Return To The Wend Empire

Captain Araxie loads all of the treasure that they had acquired from the underwater cavern after defeating the clockwork dragon that had guarded the treasure, into her captain's quarters. They are loaded into large barrels and she counts and recounts her treasure hoard daily, even multiple times a day. She drinks and counts behind her closed guarded doors.

At the behest of Kame, the human sized monk-like turtle, they head back to the Wend Empire, the place they had previously escaped from, using a flying fishing boat stolen from a fishing village. The Emperor's monks had been kidnapping anyone from surrounding villages that showed any aptitude towards magical abilities, usually elemental in nature. The Emperor and his chosen people were able to manipulate fire.

The Nalin Village

The arrive back at the fishing village of Nalin. They dock the massive airship along the cliff docks high above the waters. No other fishing boats are there. They disembark and explore the village. They find no one except the old drunkard Nogan, who has long since passed. They find him, mouth open towards his still above him. Araxie, spares him a moment and pours a bit of whiskey down the dead man's throat.

Vall uses his time to try and figure out one of the crab-like walker units that are around the docks. The villagers used them to load and unload the ships. The symbols accompanying the multitude of levers and buttons are indecipherable. After pushing and pulling various levers and buttons he is able to maneuver the vehicle, with the aid of Araxie, who had some experience with these things before. They are eventually able to get it aboard Captain Araxie's ship with some damage to the railings and scorch marks across the deck.
Vall decides he is going to experiment with this device.

Kame is keen to leave and seek out the emperor.

They board the ship and fly over the mountains and into the valley towards the emperor's palace.
In the distance they see several villages but all are deserted.
They also recognize, in the distance, the mountains where they had dropped off the rescued earth monks.

Down in the valley, scattered are individual people, miles apart. They stand there looking and them watching the ship pass by overhead. They are emaciated and their clothes are weather beaten as if they have been standing there a long time. They pass several of these sentries.

Practicing With The Doomsday Device

Eventually, Araxie halts the ship a few miles away from the palace. Through a spyglass they see several people lining the tops of the walls, unmoving.
The group takes a lot of time to devise and discard several plans.
Eventually they want to test their doomsday device. The myna-rig coupled a noise maker. Val uses the chamber pot of holding to cover his head while he holds the myna-rig and sets it off.
The crew and adventurers aboard the ship are blasted with waves of concussive force from the massive sound the myna-rig gives off. Cracks appear in the ship as well as the crystal holding the air elemental.
Deshani begins to mend the ship and discovers Droop trying to tape over the cracks in the crystal.
Meanwhile many of the crew and PCs are heavily damaged. Except for Absinthe who has safely retired to her mansion, using Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.

The myna-rig doomsday device seems to work.

They Really Want The Book
2,000 XP

Soon there is a group of individuals who approach walking from all directions around the ship. They converge in a perfect circle beneath the ship and speak in perfect unison calling upon the ship's crew to hand over the book.
"You do not understand the power of the book. You do not understand what it is you are interfering with"

Val and Deshani move around the ship throwing down spells and destruction upon the mind controlled humans standing below. By the time Deshani destroys her first target, Val has destroyed the other 7. Val tries his best not to be smug....but fails.

Araxie, not wanting to endanger the ship, tells the group to disembark and gives instructions to the crew to take care of the ship. To not let anyone board her. The group descends the ladder and sets off towards the palace.

Return To The Palace

Approaching the palace there are numerous monks which line the top of the outer wall of the palace. They stand and speak in one voice, "Bring us the book". The group debates whether to return to the ship and then lay siege to the palace but the fire monks speak again and give assurances that no harm will be done to them if they bring the book.
The palace gates are open and inside the vast courtyard are hundreds of individuals. They all stand and look at the small group outside the walls. Several of the group move forming a corridor down the middle of the courtyard leading to the main palace building.

The group decides to enter. As they move along the corridor made by the empire's people, the path behind them is quickly blocked by bodies moving back into position. They are being ushered along to the palace's main building. Once inside they find a large circular room which is empty save for several bed cushions and bedding moved aside to reveal a large door in the floor. It lays open showing the stairs descending down into a rocky tunnel.

Volcanic Prisoner Chamber
12,700 XP

At the bottom they enter a small room with a large corridor in front of them.
A large lava pool covers most of the corridor for several feet.
Val uses flying to get across the lava.
Droop conjures an eagle to fly him across.
Absinthe conjures bones of the earth to build a ramp/terrace for the others to cross.

