No Good Deed

 

Five young heroes first met on the lower deck of the Daybreak, a modest cog under the command of a Captain Bulrick, at sunrise. They were:

• Tideborn Ashkurlea (Ash), an illumian sorceress seeking knowledge and adventure outside the confines of her cabal;
• Karui Aruite (Karu), a human ninja on a quest to develop his skills;
• Edgar Loki, a xeph soulknife with wanderlust who found himself in Marhaven by chance;
• Tika Quartermoon, a young human cleric looking to gain experience and a deeper understanding of the teachings of Pelor;
• Vladimir Vondran, a darfellan survivor and scout, whose heart is devoted to justice and vengeance for his people.

Their paths intersected in the floating city of Marhaven in the center of the Great Sea. Upon registering with the Adventurers' Guild, each had been offered an assignment immediately: provide protection for a group of low-level clerics from the church of Aegir while on a mercy mission to the Tumari coast. Upon their return each of the heroes was promised 100gp for services rendered. Knowing that to refuse would be to spend a long time waiting for another offering, each accepted and reported to the Daybreak.

The journey east-southeast toward the Tumari Coalition territory was uneventful. When the bosun sighted land the ship weighed anchor and loosed the rowboats about 150 feet from shore, which was the closest the cog dared sail because of navigational hazards in the coastal waters. The five heroes and four clerics split themselves evenly between the two boats and a sailor from the Daybreak's crew took the oars for each, which left both craft cramped and overloaded but still able to make the short trip to the beach.

Not fifty feet from the ship, however, disaster struck. A loud thump sounded and the lead boat capsized. Karu, Vondran, and Ash were dumped into the water along with their oarsman and two of the clerics. Waiting for them under the surface were two green, scaled humanoids that Vondran recognized immediately as sahaugin, the ancestral enemy of his race.

The darfellan's blood boiled with inborn fury. He grabbed his harpoon and charged to attack while Karu climbed out of the water onto the capsized rowboat. The harpoon slashed into a sahaugin's gut and ripped its body open for an immediate kill.

The enemy leader responded by throwing a weighted net at the darfellan. Vondran was unable to avoid being ensnared. At the same time, two more sahaugin appeared on the other side of the capsized boat and attacked the bystanders. The oarsman was slain immediately and one of the clerics narrowly missed a slashing talon.

From her vantage point on the other boat Tika cast bane against the party's enemies even as another sahaugin wounded one of the missionaries. Loki and Karu both missed the creature that had entangled Vondran but Ash managed to slow it down with a daze spell.

Having seen no success with thrown shuriken, Karu leapt into the water and swung his sickle at one of the sahaugin. He slashed the creature's throat and killed it instantly. Tika threw a rope to the wounded cleric and helped her climb aboard the second boat, but there was no room for the others in the tiny shell and another of Aegir's faithful was viciously attacked.

Vondran used his sharkskin armor to advantage and broke free of the sahaugin's net. He swam toward the nearest enemy and thrust his spear at the creature but missed. Tika provided a boost to everyone with a bless spell while the oarsman from her boat deliberately jumped overboard to make room for another missionary.

Loki summoned his strength and managed to set the first boat aright in the water. Ash and the uninjured clerics swam for it while Vondran dispatched another sahaugin with a twisting thrust of his harpoon. The lead sahaugin fled, barely missing a slash from Karu's sickle on the way past.

By the time the group had recovered their dead and climbed back into the rowboats, the sahaugin was long gone. So, they noticed, was the Daybreak -- during the fight she had turned and fled. The outline of the ship was still visible but obviously retreating at full speed. They rowed ashore to the accompaniment of a stream of muttered profanity from the surviving oarsman.

* * *

On shore, the party buried their dead and healed themselves as best they could. The missionaries expressed hope that the Daybreak would return once they saw that the party had prevailed. Regardless, they had a mission to complete.

The group took to the road and headed for the thorp called Stearns, which was the first stop in the clerics' itinerary. The clerics' job, as with all of the villages on their list, was to care for the sick, bless the fields, and perform other minor services of that type.

Not far after the road turned inland the party heard barking and found themselves confronted by a team of four large dogs. Seeing collars and noting the signs of good care, the party waited in place while the dogs barked until three humans approached from down the road. The lead cleric came forward to introduce the group. The men called off the dogs and led the group the rest of the way to Stearns.

The men introduced themselves as Ludden, Gaines, and Cooper. Stearns had so few people left that there was no formal government anymore; these men served as a de facto town council by virtue of their age and the respect of their peers. They explained that as recently as a decade ago, Stearns had been a thriving fishing village of nearly 500 souls. Then the 'sea demons' (which Vondran recognized from Ludden's description as sahaugin) began harrassing the fishermen off the coast and attacking boats. The attacks escalated until the fishermen gave up and moved off, leaving much of the town unoccupied. The farmers quickly discovered that the soil was well suited to growing tobacco and managed to scratch out a living raising and selling the lucrative crop while trying to protect their livestock and storehouses from frequent sahaugin raids. The trenches had been dug when the farmers discovered that sahaugin become sickened and weaker when exposed to fresh water. Still the creatures came every week to ten days, taking livestock and the occasional citizen unwise enough to be out at night.

