Tides Of Dread
Fire Bat out of Hell
As the canoes approached the northern pier at Farshore, it
was immediately apparent that something was not right. The village was on fire,
overrun with bad people and there was a Crimson Tide pirate ship docked next to
the Blue Nixie. Using their collective wisdom and intelligence, our happy little
band of heroes came to the conclusion that the settlement was under attack!
Leaping from the canoes, they set off in all directions to help the colonists.
Laureli and Sancho moved to the left, hearing screams from a woman trapped in a
burning building. Jack ran towards a pirate who was chasing a woman round a
building, calling out suggestions which sounded both improper and unfeasible (or
at least, inelegant). Analesia unlimbered her bow and started taking out pirates
from the dockside, together with Arumil using magic missiles. Ronica moved to
stabilize a man lying on the floor in a mess of broken glassware.
The heroic Sancho, with no thought to his own safety
(although possibly some towards the charming lady in the burning building)
climbed in to the fire to try to affect a rescue, taking some painful burns
himself in the process. Laureli cast Create Water to damp down the flames and
Sancho, aided by Laureli, helped the poor woman to safety.
Jack swiftly cut down the scurvy pirate chasing the woman
and moved deeper into the settlement, towards a laughing pirate who was easily
beating up a group of colonists around him. Jack closed with the captain and was
mildly put out when the villagers did little to aid him. However, with Laureli
and Sancho coming to join the fray, the captain had no chance!
Analesia and Arunil were quite happy in their ranged tasks,
until they saw a group of pirates rushing towards them from the Blue Nixie.
Arumil, after some careful calculations, used Jungle Razor (may have been a
Fireball in there as well) to trim their numbers as Analesia prepared for the
melee. The remaining pirates did not last long.
Ronica, having aided the man on the floor, moved on to the
church, where several trapped colonists were under siege from a number of
pirates. As she fought the pirates, Arumil and Analesia cam to her aid and the
settlement of Farshore was soon free of its pirate infestation.
After putting out the fires, the village began to gather
around its saviours. From the smoke emerged a noble looking chap, who seemed
somewhat irritated when Avner approached him, greeting him as uncle
Manthalay. Soon after, the party were pleased to see Lavinia approach them,
wreathed in smiles to see them safe. After the initial greetings, a town meeting
was called, to which all were invited.
At the meeting, Lavinia called for damage reports (all a bit
Star Trek) and asked for a report of the heroes adventures after they were
separated. Several months later, Sancho finished describing the game of deck
quoits that he had organised and moved on to tell the rest of the tale of the
Sargasso and the wreck, the march across the Isle of Dread and the horrors of
the Fogmire. At this point, a report reached their ears of a captured pirate and
the party went to interrogate him.
Upon seeing Sancho about to speak, the pirate immediately
recanted his old ways and spilled the beans about a planned attack on the colony
in two months time. His group had been supposed to scout the colony and report
back to the raiders, but their captain had been overcome with greed (among other
baser urges) and had ordered the attack that the heroes had
forestalled.
When Lavinia heard the news, she immediately came up with
the tasks needing to be completed prior to the assault. These are broadly as
follows:
1. Improve Farshores defences and fortifications.
2. Recruit aid from the Olman islanders in the nearby seven
villages.
3. Recruit the aid of the Phanatons, a tribe of strange
humanoids dwelling in the interior.
4. Search for caches of weapons left behind by the legendary
weaponsmiths, the rakastas.
5. Refloat the Sea Wyvern.
6. Gain access to the tar pits on the Isle of
Dread
Our heroes immediately chose to organise the refloating of
the Sea Wyvern, mindful that the longer it remained on the reef, the more damage
it would suffer - obviously, they were in no way motivated by the thought that
it would also supply them with the chance to return to Sasserine to spend their
money! With this in mind, they set off in the Blue Nixie with a carpenter and
his three apprentices on board. The carpenter pointed out that repairing the
damaged ship would require tar, so the tar pits became their priority and so
they landed close to the village of Tanaroa to see the natives and get
permission for their new job.
As they approached the village they had left just the day
before, they soon saw that it was not in the happy go lucky state they had left.
