From the Diary of Vin Icemark

Lavinia Vanderboren

Vanderboren Estate, Sasserine

My Dearest Lavinia

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to you for the many things you have done for me since the beginning of this voyage. The voyage has been difficult for me. The revelations about my heritage and the changes it brought, the constant squabbling on board the ship continually requiring a mediator, the dangers we have faced as well as the burden of the safety of the crew and passengers have taken much out of me.

I have been able to take great comfort in your company and find myself longing for your presence even now. I am continually amazed at your ability to refresh my weary spirit with a simple smile or your laugh. I truly look forward to spending much more time together once this journey is at an end.

I pray that you take comfort in the fact that the gifts you recently have entrusted to me will be used in enforcing the Justice of the Traveling God. The sword is the finest I have ever seen, and I am proud to carry the Vanderboren crest into the fray on my shield. It has already successfully protected me in battle! The sword will help me swiftly eliminate the evil before me on my quest to return to you. Saying I am grateful does not adequately express my gratitude.

Our ship is currently trapped in this Sargasso plague and I cannot say when I will see you gain. Faith tells me that we will quickly solve this distraction and resume our journey toward our destination and to you. For me, that day can not come too soon! A greater hand, however, sets our path, and places us where we are needed. Wherever I am, I look for ways to help and apply myself to my duty to you and the Traveling God until we are together again. That greater hand also placed us together at a time each of us needed, so I truly believe that is where I should be and I will be with you again in time.

That time feels as an eternity yet could seem as only a second once it has passed and I am with you once more. Until eternity passes and seems lost in a second of time, I await your presence….

Till I see you again

Your most humble and obedient servant

Vin IceMark

Paladin in service of the Traveling God

...Outsiders...

After more exploration, the party discovers that the Sargasso, known as 'The Journey's End' is alive. The vegetation is active, moving in some areas, and somewhere a creature called 'the Mother' lies at its heart.

The party is pressing frantically forward. The mists reduce visibility, and the distant moving forms remind everyone of the danger. Night falls unusually quick in the Sargasso, then the plant-ghosts make their move to drag the party into whatever hell they spawn. Faint whispers "...outsiders..." fill the mists.

The party discovers a change in the landscape. A mocking parody of nature, and in this area a ship not affected by the decay and rot . The Thunderer is a ship near the middle of the Sargasso, in reasonable shape, but deep into the flesh of seaweed. So deep in fact, it only rests 5 ft above the water line.

Inside the Thunderer, more foul plant-ghosts strike the party, calling forth the sargasso plants to strike out as well. The vines entangle everyone, making progress difficult. Can the party reach the mother in time? Or will the slow decay of the damp seaweed claim another prize?

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Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Rudolpho, Vin, Kongu, Ortho, Z
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 1200 gp in a chest

The Voyage Southward

Captain's Log, The Cresting Wave by Amella Venkalie 61 days out from Sasserine

After leaving the village of Renkrue, the fleet sails south to continue its journey to the Isle of Dread and the colony of Farshore.

4 days out from Renkrue, the fleet encounters the Pearl current. It is a strong current whose width and position vary as it traverses the ocean. With some effort, the Blue Nixie and the Vicious Spanking navigate through the current after three or four days. The Cresting Wave (formerly known as the Sea Wyvern) struggles with the current for nineteen days, putting ourselves far behind the the rest of the fleet.

23 days out from Renkrue, we finally reach the wild island of Ruja. Even the obnoxiously curious Urol doesn't have too much interest to explore there. They still decide to stop and explore anyway. With Urol ashore, and Avner gone the ship will be remarkably quiet. I wonder if Z is going to stay behind.

The shore party returns after a day. The silly half-orc has got himself a new shiny stick to pound things with. Maybe he'll leave the ballista alone for a while. Z stayed behind and we worked on updating the charts, I think I'll invite him to dinner.

4 days out from Ruja, the first real storm hits us. It is very bad. We had just gotten our navigation straightened out after the Pearl Current. Now the storm has tossed us about. It may take us a day or two to regain our bearings.

8 days out from Ruja, we run aground in the largest Sargasso I have ever heard of. It is called 'The Journey's End' and I fear the worst. We are half-a-mile into the sargasso, there appears to be no way to break free from its grip. The shore party has left to go explore a nearby wreck.

9 days out from Ruja, grim news from the shore party. There are fell creatures that inhabit this place. A log from the other ship revealed a driving intelligence behind the minions of the sargasso. The shore party is leaving to explore more wrecks and try to find a way out.

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Session Characters: Nesta, Daria, Vin, Chiri, Ortho, Ruddy
Session XP: TBD
Session Loot: 2000 gp of newly minted coins, 2000 sp of newly minted coins, a family heirloom falchion of the Milano's.

From the Diary of Ortho

Ortho's Diary entry 1,

I have been sent along on a journey to keep an eye on Avner. Lavinia expected he would meet with trouble on the voyage because of his demeanor. She was right as usual. Some of the crew developed a dislike for him immediately and treated him badly. It is my job to see that Avner makes it to his destination alive and I had to keep my purpose secret to succeed. In the last town a couple of our crew began looting and turned on Avner. They thought they had killed him but I managed to rescue him from a burning building and sneak him to one of the other buildings where he was tended to by a village healer. I remained on the ship with Rudolpho and Daria to monitor their behavior and to keep them from being suspicious of Avner's survival. I deplore working with these barbarians but they are tools I must use to reach my goal.

