Quest for Daguerreotypes on Feytasy Island: Epilog

When Nimrod and the other members of the Bad Decisions Guild gave the daguerreotypes to the Gynosphinx, the Sphinx was very amused by the daguerreotypes and helpfully decoded the burned papers. Here is the section you can now read: 

This section appears to pick up in the middle of a list of political figures who'd had business dealings with the Golden Orchid Society

House Bedegar of the Underdark--for the removal of a political rival 

House Embershine of Varda--for the removal of a romantic rival 

Ienerta Surgilda, lord mayor of Varda--for the suppression of scandal

The list here becomes difficult to read. The next legible section appears to be a list of recent jobs.

• Recovery of weapon of shadow Department: The School Expected mortality: predominantly nonsentients Status: failed due to death of agents. Minister Danzibri refunded money in full (3,500 gp).

• Assassination of Tolvath Rutsk Department: The Maze Expected mortality: Rutsk and at least three personal guards Status: complete, Rutsk's head delivered to House Makhi in exchange for second half of payment (6,000 gp).

• Supply of Suitable Magical Experimental Subjects Department: The School Expected Mortality: humanoid subjects can be delivered either dead or alive Status: ongoing. Payment of 100 gp per suitable (good physical condition, adult humanoids, obtained without arousing suspicion) experimental subject. To date, 21 have been delivered to the site at #3 Sto Helit Lane, Welton

1. Your independent research in the library informed you that the communal behavior of mimics has been the subject of great interest in recent years by ahem morally gray mages, especially following the publication of a paper by a necromancer wizard writing under a pen name.
2. [10:36 PM]

   There have been persistent rumors of a necromancer in Welton, due to a number of townsfolk who went missing several years ago, and some severed body parts washing up in the city sewers recently, even though no people seem to have been vanishing from Welton itself of late.

 

Upon reaching the Annabelle Lee's home port, Nimrod received a magical pen (a +2 rod of the pact keeper) from Kas HQ to help him better fight unicorns after HQ learned how a unicorn kicked his ass. Nimrod is now also equipped with a Brooch of Shielding, which protects him from force damage and magic missiles.

Quest for Daguerreotypes on Feytasy Island

 

This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers

• Silvermist Biggins: (she/her) half-elf/half-halfling drunken master monk.
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises, a charismatic male Vuman warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
• Abby: An Autognome clockwork soul sorcerer (she her)
• Nimbat/Nimowl, Nimrod's enthusiastic, ever-helpful bat/owl familiar
• Jax the investigative rogue dhampir (she/her)
• Dormin, Nimrod's trusty shadow spirit

The party is currently at level 6.  They will be at level 7 at the conclusion of this adventure.

 

The Adventure

Arrival on Feytasy Island

Nimrod and Nimbat, and Dormin were the only party member who left the sphinx's lair.  All others stayed in the Gynosphinx's library to do as much research as possible.  Nimrod was confident he had the legal acumen to procure the rights to the daguerreotypes on his own.  But he felt comforted that  additional Bad Decision Makers Guild members who had stowed away on the ship would help him do any dirty work needed if negotiations with the locals proved "difficult".  Nimrod was confident Jax the dhampir investigative rogue and his other new companions would be sufficient back up in difficult situations.

The island had no natural harbor.  But the handlers of the Annabelle Lee's landing boat deftly maneuvered their craft through the island's treacherous coral reef to the entrance of a lagoon that was barely larger than the Annabelle Lee's whaler.

To Nimrod and everyone else, the island felt strongly magical.  It also had a strongly floral scent.  Jax said this place stank of fey magic.  

Feyish animals were scurrying in the lagoon's waters and ashore.  Neither Captain Sheila nor her crew would dare set foot on the island for fear someone on the island would charm them.

A barely seen diminutive figure ashore was yelling "The boat! The boat!" and ringing a bell as the whaler reached shore.  This startled Captain Sheila, who curtly commanded her passengers to jump from the boat as she rapidly positioned a ten foot pole to push the boat back into the water and away from the island.  She did not even want to set foot on the island long enough to unbeach the boat.  Sheila told the party she would watch the beach from afar through her spyglass to know when to return with the whaler.

Faun Times on the Feytasy High Road

The team took a foot path up from the beach rather than a trail that followed the beach.  They passed through some trees and into a clearing where they met three stoned teenaged satyrs.  The satyrs were carrying wineskins and skateboards.  Silvermist, being only partially inebriated at this point, used this opportunity to greet the satyrs and immediately partake in their potent liquor to become fully inebriated.  With mutual good feelings established, the satyrs further ingratiated themselves with the party by offering the team healing lotion as they prepared it from the sap of a trail-side tree.

