The Dwarven Wedding Session 8

Session #8 of The Dwarven Wedding.

Date: November 20th, 2016

Summary

While the captain wanted a word with our heroes, it was simply out of worry--he doesn't have insurance when it comes to passengers fighting on his ship! After some discussion, he was calmed down, and our heroes go to sleep (after counting the plunder they grabbed from the pirate ship).

In the morning (Day 3 of the journey), breakfast is brought to everyone--even Remnant, who cannot eat and made a shipmate feel weird about it. After a quick bite to eat, the heroes find themselves above deck, taking in the sun. The ship stops in Twain to drop off the captured pirates.

The ship sets sail again and the Dwarves heading to Riverbend remind Remnant of their offer (and even offer a 60/40 split of the winnings in Riverbend), but Tolnor steps in to refuse. After Tolnor explains why the Dwarves want Remnant to go with them to Verity and Luana, Verity calls Remnant a Gnomish counting machine. As it turns out, Verity had gambled big once in her life and she lost, badly, but she has been to Riverbend a few times to play in taverns and great halls.

While waiting for the day to pass, our heroes reflect on their past travels, not in south Turon, but in the Human north (Jacoe, Portsmith, Highland Crossing, and Pence). Luana attempted to break into the cabins held by the Humans, but with no luck.

Remnant ended up talking to the two human men aboard the ship--an old man, Carsey, and a younger man, Jebidian--both who revealed themselves to be followers of Pelor. They were discussing specific passages of the Scripture of Pelor. Remnant presses them about the Underdark, darkness rising, and the end of times coming (according to their end-of-the-world scripture¹). After a heated discussion, the old man put his fist down and asked Remnant to leave, which he did.

Following, Remnant found himself talking to two Gnomes--a pair our heroes were suspicious with since their arrival. As it turns out, these two Gnomes are headed for Outpost to find work in crab catching. "They can use some nimble fingers..." Their village's farmland suddenly slowed production of corn and other vegetables--something they believe to be caused by the "darkness" growing from the petrified forests of Darkfold. They spent their days picking fruits and vegetables in their village (halfway between Kase and Darkfold) working with automated Gnomish constructs. For fun, they said, they would rejigger the constructs to fight each other or do other dumb things. Remnant was not pleased.

Tolnor and Remnant leave the table and have a nice moment together. "Sometimes people are mean, and that's okay," says Tolnor.

That night, Tolnor read A Dwarven History, Volume 4.

The next morning, the gang has breakfast together and discusses what they found the day before. Luana manages to pick the lock of the Human cabin, but only finds two beds and a small desk. The other door gives her trouble, and the human woman she was looking for pops out, confused, then closes her door again.

Up on deck, the captain is nowhere to be found and before anyone can react, the ship is suddenly surrounded in magical fog. With a clever bit of magic, some of the fog is swept away and a tall Orc appears on deck. He threatens the ship, claiming to have the captain. A moment later, the ship is boarded by a dozen humans with covered faces, a gnome with a long brown beard, and a large human--the captain!--with a bag over his head. The gnome threatens to kill the captain if they don't sacrifice the ship, but our heroes jump into action!

The fight begins and the gnome makes true on his threat and begins brutally beating the captain, but our heroes would not be deterred. Within moments, the masked humans were all but defeated and the orc (Asterly) dead was dead. In the final moments of the fight, the captain was freed and the Gnome (revealed to be Brown Beard) was left unconscious. The few masked humans who survived scurried away with their ships and the fog dissipated.

Notes

Remnant Question of the Session: "Do We need money?"

1 - The Pelor "end of times" scripture begins with a dark spider that spins a web around the world, blackening the sky, while also eating the moon. It is said that the Chosen Ones will be given swords of pure light to cut the web and save humanity allowing Pelor to walk the land and purify it.