Reides' Homecoming

Session 74

 * Google Document (11-11-22)

We approach Aquos from above. The bioluminescent street lamps pierce through the underwater gloom. The city is laid out similar to a human city, but there are no roads. Reides explains they don’t need them down here! Homes have non-magical engineering installed that manipulates currents to prevent people from getting blown out of their homes. It’s water conditioning! The tritons of Aquos also have some tricks for creating rapids, allowing them to travel quickly within the city. There’s also an undersea mountain with a palace of white seastone at its peak- Reides’s former home. Jorah says he’s not afraid of heights, but it feels wrong to look down on a city like this. Reides feels the same about needing to look up at everything and dealing with gravity, though! Kilwin comments that we’ve flipped! Around Aquos, there’s large fields of aquatic plants like kelp. Reides tells us that seaweed won’t be a good safe word down here. Briar tries to test the water for the taste of dashi, but it just tastes salty. Jorah is the first to notice something rising toward the surface- the corpse of an older triton man, wearing commoner’s clothes. Jorah thinks working with the royal family is the only way to stop this. Reides agrees: He’s nervous, but it’s the right thing to do. They don’t fuck around when it comes to their home!

Reides knows where the tunnel that Viglis described leads- a large ridge to the southwest of Aquos, past the seaweed fields and a small ruin. We start to swim down and toward the southwest, where we see a field of coral in different colors. Reides knows ritualistic magic is used to give the coral some of the more fantastical colors. He explains to the rest of the party that this is a coral graveyard. He admits that he’s worried about what’ll happen if he dies on the surface, since this is how you want to go as a triton. As the party swims past the graveyard, Kilwin asks if we should bow when we meet Reides’s family. Reides says it’s not a bad idea, but there’s a good chance it won’t be enough. There’s members of his family that will almost definitely respond to us negatively, no matter what we do. He asks us to just let us roll over us and he’ll try to handle it. He asks us to please not kill anyone. Viglis will be rude, but that’s just because he’s Viglis. Reides asks the party again to not kill anyone. Jorah is not reassured by these repeated pleas. Reides says the circumstances are very different from the last time he saw everyone. Jorah asks Reides what he’ll do if someone from his family is involved in all this. Reides can’t imagine any of them would participate in something like this willingly, but Jorah was imagining them as controlled or corrupted. Reides says we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it! The discussion of people being controlled by whatever’s going on down here reminds the party of Nakros. Reides thinks Viglis might know who he was. Dhudus will not. Reides just wishes he knew what’s going on, though. Jorah asks if there’s any veiled insults they might try to use on us or that we should avoid. Ashara doesn’t think it matters, since it’s not like we can really respond. Jorah says he’s just curious! Reides clarifies that he doesn’t mind us responding, as long as that doesn’t mean killing anyone. He also says we should be fine. Any insults would be in Primordial and Reides will tell them to hush. He’s sure he’ll get lectured, but we go on anyway.

The graveyard is a ways out of Aquos, so it’s less likely to be attacked, and the ridge is more defensible than most of Aquos. The ridge also helps obscure the view of what’s beyond it. Reides wouldn’t be surprised if Viglis were the one to choose that spot to shelter. We swim for about fifty minutes, approaching the graveyard. We also barely make out a small cabin past the ridge. As we swim over the ruins, Ashara spots some lights moving through them, toward the ridge. She telepathically lets the rest of the party know, and they decide to swim down and check it out. It could be Reides’s family! It is, in fact, a group of sahuagin and sea spawn. They seem to be patrolling through the ruins. We decide to just leave. There’s a small crevice we could try to walk along to obscure our presence. We descend at an angle to reach the crevice, but sadly, the sound of Kilwin and Briar’s armor echoes through the water and the sahuagins start to look up. Two with sickly-looking blades turn and point up at us.

