Aporeu chronicles Issue 94: Precious Cargo
Stories from the adventurers
This week
A nice little voyage on a ship.
Precious Cargo by Sahrot Al
(Editor's Note: I kid you not, people. This Kobold came back, and this time he not only had some large thing across his back, there was something dangerous looking walking beside him that he talked to. And apparently only he can hear it talk back. I have given up on trying to understand Adventurers or the Guild.) This mission was requested by one Günther Vunderbarb, to escort something of his he's sold. To a militia in Arnheim. If that already sounds intriguing... Just wait 'til we get to the good parts! This story's got pirates in it! Sort of. Anyway. I meet up with the rest of the party at the Guild Hall. They seemed kinda surprised about ED. ED would be what you'd call a 'good boy'. If he'd stop being such a potty mouth. So, the rest of the party! There's Booyagh the Goblin, Madame Wicky the Half-Orc, Mud the Halfling, Tanar'ri the Elf, and Blaire the Human. And I am Sahrot Al the Kobold. And together, we brought Günther's cargo to Apethorn safely! As we gather at the Guild Hall's reception desk, Loïs is there to ask us which quest we're there to handle today. Totally doesn't mention anything about a drug problem. Not a peep. Why would anybody ever think that she would talk about something like that? Honestly, shame on you for even entertaining the idea! Then she informs us that Lornan is ready to see us to explain some things. So we go up to his office. In Lornan's office, we receive the information that we need to meet with Günther at his place, near something called "Stab Corner". And warns us that he's a bit chaotic. What he MEANT to say was that Günther is VERY chaotic. But a nice enough guy. Don't think he's responsible for "Stab Corner" having that unfortunate name. As we walk towards this unfortunately named landmark, some drunkard stumbles out and tries to get some money from Booyagh for more drink. Blaire's nice and gives him some money, after which he stumbles off. Booyagh did some magic, but it didn't take hold I think. Probably for the best. It's not too much longer after that's resolved and we walk onwards that we come to the Qo'ren Market. And there's a house with Günther's name on it that's got a lot of cool stuff on it. I hope this is the place, and they're not pranking us. Because there's SO MUCH COOL STUFF. I sorta wander in without thinking. Lucky for me, the rest did the same. And inside there's HEAPS of cool stuff. And also a very chaotic Halfling that can't seem to make up his mind on what he wants to do. That might be a problem for his work. He takes us up to the roof after making sure we're the Adventurers he's requested, to a big ballista that is on a little cart for transport. And a pulley system that makes getting it down off the roof real easy. He says I should come back sometime to talk shop with him, after he spots my new focus. It's been doing great. Not only on the practice range, but against actual enemies, too. But more on that later in the story. Can't go skipping ahead too much now! You'd miss the other stuff we did! We bring the ballista to the docks, since we voted that we'd go by ship. Which is the quicker way to get to Apethorn, and should be safer too. Captain Dennholm, a huge Human with an eyepatch, says we can mount the ballista on his ship during the voyage as extra deterrent for attackers. Mostly because keeping it on wheels was gonna be a bit of a problem while on a boat and you try to fire it. He even had 2 ballista bolts for us, but also said they'd cost 5 gold if we fired them. So we didn't. I ask for some wood and metal so I can try making some more. But he keeps talking about not setting his ship on fire. I get that, I'm not stupid. Seriously. Some people see that you're smaller than they are, and just assume you're an idiot. I've probably forgotten more about wrecking stuff than Cpt. Dennholm knows... Anyway, we all get aboard, Booyagh with some resistance. He really doesn't like water, it seems. He did quite well, in spite of being scared to be on a boat for most of the journey. A journey that the captain estimated would take about 6 hours, due to wanting to take a safer route. Because there's been trouble with pirates lately. For the first hour of our trip, we all go about doing our own thing. Madame Wicky sets up a little table and some magic stuff that I've never seen before to tell fortunes. Must be doing something right, because 'Stuttering Sal' got the confidence to ask Blaire on a date, and she said yes. Hope that goes alright. The rest don't really do much of note, while I get started on making another ballista bolt. Spoiler: I never finished making it. Probably because we got attacked by fish people. I think they were called 'Sahuagin' or something. I just know they smelled like grilled fish after I got done with my targets. We take out a few of them on their approach, thanks to Tanar'ri spotting a suspicious shadow in the water while I was working. I'll thank him for his watchful eye here, since I kinda forgot to do that on board. Sorry about that! Madame Wicky makes some seaweed appear out of nowhere, after I shoot a glitter-grenade at them. Sadly, the water seems to take most of the brunt, and only one of them is lit up like intended. That poor guy also got caught in the seaweed. He's not having a great day. After he gets out of the seaweed, he gets taken out before he can try to do any damage.
