Corvid stood in a corridor somewhere within the Forsaken Sea-Mount, citadel of the aquatic hobgoblins known as Koalinth. He was hundreds of feet underwater, protected by his magical Cloak of the Manta Ray. He brandished his magical sword, Faithkeeper. The water was red with the blood of his fallen enemies. The bodies of slain koalinth and sharks drifted to the floor.
Captain Alot and Cai'luin the bard had followed a fleeing koalinth into a side passage where they discovered more prisoners - merfolk, sea-elves, and locathah - chained to a wall and forced to dig.
Alot called out, "We have more prisoners to save!"
The main corridor ended at a metal door. An injured shark was trying to escape.
Suddenly the door burst open. A dwarf wearing a skull mask and a wide-brimmed helmet adorned with dolphins smashed his war-pick into the shark's forehead, killing it.
It was Patriarch Craig, High Priest of the Cult of Tristan.
"What are you doing?" growled the dwarf, "The exit is this way!"
CHAPTER 69
"THE FORSAKEN SEA-MOUNT"
The Crew of the Sea Ghost:
There is a big adventure gap between the end of Tammeraut's Fate (level 9) and the beginning of the Styes (level 11) so I'm filling it with short adventures and side-treks and player's choice.
- 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.
- Patriarch 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.
There is a big adventure gap between the end of Tammeraut's Fate (level 9) and the beginning of the Styes (level 11) so I'm filling it with short adventures and side-treks and player's choice.
This week, I'm adapting a low-level adventure called the Secret of Forsaken Peak, Part 1: the Goblin Mine. I moved the entire mine to a sea-mount underwater. I replaced all the goblins with koalinth and all the worgs with hunter sharks. All the regular wolves became reef sharks. All the ogres became merrows. The bullette became chuul. The fire elemental became an earth elemental. References to dragons and Tiamat became kraken and Olhydra. Etc. I also increased all the traps from 1-4th level to 10th level, increasing their damage and DCs.
Patriarch Craig's player had missed the previous week so he was never imprisoned. I wanted to introduce him into the story as quickly as possible. Luckily, the other characters were right there at the exit - though they didn't know it. So I just had Patriarch Craig open the exit door and say "Hey! The exit is this way!"
An Escape Delayed
Corvid said to Patriarch Craig, "Not yet! I've got to help Alot free some more prisoners."
A pair of ogre-sized merrow who had been standing guard outside the exit noticed Craig and threw their harpoons at him. One harpoon struck the dwarf. He grunted against the pain as the merrow tried to pull the chain to drag the dwarf towards him. Craig pulled the harpoon out and grit his teeth. The dwarven priest created a mystical hammer and sent it to fight the merrow.
"Well, hurry up!" he growled!
Corvid swam into the mine where Alot was freeing the closest prisoner with a key taken from the prison guard during their own escape. Cai'luin was also in the mine, "Here come the guards!"
Corvid said, "I'll take care of them. Go help Craig, he's guarding the exit!"
Cai'luin gave a quick salute and swam into the corridor to assist Craig.
The underwater cavern was unlit but Corvid's magical darkvision made out several humanoid shapes and two large forms swimming towards him from the opposite side.
Cai'luin joined Craig at the exit, "I'm here to help. What's happening."
Craig pointed down the sloping passage, "Two merrow. Take care of them. I've got to do something."
Cai'luin played a tune on his lute and his eyes began to glow with bardic magic. Outside the exit the two merrow, plus two previously unseen koalinth guards, clutched their heads and writhed in pain. The two koalinth passed out from the ordeal.
Father Craig put his hands together in prayer, "I wish that Corvid was the Holy Avenger of Tristan."
Inside the cavern, Corvid was wreathed in light. His body stiffened and he floated off the ground. The currents swirled around him and his sword arm raised upward. The magic sword Faithkeeper disappeared in a glowing aura that illuminated the cavern and momentarily blinded the koalinth and the two massive crustacean chuul that were approaching.
When the glow faded, Corvid held in his hands the Holy Avenging Sword of Tristan - he had become the living servant of his god's vengeance!
