(G203 13/06/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, Mira, Alex)

(G203 13/06/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, Mira, Alex)

[And now, dear reader, is probably a good time to go back to Waterdeep for a while and write of things that
were going on back there. While I was getting more and more involved in things that were none of my business
in Cormyr, Waterdeep, of course, was still troubled and many interesting things were happening.

So, to start this next segment of these tales of adventure we must first go back a few days to two days before
Cavu joined Fenrir, Corum and the rest in their descent into the Undermountain. Cavu was a busy man at this
time and had many things to arrange. This is the story of one of those arrangements...]

DAY 215    (12th Marpenoth)

If you remember, one of the crew of the Sea Wyvern had been an athletic young man called Mathmoss. He didn't
stay as part of the crew very long, but had been present for a lot of interesting occurrences.
He joined us shortly after Retzal had left and helped out during the fight with the pirates of 'Purity's
Prow'. He'd been with us at Port Nyranzaru, been in the fights against the flotsam ooze, both of the giant
octopuses and the sea hag.
He'd been at Fort Greenock where we had fought the goblins and spiders. He'd been in the fight against the
pirate ship that had been Captain Crispy's previous command. He'd been with us when the Sea Wyvern and the
Blue Nixies had had their famous fight with the sea hydra.
Still, he pretty much left us without warning when we'd arrived at Renkrue. Perhaps he'd had enough fighting,
although he'd always seemed to enjoy leaping about in the rigging during the battles and using his strange
eastern powers to defeat his enemies.
Perhaps he's simply amassed enough treasure to want to go and spent it somewhere?

In any event, he was now in Waterdeep and had seen the Sea Wyvern anchored in the harbour and decided to
look up his old shipmates.

He found Lirith, Skald, Meree and Liamae still taking it easy in Warmbeds, Dockward. They had plenty
of treasure still and were having a good enough time relaxing. Nobby was at Hova Farm though, helping out
with the sick and starving there and Veddic was just about to leave for the Undermountain.

He said he was in search of adventure so they told him,
'Try asking for Cavu the Cursed in the Singing Sword. Veddic is always up there and getting into all sorts
of trouble!'

He thanked them and headed up to the Market Square. He noted that their were scaffolds and pyres in the
square. So it was true, he thought, Waterdeep is burning demon worshippers these days.

The other two gentlemen pertinent to this tale were already at the Singing Sword. They were Cale Cresthill,
a young dervish from Anauroch, his tribe had been broken up by the orc horde and he was in Waterdeep to
rest for a while before going back east, and Pensato, a young bard and storyteller from parts as yet to
be discussed.

Mathmoss entered the tavern at around noon and sat down at a table. Not long after a slight elven bard
came down from upstairs. Looking hungover he ordered some breakfast. Some patrons asked him for a song
and he strummed his lute and gently sung a few verses from Fenrir's song:


[ 'The Staff of Thunder' is presented in full elsewhere in my journal.]

...
There once was a building that brewed whiskey and beer,
But now is purpose is making devil's tremble with fear,
The Brewery Gang are now living with-in,
Fenrir Thunderstaff and his brethir-in,
...

Later two men came and talked to Cavu (for it was he) in low voices and left again. Later still, Mathmoss
observed another man come and hand Cavu a roll of paper. (I will take a guess and say this was my brother Corum!)

Pensato had not long arrived in the tavern and was interested to meet another bard. He came and sat with
Cavu and got him to talk of his 'troubles'. Just as he was getting into full flow, he suddenly jumped
up and said, 'Yes ok Mother, I'm coming. No need to shout!'

He left two gold on the table and told Pensato he would be back in just a minute. Astounded at the outburst
Pensato ordered more drinks.

Another man, grumbled a warning to Pensato along the lines of 'Watch what you are doing with that one!' and
left.

Cavu returned and talked to Pensato.
'I need someone to do me a favour and travel up river. My usual helpers are all getting ready for a trip
into the unknown and I am getting short of useful people. You seem trustworthy. Perhaps you and the tough
looking fellow over there [Indicates Cale] and the young fellow standing behind me pretending not to be
here [Indicates Mathmoss] could do this for me? I'll pay 200 gold each. I'm not usually in the habit of hiring
strangers in the tavern, but I'm in a hurry!'

