20th Day of Reaping, 580 CY - The party investigates the Temple Ruins in Highport

This week, as freed men, the party (who have decided that without Sir Gerard, they will just be called the Badass Motherfuckers, for reasons. . .) had two basic choices. Return to Greyhawk as originally planned, even though it's been more than a year since they departed for the Well of All Heals, or be the badasses that they know they are, and take vengeance on the Slave Lords. Okay, it wasn't really a choice. The party was pretty emotionally invested at this point, and definitely decided they were going to be the ones to end the rule of the Slave Lords once and for all. For Sarril, who was born into slavery, and Pontus, who had spent more time than he cared to rowing a boat for cruel masters, this was personal. For everyone else, it was a matter of principal. And so, after visiting an herbalist to stock up on what spell components they could, the Badass Motherfuckers headed to the Highport temple ruins just outside of town.

The party decided to wait until nightfall, then have Sarril's familiar, Krek, along with Cadwin in bat form, fly over the temple and to scout. They discovered that, in addition to the main gated entrance, there was another set of doors along the side, as well as two courtyards (a garden and a cemetery). After some brief planning, they decided to have Luapan levitate them over the wall and into the cemetery. Cadwin, ever in-tune with nature, sensed something was wrong. They party soon discovered that gloomy trees and bushes had a mind of their own, and began twisted, turning and growing to block the party's path in every direction they went. Cadwin's attempts to use his druid magic to manipulate the vegetation failed, leading the party to believe something was in control and it likely was coming from the crypt in the center of the cemetery. And so they hacked their way through to the doors and broke them down, finding a stairwell leading down into the darkness.

The end of the stairwell led to a narrow dirt tunnel that lead in a couple of directions. After the tunnel became impassable in one direction, the party turned around and headed the other way, where they came into contact with three insect men (Aspis) dual-wielding halberds with their four arms. Jarrus, ever the fighting beast, was able to easily dispatch these, but not before they screeched an alarm to alert the others. Pushing forward down the tunnel, with Pontus in the lead, they came into a larger cavern where four more of the creatures were waiting, along with several giant ants. As Pontus pushed forward into the room, he set off a trap that caught him in a sticky net, reducing his ability to fight and getting him further caught the more he tried to swing his sword. The narrow tunnel was making it impossible for everyone to get to the front, so Jarrus and Pontus switched places so Jarrus could take care of the Aspis. Unfortunately, Jarrus was taking a lot of damage, and quickly. Although the party now has three healers (two clerics and a druid), they could not get to Jarrus as giant ants emerged from a side tunnel, cutting them off from the rest of the party. Jarrus soon when down.

Not our party - but you get the idea

Seeing Jarrus drop from negative hit points, and the Aspis warriors about to chop his body into pieces, Pontus heroically jumped in-between Jarrus and his enemies, exposing his back to the creatures who landed multiple halberd blows that reduced even the barbarian's substantial hit points to near zero. With four more aspis coming to the fight (these wielding dual broadswords and dual shields), things were looking grim. Still caught up in the sticky net, Pontus wrapped his arms around

Our house rules state that if a character is knocked unconscious from zero or less hit points, but not killed, they need to recover half of their hit point total before they can be functional again. Jarrus is the party's "glass cannon." He deals a lot of offensive damage, but has relatively low hit points for a fighter (he is the exact opposite of Pontus - so they have learned to operate as a pair). The good news in this case is that it doesn't take a lot of healing to get Jarrus back in action, which happened in short order.
Jarrus, who was also now stuck to him, and dived back into the tunnel to the ground, protecting his brother in arms while Sarril stepped up and cast Boccob's Rolling Thunder to blast away the remaining Aspis in the room. He didn't killed them, but he severely wounded all of them, and stunned a few, buying the party a couple of rounds. In the meantime, Cadwin cast a hold on one of the giant ants and Luapan absorbed an attack to push past the ant and start healing Jarrus.

The party then worked on cutting Pontus and Jarrus free of the net, and decided to have Pontus keep the ants from the side tunnel at bay while Jarrus goes toe-to-toe with the Aspis warriors, backed by healers behind him. The strategy worked, and soon they cleared the room.

Being that there was nothing of obvious interest in the room, and the party was wounded and out of spells, they decided to retreat for the day. Unfortunately, there was no safe place to go. They finally decided to "make camp" on the landing of the stairs, half-way up to the crypt. For the rest of the evening, the party had to constantly fight giant ants coming up from below, and a wave after wave of ghouls coming down from above. The exit was completely blocked by thick vines, which seemed to move aside to let the ghouls through. Fortunately, neither the ants nor the ghouls were much of a match for Jarrus, who decided he would not sleep and would just stay up to protect the party (he is a half-elf, so needs less sleep than humans anyway). This strategy worked to give the party a rest and recover spells, then it was off to races again. . .

The party decided to go a different direction this time, and followed another tunnel path north until they came to an opening into a room down below. The large room contained a circular moat, where ten orcs with crossbows stood at the ready, below them was a man in leather armor, surrounded by several giant weasels. This certainly looked interesting, and it was time to stop for the day. It was late afternoon on the 21st day of Reaping, 580 CY.

4th Day of Richfest (Midsummer's Day), 580 CY - Freedom!

After putting down the brief slave rebellion, Captain Garana seized control of his ship, putting the crew to work repairing the hole and punishing the remaining, living rebels. Mysteriously, two ogres appeared on the ship to replace the overseers. The ogres carried large mauls and definitely meant business. The captain also seemed to replace a few of his officers, and himself acquired an eyepatch and appeared to have suffered some severe burns on at least his left arm (that anyone could see). To ensure the remaining slaves did not rebel again, Pontus had each of his fingers broken and his hands tied to the oars with leather straps, while Sarril had his tongue cut out. With order restored, the captain began rowing the ship, albeit very slowly, across the middle of the Nyr Dyv.

