Mr. Whiskers wades out and climbs into the boat. He immediately goes to the prow where he can look out into the water.
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The water is clear and the party sets off! Greta and Einar take turns manning the oars with the party happily lazing on top of it, watching the seabirds fly. Greta is all too happy to provide Einar with some encouragement, singing, "Row, row row your boat" on his shift.
About after 2 hours of rowing later with only endless sea in sight, suddenly the party feels something crash hard against the boat and find themselves tipped into the water as the boat capsizes!
As everyone falls into the water, they catch sight of a ship-sized serpent in the water, 15 feet below them.
No one knows what the heck that thing is!
Geist, Greta, Crummock, Dimitri and Mr Whiskers are pulled down by the water's undertow , with only Einar managing to stay on the surface.
Breathing out slowly in a controlled manner, Mr. Whiskers uses what little air he has in his lungs to cast a spell.
He turns into a multi-armed small lizard-like creature. His size doesn't change, but those claws that replaced his paws look nasty!
He quickly swims over to Greta.
With a sigh, Crummock casts Freedom of Movement upon himself, and then moves over to Dimitri, motioning for the man to grab on.
Dimitri grabs onto Crummock, like a drowning man clutching a float.
The sea serpent takes a big bite out of Einar, grabbing him fast, then tries to slap him with it's tail which just clangs harmlessly on Einar's armor.
Greta delays, waiting for Mr Whiskers to cast Monstrous physique 2, and slips further into the water.
Mr Whiskers swims down to Greta, then casts Monstrous phsyique 2 on her, transforming her into a burly humanoid with sharp scales and fins like some predatory fish and a maw full of serrated teeth with four powerful arms.
Greta swims in, then bites the sea serpent, and it hisses at her angrily.
Einar bites into the sea serpent and finds it tastes like squid! Its surprisingly good. Or it would be, if he wasn't getting his life crushed out of him. His claws on the other hand, are less effective.
Crummock instructs Geist to flip the boat the right way up...
...then drags Dimitri over to it, dumping him on deck, so the man has a secure firing point.
A sputtering, gasping Dimitri thanks Crummock for his rescue from what might have been a watery death.
The serpent on the other hand, swallows Einar whole.
Greta tries to slay the beast so she can get to Einar.
But the beasts tough scales defeat most of her attacks except for the bite.
Einar tries to claw up the beast from within.
The serpent looks now like it only seeks to escape.
The serpent flees at top speed to the seafloor bed and Greta bites it as it flees but only lands on scales.
Einar claws his way up the creature's throat and impales the beast in its brain. It shudders, then dies.
Crummock nods back to the boat.
"We should be on our way, afore that corpse attracts sharks..."
Mr. Whiskers swims at top speed down to Einar.
Grabbing him, he then starts guiding the giant fellow up towards the surface.
Einar finds a runestone in the gullet of the creature.
Greta and Mr Whiskers tow Einar to the surface and help him up the boat. Mr Whiskers identifies the runestone as a runestone of power(lv 1). Greta continues rowing the boat.
The noon sun outlines the dark mass of an island rising from the gently rolling sea. Surrounded by sheer cliffs hundreds of feet high, the island is thickly forested. To the south, the rise slopes down to a wide, flat beach, but the island ends at a precipitous cliff to the north. Atop this cliff sits a golden city, overlooking the sea from the precipice. The light of the sun reflects off its walls and turrets with a gleam that extends out over the waves like a beacon. A stretch of smooth beach lies at the base of this cliff, interspersed with great rocks that emerge from the sea.
The party has just landed on the beach when they see a patrol of 6 broad hawk winged support creatures with the torso of a bronze-skinned human and the lower body of a tawny, bipedal lion armed with scimitars flying towards them. They stop 30 feet in the air in front of the party.
"aldawlat eamalik fi jazirat baryan, alghurba" One of them commands.
State your business on the planet of Bryan, outsiders.
He then repeats himself in Aklo, then finally in common, "State your business on the island of Buyan, outsiders."
Mr Whiskers recognizes them as Maftets
"We are here in search of an athame. We need it in order to allow someone to recover." Mr. Whiskers explains.
Stepping forward, he says "I am called Mr. Whiskers. How may I address you?"
"We have not seen any athame's around. These lands are dangerous and I urge you to leave at once. You may call me Amare." The Maftet answers.
Almost as if on cue, Dimitri points out a brawny, sallow-skinned figure with batlike wings and a single hideous eye in its noseless face flying towards the Maftets. "Urm...what was that?"
Mr Whiskers and Greta do not recognize what the bat-winged thing is.
Mr. Whiskers pops his heightened awareness.
He then points at the bat-thing, saying "I see what you mean!" just before casting haste. He doesn't hesitate to include the Maftet's close enough in his spell.
The bat winged thing flies with surprising speed over, and bites Amare.
Amare's face turns pale as he is both sickened and shaken by the Popobala's sudden attack as well as its horrid stench. he retreats. Two Maftets move in and try to strike at the creature, while the rest of the Maftets fly closer.
The Maftets scimitars glance off its exceptionally tough hide.
Both Maftets attacking the bat winged creature are also sickened by its stench.
Dimitri shoots at the strange beast.
Crummock casts Divine Favor on Geist...
