Far Isles Session #15 - Death Among the Crystals

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 2)
Azimer (Calmonari 3)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2), with familiar, Dirty Bird, and riding hound, Stinky Dog
Beuford Bumbletoes (Halfling 1)

... The party did not have long to investigate the huge crystal cavern, however, as the two guardian statues had followed them and it looked as if a fight was in the works. Azimer and Abdul el Abdul opened fire; Abdul with his pistol and the calmonari with the prismatic ray gem embedded in his/her forehead. Neither hit at first, but Abdul el Abdul had better success when he switched  to swordplay, and Azimer started to get on target with the deadly pink rays. Meanwhile, Chaff had eyed their foes a little closer, and realized they were not some sort of animated statue, but flesh and blood (albeit, unusual flesh and blood). So he dropped a meld flesh spell and merged the two together by their hands, causing them to stumble about. Which was enough to turn the tide, such that Chaff with a pistol shot and Abdul el Abdul with his blade ended the threat.

Now able to examine the bodies closely, the party found these were indeed creatures of flesh and blood. With faintly translucent, crystal like skin, and darker organs visible inside. The internal organs didn't match any 'normal' pattern the veteran practical anatomists recognized, and the bodies were bleeding a thick, viscous and whitish liquid instead of red blood. But they were definitely (once) living and not magically animated creatures. Azimer wondered if the crystal heart he/she had been carrying for awhile was somehow related to these creatures. The calmonari brought it near the creatures, and the heart warmed a little, but otherwise nothing happened.

Crystal Disks

The party was pretty battered by this point, so they headed back towards the entrance to return to the ship for rest and refit. On the way they stopped to check the spot the two guardians originated from, as well as the room with all the shafts in the floor. Checking each of these shafts, they found at the bottom of one a collection of colorful round disks. Since they were at the bottom of a narrow, deep hole, Chaff called up some minor magic to lift them out one by one. Meanwhile, Abdul el Abdul and Azmier examined another shaft, at the bottom of which lay a crystal sphere. It was almost exactly the same diameter as the shaft, leaving no simple way to get it out. In any event, Chaff had finally recovered the last of the disks (which were covered in the weird dot and line writing seen elsewhere in this ring of islets), and party decided to head back to the cave entrance and thence to the ship (after Azimer had swam out and recalled the boat). There, they turned the disks over to Yorik, who excitedly started to study and transcribe them with the help of his apprentices, Undel, Horv, and Winna). Chaff meanwhile buddy-buddy'd with  the mate/defacto captain Rold to get in his good graces, while Addul el Abdul and Azimer focused on the practical matters of resupplying and resting.

Next morning, the party was rowed back to the crystal cave. They were joined by the halfling, Beuford Bumbletoes, a member of the crew who was bored to death of sitting about waiting for the party to 'do something' and decided to join them and 'push them along'. Entering the first cave, they found Grog's petrified body still leaning against the wall. Azimer, curious, went over to have another look at the poor henchman. While there, the calmonari pulled out the crystal heart again and brought it close to the body. It was instantly drawn into Grog's chest and the stone henchman lurched to a semblance of life! He was still made of crystal, and could neither talk or communicate, but seemed to understand mental instructions from Azimer. And so Grog once more joined the party.

Crystal Mine

Which was good, because as the party moved to exit the cave, the walls around the tunnel started to bud off strange creatures. They fell to the floor as round, fist-sized spheres of crystal that quickly sprouted long sharp spikes. These rolled over to get under the party's feet, and it proved difficult to avoid getting a foot impaled on one of the spiked things. Everyone started lobbing oil and swinging weapons at the crystals. One was struck, and it exploded in a spray of crystalline shrapnel that caused further injury to those in range. Abdul el Abdul's solution was to scoop one of the damned things up in a sack, and then smash it to bits, a tactic repeated by everyone else until all the spiked balls were gone.

After tossing their now shredded sacks, the party proceeded back to the shaft room. There, Chaff first had to convince Beuford to strip down and allow himself to be lowered into the hole with the sphere. That took awhile, but soon they had a mostly naked halfling ready to go. Beuford was given a pair of gloves smeared in pitch taken the ship's stores, and was lowered down on a rope to stick his gloves/hands on the sphere. This actually worked, and soon the party hauled up a halfling with a crystal sphere in his hands. While Beuford donned his armor and gear, the rest of the party looked at the sphere. It had a band around the middle, engraved with the dot and line writing. It was remarkably light as well, considering it was 2' in diameter.  It was, however, quite bulky. So rather than lug it around, they put in back in one of the holes, propping it up and hiding it with some of the crystal rods from the next room. Hopefully it would be easy to get but still hidden from harm.

The Gate

That done, they headed now for the great crystal cave. The crystals did indeed form a sort of network of catwalks out into the cave, gently slopping up or down to intersect with each other. Above and below them lay a further web of crystals inter-spaced with black voids into the unknown darkness. The party did  not proceed too far, however, before they saw another pair of the guardians just ahead, at a point where two crystals met. These did not seem hostile though, and approached the party with hands raised, talking in a strange language. Both Azimer and Chaff recognized the language as the one in the echoing cave from long ago, and they were able to parse a little of what was being said. The creatures referred to themselves as Kalandrian, and welcomed the party as their saviors(?) or expected ones(?). Chaff was able to ask about "the lost knowledge" as inscribed on Abdul el Abdul's directional crystal, and the two Kalandrains nodded and gestured for the party to follow them. Weaving through the cave of crystal, after some time the party approached a large round tunnel, similar to the ones which connected the entrance caves, but much larger. At the end was a blank wall with a large round stone gate. Around the edge of the gate were three empty spaces; one spherical, once cubical and once pyramidal. Chaff pantomimed and stuttered some questions to the Kalandrian's, and they indicated this was a door or gate to the "place of knowledge" which required three keys to open. It looked like the sphere from the shaft was one key, so now it was up to the party to find the others. Questioned, the Kalandrian's could offer no suggestions of where to look. In fact, it was becoming clear that these two were not at their best mentally and physically, showing obvious signs of mental and moral decay.

