23rd of Flamerule
Warthalkeel Ruins
Chapter One: The Descent Underwater
The three adventurers stood at the edge of the cliff looking down at the spit of sand below and the dark shadowy shapes visible in the rolling surf. There is a creepy foreboding feeling about the area as they looked down on the sunken town. The wind continued to whip the rain into their faces. Atalaya mentally measured the distance that they needed to climb down to reach the shoreline. Judging it to be a bit over 100 feet she reached into her pack to find her rope. After tying it off it just barely reaches a shelf in the cliff face that they will be able to rest and regroup on.
Atalaya looked tentatively at what would be the second half of the climb to reach the shore. “Vaz, do you have your rope with you? We are going to need it.”
Vasilya nodded and started digging around in his pack. A smile on his face, he pulled out the additional rope and looped the coiled rope across his chest. “It wouldn’t be that hard of a climb if the wind wasn’t blowing so much. The rope will make the descent safer.”
Atalaya nodded.
While the two of them set up the ropes Nevil contemplated the watery ruins and after a few minutes sighed, sat down and began removing her metal armor. She bundled it up and returned it to the vardo.
As bad as the storm was and as tumultuous the sea was, Atalaya could still make out the outlines of the buildings. She hoped that meant that they would not have to dive very deep to reach the buildings. Calling on Mielikki for a safe descent she carefully made her way down the first rope and moved aside to let the others make their way down. Vasilya followed her and then Nevil.
It took a few minutes for them to all safely reach the ledge and tether the second rope. While this one did not quite reach the ground, it came close enough that the last several feet looked like they would be easily descended. Atalaya again led the way down.
Once they were all on the beach they gazed out at the ruins again. Atalaya decided that there was a need for hand signals for basic communication underground and basic signs for stop/come forward/left/right and stop were decided on.
Atalaya watched as both Vasilya and Nevil drank a water breathing potion. Making sure that she knew where hers was in her belt pouch, she raised the hood of her her Cloak of the Manta Ray. Atalaya strung her bow while she whispered promises of a thorough cleaning and oiling once they were back on land to it. They entered the water and began swimming towards the buildings.
The seabed seems to be about 100 feet under the surface. There is a massive multistory building in front of them. It looked like a temple. The walls seem solid, but the bottom corners of the building are rubble. They swim towards the rubble area, looking for a way into the building.
Atalaya initially struggled with the need to trust to the magic of the cloak to breath, but was now swimming easily and breathing without concern.
Chapter 2: Exploring the Temple
They spot a door that remains intact. Vaz swims over to it and after a quick inspection pushes it open. It wasn’t locked.
As they look into the room they see a figure sitting in the middle of the floor. It seems to be the figure of a person. It is wearing clothing.
Nevil uses her Divine Sense. She detects evil and the presence of undead in the area. Nevil walks into the room. She sees that the creature has dark skin and white hair.
The creature seeing the group says, “Why have you come? Are you here to kill me?”
Nevil pulls out her short sword, but lowers the weapon slightly. “I see you are perhaps within _______. We seek the cause of this unnatural weather.”
The creature asks, “Are you here to steal from the temple?”
Nevil replies, “No.”
The creature explains, “This was a temple to Vaalastroth (a kraken). A follower of Procan came here and turned the people away from the worship of Vaalastroth to that of Procan. I sit and wait to hear the voice of the true god, Vaalastroth.” With intense satisfaction he continued, “Vaalastroth still lives here in the deep trench.”
Nevil, still detecting evil and fed up with listening to its praise of Vaalastroth, swings her shortsword, attacking the creature. She hits for 5 points of damage. Her second attack also hits and does 4 points of damage.
We see a black ichor around the creature following Nevil’s hits.
Boz: Move 15 feet and shoots with his shortbow, his arrow hitting and doing a total of 14 points of damage. (Includes sneak attack)
Atalaya shoots twice with her longbow. Both arrows hit doing 13 points of damage and 12 points of damage.
The Creature hold out her hand and sprays out a web of stuff at Nevil. There is a blackish/reddish stain in the water. The stuff has a nasty sickening taste, but Nevil is able to shrug off any effects the stuff has.
