Slick asks himself, 'Why did I accept this job?' He recalls a human coming to him and asking for his help finding his son. He understood the pain that losing a family member is, and reward was more than he has gotten so far doing any job, but now he questions the companions recruited. A quite elf, who is fascinated by his weapons, speaking very little. A female drakin, proclaiming to be his god and protector, followed around by what he can only see as a man in servitude to her. Finally, their captain, a large Orc, who 3 days in has begun to show his frustration at not being able to find their destination.Kar looks around his 'crew' and surveys them, if there was a more in-sociable lot, he has yet to see it. At least they haven't killed each other yet. Where Thomas found this ragged group he will never understand, but the pay was good, and Thomas always was good to his customers. Kar barks out orders to his crew. The wildling shows surprising knack and agility for working on a ship. The elf seems to be very clumsy and has almost fallen off the edge of the ship a few times before Kar just stopped asking him to help. The insane drakin was useful, even if she proclaimed her godhood everyday and demanded he bow to her. She had some talent at least on spotting food and keeping the lines tight.
On the fourth day, a shout of 'Ship!' wakes everyone. Rushing up to the deck, they can see what the captain has called out, a beached ship. The adventurers hurry to prepare the island hopper to investigate.
As the hopper approaches the ship, four large apes jump down and being to throw rocks at the group. The elf takes a hit directly, and while he shakes it off, the others quickly close the distance and kill three, before the last ape makes his escape. While debating how to investigate the ship, the elf walks up to a corpse, and begins to soak his blades in the blood and draw symbols on himself. The sight causes a sense of unease between the group as they do not know what to make of this ritual.The group makes its way up the side of the ship, to a gruesome sight. Skeleton heads adorn the mast, broken and wasted. The only way down is through the hold, that has a foul stench. The wildling throws up when he is hit by the smell of rot and decay.
At the bottom of the stairs, more apes start attacking. One of the seems different, the skin barely holding on to his bones, his eye's appear to be melting, and is clearly the source of the smell. After an intense couple of minutes, the apes are dispatched. Ambryin bleeding as she took a hit squarely across her chest and the claws dug deep. While her minion took care of her wounds, Slick surveys the room and finds a tunnel that leads further in, possibly to a hold. As he looks up to inform the others, again the elf is soaking his blades in the fresh blood and eyeing the drakin weirdly.
As they near the hold, a sound of gently crying is heard, maybe this is the son! But as soon as the group walks in to a room, they see a large obese monstrosity leaning and scratching against the wall, the void glow coming through an opening creates and atmosphere of dread. The grotesque abomination notices the adventurers and turns around. Four skeletons stand up in from the rubble, attacked to the grotesque through tentacles. Slick steps up to a skeleton, and breaks it with one hit, however the tentacle releases and quickly darts to him and attaches to his neck. He begins to feel commands and thoughts in his head but resists them. The elf rushes over and cuts down the tentacle, causing the grotesque to scream. Ambryin goes toe to toe with the obese hulk, until finally it is cut down.One of the skeletons is wearing the gloves of the son, as described by Thomas. Another has a pendant on him, that creates a sense of dread to Ambryin. Once back on the ship, Kor is taking aback by the pendant, even offering his share up in exchange for it. Ambryin decides she better not, as it seems to hold some power.
During the night, a scream is heard. As others rush to the deck to see what happened, Kar is enveloped in a bright void light, the pendant floating in front of him. The light envelops Kar, as he gets larger, as the light disapates, you see an Ogre, an orc who has gone glowmad! The elf swiftly steps forward, and with some help from his comarades, takes down the ogre quickly.As the ogre dies, a sound is echoed in to everyone mind:
"I am the god Lightbringer, but before my insanity I was Oceanius, Lord of the Oceans.The disk you found was a holy symbol of my priests. I have not seen its like since before the dawn of this world.
Seek these artifacts of the Souls in preparation for the final battle. The fuel that burns in the Queen's barge; the armor of Orcbane; Festival's harp, ignored by my followers; the hammer of the damned dwarf; and the raven staff. Recover them all, for soon the Shield will fail again.
Begin your quest by seeking Joeseth Truthbearer in Gateway..."After successfully returning the remains of Thomas' son, and bringing him closure, the events that transpired bring along many questions.
Thomas has offered his services for salvage recovery and sale as well as he will help in finding missions for the adventurers and has offered up his services and trade at discounted prices (10% discount).
You also find yourselves in ownership of a small Skyship (1 crew + 7 passengers). This means you need 1 person to be dedicated to flying the ship, the other 7 members can disembark/lounge. Your ship also comes with an island hopper ( 1 + 4 ) that ferries a small group from/to islands. The Skyship comes with 1 cargo hold.
