Radio Mojave

Session 1

Uninvited Geists

Our story begins on the 6th of Hollowlight (a Saturday) in the year 556 SR inside the prisoner hold of the Palatinate War Galley, the Whale’s Grace somewhere off the coast of the capital of the Palatinate of Ostara, Beowend.

The party was quickly thrown into the brig, having been sentenced to hard labor in the work camps at the Palatinate Colony of Angaqti. This ship would bring them there within 9 days, or so it was meant to. The party met Halagar, a soldier on the ship and he explains how things will be conducted under Captain Bamata.

The next day, Hollowlight the 7th, the party is awoken early in the morning and brought to the ship's deck to meet the captain. The sky is gray and it's clear a storm is brewing. They were lined up on the main deck by the soldiers. Some soldiers watched from the quarterdeck and fore-castle with interest. Captain Bamata gives a speech about the Alpaca she had as a child & tells the prisoners they will make themselves useful aboard the ship or else. She got names, or fake names, from each of the prisoners and learned about their skill sets.

On Hollowlight the 8th, it becomes apparent the storm is coming. The prisoners are forced to help the soldiers batten down the ship to prepare. Halagar escorts the prisoners below deck where you stay during the storm. It is quite miserable in the brig.You were brought your dinner meals by a soldier you do not know the name of, a near shaved brunette woman with a broken nose made over many years of what seems like must have been grueling work. Some of the characters recognize the characteristic remnants of an addiction to a drug from the Unterberrows called Purple Haze, appearing as cracks like dried ground.

You’re not sure how much time passed, maybe ten hours or so. It was difficult to recover under the battering and sound of the storm. On what must have been Hollowlight the 9th, food didn’t come for breakfast. Between the howling winds and thunder, you could hear the bellows of the soldiers calling out orders and heard the sound of rope snapping as something, presumably containers or a cannon rolled away from where they were battened to its position with a loud roll and crash. Gently, over the next three hours, the sound of thunder lessened and the rolling of the ship gradually became more of a swelling. The worst of the storm had passed. Or so you had thought. It was near nightfall and the dimming of your heightened adrenaline and growling of your stomachs had begun to call into question your next meal.

A soft, but steady mist began to seep from the ship’s wood, pervading corners seemingly through water-tight wood. It had grown sickeningly quiet. You could no longer hear the storm, nor the shouts of the Palatinate soldiers – only the groaning of the ship. Suddenly, the hatch to the brig slammed open, and the brown-haired woman from before falls through the hole, hitting the ground with a crack. A floating cadaver, roiling with the greenish blue glow of the mists around it descended like a puppet on strings through the hatch behind the woman. It followed as she crawled toward you for help, before slaying her in front of you. Her soul seemingly left her body to join the mists pervading the room. The thing froze there, like a wind up toy that had run out of its spun energy, its sword still in the back of the cadaver. Suddenly its head jerked up, and it attacked the party. The geist killed one of the prisoners, the dwarf Kormakúr, their soul escaping into the mists as their body released a chilling death-rattle.

The party, several of which were afflicted with short-term madness from this geist, scurry into the back of the room with the exception of Zachriel and Sigmund, the latter of which ran past the geist for the hatch - seemingly abandoning the rest of the prisoners. Rallying the others, Zachriel attacks the geist, as he summons a radiant flame in one hand and strikes it like a bat with his flail towards the geist, the flame critically hitting the spirit like a baseball and immediately killing the creature.

Zachriel and the rest of the party escape through the hatch into the lower decks of the ship. Greenish blue light and mist cast long erratic shadows of men struggling to fight howling geists that overwhelmed them. Geists tore through walls and timber, passing through as though they were not there. Likewise, many soldier’s swords passed through the spectral geists without drawing blood. Your gear was waylaid in a box that had fallen over in the chaos, a dead body limp and strewn over it. Had it not been for the fact that the man’s head looked like a smashed pumpkin splaid out across the side of the box, you’d have thought him resting. The party passed through the cargo hold and up into the gun deck, where a cannon you had heard earlier had been thrown against one of the main timber supports, and had crushed and splattered a woman against it during the storm. Behind a makeshift barricade of boxes and cannons, some Palatinate soldiers fired crossbows at the geists that swarmed the ship. Their bolts glittering with the glisten of silver as they flew through the air and struck the haunting cavalcade, dealing some sort of pain upon the geists. As the party reached the upper deck, they recognized that the sky was gone. Replaced by roiling greenish blue mist that seemed effervescent and infinite. The captain Bamata and her men were on deck fighting the geists - an uphill battle. For each geist killed, two or three Palatinate soldiers dropped, their souls torn from their bodies to fly into the roiling mists with the echo of their dying screams. As you ascended, a geist flew through the rigging overhead and dove at the party, but before it reached you, it was hit by a crossbow bolt from Halagar. It shrieked and two of its allies overhead moved to dive upon Halagar, like hunting orcas. He called to you, “Prisoners! Do something! Help!” The party gives Halagar one sarcastic look before running the opposite direction towards the rowboats at the forecastle of the ship. As the party made their way across the deck, the mists off the starboard side of the ship parted, and a large geist floated over the deck of the boat looking like a fucking nazgul with its hood fully covering its face. Geists swirled around it as it made its way across the deck, dragging a massive axe along the deck that scraped with the shrill sound of nails on board. The Palatinate soldiers around Captain Bamata loosed bolts at the thing to no avail. Bamata, wide eyed, lifted an arquebus towards the haunt as it closed the distance, her men fleeing from it and around her like rats. It grabbed her gun by the muzzle, and snapped it in a motion as quick as a knife, and then tossed it aside. The haunt lifted her eight feet up into the air with its free hand. Under its tight hood, a cadaver’s face moved dead skin and jaw to speak, “The tome?” Bamata responded confused, “I don’t know.” Cough. “What the fuck. You’re talking about.”

