Only Kevin was able to play today. Everyone else had other things going on.
Check In Question: What is your favorite physical, PE-type activity from elementary school?
- Miranda: Jump rope because of bullying. When we would play games in PE that kids could use to pick on me, the coach would let me go to the back of the gym and jump rope by myself. I could also double dutch. When I was older I loved Wall Ball. Lysithea’s favorite was Fire Bolt dodgeball (she has fire resistance and lives in a volcano region).
- Kevin: Volleyball till I stopped growing, then in high school ROTC athletic team. Gobbles as a child was the best cat chaser in his whole grade.
- Cordelia: Hide and seek. Surina also likes Hide and Seek.
- Justice: I loved Battle Ball; Rouge Hareng’s favorite childhood game was Sailor Bingo. It was like regular Bingo but they used cannons and cannonballs to call the numbers.
- Victor: Watermaniacs (a game he and Cordelia made up about Animaniacs); Draggy likes to play storytelling.
The culprits have been revealed! Ludlow was trying to scare Missy, Ansel, and the Baron out of their inheritance, and Nathanial Beauregard faked his death and was using his family for some strange ritual to reclaim his fortune. Ludlow is still tied up by multiple ropes, having been tackled by Surina. Nathaniel Beauregard and his family are still unconscious.
The party begins investigating the crypt when they find a box of rings. They are just about to further inspect the rings when they hear a shout.
Rouge Hareng: Is anyone alive down there? Argh!
Gobbles: Yes!
Coming down the stairs, looking kind of confused and bewildered, is the captain. He sees Ludlow tied up.
Rouge: Anyone else alive down here?
Gobbles: Yes.
Rouge: What’s going on?
Gobbles: Catching ghost criminal people now.
Rouge: Oh… makes sense…kind of…
Gobbles: This guy was playing really, really dangerous pranks.
Rouge: He paid me to take him around the back of the house and wait there for him. He said the will…
Gobbles: Where there’s a will there’s a way?
Rouge: He said I would get a lot of money for that. No, I guess I wont be getting that money now.
Gobbles: No, probably not.
Rouge: Where are the other Beauregards?
Lysithea: Unconscious.
Rouge: Well, who’s getting Nathanial’s money, then?
Gobbles: I’m no lawyer, but I’m guessing us.
Rouge: Okay… I guess I’ll work for y’all then? Where’s the contract?
Lysithea: I’ll have to draft one up.
Gobbles: Let’s ask Nathanial.
Rouge: Is he alive? Should we get the authorities?
Lysithea: YES!
Rouge: It will take a couple of days.
Lysithea: I took us one day to get here. How will it take a couple of days?
Rouge: Have you been to ryphyet?
Lysithea: Yes… Will you just let us take care of a couple of things please? Go wait upstairs.
Rouge: Okay… *looks back at Ludlow with K’un-Lun holding him down* Okay.
The DM really wanted us to have those rings, but Cordelia/Surina was adamant that we do not steal them. She chose to start a conversation with Ludlow so that we could acquire them legally.
Surina: What are these?
Ludlow: Well… they look like rings. Are you going to untie me?
Lysithea: Um, no.
Gobbles: I mean we could, but we’re not going to.
Ludlow: Listen, listen, listen. Here’s what we’ll do.
Gobbles: Pass.
Ludlow: We can work something out cause, you see, I’m a lawyer, right, and executor of the will. We can cut the others out and I’ll take the house and the islands and you take whatever you want.
Gobbles: How about you take the house and the islands and we’ll take you to the authorities.
Lysithea: Nathanials’ still alive, you’re not getting anything.
Ludlow: Nathanials’ still alive?
Lysithea: *sarcastically* No…
Ludlow: If he’s still alive then no one is getting anything. How is Nathanial still alive?
Surina attempts to heal Nathanial for 15 hp.
Nathanial: What’s happening? What is this place?
Gobbles: I’m Gobbles the Goblin and I’m here to rescue you.
