Adventure on the High Seas- a D&D 5e campaign

"Well shit, Nanami," Quills smiled bright as she pulled the trigger of her gun, changing targets to the half-orc near the Captain. She reloaded very quickly and fired another round at the dwarf.

As she reloaded and fired off two more shots at the half-orc, she had to comment, "Although what could I have expected of my first mate? Haha!" A good scrap would do her well, Quills had some built up anger she wanted to let off, and was currently letting off some of that steam on this half-orc, although he seemed to get that he was being targeted and dodged that final shot.

[DM Post]

Melody looked more than a little bit pissed at the sight of the arrow in Malark's chest. Raising her hands and muttering the words under her breath, it was obvious she was casting a spell. Within moments, metal chains burst out of the ground around Biri and wrapped her up, preventing all movement except for of her head. They squeezed tightly, definitely causing some pain.

To everyone besides Biri, it looks like she just started squirming in place for no real reason.

[Biri takes 4 damage!]

Biri was shaken awake by the tremors, and was caught unsure how to move forward. While she was trying to think, she saw that Demoness of theirs casting a spell and was suddenly wrapped up in chains. What was this bullshit?! Suddenly summoning chains like that wasn't possible... right?

In that case, it stands to reason that she'd have to maintain the spell in some fashion. Seems they REALLY don't want her casting spells, eh? Too bad they didn't entirely contain her. She opened her mouth and roared a beam of lightning at Melody.

[DC: 12] [Damage roll: 2,6,+0 Total:8]

[DM Post]

Melody tried to get out of the way and ended up slightly singed by the lightning bolt. Erevan wasn't expecting a counterattack from Biri at all and took the brunt of it, full force. He spits out the gum he was chewing, the piece now rock hard after getting fried.

The chains break away from Biri, dissolving into nothingness. Even the ground they burst out of seems fine now.

[DM Post]

Baern looks absolutely furious. "WILL ALL YOU FOOL HUNTERS JUST LEAVE IT BE?!" His voice booms like thunder, and even the earth seems to buckle under the weight of it. He waves his hand, and a small glow covers Malark, who gets up, the arrow pushed out of his chest. Baern glares at him. "BE GONE, MALARK! BEFORE YOU ANGER ME AS WELL!"

Malark smirks a little. "...nah. You don't scare me, old man. None of you do! Even if you do take cheap shots." He coughs a bit, obviously still injured greatly.

Roywyn turned towards Biri; and noticed her struggling against some kind of invisible threat. That meant the sorceress was probably involved. 

She turned her attention to the sorceress. She wasn't going to tolerate anyone firing magic at her teammates. And so, she began to sing a spell.

"So there was this girl named Tasha..." 

[Roywyn cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on Melody. IT WAS SUPER EFFECTIVE! Melody failed her saving throw.]

" And the paladin said 'What are you laughing about? The potato was green...'"

Just as she finished her incredibly dirty joke; the tiefling fell to the ground laughing. She didn't seem to stop after she hit the ground either; as if some invisible force was tickling her. 

"Thank you, I'll be here all night," said Roywyn, grinning.

Sharia pulls herself out of the water, looking highly annoyed. "Hey! You big meanies, go away!" She reaches into a pouch and pulls out what looks like a small lump of fur. She tosses it in the direction of Malark's crew, and to everyone's astonishment, it grows humongous in size. An elk the size of an elephant appears, and snorts as it looks down at the people in front of it.

Sharia looks on in awe at the creature she has summoned. "....Captain! Can I keep this one?!"

Erevan looks up at the creature in horror. "Wh-wh-WHAT THE HELL?! HOW DID YOU SUMMON A-"

He doesn't get to speak any further, as the elk steps on him. It removes its hoof and huffs at the others present, daring them to volunteer to be placed into small craters just like Erevan.

"...I'll consider it," Quills was very impressed by the creature, but was worried for the stability of her ship if this thing galloped across it or accidentally tore apart the sails. Worst case scenario, what if it caused them to lose a bunch of treasure?!

[GM Post]

Malark looks down at Erevan, then up at the giant elk, and back to Quills. "...fine, we lose. Come on guys. Darrak, you heal Erevan so he can get to a bed." 

He slaps Melody out of her laughter before turning back to Quills.  "You better come back with that treasure, Quills! I don't want others to say I lost to someone who can't do something as simple as that!"

As everyone, including a limping Erevan, walks away, Darrak stays behind for a moment. He looks up to the giant elk, then to the motley crew in front of him, and to Baern. "...ya really think these folks can do it, Baern?"

Baern shook his head. "Hell if I know... but, I've been gambling a lot lately, and they seem a better bet than most."

Darrak nods and goes to join his own crew.

Quills didn't say anything as she lowered her gun, seeing that she'd won. She smiled as she saw them off, proud of her crew. She sort of side-eyed the Giant Elk. Yeah, something was going to happen and as far as she could tell, it was in her own favor.

Finally she turned to Baern after he and Darrak had their talk, "Alright, you ready to hop on board and tell us what ya know?" She holstered her gun.