After a while of drinking and cajoling, the satyrs said they would give directions to an owner of daguerreotypes if the team would help the satyrs deal with a colony of  mean ravens that had been following the satyrs around and bullying them mercilessly after school.

Shortly thereafter, much squawking from the sky alerted the fauns and the team to the raven murders diving upon them.  The fauns instinctively dived under a flat boulder.  The team remained in the open and fought.  Silvermist, her reflexes being freshly lubricated with the satyr's spirits, dealt with the ravens particularly gracefully.  Nimowl found a prominent role in this fight many of the ravens were intimidated by the owl.  Nimrod and Abby killed some ravens as well.  In the end, the ravens were totally defeated and the satyrs rejoiced.

The Daguerreotype Keeper

The three satyr teenagers led the team to another clearing which had a majestically large oak tree at its center.  Its branches were moving rhythmically as if in the wind even though there did seem to be a breeze.   As the team came closer, the Bad Decision Makers saw the tree was a treant.  It had 3 sprite associates in its boughs.

The treant's name was Feynor.  Feynor said he would exchange the desired daguerreotypes if the team checked on the status of a unicorn named Lurue.  Feynor said the moon goddess had appointed Lurue as the protector of the island's Pool of Eternal Spring.  But lately Lurue had gone missing and the minions of Lurue's sworn nemesis Malar the Beastmaster had been very active around the pool.

The team agreed to Feynor's terms.  Feynor told them to make haste as he suspected Malar plans were about to come to fruition on this day, the day of Winter Solstice.  With urgency of helping Lurue in mind Feynor equipped the team with a potion of hill giant strength and a potion of clairvoyance.  He also advised the team to be careful of the hag named Stagger.

Nimrod openly stated his misgivings of aiding a unicorn.  He hated unicorns.  He had studied many accounts of disgusting unicorn foolishness during his legal training at the Kas Law Academy.  In all the case law he had studied, Unicorns were always time wasting naïve idealists who had no practical value in the real world or the courts.  Nimrod silently hoped he would have an opportunity to improve the world by further marginalizing and disgracing or even slaughtering Lurue the contemptable unicorn.

A Quiet Homestead in Woods

The Well

The Bad Decision Makers left the satyrs with the Treant and trudged off in the direction of the Pool of Eternal Spring.  Nimrod, who was quite curious about Malar the Beastmaster, was lost in his thoughts during this walk as he mentally argued with Nimowl about whether Kas Enterprises may benefit from setting up a franchise headed by someone like Malar on this island.  Ultimately Nimowl told Nimrod to shut up by insisting Nimrod drop the idea because of the inevitable NIMBYism of obstinate unicorns and the island's remoteness.  

Ordinarily familiars are subservient to their invokers.  But this break with their ordinary master-servant relationship made Nimrod testy and distracted.  Nimrod resented Nimowl reminding him that Nimowl still outranked Nimrod in the Kas Enterprises management.  So when the team came upon a small homestead in a dead thicket and wanted to check out a suspicious well before they would attempt to get drinking water, Nimrod casually stood away from the well as he transformed Nimowl into Nimbat and volunteered Nimbat for looking down the well.  

     "Fuck you, Nimbat!  Sure you have more influence than me at corporate HQ, for now.  But at least I am not a familiar.", Nimrod mentally shouted at Nimbat.

    "No, fuck you Nimrod--you pasty piece of shite! Your best possible career end-path is being a familiar.  And I believe you're more likely to end up as a janitor in the mail room of a branch office, you wannabe management drone.", Nimbat mentally snarled back.

Nimbat in his fury and shame only slowly gave the well a haphazard look and was flying back out of the well while Silvermist was already starting to look down it.  

Suddenly much to everyone's surprise, a giant slimy grick alpha worm erupted from the well.  It ignored Nimbat and attacked Silvermist first with little success.  Silvermist fought back well and everyone except Nimbat helped defend her.  Dormin was particularly effect at preventing many of the grick's attacks from being directed at less armored team members while taking much damage himself.  Jax scored several damaging precision attacks.  Abby and Nimrod inflicted important damage as well.  

After Jax scored the killing blow on the grick, Jax walked down the well to see if any treasures or body parts were salvageable.  Jax's search turned up nothing.

Entering the Cabin

The team was pretty beat up after fighting the grick and deliberated resting the nearby shack.  That was when they heard cackling from the shack, apparently from an old woman.  The team concluded this woman must be Stagger the evil hag of whom Feynor had warned them.  Everyone walked towards the shack's front porch with Silvermist, Abby, Jax, and Dormin leading the way and Nimrod taking the rear.

