Reflections on the water
Fact sheet: Reflections on the water ("Always fucking pixies...")
Date: 19-06-2024
Date in-universe: unspecified; after we all boarded
Players present: Dins, Ecchima, Marty, Tuur. Meinhart was our GM. Vinnie was excused.
Major developments:
- Ezra spotted a beautiful island, which Fyllion immediately adopted as Fyllion's Island
- There was a pond in the middle of the island.
- It turns out to be a place where 4 pixies were captured.
- They were playing with us by mirroring us: they had our attacks and characteristics.
- When the game was over - we won, by the way - they askes us to help them release them.
- We channeled magic into chains by a tree. The tree started blossoming and the pixies were free.
Notes
We are all aboard the Young Kraken with Captain Magpie at the helm (on a box)... Ezra is up in the crow's nest doing what they do best: escaping the stink of the ship (according to themselves).
It's a great day for sailing: a quiet breeze, almost no clouds.
Then, Ezra spots a tiny island in the distance, right in front of us.
The island is not charted: it's not supposed to be there!
Ezra tries to look a bit better: there are some trees and between the trees, in the center of the island, there is a glimmer. Ezra calls down to their captain: "There's something glittering there, and it's probably something magical. We should go there!"
Captain Magpie yells up that Ezra probably drank too much. There's no island nearby. Ezra, however, confirms that they see an island.
The captain glances in the distance and sees a sweet island: lots of shade, butterflies, ... It's like a little summer's paradise.
Fyllion is excited: it's the most beautiful island he has ever seen... (Well, given it's his first trip with us, it's probably the first island he has ever seen.) He wants to go and take a look.
Ezra shouts, in Aquan, in case it's a sea monster: "Wake up!"
Hali is shocked: she didn't know Ezra spoke Aquan!
We see one of the bunnies looking up and a dolphin jumping in the water. We are all up for a stroll on the island.
We anchor the Kraken down and are taken by rowboat by Sigurd.
Captain Magpie wonders what's on the island. Hali notes the location down on the map, to inform the authorities of the island.
We assemble a landing party: Captain Magpie, Ezra, Hali and Fyllion head over. Sigurd stays with the rowboat.
Fyllion is so excited: he's the first one to get out of the boat. Like a true explorer, he looks around and takes off his boots. He feels the golden sand between his toes... This is heaven! He calls it "Fyllion's Island" and welcomes us to his paradise.
Hali tries to find traces of cultivation by humanoids, aided by Captain Magpie.
Meanwhile, Fyllion has drawn his rapier and is drawing the words "Fyllion's Island" in the sand.
We see him trotting towards the treeline and Hali notices there are remnants of a paved path, now overgrown... The captain suggests that Fyllion talks with the island's previous owner about the name. Fyllion carves "Fyllion's Island" in one of the trees by the path.
The path seems to lead towards the middle of the island, so we decide to head on. Hali tries to check out all the plants on the way: is anything out of the ordinary?
Hali feels her mind relaxing, and she feels right at home.
Fyllion mentions something about applying for citizenship and becoming a Fyllion, but one Fyllion is enough.
Hali spots a bush with fruits. She heads over and plucks a piece of fruit. She eats it, and notices that the bruise that she had from bumping into the edge of the ship is gone.
Fyllion is jealous about this, and also plucks a piece of fruit. He notices that his mind is now clearer: he is sure that the next question that Fyllion asks, will be answered truthfully.
Fyllion asks captain Magpie: "Captain, can I ask you a question?"
Magpie: "Well, yes, boy."
Fyllion: "What do you like about me?"
Magpie: "You're entertaining, son!"
Captain Magpie is also taking a piece of fruit: he feels refreshed! (Effect: extra reaction in a fight to use 'Shield'.)
Ezra also takes a piece of fruit and licks it... (NAT 1) It tastes bad...
We continue on, and see now what Ezra spotted from the crow's nest: a huge pool in the middle of the island. The water gleams up into the sky. We all come closer, and Hali tries to figure out what's different with this water, but doesn't notice anything. The water is very wavy, though.
We start to hear singing coming from the water... Ezra immediately backs off, being scared about sea monsters. Captain Magpie, as a seasoned captain, knows a thing or two about sirens, but this isn't it... Fyllion is singing along.
