The Collective - Session 33

This is the thirty-third session in The Collective campaign and the only session in the Speechless Twins & Unspoken Secrets sub-arc of the Treasure of Captain Lofy Arc.

Summary
FOUR DAY PERIOD: Realizing that Fennel, as a Tiefling, was likely to understand the Infernal language, she approached her and awkwardly asked her if she could instruct her using her creepy book acquired from the Tiefling orphan named Belkin. She happily agreed (after being initially offended at Rosanhi's potentially racist question) and told her that she'd help her learn at night. Roscoe took to interacting with the only other Halfling on the crew, the scar-riddled man named Finric. The two helped sort the hold's cargo properly and discussed their love of Halfling dietary habits. Badger began testing ingredients to boil up a batch of poison, and Gnorbitt practiced his woodworking skills by fashioning a new figurehead based on his lover, Gertrude. Gorrn took to the necessary task of training Calhoun in the art of fighting. Before he was allowed to learn to fight, Calhoun first was instructed on a strength training regimen in which he must climb up and down the full main rigging of the ship twenty times a day, being left to his own devices by Gorrn after a saying of "Paradeen wasn't built in a day". He continued to train this way for the next four days.

On a bright and clear day, the Cabbage was unexpectedly met with a flurry of hail upon crashing upon them from the heavens. Before anyone else had time to lower the mainsails, Rosanhi, who had spent much of her time strengthening her bond with Arabella and exploring new uses of her powers, was able to redirect the hail away from the boat using a Control Water spell. Unfortunately, the hail was not the only issue that the vessel faced, as they were headed straight for a field of icebergs. Navigating deftly through the ice, the Cabbage came upon a larger iceberg upon which a score of small, raven-like humanoids were hard at work extracting something from a large sphere of ice. Gorrn magically leapt from the boat and crashed down upon the ice, demanding to know who the birds were. They responded back at him in his own voice, startling him. While Gorrn tried to discern more about them, the Cabbage laid anchor beside the iceberg and a few of the Collective climbed off the boat and onto the ice. Peering into the ice, Rosanhi saw what appeared to be two frozen figures, clearly the object of the bird's excavation. Asking the birds what their goal was, one of the birds responded in an unfamiliar voice that they were to extract the twins, causing an uproar of voices from the other nine birds. The party combined their talents to safely extract the beings from the ice. Once the ice was shattered, the watery seal that covered the two splashed to the ground, revealing two Water Genasi covered in a myriad of tattoos. Upon waking them up, the party learned that they could not speak. They offered to bring them aboard (along with the birds), but the twins were incredibly startled to see Calhoun, whom they immediately tried to get away from. After Rosanhi explained that Calhoun had no intention of hurting them, they cautiously stepped aboard the Cabbage and set off.

ONE WEEK PERIOD: Badger continued to peer over the ocean, stopping once during the week to create a vial of acid to be used for later. Gnorbitt, convinced of his woodworking abilities, began construction on a clockwork based crow's nest to be placed atop the main mast. Roscoe spent the week attempting to communicate with the bird things. He learned little from them, only that they had come from a far-away location and that their goal was to extract the twin Genasi for some sort of treasure. Rosanhi got to work communicating with the other new members of the crew, learning that while they had extreme memory loss, they remembered a few details of their existence; mainly that their names were Gayle (F) and Gwynn (M), that they were from the city of Paradeen, and that they believed that they were still in the early 900's. Clearly, they had been frozen for a long period of time.

After graduating from strength training and learning the art of grappling from Gorrn, Calhoun had become more confident and strong under the Half-Orc's tutelage. To "celebrate", Gorrn told Calhoun that he must learn to drink as well as he could fight. After a few pints of mead, Calhoun began to complain of a pain in his arm before quickly devolving to pained screams, seemingly randomly! Unsure of what to do, Gorrn began to panic and scream at Calhoun to get him to calm down. This obviously did not work, and the rest of the party ran into the infirmary to find Calhoun and Gorrn inside. Rosanhi rushed to Calhoun's side and inspected his arm. The entire party watched in shock as an image of a raven slowly carved its way into Calhoun's upper arm before immediately scarring over with a dull reddish glow. Left with nothing but residual pain and no means of explaining the event, the party ensured that Calhoun was not badly injured and returned to their stations, shaken by the event. Gorrn, during this time, went up to the crow's nest to scream out into the ocean, being joined by Bilby (who also engaged in this activity) and discussing their upcoming trials.

EIGHT DAY PERIOD: Rosanhi, Roscoe, and Gnorbitt spent some time discussing Calhoun's lineage and why the Genasi may be afraid of him, hypothesizing that perhaps the man that trapped the pair in the ice had resembled Calhoun in some way. They asked the twins but could retrieve no real answer, but Gnorbitt was able to have his ring identified as a Ring of Fire Resistance by Gayle. Roscoe then continued to try and speak with the birds, aided this time by Gnorbitt. They learned that the birds could neither fly nor swim, that they had been dropped of their by a boat, and that it was possible that they were somehow connected to Captain Lofy. While Gorrn fished throughout the eight days, Badger began to train Calhoun in the art of evading dangers during combat by building a mock arena in the hold and throwing potatoes at him to teach him to dodge. A day before the Cabbage finally reached Lofy's hideout, Peart confirmed to Roscoe that the voice the "lead" bird spoke in was indeed Lofy's. He brought the party into the meeting room to explain that Lofy is an incredibly cunning and ruthless individual who will no doubt try to use his words upon them before he attacks.

In the morning, after a long 20 days at sea, the Cabbage finally spotted Lofy's island hideout in the distance, a collection of shanties and a warehouse and dock built around a large outcropping of stone in the frothy ocean. Three pirate ships circled the area but did not fire upon the party, allowing them to dock. Upon their arrival on the docks, the party were met by Lofy, a tall man dressed in an elegant coat and large hat that shielded his face from plain view. Next to him was a disheveled man in rags and bindings, presumably Calhoun's father, David, and a retinue of Lofy's crew. He greeted the party and immediately thanked them for bringing their "boy" Calhoun back to them, the statement met with cheering and raucous applause from the rest of the crew. Calhoun, phased by this, immediately demanded that Lofy return his father to him before being cut off by Lofy. Lofy introduced himself to the party and explained their situation to them, afterwards likening himself to each of the party members by noting their similarities and welcoming his old crew back to his island. Taking off his hat, the party saw that the man bore a considerable resemblance to Calhoun. In a back and forth between Calhoun, Lofy, and the party, Lofy explained that Calhoun's mother was "merely some common whore" that the entire crew (including David, Calhoun's dad) had partaken of, but that he had felt bad for her pregnancy and decided to keep the child. He then went on to say that he was searching for his father's treasure, revealed that the map on David's back was magic and could only be remembered while it was actively being viewed, and that he needed two members of his bloodline to access the treasure. In a cold speech about the days leading up to their arrival, Lofy recalled how his new "mistress" had granted him a way to ensure that his relative would remain safe and that any harm inflicted upon one would in turn be mirrored on the other. Realizing the implications of everything that Lofy had said, Calhoun began to regress and exclaimed that he would not believe what Lofy was telling them. Lofy, eager to provide them with proof, revealed a Sacrificial Dagger of Cencaela, a weapon that the party had become all too familiar with, and sliced open his hand, causing Calhoun to cry out in pain and fully cementing the dreaded truth that Lofy had implied: Calhoun's true father was not David Merriweather, but Captain Edward Lofy himself. Shit, man, it's like Star Wars but cheaper.