SESSION 9 - Into Kraken's Cove

The group of heroes managed to slay the savage creatures who attacked them on the beach of ruin, but the cavernous pirate lair still awaited through a yawning tunnel mouth. Whatever befell these monstrous beings, the ordeal drove them completely mad to the point where only carnage or death held any interest for them. Their own bodies seemed to rebel against themselves. Terrible corruptions wracked their forms. In some respects, they seemed to resemble humans, but they bore no kinship to natural creatures even if they once did.

More frenzied monstrosities dwelled within the caves that until recently served as a Crimson Fleet hideout. As the party explored the passages, they could see their handiwork. Smears and splatters of blood were everywhere. Claw marks were gouged into the stone walls. Body parts that were ripped to shreds strewn everywhere. In the echoing distance, howls, shrieks, maniacal laughter, and cries of agony can be heard as a macabre symphony. Kraken's Cove had been transformed into a living hell... and it seems to have occurred not very long before the heroes' arrival.

At one point the investigators stumbled upon a cavern filled with cages. More smuggled animals and monsters, no doubt, except these had been disfigured by whatever unholy force twisted the rest. They pounded their malformed skulls against the bars and tried to reach the passing adventurers with a furious hunger. Some distance beyond the cavern of horrors, those with sharper ears could hear the sounds of battle up ahead. Could some sane creature still be alive within this pit of blasphemy?

Racing ahead, the group discovered a raven-haired pirate who was fighting off a half-dozen mutated humanoids. She was wounded, but had piles of over twice as many fallen foes as still beleaguered her. She spouted filth from her vulgar mouth and her blades whirled with blinding fury. She should have been hopelessly overmatched by her attackers, yet nobody in the party had ever seen a fighter like this woman was.

Before too long, the swordswoman and the heroes combined their skills to dispatch the rest of the creatures. After speaking with their unexpected ally, much information was learned:

- Her name was Captain Harliss Javell, former skipper of The Slippery Eel.
- Vanthus Vanderboren had been to Kraken's Cove just an hour or so ago. He attempted to steal a black pearl from her ship, but she stopped him.
- During the chaos, some of Vanthus's blood spilled on the jewel and the thing suddenly started to spew choking green gas.
- It cracked open and shortly after exploded. The resulting waves of energy created the horribly twisted creatures that tore Kraken's Cove apart.
- A few pirates resisted the change, but they were swiftly overwhelmed by the blood-lust of the others.
- Captain Javell had heard of Vanthus already and knew where he and his family lived.
- She sent her first mate -- a half-orc named Devoraz -- to head back to Sasserine to pay Vanderboren Manor a visit.

Javell, of course, had no inkling of the most recent events surrounding the Vanderboren family. But the first mate was already set on his course. He had his orders to kill Vanthus, and -- failing that -- to kill all of his loved ones as payment for his trespasses at Kraken's Cove.

The adventurers had to race back to Sasserine and hope they were not too late to save Lavinia!

DM Notes: The session's quote by a nautical mile was John's "no pick-up lines ever contained the word spelunk!"

SESSION 8 - The Plot Thinnens

With most of the Lotus Dragon Guild defeated, the adventurers were able to explore the thieves' headquarters in relative leisure. The group was only interrupted briefly by a zombified bugbear. Many treasures were discovered, including much of the Vanderboren's missing wealth. The party found statuettes, jewelery, rich clothing, and a mysterious crystal sphere with a smoky red glow inside. What was perhaps of greater interest, however, was the plans of the Lotus Dragons kept on a note-filled slate and a map of Sasserine. The latter had pins with either blue, gold, or red flags assigned to various locations.

Much to the heroes disappointment, there was no Vanthus to be found, and thus, no killing of Vanthus.

Stashed beneath the escaped Lady Lotus's mattress, however, was a sheaf of (eee-EW!) love letters from Vanthus. One of them mentioned a potential job involving Brissa Santos and robbing Crimson Fleet vessels at a place called Kraken's Cove. Another lead! But the companions must move quickly... the letter was written several days ago.

