The Desperado Arc

Arc Summary
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Session 71

 * Google document (10-22-22)

The party continues! Jorah is sloshed and regrets not having any more firewhiskey, but isn’t going to admit that to anyone out loud, especially Reides. When Kilwin asks if he’s okay and tries to console him, he says he’s not drunk at all. The cake has been eaten, since Kilwin didn’t get enough to have to worry about leftovers. Aske asks if we’re prepared for the cold weather, and Kilwin tells him we have winter cloaks! Jorah says he won’t almost freeze to death a second time, which prompts a lot of questions. He explains that once he was hunting someone a bit south of Gron-Gammar. Jorah doesn’t even remember the guy’s name now, but he was caught up in an early winter storm and had to take shelter in a cave. He had to convince a wolf to help him stay warm, or else he would’ve frozen to death. Aske wonders how you can convince a wolf to help you, and Jorah just says there’s tricks you learn when you spend a lot of time around animals. He says it’s similar to how Briar spoke to the seagulls or presumably could become a seagull, but Briar points out he had to cast a spell for that or would have to progress farther along his path. Reides points out that Jorah talked to a squirrel once too! Briar wonders if Jorah found the Great Squirrel Ratatoskr who resides in the World Tree Yggdrasil. None of us have ever heard either of these names in our lives. Briar says he got the wrong story! Jorah says he’s shared plenty of his fun fuckup stories and asks if Briar has any good ones. He suspects that Briar is older than he acts. Briar deflects by saying he just aged in the fight. Aske is very confused by this but accepts the answer of “wizard bullshit.” Briar says his vintage has aged like a fine wine. Eventually, Aske gathers that Briar is the cat he pet the other day. Briar meows for him. Aske says he looked more catlike the first time, and Briar thanks him for the belly rubs. Aske stares at his hands in horror. Reides feels bad for making Aske pet cat Briar now.

Jorah says Kilwin probably has some fun teenager stories, like cow tipping or something. Kilwin swears he would never do this and also that cows don’t actually tip over like that and get very mad if you try. Jorah questions how Kilwin would know this if he hadn’t tried!! Briar says he can become a cow to test this out, but is dissuaded from getting us kicked out of the Fish and Spell. Kilwin says he knows because Len tried it once and got in a lot of trouble for it. Reides says of course it was Len. Reides wonders how Baskets is doing and if he’s an adult now. Kilwin’s not sure since he doesn’t know how old Baskets was to begin with, but figures he’s probably grown a lot since we met him. Reides wonders again why he’s not allowed to ride a cow, but Jorah explains that they’re too heavy to carry a person. Briar is, again, willing to test this out!

Jorah admits that the Kraken worries him a bit. Aske asks if he’s afraid of strong women, and Jorah says he’s anything but, citing the women who raised him. Jorah’s just not sure what to expect from her. He pushes his ale away, saying he doesn’t want to be hungover tomorrow. Aske admits the Kraken is hard, but he thinks it’s because she does care about her crew. Briar pushes the ale back in front of Jorah as Kilwin offers to cure any hangover Jorah might have in the morning. Jorah realizes he could try curing his own hangover now. It feels like cheating to him! He doesn’t wanna try it! He waves his gloved hand around, and Aske has no idea what he’s talking about. Reides says that Jorah is a better paladin than Viglis, he’s gotta be, and this is a competition now. Jorah continues pushing the ale away, and Briar keeps pushing it back, so Jorah dumps the tankard onto Briar. Briar is unbothered. He orders another ale and places it in front of Jorah. Reides worries about the wind possibly blowing him off the Desperado. Jorah’s not sure why, since Reides can swim just fine. Reides points out that getting blown off the ship and onto land could still be a major issue if it happened to any of us! Jorah asks if Kilwin and Ashara are going to be okay at sea for an extended period of time. Kilwin is trying to be optimistic about it! Ashara says no. Reides apologizes for making them do this, but Kilwin says he wants to, even if he might not have wanted to do it on his own. It’s a new experience. Ashara wonders if this is a bad time to mention that she gets terribly motion sick. Kilwin’s not sure if he does or not, but Jorah assures him that if he’s fine in the carriage, he’ll probably be fine on the ship. Reides got landsick the first time he came up, but Aske points out that since he came up onto a ship, he might have technically been seasick. Jorah mocks Reides for being a landlubber. Reides hopes everyone will be okay underwater. Jorah thinks we will be, considering we were under a mountain for quite some time. Reides thinks Laverathia will be nicer than the Exeter, saying he did like it there even if he did run away. Jorah wonders who hasn’t run away before! He says Kilwin doesn’t count. Kilwin’s sure he’s run away from a few things before. Reides wonders what would have happened if he stayed in Aquos. He doesn’t have any regrets, but it’s confusing to think about. Jorah quietly drinks the ale Briar bought for him. Reides warns us that the people he knew in Aquos were pretty closed-minded, although he admits he doesn’t know much about the common folk. He also admits that that wording makes him sound like an ass and it’s fine to laugh at him. Briar lets himself crack. Reides asks us not to kill anyone there, although beating someone up might be fine. He wants to help Aquos, not make things worse, although he’s pretty sure he’s going to be blamed for any problems that happen down there anyway. Briar thinks this is starting to sound pretty cursed! Reides says he wouldn’t have run away if it was blessed! He says we’ll at least have bragging rights, since not many surfacers get to go to Aquos. Kilwin says he probably won’t do any bragging about it, though, unless Aquos’s international situation changes a lot. Reides thanks him! He tells the rest of the party about his and Aske’s encounter with the wretched work of P. Valencia. Jorah says the downside of staying secretive is that people will make stuff up to fill in the blanks, but Reides says literally everything they guessed was wrong. Aske agrees that it sucked. Jorah asks if tritons eat babies or something, and Reides admits it wasn’t that bad, but P. Valencia did say they feed their dead to sharks, which is very offensive, and they live in peaceful little villages. Jorah asks what Aquos is like, saying that he imagines it like Port Valor with tritons, although he’s not sure if that’s right. Briar imagines that Aquos is wet. Reides confirms that it’s wet, but very different from the surface world, with lots of shells and sea creatures. It’s very majestic and rich-looking. Kilwin asks if there’s a lot of towers. Reides says there are! Kilwin asks if they spiral like those pointy spiral shells. Reides says they do! He asks if Kilwin has been to Aquos! Kilwin swears it was just a lucky guess!

Reides asks where the Desperado will go after they drop us off. Aske admits the Kraken hasn’t told him, but probably Davenport or somewhere. He asks how we’re planning to get back to land, but we explain that we’re teleporting. We have business in Falas, and Ashara has the runes and material components, so that will be our next step after Aquos. Reides tells Aske to visit Dillan at the Temple of Alethus if the Desperado docks in Port Valor. Aske thinks that sounds nice, but that the Kraken is unlikely to go there considering the town’s recent history. Jorah suggests that this would be a good time to try to do business in Port Valor, since they’re trying to rebuild and have a lot of needs, but stops since he’s not sure why he’s trying to sell this. Reides thinks that’s a good point, though, and that kind of thinking could get him on the Kraken’s good side! Jorah decides to go to bed before he gets any drunker. He’s already not sure how well he’ll be able to get up in the morning. He wishes Kilwin a happy birthday. Aske also heads off to bed, since he needs to be up even earlier than the rest of us. Reides follows him up, wishing Kilwin a happy birthday too.

As they enter their room, Reides apologizes again for asking about Aske’s scar so insensitively. Aske says it’s fine and it was all a long time ago. He also doesn’t mind telling Reides about it, but didn’t want to do it in front of everyone. Reides says it’s really okay if he doesn’t share, since he doesn’t want to pressure him into it. Aske wants to, though, and says that he said it was a few years ago, but it was actually much longer. He takes a deep breath and reveals that he was eight years old, and his mother died in the same incident. It wasn’t of natural causes. Aske tries to say it was a really long time ago, but Reides doesn’t think that kind of thing gets easier to bear over time. Aske thought it was important for Reides to know, and Reides thanks Aske for telling him. They hug, and Reides tells Aske that Viglis would always say scars are proof of survival. He’s glad that Aske survived so they could eventually meet. Aske admits that Viglis has a better way of looking at it than he has all these years. To thank him for telling him about his trauma, Reides figures he can tell Aske a little more about his own trauma. He explains how his father had him imprisoned for asking to go to the surface as an ambassador. Aske is horrified. Reides admits he’s worried it’ll happen again when we go there, but he’ll fight like hell if it comes to that. Aske thinks Reides should share this with his friends, since he’s certain they’d fight for him too. Reides says he has told the party about his imprisonment, but hasn’t really discussed his worries about a repeat. He guesses it would at least prepare them for his father’s mindset of locking away anything he doesn’t like. Aske points out that Reides can just teleport now! Reides thinks that’s a good point, even if there might be wards on the cell, and thinks he should study Dimension Door while we’re sailing.

