Savage Tide Session 32

The party continued to explore the 'taboo' island. Skirting around the eastern side before heading towards the cliffs, they encountered more skinwalkers, who had prepared an ambush. Faldak caused the undergrowth to entangle them as Antony's snuck by, and the party soon managed to turn the tables. T othe sourtheast they found another ziggurat - this one collapsed and inhabited by spectres. Antony, who had reluctanly clambered down into the ruin in the first place, bore the brunt of their attacks until Stefanie called upon Vanya to hold them t bay whilst the others sent them back to their graves. This ziggurat bore the markings of the immortal Khoronus, and it appeared the others were also dedicated to members of the Council of Intrusion; matching the deities they had seen on the artifact in the aboleth city deep below them.

Finally the party made their way to the cliffs where they had seen a large entrance previously on the shorefront. Another ziggarat rested here, inscribed wit hthe sigils of all the council's immortals, and just beyond they heard the shouts of a skinwalker (strange as they had seen these creatures use telepathy earlier), answered by another muffled voice in the same tongue. ANthony scouted ahead and saw a cluster of huts with a lone skinwalker on guard duty. Under a greater invisibility spell, he left the rest of the party hidden by the ziggurat and snuck forward with Faldak and Mendel to launch an attack. Antony used a wand of fireballs to sow confusion as Mendel sniped at the skinwalker guard and his companions emerged from the huts. A powerful skinwalker spellcaster emerged and Faldak was the unfortunate victim of a feeblemind spell, taking him out fo the fight as suddenly the soil become far more interesting. Seeing the flames, the rest of the party rushed to join in the battle, but Zhedd too was feebleminded. Antony continued to spray fireballs around - even launching on inside a hut from where he'd heard voices before. Mendel was suprised a a red-headed halfling appeared behind him and planted two arrows in his neck - but his return volley gravely injured the halfling and caused him to surrender.

Soon, the skinwalkers were defeated, and the party gathered round their two feebleminded companions and the strange new halfling guest - whose skin bore the same ruddy tone they had seen on the Crimson Fleet pirates. He introduced himself as Throgiff, a member of the Crimson Fleet from a land he called Cimmaron. He was apparently exiled here after embarrassing his captain Longshanks LeShiv in a game of cards; left on the island to oversee the slaves that were sent here, and the delivery of the shadow pearls from the skinwalkers to the korpu, via a tunnel hidden at the ziggurat's peak. He was completely disillusioned with his lot, and his only interest was to get off the island and escape back home. He said he had a ledger monitoring the number of slaves sacrificed and shadow pearls delivered to the Crimson Fleet's base in Scuttlecove; but the ledger had been destroyed when Antony fireballed the hut in which he was staying. The leader of the fleet, Cold Captain Wyther, kept in touch with Throgiff via a crystal ball with telepathy, but had not been in touch for a week or so; and Throgiff had no knowledge that Vanthus had died. After some debate, the party agreed that Throgiff could accompany them if he helped them confront the skinwalkers in their base. He agreed; but had not been inside their lair. Still, he happily showed them the secret entrance they used, hidden in an alcove to the north of a large set of broken double doors built into the cliff face.

The party rested, and the next day entered the structure carved into the cliff. It appeared an ancient but well built structure, and showed signs of a lot of use by the skinwalkers. The secret door led to long corridor that ended in another secret door, which was easily located and opened. Beyond was a small chamber with a carving of a ziggurat on a pedestal in its centre. An inscription in abyssal, which Throgiff translated, read "The blood keeps safe the flesh", and indeed there were signs of dried blood in channels around the surface of the carving. The warning became clear as the party headed south, and triggered a trap which sent a giant boulder rolling down the corridor towards them. Zhedd quickly shaped a stone lip across the corridor behidn them, and Dacien created a wall of force to divert the boulder safely to the side.

At the end of the corridor they found a chamber with an altar soaked in blood, much of which was pooled around the southern wall; searching here, Antony found a secret door which opened to some stairs leading down into a waterlogged passage. Ignoring that for now, the party continued east, and saw the rear of the broken double door in the distance. Before they coudl aprpaoch, they were overcome by an awful stench of rotting meat and decay; as a giant flesh jelly emerged from its lair at the sound of approaching meat.

This oozed from its pit towards the party, the stench becoming unbearable so that ll but Fladak's strong stomach emptied. They fled, a hastespell adding speed to their staggering, and launched fireballs from affar as the corridor filled with flesh behind them. The session ended as Zhedd appeared behind it and his last fireball blew it to pieces; spattering the rest of the party in gore.

Savage Tide Session 31

Peering out the window of Dacien's hut on last watch, Zhedd and Antony spotted movement in the long grass of the swampy savannah of the plateau. Using the spyglass, they appeared to be lizardfolk. Waking the others, they ventured outside and called out. A cautious reply came back in broken common, as a large lizardfolk warrior stepped forth, with some smaller companions behind him. He introduced himself as Rissashtak, a ranger/cleric of Ixion and part of a warband led by Noltus Innersol. As Rissashtak became assured the party were not part of the evil on the island, he explained that Noltus had led a warband of humans, lizardfolk, phanaton and rakasta to the plateau to confront the dark machinations of the kopru. They appeared to be operating from an island in a lake at the centre of the plateau, and Noltus had led a scouting party there, planning to rendez-vous with the band last night on the northern shore of the lake. The lake was seen as taboo by the lizards, for Kalaktatla himself guarded its waters, so Noltus only took a select few lizardfolk warriors with him that were willing to risk the wrath of their patron deity. But he had not returned. Rissashtak offered to escort the party back to camp to wait for Noltus, or to visit a human village on the southern shore of the lake that might hold more information. The party decided to follow the lizardkin to their camp first.

The lizardfolk camp was little more than a camouflaged set of mounds dug into the swamp to hide them from observation. There was no sign of Noltus here, so Rissashtak offered what hospitality he could, before pointing the party in the direction of the human settlement. He promised to try to contact the party if Noltus should return.

Heading west, the party came upon the settlement only to find it deserted. Crude huts were left abandoned, and Faldak saw signed of combat - humanoids attacking the village from both sides whilst something snake-like emerged form the water. Approaching the central hut, that was built out over the lake, a strange mist started to form around the party. Suddenly, a telepathic voice entered all their minds, accusing them of hiding their true nature and demanding they leave the sacred site. Realising that Antony's ring of mind shielding might be what the creatures referred to, Antony removed the ring and managed to placate the invisible assailants. They turned out to be couatls, servants of the immortal Ka or Kalaktatla, the protector of lost cultures.

They had been summoned here by the chieftain Űmläüt, who had called upon them for aid the battle that took place here, but sadly too late. The cleric was one of Ka's most favoured, honouring some of the most ancient practices of his worship on Mystara, and so his body was being treated with the reverence it deserved. The couatl allowed the party to speak with his body and question him, so the party rested whilst the couatl finished their ceremonial preparations of the body. The next morning, as Stefanie prepared her spells, the other found a small pteranodon in the village, clutching a stone upon which was written the letter 'N'.Stefanie used a sending to clarify that this signified the return of Noltus to the lizard camp. Pressing on withthe questioning pof the priests body, the party learnt that a band of skinwalkers had attacked the village, led by a strange demonic ghoul-like creature, and aided by a bulbous-eyed eel demon. Dacien recognised the description of the eel creature as a wastrilith, a most evil and magical aquatic demon. Űmläüt

 also informed the party that he realised now in death how the kopru had manipulated the villagers their whole lives, leading many to the island  in the centre of the lake, but for what reason he could not say.

As the party set out to retuirn to Rissashtak, they were set upon by a flock of wyverns, which were quickly fought off, although Stefanie too a viscious poisonous barb to the stomach. Weakened, she pressed on wit hthe others into camp, where they met with Noltus - a loud brash Ostlander cleric, who warmly welcomed them and bade them to share a feast. Bulgan, Noltus' bloodhound wombled over, and started sniffing the party members, particularly the spell casters, as Noltus explained he had been well trained to sniff out necromantic components to help the righteous missionary hunt down evil dabblers in undeath. Stefanie grew suspicious, and moved to the side to cast a divination, but Bulgan followed her. in the midst of her spell, the bloodhound suddenly transformed into a horrific giant babboon-like creature, which proceeded (and succeeded) to chew her face off.

