Session 13

November 10, 2019

Saltmarsh 13: Skull Island

Malcolm and Vel argue about money. Half the party attends a Council Meeting, while the other half investigates Skerrin’s home for signs of Iuz. The next day Vel and her mother go shopping, while the party attends market day.

Synopsis
Autumn arrives in Saltmarsh, bring a temperature drop and wheat shipments.

Steve has begun joining Steve in his "enrichment activities" at the graveyard.

Malcolm finds Vel in the dining room, moving the table after cleaning the ship. He tells her about his most recent dream, Welgar believes it took place in an abandoned Abbey, and wants to go investigate it. Vel has no problem with this, as the job boards have dried up, and they aren't doing anything. She finds Malcolm's dreams unsettling, but he assures her that most if not all of his dreams come from Lathander, and are a welcome change from his nightmares. She offers to bring him her maps of the coast, to chart where the Abbey is located. Vel has delegated the task of moving the furniture she purchased for the ship to the Sea Monkeys. Kayle and Steve return from the graveyard.

Malcolm finds Dora on the upper deck, bored and doodling in the poetry book. She's been restless this past week, finding it difficult to develop a routine, in the time she planned to spend learning magic from Fraternus. Dora comments on Malcolm's quick adjustment to life in Saltmarsh after living in Oakhurst for 10 years, he finds 'home' to be a malleable concept. He alerts her of the possible upcoming trip to an Abbey, and she adds that Malcolm having a good dream would be a sign of the apocalypse. They discuss how Malcolm could not run into Kayle in the morning.

In the morning, Kayle calls Malcolm out for always leaving his room at the same time as him. Neither are doing this on purpose and are baffled that this keeps happening. During the night, several merchant ships arrived in the harbour. Vel begins eyeing the cargo of one ship, the Greyback, including long packages. Malcolm catches her prying, they theorize about what the ship is carrying. Malcolm goes down to ask a deckhand, and learns the ship is carrying fine weapons. He returns and informs her of this new information. Malcolm jokes about Vel not paying the crew of the ship, which upsets Vel, who has spent most of her good on repairing and refurbishing the ship. The ribbing upsets Vel enough to leave the ship.

During breakfast at the Snapping Line, the party discusses Skerrin's possible involvement with Iuz, and float the idea of spying on him. At this moment, Skerrin and Anders enter the bar and order breakfast. Dora reads their lips, but stops when she finds nothing interesting. Malcolm approaches them directly, learns that Sanbalet was unanimously found guilty and sentenced to life in prison up north. They also say that Eda is heading a task force to further investigate Iuz.

Meanwhile, Vel heads to a pawn shop, run by a halfling man named Winston. She asks for appraisals on her sapphire, worth 50 gold, and the gold rose, worth 100 gold. She parts with the sapphire, but takes a note describing the rose's worth. She purchases a pair of leather gloves.

The party reconviennes at the ship. Vel has left the gloves on Dora's bed, and the rose and the appraisal note for Malcolm, an IOU for a book for Kayle, and her underdark mushroom for Emmett. Malcolm suggests that he and Emmett attend the council meeting that evening, while Dora, Vel, and Kayle snoop around Skerrin's empty home. Vel questions why her sneaking is suddenly okay now that the party wants to benefit from it, but eventually agrees to participate.

At the council meeting, Malcolm gets the party a job as delegates to speak with Lizardfolk about their recent activity the following Earthsday.

