Lost Lore 5: Survivors Adrift in the Tide of Change - Looking for Trouble Game

General Summary

The day after completing our clearing of the Grand Hall of Wagner Abbey, Ospher and I were planning on headed out of Frial to meet up with Tarre and her brothers as we arranged. This happened to overlap with the start of the Founder's Day celebrations kicking off, for what is ultimately a misnomer of celebrations since it will be a week long event. Charity , let us know that morning that she couldn't come with us since Digby had other plans for her for the week. We advised her that it would be best for her to stop Digby if he thinks he'll send more innocents into the Abbey while we're gone. We paid up for the room at the 12 Carrots Tavern for 4 days with Greasom (and got complimentary Founder's cakes! mine was strawberry, a favorite) and purchased a horse and pony since we couldn't guarantee the safety of rented animals.
Heading out of town, we quickly arrived at the fork where we needed to turn off towards the swamp, realizing that our original journey to here was likely very slowed by the size of the caravan, however there was a large wagon with a half dozen soldier emblazoned with the symbols of Frial conducting interviews with persons that are coming and going on the road. Two soldiers bring us to a Colonel Hertz of the Kreastos who want to know if we've seen anything unusual on the trip to here, with specific examples of strange lights in the forest, singing, humming, and fae (of the Satyr variety) in the swamp. Evidently, this was observed by passers-by and some persons who were robbed as well by a bandit. He dismissed the rumors of a giant as stray bar table talk that got out of hand and had hooked in some of the Grand Order of the Lion in what he considered a Grand Snipe Hunt.
We went down the road a bit before heading into the swamp, and the sun began to set as we got into the swamp proper. We tied up the horses in a safe area Ospher located while I intimated to them that if they're attacked, they should go back to Frial for safety. I found a very easy route to the lake but about halfway through, we spotted a number of flickering lights flitting about in the swamp that seemed to cautiously approach. As they got a little closer, we heard a soft lullaby from them and a pinkish fog emit from the light and while briefly feeling a bit drowsy, Ospher fell very asleep immediately. The lights began to zip around, and one of the three brutally stings me while another goes very wide and the last slams directly into my shield and cried out in pain. I began to bargain with the things while subtly kicking Ospher's foot to wake him back up. The little creatures looked like tiny humans with insect-like wings, two older ones, a man and woman and a younger woman. The older woman tried to explain that this is a robbery, and I talked them down into accepting us a wineskin filled with wine.
The three of them were very chatty and appeared to have come to our time from the Castle Konning region as well. In the last day, they took up working with Klaygett, the bandit king. They couldn't quite describe him for us, but said he had taken care of them and wanted them to steal things for him. I explained that there are other Fae here in the region too and that we meet them, we'll make introductions for them. They said they'd wait for us in this area for us to come back. We finally made introductions as we were about to set off, the eldest woman was Polly, with her brother Tick and sister Kay (who hit my shield). After a bit more to-do from her about that, we made our way to the lakeside where a couple of lanterns were hung and two shapes were huddled near a fire.
We approached cautiously, since we didn't think we'd only find two people when looking for three and one of the shapes in the lights spotted Ospher and bade him come closer while Ospher assured him that he posed no threat. He approached them cautiously and saw that the figure was holding a heavy crossbow and they said they had questions since they were looking for someone. The man was dressed in a long dark coat, a wide brimmed hat and human. The woman had long red hair, like mine, and was wearing a powder blue cloak and robe adorned with icicles. I approached from the darkness now and asked who they were looking for which surprised the man. He explained that some satyr fae had stolen a ring from the young woman he was with. She said the ring is the property of her Goddess, Segravia, Goddess of the North, the Winter Breeze, of the Clan of Ghelf. After a lot of initial confusion, we understand that she and the Goddess have also been transported by the Castle Konning issue, which encompassed several miles (merde!) and that she's trying to reclaim her familial relics in a holy quest in order to reclaim the region that was rightfully hers. Gods and Goddesses, it seems, are what the Giants train their servants to call them, and this woman, her Chamberlain Addison, has been tasked with getting the ring back before the Goddess is further upset. The ring is supposedly large enough for a giant's finger and is set with a blue stone, and has some amount of magical power, but what specifically, that is, we're unsure of.
Since the man, a bounty hunter, by the name of Bohannan Dearth, tracked the Satyrs to here after meeting Addison in Frial, while she was recklessly splashing large amounts of gold around. We surmised that the Satyrs must have gone aboard the ghost ship in the lake itself, and resolved to get a canoe from the house on stilts. We repaired them with a mending spell and Bohannan explained while we paddled over that this ship is a well known last known whereabouts of many adventurers over the years in Frial. It regularly sinks and rises back up above the water, but for unknown reasons. We concede that haunting seems to be the most likely scenario here but we'll try to make this quick since we can't really know how long it will remain above water when it already doesn't appear seaworthy. It's also likely already making preparations to descend as the lake is in quite a chop at the moment and since there's no weather to induce such already, it must be coming from somewhere else.
With Bohannan's help, we get aboard the rickety rope ladder and tie off our canoe to the boat. On board, we see that there's nothing indicating anything has come aboard recently and there's a fair amount of trapped moisture in some room, making me think above decks is totally empty. The below decks of the ship is a bit confusing, and we're jumped by a stumbling rotting skeletal sailor that stabs me in the back. Between the three of us, we quickly defeat the monster, and after it falls I hit it with a sacred flame and it crumbles to dust. Afterwards, we spotted a small trail of blood and we approach a door where we hear some commotion that sounds like wet wood snapping. Bohannan kicks the door open and we see 5 more skeletal crew members surrounding one of the Satyrs and working on breaking pieces of him off and consuming him, while the Satyr, Dorath, is screaming for them to feast upon him and laughing. Heavily unnerved, we fight off the group of 5 skeletons, including a sixth that comes out of a barrel that bled a thick black ichor after Ospher fired off a shot that went awry.
