Session XXX: The Captain's Culmination Report
Rewards Granted
During the session, the party was rewarded with the Silver Gem, after they thought they killed the Captain, and after they defeated the Living Blizzard created by Nyempin Qelythas, the Inhabitor of the Silver Gem. However ultimately, the taking of this gem released the Dragon Guardian of Greenfell, making the Captain even more powerful.
Missions/Quests Completed
The party completed their primary mission of retrieving the Silver Gem from the Frozen Isles. This, however, led to the release of the Dragon Guardian—which was held frozen by the Silver Gem. The party then managed to board the Guardian and take control, but not before the Captain began self-destructing the Guardian. Ultimately the Dragon Guardian crashed into the Kraken's Maw, destroying the Kraken Guardian—destroying the last two Guardians of Greenfell.
The party also completed their secondary mission of killing the Captain, further weakening the Cult of Chroma and lessening its influence in Greenfell.
Character(s) interacted with
The Captain
The Savior from the Serpent
The party first met the Captain at the start of the session, when his ship used its lightning launcher to save the Valtis from its demise at the hands of a huge Clockwork Sea Serpent. The Captain then came aboard, and took Riptide and the rest of the party hostage, demanding they help him acquire the Silver Gem. Originally however, the party did not put up much of a fight, due to the Captain's charismatic nature—and skill at spinning a narrative. The party spent the night on the Captain's ship, and began journeying with him to the Catacombs of Silver the next day.The Crazed Captain
Only after the party journeyed through a completely abandoned warforged village did they begin to question the nature of the Captain. They confronted him about the abandoned village, to which he revealed to them that he killed all of the warforged who used to inhabit it. He said that they would not take him to the Silver Gem, so they had to be taught a lesson. He taught them this "lesson" by killing them all.The Lazy Leader
Throughout the Catacombs of Silver, the Captain did not directly help the party at all, which also irritated them. He forced them to fight a Remorhaz without his assistance, offered no ideas on any of the various puzzles, and only ordered them around to fulfill his wishes. When the Captain demanded that they help him to cross a chasm blocking the path to the next part of the Catacombs, Ukar decided to instead repulse him into the chasm. The Captain suspected this however, and used magic to lighten his fall into the chasm, where he ultimately found the Dragon Guardian lying frozen in the depths below. He decided to wait there, in hopes that the party would take the Silver Gem and release it—a hope that would soon be realized.The Clockwork Captain
After stowing away on the newly released Dragon Guardian, the party quickly found out that the Captain had survived his fall and was controlling the Guardian. The Captain attempted to use the defenses of the Guardian in order to kill the party, however they managed to dodge danger and reach the Head of the Guardian, where the Captain tried to placate them once more. However, when the outcome of his placation seemed to be negative, he resorted to threatening the party. The party held steadfast, and they began to fight the Captain. Although, the Captain was an extremely skilled dualist and managed to get many of the party members close to death. In a heroic decision, Heigolor decided to sacrifice himself to give the party a chance at defeating the Captain. Heigolor used fireball on the Captain—and himself in the process—which weakened greatly. The Captain then shot Heigolor, killing him. Knowing at this point that he was not going to survive, he activated the Guardian's self-destruct sequence. The party, enraged at Heigolor's death, then rushed at the Captain, and managed to kill him.Captain Riptide
Captain Riptide was taken hostage alongside the rest of the party, and journeyed with them to the Catacombs of Silver. Parts of his background were revealed, but ultimately Riptide was sent back to care for the Valtis after the party "killed" the Captain the first time. After the aftermath of the Dragon's Descent, Riptide and the rest of the Valtis decided to continue travelling with the party to Torleigh, where they found the ruins of RBOSTI.The Government of Greenfell
The party spoke with the newly formed government of Greenfell after the Dragon's Descent. Dreamer would become the Head of State, with her love Beeker as the Secretary of the Navy, Crafter as the Secretary of Defense, and Adapter as the Secretary of Biological Reintroduction. The party left the archipelago on good terms with the Government of Greenfell.Notes
Important Notes
- Elandril and Heigolor revealed their true backstories, as the High Prince of Wistonland and a Royal Guard, respectively.
- Upon crashing the Dragon Guardian into the Kraken's Maw, the party destroyed the Kraken Guardian, and wiped out an entire civilization of seaforged—who had been living in an underwater cavern under the Kraken's Maw. The party did not have prior knowledge of their existence.
- The crash also partially flooded the Undercity, killing an estimated 3,000 warforged.
- RBOSTI has fallen, destroyed by Steve George. The message calling the party back to RBOSTI HQ was a ploy to execute all of the members of the organization at one time. Leafy and Barthlomew are dead. Jebediah Stevens is MIA.
