Campaign Journal: A Not-So Idyll Isle

Full house for the session:

• Jax - Barbarian
• Fulvus - Halfling
• Rondel - Elf
• Frederick - Thief
• Orzu - Gnome
• Slick - Thief 

We opened with Slick, Orzu, and Jax returning to port with their shipload of goods and evidence of servant-manikin trade to Chirath. 

In the meantime, Frederick, Fulvus, and Rondel were in the dwarven archives with Snorri Barrelbranch and a number of other archivists. They had located ledgers documenting dates and names associated with the original Barrier lens crafting, as well as the factions who had commissioned the work. 

As they pored over the volumes, Rondel's elf eyes caught movement among the shelves and folios. An individual, camouflaged against the background, momentarily visible as their camo adjusted to their shifting position. Rondel let off an arrow, followed by Fulvus, alerted to the commotion. The intruder expired, their hue-shifting skin fading with them. 

Everyone was looking over the body, when a cry let loose from Snorri and his assistants. The archivist clutched at a wound, yelling that the ledger was stolen. A second, similarly attributed intruder fled the archives, book in hand. Rondel got a shot off, but the interloper fled. The party followed the cries and commotion, finally reaching the docks just as the intruder dove into the water, being pursued by a hail of spears and arrows. 

Just as the pirate gallery rolled in. Look what we got! Who cares? We gotta go - the ledger's been stolen! Rondel cast locate object, sensing the book moving away to the west before fading out of range.

The PCs all hopped onto Xandra Ironhide's smaller galley, back-rowing out into the open. This boat only rowed and sailed. No fancy steam propulsion on this one. A sail was seen disappearing into a fog bank - That's our prey.

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A few hours of rowing/sailing, and Xandra Ironhide judged that the ship was likely heading to the isle of Mieffo, near where she had rescued the Wolverine and the party. Rondel had an idea. Below decks and a haste spell. Nitroused rowers.

The galley hit the shore just as the spell (and rowers) faded. The party offloaded with a batch of dwarven marines. In the distance, the belligerents' ship and a camp. Yup, our favorite Chaos muties.

Time to party. The marines matched against opposing soldiers, as the party picked out leaders and threats. Orzu angled into the dunes, hoping to cast illusions. Slick went invisible and sprinted to the ship, looking for the stolen documents.

Everyone else headed into the fray. 

Orzu created a "void" between the combatants, which was enough to confuse several of the mutants, as well as poor Torvald. 

Frederick slipped on his temporary invisibility scarf and beelined to one of the big-bads, aiming to make stabby. He sorta hurt the guy, who turned around, looming over him. Oops. Thankfully, the Chaos knight missed. 

Others focused on a second knight, as well as a suspected mage. The knight fell, but the mage suddenly became four mages, and many arrows were expended trying to find the "right" one. 

Sometime around now, one of the Chaos leaders whistled, and a huge spiky ogre and pair of wardogs emerged to reinforce the baddies. The dogs headed toward Goober and Jax, and the two of them, along with Durkan Dildran, were able to put them down. After all, only the party gets to have a cool wardog. The ogre helped the embattled Chaos knight, but eventually the two were dogpiled and succumbed.

The mage was able to entangle the dwarven marines, and head to the ship, while covering many of the combatants with a spray of leeches... Considering this rude, Fulvus' hench Roderick shot him.

In the meantime, Slick had boarded the ship. He ignored a fellow attempting to snipe at the party and crept belowdecks. Some tossing of the place, and success! He found the ledger, somewhat sodden. 

Back up top to make the sniper sad. As he emerged from belowdecks, Slick saw several "Torvalds" on deck. That crafty Orzu had sent "help." Slick unsheathed his unpleasant sword and got a successful backstab. A couple of rounds, and the opponent lay dead. Now to "negotiate" with the sailors on board. It took several tries (i.e. more death), but the remaining crew eventually came around to Slick's viewpoint... Slick has a ship.

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The beach lay quiet and bloody. The remaining dwarven marines brushed themselves off and limped back to their galley. The party went through pockets and tossed the camp. Documents indicating spying on shipping and other movements were found. The light faded over the scene.

DM Notes:

More set-piece fun. The two initial intruders were equipped with skin transformation, a vivimancer spell from "Theorems and Thaumaturgy." It's a favorite go-to for the class, as a caster may select camouflage, armor, or spine effects from the spell. Although one of the assailants stabbed the dwarven archivist with a poisoned blade, dwarves have stupid-good poison saves. The leech spray spell wasn't particularly damaging (1hp/round) but it was more for amusing effect...

The haste spell was an inspired bit of spellcasting. Rondel has used it to good effect on the party, and turbocharging the rowers was a fun use.

I arm-waved the combat between the two sides' mooks with opposed rolls, using occasional advantage/disadvantage as the situation changed (illusions, entanglement, etc.). 

Next game will be delayed due to work/travel, so back in a couple of weeks.