The Tall Missionary takes the Noble Daughter hostage, and dies an innocent at Ryltar's wand. The murderer is revealed as a Rakshasa, which had disguised itself as the Noble Husband. The sea monster disappears, but a curse lingers over the ship until it is removed. The ship is repaird and sails on. The Party offers custodianship of the Regular Inn to the ship's boy, Xander.
The ship's bells have rung the alarm: something big underwater has approached the ship. Jerry, Salris, Percival and the Captain are on deck. Salris is preparing Mental Prison to attack the whatever, because that was so effective against the Sea Dragon.
Jerry casts Water Walk on the Party, the captain, the quartermaster, Bunkyl the Dwarf gunner, Xander (our favorite child). For the next hour, they won't sink.
In the bunk room, the tall misssionary of Denier is holding the noble daughter hostage. Ryltar went down to investigate, and Vurguron has awoken from his slumber to don his armor. They're down there.
The hostage situation
The noble parents are aghast; everyone else in the hold is watching this play out. The tall missionary backs towards the kitchen, dragging the daughter with. "This is not how this was supposed to — I want to see the captain, now. Any funny business, I will have another body."
Ryltar had gone down to investigate the scream. "And you want to the captain, now?"
"Alone?"
"Alone."
"Okay, stay right there." He goes up on deck and tells the captain, "The missionary is threatening the daughter of the nobles and wants to talk to you."
So Captain Wilton Grace goes down belowdecks, to see what's up. Ryltar and Salris have a very quiet conversation about Hold Person.
The captain walks into the room: "Whatever this is, we can talk it out. No one else needs to die this trip. What do you want?"
The missionary backs into the galley, pulling the daughter with him, saying, "We need to talk."
The captain goes in the gallery, and then closes the door.
Ryltar and Salris hold a very fast talk about saving the girl. They Dimension Door into the officers' bunk room beside the galley. Their stealth checks pass; no one heard them enter because the door between the bunkroom and the galley is closed.
Upstairs, Jerry hasn't seen the aquatic beastie since it dove. It's just missing at this moment, underwater.
The door between the rooms has no keyhole. But there's a split in the wood, and through it, Ryltar sees that the missionary has backed into a corner, bringing the daughter with, as the captain stands on the other side of the room. The captain holds nothing. The missionary paces a little, moving towards and back from the captain, like the missionary is trying to bait a reaction. The captain holds still.
Vurguron finishes donning his armor. The passengers in the bunkroom move into the cargo hold, leaving him with the noble parents. The mother weeps, the father commands Vurguron to do something. "Immediately!" he replies.
Vurguron creeps to the galley door and listens in.
The sea monster
Up top, Percival looks for the monster. He anticipates that it is going to attack soon.
Jerry knows that the monster has to have come up by now. Would have come up by now. Or would have attacked, or done something by now. There are about 25 people on deck. She jumps up to the wheel, and tells people to look down the sides of the ship. No one sees anything. She dispatches a crewmember to check the bottom hold for damage.
The ship still moves through the water. It's not suckered onto the bottom of our hull, that's for sure.
In the galley
The missionary yells, "That is not our deal!"
"Now's as good a time as any," says Ryltar to Salris, and subtly casts Hold Person on the missionary. The missionary fails the save, and is held.
Ryltar kicks down the door, and grabs the missionary's knife. Salris grabs the daughter and wrestles her away from the missionary.
Vurguron hears a tussle, and chops through the door with his sword. Here's Vurguron!
Ryltar goes to knock the missionary over, but the missionary breaks free from Hold Person.
Salris looks the missionary in the eye and casts Modify Memory to make him forget that anything happened in the last minute and a half.
There is no hostage situation aboard the Flying Banshee
There is no hostage situation. The missionary is standing in the corner of the galley, very confused at what happened, and who's in the room.
"You wanted to tell us something?" asks Salris. "You asked us four to come in here to ask us something."
Vurguron follows his sword through the door. Salris greets him politely. Ryltar carefully hides the knife. The missionary's daughter flees to her parents.
Salris doesn't do a good job of deceiving the missionary. He sits there and thinks for a bit. "Why…? Why am I here?"
