Back from their shopping trip in Sasserine, the party met with the
Farshore council members to discuss the next move. The consensus was to
investigate the 'Lords of Dread' and the troglodyte caves on the northern shore
of the island that seemed to be the source of the Shadow Pearls. Lavinia shared
a little more information from her mother's journal on the dragon turtle -
known by the natives as 'The Glutton', a particularly large specimen for his
kind. Lavinia offered some of her family's treasures as a 'tribute' to try and
buy passage, which the party accepted, despite Manthalay's protestations that
the beast should not be negotiated with, and if anything it's carcass should be
dragged in front of the villagers to let them know their place. The party ignored
this, although did mull over killing the beast if the opportunity arose at low
risk. Lavinia was keen that the party find some news to help avoid the
suspicious whispering from the villagers since her brother's appearance.
Before the party set off, Lavinia called
Antony to one side, and further to his efforts campaigning on her behalf, asked
him to accept the role as emissary of Farshore, to act as her representative in
fostering trade links with other ports and merchant guilds. To help with this,
she gave him the command of the Brine
Harlot, and appointed one of the newly freed slaves as its captain under
Antony's command. Nosmo Beldan introduced
himself as a Minrothad captain of some experience, whose had lost his ship off
the coast of Ochalea to the Sea Reavers of the Crimson Fleet, and had pledged
his service to the colony for a year in return for his freedom. The party
worked with the captain to plot a route to the north of the island - following
the eastern shore so they could also look in on the wreck of the Sea Wyvern.
Joining them on the journey was another freed slave named Ji - an Ochalean monk
in the service of Tarastia from the Jade Raven monastery.
They set off the next day, and had good
winds and calm seas on the voyage north. The party decided to weigh anchor near
anchor near on of the reefs to try and find a clan of Tortles to communicate
with, and question about the dragon turtle. The eventually managed to catch the
attention of a trio of tortle warriors, who came to the surface. The party
quizzed them about the dragon turtle, learning that his lair included the
tortle breeding grounds, which he guarded but at a heavy price from the tortles
in terms of tributes and occasional slaves. Some tortles worshipped the power
of Emraag the Dragon Turtle, but this was not a commonly held view, and these
tortles would support an attempt to remove him. They also helped the party learn
to use the sea skirl - the strange alpine horn type instrument which was
mounted on the bow of the ship, and gave the PCs a few pointers on how to play
it acceptably. Stefanie paid most attention to the lessons, more by a process
of elimination rather than natural aptitude.
The next day, the party made it to the
wreck of the Sea Wyvern. Keen eyes spotted some movement near the ship, and a
large elasmosaurus in the waters. Nosmo took the Brine Harlot in closer, and as
the party kept weapons trained on the ship, the elasmosaurus attacked.
Another figure darted out from the ship into the water - a kopru that tried and
failed to dominate one of the party. The party soon dispatched the large
dinosaur, but the kopru summoned a swarm of sharks and shapeshifted into a
shark itself, to confuse the party, as it rained bolts of lightning from the
heavens down onto Mendel in the crows nest. The battle ended in a standstill,
as the sharks swam off, the kopru unable to make much headway from the waters.
The party investigated the Sea Wyvern to find the kopru had been using it as a
base of operations, seemingly in the process of crafting a magical necklace.
A few days later, the party made it to
Gallivant Cove, and the domain of The Glutton. Stefanie tried to play the sea
skirl to call Emraag to the surface, but her poor attempt only angered the
beast who rose from the waters ready to breath flame over the ship. Some quick
talking, and the mention of the tribute, gave the beast pause, and it listened
to the party's request for passage. Emraag was clearly a haughty creature, and
eventually deigned to allow the lesser specimens past - on this one occasion -
but also mentioned he found it interesting that the same ship he saw a few days
ago had returned but with a different crew, leading him to surmise that there
must be a new colony somewhere in the archipelago...
