Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Logs 1401-1430: Force Green

Current Campaign Campaign Overview:
I weaved together: Gygax’s Skull Mountain Drawing, Palace of the Vampire Queen, Council of Thieves, Kingmaker, Dwarven Glory, Curse of Strahd, Storm King’s Thunder, Reverse Dungeon, and Cloud Giant's Bargain.

(Above: Ori Barrelgut)

Session 1401
Backgrounds (25 years went by since the end of the last campaign)
Ori Barrelgut: As a child, his parents were killed adventuring and the wagon guard/servant crew brought him back to Daggerford with his twin brother. The brother was adopted by a noble family, but they only wanted 1 child so he was not adopted; caravan guards brought him to mountain dwarves (Clan Ironboar). They told him they had never heard of his father’s name/clan, same with his mother; but they trained him in the ways of Moradin. Eventually a drow woman showed up claiming to be his grandmother V’Zarbreena, but Ori rejected her. Ori’s best friend was his shieldbrother Travok Ironboar.

(Above: Pylia)

Pylia (“Sapphire Mistress”), daughter of Gael & Thane, grew up at the family keep with her brother Eilion (“Azure Lord”); Eilion had accepted responsibility to learn how to run the keep while she went and trained with the Eldrath Veluuthra as a bladesinger to learn the magic of Evermeet. While with the EV, Pylia became good friends with Drizmar the drow rogue (nephew of Drizzt).

(Above: Drizmar Do'Urden)

Mercy was the tiefling adopted by the Blueblood family and raised by Fluter along with the twins “Blue” and “Blood.” Mercy trained as a fighter but likes to behave like a bard.

(Above: Mercy)

New RPG Date: 1525 DR / 745 CY
Recently: Oran the Green Lord was slain by a dark force in the Feywild; Glora & Blueblood I are missing – presumed dead from the battle. Oran’s son, Oberon gathered people together for the funeral services and to discuss their inheritances. Oberon said his father had divided up his lands in the Feywild into hextares, hexagonal-shaped regions to be given to various family members of his greatest agents. Pylia, Ori, & Mercy were amongst those meant to inherit land. Unfortunately, Oran’s actual will has always been magically locked so that only Oran could access it and change it. The device for others to open it was hidden away hundreds of years ago on the dwarven island of Baylor (on Oerth). Only the king of the dwarves there knows what the actual key looks like and where it is, but once it is retrieved, Oberan – as Oran’s son – can unlock it with his own blood. Oberan wanted the group to go to Baylor and retrieve the magical key so they could verify which lands and magical items are to be given to which inheritors. Oberan felt he needed to stay to preside over the defenses.

When Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok, and Mercy arrived at the island they saw the wreckage of an old human ship that crashed hundreds of years ago). They went to the dwarf capitol city and spoke with the leader, King Arman, who said he was the 2nd son of their father (who was the leader in the war to wipe out the 10 Orc Tribes that used to be on the island) and his older brother knows Oran’s secret; his brother relinquished his right to the throne (because he preferred not to fight, fell in love with a gnome bard) and went to live with the gnomes – which the dwarves all laughed about, teasing, calling the older brother a “gnome lover.” King Arman told them where the gnome village was, but pointed out they hadn’t actually visited/talked to each other in decades. The dwarf princess was very beautiful and flirted with Ori.

The team spoke with the gnomes, who told them the dwarf and a group of gnomes had been kidnapped and taken as prisoners to Skullstone Mountain. Outside of the Skullstone Mountain cave, the group fought and killed 2 Pteranodons and 2 Crawling Hands.

Session 1402
Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok Ironboar, Mercy, and their 5 wild elf guides continued into Skullstone Mountain. Inside it seemed to be an old temple with an alter showing a huge demon standing in a volcano with a powerful mace. The wild elves seemed to worship the statue. The group killed 4 mud mephits, 2 darkmantles, 6 skeletons, 4 giant crabs, 4 ghouls, and a sea hag. They rescued 50 imprisoned gnomes (who were being bred and their babies fed to monsters) and the dwarf king’s older bro, who said the dwarf princess’ pendant was the key to unlocking Oran’s will; it had been passed down each generation of their family. He said his sister did not know of its importance, only that she was to pass it down to the first woman born of the next generation.

