The Voyage of Legacy - 14/07/2022 - A Kavel Perspective

Kavel Owns an Island!

It was finally time to go find the plot of land in the middle of the ocean to which I hold the deeds!

Most of the seafaring vessels were destroyed in the invasion. The ones that remained were commandeered for trade. There was, however, a note going round advertising a ship and crew for hire under the command of Billy Bones. The best sister in the world, Sorrel - my human sneaky archer friend, and comrade Derthaard, my dragonborn, ever reliable investigator friend joined me on the walk from Daring Heights to Port Ffirst.

Under the note from Billy Bones, I had written my own note requesting my comrades come join me in discovering my island, and on the road to Port Ffirst, the most honourably thicc comrade, Kelné, the halfling trickster cleric joined us! I asked them how they have been, and how was Chomp - their mimic backpack. Chomp extended a tentacle from behind Kelné and waved. Kelné and Chomp were doing well.

I learnt that Derthaad has managed to see Celina since I last met him. Celina seemed to be doing as well as one could hope. I actually met her recently myself. I was in Port Ffirst last week. Celina was more readily injecting alcohol into every solution she proposed. The bucket of booze idea made me raise an eyebrow, but it was good - it did the trick. I feel Celina will be alright, I hope so. Sorrel told me she had a few visitors since we talked about Silvia and my bros.


Breakfast at the Cavernous Seashank

The Seashank, like the Hook, suffered little damage. Jedd Heights, the owner served as. He offered us some chow, but what was being served on the other tables looked questionable, so I opted to take a bite out of my sister’s food that she brought with her - she appears to have a different taste for food than her brother, it was a bit meh.

I showed my comrades the deed I had to Praxima island, or as far as I was concerned, ‘Kaveland’.

My comrades wanted to know if I had been hiding a previously announced leaniege of nobility. This was not the case. I was handed the deeds to Praxima ‘Kaveland’ and now it is mine. I signed it, just in case.

Anabæl, the goliath who both Mendal and I have adventured with before, was staying at the Seashank, and had been ever since we built the ‘Green Room’ the week before. She was tall - taller than me! She was like me in other ways too, very tough - I had much respect for her. I asked if she would join us, she said she’d be delighted. This was great! I introduced her to everyone. We chatted for a bit, and then went to the harbour to go find Billy Bones and his ship.


The Docks

Ooof.
The docks were hit the hardest during the invasion. Last week, I stuck to town. The docks? Woah! Mendal said he would be down here in a day or two, possibly for clean-up - he’s got some work cut out for him! I would help pull in some of that wreckage out of the docks with my immense, goliath strength, but I’ve got an island I own to get to!

At the furthest out dock, a large sailing ship was moored - and one of the only ships moored. Its name, ‘Legacy’.

Crates of supplies were being loaded by the crew, and sitting on a barrel on the dock, was a skinny human in his seventies, reading some local news on parchment. This was Billy Bones.

“Is this your ship then, Mr. Bones?” I asked.

“Not legally, but yes,” he replied - we were off to an interesting start.

Even to us non-nautically proficient adventurers, Billy Bones did not seem like the commanding type. Billy would not be my first option to hire, but he was my only option.

Ana asked how Billy came about the ship. Billy said he won it from someone, who had previously won it themself.

Billy asked where we wanted to go. When I told him Praxima island, he jumped off of the barrel and covered my mouth, warning me not to mention that name so loudly in front of this type of crew. Whatever did he mean by this type of crew? Well…

… Billy took us on board and to the captain’s cabin. None of the crew got out of his way as we travelled the deck - Billy was not changing my mind about his lack of commanding presence. Billy told us a story about Captain Midnight and how he was the greatest pirate to have ever existed. Captain Midnight had reportedly plundered over a 1,000 ships and sunk them all, and vanished without a trace. Rumour has it that he stored all his treasure on - Kaveland Praxima Island. With all that treasure, Billy felt this cutthroat crew - who he claims killed the previous captain, would gladly kill me, my comrades, and even each other for a map to Praxima Island.

