Participants: Karcaw,Neguth,Moresh Veka,Unque Greer
Location: Abandoned Pirate Cove
Loose Ends: The hidden magic sword, The pirate’s mining operation, The Niad’s secret underwater tunnel, The nest of freshly hatched Harpies that can control undead, The black ooze, Fenian and Mother’s goals
Short summary: went to investigate eerie lights and strange sounds coming from the Abandoned Pirate Cave. Found some weird mining operation, Naiads disturbed by skeletons and an old zombie ship that attacked us.
Summary:
Our quest began in the lively Blinking Pug. Rumors had been circulating of lights and singing within the supposedly Abandoned Pirate Cove. Scouts were sent to the area, but none had returned. Aeric Tinypockets requested the help of the Adventuring Guild to search the area and find the missing scouts. I also had my own personal goal of checking out this location as a future FLOAT stronghold.
Aeric brought us up to speed on the current issues at the Cove. He is paid to watch over the area and to keep it clean as well. Unfortunately, Aeric never expected there to be anything at the Cove, so when he actually found something, he came running to the Guild for help. (Karcaw’s tip for seaside employers: always hire competent workers so you don’t end up paying for multiple groups to fix a single issue.) After a brief discussion on the best method of travel, we decided to walk to our destination on foot. It isn’t too far, the weather was great, and many of us have no experience with riding large animals. We stocked up on supplies and headed off on our adventure.
Our first and second day on the trail was peaceful with no real hardships. However, on the second night, we heard some clanging in the distance. Following the sound led us to a shady group digging in a graveyard. Neguth, Moresh, Unque, and myself chose to try a diplomatic approach with the graverobbers. Eli was itching for an opportunity to shoot somebody, so he disappeared into the shadows to offer cover fire if something went wrong.
We exchanged some tense words, but in the end, the negotiations were peaceful. One of the graverobbers, Sault, informed us that there is the magical sword of Sir Dentro buried somewhere in the graveyard and they wished to find it to take down their oppressors. We questioned them further, and we learned that their oppressors are the group known as FAE. Sault claims they “ deal in weapons, drugs, knowledge and pay in pain and betrayal.” Unque then revealed that our group is from First Landing, and that we’d inform the guild of their troubles. Sault thanked us for our time, and said that a future adventuring party should meet at the cemetery and light a torch at the entrance. They would find us.
An approaching storm cut our conversation short, and we were forced to seek shelter for the night. I spent the night worrying. I’m now caught in the middle of 2 groups that hate each other. FLOAT will have to make a decision on where our alliances truly lie. Unque noticed my worry, and when he asked, I had to tell him that he was also stuck in the middle of this conflict.
After some more travel we finally made it to the entrance of the Cove. A dockworker noticed us but paid us no mind. He seemed more focused on his work than dealing with intruders. Since they weren’t immediately hostile, we decided to go the diplomatic route again. After all, it worked last time. As the resident sailor of the group, I approached the guards and waved hello.
Funnily enough, they assumed we were some reinforcements and told us to start moving crates. The crates contained some strange hexagonal stones that glowed a blueish black color. We agreed to move the crates, but I had to inform the pirates of our actual goals and that we weren’t in fact the reinforcements they were looking for. They seemed to appreciate it and allowed into the cave. Even more strangely, the pirates were covered in a black ooze, and none of them seemed to notice it was on their skin until we pointed it out.
Once inside the cave, we realized that none of us had seen Eli quite a while. We waited for him as long as we could, but it seems our aquatic Dwarven friend has abandoned us. I wish we could have looked for him, but we had to remain focused on our mission.
We explored the cave and were eventually attacked by some Niads. They threw ooze bombs that stung our eyes, and I was dunked in the water. Rude. After a quick scuffle, 2 of the Niads lay dead, and the last one was unconscious and tied up to a tree I summoned during the battle. We felt terrible about the bloodshed. Too many lives were wasted for no good reason. Neguth remembered the Niad’s burial rituals and did his best to send off the dead with the proper respects.
When the remaining Niad regained consciousness, he was initially angry at being captured instead of killed. When he saw Neguth’s burial ritual, the Niad’s tone shifted to be more friendly. He explained that the cove had been recently invaded by the pirates and their mining operations, as well as a bunch of skeletons covered in black ooze. We were given permission to continue searching the caves as long as we stayed out of their underwater tunnels. Our group agreed, released the captured Niad, and continued searching the cave.
At some point I was separated from the rest of the group. I know I shouldn’t have strayed, but I saw a strange sight, a crow with a single yellow eye beckoning me further into the darkness. The crow led me to something unexpected. The darkness was replaced by green fire, and a one-eyed elf greeted me. We shared some food, and the elf, who introduced himself as Fenian, asked me to be a follower of Mother. I initially turned him down, but after more conversation, I agreed to at least be shown the path that this “Mother” wants me to take. Apparently I control 2 of “her” elements and she’s been watching me for a while? I’m not too sure what to make it of just yet.
When I reunited with the rest of my party, they seemed VERY concerned about what had taken place.
Upon leaving the cave, we came across a terrifying sight. A large number of skeletal Niads covered in ooze, an old beached ship, and a Harpy seemingly in control of all of it. In predictable fashion, we were attacked. Not just by the skeletons, but by the boat itself too. It was lit ablaze in green fire and summoned more skeletons to attack. The skeletons played a haunting melody that seemed to draw our souls onto the deck of the ship, cursing us to become part of its ghostly crew. I’ve never seen anything like it. No matter how many we defeated, the skeletons kept advancing. The only way to make them stop was defeating the angry, flaming, ship. (This is not an easy task considering we lacked a ship of our own). Eventually though, our party prevailed against the army of darkness. In a final act of destruction, the ship exploded!
We braced ourselves for the incoming shockwave, but it never came. A strange magical wind prevented the blast from reaching us. Fenian chose this moment to reveal himself to the rest of the party. We tried to gain as much information as we could from the mysterious elf, but he was short on the details. He claims to be a representative of Mother, and there seems to be a growing threat of some kind originating from the southwest. “They” are expanding and bringing their corruption to the world.
I still don’t know exactly what we accomplished in that cave, but Fenian made one thing clear.
“Nature thanks you.”