The villagers were dancing around a charred bat totem in the centre of the
village, chanting one words over and over again - strangely, Ronica (Think
it was Ronica, anyway) could understand their chant to be Zotzilaha. As
they drew closer, the totem burst into flames and a humanoid figure with the
head of a bat became visible in the flames. It snarled in a language which,
again, only Ronica seemed to understand, saying "Zotzilaha hears your pathetic
prayer. return what was stolen or burn". The batlike humanoid burst into flame
and seven flaming bats appeared.
As the party started to move toward the bats to help the
villagers, the bats charged them! The party soon discovered that the bats
attached themselves and fed, causing painful wounds that burned. Even so, they
were not a great threat and were swiftly dealt with.
After the fight, the chieftain approached them and thanked
them for their aid. She explained that an idol had been stolen from their gods
shrine on the slopes of a nearby volcano, the idol being a small gold statue of
a bat. After a lot of searching, the idol was mystically found in Ronicas
backpack and our heroes set off to return it, for which boon the chieftain
promised aid against the forthcoming attack.
Current Victory Points: 0
An Unfortunate Afternoon
Snack
After a couple of minor dinosaur encounters, our hardy
bunch of heroes reached the shrine of Zotzilaha - a long, hot tunnel leading
deep into the heart of the volcano. Asking their guide for advice on surviving
the intense heat, he said that their shamans cast mighty magic's that he did not
understand. After some discussion, the party decided that endure elements spells
were the way to go and contacted their grey cleric, Laureli, who cast the spell
repeatedly until the whole party were protected. Leading the way, Analesia
checked every inch of the three mile long passage for traps as they wound their
way into the heat. Turning a corner, Analesia saw a large chamber, with an eight
foot tall statue of a bat with its claws looking as though something was
missing. Sancho, realising that this was probably where the bat idol should go,
moved into the chamber, just as a man-size demonic figure of a bat, accompanied
by several fire bats, stepped out of the lava to one side and glared at the
intruders. Sancho proffered the idol and made a brief speech stating that the
party was returning it to its rightful owner. As the fire bats made a guard of
honour through the room, Sancho stepped forward and returned the idol to its
resting place. The Aspect of Zotzilaha spoke, its voice rough and grating,
thanking the party for the idols return and offering them gifts in return. They
each took one item from its hoard, except for Sancho, who also took a long thin
fang wrapped in leather. They then departed post haste and returned to the Olman
village.
Back at the village, they announced that they planned to
visit the tar pits, at which the chieftain became more nervous than normal. She
explained that a mighty monster called Temauhti-Tecuanihad taken over the pits
as its territory, a great lizard of immense power. Our heroes decided that they
could further gain the trust and aid of the Olman in the coming battle by
slaying the beast and thus allowing access to the tar pits for all and so they
made their way to the pits.
At the tar pits, the heroes found a group of Phanatons
were already there,, gathering tar. Explaining why they were there, the heroes
got the little cuties to back off and Sancho began to declaim in order to
attract the beast. After a brief discussion on tactics, the party decided that
there was no need to use buffing spells, as this would be unfair to the dinosaur
and so they lined up in battle formation. After a few minutes, the largest
Tyrannosaurus they had ever seen came charging round the edge of the tar pits.
As Arumil jungle razored the horror, Ronica moved in front of Analesia to offer
her protection to the rogue. The T-Rex charged in and bit dip into the monk,
drawing her into its maw. The rest of the party fought the beast as best they
could, but were horrified to see the monk disappear as the T-Rex swallowed her.
the fight continued for a few more seconds, as Jack pummelled away with his long
sword (only just avoiding Ronicas fate) and finally the monster succumbed to
their blows. With sinking hearts, they cut it open, only to find their comrade
dead. Lacking the funds to restore her to life, they buried her with full
honours a little way from the pits and moved to comfort the ecstatic Phanatons.
They accompanied the Phanatons to their village, where
they were fated as heroes and given the honour of a feast, consisting of tasty
fried insects and fruit. After an exchange of information, the Phanatons
promised to aid in the defence of Farshore by sending their most fearsome
warriors to help (if a bush baby can be a fearsome mighty hewed hero of legend).
Further, they told the party of an ancient Rakasta (or cat people) temple and
offered to guide them to it, as there may be weapons stashed there. The party
readily agreed.
