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28 Eidos 1120 Hostage
The crew of the Torchwood was on their ship at sunset on 26 Eidos when they noticed a hooded man approaching cautiously. Two more large men followed at a discreet distance. The lead man stopped at the deck's edge and requested permission to board. The voice was vaguely familiar to the party but they couldn't immediately place it. Tika greeted the man and bade him come aboard. He came alone, indicating to Tika that the men following were protection for himself and not needed in their presence. At the visitor's request they stepped inside the captain's office, which the party had made their meeting room. He removed his hood and the party recognized him immediately as Ander Bronshelm, Lord Mayor of Marhaven. Ander got directly to the point of his visit: from their previous meeting (Blood Trail) Ander knew this party to be capable of great discretion and to have experience dealing with the Fell Armada. He produced a note from his jacket pocket and handed it to the party to read.
25 Eidos 1120 NC To His Excellency Ander III, Lord Mayor of Marhaven From the Commanders of the Fell Armada Know ye, Lord Mayor, that your son and viceroy Orin is now a guest aboard one of our vessels. He awaits the full moon, after which we expect him to become a willing member of our company. Be assured that Orin is under no threat from us; we will see to it that he experiences all that a pirate's life has to offer, on as many different ships in as many different places as possible, and that his life and health are as well guarded as those of any officer of the Armada. With that in mind, Lord Mayor, we would be remiss not to point out the grave dangers an officer of the Fell Armada faces in the open sea. In particular the criminal Grogan Ironjaw and his so-called Ironprow League are wont to launch brutal and unprovoked attacks against our fleet. In such cases the officers are slain without quarter and even common sailors are seldom spared. If you value your son's life, it would be wise to use Marhaven's considerable naval power to bring the Ironprow League to heel. When Grogan Ironjaw is dead and his League disbanded, Orin will be given the opportunity to return to his life in your city if he so chooses. No reply is necessary. Orin had been taken the previous day when his ship was attacked by a Fell Armada cruiser bearing the name Dire Threat. The ship had left the note with the survivors -- leaving survivors being unusual in itself for an Armada raid -- and fled toward the Moonlands. Both Ander and the party knew the nature of the Fell Armada and concluded that Orin had been bitten by one of the lycanthropes and would become a werebeast himself at the next full moon, which was only two nights away. Ander offered the party a reward of 25,000gp plus formal Marhaven citizenship for each hero in return for the rescue of his son alive. Then with a grim look he added that should Orin die, the same reward would be offered for the party to capture the so-called Commanders of the Fell Armada, dead or alive. Time being short, the party delayed only long enough for Karu to pick up a silver kukri and for Tika to visit the local Temple of Pelor seeking a divination to guide them. The cleric accepted Tika's donation and cast the spell, which returned a typically cryptic statement: The son of the lion lies caged and tainted; a prisoner of the fell moon, he awaits his transformation in the damned waters. "The damned waters" suggested to Ash a place called Devil's Cove, a semi-infamous location on the Moonlands coast known for being filled with airless water, allegedly as the result of a devil's curse long ago. Such a place would be an excellent hideout and was consistent with local belief that the Fell Armada is headquartered in the Moonlands, which is home to all manner of were-creatures. The group hired on enough hands to run the Torchwood round the clock and set out for the Moonlands with all possible speed. With no distractions and decent wind they were looking at a 36-hour journey.
They were just under halfway to their destination when Tika, in the crow's nest, spotted two ships off to port and a column of smoke rising from them. The called down to the rest of the party and they veered toward the scene. As the Torchwood drew closer they could make out more details. The burning ship was a dhow, a lateen-sailed cargo vessel of Saurian origins and bearing the name Kopesh. Five man-shaped figures on the deck were fighting the fire while several more flailed about in the water around her. The other ship was a cog and it seemed to be disengaging and turning about to flee. The party spied the name plate and was surprised at the name: Daybreak. The dhow's captain introduced himself as Braheem and thanked the party for their intervention. The cog, he explained, had come up on an intercept course. He had heard of the Daybreak as belonging to a benevolent adventuring group, and so was not on his guard as the ship approached. Then the Daybreak party had unleashed a combination of magic and weapon attacks that set the dhow's rigging and mainmast ablaze. Several of his men were killed outright by attackers or thrown overboard by a whirling ball of wind seemingly controlled by an elf woman on the Daybreak. Then a lookout had spotted the Torchwood approaching and the attackers broke off. From the cog's unusual speed Braheem guessed that they were flying an everfull sail or something equivalent and would therefore be difficult or impossible to pursue without similar magical aid. This news mystified the adventurers because they personally knew two of the Daybreak crew from their recent adventure in the caves below Marhaven (Unholy Alliance). Braheem's description of two of the attackers fit W'Illot and Quinn, but the criminal behavior and battle tactics used did not seem consistent with what they knew of that group. However time was precious and speculation would have to wait. They made sure the Kopesh would be able to reach Marhaven for repairs and resumed their run to Devil's Cove with Braheem's thanks ringing in their ears.
