You Feel a Little Crispy, Also You Have No Eyebrows - January 31, 2025

- Plain black T with North Face jacket in teal

- Over breakfast after the fight, Soliana asks Niniel and Caleb and Poetry about dreaming because it's new to her. She had some pretty crazy underwater dreams while Trancing last night. Caleb does not dream as a fellow elf, and Niniel says yeah dreams are like that.

- The ship is back underway by the time they all get on deck, but the lookout calls out that there's another ship that's adrift and has no visible people on board.

- Soliana sends Stardust to do a loop, and she sees a perfectly intact ship with the sails reefed and lots of corpses and blood. The corpses look chewed on and partially eaten. A victim of the Sea Hag and her monsters?

- Soliana asks the captain if they can check for survivors. Gringamore agrees.

- They reach the ship and lay boarding planks. 

- Soliana asks Zemma if she will join her in the search for survivors so that Soliana isn't alone. They find a kid named Ethan who was the cabin boy of the Solaris. He throws up on the deck from the smell as soon as he finishes crossing over. He is introduced to the captain and then Soliana brings him to Hargak to get some food because he couldn't get into the provisions, so it's been a few days since he's eaten. 

- Caleb finds the captain's quarters and finds a log that indeed confirms that the ship ran into some fog and that's the last entry. He grabs the manifest and the logs and bring them to Gringamore. The Solaris was leaving Caledonia and heading to Part Carling.

- Niniel checks the cargo hold and finds trade goods, provisions, some weapons, etc. Nothing too crazy. She grabs a barrel of wine and wheels it back towards the Storm Caller. Once she gets her wine, she check a few corpses, but they are so smelly and squidgy and she only finds an ornate and pretty spyglass. She'll get Soliana to clean that.

- They spend most of the day to create shrouds from the sailcloth and other fabric from the hold and they commit the crew of the Solaris to the ocean. Soliana uses both an Unseen Servant and Mage Hand to sew multiple shrouds at a time, so it goes pretty quickly. It's just that everyone except Ethan was killed.

- Gringamore is loath to leave the Solaris to rot, so he plans to ask for a few volunteers to watch the ship so they can maybe sister ship it to Port Carling to earn a salvage return fee when they come back this way. He can't really fit all the stuff from the hold on his much smaller (and faster) ship, so he can't just take the whole cargo. Three sailors do agree to stay behind.

- Finn gets a promotion and Ethan is the new cabin boy on the Storm Caller. 

- During the next 18 days, the party helps Ethan acclimate and cheer him up with illusions and other cantrips to entertain when he gets sad.

- Finally one evening, Captain Gringamore calls the party up to the deck and says he thinks they are getting close because there's purple lightning in the water and there's a strange glow on the horizon.

- They start heading toward the glow and after a few more hours the lookout calls out that there's a fire ahead. Niniel scurries up to the crow's nest and verifies that it looks like a wall or circle of fire is coming straight out of the ocean with no substrate.

- The plan becomes to get nearish the fire, then take a landing craft closer and have Poetry summon Ember and send Ember into the fire to see what can happen.

- Soliana can use her new Shape Water Cantrip to drive the landing craft, but they bring two sailors in case they want to send the landing craft back.

- They get to about 50' or so of the edge of the wall of fire and Niniel hops in to see what's happening under water. There's a thick bunch of the purple lightning under the fire that seems to be fueling the fire. As near the surface as 20' down, the water is hot but not too uncomfortable. She also realizes that while this section of fire is a pretty solid wall there's other bits that flare up as well and it seems like there is an origin point sending out pulses. The wall of fire is about 15' deep but hundreds of feet long.

- While Niniel is doing her dive, Soliana hands the oars to the sailors asking them to stop them drifting into the fire while she ritually casts Detect Magic.

- It's Divination magic again.

- After these investigations are completed, Poetry sends Ember into the wall of fire and Ember is gone for a while. When she comes back she says there's nothing by fire.

