September 16th, 2019
Players
- Maardaar the Warlock (Matt)
- Morgana the Druid (Liz)
- Ender the Rogue (Steven)
INTRO
As the dawn breaks at Butterskull Ranch, the ruins of the farmhouse slowly burn to ash. Darren pulls his tea set out of what used to be his kitchen and begins making the party some reviving hot tea. The cellar with the butter has escaped mostly unharmed, and he packs their orders to go nonchalantly.
The party heads back to Phandalin where they see Mary Horn & Halvin drunkenly walking arm in arm to the tavern. They decide to get some glog and rest, deliver the butterskull order, and chat up the pair. Mary laments ever stepping foot on a boat, and doesn’t know if any of her crew mates on the Wounded Lion made it out alive. All she knows is that what should have been a perfectly normal merchant voyage went terribly wrong when they saw the green light of the lighthouse near Leilon.
The party stops by the shrine of Tymora to see Sister Gaerele. She is busy praying and lighting candles for the sailors, in hopes that their luck has kept them alive. Maardaar acquires some holy water, and Gaerele tells them that their used to be a wicked tower in Leilon, until Lord Neverember reopened the High Road and cleaned the town of it’s magic problem. This disaster is a bad set back for the Alliance outpost.
LEILON
The party travels to Leilon, not quite making the journey in a day and stopping to camp outside the town. In the distance they see a green light.
Arriving in Leilon they find a town that is mostly ruined, with trees and brush overtaking some of the old buildings that have fallen in roofs. The town is surrounded by a levee which is patrolled by armed guards. Lots of dudes are standing around doing…. nothing. Lots of drunken dudes in the street, people idly playing dice, and watching the passings in the street from windows. No one seems to be doing in particular, and lots of insignias for the Lord’s Alliance are seen on the men’s clothing.
A ruined tower stands on a hill, surrounded by a wood pike fence.
They check in to a dilapidated market centered around a muddy square where travelers are camped out and some caravan merchants are hawking goods. The party meets a friendly goblin with a monocle, who complains that ever since Lord Neverember shut down the port, his business has been trashed. He offers to exchange their gold into gold coin, and Ender takes him up on his deal. No sign of Gregorio is seen.
THE ROGUE’S FINGER
Down by the waterfront and docks, the party finds a tavern called the Rogue’s Finger which is again, full of bored dudes. Morgana sidles up to the bar alone to see if she can hear some gossip. The bartender, a corn cob pipe smoking dwarf with a tattoo over his right eye named Hergol, pours her a bad dwarf ale. Two men approach and order their drinks – one a soldier says that if they want to know what’s going on, just ask this pompous halfling who keeps bitching in his ear.
The halfing, a noble merchant named Benji Frogwater, loudly proclaims that everyone here is a bunch of lazy assholes, and that he has merchant goods unaccounted for that he most know the fate of immediately. He tells them Lord Neverember ordered ship traffic shut down after another ship hit the rocks. He curses Neverember’s name, saying he was told this would be a great opportunity down here in Leilon – but he doesn’t quite think so! Especially with the Lord’s new order. In his opinion, the Lord is scared of another disaster like what happened at the Tower of Thalivar and is being too cautious.
Benji offers 200 gold, each, if they can determine the fate of his lost merchant ship and cargo.
SHEILA COPPERTREE
The party also notices a loud dice game happening at a private booth in the bar. A table full of sailors is headed by a human woman, dressed in blue and gold salt-encrusted robes tied off with a ship’s rope. The party buys a round and the sailors invite them to play. Morgana cleans them out in a game of Threes.
The captain offers them a deal: we’ll give you passage on our boat – named the Annabel Lee – for our gold back. They’re bored, she explains, and no one is Lord of the sea.
They head out to the docks where they are interrupted by two half-orc bandits who claim Sheila cheated them at dice. The party defuses the situation, and they make it to the boat without incident. Sailing off into the cover of darkness, they leave the town behind.
PROBLEMS AT SEA
In the night, a sailor goes overboard. Morgana raises the alarm and the whole ship comes alive and pulls him out of the clutches of some type of eel-faced humanoid. The creature slinks back into the water after taking an arrow from Ender. The sailor says “That’s the craziest shit since my pops fucked the sea hag”.
The next morning, the light house comes into view close and the party says they want to investigate the other ship wreck. Sheila attempts to steer them close, but the sea itself rises up and attacks the ship, washing Ender & Maardaar overboard. Morgana wild shapes into a Giant Spider and attempts to rescue them with her web, but Ender is pulled under the waves by webbed hands clutching at his feet.
The sea forms itself into fists and slams the ship onto the rocks, breaking it in half. Ender is lost underneath the waves and the rest of the party washes ashore to the rocky outcrop the lighthouse sits upon.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Maardaar miraculously takes the door down with a solid kick. Inside, the eel creatures do not seem surprised to see them, and they flip the tables and start throwing javelins. But they are no match for the parties critical hits. Morgana & Maardaar hear the screams of Ender from above, and race up the stairs to find a locked iron door in the ceiling, blocking access to the top of the light house.
Ender comes to consciousness, bound tightly to a chair. A druid with gills behind his ears and a white beard full of shells, hermit crabs, and other sea detritus, stands before him with wicked looking knife. He demands to know where the rogue is from, and seems convinced that Ender has stolen something for “his master”. He mentions that he knows about the Redbrands, and that Ender was involved in “disrupting our business.”
The druid takes his knife, applies a burning chili poison, and slices Ender’s cheek. He collects this sample in a vial, and says “It does not matter if you cooperate or not, I have what I need”. Ender manages to get his right hand free while the druid is doing this.
The party beats on the iron door from the other side, and the evil druid casts Heat Metal on it.
The druid turns his back and gazes out of the sea. He again says, “We will recover what you have taken, one or another”. Ender sees his chance and cuts his binds, throwing his knives at the druid’s back. The druid falls to his feet, and begins to chant a spell.
As they try to make it out a window and climb up, the door melts completely and they sneak into the top under cover of Morgana’s magic.
As the party gains the upper hand and moves in on the druid, he stretches out his hands, turns to face them, and falls backward over the ledge. The sea comes to life again, lifting up out of the ocean as giant hands which catch the druid, and he is taken below the surface and disappears into the deep.
