My mom taught me to write and keep a diary. So I have always kept a diary, even after our inn burned down, and I left to join the pirate ship, Eye of the Storm, so she wouldn't have another mouth to feed.  

The Ghost' Garrick, messenger on Eye of the Storm.

"I was in the Pickeled Pepper when they came in to report to Captain Ragnar.  They had arranged a meeting with the Lizardfolk, but had not arranged terms of the negotiation. Ragnar did not like that and told them so.  They made a convincing argument that for the Lizardfolk to accept any arrangement they needed to know the pirates were serious and committed to making a deal.  A meeting had to take place to do this.  Ragnar accepted that, but refused to go himself.  He tasked them to scout the meeting place ahead of time, ensure no trap was set and maintain a guard on it.  He would send his 1st mate Bjorn and an undetermined cleric to the meeting at the appropriate time.  He would send a messenger (me) to return and guide Bjorn there.  So I started following them around, unsure of when they would leave town.

They went about town asking lots of questions about many things.  The Dwarf apparently had a tryst with Glydakiss, the lustful gnome cleric from the Golden Gem.  He has some disagreement with her about missing gold, and a mysterious task she had given him out in the jungle, yet she had never left town.  He spent some time with her as well as the 2nd mate, Smadakook, the storyteller from her ship.

Bjorn himself spent his time chasing the beautiful cat-woman, while the short one met with the new Captain of the Whore Hunters, Herman. I saw the dragon-man at the smith, getting insulted by Joker, of the Blood Pool.  Luckily, the dragon-man was smart enough to not draw his sword.  He would have been killed quickly.  They also asked a lot of questions about the escaped pirate-hunter- Fravik and his cleric Dagric.  Not sure why, but perhaps they wanted to get in Ragnar's favor by catching them again.

The group all met at the Golden Gem's stolen goods shop and bought some items before setting out the next day.  

Stocked up on gear, and the adventurers left town with me in tow.  They didn’t say two words to me the whole trip, it was as if I didn’t exist.  High-falluentin scallywags. 

Anyways, we traveled all days like that, that gorgeous cat woman somehow finding the way through the trackless jungle.  Near the end of the day they somehow spotted a creature in the jungle. How I cannot fathom, even an eagle wouldn’t have seen this thing.   But they took to battling it and it were impressive.  The plant monster smacked them around and nearly crushed the dwarf, but they sliced and diced it up before he croaked.

After that, seein as how we was so close to the clearing we continued on, planning on settin up camp there.  The sun was a setting when we arrived.   The clearing was halfway up a mountain, the lone mountain on the island.  We climbed up a very steep hillside to get to it.  My fear of these people fell a bit as two of them fell past me, sliding back down the hill, the clumsy dragon and the skinny priest.  They ain’t very surefooted.  The skinny priest fell a number of times.

Once we reach the clearing, the small sneaky one and the cat scouted out the clearing.  It’s a cunning place for a meeting.  There’s one entrance, a steep one, and the other side surround by canyon, swamp and a lake. 

About the time they reached the trees around the lake, the dragon-man jogged over and jumped in the lake.  Crazy.  I plan to stay far from that one.

We saw no lizard folk anywhere but all of a sudden two elf-like women stepped out of two tress by the lake.  Not from between the trees, but OUT OF THE TREE LIKE THEY WAS PART OF THE WOOD!   Then the short one and the cat-lady started talkin to them like they was best mates.   Never saw anything like it.

So the short one pulls this glowing crystal ball out of his pack and hands it to the tree lady. Same time the dragon-man climbed out on the beach yelling that he was blind.   I couldn’t make a story crazier, but it gets even more nuts!

A NAKED woman steps out of the lake.  A woman more beautiful than any women I have ever seen (and let me tell you I have seen a lot).  Completely stark naked and she didn’t even care!

The tree-lady handed this crystal ball over to the naked one, but the short one, Grynn didn’t like this and demanded it back. Then just as the cat-woman yelled out she was blind as well, he jumped on this naked woman started wrestling for the crystal ball.  Man was I jealous.  I thought about joining in, but I was sure Id earn a dagger in the ribs.