One blademaster swims and begins to attack Briar, his blade carving through the currents. Kilwin says a prayer and begins to swirl the water with his hand, which causes the water around the other sahuagins and sea spawn to swirl in a similar manner. Within six seconds, they’re all pulled into a roiling vortex. Briar goes primal beast mode. His hands become webbed and his facial features grow more angular. Slits also form on his neck: They don’t do anything, but Briar really wanted some gills. Briar’s eyes also sharpen and his nails grow into claws as he slashes at the blademaster who attacked him. Its blood flows upward and it curses in a language none of us understand. Briar wafts the blood toward himself and grins. The sea spawn both escape Kilwin’s vortex. One swims toward Briar, and the other swims toward Jorah. Reides casts Bigby’s Hand to punch the blademaster who wasn’t caught in the vortex. The other blademaster escapes the whirlpool and attacks Kilwin, who barely manages to hang onto his concentration. One of the sahuagin stays in Kilwin’s whirlpool and swirls its hand in a similar manner. Another whirlpool forms around the party, trapping them along with the sea spawn and sahuagin who attacked them. Jorah stabs a sea spawn near him, and its blood is caught in the vortex too. He then fires his crossbow at it, lodging a bolt directly into its brain. Jorah flows with the vortex toward one of the blademasters, but doesn’t successfully hit it. The last sahuagin escapes the vortex and swims toward Jorah. It carries an interesting sword and has tattoos of eyes all along its arms. It’s wearing a lot of necklaces of medals and shells and seems to have tears permanently coming from its eyes. It slashes at Jorah and, for a moment, he feels his throat tighten and begins to feel as if he’s drowning, despite his cloak and Reides’s spell. However, he manages to shake it off. One of the blademasters attacks Kilwin, and the whirlpool he conjured disperses. Kilwin heals himself, Briar, and Jorah and can’t break free of the vortex, so he just swims down to try to get a better angle of escape when he can manage. He also casts Toll the Dead on the wave shaper. Briar follows suit, casting Erupting Earth where the wave shaper stands. He’s mad that the other sahaugin didn’t stay in the whirlpool so he could combo. The wave shaper is badly hurt, but the whirlpool ensnaring the party continues to spin. The surviving sea spawn attacks Reides, missing twice but managing to chomp down on him. Ashara successfully escapes the vortex and swims as far as she can. She casts Crown of Madness on one of the blademasters. A jagged iron crown appears on its head and a red-orange glow fills its eyes. Reides moves Bigby’s Hand to punch the wave shaper. It’s knocked straight into the upturned seafloor and, as its body begins to float upward, the whirlpool dissipates. Under Ashara’s command, the crowned blademaster attacks the other one. Like the other sahuagin, the sight of its target’s blood seems to make the crowned blademaster’s attacks more ferocious. Jorah slashes the tattooed sahuagin to death. The blademaster in possession of its faculties deflects a crossbow bolt before swimming toward Ashara to attack her. Despite taking a beating, she manages to maintain control over its ally. Kilwin and Briar both cast Toll the Dead on it, and apparently the sound of the bell also carries better underwater. The sea spawn manages to attack Reides with its quills, nauseating him but nothing else. Reides then sends a Ray of Frost at the non-possessed blademaster. As the water freezes around it, so does the blademaster. Reides then punches the sea spawn with Bigby’s Hand, although it survives to be cut down by the possessed blademaster.

With the crowned blademaster as the last survivor, Jorah manacles it after some struggle. Jorah is glad we can finally interrogate someone. Reides can’t speak Sahuagin, so he’s not sure we can though. The blademaster, still wearing the crown, looks at us with venom. Reides gets in its face and asks if it speaks Common. It evidently doesn’t. He asks if it speaks Primordial. It evidently doesn’t. Briar shrugs and pulls out a knife. Jorah doesn’t want to kill this guy, but Briar points out that the sahuagin won’t know that Briar doesn’t actually want to kill him. He’s just trying to intimidate him! As we discuss if we should take the sahuagin with us or if there’s any chance any of us can speak with it, the sahuagin takes the opportunity to break its manacles. Jorah, dismayed that he has to shell out for another pair at some point, attempts to grapple it, but breaks his grasp. Briar casts Hold Person on it, but it shakes that off too. The fight resumes, with Bigby’s Hand and Crown of Madness dispersed. The blademaster picks up its sword from the seafloor and focuses on Jorah, who protests that he tried to take it alive but admits it’s fair enough. It’s battered by the party’s spells and takes one last look at the sea above before making a last-ditch attack on Jorah. Ashara casts Mind Sliver, annoyed by how this went, basically flicking the psychic spike at the blademaster before checking her nails. The blademaster is slain.

Jorah, now injured again, apologizes for ruining Kilwin’s hard work in healing him. Kilwin heals him again, though, since he’s really not looking great. Reides and Jorah search the bodies, but only find some pouches of mystery meat and trinkets that seem to have been plundered from outlying areas of Aquos. Reides tosses those up into the sea to float away, so that they don’t get to keep them, even in death. Jorah examines the sahuagin warlock’s weird sword, but it seems just to be weird in shape and lacks the magical sense of a sword like Quickbrand. Reides explains that it’s absolutely fine with him that we killed these guys, since the sahuagin are always causing trouble for Aquos. Normally, the tritons can hold them at bay, but they seem to be working for whatever attacked Aquos, which seems to be helping them in turn. These sahuagin could just be some random guys, but for now, we assume they’re involved with Kal’dazzum. We decide to move on before anyone can come looking for them.

