Campaign 03: Adventures Ahoy
2,500 years before the Quintus Gems were rediscovered...
Table of Contents
Crash Landing
For various reasons, a group of individuals found themselves seeking passage on a smuggling ship, the Venture. Unknown to them, ship Captain Eugene Reynolds had recently upgraded his vessel into an airship using a mysterious artifact he'd purchased on the black market, unaware that this object was in fact a spelljammer engine. It was on this voyage that he activated the engine for the Venture's maiden flight, which did not go unnoticed. The spelljammer]spelljammer pirate ship the Jeweled Eye was passing near Nexus in the Astral Plane and picked up the Venture's activation, setting an intercept course to claim the ship for themselves. Harpoons came out of a cloud above the Venture as the Argus Pirates began their assault. They were followed by Gunkers being fired onto the Venture's deck as the ship's crew and passengers began to fight off the invaders. To counterattack, Captain Reynolds unveiled a large magical cannon powered by a fire elemental and pointed it at the Jeweled Eye as it emerged from the clouds. A devastating blast from the cannon heavily damaged the Jeweled Eye, forcing the pirates to retreat to a higher altitude. Unfortunately, the cannon also exploded and caught the Venture ablaze as it began falling from the sky. To escape the spreading flames, the surviving crew & passengers jumped overboard into the sea below and washed up on the shore of a nearby island. They could spot the Venture crashing somewhere further inland and decided to make for the wreckage to see if anything was salvageable. They soon found they were not alone on the island, as a group of Sea Devil pirates were using it as a hideout. The group managed to kill or evade the pirates they encountered, eventually reuniting with Captain Reynolds after learning he had survived the crash. Nothing was salvageable from the wreck of the Venture, so they were forced to build rafts from the islands trees and make for the next nearest island.The Gang Meets a God
Arriving in the village of Mirebol, the group found that they would be able to book passage on a merchant ship expected to come in a week's time. In the meantime, the villagers requested aid with a group of local kuo-toa. The fishmen were typically peaceful and kept to themselves, but had recently attacked and injured several villagers for reasons unknown. Needing some form of work to pay for passage on the merchant ship, the party set out to investigate. Meeting a friendly kuo-toa and several unfriendly ones made it apparent that the fishpeople were in the middle of a religious war between their old god and a new god, Gibbidubbus. Fighting their way past the new god worshippers who wished to bring death to people who weren't kuo-toa, the bloodthirsty high priest goaded the party into facing their god directly to receive divine judgement. Fast James "Jimmy" Deric immediately recognized the "god" as the Venture's spelljammer engine, which had come to life after the kuo-toa began praying to it. Concocting a plan to move the insane high priest from power, the group got Gibbidubbus to declare N64 as his new high priest and denounce the crazy one. Thinking having a minor deity around could be useful, they then informed the kuo-toa that Gibbidubbus would be coming with them to spread the word of their faith across the isles. The kuo-toa were overjoyed and cheered at the group's departure. With peace returned to Mirebol, the group hopped on the merchant ship once it arrived and set sail for Nassau Town.The Argus Pirates In-Person
Needing a new ship of their own, the party began to work odd jobs around town while Captain Reynolds procured a deal for a new vessel and started to train Gibby to sail. On one of these jobs, they encountered Vypra and recognized her as one of the sky pirates when she summoned Gunkers to attack them. Though they managed to slay her (with Althea saving the rest of the group from a bomb Vypra set as she died), the motivations of the Argus Pirates remained a mystery to the party. Not long after, they were investigating a ruin on behalf of the cleric N28 and another member of the Argus Pirates, Arachnor, managed to steal an Abyssal Shard out from under them. Despite this setback, the group was able to fund the construction of the Venture II, a new ship magically powered by Gibby and ready to set sail for new adventures.Adventures in the Ashes Archipelago
The adventurers now calling themselves the Venture Boys had many adventures across the Ashes Archipelago. They rescued kidnapped children from a hungry hag, saved a village from cannibalistic lizardfolk, stopped a ghost ship crewed by vampire spawn, and thwarted the machinations of the evil merchant Candelaria Sonavella. And they made enemies along the way. Several hags were stopped by the party but managed to escape. They began to earn the ire of the head of the Sonavella family and the eye of his right hand man, and the threat of the Argus Pirates remained persistant. The Argus Pirates' second-in-command, Mathayas, attempted to purchase their spelljammer engine though did not seem aware that Gibby was more than an object. When the Venture Boys rejected his offer, they began to launch the occasional attack on the ship hoping to seize the engine by force.End of the Argus Pirates
It all came to a head when the Venture Boys decided to return to Mirebol to visit the kuo-toa and get a little R&R after their latest adventure. A few hours from shore, they saw the island come under a full-scale attack from the Argus Pirates. Rushing to shore to help, the pirates motivation quickly became clear; they had learned of Gibby's existence and come to the island to kill the kuo-toa and cut off the source of his power. After securing the village, the Venture Boys cut through a forest directly to the kuo-toa village while the Venture II's crew followed the road to hit the pirate forces from behind. In those woods they were ambushed by the Vengeance Coven, a trio of hags who had each had their plans interrupted by the Venture Boys and now sought revenge. After dealing with the hags once and for all, the group carried onward until they finally found themselves face to face with the leader of the the Argus Pirates, Captain Elgar the beholder. Managing to get the jump on him, the group fought Captain Elgar in the most ferocious battle of their adventures. It was a battle that not all of them survived, with Erica Weez the IX and N64 both killed. Althea Filanes and Bakris Tarak were on their last legs when Vinnie Vice, with the last of his magical energy, unleashed a lightning bolt that blew clean through Captain Elgar. With Elgar and most of his officers now dead, it marked the end of the Argus Pirates.Epilogue - Into Space!
Considering his job done, Vinnie chose to ride into the sunset rather than return to the Venture II after the battle. As Althea and Bakris turned to collected N64's body, it was suddenly snatched away by what they recognized as the Jeweled Eye's teleportation beam. Unsure of exactly what to do next, they reconvened with Captain Reynolds just as they were contacted by Falzar Sonavella's right-hand man, the tiefling David. "David" broke an illusion on himself and revealed that he, like N64, was in fact a warforged. A warforged who killed his own kind to upgrade himself with their parts, as he had done to the party's old friend N28 and as he now intended to do with N64's cadaver. Openly stating he believed his dull life would be more fun if the party chased him, he stated he was taking the Jeweled Eye's to the Astral Plane and dared the Venture Boys to chase him. As he cut the transmission, the party wondered just what they should do even as Captain Reynolds and Gibby resolved to chase after the murderer.
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