Admiral's Story

Reaver finds its mark in a soft spot between overlapping plates on the creature's underside. The area immediately around the piercing attack cracks and withers as it becomes dead flesh. The centipede writhes, shrieks, and spins around, jaws open, moving to bite the arm that dealt it pain.



Admiral---Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 8, Spell Slots: 0/2, Current PP: 3, Pact Tally: 0/400
Centipede---Damage Tally: 17, Hex: Disadvantage (Str)

The bite locks firmly onto your arm drawing blood with sharp pincers.

Admiral yelps in surprise and frantically smacks the centipede with his sword to try to make it let go of his arm. "OW! Ow, ow, ow! Let go, let go, let go!"

You frantically whack the creature on its head with the pommel of your sword. At first it holds its bite firm. But after the 10th blow or so the pressure of its bite releases. Its body goes limp. Although its pincers are still lodged in your arm the centipede is dead.

Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 1, Spell Slots: 0/2, Current PP: 3, Pact Tally: 0/400

Admiral mutters a string of colourful curses under his breath as he carefully pries the dead centipede’s pincers out of his arm. With a grunt of effort, he pushes the centipede’s body off the ladder and listens as it splashes to the ground below. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he allows Reaver’s strength to bolster his own again –not healing per se, but merely allowing him to ignore the wound– before continuing up the ladder.

The giant insect corpse splashing to the landing floor, you continue to the top of the ladder. At the top there is a round 'door' directly above your head. Although, with its orientation, it functions more like a utility hole cover. Otherwise it is nearly identical to the round door in the passage below. It looks like it opens upward into the space above. Like the other door, in the center of this door there is a round iron ring. Now that you are close you can see that in the center of the ring there is a large keyhole. You think you can see a little bit of what is beyond the door through the keyhole.

It is difficult to make it out for sure, but perhaps you are peeking at a high ceiling area that is covered in mossy, moldy growth. You think that perhaps you see some natural light in the space, maybe coming through windows.




Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 6, Spell Slots: 0/2, Current PP: 3, Pact Tally: 0/400

Admiral hisses in frustration at the locked door and slides back down the ladder, stepping over the body of the centipede as he makes his way back to the first chamber to investigate the other passageway (the opening to the right). On the way, he passes the cell again and pauses, considering his former cellmate. He doesn’t like the idea of leaving the poor bastard here to rot. Besides, if he’s going to take back the Whisker, he’s going to need a new crew. He can’t sail her on his own and, even if he could, where’s the fun in that? Who knows – maybe this fine fellow fancies turning pirate? Admiral decides to search the area around the bench and the wall of shackles to see if he can’t find a set of keys or something…

Upon further investigation of the vaulted cell room you don’t find keys mixed in the hanging shackles, but behind the bench tucked between its leg and the wall is a small pouch. Inside it there is 28gp, some dice with characters on each face that are goblinoid in appearance to you. Also in the pouch there’s some dried jerky, rat jerky by the smell of it--You remember Dharzal making it for you on the Whisper with the rats you’d capture and bring him when you were still a kitten--you are disturbed from you memories when the human in the cell gives a sound of a sickly cough. He hunches over as he does, head hanging toward the floor. When he does, you catch a view of a tattoo on the back of his neck. It’s the mark of a Sindhi Mystic (monk).

Admiral looks at the jerky and wonders, sadly, if Dharzal had known about the plan to betray him, until the coughing monk startles him out of his melancholy. Tucking the pouch into his coat, he returns his mind to the situation at hand and wanders over to take a look at the opening on the right-hand side of the room.

You look down the opening at the back right corner of the room. It opens to a short natural tunnel that leads to a round chiseled opening. The opening and the area around it has been reinforced with some large wooded beams. It's not the finest craftsmanship but looks safe from a cave in. There is an iron shelf hung with rusted chains on the right side of the opening. Dim lighting from the space beyond the arch reveals that it opens to another cell area.

You cautiously proceed closer. As you do, you hear a high-pitched guttural squealing voice suddenly exclaim in the common tongue, "My pouch! Where is it!? You took my gold! The voice seems to come from the cell area beyond the arch. Out of sight to you, it sounds like it comes from the left of that room.

You then hear a much deeper raspy but muffled voice respond in a firm, somewhat calm manner, "I did not take your gold you tiny heap of slime. Your dull wit likely left it out by the boats during last pickup." The voice is male and deep. It sounds spoken through a helmet or mask.

"I'm going to look. Give me the keys!" demands the first voice.