Nevil: Smacks the creature again. Suppressed is coming forth from Nevil. She is very pissed off. Her sword hits the creature for 8 points of damage. Her second swing misses and the creature twists out of its way.
Boz: Floats to the other side of Nevil, shoots his bow and hits doing 22 points of damage.
The creature goes limp in the water. Nevil swings again and removes the creature's head. It deconstructs.
The three of them search the room. Boz asks Nevil if she is alright. She says that she is a little embarrassed.
They head to a door. Boz checks and it is not trapped. Boz opens it and Atalaya can see dark shapes swimming in the room. Something brushes against her and she feels a sucker and even in the dim light can see that it is an octopus.
As they make their way into the next room, they see droves of octopi. They do not seem to be aggressive. There is an altar in the middle of the room. The wall is decorated with the image of a Kraken.
Chapter 3: Quipper Fight
They see stairs going up to the left. There is a door on the other side of the stairs. Atalaya goes into the next room. She sees fish but no octopi. The fish come right at her. They are Quippers, a common fish that you don’t want to be in the middle of a school (swarm) of.
Atalaya: pulls out her Master’s longsword and makes two attacks on the Quippers with it. They both hit. Her hordebreaker attack on the second swarm misses. She hunter’s marks swarm 2.
Quippers: They attack Atalaya’s armor, but don’t get through.
Quippers Swarm 1: Swarms to Nevil. She feels bee sting bites taking 1 point of damage. There is a thread of blood in the water.
Boz: Attacks Swarm 2 dealing 20 points of damage. The swarm dissolves with any not killed fleeing.
Nevil: Says that she is “going to smack a fish with a sword.” She swings wildly, missing the fish and almost dropping her sword. She recovers and tries again, but the swarm parts around her sword and she misses again
Atalaya: Takes 2 swings at the Quipper Swarm 1. They miss. She moves her Hunter’s Mark to this swarm.
Quipper 1: Strikes at Nevil in a blood frenzy.
Boz: Destroys Quipper 1 with his shortsword.
This room probably held food and _______________. We find a locket with a painted portrait that is corroded. It is put into the bag of holding.
Nevil heals herself.
We move to the next door. It is mostly rotted. It is a door to the outside. Steps on the right go up. Storage.
Altar is committed to the Kraken god.
Back in the main room where we killed the Creature, we close the door to the room that held the octupi.
The door at the end of the room is locked. Boz inspects it and and unlocks it. In that room we see bones and robes and lots of small crabs. This chamber looks very priestly.
Room: They find a Rod in a (skeletal) hand, carved with tentacles at the end. ATalaya gently picks up the rod and the hand beaks off as she does so. The orod is heavy and made of black stone, with a Karaken octapus thing on the end of it. There is nothing else of value in the room.
We go back to the temple room. We see a goblin-like creature go down the west staircase and skiter into the darkness. It was short and dark and left a trail of salt as it went.
We follow the trail up the east stairs. (??east? west?)
Chapter 4: We meet a Mermaid and an Octopus
We enter a room full of silt and mud. OPen chamber that seems to be the top of a parapet. We can see crenulations carved in the shape of tentacles. The footprints disappear.
Nevil looks over the crenulations. She sees a fishy looking creature swimming below next to the wall. She does not sense evil in this creature.
Nevil: “You seem different. What happened?”
Gali: (a mermaid) “I’m looking for something. I lost my shell.” She swims over to them. “One of those mud creatures took it. Stole it. My beautiful green shell. I was playing with it…. A lot of creatures…. They stole it. It was green. It was very pretty. I found it in the trench. I live near here. I come here to play. (She speaks “a little flighty, like a teenager)
Nevil: It’s creepy.
Gali: If you find it, will you return it?
We agree to try,
Gali: This is a good place to find trinkets. I found things that people with legs wear. And armor. And sharp things. And things to comb hair and mirrors. They are my favorite.’’
We start searching the area. There are empty closes by both sides of the stairs.
