Adventure #20 - Silver Statue on the Sea
General Summary
Adventure #20 - Silver Statue on the Sea
10/11/24
Players:
Karl: Erberk ToruĊ
Seth: Gimp
Chris: Dimple Nackle
Kira: Tesh
Synopsis:
With the next full moon on approach, a select few are secretly helping prepare for Laerywnn's next transformation. For the construction of the silver plated containment cell, a large quantity of silver is needed in a short amount of time, and Captain Azriel has been asked to reach out to his network of traders in hopes of finding some. Luckily, Captain Azriel has a lead, and asks to have a meeting with Pappy, Erberk, Numbers, Bobblin, Tesh, and Dimple to discuss the details. During the meeting, Azriel explains that an old friend, Laruna Delmaris, has received his message and send word back that she has a human-sized silver statue that should cover their silver needs. In response, Azriel has already made arrangements to meet her out in the open sea to inspect the statue and trade for it. Azriel explains that Laruna was once his first mate long ago, and though personal differences caused her to leave his ship, Azriel believes confidently that he can trust her at her word. However, he still believes that someone who can appraise the quality of the silver, like Erberk, should come to ensure the trade is a good one, and that having additional support from the rest of the party would be wise, just in case any surprises should arise. The party agrees, gears up, and boards The Fallen Star, which departs into the sea.
As the ship sails, the party splits up to enjoy the ship ride from different parts of the boat. While Tesh goes to the very front of the boat to watch the hull carve through the water, Erberk notices Azriel looking a little troubled, and asks him what's on his mind. Azriel admits he is a bit nervous about seeing Laruna again after all this time, revealing that he and Laruna have romantic history that ended on sad terms. He is happy that she is commanding her own ship now and that she reached out to help them, but he knows it's going to be an uncomfortable business deal because of their failed relationship. Erberk questions if Laruna might have something nefarious in store for them, but Azriel feels confident that Laruna would never do something like that. Erberk encourages him for the meeting to come, and then asks about the coordinates he obtained from Numbers regarding the location of the ancient kingdom of Chrythalia, and Azriel explains that those coordinates lead to the center of the ocean, where a perpetual thick mist obscures the waters. Erberk asks if Azriel can take him there after this job is completed, but Azriel refuses, explaining that unseen monsters destroy any ship that passes into the mist, which he himself once witnessed happening to a comrade's ship after they accidentally wandered too close. As Erberk considers alternate means of reaching the coordinates, Azriel sees Laruna's ship out in the distance and begins guiding his ship to meet hers. Soon, both boats are anchored beside each other, and are roped together to prevent them drifting apart during the business deal. Once secured, the party lowers a plank between the boats and sets foot on the deck of Laruna's ship, leaving Numbers behind. The party sees Laruna for the first time and is surprised by her appearance as a blue-skinned humanoid with long flowing navy blue hair. Wielding a golden trident and dressed in captain's garb, she stands in the center of deck with the promised silver statue behind her, and Azriel stands before her with the party lined up behind him. Azriel and Laruna exchange an awkward greeting and uncomfortable small talk for a time, until Erberk offers to inspect the statue for quality and purity, and Laruna obliges. Meanwhile, the two captains continue their forced small talk, and Laruna says something's that seems strange to Azriel. Nonchalantly, Azriel compliments the care that Laruna has been taking of her mother's golden trident and that she must be proud, and Laruna accepts the compliment, saying that she does her best to take care of her mother's gift. A brief moment of silence passes, and then suddenly Azriel throws a dagger deep into Laruna's chest while shouting "It's an ambush!" to the rest of the party.
The party is confused at Azriel's surprising attack, until Laruna's physical appearance magically transforms into a grisly long haired male swashbuckler, who roars angrily at Azriel for seeing through his ruse. Erberk stops what he's doing, detects evil emanating from the swashbuckler, draws his weapon, calls upon the divine powers of Torag to smite the evildoer, and then smashes down on their shoulder. As a barrage of crossbow bolts rain down from either side of the ship, the party look in all directions for the source of the attack, finding four swashbucklers (two on one end of the boat, two on the other end). Tesh casts Sickening Ray on one of them, as Bobblin and Dimple struggle to not resort to throwing bombs and fireballs whilst aboard a wooden ship in the middle of the sea. Instead, Dimple gets creative, grabbing a cannon ball and heaving it up the stairs at an enemy. Azriel demands to know where the real Laruna is, but the imposter swashbuckler ignores it while he and Azriel exchange blows. Erberk then deals a devastatingly fatal blow, which mangles the imposter. Tesh then draws her trusty great axe, climbs the stairs behind her, and viciously cleaves into a marksmen hiding behind the upper banister. Then, for some reason, Dimple takes the severed hand of the deceased imposter and proceeds to throw it at the same enemy he hit previously with a cannonball, dealing minimal damage. Bobblin resorts to magic, summoning a pack of mad monkeys and commanding them to rip apart another enemy marksmen behind him, which they do with much enthusiasm. The marksmen that Dimple threw a cannonball/severed hand at then throws down a jar full of soil on the ground, steps onto it with with strange boots and roars a battle cry, and his wounds begin to slowly recover somehow. In response, Erberk climbs the ship's steps to the back upper deck and pummels him. Tesh brutally slays her opponent by splitting them in half vertically with her great axe, as Bobblin's mad monkeys turn their opponent into a bloody mess. Azriel grabs the golden trident off the ground, and rounds the steps opposite to Erberk, and throws it deftly into the back of the last hidden marksmen. As Erberk finishes off his opponent, he turns to the last surviving swashbuckler, who is laying face first on the ground with a trident lodged into his back, and begins interrogating the truth out of him regarding Laruna and this ambush.
After some convincing with intimidating threats, the swashbuckler reveals that Azriel has a hefty bounty on his head, and that they are bounty hunters looking for a payday. After hearing within the trader's network that Captain Azriel was in search of silver, their crew hatched a plan to use a Pendant of Disguise Self to impersonate Laruna (who is well known to be Azriel's ex among the sea trading communities) and lure Azriel in for capture. To make their ruse as believable as possible, they attacked and captured Laruna's ship, killed her entire crew, and kept Laruna alive and locked in the brig so that they had an accurate reference for the Pendant of Disguise Self. After hearing this, Azriel's rage almost leads him to killing the brigand, but Erberk talks him down. After knocking him out instead, Azriel runs down into the ship's brig, then emerges carrying the real Laruna unconscious in his arms and carries her back to his own ship for healing. The party loots the bodies, and then have the silver statue moved onto The Fallen Star, throw the dead swashbucklers overboard, lock the unconscious brigand in the brig, and head back home with Laruna's ship following close behind with the help of Azriel's crew. When Azriel is asked how he knew that the first Laruna was an imposter, Azriel curtly reveals that Laruna's golden trident belonged to her father, not her mother. In time, the ships return home, and the silver statue is delivered to The Forge, where Erberk makes preparations to make Laerwynn's containment cell.
Report Date
11 Oct 2024
Primary Location
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