Session 27 - The One Where Carro Got a Pirate Name
2nd Jan 2022 19:30 - 22:30
In-game timeline: DR1489 Eleint 4 - Eleint 4
Our "Heroes" are awaiting the call to "Run the Gauntlet" and are trying to get into the mindset of actually WANTING to become pirate members of the Radiant Sisters, and working out how to "entertain" the crowds on the Gauntlet.
They eat a relatively hearty meal, and are led to the start of The Gauntlet. They hear the crowds building up behind a door, and a Pirate Captain named Kraster introduces them to The Gauntlet, explaining the 4 tenets of Piracy, and the fact that they will be tested against each of these, and then finally having to cast off their former lives, and names, before becoming full Pirates.
The first room contained a large ships wheel, mounted horizontally, attached to a heavy rope descending into water in a well in the centre of the ships wheel. The party quickly realised that they needed to work together to turn the wheel and raise the rope. Much cheering ensued. Especially when the rope was raised enough to reveal a giant octopus attached to it, who proceeded to lash out with its tentacles at the party, who were unable to defend themselves as they were pushing the wheel. Carro takes two strikes from the tentacles before our "Heroes" quickly let go of the wheel, and the octopus, and rope, descends out of harm's way. Unfortunately the key to the exit door was under the octopus, so they group had to come up with a plan. And so they did.
Realising that it takes only two of them to raise the rope, Mahtis and TC work on the wheel, while Khandi and Carro wait with actions to shoot at the octopus when it appears. Kandi hits the octopus with an arrow, but the creature responds with tentacle slaps on TC. When Carro misses with his bowshot, Mahtis and TC let the wheel spin back and the octopus drops down.
Realising that this tactic may harm them more than the octopus, the party of "Heroes" decide instead to swap out TC for Khandi and have Carro and TC attack the octopus when it comes out.
This time when the octopus emerges, the group are fully ready for it. Carro marks the prey and fires at it, scoring significant damage. Khandi successfully mocks it viciously, distracting it on its next attack, and Mahtis uses her cold breath blast to damage it further. The Octopus misses Khandi, but manages to score a hit on the dragonborn. TC manages a perfect hit with his crossbow, but doesn't manage to restrain it with his Ensnaring Strike. The octopus failed with its next attacks, though, and the constant battering from the group has taken its toll on the creature. In the following round TC manages to take the octopus out with an Eldritch Blast strike, to the cheers of the watching pirates!
With the octopus dead, TC is able to extricate the key that is tied onto the rope, below where the octopus was, using his Mage Hand - much to the entertainment of the watching crowd. As the crowd filter out to the next room, our "Heroes" heal up a little and then use the key to exit the room and proceed to the next room.
Which turned out to contain a large pool - upon investigation it was more of a hole opening out to the seawater beneath the island itself. In the distance beneath the island the group could make out an enormous turtle which seemed to be attached to the island via a hefty chain - it seems to be pulling the island along by the chain.
As the crowd on the platform above cheered, the group explored the room. There were ominous skeletons around the pool - a fact that initially concerned the group until Khandi takes a closer look and discerns that in fact the skeletons were made up of various, unrelated bones of different ages, put together as if to look worrying.
Somewhat less worried now, the group searched around, finding a potion bottle by the side of the pool. Carro spots some strange looking creatures amongst the audience above, looking on. They seem to have heads shaped like that of a shark, and they were peering on to the group below, quietly. The pirates on the same level of them seem to be avoiding them to some degree - our "Heroes" assume these to be the Sahuagin they have heard about.
Khandi finds a potion bottle which is labelled as a single use of potion of water breathing, and Carro finds a small inscription on the exit door, above a very large keyhole. The inscription reads "The key is around its neck - good luck!".
After some discussion it is agreed that TC should take the potion of water breathing and swim down to the creature below to find the key. TC hesitates long enough for the crowd above to start calling him "Wussy-Boy", which seems to be a name that is starting to stick, despite being a little unfair, as he is the one who volunteers to enter the water! He swigs the potion and jumps in to swim towards the giant turtle.