The ridge is now a few hundred feet away, so we reach it soon, but not before Ashara and Briar begin to feel exhausted. There’s lights coming from the small cabin, but they also extend far beyond it. Weaving through the graveyard is a sea of triton refugees, laying on the silt and clutching together under seaweed blankets. They seem to be sticking close to the ground. Reides is filled with relief at the sight of survivors. We near the cabin, which is rustic by triton standards. It’s made of brown seastone with membrane windows. There’s lots of guards around the cabin, wearing silvery armor that resembles coral. Reides says this is promising! Kilwin asks if he should put his hood up or if that’s weirder than just being a surfacer. Reides advises him to just be open about it, although he admits that he’s been in trouble a lot, so he might not give the best advice. Kilwin trusts his judgment, though! Once the guards notice our group, every single guard draws their weapon. They begin to shout things in Primordial like “Persana Below, surfacers!” and “You shall not take our king!” Kilwin bows. Reides swims ahead and says we’re with him and he’s a triton. He knows the king personally! He feels a little nostalgic being in trouble with guards again. Up close, he notices that the guards’ armor has been donned haphazardly, and some are missing entire pieces. They’re also wearing festive garb under their armor. One triton swims forward and says that, be that as it may, surfacers can’t be allowed to see the king. However, as he approaches Reides, his eyes widen in recognition and surprise. He manages to ask if Reides is the prince. Reides recognizes him as Dharsus, the captain of the royal guard. His green hair is tied back and his armor seems to be the most put-together of the guards. Reides jokingly calls him Dharry before explaining that we’re here to help and asking if he can make an exception. He says that the fall of Aquos and Lotlyn’s situation is more important than some surfacers. Dharsus sucks some water in through his teeth and turns away. He says if anyone asks, he didn’t see us. Reides thanks him and says it’s good to see him alive. Dharsus says the feeling is mutual. Jorah lets go of Quickbrand’s hilt before Reides leads the group forward. As he passes, Kilwin thanks Dharsus, but Dharsus doesn’t look at him.

We approach the cabin, and Reides peeks through the sliding door. Inside, there’s three regal-looking tritons, who were discussing something but immediately turn when the door cracks. The oldest one is a man with long dark blue hair and a well-kept beard. His armor is similar to that of the guards, but far more ornate. Reides freezes as he turns toward the door and commands him to enter. Kilwin asks if something’s wrong, and Reides says it’s his father. The triton man, Khavas, begins to call for his sword, so Reides says to calm down because he’s coming! He enters the cabin with the party behind him, and Khavas’s eyes begin to flicker around the room. He asks what the meaning of this is and who would dare allow surfacers here. His eyes settle on Reides. One of the other tritons, a woman with long green hair and an expensive-looking shawl, places her hand on Khavas’s shoulder and starts whispering in his ear. The third triton is another man who was sitting closer to the door. He has his weapon drawn. He has the same dark blue hair as Khavas, but no beard, and similar armor. He also carries a shield emblazoned with the image of a reef. His eyes also settle on Reides and he lowers his weapon, although he still seems suspicious. He grimaces and welcomes Reides home. Reides looks defeated but says hi to Viglis.

Reides switches to Primordial and says that the rest of the party is his companions, who he’ll vouch for completely. He’s hoping that everyone can put aside their differences to bring Lotlyn home. Khavas isn’t even looking at Reides now, although Reides’s mother, Arlyn, is still whispering to him. Viglis turns to them, sighs, and turns back to Reides and the party. He says we won’t be able to discuss anything here, so we should move outside. Reides would prefer that anyway. Reides fills the rest of the party in and Viglis leads us out and around the back of the cabin. On his way out, Kilwin bows, but Khavas and Arlyn don’t seem to notice. Behind the cabin, there’s a small stone table with seats carved out of the seafloor. Speaking in Primordial, Reides says he’s glad there’s survivors, but Viglis immediately asks why he came. He says he told Reides not to and asks why he couldn’t listen, just this once. Reides says he warned Viglis about this after finding the list and asks how Viglis could let this happen! Viglis leans over the table with his face in his hands. Reides quickly apologizes and says he’s here now and not leaving until Lotlyn and Aquos are safe. Viglis explains that he didn’t want Reides to be caught up in this, but Reides counters that he was already caught up in this. He asks why he’s not allowed to want to help, especially since Aquos is his home! Viglis snaps, asking if it’s still his home after he left for the surface. Reides says maybe if they hadn’t imprisoned him! It’s still a place he wants to keep safe, though, and Lotlyn is here. Viglis agrees that they both want to save Lotlyn, at the very least. He sits up and wipes his face. Reides crosses his arms.