Silvermist kicked open the door and saw Stagger had two Dryad prisoners.  This blue haired crone was  ritually slaughtering one of them by burning its branches in a pot belly stove.  Plentiful blood and left over body parts about the room showed she had many other recent victims.  Interrupted from her torturing, Stagger furiously attacked Silvermist.  Jax and Abby joined the fight.  Nimrod was not yet in position.  But Dormin rushed forward but could not reach the melee quickly.

The hag was putting a beating on Abby [I don't remember who got beat.  But I am certain someone got beat.]  Nimrod cast protection from good and evil on Abby [or whoever was lowest on HP].  Dormin's attacks drained some of  Stagger's strength.

Dormin, already hurt from the grick fight, received too much damage from Stagger and was dispelled.  Abby threw chaos bolts.  Jax repeatedly hit Stagger with Knowledge is Power until this book's title was embossed on the hag's face.  Nimrod cast eldritch blast from outside the cabin for some effect.  Finally Stagger succumbed to Jax's bookish blows and was destroyed.

The team freed the Dryad prisoners in the cabin and learned from them of Stagger's other prisoners in the barn.  The team liberated them and learned how to reach the Pool of Eternal Spring.  The Dryads convinced two hawks who had been prisoners to be guides to the pool.  

One of the Dryads agreed to cast barkskin on Abby to help him for the rest of the day, granting Abby a small boost in armor class for an hour.

A Campfire Party

The hawks led the team to a campsite where five human barbarians were dancing around a bonfire while gluttonously tearing apart live animals, eating them, and smearing the blood on their naked bodies as they howled like they thought they were wolves.  Two actual wolves were staked out nearby.

Upon seeing the bloody naked idiots, Nimrod looked at his own meticulously tailored clothing and recalled his favorite law school drama instructor, Michael Wincott, saying in his deep gravely voice

It's good to dress well. Elegance expresses greater expectations of life. The current culture of slovenliness conveys a spiritual and intellectual surrender.

Upon Nimrod concluding this remark, Silvermist attacked without warning.  Nimrod trapped two or three of the barbarians in a Hunger of Hadar centered on the bonfire.  He used repelling blasts to try to contain them there.  Abby, Jax, and Dormin fought and defeated the berserkers that did not attack Silvermist or that managed to eventually escape Nimrod's hunger zone.   During all this time, the berserkers shouted curses at the Bad Decision Makers, insisting that Malar the Beastmaster would kill them all.

Eventually no berserkers were left and the wolves were released.  The barbarians had no useful items.  But they did have a lot of intestinal parasites that made the team wonder how the berserkers were strong enough to walk.

The team did not dawdle here.  They rushed off to some wolfish howling nearby.

The Pool of Eternal Spring

The Pool of Eternal Spring was only a few minutes walk away from the berserker campsite.  When the team got there they saw the pool's waters were inky black with red streaks.  Four werewolves were individually spaced along the pool's near shore and staring toward its center when not howling as if they were bidding something to emerge from the water.  They also chanted "water into blood, earth in bone". 

Suddenly bubbles and water were jetting out of the round pool's center.  A black horn struggled up from the surface.  Then a unicorn's black head and body arose through the defiled water.  But this unicorn was different.  It wanted to kill everything.  It wanted to make war on the entire world.  

The anti-unicorn's angry red eyes immediately looked past the werewolf that was between the party and itself to meet Nimrod's sneering gaze.  Whether it sensed Nimrod's anti-unicorn prejudice or maybe Nimrod had defeated it in a court room, it had chosen a new target for all of its hatred and violence.

With super speed the demonic unicorn charged out of the water directly at Nimrod.  But a werewolf was unwittingly in its path.  The unicorn gored and trampled the werewolf as it charged forward, losing no momentum as it flung the werewolf's corpse in the air while charge past the rest of the party to the completely shocked Nimrod.  Nimrod had barely a chance to yelp before Lurue nearly kicked him to death and then literally transformed Nimrod into a mangy wolf-dog servant under the unicorn's command.

Lurue the anti-unicorn attacked the rest of the party.  The werewolves attacked the party and the anti-unicorn. Nimwolf defended the anti-unicorn by attacking a werewolf that had intended to target the anti-unicorn's haunches.

Silvermist was taking on two or three werewolves and somehow she was holding her own against them with drunken acrobatics and powerful fist strikes. But she was running out of chi.

Jax and Abby were trying to non-lethally subdue Lurue.  Dormin helped by drawing some of its strength and necrotizing its flesh.  Abby and Jax were optimistic Lurue could shake off her evil madness if given a chance.

Nimbat laughed as he maneuvered for a better view of Nimwolf.  Nimbat mockingly squeeked at the uncomprehending Nimwolf, "Who is the familiar now, you fucking pasty freak?!"

