AAR: [2M] X Marks The Spot (2020-11-04 @ 23:30 GMT)

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Sharkforce
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Re: AAR: [2M] X Marks The Spot (2020-11-04 @ 23:30 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Thu Nov 05, 2020 4:59 am

Orlam Rolfsom, Journal Entry # 4: X Marks the Spot

At last, this felt like a proper adventure. Well, mostly proper. It was pretty good, anyways. While I was in the markets of Throal, putting my alchemy skills to use, Taras noticed me and I guess recommended me to an Elven Sky Raider named Keel, or something like that. I wonder what a recommendation from Taras would be like... well, whatever, that's not important. Keel had been contacted by someone who had a treasure map of sorts, leading to a chest full of money. Seemed a bit sketchy, someone knowing the exact location of a chest full of money that came out of a recently-sunken ship, but it wasn't a pig farmer, which certainly helped make me feel better about everything.

Joining us were Taras, of course, as well as two others I've never met before... R'edtarian, a fellow human who is a Warrior, and Calina, an Elf. I think she was a wizard? I'm not really sure. She didn't really introduce herself except to point to a name tag she has. And she didn't talk at all throughout the entire trip. She just kind of pantomimed things. I wonder if she's just *really* dedicated to showing her artisanship or something? It was kinda weird, I'm not too sure about her.

Also joining us, a T'skrang of questionable ethics by the name of J'k'spr. Calina suggested he was a pirate, which seemed fairly likely, given he had a map designed to lead us to the location of the chest, which was sunken in a small river in the Servos. Supposedly you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth... personally, I think you should watch the hind legs, because that's where the kick is going to come from if you don't pay attention.

By which I mean, it turns out J'k'spr wasn't entirely honest with us, and had been in some way part of a pirate crew (or maybe just worked for them or something, he was evasive and I didn't care all that much at this point to be honest) and found out from them where their ship had sunk, and was using us to get to it first and loot it. So after slogging through the jungle for days on end, dealing with a group of troajin, finding the river, and pulling out the chest (which I am almost surprised to say actually did have treasure in it, because by that point it was sounding too good to be true), his friends the pirates showed up and wanted their loot back.

Nuts to that, I say. I mean, it's one thing if you're a legitimate trader or something, but no way no how am I going to just meekly hand over the pirate loot that I've worked for so that they can probably buy a new ship and go back to killing other people or something like that. Nope. Not gonna happen. We kicked their butts, with loads of armour-enhancing magic making us nearly impervious to harm, and between my taunting and Keel's intimidating shouting, they didn't stand a chance. Lucky for them, nobody died, so we were feeling magnanimous after the fight... we didn't feel like marching them back to Throal (sleep next to half a dozen cutthroats for a week? No thanks, I'll pass), and just killing them on the spot didn't feel right, especially since they eventually surrendered, so we just took all their weapons except for a few knives, told them if they wanted loot there was apparently another ship somewhere in the river and they were welcome to go fight the crocodiles for it (did I mention there were crocodiles? Well, there were. We threw a deer carcass to them and they left us alone, which is a perfectly adequate arrangement if you ask me). Oh, and obviously, we also told the pirates that if they decided to try anything again, we wouldn't be in such a generous mood any more.

And then we went home, and there were absolutely no idiot pig farmers to ruin everything for once. Plus, Keel agreed to teach me how to do the shouty thing, I figure that'll help out a bunch in the future. Especially against things that don't understand when they're being taunted.

predajey
Posts:344
Joined:Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:27 am

A Pirate's Journey on Land

Post by predajey » Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:09 am

An extravagant white leather bound journal contains several chapters detailing Calina Ravanqnerosicor’s journeys. It is written in a rich blue ink and the pages have a gold trim. It is written in Sperethiel.

