My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

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Meadhelm
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My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Group B Game notes

Tower of the Black Pearl: Session 1 (9/1/2020)

Local legends about the underwater tower of the mad mage and his legendary treasure the black pearl, turned out to be more than just tall tales!

An ancient drunken pirate swore on his remaining teeth and told the tale about how this very night the tower would be reachable again and not for another decade!

Stripling adventurers and drunken bar goers dreaming of treasure took hasty action and took the old pirate up on his offer to navigate them to the Tower in an oar-ship which one of the crowd, its unclear who, claimed belonged to their uncle.
Another boat and a pirate crew had already beat them to the tower!

Blackheel took first blood slaying one pirate in a single blow!  And Gideon likewise slew another!  After slaying 2 of the three pirates left behind to guard the entrance, the third was given the option to surrender, which he gladly took, fleeing on the pirate oarship.

After some puzzlement, and futile attempts at lockpicking, and then smashing the door, the rooftop door was opened by Cob the Cleric (formerly Cob the Corn Farmer), and the crew descended, a few staying behind on the boat and tower in case reinforcement should, or perhaps waiting for the wine to wear off more before descending.

The room with candles was left intact as they descended to the spiral stairway, and Torven proceeded to promptly whack the first statue seen there, presumably offended by the workmanship of the stone statues and not because of some other in explicable inkling, this led to a protracted fight with the statues, but in the end only minor injuries to the party.  Blackheel and Gideon also having acquitted themselves quite manfully in battle.

Then a gap in the stairway led to Kirk falling and being injured as he fell short, likely due to an ill timed dwarvish fart from Torven,, the dwarf who almost suffered the same fate, as after he jumped across the stairs on the other side gave way and crumbled, but was prudently tied to the priest who managed to keep hold of him and lower him safely with some help.  The rest of the party decided to just climb the rope down, which was somewhat easier than jumping the now enlarged gap.

The room with dragon arched portals puzzled the party for sometime until Cob recalled the legendary sorcerers' greediness for blood (after he had went mad, according to tales), and shed blood on the sigil activating the portal.

As the party: stepped through the portal, they were greeted by the unwelcome sight of 5 pirates ready and waiting in ambush!
Players:
Andy (Gideon and Harrow)
Snake (Cob and Torven)
Zuul (Blackheel and Kirk)

Thanks so much everyone!

To be continued next time, Tuesday Sept. 15 - SAME BAT TIME. SAME BAT CHANNEL!
Screenshot at Sep 02 00-28-23-smaller.jpg
Screenshot at Sep 02 00-28-23-smaller.jpg (87.14 KiB) Viewed 31850 times
Much time was given to character creation, especially since 3 people dropped from the game last minute (well one was only 'iffy' to be begin with) so I had each player make two characters and encouraged them to spend their starting equipment. Now that all the maps and charcters are in roll20 I hope to get much further in the next session!
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Vort
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Vort »

Great stories, Meadhelm, thanks for coming by to post them. Keep it up! (I've fallen horribly behind on my road reports.)
Trevor / Road Crew (Calgary)
---
Shaky, Gambler, N, AC 10, hp 1, S12 A9 S5-2 P9 I9 L9, r+0, f-2, w+0, club +0 (1d4)
Shifty, Smuggler, C, AC 11, hp 1, S9 A15+1 S5-2 P13+1 I8-1 L8-1, r+1, f-2, w+1, init+1, attack rolls -1, sling +0 (1d4)
The Illuminating Anhk, Elven Artisan, L, AC 10, hp 3, S11 A9 S9 P13+1 I10 L15+1, r+0, f+0, w+1, fumbles +1, staff +0 (1d4)
KIA Bailey Bramford, Beadle, L, AC 11, hp 1, S13+1 A13+1 S12 P5-2 I13+1 L11, r+1, f+0, w-2, init +1, staff +1 (1d4+1)
Meadhelm
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Tower of the Black Pearl (Session 2 9/15/2020)

The pirates were utterly outmatched and overconfident and their ambush was swiftly thrown to ruin.
In the room east of the portal exit the heroes found several canopic jars with gold plated organs. Blackheel took a gold plated heart, and Torven peeled the gold plating from a desiccated pair of lungs, the original organs inside having long since turned to dust. A golden bowl with long dried blood was also taken. Kirk located a signs of secret door but no amount of slamming against it by the warriors could budge it.