Ludden also explained apologetically that there was no longer any sort of inn or public house in Stearns. The former inn had been converted into a warehouse for curing tobacco. The clerics, being expected, had quarters with the local families but they had not been prepared for bodyguards as well. Ludden offered the heroes camping space on his property, and they accepted.

With a good portion of the day left, the party spent it getting to know the village of Stearns. They talked with the townspeople and confirmed all that Ludden had told them. They also learned that the 'water demons' had a leader: a four-armed creature that led some of the raids into town. Vondran related that this is a well-known mutation among sahaugin, and that such individuals often rise to positions of leadership. The party shared the evening meal with Ludden's family and made camp in Ludden's yard between the house and the barn for the night.

Midway through the clear night the party was awakened by the sound of barking dogs coming from the direction of the road. They grabbed their weapons and headed through Ludden's tobacco field toward the road until they came to the fence. On the other side, across the water-filled trench, they saw two sahaugin engaging Cooper and three of the guard dogs. A fourth dog lay dead on the road already.

Karu moved quickly over the fence and hid himself in the shadows, seeking a clear shot. The sahaugin, apparently unaware of the party's presence, continued to fight with the dogs and Cooper, who brandished a pitchfork with shaking hands. Loki shot his crossbow and hit a sahaugin while Vondran leaped the fence and the moat in one motion.

Tika and Ash also shot crossbows at the sahaugin but missed. The creatures were clearly aware of the party's presence but continued to fight with the dogs, who presented a more immediate threat. Another dog fell, prompting Loki to follow Vondran's lead and jump the fence and moat.

Vondran, meanwhile, made a running throw of his harpoon and impaled the nearest sahaugin. The blade cut cleanly through the enemy's belly and dropped it next to the body of its canine victims. Ash and Loki hit the other enemy while Vondran retrieved his weapon and readied for another strike. He hit the sahaugin squarely in the chest and killed it.

Word of the attack and the heroes' response spread rapidly through the tiny hamlet. The grateful people of Stearns happily provided food and drink for the party, who had an easy day of it while the clerics went about their business. A sense of uneasiness still lay beneath the joy, however, as the less optimistic among the townspeople whispered that surely the four-armed leader would come to avenge the deaths of the raiders. Could these young heroes stand up to a creature that wields four swords at once?

The answer came that night. Once again the party awoke to noises in the night, this time from Ludden's own livestock pen. They raced through the barn to find three sahaugin in the act of stealing pigs.

Tika whipped out her crossbow and fired at a sahaugin. Her aim was brilliant -- the sahaugin jerked as the bolt tore into its brain and was dead before its body hit the dirt. Even Vondran had to pause a second to admire the precise shot before lopping the head off another sahaugin with his harpoon. Ash used an acid splash to hurt the remaining enemy and Karu finished it off with a flash of his kukri.

As the party gathered up Ludden's pigs they heard a commotion in the village center. They ran toward the sound to find the feared four-armed leader and two more sahaugin slaughtering villagers near the tobacco warehouse. They charged the invaders and engaged them.

Karu and Vondran focused their attention on the mutant, which held four short swords and swung them with deadly ease. Karu took a vicious wound and barely had the strength to fall back and receive a healing spell from Tika. Vondran threw his harpoon and missed, and Ash's dazzle attempt failed against this monstrous creature.

Vondran turned his attention to one of the other sahaugin after it struck him with a shark tooth dagger. He twisted his spear in the sahaugin's throat and watched with grim satisfaction as it fell dead. Loki plunged his mind blade between the ribs of the other two-armed enemy and finished it off, leaving only the mutant standing.

Vondran, Karu and Loki converged on the four-armed sahaugin. Its swords flashed and two of them ripped into Vondran's flesh. The darfellan lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Tika's crossbow and a pair of magic missile spells from Ash wore the creature down and allowed Loki to deliver the fatal strike with his mind blade.

Tika came forward to heal the stricken Vondran and then the party searched the bodies of the dead foes. They found more of the shark tooth daggers, enough to outfit the entire party with them. The mutant's short swords looked to be of masterwork quality, making them a find of significant value all by themselves. Most intriguing to the group, however, was a gold medallion they took off the neck of the mutant. It was extremely well crafted, far more so than one would expect of sahaugin (who are not known for metalworking), and bore a carved image of a large, lidless eye. Vondran suggested that the symbol identified the mutant's tribe. The group agreed that it bore investigating, and Ash volunteered to show the piece to the scholars at her cabal once the party got back to Marhaven to see if they could provide any information.

The people of Stearns are poor and have very little, but such was their joy and gratitude that they assembled what for them was a handsome reward. They presented the heroes with six bundles of their finest cured tobacco and, from Ludden's own yard, a healthy male ox. The crop and the animal would net the party a good sum if sold in Corsuhn -- more than enough to buy passage back to Marhaven if the Daybreak failed to return. The sole carpenter in town offered his help to convert the party's two rowboats into a wagon that could be pulled by the ox.

By the end of the third day, the missionaries had finished their work in Stearns. The party loaded their improvised wagon the next morning and headed south to the clerics' next destination.