The male voice responds, "No. It is not time to open the entry. Be silent. If you cannot perform your duty here go back to your hole under the city. But of course, I imagine your king would not be very happy with you if you were to abandon his interests here."

"What do you know...you're just their human Hound," spits the small voice.

"I know I am in charge of this drop off, goblin scum," concludes the other

You hear a loud dramatic spit and some stomping that soon is followed by the sound of a knife or dagger being repeatedly heaved into and pulled out from wood.

Admiral slinks closer…

At the edge of the arched opening into the cell room, you manage to to find a concealed location under the hanging iron shef and behind a pile of crumbling rock and broken beams. When you peer into the room you see a wiry goblin pulling a dagger out of a wooded shield that leans against the wall. You also see a heavily armored human-sized figure sitting at a table across the room looking over some parchment. You can see that the figure is wearing a mask molded into the shape of a bearded face. Also you see a large key hanging form the masked figure's belt.

Just as you make it all out, a single loud boom from somewhere deeper into the room echoes and shakes the walls slightly. Some dust and light stone debris fall around you in the arch as the boom shakes the entire area. It sounds distant like it came from another tunnel. The two in the cell stand to attention. The goblin quickly puts on his wooden shield. The armorclad figure draws a sword. Both move toward the direction of the sound and stand silently, looking, waiting to hear it again. Although it almost appears they are looking at you, you think they are fixed on the event and are completely unaware of you. Instead, you think they must be peering into another opening to their right that is next to the arch you hide in (you hide to their left). You cannot see the opening. They are about 12 feet away from you.

Crouched in the shadows, the tip of Admiral’s tail twitches in anticipation as he waits for the perfect moment to pounce. He’s not sure what might have caused such an earth-shaking boom, but he doesn’t stop to wonder about it. Taking advantage of the distraction, he launches himself at the heavily-armoured figure in the mask, sapping the warrior's strength with the same curse he cast on the centipede…

The goblin and the figure both stand fixed on the direction they look, seeming almost mesmerized, tranced perhaps...

You seize the opportunity to pounce, brandishing Reaver and silently evoking it to send green flame at the goblin when you attack the other. Just as you take action, the walls again shake in concert with two loud booms, as if something very close bangs strong limbs against either side of a tunnel as it moves. This time, as rubble and dust fall around you from the crashes, one of the iron shelf's supporting chains comes loose from the archway ceiling. As you leap out, the heavy shelf swings and unexpectedly catches you in the back, knocking you slightly off balance.


At the same time the goblin is startled by your sudden appearance, a spiked tentacle swipes the armored figure to the ground and a gruesome claw grabs the figures leg. Now you are in the room enough to see a large beast emerge from the tunnel the two were transfixed on. It has the frame of an ogre, the jaws of a giant leach, and the tentacles of an otyugh.




It quickly drags the armored man into the darkness of the tunnel. Although you are winded by the impact of the shelf, you still have surprised the goblin and can attack it first.Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 2, Spell Slots: 0/2, Current PP: 3, Pact Tally: 0/400

Admiral rubs his shoulder where the shelf hit it as he recovers his footing and stares, wide-eyed, at the tunnel into which the monster disappeared.

"What was that!?" he demands of the goblin even as he takes a half-hearted swipe at him.

Not even noticing your half-hearted swing, terror fills the goblin’s eyes as it darts past Reaver, frantically trying to get away from the tunnel his companion was just dragged into. As the goblin slips through your legs, Reaver clangs on the stone floor. Instinctively, as he slips by, he attempts to slice your shin with his dagger.

You shift your leg out of the path of the goblin’s blade. As he runs into the archway back toward the other cell room, the goblin screeches, "It’s the Sewer Nightmare! Wants bodies for its rotting heap!" The goblin’s voice starts to sound distant and echos in the tunnel. "It traps you with a dream." The last thing you can make out that the goblin says is, "Wait…Pirate Captain, how did you get out of…" You guess he made it back to your former cell. Current HP: 27, Temp HP: 1, Spell Slots: 0/2, Current PP: 3, Pact Tally: 0/400

Eager to be as far away from the ‘Sewer Nightmare’ as possible, Admiral follows the goblin into the other room, thinking that the little creature might know the way out of this place. "Listen, mate, I think we both know I could probably kill you without much trouble, but if I’m to get back to my ship before she leaves harbour, I need to get out of here sooner rather than later. I reckon you probably know your way around this place better than I do so how about we make ourselves a deal— you show me the way out and, in exchange, I graciously allow you to keep your head attached to your shoulders." As he speaks, Admiral’s eyes glow faintly with arcane power as Reaver’s magic flows through him.