Session Sixteen: The Good Dog

General Summary

Late 15th Eleasis
Coming back into the fight, Silas and Harlock shoot the ballistae, forcing the drake to fade, appearing to shift between the planes, ending up by Rayne, going in for attacks with her claws and fangs. Sikander, atop Windrider, flies after her, pulls out Tinkerbelle to attack, but misses. Anya, riding Moonshadow, attempts to persuade the drake, shouting "Jaseve jaka usv nelithik (Leave now or die)". The reply she hears in her head : "I will not abandon my nest". Angry at the earlier attack, Rayne summons his lightning (feeling like taking his first drink after a very long time) and hits her hard. Spinning, she tries to attack Rayne again, but misses. Instead, she swings around toward Silas and burns him with a bright moonbeam centered on him, then aims and breaths her dragon's breath across the deck, injuring many and immolating Piper where she stood.
Silas manages to snare the drake in a net, dropping her to the deck, allowing the crew to encircle her. Anya, seeing Piper turn to dust, directs Moonshadow to the deck, dismisses both eagles (Sikander gracefully landing on the deck), marks the dragon, then with a whispered "Si mi bivai (I am sorry)" she swings at the drake, but doesn't get through her scales. Silas, Anya, and Sikander are closest to the dragon as she gives off a radiant glow, but they manage to avoid the worst of it.
Making his way across the deck, Rayne approaches with Eclipse drawn, ready to attack. As he does, the fourth rune flashes, releasing the dark, purple energy into the blade, up through the hilt, and into Rayne himself. Coming alongside the drake, Rayne begins swinging powerfully, destroys the drake easily. As he does, the drake's body turns pale and translucent....and moving. Stefan finally emerges from underneath, excited that he single handedly brought the drake down. His excitement fades some seeing their faces, with Anya bluntly stating that Piper was dead.
The whole crew gives the party space and kind words, with Silence approaching with Piper's cloak. Anya accepts it, then wordlessly goes to what is left of her, collecting her items and remains. With permission from Bombaduc, she heads to the captain's quarters, waiting for whomever else would join.
Silas grabs Harlock, encouraging the boy by commending his actions during the fight, and sends him to the cabin. He turns to Bombaduc and returns the locket. In doing so, he catches a glimpse of two lovers - very thin man with a moustache and a large faced enormous woman. Bombaduc seems agitated as he accepts the locket back and acknowledges his debt to Silas, who heads into the cabin. As Bombaduc stalks away, shouting for the others to help repair the ship or tend to the drake, the sounds of odd laughter that only comes from surviving what others did not is heard. Sikander walks the deck checking in on the crew encouraging them and healing as he is able, including Bosko, Tinker (who asks for him to keep an eye out for Taylor the Hat), and Warlof. Silence seems to be his usual self, if not a bit more philosophical. Once he finishes the circuit, he too heads into the cabin.
Rayne feels fantastic, like the recovering alcoholic after his first drink in months. He walks to the end of the ship, watching the storm intensify with bolts of lightning, and settles into a meditation.
With everyone but Rayne present, the party discusses how best to tend Piper's remains. Harlock explains the burial at sea, the sack pip playing, the singing, and finally sending the body over the edge and firing all the cannons at once. As they settle into agreement, plans for the next steps are brought up, but are quickly interrupted with Rayne bursting in, insisting they resurrect Piper by any means necessary. They discuss how this would be done, then whether they should and if there was a way to ask Piper. Rayne is sure they could and Anya reminds it would take a very powerful resurrection spell to do this. The others still decide to move forward with the burial at sea and finding her council back in Waterdeep.
Bosko comes in and helps bind the body, attaching a weighted with an anchor. Anya then tucks a Fey Oak seed into the bundle, causing the seed to take root, then hands the bundle over to Sikander. Going back onto the deck, the whole crew sings, Sikander says a few words, then drops Piper overboard. Silas draws his rapier in respect while the sackpips play. At the final moment, all the cannons go off and everyone cheers three times. As everyone begins to disperse, Silence's hand rests on Sikander's shoulder, sharing the time for outward grieving is past, "once we consign a creature to the air, you can't think about death all the time, can you?"
While the others spread out, Silas seeks out Anya to ask her about the fact that she had died and been resurrected. She shares about the void, then the visions and call to return from Sehanine, and waking to Sikander pacing. Silas takes her story in, then asks if she knew anything about The Gloaming, a darkness found in death. She does not, and then heads to find some rum and a quiet spot.
