DW Session 42: Birth of a Kraken
General Summary
11/4/897 The Royal Knights Brigade, drained from several fights in the streets of Noggin, found themselves teleported to Filip Vikander's Lighthouse just as they were preparing for a long rest at Mulane College. Filip, wired up on a combination of coffee pitchers and five sleepless night, explained to the RKB how he needed them to protect his lighthouse laboratory while he performed the most important spell he would ever cast: a ritual to turn one of the Sunken God's elder brains into a kraken. Filip showed the party months of research on how the number of sahuagin attacks increased exponentially after Aldo Snaggletooth bombed the previous kraken to death in 875, and that creating a new kraken would bring stability and order back to the oceans of Ekal. Beleren and the rest of the party begged Filip to delay the ritual until the next morning, but Filip insisted that a breakthrough as world-changing as this couldn't wait. To emphasize his point, the storm outside raged harder and warned of the Sunken God's monsters lurking in the churning waters. The wizard agreed to give the party two hours to make any preparations needed to defend the lighthouse, after which Filip would go on to make history. Flora's first order of business was having Filip turn her into anything other than a thri-kreen. Her couple of months as a thri-kreen inspired her to learn more about their culture and legendary city of Thrah-Kezaam, but she was eager to return to a more normal form. And normal she got: after the smoke cleared from the makeshift lab in Filip's barn, Flora stepped out as nothing more than a human woman. From being created with the celestial powers of an aasimar to being granted the size and dexterity of a thri-kreen, Flora would now spend the rest of her life as a human. Meanwhile Beleren and Jax planned out the best way to take on the sahuagin horde. Beleren created a makeshift bomb and stored it inside the cabin beside the barn, explaining to Kacie how the two of them would hide out there until enough sahuagin came by for detonation (Kacie commented how she always liked a crafty man). Jax and Asdis would defend the front entrance to Filip's library and study, Asdis boasting that nothing would get through her impenetrable plate armor. Margaret would play support next to Jax, and Flora would stand watch south of the Lighthouse in case the sahuagin came from multiple directions. A quick communion with nature by Jax revealed that almost a dozen sahuagin were on their way towards the lighthouse along with a massive squid-like creature. When the RKB mentioned this squid to Filip, he explained how this was clearly a morkoth, a vicious monster known for traveling across different dimensions and raiding ships for treasure and relics. Good to know. Finally, the moment of truth arrived as Filip said his last goodbyes to the party and prepared the ritual to cast 'True Polymorph'. Within seconds the magical barrier around the island collapsed, drenching the party to the bone with gale-force winds and rain. Movement from the island's coasts revealed sahuagin crawling out of the water towards the RKB, claws unsheathed and weapons drawn. The battle had begun. Two sahuagin abominations with dozens of arms rushed towards Flora and Margaret, toppling both of them in a flurry of claw strikes. Jax fought back against these abominations and some of the more powerful sahuagin, dealing severe amounts of damage despite exhausting his rage powers back in Noggin. Down in the cabins Kacie and Beleren fended off some larger sahuagin, and when enough of them had congregated around the entrance Beleren used his Cloak of the Mountebank to disappear from the room and ignite his makeshift explosive. The subsequent shockwave of fire and flour blinded one of the sahuagin and left all three of them with significant burns. Inside the study the second phase of the battle began as Jax and Asdis funneled sahuagin into the bottleneck of the front entrance. Jax rescued Margaret's unconscious body from outside, and Asdis revived the sailor with her 'Lay On Hands' ability during a lull in the fighting. Flora tried escaping into the study along with everybody else, but a sahuagin raked its claws across her back and knocked her out at the front entrance. Margaret dragged her into the library while Beleren and Kacie took shots at the sahuagin from the other side of the room, Margaret administering a healing potion to Flora once they were safely hidden behind the bookcases. 'Safely' proved misleading, as a few seconds later the morkoth crashed through the library's southern wall with one of its gigantic tentacles. The creature lumbered up to Margaret and nearly KO'd her in a single blow, forcing her to retreat deeper inside the library. The rest of the party had dispatched with the monsters at the front entrance, so Jax and Beleren rushed inside the library while Asdis and Kacie circled around the southern edge of the lighthouse to attack the Morkoth from behind. The morkoth screeched at the party telepathically for their insolence, firing off powerful lightning attacks that felled Flora and Margaret and dealt an incredible amount of damage to the often-invulnerable Jax. It took several powerful blows from Jax's greataxe Redemption and Asdis' flail, but just when it looked like the battle would end in defeat Jax found a weakness in the morkoth's armor and landed the killing blow. Afterwards Kacie rushed over to Margaret to stabilize her fellow shipmate. As the rain poured outside the RKB took a moment to regroup and assess the damage wrought by the Sunken God's forces, the entire southern wing of Filip's library destroyed by the morkoth's path of destruction. Flora went up to the morkoth's body to investigate its anatomy, discovering a metallic sheen to its exterior that may have been used by the monster to travel across planes of reality and raid ships. As Beleren wondered aloud on how Filip would feel about the battle's damage to the island, the party heard a massive explosion overhead in the elf wizard's laboratory. Rushing upstairs, the party discovered a scene of smoke and chaos with the lighthouse's roof completely blown off. Filip lay in a pile of rubble and splinters (his coat rack constructs destroyed in the ritual), but when he came to in Flora's arms all he said was 'I did it'. The exhausted wizard opened his hands, and revealed to the party a small squid-like creature with olive-colored scales, bright yellow eyes, and a mouth lined with several rows of jagged teeth. It was Mórolingwe, the world's first kraken in over two decades. Helped to his feet by Flora and the others, Filip thanked the party for their defense of the lighthouse during this glorious spell. Assessing the destruction of his lighthouse, Filip accepted that he'd have to travel elsewhere to defend and foster his kraken creation. Beleren suggested he travel somewhere safe like Noggin or Sardivelia, but Filip demurred given his distaste for politics and pondered different islands he could use to continue his research in private. Regardless, he thanked the party again and wished them all the world's luck in defeating the Sunken God in Kassadeia before teleporting them back to Noggin. If their work on Filip's lighthouse was any sign, the party would fare remarkably well against the full power of the monstrous deity.
Rewards Granted
- Beleren Hazid advanced to lvl 15
- Asdis Loderr advanced to lvl 8
