Kedri, Sushi and Calimari Surprise

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Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Kedri, Sushi and Calimari Surprise
GM: William
Season: Summer 796 WK

Party
Time on adventure
01/04/95 to 26/05/95 AP
Employer
Alex Dennethbure - brewer
Mission
Find the inhabitants of the village of Jermarc
Plane
Alusia
Places Visited
Jermarc - village of merpeople
Shamalk's cave
A nearby island
The Great Bowls - fresh water areas at the bottom of the sea
A sunken Calimari voidcruiser
Sunken Calimari site
Aquatic elf village
Merfolk town of Balmain
Major NPCs encountered
Shamalk - mermaid priestess of Itimanuka
Shamalk's nautilus familiar
Calaine - islander that spoke Common
Cardrey - island warrior
Madari - island shaman
Lady Athena - elven Seeker, interested in Calimar
Caliphele - Lady Athena's assistant
Queen Corrinthana - elven queen in village
Tenal - Alex's mermaid wife
Tekae - shaman on another nearby island
Maria - ex Calimar slave
Edmund - mayor of Balmain
Original Scribe Notes
Media:Snsu9601.zip

Adventure Summary

31/03/95 We met our employer, Alex Dennethbure, who wanted a party to find the inhabitants of his village of Jermarc. This village is underwater, two weeks away by boat to the west. Most of the inhabitants are merfolk with a few humans. 01/04/95 Got through the Destinian blockade and headed out to sea. 09/04/95 Reached the island near where Jermarc is located 11/04/95 Finally found Jermarc. It’s coral dome had holes in it. Inside were lots of wreckage, scattered weapons, piles of dust, more holes but no bodies. Discovered the attackers were elves and had come from up-current. Used a Waters of Vision to check out the nearby town. That looked ok. Used an air bubble at the top of the brewery to summon a spirit. Told that the attack was ‘to aid cause of the Elder Lords’ and the bodies were taken away ‘to serve the Elder Lords’. A group of goblins attacked. Three escaped, one was captured. They were scouting and scavenging. Captive released with instructions to tell the tribe not to return. Headed off toward’s Shamalk’s cave. She’s an middle-aged mermaid and priestess of Itimanuka. 14/04/95 Found the cave, guarded by Shamalk’s giant nautilus familiar. Shamalk told us that the villagers had chosen not to heed their warnings and had been taken by the ‘ones with the chariot’. She also mentioned dark forces in the sea.The slaves had been taken to the Great Bowls, five days upcurrent. 15/04/95 Continued up-current. Felt an earthquake midday and discovered a plume of smoke and a red glow to the south west. Attacked by sharks that evening. Gretchen and Tussock were killed and Darksinger had vanished. Started to take the bodies back to Shamalk for resurrection. 18/04/95 Tussock and Gretchen resurrected. Spent time recovering. 22/04/95 Waters of Vision showed Darksinger paddling a canoe between islands. Went to check out the nearby islands. Reached the island. No sign of Darksinger but, when we showed an image of him, the natives referred to him as Remari. Remari is a legendary giant who dresses in black with no hair. During dinner, Darksinger arrived, followed by a group of warriors. After dinner, saw the shaman, Madari, who told us there was evil below the ocean. 'Back in the time when gods walked the earth, there came a some strange people who built an alien structure on the surface of the water then declared war. What they did so angered the gods that they caused the island, with the structure on it, to sink. But it is said that when flame appears in the south that they will rise again'. It was generally agreed that the volcano to the south was the sign. 25/04/95 Left on our raft and reached the area where the shaman had indicated where the structure was. This was also the approximate location of the Great Bowls. Descended to the bottom and found the wreck of a Calimari Voidcruiser in one of the bowls. Took treasure, including the ship’s helm and what appeared to be a female ‘zombie’ under some sort of hibernation spell. Contact was made with the spirit of the Calimari skeleton who told us that the helm was working but he didn’t know what had caused it to momentarily fail and cause the crash. 