Crystal Mantis

The party decided to go back to get the sphere to try it in the door. At this point, Grog stopped moving and returned to his statute form, the crystal heart falling out of his chest (which Azimer scooped up). Leaving Grog behind, the party trudged onward, followed by the two Kalandrian's. These, however, would not go out into the entrance caves, and when the party returned with the sphere, they were nowhere in sight. Threading their way back to the gate, they inserted the sphere. There was a loud "clunk" as if some mechanism had been set or re-set in the door, so the party was confident they were on the right track. Now all they had to do was find the next two keys. Just outside the tunnel with the gate, the crystal walkways diverged in three directions. The party choose a new direction, hoping it would lead them to one of the other keys. The path of the crystals led them far across the cavern again, either above of below their previous path. They'd just reached the end of a long straight crystal, when above and to the side they could see movement. Crawling down towards them was a hideous mantis-like crystal creature, which launched itself at the party and started to bludgeon them which it's forelegs. Abdul el Abdul, in the front line with Beuford, was hit again and again, and had to pull back and be replaced by Azimer. Oil flew, swords swung, pistols fired, and pink death rays shot, but the thing was tough. And it struck again and again at Azimer, and the calmonari fell dead just as the rest of the party finished the mantis. With heavy hearts, the battered and bruised party picked up the their fallen comrade and retreated back to the entrance caves and the sea. Chaff sent Dirty Bird off to recall the boat, and the party was brought back to the "Loreman's Passage" to once again rest, recover and plan.

TOTAL XP
905

GAINS
Collection of multi-hue disks/coins 250gp
Grog (again)

KILLS
2 Regressed Kalandrian's
5 Crystal Mines
1 Crystal Mantis

LOSSES
Azimer
Grog (again)

Far Isles Session # 14 - The Crystal Caves

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 2)
Azimer (Calmonari 3)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2), with familiar Dirty Bird and henchman, Grog (Goblin 1)
Ragnar (Cleric 1)

Before setting sail, the party decided to get someone to cast read language on the directional crystal, to see if it would provide some clues as to exactly where it was leading them. Crisscrossing the islands of Xin, they came to The Collegium district where they were most likely to find a learned mage to help them. After getting brushed off by some self important scholars, they found themselves at mid morning in  seedy little bar call the "Naked Mage". There the barkeep directed them to a half-cut, nattily dressed young man by the name of Sully, who seemed more than happy to help them for a small fee. But they would have to wait for him there, as he had to go 'prepare' first. The wobbly young man headed out the door, and returned a few hours later with a huge volume tucked under one arm. First taking his 50gp fee from Chaff, he cracked open the book and muttered some words of magic. Then examining the crystal, he translated the alien writing: "To that which was destroyed; may it not be lost forever. May the knowledge never die and the world come again". Humm, well that was a little less useful than hoped. Sully was able, however, to point out some of the features of the language, to help them perhaps decipher further inscriptions.

Taking leave of the sotted mage, the party headed back across town. Chaff, however, diverted them to the Flesh Pits as the little vivimancer wanted to track down a few new spells, and it was the best place in the city to find another vivimancer to teach him. Threading their way through slave coffles, pleasure houses and mercenaries at drill, they were directed to an even cheaper dive than the one from this morning, this one so low as to not even have a name. This time, Chaff was directed to a tall, robed man accepting a couple of large packages wrapped in butchers paper from an even more disreputable figure. Chaff ambled over the speak to Graz the vivimancer, looking to learn a spell or two from the man. Graz was happy to help, for a fee. That fee included 200gp and two fresh, young bodies for his vats. This request caused some angst in the party, even for Chaff (the ex-slaver Abdul el Abdul, on the other hand, was ready to go shiv someone at any moment). In the end, the rest of the party left Chaff and Abdul el Abdul to conduct their gruesome business. Chaff tracked down a corpsesman, one of those who carted away the unclaimed dead when necessary. This fellow, Cetus, had a standing agreement with one of the vivimancers for his wares, but a little extra gold convinced him to divert his next delivery to Chaff. Cetus instructed the pair to meet him outside one of the more tawdry pleasure houses around midnight; there were always a few young, wealthy and naive clients who wouldn't make it alive through their night of revels. And sure enough, Cetus met them on time with the goods. Chaff and Abdul el Abdul took charge of these and delivered them to Graz, who with an inquiring sniff confirmed they met his requirements and as agreed provided instruction to Chaff in the mysteries of meld flesh.

Shear Cliff

Business in town concluded, the party joined the "Loreman's Passage" the next morning and set sail. Following the directions of the crystal, and with a fair wind to help, the party found themselves in a few days back at the ring of caves where they had started their adventures in the Far Isles. Sailing around the island ring, the crystal pointed towards one of the larger rocky islands on the eastern edge. The presence of multiple rocky reefs and small islands made it dangers to bring the "Loreman's Passage" to close, so Loremaster Yorik Rold had the party rowed towards the island in one of the ships' boats. While the sailors held her off the rocks, the party scanned to tall, unbroken cliffs for some cave entrance or ruin. There being nothing to see but combers breaking at the base of the cliff, Chaff sent Dirty Bird aloft to check the top. The bird saw only grass and shrubs and circling gulls, so Azimer dove into the water to check the island from below. The calmonari swam up to cliff, finding nothing but a sheer rock wall. But when he/she reached out to touch the rock, his/her hand went right through! Swimming back to the boat, Azimer grabbed an oar and found that it too went right through the wall. With that, the party ordered the men at the oars to bring them through the illusionary cliff. On the other side was a small cove, still hemmed in by tall cliffs and rocky reefs. But they could now see three openings in the cliff; one where the sea ran in under the cliff, and one each on the left and right further up the cliff wall. The boat headed straight for the centre, and after inching along about 30' into the rock they reached the waters end. Chaff lit a lantern, passed it to Grog the Goblin, and everyone scrambled ashore before the boat was smashed on the rock by the waves rushing into the cleft.

