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Johann is largely affected by the bouncing and swaying ship. He spends much of the days staring out to sea, in a northernly direction. Would that I had the courage to speak to Rapunzel before I left. Her long beautiful blonde hair was flowing from her tower, but curses upon me, I never could think of the proper words to call to her. Someday, Rapunzel. Perhaps I will find whatever it is I am looking for here and then I will come back looking for you.
When not pining, Johann transforms into a snake and wraps himself around the main mast, much to the chagrin of the sailors.
[dice=fort save]d20+8
Johann is largely affected by the bouncing and swaying ship. He spends much of the days staring out to sea, in a northernly direction. Would that I had the courage to speak to Rapunzel before I left. Her long beautiful blonde hair was flowing from her tower, but curses upon me, I never could think of the proper words to call to her. Someday, Rapunzel. Perhaps I will find whatever it is I am looking for here and then I will come back looking for you.
When not pining, Johann transforms into a snake and wraps himself around the main mast, much to the chagrin of the sailors.
At that fateful moment, in the Black Forest demiplane of Gooseland, Rapunzel lets down her long, legendary golden locks, whose hairs had been woven into many a magic rope, and sighs...
Oh, Johann... Where are you, my mountain of a man? I wish that I could see your sweet face looking up at me again...
On the Ship Mwikali will look at Alexi.
"Do you have any spell that you wish to share with me?" She asks with a smile still in her thin dress.
On the boat, Ihrin takes her time to read whatever material is available with a few sessions in teaching Zag and whoever else is around the ability to read. Otherwise, she practices throwing her blades, as well as intricate movements of combat and acrobatics despite her near-constant limp she has when she walks.
The third day of sailing, the 22nd of January, a Monday, the Alanqilis is tossed about on the deep blue swells of the Atlantic...
The ship is washed westward to follow the gloomy sun, off course by many leagues, over the strange, deep, azure waters of Atlantic, to a region where sailors have seen strange lights in the heavens and in the depths...
By midday, it becomes apparent that the Alanqilis is caught in a giant whirlpool, locked into a slow spiral toward the center, which seems to be the Nemo Point!
"NO! BATTEN THE HATCHES! FULL SAILS AHEAD! LOTS OF OTHER THINGS!" Johann roars above the raging water.
"CAN THE FLIERS HOOK UP ROPES AND PULL US OUT?"
Algoral spends the first day with more of a teal tint to his skin than his normal blue, but recovers on the second day.
He will grab 4 potions and stuff them into one of his bandoliers. The wind makes it hard for him to fly safely so he prepares to go down with the ship if necessary. He stows his Ioun stones into another pocket and makes sure all loose things are secured.
Whoah! There is a city down there!
Algoral quickly pounds a potion of Water Breathing.
"Johann grab me some of those." She says coming down from her perch to place them in her bag of holding before she smiles.
"Don't worry death isn't all that bad!" She says with a smile on her face, a broad almost orgasmic one splayed out for all who look upon her to see. As she hugs the rail watching a possible doom get closer and closer she begins to laugh and yell at the invigorating rush it was to meet the grave for the third time!
The Alanqilis spirals round and round the whirlpool, drawn closer and closer to the yawning blue-green funnel at its center, until it is finally swallowed along with all crew and passengers into the briny deep!
Having imbibed potions of water breathing, all aboard the dhow are saved from drowning, at least until the potions run out (including the ten Spanish sailors)... But as for whatever other dangers might lurk here amid the strangely beautiful ancient ruins the ship has landed among...
The Alanqilis lands on the ocean floor with her prow smashed between two upright columns of barnacle-encrusted marble of apparently ancient Grecian style, each about 20 feet high and protruding up from a coral bed. The ship comes to a sudden, jarring halt as her prow becomes so lodged, and the sea suddenly washes everyone off the deck as it fills in the great funnel above once more, as if the great whirlpool existed only long enough to swallow the ship before subsiding!
