"The air itself was a wild brawl of smells and sounds: the punch of unwashed flesh, the scream of a scratching mandolin, the jab of tobacco smoke, the glee of a whistling pipe, the occasional head butt of sour urine, the aching sorrow of a moaning lute. All that, and the voices of singing, laughing, yelling, swearing, and groaning in myriad different ways."
- Nicholas Eames, Kings of the Wyld
After their second night on the Rock, the heroes got a later start than they would have liked. There always seemed to be one more thing to take care of. This morning, instructions for the crew, a debrief with Shilynn, and a check-in with Bug-Charlotte. When they were finally underway with Goodboy, it was almost noon. As they made their way across the congested city towards the Cerulean Horizons cemetery, Goodboy let them know they were being tailed by Neogi. The heroes mobilized to lose their pursuers so well, that they also lost Goodboy. Trusting he would be able to catch up, they made the rest of the way to cemetery. They were surprised to find it so quiet an unoccupied. Hooper Meadowtop’s rare permanent burial site was easy enough to find, but the puzzle of what to do once they had was not. A great deal of time passed as they tried to decipher the clues. At one point, after having dug down to the coffin, they found they had been joined by a pair of cowled Actuaries, watching from a distance. The cemetery grew even more still and quiet. The ambush came moments later – their location betrayed by a Neogi-dominated Goodboy! A Neogi Overseer with an Umber Hulk kept its distance while four Perytons and two Neogi Defilers attacked. Through it all, the Overseer peppered them with questions about Meadowtop and the gravesite. At least, it did until the Illithid’s pack of Intellectual Devourers showed up to compete with the Neogi for the right to destroy the party. A fierce three-way battle ensued with the party finally prevailing. Solving the riddle-lock on Hooper’s coffin activated a true resurrection spell. Then they heard a knock from inside. They opened to find a familiar face: Jennifer the Goblin! Unfortunately, she did not recognize any of them, let alone remember much of their captivity by Skitterix and her escape. She assumed her Hooper Meadowtop disguise to discuss their next moves. Leaving the graveyard, they saw that a fire had erupted in Lowtown causing a real stir. They found that the games store that had replaced Hooper’s bookstore was no closed and as empty as Jennifer’s secret room, which had also been cleared out. Afterwards, they took her to the Edge, to leave her in the care of the other goblins. En route, they were waylaid by a temporally displaced Luckums appeared to them with the G-Nome Clockwork device. She told them that they had to use it to take it back to the Heroes of Ancorato on Sentar, where it belonged. Following her instructions, they found themselves on the deck of a near-scuttled sailing vessel, somewhere in the Tropics of the Maruss Ocean, and much too small to be so far away from any shore.
Bug-Charlotte: When Charlotte joins you for breakfast, fills a bowl from the buffet, brings it to the table vomits acid on it and starts to drink its sizzling contents, as far as you can tell, not a single goblin bats an eye.
“Morning Charlotte. Hey Charlotte…”
“Somebody asks her if she has a new black eye, haha…”
If her transformation is specifically mentioned to them, they say “Oh yeah!” / “Huh.” / “Cool.” / “I got a tattoo.” / “Where can I get that?” etc.
Coalman is a little weirded out
Connor asks if there are any instructions
"Find the rest of the crew."
"Don't get caught."
"I don't want to read about you in the newspaper."
"I don't wanna pay for the trouble you get in."
Coalman instructed to find more crew
Shilynn: You have the impression from Shilynn that her contacts on the Rock, especially among the Captain’s Council and the Pilot’s alliance, are very good. You also get the impression that her desire to get off the rock is equal parts fear for what's coming and fear of what she is going to bring down on herself when she kills someone at the Ylven embassy that she holds responsible for her being made a brain in a box.
Entering the graveyard, there is an ancient bespectacled rodent-person (a badger?) seemingly asleep on a folding chair next to a small box filled with coins. (the party deposited 50 gp)
The graveyard is not that large – but it is jarring to move from the streets to such an open space. The illusion of wide open spaces is amplified by the view afforded by the hill upon which the graveyard sits overlooking the starboard side of the Rock. The trees and only enhance the breathtaking views of open Wildspace.