The boat and crew pulled away, back to the ship.  The party found themselves standing at the based of an almost vertical climb, but one with rough steps cut into it. Not taking chances, Chaff ordered Grog up the slope to set a grappling hook and rope at the top. The goofy goblin obeyed, and soon everyone had made their way up the slope. At the top, the tunnel leveled out and split into a "Y"-intersection. Also notable was the shape and appearance of the tunnels. The two exits were almost perfectly round, and looked to be carved out of solid black and white volcanic glass.  Proceeding to the left about 20', they came to a chamber; the tunnel opened into this room a few feet above the floor. The chamber itself was oddly rounded with a flat floor, and again looked to be formed out of white volcanic glass. Carefully they all entered, and then noticed a pile of skeletons to one side. Going over to investigate, they observed the skeletons were crystalline and vaguely nonhuman in appearance.  While poking amongst the bones,  Azimer recovered a gold and garnet ring. Ragnar decided to cast detect magic on the pile, and was rewarded with a faint blue glow from one of the skulls. Digging down, he found a pair of small crystal lenses. The party passed these around, examining them. When they came to Chaff, he called Grog over and told the goblin to put them in his eyes. With a grin and a nod, the henchman followed orders, only to be turned into solid crystal as a result! Carefully, the pried the lenses of the goblins eyes, but he remained as stone stiff as before. Oh well, nothing to do right now, so they propped him up in the corner for safe keeping.

Leaving the henchman-statue behind, the party pushed on though an exit in the northern wall. This led to another polished chamber, with two other exits. The northern exit was flanked by what looked to be two statues, so Chaff approached them for a closer look. They looked very much like the statues

Crystal Statues

in the blob cave, with weird angler features, featureless eyes, and a vaguely non-human look. Unlike the other stone statues, these looked crystalline, and beneath their semi-transparent skin, darker veins and organs could be seen. As Chaff came closer, however, the two lurched to life, raised fists and moved in to beat on the little vivimancer. Chaff, pounded badly, reeled back from the assault. Abdul el Abdul tossed one of the plant grenades at them, while Azimer flicked a javelin. Both missed, but the grenade broke over the wall and proceeded to crumble away some of the glass.  When a second round of javelin/grenade/pistol (from Chaff) failed, the party choose to retreat back the way they'd come. Thankfully the statues did not follow them.

Foiled in one direction, they party choose to  try the other half of the "Y" intersection. This led to another bubble-shaped room, but unlike the others this one did not have a flat floor. Instead it sloped towards a pool in the centre. Clustered around this pool were a half dozen bizarre creatures that looked like 6-legged quartz boulders. They were walking around the edge of the pool puttering at something. Chaff sent Dirty Bird in to check it out, and it looked like at least two of the boulder-things were trying to push something in the water. Curious, Azimer entered the room, which drew the attention of the boulder-creatures.  They turned to face(?) the calmonari, but made no move to advance on him/her. Azimer did see now see that the creatures were trying to push skeletons into the water.

Deciding to not disturb the rock creatures, the party looped back again to the room with the statues. There was another exit they wanted to check, hoping to get through the room without activating the guardians. Just as the party approached this unexplored tunnel, 5 of the boulder-creatures emerged from it and headed to the wall damaged by the previously tossed plant grenade. There they clustered around the cracks, and soon a rasping, grinding sound was heard. It sounded like they were burnishing or polishing the damaged wall. Neither the boulder-creatures nor the statues seemed concerned with the party, so they slipped down the tunnel, emerging back in the room with the pool of water. The boulder-creatures were gone; they were probably the ones repairing the other room. With the pool unguarded, Chaff went over and poked at the water with his staff. When nothing untoward happened, he then started to dig around in the milky water, stirring up a few skeletons, but nothing more.

Having now investigated all of this closed loop, the party had to either deal with the statues or check the one as yet unexplored tunnel. Which was a pretty easy decision, so off to the new tunnel they went. It was longer than the others, and eventually curved gently towards the north-east. Nearing the end, the party noticed something curious; a large pink crystal or gem in the ceiling. Azimer took his/her trident and easily pried the gem out of the volcanic glass. It rolled down the tunnel, and water or some other liquid started to drip slowly from the hole left in the ceiling. There was momentary panic at the thought of drowning (except for Azimer), but it was obvious it would takes days or weeks for enough liquid to come down to fill the tunnel. However, they carefully bypassed the liquid, and Azimer reached down to pick up the pink crystal. Which immediately shot towards his/her forehead to embed itself there. After getting over the initial shock, Azimer didn't note any ill effects  apart from a bit of a dull headache. When the calmonari concentrated on the crystal, however, he/she was able to shoot a pink bolt of energy from it and blast the wall of the tunnel! (thankfully, the rest of the party was standing behind the fish-man at the time). The effort, however, did make the headache a bit worst.

The Crystal Cave

Pushing on, they entered a large chamber notable mostly for the jumble of long opaque white crystals in the centre.  Abdul el Abdul poked around at them a bit, and picked one up. It was about 4' long, with holes bored through it in random places. A check of the rest of the varying sized crystals showed similar random holes. Leaving the jumble behind, they passed into another chamber in which the floor was pierced with dozens of 2' diameter pits. These were bypassed easily as the party went to check out the tunnel exiting the south end of the chamber. This led back to the two guardian statues, which stirred and began to approach when the party came close. That sent the party into retreat, and they headed for the one tunnel not yet explored. After 30' or so this led into a remarkable chamber. It stretched well beyond their torchlight, but it seemed to be a huge bubble in the rock filled with massive spars of white crystal. These grew in all directions and in all three dimensions, but it seemed possible to follow a rough, precarious path along the crystal surfaces ...

