A brief summary of important dates and events concerning the crew of the Llira's Steps
Game Start
The characters are assigned the task of picking up a crate that the 'Steps has been
commissioned to deliver.
Picking up the crate from the warehouses of the mysterious underworld figure Gervos
"The Greycloak" the P.C.s escort it under the cover of illusion to the ship.
The Llira's Steps departs Saerloon in the company of 4 other ships from the Althos
Merchant Fleet all bound for Westgate. Halston and Alexandros are invited to take the
voyage onboard the "Varion" of the Althos Merchant Fleet.
Therain is put in temporary command of the 'Steps.
A short, uneventful stop for customs at the naval base of Ravenwatch
4 ambitious pirate ships attack the combined fleet. Some powerful magical weather
aides the pirates, causing the wind to die completely and one of the Althos ships to
become trapped in a whirlpool.
Two of the pirate ships are disabled by the valiant crew of the Llira's Steps and the
other two are repelled by the Althos fleet, although not before some serious damage is
inflicted on the ships.
The slaves onboard the pirate ships (including a dozen very eerie ghostwise halflings)
help compensate for the loss of many crew at the pirates hands.
The perpetrator of the magical attacks is not found. A strange magical scroll depicting
a stylised bird of some sort is found amongst the booty.
A hole in the hull of the 'Steps almost sinks her and the crate of "The Greycloak" falls
out of the ship. After some hasty repairs the Roglanar, Kordeth and
Ravenmane swim down to try an retrieve the lost cargo.
A water elemental surprises the divers, incapacitating Roglanar and apparently killing
the sea elf. Ravenmane is chased to the surface where the elemental is dealt
with.
Roglanar and the crate are retrieved but Kordeth is nowhere to be found.
Until about half an hour later when a seemingly healthy Kordeth returns to the
ship.
Rumours fly and many suspicious looks are exchanged.
The crate is secretly moved to another ship in the fleet.
The fleet reaches Westgate several days behind schedule because of damages and crew
shortages but with two more ships than it originally set out with, making the voyage
quite profitable.
The crate is delivered to an anonymous warehouse in a particularly rundown area of
Westgate known as The Sunken Pit. The peerless heros are attacked by nefarious scallywags, intent on claiming the contents of the crate for themselves. Through Ravenmane's quick thinking the group is shrouded in magical mist, which protects them from the villains' crossbows. Kordeth, consumed by rage, lays waste to the hapless thieves, leaving only death, carnage and rib-cages in his wake. Serlo does much of nothing.
Here it is revealed that whatever the crates
originally contained is no longer in them. Kordeth, a poor liar at the best of times,
confesses that he moved them because a mysterious elf told him to.
The characters have a civil and calm discussion about what to do with the item
contained in the crate - a strange artefact made of two rings joined together and
inscribed with magical writings of watery doom.
Eventually it is decided that the rings should be given to Llareth to fix and then they
would decide what to do after that.
Meanwhile the crew of the Llira's Steps have a much deserved shore leave in scenic
Westgate while the artefact is being fixed.
Affairs are put into order.
Some research is done on the rings, revealing little more than what can be surmised
from their markings - that they are powerful water and weather controlling devices.
Perhaps one of a set of such artefacts designed to form a boundary.
The congenial, if somewhat naive Almeni joins the crew of the ship, claiming to have a
package that needs to be delivered in person to Thieryn Depthdreamer.
Ravenmane, who is partaking of the hospitality of a fine local inn, The Chimera's Roost, is visited in the night by a strange man in black and white who inquires after Kordeth and warns the halfling to keep an eye on the elf.
Roglanar, spooked by all of the night-time visitors, hires Watchers Ember and Trux from the temple of Helm to guard the boat.
Thieves attack the 'Steps nearly stealing both Almeni and his package. Almeni nearly drowns but is saved by Kordeth. The thieves are defeated with little help from the Watchers who are asleep and unconscious.
