Session 6. - Blood in The Water

General Summary

The Realm of Tarsere    Adventures In Tarsere    The Horizon Beckons    Session Reports      Session 6. - Blood in The Water

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1st of Last Light, 1439 A.P.

Gravity's Pull

The party stepped (or were sucked) through the portal in Salsvault's depths and blacked out as the temporal displacement overwhelmed them.

They returned to consciousness in a sea of whiteness. The wind whipped icily against their faces and all around them was white. At first they thought they were in another blizzard but quickly realised that they were in fact falling. Through a break in the clouds they saw the portal wink out of existence above them as they continued to fall earthward. As they tumbled through the sky, they realised that Angrar wasn't with them but didn't have time to concern themselves with his absence just yet.
They eventually passed through the cloudbank and bore witness to a vast expanse of ocean that stretched in every direction . Beneath them, they saw the smoldering remains of a recently wrecked ship.
The party scrambled as best they could to slow themselves, with only ArborArbor having any confidence in surviving. As a desperate last minute attempt, they all tried to link themselves together and hoped Arbor's magic was strong enough to teleport them all. Unfortunately it wasn't, and he turned to mist at the last second and ended up on a small bed. The others scattered with a loud splash into the water and scrambled to find something to hold onto themselves. Once they got themselves situated, they heard shouting, and saw three sailors on their own piece of flotsam gesturing wildly and shouting in some foreign tongue.

Blood in The Water

No one could understand the words but they understood the meaning. Everyone started towards them individually when a massive shark surfaced underneath the sailors and swallowed all three sailors and their small makeshift wooden raft whole. The water seethed briefly and turned crimson as the shark crashed back into the depths. The sailors and shark did not resurface.
The party immediately panicked at the danger and scrambled for higher ground as more sharks started circling. After quickly assessing the situation, they saw what looked like the remains of a chest wedged in one of the larger pieces of wreckage. The party decided to slowly make their way towards it as it was the highest point they could see and hopefully would give them time to figure out the next move.
Everyone except Suljurn were relatively close to flotsam and clambered on. Deadeye tied a rope to one of his arrows and cast it out for Suljurn to grab while the others rid themselves of their weighty winter gear. Still desperately low on arrows, Urith tried shooting one of the sharks and Suljurn grabbed the rope and swam desperately towards Oorr's raft while Deadeye pulled with all his feathered might.
Suljurn managed to climb up onto Oorr's raft just as one of the sharks leapt out if the water and grazed Urith with a razor sharp fin, knocking him back into the water.
The smaller sharks kept ramming and bumping the rafts the party were balanced on, trying to knock them into the water while the two larger sharks attacked with predatory viciousness.
Suljurn got knocked off into the water and decided to act as bait, drawing the sharks to him while Deadeye and Urith shot their last few arrows into the beasts. Arbor went down after a vicious attack by one of the sharks but Deadeye and Oorr managed to revive him.
Eventually the sharks were dealt with or driven off and they paddled to the chest. Urith got there first and they were rewarded with a pile of silver, a medallion of some kind that looked like it was a fragment of something larger, and a misshapen bead that radiated a purple glow and occasionally sent out a tiny pulse of energy that made the bearer's hand tingle and go numb. Urith claimed the medallion and Oorr puzzled over the bead.
With the sharks hopefully dealt with, the adventurers came to the stark realisation that they had absolutely no idea where they were, they were missing a party member and they were critically low on food as most of their rations had become ruined in the water.
They managed to craft a makeshift raft with some of the littered flotsam and took a well needed rest while trying to figure out where they were. Ultimately, they left the decision to the wind and the currents, hoping that one or the other would bring them closer to land. They drifted for several days, subsisting on what rations Arbor had managed to keep dry and Urith's magic berries which were becoming increasingly stale and impotent as his reagents were running low. On the third, or perhaps the fourth, day as the sun was setting, a sail appeared on the horizon and quickly bore down on their tiny vessel.