Noltus suddenly vanished, and the band of lizardfolk set upon each other - with Rissashtak looking horrified and confused in their midst. It appeared 'Noltus' and his band of lizardkin had used some power to shapeshift, and were in fact a demonic party from the island on the plateau. A drawn out battle ensued, which left only Rissashtak from the warband standing. Stefanie's death was a blow to the party, and they decided to return to Sasserine to have her raised. Rissashtak vowed vengeance on the skinwalkers and, picking up Noltus' weapon, asked to come with the party.

In Sasserine, Lady Silvermane/Gwynwharwf brought Stefanie back whilst Mendel sought out Aloyisus to have some goods fenced on the party's behalf. The party then returned to the plateau to explore the island. From the shores, they could see an entrance built into the cliffs on the western face of the island, looking like some ancient temple. The water around the entrance was interspersed with floating pontoons. The party decided to fly over the lake and into the jungle behind the cliffs. The thick vegetation here showed little signs of habitation, bar some ancient abandoned ziggurats and other more tumbledown stone structures. The party encountered another band of skinwalkers on the trail, which they dispatched, and made preparations to explore the island further.

Savage Tide Session 30

Before the party left for Sasserine, Manthalay Meravanchi asked for a letter to be delivered to an Emil Draskus in Shadowshore district of the city. In return for a letter of introduction to Zasker Grankus, a former mercenary that now runs the arena in Sasserine, Mendel agreed to deliver the letter. Dacien collected the group, and then teleported them all to the docks of the city. Most of the party had shopping on their minds, and set about equipping themselves for the expedition to the centre of the Isle of Dread. Mendel visited the temple to Asterius to speak with the head cleric, Lirali Woarali, about his investments. As Mendel entered, Lirali quickly ushered him to one side, and gave him a warning - assassins had been hired to track down and kill Mendel and Zhedd! The order had come out from the Taskerhill family, in retaliation for the death of their child to some archer bushes that Mendel and Zhedd had been responsible for planting in their gardens - itself, a retaliation for some underhand business practices in the logging industry. Lord Taskerhill was also financially backed by the Kellani family, who still bore malice to the party for their part in the death of their daughter Rowyn in the Lotus Dragon affair. Lirali had instructed city residents faithful to the church not to pursue the bounty, but knew there were plenty of local Hinterlanders desperate for coin that would take their place. Before Mendel left, Lirali also offered to have the not to Emil Draskus delivered - warning Mendel that Emil was the less-than-reputable lord of the Shadowshore district, and that little good could come from a partnership between Mathanlay and Emil.

The rest of the party shopped for their goods - finding the magic items they were after, but not the rarer materials, which seemed to only be available to those with the right connections or who could pull in the right favours. Zhedd visited the Witchwardens, who still harangued him about the missing sample topi zombie they had requested from his adventures on the isle of Dread. With a warning that membership was not to be taken lightly, Zhedd sought to rejoin the others. Mendel and Stefanie visited the arena, and with the letter of introduction, met with Zasker Grankus. Initially distracted and blunt, he soon came round to the idea of large specimens form the Isle of Dread being put on as spectacles in the arena. He offered to reward them for any creatures they brought back, even aquatic ones where the arena could be flooded for the entertainment of the crowd.

When the party rendezvoused in the evening, Mendel passed on the warning about the assassins. The next morning, the party went together to visit the Church of the Whirling Fury and Lady Silvermane.The silver chains that barred the strange building melted away as they approached, and the doors swung open. The interior was largely bare, and Lady Silvermane stood in its centre. As the  partystarted to fill her in on events on the island, particularly what they had found in the aboleth city and the kopru's plans, she paled and bade them silence. A portal opened in front of them, and she ushered them through. The party emerged into a giant forest full of lush foliage, on a plane that Dacien assumed was aligned with Brynn - the plane closest aligned to the Sphere of Matter. Lady Silvermane revealed that she was in fact an exalted celestial creature called Gwynharwyf, and Lady Silvermane was a mortal identity or avatar she had created for herself. This allowed her to pursue her goals, following the immortals Djaea and Khoronus in protecting Mystara from interference of immortals, but also keeping a wary eye out for signs of Outer Beings making incursions into the Prime plane that might threaten all of creation. Gwynharwyf also alluded to a long, bitter enmity with Demogorgon that meant she was especially interested in the activityies of the kopru on the island. She asked the party to return to the aboleth city to confront Rakis-Ka and ensure the safety of the artefact there so that the dark secrets of the aboleth, themselves servitors of the outer beings, could not be reclaimed. The party also mentioned the strange stone flask they had found, emblazoned with the insignia of both Djaea and Khornous - their turned out to be an artefact sacred to the Church of the Whirling Fury that allowed drinkers to rethink or re-imagine choices they had made  in their life - much as Djaea herself mulled and agonised over every decision. The party gave Gwynharwyf the flask, and in return, she used some of her celestial power to infuse Mendel's bow with holy energy. The party left, promising to return to inform Gwynharwyf/Lady Silvermane of what they found on the central plateau, and just what Demogorgon's plans might be.

The party then made their was back under the Isle of Dread to the aboleth city. The shimmering blue curtain that held back the water was not in the chamber where they last found it - but in the corridor a mile or so further on. In the cavern itself, they found Rakis-Ka by the artefact, larger than before, and glowing with a crackling blue light. They party had carefully prepared themselves, and through a combination of  resisting the barrage of spells, and battering through his defences, managed to cut Rakis-Ka down, resulting in a large explosion of arcane energy. Amongst his belongings they found some detailed mathematical theorems on the nature of the universe which could provide incredible knowledge and insight - but Rakis-Ka's last words that he 'would still destroy them all' hung in the air.

Over the next couple of days the party made their way to the surface and then used Stefanie's air walk spells to whisk them to the plateau. The climate here was much cooler, and the air filled with drizzling rain. They landed at the lip of a grassy plain, and could see forests in the distance to the south. heading  in that direction, Zhedd spotted a treant uproot itself and head away. Hurrying forward, Zhedd questioned the treant about what was happening on the plateau, but it had little insight - save that there was a village of humans by a lake in the centre, and he had heard the screams of his brothers from an island in the middle of that lake. Dacien decided to summon a shelter so the party could rest and investigate in the morning.

Savage Tide Session 29

 The next step was for the party to escape the ziggurat. The party prodded around  in the black pools of acidic tar and searched the base of the structure but could find no further way out. Mendel and Zhedd tried to communicate with the ziggurat, and saw some level of response but struggled to make out anything intelligent from it. Back at the uppermost level of the ziggurat, Dacien, created a sensor to view the exterior, and saw a squad of the remaining kopru and troglodytes slowly working their way up to surround the sphincter-like exit. The party prepared another two-pronged assault - Dacien dimension dooring with Stefanie, Ji and Faldak into the midst of one band of kopru, and the others working to provoke the sphincter into opening so they could escape and attack the other group. After a few swift round of melee and fireballs, the party had taken the ziggurat. Questioning some kopru that surrendered, they learnt that others had fled the chamber, but they knew little else about operations here. Apparently the kopru leader the party killed previously was responsible for liaising with a groups known as 'skinwalkers' that arrived from the 'city above' through the tunnel in the ceiling above the crater to the north. They delivered the pearls to the kopru, who then fermented them further in the ziggurat before passing on to the troglodytes to deliver to the pirates, the Sea Reavers of the Crimson Fleet. They had little dealing with the events outside this cavern itself. The skinwalkers were described as some mixture of human and rakasta, but it wasn't clear exactly what they might be.

