Her Heart Leapt - 29/08/2023 - A Kavel Perspective

Kavel’s Perspective: Comrades

Felix - dwarf bard, seemingly fueled by drink.
Comrade Felix is either playing one of his many musical instruments, or using them as a bardic focus to cast big lightning spells. I think he has become more adept at casting his lightning spells? The lightning damage he caused to Slimon, a gelatinous cube, surprised our foe, as if he was used to finding his body resistant to lightning strikes, as if he was me… then again, I got struck by Felix’s lightning (unintentional friendly fire/lightning) and it scorched me quite a bit too, now that I come to think about it. I think he has made some spell-casting gains.
Last time I saw comrade Felix, he was naked in a bush. He had overdone it on the Neuyeya mead. I had as well, to be fair. But, I found a bed before I passed out.

Glint - fire-genasi illusion specialist wizard, probably fueled by books.
Comrade Glint used to be very ‘combat-averse’, as I used to say as a euphemism for his cowardness. For a while now though, I’ve seen my comrade cast many an offensive spell directly at our opponents. This is a positive change. Maybe this upturn in combat-fondness is in part because his new dragon summon spell is bigger than his other one? The thicc’er you are, the better. So, it seems to me, the bigger your summon; also the better.
This new dragon is huge and has an elemental canon mouth for all occasions. Apparently it’s just an illusion though. But, I’ve seen this illusory dragon kill githzerai, and when I got hit with its Cone of Cold (friendly fire/cold again), I could feel it. Again, I’m fine with being hit by stray fire. I have a very well conditioned, iron-strong body. Plus, it’s sometimes unavoidable to have to hit me, when targeting an opponent, because recently I’ve been finding myself inside our opponents; they like to deal with me by swallowing me. It’s kind of like the ultimate grappling move. So, I kind of have to respect it, even if it’s cheating, which it is.

Itzal - half-orc grave cleric ninja? Probably fueled by something badass.
Comrade Itzal has a thunderous punch on both sets of knuckles. Respect! Punching opponents when others need their weapons to cause damage is worthy of much respect. Truly such a talent makes you a badass. If comrade Itzal grappled as well as struck people unarmed, then they would be even more cool than they already are, and also, coincidentally, more like me. I noticed for the first time that their Spiritual Guardian spell is different to Mendal’s. When Mendal cast’s that spell, he gets tiny, winged, spectral versions of himself yelling, ‘dive’. Mendal also calls them his ‘beautiful little buggers.’ Itzal’s Spiritual Guardians are pirate spectres, which is more cool. I don’t know if Itzal has a term for them though?
Last time I saw Itzal, they were hitting it off with someone occupationally similar to them in a temple dedicated to moon worshipping people that we helped out.

D’Lhoon - grung magical warrior, a ‘space hopper’? Also a chosen one for her people?
I helped D’Lhoon once before. Her renown had been stolen from her. How? Magic of course, some witch called Cynthia, who was based in Phlegethos. I helped kill Cynthia in Phlegethos with D’Lhoon, and D’Lhoon get her memories back.
Comrade D’Lhoon’s magic double ended sword staff can planeshift, or ‘space hop’ us all over the place. Very handy. I need one! It would solve mine and Nathalie’s long distance problem!

Pogo - harengon magical bard, ‘time-hopper’? Also, champion of her people?
Only met for a short time, but we visited many places together during different times. But, different times as in days in the past, and future, not just different places that took an hour to walk to, and so now the time is an hour later.
Pogo has a futuristic musical instrument that is like a portable piano lute. Pogo and D’Lhoon are married, but have problems seeing each other, like Nathalie and I. However, while mine and Nathalie’s problem could be solved with D’Lhoon’s staff, Pogo and D’Lhoon’s problem is that when they are together, people want to get their hands on their combined power, which means they rarely get time alone, and on top of which, when they are together, their powers combine in dangerous, unpredictable ways. Date night for them is trouble.

… I have two friends now who say they are champions of their people. Who decided that and how?
Who do I see to be the champion of goliaths? I like my nickname, ‘Smashy Hands’, but ‘Champion of Goliaths’ is also good.


Date Night: D’Lhoon and Pogo

D’Lhoon brought us from Fort Ettin to a hilltop in the Dawnlands where we could see the Fort in the distance, and the Frog Bog a little way away too. Good spot for a picnic. This was what D’Lhoon had planned for her and Pogo. But, because of their usual date problems; D’Lhoon hired us as date night bodyguards.

I asked D’Lhoon how it was that people found her and Pogo when they were on their dates. Apparently time-travel information can spill out unintentionally when you; go back to the past, say something in that time, and then knowledge of it spreads into the present time. I wasn’t sure how that worked. It sounded quite complicated. But, also, D’Lhoon mentioned she blabs when she is drunk.

