Pitmuck Pirate Invasion

Pitmuck Island

February 7, 2015

By Riyana

Rumors of an impending attack on the island of goblins had been circulating for some time, and the notorious Holly Bloodhand herself had been spotted sailing toward Pitmuck. On Saturday, February 7th at 8PM EST, citizens from all over Sosaria gathered in the Vesper Auction House and Tavern to form a defense force and hopefully intercept Bloodhand before she could reach the island.

The group quickly traveled to a boat near Pitmuck, the captain of which claimed to know Bloodhand’s exact location.

However, an interception was not to be: before ever spotting Bloodhand OR Pitmuck, a Scalis Enforcer appeared! They hastily sailed on to Pitmuck, where they could form a solid defense against the Scalis, and no sooner had they defeated it than Bloodhand sailed up and boldly stepped off the ship to taunt the crowd.

Oddly, she was alone–the rumored fleet was nowhere to be seen. When asked where her fleet was, she had a peculiar answer:

Then she did something even more peculiar: she threw mysterious bottles at the defenders.

She then summoned a harbinger and sailed around the island while the defenders defeated it. Upon its defeat they followed her once more… to find a strange sight. What appeared to be an intact ship’s hold jutted out of the ground as if forced up through the earth. Bloodhand, clearly enjoying herself, made a few cryptic remarks about her so-called uncle, a mage known for his incredibly powerful translocation magics, having put it there for her… and that he could take it away.

And take it away he apparently did. The hold disappeared, and out poured well over a dozen rune beetles. Holly crowed on about how these were matured Pitmuck pinworms (perhaps all that remained of some of her missing crew?) as the pheromones she’d doused everyone with earlier drove the creatures into a frenzy.

She left the ship a few more times, leading the defenders on a wild chase around the island into two more harbingers and dozens of treasure guardians. It seemed almost as though she was toying with them. Then suddenly, she announced that she had what she’d come for. She sailed away, leaving the defenders confused.

The answer came quickly. A woman from Nujel’m hurried up to the crowd, out of breath and distraught. She reported dire news indeed: while Pitmuck was being defended, Nujel’m had been overrun by pirates! The group quickly made their way to Nujel’m to find that, indeed, a number of pirates had taken up residence in the city. They found Bloodhand again just before she sailed away, supposedly for a victory drink with her uncle.

Fortunately, many of the defenders were quite familiar with her “uncle”, and had even secured his current location beforehand just in case. They quickly regrouped and headed off in pursuit. Indeed, he was not far at all from Nujel’m…

Corgul the Soulbinder, or “Uncle Corgul” as Bloodhand calls him, put up quite a fight, but he was no match for the defenders. Unfortunately Bloodhand either never bothered to have that drink with Corgul, or her taunting words were just another misdirection–she was nowhere to be found.

It was also later discovered that she in fact had made away from Pitmuck with a large supply of ice cream, ostensibly when the defenders were under heavy opposition from her strange army of creatures. 

So the good news: save for the plundering of its ice cream stores, Pitmuck is safe. No permanent damage appears to have been done, and the island is free of pirates.

The bad news: the attack on Pitmuck was only a diversion, and now Nujel’m appears to be under Bloodhand’s control.

What is going on with these “Pitmuck pinworms” and the strange pheromones Bloodhand cooked up? What is she doing in Nujel’m? What will she do next? And what of the ice cream–could this be related to the ice cream theft in Jhelom? Only time will tell, so keep your eyes and ears open!

An Icy Investigation Part Deux

Jhelom

January 29th, 2015

Governor Scabby put out a call to arms, as he continued the investigation into the mysterious icy patches and moongate. It did not take long for a motley crew of roughnecks to descend on to the Hand of Death Guild Hall in Jhelom.

As the menacing group awaited the arrival of the Governor of Jhelom, they played a rousing game of Duck-Duck-Goose! 

