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Characters
Garazi, a young witch
Aria, a strange paladin
Heck, an affable revenant
Panthalassa, a necromancer with a missing arm
Daytona, a dhampir gunslinger fresh from Hell
Willard Corn and Beebo, a farmer and a monkey
Events
We last left our heroes at Blyman's Cove, on a rocky ridge overlooking the beach were the fearsome pirate man o' war Dawnrazor was careened and having its hull scraped clean of barnacles by the crew. The party had ventured here to find Captain Vanessa Laurant, who had the supernatural ability to track Pendleton Torst. Complicating the situation was the fact that Farrowhawk soldiers were hastily assembling a cannon on the ridge so that they could fire upon the vulnerable ship. Complicating matters even further was the fact that Aria had charged up to them and issued a challenge, earning the immediate ire of half of the soldiers.
Aria's plan worked in that four of the soldiers descended on her in a fury, but it didn't work as intended when the soldiers proved able to nearly fell her. As battle was joined, Garazi bound the soldiers still trying to get the cannon operational with magical chains. Beebo the monkey once again pulled a gun and began firing, much to everyone's continued astonishment. The group rallied and slew their foes--save for one officer who was grappled by Heck and bound in manacles by Panthalassa.
The group marched their captive down to the beach, where they were met by a line of pirates pointing muskets at them in suspicion. Luckily, Dandy John, the quartermaster of the Dawnrazor, recognized Daytona from his time delivering messages between Vanessa and Catarina. (In fact, Dandy John referred to Daytona as "the Countess's mailman.")
Since the arrival of more soldiers intent on massacring the pirates was immanent, Dandy John gave orders for the Dawnrazor to be made ready to sail with the arrival of the tide. There was one problem, though: the captain had led a number of pirates into the caves along the ridge, and Dandy John would not leave without her. (He surmised that the captain was busy killing potentially mutinous sailors in the caves since she had selected only disloyal pirates to accompany her.) Because time was of the essence, the group volunteered to venture into the cave to make the captain aware of what was going on outside.
The group quickly learned that Dandy John's supposition was correct when they found the first (of many) dead pirates just beyond the cave's entrance. Besides still-warm corpses, the group located several piratical shrines and a parrot flying around seeking an exit. When Panthalassa coaxed the parrot to land on her arm with some food, it said "The egg is in the seabird's next"--an uncanny echo of part of Viktoria Frankenstein's coded message to Panthalassa.
Due to Garazi's keen powers of perception, the group was able to avoid tumbling into a pit trap. Beyond the trap they witnessed the captain executing one of her errant crew...except the "captain" wasn't the captain they were expecting: instead of Vanessa Laurant, they had located Thomasina, Vanessa's adopted ward, who was now the acting captain of the Dawnrazor.
After explaining the situation unfolding outside to Thomasina, she told them she couldn't leave until she had accomplished a task that had been assigned to her. She led them to a strange stone chest in a dead-end corridor. The chest was decorated with skulls and bones that were inlaid into its surfaces. The top of the chest had many indentations in it and at the front were four levers. Each lever ended into a knob that was etched with a symbol; from left to right there was a devil's face, an octopus, a bottle, and a parrot. A bucket at the side of the chest held a number of pirate figures carved from wood.
Garazi made short work of the puzzle by placing fifteen of the pirate figures into the holes at the top of the chest and then pulling the lever marked with a bottle. Fifteen men on a dead man's chest...yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, indeed.
Solving the puzzle caused some stone to shift in the corridor, revealing a crawlspace. Beyond the crawlspace were a number of caverns. The first featured a small alchemical laboratory and ten large steel caskets. The room beyond held a single casket, which proved to be the resting place of another body that exactly resembled Viktoria Frankenstein. Thomasina began loading her pistol and asked Panthalassa if she wanted to wait in the other cavern while she did what she had been sent to do: put two bullets in Viktoria's head.
Back on the beach, the group boarded the Dawnrazor on Thomasina's invitation and convened to share information. Although she was sworn not to reveal the exact location, Thomasina divulged that Pendleton was safe on "the farm." The group initially thought "the farm" was a euphemism for a dirt nap, but she explained that Vanessa had an island farm where she was currently guarding Pendleton against the Frankenstein household's foes.
Aria, already under pressure due to revelations about her possibly otherworldly nature, became tired of the vagueness of the conversation and slammed a Vlaak cleaver into the captain's dinner table. Thomasina, though young, was still the captain of the vessel--in no uncertain terms, she reminded Aria of that fact. (They would later have a private talk in which Thomasina tried to pass on some advice for dealing with her rage and confusion.)
Later, Thomasina showed Daytona that she had kept all the wooden animals he had carved for her and let Panthalassa see that she still had the plants that she had sent along. She promised that there were more in her garden on the farm and plucked a rose, trimmed its thorns, and stuck it behind Panthalassa's ear.
Daytona also finally received word from Catarina. Although the message was garbled, he could make out that the Widow and Viktoria's servants had arrived in Lachryma seeking shelter. They had been shepherded there by Kassidy Durango.
Thomasina ferried them to Piskaro, where they were due to meet Nightsong at the Six-Legged Pig as per their plan. They found Nightsong in the company of what was possibly the most beautiful woman they had ever seen; weirdly, despite the heat, she was wearing a fur-lined dress but did not appear to be sweating. There were six armored knights stationed around the table, obviously there as the woman's protection. (Although, she needs no protection.)
Daytona knew that these "people" were vampires, but even he was shocked when the woman introduced herself as Alcesta von Karlok, whom they knew to be the most powerful vampire in Krevborna. What followed was a lot of fear and confusion. The group wanted to get as far away from Alcesta as possible, and lied to Nightsong to pry her away. (Alcesta, of course, discerned the lie--she can probably distinguish everyone's heartbeat in a five-mile radius.) Nightsong resented being deceived and interpreted their actions as choosing to go to Catarina instead of continuing their agreed-upon plan to find Serafina and Viktoria.
Acrimony was building, but got smoothed over. Although who knows how and when that might erupt again. Nightsong was able to explain that the seer she had paid to scry Serafina's location indicated that she was in Veil. All they had to do was travel there and begin a more focused search.
Next time, they arrive in the dangerous and ruined city of outlaws.