Well, we didn’t have a map… that was until Billy took the deed, poured some lemon juice on the back, and a map with an ‘X’ marking the spot of treasure on an island appeared. Derthaad took a look at the map and noticed that the soon to be renamed island was about halfway between Kantas and Faerûn, and a little south. I asked how long that would take to travel - months!

“Don’t worry!” Captain Billy Bones said, “do you know why this ship is called the Legacy?” Well, it turned out it was an extremely fast ship that could make the journey in two days with no unexpected delays.


Getting The Crew ‘Onboard’

On Billy Bones’ advice, we had to get the crew ‘onboard’ with the plan to go to the island without stoking their desire to murder us for the map. In other words, we had to lie about our intentions. I was curious what my comrades thought our odds were of taking the crew, if need be. We were unsure. Plus, we were worried. Derthaad, for example, has powerful lightning magic, but it might not be advisable to use such magic on a flammable vessel. Billy said, “not to worry. I’ve got this - I’ll tell them I’ve made arrangements. Also, I’ll put you to work, because I want you to learn how to sail, just in case that will be useful to us…”

On deck, Billy called for the crew to come gather and listen to him. They barely moved. A man called Silver, who later introduced himself as the Quartermaster, got the crew to gather.

Billy began explaining things to the crew with an insufficient amount of confidence. It should not have surprised me to hear him pass the role of speaking over to me.

I looked from Billy to the crew, and addressed them, “yes. It is correct, we wish to learn how to sail, so that when we buy a ship of our own, we will know how to sail it. So, a quick expedition to an unexplored island is what we want to do, and we will pay you for the journey and instruction.”

Silver came to chat with me face to face and let me know he is fine with the plan, and that he is the quartermaster and keeps moral here. I asked what the crew would want for the journey. Silver wanted 20% of any potential treasure. I agreed to 20% of any loose treasure. Artefacts and such would be ours. There would be a greater share for Silver, if he kept the crew in line. This was amenable for SIlver, he got the crew moving. Good job from… Billy, maybe.

The ship moved away from its berth, and the peculiar, and no doubt magical cloud-like sails had the ship sailing at a very impressively rapid speed. I liked The Legacy!


Adventurers Learn to Sail

Billy assigned Kelné to rigging duties, where she showed off some excellent ship-based parkour skills jumping from mast to mast via the riggings, and at the same time learning how to furl and unfurl the sails. When I looked up at the sails, it was like clouds unfurling rather than sails.

Ana was put to work on cargo below deck lifting and arranging the heavy gear for optimal ship manoeuvrability with Bill and Ben, a slow-speaking firbolg and fast-speaking gnome that sat on Bill’s shoulder. Bill and Ben seemed happy with Ana’s work.

Sorrel joined a kenku called Quark up in the bird’s nest for lookout duty… where she leisurely drank cider with her new shipmate. I had wondered if Celina and Sorrel had switched places.

Derthaad put his ‘investigative’ skills to the galley a.k.a the kitchen. He was joined by Jimmy’ the apprentice cook. Apparently the previous cook disembarked when we were at port. According to Derthaad, ‘apprentice cook’ was a bit of a stretch for Jimmy since he was only good at peeling potatoes. Derthaad got a stew going for what we later learnt was a crew of around thirty.

Silver took me aside for a word. Silver wanted to know what the real deal was. So, I showed him the deed - and accidentally revealed the name of the island I owned on the deed paper. Oh dear. In our tête-à-tête Silver said Billy, the old boy, stabbed the previous captain in the back while they were sleeping to ‘win’ the ship. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I decided to trust Silver, since he said he wouldn’t reveal the fact that he knew we were sailing to Praxima Island to the crew. Silver had me work with him, shadowing him in checking the crew’s work and doing some of it myself, like lifting the anchor, learning to steer and other tasks.