After yet
more irritating encounters with the Isles fauna, they reached the temple, a
squat ziggurat buried in the jungle. As Analesia moved into the interior,
checking for traps, an enormous anaconda attacked her, throwing its coils around
her and another mighty combat ensued. Fortunately for Analesia, the snake proved
less of a threat than the T-Rex and it was swiftly dispatched. In the temples
interior was a plinth, atop which stood a great statue of a jaguar, surrounded
by lesser statues of all kinds. After some investigation, they perceived that
the plinth and statue were actually illusory and that there was a great pit
beneath them. Climbing down the side of the pit, they found a winding tunnel cut
into its side. Analesia led the way, checking for traps as she went. At the end
of the tunnel was a large empty room, with a bamboo platform at its centre. As
the party dispersed across the room, a Couatl became visible in one corner and
addressed Sancho, asking why it could not discern him. Sancho looked momentarily
non-plussed, until he remembered his ring of mind shielding and he swiftly
explained the parties reasons for coming to the temple. The couatl, on learning
of the plight of Farshore, revealed a cache of weapons hidden beneath the
platform and asked the party to use them in the defence of the settlement, as a
way of atoning for its failure to save its Rakasta children from a skinwalker
assault. Heavily laden, the party continued on their way to the wreck of the Sea
Wyvern.
| Task |
Victory Points |
| Secure aid of Olman |
250 |
| Secure aid of Phanaton |
200 |
| Defeat Temauhti-techuani |
100 |
| Deliver Rakasta weapons |
Ongoing |
| Total |
550 |
A Day At The
Beach
The
party, now with Arry (a doughty fighter who had been working his passage on the
Wyvern but somehow escaped notice until now), whom they met at the Phanaton
village (there, no-one will notice that subtle segue), our heroes arrived back
at the wreck of the Wyvern. Somewhat to their surprise, the Blue Nixie was
anchored about a mile up the coast. Laureli sent a message asking them to move
down to the wreck and the crew of the Nixie responded by sending a message in
fine naval tradition, by flag. After some dubious translations of this message
were offered by Jack, Sancho used gaseous form to ask visit the Nixie and ask
them what was going on. They said that there was a monstrous dinosaur guarding
the Wyvern, and that some thing had taken up residence in the hold of the ship.
They rowed Sancho back to shore and he jogged down the beach to deliver the news
to the others. As they looked at their options as to how to cross sixty feet of
sea to the reef, Sancho used Fly Swift to investigate the wreck. Sneaking below
decks, he heard noises from the forward cabin and used some detritus to make a
sound. The occupant of the cabin opened the door to investigate, allowing Sancho
to see a creature he recognised as a Kopru. Sneaking out again, he indicated to
the others to swim over. They managed to do this without raising the interest of
the elasmasaurus lurking in the shallows on the other side of the reef. They
quietly boarded the ship and began to sneak around. As Jack and Arry went below,
Analesia moved to the prow and saw a huge, snakelike creature moving toward her.
She got one shot off before it reared before the prow and bit her in a most
unfriendly way! Meanwhile, Arry and Jack were a little surprised to see an earth
elemental appear in the door leading below decks. At the same time, they could
hear the sound of something moving on the deck below.
Above
decks, Analesia and Laureli faced the elasmasaur on the prow, as Sancho
performed, to aid them in their struggle. After several tense seconds of combat
the dinosaur fell to its wounds - just in time for Analesia.
Below
decks, Arry and Jack found the earth elemental an easy task, but were stopped in
their tracks as another appeared. Beating that one up, Jack went below to
confront the Kopru, with Arry close behind. The Kopru fought as beast it could
in the flooded hold, but as the rest of the party joined them, it was swiftly
neutralised.
