Session0003

March 21st
The party regroups briefly after the battle with the kuo-toa and grung within the temple of Great Wiik-Wiik. Rye presents the party with poorly-drawn illustrations showing his plan to defeat Great Wiik-Wiik.

Delving further into the temple, the party discovers a chamber with a trap mechanism, which they manage to trigger from a distance to avoid the danger.

Eventually, the party reaches a large chamber with a large pool of oily water. A mural carved into the wall above the pool depicts Great Wiik-Wiik doing battle with a horrific bird-like creature, presumably the corvid, which is in the midst of consuming young kuo-toa and grung.

As the party is investigating the room, Great Wiik-Wiik emerges from the pool. It is a tremendous, grung-like monstrosity with tentacles - although it is not quite as imposing as the depictions throughout the temple indicate.

The party battles against Great Wiik-Wiik. During the fray, a kuo-toa archpriest emerges from a chamber beyond, and uses magic to flood the chamber with oily, burning water. Nevertheless, the party manages to defeat Great Wiik-Wiik, as well as the archpriest.

After the battle, the party finds Ilex being held prisoner within a cell built into the temple, and releases her to safety. She is very grateful for their help, and offers them healing magic to help them recover from the day’s ordeals. She seems to take special care of Frog, referencing his royalty.

Ilex is relieved to see that Harper Wood is safe, but expresses concern for Ari Everbreeze - the Tide King’s chef and quartermaster, who was taken captive along with Harper and herself. The party informs Ilex that they believe Ari has been taken to a mountaintop to be sacrificed to the corvid. The party resolves to go rescue her, and Harper and Ilex agree to accompany them.

Before leaving the temple, the party searches for valuables. They recover a small amount of currency, as well as a magical scepter that was wielded by the kuo-toa archpriest. In addition, they recover a few magic potions, as well as several doses of an antidote to the disease that Malkoth and XVIII contracted from their earlier battle with the giant mosquitoes.

The party departs from the temple, and begins their journey eastward through the jungle towards the mountaintop where Qaz’s map indicates that sacrifices are made to the corvid. They manage to avoid the dangers of the jungle along the way, and by nightfall, they reach a small village in the foothills of the mountains. Scouting the village from the distance, they can see that it seems to be mostly empty. Beyond the village, they see a mountain pass leading upward into the mountains. They sneak past the village, and begin their climb up the mountain.

Eventually, the party reaches the mountaintop, where they find a stone plateau jutting out from the mountainside. The plateau seems to serve as a ritual site, and is decorated with engravings and statues. There are a handful of tents on the mountainside nearby, occupied by grung. One grung in particular is standing near the ritual site, carrying two large buckets - one filled with grung tadpoles and the other with kuo-toa eggs.

As the party discusses how to proceed, XVIII mentions that the place is familiar to them. The party realizes that the locale is the same that they saw in their shared dream two nights prior, wherein they recovered a magical sword. The scenery is somewhat different - in the dream, there were no grung or tents, and there was pedestal in place of the ritual site - but otherwise, the locale is seemingly identical.

After briefly discussing this realization, the party decides to investigate more closely later, after they have rescued Ari. As they are making preparations for their ambush, Ilex uses magic to bond Frog and Odell with a divine magical boon. Frog recognizes that she seems to be drawing her magic from the same source that he draws divine magic of his own.

After making preparations, the party sneaks up to the plateau, and attacks the grung. As soon as the party attacks, one of the grung begins to make a supernaturally-loud chirring sound, and places the buckets down at the ritual site. Shortly thereafter, the party hears a loud bird's cry, and the corvid arrives - a massive raven-like monstrosity with many gangly, taloned arms.

The party battles the corvid and the grung. The corvid, heavily injured, attempts to fly away with Harper in tow, but the party manages to slay it before it can escape, and rescue Harper. The last few surviving grung, seeing the demise of the corvid, throw down their weapons and surrender. However, before the party can intervene to stop him, Gragnok executes them.

With the grung and corvid defeated, the party searches the plateua and the nearby campsite. They find Ari being held prisoner within one of the tents, wounded but alive. She is grateful for her rescue, and pleased to see that Ilex and Harper have survived as well.

Odell inspects the ritual site - where the pedestal containing the magic sword had been located in the party's shared dream. He finds signs that there may have once been a pedestal in this spot, but that it has long since eroded over hundreds of years, and been carved more recently into its current shape. Much to his chagrin, he finds no trace of any magic, or any indication of what purpose the site might have served in ancient times.

Investigating the campsite, Malkoth finds a magic sword wrapped in burlap and hidden beneath a cot within one of the tents. The blade seems to be the same one from the party's dream, although it does not give off the emerald glow that it did in the dream. It has the same eight circles engraved along its blade that it did in the dream, although they are plain and featureless, unlike in the dream where they were adorned with glowing decorative filigree. With a detect magic spell, Malkoth discerns that the blade has aspects of abjuration and transmutation magic. Notably, while utilizing detect magic, he also recognizes that Rye's trumpet is magical, as are Odell's shield and hammer.

