The Twelfth Session

August 25, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

1. The city of Jalaar on the island of Kwalu
2. The Governess of Kwalu
3. A Shopping Detour
4. The Open Ocean
5. A Minor Encounter
6. The Hydra
7. Bugboldir
8. Next session:

Last session, the party rescued the Empress Marina of the Florian Technocracy from a palace coup, before dragging the Empress, her Commandant Corbin, the Elemental Collective Ambassador Fulwyn Fulwin, and a Drow servant girl named Almira through the brothels and sewers of Tennult in a hasty dash for ship and home.

We reached the ship and set sail before the Empress' foes could capture us and prevent our escape, but the unexpected departure has left the boat without a full stock of food and water for the journey.

Marnoc has assumed the role of captain of the Fish 'n' Chip. In the captain's cabin, he checks the charts. We came to Tennult by a direct sea course; on our return trip to Bugboldir we can stop at a jungly island south of Tennult.

Two days' quiet travel brings us to the island. Marnoc casts Create Food and Water twice a day to feed the 14 crew, 6 party, and 4 NPCs. "Manna from Noidesop," he proclaims, and the food is indeed bland and tasteless. Theren Prestidigitates up some flavoring.

On the second day, the island continent of Kwalu crests the horizon. It has a great canopy of jungle trees. The air is humid and warm, though we're still in the northern latitudes.

Do we intend to go towards the continent or continue on towards the port of Bugboldir? The first mate, summoned by Belmac's preemptory "Boy!", tells us that the island is populated with natives who are aligned with the Florian Technocracy.

The Empress says that trade with the natives is limited; the natives don't trade in their native species. She would like to visit Kwalu and inform the governor there of her situation. There should be a large port where we can dock.

The city of Jalaar on the island of Kwalu

We skirt the island's southeastern coast, passing long tropical beaches with no inhabitants.

Eventually we run across boats flying flags of the Floran Technocracy, and we come to the port. Marina informs us the port city is named Jalaar.Despite the rhyme, Jalaar is of no relation to Solar Balaar's Bazaar Many inhabitants of the city are Tabaxi cat-people. Most of them, in fact. There are also small groups of tribal Tortles, who look like turtles. The Tortles inhabit the harsher areas of the island, with many temples to lost or forgotten gods. Marina tells Belmac that the Tabaxi are very modern; they created and built the city of Jalaar.

We decide our strategy to approaching the city will lead with Ambassador Fulwin, who will visit the governor with Marina disguised as part of his retinue.

Marina doesn't think that any of the outlying islands would have been informed of the attempted coup, so we should be safe here. She wants to inform the governor that she hasn't been kidnapped, letting the governor know that she will be back to regain the reins of the Technocracy. And then she will travel on to the Elemental Collective.

We continue into port; we are directed to dock. Marnoc tries to pull off a Jack Sparrow, standing on the prow, and falls off the boat. He doesn't succeed in swimming; Theren throws him a rope and haulshim back aboard. Marnoc is soaked; the Tabaxi on the shore are laughing. Theren Prestidigitates him dry. The dockmaster arrives with a suppressed laugh in his voice; in response to his questions to the nature of our trip we tell him that we'll be there a day or so. We pay the docking fee of 10 gold for the first day.

Theren discovers that we can use Prestidigitation to recolor a flag for an hour. Marnoc buys a Florian Technocracy flag for his bag of holding.

Marnoc gives each of the crew 1gp as spending money, and gives the first mate sufficient gold to restock the ship. For everyone on the ship per day, it's 12gp per day plus 2gp/day/person. The crew ask for 448 gp total for the two days of the trip thus far and the remaining estimated 14 days of the trip. This is an expense that somewhat surprises the Party; we had assumed that Fulwin would be paying for the ship. Fulwin had paid the captain, but when the captain was replaced by the vampire and eventually killed, we found no trace of the former captain's gold. We raid the party treasury box for its 400 gold, and Fulwin provides the remaining 48 gold.

We tell the crew not to worry about buying food, but to be ready to go on a moment's notice. They head out to the bars and whorehouses that are ever-present in ports, even in the ports of the Florian Technocracy, a matriarchical Drow society that frowns on alcohol. Such is life on trade routes.