On the other side they enter a massive cavern with large lava pools.

They see several fire monks near a monk performing a ritual. Some of the monks hold a beaten and weak villager as the main monk pulls from them, using some sort of ritual, the villager's magical power and stores it in a massive crystal. The crystal, fiery red, floats above the lava. It is tens of feet high and pulses with power. There are several more villagers all awaiting the same fate.

As these monks see the group enter the cavern the main monk, Duzang Lok, again demands the book. He alone is able to speak with a singular voice. All the others within the palace up to this point have all responded with a single voice from the entire mass of people.

It's as if they are all being mind controlled or something.

The group attempts to distract and delay the monks as Absinthe attempts to perform the ritual to summon the portal to her mansion here in the lava caverns. The monks will not be held off though. They attack. Duzang Lok uses the crystal to shoot out lightning energy to attack the group.

As they run across the lava, the monks each pull out a bead the size of a grape. They toss it towards the goblin, Droop. They explode on impact and Droop is trapped in a force bubble which is floating above the lava.

Absinthe is able to complete the ritual and she immediately enters the portal to her mansion. She orders tea and a chair to watch the entertainment going on back in the cavern.

The others are attacked by monks who use magic to pull apart the rocks in the cavern above Dehsanie, Araxie and Vall. A river of lava pours out of the opening that is made and the three of them are hit. Vall is able to escape most of the river but Deshanie is hit hard and she collapses unconscious. The monks press their advantage and some of them throw the concussive orbs towards Araxie. She is hurt and now trapped inside an unbreakable orb. She is able to roll, like a large hamster ball, so she moves towards the portal.

Absinthe, sitting in her chair and sipping tea waves at Araxie.

Kame rushes toward Deshanie, grabs her and puts her over his shoulder. He and Vall rush towards the safety of the portal.

Droop meanwhile has tried to maneuver his orb away from the lava while the monks move towards his orb and stand at the ready. The orb containing Droop disappears and he battles with the two monks, dealing with them easily. The orb then containing Araxie disappears and she jumps into the portal. There inside the mansion she sees everyone else and sees Kame and Vall tending to the injured Deshanie. Dropp follows soon after.

Kame gives a speech trying to rouse the group into leaving the safety of the mansion. To stop hiding and attack the evil. The bring back balance to this land. To stop the slaughter and stealing of magic. He charges out of the portal and runs towards the monk Duzang Lok.

No one follows.

Kame rushes towards Duzang Lok. Duzang Lok uses the crystal to summon a meteor swarm. Kame dodges and rolls and continues his rush towards the evil monk.

That's when Absinthe and Vall pull out the doomsday device.

Vall places the myna-rig outside the portal while Absinthe animates some coins and a whistle and sends them towards the monk. Once they get close to the monk the coins drop and the whistle begins to blow. The myna-rig picks up the noise and amplifies it and repeats it. It reverberates off of the cave walls. In the safety of the mansion the portal wavers with the force of the sound waves but all is quiet. They see all the people in the cavern slammed down and crushed under the force of the waves.

When the cavern finally quiets, the group leaves the sanctuary of the mansion. They walk about the cavern seeing the destruction they wrought. They see the crushed shell of Kame, their friend. They rush towards him and quickly grab for the sword which was in his shell, the source of his life.

They eventually find a prisoner who beyond belief has survived the doomsday device. She grabs onto Vall. She is frail and her clothes are tattered and torn. She cries into his shoulder and says thank you over and over.

Her "thank you"s slowly change as her voice becomes slower, deeper and more ominous. She pulls from Vall's chamber-pot of holding the book. She holds the book close to her chest as she transforms into a winged Erinyes. A devil now holds the book. She laughs an evil laugh. and begins to walk away.

Absinthe casts Otto's Irresistible Dance on the devil. To the devil's great surprise she cannot help herself tapping her toes, then shaking her hips until she is full on dancing to a tune that Absinthe is playing. While she's dancing, Droop conjures several pixies an they all begin to cast polymorph upon the devil. Soon enough, she is a frog. Drop lunges and begins to repeatedly stab the frog until it is mush.

The New Mind Control Naga
7,200 XP

They leave the chamber and find themselves back in the palace looking down into the courtyard with it's hundreds of people all looking at them with one mind. They stand in the moonlight and they speak to the group. "Come join the One. We are free now. Join the One."

