Archmage Halstead: The Fourth Session - Odd Jobs & A Seat at the Table

The strangers traveled home on the Ghost and as they were traveling decided to call themselves the Wizlards of the Coast.  The Ghost was towed home by Xendros and the Shadow Dancer.  They made it home after their visit to the escape with no further problems upon which they docked the Ghost at Gellen’s pier which had an open spot.  Gellen and Tylsaria met them at the docks and congratulated them upon their overwhelming success upon which Gellen said he would set up a council meeting in the morning.  Adamus and Ellie stayed at the ship while Abe wooed Tylsaria with success and they disappeared to Gellen’s mansion to have a tumble in the sheets.  They also learned that while they were gone there was some unrest in Saltmarsh and uneasiness in the streets at night and that the Mafera’s blacksmith shop had been assaulted by some thugs wearing hoods and they had made off with about 1000 GP worth of material and money.   

In the morning the party decided to do some shopping before the council meeting.  They went to the blacksmith shop and found that Adamas’s armor was finished and not pilfered so they paid for the armor.  Upon hearing of the teenage son Jasker of the blacksmith being hurt in the altercation, Adamus healed the physical wounds as he could and promised to work with him on his swordplay to help defend his mother.  Abe left Tylsaria’s room quietly without her noticing and they all decided to visit Xendros’s shop.  The did some shopping and picked up a few items and sold a few things improving their gear in the process but draining some of their funds.  Adamas asked about any mountain that overlooked a stone fortress armed by gaurds.  Xendros replied that in her journeys she had only heard of two such places that might match.  Firewatch Isle and the Isle of the Abbey.  Firewatch Isle was a fortress east of the Moonshae isles and the Abbey was an island inhabited by a cult of priests that had questionable morality and were weapon and item traders that she had some dealing with.  When Abe returned to the Snapping Line, he was questioned by Hannah Rist about Leyash and if he was alright since Leyash did not check in.  Hannah asked him to pass on her worries to Leyash.   

At the council meeting, the party was paid for putting the Ghost and its crew out of commission and a deal was struck where they were given the use and ownership of the ship in exchange for being at Saltmarsh’s service and the goods on board.  Necessary repairs done at drydock to the Ghost which would become renamed the Kraken Chaser and its complement would become the Kill Devil Corps were also agreed to as part of the deal.  The outlying farms were brought up again by the council and that with recent events Eliander did not feel comfortable detaching much of the militia to the surrounding countryside.  There was also the continued presence of the Lizard folk in the Mere of Dead men to investigate and find out if they were hostile or not.  The party was queried whether they would like to make contact on an exploratory mission to find out the lizard folks’ intentions after a recent caravan was discouraged from entering the swamp but to not assume they were hostile.  That seemed to be agreeable, and the council was convened for the day as the Soul of Winter which would carry the party since the Chaser was being worked on would not arrive until morning.

The party decided to go investigate the farms and left to go to the next most outlying farm in the surrounding countryside.  They decided to search the surrounding area first and did find tracks that ended in a stream and could not be followed anymore but did find a barrel of fine alcohol in the high grass by the tracks.   They eventually found the furthest outlying farm was that of the widow McCormick and her two boys who were working the land.  They talked to the boys who seemed like they were dismissive and eventually the widow who said nothing seemed amiss but gave them permission to stay and watch if they wanted.  They searched the farm while getting and ambush set up and they found another barrel of alcohol in the barn that the boys had hid from their mother and were obviously using to warm their bones on a long cold night.  They set up an ambush and as the evening hours approached saw a group of four gnolls and two hyenas approaching the farm.  They surprised their foes and initially had the upper hand, Leyash at one point in the battle seemed trapped by a gnoll who flung magic at him from a necklace and then blew a whistle when the odds looked grim for the gnolls.  A griffon then flew into the fight and slashed some wounds into the party and tried to pick up Leyash and dash him to the ground failing in the attempt.  The griffon was eventually surrounded by the party and with a neat trick, force slammed into the house wall by Adamas which finished it off.  The gnolls were searched and some loose coins were found along with a magic necklace. 