Nathanial: *looks around and sees his family and Ludlow* That man did it all! *pointing to Baron* Arrest him!
Lysithea: Sir, we know it was you.
Nathanial: *points to Lysithea* That one did it! Arrest her!
Lysithea: Nice try.
Nathanial: Well what do you want?
Lysithea: An explanation for starters.
Nathanial: You see… *looks around and runs*
Surina trips him with her tail (athletics 14). He trips and stumbles.
Nathanial: Well then, I’m sure we can work out a deal.
Gobbles: *stands over him menacingly and raises his warhammer over his head* Should I rescue you?
As he does this Thistle Winkle Frost decides instead of appearing menacingly, flowers and rainbows appear and his hammer appears to be a clown hammer.
(Thistle Winkle Frost: I’m helping, friend!) (Intimidation, 16)
Nathanial: We can work out a deal.
Surina decides to use more rope to tie up Nathaniel. Lysithea goes to Rouge upstairs.
Lysithea: We have the villains tied up. Please go get the authorities.
Rouge: Okay, it will take a little while, but I’ll be back.
The party takes a long rest. Surina heals the others (adjusted 20 for Ansel, 21 for Missy, and adjusted 20 for Baron). The three get up and look very confused.
Ansel: We all stayed up so we all split the will.
Lysithea: I have some bad news for you, Nathanial is not dead.
Ansel: You all didn’t kill him?
Gobbles: Do you want to kill him right now?
Ansel: Do we still get the house?
Gobbles: Yes or no?
Ansel: Do we still get the house?
Gobbles: I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know how that works.
Ansel: *mumbles*
Baron: Of course you kill him!
Gobbles: Let’s take a vote. Who votes we should kill him, raise your hand.
Baron raises his hand. Ansel keeps taking his hand up and down.
Missy: Oh, I would never! *fans herself*
Gobbles: Ansel make a decision, clap or the answers a “no”.
Ansel: Wait, clap or raise my hand?
Gobbles: I’ll clap down – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
Ansel does nothing.
Gobbles: Baron, would you like to see this rope? *starts chasing him around with rope* Come back, you’re an attempted murderer!
Thistle Winkle Frost plays “Yakety Sax” while Gobbles is chasing Baron around. Surina gets dizzy watching them run in circles, and Lysithea starts cracking up at the scene. Baron gets worn down eventually and Gobbles ties him up.
A few hours later they hear…
Rouge: We’re coming ashore!
Gobbles: Alright, it’s either police or marauders.
Rouge Hareng is walking up with some police that look more like bouncers than police. They look like music festival security. They don’t have any weapons besides their muscles.
Rouge: I brought somebody… I brought the people you wanted.
Gobbles: You certainly brought somebody.
Rouge: You have someone else tied up now.
Gobbles: Yes, this guy was trying to get everyone to kill Nathanial.
Rouge: Who’s not dead, right?
Gobbles: Correct.
Rouge: Told you. *bouncer takes out money and pays Rouge*
Bouncer: Well, we’ll take it from here.
Lysithea: May I see some identification, please?
Bouncer: Some what?
Lysithea: If you are proper authorities you will have some identification.
Rouge: I told you, Ryphyet.
Lysithea’s eye starts twitching and she wants to light them on fire as she mumbles about idiots.
Bouncer: We’ll take it from here.
Gobbles: What specifically? Where will you take them?
Bouncer: To Ryphyet to stand trial.
Gobbles: There’s a court system?
Bouncer: Of course… We do have these papers that claim that Nathanial has been skimming the books on some sketchy things.
Gobbles: You can add attempted murder of a bunch of people to it. And he faked his own death, not sure if that’s illegal.
Lysithea: I’m going to just write down all the evidence. Go have some tea or something so I can concentrate.
Bouncer: Okay.
They go and have tea while Lysithea documents everything and gathers all the evidence.
Bouncer: We will be taking the other Beauregards, too, for character witnesses.