26/04/95 Found a sunken galley and attacked by undead. After defeating them some elves turned up. Starflower introduced herself and us as her retinue. They wanted us to go with them to their settlement further down the basin and meet the Lady Seeker, the daughter of their Queen, who was searching for something in the basin. It was her whim that the elves had settled here. Starflower declined. 27/04/95 Reached the bottom of the basin and found a stone building. There we found a couple of elves, one being the Lady Seeker, Lady Athena, who was seeking knowledge, especially of the Calimar. We gave her the Calimari skulls and as much information as we had. In exchange she told us that the missing villagers are at the Place at the Edge of Fear where the elven queen is. 28/04/95 Reached the elven village. Saw the merfolk working in the fields with elven overseers. Starflower spoke to Queen Corranthana. They had taken the merfolk from Jermarc as they hadn’t brought their previous set of slaves with them. The Queen would release the villagers if we could find alternative slaves. Starflower managed to arrange for a mermaid, Alex’s wife - named Tenal, to be ‘loaned’ to her. All the villagers were accounted for except for the headman. Later a Speak with Dead ritual was conducted. Discovered there was another Calimar site and that there was a portal under the building the Seeker was investigating that the Calimar had originally came through. It could still be active. 02/04/95 Decided to investigate the center of this basin. Discovered the water was hotter at the center and a sleeping big red scaley dragon - 25ft long with a 60ft wingspan. 05/05/95 Made our way back to the island group with Tenal. Managed to get the ‘zombie’ revived. She was named Maria and was the head servant on the ship. 06/05/95 Reached the area where Jermarc was and arrived at the town of Balmain where Alex was waiting. Reunited him and his wife. 07/05/95 Saw the mayor and tried to warn him of the coming apocalypse, believed to be connected to the Calimar and their portal. Headed back to the islands. The shaman there had also done divinations and concluded a battle was imminent. 08/05/95 (White Lotus Day - a High Holiday of Darkness) Visions showed the islands scythed off all life. Preparations were made for a mass evacuation. Headed for the Calimari site where the Seeker had been. Discovered that the golems were all in bits - torn apart. There was also the body of a male elf. Scrying the area where the elven village was showed that they had left in an orderly fashion. The interior of the building was in a shambles. When I tried to swim in I heard the message “This is a warning you fools for those who meddle in the affairs of the Calimar”. In a nearby hole we discovered more dead elves and something that looked like a brain on legs in the centre of the room between two pillars. As we came in the pillars glowed and the brain- thing vanished. As we tried to knock the pillars over some pikemen materialised between them and attacked. After a battle, those that were left surrendered and the pillars were knocked over. As they went over there was an explosion. The pikemen told us they served the Calimar and were there to guard the portal. We wanted to find out where the elves went but, as we reached the surface, we were greeted with a light show and four Voidcruisers appeared. The pikemen took off for parts unknown as we abandoned the raft and swam away towards Shamalk’s cave. Maria was still with us. On the way we were intercepted by a group of Calimar and held captive in one of the voidcruisers. The Calimar wanted to know why we had opened the portal. We told them the elves had done it. After a while we were released after handing over the helm as ransom. We were told never to return to this area again. Maria was to stay with us and live out her life in Carzala. Once released we headed straight for the Guild arriving back there after 18 days.

