Session 5, 6, 7

Now, it's been awhile since I wrote anythin', but thas coz writin' while on a boat is bad luck. We arrived in Seahaven in the country o' Southcoast. Southcoast is, well, is jus' South of Suuldra, where I'm from, so I heard a bit about it. They're mostly tradin' types.

Well we met up with Cap'n fancy pants, I can't zactly rem'mber his name or nothin', but he's some sort o' legal pirate. He had a scorpion in his boots over this other pirate feller known as the Hanged Man. Turns out that feller had stolen a valuable tapestry, so importnt that Cap'n fancy pants was willin' to pay us 100 gold fer its return. Turns out the Cap'n was also tasked with takin' a fight to the Full Moon Bay Pirates, who all happ'n to have a fortress on the same pirate island as these Hanged Men.

So we were dropped off on this small lil' pirate island and made our way through the Jungle. Let me tell you, the goin' was slow. We were attacked by various native critters that din't like us intruding too much, but the mos' interesting was one o' them big black jungle cats who could talk! Now this feller, going by the name Mumbuntu or somethin' similar, he was bigger n' any jungle cat I e'er seen and his eyes glowed somethin' fierce. All that bein' said, he was a reasonable nuff' critter. Mumbuntu wanted tribute o' sorts fer passing through. Most everyone had somethin' to offer up, but Seertha din't take too kindly to that and she gave 'im a piece o' her mind, so a panther comes leapin' outta the jungle and rends her pretty badly. Mumbuntu then says she paid the tribute in blood. I wasn't much interested in no blood tribute, so I just asked 'im if he was a'ight with me passin' through his territory. Turns out if'n ye ask nicely enough he ain't even want you to give him nothin'.

We arrived at a cliff face the next day and there was some sort o' riddle that implied we were supposed to put a noose round our necks. That let us pass through some thick jungle growth in some sort o' magical entrance that led into an entire lil' village. Problem was, this village wudn't quite right.

There was a feller who was almost impossibly drunk n' the tavern all by hisself. Then there was a room filled with big ole' rats that had some sort o shimmering rock skin. This vicious buggers din't hurt too much, but we couldn't hurt em back none so we locked 'em in there. There was another abandoned building filled with hundr'ds o lil' monkey fellers who got real mad if'n ye got to close to their ale. Then there was a room full of hanged bodies, tons o' em just hang'n from the ceiling. Was worth losin' yer lunch over, but Seertha just wandered on in there and was pokin' round.

We continued on, n' there was a more elaborate fortress o' sorts. We saw some fellers in a courtyard who weren't in much o' a talkin mood, so we had to fight 'em. Difficulty was, after killin' these fellers, they rose as the dead! From our trip into that crypt several weeks ago, Seertha had a wand o' controllin' undead and she stopped all them fellers from attackin'. Now, I thought when we talk'd bout this wand prior we agreed that we'd just be destroyin' undead with it, but 'parently I just had this conversation in my own head or sumthin', since everyone seemed content to use these dead fellers as personal soldiers. I made it clear I was none too happy bout it and made sure to keep a large distance from em' dead fellers.

We wandered into a room with a pool o' sorts and there was a magical lil' blue feller. Ipmerk, for some reason, was laden with more meat and offered it up the lil feller, who then was happy to ignore us. They all started continuin' on, but ignored a door, so I took a look in. Wave o' nausea, as it was another room full o' dead fellers. I closed the door but Seertha asked me what I saw. I ain't one for lyin, so I told her n' went to continue on. Bein' all creepy, she went in, and sure 'nuff, there was a pair o' big old caterpillars n' there that tried to eat her. I ran over and slammed the door shut, but them critters were BIG and smashed down the door. Several o Seertha's zombies died while we battled these two critters, kill'n one and fleein' from another.

Deeper in there was a pretty strange sight, we opened a door n' suddenly we were inside a ship o' sorts. We were in the back cabin, so we went onto the main deck where a bunch o' zombies were. Fightin' was close quarters, so it was tough for us to get at all o' them, and mid combat I felt the cold flesh o' Seertha's zombie tryna get past me. So when we won the fight, I turned 'round and cut that zombie's head off too. Seertha din't like that none, but I dun care as if'n a person wants to interact with an abomination o' life, then I don't want no part in it. Havin' that feller walk into me was 'bout is a sign o' disrespect, and I ain't gon' tolerate that.

The rest o' the group din't really want to interact with my anger none so they went to explore the aft o' the ship. Seertha was stewin' so she wandered off alone to the front while I collected m'self on the main part o' the ship. Course, some giant crab critters were waitin' to ambush Seertha on the front o' the ship. One o' em had 60 feet long sticky limbs and was pull'n her up to the ceilin! Clount and I turned the other one into a fresh lobster dinner while the others were shootin' at the critter on the ceilin. At some point, the ceilin' critter decided it was best to jus' run away, n he decided to drop Seertha from bout 30 or 40 feet in the air. I reacted fast enough to pull out some o' mah impact foam, a neat lil' alchemical component that turns into a mattress o' sorts on impact with a hard surface. Ev'n with that, she was pretty dazed from the fall.

We looked out the front o' the boat and saw that this boat was somehow lodged into the cliff face some hundred or more feet above the water line! Now that ain't make much sense at the time, but eventual it will.

We wandered down a hallway and came across some livin' fellers, actual Hanged Noose pirates who weren't hanged. They were posturin' a little, but they were clearly frightened, so I hollered at 'em a lil' til they stepped down n' fetched the First Mate. Then Zuzmo went into that sort o' friendly questionin' mode he has about him. The Mate 'splained to us that the Cap'n had taken on a passenger in blue robes who wanted to go to the middle o' the ocean. They sailed to the middle o' the ocean, the passenger feller jumped in the water, and several hours showed back up again, drippin' wet. They went to leave and suddenly there was some sort o' crazy storm that resulted in smashin' their ship into the side o' their own fortress! The blue robed feller disappeared, but then the Cap'n went mad and started slaughterin' his own men. Some o' the others went mad as well. The First Mate gave us a key to that part o' the fortress and we went to investigate some.

