Althea Filanes

Althea Filanes, part-time adventurer and full-time traveling merchant, is the third child and only daughter in the Filanes blacksmithing family of Aliisyos. While Althea does know how to use the tools of the trade, her main job is going out and locating rare raw materials for the business. After all, a smithing business can't run without supplies, and her siblings were better at crafting goods than she was, leaving her to run around the city and to a lesser extent the archipelago to find new suppliers, materials, and customers. Of course, her inner self was greatly enthused by this because the forge is hot and miserable, plus she got to go explore the world. She is still expected, however, to represent the family professionally. This is how she has come to find herself on Captain Eugene Reynolds' ship, having purchased passage from one city to another.
Table of Contents

History

Joining the Crew

Althea was unaware that the Venture was a smuggler's ship when she booked passage, seeing as Captain Reynolds neglected to mention it. She marveled at the fact the ship could fly shortly before it came under attack by the Argus Pirates. She protected Captain Reynolds to the best of her ability but with forced to abandon ship with everyone else as it began to crash on a jungle island. Heading for the crash site, she attempted to befriend a wild monkey that wanted the rations in her pack but it left to find food elsewhere.
When the party came across injured civilians, Althea quickly proved to be a mediator between them and the more aggressive members of her own party. She was able to settle the aggression and broker a loose peace between the two groups before they went their separate ways. Shortly thereafter, the group went to look for the civilians again at Captain Reynolds' insistence. When they found the pirate's hideout, Althea used her armor and magic to serve as the party's shield. The outnumbering pirates did briefly take her hostage, but N64 and Bakris were able to distract the attackers so she could free herself.
As the party continued to explore the island, Althea voiced her concern at traipsing around the island in the dark but stayed with the group as the others voted to continue. When the party came across a field of flowers that bloomed in moonlight, Althea picked one. It glowed from her touch and she put it in her hair. Later, when she struck the sacred displacer beast of Selûne with her club, the flower wilted to show the moon goddess' disdain. Shortly thereafter, the group left by raft for a new island and new adventures.

Peacemaker & Protector

When the group arrived on Mirebol Island and decided to track down the fishmen who'd attacked villagers, Althea used magic to understand a friendly fishman's (kuo-toa's) language. She explained their split religion and current holy war to the rest of the party, expressing nervousness at the situation. In the kuo-toa village, she reluctantly helped her allies after Fast James "Jimmy" Deric and Guu the Slime began killing the first kuo-toa they saw. Later, when the party found a huge group of kuo-toa and Guu immediately ate one, she used her thunder magic and natural charisma to put a stop to the fighting. This ultimately allowed the party to broker peace between the kuo-toa and villagers before bartering for passage on a merchant ship.
Arriving in Nassau Town, the party took a job harvesting magic crystals from a beached kraken corpse. Upon arrival, they saw a pair of angry workers threatening the foreman and Althea stepped in to intervene. With Bakris' assistance, the pair were able to convince the disgruntled workers to cut their losses and leave. Once inside the kraken, the group met Vypra who sunk her Gunker minions on the group. When Vypra blasted a magic crystal to trigger a detonation, Althea placed herself & her shield between it and everyone else. At the cost of her shield, she softened the subsequent detonation of the other crystals enough for herself and everyone else to escape. Shortly after, she found a Guardian Emblem in the symbol of her goddess Selûne in a chest Lucky the Drake had recovered from the belly of the beast.
On their next job, delivering a time-sensitive package to a wizard, Althea repeatedly put herself in harm's way to protect her companions from bandits. Not long after, she strong-armed the rest of the group into pausing to help a local farmer injured in an animal attack. The next morning, she continued to put the safety of others before her own when the group found themselves stuck in the Feywild and forced to confront a monstrous wolf. After completing the job successfully and spending a week starting to learn the art of sailing, Captain Reynolds sent her, Guu, and N64 to purchase a map of the local seas. Althea noticed a 2nd map stuck to the back of the 1st, waiting until she left the shop to examine it and discovering it was a treasure map. They followed it and met N28, who hired them to help her and paid with chests full of silver bars to help fund the Venture II's construction.
N28 then sent the group to investigate a structure that held an Abyssal Shard. When Arachnor appeared, Althea noticed the invisible drow and moved to confront him. With a wicked smile, he cracked the shard and released several of the demons within to attack Althea, their eyes burning with hatred for her paladin powers. Her holy magic proved extremely effective against them in the battle that followed and she emerged victorious with key assistance from N64 and Jimmy. Shortly thereafter, she met an undead paladin of Selûne whose rest had been disturbed when kobolds pilfered his tomb. After Jimmy killed their leader in a 1-on-1 duel, Althea convinced the widow to part with the sword her late husband had taken to avoid bringing the undead paladin's wrath down on the remaining kobolds.
Shortly thereafter, Althea took Guu and Jimmy into the woods to search for a local missing person. Her companions attacked and slaughtered a pair of owlbears despite her protests, butchering and barbecuing the beasts while she found a shrine to Selûne in a small cave and spent the time in prayer. Finding an attacked camp and following tracks, the adventurers found a group of Sea Devils preparing to attack the town. Althea entered their cave hideout and challenged their leader, Captain Xendros, to single combat. The pirate laughed in her face and attacked with all 12 of her men as back-up, giving Althea a sound beating and forced the paladin to retreat. She managed to evade the pirates in the woods, hiding in the shrine she prayed at before, before heading back to town and hopping on the Venture II to battle an incoming pirate frigate. During the battle she acted as captain, directing her companions with inspiring speeches of heroism.