Ezra mentions a weird daffodil next to the pond...
Captain Magpie, Fyllion and Hali hear a young boy asking: "Do you know the difference between an onion and bagpipes?" Hali says they can both make you cry, but the boyish voice replies: "No one cries when you cut bagpipes."
The daffodil opens and inside is a very beautiful boy.
We all see a different version, apparently: Magpie sees a boy with long flowing hair. Hali sees a young marid and Fyllion sees... Himself?
As soon as the creature makes eye-contact, we disappear.
Ezra asks: "What have you done with my crewmates?"
The boy looks at Ezra, says: "I use detect thoughts, and I'll see if I find any," makes eye-contact and Ezra also disappears.
We apparently end up in a different location. It looks like the reflection from the pool we were at earlier. We hear the same voice: "Your ears are sharper than your blade, I bet."
The captain engages: "I'll bet you I can still kill you with my sword! Show yourself, coward!"
----
Initiative:
Magpie, Aster, Ezra, Black-eyed Susan, Hali, Marigold, Fyllion, Margueritte.
---------------
The taunt makes something throw a mud pie at captain Magpie... The captain runs towards a bunch of stones nearby and hides (Stealth NAT20 + 9). From there he fires his crossbow to the creature that threw the pie. He uses Wails from the Grave and we hear another creature nearby wailing.
In the location where the first creature was, we now see a shadow version of captain Magpie... The shadowy version of Magpie yells, in his voice: "Where did you get these clothes? In the toilet store?"
Ezra looks into the pond and tries to spot other creatures. In the south, there is another one that comes closer and it is trying to climb out of the pool. It splashes water at Ezra.
Hali tries to be on guard: she plans on throwing up a wall of water using shape water if a creature will be hurling a mud pie. But it's no mud pie that's coming, but a Tiny Tidal Wave from an oil spill that is coming closer to us: Marigold uses Hali's spell! Both the captain and Hali are in it, and Hali gets washed back 10 ft.
Fyllion calls out: "Well, if this is going to be a roast, let's get roasting!" He uses Vicious Mockery on the shadowcaptain: "With a face like yours, I'd join a cult just to get a free mask."
He also says: "Don't worry captain, I still think you are beautiful," to our real captain to give bardic inspiration.
Margueritte comes closer and hurls an insult at Fyllion: "You look like the kind of guy who thinks of his Vicious Mockeries ahead of time!"
Captain Magpie tries to hide again (NAT1 + 9), and fires his crossbow but misses. He stands in front of Fyllion to protect him.
Aster is also going to fire a crossbow arrow, which doesn't look like an arrow but just a twig, and misses thanks to Fyllion's Vicious Mockery from earlier (NAT 20 vs 7 + 7).
Ezra approaches the oil spill near their feet and asks the captain what to do. Ezra attacks the shadow captain with their longbow (NAT20) and that apparently kills Aster. As the arrow sinks in, Aster seems to melt back to it's gooey form and suddenly a pixie appears in its place.
Magpie mentions: "You see that sometimes, violence IS the answer, at least when you're attacked first."
Susan hurls a mud pie, but Hali's wall of water pops up and Susan shrieks because her plan failed. She shifts to a shadowy form of Ezra.
Hali activates her starry form and fires an arrow (that hits) and a guiding bolt (that misses). She says: "We didn't mean any harm."
Behind her, she hears Marigold mocking: "We DiDn"T mEaN aNy HaRm!" and feels another Tiny Tidal Wave coming. This time she resists, but she's starting to get annoyed.
Fyllion uses Dissonant whispers on Margueritte and we now see an oil stain moving back into the pond. He also says: "Good job, Hali!" and gives her bardic inspiration.
Margueritte then mocks Fyllion: "I thought those bagpipes were the only windbags here, but I was mistaken." We then see Margueritte change into a shadowy version of Fyllion.
Captain Magpie then takes cover behind a rock formation and hides (Stealth 12). He then points his crossbow at the shadowy Ezra, which we will call Grezra from now on, and releases the arrow. With Wails from the Grave Gryllion also gets hurt.
The pixie then starts cheerleading: "Kick their asses! Make them sweat!"