Lysithea: They sure have character.
Bouncer: You need payment for your service. *points to ring box* You can have those.
Lysithea: You know what, that’s fine.
Surina agrees. The wooden box contains 7 rings, each with a different gem or signet. Each ring must be attuned. The rings are divided among the party.
- Ring of Animal Influence, with several animals inscribed all around it, goes to Surina.
- Ring of Feather Falling, with a feather engraving, goes to Octavia.
- Ring of Evasion, with a green gem in the shape of a bird, goes to K’un-Lun.
- Ring of Protection, with a blackened gem, goes to Gobbles.
- Ring of Fire Resistance, a fiery design with a red-orange gem set in it, goes to Professor.
- Ring of Water Walking, a blue gem with wave engravings, goes to Lysithea (yes, she can walk on lava now).
- Ring of Swimming, with a blue gem, goes to Draggy.
The “authorities” take the Beauregards and the villains. The party received a long rest so everyone is healed.
Rouge: So… I’m out of a job. So, the little crew I have and I decided we are going to go out and just explore some. But we thought we would offer you a lift if you needed one.
Lysithea: Can you possibly transport us further up the coast of the desert? About halfway from here to Dalvok?
Rouge: Sure, if you don’t mind sailing.
Gobbles: Sailing for adventure on the big blue wet thing! *starts singing Professional Pirate*
The party takes the Queen’s “statue” and boards the ship. Lysithea threw a giant fit upon learning that the thing the Queen was so upset about was just a mere sculpture no bigger than 2 feet tall.
Aboard the boat Lysithea is in a storage room reading, Surina and Draggy are in the mess hall just hanging out, Gobbles is in another storage room inspecting barrels hoping they will offer him drinks like the faerie-dragon’s place (see Session 12), and the rest of the party are resting below deck.
Thistle Winkle Frost: You know, at my place they would turn in to things.
Gobbles: I know, that’s what I was hoping.
Thistle Winkle Frost: And they were filled with delicious sticky stuff.
Gobbles: That’s one way to describe it.
Constitution check for seasickness (Gobbles 16, Surina 10, Lysithea 13). Everyone is doing just fine. After what seems like an hour or so the boat starts slowing down. Lysithea bookmarks her book and puts it away, then peeks her head out of the room to see what’s going on. Gobbles also steps out and walks onto the deck. The deck hands motion off in the distance. Gobbles percepts using his eyeballs (adjusted 9) and sees what looks like a shipwreck. Pieces of ship are floating, and someone is waving his arms about. He cannot hear what he is saying.
Gobbles: Stay away, there’s 800 sharks! *waves back*
The deckhands are talking about who is going to go out to save them this time.
Lysithea: What’s going on?
Deck Hand: There’s people out there, it happens sometimes. Usually closer to the southern coast.
Gobbles: Hey Surina, there’s people in need of rescue, or it’s a trap and we get to fight pirates!
Surina dashes out to the deck in excitement. Surina and Draggy volunteer to row out to the shipwreck (athletics Surina 15, Draggy 24). They rowed over very quickly, comically launching towards the wreck in their excitement, but they somehow don’t disturb the water. They see a man as they approach and a woman that he’s holding on to, trying to keep her head up.
Man: Help us!
They row up to the wreck.
Surina: Get in!
The man throws the woman on the boat and he climbs in after. They steady the boat as he climbs in, then they row back to the ship. The woman is unconscious. Everyone is looking at the man suspiciously.
Lysithea: Is something wrong?
Deck Hand: Look at what he’s wearing.
He is wearing a seafaring outfit, but he has a bandana wrapped around his arm.
Lysithea: What does the bandana mean?
Deck Hand: Well, it might be hiding a tattoo. He might be a pirate.
The captain orders for the woman to be brought to his quarters to rest and for the man to be brought to the brig under suspicion. Lysithea gracefully Thaumaturgies his bandana off, revealing a tattoo of a gold flag, a pirate tattoo.