After reporting their findings to Lavinia and returning her stolen money, the group set to learning more about this Kraken's Cove and also investigating a few of the clues from the guild headquarters. The map of the city and some of the notes were taken to the Dawn Council so the local authorities could be made aware of the attempted takeover of the harbor. From further reading of the love (ew) letters, it was suggested that the leader of the guild is named Rowyn. While following a lead at the Historian's Guild in Sunrise District, the heroes became aware of a disturbing connection. It is possible that the head of the Lotus Dragons was (or is -- or was) a member of one of the most powerful noble families in Sasserine. When Lavinia heard this after her return from seeing the council, she was aghast. The suspected family -- the Kellani -- have a member on the Dawn Council!

Things were becoming very tangled and Lavinia wished to depart immediately to try snipping the wick on this particularly explosive tidbit of information before it reached the wrong ears. The adventurers, meanwhile, had learned where to find Kraken's Cove. All they needed was a ship of fools brave enough to take them there. The Crimson Fleet is without any doubt the most sinister and feared organization on the Azure Sea. 

With some maneuvering, the group was able to book passage (very expensive passage) aboard a sailing vessel to the eastern shores of Bloody Bay where Kraken's Cove is rumored to be. The ship could not venture too close, however, due to a deadly labyrinth of sharp reefs in the area. The party took a rowboat to shore some miles north of the cove, and then traveled on foot along the treacherous cliffs approaching the reputed pirate hideout. When they were still some distance away, Cosimo spotted smoke trailing up into the sky. Were the heroes too late? Probably. They rushed ahead to find out.

Beyond a great rent in the cliffside was a harbor nestled between two towering walls of jagged rock. In the water there were several ships aflame which sent great pillars of black smoke into the sky. Only one vessel -- a ship with a prow carved to appear as a winged draconic creature -- was not consumed. Past this was a gravely beach strewn with barrels, crates, and dead bodies. Even casual examination of the corpses revealed that men that died there recently were not killed in an ordinary manner. Some did not even appear to be men.

Most of the dead were literally torn apart, their skins flayed horribly and their bones cracked open to expose the marrow inside. Some of the bodies showed such grotesque and disturbing mutations, they were truly difficult to look upon. Suddenly, two creatures leaped from out of hiding from behind a collection of barrels further down the beach. If they were ever human once, some foul and depraved evil of the blackest kind reshaped them in hideous ways. They raced forward with murderous fire burning in their misshapen eyes.

When the battle was done, the heroes were victorious, but now they had yet another dark mystery ready to unfold before them. Beyond the terrible beach where the orgy of death had occurred, there were at least two passages leading away from the harbor.

DM Notes: The party acquired quite a lot of treasure (and way too many potions) in addition to a handsome reward from Lavinia. Erdos disintegrated the bugbear zombie with his Greater Turning ability (oh, what a smell that was), and the group also made several troublesome discoveries, some of them courtesy of the fellow at the Historian's Guild, Errix Vorn. Drogg has a strange glassy globe to examine, and the heroes were able to purchase two magical weapons to add to their growing arsenal.

Quote-a-thon:

"Mess with her molecules!"
"Bad taxidermist." -- referring to the zombified bugbear.
"Two points of aesthetic damage."
"Player Matthew knows what it means." -- regarding the ixixitzxs... whatever the f**k!
"We have access to many, many, many puffy shirts."
"Ooooooh..." -- a collective disappointed groan when it is realized the moneybags had the Vanerboren crest.
"I'll besmirch mine if you besmirch yours."

