The Father of Waters

Game Master Fighting Chicken

Round 4

Being repeatedly jabbed by a venomous urchin while helpless to do anything about it is probably among the worst experiences Istiel has ever faced in her life, even compared to facing death at the hands of the Nargun.

If only the creature's toxins blocked out pain, as well...

The urchin cleaves apart in chunks, its alien physiology spilling into the water, though even in death its two victims suffer the full onslaught of its poison.

Mparu uses her magic again on Istiel, and the wounds on monk's stilled hands knit shut.

Its death gives him satisfaction but being unable to move, underwater, is terrifying, especially as he feels as frail as a dried twig. He can't help wondering if the paralysis is permanent.

Imix turns to bark an order to stop at the Ulat-Kini, then pauses and turns back to check on his companions.

Once he confirms to himself that the urchins they fought are truly dead he fills the room with the healing energy that is his inheritance.

Oios wills himself through the poison's onset, and with a final spasm, the Shadow is able to feel himself move again.

Let's hope that there's something worth risking our lives for here. Drazan muses as he moves to check Istiel's poison infused body for signs that she might have pulled through.

Oios arrives next to Istiel. It seems she is still motionless, lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling with a deep hatred in her eyes.

Yet, as the old man reaches out to help her fight off the poison, her hand lashes out like a viper even though it was slowed by the water. Gripping his wrist firmly, she simply states "I am fine." with a bubbling inflection.

The shadow can clearly see that despite Mparu's healing her leathery knuckles bear deep punctures and gashes, soon to become future scars in her already patchwork skin.

Releasing Oios from her grasp, she continues to lay on the ground for several moments, clearly not "fine". The monk's guts felt like scrambled eggs, and she would say she was having trouble breathing if she could tell if it were the case underwater or not.

Hefting herself up and refusing any assistance, she glances around the room. "The more tribute we find the more rain will be brought. The more rain, the more life." Istiel states simply in response to Drazen's question. She wasn't actually sure if that's how it worked, but it seemed right.

A search of the ancient desk and cabinets reveals 32 small silver badges with astronomical etchings on them. Of more interest, perhaps, is a gold-and-mithral spyglass, its sides etched with images of comets and spiraling galaxies.

Mparu opens one of the cabinets and pulls from it her gear: a waterlogged blue and green suit of leather armor, a three-pointed spear, and a coral holy symbol of Damballah. She looks to you expectantly.

Imix takes a moment to restore health to his companions, only to find them intent on ransacking the room.

"What are you doing?" Imix demands "We should chase the prisoner. He is a dealbreaker." Imix is incensed - sacrifice and dark magics in service to a primordial god are abstractly evil, but undermining the basic underpinning of civilisation is a much more concrete evil.

Seeing Istiel alive, Drazan changes his focus, Should we be after this dealbreaker then? Drazan's question falls toward Oios Will he serve as tribute so more rain may come?

Istiel turns the silver badges over in her hands. More strange metal. Despite all of the metal they have encountered in the past few weeks, she can't really tell them all apart, though whatever these badges were it was not copper. Perhaps no two metal objects were the same, with copper being the exception?

The badges are unceremoniously dumped into her jute sack with the rest of the tribute she had collected. She lays hands on the mithral-and-gold spyglass, admiring its beautiful and mysterious spirals. These were a strange people to make a decorated metal tube, but perhaps it was some kind of magical weapon?

She approaches Imix with the spyglass in hand. "It is a waste of time to chase the defeated fish-man." She says plainly. "It will leave no tracks to follow. It knows this area better. It is no use to us." Istiel, at least, didn't seem to care for the fate of the escapee.

Holding up the shining spyglass to Imix, she immediately moves on to other matters. "What is this? A wand? A metal club?"

We can learn more of their habits and hunt it later, time permitting Oios says wearily, almost certain that time would not permit it. For now, we have achieved what we came for and should retreat. We have a prisoner to get back to safety as well.

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Sarenith 23, noon(ish)
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Resolved to return the priestess to her people, you ascend from the planetarium to find a creature, much like a beastling - but lacking the, for better word, mortality of those peoples - rummaging through the things you left in the canoe. Startled, she rises to her full height - she's taller than a beastling, more like a tall Tkayahan, with a coywolf's head, midnight-dark fur that glints in the sunlight. Her body is is lithe, and human-proportioned, and clothed in an immaculate light white cloth dress that seems to wick the water from it.