The dog-riding gnome and the dwarf stared at the scene, struck stupid just as I was.  At this point though they moved toward the fight and the gnome used his magic to bring about a fog bank around them just as I’d seen Athelstan do. Right before the fog settled in though it looked like the cat-woman laid down on the ground all gentle like as if she was gonna take a nap. Right?  Yes a little nap in the middle of this craziness. 

So then the dragon man ran about blindly into the fog, the gnome yelled a bunch of gibberish words, the dwarf ran around the fog and dived in the other side, but we heard nothing from inside.  After yelling gibberish a few more times, the gnome yelled out “What’s going on in there?”

Well the Dwarf answered that he’d found the cat-woman and woke…her up… Yep, she was actually sleeping.  Why the Captain wanted these adventurers I’ll never figure out.

The gnome waved his pudgy little hands and the fog slowly disappeared.  Only thing we saw then was the small one, Grynn sleeping on the ground as well, the dragon-man groping about with the cat-woman, both blind and the dwarf trying to lead them.  The tree –ladies and the amazing naked woman were gone.

You think this was enough?  Nope.  Wailing about his “orb” the short one dove into the lake looking for the naked woman.  Apparently he saw her for they tied him off with a rope and he dove for her.  After a few minutes though the rope went slack and came up empty.  He had disappeared.  The gnome then swam down after him, but there was no sign.  If it had been the ocean, I would have said the sharks got em.

So then the gnome got the idea to beat on the trees.  I have no idea why, I figured all the insanity going on had caused him to snap.  After a few minutes though a tree-lady actually stepped partially out of a tree and talked to him.  I couldn’t make it out, but they argued for a bit, the tree lady swam down into the lake, came back, talked more then disappeared into the tree.

It was just about this time that the gnome shouted and we all (well those not blind) saw the short one Grynn, high up above the lake, falling down in front of the waterfall.  It was a deadly fall, he smacked the lake like a woman cheated on slapped her man.  He disappeared under the surface and his body bobbed up moments later, unmoving. 

The gnome was dashing into the lake before he had even hit the water.  He pulled him quickly to the shore and that strange skinny priest used magic to bring him back from the very brink of death. 

When the short one awoke, he immediately began yelling for his “Orb”.  The others claimed no knowledge yet we had clearly seen it in his grasp as he fell.  I thought it best to keep my mouth shut.  I’ve survived this long as pirate doing that very thing. 

So again he dived into the water, and with the help of some magic potion spent a good 10 minutes swimming, but he finally came up with teh crystal ball.

So that was it you might say?  Well, you’d be a wrong as a virgin in a whorehouse. We did at least get a breather.  The group searched the whole clearing to be sure no Lizard folk were laying in wait and set up camp to relax.  They agreed I should go back to report to Captain Ragnar that it was safe as long as he stayed away from the trees.  Again they talked about me as if I was not there, never asked me or told me a thing.  They disagreed about whether they should head back as well and get the blindness cured by Athelstan. 

Sometime during that discussion it came out that this Orb “talks” to you if you touch it.  Apparently this had been kept a secret from the dragon-man.  So after a bit of argument the short one passed the Orb to the dragon-man.  He held it and stared it for a long time.  Then suddenly he tucked it away and announced he would fight anyone who tried to take it from him.  Must be cursed was my first thought.  I had seen a few cursed treasure items already in my time as a pirate.  The short one was really mad. The whole party was upset with him, and everyone argued.  After a while, they calmed down to a quiet rage.  A couple hours later everyone was still watching each other over the camp fire but the dragon-man started to doze a bit.  Here is where it gets weird again.  Just as the short one got to his feet to do something, there was a flash of light and three ELVES appeared in camp!

There was one old looking elf in robes, long with two younger looking ones in plate mail.  One of those was unarmed, but the other held a large two handed sword covered in flames!  Then the old one vanished just as sudden as he appeared.

The one with the sword walked purposely to the dragon-man and asked; “You are the Paladin of our Lord the Great Dragon?”  The dragon-man nodded and the elf continued.  “Give me the artifact.”  The dragon-man handed over the Orb.  The elf acknowledged by saying, “I can’t believe a baby like you held this artifact?”

He turned and walked back to the other young elf, and asked to no one in particular, “Is any one injured that we may heal you before leaving?”  They all answered no, but that two were still blind.  The young unarmed elf cast a spell on the dragon-man and the cat-woman and they could see again!

