Adventure #02 - Holy Ship!

General Summary

Adventure #2 - Holy Ship! 1/5/24
Players

Scott: Shump, Half-Orc Alchemist

Peter: Alaster, Halfling Rogue

Jordin: Dwayne Gamblemine, Rock Dwarf Fighter

Luke: Narten Rickman, Gnome Wizard, accompanied by his penguin companion Bill

Synopsis: The adventures begins with the heroes all arriving in Aberystwyth all at the exact same time somehow, despite having traveled apart and from different locations. They meet human prospector Pappy and his muscular orc wife Helga outside The Elderflower, and the heroes then collectively decide that they don’t really like Alaster. Nart explains he has had an unfortunate history controlling his magic.
They enter the Elderflower, and order drinks served by the goblin Poog. Nart takes one sip, and immediately regurgitates everywhere, which Alaster slips and falls in on his way to the small stage within the tavern. Alaster gets up from the mess and gets on stage, reciting a “rare poem” with verses “lost to the ages”, followed by mixed reviews; the goblins clap enthusiastically, while the rest of the party heckles and boos him. Meanwhile, Shump very bluntly attempts to woo the human barmaid Hazel to a bed chamber, and is politely denied. Alaster offers to help teach Shump how to woo Hazel over the course of 3 months, which Dwayne decides to turn into a bet, and hands are shaken in agreement. The party then gathers around the table to talk about their first job.
Pappy tells them about a massive stationary ship he spied along the coastline not far from the Elderflower, and the wants the party to explore and secure it, clearing out any critters or squatters who might be in there. Pappy has hopes to use the ship to establish a trade route, effectively providing a dependable means of acquiring supplies and goods that a growing city needs. The party agrees, and makes their way to the coast.
Along the way, the party engages in some small talk, most of it uncomfortable backstory from Nart about the terrible misfortunes of his uncomfortable magic, namely a disaster at his family run wagon-wash, where he accidentally turned a couple inside-out, and then transformed their newly orphaned son into a penguin who now follows him around. The party eventually arrives at the beach, finding an old dock and the massive ship. The party decides to forcefully throw Alaster atop the boat (against Alaster’s wishes), and fails to do so, instead throwing him painfully into the broadside of the ship. The rest of the party decides to then take less dangerous approaches to board the ship, such as climbing a rope and even just walking on the dock. Once on deck, they split up to search the upper rooms, Nart and Dwayne searching the upper cabins and finding them already looted, and Shump and Alaster searching the captains quarters, finding fine brass nautical navigation equipment and a mysterious green potion, among other things. They meet up again in the center of the deck to discuss their findings, and then suddenly decide to have a mast climbing race between Alaster and Nart, and Dwayne and Shump place their bets. Alaster wins by a hair, and Nart, in his anger at loosing, poops into his own hand and then attempts to throw it down on Alaster who had already descended, and narrowly missed everyone. Nart then decides to leap off the top of the mast into the arms of Alaster, only because Shump and Dwayne refuse to try to catch him. Alaster fails to catch Nart, and Nart slams into the deck of the boat, losing a tooth in the process, which then gets eaten by his penguin.
They decide to descend below deck, and find the galley of the ship and a small dining area. Two doors stand on either side of this room, one ajar and one locked. Through the open door, Nart sends the penguin down the hallway to see if any danger lurked there, and Bill the penguin walked to the end of the hall unharmed. Dwayne proceeds through the hallway, past a 4 other doors, and opens the door at the end of the hall. To his surprise, an octopus immediately flies out and latches onto his face. In response, Dwayne slams his face against walls and on the floor in hopes of getting this octopus. Shump chugs a strength enhancing mutagen to prepare for the battle, Alaster readies his crossbow, and Bill the Penguin charges into the fray, biting and latching onto the octopus with his beak. Nart aims his wand to attack, but he loses control and the wild magic instead opens up a permanent portal to the feywild in the wall of the ship. The octopus, after biting Dwayne’s face with his own slimy beak, detaches and attempts to flee the scene, but it ultimately meets its gruesome demise as Bill lands the billing blow via biting a hole into the octopuses squishy