Full Scribe Notes

31/03/95 Our party employer, one Alex Dennethbure, wanted a party to find the inhabitants of his village of Jermarc. The really interesting thing about this was that all the villages were underwater. Alex had been here before, but I hadn't been able to go on that adventure which was a pity as a completely underwater adventure would be really exciting - and different. There aren't many of those on offer. Alex introduced himself as the brewer of his village. He also admitted he was a Water Mage himself but claimed to be relatively inexperienced. He said that Nendil had been better at casting the Water Breathings than he was. My fellow adventurers were: Starflower - a female elf neuromancer. Glass - male human illusionist Gretchen (BFG) - female frost giant illusionist Tussock - female hobbit aeromancer Thoron Darksinger - male human necromancer Daroin - male dwarf necromancer and me, Aqualina, human female aquamancer. Alex told us that Jermarc is two weeks away to the west by boat. Sounds like it's halfway to Pasifika. However, I don't think it's in King Kierl's domain. Most of the inhabitants are merfolk with Alex being one of the few humans. After some discussion, Glass became the party leader (Gretchen also nominated herself) and Tussock volunteered to be scribe. Starflower offered her services as Military Scientist. On Glass's suggestion, I forked out 5,000 for a 15pt Greater from an enchanter called Phillip, deposited 600sp with the Curse Removal department (just in case) then went up to the Water College and spent the rest of the day making Waters of Strength and Waters of Healing potions as well as Waterproofings for Gretchen. At the end of the day I had three WoH and 1 WoS for us. .2. 01/04/95 I headed up to the Water College where I did a WaterBreathing and Resist Cold on myself, collected my gear, then went to join the others in the Guild Courtyard. I was about five minutes late but Tussock was still missing. Glass went looking for an enchanter to put a Locate on her. He finally tracked her down, sleeping in a coil of rope on the wharf. Alex had brought a pile of wood with him and tossed it into the harbour. Then he cast a Ship Strength and created a long boat. To the further consternation of the sailors on the dockside Alex then incanted again and soon a large wave was propelling us along at speed away from Seagate, and straight towards the line of Destiny ships blockading the harbour. I ensured (with Glass's help) that my chocolate was well hidden. As we approached we were hailed and asked to heave to. So we hove to next to one of the ships and this sergeant type wanted to know whether we had anything to declare. No chocolate - just adventurers. He then wanted to know why we hadn't declared that dwarf and insisted that we were to be searched. So he started coming down a ladder. He started to inspect our packs. He looked into Daroin's pack and then rushed at Daroin in a berserk rage. Gretchen stood up to intervene and rocked the boat. Gretchen, Daroin, Darksinger and Starflower ended up in the water. The sergeant dived in after Daroin. I dived in after the others as some of them couldn't swim very well. Gretchen was closest but it looked like she was in no danger. However Daroin and the sergeant were sinking and fighting so I headed for them next. As I got close the sergeant suddenly fell unconscious (I later found out that an invisible Starflower had sapped him). As quickly as I could I put a Water Breathing on both of them then helped them to the surface. Once we returned the waterlogged sergeant to his ship we were on our way again. As a parting shot, Glass sent back an illusionary albatross which was programmed to die on their boat. That evening I summoned some tuna for dinner and Glass used illusions to make it appear as cooked food. There wasn't enough room on the boat for us all to sleep so I changed to merform and slept in the water. 02/04/95 After gathering some kelp for Glass (he's a vegetarian) and squid for the others I returned to the boat and we continued on our way. 09/04/95 It was eight days later when we reached the island that Alex had been aiming for. Jermarc was somewhere nearby. It was a very well stocked island, in fact surprisingly so. I gathered up some coconuts for provisions - and to take some back. Alex had three caps that bestowed waterbreathing. Gretchen, Glass, and Tussock got them. I cast Waterbreathings on the others and we waded into the water. I spent most of the trip in merform. 