The World of Telvar

The first thing we discovered was that the old crew of the ship we had been sent to find had been captured and were being stored with the soon-to-be-slaves in a “prison” on the hill above the town of Lantern. The guard complement was unknown. Furthermore, the ship we were looking for was in the next cave area beyond the body of the tribute gatherer.

After explaining our burial at sea vs. burial on land options to the high priestess, she was questioned through Speak with Dead. It was discovered between her and the one living priestess we had left behind that one of the exits to the temple was trapped with a floor that dumped the victim into a tank with a horrible sea monster of some kind.

There was a Raise Dead scroll in the spyglass the pirate owned, which we discovered by talking to the dead pirate. Also, the pirate had a HUGE parrot reminiscent of Spittle the crow in demeanor.

Felix was successfully Raised off the scroll. Amazingly, he suffered no permanent damage.

Treasure was gathered, the place was looted of all valuables, and a spellshift was done. 14 hours later, we were ready to storm the prison.

Scouting revealed pentagonal building with five towers with a few guards in each. There were several war dogs at the gate.

An Invisible Alduin climbed over the wall and descended quietly down to the other side. At the same time, the Invisible party moved to the gate. Donald and Belarus then threw six Sleep spells in rapid succession, catching the dogs and each of the towers. Alduin noted that the Sleep spell at the dogs had actually caught the three hidden guards in the archway!

However, the last Sleep was not quite in time to prevent some brief alarm from the last tower. Quentin sent Lenore the crow up to drop the Silence stone on the guard, which shut him up long enough to be Slept.

Fortunately, the apathetic people in Lantern didn’t even think twice about the brief bell sound.

That was all it took, and Alduin and Sharilla quickly eliminated all the guards and we freed the 25 prisoners, including 16 crewmembers. 5 of the prisoners spoke only Human, and later turned out to be from Hochland!

As planned, Belle Venture returned to the Temple to pick us up. It had been made clear from Speak with Dead that five of the clerics had left to get reinforcements (after the Fist showed up, our presence was unexpected) in the underwater boat. This was an interesting twist, which meant that we had to leave soon. Thus we planned to have the Belle Venture tow the captured boat to a cove, have Quentin Plant Growth some seaweed to prevent it from being retaken by the Lantern “citizens,” and then return with the crew.

The timing had a lot to do with this plan, since it allowed us to attack the prison at night and then return in time to get away from the temple by evening. The other factor was that the Belle Venture could not tow the other boat and remain invisible.

So we returned to the Belle Venture and put the crew back on the captured ship and set off. However, a small warship was spotted giving chase (toward the visible ship, of course). The Belle Venture swung around and snuck up near the warship, and Belarus let them have it with his excessively powerful but close range staff of fireballs.

BOOM! The four remaining crewmembers after the explosion were easily Held by Kain, and suddenly we had a THIRD boat in the little armada.

Another boat gave chase, but as it approached, it suddenly turned away and ran back to Lantern.

(There were some nice sea die rolls there, thank you very much!)

The priests were buried at sea, as promised, and Rest Eternalled by Quentin. The living priestess had agreed to a trial in Koralgesh.

NOTE: The interrogation of the priestess was intended to plant the seeds of suspicion that the Church of Hindus had set up the Grottoes priests for a nasty fall by not warning them of the second attack. We did this to the best of our ability, and we’ll see if it works. The priestess also knows nothing about the Flaming Fist as a separate entity from the Defenders. Also, there was the disturbing denial by the high priestess that there had been any sort of deal with Hindus at all. The truth is unclear. The Defenders will not act until Hindus’ involvement is confirmed anyway, and even then, I believe that the revenge would only occur when we become more powerful. In any case, back to the story:

The three week journey back to Koralgesh was made exciting only when the flock of jellyfish went by the boat (I rolled a 1). Otherwise it was uneventful.

Meanwhile, Cassian had been spectacular in helping the boat sail back to Koralgesh. For the first week everything went very smoothly, and then boat began to suffer some mast damage, but was close enough for birds to be sent out warning the Korian priest Letier to have Raise Dead on hand for us.

They arrived exactly nine days later, and running up the docks, got Kodo and the Northerner Raised, although it required one scroll use.

The party thanked Letier heartily and paid salvage tax.

Essentially, each party (Fist and the Defenders) came out with about 5000 gp in gems and cash, and three magic items. Koralgesh received Inky Depths, the +3 trident that allows the user to create a black impenetrable cloud underwater and makes the user immune to such effects himself. Koralgesh also received the harpoon +1 and the potion that wipes all spells from memory when drunk.

The Flaming Fist received Kodo’s Large Shield+1, Kain’s Leather Armor+2, a Potion of Treasure Finding, and a Dagger+2.

The Defenders received the magical Sharkskin armor+2 (studded leather +2 that druids and clerics of Silban CAN wear). It has been put on Kain, who traded in his leather+2. Kodo got the large shield +2 and traded in his old large shield+1. Quentin upgraded to a Ring+2, and Felix received Quentin’s Ring+1. We also gained a Potion of Extra Healing, a Potion of Flying, and a 2000 gp credit on salvage tax from the Petethalian navy as the reward on the notorious pirate we took out.

Koralgesh also purchased the warship for 7000 gp.

So we came out ok. XP awards ranged from 2500 for Kodo and 4000 for Felix and Chiaro, to 8500 for Donald and Cassian.

Unfortunately, Quentin and Kain both missed their next levels by a thousand or so, and Chiaro missed 3rd level by 500.

Chiaro did train in Koralgesh to 2nd level, and gained 1 hp, but this only put him up to his racial hit points, and actually he still has 5.

Oh well. Aaron, we’re all rooting for you here!

After that successful adventure, we decided to wait in Koralgesh for a new mission. A reward from the Hochland prisoners arrived in the form of 3000 gp which happily accepted.

Now, a new mission will arrive next week!

Joel/Balinor