Brindenford Notes Page 12

12/16

The PCs reached Vanhark via Skywhale, and landed in Baron Falconet's courtyard; he is Lord Torsten's older brother... The baron was thrilled and amazed to see them arrive in so marvelous a flying vessel. He was able to quickly  set them up with an audience with the Queen. She saw them in her small audience room, in an almost private setting. She seemed disappointed that they had not discovered how St. Azaserah died, and indicated that she had believed, anyway, that he died in the north and never returned to Vanhark. Queen Bereth did thank them sincerely and award each of them a token with the symbol of the House of Franke on it; she told them that they were to use these to call upon the services of the Royal family if they ever found themselves in need. Val knows that this indicates a minor favor owed, and could be used for only the simplest favors. After leaving her presence, however, Prince Ritter, the younger son, descended upon the party, with his teenage cronies in tow, begging for stories of Azaserah, and tales of the party's adventures. The PCs invited them all back to a local Inn, the White Hippogriff, for a dinner party; Val gifted him with a (hastily framed) copy of a poem written in Azaserah's own hand (quite bad poetry!). The prince was amazed and grateful for the gift. He specifically asked the party if they had any stories about Manfreth, St. Azaserah's faithful servant and companion. They didn't, having barely heard of the man, but promised that if Lord Torsten came across any such stories, they'd share them.

After a round of (not very useful) shopping, the PCs eventually decided to go visit Val's parents; her father has a small Barony in the far southern reaches of Vanhark, near the city of Massenbai. A ten day scenic trip down the coast via a privately chartered boat (with a stop to visit Gunter's Aunt, an old-blood Baroness in her own right) brought them to Val's hometown. Once there, her mother suggested that it might be time for her to settle down and start a family; Val was quick to point out that she was bringing in quite a sum of money as an adventurer, and had taken no harm as yet; her mother was mollified, although she still suggested that Val meet "the young man".

Val escaped out the back door as fast as she could, taking a bunch of the younger family members to watch her "show off her new moves"... they ended up out in the old graveyard where she used to play as a child; while there, Val tripped and fell over a root, landing on an ancient gravestone. Her attention was drawn when she realized the name on the headstone was "Manfreth Eichel"! Some further investigation revealed that Manfreth was a distant relative of the Austveld family. He returned here at the end of his life, and died of pneumonia only a year or two after St. Azaserah's death. Fortunately, he left behind a journal that is still preserved in the family chapel; in it he tells the true tale of Azaserah's death, as he knew it; he says that within minutes after the  defeat of the infamous pirate Nedranther of the Red Eye, a common seaman attacked Azaserah and stabbed him to death. At the  same time, a massive explosion rocked the Crown's Glory, and the ship began to sink. Manfreth attacked and killed the assassin of St. Azaserah, but soon found himself being thrown into the sea as the ship disintegrated. At that point he blacked out and remembered no more. When he became aware of himself again, he discovered that he was in the care of a beautiful mermaid! She and her folk had rescued him, the only survivor, from the wreckage of the Crown's Glory. Eventually, they returned him to Massenbai, and he retreated to his childhood home, where he wrote his final account of St. Azaserah's death, and then himself died soon after.

Fortunately, in his account of their quest to find and destroy Nedranther (aka Neddy One-eye), Manfreth describes the island where they finally ran him to ground in some detail. He also describes the route they took, and other landmarks they passed, such that when Val's father, Baron Austveld, hires a good navigator, the man is convinced that he knows, to a narrow range of choices, where the island might lie. And he's willing to sail a ship there, looking for the wreck of the Crown's Glory, and the final resting place of St. Azaserah.

Val insists on sending for Lord Torsten; this takes 2 weeks, during which time Val and Gunter have magic bows enchanted, and Elrohir purchases a few small magical items.

12/30

After Lord Torsten arrives, he's very excited by the new discovery about Azaserah's fate, but he has news for Val; he's decided to settle down, stop adventuring, and stay in safety. He tells her that she's now skilled enough to adventure on her own and doesn't need him any more; he will await her success here in her father's barony. So, after investigating water breathing potions, and deciding that they should not need anything more than Coelwine's water-breathing spells, they set out. The ship is called the Scharnhorst, and the crew is one that has (mostly) worked for Val's father for many years.

Captain Hermann Krank - loyal merchant captain and excellent navigator
Mate: Otilde Swearengen - relatively new hire, but trustworthy and competent, an older woman
Bosun:  Manfred Orth - his family have served the Austvelds for several generations
Marine Captain: Berthe Austveld - a cousin of Val's; she is high in the Queen's service
Ship's Wizard: Rogier Harrod - an outlander from Daintallia, competent but relatively unknown
Crew: Otto, Agnes, Ludolph and Swabia - ordinary seamen, they've all worked for Captain Krank at least once in the past
Marines: Ludmilla, Big Johann, Skinny Johann, Rikard - these marines have all worked with either Krank or Austveld in the past
Servants: Carla, Arno - from the Baron's personal household. Lady Austveld insisted that Val and Berthe have a female servant along.

