The Sea Wyvern's Wake (Dungeon #141)
Chapter One: A Modest Proposal

A couple of weeks pass after Viktor's evil deeds until the party have their encounter with the 'House of Porphyry' - the event that leads to the death of Celene's mentor and to her becoming a wanted person in the city.

After that adventure, a further FOUR MONTHS pass.

The characters keep busy in their own affairs, and practice their skills, each becoming better in their own way.

OOC: LADIES AND GENTS, WELCOME TO LEVEL SIX!

Wow, you had to work hard to get here from level five. You killed a troop of street performers, slaughtered a whole tribe of bullywugs, went blind fighting a wantabe succubus and threw Sasserine's most famous sleuth off the roof.

I very much want to hear how each character uses these months. In particular: How Logan trains up in his homebrew class, how Angati reconciles with her father, how Celene handles her wanted status, how Kassius critter ranch expands and what Alohan does with his new boat - the sea Wyvern.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:08, Tue 10 Jan 2017.

Logan shows up at the Temple of Gwynharwyf and sighed.  As much as he owed the church, the sessions with Lady Silvermane had grown old.  He already knew it would be another day of failures for him in his, as she put it, "pathetic attempts to grasp the simplest principles of arcane magic."  But Logan pushed open the doors anyway.

Inside, he made his way to the training room, noticing, as he always did, the quiet temple so depleted by the battle he had led them all to.  A few barbarians had joined, but the Church still felt much smaller than it had, and Logan found himself missing the boisterous personalities that had filled the building.  Even though they had been loud, and even frightening when Logan had first found them (though to be fair, the rogue had been discovered breaking into their church!) they had rapidly accepted him as one of their own, thanks to his father's ties with the church.

Opening the door to the training room, Logan stopped in surprise.  Instead of the severe Eladrin, Vorsh was inside.  Logan cocked his head.

"Ah, she's busy today?"

Vorsh smiled in a patronizing way.  "Not today, Logan.  I think you knew this, but Lady Silvermane's decided you don't have any aptitude for the arcane.  You're never going to be a Champion of Gwynharwyf.  But, to be fair, not everyone can be.  Still, you can serve the goddess.  Let's start by working on that sword.  I know you can get in behind someone and stab them, but there's more to swordplay than that!  Let's start with your footwork, Logan.  I've heard that you've got a problem getting skewered when you're alone in a fight."

Logan grimaced at the memory of his guts falling out and the life fading his body, and nodded.  "True, not something I'd like to repeat.  But look at me!"  The half-elf gestured at his thin, wiry body, the product of years of living hand-to-mouth in Shadowshore.  "I'm never going to be able to hold my own against an opponent like you!"

Vorsh tossed Logan a blunted practice sword and grabbed one for himself, shaking his head.  "Look, I don't think you'll ever be the best duelist in the world.  But you've got your father's skill, and I can see it, despite all the mess you've been fed learning to swing that sword from some gutter-trash in Shadowshore."

Logan bristled, his anger rising.  "And those dirty tricks kept me alive this long!"

Vorsh smiled, glad to see Logan getting ready to fight.  "They did, boy.  But there's people out there who have seen all of your 'tricks.'  And there's worse things, devils and demons that you've barely glimpsed who couldn't give a fracking snowball in Hades for them.  So you've got to learn some other skills as well."

Vorsh advanced, and Logan brought up his blade instinctively.

---

After a few weeks of training with Vorsh, Logan had improved his skills, and was surprised to find Lady Silvermane in the training room.

He cocked his head to the side.  "I thought you had...given up on me?"

The Eladrin sighed.  "Vorsh has been extolling your virtues, and while I maintain that I am correct about your fundamental inability to learn arcane magics, despite your promising heritage, you can still offer a useful service to the the Whirling Furies.  You need more than the ability to wield a blade, however."

Lady Silvermane moved to the side, revealing a small birdcage holding a tiny winged creature, its thin body topped with ram horns.