Viglis switches to Common and explains that the attack happened during the year’s Stormbringing Festival. The city has fended off sahuagin, sea spawn, and, if you believe the legends, krakens before, but Aquos was unprepared when all attacked at once. A horde of sahuagin and sea spawn rushed the city, with a young kraken led by an aboleth at the front of the pack. Kilwin asks what an aboleth is. Reides explains it’s a beast. Viglis isn’t sure what brought them together and admits he’s at his wit’s end. Kilwin asks if it would help to know what might have brought them together. Reides introduces him! Kilwin says it’s nice to meet Viglis, since Reides has told him a lot about us before realizing he said it wrong and that Reides has told us a lot about him. He almost goes off on a tangent about how he always does this before getting back on track. Viglis says it wouldn’t help because they’ve all been brought together either way. Kilwin asks if he should say it anyway. Reides says he should. Kilwin explains that there are demons causing problems on the surface, and we found evidence that they had designs on Aquos too. Kilwin thinks it’s all connected and the attack on Aquos was incited by these demons. Viglis does not seem impressed. Reides explains that Kilwin has saved his life many times before! He brings up Nakros and asks if Viglis knows him. Viglis knows him as a priest of Persana. Everyone lost contact with him during the attack, but people are still looking for him. He asks if Reides managed to find him. Reides explains that we did, but he was not good. He explains that Nakros seems to have been possessed by someone named Kal’dazzum and had been transformed, although he transformed back after his death. He also says that Nakros was throwing lightning everywhere and that Viglis should thank Jorah for taking the brunt of that. Viglis tells Reides to stop trying to sell him on his surfacer friends. Reides says he will not stop and, in the end, he will succeed! Viglis hopes Nakros didn’t manage to gather any information about Reides, although Reides is pretty sure Nakros didn’t recognize him either, since most tritons would consider Aquos home.

Kilwin also explains the situation with the Abyssal Crests to Viglis and shows him the emblem on the Plate of the Ancestors. Reides shows him the same symbol on the Bands of the Archmagi. Viglis has never seen it before, although he admits that Khavas wouldn’t display something that important openly in the palace. Reides agrees that he Loves locking stuff away. Jorah rolls his eyes. Viglis initially assumes that Reides is blaming him for his imprisonment and gets angry, but once Reides explains, Viglis admits he found out and doesn’t know why their father went that far. Reides doesn’t particularly want to talk to Khavas to find out. Viglis says he can try talking to him after all of this. Jorah points out there’s someone in need of saving first, though, and the Crest will either be found or not. Reides asks how Lotlyn was taken, or if she’s just hiding. Viglis looks bitter as he explains that Lotlyn was off on her own during the Festival. Reides looks bitter too. Lotlyn managed to escape her caretakers and, next anyone heard, she was missing. Viglis has his head in his hands again. He thinks she’s in the hands of whatever beast did this. Reides mentions that he talked to her with Sending, which means something. Viglis agrees that she’s alive, but that also means they probably want something, likely the Crest. He says Dhudus is out on patrol looking for her, though. Reides admits he was worried when he didn’t see Dhudus in there, although Dhudus wouldn’t have sat back even if Viglis asked him to.

Reides asks if there’s plans to retake Aquos or if this is all still too recent. Viglis says it hasn’t been long since the attack, but they’re already gathering survivors for an attack. Reides says that we’re here and ready to help! The rest of the party agrees, although Jorah says we’ll help as much as they'll let us. He wants to help, leave, and never come back. Viglis says there’s a few plans of attack. One that Dhudus suggested was a full frontal assault on the palace gates. Reides agrees that sounds like Dhudus. Viglis had suggested a slight alteration where the attack on the gates was a diversion from a strike team sent into the palace to attack key points, but he doesn’t like the thought of the frontal assault team being used as sacrifices. Jorah asks if he knows where the kraken and aboleth are. Viglis believes they’re inside the palace, although he doesn’t know how many creatures are inside with them. That’s also a problem with Kilwin’s idea of using the tunnels to attack from inside, especially since the sahuagin patrols are sizable. Viglis observes that the party looks Bad and surmises that we ran into one. Reides confirms that we did, and Viglis asks where. Reides says we killed them all and Ashara killed the last one very impressively, and Viglis asks where. Viglis is dismayed by how close they came to the encampment and thinks they may need to move it. When that patrol doesn’t return, they’ll probably send a larger patrol and if that one doesn’t return, they’ll know where the tritons are. Viglis gets up, saying he needs to do his own patrol, even though he just got back from one. He tells us to stay here. Reides tells him to stop, but Viglis can’t just sit here when the enemy is getting so close. Reides asks Viglis to consider what if something happens to him out there. Viglis says he’ll be fine and looks around at the rest of the party for the first time. He tells Reides that his friends need to rest, but he’ll gather some people so he’s not alone out there. He says they’ll need to increase their patrol presence anyway. Jorah advises Reides to let Viglis do his job, although Reides still asks Viglis not to get killed. Viglis swims away wordlessly for a bit. Reides mumbles “Asshole” under his breath before Viglis turns back and says he'll be back in a few hours, so we should rest as long as we can. Reides says he doesn’t know where to go here! Viglis swims away, so we decide to rest here. Tritons typically use weighted blankets to keep themselves in place as they sleep. Kilwin admits he was a bit nervous about floating off into the ocean while sleeping. Jorah says Kilwin would probably just sink to the bottom without his helm, though. Kilwin says wow, although Jorah was just talking about Kilwin’s armor, and Kilwin agrees. We all settle down for a long rest!