Goodboy brought you at the right time of day. You have arrived between shifts for those parts of the graveyard where the inhabitants of transitional burial sites are being interred and disinterred.
Finding the right part of the graveyard is not very difficult. The section for permanent gravesites is not large. The areas is relatively private as well. How are there not more people here?
The gravestone reads: "Hooper Meadowtop - Took You Long Enough"
Born: Selunaport, Died: Gods Know Where, Resting: ‘Til the End of His Days
KNOW (Religion, Wildspace) It is embossed with the symbols of Plentok Veris (patron Ascendant god of the Federation), which is also one of the common symbols for the Federation army: an upside-down handle-less pick head with freedom’s flame burning out of the open hole… with the addition of a circle of broken (this is a Wildspace Cant symbol of the Fabled Final Sphere - not the Lost Sphere, commonly associated with Sentar)
KNOW (Religion), KNOW (Nature), SURVIVAL = It looks as though the gravesite has been dug up recently. Probably more than once…
After running out of other options, the party begins to dig...
The coffin is made of some heavy wood. There’s a sturdy brass plate on top with six rotating discs, each with nine spaces set with a different letter in the alphabet for Sentarean common. Judging from the dent marks on the top of the coffin, you definitely aren’t the first to try digging up this grave.
It looks like others have tried to force the coffin open as well.
You look up to find two cowled Actuaries watching…
That's when the Neogi (guided by a dominated Goodboy) ambush. An Illithid contingent of intellectual devourers arrives shortly afterwards.
During the fight, the Overseer screams: “We have already dug this up! Do you know how to solve the puzzle? What are you looking for? What do you hope to find? Where did you get that outfit?”
Placeholder: photo, battlemap of gravesite]
DETECT MAGIC: Strong Conjuration
The entire coffin glows with celestial energy KNOW (Religion) (It is Drawn from Sentar)
Shroktath – something inside is alive… you hear a knocking
Open the coffin. STRENGTH CHECK
[Placeholder: image, coffin tumblers/letters]
Details:
Six Rotating Brass Disks
Nine Digits Each
Sentarean Common Alphabet
Solution: As per Jennifer's instructions, find Hooper Meadowtop on the Rock of Bral and tell him "There are more worlds than this."
(T-A-M-W-T-T)
You pull open the lid of coffin. You get the impression that even the Actuaries lean forward slightly to get a look…
ITS JENNIFER!
She says "the safety protocols must have been initiated, so something bad must have happened."
She sits up, blinks as he eyes adjust, wets her tongue as she looks around and says: “Who the hell are you?”
She's never heard of the Crown of the Lost Sphere
Why am I in a coffin? Where’s my hat? What’s this in my pocket? (a note to herself – she reads… “I should probably get back to my bookshop.”)
There’s a cap and a piece of twine in the coffin with her. The cap turns her into an elderly hobbit
the gaming store is closed and the windows are boarded up
Inside, the place is being remodelled, the secret room is open and emptied of all of its former comments, except those that you managed to grab
The tapestry of smells to which you have been subjected since your arrival has been extraordinary. Whether it’s the sweat and wood dust of dockside, the sweat and urine of lowtown, or the sweat and cooking of midtown… actually, come to think of it, it’s not been that diverse… no matter the bouquet, burning fuel has always been woven into the general aroma.
Now, it is the only aroma. The suddenly overwhelming smell of woodsmoke would be a soothing reminder of campfires, were not for the alarm bells, screams and billowing black clouds emanating from Low town.
You have a saying on the Inordinate Amount, “Where there’s smoke…”
Something somewhere has just exploded sending a column of fire and smoke upwards, visible above the rooftops from here.
What do you do with Jennifer? She’s disoriented.
As you approach lowtown, you see a host of spellcasters flying overhead. A brigade of volunteer fire fights are guiding a massive lumbering water elemental splashing through the streets from Lake Bral.
Luckums, you feel a little nauseous. Someone taps on your shoulder and clears her voice.