"This is a demon.  A lowly one, a Quasit.  Evil arcanists sometimes use them as familiars."

Logan looked on, his confusion growing.

Lady Silvermane sighed, and continued.  "If you truly feel Gwynharwyf inside of you, she should be able to guide your blade against a wretched creature like this.  You should be able to feel it no matter where it hides, no matter what it does."

The Eladrin drew a circle around herself, and muttered a few words.  "I am protected against Evil now.  That Quasit cannot approach me, thanks to my magic, which you have so many times proven you are unable to master."  She cast another spell, and the door to the cage opened, the Quasit immediately taking flight and vanishing.

She continued.  "Quasits can turn themselves invisible at will.  I have promised this one its freedom if it slays you."

Logan yelped as the invisible attacker scratched a claw into his back.  "What the frack do you want me to do, then?"

Lady Silvermane shrugged.  "Learn or perish.  Use your connection with the Whirling Fury to sense the location of the Quasit, then kill it."

Logan pulled out his rapier, swinging wildly, then cursed as the Quasit hit him again.  Lady Silvermane closed her eyes, appearing to meditate.

Logan screamed: "What?!  You can't just sit there!  Teach me something!"

The rogue yelped again as another long slash appeared on his thigh.

He turned, his fury growing.  "Fine...channel the goddess!  What does that even mean?  What did Vorsh say last time..."

Logan closed his eyes, wincing as another hit from the Quasit landed, and then opened them, staring straight at his invisible attacker.  The rogue bared his teeth and lunged straight at the Quasit, who screamed and tried to evade.  The rogue's blade glowed with the same power as his eyes, and it hit the demon straight on, ripping through its defenses and ending its life in a single stroke.

Lady Silvermane opened her eyes, laughing.  "Vorsh said you wouldn't be ready for that, but I was pleased to prove him wrong."

The following weeks passed in a haze, it was hard for Angati to remember a time when she had felt happier than she had done during those weeks, it all started with her father's embrace...

..."Why don't you come back and stay with us ?"  asked Worrin as he still held Angati by her shoulders. Angati looked at her father for a long time. She knew that there was very little that the man did out of feeling, but she could tell, there was at least a little bit of that involved in the proposal he was making.... apart from that... he would probably feel safer for himself and Zelina...  as her thoughts strayed in that direction and her smile started to vanish her father added "As yourself... as Angati, my daughter...".

Angati couldn't help it, she embraced her father and started crying again, Zelina joined them and even Anansi joined the hug.

There was no need to answer. After a little while, when they were a bit more calm, after a few drinks... they were sitting together around the fire. It was one of the few times, that Angati remembered her father dedicating his full time and attention to her daughters and he was savouring it... but there was just one thing missing.

"Father, Zelina....  there is one more thing...  come with me... " she stood up, and took them to the back of the house, they passed the garden, and in there she cut a bunch of Dasy Flowers. She carefully cleaned them and arranged them as they advanced towards the back, close to the wall that marked the limits of the state, there was a lonely tomb next to the mausoleum where her mother's remains rested. While the mausoleum was in a pretty good state, the tomb, had not been cleaned in a while. Angati split the flowers in three, bent down to clean the tomb and put her flowers over her sister's remains.

She saw that both her father and Zelina were struggling to speak, Anansi, was overcome with joy... kissing Angati and her father and sister again and again.... "She is very happy...."... "We can see" said both her sister and father as they got a glimpse of Anansi's spirit pushing some flower's to her mother's mausoleum.

They now knew she wasn't crazy... and they had accepted her back she was floating. As they came back to the fire, ideas started to bubble in her head...

