I will indeed be cutting down on sea encounters, they are cool and they give the Marcella a chance to show up (if only she would make the rolls *grumble*grumble*)
Ninth Day of Ikomi-eza (Ikomi Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
Eighteen dead... you had heard it called the butcher's bill, that dreadful tally of men who had been parted from their lives, as though in death they were no more than a haunch of meat to be dealt with. You try not to judge it too harshly for you are no stranger to the wish that it were so, that you could just wish away the sight reflected in unseeing eyes. At least by Inge's and Zaia's arts you would not have to see men in the grip of fever, burning alive in their own skin.
If you had neither the eye of Ikomi nor the concoctions of Zaia's conjuring odds are you would be struggling to limp off with even the Pride in tow, more than half of its crew dead or too wounded to work. As is as you pass by you see one man with smooth skin grown over the stump of his hand, a fellow at home in the rigging, or so he had been at least. Over the past three days there had been as much in the way of giving new tasks to the living as there had been delivering the dead into the embrace of the sea.
Scale coats and weapons of every description, from crude stone disk maces to the heavy axes of bronze favored by the Anwa nobility had been gathered up and tossed into Marcella's hold, with Antonio far too busy assessing the damages and seeing how he can make four working crews from two already somewhat short-handed ones to assess what value they might hold, though the same could not be said about Inge and Esha who are quick to assess what powers Isele Okomo carried with him beyond his songs of power.
First of these are the drums themselves, carved of pinewood stained black with some lustrous paint that not even Zaia can name and covered in rawhide, likely from a deer, antelope or some other swift-footed creature, they have the power in the right hand to drive a handful of men not merely to fury, but to such swiftness as you had seen in the company of Isele.
"They say a warrior is twice as skilled under the song of these drums," Esha explains, then with a smile and a shake of her head she adds: "Then again they say you can only make their like from the hide of a holy beast of Nikure and misfortune shall follow you to your doom if you play them. Their last owner seems to have had quite a long and successful piratical reputation for that."
"He did die in the end," you point out.
"So do most people, if that is what passes for gods' wrath then they are sadly slothful."
You try to swallow the shocked laugh, you do not manage it very well, but you at least have the grace to change the subject as quickly as you can. "What about the rest?"
"He was wearing a bit of fey gold..." she opens her hand to reveal an innocently glinting lump of gold about the size of one's thumb. "You were lucky perhaps to put him down when you did, else you might have felt the touch of ice as much as fire, though I can't think of any way to summon that now since it was a gift to him and not to us. Still, it should be a bit of luck 'round your neck. The gifts of the fey are fickle things."
"Still not that encouraging, the luck doesn't seem to have done him much good," you mock grumble, drawing a small laugh from Zaia from where he was enjoying a rare patch of winter sunlight on deck.
"Well then at least you will enjoy the club, it did all in its power to keep him alive and worshiping the Lord of War as he most enjoys. Granted it does also do its best to make sure you start a fight." For all her tone is light you notice that this, unlike the drums and the talisman, she had left in Inge's keeping.
Given the sort of will that is supposedly bound into those crude runes you cannot say you blame her, a weapon that thirsts for war.
Gain Northern Fury
Northern Fury
Description: This heavy oaken club, roughly carved, is not quite sentient, but still seems drawn to violence, dragging its wielder into battle with it if it can.
Powers:
+1 Greatclub
The wielder takes a -2 penalty on Will saves against any spells or effects that incite rage, compel hostility or otherwise contribute to starting a fight.
With the first hit made in a combat the club casts Deadly Juggernaut as a free action, but also requires the wielder to make a DC 14 Will save to retreat from melee-range of any opponent still standing. The spell can only be activated once per day.
By contrast the last of Isele's treasures is as finely wrought as the work of any king's treasury, a horn in form but not of horn wrought, rather it seems to have been carved from a single piece of ivory by most skillful and loving craft. Carved all about its length with scenes of war that feature men and bears as well as the obviously quite painful transformation between them. It's purpose is clear as day carved into its length, though even with Inge's assurance that it 'should be safe' you are in no hurry to experience its fel power.
Gain Horn of the Werebear
Description: A horn in form but not of horn wrought, rather it seems to have been carved from a single piece of ivory by most skillful and loving craft. Carved all about its length with scenes of war that feature men and bears as well as the obviously quite painful transformation between them.
Power: A sacred relic of Olweje, when this horn is blown it can temporarily transform a warrior into large, armored monstrosity of a bear, a Zentragt. The warrior must accept the transformation willingly and after the battle for which he was transformed sacrifice the arms and armor of all foes he has slain to Olweje (by eating them in his bear-form), or else the warrior remains a Zentragt and is driven battle-mad to attack his former comrades.
