29th of Eleasis cont.
Saving Hawk and her Crew
Chapter 1: Finding Hawk’s Ship
Lucian explains that the water breathing potions that he gave each of us may or may not be needed, but he wants us to have them just in case. He reminds us that the stone bowl down there spawns the water elementals and that because of that he needs to remain on this island.
We head down to the storeroom and move the items that we had blocked entrances with so that we can access the ladder down. There is dim light coming from somewhere below us. Atalaya heads down first, followed by Nevil, Boz and then Inman. At the bottom of the ladder is water that appears to be very deep. (GM says 50 feet deep. The cavern’s ceiling is about 40 feet above the level of the water.) Atalaya sees some fins breaking the water’s surface. They seem to be shark fins. Across an inlet there are two boats tied to a short pier. Inman uses “mage hand” to untie one of them and drag it across the water to us.
Atalaya gets in and moves aside so that Nevil can enter the boat and take the oars in an attempt to help steady the boat while Boz and Inman get in. Atalaya reaches out and tries to steady the boat by holding onto the ladder. Atalaya and Nevil feel something bump against the bottom of the boat. A fine appears as well as teeth. Boz maneuvers himself so that Inman can get into the rowboat before him and then nimbly leaps into it without a problem. We row across to the pier while taking occasional bumps from the circling sharks. Reaching the pier, we tie the rowboat to it. There are now numerous sharks swimming nearby, watching us.
Walking along the shoreline we listen to the waves lapping along the beach and the echoing sounds they make within the cavern. We hear no other sounds. We found 4 chests along the shoreline. Boz checks them for traps and locks, but finds that there aren’t any. Atalaya guards Boz as he does so, keeping an eye on the closed door in the cavern wall. Opening the chests, we see that they are full of treasure: trinkets, jewelry, small statues/carvings, perfumes. In the first chest there is a black hilted dagger.
Inman: “Do you see that?” Is that the prow of a ship?”
Nevil: “Yeah.”
We see the prow of a ship jammed into a gap in the rocks. It has another rowboat tied to it. There is no mast. Atalaya asks if it is Hawk’s ship. The others agree that it looks like it. (ships name…. Sha______)
The ship looks like it was looted. There are rags of fabric around it, broken pieces of trunks, etc.
Inman catches a glimpse of green eyes and a small humanoid as it ducks to hide under the ship's rail. He turns to Nevil and says, “I think someone is watching from the ship.”
Nevil watches and then nudges Atalaya.
Nevil: “Inman saw a quick flash of green eyes.
Atalaya: “Did you recognize …?
Nevil: “I didn’t see. He said it was a quick look.
Boz: “It could be a member of Hawk’s crew.
Nevil: “Maybe.”
Inman: “Spying through the railing.”
Atalaya, after getting a description of the area to look at, scans that area and does in fact see something. She calls out, “You want to come out?”
A halfling child tentatively stands up.
Atalaya: “We are not going to hurt you. What’s your name?”
Rafe: “I’m not scared. My name is Rafe. The evil eelmen took my friends.”
We ask him where his friends were taken. He doesn’t know.
Rafe explains that his father had cargo aboard this ship and that he wanted to be an adventurer rather than a merchant and that he snuck aboard to pretend for a while. He was found by the crew and befriended by them. “They were nice to me.”
He explains that he was alone on the boat. He hid when the eelmen came on the boat and took everyone off. He tells us that they “scattered all of my Pa’s stuff.”
We hear screaming coming out of the caves.
Nevil asks Rafe if he can stay on the boat while we handle whatever that is.
Rafe tells us to beware the eelmen and that one of them is bigger than the rest. “Watch out for the big eelman. I’m not afraid of him, but you might be.
Atalaya tells him to “hide up there (on the boat) again and we’ll be back in a little bit. We head over to the door in the cave wall.
Chapter 2: Freeing Hawk’s Crew
Boz checks the door and tells us that it is not trapped. He asks if he should open it. He tells us that it is locked. He is able to quickly unlock it, getting a soft click. “It’s unlocked. I’m worried.”
Atalaya readies her bow.
Boz opens the door and steps aside. Dank moldy air wafts out of the doorway. It is an unpleasant smell of sweat, mildew and fear. Atalaya and then the rest of us can make out Hawk and some of her crew tied up in small groups in the cavern. We hear the guttural sounds of eelmen and see two of them through the open door. They appear to be playing a dice game.
Boz: reacts quickly, stepping back into the doorway and shooting an arrow at the eelman (Slam) doing 24 points of damage. He then steps back to the side of the door to allow access to the rest of the group (and hoping to remain hidden).
