Here is the previous quest the party overcame:
http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... php?t=2902
The group of PCs:
Nightwing is playing Greyson. He is a 4th level human ranger.
JediWife is playing Alura. She is a 4th level fighter (archer).
Ragnar1965 is playing Madriel. She is a 3rd level witch (cleric/magic-user) class we pulled from one of the Crusader Magazines.
This thread will have SPOILERS! Please don’t read further if you have any hope of playing through this DCC.
I use the Castles & Crusades rules these days.
“The Setup”
The party rides south early in the morning after thanking Thistle. They pass through Dundraville. The villagers want them to stay for a while but they only stopped for food at the inn. They notice the owl they befriended following them.
They arrive at Portown very late in the day. The owl lands in a tree outside the city walls and watches the party enter the city gates. On their way to locate the gnome they get wind of a series of brutal murders occurring somewhere near the harbor. A hefty reward has been posted as well. The players all perk up at that.
They find Jonas the gnome at his shop/home. He is very thankful the party has come. It seems the Black Pearl has a curse upon it. [Harley, I changed it from your curse as you’ll see.] The players ask if anyone has tried to steal the pearl, namely men wearing black and red leather or anything with this color scheme. No, Jonas has no idea about robbers but this only adds to his anxiety. He asks them if they’ll be his bodyguards and gives them a retainer of 50gp each after they agree to it.
He explains what has happened after they left him several weeks ago. He had the Black Pearl carefully examined by both a mage and a cleric he knows through professional circles. They relay to him it is powerfully magical and a curse lies upon it. I meant to write out a poem that the cleric gave Jonas describing the curse but I ran out of time before we started gaming so I had to give the players a prose, off the top of my head, version. Essentially this curse claims that, “The owner of the Black Pearl will forever have the foamy waves lap at his feet and that the Deep will reclaim its own.”
Jonas at first dismissed the curse, but, had a lead box crafted to contain the pearl, “just to be safe.” This box with the Black Pearl within it was kept in his dwarvish made safe in his shop. That was that. He decided to leave Portown for a quick holiday and head to Dundraville were he likes to rent a boat and fish on the quiet Lake Dundra. As he tried to leave town his horse died suddenly of what the stable hands claimed was a burst heart. One vacation scrubbed. He then decided to join a caravan leaving to travel inland and inspect a gem mine he has part owner ship in. Not two hours after he signed on, the caravan master cancelled the whole thing since his entire crew of porters, etc., mysteriously quit without any explanation. Jonas began to wonder if the curse was very real. He couldn’t get away from the ocean (the foamy waves continued to “lap at his feet” so to speak). In desperation, the gnome locked up his home and shop, put on his best pair of walking boots and marched inland out of town. Before he could say “fair well” to the gate keeper, he stepped into a rut and twisted his leg so bad he still has a limp a week later.
Jonas has spent quite a bit of money to find a means of curing this curse. No mere “remove curse” spell will do the trick it seems. What he has learned almost broke him, and he continues to be in anguish over it. First, it seems that something from “the Deep” has awakened here in Portown. What this something is the spellcaster could not be sure. It is ancient and evil. Currently it is weak from forced slumber, but it most surely is growing in power and will seek the death of the owner of the Black Pearl! Secondly, the only way to rid him of the curse, besides selling the pearl to another which is unthinkable due to the curse and the fact it’s the biggest pearl Jonas has ever seen, is to baptize the Black Pearl in Chalice of Aldren filled with vinegar. Horror of horrors! Even worse, this chalice resides in the Temple of the Eternal Sun in distant Majoor. Majoor is a large port city far across the ocean. Sea travel is not something Jonas is excited about since he’ll be at the mercy of the Deep. That is why he has hired the PCs.
Jonas is working to procure passage on a ship heading to Majoor and hopes to have passage booked within a couple of days. He begs the party to be available when he sails. He promises to pay for all shipboard expenses and will work out a payment that they will find favorable.
With this in mind the players head towards the docks in search of the mysterious Ripper.