Chapter 72: A Pirate's Journey on Land

I thought that I could ply my artisan trade in the Grand Bazaar. I found someone to hire me, but surprisingly, people paid more attention to the loud and obnoxious rather than the adeptly artistic. It took a couple days of frantically waving people down and displaying my skillset, which typically resulted in some grotesque alternative employment offers, before my employer decided he was losing too much business to allow another person to watch his stall. After allowing me to collect the few samples I had done for the handful of individuals who I was able to get to peruse my locale, I saw Keel speaking with a rather nervous T'Skrang. Since I had nothing better to do than to seek further employement, I figured I'd go see what they were talking about. I waited off the to the side, as is the expected etiquette for interjecting oneself into a conversation, and she asked me to come along! Such a fortuitous happenstance. The last time I left for an Adept worthy adventure, I was paid enough to last for several months, although I did mistakenly squander it on advancing my own Adept discipline, not that I was able to train much. As I found myself wanting for more financial assets, I did have to divert my attention to additional and significantly less lucrative employment. These people think they can just push for anything they want, but the three sales I did make in the past week transacted a price higher than the average. It's odd to think that I can haggle a little better than most of the stalls at the Bazaar without speaking, but it wasn't enough to maintain my employment.

Keel sought out additional aid with me in tight tow, my entire collection of personal effects and product stored securely in my pack. We came across two people who I've yet to make acquaintance with. The first was R'edtarian, a human warrior. He seemed the type of man my father would have wanted me to wed. Typical human with a wholesome childhood experience, with a pillar of the community for a father, who had turned from the familial hereditary physician career to legendary warrior. The other was Orlam, a human elementalist. I'd say he was a peer in the arcane arts, but he's also human. Finally, we had to add Taras, much to my disgust, although I don't typically display much distaste for people. He was a talented assassin, so I'd rather not find myself on his bad side. Naturally he was soaked in cheap alcohol. I wasn't sure whether he held an exceptional tolerance for the substance or it was degraded quality, but he was as sober as House Ravanqnerosicor claimed to always be. Either of which could not alter his stench of the foul liquids he had ingested.

We met with this J'K'spr fellow. Keel wasn't keen on trusting him, so I divined some information from his aura. He was clearly not telling us the entire story, but gave me enough information to look up how this treasure he was seeking came to rest at the bottom of the Galanga River. Unfortunately, I did not have the time. I can read fast and look up information quickly, but more than a couple hours were necessary to find anything. I did read an odd tale about an oversized ape from one of my daughter's journals. Her companions' compilation on the occasion seemed to confirm that sighting. As I worked, Keel looked into the dangers we would most likely encounter during the trip, but fulfilling the prophetic jest of Orlam, her results amounted to everything that moved. We each went to our own respective homes and bedded down in preparation for the trip. In the morning, I would find that Orlam and Taras had increased their inventory of rope, and Orlam even added a grappling hook. I hope there's no menial labor involved in this. Moving Malak's meal-based endeavor was strenuous enough for adventuring that I would have never considered leaving Throal again if I did not get paid so well.

The journey was mostly uneventful. We traveled to Kampung Gajah to obtain passage via riverboat. J'K'spr's familiarity, along with the treasure hunting motif, led to a mild piracy joke. Unfortunately, Orlam was the only one with enough cognizance to understand what I was trying to purvey to the rest of the team. Just like that, the creation of a seemingly easier to learn sign language began to develop. I believe Keel even thinks my motions to indicate this concept were part of the Throalic sign language. While completely incorrect, it's still kind of fun trying to charade my thoughts to the others. I might be able to stick to my silence even during these outings. We made it to the Servos Jungle and a feeling of dread made itself difficult to ignore. I had never been this far outside of Throal except for that incident with Jarock. I hope his spirit is enslaved by a horror for what he did.

In the Servos, we were ambushed by Troajin. There were four of them, and my lightning reflexes allowed me to bolster Keel's armor with magic. R'edtarian took half of the attention of the beasts, so I may have assisted the wrong frontliner, but she did ensure my safe return when we went into the basement in Sosanopa. Feelings can get in the way of so many things. While one of the little feline critters went after Keel, the other jumped over us and swiped at me! I got a huge gash in my clothes! Now I need to learn how to sew! This is my mother's ancestral shawl! She may not ever see it again, since I was removed from House Ravanqnerosicor, but still, I don't want it destroyed! Sewing couldn't be too dissimilar to embroidery, could it? There wasn't time to focus on my mangled shawl. The encounter still went well. I hid behind Orlam as R'edtarian drew the beast away from me. Keel continued to tie up a couple other Troajin, and fortunately the fourth went after Taras. I may have a mild disdain for him, but he's much more skilled at avoiding hits, partially thanks to Orlam's elemental aptitude. Orlam receives that compliment on personal ability alone; the little dirtbag left me alone to deal with one of the Troajin. Thankfully, Keel finished it off, exposing her back to the remaining one. Being the only option, I was obligated to circle around its backside and finish it off. Taras continues talking about penetrating rectums with his bolt.