Nevil: Quickly strolls into the room with her mace and shield and says, “Whole big damn ocean, what are the chances?” Smiles at Slam and strikes him twice with her morningstar mace and Slam goes down.
Inman: Moves inside and positions himself on the wall. He casts a “simple” firebolt spell at Slicky and hits him for 8 points of damage.
Slicky: Runs for door (to the south of the map) and opens it and moves through it.
Atalaya: Moves into the room and shoots 2 arrows at Slicky, both hit. Slicky goes down.
Hawk: (very weakly) “You have to stop them.”
Nevil: Yeah.
Atalaya: “How many more are there?”
Hawk: “I don’t know. Six? Seven? Big one, be careful.”
Boz: Moves next to Atalaya. He holds his action until he can see someone.
Nevil: Moves to the side of the open door and peers into the next room. “There are 5 or 6. Big one at the far side of the room. Is that Butcher Boy?” Nevil casts “Bless” on Atalaya, Inman and Boz.
Flotsam: Flotsam moves to the doorway.
Inman: Moves across from Flotsam (along the north wall) and activates Blade Song and casts Meteores spell in prep for next turn.
Scum: Moves to doorway. (This is a double door wide doorway)
Atalaya: Shoots at the eelmen in the doorway. First shot is a critical fail. She falls but manages to maintain her hold on her bow and turns it into a rolling fall and immediately gets back on her feet to shoot her second and third arrows (hordebreaker arrow). These both hit. Causing 7 points of damage to one and 9 points of damage to the other creature. She then continues to move another 10 feet to be out of range of anything Inman throws at the eelmen.
Floater: Moves towards the door.
_unnamed eelman_: Runs up.
Boz: Shoots at Scum. Misses and then moves between Atalaya and Nevil.
Nevil: Holds her action until after Inman.
Flotsam: Comes through the doorway and goes after Nevil. He tries to slam into her with his longknife. He does so, causing 5 points of damage from the knife and an additional 6 points of damage from the force of the slam.
Inman: Casts shatter just behind Floatsum. This affects 4 of the eelmen.
Flotsam: Saved. 8 damage
Floater: failed. 19 damage (kills him within electric explosion range of Boz and Nevil). Boz makes his save and takes only 4 points of damage as he dodges. Nevil fails her save and takes 9 points of damage.
Scum: failed. 19 damage
Spear: failed. 19 damage
Inman then directs two of his meteors at the large creature. (Scruge). Scruge fails both saving throws, taking 9 +10 points of damage.
Nevil: (taking her held action): She grabs Flotsam and flings him around the doorway and throws him forcefully into the wall behind where she was standing and quickly ducks back behind the wall. Flotsam attempts to resist, but Nevil’s righteous anger is stronger than Flotsam’s attempt to pull free and he takes 4 more points of damage. As he hits the wall, he explodes. Slime goes everywhere. Luckily Nevil manages to avoid it and the damage of the explosion by being behind the wall. Nevil's grin, backlit by the explosion, is only half hid as she turns towards the wall. The rest of us see a blinding flash of light from the room through the doorway.
Atalaya: (gets the best move of the game) Shoots her 2 Thunder Arrows at Scruge (the large eelman). Both hit. He takes 21 points of damage from the arrows. He fails one of 2 saves and takes another 6 points of thunder damage and is pushed back 5 feet and falls prone on Butcher Boy. (Unknown at the time, Effectively stopping Butcher Boy from summoning the wave elemental.)
Spear: Leaps at Atalaya with his knife but misses.
Boz: Moves next to Atalaya, draws his sword and sneak attacks Spear. Dealing 23 points of damage he kills Spear. Spear falls onto Atalaya, getting its slime all over her before exploding. Both Atalaya and Boz make their saving throws and take just 3 points of damage.
Nevil: Heals herself as she sprints towards Butcher Boy. Boz and Atalaya hear her muttering the affirmation “all life is sacred” as she passes by and works her way around and behind Scruge.
The door behind Inman pops open. As Stanley opens the door he sees Inman and jumps on him and tries to stab him. His attack misses.
Inman: Blade dances with Stanley. Both swings of his scimitar hit causing 4 points + 6 points of damage. He throws 2 more meteors at Scourge. He takes 4+6 points of damage.
Atalaya: Shoots 2 arrows at Scuge. First hits for 18 points of damage. 2nd is a critical fail. Atalaya has a -1 to hit on her next shot.
Tidal: Smacks into Inman giving 3 points of damage with his spear plus an additional 8 points of force damage.
Boz: Shoots at Tidal. Sneak attack. Does 23 points of damage.