SESSION 7 - Duel with The Dragon Mistress

The brave band of adventurers continued their exploration of the underground chambers of the Lotus Dragons Guild, during which they defeated more of the thieves and advanced to 3rd-level. Erdos began his journey towards the prestigious holy order of the Radiant Servants. The group found barracks, a mess hall, rum storage, a kitchen, training facilities, and a secret trapdoor leading up into the Texidermists' Guildhall. They even ran into another one of the hideous spider-things with suckers on the ends of its fore claws ("spidopus?"). The guild's chieftess, whom the captured thief called "The Dragon Mistress," still eluded the search -- as did the hated Vanthus Vanderboren, who was believed to be in cahoots with the Lotus Dragons.

While investigating the kitchen (which must have contained something very important as it was trapped with a bubbling cauldron of poison catapult), the party stumbled upon a cowering female kobold named Churtle. She apparently served the guild as a cook in exchange for colorful, pretty shells. She was not without her usefulness, however, for she created a fabulously delicious shrimp po' boy for Cosimo (Profession - cook check = 23). The group got a few directions from her and allowed her to tag along as they continued their search.

It was not long before the adventurers grew weary again and required rest. They did not wish to repeat the aftermath of sleeping in the drain pipe again (though many of them longed for slumber in that cozy tube of delights), so they set up camp in the thief training hall and had Reggie provide the first watch. Two hours had not even passed when the sanctuary was invaded by a group consisting of a pair of thieves, the taxidermist (apparently some kind of spell-caster), a green, reptilian creature with razor-sharp teeth, and one of the objects of the search -- Lady Lotus herself.

The adventurers were quickly roused by the spellthief (luckily, he heard their attackers' approach) and a tremendous battle was on. At first, our heroes were badly unbalanced, and the small draconic pet of the guild mistress was able to penetrate into the party's ranks. The band's strongest warrior -- Thada -- also became placed under a charm by the taxidermist. Soon, however, they were able to turn the tables. Drogg blasted the Dragon Mistress with an energy ray, forcing her to interrupt her battle-song and imbibe a potion. The spell-binder was lit on fire by another of the psion's powers and following that, Drogg performed a dimensional swap which placed Reggie in position for a backstab (and allowed the halfling to execute his first spell-steal). Still, the vicious reptile was doing quite a bit of damage and Lady Lotus stepped back from combat to down another magical concoction...

In a poof of greenish vapor, the guild leader turned into a cloud and proceeded to make her escape. The wizard had fallen into a burning heap and the other thieves had been dispatched, as well. Only the green beastie remained, and with Thada snapped out of her enchantment, everyone was able to converge on the creature and slay it. The battle was won!

OOC: Another fun and exciting session for the heroes. They reached 3rd-level and vanquished (or at least forced to retreat) the leader of the thieves' guild. Vanthus -- the true object of their quest -- remains hidden from them, however. They have potentially found a handy NPC in the kobold cook, but she has shown herself to be quite cowardly in the face of danger.

Quote storm...

"Okay, just lemme slap 'em!"
"John Heim... that's me... walks into a bar..."
"I can make my own hole!"
"NO! We might get a sandwich out of this!"
"That seems kinda dangerous."
"I'll leave 'em a nice monkey chunky."

Up next, looting bodies and experience!

SESSION 6 - Pipe Dreams

The party had successfully infiltrated the Lotus Dragons' secret hideout despite the deadly ambush awaiting them. After spending some time exploring the circular domed chambers surrounding the flooded cavern, the group realized that they were woefully low on resources. They required someplace safe to recuperate before besieging the remainder of the complex. Though they may have discovered a possible exit from the hideout through the trapdoors in the ceilings of the domed chambers, somebody (I cannot remember who) at some point raised the notion of retiring to the great pipe that was used to fill the entry cavern with water. It was some distance above the surface of the water and just wide enough to accommodate a person (or a Tumblebelly).