Twelve
days later, the ship was fixed and they sailed back triumphant to Farshore
(another perfect segue...), where they were welcomed back. After checking in
with Lavinia, they discovered that a mayoral election was in progress, as well
as the beefing up of defences around the town. They swiftly mucked in to help
with the defence of the settlement, Laureli casting Hallow on the graveyard to
prevent the dead being raised in the coming struggle. She then went to help at
the chapel, to help raise the colonies spiritual well being, while Arry worked
on setting up defensive sandbars across the entrance to the harbour. Sancho
helped by visiting everyone regularly to aid them in their tasks, while Analesia
helped where she could. After the first week, the docks defences were completed
and the settlement had a more confident air. Jack spent the week information
gathering in the pub and discovered two interesting things - there have been a
series of thefts from the warehouses by the docks and there are problems with
Troglodytes to the east. He also learned that Jeran, a local wizard, has heard
rumours of a lost Olman village,
| Task |
Victory Points |
| Secure aid of Olman |
250 |
| Secure aid of Phanaton |
200 |
| Defeat Temauhti-techuani |
100 |
| Deliver Rakasta weapons |
50 |
| Hallow the cemetery |
25 |
| Aid at chapel |
25 |
| Upgrade the harbour |
50 |
| Repair the Sea Wyvern |
200 |
| Total |
900 |
Weeks
Left 4
| |
Location |
Task |
Complete |
GP Limit Raise |
Do again? |
| 1 |
Docks |
Fortify |
Done |
|
Yes |
| 2 |
Warehouses |
Solve thefts |
|
|
|
| 3 |
Palisade |
Fortify |
|
|
|
| 4 |
Watchtowers |
Fortify |
|
|
|
| 5 |
South Gate |
|
|
|
|
| 6 |
Cemetery |
Hallow |
Done |
1000 |
No |
| 7 |
East Gate |
Troglodytes |
|
|
|
| 8 |
Barracks |
Recruit |
|
|
|
| 9 |
Vandoboren Manor |
Election |
|
|
|
| 10 |
Meravanchi Manor |
Election |
|
|
|
| 11 |
Clayworks |
|
|
|
|
| 12 |
Woodworks/Smithy |
|
|
|
|
| 13 |
Tannery |
|
|
|
|
| 14 |
Last Coconut |
|
|
|
|
| 15 |
Chapel |
Spiritual healing |
Done |
|
Yes |
| 16 |
Hall of Records |
Lost
tribe |
|
|
|
| 17 |
Infirmary |
|
|
|
|
| 18 |
Greenhouse |
|
|
|
|
| 19 |
Laboratory |
|
|
|
|
| 20 |
Farms |
|
|
|
|
Building A Better
Future
Our
heroes continues with their efforts to strengthen the defences of the
settlement. Arry kept watch at the warehouses, discovering that the thief was an
ethereal filcher. Jack worked on the palisades, while Analesia started a major
watchtower building franchise. Arumil showed a hitherto unknown skill in bow
making and helped at the woodworks, while Sancho raised moral and votes for
Lavinia. Laureli continued to help at the chapel and infirmary, as well as
overseeing efforts to improve the greenhouse. Work progressed for several weeks,
with everyone helping out as they could. After five weeks, the settlement was as
ready as could be and the election was held, resulting in victory for Lavinia
(much to the chagrin of the Merovanchis).
Three
days passed in relative peace, as the party kept watch at the docks, anxiously
scanning the horizon for sails. On the fourth day, the Crimson Fleet hove into
view and fireballs began to fall on the town. Arumil went invisible and started
to levitate in twenty foot bursts. The others were horrified to see four flesh
golems walk up out of the water towards the beach. As they commenced fighting
the golems, Laureli became isolated to one side of their battle line and was
sorely pressed by two of the enemy. As the golems fell to the heroes swords,
Arumil targeted the caster of the fireballs on a ship moving in towards the
docks and fireballed him back, nearly klilling his bodyguards. The enemy caster
failed to spot the origin of the fireball, but eventually gave a best guess on
it and fireballed where Arumil had been moments before. Unfortunately for the
sorcerer, although the spell went off twenty feet from him, it was expanded and
caught him at its edge, almost knocking him unconscious. He floated gently to
the ground, as the final golem was felled and was quickly healed.
The party
then noticed that four Vrock demons were dancing in the centre of town. Using
his rather bizarre knowledge of these things, Sancho realised that they were
dancing the dance of ruin and could decimate the town if successful. Jack, Arry
and Laureli charged in to try to disrupt the deadly dance, swiftly joined by the
others and, after a brutal combat, successfully brought down the
Vrocks.