The journey to the Pirate Isles region from Vanhark took 4 days. Another day was spent sailing about, hunting for the correct island. Once a "whale" shaped island was found, the ship dropped anchor on the southeastern end of the isle, behind one of the small islets.

A small shipwreck was spotted, outside the southern jaw of the whale - a large fishing vessel or very small merchant ship lay in the waters just off the islet, barely submerged at low tide; it was mostly intact, but almost hidden in a forest of kelp. They decided it was too small and too new-appearing to be the Crown's Glory, and decided not to investigate it.

Elrohir then explored the island by drinking a fly potion and cruising over it up high. He discovered two interesting tidbits; on the highest peak of the island, there were some old ruins, and down in the curve of the tail near the north end of the island (on the western side) were traces of an old village or settlement. To make reaching the ruins easier, he landed on the south-eastern peak of the jaw of the island, and dropped a rope from the top of the cliffs down. He spent considerable time hunting for signs of merfolk in the waters around the island, but saw nothing.

Eventually, the whole party spent some time scaling the island's rugged slopes, and reached the ruins at the peak. The only thing of interest they found was a stone trap door. Val heaved it open, and revealed a shaft that dropped twenty feet to a tunnel. this tunnel led out to a protected and hidden cliff-face balcony that housed an old magically enhanced and protected telescope. With it, they were able to peer into the waters of the "mouth" of the island, and identify a shadowy mass that might be a ship. Again, kelp surrounded it so they couldn't get a lot of detail, but it seems worth investigating. Sadly, Elrohir's arcane education informed him that removing the telescope would likely destroy its magical qualities. Val commented that if she ever decided to be a pirate, this would be her preferred home base!

After leaving the balcony on the cliff face, the party hiked the 3/4 mile or so down the island to the old village. There, they found a dock, a source of fresh water, and a series of grass huts, a firepit, and signs that the site is used regularly but not recently, most likely by local fishermen. In one hut they found a large conch shell, carved into a horn. On it were runes in a script something like elvish, which Elrohir was able to distinguish related in some way to welcoming or greeting. On this slender thread, they presumed the horn would summon or invite the merfolk.

To their good fortune, their assumption was correct. Within half an hour of blowing the horn, a mermaid and her two guards appeared; she walked up onto land (on legs!) but her features plainly made her origin clear. She introduced herself as Aarodia, and asked what the PCs wanted. Val explained that they were hunting a particular shipwreck, and were willing to trade for information. After a bit of negotiation, Aarodia told them of several nearby wrecks; a massive one of three ships, which could easily be the Crown's Glory and Nedranther's pirate vessels, lay very nearby, just outside the "jaws" of the island, right where the party had already identified a potential wrecksite. Happy to have their sighting confirmed, the party traded her 40 arrowheads, 50 sunrods, and a couple of potions - and Aarodia gave them 16 1-hour doses of "breathing weed", which her people frequently give to the locals.

Aarodia also agreed that in the morning (as it was getting late in the afternoon) she would meet them near their ship, below the water, and guide them to the shipwreck. She warned them to be wary - the wrecks are dangerous because of sahuagin who sometimes raid locally, also sharks are often drawn by the smell of blood in the water, and undead - the restless sailors who drowned here will rise and attack any who disturb their ships...

Val and Elrohir arranged a number of precautions; their ship, the Scharnhorst, moved anchor to a spot less than a 3 minute's swim from thee wrecks, and then they also had the ship's boat move out and drop sea-anchor just over the wrecks themselves; this might be a danger if the undead go after it, but they decided it was worth it to keep a retreat from the water so neear at hand. The crewman was not asked his opinion....

Venturing into the shipwreck were Val, Berthe the Marine Captain, Elrohir and Gunter, Coelwine and Johann the Large. As they drew near the ship, their first sign of danger was when five skeletons stirred out of the muddy sand and stood to march at them. Coelwine transfixed them with the light of Kehret, and was able to disintegrate them without any trouble. Shortly after, the party reached the ship itself, and started to swim inside the huge hole in the side... but before they could, a huge sea-tiger (half tiger/half shark) leaped out at them, eyes gleaming. It landed on Valkrist, and savaged her arm. A brisk battle ensued, with El throwing a ball of lightning at it, and Val and Gunter and Berthe stabbing at it. By the time the creature was finally brought down, Val was bleeding badly. Soon, sharks were spotted; to fend them off, the sea-tiger's body was pushed out at them, and Val hastily sucked up a potion to avoid bleeding any more and taking any chance on drawing the sharks to her.

1/13

Upon entering the hold of the ship, they decided to venture to the rear; here they found the remnants of two ancient chests; within were a huge wad of ancient coinage, and a pair of rapiers, amongst much other ruined debris. Searching the rest of the hold revealed that any other treasures they had looted from the pirates were either long taken by the merfolk, or destroyed by the seawater.

