Date in Real Life: Saturday, 25 February, 2023
In Game Day: Shta’im the 20th of Sawol and Shalosh the 21st of Sawol (AM)
As the team stood discussing, they heard voices off to their left. They turned and saw two humans, dressed as pirates, cursing and blaspheming the OverLord’s name as they played cards.
Starflower snarled. “1 Peter 2:15, For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 1 Peter 2:15.”
The pirates fell silent and continued their game.
“What was that about, Lassie?” Warheart asked.
“It’s called the ‘Cat’s Got their Tongue WordRune.’ We use it to silence vain murmurings against the OverLord.”
Philip approached the pirates.
“Got any aces?” one of them asked.
“Go fish!” the other replied.
“Hey, there!” Philip said loudly.
The pirates looked up lazily. “More recruits?” he asked.
“We’re not pirates,” Philip replied.
“Yeah? We’re not pirates either,” one of them replied. “We’re fishers of men!”
“Yeah,” the other one chimed in, “do you have more slaves for the Scarlet Moon offering?”
“The what, now?” Starflower demanded.
“Well, there’s the regular slaves for the Minotaurs of course, but we have to give extra slaves to the dragon on the Scarlet Moon. That’s only a couple of days from now, and we’ve only got the one prisoner.”
On mention of a prisoner, Hector glanced away from the conversation and started looking around in the low light.
“Behind quota, are we?” Starflower asked, bemused.
“Yeah, the great and wise Selfoe hasn’t returned yet. His ship should be coming in anytime, now.”
Starflower glanced at Philip. Philip smirked slightly. That ship wouldn’t be coming in anytime soon.
“That’s not what it means to be fishers of men,” Philip said. “Mind if I do some fishing?” Philip pulled out his fishing rod and went to the water. He could still sense evil from the still surface of the lake. One of the pirates followed him. Good. They were separated.
Philip cast his line. “Being fishers of men isn’t about kidnapping, you know. It’s about bringing people to the OverLord.”
“Do you meet the OverLord when you die?” the pirate demanded from behind him.
Philip turned slightly. He didn’t trust this man. “Sure, but that’s not...”
“Right,” the pirate interrupted, “so when they die, they get to meet the OverLord. That’s what we’re doing. We’re helping bring people to him.”
The pirate suddenly lashed out with a savage kick. Even though Philip was expecting such a move, it still threw him off balance, and he fell into the water with a splash. He realized quickly that his armour was weighing him down, and he splashed frantically to get to the surface.
“Hey, back off!” Starflower yelled, rushing forward. Edward had his swords out and forced the pirate to back off from the water. Starflower tried to pull Philip out, but lost her grip. Hector and the dwarves rushed to help her. William and Bill kept an eye on the other pirate.
“That was not very nice,” Edward said to the pirate.
“Yeah?” the pirate sneered.
“I’m losing patience with these guys,” Starflower said. “Edward, could you make him stand next to his buddy over there?”
“What are you going to do?” Hector asked.
“We have some sleeping powder. Why don’t we use that?” In a moment, Starflower had put the pirates to sleep.
“You didn’t want to share the Great Rescue?” Edward asked.
“I’m tired. I’ve been crawling through goblin caves all day. Let’s just tie them up or something.”
“There’s a cage over there,” Hector said, pointing to the right of shore. “I spotted it when they mentioned a prisoner.”
They could see a human woman in the cage. They found a key in a pirate’s pocket and used it to unlock the cage and set the person free.
“Wait, you look familiar,” Edward said as she stood up. She had long brown hair, wore peasant’s clothes, and had a wooden holy symbol on a necklace.
“Enel!” Starflower cried out. “Guys, it’s Enel. We shared the Great Rescue with her in Badun. Enel, how did you get here?”
“Pirates on the Salt Dog,” she replied, her throat sounding dry. Philip handed her his water bottle, which she gratefully accepted. “And they had creepy undead with them on the boat.”
“Oh, great!” Starflower smacked her forehead. “We sent the bodies of the dead pirates back with the Salt Dog so they would get proper burial.”
“My horse! Johny!” Philip cried out.
“Johny’s on the New Covenant,” Hector said, confused.
“Yes, but if there’s another pirate ship in the river and they attack the New Covenant...” Philip trailed off.
“Ah. Let’s pray, and we should be worried about Captain Francessca and her crew, too, not just your horse.” Hector suggested.
“Right,” Philip said sheepishly.
They introduced Enel to the dwarves, used a fishing net to tie up the pirates, then looked around.
“I’m tempted to take the fishing rod and the swords,” Philip admitted.
“That would be stealing,” Edward reminded him.
“Hey!” William called out, “I found a pile of stuff with a sign that says ‘Selfoe’s treasure.’ That sounds like free game, since we killed the Selfoe almost a week ago!”
“I suppose so, let’s have a look,” Edward relented and sauntered over.
“Hey, more arrows,” Starflower said, grabbing a bundle.
“Ach, is that a crossbow?” Copperbranch asked, picking up a weapon.
“Found some golden claws,” William grunted, pocketing the cash.
