Session 1
The party is summoned to another mission by the Priest of Tymora, Chezlaw, in Waterdeep. This time, the adventuring life takes them to a possible ruin off the Northeast portion of the Moonshae Isle to retrieve an item called the Kythera Device. Said device was an item that was suspected to be from the time of the Netherese, the bane of many-a-scholar looking for knowledge due to its purpose of "predicting possibility". Chezlaw goes on to explain that the more sailors headed over to the location of the device, the more complicated the voyage became due to the frequent storms and giant-height waves centered around a triangle in the middle of the ocean.
With that information out of the way, the party decided to go on their own paths of preparation before setting sail.
Raebn ventures to the Font of Knowledge, where he is greeted by a clerk and acolyte of Oghma. Using his connection with the Cowled Wizards of Athkatla to gain access to some of the more secreted knowledge of the place, the clerk forwards his request to a high priest of Oghma.
On the other end of Waterdeep, at the docks, Beckett spends his time teaching Ka’turr the fundamentals of shooting a pistol by lining up some spare bottles for targets. The tortle proved to be somewhat of a natural on his first shot despite never once picking up such a weapon before.
Similarly on the docks, Katherine heads over to the dockmaster to get some directions to the nearest tavern to begin recruiting. Once inside, she takes up a plank and a bit of paper before writing down a draft, getting the tavern’s attention, and loudly proclaiming her demands. The air was silent for just a moment before some laughter could be heard. Katherine then stomps her foot and invokes a dreadful pulse of divine energy to cow the tavern into silence before she repeats her request again. There was much debate in the tavern yet again before a group of six individuals decided to take her up on the offer. Katherine had enlisted the help of two sea-worthy casters, two crewmates capable of manning the weapons and keeping inventory, one navigator, and one formidable fighter for a barrel of rum each and 50 gold. The gold is paid in increments and the full amount will be given at the end of the journey.
Meanwhile, back in the Font of Knowledge, Raebn meets up with one Father Mendel, a High Priest of Oghma. He asked some particular questions about the Kythera Device and why the Font of Knowledge seems to be the final entry point before the voyage to the storm-filled triangle that it resided in. Father Mendel said that it was mostly about scholarly curiosity and a need to learn, harkening back to a young lad that had visited him before that asked the same questions, but Raebn found these answers to be unsatisfactory. He then attempted to play into the priest’s conscience, but could not get him to budge when he wished to dig into the Forbidden Archives. Father Mendel then reached a compromise with Raebn, though shaky that it is: Giving him three pieces of information that are important to know right now and could be used right now.
Raebn thinks upon it for a moment before coming up with his questions.
His first question: "What is the true threat that prevents people from getting to the Kythera Device?" Father Mendel answered with the following: “There are three temples that serve as corners of the triangle. Aside from making the place hard to navigate using divination magics, they act as barriers and are the source of the waves and rough storms found in the area. Of the three temples, only two are known: The first and third temple. The first temple is known only as the Temple of the Storms, a ruin that used to be dedicated to Valkur, but has long since been abandoned yet it still works to this day due to spirits and residual energies left over from the place. The third temple is called the Temple of the Winds, and it’s responsible for some parts of the triangle being calm enough where no ship could sail or violent enough where ships can split apart. The second temple is largely unknown since none have actually ventured that far.”
His second question: “"Why do those that wish to venture out to the Kythera Device come to this Temple before their final venture?" Father Mendel answered: “Many things. Blessings. Basic wards for the ships. Knowledge on how to protect the ships from being damaged in the first rung of the journey.” It was then shown how to apply an effect similar to the Protection from Evil and Good spell, but due to this being newer magic that Raebn simply did not have access to, it would take time to learn and prepare.
There was then a pause in the questions as Raebn pondered how to get some more out of the priest. But then he decided that a personal question must be asked: "What did Thorfinn come here for?" He asked about the adopted son--- his student that had disappeared so long ago to go on a mission of knowledge that had led his colleagues to their doom.
Father Mendel was taken aback for a brief moment, overcome first by a certain degree of nostalgia. He remembered the young boy, Thorfinn coming to the Font of Knowledge after absconding with his mentor’s notes and heading into the triangle. Furious with hearing this, Raebn demanded to know more, but Father Mendel refused to let him gain more information, and he refused to speak more on Thorfinn’s whereabouts. The spell of Detect Thoughts was allowed to be cast, and Raebn saw his former student through the priest’s eyes speaking about some notes. A few words were exchanged in that past conversation until Raebn noticed that the sound had been cut out and the research notes being presented were strangely blank when viewing it through the memory.
