Galean "Rafter" Santiago |
Galean stares at the spheres. "Uh... Maybe?", he replies, before scratching the trio of hairs operating as his beard.
I can barely pass that even on the best of my knowledges.
"Should we take one, just to see what they are?", he offers, putting his hand next to an orb and pointing towards his leather bag. "Unless they explode or something...", he remarks, pondering what is the purpose of a thing with tadpoles swirling in it.
I'm back! After a three-day-non-stop writing binge and 21 hours of sleep, I'm better than ever. Not really.
Yuki Okano |
Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (19) + 5 = 24
Yuki stares intently at the eggs with tadpoles inside for a few moments as she just almost remembers what they are. "No clue. We can come back later once we find the treasure and chase the shark guys out of here. Let's keep going north."
Trevor the Yellow |
"Uh! I had missed the tadpoles! So these are eggs, but eggs of what, and more importantly, whose eggs are they... Perhaps the mother is nearby..." warns Trevor, having nightmarish images of giant queen mothers assaulting his mind.
DM Davy Jones |
You sense no magical items or powers inside the chamber beyond what you yourselves have brought.
Rusty shackles scavenged from a shipwreck hang from the wall of this small cave. The sole occupant is a fishlike humanoid with crested fins and an orange coloration, shackled to the far wall.
Upon seeing you she seems panicked and afraid.
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor swims over to the captive: "We might be able to help you. What is your name and why are you shackled thus?"
Yuki Okano |
"Yeah, what happened to you? If you are against the shark guys, we should be pals." Yuki says in a soothing, yet confident tone.
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (14) + 14 = 28
DM Davy Jones |
The humanoid stares at you in incomprehension.
Knowledge (local) DC 15 to identify the locathah matriarch AS a locathah matriarch and realize it only speaks Aquan.
Nymph |
Nymph waves in greeting at the prisoner in her best attempt to appear friendly and slightly less threatening.
Trevor the Yellow |
Knowledge local: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 23
"Cap, this is likely a Locatah, and she looks quite powerful, so she might be the one who produced the eggs. The snag is that Locatah generally only speak Aquan..."
Yuki Okano |
Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
"Aww, bummer. I don't think it understands me. Do you guys got anything here?" Yuki asks the others.
Trevor the Yellow |
"Like I was trying to say: She probably speaks Aquan..."
Nymph |
"I can speak people, and shark."
Galean "Rafter" Santiago |
Galean scratches his head. "Uh. I don't speak it either...", he mutters. "I can speak with animals, or if I push, the occasional plant.", he mentions. "And she looks like neither. Maybe some of you have spells that can help?", he suggest, then an idea pops in his head.
Rambling in his uninteligible language he insists is Druidic, Galean produces a handful of berries from his pouch, and breathes a gust of sea wind over them. Upon having 2d4 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6 berries in his hand, he puts one in his mouth, and smilingly offers one to the Locatah. "Food means friends, right?"
There's a reason he's called Berryboy, y'all.
DM Davy Jones |
If no one speaks Aquan and don't have a comprehend languages or tongues spells, you can attempt pantomime.
I will give you a cheerful bonus somehow if you describe your attempts to communicate.
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor, fascinated, listens carefully to Bahrin, having an idea of what the sorcerer is trying to convey, to see if he can relate it to languages he knows.
He makes a note of asking him for Aquan lessons once they're filthy rich.
DM Davy Jones |
The locathah is pathetically grateful to hear Aquan.
Thank Gozreh! These monsters have caught me in order to eat my young - they've been torturing me while they waited. They said they would eat my babies. Tell me, are they alright?
You can't be sure but you think she's crying.
Bahrin Fenneaor |
Bahrin turns back to the group and says, "She's asking about her children - I presume the eggs we saw previously. I asked if she saw any of them with a key for her shackles."
Yuki Okano |
"Well, I can try to unlock them with my picks." Yuki suggests, looking somewhat relieved to have avoided playing charades with a fish person.
If the locathah does not resist, Yuki tries to unlock her shackles.
Disable Device: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (20) + 16 = 36
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor was about to go for the lock, but Yuki beats him to it. Her ease with the lock surprises him, but he otherwise doesn't show how impressed he is.
But that's besides the point, he thinks, and says: "Look, why are we freeing her so quickly? What can she do for us? Worse, what can she do to us?!?"
DM Davy Jones |
That does indeed unlock the shackles.
The locathah pats Yuki on the shoulder with a hand that is somehow still clammy in water.
Thank your friend for me. I know this is a lot to ask of strangers but I am weak from my captivity. Can you help me gather my children and leave? Once in the sea itself I can head back to my tribe if I can fashion a net for my eggs.
A DC 5 profession (sailor) check will tell you that having a tribe of locathah that owes you the life of a matriarch would be a massive boon when tracking ships, finding rival pirate bases or avoiding storms. Not to mention possible saviors in case of shipwreck. And its even the decent thing to do although it's not, strictly speaking, very piratical behavior outside tawdry Taldan pirate operas.
Nymph |
"Because it's the right thing to do?" Nymph replies rhetorically.
Trevor the Yellow |
"Because it's the right thing to do?" Nymph replies rhetorically.
Trevor wonders if Nymph is serious. He looks at her puzzled: "What do you mean?"
Trevor the Yellow |
"Hey! Do we know her name?! Where we can find her?"
