Home  |  Darwin's Realm  |  House Rules  |  Cast of Characters  |  Campaign Journals

Setting out first thing in the morning Decor, Def Lenard, Grundall, Johnathon Greaves, Kelson Delsonari, and Maradon were able to follow the coast back to town and arrive in mid afternoon. As they approached along the cliff of the coast they easily saw bad news in the town's harbor. The Wind's Pawn was no longer anchored in the harbor but Captain Morgan's ship, the Vengeance was.

Ahriallen informed the party of the captain's orders to seek an augury every morning from the temple of Poseidon to find out if the ship should stay in the harbor that day or leave. If the augury indicated that leaving would be the best course then the captain was to take the Pawn to a secluded cove to the south. The cove could be reached by land in roughly three days walking. Apparently this tactic was successful since everything seemed peaceful in the harbor. The Pawn must have departed before Morgan had arrived.

The party then split up to accomplish three goals within town and slip away unnoticed by Morgan. Lenard, Moradon, and Grundall entered via north gate to buy supplies and transportation for the road south. John, Kelson and Decor entered through the west gate to report to Mathius and have the divine Quest lifted. Ahriallen went by himself to the wharfs to get information on Morgan's ship and plans.

John, Kelson, and Decor found the usual semi-warm welcome at the temple of Kertigen. High Priest Mathius showed all the appreciation of a merchant who's shipment was three days overdue as John reported the party's accomplishments and the information gained. Mathius was greatly interested in the dead wizard and the dwarves that had been rescued from the lair but shrugged off everything else as either unimportant or inconsequential.

Before performing the ceremony to official proclaim the Quest completed Mathius informed the adventurers that their "friend" Morgan was looking for them and that Mathius had told Morgan they were performing a service for him north of town. When John revealed Morgan's status as a pirate captain and their enemy Mathius seemed completely unconcerned and shrugged off any inconvenience he may have caused by telling Morgan of their location.

During their time in the temple they did find out that the dead wizard, Zalderath, had been run out of town a few years earlier because of his involvement in closing down a now abandoned temple.

For their part, Lenard and the dwarves had a fairly uneventful shopping trip and managed to procure provisions, two horses, and a cart and two oxen. On their short journey to the rendezvous point a quarter mile south of town Lenard and dwarves noticed a twelve year old kid following them.

The kid made no attempt to hide his presence even though the cold weather kept traffic very light on the road. He walked down the middle of the road about fifty feet behind the cart. The kid was not properly dressed for the cold and wasn't carrying any visible weapons or burdens. With his obvious inability to survive in the cold over night and his lack of subtlety the bard and dwarves were unsure about whether he was actually following them or was merely on his way to some near-by destination down the road.

When Lenard and the dwarves rendezvous with John, Kelson, and Decor in a small copse of trees just off the road the kid continues down the road headed south. About half an hour later, as the party was waiting for Ahriallen to show up, they notice the kid coming out of some woods on the opposite side of the road and casually walk down the road back toward town. A quick investigation showed that the kid had walked down the road past the woods, then J-hooked back into the trees where he settled down behind some winter-dead bushes. His location gave him an excellent view of the road in both directions and the copse that the adventurers had hidden their cart behind.

The party decided that the kid was either spying on them or was scouting the road for victims to rob. Either way, they decided to keep a vigilant eye out for trouble while they awaited Ahriallen.

The warrior-elf arrived at the copse as the sun was setting. He arrived invisible and in a hurry to warn the party that Morgan and some of his men were on the way.

As everyone scrambled into onto the cart and struggled to get the lazy oxen moving Morgan's arrival was announced by a volley of arrows that seemed to come from mid-air. As the arrows arched in the air shimmered where the arrows had originated and suddenly Captain Morgan and ten of his pirates were visible not more than thirty yards from the cart.

John remembered what Morgan's lightning bolt spell had done to the tavern in Trazarra and yelled for everyone to abandoned the cart and get into the woods. His advice proved to be both timely and wise when Morgan raised his hook, incanted a few words of arcane power, and unleashed a lightning bolt at the cart and scattering adventurers. Kelson, the two horses, and the cart were all struck by the destructive magic and all three were immediately disabled.