DM Note-
I totally described in the game as a anime-style magical girl transformation with billowing hair, swirling lights, and hovering rotating Corvid.
After the light show dimmed, the koalinth and chuul continued their approach.
Alot had just freed a mermaid prisoner, "You there. I'm need to fight off these attackers. If I give you the key will you free the others?"
The mermaid nodded enthusiastically. Alot gave her the key, "Good, get to it!" He turned and engaged the koalinth guards and chuuls that had swimmed up out of the gloom.
The mermaid avoided the incoming attacks and began freeing the other prisoners. Though the koalinth tried to stop her, Alot would interpose himself to stop them.
Reinforcements come from the Rear
With one hand Aells held onto the manacles that bound her prisoner, the marid known as Emir Farzad. The emir struggled against her at every step and she was getting tired of it. She was followed by a throng of twelve fellow escapees - locathah, merfolk, and sea-elves. It was a slog trying to get down the corridor towards the exit.
She heard the approach of more koalinth from behind them - reinforcements. She ordered the fellow escapees to get past her into the corridor. They began to swim around her.
The reinforcements came into view. Aella's eyes glowed with crackling lightning as she summoned a storm that filled the entire passage leading to their corridor. All of the reinforcements were caught within it. The chaotic currents slammed them into each other and bolts of lightning struck the largest among them.
Craig ordered Cai'luin to help Aella. The bard swam past the prisoners to join the Sea Witch. He played a mystical note and the corridor, already engulfed by a powerful storm, exploded with the force of his Depth Charge spell. The reinforcements were decimated!
Craig swam to help Allea move the emir, saying, "Go assist the others. I'll help Aella with this jerk!"
Meanwhile, Back in the Mine
The koalinth guards split into two groups - one group and one chuul against Alot and one group and one chuul against Corvid. Corvid held his new sword before him and called forth a vortex of mystical ravens that tore into the guards attacking him.
The guards abandoned Corvid to escape the aura of ravens and moved towards Alot. Corvid saw Cai'luin enter the cavern, "Help him. I'll go defend the rear in case more reinforcements come."
As soon as Corvid left the cavern of the mine, a chuul swam up and grabbed Cai'luin in its piercer. It shoved the bard into its tentacled mouth parts. Cai'luin's body shuddered as the poison coursed through him.
Alot finished off the guards and chuul menacing the prisoners. One guard threw down his harpoon and surrendered. Alot ordered the guard to start freeing prisoners. The guard removed the shackles from a locathah. The emancipated locathah picked up the guard's harpoon and impaled his former oppressor. The guard writhed but survived. The locathah joined the other freed prisoners in escaping. The guard threw down the key and swam away.
With all the guards fleeing or dead, Alot helped the mermaid free the remaining prisoners. They soon made their escape out of the Forsaken Sea-mount. As they left, each prisoner went their separate ways, swimming off in random directions.
The helpful mermaid stayed behind. Alot said, "You are free to go, if you wish!"
The mermaid replied, "You have freed me. I owe you a great debt! I will stay with you until you, too, are safe!"
"That's great!" said Alot, "What's your name?"
DM Note- quick stop at the random mermaid name generator.
"My name is Kala-Ek," she said.
The Ascent
The crew of the Sea Ghost gathered together outside the exit. They were at the bottom of the sea with a large sea-mount at their back. It was dark. There was a faint dim glow of daylight far above them.
Alot looked around, "Where are we?"
Cai'luin, who possessed an innate sense of depth and pressure, said, "We're about six hundred feed down. Judging by the light I'd say it was mid-morning."
Alot nodded, "Which way do we go?"
Corvid said, "According to our original plan, the Sea Ghost should be sailing directly overhead right about now."
DM Note-
Before their imprisonment, I told each player that instead of spending their Inspiration point on Advantage, they could instead spend it for a story ret-con in the form of a "Flashback" in the style of Blades in the Dark. In the previous session Cai'luin's player used a flashback to say he had hidden the bag of holding strapped to his back under his shirt. In this session, Corvid's player used his to say that they had arranged for the ship to sail over this spot at this pre-arranged time - because escaping now was always a part of the plan!