Perhaps the party did not wish to leave the dungeon that they had gone through such a gauntlet to get into. But, whatever the rationale, love for the idea began to spread like a warm, fluffy, bacony fire. The adventurers could not clamber up that pipe fast enough. The hiding place was brilliant in its simplicity. It was out of the way, relatively dry, nobody would ever look for them there in a million years, and -- best of all -- if some idiot were to turn the water valve on, they would just get spit out into the pool below. The latter part might actually be fun.

The companions slept amazingly soundly in their cylindrical womb. When they awoke one by one, they found that they didn't wish to leave. However, the pull of finding, torturing, humiliating, and then killing Vanthus called to them. They began to drop into the pool below the pipe, but then came to a nasty realization. Members of the Lotus Dragons guild could not find whoever it was that invaded their headquarters, but they certainly found their handiwork. The dead bodies everywhere put the complex on high alert and another ambush was waiting for the heroes as they emerged from the pipe. Crossbow bolts flew from every direction and a large, black wolf was in the western passage to replace the guard crocodile.

Another great battle ensued, but while most of the group sought refuge through the secret door just beyond the blood-thirsty canine, Cosimo remembered the illusory wall to the north of the pool. He swam very otter-like to the lip of the observation room and climbed up. The guild thieves stationed there were not expecting an attack coming from that way, but when they recovered from the surprise, they had the swashbuckler outnumbered three-to-one. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had to fight their way through the wolf and another ambush awaiting them past the secret door.

Cosimo held on as best he could, using every trick of swordplay that he knew to keep his ememies occupied. He even managed to drop one before his friends arrived at the proper door into the room. The party quickly dispatched any thieves they could find. However, they knew that there were some guards unaccounted for. But where did they run off to? Did they escape up one of the ladders in the domed rooms? Everyone had a sinking feeling that there was much more to the thieves' base than the ambush cavern and the corridor encircling it... now, where is that secret door?

DM Notes: Quotes of the session...

"You hear a delicious pot pie."
"One thing about this plan..." - referring to sleeping in the pipe.

SESSION 5 - Into the (Lotus) Dragons' Lair

After freeing themselves from the death trap beneath Parrot Island (and developing an even rosier opinion of Vanthus Vanderboren), the heroes were ready to use the clues they found on Penkus' bloated corpse to track down the nefarious Lotus Dragons Guild. The first of these leads pointed towards the Taxidermists' Guildhall in the Sunrise District.

Reggie and Erdos decided to go buy a big fish and take it to the guildhall to have it stuffed while they investigated the place (which they assumed to be a front of some kind for the Lotus Dragons). There they encountered a well-dressed fellow with a gold tooth who agreed to have the aquatic critter mounted for them. Meanwhile, Mez (Drogg's psi-crystal sidekick) sneaked into the back rooms trying to find something interesting and/or suspicious. When the two heroes left the premises, the taxidermist discovered Mez. Luckily the tiny construct was able to slip beneath a side door of the building and disappear into an alley before he was captured. Unfortunately, the espionage yielded little in the way of clues.

Later, the group split up and began exploring the various abandoned, boarded-up buildings around the vicinity of the guildhall. The taxidermy shop was one of the only structures that did not appear condemned surrounding a desolate court called Dead Dog Plaza. Drogg managed to find a hidden, locked trapdoor in the floor of one of the buildings, but he did not have much opportunity to investigate further since Thada had called out an alarm... her snooping had uncovered trouble!

Three thugs cornered her as she came out of one of the abandoned buildings (it does tend to raise quite a racket when she "opens" a door). She was doing quite well in fighting them off single-handedly for a while, but her friends arrived before the situation got too ugly. Erdos managed to bandage one of the wounded attackers before he bled to death and take the fellow prisoner. The heroes took him to the nearby church of Pelor. Kera, the canon of the church, called upon the divine power of The Sun Father to make it impossible to speak an untruth in the holy sanctuary. Then the party began to question the captured thug.

