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Original character art by Jimmy McClure.
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
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Previously on Call from the Deep
Starring:
Gotwald Ironhorn, level 4 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 4 tortle Drakewarden Ranger (+ Cheese)
Savra Akkedis, level 4 lizardfolk School of Necromancy Wizard
Torrel, level 4 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
En route to Fiskrbak on the other side of Gunderlun island, the party run afoul (afowl!?) of a group of harpies on a treacherous mountain trail.
Note: No game next week due to Thanksgiving break. The series will return on December 1!
The five harpies are split between two different nests. Torrel and Mac become charmed by their song, walking off a nearby cliff. The 10ft fall jostles them out of the stupor.
Torrel scrambles up the hill, summons his spectral tentacle, and casts thunderwave in the middle of the nest, using his armor and shield to tank their incoming claws and clubs.
Poor Mac proves less effective. After striking with his first arrow, he misses shot after shot, drawing more harpies to attack him and keep him in melee range.
Meanwhile Gotwald and Savra deal with the other nest. Gotwald grabs both injured bird-women and leaps off the hill, smashing one to the ground. But the other charms him with a soft song before turning her attention to Savra.
Torrel casts silence on Gotwald, freeing him from the charm, and forcing Savra to retreat out of the no-casting zone. She bathes two harpies surrounding Mac in acid with Tasha’s caustic brew, and the rest of the party converges on the surviving harpies.
Mac finally scores another hit with a retreating harpy, ending the vicious random encounter.
Torrel searches the harpies’ nest, finding a trove of treasures. In a rare case of RNG, he rolled a 93 on the Treasure Hoard Table (0-4), finding two 50gp gems, and rolling three times on Magic Item Table F, earning a +1 weapon, slippers of spider climbing, and adamantine scale mail.
The party gives the weapon to Mac as a +1 bow. Savra takes the slippers to help get her out of harm’s way, and Torrel is very pleased to upgrade his scale mail to no longer take critical hits. Completely random loot rolls, and all of them perfect for this party!
Bern wasn’t harmed during the fight, and his mental suffering made him strangely immune to the harpies’ songs.
The party doesn’t run into any more threats during the last day of travel. But when they arrive in Fiskrbak, they found a small fishing village devastated by attack, and not a single living villager in sight.
The village features half a dozen aldani, peaceful and skittish lobster-folk, scavenging through broken houses.
Mac tries to speak to them, but his nasty scar lingering injury scares them off.
Bern yells, “home,” and runs to one particular house, its door wrenched ajar. The party runs after him.
Inside is a humble house, just big enough for a small family. Like the rest of the village, it’s empty and ruined, with blood stains on the ground.
Bern begins crying, screaming, and yelling. His voice takes on an inhuman tone. Suddenly his mouth splits apart, tendrils sprout from his back and face, hands grow into claws, and fins sprout from his forearms and legs.
The hideous transformation drives Mac temporarily crazed; he runs outside looking for aldani to kill and eat! The rest of the party is forced to deal with the mutated, transformed Bern (using the statblock of a modified deep scion, with a mind whip lair action).
Torrel and Savra retreat to the back of the house, firing ranged attacks (and in Torrel’s case, summoning his trusty tentacle), while Gotwald stands his ground against the charging, flailing creature. His armor proves effective in stopping most of the nasty claw and venomous bite attacks.
But at the end of each round, chaotic psychic energy pours out of Bern, randomly striking Torrel.
Mac shakes off the maddening effects, and an arrow comes whistling through the open door to strike the creature-formerly-known-as-Bern. A few more volleys of ranged spells and Gotwald’s fists (and Cheese’s bite), put the poor creature out of its ferocious newborn rage.
The Zoo Crew is shaken by the experience. They spot obvious tracks throughout the home and the village, some leading north along the beach, and others leading slightly inland northeast toward some hilly cliffs.
They recall they have two areas to investigate: a crashed shipwreck and an abandoned mine. They decide to head north to check out the shipwreck.
Note: No game next week due to Thanksgiving break. The series will return on December 1!
MVPC – Gotwald
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Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
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