Eberron Adventure Journal: Grasp of the Emerald Claw

Sypheros 19 - Sypheros 26, YK 998

Part One - Lady in Distress:
Thanks to a suggestion from Lysander, the Wandering Wolves had moved their regular tavern from the Broken Anvil over to the The Drunken Dragon, which also happened to be the regular bar for the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild. Kanatash and Luggoth also joined the charter of the Wandering Wolves with the guild, and later, at the Drunken Dragon, Kanatash suggested formalizing the structure of the Wolves even further.

So it was that on Sypheros 19, the Wandering Wolves had an official charter composed by Kanatash and signed by all of the members, including Tock but obviously excluding William. Luggoth and Kanatash were made aware of the group's benefits in regards to Gareth's Gear, but not the true nature of its ownership. The treasure split was agreed to be an equal share for all members, and if someone is killed, their share of the treasure goes to their beneficiaries named in the charter. Someone killed without a beneficiary donates their share to the Wolves. Kanatash named his beneficiary as Havakhad, spiritual leader of the Shrine of il-Yannah in Upper Dura's Overlook district. Luggoth named the community of the Wolf's Paw in the Eldeen Reaches. Pel wanted 50% of his share to go to the Church of the Traveler, and Brand 50% to his mother Sheryn, with the other 50% going to the Wolves. Brand also stipulated that if he died, Whitehearth was to be taken to join Rorsa's pack in the Eldeen Reaches. Lysander named no beneficiary as of yet, other than the Wolves.

On the 22nd day of Sypheros, shortly after the rain had begun falling in Sharn again, Pel looked into the Heward's Handy Haversack for the copy of the schema and the creation pattern that the Wolves had recovered, only to find them missing. The only times he could remember being away from the Haversack, excepting when he was sleeping with it in the same room, was when he was meeting with Xain and had to leave it with him for a few minutes and when he was briefly knocked unconscious by the Daask half-ogres.

Pel gathered with the Wolves at the Drunken Dragon to discuss what should be done. As they quickly worked out that this was likely a deliberate theft, and thus not likely to be the fault of the Daask, but more the fault of the previously trusted Xain, a House Vadalis gargoyle entered the establishment looking for them.

"The Lady has need of you," the gargoyle offered, depositing a sealed envelope onto the table and departing. Inside the envelope was a letter from "Lady E." asking the Wolves to meet her at her Parlan Tower town house in Middle Central at the sound of the second evening chime, which sounded shortly thereafter.

The Wolves made their way to Lady Elaydren's town house, but found that the door was open and the windows smashed, and an attack was clearly winding down. They rushed in and found Elaydren wounded, her magic spent, defending herself weakly against four Karrnathi zombies. All around them were Elaydren's personal guards and servants, as well as a few other zombies and a couple of Emerald Claw soldiers who had clearly fallen in the attack.

The zombies were doing their best to kill Elaydren before the Wolves could interfere, but Kanatash fired off an electricity missile that killed one and nearly destroyed the others. Pel called upon the Traveler and used positive energy to kill another, Brand finished one off with a lightning quick flurry of rapier thrusts and shortsword slashes and Kanatash ended the other one with another electrical missile.

Lady Elaydren composed herself and said "Once again I am in your debt. The zombies were only part of a larger force that attacked my guards and household staff. There were armored warriors wearing the symbol of the Emerald Claw and a warforged fighter wielding a wickedly curved scimitar. The worst of these, however, was their leader. He appeared first as a smiling merchant, rotund and jolly, who used so innocent a form to gain entry to my town house. Then his form seemed to melt and flow, and he appeared as a tall, emaciated man with white skin, red eyes and sharp fangs."

"They killed my guards, my servants... they smashed my pre-Galifar memory urn... and they took the schemas. By the Great Forge, the Emerald Claw has the schemas! Their leader indicated that they had also recovered another schema and the creation pattern, and that they knew of the location of the fourth schema as well! There is still time to retrieve the schemas and keep the Order of the Emerald Claw from gaining whatever power the completed creation pattern may possess. Time is of the essence, and there isn't a moment to waste!"