TOTAL XP
70

GAINS
Gold ring with garnet (70gp)
eyes of petrifaction 
prismatic ray gem 
 
KILLS
None

LOSSES
Grog the Goblin

Far Isles Session #13 - 13 Days in a Leaky Boat

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 2)
Azimer (Calmonari 3)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2), with familiar Dirty Bird
Ragnar (Cleric 1)

With a steady south wind, the gig made good time throughout the morning. With such fair sailing, the party hoped to reach the mainland in just a few days if there were no interruptions. Which of course was not going to be the case, and on the second watch of the morning (Chaff's) came their first interruption. Chaff had Dirty Bird flying cover overhead, and through the bird's eyes, the vivimancer could see a disturbance on the surface about a half mile ahead. In a few more minutes, the water began to bubble and steam, and shortly after that a gout of lava shot into the sky. A new volcanic island was being born dead ahead! After a quick discussion, the party decided to loop around the eruptions,  and changed course to give it a wide berth.

Link

Smooth sailing continued through the remainder of the day and the next two. It was on Azimer's watch, just before down on the fourth day, when the next. nearly permanent, interruption to their travels occurred. As the calmonari sat at the tiler, looking into the water rushing past, there all of a sudden erupted from the ocean four grappling hooks. Two latched on the bow, and two at the stern. Azimer saw the lines attached to then go taught, and felt as something or someone started to pull the boat down! He/she jumped into action, stumbling over the sleeping forms in the bottom of the boat before reaching Abdul el Abdul's sword and using it to cut one of the bow lines. Shouting and kicking the rouse the others, the calmonari cut the second bow line, which caused the gig's bow to lurch up in the air as the stern was dragged further down. A this point, Chaff finally roused himself and tackled the stern lines to prevent the boat from being swamped.  Just as the lines were cut, four wicked looking sahuagin fish-men emerged from the water and scrambled aboard. They lashed out at Chaff, Azimer and the now awake Abdul el Abdul and Hester with their tridents, slashing deeply into flesh. Azimer and Abdul el Abdul responded in kind with their blades, while Chaff was able to light his match cord and get a shot off with his pistol. His bullet grazed the sahuagin trying to skewer him, and the noise and smoke of the blast startled all their foes. Fearing this newfangled device, the sahuagin turned and dove back into the depths, but not before Abdul el Abdul was able to kill one by stabbing it right in the back as it turned away.

Link

Everyone stopped to catch their breath and bind their wounds. Azimer glanced below the water to ensure the sahuagin were gone, and then they all went to check out the dead one in the bow.  Curiously, it had a long seaweed rope tied around it's waist, at the end of which floated a large, closed giant clam shell. The party hauled it aboard and examined it a little closer. It was closed tight and showed no obvious markings. Well, giant clam roasted in it's shell sounded like a good break from gull jerky and iron rations, so a fire was lit and the shell suspended over it with the grappling hooks Abdul el Abdul had recovered. After just a few minutes there came a banging sound and muffled shouts from inside the shell! Grabbing a blade, they pried the shell open and out tumbled a man! Once over the initial shock, the party turned to questioning their new boat-mate. He introduced himself as Ragnar, who until a few hours before had been chaplain on a trading vessel. He'd been snatched off the deck by a group of 8-10 sahuagin, stripped and stuffed into this shell, and hauled off into the deeps. Luckily, the shell was sealed and watertight, and he was dragged along with the sea-devils until they encountered the gig. Which, incidentally, was starting to get pretty crowded now that there was a new person aboard, so the party decided now the time had come to bid poor Einer goodbye. His body was laid on one of the halves of the shell, doused in oil, lit, and set adrift.

Their journey continued, but just around noon they spied mountains on the western horizon. Dirty Bird was sent aloft, and from his aerial vantage point Chaff could see they were approaching the mainland. A few more hours of sailing and they began to see a scattering a small fishing boats. Hailing one, they hauled alongside to figure out where they'd made their landfall. Just off the city of Cha'nrk on the Langushur coast they were told. Plying the fisherman with what was left of their wine and questioning him, they soon found they did not like the sound of Cha'nrk. Built on the slopes of the volcano they could see smoking ahead of them, it was a cruelly militant theocracy ruled by the cult of a volcano/fire god. Slaves worked mines on the slopes of the volcano, and manned the oars of the city's fleet. Visitors were not particularly made to feel welcome, and life was strictly regulated. The party thanked the fisherman and let him go on his way. After an inventory of their remaining food (and a reminder from Ragnar that he could call on the favor of his god to make the salt water drinkable and spoiled food palatable), the party decided to push on and follow the shore north until they reach the city of Xin from whence they'd started months before. As decadent as it may be, at least they knew the place!

Unfortunately for them, the wind rose and shifted overnight, and they found themselves fighting a blustery headwind on their journey north. The little gig slogged day after day, rising and falling on the waves. And they were pretty much the only ones foolish enough to be on the water in these conditions, as no other vessels were seen for days as they followed the mountainous coast. After days of slow progress, the mountainous terrain on the port side changed  to swamp. Chaff and Dirty Bird were on watch when the parrot finally spied another vessel, a small sailing ship overtaking them from behind.The ship flew no ensign, and looked suspiciously un-merchant like. The uncouth figures clustered on deck didn't look too friendly either. Knowing the ship couldn't yet see them, Chaff turned the gig to port and headed for the mangrove swamp a mile away. There they hide in among the trees and reeds and waited for the ship to sail by before proceeding.

