Session 15

Session date	?, 2018
Players	Al, Dan, Zac
Audio file	Running time: 4 hours, 28 minutes

Highlights

• Left Dahrinmoor
• Catch a ship heading to Dahrinmoor
• Avoid some pirates
• Wonderlight is converted to Arawai
• Archie Copperspot is introduced

Synopsis

Using his street urchin background, Wymar leads the Rumours through the sewers of Dahrinmoor to the docks so that they stay out of sight. They go through safely, without any random encounters.

Bellack mentions that he's not a fan of ships or the sea, but after discussing the length of time required in getting to Kingsport by sea vs. land the Rumours decide to take the faster sea route.

Wymar wants to get to Kingsport so that he can work on restoring his father's mind. He's been trying this remotely but believes they'll be better off trying in person.

Zoop starts searching around the docks for familiar faces, anyone she'd know from her past as a working nurse in Dahrinmoor. They come across the Danelia and her crew, approach a sailor and arrange space for transportation. Zoop offers her nursing services, along with payment for the passage. The request gets passed onto the first mate, a Goliath named Orff. A rate of 20g each is established, and they all board.

At sea

The crew is mostly human, with three Goliaths and one bugbear named Trug. The Captain is a human named Ingvay, clean shaven with a long white ponytail. There's lots of singing and friendly banter among the crew and the Rumours.

Once they set sail, Bellack gets Wymar to send a message to Captain Turdwall's father by Animal Messenger, and the ring they took, too. The message is about how the son tried to interfere with Bellack and is now unconscious in the jail.

Wymar settles in, and tries to reach out to his Father's shattered mind. It doesn't work so he wanders off to get a lesson in the use of a rapier from the Captain.

Zoop sets up a mini clinic to treat the sailors assorted diseases and illnesses. She ends up discreetly treating a lot of scurvy, sores, and minor injuries.

Bellack goes through the items he stole from Captain Turdwall. It includes splint mail, a longsword, a short sword, and a heavy crossbow. He takes the crossbow and sets the rest aside for sale.

Wymar and Bellack attempt conversations, mostly with poor results. Zoop and Bellack catch up on some backstory lore. Bellack opens up about how he ended up in the cage we found him in. He was a mercenary and has been for several years. His outfit was hired by Gundrin Rockseeker and Nundro Rockseeker to protect the mining gear but they were overrun. The rest were killed and Bellack was left in the cage.

Before being a mercenary, he was a soldier under the command of Captain Turdwall. After growing tired of the Captain's ineptness, Bellack led his brigade well and that bothered the Captain.

Zoop asks about his fondness for desecrating corpses, particularly about severing ears and stuffing it in the corpse's bodies. It is gross. Bellack is trying to establish a reputation and thinks this will be a great way to do so. Wymar has mixed feelings about it.

Bellack asks about Zoop's past. She mentions that he could easily be converted to Arawai since he's had enough arousal to count. She talks about her family, and how she became trained as a nurse. One night, at a bar fight, she's tending to an injured patron when suddenly divine healing flows through her. She heads to the Divine Order to learn more about her divine connection, and learns she is a Chosen of Arawai. She finds a nice order to belong to, and gets back to more nursing. Abbess Miller feels she has more potential and signs Zoop up for a spot of adventure.

Wymar's past comes up, too. He shares how his father is the Captain of the Guard in town, and his Mother is the head of the Order of Erathis (Goddess of Law). His father went to deal with a group of cultists outside of town but came back a changed man. He became angry, violent, and delusional eventually turning comatose. Things got so bad that Wymar ran away from home. He spent his time on the streets looking for alternative ways to treat his father's condition. Wymar even did some time in jail over a theft, and was stuck in there due to his Mother's unbending belief in the law. For 2 years! Eventually, he was released to Mother Rose's orphanage in Dahrinmoor. He has since found the cult, as well as service to Yog-Sothoth. This is where his Warlock roots began.

He mentions his horniness, and Zoop offers a highly instructional pamphlet.

Pirates!

After 6 days in, a crew member spots something unusual. There's a ship slowing sinking just on the horizon. The Captain checks it out from his spyglass, and makes plans to head over. Wymar offers to fly over on his broom and check it out. As he gets close he sends Dexter, his pseudo-dragon familiar, in to investigate. A woman is on the deck signalling for help. The ship is tilting and taking on water. She goes over the rail onto a lifeboat and starts to head towards the Danelia.

Dexter goes below deck to find out more, heading towards some smoke coming out of the hold. As his eyes adjust to the dark, he sees several orcs huddled up. They quickly crush Dexter and Wymar flies back to the Danelia to confer with the Captain.

