SCOTT CASPER'S ULTIMATE GREYHAWK

SOUTH PROVINCE CAMPAIGN

 

Cast:

Barada, Neutral male Flannish human mercenary (1st level fighter)(played as NPC).  

Alexander Petrok, Lawful Neutral male Oerdian human templar of Zilchus (1st level paladin

variant) (played as NPC).

Perpegilliam Brown, Neutral male Hairfoot hobniz rogue (1st level Thief). 

Hristo Neutral Good male Wesevud ("Central") noniz ex-town watchman and rogue (1st level fighter/1st level thief).

Vladamir Kostitov, Lawful Good male Oerdian human prestidigitator for the Governor's

Guardsmen (1st level Illusionist). 

Abraham the Radiant, Neutral Good male Oeridian human acolyte of Pelor (1st level Cleric).

 

Quote of the month:  "Wakachakawakachakawakachaka -- FLAN!" 

~Vlad's player, making the best Flanploitation joke of the day.

 

Setting:  Relmor Bay, Prymp (free town of the Ahlissa Coast)

 

Readying 19, 581 CY

 

The rush of activity had died down aboard the Red Zephyr.  The crew, satisfied that the mermen were no longer following the ship, settled down to clean and dress the injured.  Captain Renspa was still livid with anger over the mermen's attack, but was seldom to be seen on deck.  It seemed as if everyone had forgotten about their errant prisoner on board the ship, the noniz known as Hristo. 

 

For some time, Hristo pondered where fate had led him.  He could not find fault with how the pirates had treated him.  Oh, sure, they had locked him in chains, but he was a prisoner and that was just to be expected.  They had killed Barada, and Hristo bore them some animosity for that, but it was hard to hold a grudge since they had spared Hristo.  True, they were self-professed pirates, but since Hristo was himself a thief he had no cause to complain there.  And lastly, over the two days he had spent on board their ship, he had not been asked to do anything more strenuous than help out in the galley, picking grubs out of biscuits.

 

Hristo had just warmed up to the idea of becoming a pirate that afternoon, when First Mate Kazimierz grabbed him and started to haul him off to the stairs leading down to the hold.  Hristo demanded to know what was going on, and Kazimierz calmly explained that they would be reaching port soon, and that it was time for Hristo to go back in chains.  That didn't appeal to Hristo at all, and as timid and subdued as he normally was, this finally made him angry enough to act!  He kicked Kaz in the shin, and as Kaz loosened his grip, Hristo bolted to the side of the ship and jumped overboard. 

 

A cry of "Gnome overboard!" went up from the ship, but the Red Zephyr was under sail and moving too quickly for anyone to do anything about the escaping captive.  Captain Renspa himself looked out over the poopdeck, and sadly shook his head. 

 

Hristo, however, was jubilant.  He had made good his escape, saw no sign of sharks, and could make out what looked like land on the horizon.  It would be a simple matter, he thought, to alternate between swimming and floating until he got to shore.  For the first hour, his plan worked well.  But, still injured from his battle outside Skull Keep days earlier, he found that all that swimming had sapped his strength.  Also, the shore was not as close as he had estimated.  For miles, Hristo could barely keep to the water's surface, and sometimes took in great mouthfuls of seawater that threatened to drown him at any moment.

 

Yet, for all this hardship, Hristo did reach shore.  He was washed up on a beach, at night, between two piers.  There was a town, though the weary noniz could not tell what town.  He saw a rowboat lashed to one of the piers, and he crawled over to it.  Pulling the tarp open, Hristo crawled inside.  He found it hard to sleep.  Once in the night, he heard something skittering across the deck.  Peaking out from under the tarp, he saw a large rat staring back.  Hristo was famished, and the rat began to look like a meal of fine cuisine to him.  However, he was also barely conscious after his near-drowning, and was relieved when the rat was the first to back away.  Hristo fell back to sleep.

 

The Rusty Bucket Tavern was a dimly-lit, run-down, but otherwise inhabitable one-story wooden building in the Dock District.  In fact, it was one of the few places of business along that particular length of street legitimate enough to advertise itself.  A rusty bucket did indeed hang above the front door.  The tavern had a single window to the right of the entrance, and narrow alleys on either side.  The Rusty Bucket, except on rare occassions, served nothing but beer and ale.  Serving boys carried both choices around in buckets, and patrons would call a serving boy over so they could dip their rented flagons into the frothy, booze-laden buckets.  Serving maids were known to work at the tavern as well, though their areas of service often ran much wider. 

