Archmage Halstead: the OBX session (5th)

 Oh, the places you'll go!

    The Wizlards were sleeping off the night after defeating the scourge of the lizard folk “Thousand Teeth”.  They decided to travel to the Bullywag lair to retrieve the helm that Othokent had told them had been stolen.  On the way they were ambushed by a Wyvern which led to a pitched battle where they were continuously strafed by the beast.  The battle went well with the highlight of Adamas flying into the sky to meet the wyrven, and they continued their journey tothe Bullywag lair.  As they approached, they heard croaking and sounds of combat.  As they peeked through the underbrush, they saw two Bullywag gladiators in combat in what looked like sport for spectators viewing from a box above.  There seemed to be at least two other Bullywags and a shadowy figure in the box above.  Abe decided to try to parley and convince the Bullywags that they had come to talk.  The talk at negotiations stalled as the Bullywags were notpleased with them being associated with Othokent whom they viewed as intruding on their tribal lands and the gladiators turned to attack Abe.  The rest of the party rushed in to help and after an extended battle which included 3 grung who came from the fortress, the outside threat was removed.  The observers had retreated back into the fortress and the party decided to investigate through the door which had been left cracked open by the grung assault.  They came to a guard room before an intersection and fought off three more Bullywag guards.  Ignoring the side passage, they continued straight and found there way to a set of steps that led up to what they figured was the box viewing area. They parleyed with the leader of the Bullywags, Gulpta Gor and his advisor, and he agreed to accompany them back to the lizard folk to discuss how territory could be shared and they could assist with the threat from the seas with his pet frog.  As a sign of good faith, he turned over the helm to the party to give to Othokent.  The journey back to the lizard folk lair occurred without incident until they stumbled across a lizard folk patrol.  The patrol was in boats heading downriver to the sea and talked about linking up with the baroness to reclaim what was theirs.  The party did not attack as the forces seemed many but decided that this information must get back to Othokent as a possible attack was imminent.  They expediated their return and made it without further incident.

    Upon their return they were greeted by Sauriv whose temperament was mixed with joy for their return and concern for who they were bringing along.  They were shown to the chambers of Othokent and though the conversation was tense between long time enemies things seemed to reach a stage where maybe they could work with each other.  The queen thanked them for their assistance with Thousand Teeth and rewarded them with the helm.  They told the queen of what they overheard on the river and she said this sounded like the workings of Wynce, her sister, who had been ​banished after a contingent of her supporters had sided with her in a claim for the throne of the lizard folk under the premise of “Making the lizard-folk kingdom great again” and restoring the old ways of isolation from the other races of Faerun in comparison to Othokent’s more progressive stance on relations.  She told them that they would celebrate their achievements at dinner tonight and looked at Leyash and said she was surprised that another Sea elf had come to the lair recently looking to parley and offer their services.  He claimed to be from Aquarius, and she looked forward to Leyash and him meeting.  After cleaning up, dinner began and the Wizlards were publicly acknowledged as friends and that maybe the lizard folk had underestimated what humanssss could do.  She would send an envoy back with them to Saltmarsh and work on bringing Saltmarsh into the fold for the eventual assault on Lizard Isle and the reclamation of their kingdom and removal of the scourge the seas the Sahuagin.  Leyash and Morthil talked where he revealed that he was the old weapon-master of Aquarius and had been there when the kingdom had fell fighting beside the king.  He talked about a small outpost northeast of Skyhorn Lighthouse where some survivors had grouped together and questioned Leyash on his being here and how that came to be as he thought there were no other survivors.  He found out about Oceanus being in Saltmarsh and after a few more minutes of discussion excused himself for the evening.  The party went on and the Wizlards eventually retired for the evening.  They were woken in a start when they heard clashingof steel in the hallway.  Adamus started working on getting into his armor and Abe and Ellie made for the hallway.  They found a trail of lizard folk dead and a few creatures that looked like the Sahuagin that they had met before in combat.  They got to the chambers and found Sauriv slumped beside the door with a spear in his side whispering that the queen was in trouble.  When they entered the chamber, they saw the queen and her remaining two guards being assaulted by 6 sahuagin including the supposed sea-elf weapon master.  The battle raged and Abe pulled his paralyzing/hypnotic spellto balance the forces until the help of Leyash could arrive.  The battle seemed even matched and out of nowhere Adamas materialized in the room.  This pushed the tide of battle against the Sahuagin and led to the weapon-master trying to make his retreat but being cut down as he tried to escape.  The party became concerned about the fact that he had lied to them and that he knew the location of Oceanus whom they had told him was a prince of Aquarius, Saltmarsh,and the Kraken Chaser, and decided to make a beeline for the town that was slowly becoming a second home.

