Armstrong Grand Tour

About
This is a solo campaign that only elf plays in. We follow the adventures of Pirate Captain Nessie Armstrong of The Armstrong Pirates, and Nessie's journey to Raftel Island. Takes place in the Era of Discord, at the same time as Adventures in Niflheim in the year 2763.

Meanwhile, Samuel Arrow -also known as "The Chain"- begins his voyege to track down and arrest who he believes is the next King of the Pirates.

PCs and NPC
Main PC: Nessie Armstrong

PC for a little while: Samuel Arrow

NPCs
The Armstrong Pirates: Jim Silver, Nicodemus, Weasel Kappa, Quh-Ween Fro-Goh, Pyris, Benedict Doppler (deceased), Thumper, Highliss, Calico Jack Rackam, Sif, Fiddlefen Pijjipen, Fisher Kombu

The ROC Navy: Mr. Barry (deceased), Dawn Edwards (playable), Wolf-Maw (arrested), Amelia Lily, Breaker

The Golden Wheel: Bessie Bishop, Hecate Tate, Fig Cookiekiss, Amfee B. Ann, Nandra, Dragon Rider Tiel, Paola Perno

The Wind Company: Edmund King

The Typhon Alliance: Moose Armstrong

Bloodbeard Army: Long John Silver, Klaarg Bugbeard, Crusades Law

Arlong Pirates: K'ara Russo, Fisher Nistle (deceased), Fisher Hashan (deceased), Fisher Arlong (arrested)

Rockstar Pirates: Howard Sharp (arrested), Bart Pozz (deceased)

Other Pirates: Saul Forgette (arrested), William Kidd (deceased), Copper Rayleigh

Other: Phillis Stock, unnamed receptionist, Mayor Rogers, Rayleigh, Barbus (deceased), King Wapple, Gruntilda Winkybonion (deceased), Mingella Winkybonion, Brentilda Winkybonion (deceased), Blobelda Winkybonion (deceased), Dratella Winkybonion, King Aristo, King Minos, Ed, Joseph Manko, Queen Eros,

Heard of/seen mention of: Bel Highwind, James Flint (deceased), Goldroger, Billy Bones (deceased), Dilbert Krokus, Karry Kappa, Anne Bonny, Edgar Killgood (deceased)

Session 1 - Stopped to Smell the Flowers
Meet Nessie, your main character in this adventure. She is just starting her journey as a pirate, with no crew and a small rowboat for a ‘ship’. The first stop of this adventure is one of the small islands of Gosail. Like any good scotsman, the first place she heads is the tavern. She chats for a bit with the barkeep, Phillis Stock, and then eventually aims to leave. As she stands up, a gathering of boisterous Navy officers enter the establishment. One of who, notice Nessie’s attempt at departure.

This man, Mr. Barry, loudly approaches Nessie and says something along the lines of “hey what’re you leaving for? The party just arrived.” To which Nessie responds with snarky scottish dialect. Mr. Barry doesn’t understand what Nessie said, but is threatened non the less and loudly challenges her to a brawl in order to repair his fragile pride. Outside, they have a fist fight (technically in Mr. Barry’s favor. He had knuckle dusters) and Nessie wins after several good hits and an attack with her cutlass -that she drew only because Mr. Barry pulled out his gun- and the rest of the Navy officers help him to the infirmary while he yells with revengous intents. Back inside the Tavern, another Navy officer approaches Nessie.

This time it is Dawn Edwards, and she thanks Nessie for putting Mr. Barry in his place, even buying her a drink. Another man comes running into the tavern yelling how someone tried to storm Daisy Tower, and that the man who did was caught and put to the blocks. Nessie says that she’ll get this man out, and Dawn decides to help her (as in “I’ll look the other way”). Dawn takes Nessie to Daisy Tower. After some time, Dawn finds out that Nessie has half an hour to get him out before the Navy officers kill him. There is no time to wait until dark, so she’ll have to just go for it. The man is being held in the prison yard, tied to a post. He is sort of away from the gate, which is guarded by two Navy officers, with an additional one patrolling. Nessie successfully vaults over the fence and into the prison yard, undetected. She stealthily walks over to where the man is tied up, and wakes him.