Rescued

The ship quickly came alongside and the captain hailed them in the same foreign tongue the previous sailors had used. No one on the raft understood but Arbor shouted back in Goblinese and asked for help. Eventually they were hauled aboard.
Using very broken Goblinese, the captain introduced himself as Baranas Lyle, merchant and privateer aboard The Frostmaiden.
He questioned them and in the party's typically evasive fashion, they gave vague and odd responses. When asked where they were headed, Oorr confidently responded Gald which seemed strange to Baranas and he said as much. Arbor spun a tale about being blown off course and not sure where they were which didn't elicit much trust or confidence from the captain or crew. Baranas told them they were headed to Cìrdan in Dhabara when they asked. The party's grasp of basic geography allowed them to realise that they were almost 4000 miles south of where they started and likely weren't getting back to Palebank Village anytime soon. At least they hadn't left Tarsere.
Baranas Lyle gave them a choice. He told them his was a working ship and he had no room for passengers. He asked if they were cargo or crew and made very clear that cargo wasn't fed or watered. After some small debate, the party decide that crew was better than cargo and signed up.
Lyle introduced them to the majority of the crew and told them to get some rest. He'd figure out their specific usefulness on the morrow. He also issued an ominous threat: no one was to go neart the aft cargo hold on pain of death.
The adventurers took a well needed rest and ate their first decent (and warm) meal in well over a month. When they awoke they were greeted by an endless sparkling blue ocean underneath a sunny sky. Despite it being the 5th of Last Light, the temperatures were already comfortably warm.
Activity off the side of the ship drew their attention. The crew were lauching barrels from the foredeck and trying to hit them with arrows before they sailed out of range.
Lyle approached them and told them he'd devised a few contests to see how and where they'd best fit in with the crew. First up... marksmanship.
Deadeye and Urith stepped up along with one of the crew, a salty old sailor by the name of Bertram. The first barrel was launched and all three easily tagged it. The second barrel was farther out and and Bertram was heard cursing in his foreign tongue as he barely missed. Urith and Deadeye both tagged it easily. The last barrel was the farthest out and both Urith and Bertram missed but Deadeye hit it and it exploded in a dramatic fashion. The crew cheered and congratulated the kenku, who graciously did the same with his opposition.
Next, the captain asked who had the greatest constitution. Suljurn stepped forward as they were unintentionally reminded of Angrar's absence. His challenger was the small Feral wildling, Kosta. Baranas said that the challenge would be a race around the ship. Suljurn laughed at first, thinking he would easily outpace the smaller challenger and was confused as Kosta started to strip off his few belongings. The captain clarified that it was a swimming race around the ship.
Suljurn scrambled to remove his armour and dove in (he kept his sword for some reason... possibly abandonment issues, we'll never know). They set off with the smaller Kosta cutting through the waves easily leaving Suljurn behind. Though after a few rounds, the Paladin had made up ground and they were neck and neck as they rounded the ship.
To make things more urgent, a tell-tale blue grey fin broke the water behind them and chased them down. As they neared the three-quarter mark, the shark attacked the wildling and dragged him under. Suljurn took a swing at the shark but after missing, made for the rope ladder that marked the finish.
Just as Suljurn was about to grab the ladder, the shark burst from the water, hanging gracefully onto its dorsal fin was the little wildling. As the shark reached the top of its jump, Kosta leapt up onto the deck ahead of Suljurn. The crew cheered. The captain frowned.
Lyle awarded the win to Suljurn as he declared Kosta had used an unfair advantage. The wildling grumbled but accepted the result, as did the crew who humorously described Suljurn's face when he saw the shark.
The moved on to the next contest. The captain approached Arbor first to ask what he was good at, to which the response was "swabbing decks sir". Baranas rolled his eyes as a dismissal and approached Oorr. Telling him to prepare for a contest of Dexterity while eyeing the rigging.
Oorr smiled charmingly and suggested a swordfight instead. The captain shrugged and agreed and called the 2nd mate over as his challenger. Ezari Damiselle took out her rapier and saluted Oorr. Oorr being Oorr, attempted to reciprocate. He threw one if his own rapiers high in the air, bowed then spun around flamboyantly and attempted to catch the blade and fall into an en garde stance. He unfortunately managed to impale his hand as the blade fell. He seemed unfazed.