Link

After another couple days of slow sailing, the land started to swing to the west and a great rocky island came into view; the Rock of Vexation, which marked the approaches to the Loragano River and the city of Xin. They sailed up the river, reaching the city just as dusk began to fall and the fires lite in the Tower of the Malphegian Infernos guarding the approaches to the city. A pilot boat with a squad of the Purple aboard, met them in mid stream After a few perfunctory questions, the gig was allows to proceed upstream to pass through the brass Vithian Gates and into the Pool to dock at the Fogbound Quays.  Once ashore, everyone kissed the ground, and Chaff then went looking for someone to buy the gig, as none of them ever wanted to set foot in the damn thing again. He managed to squeeze 150gp out of one cagey boat seller by the name of Abdul. Meanwhile, the others started asking around the docks for coming and goings of exploration vessels. It seemed that rumors were beginning to trickle back about the treasures and lands being found in the Far Isles, but not much was heard that the party didn't already know. They did hear tales of new and strange vessels seen on the eastern seas, as the people of the Far Isles started to explore beyond their previously mist-girded prisons. Asking after some vessels they knew, apparently the "Serpents Revenge" had recently been in port, selling load of slaves to the pens in the Flesh Pits. They also learned the "San Lorenzo" had been in port, loading up on supplies and heading out for parts unknown. When questioned about who now sailed the "San Lorenzo" the party was surprised to find that Captain de Moncada was still in charge! Odd, since they'd seen his dead body washed ashore on the cultist's island.

With night falling, the party first went looking for a patrol of the Purple. Giving Hester a bag of gold to help her on her way, they turned their matronly hanger-on over to the care of the authorities. They then went in search of an inn, coming to the somewhat ironically named "The Growling Duke". Nothing fancy, but at least it didn't rock back and forth, so they took a pair of rooms for the night. Unfortunately, it was not as restful a night as hoped. In the wee hours of the morning, Azimer heard a noise at the door, like a key or pick in the lock. The calmonari woke Ragnar (with whom he/she was sharing the room) and the two hid behind the door. It opened, and into the room crept four thugs, armed with rope and belaying pins. They headed for the two beds, but were surprised when Azimer and Ragnar jumped them from behind. The cleric came out swinging and knocked one out cold, while Azimer trapped two in his/her net. The fourth turned and ran down the hall and out of the inn. By this time Chaff, and the heavy sleeper Abdul el Abdul, arrived and the interrogation began. It seemed that the goons were there to kidnap them for some nefarious purpose, mading reference to a 'he' that told them the tired travelers would be an easy mark. Having squeezed what info they could from them, the thugs were stripped of all their goods and clothes and shoved out into the night.

Rising the next day, everyone first went out to restock on supplies (including a scruffy goblin servant Chaff managed to rustle up) and change their treasure into a more manageable and portable format. And then they went looking for work, specifically another exploring vessel headed for the Far Isles. The only one in port at the moment was the "Imperious", a huge sailing ship.  Asking some questions, the party quickly decided it didn't sound promising; the captain was described as some sort of power-mad marionette. With no other immediate options, they hunkered down to drink at "The Growling Duke", checking back at the quays every morning. After a few days, another ship arrived in port, en-route to the Far Isles. A small and shabby ship, the "Lormans Passage" was under the command of Loremaster Yorik of Vale. They met the scrawny and scruffy loremaster and his rotund first mate, Rold, and offered their services. Yorik it seemed was looking to document all the new and strange things in the Far Isles, and he interrogated the party and wrote out all their experiences thus far. He was eager to sail the seas and see the wonders himself. Abdul el Abdul took out his magical crystal and showed it to Yorik, showing how it always turned to point in the same direction. The fighter told the loremaster that it undoubtedly pointed to some weird and wonderful place worthy of the academics interest, and the party would let him take them there. Excitedly, Yorik agreed, and a deal was struck where the party would get most of any treasure recovered; although Rold reminded his captain he needed some portion of treasure to pay the crew and upkeep of the ship. In return, the party would turnover any written materials and artifacts, copy immovable inscriptions, and in general ensure the loremaster had plenty of new lore to record and consider.

TOTAL XP
728

GAINS
Proceeds from the sale of the "San Lorenzo's" gig (150gp)

KILLS
1 sahuagin
3 thugs (defeated and humiliated)

LOSSES
none

Far Isles Session #12 - Out to Sea

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 2)
Azimer (Calmonari 2)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2), with familiar Dirty Bird
Einer (Fighter 1)

Still determined to 'snap' the Duke and his household out of whatever mind control enchantment they were under, the party's next idea was to get all the Parts of Xaxus as far away from the tower and the obelisk as possible, hoping distance would break the hold. The bound and gagged Parts were thus dragged out of the tower and down to the beach, to be housed as comfortably as possible in the perforated hull of the "La Juliana". Unfortunatly, when Azimer set to questioning the Duke, his nods and head-shakes made it was apparent he (and presumably all) were still under the sway of Xaxus.

