old 2014 - Morcaine's Journal

I'm going to keep track of Morcaine's exploits in this thread. The character sheet is okay, but it gets a bit too messy for my taste. Session 1: 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.

Cool write-ups! That's exactly what happened in Morcaine's first adventure session. I'm glad you got that much out of it, narratively. You've made it sound like an event-packed session, more than I felt it was on the game day as I was just starting to imagine your PC in the setting (read: under-prepared DM). I like where you added a name for the ocean-going vessel, Wallowing Whale . Of course that's going to get stalked by Seawolves! It's a wallowing whale. My request -- Please Post (or copy from above and re-post) each new story in this Story thread we've had going with 2 other PC's. Add in chronology with the other players' postings by taking the next post in that thread, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/992295/the-story" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/992295/the-story</a>... I'll award you XP bonuses once you paste it over there, with a new window of opportunity opening each session we play. It's fine if you keep this thread and also copy-paste to the larger Story thread, if you like. (You are welcome to start new threads, no problem.) Posting there will help with my organization, consistency, and tracking for giving out those story XP awards in a progression of the thread. The future dream is eventually you'll be in-party with other PC's and people will post back-to-back journals covering the same events, from different character viewpoints.

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!

Having already awarded an XP reply for the above "in the Story thread", this is a separate reply, for note-taking purposes. Morcaine has the following items assembled, upon which to Detect Magic, as well as employing Intelligence and any other Lore/Knowledge proficiences at his disposal, including calling for other members of the crew for professional knowledge if he chooses. pinches of ore semi rotten tapestry spyglass seamaps admiral's hat with tassels indicating rank footlocker cloak robe belt sandals some noble's writings on papers 2 regular cutlass 1 silver cutlass small shield various gems and jewels including ones already distributed as loot, can be checked just-in-case. (Because sometimes, magic gems.) 210gp worth of jewelry (3 earrings, medallion, necklace) 2 pearls ~15g each 5 moonstone (50g each) 3 tourmaline (100g each) crimson coral (100g) --- Given to Red the Boatswain 3 spell scrolls, Morcaine is studying in his off-times to learn the capabilities: Scroll of Oilskin (Mage 1) Scroll of Dispel Fog (Mage 3) Scroll of Preserve Wood (Mage 3)

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 &gt; 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.