Session Report 33 - Flight of The Flying Flagon
General Summary
"The Sweet Kiss will always be my favourite ship to sail with. I may have bigger ships, faster ships, or ones with more firepower, but that doesn't really matter. It's a solid ship and under the right hands it can claim the very Heart of The Sea."
-Journals of Captain Rose
Ship of The Dead
The Drifters, having found The Flying Flagon wedged amongst 3 mountains, descend towards the ship. Laire enters the ship first by climbing to it, and Gunther throws up a grappling hook (which Laire secures). One by one, the group climbs up the rope and onto the ship. The ship itself is not in good shape. There are clear signs of a battle throughout it, including several bodies on the lower decks. Moreover, the entire place has been ransacked. Nothing of value or use remains, beyond the cannons and a few cannonballs.The sick bay has had chains attached to the ceiling with some unidentified meat hooked to them. The kitchen has a body folded into the corner, which Grov carefully investigates only to realize it is a sea hag. This shocks him to his core, and the dreadful visage of the hag doesn't help. This hag was apparently hurt with swords and bullets before being finished off with an overwhelming blow, shattering her spine.
The group descends to the cargo hold since Laire hears something like a popping or a clicking sound coming from deeper into the ship. The group prepares themselves for a fight, as the sound is coming from behind a crate. Nobody is too keen to be the first to check what's there, so Ouchie is the first to head around the corner. He exclaims that it's just a frozen body, and the group cautiously rounds the corner. It is indeed a body, and its leg appears to be cracking, bubbling, and then re-freezing in a certainly unnatural manner. It has its mouth agape and teeth showing, with long, matted white hair streaming onto its back. It doesn't take long for Gunther to conclude that this is a hag, as he uses his holy powers to sense that it has an otherworldly nature. It takes him a moment to realize that he does not sense the dead hag upstairs. This thing is alive, and as soon as he says this, the hag reaches out her frigid hand and grabs him by the arm.
Devorah, The Bheur Hag
Locke takes a shot with his pistol at the hag, hitting her in the chest, though not killing her. Before anybody else has a chance to do anything, the hag asks gleefully if they want the ship. The crew replies that they do, and the hag, clearly a bit insane from the frantic way she speaks, demands to be shown something "cruel, unexpected, and surprising". She doesn't care what. Locke whispers to Grov, asking that the dragonborn trust him. He then stabs Grov lightly a couple of times, using illusion magic to make the attack seem more brutal. This does not fool the hag, who demands more.The crew is not putting up with this. Locke advances towards her with his dagger, and Gunther breaks free of her grasp. She retaliates by letting out a magical blast of extreme cold, instantly knocking out Ramone and dealing significant damage to the rest of the crew. The group enters frenzied combat against the clearly skilled spellcaster. Several crewmembers go into melee with her, dealing significant damage. Gunther uses the iron bands to bind her, and she creates a wall of ice to separate herself from the group. Laire uses magic to break through this wall and save Ouchie, who is close to death on the other side. Finally, Gunther manages to stab the hag nonfatally, rendering her unconscious.
"Sisters Three I Summon Thee"
The fight with the hag, soon to be known as Devorah, has left the crew exhausted. They take some time to rest and recuperate before they move to interrogate the hag. Locke contemplates cutting off her tongue but is dissuaded by Gunther, who reasons that if she can't speak it will be harder for her to potentially teleport the ship.Devorah is hit awake, and the crew tries to get her to agree to teleport the ship. They threaten her, saying that she is in danger, but she doesn't seem to be afraid. With a grin, she chants a rhyme and her two sisters appear with a blast of cold. Frommet is the shorter and feistier sister who can't help but talk almost incomprehensibly quickly. Shulamit is the stockier and raspier sister who has a sarcastic streak. together with Devorah, they introduce themselves as the Synagogue of the Stupendous Sisters.
The crew once again tries to threaten the hags or bargain with them, but the sisters don't bite. Finally, Locke takes out a gemstone from his satchel and shows it. While the sisters aren't interested in wealth, they realize that this is no ordinary gemstone as Locke summons the fire elemental stored within. Combat breaks loose once again.
Flight of The Flying Flagon
Knowing that a coven is broken if even one member dies, the crew make quick work of killing Devorah, who is helpless to resist on account of still being bound by the bands. The other two sisters begin to take significant damage as well. Even if Shulamit manages to get a devastating ice spell in, the two are quickly placed on the back foot. Frommet is especially hurt and is set ablaze by the elemental. With their dooms quickly approaching, the two remaining sisters think fast and come up with a plan to survive and possibly get revenge for their sister. They begin to use their magical powers jointly to levitate the ship. Now, if the crew were to hurt either of the hags the ship would be put into jeopardy, possibly being irreversibly damaged in the fall. Not to mention the lives of those within.The attack on the hags stops momentarily, though the group has to work to get Ouchie to stop hitting Shulamit. Frommet briefly loses concentration since she is still aflame, one side of the ship begins to fall, jerking everybody inside off the ground and sharply onto the walls and each other. She refocuses and begins levitating the ship once more as Ramone puts her out. The group then strikes a shakey deal with the hags so that they will keep levitating the ship.
Ramone heads to one of the two remaining sails (the mainsail is still broken in the mountains) and uses his magic to generate wind, steering the ship in the direction of the sea. Meanwhile, Laire peaks out a cannon port and readies one of the feather tokens he received on Boreal Peak - the anchor token, which can instantly stop a ship in place when touched to one. Grov and Locke pay close attention to the hags in the cargo hold, making sure they don't pull off any funny business.
"We Sisters Two Do Say Adieux"
When at last the ship is over the water, Gunther runs belowdecks to tell the hags to begin to let it down. The hags gladly oblige, but the ride is not pretty. They release their levitation and immediately teleport away, wishing the crew painful deaths. The ship begins to drop, reaching terminal velocity as it plummets below the water. Laire waits with the token in hand, peering out a cannon port to see how close the water is. Just as the ship is about to hit the waves, Laire slaps the token on the ship about 80 feet in the air. Everybody is violently jolted by the sudden stop and several bones are broken, but everybody survives.Everybody takes a few minutes to catch their breath. Laire doesn't even wipe the blood off his brow or stand up. Only when Locke comes up from belowdecks does he release the seal on the ship's movement. It falls the remaining way, still being damaged in the process but not enough to put it at risk of sinking.
Resolution
The Flying Flagon takes its time to sail back to The Driftwood, especially with its lack of a mainsail. The remaining crew on The Driftwood have been busy in the past day and a half, and Timothy explains that two sea hags attacked. They killed them, though the hags almost got to Harry.As neither ship has rowboats, a small group goes to retrieve them from the shore. However, they are not there. It takes some magic to find that they have been sunk and a day is spent on recovery. It takes another full day to venture into the mountains and retrieve the mainsail, made harder by the fact that The Sisters froze it to the ground. They briefly appear for the sole purpose of flipping off The Drifters, then teleport away once more. Reattaching the sail takes some clever maneuvering and most of the wood stocks. Repairings the rowboats leaves the two ships with exactly no wood.
now equipped with a new and mostly functional ship, The Drifters sail for Port Evergreen with the hopes of finding a shipwright and restocking supplies.
Report Date
11 Feb 2023
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