    Once they arrived some things were checked on including the state of the inn which was ransacked by the black knighted individuals looking for Ellie.  They put the young man Jasker, who had been left in charge, in the hospital and ransacked the inn a little but didn’t look like they had found what they were looking for.  The party did some shopping and reported to the council who told them that they would be in touch once the lizard folk had developed a plan in concert with Galk and Ihrtos the lizard folk advisors sent by Othokent.  They said the Wizlard’s ship was close to being ready, reemphasized that the brawler was missing, and that they only had the one harbor defense ship and now the dwarven ship the Soul of Winter.  While the party split and did some shopping and looked over the inn, a representative of Gellen’s named Mormac Seymour stopped by and offered them a job looking for the long-lost lead ship of the Sea Princes called the Emperor of the Waves.  He mentioned that Gellen and him were looking for papers that had deeds to the Solmor property that was disputed outside of town, and he would love to have those papers to hold over Anders.  The party politely declined his offer while keeping the information in mind and Mormac left disappointed.  The Emperor had been lost 40 years ago and there were now reports of it sailing the seas north of Skyhorn Lighthouse mysteriously as​well as other active reports of the Sea Prince ships prowling the coast.  The party got ready to ship out and hired a crew that included Hannah, Cassandra, and a young female gnome among others.  Before the group left, they decided to investigate the wizard Keledek’s tower.  Ellie decided to climb into the open window at the top of tower and found somesort of small demon asleep in a bed by the steps down.  Carefully traversing the floor, she made her way to the steps to see what was below.  Meanwhile outside the party was guarding and being quiet and out of the darkness a green acid arrow plunged into Leyash.  What looked like a cloaked tall figure with claws for hands appeared at the edge of the darkness and a fight started between the three-party members and the mysterious figure.  The battle waged back and forth and eventually a large explosion rocked the area.  The figure seemed paralyzed but the explosion was sure to attract attention.  Ellie inside had snuck down and saw Keledek asleep and as the explosion occurred him rustle and snuck quickly back outside noticing the small demon was gone.  Fearing discovery by Keledek and other entanglements Adamas asked the party to kill him and when they grudgingly did, he told them to hold on to the figure that emerged which was a small female gnome.  They were teleported to a room that contained a symbol with crisscrossed lightning on the floor.