Other Luckums looks at you. She’s holding the G-Nome… “Uhhh…”
She sniffs the air, looks over your shoulder and says, “Oh, is that today?” She pauses and shakes the G-Nome. “Huh… I guess so.”
“Here. You need to take this back to the Heroes of Ancorato. They are going to need it to save Sentar.”
“I stole it from us, so I could put it back where I know where to find it, so I can get it later, and use it to save the Spheres…”
“You don’t need to know any of that yet. Besides, it will not happen the same way again. Too many variables, and hear I am flapping butterfly wings. That’s ok, I’m counting on it on it not happening that way again.”
“It’s all set. All of you just need to be touching it, while someone twists this dial—NO! THIS dial—and you will arrive where you need to. Just be sure to put it back!”
Once it’s back where it’s supposed to be, you should be able to use it locate what you are looking for (Crown of the Lost Sphere).
“Have you talked to Molator yet? You really should.”
You are on a small ship bobbing in the waves. The warm breeze blowing across the deck smells nothing of sweat or urine or cooking. The ocean stretches out around you in every direction, out to the edge of an overcast sky darkening with night. But this is a little island hopper. You shouldn’t be that far from a shore, somewhere. If you are, you’re in trouble.
The island hopper lists slightly to port. Taking it all in, you begin to recognize signs of struggle, an apparently failed effort to scuttle the ship, and a competing effort to keep it afloat. Underscoring the malice, it appears the head of its nautical figurehead has been hacked off and left at the base of the mast.
Life right now reminds me of some of those times in the army. You’d sit on your ass a whole lot, and then, all of a sudden, it’s go go go, a hundred different things that you needed done yesterday.
Luckums figured our top priority was to head out to Hooper’s grave - might be that steelstone key thing for the g-nome was hidden in the grave. I figured it was a long shot, but on the off chance she was right, of sphere shattering importance, so off we went.
I was clueless, but as we headed through the market, Good Boy and Basile noticed tell-tale signs that we were being followed. With spells, and some distractions, we managed to give our Neogi followers the slip, but lost Good Boy in the hubbub. We figured he could fend for himself, give the Neogi the slip, and hoped that he could join us later at the grave site. Turns out, we were right and wrong about that.
We made it to the Grave - a curious thing. Nothing magical or mechanical about the headstone, apparently, though we sure wasted a fair bit of time and effort trying to find something magical or mechanical about it. What I wanted to ignore - and gladly, Luckums made sure we checked out - was the burial plot itself. It had clearly been disturbed several times. They dug, and I noticed both Hazel and me were getting guilty about disturbing the grave. We offered a prayer and lit a candle for Plentok Varris, the Sentarian/Federation god mentioned on the tombstone.
A few minutes later, Luckums and Khalid struck paydirt. A hobbit-sized coffin, with a 6-letter tumbler on top of it, like some fancy combination lock. From the marks and scrapes on the thing, a few other groups had gotten this far, and tried brute force as a way of getting past the lock… But no dice.
Well, I’d like to be able to report that in putting our heads together, with all of our knowledge and skills, that we came up with the right code in a jif. I’d like to say that. We hummed and hawed, sweated and squawked about what combination of letters might work on those damned tumblers for what seemed like an hour! We tried everything we could think of, and I sort of felt like the gods themselves were disappointed in us. Finally, Luckums had the brainwave that it wasn’t a word we were looking for, but the first letters of the words we were supposed to say when we first met Hooper Meadowtop - “There Are More Worlds Than This.”
We were sure - finally we’d made a breakthrough! Luckums had just started to turn the dials to the right letters when we were rudely interrupted. The Neogi following us at the start had clearly not been given the slip by Good Boy. They had dominated him, and forced him to lead them straight to the grave, and us. And the three Neogi brought some friends with them, while their apparent leader and his pet Umber Hulk came at us from the ground, a group of what I think Basile called “Perytons” attacked us from the air. I’ve met some weird creatures in my travels, but these might hold the title. It was like the gods spliced together demon eagle and stag parts in some sort of horror joke. Worse, when their shadow passed over you, it was like you could feel some weird sort of creepy chill trying to take hold of you, freeze you up with fear. I felt an inner warmth pushing the chill away, and I even felt that warmth extending to my comrades. I hoped it would be enough, because the situation got even worse.