 

Barada and Perpegilliam Brown strolled into the Rusty Bucket Tavern.  Barada looked intimidating, and Perri looked nonchalant, which was not a stretch for either of them.  They took a seat at an empty table.  Shortly afterwards, Alexander Petrok, Vlaimir Kostitov, and Abraham the Radiant walked in, and took a nearby table.  The five adventurers were all fully-equipped for dungeon-delving, and drew no end of stares from a dozen other patrons.  Of course, this was the plan -- show up at the tavern, and draw as much attention as possible until the mysterious Flying Turtle Guild was flushed out of hiding.  However, after a little time had passed and the five new patrons showed no sign of becoming violent, the rest of the customers went back to their previous conversations.     

 

In fact, a half hour passed.  The five adventurers nursed their ales as long as they could do so without drawing ire from the tavern's employees.  It was about that time that an attloi man named Gesualdo entered.  The small sect of attloi in Prymp was so reclusive that several members of the party had not seen one before.  Gesualdo was certainly hard to miss, with his olive complexion, greasy moustache, red bandana, and brightly-colored, baggy clothes.  Perri had also not failed to notice him, but to Perri, Gesualdo was an old friend.  The small hobniz jumped down from his bench and waddled over to the tall, swarthy attloi, and the two greeted each other warmly and loudly.  It had been much too long, they both agreed, since they had been out drinking and wenching together.  Perri brought Gesualdo over to sit with him, and introduced Barada.

 

Everyone sat quietly and waited, while Perri and Gesualdo caught up on old times.  However, nearly an hour had passed since they had entered the tavern, and even Perri was antsy for something to happen.  The number of other customers had dwindled to half of what it was, but Perri still spoke up for their benefit as he began asking Gesualdo what he knew of the Flying Turtle Guild.  Of course, he was also hoping to upset the ever-uptight templar, Alex, by making their purpose their too obvious.  To his chargrin, though, Alex seemed to approve of the plan.  Gesualdo admitted that he had not heard much about this new guild, and that it was something the Attloi should know about.  He promised to look into the matter. 

 

Now it was time for the next part of Perri's plan, which he had conveniently forgotten to tell the rest of the party.  Feeling the need to relieve himself of the burden on his liver, Perri grabbed a pail from the room's corner, and took it outside through the side door to the alley.  Everyone in the party watched the hobniz wander off, but hesitated to do anything about it for fear of upsetting the plan further.  That is, until they heard the sounds of combat from the alleyway. 

 

Perri had just stepped outside and found a half-orc standing on either side of him.  One, with a wooden club in his hand, slammed the door shut.  The other swung at Perri with a leather sap.  They had not reckoned on so small or so nimble an opponent, however, and their every blow missed, while Perri delivered glancing blows with his own short sword.  Barada and Abraham soon came bursting through the alley door, and it looked like the battle would be soon over.  Just then, an arrow struck the wall over Abe's head, having been fired by a masked man crouching on the slanted roof of the neighboring building. 

 

Vlad and Alex emerged from the front door of the tavern, intent on circling around and catching Perri's attackers from behind.  However, three more half-orcs wielding clubs sprang forth from the opposite side of the building.  Vlad immediately recognized them as the half-orcs he had arrested earlier that day and left in the town's stocks.  Vlad managed to reach into his component pockets for his colored sand, and spoke the incantation for his Color Spray spell.  But just as the spell went off, one of the half-orcs managed to lunge forward and give Vlad a vicious head blow from his blackjack.  Vlad went down from the blow, and the three half-orcs -- overwhelmed by the spell -- fell also.  Alex, who had by now drawn his long sword, could only kneel down and make sure Vlad was still alive.

 

Perri ran to the back corner of the alley, and Abe hugged the wall under the roof their new assailant crouched on.  They could hear their masked foe start moving across the roof -- towards Perri's end.  Perri stood with throwing daggers at the ready, and Abe dropped his mace and drew out his sling.  The fleeing figure received glancing blows from slung bullets, and a serious wound in the back when Perri hurled a dagger from his place of hiding.  Their attacker still managed to make the leap from his roof to the roof of a building between the tavern and the town wall.  Perri called to Barada, telling the Flannish warrior that he needed to get up on that roof.  Barada picked Perri up by one arm and one leg, and began spinning him around like a discus.  With a Herculean throw, Perri went sailing up into the air, and 60 lbs. of hobniz smacked into the figure on the roof.   Their attacker had managed to climb to the crest of the roof, but the impact sent the attacker tumbling down the far side of the roof, and Perri tumbling down the near side.  Perri landed with a nasty thump, but was only lightly injured.  Circling around the third building, the adventurers found their assailant unconscious and seriously injured from the fall.  Abe stablilized the man's conditon, and Abe and Barada carried him between them back to the alley.

