Journey's End

In nearly six weeks of real-life time, the party has spent two days in the Journey's End Sargasso.

The first night, eight attacks by groups of Vine Horrors left the party tired, and they slept through much of the day. They used the Cloak of the Manta Ray to get a general idea of how large the sargasso is, and to figure out they won't be able to get the Sea Wyvern out in any reasonable amount of time.

The party decided that they will have to try to find the source of the Vine Horrors on the next day, and manage to go through the night with nine attacks of the Vine Horrors. They did allow their Ir, the Cleric and Lord Sgiggy, the Mage to sleep. Thus allowing them to gain levels.

The next day, the cleric gives everyone AirWalk, and they find the Thunderer which contains the heart of Journey's End. While walking (on air) down into the pit, they are attacked by the Mother of All, who nearly manages to kill a couple of party members before being dispatched.

A quick search of the ship reveals

• 1,200 gold
• 462 platinum
• Four fine scrimshaw carvings (each depicting one of the seasons), which, if cleaned will be worth 250 gold each
• Four golden goblets worth 100 gold each
• A silver candelabrum worth 350 gold
• A steel, barnacle-covered, shield depicting sharks devouring men (identified as a +1 animated tower shield)
• A watertight bone scroll tube containing an arcane scroll of
  • Hold Monster
  • Waves of Fatigue
  • Permanency

Over the next few days, many of the characters gain levels.

• George (Dahvid's Fighter) is 6th level with 15,377 XP
• Churtle is 7th level with 27,497 XP
• Morphumax (Josh's Binder) is 7th level with 21,860 XP
• Lord Sgiggy (Nasan's Sorcerer) is 7th level with 23,965 XP
• Ir Turalisj (Moshe's Cleric) is 7th level with 24,260 XP
• Rigond (Dovid's Paladin) is 7th level with 26,883 XP

Over the next few days, Ir contacts Lavinia (using Sending) on the Blue Nixie. She responds with the following: Sorry for losing track. Continue on to Farshore. Will see you there. Carry on, Lavinia

Off to the Isle of Dread - Part 2

Three days after the untimely death of Conrad Horst, the Blue Nixie and the Sea Wyvern stop at the Havekihu river to take on fresh water. A few hours after they leave the next day, they have to lay anchor due to intense fog. In the middle of the night, the Sea Wyvern is rocked and the party comes to the deck.

Morphumax is attacked by something from the sea, is almost pulled overboard, and the party attacks the amorphous creature. Morphumax is finally pulled overboard, yet the Flotsome Ooze is killed. Before it dissipates and the poor unfortunates being digested float to the bottom, Churtle spots some interesting things that Morphumax retrieves. After identifying them, the party now has

• Ring of Mind Shielding
• Gauntlets of Ogre Power

Fourteen days later, the ships stop to investigate some ruins. Lavinia has promised the gnome Urol Forol a chance to exlore the ruins of the Tamoachan, and she has the party accompany him for his safety. After an hour, following jungle trails, they arrive at a clearing. There is a huge ziggurat, and the clearing is just one small part of it. Unfortunately for Urol, the basilisk first gazes at him. The party manages to kill it easily, but Urol neglected to share any of his stone salve with the party, and the party didn't ask him about it ahead of time. But, in his haste to investigate the ruins, he had moved to the front of the party.

Well, the party took his statuesque body back to the ship, and the next day, they managed to un-stone him. Then the party goes back to the ruins, and began investigating a room with a huge statue and a well. Out of the well came a gibbering mouther, which apparently was making a nest in the well. After killing the gibbering mouther, the party investigated the well and found

• six turquoise gems worth 50 gp each
• +1 dagger {unidentified}
• a folded ivory fan worth 180 gp
• a platinum bracelet worth 230 gp
• 124 gp

Off to the Isle of Dread - Part 1

After a few weeks of downtime, Lavinia Vanderboren summons the party and invites them along to Farshore in the Isle of Dread. First they recover the Sea Wyvern, bring it back to Sasserine and get it outfitted and fixed.

