Part 15: Wherein the party travels to new lands
Where last we left off…After having washed up on the shores of distant Samarach, our collection of six unlikely heroes fell under suspicion of the local authorities of being dreaded Yuan-ti spies. Protected by the powerful connections of fellow-traveller and alleged historian Volothamp, the party became agents of a merchant named Sa'Sani. They investigated the cause of their shipwreck and found a Yuan-ti saboteur to blame.
Though they brought the saboteur to justice, the people of Samargol were so paranoid and xenophobic that simply hearing a saboteur was part of the merchant company was enough to see Sa'Sani exiled, and with her our heroes. They were ordered to leave Samargol by sundown of the next day.
Samargol may be a city of exotic beauty, and the Chult jungles a place of rare and unique natural life, but the poisonous politics of the lands' inhabitants taint everything it touches the venom of the snake-men like like a virulent plague of panic. The threat of Samargol's council and Yuan-ti sabotage was quite real, and so Sa'Sani's company and Volo relocated at once to the Sword Coast via a gnomish portal.
Things are not so certain for our heroes, however. Thrown together more by chance and fate, without a central goal to focus them there was a risk the group may have frayed apart right there. Personal agendas and personalities began to clash.
In such times it is easy to see how history overlooked six reasonably mundane adventurers, beholden to their petty squabbles, so much harder to see how they play into the fate of the whole Sword Coast.
To do so would be a disservice to them and to history, however. Even when the group was at their lowest, most base, and most fractious, the seeds of what would come later could be seen to sprout and grow.
For not all poisons are of serpents born, nor all foul influences external…
: Hey captain, hey Agda. How are they coming along?
: Not good. Was worse earlier though, at least they've put down the weapons.
: …I don't care about the adventuring life and all of the profits, I'm an academic and I'm engaged in research about Samarach.: If we head back to the Sword coast then I shall return to my university. I have had quite enough tromping through jungles for one lifetime.
: Good. We'll be better to be rid of you anyways, you old goat. Perhaps our new companion will show some promise - like being able to master the basics of magic before qualifying for a pension.
: Not so fast, Heronius. I believe this quest is at an end. If Cornelius is finished his business I think I shall be returning to my temple, and I could not in good conscience leave Beef in your de facto custody.: Good fortune to you in trying to convince the Halflings to follow you further than the first safe point to elope, though.: You can't break up the party, you selfish altar boy! Have you any idea how hard it's been to wring a little profit out of this operation? And how much harder it'll be back on the mainland without it?
: I am not surprised to see you think yourself in charge of this band, Heronius, and if means an opportunity to put you in your place I am not entirely disappointed either!: Let's see if your god smiles on the irony of combusting your lungs so that your last breath is finally congestion-free!
: STOP IT!
: Beef hate when friends fight! Nobody fight when Beef around, Beef stop fight! Even if Beef need pick up friends in each hand.
: Beef's got a point (kind of). Fighting gets us nowhere. We need to keep it together.: We gotta get out of Samarach, right? Plenty of time to fight after we're home free.: I say we sleep on it, head north to the Gnome portal tomorrow, and once we're on the far side we'll reassess. We might think differently by then.
: Come on, everybody. Bed time!: It like… Beef body sleepy 'cause of fighting, but Beef feelings sleepy 'cause of shouting.: Thanks for settling things down there. I was afraid events were coming to a head.: No problem. I think we're all starting to feel the stress, being so far from home and doing all of this fighting and investigating. : Just need to be reminded we're all friends and we're in this together, I think.
: This is not over, dark one.: I wouldn't dream of it, fanatic.
: Yup the guard says we're still banished. Also to get out before the guards kick our shins in.: Why guard mean to Beef? Beef always look both ways before cross street.: The lumber camp was north, across the bridge and through the jungle. Nothing we haven't done before.: If the Gnomes make us jump through a dozen hoops before letting us use their magical short-cut I am burning the camp down around us as we leave.: No court would convict us.
: Bye bye Samargol! Beef miss you!: Farewell to the jewel of Chult.: So long acceptably-paying cesspit.
: Beef not miss jungle! Even magic boots get water in sole.: If I never have to walk through underbrush up to my neck again, it'll still be too soon.