    The gnome calling herself Lilly really explains that she is Adamas and reveals her story about finding the amulet in the woods and once she grasped it transporting her here.  She relays at that point voices of her god started talking to her and encouraging her to do deeds for the glory of this unamed god.  She says she has been here before and each time shecan get to a room that has constructs and get in one and leave and be teleported back to Faerun.   When asked why she deceived others she said she liked the form that gave her the power of being big and strong and being able to help others with her strength.  She gives the party the tour of the underground area including a pool that has magical healing waters in a room with pictures of ships at sea and lightning bolts raining from the sky in the room.  They go to another room that has pictures of blue dragons and kraken entertwined plumetting from the sky into the seas.  There is also a chair in the room and inn table and she shows them how bringing the chalice from the healing room and setting it on thechair drops a force field where the wind and sea mist can then be magically felt.  The opening is high above the ground seemingly built into a mountain and overlooks an island off in the distance where a fortress can be seen with white cloaked individuals patrolling the walls.  They left the room after some more discussion and then worked their way deeper into the mountain.  They found a set of steps that were flanked by statues of what looked like paladins on either side and led to a hallway that had a doorway with the crossed lightning bolts on the door.  Lilly said that this door was dangerous and they continued into a large roughly circular room with pedestals and a large circle in the middle with the crossed lightning bolts on the floor.  They saw that there were two constructs that looked like Adamas left and one crumbled statue with another even larger opening force fielded overlooking the same portion of the sea and the fortress.  Lilly explained this is where she could get into a contsruct and return but obviously the constructs were running out.  They returned to the door and thorugh an exercise in perserverance and shock therapy eventaully disarmed the trapped door.  In the room they found a desk with a spellbook, equipement, and a bed with a skeleton arranged in sleep on the bed.  They surmised that this was the strange keeper of the tomb and he had for some reason sealed himself in this room beofre his death.  Taking his spellbook and equipment they returned to the center room to rest.  As they started to settle a figure appeared from behind them vaguely fishlike carrying a trident and with various ​pouches.  He asked them to return the materials to him and said that the mistress would not be pleased if they took it.  Seeming like it was not a request the party returned the book and he told them they should leave.  Lilly asked if her friends were welcome and they needed to rest and he insisted upon them reeturning to Faerun.  The party complied andwhile holding onto the Adamus construct returned to a copse of trees outside the tower.  They saw that Eliander and Keledek were in coversation with each other and that the frozen figure was now gone.  When they talked to the pair they were told that something had rocked the evening but by the time they got here everything or everyone had seemed to not be there anymore.  Keledek reported seeing an cloud of mist as he left the tower but no one who had disturbed his sleep was around anymore.  The party crashed for the night being ready to leave on the Chaser in the morning.  

    Abe had previously talked to Sheila Coppertree and asked her to accompany them in her ship.  In the morning the ship left looking for respite isle which is where the brawler supposedly was headed.  Captain Coppertree proved to be pleasant company before and on the journey for some more than others, and in the relationship that was developing Abe found out that Coppertree had an estranged former partner who went by the name Annabelle Lee hence the name of her vessel.  After a night of fun Sheila revealed she had been out doing what privateers do when her ship was assaulted by the Emperor of the Waves and during the fight which devasted her ship Annabelle was blown overboard by a cannon shot.  She reminisced how Annabelle was trying to forget a past where she had been cooped up in Waterdeep and was looking to run wild and free.  Coppertree asked Annabelle about her family and Annabelle did not remember much except saying that the man who said he was her father didn’t act like a father and she seemed to regret that she didn’t have a close relationship with this man.  The Lee and Chaser approached the harbor of respite isle and as the chaser pulled in, they saw the building was under assault by the Sahuagin and a Gnome that looked like he had been melded into an octopus in some kind of mechanical contraption.  The party dove into action and the battle was joined.  They heard dying shouts from inside the warehouse as it seemed the inhabitants were perisihing.  They fought what seemed like a shaman on the outside in a duel of magic and Ellie and Abe worked their way to the inside while Adamas kept the sea devils off of Leyash and engaged the gnome/octopus.  The battle swayed back and forth with several peopledropping and getting up but they eventually rescued a couple of men including an old man who tried to fight at time effectively.  He revealed himself to be Major Ursa and told them that he had seen the brawler several days ago as it stopped here to refit and then said it headed to Skyhorn lighthouse to the north.  He thanked the party for their help and offered his island as place of rest and if they needed it in the future.  

