Story Time With Gregor: Toughest thing you ever fought

Gregor is sitting in a corner of the Skybound Inn. Picking at a mostly finished plate of food
Seraphina arrives and orders a doppelbock bier--her favorite. She nods and waves to Gregor when she sees him. "Heyo~ How's it going?"
Bella wanders in behind Sera. And finds a seat with a mug of hot cider and mashed potatoes. She smiles warmly. “Blessings. “
Violet is deep in contemplation of her glass of wine when she hears Sera and Bella, "Oh, hello! Would you mind one more?"
Giving Violet a smile as well Bella nods. “Blessings Ms. Villeneuve. “
"Hey guys, how is everyone?'
“Hungry. “Bella laughs and sits down to stuff her face with mashed potatoes.
Gregor Laughing "I see. Want a story to go with those mashed potatoes?"
"Who every by me a beer or ale, gets to pick"
"I will defer to Ms. Seraphina, she arrived first," Violet says, ordering some pretzels for the table.
“A story would be wonderful. “Bella grins and immediately orders Gregor an ale or two. “But I would never be one to pick a good story. “
"Well, that depends on the subject," Gregor replies.
“I love stories about sailing. “She offers as she takes a huge bite of food. “And adventure. “Says Lady Mirabella Rosebriar
"Sailing, that I got. What kind of adventure, chases, pirates, rescues?"
"I do love chases," Violet says as she nibbles on a soft pretzel and beer cheese.
"Toughest thing you ever fought before meeting all of us," says Seraphina, Stuffs a chunk of pretzel into her mouth.
Bella nods to all of this.
"Hmm, give me a moment. The simple boring answer is any stingy or poor Quartermaster but that makes for a boring story." Gregor ponders.
Schatzi heads in and orders themself a hot cider and a sausage and then seeing their friends will head their way.
"Good afternoon Larux, please join us," Violet says, waving them to a chair. "Mr. Kalinowski is regaling us with stories of his past."
Bella grins at Schatzi. “Blessings. “And then nods to Gregor.
"Now Question, Fought or Fought and killed?" Gregor asks.
Smiling warmly to Violet and Bella, "Thank you, good afternoon, blessings on you as well." They look at Gregor with a grin, "Whichever is more interesting." Says Larux
“Whichever will not be described in a way to make us lose our appetites. “Says Lady Mirabella
Violet looks disappointed at that addendum but shrugs and sips her wine.
"Whichever. I don't mind either result,” replies Seraphina
"Okay since we said Water, I got one for you” Gregor
Bella looks at Gregor expectantly. Sipping on her cider.
Larux Cutting off a bite of their sausage they savor it looking at Gregor with interest.
Gregor launches into his story. "We were working around Avalon. They had wanted us to clear out an Island port where they were having "Issues". Bad seas when the weather was fine everywhere else. People and small animals were going missing or finding them days later with no memory. Crabs of unusual size."
"Crabs?" asks Seraphina
"Extremely small or extremely large...I can see either being horrific," Schatzi says taking a sip of their hot cider
"Yeah, they have pinchers and walk kind of sideways," replies Gregor. "We got near to the port location; to hell if I could remember what it was called; the Sea Water got choppy and coarse, like it was windy and a storm was going to blow in. But the wind was calm and steady. One of the guys calls out that he sees a Giant Octopus, on the other side of the boat. We all grab our gear and haul over to the side, only get a glance of it slither away. I personally didn't see it, but giant octopi this close to the shore are rare and they can seriously wreck your day."
Bella sets her mug down and leans across the table. Eyes wide, listening. “…Giant octopus…” She whispers.
"That sounds frightening. Did you ever find out why the water was so strange in the area?" Violet asks.
Gregor raises eyebrows with a smirk. "We unass, umm that's unload, from the boat to into this port. Not big, larger than a fishing town, with 2 warehouses to store stuff. Taking a look around the town, one of the guys does find the carcass of a giant crab that someone had killed; they apparently had trapped it and then beat it to death with rocks. Being townspeople, they ate it. Asking around the town we found the general direction that the trouble seemed to be coming from. Being later in the day, it was decided that we would head out 1st thing in the morning. "
"Since there really wasn't a tavern or inn, we sheltered in the warehouses. Posting rotating guards. Gratefully nothing happened overnight. Since we were on ship time we were up shortly after dawn. We roam in the general direction of the supposed threat. We started near the beach and started off. Really didn't see much, did catch a glimpse of now and then of giant crabs but they usually skittered away. "
Seraphina Listens as she drinks her beer. Schatzi nods leaning in to listen intently. Violet leans forward, eating another bite of pretzel.
"We really didn't find anything out of the ordinary right away. Then it was noticed that the grass was trying to grab us. Any grass within 5 feet of a creature it tried to grasp onto it. Ineffectively, but still tried. It went after butterflies, rabbits, goats, and anything that walked within 5 feet of it or so. "
Bella is slowly climbing over the table as she listens. Getting closer as the story goes on and she gets more into it. “…man-eating grass….” She whispers. Eyes as wide as saucers.
"That was when we knew some weird shit was happening. We backtracked and started to notice when the grass stopped. Then we found it had a perimeter. It seemed to be circular, we figured that there was something in the middle that was doing. Unfortunately, the map of the island wasn't that detailed. After a bit of trial and error, we found it was about a mile from a cave on the seaside near a cliff. (Of Course)."
"Well, it tried to be man-eating grass but failed badly"
"How did the grass intend to eat a person anyway? Get it together, weirdo nature." Violet comments
Bella is so engrossed she blinks and then shakes her head to think for a moment. “Oh, yes. Grass has no mouth. “Then refocuses on Gregor.