: Hey… Agda thinks there were more golems here when we came last. Roach-looking ones.: Don't care!: I believe we may have done enough for the Gnomes. They can reasonably be expected to handle this one.
: Approach with caution. That portal is our only definite ticket off this continent. We need to be delicate about contracting it. Beef?: Hmm?: Stand over there. Downwind.
: So we have secured transport. Good. I must say, teleporting across the sea does sound faster even if we do miss on the peace and fresh air of a fair-weather boat ride.: Fair weather like last time, you mean?: Things did become unexpectedly difficult at the end there, yes. Still, teleporting lacks a certain class.: We're not teleporting. We're portal-gating. There's a significant difference.
: What sort of difference?: The sort of difference where I should go last. To… help stabilize the portal.: Is it that worrisome? Very well, who wishes to go first?: …: Isn't there something in the Paladin code that requires you to go first?: Technically… yes.
: I want you all to remember that if anything happens to me that very same code also stipulates my protracted and poetic revenge.: Duly noted.: See ya later!
: Urgh… my head…
: This cannot be right.
: Lovely. This is not Crossroad Keep. At least the architecture looks Sword Coast, albeit the more unsavoury elements.: And I am talking to myself. Were Cornelius here he would no doubt have a smug remark.
: Why must you never send me anywhere nice, lord? No matter. Let us see to your business before my grave dust allergy sets in.
: Wherever I am, it appears smiting is in order. At least that I can do.
: A Dwarf? Who ever heard of a Dwarf necromancer?
: Probably few will hear of him now, anyway.
: So I am definitely in a crypt - an unhallowed one, lord, if the necromancer is indication. Shallow too, I can see the exit.???: Mmmmnpfh!
: That is odd. Hello????: MMMMMpfh! MMMF MMF MMMMFPH!
: Waaaaagh! Beef rise from Beef's grave!: Beef?! What were you doing in that sarcophagus?: Uuuuh…: Stone box.: Beef go through portal but when come out in dark and couldn't get out! Stuck in box!
: Why did you not just lift the cover off? You are the strongest, after all.: Beef would, but it too dark - Beef not see lid!: Uhhuh. I am beginning to see why Heronius confides in you so much.
: Come. We must find the others and then find out where we are. Or perhaps the other way round.: Beef hope nobody else end up inside things. Pick so small we find Pick-in-a-bottle!
: This is good. The southern Sword Coast, I would say. I can see the road from here, and that is the southern end of the Mere of Dead Men marsh. Crossroad Keep is north, and Neverwinter beyond.: Where friends go?: We shall just wander north. If nothing else, Heronius should set off my detect evil sense.
: I am picking up a strong evil signal from this cave. If it is not Heronius it is something else worth investigating.: What if cave evil, eat Beef and Pasquale when go inside?: In that… extremely unlikely scenario, I shall apologize to you earnestly.: Beef appreciate honesty.
: Well, we are not being digested slowly over an arbitrarily long number of years. I think this is a normal cave.: Is good to check!
: What about ogre? Ogre evil?: Technically, only most Ogres are evil. It is wrong to assume when-
: Okay yeah I am going with this Ogre is evil.: Waaaaagh! Beef make evil ogre dead ogre!
: See? Beef do what Beef say will do.: Good goal-oriented thinking and action, Beef.: Beef go to mo-tee-vay-shun-all talk for barbarians. Old half-Orc teach how become better, Crush-ier you.
: Hags!: Waaaagh! Grandma bone-suckers!: They have… a lot of bodies. Any one of which could be our friends. Time to enact revenge.
: Revenge is proving harder than anticipated, as is their old biddy hide.: Beef afraid! Old ladies gonna eat Beef up! Bake into pie! Catch in gingerbread house! Beef not resist! Gingerbread too delicious for Beef!: Beef! Focus! I can see Heronius's body, he is depending on us to-
: Beef save friend! Waaaaaagh!
: That was more than a little frightening. : No time for waste!: I think you killed them so thoroughly my life span has decreased.: Stop waste save friend!
