Session 9 - Stoking the Flame Report

General Summary

It was a peaceful journey back to Skyfoss after recovering the Lost Shipwheel from the Hag's Coven. The party tried to make some headway with the tramatized man they had recovered from the coven, but his trama ran too deep for them to get through to him. Upon reaching the port, they implored McGruff to let the man stay on the boat a bit longer, and he grudgingly accepted.

In town, they first headed to Granny's Goods to sell some treasure and restock on basic supplies. While there, Granny mentioned that some rough looking sailors yesterday had been asking about a group of travelers matching Varuna and Annie's descriptions. Annie summoned a disguise for herself, an similar build but stylistically opposite look, and they quickly headed toward Anna Stone's home.

Before turning off the main stairway toward Anna's home, they notice a group of three well armed, rough looking sailors going door to door asking the residents about folks matching Annie A, Varuna , Sorren, and X description. They were being rather intimidating and forceful with their questioning. Most of the party retreated back to the Bent Hook to seek the advice of Dirge who is on the city council. Dirge also confirmed the same group had been in asking about them, although he told them nothing since they didn't seem like the "good" sort of people. The party persuaded Dirge to tell them about an abandoned house on the upper ring of houses. They formed a plan to lure their seekers to the house and then question them, most likely by removing a limb or two.

Unfortunately, Varuna was a bit too clumsy when sneaking past their adversaries and after some pointed conversation where they learned more of their group had been sent toward the docks and the Broken Crate, combat broke out. Between Varuna's beheading sweeping attack and Annie blasting someone off a roof at they tried to escape, the fight didn't last long. Soon they were hauling two headless bodies and one unconcious man across the serene neighboorhood to the abandon house Dirge had mentioned. The flame emblem tatoos on their forearms confirmed their suspicions; these were Red Fleet pirates under the banner of Captain Esme the Flame whom Varuna and Annie had toiled with a few weeks prior when Tera Twilight was kidnapped from their ship.

Houdini stayed behind to watch the prisoner and the remainder of the party quickly headed toward the docks to check on McGruff and Lota. Unfortunately, they were too late. No one was on the Broken Crate and a dockworker confirmed they were escorted to the far end of the dock at the point of a sword. Evidently the tramatized man they collected from the Hag Coven put up a fight though, and bit one of the pirates, so there is that at least.

The party found what looked like the pirate ship, although it was not flying its usual flame banner. They staked it out from a distance while Annie rushed back to the Bent Hook to seek out Dirge's help. Unfortunately, no matter how much he wanted to help, there wasn't a lot he could do. He pledged to be of assistance however he could, as long as it wasn't directly in conflict with the Red Fleet. The folks of Skyfoss are no match for the Red Fleet, and he feared any altercation traced back to the townfolk would ultimately result in the Red Fleet wiping them from existence. He did agree to spread word around town for folks to get ready for a fight if it came to that, to stay indoors, and to clean up the bloody mess they made in the center of town fighting the three pirates earlier.

Annie headed back to her party and then they all departed for Anna Stone, hoping that the old wizard might have some way to offer aid. After using the portal to teleport to the top of Mount Foss, they headed straight toward Anna's shack which is perched in the cloud river right before it spills off the top of Mount Foss. Her shack was barren save the pedestal with the first sized magic purple gemstone and Anna's magic trunk.

They quickly filled her in on all the happenings. Before a plan could be formulated, they heard a high singsong voice from outside call out to Annie and Varuna. It was Captain "The Flame" Esme, a ruthless Red Fleet member known for her insatiable need to burn everything and generally unstable personality. Annie bravely went out the front door to parley with Esme. She was seeking the Ancient Compass and agreed to let them all live if they gave it to her. If they didn't, she would roast them alive and take it. Their choice.

Faced with this dire dilema, Annie headed back in side and after much deliberation, Anna Stone reluctantly revealed her contigency plan for escaping. Anna's shack, the one they were standing in right now in the midst of the cloud river, was the ship they were seeking. All they needed to do was remove the purple gemstone, place the shipwheel on the pedestle, and then place the gemstone in the center of the shipwheel. This would cause the shack to transfigure back into its true form, her magical ship. However, the cost of this was dire. Anna had lived here all these years, because a long time ago she had tracked an ancient and terrible creature within Mount Foss. She had been trying to devise a way to remove without unleashing the creature, but time was no longer on her side.

The party discussed with Anna, and all agreed that if they didn't take the ship and unleash the creature, Captain Esme surely would after she killed them all. The only thing to do was to recreate the ship, free the creature, and live to fight another day. Mulush quickly followed Anna's instructions installing the wheel and the shack immediately started to shake with magical energy as its transformation began.

Planks began flying from the roof town to the base of the building to form a deck. Esme screemed in fury, flying directly above them, and reigned fire down as her hidden archers reigned down arrows. It took only moments (three rounds) for the ship to transform, but Esme's fury knew no bounds as she blast them with fire. Annie was downed, but Anna quickly pulled out a potion and helped her back up. As she came to, however, Annie had a horrible sense of impending doom as she felt a precense rushing toward them from deep in Mount Foss. It didn't take long to discover the source. Just as the reformed ship broke free and began drifting toward the edge of the mountain, a massive 30' tentacles shot up from the clouds and grabbed Esme right from the air. Pirates sprang from their hiding places on either side and desparately shot arrows at the tentacles to try to save their leader. More tentacles appeared and slammed down, each one crushing a pirate in a single blow.

The last thing the party saw was this flurry of enraged tentacles decimating the pirates while Esme hung suspended grappled, seeming a petty toy compared to the creature that had been unleashed upon the world. Then, the ship reached the edge of the mountain top, tipped straight down toward the Cloud Sea over a thousand feet below, and plummeted. Plummeted down, down, down, straight toward the Cloud Sea.

Rewards Granted

32 GP from selling loot.