The party holed up in a side chamber to rest and recover spells. During their watch, Dacien and Ji spotted a ant-like creature climbing a structure a few hundred feet away, and making some notes, before returning to the west, where the crater was. Before setting off after their rest, Mendel fired an arrow with a message into the crater, to ask the creature they left there, Rakis-Ka, if their may return and examine the sealed tunnel above - and to parley about this in a clearing to the south. Rakis-Ka bellowed angrily that he would not abandon the crater for them to move in, and as per their bargain he expected to be left alone. Mendel then found himself mentally compelled to leave the chamber, and as it had been his idea to pester Rakis-Ka in the first place against the others wishes, the party happily went along with it until they got to the exit tunnel, where Dacien broke his enchantment.

The party felt that to completely destroy the production of the shadow pearls, and to find the master pearl that controlled them, they would have to continue their exploration on the city above, which the korpu had indicated was at the highest point on the island.Stefanie used find the path to confirm that the only clear route to he plateau was back the way they came, so the party struck back out down the tunnels. The route was mostly clear, but the party sought out the aboleth they had encountered previously to put an end to it. The found Irgzid sitting in the chamber, claiming the aboleth was dead having been killed by some kopru that fled the chambers below, and he was waiting for their return. The party saw through the ruse, and Mendel and Faldak started firing arrows into the water as Stefanie lowered its level to leave the aboleth no place to hide, despite its illusions. Mendel dove into the stagnant slimy water, only to find himself left unable to breathe air by the aboleth slime, and that his cursed fishing rod finally activated to summon a shark in the water next to him. After much use of create water and portable holes, Mendel was finally restored.

In the chamber with the shimmering barrier, the spirits seemed more restless, and as Stefanie and Ji passed through, they heard cries of "He's eating us, he's eating us! You let him eat us!". Stefanie later prayed to Vanya, and was told that certain immortals were disappointed in her actions, but Vanya was looking forward to a battle that was looming. Mendel also prayed to Asterius, and saw only visions of a bone abacus and a longing to tally up greater profits.

The party made it to the exit, checking in on the albinos on the way and finding their settlement deserted, and then sought to scale the cliffs to reach the island surface. Atop the cliffs, they found themselves  on a mountain range and in the distance towering above these and shrouded in clouds, they spotted the plateau the kopru had mentioned. Stefanie attempted to carve Dacien's face into the rocky terrain to make the area distinctive for a return teleport and the party then decide to head back to Farshore to rest, identify gear, sell items, and prepare.

In Farshore, the party reported back to the council on events, and learned of what had been happening since they departed. The bar owner had fled, leaving Lil and the other saved prostitutes in charge of Krunk's bar. A ship had left Farshore for Sasserine carrying good to trade and to try and entice traffic back to the port - also carrying some residents that had decided to flee for a safer existence. A dragon turtle had been spotted in the harbour, but keeping its distance. Finally, Vanthus' body had been stolen, which given the tracks the party deduced to have been taken by Leaping Demons. Stefanie scryed but could not find him.

Vesserin, the head cleric, also let them know that the feebleminded warrior they party had rescued was in his chapel - strangely comforted there more than elsewhere in the settlement. He had also noticed that some of his tattoos echoed imagery of  the immortals Djaea and Khronous. Stefanie healed the tribal warrior, and, his mind restored, he introduced himself as Jakara. He had been sent to the seven villages by Noltus Innersol, a missionary priest of Ixion, to warn them of the demon threat on the plateau, which in recent times had increased its attacks on the jungles below. Noltus, travelling with his bloodhound dog Bulgan,  had banded together humans, lizardfolk and phanaton to fight these 'skinwalkers' which Jakara described as his fellow tribesmen taken by the demons and somehow bonded to rakasta's cat like bodies in some unholy amalgamation. He offered to train the party in fighting demons, but his main goal was to help prepare the other villages to defend. Noltus had also asked him to recover his stone medallion, which apparently had caused him visions that originally led him to the island. Vessrin explained he had visited Farshore some months back, drawn by his visions, and left the medallion with him for safekeeping. Noltus seemed to be drawn by his patron Ixion to uncover some legendary item on the island.

The medallion itself seemed to depict the immortals Oloron/Odin (moon), Otzitiotl/Ixion (sun), Manwara/Protius (stars) and Kalaktatla/Ka (knowledge), working together to create a bow. The party agreed to take the medallion to Noltus on the plateau, after they had visited Sasserine to equip themselves for the battle. Mendel asked Manthalay for a letter of introduction to the arena in Sasserine for business, and Manthalay agreed, saying there may be other items he could also take.

Savage Tide Session 28

Pinned down against the side of a strange fleshy structure by the advancing kopru, the party decided to retreat to a more defensible position. Mendel covered the other as they fled to the west, where they had seen various caves in the wall of the larger cavern. They were dogged by a pack of the larger kopru who were flying in a pincer formation. Zhedd caught two within a cloud of choking gas, and took to the air on Banshee to cover the party from above. Mendel wore them down with a few arrows before taking after the party. By means of Stefanie's haste spell, they made good time across the bonemeal-like covering of the cavern floor - until Stephanie found herself encased in a dome of stone by the kopru's magic, Ji rolling out of the way before he could be caught. The rest of the party continued their retreat and made it to the cave, where Faldak found two dead human bodies frozen in grotesque positions -  one as though cleaning up the mess made by his entrails spilling out over the floor, and the other with a grossly distended belly. They showed no sign of (un)life, so the party made their stand here, although Mendel did find the distened belly hid a strange stone flask with the sigils of the immortals Khoronus and Djaea, which later resisted Dacien's attempts to analyze. What followed was a sniping battle against the korpu, relying on Dacien's dispel magic to hamper the lead korpu. as Antony and Zhedd flung fireballs at the others. Mendel sniped lightning arrows at the kopru cleric, and Faldak and Ji met the weakened kopru warriors as they landed at the cave mouth. Meanwhile, Stefanie, encased by stone, used a combination of water breathing, create water, and control water to fashion the dome into a mobile tank, and tried to move after the party before starting to dig her way out.

The kopru ranks were whittled down, and the kopru cleric left exposed and unprepared. It began to retreat, hounded by Zhedd and the fireballs, until it finally died at the edge of one of the pillar of purple flame. The party swiftly moved in to collect the fallen items the kopru carried and then retreated to a cave higher up the cavern wall where they could hide and rest up. The cavern was filled with the dried age old bone of humans that must have lain there for centuries. During their rest, they saw a band of kopru visit the strange stone plug in the cavern ceiling above the crater. After resting and preparing for an assault on the ziggurat, Zhedd visited the stone plug to analyse what the kopru were doing and found signs of them scratching the stone, but nothing else. The noise of spell casting from the strange cloaked figure left in the crater below told Zhedd he had been spotted, and he hastily retreated.

The attack on the ziggurat relied on two stages - an assault with magically conjured fire and ice, before Dacien dimension door'd the melee warriors to its peak. Mendel, Antony and Zhedd used potions of fly recovered from the korpu bodies to join Zhedd flying in to the ziggurat, as Dacien took Ji, Faldak and Stefanie into battle. They appeared atop the ziggurat, next t othe puckered, bruised sphincter-like entrance. Three large kopru waited there, worn down the the ice storm and fireballs, and were quickly dispatched by Ji and Faldak, as Stefanie conjured a blade barrier to wall of two additional korpu that were flying in from the entrance tunnel to the east. This mass of swirling barriers also tore into the sphincter, ripping it opwn and revealing a chamber beneath. Around the base of the ziggurat, naga and kopru minions gathered and tried to hamper the party's movement, but to no avail. The party regrouped on the ziggurat, and with Faldak's axe joining the blades, dove through a hole in to the centre of the ziggurat.

The walls of the interior were lined with blackened lung-type structures, and eyes swarmed to the surface of the muscular construction as the party approached. The entire fleshy mound quivered in pain, but otherwise did not react. They party found a chamber that belonged to the kopru cleric, with a large statue of Demogorgon that Mendel defiled by removing the gemstone eyes. Some of the kopru's belongings were also hidden on a large tumorous lump that had been fashioned into a grotesque couch. A trap door led to the final chamber at the ziggurat's base.

