Malta Session 9: 10/10/2017 Return to Malta, Renaming of the Bonded Mind, and Blue's Appreciation

We begin this week's session on the morning of Day 9 as our characters sail the recovered GemCutter up to the White Lightning, the ship that brought us to Fungus Rock; as this occurs some of us notice the weather beginning to take a turn for the worse just as some of us notice the avian life begin to fly about agitated and noisy. On the White Lightning, Valcrum’s compatriots reveal they’ve occupied themselves have gathered some cindermoss in our absence as gratitude for us taking them on as ship hands. Our characters are appreciative and eventually store it away from the gunpowder on the GemCutter. We agree to drop Valcrum and his traveling companions along the shores on the way back to Malta.

After we affix the White Lightning to the GemCutter, our characters agree to stay near Fungus Rock until early afternoon to use the tide to take us out to sea, during this time we hear cannon fire from the far end of Fungus Rock. During this time Lex works with the cannons to become more familiar with their operation; Lete and Carlo continue to train together; however soon a short storm descends and alters the sand banks around us affecting many other stuck ships- freeing some and shifting others. In the Crows next Jabari sees a two mast galleon in the distance that turns out to be pirates that just waves us on. This prompts us to be on our seafaring way.

Gillman

After an hour of sailing back to Malta we see smoke emanating from a sinking ship along our route as well as several bodies in the sea. Pulling two men in we see they are gillmen with obvious burns. Carlo attends to them with the healing skill and feels waves of a headache when Carlo touches the gillman. Gillman regards Carlo akin to the fabled boogey man. At this time Jabari retrieves Gagnyon  for help in tending to his kin and even Gagnyon  stops short when he finally sees Carlo who is still reeling from claustrophobia and horrible alien feelings; then Carlo finally realizes he is connected to the gillmen somehow. Marco hears Gagnyon say to himself. “so that’s what would have been.” And Lete detects a hint of jealousy from the gillman. 

Before Gagnyon departs he states that he only works for ‘them’ he is not 'with' them (those he was encountered traveling with). We warn them to stay away from the Egyptians. Gagnyon expresses his gratitude for his freedom and departs with the two injured gillman. 

Soon we approach the sinking ship the “Barkley”; our characters see the ship is flying the Dellimara family colors while keeping our eyes open for more survivors. Our characters lower a long boat in an attempt to salvage something from the Barkley and to look for unconscious survivors. It is not long before we pull an unconscious tiefling and a half-elf survivor who are both exhausted. Eventually we see a gillman in the water who indicates more survivors; we are eventually save 20 individuals.

**Dellimara Island: There is something about the Dellimara family, the Maltese people don't speak of it however its there.  Somehow even though they have lived there for as long as most people could remember, they weren't viewed as original islanders.  The island itself is very small, consisting of a large manor, a tower, temple and a small dock.  The manor strangely built, the walls end in uneven angles that create optical illusions that people find difficult to gaze upon for longer than a moment. Some sailors claim that besides the Dellimara family that resides in the manor there is a druid that maintains a grove on the island.

Meanwhile Lex and the rest of the characters, with the help of an Aspect of the Dolphin and dancing lights spell, check the hold of the sinking “Barkley” for valuables. Eventually we find an area of magical darkness hiding mysterious coffins and a sarcophagus; detecting magic reveals the source of the magical darkness as well as the sarcophagus as well as afore mentioned the coffins.  Our characters focus on retrieving other magical items: a crate containing 3 ivory crafted boxes with Egyptian symbols that contain magic within; Lex identifies them as Egyptian funerary items for the family of the deceased. We take 21 masterwork boxes as well as the three containing the unseen magic.

Jabari now looks for captains logs, maps and charts in the Barkley and retrieves maps and charts however when he finds the first mates room he discovers a 200 lb. solid gold Egyptian statue of Anubis. Our characters also find most any gear or alchemical gear of 50 gp or less on the ship as well as spare sails for repairs. At about this time Valcrum and his cohorts depart with a long boat recovered earlier.

The shared story from the tiefling and a possible half-elf survivors is that they are hired crew from Egypt to somewhere here, one of the Rocks; however our characters observe none of them are Egyptian. Our characters put them on the White Lightning for our return home. We are sure to plot this location again for a future return (i.e. the location of the coffins, sarcophagus, and the undead that surely reside within.)

Eventually we arrive to the active docks in Paola and are surprised how easy it is to dock with proper identification including paying the dock protection of 2 gold a day- we pay for three days protection (dock fees are already paid). No inconveniences are made, however we do alert them of the 22 rescued individuals on the White Lightning. Our characters send word to the church of the survivors and when we do our characters find that the night brings out the merfolk as it is easy to hide their exotic heritage.