I will confide in Vin Icemark if I require assistance. He appears to be smitten with Lavinia however and I will remain distant to monitor his behavior till I'm assured he has no ulterior motives.

May the Fates see this journey to an end soon.

From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano

Dear Diary,

I hate losers. We just happened to find a whole town full of them on the island of Axuxal. I forget the real name of the place but that’s OK, I call it Loserville. We stopped at Loserville to replenish supplies and do some shopping only to find out that the broke losers had nothing worthwhile to sell and no money to buy any of our excess loot.

Daria, Avner, and a few other members of the crew decided to stay in town to hang out and relax but I decided I didn’t want anything to do with the losers there so I stayed on board the ship to have a couple mugs of my magic butt beer and update my diary. I ‘m glad that Avner and Daria have finally learned to get along. I really want that guy to amount to something when we get him back to his family in Sasserine. We can always use all the allies we can get.

Damn! I hear some clamor coming from town now. Gotta go see what it’s about.

-R

==========

Dear Diary,

Rest in peace, Avner.

Wouldn’t you know it, late in the afternoon I ran up on the prow to see what’s going on in Loserville, and I see a huge band of losers, led by the loser chief himself, accosting poor Daria and Avner. Without even aiming, I quickly fired a warning ballista shot into the mob and jumped off the ship.

By the time I swam to shore and ran up the beach to the town center, some loser had killed poor Avner and set his body on fire. That made me REALLY MAD. What’s more, when I began to get close, a woman summoned up one of those damn pickled gremlins. I recognized her as Rowyn of the Lotus Dragons. I thought we were working for her and here she is attacking Daria!

I moved in to help Daria with the gremlin and she stepped back to catch her breath. I split that pickled snotball in two about the same time that Kongu got to the scene. With Nesta picking off losers right and left, they decided to retreat with their dead chief.

Rowyn cast a spell and turned invisible! Everyone called to the ship for Nesta, the newly minted manhunter, to come track her.

I was still plenty pissed and in my berserker rage so I charged the town hall and burst apart the door. From outside I heard Kongu yell “A funeral fit for a king!” Of course at that time, I had no idea what he was talking about. There were three more losers inside the town hall so I killed them before I sat down to catch my breath. Getting that pissed off always gets me a little winded.

As I stepped outside to sit down and rest, I noticed for the first time that several buildings, including the tavern, were on fire. Avner’s body was inside the tavern burning amidst all the alcohol. I heard screams of terror and pain coming from some of the houses. That cheered me up a little bit I guess.

I didn’t see Daria or Nesta anywhere but Kongu was making his way to the town hall. He didn’t waste any time; he walked in grabbed two crates, threw them up on his shoulders, and began walking back to the Cresting Wave. That kid learns fast. I was still taking my well-deserved break when I heard the war drums and the shouting of what must have been hundreds of losers.

Now, most folks would have taken that as an invitation to leave while they were ahead - but not this pirate. Nope, I was still in a piss-ass mood and I figured that I needed to kill a lot more losers before my mood would improve any. No one kills my buddy Avner and gets away with it.

No one else was around to help me but I figured that I could probably fight as I retreated back to the ships and come out OK. As the war party finally closed the distance to hand to hand combat, I came up with a plan: I would keep my cool and fight in a doorway so that I would only have to fight two or three losers at a time. When the time came to retreat, I would exit through the back wall.

When I began to battle the losers, I noticed that they had the toughest losers up front. I started combat with them and got a couple of nicks from their spears. I even got hit with a couple of thrown rocks. That really pissed me off but I still kept my cool.

Then, out of nowhere, Rowyn appeared and tried to backstab me like those punk kids in the back alleys of Sasserine do. She didn’t know who she was dealing with! I pivoted out of the way in time but still got nicked me with her blade. The wound really burned - I figure she put some poison on her dagger. THAT made me finally lose my cool.

Then, the strangest thing happened. I had a moment where everything was suddenly clear to me. You know, when all the ropes and pulleys in your brain finally catch. Rowyn was the one that unleashed the first pickled gremlin on the Sea Wyvern. Rowyn was the one that cut the rope connecting our two ships. Rowyn was the one that killed Kongu’s fish. Rowyn was the one that poisoned my food! Now I had a new plan: kill Rowyn at all costs.

I flew into a berserker rage and swung at Rowyn but she avoided most of the blow and I only wounded her. As I parried her clumsy attack and got ready to cleave her in two, it started raining flecks of gold! I couldn’t see shit! I took my best swing at where Rowyn was last standing and was rewarded with a warm spray of blood that I could feel on my face. I pried my falchion from her corpse and stepped back into the doorway to defend myself until I could see again.

