The Cumberlite Isles hide a bloody secret, beneath their verdant hills. We nope the fuck out of there, but not after first going on a drunken bender. The ship's complement discovers a thief onboard, and then a saboteur-slash-murderer.
Salris had a heart-to-heart with his brother, Seamus, and we learned that he's the captain of a cursed ship, the Nightmare. If he dies, he comes back as a waterlogged zombie. We caught passage to Setton aboard the Flying Banshee, and fought off a Sea Dragon along the way. And then we're in the Cumberlite Isles, halfway to Setton.
The Cumberlite Isles
In the mid-morning, we see the Cumberlite Isles on the horizon. It's a concentric arrangement of crescent-shaped islands around a central pool, with a bigger island in the middle of the arc, towering above the lagoon. From above, they look almost like flower petals. Like if a crustal hotspot had moved in a crescent under the plate.
Percival takes his leave from the Party as the ship approaches the islands. "That was fun! I better get back and check up. See you there, wherever you're going!" and then he disappears from the deck of the boat.
"I don't like that he's working with Dirius," says Ryltar. "It's kinda freaking me out a bit. We told him all our plans!"
"I'm sure that the next time we're around that area, Dirius will be dead," says Salris.
"I don't like that! Do we have enough gold?" asks Ryltar, and the Party shuffles our pockets. Salris has the most gold, almost 10k, but he seems iffy on the payment front. BUt the topic is dropped.
The central lagoon's smaller islands feature tan-skinned humans, who pole-vault between the islands. The central dock is built onto the biggest isle, and houses and warehouses climb the mountainside above the extensive docks. It's a transshipment hub for trade from all corners of the compass. The smaller piers are full of skiffs and fishing vessels, and recreational watercraft.
The captain's drinking problem
As the Flying Banshee pulls into the strait, the captain, Wilton Grace comes to us to say that we should avoid drinking "Midnight", a local beverage. The ship will dock here tonight.
As an aside, Jerry wonders aloud if the captain would like to try some of "that wine", which turns people into their spirit animals. Ryltar agrees in wonderment, and the captain is amenable once we're docked. He turns into a pelican, and flies away.
We hunt down the bosun, a half-elf. "Hey, your captain just flew away. He may or may not be back," says Ryltar, and the bosun just sighs. Jerry casts Hunter's Mark on the captain-pelican, and keeps an eye on him.
The crew and passengers of the ship disembark:
10 crew
the Dragonborn and Dwarf merchants
the noble family of Human and Half-Elf
the Party
The docks are full of people hawking wares: foods, silks, weapons, all of it unfamiliar to us.
Liquid Midnight
We decide to spend some time browsing the storefront, and then find food and drink and a flask of "Midnight". We follow the rest of the ship's company, who are beelining it to "The Evening Respite", a bustling tavern. And above the bar is a sign, "Home of Liquid Midnight", with a smaller board in front of it reading "CAUTION!"
Jerry remains outside, keeping an eye on the captain. He flies among the pelicans and seagulls, as among one of their own, and dips down to catch some fish.
"Well, that's just how I like my mystery booze," says Ryltar. "Are we trying it here or are we taking it elsewhere?" All the sailors are goading the youngest sailor into taking Midnight. We watch them as we order food. There are some native fruit, green inside like a kiwi, which taste of blueberry. And crab, which Ryltar says remind him of home. Salris thinks it's tastier than spider, but admits he hasn't had spider before. Back-and-forth banter at the table; Ryltar's home society is pretty fucked up, everyone agrees.
They ask for flasks of Midnight, to go. The male half-Orc bartender says, "It's best not. It's quite volatile." Salris says, "Ok, then I'll take it here." The bartender says, "First time? Best do half measures, then." Salris, Vurguron, Ryltar and the young sailor line up at the bar. The ceramic jug pours a pitch-black liquid which flows without splash, containing little sparkles in it.A half-shot for each. And they drink as one.
Ryltar walks outside to Jerry and says, "You've got a lot of cats to corral." Jerry pinches the bridge of her nose.