Ryltar chimes in: "You seem a little blurred there, friend." Salris gives the missionary some water.
"You specifically requested the captain," presses Salris. "Isn't that right, Captain?" He nods. The missionary says that he was talking with the … nobleman? Salris explains the situation, omitting the noble's daughter and Vurguron. The missionary had called for the captain and these others, to tell them about something.
Ryltar wonders if Salris' charm broke another charm on the missionary. But he can't tell.
In the bunk room, the nobles embrace, reunited.
"… What happened? I was out there, hiding," says the missionary.
"Hiding? From what?"
"From the monster, trying to attack us?"
Ryltar looks around, listens. "I don't hear a monster." He can't tell if the missionary was lying.
There's some deception going on here, and the captain convinces the missionary that they were going to show him a good place to hide. In the brig.
As soon as the captain and the missionary get out of sight, heading down the stairs to the hold, Ryltar hears the missionary attack the captain. The captain attacks the unarmed missionary. The captain decks the missionary, dealing 5 damage. The missionary swings back, misses, then casts a spell. Ryltar casts Counterspell and Cone of Cold, through the hold. The missionary dies and freezes as a statue.
"Well, that's a damn shame," says Ryltar, walking up to the captain. "I wonder what happened."
"Same. He wasn't really … there wasn't much a conversation of a one-sized threat, of killing them or getting to shore. But now who's going to talk to the other missionary?"
"Well, if I did the thing, I might as well be the one that breaks the news. I'm sorry another of your passengers has died. Hopefully this is the last of it. What do you want to do with the," gesturing to the corpsicle.
"Not part of the crew, so casting overboard is no go. Talk to the other missionary."
Ryltar examines the dagger. Nothing interesting about it.
The captain is happy that we're not getting attacked by a monster currently. To Ryltar's question, he doesn't think that the missionary would have summoned the monster. Ryltar conveys that he's understanding of the captain's desire to punch the missionary. They go upstairs to find the other missionary.
Returning to the question of the monster
Salris exits the galley, and is thanked by the noble mother. There's blood on her arms. He asks her if she's in pain; she asks from what. She didn't appear to notice that she's got blood on her arms. Salris pulls out a healer's kit and tries to clear the blood off. There are scratches in her arms, deep enough to bleed but just a passing scratch.
Jerry's messenger is downstairs, didn't come back up. She keeps an eye out for the sea monster.
Percival patrols the boat, looking for situations. He encounters the captain and Ryltar returning, and Ryltar tells him of the end of the tall missionary.
Just in case, Salris casts Remove Curse on the noble woman. But the husband backs away, wondering what Salris just did to her. Salris explains remove curse, and the husband explains that he doesn't have a curse on him at all. He's sure of it. "I'm going to do this anyways," says Salris, and reaches out to touch the husband. His hand passes through: the husband is incorporeal!
The incorporeal nobleman explodes
Salris tells Ryltar, the captain, and Percival that the noble's incorporeal.
Centered on the mast on that deck, a 30-foot spherical effect takes place, catching Vurguron, Salris, Percival, Captain and Ryltar take 12d10 damage. 56 psychic damage to everyone save Salris. In terrifying teeth and blood and claws, a thing explodes. The daughter and mother drop like a sack of bricks: dead.
Standing at the doorway is the father, still alive.
Round 1: the Party attacks the nobleman, to discover that there are weird effects on him. Jerry makes the call for the crew to abandon ship.
Jerry sees ten crew members flat-out die. She yells, "Abandon ship!" and runs to the stairs, casting Hunter's Mark at the father. It has no effect. She swings at him once with her glaive, missing, then again for 15 damage.
Ryltar casts Ray of Frost on the creature, but the spell has no effect. He shrugs, and pulls out the missionary's dagger.
The nobleman moves towards Salris, and makes two attacks with his hand, dealing 8 slashing. Then he moves around to the corner of the bunkroom, taking shelter next to his daughter and wife's corpses.
Salris activates his Flamepesh, and attacks the father, hitting once for 4d6 + 8 = 14 magical slashing and 20 fire. He does not look damaged. So he connected, but doesn't see the damage.
The nobleman does a Legendary Action attack to Salris, but doesn't connect.