Ezari smirked and stated, 1 point for her. The duel quickly began With Ezari getting the drop on Oorr. She scored a second touch easily But Oorr quickly responded and he also scored a hit. Ezari missed on her next pass which allowed Oorr the chance to catch up which he did with ease. Ezari and Oorr both deftly kept out of each others reach for the next pass but Oorr was eventually successful at landing the 3rd and winning hit.
Again the crew cheered and congratulated the party. The captain dismissed everyone to stations and they got underway on their previous heading.
The days passed and the party became part of the crew, they learned knots and sailing terminology. Arbor put in some serious effort to learning the language and things were going relatively smoothly. Oorr sensed something wasn't quite right though as he noticed several of the crew and officers occasionally look back over the stern rail to the sea behind them.
After several more days of noticing small tensions amongst the crew a sail was spotted and the mood changed dramatically. The captain seemed energised and the crew stepped lively too. Baranas said he was going to take her as a prize and told the party to prepare for action. It was a stern chase and a long one but the Frostmaiden made gains and came closer with every passing minute.
When the ships were almost within ballista range, the ship lurched suddenly. Almost coming to a complete stop. Everyone was tossed to the deck like ragdolls. As they regained their feet and their senses, dark tentacles emerged from the water and gripped the ship. The crew screamed collectively in fear as they were grabbed from the decks and flung or pulled into the depths. A kraken had arrived.
Urith and Deadeye both took shots at the beast's head when it emerged to little effect. The captain and first mate were on the aft-deck chopping at the beast. Oorr was certain that what the captain had in his hold (they suspected a baby) was what the beast wanted and so made his way towards it to release the kraken.
The beast tore through the crew, pulling so many down to their doom. A few manned ballista and managed to do some damage to the beast, but not before it managed to tear the saurial first mate in twain. Between spells, Arbor tried talking to the captain about why it was attacking and implied that what was in the hold may be its goal.
The captain dismissed the claim and rallied the crew. Oorr had no luck picking the lock but was spotted attempting to do so. He too tried to convince the captain and was told that the beast had been following them for months, because they'd killed its mate. Not for what was in the hold.
Kosta, the little wildling druid, bravely dove into the water and soon the kraken seemed distracted by something. Distracted enough to allow the crew to chop at the remaining tentacles that gripped the ship.
The cause for the kraken's distress was soon apparent as the megalodon from earlier (or another like it) surfaced with a mouthful of kraken tentacle. The beast took a final swipe at the boat as it retreated, snapping the mast.
The battle was over... for now.
The crew were hard hit and the ship in very rough shape. While the party didn't fare too badly physically, in questioning the captain and disobeying his orders around the hold, they lost a lot of goodwill the crew had before them. It made for an uncomfortable journey.
After two more days the ship limped into port in Cìrdan just after nightfall. The party were on deck when they heard Ezari, now first mate, swear quietly. When they asked, she told them A customs boat was coming, and it might be best if they parted ways now. She offered them the ship's jollyboat and told them to slip over the side... quietly.

The party managed to do so and silently rowed into Cìrdan under the cover of darkness.

Rewards Granted

• 345xp
• A chest of 300 silver
• A broken medallion
• A misshapen glowing bead

Character(s) interacted with

• Captain Baranas Lyle a.k.a. Black Baranas
• 1^st Mate Argan Blackmaw
• 2^nd Mate Ezari Damiselle
• Sailing Master - Hamad
• Ship’s Doctor - Constant Shelby
• Kosta
• Morgan, Bertram and Hicks
• Arabaxyn Pwrrl

Notes

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Campaign

The Horizon Beckons

Protagonists

Deadeye Cliffhanger

Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple

Chaotic Good [Tar] Faun (City Watch / Investigator)
Rogue 4
Sorcerer 1

37 / 37 HP

STR
10

DEX
18

CON
12

INT
8

WIS
12

CHA
16

Urith Thane

Suljurn sah-Ghad

Arbor Nox

Report Date

28 Jan 2023

Primary Location

Meradassian Ocean

Secondary Location

Cìrdan

Related Characters

• Arbor Nox
• Deadeye Cliffhanger
• Oorr Rosetta del Hilltopple
• Suljurn sah-Ghad
• Urith Thane