In Which We all Die Horribly* After Getting Our Second Wind
*Oops, spoiler alert
So we arrived at last at Bral, the infamous Freeport. Sartell wishes us good luck and suggests a contact for us, a gif called Krux whose usual haunt is the Happy Beholder, a hostelry not far from the docks. In an unexpected development, Aleav hands us all small globular blobs apparently detached from his own body, these he assures us will add to our protection if we are struck whilst he is nearby and raging. Welcome if slightly creepy…
Entering the pub we are slightly taken aback to discover that the bar tender, Luigi, is actually the happy beholder referred to. No-one bats an eyelid as he drifts around the bar, topping up drinks, exchanging ribald remarks with regulars and generally keeping an eye, well quite a lot of eyes on everything.
We noticed a gif character who matched Sartell’s description of Krux, especially his extremely inebriated condition, and spotting a fellow after his own heart Escobar struck up a conversation with the big fella, taking care to keep the drink flowing as he did so. Of course the real clincher in identifying Krux was the parrot on his shoulder, and you would not believe its name if I told you, I thing Generic Parrot One would have been more plausible.
He was a useful source of information and was eager to hear of our adventures, we got the impression he was tiring of the bar life, it looked like he had barely left his table for the last five years though apparently he owned a ship, the ‘Second Wind’ currently on lease. He told us of the various barons who were the powers in these parts, barons who sounded more like criminal guildmasters: the Unknowable One; The Juggler (an elf); Ozamata (human) and Meredin Sandyfoot (Halfling), plus the Prince, the overall ruler of this chaotic world.
Apparently all these characters had access to nuclear weapons and no concept of terms such as ‘trust’ ‘loyalty’ and ‘forgiveness’. They made my own motto sound pretty tame (In Victory Malice, In Defeat, Revenge). Krux also made suggestions about where it would be best for us to trade and referred to a Captain Mahaxara, commander of Bral’s defence fleet which berthed on the underside of Bral away from the civilian docks.
We also discovered that our astral elf friends from our favourite evil empire of Xaryxis had stayed over en route to their attack on Toril, thoughtfully warning the space faring community of Bral to steer clear of their target, who less thoughtfully failed to warn anyone else. Us for a start.
Apparently this fitted some sort of twisted elvish version of an honour code. He warned us that the empire has plenty of agents on Bral and we should be commensurately cautious in expressing our somewhat negative views of the empire/ the emperor/ its habit of destroying planets for their energy/ astral elf kind in general.
Krux suggested the lesser Market and Mercane* for a bit of trading, the latter in particular for magical items. The lesser market is closer than the great market and less of a magnet for pick pockets. Pablo enjoyed some tough haggling for some healing potions although despite him knocking the price down by a half, I still think we were ripped off.
*The Mercane are a semi mystical race of 12’ tall blue skinned humanoids, not the inventors of the oven chip.
We then found an interesting emporium that was slightly off the beaten track but appeared to have an eclectic mix of stock somewhat haphazardly displayed, suggesting bargains might be had. Pablo enjoyed more haggling with the hidozi shopkeep, we purchased a small purse and a number of cutlery type items, amongst which I had spotted a small wand. The purse, as suspected, turned out to be a bag of holding. We also traded for some armour and weapons, Escobar taking away a rapier swapped for cash and a shortsword. No luck with a new longbow for the elf though.
Aleav bless him then adds nearly 500 gp to the kitty to boost our efforts at re equipping and we discover several more items of interest at another shop: A lantern that can reveal invisible objects is available at 700gp, an interesting looking cloak for 200gp and some fingerless mittens that are gloves of thievery available for 1500gp. Sadly our funds are limited and we confine ourselves to the cloak, which I manage to get for 175gp and turns out to be a cloak of protection, again, as suspected.
The Mercane next and they have some fine items available, naturally immensely out of our price range. They identify (for a small fee) my wand as a wand of the War Mage, which adds to my attack accuracy and ignores cover. They have on offer for us Armour of Resistance at 4500gp, a javelin of lightning for 1200gp, a wand of fear for 4800gp, a magic longbow for 8000gp and a ring of the ram for 5000gp.
I purchase the wand, but it costs me my Ioun stone, scroll of wall of force and Mikens spellbook, plus a loan from the kitty of several hundred gp at ten percent interest (Thanks Pablo). Our jif meanwhile slips off to a jewellers and after another round of hard bargaining gets 2400gp for the pearls he acquired without mentioning to us.
As we leave the market we are confronted by four astral elves, and the street suddenly clears as the citizens of Bral are experts in the field of sensing and avoiding collateral damage situations. Escobar of course instantly ducks into cover even as the elf leader declares that we are to be executed for the murder of the priest captain of the Dark Star, by order of a Godric someone or other.
The leader targets Elethiel with his bow but misses and her return shots hit one of his minions, Krux charges drunkenly forward firing his pistol wildly and dangerously, if that is, you happen to be an innocent bystander or passing albatross. I then slow the three minions, their leader resisting my spell, and I duck into cover behind some handy street furniture.
