DragonQuest - Session 2

Our session begins with Silvertooth Dreadwind and Acealos Moonbow.  The day before, they had both found a bounty listing for a naga named Silverfin One-eye, and had decided to get the bounty and split it, fifty-fifty.  Directly north of Southmost is forest.  Silvertooth's skill as a navigator kept them facing north, and they headed for the side of mountain that the center of the island.  Silvertooth informs Acealos that since he is joining him, he has officially joined his crew.

Sibyll Demier decided to get a head start on the main party.  She made good time in the forest, and caught up with the Haven elf and gremlin companions.  She decides to follow them, hiding her presence.

The main party, Elenya Lindale, V2Z4, Bayson Mogul, and Thourin Stonefist, start through the forest. Bayson's elephant, Infant, takes the occasional break to knock down a tree, and eat as much as he could.


Silvertooth, Acealos, and their pursuer Sibyll, arrive at the side of the mountain, where a rough hillside lay.  They decide to cross it instead of going around.  When the rest arrive at the same point, they make the same decision.  Past the rough hills lie another patch of wood.  As they make their trek, Silvertooth and Acealos finally notice their pursuer.

Silvertooth whips out his crossbow, Acealos notches an arrow and they spin around and aim at their follower.  Discovered, Sibyll raises both hands and approaches.  Silvertooth demands answers, and Acealos recognizes her as some form of elf, though he is unsure of her lineage because she is obscured by a hood.  Silvertooth and Sibyll determine that since they were going for the same bounty, they should work together.  Silvertooth declares Sibyll a member of the crew.  Acealos speaks to her in elvish to see what dialect she uses.  When she is unable to understand him, he realizes she is drow.  He protests to Silvertooth, saying that a drow can never be trusted.  Silvertooth points to himself and declares, "Pirate!"  He then goes on to say he's had drow on his crew before.  Acealos says he will keep an eye on Sibyll, but obviously not her pet hyena, Mordred, who is found with his face in Acealos' pack, chewing up his sleeping sack.

The trio, now a team, notice the ground shaking and the leaves shaking with it.  They realize something is coming their way.  Acealos casts a blending spell upon himself, making him invisible, and Sibyll and Silvertooth try and hide.  Elenya emerges, riding her horse, and spots them immediately.  Silvertooth jumps out of the brush, crossbow in hand.  From behind Elenya, who had rode ahead, comes an elephant and the rest of her party.  V2Z4 comes forward and he and Silvertooth discuss the bounty and terms on how they will split it.  V2Z4 insists that Silvertooth and his band join them, while Silvertooth insists they join his crew, since he is a captain.

As the pair argue, Thourin casts a spell that lets him speak with animals, and he begins to have conversation withInfant and Mordred, stopping Mordred from eating anything he sees.  Mordred would walk up to something and say, "Ooh!  I'm gonna eat this!"  The party, excluding the pair in debate, comment on Thourin and he snarls and trumpets at Mordred and Infant, deciding that he was most definitely insane.

Suddenly, four tigers emerge.  (GM Commentary: Yeah, okay, four tigers sounds ridiculous.  On a island.  In a group of four.  But, the game has a random encounter generator, and this is what I got.  Deal with it.)  Thourin speaks with them, asking what they want.  They say that they are outrageously hungry, and attack.

Combat breaks out.  The tigers were completely outmatched, even as Infant and Mordred watched fromt he side lines.  Sibyll and the wolf Kazzaril took one on.  Elenya, Acealos, and Silvertooth fired their bows and crossbow at range, however one tiger charged Silvertooth, seeing his small frame as an easy kill.  Thourin and V2Z4 jumped in to rescue him, and a second tiger moved in.  One tiger took an arrow early on, and stayed back, watching for a weak link.  Sibyll delivered the killing stroke on the first tiger, first spilling it guts with a vicious attack, then stabbing it in the neck, and Kaz seemed to act like it was all him.  The party surrounded and killed the tiger that had attack Silvertooth, and turned their strikes on the third tiger.  Bayson, moving quite slowly, as he was not an agile dwarf, finally reached the melee.  His first swing struck dirt, but his second swing crushed the tiger's skull.  The remaining tiger turned and ran.