Governor Scabby arrived shortly after and got everyone into place, He started barking out orders of the soon to be raid on Ice Dungeon looking for clues about the mysterious happenings.

As the rowdy group was preparing to leave, they suddenly found themselves under siege by a group of unknown arctic creatures. 

The deadly fight quickly headed towards the mysterious moongate. The arctic creatures put on a valiant fight but were eventually defeated.

The exhausted group gathered at the moongate to regroup and catch their breath. It was there that they noticed that the gate had changed. It seemed alive yet gave off an icy cold aura, almost as if it were oozing death itself. As they looked for clues, they came across a book that had a strange an eerie sentence written inside. “All Hail the Arctic Tyrant” As Governor Scabby read aloud the cryptic message, he was suddenly transported from Jhelom to another area. After a quick recon, they found that they were outside Ice Dungeon, the very place that they had been about to raid. The coincidence was not missed by Governor Scabby and he quickly order his defenders inside the dungeon.

Once inside they quickly found a clue, it was a page torn our of a book!

After seeing the fiendish claw marks, they decided to head to the heart of the dungeon. Rumor has it that the a fiendish creature lives there and they needed to find out for sure. They battled their way through countless creatures and finally made it to the area they were looking for. Little did they know that the Ice Fiend had company!

After dispatching, the Ice Fiends and other creatures, the Arctic Ice Tyrant showed his face again and attacked the weary group. They put up a valiant fight and vanquished him with a vengeance! They started to explore the remainder of the rooms looking for clues when they came across something very strange. It was an ice cream recipe book owned by the Jhelom Ice Creem Shoppe located at the docks on the N/E side of the main island.

As they pondered on how and why it was removed from the ice cream shoppe. they were startled by the sudden appearance of another creature, the Glacial Lich. He let them know that he would never return the book and that they would suffer. As he disappeared, he left a small army of unfrozen mummies to keep the adventurers busy.

The worn out band of adventurers returned to Jhelom and decided to rest at the scene of the crime, the Ice Cream Shoppe. After recapping the events, they deduced that the Glacial Lich had stolen the recipe book from the Ice Cream Shoppe. They discovered that Governor Scabby had obtained the book from a wandering gypsy in Minoc who gave it to him in return for rotten food. It was also brought to light that the freezer had been designed and built by a tinker from Trinsic who had obtained the ice for the freezer directly from Ice Dungeon itself. Governor Scabby has pledged to find this gypsy by asking Governor Vic II of Minoc to assist. He and Governor Phoenix of Trinsic will attempt to locate and interrogate the tinker that had designed and built the freezer.

On a side note, it was commented  on that the cobblestone in Ice Dungeon was in much better shape than the loosely fitted stones that pass for pavement in Britain, Travelers in Britain beware!

Chesapeake Governor’s Council Meeting

Blackthorn’s Castle Council Room

January 18th, 2015 6:00 pm EST

The Chesapeake Governor’s Council Meeting started out like any other, the King discussed ongoing issues in the Kingdom, the governor’s discussed events in their cities, onlookers looked on with keen interest or slept noisily. When all of a sudden, out of thin air, black specters appeared. They were quickly dispatched by the governors and onlookers. While the King and governors discussed the incident, trying to figure out how they got through the magic enchantment defenses, an unknown figure appeared. The King recognized the voice and was distraught on the implications.

The unknown stranger moved dangerously close to the King!! The governors quickly surrounded him in a defensive posture, hoping to protect him from danger.

The King soon discovered that he was correct on who the voice sounded like…Nystul!!

Nystul’s image faded in and out as he spoke, at one point he assumed the form of a former man named David. King Blackthorn tried desperately to keep Nystul from fading, even working some magic of his own.

As quickly as he appeared and in the same manner, he disappeared in a huge flash of flames and  a loud explosion!

The King and governors are left with many questions as they try and ponder what happened and the message Nystul was trying to convey. Hopefully we will learn more at next month’s Chesapeake Governor’s Council Meeting.