| Task |
Victory Points |
| Secure aid of Olman |
250.00 |
| Secure aid of Phanaton |
200.00 |
| Defeat Temauhti-techuani |
100.00 |
| Deliver Rakasta weapons |
50.00 |
| Hallow the cemetery |
25.00 |
| Aid at chapel (3) |
75.00 |
| Upgrade the harbour |
50.00 |
| Repair the Sea Wyvern |
200.00 |
| Upgrade palisade |
50.00 |
| Upgrade watchtowers (6) |
300.00 |
| Recruit militia (3) |
75.00 |
| Election for Lavinia |
150.00 |
| Infirmary |
50.00 |
| Flesh Golems |
100.00 |
| Vrocks |
150.00 |
| Total |
1825.00 |
| |
Location |
Task |
Complete |
GP Limit Raise |
Asset Raise |
| 1 |
Docks |
Fortify |
Done |
|
|
| 2 |
Warehouses |
Solve thefts |
|
|
|
| 3 |
Palisade |
Fortify |
Done |
|
|
| 4 |
Watchtowers |
Fortify |
Done |
|
|
| 5 |
South Gate |
|
|
|
|
| 6 |
Cemetery |
Hallow |
Done |
1000 |
|
| 7 |
East Gate |
Troglodytes |
|
|
|
| 8 |
Barracks |
Recruit |
Partial |
|
|
| 9 |
Vandoboren Manor |
Election |
Done |
|
|
| 10 |
Meravanchi Manor |
Election |
N/A |
|
|
| 11 |
Clayworks |
|
|
|
|
| 12 |
Woodworks/Smithy |
|
Partial |
|
2000 |
| 13 |
Tannery |
|
|
|
|
| 14 |
Last Coconut |
|
|
|
|
| 15 |
Chapel |
Spiritual healing |
Partial |
|
|
| 16 |
Hall of Records |
Lost
tribe |
|
|
|
| 17 |
Infirmary |
|
Done |
|
|
| 18 |
Greenhouse |
|
Done |
1000 |
|
| 19 |
Laboratory |
|
Done |
|
5000 |
| 20 |
Farms |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
2000 |
7000 |
Meeting An Old Friend
As the last of the Vrocks fell, the
party returned toward the docks to deal with the fireball threat. As Arry
arrived, he managed to get one shot off at the sorcerer before the group was
fireballed. As Laureli Flame Striked the sorcerer, the party split up and began
to use bowfire to try to take him down as soon as possible. In retaliation, he
lightning bolted Laureli and, after another flame strike, he then cast mirror
image to try to avoid the arrows and arrows of Arry and Jack. Sancho, as the
sorcerer fell, turned himself invisible and swift flew aboard the ship, as the
others turned their attention to the two remaining Yuan Ti. Sancho attacked one
of them, shouting 'Ha!' as he appeared beside the rather shocked Yuan Ti. With
Sanchos melee attacks and the supporting bowfire from land, the battle came to a
swift result.
As Sancho searched the dead for
magic items, he noticed a winged demonic figure talking to Lavinia in the centre
of the settlement. Jack set off at full speed to investigate and was
shocked when their mentor, Lavinia, attacked him. Pausing only to punch her in
the face (because he could), he attacked the strangely familiar, yet completely
unrecognisable demon. With Arry joining him in the assault and Laureli using
spiritual weapon, the battle was brief. As the demons last act, he pulled a
black pearl the size of a large orange from his pouch, dropping it as Jack
felled him. It shattered on the ground, releasing a 20 foot radius acidic cloud
which burnt those standing within it.
As they tried to see what was going
on, they noticed some form of magical effect at the centre of the cloud, which
appeared to be growing in power. Jack and Arry ran from the cloud and Jack
wrestled Lavinia (still ineffectively attacking him) to the ground. Laureli left
the cloud to try to figure out what to do next. Sancho, rushing into the cloud
(at great personal risk, as he pointed out once or twice) attempted to discern
what the effect was. He connected it to legends of pearls which caused great
decimation many years ago, transforming people into savage monsters. He then
made the connection to the strange events at the cove back near Sasserine, where
there had been some form of savage transformation of pirates and wildlife (there
are those who would say the two were synonymous). Realising that if he was
right, the entire island was at risk, he decided the best way forward was to
contain the blast in an extra dimensional space and called for a bag of holding.
Laureli rushed to Jack (still getting frisky with Lavinia) and asked him for the
party treasure bag. Not knowing how long was left, she rushed back into the
cloud and Sancho held the bag over and around the strange magical effect. After
thirty seconds or so, the effect appeared to go off and all was well with the
world again.
Having saved Farshore from the
assault, the heroes assessed the damage. Only seven citizens had perished in the
attack and, despite the fireballs, the bulk of the settlement had survived. As
Lavinia (having thrown off the compulsion she had been under) organized
rebuilding, the party went and negotiated peace with the troglodytes, just for
the hell of it.
Final Victory Points:
2,275