Session 29

General Summary

Freeday, Reaping 7

Morning

The boat we approach is dubious. It is small enough to crewed by three. Oolaro warns of orcish marine patrols. The Shielding keep is on the south tip.
We stow Dom, Thormyr, and Drazhan in the hold. Travius and Tronus set to the oars. I stand trepidatiously in the prow.
Half-way across the sky begins to darken and fog rolls in. I ritually cast Detect Magic. I sense magic all around us, suggesting the fog is magical. We hear a deep horn sound to the east.
Travius asks Oolaro if we should stop or change direction. I hear the sound of water rushing toward us and see a wake crashing against our hull.
I fall prone to the deck.
Travius shouts out that he sees something coming through the fog. It is a enormous battering ram. It thunders into the side of our tiny craft, shattering it. Travius is injured by the shards of wood. The ship drives through our vessel as if it were mere flotsam.
We see a battle barge sailing away as we float in the surf. It seems to be a Rhenee battle barge. From the direction the barge is heading, we heathe sound of another battle horn (possibly from that same boat.)
I am washed off of the section of hull I was clinging to. Tossed by waves I eventually wash up on a beach. I’m unsure if I have reached Craghome island or not. Soon my companions wash up alongside me, save for Dominique and Drazhan. I drag Norric from the surf. We’ve all been battered by the rocks on our way to land.
As I help Norric to land, he lurches as a trident penetrates his back. Horrendous fish-men emerge from the fog, gliding through the water. In the distance I hear a horn, and then a response from in front of me. Behind the smaller fish-men is a much larger beast with four arms.
The monsters tear into me with tridents despite my Shield, and one of the larger ones launches his weapon and scores a terrible wound to my flank. Harried I rush to the shore and avoid an attack at my back with another Shield. I cast Melf’s Minute Meteors and scour several of them, and Thormyr blasts several into death with his Fireball.
Tronus stands tall in the surf and projects a magical fear effect, derived from his sacred Oath of Conquest. It has little effect and we are soon surrounded.
I see a fish-person wearing a tentacle mask start to cast a spell and counter it. Norric and I climb to the top of a small bluff. He fires arrows while I send more meteors and an Aganazzar’s Scorcher into the mass of fishmen, killing several.
Thormyr heals Travius, who slashes at a towering fishman with his sword. The great creature responds with its claws, damaging Travius.
The fishman shaman casts healing magic on several of the creatures.
A third Shield spell narrowly spares me from being skewered by a hurled trident.
Norric and I leap down from the bluff as the fishmen swarm up the beach and the rise. As I hit the sand I launch my last two meteors into one of the huge beasts as well as the magic user. I also hit the shaman with a Melf’s Acid Arrow.
We form up around Thormyr and he shields us with the Cube of Force. Trounus heals Travius. Outside, the shaman drops from my burning acid. However, two of the ones that were hit by fear return, and one of them is a shaman. It heals the one I dropped, and then heals two of the larger ones.
They swarm around the cube. The fog is dissipating. We move as a group further inland, maintaining the cube. A fishman rides along on top while the others stay along the beach, warily. As we gain elevation, we see a battle barge in the distance, coming toward the shore.
The fishman jumps off our cube and waits as we move away. They seem to take notice of the approaching battle barge (this barge seems familiar – it was the one that allied with fishmen to destroy the boat of the forces of Iuz, who had taken us captive.) A shaman approaches one of the looming monsters and speaks to it in hushed, reserved tones.The larger one grows angry.
We move further from the shore. A figure aboard the barge pulls out a horn and sounds it. The fishmen turn to the sound. The large one with the horn sounds it in response.
They retrieve the corpses of their brethren and disappear into the waves. Thormyr dismisses the cube. We note that the figure on the barge is watching us with a spyglass. Soon the ship turns and moves away. As they do they drop something into the ocean, which the fishmen retrieve.
We look around and determine we are likely on Cragholme island. We move further inland and take our rest in the ruins of a keep.

Report Date

26 Mar 2023