Nimwolf was over-matched against the werewolf.  Has a wolf ever defeated a werewolf?  The anti-unicorn forced Nimwolf to try.  Nimwolf lunged at the werewolf and against all odds knocked it prone and managed to hurt it.  But the werewolf fought back and the anti-unicorn also attacked Nimwolf while also attacking Jax and Abby.  Soon Nimwolf was down and his dying, comotose body transformed back into Nimrod. The werewolf Nimrod/Nimwolf had been fighting took this opportunity to exit the battlefield.

Abby revived Nimrod using a healing spell as Jax continued fighting Lurue.  But Nimrod was still prone on the ground and barely alive near Lurue's hind legs.  

Abby went back to fighting Lurue.  Silvermist was still fighting two werewolves.  But one of them now elected to run away into the woods.  Then Lurue kicked Nimrod unconscious while he was down, undoing all the healing Abby had done to Nimrod.

Finally, Lurue went down after Jax scored a particularly good hit on Lurue's skull with her Knowledge is Power book.  Jax and Abby then helped Silvermist defeat the remaining werewolf and revived Nimrod again.

Abby and Jax suggested Nimrod use a Tensors floating disk to carry Lurue to Feynor for a spiritual cleansing.  Nimrod was about to summon a disk when Abby had a better idea to cast dispel magic upon Lurue.  This worked instantly to revive the unicorn and restore its coloration and personality from black and evil to snowy white and good.

The Pursuit of True Goodness and a Werewolf

The revived Lurue jumped upright and dashed at full speed in pursuit of the werewolf that had fought Nimrod.  Abby, Jax, and Silvermist pursued on foot to assist Lurue.  Nimrod was too exhausted and injured to keep up.  He was too busy rethinking his anti-unicorn prejudice to be of much help anyway. 

Abby, Jax, and Silvermist caught up with Lurue as he was finishing off the werewolf.

Lurue gave Abby a ring of shooting stars in gratitude for Abby's help.  Then Lurue escorted the team to Feynor.

Acquisition of the Daguerreotypes

Feynor was greatly pleased to see his friend Lurue in good health and he was pleased that the team had foiled Malar's plan.  He gladly gifted the daguerreotypes to the team.  He also gave each of Jax, Nimrod, Silvermist, and Abby a charm of heroism.  {For 1 hour after drinking it, you gain 10 temporary Hit Points that last for 1 hour. For the same Duration, you are under the Effect of the bless spell (no Concentration required). This blue potion bubbles and steams as if boiling.}

The team was now ready to return to the Annabelle Lee and the Gynosphinx's lair.

Exploration of a Lost Tomb of Knowledge

 

This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers

• Amok the Goliath Scouting Rogue (they/them)
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises,
  a charismatic male Vuman warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
• Gaffy the Blue, a female Vedalken Watcher Paladin
• Chumbawamba, the always loyal female pet wonder warg
• Nimbat/Nimowl, Nimrod's enthusiastic, ever-helpful bat/owl familiar
• Lucinda the female Twilight Cleric Tortle 
• Dormin, Nimrod's trusty shadow spirit
• Princess the Tressym -- a winged cat who rode Amok's shoulder and can impart poisonous scratches on her enemies
  
  

The party is currently at level 6.  They will reach level 7 after one more adventure.

The Adventure

Captain Sheila sailed her ship the Annabelle Lee with the the team aboard an island where there was a lost tomb of a long dead scholar wherein mystical knowledge was stored.   On the 4th day of voyage, there is a tremendous storm.  Eventually the storm stopped almost all at once and we can see a small flat island dominated by a tall stone pyramid in the style of the ancient River Builders culture.  (Nimrod had learned quite a lot about ancient pyramids of all sorts in his Ancient Real Estate Law course during his legal studies.)

The island had no natural harbor. Sheila's crew rowed the team ashore in a row boat. She gives the team a week to explore the tomb. But she and her crew did not dare set foot on the island. 

The island was in all senses a 'desert' island.  Cactuses were the only visible indigenous life on land.  Everyone felt there was strong feeling of magic and dread as soon as they set foot on the sand.  Nimrod was tempted to assume his dread form to escape the anxiety that mounted with every step he took toward the pyramidal tomb.  But everyone maintained their stiff upper lips, squared their shoulders, and stepped forward in lockstep with ramrod straight posture into the pyramid.

Shortly after entering the pyramid the team found themselves in a grand entrance way or preliminary court yard.  There was a statue of a humanoid next to a shallow pool of water.  There was inscription on the statue in an ancient language:

Ya'amket's tomb [or so they say]
Contains vast knowledge tucked away
The strong of mind
and brave of deed
will pass the trials and succeed
while those who search
for gold in vain
will only find his deep disdain

Even though this inscription was in an ancient language, any who cared to stare at it a few seconds could read it as it self-translated into the reader's native language.