11/04/95 Finally found Jermarc. There was a coral dome over it. Nendil had reported it as being intact but now there were holes in it. Inside there were lots of wreckage, scattered weapons, piles of dust, more holes but no bodies. Darksinger managed to question some spirits and discovered that the attackers were elves and that the bodies had been taken away up current (they referred it to up river). There had been some strange happenings in the village before hand and some elves had visited, but had left before the attack came. Scouts? Darksinger then tried to find out more about the strange happenings. Magic had been involved and the changes had affected the villagers and had been welcomed but had surprised them. We then discovered that it was a religious matter and that the Goddess Itimanuka was involved. I had already found out that Alex and many of his people worshipped her. I resolved to find out more. Apparently Itimanuka appeared in a vision to her local priestess, Shamalk who lived as a hermit upstream. We decided to go and find her. In the meantime I was wondering if the other villages were ok. Alex only knew the location of the town so I used a Waters of Vision to view it. It looked intact with merfolk swimming around. Alex said that was normal. .3. There was an air bubble in the top of Alex's brewery so Darksinger decided to talk to some sort of spirit in order to determine what had happened. So he carefully drew a pentagram and started his ritual. He was told that the attack was 'to aid the cause of the Elder Lords' and that the bodies were taken to 'serve the Elder Lords'. When he asked where they went, the spirit said 'I'll take you' and reached out of the pentagram to grab him. Gretchen also reached out and grabbed Darksinger resulting in a tug of war. Gretchen won and pulled Darksinger out of the way. Meanwhile Glass and Starflower went into combat with it and it soon expired. It's last comment was 'Beware the abomination'. As we sorted each other out there was a sound from the roof. Glass and Gretchen immediately went through the entrance pool to investigate. I wasn't too far behind and decided to change into merform for the greater speed. Meanwhile Starflower searched the area with ESP and detected four goblin minds. When the goblins saw the giant Gretchen coming at them they decided to make a speedy withdrawal. Gretchen was able to grab one and bring it back. The other three got away. Glass tried questioning the goblin but didn't learn much. They were basically scouting and scavenging. So Glass let it go with instructions to tell the rest of the tribe not to come back. 12/04/95 It was going to take a few days to reach Shamalk's cave so it was suggested that I ask some dolphins if they would assist us. However this proved to be more difficult than I thought. Some of the deep water species aren't as bright as their coastal cousins I usually deal with. However I soon got the message across and we were on our way. This pod was more concerned about hunting in the Cold Seas. Maybe I will take up their invitation to join them there but not yet. After a while we had to stop and rest. 14/04/95 I finally managed to distract the dolphins from disturbing the others, while they were purifying, by joining them in a hunt. Three more had turned up. After breakfast we continued on. After a while as the dolphins came up to breath, we could see an island ahead. Alex said that Shamalk lived at the base. So we dived down to the seafloor. Soon Alex pointed out the cave. Just then we noticed something in it - something with a large eye. A minute or so later a giant nautilus came out and rumbled at us. Glass told us to keep our distance and not to attack. Gretchen's reply was 'If it picks me up and moves me towards it's mouth, is that an attack or a discussion'. Glass categorised that as an attack. Meanwhile I quickly cast another Speak with Aquatics keyed to Nautilus. The dolphins had already left. It wanted to know who we are and what we wanted. I acted as translator as Glass replied. It also wanted to know who had cast the spell that had hurt it. Uh oh! Darksinger admitted he had done it and Counterspelled it. Meanwhile Starflower detected another mind coming towards us. It turned out to be Shamalk, a middleaged mermaid. The nautilus was her familiar. Shamalk told us that the villagers had chosen not to heed her warnings and that they had been taken by the 'ones with the chariot'. She also reckoned that there were dark forces within the sea. When pressed she went into a trance. Starflower was still mindsnooping at the time so she picked up the priestess's vision. It showed a humanoid creature with the face of a squid sacrificing a human by an edifice. The edifice was growing. Starflower then passed the vision on to us - and I wish she hadn't, or had asked first as I recognised the creature from Flamis's stories. It was a Calimar. I began to feel very distressed. Darksinger reckoned we weren't being paid enough to go up against those guys. They're nasty with a capital N. Shamalk then told us that the slaves had been taken to the Great Bowls located five days upcurrent. She reckoned the edifice was the cause of the troubles. Glass then extracted a quaking Alex from behind the boulder he was hiding behind and instructed him to tell the town what had happened and get them to warn the