The group returned the gnomes to their city and took a carriage back to the dwarf capitol, where they found out the princess and 9 children were taken during the night; the kind had allowed this to happen so Ori was angry with him and destroyed the evil warhammer there; he demanded the king’s father’s powerful good warhammer.

Session 1403
Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok, and Mercy spoke with the pixie waiting to planeshift them back to the Feywild, who left because their mission was taking too long; he said he would check back in with them in a week. They spent the next day walking back to the gnome village, where they had to kill 5 goblins, 5 wolf spiders, a human pirate captain, a berserker, 8 pirate scouts, and 5 goblin bosses. An evil idol caused the Balor demon on the island to communicate with Pylia via the idol; he said she would become his servant within 3 days.

Session 1404
Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok, and Mercy continued on to the Palace of the Vampire Queen! They went through levels 1-4 and used the factions against each other. They made an alliance with the wizard selling magic items and used his shop as a base as they engaged in tactical combat to kill off the monsters. They also rescued a group of cats that turned out to have telepathic powers.

Session 1405
Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok, and Mercy spoke with a representative sent down the stairs from the Vampire Queen who revealed she wanted the Balor idol and was willing to trade it for the princess. The group killed the negotiator. Then they went up to level 5 and killed 2 wraiths (making 3 more run away). They rescued 5 more dwarf children before resting. The group retreated back to the wizard’s shop, where they fended off an attack by 20 vampire spawn; they destroyed 16 and 4 ran away. Their new hill giant allies died, as well as 1 of the 4 lynx kittens.

Session 1406
Pylia, Drizmar, Ori, Travok, and Mercy fought 12 goblins on their way to the gnome city. They asked the gnome mayor to take care of the rescued dwarf children. They had their new pegasus ally go scout the dwarf capitol city. The group went after the pirates/slavers; they killed the mindflayer and captured 4 human pirates, rescuing another 25 children (10 human, 10 half-elf, 5 elves). They acquired the ancient eladrin turtle ship the mindflayer had been using for his slaver operations and recruited 4 gnomes to help onboard.

The group went to a dwarf outpost tower and met up with the pegasus; they met the laid back (surfer dude) dwarf commander and his 12 battlerager soldiers; they brought the 12 battleragers with them to the northern mines while sending the pegasus to go scout the citadel/capitol city some more. At the mines, they killed the dwarf archmage of the merchant’s guild (who had come and told the mining chief to submit to the authority of the merchant’s council and Hellknights that followed Mephistopheles and had killed off the king and his loyal servants).

Session 1407
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Ori (with lynx), Travok, and Mercy found out the shrine cleric of Moradin from the castle was found and captured by the enemy Hellknights; they were about to execute him. The team led a huge resistance battle in the city. When a dragon turtle came up out of the ocean and attacked the city [Godzilla-style], Pylia convinced the creature to go back into the ocean; the Vampire Queen had threatened its eggs/children. Only 3 battleragers survived; they suggested getting the other troop from the other lookout tower. The Vampire Queen was said to be in the tunnels under the city; Ori hoped to retire after getting back the pendant. The team rested for the rest of the day. Ori establish “martial law” as the “high cleric of Moradin” of the island; they found temporary living for the children and turned in the human prisoners. They planned to go search the tunnels in the morning.

Session 1408
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Ori (with lynx), Travok, and Mercy went to dwarf outpost A and met with the commander wizard with a troop of battleragers. They brought them back to the capitol, sent a caravan to the gnome village (with one of the 4 gnomes from the ship – to get gnomes to help repair the battleships and to get the dwarf children), fought a bunch of enemies, took out the remaining Mephistopheles cell in the sewers (sent away the Succubus and her 4 guards after getting rid of their wererat curse), and took out the swamp base by killing the “Mother of Flies” and the Vampire Queen’s last known forces [which included a vampire that they assumed was the Vampire Queen]. They got the pendant back, but the dwarf princess had been killed.

Session 1409
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Ori (with lynx), Travok, and Mercy celebrated their victory. Mercy’s adopted siblings (who had split the Blueblood name) showed up, from the Feywild: Seh’Ael (“Soft Knight”) Thoron (a.k.a. “Blue” the satyr paladin - whose twin sister was known as “Blood” the satyr cleric); the pixie brought him to the dwarf island. The group was discussing splitting loot. The gnome village group returned with the dwarf children. Ori (w/lynx), Mercy (w/lynx), and Travok decided to stay on the island with Ori becoming the new king, Travok his closest advisor, and Mercy their to help people accept tieflings (after the evils done by the tiefling Hellknights).

