No Wake
The next morning, the party makes their way back to town. At the outskirts, they stop at Mad Mattie’s hut to break the news about her son.
As Nim attempts to explain the circumstances of Robern’s death, Mattie interrupts by claiming our party could never be powerful enough to stop him, and stabs Nim! The party quickly subdues Mattie, knocking her unconscious. They debate killing her, but eventually decide to tie her up and deliver her to law enforcement.
After awkwardly carrying her limp body back into town, they find the local sheriff, BELBY and explain the situation. Despite initialing doubting their story, and still having no knowledge of the former Brice mansion in the woods, once he sees Mattie’s bloody knife and Nim’s wound, the sheriff is convinced of their innocence. Mattie may be the town weirdo, but she is still one of them, so the sheriff suggests the group get out of town quickly.
The river ends at a large port of PRYTANIA, so the group agrees to travel there together. They bid farewell to Vickas on the docks, who is free from all curses and life debts, and is setting out for his own adventures far away from the forest.
Cashing in a favor owed to Dango’s previous captain, the party is able to secure passage on a departing commercial vessel helmed by a human woman named CAPTAIN TAYNE; there are also a first mate named ARTIS and a second mate named BERTIO (aka BERTIE).
The trip downriver will take two weeks, so the party settles in. Tayne once sailed the open seas, but now prefers the quiet life of sailing goods on the river; Brin spends time listening to whatever stories the captain will share. Remy and Nim gamble on dice games. Grig, who is from the mountains, has never been on a ship, and spends most of the trip being sick. Ikki is considering what Dawn told her, and seems a little weirded out that the party is following her.
After a few days, the captain announces that they’re putting into port at a town called MARTSLOCK for a day of restocking supplies and leave. As they approach, however, the captain looks worried; the water is brackish and swampy, and the trees are covered in unhealthy looking black growth. The port, built on stilts over over the water, is normally a bit run down, but now look especially dingy, and the docks are empty of people.
As the group cautiously disembarks, DAVIS, the local innkeep stumbles into view. There appear to be vines growing through him, up and out his jaw, and they seem to be moving independently of him. The group kills him quickly and sets the body on fire.
Something is clearly wrong here; some sort of blight has taken over the port. The party moves quietly, stepping into a nearby tavern. The floor of the tavern has rotted away, leaving an open hole the swampish water below. There are bodies, too, and they appear to have been dead about two weeks. Captain Tayne says she was last here six weeks ago, and all was well.
The party decides to get whatever supplies they can and get out. They move down the dock to the general store. The floor is weak, and Remy and Kor both stumble and fall through a hole, but manage to pull themselves out.
ENCOUNTER: The group starts carrying whatever goods they can carry back to the ship. Remy, still wet from falling through the floor, makes a squelching sound as he moves, and this seems to attract the attention of some vines. They start snaking over the dock towards the party, building a sort of living wall between them and the ship. A vine monster reaches up, apparently trying to consume the party. They finally manage to beat the vines and leap clear to the ship.
As the ship begins to sail away, Brin turns back and sets fire to the blighted port.
~ end of session ~
Random notes
- Captain Tayne is lovingly dubbed “Captain Taint” by players, because why not? And she definitely did shout “SLAP THAT MOUND!” out loud during the battle.