Biri sighed as she stretched her muscles. Yeah, those chains were a mental attack for sure. Didn't seem to do a lot to her though. She looked up at the giant elk that had been summoned, "My word..." She said, taking in the size of the thing, "I've never seen one up close..." she walked closer to him, her curiosity getting the better of her.

[DM Post]

Baern goes to the ship, along with anyone else who wants to hear what's going on. Sharia stays outside and rides on her new giant elk, more content with that than any gold that's on the table. It seems friendly enough, and doesn't shy away from anyone in the party's touch. It occasionally seems to say something, but not in any tongue that you recognize.

Once inside the ship, Baern reaches into his pocket and pulls out an old-looking scroll. Unfurling it onto a nearby table, you realize it's a map that shows the path from Dirkton to a place called "The Isle of Shadows."

You recognize the name, certainly. Any decently sized map has it surrounded by sea monsters and with a giant "ABANDON ALL HOPE" sign on top. Adventurers have come and gone for centuries, and only ever found monsters to fight and no treasure which they might be guarding. Baern himself had told you there was nothing there worth someone's life to take.

"This place here, is where you'll find Shorn's Grave. He swore that his treasure would never again see the light of day so long as he could guard it. The isle is cursed, like no place else in this world. Shorn knew its reputation before he decided to die there, and figured it the perfect place to bury himself. I can't say he was wrong."

"Hmm... you sure you aren't just sending us to our deaths?" Biri asked, rubbing her chin in thought, "Cap'n, can we even...?" She didn't have to finish her sentence, and she sighed as she saw that look in her captain's eyes.

"I always knew something great was there. The treasure of Captain Shorn! And who knows what other treasures one might find there?" Quills rubbed her webbed hands together, anticipating the volume of gain she was going to be making.

"Are you at least sure this is the right place, Baern? Not to question your ability or anything, but this is a pretty dangerous place to go if there's nothing there for us," Biri pointed out her own thoughts on the matter. She really needed to read books on the local seas and folktales.

"So the island is full of monsters, and possibly ghost pirates?" said Roywyn. 

She then grinned widely; as if those were all selling points. 

"Sounds like a hell of a story," she said. 

Akta raised her axe into the air.

"As a paladin, it is my duty to strike down any ghost pirates we encounter!" she said, loudly.

"...wouldn't ghost pirates already be dead?" said Roywyn.

"They'll be twice as dead when I'm done with them!" said Akta. "And no ghost of a ghost is going to be a threat to my comrades!"

[DM Post]

Baern growls a little. "Of course I'm not sure if I'm just sending you to your deaths! If I had honor to swear on, I'd do so. Shorn's treasure is there, there's no doubt about it. The question is whether you're willing to follow your fool captain all the way to where the sun don't shine just for some gold." He turned towards the door. "Well, you can keep the map. I've decided it's not my problem anymore. If anyone else wants the damn location they can have it out of my corpse. But if you DO come back with Shorn's gold, buy me a drink, eh? That'll be my fee."

"I'll buy ya ten, Baern!" Quills gave him a solid smile, and Biri sighed. She may have hesitated normally, but something about her captain made her feel like they were likely to succeed.

Quills picked up the map and started planning out what they'd need for the journey.

[DM Post]

If the weather's good, you figure it'll take you about a week of straight sailing to reach the Isle of Shadows. You can see a couple of unmarked islands between here and there on the map- the world's rather thick with them, so it's no real surprise. Your map doesn't list any ports on those islands, but you'd be surprised if they weren't at least settled by a trading company or a native tribe. Your biggest concerns would be running into storms, pirates, sea monsters, or sea monster pirates controlling storms.

That, and figuring out a way to keep the Elk with you. Dirkton's a shipyard, SOMEONE has to have a solution that doesn't involve killing it and making Sharia cry...

[This post assumes Baern has either left or is at least outside]

"Well, we're gonna need to keep the ship loaded with a couple weeks' rations, other'n that I guess the main issue is..." Quills stepped out from below and onto the deck. Yep, that huge elk was still there. Sharia really seemed to like it.

"So, Sharia, did you figure out how you're gonna load him on the boat?" Quills asked, rolling up the secret map and putting it in her pocket for safekeeping. NOTHING was safer than her own pockets, far as she was concerned. Locked tighter than the chest she was gonna pilfer at the bottom of that pirate's grave.

Sharia looked over to the Captain. "Well, I've been speaking with him, and... I *THINK* I can put him back in the bag? Ya mind if I do that?"

The elk shook its head, and laid down so that Sharia could get off. Sharia tapped the open bag against the elk, and it seemed to get sucked in within seconds. Sharia peeked into the bag, and back to the captain. "Well... that's that!"

"And here I thought we'd have to sell...er...set him free," said Roywyn, as the elk jumped into the bag. 

She turned her attention to the captain. 

"So, Cap, got any plans to deal with ghost pirates?" she asked. "I doubt they're going to throw down the welcome mat; and offer us some rum," 

"We could throw a bag of seeds on the ground; then get past them while they're counting every single seed!" said Akta. "I read somewhere that ghosts can't do anything while theres something to be counted!" 

Roywyn sighed. 

"Akta, that would be vampires," she said. "I'm not even sure it holds true for them," 

"They're all undead! It could definitely work!"