Session 46

Fact Sheet: A brightly shining shark

Players present: Ecchima, Marty, Meinhart, Tuur and Vinnie. Dins was our GM.

Date: 03-07-2024

Date in-universe at the end of the session: Friday near noon

Major developments

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Previously: session 45 Aqueel's way home

Up next: session 47

Notes

1. shaking their head against the ringing in their ears and reassuring the civilians cowering behind them, El decides to join the battle: they choose a new position and El(drin)'s blast the enemy in the street. The shore-stalker dies & El continues pursuing Hali and Aqueel on the carpet
2. Storm dashes towards the church and his 3 images follow. Then he turns his heart into a stone and shoots the hippocampus. The evil horse whinnies in pain!
3. Hali repositions the carpet & launches a tiny tidal wave in an attempt to unseat the rider. The shore-stalker knows how to handle water currents, so he remains in the saddle. They both take half damage. Hali moves the carpet on and still bedraggled, the shore-stalker misses his attack of opportunity
4. Aqueel orders his baby!elemental to attack the hippocampus
5. the hippocampus flies after the carpet and looks hurt from the baby!elemental's attack of opportunity. The last shore-stalker, on the hippocampus, tries to yank Aqueel from Hali's arms but failed.
6. Ezra clambers back onto the roof & uses "speak with animals" to try and reason with the hippocampus: "we both want to bring Aqueel back to his dad. If we work together, you're bound to get a bonus from your king himself". The hippocampus stares blankly at Ezra, and with mounting horror, Ezra realises they've met their greatest fear: a sea monster who doesn't even speak Aquan
7. Fyllion magically commands the shore-stalker to "approach". Pleased, Fyllion sees the spell take hold. With the mantle of inspiration, Fyllion hands out temporary hit points!
8. the civilians try to get closer to their loved ones in the fish market
9. the riderless hippocampus slaps Ezra again with his tail. Spitting out seawater and scales, Ezra notices this isn't really a combat creature, so we can probably scare it off...

Lightning crashes down again, but luckily no one is hit.

1. El jumps over the gutter to take a new position; they slam 2 El(drin)'s blasts in the hippocampus near Ezra. The monster is skittish and extremely wounded & El checks on Ezra, who reports the only hurt thing is their pride
2. Storm wonders if he should use phantasmal force to create a decoy Aqueel, but that doesn't seem the best idea right now, so he shoots and kills the hippocampus. The rider slams into the roof, slides down and slams into the ground.
3. with a sigh of relief over the pursuer falling down, Hali raises her shield and uses thaumaturgy 
4. the baby!elemental jumps off the roof onto the fallen rider. Storm gives him a thumbs up for that patented move (four thumbs rise up). The baby!elemental hurries after Aqueel
5. under Fyllion's command, the shore-stalker crawls towards Fyllion, away from the direction the carpet disappeared into
6. Ezra leaps from the roof and dashes towards the church
7. Fyllion leans over the edge of the roof and shouts a vicious mockery "if I had a face like yours, I'd join a cult just to get a free mask". The guy looks up and grins he's already in a cult. Fyllion pulls back from the edge to keep safe
8. the civilians choose new positions, looking around carefully
9. the last hippocampus flees

Lightning strikes again, a bit behind us. It only serves to inspire us forward, to keep Aqueel safe!

1. Ezra runs over and touches Ezra to give them guidance: you can do this, run after them! Ezra looking like a clumpy wet cat sighs that they appreciate El's enthusiasm, but it's a bit far and they're a bit wet. Even their fluffy pointy sideburns droop
2. Storm shoots the last shore-stalker
3. Hali and Aqueel see there are many more hippocampi flying over the harbour around Hanaïn. The carpet hasn't been spotted yet
4. the shore-stalker attacks one of Storm's duplicates & next hits the true Storm (with a NATURAL TWENTY). Fyllion's gift of temporary hit points helps a lot!
5. Ezra shoots the guy from far away. With an arrow through his throat, the guy falls down, dead!

Hali and Aqueel see that the docks form a scene of complete carnage. Hanaïn's chest rising from the water is already 2 or 3 meters tall. Adding to the terror he inspires, he's wielding a trident in one hand and with his other hand, he's whipping up tentacles of water, slamming into the Surya.

They see captain Halloran leading the defence against this onslaught. Her eyes are everywhere, she’s snapping orders at her troops, she’s slashing with her cutlass at any tritons who try to board her ship, she’s making a magical gesture with her other hand, preventing any of her sailors or guards from drowning as they’re dragged overboard. Several of them are already standing or crouched on the turbulent water’s roiling surface, attempting to continue the fight from there, in the hopes they won’t be pulled under water by the Sea of Storm’s troops arriving underneath them.

