Swell’s Introduction
Swell gets summoned into Behyla’s office. He looks a little
more defensive than normal. “Pull up a seat Swell.” He says.
“You see, the tables were doing so well I didn’t want to
bother you with this. But we have some important people trying to get into
town, and I sent your companions off without you to go rescue them.
[Assuming Swell says something like, “Okay cool” and “Is
that all”]
Behyla clears his throat, “Well, it’s a little bit more than
that. It’s likely to be a pretty dangerous mission. I should have told you.”
[Assuming Swell looks a little more interested.]
“Okay. It’s a deadly mission. I might have just sent them to
die. And yes, Urd is with him. But I sent Arieth, I figured she could cover
your slack and then some.” [Swell has seen the Half-Drow around his parlor,
she’s the same one he saw in Jamesyth’s basement.]
At that moment Breschka bursts into the room, absolutely
fuming. She sees Swell there and her eyes go immediately to Behyla. “BEHLYA”
she roars.
Behyla leans back and tries to pretend he isn’t absolutely
terrified [DC Insight], “Yes Breschka?”
She approaches the desk, “Aside from the conditions in this
jail…” she says trying to contain her rage. Swell can tell she’s an orc. She
continues, “What the fuck did you just do? You sent them against a group of
Corrive Mage-Hunters, are you mad or just stupid?”
Behyla looks a little upset that anyone talks to him like
this, “And who’s asking?”
“I’m your fucking…” she says and trails off.
Behyla gives a smug grin, “You’re my what?”
She stands up straight and puffs out her chest, “You know what
I am. I’m the princess of your neighboring realm.”
“Maybe we should talk without him here.” He says nodding at
Swell.
“No. He should stay. Do you know what happened when I lit
the candles of augury and asked about this move you made?”
Behyla seems unimpressed, fiddling with his pipe nervously
but trying to make it look casual, “No. What Princess Behyla.”
She leans forward, “They did not speak well of this. This
man…” She points at Swell, “This man, is a part of that group. You think this
was political cunning, deception, and backstabbing that took down my father.”
Behlya says “Yes.”
She says self-assuredly, “It wasn’t. The gods have wills
Behyla. They cannot be broken. He was fated to slay my father with the rest.
They are important. They shouldn’t be split up. Especially not with your shitty
profiteering decisions as the motivator.”
Behyla seems to take that as a compliment, somehow. “Okay,
then what should I do to make it right, Princess?”
Breschka turns to Swell, and somehow looking at him seems to
calm her down a small amount, “Swell, your friends are being sent to their
possible deaths. Now, the people my brother is trying to save ARE important.
But he shouldn’t have sent them off without me knowing. I can get you close.
You have two choices, you can go after them by boat or... how do you feel about
short distance flights?”
[Swell’s choice here]
Swell is given a skiff and sent north, Breschka warns him
that when he sees a dragon appears, regardless of color, not to be afraid.
Swell starts rowing north, through now turbulent waters, he
can’t even see his friends. When he is no longer able to see the coastline, a
giant Bronze dragon bursts from the sea waters. The creatures sticks its face
close to Swell and says “I suppose you’re Sir Cranston then, yes?”
[DC Check to know about Bronze Dragons]
When Swell, finally says his name, the creature grabs his
skiff in all four claws and takes to flight. He stays close to the ocean, above
in the sky to the northwest are clouds of ravens. The dragon cranes it’s head
upside down and says “Terrible things are afoot. I would go kill them, but I’m
afraid I’m supposed to be low key. Openly destroying flocks of ravens might
alert the green dragons I’m here. That could be bad for business. Capish? Mum’s
the word. You cool?”
The dragon keeps very low to the ocean, so much that his
skiff often bumps against the water. They approach an island where he sees a
wrecked ship and another couple of skiffs approaching it.
“Shit” the dragon says. It slows down. “How well can you
hold your breath?”
Without waiting for an answer, the dragon drops the skiff,
grabs Swell and dives underneath the waves. He has no idea how long he is under
water, but it feels like roughly 5 years. He begins grasping at it’s claws and
struggling profusely when he finally starts gasping in water. At that exact
moment, his head is above the ocean water, his lungs burning with salt water. A
dragon head pokes out of the water next to him. “You okay there Swell?”
Swell coughs up water. In front of him is an island with a three-story
tower on it. The island has lots of brush and trees and bushes. Off in the
distance he can hear some shouting and lights explode from the top of the
structure, which has openings in the middle on each side, it’s not protected
from the elements.
“Can you make the swim?” the dragon asks.
After Swell nods it says, “Now remember, mums the word.” And
he feels some swooshing in underneath as the massive beast dives under the
water. It creates such a vacuum he almost gets sucked down with it. The Fight The party proceeded to fight the archers, who were joined by a berserker and cultists. Off to the east Swell had landed. He took a pot shot at the Corrive Assassin and then was engaged by a berserker. Meanwhile a Corrive druid climbs up to the 3rd floor where he was greeted by burning hands and a level 3 magic missile spell by Ma. Cassius, Urd, Rurrick, Ailekk and Arieth's lightning spheres of death made work of the archers, berserker, and cleric. Meanwhile Swell fought the berserker with little result. After combat everyone prepared for the assassin and ran around, Urd and Rurrick struggled to finish off the two almost dead archers. Swell fought the berserker to no avail. Reis briefly went over and helped Swell with some Eldritch blasts, then Swell continued to fight the berserker in vain. Assassin made it to the top of the tower, Arieth cast fog cloud obscuring the whole group. Urd made his way outside to where Cassius was now helping Swell kill the berserker. They had a brief run in with the assassin but then he was entangled by Rurrick, bringing his mobility to an end and dropping his CR to manageable levels. Urd, Rurrick, and Cassius beat him senseless.
Dedrick Forncloe The ravens got worse as they moved off to the south, searching for something. A group of hundreds of them went for the building. As the party decided to bicker about what they were going to next the ravens slowly decended upon the building. Ailekk, who saw the "tendril tentacles of raven swarms" streaming down from the heavens was much more concerned than Swell who along with most of the party realized the connection between undead, ravens, and the Raven Queen (Goddess of Death who dwells in the Shadowfell). Ravens entered and Urd tried speaking to one, who make a half-elf dressed as a druid of Corrive who bore the talisman of the Raven Queen around his neck. He seemed quite interested in Dravens' Port and the undead armies, apparently being interest at the thought that "intelligent undead" might be there. He was displeased to here of the Will-O-Wisps in their midsts. Asking for a way to keep in contact with him, he bestowed both Urd and Swell a raven companion of his to be used as a messenger. He said he would see them later in Dravens' Port. Kaleem cowered the entire time.
The Ship
The Captain- Corrive Sea Captain, turns out him and many of
his men were slaves raised in Corrive. The First Mate, “Short Shimm” is a bit
rogish but also turns out to be less loyal to the crown than Captain Fize.
While born a slave, Captain Fize is a little more loyal more loyal. The party easily overtakes the ship and they surrender easily. Reis loots the captain's quarters in front of him, imagine Yoda and Luke from Star Wars. Captain: "Oh no, put that back. Oh jeez, did you have to mess up my charts? Okay, here's my spyglass..." The party loots the Corrive Mage Hunter's quarters and find their loot along with potions.
