Kay’s Journal – 1/7/2022
• 1300 XP
The Silver Swan will be leaving port soon, so it’s time for us to wrap up business in town. We go back to the jeweler to pick up Pujol’s necklace. He busks outside while we wait for the jeweler to set the dragon gem. While we are there, we inquire about buying the spyglass. He offers it to us at a nicely discounted price of 800 gp, so we buy it.
We get the church to bless the ship we sold, no problem.
The last order of business is to visit the bank and cash out the rest of our money. There’s a flurry of excitement when we walk in, and they call a manager to talk to us. He’s very fancy. We have 32k gold remaining in our account. We indicate we are leaving and want to withdraw all our remaining funds. The manager suggests that we leave behind 2k for them to invest. Anything we leave behind (and whatever the investments make) will not only be available here, but at a number of other banks up and down this coast, for a fee. We agree to leave behind 2K and withdraw 30k to split between us. We get it in a variety of small and medium sized gems, as well as a bit of actual coin. We end up with a large bag of low value gems, a bag of medium value gems, and another bag of miscellaneous coinage in gold, silver, and copper.
Business concluded, we head to the ship. Tanya and another deck hand take us to a longboat filled with supplies – fresh fruit and uncured meat – for the voyage. Tanya says the ship’s cook, a goblin, is really good.
On board the ship, the captain is talking to a gnome. They are having a very animated conversation. Tanya introduces us to a few people, including Cook. She refers to the gnome as ‘Mordoth’ now that she’s on the ship. Cook is concerned about what foods we like, or if anyone has allergies. He also asks if Abran is a vegetarian.
Fathom notices the navigator, Morgoth, has looked at us curiously. So have a couple of the other crew, Romey and Reyme. Pujol goes to the front of the ship and starts to play.
The rest of us go talk to the human. She wants us to help when they are on shore – to protect them while they do their exploration and mapping. The pay is 10sp per day on shore and anything we recover from plunder. We don’t get paid for days on the ship.
Gooseneck asks who is sponsoring this mission. It’s a few different people – the Church of Ronda, a nobleman, and another private individual. The captain also tells us that Morgoth does the cartography and such. He’s been on the boat for some years, and is risk averse.
We offer to help while sailing, as well, in various capacities as we are each able. The ship’s full compliment would be about 20 people.
Tanya takes us two our quarters. We have three rooms to split between us. CornCob and Gooseneck take one, Pujol and Abran take the second (that’ll end well), and Fathom and I take the third. Each cabin has two bunks, a wardrobe for storage, and two small chests, 18”x12”x12”. The chests lock, but nothing else does. The lock isn’t great, but is probably enough to keep most people out.
Pujol talks to the captain, offering to help with making favorable weather. She asks him why he’s on the ship; he says he’s looking for new songs. She tells him about an elven village they found that has a lot of unique songs.
CornCob asks a crew member what our first stop is. The first real stop is probably a month out, and Morgoth would be best able to provide details. CornCob goes to ask him.
In the navigation room, CornCob sees a wide, flat waterproof box and other waterproof cases. Also, lots of books, including a bunch about monsters.
Gooseneck pokes around below decks. He finds the chicken coop, which has a good 30 chickens. Some will be eaten in the course of the trip. Gooseneck also finds food storage, a small armory, and a small amount of armor. The weapons are a collection of swords and bows. He meets a few more crew down there, and they ask where his name came from. He says he could tell them, but then he’d have to kill him. Gooseneck asks them about the armory. They say they were attacked by pirates up north.
One of the crew comes up from below, struggling to get up on deck. They stumble and fall, asking for help. CornCob goes to check on him. It looks like he’s been gutted by a claw. CornCob heals him, and the crewman says there’s a terrible monster down there and he thinks it’s Billy.
Fathom looks down the hatch and hears someone running, followed by heavier footsteps. She calls Gooseneck over as Abran heads down the stairs.
Abran sees the monster. It’s big and kind of frog-like in how it holds itself. It’s green, clawed, and not wearing pants. Abran attacks.
Gooseneck heads down into the hold and puts up his shield, getting as close as he can. Fathom asks the victim about Billy; apparently the guy was hanging out at a table below and Billy changed into this monster.
The creature attacks, shooting fire at Gooseneck and Abran. Another deck hand appears behind them and shoots more fire. Up on deck, CornCob asks for the grates to be raised. Abran attacks the crewman behind them. Fathom goes below. When she gets a look at the monster, she thinks it’s some kind of magical aberration.
The crew starts lifting the grate. Gooseneck rages and advances on the monster, and it attacks him again. It also shoots an explosive fireball at Abran. It does a lot of damage to everyone down there, and also sets the deck on fire.
The monster shoots two small fireballs at Pujol. CornCob drops down to the lower deck and shoots a bolt back at it. Abran shoots at it. Fathom shoots water at the burning deck, and at the creature. It trades blows with Gooseneck. Pujol throws a dart at it and then runs up the stairs. The crewman that had been helping the monster is killed, and turns into the same kind of weird creature when he dies.
It attacks Gooseneck. CornCob casts a spell to banish it, and then calls for the ship to turn hard to starboard so that if it reappears, the boat won’t be there.
We ask the captain about the two crewmen, and she says they’ve been on board about 2 months.
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