Salris and Ryltar pass their Constitution saves. The drink has no taste to start, but then there's a lingering aftertaste of grape, blackberry, a cool menthol-like feel. Looking out across the lagoon, they see colors brighten. The landscape's colors individually become brighter.
Vurguron is hit. His eyes go wide, and in the dregs of the shotglass, he sees a rainbow of color. His pupils are the size of his iris; sparkling. Looking out over the lagoon, he sees spots of color where there are none. He's poisoned. He loses himself in color. "It is a scaly wilderness, full of colors!" He begins to follow the colors, stumbling in random directions from color to color.
Jerry goes to pick up the wayward Dragonborn. A figure in green and brown and reds, maybe purples, approaches him. "I like all of these colors; you may approach," he says. She drags him back to the ship.
The youngest sailor is totally fucked, but he's accompanied by the other sailors.
"So I don't want to be a tourist and only go halfway," says Ryltar. "Could I get the other half-shot?" Jerry cries out, "No!" Salris chimes in, and the bartender shrugs and pours them a shot. Ryltar and Salris both fail. Their arms go up to knock back the shot; the liquid hits their tongues, and they fall back on the floor. They see all the ceiling's woodgrains, and neat colors. Ryltar stumbles out to look at the pelicans. Salris follows the purple blur.
Jerry sees them wander out of the bar, and starts to drag Vurguron after them. She realizes that she can't keep up with Salris and Ryltar, who are wandering in different directions, and decides to stow Vurguron back on the ship first. His color incapactitation is getting worse. Things are starting to go white. Another sailor helps Jerry drag him aboard. Two others hoist the youngest sailor back onto the ship. Jerry requests three sailors come with her to grab Salris and Ryltar. In his hammock, Vurguron is rocked by the ship, and just overpowered by the changing colors and motions.
Ryltar goes to look at the vegetation, and is quite amazed by the sunlight colors. He pulls out his unattuned goggles, which he looks through. They give a warped green view. "Look through this, Salris," he says, putting them on a passerby. "Very nice," says the passerby. Ryltar reclaims the goggles. "Why don't you sit down here," says the stranger, who is not Salris. "Who the fuck are you!?" says Ryltar, and teleports away.
Salris flops down in the grass, and raises a fist to the sky. He fires the Ring of Blasting, which is luckily on the raised hand, and expends it. Three streaks of red-orange-yellow-rainbow light rocket up into the sky. "Ooh." He follows it with an Eldritch Blast.
Ryltar's intended direction is "Plants. Wildlife." With double the range on Dimension Door, he takes 5 points of bludgeoning, and falls from a tree into the ground. Face-up, higher on the mountain. Vibrant browns, yellows, and memories of his past beginning to flood in. Everything becomes clearer.
Jerry, with three sailors, heads for the sound of Eldritch Blasts. Salris has fallen into a dumpster. He's firing again and again as he lies among rotting greenery. "Okay, that's enough," says Jerry. Salris Eldritch Blasts her in the face. She is hit by one of the three, taking 7 bludgeoning. She pops Silence, grabs him, and sticks her head out of the 10-foot-radius silent sphere to tell the crew to hold him and keep him in the dumpster for the ten minutes. One of the crew runs off to grab rope from the ship. Jerry looks at him running away, and pulls rope out of her bag. She helps the crew tie Vurguron up, and sends him back to the ship with one crew.
Ryltar's Discovery
Then Jerry and the last crewmember go back to the bar and follow Ryltar's footsteps. The tracks lead across the hard-beat road, leading down the road to a bench with some palm fronds recently thrusted off. There's an elderly human sitting on the bench across from that bench, feeding some birds. The human describes Ryltar's disappearance through the Dimension Door. So Jerry turns to the sailor, and asks if he wants to come with her to hunt Ryltar. He thinks that Ryltar will be out of it for a few hours, at least, and why yes, he's interested in seeing how fucked up the guy who fucked the Sea Dragon can get. The sailor says that it's not advisable to go into the woods alone.
Ryltar is out wandering, looking at things. He follows the road, and the road goes downhill quickly.