Once the battle was fully joined the adventurers quickly gained the upper hand over the lightly armored and largely untrained pirates. Morgan himself proved to be dangerous as he pelted the adventurers with magic missiles several times while avoiding getting involved with melee fighting.

The fighting ended relatively quickly but Morgan was able to escape the party for a second time by enhancing his speed with what appeared to be a haste spell. He then ducked into a globe of darkness that John had summoned to give cover against the pirate archers. When Morgan emerged from the dark he had a wraith-like appearance and proved to be insubstantial when Grundall tried to block the pirate captain's escape. Morgan ran directly back toward town, quickly out distancing his pursuers and abandoning a lone pirate that was still battling Lenard and Ahriallen.

Lenard subdued the last pirate as he made a desperate attempt to get away from the party. The bard easily kept pace with the fleeing pirate and lashed out with a strong kick that caught the pirate square in the butt, lifted him off of his feet, and caused him to crash to the frozen ground. The pirate was easily secured since Lenard's kick had temporarily disabled him because of the intense pain in his butt and jarred spine.

After the dusts cleared and everyone was back on their feet again there was a discussion concerning the events of the past week or so and some speculations as to whether these events were connected. (The speculations are summarized below). While this discussion was taking place John, who is roughly 5 days away from his change, almost leaves the party out of fear for what would happen if he was on board the ship and became the wolf. Ahriallen assured John that it will be a non-issue but did not go into specifics at the time. This convinced John to stay with the party for the time being until he learned more about how to avoid a disastrous situation when the full moon rose.

Summary of speculation and observations on events:

• General consensus is that priest Mathius can not be fully trusted and is too interested in profit to be relied upon.
• Mathius and Morgan might be in league with each other.
• Mathius told party that a "friend" of theirs who matched Morgan's description was looking for them and that Mathius had told Morgan that the party was north of town for a few days.
• Party told Mathius that Morgan was a pirate. Mathius recognized the name but did not show any concern about this at all.
• Mathius was very interested in the dwarves that had been captured by the ogres. He also had interest in the men that had retrieved the dead wizard and his stuff from the lair. The merman in the lair piqued his interest, but only just barely. Most of the other information about the ogre raiders and their lair he shrugged off but had an acolyte write everything down and make a map to the lair.
• Speculation is that Morgan may or may not have been the one to pick up the dead wizard and his stuff from the ogre lair.
• Morgan had two kids looking for the party, they saw Lenard by the north gate while he and the dwarves were buying supplies and heard Lenard talking about the incident in Trazarra. One reported back while the other one followed Lenard and the wagon.
• Before the pirates attacked half of the suspicion about the kids was directed toward Mathius as well since he was so interested in the dwarves.
• Morgan is specifically after Ahriallen. During the attack Morgan ordered his men to "kill everyone but bring me the elf".
• Morgan has attacked Wind's Pawn three times. Once three years ago where he boarded her but was driven off by Ahri's crew and another ship that was there. Second time was about six months ago but Wind's Pawn was able to out sail the pirates after exchanging spell and ballista attacks. Third time was when Morgan captured the Pawn south of Trazarra.
• Morgan broke from his standard methods of ship capture. Ahriallen's crew were taken prisoner and his marines and officers were being taken into Trazarra to be questioned about something.
• Morgan has twice turned "wraith-ish" after a fight went badly for his side. He proved to be insubstantial. When Ahriallen has battled him Morgan seemed normal enough. Some speculation is that Morgan turns wraith-ish when his power is depleted. Morgan had thrown numerous spells during both encounters. Each time he used arcane, verbal intonations but did not make any gestures other than to point his hook at his target. The spells seemed to come from his hook.
• The merman was an unusual find in the dead wizard's lair and may or may not have anything to do with the "underwater pirates". Morgan may or may not also be involved with that.
• Ten books were recovered from retired pirate captain's manor. None have been fully examined yet.

Return to the top of the page.