10/10/745 A.E. Morning.
In the morning the Mystic Voyager was greeted by a cloud-covered sky, where a cast of gloom reflected the sullen mood of the ship's company while they prepared the burials at sea for those crewmembers who were torn apart by the Ocean Shambler. The ceremony was short and to the point, and all were grateful the dead now lay at rest in Poseidon's arms. Garren simply wished to go below decks afterwards, but many men wished to thank him out of respect and offer tribute to his Lord, or possibly a bribe for safe passage on the remainder of the voyage. He accepted the small trinkets, usually earrings of gold often tossed directly into the sea in the hopes the minions of the lord of the oceans would find them and take them as tribute for Poseidon, God of the Sea, but as his worldly representative was right here on board, the offerings were made directly to Garren instead. He tucked them safely away and made plans to drop them off at a temple when they reached the dwarven city of Pedas. Then he went below, brooding, mostly since Katsumi, his love, had been with another already. He had thought she loved him, and now he was no longer certain what she felt toward him. By the evening, his wineskins were dry, though that brought him little comfort.
The next 5 days were much the same. Long ocean voyages are rather uneventful, if you're lucky, and they all hoped for uneventful passage. Many prayed for it.
Drifting in the sea, reaching out with it senses, always looking, rarely finding, but looking nevertheless, this time it sensed something. Finally, the long search was fruitful, there, another one could be felt. No longer content to drift aimlessly through the ocean, now that it had a goal, it began to move under its own power once again. It could feel the target moving, knew it to be upon the surface of the waters it knew so well, but it was slower than it was and it could not escape. It moved toward the Mystic Voyager with surprising speed, following it, all the while staying well below the surface, far from the deadly light of the upper world.
10/16/745 A.E.
As the evening of this day fell and the sun was lost below the horizon, their prayers, it seemed, were to go unheeded. Violently, without warning, the ship rocked forward, almost as if it had run aground, and though no damage to the ship came of it, many crewmembers were spilled onto the deck and some were seriously hurt, a broken limb here or there, but mostly there were only scrapes and cuts. The adventurers kept their footing, and Tagard swore, "Why in the hell do we always seem to have problems? Someone's cursed around here." He felt certain of it, and curses scared him, considering his past.
Gill scrambled to have the ship's beacon lamp lit, but as it was never intended to shine at the waterline of the ship itself, so the large, mounted lamp didn't help much. Torches and bullseye lanterns are brought, but their feeble illumination seemed somehow sucked away, unnaturally, eerily, their light was swallowed up and it revealed nothing toward the ship's waterline. Isabelle looked over the side and reported her infravision detected nothing as well, no traces of heat emanating anywhere from below. Whatever was holding the ship fast, it was hidden in almost magical shadows.
Garren, ever ready with a handy Light spell, illuminates the inky depths, finally revealing a black, cloud-like entity in the water that was surrounding the ship, but the entity moves away suddenly and the ship lurches forward, once again toppling many to the deck. Beu found a nice spot, and as he held Lycorne in his arms, both nestled up against a sturdy mast. "Say, we gotta stop meeting like this," he smiled, despite the fear in most the crew. Lycorne giggled and smiled up at Beu. "But I rather enjoy meeting you." Leaving the stationary light of the spell behind, the Voyager continued on for a few minutes before it was gripped, once again violently throwing various people to the deck. This time Garren cast Fairy Fire and outlined the entire cloud. The ship began to creak, apparently now being squeezed by the cloud. Arrows and missiles proved useless as they were shot into the heart of the cloud. Garren tried another spell, this time Purify Water. A hissing sound emanates from the evil cloud, its shape recoils as if in agony. Bell had cast a Fly spell earlier, and now hovered around the waterline and could make out sparkling objects here and there within the black cloud. She dives into the heart of the cloud for a better look. Her skin begins to burn as if immersed in a weak acid, but the burning continued to grow, from itching, to discomfort, to pain. The ship lurches free resulting in more men dancing about the deck, but not in a good way. Back in the cloud, several attempts to grab an object fail, but she continues her efforts while her skins burns. Finally, grabbing one of the objects, she clutches it tightly in her hand. Unfortunately, she misjudged the increasing nature of the acid damage and fell unconscious before she could escape.
In the meanwhile, amid the curses and shouts at Bell's recklessness, Garren jumped into the sea and swam toward the cloud. Finally reaching it, he found Bell unconscious but still alive. The acid ate at his skin but he backed out quickly, dragging the mage in tow. Magic Missiles slam into the cloud from Lycorne and Tagard, apparently hurting it. Hauling Bell up out of the drink, Garren cast his last spell and cures some of her wounds. Her breathing starts again, but she remains unconscious, still clutching the object in her fist. Jarmain renders aid, however, and soon Bell recovers. She is greeted by Tagard, yelling at her, calling her foolish, stupid, and worse. The gnome was never a cheery one to begin with, but now he was practically foaming at the mouth. At least it seemed the sea cloud had been driven off.
"They have another, my precious, a piece of me, she stole it, she stole it. She has two now, that thing, surface dwelling horror. I will get them back, soon." The cloud went further below the surface, regenerating its strength, following them. "The next time the shadow comes, I'll get them both," it thought while gliding through the dark depths of the sea.
10/17/745 A.E.
The day is spent recovering, praying, studying, and making plans should they be attacked once more. Bell cast Detect Magic and learns the pearl-like object she gained in her acid bath is slightly magical, but she has no clue what kind of magic it is. Finally, they are ready and take to the bunks to rest, sleep, perchance to dream, for the night is coming once again. And indeed, as it must, it does.
They wake up and walk the decks, watching, their vigil's effort directed at the sea rather than toward the horizon as normal, waiting, always waiting. An hour after sunset, it happens; the ship violently lurches forward, and despite their recent experience, many are flung about like rag dolls. Almost immediately a creaking from below decks can be heard. The cloud is back, squeezing the ship's hull, tighter, ever tighter. "How long can she take it?," Aria wonders. Maybe she'll not have to worry about unemployment after all, if she's dead. The captain laughs nervously to herself as she issues orders.
The call comes from below deck. They are taking on a little water. The ship groans as if in pain. Isabelle feels the answer must lay within the cloud and once again she dives in as Garren outlines the shape with Fairy Fire and Tagard curses at Bell at the top of his small, gnomish lungs. But the ship does lurch free when Bell enters the black entity. Hmmm. Garren goes in after her, cursing himself. He tries his Continual Light rock, hoping it will float within the cloud like the pearls, but it begins to sink. He retrieves it before it falls away. Bell does manage, however, to get another shinny pearl-like object, and before she's rendered unconscious, she does, and together, Garren and Bell return to the ship. The cloud grabs the vessel once again. "Crrrreeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkk!!" The ship is actually being dragged against the wind and the strain threatens to snap the masts. Aria shouts out to strike the sails and the men comply, easing the tension being placed upon the Voyager.
Sufficient Magic Missiles and Purify Water spells and other things seem to work as they finally drive the Sea Cloud away. Perhaps the dancing flames of the Greek fire Gill had splashed down drove it away as well, but whether it was the heat or the illumination, who could say? Again, Bell had another magic pearl, but knew not any more than she did before. The night passes.
"Damn!" or something like that. "I keep using more and more and they keep taking my precious; evil surfacers, those awful dwellers in the horrid brightness; kill them all, they all will die. I'll use all my power next time to claim that which is mine, and I will not relent!!!"
10/18/745 A.E.
This morning brings another round of the same routine, except now Bell shares her information about the pearls with Tagard and the others. Tagard takes the entire day and cast an Identify spell, but it reveals nothing he understands. They think of nothing new to do and Isabelle places the pearl-like objects in her bag. Gill sets the ship's carpenter to work to make a harpoon using his sword as a point. The day uneventfully passes, and soon the night approaches.
"LURCH!!!" the expected happens about an hour after sunset, the ship's motion halted, the crewmember's motion halted shortly after that with shouts of pain. Strict adherence to the laws of motion can be exceedingly painful, but there is little for it. Three men go into the drink and others busy themselves with their rescue (one of them does drown, his name was Forel). The adventurers, however, have other things to worry about. Fairy Fire outlines the cloud that is already crushing the ship. "We're taking on a lot of water, captain!!" comes the shout from below decks. The cloud is wasting no time. Bell again makes ready to dive in but Gill and two men grab her. She fights to get away, but they firmly have her, though she pleads for her release for minutes afterwards, even crying.
Leaving Bell in the crewmen's charge, Gill drives toward the cloud in the longboat and tries his harpoon, but even the magic weapon at its tip seems not to help, uselessly passing through the liquid entity. Using fishing nets they try to snare it, but the watery entity simply leaks out through the gaps in the net. Gill curses, wishing he could do more. Garren cast Light, this time directly on the bottom of the Mystic Voyager, and the cloud recoils, releasing the vessel. Bell escapes and tries for the cloud again, but Garren's light already drove it away, so it seemed, though it's really just following the Voyager now, patiently waiting for the accursed light to fail.
