Excerpt from Desmond's Journal: Death By A Thousand Crabs
18 Palesun, 252
Alright.
Lesson of the day: it's probably safe for me to assume that any adventure, irrespective of how simple it appears to be on the surface, will never be a straightforward one. I mean, who in their mundane thinking mind would've expected a search for a missing cargo ship to end in mortal combat against a genocidal, floating, slimy squid monster… thing? I certainly didn't.
Let me start from the beginning. This was the first actual adventure I was going to go on; my first job, if you will. We were told that a vessel, which was supposed to be bringing a shipment of various construction materials to Galloran's Port earlier this week, had never arrived. The dock worker in charge of the shipment informed us that a scrying was performed on the ship, which revealed that it had been beached on an island nearby, seeming to have sustained significant damage. We were also told that no crew was able to be spotted in the scry. I don't know what this scry is, but it sounds like a handy little thing. Anyway, our job was to locate the shipwreck and find, possibly also rescue, the missing sailors, for which we were offered 100 gold each. Simple enough, I thought.
Coming to our group, I got to meet a couple new adventurers again! Of whom I'm starting to now believe that Vareholm probably has an endless supply of, but I was still also glad to have a few familiar, friendly faces around, so I didn't feel completely lost. There was Ash, of course, with her trusted pan, which somehow still hits like something several times its size and weight, and her extremely bitey miniature spirit rocks, which were tiny crabs this time around! There was Jack, with his enthusiastic ape friends. He also had a stick that turned into a snake; real hugger, that one. There was Gigglemesh the Daunting, a goblin of the likes I haven't seen before. In a way, he reminded me a bit of Harold. They both radiated an air of confidence, only with Harold it was calm and held back while with Gigglemesh, it was a bit more… bombastic and flamboyant. Oh, and he could turn into the size of a house. And finally there was Shark, who I can safely say is probably the most interesting individual I've met thus far. He was a literal walking Shark, and equally as deadly, even on land. He also seems to be an avid enjoyer of seafood.
We encountered our first obstacle before we even began the job. We did not have the means to reach the island where the ship was found. Fortunately, the others knew someone at Galloran’s Port who might be able to help us. Her name was Ruga. I don't know much about her as we did not really get a chance to speak, but she looked like she was a Duergar (dwarves from the underdark). I remember reading about them somewhere but never met one before. Fascinating place, the underdark. Also she had a cool eye patch. Anyway, she had a ship, so we asked her if she could take us to the island, but she offered us something better, and before we knew it, we were at the island, looking at the wreckage of the missing ship. Ruga told us she would wait by the ship, so we started to investigate the wreckage for any hints as to what might have happened to the sailors.
After a bit of looking around, we came to the conclusion that the sailors might be lost. There were a lot of construction materials missing, some strewn around on the shore. Before we could decide what to do next, we heard the sound of footsteps approaching us from the woods. Three individuals were walking toward us, or towards the ship, at least. It took us a second to realize that these were actually the sailors, But they had… changed. Their physical appearance had mutated. Blueish-green scales were growing on their skin, and they seemed to be secreting some sort of strange moisture. We tried to talk to them, but they either did not hear us or pretended not to hear us. We watched as they walked up to some of the leftover crates of building materials and started carrying them away into the woods. We decided to trail them, unnoticed, and see where they were taking these things. Following them for a while, we eventually reached a clearing with what appeared to be a temple in the center.
There, I think I saw one of the strangest things I've seen till now. Giant crabs, walking around and ordering the sailors, who seem to be following them to the tee. It was a peculiar sight, but before we could take it all in, one of them noticed us, and the inevitable confrontation happened. We tried to talk our way out of it and resolve it peacefully, but the crabs were not having it, and ordered the sailors to attack us. The crabs also joined the fray alongside them, more showing up from inside the temple. I think the strange mutation also gave the sailors some powers, because they were hitting harder than anyone had expected. It took us a while, especially because we were trying to not seriously injure the sailors, but we eventually managed to knock them all out and kill all the crabs. Shark got a delicious meal out of it. We tied up all the sailors and took away their weapons. Eventually, they came to. It turns out they didn't remember anything that just happened. We concluded that the crabs were somehow influencing their minds. Perhaps whatever they did was the cause for their mutations as well. We took them back to the ship, where Ruga was still waiting and agreed to watch over them until we returned. We went back to the clearing, aiming to investigate the temple and try to get to the bottom of whatever these crabs were up to on this island.