Another group of hellish creatures joined the party. Again, some twisted mix of demon, brain, dog… If I described this to someone back on Sentar, they’d think I was a liar. Luckily, they seemed to be trying to kill the Neogi crew as well as us. Hmph. Luckily.
Surrounded, outnumbered, and attacked in any number of ways, we were pressed hard. I admit - I was loving it. I felt so alive and almost in harmony with the dance of life and death. At one point three different critters were all trying to take me down, and I Lost myself in the thrill of battle. I was dimly aware that the Neogi kept trying to bend our minds, control us - give up the secret of the steelstone key. The sounds of my friends’ struggles - their battle cries, shouted ideas, the grating, whinging of the Neogi, the hair-raising keening/lowing of the Perytons, and the cracks of magical energy and gunpowder - all seemed to come to me from a distance. Looking back, I’m ashamed to say I lost track of what was happening for my comrades in the middle of battle. Illeyasar trained me hard never to do that, and I felt like I had let my old teacher down.
Our enemies were getting their shots in, but we gave it back and then some. I had just skewered my second foe like a gujamellon on a shish-kabob, and turned on a third when the tide turned quite rapidly, as it can in battle. Within a few seconds it became clear that we would win. With traditional Neogi courage, the last of them headed for the hills with what was left of their (now it’s) pet Umber Hulk. We mopped up the remaining Peryton and dog/brain critters, and met each other’s eyes. The bond of battle - nothing quite like it.
We returned to the coffin, and Luckums finished the combination - a wave of light, sound, and magical energy poured out of the coffin, pushing all of us back in surprise. Then, for a few moments, nothing. Then a slight knock from within. I helped to open the lid, and inside was… Jennifer! I’d thought of her often since we’d been taken off Sentar. In my mind’s understanding of these confusing events that we’d become swept up in, she had seemed almost like a beacon in the fog and darkness. I’d worried that we’d never see her again. She started to speak, but I was so swept up in the emotion and surprise, that I corralled her in a big bear hug. She sputtered and tried to free herself, and made it clear that she had no idea who we were. Oopsie. I put her down.
The story started to unfold a bit. Jennifer was Hooper, the hobbit appearance being a very useful cover here, in this sphere without goblins. The memory of us was not coming back. The last thing she really remembered was being on Sentar, looking for the G-nome key. She was a bit weak, so as I carried her back to her old bookstore, we tried to tell bits of the story - the Inordinate Amount, Skitterex, the mutiny, the Gump, Havelock, Algail. Didn’t seem like it jogged much memory-wise, but I think she started to feel more at ease with us.
Leaving the graveyard, the sights and sounds of a major fire in the city quickly surrounded us. Fire. Hmmm… What could have caused that, I wondered. We ignored and avoided the chaos as best we could, and pressed on to Jennifer’s/Hooper’s old Bookstore, at her request. Cleaned. Out. Totally. Plan b -we headed for our Inn and base of operations, and on the way, one of Luckums strange time twist thingies happened. Another Luckums appeared, holding the G-nome. Our Luckums, almost immediately, started scrapping her mirror for the G-nome. Kicks, punches, ear pulling, insults, shouts of “mine!” Bizarre, comical, and a little disturbing. Anyways, eventually the Luckums calmed down, and other-time Luckums managed to explain that we were needed in a battle to save the very Spheres themselves. What were we going to do? We gathered round the strange and powerful device, followed her directions, and after a brief and kinda sickening twisting of ourselves and all we knew, we found ourselves on a small, sinking ship in the middle of a big ocean.
If it made things any better, it looked like we were about to drown back at home in a Sentarian ocean. Yay.
Moraday Eoweek Korda - Day 201
I was bruised and sore as I went down to breakfast. We ate with Coalman, Brendon and Veronica. We were able to find Charlotte but she had transformed into some kind of giant bug. Luckums was able to scry Blaine who had been apparently in kidnapped by some Ylfe. We went down to the dock to talk with Shilynn and her oversight of the ship repairs. I dispatched Coalman to see if he could recruit more ship hands for our crew; we would need them soon and by Shilynn’s indications, perhaps quickly. We dropped off some things and gathered some more before we started off to the Drunken Octopus.