 

By now, Alex had laid on hands upon Vlad, and the healing powers of a templar flowed into Vlad and revived him.  The three surviving half-orcs were quickly bound before the spell that incapacitated them could wear off.  The others were just returning when a Watch patrol approached.  A Watch patrol seemed suspicious -- arriving so quickly in the seedy Dock District -- but they did wear the town's device on their tabards, and Alex and Vlad were duty-bound to respect their authority. 

 

Perri and Abe had other ideas, however.  They wanted out of there, fast.  The each explained a plan to Barada about what to do, and then had to take the time to sort out their plans.  Meanwhile, the Watchmen spotted them in the alleyway.  It was too late for them all to get away, so Abe stayed behind to block the Watchmen while Barada and Perri got away with their prisoner.  Abe was brought out to stand with the others, and blurted out that he didn't know why Perri was running away.  Vlad wove a tale of half-truths that made it seem like Perri was only a casual acquaintance of their's, and that they didn't know who was fleeing with him.    The Watchmen took the three surviving half-orcs into custody, and asked the others to come with them back to Prymp Keep for questioning.  To this, the three adventurers agreed. 

 

Cast:

Barada, Neutral male Flannish human mercenary (1st level fighter)(played as NPC).  

Alexander Petrok, Lawful Neutral male Oerdian human templar of Zilchus (1st level paladin

variant) (played as NPC).

Perpegilliam Brown, Neutral male Hairfoot hobniz rogue (1st level Thief). 

Hristo Neutral Good male Wesevud ("Central") noniz ex-town watchman and rogue (1st level fighter/1st level thief).

Vladamir Kostitov, Lawful Good male Oerdian human prestidigitator for the Governor's

Guardsmen (1st level Illusionist). 

Abraham the Radiant, Neutral Good male Oeridian human acolyte of Pelor (1st level Cleric).

 

Setting:  Relmor Bay, Prymp (free town of the Ahlissa Coast)

 

Readying 19, 581 CY

 

Barada and Perri made their way back to Perri's room at Izer's Place, a lonely boarding house at the end of a street in the Dock District.  There, they unmasked their captive, and found it was no one they recognized.  The man was still unconscious, and from the looks of him, would remain that way for quite some time.  They tied the man to Perri's bed, and took turns standing guard over him through the night.

 

Returning to the Old City, the remaining members of the Band of the Grinning Gargoyle were led to Prymp Keep -- home of the Town Watch.  The three half-orc prisoners were placed in one room, and the three Oerdian adventurers were escorted to an adjoining room.  There, the band members recounted their stories for a Watchman named Bellosk, who listened for inconsistencies.  After awhile, Bellosk seemed satisfied that they had acted in self-defense, and even granted them permission to be present as he went next door to question the prisoners.  However, when they entered the adjoining room, they found it empty.  The guard who had been on-duty at the door came back and said that another Watchman, Ivan, had already come by to take the prisoners to the dungeon and relieved him of duty.  Alex, being himself a Watchman, made known his authority and left to spread the alarm.  Vlad rushed to the courtyard to look for signs of the escapees.  Abe stayed behind with Bellosk and examined the room they had been held in. 

 

Abe found no secret ways out of the room they were held in.  Vlad discovered that no one had left the keep by the gate since they had come in, and that it was the only way out of the keep.  The Watchmen did admit that it was remotely possible for them to go over the wall if they had some way to scale it.  Alex,  Abe, and Bellosk joined Vlad in the courtyard.  There was no sign of the escapees.  Also, the Ivan, who had supposedly visited the prisoners, had been on-duty elsewhere, and others could vouch for him.  Alex would stay to help sort out this mystery, but it was now Watch business, and Vlad and Abe were politely asked to leave so the keep could be sealed off.

