Attendees
Marcus of the Shield – Human priest of Shallya, Goddess of Healing, Mercy, and Childbirth
Felix Lutsk – Human “acquisitioner”
Zoglug Ironhide – “civilized” Orc warrior
Quetzal – Lizardfolk scout
Belladonna "Frongle" Leagallow – Halfling of many talents and follower of Manann
Jacien Ghel-Aurum –Human wizard, member of the Gold Fellowship
The group decided to make the Sea Cave their forward base. To this end, they spent two days gathering supplies to store there and they commissioned the construction of an iron bound door with a frame to hold it. Jacien requested a large number of eyebolts be embedded in the frame on both sides and across the top. Felix strongly advocated a good lock be included and this was incorporated into the plan. The local craftsmen had a door already made that met the necessary specifications, so they only needed to craft the stout frame and embed the eyebolts. In two days, all the necessary supplies were gathered and stored in Jacien’s shop and on Zoglug’s cart.
The group then boarded the Spider Walker and headed west, walking on the waters just off shore. The rode for six hours before putting in to shore find shelter for the night. As they arrived on shore, they spotted a ship moving along the coast, heading east towards Lucan’s Clock. As it passed, they identified it as the Hellborn Strumpet, flying a Sartosan flag. As the crew of the ship chose not to engage the adventurers, the adventurers chose to not engage the ship. Frongol was unable to find a good cave for their camp, but she was able to find a good cliff overhang that was low enough to provide cover from the elements. Watches were set and the group settled in for the night.
On the final watch, Zoglug and Marcus should have been alert, but fell asleep. The other members of the group were awakened to the sounds of large animals rummaging through the stores on the back of the Spider Walker. Two large beasts with heavy armor and a tail like a mace are eating the foodstuffs the group brought with them. Quetzal talks to them in a lizard tongue and convinces the two beasts that there is better food a bit further on. The beasts (not being too bright) agree to move on.
Once the beasts leave, Marcus and Zoglug were woken up and an explanation was demanded. Zoglug just rolled back over, said it was Marcus’s watch, and went back to sleep. Marcus claimed he had fallen into a meditative state communing with Shallya and had not noticed the beasts as they posed no threat to the group [that was his story and he was sticking to it].
The next day, the group continued heading east on the Spider Walker, out on the waters following the coast. Two hours in, sharks were spotted circling something further out and the adventurers decided to go investigate. Jacien directed the Walker further out to sea, slightly disturbing the sharks circling pattern (which changed to now include the Spider Walker).
Deep down in the water some of the adventurers could just make out the top mast of a ship. They suspected that the Hellborn Strumpet had attacked and sank the ship. Wanting to see what might be down there Quetzal was willing to swim down, but not with a bunch of sharks circling, so the adventurers decided to clear out the sharks by shooting them from the safe confines of the Spider Walker. This started out OK, but eventually the sharks got riled and one made a leap out of the water and bit Frongol (who was leaning over the edge to get a better shot). Frongol was yanked off her feet and fell into the water, bleeding from a serious shoulder wound.
The sharks started circling closer.
Quetzal dropped a rope end into the water and then dove in to help Frongol escape. Unfortunately, three of the sharks decided Quetzal looked more like food than Frongol did and attacked her. Quetzal lost an arm to the initial attack and then lost a part of her torso and one of her legs from the thigh down. She immediately fell unconscious and started bleeding out.
With lots of blood in the water, the sharks started frenzying.
Frongol was able to grab Quetzal’s unconscious form and drag her over to the dangling rope while the other adventurers concentrated attacks to kill sharks faster. Felix hauled up Frongol and Quetzal once Frongol wrapped the rope around the two of them. When another shark approached to attack, Zoglug jumped onto the shark and attacked it! [Yes, that’s right – Zoglug jumped the shark.] Other sharks attacked the Spider Walker, doing serious damage to it, threatening to pull it under the waves.
In the end, the adventurers killed six of the eight great whites attacking them, driving off the other two. Four of the dead sharks were harpooned with ropes attached and were dragged to shore with the Spider Walker as it limped back to shore, the two others sank into the gloom of the bottom. Marcus was able to keep Quetzal from bleeding out and dying during the fight and a regeneration spell cast once back on shore regrew Quetzal’s lost limbs. A sheltered spot was quickly located and secured. Jacien spent the rest of the day doing repairs on the Spider Walker while Quetzal skinned and butchered the sharks with great gusto.
That night, everyone had shark steak for dinner.
That night, Zoglug and Jacien saw some klakkers (pterodactyls) fly by high overhead. A little later, after Jacien’s watch finished and Marcus had joined Zoglug on watch, three more of the mace-tailed beasts started wandering towards the camp. Zoglug woke up Quetzal so she could talk the beasts into leaving peacefully (everyone had had enough fighting for a while with the sharks). After a fairly short conversation with the beasts, Quetzal redirected them away from the camp.
In the morning, the group reviewed their map of the area and discussed possible routes they could take to the Sea Cave. To speed things up, they decided to cut through a nearby part of the Valley of the Landsharks (where they could make better time with the damaged Spider walker) so they could reach the Sea Cave by sunset. Along the way they found some wild plants Quetzal recognized as edible, watched some more klakkers fly by (except Frongol, who stayed out of sight), and spotted a cow-herd skeleton partially buried in the ground – obviously a victim of a landshark attack.
The adventurers arrived at the Sea Cave just in time for one of the rare rain storms to come by and drench the area. Quetzal checked the cave for tracks and found signs a Lizardfolk patrol had camped in the cave since the group had last been here (so, sometime in the last week). The caves were quickly verified to be empty and dry. After some discussion, the adventurers decided to claim only part of the caves, leaving a few off to one side for others to use (meaning the Lizardfolk patrols). The group then camped.
After breakfast, Jacien went about the business of opening a temporary warp gate to his laboratory back in Lucan’s Clock. This magic is still experimental for him and there was some concern about the consequences of failure. Once everyone was ready, he completed the ritual and the gate opened successfully. The plan was followed and folks rushed through and pushed Zoglug’s cart full of supplies through the gate from the lab to the cave. The time necessary to do this was under the minute the gate lasted and all the supplies made it safely.
While the others unloaded the cart, Jacien had Zoglug haul the door from the Spider to the cave entrance the adventurers wanted to be their front door. Once the door was in place, Jacien made multiple spell castings, filling the gaps on the sides and top with steel chains summoned from the warp. The chains linked into the eyebolts along the sides of the doors and drove into the stone walls, anchoring the door firmly in place.
With Sea Cave Base established, the adventurers started going about the business of making it comfortable.
End of Session
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