The Battle at Farshore

Once the Yuan-Ti sorcerer realized that the person who paid them was somehow taken over, rather than try to salvage the situation, he, and his bodyguards retreated.

Once the vrock dance was disrupted, the vrocks stopped fighting in a coordinated fashion, and they fought to their deaths.

As soon as the pirates realized that Vanthus had "turned" against them, most of the ones on shore gave up, although three of the five ships attempted to flee. Between the Jade Ravens, Livinia Vanderboren, the Olman tribesmen, the Phanatons, and the guards of Manthalay Meravanchi, all ships but the Yuan-Ti ship were taken with little damage.

Lord Sgiggy brought Vanthus back. When Livinia confronted him and was told that Vanthus had planned to make off with Livinia, and if he couldn't, then he planned to release a bloodstained shadow pearl to create another savage tide, she cursed him, saying her brother died the same night her parents did. This "Vanthus" is nothing but filth wearing his skin. He further said he stole the shadow pearl from his superiors before he left scuttlecove. He was transformed into a half-fiend by a process known to the Crimson Fleet. After Lord Sgiggy answers the party's questions, he beheads himself. He is buried ni a lonely plot to the south marked only with a simple wooden stake carved with the Vanderboren family crest.

The four ships are claimed as the property of Farshore.

The next few days in Farshore are celebratory, although interspersed wth funerals for those who fell in the assault.

Each member of the group gets 5,000 gp worth of loot.

Papers on one of the ships (the Brine Harlot, Vanthus' ship) indicates that the Crimson Fleet has been going to the northern shore of the Isle of Dread to meet with a group known only as the "Lords of Dread." In the log it says:

We reached Gallivant Cove with no incident, althugh the Sevent Coil yuaniti renewed their demands for shore leave. I denied them again, promising them all the leave they could want once my sister's little project is mine. Payment to the Glutton went smoothly (that beast's teeth would make fine trophies!), and I personally led a group of five to the caves. The trogs looked worse than they stank -- some kind of malady afflicts them for certain. Lords of Dread??? Hardly. Yet they took our payments and slaves readily enough.

There was only one shadow pearl ready for us. I made clear my displeasure, but the simpering lepers convinced me that they were being truthful, and promised several more in a few months' time. I've tried to avoid staring at the pearl overmuch. Its depth are hypnotic. After seeing what one of these little beauties did on Kraken's Cove, I made sure to keep it in a padded container at all times.

It's too bad we can't just toss the thing into Farshore with a catapult and let them kill each other off, but I'll not be the one to tell command we broke another of their toys.

---

Experience

		Ninth level characters	Tenth level characters
Amphibious Assault	EL 11	5,400	4,500
Yuan-Ti mercenaries	EL 11	5,400	4,500
Vrocks	EL 12	8,100	6,000
Vanthus	EL 14	16,200	12,000
Triumph	EL 13	10,800	9,000
Total		45,900	36,000
XP per PC		11,475	9,000

Equipment on Vanthus

• +3 Mithral shirt
• +3 Longsword
• +1 Keen Sickle
• Masterwork Dagger
• Ring of Protection + 2
• Amulet of Health +2
• Boots of Speed
• Shadow Pearl
• 4 Gold earrings worth 300 gp each

In the coming month, the wealth of Farshore increases due to increased trade. Farshore begins with an 800 gp limit on purchased items and assets of 9,600 gp.

• The triumph over the Crimson Fleet increases the assets by 20,000 gp
• Increasing the mine output increases the assets by 10,000 gp
• Casting Hallow on the Cemetary make people feel better, and increases the gp limit by 1,000
• By eliminating the troglodyte tribe, assets are increased by 5,000, and by the end of the month, the gp limit increases by 1,000
• Improving the clayworks increases the assets by 3,000 gp
• Improving the smithy increases the assets by 2,000 gp
• By bringing back the Olman artifacts, the gp limit is increased by 1,500
• By improving the greenhouse, the gp limit is increased by 1,000
• By improving the farms, the assets are increased by 5,000 gp

Thus, at the end of the month, the assets are 54,600 gp and Farshore has a 5,300 gp limit on purchasable items.





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Off to the Isle of Dread, Part 4

Lavinia Vanderboren tells the party that they will have to evade the Scarlet Brotherhood blockade the next day. About noon, as they are rounding the penninsula, they are hailed by a Scarlet Brotherhood ship. The cleric walks across the water, and casts deeper darkness on the side of the ship. This allows the party to completely evade them.

Nine days later, the ships spy the ruins of Fort Greenrock. They stop to investigate, and it becomes obvious that lizardfolk attacked and destroyed the fort.

Four days after that, the ships make a last stop near the mainland at the Atikula river to refresh their water. While filling barrels at the waterfall, the ship is attacked by an aquatic seven-headed hydra. After the battle, the party spots some things at the bottom of this small bay. Morphumax dives in and finds

• 102 gp
• +1 chainmail
• a bright green cloak of the manta ray

After another six days, the ships stop at the Olman village of Renkrue to replenish supplies. All goes well until Avner Meravanchi attempts to buy one of the native girls. The chief becomes insulted, and no amount of diplomacy appears to satisfy him. He stops all bargaining and tells the ships to leave. The dim-witted fighter (Daveed's character) punches Avner out, and sometime later is admonished by Lavinia, who lets the party know that without the financial backing of the Meravanchi's, the expedition would not have been possible. She forces the dim-wit to apologize to Avner, who doesn't take the apology very well at all.

Four days later, the ships get caught up in the pearl current, which delays them somewhat by forcing them off course. Ten days after that, they reach the island of Ruja. From here, it should be only a matter of two weeks to reach Farshore at the southern end of the Isle of Dread

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.