I could hear the voices of Kongu & Z then so I figured that everything would be OK. Before too long, I heard the voices of Daria and Vin also. Finally, everyone was joining in on the fun! I fought even while I was blinded but I did a lot better when my vision cleared. I also saw Nesta picking off losers from the deck of the Cresting Wave.

Kongu, for some reason, was offering them mercy. Mercy? After what they did to Avner? I don’t think so! That Knogu is a killing machine. For a little while I actually worried that he might get to kill more losers than I did. I really need to work on my fighting technique. A few of the losers retreated but the rest of them fought to the death. Suckers.

Like I said, my first plan was to kill every last one of the losers but killing Rowyn had really improved my mood so it didn’t seem so important after all. Besides I didn’t want to spend all that time tracking the losers down. I grabbed some loot out of the town hall and began walking back to the dinghies. Someone set the town hall on fire, and just for kicks, before we left, I changed their little sign to read ‘Loserville’.

I didn’t get any info on Maria or my pa from these losers! Maybe on the way back through, we can stop for a couple of days so I can kill everyone. Or, maybe, Avner’s family will pay me to do it when they hear what these primitives did to him.

I gotta hand it to Lavina. When she’s right, she’s right. That was a very relaxing shore leave. I feel much better.

Bye, Avner. I miss you, buddy.

-R

From the Diary of Rudolpho Milano

Dear Diary,

Boy have I had a bad couple of days. The one good part is that Z and Cheri were able to cure my sandy condition with some kind of magic scroll and a bead. After that, things went to shit as usual.

Our crap-delivery mission continues to piss me off with every minute that I spend on this damn ship. I want to get back to Sasserine so I can get my damn adamantine falchion.

The other day we had to make a run through the pirate-infested waters of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Lavinia's brilliant suggestion was to slip through one at a time. That sounded just fine and dandy to me. I figured we could wait for the Sea Nymph to go on ahead and then turn our ship around to head home. But nooo! Gallant Sir Vin convince everyone to keep the two ships together in order to fight off any attacking pirates. I’m all for pirate-killing I guess but now we’re still stuck with Lavinia on this mission.

Since we were going to try to slip through at night, I decided to try to take advantage of the fact that most pirates are a superstitious lot. We painted the name of the ghost ship, the Cresting Wave on the Sea Wyvern to spook the Scarlet Brotherhood. I figured the Cresting Wave would have a fair amount of legend behind it and no-one would dare attack us. As usual, I was completely wrong.

As we made our way through the straight, we were attacked by two pirate ships, the Purity’s Prow and the Whaler. That was the strangest ship battle that I have ever been involved in. I didn’t get to do much. I think I fired the bow ballista a couple of times.

We started off with Z launching a huge-ass exploding ball of flames at the Whaler. As the crew ran around like trying like hell to put out the fire, our captain ordered our ship to turn about and make ready to ram. Nesta picked individual sailors off of the deck of the Purity’s Prow with her longbow. She made a game out of alternately offing whoever was brave enough to man the wheel and plunking arrows into the captain with lethal accuracy.

As we made our turn, that silly wizard that we picked up cast some sort of spell that filled our sails with the fastest wind I’ve ever sailed in. I’ve never traveled that fast in a ship, ever! There wasn’t much left of the Whaler after we rammed her. We turned about again to go after the Purity’s Prow and starting to think that finally I’ll get to do some hand to hand killing when the boat just up and surrenders to us.

I boarded first to make sure that I didn’t recognize any of the crew as the pirates that tossed me overboard a couple of years ago. Luckily for them, I didn’t recognize them. None of them had any news of me pa, Antonio or that bitch Maria. Spanky took command of the ship and promptly rechristened it the Vicious Spanking. That guy has issues.

Shortly thereafter, we were replenishing our water at a waterfall when we were attacked by a seven-headed sea-dragon. My dull falchion didn’t even penetrate its tough hide. Luckily we killed the beast and spent the rest of the day diving for treasure. There was a handful of sunken ships lying on the ocean floor there. All of ‘em were all busted up and it was pretty obvious what done it. I couldn’t make out any of the ship names. Ah, well. The losers shoulda’ fought harder.

Sometimes I wonder if something like that has happened to my own sweet pa, Antonio Milano. Then again I also sometimes like to fart underwater just to watch the bubbles. I gotta remember to ask around for Antonio or Maria at the next spot of civilization we come to.

That brings me to my last incident to report. A couple of days before the fight with the dragon, we got to Fort Greenlock, where I was hoping to do some asking around - or maybe even get Vin ‘everyone-loves-me’ Icemark to do it for me while the captains took on more provisions. Unfortunately for everyone, Fort Greenlock has been abaondoned.

There appears to have been an attack, although there were no bodies. Yep, a genuine mystery. As mysteries really bore me, I was quite relieved that Vin didn’t open his big blue mouth and get everyone stomping through the forest an a big loser-hunt.

Lavinia says that we will soon enough come to the peaceful village of Renkrue on the island of Axuxal. She suggests that we can make a short stay there to relax. That sounds good to me. I can’t wait to do some shopping, drinking, asking around, and just plain relaxing someplace other than this damn boat. Yep, I’m sure looking forward this stop.

-R