The group sees that the mind controlled population was being manipulated and used by the devils. With the devils gone they are free to be as they were, a hive mind population. But where is the queen. The mind control worm that they had seen back in the fishing village.

As the group tries to make its way through the people in the courtyard, there is a massive rumbling from within the ground. Some of the mind controlled people ahead move aside forming a large empty circle. Earth clumps and rock begin spewing up and out of the ground as the massive mind control naga emerges and rushes towards the group.

The group retreats back into the palace pursued by the worm. The worm begins to breath a cloud of gas upon the group and Araxie halts in her tracks. Droop turns to see as Araxie speaks with the same voice as the others, "Join the One."

Droop sends his remaining pixies still with polymorph spells and soon the giant worm in a frog which they easily dispatch.

DM Note: I hate this polymorph spell just as much as I hate Otto's Irresistible Dance

Droop conjures a giant eagle to fly him back towards the ship while Vall jumps down off of the wall and runs towards the ship. Soon Vall boards the ship where he sees Droop ordering the sailors to prepare the cannons and fire upon the palace. Vall yells for them to stop. They all do....except for one who accidentally fires the cannon, which almost kills Araxie.

The others still on the ground begin the process of clearing, killing, the mind controlled people who, without the mind control naga, stand motionless and mindless. 

Reading The Book

Now that the group feels free to relax, Absinthe looks at the book which has caused them so much trouble. She is tempted to read the book. There must be a reason it is so sought after. What is it for? What can it do? They cannot defend against or plan for what they know nothing about.

She wears Droops ring of spare the dying and grips her talisman of ultimate evil which will immediately tell her and the others if she turns evil anytime while reading the book.

She opens the book.

The others watch as she turns page after page faster and faster with a look which intensifies upon her face. Soon she screams as the talisman burns into her and she collapses dead, save for the ring which prevents her from ultimate death. She remains in this limbo of dying and not dying constantly. Vall tries to save her with the sword they had pulled from Kame but it is of no use.

Once aboard the ship Araxie yells for whoever was responsible for firing upon her. The overwhelming response is Droop the goblin, who has now hidden somewhere on the ship. Araxie orders a massive search immediately. Soon enough Droop is found and Araxie is furious. Droop though is a crazy goblin and defends himself with force. It then escalates into full on battle between the goblin and the barbarian. It ends with Droop falling to his death and impaled with the barbarian's javelin.

In the meantime, Vall and Deshanie take Absinthe to the cleric on the ship. Amelia Dustglacier approaches the dying Absinthe and she casts a restoration spell and Absinthe comes around. The others are nervous and wary but she is able to hold the talisman with no harm. She is no longer evil.

Does she remember what she read?

The Cavern Of The Clockwork Dragon

Captain Araxie flies the her ship towards the location she had noted when she had swam down and discovered a hidden underwater tunnel among numerous shipwrecks. She is sure that there is something worthwhile down there.

Making Your Own Entertainment

They fly for a few days searching. The monotony broken only by Absinthe's morbid entertainment of dosing individuals with various drugs and watch the ensuing hilarity. Vall became smitten with and even rescued someone from certain death after they had fallen overboard, only to find out it was a mop. It was then discovered that the reason the ship lurched sending people rolling and a mop to be tossed overboard, was that Droop, the goblin, had found the ship's wheel unattended during an evening of revelry, and decided to grab a hold of it. He blamed it on one of the other goblins.

She flies to the location but is unable to see the shipwrecks so she heads off to a nearby island which she has spotted. Once they have landed the group along with most of the sailors disembark. Shore leave is an unexpected treat. Captain Araxie gives orders for new supplies to be brought aboard as they have gone through more than half of their provisions.

The Seablood Inn

Once ashore, the group finds themselves at the largest building upon this small island, The Seablood Inn. The group finds the inn noisy and full of life. But as they move about and watch the patrons two halfling brothers stand out as merciless bullies. So Absinthe decides to have some fun. She doses the brother's drinks and the entire tavern roars with laughter as the two go from standing on tables thinking they're flying to cowering under the table thinking that some demon is pursuing them.

Absinthe then spends her time entertaining the tavern with music and magic, accompanied by the dancing of Vall and his automaton. They earn more than a few coins selling their merchandise to a island full of patrons who have lacked in entertainment for too long.

