Conspiracy

With the mansion safely cleared, we have spoken with the reeve. Based on the information we obtained from the prisoners, we know that the Sea Ghost will be coming at some point, but we don’t know when. The town has placed men on watch, but they would like us to perform the boarding action and secure the ship for the constables.

None of us have experience with water travel, but Magic Man and Music Man pointed out we don’t need to, we just need to secure the ship and cargo, and let the officers deal with bringing it in. Hound reminded us that there is a great deal of food and drink at the mansion, and so we can actually wait there, in luxury with good eating, and just wait for the watchmen to report that the ship has arrived.

I’ve been keeping at my drills, but frankly there hasn’t been that much to do. Alec has made friends with Raksh, and the two dogs allow us to relax more on our night watches. There aren’t much better ways to wait for adventure than in a nice well kept sea cave with lots of free food.

The Dark of Luna

On the dark of Luna the watchmen came for us. The ship had arrived, and it was time to go. Alec and Raksh had to stay on land, they wouldn’t have been much help, but the rest of us set out in darkness.

Boarding the ship was trivial. The watchmen brought us to the anchor, which I was able to climb, and the others had cloth-wrapped grappling hooks to climb aboard. The entire crew were staring out towards the land, and didn’t know a thing until we fell on them. It was fierce fighting, and I was only able to keep one of the officers alive in the fight, but the others were able to secure another, and after a few minutes of fierce fighting the ship was ours.

We learned several interesting things on board.

First, they have definately been smuggles lots of silk and brandy. There was probably thousands of pounds of the stuff in the hold. However, they’ve been doing much worse. We found lizardfolk aboard, who claimed they were just booking passage, no alliance. Magic Man said to let them go, but while questioning the prisoners we learned a great deal more. The smugglers have been doing a lot of business with the lizardmen, selling them large amounts of arms and armor- we even found the map leading to the exchange point.

Apparently they’ve also been in contact with some sort of ‘sea elves,’ whatever that is, one of whom was prisoner on the ship. Sea elves just spells trouble in my book, but he certainly wasn’t on their side, so for now he isn’t our enemy. Water boy is sticking around to give his statement to the law, and maybe the town will try to trade with the sea elves, who knows.

Most importantly we have a new target – heavily armed lizardman camps are never a good thing, and while we’ll wait for the town to give us an offer, I’m ready to test my blades against some proper monsters, none of this turncoat nonsense.

Speaking of blades, we’ve added two more to the team. Ahnri and Marth, a broadsword and a longsword, both magical. I somewhat reluctantly offered them to the rest of the party, but no one else particularly uses blades, and so my own arsenal grows. I’ll do some drills with them while we wait for the reeve, I think Marth might partner better with Discipline than a magic broadsword…

The March to Coldbloods

As expected, it’s time to set out against the lizardfolk. Music Man said that they aren’t normally so violent, so it’s possible we can strike some kind of deal. I’ll leave that to the deal makers.

After spending everything we owned on some more training, we set out along the coast, following the map we captured. Drippy the elf is tagging along for now, saying he wants to complete his mission to learn what the smugglers were up to. I just hope he doesn’t get in the way. ZV the parrot is settling in just fine, and Silver and Music Man like him too. For some reason Magic Man doesn’t seem to like him, but I’m sure he’ll come around. ZV is a very pretty bird.

We’ve settled in for the night after a vicious battle with some frog creatures. We found some sweet loot, including some magic stones. There were a lot of those frogs. A LOT. I’m concerned what we might find deeper in the swamps, if there’s this many threats just to start with. I might need to find some kid to train, because I can only swing a sword so fast, and we need the steel.

Strength in Numbers

We set out the next morning on foot, with the dogs ready to fight. As we drew closer to the mark we located a massive stone promontory, pretty clearly what we were looking for. We crossed the river, and headed up a path towards the top. Once we reached the top there was a concealed door, and inside was clearly a fortress.

A brief discussion determined that we would be trying the diplomatic approach, so Silver and Music Man stepped forward and announced themselves. After a tense stand-off (where it became clear they didn’t speak any common), they demanded that Silver and Music Man submit to have their hands bound. They did so, and the rest of us backed up, and then the two of them were led deeper in.

It was probably almost an hour that we waited as they talked, and finally the two of them came back, unbound, and we were ushered into a sort of shrine. The chieftain, his counsel, some shaman, and his general were all in attendance, and they told us quite the story:

There’s a whole world under the waves, apparently, with their own races and wars. One of these kinds, sea devils, according to Oceanus, attacked the Lizardfolk’s home, and drove them out. The Lizardfolk have been arming up and making alliances with other creatures to fight back, but even with all that they don’t like their odds.

These sea devils supposedly worship devils or demons or something, and if they’re killed the Lizardfolk will go back to their old home, further away from Saltmarsh. Magic Man proposed an alliance between Keoish forces and the Lizardfolk: everyone would get what they want without an unnecessary fight, and killing these monsters we didn’t even know existed sounds like a huge win.

As a gesture of goodwill we went and killed some creatures that were harassing the lizardfolk, a giant crocodile and a weird fire snake thing, and… Well, our new companion did impressively. The creatures’ hides were incredibly thick, but he put his spear to good work and badly wounded both of them. I guess Drippy is out, and I need to find something more appropriate.

We hiked back to town to let them know a diplomatic mission from the lizardfolk was inbound, and started preparing for the coming battle.

I’ve been keeping an eye out, and one local boy caught my eye. He was struck by the monster head we lugged back, and has been training every possible moment. He’s got potential, though only as a normal fighter, not in the Way. Still, I think the party needs an extra blade, and I’ve brought him along as a student. His family seems fine to part with him – enough mouths to feed as it is.