It was now the week of Richfest, in midsummer, something the old blind druid, Cadwin, was very aware of. The entire week of Richfest is sacred amongst those who still practice the Old Faith of the ancient Flan. Somewhere in the Flanaess, druid circles were performing powerful rituals designed to maintain the balance - but Cadwin had more important things on his mind. Searching for a cure for the Red Death brought him to Elredd, where he was captured by the slave lords. Keeping a low profile, he would not let on that he was a druid, or that he could shapeshift into a bat and fly away at any time. These slavers were onto something, and the alchemist who was recently brought on-board from Safeton may have had important information. Unfortunately, Cadwin was unable to learn much from the man before one of the newcomers, Pontus that barbarian, killed the alchemist in a botched attempt at escaping. For now, Cadwin just needed to bide his time until the ship docks again, whenever that would be.

The 4th Day of Richfest is on Godsday, the middle of the week, and is also known as Midsummer's Day - the exact middle of the year. The evening of Midsummer is also the only time of the year that Oerth's two moons, Celene and Luna, are both full at the same time, which is important to cleric's of most faiths, druids and mages alike. The evening of Midsummer is the time when many great

historical events have taken place, miracles and catastrophes alike. And so it was, on the day of Midsummer, the boat waited in the water - rowing only occasionally to counter drift. And that evening, as both moons became full in the sky, the waters rumbled and the ship shook violently. Up from the sea rose a mass of land, pushing the ship up and out of the water, and turning it on its side. Many of the slaves were tossed about and injured - some even killed in the process, but the captain was not concerned. He gathered a few of his crew and left the ship and was not seen again until morning, when he had the overseers load something into the hold of the ship. And as the sun rose, the land mass sunk back under the sea as quickly as it came.

The captain, presumably having obtained what he was looking for, sent the ship immediately back south, down the Selintan River, into the Wooly Bay and back toward Highport. The journey would take another three weeks in total, during which time Cadwin tried to learn everything he could. To call him truly blind would not be entirely accurate, as Cadwin had an uncanny sense of hearing and smell, which, when combined with his high wisdom, made him able to see many things that others could not. Cadwin was able to learn much about the newcomers - the party of Hartsbane, and realized that, despite their impulsive actions, were trying to do good in fighting against the slavers. He decided to share with Sarril that Luapan was still alive, and assisting the captain in finding whatever it was that he was looking for - possibly under some sort of charm, and that the captain had kept his word to resurrect any dead party members, having resurrected Jarrus, who was recovering in a cell on the upper deck. The captain could only resurrect one party member, and so Sir Gerard was gone for good, his body tossed to the fishes. He also informed Sarril that they would have the best opportunity to escape when the ship docked at Highport, as the captain and most of the guards are usually busy unloading cargo during that time.

Sure enough, when the ship docked, the captain, most of the crew and the overseers began unloading cargo and took up positions along the dock. They secured all of the slaves in their shackles first, to prevent escape, but that did not stop Cadwin, who was able to transform into a bat and get out. At the same time, Jarrus, who had been pretending to still be in an extremely weakened state after his resurrection, received a note slipped in with meal that said "Go Now!" And so he escaped. He and Cadwin met up and managed to get Sarril and Pontus and Luapan free, then jumped over the side of the ship opposite the dock - but not before grabbing the chest from the captain's quarters. Jarrus put on the Helm of Underwater Action that the captain had is in quarters and walked with the chest underwater until he reached an empty dock further down the pier where the party agreed to meet. There wasn't much equipment in the chest, but there was some money, enough for the party to get themselves outfitted at a basic level.

Highport, like all cities on the Wild Coast, was once a thriving city built on trade, but since the Pomarj hoards and Slavelord have swept through, is now mostly abandoned buildings. That makes five escaped slaves trying to hide much easier. The party took refuge in the first abandoned building they could find, and started making plans. The first thing they did was sent Cadwin out to find a locksmith, which didn't take too long. After agreeing a fee to both remove the shackles and to keep quiet about it, the party was now free. But despite paying for his silence, and even charming him for good measure, the party did not feel safe now that they have been seen, and so the next morning, they moved on to another warehouse. They bought clothes and basic equipment and went looking for an herbalist, which is not a profession that would be practicing openly in a city like this. After bribing a bartender at a bar, they learned of an herbalist in the city who operated in secret, but would likely be able to help Sarril, Luapan and Cadwin replenish most of their spell components. As they left the bar, they were followed by another party who chased them into an alley where a fight broke out. Victory meant even more equipment for the party, some of it magical. Things were starting to look up, but at the same time, the party understood now that they could never truly be safe here.

Temple Ruins Entrance

The party then explored some temple ruins just outside of town that they learned slaves were taken to. During they day they didn't learn much, but at night they saw slaves being moved into the building, confirming earlier rumors. The party decided their next move would be to try to get inside, but first they needed to finish equipping, so they headed back to their new hideout. That evening they were stalked by four thieves on the roof. Cadwin's superior senses alerted the party to their presence, and they were able to dispatch them and avoid being slaughtered in their sleep. The party decided having the blind druid around probably wasn't so bad.

And so it is the evening of the 19th Day of Reaping, 580 CY, the second day of the 3-day festival of Boccob, which is quite appropriate given that Sarril's familiar, Krek, has found his way back to him, restoring Sarril's tongue and making him fully functional again.