(A quick note here, I've added these synopsis for people to go back and remind themselves about what happened or if people come in later and don't want to start at the beginning, they can read these really fast, but they are not a replacement for watching our videos as they are not full descriptions. If you don't want to video, you will miss most of the comedy and all of the fighting as I am not going to do a play by play of each attack. So, please check out our videos)
Day 5 7/6/2022 Episode 8
The Raya
Up at the helm we see a Tiefling lady. When asked if the Storm was the reason for the storm, Gwyneira thinks that the Tiefling woman is completely trustworthy when she says no, but the rest of the group isn’t so sure. A group of ghosts come over to us, guiding us to our quarters. One level down, we see a well armed deck and we can tell that this ship is ready to fight if need be. The next level is better lit, there are scattered hammocks and a few bunks. Felix and Azazel climb into hammocks as the ghosts leave to head upstairs. Gwyneira takes her capybara in her lap then climbs into a hammock. Xander flops into a (bunk but really a) hammock. Idham meditates on whether he has made a good decision, sees a vision of the waters pulling away from him, then lays down in a hammock to sleep. Felix and Xander talk. Xander has a rough night but the rest of us do fine.
The Island
The next morning as we come too, the Tiefling stands watching us. She tells us we need to get off on this island as they are repairing the boat. The keel of the ship is above the water line, so we aren’t sure why it needs repairs. We head to the beach. We did some island exploring on the first day. We rest overnight. On the second day, Hawthorn and Idham stay on the beach and Felix, Xander, Gwyneira, and Azazel leave. (4.5 one shot)
Day 4.5 6/29/2022 Episode 8
The group has landed on an island, and Azazel, Gwyneira, Felix, and Xander decide to explore, looking for a rock like Idham has. They look for fresh water, thinking a river would have a smooth stone. The island is covered in a lot of foliage. The group finds a cliff face with rocks against it and a small trickle of salt water pouring out. When doing an arcana check, it seems that the rocks are actually a magical door and there are three magic trees that are connected to it. Upon further study, they are actually poles. On the poles, in old Abyssal, it says to channel to open the door. Felix tries to use Smite on one of the pillars but it doesn’t do anything, while Gwyneira channels magic through it and Xander follows suit. The two pillars light up and Felix decides to do the same. The door swings open to reveal a small cavern with a deep pool of water. Azazel nopes out since he can’t swim, so Gwyneira, Xander, and Felix swim through the water, leaving Ringo with Azazel in the cave while Xander uses his daylight spell to light the way.
In the Cave
The three are able to swim through the water which is like a sink trap, it goes down then hooks around and back up. Gwyneira and Felix have no problem but Xander is only just able to make it. They make it to the other side, where they see an archway leading down into what looks like a town, but it seems to have a shimmer over it. Gwyneira summons a skeleton and sends it down to see what happens. Nothing does. But when Felix opens a small portal to stick his hand through, he takes damage. They get close and Gwyneira touches the border and also gets hurt. She can tell it’s shadow magic so she channels that into her hands and pushes at the wall. It barely works but she is able to push the shadow wall in and it coalesces into a being. They try to talk to it, and try to fight, but Xander tries to blind the enemy and ends up blinding himself and his allies instead. The fight doesn’t go well, so they tell the being that they will leave and it allows them too, flinging them back, through the water and back to the cave where Azazel stands waiting. While being thrown back, Gwyneira grabs a rock from the ground in the water. The group decides to say that they didn’t lose the fight so badly, and head back to the beach where Hawthorn and Idham stayed.
Day 5 7/6/2022 Episode 9 and 10
When we get back, Felix transforms into Xander to do a “reenactment” of what happened, and Xander turns into Felix. Idham, Felix, and Xander chat on the beach. They scan the beach for lightning strikes to find glass, Xander lies in the sand with his shirt off. Idham notes that the ship is now mostly not in the water. Gwyneira looks for stuff from the previous civilization, but she finds nothing.