Schools of fish of many kinds swim around in the blue-green undersea realm... A few dangerous looking sea creatures--sharks and what might be a giant squid--can be seen at some distance, but these do not yet seem to have taken any interest in the sunken dhow or her crew... The ship has landed on a large coral reef with two columns protruding upright (which her prow has lodged betwixt), and four more columns which have fallen over or have been worn down by millennia of currents to mere stumps of barnacle-encrusted marble...
This coral reef seems to lie at the southmost edge of a sprawling, sunken ruined city of ancient Greek architecture--columns, porticoes, domes and towers of pale marble, shining pearl, and orichalcum, laid out in three concentric circles with ring-shaped canals between, and a fantastic palace, seemingly carved from a lone mountain peak, at the very center... A long, straight canal runs from the south edge of the out most ring, about 30 feet to the starboard side of the sunken dhow, to the central island where the majestic palace stands...
[dice=reflex]d20+8
Johann starts swimming about quickly, his long form cutting neat s-shapes through the water, and he is not bothered by the crash.
He swims in and around his companions, beckoning them to grab a hold, so he can pull them along.
Mwikali not one to really ready to deal with such underwater adventures sighs and drinks her potion at the last possible second.
She rolls with the ship taking no real damage as she then rights herself and notes her clothes are not the best for this sort of adventure. she manipulates the clothes to wrap tight about her forming a wrap similar to a mummy. She nods at the others as she wonders how they will communicate in this sort of environment.
While Habiba gets her sea legs quickly (the quick flash of a past life as a merchant sailor helped ease her suffering), she is still somewhat uncomfortable aboard the vessel. This increases as the weather worsens.
As the ship is eventually cast to the depths below, she can't help but wonder at fate.
"I'm with this group less than a week, and already we shipwreck in parts unknown. Is this where my journey ends, already?"
As they slam into the ocean floor, Habiba is thrown from her feet, though once recovered is quick to gaze about her in surprise and wonder.
"This architecture is...fascinating." she breathes, mostly to herself, forgetting for amoment she is underwater. The presence of orichalcum alone is enough to set her mind spinning, as rare as the mineral is, but Greek architecture at the floor of the ocean, in an unmarked spot...that was more intriguing by far.
Ihrin lets the whole ordeal take her. it was foolhardy and reckless but oh did she feel alive. Even as the waves crashed around her she laughed and held on, her body getting soaked to the bone.
With the fluidity of what seemed like water itself, she rolled along with the wave and ship, an eerie ballet born of sheer reflex and survival as she then stood on the ground beside the ship surveying what she can through the murky deep. Unlike her companions, she had no real way of seeing anything. To her, she only had the glow of what was around to light her way. So she took a moment to feel the water to try and become one with what was around her so she could better learn how to sneak within it. Surprising her was how different this felt from the cool crisp earth. She smiled to herself wondering if she died her, would she stay dead?
[dice=Fort]1d20+4
[dice=Fort 2]1d20+4
[dice=Ref]1d20+4
While Habiba gets her sea legs quickly (the quick flash of a past life as a merchant sailor helped ease her suffering), she is still somewhat uncomfortable aboard the vessel. This increases as the weather worsens.
As the ship is eventually cast to the depths below, she can't help but wonder at fate.
"I'm with this group less than a week, and already we shipwreck in parts unknown. Is this where my journey ends, already?"
As they slam into the ocean floor, Habiba is thrown from her feet, though once recovered is quick to gaze about her in surprise and wonder.
"This architecture is...fascinating." she breathes, mostly to herself, forgetting for amoment she is underwater. The presence of orichalcum alone is enough to set her mind spinning, as rare as the mineral is, but Greek architecture at the floor of the ocean, in an unmarked spot...that was more intriguing by far.
[dice=Kn. History (if applicable)]1d20+15
THE light of the sun barely reaches the ocean floor here, but can be seen far above as a pale round glow... However, there are other lights here among the ruins, greenish glows like Saint Elmo's Fire, except underwater and flickering about the barnacle-encrusted ruins... This greenish glow illuminates the ruins as well as a full moon would illuminate a landscape on a clear night...
