Excerpt from Richard's Journal - Kraken and Thunder

Day 1
Everything is moving so fast and so slow at the same time. I can’t believe that Ban is gone, we failed. Maybe Kithri can be saved, but it feels like revenge is the only real motivation left. We met a new guy, Smee on the way back. I almost like him, but it seems “too soon” to be replacing Ban. I can’t believe his antics are gone forever. Telling Law sucked, but direct honesty is the only way to go. Wish I could have told Mann, but we are shipping out with Tahou in the morning. Better get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be hell.
 
Day 2
Headed out to sea. Everyone is busy with sea keeping chores, or trying not to heave so not much happened. Hilariously, Kithri got in an argument with the cook over the state of the kitchen. From what she said it was horrible, but the food was pretty good. Teddy was surprised we ate the “leftovers” but they were awesome. Should have known better than to try something called “fish surprise” though.
 
Day 3+
Craziest day of my life so far, and that is saying something. First we got caught in a storm and then had to fight a giant sea monster. It was hard to get an attack opportunity and it seemed to control the storm itself. It pulled half our sailors into the sea. I got grabbed a couple of times but was able to break free. I didn’t see most of the fight on the boat, I flew out to take the battle to it over the water. I am told that Tolondri’s efforts were really frustrated, but Kithri did alright and Smee really helped with healing magic. It was rough, between the grabbing and the throwing it was going poorly. I think it must have gotten tired of toying with us as it threw the whole boat with us, Tahou, and what was left of the crew onto an island. The nativse were in fact seriously not friendly. The wanted to take us to Peele, which was fine with me as that was a name on the list. Kithri, though kept getting pissy (pun intended) with them and they took it out on her bad. We had a tense moment and I thought I was going to have to fight 50 guys with no weapons and a bunch of injuries from the Kraken (that’s what Peele said the monster was called, getting ahead of myself a bit). Ban would have been so much better at diffusing the situation, but we eventually came to an “agreement”. We did end up separated from Tahou and the crew though.
 
Day 3+
As if that wasn’t enough for 1 day (not sure exactly how many days it has been, seem to have spent some time unconscious), the natives stuffed us in a huge cave to talk to Peele. She was freaking huge with some giant body guards. According to her she is from the plane of fire, maybe some kind of royalty, and has a grudge against Beltorious. He somehow trapped her on the island and the kraken is keeping her here. I was pretty elated to find a powerful ally, but I realized we only had her word, could we make things worse by freeing her? Even worse that that she seemed to have given up, not willing to actually fight the kraken, or do anything except be all snotty about her useless awesomeness. Finally she hinted that some random rock could help. I thought maybe it was the anti-magic stone I had, but I lost it to the natives. She believes the rock is on a nearby island though. Smee was pretty infatuated with the plane of fire and their metal working, but she was too haughty for any useful conversation.
 
The natives gave our stuff back, and we finally are going to get some sleep. Kithri’s magic tower is super awesome. Agenda for tomorrow: random rock finding.
 
Day 4
Took a raft to the other island. Smee cast for information on the rock, and we got another stupid poem. Hopefully this one doesn’t kill any one, it’s already come close. My sprit bear pointed out the general direction of a disturbance from another plane and we rolled out to it. While I was looking over the trees, the rest of the party got ambushed, down for the count before I noticed. I fought, but there was a ton of these little frog men, with a bunch of annoying magic. I fought on despite getting tied up, but they eventually subdued me. When I came to they had tied me up with I bet every bit of rope on this stupid island. I looked more like a spool than a man.
 
They appeared to be sacrificing us to their “god” or something. Kithri broke free, turning into a squirrel, and she chewed like our lives depended on it (which they did). With Tolondri free, she cut me out in a single blow and it was on. We wanted to get revenge for the last few humiliations - weird frog god didn’t stand a chance. Dang thing swallowed me, but I just keep slicing. Eventually it puked and tried a taste of Tolondri, but she went down just as rough. We found the stone we think we need in the shape of a hook in its belly. Of course Tolondri got a new trophy. I thought we would have to fight of the crazy colored little frog dudes, but they seem pretty happy about its death. We are sleeping in Kithri’s tower on the beach to cross back over in the morning. None of us were super excited about trying Kraken infested waters at night.
 
Day 5
Who would have guessed, the drunken captain of the Rolling Thunder, Tahou is some sort of wind and wave demi-god. The rock we retrieved awakened his power and apparently he is the protector of this island. Also, apparently he really hates Krakens. Peele was at least right that the rock helped in that regard. He fixed his ship with magic, and sent us with Pele back to the city on it propelled by a magic wave while he went to fight the kraken. We didn’t see the whole thing, but he kept swapping from a giant eagle to a whale. The dissipating storm suggests the Kraken is no more.
 
Day 6
We are arriving, I don’t know what is going to happen so I am just jotting down a quick note before we dock. It looks like the civil war has started. Tolondri wants to check on the queen. Kithri is afraid that she will try to kill her, and I have no love for the queen. That said it is a starting place so we are going to check in on our guild mates and Tolondri’s guard friend and see if we can “save” the queen. I warned my friends that the loss of magic might leave me befuddled like last time which might be a disaster if they don’t control the situation.