Hali yells back: "Don't worry, we will." The captain replies: "What do you mean kick their asses? They're the same asses as we have!"
Ezra attacks Grezra (NAT 1), but generously gets a reroll from the GM because Ecchima's cat was bothering them... A very succesful hit it is! Grezra melts down, and a cheerleading pixie appears.
Hali fires a starry arrow at Marigold, that now turns into Grali, and fires another guiding bolt (but misses again). Grali comes out of the water and hits Hali and captain Magpie with another Tiny Tidal Wave and both Hali and the captain are washed away 10 ft.
Fyllion then uses Command "Grovel!" on Grali to make her fall prone. And then uses his Mantle of Inspiration to help us all.
Margueritte then cheats and mimics Magpie's crossbow aimed at Fyllion and he gets hit with an arrow.
Immediately, the two pixies react, and say that she is cheating and say: "Down with Margueritte!"
The captain then takes out his rapier and moves closer to Grali. "Is this a game to you? You're about to die!"
Aster calls back: "You want to live forever?"
Ezra attacks Gryllion with an arrow and it also pops... Again, another Pixie appears.
Susan repeats: "That's what you get, Margueritte... Now you're out too!"
Hali then says to Grali: "Well, it appears you've won." and fires another starry arrow. Because she's really tired of all of it, she then casts Moonbeam and Grali immediately turns into a pixie.
Captain Magpie tries to immediately grasp the pixie, but he fails... The pixie smiles at the captain in a grinny way.
Fyllion just stammers instinctively: "Well, fucking pixies... It's always fucking pixies."
The pixies seem to like this and they mirror our positions now.
Aster then grins at us: "It's a game we play. We don't get a lot of visitors here and nothing bad happened. We saw you got one of the fruits."
The captain is still bothered by the fact that we were just randomly attacked.
The pixies say that they get bored and thought that we were basic pirates.
Magpie asks: "How did you get here in the first place?"
Aster beckons Margueritte over... They tell us the story.
"Margueritte and I have a younger sister, Daisy... If you think we're bad, you should see her. She did something bad, and now we're stuck here. Aster has some magic, but he can't get us out. It's just the four of us and we wanted to play. You have magic... Do you think you can help us?"
Captain Magpie asks what is keeping them tethered here. We get taken to another place, where we see a tree in chains, tethered to rocks.
The pixies ask us to help them: there are 5 chains, but only Aster has magical abilities.
Hali wonders that, if we help them, the pixies might be able to return, but can we still return to our ship?
Fyllion is convinced that the pixies are sincere, and are not trying to fool us now. They are however underaged pixie kids. They want to let us go when this is all over.
We can tell that Aster already tried, but failed.
We spread out and each hold a chain.
Captain Magpie speaks to his goddess Klina and releases some magic in the chain. (Confession: whenever Magpie crushes a trinket, he releases a soul that is in there.) Hali's chain starts to glow like starlight. Ezra's chain rattles and we hear the roar of a tiger in the distance. Fyllion does some high opera notes, which he normally uses to break glass, now trying to break the chain.
It works amazingly well: the chains start twisting and they break. The tree starts blossoming again.
All of a sudden, we are back at the pool where everything started. The pixies are also there.
The daffodil is gone, however.
The island is starting to change a bit: the fruit is getting less fruity... The grass is turning less green...
Fyllion is spurting to the tree where he scratched his name to scratch it away. He doesn't want any bad reviews.
On the way back, Ezra tries to hunt some of the bunnies for food.
There is also a little cluster of potato plants and mustard seeds.
Fyllion and Ezra say goodbye to the pixies by flipping hem off... Fyllion then fey steps to the ship.
Magpie is going to give some fatherly advice to the pixies: "You all try to forgive that sister of yours if you see her. But be careful: don't taunt the wrong people, or you'll get hurt. People tend to get angry when they get injured. Try to be more considerate of others. Now move on!"
Hali, Ezra and captain Magpie join Sigurd in the rowboat and as we row back to the Kraken, we see the island turning into a more mundane rock formation.
Hali and Ezra note it down on the map as a hazard.
Fyllion starts to write his new hit: the rock song Fucking Pixies.