Some bodies are discovered by Megan (well, actually some bodies are discovered by sharks, who in turn are discovered by Megan) floating under the pier which the 'Steps is docked at. Investigations ensue but little progress is made. Roglanar makes some inquiries with a couple of local lads who run the dock's body-dumping industry and they are as outraged as anyone that soemone's been dumping bodies (without giving them their cut). The party decides that they should try and catch whoever is dumping these bodies and so an ambush is prepared and watch schedules are set over the night.
No luck is had catching the body-dumper - although a slight splash was heard and another two bodies were found in the morning. Investigations and tracking of some "predator", revealed one of them to be Derani, an apprentice wizard from the household of Llareth. Some priestly magic is employed and it is revealed that most of the victims were killed before they could see anything. By now a pattern is revealed - the killer seems to target blond, magic-using women. This time a "cunning plan" is concocted involving Roglanar, a dress, some heavy illusionary magics and a lot of hope. If having Roglanar mauled by a giant were-tiger was said to be part of the plan then the plan was an unmitigated success. One very bloody fight and an almost-dead Roglanar later the corpse of Abel Greatwing, were-tiger extraordinaire, was left on the docks with a trident though his face. Roglanar and Kordeth take a leisurely stroll through the streets of Westgate to pay a congenial 2am visit to their friends at the temple of Helm where they sit down for a nice, hot cup of belladonna. Once they have drunken themselves sick (or unconcious in Roglanar's case) they proceed to sleep it off in the temple. Meanwhile Ravenmane goes to loot Abel's inn room.
Megan, absent for the past few days returns complaining of strange dreams of wierd tentacles and inhuman eyes. Weather is sunny.
The party is informed, casually, that two days ago Abel Greatwing's body was stolen from the city morgue, along with two others (Farred and Ishael). Rumours of a small dragon flying over the city circulate around Westgate. In totally unrelated events, Therain turns Roglanar into a small dragon and has him fly around the city so that he can cast a Locate Object spell to look for Abel's corpse. The search is unsuccessful.
The Stormrings of Saerloon have been fixed by Llareth.
The "Llira's Steps" sets sail from Westgate, with its newest and most nervous crew-member, Mierbyl who replaces Abel.
Tensions over the past tenday culminate in a traditional round of in-party bickering. Roglanar and Ravenmane have a bit of light-hearted spell flinging, Roglanar and Kordeth have a bit of light-hearted blood-shedding. Kordeth reluctantly agrees _not_ to strip the new crewmember naked. Thus was Roglanar crowned the first victor in "Mage Duel", although his tactic of using suggesting in order to compel Ravenmane to return to his quarters remains suspect.
Soldiers from Westgate on manticores intercept the 'Steps and demand to search it. Oddly Mierbyl is nowhere to be found. Eventually the party relent and alow the soldiers and thier mounts on board. The party returns from searching the hold to find a bit of a mess on deck as Mierbyl and a powerful artifact wreak havoc by turning perfectly good crew-members into grey-onyx statues. 4 stoned crew and a confusing battle later Mierbyl is killed and the Westgate soldiers take back their artefact. The crew of the 'Steps also finds out that stone maticores do not so much "fly" as they do "crash through your decks". The "Llira's Steps" takes a few holes in its top deck from orbital manticore bombardment.
The 'Steps arrives in Saerloon with a few crewmembers still in their mineral form. The crate "containing" the Stormrings is delivered to the Greycoat. The actual Stormrings are kept on the 'Steps
Halston is asked to come with some port officials to fill out some forms. He is never seen again. The ship is impounded at midday. Aerthfwyn the arrogant elf shows up and promises to help/force the party to flee with the Stormrings. Not ones to stand in the way of a crazy elf the party agrees to this plan.
