Session 401 – Hungry Cargo
General Summary
The Story So Far
Ash - An expert in the occult and a skilled monster hunter. Ash uses his talents and budding alchemical expertise to battle what people fear most for a price.
Ryobi - A monk of the embattled Order of the Warriors of Mameka. Ryobi is given an important mission: retrieve the holy blades containing the souls of his brother knights, which were lost in the recent Rethemi civil war.
They are joined by Vinzent, a bard with a morbid demeanor and a haunted past.
This is the continuation of Session 399 - Exiles.
5th to 30th Kelen (Spring) 728TR
After a botched mission, the heroes are outlaws, wanted for mass murder, robbery, and blasphemy. They have fled the Kingdom of Rethem on a secret mission for the Agrikan Primate of Harn. They plan to find out the fate of the family of the Mamekan, the holy Weaponsmith, in the distant Hepekeria desert continent.
They boarded the merchant ship the Whelp on the first stage of their lengthy voyage.
Location - Sailing across the Gulf of Ederwyn.
Part 1 – Missing Crew
Having loaded up cargo and supplies in the port City of Aleath, the Whelp is following the southern Harnic coast en route to the City of Cherifir. A few days into the voyage, the heroes notice that tension in the crew increases. The frustrated Captain Harcros starts losing his temper as frantic crew members report to him in hush tones.
Exasperated, the Captain approaches the heroes who are lounging on deck. “My crew are disappearing,” he curses. Captain Harcros explains that several have not reported for their watches, and a thorough search of the Whelp has not been able to locate them. The first to disappear was a miscreant, and the captain assumed he had jumped ship, but yesterday, another sailor went missing. The crew is concerned, and Captain Harcros asks the party to investigate. “Fresh eyes may see things we missed.”
Part 2 – A Hungry Barrel
The party begins their methodical search for the Whelp, eventually moving into the hold. Ash spots a faint stain on the floor near several large barrels of wine. Moving a few crates to examine closer, it looks like traces of blood covered with sticky layers of clear mucous. Intrigued, he searches the next room, leaving Ryobi to check out some rope. With his back turned one of the wine barrels near the stain begins to move. Half a dozen eyes appear over the barrel, and a huge mouth filled with giant teeth appears, opening to a sinister grin. The mimic lashed out at the surprised monk, entrapping him with a sticky pseudopod. The mimic proves frustrating; if the heroes hit and injure the creature, their weapons get stuck. Ryobi grabs a nearby broom and pushes the mimic towards a porthole. Knowing he will be stuck, Ash grabs hold of the monster and leaps through the porthole, dragging it into the sea.
Ash fights the mimic in the water while Ryobi and Vinzent rush up to the deck. As the mimic and Ash start to sink, the mimic shape distorts, taking on the shape of a giant ugly crab. He has had enough and, using some magical tricks of his own, disappears from the mimic’s grasp and appears 15ft away, swimming to the Whelp. The crew helps him abroad and fires crossbows and the rapidly approaching crab-mimic.
As the crab-mimic skitters aboard, it quickly kills one of the crewmen with its deadly pincer and a second that engages it in melee combat. Having no choice, the heroes continue their attacks. While Ryobi keeps it distracted, hitting it and then ripping himself free, Vinzent and Ash attack from range. Vinzent's bronze flute fires small bolts of fire at the creature, enraging it, getting a deadly swipe from a pseudopod in return, nearly knocking the bard out. However, Ashes identifies a weakness in the mimic and quickly mixes a few poisonous plants into some alcohol. His arrow, dipped into this mix, proves deadly, each driving deep into the mimic, and soon, it loses control of its form, reverting to a blob of dead flesh which is quickly deposited into the sea.
Captain Harcros is grateful for the Party’s invention. The Whelp undermanned arrives at Port Cherifir and takes on a replacement crew before proceeding to the Lythia continent.
Part 3 – A Slippery Wreak
The Whelp makes good time, staying briefly in the Port of Parahal and then moving on towards the island Principality of Tarkain. A few days out, the Whelp spots a recent wreck breaking up on a series of rocks. The small ship appears deserted, although several corpses can be seen on the deck. Captain Harcros is happy for the heroes to be rowed and salvage anything of value, provided he gets a cut.
The characters investigate, and the corpses scattered on the deck appear to have been killed by a combination of localized burns around some form of stabbing wound. One of the corpse's finely scaled leather armor glows with magic under Vinzent's Detect Magic. As Ash investigates, the corpse twitches and then animates. The dead are some form of mindless undead, but unlike others they have fought, electricity crackles around them. Concerned that this strange type of undead may inflict lighting damage, Ash quickly brews an elixir, giving him some resistance to electrical damage and enabling him to deliver a little himself. This seems to work well. This is a form of Gulmorvin or Unfree Undead touch kills the flesh physically and is combined with a potent electrical shock. Unfortuately, Ash discovers when he strikes the undead they suddenly become energized, acting and reacting faster. Nonetheless, the heroes courageously battle these mindless undead fiends; Robyi pushes a few into the water, and several don't float well, disappearing into the depths, never to be seen again. The strange undead are eventually defeated and hacked to pieces.
As Vinzent tends to the heroes injuries, another menace emerges from underneath the wreck's hull, a massive swarm of ferocious Electric Eels. They overrun the heroes, trying to create more corpses from whatever evil forces are nearby, but are eventually driven off or killed. As the wreck slowly submerges into the sea, the heroes loot what they can. At least Ash recovers a fine enchanted suit of "slippery" leather armor.
To be continued.
NPC Interactions
Captian Harcros - of the good ship the Whelp.
Created Content
Nothing this week.
Related Reports
Nothing this week.
Player Characters
Ryobi - Human - L9 Monk
Background - Temple Guard.
Archetypes - Barbarian/Fighter.
Ash - Human - L9 Thaumaturge
Background - Weaponcrafter.
Archetypes - Alchemist.
NPC Companion
Vinzent - Human - L9 Bard
Background - Cursed.
Archetypes - Blessed/Disciple of Thalia.
Next Session
NPC Companion
Vinzent
He is a skilled minstrel who is infamous for his depressing performances and bad luck.
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