- Everyone jumps into the water and the sailors take the landing craft back. Niniel is just good. Poetry Wild Shapes into a dolphin, and Zemma and Caleb hang onto dolphin-Poetry, while Soliana casts Alter Self - Aquatic Adaptions. Caleb has a Potion of Water Breathing as back-up.

- They dive under, surfacing every 60-90 seconds for Caleb as they dodge the fire flares.

- In the process while surfacing to breath, there is a sudden gathering of the purple lightning and a flare of fire and everyone except Caleb manages to dodge, so he takes 8 fire dmg. There's a second instance where Niniel gets burned (also 8 fire dmg).

- After 50-55 minutes of this, they can see a small island shape, and they sprint for it before Soliana's spell runs out.

- Everyone is pretty tired after the hours of intense swimming, so they take a breather and have some rations (Yay Bag of Holding!)

- The island looks very volcanic. The beach is dark, porous igneous rocks, so Soliana takes a small one for her collection.

- Niniel takes a short, casual walk to stretch and sees that the lightning and fire extends in all the directions from the island.

- Once their break is over, they start moving inland. There are a few gullies where it looks like lava might have flowed with some glowing hot material but not flowing.

- There are a few instances of disorienting pulses of magic.

- Finally there's a big pulse and the world spins and then goes black and they find themselves standing at the base of a big hill with dozens of fire beings about Zemma's size running down the hill at them.

- There is a commanding, masculine voice off the side and slightly behind the party that calls, "Hold the line!"

- 600 XP ea for 3,700 XP total ea.

Spiders in the Rigging and a Sea Hag on Deck - January 24, 2025

- Pink cow hoodie over the May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

- Niniel makes a diadem out of the rocks she has collected and Soliana helps her braid it into her hair

- After their few days rest in Port Carling, they once again board the Storm Caller with Captain Thomas Gringamore

- They are headed west in the direction of Caledonia, the capital of Rhoanor.

- Niniel immediately props herself up on one of the landing craft and pulls out one of her new books.

- In the early morning on the fourth day at sea, a fog rolls in and eventually the ship needs to come to a stop because they can't navigate. The day goes on and despite the sun coming out, the fog only seems to get thicker.

- Niniel uses a Create or Destroy Water and gets rid of a small portion of the fog which immediately rolls back in.

- Soliana does a Detect Magic and determines that the fog is laced with evocation so it is in fact magic fog.

- Niniel, Soliana (in her new swim costume and with an Alter Self spell), and Zemma do a loop around the boat with Niniel scouting out and in with her much fast swim speed

- Niniel sees no sign of what is causing this to happen, but she does find out that the fog extends out from the Storm Caller 300-400' and is centered on the ship.

- Before they go back, Niniel goes straight down from the boat to see what she can see. She gets near the bottom and when she doesn't find anything she check the Patron Pouch which contains a small nautilus shell. 

- She swims out and surfaces and yes she can see a wall of fog, so she heads back. 

- Niniel and Caleb start trying to make plans for how to navigate despite the fog.

- Soliana and Aldrin search the ship with her Detecting Magic, but they find only minor contraband. 

- Grim doesn't like this shit.

- They turn the boat south and move very slowly south to see if they can escape an area that the fog can be, but after a few hours and nearing dusk they stop the ship again to try something new the next morning.

- Soliana Identifies the nautilus shell and it will function for Niniel as a Periapt of Wound Closure.

- After some awkward conversation with Grim about how he can feel things with his covers, but the fog doesn't feel anything and then Soliana immediately feels weird about hugging him to her chest like she does all the time when they hear a cry from the aft part of the boat, and Soliana immediately forgets and hugs them to her chest again immediately.

- They run to the back of the ship and there is a trail of blood that leads off the side of the ship.

- Soliana and Zemma and Poetry run along the port side of the boat and see a trail of blood leading off the side of the ship while Niniel and Caleb ran starboard and see nothing

- Soliana calls for Niniel so she and Caleb come running while Poetry and Zemma study the water and Poetry just makes out something diving down under the surface

- Niniel calls to the Captain who rings an alarm bell to bring all the sailors to arms

- While the alarm bell is ringing Niniel sends out Dancing Angler Fish Lights two hovering above the surface and three dive down under.