A Carnival, then a Murder

After finally returning home to Aliisyos, Althea decided to stay on with the Venture II in hopes that its adventures across the archipelago would allow her to find rare materials for her family's forging business. After a quick stop to a local Church of Kelemvor to drop off the ailing Jimmy, she joined N28, Gibby, and their two new companions Ürek Thëch Ösen and Charles "Chuck" Ling at the local Queen of Stones festival for some R&R. She quickly found herself in charge of Gibby who zipped around the carnival winning as many games as he could to trade prize tickets for a stuffed owlbear. Althea won a few games for him herself and bought him some candy as the group enjoyed their day off (and also fell off a horse in a jousting game). When Gibby later turned their trinket prizes magical by accident, she was just as surprised as everyone else but touched when Gibby gave her his stuffed unicorn.
For their next job, the Venture II sailed to Hopewell Harbor to deliver supplies to the local orphanage. Althea was first to try and disembark, only to be told by local officials that no one was allowed in or out due to a murder investigation. Telling them their group was here to supply the orphanage, they agreed to talk to the sheriff on her behalf. The sheriff gave a few members of the crew to come into town to meet him. Althea took the lead accompanied by N64 and Chuck. The sheriff admitted their murder investigation had hit a dead end and he needed outside opinions, hiring the party to look into the case.
They first checked out the crime scene, a dank alleyway where Althea discovered the word "mercy" written on the wall in blood in the Sylvan language. When the party later investigated an inn the murder victim had stayed at, she chased a fleeing doppelganger (disguised as a dwarf) running from Chuck. She followed his tracks easily enough, but believed he hopped on a horse and gave up the chase when the footprints turned to hooves (truly, the doppelganger changed into a centaur). Reconvening with her comrades, they continued to follow the hoof tracks and found themselves at the orphanage. There, one of the sisters running the place begged the party's help after noticing several children acting odd. Althea and the others agreed to meet her the following evening.
After delivering supplies to the orphanage in the afternoon to get a look at the inside, the party returned at midnight and entered the basement. Bakris found a fake wall & hidden door, discovering the sister who asked for their aid being dragged through a gateway into the darker part of the Feywild by doppelgangers. Althea tried to drag the hostage away during the fight that broke out, but was sadly unable to save her life when a doppelgangers transformed into a dragonborn and unleashed its breath weapon. While the rest of the party interrogated the captured doppelgangers Xaeyruudh, Althea alerted the town guard and brought them in to evacuate the building.
Learning the gateway to the Feywild would close at dawn, the party ventured into the dark woods to rescue the abducted children. When Ürek and Chuck were pulled into an underground cavern by Nightwhisper, Althea teamed up with N64 and Bakris to battle her monsters aboveground. They narrowly managed to slay the beasts as Nightwhisper fled before helping dig Chuck and the children out of the cavern. Summoning animals as mounts with their bags of rust, the party raced back to the portal with the children and made it through just as the gateway closed. The town hailed them as heroes for saving the kids and rewarded them with a night of feasting, merrymaking, and good old gold.
Returning to the ship the next day, Mathayas beamed down from the Jeweled Eye with Arachnor and offered to buy the Venture II's magic engine. The party adamantly refused, though Mathayas warned them this would not be the end of the issue before beaming away.

