Session 42: The Rile on the Isle (11/30/2025)

Desnova 23

After rummaging around a little further in the egg-pit, the PCs find no more traces of Friedereck's fishing manuals, which they decide might hold the key to their escaping this plane. They scan about the rocky north end of the island and find a garden of flotilla wreckage below the cliffs, but then notice a figure to the south on one of the paths leading to the farm valley, a crab-like humanoid who is scanning the area for any trace of the Ley Blades' quarry. The PCs decide to surround and engage the scout using Nebol'shoy's magic to transport to a nearby tree, and they find themselves entrenched in a melee with about half of the crew of the Maiden Voyager, including their first meeting with Captain Ponce! He is accompany by a human woman with some sort of accordion, the elven lookout they encountered earlier, the crab, which is obviously some sort of berserker, an ounce cabin girl, and another woman, some sort of ship's surgeon.

The PCs gain the initial advantage but are pressed back by the ferocious attacks of the Captain and his first mate. They quite easily fell the four female antagonists, but the Captain uses a whistle to summon forth the roc-parrot which instantly makes a massive impact upon the battlefield. Fortunately, through some crafty moving of the wounded to safety, the already-taxed Captain decides to take his leave, and the roc follows. The PCs recover as best they can, and pick over the bodies to find a few items before they make their next move. They decide to search the abbey ruins once more for some of Friedereck's angling books, to no avail, before circling back to the north and that mysterious flotilla.



It turns out to be a bunch of wreckage of vessels that must at some point have traveled to the Lost Isle, and hung up in them is a petrified statue of some titan missing a hand and leg. There are numerous flags and pennants amidst the wreckage, unknown to the characters, but little of value remains, and being able to see cleanly to the bottom of the demi-plane, there's nothing much below either except for some schools of fish that seek shelter here. Aldren and Rickhardt scale back up to the highlands when they notice something is very wrong. A rumbling, a splash, and a large part of the water's surface seems to be a moving island! They manage to stay out of the way of what appears to be a colossal turtle, but those still over at the flotilla are only made aware when the wreckage begins to shift, and a massive maw emerges as the isle's guardian seeks to deal with another disturbance to its feeding grounds!

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rickardt

Captain Rubrik Ponce (human male): A dashing, limber, handsome man with perfect sideburns and spectacles dyed a deep blue, he wears a crimson tricorn and enormous, billowing pants which are woven with patterns of narwhals and sea-stars. He wields a whalebone saber and a rapier with a golden basket hilt that sheds glittering light as it cuts through the air, and an additional pair of scimitars are clutched at his belt. He seems to wear a suit of banded leather below, and has a large bone bird-whistle jangling about his throat on a cord.

Crawla the Cabin Girl (ounce female): A hunched humanoid feline with her left ear bitten off and replaced by an array of colorful feathers, she wears a crimson leather jerkin over ragged beige fur, and breeches set in the pattern of palm trees. A pair of serrated daggers are clutched in her paws and she has an extended left front tooth with looks menacing beneath her dark yellow eyes.

Maulghaz (yurian male): A hulking humanoid clad in a thick, crimson shell that has been marred by many arrows and blades. Beady eyes stare out from a taut, mandibled face, and four jointed arms clutch a pair of belaying pins and an oar that seems to have been fashioned into a three-spiked trident. Stubby legs support the creature as it scuttles about, with a segmented tail that leaves a slight residue of slime and water as it moves.

Morale Officer Finch (human female): A slim, attractive woman with white streaks through brown hair tied back in a ponytail, she wears a tricorn lilted slightly to the side with an arrogant attitude. A glint of mail lies beneath a fashionable robe of burnt yellow, and a longsword is slung across her back with a fancy basket hilt. In her arms she clutches a concertina whose grating sounds seem to mesh with the breezes surrounding her ship and the cries of birds wheeling above.

Pryvykyn the Lookout (high elf female): A slender, scarred elven woman wearing a low-cut studded leather skirt and tunic, her hair is set in a wedge-like white Mohawk with trailing braids. She has red and blue tattoos on the sides of her head and cheeks, and her pointed ears, lips and chin are pierced with jewelry of bone and gems. A birchwood shortbow is cluthed in one hand while the hilt of a scimitar is stuck through a crimson sash at her belt.

Spirit the Monster Parrot (roc male): An enormous tropical bird with a wingspan of some 40’ or more, it has talons that look as if they could grip horses with little effort, and a beak that could penetrate the side of a ship. Its feathers are decked out in blazing displays of crimson, yellow and indigo.