Swimming up from the hold to the main deck of the ship, they used a combination of searching and detect magic to narrow down their point of interest to one cabin which remained relatively intact on the main deck. However, in the meantime they noticed an ominous problem; on the seafloor, about 30' from the ship, a small horde of skeletons and zombies were gathering. Coelwine disintegrated several with his power of turning, but soon close to a hundred skeletons had encircled the ship, and perhaps half that many zombies. Feeling that they had time to deal with the undead later, the PCs continued their search of the ship. As they moved across the deck towards the rear cabin, a strange shadowy shape of a man suddenly loomed up out of the deck, and darted at Gunter. Coelwine, certain that the translucent shape must be an undead, attempted to turn it. Frustrated, the ghostly form faded away into nothing as he thrust his holy symbol before it. They were only able to determine that it had appeared to be an ordinary sailor, wielding a black knife.

Upon entering the cabin, they beheld a wooden table and sprawled across it, the skeletal body of a man, pierced through the ribcage with a long black knife! A detect magic determined that the blade was magical, and that another source of magic was in the cabin as well. A search quickly revealed that the other source was a gold-leafed and emerald studded laurel wreath, lying on the floor of the room, on the lip of a gaping hole into the black hold below... Valkrist was able, with a dextrous flick of her sword, to lift the wreath away from its dangerous placement into safety in her grasp. This was a treasure indeed! she declared, the Laurel Crown of St. Azaserah! Gunter put it on....

Nothing terrible happened to Gunter, so he continued to wear the wreath, in the belief that it might be what was keeping the undead outside from closing in on them. Val then drew the black knife out of the table, where it pinned Azaserah's bones. She noted the unusual hilt insignia; an emerald carved with a swan. She would later confirm what she suspected; this is the insignia of the House of Frank in the days when they were Princes of the Golden Sword Kingdom. Did the Prince of Vanhark have his own cousin, St. Azaserah, assassinated?

When the knife was withdrawn, a ghostly form of St. Azaserah himself rose up before them, begging Valkrist to find out how he died, and to lay him to rest by answering that question. Val swore that she would do that for him, much to Elrohir's chagrin. In return Azaserah told Val how to find the small treasury that he had secreted in his cabin; a few hundred silver pennies and minor trinkets. They also carefully packed up the Saint's Bones; Val would ensure they were laid to rest in holy ground.

When it was certain that there was no other treasure to be recovered from the wreck of the Crown's Glory, the party retreated; they were very pleased to be able to haul their mass of coinage up to their small boat, which was waiting for them directly over the shipwreck. The undead surfaced as they did, but kept a goodly distance from the dread Laurel Bearer. El was forced to use a lightning sphere on a group of the undead who were between the boat and their ship, but otherwise retreat was relatively risk-free.

One last shock awaited them as they prepared to sail away; the undead did not simply return to the sea -- instead, now freed from the weight of St. Azaserah's power, the ghost of Neddy One-eye and his pirate ship The Black Raker, were free to rise from the ocean floor, and sail off, to begin to terrorize the seaways of the Southern Isles! Val quickly decided that this was "not her fault", and that they need not try to lay the pirate's ghost!

Instead, Val and her companions sailed quickly back to Massenbai and her father's House. Once there,  Baron Austveld confirmed Val's worst fear; the dagger with the swan heraldry did indeed represent the House of Frank - and Baron Austveld is not at all surprised that they might have had some hand in putting the very charismatic (and threatening) leader St. Azaserah, out of their way. After all, it was a period of great stress in Vanhark's history; the Golden Sword King was heirless, and no one was sure who would follow him to power. The Franks were powerful, but St. Azaserah might easily have taken leadership away from his less charismatic cousin.

Val and her companions were careful to spread word of their recovery of St. Azaserah's bones to all and sundry, and then made a long, slow processional up the coast of Vanhark from Massenbai back to Munstenberg. They wanted the royal family to have plenty of time to realize that killing bearers of the Saint would be a hopeless task, and that they had no intention of revealing anything negative about the royal family in the process...

All went reasonably well, although Queen Bereth did question Val strictly on what had happened to the Laurel Wreath - Val told her she had never seen such a thing, and had no idea what had happened to it (Elrohir had taken possession of it before they returned to Court and hidden it). A couple of burglary attempts thwarted, they were able to keep the artifact for themselves. With a bit of judicious marketing, they managed to make a healthy profit despite the expenses of their journey; they sold the rapiers, ancient coinage and trinkets they found on the ship for a profit of about 2,000 silver pennies; Elrohir was sadly upset, and declared that he found dungeon-delving far more profitable! He was more than ready to return home to Brindenford.

Their journey home via Skywhale was remarkably uneventful; a few minor winter storms, but no "encounters" ensued. Returning to Brindenford, they immediately began to contemplate an active return to the dungeon; however, Sheriff Arro did take them aside and alert them to the fact that the Bestial Host has been seen quite active in the area - the Sheriff has had to warn the local farmers to keep their stock close under guard, and not to stray alone. A couple of small farms have even been raided. Arro indicates that he's quite pleased to see the PCs back in town, and hopes they'll look into the matter quickly. In all, they were gone a bit less than three months, and while the worst of winter has passed them by, it is now a cold, snowy, wet late winter/onset of spring.

Brindenford Notes Page 14