    The party at that point returned to the ship and with the Lee went to the waters north of the lighthouse to look for the sea prince ships and the lighthouse.  After a while of searching a ghostly looking ship with riggings in ruin was seen more floating than sailing and listing heavily to the side.  The party asked Coppertree to patrol in a wide circle and pulledthe chaser to about 75 feet where they took a dinghy across to the derelict ship.  As they closed, they discovered it to bethe Emperor of the Waves and they climbed aboard.  They found lots of webbing and a grate where cargo was lowered into the hold and door to a cabin fore and aft.  When looking through the grate they saw flitting movement and they tried pounding on the grate which seemed to cause more movement, but nothing came.  Putting a trap of food on the deck they laid in wait and several swarms of spiders emerged and a fight was on which included removing several of the swarms by executing dives into the sea while receiving scores of 8.5 from the judge in the dinghy and as a result having the spiders peel off and drown.  The party found a body under the mast in the aft part of the ship and when going into the cabin below the forecastle found more webbing, a set of stairs downward, and a couple of purple looking humanoid spider creatures that had many eyes.  They were dispatched and the party went to investigate the cabin in the aft.  This had an altar to Lolth and seemed to be the captains’ quarters.  They found a log and it seemed to outline that the ship had been in a fight and damaged while plundering the coast and had been looking for an island to make repairs.  While on that island they had been assaulted in waves by goblins and orcs that came from the island.  Eventually the final assault was told to be coming led by a half orc.  The ship had been at sea and slowly what remained of the crew and creatures had been devoured aboard the ship.  The party ventured into the lower levels from steps by the aft cabin and when they came to a kitchen area with holes in the walls, they entered a chamber where a voice from the dark said “Leave this ship, your presence disturbs the master”  They saw a nest with humanoid bones in it and a fight ensued in which the drider eventually retreated through the kitchen upstairs after hurting the party and them sealing themselves in the hallway on the opposite side of the ship.  They regrouped and went to the fore of the ship seeming to deal with the drider later.  When they entered the crew quarters, they saw hanging cocoons which erupted into demons of all mouth and teeth.  The fight was won after suffering more damage and the party decided to split and have Abe and Ellie go back through the top of the ship and Adamaus and Leyash to go through the hallway back to the room.  The timing ended being off and the drider had set an ambush back in its lair and a tough fight was finished off between it and the two friends.  The party descended into the third level of the ship and entered a large open chamber that had many ​symbols of Lolth and they saw a half orc in long robes flanked by a pair of spiders with two hanging Cocoons behind him.He told them that they were welcome to be his next meal in glory to Lolth and the fight commenced.  Despite being surprised by his pet Phase spider Roil they won the intense fight and descended into the lowest crawl spaces of the ship.They saw the chest that Mormac had explained to them on a pedestal in the center of the hold.  Adamas went to get thechest and once there he was attacked by rot grubs that tried to bore into his skin/construct.  The party tried several ways to get them off of him and they still burrowed towards his interior.  After eventually using fire which was foretold in a creepy children jump rope game the grubs were excised from his form and the party started to leave the ship with the box.  The ship rocked and tentacles started to break into the ship with the water level rising.  The party started to hustle to the top deck and the ship listed more and more tentacles appeared.  Abe made sure everyone was up ahead ofhim and as they leapt off the ship a Kraken pulled itself from the sea encapsulating the ship.  The party rowed towards the Chaser and the ship fired in their defense, fortunately high over the Kraken.  As they attempted to make their way tothe ship aboard the dinghy, Abe good naturedly     😊  taunted the Kraken.  This proved to be a poor choice as it snapped their dinghy int two sending everyone flying in different directions, but Leyash who was sneaking around the far side of the Kraken through the sea enjoying his swim.  The crewmember manning the dinghy unfortunately did not make it and the Kraken pulled the Emperor to the depths of the sea.  The party joined each other on the deck of the Chaser, and the Lee and the Chaser sailed away in tandem quickly from the area.