There were 3 coins at the base of the statue.  They bore writing in different languages from different time periods. Nimrod examined them for 10 minutes and said they each asked ya'amket for wisdom and guidance.  So Gaffy used her tinkers tools and Amok assisted to make a coin asking for assistance.  The team's coin said "Please ya'amket give information to
kill flower people. Thank you".

The team went down many passages and explored many trapped rooms.  They met an invisible stalker early on which warned them not to steal anything after detected it and communicated with it.  It followed them to make sure they did not steal. 

At one point the team entered a tomb chamber and the ghost of Ya'amket rose out of its sarcophagus to yell at the team and tell them to go away.  It told them it could not help them decode the ledger fragment for information about the Golden Orchid Society.  Ya'amket's ghost told them it would destroy them if they took its treasure.  So the team left to explore other parts of the temple complex.

The team found and collected some statuettes during their explorations.  Then when they were in a room that had a sphinx statue, they realized the statuettes were needed to solve a puzzle.  They already had one batch of statuettes: a unicorn, a bird, a manticore, and a dragon.

Eventually they found 8 more statuettes in different parts of the temple.  They were a centaur, a harpy, a horse, a narwhal, a pegasus, a lion, a sphinx, and a human.

The Bad Decision Makers solved the puzzle using the statuettes.  This made a magical portal appear in a nearby wall.  After Gaffy used her divine sense to confirm the portal did not go to a hellish plane, the team passed through the portal into a large library in which a gynosphinx made its lair.

The gynosphinx told the group that portal would remain open for only a few hours -- much too short a time for the team to find the needed information on their own.  So the gynosphinx offered its help on the condition that the team defeat it in combat.  It reserved the right to kill team members but insisted the team's attacks be non-lethal.  This was a very ancient, formidable, and admirable foe that no one but Amok wanted to fight.  So Nimrod suggested to the gynosphinx that instead the team become its friends.  The gynosphinx gave this a lukewarm response at first.  But then Gaffy showed the gynosphinx a funny daguerreotype of humanoid Darwin Award winning antics mixed with adorable cat behavior.  This intrigued the gynosphinx enough for it to offer to take the team on as 'research assistants' with a mission to bring more daguerreotypes from a nearby island in exchange for the time and assistance needed to find the needed information about the Golden Orchid Society from the library.  Everyone except Amok favored this solution.  Amok believed beating the gynosphinx in combat would be faster and easier.   The gynosphinx said it would keep the portal open one week for the team to return with the daguerreotypes.

The gynosphinx also advised the team to seek out past defectors from the Golden Orchid Society leadership.  These defectors could help the team.

Terrors of Skyhorn Lighthouse

 

This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers

• Amok the Goliath Scouting Rogue (they/them)
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises,
  a charismatic male Vuman warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
• Gaffy the Blue, a female Vedalken Watcher Paladin
• Chumbawamba, the always loyal female pet wonder warg
• Nimbat/Nimowl/Nimpod, Nimrod's enthusiastic, ever-helpful bat/owl/octopus familiar
• Lucinda the female Twilight Cleric Tortle -- she was hibernating as she was strapped to Chumbawamba's back.  She did not wake up at any point.
• Dormin, Nimrod's trusty shadow spirit
• Princess the Tressym -- a winged cat who rode Amok's shoulder and can impart poisonous scratches on her enemies
  
  

The party is currently at level 6.  They will reach level 7 after two more adventures.

The Adventure

Contracting a Ship and Setting Sail

The Bad Decision Makers were at the docks negotiating passage with the human female Captain Sheila Coppertree of the Annabelle Lee to search for the uncharted island where they could get information needed to seek out the location where they could decode the code from the Orchid Guild's sewer lair.  

Captain Sheila Coppertree demanded 10000 GP for the group's passage.  But she said she would waive that fee if we go to the lighthouse to free her friend Captain Hest who she believed to be a prisoner at Skyhorn Lighthouse.  The group agreed to Captain Coppertree's terms.

As the ship's lines were about to be detached from the dock, two burly sailors named Gasper and Nino approached the ship and accused Captain Sheila of cheating them at dice.  They demanded her ship as payment and threatened violence.  Gaffy and then Nimrod attempted to negotiate.  But they and their two hidden compatriots responded by attacking the ship and every one of the Bad Decision Makers with daggers and crossbows.  

The altercation ended after Gaspar was slain, Nino fled after being nearly killed, and Nimrod eldritch blasted their two hidden henchmen into the harbor water.  Amok recovered 15 GP and a set of loaded dice from Gaspar's body.

The Annebelle Lee then set sail for the lighthouse.  It had to make haste before port authorities would arrive to ask about the dead scallowag on the dock.