Leaving on the eladrin turtle ship “The Tortuga” were: Pylia (w/lynx), Drizmar, 4 gnome workers, and Blue. They returned the children they had rescued, bringing the elves to Lendore Isle and the humans to the City of Greyhawk. They went back to Baylor Island, got the Feywild pixie to planeshift them back to Oberon’s court, and gave the necklace to Oberon (who seemed drained and said his people didn’t trust him). They confronted the Nymph Queen, but she backed down without a fight. The team then went to Theymarsh and spoke with Prince Breth (Gabe’s son) and Blue’s sister Blood; they shut down the forest Feywild portal. After that, they got a book with a Phlogiston navigational chart since the Tortuga turned out to be a Spelljammer ship!

Session 1410
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, and Blood took down time after hiring crew for the Tortuga. They had 250 days while the ship was being worked on. They learned languages, bonded with the crew, and communicated with Ori (who, as king of Baylor Island was also training as a battlerager).

Once the ship was fully functional and they understood how to operate it as a Phlogiston/space-traveling vessel they spent 6 days going from Oerth - through the Phlogiston - to the Feywild. During the trip: on 3rd day saw a trading post on an asteroid, but decided to keep going; on 4th day a goblin Ship wanted to trade with them but they refused; on 5th day they saw and avoided a space dragon; in the Phlogiston, the Feywild looked like a green nebula of multiple planets phasing together. An eladrin with a starfighter called “Liberty” greeted the group and landed with them at the new Green Lord’s palace. The team went in and spoke to Oberon about the mission to clear out evil fey and dangers from the territory. They also planned to have sages research the Nymph Queen for them.

Session 1411
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, and Blood took out dangers in the Feywild territory that their families had inherited from Oran the Green Lord. They dealt with: bear traps, a potion-maker’s hut, grigs, kobolds with “moon radishes,” a bandit camp led by the “Stag Lord,” frogfolk, trolls, the nymph Nyrissa, a den of 2 young green dragons, and an owlbear.

They retrieved items from an ancient eladrin tomb and brought them back to their families at Evermeet (including great wealth with “elven soul gems” and crystals); there were 5 guardian family symbols above and 8 different family symbols below that matched an 8-pointed star diagram. Meanwhile, Liberty had been training their crew and wanted one of the elven soul gems as his reward for the info he had given the team.

Session 1412
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue and Blood argued with Liberty before going out to the swamp to a lair of troglodytes and lizardfolk. Pylia tricked the lizardfolk leader into “marrying her” to make her the “Swamp Queen” in their eyes and thus allow her to free the captured people there. The team also dealt with a dryad druid and her satyr lover, 10 gnome explorers, worgs and wolves on the prowl, an abandoned keep with an evil rogue and assassin vine, an evil tree, a crazy hermit, a swamp with with a scarecrow, will-o-wisps, and a hill giant (that they avoided).

The group continued on to “Hemlock Island Village” where Blue slept with the medusa after the group participated in a tournament (invited by “King” Castruccio Irovetti of Pitax, the multiclassed bard/fighter). They tried to get themselves inducted into the Nymph Queen’s army. Blue received a vision from the holy symbol he retrieved from the old temple there that showed him how to destroy Irovetti’s vorpal sword and banish an evil fey spirit.

Session 1413
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, and Pylia’s 3 lizardfolk guards continued adventuring in the Feywild. Pylia got a magic message from the ship that the Tortuga was under attack because the Green Lord’s palace was under attack; Oberon evacuated his palace as a red dragon’s forces claimed the place for the Nymph Queen.

The group battled: a red half-dragon, 10 nymph warriors, Lord Irovetti/Pitax (who was possessed by an evil fey spirit) 2 guards, and the medusa sorcerer named Phomandala; they saved Irovetti/Pitax but Blood was petrified. The team sanctified the temple and a unicorn arrived who restored Blood. The group got to know the villagers, recruited some people to work at the temple, and rested.

