DM: Neal (Featuring cameo by DGM)
Party:
Silva / Ildan / Paladin 5
Floof Is Sleeping / Quil / Ranger 4 (Trailblazer)
Johnny2C’s / Snowball / Monk 5
Kudolink / Indarasul / Paladin 4
Wade / Till / Cleric Sorc 4
Calmseeker / Zoren / Cleric Fighter 6
Day 1
Snowball and friends gathered in the Axe and Thistle, feeling the itch for adventure, but not really sure how to scratch. Snowball was glad that he knew most of the people present; having adventured with Quil a few times and survived the horror mission with the Gnolls with Indarasul . He felt quite comfortable with the party. After a bit of chatter, the group decided to take a trip through the GQE Portal and do some exploring. The general plan, to Snowball’s knowledge was to head east to the coast, then follow that up north. Ildan, claiming to have been in the area a few times, elected to lead the party. We arrived through the portal to the chilly air, and was fortunate to spend our first day of travel unaccosted.
We traveled about 12 miles to shore and twelve miles northwest to Snowballs recollection
That night we were awoken to a cacophony of noise emanating from the sky above. We searched the skies and found a gigantic ship careening through the sky! Snowball could not believe his eyes seeing such a thing, and at first thought it might be Githyanki in origin, from what he has read in logs. However, as we observed further another ship flew towards it, and the massive ship deployed many small ones!
A battle ensued, and in the darkness, silhouetted by the moon, it was hard to tell exactly what was happening. Gouts of flame burst forth from ships and the very air itself seemed to be apart of the battle, though Snowball could not make sense of what he was looking at exactly. With his sharp eyes, Snowball was able to make out that were were tentacles, yes tentacles (Snowballs hand did not slip) on the large vessel. And the smaller ones had sails, but they were not cloth, but made of a strange membrane. (Snowball was able to obtain sample of material if interested, but we will get to that later). We were able to confirm that these ships belonged to the Illithid!
The pursuing ship was wooden and large, but not as big as the tentacle ship. Upon further inspection during the battle, we saw it’s sails and it belonged to the Khenra of all people! ( UPDATE: We have since spoken to the Khenran embasitor and have confirmed this is their ship. It is father-ship of the Icarus, the Daedalus ) What they were doing so far from their homeland, we are still unsure, but Snowball got much better look at that ship.
The battle in the moonlit sky raged on, and eventually the massive Illithid ship was knocked out of the sky. It appeared to try desperately to veer into the ocean, but to little avail as it landed off in the distance to the north of our camp, presumably somewhere off the shore. The smaller ships met the same fate, with one of them crashing mere hundreds of feet away from our campsite! The sounds of crashing ships was thunderous in the night, and made Snowball’s ears ring. The Khenra ship flew off as well, it was a mere hundred feet off the ground (maybe damaged in the battle?) and slowly began to rise in the air again.
and singed his fur!
We decided to investigate the crash site of the smaller ship that crashed near us. Wasting no time as we knew the fire of the crashed ship and loud crash might attract unsavory creatures to the area. Snowball and Ildan lead the scout with the others in tow. And as always, Snowball was one with the night, a shadow to never be seen…. Except by the stupid mind flyer that came out of the ship! Probably used some of their weird mind powers because Snowball was sure he could not be seen
There were originally 3 clear survivor Mind Flayers; one was definitely their leader with the other two beginning to pull survivors out of the wreckage Our party moved in quickly as we decided Mind Flayers can not be allowed to roam free, and proved our cohesion as we all worked together smoothly! Snowball and friends quickly pummeled their weakened leader, with Ildan riding in on his horse and beheading the monster after he shocked Snowball with a lightning bolt! The others manage to pull a few more of their friends out of the burning ship, but after surviving a crash like that, they were not able to put up a real fight against us.
With the fight over, we quickly looked through the wreckage of the ship, and moved away to safety for the night.
Day 2
We awoke the next day, still trying to piece together exactly what we saw the night before. Snowball was sure the whole thing might have been a dream, if rest of party did not confirm it to be true. Snowball and friends felt the adventure itch scratched for the moment, and felt that it was important to make sure we are alive to bring back information on what happened to White Moon Cove.
The group figured with how we moved before, that we could cut the distance and make it back even faster. Something involving math and triangles or some such craziness. Snowball didn’t trust crazy maths talk, he is a simple cat, smart in other ways, but figured his party would not lead him astray…. Only for the party to lead him astray. As we wandered around, we found ourselves in the heart of a dark smelly swamp! The water was foul and the humidity matted Snowball’s poor fur! It was the worst to clean with a toungebath at night. Luckily with the help of the group, we were able to find four stone pillars we had walked by prior and could find our selves back the way we came, but couldn’t make it back to the shore yet.
While we were stumbling around, Snowball did notice we were not alone! There were several reptile people lurking among the trees! Snowball wanted to ask them for directions back to the portal, but party said there were rumors of a hostile group of tribes people out here. And seeing as they seemed to be giving us a wide berth we should do the same.
That night passed by miserably, but mostly uneventfully. Indra was able to find and communicate with some friendly tiny elemental creatures during the night. And they gave him some sort of magical flower totem that Quil ended up keeping and making a cute flower headband with.
Day 3
We spent the day backtracking, and finding our way back to the portal to head home. We were lucky nothing crazy happened on our trip home. We did notice those tribespeople were still following until we left the forest. They did not show us aggression, but also did not look pleased with our presence. We thought it best to leave them a peace offering of Goodberries, an Endurance Brew, and on top of that a WMC armband laid ontop. We left the items in a conspicuous space as they watched us so they would hopefully knew what we were doing , and headed on our way home.
Really hope a group goes to find out what happened with the large Illithid vessel, as Snowball does not want a bunch of Mind Flayers around! And how were the Khenra involved? Maybe we can asked our hesitant allies what happened.