Submerging boats and a pirate lord

(written with the help of Imogen - enjoy!)

Bobo looks at you seriously, concern written all over his face.


“Of course I understand, my Dread Lady Gerry, but the cause of the Pirates must take precedence! Many are dying under this great civil war, and unless you take a strong stand…”
Gerry nodded thoughtfully and stared up at the low wooden beams of the ceiling. “Were you always a bloodthirsty pirate Bobo? No! Many years ago you probably had a childhood, a mother perhaps, and I'm sure you dreamed of being a fireman or a physician. You know I dreamed of being a cake decorator once. And for a short while, a fungi farmer. Well, there are sweet little children all over the Eversea who dream of being something when they grow up Bobo, but there won't be a future for them if we don't defeat the Enemy! And that means a trip to that nub-bitten Oracle ” Gerry said resolutely.

“Of course! But… well... this oracle isn’t going anywhere in a while is she? Surely you can delay your visit for at least a year till that Leviathan thing is asleep again? Or if not, the combined resources of the Pirate nation will surely allow you to travel unimpeded through this dark water?"

Gerry glared at him, thinking darkly about his probable illiterical upbringing, his fondness for strong ale and bouts of senseless brawling, and struggling not to point out to Bobo how all three combined did no favours for the working of his brain.
“At least this truce with Man Luck has bought us some time, and the war is somewhat abated." he continued nervously. "My Dread Lady, please, go to Cressellia, put an end to this insult. You must realize… there is talk among the crews…if you do not put on a show of force within the day they may begin to question your leadership.”
“None of them are sober enough to remember my name anyway” Gerry muttered. "But you speak truly Bobo! I need to stir them up. Need to whip those pink-bellied wusses into a respectable fighting force. No time for fancy cheeses and hardcover books! We need to be ready for war Bobo, but with the Enemy, not Man Luck. He will just have to wait."
At first surprised, Bobo then calmed down. “Of course, as my dread lady wishes. So much has changed, in such a short time, and with this enemy bearing down on us, if it is true and I have no doubt it is because you’ve told us, than perhaps that really should be our priority. Very well then, we will keep them waiting – who is Man Luck to summon you at his whim? None can hurry the decisions of the most honored pirate Lord in a thousand years! I mean, just look at what you’ve achieved! You slew a lich and took his secrets of the boat that can fly underwater, and none before you could do this. You added the Ming Wun Fu banner to your own, now you almost equal Man Lucks incredible success. What you lack in fortresses, you make up for in space – none control more of the Eversea than you now! Anyone can see that!”
He smiled, but he could not hide the concern in his eyes.
“Oh, and another thing, not that I would complain my dread lady, but the code name you’ve given me, Bobo… some of the men find it a bit… demeaning to be following a leader named after a childs’ toy. Not me, of course! I quite like it! But for the morale of the troops…”
"How about B... Wet Bobo? Bobo the Heartless? El Grande Bobo? Mr Bobo?"

The Seathern Oracle, part 1

The Eversea is an unusual site, a great ball of water, as though someone had sucked up the entire oceans of a planet and plastered them together in space. Unending sea stretches out in all direction… You spot a small black dot on the miles and miles of endless sea. It is well hidden, almost no light shines up from it. But as you approach you see it is not a dot at all, but a floating city, and fairly sizeable one at that. it appears to be made out of hundreds, if not thousands, of vessles stitched together.

Then it strikes you, you have found Wendholm, the secret hideout of Char Blackthroat, one of the most successful pirate lords to date. Wendholm is rumoured to be a place of extreme violence and debauchery, a veritable pirates paradise. But it is also the only place to go for rare and exotic spell components. Few know of its whereabouts, few trade here, even fewer ever leave.

Much has been achieved today:

- Gerry managed to slay another pirate lord, adding another banner to her own. New has now reached your new base of opperations, Wendholm, that Hok the barbaric has fallen to Barrum Steelhammer, dwarven pirate Lord. The civil war is intensifying, but Lady Gerry's forces are better secured with the addition of Blackthroats pirates. Bobo (a code name, we assume) is administring the details of the takeover, relaying your wishes to the sixteen new pirate vessels Gerry now owns, including an unusal and inexplicable desire among the populace of Wendholm for exotic cheeses.

- You saved the whales from an undead menage, helped Billy fix his aparatus of Kwalsh, captured Blackthroats diving bell. However, you haven't wrested the book of underwater flying from the Lich's undead fingers just yet.  And you even asked nicely! now you have three ways to get to the oracle, congratulations


- next step: the oracle. the Leviathan is supposed to sleep once a year, and in two days time is the optimal time to descend to the unfathomable depths of the Endless Ocean.
 
