When last we left our heroes, they had set off to discover the whereabouts of the missing Koikonnen diamond, and perhaps to recover it. Having overheard a promising lead, but one which the town guard were unwilling to pursue, Roulette “Ace” Diaz and Mason “Mayo” Hashbrowns headed to the docks of Titan’s Gate to see to the lead on their own. We rejoin them there, where they’ve brokered passage on a ship called The Mirador, captained by one Pete Geivoda, a former crew mate of Mayo’s. With the crew bustling to prepare the ship, Mayo takes the opportunity to scour the docks for loose coin and Ace asks the captain about his crew.
Captain Pete calls his top officers to the deck to meet Ace, and they assemble. “My First Mate, Cecile, you’ve met already,” says Pete, indicating the black-and-bronze dragon woman. Next, he points to an extravagantly dressed halfling man. “This is Mr. Greggor Brigidson, cook and morale officer.” Just then, a young half-elf woman lands light-footed on the deck. Not skipping a beat, the captain introduces her. “Ms. Amy Wang, navigations and lookout; she may be young, but she’s capable.” Finally he points to an impatient-looking dwarf woman with giant darkened goggles and soot wiped across her brow. “This is Officer Beatriz, Daughter of Freya, munitions and demolitions,” the captain says.
“Are we quite through? I’ve got a gun to get fixed before we set off.” Beatriz complains. The captain dismisses them, and Amy and Beatriz return to their work. “Don’t mind Beatriz,” Greggor says in a bouncing accent. “You’ll not find a more talented cannon-master, but a charmer she is not.”
The captain whispers something to Cecile, who nods sharply and bounds off through the crowded docks and out of sight. No one pays her any special attention; Dragonborn individuals are common in dock towns because their natural skills for sailing mean many work on the boats.
***
After many hours, as the sun begins to duck behind the horizon, Cecile returns and delivers to the captain a rolled bit of heavy paper. The crew begin shouting instructions of hoisting anchors and such, and the journey commences. Once underway, the captain calls Ace and Mayo into his cabin to discuss more details. He unrolls the parcel he sent Cecile to retrieve; it’s a map of Dangler’s Isle! They talk about the plan, how they will approach the island from the northeast side where it seems safest, and how the reefs around the island pose a risk if they don’t navigate the ship carefully, etc.
As night claims the sky and our adventurers turn in, The Mirador sails on toward adventure. The night passes without event, but as the day-shift crew arises—and our intrepid Ace and Mayo with them—Amy the lookout shouts a warning about an approaching storm to the east, and the crew redouble their focus to address the elements. As the storm approaches, however, Amy curses and shouts again, this time more urgently, “Two ships approaching! I missed them against the storm clouds, the tricky jerks.” Again the sailors’ focus intensifies, as they prepare to battle not just the elements, but also whomever these ships might hold as well.
“Goblins!” shouts one of Pete’s men. Indeed, as the enemy ships approach, their size becomes clear, and angry blue or green faces of 20 or more goblin sailors become visible, shouting in their gargling hiss, or running to ropes, or readying crossbows and daggers.
BOOM!
Cannons begin to fire as the ships come within range. The ships all begin the dance of death, turning to meet the rising waves and to bring the massive guns to bear on their enemies. The battle is fierce, and the storm grows fiercer each second! One nasty wave rocks The Mirador, and Ace—unaccustomed as she is to such unstable ground, stumble and rolls, hitting the starboard rail of the ship and nearly tumbling overboard. She is the lucky one, however, as a young sailor who had been running to baton down something or other misses the grab and rolls over the rail. Ace can hear his shouting for only a second or two before his cries are swallowed by the howl of the wind, the crash of the waves, and the shouts of the sailors and cannons.
Righting herself, Ace readies her short bow and an arrow. One of this ships has come quite close, and many of the pirate goblins look to be making preparations to board, though the waves and the constant expert maneuvering of Captain Pete seem to be making things difficult. Ace see’s her opportunity, targeting the fancifully dressed goblin at the helm of one of the nearing ship, and looses the shot. The arrow finds its mark! The goblin turns to look Ace in the eye, narrowing blood-red eyes that shine like rubies against the rain-soaked sky-blue skin of the goblin. Through gritted teeth—pointed and yellow—the goblin shouts orders to her crew, and the sight makes clear to our young heroine how this captain came to be known as Needleteeth.
Our rogue takes another shot and aims true, but this time her target is ready. Seeing the shot fly, Captain Needleteeth grabs an unfortunate passing goblin and pulls him into the path of the arrow. The green-skinned crewman who had been readying to board gasps and crumples as the arrow buries itself in his chest. But by now, amid the waxing storm, Needleteeth has given up boarding. The ship turns and pulls out-of-range of further arrow fire.
But the battle isn’t yet won. The tusked monk reaches the top of the mast and makes ready to leap to the other enemy ship as it passes on the other side of The Mirador. However, just then a cannon shot blasts through the hull of the ship at an upward angle, continues through the wood of the top deck and grazes Ace’s left arm. While barely any contact was made, the energy carried by the ball is enough to break the arm and dislocate the shoulder, and the young woman is knocked to the ground just as another wave hits, this time cresting over the top of the deck and carrying our injured investigator over the edge.