We use the White Lightning as our temporary base and move our retrieved items there exhausting Jabari’s wand of unseen servant. 21 ivory masterwork boxes contains  10,000 gp in valuables (1,666 each); one box contains an extravagant divine wand of air bubble (38 charges) rumored to be rechargeable; another ivory box holds damaged magical winged boots (broken); the third contains two wands, one divine wand of CLW (50 charges), and the other is an arcane Egyptian rechargeable 1^st level empty wand (can be recharged 4 times). Along with these funerary items are ceremonial maps of the river Styx and Egypt. This takes about three hours go through and by midnight a couple of priests of Poseidon which Jabari (a follower of) welcomes aboard. At this time Jabari tithes 200 for food and rum to be delivered to the White Lightning; Carlo tithes as well. Lex and Lete plan on tithing in person tomorrow.

We eventually set watches and rest on the White Lightning and awake the 10^th day of our adventure- a Thursday- set to welcome new business on Saturday the day of New Business Day.

Aulus Daquaretti

The next day Lex and Lete depart for the Seven Churches and the church of Mercury as food and rum is loaded to the White Lightning. When the two arrive we are given looks and are mistaken for someone else but are eventually directed to the Priest of Mercury who is nowhere to be seen as of yet. Lete and Lex head to his home, concerned for Aulus. And when there is no answer we return to the church testifying that he did not answer. Lete and Lex tithe the usual amount.

While out and about Lete and Lex head to Wassier’s ranch to report our return, when we do we pass Garamaldi’s and see Aulus and after a brief conversation find out that he wasn’t at the church at all- and is uneasy with the news that he was seen to have had an argument with Lete and Lex not long ago. Aulus says he was at Garamaldis in regards to the burglary and admits there has been interest in our characters from the beginning. After an exchange of information Aulus departs for the church and Lex and Lete depart for Wassier.

When we arrive Wassier we see him interacting with his son about something. We approach and report our job competed. Wassier calls for 'Country Strong' Alex as Wassier wishes to return to the docks with us. As the two characters walk we discuss how we came to free the Gleeful Skipper and who also came to claim the ship. We also ask the status of the White Lightning and it so happens since there was a bloodshead and rival pirate group, Wassier offers the White Lightning to us- pending renaming and relocating.

Arriving Wassier and Country Strong Alex board the Gleeful Skipper/GemCutter to inspect the ship; Jabari accompanies them happily (looking for anything our characters overlooked when we first searched the GemCutter) but is professionally balked.

We indicate to our dock contacts a new location of our new ship the White Lightning for at least a week including security for the amount of 50 gp. We are sent to a smaller section on the north side, technically outside Paola. We agree to rename the White Lighting the Bonded Mind and are kept busy through the noon hour. Marco, Lete and Lex see Country Strong Alex walking away from our new dock area. For the rest of the day Jabari preps the ship for renaming; Marco, Lex, and Lete prepare to haul the barrel of cindermoss for delivery to the alchemist; and Carlo begins his meditation practices.

Moving to Paola Marco, Lex and Lete hear bard callers announcing visiting Circus Sciortino. Marco knows this name as a family of swordsmen and gladiators; Lete knows them as the ‘Heels of Sciortino’ as dirty trick gladiators. They are expected to arrive in a week with public events the following week.

We soon arrive at Blue’s alchemist who seems excited at our return with all the plants and cinder moss. A random roll plus a 1^st level potion and an alchemical item up to 200 gp is extended as payment for our services. 2 Scrolls 3^rd, 2^nd, 1^st level arcane spell CL5 (Jabari); +1 weapon (Marco); +1 armor, +1 special ability (Lete); +1 weapon (Lex); even Evagara gains an item. Blue refers a calligraphy professor Mithna (middle aged women/exotic- half-elf?) that can engrave names on items but he is anxious to get to work and sets us hastily upon our way.

Evagara

While along the open mall at the College, we look to for paint for renaming the White Lightning as well as Professor Mithna to have names engraved on some magical items and Marco and Evagara head to the clothier to pick up their formal items. Lex heads to Garamaldis.

At Mithna’s the Professor is impressed at the display of magic and states we actually want her daughter Melissa Mithna. When Melissa arrives she offers to research the item and will happily engrave ‘Sure Step’ upon Lete's enchanted chain shirt- to be completed in two days. Lete offers 20 gold for the commission and then introduces her to Marco who gives her the silver rapier with ‘VH’ engraved upon it for her to research. She indicates that research will take a week.

Meanwhile Carlo meditates then practices his abilities and is able to piece together his contact with the gillman; their race and Carlo are ‘related’ that the aboleth was attempting to transform him into a gillman- a race created.

As this occurs Lete and Lex head to Garamaldi’s to inquire about the recent impersonations. Garamaldi states that a disguise like ones that impersonated us and Aulus seems to indicate Tengu involvement. Lex thinks that a secret phrase will be necessary from here on out; Lete comes up with ‘bonded mind’ to guarantee Garamaldi is who he states he is because from the moment we have arrived there has been interest in our group. There was a staged confrontation and Aulus is in danger. Garamaldi says he is going to make some inquiries and will want to speak to Aulus over this now. Lex says make sure you know it’s him. Garamaldi states that if it comes to it he will give our characters an alibi. Lex asks where to begin looking for Tengu and he is revered to Zallas. After that everyone returns to the Bonded Mind at 4 in the afternoon.