Nevil: Walks around Scourge to get near Butcher Boy who looks weak.
She smacks Scourge. Her first swing misses, but her second swing connects. She adds the power of Divine Smite to her blow, causing a total of 22 points of damage. Nevil can feel electricity through her arms through her weapon as she delivers the blow, taking 9 points of damage. Scourge explodes and Nevil takes 6 points of damage from the explosion. Butcher Boy would also take damage, but Nevil absorbs his damage (Paladin Aura) of 11 points.
Stanley: Attempts to stab Inman again, and misses.
Inman: Disengages from Stanley and moves away from him. He then sends his last 2 meteors at Stanley and Tidal at a point within 5 feet of both of them. (These are the last of Inman’s meteors)
1st Meteor
Stanley: fail: 6 points damage
Tidal: fail 6 points of damage
2nd Meteor
Stanley: fail: 10 points of damage
Tidal: fail: 10 points of damage
Tidal is killed.
Atalaya: Shoots at and kills Stanley. She then begins checking the area for any more eelmen. None in the alcove of the southern room. None in the storeroom from which Stanley and Tidal emerged. She does find casks of rum and chests filled with silks. Boz assists her.
Chapter 3: After the Battle
Inman begins freeing Hawk and her crew. Atalaya and Boz help once they are sure there are no more eelmen hiding.
Nevil leads Butcher Boy back to the first room.
Hawk: “Don’t do that to me again, Butcher.”
As Atalaya returns from the storeroom she asks Hawk, “The rum and silks are yours?”
Hawk says that they are.
Atalaya asks her how her boat is.
Hawk replies that it has a broken main mast, and some minor leaks, but that she thinks it can make it back to the town.
Butcher Boy tells us that they were making him summon the wave elemental. He says that you have to be able to maintain your concentration in order to control it. That if you don’t, it will turn on you.
Hawk's crew lost some brothers and sisters when the eelmen forced them to summon the wave elemental.
Hawk: “Yes, they were using my crew to summon that thing.
Nevil: I’ve never heard of creatures like these doing it.
Hawk: I don’t know. I can see why they were.
Nevil: “They were looking for something?”
Hawk: I owe you something.
After a lull in discussion, Nevil tells Hawk, "You've got one really cute stowaway.”
Hawk: “His name is Rafe Frogwater.” … The rum and silks are for his father.
Atalaya asks if the chests are from her ship. She says no, but Hawk walks over to the treasure chests on the beach and pulls out the dagger from the first chest. “This is not mine. It’s a dagger of venom.” She returns the dagger to the chest.
Nevil's brow raises and she believes Hawk is overly familiar with the dagger and chest.
Looking at her ship, the main mast is broken and missing. It is in need of repairs.
Butcher Boy asks about Lucian and whether or not he can control the water elemental. We tell him that he can.
Using the rowboats we get everyone over to the ladder and up into the lighthouse. Lucian comes down and meets Hawk and her crew and they discuss getting the ship across the straight with the help of the water elemental. They also agree to stay with Lucian to provide guards against any other attempts by the eelmen to take over the lighthouse.
Atalaya takes a handful of necklaces from the treasure chests, 3 bottles of perfume and the poison dagger.
Nevil suggests a goods trade in gold to avoid spending too much time at port.
Hawk pays us 400 gp for the rest of the chests.
We get back on our ship and head back to town. We arrive back around suppertime. After docking we escort Rafe back to his father. His father was very worried once he realized that Rafe was missing. He is very happy to have his son back. He is also happy about the news that we found Lucian, the lighthouse keeper and freed him from the evil eelmen. We also tell him that Hawk and her ship were found and that his cargo is safe and that it will be arriving with her ship in the next day or so once the ship is able to be moved from the island to the port. The father (Benji Frogwater) pays us the 200 gp finders fee that was promised. He also gives each of us (Atalaya, Nevil, Inman, and Boz a Mariener’s Coin. (When presented to a non-hostile sailor, it grants advantage on one Charisma check to influence him or her.) He tells us that if we show it at a port it will let people there know that we are “alright people” and we may get better help. It basically says that one of the brotherhood owes you a favor.
We gather Cirilli and Sorrow and head to a local tavern. It is just a basic tavern, but has a good stew cooking. The townsfolk have heard that we have freed Lucian by this point and are very appreciative. We do not have to pay for dinner. There are frequent toasts. Nevil uses the name of “Thera” for the night, not wanting to draw attention to the name “Nevil”. Inman is amused by this. He doesn’t actually use a different name, but at times jokes about being “Jorge or Bill.”
[End]
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