The Chaser and the Wizlards headed in the direction of what they hoped would be the lighthouse and on the way came across what looked like a submerged ship in the waters southeast of the island.  Leyash and Ellie dove overboard and investigated the ship finding a log that seemed to indicate that they had had not made it to the lighthouse but had run across some Sea Prince ships acting in consort in the area.  Investigation of the ship showed that the hull had been caved inward from some blunt force that was extremely powerful.  The two ships traveled closer to the lighthouse and with it on the horizon a large wave approached the ships.  As it approached, it turned into a large fist that nearly did significant damage to the Kraken Chaser.  Between the two ships maneuvers and party members jumping into the sea the large water elemental was destroyed and the ships continued toward the lighthouse.  Coppertree was asked to patrol offshore and the chaser docked at the lone pier.  A set of steps led upward to the lighthouse and as the party closed on the door, they heard a language they didn’t understand shouting orders and saying get the old man.  A fight ensued inside the lighthouse and on the first floor and the stairs.  The eel-folk were defeated and eventually an old man ​was coerced to open the door at the top of the stairs.  After a long conversation between the party and the man named Lucien Skyhorn.  He explained that his family had been tasked for decades with the task of taking care of this lighthouse to help ships in distress on their way to one of the Swordcoast ports.  He could help ailing ships by summoning a water elemental using the bowl his family had used but in recent times things had been slow and he kept the bowl downstairs instead of up here and locked up.  The eel-folk assaulted and took the bowl and went to the underwater caverns with it. He had been holding out here against their small force they kept topside for the last day.  While in his forced siege he  had noticed that a damaged ship had been almost looking like it had been pulled to the backside of the island.  He told the group where the ladder down to the caverns was and that he would teach Adamas how to craft potions afterwards ifthey returned the bowl.

The party headed below and fought some sharks in the 20 foot or so deep water of a small cove.  After defeating the sharks, they noticed a ship to the side and after investigating it found it to be the Jade Lion.  This was the ship the son of Mormac had been sent out on and after turning the ship upside down they found him hiding in the cabin.  Raf told them how the eel folk, maybe a dozen of them or so, had taken the crew away and he had hidden.  He heard several terrible screams over the last day and waves that went past the Lion occurred afterwards.  The party found some chests that were submerged under the water and he was taken back up to the lighthouse chamber to stay with Skyhorn while the Wizlards went to the caverns.  They crept into the opening chamber of the cavern and found three small groups of sailors tied together in clusters guarded by two eel folk.  The eel folk were dispatched by cunning, and when another came to investigate, he was waylaid but the explosion of his body afterwards alerted the others in a large battle.  When the party entered the chamber, they saw a half dozen eel folk in various positions including one guarding a sailor chanting over a bowl.  He commanded the others to attack, and the battle ensued.  A caster appeared from a side chamber and lightning bolted Ellie doing much damage and the others engaged in hand-to-hand combat.  The eel folk guarding the sailor periodically threw exploding beads of force at the party.  The battle was tense with at one moment three party members unconscious and the last member having very little health, but the Wizlards prevailed, and the bowl was taken in maybe the toughest fight of the weekend.  After returning to Skyhorn, he followed through and taught Adamas how to craft potions of underwater breathing if the right ingredients were found.  Adamas and Abe wenton a walk outside the lighthouse before they left and Lilly discussed her reservations about serving a god that she did not know much of and feared may not be the kind god that she wanted to serve.  She asked Abe if he knew of other gods that would be ones more to her liking of nature and Selune was recommended.  She also asked Abe if he would help her rid herself of this form.  After they did get Lilly out of the construct, she crushed the amulet and threw it into the sea.  She didn’t feel like she possessed her usual power but felt better about herself and her path.  Her and Abe also talked about children in a heart touching conversation about life, love, happiness, and the number 42.

    The two ships decided to look for Sea Prince ships for a little bit before returning to Saltmarsh.  They eventually founda smaller ship that seemed to be manned by werewolves with the symbol of claws on the sails.  The sea battle commenced with the three ships doing damage to each other by firing cannons and maneuvering.  The battle came to a crashing end when the Lee rammed the aft of the shipe shearing the rear of the ship off the badly damaged sloop and sending it to the bottom with all inhabitants aboard.  The party dove upon the wreck finding information in the logs that implicated the Steel Horse being in operation with it in the area together with the sunken ship called the Nightstalker.  The ships had recently split apart when the first mate Annabelle Lee had starting not feeling well and having some mental problems.  Jon Bovi said something was wrong with the amulet and they needed to return to retribution cove to get the problem fixed.  The log also indicated that there were rumors that Lee’s real name was Maura and she was under some kind of control by Jon Bovi.   Abe seems concerned and wanted to pursue the ship immediately.  After thought was put into it and the damages to the ship were assessed a plan was made to return to Saltmarsh and repair the Kraken Chaser, find out information about the pirates, and go after the Steel Horse and to the pirate island.  The Lee said to go ahead as it would have to limp into Saltmarsh and the Kraken Chaser and the crew sailed back to Saltmarsh and set up some repairs and upgrades to their damaged ride.  