We rest for an hour, and Orlam's elemental aptitude heats up some of my trail rations, which does wonders for salt seared raw fish. I would have preferred it stay raw, but I felt ready for another encounter after ingesting the now cooked piscatoral delicatessen. We also came across a strange farm. I did not know that farms existed in the jungle. Taras, being typical uncivilized Taras, snuck into the home and explored it as I observed the astral space in the area. He didn't even knock. What if there were people still living here? Could farmers really be so hostile outside of Throal? Fortunately it was abandoned, so we elected to establish a watch and rest for the night. We then continued to the treasure location. Taras and Keel approached ready to submerge, but Taras and his insatiable paranoia actually proved useful, as he shot a few logs, sinking them into the waters. He claimed they were either crocodiles or inflatable logs, proving his usefulness is limited with such inane conclusions. Who would place inflatable logs in a river this far from civilization? He and Orlam both mounted a large stone overlooking the bend, then he went with R'edtarian to hunt some wildlife in an effort to draw the potential submarinal threat out of the waters so we could deal with it at range. With Taras back on his perch, two crocodiles fought over the corpse then dragged it underneath the surface. As they contended for the nourishment, R'edtarian and Keel dove into the depths to search for the treasure. I was not doing much more than holding a rope. A slight tug would inform them that the crocodiles were ready for their second course, but it was an unnecessary yet valuable precaution. They found a box and tied the rope around it, lugging it to the shore and onto land. I suppose I could have helped, but physical prowess was never my priority.

As we pulled the lode into a more accessible location, five bandits emerged from the woods. Once their presence was obvious, Taras warned us they were there. A thousand gratitudes for his less than ideal observational abilities. He got into a mild argument about who the treasure belonged to, then we got into a fight. As Taras was pulling his bolt back, I bolstered Keel's armor and dove behind some rocks. These pirates, unlike our own, were armed with bows as well as swords. I spent the entire battle keeping armor bolstered on Keel, R'edtarian, and Orlam. Passions bless Orlam's spirit, as he exposed himself to danger to protect Keel. I did notice that Taras vanished without so much as a whisper. First he debates ownership, then leaves us to fight the bandits. I couldn't really see much of the battle, but R'edtarian and Keel weren't taking too many injuries. During the fight, J'K'spr tried to take the treasure without us noticing. Orlam yelled at him, and he just hid behind the chest. We did a little bit more haggling to improve our share of the recovered coinage, but not by much. Still this is well worth the journey, and I didn't really have to do any heavy lifting. I had a few hundred extra coins to take home, but that's never going to be a point of complaint.
Last edited by predajey on Sat Nov 14, 2020 8:26 am, edited 5 times in total.

Anoush
Posts:160
Joined:Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:53 pm

Keel's Letter

Post by Anoush » Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:39 am

[A letter from Kun'da'lin Iceclaw, found among her parents' effects at the troll moot; written in Sperethiel.]

Dear Mom & Dad,

I’m having a great time in Throal. I’ve met more interesting people, including a number of adepts.

I was in the Throal market recently, when I was approached by a t’skrang Named J’K’sper. He had a treasure map, reallly! He told me that a ship had sunk in the Servos Jungle and that he was looking for people to help him get the ship’s goods out of it. By goods, he meant valuables, coins, gem, jewelry. Like something out of an old story.

He seemed honest-enough, so I agreed to round up some others and meet him at a local dive, The Blue Weasel. I found Calina, the elf wizard, Taras, the human scout, and R’edtarian, the human warrior all pretty easily. Taras brought a friend of his along, a human elementalist Named Orlam. So, we met J’K’sper to talk about specifics.

J’K’sper wouldn’t let us study map, nor would he tell us where in the Servos the ship had sunk, just that it was on a minor tributary of the Galanga River. We agreed to a 70/30 split, us getting the 70%. We asked specifically if anyone else would be searching for the treasure, but JK said no one in particular would be, but that of course, others knew of it.

