Make It Rain - 17/05/2023 - A Kavel Perspective

The Temple and the Man Who Wears Crockery

The Elf man that Sorrel recruited in a pub had a plate strapped to his chest. The plate spoke. The plate was sentient. You see lots of strange new things in the Dawnlands.

We all met in the Temple of Selune. Sorrel helped get our comrades, who were new to the Darkfire affair, up to speed. In short, Sorrel has three elf sisters - a surprise even to her. It is Sorrel’s divine duty to protect them. These sisters are ‘daughters of the moon’, as well as Sorrel’s sister. Although, I don’t believe Sorrel herself is literally a daughter of the moon, like the sisters… these sisters are both younger and older than Sorrel too. Religion is the most overly complicated form of magic, and the mixture of Elf and Human makes it more strange. What is easy to comprehend though, is that someone is coming to kill the sisters, and Sorrel has enlisted her comrades to help prevent this.

Obviously I was there to help. Velania too, our aasimar Selune Cleric friend and kind, caring mother to us all. Derthaad, our big brained dragonborn sorcerer friend was there. And Sorrel recruited Markas and Felix in a two for one deal in a pub. I had not seen comrade Felix, our dwarven bard friend since the time in the neverending Daring Academy office. Markas is an elf man who is a pretty solid puncher. He is a bit like comrade Itzal, but different in that Itzal does not wear sentient crockery on their chest.

Rounding out the party was, of course, Sorrel - a badass stealth assassin, sharpshooting archer and moon cleric. We actually had six members in our party. Measured by member count, we were twenty percent stronger than the average adventuring party. I do wonder though if Sorrel accidentally recruited Markas, when she was instead trying to proselytise to him and bring in a new Selune follower? You see, I heard that she used her, “have you heard of the moon?” line when talking to Markas, and it always sounds like ‘recruiting’, if you follow me?

Aries and Lyra, two of the younger sisters, were there when we assembled in the Temple of Selune. Vega, the other sister, was busy with cleric learning, I believe. It should be noted that Sorrel’s sisters were born before her. I believe they are around forty years old. But, in terms of Elven maturation rates, they are teenagers, while Sorrel who is much younger in years, is however an adult, since she is Human.

We knew we were looking for someone called the Beetle, or beetle-like, in a way that Sorrel is wolf-like. We also knew that the Beetle would arrive in the Dawnlands from the sea, landing in Breaker’s Point in Port Ffirst. We knew all this because of little Lyra’s powers of foresight.

Both Watch sergeant Derthaad, and House Specialist (criminal expert) Sorrel were aware that Breaker’s Point is pirate territory. Derthaad reminded me that I was also aware of the pirates there, because I told him about an adventure where I had to infiltrate the pirates, which I did successfully. My other comrades at the time used subtlefuge to be recruited. I just did an honest day's work for the pirates. They needed help loading a lot of heavy cargo into their ships and were behind schedule. I love lifting heavy things. Because of me; they finished ahead of schedule. I was well liked.

Sorrel was relying on my intel about the pirates. The only problem was, although I was well liked, it had been ages since I had returned. They might feel I deserted them, and their god, Unberlee, who I swore to serve.


Breaker’s Point…?

We teleported to Breaker’s Point close to dusk and almost immediately found ourselves held at crossbow point. Multiple crossbow points from hidden positions in the trees. The person in charge of this watch said we looked suspiciously like we were planning an attack. We were told we would be taken to the leader and the leader would decide our fate.

As we were marched to the one house that had lighting, Sorrel spoke to me in Giant. She asked me what to expect from the leader, since I had been here before. It was then that I was reminded of something, and I shared it with Sorrel, “you know, now that I come to think of it, I went to Breaker’s Bay, when I infiltrated a group of pirates, not Breaker’s Point. These are not the same people. I don’t know any of these pirates. The pirates who are holding us at crossbow point now; they are not friendly.”


It's Just Too Inviting

Before we teleported to Breaker’s Point, Markas had a go at trying to pull Je’Sathriel’s sword from the ground by the teleportation circle in Portal Plaza. I tried to warn him. The portal attendant tried to warn him. The attendant even handed out pamphlets that warned us. But, Markas went ahead, took a grip of the sword and was flung 20ft backwards for trying.

I told the attendant that they should try bigger pamphlets. They said they have tried many different pamphlets. But, recently adventurers just can’t seem to resist attempting to take the sword.

It may have been me who, by accident, began the trend of adventurers having a go at taking the sword. I swear the sword budged when I pulled at it. But as it did, I was hit with radiant and psychic pain. I could also hear in my head Je’Sathriel’s voice telling me off for trying to take his sword. In my defence, The Jackal has left his sword there for more than a year now - it looked abandoned.

Velania went and rested her hand over the sword for a few seconds and said she received a blessing of health. There is favouritism going on here.


Tricky Otto’s Place

It was demanded from Felix that he replace the man, Bill, at playing music, since Bill was crap. Though held at crossbow point, Felix, a natural and very talented bard, was more than happy to oblige.

We were taken to Tricky Otto - the leader, a halfling woman with ginger hair, mostly hidden under a well made tricorn hat. It turned out that Derthaad was aware of her, and Sorrel had actually met her before. So, it turned out, there was never any need to turn to me for intel…

Tricky Otto, could either barely remember Sorrel, or simply didn’t remember her. Tricky Otto was aware of the House though, and wanted no part of it. Sorrel managed to convince her that we were not here to attack her people and were simply worried that the pirates would join the Beetle. Tricky Otto reassured us she and largely all her people would stay out of it. But, she would not stop any of her people from joining us, if they wanted to.