The Wolves didn't hesitate in accepting this duty from Lady Elaydren, especially after she offered them 5,000 gp each to undertake it, half now and half upon completion. She expressed a desire for discretion, as the schemas, as well as notes from her ancestor Kedran d'Cannith, were entrusted to her, and losing them could hurt her standing in the House. Fortunately, Kedran's notes hinted at a location for the fourth schema, on the lost continent of Xen'drik. Elaydren handed them a letter of credit for 5,000 gold and told them to take two hours to equip themselves with potions and scrolls for the journey, and then return to her town house.

The Wolves returned to their usual stomping grounds in Upper Dura to purchase equipment for the journey. They purchased scrolls of waterbreathing, daylight and magic fang at the Dragon's Hoard, potions of cure light wounds from Good Spirits and a wand of cure light wounds from Wise Wood. Lysander and Pel went and purchased a magical bow, as well as a variety of survival and travel gear, in the Bazaar in Middle Dura.

In addition, Pel paid one year worth of rent on his new apartment, and Lysander arranged for Tock to pay his rent if he was out of town for more than a month.

Part Two - From Here to There:
Upon their return to Elaydren's town house, Brand spotted that Elaydren had hired common laborers, rather than House-affiliated magewrights, and realized just how much she wanted to keep the news of the theft quiet.

"I have secured you passage on a new form of transportation recently developed by House Cannith. It is called an undersea ship, for it travels secretly beneath the seas. Three such vehicles have been constructed. We built them for various intelligence agencies, but only one such group has had the vision to purchase one of the ships now that the Last War has ended. The other two remain in Cannith hands. Take this letter of passage to Byam, in the Grayflood district. He can be found in the vicinity of the Stone Docks. He will make sure you get safely to Stormreach and back again."

Given their luck with previous travel, the Wolves expressed more than a little concern about being on a ship traveling underwater, but they accepted this as the fastest and best method of getting to Stormreach relatively undetected.

"You might be able to pick up the Emerald Claw's trail in or around Stormreach. If that doesn't seem to be working, you can head directly to the ruins. Kedran's notes place the ancient site about four hundred miles up the Rachi River. At the turn in the Rachi River, where the land rises and the hands of stone reach for the sky, look toward the giant's left hand for guidance to the schema's resting place."

With that, Elaydren gave each character a pouch of gems. "Collect the four schemas and the creation pattern, return them to me, and an equal amount will be yours on your return. Good luck, and may the fortunes of the Houses and the Nations smile upon you."

Brand compared his map of Xen'drik to the clues provided by Kedran and satisfied himself that there was no match. He resolved to show the map to Lysander when they had more time to examine it. Then the Wolves headed down to the Grayflood district to find Captain Byam.

As it turned out, Byam was fairly easy to find, a dark-haired gnome engaged in a game of dice with other sailors. After collecting his winnings, he nodded in response to the letter of passage from Lady Elaydren and showed the Wolves into a warehouse set back from the docks. There, they first glimpsed their vessel, which looked like a thin, elongated airship that had fallen into the water. Rather than air or fire, however, the elemental binding ring was that of violently spinning water. Several gnomes were busy carrying crates into the craft through the hatch in the top.

"This is the Sea Dart, my friends, and I am its captain, Byam of the ocean depths!"

Byam showed the Wolves down into the submarine and took them up to the observation blister, which featured a magical window allowing him to see anywhere around the ship. He then showed them to the two cabins, each capable of supporting four people (albeit not comfortably). Brand, Luggoth and Whitehearth claimed one cabin, while Kanatash, Lysander and Pel took the other. Byam informed them that he was taking a shortcut through Shargon's Teeth that should get them to Stormreach in three and a half days, almost as fast as an airship could manage.

On the second day of travel, Byam called the Wolves up to the observation blister to witness Shargon's Teeth, the stone and coral columns surrounding Xen'drik, from a different point of view. From this perspective, Byam found them quite beautiful. However, their beauty belied a certain danger, as the Wolves and crew found out moments later when something struck the ship, causing them all to go flying across the observation deck, slamming into walls and floor. All except Luggoth, whose shifter reflexes allowed him to keep his feet, falling prey only to a falling bit of debris that bounced off his head.

Looking out, the Wolves and Byam could see a massive, almost thirty foot long shark with bony ridges gliding away into the water. A gnomish crewman cried out that the binding ring had been damaged, and a small leak in the cargo compartment gave no one any comfort.