- "Well... now the fun begins...  father, I have decided I am going to kill Aunt Lidu... or rather, I think I am gonna blame it on Viktor... another death on his death toll. They will begin pulling on the remains of his house tomorrow, so I have just the time to find an old woman's corpse......  Oh!! and we need to make a good come back for Angati now hmm ? I get to decide on her story... don't worry I won't make up anything shameful... but it needs to be colourful oh !!! oh !!! and I need to change my dressing and my hair... hmm this cestus stay's though.. its the only thing that my dear old aunt has left for me... and the armour.. although will need to put them both in the corpse so I hope no one robs the corpse tonight... though I suppose everyone is quite drunk and with the carnival going on and all.... hmmm or maybe Vrinn would like to help me on this... ahh he has such a sweet tooth for mischief.."

- "So, I was thinking.... how about we say you had sent me to live with our mother's family, but I was taken by some slavers and you have finally managed to purchase me back ?  I need to settle on these things for they will affect how I dress and how bitchy I need to be"....

It was a fun night, and her father took it in a most sporting manner.

OOC: Kassius, Alohan and Celene, please feel free to write in you posts as you can - please don't feel obliged to make them as long as the other two if you don't want to.

One morning, each of the character receive a message from Lavinia, inviting them to meet her at her manor house for lunch.

When they arrive they find the atmosphere of Vanderboren Manor to be very different from the last time they were in the house. Lavinia's home now has a busy, vibrant feel with a full staff of servants to look after the place. They also note that all of the damage during the Bullywug attack, i.e. like the fire damage in the trophy room (Celene, I am looking at you) has been repaired. It seems that young Lady Vanderboren's fortunes are looking up a little.

They are shown into the main dinning room by a young maid - it makes them sad to remember that Kora Whistlegap will never again greet them at the door - and find Lavinia pawing over a number of nautical maps, sea charts and a large journal that they (and in particular Kassius who got a good look at it) recognise as the one they recovered from the family vault on the first day they meet Lavinia.

As they are shown in Lavinia smiles. "Hello, how have you all been?" she asks. She gives Angati and Celene both big hugs, and then makes a playful fencing manoeuvre against Logan - the rogue has been teaching her his two handed fighting style over the last couple of months. She smiles and gives Kassius a friendly nod, and is even bold enough to scratch Kibeti behind the ears. She moves in to give Alohan a hug, he sticks his hand out for a handshake, then she sticks her hand out, then he moves in for a hug and... well, she just giggles nervously and then gives him a little wave.

"Oh, ugh..." A shambolic mixture of beard, maps, dried tobacco leaves and cookie crumbs rises from one of the armchairs in a corner of the room. It is Urol Forol, alchemist, master navigator and, er, stoner. The old gnome looks terrible, red eyed and huge black shadows under his eye-rims. "Oh, high guys. Glad to see you made it."

OOC: Yay! It is our old PC. Now in NPC mode and suffering because of it.

"It is so good to have your all here again! You all remember Urol, right? Please sit down and... er, Susan is it? Please a big pot of tea for us all and a few cold cuts if you could."

Once the party are settled in and a little bit of catching up has been done, Lavinia launches right into things, obviously excited to tell them what is going on.

"So, do you recall this journal that we recovered from my family vault? <holds up the silver backed journal> Well, it turns out that it was my mother's. My parents, my the gods rest their souls, were brave - foolish and rash some would say, but I have never been one to criticize an adventurous spirit. On the contrary..." she cast a wry smile at them all. "You will learn that I very much admire it. In any event, it would seem that about four years ago my mother and father took a risky endeavour. They sailed the Blue Nixie, along with a ship of colonists, across the Sea of Dread all the way to a place the refer to as... the Isle of Dread."

"You may have heard of this place... (OOC: Kassius has, from the bedtime stories that his father; Kull the Konquer, read to him from 'The Little Barbarian's Big Book of Bedtime Tails'. Alohan has also heard of it - the place is infamous in the Pearl Islands as bad news.) ...if you haven't, it seems apparent from reading my mother's journal that the place is aptly named. A jungle-covered hell infested with immense reptilian monsters (OOC: Thunder lizards!), feral savages and peril at every turn!"