Even captain Marsten’s ship, the Lady Stormbreaker, is being pulled into the maelstrom and the docks are starting to splinter. The fish market is in total chaos: several people have been hurt and all the inhabitants are shrieking and trying to escape, while the King of Storm's troops are raining down wanton destructing and chaos.

Further away, they see Sastruga hurrying towards the harbour. To Hali, it’s obvious that the ancient Elf takes his role as shepherd to the population of the Vale seriously. He won’t let them down in this their hour of need.

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Distracted by the… everything… happening under them, Hali and Aqueel at first don’t really feel the static electricity of the storm latching onto them. Suddenly the carpet curls around both passengers... at the exact moment a lightning strike sets the carpet on fire! We have to watch in helpless horror as they fall down into the river; the fire immediately goes out and they're being dragged to the maelstrom that's Hanaïn's lower body.

As the carpet unfurls, a spectrally glowing giant shark approaches them and swallows them up. It's Kekoa who takes Hali in his arms, with Aqueel in her arms, with the carpet in Aqueel's little fist. With a quick swerve, the shark returns to the surface.

When the shark barfs them up on the docks, the carpet splats wetly on the planks. Hali puts her hand on it with a quietly whispered thanks. She sighs in relief when she feels there's still magical energy in the carpet, although it remains flat and immobile.

Kekoa scolds Hali: “you could have died”! When she replies she just wants to bring father and son together, Kekoa reveals that he needs Hanaïn to free Nasser, because Sekolah is loyal to his loyal followers. The damage to The Vale is incidental and if Halloran happens to die, that's a personal bonus to Kekoa.

Kekoa orders Hali and Aqueel to remain on the docks where he parked them, or his troops will make them. He plans to rile up Hanaïn some more and then he'll be back to let Hali have her glory moment by handing over Aqueel and meet her uncle.

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We rush up and find that Reva has joined us. We want to keep the civilians safe from the maelstrom, and get Hali and Aqueel free, so we can calm Hanaïn down before the town suffers too much.

1. Erza runs forward and tosses a rope to a civilian being swept away. She's very grateful
2. El chooses a new position in our captain's wake. Pointing their sword, they cast Hunger of Hadar. A black sphere appears, and slurping noises are heard over the storm!
3. the tritons and the bigger elemental under the Hunger of Hadar are hurt and blinded. The left store-stalker on his hippocampus dashes over to Aqueel & draws his sword. The left triton under the Hunger of Hadar figures Ezra will not be under El's attack so he dashes in that direction; the other one can see the edge and attacks Ezra with his shortsword. One of his two attacks hits, allowing Ezra to step back a bit.
4. Hali hurriedly packs the limp and soppy carpet in her backpack. She readies a starry flame in her hand, ready to defend Aqueel
5. the bigger elemental panics and runs in a random direction. He's lucky and makes it into the water. The bubble prevents him from seeing us. The smaller one dashes to Ezra
6. Fyllion calls to the left "is there an elemental plane of disappointment I can banish you to" as a vicious mockery but the guy just rolls his eyes. Fyllion hides behind the darkness of the Hunger of Hadar. A civilian runs by screaming
7. Reva leaps into action and attacks 3 times on the smaller elemental. She hits twice with her scimitar and misses with her dagger. Since Storm stole her blood sacrificial dagger, her attacks are less impressive. She calls out what's the plan to get the boy to his huge father? Do we run around the entire harbour? Fyllion responds quickly that he has a scroll of water walking, but is that safe in the maelstrom? Reva prefers to use the bridge
8. Storm hurries over to the civilian at the edge of one of the docks and orders him to seek shelter. Then he shoots one of the tritons
9. the hippocampus without rider attacks Storm
10. the triton retaliates at Storm, but misses
11. one civilian gets off screen on Storm's order. 2 others take shelter. The one in the water uses Ezra's rope to clamber out and finds some precarious shelter. A few civilians, one with a weapon join Fyllion. The one on the left sneaks away

A random lightning bolt hurtles down, right where Aqueel is standing. Luckily our little boy is resistant to lightning damage! Alas, Hali is also hit.

Sastruga arrives on the scene and offers his help with a NATURAL TWENTY for his initiative.