Gobbles: They’re clearly cool pirates, that’s an awesome flag.
Rouge: Definitely take him to the brig!
Gobbles: What if he was undercover?
Pirate: I saved her! I don’t know what you’re doing!
Gobbles: Complimentary room and board.
Everyone goes back to their tasks at hand. Lysithea is suspicious of why there was a sole pirate on the wreckage, so she goes to the brig to speak with him (keeping the locked doors in between them).
Lysithea: Can you tell me what happened?
Pirate: Well, we were sailing and our ship sank. Most of the crew died. I saved that woman. She was one of our passengers.
Lysithea: Your ship looked destroyed. Are you telling me it just magically sank?
Pirate: How else do ships sink? They fall apart!
Gobbles: Was it cannonball induced?
Pirate: Why does it matter? We sank. I was the only survivor.
Insight Gobbles Nat 1, Lysithea 7 – They believe him.
Lysithea: So you have no idea what caused your ship to sink?
Pirate: I didn’t say that. Okay… okay… can’t tell anyone cause they’ll definitely think I’m crazy..
Lysithea: Try us.
Pirate: There were these beautiful women out on these rocks and they were singing, and the ship sailed right into it. I heard the singing but… I’m slightly deaf. I just saw them and the ship sailed and I grabbed our passenger and jumped off.
Gobbles: I’m suspicious of the passenger, are you sure she was not one of the people singing?
Pirate: No she was not.
Lysithea: I didn’t know pirates took passengers.
Pirate: Who says I’m a pirate?
Insight Lysithea 13, Gobbles 19 – He’s lying.
Gobbles: You are a liar.
Pirate: Fine, I’m a pirate, and we don’t normally take passengers. They were prisoners. We got them from someone else.
Gobbles: So by prisoners you mean slaves.
Pirate: They weren’t our slaves!
Gobbles: Did you buy them?
Pirate: No!
Gobbles: Cause you’re taking people and that’s slavery. So you went and murdered a bunch of people and others as slaves. That’s not much better.
Pirate: We were going to ransom them!
Gobbles: That’s still not better!
Pirate: She’s not very attractive. Have you looked at her? I saved her life!
Gobles: If you wouldn’t have blown up her ship originally her life wouldn’t have been in jeopardy.
Lysithea: This is ridiculous, I’m going to go talk to Rouge.
As she heads out the boat starts rocking more (constitution saving throw Gobbles 15, Lysithea 13, Surina 6). Surina feels sick to her stomach, but not enough to effect her. Outside, Surina sees fog start creeping over the deck. She goes back inside because of the fog. Gobbles stays by the brig to keep an eye on both the outside and the brig/captain’s quarter’s door. The crew is confused by the fog. Lysithea makes her way upstairs to Rouge.
Rouge: What brings you up here?
Lysithea: What’s with the fog?
Rouge: No clue.
Lysithea: Do you happen to have ear plugs?
Rouge: No, why?
Lysithea: It’s possible that there’s something out there using a spell that will cause your ship to crash if you hear it.
Rouge: Do you have ear plugs?
Lysithea: No, that’s why I’m asking you. We could stuff our ears with cloth.
Rouge: Well that might be helpful.
Lysithea: Do you have any on board?
Rouge: Probably, go look in the supplies.
Lysithea: GOBBLES! *walking down the stairs* We need to find something to plug our ears with! Especially the captain!
Gobbles go into the storage room and finds cloth. They cut up the cloth and fold it in to squares and distribute them to the captain and deck hands. Charisma saving throw, advantage from cloth (Gobbles 10, Lysithea 24, Surina Nat 20). The captain is safe, but the other sailors and Gobbles are starting to gravitate towards the sides of the boat.
Lysithea: Oh no.
DM: Now is when the fun begins.
Surprise round for everyone on the side of the boat. They feel the fog get wetter.
Gobbles: Ew, this water is wet?
