Wildsea Campaign Log
Alongside our weekly Cairn campaign I’m also starting up a Wildsea Campaign! Every week(ish) I’ll update this post with a summary of our adventure.
The Crew Permalink
All equal members and owners of the ship “Pilosa”. It features 6 flexible limbs that can crawl along the treetops.
- Alya - She/Her - Itzenko Windward Horizoneer
- Mothball - They/Them - Mothryn Shipborn Augur
- Otzetzuk - They/Them - Tzelicrae Submerged Wordbearer
- Reaper - It/Its - Ironbound Ridgeback Hacker
- Shade - She/Her - Ardent Spitborn Wordbearer
- Sprek - She/Her - Ektus Rootless Horizoneer
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The Beginning Permalink
- Potential quests or important clues have a “♠” in front of them.
- The player-characters are collectively known as “The Crew”.
- No concern is given for how the player groups shift and change. For all intents and purposes, assume that players pop in and out of existence week to week.
DAY 1 Permalink
Alya, Mothball, Reaper, Sprek, Shade
MORNING. The Crew is en route to Three Masks, a tiny trading spit. They have a cargo of fantastical (and fictional) maps to deliver. Only a few hours from the safety of the port, The Crew is attacked by 3 pinwolves!
- Mothball jumps into a pilot seat and tries to manuever the ship and lose them in the treetops. But that only inspires the pinwolves to hunt more ferociously.
- Alya uses the Amber Eye of the ship to identify where the pinwolves are, and shares that information with her crewmates.
- Mothball does manage to snag a pinwolf with one of the ships legs, but now the ship (and the pinwolf) are tangled up in some branches; dead in the water.
- Sprek dives off the side, grabbing one of the pinwolves, and tackles it down to a large branch.
- Shade fires a chemical flare and distracts the third pinwolf, preventing it from leaping down to the deck of the ship.
- Alya runs along one of the legs of the ships to cut it (and the pinwolf) loose while Sprek kicks his pinwolf off the branch into the depths below.
- The final pinwolf realizes its friends are defeated, and it slinks away.
Minimal damage sustained, but the tiny holes in the ship are a memento of this battle.
AFTERNOON. The Crew arrives at Three Masks only to be interrogated by the dockmaster, Mahkis. He insists on searching their ship for evidence related to the One-Armed Scissor. The Scissor is a library ship that was supposed to arrive a month ago; and no word has been heard about it.
Of course the search is clean, and Mahkis apologizes with the promise of drinks at Polaski’s bar. The Crew heads to the Overlook House to negotiate the sale of their cargo. Old-Spar Lizbeth agrees to buy it and rewards The Crew with charts and a ship upgrade.
Polaski’s is not only a bar, but also a small local library. The patrons are disappointed that The Crew have no news about the One-Armed Scissor. Mahkis buys everyone a round, and explains the situation a little more. As Mahkis leaves to return to work, a Tzelicrae named Carshaw bursts through the door, eager for any news. The Crew console him, and learn he’s looking for his sister who was serving on the Scissor.
EVENING. The Crew split up to enjoy their evening in the safety of Three Masks.
- Sprek and Shade tour the splineapple farms, and get enough materials to start their own little growing patch on the ship.
- Mothball reads some books in the bar, learning a little about the Scissor and a LOT about how to cook splineapples.
- Reaper works a shift at the docks, helping repair another ship. He earns some scars and supplies for his efforts.
- Alya visits Carshaw and asks more about his sister and the Scissor. She agrees to let Carshaw join them when they leave Three Masks. “Better to be out there searching than sitting here waiting” he says nervously. “I think…”
The Crew return to the Pilosa and bed down for the evening. Tomorrow will certainly bring adventure, risk, and reward in equal measure.
DAY 2 Permalink
Mothball, Otzetzuk, Sprek
MORNING. Carshaw walks up the docks towards the Pilosa. Otzetzuk is packing boxes to prepare for the journey, and welcomes him aboard. Carshaw is nervous, but determined, and having another Tzelicrae helps him feel better. The crew sets sail to track the last known position of the One-Armed Scissor.
AFTERNOON. As the fog rolls in, Mothball spots something glinting off in the distance. The Pilosa slows to examine it. Someone has strung a bunch of rusty chains across the treetops as a kind of snare for ships. Mothball lowers the ship to hide from any nearby vessels while Otzetzuk and Sprek prepare to wavewalk. The chains are rigged with bells and alarms, but Otzetzuk manages to clear a path to a sleeping watchman so Sprek can put them in a chokehold. A short interrogation later, they learn that the Jackalbone Raiders laid this trap. The raider gives them a map of other traps in the area and a minor lead on the One Armed Scissor. Surprisingly, Otzetzuk gifts the raider with some mail addressed to the Jackalbones. “We have no quarrel with raiders; consider this a fair trade.” Otzetzuk and Sprek return without harming the raider, and Mothball quickly scoops them back onto the ship before any other Jackalbones see them.
EVENING. The setting sun makes a distant fire burn ever more brightly. Sprek sees it, and fearing the worst urges Otzetzuk to pilot at dangerous speeds towards the flame. They arrive to find a small spit of farmland with a brightly burning barn atop it. The Gau family that runs the farm is trying and failing to douse the flames. The Crew takes command, digging a trench to prevent the fire from spreading any further. After rescuing what they can, The Crew and the farmers just sit and watch the rest of it burn. It’s a quiet, haunting moment. The family Matriarch, Reco, thanks the crew and offers them some supplies as well as a trained crow lookout for the ship. The Crew stays docked at the farm, and settles into an exhausted sleep.
