Session 23 - The One Where Khandi Realised He Was No Sailor
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 26 - Eleasias 29
Our "Heroes" are resting up in Neverwinter, after a busy time in Flint Rock. TC is processing the thought that a-Jeroth is in this land (little "l"), having assumed he was killed in the other Land (capital "L"). Carro is wondering how and if the Ruin (no "h") that is apparently spreading from the north is the cause of the growing problems within his home forest, while Khandi, convinced that the Ruin (no "h") IS the cause and wonders what happened to his friend who went looking for the Wise Woman of the West (formally the North). Meanwhile Mahtis is concerned for her sister, Ruhin (with an "h") who was apparently on board a ship attacked by a vicious pirate named Bree.
The DM is wondering why this campaign contains so many homophones.
Mahtis finds out a bit more about the ship that her sister was on, the Emperor of the Waves. She accepts (with the approval of the rest of the group) a task from an organisation known as the Little Fingers to recover an item from the wreckage of the Emperor of the Waves (as they were heading that way anyway) in return for some information on Pirate Captain Bree, and a financial reward upon return of the item.
They visit the Path of Preservation - Togruk is meditating on the four pieces of wood recovered by himself (his crown) and by our "Heroes" (Belak's wand and Tarmon's portal control), so the group chatted with Flit, the halfling. He gave them a bit of information on the Little Fingers, and also said that they should probably check back with Togruk after a while to see what he may have found out regarding a-Jeroth and Ruin (no "h").
Devon, their contact within the Little Fingers, provides them with a lot of info regarding Pirate Captain Bree and the slaver group Bree apparently works for - the Radiant Sisters.
Armed with this information, and with some healing potions and a new chain shirt armour for Carro, they decide to head out to sea to find the Emperor of the Waves in search of Ruhin, and the lockbox for the Little Fingers.
They pay for passage aboard a freight ship heading in that direction - the Evening Mist - captained by a human named Captain Ironfist and with a female dwarf named Hawkeye as his first mate.
During the three days sailing that it takes to get to the wreck, Mahtis keeps herself busy learning how to man (woman) the rigging - teaching herself a few sailing knots in the process. TC is an old hand at sailing, as he explains at length to anyone who will listen (pretty much nobody) and helps out where he can, enjoying the fine weather and the sea breeze in his hair. Khandi does not like sailing, nor the sea. He spends some of the time throwing up, and the rest of the time cleaning up after himself, though he also helps out cleaning out other areas of the ship too. He does not sleep well on board ship, and he is thankful the weather becomes no worse. He feels somewhat exhausted by the time they actually reach the wreck of the Emperor. Carro, feeling that menial work such as is done by sailors is far beneath him, spends much of his time bugging the captain, and trying to get invited to the Captain's Table for dinner. He fails, though the captain does humour Carro, and does inquire as to Carro's background and his family connections within the High Forest.
In the evening of the third day, the wreckage is sighted. Hawkeye agrees to wait around for a few hours, maybe until dawn, for them to return, and our "Heroes" are rowed to the wreckage by Peg-Leg Joe and his mate Patches.
Carror makes a complete pig's-ear of the climb up to the listing deck of the wreck, probably because he has spent the last 3 days trying to schmoose the captain rather than actually doing real work. He is discretely helped up by Khandi, and the others shimmy up the rope with ease.
With time at a premium, they act quickly. TC can sense something is not right about the ship and his Divine Sense is definitely giving off some dodgy vibes, though nothing that he can pin down at present. After checking out the deck and finding nothing of note, other than that the wreck does seem to be remarkably tidy, albeit somewhat, well, wrecked, they head towards the stern where they suppose the captain's cabin will be.
TC opens the door and heads in, followed closely by Kandi and Mahtis, with Carro bringing up the rear. The paladin sees that the cabin is full of wreckage - a lot of old tables, chairs, ornaments and general bric-a-brac has been piled around the edges of the room. In the middle of the far wall there seems to be an altar of sorts, with some humanoid skulls perched atop wooden spikes. Not a "good" altar, thinks TC. The glistening from the debris around the room is somewhat confusing to him, however. Though not for long…
His eyes are drawn to movement in the corner of the room, and he is not completely surprised when a giant spider pulls itself out of the piled up mess and scuttles along the glistening webs that cover much of the edges of the room. It fires a web at TC, managing to pin him where he stands. Quick as a flash, Mahtis runs over to TC and frees him from the web, allowing him to deftly doge a second web that flies in from the opposite side of the room, originating at a creature that is not a spider - more of a humanoid - but with the same ability to quickly move about the webs with ease. TC reckons that this new monster is probably a worse threat, plus it is a little nearer to him, so he rushes over to this creature and swings Dragonsboon at it, scoring an impressive hit.
The rest of our "Heroes" join the fray, with Khandi bravely (?) rushing up to the giant spider to engage it in combat, leaving Mahtis and Carro to fight from afar. The giant spider, and spider-kin are joined by three groups of small spiders that swarm all over TC, Carro and Mahtis, keeping all of them occupied, and struggling to keep the webbed monsters at bay.
TC and Khandi, being up close and personal to the largest of the attackers, take the brunt of the attack, and despite the giant spider taking hits from Khandi, Mahtis and Carro, it eventually brings Khandi down, and the bard falls unconscious. Mahtis, busy with a spider swarm of her own, uses her impressive breath weapon to freeze some of the spiders in the swarms, and then brings Khandi back to his feet, though even more exhausted than before, with a Healing Word.
Meanwhile TC is busy with a swarm of his own, and the spider-kin, which is performing two attacks every round with its bite and claws. TC is using all the powers at his disposal - spending luck points to avoid being hit, and smiting the monster whenever he can. With TC near to dropping, he uses his Lay On Hands to call upon his divine mentor to instil him with health to keep him battling away.
With the giant spider rearing above a weak Mahtis, Carro fires a well-aimed arrow and brings the spider down, just as it was about to sink its teeth into Khandi. The bard, ignoring the pain he is in, rushes over towards an ailing TC and heals him enough to continue the fight with the spider-kin. Mahtis manages to kill the last of her small spiders that were swarming over her and she runs towards the paladin, forcing the spider swarm that was on TC to focus on her instead and giving TC some room to breathe!
Carro swaps to his sword to fight off the little spiders swarming all over him. With Carro, Khandi and Mahtis all focussed on the little spider swarms, TC and the spider-kin are in a battle to the death. TC has been healed twice already, but is now looking ok, whilst the spiderlike creature is looking distinctly unhealthy. With a final swing of Dragonsboon, TC takes the creature down, forcing its body, still burning slightly from the fire damage done by Dragonsboon, down the steps of the boat to the level below.
Between them they manage to take care of the last of the spiders, with Mahtis' large, webbed feet squishing the remaining spiders and causing the one or two that were left to scurry off into the holes in the floorboards.
Our "Heroes" have survived the attack! Battered and bruised, and with Khandi exhausted, they have at least managed to beat off the multiple spiders and spider-kin that seemed to reside in this room. Though noting that many of the small spiders seemed to come up from the lower decks, they do wonder what else may be on this ship. With any luck, they'll find what they are looking for in this room and be able to get away with no further trouble.
We leave our "Heroes" looking cautiously around the messy room, with the gruesome 'altar' against the wall…