Vurguron runs up to the father and does three attacks: two critical hits and a miss, dealing a lot of damage.
The captain is nearly dead from the first attack. Ryltar suggests that the captain get behind him. But he stands there and holds his longsword.
Percival holds his rapier and stabs at the father, but his sword passes straight through. He gives bardic inspiration to as many people as possible.
Overhead, flurrying footprints as the crew and passengers rush to the boats.
Round 2. The nobleman has created another illusion, which deceives the Party. Ryltar's Hound of Ill Omen is summoned, and chases after the real nobleman when he appears. The nobleman summons a Glabrezu. Salris summons his Tanarukk to fight it.
Jerry enters the bunkroom, casts Ensnaring Strike and stabs at the husband. The weapon misses, then passes straight through him.
We realize that there's an illusion here.
Ryltar enters the room and can see the illusion disrupted by the glaive. He tries to summon his Hound of Ill Omen, and it looks at the illusory man. It looks back at him, and shakes its head. The illusion is not a valid target.
The noble disappears, and reappears in the gallery. We hear a rip and tear in reality, as he tries to summon something.
Ryltar casts Counterspell but it fails.
The summoned thingy, a hulking creature squeezes through the doorway, with a giant pincer. A four-armed two-pincer demonic creature appears. From the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, it's a Glabrezu!
The father casts Power Word Stun on Salris, but Percival counterspells, saying "There's no one more stunning than me!"
Salris casts Summer Greater Demon, bringing the Tanarukk, targeting it at the Glabrezu. He casts Hexblade's Curse on the Glabrezu.
Vurguron, lacking movement abilities, takes a healing potion for 5, Second Wind, and another potion for 18. He remains frightened of the father.
The captain runs up the stairs to the deck, leaving the combat, moving to the helm.
Percival is reminded that he is frightened of the father, and gives inspiration to Jerry.
The Hound of Ill Omen moves directly to the father, through the room of the galley, and attacks him, missing.
Round 3. The charming father neutralizes half the Party's ability to attack him or the Glabrezu. The Hound of Ill Omen is mostly ineffective. We begin to whittle down the Glabrezu's heath.
Jerry moves between the Glabrezu and Ryltar, and stabs it twice with her Ensnaring Strike but doesn't ensnare it. She deals 24 total magical slashing.
Ryltar casts Mental Prison on the Glabrezu, surrounding it with the perception of a giant anglerfish full of teeth, for 5d10=24 psychic damage, restraining it. Then he runs up to the top deck, out of its sight.
The father reappears, and everyone in sight makes a Wisdom save; failing and becoming charmed are the Tanarukk, Percival, and Vurguron. They think that he's an acquaintance. Percival is still afraid of the father.
The Tanarukk is charmed, and that charm rolls over to the Glabrezu, so the Tanarukk does nothing.
The Glabrezu tries to dispell the Mental Prison, and fails.
The father slices at the Hound of Ill Omen, dealing 12 damage to it.
Salris whips at the Glabrezu, misses, then slices with the firepesh, for 42 damage, of which 17 is fire.
The father slices at the Hound of Ill Omen, dealing 7 damage to it.
Vurguron, still frightened, can't move or attack the father. He moves sideways to attack the restrained Glabrezu. He deals 12 slashing 4 radiant, another 12 slashing 4 radiant, another 10 slashing 4 radiant. He's no longer frightened.
Percival, still frightened, summons Bigby's Hand and attacks the Glabrezu, dealing a shitton of damage. And then he gives inspiration to Vurguron.
The Hound of Ill Omen attacks the father, but fails to do damage.
Round 4. Jerry kills the Glabrezu. The father attacks her. Vurguron is now able to attack the father, and kills him. Salris' Tanarukk goes out of control.
Jerry casts Hunter's Mark again, attacks twice and deals 40 magical slashing to the Glabrezu. She kills it, and moves into the shadow of the Tanarukk.
Ryltar, realizing he is no longer concentrating on mental Prison, comes down the stairs. "Good work guys! You're doing great!" And then he moves away, because he does not know how to deal with the father.
The father leaves the hound's area, runs around to Jerry, and attacks twice. Misses once, then has a critical hit deflected by her breastplate, leaving 11 piercing damage.
