It was there that they learned that there was an ambassador from the sea-elf kingdom of Manaan located in Niole Dra. Aella, illegitimate daughter of King Pelagius of Manaan, requested a meeting with the ambassador.
The crew found the embassy in a three-story building near the king's palace. The embassy was guarded by two of the king's guards. After an introduction by her "herald", Cai'luin, himself a nephew to King Pelagius, the guards escorted the crew to the ambassador.
They were brought into an office with a large window with a view of the palace a few hundred feet away. The office was a made from a rich dark wood and smelled of parchment and ink. On one wall were several bookshelves lined with books and ledgers. On the other wall was pinned dozens of maps and charts
In front of the window was a desk, a large plant, and a globe of Oerth. Behind the desk sat the ambassador.
The first to enter was their escort who announced their arrival. Cai'luin, wearing his finest regalia, then entered and loudly proclaimed the presence of Princess Aella, heir apparent of the monarchy of Manaan. The ambassador shot up from his chair. Aella, wearing a beautiful silk outfit from Ket, entered followed by Alot - who as an automaton wore no clothing, Father Craig in his formal raiment, and Corvid - wearing leather pants with a massive black belt buckle and no shirt.
The ambassador's chair fell over backwards.
"My princess, my friends, it is so wonderful to see all of you!"
It was Oceanus.
CHAPTER 53
"THE WRECK OF THE MARSHALL"
The Crew of the Sea Ghost:
- Alot Aname - Neutral Good Warforged Fighter, ancient sentinel of a wizard's fortress, spent several decades deactivated underwater, Captain of the Sea Ghost.
- Avastana "Aella" Kádár - Neutral, Half-Elf Outlander and Storm Sorceress from Ket, daughter of the king of the sea elves, deck sorceress and first mate of the Sea Ghost.
- Craig "Blunderbuss" Oxworth - Lawful Good Dwarven Priest of St. Ogden (Cleric), sailor and shipwright, bosun of the Sea Ghost.
- Cai'luin Manaan - Chaotic Good Sea-Elf Bard, member of the royal family of the tribe of Manaan. Cook of the Sea Ghost.
- Corvid Ravenson - Neutral Good Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Vengeance and Divine Soul Sorcerer, sent to Oerth to avenge those who wronged his angelic "brother", Auric Ravenson. Second mate of the Sea Ghost.
DM Note-
Still filling in the 8th level gap between the end of the Final Enemy and the beginning of Tammeraut's Fate with small mini-adventures. This time I decided to use the Merrow Scenario in the Wreck of the Marshall in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. It seems to me that my players always have more fun with these smaller adventures.
Ambassador Oceanus
Alot and Aella exchanged greetings with their old friend Oceanus. Oceanus likewise paid his respects to Cai'luin, nephew to King Pelagius and member of the royal house of Manaan. He greeted Father Craig, whom he had met previously at the Lizardfolk Games and the assault on the sahuagin fortress. He was introduced to Corvid, whom he had not yet met.
Aella and Alot asked Oceanus how he was doing. They had become concerned when they learned that Oceanus had been exiled from the Monarchy of Manaan by King Pelagius after Oceanus defied the king's orders and helped Princess Orthokent's coalition against the sahuagin. Oceanus had been hailed as a hero by the coalition so the king tempered his punishment and assigned Oceanus as ambassador far away from the sea. In addition, Oceanus had no staff or guard. He was all alone in this strange city far from home. His orders were to establish trade between Manaan and the kingdom of Keoland. Oceanus admitted that he had as yet been unsuccessful.
Aella and Alot promised to leverage their newfound status as friends of the court of Keoland to arrange a meeting between Oceanus and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other ministers of state. Oceanus became effulgent with gratitude.
Oceanus expressed how impressed he was that Aella carried with her the Trident of Manaan, the magical weapon that was once carried by King Manaan, her great-grandfather. Aella informed Oceanus that the trident was why they had come today. She had heard that the trident imbued special magical powers upon the descendants of Manaan but that only druids could unlock its secrets. She was hoping to find a druid who could unlock it without having to travel to the undersea city of Manaan and possibly confront her half-siblings who wished to do her harm.
Oceanus confirmed her suspicion. He told her that the bearer of the trident, should they be the descendant of Manaan, would be immune to magic! Only the druids knew the secret rituals to bind the trident to its wielder. The druids of the kelp forests of Manaan were notoriously reclusive and never left the safety of their grove. She would need to go to the grove. There was no other way.
Aella asked Oceanus if he could send a communication to the druids to let them know of her intention so that should she ever go there it would not be a surprise. Oceanus agreed.
