Session 08 Summary

[David Roomes]

Special Note – Before we get started with the summary of Session 8... for those of you reading and following along with this campaign, please note that one of the player characters has changed his name. This was at the player's request. It's our twin-scimitar-wielding, sailing, fighting Callister-fanboy. The character's name is now "Belkor". The old name will not be used. And I'm going to change the character name in all the previous session summaries as well. Again, this was at the player's request. The reasons are, frankly, too complicated to get into and not really relevant to the overall campaign.

Having said that, on with Session 8.

The party currently consists of the following people:

The Player Characters  (aka the "Heroes")

Winlock – orc/dwarf barbarian, wearing heavy chainmail armor and wielding a big war hammer
William – the party's wizard, robed and armed with a broad array of spells
Belkor – the human swordsmen/mariner wielding twin scimitars
Listig – the elven thief/archer equipped with several different enchanted arrows

Last session, the party had sailed with an army to half way down the coast, landed and assaulted one of the orc towers.

Now, the party left the army at the tower they had just conquered and returned to the two ships that were anchored just off the coast. They took the smaller of the two ships, the Cloud Hawk, a 70 foot carrack. This ship had a crew of 6.

In addition to the four players, they took three NPCs with them:

1.   Dathelar, the cleric of Imarus, who has been with them since the beginning
2.   Halimir, the elven archer, who has travelled with the party the last several sessions
3.   Tular, a sailor whom they rescued from the dungeons of the war camp two sessions ago.

These seven men bordered the Cloud Hawk and set sail south. They kept the coastline of the Barakose Swamp in sight. They travelled a full day south.

During the journey, the wizard William continued to study and translate the spell book that he had acquired from the lost wagon in the swamp. Also, during the trip, the anti-scrying Talisman that William had received from Dagginmor activated. Several times a glowing ripple passed over the Talisman, indicating that it was shielding the party from a scrying attempt. William guessed that the witch was searching for them with some type of divination or scrying spell. The Talisman was functioning and indicated each time it "shielded" them.

That night the ship anchored. The south swamp coast was known for patches of rocks and the captain did not know those waters well. Better to tackle it in daylight.

At sunrise, they resumed their journey. Mid-morning they spotted something on the horizon. As they approached, they used their Kalimuran spyglass. It appeared to be a tattered sail, two masts and a broken hull. The orc map that they had acquired in the war camp showed a ship wreck marked on the coastline, at about this location. The players decided this must be that shipwreck.

As they got closer, they could see the ship's hull split into two sections, with jagged black rocks in the water about it. For a split second, they thought they saw a humanoid figure on the deck of the ship, but then it was gone.

William sent the guramir (the winged reptile creature wearing the eye harness) up and commanded it to investigate. As the guramir and its harness got closer, they got a good look at the wreck through the magic mirror. They could see two creatures shambling about the deck of the ship. They appeared to be dead men... bloated, waterlogged bodies that were standing and moving. One of the creatures moved to an oar and began to work it absentmindedly. The other shuffled about the deck aimlessly. Undead of some sort, no doubt, but the party was not familiar with these "sea zombies".

As the guramir circled the wreck, the eye in the harness caught the glint of light in the clear water. Upon a closer look... coins, scattered in the mud beneath the wreck.

The party discussed it. Was it worth it? Fighting who knows how many sea zombies for a few gold coins? In the end, the lure of gold proved to be too much. Where there's some treasure, there might be more. And what good adventurer can leave treasure alone?

They could see a number of rocks in the water around the wreck, some submerged, others breaking the surface. The field of rocks was too dense to get the Cloud Hawk any closer. They did have a single landing boat. The seven adventurers piled in (it was a bit crowded with 7, but manageable) and rowed to the shipwreck.

The ship was split in two pieces, fore and aft. The rowboat came up along side the aft section and they sent the barbarian first. Winlock scrambled up on to the deck. The ragged tear in the deck was a wide gap, a bit too far to jump. The deck was at a bit of an angle and slick with sea water.

Listig fired an arrow at a sea zombie on the far side of the deck. He was standing at the port railing, in knee deep sea water. The arrow hit him in the chest and sank deep. The creature pulled the arrow out and tossed it aside. Listig watched in alarm as the hole closed up and the wound healed. He alerted the others.

Dathelar raised his arms toward the creature and closed his eyes.

One of the sea zombies came shambling out of the aft cabin toward Winlock. It was a horrific thing. It stood more than six feet tall and was bloated and dead. Its putrid grey skin was crusted with barnacles. Sea weed clung to it and tiny marine creatures crawled about it.

Dathelar opened his eyes and yelled to the group "They heal when they're in contact with sea water".

Winlock raged and swung his war hammer three times. He smashed the thing's shoulder and cracked its knee. Before he could swing again, the creature opened its mouth wide and vomited forth a torrent of sea water. The blast hit Winlock in the face and chest. He staggered backwards and hurtled over the edge and into the gap between the two halves of the ship. He landed in the sea water with a splash.

