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Kuthona 4707]
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| Reefclaws generally attack aquatic life, but are known to prey on land creatures near the shore. |
The first day of winter sees the adventurers make preparations for their
planned trip to Turtleback Ferry.
Knowing that there won’t be any cities nearly as large as Magnimar on
the voyage, the adventures brave the chill air and take advantage of the opportunity
to source items of arcane power and purchase supplies. While shopping in Dockway, Kozen and Briza
are accosted by a gang of disgruntled sailors, but Briza’s glare and greatsword
are enough to scare them away. Just a few
blocks away, Goragar is trotting along on his warhorse at the harbor front when
he glances at the shadows underneath the boardwalk and notices eyes following
his every movement. Suddenly, two
aberrant crustaceans about the size of large dogs scuttle out and slither
towards him, clicking their large pincers threateningly. Reefclaws!
Goragar’s finely-honed battle instincts kick in, and he slices one of
the aberrant aquatic predators nearly in half with his sword, but, in its death
throes, the reefclaw grazes his leg with a poisonous pincer. Gorgar is weakened as the poison runs its
course, and for a few moments it addles his brain to the point where he slams
the pommel of his sword into his own forehead!
But his trained mount keeps the second reefclaw at bay until he can regain
his senses and finish it off.
Meanwhile, Artemis walks to the Glowing Embers Inn in Naos District,
finding that many pedestrians have taken advantage of its huge hearth to warm
themselves before continuing on. There,
sitting in a comfortable chair and knitting, Artemis finds Tillia
Henkenson. He explains that he and his
allies have been tasked with travelling to Fort Rannick and finding out why the
Order of the Black Arrow rangers have cut off contact with Turtleback
Ferry. He offers to accompany Tillia on
her return voyage and, after verifying his identity through documents, she
agrees. She explains that she’s booked
passage on a keelboat called Pinkeye’s
Comeuppance and that it’s set to depart sometime in the morning. Although rather shy, Tillia seems friendly
enough.
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| Captain Othlo isn't chatty, but he gets his ship where it needs to go. |
Artemis
then follows the directions he’s been given and talks to Captain Othlo, the
halfling master of Pinkeye’s Comeuppance. Othlo continually puffs on a long-stemmed
pipe as he explains that Artemis and his companions can come aboard as either
passengers or crew, but that either way they have to sleep on the deck amidst
crates and barrels, and that the boat won’t be stopping at Whistledown no
matter what may come. Artemis can see
that the ship is crewed by (and sized for) halflings, but he agrees to sign on
as a crew member for the voyage and promises to return in the morning. Afterwards, Artemis seeks out his friend and
superior, Gibble Fank, and explains that he’ll be departing on orders from the
Lord-Mayor.
Later
that afternoon, Goragar returns to the Green Lobster to find that his companion
from Sandpoint, Shalelu Andosana, has tracked him down. When she hears that the half-orc is planning
to head into central Varisia, she insists, without explanation, on accompanying
him to Fort Rannick. As plates of
undercooked, unfresh seafood are put in front of them, Artemis shows up to tell
Goragar about the plan to depart the next morning. Shalelu greets him, remembering Artemis as
one of the band that rescued her from the Bloodfangs in Mosswood.
That
night, a farewell party is held at the Lahs house for Artemis and his
friends. There’s food, dancing, and a firm
statement by Goragar that all giants, sentient or not, deserve to die. Miryana grows sadder as the evening wears on,
but she maintains a brave face.
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Kuthona 4707]
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| Pinkeye's Comeuppance has made dozens of trips up and down the river. |
Having stayed at the Green Lobster overnight after the party, Briza
makes the mistake of eating the inn’s seafood special for breakfast. Despite having grown up on a diet of coarse
Shoanti food and having prepared for months as one of Sandpoint’s “Hagfish
Hopefuls”, even Briza’s intestinal fortitude can’t fight off food poisoning
from the Green Lobster. With her allies,
she trudges down to the docks, rather the worse for wear. Arrangements are made with Captain Othlo to
take on several passengers, though he charges Goragar a pretty penny to
transport the warrior’s steed aboard the already-cramped vessel. When the last of the cargo and passengers are
loaded, Pinkeye’s Comeuppance sets
off upstream along the meandering Yondabakari River.
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| The boggards of the Mushfens are a notorious danger along the Yondabakari River. |
The keelboat makes slow but steady progress thanks to the oxen that pull
it from either side of the river bank and the halflings who take turns pushing
it with long, sturdy barge-poles. The outskirts of Magnimar quickly give way to
flat, lightly forested land along the north bank (along which the rutted wagon
trail known as the Dry Way runs), while foreboding stretches of boggy marshes
(called the Mushfens) expand as far as the eye can see to the south. About ten miles east of Magnimar, the crew
and passengers of Pinkeye’s Comeuppance face
a common risk of travel along this part of the Yondabakari: boggard
raiders! The human-sized swamp dwellers
with frog-like features try to conceal themselves behind rocks and stunted
trees on the south bank, but the alert adventurers have no trouble spotting
them. Artemis, standing aloft the rear
cabin, lets loose with a volley of arrows as Briza jumps on shore, sword in
hand! An ear-shaking croak fills the air
and Kozen begins to tremble from fear,
but Artemis quickly silences the responsible boggard with an arrow through the
throat! Goragar awkwardly jumps off the
boat as well (landing on his back!), while Kang jumps to the far shore but
hurls bombs with pinpoint accuracy across the width of the river. Meanwhile, the captain and crew of the vessel
haven’t slowed in the least, instead following their standard protocol of
trying to outrun the raiders. The
boggards, having come to snatch loose cargo from the deck of the ship with
their long, sticky tongues, seem surprised to find heavily-armed warriors
trying to kill them! Most try to run for
it, but the merciless adventurers slay all but a couple, and the ship loses
only one small crate from the incident.
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Kuthona 4707]
The journey east continues with only the loss of Briza’s fishing pole
(due to a surprise snag on a rock) the only incident of note. That evening, as the keelboat is tied up
along the shore, the Shoanti warrior is keeping watch while her friends sleep
when she notices some of the food crates on deck shift slightly as if something
was moving behind them. She calls out
for the others to be wary but pays for her vigilance when the fanged mouth of a
goblin snake suddenly lunges towards her and bites into her abdomen! Kozen reacts quickly and tries to impale the
creature with his scythe, but the wriggling creature keeps darting in and out
of the maze of containers on the ship.
Hearing the commotion, Artemis casually reaches for his bow and lets a
shot fly without even standing up—the arrow pins the goblin snake to a barrel
and kills it instantly! The rest of the
night passes uneventfully.
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Director's Commentary
The journey from Magnimar to Turtleback Ferry isn't detailed at all in the AP, leaving it up to the GM on how to handle it. I went with the traditional "day-by-day" approach. Before this session, I wasn't sure how the PCs would travel--just walking, trying to join a caravan, trying to find (and pay) a wizard to teleport them, or (the option they chose) taking a riverboat. I had prepped some stuff for the last option, drawing the NPC of Captain Othlo and his halfling crew from a story in the back of one of the individual volumes of the AP. I added Othlo's backstory that we'll see featured in later sessions. For the river travel, I had a nice keelboat from the Vehicles map pack set, configurable river tiles from the River System map pack set, and various flip-mats of different terrain to layer everything over. It worked out pretty well I think for the various random encounters I had prepped along the way. I didn't expect this part of the chapter to take so long though--at the time, it seemed like ages before the PCs actually reached Turtleback Ferry.
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