While Tricky Otto took some of her crew to move their ships, around twenty-four drunkards who were bored and up for a fight (with me it seemed) joined us to go find the Beetle.


To Find a Beetle

Tricky Otto said she could see a small, black vessel approaching the coast fast that would make landfall in an hour, two miles north of her town. Off we went up the coast with Felix entertaining our retinue of twenty four drunken pirates, and keeping them in line.

We saw the shop row into shore. Two figures emerged. One disappeared into the trees of the Angelbark. The other stopped to cast a spell. Smoke poured out of their hands, and then they joined their companion in the forest.

We chased the new arrivals into the Angelbark. The one trailing smoke behind them was easy to follow, while the other equipped with blades was more challenging. However, it was the one that was easier to follow that was causing us more trouble.

From the outpouring a smoke came a swarm of beetles. These beetles got all over our equipment as we chased, and all other our clothes and on our bodies, too. The beetles grew into grotesque versions of themselves with larger limbs and sharper teeth, and they bit into us, piercing our skin, causing us injury and making it harder to pursue our prey.

I took advantage of both my flight legs and strong body, to fly myself into the trees trying to smash as many of the beetles on my body as I could, whilst still moving forward in pursuit. Others did their best too to reduce their suffering. Sorrel summoned giant eagles to feast on the bugs. Velania casted the Spirit Guardian spell to make the beetles suffer radiant pain. Markas and Felix brought blades down on the beetles, and Derthaad had Ulhar scorch as many beetles as he could with lightning breath.

We carried on for close to two hours, battling bugs as we ran. Occasionally stopping to deal with bugs, before having to pick the pace up again to regain lost ground on our prey. The chase was not without trouble. Both me and Felix dislocated a shoulder. Markas went partially deaf. Sorrel’s armour broke and Velania hit her head badly. We were all covered in beetle bites, Derthaad quite severely. But, as we came to a clearing in the night, we managed to catch up with our prey, who had stopped to try and ambush us.

As we approached. We could see the caster up on a ledge in front of us, beetles climbing down the ledge from the caster’s body. All of a sudden, from a place of cover, the bladed one dove at Sorrel. Sorrel avoided being stabbed, which given the state of her armour, was a great effort on her part. However, the attacker wrenched off of Sorrel one of her bracers - the gift from the House’s College of Persuasion’s headteacher.


Battle of the Beetles in the Angelbark Forest!

Sorrel kicked the hooded woman away from her to gain some space. As Sorrel herself walked backwards to lengthen the short distance between her and the thief, Sorrel drew her bow. Arrow, arrow, arrow. Sorrel loosed three arrows into the thief’s body, yelling, “give me my fucking bracer back!”

The thief, stuck with multiple arrows, was not undeterred. The thief lunged again at Sorrel in attempt to grab the other bracer, whilst at the same time piercing Sorrel’s shoulder with a poisoned dagger. Markas intercepted the thief before she could lay hands on the second bracer and stunned her with a barrage of lightning fast punches. The thief, battered and stuck with arrows, looked to be at death’s door. Derthaad opened the door for her and kicked her through, when he casted a twin Psychic Lance spell that battered both the thief’s brain and the caster up on the ledge. The thief dropped dead. The stolen bracer rolled out of her lifeless hand.

Velania let her angelic, radiant wings emerge. She took flight to stay above the caster, and Felix fired a lighting bolt at the caster from below, scorching the caster badly. The caster was now, involuntarily pouring smoke from out of themself. The caster retreated. Velania directed me to go right around the ledge to cut off his exit. I propelled myself up and around the ledge with my flight legs, and arrived in time to block the caster’s escape. As the caster hissed at me in fear, Sorrel appeared up on the ledge using the Misty Step spell, and from the elevated position she loosed three arrows into the caster, killing him dead. The beetles began to disappear, as the caster lay motionless on the ground.


The Beetle?

We investigated the bodies. Sorrel discovered both the caster and thief were young, and both from the House. It seemed, much like Specialist Yhsa, these House trained individuals didn’t seem like they were old enough to have completed Specialist training.

We became worried that we had been tricked into pursuing a distraction, and that more Beetles had been sent to Daring Heights. Velania used a Sending spell to check on the sisters back in Daring Heights. We were relieved that they were alright.

Our companions of twenty plus pirates were not relieved. They were behind us in pursuit of the caster and thief, and had missed the fighting. We told them they were free to loot the vessel that our enemies arrived in and add it to their fleet. This appeased the pirates.

We spent some time thinking about what had happened. Sorrel began to wonder if Kalimar, the Head of the College of Persuasion at the House, to whom Sorrel is favourite, may not have ever been made aware of what has been happening, and Yhsa may have been lying about updating Kalimar.

Derthaad found a ripped note in the caster’s clothing. Sorrel was able to make out the letterhead of the House’s College of Discovery. What was happening here was another mystery where we were not aware who our enemies were, and we already had one of those with the bird symbol pin and the Wild Hunt horn.

Derthaad drew the ritual circle for his teleportation spell and got us back to Daring Heights, where we rushed back to the Temple, to pleasantly find everything was how we left it.

However, before we left, we did travel back to Breaker’s Point, so we could update Tricky Otto on what had happened. She said she was happy with the new ship she acquired. Markas asked if she had any spare tricorn hats. She pointed out several left on the floor. I joined Markas in finding one suitable for my large head.