Session Notes for 2005-02-17

We rest for the night. The innkeep says that the first airship is a bit before dawn.

April 24th

We head out to the House Lyrandar tower before dawn. As we approach the tower we see a cowled figure with glowing red eyes heading toward the tower. Upon seeing us, the figure runs inside. We give chase up the stairs.

We arrive on the roof landing to see Lucan dart aboard the airship. Five gnome guards with glazed looks on their faces wait for us. They account that their "master" doesn't want us following. They open fire with bows.

The gnomes on the airship panic and begin loosening ropes.

I summon a magic circle of protection from evil around myself and approach the guards. The elder's protection dispels Lucan's effect. Lin leaps onto the ship and stops them from leaving. I attempt to calm the gnomes, but one foolishly leaves the area and attacks me. I move back into rage.

The rest of the party runs aboard. The ship begins to power up. I convince the guards to unhook the gangplank. I ran across as they release it. The compulsion takes them again as I move away, but the gangplank is disconnected. The re-charmed gnomes fire a few shots at us, but we float away.

375 5 gnome guards

The captain, a half-elf, approaches. He's not happy. He asks who we are. Lin shows him the crazy knight's paperwork. It says we're hunting a vampire. He's still interested in throwing us overboard. We point out that we're agents of the Silver Flame, not actual members. Real church members might be a bit more crude in hunting the vampire on his ship. He agrees to let us stay if we'll pay the ticket price. He claims that tickets are 100 gold pieces each on dock; he'll accept that. We pay up.

Eight enchants himself to detect undead. We explore the ship. The passenger lounge and storage area are void of undead. Below decks Eight doesn't find anything in the passenger levels. The bottom deck is a storage hold, a guard stops us from exploring. Eight scans the ship and fails to sense undead.

The ship is heading north to Karnath.

The passengers, besides ourselves, are a human couple heading to Karnath and an elven man heading to one of the towers between here and there.

I check with the crew member who took tickets. He confirms that only three passengers boarded, none used a password or asked to see the captain.

Lin chats up the passengers. The couple is Emily and Kent. They're well dressed in Sharn fashions. They claim to be merchants heading to Karnath for a business engagement.

The elf isn't interested in talking; he has business in the city just inside the border of Thrane.

After lunch, Eight chats up the ship's engineer. He learns about the ship's design. As he gets chatty, another gnome smacks the engineer upside the head. The engineer is overly eager to chat and the other gnome smacks him a few times. They leave.

During dinner the ship is attacked by raiders. Three air skiffs attack while a fourth hangs back and fires arrows at our ship. Further away we can see another airship, presumably the source of the skiffs.

The skiffs slam into the ship. We hear footsteps coming downstairs. The bandits charge past our door. They're all human. Red attacks them, slaying the leader with a flurry of blows. I attempt to dispel the magic powering the fourth skiff, but I'm unable to overpower it.

Lin and I fire on the fourth skiff; Eight uses a wand to hit them with magic missiles. Red continues slowly down the hallway, slaying raiders. The raiders are wearing robes with the symbol of the Emerald Claw.

Red continues to slaughter Emerald Claws in the hall while we slowly whittle down the skiff's archers. Seeing things going badly, the fourth skiff's pilot pulls away.

Further down the hallway, we hear a thrumming. One of the locker doors at the end of the hallway is glowing blue. Lucan steps out of the blue. He nods and with superhuman speed races past us and up the stairs. We chase him up.

Above deck, the battle favors the gnome crew, the Emerald Claw raiders are slowly losing. Lucan waits on the far side. We fight our way across, slaying Claw members. The other airship moves toward us, accelerating to ramming speed. The raider's airship slams into our ship. The elementals on each ship, the air from our ship and the fire on the other, escape. They attack each other.

In the crash, Eight loses balance and slams into the deck.

The two ships begin to fall from the sky. The three skiffs are still attached to the ships. Three Claw soldiers stand between us and the nearest skiff.

Eight pulls out a scroll and blasts Lucan with a fireball. The rest of us attack the Claw soldiers.

On the other ship, Gallow is glaring at Lucan. Gallow waves and is lifted off the deck. He falls down, slowed by the magically effect.

We finish off the last guard.

Lin, meanwhile, had rushed downstairs to get the other passengers. She leads them up.

The four of us and the three passengers take the skiff. The gnome crew takes the other two skiffs. We pull away from the falling ships.

Behind us, Lucan watches from the falling ships. Finally he shrugs and turns into a bat. He flies off. We follow. As we leave, the two ships crash into the ground, kicking earth into the air. The ships landed in a grain field.

The Lucan bat flies toward a small town. A House Orien trade route and lightening rail both pass through the town.

800 12 Emerald Claw guards