Act VI: Chasing the Pirate Captain

The party is forced to finally go after Captain Monty.

The group was taken by Mr. Omara back to the bank, where he informed them that there was now a bounty on their heads for capture, as the authorities in Nujanat believed them responsible for the recent devil activity, given that they had been seen at all the attacks that happened publically. Mr. Omara further chided them for going off their original mission, retrieving the stolen goods from the River's Edge bank robbery, and that this is what the bank expected them to be doing going forward, as well as bringing Captain Monty to justice. They were told that Captain Monty normally made port in the city of Teramund, and that the bank would teleport them to the nearest city they had a bank in, Belstrad, and from there they would need to take a ship. The group spent the night in the bank, and noted they were under guard. In the morning (9.11.1288 AYD), the group was teleported to Belstrad, and from there found a ship that agreed to ferry them to Teramund in exchange for them serving as guards if the ship were attacked. On the first day of their journey, they were attacked by giant Shark-Eating crabs. One drug Theo under the water, but he was eventually able to stab it to death and grab onto the rudder of the ship, the other was killed by the rest of the group, and the sailors celebrated with a giant clambake. The rest of the trip was uneventful.   They knew a bit about Teramund, that it was an independent city-state ruled by Marcanath the God-King, who did live in the palace in the center of the city, and that the city was divided into great rings. They also learned that the city was very racist against nonhumans and outlawed the worship of other deities.   (14.11.1288 AYD) They made their way to a tavern, The Grappled Goliath, where Bob regailed the tavern with his stories and everyone seemed very happy, except one cloaked and hooded man who kept watching them with a scowl. Theo noticed this guy and got a table near him to try and spy on him, and then eventually just tried to confront him directly. The guy just left, and Theo tried to tail him, but eventually lost him in the crowds of the docks district. Then Theo was found by two guards and a holy man of Marcanath, who wanted to search Theo because he had heard that he was carrying "Illegal contraband". Theo, knowing that he didn't have anything on him that would be considered illegal here, let them search his bag. Unfortunately for Theo, someone had slipped a holy symbol of another deity into his bag, and the holy man cast a spell on him, and he got arrested. The others found this out later when they noticed he was gone, and have heard he's being taken into the inner rings for further questioning, and likely execution.   Theo awoke in in some type of cell, hanging from the ceiling by chains with one other man. After insulting the guards several times, Theo was able to escape his chains, and with the other man, who revealed himself to be called Kobe, they were able to take care of the guards in their cell. Arming themselves with their weapons, they proceeded to free the rest of the prisoners on their block, and eventually killed the priest in charge, and got their weapons and armor back. Unfortunately, they found themselves on a small flying ship heading up. The group was able to determine the portal mechanism to get to the surface, and they teleported down, Theo going with Kobe to his home, hidden behind an illusionary wall.   Meanwhile, the rest of the group went searching for Theo with the aid of some of the bar patrons, and they were able to determine that he had been arrested, but that there had also been an escape. Using his raven Poe as a scout, Yasias was able to find where the flying jailer's ship crashed and overheard more rumors about the escaped prisoners. The group debated many ways to get into the next circle, they learned that each citizen of the city had a special tattoo on their hands showing where they could go in the city, and that without that, they would not be able to get through. Eventually, Bob discovered a rope that allowed people to get on top of the walls, used by teenagers to spy on the public bathing areas in the common ring, and he used that to get over on to the other side. He would find Kobe's hiding place, where the two thieves were nursing their wounds with the assistance of Kobe's wife, Jasmine, and they decided to go back to the outer ring.   The party took up a series of rooms at the Mug and Glaive, a bar with a clientele that leaned toward the criminal side, and debated their next moves. Once they explained their mission, Kobe was able to tell them where a fence known to work with Captain Monty did business, a man called Davan. He gave this information up in exchange for the party helping him and his wife in leaving the city when they eventually left.   In the morning, the group headed out to the warehouse where Davan worked out of, Bob and Theo posed as men who had acquired a large shipment of booze and sweet-talked their way in. Davan seemed intrigued by their booze selection and invited them to move their cart off of the street so they could talk more business. Once the group was inside the warehouse, Davan betrayed them, indicating that he was the one that framed Theo, and that he was going to turn him in for the bounty. A great battle took place, and several fireballs were thrown, setting the warehouse on fire, and Davan was eventually killed by the superior bladework of Theo. During this battle however, a devil appeared on top of the crates, and attempted to curse the party. The group dispatched the devil and put out the fires with Yasias's magic after some effort. They searched the warehouse, taking its valuables (mostly food) and discovered Davan's ledger. From the ledger, they learned that Davan had been purchasing female slaves from the markets of Teramund, in small batches, for Captain Monty, and that one of these exchanges was set to happen tonight. The group spent their downtime back at the Mug and Glaive, where they sold off the food stolen from Davan's warehouse for a tidy profit.   