Aske brings up the thing Reides said he had to give him. Reides takes out the box with the pendant, and Aske is thrilled to receive a box! Reides opens the box, facing it away from Aske, gives the pendant a squeeze, and whispers a prayer to Persana to keep Aske safe on this journey and all the subsequent ones. He gives the pendant to Aske, who stares at it, running his finger over the feather engraving. He asks what it says, and Reides explains that it says “Hold Fast,” which Briar said could be something dirty, which is even better than it being a sailor thing. Aske loves it! Reides says he had to get him something, especially since he’s sticking his neck out for Reides again. He doesn’t want it to all be in vain! Aske says that Reides and his friends are all impressive, and if anyone can get us out there, the Kraken can, so it definitely won’t be. Reides says that Aske is impressive and has a lot of skills too, even if he blames it all on luck! Aske isn’t sure his name and skill belong in the same sentence, but since Reides said it, he’ll accept it on principle. Aske thanks Reides again for the pendant and wears it.

Reides figures he should contact Viglis again to tell him he’s coming home, but not staying. He’s going to help protect Aquos! Viglis sounds injured when he responds, telling Reides to stay away from Laverathia because it’s not safe anymore. Aquos has fallen and the family has fled. Reides is horrified and says that means he really has to go back, no matter what. Aske is deeply concerned. Reides Sends to Viglis again, asking where he is and telling him that he’s still coming and there’s no use telling him not to. Reides receives a response and clutches his head. He mumbles in Primordial a bit before saying that nothing has changed and we’re going to Aquos. Aske asks what Viglis said. Reides says that something has taken his little sister and he’s going to kill it. He’s going to save Lotlyn! Aske reaches for his new pendant and says that if anyone can do it, Reides can. He tells Reides to remember the advice he gave Aske. Reides needs to go Now, although he’s not planning on literally leaving. He wants to avoid the rest of the party since he doesn’t want to ruin Kilwin’s party and they all need to be up early in the morning, so he and Aske go out on a balcony. Reides smells the sea air and sees the stars rising and very slightly calmed. He suspects whatever the beast is, it’s using Lotlyn to get to Reides, so this is kind of his fault, but it’ll be okay because we’ll kill it and save her. Aske tells Reides not to blame himself, since it’s the evil guy’s fault for being evil and no one normal would do something like this. Reides wonders what it is about power that makes people do stuff like this to try to get more of it. Aske thinks it’s because they want to control people through fear and don’t realize there’s other ways. Reides thinks he’ll at least be able to show up Viglis by bringing Lotlyn back and Viglis made it sound like everyone else made it to safety. He worries about the regular people in Aquos, though, since Viglis didn’t really mention them. Aske admits that Reides won’t like to hear this, but all this news means it’s even more important for Reides to try to get some rest. Reides agrees, and they head back inside. Reides takes some time to attune to the Bands of the Archmagi before sleeping, though. Aske says they look good on him, although he thinks anything would look good on Reides. Reides is worried that none of the Crests are worth all this, but will take the compliment from his boyfriend.

Downstairs, the party wraps up, and Kilwin and Briar head off to bed. Ashara waits up and, just as Briar heads up, she receives a message in her mind, telling her to come to a booth in the corner without alerting her companions. She does so. Already at the booth is a hooded figure whose face is obscured by a faint blue aura. Ashara says she was a fool to think Paisodos would drop his disguise, but he says he literally can’t. The haze can’t be dispelled as long as he serves as a member of the Circle of Eight. It’s a privilege and a burden, and he would look like this on the dig too. Ashara seems concerned that the archmages are literally trapped there forever, but Paisodos says the illusion will go away if/when he retires. Anonymity allows the archmages to conduct their business and then return to ordinary lives when they’ve left the position. Ashara asks if the illusions look the same to everyone, and he confirms that it’s always blue. Ashara still thinks that’s awfully restrictive if the archmages don’t retire young, but Paisodos points out that it makes retirement a possibility. Paisodos also confirms that he’s not Vrinian and his interest in the empire is purely academic. Ashara believes him. She asks what he meant by his warning. He says that there’s no telling what the Circle could do with Vrinian technology, and it was just a general warning. What Ashara showed them was pretty benign, but Paisodos is sure there’s worse things than emergency displacers or even the warforged. Ashara doesn’t think anything is left to be dangerous, although Paisodos reminds her that there’s always more to uncover in archaeology. Ashara knows this too, since she used to date an archaeologist. Ashara is also worried about conclusions people would draw from what they uncover. She also speculates that the original Paisodos’s villa might have survived, with those inactive warforged unreached by their fellow warforged back during the rebellion, assuming the dragons didn’t get them in the meantime. She agrees with Paisodos that warnings often go unheeded and, if the warforged are rediscovered, their enslavement and uprising will repeat. Paisodos suggests an alternative: Once Ashara’s business in Aquos is done, she can go to the site of the villa with Paisodos and they can seek out and destroy the remaining warforged. Ashara likes the thought but is reluctant to agree, since she doesn’t think there’s any way to hide this from the rest of the Circle. Paisodos promises to keep Ashara safe from reprisals, but she doubts he can hide from all seven of his equally powerful colleagues. She admits she doesn’t fully trust Paisodos, since the original one also claimed good intentions. She thinks if this goes badly, he’ll blame her for it, and he might also be expecting her to betray him. Paisodos claims to be prioritizing the safety of Lyvernus, although Ashara says the Circle has the information they’d need to act before we leave Aquos. As a sign of good faith, Paisodos gives Ashara a sheet of paper with some runes: the teleportation sigil for Malino’re. Ashara says she has a big stake in the destruction of the warforged and knows how much there is to lose. She offers to destroy them and send word to Paisodos when it’s done, although he’d like to be there when it happens. He says they have plenty of time to plan the details, since the Circle is very bureaucratic, and the other members tend to care a lot more for following the rules. Ashara also mentions that the metals used in the creation of the warforged are now very rare and dismantling the warforged would alleviate some of that scarcity. Paisodos has a method for doing this without destroying the materials, which is why he wants to be there for the destruction. Ashara agrees this has to be done, although she’ll have to bring her companions into the loop. She doesn’t think it’ll be an issue since she’s been very honest with them and thinks they’ll agree that this is necessary. Paisodos welcomes the extra hands! Ashara is sure that even if the warforged are gone, there will be other devices with horribly unethical uses at the villa. She looks forward to speaking with Paisodos in the future and asks what she should call him now. He says to call him the Blue Mage and takes his leave, saying they’ll keep in touch.

Ashara goes upstairs to get Kilwin, who’s reading Sleuthing for Slobs in his inn room. Ashara shows him the teleportation runes for Malino’re, calling it an effective bribe before explaining the situation to Kilwin. She’s not sure if she should trust Paisodos or if she’s being played. Kilwin admits he couldn’t get a good read on Paisodos, so he’s not sure. He’s reluctant to destroy the warforged, since his understanding is that the warforged were people. He’s not on board to essentially murder a lot of comatose people. Ashara explains that the inactive warforged don’t have souls like the active ones, so it’s not like they’re asleep, and the inactive ones could be used to entrap and enslave the dead. Kilwin is still a bit hesitant, but thinks it’s something we should probably look into. He wants to be very sure the warforged’s soul-capturing mechanic is truly inactive before any destruction though. He also thinks this seems like a long-term problem, regardless of Paisodos’s intentions. Ashara wonders if she should tell the others, and Kilwin’s not sure. He tries out a new spell, Augury, to see if it’s a good idea, but gets neutral results from his new runestones. Ashara and Kilwin agree that it should probably wait until tomorrow. Ashara thinks Jorah is essentially dead for the night and walking in on Reides and Aske would probably traumatize her. Kilwin thinks it wouldn’t be traumatizing but they still shouldn’t interrupt! As Ashara leaves, she says good night to Cowy. Kilwin tells her that her name is Strawberry actually and moves her arm so it’s like she’s waving to Ashara. Ashara squeals on her way out.

