Mysterious Tides #7 - Nilas

A retelling of Bay of Spirits #7 from Callast Nilas Orkan's point of view. On-going GURPS adventures set in the beautiful and evocative Bay of Spirits setting by Randy M. at Roan Studios.

GURPS: Bay of Spirits
Session 007 - Nilas

The Rocky Mountain and Underwater Rope....

231004

Callast Nilas Orkan and his companions, Jens Marko, Ragnar the Ranger, Brother Robert D'Nagien, and sister Carmel of Enibria had made their way through Middle Bay on a hunt to chase down a couple of assassins that they encountered in Piper's Quay.   

Their path led them to a small rocky mound of an island with an abandoned row boat and camp.     Looking at a rope that was tied off on the rocks, the rope went down a blow hole in the reef and was clearly anchored deep inside a pathway down the rocks.The companions were planning their descent into the unknown.   

Callast Nilas, a priest of Calla, goddess of the sea and storms, called upon his mighty deity to allow him and his companions to have the power to breathe water. After a few attempts, Nilas got the hang of it and himself, Jens Marko and Brother Robert began their descent down the hole.

The passage was interesting. The dark passage through the blowhole and reef was about three feet wide and laden with all sorts of muscles, shell fish and urchins. The three travelers made their way down and about 25 feet down, the rope bent off to a side passage. The companions followed it while underwater and able to breathe thanks to Nilas's powers.   

The passage led to an underground grotto. The rope led up and the area opened up into a cavern that had air in it as well as several ledges and rocky outcroppings. Nilas and Brother Robert made their way to the one 'shoreline" ledge and Jens climbed up to a higher ledge about 15 feet up on the other side of the grotto.  

Nilas and Robert pulled themselves up on the rocky shoreline and noticed some debris and several bleached bones, including some that looked human! This was a cause for alarm. From across the grotto, Jens called out that he had found a body upon the ledge, but it was a person who was still alive.   Jens was able to rouse the man and the 20-something year old sailer ended up being Liam, the man that Maddie had told Nilas about the sunken treasure. It seemed to Nilas that Liam must have tried to go after the treasure himself and got into trouble.   

Liam woke up long enough to yell, "Oh no, the Hag!" just as Brother Bob noticed a shape coming up the slope towards he and Nilas on the rocky shoreline. It was in fact a hideous Sea Hag! Nilas and Bob drew their weapons and looked to engage the creature. The Hag was trying to use some horrifying magic of it's "Evil Eye" and make Nilas and Bob weak in their knees and spirit.

Nilas saw Brother Bob waiver and he called upon Callas to make Bob "Mighty" and brave. Nilas then tried to strike at the Hag with his spear, but the darkness made fighting difficult. Nilas then tried to call upon Calla for light. The magical light would not be a lot, but better that fighting in the dark grotto lit by a few bioluminescent algae. Nilas failed several times trying to cast light. Brother Bob was able to chase the Hag off with some well placed dart throws. The Hag dove into a pool behind the shoreline.   Nilas and Bob closed in once the light spell was active.    

Jens made his way over while poor Liam was still stranded on the ledge, but still alive and safe for the moment. Nilas kept concentrating and moving his light around, which was now looking to be more effective than Nilas had thought. As they looked around for the Hag, they were yelling back and forth with Liam. Indeed it was Liam's row boat that they found and he was the young man that Maddie has spoken of.   

As Nilas and Jens and Brother Bob moved around they saw another pool, a deep pool followed by a third pool that was much more shallow, like a spillway beyond the deep pool. Nilas had moved his light underwater, and they had spotted the Hag. Nilas came up with an idea to burst a Thunderclap spell under the water, hoping that it would deafen and scare off the hag or flush her up and out so that they could fight her again.   

The muffled underwater sound explosion was impressive, and the water churned and bubbled and some dead fish and other stuff floated up from the bottom. There was no sign of the Hag. Nilas hoped that this at least would be enough to chase her away from them for the time being.  

As Nilas and his friends made their way past the third pool, the cavern opened up to another area with some stairs carved out of the rock. Nilas and his friends climbed the stairs about 10-15 feet up to a wall and they stopped.  The shear wall was littered with rocks and rubble. They then noticed an opening above them, what appeared to be a passageway that went straight up!

Jens Marko was amazing and skilled at rock climbing. Brother Bob was not at all bad, especially with Jen's support. Nilas on the other hand, had a difficult time and clambered about and slipped and fell a few times, hurting himself in the process. He did heal himself, but then doffed his armor and eventually made his way up top again.   

The vertical shaft led to a rectangular room. Clearly man-made. The room featured a metal door in the far wall that was flanked by two carved stone snakes.  Nilas observed a colorful but dusty mosaic behind each snake. The symbols did appear similar to those that would be used by priests of Calla.  There were images of anchors, and storms, waves and lightning. The doors had no handles, and several piles of bones, some human and some not, lay upon the floor and in some shallow pools of water.  

Eventually Nilas, Jens and Bob were situated at the top chamber and Nilas was back in his armor.    Liam could still be heard calling out from the distance, asking for water and a snack.   

Jens was warning everyone to be careful.   Nilas felt like this was a place of Calla. He approached the door and put his hand up to it. At that point there was a crackling and the two stone snakes shifted and came to life and broke off from the door and wall and moved to attack!  

Nilas dropped back in a defensive stance, his three-pronged spear at the ready, Brother Bob with his sword and buckler and Jens Marko with his axe….What would happen next????

Session Notes

Here is an in-character retelling of the events from our 7th session of the campaign. I offer players bonus points for writing up in-character session logs and Nilas' player, Mike, takes advantage of this. I definitely enjoy the retelling from the point of view of the players! Thanks Mike!

Cast of Characters:

Brother Robert (Bro Bob) D'Nagien, a young Enibrian monk and archer - played by Amergin K

Jens Marko, a young Captain sailing his dory all over the bay - played by Arne J
Callast Nilas Orkan, a young priest of Calla the Storm Goddess - played by Mike B

Ragnar Rocht, avenging ranger - played by Stephen K

and GMJasonGURPS as the DM