At the party's suggestion, Patches uses an augury spell to determine whether the party should attune to the blade. His ritual reveals that attuning to the blade will bring him weal, and he begins attuning to it.

Meanwhile, the party discusses their plans moving forward. With the night having already gotten late, and having spent most of the day traveling and adventuring, they decide to set up camp on the plateau, and return to their campsite in the morning.

When Patches finishes attuning to the blade, one of the eight circles on its blade begins to glow with a symbol of a candle, which matches his holy symbol. He learns that the blade has properties that only he can utilize. Discussing these findings, the party speculates that the sword might have similar traits for each of them, changing to adapt to whoever is attuned to it. Patches is initially reluctant to give up the blade to any of the other party members, but eventually agrees to do so, after some pressure from Gragnok - who expresses some distrust for Patches based on his mysterious, unexplained shapeshifting.

Discussing the matter of taking turns attuning to the sword, Gragnok expresses some hesitance about allowing XVIII attune to the sword. He explains to the party the XVIII is undead, and expresses that he doesn't trust them. Jack asks XVIII what sort of creature he is, citing both Gragnok's concerns, and XVIII's unexplained abilities to climb on walls and siphon vitality from creatures by drinking their blood. XVIII says that they were unaware that they were undead before Gragnok told them, and that as far as they know, they are just a khenra. Eventually, the party agrees to let XVIII attune to the blade, despite Gragnok's objections.

The party sets up a watch order and takes turns attuning to the sword overnight during their watches.

Gragnok and Odell take the first watch. Gragnok attunes to the blade first. When he does, the circle that had become illuminated with Patches' holy symbol fades back to normal, and another circle illuminates with a symbol of a radiant shield. Much the same as Patches, he learns that the sword has special properties that only he can use, while he is attuned to it.

Odell attunes to the blade next. As expected, Gragnok's symbol fades, and a new symbol appears, depicting the arcane sigil for binding and connection, along with some smaller inscriptions of conjuration and transmutation sigils. Again, as expected, the sword has properties that only he can use, while he is attuned to it.

Patches and Malkoth take the second watch. Patches asks to attune to the blade again before Malkoth does, so that he can use its magical property before the next Zenith. Malkoth agrees to this arrangement, and Patches attunes to the sword, which once again begins to glow with his holy symbol. Patches uses the sword to grant a magical boon to Malkoth. When he does, his symbol briefly flares and becomes brighter, before returning to normal.

Over the remainder of the night's watches, the party repeats this process of attuning to the blade, each time finding that the blade has properties only usable by the attuned creature.When Jack attunes, his symbol depicts the four elements. When XVIII attunes, his symbol depicts a skull with blood dripping from its jaws. When Frog attunes, his symbol depicts a golden five-pointed star. Notably, Rye chooses not to attune to the sword, seeming disinterested in trying to use it.

On third watch, in the small hours of the morning, Jack and Rye see a pair of grung scouts approaching the plateau. Seeing the corpse of the corvid, and the party occupying the campsite, the grung attempt to return back down the mountain. Jack and Rye run after them and catch them, disarming and shackling them with little resistance. They bring the grung prisoners back to the campsite, and decide to wait until morning to discuss with the party what they should do with them.

March 22nd
In the morning, the party discusses what to do with the grung prisoners. Gragnok suggests that the prisoners should be executed, but the rest of the party objects. Eventually, they decide to bring the prisoners along with them, and release them once they've gotten a safe distance away from the grung village in the mountain's foothills.

The party also discusses their findings with the magic sword. They consider letting Ilex attune to the blade - since she was not present in the party's shared dream - and seeing what would happen. Patches uses another augury ritual regarding this plan, and learns that it would lead to neither weal nor woe. The party speculates that the sword's properties will only work for the eight of them who were in the shared dream, although they are unsure as to why this would be the case. Ultimately, they decide to let Odell carry the sword and remain attuned to it for the time being.

Having gathered their things and readied themselves, the party begins traveling down the mountain to return to their campsite and reconvene with the crew of the Tide King. After making their way back down the mountain, and safely traveling a fair distance away from the village in the foothills, the party releases the grung prisoners. The grung seem grateful and appreciative, although they are unable to speak common.

On the way back to the campsite, Rye decides to attune to the magic sword. When he does, the sword begins to glow with a symbol that depicts equal halves of light and darkness, with a musical scale running through its center. He tests the blade's magical property on Frog, causing Frog to briefly swell with rage. When Rye uses the blade's property, his symbol on the blade flares brighter for a moment, much as Patches' did the previous night.