Session 75

 * Google Document (11-25-22)

The party wakes up around 4 in the afternoon. Apparently, not much activity has happened around the shack, beyond what was caused by us. Viglis also doesn’t seem to have returned from his patrol yet. Reides worries, but after another hour of waiting, Viglis returns to the camp with a number of other tritons. Once they’re past the ridge and out of sight, he waves them toward the camp and swims over to the party. Reides is relieved to see him. Viglis asks if we had a nice rest. The party gives a range of responses. Reides asks how everyone’s first few hours underwater have been. Kilwin admits it’s been a little disorienting. Ashara complains about her difficulties in swimming, while Briar pretends he’s feeling totally fine and is having no issues. Reides asks how Viglis is. Viglis reports that things are about the same in the city. When Reides asks about additional survivors, Viglis admits that his group didn’t find as many as he hoped. Viglis has a satchel and takes out a white, opaque membrane from it. He spreads it out on the table, revealing that one side has dark ink markings on it. The non-tritons realize it’s a map! On the north side of the map, the castle looms over the city. To the southeast is the graveyard and ridge where we currently are. There’s also several points of interest shown on the map: A number of shipwrecks, a large crevice to the northeast of the city, and what appears to be an odd mountain range with plumes of smoke coming off the peaks. Viglis takes out a small needle and pierces the membrane with it. Ink flows from the needle, and Viglis draws circles around the city and a number of the outlying areas, with the last circle drawn around the crevice. Viglis explains that, at present, their forces wouldn’t do well in an attempt to retake the castle. He can’t quite suppress a yawn. He says he has a few jobs to help with preparation that he thinks our group can handle, and outlines them from least to most difficult.

First, the tritons need more people. Viglis intends to send some groups to look for more survivors, ideally ones skilled with weapons. There’s currently a force of about 5000 capable people, but Viglis estimates they’ll need about 7000 to deal with the number of sea spawn. Kilwin mentions that the sea spawn that the party has killed have reverted to their original forms upon death, but if the kraken can be killed first, they might be able to be saved. Viglis notes this, but asks if Kilwin thinks he can kill a kraken. Kilwin isn’t sure, but thinks it’s worth considering! Viglis points out some key locations to check for survivors. Some smaller groups may have sheltered in the shipwrecks around the city, although Viglis suspects the largest group would be at the hydrothermal vents (the smoking mountains on the map). People would’ve been working there. Jorah asks if they would have weapons there, and Viglis says they likely would, although not everyone who works at the vents is a weaponsmith. Reides asks about the Crystalline Trench, but Viglis says he’s getting to that. His next job is gathering information closer to Aquos. He’d like to send very small groups, about two or three people, toward the castle to scout it out. He doesn’t want to send any larger groups since they’d be too obvious and losing them too much of a risk. The last job is the hardest. It involves obtaining gear, since even a peasant can be much more effective in a fight if they’re outfitted well. This is related to the Crystalline Trench. Viglis explains that a long time ago, an old armory in the Trench was lost. Unlike some people, he paid attention in his princely studies and knows Emperor Zinthos drafted workers to try to excavate it when he was embroiled in a succession crisis, since the gear within is probably of high quality and in good condition. However, none of these workers survived. It’s still a legend among the miners that if you find the armory, you’ll be rich. Reides is pretty sure he read about that! Viglis asks if it’s all coming back to him now. He tells us that there’s also a number of sea spawn patrolling the Crystalline Trench, so they may be aware of the rumors too.

Kilwin would like to look for survivors, but is open to the other options. Jorah asks if the camp has resources to support more survivors, and Viglis says he also has teams scouting for more supplies. Trying not to stretch any forces too thin, Viglis is able to send his own teams after survivors if we take a different job. Jorah also points out that we’re outsiders to any survivors we might find, which might make it more difficult for us than for a triton group. Reides agrees that having Viglis rescue them personally would probably be a big morale boost to anyone hiding from the sea spawn. Viglis isn’t so sure that they’d be happy to see the princeling who led their kingdom to ruin. Reides doubts that anyone thinks that about Viglis and, in any case, the Storm Prince is back to blame for everything! Jorah tells Viglis he should at least let the kingdom actually go to ruin before he starts talking like that. Kilwin asks if there’s healers in the camp. Kilwin explains he’s a healer and can help. Reides says Kilwin is a very good healer! Viglis says there’s sorcerers of Persana who’ve been blessed with healing magic who are working around the clock. He doubts they’d turn away extra help, though, and Kilwin says he’d like to if he’s able after our mission. Jorah offers his stealth-enhancing skills and offers to take one other person with a swim speed to the castle with him and quickly take care of that, although Viglis intends for all of these things to happen in concert. Kilwin also doesn’t like the idea of splitting up our party, which Reides agrees with. He thinks we’ll be okay down here, but still doesn’t want to risk leaving us alone. Jorah admits he’s looking for any excuse to not go to the crevice because it gives him a bad vibe. He’s willing to let Reides pick our job though. Reides is a little scared because that’s a lot of responsibility! He’s leaning toward the armory job, but doesn’t want to be a dictator, since we already have one. He gestures toward the cabin with Khavas inside. Ashara is open to any of the jobs and also defaults to Reides’s judgment. Briar’s not sure but says he trusts Reides’s intuition and doesn’t want to mess up Viglis’s plan at any rate. Reides calls Viglis our lovely tactician.