With our business at the dock concluded, Marnoc looks for a guard. The guards in this town are all Drow, because, well, this island is under the protection of the Florian Technocracy. We gain directions to the governor's mansion; during the conversation Marnoc lets slip that we're a diplomatic mission on short notice from the Elemental Collective and are worried about destabilizing forces within the Technocracy.

The Governess of Kwalu

Following the guard's directions, we go two blocks up and five blocks over to a gaudy white-marble, ornamented mansion. It's got a fence with a guarded gate.

We nudge Fulwin. Fulwin nudges Marina. Marina moves towards the guards and says that it's been a while since she was here but she needs to see Alyle immediately. The guards take a closer look at this scruffy servant girl, recognize her as the Empress with shock and quiet alarm, and usher us inside the governor's house.

The mansion's interior architecture here looks like it was imported direct from Tennult. As it lacks a suitably large room for our group of eight humanoids and one bear, we are brought into the dining room. The bear heads in the direction of the light foods and grapes set up along one wall.

Belmac examines the stonework; it's the same kind of marble as was in the palace in Tennult, from the same mine with very nice cutting and fitting. (A natural 20.)

After a brief intermission, an older — but still beautiful — Drow woman rushes in and hugs Marina. "It's been so long; why are you here?" she asks. They catch up. Best as Marnoc can tell, this person is being straightforward and not disguising her relief at seeing Marina or her sdismay at hearing of the assassinatino attempt. The conversation slows and we sit; the bear continues noshing on more food. Marnoc noshes on Noidesop bread. Belmac takes a tray of cheese and grapes and starts eating.

Fulwin quietly listens to the conversation between Marina and the Governess. Marina tells the whole story; she anticipates rumors of us being slandered as kidnappers and wants to head those off. Marina sets out that she must come with us to go to the Collective to be safe from any Technocracy assassins. Avoiding assination would prevent the ursurpers from being able to have a clean transfer of power. "Yes, I'm safe, but play it off like you don't know what's happened." She'll come back to the Technocracy and will reseize power when she returns.

Ship asks Marnoc, "Her and what army?"

"Us," he says. "The Fish'n' Chip is the home of the Forian government-in-exile, which makes this the second-most-important trip I've ever been on, after my wedding."

Marina thanks the governess for her generous hosting. We really should be going.

Marnoc asks the governess for a bill of sale and deed of ownership for the ship; she's amused but gestures for a servant to get the paperwork. Marnoc asks that it be made out to the Bashful Walrus Shipping Company. And the Party gets into an argument about what to call the holding company; eventually we settle on (Marnoc chooses) The Erasmus under the ownership of The Golden Sea Shipping Company. "It's named after a brothel in Tennult; there was a lot of shipping and stuff in there." Ship blushes. The governess generously accedes our request. We get decent-quality documents detailing that we own the ship, with good Technocracy seals attesting to ownership.

Belmac thanks the governess for her time as he continues to eat cheese. The governess and Marina say goodbye to each other; we leave the mansion.

A Shopping Detour

Ship says we should to an apothecary to sell their three-week-old aged medusa tentacles. The jar they're in now has juices. We find an apothecary, who buys them for 15gp. He doesn't know of any people who would sell magical arrows, to Ship's request. But he will sell fermenting supplies to Belmac, and Belmac buys a pound of mash. There are certain Kwaluuan poisons "Can we call them Quaaludes," asks David. "No, we may not," says Tod. that can be applied to arrows, ranging in tiers of extra damage from 50gp to 100gp to 300gp for single-use poisons. Ship buys a 300gp and a 50gp dose.

Marnoc goes looking for sacrifices. In the markets he sees mostly chickens and goats. And there's a dark alley where people are selling huge spiders. He buys a chicken.

Marnoc and Belmac return to the dock, where Marnoc holds up the chicken by its head. Belmach chops off the body. Marnoc throws the head into the harbor. "Praise be to Noidesop!" he shouts. The tabaxi look on.

We return to the ship. The crew is ready to go. It's evening; we get out of the harbor and sail off.

Marnoc sets course back to Bugboldir with skill.

Belmac begins his brewing adventure.

Marnoc swaps the navigators' tools with his own, which only show the wrong way to go.

The Open Ocean

Two days pass; we coast the coast and then head off into the open sea to Bugboldir.

We start seeing intermittent dead fish, floating up to the top of the water. It's infrequent but becoming more common. Marnoc is worried by these pockets of dead fish. They look rotted and they reek.