1. Sastruga digs through his satchel and pulls out the gleaming dark horn Fyllion saw in his living room. Storm sees Sastruga blow on it and an ethereal sound comes out; a spectral rift opens and a yeth hound crawls onto our plane. Sastruga orders the yeth to protect Hali and Aqueel. The slavering yeth hound bites the rider. Sastruga casts a healing word for Hali with a beautiful ditty from his violin
2. Ezra drops the rope since the civilian is safe. With their poison dagger, Ezra hits the smaller elemental next to them. Reva nods respectfully, even as Ezra attacks again and hits again. The smaller elemental seems to have trouble to keep their form together. Ezra follows it up with their non-magical shortsword with a NATURAL TWENTY! Reva is impressed at Ezra's speed to attack 3 times
3. El compliments Ezra and also attacks the smaller elemental. Lunaire's black sword turns the creature into a puddle on the floor. The entity in the blade whispers in El's mind that it's feeling moisturized. El chooses a new position near Fyllion for a complicated manoeuvre: they attack the large elemental with an El(drin)'s blast & then pulls it closer, back in the Hunger of Hadar
4. the shore-stalker on his hippocampus turns away from Hali and tries to defend himself from the yeth, his second attack with a NATURAL TWENTY. The yeth is severely hurt! The two tritons attack Ezra and Reva. Reva parries one of the attacks with a fluid movement we recognize from Saatia's fighting style
5. Hali's flame sputters out but she attacks with her scimitar. She turns to Aqueel and grabbing by his hand, they slip by the hippocampus and the yeth
6. the water elemental feels the cold damage of the Hunger of Hadar, and stumbles back out of it. In the distance he sees Aqueel, and he recognizes his target. He knifes through the water & climbs over the dock to reach the water next to Hali
7. Fyllion loses his patience with these cowardly civilians who aren't running as fast as he can. He scolds them "fly, fools". Fyllion plays on his lyre Dawnless and targets the tritons near Ezra to hold them in place with Hold Person
8. Reva happily exploits the tritons' paralysis and attacks with abandon: she jumps on his shoulders, wrapping her thighs around his neck and ramming her blades repeatedly into his head
9. Storm jumps onto the ranged triton and with 2 attacks of his sandals he kills the guy. Storm furtively checks if anyone saw he yet again kicked someone to death. Only Sastruga saw, and pales, ever so grateful we didn't fight him
10. the riderless hippocampus destroys Storm's last mirror image. They stare at each other with hatred in their eyes
11. the civilians run as best they can or seek shelter

Another lightning bolt falls down, but no one is hit.

We see a gigantic tentacle rise out of the water. Hali realizes it must be a monstrously large water elemental and with a NATURAL TWENTY she feels a flash of familiarity. A memory rises:

Reeling from the destruction of The Vale, Hali remembers a very similar scene where Hanaïn, and his troops, and his storm are chasing the ship The Young Kraken. Ezra is screaming from the wildly unstable crow’s nest, Fyllion and Siderael help Laithe to her quarters, crewmembers like Sigurd and Archibald are hurrying to make as much speed as possible. Hali overhears a shouted conversation between captain John Magpie and Eluviel wearing his golden mask

Magpie: what's going on, last time he wasn't like this! We’re just lucky that the Young Kraken is faster than his troops!

Eluviel: are you mental, last time it's the island who saved you

M: that's a stupid plan, the devils will be upon us in an instant as soon as we land, esp. if they realize we want to go to the City of Glass

E: I don't want any of you to die for my mistakes, end of discussion! I’m doing the runes!

In Hali’s rediscovered memory, Eluviel activates a set of runes glowing with dark mystical energy, which Hali now recognizes as the teleportation circle

1. Sastruga gets a little closer and heals Ezra with a song from his violin the Aurora. Thinking back to his college days where he had a sort of horse girl phase with reindeer to impress Loh'sa, he gives Storm some help
2. Ezra hits the last triton twice with their poison dagger, the second with a NATURAL TWENTY, following it up with another attack. The triton dies. They thank Fyllion for creating such an easy target! Ezra hustles up the stairs towards Hali and Aqueel
3. El attacks the tentacle with 2 El(drin)'s blasts but one misses. Then they help Storm heal!
4. the last triton on his hippocampus figures the tentacle can deal with the yeth hound and flies over it, attempting to attack Hali, but he misses
5. the tentacle lashes out at the yeth hound but misses. The tentacle tries again and does hit this time. The yeth hound is grappled and restrained but isn't pulled into the water! The tentacle moves closer to the yeth
6. Hali holds Aqueel close, disengages and takes Aqueel over to Storm

Storm takes a second to breathe and silhouetted against the storm clouds, he sees Bella Swan circle. She clearly still hasn't been able to deliver our message yet.

Storyline

Previously: session 45 Aqueel's way home

Up next: session 47