 

Readying 20

 

Hristo woke up, and could see daylight through the tarp above him.  Then the tarp was removed.  Some fishermen, ready to begin their daily toil, were shocked to discover a noniz in their boat.  Hristo looked perfectly dreadful in his soaked, raggedy fullcloth, and the fishermen were moved to pity.  They helped the small creature out of their boat and set him down on the pier.  There were numerous piers stretching out over the beach and jutting out into the bay.  There were buildings at the end of the piers, and streets, and beyond those -- a walled town.  But not just any walled town.  Somehow, Hristo had washed up right into Prymp.  He had spent the night in a rowboat, and his own quarters had been just a few streets away. 

 

Then Hristo looked around a little more, and it dawned on him that the large sailing ship out alongside the next pier over was the Red Zephyr.  He had risked death to escape the pirates, and they had gotten there ahead of him.  The pier Hristo was on was now swarming with fishermen making for their boats, and Hristo grabbed one and told him about the pirates and his own harrowing escape.  The fisherman, being either civic-minded or gullible, ran off to inform the harbormaster.  Hristo decided not to wait around and see if the fisherman did so.

 

Instead, Hristo returned to Hogan's Hostel, where he boarded.  However, Perri knew this as Izer's Place, and unknowingly was lodged just a few doors down with his new roommate, Barada.  Perri was emerging from his room on his way to find breakfast when he spotted Hristo.  The two demi-humans gave each other a big hug, as they were overjoyed to see each other alive.  Hristo very briefly recounted his escape from the pirates.  Perri was eager to bring Hristo the the Grinning Gargoyle tavern to surprise the rest of the band, but Hristo needed a quick stop in his room to check on his laundry and change into his cleanest clothes.  Aside from clothes, Hristo had no belongings remaining.  Perri armed Hristo with a spare short sword so the noniz would at least have something for defending himself.  The poverty of Perri's companions, Barada and Hristo, became apparent when the three of them tried to enter the Old City, and only Perri had money on him for tolls.  He grumbled as he paid for himself and Barada, leaving Hristo to try Perri's old pebble-in-the-tollbox trick.  

 

Soon, at the tavern, everyone gathered and welcomed Hristo back into their ranks.  Hristo too was excited to be back.  Alex, who had spent much of the night at Prymp Keep, informed the others that no sign of the escapees could be found, nor could an explanation to their escape be made.  Everyone at the table agreed, though, that it looked like corruption in the Watch was to blame.  Hrist was briefed on their plans to return to Skull Keep, and that they were only waiting for the Church of Zilchus to recruit more members for them.  Vlad had high hopes that the Guardsmen could be persuaded to give them a contingent of men to help wipe out the brigands and pirates with.  In fact, Vlad planned to go to the Garrison that morning in order to again petition the Castellan of the Garrison, Adam Belkos.  The others would find their own ways of amusing themselves and passing the time, and everyone split up into groups of one or two to go their own way. 

 

And then they heard the boom.

 

The sound, like a deep thunder-clap, rang through the streets of town.  It had been seldom heard, and not since Nyrondese ships had last bombarded Prymp a few years ago.  But their was no mistaking the sound of the Bombard.  There was serious trouble at the Naval Docks.  Every member of the party ran to the North Gate that led to the Dock District.  The Naval Docks were along the east end of the beach, with a small, fortified structure between the piers and the streets.  It was there that the Bombard was kept, and what it had fired at was a ship sailing away from Prymp -- the Red Zephyr!  Two naval ships were getting ready to cast off in pursuit.  The Band of the Grinning Gargoyle managed to gain access to the docks, and boarded theVigilant.  Captain Kostov could tell they weren't mariners, but didn't have time to make them leave because the Vigilant was ready to cast off.  Vlad wondered to himself if the captain might be some distant relative of the Kostitovs, but such was not the time to ponder such thoughts.  The sails of the Vigilant caught a good gust of wind, and took off from the pier, followed by another naval ship, the Man-O-War.  Abe began giving the captain advice on how they could catch the pirates -- advice which showed Abe to be lacking in naval experience.  As annoyed as that made the captain, Kostov had to admit that there would be no catching the pirate ship as long as they stayed on the same heading.  If only they knew what course the Red Zephyr was making for...

 

But of course, the Band of the Grinning Gargoyle had a very good idea where the northwest-bound ship was heading for.  The pirates planned to lose the other ships out in deep water, and then head back to shore and Skull Keep.  Captain Kostov knew the coastline well enough that he could plot an intercept course that would get them to Skull Keep first.  So, the Vigilant turned hard to port, leaving the Man-O-War to follow the Zephyr alone.