What was this adventure like for your PC's, and what will they do now?
Also, please jot down any questions for the Oracle, so i can be prepared!
 

Visit to the City of Light

Much has been achieved today


- You visited Methos’ treasure trove and learnt it had been plundered by adventurers. Then you managed to breach the inner chamber to find the real treasure trove (I will give out treasure just before next game, but if you want to send me five percentile rolls I can let you in on your big prize for the haul!) minus a staff of the psion. Will Methos hunt it down and wrest it from the hands of the God who thought it would better serve him? Perhaps he will invest in better defence and concealment of his cult artefacts… or perhaps… he did… perhaps… there is more in Methos tower than has currently been revealed…

- You visited the time shine and saved it from the assassin. Then you used the time chamber to get a vision of the arrival of the Tris (scholars for millennia will debate your account of this): a bright light like a shattering crystal streaks across a deserted land, and thousands of Tris arrive, battling aberrations. They quickly are victorious and set about building a civilisation. They have advanced crystallomancy (Methos was taking heavy notes here)

- You slew the assassin. Twice. But he’s not going to give up yet, and he seems to have a near endless supply of abyssal umberhulks, doesn’t he…

- You sent an embassy off to the beastmen, skylings and warlords to warn them off the future events, but have not yet had the chance to see them in person.

- Gerry finds out her pirates are bunkering down while the rest of the pirate lords begin a giant civil war. Things could get very much out of hand in a matter of only weeks.

- You met three of Lukats ‘daughters’ who offered her the first of seven pieces of a powerful artefact of the Mystic theurge. She may like to hunt it down or focus her attention on other options, it is up to her - such as a device to force the enemy to waste his attacks so you have a chance to cut him up. On the other hand, she may like to research the headband of the mystic theurge to see what it can do. ON the other hand, it may do just that…

- You, the first of your people EVER, have travelled and survived in the realm of light and seen the great City of Light when it once stood. Now you are legend.

- You met the current Emperor of the Tris as a young boy of extraordinary sorcerer talents.

- You learnt that if you can get a shrine of light set up somewhere in the time of the Tris, you can probably get Ikendri powered up to artefact level and pick him up 1000 years later in the present.

- You all receive one time smite attack (+cha to hit, +level to damage) as a blessing from being in the realm of light.

- There you met a being revered as a hero God – the mind flayer sorcerer Ka Sha Kahaknah. He blessed you with certain powers: Oma learnt how to speak with mind flayer larva, Methos gained the ability to imbdue weapons with psion bane ability (+2 hit, 2d6 extra damage) for a number of rounds equal to his charisma (these weapons can be taken from Methos and used against him). Others have yet to announce whether they have accepted the his gift – Ebon to have +2d6 v’s aberrations, Lukat to gain limited telepathy (can eavesdrop telepathic conversations, but cannot send or receive messages), and Gerry to become immune to mind blast. Karuch was not given any options, neither was the tiger or Scooby or C’ari. She’s still around.

- In three years time, Ka Sha Kahaknah will rise to lesser divinity by slaying the gods (and still no one tells you their names!) Yet he seems like a pretty good guy for now. (of course, that’s three years time in the far past, to you, it all happened a little under 10,000 years ago from your present time).

- Did I miss anything… what will you do now?



The place you enter in is perfectly bright, and yet your eyes can take in every detail with comfort. It seems you are in some kind of platform, surrounded by blue Sodalite pillars perfect for welcoming plane shifting travellers.


The majestic towers of gold and white light seem to stretch off infinitely into the distance. But at the centre of the city a pure while column of light pieces the city and extends unending above and below the city of light. It is the veil, through which only Gods may pass, and to pass though is to become a God - as did Great Enemy once, and may perhaps do again. The veil is as gossamer as a thin sheet of fabric, and feels just the same. Within, beings appear to be moving softly about, and occasionally their voices can be heard. It is a sacred place, an eternal place where all the past, present, and future is present as one eternal now. To dwell there would be to be able to travel to any moment in time in the universe, and thus to hold unimaginable power…


All around you in the City of light an overwhelming presence of peace, majesty and love overwhelms you. Never before have you felt more like you are in a place you belong – you are home. Whatever else happens to you, you know you will never be the same again…

The aincient Tris join the fight

It didn't take much convincing, not much at all. In essence, you simply told them the Enemy was comming from the future, not the Sultancy, and they said "Sit down while we check it out."

