| Session Date | November 02, 2019 |
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| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
The party began climbing down the wooden pole, now revealed to be the mainmast of a ship on a storm-tossed sea. ZZ, leading the climb, felt a sudden disorientation as the pole/mast suddenly went from stationary to wildly swinging with the stormy seas. He fell to the deck, hurt but conscious. The same thing happened to Mordecai, as well, though the others made the transition without falling. As they climbed, a man on deck yelled at them to secure the tops as it was loose; Aldeberan, being the experienced sailor, did so easily, to the man below's satisfaction. Meanwhile, Iban tried to levitate down, but realized that the ship was moving away from under him rapidly...he cut his levitation and dropped to just before the deck and made a soft landing before ending up in the water.
Once everyone was down, they found that the shouting man had called for assistance for those that fell. This aid was in the form of a crotchety man who cast some sort of healing spell on Mordecai (ZZ declined the assistance). The first man introduced himself as Tiberius, the ship's captain. The grumpy spellcaster was Yoccam, the ship's medic. They were now on the Flying Kraken, a vessel sailing on the endless Seas of Chaos (apparently a seas that crossed multiple planes of Chaos including Limbo, Gladsheim, and Pandemonium). Iban asked where they were bound for and the captain merely waved towards the bow, saying "wherever the seas take us." He explained that the ship had no fixed port, destination or purpose beyond exploration and adventure. Although it sometimes carried cargoes from port to port, it had no higher purpose than that; port calls for provisions often led to many an interesting adventure. Captain Tiberius said that visitors from "elsewhere" were a common enough occurrence on this vessel - most simply passed on, though sometimes folk stayed to seek adventure or for other reasons of their own. At present, he had a very full crew, otherwise he would ask for them to remain aboard as crew themselves (he was looking at Aldeberon).
The ship itself was...unusual. It was large and well-built of an odd greyish-blue wood. It was rather ornately decorated with carvings and the like though these seemingly shifted from time to time. The figurehead was quite elabroate - a giant green kraken with great yellow eyes which was seen to move and shift at times (they later learned that the Captain was known to sometimes speak to it). The crew was of an amazing diversity. Humans were most common, but also aboard were Orcs, a Dwarf (the ship’s smith), an Ogre, a strange demon of unknown origin, a Githzerai, a Red Slaad (frog demon), a Grugach Elf, a sentient Zombie, a Gnoll, a pair of Hobgoblins, a Bullywug, a Rakshasa, an intelligent Ghoul, and a Lizard Man; truly a bewildering mix. ZZ periodically looked up the mast; periodically he caught a glimpse of the space they'd come from, but often he saw merely grey, stormy skies.
Tiberius invited them all to dine with him in his quarters, and told them they could rest aboard as long as they liked. The party accepted both offers. They were soon led to the captains quarters where they sat down for a meal. Though the wine was good, the meal, served by a Kobold chef, was not at all pleasant, though the Captain seemed to tolerate it. Joining the Captain was Yoccam and a strange elf introduced with the jaw-breaking name of K'copsrm, a rather emotionless and unexpressive chap who said little but was clearly evaluating the guests; he was identified as the First Mate (there was some subtle tension between the Captain's two chief subordinates, it seemed). The party was honest about their purposes, but the captain said he had not seen the Trickster in years (he had appeared once as a giant matte-black skinned man, stayed aboard for a time, then vanished). The Captain had been aboard for nearly 12 years, starting as an ordinary seaman and making his way up in rank. He did answer the party about other exists from this place, and said he knew of several doors to other places, aside form the mast. As captain, he was able to open them at will, he said, though he had no knowledge or interest in what lay beyond them. He told them that newcomers sometimes stumbled on the doors but, over time, such accidents became rare and almost none of the crew could find one even if they had wanted to. The party were guests, he said, and none were ever constrained to remain on the Flying Kraken who did not wish it. The party was obviously interested in this, so the captain demonstrated with a door in his cabin. At first, he opened it to a small supply locker; repeating this, it suddenly opened to a weird world with with an oddly uniform pinkish-purple sky and a fair amount of low scrub and trees of strange and unknown type. The air was dead and still, though a strange, hollow noise sounded throughout, as of a distant, howling wind.