Returning to the portal room and following a long winding passage of stairs cut into the stone ground, leading to a magically lit dock on an underground lake. A boat poled along by a ghostly boatman pulled up to the dock, and the fare was paid by each with gold coins, a gold plated heart, and finally some copper coins, all of which was tossed over the side of the boat by the silent boatman.

Gliding along the underground lake, the passed under a rotten old wood and top bridge before coming to another dock on the far shore of the lake, only to be met by the infamous prate Savage Quenn and more of his crew. This time both sides elected to parley and agreed to join forces and split the treasure evenly.

The pirates had been trying to figure out how to a giant metal pair of double doors on the shore, which Kirk the Thief figured out and was able to unlock. This door lead to a large room with a pile of bones in the middle with tiny holes in the floor and ceiling, and stairs on the far side.

(Some confusion was had after this area as the maps I found online didn’t actually follow the module super closely after this point, in the later rooms the map designer had clearly modified the layout probably in order to avoid the bridge which connected certain rooms, but later added a map with said bridge without accounting for how the rooms connected.)

After examining the room for a little while the doors slammed shut, resulting in the death of one of the pirates who tried jump back out as the doors closed. The room began to fill with water and the party was forced to go up the stairs which ended in a rusty iron door with an impaled skeleton in from of it. The skeleton dropped to the floor as the trap-spear receded, and looked to be wearing some surprisingly high quality chainmail. While some of the PCs debated taking it one of the pirates snatched it.

Blackheel the warrior burst through the smaller rusty iron door with a running start, and the party was now on a balcony overlooking the lake attached to the previously spotted rotten bridge. Torven was nearly lost to the rotten bridge, but having been tied to Cob he was able to have his fall arrested and hauled back up.

Crossing the bridge, the party and pirates entered the tome of Sezrekan. The room was heavily searched as was the sarcophagus, Savage Quenn and Blackheel ended up with fist sized rubies shaped like dragon eyes, and Cob with a golden crown. A secret passage was revelealed leading them back to the canopic jar room and from the back to the portal which Brough them here…
sarcophagus.png
sarcophagus.png (158.65 KiB) Viewed 31649 times
The Black Pearl is so close within their reach they can practically taste it!

Players:
Snake (Cob and Torven)
Zuul (Blackheel and Kirk)
NPC (Gideon)
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Mat Mobile »

Thanks for sharing! It also gave me an idea for an upcoming campaign.
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Report follows:
Tower of the Black Pearl: The Finale 09/29/2020

The party, along with Savage Quenn’s pirate surviving crew, returned to the room with two portals, and placed the rubies in the eye sockets of the dragon carved into the portal, and found blood activated this one as well. Savage Quenn and his men wasted no time going through, eager for treasure, and the party followed close behind.

On the other side of the portal they found them selves on a platform flanked by two braziers, at the foot of a long water filled room. At the far end of the room a dragon statue could be seen holding their goal, the Black Pearl in its jaws, magically repelling the water near it. The water roiling with poisonous snakes between them and their goal.

Blackheel, and Isegg, (one of Quenn’s pirates albeit a recent member) examined the bronze braziers and their wooden tripods and decided to disassemble and lash them together to make a little two person canoe. This started poorly as at first launching the craft, one of the cupolas slipped askew, spilling Isegg into the water. Torven leapt into the water to his defense and was able to take some of the snakes’ attention away from him as Blackheel managed to pull him back into the makeshift raft.

The brazier/cupolas afforded some decent cover from the serpents as the heroes used their weapons to pole across the water towards the statues but still both suffered many snakebites, and Isegg’s shortsword made for a poor pole, causing him to overextend himself and fallout an additional time but was rescued again by Blackheel.

Meanwhile, Torven had scrambled back onto dry land, and tensions were high amongst the pirate crew and party, though Quenn consistently cheered on the boating pair and was ready with a lasso to try to pull them back in.

