Midsummer: Evening at the Green Goblin
At the Green Goblin
The group had arrived at the Green Goblin earlier in the evening. They had enjoyed a special meal prepared by Aristotle that Nevil had requested earlier on the sly. Cirilli was enjoying a festival treat of lemonade. Atalaya was drinking mead while the rest enjoyed pitchers of ale that Vasilya had secured for them.
After the meal Sorrow and Ivar started playing music which was enjoyed by all those present. Many of those present were dancing when appropriate music was being played. Sorrow included both couples dances and children’s dances. Other songs to just listen to were also included. Cirilli enjoyed dancing and was taught an elven group dance by Atalaya. Vasilya also learned the dance. The two students picked up on the dance and added their own style very quickly. Inman and Nevil were impressed. The five non musicians of the group enjoyed dancing, returning to the table at times to imbibe briefly before returning to the dance floor.
Inman and Nevil recount a mischievous midsummer of their past. Sneaking on to a slaver ship to gather evidence.
The tavern was full of families celebrating Midsummer. Other than our party, most were hobbit families. There were a few families which appeared to be half elven also. Cirilli seemed to enjoy participating in the children’s and group dances with the children from those families.
As Sorrow and Ivar were preparing to take a break, Sorrow met Nevil’s gaze and started playing a song she had requested while they were on the ship. It was very different from the music that they had been playing that evening. Nevil and Inman share a tender moment as the song is played. Atalaya (who was already slightly tipsy) heard the song and became very wary. The words seemed derisive and noting the change of mood through the tavern she became worried. Making her way to Nevil and Inman as the song ended she asked, “Are you trying to start something? Why did they play such a song tonight?”
Nevil becomes upset at Atalaya’s question. She explains that it is a favorite song that she wanted to share with Inman.
During the song a halfling woman shouts her affection and desire to bed Sorrow.
Atalaya asks Sorrow to please not end the set with that song and encourages him to play a child’s dance as she hopes that this will settle the people down again and engage the children’s thoughts, at least, in a different direction. He complies.
Nevil makes her way outside as Atalaya is talking to Sorrow. When Atalaya notices this, and sees that Cirilli is pulling Vasilya back onto the dance floor, she follows Nevil.
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Atalaya tries to apologize for what she had said in the tavern, explaining that she was worried for her. Especially since she had been trying to keep a low profile in Riverport and Atalaya was worried that this could lead to attention that Nevil didn’t want.
While a little irritated at first, believing Atalaya's behavior to be reproachful of her behavior, she realizes it was out of a place of concern and protection. Nevil reassures Atalaya that No one would think twice about a common tavern song in a tavern.
Atalaya says that it is a good thing that she is not a Harper, she doesn’t have the nerves for it.
They make their way back into the tavern. During their absence, a lacy thong has appeared on Sorrow’s horns. He either doesn't notice or doesn’t care. Inman dances several dances with Cirilli.
Linder Filvendorson makes his way into the tavern. Atalaya calls him over to the table and offers him a drink. He introduces himself to Nevil and proceeds to try to charm her several direct times. He dances with her while Inman is dancing with Cirilli. Inman “checks him out”. Linder implies that he has many different “jobs” that he does and frequently comes to the Green Goblin looking for “side work”. He also states that he knows his way around the docks and is good at being quiet and low key.
When Nevil returns to the table and Inman’s lap as a sign of fidelity, Vasilya tells us that LIndir has been in Riverport for at least 100 years. (Or so he has heard.)
Everyone continues to enjoy the music, the dancing, and the drinking. Atalaya, realizing that Vaz has managed to get far more alcohol into her than she normally drinks, starts trying to refill his tankard, as he has apparently been doing for her throughout the night. Vaz notices immediately, pleased that Atalaya may be trying to take advantage of him as well.
As they get ready to leave the couples dance a final dance, Sorrow has shifted the music to slower more romantic pieces and the dance is enjoyed by both Atalaya and Vasilya, and by Nevil and Inman. Cirilli, not to be left out, scampers off to the kitchen and pulls Aristotle out to dance with her. He seems to be touched by her gesture and guides her through a waltz.
The group (minus Sorrow and Ivar) heads back to the ship. They notice a lot of people “making out” but do not see anything threatening. The town and even the docks seem strangely quiet. The guards are out in force.
Once back on the ship, Nevil takes Atalaya aside and “heals” her of her intoxication. She then goes with Cirilli to help her out of her finery and sends her to bed before heading off with Inman.
1st of Eleasis
Breakfast and sailing
Somewhere around 10:00 to 11:00 am
In the morning Vasilya seems to be the first one awake, at least he is the first to leave his cabin. He makes his way to the galley and starts preparing breakfast. As he does so, Sorrow and Ivar finally make their way back onto the ship. Sorrow still has the thong dangling from his horn.
All over the docks there are overturned tankards and confetti and other signs of the activities of the previous night.
Once the coffee is brewing and the smells of bacon and other breakfast foods begin to fill the common room. Nevil makes her way out of her cabin and talks to Vasilya. He tells her that the thong is still hanging on Sorrow’s horn. They make a bet on how long it will take before Sorrow notices the thong with Nevil saying that he will be wearing it during the first battle of the day.