Session 1414
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, and Pylia’s 3 lizardfolk guards rested at the island manor; they spoke with Liberty and the gnomes from their ship. They continued clearing out dangers in the Feywild, killing: evil frogolk, a 12-headed hydra, 4 water elementals, and a troll fighter; at first Blue was distracted by the red half-dragon and then 12 eladrin ghosts, but he helped the team escape from the team of giants that came to get the dragon’s loot. They also killed a 2-headed green dragon and took its dead body to a druid to reincarnate the 2 halves into individual people since 1 of the heads was friendly to them; 1 head was mostly a warrior and came back as a half-elf that flirted with Pylia while the more evil head was mostly a sorcerer and came back as a green dragonborn.

The team also found out about “Big Red the Conqueror” the ancient red dragon that was allied with the Nymph Queen and the father of the annoying red half-dragon that kept interrupting the group.

Session 1415
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, and Pylia’s 2 surviving lizardfolk guards (Ark and Bek Ebonscale) decided to go after the black dragon in the area. Their new allies (the reincarnated 2-headed green dragon halves a.k.a. The Greenscale Brothers) joined them. The team killed: the black dragon with 5 lizardfolk guards, the red half-dragon, a red adult dragon (brother of Big Red), and an evil pixie. They asked the Pitax smith to use the dead dragon bodies to make them fire resistant plate armor and a helmet of acid resistance.

The team returned to Pylia’s “swamp husband” where she dissolved the marriage but made him the “general” in her army. They checked on the human villages in their lands and the dryad druid that they allied with before resting again. They made plans to assault the Nymph Queen’s lair and to possibly take on Big Red after that.

Session 1416
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, Ark, Bek, and the Greenscale Bros killed 12 ettins, a half-dragon/nymph sorcerer, the Nymph Queen, and 2 trolls. Big Red and his lizard vampire henchman both left during the battle, allowing the team to win. Before dying, the Nymph Queen told them that Pylia’s missing family members might be petrified and kept as statues in a “Hall of Statues” owned by the Vampire Queen. They found out the Vampire Queen was really behind all of this and was still alive back on Ori’s island because she had kept a vampiric body double, who was the vampire the group killed.

Session 1417
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, Ark, Bek, and the Greenscale Bros continued in their quest. The group magically messaged Mercy (who was still at Ori’s kingdom) to let them know about the Vampire Queen. Mercy invited the group to come adventure in an abandoned dwarf settlement where a powerful undead was rumored to be, thinking that it might be the secret lair of the hidden Vampire Queen. Before leaving, the team spoke with Oberon who tried both flattery and vague threats to get the team to go kill Big Red for him, but when Oberon refused to join them in the battle they said no.

They spoke with fey-smiths that worked outside Oberon’s palace and found out they were never truly in danger from the dragons because they got a secret hour’s warning from Oberon that the dragons were coming; the group convinced the fey-smiths to come move to Pitax and setup at the Ehlonna Temple. They also strategized with Liberty, letting him know about Oberon’s questionable actions. They magically messaged Big Red & arranged a meeting in “neutral territory” in the Summer Court part of the Feywild. This led to a meeting with 8 kobolds (leveled adventurers) and Big Red, who revealed there were 2 Oberons.

Team Tortuga spend 6 days travelling through space; they encountered merchants selling space rocks, space goblins, and a Mordenkainen family vessel orbiting Oerth that told the group to go to Castle Greyhawk because Blue wanted to buy some magical gear. The group went down and met with Fritz, their distant cousin. Because Pylia looked like Tatyana (from the curse of Strahd), they looked at the painting of her there. They also found out that the Mordenkainen family had married into DL’s family long ago.

The team finally flew to Ori’s Island and updated Mercy. They had a nice dinner with Ori and the dwarf nobles before going to the old (mostly) abandoned dwarf village, to an inn. There were strange people there; the team went down into tunnels (with lost kobolds that the group let go free). They killed orcs, a will-o-wisp, a fallen angle named Elonoin, yellow mold monsters, a creature called Grahuk, and a minotaur. They befriended a minotaur scout, used intel to deal with the undead, and they staked the true Vampire Queen.

They took the friendly minoaturs back home to their island and brought the Vampire Queen to an anti-magic room at Castle Greyhawk, where they interrogated her. She told them that Strahd was actually behind all of this, not her. Strahd was living in returned Barovia near Theymarsh (in the Kingdom of Feymarsh). They realized their Uncle King Gabe and cousin Prince Breth might be mind-controlled by Strahd. They left the Vampire Queen in stasis at Castle Greyhawk (under the watch of GOAT).