A deck hand gets pulled off the side of the ship, then another. They are replaced with sea spawn – basically the crew of Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Thistle Winkle Frost: I don’t like this new friend! *clawing at Gobbles’s head*
Gobbles is stunned for the first turn. Initiative (Gobbles 2, Lysithea 5, Surina 4, Draggy Nat 20+2)
Begin Sea Battle
Draggy runs up to one of the sea spawn and swings his battle ax. He hits with a 13 and does 6 damage. The “woman” busts out of the captain’s quarters. The party hears a loud scream, which sounds slightly muffled from the cloth. The first sea spawn attacks Draggy but misses with a 14 and again with a 7. The second one misses a bite attack against Draggy with a 7. The second one hits Draggy for 4 damage, hits again for another 3 damage, and then uses its quills to attack doing 5 more damage. The third one passes through, giving Draggy an attack of opportunity, but he misses with a 10. The sea spawn attacks Gobbles, who is stunned. It does 5 damage on its first attack, 6 on its second, but misses its tentacle attack. Lysithea uses Magic Missile on each sea spawn, doing 3, 5, and 5 damage respectively. Surina steps out of the mess hall and sees a hideous, ugly woman with black hair all the way down to her feet. She doesn’t even look human anymore – she looks like a shriveled up creature with blue skin. Surina uses a bonus action and marks the sea hag with Hunter’s Mark, then runs into attack. She hits with an adjusted 20, doing 14 damage. She then activates Divine Smite doing 8 more radiant damage. Scuffling can be heard from up above. Lysithea is standing halfway up the stairs that lead to the captain, so she can see both him and the fight on the deck. She sees a winged creature fly down and strike the captain.
Lysithea: THE CAPTAIN’S BEEN HIT! *shouting loud enough to be heard through the ear cloth*
The captain is swaying and his hands are no longer on the wheel. Another winged creature flies down and touches the captain. Draggy lines himself up with the sea spawn (and unfortunately Gobbles) and uses his lightning breath. Gobbles and all 3 sea spawn save their failing roll. They all take 10 lightning damage. The sea hag attacks Surina but misses. The first sea spawn attacks Gobbles but misses all 3 attacks. The second sea spawn misses all 3 attacks, with Gobbles hiding behind his shield. The third one attacks Gobbles and only hits once for 2 damage. In reaction, Gobbles casts Hellish Rebuke and an angry pop of confetti hits it as it becomes surrounded by pink fire. The sea spawn succeeds on its saving throw, so it only takes 7 fire damage. Lysithea is good for sea sickness (saving throw 13). She casts Magic Missile as a level 2 slot on the 2 winged creatures, doing 9 damage to one and 8 to the other. Surina is good for sea sickness (saving throw 15), but she fails her wisdom saving throw for sea hag’s stench (6). She now has disadvantage to her attacks. Surina attacks the sea hag, misses with a 6, then uses an inspiration to reroll and hits with an 18. She does a total of 17 damage. She once again casts Divine Smite, doing an additional 9 damage. The sea hag is down to 4 health. The winged sirens constantly attack Rouge and drop him. He makes a saving throw and is not completely dead… yet. Gobbles is fine for sea sickness (saving throw 19). He casts Thunderclap. Draggy and 2 of the sea spawn avoid the attack, but one gets hit for 5 damage. Draggy attacks one of the sea spawn and hits with a 15, and kills it with 10 damage. He uses another action to hit the next sea spawn, hits with a 25 and does 9 damage. The sea hag hits Surina with her claws for 6 damage. The remaining spawn attacks Gobbles. The first one misses all 3 attacks. The second one hits for 6 damage. Gobbles once again reacts with Hellish Rebuke. The sea spawn succeeds on its throw and only takes 12 damage, but it is defeated. Thistle Winkle Frost pops very angry confetti at it as it takes the fire damage. Lysithea casts Magic Missile on the sirens as a 2nd level spell, doing 7 and 8 damage respectively. The sirens disappear. Surina attacks the sea hag with a 12 but misses. Gobbles attacks a sea spawn with his warhammer, misses with a 9, uses an inspiration to reroll and hits with a 21. He does 8 damage and kills the final sea spawn. Draggy delays. The sea hag scratches at Surina, hits with a 21 and does 12 damage. Lysithea runs upstairs and takes the helm. When she steps up the helm the sirens reappear. She makes 2 Intelligence saving throws (9 rerolls with inspiration to 15, and 16) and avoids the sirens’ attacks.