After that bit of conversation and a bit after that, Raebn leaves, disappointed with the answers.
As with the rest of the party, the extra hands had been chartered for a voyage on the Raked Orca the next day and it is now up to them to complete the preparations before heading out to sea.
Session 2
After debriefing the situation that had happened in the last part, Katherine du Von and her crew consisting of herself, Relia, Zeth, Zetish, and Vyrnen, as well as six hired hands from Waterdeep, head out into the sea aboard the Raked Orca. Their destination is a triangle of island temples located out toward the Moonshae Isles, and at the center of said temples lies a fourth containing something called the Kythera Device. However, like most sailors that make their way to the place where the device rests, they have to first make it to three temples.
Along the way, they find themselves at the claw and jaw of a monstrous creature that grabbed a hold of their ship and began to wreak havoc by tearing into the vessel and flinging the crew off the side and into the water. However, the party and crew managed to damage it to the point where it strangely retreated before it could properly finish off Katherine. The party recuperated after the harrowing experience as they finally land on the shores of the first island temple, the Temple of the Storms, a decrepit place dedicated to the Wave Captain.
Session 3
Going from the Temple of the Storms, and completing a very complicated puzzle that involved lightning and the shattering of ice in honor of Valkur, the party heads off and sails to another temple, found out to be seven days away by ship travel. This time it is the Temple of the Winds, the appearance merely a cave with three braziers inside it and a strange set-up involving a tarp and two sets of metal brackets stacked vertically on top of each other. Though stumped by this, and generally unsure about how to go about this, they first tried to lift the braziers to bring it to the tarp set-up, but it proved to be unsuccessful given that they were firmly affixed to their pedestals.
It was then that the party came across an ordinary lockbox and decided to open it with an improvised set of lockpicks instead of breaking the box open. They find within it a book and a few other things, namely three opaque crystals. At first, the party thought that the items were part of the puzzle itself, but after a spell of Identify was cast upon one of them, crystals are revealed to be some kind of message left behind by someone who had previously ventured to the Temple of the Winds.
Playing the message back, the party can see a young red-headed researcher through a series of images projected through the stones when put in front of a source of bright light for a minute. The researcher presents himself as Thorfinn Amnson from Athkatla while standing in front of the puzzle contraption that the party was stumped over. Though, when they looked into the image, albeit in three different iterations because of the apparent limit to which they played back, the party can see that the brackets in the set-up were supposed to contain a large dish of water on the top rack and unevenly distributed flame on the bottom rack, causing the tarp to expand and float.
Curious though, before he sets off to wherever the next temple might be and wherever his quest might take him, Thorfinn expressed that he doesn’t really know what lies in the future and he expressed a sort of apology to both his master, Raebn, and Father Mendel in the Font of Knowledge. The images were then cut short before he was about to give out a sort of academic revelation, leaving the party to wonder what it was that he had stumbled upon.
Leaving the Temple of the Winds with the various objects on board, they take to the final temple, the temple of the Drowned, a ship graveyard dedicated to Umberlee. Once there, they were attacked by three pirates who were presumably of the undead variety. Two of the pirates fled, but the last pirate, a spellcaster, was taken apart and finally put to rest.
Session 4: Finale
Once the Party plus the hired crew had departed from the Temple of the Drowned, they had landed upon a tiny island at the center of the triangle of temples that was virtually empty. Making haste and well aware of these types of things, Katherine pulled out a Wand of Magic Detection and found a hatch that was being covered in illusory magics and a glyph that incinerated an arrow that was fired from Zetish’s bow. After that little thing was taken care of, the party descended while the crew set some stuff on the shores.
Heading down the dark stair under the hatch, one step closer to the Kythera Device, the party can barely see down, given how dark it is. They started lighting up torches to help with the few that could not see in the dark and the light revealed to them the corridor being covered and lined with runes and gears. The gears seem to be dormant, but the area is clean enough to the point where it feels as though it could start moving at any time. The party finds a lever, and after checking to see if it could be safely pulled, they pull it to reveal two paths formerly locked behind sliding doors. They head down one path to find a portal at the end of it, and they all eventually jump into it to find themselves thrown into different rooms randomly on the other side.
Zeth and Zetish find themselves in a room with a stone door that does not seem to have a latch or knob. A voice comes out from the room. It keeps mentioning words related to a “sow” and “prestige” in a very derogatory way, directed at Zeth, but at the same time he is not the target of these words. Probably a family member, no one is sure. Yellow letters then show up upon the door, making out to be “Forgive or Forget” in Elvish. Zeth answers “Forgive but not forget” prompting the door to open. However, after coming out of the room, Zeth finally remembers what the voice was, and the thought made his blood boil.