We decide to try to find the location of the armory. Viglis advises us to be careful in our approach, since he suspects that the sea spawn are able to communicate back to their master. Jorah realizes it’s a big ask but wonders if they might be able to spare a mount to help Ashara and Briar navigate. Viglis says we’d be lucky to find a wild hippocampus. Viglis gives the satchel to the party and tells them to fit whatever they can in there. He suggests not worrying about going back for a second trip, especially if anything catches wind of us. Kilwin reminds the rest of the party that we can’t open the Bag of Holding down here. Reides asks if Tetra, Viglis’s hippocampus, got out of the city okay. Viglis apparently escaped on her back. He says Tetra’s not so daft as to be caught by a measly little kraken. Reides is relieved that she’s okay. Viglis also gives us a more exact potential location for the armory, gleaned from days of pouring over ancient reports. Apparently, many patrols started and ended on the eastern side of the ravine. We’ll need to find a way to get through rock, but the armory should have gear for about 50 people. He tells Jorah that they should be able to part with two sets for our group, since the armor enhances one’s swimming ability. Jorah brings up the possibility that we’ll run into more enemies than we can actually handle and asks if there’s a place we can drop the gear without bringing them right to the refugee camp. Viglis tells him to pick his shipwreck and assures him that they’ll all likely be empty of survivors by the time we’re finished. Reides knows the shipwrecks around Aquos well, so he says he’ll find a good one for us if it comes to that. Viglis tells him to try to not get any splinters. Reides says he didn’t get splinters that often! Viglis argues that he’d have one for each finger. Reides says ten splinters isn’t that bad! Viglis sighs. Viglis also suggests that Reides talk to their mother. Reides’s not sure she wants to talk to him, but Viglis still thinks he should. Jorah tells Reides to just talk to her. Reides says he wants to! He complains that it’s like having two brothers. Jorah says he doesn’t get the chance to talk to his mother again, but Reides does. Reides knows this! Viglis reminds Reides that he does, in fact, have two brothers, but Reides meant older brothers. He asks if Dhudus made it back to camp, since none of us have seen him yet. Apparently, he returned a few hours ago and is currently boozing it up with some of the soldiers. Briar thinks Dhudus sounds like a man after his own heart. Viglis says he might think that until he meets Dhudus. Briar is now concerned. Jorah accuses Reides of stalling. He also notices the dark circles under Viglis’s eyes and tells him he should get some rest. Reides agrees, and Viglis says he’ll get right on that, smiling weakly. Reides reminds Viglis that he has spells now, so he doesn’t need a shield to smack him upside the head if he doesn’t go get some sleep. Before Jorah accuses him of stalling again, he says he’s going to go to talk to his mom. Briar asks which one, Arlyn or Jorah. Reides tells Viglis to not push himself too hard and that we’re here to make things easier for him so he doesn’t die of overwork. Viglis thinks if he dies of overwork, that would make a good tagline for his obituary. Reides strongly disagrees and says it would be the worst obituary and a shitty song. Viglis isn’t sure how he can say that when he hasn’t heard the song yet! Reides pouts but smiles at Viglis before Viglis swims away, head drooping. Jorah accuses Reides of stalling again before he finally swims over to the cabin.