They then told him they were under a magical curse of some sort.  When asked abou t that they revealed that the pirate captain [Ragnar] had cursed them.  This same elf cast again, and I guess it removed whatever curse this was.

The elf in charge then said farewell, but Grynn stepped up and demanded payment for the Orb.  He said it was his fair share of the treasure and he would be left with nothing.  That he didn’t care about any elven politics, but want his fair share.

The elf answered, ““This is a foundation of our entire existence. It is not a simple treasure.” But the short one would not relent.   The elf stared at him hard for many seconds, and then reached into his pack and handed the short one a scroll.  He then said, "My name is Thuynder, champion of the Great Dragon. There are more of these Tears, these artifacts and I’m told the young Paladin here may be connected to them.  If you find more, pray and we may be sent to retrieve those.  Though we may not.  While this Tear will be safe where I am taking it, it is not wise to keep too many items of this power in one location.  Someone else may come.    Let’s go Sef.”   And the elves disappeared.

Characters present – Grynnn, Catanya, Halumi, Norin and Kopek get 1500 XP each.  Additional RP XP will be emailed.

ORB – Tear of Omega – Tear of Naiki – Tear of Protection

October Session (Trying something new here – partially in-character log)

[During the below events Norin had been out scouting with a Lizard folk warrior, Droszo, was trapped by the storm and missed the battle. He also apparently got into a hand to hand fight with this Droszo over something. ]

Scratchings of Carl-rih-dian, 2nd shaman of StrongScale tribe. – The Tale of the summer Frog attack.

“I wasss joyed to see my friend, the small gnome Halumi, his large friend, Kopek the dessscendant of the Dragon god, and their friendsss return to the village sssuccessful in their task. Praissse the Great SSSpirit. I blessed them, along with my superior Kylem, in the honorary acceptance to our tribe.

Afterwards, they took a well deserved rest, we had some good discussions of their experience. Seems that their ordeal had an effect on some of their memories, and the events of the past few days were blurred.

Later, my gnome shaman friend, Halumi told me he had been ssssensing something off with nature, with the animals of the jungle. I focused my inner spirit on the animals and I sensed the same thing. I could tell I had been sensing this for about three days. Sssssomething had changed recently.

He consssulted with his friends, and the small half-human took him aside in sssecret to discussss this.”

{ The Tear of Naiki Memory Spell – The mortal symbiote of the small new race, the one who awoke I, asked I to determine what was wrong with “Nature”. I offered some theories, but also passed on the knowledge that I had no insight into the world without a host’s senses to detect with.

This one introduced me to another of his friends. A previous friend, the man of the race of stone, the son of the great smith, rejected my protection. This one, a son of the Traveler, from the people of gems and illusions, accepted my examination and my boon of protection.

I then looked through his senses and told him that nature was reacting to the absence of I. That some forgotten being placed me in that shrine in the cave to provide a certain small level of protection to the island. Nature had grown used to it over hundreds of years and was reacting the absence of it, of I. After this the First One introduced me to two others. A daughter of the Feline people, and a son of the newest race, the adaptable one, “hu-man”. They both passed my test, and accepted my boon of protection. Though the human was a bit too close to the edge of disapproval. }

Scratchings of Carl-rih-dian, 2nd shaman of StrongScale tribe.

“The group of adventurersss were agitated over thissss, and talked among themselves for a long time. I knew not what they talked of for a fierce thunderstorm hit the island, blessed rain from the Goddess, and the wind prevented me from eavesssdropping. It was only when the Frogfolk attacked that they came out. They joined us and helped fight off a multitude of those beasts. I had not seen so many attack our village before. They attacked alongside thessse very odd blue creatures, with the very long arms. These I have never known of, never been told of their like in any form. The four were intent on the non-Lizardfolk, the small one called Grynn mostly, but all fought them. Mosst of the non-Lizard friends only fought against the blue creatures, leaving the Frogfolk for us. Not Kopek, our beloved son of the Dragon god though. He, walking in flesh among ussss, joined us against the Frogfolk and that is further proof of how the ScaledSkin tribe is very blessssssed.

My very core however ssshriveled to dust when we saw our very own SSShaman, Kylem turned against us and SSupported the blue creatures. Still the power of the new honorary tribal members was too great. Kylem and his allies were defeated and Kylem captured.

