Sound Cue: Mission Impossible Theme

Oh Mama... I wish you were here. I could really use a good hug right now.
 
You remember how I said we were on our way to save Capitan Rodger’s ship (which has some of our crew on board)? Well we found the sahuagin island where they were taken, but things... things did not go very well for us.
 
Now remember, you know I am okay because I am writing to you, so do not worry as you read this. But mama... it was rough.
 
When we first found the island, we kept the ship at a distance so they would not spot us and raise an alarm or something. The others stayed behind while I turned into an ocatopus and swam closer to get a good look. I found out their patrols and where the doors to get in were located, but I did not see any sneaky ways to get in. I went back and reported to Capitan Dio, and he and Rodger decided it would be best to go in through the door on the shore (since these are water creatures and probably spend less time on land). Before we left though, they all agreed to let me rest so I could recover my beastie form.
 
That was our first mistake, mama.
 
I did not see any of this, but the others tell me that a group of seven sahuagin found our ship and attacked. Kressara and Rodger got beat up a bit, but they were all able to take care of the trespassers without letting any escape to give away our position. Unfortunately, Dio now thought we could wait no longer, so I was not able to get my beastie back. And honestly, as worried as I was about that, I was more concerned that they did not call me when they were fighting. To come up on deck and find some of them injured was very frightening! I used a lot of magic to heal them as best I could because I felt so bad for having not helped at all.
 
That was my second mistake. So was not waiting to get my beastie back. I definitely needed it later on.
 
We moved the ship to a different position so it could hopefully remain unspotted, and we all swam towards the entrance I told them about.
 
(Also, mama, can you believe that I am the slowest swimmer out of all of us on the mission? After all those years of pretending to be an ocatapus, I am not nearly as good a swimmer as I should be, I think. I mean mine gosh! I cannot believe it was me who was holding us up! If I could have turned into a beastie it would have been no problem, but because I could not, Dio had to help me swim to keep up! Mine gosh... I think I will need to practice swimming now.)
 
When we got to the door, it was not locked, but it was blocked. The only way we could think of to get in without using too much magics or being too loud was to just push it open really hard! So Rodger and Kressara did, and they broke the blockade no problem! But on the other side were some sahuagin waiting for us. It did not take us long to get past them, but then there was a gate in our way. So I used my super strong muscles to lift the grate (with some help from Rodger) and we made it into the lair!
 
Now comes mistake number three, mama.
 
I have been practicing my spells and learned a few new ones, which I prepared to help us on our mission. I used pass without a trace to keep us stealthy, and then locate creature to find our friends. But I did not realize I could only focus on one at a time, so we lost all our stealthy and had to fight more and more sahuagin. And, to make it worse, the way the lair was set up made my locate spell very unuseful. I was focusing on our weapons master (Klip) and I could feel that he was down below the ground, but that did not help us find how to get to him. This place was like a maze, and around every corner were dangerous fish people wanting to kill us.
 
That was twice I was not useful on this mission, mama. I was determined not to make it three times.
 
Fortunately, I am used to sneaking around on the island, so I was able to dart around the area and look for trouble. Dio made it even better by turning me invisible! Had I not been so worried about my friends, I would have very much enjoyed this spell, mama, it was a lot of fun getting to run around knowing people could not see you at all!
 
It took a little while, but I was finally able to find a few members of our crew: Gorgrom, our pilot, and Chesha, our carpenter, as well as a member of Rodger’s crew and some other people that were all chained together and being forced to work. So I ran back to Capitan Dio as fast as I could and we decided that I would go in and turn into a bear--as a distraction, you see--and the others were follow after me and take out the magic users first.
 
That part of the plan went pretty well, actually. It did not take us long to win this battle, but the problem was... we were all a little worse for wear. I was almost out of spells and had no more beasties to turn into, Capitan Dio was almost out of spells too, I think, and Kressara was looking very hurt. And you know what, mama? We still were only on the top floor of this very tall lair! It could be floors and floors of more sahuagin before we found the rest of our crew!
 
This is the part where I started to be very frightened. If my friends got hurt, I was running out of ways to help them, and if we continued through this tower, I was certain it would not end well. But if we turned around and left, we might never be able to get the rest of our crew back!
 
It is times like these that I am very grateful I am not in charge. I cannot imagine having to make that choice...
 
But do not worry, mama, Dio is super super smart. He had a plan, for sure.
 
We decided to--
 
Oh! I forgot to do my star charting, mama! I will have to finish writing later! (I know I did not need to say that, I could have just continued writing after I was finished and no one would know. But I like to do it this way... it makes me feel more like I am really talking to you, you know?)
 
I will be back soon!
 
-Memen