Stumped as to what to do next, Azimer, Chaff and Einer decided to finish exploring the north shore of the island, leaving Abdul el Abdul and Hester to stand watch over their prisoners and root through the wreckage for more supplies (which liberated some barrels of wine and water, and a nice dagger in a water proof sheath). The weather remaining relatively pleasant, the trip around the rocky shore was easy if not particularity enlightening. There was nothing to see but rock and wind blasted shrubbery, at least until they came alongside the two towers. Looking up, Chaff noticed a giant seabird lift off from the side of the eastern (non-Xaxus) tower. The bird approached the party and began to circle overhead, drawing everyone's attention as they tried to figure out what the critter was doing. That simply drawing their attention was the plan became evident in a few moments, as a screeching sound and flapping of wings came from behind the trio. Turning around, Chaff was knocked flat by a second, swooping bird. The first one now dove at the party, knocking Einer flat as well. As the two birds circled around to buffet them again, Azimer joined her companions on the ground, and he/she and Einer set trident and spear to try impaling the fast approaching foes. Meanwhile, Chaff lit his match cord, and took careful aim with his pistol as one of the birds dove at him. With a resounding boom, the vivmancer fired his weapon and caught the bird right between the eyes. The birds skull exploded, and the body plowed into the rock and heather scant feet away. The second bird let out a loud screech, then turned away and flew back towards the tower.

LINK

Chaff blew the smoke away from the muzzle of his pistol, and the trio climbed back on their feet and wiped off the dust and bird guts. They decided to continue their exploration, at least as far as the top of the bluff from which they could observe the ruins of the temple of Manakata. They had just reached that point when a half dozen cultists of Manakata emerged from the ruins and headed in their general direction. Chaff sent Dirty Bird aloft to keep track of the cultists, while the party retreated and tried to stay out of sight. The cultists wandered towards the towers, breaking into a couple of smaller groups. They seemed to be searching, looking for something or someone. They did find the mangled remains of the giant bird, which in the end they dragged back towards the temple. Having been cheated of the chance to recovered the bird for their own supper, Chaff, Azimer and Einer turned about and, in the falling darkness, headed back towards the beach.

The party and prisoners settled down in the wreck of the "La Juliana" for the night, to be awakened in the morning by a howling storm. A few more attempts were made to 'break' the hold of Xaxus on some of the prisoners (a bucket of cold seawater, separating the Parts of Xaxus) but to no apparent avail.  In the end, the party decided to put off looking for a way off the island for the short term, and head back to the towers to have one more look for some way to pry the Duke away from Xaxus. The prisoners legs were unbound (but they were left gagged and blindfolded) and they were marched back with the party, it being impossible to leave anyone to guard them. Once in the bird tower, however, the Parts of Xaxus were bound once more and left in a secure room. Said room, bypassed on the previous exploration of the tower, contained a set of stairs going down. Once the prisoners were secure (and Dirty Bird left to watch over them),  the party descended the stairs. Hester indicated that none of the Duke's party had explored below this tower, so she could offer no indication as to where they might lead.

The stairs led to a small room, notable mostly for the huge stone head which filled most of the space.

LINK

The head was domed shaped with odd protrusions extending from it, and as the party entered the room is swiveled to face them.   From the head came a booming voice, speaking in a totally alien language which no one in the party could understand. The head paused for a few moments, then release a loud booming cry which made the walls shake and nearly defended all in the room. That drove everyone out of the room, through a door in the far wall. Once they were out of the room, the head fell silent. Breathing a sigh of relief, everyone looked around at their new surroundings. It was apparently an old storeroom, with old sacks, clay jars and crates covered in the dust of ages. Careful investigation uncovered a coil of copper wire, long glass rods in the crates, rotting corn in the sacks. and a variety of liquids in the clay jars. Two were filled with pure alcohol, one with a powerful acid, and the fourth some sort of super glue. With which Abdul el Abdul glued one of the glass rods to the back of his hand, forcing the fighter to use one of the jars of alcohol to remove it.

Another door led out of the room, opening into a long narrow corridor. So long in fact, that Chaff soon found he was losing contact with Dirty Bird in the tower above. After a brief pause and discussion, the party went back to get the prisoners and marched them down the corridor with them. Counting footsteps, Chaff figured they had traveled most of the way across the island before they finally came to a stout wooden door. Listening revealed nothing, so Abdul el Abdul carefully pushed it open. There being no sign of anyone or anything on the other side, the fighter  pushed it open all the way and everyone entered. It was a large room, again showing no sign of having been disturbed in hundreds of years.  The only items of note were a door in one wall, and a strange brass tube with a flanged mouth which emerged from another wall. Abdul el Abdul put his ear to the tube, and could hear faint sounds of grunting and wrestling. Based on the sound and Chaff's counting off footsteps, best guess was the temple of Manakata was on the other side of the wall.

Which left the door. Where did it lead? Since it was obvious the cultists of Manakata had not discovered this room, Abdul el Abdul felt it was safe to crack the door open and look on the other side. Opening it revealed a short corridor with several other doors exiting. And at that exact moment, a door directly opposite Abdul el Abdul opened, and two muscle bound brutes of Manakata emerged in a loud of steam. Luckily, the fighter was able to close his door before the pair noticed him. At least now the party knew that they were in fact at a secret back entrance to the ruined temple of Manakata. However, after a little discussion, the party wisely decided they were not in much of a state to take advantage of that situation, being burdened with prisoners and under-strength overall.

So now what? Chaff and Azimer tired one more time to communicate with the Parts of Xaxus and "bring them around", but to no avail. Unable to find a way to successfully complete their original mission (i.e. recover the Duke), everyone decided it was time to cut their losses and and get off the island. But first, what to do with the Parts of Xaxus? There was no room in the gig for anyone but the party (and Hester); not that taking the kooks with them was high on the priority list anyway.  Abdul el Abdul put in his vote to just kill them and be done with it, but the rest of the party wasn't so sure. In the end, the plan was to leave them in this room with the brass tube, and use the super glue to seal the door shut. But not leave them to die; so the prisoners bonds were loosed a bit and an old rusty spear left in the room with which they could eventually cut their bonds and free themselves. The hope was locking them in here would buy the party enough time to prepare the gig for an ocean voyage. And just maybe, leaving the two cults close together would solve all their problems in a blood-thirsty massacre.

