old 2014 - Story, Journal, Illustration thread

The Tale of the Gypsy and the Lizard Man As related to Scribe Ornifar by their allies. When Django Tigan first set out to find the dwarven Charlatan Dragost, the day was not to be an uneventful one. He set forth with members of the Clan of the Howling Wolf, seeking to reach another of the many gypsy encampments that dot here and there across the land. Chief among them was Ragnos, his boyhood friend and steadfast comrade. They had traveled for many hours though the plains, along dirt trails and over rolling hills when the tell-tell ringing of steel on steel coming from just beyond the next rise. The gypsies rushed to see who could possibly be fighting out here. What they saw wasn't wholly what they expected: Two large humanoid beasts were essentially slaughtering a small group of humans who were trying fruitlessly to fight back. (From their description, I can only assume that the creatures were, in fact, Bugbears.) Despite the many nuances of gypsy culture that would peg them as heartless thieves and con artists, the Clan of the Howling Wolf immediately leapt to the aid of their fellow man. It was, by all accounts, a long and gruesome battle, and not everyone could be saved. Happily, however, our intrepid hero and his loyal companions had survived. Yet the elation of victory was not to last. Attacking his caravan whilst Django fought the two Bugbears were two more, taking advantage of his people's absence. Their cook was paralyzed and the battle afterward was once again long and bloody. All seemed lost when Django fell to unconsciousness. Luckily, he was brought back to the realm of the living by his comrades. The fiends were vanquished, and our hero journeyed on. Now, Sanvar left his tribe in the Cold Marshes for reasons he has never seen fit to share with anyone save, perhaps, Django. Some minor events occurred whilst he roamed alone in the swamp, but they are of little consequence. The event that I believe propelled him into our story may seem trivial at first but has great implications. At some point on his journey out of the swamp, Sanvar came across a most peculiar sight: what appeared to be a human walkway had been raised out of the muck. Whilst going along this wooden path, Sanvar was ambushed by two other Lizardmen. Having cast a net upon him, they thought him easy prey, but Sanvar was not so easily thwarted. He ripped free of his binds almost immediately and proceeded to duel these attackers, one on either side. They were skilled fighters, nimbly dodging many of Sanvar’s strikes though they could not touch our hero. Sanvar dealt one a mortal wound, and soon, many more arrived. Sanvar was forced to cease as the Army of Skinks came upon him. He thought himself a guest of honor, yet from his description, I have ascertained that he was, in fact, a conscript whether or not he was aware of the fact. As a conscript, he was forced to fight in their arena for the pleasure of the Lizard King. His first match was of little consequence: two goblins, slaughtered easily. His second match, however, won him the crowd it must be said. A swamp boar was released into the enclosure. Sanvar swept the beast up into his arms as it charged about him then smashed it against the sharp boulders of the swamp. Before he could enjoy his meal, however, a Giant Crab Spider leapt out of the brush at our reptilian champion. (I assume, of course. Sanvar had no clue what manner of creature this was.) Once more, Sanvar pleased the crowd by drowning this next challenger. So far, it seemed that the dangers of the arena were no match for him, yet as Sanvar attempted to rip the skull from the boar head, its restless spirit called forth the skeletons of other creatures killed in the arena: two skeleton boars burst from the ground whilst a skeleton of giant proportions dragged its way out. Now, Sanvar may not be very intelligent, but he is no fool. He led the boars to the water at the base of the arena, forcing them to move slowly. Then, he fought the Skeletal Giant one on one. Sanvar’s weapons were useless against the creature. Therefore, Sanvar disarmed the being at great risk to himself. It was thus that Sanvar relinquished his foe of a massive club. With this new weapon in hand, Sanvar crushed his remaining foes. However, Sanvar received grievous injury and had to rest for several days under the care healers.