Azazel is bored and really wants some action, so we decide to head back into the center of the island, having a few hours until we need to leave. We went back to the spot where we went into the cave. It looks to be a building, so we send Azazel to the top for him to take a look around. He sees more ruins over to the side, but they are past a cliff. Felix and Xander transform to have wings. Azazel carries Idham and Gwyneira after we travel to the cliff. We travel for a few more minutes until we get to the ruins. These ruins are not well maintained and it has been affected by the elements. As we walk in, we all get the feeling that we are being watched. It’s unnerving. Idham looks around, and sees shadows dart behind buildings. Gwyneira yells out, trying to use archaic abyssal, but does it in regular abyssal instead. Xander looks for another shrine to Vulkus. As Gwyneira calls out, she sees runes above the doorways that start to glow. She isn't sure what they say. It’s a word and she can make out letters, but she isn’t familiar with what the word is.
Gwyneira says that they should reveal themselves and that we don’t want to hurt them. The runes glow slightly brighter. We also notice, there is a slight shimmer effect on the ruins. The shimmer extends slightly past the ruins, onto the areas that we would expect the rest of the building to be. Idham goes to inspect the building, and see the shimmering around where the building would be. Gwyneira knows that this is an illusion. Idham steps into one of the buildings, and the ceiling looks to be still fallen in, but the shimmer is there, and he reaches up to touch where it is. His hand passes in, but his fingertips vanish into it, and it looks like his hand is coming in contact with stone. The illusion is the stone. He guesses that it looks like the illusion is making it look like it once used to but is very weak.
Gwyneira starts monologuing about who we are, still in abyssal. The runes glow brighter and the shimmer grows more solid and there seem to be some shimmers walking around between buildings. The illusion is getting stronger. This is a very powerful illusion. Felix looks around to find the symbol of Vulkus, but he can only make out the glowing runes. Gwyneira continues to talk in abyssal, and Felix helps her. She can mix in a few ancient words. It has an increased effect and things stabilize. The shimmering shapes moving around turn into beings, though they don’t have much detail. Felix sees a tower. Idham and Xander are trying to figure out the history of this place and Idham remembers something a long time ago from a book about a civilization that existed here in ancient times that disappeared at some point. They were enchanted stonemasons.
Azazel and Felix fly to what used to be the belltower. It’s an illusion from the first floor up. Felix flies down as Azazel stays up high. Felix asks the Staff of Fangar in celestial if this place looks fun, it says it can speak all languages but yes it looks fun. Gwyneira continues in the ancient abyssal, and seems to finally be getting the hang of it, and the illusion starts to coalesce. The beings are humanoid, on the fair side close to peach, and clothed, but we can’t tell if they have rounded ears or not as the details aren’t quite clear. They aren’t Deva or Changelings likely, and they have hair. They are likely some variation of human, elf, shade elf, or something along those lines. The buildings are in good view, in pristine condition. As we’re looking, Idham looking at the stones sees they are ordinary but the space between the stones is quite thin, likely done by a master stone smith, but also that the space in between the stones has something filling it that he isn’t familiar with. He thinks that what they used in the binding of the stones that is enchanted, and not the stone itself. It seems to be the same material as the glyphs.