Cale came over, 'What's this?' and Mathmoss shrugged and sat down.

'Who was the guy that just left?' asked Pensato.

'That was Alduin. He's a good fellow, but I think he misses home. He recently saw some things that are best
left unspoken of.. well you know what the city is like at the moment.. and I think it will take him a time
to recover. Which is a shame as he has been up the river before and would have been useful, but no matter.'

Cavu handed over the money,
'Buy what you need. I will go arrange a guide for you. If I can find him I'll send him right here. A gnome
called Humperdink. He knows the Sword Coast like the back of his hand. I need you to go to Hommlett and ask
for a cleric called Freddorick, he knows the location of a Yuan-ti portal. The last one from the troubles the
city had two years ago and the only one the Grey Hands did not close. It, I hope, leads east to a town called
Kingsholm and if all goes well I will soon need to get there as fast as I can.'

They spent the rest of the afternoon getting supplies ready for their trip east.

By four o'clock Cavu had returned. He then proceeded to get drunk and sing merry songs for the benefit
of the tavern patrons.

Cale, a splendid dancer, began to dance with the pretty girls of the Singing Sword. Seeing this, and liking
it Mathmoss pulled an elven lass from the crowd and joined the dance.

Cale and Pensato went to bed at a sensible time, but Mathmoss tumbled a local wench upstairs in his room
and was up half the night.

DAY 216    (13th Marpenoth)

Humperdink was just about ready to go when the all got downstairs for breakfast. Mathmoss had purchased
a horse, but the rest would be on foot.

As they left the city via the southern gate a madman shouted at them and all the other passing people.
His words were something like:
''
Beware the lord of serpents! The Living Lord of Serpents!  For countless eons he healed! The madness!!
The madness of his serpent demon form!! And yet, he prefers the serpent form! At least in Part!
Fear the lord of serpents!! Tremble mortals! The Serpent Lord! Aroo!
For he is a jealous lord and he is jealous of all other gods! Jealous! Wibble!
He wages war with a serpent staff and rod and - he comes! He comes!!! He will bring down every nation with
an army of serpents and monsters! Aieeee!!!!'

Humperdink lead them along the main road for a while, then onto a smaller road and then finally onto a small
track that followed the river. There had been heavy rains lately in this region, a blessing to the drought
struck farmers, but this had swollen the river and flooded the banks.

As they walked they saw a small child stranded on a muddy bank, cut off from the riverside by twenty feet
of fast flowing, churning, muddy water.

They didn't hesitate to try and rescue her though, and after many attempts at jumping and being pulled back
by rope, Mathmoss eventually got her to safety. Pensato did his best to sooth her and offered to tell her
a story, but when she said she wanted a story about a bear, he was tongue-tied. He knew a thousand stories
but none about a bear that were suitable for a four year old girl!

She was cold and shivering though, so Mathmoss wrapped her up in his magic bedroll. Humperdink lead them to
an abandoned farmhouse where they lit a fire and warmed her up.
Judging by her clothing they reckoned her to be a merchants daughter. When asked where she was from she
said,
'Number 6, Rusty Way, Goldenfields.'
'What does that mean?', quizzed Pensato.
'It's her address.', grumbled Humperdink.
'I ran away from some baddies!', gasped the little girl, 'Green with big teeth!'
'How many?' asked Cale
'Twelvty!'

After lunch they continued on their way, Pensato carrying the girl on his back.

In the afternoon they came upon a crossroads where nine cages had been placed, each of which had a dying
orc inside it.
One of the orcs groaned, 'Have mercy human! Some water...'
Cale questioned the orc who said,
'I was part of the horde, but my chief wanted to stay and raid more when they moved north. We were caught
and put here.'
Cale took out his water skin and drank from it to torment the orc.

They moved on and as they left the last orc called out to them. This one was smaller than the others,
'Hey! Humans! Take pity on me! I am just a child! I know where they buried the treasure! Half the
hordes treasure is buried not far from here. I can take you!'
'We care not for treasure!', said Cale with dignity and turned to leave.
'Uh! Wait just a minute!', said Mathmoss and Pensato simultaneously.