Story telling adds something nice and extra to the game. I like this a lot. +50 XP for Sanvar your PC, it's a bonus for the Player's story contributions so far. Don't worry there will be plenty of ways for Django to catch up XP. Let's book another game session date soon. I will have some scenarios in mind for both PC's, separately at first (but both Players can attend, your option. It is preferred for Ryan to be listening when Django is solo'ing so that you can keep up the stories if you want to). Their individual start-up adventures will be going for a while before the 2 PC's meet each other on the 1000-mile regional map. This individualism could last for a couple more sessions before Django reaches the cold marsh area, and Sanvar works his way out of the swamp.

Yet the elation of victory was not to last. Attacking his caravan whilst Django fought the two Bugbears were two more, taking advantage of his people's absence. Their cook was paralyzed and the battle afterward was once again long and bloody. All seemed lost when Django fell to unconsciousness. Luckily, he was brought back to the realm of the living by his comrades. The fiends were vanquished, and our hero journeyed on.

7/06/2014 - Travelling through the low hills of the plains north of my families caravan, I and my escort came across the sounds of a battle. I took 3 of my most elusive friends and scouted ahead to see what lay on the other side of a low hill. To our surprise we found 2 enormous and hideous bugbears waging war against a group of humans. Seeing the strength these bugbears possessed I decided that they would need all the advantages they could muster if anyone was to leave alive. I called forward 2 gyspsy warriors and advised those with bows to shower the beasts with arrows while I and my comrades slipped quietly around behind them. We risked our lives by rushing in under the a shower of arrows, trusting in my friends I had no fear of any harm coming to me. The bugbears were slain after a arduous and hard fought battle. Two of the humans were unable to stand against the bugbears and met a gruesome fate at the end of a massive morningstar. An attempt to communicate to the humans only lead to a babbling of unknown language and a craven escape from what I can only assume was what they feared to be another battle to come.

7/13/14 I knelt beside the deceased to try and discover there nature. I immediately noticed what can only be the scars and marking of what were once manacles, their clothes were ragged and foul and they looked as though a good meal had eluded them for days. I can only assume that they were slaves, but to whom? I began to piece together this puzzle given me but was interrupted by yet another battle and screams from our wagon. Two more of the miserable beasts had snuck in behind us and assaulted those left behind. Those of us on the hill immediately ran to the aid of our kin. The fight as far as I can recall was fierce and we had many casualties, in my gallant attempt to save my comrades I was felled by a solid blow to the chest wth the metal monstrosity in the beasts hand! I could hear the gods singing my praise and weeping in despair at the thought of losing a follower with a future such as mine. It gave me strength to fight against the desire to wrap myself in the cool warmth of the afterlife and I waged a war with death that which I ultimately won! I awoke with aid of my comrades to find my kin beaten down and badly injured. With the aid of elixir's and herbs from the wagon we were brought back to the living... barely. Unfortunately and regretfully our young camp manager Kenly was brought down savagely and has lost the use of her legs. We do our best to make her comfortable by redesigning the interior of the wagon to meet her new needs but it seems not nearly enough. The creatures in question seemed to be female, as female in look as would be a dwarf female to the male. If this is true is anyone's guess. female bugbears .. The puzzle I am beginning to see leads me to believe that these men that we encountered may have been enslaved by the creatures in question.. it would explain why so few were encountered .. a recovery party for lost slaves would be nowhere near as large as a raiding party. I feel the need to investigate further for I feel the makings of a great song in the making! I will never lose sight of my true mission but clues can be found in the most peculiar of places at times. We traveled on through the night till we found a safe campground far from the battle. Some muttered cursed about not going after the rest of the foul smelling baboons but I felt it unwise to risk an encounter in our current state. Through the night we could hear the strangest of insects surrounding the camp and once or twice the sounds or what could have only been search parties from whatever camp those dog's might have had. Thankfully they did not come upon us or I fear the worst would have happened.

During the previous session I awarded you +50 XP for this story (Slickety / Django), so that was already done. You can earn more XP if you write up another chapter about the Warthog-hunting encounter! Even a short descriptive post will be fine. You saw a trampled path in the grass & went hunting, got injured and fled! Tell me about it, short story. Ryan / Sanvar, you are also invited to earn more XP with another story post. You've got the elevated wood walkway in the swamp leading to a lizard king's town / base / encampment of the Army Of Skinks. Then Sanvar was given a chance to prove his might in the lizard's pit.