So in the meantime Gerry runs off with Horns to contine the Beastmen independance movement (or something), making herself a legend in the process, even speaking to the Emporer on their behalf. In the meantime, you manage to intercept a plot to seduce a young mother to demonic sorcery, and destroy the leader of the cult. With his charismatic leadership gone, sources say his lutenants will fight it out for years, possibly destroying themselves and their cult in the process. Another potential threat to the great Tris empire has been thwarted.

So after a week the Tris officals return with "Oh, yes, seems you were right. We'll sit down here while we get our armies nice and warmed up!" By try as you might, there seems to be no way the Tris can be saved - if not the Sultancy, or the sorcerers, or a Beastmen uprising, then by who? In three years they will no longer be a people. The Emporer knows this. Their Wizards know this. The people, however, do not, and though there are rumours, it is only mad men and prophets who speak of the impossibility of any force bringing the Tris low - they are mocked, and scorned. The Tris, who slew their own Gods! Destroyed? Bah!


Where will the Hero's travel to now?

The Sultancy joins the cause

Sunali is a changed man. The Sultancy went into great mourning for three weeks, their Sultan slain, their legendary general turned to madness, the supposed heir a three year old boy none would swear fealty to. The Sultancy, it seemed teetered on the brink of collapse.


Then, in a day, Sunali rises from the ashes like a phoenix to reclaim both throne and sword as the next Sultan. A repentant heart, he begs forgiveness of all he has wronged, refusing to wear the fine silks of the Sultan and instead becoming a King of leather and sackcloth.

In a day, faith in the empire is renewed. The mighty ballista’s are removed from the time portal at lights edge, but the work on the fleet of sky ships continues unabated. There are whispers that an unknown enemy, cunning in the extreme, awaits over the edge of the horizon – its diabolical tentacles reaching almost to the heart of the Sultans heir, till at last, a mysterious group of hero’s helped Sunali rediscover his purpose: to defend the Sultancy and it’s people to the last. If such rumours are true – that a new enemy is approaching – then it is surely time for all to wield a greater weight of responsibly in the New Sultancy, a time to put aside old grudges to concentrate on a greater threat… only time will tell…

The black gate opens

Never, not in your whole entire life, did you ever expect to see the inpenetrable black gate open.  Yet only now, for the first time since the city of light was destroyed thousands of year ago, does the black gate open.  Now, that you are the last of the shards of light (according to the words of the assassin), now that the Exile choose to make a last stand for their defence, now, with only two year until the Great Enemy arrives, does the Black gate open.

People can leave, and they do.  At first in timid groups shyly cringing between the black barbicians, now in great throngs.  They go to find allies, to find freedom, to find peace.

But it will all mean nothing if they don't prepare for the Great Enemy.  Three things must be done:

1- the warring nations must be convinced to join together for their own safety
2- powerful wepons must be found to defeat a God.
3- you, yourselves, myst be read to weild those weapons against a God.

Yet as you ponder your future, one thought fleets accross you mind.  It was not Palayon, the chair of the High council, that opened the gate.  It was not the ambitious Saphire lady, whose desire for that chair is well known.  But it was the voice of a single hero, one much younger than any who rule on the council.  The voice of Lukat, sorceress and priestess.

What has the city become?

The fallen city of light

Entering the room, it is filled with the most palpable sense of sadness you have ever encountered.  The room itself is desolate except for two things. First, a lone humanoid skeleton, clearly the last line of defence against the enemy, lies shattered on the floor, a small piece of parchment clasped in its hands.  And second, a once bright gem imprisoned in a dark miasma, floating high up in the ceiling.  The room here is split in half by the most oppressive dark curtain you have ever beheld.

...

First, there were no hero’s to champion our cause, we could not take the fight to his areas of crucial weaknesses. You left, you left not two years to the day before he arrived.

Second, even if we did have such heroes they would have no weapons that could slay a god. We would need to find weapons that can slay a god and typically, that requires artefact level magics.

Third, the nations were all divided. The sultancy and tris had spent their strength in war with each other, the beastmen were engulfed in civil strife, the skylings had just tried to ignore it and the pirates had fled cowardly. There were none to stand with us, and after he’d destroyed us, he destroyed them all as well, just out of spite it would seem. It was horrible…
...

Child, I am but a shadow of my soul, the last remaining memory that has clung to this tortured realm to give you this message! But I cannot last here… there is only one way to save me. Go back in time, make sure this never happened. Allow me to slip back into the time stream. Make me what I should be, by your success! That is all you can do to help me!

With that, the skeleton releases its grip on the parchment, and dark tendrils of evil reach out and draw the spirit shrieking away into the benighted realm.