Reides opens the door slightly to peek inside and check for Khavas. Khavas is there, but he’s in bed with a sheet wrapped around him, tossing and turning. Next to him, Arlyn is floating and half-asleep herself. Reides stares at her for a moment, remembers Jorah telling him he’s stalling, and lightly knocks. Arlyn looks around lazily and tells whoever it is to come in. Reides asks what if he doesn’t wanna come in. Arlyn’s eyes widen as she catches sight of what she can see of Reides through the door. She swims over and throws the door open before scooping him into a big hug. Reides hugs her back very tightly. Arlyn is sorry they couldn’t talk earlier, but Reides is still grateful to her for calming Khavas down. Arlyn says Reides knows how his old man gets, and Reides agrees that he does, a bit too well. Arlyn says Khavas means well and wants what’s best for the kingdom. Reides can only shrug in response. He explains that he and his surfacer friends are going to help Viglis with something, but Viglis said he should talk to her first. He’s sorry that this is happening. Arlyn assures him it’s not his fault and that people can say what they will about the Storm Prince, but she knows the truth. Reides is hoping her little boy can fix some stuff around here! He asks if Arlyn wants to meet his friends, even though they’re surfacers. She seems interested, but looks back at Khavas and says she shouldn’t leave him right now. Reides says if only Khavas would just, but doesn’t finish the sentence. He asks if he’s really doing that bad, even though he’s aware how much Aquos means to everyone, including himself. Arlyn says Khavas has been taking it hard, harder than most, and that he’s been blaming himself for what happened, even if he won’t say it. Arlyn doesn’t think anyone could have known what was coming though. Reides tells her that Viglis is blaming himself too, and Reides kind of also blamed Viglis, but he was responding to Viglis talking down to him and doesn’t actually mean it. He doesn’t think anyone should blame themself for this. Arlyn tells Reides to apologize to his brother. He swears he already did, so she asks if he meant it. He promises he meant it, and he’ll even do it again! Arlyn tells Reides to be careful and asks him to keep an eye out for Lotlyn. He tells Arlyn he talked to Lotlyn. She initially seems shocked until he continues explaining that it was with a spell. He fills her in on Lotlyn’s condition and promises that everyone will get her back, even Dhudus. Arlyn tells Reides that Lotlyn still talks about him. She misses him and wonders where he is and if he’s getting to see everything he wanted on the surface. Reides says she’ll get her answers soon, but she still has to hold on a little longer. He asks about her running off on her own. Arlyn confirms Viglis’s story and says she was like that too when she was that age. It runs in the family! She messes up Reides’s hair, and he lets her because it’s so nice to talk to her after so long. Reides and Arlyn tell each other to be safe, and Reides wishes her luck dealing with his father. Arlyn appreciates it, but tells Reides that Khavas was happy to see him, even if he’s not good at expressing himself. Reides thinks his mother must be insanely perceptive, since all he saw in that reaction was anger, but admits he could be biased because that’s all he’s seen from Khavas in a really long time. Arlyn says she’ll talk to Khavas about it, but Reides says that if Khavas doesn’t want to talk to him, Reides doesn’t need to. Khavas has a lot going on and right now, Reides just wants to save Aquos and Lotlyn. He hopes there’ll be plenty of time after that to think about making amends. Arlyn’s not sure the time is right for a reunion anyway, so they’ll burn that bridge when they get to it.

Reides rejoins the rest of the party, who’s been preparing for our expedition to the Crystalline Trench. Briar is meditating. Reides casts Mage Armor on himself and we group up in preparation for Jorah’s Pass Without Trace. Reides explains that the Crystalline Trench is where the sorcerers dedicated to Persana study magic. Jorah asks why. Reides says it’s related to Persana, since the sorcerers believe the Trench’s depth allows them to be closer to him there. Reides’s not really allowed there and admits that he wanted to be a sorcerer back in the day, but Persana made him study for his magic. He thinks we might encounter more people like Nakros down there, especially if the sorcerers didn’t manage to get out without being turned. As we make our way to the Trench, we don’t need to pass through Aquos, but we still see the city from a distance. We see large coral formations, schools of fish, octopi, and starfish. Once we’ve swum the whole length of the city, Ashara begins to feel exhausted again. Briar transforms into a giant octopus, and he and Jorah help Ashara make it the rest of the way. With their assistance, the party makes it there in about two hours.

Jorah asks the odds that Viglis actually went to rest. Reides thinks they’re pretty low, since Viglis tends toward workaholism. Couldn’t be Jorah! Still, Reides doesn’t think Viglis has a death wish, so he might be taking a nap. As the castle comes into view, Reides looks at it sadly, especially at a lone tower protruding from the castle. At the Crystalline Trench, the light from the surface makes its way down and refracts pleasantly through the crystals, making the ravine glow. Jorah casts Pass Without Trace, Briar darkens his colors, and Reides puts his hood up. We keep an eye out, and Jorah and Kilwin notice that some of the coral has a silvery blue metallic sheen to it. They ask Reides if this is normal. He says it’s a special ore called pelagic ore, not actually coral. It’s high quality stuff used in armor, like what we’re planning to retrieve. Reides says his old armor was made out of pelagic ore. Jorah is surprised that Reides used to wear armor, and Reides explains that he threw it into the sea. Aske helped! Jorah asks if it’s anything to worry about, but it’s just good metal. It has innate magical powers that enhance swimming ability, but it’s a bit of a process to forge it into usable equipment. If we just took some now, it wouldn’t help Ashara or Briar much and also Viglis would get really mad. Briar is disappointed that his plans for a magical underwater cock ring are dead before they’ve truly been born.