At 4:30 in the morning, the party starts to wake up. Aske is already gone, but Reides was warned so it’s fine. Ashara knocks on Jorah’s door with her metal arm to wake him up. Jorah is alarmed! She says it’s the debt collector, but Kilwin says it isn’t. When Jorah comes out, he’s wearing his swaggy new Cloak of the Manta Ray and seems to be feeling okay. Ashara tells the party she has the teleportation sigil for Malino’re, but doesn’t say how she got it. Reides noticeably doesn’t look very good. He tells the party that he contacted Viglis. He breaks the news that we’re too late and Aquos has already fallen. Horrified, Kilwin asks if it’s like Port Valor. Reides doesn’t think so but he’s not sure. Most of his family managed to flee, but some beast is in the city and it has Lotlyn. The rest of the party tries to console Reides, and he says we’re gonna go there and kill it and then he’ll show Viglis that this is why he came back. He’s not running from this! Jorah suggests we go to the boat, although he seems vaguely panicked by the news. Kilwin asks if Reides wants to Send to Lotlyn, but Reides is worried that might be a bad idea. He doesn’t know how closely she’s being watched, if she’s being watched directly at all. Kilwin hopes she’ll hold out while we sail to her. Reides thinks he’s cursed for sure now, since this has now happened to both of the places he’s called home. Jorah says that we already knew Reides was cursed and Tyrian did it. He pats Reides on the back and tells him it’ll be fine. We can handle it! Reides also tells the party that Viglis told him not to come, but he was obviously worried.

We make our way to the Desperado, where sailors are loading the ship, unlike anywhere else. In fact, the rest of the docks are pretty much deserted. Aske is one of the sailors doing the loading. There’s another sailor who’s noticeably struggling with a box he’s carrying. Aske refers to him as Clive and tells him to keep at it. Clive is dressed a bit fancy and seems to still  be struggling up the gangplank. Jorah steps in, since long-distance hauling sucks. Clive almost falls, but Jorah catches him. Clive thanks him before noticing the rest of the party. He stares at Reides for a moment before commenting that he used to have a pair of pants like that. He thinks Reides has good taste! Jorah takes half the crate’s weight, and he and Clive manage to get the crate up the gangplank. Once they’re on the ship, Jorah leaves the rest to Clive, who swivels a bit before managing to place the crate down safely. He tells Clive to not fall in the water! Jorah leads the way to the captain’s quarters, where the Kraken has her boots on her desk and is leafing through some papers. Jorah tells her the cargo is aboard! She asks if all the cargo is aboard. He says he meant the people cargo before realizing how weird that sounds. She says that if there’s still cargo to be loaded, we should go help with that. Jorah asks where we should store our things. The Kraken says that space has been set aside for us, but someone else can show us where that is.

We leave the Kraken behind and see Aske, who waves Reides over. Reides chinhands at how strong his boyfriend is, moving all those crates. We walk over to the hoist where Aske is. He tells us there’s a room prepared for us below deck, toward the bow. We go down and walk through the crew’s lodging (a lot of hammocks) to a separate room, where there’s twice as many hammocks as we need, as well as a table. Kilwin’s not too worried about the hammocks, since he used to just sleep on a blanket on the ground. Ashara is very worried about motion sickness. Briar tries to trick her into claiming a shakier hammock, but she doesn’t fall for it, and Jorah declares that Briar should sleep in the one under Ashara as penance. Reides sits down for a moment and discovers that the hammock is relatively comfy. Soon, though, we store our things and get to work on the cargo loading. Kilwin offers to help Reides and Ashara if they need it, so Reides sticks close to him.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes of hauling, the ship is fully loaded and the Desperado starts to set sail. The Kraken calls anchors aweigh! As the sails unfurl, Jorah keeps an eye on Ashara. If she’s going to have a problem, it’s gonna be now! Fortunately, while she turns a little green around the ears, she makes it through. We have some time to explore the ship. Jorah heads up to the aftcastle to briefly meet the helmsman, while Reides goes down to the hold and shows Kilwin where he used to live. There’s a lot of barrels! Briar turns into an albatross and flies up to the crow’s nest, where he quietly stares at the sea for a while. We start to leave the eternal spring of Atemcester behind, and it starts getting colder, although we’re still not feeling the full effect of the natural weather. Eventually, Aske rounds us all up, and tells us that according to the Kraken, the journey should take nine days to reach our destination and nine days for the Desperado to return to shore. Because of the storm, though, both parts of the trip are probably going to take a bit longer. Kilwin says this is probably a question for the Kraken, but mentions that he can try to control the water to move us along a bit faster if she’d like. Reides says he can do the same with the wind! Aske says the Kraken probably won’t go for that, since she doesn’t trust magic at all. Jorah calls her a woman after his own heart. The Kraken herself is on deck, arms crossed and watching the horizon. She’s looking so cool. We figure we’ll wait until we’re out of the channel at least before bugging any of the crew.

A day or so passes uneventfully, with the party more or less left to their own devices since sailing is smooth so far. There’s a mess hall in the lower decks where we can eat. The food is uninspiring but at least it tastes like something. Kilwin takes no offense to comments to this effect. Reides tries playing some card games with the sailors, but he only knows the ones Jorah taught him in the Exeter. Reides doesn’t win, but does well enough and has some fun. While they’re all playing, Aske sits nearby, reading a book and making sure nothing untoward happens. He also plays some dice games with the sailors.

On our second day at sea, Jorah decides it’s time for a drink. He goes to the Kraken’s office with the bottle of magma wine and knocks on the door. She tells him to enter. He was hoping she had time to chat. The Kraken notes that he brought a bribe with him. Jorah says he’s willing to share it. He wants to talk history, since he’s interested in that. The Kraken tells him to talk to a historian, but Jorah doesn’t think a historian would know much about the Desperado and her captain. He recently heard it used to be a pirate ship and admits he never heard of it before, but he’d like to know more. He asks if the Kraken has any glasses around and uncorks the magma wine. The Kraken says it’s not a pirate ship, getting out some drinking glasses. Jorah asks if it isn’t anymore or never was. He apologizes if he’s treading on rough ground but says he genuinely wants to know. The Kraken says there’s many stories about the Desperado, and not all of them are true. She’ll leave whether Jorah’s is or not up to him. She does say that she’s built an esteemed reputation, though. Some may call her a pirate for taking jobs that aren’t strictly legal, but that doesn’t matter. Jorah will drink to that! The Kraken also asks if Aske and Clive seem like they could ever be pirates. Jorah agrees it’s hard to imagine either of them boarding another vessel, cutlasses in hand. The Kraken calls the two of them soft. She takes a sip of the magma wine, her face unmoving. Jorah warns her that it’s strong dwarven stuff, but she says she’s had stronger. Jorah says he’s got plenty of stories, especially since he hasn’t always been an adventurer. He wonders what kind of stories the Kraken has. She looks out the window for a bit before saying Fine. She points to the Forsaken Gulf, south of Lyvernus, on her map. She tells Jorah that no one has ever braved the Forsaken Gulf and come out alive, and she knows the reason for that. There’s a huge vortex, larger than Faerenil in the center of it. She knows because she was dumb enough to take the Desperado down there. Jorah asks how she got out alive, and she explains that part of her cargo on that voyage was a wizard who was able to propel the ship away from the vortex. Jorah asks if the wizard was why she was down there in the first place. She says he was, and that’s why she never takes contracts from wizards now. Jorah agrees with that, although he says working for them and working with them are two very different experiences. The Kraken tells Jorah his contract really isn’t much better, though, and he’s lucky he had the gold to back it up. Jorah admits that he wishes he could say it was the dumbest thing he’s done this year. The Kraken, of course, asks. Jorah says there’s a lot of competition, between trying to kill a dragon north of Malino’re, a tournament in the Exeter, and Port Valor, where he trails off. The Kraken asks if he was there, and he tells her he was about half an hour out, so he was one of the first people in after it happened. Jorah sips his magma wine and says something like that changes a man and he never wants to see anything like it again. The Kraken says he should hope Eadro blesses us so the Desperado doesn’t become a miniature Port Valor. Jorah slaps the table, saying that if all goes well, the party will take all the bad luck onto themselves and we’ll jump off, leaving her and her crew to sail away safely. The Kraken’s expression shifts at this, although she’s stony-faced again before Jorah can discern what it was. She calls it an interesting thought and isn’t sure why we’re going through so much trouble to jump in the sea. Jorah admits he can’t fully explain it to her, but that it’s better that she not know too much, in case anyone comes asking questions. He calls enough on the grim business and properly introduces himself as Jorah Wolfwood, at her service. He holds out his hand to shake. The Kraken firmly shakes his hand again, but points out that this is the second time he’s introduced himself. Jorah says oops! She asks if he wanted anything specific from her, but he just wanted to meet the captain. He usually doesn’t get to meet the same person twice, since his work involves a lot of wandering, and he’s interested in people’s stories. The Kraken looks out the back window and stops. She pulls a spyglass out of her coat and points it toward the horizon. She asks Jorah if we hired a ship other than the Desperado. Jorah says she was the only captain we even talked to about it. The Kraken informs him that we have a tail, then.

