Session XII: those staying behind Report
General Summary
Zaria is called to Seaton to attend a family event by her brother Anders. Grogu goes along to pay his respects to a Procan temple there, too. Anders sailed up on the Sea Ghost, which he’d hired to carry the family, servants, and guards.
Eliandra, Lyra, and Whimbrel remain in the little fishing & mining hamlet of Hars’ Point, with the larger sailboat. After a recent shipwreck, some of the locals have worried about ghosts coming ashore. Two guys have been going out after work, looking for any treasure washing ashore from the wreck, and they’ve seen “lots of footprints”. One of those two didn’t come home last night, and the other said he was knocked out by someone who grabbed his buddy. Our heroes check out the beach, and find a row of footprints that head out from the ocean, in an evenly-spaced line. A few yards over, they see a similar line heading back into the surf. In one spot, they can see the place where Gib struggled, and then his tracks disappear.
On the morning of the 23rd, the three sailed out to look over the recent wreck (there was also another wreck the locals saw back in the fall, further down the coast), at the foot of the Giant’s Chair. This ship was half in, half out, of the water, and rocking in the waves. Eliandra was able to pull the boat up next to it, and Whimbrel easily made the leap across to tie up. Down in the hold was a predictable mess, including a few corpses. Further aft, underwater, there were a key ring and a closed lockbox in the captain’s cabin.
From there, they moved over to the Giant’s Chair, which they had cleared of undead crabs and fish yesterday. Today, they had time to sift through the trash and corpses to find some worthwhile trinkets left behind. The big treasure was in a chest down a hole underneath the shell of the really big undead crab. Now that the tide had come in, the shell was floated enough to see and dive into that hole.
Everyone took a break on their boat, to eat lunch and count the loot. They headed back to the village to rest up, figuring to go out around midnight to see about the ghosts.
Sure enough, out in the moonless night, they saw some figures strolling a line, watching the ground—were they looking for something? While Eliandra and Whimbrel stayed hidden, Lyra called out to ask what they were seeking. The mystery walkers were human-shaped and -sized, with scaly skin, lots of sharp teeth in a wide mouth, and had some fish-like fins. One of them was able to speak Common, and (he? She?) relayed that they sought a crown, that their goddess had told them was held near here by a red-haired woman. Lyra asked for a day to help their search, and it was agreed. The crown (perhaps magical) was described as made of red & white coral, with a gold center.
During the next day, some talking around the village led them to Yelola, a red-headed woman—actually an aquatic elf-- only in town a few days, who admitted to having their crown stashed in a cave under a cliff nearby. She couldn’t get in there as the sea-devil-men had it guarded by sharks. Reluctantly, she told where the crown might be found, though she denied stealing it, rather that she found it on the ocean floor. Some more talking after midnight led to the sharks being withdrawn and Eliandra swimming to the cave and to the secret cache. The sahuagin (as that is what they were) thanked the characters with toothy grins and returned to the sea.
The next day, all went out to dive on the older shipwreck. Down there, they found a magical figurehead and ram combination, and that the ship had belonged to missionaries/soldiers from the Order of St. Cuthbert. Something strange was absent—a spot where something had been chained up, but was now gone? In a cave next to the hulk, two ghosts appeared and spoke. One was the former captain, who told them that the missing object was a cursed idol, which raised anything that died nearby as undead—it was the idol that the characters found and destroyed inside the Giant’s Chair a few days ago. She was very relieved to hear this.
The other ghost was Daphne, who had been Lyra’s friend since childhood, missing since last fall! She had a long story to tell about her disappearance. The key elements: she’d been apprenticing for Gellan Primewater, and had visited a few ports around the Azure Sea and the underwater town of the aquatic elves. Primewater had been trying to build his own business/diplomatic alliance with those elves.
The Marshal and her crew had been told about a pirate spy in Saltmarsh, and had other information on the Redscales pirate band, with up to 5 captains and ships. Daphne had partial information, and was travelling with the Marshal. They had also just picked up the cursed idol, taking it from a tomb just before the Redscales had gotten to it. They were this close to Saltmarsh when the ship was attacked by the Redscales. The leading ship was the Allure, captained by Darkmoon, legendary as the most beautiful elven woman alive, capable of both enthralling sailors from fifty fathoms away and of whipping up the waves to sink her targets.
Both ghosts asked that their bones, and those of all their shipmates, be interred in the cemetery in Saltmarsh. These were collected and, the next day, with Hars’ Point still unmolested by the sea devils, all returned to Saltmarsh. Daphne and Lyra had an emotional final voyage together, and all of the bones were laid to rest, with the blessings of priests of the town.
Eliandra
Half-elf (Marine)
Fighter 3
Fighter 3
38 / 38 HP
STR
16
16
DEX
18
18
CON
18
18
INT
12
12
WIS
16
16
CHA
9
9
Whimbrel Brightmarsh
neutral good Lightfoot halfling (Fisher)
Monk 3
Monk 3
22 / 22 HP
STR
9
9
DEX
19
19
CON
13
13
INT
12
12
WIS
14
14
CHA
8
8
Zaria Solmar
Neutral Good Human (Folk Hero)
Ranger 3
Ranger 3
25 / 25 HP
STR
17
17
DEX
18
18
CON
12
12
INT
11
11
WIS
15
15
CHA
12
12
Lyra Pennyworth
Report Date
05 Aug 2022
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