 

A few hours passed.   The Red Zephyr got farther away.  And then Skull Keep came into view.  Although every member of the Grinning Gargoyle Band knew what Skull Keep looked like, none of them had seen the skull-like cliff from this angle before.  The eye hole/tunnel where they had pushed goblins to their death, and barely made their own escape from later.  The row of teeth/rocks and open mouth/cave where most of them had first encountered the pirates.  And above it all, the lonely tower that lead to the dungeons below. 

 

The Red Zephyr drew closer.  In fact, it hard turned hard and was coming straight towards Skull Keep.  The Vigilant would be broad-sided if they did not turn, and so Captain Kostov ordered his ship to turn to starboard and meet the pirates head-on.  Rolling over the waves, the two caravels closed the distance between them, with the Man-O-War still tagging along some distance behind the Zephyr.  They seemed to inch towards each other, but their pilots were true to their captains' orders, as the two ships were going to pass each other so close that they could have rammed each other.  As their forecastles passed each other, the mariners on board the Vigilant prepared crossbows, and held boarding planks over the starboard rail of the Zephyr.  On board the Red Zephyr, a few of the pirates had bows or crossbows, and one armored man held an arquebus.  And above them all, in the netting of the Vigilant, Perri had undone a rope, and now used it to swing over to the deck of the Zephyr! 

 

The battle was joined, with the firing of the arquebus drowning out the calls to board.  Missiles were fired from both decks, with the pirates taking more hits.  With the two ships still slowly passing each other, Abe, Vlad, and Hristo ran across the boarding planks to join Perri in melee with the pirates.  The successful volley of the naval mariners had the pirates in disarray, and a Color Spray spell from Vlad left much less of the crew in the position to fight.  Still, Abe found himself facing a pirate in single combat.  Hristo faced an old shipmate named Pon, who was all to eager to exact revenge on the gnome who had somehow returned from his watery grave.  Perri was confronted by the Second Mate, Gershom -- a man who fought with a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other.  Each of these heroes was evenly matched with his opponent, and the situation looked grim as Captain Renspa was rallying his men for a charge.  As the Vigilant sailed past, there would be no reinforcements coming until the ship came around again along side the Zephyr.  

 

But then, Vlad cast his Phantasmal Force spell.  He concentrated hard as his hands worked eldritch forces in the air.  He had never tried an illusion on so grand a scale, but he managed to make what looked like a ghost ship begin to materialize off the port side of the Zephyr.  The pirates were superstitious of ghost ships, as Vlad had hoped, and this through them in disarray.  When it looked like the ghost ship was on a collision course with the Zephyr, about half the crew panicked and herded into a lifeboat in order to abandon ship.  Vlad made the ghost ship appear to ram the lifeboat, and most of the crew who was already fooled by the illusion fell into the water trying to escape the collision.

 

Captain Renspa surrendered.  One by one his men followed suit, though Pon, apparently blaming Hristo for their misfortune, was the last to drop his weapon.  The Vigilant had now come up alongside the Zephyr again, and after matching their speeds laid down the boarding planks a second time.  Alex and Barada, who had missed their first chance to cross to the pirate ship, came onboard with part of the naval crew to take Renspa and his remaining crew members into custody.  Where the rest of the pirate crew had jumped into the water, only shark fins could now be seen. 

 

Perri, Hristo, Abe, and Vlad then took the time to search below deck, hoping to fill their sacks with pirate loot.  Hristo was actually more interested in finding what the pirates had already taken from him, but his armor, arms, and equipment seemed  no longer to be on board.  Several chests filled with clothes and coins were found.  Hristo warned the others that hobgoblins had been on board the Zephyr before, but had not been seen on deck during the battle.  This was fortuitous, as Abe ran into one while searching the crews' rooms.  Abe shut the door on the spear-wielding hobgoblin and held it shut while the others went up top to get help from the Vigilant.  Some mariners came down, and the adventurers let the sailors go in first.  The hobgoblin was more than a match for three mariners with short swords, however, and Abe reluctantly took a hand in bringing the monster down.

 

Vlad found the cabin belonging to the 3rd Mate, Pulnka, and amongst his possesions recovered a slender spellbook that Vlad couldn't read.  In the Captain's quarters were two more books,