Session 6: Gold Lion

General Summary

The party, finding themselves with two ships and a host of dead bodies, deliberated at length about their next steps. Ideas emerged to sink the vessels using fire or cutting holes in the bottoms of the ships, how or if to dispose of the bodies strewn about, whether to dress as the dead navy members or maybe become pirates, to go to the large port city and plea innocence or make a run for it to some distant shoreline. During the discussions, Sergei  flopped back aboard the Wavechaser and the party was able to find several hundred gold worth of jewels, a fine rapier, some flammable oil, and what might be ink. Sergei decided to don the bloody livery of Lt. Col. Vaskiir in an attempt at deception. 
Sitting a mile off-shore, as they were, a curious fishing vessel spied enough of what was transpiring to know to keep it's distance and head for Port Damali. Despite an initial attempt by Homo Floridicus to kill a group of messenger dolphins, the group seemed to eventually forget the threat they posed as they debated their next course of action. It wasn't until Nyckle Knackle took charge and directed the boat away from Port Damali that the party left the scene of the crime to take their chances elsewhere. Hiding the bodies in the cargo hold and sinking it off the coastline to the east of Port Damali, they went ashore. Floridicus consumed one of his mushrooms to have a vision of a farm just to the north and they headed that direction with hope of refuge for the evening.  
Upon arriving to the farmstead known as Halnen Acres, they met a family of half-elves struggling to keep their rice crop viable. They helped the family fill in some aqueducts in a last ditch effort, and also learned of a curious phenomenon preventing the ebb of the tide for the past week and a half. The Halnen's sheltered them for the evening and the party agreed to investigate the corpse of a dragon turtle that supposedly washed ashore about the time the Halnen's trouble. 
The party found the rotting remains of the dragon turtle a few miles down the coastline. Floridicus discovered a symbol emblazoned upon its gigantic shell and was subsequently attacked by serpents that emerged from the remains. After vanquishing the formidable reptiles, they came to further understand the symbol as that of Zehir. Further, they found a golden, shimmering trail leading into the foothills. Following this path, they spotted a golden lion on the hilltop. Suspecting the divine intervention of a Prime Deity such as Pelor or Raei, they chose to follow the path to a cave where all that remained was a statue of a lion facing the interior wall. With some assistance, Nyckle discovered a clue to light the eyes of the lion, which opened a secret passage deeper into the cave. Sergei sensed the presence of both good and evil down the path.
The party came to discover a curious sight. A dull red, but luminous pearl-like gem floated above a central pond, seeming to drawn water towards in in an unnatural manner. On the pond floor was another gem, emitting a greyish-white light that illuminated the entire cave. Cautiously, the party tried to understand what was happening and came to some confidence that this was the cause of the tides not retreating. Tev Mosswood attempted to poke at the reddish gem with his mage hand, however, a magical pulse of energy quickly dispelled his probe. Sergei splashed water from the pond finding the water gravitated toward the red-hued gem. Just as he did so, they were alighted upon by more serpents, stronger and more numerous than before. With quick thinking, Nyckle was able to slow their attack, rendering a swarm of undead serpents inert for the fight. Verdi Requiem offered inspiring ballads and Esormaj Everring stood strong against the slithering serpents as he kept his party standing. Nemeia absconded from much of the fight, but stepped forth to deal the killing blow to a gigantic constrictor. Sergei ended a swarm of snakes with a final blow impaling three serpents. At that moment, the red gem dissipated with the gem at the bottom of the lake remaining.

Rewards Granted

~400gp from looted bodies
A fine rapier
Ink?

Character(s) interacted with

Aronen Halnen
Salsteen Halnan
Dayleen Halnen

Report Date

05 Dec 2020

Secondary Location

Port Damali