(G202 06/06/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 14

(G202 06/06/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 14


DAY 67 (thu) cont....

It was about noon in Schtackburg when they started using the shuttle to scan for Vidiian
lifesigns across the city.

This method lacked resolution though so they decided to set up boosters. Towards this end Noxus
replicated nine signal boosters (In dimensions - a tube about three feet long) and Kirk teleported
him to the roof of the hospital and set one up as an initial test.

It seemed to give clear readings of life signs out to about 200m of the hospital. It wasn't all good
news though, on the way back Kirk made a mistake with the transporter and instead of bringing him
back to the shuttle dropped Noxus in the river!

Much to the astonishment of a nearby tourist boat he trod water for a bit and then vanished when
Kirk got a good lock on him and finaly returned him to the shuttle.

They set up programs to interpret the data and put another booster on a taller tower in the centre
of the city. Kirk had a brain wave though and replicated some drones. Using existing templates in
the replicator for such devices he created a flying vehicle about 75cm square that had a rotor on
each corner and could lift the weight of the sensors.

They then transported it to a few hundred metres above the city and flew it remotely on its first
test flight. This went well so they replicated three more.

After the drones did a full sweep of the city the data showed that there were about 200 Vidiian's
in the city! Kirk let out a deep sigh, this was more than they could handle!

They used a communicator to listen in on the Vidiians coms. Next Noxus managed to get a lock on
a single vidiian and beam the unlucky being onto the shuttle where Kirk contained him in a
forcefield.

The Vidiian was naturally fearful, but refused to help them,
'I won't help you! Do with me... as you will!'

Kirk started to restrict the forcefield, crushing his victim,
'This is most uncomfortable!'
As the forcefield grew smaller the vidiian started to cry and wept,
'I have a wife and family you know!'

Kirk turned the forcefield black and left it alone for ten minutes,
'Release me, you buffoons!' cried the vidiian,
'We will release you, 30 miles up in space!', threatened Kirk.
'OK, OK.', pleaded the vidiian, 'All I know is that one of the bombers is called Borux, I can
tell you where his hideout is and where is meeting point is, but that's all I know!'

Kirk thanked the vidiian and teleported him 30 miles in a random direction. The poor fellow most
likely landed in the sea.

Next Kirk wrote a program to monitor the vidiians communicator for words like 'cell', 'bomb' and
'initiate'.

It was 6pm local time now so they replicated some food and ate. When it was time to get started on finding
Borux, Kirk sprayed himself in Treebadian odour and Noxus transported him to the roof of the bombers
building.

After he'd scanned it he was then transported inside to a living room. The scanner showed up some vidiian
tech but was otherwise empty. There was also two envelopes which he took back to the shuttle to translate.

They moved the drones to the address on the second envelope. Karlsvagen Street. It was now 7pm.

Scans showed a single vidiian lifesign and some tech. Kirk transported onto the roof. Noxus tried to transport
the vidiian out of the flat but accidentally killed him by dropping him in mid air.

Once inside the flat, Kirk searched it and found a large metallic suitcase. It was a bomb! A scan showed it to
be a small nuclear device. Noxus teleported it out into space. 20,000 km, the maximum range of the transporter.

Kirk came back to the shuttle. Shortly afterwards, at 10pm, they lost a drone. Kirk built another one and attached
a comms badge to it. Noxus tried to transport back the lost one's remains but could not get a lock on it.

They also overheard some comms traffic. One vidiian was warning the others to use forcefields to protect their
bombs. It seemed that Starfleet's presence was now know on of on Treebad.

The drones were doing their job though and located another house where two vidiians and a bomb were located.
This was on street called Brännkyrkagatan.

Once more Kirk beamed into the area to get more detailed scans with his tricorder. Out on the street, Kirk could see that
Treebadian police were using search lights. He assumed they were looking for his drones.

The detailed scans complete, Noxus's first attempt to transport out the vidiians failed and they starting to run from
their flat. His next lock succeeded and he transported the vidiians and the bomb out into space. Then he locked onto
Kirk and beamed him back to the shuttle.