7/16/14 Our travels take us further toward the river and closer to the horrors that walk in the mountains to the north and to the west. We stopped for what was to be a simple replenishing of meats at a game path, I tracked a pack of beasts bringing those with a bow along behind me. Slowly we crept along the path until we came upon a group of hogs. My youth showed through as I decided to take a few from the herd, I was completely unaware as to how ferocious these beasts could be and we were nearly wiped out as the entire group turned on us like bloodthirsty demons from the depths of hell. In no time at all we were routed and running for our very lives. Fear alone is all that enabled us to outrun the beasts. It was folly to think we could ever overpower a hog in a group as they never fight alone and are well above our skills as we are young and learning. We will dress our wounds and rest before we travel on, caution is a lesson learned and I have learned it well.

Please paste the new parts in next-post in the thread so we can proceed chronologically down the page & I can award XP bonuses for new chapters

Now, Sanvar the Lizardman left his tribe in the Cold Marshes for reasons he has never seen fit to share with anyone save, perhaps, Django. Some minor events occurred whilst he roamed alone in the swamp, but they are of little consequence. The event that I believe propelled him into our story may seem trivial at first but has great implications. At some point on his journey out of the swamp, Sanvar came across a most peculiar sight: what appeared to be a human walkway had been raised out of the muck. Whilst going along this wooden path, Sanvar was ambushed by two other Lizardmen. Having cast a net upon him, they thought him easy prey, but Sanvar was not so easily thwarted. He ripped free of his binds almost immediately and proceeded to duel these attackers, one on either side. They were skilled fighters, nimbly dodging many of Sanvar’s strikes though they could not touch our hero. Sanvar dealt one a mortal wound, and soon, many more arrived. Sanvar was forced to cease as the Army of Skinks came upon him. He thought himself a guest of honor, yet from his description, I have ascertained that he was, in fact, a conscript whether or not he was aware of the fact. As a conscript, he was forced to fight in their arena for the pleasure of the Lizard King. His first match was of little consequence: two goblins, slaughtered easily. His second match, however, won him the crowd it must be said. A swamp boar was released into the enclosure. Sanvar swept the beast up into his arms as it charged about him then smashed it against the sharp boulders of the swamp. Before he could enjoy his meal, however, a Giant Crab Spider leapt out of the brush at our reptilian champion. (I assume, of course. Sanvar had no clue what manner of creature this was.) Once more, Sanvar pleased the crowd by drowning this next challenger. So far, it seemed that the dangers of the arena were no match for him, yet as Sanvar attempted to rip the skull from the boar head, its restless spirit called forth the skeletons of other creatures killed in the arena: two skeleton boars burst from the ground whilst a skeleton of giant proportions dragged its way out. Now, Sanvar may not be very intelligent, but he is no fool. He led the boars to the water at the base of the arena, forcing them to move slowly. Then, he fought the Skeletal Giant one on one. Sanvar’s weapons were useless against the creature. Therefore, Sanvar disarmed the being at great risk to himself. It was thus that Sanvar relinquished his foe of a massive club. With this new weapon in hand, Sanvar crushed his remaining foes. However, Sanvar received grievous injury and had to rest for several days under the care healers.

+50 XP (for Sanvar's story paragraph meeting Army Of Skinks, arena fights)