Pirates & Lizards

Not long after, the Venture II was attacked by Captain Xendros seeking vengeance for his father's death at the crew's hands. Althea once again engaged the Sea Devil captain in combat, learning she was there for whoever fired the shot that killed her father. Althea claimed that she was the one who fired the shot, nearly dying to Xendros' wrath before the tiefling was stopped by Vinnie in the nick of time. With their captain dead, the remaining pirates surrendered and Althea brokered a parley with them. She left the two surviving pirates adrift on one of their sloops in exchange for information on why they were attacked. In thanks for their lives, the pirates warned her that while Xendros was after revenge, a general bounty for the Venture II was making its way around all the pirate crews.
Noticing how Captain Reynolds had frozen up during Xendros' attack, Althea went to confront the injured captain about his lack of action. The captain painfully admitted that he'd once lost people very dear to him to a tiefling pirate. Seeing Xendros brought those memories rushing back and he froze up. Althea was sympathetic to his plight and helped the Captain resolve not to freeze up ever again, not when his crew needs him.
Resuming their trip to the Hircona Isles to deliver dwarven mead to a festival, the party decided to stay after the delivery and enjoy the event. It was going well until a halfling with a spear in his back stumbled in, collapsed, and died. The town elder said this man was from a village up the coast and come to think of it, no one from his village seemed to be at the festival. The party decided to investigate, finding a deserted village with signs the inhabitants had been dragged from their homes. The trail led to the beach facing the opposite isle, lights flickering in the distance across the strait. Borrowing some boats from the village, the party rowed across and picked up the trail on the southern isle.
It led them to the territory of the local grung, who said the lizardfolk had their people and were intending to consume them. Something about their explanation seemed off and Althea pressured their elder into admitting they had kidnapped the villagers. The lizardfolk had demanded sacrifices from the grung and the frogfolk decided to kidnap others rather than sacrifice their own people. The guilt-ridden elder offered to guide them through the jungle to the lizardfolk's territory personally. After a skirmish at a ziggurat rescued the first few villagers, the party moved onto the lizardfolk lair to rescue the rest. Althea kept the lizardfolk foot soldiers busy single-handedly while the rest of the party took down the lizard queen. They returned to the northern isle with the survivors and were hailed as heroes by the locals.

The Holy Sword Awakens

Heading back towards Allisyos, the Venture II became enshrouded by a strange fog and nearly ran into another ship in the reduced visibility. The other ship was massive and appeared ancient, practically falling apart. Though they tried to sail around it and away from the fog, the ship kept reappearing in their path no matter which way the Venture II turned. Seeing no other choice, the party boarded it to investigate while N28 used her magic to keep the creeping fog from getting on board the Venture II.
Making their way to the captain's cabin first, they found several cages holding women captive. Althea used her blacksmithing tools to pop a lock and free one of them while her friends tried the other locks. The captured woman thanked Althea for aiding her and collapsed into Althea's arms, the physical contact allowing her to start draining Althea's life force as the wicked spirit revealed its true nature. It quickly became apparent that the ship was haunted and the party began to battle their way past ghostly creatures and several vampires that seemed to be in command.
While battling several will-o'-wisps, Althea heard something that sounded like a single, loud heartbeat. It came from a weapons rack in the ship's armory, cluttered with swords and other common weaponry. After realizing one sword was actually a mimic and dealing with that, Althea picked up another blade that was exquisitely crafted. It was a blade of sanctified solacesteel, a legendary metal that is the bane of both undead and fiends. The sword attuned to Althea instantly, giving her a powerful new weapon against the forces of evil. Unknown to her, this blade was once wielded by one of her ancestors in the ancient war against Moloch's army of devils. It had called out to her through her hexblade abilities, faded but still present in her bloodline even after so many generations.
Continuing into the bowels of the ship, the party entered the hold and found themselves greeted by the vampirate captain as they stood on a massive pile of bones. When Mac prepared to attack, the vampire proved quicker and came in sword-swinging as undead skeletons began to pull themselves from the pile. One of these was substantially larger than the others and Althea moved to engage it as she began to effortlessly slay the weaker skeletons with her solacesteel blade, each undead falling to a single strike. Soon seeing the vampirate captain as the real threat, she deftly dodged a blow from the giant skeleton and channeled the full fury of her paladin powers into her holy sword as she swung it forward. Her weapon cleaved through the vampirate's neck as if it were nothing but air, decapitating the undead menace and putting an end to his villainy.
Once the skeletons were down, Althea assisted with rescuing the prisoners held in the hold as vampire food as well as getting the cargo moved to the Venture II. The crew had just enough time to complete these tasks before the haunted ship, no longer held together by dark magic, began to break apart. She was as surprised as the rest of them when Gibby absorbed the disintegrating ship to take some of its power for himself. She was slightly less surprised when Gibby gave her a scroll of instant cookies for what he considered a job well done as the Venture II continued back towards home.