Inman eventually shuffles into the common area. Nevil and Inman eye each other happily.
Eventually Atalaya makes her way out and joins everyone, heading immediately for coffee. (By the way, this would be the first time Nevil would not have found Atalaya up and out before her with the possible exception of at the Greenleaf’s home.) They talk at the table while eating. It is determined that they are going to try to figure out what is going on at the island indicated in the papers from the slaver ship. They get Atalaya to agree not to say anything about the thong to Sorrow. (Not explicitly stated but sometime in here Cirilli would have had some breakfast.)
Before asking Annie to get under sail, Nevil and Atalaya search the ship for stowaways and other undesirables. Finding no one, they ask Annie to head to the coordinates of the island that she was given the day before. Nevil asks if she needs any help for a hangover. Annie declines but sends Nevil to Lonnie to help her.
Nevil assists Lonnie with her hangover and the two make a wager on Sorrow noticing the thong also. With her Nevil wagers that at 3:00 Sorrow will still not be aware of the thong. The bet is 1 silver piece.
When Sorrow makes his appearance later in the afternoon he still has the thong on his horn. No one makes mention of this. Ivar, who has also finally made his appearance looks between Nevil and Sorrow, says nothing, grabs some coffee and heads back to his cabin.
Sorrow doesn’t seem to notice the thong. He sits around drinking coffee and playing his instruments a little. At 3:00 he still has the thong on his horn. Ivar remains heavily asleep most of the trip.
[per writing, Inman, Atalaya and Vaz make a late lunch, at which it comes out that Sorrow is carrying the thong on his horn.]
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Slaver’s Island-Merrow Fight
We finally see a shoal forming ahead of us in the water. We drop anchor. The island is small, just a bunch of sand. We don’t see anything else of interest. The island is surrounded by a coral reef. We don’t see any ships or people in the area.
Cirilli stays on the ship, in the crow’s nest with Kyle keeping watch for danger.
Inman, Nevil, Vasilya and Atalaya take the dingy to the island. When they get off Inman ritually casts a detect magic spell, but doesn’t detect anything. Looking around there are no footprints in the sand. The winds seem to have swept any traces of previous landings away.
There is movement in the water nearby and 2 beings, Merrows, make their way out of the water and confront us. One of them asks what we are doing here. Nevil answers that we are “seeking truth.” They tell us that we are trespassing here.
One of the creatures is wearing a silver earring fashioned as the lower part of its ear. When Vasilya notices this, he says that it reminds him of Gamin, the half eared pirate that he knows/knew? from the Riverport area.
The creature (Gamin) seems to recognize Vasilya and asks Vaz to kill him. After asking for death, the recognition in its face seems to leave it.
Inman says that the creatures look like Merrows but that they are not normal.
One of the Merrows repeats, “You are trespassing here.”
Atalaya starts slowly inching her hand towards her quiver to retrieve an arrow.
As she does so a Merperson comes out of the water. She looks a lot like other merpersons we have seen except that she has legs (scaly). She walks onto the beach and asks, “Have you come to trade with me?”
Nevil responds, “It depends.”
They converse, Nevil indicating that she would rather that Atalaya not shoot anyone yet.
Merperson, “You come for the pearls?”
Nevil, “It depends. What do you want for them.”
Merperson, “People”
Nevil, “What would you do with them”
Merperson, “How many pearls? How many people?”
Nevil, “What makes them special?”
Merperson, “You are not the first to come here and talk too much.”
They continue talking with the merperson not really giving them much information. She eventually says that she gives them a better life, makes them stronger. She asks why the captain didn’t come to the island. Atalaya explains that last night was Midsummer and that he partied a bit too much…
Nevil uses her Divine Sense ability. Shayonne (the merperson) is evil… very evil. The two merrow are evil and changed but are not undead.
Nevil and the merperson, Shayonne, eventually stop their verbal sparring and suddenly a great wave of fear passes over Nevil and Inman. Nevil is able to shake it off. It’s like she sees a terrifying face on top of Shayonne’s for a moment, but then it is gone. Inman sees the terrifying face and remains frightened. Shayonne steps back into the water and starts to swim off.
Nevil casts a “Hold Person” spell on Shayonne and she stops moving.
Inman approaches the Merrow (Jacko) and attempts to hit it with his scimitar and to cast Scorching Ray, both miss.
Gamin (Merrow) shambles towards Nevil and attacks with its harpoon. Critical hit for 13 points of damage. Then snaps towards her with its fangs and bites her for an additional 9 points of damage.
Jacko: Harpoon attack at Inman, critical fail. He drops his weapon and is stunned.
Atalaya: Grabs her longbow and shoots two arrows at Gamin, both hit for a total of 18 points.
Vaz: Standing next to Atalaya, shoots his shortbow and hits Gamin for 17 points of damage.
Shayonne: is held by the spell, fails saving throw
Nevil: Attacks Gamin with her morningstar. 1st attack misses, 2nd attack does 6 points of damage.