6/30/2014 Our Journey continues, we have healed up nicely and avoided most dangers .. the song I sing is one of caution from here on. We came across an enormous Praying Mantis blocking the trail but instead of charging headlong into a battle not needed to be we skirted around through the high pass, I will gather material for my songs elsewhere today. It seemed the decision was well thought out since in our attempts to take a wide birth we discovered several more of the behemoths partially hidden in the sea of grass. Our travel since the the dangers of the previous entry has been pleasantly uneventful, that is until last night during my watch. I am not a perfect man, very close but perfection is earned with time and I am far too young to claim such things and last night during my watch the songs of the surrounding insects and soothing sounds of mother nature momentarily lulled me into a light slumber. Unfortunately an creature known in some corners as a Thri-Keen leaped into our camp and caught us all by surprise, our the foe held flasks in two of its 4 hands which we later found to be some sort of healing elixir. With the previous near death experiences still fresh in my mind my first and only instinct was to attack. I deftly flung my daggers at the vile insect in hopes to delay any attacks on my startled comrades. As inexperienced as they are one of my party found it wise to move into the path of one of my daggers and was dealt a minor flesh wound, not all of us seem to learn as quickly as I do concerning caution. During the ensuing battle the bug repeatedly mimic'ed a phrase that was yelled out but an injured sneak. I do not know if this was some sort of attempt at communication but I felt mocked and in turn we filled the pitiful thing with arrows till he fell ( if indeed it was a he, all insects look alike to me) During the battle I suffered wounds that kept me out of a good portion of the fight. I am quick to learn and I have discovered that despite it's light and comfortable nature leather is not very protective. Once we arrived at our destination I will see if I can obtain something more protective, Hide armor would be a decent compromise and as far as I am willing to go. I believe I will have to write a song about this journey, it will have to be a comedic one to be sure.

XP bonus was awarded in the game for Django's latest entry

Sanvar went on a hunting mission and ripped the head off of a boar.

+25 XP (Sanvar's story mini-chapter posted Aug 12)... This amount was folded in with the 250 XP you got in the session today. You can post again, about the deadly Battle At Snare-Puddle and the Bullywug Pope, to get another XP Bonus before next Sanvar session.

Our travels continue, after a thorough review of the condition of our caravan it was discovered that these rough and uneven lands have taken a toll on one of the axles. Luckily on of my comrades is skilled in maintenance and was able to repair the minor damage and keep us from being delayed. During our wait I lightened the mood by playing a few folksy tunes on my mandolin, it seemed to keep the pace of the work at a respectable level and maintain our spirits. Ragnos discovered movement while I played out in the deep grasses, it seemed to be motivated by my music .. I could only assume that the mystery guest had good taste. After some very careful scouting it was discovered to be a bear. We determined that this bear meant us no harm and was only curious so we left him be but still kept a watchful eye. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that this bear seemed to be drawn to the music and actually appeared to enjoy it!! Quite unusual indeed. We eventually go back on the path and made our way to the gypsy encampment, we were welcomed warmly and invited to a feast. Our tales were told and we received gifts were given in return for trimming the population of these insect warriors. It seems that the sudden rise in movement of the Thri-kreen may in fact be a sign for a rare infestation to come. We stood our watches that night and came upon a another more formidable pair of the bug eyed barbarians, the battle was fierce but in the end we prevailed and all was quiet afterwards For my heroic actions I received a set of hide armor like none I have ever seen, twas taken from a bear and through masterful craftmenship it was as supple and as it was tough and my movements seemed as if I was naked and not bearing the weight of any armor at all. A big feast was held , dancing and wine was had by all. I strummed my mandolin and assisted the clan of the bear with the entertainment. I also decided to show off a bit by juggling my daggers, I am sure it was a sight to behold and all were amazed at the agility required for such an attempt. Our night of joyous celebration was interrupted when a raiding party of the insectoids broke into our encampment and attacked us! A fierce battle was fought and some were wounded but the clan of the bear is made of tougher things that can crush an insect .. defenses were set immediately and the bugs never stood a chance. All in all it was quite and eventful evening to say the least. These bear clan fold seem to be a hardy breed and I will honor them well in my songs.