All hell breaks lose on the docks as the "Llira's Steps" makes a break for it. Thanks to some "convenient" weather and some "convenient" Walls of Stone and Thorns little resistance is met until the ship reaches Ravenwatch at the mouth of the Saerloon bay where a fleet of four naval vessels and a flock of eagle riders tries to intercept the 'Steps. Courtesy of some creative hull re-engineering by Ravenmane and some suspiciously familiar magical whirlpools, the 'Steps manages to out manouver the Sembian Navy fleet and escape. Meanwhile Therain, Kordeth and Roglanar travel via teleportation to Selgaunt to try and do some research on the mysterious Aerthfwyn. Leaving Roglanar in Selgaunt, Kordeth and Therain teleport to a quaint sea-side town in Altumbel. Therain, unsure of the accuracy of his spell transforms himself into a sea-elf (just in case they land in the ocean, you understand). Therain unaware of the local attitude towards "filthy un-humans" appears as a sea-elf in the middle of a local watering hole. Suffice to say the locals were not impressed by the 'wretched elven wizard' invading their tavern. Fortunately Therain had Kordeth there to 'help' him. Unfortunately Kordeth was not impressed by the locals' attitudes towards sea-elves. VERY unfortunately (for the locals) Kordeth had been turned into an invisible hag (so that he could carry the rings). Several dozen dead fishermen later Therain and Kordeth left the not-so peaceful fishing town and went to hide in the ocean.
Therain returns to "The 'Steps" by himself to check up on it. It is doing well. Or at least hasn't been sunk or boarded. Therain then teleports back to Kordeth in the waters off the coast of Altumbel.
Therain and Kordeth return with the Stormrings to the ship. Therain then teleports off to Selgaunt to pick up Roglanar. Meanwhile Roglanar has organised a meeting with a mysterious pair of unidentified Harpers (or so they claim) to check up on the angry elf, Aerthfwyn. The Harpers confirm that Aerthfwyn, while a little un-hinged, is not immediately dangerous. Probably.
Roglanar and Therain return to "The 'Steps". There are grumblings amongst the crew who are understaffed. And underappreciated (Roglanar didn't bring back any souveniers. Not even a "My crewmate went to Selgaunt and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt" tee-shirt).
"The 'Steps" reaches the sparsely populated Isle of Prespur and docks in a deserted bay to avoid notice. The crew go ashore and gather wood and supplies for repairs.
In their travels the party stumble across a suspicious temple to Lathander in the middle of the forest being worked upon by local villagers who look less than 'with-it'.
Ever the cautious ones, Ravenmane decides to go climb up it. Finding himself standing on a carving of a hideous mutant sea-beast, rather than the usual embossed beam of sunshine, or perhaps a lollipop, that one would traditionally associate with Lathander, Ravenmane begins to suspect that something is, as they say, 'up'. This discovery prompts the rest of the party wander up and ask (paraphrasing) "Hey creepy-villager-guys. What's up?".
The villagers insist, politely at first, that the party surender their weapons and come with them. Then things start to get pointy.
A fight ensues.
After killing a number of them the party realises that some of the villagers are more fish-like than one might expect. So that makes stabbing them alright.
Further investigation of the temple reveals that it contains a Secret Undergound Lair! (Possibly containing unspecified quantites of Doom.)
More fishmen arrive to try and convince the party that, being fish-men, they aren't really interested in accepting Jesus into their lives. They also aren't interested in accepting the party into their Secret Undergound Lair.
A lightening bolt from Therain makes several dozen of the fish-men reconsider both propositions, however briefly.
Not only is the lair underground it is also, as it turns out, underwater.
The party arrives at the water's edge in time to see something large leaving beneath the waves.
Most of the party follows the thing into the water. Except Serlo and Kordeth who remain behind. Kordeth because he has been secretly dominated and Serlo because he's a bit scared of water. And the dark.
The party loses both the underwater creature and Kordeth.
Kordeth finds the underwater creature though. It's an aboleth and it wants to be his friend.
The rest of the party returns to the ship and vows to continue the fight after they've had a little bit of a nap. It's tiring work fighting the forces of evil.
