The Dungeon of Graves: Session 45
General Summary
Oops, All Crabs!
Report Date
22 Aug 2021
The crustaceans had been playing music throughout the meal and Lord Thevius had eaten his fill and had fallen asleep. Not wanting to wake the sleeping lordling, the others continued their discussion on the Sea Fury. Apparently their information on a coven of hags was outdated. Sometime between them receiving the order by Traipse and them arriving a bit aggressively at the King of Crabs’ home, one of the sea hags had consumed their fellow hags and had gained their power. Now they were planning on going into her lair to slay her and free the ocean of her influence. The King warned them once they swam into her lair, the Sea Fury would sense them so they wouldn’t be able to sneak up on the formidable Sea Fury.
Hearing this the Damned started to make a plan. With the members that had made the trip they planned on trying to make the rogue as strong as possible. Vai’len asked if Sinestra would be able to summon their pact again and the druid assured them that she would be able to summon animals to assist them and although she preferred her brothers of tooth and claw, she would be able to summon water breathing creatures. Kaertas had recently lost his left hand in the battle with the polar bear sharks, he had taken the mummified right hand of the revenant and fused it where his left had been. Jokingly, Vai’len went to give the necromancer a high five but stopped short. She asked if missing his normal left hand would limit his spell casting. He assured her that this was not true and that the mummified hand would be beneficial. However, he did express that in the future he would work on an illusion to hide the fact that he now sported two right hands. The conversation quickly changed from Kaertas’ failed attempt of becoming friends with a necromancer at the Last One Inn to wizard’s cyphering their spellbooks. After a few tangents, the group returned their attention back to the Sea Fury.
Sea horses had arrived to transport the Damned to the lair of the Sea Fury. They had thought it would be large seahorses in the traditional sense but what arrived to deliver them to their task were rather buff humanoids with horse heads. It was obvious that the Damned were a little distracted with their rides; disappointedly the sea horses morphed to accommodate the non fey. Trying to break the tension, Vai’len asked the sea horse’s name but forgot once again that names have more weight in the feywild. After the failed attempt, no one spoke until the aquatic aethrin delivered the Damned to their location. They were instructed that they would return in an hour, either for their bodies or for pick up. With the vote of confidence, the Damned entered the underwater cavern.
They approached the inky darkness of the cavern and as it turned sharply out of their vision, those who did not naturally have darkvision were glad they had purchased goggles as the water was dark. Upon further inspection of the cavern wall they had found themselves stuck behind, it revealed that it was an illusion. The rogue tried to play with Kaertas, revealing the secret of the illusion by moving through it. Unfortunately, it did not reveal more cavern but the Sea Fury’s lair. She quickly dodged the lightning, only taking minor damage as crabs moved to attack the party. As the group prepared for the battle they could hear the Sea Fury’s voice, “Adventurers, good I was hungry, my sisters were so stringy.” Vai’len assured her that she was also stringy but the Hag responded that if you cook anything long enough it’s good. The battle quickly escalated when the water around them started to react to the Sea Fury’s command. Vai’len had been on the other side of the illusionary wall until a current of water shoved the rogue back. Amo had moved forward, wearing a form of dread and summoning an undead companion. One of the hag's minions had moved forward and started to attack the warlock. The sea aethrin looked to have been fused from a triton and a massive crab. Joining the Sea Fury’s minion, the crabs moved to attack the Damned. For the first few rounds of the battle, the Damned were busy decrabbing each other while Amo worked on the minion. The Sea Fury had spent the first part of the battle quickly moving in dropping a frightening visage and having more crabs move in to attack the adventurers.
Sinestra had summoned four large actual seahorses to ferry the Damned about the water but only Sinestra was able to wield their companion properly. At one point both Ace and Vai’len had been choked by the crabs who somehow could detach their claws and use them as weapons. Amo had spent a good amount of the battle grappled by the sea minion, trading blows, but ultimately it was Vai’len who finished off the creature and as they perished it was clear that the minion was being forced to follow the Sea Fury. Moments before this Kaertas had hasted the rogue but the Sea Fury had come out from her hiding spot and had cursed the rogue. However with her extra action the rogue was still able to help her companions in the battle. Once the crabs were dealt with and the minion freed, the Sea Fury finally deemed it time to join the fight...well sort of.