other villages. Alex took off at speed. While the others swam up to the island, I expressed a desire to pray to Itimanuka in order to gain guidance and hopefully a blessing in our quest to rescue the villages. Tussock decided to do the same. As I did so I felt a current swirl around me which resolved itself into her presence. She reminded me of the endless cycle of life and death and what has happened is just part of the natural order. However I did gain her blessing for me and my party to rescue the villagers. She also told me not to worry about the Calimar as her brother had taken care of them. That had to be Maui. That made me feel a lot better. It was near to midnight as Tussock and I swam up to the island shore and reached the camp the others had set up. 4. 15/04/95 I was on the last watch so I didn't bother purifying this morning. After a breakfast of coconuts and anything else we could find I renewed all the waterbreathings - or tried to. When I cast on Daroin he started coughing and spluttering. That led Starflower to the conclusion that I had backfired the spell in such a way that Daroin couldn't breath air anymore. So Glass tossed him in the shallows. Didn't seem to help though, in fact it made it worse. Eventually Starflower doublechecked and concluded that Daroin had water in the lungs. Once it was pumped out and healing potions administered (including a freshly created Waters of Healing) Daroin was rather recovered. Soon we continued on our way upcurrent, swimming this time. Starflower's suggestion that I summon some more dolphins to assist was firmly vetoed by Glass. So we slowly made our way across the ocean floor. About lunchtime those still walking on the floor felt the earth move. Glass ascended to the surface to have a look and spotted a plume of smoke and a red glow to the south east. I wasn't sure exactly which part of the ocean we were in so I didn't know which volcano that was. I just hoped it wasn't fire cultists at work again and that Pele was just having a little fun. The resulting shockwave buffeted us about a bit but did no damage. That evening, (it was difficult to tell as it was rather dark at this depth), we settled down to start making camp. As Darksinger and I were discussing various dolphins we had met, Starflower suddenly felt wary. Within seconds we were beset upon by the largest pack of sharks I had ever encountered. I tried casting a Control Aquatics in order to cause some confusion but a rather close pass put me off. Gretchen was surrounded by quite a few of them. Glass and Tussock were also soon under attack as they were the closest. It was soon difficult to see the others in the mass of sharks. Since the spell was ineffective I moved into attack to help, after a quick prayer to Itimanuka, but quickly discovered that even though they had difficulty hitting me, that my dagger was having difficulty penetrating their tough hide. Unfortunately they weren't having so much difficulty with the rest of the party. Glass and Tussock were soon down and Gretchen was getting into trouble. Daroin was trying to get a spell off. Finally he succeeded. Several of the sharks decided this wasn't a good place to be and swam off. One stopped swimming and sank (well that one won't last long) and one went berserk and savagely attacked Gretchen. She was looking really worse for the wear now. Suddenly she collapsed. Starflower was, at this time, attempting to stabilise Glass and Tussock. But she was just a tad too late for Tussock. I wasn't sure what to do to stop the sharks from ravishing Gretchen's motionless form until a voice in my mind said 'Control Aquatics' - and I don't think it was Starflower. So I tried it and managed to control half of them. So I got them to attack the ones around Gretchen. That left one that Starflower was finishing off and another was having a good go at Daroin. Darksinger was nowhere in sight. My original idea was to try to distract the shark away from Daroin by grabbing it by the dorsal but managed to get tangled up with it and brutally attacked. Fortunately Starflower and Daroin managed to finish it off. When I regained consciousness, Starflower was tending to my wounds. I was then soundly berated for doing something she considered stupid. Glass cut in reckoning if I hadn't taken a risk than Daroin probably would have died. As it was I had to create several Waters of Healing to fix him. We had already lost Gretchen and Tussock and there was still no sign of Darksinger. Glass asked me to go into merform then swim off in the direction he had been last seen going. He had probably been affected by Daroin's Mass Fear. So I did so, but couldn't find him. When I got back I discovered he was out of Starflower's Telepathy range as well - which was most odd. Glass then asked me to summon a dolphin and get it to look for Darksinger which I did before going to sleep.

16/04/95

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