Jorah and the Kraken leave the captain’s quarters, and the Kraken orders the helmsman to turn hard to starboard, since there’s a small island nearby. The Desperado doesn’t have enough supplies for a direct engagement, so it can try to circle around there while we land on the island and take care of the other ship. Jorah finds the rest of the party hanging out and tells them that he was talking with our lovely captain when she noticed another ship following us. We don’t know for sure who it is, but Jorah strongly suspects Tyrian is on it. Ashara doubts it’s people from the Circle of Eight, since she considers them allies, but Reides is still not happy with that situation. Jorah asks Aske to prepare a way down for us, which he does. The island comes into view, and it turns out it’s actually two very small islands connected by a rickety-looking bridge. The islands would have to be climbed to reach the top. We climb out of our rowboat, and Jorah and Briar see a group disembarking from the other ship on the other side of the island, although the rest of the party can’t quite see them around the islands. There’s one magical-looking person, along with three others who seem more physically inclined. Ashara casts Hunger of Hadar on the other side of the islands. The puddle below one of them becomes void before growing and enveloping them. The enemy wizard casts a spell, but nothing seems to happen. Jorah steps forward and fires two crossbow shots at them, but they bounce off an invisible barrier the wizard seems to have created between the islands, close to our side. Jorah makes some rude gestures. Briar shifts into his great tree form before shifting into a giant toad and jumping on top of the east island. Reides climbs the west island with Misty Step and fires a Ray of Frost at the wizard, also they summon a ward to deflect it. From conversations with Kain, Reides recognizes this as a specialty of abjuration wizards. Reides is glad he didn’t focus on that school! A bandit-looking guy climbs the east island and throws a pair of daggers at Briar, which hit their mark. Kilwin scrambles up the east island and asks the other group what they’re doing! He fires a Sacred Flame at the bandit, but it misses. He says it was a warning shot! The abjuration wizard starts to cast something, but Reides counterspells it. The enemy fighter climbs the east island and bears their greatsword toward Briar. He croaks menacingly in response. The enemy warrior also climbs the east island, and the enemy party seems to get into some kind of formation. Jorah climbs the west island and fires two shots at the wizard. The second one catches them in the sternum, soaking their robes in blood. Jorah’s real mad about that invisible wall! Briar attempts to swallow the mage, but fails. He also attempts to heal himself but it’s not very effective. He croaks sadly. Reides summons an enormous purple webbed hand, which promptly punches the abjuration wizard. It slams into them and knocks them off-kilter, but they’re still standing. The bandit draws a scimitar and hits Briar twice before hitting him a third time with his dagger. Kilwin says that if he wants to do it this way, we can do it this way! He casts Guiding Bolt at the bandit, who ducks out of the way and laughs at him for missing. The abjuration wizard casts a spell inward toward their group, and a shimmering barrier surrounds the four of them. The fighter takes a reckless stance against Briar and manages to knock him out of frog form. The warrior strikes him as well. Jorah crosses the bridge and takes some more shots at the wizard, but misses. Briar is mad that he got knocked out of his new frog form and tells the other party they’ll face the wrath of Terathun. He casts Call Lightning and brings a lightning bolt down on the center of the other group. However, the bolt just bounces off the barrier. Briar becomes a snake instead. Like the lightning, Bigby’s Hand also bounces off the barrier when Reides tries to make it punch the mage again. He casts Mage Hand to flip the other wizard off. The bandit continues to attack Briar, carefully staying within the barrier. Kilwin tries to dispel the barrier, but Dispel Magic fails too. Ashara grabs Jorah to try to teleport into the barrier, but Dimension Door fails to breach the bubble. The wizard casts Lightning Bolt at Jorah and Briar. The fighter takes a reckless stance once more and tries to attack Kilwin, but the Plate of the Ancestors begins to glow gold, surrounding Kilwin with a pulsating golden aura, and their first strike bounces off of it. They land their second attack, but it barely does any damage. They warn their companions that he shrugs off their blows as if he were made of steel. Jorah makes his way to the abjuration wizard, but doesn’t manage to land a blow. Briar wraps himself around the warrior, restraining them. Reides shoots the other wizard with Harpoon, and after a moment, the barrier falls. He then slams into them with Bigby’s Hand again, but they manage to survive. Kilwin casts Sacred Flame on the wizard, but they just barely manage to raise their arm to ward it away, making eye contact with Kilwin. They’re unable to ward off Ashara’s Ray of Frost, though, and fall to the ground dead. The fighter takes a defensive stance, while the warrior lets loose a string of swears. The survivors of the other group surrender to us.

Session 72

 * Google document (10-28-22)

Of our new hostages, one dresses like a pirate, whether he is one or not. The other two look like more standard mercenary types. The one constricted by Briar is a woman in plate armor, while the other is a man wearing a lighter breastplate. Reides crosses the bridge to join the gathering on the other island, and Kilwin asks if the group is willing to answer questions now. The other group looks at each other, and the woman seems to have trouble speaking because of how tightly Briar is gripping her. Jorah says to let her go, and Briar eventually does, although Reides flexes Bigby’s Hand so no one gets too comfy. The warrior takes some deep breaths now that she finally can. Judging by how they surrendered immediately after his death, Jorah asks if the dead mage was their leader or their employer. The bandit explains that he was kind of their employer and that the actual person who hired them sent him along to keep an eye on them. He also says that they don’t know who actually hired them, but that’s not unusual in their business. Reides asks what the job was, exactly. According to the bandit, it was to take his ship and that mage, follow the Desperado, and kill everyone aboard. Ashara searches the mage’s body and finds a hefty sack of coin, but no sign of his spellbook. She also wants to take his clothes for herself, despite Jorah and Kilwin’s protests. She decides against it, though, when she realizes his clothes are bloody and covered in stabs. Jorah tells the other group that they should go and sail to a port other than Atemcester. He doesn’t take prisoners unless he absolutely has to, and considers this a professional courtesy to them. Ashara casts Detect Thoughts and Reides asks if that was really all there was to the job. The bandit says it is, and Ashara doesn’t get the sense he’s lying but sees an image of a hooded figure in a shadowy tavern who seems to have served as the deal’s middleperson. Jorah asks what kind of magic the wizard seemed to specialize in, and Reides is confident it was abjuration. Jorah thinks that might narrow down our suspects. Jorah advises the other group to reconsider who they take jobs from in the future and make for safer ports. Reides guesses he’s not murdering any innocents today! Kilwin asks if anyone else is on the boat with them, other than their normal crew, but apparently the only guest was the wizard. The warrior asks if they can go, but Kilwin asks how much they were being paid to kill us. It was 750 gold. We all comment that times must be tough for them! The warrior says the mage was sent as an advisor, but also carried their payment. She eyes the money pouch that Ashara is now holding. Jorah says it’s our payment for not killing them. He suggests going to Davenport, although Reides doesn’t care where they go. He does tell them to get going before he decides to fireball their ship, so the other group rushes back to their rowboat to return.

After they’re off the islands, we discuss who likely hired them. The two obvious options are someone from the Circle or Tyrian. Ashara is certain that this doesn’t have to do with the Circle and tries to Send to Paisodos to see if he knows any abjuration mages worth mentioning. Unfortunately, since she doesn’t know his real name and hasn’t seen his actual face, he doesn’t count as familiar for the purposes of the spell. She’s not sure how she’s supposed to contact him about the warforged now. Reides is just glad they didn’t seem to know anything about Aquos, since that could have gone very differently if they did. Ultimately, we can’t really figure out for sure who sent these people with the information we have. Jorah asks if we can stay on the island for a while to bury the dead mage. Kilwin supports this! Fortunately, we’re already on the island that’s more dirt than stone. Reides and Ashara start counting the money, curious if the other group was getting shortchanged. Jorah asks Briar to keep watch and make sure they actually left. Jorah and Kilwin start digging the grave. Ashara and Reides determine that the mage was carrying 746 gold and 96 silver. We split it more or less evenly, with Ashara keeping the remainder. After a while, Briar hears boots sloshing through the water on the other side of the islands. He turns and sees the Kraken coming ashore in her own rowboat. He and Reides wave to her, and she does not wave back. She just climbs the incline up the island and asks what happened. Jorah explains that they were after us, which isn’t a surprise, but they were a lone group and suffered a casualty. He told them to head for Davenport, although he won’t be surprised if they go back to Atemcester to report back anyway. The Kraken pulls out her spyglass and sees the other ship leaving. She says it’s probably for the best, since the Desperado doesn’t really have supplies to take on anyone other than its current crew and there’s no brig for prisoners. She also says things never run smoothly with prisoners on board anyway. Reides says he’d rather have killed them than taken them prisoner. Jorah also explains that he wanted to give the mage a proper burial, but we’ll be back on the ship when we’re done. The Kraken says very well and goes back to her rowboat to return to the Desperado. After about half an hour, Jorah and Kilwin finish the grave (not too deep but deep enough), Kilwin says some prayers for the dead mage, and we go back to the Desperado as well.