As Cobra Johann slithers like a giant eel through the seawater to each of his scattered companions, trying to see how many of them he can give a ride to without slowing him down, the ten sailors indicate by hand motions that they will stay with the Alanqilis while the adventurers explore the ruins...
Fox gains his sea legs quickly the first day, perhaps taking after his pirate father... He moves freely about the deck and often climbs the rigging to get a bird's eye view of the stormy sea...
Finding the stormy voyage somewhat disconcerting but at the same time exhilarating, Ogon Fox passes most of the second day attempting to cheer his shipmates with lovely sea shanties played on his organetto of sounding, alternating these with uncannily accurate imitations of dolphin squeals and whale songs heard during the first day of sailing...
Fox ties himself to the rail on the starboard side of the Alanqilis with a length of rope, fearful of being washed overboard by a rogue wave! He prays aloud in Japanese to Saint Cecilia: Oh patron saint of musicians, hear the prayer of your devout and humble servant! We are in peril of drowning, Saint Cecilia! Please, in the name of Our Lord Jesus, don't let us die here in the Atlantic Ocean, but send angels to rescue us, if it be God's Will! AMEN!! He crosses himself with one furry hand while gripping the rail with the other...
*THUD!!* OOF!!
Fox is overwhelmed by the sea closing in on him, and momentarily dazed, floats up into the sea a few feet before his tether goes taut, then he regains his wits and untied himself as Cobra Johann swims over to make sure his pal is still alive...
Relax, my scaly chum, I'm all in one piece yet... But where on Earth...or rather, under the sea, are we?? This is some lost, sunken city of unknown origin... Could it be Atlantis, the ancient sea kingdom of Atlas, son of Poseidon? The poet Plato describes a great city of orichalcum, marble and pearl... A central isle with a palace carved by Poseidon from a lone mountain peak, surrounded by three concentric ring-shaped canals, all spanned by bridges of marble, quartz and orichalcum... Temples, groves, stately houses... This place surely matches the description! Fox declares as he feeds Orpheus sips of a potion of water breathing...
The Alanqilis is wrecked between the two leftmost columns at the outer leftmost bottom edge of the image above...
Drawing Crabpincer from its stingray-hide scabbard, Ogon Fox finds himself surrounded by a personal bubble of air, which allows him to breathe and move freely underwater...
A shapeshifter's instinct leads Fox to wonder how the short sword's magic would interact with Johann's abilities, so he proposes a little expiriment and hands the blade over to his coldborn friend while he is in cobra shape... Half expecting Johann to grasp the hilt with his fanged snake mouth, he is delightfully surprised when a prehensile crab pincer grows out of the right lateral side of Cobra Johann's serpentine form to grip the blade in a vice-like crab claw!
Marvelous, Johann! Want to borrow it for this adventure?
Habiba shakes herself out of her reverie and notes her predicament. She's never been a strong swimmer (not in this life, anyway, to her admittedly spotty recollection having no need to have ever done so), and is at a loss for how to navigate.
She searches her memories, hoping for some hint out of the infinite cycle of reincarnation that might get her out of this jam...
A flash of inspiration shoots through her mind, one of her past lives as an aquatic creature surfacing, fusing her legs together into an elegant cyan tail, and opening small gill slits on the side of her neck.
She experimentally flicks the tail and shoots through the water with ease. Nodding her head in satisfaction, she turns to the others.
"We should move, quickly. This magic will sadly only last a few minutes, and I would like to find somewhere a more permanent solution can be thought of so we can make the most of this glorious opportunity."
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Down in the depths of the briny deep
Where sharks and krakens never sleep
But swim a constant waltz of Death
In waters cold and void of breath
The ship of heroes down did sink
The ship and crew the sea did drink!
And on the seafloor the ship did wreck
The crewmen were glad not to break their neck!
