Session 2


Home


Continued from the last session...

...Mosholu ran up the stairs and pulled the scroll from his waist. He called for Lt. Tegamon. The top of the deck was crowded with the audience for the fight and he had trouble getting through. But in moments, he found Tegamon and produced the scroll in front of him, making up some story about how he had a note for him or something.

Tegamon was instantly suspicous. His reaction was confirmed when Blind Lars came up the stairs behind him, yelling for all the men to stand at attention and not move. Tegamon called him over and with a few sniffs, Lars was able to confirm that Mosholu was indeed the man who had broken into his room.

Mosholu tried to give some explanation but the only reply he got was a stunning blow from the open palm of Blind Lars meaty hand. Dazed, he offered no resistance as Tegamon ordered him thrown to the deck and his hands bound behind his back. The sailors dragged him down to the brig. Lars gave him a kick in the ribs for good measure.

On deck, Linear was aware of the commotion, but too busy using his natural medicinal skills on Angry Pipe to investigate.

The next day the Coxswain, an old pot-bellied salt named Zandeen, approached Angry Pipe and asked if he would be able to stand watch at night while he guides the ship.

Mosholu is interrogated. Lars and Gill come in and intimate that he is in deeper trouble than just thieving. Mosholu maintains his story. They tell him he will not be getting any more rations.

That night, Linear, using his natural affinity to the animal world, befriended a ship's rat. He began to train it to recognize Seika and Angry Pipe by smell.

That night, on the steering deck, Angry Pipe listens to Zandeem explain about the geography of the seas around Helios. He notices something moving out in the night. It appears to be weaving an unsteady path towards the ship. Zandeem gets Tegamon, who climbs up onto the mast. Minutes later, a giant arrow, painted in spiral stripes of red and gold buries itself deep into the mast. Tegamon comes out and has a sailor pull the arrow out of the mast. He takes it with him to the strategy room.

At the same time, Mosholu has discovered that the wall on the aft end of his cell can be pulled away, revealing a narrow space between the wall and the back of the boat. He squeezed in and found a way to get into the food storage area. Garfer is up there, working with his herbs. He looks up as Mosholu steps on a squeaky plank, and distractedly greets him.

Upstairs on the deck, Mosholu encounters Seika, who was just awakened by the sound of the arrow hitting the mast. They nod to each other, then Mosholu sneaks up to the door of the strategy room, listening through it. Seeing the light in the window and the sound of voices, Mosholu backs up to crawl under a rowing bench.

He remains under the bench while the sailor pulls down the arrow. He stays there until all of the lieutenants come out of the strategy room. Once the deck is perfectly still, he breaks into the strategy room. It's a dominated by large round table, covered in maps and writing materials. Under the map, he found his spell book, open and face down. He also saw the arrow, broken in half, with a thin scroll poking out of it. He hesitated but after a second thought, took the scroll. He also found a scroll case in the drawers with a scroll in it.

Succesfully returning to his cell, he unrolled the scroll from the arrow and read it:

                             



The next day (Day 52), rumours begin to gather on the ship among the oarsmen that they are nearing Palazar and should see land soon. The heat is steady and oppressive. The men row all day. In the horizon, thick cream-colored clouds boiled. But above the Lido is nothing but the sun and sky.

Miro is posted as a guard and approaches Mosholu in the cell. He asks if he found out about any messages the ship had received recently. Mosholu balks until Miro explains some about the civil war between North and South Helios (See Info & Rumours).

Mosholu tries to get some kind of agreement from Miro, but Miro can only promise vague future rewards. He leaves as soon as Mosholu tells him the message on the scroll.

The next two days, the Lido suffers a brutal thunderstorm. Men are injured and parts of the ship are damaged. Linear helps to heal the wounded. He also trains his rat to find Mosholu with a note tied around it's tail. The rat gets there and Mosholu writes the word "brig" on the note and sends the rat back.

Mosholu spends the days in his cell and the nights running free around the Lido. The set of keys he took from the Strategy Room allow him into the locked rooms in the hold. The middle one held three chests, filled with coins and gems and an a small fourth one with a silver triangle nestled in a felt bed.

Early in the morning, as the sun is first rising, of Day 57, Angry Pipe sees the first rough outlines on the horizon. Land! The crew gets excited. However, that afternoon Captain Belfast announces that due to squid, the ship would be diverted temporarily from the path to Palazar. some of the men grumble and wonder about this flimsly squid excuse. The Lido turns south to skirt the western coast of Helios.

The land to the east of them looks white and dry, with craggy cliffs. Zandeem tells Angry Pipe that it's the The Kesh, the desert lands where no man lives or ever crossed.

Two days later, it's time for fight club! Because of the anticipation for this match, Jonrat was able to convince the Lieutenants to allow it to take place in the day. He tells Seika about this. He expresses concern only when Jonrat allows that Gamburu was annoyed that he had changed the time of the fight. "If my opponent is not ready, then I will wait."

