Monday Recap: The Hunt for Adventure

Sometimes it's a literal hunt

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Jandar’s Lions. In this fourth session we had a special guest, Liz, Tom's sister. She played the part of Lin this time, so I want to thank her for coming out and playing with us. It was a great deal of fun to have her around.

This article is part 4 of a series. The campaign is ongoing.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |

Jandar's Lions: The Hunt for Adventure

Jandar's Lions Crew:
Makayla: Dungeon Master
Jon: Captain Jandar Monroe, Human Paladin, Captain of "The Golden Duchess," Explorer of the Horizon (As of 2 weeks ago), tries not to kill things.
Wes: Barry the Basher, Mountain Dwarf Barbarian, has many memories of his mother, superb angler, can't write.
Tom: "Barth" Perth, Human Rogue, likes to challenge Jandar with moral quandaries, can't take a hit or drink alcohol.
Shannon: Otaroinae “A’ro’wan” Kalepeach, Water Genasi-Halfling Coast Druid, thoroughly enjoys being in and around water, likes to 'kelp' people.
Liz: Lin Kurwa, High Elf Balde Bard, player of battle pan flute music, trying to get Barry to be less racist towards elvenkind.
NPC: Dekkard: Mountain Dwarf Eldritch Knight, Purser, Jandar's Friend.

When we last left Jandar’s Lions, they had just said farewell to Hyon De Donta’s former crew. As everyone woke up in the morning, it became apparent that Barth had once again had too much to drink. Dekkard let Jandar know that he would take a double shift for the day to give Barth some rest. Meanwhile, Barry decided to take to fishing once again. After some time, he felt another large fish bite his hook. Fortunately for everyone involved, it was a sunfish instead of a shark this time. They decided to preserve the meat from it to sell at port later. The day was rather quiet overall however, with Barth unable to make his usual interesting remarks.

The following day, the group passed by a coral reef, and decided to stop for a brief time to give Otaroinae some time to use her new water breathing pendant to explore the reef. She took some time collecting a few empty conch shells, while Barry attempted to fish again, asking in vain to have Otaroinae entice some fish to bite his hook. After the brief visit, some sea birds that were hunting at this particular reef decided to follow the ship back to the islands that they presumably lived on. Otaroinae did attempt to entice the birds, however they seemed uninterested, what with already having their fill of fish.

Jandar and co. also took up talking about favorite sea shanties. Lin lists her favorite as “Oblivion”, about the largest whirlpool in the world. Excited, Barry interjects that he has a new one that he and his brothers used to sing, where in he and his brothers would hit each other and have harmonic screams. Barth mentions his favorite was about smelly sushi, while Jandar’s favorite was “Requiem for an Honest Sailor”. Lin, Dekkard, and Otaroinae began laughing as Barry tried to explain that the ship made a “booor-riiing” sound, and that he didn’t say that Jandar’s choice was boring. Jandar defended his choice, but sulked a little bit regardless.

We all know the famous shanty "Oops I smashed it again" by orc Chief Brit Many-Spears

The following morning, their ship passed by some merchant ships, and Jandar decided to call out to them, seeing if a deal of some kind could be made. The elves brought their ships closer and Jandar mentioned that he had a box, however the rest of the crew managed to remind him that it seems a little important that it may be related to the god that he worships, talking him out of selling it. After a quick discussion about stock and current gold amounts, Jandar decided to purchase one of the magic weapons that the elven traders were carrying, a Dagger of Venom. Jandar, feeling that he would regret the decision later, handed the new weapon to Barth. After thanking the elves, the ships parted ways.

In the afternoon of the end of their first month together (Ahnerian months are 2 weeks long), the first of the Jeonju islands appeared on the horizon. Jandar, knowing that Otaroinae wanted to meet with the aquatic halfling residents of the islands, had the crew find the nearest port town and dock at it. Arriving after nightfall, Dekkard gave out 50 gold to everyone to procure personal supplies for the next day. Otaroinae asked the harbormaster if there were any wise people or seers in town that she could talk to. He told her to go talk to an old man named Frasha who lives up a bit on one of the hills near the town.

The group made their way to the tavern Jorando. The population of the tavern is made up of mostly aquatic halflings, but Lin still decided to try to communicate with the musicians in the tavern, being a bard herself, making a quick acquaintance of one of the musicians. Jandar talked to the tavern keeper, asked for the rooms with the largest beds, and had some nice water to drink. Otaroinae asked the tavern keeper about the racism that some elves have, and he told her of times when periodically, an aquatic halfling would be on the mainland, be kidnapped, and brought to an island they were not from. When Barry had a chance, he showed the tavern keeper a crudely written description of someone that he was looking for and asked the tavern keeper to let him know if he ever saw him.