This man, is Jim Silver. Jim, after being told by Nessie that she is here to get him out, explains that he had a treasure map that was taken from him when he stormed Daisy Tower, and requested that she help him retrieve it from the 5th floor, behind The Chain’s Office. Interested, Nessie agrees. First, in order to get inside Daisy Tower they have to sneak past the two guards by the gate and the one guard who is patrolling. Nessie is successful at this, but Jim is not. He stumbles on something and alerts the guards, which immediately causes a chase to begin. Nessie and Jim run into the tower and shut the door behind them.

They are greeted by an indifferent receptionist who has clearly had to put up with too much to even care anymore. While holding the door, Nessie sends Jim to take a look up the stairs. After not hearing from him, she blocks the door with some benches and runs after him. She sees that Jim is locked into a standoff with two Navy officers at the top of the stairs. Jim holds a pistol, that he had gotten earlier from the receptionist’s desk, while the two Navy officers hold muskets.

There is a series of events where Nessie and Jim are in various fights with different groups of Navy officers, while the crowd of Navy officers who pursue them grow. Also there is a child who screams after a guy called Wolf-Maw. They finally make it to the fifth floor. Dawn has also caught up at some point. We make it to The Chain’s office. There are three people here: Mr. Barry with his arm in a sling, the child, and a big hobgoblin. This is Wolf-Maw. There is also a wolf. Mr. Barry points at Nessie and yells “she’s the one who hurt me!” or whatever. Wolf-Maw kills him, like a meanie. And then Dawn Edwards goes to arrest him, but there is a fight first.

Jim gets knocked out, but not before taking out the wolf. Nessie and Dawn are able to beat Wolf-Maw, Nessie coming a little close to killing him. Dawn then says that she’ll distract the rest of the Navy officers that have been gathering at Nessie and Jim’s tail and leaves. Through The Chain’s Office, Nessie finds the vault, and in the vault she finds Jim’s treasure map. With the map in hand and and unconscious but stable Jim slung over her shoulder (Nessie is strong girl), she repels down the side of Daisy Tower with her rope.

During this time, the mob of Navy officers had caught up, and took a couple shots, luckily both missed. Nessie, still with Jim over her shoulder, runs all the way through town, being pursued by every Navy officer available. With the help of townsfolk purposely getting in the way and Dawn discretely -but not staying discrete- keeping her officers from landing shots, she successfully makes it back to her little rowboat and leaving Gosail with her first crewmate.

Session 2 - The Most Heinous Crime: Wasting Alcohol
Nessie and Jim sail for a few days, and eventually reach a tiny island. They step off the docks and into the town. It is strangely empty, with a strong scent of alcohol in the air. Nessie heads to the general store to stock up on supplies. By this time, it is clear that the town is completely empty.

After finishing stocking up, they look around for a bit. They don’t find anything of note. However, eventually they see four men -one of whom is very, very drunk- walking in the streets. The drunk man is carrying a bottle of beer, and is throwing it on the ground, soaking the streets in alcohol. During so, they mention someone called Sharp. The two quickly hide behind the building. She attempts to get behind the group in order to follow them. The attempt fails though, and alerts the men. Before they can check, Nessie and Jim hide inside the building and watch from the window. However, they get spotted through the window and the drunk man through the glass.

During the fight, the drunk man throws a jar of alchemist’s fire aiming for and missing one of them. This is especially a danger because the whole town is soaked in alcohol. Nessie is able to put the fire out before it spreads. Outnumbered and outgunned, Nessie wants to retreat from the fight. However, Jim is knocked out before they can both escape. After that, the men yell out that if she wants to retrieve Jim, she will need to come to the north docks where their ship is.

A short rest later, Nessie runs into an old man who introduced him as Mayor Roberts of Smallbark. He then leads her to a place separate from the town where the entire population of Smallbark is taking refuge. He explains that Captain Howard Sharp of the Sharp pirates claims that there is treasure on this island, and threatens to burn the town down if he doesn’t hand it over. The Mayor is distressed, because as far as he can tell, no such treasure exists on this Island. After a short rest, Nessie heads in the direction of the Sharp Pirates.