She took a dagger from her boot, glinting with silver and swung, but with a bass filled thunk, the haunt dropped its axe and caught her arm by the wrist before she could strike. It then tore her arm from its socket with ease, pouring an arc of blood across the deck. The captain’s scream rattled your bones like you were a fucking cage. You can still hear that scream when you close your eyes. The party quickly made their way for the boats. The sea could be seen below, but you’d swear the boat was floating a good ten feet over the troughs of the water. As you climb aboard the rowboats, something within the ship cracked and the boat groaned like a sickly beast, it too having its soul torn from itself. Those of you with sailing or timbering experience knew what that crack was: the main support you passed in the gun deck had just given way. The ship lurches and ghosts swirl about it. You loosened your rowboat just as the weight of the ship gave in on itself. The rowboat dropped, and dropped for what felt like too far. You crashed into the ocean and felt its briney embrace. Something happened to the rowboat. Maybe it cracked under the weight, or was thrown by the sea, but the shock of the cold water took over your senses and soon gave way to darkness. You awoke, your body aware of the chill before your numb senses were shaking in the tidepools. Somehow, you were uninjured, and yet battered and bruised. You saw bodies in tidepools, upon the sharp rocks and in the sands. Some moved. Others sat still in the pools, mixing with their blood. Above you, the sky was a deep blue, with puffs of ever-white clouds drifting lazily upon the wind. Nearby, high up on stone sea cliffs, the rush of the leaves of a forest made their way to meet with the sound of crashing surf. The party found one surviving Palatinate soldier, a man named Bartholomew. Zachriel and Emrys stop Suthri from killing the soldier, Suthri remarking, “There are three Crownsguard here, we can’t allow this enemy…” before trailing off, correcting herself for the lost dwarf, “Two Crownsguard…” before she wandered off, allowing the others to save Bartholomew. Deciding to get to a higher ground before the tides come in, the party makes their way up an escarpment 25 feet onto the cliffs. They catch their breath, search the local area and make a fire. Suthri finds prints that Jesper identifies as ettercaps. He rolls a critical on his knowledge check and explains they are intelligent humanoids and usually won't mess with others if left alone.

The party settles around the fire, presumably warming themselves and their recovered rations. They begin to talk and Sasha gets in a bit of an argument with Sigmund over the fact that he is part of the brutal mercenary company the Hanged Men who pil;alged and burned his town. Sigmund showed little sympathy and the other party members quickly chip in onto Sasha's side. All but Jesper, who tries to bring to hand the subject that they just survived a ghostwalk and he doesn't think that it was coincidental they all survived! He tries to get information from them about any sort of “tome,” like the one the geist had mentioned. He admits to having studied under a wizard, which quickly shines the spotlight onto him, seemingly unnerving the magic-suspicious Margravians.

The party gives each other a little context on who they are and where they want to head, and it is decided the group will travel together to Thalnadel, a frontier town in the north of the forest, once financed by the crown of Morveil in an attempt to settle a seaside settlement.

During the night the party sleeps in watches. Huamanipuni lets Sasha look at her arquebus - the first time he’s held one in his hands. Sigmund and Suthri shortly discuss the injured Palatinate soldier and the possible nearby ettercaps, Sigmund learning Suthri has arachnophobia. On last watch, Zachriel heals Bartholomew’s broken leg, so much so that he will not slow them down as they travel north through the forest.

The session ends on the 10th of Hollowlight (a Wednesday) at the cliffs of the Splinterlicks, on the edge of the Grove of Sibilations as the sun rises and the rest of the party begins to stir from their restless sleep.