Nice story. +100 XP (Django's story about the bear clan, posted Aug 13, 2014)

Day 1: Morcaine embarks on his journey, hiring on as a ship's cook on the Wallowing Whale. He departs from Vestis, which he left due to people's inability to see him as anything other than a cripple after the loss of his left arm. He left one friend behind, Bregan, also know as "Bregan the Crow", with whom he often worked together on diplomatic missions, with Bregan handling the more cloak and dagger clandestine part of the mission. Day 3: After hearing some rumors about someone trying to break into the captain's quarters the night prior, and being all but accused of being the culprit, Morcaine would soon face his first test. During this night, someone did manage to break into Morcaine's quarters. The locks on the regular quarters apparentely are not quite up to snuff. Anyway, Morcaine quickly cast spider climb on himself, stuck to the ceiling and as the would be thief entered the room, he cast "Sleep" on him, which knocked him out for a good while. Morcaine subsequently proceeded to get the guard on duty. The guard proved hard to convince, but eventually he was satisfied that it was indeed a thief and the thief was thrown in the brig. Day 4: Morcaine offered to aid in interrogating the prisoner and after casting Charm Person a couple of times, the would be thief was indeed quite talkative. The captain was somewhat torn between appreciating Morcaine's help and being scared shitless of a magic user subverting his crew. Morcaine pointed out that since they'd been eating his food for days and on top of that, casting the spell on the captain himself would be much more expedient, if he had meant the ship harm there would have been ample opportunities. The captain seemed somewhat mollified, but who knows if that was for real or not. Later that day, Morcaine would use his magic once more to great effect as a couple of Seawolves (basically a lycanthropic sea mammal) attacked and boarded the ship. Our fledgling mage took out two of them with a well timed sleep spell, but the third managed to drag a sailor, Gustav, overboard. Of course some of the sailors, or rather, one of them, blamed Morcaine for not doing more to help. There is just no pleasing some people. You take out two werewolves singlehandedly and they still complain. It is a testament to Morcaine's willpower that he did not spit in that guy's soup.

Welcome Fishy! +100 XP (Morcaine's story of Days 1-4 on the Wallowing Whale ship, Sep 4, 2014) Add the XP on your character's Bio tab under XP chart listing.

A few of Fishy's google pics from September 9, 2014 session.. Morcaine The Raven on the ship from the South, listing off into the Sargasso Sea with its ship graveyard. Long hook used to cut & haul-in edible seaweeds. Giant carp hunted -- the fish that got away. They got a shark instead. The "red pirate" Boatswain,