Jerry hears a soft crashing in the underbrush. A flock of songbirds burst into motion.
"Where's all the blue going?" He takes another 5 points of bludgeoning, falling into a pit.
"Did you hear that?" "Mm?" "We're going in that direction."
Ryltar has fallen into the cleft between two hills, and tries to climb out.
The thud was about 700 feet away. Jerry and the sailor run towards it.
Ryltar is somewhat coordinated. There's a stickyness that catches him at a little bit, and the cleft is wet with a stream. He sees colors in everything, even in blacks.
Ryltar is flopped in the middle of a hole in the ground. Jerry looks into the hole in the ground and sees Ryltar, flailing at the walls. Jerry turns to the sailor, to start setting up rappelling ropes. Ryltar casts Hold Person on Jerry, and she shrugs it off.
She grabs Ryltar, and he doesn't resist. He's covered in damp, but she is able to get him back up to the surface.
In the sunlight, we see that Ryltar is covered in blood. This is older blood, not fresh.
Jerry drops a torch down the hole: it's covered in lots of blood, which flows from a pit. "Did you know about this?" she asks the sailor. Nope. "Let's … get this fellow back to the ship, and ask the Captain … We need to find the captain." "Mmhmm." The pit is covered in blood, and a small stream of water flows through it.
Back on board the ship
Salris is left in his hammock, tied up. He's quite happy with this. He hears Vurguron babbling, and the sailor too.
Vurguron's vision has been saturated; the colors are blending into white. And Salris is getting there.
Jerry and the sailor bring a blood-drenched Ryltar back to the ship. It's been a couple hours. The captain has returned, and is brushing off feathers. He's puzzled by the blood. Jerry explains that Ryltar fell into a hole in the forest. "Did you know about the blood caves," she asks the captain. He did not; he doesn't go into the interior. Jerry compliments the crew, and tells the captain that he does a horrible job of dissuading people from taking the local drugs.
They take Ryltar into the sleeping deck, and Ryltar doesn't like the colors. Jerry casts Silence again, just before he tries to Dimension Door out of the ship.
The bright colors converge to white, and then darkness.
After ten minutes, Ryltar still stays in his hammock. Once his vision goes dark, after an hour, he Dimension Doors to the deck of the ship. He wanders around the deck of the ship, blind, after taking 3 points of collision damage. Someone asks if they can do anything to keep him from wandering around; he says, "It'll keep happening. It's too dark down there." So the crew just keeps an eye on his wandering.
The darkness fades to a starlit twinkling, and though he looks through the stars for any recognizable constellations, he recognizes none.
Jerry grills the captain about the island, and the effects of the Midnight. Colors, white, black, night sky. "More of a hallucinogenic than an alcoholic, sort of a trip for the locals. Some people get used to it. Makes 'em talk about strange colors and seeing things that aren't there. Normal things."
About the island, he's eventually convinced to talk about the people who he brings and takes away. He describes it as a haven for tourists. The locals sometimes travel with him. "Everyone has superstitions; there's always some sort of local monster. Some sort of local boogeyman. They describe someone goes weird, and disappears. They're not themselves." He's not heard of pink, or laughter. He's never heard of blood pools, but the thinks the stories are just something to tell the kids. Jerry offers to show him the blood pool, and then thinks better of it.
Cargo transfers; the sun sets. The crew mess with Ryltar a little.
One of the crew, a halfling, comes back with a few different cuts and scrapes. Some other crew are bruised, talking slurred. The one sober one says, "bar fight," in reply to Jerry's questioning. "Did you win?" "He didn't."
The merchants, half-elf, gnome, and the rest come back. The nobleman has a bloody nose and complains to his wife of being mugged. But his wife didn't see. He went off for a walk, and came back like this.
Jerry stares off into the distance. "I'm surrounded by idiots."
Vurguron shouts from below, "I'm over here!"
Ryltar settles down for a long meditation rest.
Jerry props herself up against the mast, and falls asleep.
The next morning
Everyone wakes up sober.
