Beholder Group - "All Trussed Up" - Session 18 The Eye of Kronos
6th Feb 2020, 7:45 – 11:30pm
In-game timeline: Start of session, 1489DR,
Eleasis 24th. End of session, Eleasis 29thWe rejoin our "Heroes" fresh from an almost disastrous trip aboard the wreck of The Emperor of the Waves" as they are rowed away from the slowly sinking ship. Recriminations amongst the group abound. Mostly from Alwaith, and almost entirely directed towards Drogan. Drogan is, however, too tired to care.
They return to the Evening Mist, clamber aboard, and head straight to their bunks to sleep off the trials and tribulations of the previous evening. The following morning Drogan remains in his hammock to sleep some more, whilst the rest ask Captain Ironfist to head for Ruathym, where they can hopefully stock up on much needed supplies before taking on Bree and the rest of their intended mission.
Unfortunately Bree had other ideas. The following night, as the group were all asleep in their hammocks, Bree attacked the Evening Mist. Only Alwaith awoke to the shouts from the crew, and when he went up to investigate, he saw they were all aiming their attention, and weapons, towards a large ship on the horizon - difficult to see due to its black sails, and the dark night. The Captain was instructing his crew to ready the ballistae towards the ship and to ready their weapons. Alwaith, having seen Devon's previous demonstration of what happens when you delay waking up the rest of the party in a time of possible crisis, rushes down to wake the others up and they all make their way up quickly to the top deck.
The sailors are loading the ballistae and focusing not only on the ship in the distance, but also towards the rowboat, or rowboats, that seem to be approaching from that ship. Alwaith gets suspicious. He didn't get where he is today without being suspicious about a group of people all looking one way!
He was absolutely right to be so. As he looked at the opposite side of the ship - the only person to do so - he spots many pirates clambering quietly over the side of the ship, weapons drawn, and spreading out to allow as many on board as possible without being seen or heard. He shouts an alarm to warn the sailors, but it seems it is too late. By the time the sailors, and the rest of the party are warned, and turn to face their foes, at least 20 pirates have boarded, with more following, and a glowing ball of light hovers above them.
The party readies weapons when a loud, deep voice sounds from over the far side of the ship, telling them that they are outnumbered, and outskilled, and their only hope of survival is to surrender.
The party deliberates. Some may say "dithers" but I am being generous in saying they deliberate. Drogan wants to take the pirates on. The others are in two minds. They have recovered much of their health, but not all of it, and they have only a single healing potion in the event of a problem.
As they "discuss", Captain Ironfist seems to weigh up the odds himself, and tells his crew to surrender, tossing his weapon down before him in resignation. The crew are a little surprised - there are maybe a few more pirates, and the pirates look well-trained and well-hard, but they may be able to make a good show of themselves. Though they are a little suspicious of that ball of light.
A few of them join their captain in throwing down their weapons. The odds are now even more in the pirates favour. The voice is heard again, explaining that if they don't surrender, they will all be killed. More sailors give up. The party look at each other and decide they should maybe surrender and live to fight another day. Drogan is not happy. He is the last to drop his weapon, along with First Mate Hawkeye, who is similarly pissed off at the ease with which the pirates have taken the ship, and she gives her Captain a filthy look.
A male drow emerges over the gunwhale and surveys the surrendered crew. "A sensible choice", he says, and instructs his pirates to disarm all the crew, and tie them up. Drogan is unimpressed. Dwarrowsteel is resigned. Alwaith waits until no one is paying attention to him, and he transforms his appearance to that of a run-of-the-mill sailor and goes along with the rest of the crew's despair at their fate. Devon discretely casts mage hand, using his inspiration to help ensure he is not seen, and uses his mage hand to take his Dagger of Regeneration out of the way, so it is not found on the pirates' search of their clothing and equipment. The group, and the rest of the sailors are searched and all weapons and items that may be used as spellcasting equipment are taken away. The Pirates begin to tie everyone up. They are paying particular attention to Drogan (because he is very obviously pissed off at all this, and on the verge of resisting!) and Devon and Dwarrow (as they are obviously not sailors, so the pirates are wary). Alwaith's disguise means they pay less attention to him.