The group set themselves up across the dock where Captain Monty would be arriving. Eventually they saw a man escorting three women in chains to the dock, Bob used his message spell to commune with one of them, a woman named, Aziah, to tell them everything would be alright, and the woman replied that her boss would be arriving soon to rescue them. Captain Monty's ship arrived suddenly, coming out of a great portal, and the woman were escorted on board. Realizing there was no time to waste, the group charged on to the ship, Yasias and Dralduin making their way via flying disc, Bob using his magic armor to swim to the other side of the boat, and Theo just jumped over, like a badass. Captain Monty attempted to kill them all on the dock with a barrage of cannonfire, which mostly destroyed the dock, but to no avail (Bob noted that Captain Monty probably shouldn't be in possession of firearms and cannons. The Captain further kept taking shots from his pistol at them as one of his men brought to him the giant pearl the group had been looking for, and he proceeded to kill the man, using the pearl to drain his lifeforce and open another portal, that the ship slowly started to move into. As Theo and Dralduin tried to fight the pirates on the deck, Yasias summoned a group of angry monkeys, who proceeded to fight with the Captain to take the pearl. Bob noticed the three enslaved women escaping out of a porthole on the side of the ship and they dove into the water, swimming toward the shore. Back on the decks, another woman, who was so beautiful that her good looks stunned the pirates and Theo, had snuck up behind the pirate captain and fired her own firearm at the man. Bob was able to identify this creature as some sort of nymph. The nymph, the captain, and the monkeys struggled for the orb, and it eventually flew out of all their hands, where it was swept up by Yasias! Unfortunately, Yasias was in turn shot by the pirate captain again, causing him to fall unconscious and nearly die. Dralduin fought his way to the deck, healing the group as he could, and fought the pirate captain, as the ship continued to be slowly swallowed up by the portal. Bob grabbed Yasias, diving into the water, still protected by his spell of invisibility, and Theo dove overboard, not wanting to go through the portal. The mysterious woman dove off the ship as well, leaving the Captain and Dralduin. Before the portal consumed the ship completely, Dralduin grabbed the orb and threw it off the boat, in the direction of Theo, sacrificing himself to get the orb away from the evil pirate captain and into the hands of the party. The ship finally made it threw the portal, and they were gone.   The group made it's way back to shore and spent little time lamenting for their lost companion. After some quick discussion, they decided the best course of action was to take the orb back to the bank, to show that they were working on the issue and had made progress, and to get further help. They noticed as well that there was increased security and searches going on of both ships and caravans leaving the city, and eventually decided that sneaking off via ship would be the best route (it was also the fastest, as going around the lake via land is a much longer journey). Thankfully, Bob was able to locate the sailors they had befriended earlier, and convinced them to smuggle them aboard their ship, the Nightwatch, and they escaped Teramund. Once they were safely out of the city, the sailors introduce them to their Captain, Noah Bouchard. Bob told them most of their story and the daring heroics, and everyone was enthralled up until the mention of Captain Monty. Bouchard ordered the watches doubled and for everyone to remain on alert, in case the notorious pirate captain found his way back to them.   The first day of travel was uneventful, but on the evening of the second day, a mighty crash hit the ship as a Greater Water Elemental formed on the deck, clearly ready to destroy all of them.  The party battled the water elemental, but their attacks proved to have little effect on it.  The elemental dove into the water, trying to drag the ship into a great whirlpool of it's own making.  Yasias summoned his own water elemental to go after the creature, and they also found the same woman from before, disabling the ship's rudder with some type of explosive, before trying to escape on a boat in the shape of a swan.  Bob dove after her, but was knocked off the boat as she escaped.  The water elemental disappeared soon afters, and the group determined that the whole thing had been a distraction, and the pearl had been stolen again.  They were able to get the rudder repaired and after promising to help get Captain Blouchard's cargo sold in Teramund (a shipment of valuable emeralds), they turned the ship around and headed back to Teramund.     Once the ship arrived back in the city, the party wasted little time trying to track down the mysterious woman, asking about with her description, they learned that she was a fence, and after a trip through the sewers, they found her base of operations.  Theo tried to sneak in, but was caught by the secretary at the door.  Bob and Yasias were able to negotiate a meeting with the mysterious woman at her residence.