Monster Mashup - Table 1 (Inactive)

Game Master CaveToad

Day 8 - evening

Captain Miar nods as the story is told. A solid day's work has been done, and the ship repair is going well. A little research showed me that ships carried a crap ton of spare parts to fix stuff, all except the main masts due to size, so its really a matter of replacing that.

"Another few days and we should be off, back to Geelwan I reckon, our port of operation. What is your plan to find this gnome?"

"We don't really have a way to track him but considering the limits of magic even with his ability to fly he should be stuck on the island with us right? He attacked us before so maybe if we set up a decoy camp we can draw him out again?"

"Either he leaves with your ship, or he stays here—and he'll be looking for us," Teniel replies.

"That seems logical, I know nothing of magic and magical flight, so I will trust your expertise. He stayed in his quarters a lot, and interacted with us very little except when we got to this island area, and then he wouldn't be seen at all, not in his quarters or elsewhere."

"When we first arrived, we saw your magic in the sky. We didn't know how to respond and he told us to stay put and do nothing while he investigated. We did not know he attacked. He returned and told us you were of no consequence, but he started fires as a distraction nonetheless so that we could gather the eggs under the cover of darkness with you distracted. After we had the eggs, he returned and then the storm came. That is the last we saw of him. In the chaos and confusion of the storm he must have invisibly stole the eggs and flew away. We went to look for him to ask him if his magic could assist us, but that is when we discovered he had hastily left. I am sorry."

"Well, if he was really powerful, he probably could have teleported away. Otherwise, if he was behind the storm, it seems kind of a dumb plan to wreck his means of leaving, especially when there was no particular reason to."

Tavros pauses for a moment to consider. "Could our large water acquaintance have been behind the storm? Perhaps she was trying to cripple the gnome's escape to give us time to retrieve the eggs."

"Or he could be able to fly, and he's island-hopping home; but he needed you to point out the egg beds in the first place," Teniel oints out.

"Well, that assumes that they told him about the eggs. If he was the one who suggested the course of action, it's probably because he's unable to come here on his own, and needed a ship." Makoto says, as she pops her fingers in a bridge-position. "Honestly, it's nothing you could have known, I'm sure," she adds, as she looks to the Captain, with a small shrug.

He had other business in the area as well I believe. At one point during our journey here, he had us drop anchor for a day or two for 'research' as he called it. He was paying us so it was nothing to us to sit at sea for a day. I forgot to mention it until now. I am not sure what his research entailed, he was in his cabin a lot, and few of us got a look inside ever. Sudden storms are common in these areas. I could say we even sort of saw it coming. We mitigated the damage as best we could. Not much else you can go. Again I don't know magic, so I am not able to say if he was able to conjure a storm. I did see him conjure a fog like mist on occasion, but only when we dropped anchor for a day, as I cannot imagine the mist being useful any other time. The mist didn't last too long either."

"Any chance we can investigate his cabin?" Teniel asks. "Just one of us if you prefer, so as not to frighten anyone, but maybe he left notes."

"Yes, feel free, we looked in there briefly to see if we could find him, but he was gone. With the storm and everything else, we haven't had really any chance to look further."

Who is all going to the cabin?

Oh, I was waiting for Makoto to volunteer; we're tied for Perception, but she's the most human-ish. Teniel can volunteer if she doesn't, though; if there's not like a secret trap in there, you could just make a GM call.

Teniel also has Sift, which is a cantrip you were rather proud of. So being able to look through any documents without them exploding in your face seems more valuable than not being blue. :)

Thanks. Forgot that one!

"Right, I should go check it out," Teniel adds after some thought. "Forgot for a second, but my magic should let me look through his things without moving or touching anything, long as I stand nearby and concentrate."

Lucina stayed outside keeping watch while Teniel went into the room, she'd occasionally scan the area with detect magic in case the gnome was trying to sneak up on them with his invisibility again.

Perception, Lookout: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

And Maks will maintain the protective effects of recovering her maneuvers, she focuses the energy into her allies, bolstering their saving throws. Teniel gains a +3 bonus to saves as long as he is within 30 feet of Makoto, until we're finished (everyone does, in fact!).

For when Teniel gets a chance to look around—at -5 at first to search anything that might be a trap first (drawers, papers, etc), though he'll look through it by hand if nothing explodes.

Take 20 on perception is a 30.

The captain leads you onto their ship, a bustle of activity. She pulls a key from a ring she keeps tucked inside her clothing somewhere. She unlocks the door to the small cabin used by the gnome. "Here is it, basically undisturbed since he left us."