Opening this, Mendel was his by a blast of flammable acidic black goo by a strange centipede like creature that was swimming in a large pool of the same dark liquid . Also floating in the pools were several large black pearls, coated in differing amounts of crystalline growth. The trapdoor was quickly closed as the party planned their attack. Faldak was warded from acid by Dacien, and led the charge against the creature. Ji managed to tumble behind it, and with two quick blows stunned it and allowed Faldak to line up the killing blow. The pool it was in started to harden as the life left its body.

Savage Tide Session 27

The party found the ancient aboleth city of Golismorga that the " troglodyte spirit" had told them of. It occupied a vast cavern, filled with strange fleshy 'buildings', and twisted pillars that spouted a cold violet flame up to the ceiling. The structures appeared made of flesh and coral, interwoven , and clearly sagging without the supporting water that had been driven from the cave. A rheumy eye appeared on one of the nearby structures, bubbling to the fleshy surface in a blister, and blinked at the party, as a crude forked tongue licked it moist. Strangled cries echoed across the chamber, mimicking the voices of the party.

The party (for some reason) decided to forgo scouting the cavern, and descended to the cavern floor, which was a hard pressed sandy texture. Heading towards one of the pillars of flame, Faldak spotted some tracks leading away from the flame, and Dacien saw what looked like mathematical equations relating to planar geography scrawled in the sand. However, the party could not approach the pillar any closer without being wracked by mind-numbing headaches and dizzying nausea. Instead, they followed the footprint, seemingly of a large humanoid, to  a cave set in the southern wall. A whispered voice called out and bade the party to wait, and before long a tall cowled figure emerged, head bowed so no body was visible, followed by a dog-sized antlike creature. The giant introduced himself as Rakis-Ka, but the word had barely left its mouth before Stefanie tried to call upon Vanya and turn the creature. Rakis-Ka hissed angrily, but combat was narrowly averted by Ji and Mendel trying to smooth over Stefanie's rash action. Faldak was dominated, and tried to attack Stefanie, but a ward placed on the dwarf managed to suppress the enchantment. Rakis-Ka was more sullen and guarded, and said he would not offer the party any assistance or information unless they helped him destroy a creature that was guarding an object he desired to the north-east. A Nel-thaggu or Brain Collector had made its lair in a crater, and was guarding an object there. If it could be killed Rakis-Ka would offer the party knowledge about the kopru. (DM Note: he was going to offer trade and much more, but nevermind...!).

The party set off for the crater, edging their way around the cavern edge. They soon came up on the depression, covered in large fungal growths and thick with slime and detritus that sludged down its sides. Above the crater, the part spotted the ceiling of the cavern was oddly smooth and flat. Zhedd took Banshee up to investigate. Ji heard a strange alien noise from somewhere in the crater, which Dacien thought sounded like a spell. When the party rushed to look, the crater was empty save for a large conical structure made of ice and stone. Ji could hear similar alien sounds from elsewhere  in the cavern. Zhedd examined the ceiling and noted that the stone looked like the result of magical creation, and had been shaped by magic since being put in place. Zhedd then looked at the sludge and slime in the crater and launched a fireball into its centre - destroying the slime but also causing the conical object to crack. That was when its guaridan chose to attack.

The party were beset by spells from an invisible creature; holding Banshee, and harassing Zhedd with cones of magical cold. Dacien and Zhedd managed to catch it in the area effects of their fireballs, before it realised the danger the spell casters posed, and flew over - clamping its jaw around Dacien's head and ripping the top of his skull off. As Dacien fell, Stefanie could pin point its location, and called down flame strike. With aid of Truesight, Antony acted as the party's spotter, before Mendel saved the day by plugging a smokestick-laden arrow in to the hide of the creature. A large elephantine form of an alien creature became visible, pulsating sacs containing brains atop its head. Eventaully the party managed to dispatch the creature, and Stefanie had a chance to bring Dacien back to life.

As the party recovered and set about retrieving the corpse of the brain collector,  Rakis-Ka re emerged from behind a nearby mound. He demanded the party stuck to their bargain and left, but Mendel was adamant about examining the conical object in the crater first. The stranger reluctantly agreed but Ji could tell he was sizing up the party. The object in the crater turned out to be what seemed a chunk of a comet,  shaped carefully and engraved with images the party deduced to be the immortals Khoronus (Time), Ixion (Energy, the Sun), Nyx (Entropy,  the Undead), Noumena (Thought, Strategy) and Djaea (Matter, Nature). These were the immortals mentioned by Lady Silvermane of the Church of the Whirling Fury as being members of the Council of Intrusion that watched for incursions on to the Prime from beings beyond the Dimensional Vortex - the mysterious Outer Beings or Old Ones. The artifact was incredibly magically powerful but the party could not discern its function.

Rakis-Ka then told the party what he had observed of the kopru. They had taken up residence in a ziggurat they had built around a pyramidal fleshy structure, and engraved with symbols in worship of Demogorgon. Golismorga was a city of the aboleth - survivors of the Outer Beings,  and Rakis-Ka believed the kopru were trying to unlock these secrets on behalf of their evil patron. He described their forces - almost 50 kopru, 20 naga and 80 troglodytes - which stay in close proximity to the ziggurat, and that some of the Kopru he had seen fly. With that,  he bade the party farewell,  and they had the impression he would not welcome their return.

Zhedd took Banshee up into the air, and scouted the cavern, looking for the ziggurat that Rakis-Ka had described. He found it on the far wall, surrounded by crude canals dug into the cavern floor. The ziggurat teemed with korpu and troglodytes, and looking more closely, appeared to be constructed of stone blocks piled atop a mound of flesh. The 'skin' was puckered and pinched between the stone slabs, and a bruised sphincter bulged free of the stonework at its peak. The party toyed with using the remains of the Brain Collector to lure the kopru out to the crater, but in the end decided to use illusions to alter the colour of the fviolet flames and lure the kopru out. Three kopru flew up to investigate, and the party then decided to lay an ambush for the kopru, slightly distant from the ziggurat. Zhedd became visible and flew back to the party. The kopru responded by sending out parties in sedan chair carried by troglodytes in various directions - those approaching the party were quickly dispatch, albeit made difficult by some invisible dark naga that accompanied them. Seeing the fireballs, five large korpu flew to join battle. Two were repelled by Dacien's wall of force, and flew back to report, whilst two more joined melee and were eventually dispatched. The party had a moment's respite, and so Mendel flew up above the level of the fleshy mounds to investigate what the kopru were doing next...

Savage Tide Session 26

The party continued their trek through the tunnels under the Isle of Dread. They came  upon a carven dripping with moisture, where Irgzid called them to  a halt before entering. He warned that the chamber was filled with noxious fumes,and some of the slaves that the troglodytes had brought this way previously had died here. Milky pools dotted the cavern floor, and water dripped steadily from numerous stalactites, filling the air with a sharp metallic tang.Irgzid suggested the party hold their breath as they hurry through the chamber, trying also to avoid the pools, and make for the ext to the southwest. Mendel fired an arrow carrying Stefanie’s light enhancement in the direction Irgzid pointed to try and light up the exit. Antony spotted a part of dark shadows did not seem to move as light filled the area, and fire another arrow – suddenly, there were two patches of darkness. As Antony and Mendel edged forward, these dark blobs became clear as black puddings, slowly edging towards the group. Mendel led a retreat to the tunnel as Zhedd and Dacien launched fireballs at the oozes, until only one particularly stubborn pudding remained. Mendel stepped up to throw oil over it, but got caught within the ooze itself, causing his newly acquired armour to melt. Antony used his Ring of the Ram to knock it backwards, as it finally fell to another fireball. An unexpectedly costly encounter, the party grimly pressed on down the tunnel.