Kirk beamed back the drones and tried to make them more stealthy, painting them matt black and covering up the flashing
lights on the boosters.

DAY 68 (fri)

The drones had already identified the next target. The Vidiians were in a park called Hummelgarden. Five vidiians and
the bomb were located in an ornamental garden near the middle of the park.

Kirk brought in the drones to get a closer look of the area. The lost comms to one of the drones and were down to three
again. There were a lot of Treebadian police at the north entrance of the park.

Kirk and Noxus transported to a spot a hundred metres or so north of the bomb. Noxus approached directly while Kirk
circled around. Noxus stepped on a twig though and the twitch vidiians started shooting. Kirk and Noxus returned fire,
a heavy firefight began. The vidiians had a force field around the small garden, this meant that Kirk had to find the
frequency of the shield before he could shoot into it.

Noxus was hit and took cover behind a tree. A vidiian hunted after him, but he beamed out. Kirk downed one of the vidiians
and then another, using his sniper phase-rifle. But the return fire was too heavy and he was out in the open, so, badly
injured he also beamed back to the shuttle.

The vidiian forcefield was preventing them from getting a lock on to it with the transporter. Kirk brought the drones
down lower and then lower still to try and scan the forcefield. Eventually they got a lock and beamed the bomb out into
space, but they lost another drone in the process.

Breathing a sigh of relief they moved the drones back up into the clouds. Noxus beamed up the forcefield generator from
the park and 300kg of machinery arrived in the small cargo area.

(G200 23/05/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 13

(G200 23/05/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 13

DAY 65 (tue) cont ...

Today Ensign Kirk and Pilot Noxus were briefed on the situation on a nearby planet called Treebad-3.
It had been heard that Vidiians were operating from it, using the locals as a source of organs. Some data
had already been recorded on the planet and is presented below:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Treebad-3 is a M-class water planet. It has many island chains where the dominant species, the Treebadians
live in relative harmony.

They are a peaceful species of humanoids descendant from octopus like creatures. They are advanced to
about the stage of mid-21st century earth. The live primarily off fish and seaweed but land bases food stuffs
are also grown.

Treebadians look like humans except for dappled skin, longer noses and eyes that are both larger and more
wide apart than humans.

However, getting about will be less of a problem as Treebadians do not recognise each other by facial features
but by smell. Also, several parts of society also go about masked, the main three being :

The Do-Sho Monks - Wear baskets with eye-slits on their heads
Vatron Skiff Gangs - Landless gangs that tend to wear shark like masks and are more violent than normal Treebadians.
            They style themselves after ancient shark gangs of more primitive times
The Soft Shelled - All Treebadians wear helmets when they go outside due to having soft skulls. It is like a human
          putting on shoes to go outside. Not doing so would get you noticed. 'The Soft Shelled' take this
        one step further and wear full visored helmets. They are considered 'Hypochondriacs' though and a bit
        sissy-like.


Anyone wanting to pass themselves off as a Treebadian must also use a scent otherwise their human odour will be
immediately spotted as alien. A Treebadian odour can be replicated. Treebadians pick up the following from scent
so this can be pre-programmed :

Gender, Age, Pregnancy/Gravid, Alpha-male/Paterfamilias, Alpha-female/Matron, Soldier/Police, Ruler/Dominar,
Serf/Underclass, Self-worth/Confidence, Guilt, Need to go to the toilet.
There are many more but this should be sufficient for a disguise.


It almost always rains on Treebad-3 and the Treebadians combine scent with licked raindrops. It is not unusual
for meeting Treebadians to lick each other. This is the human equivalent of a hand shake.

Treebadian justice is different from human. Punishments are visited on all family members of a guilty party.
All punishments are physical and immediate, usually a beating or branding. Treebadians are law-abiding though
and this rarely happens.

Due to the fact that they release a scent when they are guilty most Treebadians find it almost impossible
to break the law or tell a lie without being found out. So-much-so they have not developed any skills in
deceit, bargaining, bluffing or diplomacy. Your average Treebadian tells it like it is and is honest to the
point of abruptness.