Carro, nervous that the fish-heads may launch themselves from the viewing platform above to chase TC, aims his bow across the water, hoping to catch them if they dive in. This confuses the viewing crowd, and they proceed to throw things into the water from above, hoping to trigger Carro to fire an arrow at the pineapple, banana and chair that they throw in. Carro, in embarrassment, lowers his bow, to the dismay of those watching, but the cheers restart when Khandi jumps in the pool and gathers up the discarded fruit, climbing back out and making a nutritious fruit salad to the cheers of the crowd.
As the crowd, and the rest of the party, look on, TC swims down towards the massive turtle, eventually reaching close to its neck. He tries to swim around the creature and gets to the gigantic chain that is around its neck, and which reaches up to the island above. Unfortunately TC's sword catches on the creature and it instinctively swats towards him with a massive fin, knocking TC away and bruising him severely.
TC spots a large key hanging from the chain around the creature's neck. He carefully unties the key and tries to swim away without further incident. As he swims, he spots another large turtle swimming in the distance, similarly chained to the island. He also sees more of the sahuagin swimming effortlessly in the water, but they seem to be leaving him alone - just watching him. As the current carries TC close to the large eye of the turtle he is swimming next to, he looks into the dark eye and is overcome with an immense sadness from the creature. This beast is not at all happy about being chained up to this island, and is overwhelmingly sad.
TC manages to swim back up to the room above, with the large key, and emerges in the pool to great cheers from the crowd and pats on the back from his companions. He is still somewhat affected by the sadness of the creature he has just encountered, so is a little quieter than usual. He is also very exhausted from the efforts of the swim and has a level of exhaustion. The large key is placed in the exit door, and our group of "Heroes" are able to move on to the next room.
Which turns out to have a pool of acid in it. Our "Heroes" don't immediately know it is acid, but it becomes apparent when Khandi steps in it and takes damage. A heavy anchor is placed on their side of the pool, and there looks to be an anchor shaped depression on the other side of pool, near to a door labelled "Exit". Mahtis uses her spider climb ability to avoid the pool of acid, and carries the heavy anchor across to the other side, avoiding the pool completely. Some of the crowd are impressed by this, others less so.
As she reaches the other side, Mahtis places the anchor in the depression on the far side of the acid, and the door next to this swings open. Our "Heroes" then discuss how to get the other three across the acid pool. While they discuss at length their options, slowly losing the crowd as they do so, Khandi decides to just jump in and see how bad the acid really is. He finds it is a little damaging, but not too bad. His bravely jumping in also manages to lift the crowd too, and so the bard decides to play to his audience and carry TC across. As TC sits happily on Khandi's shoulders, the bard wades across the pool of acid. TC generously restores some of Khandi's health as he wades across. The crowd is appreciative of the sacrifice of Khandi and start to chant "Minstrel, minstrel…"
With Carro the only one left on the starting side of the pool, he starts to sulk. Mahtis offers to come back across the wall and carry Carro over the pool using her spider climb. Mahtis uses her significant strength to lift Carro onto her shoulders and manages to walk across the wall without dropping the elf. The crowd are unimpressed at the lack of danger this presents, and chants of "piggy-back" start to be heard amongst the viewers. This seems to shorten to "Piggy", which may be a nickname that could stick with Carro for a while. He tries to redeem himself by giving an exaggerated bow once over the other side, but most of the crowd are too busy taking the piss out of the interesting scene of a dragonborn giving an elf a piggy back on the side of a wall.
And so we leave our "Heroes" exiting the acid pool room heading to the next room in The Gauntlet Run. As the crowd above filter out, the names "Wussy-boy", "Minstrel" and "Piggy" seem to be beginning to stick. Khandi is quite pleased with that. TC, and especially Carro, are less so. Mahtis is somewhat nervous…