Urol scoffs. "Come now Lavinia! Don't believe everything you read! I was with your mother and father on that first voyage and although it is true that the fauna is a little... exotic, there is really some very lovely flora on the island...And some places are a little more civilised than others..."

Lavinia holds her hands up placating. "Be that as it may Urol, I want to make sure that our friends here are fully informed. But yes, it is true that the southern peninsula remains relatively sheltered from the menaces on the island's mainland, and it was here, among the villages of several friendly locals, that my parents founded the colony of Farshore."

"Anyway, the Isle of Dread represents an untapped trove of resources... exotic lumber, spices, animals, foods, minerals like silver and gold. Once Farshore was up and running, the influx of trade would have guaranteed my family a relatively uncontested flow of wealth. Yet before mother and father were able to return to Farshore with supplies and more colonists... my brother made his move and left me in the state you found me in a couple of months ago."

Lavinia looks sad at the mention of her brother, but then shakes her head and continues. She motions to her mother's journal. "Since we recovered this I have not been idle. I have been translating it from its original Elven, a language than my mother spoke like a native but I have been struggling with, and learning the secrets of my parents' adventures. They had high hopes for the colony, and if Farshore fails then so does my parents' last legacy... and I loose all the money already sunk into the venture."

"So I intend to carry on their work, and I am planning a journey to the northwest, across the Sea of Dread, to resupply and join the colonists and get the trade flowing back to Sasserine. I have the Blue Nixie readying in the harbour, taking on fresh supplies for the colony, but I seem to find myself a vessel short..."

Lavinia's face breaks into a glowing grin as she turns to Alohan and continues. "You wouldn't happen to know of anyone with stout hearts and an equally stout vessel that might happen to be interested in helping me mout this expedition, do you? I feel the journey itself might grow dangerous at times, and there's no way of knowing what state or condition Farshore is currently in, but I suspect that danger is not something that would scare the like of you away when there is adventure to be had!"

This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Fri 13 Jan 2017.

Kassius had spend much of the past four months sweaty, physically exhausted, and gloriously happy. Building an exotic animal raising, handling, and breeding complex from scratch was a difficult endeavor, and Kassius was quite proud to see how it was going. The least fun days were the ones spent in offices, signing paperwork and overseeing budgets. Far more fun were the days spent in the dirt and muck, helping the workers constructing stalls and habitats, teaching the animals tricks and tending to their needs, and harvesting scales, poison, and other odds and ends for use in spells, alchemy, and anti-venoms for sale.

While the organization had been doing limited amounts of business and trade for months now, the official grand opening of "Kassius' Exotic Beasts and Byproducts" had been just the day before. Kassius' grandfather had been rather peeved that it wasn't "Cadogan's Exotic Beasts and Byproducts", but Kassius had insisted, and somehow managed to convince the old man.

Behind the scenes, the opening had almost been a disaster. One of the Rhagodessa's had been sick, the griffon had gone into heat, and Kogoloxen had gotten loose again and this time had eaten most of the utensils for the celebratory dinner planned for the evening. Kassius felt like he had spent the day constantly running, putting out metaphorical fires. Still, in the end it had gone well, and none of the various important guests and invited merchants and lords (mostly Grandfather's friends) had even noticed the chaos.

Kassius was still thinking about that as he met with his friends for the first time in a week at Lavinia's place. A vacation from "Beasts and Byproducts" did sound nice. He was sure Penny could oversee the day to day matters now that things were set up nicely.

"I'm in if you all are." he says simply and directly.

Angati was feeling anxious about this, she felt in her gut that she would meet her death there, this was making anxious, and Anansi was feeling it no less... in fact, Anansi was standing right in front of her repeating "No you don't, no you don't" over and over.

"Yes I do" she said quite cryptically for those not aware of her conversation with Anansi. "I mean, I am in, I don't want to be left here alone, and if there is something waiting for me, I'd rather go looking for it than stay waiting for fate to catch up with me".