241219 A whale of a time
General Summary
Welcome back beloved readers to this most auspicious of new celestial years. This year is going to be momentous in every imaginable way, in ways that only the gods can fathom. For it is the gods that throw, not just adversity and misery upon our fateful band, but also treasure. Yes, the shiny things that makes Griff’s eyes glow and Kurog get sweatier. Which reminds me, I must ask for a pay rise.
“Bugger!” said Drogon as he floated helplessly in the air, suspended by the magics of the foul Beholder before him. It was then that all hell broke loose and by hell, I mean pain, suffering, wounds, magical burns and general irritation.
The beholder swivelled its many eyes, targeting the damage-magnet that was Jude and zapped her again with a withering beam of necrotic energy. She felt the pain seep deep inside her, to her very core. She wasn’t the only one under attack however. The five animated corpses, that had been inside the jars, were now feeling a lot perkier and laid into Kurog with a speed and finesse that belied their previous state.
Those caught in the magic-nullifying beam, quickly scurried to get outside of its debilitating effects. Sentinel, Luthiel and Thorg scattered to meet the various threats, firing bows, swinging swords, casting mighty spells and one of them started singing. The fight was not going well, the beholder was a prime example of its kind and was in its own lair. All things that made spells seem to bounce off its hide and the melee types couldn’t reach it, whilst its corpulent, warty body was floating fifty feet up in the air.
“Ha ha ha!” the Beholder’s voice boomed out. Now, you have to understand that writing “Ha ha ha!” doesn’t have quite the same bowl-emptying effect that the laugh did in the chamber at that time. But, suffice it to say, many a bowel was emptied that day.
Drogon found himself unable to think for himself as the Beholder’s mind gripped his. It was bleak, the band dug deep to find new things to try and quickly tried to form plans in order to level the playing field. During all this our fearful wizard, Griff, calmly backed up towards a wall, away from the fighting. He had a look upon his face that usually meant trouble.
That trouble could be for the band or the adversary, only time would tell. Without a further second passing, he clicked his fingers and disappeared. If anyone had been close enough, they’d have seen that he had changed his form into that of a wasp. The wasp-Griff flew up into the rafters of the roof, past the Beholder and landed in one of the many cubbyholes to be found up there.
The new form that Griff had taken was too small for the beholder to notice. Now, dear reader, it has to be said that this may have been the biggest mistake the beholder had made. Let us see if I can put the order of events down such that it encapsulates the grandeur of Griff’s amazing battle plan.
One minute Griff was a wasp and the very next he was a humpback whale. Yes, most erudite of readers, a humpback whale. Actually, that was a lot easier to explain than I thought it would be. So anyway, the humpback whale fell to earth taking the beholder with it. Whilst a beholder is a large creature it has to be said that a humpback whale is bigger still. Significantly bigger. Big enough that actually the whale also hit half the party as it crashed down with a sickening “Thwap!” and then a satisfying, Beholder sounding “Pop!”.
Once Sentinel and Thorg managed to get themselves out from underneath the fleshy mass of whale-Griff, the fight was quickly resolved because the automatons had already fallen to the ground without the aid of the magic holding them upright. That didn’t stop Thorg stabbing them a few times to make sure they were dead. Or, the more cynical of you might think, it was to lay claim to the kills later.
The party did a thorough search of the lab only to turn up more notes and little of actual worth apart from two maps, how disappointing. Now Page Turner, if you’d been paying attention, you’d remember that the Beholder came down from its lair. Something our intrepid group did not. Who knows what wonders they had left behind? What singular artifacts that the gods themselves desired? Perhaps they’d return one day and see, perhaps they’d just add it to the list of other things they meant to go back and finish. You and I both know it’ll be the latter.
Jude was chatting excitedly about the encounter and how lucky it was that they’d explored this side tunnel and discovered the great beast. Unwittingly, not reading the room. She was the only one not covered in bits of Beholder.
Team Sneak proceeded to check out the pathways back the way they had come and soon arrived at the underground river that they had been promised. The river moved at a pace and the roar of water was quite loud in the tunnel, the ceiling was particularly low here. They waited in the shadows, observing a ferry that was crossing directly across the water. On the ferry were a group of Drow and the usual hangers-on to be found with them. The pilot of the boat, a strange combination of man and fish, was something that neither Sentinel nor Drogon had seen before.
Drogon telepathically called the rest of the team to catch up and they approached the boat. Sentinel cast Tongues and proceeded to speak to the strange ferryman. The reply sounded much like a human trying to talk with a mouthful of water, odd that. But either way, it was unintelligible.
Shrugging, Sentinel proceeded to ask for passage across the river, offering some of the Drow coins the group had purloined along the way. Somehow, the transaction was sealed and the party boarded the ferry and the fishman proceeded to pull on a rope. The mechanism creaked and groaned but the boat smoothly crossed over.
At the half way mark, Kurog was looking down and spotted something in the water approaching them and he quickly alerted the others. Everyone was stunned to see the form of an adult black dragon swim beneath the boat and then continue on, further down the river. Nobody moved until the boat bumped against the far bank, then they leapt quickly out and turned to thank the strange ferryman, but he was already half way back to the other side.
The party rolled out and headed towards the main pathway to discover that it linked to the Main Road, to give it a name, that traversed the Underdark. It was then that Jude spotted a little pathway to the left and began to talk about how they could perhaps both avoid trouble and find trouble all at once. The others, all tired, tried to understand the logic and in the end a happy Griff agreed with Jude. This stunned Jude the most, so much so that she stopped talking. It was then that Griff delivered the caveat. “Just for a day or two, to see where it leads”, he said.
The party trudged on down the left tunnel.
Luthiel just sighed at the stench of humpback whale in her hair and clothes. was there ever going to be a day with this band, that she didn’t have to ask the magical mansion beings to wash her clothes? I can answer that dearest of diligent delicacies. No.
Report Date
19 Dec 2024
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