As we continue forward, they become more-recently-dead and more abundant. Belmac's Nature check doesn't really understand it; Ship knows it's not related to their favored creatures, fiends or monstrosities.

Zoltar casts Mage Armor. People ready things. The weather shifts and changes for the worse; it begins to rain and thunder. The wind does not pick up, but the boat begins to rock violently; there is a thud against the hull.

Everyone is on deck except Fulwin, Marina, Corbin, Almira. Basically just the player characters on deck.

A spout of water erupts beside the ship, humanoid in form and a large creature. It's made of water. It's like the Terminator 2000.

1. Round 1.
   1. Theren hits it with a Hexblade Curse and shoots it with an arrow for 10 points of magical damage, the minimum damage. Then shoots again for 15 damage. His hexblade in bow form is somewhat ridiculously powerful.
   2. Ship saw that the creature reacted to being hit; it flails in pain. Ship casts Barkskin on the bear, and hides behind it.
   3. Belmac moves up to the railing in front of the water thing, and blows his entire load. Bonus action to Rage, which does not hit. Extra attack for 7 magical damage. Action Surge for regular attack, extra attack, bonus attack. Total 30 damage, plus 6 because Rage.
   4. Marnoc uses Call Lightning with channeled divinity to do max damage of 3d10 plus 1d10 (because storming) for 40 damage to the being. The lightning sparks and crackles through its form; it writhes.
   5. The water being moves onto the ship, into Ship and the Bear's space. Marnoc makes an attack of opportunity and misses. The being uses its Whelm abiity to engulf ship and the bear. Ship fails the saving throw; the bear succeeds. The bear is pushed 5 feet towards the prow. Ship takes 21 bludgeoning damage and passes the constitution check; the bear's Barkskin holds.
   6. The bear claws at the being and misses.
   7. Zoltar casts Scorching Ray for three attacks, hits with each, triggers a Wild Magic activation, and for the next minute gains 5 hp per turn. Zoltar's spell does 22 points of fire damage.
2. Round 2.
   1. Theren Hexes the being and shoots it twice for another few tens of points of damage. It also gains a disadvantage in strength checks.
   2. Ship is engulfed in this watery being that is bludgeoning them. Ship shoots it from inside for 9 magical damage. The bear does some claw damage, but not being magical, the bear's claws are only effective for half damage.
   3. Belmac uses Primal Strength to reduce his hit points by 7 temporarily, and then does 20 damage.
   4. Marnoc casts that lightning spell combo again, doing 40 to the creature and 20 to Ship trapped within the creature.
   5. The being does 4d8+8 bludgeoning to Ship, knocking them unconscious, and then it deals two Slam attacks to Theren, for 35 damage. The bear loses its Barkskin.
   6. The bear rips Ship from the water being.
   7. Zoltar casts Scorching Ray at level 3 for four rays, two of which hit. Wild magic doesn't trigger. Total 16 fire damage. The thing looks pretty bad; it's been losing a lot of water. Where it used to be like a hurricane, it's become more tranquil.
3. Round 3.
   1. Theren casts Armor of Agathys to gain 15 temporary HP, and moves away from the being. This provotes a Slam attack of opportunity, which hits, and the armor freezes and shatters the being. Theren receives 23 points of damage, just barely surviving.
   2. Ship passes the death save.
   3. Belmac rolls a medicine check to attempt to stabilize Ship, and fails. He pours rum down Ship's throat, which gets in the way of coughing up sea water.
   4. Marnoc casts Healing Word to stabilize Ship and give 6 hit points.

Ship comes to, and coughs up lots of sea water. The creature seems to have shattered along with Theren's armor.

"What was that," asks Ship.

"That was, my friend, what we call Angry Water," says Marnoc. "Sure," says Tod.

Four days of travel pass.

Belmac checks on his ale-in-progress. It's not ready.

We've now traveled for eight days. We've gone through light storms and rain and sun, but nothing like an actual storm yet. We run across the southern shoreline of the Elemental Collective, but we're still quite aways downcoast form Bugboldir. The wind is favorable.

Marnoc strikes the flag of the Elemental Collective and hoists the flag of the Florian Technocracy.