Isegg and Blackheel then retrieved the Black Pearl, avoided the statue tumbling and hurried back into their makeshift boat. The scrambled back to the rest of the group as the water began to rise.

Tensions reached a head as Quenn failed to throw the rope very far to the duo, and combat broke out among the pirates and heroes, one of the pirates even sided with the heroes (Leonard). A well placed spell from Cobb (Word of Command, “SWIM!”) sent Quenn swimming for the craft, but the duo in the boat poled right past him and up to the landing.

Leonard providing some much needed healing as the other pirates were dispatched, and our heroes escaped through the portal leaving Quenn swimming in circles!

Once on the other side of the portal, Leonard and Isegg (who had decided that the adventure seeking sailors he had been with were little more than sally wags and ne’er do wells, and thrown in with the heroes, grateful for the help he had been given in the makeshift boat. The two former pirates quickly snatched the rubies from the portal’s dragon eyes, leaving Quenn to his fate.

With tower rumbling and beginning to rise a hasty retreat was stymied first by some crab-rats, and further by trying to leap the gap in the stairs, which nearly killed several of our heroes. Again the party depended on healing from Leonard and Cobb. Several of the party opted instead to climb the rope which was left over from the descent.

All survived however, to reach the top level of the tower, only to be met by none other than Savage Quenn! His skin was now beet red and several of the poisonous sea snakes were twined around his limbs. The snakes dropped to the floor and reared to attack as Quenn drew his black runed blade and sought his revenge! Weak from poison and several nasty falls, both Torven and Kirk fell in battle only to be healed in the nick of time by the parties priest, though their powers seemed to be failing as they had asked much of the deities this night. Torven eventually fell again, and this time lay still forever.

Facing his own mortality, but still possessed of all his cunning, a heavily injured Quenn retreated, hoping steal their boat and let the sea take revenge for him. He climbed up the ladder and closed the door, but as the party killed the last serpents and gave chase, a burst of adrenaline and strength from Kirk slammed the heavy trapdoor open slammed it on Quenn, taking the last of his despicable life (his last HP).

P.S. It was maybe cheap of me to have BBEG reappear at the end and force a fight, but I felt it was balanced since it gave the party a second chance to score his magic sword (as they missed the only other magic item already) and it gave a replacement climax rather than the crab-rat attack (which was added by me only because they never encountered them and they seemed fun also attached image used for crab rats which I just found from I don’t know where on the internet (probably just google images).

The others from the tavern (Harrow, Gideon, and The Old Man) greeted the heroes with accolades helped their limping, battered bodies into the boat, dragging Torven’s corpse aboard for a proper burial amongst his kin, as the tower slowly disappeared beneath the waves.
Meadhelm
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Please ignore the nested parentheses.

Bad habit from day job :-P

Normally the linter points out when they are unmatched.
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Mat Mobile »

What a story! Thanks again for the write-up!

I have not run this adventure so it's hard to tell what is part of it and what is improv from your part and/or the players but I really like the part where they took the braziers and transformed them into a canoe. Very clever work by the players.

Also, it's great that they associated with the Pirates even though it's not surprising that they got into a fight. It must have made for some fun role-playing!

What's the next adventure you plan on running?
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Thanks for reading! I plan to run Doom of the Savage Kings next, actually!
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Raven_Crowking »

Meadhelm wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:16 am Thanks for reading! I plan to run Doom of the Savage Kings next, actually!
An awesome adventure!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Mat Mobile »

Raven_Crowking wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 8:12 am
Meadhelm wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:16 am Thanks for reading! I plan to run Doom of the Savage Kings next, actually!
An awesome adventure!
I agree. And it's a nice change of pace as it involve a lot more investigation and roleplay.
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by GnomeBoy »

Excellent.

I've run Pearl multiple times, and a couple times as a Funnel. In one of those runs, I think the gap in the stairs claimed more lives than any other thing!
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Meadhelm
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Re: My 2nd road crew game (Tower of the Black Pearl session 1)

Post by Meadhelm »

Yeah it took a near death for them to decide to use the rope they left.
Although, I guess they maybe could've just floated on a chunk of wood as the tower filled at that point but fortunately no one opted for that.
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