DAY 3 Permalink
Mothball, Otzetzuk, Sprek
MORNING. They awaken and help the Gau family clean up whatever remains of their burnt barn. The family matriarch, Reco, feeds them breakfast and gives them a few pointers about their new crow lookout. One of the Gau children comes running back excitedly talking about a metal stump they found on the edge of the spit. The Crew goes to investigate. After a short walk with the excited Gau-ling they find a large metal canister embedded in the ground; a warhead or a package? Hard to tell. With some caution Mothball opens a sealed compartment filled with medical supplies. They are Ardent focused and strangely sterile. Most medical supplies on the Wildsea are scrapped together; clean but messy: fogged glass poultice jars, oft-repaired bandages, herbal bundles, etc. The medical supplies from this canister are brand new; sealed in plastic and covered in strange writing.
AFTERNOON. The Crew takes the supplies back to Reco. Reco offers takes whatever supplies would be useful for Gau, and gives the rest to The Crew. The Crew also asks for help digging up the “metal stump” (Reaper might be interested in it). The Gau family helps them dig it up and transport it to the Pilosa.
EVENING. The Crew is eager to get underway. They continue searching for the One-Armed Scissor and wave goodbye to the Gau farm. Otzetzuk is on watch, and smells the strong scent of splineapples mixed with something else. Tempted to investigate, they instead decide to continue forward.
DAY 4 Permalink
Mothball, Otzetzuk, Sprek
MORNING. Another few hours of sailing, and dawn breaks on a disturbing sight. A large ship is listing to the side, half submerged and tangled in the branches of the Wildsea. This is the One-Armed Scissor, bleeding ink and leaking pages. Torn pages hang from the galley walls, the deck is littered with a broken alchemical preservative vats, bent lifting equipment, and a strange black goo puddles in the corners.
- Sprek is the first to touch down; eager for a fight. She heads down to the engine room to see why the ship is disabled.
- Carshaw wants to find their sister, but is nervous to explore the wreck.
- Mothball and Otzetzuk agree to explore the crew quarters first, to find Carshaw’s sister.
Mothball and Otzetzuk carefully navigate the tilted shipwreck. Signs of an unexpected battle are everywhere. Spilled cups, scrapes on the deck, patches of blood, and that strange black goo is everywhere. Soon they reach the crew quarters and find one door closed. Otzetzuk carefully opens the door while Mothball keeps a lookout. Inside is a small Tzelicrae lady; afraid and wide-eyed. “Quiet!” Techevez hisses, “the monster is still here. Still here. Still. Be still.”
At the same time Sprek is exploring the lower decks. The ships galley and engine room are one and the same (nothing like a massive chemical furnace for roasting vegetables). He hears something squelching in the cargo hold, and carefully approaches the noise. Inside is a massive creature chewing on the books. It secretes a gross black ooze that smells of rotten ink. Sprek raises his instrument and prepares to strike.
Soon Mothball and Otzetzuk (and everyone else within a quarter mile) hears the sounds of a fight coming from the belly of the ship. Sprek battles it into the stairwell just in time for Otzetzuk to arrive. They shout their Whisper, “Forgotten Embers”, and ignite the black goo under the creature. The creature knocks Otzetzuk into a closet and slides up the stairs attempting to escape the flames.
Mothball runs to the upper deck and tries to lure the creature near an alchemical vat. It’s a close call, but they jump aside just as the creature lumbers into the vat. With a quick SNAP-HISS the vat slams shut, trapping the creature inside.
Otzetzuk and Sprek douse the flames before they spread too far and Mothball ensures the vat is sealed tight. The creature slithers wildly inside its clear prison. It’s trapped…for now.
Shade, Reaper, Otzetzuk, Sprek
AFTERNOON. While the creature is trapped The Crew works hard to right the One-Armed Scissor. Reaper begins to throw mooring lines over the vat, securing the creature further. Otzetzuk heads to the bridge and takes the controls while Sprek goes down to chop some of the trees trapping the Scissor. Shade uses some of the Pilosa’s arms to assist. Soon the ship is righted, the vat is secure, and the situation has been defused.
GM’s Note: I had originally planned to have the creature break free and lead them back to the library. But they rolled so well and planned for every contigency! So we just decided the creature will stay trapped, perhaps to be recovered or studied later.
Otzetzuk and Carshaw go to retrieve Techevez from the crew quarters while Sprek and Reaper explore the rest of the ship. After some investigating the full story becomes clear:
The One Armed Scissor was sailing along it’s normal trade route when it came upon a trail of scattered pages and books. After following the trail, they discovered a massive hanging library! A few days before there was a rootquake (the term for when a massive tree topples over, creating a huge chasm in the Wildsea). This revealed the previously hidden library tangled up in the branches. The crew of the Scissor immediately began exploring the Library, filled their hold with forgotten texts, and headed for Three Masks…unaware that a horrible creature had hidden inside one of the crates. Along the way the creature broke free, attacked and killed most of the crew, and ended up stranding the scissor well of its normal route.
While Carshaw is desperate to return home to Three Masks, Techevez wants to return to the Library. “We must rescue those books before some maurader or lightning spark destroys it! That knowledge is priceless, and worth any risk. Especially now that the creature is dead.”