The morning sun brings with it a last-minute transfer of crates and barrels.
Ryltar sees white in the morning, and then it turns into colors again. Somewhat muted in comparison. But nope, he's still sensitive to sunlight. He gets caught up by Jerry, and then goes down below to untie Salris. "Rise and shine!" cries Ryltar, who ungags and unties Salris. Ryltar wanders over to Vurguron, Prestidigitationing himself clean along the way. Salris loved the experience, apparently. Vurguron is rested.
Back on deck, Ryltar talks to the captain, asks him how the flight went. "How did you land?" asks Jerry. The captain exhales, and continues making orders to make sail.
The ship is guided back out to sea, into open ocean, north-northwest.
Back to sea
"Captain, is there a teleportation circle on the island?" asks Ryltar, as we sail away.
"I don't know."
"There is undoubtedly a teleportation circle on the island," says Jerry. "It's just a question of whether you want to wade through chest-deep blood to find it."
"That might be worth it, to come back to paradise," says him.
"I just didn't get a cheeseburger," complains Salris.
The ship sails on. There's a storm off to one side. The youngest crewman is let off his duties today. We share some nice hangover food with him, from the Abracadabrus. Vurguron is still tired, and Salris and Ryltar think the colors are muted today.
Ryltar and Salris play with Gust, and Ryltar ends up pushing himself back more than he pushes Salris.
From below comes a burst of angry voices, from the galley and bedchambers. A couple of crewmen are frantically searching in crates and boxes for something, which they think was stolen. "Who took it!" "Why would anyone do this!" The cook is yelling at everyone, his foot on an open trunk.
"Who took what," asks Ryltar?
"The first mate's stuff!"
"What does the first mate's stuff look like?"
A small stone statue, a personal idol
clothes
money
boots
notes and books
Jerry looks around, and there's a few people shying away. As a member of a military scouting organization, she's able to see things which aren't supposed to be. She makes note of the crew, to bring them up with the cook and captain later.
Ryltar says, "If people own up now, maybe they won't get thrown into a block of ice later." With a 20 intimidation from him, and a natural 23 insight from Jerry, there's a halfling who's hiding in the corner, inching his way towards the door exiting the galley.
Jerry says that maybe it's be nice to put the first mate's trunk on the top deck, and the things would be returned without having to go to the effort of tying someone behind the ship and having them walk to the next port.
But the captain says that there must be punishment meted out, because a thief cannot be tolerated aboard a ship. Or else, we will all be held liable.
Jerry quietly tells the rest of the Party to quietly checks their bags, to make sure nothing is missing or added.
The ship's bell rings for changing shifts, and the halfling bolts. Ryltar follows, and goes to check the halfling's chest. But Jerry says, no, we should talk to the captain.
We describe people to the captain, and he tells the bosun to call in Xander, a young tanned Halfling, big-eyed. The captain asks us to ask him questions, and tells him to tell the truth. Ryltar and Salris make some magical misdirections, to intimidate him and make him think that we know whether he's telling the truth.
"Will we find the first mate's stuff in your chest?" "Nnnnooo."
Jerry says, "If we search your chest, will we find someone else's chest? And more importantly, I guess, will they be mad about it?"
Xander looks at Ryltar and asks, "Would you be mad?"
"You stole my things?"
"You asked us to find chain for you, and I found it in the hammock room, and …"
"No one else's stuff?" asks Salris.
He knew that the first mate had money, so he took the first mate's stuff, and sold it on the island.
The captain turns to us, and asks what he should do to this thief. Ryltar says that he'd be killed if this was in the Underdark. Jerry says that it would vary, in the military, between lashing, latrine duty, or being sent home. Pay docking.
Through questioning, we find out that the kid worked with another crewmate, sold the personal items for 25 gold, and there was 150 gold in the bag. Including the idol of Umberlee, goddess of anger, wrath, storms, tidal waves, and natural disasters. The sort of god you pray for her to pay you no attention.
In the end, the captain elects to have the two crew work off the debt.