Afterward, Calina indicated that JK seemed nervous and guarded. Obviously, he wasn’t telling us everything. Then again, who, with a treasure map, would tell the entire truth? We spent the rest of the day buying a few supplies (e.g., more rations) and trying to find more about the northeast part of the Servos Jungle. Our brief research told us about way too many dangers to list here. Suffice to say, everything’s dangerous in the Jungle. But we had a good group. The scariest rumors we heard were about a giant ape somewhere in the Jungle, and of a crazy nethermancer who was breeding high-powered nightflyers. Creepy. Luckily, we ran into neither on this trip.

The six of us headed out the following morning. The trip was uneventful. We walked down to Kampung Gajah, then took a riverboat along the Coil River down to where it came the closest to the Jungle. Once we got onto the boat, JK seemed much happier, singing lilting songs and walking with a spring in his step. All he would say is that he’s always loved being on the water, on boats. Along the way, Taras was convinced that a group of adepts were following us, but they didn’t get off the boat when we did, but rather continued south. So we thought no more about them.

After that, we trekked west overland and into the Servos itself. We came close to Irondelve, but skirted the town on purpose. After entering the Jungle, the trip was quiet until about noon. Up ahead, we saw four troajins — lynx-sized panther-like cats — perched on the rocks. JK made a dash into the dense brush behind us, while the rest of us approached closer and engaged the cats in melee. We all contributed, but Calina got in the final attack with a Mind Dart on the last cat. We were hurt, but not badly. After recovering a bit, we continued.

Late that afternoon, as we were looking for a place to camp for the night, we came across a deserted farmstead. It obviously had not been worked in a couple of seasons. The farmhouse’s interior was dusty and sparsely furnished. The only remaining item of value was a bottle of moonshine. Why in the world someone would leave a bottle of alcohol behind, I’ll never know! Taras appropriated it, naturally. Two paths led away from the farmhouse; one to the outhouse and the other to a well. The farm wasn’t near the river. Orlam kept muttering about wild boars and murder pigs, but there was no livestock, so it seemed safe enough. We spent a quiet night there.

The next day, JK was positively giddy. He kept telling us that we were close, very close, and he was ecstatic! We reached a smallish river, about 10 yards across. In it, we could see debris from a ship that had broken into pieces, perhaps when it collided with the nearby rocks. It’s not clear what caused it to sink.

As R’ed and I prepared to enter the water and start searching for the treasure, Taras began firing arrows into the logs floating in the river. Surprisingly, some of them dived down into the water and swam away. Crocodiles! That was a close call! We hunted down a deer in the jungle and used it as bait, to lure the crocs away from the sunken ship. The last we saw them, the crocs were heading north away from us, their prize deer in their greedy jaws.

R’ed and I dived into the water and before long found a large chest, heavy. We pulled it up onto shore with difficulty. When we broke the padlock, we found that it was filled with coins, gems and jewelry. Truly a treasure chest!

As we were admiring the loot, we heard a voice ring out from the depths of the jungle, “You son of a bitch!” JK’s head came up and he replied, “Oh, but I was getting it for all of us.” The adepts that Taras had seen following us had found us again. There were two archers and 3 others who had the look of bandits. Before JK could talk more to them, a fight began. JK very quickly dived into the river. But then returned mid-fight to start filling his many pockets with as much loot as he could hold. A stern look from Orlam stopped him cold and JK stayed put.

It was a tough fight, but we prevailed. Taras’ archery was deadly, and the enemy archers were no match for him. Orlam and Calina’s spells were very welcome, not just attacking the bandits, but providing better defenses for our side.

After all but one of the bandits were down, unconscious, we questioned the remaining one. The story we finally extracted was that JK and these adepts had been working together, stealing from a variety of targets. The loot here was their cumulative haul from all their jobs. But their ship sank. JK found us in an attempt to steal all the loot from his pals. No honor among thieves, eh?

We split the look among our group, and even gave JK a share. We left the bandits in the jungle with no weapons or supplies, to fend off the jungle as best they could. And to see if anything more could be salvaged from their sunken ship. But we left them alive. We returned to Throal without catching sight of them again. The last we saw JK, he was flaunting his share of the jewelry on his fingers, around his neck, even on his tail.

Quite an adventure, huh?!