The Brine Harlot weighed anchor in the
cove, with instruction to wait for a couple of days before returning to
Farshore, and the party set off in rowboats to a makeshift jetty of driftwood
and bones that was visible in the cliff face of the cove. The jetty was
shrouded in a sickly green smog, arising from humanoid skulls being used as
braziers and burning a potent mix of herbs and fungi. Some of the party struggled
with the smell, as Ji snuck forward along the jetty. A dinosaur was visible in
the cave, and began barking as Ji approached. Angered by the party, it broke
its chains and charged down the rickety pier to attack. The pier shook and the
vibrations threw Stefanie and Ji into the water. The dinosaur was a sickly
beast, it's hide tough and blackened, and nasty looking cuts marring its skin
around the joints. a dark paste had been liberally applied to the wounds, but
the exposed flesh was an angry red beneath it. The battle with the dinosaur,
and recovering the PCs from the water, alerted some troglodytes from deeper in
the cave. They called out, realising the PCs were not the pirates after they
told them they had no more pearls. Dacien sent a fireball into the cave, and
the troglodytes scurried back into the darkness. In pursuit, the party found
signed of the shadow pearl distribution - broken geodes with spherical hollows
that once housed the pearls were scattered on the floor. The geodes looked
valuable but seemed to be made of an alien substance that caused a mild
headache when touched. Tracks lead to a passage deeper in to the caves, and
crude frescoes detailed the troglodyte religions beliefs - showing a dragon
raining black pearls from the sky down on to the land in a scene of
destruction. What was noticeable was a crude second head had been added to the
dragon since the carving was originally done.
The party followed the caves deep into the
cliffs and down into the depths of the Isle of Dread. After several hours, they
came across a larger cave, caked in filth and swimming in the stench of decay
and troglodyte musk. A crude troglodyte settlement filled most of the cavern,
but the troglodytes themselves barely registered the PCs presence, wallowing in
a deep lethargy. Each wretched creature has the same dark toughened skin marred
by deep red welt and exposed flesh, and were swaddled in bandages that drip a
dark ichor. In the midst of their hovels, was a large pit filled with black
bubbling decaying bodies of troglodytes and other humanoids. Hanging above the
pit were several large cages containing the bodies of other troglodytes -
including one live troglodyte and a human tribal native, covered in animal
tattoos. The human was drooling and had a vacant look in his eyes that
Dacien deducted was caused by a Feeblemind
spell. The party resolved to send him
back to Farshore until he could be healed. When the live troglodyte saw the
party he scurried across his cage, and excitedly beckoned them over. He
introduced himself as Irgzid, and
begged the party to set him free.
Irgzid explained he was a priest of Pearl, the immortal rule of
chaotic (evil) dragons, and he feared for his people as the clan had been
infested by another malign influence, and he begged the party to help him. The
disease that ravaged his fellow troglodytes was at first through to be a gift
from Pearl as it toughened the skin and made them stronger. But Irgzid had
noticed a change in his fellow priests who didn’t seem to be acting in the best
interests of the tribe, and were devoting their efforts to the transfer of
Shadow Pearls from the kopru in the tunnels below to the pirates of the Crimson
Fleet. The disease was a curse not a blessing, and slowly encased the creatures
in their own toughened skin, as revealed to Irgzid by the ghost of one of his
ancestors in the caverns below. But when his fellows discovered that Irgzid had
not succumbed to the disease, they branded him a heretic, and locked him in a
cage before he could rally an uprising against his fellow fallen priests.
Irgzid promised to take the party to where they sourced the shadow pearls and
to meet the ghost of his ancestor, if they helped him return his tribe to the
rightful worship of Pearl.
Irgzid led the party through the settlement to a sinkhole that led
to ttunnels into the depths. A statue of a large dragon looked over this, again
with a second head added more recently. Having fought their way past some
sickly troglodyte priests, Irgzid led them down the lift in to the passages.
|He told the party it would be a journey of art least a few days to get to the
site. Barely an hour out from the settlement, the party were attacked by a
beholder, and by several strokes of luck were able to avoid the most damaging
effects of its rays and managed to kill it bya well-timed flame strike and then lassoing it to Faldak, who scraped the
monster to death against the tunnel walls as he fled in fear, trailing the
beholder behind him like a balloon.
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