Early in the morning Aerthfwyn arrives on the steps to propose a final solution to the Stormrings problem. He claims to know of a deep ocean crevase about a mile off the coast of Prespur. Aerthfwyn suspiciously offers to take the rings there - all the party need do is throw them over the side of the boat. The party, quite rightly, suspects something is 'fishy'. Except Kordeth, who knows something is fishy because he overheard the Aboleth making a deal with the elf. The crew of the 'Steps throw an illusionary set of the Stormrings over the side of the ship only to see it picked up by what turns out to be an illusionary aboleth. More aboleth arrive shortly - most of them illusionary. A battle ensues. The fake aboleths are acompanied by several fake Kordeths. During the battle a real aboleth manages to sneak onto the ship and into the hold where the Stormrings are being kept. Roglanar follows and under somewhat mysterious circumstances another deal is struck. Exactly who mind controlled who is still a matter for debate. Also during the battle Roglanar manages to catch a dreadful skin condition from the aboleth. Megan manages to catch the same dreadful skin condition from Serlo who, for reasons which will remain unsaid (and unclear), was polymorphed into an aboleth. Never-the-less about an hour after the Aboleth leaves with the 'rings a seemingly real Kordeth returns with a chest of seemingly real treasure. Also the Llira's Steps appears to be cloaked in an illusion disguising its once very identifiable hull as a fat, slow merchant ship. There is much debate over exactly what should be done now. The final course decided upon is to head away from the Isle of Prespur and towards a volcanic vent that Megan knows of. Once there the party will teleport (courtesy of Therain) back to Prespur, steal the rings and take them back to the vent and dump them under as much magma as possible. Megan, Roglanar and Kordeth head off towards the vent whilst the Llira's Steps resumes its journey to the Pirate Isles still seeking crew and repairs.
Serlo, Ravenmane and Therain take a short teleport to Suzail to see if anything can be done about Roglanar and Megan's skin condition. Late that evening the 'Steps arives off the coast of The Dragonisle. Alexsandros sends Serlo and Ravenmane ashore to 'test the waters' and acquire a berth for the ship.
Cunningly disguised as clownfish, the group enters the very heart of the aboleth's domain, since it hadn't yet installed the doors. They abscond with the rings and teleport them to a volcanic rift, but in the confusion Ravenmane had slipped away. The cunning halfling surprises the aboleth, casts a spell which covers the wooden scrolls in slippery grease, uses another spell to exhaust the monstrosity, gathers the greasy scrolls, and easily escapes the clutches of the aboleth. Ravenmane is later found floating exhausted in the ocean, hopelessly lost.
The resident scholar Ravenmane is able to decipher the wooden scrolls which he nicked right out from under the alboleth's slimy tentacles. Dubbing them the "Dreamer Prophecies" he relates their contents to his fellows, to much bewilderment. Several half-assed theories are put forward, as well as some theories devoid of any trace of ass. Kordeth offers the wildly implausible interpretation that the Dreamer Prophecies are about him. To date it seems the most likely.
Additionally Ravenmane also recovers from the aboleth's lair other wooden scrolls which outline in very precise terms the construction of three ziggurats for purposes unknown. One was to be build on land, one underwater, and one from the newly quarried stone. It is agreed by all that the temples on land and underwater had been found, but the location of the third remained a mystery.
In the hopes of gaining some, any, perspective on the rather mysterious contents of the aboleth scrolls, Ravenmane concocts a plan to examine the package destined for Theiyrn Depthdreamer which Almeni, the affable priest of Waukeen, keeps under arm at all times. Ravenmane takes Almeni out on the 'hamlet' and buys the clueless priest dozens of drinks, all the while surreptitiously disposing of his own, in order to remain sober. Once the thouroughly intoxicated priest was put to bed, Ravenmane slips the package away from the unconscious priest, to find that it is in fact the journal of the Steps' former captain (er, Theiyrn, not Halston). The clever halfling conscientiously writes down the contents of the journal and replaces it before Almeni regained consciousness. He relates the journals oftimes strange contents to his fellows, to yet more bewilderment. It is then revealed that Kordeth, Almeni's "bunkmate" had previously examined the priest's "package", but being an unwashed barbarian was unable to understand the writing contained therein.