Looking around the temple, it seemed like the whole thing was built in haste. Wouldn't be surprised if all those building materials were used for this. There was an altar, which appeared to be a statue of a strange crab. Looking at it closer revealed that one of the claws was a lever in actuality. So, preparing ourselves for what might be on the other side, we pulled it and waited. The entire altar, along with the wall behind it started to move, revealing a narrow dark tunnel. As we went deeper and deeper into the passage, we eventually lost sight of the entrance, leaving us in complete darkness. Thankfully, my eyes had adjusted to it a bit, and Jack brought up a light that illuminated things. After what felt like an hour of twists and turns, something broke the monotonous silence. We started hearing faint sounds. They sounded alien, but uniform. The same sounds were repeating, as though it was a chant of some sort. Gigglemesh scouted ahead to see what it might be, since he could see further in the dark. The narrow tunnels eventually ended in a large cavernous chamber, the edges of which I couldn't even see. Gigglemesh told us he sees big crabs, bigger than the ones outside, just standing motionless. The chants were coming from them. They were standing around a pedestal which had a strange large Tome on it. Before we could really come up with a plan, we heard something move above us and one of us nearly got burnt by some strange acid that fell from the ceiling. Not wanting to be ambushed in a confined space, we moved into the chamber.
As soon as we entered the chamber, I heard a voice inside my head, and from the looks on some of the others’ faces, I think they did too… It felt strange, don't like it. It told us the crabs were trying to summon something, and ordered us to worship along with the crabs. Without time to really do anything, Gigglemesh ran forward and snatched the tome from the pedestal and threw it to the side, but the crabs continued to pray, unmoving and unreactive. It was starting to get really unnerving. Then, the voice spoke to us again, laughing as it revealed that we were too late, and the thing was already summoned, that Crabnarok was inevitable now. We then heard the same strange noise from above us in the unseen ceiling of the chamber, and a giant slime-tentacled creature dropped down right next to me.
We immediately scattered, preparing for an ambush, but nothing happened. Turns out this one thing was worth an entire ambush anyway. I tried to knock it away, but it grabbed me with its tentacles and restrained me. Jack summoned some giant wolf spiders to distract it, but the creature did something that made them immediately stop and begin groveling in front of it. Meanwhile, Gigglemesh, Ash, and Shark were trying to take out the worshiping crabs, which were still ominously unmoving, as it turned out this creature gained power as long as something worshiped it. Jack was providing support from a distance, trying to keep the creature at bay while also attacking the crabs. Ash’s spectral crabs were chewing away at their shells while Shark and Gigglemesh were beating them to death with some giant weaponry. They managed to kill one of those crabs, only to reveal the nasty surprise waiting inside. It was some sort of an unholy cross between a crab and whatever this thing was… I think? Things just went from bad to worse. That's when the creature that grabbed me teleported and grabbed Jack as well. I heard something in my mind as it tried to sneak it's way inside it… but I can't let that happen it doesn't belong here it doesn't belong here it doesn't belong here it doesn't belong here it's trespassing it's trespassing it's trespassing trespasser trespasser trespasser TRESPASSER THIS IS MINE! –
The crabs were eventually transforming and overwhelming us as they went down, while the creature was slowly attempting to eat through our heads. We were about to try and retreat, when Jack tried something in a last ditch effort. He transformed the creature into an eagle, and that might have been the single thing that was responsible for our success. He kept the eagle distracted while I joined the others to slowly but surely take down every single one of those crabs. They slowly realized that they were worshiping nothing and started to move and attack, but it was too late by then. After dealing with the crabs, we all surrounded the eagle, then Jack dropped the spell, bringing back the creature in its original form. Before it could react, we attacked it with everything we had. It tried to teleport away, but we managed to catch up and finally killed it. It was done. That's when we realized that Ash got hit with one of its attacks and had some of those scales that the sailors had, but thankfully I think killing it ended the curse as she slowly turned back to normal. My head felt like it was going to explode, but either Ash or Jack cast a spell that cleared it… I can't remember who. After that, we took the tome, and also some items and gold that we found in the cavern, and made our way out of the tunnels and returned to the ship, where Ruga teleported us back to Galloran’s Port.
We made it out of that one alive, but I don't think we have seen the last of these crabs or their cult yet. They said they were the cult of… Crabererak? I should look into this further, and make sure they don't get us by surprise.
-G.I.
Session: Cult of the Crustacean God
DM: Ratzah
Date: 5/16/22