Secret of the Porvenir

After taking a little R&R in Allisyos, the party set out for the town of Fidanza for their next job. Xaeyruudh had heard a shipping company was looking for someone to recover one of their vessels captured by pirates. Arriving in town, Althea took Vinnie and Erica with her to meet the merchant while the rest of the crew resupplied the Venture II. There they met Lady Candelaria Sonavella, daughter of the Sonavella family and prominent member of the equally prominent Sonavella Shipping Co. Lady Sonavella explained pirates had seized a ship carrying precious family heirlooms along with its usual cargo. The ship in question, the Porvenir, had somehow become stuck in a cove normally blocked by rocks and coral. She'd already sent one group of mercenaries after it, but they retreated after the Porvenir fired on them.
Lady Sonavella offered a hefty sum to board the ship and investigate its status with additional payment for each heirloom and member of the crew recovered (if any had survived the pirate takeover). The heirlooms were sealed in magical spheres for protection, so she was confident the pirates couldn't have damaged them. Once the party accepted, Lady Sonavella stated she would follow them in her own ship, eager for a status report after the first mercenary group's failure. They set out at dawn the next morning.
The voyage went smoothly until Captain Reynolds discovered they were working for the Sonavellas, enraged that the party had already agreed to a contract with people he described as "sharks in humanoid skin". He angrily locked himself in his cabin to avoid being seen by Lady Sonavella, much to the party's confusion. Despite the lack of detail, Althea and her comrades concluded there must be some sort of bad blood between Reynolds and the Sonavella family. The Venture II eventually arrived at the isle of Fellcay. Since the previous mercenaries approach from sea failed, the party opted to cross the island from its opposite end and approach the Porvenir by land.
While crossing the island, Althea rescued Father Nemesi Amáiz Vilar i Costa from being swept down a river when she heard him yelling for help. The drunken dwarf thanked her and explained he'd been shipwrecked before seeing his old friend Vinnie and reuniting with him. Vinnie sent his familiar to escort Father Costa back to the Venture II while the group pressed on. Coming to the cove and boarding the Porvenir, Althea was first aboard and found the ship to be deserted. She poked around with N64, discovering a ghoul in the kitchen and slowly backing out of the room quietly, until Bakris found them after locating the captain's journal. While they were reading it, Vinnie showed up with the ghost of Captain Deze himself.
The ghostly captain was enraged when he learned the Venture Boys were working for Lady Sonavella and was prepared to kill them or be destroyed trying. Althea managed to persuade Deze back to calmness so that he could explain the situation to them instead. Deze informed them how his crew had unknowingly been carrying some monster on the ship that then became the ship before attacking and devouring him and his crew. He also spoke of a traitor onboard who was still alive and his thirst for vengeance against the man. He offered them a reward of gold and jewels for the traitor, who he believed was in the cargo hold.
When the party did reach the cargo hold, they instead found a woman locked in a cage. Althea moved to free her before the ship itself, revealed to be a massive mimic, telepathically warned them the "helpless" maiden begging for Althea's help was in fact a pirate. The mimic explained its history, how Lady Sonavella orchestrated its creation and put it on a ship to control what form it took and allow it to feed on the crew. It regretted killing the crew but had no more than animal intelligence when it did so. It was only by consuming the crew and their traits that it became self-aware enough to feel ashamed of its actions. Althea and her allies left the creature in peace after it promised to raise its children away from inhabited areas, taking the pirate prisoner with them under Althea's watch.
On their way out, they did find and capture the traitor working for Lady Sonavella that Deze wanted dead. The party knocked him out and allowed Deze to strangle the man, despite Althea's failed attempt to convince the ghost otherwise. The ghostly captain paid them for their services before departing to the afterlife with his unfinished business concluded as the party resolved to confront Lady Sonavella, the real monster of this entire event.

