Grand Vizier Ibland Posk has died, Dredan Taroth becomes Grand Vizier. Oruk-Maneth, High Priest of Mithra, joins the Royal Council; Captain Azarde Two-Blades becomes a full member.
11/2/2214 Group leaves Quodeth on the Crescent Moon, bound for Kal-Zinan to trade for steel.
18/2/2214 Encounter ghost ship lodged in iceberg; explore and fight Draugr. Finnris wields the Spear of Azura to destroy the undead hordes.
25/2/2214 Reach Kal-Zinan
_______________________
 |
| Draugr |
We spend several months in Quodeth, disturbed only by Finnris and Vorstag travelling to Lake Haal to rescue Tyanna Vorzin. We make some purchases and take the chance to improve our skills: Finnris and Zerda’s servant Thagnar learn the fundamentals of ship handling from Aeshma who, in turn, studies Benthic, the ancient language used by cultists and creatures of the Dark. Finnris learns to speak the Dwarven language ahead of his planned visit to Kal-Zinan.
We plan to take the Autumn Moon around the peninsula from Quodeth and sail up the Swiftice River to get as close to Kal-Zinan as possible. Vorstag makes an arrangement with Princess Jania Sedarnel to take 10,000gp of luxury goods to the Dwarven city to be sold and steel weapons purchased. He agrees to a 10% commission.
During the Long Night the Grand Vizier Ibland Posk dies – apparently of consumption but this is widely doubted. Kallesh Gan of the Church of Mithra is assigned to investigate the Vizier’s death and while as yet he has no proof, he does not believe it to be down to natural causes. Zerda too asks the Queen for her permission to investigate and this is granted.
Sometime later Prince Dredan Taroth invites us to dine and conversation turns to politics. With Ibland Posk’s death, Prince Dredan has acceded to the rank of Grand Vizier leaving a vacant spot on the Royal Council. Amongst the candidates mentioned are Duke Baerad Vorzin, Princess Jania and Oruk Maneth, the High Priest of Mithra. Aeshma speaks for the latter saying the people of Quodeth might appreciate the stability offered by the respected Church of Mithra.
In Quodeth’s main Arena Finnris fights a captured Beastman chieftain, defeating him in record time. A disguised Zerda moonlights as his announcer and promoter. After the bout he visits the gypsy fortune-teller who warns him of danger from the ice, displaying the cards: the Skull; the Glacier; and the Deceiver.
We depart Quodeth and the first week passes uneventfully, but as we round the Halberd Peninsula a mysterious fog descends. Aeshma orders the sails to be close reefed and we inch our way forwards. From the fog looms a large iceberg, a Nimothan longship embedded near its peak. Getting closer we can make out several corpses frozen in the ice.
Our curiosity aroused, we decide to investigate. On the far side of the iceberg there is a shelf low enough to bring the Autumn Moon close in enabling us to disembark, while Thagnar takes the ship clear of the ice.
Carefully we move up the icy slope towards the longship and are unsurprised when four of the corpses tear free of the ice to attack us. We recognise them as Draugr, formidable ice zombies. However formidable they might be, they are little able to block Vorstag’s axes or Zerda’s blades, but it is Finnris and the mighty Spear of Asura that prove their nemesis.
With our opponents defeated we approach the frozen longship that is half buried in the ice. Vorstag grows to giant size, finding easy footing despite the ice. Finnris leaps aboard the longship, awakening the Draugr on board, followed by Aeshma. Several of the Draugr are repelled by the Spear of Asura and turn their attacks on Zerda and Vorstag. In response Zerda summons a Flaming Sphere that rolls about the ship, burning the undead.
We soon destroy these Draugr and move to investigate the cabin, the door to which bears the symbol of a golden spiral. Finnris enters first and spots a well concealed compartment in addition to a not so well concealed undead ambush. Two more Draugr flank a Frost Corpse: Captain Bruneval. Inhuman cold emanates from him and for a few seconds Finnris is poisoned by the sickening chill.
It proves a temporary inconvenience for the mighty barbarian as once more the Spear strikes home, destroying Captain Bruneval. Aeshma goes to shield bash the last Draugr but smashes it through the cabin wall. She follows and cuts it down. Vorstag tries to follow but catches his foot on some debris and trips, his giant form more than sufficient to shatter the remaining timbers of the cabin.
Finnris grabs the strongbox that is now revealed as well as the two Atlantean steel swords that had been wielded by the Captain. Not wanting to awaken more undead – we can still see numerous corpses frozen beneath the ice – we hurry back to Autumn Moon to review our loot. It comprises a mixture of coins, fine scrimshaw and assorted art objects. There is also a collection of maps and the Captain’s journal, written in a confusing mixture of languages that will take some time to decipher.