- There's an almost spectral shape that dives under the keel.

- Soliana has backed up with her back to the mast when Caleb looks up and sees two large-sized creature that happen to be spider-shaped. Soliana sees Caleb looking up and she looks up and sees the spiders and runs away from the spiders. He shouts, "Spiders in the rigging!"

- Niniel ran in the direction of the shape and when she gets to the other starboard side of the ship, crouching on the railing is an entity she recognizes, so she shouts, "Sea hag on deck!"

SEA BATTLE

- Spider1 moves up to Caleb and bites him for 6 piercing and 2 poison dmg

- Niniel uses Gust of Wind at the Sea Hag (SH) throwing the SH off the boat 15'

- SH re-appears on the edge of the railing out of the line of wind

- Caleb misses stabbing S1 then Disengages and runs over Soliana

- S2 runs over to Zemma but she dodges its bite

- Zemma Rages and turns catty then uses her tail to punch S2 for 7 piercing dmg

- S3 Dashes across the boat to all the people

- Poetry summons her fire alternate Ember and Ember throws fire at the SH for 4 fire dmg

- S4 moves up to Zemma and she dodges again 

- Soliana backs into the corner of the stairs leading up to the quarterdeck and then casts Wither and Bloom hitting S1 and S4 for 8 necrotic dmg and S2 for 4 necrotic dmg

 

- S1 moves up to Caleb and bites him for some piercing and poison dmg and Caleb is not doing very well at all.

- Niniel misses with an Eldritch Blast then steps to the side and changes the Gust of Wind and directs it at the SH's new position, but she is not

- SH moves through the wind right up to Soliana and claws her for 12 slashing dmg

- Caleb Disengages from S1 moves to flank the SH with Soliana and stabs the shit outta that bitch for 36 piercing dmg

- S2 bites Zemma for 14 (7) piercing and 7 poison dmg

- Zemma stabs S2 with her tail again for 7 piercing dmg

- S3 scurries up the stairs toward Niniel fighting her wind the whole way

- Poetry casts Healing Word on Caleb for 7 HP then Ember misses the SH with flame

- S4 misses biting Zemma

- Soliana casts Magic Missile with all three missiles at the SH and the SH dies exploding into a pile of red and green goo

- S1 moves up to Caleb and bites him for 6 piercing and 4 poison dmg knocking Caleb unconscious

- Niniel looks over and misses S1 with Eldritch Blast 

- Caleb is not dead yet.

- S2 misses Zemma

- Zemma misses S2 right back.

- S3 is pushed 15' away from Niniel by the Gust of Wind then moves back up to Niniel and misses biting her

- Poetry shoots a Scorching Ray at S1 and misses, then shoots one at S2 for 7 fire dmg incinerating the S2, then misses S4 with the last one. Ember misses S1 with

- S4 goes to bite Zemma, but she parries it away with her tail

- Soliana shoots another Magic Missile this time all at S1 and it's spidery head explodes

- Niniel reaches out trying to shove S3 away while Shocking Grasping it then she dashes down the quarterdeck's stairs rotating the Gust of Wind to keep it facing S3 as she goes

- Caleb wakes up!

- Zemma stabs S4 for 9 piercing dmg

- S3 moves to Poetry and bites her for 5 piercing and 4 poison dmg

- Poetry summons a Flame Blade and stabs S3 for 13 fire dmg then Ember moves around S3 then explodes with fire dealing 8 fire dmg to it creating BBQ spider

- S4 bites Zemma for 2 piercing and 14 poison dmg

- Soliana feeds a Healing Elixir to Caleb for 9 HP

- Niniel casts Witch Bolt on S4 for 7 lightning dmg for another BBQ spider, but this one split in half. 

- With the death of the SH, the fog finally starts to dissipate from around the ship.

LONG REST

- 600 XP ea for 3100 total XP ea. LEVEL 4!

The Week that Was an Instant - January 10, 2025

 - CR zip-up hoodie

- Everyone is looking around, and Caleb and Niniel can easily see the Storm Caller and Niniel can even see the landing craft about half-way back 

- Soliana is already too busy taking notes about their experiences to bother looking around.