We’ve gained another ally as well: Arcturus. The lizardfolk brought gifts, the remains of the other adventuring party, as a sign of gratitude for the peace we showed them. The town gave the loot to us, and among the gear was a magic sword. This one has a bite to him, though. He’s a rule maker, but has no regard for good. Still, his edge is sharp and he can let me see through walls, so he’ll be along for now. Using the techniques Sensei taught me I have made him submit, and I don’t think we’ll have issues for now.

With all these preparations, I yearn for monster blood.

Sea Assault: A Report

To Our Employers in Saltmarsh,

Day 1 of the operation is complete, and we’ve made the following observations:

The Sea Devils are exceedingly well armed, and are very well dug in. Large numbers of modifications have been made to the Lizardmen’s fortress, and we have recorded what changes we find on the supplied copies of our maps. The most serious obstacle observed is that through probably some sort of evil magics they have dropped the entire stone promontory, flooding both the lower levels in their entirety.

While we have counted 24 kills thus far, we know for sure that the Sea Devil garrison is in excess of at least 50 more, and likely more. We were able to interrogate a human slave who was sent by the Sea Princes to investigate a change in the ocean floor here, and he and his party tested the underwater entrance to this place and were overwhelmed by dozens of Sea Devils. Assault of this entrance would come at incredible cost. Unfortunately, while the highest level is not underwater, this means the majority of the fortress is unassailable by human forces.

The fortress is exceedingly well guarded — as noted, we had to kill 24 just to reach the stairs leading to the second level (as noted on the attached map). While our presence is, at this moment, unknown, we will undoubtedly be detected by the time the Sea Ghost leaves for Saltmarsh. We hope to achieve mapping of the lower levels, but given our limited underwater capabilities this will take a fair bit of luck.

We have established that our abilities leave them sorely wanting out of the water, and thus we have a good chance to hold the upper level against them while we continue to investigate, continuing to bleed them while we gather more information.

We have also been able to deny them a very well stocked armory and a larder, setting back their preparations for attack and costing them a great deal. To follow is a report on the middle level, as mapped thus far.

The Sea Devils

A summary of the Sea Devils, for Self-Reflection by Sensei’s command:

Approximately two weeks ago our party set out to observe and sabotage a lair of sea devils, formerly belonging to the lizardmen. We set out with a squad of lizardmen and a squad of marines to provide support, and a ship – the Sea Ghost, in fact – to ferry us there and back to Salt Marsh.

The initial day was no good, a barred door prevented entry, and none of us were eager to try to find the underwater entrance. We also noted the rock was far lower in the water than one would think – a grim foreshadowing. With Arcturus I could see that there were guards waiting, so a battering ram would be unwise. We returned the next day, and Magic Man had some sort of spell that opened the door – we rushed in and killed the guards before they could sound the alarm.

For the first level our plans worked well: the elves would creep about in darkness to scout enemy forces, the rest of the party would follow to strike them down quickly and quietly, and the lizardmen held the entrance and carried out all the equipment we could find.

Unfortunately that’s where our luck ended. The lower levels were flooded, and we were very limited in water-breathing and swimming magic. We found a prisoner, a survivor of another scouting party from the sea princes. He and his party had tried to enter from below, and were all enslaved. The poor soul could scarcely speak, he was so completely broken by the torture. My greatest regret is that we couldn’t afford the torturers a suitably slow death, but perhaps their dark masters will provide suitable agony.

We located some additional magic items, but the problem remained the same: how to go deeper? The whole party couldn’t come, and we needed hours of stealth with hard and fast strikes to keep progressing undetected. There was some discussion, but we finally settled on an away party of the elves while the rest of the party held the stairs with the lizardmen.

We were able to clear only a few rooms before a patrol found us, and there was a fierce fight. We fled quickly, and good thing we did. They chased us all the way up the stairs, and it would have been a fierce fight if Silver hadn’t throw another gas cloud. More concerning, however, is what Goldie did. She summoned… ghosts, specters, something. Dead lizardmen spirits. I don’t know what she is, but a necromancer I can’t tolerate. Or that’s what I would say… I’ve tolerated other evils, I guess I could tolerate a necromancer too, for the money. Power.

I wish I was a better man, and could bring myself to slit her throat in her sleep, or at least confront her, but… the money’s too good, I guess. Every man has a price, and all that.

We packed up and returned to the ship to heal and regroup. When we returned, we had a very rough time. The first excursion into the lower level was met with pitched battle, and most of the lizardmen were slain in a vicious ambush. Fighting underwater was far too difficult, and when I made a probing response I was surrounded and captured by the sea devils.

I hate the water now. There is little sense as horrible as knowing that just the removal of a cloak is all that stands between you and a slow, painful death by drowning. Oceanus was able to sneak in with a ring of invisibility, and while we were pillaging the prison we found what was left of the original water level entrance, and were able to beat a quick escape.

Beaten and bleeding, we tried one last trip to try to map the place, but weren’t able to accomplish much beyond ambushing the high priestess. We returned to Saltmarsh to heal and plan out our next action. It was then that Hound changed everything:

Apparently, with his new studies, he’s now able to summon elemental creatures that are able to travel quickly in any environment, and retrieve both objects and information. For a cut of the treasure, they were able to not only make detailed maps of all three levels but loot the place quite effectively. The elders were, naturally, ecstatic.

Silver has been less chipper than usual, but I’m not so reckless as to ask him to talk. As for me, the lessons gained in this venture are clear: Stay out of the water, and I need to be stronger. When I hit, I need to know that they’ll stay down. Maybe the Quartermasters of Shar will be able to point me in the direction of a trainer or magical aid to improve my body.