Sure 'nuff, first thing we found were some fellers who were talkin' bout havin' salt for blood n referncin' us as walking meat puppets. We had to fight them fellers. At this point, we were gettin' pretty spent from a day full o' fightin, but we ain't really had anywhere else to go.

There was a room with two demonic sorts, we struggled n' fightin' em, but the righteous arm o' Rayden with some help from Zuzmo was 'nuff to send those 'bominations back to their terrible place o 'xistance. We found a pair o' large fellers guardin' a treasure room o' sorts who actually seemed to be o' sound mind, but still 'gressive and not helpful or nothin'. There was a lot o' treasure in that room, but we still couldn't find the tapestry, so we decided we'd come back by before headin' out. I had also taken my mutagen at the time, so I was kinda in that forceful haze I get to push forward.

We entered a final room that had all sorts o' nooses and ropes hangin' on the ceilin', so thick we can't even see up there. I was magically compelled to go sit down on some benches in front o' a theater of sorts. Then some large wooden marionettes dropped down on ropes and were performin' some sort o' 4 act play fer us! Was just bout' the strangest thing I e'er seen in a place like this. The play even had wooden boards that would drop from tha ceilin' with the label for the act! Also, some magical seawater came from behind the curtain durin' the shipwreck scene.

The play was about a Fool and the Hanged Man, who I later reckoned were the same feller conversing with hisself, and they met with a Dark Rider and a Blue Robed Wizard, who I couldn't quite figure out of they were supposed to be the same person o' not. The story they told was very similar to what the First Mate had told us earlier: the Dark Rider came n' offered the Cap'n some money for the trip. At the end, the Hanged Man was bemoanin' the fact that he had accepted all this greedy money and talked about it cursin' him. The Wizard said he wudn't concerned bout their mortal worries. We also managed to figure out the timeline after, it coincided with that quake o' the earth we felt a few weeks prior, which is just 'bout as unsettlin' to me as a thing can get. I ain't a believer in coincidences.

Well then I went up to the stage n' the tapestry was back there. Course, when I took it, them 4 marionettes and a handful more dropped out o' the ceilin' to attack us. The Hanged Man finally had the gall to show his face, but o' course he was hidin' behind a bunch o his marionettes. I was surrounded by them four initial marionettes, so I was tearin' em to pieces as I was still with claws and teeth thanks to mah feral mutagen. The Hanged Man pulled some trickery and a noose came from the ceilin n' fastened round Rayden's neck, draggin' him up and chokin' him. He kept on swingin', but he passed out soon 'nuff.

Zuzmo was a goddamned hero though. He's a lil feller, as lil as they come, but he hopped up n' grabbed onto Rayden's danglin' feet. Spear in one hand, he climbed up the side o' Rayden with just one other hand! I ain't never seen noone climb so fast, so I reckon he wuldn't jokin' when he said he was a goblin o' the trees! He cut Rayden down n' saved his life 'fore he died from chokin'. Meanwhile, I had made my way up to The Hanged Man, who hit me pretty hard. I hit him back a little, but I could tell he was gonna outfight me right quick. Clount was finishing up the smaller marionette fellers, but he was pretty hurt as well.

Ipmerk then took tha opportunity to sacrifice hisself fer my benefit. He jumped up to shove a potion down mah throat, but the Hanged Man reached out n' grabbed him with his off hand, chokin' him to death. Now, let me tell you, I like Ipmerk lots, but he's a sort o' selfish feller, to see him put hisself in harms way to keep me up was a pretty hefty shock. And when that Hanged Man was chokin' him, I got mad. The Hanged Man swiped at me again, nearly fellin' me, and he certainly woulda had Ipmerk not shoved that potion into mah mouth.

I tore him to pieces.

Like I said, I was angry. One clawed hand grabbed his head, the other one grabbed onto his shoulder, I sunk my goring teeth into his belly for leverage, liftin' him up, n' I twisted 'til his head came off (2 critical hits and a regular hit with a 21 strength and power attack resulting in 68 damage).

After, I asked the group if'n they thought the gold was cursed. Ipmerk responded with a definitive "No." That made me laugh some, but we figured he was right, as the play seemed to mostly be a metaphorical version o' the facts.

We asked 'em pirates that were stuck in this fortress if'n they wanted out, so we took em' with us and told the Cap'n Fancy Pants, who was ecstatic ta have his tapestry back, that he needed to take em with us. Turns out to be mutually beneficial as some o' the Cap'n Fancy Pants sailors died fightin 'em other pirates. Thing is, his legal piracy was s'posed to be on the pretenses that ships been disappearing from the ocean for no good reason. People reckon pirates, but after this trip, I reckon it's cause there's somethin' in the ocean swallowin' em up. Whatever it is, there ain't no good to be had from bein' on the water. The Cap'n informed us a big ole' storm was coming, so to avoid it we're headed to Rose Bay.

We just landed, and I just captured my thoughts n' all. I reckon I forgot some o' the details, but I'm pullin all this from weeks o' memory, so I did mah best. From here, I wanna try n' find somethin' out 'bout this blue robed feller n' the natural things occurin' that are strikin' me as mighty suspicious. The Dragon Festival is soon, the celebration of Ashta's defeat over the Volcano King and the castin' o' him into the earth. Like I said earlier, I ain't one for believin' in coincidences. I think it's time for me to get brewin'...