The Cavern Of The Clockwork Dragon
12,000 XP

The next day, once the ship, now christened The Flying Dragon, has been re-supplied and the crew assembled back on board. They take off back in search of the wreckage location. Eventually, they find it and through Deshani's water breathing spell the group jumps into the sea and descends down until they find the tunnel which Araxie had found before.

Soon the group emerges up into a hidden pocket of air which holds a vast chamber with tunnels and caves within. They move through the dark tunnels until they find a cave holding supplies, such that one might find aboard a ship. They then discover a pool of water. Obviously supplied from the ocean above the pool churns and flows down through the caver at an incredible rate. Vall, using detect magic, looks into the pool and sees a massive form which is quite clearly magical.

The rest of the group moves through the cave and finds that it holds no treasure or supplies. Nothing except a woven tapestry. The tapestry depicts a devil sitting atop a massive treasure trove. Gold coins, jewels, and items wonderous are piled high in the picture. The devil looking greedily down upon his hoard.  While they look at the tapestry, Deshani and Araxie both notice that they are missing items. Deshani, who is never apart from one of her prized tomes finds it missing. She soon notices that the treasure pile in the picture now has lying upon it a picture of her book.

The group attacks the tapestry. Once it is damaged the entire treasure hoard that was in the picture now dumps onto the cavern floor. The noise of the clattering treasure is not quite enough to overcome the noise coming from within the pool of water. Vall, calls everyone to notice that rising amount of water coming from the center of the pool. Emerging tens of feet high from the pool is a huge dragon. The dragon though is made of a mixture of wood and metal. Gears clack and whir as the dragon moves.

Absinthe immediately smiles and casts heat metal. The metal begins to glow and the noises change as the dragon struggles to move and attack as it normally should. It breaths a fiery tar substance and Araxie and Vall are on fire and stuck to the cavern floor. Deshani too is hurt by the fiery blast.

Then there is the sound of massive rocks falling. Several large boulders have fallen and have blocked the entrances/exits from this cavern. The pool of water which flows at an incredible rate now is blocked and the water begins to rise.

Meanwhile the dragon continues to attack using its claws and wings. The group attacks as it can but the rising water is starting to hamper their attacks.

Asbsinthe finds herself on the other side of a fallen boulder. She uses Bones of the Earth to create stone columns which lift the boulder enough to let her through to the other side where the group is fending off the dragon. As she moves through the water, the dragon targets her and several sailors with poison gas it breaths out and they all fall asleep falling into the water.

Eventually, Deshani is able to strike a killing blow to the dragon and it falls down into the water. But who ever has built the dragon has a sense of revenge, as the clockwork dragon begins to click and whir at an ever increasing pace until the entire dragon explodes in a shower of metal gears, splintered wood and magic. Several of the group are seriously hurt by the explosion.

This though pales in comparison to their excitement as they move through the now flooded cavern and collect up as much of the treasure as possible.

Much scheming and planning is invested into how to move the entire treasure trove back up to their ship.

The Return Of The Dred Pirate Cortez

Captain Araxie and the others prepare the ship for departure. Araxie has long since desired to go back to the ship wreckage location where she feels there certainly must be some sort of treasure. Crews are assembled and assigned tasks. The former captain, Captain MacKensey, has been removed from the ship for inciting disrespect to the captain and potential mutiny.

A Song and Dance but No Madam Tuqill

Araxie and Val return back to the city to try and summon the old gnome woman and her magical shop. Even after a rousing musical performance, the odd magical shop fails to appear. Perhaps the is done with the group, as they had finally completed her task.

Maddox, followed by Droop, return to the Order's Keep. There awaiting them is a envoy from the Netir Vale. The official leader of the entire Order Of The Obisidian Dagger, has read the plea from Maddox and has sent a representative to help re-establish order within the Baldur's Gate faction.

Fixing The Order

Amn listens to Maddox tell of the fracturing of the Order of recent and Maddox's troubles in re-establishing some semblance of military order. He suggests that the Order no longer allow high ranking inductees to function without taking the full oath. Perhaps that would prevent further corruption of the values within The Order.

While a very serious discussion of politics and world order is taking place, Droop, the goblin who has taken it upon himself to serve The Order, sees the small entourage who accompanies Amn. They are two goblins and a hobgoblin. He taunts the haughty goblins for their very un-goblin-like demeanor, serving this Amn. The chef and personal servant goblins deem Droop below them and soon ignore his taunts. The hobgoblin squire takes offence and looks to Amn if he may teach this goblin some manners. Amn quietly nods.