As ship recruits, we seemed to be doing well. Not to brag, but my strength and willingness to work put the rest of the crew to shame, and fortunately for us; the crew didn’t seem to be the least bit cutthroat - they were very helpful and considerate to their apprentices.


But Then Derthaad’s Steve Went Snooping

As a ship’s cook, Derthaad was pretty good, but he was not engaging his investigation know-how, which is the skillset he usually brings to adventures. While I was glad not to see him use his lightning magic onboard, his lack of investigative talents were missed. But then over the two nights it took to get to Praxima Island, he had Steve, his gecko familiar, do some snooping, and the discovery was alarming.

Steve found a few of the crew chatting in code in the galley at night. Silver was calming Bill and Ben down. People seemed to be angry. Derthaad said he saw everyone, but Silver leave the galley. Then, Jimmy of all people came in - and slapped Silver in the face. The broad, rather well-built Silver just took it. The apprentice potato-peeler appeared to be in charge. Jimmy also appeared to be hiding the fact that he was a water-genasi.


The Third Day

Derthaad asked if anything could have led to this odd display by the crew - I confessed that Silver had seen the plot of land on my deed. We agreed to be engarde.

Sorrel consulted with her new friend, Quark. Quark encouraged Sorrel not to pursue her line of questioning any further. The pair of them went back to drinking cider…

Around the afternoon of the third day, Sorrel cried out, “land ho!”

The island looked about 150 miles wide as we got within a few hundred feet of it.

Everyone was gathered on deck.

Jimmy had just revealed his water-genasi form and said, “it’s time!”

Silver grabbed the captain, Billy by the throat, “pathetic little man!” and snapped his neck, and threw him overboard. Our situation had changed dramatically.

“Too many! We’ve got to get to shore!” Sorrel yelled. I agreed, “Adventurers, let’s go!” I yelled. Sorrel was at the bow of the ship, ready to go. Derthard grabbed Ana and casted Thunderstep to get off the ship hurling thunderous pain to those around them. Kelné casted polymorph on themselves and transformed into a giant eagle, and picked me up with her claws before flying to sea. Sorrel dived off the bow, casted Misty Step and then began swimming really fast - it was very impressive.

From the island, we could hear Jimmy barking orders to the crew.

Ana asked for the map. I gave it to her, and she indicated our path, and off we went up a cliff eagerly trying to maintain our lead.


Get to the Treasure!

I wasn’t sure what the plan was other than to get to the treasure. Hopefully we would be able to ambush the crew and pick them off one by one. Silver was an impressive specimen - especially given his lack of matching set of legs didn’t seem to hinder him! Jimmy was a vast unknown, but the crew seemed inconsequential, or at least they would do if they didn’t number in the thirties, and weren’t all armed with daggers.

So, we legged it. Sorrel used her plant talking magic to make the roots of nearby trees disrupt the smooth path. Before we came to an opening in the cliffside wall, I did notice that my island was pretty good real estate. It may be inconveniently far out from both major continents, but it had a charm to it, good vegetation, a nice tranquillity and a cliff-cum mountain. I even saw a perfect spot for a gym. What more could you want?

There was this sound of fast moving water coming from down the path, as we stood by the entrance to the cliff interior. Shit! It was Jimmy moving at an alarming rate - much faster than Sorrel’s swimming!

Good old Derthaad casted his Wall of Force spell to block the entrance. We had about ten minutes of that to slow Jimmy down.

As we entered the cliffside, it was very dark. Both Derthaad and Kelné casted Light on different objects, but no light illuminated the cavern. Derthaard sighed and casted Dispel Magic - when they casted Light again, it worked.

We followed a path to another entrance, Derthaad re-casted Wall of Force here. We noticed a tripwire. Despite our urgency, we did, in retrospect, spend an inordinate amount of time going through different options on how to deal with the problem of tripping the wire and a giant boulder following us further into the cavern and landing on top of a hole we had to venture down. At one point, I had lifted Kelné up and towards the ceiling towards the hanging boulder, so they could cast Stone Shape. But, after further thought, we concluded - fuck it. And left the tripwire active and just ran towards the hole and jumped down it while Derthaad casted Feather Fall to slow our descent.


