Lebienne awoke with a start, her
eyes glowing red and her hands immediately wrapping around Lapu Lapu's neck. However,
as quickly as it began, it was over, and she returned to her normal self before
the party had time to strike out with their weapons. When asked how she had
recovered from the mouther so miraculously, she gave a vague, non-commital,
surely evil answer. Phobos gives the order to cast "Detect Good and
Evil" as soon as possible.
The ghostly woman appeared again --
the same one from the Sebastian rescue mission, and earlier in the temple --
telling us that we would never take the temple, or uncover its secrets. She
disappeared!
The ground began shaking, and water
began rushing into the room. Typhon was able to blast apart the heavy stone
doors with a thunderclap spell, and we squeezed through the narrow opening. In
the hallway, we came to a stairwell, but lacking the time and means to dive and
explore the now-flooded lower levels of the temple, we opted for not drowning,
and took the stairs up to the surface.
Back at the port, civilians of
Madden rushed to the dock of the Ol' Kyle, crying out for refuge from
their rapidly sinking island. Taking pity on them, Mr. Pug allowed as many
onboard as he could; about 40 or 50. They were allowed to stay on the condition
that they remained calm. Fladuk eagerly scanned the crowd for any who weren't,
and would thus be fair game to throw overboard.
As the dungeoneers made it to the
surface, the temple disappeared into the sinkhole, and the rest of the island
seemed to be following suit. Typhon drew the conch shell given to us by Ol'
Tiberius, and summoned the rafting druid, who lamented the loss of his finest
poophole, but rescued the group anyway. The island now nearly entirely
submerged beneath the waves, Tiberius navigated his raft to reconnoiter with
the Ol' Kyle, where we boarded our ship.
We elected to head back to Caldwell
(aka Mattias) with the refugees and what information we'd gathered. During the
voyage, a female gnome took sick. In an effort to swiftly prevent infection,
Fladuk picked her up to toss her overboard. Mr. Pug drew his sword on Fladuk,
saying that only the Captain had the authority to throw anyone overboard.
Phobos reminded everyone that he was totally the captain, and that they had
totally unanimously agreed on it at some point in the past that definitely
happened.
While these negotiations where
underway, the gnome sprouted nasty fungal growths from her head. Lapu Lapu
stabbed the gnome, and Fladuk threw her overboard. The party then fell into a
debate about how to deal with an infection, and who exactly was captain, anyway,
when a mushroom monster jellyfish was spotted climbing up the side of the ship.
Battle was then met, against a large
psychic jellyfish monster and some of its minions. Fladuk was nearly killed in
melee combat, and any contact with them resulted in psychic visions of death.
Phobos opted to stand back at a safe distance and lob magic missiles at the big
one. It should be noted that we might be advised, in future battles, to
concentrate on one target at a time. Phobos landed a killing blow, and the
jellyfish exploded into truffle oil.
However, during the fight, one of
the jellyfish-mushroom-spores infected Mr. Pug! Pug had visions of a peaceful
field, but, knowing that his mind and body were no longer his own, attempted to
throw himself overboard! Another jellyfish floated out of the water, caught Pug
in its tentacles, and dropped him safely back on deck. Not wanting to join
these slimy sea denizens, Pug then attempted to commit seppuku with his
cutlass.
The jellyfish explained, as best it
could in psychic images and visions, that it meant no harm to Pug or us. They
had been a coastal colony on the island, and escaped its sinking by clinging to
the bottom of the Ol' Kyle. Starving, a rogue member of their group had
infected the gnome woman, and it and its band of renegades attacked us. The
remaining jellyfish men were simply refugees as well, same as the dwarves and
gnomes of Madden.
As an act of good faith, they
provided us with some information about previous visitors to the island: three
sailors, a Wei-Shen male with a long, thin beard; a Tiefling of Hajar; and a
Lothair man bearing a striking resemblance to Bernard Beaucard. On their
shoulders was the same symbol we had seen on the cultists' robes: three
swirling stars. In exchange for this information, the jellyfish claimed
another, already infected dwarf, for further dining. The ethical implications
of this are...troubling.
The jellyfish men back in the water,
Lebienne revealed herself to, in fact, be evil!
"Hey," said Phobos,
"Why didn't we cast 'Detect Good and Evil' like I suggested?"
"Well," explained Typhon,
"I don't actually have that spell. I just said I would do it, because I
have an intelligence of 7."
Lebienne calls out in an ethereal
voice, "You fools have been a bother long enough! Now, I turn my full
attention to you!" Phobos facepalmed. Lebienne jumped overboard, or
something, surely to never be seen again.
Finally, we made it back to Edon and
paid Caldwell a visit. We filled him in on the happenings, and he was able to
identify the aforementioned We-Shen as Kao-Su, a nasty war criminal. We
suspected the Lothair human to be Vincent Beaucard, cousin of Bernard's, who
we'd read about in a stolen letter. Caldwell wasn't aware of the cult's name,
but he suspects it is related to the cause of the war and how various sides
were able to gain new technology and drag the war on longer. Uncovering these
truths is the purpose of our missions. As a reward, we were paid 100gp each,
and given a Cloak of Displacement.
What missions will Caldwell send us
on next? Who will get to wear that sweet cloak? Why didn't Typhon cast Detect
Good and Evil? Some of these questions will be answered, some will be simply
met with facepalms. Until next week! Eat oranges to prevent scurvy.
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