Session 1418
Team Tortgua and Liberty finished trading out their loot in Greyhawk. The Greenscale Bros decided to buy a tower/house in the City of Greyhawk and stay behind; the fighter was in love with Pylia, but felt he needed to stay with his brother. They picked up Mercy, travelled 6 days through space to Kalibruhn-Toril (K-T), obtained and used the Kuo-Toa priest staff to open a water portal to the Feywild, and then decided to return to K-T to Theymarsh. They met up with a “bard” who was actually the famous vampire hunter Rudolph Van Richten investigating their family. Pylia got maps of Barovia. They found out Breth, Fluter, and King Gabe had all been turned into vampire minions of Strahd. They went to Barovia and met Ireena, who looked like a human version of Pylia, went to the local chucrch, and killed a vampire spawn.

Session 1419
Pylia (with lynx), Drizmar, Blue, Blood, Ark, Bek, Ireena, Van Richten, and Liberty bought cold weather gear in Waterdeep and then went to assault the Amber Temple in Barovia (that was connected to the Dark Powers that Strahd had made a pact with long ago). The monsters inside killed everyone but Pylia, her cat, and Blue - but the surviving team members finished off the enemies. Meanwhile the ship was attacked and Strahd’s minions killed all of the crew except for Mercy, the Air Genasi commander, the gnome chief, and the chef. The survivors used their wealth to resurrect Drizmar, Ark, Bek, Blood, Ireena, and Van Richten. Liberty’s soul was trapped in the elf soul gem. They used true resurrections for Prince Breth, King Gabe, and Fluter. They brought Liberty’s sould crystal to Evermeet, where the ancient elves put his sould back in his body. While the team rested, Strahd was able to recover whatever valuables were left in the temple.

Session 1420
At Evermeet Team Tortuga (Pylia with her lynx, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, Mercy with his lynx, Ireena, Van Richten, Ark, Bek, Fluter, King Gabe, Prince Breth, the gnome chief, gnome chef, and the air genasi) met with Liberty, who said his family was upset and wanted to get his starfighter ship back; Big Red had stolen the ship. Liberty’s family agreed to wait up to 6 months for the team to deal with Big Red. The gnome chief of staff god letter and inheritances to the dead crew members families. The team bought new gear and had their ship repaired. Mercy hired replacement crew from the Sapphire Coast.

Team Tortuga went back to Barovia, where they destroyed: Baba Lysaga’s creeping hut, 7 scarecrows, a swarm of ravens, 3 wights, and Baba Lysaga. They infiltrated Castle Ravenloft, battled Strahd’s minions inside, and staked/captured Strahd.

Session 1421
The group looted Castle Ravenloft, got info about a gnome who had negotiated hiring the giants that had been a problem back in the Feywild, let the 4 red baby dragons go, and traded out loot back in both Waterdeep and Neverwinter. Ireena and Van Richten both pledged their 27,000 gp (each) portion of the loot to make Barovia a better place. Blue and Pylia suggested Prince Breth move into Castle Ravenloft while King Gabe work with the Theymarsh Corellon clerics to make sure all of the vampires in the area were found and destroyed. Fluter and Mercy decided they wanted to go to the Feywild base.

The team spent 7 days going through space to Oerth, with 5 Eladrin Star Corps ships following them (it took an extra day to avoid the Beholder ships), to Castle Greyhawk. They met with Cousin Fritz and King Belvor of Furyondy (a wizard). They dropped off Strahd and asked GOAT to keep him in magical stasis after questioning him and finding out that the statues of Glora, Borngray I, the good Oberon, and Va’Zarbreena had been left with the leader of the stone giants on K-T. They went back through space to K-T again, with the Star Corps escort.

They went to the canyon with the stone giant leader and made a deal with her; she said she would “take care of” Elister Noggins the gnome (who had arranged Strahd’s hiring of the giants); Blue agreed to destroy Noggins’ merchant shop/house in Loudwater. They got the statues and de-petrified their relatives, who joined the crew on the ship. Team Tortuga used their Kuo-Toa staff to open the ocean portal to the Feywild. The good Oberon, Glora, Borngray I, and Va’Zarbreena went into the Green Lord’s Palace and killed the evil Oberon while the rest of the group stayed out in ship in case the dragons attacked. With the good Oberon in place, the fey held celebrations.

Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood, Mercy, Liberty, and Oberon used Big Red’s rug to teleport into Big Red’s Cave, where they used the wish spell they got (from the luck blade from Castle Ravenloft) to turn Big Red into a donkey. They got the treasure (with Liberty’s ship). Each person’s loot share was 88,750 gp. Liberty paid Blood the money he owed her for the Eladrin soul crystal (250,000 gp) before going with the Star Corps to fight some space orcs/goblins.

The hero families negotiated how to run their territory in the Feywild, settling on a council of 3 (Fluter, Borngray I, & Va’Zarbreena) to lead the 3 families. Each family gave 300,000 gp for 900,000 total; Va’Zarbreena adopted Drizzmar into her family so she could have both his help his family name. Blue & Blood donated 580,000 gp for an anti-teleportation enchantment on the palace with a fixed portal inside. Costs included: Palace = 500,000 gp; 3 temples = total 150,000; 6 Hectare forts = total 90,000; 3 guildhalls = total 15,000; 3 village forts = total 45,000; and that left 100,000 for upkeep and hiring people.

Note: Team Tortuga also bought Elister Noggins’ shop in Loudwater for 10,000 gp and destroyed it; the gnome was missing so they assumed the stone giants got him.

Session 1422
The group talked about taking down time; Pylia’s lynx wanted a cat-sphynx-like palace built for her. The cat and her brother decided to recruit fey to work at the palace they were having built. Pylia left 25,000 gp for now and planned to pay the other 25,000 gp when the palace was finished. Blood de-petrified the old wizard statue from the Amber Temple. He asked about the valley of the gnomes and turned out to be evil “Cap” with a necklace with the letter C with a snake around it. Team Tortuga spent 6 days going to Oerth. They contacted GOAT-1 ship in orbit and brought “Cap” to Castle Greyhawk. King Belvor was there, did an interrogation, destroyed Cap’s evil necklace, and put him in a vault room with no magic. The team went to Furyondy, recieved a formal tour and partied with the nobles. Blue bedded a half-elf woman, though he did not impregnate her; she was from Veluna. Mercy impregnated a half-elf. The next day the group argued in the hall because Mercy had fallen in love so easily.

A month later Blue & Blood went back to the Feywild and directed where to build the family’s new structures. They also held parties for with the fey a month (at 12 different locations); Blue impregnated 4 different women (human, gnome, elf, and firbolg). Meanwhile Pylia went to the Mordenkainen Estate in the City of Greyhawk and studied in their library. She stayed in a nice noble-quality inn in the city. She researched and constructed a new shield guardian. One night she had dinner with Fritz at a tavern. They discussed Me’Urra and GOAT. Pylia spent the next month learning spells and updating her spellbook while Blue was coordinating family operations in the Feywild; Blue was upset with the lynx cats and a leprechaun because an extra 200,000 gp was spent (that Fluter took from Feymarsh).

During the next 10 months of down time, Pylia picked up Blood in the Feywild to go to Evermeet with her. They talked with the elves about possible ship upgrades. Mercy and his new half-elf wife had a baby boy. Blue’s affairs result in a (human) girl, (gnome) boy, (elf) girl, and (firbolg) boy being born. He suggested to the mothers that the children should all live with their clans/villages instead of moving into the family’s new palace.

Session 1423
Side Story: Reverse Dungeon Module [NH, AMC, and KE all played monster characters, establishing a background for KE’s new character Laz]

Laz was a lizardfolk ambassador sent to work with the nearby goblin tribe so there would be an alliance between the swamp’s lizardfolk (and their black dragon master) and the goblins. A group of adventurers tried to kill the goblin tribe after Laz and a drow ambassador had both arrived. The goblin captain, a bugbear, and Laz defended the base from the heroes before learning about a secret tunnel beneath the lair. They went down below and found a wounded beholder who guarded alien tech weapons and wanted them to kill the nearby mindflayer. The group managed to turn the evil factions against each other and escape before the drow arrived to take over the base. They escaped with their treasure and settled at a monastery.

Session 1424
Eventually, Laz left the island and went off adventuring in the world. Laz helped Drizzt Do’Urden and some agents from Aquisitions, Inc. kill a sea serpent. Drittz had been contacted by Va’Zarbreena and was helping her and Drizmar to give the new House Du’Orden a good reputation in the Feywild. When Team Tortuga decided to end their down time, Drizmar was still needed in their operations so Drizzt recommended Team Tortuga hire Laz to temporarily take Drizmar’s place in the adventuring group. Blood also decided to stay behind for awhile to help Fluter, Mercy, and the others in the Feywild.