Last order of business before leaving the Parts of Xaxus was some looting; Abdul el Abdul figured the Duke didn't really need that bejeweled waistcoat anymore. And besides, it went well with the diamond necklace he'd lifted earlier from the Duchess. That done, the party headed for the beach. Abdul el Abdul started to prepare the gig for sea, while Einer, Azimer and Chaff put their minds to the food situation. Hester explained the cultists of Xaxus had subsisted mostly on the weird cabbages and nectar from the now destroyed plant. The four confirmed this when they went back to explore the towers again, finding nothing else edible. Well, there was still that giant bird presumably still nesting up in the tower. Gull jerky it was, and the four came up with a plan. Chaff and Hester would use some old sail cloth to cover the windows and trap the bird inside, while Azimer and Einer used the jug of acid to eat through the barred door and confront the beast on the other side. And all went according to plan, except that Azimer and Einer had a tough time fighting the squawking giant gull. Trapped, it rushed them again and again, pecking ferociously with it's giant beak. Unfortunately for Einer,  the under-armored fighter bore the brunt of the assaults, and he was soon pecked to death. just before Azimer finally skewered the bird with his/her trident.

LINK

After first taking a few moments to loot some shiny treasure hoarded in the bird's nest, the remaining three carried both the bird and Einer back to the beach. The weather was clearing, so final preparations were made to head out to sea. First of all, Azimer went for a swim, hoping to encounter porpoises again and ask directions to the nearest land. The calmonari's' luck held up, and he/she ran into the same pod of porpoises as the day before. From them, Azimer learned the mainland was about 150 miles to the north-west, and the closest islands were 100 miles due east, with another island 150 miles to the north-east. Thanking the helpful cetaceans, Azimer returned to shore with the information.  With a good south blowing, the party decided to head for the mainland rather than drift about trying to hit the islands. Not a moment too soon either, as Chaff sent Dirty Bird back to the temple of Manakata to find the two cults had gone head to head, and Manakata had won. Half the parts of Xaxus lay dead on the sand, while the others were bound and obviously about to be used in the fiendish ceremonies of the muscle-bound god. Without further adieu, the party jumped aboard the gig, and turned the boat towards the mainland.  

TOTAL XP
300

GAINS
Duke Don Ferdnado's bejeweled doublet (200gp)
6 gold dinner plates (60gp)
assorted silver cutlery (20gp)
a pair of naval swords
4 stone bio-weapon grenades

KILLS
1 Giant Skua

LOSSES
Einer

Far Isles Session #11 - More Kooks

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 1)
Azimer (Calmonari 2)
Chaff (Vivimancer 2)
Villius Paticus (Cleric 1)

While Einer continued to stand rigidly staring at the ceiling of the room (a posture and position he maintained for the next few hours), Chaff sent Dirty Bird aloft to the far end of the bridge to see what awaited them. The the tattered parrots eyes, Chaff could see five people standing at the end of the bridge in the other tower. Four stood some ways back from the bridge; an older and well dressed woman, a somewhat uncomely and practically dressed lady in her thirties, a plainly dressed and keen-eyed woman of middle age, and a portly and round cheeked man in livery.  The fifth, a beautiful young woman in a flowing white gown, steeped onto the bridge and approached, stopping when she reached the parrot. Chaff began to walk forward, followed by Abdul el Abdul, Azimer and Villius. Raising his hands in a sign of peace, the little vivimancer spoke to the girl as he approached, telling her they meant no harm but were fleeing from the cultists of Manakata and were looking for Duke Don Fernando. He followed up by questioning the girl, asking who was she, and who were the others? "We are Xaxus", replied to girl. That was somewhat unexpected, and some further banter revealed the five to be some sort of collective mind or entity or cult. Further questioning about the Duke, their past identities, and similar lines of inquiry drew out no more information than "We are Xaxus". More kooks then. The girl was interested to hear of the party's troubles with the cultists of Manakata.  It became apparent that this group had fled from the cultists and were holed up here in the tower to stay safe from the muscle bound men. After several eye-rolled-back-in-head communions with the other parts of Xaxus, the girl offered the party the opportunity to become part of Xaxus, to become one with the great intelligence, and to help defeat the cultists of Manakata.

It was apparent that the party had found the remains of the Duke's party (although he was no where to be seen), but all were under some sort of enchantment, mind control, or whatever. Not ready to join the loonies just yet, the party did agree to talk about dealing their common foes. The girl and the other four led to party to a nearby room to talk. After negotiation, Xaxus agreed to provide the party with weapons (blowguns and some sort of coconut sized stone grenades) to help them defeat the cultists. If successful, Xaxus also offered them gold in reward. When the girl heard the party had arrived by ship, she also indicated that some of the parts of Xaxus would like to leave the island to spread Xaxus throughout the world.

While this negotiation was going on, Chaff noticed the keen-eyed woman seemed to be a little more alert and independent than the other parts of Xaxus. When the parts of Xaxus and the rest of the party headed off to recover he proffered weapons, the vivmancer lingered at the rear and gestured for the woman to stay with him. In a short whispered conversation, Chaff learned that she was not a part of Xaxus, but still in control of her own self. When the Duke's party took refuge in this tower, they'd discovered a strange green obelisk covered in weird pictographs. She had studied it, and had begun to be overwhelmed by a desire to merge with an alien intelligence called Xaxus. She fought the urge, but the others did not and become parts of the whole.  Quite frankly, she thinks they're all crazy, and just wants to get away! She indicated the Duke was somewhere in the tower, but he too was now a part of Xaxus.