You look in and begin searching. There appear to be no magical auras, and Teniel tries to find any booby traps at first. Finding none he takes in the room. It is clear that the gnome planned to leave as he appears to have left little of importance behind. You find no personal effects or paperwork. He did not leave behind any logs, journals or notes. Clearly he carefully packed his belongings, whatever they were, and left with a plan. Teniel begins the arduous task of looking for minute clues. He goes through the bedding, looks under the hammock and looks in various other locations through the tiny cabin. He then focuses on the small writing desk. The drawers are empty of anything of interest. A small vial of ink, mostly empty sits stoppered in one drawer, along with items like a blotter, sand and other writing items. You find no papers, or notes. The desk contains no hidden compartments that you can find. You pull the chair back and something tumbles from the edge of the chair, that had been resting on it. It clinks on the floor. You look down at the item and see a small one inch square piece of some sort of greyish metal. You pick it up and immediately realize that it had landed face down and when you turn it over you see etched on the metal is a rune. You freeze and panic surges through you as your first impulse is to flinch at some sort of magical trap. Nothing happen though, and a second later you are still intact. The rune is not magical nor is it glowing. Treating it with care nonetheless, Teniel continues his search of the small cabin, no larger then five by ten feet, and in a short while completes it, stepping forth as the captain and the rest of the group awaits, watchful and protective as the hammering, sawing and shouts of industry continue all over the ship.

Tavros you assist in getting the new main mast worked and drug from the forest so they can finish it and then it will be hauled to the ship. Everyone marvels at your strength and size and after getting it to the beach for final working, they all take a break and have a minor celebration. Everyone takes a few heavy pulls of grog, and they pass you a big flask that smells heavily of rum and other spirits. The aroma immediately fills your large nostrils. You can almost taste the heady sweet smell of the dark rum that makes up part of the sailors' grog mix. So hot outside.... you know water is probably better, but fresh water is hard to come by sometimes, aside from...well... you know, readily accessible cantrips, but your friends are all on board. The grog might be invigorating...

Taking note of the writing desk and the sand, Makoto files the information away until Teniel comes out. Once he does, she looks around for something flat with a straight edge.

There is a flat straight piece of lumber readily available. Its a 2' strip, about an inch across and maybe 1/4" thick. It is roughly planed and not that smoothe.

Worth a try, then! Then again, it might not work, anyway. Probably won't. Dunno.

If you're using it as a visual aid and not a tool, you could make a small ruler with Prestidigitation...

The ruler would very likely work for it, regardless, as fragile shouldn't be -that- fragile. Granted, I don't expect anything to come of it.

Makoto enters the room and scoops up a bit of the sand, placing it on the desk in a small pile. She then conjures a small ruler with her magic, and uses it to spread the sand across the top of the table. She tries to keep the ruler flush with the table, as she moves it over top, such that what's left on the table, outside of the corners, exists only in crevices in the wood.

"If he's a forceful writer, and the wood is soft enough, we may be able to see some of his writing. I'm not holding out too much hope, but it would be a waste not to spend a moment trying."

Once she's finished she drops the ruler, which disappears in midair, as she uses the prestidigitation effect to color the sand to be in high contrast to the wood tones, making what's left over stand out strongly on the desk.

"I'm afraid that any language on this desk will likely be beyond me. I'm unable to outright understand languages. Only to share my own. Would one of you or your men be willing to check for any writing that stands out?"

Would my unseen servant also work? It can't do very skilled things, but "apply this force evenly across the sand to flatten it out" might be an appropriate usage.

I don't see why not. Just remember that Unseen Servants are 'take ten' things. They'll only ever do a job 'adequately'. :)

Sorry for the delay, my family's been visiting. It's been rather tiring.

Well, it's good that it seems unlikely Gnomio conjured the storm himself. He'd have to be pretty powerful for that. It's much easier just to make gog.

Tavros smiles to himself as he helps rebuild the mast of the ship. He was good at lifting things. And it's not like it took much skill. Although he felt like he had once been told to 'life with the legs, not the back'. He still wasn't really sure what that meant.

Lost in these thoughts, he has the drink offered to him halfway to his mouth before the smell, and what exactly it meant, hit him. He froze as his heartbeat and breathing sped up slightly. Which probably wasn't the best reaction as it only drew more of the sweet smell into his nostrils. His head started to feel light as part of him urged him to drink. I mean, one sip couldn't possibly hurt, right? One drink in what had been, what? Ten-thousand years? A hundred thousand? It amortized to, like...really, really little.

The small part of his brain observing all of this piped up to comment that it probably wasn't a good sign that alcohol fumes were already degrading his ability to do math.

Almost in a trace, Tavros slowly pulled back one fist. In what appeared to him to be slow motion, he used his empty hand to hit the one holding the drink. Tilting his head in slight confusion as nothing happened, he drew back his hand to try again. All the while, the voices started to ramp up their shouting match on how best to handle the situation.

Throw it away!
No, drink it!
It makes you do bad things!
Who's to say they're bad?
It feels so good.