Lysithea: HELP! SIRENS!
Surina attacks the sea hag and hits with a 22. She does 11 damage and defeats the sea hag. Draggy runs upstairs and attacks a siren. He hits with a 14 and does 5 damage. He attacks again and hits with a Nat 20 and does 16 damage. The siren has 1 health left… Gobbles runs up the stairs and Eldritch Blasts the sirens. He hits with an 18 and does 10 damage. Lysithea is having a hard time keeping the ship under control. Everyone makes a constitution save (Gobbles 11, Lysithea 10, Draggy 18) Gobbles and Lysithea feel the boat heavily sway to one side. Acrobatics check (Gobbles 11, Lysithea 11, Draggy 15) They remain on their feet for now. Draggy attacks the remaining siren by placing himself in a flanking position. He hits with an 18 and does 13 damage. He attacks again with a 21 and does 14 damage defeating the siren. The fog dissipates and everyone else piles on the wheel to get control of the ship. Rouge Hareng is clinging to life.
The remaining members of the party are below deck and had an even more epic battle that we won’t get to see.
End Session
Check Out
Spotlight on Another Player:
- Miranda: Draggy doing his lightning breath will Gobbles in the way. Victor even made it a point that he was also attacking Gobbles and it was hilarious.
- Kevin: Surina and Draggy blasting away in the rowboat with their ridiculous athletics checks.
- Cordelia: Dad using the Warlock Tiles for the first time.
- Victor: The explosions. And when I used my lightning breath. (He’s 4 so it’s fine that he picked himself)
- Justice: That Victor actually wanted to play with us today.
A Challenge or Something Learned:
- Miranda: I finally learned to use my Meta Magic to reroll for better damage.
- Kevin: I need to pick my spells better as Thunderclap was not great.
- Cordelia: Still shuts down when given the opportunity to roleplay.
- Victor: Punching (he means when he got hit by the sea spawn).
- Justice: I learned that the Warlock Tiles are cool but they hurt my fingers. Also, with the tiles you have to plan more in advance.
Prediction or Hope for Next Session:
- Miranda: I’m hoping we can finally get this “statue” back so that I can see if Marcus is dead or locked up with Slogoth. I also hope to see Cordelia role play cause I think she’d really like it.
- Kevin: I predict that the Queen will not be completely grateful with the return of a tiny statue and will likely not just give us a massive reward as MISSION ACCOMPLISHED scrolls across the screen while “I Believe I Can Fly” plays in the background.
- Cordelia: I want to stop more bad things from happening in the world.
- Victor: Running around.
- Justice: I hope that more people can play next time.
Analysis: This was a super fun session for a few reasons. First of all, the interactions between Kevin and Justice were hilarious. I had to fuss at them several times to slow down so that I could finish typing what they had said. Second, this was the first time Justice used the Warlock Tiles he had gotten for Christmas. It really added to the game, and I think the visuals helped the kids more than the battle maps. Third, Cordelia had a lot of fun with this session. Even though she didn’t roleplay she was very active in her participation. She tripped Baron, spoke to Ludlow, took the rowboat, and defeated a sea hag all by herself! We are all so proud of her. Finally, Victor participated in this session! He went to rescue the people on the ship wreck, and helped defeat the sea spawn and sirens. My children were amazing this session and I wish everyone had been able to see it. Let’s hope this continues into the next session.