"None of us were happy about going into a cave. Especially in Avalonian waters. If you’re not careful you have to worry about the tide. Fighting something in the water sucks, and few of us can breathe water. Fortunately, the tide was going out, so the decision was made to enter the cave. As we entered it, we noticed odd things. Broken mirrors, hair brushes, random baubles that were waterlogged and damaged. Then we got to the inner cave, where the walls were covered with the bones of its slain creatures and baubles from sunken wrecks."
"That's a bad sign," Seraphina smirks. Schatzi nods, their sausage and cider forgotten...entirely engrossed in the story.
"The next thing we know this fog rolls in out of nowhere, no one can see anything. We started to bunch up to cover each other’s backs when we all heard a screeching sound. Then it sounded like words? Later found out it was Aquan. Then something started attacking us. It was hard to see it right away because of the fog. Unfortunately, we were hit with a Thunderwave, most of us didn't stay on our feet from that."
"Needless to say, it was a disaster, the thing could grab one of us then turn to water and move across the cave. The fog would roll in randomly, spectral apparitions of Sea Hags and dead sailors. Our healers were working overtime to keep us on our feet. Then it would stop and be silent for a minute or two. Then start all over again. Then it cursed one of the healers, and we realized we were out of our league. It got in front of the entrance and dropped 'fear' on us. That really messed up. By this time, we had lost 3 or 4 people, 1 of them had been ripped in half, Top to bottom."
Schatzi shakes their head slightly, "Horrifying," is all they can manage. Violet nods sadly, "I haven't had that close of a call... maybe the flame-throwing troops at Mr. Kaiser's plant."
"We knew we were hitting it, but we could see that we were not hurting it. We were starting to get desperate, one guy pulled out his expensive 'Toy'. It was a silvered longsword. That seemed to hurt it and actually do damage. He didn't last much longer after he did that. It hit him with a death glare right after frightening him. Dropped like a sack of potatoes. Someone grabbed him then we bolted out of there. The Fury was clearly playing with us, for her own amusement, it could have easily cleaved through us with no effort. That was definitely one of the worst 10 minutes that I have ever been through. I think the reason it played with us so much was that we couldn't really hurt it."
"And that is the story of the Toughest thing I have fought water-related before I met all of you"
Bella sucks in a breath. It’s clear she had been holding it during the story. “That’s…. horrible….” She whispers. "Wow, that's crazy!" Seraphina exclaims.
“And…. what about the town?” asked Bella. Schatzi nods at Bella's question looking to Gregor hopefully.
"Nothing right away." Gregor states "We retreated back to it getting hit by a Giant crab once. The town was about 2 miles from the cave so the grass did not affect them. "
"We went back to town and reported in with the boat and captain what we had found. The boss went through the contract line by line and found us a loophole, so we were not on a suicide mission or in breach of contract. Help was called. We ended up staying at the port for about 1 and a half weeks. Very nerve-wracking. Every now and then we would get hit by a Giant Crab. Once we thought she was going to hit us herself. The Fog rolled in really bad. Everyone got torches out and kind of freaked out. One night it did hit the town and tried to get at us in the warehouses. Turns out magical Damage hurts it. Once the magic user laid into it there was not much fight in the creature. Some of the houses got damaged a bit."
"Did that put an end to it?" asked Seraphina
"Later the Avalonian Navy showed up with a bunch of heavily armed marine groups and some higher-end casters. From what I understand they had a slightly better time than we did. They didn't really want to listen to us or believe what we had found. Most Mercs or Marines do not carry magic weapons or gear. Expensive and stolen when you get captured. As it turns out the "Sea Fury" is 1, a Fey, and 2 is immune to non-magical attacks. So, we could hit it all day and do nothing. We were able to find out later that they had to res 2 guys but the rest got trashed a bit before they were able to bring it down. They were a lot nicer when they came out. When they killed the creature the grass went back to being normal. It seems it was related to its lair. The Crabs also went back to normal. Well, most of them. The dead ones didn't change."
"So... like the Osterlinds, then," Violet muses.
"I think. So? Part of the reason I am so wary of Fey. They tend to do the weird shit. I swear Avalon is infested with them."
"Infested is a rather... unpleasant term to use about that." Seraphina notes.
“Oh. “Bella’s eyes are still twice the size they normally are and she slowly sits back in her seat. “That sounds… terrifying. “
"Slightly, more terrifying now, than when I was going through it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss." Gregor notes. "Saying Avalon is infested would be rude, But I admit other than home I ran into more there than anywhere else"
"Avalon is a kingdom that holds magic in higher regard than industrialization, if I recall correctly. Perhaps that is what draws the fey-blooded denizens of the world there?" Seraphina asks.
“I would love to see it. “Bella returns to filling her face with now cold potatoes.
"I have never been to Avalon either," Violet muses.
Schatzi nods slightly, "I'd enjoy seeing it also," they say, taking a sip of their cider, "My cousin spent quite some time there."
"Wouldn't mind going as long as I don't have to go fight," Gregor notes.
"Perhaps a vacation there is worth a consideration. Gods know we make enough money adventuring to cover a luxury trip." Seraphina notes.
"True" Gregor comments. "So again, next week? Who's turn is it to decide what the story is?"
"Definitely. Stories and pretzels sound like a good tradition." Violet states.
"I don't have many stories from my own life, but I can probably make something up if people are interested." Seraphina states
"Well, I meant whose turn it was to ask me about a story." Gregor points out.
"Oh! Oh okay. Why don't you pick the story next time, Miss Violet?" Seraphina states.
Next time, big battles.....