When Pogo time-jumped her way to join us, she first conversed with D’Lhoon about how the Dawnlands with its messed up planar boundaries might actually be a problem for them.

On cue a very huge cyan, gelatinous cube appeared with hostile intent towards us. This person introduced himself as Ooziecyandius, but the date pair said his name was really Slimon. Slimon once tricked the space and time jumpers into believing that he was a champion of the ooze people, but in truth he was often, secretively causing the problems D’Lhoon was supposed to fix as the space-hopper.

Slimon started to spew ooze soldiers from his body, reducing him down to a roughly ten ft square cube, but gaining him five soldiers who were all armed with weapons that we could see were initially stashed inside Slimon.

Pogo went to D’Lhoon’s side as fighting was about to commence, and that is when shenanigans began…


Round 1: Port Ffirst - Four Years Ago!

A flash of white light, and suddenly I was no longer on a nice hilltop between Fort Ettin and the Frog Bog, ready to act as bodyguard to a married couple on a date. I was now neck deep in sea water, and one of the ooze soldiers holding a sword had turned their lower half into a paddle board, rowed up to me and slashed down at me in the water with their blade, and ejected acid from its body on to my head. It singed, because it took me by surprise. I grabbed hold of the ooze soldier - how did I grapple an ooze? Stonehand Fighting Techniques! - and climbed up the nearest ship, ooze person in hand. When I reached the top of the ship and looked around, I recognised the port we were in. It was quite familiar to me. Except, I couldn’t see The Legacy, my ship (loaned out semi-permanently to the Grey Zephr Armada). Also, none of the buildings looked like they had undergone the repairs after the githyanki invasion.

Itzal resides in Port Ffirst. They said something was definitely off. Pogo confirmed it; we were in Port Ffirst, but it was four years ago.

Itzal had casted their spectral pirate spell, Glint had summoned Strix, his owl familiar, a couple of deer from a figurine he has, and also a hulking ‘illusory’ dragon. It made me wonder if there was anything left to summon after a dragon?

Of course, Felix was blasting oozes with lighting, and perhaps equally unsurprising I was punching the opposition. But, before we could settle, everything went white again.


Round 2: The Sunset Spines - Winter Two Years Into The Future!

When we caught sight of where we were, spread out on the mountainside, it was unclear whether we were in the past or maybe even the future. But, I kind of liked it; we were on a mountain, it was winter, there was snow all around, it was cold, sure, but; I am goliath - and the location and climate was very goliath pleasing.

I was surprised that D’Lhoon didn’t outright kill the ooze soldier I had locked up in a grapple when she brought down her sword staff with tremendous force onto the ooze’s gelatinous body. The strike made a critical impact. I was further surprised, when necrotic energy inflicted multiple wounds over the ooze person’s body, from Felix grabbing its ankle from lower down the mountain, also didn’t outright kill the ooze. I then thought Itzal was also going to take advantage of the poor soldier’s locked in position under my grip, but instead they smashed and magically bashed a couple of neighbouring ooze soldiers around Felix. So, the ooze soldier locked in my grip clung to life a little longer. Until I punched it in the head three times and then it splattered apart into several oozy puddles on the ground before me.

Pogo went to heal D’Lhoon from some of the cuts and acid damage she had received from fighting the ooze soldiers while Glint mounted one of her deers, and was readying to move closer to Slimon. Seeing Glint do this, I decided to engage Slimon too. I saw the huge cube down the mountain some thirty feet away from me, so I took to the air and positioned myself to damage the jelly cube with a Mountain High Five Star Kavel Splash! But Slimon’s gelatinous body has anti-wrestling properties, which his ooze soldiers did not prepare me for. Instead of splattering cube chunks all over the landscape with a mighty goliath splash, my splash saw me get fully absorbed into Slimon’s cyan jelly form, and it was me who became a restrained victim, instead of Slimon!

From inside Slimon, it was disgusting. My skin kept tingling most unpleasantly from the acidic innards of Slimon’s weird, thick acidic body. There was no air too. I was delighted to see Slimon wince in pain when Glint hit him with a Psychic Lance, or Derthaad favourite spell number two, as I call it. I was also glad to observe I was unaffected by that spell, despite being inside Slimon. I particularly hate psychic attacks! I don’t mind anything else. I didn’t mind the Cone of Cold breath Glint’s dragon caught me with as collateral damage when blasting Slimon with the cold. I was unfazed by the cold. Slimon wasn’t though. He reached out to reabsorb one of his soldiers, which seemed to make him feel chipper again, as if he hadn’t just been hit.

I couldn’t really see very well from inside Slimon, but at some point, one of the ooze soldiers came close to downing comrade Itzal, it seemed. Except, half-orcs are pretty tough. It seems Itzal shares a similar half-orc quality to my thicc-bro comrade Varga. When they take a mortal wound, they don’t die, they become a kind of half-zombie!