Arriving at the docks, she fails another stealth check and is spotted. Instantly, Nessie is surrounded by Sharp Pirates. From on top of the boat, she sees three notable figures. One is a man who looks like he is the captain. The other man is the drunk man from earlier. The third person is a tabaxi. These three people introduce themselves as Howard Sharp, Bart Pozz, and Nico. Nico is a little unnerving, because he looks like an adult, but he sounds and acts like a child.

Sharp wants Nessie to join his crew, she of course doesn’t, so for now they compromise. Nessie will help Sharp find the treasure he’s looking for and in return he will return Jim. Seeing no other option, Nessie agrees, and Jim is released to help. Nico shows them the treasure map. It is drawn in crayons. When asked where he got the map, Nico says that he drew the map form memory of one of the maps his dad had. There is a riddle on the map that says ‘What is the healthiest water?’.

So Nessie has been tasked with finding this treasure, with only a riddle to go on. Eventually, she heads toward the well, for two reasons: you can drink well water, and it’s well water. She is accompanied by Jim, Sharp, Pozz, Nico, and four pirates. Upon arriving at the well, Nessie looks into the water. There is a square-shaped object. Upon closer inspection, this object is actually a door. Opening the door drains the well, and a passage is revealed.

Finally, the hallway ends at a room. The floor forms a ledge, with the lower bit being covered in tiles with four different pictures on them: a flame, a wave, a sword, and a skull. Looking around, there is also a plaque that says: “Take the path of the pirate.” Sharp exclaims, “aarg, I am a pirate, and I kill and cause death! It must be the skull!” He steps on the skull tile and gets stabbed by a that juts out of the ceiling. Embarrassed, he steps back onto the ledge. At this, there is more thought. Then Nessie has an idea. She figures that there is one thing every pirate has in common: being on the ocean. She steps on the wave tile, and it’s safe. Following the rest of the wave tiles, she makes it to the other side. Jim and Nico follow, then Sharp angrily marching after them.

They make it to the treasure room. In here, there are various valuables, including a jade statue, a few gems, and a dwarven trade bar. There are also, two potions of water breathing. With them is a note: “To be used to visit our fishy friends, - Dr. Krokus.” Sharp gets excited at the sight of the water breathing potions. He exclaims how, he can use them to take revenge on the loan sharks, The Arlong Pirates. Sharp used to be a part of The Flint Pirates, and after that Sharp took a loan form Arlong to buy a ship and a crew. “And then, I’m coming after you, Highwind,” he said. Nessie had not heard of Arlong, but this name caught her attention, for she is familiar with Bel Highwind (see under Backstory). Nessie is quick to defend Highwind, saying how she knows him personally. At this, Sharp has the idea to capture Nessie to lure Highwind to him, because he's lazy and doesn't want to put in any effort. And Nessie is not about to have that, and moves to attack Sharp.

A fight is had. Additional conversation and Nessie’s general charisma is able to sway Nico to their side. During the fight, we see Nico using a fire breath, his head turning into one of a gold dragon’s when he does so. They are able to get Sharp bloodied before Jim and Nessie fall unconscious. Nico knocks Sharp unconscious. After a couple hours, Nessie and Jim both regain conscience. They collect everything in the treasure room, including the two water breathing potions, and head back up the well. Nico carries Sharp.

Back in town, it is chaos. Navy officers have stormed Smallbark in order to chase off the Sharp Pirates. We see their ship, Rockstar, in the distance trying to leave. Figuring it best, they leave Sharp behind to be arrested, and make a break for the rowboat. On their way, they bump into a man. He is big, he is intimidating, and he has a bunch of chains draped over him, with a greatsword on his back. He is The Chain. He keeps them where for a few minutes, asking some questions. Then, he says “Hey Edwards. Are these the pirates from Gosail?” At this, Dawn Edwards makes herself known. She thinks for a minute, and then answers no. At this, The Chain and Dawn leave to attend her court martial. Meanwhile, Nessie, Jim, and Nico make it to the rowboat.