Our rowboat is pulled onto the deck, getting it wet, and we see some sailors gathered around the side who were obviously watching us. They stop discussing something and nod to us. Aske, who was waiting near where the rowboat was pulled up, approaches us. Kilwin and Reides wave to him, Reides much more enthusiastically. He says he’d ask how it went, but he got the play-by-play from some of his crewmates. Reides asks if he wasn’t watching, and Aske explains that he didn’t have his own spyglass. Reides says we were pretty badass! Aske thinks Reides should eat something. Jorah heals himself and then goes back to the Kraken’s office to see if the magma wine is still there. The door is closed and, after some deliberation, Jorah decides to knock. He hears some footsteps inside before she tells him to enter. Inside the office, Jorah looks around for the bottle of magma wine, but it’s nowhere in sight. He tells the Kraken that they had an unfinished conversation and he also thinks he left something in here. The Kraken has no memory of this. Jorah asks if the Kraken eats with the crew. She says she does if the situation calls for it and raises an eyebrow at him. Jorah was just wondering! She wonders if he’s expecting some kind of celebratory feast, although Jorah’s pretty sure the ship doesn’t have the supplies for that. He mentions still having a bottle of firewhiskey, although he might save it. The Kraken looks at her desk and says that might be for when we finish our voyage. Jorah thanks her for her time and leaves.

The rest of the party goes below deck into the mess hall. Briar’s cloak catches onto the stair railing and he falls down the last step, careening into the floor. He says he’s fine, but Kilwin heals him anyway, since that did not look good. Jorah soon joins the rest of the party, muttering about how he’s not getting that alcohol back. Reides is surprised that Jorah would leave alcohol behind willingly. Jorah didn’t know he was giving it away at the time and isn’t sure he’d call it willingly, but so it goes. He’s hoping to get some better stuff than deepcoral wine soon, although he realizes he’s not sure how people drink underwater. Reides says it’s possible, but definitely more complicated! Non-water liquids get sucked in through a tube, which isn’t hard when you’re used to it. Reides says people tend to get their fun by eating things instead of drinking them underwater, though. It seems to be Soup Day on the Desperado, and Aske is helping hand bowls out. We thank him for giving us some! He says that if we like soup, that’s good because the chef really likes making it. For the most part, we like soup! Aske says it tends to get old when you have it every other day for a full month, though. There’s not a lot of sailors down here with us, since it’s not really a traditional meal time. After some discussion of travel times, Kilwin has a revelation that we’ll only be on the Desperado for another week, and the 18-day journey he heard about was just for the regular crew. Reides decides he’ll study Sending that night so he can contact Lotlyn and let her know we’re coming. He needs to know she’s safe for now. The rest of the party encourages him to do this. Kilwin assures Reides that Lotlyn will hold out until we get there. Reides honestly doesn’t know what to expect but thinks it’s worth a shot. Aske is sure Reides can handle it and reminds him how far he’s come. Jorah says it’ll be fine and knocks on the side of the ship. We enjoy our soup, which has meat and potatoes and some veggies thrown in for good measure. Jorah asks Reides about the card games he was in and says he’d like to play too. Reides is glad because he really didn’t know what he was doing! Briar tells Jorah not to fleece anyone, although Jorah says he’s overestimating him and he’s really just in it for the fun. Briar still gives Jorah 5 gold and says he’s excited to see what Jorah comes back with. Aske heard about Reides’s giant hand during the fight and says it sounds impressive. Reides says he had a lot of anger in that moment and channeled that into the hand and things happened! Briar calls Reides a master of armed combat. Reides salutes him with Mage Hand. Aske says Briar’s lucky they’re on different sides of the table, or he’d get slapped for that. He’d also like to be reminded not to make Reides angry! Jorah punches Briar in the shoulder for the “good” “joke.” We talk about the group pursuing us again and who could have hired them. Jorah and Reides think Tyrian would’ve wanted to come and personally kill us, although Kilwin points out that Tyrian would probably have a hard time working with regular people directly, considering that he tends to look kind of decayed these days. Reides tells Aske to be careful, since he doesn’t really want to drag him into all of this. Aske points out that we’re all still alive though, and once we reach Laverathia, we’ll leave the ship and pull all the bad luck away from him. He’ll sail off and be sipping brandy in Davenport soon enough. Reides asks Aske to say hi to his dad for him! He considers writing a letter to Aske’s father, but Aske isn’t sure what he’d put in it. It would just be an introduction!

Jorah steps away to try to find some crew members and see what they thought of the fight. They seem to normally play cards in the room where we’re bunking, so Jorah heads in that direction and finds a group of four or five sailors playing, including Clive (although Jorah doesn’t know his name). Jorah asks if they have room for one more, and they do. The current dealer, a toned man with longer hair, says he’ll deal Jorah in after this round. While he’s waiting, Jorah asks what they thought of the scuffle on the islands. The dealer says he didn’t like it, if he’s being honest, and doesn’t want any more trouble on this voyage. Clive tells him to calm down, revealing the dealer’s name as Jenkins, saying that we can obviously handle whatever comes up. Jenkins isn’t convinced. Jorah assures him that we’re tough customers and that he’s seen his plate-armored friend punch a dragon. Jenkins says that’s impressive if it’s true, and Jorah says we claimed the bounty for a big green dragon north of Malino’re. Jenkins thinks about it and says he’ll have to check with his contacts. He elbows the guy next to him, who says Jorah’s all right! Jorah says he’s not really used to talking with captains and things like that, and he’s normally more of a cards in a tavern guy. Jenkins calls him a salt of the earth type, and Jorah agrees he’s spent a lot of time wandering. Jenkins tells him to keep in mind that the crew’s not looking for any trouble, but if Jorah and his group can keep everyone safe, he’s got no problem with Jorah. Jorah promises he’s not looking to get anyone in trouble and would prefer to avoid trouble himself. One of the other sailors folds, so Jorah gets to join in the next round. He gets an absolutely atrocious hand. He tries to bluff and says they’re going easy on him, but his voice cracks in the middle of it. Another sailor asks if Eadro saw fit to curse Jorah’s hand. Jorah thinks that might even be putting it mildly! He folds immediately. When the sailors see how bad his hand actually was, they all gasp and turn away. Someone says they haven’t seen a worse hand than that since he saw a guy get his stuck in a meat grinder. Jorah stays in, and the next round is dealt. He gets a decent, but unimpressive hand. Still, it turns out to be slightly better than everyone else’s! They all sigh and Jenkins asks Jorah to leave, since his bad luck apparently transferred to them. Jorah says the Kraken already robbed him blind, so he couldn’t stay in longer anyway. He tells them to treat Reides right the next time they play, since Reides’s a lot less unlucky than he is. Jenkins shakes Jorah’s hand and sends him off. Once the door closes behind him, Jorah checks his coin pouch. It all seems to be there! He notes that these have gotta be the most honest ex-pirates he’s ever met. He goes to hang out on the deck for a while.

Back in the mess hall, Kilwin asks Reides if he has any idea how long we’ll stay in Aquos once we take care of the beast. Reides admits he’s half-expecting to die down there and has no idea how long we’ll be there. Kilwin accepts that answer and promises to not let Reides die as long as it’s even remotely within his power. Ashara suggests that sometimes things are beyond saving and that Reides should prepare himself for Aquos to already be too far gone. She also says she’s been practicing drawing the runes to teleport to Falas quickly, so we have the option to grab Lotlyn and take her to Falas with us. Reides isn’t fond of that plan and isn’t sure if Lotlyn  would even be okay with going to the surface. Ashara says we can try, but Reides should expect the worst. Kilwin says he feels kind of silly asking now, but he made plans in Falas and was curious about our timeline. Reides says he doesn’t mind anyone making plans for after Aquos, but that’s just where he’s at right now. Kilwin figures he can tell him that we’re not sure on our timeline, which is enough for Reides to realize he has plans with Grinlief. Kilwin says he does! They were made while we were still in Atemcester, and neither of them used the word date so it’s not a date, but Kilwin is hoping it works out still. Reides still congratulates Kilwin on asking him! Kilwin’s still not sure how he managed to do that! Reides still has no idea what will happen in Aquos, since he can’t peek into the future. Kilwin can peek into the future by 30 minutes, which is not super useful here. Still, trying to coordinate something through Sending worked out for Reides and Aske! And Ashara and Kain!

