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.