Devon tries to get his dagger back before he is tied up and unable to cast spells. He summons Nige, in his current parrot form, to distract the pirates about to tie him up and manages to use his mage hand to put his dagger into his boot before he is trussed up. Unfortunately, however, Nige's antics annoy the pirates and a number of them take a swing at him - he dodges a couple, but then flies straight into one of the pirate's cutlasses, slicing him in two. As the two halves of Nige fall to the floor, they disappear into the ether, causing the pirate who killed him to wonder what the bloody hell is going on!
RIP Nige
Before they leave, Captain Bree leaves a 'calling card' - killing one of the sailors in cold blood and cutting a cross on his bare chest. He then places the body in a rowboat and casts it adrift (you suspect he will be keeping The Evening Mist for himself, or maybe Captain Ironfist will keep hold of it).
The group, along with the rest of the sailors, are rowed across to the Pirates main ship, in the opposite direction from the decoy ship, and loaded into the cargo hold - which is obviously set up for securing captives. Their hands are separately manacled, as are their legs. The party consider their options - unable to cast spells, no equipment to hand (other than a longsword that can be summoned), no familiar, Drogan still exhausted, Devon still seasick. Despite this lack of options, Drogan still tries, and fails, to break out of the manacles. He still hasn't learned forward planning. If he had broken free, Drogan vs 35 pirates, a drow captain and a mysterious ball of light - he thinks his odds are good. The rest of the party would have held their heads in their hands, but the manacles prevented this.
They travel for a few days, though time is difficult to judge in the hold, and then seem to dock somewhere. As the pirates come down to lead the slaves up on deck, Drogan, now no longer exhausted, demonstrates his strength by seemingly simply pulling the manacles from their mounts in a sturdy oak beam. He must have learned some level of caution, however, since, instead of rampaging around the deck killing all and sundry, he presents his wrists to be re-manacled as he is led off, grinning at the slightly scared, and somewhat impressed, pirates leading him. He gets an extra guard for his trouble.
The group are led onto a rocky island of some kind. Dwarrowsteel and Drogan recognise the island's material as porous volcanic rock, and Dwarrow works out that it may even be floating in the water! Cut into this rock are tunnels, buildings, caves - all very well worked, and, in other circumstances, perhaps, somewhat beautiful, with the natural quartz in the rock glistening and giving off a dim light even in places where there are no torches to light the way. The ship seems to be docked in a harbour of some sort, guarded by a couple of towers, and with a makeshift town cut into the rock inland. Pirates wander around the 'streets' and buildings, paying little attention to the captives, as if it is a normal thing. Looking out to sea, a dense band of mist seems to surround the island.
All the sailors, and the party, are led down a number of corridors, some very narrow, until they reach what are obviously slave pens. The group are shut in the same pen, which already has a small halfling boy resident, and again are manacled to the wall. When they are left alone, they spend some time discussing their predicament, and talking to the halfling boy. The boy, called Bob, is very scared. He was on his first voyage as a cabin boy when his ship was taken by Pirate Captain Bree, though this Bree was a Duergar. He doesn't know what has happened to his crewmates - many of them were killed in the boarding - and is very scared about what will happen to himself.
Drogan once again tests his manacles and decided to have a go at breaking free. Remarkably, he manages it! Not wanting to be found out straight away, he pretends he is still captive when the guard looks in. Unfortunately, however, after a while the guard comes in to feed them, and discovers Drogan is unmanacled. More intimidated than impressed, he re-manacles Drogan, but Drogan immediately tries to break free again - he fails, but the worried guard calls for a cage to be brought in, and Drogan is re-manacled, inside a locked cage. When Drogan insults the guard's wife, he gets a hook in his gut for his trouble. And no supper.
Considering their options, the group talk about what they can possibly do in such a situation. Whilst they are quietly talking, the door opens and a human walks in. With some strange conversation between Devon and this newcomer, it is soon established that this is the previous captain of The Emperor of the Waves, called Cranfall Beaumont, but he is now called Bryn. He has distracted the guards long enough to explain to the group that he is looking to escape the island, and is willing to help them, but he doesn't think a frontal attack on the pirate village would work, and he is reluctant to blow his cover in such an enterprise. Instead, he suggests that they undertake the Gauntlet Run - a challenge-based set of encounters that, assuming they are sponsored by an existing pirate, captives can try out, in order to try to become one of the Radiant Sisters pirates. Cranfall/Bryn is willing to sponsor them if they wish to try this (it is how he managed to join them). He doesn't have time to explain the challenges, but does tell them to stick together, don't show too many of their abilities in case the pirates, or sahuagin, get suspicious of them. Above all, they will need to demonstrate their desire to join the group, and willingness to cast off their old lives.
