Ancient Sagas of Everlance: Bees and Pearls

This report covers sessions played in November. As the month wasn't a great one I missed some of the games, so this will be a little more abbreviated than usual.

Cast of Characters:
Kelmar - ½ Elf Ranger
Beska - Human Mage
Myshkin - Human Paladin
Gefilte - Human Monk of Love
Arkane - Human Paladin
Lorain - Human Bard
Sima - Thief (human?)

The party made its way out of the city and several miles down the coast to the abandoned lighthouse. The bees were huge and mean! Attempting to smoke them out weren’t successful and we ended up going into the building to fight them. Unfortunately there were also a pair of vine monsters living in the lighthouse courtyard. Fighting past them, and the bees was a challenge, and ended up dropping Kelmar into unconsciousness.

Eventually the bees were wiped out, and the royal jelly collected, and returned to the druid Xoaddan in Cam. in return he provided the party with some “smoking herbs” and the agreed upon potions of water breathing.

Time was against the party unfortunately. The tower with the black pearl, hidden by the water, was due to make it’s appearance, and would only be visible for a single day. The trapped adventurers would have to wait…

Hiring a boat and rowers, the party set off for the tower. A long boat was already tied up to the top of the tower! Within the first (uppermost) chamber was a massive tome, and thousands of candles, all lit. The book contained names, most of which were crossed out. The party also encountered some pirates, all of whom were quickly dispatched.

The next chamber, after some rotten stairs, contained three portals to unknown parts. Each portal had a dragon’s head above it, and two of the three had gemstone eyes. The third had sockets for eyes. The first portal lead to a series of chambers divided by a river or lake, but a skeletal ferryman would take the party across. Some fights with more pirates, including the captain (Quinn, not an eskimo), a trapped chamber, and a rotten rope bridge eventually led to a tomb containing a massive body (8+ feet tall) wearing a golden crown, 2 rubies, but no pearl.

Returning to the portal chamber, the rubies were fitted into the dragon’s eye sockets. The portal was opened, and the party found itself in a large rectangular chamber. Most of the chamber, except for the ledge they were standing on and a circular area about 70+ feet away containing a large dragon statue holding the pearl, was filled with water that teemed with poisonous water snakes.

A bit of dithering, and a failed attempt to open the third portal, the party returned to the chamber with the water and the pearl. Lorian opened the bag of neverending rats into the water to try to distract the snakes, while Kelmar, Mishkin, and Gefilte waded into the water, heading to the statue. Unfortunately not all of the snakes were distracted, and they tried to swarm those heading to the statue. Mishkin didn't make it far past the stairs, while Gefilte and Kelmar made it to the statue, but not without injury. Getting the pearl out, while also dealing with the poison coursing through their veins. Eventually with Gefilte doling out some healing, Kelmar got the pearl out and handed off to Gefilte who booked it. A good choice, as the water immediately crashed into the open circle with the dragon statue, and began to rise up… The snakes, put off by the suddenly turbulent water dispersed, and the party headed for the portal. They managed to remain ahead of the rising water as they climbed the tower, and escaped through to the boats.

Returning to town the party sold off some of the extra loot they’d collected, pawned the pirate long boat, and collected the bounty on the pirate captain. The pearl turned out to be magic (shock) so more investigation into it’s powers are to be done before the party turns it over to the brothel owner.