Dorath has a weird powdery substance in his hands and some of it was pressed into his wounds as well. Ospher immediately identified it as seasoning, and we tried to talk some sense into him, but he would not hear it. We propped him up by a port hole in case we need to make a quick escape with him later while he shouted at us about being Stowaways. We later surmised he was possessed by the ship's chef. In a few chests in the room here, Ospher found a wand, a stylus and a skeleton forced into the chest with a statuette of Wynte. It came to life screaming at us about how it's his, but we used a manacle to lock it within the chest. Dorath didn't have the ring on him.
As we returned back to the hallway, Bohannan immediately caught himself, the deck of the ship has started disappearing underneath our feet. Bohannan was able to jump across with some rope to the other side but both Ospher and I couldn't utilize the rope very well and fell to the below decks. A number of the ship's crew started to advance towards us at this point, Ospher ran his rope back up with a mage hand and I gave him a hand up and then scrambled up after him and we cut the rope. We hear someone whispering from a closed door towards the end of the hallway, and inside we see that Rex, one of the other siblings is inside, and a number of free moving hands are trying to attach themselves to his stumps. One pair of them does connect and by his anguished screams, we understand he's no longer in control of his body.
While fighting the hands and Rex, we learn the hands are linked to one another and damage done to one of them seems to connect to all the others, in addition to the pair on Rex. Our combined efforts again are successful but Bohannan, fearing for his life from these combined assaults, nearly slays Rex. I am barely able to prevent his heartsblood from escaping but he explains that they fled aboard here because they knew they were being pursued. They didn't expect this place to haunted like this though. Rex also didn't have the ring, so we told him to head with the rope to the back storage to retrieve his brother and start swimming away. While taking a quick breather, we note the ship is starting to sway harder and out of the portholes we can see that the water is rising. We proceeded to the captain's qaurters at a fast pace, while the crew began to cheer that they were ready to go home.
The doors themselves were locked, but Ospher made quick work of it with the thieves' tools. The lavishly decorated captain's chambers have also been aged by the time, but we see Tarre at the desk and working with a sextant. She grabs a cutlass and begins to charge at us, I attempt to drive the ghost from her, but it was not enough today. I summon a spiritual dagger of Nisaba which deals a strong blow to her and Ospher shrinks her with a spell and directs Bohannan to grab her and restrain her so that Captain Blood will have to leave her body in order to attack us. Our gambit is successful and he pops out, but the captain's pet shade also appears from the darkness and saps some of the strength from Bohannan. I use a divine spell to attack them both, and it is doubly effective now that the ghost has been driven from her body. The captain attempts to exact retribution against us at this point by forcing the boat deeper into the water, and Ospher is able to hang onto a bed post to avoid being swept deeper into the ship. Bohannan confirms that Tarre has the ring and starts moving out to the lake.
The captain now attempts to possess me, but is repelled by my union with Nisaba and is stunned for a moment by the ejection. Ospher called a floating disc into existence now and started to swim out and we each fired off a shot at the captain, ending his reign of terror. We both quickly got outside with Bohannan, and hung onto the disc to avoid being caught up in the undertow of the ship descending. Tarre's brothers survived as well and we all swam ashore at this point.
Addison was very happy to see us return with the relic of her Goddess and we begrudgingly handed it over to her, thinking that perhaps Bohannan would force us to see through our end of the bargain. He promised to escort her back to their encampment, though I advised him that ultimately going in with her could prove fatal due to conscription or otherwise, he said he'd be glad to work with us again in the future. Addison also mentioned that we would be welcome in Segravia's service and explained where we could find them.
The Satyrs' wounds were tended, aside the crippling injuries that they'll have to manage for the rest of their lives. That said, all of them would live through the night. They thanked us and gave us a Pan flute which we could use to contact them within a few miles' range. Tarre explained that Klaygett the Bandit king met her and her brothers the day after we left and was already intimately aware of them being displaced and offered them protection and essentially a job by stealing from Segravia, while she was bathing. Coupled with the admission from Polly and her sisters that he gave them the same offer, we concluded that something was definitely up here. Tarre also explained that Klay is a Tengu that talks to a stone to someone or someones elsewhere. We also explained a little bit of the intervening history that they missed, the rebuke, the pogroms. We explained that hiding in the swamp and forest here might not help, since their escapades have already attracted the attention of the Kreastos of Frial.
We brought Tarre with us back to meet Polly, Tick and Kay where they were happy to meet one another. Ospher and I gave them the idea, after finally pinning down just how FAR away Castle Konning is, that they should find any other fae that are wandering and then make contact with us in Frial in order for us to help them get to New Sanctuary. Polly and her siblings had also captured one of the guards from Colonel Hertz's group and put him to sleep with their magic so we brought him with us back to our horses and woke him up after saying farewell to the Fae. He was disoriented and missing some of his possessions, but we didn't have them and told him we found him when he was asleep and carried him until he woke up. He claimed to have been attacked from behind and wasn't aware of what exactly happened.
Returning to Hertz's campsite, we explained the nature of the Bandit King and he thanked us for the information. He still refused to believe anything about the Giant, in spite of our earnestness. He gave us permission to stay among his troopers for the evening, and told us we'd be welcome among the ranks of his troop if we need work.