A Minor Encounter

We begin to see strange-looking birds circling the ship, way high above. They look bigger than one might expect to see. They're a hundred and fifty feet up. Ship recognizes them as monstrosities! They have humanoid features; they are Harpies. Marnoc tries to cast Sleet Storm upon them, since they're within 150 feet of him. All but two freeze solid and fall out of the sky, at about 500 feet per round. They take one metric shitton of damage, 14d6, and collectively they turn into a pancake. They shatter and die.

The remaining two harpies from outside the sleetstorm fly off in a panic. Tod printed off little harpy miniatures to use on the board, and was so proud to show them, and their characters were obliterated before he could even place them on the board in-game.

Ship tells the first mate to post a second lookout.

We continue onwards for an hour. There's a rocky outcropping in the sea, just off to the shoreward side of our path. There are two harpies watching us from there. Marnoc points at his eyes and at them; they fly off. We sail on.

Marnoc makes a 19 on a Survival/navigation check, captaining our boat, and sees that there are two paths from our current path back to Bugboldir. There's one marked with danger signs, one that is nnot. The not-dangerous one takes two extra days of travel. He flips a coin and we take the safe route, a little further offshore. We'll need to pay the crew a little extra for the two-day added delay.

Onwards.

Belmac's beer looks like it'll be done about the end of the trip. Ship thinks that, in retrospect, we should've put ice from the water being in the beer. Belmac agrees.

Marnoc explains that when we're in Technocracy waters, this is the Collective ship Fish 'n' Chip. And when this is in Collective waters, this is the Technocracy ship The Erasmus. We are duplictous.

Four more days pass.

This isn't a common route for traders to come, but this is a common route for people making the fastest route to port. Marnoc takes steps to make sure that we're traveling inconspicuously and away from piratey areas.

The Hydra

It's raining heavily when we notice a large form with many heads swimming directly at the ship. It's a hydra, and it's 210 feet away.

1. Round 1
   1. Theren readies some attacks.
   2. Ship casts Barkskin on the bear.
   3. Belmac shoots at the hydra using his bow, and misses. He triggers Rage.
   4. The Hydra dips beneath the waves, deeply, and swims forward 60 feet.
   5. Zoltar does nothing.
   6. Marnoc casts Warding Bond on Theren.
2. Round 2.
   1. Marnoc blesses Belmac, Theren and Ship, for 1d4 bonus on attacks.
   2. Belmac shoots at the Hydra, but it's 30 feet underwater. He hits for 10 piercing.
   3. Ship shoots at disadvantage and hits with an arrow for Hail of Thorns and Ships' Favored Enemy monstrosity bonus for ~15 damage. It loses the first of its five heads.
   4. Zoltar casts Fireball and does 32 fire damage to the hydra, which is underwater. It's a magical fireball, you see.
   5. The Hydra moves forwards to 90 feet from the ship, but dives, gaining partial cover. We're now at disadvantage to attack.
3. Round 3.
   1. Belmac shoots at it, misses.
   2. Ship shoots at it, misses.
   3. Zoltar hits the Hydra with Fireball again.
   4. The hydra is now 150 feet below the surface of the water, but 30 feet off the prow. It's got full cover.
4. Round 4.
   1. The Hydra is 90 feet below the boat, directly beneath the boat.
   2. Ship casts Hail of Thorns and holds a shot until Ship has a good sight on the Hydra.
5. Round 5.
   1. There's a bash against the bottom of the boat. The boat rocks a bit.
6. Round 6.
   1. Theren holds an Eldritch Blast to attack it once it appears.
   2. Ship holds the arrow.
   3. Belmac moves to a side of the boat.
   4. The Hydra emerges right next to Belmac, with four heads.
   5. Belmac does 13 damage.
   6. Theren hits it.
   7. Ship shoots it for a bunch of damage.
   8. The hydra, with a 27 on an attack roll, bites Belmac for 21 points of damage. With a 26 and a 19 attack roll, another two heads attack Theren, whose Warding Bond splits the damage with Marnoc.
   9. The bear moves up next to the railing and claws at a head, and misses.
   10. Marnoc casts the divinely-inspired Thunder combination on the back end of the Hydra. It fails its constitution saving throw, and takes 4d8 = 32 damage. It's a Huge creature, so he doesn't push it back.
   11. Zoltar casts Fireball at the third level (using a bonus action to convert five sorcery points to make a new third-level spell slot) again, but the hydra passes the con save. It takes 35/2=17 fire damage.
7. Round 7
   1. Theren Hexblade Curses it for1d4 lightning plus 2d6 magic, bunches of other dice, "eighteen plus nine, so twenty-seven" … sixteen points of damage, three of that lightning.
   2. Ship casts Hail of Thorns again and shoots, for 15 total. Bear attacks and misses.
   3. Belmac attacks, misses, Action Surge, numbers happen, I'm losing track, we're at 15 now, 31, 1, total 39 damage with misses. Another head falls off. The Hydra directs its attention on Theren.
   4. The Hydra makes three attacks against Theren, with two natural 2s and one nat 20, which is kinda of lucky, doing 42 damage. Via the Warding Bond, this does 21 each to Theren and Marnoc, leaving Theren at 10 health and Marnoc at 22.
   5. The bear hits a head with its claws for 8 damage.
   6. Marnoc casts Shatter with channeled divinity to do another 32 damage. The remaining three heads explode. The creature slumps into the water.