Pylia (with her shield guardian [who mostly stays on the ship]), Blue, Ark, and Bek met with Drizmar and Drizzt before going to Waterdeep and picking up Laz. The EV sent 3 elves to ask Team Tortuga to clear their names from the blame in the devastation of the town of Nightstone. The group went to The Drowned Maiden tavern and recruited Laz’s friend, the bard Relgar Ruger, before flying to the Ardeep Forest EV enclave. They left the ship there and split the party in Nightstone. Blue went off with Kella Darkhope (the Zhentarim spy) to the caves with the ogres and the village’s survivors while Pylia, her guards, and Laz explored the ruins of the town.

Blue killed Kella when she betrayed him; he intimidated the ogres and rescued the survivors (including the dwarf who owned the inn). He brought the group back to the city, where the “7 Snakes” (Zhentarim agents) had arrived; Laz tried to fool them into thinking he was Kella, but Blue had decapitated her and threw her head to the 7 Snakes. The group convinced the 7 Snakes the surrender to them (after they said they were working for Snail in Daggerford).

Laz befriended the flying snake from the 7 Snakes (naming him Jenkins) and Pylia befriended a tressym. The next morning, the group brought the survivors into Ardeep Forest, to their ship. The elves had spotted a cloud tower flying above. An elf cleric named Himo agreed to join the group. They flew after the cloud giant tower, which turned out to house a cloud giant wizard; when they flew in and spoke with him, they realized he wasn’t the one who attacked the village; the wizard agreed to speak to the cloud giant leaders to try to stop those kind of events from happening in the future.

The group brought the Nightstone survivors back to Waterdeep, where the survivors agreed to sell the town of Nightstone to the Eldreth Veluuthra; Relgar went off to find the frost giant in Waterdeep who works for Force Grey (Harshnag); the rest of the group flew toward Goldenfields to return the tressym to the son of some of the killed villagers; on the way there, they spotted an army preparing to attack the fortified area.

Session 1425
Team Tortuga (Pylia with her shield guardian [who stays on the ship], Blue, Ark, Bek, Laz, and the crew) decided to attack the monster army that had gathered outside of Goldenfields. They killed: 6 hill giants, 12 ogres, 12 bugbears, and 60 goblins; a “moving cloud” that turned out to be an ancient blue dragon was watching from above and temporarily joined the battle, but left when she badly damaged. After the fray, the group went into the city. They spoke with the local, returned the tressym, and found out Relgar found Harshnag.

They returned to Waterdeep, got Harshnag (and Relgar), went to the ancient giant Annam Temple at the Spine of the World. Harshnag ran off the barbarians that were inside. They figured out how to open the portal to get to the inner sanctum, where they found the ghost of the murdered son of Blagothkus; Laz accepted a vengeance quest to avenge the ghost (who was killed by his father). The team communed with the giant’s “all-father” god, who told them about the Ordning and explained the competition between the giants. They also learned about the missing storm giant King Hekaton, whose wife had been murdered. When leaving, the group saw the ancient blue dragon again. Harshnag decided to stay and guard the temple.

Session 1426
Relgar teleported Laz to go on the vengeance quest. Pylia (with her shield guardian [who stays on the ship]), Blue, Ark, and Bek flew the ship back to port in Waterdeep. While resting, Team Tortuga realized - in their dreams and meditations - that they were being scryed upon. Snakes were trying to kill them; Pylia dreamed Strahd, shirtless on horseback, saved her. Meanwhile, yuan-ti assassins working for the ancient blue dragon teleported into Tortuga. The ship was hit with meteor storms while the team killed the intruders; 3 gnome crew died and the ship sank, but the rest of the team safely made it to shore.

Authorities in Waterdeep deputized Blue and he interrogated the surviving attacker; they learned the ancient blu dragon was named Iymrith, she had a lair somewhere in the deserts of Aunaroch, and the storm giants had a Wyrmskull Throne made of blue dragon skulls.

The team rented a noble house in Waterdeep for 500 gp a month, where the Tortuga crew could stay until the ship was repaired. They magically messaged Relgar and spent the next day getting the broken ship shrunk down and teleported to their allies in Evermeet. They were hoping Laz would return before they went to get info from the stone giant leader.