On the day of boarding the Sea Wyvern, they meet the captain, crew and passengers. The ship's captain is Amella Venkalie. The cabin boy is Tavey Nesk. The first mate is Lirith Veldirose. Among the passengers are the cleric Conrad Horst, Skald, and Urol Forol. Urol is there to study the Isle of Dread and doubles as the Navigator. A late arriving passenger is Avner Meravanchi with two servants and his horse Thunderstrike.

After some arguments about Avner's accomodations (in which the eventual result is that he is sleeping with the rest of the passengers and he is not happy about it, the expedition gets underway.

In the second day of the voyage, Lavinia invites the party and Avner to a dinner on the Blue Nixie. The ships get within 50 feet of each other, a rope and pulley is hoisted and a cart brings each person across. While going back, after Avner, and some of the party get across, the rope breaks while the paladin is brought across. A round later, a water mephit appears and begins it's attack. In investigating this, the party sees that the rope was sabotaged, and the mephit was being kept in a pickle jar.

In the thirteen days to Fort Blackwell, the Sea Wyvern is attacked by a water naga and an octopus. From the octopus' belly, the party finds:

• 300 gp
• potion of cure light (unidentified)
• wand of magic missile (first level) (36 charges) (unidentified)
• wand of magic missile (third level) (26 charges) (unidentified)

In addition, someone attempted to poison the paladin. At Fort Blackwell, the ships lay over for a couple of days. The crews are given shore leave and many of the passengers (including Conrad Horst and Skald) stay overnight in the small town.

After continuing the voyage, six days out, Conrad Horst takes ill. The party cleric casts delay poison, to no affect, and decides to cast cure disease the next day. Unfortunately, the next day, a blue slaad explodes, fully grown, from Conrad's body (killing him), which the party defeats.

Game Notes

All the player characters (except for Morphumax) are fifth level.

Session 2: The game is afoot.

The group began near the Blue Nixie (Lavinia Vanderboren's ship), which is being held by Soller Vark, even though Lavinia paid to have it released to her.

As soon as the ship was boarded, the watchman called out an alarm, and shot back. The watchman was injured, and two more of the group boarded the ship. The wounded thug leapt overboard, but three more appeared on deck from other cabins. One thug was gored to death, another wounded, and still another knocked unconcious.

Then Soller Vark and his girlfriend appeared on deck, and one of the group was knocked down by the girlfriend. The group managed to get the unconcious member awake, and damage Vark's girlfriend and Vark himself.

Vark's girlfriend jumped overboard, another damaged thug jumped into the rowboat, and Vark himself began attacking after yelling "Burn them." There was a bloodcurdling scream from below decks. The group shot at Vark's girlfriend (and missed), but got the thug in the boat. After beating up Vark some more, Vark surrendered. None of the thugs know what is going on, but Vark did tell the group that he was being paid to collect animals and deliver them to another ship during the night.

The group tied up the remaining thugs and Vark and investigated below decks. They were attacked by a Rhagodessa, but quickly killed it. The room was filled with dead animals and a dead thug.

Score: 2 thugs gone, 1 thugs dead, 4 thugs captured, Soller Vark captured.

Found Vanderboren payment to Vark, and the Vanderboren signet ring

After selling the equipment, the group went to see Lavinia Vanderboren. She was happy to know that her ship is her's again, and especially happy to receive her father's signet ring. She offers the group employment (at 110 gp each per month) and hints that the rewards of being associated with one of the Dawn Council's families is worth far more.

She asks the group to accompany her to her family's vault, warning them that there is likely to be a construct guardian. The go to the vault, and once inside, are attacked by an Iron Cobra. They beat it up pretty well, but notice that it avoids attacking Lavinia. Lavinia presents the ring to it, and the Iron Cobra retreats to its alcove. Then they open the door to the vault itself...