Between the pages of the journal are dried, pressed flowers that Zerda recognises as Atlantean herbs that do not grow on Thule. Also we find 14 Uka nuts which have healing properties and an Atlantean Hydrostat. Reviewing at the maps we can recognise the geography of the Dragon’s Maw and an inscription written in Atlantean refers to the Sea of Mists.
As we continue our voyage to Kal-Zinan, Zerda settles down to decode the journal…
_______________________
Over the next week as the Crescent Moon sails to Kal Zinan, the party learns the following.
The Story of Bruneval.
From historical knowledge - The Ghost Ship:
Long considered a tavern tale in the coastlands
of the Sea of Mists, the Golden Ghost has been
sighted from time to time for well over a century.
A Nimothan warship with ragged yellow sails and
shields of gold along its gunwales, it is often seen
as a glint on the horizon in the setting sun. Those
who have managed to overtake it have been dismayed to see a flying ship, sailing on a clinging
mist many fathoms above the waves, glowing with
a curious light. Ships that draw too close have
their hulls torn apart from under them as though
running aground in the middle of the sea, leaving only shipwrecked castaways to spread their
dubious tales.
The ship’s tattered ensign bears the mark of the
corsair Bruneval, who plundered his way across
the seas long ago. He was a scourge to Nimothan
refugees fleeing their land during the coming of
the great glaciers that entombed Nimoth. Many
tales claim that the holds of the Golden Ghost are
filled with the loot of Bruneval’s many victims, or
that maps and charts holding clues to secret caches
ashore might be found on board. The lure of Bruneval’s gold has drawn many to seek the ghost ship,
but none have brought her home.
Little known in modern Thule is that Bruneval was less a corsair than a smuggler, and his fell
reputation was first spread by people he refused
to help escape. He was branded a traitor to the
Nimothan people, and hundreds of deaths were
blamed on his refusal to carry refugees to safety
unless they paid exorbitant sums. Embittered by
the hatred of his own people, Bruneval became
a scavenger as well, picking over the bones of the
shipwrecked and frozen dead to take from them
treasures they no longer needed.
Deciphered from Bruneval's Journal:
During his scavenging, he encountered a handful of survivors from an Atlantean colony in a
mountain valley not far from the coast. These
refugees had abandoned their former master,
a wizard they called Viondor, who claimed his
mastery of magic could hold the glaciers at bay.
When his servants rebelled and refused to stay
in this frozen land alone, he laughed and said he
had already planned to replace them with magical
automata. Cast out, they straggled to the coast with
faint hope of rescue or escape, but faint was better
than none. Bruneval was intrigued by the mysterious wizard and bartered passage from Nimoth
for detailed directions on how to get to Viondor’s
tower. He resolved to return some years later when
the mad wizard had died and he could have his
pick of the spoils. While his crew was ignorant to
his deal with the Atlanteans, he became worried
that the Atlanteans would tell their tale to others
and betrayed them, cutting their throats and
casting their bodies into the depths so the secret
would be his and his alone.
Bruneval made good on his plans a decade later.
He anchored in the rocky bay where the Dauthur
River flows into the Strait of Nimora and led a
hand-picked crew of treasure hunters upriver.
They found the forgotten tower, but discovered to
their dismay that the automata of the Atlantean
wizard were very much still in operation. Bruneval
found strange domes of iron and glass below the
ground, and gardens of strange flowers with gardeners
that seemed human but weren’t. Escaping
the gardeners, Bruneval pressed on into the tower
and snatched a few Atlantean relics, but he fled
when his instincts screamed he was being watched.
He and his crew raced downriver, pursued by the
howling winds of a gathering blizzard.
When they arrived back at the ship, the bay froze
around them. Captain Bruneval hurled most of
the Atlantean artifacts overboard, thinking their
curse had brought the storm. One of the artifacts
exploded, breaking their icebound ship free from
the bay—but the ice continued to grow instead of
melting away as they drifted...
The journal ends with Bruneval fearing his feckless crew is about to mutiny, and his swearing an eternal curse upon the lot of them.
Once deciphered, the journal includes maps of
what Bruneval called “The Dragon’s Maw,” a series
of sea stacks and natural arches that marked the
bay where the Dauthur River flows into the Sea of
Mists. It relates his trek upriver, including signs
that frost giants inhabited the area (though he and
his crew did not meet them), encounter with
icy sentinels that guarded the river approaches
to the Tower of Viondor, the subterranean caverns, and strange
domes with their floral gardens.
The Atlantean Blossoms (1 dose each remaining) - Blossom Effect
White neverwinter The imbiber gains protection from energy (cold) for 1 hour
Violet feverfew The imbiber gains advantage on saves vs. disease for 24 hours
Blue star lily The imbiber gains the effect of casting divination
White snowdrop For 1 hour the imbiber’s cold spells gain +2 attack or +2 DC
Yellow vibrid plumeria For 1 hour the imbiber’s charm spells gain +2 attack or +2 DC
Red winerose The imbiber gains advantage on saves vs. poison or drugs for 24 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment