Tl;dr: Adventure came to the adventurers this time as a ship hurdled its way into Port Mirandia, barely missing the docks. On the ship were many many rats, some forming a rat king. And a brain floating in a jar. All handled by adventurers from Port Mirandia.
Future Adventure Notes:
•Something west of Port Mirandia has sent a boat of diseased rats in a form of biological, against the living, warfare. The ship had the emblem of Tor Merr, recently fallen to undead.
•Someone is planning on or has ascended something, and seems to have an axe to grind against the adventurers of AFK.
Session Title: A Walk in the Park
Session DM: Neal
Session Date: 30 Apr 2022 @ 17:00 UTC
Session Risk: 6
Characters:
•Bar’Sah (Sorcerer 2/Wizard 2) with Clockwork the Familiar (played by Tootired78)
•Critter (Ranger 2) (played by Hallowman)
•Rattle (Monk 3) (played by TempyVixen)
•Hmmmm (Swordmage 1) (played by Carric)
•Krakhore (Fighter 2) (played by Wildy)
•Rory (Paladin 2) (played by Tam)
I, Bar’Sah, once again was saddled with fresh of the boat recruitss. Perhaps that bird was not totally new. We were going about our introductionss at the Potted Plant in Port Mirandia. Around us were supposed luminaries amongst the members of the AFK. Two bardss, one half-elf, the other a halfling, regarding some protégé. Two female gnomess talking quite closely. A githyanki and a fiery genasi arguing in their cupss.
While pretending to listen to the otherss introduce themselvess, I pondered that perhapss in the future I might be the one sitting there while new adventurerss arrive. A younger version of myself would shudder in horror, but as I have come to know, there are worse possibilities than that.
By the time their blathering had finished, we were the only patronss left in the bar. As we were about to approach an objective for our adventure, blaring alarm bells were heard throughout Port Mirandia. As far as I can tell now, never before heard. Alarm bellss rang out, the source seeming to originate at the coast.
Some of the guards were rushing towards the coast, but most of the population were running inside, then locking the doors behind them. As ever with fate, the moment came to uss. We pushed our way through to follow the guardss towardss the coast to see what was happening. My choice would have been to let otherss deal with this, but I do have to do these sortss of thingss now.
Once close enough to sea, it was clear the cause of alarm. At full speed, a three-masted ship was headed directly for the wharf. The guards were rushing out in rowboats to try to get aboard to halt the ship, or adjust the course if possible. A ship of that size sailing at full speed into the dock would cause a great deal of damage, not even accounting for whatever might be inside. A ship from Port Mirandia was trying to pick up speed for a possible interception.
Seeing the guards take efforts to stop the ship, we looked around for somewhere safe to watch in case we might be useful. The bird one, Rattle, spotted something on the beach she wanted to investigate. Keen eyess that one, I’ll give her that. A bottle and a doll. Before I could stop her the bird had already touched doll, but she resisted its magic, saying she felt a pull west.
The “holy” Rory picked up the bottle, finding this note within.
From the ship screamss could be heard. Some guardss were falling off the edge. The wharf was fairly empty of people by now. From here it was visible that the ship was emblazoned with three eye circle of Tor Merr, a yuan-ti city that foolishly let a horde of undead overwhelm it. The interception ship was too slow.
The incoming ship hit a sand bar on its way in, slowing it slightly, before slamming onto the beach, narrowly missing the preciouss dockss, keeling slightly to the side. Something along the way altered its course just enough, perhaps a brave guardsmen who managed to get on the deck, or the sand bar.
The surviving guardss were exhausted by their efforts, helping their fellowss to the wharf and looking towardss uss to manage the beached ship. We went aboard.
The deck was bloodstrewn, some fresh, but most old. A typical slaver vessel upon which nothing was moving. No anchor was onboard. There were unusual brass topped containerss, some shattered, all over the deck. The fluids in these containerss were likely responsible for whatever was making the wood non-flammable.
“Holy” Rory said he could detect a very faint presence of undead. As people moved along the top deck of the boat, when they neared a partially devoured horse, something within attacked Critter. This presaged the start of a viciouss battle on the boat. Those of use on the main deck were treated to the sight of monstrouss rat king emerging from the cargo hold, and other swarms of ratss and individual.
A glimpse of the future allowed me to strike the rat king with a momentous killing blow, while the otherss handled the variouss ratss. The stench of disease was rife from the rat king, it might be possible the intent of whomever sent thiss ship was to unleash this beast upon the citizenss of Port Mirandia, spreading some sort of rat fever throughout.
Hiding within the cargo hold was a floating glass vessel, filled with a brain and fluid, capable of emitting debilitating psychic sreamss. “Holy” Rory proved capable at least, cleaving the vessel in twain with a massive strike. Inside the hold were the remains of manacled bodies, feasted upon by the rats on the voyage.
There was a chest at the far end of the hold with a letter nailed to the wall above it. Inside the chest was a beaded sack, pinned on the sack was a note “maybe the contents of this sack will help you be better.” Hmmmm tried to discover the sackss secretss but found nothing. It was a bag of holding.
The letter nailed to the wall read,
An unusual missive, which I, Bar’Sah read as ravingss from a mad person. A different one than before most likely. This island sure hass insanity well supplied. Searching around the ship, we determined that the brain in the jar was how the ship was steered remotely, traces of magic lingered, connected to something to the west.
The salvageable wood of the ship would need to be cleaned physically, to remove the non-flammable agent suffusing it. It would also need to be magically cleaned, as someone had taken the time to desecrate the ship as well. I took a moment to try to identify the nature of the doll, touching it was a bad idea, but I resisted as the bird had. The magic tried to steal life force and direct it somewhere to the west.
Feeling the job done, we returned to the inn to finish our first adventure. A novelty to be sure, having had successs without having to endure camping outdoorss.