The Tanarukk ends its obedience to Salris.
The father attacks Jerry again, dealing 11 piercing.
Salris attacks the problem he created.
The father attacks Jerry again, and deals insufficient damage.
Vurguron attacks the father, for three more rounds of 12 slashing 4 radiant. The father looks mostly dead. He Action Surges for 11 slashing, 4 radiant, killing the father. He turns his sword to the Tanarukk, but misses.
The Hound of Ill Omen disappears.
Percival grapples the Tanarukk with Bigby's Hand, dealing some damage. Then he opens a pocket of his vest of pockets, pulling out a wooden bead.
Round 5: The Tanarukk is dispatched.
Jerry attacks the Tanarukk, hitting once for 12 slashing. The demon reacts with an attack for 9 slashing.
Ryltar squeezes between Vurguron and Bigby's Hand to cast a Ray of Frost for 13 cold and slowing it by 10 feet.
Salris attacks with the whip and flamepesh, for 22 magical slashing, 9 regular slashing, 4 fire, and a wound from the whip of wounding. The Tanarukk dies, the whip wrapped around its neck, garrotting off its neck.
"So the father was the murderer," says Jerry.
Ryltar punches the father in the head, and then inspects the body. Its backwards claws, it tigerish figure. He recognizes it as Rakshasa, a cunning beast.
Jerry turns to ask the wife if she knew about her husband's condition, and discovers that the wife and daughter are dead. She looks at the dead daughter, who appears to be utterly normal: not the offspring of the Rakshasa.
After the fighting has ended
We go back on deck. The captain is in his quarters; Ryltar knocks at the door, and sighs. The captain sighs. He had been waiting to go down with his ship.
"Problem solved! We have new problems for you, though," says Salris. The two lifeboats of the remaining crew are standing off at a distance. We signal for them to come back, and help them back aboard.
Over the rest of the evening, we help the crew stitch shrouds for their fallen crewmates. Xander survived. Bunkyl died; we do not have to break the news to him about the manticore's death. The shrouded crew are cast to sea.
Of the passengers, the short missionary did not survive, and only one merchant survived. Ryltar knows the basic rites for Denier; he does those for the two missionaries.
The ship's group is now just us of the Party, the captain, 15 other crew, and one merchant. The captain sets new shifts: 16 hours on, 8 off, rotating.
The first night is calm and still. They do stuff.
Sleepless nights
Jerry spends the night rolling, tossing, and turning in her sleep. The image of the Rakshasa haunts her; she is unable to sleep. She does not gain the benefits of a long rest.
Dawn comes; the carpenter and his mate survived, and set up to repair as much as possible. Salris was going to rest, but with a 21 Constitution fails to sleep. Ryltar, same, gaining a point of exhaustion.
Afternoon shift: Jerry and Salris have some affliction that are preventing them from getting a good rest easily. Jerry doesn't gain a level of exhaustion, but Salris does. The Party sees Jerry and Salris not sleeping.
This is not going to be sustainable; everyone can see that Jerry and Salris and Ryltar are lagging. Jerry takes a level of exhaustion on the second day. Eight days to go.
Salris detunes from the Whip of Wounding and takes the Pearl of Power from Ryltar, which he attunes to, gains a spell slot, and casts Remove Curse on himself. Takes an hour's rest, casts Remove Curse on Jerry, and passes out for eight hours. Over the course of the next day, Salris casts it on everyone on board ship.
Ryltar's grief
Ryltar is still experiencing similar fucked-up-ness, but it's not a curse; 'tis just trauma. He knows that he killed the wrong man.
Seven days to shore. The ship's mast is slowly being fixed.
The captain talks to Ryltar after the nightmares end. "There is more than to doubt yourself. People can make mistakes." Ryltar can't shake the image of the lesser mercenary. We talk about ways of honoring the dead. "I thought it was, 'problem solved! It was him the whole time!' but it was not." The captain only threw a punch; Ryltar killed him.
We get the mast to work; Ryltar's condition worsens without sleep.
Ryltar asks Jerry how she dealt with it. She doesn't have much good advice, just "accept that it happened" and "figure out how to do better next time," but she pulls out a list of examples where she'd killed someone, where a reaction one way was countered by a reaction another way in a different scenario. She just learned to live with it. The past is the past; we can only be better in the future.