After Barry once again attempted to get Jandar to find a soul mate, Otaroinae went to make conversation with some of the locals. She briefly explained her situation, not knowing where she really came from and where she grew up. After a quick gill check, and a brief talk about her mystifying hair, they say good night to each other. While this was going on, Jandar and Barry had begun playing a card game, “Double Dare”, where high card wins, and low card has to do the dare stated beforehand. With Barry dancing on the table and Jandar saying a ‘dirty word’ being the two dares, the two drew cards. Jandar ended up losing, so he stood up, a man of his word, strode to the center of the room, gathered everyone’s attention, and said a word most foul.

After reconvening and having a brief conversation about hair care and having a laugh about the case for the missing butter on the ship being solved, with the revelation that Barth puts it in his hair, the crew retires for the night. The following morning, the group heads their separate directions, with Jandar heading to a bookstore “Highlands & Kaklord”. He found and purchased a good high seas adventure book, “The Adventures of Azont”. Barry following Jandar, asks the front desk about getting his friend a gift, motioning to Jandar. After searching for a book, Barry decided on “The Tragedy of Enoch”, hardly understanding what it was about. Barth looked around for a bit and found a shady guy and procured a minor hallucinogen. Otaroinae and Barry both purchased healing potions (After Barry sold his bag pipes). Jandar purchased some silken rope, and donated to the local temple. Lin purchased a pan flute.

Lin and Otaroinae, done with shopping, went to see Old Man Farsha. He greeted them both happily. After briefly investigating her, he dubs Otaroinae not an aquatic halfling. He did however try speaking to her in Aquan, and she was moderately surprised that she understood it. Asking for her family history, she mentioned that she did not know her father. He looked her over and thought about it for a bit longer. He lets her know that her father might not have been from this plane of existence. After decompressing from this revelation, she thanked him by giving him a conch, and the duo left, with Lin trying her best to comfort Otaroinae.

After the group reconvened at the ship, Otaroinae explains what happened, and Barry comforted her by saying “No matter what you are, you are still our family”. He then proceeded to hand Jandar the book that he bought for him, and thanked Jandar for being his friend. After Dekkard finished the final preparations, the group finally set sail for the final part of their trip over to the Jeonju mainland. Jandar proceeded to begin reading the book that Barry gifted to him, finding a part of it circled. Jandar then spent the rest of the day contemplating how Barry knew what part to circle in regards to his usual conversation topics.The following morning, Jandar ended up being in a bad mood, due to finishing reading the tragedy book that Barry gave to him.

Everyone has to leave their small town someday

The weather changed from being clear to heavy rains by the evening. Late into the night, during Lin and Dekkard’s shift, the port city of Jium finally came into view. The pair masterfully brought the ship into port, however they noticed that there was a commotion at one end of the port, where a large number of people had gathered around a ship. After waiting for some dock hands to help moor the ship, Lin decided to investigate the goings on of the crowd. As she approached the ship, she noticed that it had large gashes in its side. After listening to the ship’s captain explain to the guard captain that they were attacked by a skeletal shark, the guard captain orders for a scouting party to investigate the inlet near where the attack occurred. After briefly talking to the captain, Lin returned to The Golden Duchess and informed Dekkard, however they decided it was not important enough to wake Jandar and co.

After the rest of the crew woke up, they were informed of the events of the previous night, and that they had docked in Jium. After a brief conversation between the crew, Dekkard returned carrying a box. He gathered everyone’s attention, and opened the box, revealing 1,000 platinum (10,000 gold). Jandar and co., who hadn’t paid much attention to the cargo that they had purchased for transport, were surprised when Dekkard told them that they had made 8,000 gold in profit from their first set of cargo. Dekkard had arranged for a sizable amount of weapons and heavy armor for cargo for their first trip, as to help get the company off the ground.

The group decided to talk to the captain of the ship that was attacked so the rest of the crew understood the gravity of the situation. While there, Barry noted that the skeletal shark that attacked this ship would have been at least three times the size of the shark that he had caught. Otaroinae and Barry confirm that the white shrapnel in the ship was in fact bone. After saying good bye to the captain of this vessel, the group made their way to the Heenvine Tavern, where they would be staying for the next few weeks. On the way, Otaroinae noticed that the elves didn’t pay any attention to her in the slightest.

Jandar tried talking to the tavern keeper about finding some adventure, or even rats to kill, however he came up empty handed. Otaroinae asked Lin if Jandar had a thing about rats, but she said that he had not shown previous signs of it. Lin noted that Jandar’s list of possible adventures, including rat killing and random evil cults, mirror the adventures in the book he had purchased for himself and had begun reading. Lin and Otaroinae had a good laugh while Jandar continued down his list of adventure. After getting mildly frustrated at the barkeep having little information about adventure in the seemingly peaceful city, he heads out of the tavern alone, seeking the city guard for any adventure, having completely forgotten about the puzzle box in his bag.

