The Sea Ghost

The Sea Ghost

Date: Wednesday December 1st 1999

Adventurers:
Nialis: high elf, enchanter, Mage 4, LN
Shadowblade, human, male, Thief, 4, CN
Rodan the Billet, human, male, Priest (of St Cuthbert), 4, LG
Ulthran, half elf, male, bard 4, NG
Grumbleduke, dwarf, male, fighter 4, LG

Waterday, Coldeven 19th, 581
Having cleared the mansion of smugglers and other undesirables the party return to Saltmarsh laden down with treasure. The local halfling sheriff, Willy Stoutfoot, pays them a 500gp reward for the destruction of the smuggling band and also oversees the collection of the local taxes on the treasure gained. Shadowblade arranges for a couple of local builders to travel to the mansion to give him a quote for the repair of the premises.

The party is joined at this time by the dwarf Grumbleduke who was awaiting their return at the Seapray tavern. Grumbleduke is one of their companions who was absent from their adventures in the mansion as he had pressing business in Gradsul. The party then searches the coastline for signs of the missing mage and eventually find a small rowboat beached in a secluded cove, the occupant is long gone but he leaves tracks that head back towards Saltmarsh. Ulthran and Nialis return to Saltmarsh to ask a few questions about town concerning the mage. while the others return to the manor with the builders. Shadowblade agrees to pay 2,000 gp to one of the two builders for the repairs needed to his new home. He also informs his friends that he intends to make them co-owners of the property and plans are laid for the mansion to become their headquarters.

Meanwhile Ulthran and Nialis make little progress in their questioning but do agree to a request from Sheriff Stoutfoot to escort the prisoners to Burle the following morning. The prisoners are to go before the local magistrate to face charges of piracy and smuggling.

Ulthran then returns to the Seaspray and offers to sing that night. The barkeep agrees. The bard has an ulterior motive though- one of the barmaids, Natasha, a sultry red head. He spends a pleasant evening weaving his story telling magic over the enraptured audience and before long the girl falls for his charm- and of course he leaves with her at the end of the night...

Nialis grows bored of watching his companion in action trying to score so heads back to the mansion. On the edge of town he feels some form magic energy being cast at him but his elven constitution allows him to shake off the attempted enchantment. Scanning a nearby alleyway he spots a human and begins to cast a spell of his own (invisibility) but is felled by his opponent's colour spray spell.

Earthday, Coldeven 20th, 581
Ulthran is awoken by a banging on his door, an upset Willy Stoutfoot is looking for his adventurous escorts. The debonair Ulthran slips out a window without confronting the sheriff and then heads to the barracks where he meets Willy on his way back to his office and feigns no knowledge of the sheriff's visit to Natasha's cottage. He too is surprised by the fact that his comrades are late and promises to return with them. He then speeds back to the mansion only to learn that Nialis didn't make it home the night before.

Gathering his companions the adventurers head back to Saltmarsh and manage to get the sheriff to delay the transportation of the prisoners by a day so that they can investigate the disappearance of the elf Nialis. In the Seaspray they learn that two sailors left shortly after Nialis so their investigations head towards the docks where they find a ship preparing to leave the harbour. A line of labourers is busy taking crates of supplies from a warehouse to the ship so Shadowblade surreptitiously joins the line and sneaks into the warehouse where he finds a purple robed figure talking to the ships captain. He quickly departs and informs the others of his discovery. They race back to the barracks to get the sheriff while Shadowblade, disguising himself as a drunk, watches the back door in case the mage tries to sneak out. Unfortunately nobody watches the front door...

Willy and four men-at-arms soon return accompanied by the adventurers, and the prisoner Bob (the only one that could identify Sanbalet), and they quicly rounded up the sailors and began to question the puzzled ships captain- but there is no sign of the wizard. Rodan races out into the back alley and spying a drunk questions him about any recent activity in the alley. Shadowblade (the drunk) manages to weasel three gold peices out of Rodan before informing him that nobody has been in the alley. Rodan returns to the warehouse and casts a detect magic on the captain and learns that he is under some form of enchantment and Willy questions him about the recent visitor.

Under Willy's questioning of the other sailors they discover that the mage has left and that a large crate he left has been stored aboard. Willy and the others head into the hold of the ship and free a bloodied, bruised Nialis (who is also missing one ear!) It seems that he was questioned quite severely by several men, including the mage Sanbalet, and gave them much information. He couldn't remember much about his ordeal except for an unusual pendant that one of his quest5ioners wore. He drew a picture of it and Rodan was aghast to recognise it as a symbol of the accursed Scarlet Brotherhood.

A local priest, Nestor, was called in to corroborate the captain's story and when he cast a detect lie spell and realised that the captain was indeed telling the truth he cast a dispel magic to free him of the charm (it also affected Bob who was freed of Ulthran's influence) and the captain was free to go.

Freeday, Coldeven 21st- Starday 22nd, 581
The adventurers escorted the prisoners to Burle where they were to stand trail for the crimes of piracy and smuggling- much of the evidence being based on Bob's testimonial. The party then returned to Milthorpe Manor to await the imminent arrival of the smugglers ship.

Godsday, Coldeven 25th, 581
The adventurers have spent the last three days preparing for the imminent arrival of the smugglers ship. It is late in the evening when their watch finally spies lights blinking out to sea- the smugglers code! Rodan replies with the correct sequence and then the party rows out in the smuggler's jolly boat which they'd recovered several days earlier. Nialis casts a phantasmal force spell to make Shadowblade and Rodan appear to be Sanbalet and Bob while Grumbleduke is hidden in a crate. Their disguise works and Rodan and Shadowblade mange to get aboard, followed soon after by an invisible Nialis.

The ships captain, Snake Eyes is none to happy when Rodan informs him that the crate is loot plundered from a caravan, explaining that the boss would be upset if the smuggler's cover for their covert operation in Saltmarsh was blown. Eventually he agrees to take the loot after Rodan reassures him that the caravan was ambushed well away from the centre of operations and two sailors descend to the row boat to help get it aboard. The crate is then manhandled aboard and an irate dwarf leaps out, signalling the attack.

The pirates are surprised and a couple fall to the invaders but the captain and the remaining two pirates quickly rally and soon a life and death struggle begins. It is touch and go when a wizard and several officers emerge from beneath the decks. Fortunately Rodan manages to silence the spell caster with a well aimed spell while Nialis uses his magic to good affect (until being caught in the area of the silence spell that is!) and Ulthran manages to colour spray one pirate and kill another of the poop deck.

The outcome is very much in doubt until Grumbleduke, who has already despatched two pirates, engages the pirate captain in hand-to-hand combat. The formidable dwarf having cleaved his way through two pirates to get to Snake Eyes and then the two engage in a mighty tussle. The pirate leader trying to avoid the dwarfs huge battle axe and then dart in to slice him up with his own sabre. Several times the two clash but the pirate is unable to get through the dwarfs defences, or his mighty armour. Realising that the only chance he has is to throw the plate mail armoured dwarf overboard the pirate leader lunges forward to grapple with Grumbleduke, but fails to dislodge him from the deck. The dwarf's muscles ripple across his broad shoulders and he shoves the pirate back, and then brings round his axe in a deadly arc and neatly disembowels him. The remaining pirates, their morale shattered, surrender.

The mop up begins and the pirates are disarmed and lined up against the side, just as three lizard men burst forth from the lower decks. Nialis, who is now clear of the magical silence fries two with a well placed burning hands spell while the last, thinking better of his actions, turns to bolt back down stairs but is brought down by Ulthran and Shadowblade. The battle is over and the victors begin the task of searching the ship.

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