Session 64: Are We Dead? Are We On A Boat? Will There Be Meat?

At the end of our last session, a seagull had told Wulf that there were things like bodies coming up in the water. Wulf didn't see much past the grey water and fog... for now.
 
Wulf has switched back to his ring of cold resistance in lieu of the sewer rat pipes. Sea Wolves come to find and eat the bodies in the water, sea wolf being the translation for orca. Setluk calls Quell over and asks for a second opinion, because to him the bodies don't look like they've been drowned. Quell isn't sure, but thinks he might be right. Wulf is also concerned about what else could be down there. Freyja wonders if they were maybe killed and then dumped, but it seems unlikely. Jade casts detect magic just in case. There's no magic on the bodies, but there is a faint glimmer of something in the water that's magical. It disappears as soon as she tries to focus on it though.
 
Jade tells Quell there's something glittery under the water, but Quell doesn't see anything. Cali uses their gem of seeing and is able to detect a sunken ship about 40 feet down. It seems pretty new, and Setluk says a prayer for the sunken crew. Quell decides to go down and investigate to see if we can help at all, and Setluk lets Cali borrow his ring of water breathing. Quell has something similar, and Wulf uses his cloak of the manta ray to breathe underwater as well. Jade is decidedly not going down with us.
 
When we get down to the sunken ship, Cali and Wulf pry open the trap door down to the hull. Wulf swims down first, and sees a pair of yellow eyes blinking back at him. Cali swims down and Quell follows. The creature says "who are you?" in Laerigi which Wulf doesn't understand, so it mumbles something about "dog... of course stupid". Cali understands though and tries to say "I know, right?" in Laerigi, which startles it enough to come out. It's a cat creature with gills and a fish tail. Quell sends a message to Cali asking if they're talking to it, and they tell her it speaks Laerigi. Quell is only able to speak traders cant to it, but does so with send message to convey that we would like to speak on the surface and are strong enough to protect it, when it mentions something big and scary.
 
Cali and Quell both fail a wisdom save and are frozen in place, at which point Tabbs, the cat, wraps itself around Wulf's ankles in fear, and then quickly has him escort him to the ship on the surface. Jade is alarmed to see a cat underwater with Wulf, and when they get up top, Wulf quickly explains what happened. Jade is so confused because cats can't swim...? Freyja asks if anyone knows Laerigi, and Tabbs gives a very long, loud, and alarming possible retelling of what happened.
 
The crew is alarmed as well and says that the crew on the original ship also stopped moving against their will and fell asleep, which led to the ship sinking. Tabbs says there's something in the hold that does this and is still down there. Tabbs says no one should go back down there, but Wulf refuses to leave his friends behind. They discuss how to move forward.
 
Meanwhile, Cali and Quell are seeing something entirely new. They're standing in a garden with horses and carriages and instead of a gate, some form of a magic barrier. There are beings here who speak in the ancient tongue and asks, "guests?" which Quell understands but not Cali. As soon as Quell tries to respond, Wulf fails a wisdom save up on the ship and collapses in front of anyone else. Jade doesn't detect any hints of curse, which is unfortunate because she knows how to deal with that, not with whatever is currently happening.
 
Back in the temple garden, Quell asks the woman "what are we guests of?" The woman apologizes and introduces herself as Daughter Ophenian, child of winter; she tells us we're at the Temple of the Eastern Bay. She's surprised we were able to come this far if we were lost. Quell asks if this ever happens, and she says that "Our Lady" does sometimes call people in, and there's an occasional magical accident but it's usually on purpose.
 
Wulf appears there with us and we slowly start to all understand her even if we don't know the actual words. She tells us she'll take us to the pilgrims quarters until we get our bearings. We approach a beautiful castle, and Jade sends a telepathic message through her tooth to Wulf and says "Wulf can you move your body? Setluk and I are going to try to figure out what's going on." It comes through very distantly and hazy to him, like a memory of someone saying it to him in a dream. He tells us he heard Jade saying something, but doesn't understand it.
 