He found the nearest city guardsman, and asked about any extra work around the city. He managed to learn that there was a rat infested ship that had come in recently, and Jandar immediately set off to the port to kill rats. After turning in the rats at the guard tower, he set out to find people to help. Barry headed out to make a map of the city, Otaroinae and Lin had some good bonding time together, looking around at different vendors. Barth scoped out the city and followed people around, getting used to the routes they took.

There has to be an adventure in here somewhere!

Lin and Otaroinae visited a weapons shop together, however the clerk ended up being slightly racist towards Otaroinae. After they left, they noticed Jandar washing the windows of the shop across the street. Barry also visited the weapon shop later in the day, and talked to the clerk about the differences between dwarven and elvish weapons for a bit. Meanwhile, Jandar fell out of the chimney, having been hired to clean it. Otaroinae found a land halfling and made a quick friend. While Barth was out following people around, he noticed Jandar cleaning the floors of someone’s house.

In the evening, the group reconvened at the tavern. Jandar was exhausted from having done odd jobs around town. Barry insinuated that Jandar was actually doing something else, much to Jandar’s dismay. Jandar grilled his crew to see if anyone found any quests to do. None of them had, and so Jandar told them that tomorrow, their job was to each find an adventure for the group to do.

The following day, Lin found out that there was a need for an area in the mountains to the north to be mapped out. Barry learned there was a group ambushing people in another part of the mountains. Jandar learned from one of the people he had helped that there was a ruined abode of a hero from an age long past to the south. Barth wandered aimlessly.

Unfortunately, Otaroinae ended up going out by herself. As she was out by the pier where fishermen gather, she became aware of people approaching her from behind. After she was grabbed, she reacted by casting entangle behind her. Unfortunately, she was knocked unconscious by a sleep spell. In the evening, Jandar had everyone reconvene at the tavern. After waiting an extra hour for Otaroinae to no avail, the group set out to attempt to find her.

The group went around town asking for information. They eventually learned that there was an aquatic halfling spotted by the fishermen pier in the morning. Meanwhile, Otaroinae woke up inside of what appeared to be a crate, with her hands and legs bound. Jandar and co. made their way down to where she was last spotted and started talking to a meditating fisherman. Jandar noticed that he was not being truthful, and sat down next to him. He mentioned that he was offering a reward to anyone who could help find her, however the elf insisted he had seen nothing. Finally, Jandar had everyone draw weapons. Barry began pressing for information, insisting on the urgency of the situation.

Finally the elf mentioned that one of his friends had mentioned an aquatic halfling being led away from the pier, and pointed towards one of the ships in port. Otaroinae at this point had managed to break out of her bonds, and decided her best chance to escape was to thunder wave the crate that she was in. She blasted the crate open and took note that she appeared to be in a ship. She ran over to the closest ladder to the top deck, and found someone standing at the top looking down at her. After a quick poison spray to the face, she managed to get around the few crew around her and dove into the water.

Jandar and co. finally reached the ship where a commotion had broken out. Barry, acting quickly, hurled his maul at the ship, however it failed to damage the ship in any way. After it fell into the water, Otaroinae saw the maul drop into her field of view, recognizing it as Barry’s. She went and picked it up, managing to swim to the surface of the water with it. Meanwhile, Jandar was yelling at the ship, demanding the return of his friend, however the elf speaking to him insisted there were not any aquatic halflings on board. Otaroinae, finally breaking the surface of the water, called out to Jandar.

Jandar was relieved to have his friend back, however he demanded compensation for emotional trauma. Eventually, the elves on board gave in and tossed a bag of platinum at them. Jandar bid them a nice day, and took his crew back to the tavern to rest. On the way back, Barry went on another tangent about Jandar, and the crew had a good laugh, with everything being normal again.

"Normal."

It was a relatively combat-less game this time. I found Jandar's actions.. interesting. He seems to really be trying his hardest to find adventure wherever it may lurk, to a staggering extent. I can understand this. However in my mind, if you are always just walking (or sailing) into a new town, and there is always adventure in your face, that kind of says that the world is so full of chaos that there is never any peace for anyone involved (Ignoring the events of Chaos Quest for now, for.. certain reasons..). I'm not of the mind that any world should be like that. Adventure comes, and adventure hides sometimes. Sometimes finding too much adventure is a bad thing, as it can distract you from other adventures that might come along.

Regardless, I felt that I did not provide an adequate amount of 'adventure' in this session, as most of the adventure on the high seas has, so far, been dictated by the random encounters that I have set up. Regardless, I'll keep letting Jandar take the direction he wants to for now, as the wind can be a fickle thing. Every now and then, it will wrest control away from you and drag you along by your sails in the wind.

Thanks for reading! Take care.