The heroes found themselves most apt to ride
Their serpentine friend who through the waves did slide
Like eel or sea serpent born to the sea
Brave Johann could slither about quite free!
So Fox and Rabbi, Witch and Priest,
Orc Warlord and blue lady of the East,
All hung on to Johann Snake
For to travel swiftly's sake!
The Fairies two did find their wings
As useful for swimming as for aerial things
And so did the band of heroes brave
Swim off to explore the undersea grave
Of a kingdom old and mighty indeed!
The Lost City of Atlantis they'd found, they rede
So off to plunder its riches they rode
But the omens of Fate did not well bode...
Habiba shakes herself out of her reverie and notes her predicament. She's never been a strong swimmer (not in this life, anyway, to her admittedly spotty recollection having no need to have ever done so), and is at a loss for how to navigate.
She searches her memories, hoping for some hint out of the infinite cycle of reincarnation that might get her out of this jam...
[dice=Spell Recollection]1d100
A flash of inspiration shoots through her mind, one of her past lives as an aquatic creature surfacing, fusing her legs together into an elegant cyan tail, and opening small gill slits on the side of her neck.
She experimentally flicks the tail and shoots through the water with ease. Nodding her head in satisfaction, she turns to the others.
"We should move, quickly. This magic will sadly only last a few minutes, and I would like to find somewhere a more permanent solution can be thought of so we can make the most of this glorious opportunity."
All throughout the ruins of the Lost City of Atlantis, the various aquatic creatures living in different territories are aware that the whirlpool has wrecked another ship at the bottom of the sea, somewhere within or nearby the ruins! Whenever the whirlpool is manifested, which is very rare (perhaps once in a century), it is to swallow some ship of fated heroes down to the ruins of Atlantis, a reverberation of the curse of the gods upon the vain kingdom of mortals...
When Poseidon blesses them with a shipwreck, the sea monsters rejoice, and go a-hunting for any sailors, live or dead, that might make a splendid feast! When they happen upon such a morsel, a feeding frenzy begins, and attracts other sea monsters able to smell blood in the water...
Now, all throughout the ruins, the inhabitants come to life, swimming out of their liars to hunt for the unfortunate heroes marooned on the ocean bed!
"blug, glub... grururbble, glub" Zagathoth calls out to a passing school of fish, after gulping down one of the water breathing potions.
On the boat, Ihrin takes her time to read whatever material is available with a few sessions in teaching Zag and whoever else is around the ability to read.
Alexei clings desperately to the ship's rail throughout the ordeal, and gladly grasps Johann as soon as he's able once they plunge below the waves. He struggles to unstop one of the potions without losing its contents into the sea, but his sense of panic abates once he does.
oh, why didn't I learn some seafaring spells before departing? I could have learned to transform myself like out newest companion has... I really need to master teleportation, then we'll never have to worry about this again...
The rabbi nods at the Ogon Fox's estimation. "It does seem as though we may have stumbled upon the famed Atlantis," he agrees, "sadly, I don't think there's a shipyard here anymore... perhaps we should look for a treasury, or the ruins of an academy? Maybe we can find a teleportation scroll, or some magic to help get us safely... somewhere?"
"blug, glub... grururbble, glub" Zagathoth calls out to a passing school of fish, after gulping down one of the water breathing potions.
** spoiler omitted **
Most of the fish in this school of cod avoid the hulking orc nervously, and ignore his alarming ability to speak to them, but some give brief answers: Not as ugly... or Yes, the sahuagin are kinda shaped like you... or Nope! Nope! Nothing like you here, sir!
Mwikali seeks to gather up the others and casts light to help them. After that she speaks."So if we do find a teleportation scroll can it bring the boat with us? I would hate to lose it, or the crew. They have been good men and to lose such a fine vessel, well it just sucks.
Mwikali seeks to gather up the others and casts light to help them. After that she speaks."So if we do find a teleportation scroll can it bring the boat with us? I would hate to lose it, or the crew. They have been good men and to lose such a fine vessel, well it just sucks.