Ryltar gets his chain back from the kid's chest. Jerry tells the kid to pay off Umberlee, at his next chance, because she's not a god you want to mess with. Ryltar tells the kid it may be best to just fuck off at the next port.
The captain calls Tyrus, the other crewmate, down to his cabin, and does some chastising.
Later that evening, Salris asks the captain what the kid's pay is. Depending on factors, anywhere from 2 to 10 gold per trip. Salris doesn't like this. "He's young. I think he was talked into it." He pulls out 8 platinum and slides them across the captain's desk. "Let him off easy. If he does it again, bring the wrath down on him. But I think he was talked into it. Consider it a donation, from a man who was left behind." And he walks away.
Tonight, Ryltar does not polymorph himself into a cat. No rats or seagulls to set upon and leave in Percivals' bed. And no Percival to put in the bed.
The crew are keeping eyes on Tyrus and Xander.
Sailfall
That night, the captain orders the sails to be furled. Instead, the top sail on the mainmast falls, hits the lower sail, and both break free from the mast. One person is pinned. Ryltar rescues him, and Salris helps heal him. The ship's surgeon sets the bone and casts some minor healing.
The ship is basically calmed; The sail falling tore the mainsail, and broke some other stuff. We volunteer our services to help repair. The other sails are kind of fine. The siderails are smashed; the side heavy mounted crossbows are smashed.
There's a Dragonborn holding a rope, atop the mast, and he says that the rope was cut; and it snapped. That's what caused it to fall. Ryltar inspects the rope, and determines that it was mostly cut through. So now we need to look over all the ropes on the ship.
Salris and Jerry look around; Ryltar decides to hang out in the crow's nest. He climbed up as a cat, but now Dimension Doors the lookout to the deck. Jerry finds no other frayed ropes. Salris found none. The bosun says he had been keeping an eye on the two thieves; they weren't involved. But it's been a while since the rope was nicked.
Jerry finds a corner and falls asleep. Ryltar infers that she's going to keep an eye on things tonight, so he takes a trance now so that he can be a cat during the night. At some point, he Dimension Doors to the crow's nest, and watches from there as people do repairs.
Murder
Ryltar keeps tabs on who does what, but things move around.
Jerry, down in steerage, with her self disguised, keeps an eye on the steering ropes. She sees nothing, but hears faint scratching. It sounds like it's coming from forwards. It's the port hold, in front of the surgery.
Someone comes down and starts searching through that hold, but the scratching doesn't stop. The searching stops, and then the scratching. She casts Pass without Trace and goes to examine. Into the main hold. Being so stealthy, she sees a figure walk up the steps to the next deck. As she moves around the boxes in the hold, there's a corpse. The bleeding cut throat looks quite dead. She shoves a potion of Spare the Dying into the person, and there's no breath.
She continues up the stairs. There's a group of people who are sitting under the grating, looking up at the noise. And there's three who are closest to the steps:
The quartermaster, Lomarck, the Dragonborn.
Elven male deckhand, Nordan
The Noble man.
Jerry coughs, loudly, says, "Excuse me," and pops Web in a 40-foot cube, filling the front half of the ship with web.
Ryltar, looking down from the crow's nest, says, "Fuck." He Dimension Doors down to the deck.
Salris was wandering around, and says when asked, "I can't sleep".
Jerry comes up from the stairs, through the webs, and says, "Someone was just murdered in the hold, and everyone in the room below are suspects."
Next session
Who did it? Jerry is maintaining Web for the next hour.
Does the saboteur-murderer have any responsibility for the thefts?
Wait. Was Seamus poisoning the whole bar? Is that why he wasn't drinking?
Is Salris' brother also a bearer of the curse that afflicts Salris? Or is he just part of Rezzik Brazzik now?
What's up with Salris' Celestial dagger?
We know how to trap the Jester, with Magic Circle
What's going on with the stars? Are Ryltar's theories about colors and significant plot-relevant things' colors correct?
How can the Mummy Lord be defeated?
Determine how to resolve the Eta'el-Kerjes plot
Remember to un-petrify Ockoh in the Ice Lord Wint's Lair