Rewards Granted

XP
Zombie Sailor's Loot

Missions/Quests Completed

Tarre and her brothers are safe again and have met up with other Fae to make sure they remain safe

Character(s) interacted with

Tarre, Dorath, Rex - Satyr-type Fae Folk, fresh from the robbery of...
Addison - Chamberlain of Goddess Segravia, The North Breeze, Born of an Egg made of Ice, seeking her stolen relic with help from...
Bohannan Dearth - A Ghal Peloran Native, Frial based Bounty Hunter
Polly, Tick, Kay - Pixie-type Fae Folk, recently also tossed their lot in with...
Klaygett, The Bandit King - We definitely cost him some help this week
Colonel Hertz of the Kreastos - Guarding the Roads and looking for information on Fae and the Bandit King
Digby Sparrow - Our moody erstwhile employer
Charity Sparrow - Still trying to stay on her great-grandfather's good side
Greasom - Proprietor of the 12 Carrots Tavern, holding our rooms for a few days at regular nightly rate

Related Reports

https://www.worldanvil.com/hero/journal/5088f53f-9097-47a0-be8f-4f545ffc5fee/view

"What do we now?"
"I wish I could tell you."

— Tarre and Ospher, on a reason for living

"I look forward to working with you again, as long it is not another Ghost Ship."

— Bohannan Dearth

"Gods are dead. You don't need that stuff."
"So you don't have the books."
"I didn't say that either."

— Digby and Adjenna, on Vale's religious texts

"We can make a deal then. Give us HIS stuff then."
"That won't work either, he loves his stuff even more than I love my stuff."

— Polly the Pixie and Adjenna, the art of negotiation

"We really don't know that this so-called Bandit King isn't just like another Digby, hiring people to do his dirty work."

— Ospher musing about the state of power structures in the region

Campaign

Lost Lore

Protagonists

Adjenna Affreux

Level 6 Lamiah Neutral Cleric
(Charlatan)

39 / 39 HP

Ospher Spurshoe

Level 7 Stout Halfling Neutral Good Wizard (Transmutation)
(Cloistered Scholar)

/ 44 HP

Player Journals

Survivors Adrift in the Tide of Change - Looking for Trouble Game by Adjenna Affreux

Report Date

03 Jun 2020

Primary Location

Lake Bask

Secondary Location

Frial

"The great Segravia, the Goddess of the North? The Winter Breeze?"
"You're a long way from the north though."
"This whole land belongs to her!"
"Oh, she's one of those types of goddesses."

— Addison and Ospher on historical land rights

"Giant is such a filthy, crude term! No, she's a Goddess who strides across the land as a whole divine being!"
"Ahhh. Segravia!"

— Addison and Adjenna, finding common ground in faith, and possibly converting

"Come on boys, dinner's on! ... Stowaways! We don't feed stowaways!"
"Where are your siblings?"
"They'll be here soon, they can't resist this smell, dinner's on!"

— Dorath and Adjenna, talking past one another

"What are you doing?! They're coming!"

— -- Bohannan Dearth, lamenting that he cannot tie a good knot

"You're... not ghosts, are you?" *LOUD WAILING NOISES*

— Tick, the pixie, to Adjenna and Ospher