He was interrogated by the new members and the Chieftain. He would not talk, was ready to go to his Death for the Great Wave. He was even eager for the traditional torture, {done on a cliff over the Ocean.}

Upon request I told them all he would be fearful of a burial in dry ground, where no ocean or other water could touch him. This did break him and he talked, but only with the word of the Paladin that he would be buried in the Ocean. All thanksss to me and my knowledge of religion”

He told of a message from a talking fish that came from the Great Wave, the Goddess herself. He was to take direction from messenger animals and support a Frogfolk raid with the goal of taking Grynn and the item he carried. He would go to a deserted beach and coordinate through the animals there. He claimed didn’t know who else was behind it on the island.

After all the questions were asked Kopek escorted him to the cliff and stood witness as he was tortured in the traditional manner, and then tossed into the Ocean. I supervised the ceremony. And now I am 1st Shaman.

While I was attending to that, apparently the Chieftain respected our new members so much, he agreed at their behest, to meet thisss Captain Ragnar to negotiate the foul pirates getting access to the island. They were to meet at a certain clearing the Chieftain chose, in a week’s time. The Chieftain probably only did it to set up an ambush. He would never agree to this access to our holy lands, I think.

After some bargaining for items, the party left the village and headed to the Pirate town. I was saddened to see Halumi the SSSShaman leave. The whole tribe wasss sss-saddened to see Kopek the godson to leave.”

Excerpt from journal tilted, “Catanya’s tales”

On the trail to the Pirate town, we fought off a couple Giant Wasps. I was ferocious and destroyed them both. The rogues gathered poison from them before moving on.

Later that night when we set up camp for the night Lucky had first watch. Apparently, he was as blind as a bat and as deaf as an armadillo.

When he went to wake up the next watch, they both found that their packs had been opened and gone through but nothing was missing. We all found our packs open, half dumped out and gone through. Thankfully nothing was missing, or I would have bashed someone’s head in for it.

We all expected the Orb to be gone from Grynn’s pack, but it was still there.

Then a Dragon walked into camp.

It was a young dragon, only slightly larger than the humans, bronze in color addressed us in a polite and genteel voice. Apparently the orb was his and he wanted it back. Lucky palmed the orb and hid it, so the dragon would not take it, but he made no real move to take it.

After much discussion, negotiation, and threatening, during which the dragon somehow knew what some of us were thinking, Grynn was about to agree to go to his cave and trade it for gold when Kopek spoke up saying this dragon was not acting normal, was not acting like a dragon would, in his limited experience and study.

During this initial conversation, I was awestruck by his very presence, and I did not contribute to the debate. When Kopek cast doubt on his dragon nature, I went forward to see for myself, but I had missed Grynn’s cue to attack. The fight started just as I reached for the dragon and opened my mouth to speak.

I learned later that Grynn had apparently feigned like he was going to ride along, but signaled everyone to attack. The dragon saw through his signal, though I did not. The dragon attacked first. His attacks were mysteriously weak, for a dragon his size. I fought back along side my companions, but I hated doing it.

After a short, but ferocious fight, the dragon died, the magical [polymorph] spell ended and a dead fairy-like creature lay on the ground. A fairy!, A pixie! I couldn’t have been more wrong, more fooled, more humiliated. Luckily I had not spoken, and my embarrassment would remain hidden.

When we finally reached the Pirate town. We learned our original Captain, Captain Fravak Drâdha the pirate hunter, that had been captured and tortured by the pirates had been rescued by his Water Cleric, that arrogant Dagaric. I still enjoy the memory of punching him in the face.

Zostik the Druid was still around. Acting as strange as ever.

