Summary
CW: Harm to Children, Abusive Work Environment, Drunk and Disorderly, Capitalism and Greed, Genocide
It's a beach episode! The party faces off against followers of Cerithyss in order to free a spirit and help a crab. The crown continues to exploit the party for monetary gain. The party aquires new members, and a shocking discovery is made.
Synopsis
The party takes shelter from the storm and a group of hunting harpies as Crab explains the details of their mission. The old lighthouse in Shipwreck Cove is emitting a powerful, mysterious green light and is currently inhabited by an anchorite of Cerithyss, goddess of wreckage. This anchorite murdered Miraal, Crab’s sea elf master, and stole the seashell she used as a spellcasting focus. As a result of the theft, Miraal’s spirit is trapped on the beach and Crab has enlisted the party to help retrieve the shell and release his master from this plane.
On their way across a treacherous land bridge, the party is accosted by the harpies returning from their hunt. The groups exchange blows and the wounded harpies return to their nest in the lighthouse carrying their prey.
Entering the lighthouse, the party finds a room containing frescoes and a stone altar dedicated to Cerithyss. A lighting rod is embedded in the altar and ascends up through the rest of the tower. The party inspects the foreboding fixtures, but the first to touch the altar, Henry, is granted the Charm of Storms, a boon from Cerithyss giving him limited command of lightning for a time.
The sound of a squealing pig from higher up in the lighthouse draws the group’s attention. On their way up, the party reencounters the harpies. The group initiates combat with them, during which they discover an unconscious changeling child in their nest. They dispatch two of the harpies, leaving the third to flee. They heal the child, who remains unconscious, and Vincent takes charge of the young changeling as the group continues up to the top of the tower where they encounter the anchorite and a harpy matriarch enacting a mysterious ritual in the name of Cerithyss.
As the ensuing battle concludes, the party ascertains that the anchorite had offered their own heart inside Miraal’s seashell as a conduit to summon Cerithyss’ power. Once the ritual was stopped and the foes defeated, it was clear Cerithyss’ influence over this decrepit temple had diminished.
The party makes their way back to the beach to discover that it has been occupied by a retinue of royal guards accompanying Chewing Granby. After getting the all-clear from Crab and witnessing Miraal’s spirit make her departure, the party meets Granby, his unfairly treated pixie secretary Winnifred, and his human table Archibald to conclude their business.
After acquiring all of the party member’s signatures, Granby proclaims their nearly 60,000 gold in party funds restored only to promptly begin deducting over a years’ worth of back taxes, leaving the party in debt to the crown. Granby departs and the party sets up camp on the beach. During the night, mystery surrounds the child as the party members what is to become of this young one they’ve rescued. Fred returns to Henry, saying she quit her position working for Granby and wishes to travel with the group, which Henry immediately accepts. Then the group startles awake to find the child missing from their camp. They fan out to search for him, and he is found when they throw a rock at Vincent. Once the child’s fears about the group’s true intentions are more-or-less assuaged, he reveals to the group that they were deceived by the crown as to the nature of their recent mission in the mountains. They also discover that this child is the son of Vincent’s long-lost, presumed-dead-but-still-living lover, Jox.
Trivia/Notes
This session was orchestrated using the Tower or Storms quest written for the Dragon of Icespire Peak sourcebook.
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