Following the triumphant return to the Llira's Steps, the Grey Fleet enters the picture. This ruthless pirate outfit had quite rudely commandeered the Steps' bearth at the Dragonisle, and reappeared later at one of the smaller islands where Alexsandros hoped to finish repairs. They cause considerable damage to the Steps' rigging with a wall of fire, and sadly are able to retreat. Fortunately, during the sinking of a nearby ship, known as the Bleak Brine which belongs to the Grey Fleet and was captained by Senni, known as 'the tall woman', the crew capture a prisoner, who Ravenmane locked in the pantry, after binding and blinding him, until he would talk. He talks. The sabotage had been intended to keep the Steps immobile so as the rest of the fleet could attack her.
Incensed, or even insensed, by the Grey Fleet's amateurish, though completely successful, attempts to delay them from the pressing business of fleeing from the Sembian authorities, several of the crew decide to make a clandestine visit to the Doom Bringer's Eye and any other Grey Fleet ships unlucky enough to be in the area. The strategery of attacking as narwhales, which had yielded such good results against the Bleak Brine, is employed again. However, the Doombringer's Eye is a ship of immense proportions and every last inch of its hull is marked with arcane writings. The incredibly thick hull make it rather difficult for the narwhales to punch through the wood, while the arcane marks release searing electrical blasts to those foolish enough to 'interact' with the ship. As Megan attempts to destroy the mast, sails and rigging of the Doombringer's Eye with hordes of wee fire elementals, Ravenmane skulks about the interior of the ship, searching for the logbook. While he cannot locate said book he is able to find numerous glyphs of warding which kindly deprive the intrepid halfling of all his hitpoints save one. This does not prevent him from throwing numerous chests through the hull of the Doombringer's Eye, via the Ethereal plane. Meanwhile beneath the surface of the sea and high above the deck of the Doombringer's Eye the battle does not favour the brave crew of the 'Steps. Having spotted their shenanigans, a hostile mage begins to throw lightning spells at those who had assumed the forms of narwhales. Unfortunately Serlo, who had already suffered many injuries from the ensorceled hull, is too slow in evading these new balls of electricity and succumbs to his grievous wounds. And while she is able to do terrible damage to the sails and rigging, Megan enventually has to flee, along with the remainder of the crew, as resistance from the denizens of the Doom Bringer's Eye grows too formidable. Thus the crew from the 'Steps is forced to retreat, having failed in their mission to sink the terrible ship. A bitter day, indeed.
A second attack on the Doom Bringer's Eye is attempted. This time the full force of Kordeth's? rage is unleashed, supported by the happy thoughts and good hopes provided by Roglanar. Megan nearly crushes the life out of the captain, and apparent super-evil doer, known only as the dude in the horned helmet with glowing eyes, before he vanishes. During the general melee an earth-shattering ka-boom rocks the ship and most of the upper hull on the port side disappears, granting the combatants therein a spiffy view of the weather outside. As the battle reaches fever pitch Ravenmane is confounded by a chest seemingly immune to his normal proficiency with locks. As it turns out the best lock you can have for a chest is an invisible dwarf armed with two short swords standing on the lid. The dwarf's shennanigans are betrayed when the crew spot a chest floating through the chaos of the battle and smoke. Once the dastardly crew of the Doom Bringer's Eye is subdued, the heroes are left with how to sink such an immense ship. Ravenmane, having previous experimented with adding fire to an entire chest of black powder which was used to power the guns of the Doom Bringer's Eye, suggest using the second chest in just such a fashion, which he does, while standing right next to it. Miraculously he survives and an enourmous hole is blown through the bottom of the ship, which speeds it to the sea's bed.
Following the destruction of the Grey Fleet, a young lad called Ismir came out of hiding on the Steps to protest his innocence in the poisoning of the larger part of the crew. His innocence was proven by the discovery of the two fiendish familiars of the priest of Evil Glowing Red Eyes (we're pretty sure that's the name of his god), which Megan promptly ran to ground in the ships hold. Three rats entered, no rats left. No shapechanged imps left either.
Another priest, this man a devotee of Llira, arrived drifting in a longboat. Upon meeting Ravenmane, who had gone for a midnight swim over the horizon for unknown reasons, possibly in commemoration of his theft of the aboleth's books, this Theorg? asked "Are you real? Can I poke you first?" Thus Ravenmane recognised him as a true holy man, and invited him to sack the drowned Doombringer's Eye.