Pirate Captain Ragnar was not happy with our arrangement. He had tasked us to solve the Lizardfolk problem, not set up a meeting and put the problem back on him. He tasked us to go to this clearing make sure it was secure, and send some pirate crew runners back, while he would decide what he would do; if he would go, send his 1st mate, or do nothing at all and let us continue to try to solve it without him. A typical lazy human male.” End of Excerpt from journal tilted, “Catanya’s tales”

May Session

The party awoke naked and chained to the wall of Captain Ragnar’s headquarters. He offered you a deal. He was impressed with how you took out Captain Horick and wants to uses your skills for some tasks that he can’t risk his people on. He is not giving you the choice however he is enforcing it through a magical Geas cast by Athelstan, his ship’s Cleric.
Those who willingly submitted to the spell were released faster, but even the Paladin, who did not submit, fell under the spell after a few hours hanging on the wall.
Any gold the party had at the time of capture was gone but all goods were returned (exception – The Paladin’s armor)

Dagaric was not released, but was held for torture. He was a hated member of Capt Fravik’s pirate hunting crew.
Ironically, Zeek also an ex-member of Fravik’s crew for some reason was not chained up, as Athelstan knew him and trusted him not to cause trouble.
The Geas required them to find a way to stop the Lizardfolk from interfering with the searches of the Island that the Pirates were attempting. Any means were acceptable: Killing, removing, Bluffing, buying off, etc.

Party headed out to the Lizardfolk village and negotiated. They learned there was a schism developing between two supported religions, the Great Spirit and the Great Wave. They met Carl, the shaman who supported the Great Spirit, and Kylem, the shaman who supported the Great Wave. They also met Kalrahid who was 2nd in command and wanted Chieftain Gloomrack’s position.

They learned the Lizardfold did not trust the pirates in any way and did not want to allow them free access to island.

Kopek was able to gain permission to attempt a Trial to become honorary members of the tribe and as such gain enough favor to ask for boon on behalf of Pirates. A champion of the tribe, Arsiniack, was sent with them as a guide.
They encountered many vermin attacks in the jungle but spider repellent necklaces helped. They entered a cave that forked into 4 tunnels. Arsiniack gave them the rules, the primary being to not remove anything from the Holy caverns.

This rule was reiterated by the creature that hid in the shadows of the leftmost tunnel. It also told them to stay out of its tunnel, on pain of death. At some point during the exploration of the cavern, Catanya tried to befriend the creature (part Lion, part Dragon) and told a tale from her people of the Dragonne and as a result the Dragonne gave the party an important clue concerning an Egg.

The party went down one tunnel and found a Dragon Claw sticking out of a wall. They determined that someone needed to offer blood on the claw. The Paladin volunteered and obtained a portion of a Dragon Claw key after sticking his hand on the sharp edge.
The next tunnel had ended in a waterfall right at the edge of cliff. Anyone who tried to cross would have been swept off the cliff. Party worked at the edges, digging past the waterfall until they could anchor a rope and cross the chasm. Halumi’s mining expertise came in handy here as well as Norin’s sure footing. The climb on the wet rope was very dangerous, but they were able to cross the chasm and retrieve gems, “pretty baubles”

Down another tunnel they encountered baby dragons that taunted them, and prevented their crossing another gap. After much roleplay they came to conclusion that the dragons which to trade for “pretty baubles”. After some careful trading the group now had a dragon Egg.
They misunderstood the clue as to needed to bring the Egg to life when it turned out to be just a required shield against flowing lava to uncover a door opening mechanism.
Through this door they found another door which the Dragon Claw opened. Inside this door they encountered 6 very tough Dragonkin Lizardfolk hybrids. The fight was quite tough, more than one character was dropped, only be brought back by Zeek. It came close to a TPK at one point, but the party proved victorious.
Inside the room resided a Magical Orb on a pedestal. Each party member was required to [memory fuzzy here] which caused them to float upwards in a glittery cloud and be offered a treasure.
In addition to that Grynn and Norin touched the orb and spoke to it, telepathically. Grynn took the Orb.
The group carefully exited the cave, avoiding the Dragonne. Arsiniack congratulated them on surviving and passing the trial. He led them back to the village where the tribe accepted them as honorary members.

While the party fought to kill a pirate Captain, Norin had run into an old friend from years ago. She and Norin went to share an Ale. Many ales.

"Hey Gnybbriekiss, how long has it been?   That many years.  Time flies for adventurers like us. 

Im a ship' cleric on the Golden Gem.  What have you been up to Norin dear?'

What, you’re sailing with that scally wag Capt.  Bleedabass? 

Yes honey, Capt Bleedabass. He's a tricky and bloody one but good enough to his crew.  I have had encounters with the fish folk, and it wasn’t pretty, but we killed our fair share of em.   I'll tell you a story about that later.

