G98: Return to the Mainland

Date: 8 sept 2011
DM: Quendalon
PCs: Charlie Darrowkin, Hanna Darrowkin, Ja'Tubis, Martin le Black, Bob Hazart, Wolfric Zanzibar, Richard Loubeau

Summary

24 Days passed in this session. Twenty-four days of hardship and privation, but also camaraderie and endless singing of the Darokin Fighting Song by the campfire. Of eating crummy rations bought on the cheap in Pupami, and getting little sleep as the cries of megafauna split the night.

Charlie found the whole thing endlessly fun. It was like going camping with the Halfling Tenderfoots, back when he was a kid! And he got to meet an actual, real-life no-fooling human knight!

The Company, near penniless and desperate for the green hills of home, decamped from Pupami with any number of treasures in their packs but few real supplies. The promise of treasure maps and hunting expeditions meant little to them when they thirsted only for home.

It seemed Safari Island didn't want to let them go so easily. Misadventure waited around every turn, first in the form of a gang of bandits who took potshots at the adventurers from the safety of some trees. The Company made short work of them, taking most of them prisoner (though not for long). One who had the fortune to speak a little common told them of the bandit's lair, but even this easy target was ignored. The intelligible bandit, name of Frantz, offered to polish the company's armor in exchange for a new life of adventure. The other captives tried to kill him for turning his coat, but the Company put a quick end to the insurrection.

And none too soon! A griffin flying overhead attempted to attack the party. Wounded, it tried to escape! The Company would have none of it and quickly killed and dis-assembled it for parts.

In the fracas, though, the bandits were set free… only to be mauled to death by tigers. The party scared off the tiger and marched on with Frantz in tow. Which only shows you why you should pay attention in foreign language class at school. It will save you from being eaten by tigers.

Having tried to kill the Company with more-or-less natural creatures, Safari Island stepped up its game. A chimera appeared, breathing fire, slashing with deadly claws, snapping with envenomed fangs, and chewing on a tin can with its goat head. Was the party to be forestalled? Decimated? Hardly! They put the damned thing down, as is their wont.

Such horrors barely slowing them down, the party marched into Kobos, a port town on the shores of Safari Island. Quickly they found passage on the good ship Avandaran, captained ably by Julia Tau-Eltren and her son Melchior. Ably enough that she didn't sink the boat for once! Umberlee smiled on her chosen sons and daughters and daughters that used to be sons and wanted to be able to change back and forth but then decided it was more important that one of the sons be a full-sized son and not a half-sized son. And Ridicollosus. And Frantz.

The ship debarked in Specularum, one of the biggest cities the party had ever seen. Much, much more important, it was on the mainland. Much kissing of solid ground and wiping salt tracks from tear-stained cheeks and re-getting of landlegs probably ensued, though we glossed over all that. There were treasures to be sold!

The party booked themselves in at the Burning Bath, a colorfully named and really, quite nice inn. After consuming a few dozen pies, Charlie accompanied the others to the tower of the ominously named Cassandra the Necromancer, who was quite nice. She agreed to buy everything: displacer beast hide, bits of griffins and chimerae, etc. She also had an equally-nice sister named Cressida who specialized in elf-lore. Cressida was able to identify the elfin sword the party had taken out of the Chaos Dungeon, way back when.

Well, nice ladies and good pies notwithstanding, there was journeyin' to be done. So the Company bought a bunch of horses (Charlie doubled up with Frantz) and headed east, following a line of mountains. A really nasty thing happened with giant leeches that ended up eating some of the horses, but Charlie, looking back, found the whole thing so oogy he didn't dwell on it.

Later on they met the human knight! His name was Lord Trellan, and he and his men, the Silver Swords, had just killed a dragon in the swamps! He was so cool the party didn't even kill him and take his stuff. Everybody liked him and he seemed to like them back. There was much huzzahing and hail-fellow-well-metting, and some exchange of rumors and information, though nothing important enough for Charlie to remember.

Not when, all of a sudden, they reached the Shires! Home again! Home again, jiggedy jig!

Charlie was so glad to see his homeland again he considered writing his autobiography. He considered calling it There, The Other Place, and Back Again the Really Long and Circuitous Way. That sounded too long to fit on a book cover, though.

So what's to come? Will they get a hero's welcome in the Shires? Will Charlie and Hannah get to see Mom again? Will there be pie?

Read on, bold adventurers…

Losses and Loot

The displacer beast hide, griffin and chimera parts were sold to Cassandra netting each PC 156g, though each paid out 105g for horse, saddle and saddlebags. 2 horses were killed by giant leeches.

Each PC was awarded 382 xp.


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