Daughter Ophenian says her goddess rules over the winter and also the birth of spring; she is death and she is life. She's also the one who taught ice magic to mortals. She tells us that we'll be having fresh fruit that's been preserved, mangoes and papayas and such. Wulf asks if there will be meat and she says no, it is their fasting period so there will be no meat. Wulf is very sad.
 
Quell keeps asking questions that get weird evasive answers, and Wulf tries to make small talk while he's confused. Cali interrupts the conversation to ask if they're dead. She tells us we do not have necromantic magic around us. Quell says but the gods are here, are they dead? and she says "what could kill a god??" Quell and Cali share a look and then Quell asks about where she was going to take us, when a storm orb appears and strikes the tower with lightning. There is a black wave of water that drowns the garden we came from as well, and a woman dressed in emerald with dark black hair steps out of the cloud, who calls herself the veridian avatar, as an old woman runs out of the tower, ready to fight. The veridian avatar tells the old woman that her goddess is a betrayer, and she can either join her side or perish. The old woman screams never and runs to fight, but the avatar strikes her down.
 
Jade appears beside us and Cali is even more convinced now that they're all dead. While they insist that repeatedly, Jade insists that she's on a boat and not dead, and Wulf is talking about how there is not going to be any meat later. Quell is the only one trying to problem solve, as we are all in varying stages of panic.
 
Ophenian grips Quell's ankles as the tower crumbles and tells her to "remember us..." When she dies, we all appear back where we were, no longer frozen. Jade and Wulf argue about the fact that they were still on a boat, but Wulf is like do you think I am stupid and do not know the difference between a boat and not a boat?? As soon as they stop arguing he jumps back in the water to get us.
Cali and Quell wake up too, and Cali immediately swims to the surface. Quell follows them much more thoughtfully.
 
Cali flops on the deck, and Jade asks if we're okay. Quell is surprised to see Tabbs on the ship. Tabbs asks in Laerigi what saved us? Cali translates, and then translates Quell's and Wulf's responses. Tabbs tells us that his crew mates didn't wake up, they all just stopped breathing. Quell asks where we went in our minds, and it says that we did not go anywhere! We were on the ship and underwater, which makes Jade feel vindicated. Tabbs says he doesn't know where our minds went though; he is a sea cat and therefore immune to most magic, he tells us proudly. He says there was something awful in there for weeks before anything bad happened, and it is still down there. Quell wonders if we should go down there and take care of it, and Tabbs says he thinks that is very stupid. Quell whispers to Jade that she wants us to leave our crystal shards with Jade on the boat. Cali however is absolutely against going back underwater and will stay on board the ship. They return Setluk's ring and sit against a wall. Setluk gets ready to retrieve Quell and Wulf if necessary.
 
Quell and Wulf go back down and decide to try the other door we didn't touch last time. They find some papers that are partially stuck together. Quell keeps them to bring up and dry out later. Wulf pokes a hammock that clearly has something inside it. It turns out to be the body of a grey bearded man, probably the captain. There's also a chest in here, and Wulf breaks the lock open. There is a set of magical daggers, a collection of rocks and rock shards, a drawing of a ship on an enormous tooth, and a bag of grimy gold pieces.
 
There is also a box with three locks on it. Quell gets into all three locks and opens the box. There are barnacles growing on top of marble inside, maybe part of a statue or a building. Quell hears the woman's voice again in her head saying "remember..." and then the rest of the magic fades from it. Quell remembers that Armos was a city full of marble, and she picks up the box to bring back to the surface. Wulf also brings the captain's body up and then asks for assistance. Setluk lowers a rope to help lift the captain's body, and Wulf goes back down to grab the box with Quell and help bring it up.
 
Quell explains what they found and pulls out the papers too. Jade casts prestidigitation on the papers to dry them, and they are instantly dry. It seems they are captain's logs. Most of the ink is lost but the bits we get seem to show that the captain brought this marble onto the ship and then his crew started slowly dropping. On the last page he says he is about to fall asleep and hopes he wakes in the morning.
 
EOS