Gill now gives order for a special sail to be rigged as a net, only with very, tiny holes. The pearl-sized objects remaining within the watery cloud would be too large to go through those, they think. And again, after the duration of Garren's spell falls to the merciless nature of time, the Voyager is gripped and halted. "Groooooaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn!" they hear some of the vessel's planks give way. Magic Missiles, always effective, sting the creature again and again, the ship being as filthy with mages as it was. Then the order for the sail net to be lowered is given, having just completed the rush job in the nick of time, and they snare the black cloud within its folds and begin to haul it up.
"What? Wait, you cannot do this. They are mine, oohhhhhhhhh!!!"
The black liquid drains from the sieve-like sail, though, as expected, the pearl-like objects remain within. It's heavy though, but many men are put on the job and they pull at the ropes, hauling it up. After most of the black liquid drains away, out onto the deck, then down the scuppers and off the ship, the sail begins to rip away, not from weight of water, but from something inside fiercely struggling. The sail eventually rips and pearl-like objects spill out and hit the deck, each rolling across the planks like marbles. Then suddenly a brilliant flash occurs, and an explosion like a thunderclap resounds in everyone's ears.
Looking from a distance, a Merman was watching the curious occurrences not quite knowing what to make of it. He always wondered about the ships of wood in these waters and often watched them, but they rarely seemed at odds with the sea in calm weather like today's. Yet, now they seem to be doing battle with the sea. Then the upper part of the vessel was suddenly awash in flames, a billowing ball of fire roaring outwards and upwards, mostly directed up and out at an angle, which happened to be toward the merman. It frightened him. Splitters of burning wood then rained down on the unsuspecting merman, and cinders touched his flesh. "Oucchhh!" he screamed, never having felt the lick of flames before. He had had enough for one day and hurried back to the comfort of the sea below. No curiosity was worth that. "Stupid humans."
Garren blinked once, then again; he could not see. All around him was black and his fear of the darkness began to take its hold on him, his mind desperately seeking escape, needing to escape - or die. He began to run amok. Gill saw spots before his eyes, but then his vision slowly returned. Many had been blinded, most temporarily, but some had lost their vision forever, likely as not, for as common crewmen, they probably never would they be able to afford the powerful magics necessary to restore their sight. Three more crewmembers had lost their lives. (Owtal, Jewror, and Habik, if you're curious). The top third of the port side of the ship had been blasted away. Well above the waterline, the ship was not in danger of sinking, but the proud Mystic Voyager had seen better days, and she being only a few months old, it was indeed a sad thing to behold.
Tagard cast Sleep on Garren, and the frantic priest collapsed to the deck, the magically forced slumber freeing his mind from the terror of blindness and the contemplation of suicide. The gnome would keep the priest in this state until they reach safe harbor. Fortunately, once "slept" by such a spell, the target normally rest until slapped awake in the first few moments, brought to wakefulness by any sudden noise long after that, or a full night's rest brings them around naturally. Alone in his cabin, it would take only a few such spells to keep him under for days, as long as no one disturbed him.
Some magic was employed to stop the leaks below, a Mending spell chief amongst them, and the Voyager again headed for Pedas. The trip, to date, had been a terrible experience. Aria knew it would not reflect well on her, even though it really wasn't her fault. And if they sold the Voyager, as they said they planned to do, she might not even be given another command since quite a dim view was taken on captains who so abused their charges. It wasn't fair, but no court of appeal would make life fair. Her heart sank, and she wept bitter tears when she realizes how petty her problems were compared to those who had just lost their lives, or even just their sight. At least she was uninjured and could still see.
Another two days brought them, uneventfully if you can believe it, to Pedas. Alas, they did gather the cloud's pearls, but the magic seems to have left them. Still, they were worth something, and Bell placed them with the other pearls she had found on the raft from days long past. And the one odd pearl amongst them all, the one that drew the cloud's initial attention, was no longer noteworthy, it having lost its magic with the others. If they would have just discovered it were magic, if they would have just gleaned the cloud's intent and threw it overboard, all those lives may have been saved and the Mystic Voyager may not have been so battered. Alas, such mysteries are not always solved or discovered. In the absence of cleverness, thank the gods for brute force and luck; it always smiles upon them.
10/20/745 A.E.
The Mystic Voyager entered the artificial harbor constructed long ago by the sea dwarves of Pedas. The city beyond was well populated with hill dwarves, and within the mountain of Pedas (same name as the city, same name as the current royal family line of dwarves), a huge, expansive city sprawled out as if the rock and mass of an entire mountain above were easily supported. The mountain dwarves within were highly skilled with rock and stone; they knew its character well. Columns and columns, wall after wall, it was a maze of halls and chambers that well accommodated nigh 40,000 inhabitants, and this was but the first level. Outside the mountain, perhaps there were 20,000 on the surface where the sun might smile upon them, while below the first level, where humans were rarely invited to venture, level after level, each smaller than the one above, almost in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and passages too numerous to mention reaching into the depths of the Underdark, there did dwell 60,000 more dwarves of all kinds. Pedas, capital of the dwarven kingdoms, easily claimed 120,000 souls as its own. And those were just the permanent residents.
