairs
110 GP - budgeted to hire 3 modest sailors for one year, at a price of 1 SP per day
75 GP - restock the Terror’s supplies and rations
1000 GP - split evenly to the 10 main crew members, 100 GP each.
 
The remaining 5315 GP were added to the bank to bring the party’s total up to 18,315 GP
 
After this, the crew set out on Orrian’s Revenge, leaving the Terror in Dimitri’s care until it is fully repaired (which will take 9 days), to serve a bounty found by Shantu (who will officially be part of the crew of the Terror, once it is repaired and out to sea). The bounty offers 9000 GP to someone who is willing to investigate strange skeleton sightings in the woods on the small island of Ora.
 
The first days of the voyage passed smoothly with no sign of danger. Then, on the 4th day of our voyage, the wind refused to blow and the clouds disappeared. The crew and ship baked in the harsh sun for days, praying for wind to push us on to our destination. In the middle of the night, as Shantu and I were standing 2nd watch, the ship came under attack by a pack of viscous merrows armed with harpoons. The whole crew was roused and we quickly defeated the creatures back, but we lost 5 good sailors, and many of us were injured, especially Shantu, and we needed to rest and recover from the battle.
 
The next day was another of sun and no wind, until the middle of the day when clouds were spotted trekking across the sky, and our sails filled once again with wind. The white clouds quickly turned to grey, and we found ourselves in a terrible storm, leaving Zik and Quarrion very sea sick. It was during this storm that one of our crew was tossed overboard by the swell of the sea. As the Commodore was in his quarters, I was the ranking officer on deck and ordered the helmsman to bring the ship about to recover the kobald who had been thrown into the surf.
 
The sailor was spotted about 100 feet off our stern, and Shantu took quick action to dive in after him and swim to him under the waves. Once the kobald was retrieved, Shantu and the kobald were pulled back aboard, and the crew was sent below decks to secure all the supplies that had come loose in the maneuvering. Shortly after, the storm subsided and the rest of our voyage was smooth, and we pulled into port on day 16 of the voyage, 4 days behind schedule.
 
We docked our ship and continued to a small mining town, where it was said the reports of skeletons being seen originated. After speaking to the authorities of the town, we were pointed towards a fenced-off area of the town just in front of the main mine shaft that was said to be the terrorized area, and a man that looked like an evil Santa Claus let us into the area and locked the gate behind us. As we made our way into the fenced area, our stealth was blown and our presence discovered by 2 ghost-like entities, one that appeared male and one that appeared female. They each were like a floating mass of blue fog with a skeleton face, their whole bodies floating just slightly off the ground as they hovered towards us. Also from the buildings to either side of us came scores of skeletons, separated into two separate hordes on either side. I saw that we stood no chance making a stand in our current position, so we dashed to the other side of the enclosed compound, and one by one were able to make our way over the fence, although some were injured by the barbed wire on top, or the drop awaiting them on the other side.
 
As Zik flew higher into the air, he discovered that these ghosts could also fly higher than the few inches off the ground as we had previously seen them, and so joined us on the other side of the fence.
 
The fence provided no protection from the ghosts though, and we found ourselves engaged with the two creatures again, although without having to worry about skeletons this time, and being able to fallback and regroup, we defeated both these creatures after a long battle that nearly killed Brandr and left all of us (except Zik) bloodied. We turned our attention to the mine shaft in front of us, and made the decision to send a giant rat (produced by Shantu to aid us in the battle against the ghosts) to be our eyes in the mine before we ourselves ventured in. Through the rat, Shantu saw that it was indeed a massive and complicated mine, having many passageways and rooms full of supplies and other valuables, as well as scores of additional skeleton creatures and ghosts. Knowing that we would not survive if we attempted to investigate the mine further alone, the crew returned to Orrian’s Revenge, and we had a a smooth and speedy voyage back to our headquarters in Rosie’s store.