Althea Can Fight, But Can't Keep a Secret

The party returned across the island to find the Venture II's crew had evacuated the ship and was camping on the beach. Someone or something had been killing crew in their sleep without any visible wounds and the crew feared either plague or curse. Father Costa ruled out plague, so Althea and the rest of the party went aboard to find the source of the apparent curse. Althea went with Erica, who discovered evidence of food missing. Althea believed this to have been caused by either a swarm of rats or a single very large rat, despite evidence that whatever stole the food was capable of opening barrels.
Vinnie was able to use the information the pair found to deduce that a night hag was likely behind the killings. They laid a trap for the assailant with Althea ready to use a magic sword found on the Porvenir that could strike creatures in the Ethereal Plane, where the hag was likely hiding. She awoke just in time to see the hag reaching for Bruce and leapt at it, channeling the full force of her holy power on top of the sword's magic. She dealt a near-fatal injury to the hag who shrieked in pain and fled. The danger passed, the crew returned to sleep and prepared to speak with Lady Sonavella the next morning.
Vinnie took the lead speaking to Lady Sonavella after other party members had concerns about Althea and N64's inability to lie. Vinnie and Lady Sonavella traded half-truth barbs as they tried to get information from each other, all the while Althea struggled to keep from blurting out anything. This worked until Lady Sonavella turned her attention to the rest of the group and questioned them directly. Althea's tight lips quickly flung open under Lady Sonavella's hard stare and she quickly (and truthfully) recounted everything that had happened on the Porvenir. Lady Sonavella thanked her for her honestly and paid the group the agreed-upon fee before taking her leave.
With the hag dealt with and payment in hand, the crew got back aboard the Venture II and Captain Reynolds set course for Soeurs Noires. He informed Althea that they would be procuring an air elemental he needed to power his new magic cannon and asked her to continue work on the prototype during the journey.

Wizards, an Auction, and Truths Revealed

Arriving in Shiptown, Althea and the rest of the party (plus Gibby) departed for the annual Wizard Swap Meet while Captain Reynolds left to secure an air elemental for his magical cannon. The group split up on arrival and Althea went searching for anything that looked interesting to her. While wandering around, she was approached by a tiefling man who said he'd noticed her sword and asked if he examine it. She agreed but warned the man not to run off with it. He laughed at the notion and noted it was made of solacesteel, inquiring where she got it. He seemed disappointed to learn that she didn't get it somewhere he could acquire one himself and Althea noticed his gaze briefly lingering on N64 as he left.
She continued wandering and a warlock woman accompanied by a sprite waved Althea over to a booth. The pair tried (unsuccessfully) to get Althea to purchase something from them while the sprite noted that Althea looked very familiar for some reason. Soon after, Althea spotted the goblin wizard that she and her friend had previously delivered a package to. The goblin had given up on trying to make a bird that laid gold eggs, mentioning his final failed attempt involving summoning a magical goose, and was now in the potions business. He convinced Althea to purchase several potions and give his potion mixing station a try, which Althea did but without achieving any real results for her efforts. Just as she was finishing up, she saw N64 accompanying Moose and learned Moose could get their group into the auction the next day.
Turning in for the night and heading to the auction the next morning, they ran into Captain Reynolds on the way there. Inside, Reynolds recognized the tiefling that Althea had met the day before, seated next to Falzar Sonavella. Althea managed to win herself a ring of jumping engraved with the symbol of Selûne and a rabbit during the auction. After Lord Sonavella accosted the group while leaving the auction and all but openly mocked Captain Reynolds over his murdering Reynolds' family, Althea did what she could to comfort her captain and lead him out of the area peacefully. As they left the area, the sprite from yesterday found Althea and referred to her as "the warrior of legend spoke of by the rabbit clan". She informed Althea the Feywild]Feywild rabbits still spoke of her heroism rescuing their ancestors from the wicked wolf even "all these generations later" and told Althea about a vein of rare metals recently discovered.
The group returned to the Venture II just as the local guards were driving Mathayas and Gyaos off it, the pair having attacked the ship looking for the spelljammer engine in the party's absence. Unable to take direct actions against the perpetrators at this exact time, the group decided to go look for a lost treasure ship belonging to the Sonavellas that Vinnie had overheard something about. It was only then that the group noticed Gibby sniffling and starting to look sick, having spilled a half-finished magic potion on himself earlier when Althea briefly left him unattended.