Everything went silent as he suddenly realized that he had dropped the flask. After a long second, Tavros takes off towards the water. He wades in about waist deep before promptly sitting down. The effect...left much to be desired. First off, the water was kind of warm. Not exactly the best choice for snapping someone out of something. For another, Tavros ended up not so much sitting as going into a cannon ball position and awkwardly floating/turning about.

Spluttering as he stands, he moves slightly deeper into the water and tries again. This time he's a bit more successful. He spends the next few moments ducking underwater, holding his breath for as long as he can, coming up for air, and repeating.

And then he gets eaten by a colossal sea ghoul.

The crew, about to tip their flasks and raise them to a cheer as Tavros drinks, stand bewildered when he drops his large container and wades into the water. They look at each other and shrug. Some of them ask "Are you ok?" "Maybe he wanted to cool off. He is covered in fur." "It's not a half bad idea."

Suddenly most of the crew who had been working and sweating all day joins Tavros in the sea, tossing their clothes aside or in some cases wading in full dressed, drinks in hand, splashing and causing a ruckus. In short order wide spread chaos is in hand as people begin games of chicken holding each other on their shoulders and trying to knock each other into the water. Tavros sits further out in the water trying to bring himself under control as the ruckus whirls nearby.

Eventually the captain peers over the edge of the ship's rail and orders everyone back to work after they have had enough fun.

Only the bedraggled minotaur remains...

Makoto attempts her plan to see if there was an impressions left on the wood from anyone writing hard. After careful prestidigitation magics and inspection nothing is revealed.

I am thinking using a feather quill and inkwell on olde tyme paper, you aren't pressing hard at all, you just let the ink ooze out of the pen almost. Using any level of hard pressure would ruin your quill pretty quickly and have to sharpen it more often. Not like a modern day ballpoint where you might get the impression on the next piece of paper in the notebook. Nice CSI attempt though :)

Yup, not a problem! But I wouldn't know for sure what he wrote with, so might as well try. :)

Makoto shakes her head as all her magic does is reveal small places where the sand has stayed in the grain of the wood, but it is clear, especially to Teniel, that the grain is the cause, not any sort of writing. "Oh, well. It was a chance, if slim. You never know the medium one prefers. I greatly prefer paint and even charcoal to ink. Though only the latter would have any hopes, and even then, only in pencil form." she offers a small smile, and doesn't seem too offput. After a moment, she turns her attention to the sand, clearing off the desk. "Was the sand used to transfer the turtle eggs?"

The sand is just a small amount used to sop up extra ink or spills.

Lucina patiently waits for those that entered the ship to return and tell her what they found, she had no interest in leaving the outside unguarded or going anywhere near the water after her vision.

She accepts small amounts of the drink mostly because the others are drinking and watches with confusion as Tarvos and the crew flee into the water.

Lucina patiently waits for those that entered the ship to return and tell her what they found, she had no interest in leaving the outside unguarded or going anywhere near the water after her vision.

She accepts small amounts of the drink mostly because the others are drinking and watches with confusion as Tavros and the crew flee into the water.

Having completed their search of the quarters and only turning up the small runed piece the group returns to the beach and to the organization of repairing the ship and discusses it with the others.

As they bring the small piece out and show it to Lucina, she freezes. her mind reels slightly as she recognizes the rune as one of the forms the rune took in her dream and her vision of the underwater place. She feels a pulsing mental pressure from the eyeball that she was given.

How was the gnome linked to this? Did he know of the underwater location too? Surely it must exist. How was he connected, and why steal the eggs?

Lucina backs away from the rune when her visions begin to return shaking her head violently.I think Teniel has the eye

"That's the rune from my nightmare, he's underwater. very deep." She bellows out the words in a panic still trying to get distance from the rune.

As her ally begins to panic, Makoto shifts into her recovery stance once more, to aid her in overcoming whatever might be assailing her. "Someone check the rune for magic."

Tavros continues to stay in the water until he has calmed down significantly. Which is well after all the sailors had returned to work. As he backs out of the water, he almost trips over Lucina in her haste to get away from the rune. He blinks owlishly as he turns around, tilting his head in silent confusion at whatever was happening.

He attempts to place a comforting hand on Lucina's shoulder, using the other to help emphasize the deep breathes he takes, almost as much for himself as for her.

Teniel handed the eye back to Lucina after she had the dreams, I believe.

Teniel sweeps the rune for magic, though he's not trained in decciphering auras. "Gnomes aren't water creatures," he says, frowning; "So if he's involved with some strange water dream, it's probably as an agent of something out. But that's too much speculation."