Salris borrows the captain's booze and offers it to Ryltar, but he refuses.
So Salris throws a party to raise morale. "If you can't live on for yourself right now, live on for them. If you die right now, so does their memory. And if you live, so do their stories, ,in you, maybe in a bard, maybe across the lands." Percival performs an uplifiting ballad about the life of the first mate, rolling 1d20+13 = 30 performance.
There is general and genuine laughter.
People show thanks and appreciation to Salris after the party.
Percival's dexterity and music has helped the repairs go along.
Jerry's strength, if not her ability with the rigging, helps get the main sail rehung, and the boat gains speed.
Ryltar and …?
With a 19 medicine, Ryltar works himself to the point of exhaustion, and slumps down as the last of the rigging is pulled into place. Sleep takes him.
There's an odd sense of "did I? should I? could have I? what could have I done differently?" Asking questions, trying to understand something out of control, trying to control a force of nature, to save someone he may not have been able to save. Snow and ice, which drains all that it touches and robs it of heat. These things slow. But to control a storm or a blizzard is nearly impossible. It does not ask the question, "can I?" for it may. The possibilities are endless. "Am I on the right one?" he wonders. A pause.
A beat.
A fwomph, and warmth among the cold. When does cold inspire warmth? When the heart is cold, it seeks out those who give it warmth.
He wakes up to find a heavy coat draped over him. It's the captain's.
And under his hand is the familiar feel of the Ice Heart of Winter. "Can I?" it seems to ask. "What are the other possibilities?"
Salris and the Captain
Over that night, Salris has gained the notice of the captain: "You do well, helping those who strive to sail the seas."
"Eh. Whatchu got her is better than I had. Almost makes me miss it."
"What was your ship?"
"The Grey Wind. Not always the cleanest of jobs, but"
"Never is."
"It was a family business."
"My father, my brother, and me. Mom stayed at home; dad was the captain. We did whatever he said."
"Has he ever told you what it takes to be a captain?"
"No, he never did. He was not a good man. You're good to your crew; he was not."
"Thank you for that. Being a captain is never always issuing orders. TO do what is right by his crew."
"And find work, which is right by the crew."
"You issue order, so those who are slack are put to work so that everyone works evenly. You hire, so that the workload is not overbearing. And your crew still remains, even if you fall. When we get to shore, I don't think Xander's going to be staying on the ship. I want you to take care of him, if you could."
"I'm going to be honest with you: the only person left alive in my family is my brother. My brother's in a bit of a pickle. He's on a different ship now: The Nightmare."
"Heard of it."
"I would not recommend you joining it; the ship is cursed and he's in a very difficult spot where he can't get out. But other than that, I got nothing. I'm traveling."
The Party butts in: The hotel.
"Oh right! I totally forgot. We accidentally own an inn. Don't ask now; a string of totally odd circumstances. I can send Xander there with the keys and some money; he can figure it out."
Jerry suggest sending him back by way of the West Haven, to learn inkeeping from Fenross.
Salris tells the captain to tell Xander about it first; the captain says he was going to tell Xander when they hit port. BUt Salris turns that back around on the captain: It's on the captain whether Xander stays aboard ship. And if Xander wants out, there's something that Salris can do for him. "I think we should give him the choice."
"Go down," says the captain, and Salris goes to talk to Xander.
A job offer
Salris finds Xander in the crow's nest. The job, should he be willing to take it, is to go to West Haven, learn innkeeping from Fenross, then go to Quadroads to take up the Irregular Inn. With 50 platinum to stand him up to start the inn and pay his travel costs.
Xander mentions visiting his family in Barehold; Salris tries to discourage him from visiting Barehold. Xander wants to know why. Salris explains that we saw a giant pyramid there, and it would have killed us. But it's very possible that his family ended up in Quadroads, or the Sky Diamond Academy.
Salris leaves him at the top of the mast to ponder the offer.
And now we're on our way to Setton.
Next session
It feels like Percival will spend the next couple of sessions at his interdimensional manor.
Will Xander take up the Party's proposal?
Ryltar needs to do something for the missionaries of Denier.
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