Chapter 2

Played Wednesday 28th of May 08
Players: Berthelot playing Nevimelk and Geoff, John playing Torion and Brett playing Daellin
Campaign Date: Mol 14th Therendor 998YK

Highlights: Devilfish fight with lots of vomit, Having intelligent conversation with dead people, bargaining with an elemental, getting diseased, and getting demolished by an undead Ape.
Experience gained: Everyone in party gained enough exp to advance to level 2, Torion has 50xp extra from RP exp
Looted: Harrow special abilities, captain's log, mindflayer skull, combat dorje, nautical charts of the thunder sea outlining sahuagin territories.

The players where sitting around a table in the Gray Sword when Zellara ir'Varisia, a mysterious gypsy fortuneteller, approaches them, seemingly from nowhere. She asked if they would like to see what future the cards hold in store for them. Nevimelk refused to hear it and leaves the tavern. Torion and Daellin agree and stay.
Zellara lays out 9 cards in 3 columns, the left being the past, the center the present and the right the future. She reads that there was a great calamity in their past which brought with it much loss, which they assume to mean the day of Mourning, and that it brought about a sense of self-doubt and loss of purpose. The present tells of a union of persons which holds the keys to a new destiny, but there appears to be a disease of body or soul within a member or members of the union. In the future there are old evils endangering the present, attack from all sides, and a dangerous secret.
Once telling this she tells the two of them to draw cards, Torion draws the dancer, which will provide him with a mystical +1 dodge bonus in a future encounter. Daellin draws the cyclone, which will provide him with a one-time use ability to call upon the wisdom of the gods to do a whirlwind attack.
Finally before leaving she charges 5 gp to show them a glimpse of their immediate future. The two agree and trails of mystical energy flow from her fingers and around their hinds clouding their vision. As the clouds thicken images begin to form, and they see thrashing ocean water, waves crashing into them. A dark shape, vaguely resembling an octopus, flits through the water in the distance. A splash of blood flows through the water and then the smoke dissipates. Zellara is gone as mysteriously as she came, and all that is left is a scrap of paper with a note saying, "Children of Fate, until our paths cross oncemore. - Zellara"
Shortly afterwards Auric Davian enters the tavern, Nevimelk following closely behind as he had seen Auric jingling a large purse of coin. Auric offers a round of drinks to everyone in the tavern as celebration in announcement of his new venture, a private investagation business. The only thing he lacks now is field agents, so that he may lay back and enjoy the good life. Brasco, the bartender, suggests the three that just did a task for him, but warns him of their tendency to cause collateral damage. The party defends their honor arguing that if the tavern's structural integrity had been adequate no damage would have been incurred. So Auric decides to give them a trial mission with him. He tells them it will pay 300gp a person, will take no more than 2 weeks, and he will provide them with some decent weapons.
They meet the next morning, the 15th, down at Precarious, the Dock District, where their Deneith contact gives them the details of the mission. A shipment of Clockwork steeds and various experimental prototypes were supposed to arrive 3 days ago by a chartered ship; obviously it never arrived. So they are being sent out to the last divined location of the ship, in the vicinity of Wolfran Island. At this time they are introduced to the fourth field agent that will be accompanying them, Auric's own younger brother Geoff, a metal encased stabbing machine.
They depart and the journey to Wolfran Island takes less than a day in their elemental galleon. They approach the sandy beach of the east side of the island to put in anchor for the night and catch sight of the downed charter ship. It is beached, listing to it's side, mast broken clean off, and no crew can be seen.
They decide to approach the ship and investigate. The party attempts to convince the hired Jorasco cleric to come with them, but he denies it, claiming that he is only bound by contract to stay aboard the ship and provide healing, no field work. As they draw closer they can see, even with the dim light of the setting sun, that the deck and railing is coated with dried blood. They first surmise that it must have been the work of pirates, yet they see no outward signs of conflict, i.e. no arrows or ballista marks on the outside of the ship as one might expect from a boarding pirate vessel.
The party, with Auric accompanying them, pull up to the side of the ship and prepare to board, but Torion halts Auric for a moment, and pulls a dead rat from his pouch. He dangles it in the water and the spreading blood quickly attracts the attention of a hungry shark. He then decides to use his Vadalis dragonmark to speak with the shark and ask if there is any damage to the hull below the water. The shark replies that there is a hole, large enough for him to enter, but it chooses not to for fear of being killed like the last shark which tried. Combined with this knowledge and his previous vision Torion is visibly spooked and wants to turn back now. Auric fearlessly, or carelessly depending upon the viewpoint, goes ahead anyway and clambers aboard. The remainder cautiously follow suit.
Once aboard the ships deck they immediately notice that the blood is much worse than originally thought, but there are strangely no bodies or parts thereof, aside from the one hand that Auric finds still clutching the rigging, cleanly severed at the rest. A close look determines that the tattoo on the back of it is that of a Wave Rider, a fledgeling but well-known local gang of smugglers, usually non-violent. Also, the hand was bitten off, by what appears to be a beak, and the flesh looks gray and corrupted, but Auric can not quite determine what kind of creature would have done it.
As they are determining this information Daellin is doing what he is known for, looking for valuables. He spies underneath the stairs at the aft deck a nice looking jewelled dagger stuck in the wood of the floor. He gets on his belly and reaches underneath for it. An explosion of splintering wood shocks the party into action as a horrid looking combination of squid, octopus and devil, slams it's way through the aft deck, trapping Daellin's hand in the process. Daellin wrenches his hand free, does a quick back roll leaping to his feet, and runs to the bow of the ship readying his bow. "Ah, a Devilfish!" Auric exclaims, finally cluing into what could have made the strange bite. "Don't bother using any spells of ice on it boys, it's used to the cold depths. And stay away from that beak, it's sharp and deadly poisoned."
Devilfish Battle Ensues - Highlights: Geoffrey deafening himself, Massive electroshock, penetrating bullet wound, vomit inducing oily blood explosion and a finishing hit with a spiked chain.
The group then explores the ship, Daellin takes the crew quarters and finds a smattering of gems, along with a locket with the message "To my beloved husband" with a picture of a stunning young woman inside. When the locket is caressed it produces a silent image against a wall, of the same woman, nude.

The party was told by Auric to investigate the missing cargo and crew. So they went west following some tracks through the jungle. After an hour of walking they came to a road, which they followed west to a half-ruined airship tower. They talked with the skeleton guards who allowed them upstairs to speak with a fire elemental bound to a rune circle on the floor. It bargained with the party, promising them it would fulfill a future favor for them if they set him free. For that they would need a pyramidal stone which was on the airship which blew up. So they needed to go explore the north and south ends of the island and see if they could scavenge the stone from the wreckage.
They were about to go down south when they were told about the sailors being executed by smugglers in the jungle, so they investigated the bodies first. A ghoul had been hiding and bit Daellin, who then ran back to get the disease removed by the Jorasco cleric. The remaining three headed south to the southern half of the ship, where they found it overrun by venomous snakes. Torion used his calm animals spell to make them amiable, and then they kicked open the doors to do battle with the Zombie Jungle Ape inside. The Zombie Ape nearly killed two of the three, and rendered the third, Geoff, temporarily blind, before it's arm snapped while mid-backswing and took off it's own head. Geoff used the whispering wind broach given to them by Auric to send for emergency aid and then barricaded the three of them in the Captain's Quarters to recover until help arrives.

Campaign Ends: Midnight of the 15th of Therendor

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