Trouble on the way to the Lighthouse

Part way to the lighthouse, a large rogue wave sloshed into the ship.  Everyone aboard the ship was able to maintain their balance except for Nimrod, who fell prone when the wave landed on the ship and revealed itself to be a powerful water elemental with hostile intent.  It immediately attacked Gaffy.  Nimrod cast protection from good and evil on Gaffy.  But this did not help.  The elemental surged around Gaffy and kept her confined within it.  Gaffy, Amok, Nimrod, and Chumbawamba fought the elemental until it disintegrated.  Amok recovered 6 beads of force from the elemental.  Each bead was a  small black sphere measuring 3/4 of an inch in diameter and weighing an ounce. 

The elemental punctured the ship's hull below the water line before it boarded the ship.  Now the ship was taking on water and all available hands were bailing water as the ship limped toward the dock at the lighthouse.

Arrival at the Lighthouse

The Annebelle Lee's crew beached their ship upon reaching the lighthouse dock.  The crew set about patching the hull while Captain Sheila urged the team to look for signs of Captain Hest at the lighthouse.

The team climbed the hill to the lighthouse and found that the lighthouse's iron door to be locked and barricaded.  Amok and Gaffy strained together to push the door open and clear the barricade as Nimrod tapped his shining boot on the ground, cleared his throat, and looked on impatiently.  

Immediately upon entering the building, three slimy eel folk attacked the Bad Decision Makers.  They put up a good fight but were ultimately defeated.  Amok then found a door in the floor of one rooms that revealed a passage way under the lighthouse to the ocean.  But they decided to clear the remainder of the lighthouse before following that passage.

The Master of the Lighthouse

The team cautiously climbed the stairs up to the chamber atop of the lighthouse tower.   Therein behind another heavy iron barricaded door they found the lone lighthouse keeper, Lucien Skyhorn -- a male human druid, the last of his line, and the last of his druid circle.

Lucien gave the team 4 potions of  healing water and each humanoid got a good berry.  Lucien asked the team to retake control of  his family's bowl of summoning and commanding water elementals from the Eel Folk.  He said the bowl was in the tunnels below the lighthouse.  The eel folk were using the bowl to attack every ship in the area.

A Dark Dock Under the Lighthouse

After the team left Lucien to find the bowl of summoning water elementals, they found themselves hanging precariously onto a broken ladder that led partway down into a watery sea cave before ending twenty or thirty feet above the water.  A small dock with a rowboat was on a beach around 50 feet away from where the ladder used to enter the water.

No one wanted to fall into the water and swim to the dock because they would be very vulnerable to ambush at severe disadvantage by the Eel Folk whilst swimming.  So Amok used Amok's crossbow to fire a rope at the dock.  Then Nimrod had Dormin swim through the water past the dock.  Dormin was to be a distraction as everyone else used the rope to reach the dock.  

Nimrod then used his wand of shadows to teleport to the dock and securely tie off the rope.  [Actually, Nimrod inextricably forgot he could effortlessly teleport instead of risking failing his acrobatics check while sliding down the not yet very secure rope.  Teleporting would have been smarter and more plausible than having a not particularly strong or dexterous corporate lawyer using his soft, delicately manicured hands to slide down the rope while dressed in expensive but restrictive law office appropriate attire.]

Dormin found three huge hunter sharks and tried to lure them away from the dock.  Nimrod tied off the rope and then cast his eldritch blasts to support Dormin.  Unfortunately, this was not enough to ensure Gaffy's safety. She fell into the water almost immediately upon transferring her weight to the rope.  Sharks mauled her repeatedly as she swam strenuously to the dock in her heavy plate armor.  Gaffy fought back and killed one of them before she got close enough to the dock for Nimrod to pull her out of the water almost too late for her to survive.  Gaffy would have been dead if she had been in the water only seconds longer.  

Even as he was seeking to kill the sharks, Nimrod could not help but admire the sharks' cruel efficiency as they mauled Gaffy.  He even saw a bit of himself in them. Memories of his legal training at Kas School of Law flooded his mind, particularly the Law of the Sea course where sharks were compared to corporate lawyers who provide a necessary service by relentlessly pursuing their prey and cleansing the waters of unsightly corpses.  Nimrod felt truly inspired and a bit teary-eyed as he gazed lustily upon the bloody red water.  But Nimrod's sanguinary fascination lasted only a moment before he snapped his attention back to helping his struggling friend Gaffy.

Amok was strong enough and dexterous enough to cross the rope easily.  Then, as if by divine intervention, the sharks dispersed from the area following the bloody sacrifice of one of their own, coupled with Gaffy's instinctual masterful mimicry of Orca warning calls, ultimately causing the predators to flee in terror.