A growl crosses the creatures face, and she begins to move her hands in a manner that suggests a spellweaving.

"A weapon no doubt. Why else use priceless metal?" he answered dismissively.

A moment later he regretted his lack of control. Istiel's advice was sound, for all he had not wanted to hear it, and her interest in the item was doubtlessly just as sound. "Let me see." he said grudgingly, hand out for the tube.

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Sarenith 23, noon(ish)
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"Great-bow!" shouted Imix, bowing his head and averting his gaze in the deep bow of respect used to address one of far superior status. Quickly he started to talk in Aquan.

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Sarenith 23, noon(ish)
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IT is a Nymph! Oios shouts Avert your eyes, lest you go blind! And it casting summoning magic! STOP it!

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Sarenith 23, noon(ish)
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Istiel is momentarily confused. Imix appears to be holding the beastling in great respect, while Oios is yelling about spellcasting.

Given the option between staring at murky water or taking action, the monk doesn't give it much thought.

She quickly swims through the water despite being laden with treasure, aggresively kicking past the others with such ferocity it surely opened her plethora of still fresh wounds. It seemed she would not make it in time, but the monk feels something... strange. An unseen current lifts her up body upward, propeling her faster than any frenzied kicking.

Istiel's pockmarked hands breach the surface of the tainted water and grab the sides of the canoe; the alligator-like grip of her fingers would have surely crushed the wood if it were not magical. But instead of pulling herself up, she stops kicking and yanks the entire canoe earthward, pulling it down with both her forearms and weight.

The nymph balances atop the canoe, even as Istiel violently forces it down. It is as if the nymph is balancing on a twig, so graceful she looks as her feet skip across the turning canoe.

Snarling, she barks a reply to Imix. The dialect is strange and lilting, filled with little-known words and at once as lovely sounding as the order it carries is firm.

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Sarenith 23, noon approx
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Round 0 or 1

Drazan surges powerfully toward the lupine stranger as Istiel forces her to lose her focus for casting. He stops just short moving to swing his axe, too confused by Imix and Oios's conflicting statements to bow, not look at her and stop her.

Make up your minds, kill it or talk to it? he growls while floating to the surface keeping the strange beast within Bane's reach. Or approximately since Drazan also closes his eyes so he has no real way of telling.

Istiel shares Drazan's frustration as she clings to the capsized canoe, head slightly above the water and looking directly into the wood grain in front of her. "Tell it to leave in peace. We have no quarrel with those touched by Damballah."

The nymph quirks her head, anger crossing her face... but she ceases any outright hostility.

Jabbing her finger into her chest for emphasis, she continues, the words flying quickly.

The nymph drops her hands, looking to you all warily.

Oios opens his mouth in anger and then shuts it again. Nymphs were not at all like the waterborn and were dangerous. The Shadows had always avoided them or killed them. But Imix was crooning at the thing like an old lover.

The old man takes a deep breath. The Shadows had been wrong on a great many things after all. If Imix could come to a peaceful resolution then so be it.

Istiel looks up warily out of the water, notcing the change in posture from the nymph. It seemed that danger had passed, for now, so the monk merely treads water while waiting for Imix to brigng about a resolution to the situation.

The nymph frowns as Imix states the group's inability to help.

She points into the distance, towards a squiggle of towers.

Her business with you done, the nymph simply vanishes.

"Wait!" Imix calls, speed pushing him to speak Tkoyah, but not fast enough to keep the nymph from vanishing.

He sighs and does his best to translate both sides of the conversation, from memory, to his fellows. That done he summarises.

"She still seems to think we are causing this drought. If we can determine its root cause, or how to alleviate it, then we will go far to gain her trust. I may be naive to hope she has some way to help but..." uncharacteristically he trails off and then continues "The dwarves have their Nargun - the natural ones, not the constructed ones. Beings of the Earth. The Flame has their fire-spirit creatures they embody in humans. We are a people of the water. Just as there are spirits of the Earth and spirits of the Fire, there should be spirits of the Water. Spirits that might help us fight off the First Flame." he looks towards the tower "She may know how to call on them. It is a long shot, but at this point all our shots are long. It would not be the first target we have hit despite the odds."

"I do not believe it is an accident, or mere chance, that a powerful water spirit has encountered us here."

Something to consider if we stop the drought, Drazan states plainly. That spirit's favors aside, ending the drought would benefit the Flight and make fast allies with the local beast people. So what now?

Oios grunts Naira and her people have always been honoured as the water touched children of Damballah. Nymphs are... unreliable...