It is believed that Vidiians are operating in this planet, clandestinely stealing organs from the population.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They spent the rest of the day traveling to Treebad-3 in a shuttle.

DAY 66 (wed)

They spent today scanning the planet and replicating things that they would they would need for the away
mission including local weapons and currency. (9mm pistols and 5000 TY each).

They also set up 'grab bags' which could be teleported to them from the shuttle using key-words.

Ensign Kirk went for the following olfactory disguise:

Soft shelled, male, alpha, his real age, police, medium self confidence.
He took 5 sets and one vial of 'needs the toilet'.

Noxus decided to take one of each helmet type and went for:
female, age 30, confident, police and also extra vials of 'needs the toilet'.

They began by orbiting then city of Schtackburg, 100 miles above. A Vidiians spaceship appeared from the
planet's surface and hailed them.

When asked why they were there, Kirk replied,
'We are here to stop the unlawful harvesting of the native population.'
'What law would that be?'
'Uh..The law of being nice in space.'
'We have quarantined this planet for its own safety. Please leave.'

There was more to that effect, but the Vidiian ship was most insistent and since the scans showed that it was
much more powerful than the shuttle the retreated and hid behind Treebad-3's moon.

Here they plotted and planned. It turned out that subspace comms were being blocked somehow. As an experiment
to see if regular radio comms was being blocked they flew back to the planet as stealthily as they could and
teleported a communicator to the planet.

On the way back though the Vidiian spotted them and followed them at impulse. Noxus went to warp and headed
out of the system at maximum speed.

[Incidentally. Their shuttle, The Cochrane, has a max warp speed of 5.]

Once out of the subspace dampening field they sent a subspace message. They were 0.555 light years away from
voyager so it took 12 minutes to receive a reply, which was this,
'Message received. Go to planet's surface if possible. Stop Vidiians if possible.'

They returned to Schtackburg during its night and submerged into the sea two miles from it. They then traveled
slowly underwater as far into the city as they could and teleported onto the docks.

There was a small hospital beside the docks and they walked across to it. It was still open. Their disguises
seemed to work as the female at the desk said
'Good evening officers.', as they entered.

They asked her if there had been any mysterious disappearances in the city lately and she referred them to
Dr Bergzoid who came down to talk to them,
'Can I help you gentlemen?'
Kirk repeated the request.
'Are you from here?'
'We are specialists from out of town.'
'Ah! About time they sent someone. Yes, people have been found dead with organs missing all over the city.
Alive as well. I know of one person in the city centre hospital right now who was found with a missing
kidney. Your names?'
They gave false names. Like all Treebadians, Dr Bergzoid was no good at spotting lies.
'Can we get more data?', Kirk asked
The doctor nodded, 'I'll get an intern to put together what we have for you. Come back in the morning.'

Using their easily obtained wealth they took a taxi to a place called 'The Victory Hotel' in a pleasant
cobbled side street and arranged rooms, food and some of the local beer.

DAY 67 (thu)

Kirk and Noxus head to the hospital for 9 am and picked up the documents. They examined them for several
hours but could not really detect a pattern. The attacks had been happening for years, about one every
two or three months all around the city, but more so in the north.

The last two attacks had been near a hotel called 'Time Hotel' so they took a taxi there and settled in
to drink in a cafe next door to it.

After a few hours of scanning people as they went in and out (using tricorders disguised as local hand
held datapads) someone went in that was giving off the vital signs of a Vidiian.

They followed him in and he went up the stairs. They questioned the receptionist. She wasn't happy about
it, but told them the guests name and room number. Mr Rolway. Room 316.
As they went after him they could see she was calling someone.

Kirk took the lift and Noxus took the stairs. Cautiously they went down the hotel corridors, scanning
people as they went past. Guests and maids, all seemed Treebadian. One though, Kirk only scanned for
weapons. She was armed! But she then went down in the lift.

Kirk and Noxus converged on one of the rooms. Scanning it they picked up several Vidiian life signs.
Kirk knocked,
'Who is it?'
'We are the police. We have some questions.'
A pause, then, 'I'm in the bath! Come back later!'

