Beneath the Missing Sea Episode 15

Leviathan's End

Episode 15, meeting the Baptist and infiltrating extraction operation.

Played March 8, 2024

A Link to the Summary Post

The Party for Episode 15

• mtb playing Manqoba
• CaptainSabatini playing Esgorman
• Igneous playing Fiske

The party was deep in the bowels of the merman temple gazing over a contemplative space. On little islands perched meditating mermen who nonetheless kept weapons close by. They could see a darkened passageway towards the back but otherwise, their only exit was the grand staircase down. They decided to present themselves openly.

The mermen react with alarm but Esgorman using the earring he got from the Sea Speaker's tower was able to communicate with them and reassure them of their intentions. Upon explaining that they weren't with the Silver Blades, knew about the death of the Sea Speaker, and were seeking the return of the Andrussian Sea, the pair determined to take the party down to meet their leader.

The Baptist was down below giving a blessing in an archaic version of their language that not even Esgorman's magic could understand. The blessing did include sizeable amounts of blood from a Silver Blade which set the party further on edge, in addition to knowing that their bomb would be going off soon. Behind the ritual gaped a hole down into a black abyss of water into which light didn't penetrate. The religious leader sought to understand their intentions and though distrustful was in little place to bargain. He told them that he knew of a way to return the waters: by rebirthing their god. Inside the great Leviathan was at least one of its eggs, unborn and unformed but still viable, which could become their god again if brought here, to the womb of the world, and left in their care.

Esgorman readily agreed, fearing their response if he said no, and refused their offer to peer into their divination chamber since he figured the bomb would be going off at any time. The group raced upstairs and began the ascending passage outward when the whole place shuddered and a boom echoed down from above. They redoubled their efforts to escape.

I told them about two hours. So I waited for just short of that and rolled a d4 for additional time. They happened to roll high enough to be out of site of the mermen by the time it exploded.

Outside they found Reanna Saur and the Silver Blades armed and ready at the entrance. Questioned of their venture, they kept to themselves their parley with the Baptist and his quest but did report a successful mission to explore and plant the bomb. The Bristlebeard brothers already knew and jittered with excitement nearby. They were rewarded with honorary members of the Blades and asked about their plans. The party demurred but separately decided to at least explore the possibility of retrieving the egg and so headed back west towards the Leviathan. 

Scouting the encampment around the corpse showed guard towers, worker rotations, and other signs that they'd either need cleverness or an army to get through. They didn't have an army so they set out west to hunt down an incoming supply cart to bluff their way in. A day later they found one passing by and scrambled to come up with a plan. Eventually, they settled on hastily burying Fiske up to his neck in the sand in the path of the cart and letting him act as some sort of living sorcerous landmine to paralyze with magic those who came to investigate, then charge anyone who was left.

Probably adjudicated this too generously but it was too funny.

It didn't quite go to plan but the guards nonetheless hastily surrendered, but the party gave no quarter. They had enough disguises for the group and so equipped Hemmingway, their longest serving retainer, with one of the communication shells and a spyglass and left him and the rest to wait with supplies nearby while they took the cart into camp.

The guards at the checkpoint were wary about the newcomers but they were able to talk their way in after washing up with reeking chemicals. Directed to the provisioner's tent, they passed by various work teams dissecting and processing pieces of the purported god. For the moment at least they did their best to blend in by delivering the supplies and helping to unload them while questioning the situation in the camp. 

Statistics 

Days Passed: 89

Kegs Recovered: 11
Total Party Members: 8
Hexes Explored: 26
Caves Explored: 4
Dungeons Explored: 2
Players Participated: 8
Megafauna Captured: 2
Skirmishes Survived: 14
Foes Vanquished: 1 feral dog, 9 anglergoblins, 4 anglergoblin shaman, 1 albatross, 4 sea-plagued, 1 sea monk, 5 waterlogged revenants, the sea speaker, 1 mimic

Treasure Obtained: 3746 previously

Tragic Deaths: 2 (Crabcakes the Giant Hermit Crab and Albert de Manc, Hedge Knight)

Map

The map after episode 15.

Episode 15 Notes

I noticed mid-session that I was already back to complaining about the module text. 

Finally getting to the biggest most obvious landmark in the entire region and I'm excited for it. It also means we should be wrapping this up soon. I hate to make predictions because I always woefully underestimate but it seems like we've only a few more sessions to wrap this campaign up. Episode 1 was all the way back in August so it's taken longer than I'd have liked to reach this point.