The Sea Fury had spent most of the battle just summoning her crabs and minions to attack and the one time she had approached to cast a spell, Kaertas had countered. This angered the hag, she had turned the water across the necromancer into a murky mess, blocking half the party from the vortex she was summoning on top of them. All of them get drawn into the center of the whirlwind of water, slamming into the middle. Somehow the bard had forced their way through the water and approached the edge of magic. The Sea Fury moved and attacked the bard, simply stating that their song would soon end as their claws racked across their body. Amo cleverly dispelled the magic and asked for healing as the hag’s minion had damaged them before they had died. Ace healed the warlock and drew first blood on the Sea Fury. One of the problems with the fight was that every moment they had to attack the sea hag she would get out of dodge.
Amo had spent the time before they had traveled through the water to give each one of them protection from their first bout with death. Coincidently it was the warlock who triggered their ward first followed quickly by Ace when the Sea Fury sent chained lightning through the group. While the bard slowly raised to their feet, Amo started to float as the lightning caused them to fall unconscious. Vai’len nailed the Sea Fury and bounced her necrotic wail to the snakes the hag had just spewed from her mouth to attack the group. Sinestra, who had stayed on the only surviving seahorse and had just finished off slaying the last of the crabs, followed the rogue’s shot and landed some eldritch energy. The Sea Fury was finally showing her wounds from the battle. Kaertas swam closer to Amo and fed him a Goodberry. With the last of her energy, the Sea Fury sent a cone of cold at the group, outright slaying the bard who, in their last moments of life, regretted following the Shadow Goblin into the feywild. Seeing her friend fall, Vai’len looked down at the bard and turned her attention to the Sea Fury, “he was one of the last good ones.” Taking aim for the hag’s throat, Vai’len let her crossbow bolt fly, critically hitting the Sea Fury.
As the battle ended, Sinestra brought Amo back with a Goodberry and while the druid prepared to heal the group with a plethora of berries, Ace was tied off to the rogue. With their bellies heavy and full of Goodberries they spent the rest of the hour investigating the cavern. Sinestra traveled around on their mount and had tried to talk with some of the crustaceans but they were not helpful. Upon the hag they found a jar of bees, a fruit gusher and a single desiccated frog. Placing the magical yet random items away, Kaertas, Amo and Vai’len moved about the main cavern. The only other magical significance in the area were two structures on the raised area. Pulling their combined arcane knowledge, they figured the column-like structures were what was needed for the sea hag to become the Sea Fury, well that and consuming her sisters. They spent some time blasting the columns into nothing and upon completion, Amo used magic to document their destruction and while the others moved to one of the three large open holes the warlock was forced to maintain their spell.
During the battle they had noted the holes but none of them got close enough to interact. With plenty of time left before their rides would return, Sinestra illuminated a rock and used their Mage Claw to slowly drop the light down into the hole so they could peer in. The light illuminated a convex floor made of red stone, slowly opening it revealed the hole was an eye. Deciding that it was time to leave, the Damned exit the cavern to wait for their rides. As the sea horses returned, they seemed rather disappointed that most of them had survived. After denying them Ace’s body to munch on, they all return to the Crab King. Amo quickly moved to the king and shared the image to stop concentration on the spell. And almost like a game show, the King offered them two chests. One contained plenty of electrum and the other was mystery. After a short discussion they chose the mystery chest and upon opening it revealed an awakened goat wearing a hat, scrolls for a cantrip called Sparkle Party, a machine that turned Goodberries into ice cream, a gun, an exo-skeleton, five hollow tipped bolts and the blessing of the King of Crabs.
With their task completed they all climbed aboard Captain Sethrelar Jerynomonos’ ship. They quickly moved across the water, heading to the Captain’s husband. Now that the Damned had completed their task, he was free to return home. It was suggested that he returned with some hollyhocks as it had been an impossibly long time since he had been home. And as the captain made his first steps on dry land, he cried. Traipse appeared and explained that they had a couple more days on their contract and that they would remain here. Although they would have been away for a bit, he explained that when they returned it would only be an hour after they had followed the cook through the feywild. They followed the captain through the small port town. It smelled heavily of the sea with a pervasive smell of fish, it reminded Vai’len of Hyalma. The more they moved through the town, Sethrelar was becoming nervous, upon his question of looking adequate, Vai’len used the only magic she has ever cast to raise his confidence by sparkles. When the captain knocked at the door, presenting the flowers, a beautiful hexblood greeted them. It had been over three thousand years since they had last seen each other. Sethrelar “I have missed ye and I’m sorry.” They were all invited in for food and company. Even with their fallen friend with them, it was nice for the members of the Damned to have these two days to unwind.