Meanwhile, 4 of them went under the boat, and 4 others tried to get aboard. Well, there's not much "try" about it, they got aboard. Some just took a bit longer.
I figured I was going to be more helpful down below, fixing any holes those that went under the boat might try to make. And boy was I right.
Madame Wicky came down as well and used some magic to turn water to ice and plug the holes that formed, while I took care of boarding them up so we wouldn't take on too much water.
Long story short: I did such an amazing job of denying them any lasting damage that they gave up and came aboard as well. They really should've run away.
As I get up on deck after the banging on the hull stopped (and the captain said they were up on deck), I spot one that is distracted after Tanar'ri dodged out of his way using the ballista we set up.
I tell the fugly thing that I don't like his face. And he gives me the saddest eyes after I shoot him in the mouth. Whatever. His own fault for not running away when he had a chance.
Booyagh comes up out of the hold as well, and does some lightning magic that hurts the 2 near him. Sadly, he gets knocked out. Guess they really didn't like that lightning.
So I shoot the one that knocked him out in the face as well, and he goes down. Someone else takes out the 3rd one that was next to Booyagh. I run over to help the tall Goblin.
But Madame Wicky does some hoodoo stuff and he blinks awake. Well, that's a relief.
Since I don't have to worry about Booyagh being unconscious, I take aim at the last fish-face, that's been harassing poor Blaire. And turn said fugly fish-face into grilled fish-face.
Then the captain stomps over and spouts some nonsense about using fire on his boat. I point out that he said I can't START fires on his boat. I used the fire on the wet fish-faces.
He seems to calm down a bit after he confirms that I'm the reason his boat is still going strong. Though he takes one of the morningstars as 'compensation' for me using fire.
Not sure what he was expecting. There's plenty of Adventurers that use fire to kill things.
After that, the rest do some stuff, but I pull out my fishing tackle and sit on the back of the boat. I think they called it a 'poop deck'. Anyway, I do a bit of fishing while we sail.
I catch a couple fishies, but I throw them back into the water after I catch them. It's just for sport, not food, right now.
After about an hour, we spot a guy on the shore shouting something. Apparently, there's pirates up ahead.
As we get closer, with the big-ass ship and a ballista and lots of dangerous looking Adventurers, the pirates decide that their little dinghy's aren't suited for this fight and flee.
Some weird fog cloud pops up out of nowhere to cover their fleeing. Bet they told their boss it was a tactical retreat.
We also find a female Sahuagin, tied up to a post, while the pirates were whipping others. Which is probably why those others attacked us in the first place.
Madame Wicky uses her magic to let them know we're not there to hurt them, as Blaire and I go over to free their queen or boss or something. I don't know how fish-people society works, okay?
She's grateful for the help, and gives us a spear and the metal collar as gifts to express her gratitude.
The rest of the trip to Apethorn is uneventful, right up until the point that we dock there. Apparently, Mud and Blaire have been to Apethorn before, and the guard is ordering a full search of the ship after something they did last time they were here.
I'm smart enough to ask another guard to please inform Calek Stormcaller and Rurik Ironscale that we've arrived with their delivery. And we figure out what it was that they did last time.
They used illusion magic to 'dick around' (pun intended) with the guards. Maybe Mud really is just a kid, instead of a Halfling..
Regardless, after a while a big, regal Half-Dragon and the most peculiar Kobold show up. They were both in heavy armor! And Rurik talked with a Dwarvish accent, too. So strange.
But, he's the Quartermaster for the Stormbringers, so he's really important! He's also investigating exploding things, like Günther is doing. I may need to study up on stuff like that. Sounds like it could be useful.
We get some time to do what we wanna do around town while they move the ballista from the ship we brought it in on to the ship they'll be using to patrol around Apethorn.
So I go to where the militia is, and makes as many pieces of ammunition as I can for them to use in protecting Apethorn. They appreciate my work and I even get paid for it!
I could get used to this "Do work, get paid" thing. Gotta finish training with Phann and Felicia before I can focus on doing stuff like that, though. They're teaching me how to not care about enemies being right next to me if I want to shoot them.
It didn't come up a lot on this mission, but I'm sure it's gonna be a really important skill to have sooner or later!
As we head to the Stormbringer ship, it starts POURING down hard. So hard, in fact, that casting off is delayed for a bit. Not enough to be troublesome, thankfully, but still.
It seems that this ship is sufficiently intimidating as well, since we have no trouble on our way back to Arnheim. Though I kinda took a long nap this time around. Been up all day, and I was getting tired.
Didn't get woken up to fix up the ship, so everything must've gone alright.
Written by: Sahrot Al.
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