Somewhere in the azure waters, slithering through cyclopean ruins of a temple of Poseidon, the sea serpent Sargasso is on the hunt for the shipwreck and its tasty crew...
Fresh meat! Fresh meat! Give me something sweet to eat! If it comes in metal, I'll open up the can, sucky slurp out meaty man!
The ancient, serpentine predator slithers through the depths in search of the survivors...
From somewhere to the northwest, perhaps from the shining greenish temple-looking structure of orichalcum on the outer southwest ring encircling the outermost ring-shaped canal, comes the reverberating drone of a conch horn sounding an alarm!
*AAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!*
The band of sahuagin scouts and tiger sharks sent out to hunt down the wreck are alerted that the sahuagin watchman at their stronghold has spotted the sea serpent Sargasso, or some other danger, in their vicinity!
Ihrin blinks at the light and hears the noise. The Romani woman sneers as she slips her cane in her pouch and draws a blade places it in her mouth before she draws two more and swims next to the others. She winks and stands with daggers in and underhand grip tips out. Looking about she notes no familiar pings in her memory about fighting underwater. Which was interesting and disturbing at the same time.
In its lair within a flooded chamber of the royal palace, the ancient Slime-Shrouded Master, an evil aberration that was swimming the primordial sea before even prehistoric Atlantis of the Golden Age, sends out its servitors to hunt down the shipwrecked sailors and bring them back to it, to be enslaved by the Master...
Mwikali, not one who liked the sound of horns focused on what she could do here. She recently had the pleasure of reading an ancient tome regarding various spells for witches. The tome provided her much needed spells and rites to grainer her more power to save her people. Noting that her loyal sailors once slaves to the vile Arabs would be harmed she remembered she had recently memorized a spell to summon creatures from other realms. Here in her hour of need she smiled, seeking to summon forth an elemental to protect her friends.
"I call forth the ancient guardian of the blessed waters, gatekeepers of it bounty to grant me the aid of one of your laborers, the very Living water from which all water flows. I seek that of a Water Elemental!" She says pleading the verse to the ancient gods, calling forth a servant of the water, A Water elemental!!!!
In its lair within a flooded chamber of the royal palace, the ancient Slime-Shrouded Master, an evil aberration that was swimming the primordial sea before even prehistoric Atlantis of the Golden Age, sends out its servitors to hunt down the shipwrecked sailors and bring them back to it, to be enslaved by the Master...
Bowing in submission to the Slime-Shrouded Master, a dozen faceless stalkers promise to hunt down fresh slaves for their master...
In Aklo: Oh glorious Slime-Shrouded Master! We shall not fail thee, Oh Secreter of the Viscous Slime!
Rising as one from the orichalcum and pearl floor of the sunken throne room where abides their aboleth master, the dozen faceless stalkers swim out to do their slimy master's bidding!
Mwikali, not one who liked the sound of horns focused on what she could do here. She recently had the pleasure of reading an ancient tome regarding various spells for witches. The tome provided her much needed spells and rites to grainer her more power to save her people. Noting that her loyal sailors once slaves to the vile Arabs would be harmed she remembered she had recently memorized a spell to summon creatures from other realms. Here in her hour of need she smiled, seeking to summon forth an elemental to protect her friends.
"I call forth the ancient guardian of the blessed waters, gatekeepers of it bounty to grant me the aid of one of your laborers, the very Living water from which all water flows. I seek that of a Water Elemental!" She says pleading the verse to the ancient gods, calling forth a servant of the water, A Water elemental!!!!
A swirling current becomes a living water being the size of a child or a gnome! A water elemental has answered Mwikali's call!
It gurgles in Aquan at Mwikali: SsSSlluuuRRrrSshhh! SSswwiiiSSSsshhh?
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Emerging from the deep blue gloom, a dozen fish-like humanoids brandishing bronze tridents, accompanied by half as many big striped sharks, swim at a menacing pace toward the wreck of the Alanqilis! Their cold black eyes are like doll's eyes, lifeless, until they bite you...