As the party is traveling, they discuss the Alviren Empire's magic regulations. Jack expresses some concern that members of the party could be executed for their unlicensed use of magic. Odell seem incredulous at this suggestion, insisting that while the Empire does regulate magic on behalf of the Weavers Conclave, the penalty for unlicensed magic would be execution in only the most extreme of circumstances.

Privately, away from the rest of the party, Jack shares with Odell that he and his gnoll tribes in the Golden Wastes and the Taruki Jungle had multiple run-ins with the Weavers Conclave many years ago, wherein the Conclave violently enforced their magic regulations against the tribes. He also confides in Odell that he has some magical abilities of his own, and asks if such abilities would warrant execution or violence. Odell insists that Jack's magic abilities seem minor, and would warrant little more than a warning or a small fine. He also emphasizes that the Golden Wastes and the Taruki Jungle, where Jack had his encounters, are not even under the Alviren Empire's jurisdiction, and as such are not subject imperial magic regulations. He expresses some mistrust for the Weavers Conclave's associations with the Alviren Empire, and shares his belief that magic should be studied and utilized safely.

Around midday, the party reaches the fishing campsite that they had found on the southern shores of the island the previous day. They find signs that a few more grung and kuo-toa have come and gone in the past day, but nothing unexpected.

A few hours later, as the party approaches their campsite, they see that an airship is floating over it. Odell seems very surprised, noting that a functional airship has not been seen in close to a thousand years. Most of the other party members have never even heard of an airship.

Approaching cautiously from a distance, the party spots that the campsite is occupied by a group of strange myconid and plant creatures, as well as tortles and small, tortle-like creatures that are much smaller in stature than normal tortles. They are accompanied by a figure adorned in red robes, wearing a mask that covers its face. Aboard the airship, a tortle adorned in blue robes and pointed blue hat stand on a gangplank, overlooking the campsite. The crew of the Tide King, including Captain Duncan Rivers, is huddled together having a conversation.

Frog recognizes the creatures on the beach as the forces of Kameshima, and the blue-robed tortle on the airship as Kamm - a high-ranking general of Kameshima. He explains that Kameshima is a bitter enemy of Mycorrhiza - the kingdom of which he is Crown Prince. After a brief discussion, the party decides it would be best for Frog to remain behind while the rest of the party goes to investigate the situation. Jack and XVIII remain behind with Frog to protect him.

The party - with the exception of Frog, Jack, and XVIII - approaches the campsite. When they approach, Captain Rivers asks them where Frog is. Gragnok says that they have made another campsite elsewhere on the island, where Frog currently remains. Rivers, however, does not seem to believe this ruse. He insists that the party go and fetch Frog and bring him back. Gragnok asks Rivers to explain the situation, and Rivers says that the Kameshimans are here to speak with Frog.

When the party refuses to comply with Rivers, Kamm speaks to them from the airship above, using magic to enhance his voice. He insists that he has information that Frog will want to hear, and advises the party to go and retrieve him to avoid any unnecessary violence.

Hearing Kamm's statement, Frog decides that he should approach, and comes out from his hiding place nearby, accompanied by Jack and XVIII. Kamm tells Frog that he has captured the Princess of Mycorrhiza, as well as someone named Prince Marcello, and urges Frog to come with him peacefully, or he will have to take him by force. Frog refuses. Kamm, seeing the amount of support that Frog has with him, instructs Captain Rivers and his crew to assist the Kameshiman forces in apprehending Frog. Rivers objects, saying that he never agreed to help Kamm fight, but Kamm retorts that if Rivers wants his pay, he must fight. Rivers reluctantly agrees, and instructs his crew to join him as he draws his weapon. Just before the situation turns violent, XVIII uses a charm person spell and magically charms Rivers.

A battle ensues, between the party and their allies, and the forces of Kameshima. Most of the crew of the Tide King listens to the captain's orders and fights alongside the Kameshimans; however, after Ari tries to convince the crew to help the party instead, Sybil Larou, the ship's deck mage, agrees and fights alongside them. XVIII, with the assistance of his magical charm, convinces Captain Rivers not to fight against Frog directly, but he still works against the rest of the party.

During the fray, the red-robed figured wearing a mask is revealed to be the kobold passenger, who the party suspected to be responsible for the explosion aboard the Tide King. The kobold expresses a fanatic loyalty to the Great Sorcerer King Daimao - king of Kameshima. He is mortally wounded during the battle, despite an attempt by XVIII to protect him.

During the battle, Odell utilizes the magic sword, turning all of the party members and their allies into giant forms briefly. When he does, his symbol on the blade flares brighter for a moment, much the same as Patches and Rye's did.

Eventually, the party defeats the Kameshiman forces, and even manages to damage Kamm's airship. Kamm manages to escape aboard his airship, however, warning Frog that the Princess and Prince Marcello will pay for his refusal to comply. The crew of the Tide King, seeing that they are defeated, drop their weapons and surrender.