Double post from the Journal thead :P Day 6: The ship came under some heavy weather with all the usual side effects. People tumbling about, general queasiness (except for Morcaine who rolled a 1 on his constitution check. Suck it, seasickness!), some damage to the ship and worst of all, some of the food supplies got spoiled. This looked like a job for a wizard! For the most part, Morcaine just told other people what to do, which is great because bossing people around is awesome and you don't have to work and everyone has to respect your authoritah! So, first of all we got the kitchen boy (who really needs a name. Let's say everyone calls him Mouse because he's kinda small and has big ears)... anyway, we got this kitchen boy to take stock of the supplies and throw everything that's been spoiled overboard. Work on that proceeded rather slowly because there were quite a few holes in the ship that needed patching up first so that we don't sink and drown horribly. As important as bacon is, not sinking and drowning might be at least on par with that, if not a tiny notch above. So eventually Morcaine went down into the hold as well and found another leak which inspected more closely and discovered to be the result of something gnawing through the hull of the ship! Initially Morcaine assumed this to be gnawing from the inside to out, but turns out it was quite the opposite and something had been eating away at the hull from the outside of the ship. The obvious suspect here is poor Gustav the (now) Seawolf. The hole in the ship was magically mended and the Captain was informed about Morcaine's suspicions and also prompted to keep a close eye on anyone who got marked during the battle with the seawolves because there is a very real risk (to Morcaine's mind) that they could turn, infect more people and the whole ship could be overrun and lost. So, that left us with a patched up ship, but few supplies. Oh no! We're doomed! But wait, what is this? Is it a gnome? Is it an elf? No, it's Morcaine with his 19 smart to the rescue! Step 1: Suggest to Captain to double the watches at night and dangle a few laterns over the side of the ship, closer to the water so the people on guard can see whoever gnaws at the ship, or even better, have the light deter them from even trying to eat our ship. Step 2: Catch some fish! Morcaine's original plan was to just use some nets and catch a few small fish and call it quits, but almost as an afterthought he was like "Heeey, wait a minute. We can do one better than that. You know what guys, if you see a really big fish, why don't you call me and I'll show you how I fish". No sooner said than done, the crew did indeed spot a huge fish. This is when Morcaine met Red, the bosun and general badass of the ship. Morcaine offered to lend a hand (emphasis on the singular) in catching the fish and she seemed quite pleased with that. She seems to be a generally nice person and Morcaine quite likes her, which is something that developed over the course of the session, but bears mentioning here. As far as Morcaine remembers, she's not once been like "Meh, I don't think you are gonna be useful with your one arm". Also she's, like, totally hawt. Which is where the player and the DM had a bit of a miscommunication, because it turns out this was not just a fish, but a veritable sea monster with 8 HD! Lessons learned here, make very clear what you're trying to achieve, next time I'll specify that we're looking for something like a 1 yard long tuna fish or something equally harmless. :D Anyway, we set out with Red, the elf Freehouse (odd name for an elf, but is 'caine to judge?) and two more sailors for rowing. Anyway, Morcaine's genius plan of casting sleep on this thing only had a 1 in 16 chance (rolling double 4 on 2d4), and of course it failed, but on the second attempt a nearby shark fell asleep instead. The shark was dragged into the boat and stabbed through the heart by Red, which swiftly ended the poor beast's life. Red was quite pleased with Morcaine's fishing technique. Coming back to the ship, most of the crew climbed back on the ship, with Morcaine staying in the ship, fastening the ropes to the bow and the stern so the little boat could be hoisted up and as this was happening, Morcaine struck a bit of a pose, one foot placed on the fish, bracing himself against the rope securing the rowboat with his hand. If they ever make a movie out of this, this is gonna be in the trailer. Anyway, the fish was carved up and prepared, some pieces of it preserved for future days. Day 7: Morcaine awoke to find the ship kinda stuck in a Sargasso Sea like area. Loads and loads of seaweed around. So, obviously, as the ship's cook the first impulse is to eat things, so we grabbed a gaff and had Mouse harvest some of the seaweed, which later divided into edible and inedible piles by Morcaine. Around this point, the Captain informed Morcaine that he wanted to see if something could be salvaged from any of the nearby shipwrecks or if there was anything of value on a nearby island. He was eventually convinced that doing both of these at the same time isn't the smartest move in the world, with something trying to eat the ship and what not. (You shall not cheat me out of my XP, captain!) So, we set out again, with Red, Freehouse, the as of yet unnamed ship's healer and a random sailor who unfortunately also has no name. I will call him Higgins. We rowed past a whole bunch of ships that seemed too wrecked to be really worthwhile, but near another ship, a glint in the water caught our eye and Red dived down to take a closer look. On the way back to our rowboat, she was viciously attacked by a bunch of baracudas which she fended off with a dagger, even though she was severely wounded in the process. Luckily, our cleric was quite able of taking care of it. Not about to leave empty handed, we at least salvaged a little wooded sign with the ship's name on it. In addition to the small pile of ancient coins Red had acquired. The next ship looked quite a bit more promising, being barely decayed at all. On the deck we spied a whole bunch of piles of ore and stone, which could potentially be valuable, but would be incredibly hard to get to our ship. One of the piles of stone slabs was shaped into something like a den, which housed a giant crab, which was swiftly put to sleep and subsequently murdered. The plan was to cook it for dinner, but that's not what ended up happening with the crab after all. Having dealt with the crab, we went off in search of the captain's quarters and thoroughly looted the place, turning up quite the amount of valuables, most notably a spyglass and a red jewel worth 100gp. Speaking of Red, she was again injured in opening a lockbox that had been trapped. At this point Morcaine passed out part of the treasure to everyone involved, with Red getting the 100gp jewel since she'd been doing most of the work. Further inspecting the ship, Morcaine found a promising looking room that unfortunately had a humongous spider in it. Well, they say "If you can't fight it, feed it", so we dangled the previously slain crab over the side of the ship and once the spider started munching on it, quickly looted the room and peaced out with whatever we could carry. Then we decided enough was enough and we went back to our ship and put all our acuqisitions on the big lootpile. Some of the items are probably magical, which ones in particular will be apparant in the morning when Morcaine can cast detect magic again. At some point Red remarked that she'd like it if Morcaine stayed on with the ship, and even though Morcaine initially declined, he's starting to consider that offer more seriously... And that's pretty much it for the second session. Aside from the things I forgot to mention, probably. Next time we'll probably go explore an island and get eaten by the natives or a sea troll!