He sighs But I have never dealt with one directly and it seems your way of dealing with them is wiser Imix. I need to rest now but we must consider the mystery of this drought before the rainbringers come

"Neither have I." Imix is forced to concede. "When I saw her I thought it worth the attempt."

As soon as the nymph vanishes, Istiel tests the canoe, rocking it back and forth to see if there was any weight still on it.

With the creature gone, she carefully flips the canoe back over. Everything seemed intact, and there was only some fetid water in the bottom of the watercraft.

While the others are discussing the nymph, she swims about, collecting paddles and other floating bits that were in the canoe.

"I agree. We should work with the spirits of the land. They have memory of how this place used to be." The monk chimes in, clambering inside their magical canoe and extending a hand to help their rescued priestess inside.

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Sarenith 23, 2pm
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Back at the Harbormaster's House, Latha greets Mparu with a fierce hug, and they exchange a few words, judging from their tone and body language to be a mixture of relief and worry. Turning to you, Latha gives you each a quick hug as well. "We didn't think we would see Mparu again, honestly. The senate will be very pleased that our priestess is alive and well."

"And Mparu tells me that if you need her for anything - healing perhaps - I can get her for you."

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Sarenith 23, 4pm
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You find the manor matching Latha's description at the south end of the Cheya's channel. The manor was obviously once the manse of a wealthy individual or family; even now, weathered by years of rains and half-submerged under the water, the home's crafstmanship is apparent.

Intricately carved, the manor's upper floor rises from the water and gleams in the late afternoon sunlight, the Cheya's waters lapping gently against a marble balcony, with long-shattered windows leading into a room to the south.

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Sarenith 23, 3pm
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Sarenith 23, 4pm
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Istiel slowly paddles their canoe towards the stone balcony, following the lapping waters. "They said a great lizard resides here." She says suddenly, clearly taking an uncharateristic interest in not only making conversation, but speculating future events.

"There is much in this land that we believed did not exist. Could this be a dragon?" It became clear why she was interested in the lizard, for felling a dragon, a magical legend so far removed from the mundane life of the Bantu valley it may not exist at all, would be a truly glorious feat.

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Sarenith 23, 2pm
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We are grateful to have been of service to the leadership that has allowed us to stay in your lands. Oios says. Unfortunately one of the evil beings that kidnapped Mparu escaped our grasp. How much trouble could it cause? As well if you could tell us some more about the rainbringers then that would be of use to us when we treat with them. What do you know of the lands they come from? And did Harambe travel in the direction or meet them?

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Sarenith 23, 2pm
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Latha listens intently to Oios's recount and questions, shrugging at the end. "One creature escaped? I doubt it will bother us much here in the Enclave. I'll make sure any of our people traveling beyond the safety of our community is aware."

"I don't know where Harambe went. Sometimes he tells us, sometimes he doesn't. The last time he traveled, he slipped away without any communication."

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Sarenith 23, 4pm
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"You should know the blessings I have bestowed upon you will have faded." Imix warns. "Much of my power is spent - I will be of little use."

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Sarenith 23, 4pm
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The marble railing of the balcony makes a convenient mooring post for your canoe unless you take it and your supplies with you, and the broken windows provide easy entrance to the room beyond. The room slopes gently to the south, as the manor has shifted over the years, and the southern half of the room has been drenched by the storms that used to come in through the broken windows with apparent regularity - before the drought caught hold of this cursed land.

A rotted chair and desk sit in the room, betraying its purpose of a one-time study. Three large bookcases contain several volumes of tome, bound much like the ones in Yd's study. The tomes long ruined by the storms and humidity, they crumble to dust in your hands.

As one tome comes apart in Oios's hands, the Shadow cocks his head...

Istiel walks into the room, moccasins treading lightly on the stone. She scans the room slowly for any sign of danger, but sees nothing worth noting. Crossing her arms, she watches Oios try to pick up a book...

There is something here. Oios manages to say just before the voices overwhelm their group.

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Sarenith 23, 4pm
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The voices come on quickly, hysterical syllables in an unknown language, building to a headache-inducing, babbling, scream within each of your heads. Oios is able to shake the effect off and think clearly; the words, though annoying, are little more than that.

Drazan, Imix, and Istiel however are gripped by the hysteria, the babbling forcing all rational thinking from their minds. Though the language is unknown, the meaning is yet clear to each of you: there is madness that lies beyond the veil, and things lurk there that should not be trifled with.