The transformation takes a full round and lasts for an hour, the target of the transformation must be within 10 feet of the hornblower.
Yet even as she is giving this account Inge seems distracted, not distant as you had seen her before, looking upon vistas hidden to your eyes, rather she seems to be looking past you in a very physical sense... over your shoulder and right at Tom. "I think..." her voice is soft, barely heard. "I think he has been cursed from the fight, him, John, Hugh and Pete as well. I can't tell what it is really, just there waiting like coils of mist barely seen."
You bite your tongue against a vicious curse, not at her, but at fate and misfortune. Never had you thought you would regret sending a pirate's corpse into the sea so badly before.
What do you do?
[] Tell the men, they deserve to know
[] Keep it back for now, no need to cause a panic
OOC: Just to be clear the curse does not seem to be doing anything at the moment and no one has reported anything odd, that is part of the reason why it took her so long to realize what she is seeing.
A creature that catches lycanthropy becomes an afflicted lycanthrope, but shows no symptoms (and does not gain any of the template's adjustments or abilities) until the night of the next full moon, when the victim involuntarily assumes animal form and forgets his or her own identity. The character remains in animal form until the next dawn and remembers nothing about the entire episode (or subsequent episodes) unless he makes a DC 20 Will save, in which case he becomes aware of his condition.
A remove disease or heal spell cast by a cleric of 12th level or higher cures the affliction, provided the character receives the spell within 3 days of the infecting lycanthrope's attack. Alternatively, consuming a dose of wolfsbane gives an afflicted lycanthrope a new Fortitude save to recover from lycanthropy.
Not one that can cast a Remove Curse spell at 12th level. I can think of a couple different combination of spells, feats, traits, and Metamagic that could push a spell to 12th level in this setting, assuming the caster is already maxed out, but it would be seriously crazy, Epic level stuff we couldn't possibly gather or afford on short notice, if they're even really available at all.
Still need to get to the temple, though. They're out closest semi-friendly contact in the religious community who might be able to help, or just provide insight into the curse before it takes effect.
A DC 15 Fortitude save isn't impossible, but it's still very high. Even if we can get our hands on enough wolfsbane, there is no guarantee they'll be able to make the save.
If it's just the Lycanthropic curse to turn into a Werebear, that's actually not too bad. Our men should be able to adapt to that without too much trouble, as Werebears are by far the most chill of Lycanthropes. The abilities they would gain could even be useful. My concern is that the curse is much more of a burden, possibly transforming them into Zentragt beholden to or influenced by Olweje.
Not one that can cast a Remove Curse spell at 12th level. I can think of a couple different combination of spells, feats, traits, and Metamagic that could push a spell to 12th level in this setting, assuming the caster is already maxed out, but it would be seriously crazy, Epic level stuff we couldn't possibly gather or afford on short notice, if they're even really available at all.
We got 10 questions from Speak with Dead, which is 1 question per 2 caster levels, so it was like CL 20 Speak with Dead; maybe for specific spells aligned with the temple and/or the god we actually can get high caster levels?
Before we try any risky methods of breaking the curse, we need to learn what it is first. If it's just typical Werebear Lycanthropy, our men might not wish to undertake a potentially lethal ordeal to remove it. Hopefully it won't come to that, though.
[X] Tell the men, they deserve to know
-[X] Assure them that we will try to learn more of the curse, and seek a cure when we reach Orinilu.
I'm inclined to give the Fey Gold amulet to Esha, she needs the bonus to her Will save, but it might be premature to do so now. The amulet and the horn are both linked to Olweje, possibly the club as well. We might need to return them to Olweje's temple, or make an offering of them at least, to see our men cured.
That greatclub sure is powerful, though. Powerful, but really dangerous to wield. It would be great for Wanderer in some circumstances, assuming we're able to keep it.
Any ideas how to split the loot?
The club should go to a PC, but since we don't have a fitting one, might as well give it Wanderer.
The nugget can go to anyone, a bit more willsave is never bad, maybe Antonio, since he got left out last big loot-vote?
The Drums are useless for now, until we get a good drummer.
The horn should propably be secured and only used in common agreement of the party, if needed.
The only way to know for sure is to try it out, for what it's worth they do know what drums are, though none of them are particularly musical (no perform skill).
I'm going to refrain from getting my heart set on any of the magical loot we found until we find out if we'll need to trade some or all of it for help during our men.
In the meantime until we decide on what to do with it, @DragonParadox, could you maybe add the magical loot to a spoiler tab in the resources post?