Across town, the rest of the party search the Solmor house, a two story colonial with an overgrown lawn. A portrait hangs on the wall, of Anders and his father, and Skerrin in the background, appearing to be hired help. They investigate the back of the house, and Vel breaks open the back door. Upstairs, Vel and Kayle find a small and unused bedroom and a desk of official looking trade records. In the hall, the find a downwards stairwell to the basement. Downstairs, Dora finds a dining room with a long table, a crest with an S flanked by eels and a family motto, "Freedom is the root of happiness", is on the wall. Kayle fetches Dora to guard the house through Bastille, as he and Vel go down to the basement. Kayle and Vel find identical copies of the Iuz books with blank pages, while Sanbalet's actual books are locked in the desk drawer. Vel steals an expensive bottle of wine from late 5100, they leave and believe they relocked the house. They run into Eda on their way back to the ship. They drink the wine in the ship's dining room, where they find Malcolm has left Winston's appraisal note and a pile of 100 gold pieces. Dora disposes of the bottle using Mage Hand to run the it out into the ocean.

The following morning, Siera treats Vel to breakfast then out for groceries. Vel laments to her mother that she can't afford to pay her crew because of the ship upgrades. Siera assures her that crews and ships come and go, and her crew don't sound like very good friends. Vel feels hurt because she thought the party were her friends, not just crewmembers looking for payment.

The rest of the party attends Market Day. Malcolm sells the sapphire for 75 gold, and the four gold ribs for 60 gold each. Malcolm distributes everyone's share of the gold from the sold loot. He learns from Jerry, a weapons curator and follower of Heironeous, that the sword of Heironeous may have been lost at the Abbey, which used to be a holy site. Malcolm promises to recover it if they find it.

Kayle shops around for a set of armour. He purchases a shield made of Tortle shell. Randall offers to help scam the shopkeeper by selling him, and later resummoning him. Kayle declines, as he was weirded out when Randall spoke to the shopkeeper, not just him. Malcolm and Dora lead him to a blacksmith for a cheaper set.

That night on the ship, Malcolm tries to give Vel her share of the gold, but she tells him to keep it if he wants to be paid so badly. Their conversation is tense, and Malcolm says he'll stay out of her way.

Steve stumbles in from the Marketplace, having purchased several items with money from the graveyard.

Malcolm informs Dora that contrary to current plans, they won't be leaving in the morning for the Abbey, as they wouldn't be back on time for their new paid job on Earths Day. More importantly, he asks Dora to tell Vel, she doesn't want to talk to him at the moment. Dora heads to the captains quarters, and tries to mediate the situation between them, saying Malcolm means well, and that she's doing a good job as a leader. Vel points out that she and Dora are not friends, she's there because of Malcolm who's there for his dreams. Dora leaves to inform the rest of the ship of the plan change.

Later in the night, Vel knocks on Malcolm's door until he wakes up. She asks for the coordinates of the meeting with the lizardfolk. He also reveals that he did not sell the gold rose, the 100 gold was his own money. He gives it back to her, along with her share of the loot money, and resolves not to joke about gold anymore seeing how its a sore spot for Vel. They talk for a few more minutes about trust, regrets, and their lack of both.

Featured Characters
Emmett

Velaeria

Malcolm

Theadora

Kayle

NPCs
Steve

Hadish

Skerrin

Anders

Winston

Elliander

Eda

Siera

Jerry

Quotations
"I'm delegating!" -Vel

"A 'blessing from Procan' is when a drunk pisses in your mouth." -Duncan

"Fat bees?"-Marcus

* Malcolm hands Vel the golden rose, Kiss From a Rose starts playing*

"Vitaelius sounds like a flakey dickbag" -Dora

Trivia

 * Session Length: 5:01:10
 * This session covers 3 days in universe, including the time jump, the party has now known each other for 34 days


 * Continue Count: 1 (and 2 shushes)
 * This session is named after Skull Island, the 13th film in the King Kong franchise
 * Code of Heironeous:
 * Duty to the People
 * Courage, Justice, Mercy, Valor, Protection of the Weak
 * Faith in the Church, Superiors, and Officers of Righteous Law
 * Duty to the Archpaladin
 * Obedience to Heironeous, Devotion to the Church, Generosity, Championing Good against Evil, Putting the needs of the Church and the Faith above those of Mortals
 * Duty to a Lady
 * Devotion to Courtly Love, Devotion to one's beloved, and Respect toward all women in general