The party accidently gave away the boy’s stash and the widow’s screams berating the boys could be heard as they searched for and picked up the trail of the gnolls and followed it back to a lighted area in the woods.  Ellie snuck up on the camp where she saw the gnolls around a campfire and a large cage on wheels with two humanoid figures inside and instead of reporting back, eviscerated one of two gnolls that were searching for a sound she had made as she was sneaking in.  Battle was joined between the remaining gnoll, a strong muscular gnoll, and an older gnoll dressed in shaman type gear.  The gnoll shaman was rendered mostly ineffective by uncontrollable laughter and the gnoll underling and leader were dealt with although Leyash at one point in the conflict was knocked unconscious.

 In the cage on wheels, an older woman lady Willowsmith and young teenage girl who was the Miller daughter were approached to be released.  As they tried to convince them to come out the girl cowered and broke down in tears claiming over and over again that it was her fault.  The story came out through some convincing of Elle and Abe that the farm owners and families were brought here after their farm was attacked and caged for transport to the sea to meet a ship.  During the last time the girl and her family were added to the cage as another cage of farmer folk were taken away by the leader the gnolls hunting party decided to be abusive to her. A teenage farm boy from a neighboring farm and his father tried to stop it but were beaten down and killed and then fed to the griffon.  The traumatized teenager was eventually calmed, and the party decided that they should return the group to the widow’s farm.  As they brought them there and the widow agreed to take care of them till help could be sent for them and the boys made some rude gestures behind their mothers back at the Wizlards.  The party debated between blowing the whistle and taking their barrel of brew.  They decided upon the latter, and they brought their success and the brew back to town.

When they returned another council meeting was called and they were paid for their clearing of the farms and Eliander agreed to send some soldiers to get the families at the farm.   The party decided to summon the priest Father Wyndham to try and cast a speak with the dead spell on the gnoll head they had brought back with them in hopes about learning more of the slaving operation.  They learned the slaves were taken to a ship called the Indomitable captained by the dread pirate Jazerra.  The indomitable worked out of a location called Pirate Isle and maybe not alone.  The lizard mission was discussed, and the party realized an opportunity to bring the lizard folk from the ship into the discussion.  Adamas was sent to convince the Sauriv to come to the discussions, which Adamas was able to convince him to do.   Once Sauriv arrived, thus surprising the council, and bringing looks of concern from Eliander and Manistrad, he explained that he did not think the humansss would be very useful in what was occurring off of the coast of the Sea of Swords.  He explained that Lizard Isle had been taken over by the devils of the sea called the Sahaugin longtime enemies of the goodly races of the sea.  They had been forced to retreat to an old, abandoned liar in the mere and were trying to bring an alliance of the sea folk to take back their island and dispatch the threat.  Othokent and the lizard folk did not view Saltmarsh and the air breathers as useful for this due to the fact that the island was slowly being submerged into the sea and now at least partially under water.

     

  

 Oceanus was brought to the council meeting as well by Adamas and his well-worn boots at this point to confirm the tale and he was questioned about Othokent.  The council was once again surprised, this time to see another aquatic elf since the destruction of Aquarius was assumed to be complete.  He said Othokent was a noble leader and territorial but an honorable lizard queen unlike her half-sister Wynce was when they co-lead the tribe many years ago.  He also confirmed the sahuagin were mortal enemies of the aquatic elves and many races of the sea and pledged what help he could give.  The party and the council convinced Sauriv to at least have a conversation with Othokent and that maybe they could help.  Sauriv agreed to let them talk and they would go with the party if their weapons were delivered to their lair when the dwarven ship the Soul of Winter was ready to go captain by the dwarven captain Wolgar.

They took the barrels of ale to sell at the empty nest and saw Cassandra storm out of the inn cursing her father.  They found out that she had been agreed in marriage to another and that the feelings that she had for Anders could not acted upon.  When they questioned the wisdom of this to her father, he said she would have a better life than he had, and he knew what was best for his daughter.  When they brought the other barrel of ale to Hannah, her red rimmed eyes and shaking frame showed distress.  She had been approached and threatened by two black clad knights with red eyes with insignias of lightning bolts and tears and told that if Elle came back to the bar that she would want to summon them and bring that fact to their attention.  The mission was in Jeopardy as it was debated whether to hunt down the black clad knights or go check on the lizard folk.  After some coercing by Leyash, Hannah agreed to shut down the tavern and journey in their company under the protection of Jom and stay on the ship for a few days.