- Niniel asks if they are done now, and Soliana suggests they check the island out while they are here since they came all this way.

- They walk to the center(ish) point of the island, which is basically the top of a bit of a hill and they can see the whole island. Soliana takes a few minutes and casts Detect Magic and goes over the top of the hill

- Soliana can see the tail end of whatever magic effect transported dissipating like a mist or fog dissipates in the sun.

- The dissipation is down into the ocean rather than up into the air, so they head back to the shore in the direction of their ship.

- Soliana recasts Detect Magic at the shore when they get there about half an hour later and then Niniel grabs her hands and pulls her under dragging her as deep as she can get the two of them while Soliana tries to keep her eyes open and not panic while watching out for traces of magic. 

- They get to a depth of maybe 200' and Soliana can just barely see the traces of the magic dissipating deeper into the ocean. 

- Niniel notices that the drop off of the land mass if very steep here.

- They head back up and Soliana starts panicking when they are almost back to the surface 

- Soliana has named the book with a soul Grim (short for Grimoire) and she leaves it and all her other things with Caleb for protection.

- Caleb asks the book if its evil, and the book says no and asks if Caleb is evil. Caleb philosophizes about what it means to be evil.

- Grim points out that Soliana is drowning and Niniel yelling at Soliana to stop it before Niniel starts towing her to shore by an arm.

- The ship is farther away than a Message spell can reach so Niniel swim over to it. She gets there and the sailors let her know that they only dropped them off an hour ago.

 - Niniel sends one of the two landing crafts back to get her friends and then has to thinking about her life for a bit.

- Time is a weird soup.

 - Eventually everyone is back aboard the ship and they let the captain know they can head back to Port Carling whenever they have everything useful from the wreck of the Moon Shadow.

- Zemma, Niniel, and Soliana spend some time putting together their notes about the islands they visited through the Divination jump or projection or whatever it was and then they show it to Captain Gringamore but he doesn't recognize the group of islands.

- And by and by three weeks pass.

- The Storm Caller pulls into dock at Port Carling. The party bids the crew adieu, pulling Zemma out of the rigging as she's forgotten she's not a sailor.

- The notice as they arrive at Sir Foxglove's cottage that the garden looks a bit withered. 

- Poetry knocks on the door. She immediately asks about the garden and he says that it seems like the earth has been salted.

- Tentacles have been trying to kill Sir Foxglove. He had a glass of water next to his bed and a squid tentacle reached out of it and tried to strangle him.

- They tell him what happened. (MONTAGE) Niniel realizes that the ocean over there tasted different

- Lots of conjectures are made. Gold is given (300 ea.). 

- Another job is offered where another anomaly is forming near(ish) Caledonia. For another 400 GP ea. 

- Sir Foxglove will send a message to Gringamore again for the new trip.

- Niniel gets some water from the well and it tastes fresh, but she bring a container of it inside and has Soliana Detect Magic on it. 

- Soliana doesn't detect anything in the water, but she does sense something very strong outside and she leads everyone outside to the stone cairn with a squid beak on top it it. Sir Foxglove Dispels the conjuration magic on the cairn. 

- Sir Foxglove doesn't know what Caleb's psychic knives are, but he can tell they aren't arcane. They are tied somehow to just Caleb.

- Soliana immediately drags everyone back to the Gilded Flask to buy more spell components (There goes her 300 GP). 

- Caleb buys himself some new armor. (Studded leather).

- Niniel buys some jeweler's tools and brass wire. She also buys a few books to read for fun. She gets one about myths and legends and another one about the history of Hedrimond (The Rise and Fall of Hedrimond). 

- Niniel then hits up some bars.

 

- 300 XP ea for 2,500 XP total ea.

Microagression Meet Macroagression #NinielMVP - January 3, 2025

 - Play games (orange)

- Captain Jerkface is heard to say something along the lines of, "Excellent, my father will be so pleased."

- Niniel immediately starts asking questions

- The captain brushes her off and starts herding dazed sailors to their landing vessel.