Down in the Hole

We reached the bottom safely. Magical lights came on in an expanse around 500ft wide, which had pillars supporting the structure. Derthaad re-casted Wall of Force one last time to cover the entrance to the descent. We looked around down in the lit expanse, and noticed something; the space here was filled to the brim with a vast pile of junk…

Derthaard had used the Detect Magic spell to determine that the pillars would collapse inwards if they were disturbed.

In the distance, Sorrel and I saw past a rotting, small ship, there was a covered up escape route with rocks. Before me and Ana ran towards the exit to shift the rock, we did stop to peruse the junk to determine if there was anything salvageable as actual treasure. The coupon I found for a free hug from a king did not change my mind about the quality of objects found here. Nor did the witch’s undergarments that Kelné found, nor Sorrel’s whimsically magical diary, nor Ana’s tragedy foretelling spyglass, and neither Derthaad’s map and teddy bear he got from the ship or the faceless doll made of driftwood he got from the pile of junk.

The greatest part of the above moment was when my sister Sorrel casted a conjuring spell and summoned a few great apes to help me and Ana free the exit.


Ship Ahoy!

Through the excavated exit, we could see the island again.

Derthaad’s last Wall of Force spell collapsed, and Jimmy and his crew came down to join us.

Derthaad was standing on the discovered ship away from the descent’s entrance. The rest of us were by the exit ready to leg it.

Silver was laughing at the sight of the junk pile of worthless trinkets. “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!” He said. This, it turned out, was indeed Captain Midnight’s treasure. Captain - Potato Peeler Jimmy - Midnight confirmed it himself.

Why on earth was any of this junk worth hiding? It certainly didn’t seem worth killing for. Well, maybe it was fitting that Captain Jimmy Midnight was reunited with his treasure, because it was the last thing we expected him to see. Derthaad casted Shatter on one of the pillars as the rest of us braced ourselves to run out of the exit. Derthaad casted Dimension Door to make his own escape. By the exit we saw Jimmy calmly walking towards the boat Derthaad was standing on, while the rest of the crew, including Silver, were crushed by the pillars toppling over and the cavern caving in.

As we left the cavern, our own exit was shut by collapsing rock.


Putting Sailing Instruction to Practice

We reached the Legacy. It seemed to us that the crew, including Jimmy, must be dead, or trapped and soon-to-be dead in the cavern. We felt a little at ease as we reached the Legacy; we were glad of the late Billy Bones’ foresight to teach us how to sail.

But, this was an unsatisfying journey and discovery. Sorrel suggested maybe making a physical claim to the land - and Kelné had me covered. On the cliffside facing where we came in, they shaped the stone with their magic to have the embossed writing of, ‘Kaveland’.

To be fair, we made off with more ‘treasure’ or junk, depending on your perspective. Kelné found a red boomerang that didn’t work. Derthaad had an invitation to a formal ball to be held in two years’ time. Sorrel found an ornate razor that only cuts in freezing cold temperatures - so like the boomerang; useless. I found a centuries-old pack of rations that were perfectly preserved and tasted like chicken - a weak animal, but it tasted alright given all the potato heavy stew I had eaten recently. And Ana found two sweet smelling branches, which made you nauseous and gave you a headache if you smelt them for too long. I wasn’t sure what to think of those, but definitely more useless than useful.


Back in Port Ffirst

To be fair, we had the fastest ship alive. The Legacy was ours, and I think I was the captain. This was all true until Mr. Mace negotiated us down to 1% ownership each in exchange for access to it free of berthing charge. Some chancing-fellow tried to buy The Legacy from us as we came into port. It was a ridiculously low offer, but now I’m starting to consider if we should have taken it.