Relia and Vyrnen find themselves in a room lit up in red though very faint. They know that they are still in the same temple, but they find that the party has been separated. The room then plays out a voice familiar to Vyrnen, the voice belonging to someone he had wronged on a mission before, filled with hatred and vitriol. Relia and Vyrnen could then see words in Elvish lighting up in red translating into “All dues are meant to be paid in Blood.” Though Relia is unaware of what the words from this voice mean, and therefore, her voice means nothing to them escaping, Vyrnen increasingly tensed. A knife could be heard dropping in the center of the room, looking Elvish in design. When Vyrnen stepped closer to it, he could see that it became more real, but it seemed to phase in and out of reality for Relia. Knowing the context of the door’s statement, Vyrnen bleeds himself with the knife and wipes the blood onto the door, resolving to continue on with his life and try to right the wrong that he had committed. The door opens upon the action.
Katherine finds herself alone in a green tinted room surrounded by bodies, or rather, the remnants of bodies. The skeletons and pieces of the former visitors that had entered into the Temple of Kythera had littered the place, but upon sensing around the room, none of them seemed to be of the undead. The room feels cold as she walks up to the door and it displays a few words that are entirely foreign to her. It starts smelling of salt when a series of voices comes to her. The first voice comes from a family member, Katherine’s Uncle Clayton, only recognized after it referred to her as somewhat affectionately as “Puppy”. The voice of Clayton says a few remarks as to what Katherine could’ve been if not in her current runaway position, but he responds with a certain degree of venom to that before the voice disappears. The next voice is that of Bertrand, part of the original crew aboard the Mistweaver that had mutinied against her. The last voice is that of Katherine’s “Patron” Ithtasha. Among all three voices, the line of “You have no power here, girl” was repeated, and another line was added from Ithtasha when referring to the monster that had attacked her ship out at sea mere day before: “He is one of your own.” Katherine leaves the room after some words were exchanged, but the meaning of those words may or may not mean something right now.
In the moment, the party found that they arrived on the other sides of their individual doors, meeting each other and entering a dimly lit room with lights made out to be numbers, stars, words, and various scribblings on a domed ceiling. In the center, as if the place is coming alive, a ball of blue light appears and greets them in a very cheery but monotone voice. It congratulates them for coming as far as they did, but when they told it that they had come to take the Kythera Device and bring it over to Waterdeep as the original client Chezlaw asked, the light responded with confusion.
The light says that the entire temple was the Kythera Device, made to replicate some old magic, which by this point can be guessed to be Chronurgy. It explained that the wizard Kythera long ago spent the later years of his life trying to tap into the powers of prediction and time, gathering arcane practitioners and associates from all over in order to get it done. However, the result, the Kythera Device, was a poor imitation and as such, it can only calculate results from the information it was given.
With that in mind, the party realized that they could not bring this device back given the dangers and its size, but Katherine notes that if they give out the location of the Kythera Device to others, they might eventually find it and seek it out as well. The light said that it didn’t care, for as long as it can learn, it has fulfilled its purpose as determined by its creator. It is up to the Party on whether or not they do this, and they are steadily allowed to leave.
Once outside onto the surface, the party is met with an attack by the scion that had followed them to the isle. The crew had been reduced to half as the scion and its allies fought. The Party rushed over and engaged, with Katherine going on the middle of things with the help of Zeth’s Dimension Door spell and Relia joining in with a slight Fey Step. The scion summoned spirits of the drowned that lugged anchors and climbed aboard the shores, eventually taking down more of the crew and reducing them to just one left.
Over time, more things keep coming and they have revealed themselves after the scion became weakened. Relia and Katherine moved around and used its size against it, tearing it to shreds before it expired while cursing Katherine in Abyssal telling some of the party that Katherine will abandon them like he had done it. Its form melted and practically dissolved in a strange black flow, revealing its form to be someone that Katherine had recognized from her time as the captain of her own ship, her former navigator Marcel, who had come to hunt after her for unknown reasons. Marcel’s body expired and collapsed, ending the encounter. The remaining crew member that Katherine had hired before questioned her about what Marcel had been saying, but Katherine reassured him that she only kills traitors and not her crew to which the man says “a captain is as good as the trust that the crew puts in them”. With that, the party and the one remaining hired crew member heads back to Waterdeep and Hawthorne by ship to report on the results of their mission.