“Leather armour,” Philip said, holding up a bundle. He looked around. “Hector, here, put some armour on, you’re more likely to stay alive that way,”
Hector took the bundle, somewhat reluctantly. “Not very stylish,” he muttered quietly, trying it on.
“This looks like healing potion,” Edward said, holding up some bottles. “Two, four, six, eight. Eight bottles. I think I’ll take a couple.”
“I’ll take one, too,” Starflower said.
“Give the rest to Hector, our resident Renewer,”
“Small shield, anyone?” Starflower asked.
After they finished dividing up the spoils, they turned their attention to the water. A rowboat waited on the shore.
“Still sense evil in the water?” Starflower asked.
“Yep,” Hector said.
“Yes,” Philip agreed.
“So, what’s the plan?” Edward asked. “Row out and see what happens?”
Philip shrugged. “I’m game. If there’s something evil here, we need to deal with it before we can move a bunch of dwarves through.”
“Perhaps I’ll stay on shore with the dwarves,” Hector suggested. “The boat’s not very big.” Regulus stayed as well, since there wasn’t enough room on the boat for everyone.
They rowed out. About the middle of the lake, Philip spotted some ripples and bubbles. “Something’s moving down there. I’m going to get out my fishing rod and see what happens.” He cast his line.
“Do you think something is actually going to...” Edward started.
Before he could finish is thought, Philip felt a tug on the line. “Whoa! Something’s biting! It’s strong, too!”
“Let go! You’re tipping the boat!” Starflower yelled.
“And lose my fishing rod?” Philip called back. Instead of continuing to pull back, he took a deep breath, then leaned forward and jumped into the water.
“Philip!” Starflower yelled and jumped in after him. Once she was under water, she saw Philip holding onto his fishing rod, getting dragged away by a large fish with the end of the fishing line in it’s mouth. Barracuda, she thought. She had seen pictures of them in a book. She saw another one coming right for her, it’s jaws open wide.
Her martial arts instincts took over. Her hand clenched into a fist and drew back. Her movements felt sluggish as she started bringing her arm forward. She opened her palm into a spear hand to cut through the water faster, then closed back into a fist as she punched the charging barracuda in the face. The large fish shook its head, backing up a little bit. She had confused it. The fish attempted to charge again, and she dodged it, but wasn’t able to land another blow. A couple seconds of unsuccessful thrashing later, a shadow loomed over her head. She looked up in time to see Bill crashing into the water. The bear grabbed the barracuda from above with his claws, and then ripped a hole in its side with his jaws. Starflower kicked her way to the surface to draw breath.
A moment after Starflower had jumped into the water on the starboard side, two grappling hooks came flying out of the water on the port side and hooked on the side of the boat.
“What the...?” William said.
Edward dropped his oar and pulled out a sword and began hacking at the ropes on the grappling hooks.
“Starflower needs help,” Bill said and jumped into the water.
“Bill, wait!” William yelled, too late. With 1000 pounds of bear leaving the boat on one side and grappling hooks pulling down on the other side, the craft came dangerously close to capsizing. William lost his balance and fell overboard.
William found himself in the water. He could see two strange people... no, fish... no, people fish. From the waist up, they looked like humans, wearing leather armour, and pulling on ropes that were attached to the boat above. From the waist down, they had some sort of fish tail instead of legs. Mermen. One of the ropes went slack, presumably because Edward had cut the line. The merman let the rope go, and turned and spotted William. It drew daggers out from from its belt.
William’s eyes widened and he kicked to the surface.
Distraction sin enchantment. Hector enchanted. Gets distracted by everything and doesn’t help in the battle. Copperbranch fires crossbow at merman.
Philip getting dragged around the cave. Regulus jumps in and eats the fish.
Edward cuts second rope. William climbs back into boat.
Dagger merman attacks Edward.
Second merman attacks William with a trident and net. Both mermen are wounded, and they dive underwater and swim away.
Battlemaker and Earthdelver stay behind to get the rest of the dwarves and to map the goblin cave, using Philip’s paint to mark the trail.
Team moves forward with Enel. They climb a steep cliff, then spend the night in the forest on the mountain side.
The next morning they climb the mountain. They see campfire smoke in the distance, and head that direction.
They approach the village and a gate wide open. There are two ogres sitting in adorandak chairs. Edward sneaks off to scout out the area.
Philip approaches the ogres to attempt to persuade them to drink metamorph potion. The potion has no permanent effect on the ogres. Philip gets enchanted with the Laziness enchantment, and sits to enjoy lemonade. The others move in to attack. The ogres are wounded, and one attempts to enchant everyone. Most people fall under the laziness enchantment and sit under trees or in the chairs. Bill and Regulus finish off the ogres with the help of a couple of dwarves.
Edward returns and rescues everyone from their sin enchantments.
The team enters the town and finds three giants barbecuing an entire deer on a large spit. They invite the Lightraiders to join them, which they politely decline. The team asks about the entrance to the Dragon Lair. The giants point to a huge stone, saying it is a covering over the opening.
Philip manages to persuade the giants to move the cover for them. They step into the opening.
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