Far Isles Session #63 - That's Not A Ship!!!

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 4) with henchman Corvus (Fighter 3)

Chaff (Vivimancer 5), with familiar Pretty Bird, and riding dog Puppy Whuppy
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 4)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 5), with familiar Hermes and henchman Jaz (Elf 2)

Dream Leviathan

On board the "Purple Haze", the party prepared for battle. Chaff and Kwinsea cast some spells to protect themselves and beef up the party in general. Corvus and Chit the crossbowman headed below to the stern cabin windows, so they could snip with their bows. Lynessa had the crew slack the sails and then take cover. Everyone then waited for the enemy ship to approach. It closed fairly rapidly; in fact, both Chaff and Rodrigo noticed the speed of the ship did not change with the change in it's point of sail. That was very odd, and the pair joked that maybe this was another one of those whale-tail ships, like the one they'd had the option to buy. After that brief chuckle, the two looked back at their pursuer once more, and now noted the upper decks and sails of the ship started to waver and fade. In a few moments, it was clear to the two that this was no ship! An illusion of some sort had faded away, showing instead a massive leviathan. It opened it's huge toothed maw and surged forward at the "Purple Haze". Chaff and Rodrigo raised the alarm, and now everyone could see the true form of their foe. Lynessa screamed at the crew, who scrambled for rope and sail to get the ship underway and tuned so she was running before the wind. The leviathan continued to slowly gain, so the party did everything they could to slow it down/beat it down. Arrows and bolts flew, Jaz tossed off a magic missile, and Kwinsea tried to reduce it to a smaller menace (no luck). Once it got close enough, Awg and Chaff got into the fray with their laser pistols. In desperation, they even had the sailors run the raft out behind the ship, with the potion of watery death on it, in the hopes the thing would swallow it and drown. It did swallow the raft and potion, but the magic seemed to have no effect. However, by this point it was started to get irritated and mildly injured by all the missile fire, so it broke of the pursuit, dove and swam away. 

Brain Squid Attack!!

With a sigh of relief, they sailed on. Next morning, islands were visible ahead. Lynessa identified these as the "Krakens Claws", a series of rocky islets off the coast of Langushur between Cha'nrk and Xin. She turned the "Purple Haze" north and informed the party they should be in Xin in a few more days. They did not get far, however, when Corvus called out from the bow that there was a body in the water ahead. Without waiting, he jumped overboard and, using his ring of water walking, strolled over to the floating, face down corpse. The body appeared to be that of an ordinary female sailor, dead quite a few days. The fighter hauled out his sword and proceeded to flip the body over. On the sailors face there clung some sort of crustacean/squid thing, which quick as lightning released itself from the corpse and jumped at Corvus. It struck his face, and proceeded to extend a series of tentacles and proboscis into his mouth and nose until they reached his brain. The thing then started sucking away grey matter. Meanwhile, Chaff was getting the crew to lower him and the ships boat into the water, and Kwinsea dove in to go help as well. Jaz, however, saved the day with a sleep spell that took out both the brain squid and Corvus. When Chaff and Kwinsea reached the prone, floating fighter, they easily slid the squid-thing off his face. Kwinsea claimed it for her own, and imprisoned it into an empty water barrel; she intended to use it to pay her 'live octopus' debt to the aquamancer in Xin. Corvus they hauled back to the ship, and Torak performed the last rites of the Drowned God on the dead sailor before sending her to the deeps. 

The next two days were completely uneventful, until Lynessa brought the "Purple Haze" around the Rock of Vexation and into the stream of the Lorogano River below Xin. As they approached the Tower of the Malphegian Inferno and the raised harbor chain, a small boat  full of the Purple and a customs officer approached and hailed them. After answering some questions, the party allowed the officer aboard to inspect the ship and confirm the story told by Chaff; that they were unsuccessful explorers with little to show for their hardships in the Far Isles. Thankfully most of the treasure they did have was small and easily hidden, so they managed to convince the customs officer they had just a small amount of coin. He let them through after a paltry 4% tax on that small pile of coin, plus a 2% 'donation' to the customs guild. 

Having gotten past the taxman, Lynessa brought the "Purple Haze" into the Fogbound Quays and tied up at one of the jetty's. And then the crew took their back-pay and headed for the taverns, leaving their captain and employers alone on the deck. Leaving Lynessa in charge of repairing and resupplying the "Purple Haze", the rest of the party fanned out across the city in pursuit of their own goals. The party's activities in the City of Visions included:

• Awg tried to convince Chit to stay on as his loyal retainer. But the corssbowman had had enough adventure, and wasn't too keen on following a fish-man, so he took his gold and walked away;
• A delegation visited Munificent Submerser Oha at the Temple of Brall, and Brother Keera at the Temple of the Three Virtues, buying up healing potions (5 in total); 
• To beef up the ships locker, Rodrigo and Corvus went to buy enough powder, shot and muskets to arm a mercenary company. Which attracted the attention of a patrol of the Purple, who left without incident once they were convinced the two weren't smart enough to stage an armed insurrection. Afterwords, they went looking for their old nemesis Sergent Lunt, but could not find him anywhere; 
• Kwinsea visited her old geezer aquamancer friend and gave him the brain squid in final payment for the spell he'd taught her. She also was able to get him to teach her "Spider Climb", but only after she'd gathered one of every species of barnacle in the area of Xin (all 27). She then locked herself in her cabin and started transcribing spells into her spell book. In this she was joined by the loyal Jaz, who did the same;
• Chaff went to visit the old alchemist Gorbo, to get him to whip up some venom antitoxin for everyone. He also gave him some of the now dried up paralytic poison, which the old coot could use to whip them up a fresh batch;  and
• With all the hard work down, Corvus decided to try his luck in the wrestling pits again. With

  

  Tog & Corvus

  Rodrigo in tow, he found a likely place and plunked down 2000gp in front of the pit bookies. They agreed to his wager but only offered 1.5:1 ods, and insisted that they chose the opponent. Corvus, a little short on grey mater, agreed. After waiting around for awhile, Corvus met his foe. At almost 8' tall, hairy, and arms almost to his knees, Tog looked to be at least half ogre. And he made short work of Corvus, twisting the fighters arms somewhere up behind his head before rubbing his face in the mud. Which left Corvus humiliated and broke.

TOTAL XP

13

GAINS
none

KILLS

none

LOSSES

Some of Corvus' grey matter, most of his gold, and all of his dignity.