Aleav rages forward attacking the main threat slaying the enemy leader with a barrage of killer blows. The three minions meanwhile target me, hitting me twice and I go down. Pablo wounds another whilst Aleav and Elethiel heal me and I fire off a ray of sickness killing a second elf and healing myself further through my grim harvest ability.
We continue to engage, Krux and Elethiel attempting to grapple an opponent unsuccessfully and I miss with a ray of frost. One of the elves legs it down a side gant and the last then uses starlight step to teleport away down another handy alleyway. Krux suggests that an extended stay on Bral may be inappropriate at this juncture,* and for once we all agreed.
*I believe his exact words were ‘Bloody hell the Empire’s got it in for you lot, I’m out of here, my ship’s ready to go and you should come with me if you want to live.’ Sadly only the first of the three assertions in this statement proved to be correct.
Pausing only to loot the bodies of armour and weapons, we flee to the docks where Krux’s ship is to be found. And of course it’s the crappiest heap of junk in the whole place,* notable for a unique design feature that had somehow eluded all other ship designers in the universe: A huge tree growing out of the quarterdeck with branches spreading all over the upper deck.
*Apparently made the Kessel Run in three light decades
As we approached the Second Wind we were reminded of the fact that Krux had already leased his ship to a third party, who now presented herself and proved less than happy at the turn of events as Krux indicated that he required his ship back, stat.
The tiefling cleric, named Fel’Ardur was unhappy that:
a) She had already paid 400 gp for the use of the ship for 40 days
b) Even if we refunded her the money (which we offered) she would lose several thousand gp that she expected to make from the job she had taken on
c) We would not offer her the retainer and 25% cut of profits she suggested.
d) The ship was provisioned only for her and Mister, Krux’s loyal hidozi mate who constituted the crew of the Second wind
Escobar and Fel haggled for so long that I have no idea what the final agreement was between us. At various points it was between 10 and 50% split, though sometimes this was only for profit earned performing Fel’s job, and 400 – 1000gp cash. The only certainty was that we paid the 400gp effectively returning the money she had paid up front to Krux (who naturally had drunk it). Fel was able to release herself from her contract at the port guildhouse so that was something.
Krux reckoned we only had an hour before the empire descended on us, so we set sail immediately without re-provisioning, Escobar was confident that he could scavenge food from the plentiful shoals of astral fish. The Second Wind itself was a living ship, a fairly anti social face would appear from time to time on the tree, whose name was Starbough,* and it seemed a little unclear to us how much Krux was the owner or merely a tolerated symbiote.
*No, not Groot
Escobar spent a lot of time trying to develop a relationship with Starbough, who seemed to be uninterested in the affairs of the parasites infesting him. Mister meanwhile proved invaluable, Krux less so, indeed Mister spent much of his time correcting, re doing or undoing whatever Krux had done. With the lack of provisions Krux was at least sober most of the time.
Our ship was armed with one rear ballista and Starbough had the ability to hurl rocks like a mangonel. Fel proved a more than adequate pilot,* and at Krux’s suggestion we were heading to Doomspace** where the coalition could be found. This was a group of races and powers who had suffered at the hands of the empire. To aid us Krux proposed a visit to Topolah, a wizard cartographer friend who could render us aid in this objective.
*Yes she was better than me
**Does this worry anyone else?
With a journey of several weeks in prospect we settled into a routine, Pablo fishing using the jolly boats, Little Boom and Big Bluster and to be fair he managed to provide several large tuna like fish to add to our rations.
And then and then and then…we were attacked and all died. You want details I suppose you ghoulish lot. After some days we were overtaken by a giant bioluminescent jellyfish type ship, ridden by a regal looking flamboyantly dressed humanoid bearing a golden trident. It was on us before we could even get a ballista shot or spell off.
She boarded us using an unsporting dimension door and was quickly amongst us, Aleav as usual taking the brunt of her attack, Elethiel and Pablo favouring missile attacks, Pablo climbing into Starbough’s crown. Starbough hit the enemy ship a couple of times hurling rocks with a whiplash action from its upper branches.
Our boarder, as seems increasingly the norm amongst our opponents, had the courtesy to shout why she was attacking us; she was aiming to stop our mission to visit Topolah’s tower to plot against the empire of Xaryxis. She also identified herself as Hastian, before duplicating herself using a magical golem creating amulet the doubled our jeopardy.
She fired off chromatic orbs wreaking havoc, and absorbed four hits from Elethiel’s bow and more from hidden sniper Escobar. Krux bravely and ineffectually engaged and I tried to slow her but the spell failed. Then the jelly ship carried out a screaming attack knocking out the spelljammer helm and me.
I came to to find that Fel had healed me but that everyone had been charmed by our foe to ‘sit quietly for an hour’. Elethiel and Pablo were managing to still use their bows despite the charm and Fel had healed me of course, but Aleav and Krux were down. Realising that the spell would be broken if wounded, Elethiel shot Pablo, deliberately for once, and I fired magic missiles into Elethiel Mister and Fel, but it was all too late.
I tried to flee as my comrades fell again, casting a flaming sphere that caught both the golem and Hastian, but then it was all over as the tridents did their relentless work.*
*The fate of Polly remains unknown
16.3.23
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