Taking Captives (Back)

With everyone safely on the beach, Gaffy healed some of his shark wounds as Amok started lock-picking the heavy iron door on the beach a few yards away from the dock.  Nimrod used this time to transform Nimpod the octopus into Nimbat.

When the door was ready to open Gaffy stormed in followed by Amok and Dormin, and lastly by Nimrod.  Amok left Princess to watch the dock area.  Within the large dark room they were shocked to see three groups of four gaunt, bedraggled captive sailors.  Kelp ropes securely shackled each prisoner.  The prisoners had been fermenting in their own excrement, mud, and kelp for days.  (This filthy, smelly, mucus-like encrustation made casual gender determination impossible.)

Only two eel folk were in the room and they appeared to have been surprised by the team's arrival.  Both Eel Folk immediately ran to a closed heavy double door at the south end of the chamber.  One died before reaching the door, inflicting some lightning damage on Gaffy and Amok as it died.  The surviving eel warrior reached the door and screamed an alarm in its tongue.  Gaffy managed to decapitate it without incurring another electric shock.

Nimrod and Amok cut the prisoners loose as Gaffy recuperated from his electric shock.  One of the prisoners quietly identified him/her self in a cracked, parched voice as Captain Hest of the Jade Lion.    This captain said all the cargo in the adjacent northern room was from the Jade Lion.  The captain also said there was a room beyond the double doors into which the Eel Folk had been taking members of his crew one-by-one to their loud and torturous deaths.

It was clear to all Bad Decision Makers -- except Nimrod at first -- that the prisoners would be useless in the battle beyond the double doors.  So Gaffy advised the captives to go to their ship that Nimbat had seen tethered in the direction of the sea cave entrance.  Then they might be able to ride that ship to the Annabelle Lee and Captain Sheila at the island's main dock.

Before the prisoners shuffled away, Captain Hest gave each party member a mariner's coin.  When presented to a nonhostile sailor, a mariner's coin grants advantage on all charisma checks. The holder of the coin also has advantage on skill checks related to sailing.  Captain Hest also said showing a mariner's coin to any sailor it will grant its owner safe passage.  A true sailor would see a mariner's coin as "a sign of friendship, forged in salt and iron."

Beyond the Double Doors

Gaffy opened the door and stationed herself there to bar escape by any enemy.  Amok, Dormin, and Nimbat streamed in.  Nimrod stayed 10 feet beyond Gaffy.  But Nimbat was keeping Nimrod aware of the enemies lurking in the corners.

Two Eel Folk immediately ran toward the door.  Others edged toward the door, perhaps in hopes of stealthily striking from the shadows.  The bowl of water elemental summoning was 75 feet away on the far end of the room.  A very powerful looking Eel Folk boss was 50 feet away from Gaffy and was motioning to run towards Gaffy.  A water elemental 10 feet from the summoning bowl.  An Eel Folk warrior at the bowl was forcing a captive sailor to attempt operating the bowl.

Nimrod had already assumed his form of dread.  So he immediately cast hunger of hadar centered around fifty feet past Gaffy.  This engulfed the boss Eel Folk and the water elemental in a gateway to the dark between the stars, a region infested with unknown horrors. A 20-foot-radius sphere of blackness and bitter cold appeared, centered on a point with range and lasting for the duration. This void was filled with a cacophony of soft whispers and slurping noises that could be heard up to 30 feet away. No light, magical or otherwise, could illuminate the area, and creatures fully within the area were blinded.

Amok, Dormin, and Gaffy fought the normal Eel Folk as Nimrod used repelling blasts to push the Eel Boss deeper into the hunger zone.  This went on for a while with the hunger zone continuously wearing down the elemental and the boss while Gaffy and Amok took electrical damage as they scored kills of the lesser Eel Folk.  During this time, the water elemental unexpectedly changed direction and exited the hunger zone to attack the Eel warrior who was threatening the captive sailor next to the summoning bowl.

Gaffy went down after the boss Eel hit him.  Nimrod popped a goodberry in her mouth after Gaffy failed one or two saving throws.

Nimrod had the finishing blow on the boss Eel.  The boss was using non-lethal blows while attacking Gaffy and Nimrod.  But Nimrod chose to continue using lethal blows until because it deserved to die as a result of all the money and lives lost during the Eel Folks' war on local shipping.  This war had cost Kas Enterprises a lot of money and deeply embarrassed Kas Protection Services.