Belkor leapt up onto the deck and began battling the big sea zombie that had just swept Winlock into the sea. Other sea zombies began appearing, climbing up out of the sea and from the fore deck on the other half of the ship.

Listig and Halimir began fire arrows in rapid succession at any sea zombie they could see. They tried flaming arrows, but the flames were quenched upon impact. The water soaked creatures seemed to be immune to fire.

Listig jumped on deck and threw a rope to Winlock who was struggling against the weight of his armor trying to reach the surface.

Tular was fighting one of the zombies and had already been wounded several times, when his opponent vomited forth a torrent of sea water and, like Winlock, was blown back and fell into the gap between the two ship halves. Into the water he went, fairly close to Winlock.

Two zombies began closing on Winlock and Tular. Winlock found he could not effectively wield his war hammer in the water. The two sea zombies, however, were stabbing with rusty blades.  Tular, who was already wounded, was stabbed.

Amidst combat, another sea zombie came out onto the deck of the fore part of the ship. It was dressed as a mage and held a staff. The creature began casting a spell, but William managed to counter the spell and foil the magic before it could take effect.

Belkor defeated one of the larger sea zombies with a number of good hits from his two scimitars. Listig and Halimir continued firing arrows at any target they could see.

Dathelar closed the distance between himself and a sea zombie and cast a spell. His hand glowed brightly and he placed the hand on the chest of the creature and the zombie blew apart with a dull "boom". Pieces of the zombie rained down all over the deck.

Winlock managed to grab the rope and began climbing out of the water. 

Meanwhile, Winlock and Tular were in the water battling a pair of zombies. One of the zombies beneath the surface grabbed hold of Winlock and tried to drag him down. The added weight caused the rope to break and both tumbled back into the water. Winlock landed on his back in the mud, at the feet of the two zombies. Tular was unconscious and there was a cloud of blood in the water.

Another rope was thrown down. Winlock struggled to his feet, tied the end around his waist and secured his hammer.  He grabbed the limp Tular over his shoulder and began climbing. The two zombies stabbed at him, but failed to penetrate his heavy chain armor. Winlock managed to get out of the water and threw Tular onto the deck.

At that moment, the wizard sea zombie cast another spell. With a gesture, he caused a swell of water to rise up, lifting the small landing boat with it and come crashing down upon the deck. A tremendous amount of water swept the deck. Belkor and Listig both managed to dodge out of the way and evaded the wave. The unconscious Tular was swept over the edge of the ship while Winlock was swept back into the gap. The landing craft was flipped over the shipwreck and landed on the far side. Halimir who was in the landing craft at the time, disappeared into the sea.

Belkor used his magic boots to leap from the aft section to the fore section. He tried to land on the creature and deal fatal damage. However, he missed and landed badly, ending up on his back in front of the creature. He quickly regained his feet and began swinging his blades. Between twin scimitars, multiple arrows and a few spells, the group managed to defeat the wizard.

Winlock, meanwhile, walked underwater to one of the large rocks and managed to climb out. The two zombies pursued. Once he was out of the water, he was able to swing his war hammer and quickly defeated both of them.

Tular and Halimir were retrieved and the last sea zombie was killed. The party regrouped on the deck to dry out.

Once the party verified that there were no more sea zombies about, they commenced a thorough search of the entire ship wreck from top to bottom.  They hoped that this battle (which had been harder than they expected) would be worth the trouble.

The searched the captain's cabin and found the ship's manifest. The cargo manifest indicated the ship was carrying mostly raw iron ore, iron ingots, wool and brandy. However, there were a few other interesting bits of cargo.

A large iron chest was found on the muddy bottom between the two halves of the ship. It was overturned, damaged and partially open. Hundreds of gold coins had spilled out of it. It took a long while, but they managed to retrieve every last coin.

In addition to the gold, they found pieces of jewelry, figurines and other pieces of art, many ingots of iron and forty four bottles of Gaithian brandy which were still intact.

William searched the ship with a Detect Magic spell and found seven enchanted items.

1.   There was a magic ring on the hand of the sea zombie wizard. This interesting ring makes the wearer "sensitive" to magic nearby.

2.   An enchanted arrow that is both accurate and highly effective.

3.   A pouch with seven dice. Each die is six sided and has a different symbol on each side. If a question is asked and a die is cast, the die will answer the question with one of the symbols. Much like an augury spell. The symbols (and what they indicate) are: sun (fortune), dagger (danger), book (knowledge), coin (wealth), skull (death) and the sixth side is blank (for questions it cannot answer). Each die is usable only once.

4.   A potion – "Dalgarret's Marvelous Augmenter" which will permanently increase one stat by one point.

5.   A spoon. It turns out that this simple "spoon" is actually a piece of metal that can alter its shape into anything that the possessor can imagine. It can only be used by thieves. It cannot alter its mass, only its shape. However, it can become any small metal object – a spoon, a lock pick, a hook, a dagger, a wire, etc. It is particularly effective as a thieves' lock pick and gives a significant bonus to such attempts.

