THE SEA-GHOST
Summer, 4433
Characters:
Tarr the Younger, archer 1
Xasan Karimov, barbarian 1
Lothryk Bjargson, cleric of Njord 1
Ryoga, incantor 1
Krom, fighter 1
Arkane Gnossienne, cleric of Anubis 1
Katamtaman Toxotai, archer 1
Philip, fighter 1 (NPC)
"Bloody" Bjorn, fighter 3 (NPC)
Zhalgas, fighter 3 (NPC)
The group hatches a plan with Samuel Browne to ambush his former smuggler comrades, using the signal chart found in the Haunted House.
Using a rented fishing boat, the party poses as the smugglers they only recently killed, with the turncoat Samuel in front. When the ship, the Sea Ghost arrives, they sail out with half their group covered by tarps.
This ruse allows most of the group to get onboard before the smugglers realize something is wrong and a battle breaks out!
The fight quickly becomes a swirling back-and-forth struggle. The enterprising Ryoga begins barricading doors to prevent reinforcements. Half the group gets webbed while Xasan, Philip and Samuel chase down the first mate Bloody Bjorn. From the other direction, Captain Sigurd blazes a one-man trail of destruction across the deck nearly killing several people, and Tarr takes bowshots at targets everywhere.
The battle turns when Tarr kills the wizard Punketah, Samuel convinces Bjorn to join the group, and Sigurd is slain in a desperate melee with Xasan, backed up by Tarr's bowshots. The appearance of more foes from belowdecks only prolongs the inevitable.
At this point three hooded and cloaked figures break through a door Ryoga had barred. One conjures poisonous snakes from out of his eyeballs (?!) and all 3 make for the fishing boat with one of the smugglers.
Samuel is bitten by one of the poisonous snakes. Feeling the icy touch of death, he seizes the asp in one hand and dives headfirst into the fishing boat, hoping to take some of the fleeing foes with him! For a smuggler, he went out heroically.
A torrent of bowshots and some flaming oil kill a few, while a thrown rope snares the boat. One of the cloaked men flees in the water, one is dead and the third held by his own reflected spell.
Now in possession of the ship, the group gets Bjorn to show them around. They find plenty of treasure and clues.
They free the prisoner Zhalgas, a desert warrior on a pilgrimage from the Holy Cities.
They interrogate the cloaked man they captured, who turns out to be a cultist of Set. Using a clever trick they persuade him to talk, and learn of a magical relic called the Chalice of Aldren, already in possession of the Setites somewhere in Viridistan!
The group has a ship, a pirate crew, a hold full of cargo and a mystery to solve. What else could a 1st-level adventurer ask for?
Enemies Defeated (853 xp):
8 smugglers (150 xp)
captain Sigurd (260 xp)
Punketah the conjuror (100 xp)
Foul Frithof (65 xp)
2 asps (78 xp)
2 sinister robed guys (200 xp)
Treasure Found:
various silverware, jugs etc (500 sp)
banded chest: locked
brass-bound chest: locked
500 sp inside
captain's potions: (already noted)
sea charts (nice to have)
crew's chests: pack of playing cards, 2 sets of dice, address book filled w/ladies' names
parrot: a magical talking bird from a far-off land (value unknown)
longsword (magical)
wand (magical)
ring (magical)
assorted coins, jewelry, gems (553 sp, 7 cp)
Note to Captain from *"Black Leaf"*
Crude drawing of jeweled goblet
demonic statue
box that rattles with coins (unopened)
box with a... voice inside? (unopened)
In the Cargo Hold:
90 bolts of silk
81 brandy casks
219 wine casks
3 casks of soap
1 cask of salt
[Treasure values posted when you sell it all off in Viridistan, see downtime thread!]
Experience:
Lothryk is capped at 1565 before treasure XP, and needs to train!
