Beneath the Missing Sea Episode 8

 

Leviathans

Episode 8, a return to exploring the seabed, meeting the Levianthics, and some new information about Garvym.

Played October 20, 2023

The Party for Episode 8

• Alison playing Gwelevad
• Igneous playing Fiske

With his old companions missing, and in the midst of a bender, Fiske made a new friend, Gwelevad, with whom he made a deal to help find his lost ship and recover the contents for a split of the profits. So the two grabbed Hemmingway and headed out from Coiner's Shelf.

Their trip south along the cliffside was strikingly uneventful, finding first a lost carper named Cordelia with whom Gwelevad shared some water, and the bones of some great sea creature as they neared Brost. Fiske tossed as big a bone as he could carry into Hemmingway's cart with the intention of hawking it to the Levianthic cult, who seemed to have a fondness for bone decoration.

Eventually, they found the remains of Gwelevad's wrecked ship, lost weeks ago upon the disappearance of the sea. Much had been destroyed but they did manage to scrounge up a half dozen crates of spices, some kegs of beer, and now a very useless map of local sea currents. Filling the cart they decided it was worth it to return. But before they did, they decided to crack open a key and drink it right there on the seabed, celebrating the find and their new companionship.

The trip back north was even less eventful: they only came across some more merfolk statues with gems for eyes, quickly extracted and pocketed.

Back in Coiner's Shelf they once again sold gems to Robert Oldwine, the beer to Ogden, and decided to keep the spices until they could find a better buyer. While among the merchants Gwelevad replaced his ruined clothing and bought a gambeson. While hunting for a buyer for the spices, they did chance upon Rosalyn Southland, who told them she'd come across Garvym previously under the name Florian and who'd been running a business called "Florian's Fantastic Fauna." They added it to their list of reasons not to trust him.

They traveled up to the Levianthic Outlook, the highest point in the Shelf and local home to the Levianthics. They witnessed Father Caspian giving a sermon that related many of the details about their beliefs they'd heard previously: the coming of the Leviathan and with it the seas, the disappearance as foretold by the Great Cycle, and its eventual return. They referred to it repeatedly as The Deep One and those afflicted with the Sea Rot as its Blessed. 

Eventually, they got to talking with him. He had little interest in the bone and suggested they donate it, which they did. He spoke about that greedy miscreant Garvym who was desecrating the corpse of their god.....

Finally, they checked in with Ava. She was busy setting up her lab in town and had acquired some of Garvym's Sea Vitae but was unable to provide any information on it yet. She reiterated that if she were to create a cure it would depend on a pure sample of the Leviathan's blood.

They decided to look more into Garvym but found that he'd not been seen around town for a week which was unlike him. Fiske and Gwelevad thus decided to hunt him down by sneaking back to the brewery. They made the trip and scouted the outside to get a better idea of the size of the place and started looking for a way in. There was a back door but it looked secure, and there were also a number of small buildings behind the main complex. They spotted a crossbow-armed guard atop the main building who was dressed similarly to the extraction worker they'd met sometime before; Fiske speculated that this was the destination for what was removed from the Leviathan. There was some discussion about raiding the place...but they decided to wait until they had some reinforcements because it was just the two of them, so they headed back to town.

Statistics

Days Passed: 52

Kegs Recovered: 9
Total Party Members: 8
Hexes Explored: 11
Caves Explored: 3
Dungeons Explored: 0
Players Participated: 8
Megafauna Captured: 2
Skirmishes Survived: 8
Foes Vanquished: 1 feral dog, 6 anglergoblins, 1 anglergoblin shaman, 1 albatross, 4 sea plagued, 1 sea monk
Treasure Obtained: 2406 previously + 300 in beer kegs + 180 in gems + 6 crates of spices = 2886 coins
Wages Spent: 650 coins
Tragic Deaths: 1

Map

The map after 8 sessions

Episode 8 Notes

New player! Alison playing Gwelevad, a merchant's son whose boat was one of those in a bad place when the Drain occurred and who eventually made his way to Brost and then Coiner's Shelf.

I've been trying to make these a little reports a little shorter so that they are less cumbersome to write and to read. Writing this before I start the report so we'll see how successful I am shortly...

(some time later) I think that's a bit briefer. Maybe it's because we did more character introductions, maybe it's because we did less with only two players. Time will tell.