Up ahead, Irgzid warned, was a large cavernous home to a roper. The troglodytes would feed it slaves in order to get safe passage through its home. Dacien recalled that ropers were surprisingly very intelligent and spoke Terran, so Zhedd offered to try and negotiate passage.The chamber itself was at the base of a steep cliff face, and held a petrified forest, clearly swallowed by the earth some millennia ago.  Zhedd mounted Banshee and flew into the chamber, calling out to the roper. It responded, demanding some form of tribute before it would allow the party to pass – and indeed that dire bat looked particularly tasty. Zhedd flew back to the party, and led them down the cliff face with the plan of summoning a bat to appease the roper. It recognised the casting of a spell, and enraged, dared the party to cross its domain. (DM note: it was  a nice idea – maybe summoning it out of sight and earshot of the roper would have been better!). Keeping an eye out for the roper, it was hard to tell what was stalagmite and beast, so it caught the party unawares and ensnared Zhedd, Mendel and Faldak. All fought off its strength-draining power, and started hacking at the strands wrapped around their middle. Ji dashed forward and started pummelling the creature with his fists. Stephanie and Antony started helping the others escape, but Antony found his strength drained by the roper, and was barely able to move. Dacien stepped up and dimension door’ed himself, Mendel and Faldak right behind the roper, allowing the group to flank it and finally destroy it. Having looted the treasures the roper had collected over time, the party camped in the cavern to rest from their encounters so far. The next morning, Mendel, Ji and Faldak had thick dark scaly blotches on their skin – much like the troglodytes, and Stefanie and Zhedd set to work curing them of the disease.

The next day, Irgzid led the party to another chamber on the passageway the troglodytes use to collect the shadow pearls. This was lit by a strange translucent shimmering blue veil that bisected the cave. Ghostly images of tribal warriors occasionally flitted across the veil, and whispering voices that uttered strange prophecies about lizard kings and demon fish. Dacien used his divination magic to analyse the magical wall, and was nearly overcome by its power – clearly artefact level magic at work in its construction. Dacien later spotted that the wall had a slight curve to it – that it may be part of a large sphere, with a centre likely some miles deeper in the earth. Irgzid impatiently beckoned them through, and the party gingerly followed. The air on the other side of the veil was noticeably drier, and a strange back and forth flow of breeze reminded them of breathing.

A little further down the tunnel, Irgzid paused at a large fissure in the wall, and explained that there was a small community of strange humanoids that lived nearby in a place they called ‘Barbas’, Which Zhedd thought sounded like the elven word for Haven. Irgzid had not visited in some time, since he was a child on a trading expedition. He offered to take the party there to meet with the peoples, and the party agreed it couldn't hurt. The settlement was guarded by a maze lined with dangerous and deadly yellow and brown moulds, which Faldak navigated the party through with Ji’s help. A clattering from up ahead caught the party’s attention, and 8 hook horrors were visible lined up against the settlement wall, banging their arms on their shells to raise the alarm. Pale faces appeared at the wall, and after the party had reassured them they carried no disease from the troglodytes, the party were granted entrance to Barbas. They were greeted by the village leader, Vertram, a tall albino with features similar to a kobold. The other villagers were a strange albino mix, with features from several different humanoid races – orc, goblin, but in odd combinations within each person. And they seemed to be able to interbreed. Vertram led them through the village, where the party saw water being conjured into a large pool, with copses of large fungi nearby being harvested. Vertam mention that a being called ‘Ruffel’ was their spiritual leader, and had recently foretold of the strangers arrival – a signal for Barbas to be deserted. Ruffel was found to be the skeletal remains of an elf, kneeling in prayer before a series of religious verses carved on the walls of the cave, each speaking of Ruffel's guidance for his followers. One verse added more recently stated that strangers would signal the time for the people here to move on, under the guidance of Ruffel.  Vertram indicated that only recently had Ruffel spoken to him and given him this vision. Mendel knew something of the albino Shadow Elves and their worship of an immortal named Rafiel – it seemed that these isolated creatures were somehow related. He passed on contact details for his house in Darokin, and wished them well as the village began to pack up their belongings. It wasn’t clear how they would get off the island, and Vertram was not even aware of the island or the sea, but they seemed confident that ‘Ruffel would guide them’.

Before they left, Vertram offered to show the party another place where the blue wall was visible – near the ‘Sleeping One’. This was in another small cave, where a statue of a large fish-like creature rested next to the blue wall – beyond which blind cave fish were visible flitting around in the light. The wall appeared to be holding back the sea water. The statue was puzzling Dacien, who had heard of creatures known as aboleths, evil psionic fish creatures that enter a state of hibernation when deprived of water. A slow sloshing heart beat could be heard by pressing an ear to the statue, and getting the statue wet turned the other layers of stone to sickly mucus. The party eventually decided to hack through the statue and kill the slumbering beast.

As the party continued on the main passageway, Irgzid became more excited growing closer to the presence of his ‘ancestor’. A large chamber appeared up ahead, and Irgzid dashed forward calling out to the spirit. The chamber was an inverted ziggurat, of Oltec design much like the engraving the party had seen on the Great Wall at Tanaroa; upon further inspection, Mendel saw the engravings depicted the victory of an Oltec civilisation over some threat from beneath the earth. The lower half was flooded (strange, within the blue veil), and fallen pillars former a makeshift bridge over the dark slimy water. The pale ghostly figure of an aged troglodyte appeared atop the bridge, and greeted Irgzid, before turning to the party. He explained he was a spirit of the troglodyte clan leader of old, and was trapped within this chamber, unable to rest until the threat to his kin had past. This site was where the Kopru exchanged shadow pearls for the slaves the troglodytes brought them, and the ghost had observed many of these exchanges and how his troglodyte people had slowly succumbed to the disease proximity to the newly created pearls seemed to cause. HE also explained that the areas outside the chamber were strangely devoid of water, and as the kopru were an amphibious species, they must suffer the lack of water in order to sustain the production of the pearls.He then pleaded with the party to seek out whatever artifact the kopru used to hold back the sea water and flood their production, or at least provide a distraction for the party to then assault their stronghold. Ji became increasingly suspicious of the troglodyte spirits words, and pushed the questions whilst the party looked for other clues. Dacien examined a strange sigil carved on the ceiling that looked to have been recently modified. The ghost said he had seen the kopru fly up and resculpt the sigil - and urged the party to undo their work. Dacien then used a spell to examine the sigil and found it to be an aboleth glyph that had once enhanced their ability to enslave other races, but now had been altered to suppress that ability.

The ruse was up. The troglodyte ghost admitted that he was an illusion created by the aboleth to make communication with them easier. He lied to Irgzid to find help, to lead a strike back against the kopru. The aboleth claimed to have lived in a large city deeper in the earth, which he called Golismorga, and waged a war with the Oltecs in their empire of Thanaclan on the great plateau of the Isle of Dread. The Oltecs somehow cast the water out of Golismorga and drove the aboleths into hibernation.The kopru had found him, and used a decanter of endless water to revive him, trapping him in this pool, whilst suppressing his enslave ability. The fact the kopru could alter the glyph suggested they had learnt much of the secrets of the aboleths, although for whom it was not clear. The Aboleth also mentioned being a servitor of beings beyond the knowledge of even the Immortals, and that Zargon was a patron - a name the party recognised from dealings with Thanti Sparrow on his travels from Cynedicea. He still begged the party to destroy the artifact that held the water at bay, to disrupt the kopru activities - but the party were more resolved to find a way to destroy the kopru and not release countless aboleths from their slumber.

The party pressed on in search of Golismorga and the kopru, a glum disillusioned Irgzid travelling with them. An encounter with some ghostly spectres did little to improve Irgzid's mood (Note: I got the level drains wrong, so he should strictly be a spectre too, but I'll let that pass!). A little further along the party came across a chasm with three narrow bridges across. Insects swarmed at the bottom of the gulf, around 3 more hibernating aboleths. A trio of rhagodessas scrambled up the walls to attack the party after Dacien froze the swarms around them with his magic. Girding themselves, the party continued their journey deeper...