As we climbed into Goodboi’s cart however, we decided the highest priority should be Hooper Meadowtop’s grave. Instead we diverted to Cerulian Blue (DM: the name of the cemetary is Cerulean Horizons). We went through the market and learned we were being followed by a neogi riding an umber hulk. Basile saw this was actually a distraction away from the other neogi. Luckums turned us invisible and we acted to improve our escape. My feeble attempts worsened the situation but Hazel, Luckums and Basile’s efforts guaranteed our success. Unfortunately, as we reached the Cerulian Blue, he had even managed to lose Goodboi. We thought he would be safe enough without us so we continued on. We made our way to the Donjon, the Rock’s central fortress.
[Placeholder: image, graves]
We made it to the cemetery and found Meadowtop’s grave without much trouble. The site had been excavated extensively but returned to the appearance of normal. Hooper’s tombstone was covered with Federation symbols but also had a broken sphere engraved on it. We believed this was a wildspace symbol for the mythological Eighth Sphere. After a cursory search of the graves immediately surrounding Hooper’s, we spent extensive effort examining and analyzing his tombstone. It was our confident assessment that it was simply a slab of high quality stone. Luckums and I took out our entrenching shovels and began to dig and Shroktath and Hazel prayed continually to Phentok Veras, the patron saint of the Federation. At depth, we found a magically reinforced coffin with a tumbler code on the top. After trying a dictionary’s worth of six-letter words, Luckums remembered Jennifer’s first letter to us: “tell Hooper Meadowtop, ‘there are more worlds than this’”. She dialled TAMWTT into the device.
When she pushed the final T into place, we heard Goodboi come into the cemetery. He was behaving oddly and pointing at us. Suddenly the neogi and umber hulk emerged from cover and attacked. Goodboi had been a compelled victim of those fiends. As we fought them, perytons flew upon us from the sky; their fell shadows truly do put a chill in your heart. Then, intellect devourers joined the fray against them. Perhaps the most horrific sight in my life was when one of them entered the mouth of a neogi we killed and took over its body. This three way battle was utter chaos. At one point, Hazel was dominated by a neogi and attacked Basile. As the enemy closed in, I knew that precision was no longer needed. I drew my blunderbuss Qabda and unleashed its flame on the approaching vile foes. In the end, we defeated all but one cowardly neogi that we could not even run down.
[Placeholder: image, Peryton]
Suddenly, immense magical power flowed into the grave. Emerging from the coffin was Jennifer the UnSpoken. At first her whimsey and confused nature distracted us. It took a few moments to fully understand we had initiated a far greater event. Our actions had caused the Resurrection of Meadowtop. We learned that Jennifer was but a disguise for Meadowtop. Unfortunately he did not recall the details of his death. More mysteries to solve. She held the G-NOME that we thought had gone back with the Ancorato Adventurers three months ago. We agreed to help her and them and in touching it, we were suddenly back on Sentar. I was instantly certain of it in spite of the fact that we were in the middle of an ocean in which I had never seen.
immaculate graveyard;
all of us seeking
mysteries in stone.
[Placeholder: image, scholarly adventurer reading scroll]
Forty-Eighth Annum Independencia
Introduction
This report summarizes the activities of the Inordinate Privateers from Dakarday Umberweek Fharlangha to Dakarday Umberweek Weegassa in the 48th year of the Federation’s Independence: a period of 146 days.
Part 1
The Inordinate Privateers first came together as a squad of recruits in the 3rd Auxillary Platoon, Bithal Company from Fort Tcyz under Lt Falcorte and the Sarge. The Squad was assigned to find some merchant connected with the Unspoken that had an important package. They were instead captured along with goblin commandos of the Horde by neogi and umber hulks from Wildspace beyond the air surrounding Sentar.