Say Hi to everyone for me!

Love,
Kun’da’lin

redwraith
Posts:147
Joined:Fri Jul 17, 2020 8:12 pm

Re: AAR: [2M] X Marks The Spot (2020-11-04 @ 23:30 GMT)

Post by redwraith » Sun Nov 22, 2020 3:12 am

I was working at my father's clinic and was approached by Taras, who at first I thought was injured, but he said there was an Elven Sky Rider named Keel who was looking for a group to accompany her into the jungle. Why Taras thought I would want to go into the jungle is a mystery I might never solve.

I agreed to meet with Keel and this T'skrang, J'K'sper, at the Blue Weasel dive bar. Once at the bar we meet up with the rest of the crew, Orlam a human elementalist and Calina an attractive elven wizard.

J'K'sper told us a fantastical story of how he was hunting for a treasure on a sunken ship, he even had a map with an X on it. A proper pirate treasure hunt with who a likely T'skrang river pirate guiding us. I don't think any of us truly trust this J'K'sper and Calina indicated that she didn't trust him. I'm not sure what is going on with her as she hasn't said a word through out this meeting. Though her facial expressions and hand gestures are conveying her thoughts.

We all must of gotten drunk as we agreed to escort J'K'sper into the jungle in search of sunken treasure, or maybe we are all just that greedy. A trip for treasure isn't as noble as protecting a work gang from termites but it is a pirate treasure and all of the best treasure tales told to us as kids had pirates involved so why not live one of those tales.

Keel and Calina went to do some research on the jungle and possible dangers. It's a wild jungle it's likely to have many creatures that are dangerous and maybe even poisonous, but I guess knowing which dangerous creatures were also poisonous would be useful. While they were doing that Orlam and Taras went shopping for rope to help us drag the treasure chest out of the river. I'm guessing that I will be the one doing the dragging...sigh.

We started our trip and while we were in the "civilized" region we didn't encounter any hazards. Also the further we go the more relaxed J'K'sper seems to get and once we are in the jungle we all become alert to the possible dangers. While we were marching through the jungle a group or is it pride of Troajin leap to attack us. I step towards the front of the group as the resident idiot who stands in front to attract these creatures attention. They move quickly and attacked the whole party but we were able to dispatch or chase them off after a short conflict in which no one was seriously injured.

We continued walking and came across an abandoned farm and after Taras scouted the home and Calina looked at it oddly they both "announced" it clear. Calina either announced it was clear or was wiping her hands clean. We spent the night out of the elements and regained our focus for the rest of the hunt. We soon came across the river location were J'K'sper indicates the treasure was located. As we approached the river looking to start searching it's bed for the sunken treasure, Taras starts shouting at some logs. Well these logs moved and it turns out that they were crocodiles.

I suggested that we find some game to feed/distract the crocodiles. Taras joined me as we hunted for some fresh meat which we then deposited on a small island north of where we were going to search the river. Keel and myself started to swim around looking for the treasure chest and we eventual found it and started to drag it up onto shore as the rest stood watch.

Well soon after we got back to shore a group of people approached us and it turns out that they know our "friend" J'k'sper. They claim the treasure is theirs and that J'K'sper owes them a lot of money. I was hoping his betrayal of our trust would last until we had at least opened the chest. We didn't feel like turning over our find to them just because they threatened us so a battle started. They were mostly archers and it took a little buit to close with them in melee combat. I need to find a way to close with people more quickly.

Taras started to dart in and out of the jungle with his crossbow sinking solidly into the river pirates as Keel and myself moved into melee with them. Orlam and Calina were towards the back taking cover behind some large rocks sling spells and provided buffs. The fight didn't last very long once we engaged them close combat and they quickly surrender. None of us wanted to kill them after our brief battle but it would be foolish to try and drag them all the way back to Throal to stand trial so we let them keep some daggers and sent them off into the jungle to make their own way back to civilization.

J'k'sper during all of these tried to sneak off with the treasure which Orlam noticed and called to him to stop. I almost wish he hadn't as hunting down that eel would of been satisfying. We did manage to squeeze him for some additional payment though.

Another adventure completed and a childhood fantasy fulfilled all while getting paid. Maybe worth a trip into the jungle risking life and limb...maybe

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