The Trench is too deep for any of us to see the bottom of it. This side of the trench has less crystals and it seems to be more of a mining section. Kilwin and Briar spot something shiny moving toward the eastern side of the trench and let the rest of the party know. We’re all pretty sure Viglis would’ve mentioned if there would be allies here! We decide to be careful. The ravine is about 150 feet at the top and narrows as it goes down. Reides knows that a group of Persana-worshiping sorcerers found it after a long exodus from their former home. They saw the light refracting from the crystals and wondered what it was, discovering the deepest trench they’d ever seen. No one has ever been to the bottom of the Crystalline Trench and returned, but the deepest that anyone has built anything is about 300 feet down. We decide to swim across the top of the trench and go down from the other side, since we’re not sure how far down anything is. Deeper in, we see larger fish swimming about. Reides keeps an eye out for seahorses, but doesn’t spot any. We find a perch on a rock shelf to take a better look at what Kilwin and Briar spotted. It’s a group of three sahuagin and a deep scion, swimming along a natural rock bridge and looking around. Two of the sahuagin are extremely large and muscular, like the one who boarded the Desperado. The third is much smaller, wielding a staff. All of their armor looks normal, though. They don’t seem to have noticed us. Jorah doesn’t really want to fight them, but we might have to. He and Kilwin look for any indications of a collapsed cavern, but can’t make out anything from here. Ashara defaults judgment to Reides, who admits he doesn’t really see any way around them. We decide that Jorah and Briar will each try to take on one of the big ones while the spellcasters focus on the sahuagin priestess. Kilwin plans to follow Briar and Jorah, but at a distance since he’s pretty sure he’ll give away their approach. Jorah says they’ll just think about seaweed really hard if it goes bad, and Ashara can keep a thought mind out for that, but we won’t be so spread out that the rest of the party can just watch.

Briar and Jorah rush in, with Briar grabbing one of the sahuagin barons with his tentacles. Reides and Ashara throw spells at the sahuagin priestess, with Reides’s Acid Arrow doing a lot of damage. Kilwin swims down from the rock shelf and summons Spiritual Weapon, but misses. Jorah attacks the other baron with Quickbrand, but it regains its bearings and attacks back, immediately dispelling Hunter’s Mark. The baron turns around, looking into the trench and something starts to rise. A really fucked up looking shark swims up and tries to bite Kilwin, but he blocks it. Kilwin is horrified by what he now thinks sharks look like. Another shark emerges from the depths near Briar, but fails to bite him. The deep scion tries to attack Jorah but fails and screams in frustration. Reides casts Ice Storm, centered on the priestess, pelting most of the enemy party with balls of ice. Ashara focuses her attention on the shark menacing Kilwin. Kilwin casts Toll the Dead on the shark attacking him. Reides and Ashara can hear the bell, which sounds like a funeral dirge, which is apt since the shark does not survive. Unfortunately, he’s still getting the hang of maneuvering Spiritual Weapon underwater. The sahuagin facing Briar doesn’t even try breaking the grapple and bites into Briar instead. He licks his lips, his taste for octopus seeming to have grown. Briar frantically thinks about seaweed. The sahuagin priestess starts casting a spell that looks like Kilwin’s magic, so Reides counterspells it. She follows up by casting another Kilwin-esque spell and light flows from her fingertips toward her companions. Their wounds seem to partially heal. She looks into the trench and a third shark swims up and toward Briar. Jorah tries and fails to attack one of the barons, and falls back on his last resort of rude gestures. One of the sharks circles around Briar to attack him from behind. It slips into a frenzy and, when it’s done, Briar is no longer an octopus. Briar shouts to Jorah that he’s getting overwhelmed and casts Toll the Dead on the priestess. When that doesn’t do anything, he Misty Steps away and around a rock. The deep scion looks between Jorah and the rest of the party before letting out its scream. Jorah resists its effect. The rest of the party hears it echoing through the water, but it doesn’t affect them. The sahuagin who had been grappled by Briar swims toward the rest of the party. He tries to attack Kilwin, but he’s too well-armored, so he lets loose a string of what’s probably Sahuagin curses. The priestess also swims toward the group and begins to cast a spell in Briar’s direction. Also recognizing it as similar to a spell Kilwin has cast before, Reides counterspells it. She looks cross and points at Reides, yelling something in Sahuagin. Jorah smites the baron before turning his back on him. He gets hit, but manages to make his way to the priestess and slash at her with Quickbrand. She somehow survives. The baron in the middle of the party swims up and throws some tridents at Reides. Reides manages to shield one away, but the other hits him. One of the sharks goes after Jorah, who manages to stay conscious. Briar summons an aquatic bestial spirit and becomes an octopus again. The deep scion, who most of us kind of forgot about, gurgles sadly before swimming over to attack Jorah. It’s too heartbroken to do much damage, though. Reides finally manages to kill the priestess with Chill Touch. With his last strength, Jorah ferociously attacks the sahuagin baron. He only does five damage, but it’s directly to his throat, and he perishes. Briar grabs one of the sharks, while his spirit companion rips into one of the barons, shredding his jugular. It then starts to swim down toward one of the sharks. The deep scion swims toward Briar, while Jorah floats up a bit before Kilwin gets a chance to heal him. Reides finishes off one of the sharks, while the deep scion survives Jorah’s attack. It retaliates, knocking Jorah unconscious again. Ashara kills the scion while Kilwin brings Jorah back to consciousness again. The last shark, now alone, attempts to swim away, but Briar’s spirit chews into it before Briar grabs it again. He wraps one tentacle around its head and another around its tail, pulling until the shark begins to tear in the middle and it is rent in twain.