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.