Wymar and Zoop fly out to the woman, who turns out to be a female elf slowly rowing a lifeboat over. They get a bad vibe off her so Wymar tries to shove her. She steadies herself then is tackled by Zoop. After some squirming, she confesses to be working with the orcs and jumps overboard, swimming back to her ship.

The Rumours fly back to the ship and update the Captain. He pilots the ship to stay out of range of the pirates cannons, and Wymar flies off again. This time he stays low and close to the water, then casts Shatter on the pirate ship hull just at the water line. The orcs start pouring out, throwing javelins. Wymar fires off an Eldritch blast, kills an orc, then flies away. Captain Invar encourages him to finish the job and fully sink the ship.

Wymar grabs a quick blessing from Zoop, then flies back to cast another Shatter. The orcs toss more javelins and spears as he returns, one of them clipping him and nearly knocking him off the broom. He flies off as the pirate ship properly starts to sink.

Bellack mutters about how he wishes he could have gone over to steal/reclaim a cannon. Everyone realizes the logistics are complex and it wasn't a great idea.

A conversion at sea

The Rumours begin a chat about morals, ethics, and allowing the possibility of surrender. Are orcs always evil? That's just species-ism and shouldn't be tolerated. Should they have allowed this group of orcs the possibility of discussion or surrender? The Captain chimes in saying "They're the scum of the earth, let 'em go".

This seems like a good time to do some downtime. Zoop begins converting Wonderlight to the path of Arawai. She sells it on the idea of doing great things together. She teases the power of the Chalice of Life, and the wild diversity of life that Arawai promotes. Tales of the marvels of Arawai continue until the hammer is finally swayed. Conversion!

Wymar tries reaching out to his father again. He gets dreams/visions of darkness, tentacles, and barren landscapes of waste. Feelings of suffering and madness trickle back into his mind through this connection as he feels what his father feels.

Bellack starts playing cards/dice with the sailors with the express purpose of taking their money. They share stories about the legendary Deck of Many things, which Bellack hadn't heard about before. Then they just play a couple hands of cards, realizing that the in-game mechanics are challenging. Why play a game within a game? They play something very much like poker and actual poker chips show up. Bellack wins with a Jack high card, that somehow beats Wymar's ALL RED hand. Next, Wymar uses his magic Charlatan's die to fleece one of the sailors.

The rest of the trip passes by without issue

Arrival in Kingsport

The ship docks in Kingsport. There's a huge white cliff face with a temple at the top. There's a lighthouse/beacon at the top of the temple. The docks wrap around the cliff and the town rises up from the docks towards the plateau at the top of the cliff. Kingsport is a big city, a little bit smaller than Dahrinmoor, and known for being a bastion of the Order. It is an orderly town, with an air of cleanliness. It is less blue-collar than Dahrinmoor.

As they sail in, Wymar sighs "Home sweet home". The Captain and first mate Orff see the crew off, and they hand over 20gp for handling the orc pirates. The group discusses where to go next, whether to stay at an inn or at the Temple of Erathis with Mrs. Armitage. They settle on a place Zoop knows, the Bear and Kilt. As they set off, they are approached by a goblin in a bent top hat who introduces himself as Archie Copperspot. He bows, showing the lute on his back, and offers to be a guide to town. Zac retcons that Wymar disguises himself as a generic dockworker (he looks like "just a dude").

Archie leads off with a couple plot points. Once upon a time, a kraken would regularly molest the cliff face and "rumour has it" that sunken ships and hidden caves hold lost treasure.

They start to chat and get familiar. Archie has been in town for several years, helping folks find things, doing some jam sessions at various taverns, and so on. He didn't fit in at his native home. He asks how long they'll be staying, and the answer so far is "just passing through".

Archie points out the Clifftop district, and the Trade district. It is mostly warehouses with a few shops. Wymar asks for a blacksmith. Zoop asks for some details on the temples, which are next to the Trade district bazaar. It's a huge flea market with tons of temporary stalls. There's a lot of textiles, clothing, and spices. Archie points out a nice clothes shop for Wymar to find some Hot Topic kinda clothes. Pumat Sol makes a brief appearance. There's a spot called Jasper's Gems which carries jewelry and magic items. Wymar wanders off to find "trinkets". He's mostly just browsing, and is drawn to a tiny clockwork dragon, it's a windup toy. Wymar pays 2gp for his, then Bellack tries to intimidate the shopkeeper into taking a couple coppers instead. The merchant doesn't fall for it so he throws it back.

Archie mentions that there's only rumours that magic is being suppressed by the law, specifically the Divine Order. They are cracking down on illicit magic users and magical items.

They head off to the Temple of Erathis.