Under+the+Sea

__**Under the Sea**__
From the ruined keep near Gateway, we ported back to Lonng to ask the Hel Priestess to go ahead and begin the process of hiring Haliburton to find the ship. We had to wait a week for our ship to get back to Seaside so we could sail out there ourselves. On the last night before we left, some strange explosion in a nearby farmer's home made us think that the Questers had arrived through some kind of portal. (The Hel priestess later had some info, the food in the home and nearby plants were contaminated and wilting, and a slow moving glowing ball travelled across the land. A major shadow being had come through.)

We left at dark on our ship, buffed and slept. Our ship arrived at the site near dawn, we additionally buffed and went into the water. Nothing had changed from before, the ship was empty now except for the remnants of the cache of Toli's black powder, and the way was clear. We decided it would be a good idea to talk to the Aegir temple before killing a being they were holding captive. We showed proper deference to a large sea creature guarding the temple, and then asked to talk to his manager. A beautiful feminine avatar arrived, and after asking probing questions to each of us individually, blessed us and gave us permission to kill the commander since she said he was "no longer useful". We told it about the shadow being probably coming, and rather than risk defilement of the temple, it decided to refloat the black ship, so the battle would take place out there.

Anyway, back in the hall between the temple and prison cave people took up positions as Everett attacked the golem with a bow and then retreated through a silence spell so the Commander couldn't call it back. A successful pull, and we were in battle with one at a time. The golem made its first move as it breathed a poisonous cloud. Benelux missed two saves, each by 1, and died. It then proceeded to hit for about 20-25hp with each of two attacks, and hit AC 34 about 50 pct of the time. Ouch. No spells would touch it, we had learned through research, so we could only beat on it. Beat we did, and it went down. The Aegir avatar was then kind enough came out and raised Benelux with a kiss. Natually, Neville immediately fell to the ground and declared himself dead as well! OK not really, but he wanted to.

We healed up and went after the commander. Anyone facing the Commander had to save or lose 1d4 charisma permanently. Everett had failed during the pull, and decided he should lead the charge since he probably couldn't lose more. He tumbled past the commander, hoping to turn it around so the rest wouldn't have to save. Unfortunately, we all piled in too fast, before he had turned around, and each successive character had to save also. Endo and Neville made their rolls exactly, but Rastik failed, losing a point. The commander went down without getting an action. Benelux restored our lost charisma, and we rolled for treasure. Then we rolled again. And again, and again. Finally Tom gave us one roll of a major item. One more reroll and we had a Staff of Healing, which I assume Benelux will carry.

Much xp was had by all (except Benelux) and 3 dinged. Now to claim our black ship and fight the Shadow Being.

The party regrouped and went out to see if the black ship had been raised yet or not. We exited the cave and didn't see the ship. We did see a whirlpool of mud and water a ways away, and went to investigate. It turned out to be a HUGE water elemental doing something. We managed to speak simple ideas to it. It had just finished raising the black ship at the request of Aegir. A couple people wanted to fight it just for the fun of it, most saw no reason for it. We were just leaving but then noticed through the settling murky water that the elemental had dug up two chests. They didn't radiate evil, but did radiate medium level magic. Now more people wanted to fight it, but again were outvoted, and the elemental was allowed to leave with the loot. We later learned he had buried it 100+ years ago when it had helped pull the ship down, but Aegir had forbidden him to take it then. With the raising of the ship, it felt that the treasure was free again too.

We got on board the boat and did some repairs, mostly with ER summoning pitch and some spare wood, and Raven and his lyre "building" it into the ship. The ship was still leaking a bit, but we estimated us as having about 4 days before it would sink. We got on board, anchored it there, and waited for Shadow Baddie to arrive. Various dreams were had by people, but often forgotten. Eventually we remembered some and realized they were leftover vestiges of the ship's mind. The ship had been alive and in control of it's undead crew and elemental power sources. It had been built on another plane, and was capable of planeshifting. That intelligence is irreversibly damaged and dying, but some of the strongest memories seem to be living on for a bit. In an effort to protect ourselves from the dreams, we consecrated an area. That didn't stop the dreams, but it removed the evil aura. We consecrated all of it, and decided we could keep it now after all, instead of scuttling it. BTW: Eara has a functioning black ship!

We continued to wait another day for the Nightwalker when the avatar of Aegir appeared on the ship and told us he had been in the temple outer caves down below, saw the bodies of the commander and the golem, and had left again. We zipped down, tracked it by scent as sharks and are just about to catch up to it. Battle and death next time, hopefully mostly our battle and his death.


 * __Veni, Vidi, Vici__**

We caught up with the Nightwalker and some shadows. Due to Lea's superior vision, we trailed them as they headed towards Seaside. We wondered if the Nightwalker was in the group (Lea's vision wasn't good enough to be sure since it and the shadows are almost invisible) and where they were going. We decided to follow. The sharks in the group got in front of them all and were able to ascertain that the Nightwalker was among them, though invisible. As we followed, they finally stopped and the Nightwalker went down and dug up something from the ocean floor. It was an ornate scabbard, which he threw away in disgust. Clearly he wanted the sword. Neville the shark picked it up and read the writing, "Godslayer". It reeks of evil and is magical itself, too. No wonder Aegir sank that ship and captured the artifact.

At that point the nightwalker headed to land, hid in a small clump of trees and covered himself and the shadows in darkness. We formed up, made a plan, and attacked.

The battle was pretty much all Raven. Casters removed the darkness, but no other spells touched him (up to level 4 spells were tried). Raven layed on hands and smote evil for over 100 points of damage. Yuri smacked him with 4 sling bullets, and then Leah finished him off, charging in as a dragon. Meanwhile, Everett and Benelux had been turned and were fleeing. We were largely unhurt, with Everett and Zaldiston saving from the cloudkill. We finished up with a debate on whether to save the black ship and how. We chose to do so.