After about an hour of sailing, the rain starts, heavy enough to hear a patter below deck. Aske assures us we’re still a few days out from hitting the real thing. Jorah soon runs down, soaking wet. Kilwin is sorry he doesn’t have a spell for drying things off. Reides technically has a spell that could dry him off, but will not cast Fireball on Jorah or while on board the Desperado. Kilwin does tell Jorah to let him know if he catches cold, though, and he’ll try to do something. Aske calls the storm the storm of the century and says that when we hit the real thing, we’ll know. He thinks we’ll be fine, though. Reides decides to try praying to Zasarra and asks her to go easy on us. Briar calls him a pious child of the storms. Double-checking that the mess hall is still empty, Reides mutters that they called him the Storm Prince so please, Zasarra, let Kilwin go on his date and let us save Lotlyn. Kilwin tells Aske that he’s not sure if the Kraken passed it around, but he’s a healer, so they should send any injured crew members his way. Aske hopes it doesn’t come to that, but will keep it in mind. The Kraken is experienced with storms, although the rest of the crew isn’t necessarily on her level. Aske advises listening to her if she tells us to do something. Reides shares his worries about the wind and asks if he should tie himself down. Another sailor comes down to the mess hall and approaches Aske, telling him that the Kraken wants to see us. As we leave, Reides gives Aske a kiss on the cheek.

In the Kraken's office, the captain is on the other side of the table with her boots up, as usual. She says the terms of our deal have changed, since she didn’t realize people would be pursuing us when we hired her. We’re willing to listen! The Kraken has decided to shift the schedules around and our group will take the night watch. She needs to ensure her crew’s safety, and we readily agree to help. We’re responsible for determining a watch schedule for all night hours. As we leave, Briar strikes a heroic pose for a bit, but the Kraken just ignores him. Once Briar finally leaves, Jorah tells her that we’ll keep her crew safe however we can, and leaves the office last.

Outside the office, we decide that since the elves only need 4 hours of “sleep,” we can have two people keeping watch at a time. Reides, Kilwin, and Jorah will take turns in that order on one side of the ship, while Ashara will watch the other side for the first half of the night, and Briar will take the second half. Ashara decides to keep watch Right Now. Jorah feels cooped up so he finds a hold where he can practice with Quickbrand for a bit. It goes badly. Kilwin casts Sending to Grinlief, telling him that the party is sailing but might be in Falas in a week or so. He asks if he’d like to try meeting up, although says it’s fine if he can’t. Grinlief responds that he might not be able to get away from the office, since the mayor has a lot of responsibilities. Kilwin wants to respond, but decides to wait until he gets his spell slots back. Ashara also contacts Kain to let him know we’re going to Aquos and that she misses him. Apparently, he’s in Falas now, resting for the first time in a while.

Our first night on watch is uneventful, although we do get wet. Reides enjoys the rain, but then gets conflicted about enjoying the rain and has a moment. The next day, Kilwin apologizes to Grinlief for leaving him hanging and tells him that he’ll try to keep him in the loop, just in case. Grinlief says it’s fine and they’ll work something out! He sounds pretty rushed. Reides also casts Sending to contact Lotlyn. He tells her that he heard about Aquos but it’ll be okay. It’s his turn to save her now. Lotlyn responds, telling him to come quickly and that she’s scared. Her voice breaks mid-message. Reides is still worried about her, but relieved that she was able to respond. Aske checks in on how it went. Reides tells him and says it’s understandable that Lotlyn’s scared, since he’s scared too and he’s not even down there. Aske tries to console him, and Reides tries to muster some enthusiasm in response. With each day, the rain intensifies, and the patter grows into a constant roar. The storm keeps growing past that point, with each wave higher than the last. We can also see lightning striking the sea ahead of us. As the waves grow in strength, the Kraken’s expression remains unchanged, as if her stony face can’t be eroded. She’s on the deck more and more, barking orders to people. Aske is busy most of the time now (as are the rest of the sailors), so Reides doesn’t get to see him much.

On the evening of Winter’s Dawn 6, the storm is at its peak. The Kraken tells us that she expects we’ll reach the eye of the storm tomorrow. Even though she’s yelling, we can still barely hear her over the storm. She tells us we should make our final preparations, since we’ll be disembarking soon. All of the papers go in the Bag of Holding! We also go through our other belongings for things that shouldn’t get wet. Jorah also stores his crossbows, since they’re made of wood. Kilwin has a lot of candles and incense he’s been carrying around. Reides stores his saltwater taffy. We have one last night watch ahead of us, and we all feel some apprehension about it. As it turns out, Reides and Ashara do need to tie themselves down to stay steady in the winds. Reides is vindicated! Ashara manages to steel her eyes, even though the rain makes it difficult to see. Fortunately, Reides’s shift passes uneventfully. He finds a hold near the deck but out of the rain where he can sleep. On the second part of her shift, the hours of rain stinging her eyes take their toll on Ashara and she has a hard time focusing. Kilwin has an easier time, though, and their shift also passes uneventfully. They both join Reides in his sleeping spot as Jorah and Briar take over. Jorah uses his cloak to shield his face from the wind and rain. The northern air is cold and, looking ahead, Jorah sees a roiling mass of clouds above. Then, he hears a splash on the deck. He looks down and sees creatures crawling onto the deck from below. There’s seven of them, and each of them has scales, fins, and mouths with flaps that open to reveal lots of teeth. Jorah goes down and asks who the fuck they are. They turn toward him and start hissing. Jorah calls for Briar as loudly as he can before unsheathing Quickbrand in an attempt to look menacing.

One of the creatures sees all its companions focused on Jorah and goes the other way, kicking open a door to reveal the sleeping party members. It lets out a blood-curdling screech, waking everyone up but stunning Kilwin and Ashara. Some of the sea spawn run up to Jorah, and another deep scion screeches at him, but he manages to steel himself against the stunning effect. Briar comes down from the aft and sees a bunch of scaly guys and the open door. He casts Call Lightning and takes control of the storm, commanding it to strike some of the sea spawn. Jorah runs past the sea spawn who came up to him to focus on the guy who screamed at him. As he strikes, the same darkness with an edge of white that enveloped Kievan’s blade envelopes Quickbrand. The scion’s blue-black blood spills onto the deck, but is quickly washed away by rain. He keeps slashing and just hopes none of them blow up the ship. Reides casts Mage Armor and backs up from the deep scion at the door. Another sea spawn runs to the open door, sees the stunned Ashara, and attacks. It does slap her, but when its back writhes and tentacles sprout from it, those fail to connect with her. Another comes for Briar and punches him in the gut, making him lose control of the storm. It also bites him with its teeth. Another runs away from Briar, toward the door. Briar casts Toll the Dead on it, causing it to clutch its head. It still reaches its destination, though, and attacks Ashara, successfully grabbing her with its tentacles. The deep scion inside tries to bite Kilwin but its teeth catch the armor under his cloak. Kilwin and Ashara manage to shake off the stunning effect of the scream. Jorah is still dealing with a few sea spawn and a deep scion on his own. The deep scion has a nasty-looking battleaxe with barnacles and seaweed and tries to slash him with it. Briar looks to the sky and takes control of the storm again. Lightning strikes the two sea spawn at the door, burning the one grappling Ashara to a crisp. Jorah continues his assault on the other deep scion, who somehow is still standing. Reides summons Bigby’s Hand to punch the deep scion trying to attack Kilwin. Kilwin also casts Toll the Dead on it, and it clutches its head as a radiant aura surrounds it. The sea spawn at the door turns its attention to Briar. It punches him and then grows quills that it jabs him with, which poisons Briar. Ashara casts Burning Hands and, while it’s not as impressive as she was hoping for, she does kill the sea spawn closest to her. She kicks its body to demonstrate her feelings on the matter. Another sea spawn attacks Briar, grabbing him with its tentacles. The scion in the cabin turns its attention to Reides, the source of the big slap. Kilwin smacks it with his mace, but it still makes it over and claws at Reides, who defends himself with Shield. The deep scion spits on the ground, which seems to be acidic as it wears through the floorboard. Briar heals himself of the poison instead of breaking the grapple, since he thinks that will annoy the sea spawn more. The other deep scion manages to make Jorah look his focus on Hunter’s Mark, after its minions tried and failed. Jorah’s mad about it and lashes out, driving Quickbrand into its neck. He runs down the stairs onto the main deck, yelling and avoiding attacks from the other sea spawn who were attacking him. Bigby’s Hand moves across the cabin and punches the surviving deep scion again before a smaller (but just as creepy and wet) hand grabs its shoulder. After a moment, its mouth flap closes and it falls to the ground dead. Kilwin leaves the cabin, sees that Briar and Jorah aren’t looking so good, and heals the party. He also attacks one of the sea spawn. Ashara casts Mind Sliver from inside, not wanting to go out. The sea spawn from the front of the ship run down the stairs after Jorah, and one of them successfully grapples him in its tentacles. Briar decides to ignore the one grappling him and sends down lightning near the ones surrounding Jorah. The bolt arcs off one of the ship’s cannons and right into the sea spawn’s chests, killing them both. Briar does a heroic pose in his mind, since he’s still grappled. Jorah runs up to the last surviving sea spawn and shouts “Surrender or die!” in Abyssal. It doesn’t seem to understand, so he lets Quickbrand speak for him. His first strike severs the sea spawn’s tentacles, releasing Briar, while the second severs its head. Jorah then looks up toward the aft and sees more beasts crawling onto the ship.

