Something on the Wind Adventure 2 Session 9

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Brynja's youth and health restored by magical fruit.

The party followed Brynja through the field of sunpetal blooms, into the massive crack in the wall. The room appeared to be an entry hall, with rows of faded banners hanging from the ceiling. One of the banners animated and attacked while Brynja slipped through a double door leading deeper into the building. Before he vanished he said "Good luck! And be extra careful of Hrafketill! He will seriously fuck you up!"

The party dispatched the animated banner without much trouble. Before following Brynja, they moved toward an archway leading to a guardroom off the entry hall. Unfortunately, the loose flagstones and rickety rafters combined to form a happenstance trap, and a chandelier fell on the party, causing some wounds that had to be healed with magic. The guardroom was mostly in ruins, the entry gate to the keep having long ago caved in. Rusted weapons and rubble were strewn about the floor.

The party then went through the large double doors that Brynja had gone through, finding the doors locked. Nyx picked the lock without trouble, and the party entered a feast hall. Before they could even take in the room, an animated suit of armor burst into action. It handed each member of the party a cracked goblet and "poured" them a glass of nothing from an ancient, empty urn. After ushering each member of the party into the feast hall with a goblet, it raised its own empty goblet and said something in Old Nor that the party didn't understand. They raised their own glasses, and pretend to "drink" the mysterious toast. The construct then returned to its original position and became immobile again. The party inspected the room to find it was largely ruined. The feast table was charred from an ancient fire, and the tables were all strewn at the edges of the room. One chair still had an occupant, a skeletal man dressed in rotten finery, holding a golden goblet. The party decided not to loot anything, just in case the construct would object. They noted a mural painted on one wall to be the exact painting that the Dragonspine Reef island puzzle was based on! It depicted a raucous party, with each of the members of Brynja's court arrayed in the same order as the puzzle.

The party then scouted the two other exits from the feast hall: a kitchen to the south and a forboding hall to the east. The eastern hall looked to be a massacre. Seven corpses (four ancient, three more recent) littered the ground, four statues stood in alcoves in the corners of the room, and a massive, armored sentry stood on the far side of the room, wielding a clearly magical axe and guarding a massive iron door. Suspecting this to be Hrafketill, the party opted to explore the kitchens.

The kitchens were obviously enchanted. Permanent heat and light were radiating from the unlit hearths. Crockery and pots littered the floor. One corner had a pile of sacks of grain that had turned to mulch, with a purple mold growing over it. Another corner had an upturned table. A hidden door was spotted behind a rack of barrels, which led to a large spice closet. A small, magically animated wooden turtle toy was found on the floor.

Past the kitchens, the party found a servant passage. Spiral stairs had caved in from the upper level damage and a group of skeletons lay huddled in a corner. The skeletons wore servants clothes. Their possessions included a makeshift diary scratched onto scraps of leather. The party deciphered the Old Nor runes to learn about the cataclysm of the island splitting, and the servants that were trapped in the keep by the damage and the malfunctioning defenses. Their writings offered a secret weapon against Hrafketill, though, suggesting that standing your ground and speaking his name in a challenge would stun him briefly.

The party decided to take this advantage and try to explore the massacre hall. Once the party entered the room, Hrafketill bellowed a warning in Old Nor. When the party approached further, the creature sprang into action. It was briefly entangled by druid magic. Every attack by the party deflected off its imposing armor. It broke free from the vines and bellowed a cone of freezing air at the group, severely damaging several of them, though some were protected by a large slate stone standing in the room. The rogue used the chaos of battle to inspect the door, quickly realizing that the lock was magical, not mechanical, and would require the key around Hrafketill's neck. The party wisely retreated, and decided to search the servant's hub for secret passages.

They found a secret door that led to the hall just past Hrafketill! The hall was decorated with murals of the three "witches" from Brynja's past. Before each mural was a magical strip of runes. The party inspected the runes and solved three passphrase riddles to successfully cross the hall. The final double doors opened to a sunlit courtyard. In the center of the courtyard was a majestic tree, which Brynja could be seen feebly climbing. Just as the party arrived, Brynja reached the singular fruit on the tree. He fell back to the ground with a bone-breaking crunch. He then whispered a phrase in Old Nor and bit the fruit. Suddenly he was transformed. He grew two feet in height. His skin smoothed and lost its pock marks. His hair returned, and his eyes lost their demented glaze. The young, healthy Brynja let out a deep and joyous laugh. Clear headed, he thanked the party, and said that it was the closest he'd ever come to not getting back to the tree in time.

Making good on his promise, he gifted the party with 2000 gp (4 times the reward of the other jobs in Bellaverdis), and also offered them each a pendant with protective charms. He said that he had to visit his "vault", and would meet the party back on The Steadfast.

Once back on the ship, the party asked Brynja if he knew anything about the ancient legend of three pirate kings with magical treasures that they fought over. Brynja relayed the following tale:

So, stories of The Three Kings have grown pretty harsh over the years. And to be sure, they could be vicious enough. But you have to understand, they were regarded as heroes back in my time. You see, there was this Fury Sorcerer who managed to retrieve a piece of the Brine Star. Now he was a right bastard. Varruld was his name, but we called him "Stjarntakari", meaning "Star Thief". Ruled the isles with nothing but fear and violence.

The Three Kings were the heroes who defeated him! Even I don't remember their real names, but I remember their fabled names. There was "Ironjaw", "Stormtaker", and "Skaldbane", which roughly means "Song Killer". Skaldbane sounds better, though, don't you think? Commontongue just doesn't convey the same mood as Old Nor. I had a tussle with the forces of Ironjaw. Turned out to be a big mistake, he was far too powerful for me. Stormtaker was a queen, technically, though she didnt' mind being called one of the Three Kings.

The artifacts you're looking for are three gems. You see, when the Three Kings defeated Varruld, they shattered his Brine Shard into three pieces. There's the Ebon Pearl, which is part of the Titan of oceans: Maelstrom Deep. It was held by Skaldbane. Then there's the Keening Crystal, which is part of the Titan of caverns: Lonely Hollow. It was held by Ironjaw. And finally there's the Shining Opal, which is part of the Titan of the skies: Radiant Heaven. It was held by Stormtaker. The Pearl and the Opal bestowed powers you might expect, being pretty amazing for sailing fleets. The Crystal had powers over the ground and also lots of powers of fear. I guess that's what the Lonely Hollow Titan was about. I heard the Keening Crystal once, from across a sea battle. I nearly shit myself.

And that's what I know about them. I don't know where they ended up. The fates of the Three Kings were largely a mystery back in my day. They just sort of faded into obscurity, one by one. Chasing myths and histories in the libraries of Bellaverdis is definitely your best bet. I've visted that library quite a few times over the centuries. It's the largest library in the Isles, and focuses most of its lore on the Isles themselves.

Best of luck! Do keep me updated on your quest. If you're main goal is to protect the three Brine Shard gems from this Titan Wind, I might be able to help. And I wouldn't mind having the three artifacts myself. Maybe usher in a new era of the Immortal Pirate King, eh?