...who then pounces!
Dimitri single-handedly blows the creature up into smithereens.
Watching the fragments fall from the sky, Mr. Whiskers asks "What was that?"
Pausing a moment, he also says "Sorry for the mess."
"Wow." Amare looks at Dimitri, astonished. "I thought we were as good as dead. I've never seen anyone kill a popobala single-handedly .Thanks for the rescue. "
"The popobala was an agent of our enemies."Amare explains. "Our city is under constant attack, and so it's not safe for outsiders to be wandering the island. I can see you're capable of taking care of yourselves, so you can continue with your quest."He pauses, "Or maybe you might to come to the Golden City to see my Queen? She may know more about the athame you seek. "
"I would have to discuss it with the rest of the group, but I would be honored to meet your queen and learn more before proceeding."
He then looks over his shoulder at the other people in the group.
...and in a moment if I hear a voice in my head I'll know someone else is too impatient.
Turning back to Amare, he asks "Are these popobala's intelligent? Is your city under siege? I have never been here before and only very recently learned of this island's existence."
"Oh the popobalas are devilishly cunning and haunt and hunt warm coastal lands, roaming night and day to terrorize and spread anarchy and unrest while slaking their insatiable twin urges for violence and prurience. " Amare replies.
"Our city is under siege by threats from the depths of the sea that rose 2 days ago."
Mr Whiskers agrees to see the Queen.
The Maftets lead the party to the Golden City, thrashing through the jungle all the time. The party believes that the Maftets probably could have made the journey in... 15min tops?
The Maftets lead the party to the central plaza of the village, where the entire clan gathers round while the party awaits the appearance of the queen. A lot of Maftets, never seeing creatures like the party before, begin to stare and point.
” anzuruu - lays ladayhim 'ajnihatan. wamuezamuhum lays ladayhim dhuyuala.”There is a hint of pity in one of the Maftet’s voice.” wahid minhum yushbih alfiran aleamlaqata!”
Look - they don't have wings. How horrible it must be to be bound to the ground. And most of them don't have tails. One of them looks like a giant rat!
” ybdw mahbub. hal yumkinuni einaq lh?” A small Maftet pipes up, looking at Mr Whiskers eagerly.
He looks cuddly. Can I hug him?
” la! hum al'ajanib! nahn la naerif ma 'iidha kanuu khatarayn 'am la!”Another female Mafet frantically yells out.
No! They are aliens! We don’t know if they’re dangerous or not!
Rajet, the captain of the guard demands that the party lay down their weapons before they are allowed into the Queen Esmyra's presence. Then the party is lead into the Queen’s presence, and Maftet servants brings them cups of honeyed nectar, and they are offered couches to sit upon.
Queen Esmyra is a black furred, purple skinned maftet wearing a circlet and the heavy gold necklace of her office.
”Amare has told me of the purpose of your visit here – I know no such athame, but our clans speak of a legend of a tree on the island that hides the death of a powerful witch.”Queen Esmyra explains.
”Unfortuantely at this time, we are besieged by horrors that rise from the depths of the ocean, and do not have anyone to spare to lead you to the place.”
"We have lived in our beautiful Golden City on this island since before the time of our grandsires’ grandsires. Always we have been masters of our realm, living in peace, hunting, and gliding upon the thermals—until two days ago. Then strange creatures from the depths of the sea emerged upon our island’s shores. They demanded that we swear loyalty to their rule. We fought them, but individually they are more powerful than my people, and several of my warriors were killed. These enemies have demanded that I be chained to the old sacrificial rock below the city tomorrow at dawn or they will invade our island and kill all of my people. The creature you fought earlier is merely one of the horrors that our enemies can command. We cannot stand against them, so tomorrow I go to my fate to save my people. But with your arrival, perhaps the tide can be turned, and the fate of myself and my people can be rewritten.”
The Queen also has a faint aura of conjuration on her.
"The tree you speak of sounds like it is related to what we seek." Mr. Whiskers notes.
He listens intently as the Queen describes the attacks.
After she finishes, Mr. Whiskers thinks a moment before asking "That was the limit of the demand, that you be chained there?" I could likely protect her for a few minutes if that is all it takes. Somehow I doubt that will work though. "Is there any reason to believe they would honor any such deal if you gave into their demands?"
"I made the decision because I had no choice. They outnumber us and they are individually more powerful then us. It took several lives to take one of them down. What do you think would happen in a full scale invasion?The rivers would run red with Maftet blood." Queen Esymra answers, her voice bleak with despair.
"They mean to take me as a sacrifice. I would go to my fate with a smile on my lips, if it would save my people from the depredations of these monsters." She answers sadly.
Rajet's mouth falls open in shock as Einar unloads his veritable warehouse of weapons.
" YA ne uveren, mozhem li my raskopat' dostatochno zemli dlya vsey derevni Mafts, chtoby spryatat'sya. Krome togo, ya nenavizhu khuliganov. To, chto popobala ne bylo slishkom slozhno snimat' s neba, ya by skazal, pust' oni pridut." Dimitri answers.
I'm not sure if we can excavate enough ground for the entire village of Maftets to hide in. Besides, I hate bullies. That popobala wasn't too hard to shoot out of the sky, I'd say let them come and we show them what it's like on the receiving end.