Nymph |
"See? We help the mama and her babies and then we have a whole bunch of friends." Nymph adds after Bahrin translates.
Nymph |
Nymph wrote:"Because it's the right thing to do?" Nymph replies rhetorically.Trevor wonders if Nymph is serious. He looks at her puzzled: "What do you mean?"
Nymph blinks.
"She. And her babies. Are being held here."
Trevor the Yellow |
"Just making sure... No harm in asking, right?" says Trevor, shying away.
Nymph |
Nymph tilts her head at Trevor before simply shrugging.
Yuki Okano |
"Well Trevor, we're not exactly, uh, cutthroats on my ship. If that's going to bother you, I'll understand if you want to cut loose after we're done here. Although I really hope you can stay." Yuki explains slightly apologetically. "Although, I will admit I'm really developing an irrational hatred for these shark guys, so anything that will make them mad makes me happy."
She then turns to the locathah and Bahrin, "Please tell her that we will be happy to help her escape with her children."
Galean "Rafter" Santiago |
Galean stays away from the moral dispute, instead focusing on staring at the locathah. "I think we all dislike them a lot, Cap'n. Comes from being considered food, I think.", he opines as the sahuagin are mentioned. "And freedom is part of the Pirate Guidelines, right? Even though it's often only the personal one, I suppose.", he ponders.
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor waves and nods negatively with his hands, almost pleading: "No, no! That's not what I meant! I mean, all I was asking was whether freeing her without knowing what she would do to us seemed... Trustful? I was kind of just trying to play devil's advocate!"
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor looks green, but otherwise manages a feeble smile at Bahrin.
DM Davy Jones |
At the revelation that you'll help her the locathah is almost embarrassingly grateful.
In the previous chamber you help her gather her eggs and then escort her out of the sahuagin lair. She studies the underside of your ship as if memorizing the shape of it - you can tell you need to do some barnacle scraping when you get the chance.
Once in the bay she turns and, quickly, hugs Bahrin in thanks.
You have done a great thing for me and my tribe; we will not forget. We will find you ship soon to reward you for your good will! I will run from here since the sahuagin seem to be all to busy with you.
She looks somber as she turns to swim away.
They taunted me telling me that rescue attempts that came for me provided them only with food; may you slay them all and rid the seas of this nest of verminfish.
Unless you stop here briefly she will speed off with her eggs in tow, making for the open sea. You can hear a kind of trilling call that you're certain will draw other locathah to her.
As you swim back you see the giant crab you'd left alone is busy feasting on the various sahuagin corpses you've left behind.
As you swim back and down (off the map and onto the new map) you come to a new chamber. The water in this cavern is murky with the haze of fresh blood, and gobbets of flesh float in the water.
You see three sahuagin warriors and 8 other sahuagin (not on the map because they're noncombatants) feasting on what appears to be the bodies locathah warriors and giant moray eels.
They are paying you no attention whatsoever so unless you announce your presence you get a surprise round.
Nymph |
That'll do crab, that'll do.
Nymph smiles as she sees the mother escape with her eggs.
Seeing the grizzly feast she turned to her captain. While she was perfectly happy with slaughtering more of the shark faced bastards she didn't want to immediately charge in if the others didn't. She felt she was already on a thin plank as is.
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor is surprised by the warmth he feels watching the Locatah queen sail away. Perhaps it was her mention of reward, or perhaps it was the knowledge of having done the right thing.
Seeing tbe Sahuagins, he asks:"We're here for bounty. Any way to deal with those quickly?"
Yuki Okano |
Happy to help the locathah matriarch and her future children, Yuki wishes her good luck via Bahrin.
Later, back in the caverns...
"These guys are jerks, probably the ones that kidnapped the matriarch and her kids. Let's take them out. Although if one of you guys have something fancy you want to use first, knock yourselves out."
Unless someone wants to drop a debuff or an AoE on them, let's just attack them.
Nymph |
Nymph grins at her captain.
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor nods and grins as well to the Captain: "Aye Cap! The good old ways then! But no need to let them know we're coming, right?"
And Trevor hugs the shadowy crags to move as close as he can unnoticed.
Stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (14) + 10 = 24
DM Davy Jones |
You guys straight up get a surprise round. I totally mean it, sneak attacks and all are totally up for it. Trevor can stand right next to one, they're busy frenzy feeding.
Yuki Okano |
"All right, let's get 'em. Focus fire on the one I shoot at." Yuki advises the others before she shoots an arrow at the closest sahuagin.
Firing at L9
+1 Composite Longbow 1 + PBS - DA - Cover: 1d20 + 11 + 1 - 2 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 11 + 1 - 2 - 4 = 24
Damage: 1d8 + 2 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 2 + 1 + 4 = 11
Nymph |
Following Yuki's shot Nymph floats over and slashes the Sahuagin.
Falcata (1): 1d20 + 6 + 3 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 6 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 18
Damage (slashing, magical): 1d8 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 6 + 2 + 1 = 18
Trevor the Yellow |
Trevor taps on the Sahuagin's shoulder before striking at his exposed neck.
Sting: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 191d6 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 Brine Fort DC 14 or -1 H&D
"Careful with'em little bones. They tend to get stuck."
Following round
"Yup. It's stuck all right!" and he stabs again, this time deeper.
Sting: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 251d6 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 Brine Fort DC 14 or -1 H&D