[Placeholder: image, fantasy battlescene]
Part 2
The next 97 days were spent as slaves on board a wildspace ship called the Inordinate Amount. During this time, the Squad coopted the goblin team and we freed ourselves from our chains and immediate galley guards. They then organized to take the ship from its enslaving neogi crew.
[Placeholder: image, monsters attacking humanoids]
Part 3
The mutineers moved throughout the ship with a final battle on the upper deck giving control to the Squad and its allies. The commanding neogi, Skitterex, managed to escape with the package.
The Squad learned from a letter left by Jennifer of the Unspoken that the package was a steelstone circlet sought by a number of hostile species of Wildspace. Possession of it could endanger the very stability of the universe. The success of the mutiny allowed the combined team to continue to command and we decided to pursue the circlet using that ship and crew. The crew took on the name, the Inordinate Privateers.
[Placeholder: image, circlet/crown]
As the Inordinate Privateers began coming together as a crew, they also coopted the enslaved pilot Shilynn to support them. The ship encountered an enormous space giant called Tumult who required assistance. He was physically larger than the Inordinate Amount and in spite of the damage his innocence interactions caused to that ship, the crew rendered aid. On Tumult’s back was a parasitic infestation that the Squad cured. They also salvaged a two-person spell jammer from Tumult’s back. As thanks for the aid, Tumult propelled the Inordinate Amount towards his friends.
[Placeholder: image, blue-skinned female]
Part 5
Before, the Inordinate Amount arrived at Fort Kerium it was able to clear out a neogi hatchling infestation: the last reminder of the former slave masters. Fort Kerium did hold friends and the ship was able to re-stock and re-supply. Two bounty hunters contracted by the Compact of Steel, Dirk and Frowzy, attacked the Squad to take possession of the goblin crew. They were defeated and their ship was given to the orcs Drog, Glar and Glak.
[Placeholder, image, western-style hombre]
Part 6
After leaving Fort Kerium, the Inordinate Amount was able to find Havelock on the Asteroid of Algail. He was also joined by heroes from Sentar’s southern seas, the Ancorato Adventurers. From them they learned of the dissolution of the Federation. Havelock was in possession of a device called the G-NOME that the Compact of Steel and Steam came in force to take. The two groups joined forces to defeat the invasion. A battle in the sky among spelldashers was the First Battle of Algail. The Voidstalker landed and its crew defeated. In parallel, the goblin crew under Guardsman Coalman successfully defeated a formian force at the Second Battle of Algail.
It took three weeks for both groups to recover and assess the spoils of these battles. After Freeday Umberweek Moradina, the Ancorato Adventurers returned to Sentar with the G-NOME to face a terrible foe that threatened its very existence.
[Placeholder: image, fantasy air/sailing ship]
Part 7
The Inordinate Privateers repairs and preparations meant they needed to stay at Algail for the Life Day. On Freeday Claireweek Weegassa, the eve of Life Day, they were attacked by a corrupted creature named Krampus as well as by an attack by a layback force of formians. The Third Battle of Algail resulted in the redemption of Krampus and the extermination of the formians.
The ship was able to launch on the Eve of Gamlvarkvold but crashed after colliding with a pocket of phlogiston on Asteroid B. Some crew were separated from the ship after the crash and accidentally found the site of an ancient curse from before the Nyn’Ylfen. They battled with Gamalmadurtimi and under the successful leadership of Guardsman Coalman, they redeemed the creature and released it from its curse. The ship resumed normal operations once the crew was re-united and continued on its course for the Rock of Brahl.
[Placeholder: image, fantasy Santa]
Excerpts from the Log of Pilot Officer Shilynn - Day 202 (Freeday Eoweek Korda)
It becomes clearer and clearer why the Ylfe went to such lengths to commit genocide on the goblins. Goblins get into everything, burn everything and break everything. They even seem to be able to stumble into an ancient and galactic war while out on a simple drinking binge.
[Placeholder: image, fantasy tavern scene?]