DM Note-
Aella's player was desperately trying to find an alternative way to activate the secret powers of the trident without having to go to the Kingdom of Manaan. I told her, as Oceanus, "No, I'm sorry. There's no way to get around it. It's not like the entire campaign from the very first session hasn't been leading up to that moment or anything."
Recruitment
Before leaving Niole Dra, Aella and Cai'luin made good her promise to arrange a meeting between Oceanus and the Chancellor of the Exchequer while Alot and Father Craig recruited new crew for the Sea Ghost.
Being 225 miles inland, their pool for recruitment was limited. The new recruits included:
- Elston 'One Eye' Derane - a half-cyclops lookout.
- Maxwelle 'Rambling' Shell - a crab centaur
- Christena 'Riot' Thackeray - an anti-social anarchist
- Geraldine 'Landlubber' Alistair - a farmer with no nautical experience
With their crew complement now at eleven and the festivities of the King's Birthday celebration winding down the Sea Ghost set sail down the Sheldomar river towards the Azure Sea.
DM Note-
Alot's player asked about taking on a cargo for their return trip to Saltmarsh. I was unprepared for that question. I quickly looked through the DMG and Ghosts of Saltmarsh for any random cargo tables are Traveller-style rules for transporting cargo but could find none. I did a quick internet search and could only find rules and tables for Traveller and Star Wars. We had to let it go but I told him I'd be ready for the question next time.
Sailing Home
The Sea Ghost set sail down the Sheldomar river assisted by Father Craig's miraculous control of water and Aella's magical control of winds. It took four days to navigate the shoals and fords of the river to arrive at the port city of Gradsul.
The next day they ventured forth into the Azure Sea following the coastal trade route along the coast. On the way they noticed a large pod of whales breaching the surface as if trying to escape the ocean. It was definitely odd and a continuation of the strange occurrences they witnessed on the way to Gradsul.
As they neared Redshore and Angler Island, instead of turning west towards Seaton and Saltmarsh, Captain Alot took the ship to the southeast.
"Where are we headed, Captain?" inquired Cai'luin.
"The treasure map we got from the storm giants. It shows a map of the local sea with instructions to find the Wreck of the Marshall. It said to go to the Tyrant's Rocks. There we need to find Harpy Island. The wreck should be located nearby."
"And there's treasure?" asked the sea elf.
"There should be. The Marshall was a ship transporting a cargo of golden idols of St. Cuthbert. It disappeared before it ever reached its destination. If these instructions are accurate, then we should find the treasure."
Tyrant's Rocks
The area known as Tyrant's Rocks are a shoal of rocks and coral reefs that make travel to the Holds of the Sea Princes difficult. The rocky shoals have protected the Sea Princes and the city of Monmurg for generations. Many Kings of Keoland have sent ships to their dooms in foolhardy attempts to attack the Sea Princes, thus the name.
Alot took extra caution navigating the safe passages and narrow lanes in search of the "Island of the Harpies".
Alot failed his navigation roll and got lost so according to the DMG they spent 1d6 hours navigating back to the last known hex. Luckily he only lost two hours. He failed again and lost four hours. He finally made his navigation roll and found the Island of the Harpies, six hours later than planned.
The ship's lookout spied an small island ahead , no more than fifty feet across, populated with what appeared to be large birds with human heads. Once the ship sailed within three hundred feet of the island they could hear haunting music.
The Island of the Harpies
Aella wasted no time. She waved her hands and arms in complex arcane movements and a tsunami wave rose up out of the sea and washed the island, knocking many of the winged beasts out of their treetop perch before they could take flight.
Cai'luin followed up with a rapid strum on his lute and a massive explosion of water and air slammed the island. The two surviving harpies looked confused by the sudden explosions of water. They took flight away from the island. One sang its siren song in the hopes of pacifying the incoming attackers. Half the crew became hypnotized by the harpy's enchanting song. Father Craig ran around the deck gathering up the affected crew before they could hurl themselves overboard.
Corvid pointed his finger at the singing harpy and a thin bolt of fire struck the creature. It screeched and fell dead into the sea. The other harpy flew away.
Wreck of the Marshall
Alot and Father Craig boarded the ship's boat and went to search the small island, landing on the far side with a sandy beach.
Corvid donned his magical cloak of the manta ray. He, Aella, and Cai'luin jumped off the side of the ship into the water.
The water was blue and clear. Fifty feet below they could see the wreck of a rotting cargo ship resting on the rocky bottom. Swimming nearby were two massive sharks. Accompanying the sharks were three large creatures with torsos, arms, and heads like aquatic ogres and the lower body of giant eel-like fish. Their faces were covered in fins and long barbels like a catfish.