Kaz clutched one of the tiger's tails between his teeth, holding it for all to see as though he had killed it. Elenya told him to shoo, so he ripped off the tal and kept it.  Thourin asked Kaz how he did, his spell still active.  Kaz boasted that he killed two tigers, and the tall, dark, two-legs helped, but only a little.  Infant was very scared, but a sharp word from Bayson calmed him down.  V2Z4 and Silvertooth agreed that they would split the bounty evenly among all members.  Acealos points out that Sibyll is a drow.  No one seems to mind, as three of them are from the southern continent (where the history of the drow is not known), one was raised in some deep cave, and the last was, as mentioned before, a pirate. Regardless, he maintains his distrust of her.

By now, the sun was setting, and they decide to break camp.  The rangers cut up the meatiest parts of the tiger and cook them up, and let Kaz and Mordred have the rest.  Although tiger is not a delicious meal, the party is well fed that night.  Acealos finds himself uneasy trying to sleep in the forest, and as the sun goes down, he casts a spell that fills the entire forest with light.  He is then able to sleep.  Thourin casts a spell that lets him speak with plants, and asks a tree where he could find a specific herb.  The tree asks him why he wants to know, as most fleshlings kill that plant when they find him.  Thourin is horrified, as he realizes that all his herb-picking has been nature-murder.  After the light fades, they set up a watch cycle and go to sleep.

In the morning the party sets out heading north.  They reach the outskirts of Silverfin's camp within nine hours.  Suddenly, from around the trees, thirty naga raiders emerge, led by a green naga in sea-blue robes.  He introduces himself as Orcakrast, and asks if they had come to die.  Seeing they were outmatched, the party tries to explain that they were just exploring.  Orcakrast tells them to turn back or die.  Silvertooth jumps forward, and says, "I am Cap'n Silvertooth Dreadwind, and I've come to treat with Silverfin One-eye!"  Orcakrast replies, "Don't captains usually have a ship?"  Silvertooth replies, "Well, yes, and I'm currently in the market!"  (GMC: Some shameless Pirates of the Caribbean quoting, but Silvertooth is nearly a gremlin version of Captain Jack Sparrow anyway...)  Orcakrast decides it would be amusing to see what Silverfin would do to the gremlin.  He and one naga escort Silvertooth to their camp.  Thourin tells his Earth Elemental to burrow, follow, and protect the gremlin.

Silvertooth is brought into a compound made of six wooden huts, on stilts over a large lake and huge river that flowed from the north, where the sea lie.  He is taken up a wooden ramp to a suspended serious of bridges that connect the huts and brought in to the largest of the huts, where only a single guard stands watch.  Silvertooth notes that other than the guard, he could see no other naga.  The earth elemental was able to use the vibrations to pinpoint their location above the ground, but could not feel the vibrations of their words.  It pulls itself from the ground beneath the large hut and listened, waiting to hear if there was a problem.

Silverfin One-eye was a large naga, with a glorious silver fin from the top of his head and down his spine.  His left eye was completely mangled, and covered by a nasty flesh scar.  He held a trident and had another strapped to his back.  Silvertooth introduces himself, and claims that Silverfin (GMC: Yeah, this might get confusing...) has encroached on his plundering territory.  Silverfin claims he can just kill Silvertooth and not have to worry about it.  Silvertooth tries to intimidate him by saying he has an elephant.  Silverfin says he has dozens of men, and one elephant does not frighten him.  He then demands for one good reason why he shouldn't have him killed.  The two naga raiders, the escort and the guard, come up behind Silvertooth and raise their javelins.  Unable to convince the naga to spare his life, he demands a duel of captains to settle things.  Silverfin laughs, and orders his guards off, claiming he will enjoy killing the gremlin himself.  Silvertooth tries to get him to agree that if he wins, then Silverfin's men belong to Silvertooth.  Silverfin just attacks him.

Trident clashes against sabre.  Silverfin begins to prepare a spell.  Silvertooth lunges in and cuts a deep wound across the naga's chest, making him lose concentration and stunning him.  Silvertooth lays on, slashing rapidly.  When Silverfin began to look exhaust from the constant blows, the two naga jump in behind Silvertooth and strike at his back.  Silvertooth cut Silverfin up a bit, but had to turn around and face the other two, as the pierced his back a few times.

