Campaign Journal: To the Smoking Isles

Full house tonight:

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

Anyway, with Beladon the elf reportedly raging and on the hunt for those who cleaned out his vaults (and killed his mimic), it was time for a bit of a vacation of the marine kind the the Smoking Isles and the Sea Dwarves. 

A communique to Yornick, and a message back to be at the docks near the fishmonger's at midnight. The party made their silent way to the docks, to see a familiar fishing caravel, the Wolverine, and Captain Albergati. The captain welcomed them aboard, and the lightless boat sipped from the dock. The captain had ferried people and material to the sea dwarves before. It wasn't the most comfortable interaction, but he was up for it, recognizing a favor.

The journey was fortunately uneventful, but for some squalls and a few patrolling sharks. None of which were swept up in a tornado. As the boat neared shoals between a pair of great curved seamounts, Meiffo and Siti, a second ship approached and hailed the Wolverine. Fortunately, it was simply another merchantman, its captain warning of some hazardous winds and currents. Albergati shared his gratitude, and sailed on. The Wolverine dropped sails to maneuver the the shoals, and was nearly through when the watch called another ship on approach emerging from a fog bank. 

Another merchantman? Nope, the catapult stone holing the deck said otherwise. Time to cowboy up. Jax took the ship's scorpion and fired off a bolt, going wide. As the attacking ship neared, the various bowmen took shots, attempting to set sails on fire. Slick had some explosive paste from Hugo, and focused fire on the opposite's catapult, causing it some damage. The opposite ship's members began to fire at Jax and the two spellcasters, once they revealed themselves.  

Albergati and the opposite ship raced one another, sometimes pulling apart, sometimes closing. Occasionally, the party found a opposite combatant or spellcaster among them, whether by teleport, swimming, or flight. Damn mutants. Somewhere in this, Jax got webbed, putting the scorpion out of commission. Orzu handicapped the other ship with a convincing sharknado, and others caused enough fire damage to slow its pursuit.

The Sanctuary of Oies, or, Dwarves Behaving Badly...

Greetings, heroes!

Tim graciously posted up a spare map some time back, and like so many maps, it languishes in my notebook with many of its kin. But occasionally, the muse strikes, in some way, shape, or form. In the case of Tim's maps, it seems that, at least for the last few maps I've stocked, there are either dwarves in trouble, or causing trouble. So dwarves it is.

The project lived unto the working title of "dwarves behaving badly" until I could give it a proper title. Here, we have a temple to a dwarven earth god, abandoned after a ritual gone awry. But... Someone wants to unseal the doom that came to the temple. That happens. The PCs must stop said ritual, or potentially be in a World of Hurt (tm). The adventure is set up with a timer, so successfully stopping the unsealing of the second level will halt the escape. But, if the thing escapes and is defeated, there may well be reward in the deeper level of the temple.

I had a bit of fun with the boss monster. It was a name that came to me as I was brainstorming, and I made a critter to fit the name. I hope it's disturbing enough. 

The second level map was provided by Jackson, and fits the theme of the scenario well enough, as well as helps illustrate the introduction and worship of a new deity. 

The cover art images were discovered among the works of Jacques Collet, and illustrate our namesake dwarves behaving badly...

PWYW Here