6.   A small wooden box containing a piece of chrylomar.

7.   A heavy and ornate iron box. Inside was horned humanoid skull, blackened and charred, and adorned with white runes. It's eye sockets were covered by huge rubies.

William could not ascertain any specific magical function for the skull, only that it radiated a very strong aura of necromancy. The party began to suspect that perhaps this thing was what had caused the crew of the wrecked ship to mutate into those hideous creatures. The thing just radiated evil and all members of the party began to experience weakness and headaches. They decided to get rid of the thing. William suggested sailing out to deep sea later in the night and dropping it into the depths. They all agreed.

The party had spent several hours searching for and retrieving treasure. It was early evening now and the shadows were getting long. They still had a couple of hours before the sun set. They used the spyglass to study the shore. The shipwreck was about one mile from the shore.

Listig (the elf) noticed something unusual about a small group of trees, but they were too far away to make out what was wrong, even with the spyglass. The party rowed their landing craft closer to shore and landed the small craft about a couple hundred yards from the strange cluster of trees. They then carefully and stealthily approached.

What they found surprised them. The found the mouth of a river. Two large trees flanked the mouth of the river. Each tree had a large iron framework anchored to it on large hinges and a number of chains were strung between the two iron frameworks. A great deal of branches and vegetation were woven into the network of chains in such a way as to appear to be three more trees. When viewed from the sea, this odd configuration appears to be five trees close together. This swamp coast was a desolate region and few ships ever passed nearby here. Still, it seemed that someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to hide the mouth of the river.  Furthermore, it was clear that the chains could be taken down and the iron frames swung open like gates. With about an hour of work, this "camouflage" could be taken down and the mouth of the river opened up.

While the group was looking at the camouflaged gate, Listig's sharp elven eyes saw a flicker of light up in a tree further upriver. The party quickly hid behind one of the large trees. Listig volunteered to go check out that flicker of light. He was, after all, an elf with an invisibility ring... no doubt the stealthiest one in the group. He stealthily crept through the forest following the newly discovered river. He approached the tree where he had seen the light.

At the base of the tree was a dome shaped hut made from branches and mud. Sitting outside of it was a saurian sharpening a weapon. A rope ladder went up the tree. At the top was a wooden platform.  Sitting on the platform was another saurian smoking a pipe. The lookout was scanning the horizon of the forest. Both of the lizard men were armed. Neither had seen him.

Listig snuck back to the group and reported.

The party rowed back to the Cloud Hawk. They sailed the Cloud Hawk back up the coast a short ways, but stayed as close to the shore as possible. They didn't know if they were other lookout posts or other saurian eyes, so best to minimize the chances of their sails being seen by sticking close to the shore.

The part guessed that the tower they were seeking (the southernmost tower marked on the orcish map) was most likely on the river. The river did seem to go in the right direction.

They decided to confirm that suspicion and locate the tower using the guramir. They still had a little bit of daylight left. They sent the guramir flying inland and following the river. It found what they were seeking about ten miles inland.

As the guramir circled in the sky, the party got a good look through the eye harness. What they saw in the magic mirror was not another simple tower.

At a bend in the river, there was a stone keep sitting on a small island. It was connected by small bridges to stone gate houses on either side of the river. On the south bank of the river was a large barn, a two story wooden building with chimneys and a large wooden shelter next to a wooden dock jutting out into the river. On the north bank of the river was a small square house, the crumbling foundation of what must have once been a great stone tower.

The most surprising thing was that three ships of different sizes were moored to the dock. The largest had a nameplate on the back that said "Storm's Lament". The middle sized ship was the "Amethyst". Those two were the missing ships that the players had been told about. The Storm's Lament was a Mercian military ship that had vanished. And the Amethyst was Tular's ship.

This new information greatly changed their plan of attack. Instead of a single tower with a half dozen orcs, they now faced what appeared to be a much more substantial camp.

They ordered the guramir to return to them. The party spent the night on the Cloud Hawk. The party spent much of the night discussing this alarming turn of events.

The next morning, they sent the guramir back and had it perch in a tree near the camp. They wanted to investigate the camp. The guramir stayed perched in the tree for many hours. While the guramir was spying, the Cloud Hawk sailed out to deeper waters and the evil rune-covered skull was wrapped in chains and thrown overboard to sink into the depths.

While the guramir was perched, the party kept a close eye on the magic mirror. Over several hours, the party saw saurians, boglings, orcs and humans. Some of the humans were wearing chains, others were not. The camp has at least a dozen soldiers and a dozen prisoners, but possibly more.

All three of the ships had battle damage and all three ships were undergoing repairs.


This is where we ended Session 8. The party is still spying on the camp (remotely) and evaluating the situation.