I’ve found myself myself in a mess with these pirates in town.  I joined a group of fellow adventures on a ship bound for the wars down south.   We found ourselves attacked by the fish folk.  Have you ever had any encounters with them?  You need a big fish hook to mess with those scaly bastards.   We ended up been marooned on this island and came to this vacation resort to look for a new ship.   Since, we’ve had encounters with pirates and lizard men.   How I long for the comfort of the mines and the feel of strong bedrock underneath my feet? 

 Myself I don’t miss the Gnome homeland, I like the open seas.     I come to love that part of my life

So, you are a cleric?  I’ve had a few encounters with clerics.  Never trust em much.  Unless, they worship the god of the warrior.  There have been some that have helped me out though.  What god do you worship?

I don't cotton much to the Warrior, I serve Bridget, a minor goddess connected to the Great Mother, but one most to my liking, especially the Love part.   I learned of her living among the Keltic humans south of my homeland.  I heard all the Dwarves disappeared?  I'd even seen some going.  What havn't you?

Why haven’t I disappeared like the other dwarves?  You can thank my parents for that lassie.  They had a warning something bad was going to happen to the dwarves and sent me to live and work at a human mine.  I’ve since been plagued by dreams of my parents.   In it, I sense a feeling of pain and it looks like they are surrounded by fire.  What you’ve seen dwarves recently?  Bless me beard, when and where? I wish I knew where they were going.  

It was a long time ago I saw dwarves, more than a year.  I saw em sailing away, dont know where to. I don’t see why being in the human-run mine made a difference.   I've heard of other miners who disappeared.

Hey, I know we haven’t seen each other for a while but your acting pretty frisky.  Are you sure your not part dryad?

No tree lovin' here, boy, only gnome lovin'.

Well, when you are in a Pirate Town may as well act like a pirate.   I don’t think my friends will be back for a while.  What do you say you and I find a room and get to know each other a little better.

During the course of hte night Norin talked a lot, though some question he doged, many others he did not.

She now knows the details of every member of the party's skills and identities as well as the location Norin's gold which disappears.

He manages to hold back that he's sworn to the Warrior and that the party had been on the Seawind with pirate-hunter Captain Favric

Her story of fish folk and other amazing things:


We were sailing west of here ferrying a passenger someone rich paid a lot to get secretly back to Westron when a host of those fish folk attacked us.  It was a desperate fight, luckily we were not alone.  Capt Ragnar arranged the pick-up and insisted on enough pay to cover two ships.  The Dagger Wind sailed in to assist and we sliced and diced those fish.   Still they kept attacking us, at one point this passenger came out of the cabin and leapt into the ocean! I thought, "he's so dead", but all around where he swam, dead fish folk bobbed to the surface.  A few minutes later he climbed to the deck, the fish folk retreating, and I swear I saw webbing between his fingers!

Another time we had just finished hitting this Westron trading ship, but it had a weak hull and the treasure had fallen into the ocean. Before we could arrange a diver to see how deep it went, those fish folk showed up.  We peppered them with arrows as they swam around the sinking ship, but didn’t seem it would stop them.  Then they disappeared as fast as a school of minnows near a shark.   Suddenly, The water was parted by a huge curling back of a monstrous serpent!   It  swirled around the area where the ship had gone down.  Well, we scrambled the sails and turned that ship around fast, and I cast wind into the sails to get us moving.  A few of the fish folk appear next to as intent on getting away as we were.  Captain order us to till take shots at them though.  It was like shooting… well you know.

Another time we were delivering some cargo to a secret port far to the west and these fish folk swarmed ashore to attack us.  There were hundreds!  I knew we were finished!  Suddenly out form the trees came these bug-people with long spears!  They charge the fish folk and the battle was intense.  Well, we repealed the border of our ship, but the Captain ordered us to not take part in battle outside the ship.  We mostly just watched the battle.   Those bug-people had purple blood!  Afterwards, the fish folk had fled, and those bug-people took the cargo without a word to us.

Another time, we were providing escort to Captain Ragner's ship and we met this other ship at night out in the ocean.  He went on board and had a long meeting, when he came back he had a fish folk captive.  I assume they locked him in the brig, but I never saw him again until after we hit this island. Ragnar strung him over the cliff, his blood dripping into the ocean!  That one died slow.