The team began swimming straight up. Aella was slowed by Emir Fazad who struggled the entire way in an attempt to escape. The rest of the team slowed their ascent to stay close to Aella. Only Kala-Ek swam ahead of the others.
At a depth of about 330 feet, the escapees could see the dark shapes of large sharks approaching from below. The sharks carried koalinth riders armed with harpoons and were accompanied by smaller sharks.
DM Note-
My original Roll20 battlemap quickly proved insufficient so I called for a break and quickly created a new battlemap representing all six hundred feet from bottom to surface with lines drawn every 30 feet. I put the escapees at a depth of 330 feet. I put the pursuers sixty feet or more beneath them at the edge of their Darkvision. Here's the screenshot of the whole thing zoomed way out. It kind of looked like a football field and this was the weekend before the Superbowl, so when I put the players back, I sang the little NFL theme and described the scene like a football commentator.
Patriarch Craig fell behind and told the others he'd catch up. Craig made a hand gesture and said a prayer to Tristan. A great whirlpool miraculously appeared in the midst of the pursuers. The whirlpool pummeled those caught within it and drew all those within twenty-five feet closer to it.
DM Note-
I had so many bad guys on the board, this was a nightmare for me to have to roll saving throws and athletics skill checks for each one of them!
A handful of sharks and koalinth swam around the whirlpool and got close to Patriarch Craig. Cai'luin fell back to help the dwarven priest, uttering arcane whispers of dissonance to cause some to flee. Aella cast chaos bolt spells at the pursuers as she continued to carry Emir Farzad.
Cai'luin swam down to Craig's side and summoned forth a swirling vortex of magical musical notes that slashed anyone that got near them. Corvid joined them, creating his own vortex of spiritual ravens.
Father Craig dismissed the whirlpool and drew forth the waters into a mighty current to propel himself and his fellow escapees up towards the surface, outdistancing the pursuers. Craig continued this until they were at the surface. Kala-Ek was propelled so quickly that she breached the surface and flew into the air thirty feet.
The Sea Ghost was nearby and threw lines to the escapees as it sailed past. Father Craig reversed the current beneath them, pushing the advancing pursuers away towards the bottom of the sea.
Alot asked Kala-Ek if she wished to accompany them. The mermaid smiled and waved, "I will swim next to until you reach your home port, but then I will bid my farewell!"
Alot waved back in thanks and admiration.
Craig stood next to him looking over the gunwhale, and signed, "I'm going to marry that girl someday!"
Alot did a double take at the dwarf in momentary confusion, then shook his head.
Emir Farzad asked Captain Alot what was to become of the marid. Alot explained that they were taking him back to Skyhorn Lighthouse where he would be turned over to the tritons.
Emir Farzad once again pleaded for his freedom, offering a wish in exchange for removing the manacles.
Alot held firm, "No."
DM Note-
Though it did prompt a lively discussion among the players about what they might wish for.
Meanwhile, Back in the Forsaken Sea-Mount
In the chambers of Archmage Zrunkuc, the pursuers reported that they had lost the escapees and that, in fact, all the slaves and captives used in the mines had been freed.
Warlord Tuuk became enraged. He picked up a harpoon and impaled the messenger for the bad news. The other koalinth soldiers retreated half a step.
Tuuk turned to the archmage, "As I feared, this was a ruse orchestrated by the sea-elves of Manaan. The daughter of the King of Manaan, Princess Aella, was among them, as was the nephew of the king. First they killed Warlord Zradrog at the Lizard-man games. And now this. We cannot let this stand!"
Archmarge Zrunkuc sat in his ornate chair and templed his fingers. He was struggling to contain his calm.
"The sea-elves of Manaan have stolen my marid and have robbed me of a wish. This is an act of war. Contact our allies. Prepare the armies. It is time to destroy the sea-elves once and for all. This. Is. WAR!"
To Be Continued...
DM Note-
I did that little cut-scene at the end of the night and it was great. Alot's player was like, "Yeah, I figured this was coming" and indeed others mentioned it during the escape, "But," he continued, "That's a problem for future us!"
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