Savage Tide Session 25

Back from their shopping trip in Sasserine, the party met with the Farshore council members to discuss the next move. The consensus was to investigate the 'Lords of Dread' and the troglodyte caves on the northern shore of the island that seemed to be the source of the Shadow Pearls. Lavinia shared a little more information from her mother's journal on the dragon turtle - known by the natives as 'The Glutton', a particularly large specimen for his kind. Lavinia offered some of her family's treasures as a 'tribute' to try and buy passage, which the party accepted, despite Manthalay's protestations that the beast should not be negotiated with, and if anything it's carcass should be dragged in front of the villagers to let them know their place. The party ignored this, although did mull over killing the beast if the opportunity arose at low risk. Lavinia was keen that the party find some news to help avoid the suspicious whispering from the villagers since her brother's appearance.

Before the party set off, Lavinia called Antony to one side, and further to his efforts campaigning on her behalf, asked him to accept the role as emissary of Farshore, to act as her representative in fostering trade links with other ports and merchant guilds. To help with this, she gave him the command of the Brine Harlot, and appointed one of the newly freed slaves as its captain under Antony's command. Nosmo Beldan introduced himself as a Minrothad captain of some experience, whose had lost his ship off the coast of Ochalea to the Sea Reavers of the Crimson Fleet, and had pledged his service to the colony for a year in return for his freedom. The party worked with the captain to plot a route to the north of the island - following the eastern shore so they could also look in on the wreck of the Sea Wyvern. Joining them on the journey was another freed slave named Ji - an Ochalean monk in the service of Tarastia from the Jade Raven monastery.

They set off the next day, and had good winds and calm seas on the voyage north. The party decided to weigh anchor near anchor near on of the reefs to try and find a clan of Tortles to communicate with, and question about the dragon turtle. The eventually managed to catch the attention of a trio of tortle warriors, who came to the surface. The party quizzed them about the dragon turtle, learning that his lair included the tortle breeding grounds, which he guarded but at a heavy price from the tortles in terms of tributes and occasional slaves. Some tortles worshipped the power of Emraag the Dragon Turtle, but this was not a commonly held view, and these tortles would support an attempt to remove him. They also helped the party learn to use the sea skirl - the strange alpine horn type instrument which was mounted on the bow of the ship, and gave the PCs a few pointers on how to play it acceptably. Stefanie paid most attention to the lessons, more by a process of elimination rather than natural aptitude.

The next day, the party made it to the wreck of the Sea Wyvern. Keen eyes spotted some movement near the ship, and a large elasmosaurus in the waters. Nosmo took the Brine Harlot in closer, and as the party kept weapons trained  on the ship, the elasmosaurus attacked. Another figure darted out from the ship into the water - a kopru that tried and failed to dominate one of the party. The party soon dispatched the large dinosaur, but the kopru summoned a swarm of sharks and shapeshifted into a shark itself, to confuse the party, as it rained bolts of lightning from the heavens down onto Mendel in the crows nest. The battle ended in a standstill, as the sharks swam off, the kopru unable to make much headway from the waters. The party investigated the Sea Wyvern to find the kopru had been using it as a base of operations, seemingly in the process of crafting a magical necklace.

A few days later, the party made it to Gallivant Cove, and the domain of The Glutton. Stefanie tried to play the sea skirl to call Emraag to the surface, but her poor attempt only angered the beast who rose from the waters ready to breath flame over the ship. Some quick talking, and the mention of the tribute, gave the beast pause, and it listened to the party's request for passage. Emraag was clearly a haughty creature, and eventually deigned to allow the lesser specimens past - on this one occasion - but also mentioned he found it interesting that the same ship he saw a few days ago had returned but with a different crew, leading him to surmise that there must be a new colony somewhere  in the archipelago...

The Brine Harlot weighed anchor in the cove, with instruction to wait for a couple of days before returning to Farshore, and the party set off in rowboats to a makeshift jetty of driftwood and bones that was visible  in the cliff face of the cove. The jetty was shrouded in a sickly green smog, arising from humanoid skulls being used as braziers and burning a potent mix of herbs and fungi. Some of the party struggled with the smell, as Ji snuck forward along the jetty. A dinosaur was visible in the cave, and began barking as Ji approached. Angered by the party, it broke its chains and charged down the rickety pier to attack. The pier shook and the vibrations threw Stefanie and Ji into the water. The dinosaur was a sickly beast, it's hide tough and blackened, and nasty looking cuts marring its skin around the joints. a dark paste had been liberally applied to the wounds, but the exposed flesh was an angry red beneath it. The battle with the dinosaur, and recovering the PCs from the water, alerted some troglodytes from deeper in the cave. They called out, realising the PCs were not the pirates after they told them they had no more pearls. Dacien sent a fireball into the cave, and the troglodytes scurried back into the darkness. In pursuit, the party found signed of the shadow pearl distribution - broken geodes with spherical hollows that once housed the pearls were scattered on the floor. The geodes looked valuable but seemed to be made of an alien substance that caused a mild headache when touched. Tracks lead to a passage deeper in to the caves, and crude frescoes detailed the troglodyte religions beliefs - showing a dragon raining black pearls from the sky down on to the land in a scene of destruction. What was noticeable was a crude second head had been added to the dragon since the carving was originally done.

The party followed the caves deep into the cliffs and down into the depths of the Isle of Dread. After several hours, they came across a larger cave, caked in filth and swimming in the stench of decay and troglodyte musk. A crude troglodyte settlement filled most of the cavern, but the troglodytes themselves barely registered the PCs presence, wallowing in a deep lethargy. Each wretched creature has the same dark toughened skin marred by deep red welt and exposed flesh, and were swaddled in bandages that drip a dark ichor. In the midst of their hovels, was a large pit filled with black bubbling decaying bodies of troglodytes and other humanoids. Hanging above the pit were several large cages containing the bodies of other troglodytes - including one live troglodyte and a human tribal native, covered in animal tattoos. The human was drooling and had a vacant look in his eyes that Dacien deducted was caused by a Feeblemind spell.  The party resolved to send him back to Farshore until he could be healed. When the live troglodyte saw the party he scurried across his cage, and excitedly beckoned them over. He introduced himself as Irgzid, and begged the party to set him free.

Irgzid explained he was a priest of Pearl, the immortal rule of chaotic (evil) dragons, and he feared for his people as the clan had been infested by another malign influence, and he begged the party to help him. The disease that ravaged his fellow troglodytes was at first through to be a gift from Pearl as it toughened the skin and made them stronger. But Irgzid had noticed a change in his fellow priests who didn’t seem to be acting in the best interests of the tribe, and were devoting their efforts to the transfer of Shadow Pearls from the kopru in the tunnels below to the pirates of the Crimson Fleet. The disease was a curse not a blessing, and slowly encased the creatures in their own toughened skin, as revealed to Irgzid by the ghost of one of his ancestors in the caverns below. But when his fellows discovered that Irgzid had not succumbed to the disease, they branded him a heretic, and locked him in a cage before he could rally an uprising against his fellow fallen priests. Irgzid promised to take the party to where they sourced the shadow pearls and to meet the ghost of his ancestor, if they helped him return his tribe to the rightful worship of Pearl.

Irgzid led the party through the settlement to a sinkhole that led to ttunnels into the depths. A statue of a large dragon looked over this, again with a second head added more recently. Having fought their way past some sickly troglodyte priests, Irgzid led them down the lift in to the passages. |He told the party it would be a journey of art least a few days to get to the site. Barely an hour out from the settlement, the party were attacked by a beholder, and by several strokes of luck were able to avoid the most damaging effects of its rays and managed to kill it bya well-timed flame strike and then lassoing it to Faldak, who scraped the monster to death against the tunnel walls as he fled in fear, trailing the beholder behind him like a balloon.

(and as it seemed likely the party had used up all their luck for the day in that one fight, it seemed a good place to stop!)

Savage Tide Session 24

The action kicked off again with the hunt for Vanthus. Stephanie and Dacien hurried through the settlement towards the mansion houses. On the clifftop, Zhedd and Antony spotted a red robed figure flying from the west towards them and the pirate ships in the waters below. They pointed this out to Mendel, who loosed an arrow. The figure caught the arrow and paused, watching the PCs carefully. Mendel bowed, and quickly left the clifftop with Antony at the end of a/his tether. Zhedd remained on the cliffs, invisible, to see what the figure in red did next.