The following morning (they assume!) they start the Gauntlet. Bob, miserable and worried that he will once again be left alone in the cell, wishes them good luck. A pirate captain meets them, equips them with studded leather armour if they wish, and some basic weapons. He tells them that the challenges are designed to test the tenets of the Radiant Sisters pirates - Bravery, Intelligence, Teamwork and Sacrifice. If they pass the tests, they will then need to cast off their old lives and accept new lives, and new names in the Radiant Sisters gang.
The rooms have balconies containing numerous pirates and the odd sahuagin or two, all watching their performance, cheering or jeering depending on what bet they had placed, and generally enjoying the show. The first room contained a large ship's wheel, parallel to the floor. The group eventually worked out that at least two of them had to turn it, to raise a large chain to eventually reveal the key to the exit door. Unfortunately the key was guarded by a large octopus, who attacked as soon as it was pulled up into the room. The people turning the wheel could not attack it or defend themselves without letting go of the wheel, which dropped the octopus, and the key, back into the sea below. So they needed to hold the wheel in place, risking attacks by the octopus, whilst the others took out the octopus. Sounds a bit like TEAMWORK! This all worked out ok, and Devon's critical hit on the octopus meant it had fewer chances to attack them all, though it did still manage to get a couple of hits on Alwaith and Drogan, before being taken down, revealing the exit door key.
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| Sahaugin Spectators |
Rapturous applause met the group's win, though there were a few jeers from some of the audience who had obviously bet against them. The party progressed to the next room.
This room had another locked door as an exit, a large pool in the middle of the room that obviously was open to the sea below, a single potion of water breathing, and an indication that the exit key was "around its neck". The "it" in question turned out to be a gargantuan dragon turtle that was swimming in the depths below, chained to another point in the island. Its massive beak and clawed fins were very imposing. It looked like it could snap any of the party in half without even trying. It also looked like it could snap its own chain, if only it could reach it.
Unsurprisingly, Drogan stepped up, swigged the potion and dived in - once they had checked there weren't any other nasties below the surface. He slowly and very carefully made his way down to the dragon turtle, keeping his eye open for a key. He spotted, in the distance, another dragon turtle, also chained up to a different part of the island. Drogan managed to spot the key under the turtle's neck and, although he was sure he had been spotted by the turtle, continued on and retrieved the key. Such BRAVERY!
As he backed away from the giant, key clutched tightly, he gazed into the creature's massive eye and was suddenly overwhelmed by great sadness. This was a docile creature that was in great pain - physically and, even more so, emotionally. Before leaving the creature, Drogan used his Talk with Animals ability which, although it didn't give him the ability to actually speak to this creature (a monster, rather than an animal), did give him an intense sense of empathy with it. He once again felt the immense sadness of the ancient turtle. When Drogan gestured towards the other, similar, creature in the distance, he felt a wave of deep love, greater than he had ever felt before. These creatures were life-mates, a bond lasting far longer than dwarvish brief lives, and are being kept apart and alone. The depth of emotions passing over Drogan was incredible. He promised the creature he would try to free it. A slight wash of hope was felt by the creature, and sensed by Drogan (bestowing him with inspiration in the process), before being quickly replaced with the previous intense and immeasurable sorrow.
Drogan slowly made his way back up to the room, carrying not only the key, but also the emotions from the encounter with the turtle. He handed the key to Devon to try in the door - it worked - and slowly, and quietly, Drogan made his way out of the room, oblivious to all the cheering going on around him from the crowds above. Oblivious even, to his friends, who wonder what happened in the depths to make Drogan so quiet. And - even more strangely - so thoughtful.
And so we leave a (temporarily) victorious group of "heroes", progressing through the Gauntlet Run in their attempt to become pirates of the Radiant Sisters. And a strangely emotional Drogan, who will remember the bond he felt with the turtle for the rest of his life. Though how long that turns out to be remains to be seen!