Corporal Coalman returned early this morning well past curfew after a simple task to find new crew. I had sent him to Veronika’s Twelve Weasels Pub for an easy task to recruit three crew. On return, he had four goblins in tow that looked much worse for wear than even they typically do yet carrying a legend on a makeshift stretcher. Their tale has to be true. Coalman lacks the imagination to weave such a coherent yet impossible narrative. He did confirm that he was successful in meeting with the tengu, leshi and lizardman and that they would be coming by today to sign aboard: I look forward to that. During the meeting, however, it seems the goblins Glenn, Lewis and Shannon Two followed him to the bar and got into a ruckus. A barfight on Brahl is no big surprise and I do not hold that against the little buggers. They got out without killing anyone, burning anything down or even getting injured themselves. No harm, no foul. After that it gets weird.
[Placeholder: photo, battlemap 1 for session]
Not surprisingly Coalman wanted to get back to the ship for curfew but got lost. It seems they made it into the warehousing district and were nonetheless oblivious to the fact that a battle was raging all around them. What a battle! They were witness to and part of a battle in the infinite struggle between the Blink Dogs and the Phase Spiders. The legendary Blink War! It has been a fairy-tale and whispered legend among ship’s crews since before I was born. I have never heard of anyone that could even honestly state they had seen either creature much less a war between them. These four bumpkins were not just in the middle of a battle but the target of it. They survived an ambush from five phase spiders only because a pack of blink dogs sacrificed themselves. They have my deep but grudging respect for not just surviving but saving and be-friending the pack’s leader.
[Placeholder: image, blink dog]
The Elder Blink Dog, Captain, explained as they staunched his mortal wounds why phase spiders wanted them so bad. Both the blink dogs and the phase spiders thought the steelstone diadem was not with Skitterex but at the Mansion of Krullek. They also thought that the kidnapped Blaine the Sneak had it. Mistaken identity, gone way wrong.
[Placeholder: photo, battlemap 2 for session]
The goblins and Coalman hatched an incredible plan to recover the diadem and free Blaine that did not start, follow and end with RETURNING TO THE INORDINATE AMOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE! WHAT IDIOTS! I think they have a filter in their heads that says “oh look, fire. I am sure that it will not burn MY fingers. Oh, it burned my fingers, but this time I am sure it will not burn them if I try again. Oh, that burned too”. IDIOTS! WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! THAT”S RIGHT RUN TO THE EVIL NEOGI STRONGHOLM, IDIOTS!
[Placeholder: image, mansion]
Coalman explained to me that somehow they got into the Krullek Mansion during a masquerade party and found not just the diadem but Blaine too. The diadem had been stored inside the Mansion’s library and somehow Blaine was jailed there too. It did not make much sense and the jabbering of the goblins did not clarify things either. Blaine apparently saw it all and yet his description made no sense. Shannon Two was hanging from the ceiling and grabbed a box. She showed me the box (it was quite pretty) so I guess that part is true. Then a zombie beholder came and attacked them (what?)…I have no idea. They ran away so let’s say that part is true too.
[Placeholder: image, beholder]
[Placeholder: photo, battlemap 3 for session]
Then in a story of incredible strangeness, it ended even stranger still. The box did not contain the diadem but a doll (what?) and then the doll became an angel and then it flew away after Blaine crushed it (what?). All of them described the angel exactly the same so I guess that happened after all.
[Placeholder: image, doll in red clothing]
They all reported their story and returned to their duties. Blaine put a book in the ship’s library that he took from the Krullek Mansion: I will have Luckums check it out whenever those four return from wherever they went.
I pulled Coalman aside and asked him if the angel he saw was similar to the one he had seen on Asteroid B. His answer, “I had not thought about that until now. No, not really. That one on Asteroid B had a giant spear. This one had a bow. Also, the first one had white hair and armour with blue trim and this one had black hair with gold armour. No, not the same at all. Anything else?” Ugggh.
[Placeholder: image, angelic bowman]
So let’s summarize. Coalman and three goblins left the ship and came back with a kidnapped Blaine. All safe. They brought back an elder blink dog who wants to join our crew. Coalman was successful in recruiting three additional crewmates. I do wonder where the doll went though…and they were witness to an ancient, secret war then survived an encounter with a zombie beholder and unwittingly freed an angel from a soul prison.
I cannot wait for Luckums and Khalid to come back…