Session 73

 * Google document (11-4-22)

At first, we only see one creature climb onto the upper deck of the ship, but we suspect there’s more. Kilwin asks if there’s an alarm we’re supposed to sound. Jorah runs toward the hold to yell down that we’re under attack, but there already seems to be fighting down there. As we try to figure out if we should deal with the new boarders or help the Desperado’s crew, we notice the sea spawn on the top deck turning toward the steering wheel and decide that’s the more pressing issue. We head up the stairs, but the creatures don’t react to us and seem to just be staring toward the wheel. In the same direction, a dark silhouette is revealed by a bolt of lightning, rising over the banister. It looks humanoid, but then we notice the two long tentacles hanging from its face. The figure also has purple skin and is covered in scales and barnacles. He's wearing a coat of cloth and seaweed. As he approaches the wheel with a smirk on his face, he suddenly slumps over. His expression abruptly changes into a scowl and he begins to speak in a double voice. One layer is in Common, while the other is in Primordial. The voice comments that they have intruders already. Its focus shifts to Reides and it tells him that he picked a bad time to return home. The city has been laid to waste, the royal family and its protectors have fled, and its creations have been capturing more and more survivors each day. It says it’s a beautiful time. Reides is furious and asks who they are. The figure grins toothily and the voice says the person before us is just a vessel. The one speaking is named Kal’dazzum. Reides has never heard of this guy in his life. He asks if they’re responsible for the storm, and Kal’dazzum calls it trivial for them to summon. The figure unslumps and Kal’dazzum tells Nakros to rid their kingdom of these pests. The strange priest (presumably Nakros) slumps over again and the confident smirk returns to his face. The other creatures turn to face the party.

A sea spawn standing by Briar turns to him and strikes, grasping him with its tentacles. Kilwin attacks one of the deep scions before moving to block the stairs in an attempt to shield Reides. Another scion attacks Jorah with its battleaxe. Jorah attempts to help Briar escape the grapple with Quickbrand. His first strike is a glancing blow, but the second cuts into the tentacle holding Briar. The scion who was attacked by Kilwin runs into the middle of the party and screams. Everyone feels the urge to drop their weapons to cover their ears, but everyone manages to shake it off. Reides casts a spell on the sea spawn hanging onto Briar, but it just barely manages to hang on. Ashara slams a spike of psychic energy into its head, though, and it lets out a gurgling shriek before falling to the ground dead. Nakros looks all of us over before he starts conjuring magical energy. The storm begins to dance on his fingertips and he throws a bolt of pure lightning at Jorah with one hand, followed up by a bolt from his other hand aimed at Briar. Jorah and Briar take the full brunt of the attack, and the lightning on Nakros’s hands fizzles out. Briar heals himself before making his way into one of the Desperado’s rowboats and casting Toll the Dead on one of the deep scions. It sounds muffled to Kilwin but seems despairingly loud to the scion. Briar then ducks down in the boat. Kilwin channels divinity into Jorah, diverting a bit into Briar and keeps his focus on the deep scion by him. The scion focused on Jorah screams, stunning Jorah and Briar. The other scion takes advantage of this by striking at Jorah, but both of its blows are unimpressive. Reides casts Shatter, causing a loud noise to ring out between the deep scions. Both are hurt, but still standing. Ashara blasts a spike of psychic energy into the mind of the one by the stairs, but it somehow just barely holds on. Nakros looks around and starts casting a spell, but Reides counterspells it. Kilwin manages to kill the scion who’s just barely hanging on with Spiritual Weapon. His attempt to toll the other scion is unsuccessful, though. That scion looks around and considers its options, settling on Briar. Jorah shakes off the effect of the scream and makes his way around the deep scion, slashing at it with Quickbrand and running up to Nakros. As Jorah approaches, Nakros’s hands start crackling again and he reaches out to Jorah. The first touch zaps him good, but Jorah instinctively dodges the second touch. Nakros lets out a call in a language none of us recognize. Briar attempts to cast Toll the Dead on the scion before teleporting downstairs. Kilwin hears some thuds on the side of the ship. He makes his way toward Jorah and Nakros. Jorah decides to go all in and casts Hunter’s Mark on Nakros and smites him. He tells Nakros to go back to whatever hole he crawled out of. Reides casts Chill Touch and a ghostly hand grabs onto the surviving deep scion, fading into it. It clutches its chest and coughs up blue-black blood before falling. Reides then goes down the stairs with Briar. Ashara tries to kill a sea spawn who seems to have been a bit distracted for most of the fight, but it survives the attempt and follows Reides and Briar downstairs. It attempts to wrap Reides in its tentacles, but he casts Shield. Nakros’s hand crackles with lightning again and reaches out to Jorah, taking him out. He flings the other bolt at Kilwin. Briar tries to command the storm to strike the sea spawn on the lower deck. It survives, and Briar moves to hide behind Reides. Back upstairs, Kilwin sees a pair of large green, webbed hands grab the side of the ship, quickly followed by another pair. The creature that boards the ship is about ten feet tall, muscular, with green skin. It has fins for ears and a fin running along the length of its back. It’s wearing purple shell armor and wielding a trident. Kilwin heals Jorah back to consciousness and attempts to stand his ground. The big man, which Reides recognizes as a sahuagin, walks toward Kilwin, sending tremors through the ship with each step. It strikes Kilwin with its trident and bites him. Its teeth are blood-stained, but they’re at least dry. Jorah hits Nakros and runs down the stairs. Nakros takes a swipe at him, but misses. Jorah calls out to Reides and asks what the fuck these things are. Reides responds that they’re fucked up is what they are! Ashara casts Psychic Lance on the sahuagin, incapacitating it for a bit. Nakros follows Jorah downstairs. He notices that Nakros tentacle-like suckers on his hands as they reach for him. Briar sends another lightning strike down, leaving the last sea spawn’s corpse singed. He runs upstairs again, sees the sahuagin and Nakros, and experiences regret. Kilwin casts Mass Cure Wounds, which makes everyone feel a lot better. Reides follows Briar up and gets into a rowboat. Ashara tries to use telekinesis to toss the sahuagin back into the water, but it’s strong enough to hold its ground. It seems to take notice of her. First, though, Briar casts Blight on Nakros, evaporating the moisture from his body. He fades away and dies. The sahuagin seems to notice this and takes two very loud steps toward Briar, attacking with its trident and teeth. It licks Briar’s blood off its lips with a purple tongue. Jorah tries to interpose himself between the sahuagin and Briar and pushes Quickbrand into its neck, with the light of the Nameless God surrounding the blade. The sahuagin is too large for Quickbrand to run it all the way through, but it soon falls forward, dead.

With the intruders above deck taken care, we decide to see if they need help in the hold. As we look downstairs, though, we notice that the sea spawn are transforming into ordinary tritons, humans, elves, and dwarves. The sahuagin is the only one who keeps its form. The doors to the hold are kicked open, and the Kraken emerges. Her coat is splattered with blood and she’s carrying a scimitar. She looks around and asks if all is well above deck. We tell her that things are good as they can be, and she assures us that everyone below deck is fine, if a bit banged up. She kicks one of the corpses on deck and formally identifies our boarders as sea spawn. Jorah asks, so the Kraken explains that sea spawn are people who have been malformed by beasts of the deep, whether through bargains or forced submission. There’s sailors with tales of them, but generally those are the ones wise enough to flee. We also tell her how Nakros seemed to be possessed by an outside force when he boarded. The Kraken notes that Nakros appears to be a normal triton now and admits that the cause of his possession is above her pay grade. She leans over the banister and looks toward the horizon. We see the sky beginning to clear a bit, and she comments that we’ve reached the eye of the storm. Kilwin asks if we can rest on board for a bit before leaving, so we can try to recover a bit. He clarifies that he only means an hour and realizes that it’s an ask! The Kraken agrees to an hour, but no more, since she doesn’t want to get attacked again.