Back in Farshore, as the rest of the party convene around the Meravanchi and Vanderboren manor houses, they spotted Vanthus standing atop the building calling out to his sister. "This is our shared birthright! There's been a misunderstanding! You attack the pirates, but I was only using them to find a way to get back to you.". Lavinia was not interested, but clearly tormented, and looked to Stefanie for guidance. "He was dead to me the moment he killed our parents.". The battle was on.

Mendel tried to keep Vanthus pinned with arrows, whilst Antony sped around the side of the building into cover. Stefanie called upon Vanya to give her strength in battle, as Dacien readied the wand of fireballs and a Dispel Magic. Vanthus, seemingly protected by stone-like skin, was wary of Mendel's archery countering his mobility and so tried to keep hidden. He focussed first on his sister Lavinia, who surprised Stefanie by trying to stab her in the back - under her brothers mental control. Vanthus then tried to mentally control Mendel, but Mendel's mind was too alien or out of sync with reality to be affected. So instead, he switched to a direct attack, deftly attacking with sword and sickle and wounding Mendel grievously. Dacien repeatedly lobbed fireballs whenever Vanthus found himself in clear space, as Anthony tried to manoeuvre into position, and Stefanie fended off Lavinia's attacks.

Back on the clifftops,  Zhedd watched as the red-robed figure withdrew a large poweder keg from his pocket and dropped it on the two ships below. Both ships became engulfed in a cloud of red-tinged dust. The figure swiftly followed this with a bolt of fire from the heavens, which ignited the cloud in a massive explosion. The unearthly screams of the pirates aboard the ship could be herd for some distance. All the pirates caught i nthe blast were writing in agony, their bodies twisted and malformed by whatever had happened. Zhedd watched further still as the figure proceeded to snap the necks and crush the skulls of the surviving pirates, with clinical efficiency.

 Back in Farshore, Vathus was slowly being worn down by the others, but managed to charm Antony, increasing the confusion. Stefanie suppressed Lavinia's domination with a Protection from Evil, and Lavinia, distraught, ran to hide elsewhere in the settlement. Vanthus flew after her, and the party took up chase. Eventually, cornered and bloodied, Vanthus in desperation drew a black pearl from a pocket and held it out at the party. "One more move and you all die!". This brought back memores opf the pearl fragments the party had found in Kraken's Cove, and the after effects of teh horribly deformed and mutated creatures there. Flinging the pearl at the ground, he tried to flee into the skies. Zhedd appeared, summoning hippogriffs ahead of him. Mendel dove forward to catch the pearl, and Vanthus fell to a final blow. He was quickly stabilised and bound, and Stefanie managed to suppress the magic of the pearl long enough for it to be secured. The pirate attack had been averted.

(DM note: actually what helped the PCs here was jumping to the clifftops, and happening to intersect the enduks with Vanthus. A melee with them all involved could have been nastier...)

The party rounded up surviving pirates, bound them and stripped them of their items. All had a red tinge to their skin and carried the strange reddish metal jewellery the party had encountered before. The red robed figure appeared on the beach, and introduced himself as High Councillor Rikard. He would return later, and requested one of the pirate vessels in recognition of his 'assistance' dealing with the pirates.

The Farshore council looked to the PCs to help with the questioning of the pirates. All in all, only 30-40 of the locals had died in the attack, but the phanaton recruits had taken heavy losses. After removing the jewellery from the pirates,  over the next couple of days the PCs saw them gradually mutate and become deformed misshapen agonised shells of their former selves. They claimed to be under a Red Curse that the metal could hold at bay, and begged for death. Vanthus, who had a vial of red liquid about his neck, was similarly afflicted. He admitted his role, on the promise of a swift death. He joined up with the Crimson Fleet to find a way to get to Farshore and claim his birthright alongside his sister. He had a chance to gain the power displayed by the other pirates, offered to him by 'the Inheritors'. He had little interest in the black pearls themselves, but other pirates mentioned that they had recent sailed back from several coastal ports in the Known World (Darokin, The Shires, Thyatis and Karemeikos were mentioned), and had visited a group of troglodyte 'lepers' in a cave at the north of the island to exchange slaves for more pearls. The next destinations for these pearls were listed as West Portage, Landfall, and Alpha to the north, amongst others. The pirates admitted to have been recruited initially by agents from the nation of Hule, but under the leadership of a being known as Cold Captain Wyther, had turned aside and begun working on shipping these 'shadow pearls' to major cities around the Known World. They were all apparently controlled by a 'Master Pearl' that could trigger the others to detonate in a large explosion several miles in diameter that could transform all animal and plant life in the the deranged creatures the PCs saw in Krakens Cove. Over 30 of these pearls had already left the Isle of Dread.

One of the pirate slaves, a dwarf named Faldak, confirmed much of the tale - that he had been picked up in a small vessel off the coastline like many of the other slaves, and was due to be traded for these shadow pearls. but the pirates had not been delivered the number of pearls promised by the 'Lords of Dread', and so he remained in the hold of the ship. He recalled a bubbling tune that was blown from a alpine horn-like skirl built into the figurehead of the pirate ship Brine Harlot, that seemed to act as a signal before the pirates docked to meet the troglodyte 'lepers' in Gallivant Cove on the north of the Isle of Dread. Others confirmed Faldak's tale, and that the cove was home to a massive Dragon Turtle nicknamed "The Glutton" that called those waters home. it appeared the pirates had paid The Glutton to allow their ships to pass unmolested into the sea cave lair of the troglodytes in order to make the exchange for the shadow pearls. Concerned about the danger of the pearls, and looking for the master pearl itself, the party decided to head to Gallivant Cove in a few weeks to investigate further. Stefanie sent a warning to her mercenary captain, to see how best to tackle the problem. Faldak offered to join the PCs and help them in their quest.

The next day, Vesserin the village priest, asked if the the PCs would mind meeting with his superior from the Church of the Whirling Fury in Sasserine - Lady Silvermane. She had met the party previously shortly after their exploits in Kraken's Cove. She decided to be open about the goals of the Chruch, and described that it was the representative arm of two councils of immortals - the Council of Mystara, which had oversight on Immortal interference on the Prime (which is forbidden; the council monitors and enacts punishments) and the Council of Intrusion, which monitored for signs of activities from other dimensions that might threaten the Prime.Lady Silvermane's patron immortals were Khronos and Djaea, who sat on both councils. The church acted as their eyes, ears and agents when needed. They had become concerned about Demogorgon, and his potential for 'bending' the rules. She also confided that the Isle of Dread was the site of concern for the councils - where intrusion from the Dimension of Nightmares had happened aeons past, and where the Council had to permit immortal interference to safeguard the planet. She had little further details herself about the nature of the threat, but cautioned that the Island was a 'prison', and that creatures from the Dimension of nightmares were to be treated with caution. She offered the PCs aid when needed, but wanted to hear how their investigations progressed. Mendel asked about the 'Eye of Arik' they had found - Lady Silvermane explained that Arik was a servitor created by the Council of Intrusion, that had become corrupted and betrayed the councils. He was now imprisoned in the Pits of Banishment. His eye was an artifact Arik had created to assist in his role as the immortals' watchful guardian, but she had little further information. EDIT: Lady Silvermane and Vesserin also reiterated their concern for a missing missionary from the Church, Noltus Innersol, who had gone into the island to find some of the lost tribes and spread the word about his patron, Ixion.

Later, on the red robed priests returned looking to claim one of the pirate vessels. They took The Hag, but not before Stefanie questioned them for some time about what their motives might be. They were all priests of the immortal Bozdogan (also known as Loki) from the distant nation of Hule, which had recently waged a large war across the lands to the west. They had a strange way of behaving, quite bureaucratic, and were a little troubled by how much information the party had uncovered. it seemed that they had sponsored the pirates as party of a strategy by Hule to gain a foothold in the lands to the east, but that another force had swayed the Crimson Fleet, leading to their betrayal. They knew little of the Isle of Dread, but confirmed the effect of the Red Curse and the strange metal cinnabryl that could hold it at bay. As they left, the party felt that the alliance was a shaky one at best, and perhaps they knew too much about the Hulean plans...

