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Thu 15th Sep 2022 03:25

Chaos Erupts in Arcadia

by Thomas Tallfellow

After the strange sensation subsides, the party finds themselves in the basement of a building that resembles that of many of the structures in Lowtown. The entire building is quaking and rumbling. We quickly make our way upstairs and emerge onto the streets of Lowtown. The sky has darkened, apparently the sun has now darkened, the rumbling and quaking is being caused by crystaline vines erupting from the earth all around the city. The vines grow rapidly and shooting stars are peppering the earth and destroying buildings. The population of Lowtown is in a total panic as vines are swiping from the ground, whomever they can reach. Just then, Jade spies a younger version of the halfling named Harry they saw in their joint vision just a day earlier. Jade immediately calls out to him and begins to run towards him. The sight of a half-elven barbarian running towards him, frightens Harry to the point he begins to flee from the party. Bob casts a Misty Step spell to get in front of Harry and grapple him as Thomas yells in halfling language to Harry that they were sent to find him and work together to stop whatever is happening to the world. The vines are numerous and all around the group, preventing the party from reuniting without fighting their way past. Harry quickly escapes the grasp of Bob and begins running back the way he came, but is attacked and grasped by a vine. Bob is now assaulted by two vines which quickly grasp him, while the remainder of the party has their own vines to fight off. Bob, seeing Harry alone and in desperate trouble, blasts the vine grappling the halfling with Eldritch magic, destroying the vine and freeing Harry. As the party fights off the vines attacking each of them, Harry renders aid to party members closest to him as the two vines engaged with Bob prove to be too much for the Warlock. Their persistent and violent attacks render Bob limp and unconscious. Before anyone can reach Bob to render aid, the party watches in horror as one of the vines picks up his limp body and slams it upon the ground, shattering his bones and rendering him lifeless. The party eventually fights off the vines as Harry commands them to follow him to his ship. The party convinces Harry to wait long enough for Jade to recover Bob's lifeless body and Eeblock to return to the basement for the chair. When Harry sees Eeblock emerge from the building with the chair, his excitement was impossible to contain as he exclaimed "Good, you have a helm!", and he begins to hurry towards the docks. As they rush towards the dock, some of the vines can be seen transforming into bipedal entities after growing to a certain size. Clearly, this is more bleed from some other realm brought on by the cracks in our reality.
 
The docks are utter chaos. There are only three ships left in the docks with many citizens of the city trying to get aboard them. A group of armed, but unadorned ruffians is spotted barring the way of the masses and proclaiming that the remaining ships have been commandeered by the king for official use. This prompts Thomas to make his way through the crowd towards this person, with Harry in tow, making just enough space for Eeblock and Jade to follow through the crowd. Thomas was still in possession of the king's letter citing them as being in the king's employ and handed the letter to the leader of those blocking access to the ships. Thomas explains that they are on an urgent mission for the king and Harry points to his ship, stating that it is imperative that we get to it. The lead ruffian crumples up the letter while slyly telling the group he doesn't work for the king. Knowing time is of the essence, the party quickly engages the ruffians and with the aid of some of Harry's crew, force their way past and onto the ship. Eeblock sets the chair down on the ships deck and takes up a position on the bow along side Thomas to pepper the ruffians with ranged attacks to prevent them from following on board the ship. At that moment, a strange creature emerges from below deck, sits down in the chair and begins the process of navigating the ship from the dock. Much to everyone's surprise, rather than the ship drifting upon the water away from the docks, the ship begins to rise into the air. It appears there is more to this chair, Captain Harry and this ship than the party expected.