"Blast that overgrown sardine's mishapen fin! Get us to the surface before the elemental gets free and we're stuck in these cursed waters! Rise, rise!"

Byam assured the Wolves that once they reached the surface, repairs would only take a couple of hours, but another complication arose as the Sea Dart was caught from above in huge nets strung across Shargon's Teeth. "All right, crew! We're going to have to take a swim and cut the Sea Dart free!"

Byam turned to the adventurers. "Any help you can provide would be much appreciated."

Two gnome crewmembers drank potions of waterbreathing, grabbed water crossbows from the armory and exited the airlock, tethered to the ship by 50' long tethers. As the Wolves drank potions of their own and grabbed the two available medium water crossbows, they were also fitted for tethers.

Brand and Luggoth were first out of the airlock, and Brand summoned an octopus to help. Pel meanwhile cast bless, and Lysander began singing for inspiration as he and Kanatash exited the airlock and stepped out onto the submarine's hull.

As the Wolves began moving to cut the nets, the dire shark appeared again and bit down on Luggoth. Kanatash responded with thrusts of mental energy, but the shark's primitive brain resisted any effect, and the Wolves watched in horror as the shark tossed back its head, swallowing Luggoth whole. Luggoth swung a mighty blow at the shark's digestive tract, trying to escape, but was unable to cut himself free in one shot. He readied for another blow, even as the digestive acids and crushing muscles of the shark's stomach threatened to knock him unconscious.

Brand teleported over, losing his tether and diving into the shark's mouth after Luggoth. Unfortunately, in his rush to rescue Luggoth, he hadn't worked out the plan through the mind link, and thus he arrived in the shark's gullet just in time for Kanatash to hop Luggoth in time, freeing him from the shark. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport out again, as Lysander and Pel fired their crossbows at the massive beast.

Lysander attempted to distract the shark with an image of a smaller shark, but it seemed to be under the direction of something smarter than its own primitive brain. Kanatash and Pel unleashed magical and psionic energies at the shark, doing minor damage, as the shark moved in and swallowed one of the gnomes.

Brand chopped one section of the net free as the shark grabbed the other gnome in its jaws. Kanatash created an energy wall around the gnome which destroyed the front section of the net and drove the shark away, freeing the gnome.

Pel wrapped his tether around Brand and cast cure moderate wounds to restore some of the damage Brand had taken inside the shark, and Brand teleported with Pel to his old tether and an uncut section of the nets.

The shark turned its attention toward Lysander, grabbing him in its powerful jaws, and Kanatash unleashed a time hop to spare him from being swallowed, as Pel chopped at another section of the net.

Kanatash blasted the last remaining section of the net with a fiery energy missile, freeing the ship, which began to rise. The Wolves followed their tethers inside, as did the surviving gnome, and the shark fled. Lysander and Luggoth emerged from their time hops inside the ship, and the Sea Dart rose to the surface with a relative minimum of casualties.

Once they were above the water, the gnomes began making repairs, and the Wolves took up guard positions, suspicious that sahuagin might have been behind the attack. Indeed, Brand spotted a group of them moving quietly through the rocky shore of the islet that the Sea Dart was parked next to, and Kanatash summoned a fire wall to hold them back.

The sahuagin dove into the water to come around and up onto the Sea Dart, but were met with harsh resistance, including an electrical missile from Kanatash that killed two of their number, forcing the others into an underwater retreat. The rest of the repairs were uneventful, and after about two hours, the Sea Dart was underway once more.

Another day and a half later, on the evening of Sypheros 26, the Sea Dart deposited the Wolves about a half mile down the shore from Stormreach, in order to conceal how they arrived. Byam expressed a willingness to wait for them for 30 days, then handed them travel papers and a letter of credit.

"Slip into Stormreach by means of the docks. The travel papers indicate that you arrived aboard the House Lyrandar galleon Strong Wind and that you're part of an expedition from Morgrave University. Just don't reveal any of this where anyone from the expedition can hear you - they probably won't go along with your story, since they don't know you from the King of Q'barra. The letter of credit can be used to acquire transportation into the jungle... it can be used at the House Cannith enclave, and only at the enclave, and only for transport. Good luck!"

XP: 1920