Session Report 37 - Grov's Awful No Good Very Bad Week
General Summary
"You know what, I've made a huge error in judgment Grov. I'm really sorry for the mistake I made. I should not have trusted that you were capable of thought. That's on me. My bad."
-Locke
Ouchie's Arrest
Grov, having finished constructing a de-facto fighting pit, tells Ouchie that if he wants to give ouchies, he can go into the town and ask somebody to come back to the pit with him to fight. Grov doesn't see the obvious flaws in the plan, and the unintelligent ogre goes into the town only to get himself arrested under the charges of harassment, threats of violence, public disturbance, and resisting arrest.After a while of waiting for Ouchie to return, Grov and Ramone go searching for him, only to find details of his arrest and impending trial from an unfriendly worker at the city's guard station/jail. After discussing the situation, and the improbable prospects of breaking the ogre out, the two go to Laire to see if he can do something to help. Laire is not happy to see that Ouchie is in danger, but isn't too keen to cause trouble in a port filled with his Timberwelk countrymen. Ultimately, Laire meets up with Gunther and Locke while Ramone and Grov try to cover up the fighting pit they dug. The two then head back to The Driftwood, preparing to get chewed out by Locke for the idiotic decisions that led up to this moment.
Locke is unimpressed but stops himself from getting too angry. He admits fault for trusting that Grov would have enough good sense to be able to keep Ouchie in check. The group considers their options and ultimately Laire and Locke decide to scope out where Ouchie is being held to see if they can do anything to lessen his punishment or maybe even free him. Grov apologizes for the circumstances and promises to do better next time.
Lothlaire Fortier
After inquiring into Ouchie's trial, Laire finds out a few important things. Firstly, the trial is less than an hour away since the port doesn't deal with too much crime. Secondly, since Ouchie is an ogre, if he's found guilty and it is decided that he doesn't have civilized rights, he will almost certainly be executed. Otherwise, he will likely face a relatively long prison stint.Laire is struck with an idea. Figuring out roughly where the courtroom is, and using magic to find the judge, Laire decides to do whatever he can to save Ouchie. He magically transmits a message to the judge stating the following: "The disappearance of Adelyne Trumeraux is not the only scheme of the Harps. Lothlaire Fortier needs this ogre alive and free." The judge responds magically in kind, informing the anonymous sender that he will be arrested for this interference if he is found. Nonetheless, the group soon finds that Ouchie's trial has been temporarily suspended. The next morning, missing person posters which had not been seen in months appeared for Lothlaire Fortier, bearing striking resemblance to Laire.
The Search For The Evanescent Mermaid
Ramone and Locke plot a course to look for the Evanescent mermaid, the missing ship that they have been enlisted to find. Locke has done some research on the region and knows a small bit about most of the isles in the area, as well as a bit about what route the ship may have taken. The driftwood first sails to Traitor's Point, a long island shaped roughly like an inverted arch, with high cliffs on either end and a dip in the middle. The island is believed to be the place where Old Drowned William was mutinied and killed. While two ships are to be found near the isle, neither of them bears any resemblance to The Evanescent Mermaid, so the crew moves on.Weeping Willow Island
The next morning The Driftwood arrives upon Weeping Willow Isle, which is, unsurprisingly, coated with weeping willows. Using Spygleam, Ramone spies the heat of a living humanoid slumped beneath the largest tree on the isle. Heading onto the isle, the crew finds that the willows literally are weeping and, upon a bit of further investigation, come to understand that many of them are sentient and animate. The willows weep for the large tree, "The Mother", who has had her tears stolen by druids. The trees aren't too helpful and won't tell the party more aside from telling them not to harm The Mother.Slumped beneath The Mother is a heavily wounded man with a large purple blotch slowly spreading across his chest. The group approaches cautiously, ensuring that the blotch isn't contagious before moving to heal the poor man. His breathing is laboured and it's obvious he has suffered from combat. After some healing from Laire, Gunther tries to remove the ailment causing the spreading purple across his chest. However, even with his holy powers, the affliction does not go away. Laire wakes the individual, who is befit with fear and pain. He is almost incomprehensible, and the group is able to extract almost nothing from him. Eventually, the group sees it more humane to knock the man unconscious so he doesn't need to deal with the terrors he has while awake.
Only with a bit of magic can Laire pry forth a set of dreamlike images from his brain. First is the face of a man, then a flash of lightning. The face of the man is splashed with what might be blood. Something rises from the deep, a thing at once sturdy and slippery bearing vague resemblance to a krulker but with a visage filled with writhing un-ness. The otherworldly creature brings with it the very image of terror. Finally, the image of a mermaid figurehead flashes into view before Laire's spell expires. The elf explains what he saw to the crew, and they agree to bring the man below decks since it's likely he's connected to The Evanescent Mermaid.
Grov Eats The Dum-Dum Fruit
The next isle the crew stops at is much smaller. It's only a beach littered with a few palm-like trees. Grov goes to see if he can grab some coconuts. The trees have no coconuts but do come with a sweet-smelling red fruit slightly larger than two fists. Grov plucks a fruit and, with a bit of caution, takes a small bite. His mind instantly expands, reaching the outer ends of the cosmos and understanding things which never should be understood. In a split second, he grows close to the answer to the meaning of life and then in the next his brain short circuits and is hurled back to the most primeval state. Grov has eaten the dum-dum fruit, and now he is dumb for a time. Fruit tasty, eat fruit, he thinks. Only after a little bit of disorderly chowing down does Gunther realize what's going on and go to help his friend, wrangling him back to the boat and having him rest belowdecks for a time. It has not been a very good couple of days for Grov.Evanescent Mermaid Amidst The Throes of The Storm
A storm kicks up as The Driftwood heads south, but with some masterful sailing from Locke, the ship navigates somewhat smoothly. A few hours later, through the storm, Snitchflick spots a ship silhouetted by a flash of lightning. Locke decides it's worth checking out, and he redirects the ship to sail the extra ~3 miles towards it. The ship is not in a good condition, and it appears to be unmanned. On its side is adorned the name The Evanescent Mermaid.Before the ship is boarded, Laire receives a magically transmitted message from the sending stone he took from the hag, coming from Timber, who complains that the fight wasn't even a good warmup before stopping and asking Pilmouth (the assassin, presumably next to him), why the stone he took from her pocket is glowing blue. Laire elects not to respond to the message and sighs, refocusing on the task at hand.
Gunther, Laire, Ramone, and Danny board the ship, having sensed three living people; two belowdecks and one lying atop the crow's nest. The main deck is littered with carnage, and three corpses are immediately visible; one missing a head, another overcome with a set of purple blotches similar to the man from Weeping Willow Isle, and one more simply stabbed by a normal sword. Laire ascends to the crow's nest to find a starved and overexposed Timberwelk woman who begs him not to bring her to the deck, since "they" can get to her there. She is unable to resist as Laire places her on his back and descends, though he waits to touch his feet to the deck until the group belowdecks retrieves the two folks there. Meanwhile, Gunther and Danny head belowdecks, seeing an additional five dead of a similar variety of causes. Of the two alive, one is a man very close to death on account of some wounds and two of the purple blotches, one of which covers most of his face. The other is a woman without any purple who has recently lost her right leg and is injured in lesser ways across her body.
As Gunther and Danny begin to haul the survivors from belowdecks, a distinctive scuttling sound can be heard drumming on the side of the ship. Over the side, several creatures similar to the ones seen in the dream imagery but more tangible arrive. The woman on Laire's back screams. The creatures clasp their pincers. Whatever has happened on The Evanescent Mermaid, it surely isn't over.
Report Date
11 Mar 2023
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