Slimon tried to absorb D’Lhoon and Pogo, but he was ineffective at doing so. Besides, there wasn’t much room inside with me already there. Strix, Glint’s owl was on his way to being absorbed until it exploded in that strange way familiars do when killed. Slimon was infuriated he hadn’t managed to absorb his targets. As he proclaimed how infuriated he was, Pogo and D’Lhoon’s powers once again fluctuated and brought about another white flash of light.


Round 3: Daring Heights - Four Years Into The Future!

Felix hit Slimon with his new anti-resistance lightning spell again, which of course, due to where I was, I too was hit. I braced myself for a little zap, and then when it hit, I was rudely reminded that his lightning spells have some new anti Iron-Strong conditioning element to them now! A little scorched now, I became resolved to punching my way out of Slimon, damn the fact I was holding my breath with no way to breath inside him. I punched Slimon good from the inside, upsetting his stomach. But, it wasn’t my punches that freed me, Glint did the Scatter spell that Archie told me about, and I was teleported away from Slimon, and so were the others, and then Glint’s dragon had a perfectly lined up shot at all the opposition with a Cone of Cold - perfect shot.

Comrade Itzal splatted the ooze soldier that almost killed them. Felix was grinning from ear to ear, readying himself another big lighting spell, but then Slimon had had enough.

Slimon reabsorbed one of his remaining ooze spawns that survived the cold attack, and figuratively took his ball and left. Slimon also seems to be able to either time-jump and/or space-hop.

We all took out our frustration on the remaining ooze soldier that didn’t get reabsorbed and teleported away. That one suffered a very cold, lighting, staff and fist splattering death.

It was over. But then one more time there was a white flash of light…


Round 4? Librairion - 30 Years Into The Future!

I’d never been to this place. I had heard about it. A place in Kundar, I believe. I don’t believe it was supposed to look like a wreck though. Books and shelves were everywhere and seating was broken. We were apparently thirty years into the future, and people didn’t seem to look after their public buildings. But, there were no more oozes to batter, or anyone for that matter.

Away from any threat, Pogo and D’Lhoon got control of their powers and shifted us back to their date location, and I’m glad for them that when we got back to the hilltop between Fort Ettin and the Frog Bog, they managed to carve out some time for themselves to actually have their date. Glint even used another spell Archie told me about, Mirage Arcane, to make the hill look like it was actually in full bloom, and as if it was as vibrantly colourful as the Feywild. Felix even casted Animate Objects on his many musical instruments to accompany the dating couple with music on their date.


Date Done - Duty Calling

When the date came to an end, the married couple thanked us for our help saying they would have likely had to run, had we not been there. We were rewarded forty platinum pieces each for our duty as bodyguards, before Pogo had to return to her duties, and D’Lhoon brought the party and I back to Fort Ettin, before saying goodbye and leaving herself.

Before D’Lhoon left, I asked if I could get a staff like hers to planeshift, because I too was finding it hard to spend time with the one I loved who lives in the Feywild. But, D’Lhoon mentioned that the power to move through the planes was inside her, the staff is more of a magical focus. Shame. Me and Nathalie are very reliant on Sterel for our solution. I have confidence in Sterel. Nathalie told me Sterel was set to meet with the Queen of the Summer Court. But, it would have been nice if I could have provided an alternative means of planeshifting too.


Time Travel - I See What D’Lhoon Meant…

I stopped to reflect on how interesting it could have been, when we were in Daring Heights during the fight with Slimon. You see, when we magically jumped to Daring Heights, it was the Daring Heights four years from now. It would have been fascinating to have visited the house that Mendal, Archie and I share. Would we still have been living together? Would Mendal be receiving the praise he feels he deserves as the world’s best craftsman? Would Archie have cracked humanoid longevity through magical means? What about me? Would I be in the Damphenite Tangle, and would Nathalie be Mrs. Castiron Walnut by then? What of Sergeant Derthaad? Would it be Captain Derthaad? My island? My ship? Timor? My Dwarven MMA instructors, the Metal Bros? My Strength Corners, and Kruger? And would Sorrel and her sisters all be alright? Also, how about my friends in Neuyeya? Actually, my friends in Neuyeya would most likely all be fine because Messikammen is a big bear archfey. But, the point is, there was no time during the fight to find any of this out, which is a shame, because had anything not gone to plan; it would have been an opportunity to learn how to do better.

We told Jenna all about what had happened when she joined us in the Great Hall. She confirmed there had been no reports of any adventurers fighting in Port Ffirst of Daring Heights that she had been alerted to that day. She did, however, at the mention of us being in Port Ffirst four years ago, take us to the noticeboard and remove an adventurer notice for investigating the appearance of a shadowy huge dragon in Port Ffirst that had been on the board for four years. No one had seen that shadowy, or ‘illusory’ dragon for four years, so it had never been resolved.