It's kind of awesome. Lots of little remarkable details and moments recorded for the Tall Gnome Mage Diplomat named Morcaine. I enjoy reading that. +100 XP (Morcaine's journal on ship and in the Sargasso, posted Sept 10, 2014) Add the Experience line to your character. Next Game session is scheduled for: Wednesday this week (around Noon Central USA, time converted for other time zones is posted on campaign details page). We'll be starting with Fishy. Jack may be here to observe and join in. Ryan had computer problems for a bit, and we are hoping he can lift the Lizardman Sanvar into action again here before long.

Day 8: ...was spent rather uneventfully, compared to previous days. Two of the items from the shipwreck were identified, the spyglass and the red gem that was given to Red. Spyglass turned out to be cursed in some way, the gem apparantely makes you a better pickpocket. After some argument, the Spyglass went back to the captain who has it locked up for now, despite Morcaine's insistent warning that no good will come of it and it should be dumped overboard. Well, whatever. Don't come running to me when that thing eats your eyeball. Stupid captain. Grumble, grumble. Next up, a look was taken at the noble's writings and the seamaps. Long story short, there's two locations marked on the map that might hold some form of treasure, although it is unclear as to what that treasure is. The main hint was about tides and a cave, which is quite likely to mean that a cave entrance is revealed when the tides are low, as it is hard to imagine a cave that is only visible/accessible when the tides are high. After that, we took a look at the tapestry and tried to cast mending on it, to see what happened. While not a full success, parts of the tapestry were indeed restored, which is awesome. It appears to also be some sort of map, and Morcaine resolved to spend more effort on it when there is an opportunity. Finally, we did some more sleep-fishing and good times were had by all. Day 9: ...was spent largely just identifying the rest of the items from the shipwreck. They turned out to be rather interesting magical items and were distributed amongst the people that took part in the expedition, with Morcaine getting a +2 cloak of protection, which he's giving to whoever accompanies him on away missions and seems to be in more immediate danger there than him. Aside from that, the sailors are getting increasingly nervous and have started seeing spooky lights and such at night. Day 10: ...was spent exploring more of the shipwrecks. The first one we looked at is inhabited, but upon approaching and hailing the ship, magical fog was conjured up, which we took as an unneccessarily elaborate way of telling us to gtfo! You coulda just said "Get off my lawn, you stupid kids!", ya know? Oh well, since we had no real incentive to mess with whatever lived on the ship, our main motivation for going there being potentially helping castaways, we moved on. The next ship was full of dead people, three of which tried to kill us which we foiled by killing them first. We learned a lot about undead that day. Also we found a log that described similar things to what we've been seeing, prior to everyone on the ship dying, so we are really looking forward to getting out of this area. On the way back, Morcaine suggested to the cleric to try reversing his entangle spell to un-entangle the ship from the seaweed, so maybe that can help us out. Oh yea, also we found an inordinate amount of gold in the hold of the dead people ship which was distributed amongst the crew, Morcaine eschewing his share in favor of the rest of the away team which did most of the heavy lifting (of dead bodies) this time around. Goodwill of the people > 30 gold, in M's book. Also, there were two scroll cases, which are closed as of yet, as we're all sticked and dirty with dead people juices and stuff. I think we're all in serious need of a bath before we touch anything we don't intend to burn later.

+100 XP (Morcaine's journal among shipwrecks Day 8-10, posted Sept 18, 2014) Thanks Fishy! Good read. Some small things were discovered. We'll see what happens next (session coming up in 13 hours or so from now).