After the meal, the party was shown to a rather crowded area hung with numerous hammocks and told they could rest there as long as they liked. This they did, subtly keeping a watch, and passed the night in peace (though there were many comings and goings of sailors as watches changed and certain crew members were summoned for various tasks. Best of all, the storm seemed to abate during the night, judging by the rolling of the ship.
But, as the party awoke and considered their next action, the ship was hit with a tremendous thud. The crew they saw were clearly alarmed and began rushing topside to shouts and the sound of alarm. The party moved to follow. Iban led the ay and began to levitate up a ladder when the whole topside of the ship was hit with a tremendous blast of scalding steam. Iban was hit with it badly, though he was somewhat shielded. Still, it nearly parboiled him, and he dropped back below. Aldeberon rushed topside with Cadwallider to find many of the crew dead from the blast. Off the starboard side was a Dragon Turtle, now going after Tiberius and K'copsrm on the foc's'le. The elf was blasting away with a wand of lightning bolts, though the vast beast seemed but lightly affected. Below, ZZ and Mordecai aided Iban; Iban rushed the beast, and Cadwallider prepared to fly up above to rain spells down. But the Dragon Turtle blasted a second steam cloud across much of the ship, badly wounding Cadwallider and Aldeberon. Cadwallider did finally get airborne as Aldeberon went to melee. Meanwhile, the monster struck the captain, knocking him unconscious. This caused K'copsrm to cease his attacks on the Dragon Turtle to drag the captain free and below decks. There were very few crew left alive above deck, and the rest of the party now came topside to fight the monster; even Dimbul came out and fired some arrows into the thing. Fortunately, the beast did not blast any more steam as that would've killed half or more of the party. Finally, it was slain through combined effects of melee, missiles, and spells. Even as the last of the melee was happening, the tentacles of the Kraken figurehead seemed to be animating as if they were coming to the aid of the party.
The party went below to check on the captain. He was alive but badly wounded, under treatment by Yoccam. He thanked the party, saying that they had saved the ship and he owed them for that. As it turned out, fully two thirds of the crew had been slain, and many of the survivors were sorely injured. But the ship limped on as best it could, with the party providing some help for the beleaguered crew.
The party stayed aboard for several days, as much to recover themselves as to aid the ship. The captain was still on bed rest, but improving; the strange, cool elf was in temporary command. At this point, the party heard an alarm from above and rushed topside once more to find a horde of Sahuagin swimming towards the ship; indeed, several had already climbed aboard and were quickly overwhelming the skeleton crew. Iban blew his Horn of Valhalla to summon aid, while Cadwallider blasted many in the water with an ice storm. A general melee ensued. At one point a pair of clumsy crewmen manned a ballista on the foc's'le. Their first shot struck the ship which seemed to shudder in pain; their second was better, striking a Sahuagin square in the chest and knocking the already dead corpse into the sea. When nearly three score of the sea devils had been slain, the rest fled, diving back into the sea and swimming down into the gloom. The many corpses were dumped overbaord and the ship sailed on. later, the captain told them that those things would likely not have attacked a fully manned ship.
The party spent a few more days aboard, though the time seemed to have little meaning in this place. Finally, the captain was back on his feet and had resumed command. The party had his thanks, he told them. They, for their part, were now asking him to open all of the doors that he knew of so that they could attempt to use Auguries to determine the best one to take. He was happy to help them, but as they prepared to start, Aldeberon spoke up. The last few days had been a marvelous change for him, he said. He had missed the sea during the year or so he had traveled with the party. And while he still sought adventure, he felt that perhaps remaining aboard this vessel might be right for him to do. The party was loathe to see him go, but clearly Captain Tiberius was most pleased to gain an experienced hand after the disaster with the Dragon Turtle. These arrangements made, the now diminished party prepared themselves for the Captain's tour of strange doorways...