Session 1427
[Laz Side Mission to Avenge Ghost Spirit: Cloud Giant’s Bargain Module]
Relgar took Laz to Waterdeep to speak w/contacts at Aquisitions, Inc. to see what they knew about the cloud giant activities and Blagothkus. Bambra sent them on a mission at the cloud castle where their target was last known to be. Laz and the other new recruits left Relgar behind. At the flying castle, Laz allied with a minotaur and Goldy the gold half-dragon against the other 2 members of their team (a drow priestess and gith monk); they sent the 3 giant eagles and chimera after the other half of the team while they made their way into the castle.

They explored, learned where more cloud giant castles were planning to attack, and killed: a rug of smothering, a helmed horror, Blagothkus, another cloud giant (who survived), and a white dragon (that they used a confusion scroll against). They debriefed down at Aquisitions Inc, found out Bambra was also trying to become an intern and had used them - but the magic skull awarded the most points to the minotaur (who became the new intern for Neverwinter’s Acquisitions, Inc. team).

Relgar took Laz back to the Annam temple, where it had been collapsed and destroyed by Iymrith; they healed Harshnag. They rested after clearing out rocks and confirming the temple was messed up and the ghost had peacefully moved on to the afterlife. They spent the next day hunting down barbarians in the area before going to return to the group in Waterdeep (where they need to tell the officials about the cloud giant castle above the city).

Session 1428
Pylia (with her Shield Guardian), Blue, Ark, Bek, and the crew at the noble house they rented meet up with Laz, Relgar, and Harshnag (who had arrived after dealing with their side quests/issues). They all updated each other and had a group strategy meeting. Harshnag left to go make sure Waterdeep was going to be defended from the cloud giant castle above the city. Pylia bought scrolls and recruited the apprentice wizard boy Billy while Blue interviewed Relgar and Laz cooked a pie.

The team of Pylia, Blue, Laz, Ark, Bek, the shield guardian, Billy, and Himo (the EV cleric) went to Deadstone Cleft and met with the stone giant leader; they talked her into using her magic seashell to teleport them all to the Maelstrom (the underwater home of the storm giant leaders). There, the team saw the evil storm giant sisters Mirran and Nym, who were trying to take power from their sister Serissa, with an envoy of different types of giants that they recruited to replace the current leaders of the different giant clans. When the group confronted everyone and exposed their plans, Mirran and Nym fled upstairs. All of the giants followed and a huge battle started up there. Pylia, Blue, Laz, Ark, Bek, the shield guardian, Billy, and Himo retreated to the throne room (and convinced the 2 guards there to go try to save Serissa’s life before it was too late). Blue sat on the Wyrmskull Throne and was physically paralyzed (with a magical force field that appeared around him) as the voices of the ancient dragons telepathically whispered to him.

Session 1429
[Not a typical session, but NPC battle royale with giants fighting to accurately determine the winners/survivors - the fire giant representative Tartha and Serissa.]

Session 1430
Team Tortuga (Pylia, Blue, Laz, Ark, Bek, the shield guardian, Billy, and Himo the EV cleric) were still in the throne room with Blue trapped on the Wyrmskull Throne. Drizzt showed up with Drizmar, leaving his nephew behind to help the group because he needed Laz to come with him to go clear up some legal issues that resulted from when they killed the sea serpent for Acquisitions, Inc.]. With Laz and Drizzt gone and Drizmar returned, the group spoke with Tartha and Serissa. Serissa freed Blue in exchange for the team agreeing to go find and return her father - with the only clue being a wooden gambling token.

The team visited Jamna in Leilon (to find out where the gambling token came from) and ended up discussing all kinds of family stuff (with the connection of the gold dragonborn and Tamoachan, etc - with Blue’s plan for a million gold, etc). Jamna’s clerk was a feisty young handsome gnome guy who argued with Blue. They teleported to Yartar since that was where Jamna said the wooden token came from. The team went into the Zhent Catfish tavern while waiting for the riverboat gambling ship to come to port.

On the ship, they explored the mystery of Lord Drylund, who died after telling him about Hekaton being held on a ship travelling around “the purple rocks.” They also met Pow Ming and ended up freeing her so she wouldn’t be executed by the Zhentarim before they teleported to their rented home in Waterdeep. In Waterdeep, they met with Zaldar Floshin (who agreed to give them passage on his ship) and sent Billy home with a spellbook to learn from.

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