The captain strolls up a bit later, no other crew with her. She sits down, kicks off her boots and sets her tricorner hat aside. Feet kicking up some sand, she asks "So you didn't mention what you found if anything in the quarters. Was there anything? Are we in any danger? If so, I need to take precautions for the crew if your presence aboard will create a threat." She pulls her hair up into a bun and fans her neck. "Always enjoyed the tropics, but working in this heat is not fun. The crew should be complete with the repairs tomorrow. Thanks to your large friend for his aid in making the mast work a bit easier, and thanks to your for your magical skills."

Lucina repeats herself to the Captain when she asks about the cabin. "He's underwater, very deep. There is a city down there and something else..."

"Or... at the very least, he's got knowledge of something that is down there. So he's probably trying to move down to recover something. Maybe the eggs are necessary for that."

Captain Miar runs her hands through her hair and takes Lucina's statement in, then asks, "What do you mean? How do you know he is underwater? How did he get there? A city? Like the Sahuagin or Merfolk build? I'm sorry for all the questions, this is a bit fascinating, and I wonder if it has to do with the stop he made us do for a bit."

"I don't know," Teniel shrugs, "But we're not swimmers. There's a good chance we might not be able to follow him—but if you decide to leave the island, try to sail away too fast for him to climb aboard. And tell anyone you meet that these islands are under the protection of a water spirit, and to collect eggs means your ship might get wrecked by a storm of vengeance."

"I don't know that it's true that it would be impossible." Makoto says, shaking her head. "But it would be quite dangerous. We'd need magical aid, assuredly. And I'm unsure of any way that we could possibly survive extreme depth... or those things that would live down there." she pauses for a moment. "It's... possible that the location he stopped could be tied into it all. Could you explain what he did when you stopped in detail?" Although, Hell's Rebels has a magic item expressly for extreme pressure differences ;)

"Well that is difficult. We rarely saw him come or go, and if you say he can turn invisible that would account for his rare sightings. He was quite secretive, never spoke to the crew about his work and said little to me except for details of where he wanted us to take him. We did not see him leave the ship nor dive in the water or anything. I am unaware if he went to this place or not."

She hmmms a bit and then says, "Well, we will leave on the morrow I think and we are indebted to you for your aid. Would you wish to travel to any specific port with us? We cannot go far out of our way, but would endeavor to do our best given how much you have helped us. Perhaps in port you could track him down more easily? Hmm, I wonder which port might be best for you given your large friend there." She points to Tavros sitting in the water.

"We... really don't know anything about the surrounding world." Makoto says, shaking her head.

"Well now, then you are in good company!" Captain Miar puts her arm around Makoto's shoulder exclaiming, "I've been to many ports and cities of these coasts, and have many friends to call upon." She turns a dark glare to her some of her crew that overheard, snickering and elbowing each other with unspoken ribald jests. "Pay no heed to those buffoons. Our port of call is Ran Deniao. With fair winds, we should arrive in a week and a half. I have several mercantile associates who have a wide network of people. With some effort we can put you in contact with the right ones who can help you. "

"Parts of Ran Deniao can be stuffy and uptight, and it may be the first time a minotaur has walked its streets, at least without shackles or in a cage." She lowers her voice a bit, "That part I am working out yet. We might be able to get one of the temples to vouch for him so he won't be tossed into a dungeon the second he steps off the gangplank. The rest of you, well you aren't exactly normal, but I imagine most people will give you strange looks for the most part and let you be."

Just a clarification, I had earlier mentioned Geelwan as the port of call instead of Ran Denaio. It is indeed Ran Denaio

Day 9 - Morning

After an evening of chat with the Captain, and turning in, the next day arrives. You being to gather what belongings and supplies you wish to take with you. The captain hopes to leave today, although you see quite a bit of repairs are being done yet. When you inquire she says, that most of the remaining repairs can be done at sea, as long as the hull and masts are serviceable, which they are now. It will take a day or two more to get everything shipshape, but she is not concerned. She mentions Stopping and Ran Denaio possibly if you like, but their final destination is Geelwan. Having never heard of these places, it means little to you.

As the crew prepares their final adjustments, it seems to be late afternoon.

"We plan to cast off soon. You can have the gnomes quarters, though Tavros won't fit, and he may not even fit below decks very comfortably. He is just to large for the narrow confines. If we encounter inclement weather, he is welcome in the hold, but it will be filled with supplies and materials. Do you have any final questions or concerns before we cast off?"

Lucina shuffles in place as they get ready. "Are we sure it's ok to just leave? Without knowing where the Gnome has gone it feels like we are just abandoning our turtle friend."

Noticing the lackluster enthusiasm that you are taking in getting ready for departure, the Captain says, "You don't really want to leave are you? You are thinking of staying. Hmm, I understand, you need to protect what is still here. But, what of the gnome? He has what he needs now, and is unlikely to return. Unless for some reason he wants more eggs, but I think he would have already planned for and made a grab for them given his powers. It's a difficult place to be in. If you do stay here, is there anything I can do to help when we arrive in port?"