On their way to the Winter they saw Captain Swail of the Primewater Pleasure with it docked at Gellen’s dock talking to Tysaria.  Abe seemed to have no recollection of their evening and Adamas detected an evil in the lower region of the ship.  When Swail was questioned, she said that only Wexley was there the ships wizard.  The party asked to investigate but Swail stood steadfastly by Wexley’s character and told the party there was nothing to worry about.  The Winter left port with its steam wheels churning and turned south towards a promontory that the minister Sauriv suggested.  About halfway down the journey they were boarded by a group of eight Koalinth.  The Koalinth dropped a Dwarven guard and severely injured the captain as the party fought them off emerging from belowdecks and the last couple dove back into the sea.  When Wolgar was asked what happened, he said that the Dwarves and Koalinth did not have the best of relationships and that they had beaten back attacks before.  When asked why the Koalinth attack, he said they viewed the dwarves as greedy and proud as they were and needed to show their dominance in the seas.

The Winter was told that there were two places they could enter the lair.  The main entrance and a secret sea cave that would be guarded and should be avoided.  The winter docked and the party was escorted to the front entrance by Sauriv and his guard.  They were escorted through what looked to be a large well-guarded lair with younglings running about and brought to a central audience chamber.  The chamber was large and had eight pillars with guards at each pillar and a raised dais supporting a thrown.  Orthokent sat upon the thrown and Suariv introduced the party.  They asked the intentions of the lizard folk and were informed that Othokent was indeed putting together an alliance of the sea races the Koalinth, Merfolk, Tritons, Lizardfolk, and Locathah against the sea demons the Sahaugin to retake their island and dispel the threat to the sword coast.  She reiterated that she did not see how the humans could help as they were air breathers, but that maybe they could try to prove themselves in the Olympic games that were being held in the goal of cooperation between all races.  When asked why the Koalinth were included as they did not seem goodly, she said that their strength was needed against the truly evil Sahaugin and their leaders the Baroness and Baron.

The games opened and the first competition was the shell toss which Leyash won using his catapult spell, a potion water breathing was the reward.  The surfing competition was the last event of the day.  Abe undertook this event and lost in a tough tiebreaking final to the Triton representative where an obsidian surfboard was awarded.  The party retired for the night and Sauriv brought his congratulations on winning an event.  They were told to avoid the northern reaches of the lair as that is where the sea races were being housed and kept separate to avoid conflict.  After a nights rest, the next day brought swamp chess which elle won using her intellect and a golden chess set was awarded.  The sparring competition upon platforms with padded pole arms was undertaken by Adamus and the final duel was won against the confident Koalinth representative.  A potion of hill giant strength was won.  In the final event of the day, quipper catch, Leyash tried to shock the fish to the surface and win the event when he found out they were magical fish impervious to his efforts.  With an amazing stab at the last minute, he caught his quipper just under the quick time of the merfolk and won the quipper bone crown.  The nights rest came and Sauriv brought congratulations from the queen and a real sense that she was impressed with the winning streak and commanding lead, but that anything could still happen in the culmination event of the obstacle course team relay.  The relay was won as all members of the team contributed their talents to the many stages of the event and medals were awarded to all along with some platinum.  At the closing ceremonies Othokent said maybe she had underestimated the humans of Saltmarsh and if they would complete a quest for her that the alliance might be sealed.  They could go to the Bullywug king and get back her helm that was stolen by the Bullywugs which is why they were not invited to the alliance, or they could go deal with a rogue alligator called thousand teeth that the lizard folk could not personally deal with as it would be an affront to Seymanua their god.

The Wizlards decided to deal with the alligator and traveled to its lair through the swamp uneventfully.  As they approached the altar of worship were assaulted by Thousand Teeth as he propelled himself quickly through the swamp.  The battle was tense, and Thousand teeth summoned some large constrictor snake allies during the fray.  Eventually despite his attempted death rolls and resistance to magic at times, he was dispatched despite dropping Elle unconscious.  They decided to rest for the night before returning to Othokent and stopping off at the Bullywug fort in the process to achieve both goals.   Questions are abound as always.  How soon will the Kraken Chaser be seaworthy and what will it cost to operate and crew?  Who is searching for Elle and Leyash as it seems they are both being hunted?  Who or what are the Sahaugin, what are they up to, and what will it take to assault the lizard isle?  What is up with these island fortresses that they have heard of called the Isle of the Abbey and Firewatch Isle?  Are the brotherhood and the Sea Princes working together and who are the brotherhood informants or operatives in town?  What interparty questions and concerns do you have about each other?