The Room of the Living Dead
The party arrived in a circular ice cavern, which appeared to have glowing silver threads running under the ice, weaving to a center point under a pressure plate at the back of the room. On the wall in front of the pressure plate rested a doorway of silver, but it too was filled with the reflective ice that had blocked other doorways in the Catacombs. Above the doorway there was an inscription that read: "Only a fool believes they die once. Only those who see their own deaths, and accepts them, may pass. Accept your deaths, so that you do not shun your true self." Each of the party members, Riptide, and the Captain had to step on the pressure plate. Upon stepping on the pressure plate, the ice in the doorway began showing a scene from their past, which depicts an aspect of their "dead" past. The scenes were as follows:The Captain
You see the Captain, although you can tell that this is a much younger him. He lacks the huge burn on the back of his hand, and he lacks many of the scars which you see on the real blue dragonborn before you. He also appears to be wearing a naval uniform of some kind, although you do not recognize it. The scene expands. He now is now standing on the dock of a desert town, speaking to a water genasi, whom you don't recognize, in a more decorated uniform. The genasi begins to speak: "I'm sorry Alxes. You disobeyed a direct order. You know the protocol for something like that."
"Sir! I was ordered to leave them to drown! That's not what I signed up for. I signed up to help people. Not watch as they drown!" "You signed up to serve your country. To serve the elders! That's what your job was, to follow orders, and you failed. You know I vouched for you to even be admitted into the navy! The rest of them thought you were to unpredictable! Now you've made me look like a fool!"
"Brine! Don't do this, please! Give me another chance!"
"Alxes, you know I can't. I'm on track to reach Vandtarn! If you have another screw-up its on my head! I can't risk my position for you anymore. You knew consequences when you went to save them! This is your fault! If you wanted to stay you should have left them to die like you were ordered! You disobeyed, left the fleet, and now two of our ships are gone! Taken by pirates, crews killed, because you decided you knew better!"
"Alxes Jarrakas, you are hereby dishonorbly discharged from the Royal Gatrinhian Navy, and under arrest for disobeyal of direct orders and multiple counts of second degree manslaughter."
You watch as the Captain is dragged away by two more armed water genasi in naval uniforms, as he kicks and tries to escape. The scene fades.
Captain Riptide
You see a younger Captain Riptide, although he looks much more refined. In place of his signature swashbuckler's coat, he wears short, white noble garments. On his arm, you see a large runed tattoo which appears to be flowing back and forth across his arm. His hair is cut short, and his beard is trimmed. He holds a glass of a blue liquid in one hand, and is laughing with a young earth genasi woman. He appears to be in a huge, ornate, ballroom of some sort. The walls are made of what appears to be a white sandstone, crystal candles with flames of all colors float in the air, and different colored liquids flow into fountains along the walls. Riptide begins to walk towards the edge of the room. He opens a pair of doors and steps out onto a balcony, overlooking a sprawling desert city. However, Riptide looks past this, longingly, at the open sea.
Ukar
You see a young aasimar man, riding a golden brown war horse out of the forest into the front lines of a battle on the plains. Behind him, you see a flagbearer flying a flag which you recognize as the flag of the Wistonlandic Theocracy. While the aasimar's battalion appears to be mostly made up of high elves, on a white war horse on his right sits a silver dragonborn man, smiling confidently and twirling the war hammer Ukar carries. The aasimar laughs, beats his shield with his sword, and orders a charge into the opposing wood elf forces. The scene shifts, becoming flashes of moments rather than a single scene. You see the aasimar and the dragonborn felling enemies all around them. You see high elves and wood elves alike fall, dead, to the ground. Spells are slung across the battlefield. Suddenly though, you feel that the tide has changed against Wistonland. You see wood elves riding on horses into the back of the Wistonlandic battalion, surrounding them. High elves fall more quickly now. The aasimar is hit with an arrow that slides into a chink in his armor. The aasimar falls from his horse, wounded severely. The dragonborn jumps off of his horse, throws the assimar over his shoulder, and lays him back on the horse. The dragonborn orders a retreat, and rides off through a break in the wood elf line, with the aasimar on the back of his horse.
Elandril
You see Elandril sitting a small desk, in a huge, ornate library. Bookshelves line the walls, and stretch up to the ceiling, each shelf packed to the brim with books. Only one wall does not have bookshelves, and this wall is filled completely with windows that stretch from the floor to the ceiling. At this desk, Elandril appears to be studying something, scribbling notes every once in a while down on his sheet with his ink and quill. Although, you unfortunately are not able to make out what they say. Elandril is dressed in lavish clothes, threaded with gold. He picks at his garments, bored. Besides books and writing utensils, a small, fancy diadem sits on the desk, which he glances over toevery once in a while. Suddenly, two armed guards burst through the door. The wear ornate plate armor, and carry longswords. There appears to be some sort of crest on their breastplate, but you are unable to make it out.