    While the upgrades were being done the crew received an invitation to a celebration of their exploits aboard Gellen Primewater’s ship the Primewater Pleasure.  The Wizlards got duded up and made small talk aboard the ship while the guests that included Gellen, Tylsaria, Mormac, Commodore Warrington, Father Wyndham, Eliander, Carmilla, Cassandra,Anders, Skerrin, Wexley, the Cook, and Misty Swail the captain.  Some deck games took place including a knife throwing competition in which Lilly managed to hit the target but lost handily to the captain.  As dinner started and Gellen prepared a toast, a darkness descended over the table followed by a thump in which when the darkness faded Skerrin was found slumped over the table with a knife in his chest.  Father Wyndham ripped a diamond necklace off of Carmilla, Eliander’s wife, and revived Skerrin quickly.  Everyone was focused on Skerrin and trying to get an idea of how he was stabbed.  While discussing many theories, Father Wyndham seemed to struggle to breathe and fell to the ground dead.  After some more searching some poison was found under the table and it was determined that Wyndham’s food had been poisoned.  Gellen gave the Wizlards permission to question everyone and they narrowed the suspects down to Anders, Skerrin, Mormac, and Captain Swail.   It was decided that they would be imprisoned in a cabin overnight since no conclusion could be reached and everyone went to bed.  In the middle of the night a wail was heard from Eliander’s cabin and people rushed to find Carmilla stabbed through the throat and dead in a pool of blood upon the bed.  Eliander​seemed inconsolable and the investigation commenced.  When they went to check on the suspects, they found them all in the room.  After investigating they found a window had been opened and that someone had walked along the outsideof the ship to the window that was in the cabin of Eliander and thrown the knife form there that killed Carmilla.  After some more looking and talking, suspicion turning to Anders and the party confronted him in the hold.  During the discussion with the possible killers, Skerrin was identified as the assassin and revealed himself Scooby doo style in the hold of the ship as one of the four brotherhood operatives in Saltmarsh, the Uncle.  A fight ensued and Anders and Tylsaria weaponless moved to the rear of the ship and the Wizlards engaged Skerrin.  After a round Skerrin asked the Sage to help him and the ship wizard Wexley came from the hold and joined the fight on the side of Skerrin.  The fight raged on including a magnificent hamster ball magic battle to the death between Leyash and Wexley.  Eventually both members of the brotherhood were put down in the fight and Anders was reunited with Cassandra to help each other mourn.  The ship returned to Saltmarsh with people in a somber and/or angry mood.  The bodies were taken off the shipand the party went to sleep for the night.  The next morning, they decided to investigate where the black knights were intown as that seemed to be a loose end that needed some attention before going searching for some pirates.  They founda way to track them to the crabbing district and as they were checking out houses, the knights found them and attacked trying to kill or capture Ellie.  The fight went relatively well, and the knights were dealt with without much damage to theparty.  The house that they had been tracked to was searched and on the second floor a magic circle was found that seemed to be the way the knights had teleported in and out of town unnoticed.  As far as where that meant that they were coming from more research needed to be done.

    So as always what questions remain.  Is there a secret elf settlement?  Where is the mountain and fortress with the white gaurds?  Where is Acension Cove and the pirate hideaway and is the Annabelle Lee really Maura?  Why would she be ensorceled?  Where are the remaining members of the brotherhood?  Where did the circle connect to?  What is the deal with the Isle of the Abbey and the dubious clerics who inhabit it?  Who is talking to Lilly and now threatining since her life change and why?  Why is Ellie being hunted and who do these dark knights serve?  When will the assualt on the Sahuagin and the Baroness be ready?  And I am sure many more.