Meanwhile, Abdul el Abdul arranged the weapon transfer from Xaxus. The blowguns came with darts coated in paralytic poison. As for the grenades, no one knew for sure what they did. Abdul el Abdul took one and threw it against the tower. It broke, and immediately a green mass of plant growth started to cover a 10' square area, crumbling away the stone. Ready now to get away from Xaxus and discuss their plans, the party headed back to the first tower (the parts of Xaxus being unwilling to let them descend their own tower since the party was not one with them). Hester, the non-Xaxus woman, came with them, supposedly to represent Xaxus. When they were safely away from the other, she broke down into near hysterics and asked about the ship that could take her away from the madness! Azimer turned to point to the horizon, but was dismayed to see the "San Lorenzo" was no where in sight. Chaff sent Dirty Bird aloft to search, and the bird could likewise see nothing. Troubled, Azimer decided to sneak back to the beach and into the ocean, looking for a fishy friend to help track down the ship (the party assuming the vessel had been driven off in yesterdays gale). When the calmonari reached the beach, he/she was relived to find the gig still there. But washed up on the stand were three bodies; two were a pair of the shipwreck survivors they had rescued, while the third was Captain de Moncada himself. The two castaways had been hanged, but  Captain de Moncada showed signs of having been beaten to death. That didn't bode well, so Azimer dove into the waves and soon encountered a pod of porpoises. Speaking to them in their clicking tongue, Azimer learned that the ship had sailed away to the north just short hours after the party had been deposited on shore. It would appear that the party was now stranded on a tiny island with two crazy groups of cultists.

Azimer returned to the tower and informed the others of their predicament. Deciding there was not much they could do about being castaway right now, discussion turned to what they should do at this point. Even with the weapons provided by Xaxus, they part didn't feel they were able to defeat the cultists of Manakata. And they still wanted to collect that reward for saving the Duke. So conversation turned to finding a way to break the parts of Xaxus out of their spell or control or whatever it was.To do so, they decided they needed to get close to the weird green obelisk. And the best way to do that was to fake interest in becoming part of Xaxus. With Hester in tow, the party headed back across the bridge, to be met once more by some of the parts of Xaxus: the homely woman and the man in livery were now joined by a richly dressed older man and a portly fellow in clerical vestments. The party successfully convinced the parts of Xaxus that they wanted to join with them, and were thus led up a set of stairs to the very top of the tower. There they found the older, well dressed woman, standing on a short stepladder intently studying a 12' tall obelisk of waxy green stone covered in intricately inscribed pictographs. The parts of Xaxus gestured the party towards the obelisk, who responded by putting their plan into action. Azimer had already cast his/her scroll of protection from magic, hoping it might negate the power of the obelisk once the calmonari came close to it. That didn't seem to work, so the Azimer and Abdul el Abdul instead lobbed a series of the stone grenades at the obelisk, thinking the plant things inside would crumble the green rock to ruin. That didn't seem to work either; the plants could not gain hold on the rock of the obelisk and simply slid down to the floor. In the process, the older well dressed woman fell off the stepladder, and the homely woman was splashed with the contents of the grenade. The vines started to cover her body and she screamed in agony as the roots dug into her flesh.

This, of course, was enough to rouse the rest of the parts of Xaxus into action. A combination of paralytic blowgun darts, nets and flat of sword dropped them all however, and soon the parts of Xaxus were incapacitated, bond and gagged. That still left the obelisk. Chaff lit up a match cord and fired a pistol shot at point blank range at the weird green stone, which didn't do any damage to the stone and just sent the bullet to ricochet around the room.  And made an awful lot of noise, and  moments latter the sound of others running up the stairs could be heard. The first to emerge was an old woman, dropped by a dart fired by Villus. The second, a dashing man in a naval uniform, charged up with sabre in hand, slashing down at Villius before he too was felled by a dart. Just as these two were hauled off the stairs and tied up, two more parts of Xaxus appeared from below; the pretty young woman who had been the previous spokesman of Xaxus, and another young girl. These put up the toughest fight, lashing out with bludgeons, and dropped Villius dead to the floor. They too, however, soon fell to nets and flat of sword, leaving eight parts of Xaxus  trussed up on the floor. Hester confirmed that all parts of Xaxus were now accounted for.

Which still left the problem of how to break the hold of Xaxus on the Duke and his household, so the party could collect their reward. Questioning Hester about the rest of the tower, the party did learn of a weird plant that grew in one of the rooms below. The parts of Xaxus would feed regularly on the plants nectar. Perhaps it played a role in their enchantment? The party decided to investigate this plant, and also look for any monetary reward to which they could help themselves (Abdul el Abdul having already lifted a diamond necklace from the older, well dressed part of Xaxus).  Hester told them the Duke's treasure had been recovered from the wreck of the "La Juliana" and was hidden in a chamber below the tower. So, leaving their bound prisoners where they were, the party descended the stairs, heading for the treasure room. Along the way, Azimer took a side trek to the room with the plant. The calmonari found a huge fleshing plant growing through a fissure in the floor. The room smelled of a spiced milk aroma, and a half dozen flower stalks seemed to wave around and reached out towards Azimer. Who responded by lobbing flask after flask of flaming oil at the thing, which eventually began to smoulder and sizzle and burn.

Chased away by the smell of burning spiced milk, the party passed down more stairs and into a room filled with spikes of rock emerging from all the walls, floor and ceiling. On several were impaled ancient, twisted skeletons. Hester led them though this maze to a blank wall, which opened up when she twisted one of the nearly stone spikes. On the other side was a tumbled, partly collapsed room. More skeletons lay crushed under he rock, so the party very quickly grabbed the two chests Hester pointed out (one filled with gems, the other with gold bars) and they all headed back up to the top of the tower. There, they found that their prisoners were starting to recover, and were still very much parts of Xaxus ...

TOTAL XP
1810

GAINS
chest of gold bars (500gp)
chest of gems (750gp)
diamond necklace (500gp)
misc bits of jewelry (50gp)

KILLS
1 Part of Xaxus

LOSSES
Villius Paticus