Episode 37 - Taste My Tuna

Vaceren awoke from his meditations in the upper room of the newly christened Drippy Sickle and decides to scry on his friends to discern their whereabouts. He gets no response to his spell which he assumes means that they are in the astral realm. While struggling with the hows and whys of the situation, Vaceren hears a light shuffling in his open doorway. He turned to see the newly acquired Ooncar the Arcoon standing betwixt the rickety frame holding a small note. After giving the creature, a small pittance for his trouble Vaceren opened the envelope to reveal a small flip coin and instructions from Aaron Frost to go to the Salty Pirate and locate a man named Vince. The young elf lord descended the stairs to a surprisingly lively scene in the old bar. The goblin woman from the Roopty Scoop was serving drinks and claiming that she worked at the establishment while Ooncar was shuffling about taking orders from actual patrons who were all reving about the delicious new elixir called the Bitchy Engine and the certain genius who produced it. Deciding that questions would have to wait until later, he departed for the Pirate.
Upon arrival, Vaceren asked for a gentleman named Vince as per the instructions of Mr. Frost. Vince asked him to follow to his private quarters where he explained that his friends were in fact in the astral and that he would need to purchase some helpful wares in order to make the trip easier. Some of these wares were spell charges cannonballs which thoroughly confused Vaceren, but he acquiesced nonetheless. After making his purchases he walked out of the Salty Pirate and flipped his coin which transported him to a teleportation circle on the bow of the ship “The Queens Pyre”. The ship seemed empty except for a low thumping sound that seemed to be coming from below deck. Vaceren carefully descended the steps to the cargo hold where he found a very startled young couple fornicating amidst the crates. The young man dismissed his consort back into the Staff of Summoning Staff and introduced himself as Kyle, the first mate, who oversaw the bodies of them who had ventured into the Astral. Kyle then took Vaceran back to the bow of the ship and used a projection beacon to send him through the veil into the astral realm. When Vaceren had passed into the new extraplanar existence he found himself aboard the same ship that was being attacked by a sea serpent, driven by a giant octopus, navigated by a disheveled and weathered looking sailor with an everlit cigar, and gunned by a man in heavy armor, wearing a blindfold, and accompanied by a silverback gorilla. Also, Klork was there. Thinking quickly, Vaceran loaded a cannonball charged with a polymorph spell and fired at the serpent, turning it into a large bluefin tuna who could somehow still survive in the ethereal waters of the astral. The ship now saved the crew made introductions and sailed to the shattered isle, home of the temple of the Caprine.
Upon arrival, the crew noticed the light shimmer of a psionic field surrounding the island which barred entrance based on intelligence. By cleverly using teleportation spells the whole crew was able to pass through with minimal damage. As they drew closer to the shore the team noticed what appeared to be soldiers patrolling the island behaving erratically. Thinking that it would be best to approach from a more advantageous point they took one of the landing boats into a secret cove that Adonthir knew about while Rick stayed behind with the ship. Moxt in his octopus form silently guided the boat into the high walled inlet, and the team took advantage of astral movement to leap up the wall and into the jungle. The party was able to stealth through the brush for about half the distance to the temple before they were surrounded and stopped by the oddball soldiers patrolling the jungle. They attempted to have a conversation with their captors but received nothing but enigmatic platitudes in response. Realizing that the conversation was going nowhere Vaceren flung a trusty fireball as the group who dropped their disguises and revealed themselves to be Slaadi from the chaotic plane of Limbo. More of the aberrations came in from the jungle to help their compatriots and nearly took down the mighty Adonthir, but the company prevailed. Just before the final Slaad met his doom he began speaking coherently but with a different voice and told Arnon’s Bane that they were expected in the Temple.
The party slowly approached the Temple of the Caprine and noticed a set of aqueducts which Adonthir identified as the sacred water of the Temple known as the tears of the Caprine but did not give any further details. As they approached the gates the Temple was slowly surrounded by hundreds of Slaadi guards, but the party was allowed to enter. In the hallowed halls of the temple, there stood a tall young swashbuckler with golden hair and a sardonic smile who introduced himself as Gunter Hasselbeck, younger brother of Hadrick. The roguish gentleman was flanked by two large Slaadi and was wielding an astral blade, one of the few things capable of severing the silver chord connecting Astral travelers to their planar existence. Not wanting to resort to violence except as a last resort, Gunter attempted to make a deal with the adventuring crew to work for him and share in his bounty. Vaceren voiced their refusal by casting disintegrate.
Who is this young Hasselbeck and what does he want? How big of a mistake did Vaceren just make? What awaits our heroes as they venture further into the temple? And how in the realms are they going to get off this island