But the fight went on. And it began well, with Gamburu getting two good blows in before Seika finally struck with force. Just as the two were about to clash again, something bumped into the bottom of the boat. Some of the spectators fell. Mosholu fell down in his cell. Angry Pipe grabbed the nearest human sailor and threw him over the side. The fighters froze and then engaged. After a quick flurry, the boat stopped suddenly, with a sickening wrenching of wood and metal. Men fell like ninepins. Some began to run aft.

Suddenly a giant tentacle, fleshy and glistening white on the inside, laid itself along the deck. It's middle was as thick as a cow. It felt around and chose the frozen Jonrat, curling itself around his little body, lifting him up in the air and tossing him, higher than the mast. The body of the squid separated from the boat and a giant maw yawned. Jonrat fell right in.

Panic ensued. The Lieutenants on the viewing deck attacked the other tentacles immediately. Men scattered, some to the back of the boat or down, most to the weapons huts. These were opened and shortspears and bows handed out.

After a moment's hesitation, Linear and Angry Pipe ran to the back of the ship and down the aft stairs. Mosholu had already climbed out of his cell, his hands full with the items he'd hoarded there. He ran to the locker area and found his backpack and loaded it up.

Linear and Angry Pipe found Garfer already out the side door of the kitchen storage area, the jolly-boat lowered into the water. They jumped out after him, landing in the water.

Seika caught up with Mosholu as he went down into the hold, finding it impossible to go fore as water was rushing in. The armor room was already half-filled with water. The two of them ran back up and jumped out of the jolly-boat port, landing in the water and swimming to the boat.

Above deck, the crew was fighting a losing battle with the giant squid. It was picking them up and pulling them off the ship like weeds, sending them flying through the air. Wad, an until-now unnoticed half-orc, stood on the deck crying futilely for his war axe. Finally realizing that he wasn't going to get it, he grabbed a shortspear and threw it at the squid. It flew wide and he remembered his father's old adage that it was usually best to run away. He turned and made a running jump of the starboard edge of the Lido, flying 30' in the air and about another 40' down, smashing hard into the water.



He reached the jolly-boat as the crew was assembing themselves. Wad climbed next to Garfer to assist him in the rowing. A sandy island juts out, away from the mainland and the Jolly-boat is easily within rowing distance. The others bail and watch the slow destruction of the Lido by this horrific, fantastic beast. Garfer pointed to the water around the squid and they saw there smaller squids coming up out of the water and eating drowning sailors. It was mama feeding her babies! Awww.

As they watch, a tentacle flings some poor bastard right in their direction. They see the arc of his flailing body and then watch with horror as they realize his trajectory is sending him right to their boat. He smashes with a disgusting crunch into the barrels and crates that Garfer had got from the ship. All of the party succesfully dodges the wood splinters flying from the crash, but the ship is cracked in the front and rapidly begins to sink.



Angry Pipe gathers up the remaining barrels and hands them to Mosholu who ties them together. They cling to this raft and float, their feet hitting the sandy shore far from it's edge. They catch their breath for a moment and finally look up. They are on a sandy beach. Perfectly smooth and white sand moves up about 200 feet to rocky lands, peppered with shrubs. It runs to their left and right to a span of maybe less than a quarter-mile, ending on each side with rocky cliffs.

Angry Pipe immediately notices Blind Lars, already on shore, bent over another man whom they can't see. His leg sticks out at a weird angle. Wad runs over to the Lieutenant. He sees him pinning a man, his hand digging into his gut. Wad speaks to Blind Lars, who instantly stands up and attacks him, punching him in the stomach. His fist wrapped around a punch-spike and he drove it deep into Wad's gut.

Wad retreats and the others square for Lars' attack. He charges at them and Linear bends his knees, bracing the butt of his shortspear in the sand. Lars dodges the spear point and strikes Linear. Mosholu jumps forward, his hands in motion and strange words coming out of his mouth. A spray of colorful lights blasts Blind Lars full in his face, but true to his name, he is unfazed.

Garfer attacks him with a large piece of driftwood, crushing him across the head and shoulders. Wad attacks with his shortspear, sticking it into Lars gut and pulling it out. After some disagreement over the possession of a soaking crossbow, Mosholu casts another spell and with a bang Lars is dazed, his head reeling. Wad goes ballistic, unable to control his fury over being surprised and wounded. He drives his spear into Lars chest pushing him back and pinning his body into the wet sand.

As soon as the battle is over, Linear runs to the prone body. It's Miro and his stomach reveals a ragged wound. He is barely clinging to life. Linear moves to stabilize him, using his healing skills. Miro grabs his arm and pulls the old elf's ear down to his mouth. "You must deliver this to the royal family. To Queen the Elder or her progeny. Give it to no one else." Linear felt something on his arm and looked to see a bracelet transforming itself into a small snake, it's head easing around Linear's own wrist. It was colored in spirals of yellow and red. It wrapped itself around his wrist until it lightly bit it's own tail and transformed back into a striped band of deep translucent metal or stone of gold and ruby.

Linear continued to try to revive him. He lived for a few more seconds and then died. Linear discovered poison in the edges of the stomach wound.

The party dragged both bodies from the beach and set up a little camp under a small date tree at the back of the beach. They gathered firewood and watched as the tips of the mast finally disappeared beneath the blue line of the water. The Lido was no more.

To be continued...