Session 33 - Escape!
10th Sep 2021 - 19:45 - 10:45
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Marpenoth 18. End of session: 1489DR Marpenoth 28
Our "Heroes" are racing from Shadow Isle, pursued by pirates, with Bree's ship, the Demon's Wish waiting not too far away. Their escape vessel, The Evening Mist, is running a much reduced crew, some of whom, despite being "Heroes", are no sailors - in fact Derrick is developing a rapid and intense hatred of the sea.
The party discuss tactics of how to overrun Pirate Captain Bree's ship to obtain the compass to allow them to always locate the Shadow Isle. Bryn gives these discussions short shrift. He explains, as if to a class of young children, that there is NO WAY that their limited crew would be able to pull alongside the Demon's Wish, enable a group large enough to make any sort of impression upon Bree and his crew to board the target boat, wait long enough to allow the compass to be retrieved, and then escape and outrun the Demon's Wish, possibly with an even more reduced crew. In fact, not only would it be an impossible task to implement, but the crew would not even consider it - they have remarkably managed to escape the Island and now their only focus is to get as far away as possible, in order to survive another day.
Our "Heroes" reconsider their plan.
The Evening Mist uses its advantage of launching first and runs for the protection of the surrounding mist. Iwee keeps a watch from the crow's nest, spotting ballista shots coming from the Demon's Wish. The first bolt luckily misses, but a second rips through the main sail, slowing their escape. Karoshi, Jaxii and Derrick manage to see off a couple of pursuing Sahuagin with well-aimed crossbow bolts and javelins, then try to help out with the ripped sail. Karoshi manages to send Lionel in the right direction, but the poor rope is a bit confused as to what he should do next. Derrick, still flushed with the "success" of his "plan", quickly uses his new-found training at rope climbing to climb up to the ripped sail and holds it together. He then tries to communicate what is needed to Lionel, but needs Bardic Inspiration from Iwee in order to make himself understood. Luckily it was just enough, and Lionel threads himself through the tear and binds it together enough to hold the sail in one piece.
With the on-shore ballistas out of action, and only a few row-boats available for pursuit, the party's previous actions seem to be paying off, and allowing them to get away. Only the Demon's Wish stands in their way. The single manned ballista on The Evening Mist had time to fire a single shot. With Iwee passing on her Inspiration to the rebel bosuns manning the ballista, a hit was scored, just above the waterline on the Demon's Wish. It wasn't enough to sink her, nor even to cause long term problems, but it was enough to keep the crew busy, and slow any pursuit.
As Bryn steered the Evening Mist into the fog cloud, the party cheered - they had made it! It seems that pursuit at this time was not worth any extensive effort from the pirate gang, and no ships emerged from the mist, allowing Bryn to pilot the ship carefully away from the Isle, until he could get a bearing on where they were and head for port.
The few days that it took to return to Neverwinter were not pleasant ones for Derrick. But they had made it off the Isle alive, with the lockbox, and with knowledge of where Jaxii's mother was sold - Abbey Isle.
Back in Neverwinter, Iwee managed to sell the gems she smuggled on, and back off, Shadow Isle, and the silverware she stole from Bree's house. It generated enough money for Jaxii, Iwee and Karoshi to level up to Level 5. This took a number of days, and during that time, the group pursued their own, and group, interests.
Bryn took the Evening Mist to be repaired, disguised and renamed. "The Tired Adventurer" seemed like an innocuous name that wouldn't draw attention. For exactly the same reason, Bryn's own appearance was starting to be changed and disguised. He also wished to discard the names "Bryn" and "Cranfall Beaumont" - he will now be known as "Cap'n Grayson Hatchet". He plans to use The Tired Adventurer to hide from Bree and the Radiant Sisters as a legitimate shipping company. He will happily ferry the party wherever they wish to go in the meantime.
Derrick returned the lockbox to the Little Fingers - or rather, they took it back from him. He gained a reward for their efforts.
Iwee found a note for her left by Klik, with possible information regarding her family.
Karoshi had a strange and disturbing dream about the Kovak's Temple back in the Heartlands, before helping Jaxii find more information about Abbey Isle and the Clerics of Shar.
Jaxii visited a museum and used her perceptive skills to look for information about Abbey Isle; Karoshi visited a local temple to talk history with the clerics to find out about the Shar Clerics. That didn't go well. The one thing that did seem to work, which surprised everyone, was Karoshi using his good strength and reactions to stop one of the older clerics from falling down on the cobbled pavement and thus persuading him to share some information about the Clerics of Shar. A final attempt to gain information failed terribly when Jaxii went knocking on the Necromantic Division of the Arcane Academy to ask nicely for information about undead on the Abbey Isle. When this didn't work, Karoshi muscled in and demanded answers. This only resulted in a mind blast from someone in the Academy hitting Karoshi and the door being slammed in their faces. Still, between them their efforts did manage to uncover a decent amount of information about the Isle and the Clerics.
And so we leave our "Heroes" finishing their training and planning to travel to the Abbey Isle in the attempt to gain more information, or ideally to rescue, Jaxii's mum, Tamara.
Onward!