Sirens, Pirates, & a Sea Serpent

Gibby's sniffles soon turned into a full-blown cold. Each time he sneezed it created some kind of magical side effect for a member of the crew. Althea, who had temporary cat ears & a tail from eating one of Gibby's enchanted candies, found herself permanently saddled with rabbit ears & a fluffy bunny tail. After Vinnie and N64 summoned a sphinx to acquire an item that cured Gibby, the Venture II continued onwards towards the Sorrow Shoals to find the missing treasure ship.
Their first stop was the town of Eishum, the closest settlement to the shoals, to see if they could pick up any information from the locals. Vinnie said there was one place in every town that was guaranteed to have information: the bar. The party found a tavern called the Sailor's Delight and Althea sat down to look over the menu. The barkeep seemed afraid of her for some reason, talking very nervously and keeping his distance. She ordered a salad and he calmed visibly when she touched the utensils, which she noted were made of iron for some reason. Althea, unlike her companions, did not deduce that the barkeep mistook her for a fey due to her new rabbit ears & tail.
Althea was the first to notice that an all-women crew walked in and got the stink eye from everyone else in the establishment. Curious, Althea approached them to ask what that was all about. Captain Molly explained that her all-female crew were the only ones who could fish the rich waters near the Sorrow Shoals because they were the only crew completely immune to the songs of the sirens that lived there. The rest of the party came over and started to negotiate for Captain Molly to take them towards the Shoals, learning she saw the missing treasure ship enter the area fleeing pirates a few days beforehand. They eventually settled on a deal and set out the next morning on Captain Molly's ship, the Crystal Wave.
Captain Molly would go no further than a quarter mile from the Shoals and the party took rowboats in. They were quickly attacked by a group of sirens, which fled after half their number were killed. Exploring the Shoals, Althea spotted a crying, injured woman on a beach and hopped out of her boat to help. This "person" turned out to actually be a banshee who very nearly grabbed Althea before she fled back to the (relative) safety of her boat. Meanwhile, Vinnie's familiar had found a siren nest nearby and saw a man in a cage among them. Althea insisted they must save the man, arguing that at the least he could provide information when some of her companions were reluctant to help.
The Venture Boys snuck up on the sirens and the battle began, this group being led by a more powerful siren queen. Once most of the sirens were dead, Althea tried convincing the queen to flee rather than fight to the death. The queen eventually decided this was a good idea, but made the decision a bit too late and was shot in the back & killed by Vinnie while retreating. The now free man, Todgar, told them how he was a sailor on the missing treasure ship that was grabbed off the deck by a siren. His ship was still fleeing the pirates that had chased them into the Shoals, so they couldn't come back to help him. He was also able to provide the direction he last saw his ship sailing in, giving the party a general direction to head in.
They did come across the treasure ship, but it was half sunk. The pirate ship was also there, temporarily trapped in a small cove barricaded by rocks until the high tide finished coming in. The pirates yelled at the party, getting them to row over just as a sea serpent tried to snatch up one of their rowboats in its jaws. Pirate Captain Ward explained the sea serpent had sunk the ship and was staying underwater to avoid their cannons. He told the party that if they could lure the beast into firing range, they'd kill it together and split the treasure 50/50. Erica, planning to betray the pirates, agreed on the party's behalf. The sea serpent was a powerful draconic opponent, but in the end the party was victorious through a combination of their own efforts and support fire from the pirates.
When Vinnie tried to lie to the pirates to keep most of the treasure, Captain Ward saw through his deception. However, Ward had heard about how Althea had spared a member of the Sea Devils and gave Vinnie a chance to come clean rather than turn the situation to violence. Vinnie very reluctantly agreed since he was unsure they could win another fight after being banged up by the sea serpent. After the pirates left, Vinnie's familiar managed to locate the sea serpent's treasure horde and the party looted gold, jewels, and mithril onto their boats. The lair also contained several magic items on a shrine to Bahamut, Dragon Lord of Justice, which Althea chose to leave alone to avoid potentially angering a god. After heading back and giving Captain Molly her cut, Althea and co. boarded the Venture II to find Gibby once again ill.