During the commotion, the earth elemental sprang in to action.  It made its way over to the wooden ramp and headed to help Silvertooth.  Meanwhile, Sibyll decides that Silvertooth is in too deep, and she manages to slip past the twenty-nine naga.  Once past them, she breaks in to a sprint, heading for the hut compound.

The earth elemental arrives at the hut, and Orcakrast blocks the entrance, but has his back to the elemental.  The elemental punches twice, the first grinding the scales from Orcakrast's back, the second burrowing straight through him, killing him instantly.

As Orcakrast fell over dead, the twenty-nine naga holding fast against the rest of the party suddenly flickered and faded until only ten remained.  Thourin hopped up, pointed, and cried "Get 'em!"  Infant readied for a charge and the naga turned and bolted.  The party charged forward, led by the elephant.

One of the naga assailing the gremlin rushes over to stop the earth elemental. Silverfin finally regains himself and stabs Silvertooth in the back.  Silvertooth passes out from his injuries.  As the guard does his best to keep the earth elemental at bay, the other naga raider reveals a secret escape hatch at the back of the hut.  Sibyll arrives, but can't get past the elemental.  The naga drop a rope and slide down their secret escape.  The guard withdraws backwards, trying to reach the escape.  Sibyll rushes in and spots the secret hatch.  The earth elemental throws itself forward, smashing into the naga and knocking him down the hole.  When they hit the ground the earth elemental began to merge with the ground, crushing the naga like a grape.  Sibyll slid down after him, but by then Silverfin and his raider were almost to the river.  She was unable to find her footing in time, and they dived into the river and swam towards the ocean.  Sibyll cursed and then made her way back up to see if Silvertooth lived.

Infant killed three naga in his charge, smashing one under his feet, spearing one with his tusks, and knocking another into a tree with enough force to kill it.  Kazzaril pounced one and brought it down, biting its throat.  Elenya, atop her horse with estoc drawn, chased one down and beheaded it.  Thourin caught a slow one and buried his axes in to its back.  V2Z4 caught another and ran it through, holding it over his head when he was done.  Bayson jumped from the top of his elephant and came crashing down with his warhammer, crushing the skull of one of the naga.  Acealos made some ground, and then fired a spell of starfire, which took another naga down.  Mordred caught one by the arm, but before he could do any damage, Infant came up and threw his head forward, so that all Mordred held on to was the arm as the body flew away.

After the naga slaughter, the party regrouped at the compound.  Elenya went off to find herbs to making a refreshing tea, Thourin found some herbs and salves to cast a healing spell on Silvertooth.  He also decides to name his earth elemental "Berlam."  When he first attempts the heal spell, it backfires and cripples him badly.  He decides to use the herbs and salves to heal himself.  When he comes out of the hut, the party asks how Silvertooth is.  He replies, "We need more herbs."  He gathers more and successfully heals some of the wounds dealt to Silvertooth, who is able to wake.

Elenya returns and brews him a soothing tea that helps restore his stamina.  Sibyll explores the other huts and finds one if filled with treasure.  They find a necklace, a chest of gems, a chest of gold, silver bars, three rugs, a huge painting, and a dagger that Thourin discovers to have something magical about it.  They also find the chest lost by the crew of the Southern's Fortune.

Although disappointed that they were not able to collect their bounty, they returned to Southmost with their booty.  They return the chest and receive their payment.  They then go about selling all their goods.  When they finish, they are savagely harassed by pickpocketers, whom steal a good sum of gold coins from everyone but Thourin and Acealos.  The party decides to find an Adventurer's Guild lodge and open a contract, so they can have deposit their goods in a trustworthy bank.  They learn that there is an Adventurer's Guild presence at the Fort of Highbank Watch, and charter passage.

Next time, they will arrive at Highbank Watch Fort!  (Also, I've asked my artist player to draw a comic of every session.  So, next week I will post the comic strip of this weeks session with the next session's post, and I hope it will become a regular thing.)