Reides goes below deck and finds Aske. He’s sitting on a barrel and holding a pair of scimitars. Like the Kraken, he’s also splattered with blood. Reides is immediately worried and asks if Aske is hurt. Aske assures him he’s fine but needed a moment to sit after all that. As do we all! Reides fills Aske in on what happened up top. Aske admits he’s glad he wasn’t up there. Reides says he’s glad too! He was hoping he’d be a beacon for all the bad luck, but it turns out he couldn’t attract all of it away from Aske. Aske says there were only a few sea spawn below deck, since it was harder to get through the sides than to just climb on board. He also confirms that Clive and Jenkins are fine, and they’re doing repairs on the Desperado. Reides admits he feels guilty for not helping more, but Aske thinks that Reides has helped plenty, considering he took care of a magical motherfucker who was shooting lightning into people. Reides says Aske should thank Jorah, since he took the brunt of that. Aske says he’ll buy Jorah a drink sometime!

Reides goes back above deck and prays to Persana for the dead tritons. He figures he should return them to the sea, which Kilwin volunteers to help with. Kilwin asks if Reides recognizes any of the tritons, but he fortunately doesn’t. If he knew them, he doesn’t remember them anymore. Jorah hopes they find rest. Ashara says she never wants to see any of them again, which Reides takes offense to. Jorah says Ashara just means that they would be undead, so it’s best if they just rest. Aske also helps Kilwin and Reides dispose of the bodies. Kilwin offers to perform funerary rites for the non-triton dead and volunteers Jorah to help. Jorah says the best place for them is probably still the sea, though. Kilwin agrees, since the former sea spawn were probably sailors before all this. Reides thanks the rest of the party again for going through all this for him. Jorah says we followed him into the fairy realm to help him, so what else is he gonna do? Jorah starts a discussion of strategy. He makes sure Reides can guide us to Aquos and then asks if he knows a place we can hunker down. Reides is pretty sure he can, although the specifics will depend on what we find down there. Reides also casts Water Breathing now, just so we’re prepared. None of us even need the gills! He wonders if he should contact Viglis, which the rest of the party thinks is a good idea. Reides decides to do it once we’re on the way down. He’s surprised to actually want to talk to Viglis. He admits to the party that he’s still worried that his father might try to lock him away again. The rest of the party hopes that the circumstances would dissuade him from trying but also say they’ll protect Reides if it comes to that. Briar tells Reides that he’s not alone this time. Jorah says we can even take Viglis and Lotlyn with us if it comes to that. Reides is pretty sure they wouldn’t want to, but concedes that it’s been a while and things can change. He doesn’t think Viglis will ever leave Laverathia, though, and suspects Dhudus is the same. He admits Lotlyn is a bit of a wild card, although she’s like Reides in some ways, which worries him. He says she took after their mother too, though, so she has that going for her. The conversation turns back to finding a base of operations near Aquos. Although we’re in the eye, the water isn’t exactly calm, but Reides is pretty sure we’ll be able to find a place sheltered from it. Jorah asks if we can find a place with oxygen, but Reides says that’s really pushing it. Reides also asks if Ashara has anything she wants to talk about, regarding her meeting. She says it’s a developing situation and it’s probably better to wait for a more appropriate time to talk about it. Jorah wonders if Ashara is going to drag us all into hell after this. Kilwin says he’ll be the one to drag us all into hell for something eventually, and Ashara points out that we’ll probably go there for Slumberjack eventually. Jorah wonders if Slumberjack will be in Aquos, dealing with the same nonsense we are. Reides reminds him that they can’t swim, so Jorah imagines Tyrian going to Aquos for the Crest and getting messed up by whatever Kal’dazzum is. Kilwin laughs despite himself.

Aske finds a moment to meet with Reides privately again, pulling him into a corner. He knows Reides has to do this, but says it still sucks to see him go. Reides asks if he loves to watch him leave, though. Aske smirks and tells Reides not to push his luck. Reides had to say it, though! He has faith in our group, and Aske agrees that he’s not worried about Reides failing. He’ll be enjoying brandy in Davenport soon, waiting to see Reides again. Reides reminds Aske to give his letter to Aske’s father. Aske promises he will, but asks if Reides is sure about this. Reides says it’s nice and promises Aske it’s not embarrassing at all. He refuses to let Aske read it before delivering it, though. Reides says he’ll use Sending to keep in touch with Aske, reminding him of the spell’s word limit. Since Aske is getting paid handsomely for this journey, he might take some time off and stay in Davenport with his dad for a while. He tells Reides he’ll see him when he sees him. Reides clutches Aske’s shoulders as Aske pulls him into a big hug and they kiss on the lips. Reides tells Aske that he loves him. With a tremble in his voice, Aske says he loves Reides too.

Before he gets too caught up, though, Aske tells Reides that Clive and Jenkins also wanted to say goodbye. They go above deck, arm in arm, where they see Jenkins talking with the rest of the party. He’s telling them about how he saw the eyes of a beast through the window and how he fixed up the ship. Jorah is nodding along, clearly starting to glaze over. He looks at his timepiece and turns to Reides. He says that was fast! Jorah says that Jenkins’s story has blown his mind but we really really have to get going now. He tells Jenkins and Clive to have a good time in Davenport! Reides asks if he wants to say goodbye to the Kraken, and Jorah says we will as a group! The crew starts saying their goodbyes on the deck. The Kraken comes up last, hands clasped behind her back. She looks us up and down and comments that we’re still here. Jorah says we’re on our way out. She nods. She says we’re quite strong and wishes us a safe journey. We wish her and her crew a safe journey too. Kilwin says we might even be able to clear up the storm for them! Jorah starts to offer an adventurer’s help to the Kraken if she ever needs it when we’re done with this, but the Kraken holds up her hand to cut him off. She tells him to bring another bottle of that drink he left in her office, and he can tell her the story then.

It’s time to go in the water, and Jorah looks visibly nervous. Kilwin admits he’s nervous too. Aske is also nervous, and he’s not even going with us. Reides hugs him, and Jorah promises we’ll bring Aske’s boy toy back. Aske isn’t sure if he’s reassured by that, since Jorah is the guy who keeps getting knocked down all the time. Kilwin says he gets Jorah back up, though, so it’s fine! Aske says this is why he trusts Kilwin more with Reides’s safety than he does Jorah. Ashara says that Aske is being rude and inappropriate to someone who’s offering to protect his boyfriend, but the rest of the party assures her that Aske is clearly joking. Ashara complains that modern people are so strange. Reides admits that he’s been called weird many times, and Aske says he wouldn’t have it any other way. Kilwin asks if we’re just jumping or if there’s another plan. Jorah pushes Ashara and Briar toward the ship’s railing a bit before jumping off the side. Reides gives Aske another kiss before jumping off the side as well. Briar walks off the side of the ship and falls, while Ashara jumps off too. Kilwin needs a moment to collect himself and says a prayer to Alethus before jumping. Once we’re all in the water, Jorah realizes we could have used a ladder. Kilwin says he would’ve appreciated that! The Desperado moves forward, away from us. The crew keeps watching us for a while until we hear a sharp order from the deck and they all get back to work.

We begin our descent. Reides is stressed out, but it feels good to be back in the sea. The water is also nice and cold. Fortunately, Jorah and Kilwin’s magical items seem to work just fine. Jorah discovers that his cloak moves like flippers, allowing him to move extremely fast. He’s faster than Reides, but since he has to follow Reides, it’s not really an issue. Without magical items, Ashara and Briar struggle more with moving around. Reides knows that Laverathia is about 500 feet below the water’s surface, so we start swimming down. Over the course of about an hour, Ashara and Briar start having trouble with the temperature and the increased water pressure. The water also gets murkier, forcing them to rely on their darkvision. They manage to resist the pull of exhaustion, though. Eventually, we begin to see lights below the depths, familiar to Reides. They’re the bioluminescent algae lamps of Laverathia. Reides casts Sending to tell Viglis that he’s heard from Lotlyn and that they need to meet up. Viglis comments that he told Reides not to come and mentions the tunnels in the castle, specifically one behind the throne. Reides is extremely familiar with these tunnels, and he knows exactly where that one leads.