head. Weapons are sheathed, and the party conducts a series of small experiments on the portal to the feywild, including Shump throwing an entire door through the portal. Dwayne then first puts his hand through, which is followed by putting his entire head through, where he sees a whimsical world of vibrant color, fey creatures, and unusual vegetation. The party decides against exploring this portal, and instead investigates the rest of the rooms in the hallway, finding items such as a sword cane, a bag of teeth, masterwork armor and shield, and various books and letters. Satisfied with their search, they continue to the locked door in the other side of the galley, disable it. Before they enter, Shump inexplicably passes out cold, where he gets urinated and regurgitated on by various members of the party. Leaving Shump behind, they enter a dark room reeking with rot, where three cadavers are being feasted upon by three giant crabs. Alaster attempts to enter the room stealthily, but steps on the loudest creaky board possible, and immediately attracts the attention of all three crabs. Nart steps into the room and aims his wand offensively, but the wild magic strikes again, and causes him to age forward about 80 years in the span of 6 seconds, rendering him feeble and frail. Alaster point-blank shoots a crab in the mouth, and Dwayne brings down his war hammer on crab, crushing it. Nart unexpectedly points his wand into his mouth in hopes of undoing his aging, and the entire boat shakes wildly, as if an earthquake were happening outside. Combat ensues; crabs get smashed under Dwayne’s hammer, Alaster fires his crosssbow to pin another crab to the ground, and Nart skewers one with his new sword cane. Nart then attempts to acrobatically leap over a crab, trips, and falls on the back of the remaining crab, which is quickly dispatched by the rest of the party. The party collects themselves, investigates the cadavers, and descend into the last level of the ship.
They enter the cargo hold, noting that the opening that leads to the hold is splintered and damaged, like something too big was trying to be forced through. They find barrels, coffins, and crates, and Dwayne immediately begins rummaging through the coffins, pocketing a gold locket with a picture of two cats inside. Nart breaks the finger off a skeleton that has an elegant emerald jewel, and adds it to his inventory. Alaster notices molted husks of crabs strewn all about the floor, each bigger than the last. Across the other side of the cargo hold, Alaster sees an enormous humanoid crabman the size of a grizzly bear huddled in a corner watching the party quietly, and Alaster notices that there are deep scratch marks all over the interior walls of the ship. Alaster surmises that this crabman must have entered this floor to live as a much smaller crab person, grew too big, and now is trapped within the walls of the ship with no way out. Nart white-knuckles his wand and prepare to strike, and insists on killing the crab man immediately, to Dwayne’s agreement. Alaster approaches the crabman cautiously, and successfully uses careful body language to show the crabman that they mean no harm, and the crabman softens his pose. Dwayne brings the crabman a pickle from a barrel within the hold, which it cautiously accepts, and then eats happily as Alaster rubs its back. They lead the crab man to the pickle barrel, and discuss what to do with it as it engorges itself on the pickles. Alaster, remembering he found a mysterious green potion in the captains hold, pulls out the vial and wracks his brain to see if it could possible be useful. A distant memory comes to him of a sideshow act he worked with which used Enlarge and Shrink potions, and he remembers the green bottle was used for shrinking. Inspired, they put some on a pickle and feed it to the crabman, which eats it and shrinks a little. The party then continues to feed the crabman potion soaked pickles, until it is about the size of a human toddler. Dwayne picks up the now very small crab man over his shoulder, and the party exits the ship, returning to the top deck. After a time, the crab man returns to his normal size, and stretches its arms and faces the sun, feeling the sun’s warmth for the first time. The party leaves to go back to the Elderflower, and the crabman follows. None of them remember to bring Shump with them, and leave him in the ship. They also don’t notice the enormous castle that emerged out of the beach, caused by Nart’s last wild magic attempt during the crab battle. At The Elderflower, Pappy pays them for their work, and the game ends with Pappy speaking to the crabman in its native tongue.

Report Date

05 Jan 2024

Primary Location

Aberystwyth