End of the Argus Pirates

This time, Gibby's situation was his own fault. The party returned to find him surrounded by empty candy wrappers while rubbing his swollen tummy. Seeking a cure for his tummy ache, Gibby asked if they could visit the nearby kuo-toa village where he was born to get them to pray for him. They set sail for the island and just as it came into view, they saw beams of light, globs of Gunkers, and trails of smoke coming down from the Jeweled Eye as the Argus Pirates launched a full-scale attack on the island.
Once they got close enough, Gibby teleported all the ship's officers to the beach on the outskirts of the burning village. People were fleeing & hiding as Gunkers swarmed the area looking for them. Althea and Gibby ran over to the nearest burning building, Gibby pulling people out and Althea distracting the Gunkers to keep them away from the villagers. Running out of the building after dealing with the Gunkers, she saw her friends had engaged Mathayas and a towering immolith. Althea moved to assist and was the only to deal the final blow against Mathayas, immolating the scorpionman with a mote of sacred flame. The rest of the group then told Althea they'd figured out the Argus Pirates' objective: to kill the kuo-toa and remove the source of Gibby's godly power.
The group then split up; Althea and the other Venture Boys would cut straight through the forest to get to the main kuo-toa village while Gibby, Captain Reynolds, and Xaeyruudh would follow the road around the woods. Halfway to their destination, the group was ambushed by the revenge-seeking Vengeance Coven. Althea spent most of the battle keeping herself between Nightwhisper and her companions, a battle which ended with Vinnie killing two of the hags while the third fled. After taking a brief moment to bandage their wounds, the group pressed forward.
Standing at the tree line, they saw Gunkers entering the pond leading to the tunnel entrance of the kuo-toa village. Beyond that, on a hillside, was Captain Elgar using his disintegration ray to dig straight down into the village caves. The party split up and went around the pond to surround Captain Elgar and his minions on all sides before attacking. Althea was quick to engage the babau demon supporting Captain Elgar, making short work of it with her solacesteel sword. But Captain Elgar's blasts of magic were incredibly powerful and she soon went down, also finding herself locked in the area of Captain Elgar's anti-magic cone to prevent magical healing from aiding her. Bakris managed to get her back up moments after Captain Elgar's defeat.
During the battle, both Erica and N64 had been slain. Only N64 had a body remaining; Erica's remains were nothing but ash. Vinnie having left after the fight, Althea approached N64's body with Bakris only for a teleportation beam from the Jeweled Eye to snatch it away. Somberly, the pair returned to the pond where their remaining comrades had killed Arachnor and his Gunker minions to give Captain Reynolds the sad news. As they did, they heard a voice and Althea noticed David's face reflecting on the water of the pond.
David revealed himself to be a warforged, N36, and his plan to harvest N64's cadaver for parts. He said he "did them the favor" of destroying the Abyssal Shard but would be taking the Jeweled Eye out into the Astral Plane. He was telling them this because he wanted them to chase him, saying it would be fun. N36 cut the transmission and what was left of the Venture II's officers wondered if their next adventure would take them to the stars.

Belief/Deity

Selûne, the Moon Goddess

Aligned Organization

The Venture Boys

Related Plots

• Campaign 03: Adventures Ahoy

Magic Items
Ghost-Hunter Blade
Guardian Emblem
Moon-Touched Weapon (club)
Scroll of Instant Cookies
Solacesteel Mitigator
Ring of Jumping