The mer-ogres shouted, in Aquan, "Lookit! A Sea-Elf! Gettim!"
Corvid had already swam close to the island so Aella swam as quickly as she could to join him but without a magical cloak of her own she could not catch up. Cai'luin wasted no time. He strummed his lute underwater.
There was an explosion!
Depth Charge!
Alot and Craig were pulling the boat up onto the sandy shore when the water around the Sea Ghost erupted in white foam and spray. Some kind of underwater explosion had caused the sea around the ship to heave upwards. The ship momentarily bobbed as sea-water rained down.
Alot cried, "What was THAT?!" He dropped the boat onto the shore, ran up onto the rocks, and dove into the water.
Craig sighed. Of all the officers of the Sea Ghost, he was the only one who could not survive underwater. He prayed for a miracle and was blessed with the ability to part the water. He created a dry path down off the island and around.
DM Note-
I had two maps in Roll20- one for above water and one for underwater. I only moved the underwater character tokens to the underwater map so the above water players could see what was going on but had no token to control. Once they knew something was up I moved their tokens to the underwater map.
Also, Cai'luin's "Fireball" spell does force damage instead of fire damage. He describes it as a "water-ball explosion" and calls it "Water-hammer."
When I said it exploded underwater and looked like a depth charge exploding, I said, "Oh! Oh! You should call your spell 'Depth Charge'!" and he said, "That's even better!" So that's the spell's name now.
Under the Sea
Underwater, two mer-ogres, also known as "merrows", and one giant shark ganged up on Aella just above the quarter-deck of the wrecked ship. One of the merrows used his harpoon attached to a chain to grab Aella and draw her back as she tried to escape. Cai'luin hovered above the poop deck and continued to case his bardic spells using his lute.
Corvid was fighting the thrid merrow and his pet shark on the other side of the ship. Alot swam quickly to provide aid.
Father Craig ran around the island on wet ground suddenly exposed to air surrounded by canyon-walls of made of water. He saw Aella getting worked over by two merrow so he offered a prayer to St. Ogden and reconfigured the shape of the water.
Exposed to Air
Father Craig pushed the water back, creating a cube of air 100-feet on a side. The entire area was exposed to the air above. The bow of the Sea Ghost stuck out into the air and the ship teetered precariously.
The two merrow fighting Aella were suddenly in mid-air. One fell onto the deck while the other began to plummet. He caught himself on the side of the deck of the wrecked ship and pulled himself onto the deck!
The shark, however, had been momentarily disengaged from the fight and was swimming in the water around the cube of air.
The merrow fighting Corvid fell to the ground on the other side of the ship landing on the ground with a wet splat! The shark fell onto the shelf of rock. Alot dropped onto the shelf and crushed the shark with his magical draconic hammer.
The two merrow lifted themselves off the deck of the ship and reared up awkwardly. One stabbed at Aella with his harpoon, killing her. He bit her head with his shark-like teeth and she fell to the deck unconscious.
Father Craig moved quickly, saying a prayer of healing that revived Aella from the brink of death.
Aella dashed to the mid-deck She and Cai'luin continued to fight the merrow using chaos spells and depth-charges. They were eventually successful in dispatching the two merrow.
Father Craig, meanwhile, had repositioned his cube of air to encompass more of the wrecked ship. This time he managed to envelop the swimming shark in air and deposit it flopping and gasping impotently onto the deck of the ship. Father Craig then prayed for the appearance of a spiritual hammer to eliminate the surviving merrow crawling away on the ground.
The Deck Below
Once all of the attackers had been eliminated, the officers of the Sea Ghost prepared to enter the wreck of the Marshall. Cai'luin explored the cabins beneath the poop deck but found them empty. Aella positioned herself near a gaping rend in the hull of the ship towards the port stern. Corvid stood on the rocks above a massive rend in the starboard stern.
Alot killed the shark on the deck and heaved its dead bulk off of the entry into the hold.
He opened the gate-like hatch cover and looked into the cargo hold. Like the rest of the ship, it was exposed to air. In the hold was a massive marble statue of St. Cuthbert, patron god of the army of Keoland. Around the edge of the hold, clutching to the walls and confused by the sudden introduction of air to their hiding place, were four additional merrow.
They were very confused and very angry.
To be Continued...
Oh the terror in the minds of the Merrow below as the water/air wall slowly pushed them up against the furthest bow wall in the hold. I love the mental picture of their panic! LOL!
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