: He is just knocked out. It pains me to do it, but… arise, Heronius.: I was wondering when you two would get here. These hags were just lucky I materialized right in front of them. Not a pleasant sight either, I might say.: Yaaay! Friend safe!: Hardly a scratch on me, most adequate work. I wasn't looking forward to those ugly witches getting their clawed hands on my bone. Or my marrow, for that matter.: There are a lot of dead victims around, perhaps we should do something.: Oh my, yes, of course.
: Let's see, a few potions, mostly magic item designs and crafting supplies though. Pity we don't need any dire rat tails.
: My Paladin intuition is telling me we should go further into the marsh to find the others. I believe there is a town somewhere in this swamp.: Oh joy, because the first thing I want to do after getting out that jungle is tramp around in a marsh.: I am suddenly appreciative of the relative peace and quiet I enjoyed in a haunted tomb.
: It looks like the sign says… West Harbour.Editor's Note:
West Harbour, of the Mere of Dead Men or the Merdelain, is the sort of village famous for two things: producing unlikely heroes and getting obliterated. One is usually associated with the other. Despite frequent attacks by dragons, dark cults, lizard men, Githyanki servants, and the undead legions of a forgotten empire, the small settlement in the middle of a swamp that borders the ocean is continuously resettled every time it is wiped clean.
Over the years a few scholars have attempted to explain this compulsive effort to maintain the village in the face of kingdom-scale threats with little success. Surrounded by better land under less frequent siege, the only possible explanation offered is the only export of note, namely hardy harbour folk who leave town when they realize the only opportunity to make something of themselves is to get out as soon as possible. Quite possibly the whole settlement exists only to produce such people, and its' continued reestablishment fulfills some buried human need to keep that narrative cycle in play.
Nevertheless, it still stands even now, although at the time of this writing the town was rebuilt and repopulated entirely at least twice since the time of our heroes. At the moment a Saughain warlord and his army of "land-scuba" warriors with bowls of water on their head to breath menace the town from the direction of the ocean, but the smart money is on some callow youth ousting him by the end of the year.
: Discouraging.: I've seen ancient ruins that looked more lively than this place. Seriously. Remember the spa-temple?: Beef felt pampered and adventurous!
: This is a better sign. At least no one has burned it down.: Yet.
: Imbecile! Look where your rudeness has landed us again!: This is my fault? You heard the woman, they let no one in after nightfall! If you'd just unleash me, though, we could be inside the walls within minutes.: Beef not bothered, Beef like camping out! It like when Beef little, only now Beef with friends and not alone in woods.
: See? It's not all bad. Nothing builds character like a night under the stars-: Orcs! Bugbears! We are attacked!
: That's right, nothing builds character like a night under a man-made second sun.
: We could be sleeping in comfort right now, indoors at the very least and not out here slaying roving monstrous bands.: Oh like you're some smooth talker with your dribbly nose and lack of contractions. We weren't getting in anyways!
: Beef hate it when we fight. Pick say last time sleep on it. That good idea.: A reasonable suggestion. Maybe we shall have better luck in the daylight.
: Remember this time, be nice.: I'm more than nice enough! No good rotten do-gooder brown-nosing god-squadder…
: A victory for base civility.
: We should probably fan out and search the area. If any of our fellow party-mates ended up here they might have-: Wait, is that Agda?: Fight already! Break some kneecaps!: That's Agda.
: Come on! How's anybody in this knock-knee village supposed to take on dragons if they don't brain each other in a little practice duel? Fight! Fig- Oh hey guys! Everybody okay?: Close enough. What are you doing here?: Pick and Agda went through the portal together, so we ended up close in this swamp. Agda's been to Merdelain before so we headed there to wait. Only… uh, Agda lost Pick.: You lost him? In what, a sink-hole?: No! There's these dragons and lizard men running around. One of them grabbed Pick and Agda couldn't keep up! : Agda got lost and anyways couldn't kill dragons alone so waited for back up. : Gotta save Pick! Pick only little, hardly even dragon snack! Never make it to nap-time!
: So now we know. Time to rescue our comrade in arms and find out where Cornelius went so we can… get back to whatever it is we were trying to do. : Alright!: Let's go!: Heronius, are you with us?: Will you release my share of the party funds from escrow before we rescue the rest of the party?: No.: Let's go save that brave little hobbit!