Freeport

I had been released from my period spent with the Azure Hawks mercenary band after an extremely short time. It seems that the leaders of the group objected to my questioning their orders. I then found myself down on my luck, and running short on coin in a dead-end port.

I could myself fortunate that I was located by agents of Lord Haime, who recognised the mercenary tabard I was still wearing. Their advance payment enabled me to buy a refill on my canteen, and even repair the damage to my armour.

I was introduced to a number of others who had also been hired by Lord Haime to accompany him on a long sea voyage on board the Alarielle - it occurs to me that he must've been expecting an awful lot of trouble to justify hiring six bodyguards! (Of course he probably didn't have to offer as much for the Hodash the orc or Rhiannon Tallistar the elf woman).

As it turns out, all the bodyguards in the world weren't enough. The man choked on a fishbone 6 days out of port, leaving all his employees stranded on a ship bound for somewhere named "Freeport". All I could get out of the crew is that it was "a home to pirates and scallywags". The Captain, of course, refused to turn around, and there was plainly no way that we were ever going to receive our pay from Lord Haime.

To add insult to injury, the Captain managed to steer the boat into a fogbank, and we immediately lost all wind. It was almost reassuring when the fog cleared enough to show us a burned out half-sunken pirate vessel.

Our noble Captain was no help at all. He assured us that there were no rules for this sort of situation, and left the whole possibility of a rescue in our hands. Heavens help us if we're ever shipwrecked when this man comes sailing past!

We swiftly realised that the wreck was about a month old, and that anybody aboard would either be long-dead, or begging for rescue from atop the decks. We decided, therefore, that we would go aboard to see if we could make a small amount of money - it was clear that we were not going to be paid by this stage.

The orc turned out to be prodigiously strong; so much so that it took several minutes before he rowed more gently, allowing us to head in a straight line. I was first aboard, clutching my flail tightly in one hand, and hanging on to the mast with the other. The deck was wet, and tilted wildly.

Just as the others were climbing from the longboat, 6 men came charging from the waterlogged below-decks, wielding rapiers and wearing padded armour. Whilst I was able to defeat 2, I took a slight wound to one arm when I mis-read my footing on the slippery deck. To my great alarm, the man I had taken to be a sailor unwrapped an enormous length of chain from around his waist, and started waving it above his head, threatening the lives of everyone within ten feet of him! A lethal and thoroughly unpredictable weapon, whose effects cannot be questioned, but the design of which�

As my more mercenary colleagues were looting the wreck (they found no food, no water, no bedding, and no equipment), we all spotted a glowing spot moving towards us. It swiftly coalesced into the shape of a man, who was walking across the sea to us. He then walked through the side of the boat, to re-appear amongst us. Percival Porpington, my new cleric companion, attempted to repel the abomination with his holy symbol, but this had no effect whatsoever.

To cut a long story short, the man-thing was the ghost of Captain Ned Fletcher; a pirate who had been sunk by "shark-men". His boat, the Brinewolf, and the Eye of the Sea Dragon (a gem which he had been transporting) were sunk in 30 feet of water some distance to the north, and the Eye of the Sea Dragon needed to be returned to the temple of the Pirate God in Freeport.

Although it was against my better instincts to appease the god of pirates, laying the dead to rest seemed like a noble ambition, and one which we set to forthwith.

We found the wreck quite swiftly - much of it was still above water. Veit Beren, the sailing man with the abomination of a chain-weapon, dived in to rescue a crate of potions, which enabled us to breathe underwater.

Whilst the cleric and I stayed on board ship to cover the seas below with crossbows (in case the shark-men returned), the others investigated deeper underwater, where they found Captain Ned Fletcher's body trapped under a cannon. I was called to help drag the cannon off the body, and was rewarded by being viciously attacked by some 8-armed slimy monstrosity which wrapped itself around my face and refused to let go.

After several seconds' struggle, I eventually tore the creature from my face, and left it to be stabbed repeatedly by the others in the group. The cannon was moved, and the body was taken back up to the Alarielle. We did not find the Eye of the Sea Dragon, but did discover a trail of dropped gold leading leading away from the The Brinewolf.

Following the trail of gold along the sea-bed was no problem at all, thanks to the magical potions of water-breathing. We trudged and swam for about an hour, before coming to a cave. As we gathered around the entrance, we disturbed a shark, which swam rapidly towards us!

What made our peril all the more lethal was that none of us was wearing armour (except the sailor), as we did not wish to lose our precious belongings to rust and salt. Likewise, most of our more effective weapons had been left on board the Alarielle.

Whilst the others froze in positions of terror, I moved carefully to the rocky wall, ready to defend myself if needs be. I was right to do so, as the shark almost immediately pounced upon Veit Beren, tearing into him gleefully.

Several of us swam to Veit Beren's aid, attacking the monster, and my salvaged rapier was most effective in cutting the beast up. So much so, in fact, that it turned upon me, and bit me hard upon the arm for my troubles.

Before I could even regain my footing, the beast was dead. We swam into the cave.

The cave stretched away into the darkness, and we decided to head into what we thought was an opening to the right. The orc went first, weapon drawn, whilst Huey Morgan stayed back to cover us from a possible rear attack. Hodash vanished into the cave, and almost immediately shot back out, swimming as fast as he possibly could to the entrance of the cave, and the open sea beyond.

The rest of us swam forwards, trying to get into combat with the strange shark-toothed scaled sea-elf who was inside. A tiny shark swan around her, harassing us as we tried to swim into the cave. We swiftly surrounded her, and were each trying to pierce her tough skin, when she cast another spell into the water, surrounding myself and the elven bow-woman with colours and swirling patterns. Although it gave me a piercing headache, I shook off her malign influence. Not so the elf, who immediately fell unconscious!

Although I had had not succumbed to the magics, I did fall to the dagger the sea-elf was wielding, as she drove it hard into my unarmoured torso. Barely conscious, I pulled away from the fight, in time to see our foe being struck down by a final blow.

We looted the room in which she was stood, taking much gold and treasure with us, including some items which glowed in a manner which suggested that they were magical! We even managed to recover the Eye of the Sea Dragon from the sea-elf spellcaster's body.

We returned to the Alarielle, where I was healed by Percival Porpington. He then did an act which made me proud to stand by him. As the Ghostly Captain Ned stood by, Percival Porpington attempted to smash the gem which we had recovered, an effort which would surely have thwarted the ghost's mission, as well as the wishes of the (surely most evil) pirate God.

The ghost was enraged by this effort, even though Porpington's blow did not so much as scratch the gem. Veit Beren stepped in and claimed the gem, and swore that he would take it to the Pirate God's temple in Freeport.

We spent two days travelling to Freeport in peace. My wounds were healed by Friar Porpington, and I realised to my chagrin that I had been wounded in every combat we had been in! I swore that I would wear my armour more often, and wield those weapons with which I am more familiar, rather than a salvaged rapier.

Veit Beren spent two days cleaning his evil looking chain and chainmail armour, which he had insisted on taking under the sea. He seems to have been most fortunate, as he was able to find an enormous quantity of fresh water and armour polish aboard, saving both items from total destruction.

Upon reaching Freeport, we headed to the temple district. Percival Porpington was devastated to learn that the temple to Pelor is naught but a small shrine.

The others headed to the pirate god's temple, where they returned the gem to the high priest. I did not accompany them on that trip, refusing to set foot within the confines of what was certainly an evil building. I understand that the gem was returned, and then promptly stolen again. The priest cast some sort of spell, and the group saw what they presume was a true vision of the gems. They were already on the altar of another, an even darker God.