The fight is short and brutal as Droop drops the hobgoblin within seconds. They revive the hobgoblin, sparing him death, and he takes up his position again, while glaring at the annoying Droop.

Droop then decides to have some fun and heads off to look for some fun poisons. He eventually is directed to a seedy part of town in a seedy side street. He is able to obtain what he believes is a potent poison but a fight ensues and soon Droop is trying to decide what to do with a dying human.

Introducing Absinthe

It is then that a small group of darkly dressed humans walk by the entrance to the back alley. The girl, Absinthe, interrupts the fight to defend the humans and scares off the goblin. They tail the group back to the ship, and following along with the other sailors loading the ship, slips on. Deshani, the wizard, watches as this strange group boards the ship and she stops them. Who are they and what are they doing? Absinthe tries to cast her magic and befriend the wizard, trying to convince Deshani that they belong on board. Deshani, resisting the spell, will have none of it. She calls for Captain Araxie.

Captain Araxie arrives and immediately Absinthe tries her magical hand again. Absinthe convinces Captain Araxie that they are old friends. Captain Araxie tells Deshani that all is right and that the group belongs on board. The group moves below and makes themselves at home.

The Long Voyage

Droop, the goblin, makes a home among the ropes and riggings holding the ship's large balloon. He uses his time to harass and in general make trouble for the sailors. Absinthe, seeing this, casts a Geas spell upon Droop and for the next month of sailing the goblin is a perfect model of a sailor. He is helpful, kind, polite and considerate. The other sailors come to admire him and consider him a friend.

Deshani and Vall both use their time during the voyage to read over some of the tomes they have acquired back in the library and Soul Spire. Val becomes knowledgeable enough with automatons that he is able to reprogram his automaton, acquired from the library in Baldur's Gate, to become his personal servant. He names him Mr. Sparkles. Dehsani reads a sacred book and over the course of a few weeks is able to detect thought at will.

The Return Of The Dred Pirate Cortez

12,900 XP

Then one day, out of the setting sun, Droop notices something approaching. It flies above the ship and then is not seen again. The others fan out around the ship's deck. Soon several goblins, some of which are grey skinned and move differently than the other goblins, descend the ropes from the balloon and onto the deck. Behind them comes a human who stands hands on hips near the bow of the ship.He is badly burned. His once long blond locks are now scraps of hair on an otherwise scarred and burned head. One side of his face is burned badly leaving scars where once a flawless complexion shined. 

It is the Dred Pirate Cortez. He is back for his revenge. He likes Araxie's new ship. It will do in compensation for the destruction of his last ship. He beckons his goblins attack. The little goblins run for cover and shoot arrows while the grey-skinned goblins attack hand-to-hand. The group finds that these grey-skinned goblins are much heartier and deadly than their little goblin counterparts.

Araxie quickly throws her iron net over top of the pirate Cortez and it transforms into a steel cage, trapping the pirate and preventing him from jumping overboard and escaping. The others dig in and try to defeat the grey skinned goblins while Droop pleads with his fellow goblins to abandon their loyalties to the Dred Pirate Cortez and the one to kill the pirate will have plenty of gold.

The goblins race towards the cage holding the pirate Cortez and begin savagely stabbing him to death. They each stab again and again into the now dead body, claiming that they had dealt the death blow. They then line up against the railing, hands out, waiting for their reward.

The others resort to a number of methods in order to dispatch the grey-skinned goblins. Deshani uses her Bigby's Hand to grab and move the creatures over the railing and drop them to their deaths. Araxie uses her barbarian rage to grab and throw a couple off of her ship. Absinthe transforms one of them into a frog which is then tossed overboard.

A Falling Flying Carpet

Once, the deck is cleared of the combatants each return to their duties or cabins as their usual activities. Droop is curious about how the pirate and his crew got aboard. He climbs the rigging until he is on top of the balloon and he finds a large carpet. He rolls it up and calls for some of the goblins to come and help him carry it down. It does not go well. Soon a nicely rolled carpet is plunging into the sea below. Vall thinks he notices something fall out of the corner of his eye....but no. Nothing there. 

Droop simply crawls back into his rope nest below the balloon and sulks. So close to having his own flying carpet.