Before he gets too far, a boisterous peal of laughter is heard as a few crew members around a small chest they found within the moon drake. The party gathers as it is agreed those who killed the dragon should get the loot. Inspecting it, there is a lock and three metal bands. Someone suggests using Wibbles, but Sikander reminds them the it would be sacrilege to use him for such a mundane task. Stefan tries to break the lock unsuccessfully, so Silas comes up and picks the lock, leaving the three bands. Anya heats the metal, removing one, Silas breaks one, and Rayne sends a radiant bolt as Stefan rams the chest, breaking the third band. As Rayne opens the chest, everyone close is hit with Dragon's Breath, Stefan taking the most damage, and Rayne receiving a scar of Selune's mark on his right cheek. Within, they find:
  • 1,700 gold
  • 80 platinum
  • 1 Bloodstone
  • 3 bottles of magical liquid - Red, Blue, and Darker Blue
  • A Spell Scroll
  • A piece of Malachite
  • Small statue of a pentacorn
  • 1 diamond
  • A chunk of Chameleon metal (Fey metal when concentrated on for 3 hours it will take the form of whatever has been focused on)
Stefan, now radiating as the full moon and his hair floating slightly (+2 persuasion and -3 Stealth) takes the Chameleon metal, tries to concentrate for an hour, and watches as it becomes a magical hoe. Unimpressed, he gives the tool to Anya so she can use it to garden. Silas does disguise self between Rayne and Stefan, telling the story of breaking into the chest and after, to a great of laughter from the crew. As he finishes, Bombaduc pulls him aside, warning it would not go well for him if he shared what he saw. Silas then asks who the two people are, and Bombaduc shares the happy couple him and his spouse long before he became a pirate. The surprising Silas, Bombaduc points to the skinny man, telling him that was her husband Slewas. She points out there are many benefits to a woman going through life as a man, particularly when trying to get others to listen or command respect. Silas swears not to share this secret and wonders to himself how he missed that.
The evening finally comes to a close as everyone finds some semblance of rest, whether short or long, as the ship continues on.   16th Eleasis
Anya takes time to investigate the Moon Puzzle, finding it is directional. The points move sporadically on the dark side, while the light has points present and searching, but unsuccessful in their search. It is clearly looking for two different things. Leaving Tal to rest, she finds Rayne and they connect on the fight the previous night, his struggles around his magic, and her agreement to help him figure out what is happening to him. Continuing to walk the deck, she finds Silas and gives him the Gloves of Thievery, trusting they would be put to best use with him.
Later, they all gather to get a reading from the Airman's deck. Stefan offers to draw the cards, but Anya gets a feeling the reading will be reasonably accurate, but they shouldn't hang all their eggs in one basket. They finally settle on the question, "How do we gain the staff from Hugert?" Stefan then draws the following cards:
The Admiral - strong female; deception or bluff
Air Queen - reinforces the idea of feminine power; clever ruse overpowering physically or mentally
Longing - lost endeavor; lost companion; foolish squandering of chances
Stefan finally shares his reading: "What these cards are saying to me is Emeraldus, she needs to talk or trick the mistress into helping us get close to Hugert. He lost the queen."
Finishing the reading, they hear someone above asking for cheese, so Anya gets some, then climbs up, nearly falling as a hail storm hits the ship. Eventually, she makes it up and meets the rat pirate Big Nation (from the same place). He happily accepts the cheese, tells her about voices on the ship, shares he once served on Hugert's ship and his observation that Harlock will not be helpful with his father. She also learns Big Nation is not a fan of Reepicheep. She agrees to bring him more snacks and questions another time, then finds the others to share what she'd learned. After they catch up, she heads below deck to Cookie and gets extra snacks, along with asking for two vanilla cupcakes. Cookie agrees and gets to making them - one for Big Nation, which she delivers with the other snacks, and the other for Sikander, along with some tea.
Silas connects with Sense asking for further clarification on Hugert and Harlock. Sense doesn't think the pirate king will kill Harlock and that ultimately they will be rewarded for rescuing the boy, but that their better shot would be to convince him with the power of the Queen. They continue going back and forth about Sense joining Silas, but he has concerns about another bargain he'd made and hopes Sense can drown out the voice from the Gloaming. Sense can lessen the impact and help boost Silas in certain ways, which he finally agrees to. In that moment, Silas takes on a terrible odor as he can now feel Sense's presence in his mind.
Above, Big Nation shouts about an air hole and they all see a large circle showing a hole in the fabric of reality. Within the hole looks like nigh and full of stars, which they all realize they are going into space.

Rewards Granted

Piper's Items:
+2 Crossbow
+1 & +3 Daggers
simple rapier
Gloves of Thieving (Given to Silas)
Cloak of Protection
thieves tools
map case
Strangely preserved collar with "Never Again" carved in top and "Dawlin WD13" on the inside.

Created Content

Character Alterations! Silas: now bonded with Scents.

Notes

Piper Boxermix laid to rest "at sea"

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