Session 45: Nauti Reptiles

General Summary

14th Horisal 836PD As recounted by Simeon   Cracked, but not broken,   The Unbroken are together again, fragile but holding together. What does not kill us makes us stronger… but these snakes had a damn good try at killing us…   It was 14th Horisal and we were all at sea – well up a creek without a paddle, which is to say on a boat, grounded on a rock, which had no legitimate reason to be in the middle of a river.   Then the hissing started…   I, Simeon the Dwendalian, comrade of Sehanine, had thus already exercised the ritual of walking on water for the Unbroken, but as we became aware of movement it was fast as a cobra’s strike that we found ourselves in battle.   Ever our lookout and alert to all things Ceridwen called forth a Crusader’s Mantle from her blade. Sadly, for many reasons I was destined never to find what magic she had summoned. The boat was already swarming with snake people, who counting their lives cheap and slithered headlong into all-out attack. Lithe and nimble as ever Sabali sidestepped a bite... sidestepped that is straight into a scimitar. His answer was never in doubt as the snake was brought low in two blows, and he himself ran the gunwales from prow to stern, seeking to support Zeni in her vulnerability.   Lord Raphael drew and engaged and now two snakes were dead. Wind found herself all at sea, and sought a vantage point up the mast to maximise her bowmanship. At his point my mind is a ship in irons, for some strangely half visible Abomination was on the forecastle. Casting against us unawares Orlando, Ceridwen I entered enchanted slumber. They dreaming perhaps, like I, of half-remembered adventures in the Feywild. Next, I know Orlando has punched sense like crashing spray into my frame. I look forward to returning this service when I may.   Now we became aware of other half-snake creatures on the banks of the river… one each side attempting again to attack our minds with auroras in the air. Forewarned by that first loss to sleep we strengthen our wills, and most remained alert. You know Zeni really should have feather fall loaded if Wind is so prone to distraction (or distracted to prone.. same thing).   Now though the dance of melee was upon the deck, a hornpipe and jig of Sabali, Ceridwen, Wind and Sabali dispatching the snakes who slithered on hatch grates. Just two now remained, and the Abomination statuesque on the companionway.   While the first wave of snakes was now but an undertow, the full battle revealed others on the bank. This was no time for gentle tacking, the party fell to a broad reach. Hexblade’s curse from Lord Raphael as he entered the fight in earnest. A simple bless from the Moonweaver, channelled through myself – would that I had the capacity to extend to all, only five could be covered and I favoured those I thought most in need. Sabali, would that bless have helped you, or simply got you into more trouble? Barely in time I came about and finished the cast, as the Abomination roared its presence into our minds. All that hatred was beating on the closed portholes of our psyche, safely enfolded by the lady – only the other snakes were fleeing.   Orlando, ever the greatest of the Unbroken at destruction (for I have yet to see any others of us come close to his devastating fusillades), now stepped forward and began a systematic dismasting of the Abomination, shrugging off a suggestion from the Mind Whisperer ashore. Lady Enessa was not so fortunate, facing a Pit Master alone we saw a good part of her life force rent like sails in a gale snapping free of a mainsheet.   More light displays – but our fate was not to founder on those reefs...Zeni briefly enthralled, but soon wakened by Sabali, himself standing firm against a whirlpool of suggestion. Now Snake and Zeni traded counterspells as Wind, Orlando and Ceridwen faced the Abomination surrounded by magically energies. Indeed, while Lord Raphael and Lady Enessa fought the Pit Masters, Zeni himself sent twinned ball lightning to add to the storm, forcing them through counterspell with counterspell.   Now I faced the hardest choice, for I could see Sabali bravely alone on shore Rikki-Tikki-Tavi facing Nagini. At the same time I had seen the Lady Enessa spars broken on the stairs, helpless beneath a Pit Master. I hoped a quick Healing Word would give her space to survive, but all magic was still drawing counterspells from the snakes, and that spell capsized and could not right. Sabali I would have to cover later, for now my healing hands were all I could do, and the Lady was again pulled to the sandy beach of consciousness.   Lord Raphael left the ship to become a pilot’s cutter across the water to the other Pit Master, many hands were needed on the capstans as we close hauled the fight. Still a tsunami from the bow and the tide turned again with Lady Enessa once more drowning, and myself swimming against a race of damage. But tides obey the moon and we all gave thanks for the Moonweaver’s presence. I cast a lifebelt of healing word again to Enessa, and now no storm of counterspells snapped the line. Yet my own ship’s bell, tolled vainly against the Pit Master’s flat snake ears.   No good deed goes unpunished, as a past decision haunts: Sabali was unable to prevent base instinct overriding conscious thought – it sending him running goosewinged for help.   Faith then to Wind, who showed us leading lights through the fog at this moment, running her dagger clean up the Abomination back and as it turned catching its throat and jaw. A snake tongued body that dropped to the deck. Orlando cleared the final minor snake, and the boat was ours save one Pit Master. This snake was deaf to the lookout’s calls – ignoring stern rebukes - and the ship’s bells.   Meanwhile on the poop deck Zeni as navigator plotted course across the water with a compass of lightning charted precisely to Mind Whisperer with Sabali in thrall. So, from head to wind, our battle now became a series of tacks. Mind Whisperers sending broadsides of eldritch blasts. Our returns of weapons: mundane, magical and spiritual aimed at the rigging of Pit Masters. Sabali raced back to support Lord Raphael, who fell. Wind claimed a second sinking, killing the Pit Master on board to clear the decks. Now we could see but three snakes slithering, as we took the battle to a broad reach. Then again - man (or rather cat) overboard as Sabali’s instincts split tiller from rudder…   The main Unbroken flotilla still held course – Orlando now able to aid Lord Raphael with healing words, and a cannonade that masquerades as a mere arquebus. This allowing the Lord to drop anchor on the beached Pit Master, and Wind to hole the Mind whisperer below the waterline, once again returning Sabali to windward.   And now with enemy fleeing do we jury rig and give chase, or look to keel haul?