The interrogation revealed some useful bits of information including a description of the woman who was supposedly the head of the Lotus Dragons. They also found out that Vanthus indeed has been working with them and spending time now and then in the secret guild chambers beneath Dead Dog Plaza. When asked how to get into the secret chambers, the man told them, "down the well."

So back to the plaza the group went, and there they found the lonely, partially-crumbled old well that the thug had spoken of. The heroes secured a rope and descended into darkness. Down below they found a large cavern half-filled with water. But someone was watching them. Before they were able to swim for the nearby shore, they heard whistling through the air and realized that they were being fired upon!

Cosimo (the most able swimmer) reached the edge of the water first and tried to find refuge down a curving passage out of the cavern. But suddenly he was confronted by the next little trap of the well -- a ferocious crocodile. The heroes had to choose between being a pincushion for poisoned crossbow bolts or being lunch for a monstrous reptile. Soon the others made it out of the water and helped the swashbuckler dispatch the creature. Then they were able to escape the crossbows further down the passage. But the well had a third trap for them...

The cavern suddenly began to fill with water. Luckily, the prisoner was able to give them some instructions on how to escape the passage through a hidden panel about five feet up the wall. Quickly the companions found the secret door and exited the watery death pit. They then found themselves in a corridor of fitted stone blocks -- the halls of the Lotus Dragons' lair, no doubt. The corridor led to a circular domed chamber with a trapdoor in the ceiling. Climbing up the convenient ladder provided, Drogg realized that the trapdoor most likely opened into one of the old abandoned buildings around the plaza above.

After continuing their exploration, they discovered an observation room that had a one-way illusionary wall that looked out over the well cavern. Several more thugs were there and a bloody battle was fought. In the end, the heroes were victorious. The room was where the crossbows were being fired from and also where the mechanism was located for flooding the cavern. Clearly these were no ordinary thieves. This guild was powerful and well-funded to have such elaborate defenses. Funding which probably came from the Vanderboren family vault!

DM Notes: Very tough session. The players were quite clever throughout, however, and the results could have been much worse. The quote of the session had to be "go, go, celestial porpoise!"

SESSION 4 - Escape the Smugglers' Tunnels

After managing to survive the perils of the death trap beneath Parrot Island, the adventurers focused their efforts to finding some way out of the horrid smugglers' hideout. The party had explored every non-flooded avenue available to them, but the submerged passageways to the west beckoned malevolently. The shallower areas were very slippery and riddled with needle-sharp urchin spines. Beyond that, the footing dropped off to depths of perhaps twelve feet or more in places.

Drogg and Cosimo (the party's resident sea otter) swam out through the natural tunnels hoping to find some route of escape. They managed to locate a section of the hideout separated from the rest but constructed once again of worked stone blocks. There they found a disease-bloated body clutching a rolled-up piece of parchment. On it was written the last testament of a dying man and a rather damning testimony of Vanthus Vanderboren's character (but that's okay... we didn't like him anyway).

The author of the note -- the presumed bloated corpse -- was called Penkus. He was a partner of Vanthus and helped to get him accepted into some kind of mysterious guild. Vanthus repaid him by trapping him in these very tunnels with the intent of replacing him in the organization. The note also revealed a possible location of this guild (and the hated Vanthus)... beneath the Taxidermist Guildhall in Sunrise District. Along with this vital information, the group also uncovered some valuable treasure (including a wand and a magical gemstone). But the primary concern was still escape.

Cosimo saved the day (and perhaps much more) when he discovered a submerged exit tunnel that led out into Sasserine Harbor. Most could not hope to swim as well as he, so he swam out through the tunnel and then climbed up to the clearing on Parrot Island to reopen the stone trap door. Shortly thereafter, the others were free, as well.

DM Notes: Most of the rest of the session was spent shopping and running various errands. Some of the magical items identified at the temple to Wee Jas in the Noble District. Up next is perhaps a plan to infiltrate the Taxidermist Guildhall.

Next session: Friday, February 10th at 6:30 p.m.