DavesGaming

That night, we started our mission with Imoen sneaking into the home of Cayia, the girlfriend of the local pirate lord. She swiped a shell horn that was in the house. This is just a signalling horn used for the comings and goings of the pirate lord’s ship.
Some drama ensued, a couple of little melees getting out of town. We met Saemon at the pirate lord’s ship. But Desharik, the pirate lord, arrived just after we did.

He slew Cayia as we watched.

Desharik and his band of thugs were not a serious challenge. Here’s a pointer for any other aspiring pirates out there, when you see a short skinny woman wearing plate armor that’s well tailored to her size and looks well used… think very carefully before you start something you can’t finish.

We set sail from Brynnlaw with no further trouble. But we hadn’t traveled far when we were attacked by someone else. A larger ship with a crew of Githyanki!

Much of Saemon’s crew were killed, but I think we were getting the upper hand against the Gith. When we were boarded by Sahuagen. They boiled up over the sides of the ship, killing sailors and Gith alike. And they were doing something under that water. We could feel our ship slowing and being dragged lower in the water.

We were netted by the Sahuagen and pulled under.

I was next able to breath again in a completely alien setting.

She was Senityili. She demanded to know if we were the ones promised by prophecy. Huh. I don’t honestly know, but all things considered “yes” seemed to be the correct answer. She told us of their great tragedy, their population was in critical decline and they needed a deliverer.
To be clear, Sahuagen are a great evil. Well, a bit on the stupid side. So maybe a mediocre evil. Their population being in critical decline is what most of us would call good news. But we would need a way out of here, so I reckoned playing along was the best path for the time being.

After some discussion we were given an audience with their King.

He casually ordered several executions while we were present. And he wants the heart of some rebel Prince. We agreed to look into it.
Keldorn is uncharacteristicly peevish about this whole business. I’m a paladin like him, I can detect evil all over these monsters. I have no intent of *helping* them in any way. But I need to know where we are, and where we can go from here before we start burning all our bridges.
After meeting with the mad King we went back to the slightly less bonkers priestess. She declared her King was a hopeless mess, and asked that we help the rebel Prince and kill their King.
Okay, helping the Prince sounds like a really bad plan…

But we agreed to go have a talk with him. First we would need to track down some sort orb to gain access to the Prince. One was stashed off in a neglected corner of this undersea settlement.

Fortunately a friendly beholder. I think its called a Spectator Beholder? He was wise-cracking and funny. We all finally found a loophole to his guardianship that gave us access to the chest. No bloodshed involved!

We were attacked by patrols of Sahuagen at every turn. I *think* these were all rebel patrols? But it hardly mattered. These guys are dangerous predators and as likely to attack as talk. Maybe moreso. And every patrol we defeated was one less to fight later.
That is what it came down to. The Prince was fully as evil as the King, and not as crazy. And we had now found an exit, a great shaft down from the rebel base. So it came down to a brawl against all of them.
Some, few of the really big ones (like the King and Prince) are fearsome cambatants. But most of them are no tougher than an average trained soldier. But this made for a sprawling sort of fight apart from a bigger one at the Royal Court. We battled all across the settlement.

When the Sahuagen town was finally all quiet, well, I think we killed the entire warrior population here.

Well, I had hoped we could find a more peaceful way of dealing with them. But murder and deceipt, violence above all seems a core part of what they are. Allowing them to continue, would have meant more innocent lives lost. I strongly suspect Keldorn’s discomfort had a lot to do with what he saw from me back in Spellhold. He doubted if I was still the paladin he thought I was.

Unfortunately, since we couldn’t swim up from the bottom of the ocean (!), our only way out from here seemed to be descending into the Underdark. That will be harder for some of us than others.

*****

I always love how distinctive the Sahuagen city is. Its also sort of a breather, no really hard battles, before we head to the Underdark. Where there will be a few harder battles!