Seaworthy
Shock ripples through the party, but no one speaks as they watch The Kingfish circle the Hut. He appears to be in his late 40s, a strong, brutish man with a big black beard, shells and bones woven into it. One side of his face is scarred from past burns. Dango recognizes him for who he is.
This man was part of the crew of THE LYNDALL, the first ship Dango ever sailed with. He was also part of a group that attempted to mutiny against her beloved first captain, PAZEL.
In her mind, Dango flashes back to memories of the night The Lyndall was destroyed. There was a storm similar to the one the party sees now, and when she emerged on deck, Dango saw the mutinous group, led by a sailor named Erlar, holding a bloodied Pazel. She attempted to fight, but was stabbed through her shoulder with a javelin and pinned to the mast.
In an attempt to save himself, the captain betrayed Dango, offering Erlar the treasure map that Dango kept secreted below her bunk. She was heartbroken, as she considered Pazel to be family. Erlar sent The Kingfish to retrieve the map, but killed then captain anyway.
Seeing her captain die renewed the fight in Dango, and she struggled to pull herself off the javelin. She had just begun to fight Erlar and The Kingfish again, managing to recover a portion of her treasure map, when there was a massive explosion on board, like lightning on black powder, and everything went black.
Back in the present, Dango watches as The Kingfish continues to circle the Hut. He reveals that Samson notified him of Dango’s arrival as soon as The Choir left his shop. The Kingfish says he doesn’t have any hard feelings; he’s only looking for the rest of the map. If Dango gives that up, he’ll let their ship go immediately.
Dango, unable to wait any longer, reaches through the Hut and stabs him.
ENCOUNTER: The Kingfish calls to his crew, and they board the ship, and the rest of party emerges from the Hut. The Kingfish uses lightning and fear spells to intimidate them, and attempts to hide below deck. Nim casts Faerie Fire, which allows Dango to see where he is, so she follows. Eventually she is able to defeat The Kingfish, stabbing him through the eye with her rapier. The mysterious voice that spoke to her before whispers in her ear, “Well done, my brave girl.”
Once The Kingfish is dead, the storm breaks and dissipates, and his remaining crew retreats to their own ships. Because the party defeated one of the most feared and powerful pirates on the sea, they consider us worthy, and they sail away.
The party searches the dead sailors’ and The Kingfish’s bodies and finds:
- a Mace of Smiting (given to Dango)
- a Ring of Water Walking (given to Toulouse)
- a holy symbol of Umberlee, broken in half
- a javelin
- 3 hand axes
During the battle, Amaro was injured, though his injury appears to be far worse than it should. Brin pulls up his shirt to examine him, and sees a very large wound, bleeding profusely, and some sort of metal object inside him. This is clearly the actual valuable object he was charged with transporting.
Amaro mumbles something about his father being so pleased, and it becomes clear that his is suffering not only from blood loss, but also a fever. The object in his torso is putting off a significant amount of heat.
As he falls into a semi-conscious stupor, Brin attempts to read his mind to learn more. He gets snippets of thoughts, (“I hope those women are right”, “I hope this is what they needed”) and flashes of memory. Eventually, he pieces together that Amaro stole an egg from a blue dragon nest, and it was embedded in his torso to incubate while it was transported back to a remote location on Forlon’dai and given to a mysterious group of women.
Most of the party is quite disturbed by this revelation. Kor gives Amaro a Greater Healing potion in an attempt to ease his suffering, but it seems to have little effect. After a heated debate about what to do next, the party eventually agrees to continue with the mission as planned, and they sail on towards Tempris.
~ end of session ~