As we are watching, suddenly everything stops and echoing around us is the incessant droning bell sound, which is coming from the illusion. It echoes through the building and amplifies outwards. The mortar in the illusion begins to resonate. The building and the glyphs begin to pulse. All the beings have stopped and are staring at the bell tower. As Gwyneira stops speaking, the illusion stays. Felix asks the Staff of Fangar if this looks familiar. It says to keep an eye on it and enjoy their last moments. We see shadows swarm in, about human sized or slightly taller. They come swarming in and the beings scatter. There are screams of terror, though Felix can’t hear it. Inside the tower, there are people standing in the tower in a circle, with swirling magic on the ground around them. He looks to see if there are any runes or relics along the walls, but it’s a blank room. The staff tells Felix to watch. As the shadows come rushing in, they seem to get pulled towards the belltower. The door burst open and in comes a black mass. The black mass seems similar to the black shadows we saw down below. The shadow gets pulled into the swirling vortex at the feet of the people in the belltower. The chanting of the people gets louder. One of the beings falls to their knees, and they keep falling one by one. Then one falls the rest of the way, and the shadow starts to get free, but they keep the circle. They slowly fade until only one is still standing and everyone else is lying on the ground. The shadows are breaking out again. The one remaining sets their hands down and steps into the portal. Outside, we see the buildings dim and the mortar and bells stop resonating. The glyphs dull in color, but the illusion isn’t decreasing so it likely happened at that moment. the building begins to crumble, more screaming, and the being is enveloped in shadow, and they vanish in the vortex, and the vortex closes. The illusion dims and fades as do the glyphs. It returns to the current time.
As the illusion fades, one of things that doesn’t is the shadowy being standing in front of Felix. The staff laughs and the being says something that Felix can’t understand. He asks the staff to translate for him but he says no, this is more fun. Felix decides to try to repeat back what it’s saying and does so. He decides to try to say the same thing loudly using prestidigitation in hope that we can hear him. Gwyneira hears in abyssal “Who are you?” from over near the bell tower and decides to investigate. Azazel tucks his wings in and drops into a freefall. The rest of us see him do this and head quickly toward the belltower. Felix, annoyed at the staff, decides to try to poke the shadow being with it but he misses. The shadow being looks at the staff, then at Felix and blasts him with dark energy, though he is able to move out of the way and not get hit. And we fight.
Gwyneira gets the kill shot and walks back to Ringo. A new being shows up, looking similar to before but not the shadow being. It says something and the staff decides to translate. It says, “Thank you for freeing me. We made a mistake. We thought we could control powers that were within our understanding. We were wrong.” Idham holds the mortar up. It says, “That was the beginning of our pride. It resonates with magical energy. They can compound it and make it more powerful. It can repeat.” Idham wants to know what happened to the being. “The shadow from under the ground, our eagerness to mine and enchant more of the material drove us further down and we came upon it. The material was both magical and they enchanted it.” Xander wants to know about Vulkus. It says, “Vulkaria, we worship. Our pride led us to forsake her and go it alone thinking we were better than her.” Gwyn wants to know about the city under the ground if it was there. It says, “Yes, that is where the shadow came from and where the material came from. The enchanted anvil was where they worked the mortar. The being underground was a piece of it, the piece is gone. The rest of it is still there, there are other pieces up on the land like this one. It destroyed the other towns. It does not remember where the other towns are.” He starts to lose his shape. He says the other places are on the island. That one who controls the mine can use it as they wish. He thanks us for freeing him and disappears.
It is heading toward evening. We stop and discuss what to do next. There are some reasons to stay here on this island and leaving would potentially get us in trouble. Azazel can give word to his superiors, and we could set up a base on this island. We are heading toward the beach as we talk. We get back to the beach, while Felix talks to the staff, asking if the island is still fun. It says yes. We arrive back at the beach. Looks like the Raya just launched a rowboat and the Raya is floating above the water. The row boat collects us, and asks the ghost his name. He says it’s too hard to pronounce, so Felix says he will call him Oars. The guy agrees, saying he likes the name. As we go back, Idham talks to Oars, asking the captain's name. Her name is Raya, like the ship. She is a great captain as she asked him to join. He was already a ghost down in Hell. She brought him from Hell and he agreed to join because he might as well since he was already there. Felix wants to know the purpose. He says it’s a ship, we sail. They find cargo, it’s in the water first. They kill other people on the boats, take the cargo, and then get the dead to work on the ship. We arrive back at the ship, climb up the ladder and onto the deck, where Ct. Raya is waiting.
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