Ship instructs the first-mate to pull the Hydra corpse out of the water, so that we can harvest its stuff.

With time and effort, we yank it mostly aboard. It takes a huge amount of space on the deck. We don't have any of its heads, which Ship is sad about because the teeth are sellable, but the hide might also be valuable. Marnoc reckons that a lot of it would be edible.

Theren picks up Elemental Weapon to butcher it and skin it. Ship skins the hydra with a small amount of skill, gaining a decent pile of hydra skin that needs to be tanned. There's also a lot of chunky hydra chops. A lot.

Belmac asks whether its organs might have magical items trapped from things that it's eaten. Marnoc's Detect Magic does not see any, but Belmac cuts open each stomach anyway. Inside, there's few houmans, three harpies, a half-orc, and a lot of fish. He pushes the offal overboard, and then he wipes his hands on the first mate. Theren Prestidigitates the mate clean.

Items gain:

• A hydra pelt
• A lot of hydra steaks Tod says: If a cow is a medium creature … you have a fuckload of meat. I don't even know how to quantify that. It's going to go bad before you can use it all.

We have hydra steak for dinner. Marnoc does not like its gamey flavor. Belmac loves it.

Belmac checks his beer-in-progress again, and find that it is decent. Not professional quality for sure, but good for bathtub beer made on the ocean on a whim. It's about as good as it can be. He starts sharing "Belmac's Sea Brew" with everyone aboard, and it is all consumed.

Bugboldir

We enter the port of Bugboldir.

Marnoc, with Theren's Spider Climb, stands on the prow of the ship, and proclaims that this is The Erasmus. The dockmaster recognizes us, kinda, though he is puzzled about the boat. Fulwin makes his report to the dockmaster.

Belmac asks, "Where's our money?" The dockmaster has no idea. We're gonna have to go to Kingalore to collect.

Marnoc wants to sell the ship, rather than paying dock fees of one gold a day. He asks the dockmaster how to sell the boat; maybe for 25,000 gold? He has no idea how much boats are worth. 10,000?

"How much is the boat worth, would you say?" asks Belmac. The dockmaster (and the DM) have no idea.

The dockmaster says, "If you loan it to us here at the dock, we'll keep it here and you can use it." The boat may be worth 5,000 gp because of wear and tear. Marnoc is open to putting it up for lease. Theren proposes lending to the Empress, so she can use it during her works. The dockmaster agrees to loan it out to locals.

Marnoc swaps the navigation tools again, takes the Elemental Collective flag, and strokes the captian's desk. He steps off the gangplank, and stares at the boat. He's having a moment. Belmac looks up at him and catcalls.

Ship wants to sell the Hydra skin. The dockmaster doesn't know anyone that would buy it. We decide to take it to Kingalore for sale. For now, the bear carries it.

Belmac tells the dockmaster, "You're welcome!" for killing the hydra. The dockmaster doesn't understand.

Fulwin has rooms at the local inn for us for the night, and has a wagon for the next day's travel.

Next session:

• We need to go to Kingalore to get our 500 gold each for escorting Fulwin safely home.
• Ship wants to sell the hydra skin, and get the bear blessed or something so it can do magical damage.
• We're also going to go back to Solar Balaar's Bazaar. Make your shopping lists now.
• Marnoc wants to get his warhammer silvered.
• What are the Empress, Corbin, and Almira up to? Ask Fulwin.
• Will we ever reach Theren's hometown? It's on the other side of the continent from us.