Inman: Attacks Jacko, Scimitar hits for 7 points of damage. Firebolt hits for 7 points of damage. He is able to shake off his fear.
Gamin: Thrusts his harpoon at Nevil and does 9 points of damage.
Jacko: Stands back up and thrusts his harpoon at Inman again. He misses. He then lunges and bites Inman’s forearm for 9 points of damage.
Atalaya: Shoots her longbow. 1st shot misses. On her 2nd shot she fumbles and falls down, rolling out of it. She manages to retain her grasp on her weapon.
Vasilya: Shoots Gamin with his shortbow, hitting him right in the chest. Gamin says “Thank you” as he falls to the ground.
Shayonne: makes her saving throw and starts swimming again.
Nevil: Does a Cure Wounds spell on herself for 6 points of healing.
Inman: still fighting with Jacko, hits him with the scimitar for 5 points of damage and then a firebolt for 18 points of damage.
Jacko: Tries to harpoon Inman and does so for 13 points of damage. It then tries to bite Inman, but Inman gets out of range of its teeth.
Atalaya: Stands up and moves 15 feet to SW. She Hunter’s Marks Shayonne (4). She makes two shots at Shayonne, both hit. First: 11+4=15 pts damage, Second: 8+4=12 points damage
Vaz: Moves 15 feet next to Atalaya and shoots at Jacko. He misses.
Shayonne: Disengages and dives into the water. Atalaya can see that there are passages through the coral. Atalaya thinks that she went into the western passage.
Nevil: Striking at Jacko with her morningstar, she hits him twice for a total of 21 points of damage. Jacko crumples to the ground, flops there for a moment and then goes still.
Combat ends
They recover arrows and loot bodies. (except for the 2 in Shayonne) Not much to loot, the silver earring and the two harpoons. (2.2 Island of Plunder)
Following Shayonne
We prep to follow Shayonne. Inman casts Water Breathing on himself, Nevil and Vaz. Atalaya gets out her Cloak of the Manta Ray and puts a bottle of water breathing into her pouch in case of emergency.
The passage that Atalaya feels her prey’s hunter’s mark as coming from is the one to the west. They walk out towards it, the water at first no more than 5 feet deep, but the passage through the coral slopes downward from that point. Atalaya puts up the hood of her cloak and dives under the water to start through the passage. She is followed by Nevil, Inman and then Vaz. After going a short distance something alerts Atalaya to danger (some sort of arcane trap) and she notices something strange embedded in the coral. She calls Vaz up to look at it. It is in fact a trap and he is able to disarm it. While not sure exactly what it would have done, the walls in this portion of the tunnel are very very sharp.
They continue to head down the tunnel through the coral. It is getting darker, although there are spots where more light is able to filter through the coral. The corals are very colorful.
As we come into a larger opening with several passages going out of it, we notice that there are two swarms of sea urchins swimming around. As we enter they start quickly moving towards us. The first swarm starts to gather around Atalaya and attempt to bite her. She manages to push them away as she reaches for her longsword and makes a couple of passes with it, trying to hit as many of the sea urchins as she can and to disrupt the rest. Her first swipe does not do any actual damage to the critters. But, with her second she is able to achieve 12 points of damage. During this, Atalaya swims away from the opening of the passage into this area, so that the others can join in the fun.
Nevil swims up with her morningstar and makes two swings at the sea urchins. Adding a Divine Smite to the first swing causes a total of 15 points of damage to the swarm. Her second attack yields an additional 8 points.
Vaz swims over Inman and strikes with his sword, giving the swarm an additional 23 points of damage. The swarm is reduced to a few stragglers.
Inman casts a Scorching Ray at the other swarm, but it does not do any damage.
That swarm makes a beeline towards Inman. (It cannot be a natural movement.) It attempts to attack Inman, but doesn’t do any damage to him.
What is left of the original swarm attacks Vaz and does 5 points of piercing damage.
Atalaya pulls out her Wand of Paralysis and shoots off a charge at the large swarm of sea urchins. They all stop actively moving. Some start to sink towards the ocean’s floor and many remain still, floating in the water around Inman.
Nevil wipes out the smaller swarm with her morningstar.
Then we destroyed the rest of the paralyzed sea urchins.
Atalaya determines which passage Shayonne went through, the one heading eastward.
We make our way down the passage. The coral overhead has gotten very dense and the passageway is dark.
In a choke point we see an iron cauldron, some jewels in the wall and 4 bottles of colored water standing in the sand by the cauldron.
Examining the items, we realize that they are pieces of a riddle lock to whatever lies ahead. Moving the jewels we find colored dots in the wall behind them. After some thought, starting at the top we mix the red and yellow liquids in the cauldron to produce orange. Dipping the clear jewel into it, it turns orange and we replace it on the wall. Working left to right on the second row, we first clear the color using the white liquid. Then using red and blue we make purple. Dip the jewel into the purple color turning it purple also and return it to its place on the wall. Finally, after clearing the color again with the white liquid, we use the blue and yellow liquids to make green. Dip the jewel in and return it to the wall.
The coral shakes and opens into a pitch black open space.
END OF GAME
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