Mayo is thrown from his perch on the mast, but manages to grasp a waving rope pulled loose from who knows where as he splashes into the sea. Burning in his hands, he turns his attention to his companion. Without losing grip on the rope, he manages to swim to Ace, but with her arm in the shape it is, she can’t hold on to the rope on her own. While his attempt is valiant, the pull of the rope from the boat and the drag from the water prove more than even our beastly monk can overcome, and the rope slips from his grasp.
They flounder in the roaring sea for some time, as the sounds of shouting fade. Mayo finds some drifting planks—from his friends ship or his enemies’ it’s difficult to say—and helps his friend steady herself with some of it. They hear other cries for help around them from the throats of goblins, humans, dragonborn…our sea-trained monk tries to push a passing barrel toward one man’s shout, but with the wind and waves it’s impossible to know whether the attempt was successful. The storm rages on, and while Mayo is a strong swimmer, he cannot hope to save everyone while keeping hold of Ace so they’re not separated. Many shouts fade, whether because of distance or hopelessness or worse.
***
Hours pass, or perhaps minutes that feel like hours. The storm weakens gradually, and the sun returns. With the light of the sun comes a point of reference by which Mayo can find his bearings. With what he knows of the geography of this area, he gambles that the best direction to move is south. The pair kick for some time, but amid the action and exertion of the day, they grow weary quickly and their consciousness begins to drift like their bodies, not to sleep, but to something less than awake…
***
Mayo is awakened by a familiar annoying squawk. The light of the sun is just beginning to reach toward the golden gleam of a Titan’s Gate evening. That sound!, our hero remembers suddenly. He searches the sky and quickly identifies its owner, a gliding seagull! Scanning the horizon beneath the gull, he spots a bit of shadow, a point that seems to defy the constant motion of the sea. “Ace,” he shouts, “land!”
She wakes and looks and sure enough, a bright tree line is just visible above the waves. Sore and exhausted, she kicks for her life. The two kick together until the anticipation of relief from the waves overcome them and they let go to focus all their strength on getting to land. The desperate Ace makes landfall first, laying in the firm sand and feeling the pain of her now useless arm. Mayo joins her shortly and helps her reset her shoulder, but can do little else to help her.
Before they can decide what to do next, a faint shout for help reaches their ears. It’s distant, and not much can be discerned about it beyond the clear distress, but—exhausted though they are—they follow down the beach in the direction of the shouts. As they approach, however, the shouts suddenly silence. They break into as much of a run as their jelly-legs can manage.
Looking out at the sea, they see the splashing of a swimmer clutching a splintered tabletop, whose clothes, though soaked, are unmistakable as those of Greggor Brigidson, the Mirador‘s bard chef.
As our pair of stranded adventurers approach the part of the shore where they expect him to make landfall, distracted as they are watching Greggor to be sure he comes ashore safely, they nearly trip on an unconscious green lump. Greggor pulls himself ashore just as the lump begins to stir.
Not taking any chances, our castaways tie up the goblin. It seems they get no moment of rest yet. They interrogate the goblin, who finds himself completely bound, his hands behind his back, and then hoisted into the air by what appears to him to be a gigantic half-orc. That interrogation begins quite roughly, and the goblin is overcome with fear, wetting himself and whimpering. Seeing the state of him, our heroes ease up and learn his name: Splink.
While this is happening, Greggor notices Ace’s bleeding arm. He sings a soft shanty and gently grasps the wounded limb, and Ace feels a tingling energy move through the arm. The pain in her arm spikes briefly, but almost immediately subsides entirely, her arm fully healed.
Though every muscle is screaming for rest, the group wisely decide to move inland to the trees to make a proper camp. With the goblin securely tied to a tree, Greggor sets about gathering wood from nearby for a fire, while our Ace & Mayo head into the thick jungle in search of something to eat.
Their foraging is a success, with Ace managing to stumble onto large jungle cat, which is so startled by the sudden appearance of a humanoid that it abandons the jungle boar it had just taken down. Mayo is similarly successful, though not nearly as lucky, coming back with mushrooms and a handful of rats. He does also find some some berries, but the rogue recognizes them to be poisonous, so they leave them.
Returning to camp, they find the halfling chatting casually to the bound goblin, who for his part seems fully content to have survived through the day and is cheerfully responding as though with an old friend. As the foragers return the conversation turns to meat and its preparation, which the bard chef begins without delay, pulling pinch after pinch of various spices all from a single, tiny, magical pouch on his hip. They have to explain what cooking is to Splink as it’s not an idea he’s entirely familiar with. When the boar is ready, they all have enough to satisfy. It’s some of the tastiest boar Ace has ever had. They even feed some to Splink, who likes it, though not as much as the raw rat they feed him (they still don’t totally trust him, so they keep him lashed toe-to-shoulder to the tree, but he’s made no complaints so far).
Satisfied and exhausted, our unlikely party prepare for the evening’s rest, assigning who will take watch when. They’ve beaten the odds and survived the day. But where are they? And where will they go next? Is there any hope of recovering the stolen Koikonnen Diamond?