The PCs then returned to Sasserine to buy provisions, and set about planning the next leg of their adventure - finding the Lords of Dread, and the Master Pearl somewhere on the north of the island, past the lair of The Glutton....

Savage Tide Session 23

The attack on Farshore

The party were surrounded by excited phanatons, chanting about a 'Grooming' to be held in honour of the party's victory over the fabled Tyrannosaurus Rex That had plagued their tar pits for so long. This was largely ignored by the party as they debated and argued over their next move - leaving Krunk to start work on hacking the flesh off the head of the dinosaur he'd collected as a trophy. Eventually it was decided that the party split into two groups - one teleport back, leaving the others to make their way on foot. This allowed Zhedd and Dacien to work on some spell research and item construction, Mendel to continue drilling the militia, and Stefanie to scry again for the pirates. On the second attempt, she managed to find Vanthus, aboard a ship and accompanied by 2 other vessels - at full sail and much closer to Farshore.

The rest of the party arrived safely back at Farshore, along with 20 Tanaroan native warriors, and 8 Phanaton Rangers followed soon after. That left the party to then convene with the town council and plan for the assault. The chain was erected across the harbour front, just below the water line, the Hellfish was tarred and ready to be set alight, barricades were set up along the beachfront, and rooftop archer positions were set up. The quays were trapped, and Dacien spent some time making alchemical toxins with the bananas they recovered from the troglodyte grove. A Phanaton crew were sent to the east shore to keep an eye out for signals form the other villages. The Jade Ravens and Thanti Sparrow were guarding th northern edge of the shore, whilst the Sea Turtle clan warriors waited in canoes by the Blue Nixie.

When the signal came, Mendel levitated up to try to spot the ships, but only saw them far off to the south-west - sailing past the islands, the party assumed, on their way to Rat's End. The rest of the day passed nervously. As night fell the following day, the ships reappeared on the horizon - five of them, flying the Sea Reavers of the Crimson Fleet colours; The Hag, The Kraken, The Sea Witch's Curse, The Stygian Shark and The Brine Harlot. All ships slowed about half a mile from the harbour mouth, and a fireball burst above the water. After several minutes, the ships unfurled their sails again, and advanced - The Hag and The Kraken leading the attack. Both ships, unaware of the trap, crashed into the harbour chain; wrenching it from its mooring. The captain of The Hag realised  the problem in time, loosed the sails and brough the ship to bear. The Kraken fared less well, as the ship was brought to an abrupt stop, and the main mast cracked under the strain. The ship veered to starboard and straight towards the rocks. Stefanie cast Control Water,  to conjure  a whirlpool in the harbour mouth, which the captain of The Hag did well to survive. Mendel commanded the archers to let loose on the floundering ships, as he tried to pick of key crew memebers. The ballista crew let fly, and the phanatons readied their alchemical grenades.

A barrage from the catapults on the remaining ships began, bombarding he shore, but most flying over the heads of the militia gathered there. Zhedd and Anthony noticed one missile looked humanoid, and crashed into Krunk's behind them. Zhedd and Krunk dashed off to investigate - finding a flesh golem composed of stitched-together pirate parts busy trying to bring down the building. Whilst Krunk fought this creature, four more emerged from beneath the waves on the beach. (Note: There had been 4 golems waiting in the water all the time, and the fireball was their signal to advance. You guys had talked about buidling spurs on the sea floor, which meant you could have encountered these earlier, which would have been interesting...). The party fought off the golems, with Jardek manning the barricade and Antony ushering the locals well out of the main combat as it was clear their attacks were doing nothing. As this battle was going on, the whirlpool appeared to be dispelled, but The Hag was left facing in the wrong direction. Two plumes of smoke were seen thrown up to one of the ballista platforms, and this was soon enshrouded in flame by another long range fireball. The Hag sailed out of the harbour, as Dacien quickly followed it with fireballs from his new wand. The Stygian Shark and the Sea Witch's Curse moved to take the harbour - only to be met by another whirlpool courtesy of Stefanie. The Stygian Shark  was caught fast; The Sea Witch's Curse escaped and headed quickly to the shore, only  to be met by more arrows and more fireballs. Dacien's fireballs picked off the crews as they tried to lower boats into the water. The captain tried to then just beach the boat, but the Symbol of Sleep left near the shore left more pirates dying  in the water.

Two figures were seen flying off The Stygian Shark and over the cliffs to the north. Mendel caught one with an arrow, before they disappeared from view. An alarm bell rang in the centre of the compound, indicating trouble. Krunk ran off to investigate with Zhedd not far behind, to find a cluster of 5 wizened demonic bird creatures standing over the bodies of some dead militia. (Note: here, you guys were unlucky. There were originally 3 vrocks, but each had a 35% chance of summoning more; 2 did...). Three of the creatures joined hands and began to dance in a ring, whilst the other two turned to face Krunk's charge, hoisting him aloft and carrying him into the air as Krunk struggled to bash their heads together. The rest of the party arrived on the scene, Mendel firing his arrows, as Jardek charged ahead. Antony tried to disrupt the dancing demons using a Ring of the Ram, but they managed to stand their ground. Jardek was heavily wounded and had to retreat. Dacien managed to banish one of the dancing creatures, disrupting their dance, and quickly caught another in a resilient sphere. Krunk was thrown to the ground as the airborne vrocks looked to engage the party. Eventually they were all dispatched or fled, but consuming much of the party's resources and strength.

Meanwhile, Jardek had fled back to the north, and spotted a battle going on between the two remaining Jade Ravens and Thanti Sparrow facing a large scorpion-centaur type creature, and a spellcaster. They were struggling against these foes, and Jardek ran in as they fell to the ground bleeding. The manscorpion tripped Jardek and kept him on the ground as the spell caster tried to charm the dwarf. Feigning the effect of the spell, Jardek played along, and agreed to escort the pair to find the Mayor - only taking the long way round. When he came across the party, he told the manscoprion and mage to wait, whilst he warned the other. As the rest of the party blew the dwarves ruse and charged after the enemy, the spellcaster stepped out unleashed a bolt of lightning which ran through Krunk, Jardek and Stefanie. Jardek was left as a charred corpse. Krunk faced off against the mansorpion, only to be knocked back on his feet and a halberd driven through his heart. Two of the party lay dead.

Antony darted behind the spellcaster and tried to stab him as Mendel peppered him with arrows. The mage desperately needed cover, taking a blow from Antony. Seeing how serious things had gotten, Stefanie called upon Vanya to burn her enemies, and Dacien followed up with another fireball, leaving only scorched shadows in the wall of the Farshore Hall of Records. Mendel swung into the other side of the building and hauled himself onto the roof, wondering what the noise was.

Zhedd, now an invisible eagle, flew over the sea to observe the other pirate ships. The Hag and The Brine Harlot were sailing out along the eastern cliffs to the south. Vanthus was on deck alongside two winged minotaurs (enduks) and the vrock they had faced earlier. Heading back to explain this to the party, Dacien teleported Mendel, Zhedd and Antony to the cliff top to then head out to the ships, leaving Stefanie to offer what healing she could the the villagers. As they arrived on the cliffs, they spotted three figures flying overhead - Vanthus and the two enduks. Mendel let fly his arrows, as Zhedd summoned some hippogriffs. Vanthus swept down and suggested the party head back into the village to better defend it. Only Dacien thought this was a good idea, and promptly disappeared. The two enduks landed to confront the others, as Vanthus darted away, chased by the hippogriff. Mendel picked off one enduk, only to be butted off the cliff by the other, as Antony pushed it after Mendel with well timed use of the Ring of the Ram. Dacien met up with Stefanie, and saw Vanthus diving down behind the pallisade to the south - close to Lavinia's mansion...