Amok had the finishing blow on the water elemental as it about to possibly kill Nimrod.  She 

Into the Orchid Guild Lair -- Part 3

 

This Week's Bad Decision Guild Adventurers (as reported by Nimbat)

• Amok the Goliath Scouting Rogue (they/them) -- Amok was wandering solitarily with only Princess for companionship.  
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. a Corporate Lawyer of Kas Enterprises,
  a charismatic male Vuman warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
• Gaffy the Blue, a female Vedalken Watcher Paladin.  He is irritatingly not yet on board with your priorities, master.  But he remains useful for your manipulations.
• Chumbawamba, the always loyal pet wonder warg
• Nimbat/Nimowl: Me, your ever faithful servant.  I continue pretending I am Nimrod's enthusiastic, ever-helpful bat/owl familiar.  Please master, give me back my human corporeal form so that I may lead these bad decision makers.
• Lucinda the female Twilight Cleric Tortle -- she was hibernating as she was strapped to Chumbawamba's back.  She did not wake up at any point.
• Dormin, My trusty shadow spirit, though we maintain the fiction that Dormin is Nimrod's shadow
• Princess the Tressym -- a winged cat who rides Amok's shoulder and imparted poisonous scratches on her enemies.  I am suspicious of her loyalty to you, my master.  This week she was off with Amok.  
  
  

The party is currently at level 6.  We have 3 more adventures to complete before we level up.

 

Today's explorations, as reported to Kas by Nimbat

Master, my humanoid adventuring servants opened a locked door as I, your ever faithful spy Nimbat,  flittered nearby.  Within the chamber was the upstart minor competitor to your enterprises: Camellia the Oni of the Orchid Guild.  At first your humanoid servants did not see Camellia because she had made herself invisible to their pathetic humanoid eyes.  But Camellia lifted her invisibility when she realized she was not fooling me or my human partner Nimrod.  Camellia's room contained many magic items that were in plain sight.  We coveted them greatly and I knew that more than some of that wealth had been stolen from your coffers.  Whether it was stolen or not, all that wealth was rightfully yours.  But Camellia told them to immediately leave her chamber and not return or she would harm them.  Camellia so cowed the adventurers that they traitorously obeyed her demands.  As your loyal servants, Dormin and I did all I could to goad the humanoids to sacrifice themselves for your glory by attacking the Oni immediately.  I screamed repeatedly at them "Return to that room and do not come out until you have secured those treasures for the glory of our master Kas!".  But as usual the humanoids pretended to not hear my high-pitched bat screaming.

Against my wishes, my humanoid servants then wandered off into another not yet explored area of the Orchid's lair.  As usual, I was leading the way in the hopes that I might trick these fools into returning to Camellia.  Unfortunately, I led them to a female red Dragonborn veteran fighter named Snap Dragon.  Snap Dragon killed me immediately.   Dormin told me all my servants united in avenging my death.  Nimrod picked up Snap Dragon's torture tools for Amok to sell.

Nimrod reconstituted me as soon as possible after the defeat of Snap Dragon.  The humanoids liberated two hostages from Snap Dragon's dungeon: a veteran bandit who aspired to become a florist and a son of a local merchant.  Gaffy and recruited them for Kas Enterprises.

Eventually my humanoid servants found the Orchid Guild's training department.  We had the good fortune to find your enemy, the vile fish person Master Sushi.  He was alone in his dojo.  This would have a perfect opportunity to slaughter him without mercy and drain his blood.

Somehow Master Sushi tricked Gaffy the Paladin into a non-lethal single combat where the probable loser and her companions would be forced to leave the premises upon defeat.  Sushi soundly defeated Gaffy.  Then Sushi compelled Jax to demonstrate her pick pocketing skills on the dojo's three practice mannequins.  

Master Sushi let everyone leave the dojo after Jax demonstrated her skills.  Sushi did not place any conditions on the team in spite of Gaffy's defeat by Sushi's unarmored fists.

The team then opened a door across the hall from the dojo because Nimrod surmised this door must provide access to a back way into Camille's room.  Behind the door was a sleeping chamber with two young women trainees.  To his credit, Nimrod wanted to kill them immediately.  But that sap Gaffy insisted on sparing them in spite of Nimrod's repeated suggestion they be killed.  So those annoying humanoids tried to recruit those trainees to Kas Enterprises.  I was screaming at them to splash the blood of those helpless trainees on the walls.  But as usual they did not hear me.  Instead they left the room without harvesting a blood tithe for my master.

The humanoids then decided to return to Camellia's room to see if she had triggered the trap they had set for her and to take her loot.  The trap was not yet triggered.  So Jax dismantled.  Then Gaffy opened the door.  Within the room they saw Camellia and two trainees.  A fight ensued and Camellia was killed.  One of the trainees survived and revealed most of the treasure and all the Orchid Guild survivors from this location went to a location known as "the school".  Masters Rose Thorn and Larkspur run the school, which is in Bright Guard.

For the future glory and enrichment of Kas Enterprises, we took a wand of banishment, a ring of mind shielding, and 10000 gold pieces. We also have a coded page from Camellia's accounting ledger that self-immolated when Gaffy opened it.