Even the short delay to help the Kopesh loomed large as the party drew near the Moonlands coast. It was late afternoon on 28 Eidos, mere hours before the full moon was due. A wide but twisted inlet made a sharp turn and ducked behind the hills to conceal the cove. The party stopped short of the inlet and sent Vondran, their best swimmer, to check out the cove and report back. The darfellan reached the inlet and found his way blocked by a pair of sea cats who seemed most determined to prevent his advance. Knowing that sea cats are territorial and can be very aggressive in protecting their young, he concluded that a small pride of the cats lived here and he would be be able to pass without combat. Instead he retreated to the Torchwood with the bad news and the party decided to sail through the inlet more or less blind. They negotiated the turn with just a few angry growls from the sea cats and found themselves in the cove proper. About 120 feet away, a single ship similar to their own lay at anchor. The party grimaced a little at the name: Fell Moon. A lookout in the crow's nest spotted the Torchwood approaching and called an alert to the crew below. A man in the wheelhouse pulled out a composite shortbow and managed to nail Tika atop the Torchwood crow's nest while four more hairy-looking humanoids grabbed axes and lined the rails of the pirate ship. Karu and Vondran loaded the forward heavy crossbows while Ash launched a volley of magic missiles and Tika inflicted a searing light, both focusing on the bowman on the other ship. The bowman responded with a nasty hit on Ash just before Karu's crossbow bolt chased him into the wheelhouse for cover. The gap between the ships closed to reasonable jumping distance. Loki tried the jump first but misjudged the distance and ended up clinging to the outside rail. The enemy crew, who were now recognizable as gnolls, picked up crossbows and unleashed a volley of bolts at the party and their leader emerged from the wheelhouse looking not only less injured but also decidedly lupine. Sharp fangs emerged from his mouth and a thin layer of grey fur covered his suddenly very muscular body. Vondran tried to follow Loki and likewise missed the jump. One of the gnolls tried to take advantage of Vondran's precarious position but overextended himself and lost his axe to the black water. Loki managed to bound over the rail and onto the deck of the Fell Moon even as Tika came down from the crow's nest to engage the enemy. With the fight switching to a melee the gnolls dropped their crossbows and brandished their battle axes. They also shifted their appearance; instead of the usual doglike features the gnolls took on a decidedly wolf-like aspect. Two jumped across to the Torchwood and charged at Tika and Ash. Tika responded with a ring of blades that made her opponent think better of any close attack while Ash tried to slow hers down with another scorching ray attack. On the Fell Moon there was a faint thud that went unnoticed in the heat of battle; Karu, using his ki power to become invisible, had jumped across to the enemy ship. He moved unseen and hurled a surprise shuriken at the pirate leader with impressive effect. Vondran also managed to get on the ship, incurring a bite from his opponent, but sidestepped away and landed a telling blow with the Arm of Telomir. Loki, with his mind blade in the form of a two-bladed sword, engaged two gnolls and landed multiple hits on both. The deck of the Torchwood creaked as Tika summoned a celestial bison to aid the party. It appeared on the foredeck and immediately gored Ash's opponent to death. The beast was too large and ponderous to make the leap to the other ship, though, so Tika called up a spiritual weapon to harrass the pirate leader, who was still firing arrows at her and Ash. Ash added some more magic missiles in retaliation for the arrow hit. Loki's repeated hits were taking a toll on the gnolls despite their damage reduction ability. He felled one and chased another into Vondran's harpoon. The gnoll tried to counterattack but lost his balance and fell backward through the open hatch to the deck below. Loki leapt down with his mind blade at the ready and impaled the creature for the kill. Vondran got a running start and speared the leader with the Arm of Telomir to end the battle. The fight had taken up a large share of the party's resources. Tika and Ash were both low on spells and several in the group needed healing. To makes things worse, both Vondran and Ash had been bitten by gnolls and could be at risk of becoming werewolves themselves when the moon rose that night. With so little time left, though, there was nothing to be done but hope for good luck. The party searched the ship hastily and discovered some ominous signs: in front of one of the cages was a pool of blood, and bare human footprints led through the pool and over to the ladder. The group scanned the area and saw a rowboat pulled ashore on the inland side and reasoned that Orin had escaped and was being pursued. They took the other boat and rowed to the scene. Vondran picked up multiple sets of tracks leaving the area of the boat. One was human and barefoot; others were booted and mixed