- Confirmation that Jerkface is the mayor's progeny (Mr. Thomas calls him Captain Brigsby).

- A tentacle "suddenly" breaks Jerkface's landing craft, and Entitled Jerkface asks his sailors to take "the ladies" into custody when Niniel says they don't have a landing craft.

BATTLE WITH JERKFACE CREW

- Mr. Thomas (first mate) starts to move following Jerkface's orders, when the tentacle smacks him for 2 cold damage, and then Niniel casts Hold Person on Captain Jerkface

- Zemma goes catty and runs up to CJ and claws him for 10 slashing dmg

- CJ is Held.

- Poetry casts Fairy Fire on Mr. Thomas and Sailor2

- MT moves 20' towards CJ and then pulls out a handcrossbow and misses Zemma

- Soliana casts Wither and Bloom to catch CJ and S1 and S3 for 8 necrotic dmg to CJ and S3 and 4 to S1

- S1 moves up to Niniel and misses her with a hook 

- S2 moves to Zemma and hits her with his hook for 8 (4) piercing dmg and she is grappled

- Caleb yells, "Do y'all really wanna die for this mother fucker?" then holds up his hand and visibly summons his psychic knife in front of all the sailors then stabs CJ in the forehead for 33 psychic dmg in the forehead killing him instantly and then he summons a new psychic knife which he throws it at MT for 10 psychic dmg then he steps a few steps back towards his charge (Soliana)

- S3 moves up to Caleb and hooks him for 10 piercing dmg and he is grappled 

- Niniel moves the tentacle back up to MT and hits him for 3 cold dmg then she grabs S1's hook and Shocking Grasps him for XX lightning dmg and then she moves to help Caleb

- Zemma then slashes S2 for 7 slashing dmg and then again for 7 slashing dmg

- Poetry casts Dust Devil between and S2 and MT for 1 bludgeoning dmg

- MT moves to Poetry and slashes her with his sword for 11 slashing dmg and again for 7 slashing dmg

- Soliana hands Poetry a Healing Elixir and then runs backwards away from MT while casting Magic Missile on MT for 8 force dmg hitting him once in the stomach, then in the sternum, and then in the forehead and he keels over backwards.

- Caleb calls out "Throw down your weapons and you will be spared!" and S3 immediately throws down his weapon and holds up his hands while S1 and S2 start running away. 

 

- Niniel starts herding the dazed sailors towards the damaged landing craft and asks Soliana to repair the landing vessel.

- Soliana follows Niniel's request and asks the freaking out S1 (Jeff) if she can fix the hole in the boat. 

- Caleb makes a psychic connection to S2 (Louis) and tries to convince him to come back, but he refuses vehemently.

- It takes a little bit but Louis is finally convinced to return.

- The plan becomes that Caleb will ride in the repaired landing vessel to the Windrunner while the girls walk back to where they were put ashore to call for their own pick up. 

- Caleb has taken into his possession CJ's and MT's swords and a globe-like pendant made out of a black stone that the CJ was wearing.

- Caleb's lot makes it to the Windrunner first and gives Captain Windrunner the news about Jerkface 

- Bodies are fetched from the beach.

- Niniel infuriates Caleb with her snark. It is funny.

- Caleb finally realized Soliana's book is sentient.

- The next morning they reach port well ahead of the galleon.

- Caleb takes the bodies wrapped in sailcloth in a cart and the fisherman to the Mayor's office.

- Caleb gets the 500 GP they were promised, though he tries for 5000 GP. Soliana takes it outside to

- Caleb returns the pendant and Jerkface's other things to the Mayor after telling a lovely tale about his son's falling in battle against unscrupulous sailors who wanted to steal the bounty.

- He earns an extra 50 GP for returning things and gets to keep the fancy sword he took off Jerkface's body too

- Everyone walks back out and starts heading back to the pub when the world swirls around them and they find themselves back on the rocky island but the pulsing divination magic seems to have stabilized. It looks more verdant than when they left.

 

- 400 XP ea. for 2,200 XP total ea.