There is a door in the middle of the wall. Door crumbles in Boz’s hands as he looks at it. Boz push it open. We see bubbles, 2 columns, and a mosaic of a Kraken devouring an entire planet. There are shattered tiles lying around. There is a hole ahead where the bubbles are coming up from. We can see that on the far side of the room the wall has collapsed.
Nevil wants to look down the hole. She swims over and sees a mud creature come out of the hole. It takes no notice of Nevil or the rest of us. It looks around and heads towards _____________.
As we look down the hole we can see a green shell about 10 feet down, stuck in rubble.
Atalaya and Boz flank Nevil as she starts down the hole.
Suddenly a long reddish tentacle appears. It is BIG, about twice our size.
Nevil is down the hole, Blessing all of us.
It skirts around the the hole. Sees us and darts towards us. (“It sees us as lunch.”)
Atalaya moves her Hunters mark, shoots and hits it with both her shots.
Boz: Moves to within 5 feet of Nevil and shoots his shortbow, hitting for 21 points of damage.
Octopus: Inks the water. It is all black. We can’t see very well. Then it shoots forward and is on top of Boz. It hits Boz and he is grappled and wrapped in tentacles and cannot move. He takes 13 points of damage.
Nevil: Rebukes the Violent. (Reaction). “You hurt my friend and that will not be tolerated.”
Octopus: takes half damage from the rebuke. (total of 6 points). It recoils and drags Boz.
Nevil: She is enraged at the attack on Boz. She drops her shield and draws out 2 shortswords. In a flurry of blades she makes 2 of 4 attacks hit the creature. It takes 9 points of damage. We see limbs going off. One of those is the limb holding Vaz. “Violence will not be tolerated,” she expounds to the octopus.
Vasilya shakes off the rest of the tentacle. He has sucker marks on him.
Nevil. “Are you okay? Are you injured?”
Boz: “A little.”
Nevil heals Boz for 10 points.
Boz: “Thank you, much better. That was a tight squeeze.”
Nevil picks up her shield and looks uncomfortable again.
Nevil climbs down to the green shell. It is just sitting there in the rubble. It has a magical aura around it. It is not evil but is magical.
Nevil turns to Atalaya. “This feels magical.”
The hole goes down to the 1st floor. It doesn’t go into the ground.
Nevil gets a sense of unease that something is not right with the shell. The hole doesn’t seem to be the issue.
Nevil is concerned. She wants to trade for the shell with Gila.
Atalaya trades with Gila to obtain the shiny green shell.
Vasilya and Nevil are beginning to feel the effect of the water breathing potion ending. The each drink another potion.
Atalaya puts the magical green shell into her bag of holding.
Chapter 5: Meeting Brinecane, The Storm Giant
Boz makes his way to the door past the hole. It is locked. “I’m just going to unlock this.” The door pops open. They see a larger chamber with a big staircase beyond it.
It looks like something was living there. The stairs go up and we see debris under the stairs.
Nevil bumps the thing with her shield. It feels like metal. It is quite heavy. It is a golden Kraken statue. (WH7)
We head up the stairs. We see blue lightning in the big room. Bubbles going up from the hole. There is a crystal candelabra shap;ed like a kraken with crystals. As we walk along the edge of the room the lightning starts to coalesce. We she a shadowy form… a creature… no a giant! Wreathed in electricity.
Nevil is not detecting any evil from the creature. The giant has a harp sitting on knee and she has a bemused look on her face.
Brinecane: “Why have you come to my lair?”
We explain that we have coming searching for why the weather has become so unsettled. The weather is causing a lot of trouble up and down the coast.
Brinecane: “Have you come to harm me? I just wish to stay here and play my harp. I don’t want to die. I am very old. I came to Warthalkeel.”
Nevil: “How long?”
Brinecane: “I decided to transform into a storm to come here. I am a storm giant. If I maintain my storm form I…..
Nevil looks for a peaceful resolution to the problem. After some discussion Atalaya suggests that the storm giant move to the old wizard's place at the Pillars of Pelagia. They make a deal for her to move there. We say that we will go to talk to the people in the area if she stays there. Atalaya hopes that the Pillars are far enough away from the towns that the storms will not be as disruptive there.
Game Ends