Noxus shot the lock and Kirk tossed in a flash bang. The Vidiian's inside were stunned for a few
seconds, allowing Kirk and Noxus time to shoot down a couple of them. The others, once back to their
sense, returned fire and managed to duck out of the way of further grenades.

Noxus was hit by Harvesters, stun damage only, but nervous of loosing his organs he retreated. Kirk
continued to shoot into the room. Noxus threw in an incendiary grenade and a second later the sprinkler
system kicked in. Kirk went in to finish off the aliens and Noxus threw down a smoke grenade in the
corridor to frighten off the curious guests as they came out of their rooms.

Kirk quickly beamed back to the shuttle, then beamed on board Noxus and the dead and dying Vidiians
just as Treebadian security guards started to arrive.

One of the Vidiians was still alive and he lasted long enough to say:

'Oh what fools we were! To think our actions on this planet would go unnoticed. A few organs
here, a few pints of blood there. But no, Morullu thought he could turn a whole planet into
his own private organ bank. His arrogance and hubris has doomed us all!
He and the remainder of his men are out their now. They are using camouflage to disguise
themselves as locals. Morullu himself just left disguised as a female maid.
He'll go now, to where he has his bombs planted. Even now he will be sending instructions to those
that are still loyal to him to prepare for the destruction of this city. What an arrogant fool!
He hopes that a terror bombing here will make the rest of the planet line up to give us their
organs. He'll set the timer on his bomb and flee in a shuttle.
I am dying, and to be honest I wish to die, but you can live if you can stop him.
You should be able to get rough fixes on them in the city using the Harvesters, they are calibrated to
detect Vidiian's vital signs... I feel myselffading now...the more of his men you can kill.. the more
chance this city stands of survival...Morullu himself will be in the ... wait ... I see a
light ... in the place of the swans...uhhh'

With that he died. Kirk and Noxus shrugged at each other and began stripping the bodies.

(G201 30/05/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira)

(G201 30/05/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira)

[Some notes taken while I was away visiting K.] [Written by AP ;) ]

(DAY 219)

During the time that Rollo was off visiting the Lizardman camp, Mirabella conducted a comprehensive
search of the refuge and came across a secret stairwell, leading down into a basement area. She lit
her lantern, since the area was (obviously) dark. She saw a brazier, which she then lit and that light
revealed a corpse, a sickle, a heavy mace and a legend written on the wall, in what looked like blood.
The legend said “slash the flesh, hammer the bones”.
Mira took this to mean she should strip the flesh from the corpse and hammer the bones down. She did
this on one of the corpse’s arms, with no obvious effect, other than a mushy, pulped corpse arm.
Deciding to leave the corpse alone, she started investigating and opened an adjoining door. To her
horror, she was confronted by a zombie! Quickly, she loosed a number of arrows at it, to little effect.
After a few more arrows, she had an epiphany. Perhaps the legend on the wall referred to slashing
zombie flesh? She ran to the sickle, pick it up, and proceeded to hack the zombie into gently quivering
chunks, finishing with a mighty upwards blow that beheaded the wretched creature.
During the rest of her investigations, she encountered more zombies and not a few skeletons. The skeletons
also proved resistant to her arrows, and she had to go back for the mace to finish them off.
Her continuing investigations led her into a corridor, where she failed to spot the trigger for an arrow
trap! Luckily, her rogue reflexes meant that she took very little damage from this trap, and she spent
some time investigating it and determining that it could be reset.
She continued along the corridor, past an alcove, unfortunately, without checking the alcove and found
herself with 4 zombies bearing down on her! She managed to hold her ground for a while, but the zombies
sharted pushing her backwards and she fell into an unseen pit trap. Luckily, it didn’t have spikes at the
bottom, and she was able to scramble back up and out the other side, leaving two zombies in the pit, clawing
at the air. Resolving to be more wary and alert for traps, she continued her search. First though, she
returned to the surface for healing and backup in the form of Sylvia. The 2 of them then returned to the basement.
Over the course of their investigations, they encountered yet more zombies, skeletons and a couple
of chests of loot!