together too much to tell their numbers. What was clear was that none of the creatures were taking any pains to hide their tracks. The party followed as rapidly as possible. As the sun disappeared over the hills the party came within sight distance of a group of humanoids. The group, made up of eight man-sized figures running with a ninth man, bound by the wrists and being towed behind, stopped at the sight of the party. The heroes recognized the captive as Orin Bronshelm and ran to close the distance to their quarry. As they did another figure crested the hill from behind the pirates. A brown bear lunged at the gnoll holding the captive's rope and began tearing at the creature's flesh. The captive saw his chance and ran away back over the hill and out of sight. With one of their number already down and enemies charging, the pirate party assumed hybrid form. The gnolls took on the same wolflike visage as the ones on the ship while the leader, presumably the captain, acquired sabre-like fangs and striped fur. He drew a massive, gleaming greataxe and prepared to meet the party's charge. Vondran took one look at the captain's huge arms and masterwork weapon and backpedaled, hoping to draw the weretiger away from the pack so that Karu could take a flanking position. His tactic failed; once Vondran fled he simply turned and brought his greataxe to bear on Loki, who absorbed a brutal hit that forced him to fall back and reconstitute his mind blade. Vondran responded by running forward and hurling the Arm of Telomir into the captain. That got his attention and made Vondran his target of choice. While the fighters engaged the enemy's front Tika and Ash circled around to the flank. Ash, who was low on spells and lacked an effective silver weapon, chased after Orin while Tika let fly a sound burst that staggered some gnolls momentarily. The bear stood tall and transformed into a man in hide armor. The man drew a silver-bladed greatspear and plunged it into the guts of another gnoll. He drew the majority of the attention from the rear guard, though one gnoll did come after Tika. Loki took on a werewolf gnoll and kept it fully engaged, chipping away at its strength with his two-bladed mind blade. Karu used his invisibility and his silver kukri to beguile and outmaneuver his opponent and come in for the kill just before Loki's enemy fell. And the bear/man proved a fearsome combatant, dispatching three more gnolls with his silver greatspear and some help from Tika and Karu. The one-on-one between Vondran and the pirate captain continued with both managing to dodge more blows than one might have expected given their size. Each hit the other twice, but Vondran's hits were far less damaging even with a silver blade. The second hit from the captain's greataxe put Vondran on the ground and near death, yet again. Tika saw the fiendish pirate ready his greataxe for a coup de grace. There was nobody close enough to stop it and she had no spell that could prevent the captain from killing Vondran. Calling out a prayer to Pelor, she ran full speed toward the captain and hurled her silver spear at the creature's back with all of her might. The spear took off as if propelled by a raging barbarian and split the captain's breastbone from behind. His greataxe fell from his lifeless hands and landed harmlessly on the grass. Vondran was saved. On the other side of the hill, Ash called to Orin and succeeded in getting him to come back to her. They got close enough for her to confirm his identity and see that he appeared uninjured. Then, with the battle ending, the full moon rose and shone on the grassy land. Orin screamed and writhed, falling to the ground, as his body contorted and ripped free of clothing and bonds. Before Ash's eyes the viceroy of Marhaven turned into a ferocious-looking tiger. Before she could react the tiger bounded up on its feet and ran at full speed away from her and across the cold plain. On the battlefield, the party finally had time to become acquainted with their strange ally. The man was Rasmus, a druid who lived in a camp nearby. He had seen Orin running for his life, pursued by the pirates, and chosen to take action. He had wild shaped into a brown bear and chased the pirates down to free Orin. Rasmus had plenty of spells left, so he helped Tika to heal the party and get Vondran back on his feet. He offered them the hospitality of his humble camp for the night and suggested that they could resume their search for Orin in the morning, when daylight would make it easier to follow the tiger trail. Rasmus knew of a village in the general direction of Orin's flight, but doubted that the villagers would give shelter to a naked man without a good story to account for his presence in the wild on a full moon night. Those who choose to live in the Moonlands are well versed in the ways of were-beasts and take every precaution to protect themselves. The party followed Rasmus to his camp and rested. They had the captain's silver medallion of the Fell Armada's logo and a respectable amount of coin and stolen goods from the Fell Moon, but their real objective was out roaming the Moonlands that night.
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