Visitors like our intrepid adventurers were not counted in the population, though truth be told, if they were, there would easily be another 15,000 running about the place (mostly sailors, merchants, and common folk, though the occasional adventurer was always around as well). Among the Dwarves, cousins to Gnomes, Tagard found roots here, even gnomes like himself, and they lived rather well compared to the life he had known. And he was more and more convinced the party he traveled with was cursed or something, and this bothered him, all those encounters, like the gods were playing games with them or something. The opportunity arose to make a home here and do his gnomish kind a service, and he counted his blessings (as well as his share of the treasure) and thought it well he were lucky to be alive. Planning on staying that way, he decided to take a year off and see what this city held for him, and thus Tagard, gnome illusionist, became part of the permanent population of Pedas.
The outside surface areas of Pedas were rather interesting in design. Built mostly on the side of a mountain, there were endless stone stairs hewn out of solid granite, multi layered levels, terraces, fields covered with imported soil for agriculture, twisting steps and passages, and all of it in some way or another made of stone. Such a city, even if abandoned and allowed to be reclaimed by the land, would still stand the test of time for centuries or even millennia to come. The dwarves built well.
Garren was taken to the local temple of Poseidon where Bethany, priestess of Poseidon, cast a Cure Blindness spell to restore his lost sight. Thankful, he imparted donations and offerings of money (i.e. paid the going rate for that spell), and here he did train for 8 weeks with Bethany. He found he enjoyed her company, and she loved to hear him play his songs and tell his stories after a hard day's work. And Garren found the weeks went by all too quickly. Everyone else felt they had things to do but would take less time than that, so they agreed to meet back in Pedas in 3 scepter's times (60 days) on 13/20/745 A.E.
The Mystic Voyager could not be sold for a decent price in its current condition (best offer was shy of 50,000 GP), so they invested 5,000 GP to have it repaired first, hoping to net at least 60,000 GP when it was finished. Aria, captain of the Voyager, stayed on to oversee the repairs for the next few scepters (estimated time of repair, 15/10/745 A.E.), and mostly worried about her job security. She knew nothing was going her way; she never had any luck. Her name as captain would be as good as mud, and she feared the Voyager wouldn't bring as high a price as they hoped once it was learned how many men had died on her maiden voyage. Sailors, too many of them, anyway, were a superstitious lot. They'd be lucky to get more than 56,000 GP, she knew, and she felt that would reflect badly on her too. She had no luck, not really, not in most of her whole life.
Isabelle caught a ship for Alodar and made the uneventful trip in 4 days. Arriving at home, she paid Darien's fine and got him out of prison along with his friends. One had been killed while in the jail, however, and Darien was not in a good mood. Furthermore, when he discovered what Bell had been doing, he finally knew he was holding her back. He had never been much of a thief, himself, and she had real power, real skills. In many ways, she made him feel inadequate, though he never told her this. She spent her time with him, trained, and as the time drew near to return to Pedas, she gave him 300 GP and told him to stay out of trouble. He said he would, and she kissed him goodbye and sailed back to Pedas.
Lycorne spent time with Beu, the sculpted looking sailor. He took an entire scepter off to be with her, and they rented a room in the city of Pedas on the first level. Eventually, though, he returned to the sea, promising to return to her at some point. He decided to join the Imperial Fleet and stick close to the safer shipping lanes. He could return and be with Lycorne every few scepter months then. And as Lycorne's powers grew, her Psionic Discipline Of Empathy couldn't help but expose this man's true feelings for her. He was falling in love with her, a love that rivaled his love for the sea, his childhood dream.
Gill trained two dwarven fighters. Not a lot to say, but he collected some decent coin and passed the time well while making various inquires about where sages might be found who knew something of what he sought. "Ekibar, Mt. Windus, where you will take me?" he continued to wonder.
Katsumi returned to Little Falls; she felt a break from Garren and his jealousy was the only thing to do. Later, she decided not to return at all, at least for a time, but eventually did go back, having not seen Garren for nearly 60 days.
Jarmain studied, trained, prayed, and wandered the streets of Pedas, helping those in need in between his quest to acquire new mage spells.
The time passed quickly, however, and soon the appointed time drew near.
13/20/745 A.E.
SESSION ENDS:
© May of 2000
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096