One of the guards says: "Get up. Your father says it's time for your conditioning."
Elandril shakes his head sadly, almost defeatedly, and does not move from his desk. The guards grab his arms and drag him from his chair out of the room.
Heigolor
You see Heigolor standing in the courtyard, of what you assume to be a barracks, practicing his swordsmanship with a longsword. He stands opposite a wooden dummy, and appears to be practicing his strikes against it. Other high elves are doing the same in the rows behind him. A man stands next to Heigolor's dummy, arms crossed. He wears ornate plate armor, and himself is carrying a longsword. There appears to be some sort of crest on his breastplate, but you are unable to make it out. The man speaks: "Now, Heigolor, use the sword as a focal point and release your magic through it. Magic is like a river, always flowing, and always looking for a way out. Show it the way out through your blade!"
Heigolor grunts, and swings with his sword again. But this time, the blade bursts into a blue-green flame, which transfers to the dummy when he strikes it.
"That's my boy! That's how you use a blade! You'll make a fine Bladesinger indeed." The man walks over to Heigolor, drops to one knee, and puts his hand on his shoulder. "Son, look at me." Heigolor looks. "It'll take practice, but this is in your blood. You're the finest swordman we have in training, and soon to be the finest bladesinger. Then, when you've graduated, you'll come and take your place with me at the palace. I've spoken with the King, and he's agreed to give you a position there, with me." He gently takes the longsword from Heigolor's hand, before placing it flat on his own palms, as if presenting it to Heigolor. "The longsword is our heritage. Our sacred weapon. Strong, fast, versatile, it is the true weapon of a bladesinger. Although you must always remember who you are. You are a servant to our king. As long as you wield this blade, or any like it for that matter, you are in service to our king. You will do as he asks, you will obey him, you will serve him. As long as you wield a weapon like this, you serve the crown, do you understand me? Make me proud." Heigolor's face is set, determined, as he nods and takes the longsword. He swings the sword at the dummy once more, chopping its head clean off, sending it rolling away from him.
Oswald
You see Oswald walking through the marketplace of a desert town, with two other warforged in tow. Instead of his normal refined clothes, here he is wearing a long coat and brimmed hat. His companions are dressed in similar attire. Before they reaches a crowd of people, they step into a shadowy side alleyway. Oswald scans the crowd quickly, picking out a reference. An earth genasi man. Average height. Average build. Perfect. He reaches up and presses a small button on his neck. His metallic skin shimmers, and is replaced by the smooth dark skin of an earth genasi. His facial features match those of the reference. He looks around at his compatriots, who have similarly disguised themselves. He steps into the crowd, the brim of his hat tucked low, and walks up to a fire genasi merchant. He speaks in a gruff voice to the merchant: "The Golden Son never sets."
The man responds: "If the sun never sets how will we rest?"
"We will rest when the night is burned."
"Then I need not be concerned. Identification?"
"05w41d."
"If you'll follow me, I'm sure I can get you situated."
The two disappear into the building behind the merchant's stall.
Micnik
You see a young half-elf boy sneaking around next to a small house. He has messy, black hair, brown eyes, and a mischevious grin plastered on his face. He is wearing common clothes, but wears no shoes. He sneaks around to the back of the house, close to the walls and bushes so that he is unable to be seen out of the house's windows. He sniffs the air, and grins. He takes a few more steps, and peeks his head out and over the windowsill of the house. Resting on the windowsill, is a freshly made pie. He snatches the pie off of the windowsill as a high elf walks into the kitchen. She sees him, yells "Hey!" and runs out the front door and around the house to try to catch the small boy. By that time though, he's long gone, laughing as he runs into the forest. Then, between two trees, he sees a spot of mud. So, he ties a small piece of string between the two trees. Next, he climbs a different tree, where another small boy, identical to him, waits. The boys share the pie, laughing, when they see the baker of the pie, fuming, and running towards the forest. The boys laugh even louder, and the woman hears them. So she runs towards towards, not watching where she is going. She trips on the string and falls face first into a pile of mud. The boys burst into even more laughter, as they jump down from the tree, licking their fingers from the finished pie, and run off back to town. Leaving the woman sputtering in the mud behind them.
Elandril Laraethan
Ukar
Heigolor Goltorah
Oswald
Report Date
11 Jun 2022
Primary Location
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