...speaking of Drowning (and falling...)
After the terrible indignities inflicted on my fighter Scepter Kreel, I switched over to my 'spare character'. My very first LG character is a gnome sorcerer I created for Winter Fantasy 2006 called Glimmershim Coppertail.
He's pretty cool actually. I made him because everyone I knew advised against an arcane caster, and a demi-human. I had not played him for over a year. He was 2nd level on the cusp of 3rd.
The module was "Tears for Bright Sands"- one of the desert "Rary the Traitor" series. In this one, we would be going to a remote area off the coast where a city had sunk beneath the waves. We would be seeking a magical sledgehammer that belonged to Vathris- a minor greyhawk demi-deity of lost causes and revenge.
The entire module takes place underwater. Atthe beginning, the paladin who hires you provides for scrolls of water breathing.
As luck would have it, we were a strong party. It included three clerics (luck of the draw) and two elven rangers. My character was the only arcane caster.
So (because of waterbreathing) the environment was not too much of a problem here except for movement. Movement-wise we were kinda screwed, because we had to swim everywhere. Half moves on the tactical board.
Immediately we ran across a place halfway to the ruins where there was a merfolk child who claimed to be lost. He wanted to go in the opposite direction of our mission. We discussed this and settled on helping the kid, in hopes that we could ask the merfolk for help.
This turned out to be smart. The Merfolk kid disappears as soon as we reach the Merfolk encampment. They tell us there is no missing kid. They demand to know who we are or why we are invading their lands.
Well, we made friends eventually.
The cleric of Pelor suggested to us that the 'mystery" mer child was actually a manifestation of that hero-deity Vathris, helping us out, testing us for compassion. Maybe so!
The Merfolk presented their problem which was they wanted to move into those ruins we had just left, but were afraid of Sahuagin and a Dragon Turtle that were rumored to be in the area. We agree to check it out. And hey, thats good intel.
Off we go. We explore some underwater ruins. Explore, explore, explore.
We find the temple to Vathris! Explore, explore.
Suddenly, a Locathah and his (huge) shark companion challenge us as we are leaving the temple. We start out by attempting to parlay with him too, but he attacks.
So--it's on! There was a cool underwater battle at this point. The archers were both screwed, but I could still blast magic missiles until they reached closing range.
We handily took him down within a few rounds, but we gave him ample opportunity to surrender. At a mid point, one of the clerics who had no way to attack, instead cast 'detect evil'. The locathah wasn't evil, so we switched to subdual damage as soon as we could. The Locathah was actually a druid, we soon figured out.
The real danger was the shark, which was fairly brutal.
okay, so battle over, we 'capture' the Locathah, and even allow him to heal his shark. He demands to know what we are doing down there. I started telling an elaborate story about falling off a boat, but my companions soon shushed me (haha) and told him the truth of our mission. The Locathah than revealed himself as an agent of the great dragon turtle Zyzrix.
It went back and forth from there for a while, but we brought up the merfolk who wanted to move in, and explained how their presence would be mutually
beneficial to the dragon turtle, and how we would leave immediately after we had the hammer. We were travelling on a mission from a paladin, after all-- and we had no desire to plunder the area.
At this point the dragon turtle appears.. we were standing on him!
He rises up out of the silt and addresses us. We make introductions. We are to invite the merfolk to come to the ruins. After that, he will put us in touch with the spirit of the hammer, who haunts the area. (so it was really the hammer who was the merfolk child..aha).
So that went pretty well.
On the way back, we spot a pair of sahuagin scouts advancing on the merfolk area.
Often in these mods, it's a matter of knowing what you are "supposed to do". So we were in a bit of a quandary. We could have ambushed the sahuagin at that point, but instead we let them go. We reported them to the merfolk instead, along with the other news about joining the dragon turtle to live in the ruins.
The merfolk respond with "oh noes, the sahuagin are going to attack!"
So we helped out in the defense of the merfolk redoubt. We set ourselves up in a strategic pinchpoint (Where their numbers count for nothing!!) and got ready to repel the sahuagin onslaught.
Then there was a cool battle against sahuagin and several medium sized sharks.
We really F'd the sahuagin up by having one of our clerics cast entangle right as they were closing on us. I was in a nice cozy niche with my back to the coral, firing off magic missiles every round. At one point one of the dwarves got netted, but he managed to stand his ground. Dwarves are sturdy folk!
We wiped the sahuagin out, including one of their leaders. They fled. In the aftermath of the battle, the merfolk thanks us, and went to meet the dragon turtle.
At this point a celestial porpoise appeared, and motioned for us to follow him.
The porpoise identified himself as the spirit of the magic hammer, and talks with us for a long time. We explained why it was needed (to undo the damage to the desert, to rebuild the city..)
What finally convinced the hammer to allow us to take him with us, was we promised to return him to the ocean if after meeting with the paladin who sent us, he still wasn't convinced. The porpoise led us to an area and showed us where to dig. We found the hammer.
We returned to the surface world, bearing the magic hammer.
Journey journey journey.. across the desert back to the starting point. Then we roleplayed a bit with the paladin (Lady Karystine). The hammer agrees to help her. ...and that was the end of the adventure.
And I found out I really enjoyed playing my sorcerer again!
Also, I levelled up and got to pick a feat and a spell. Since I used Magic Missile so much, I got that one (my previous magic missiles came from a wand) I picked that up. I kinda agonized over the feat. A "smart" feat would be a spell focus one. But a flavor feat would have been fun. I opted for fun and took 'Improved familiar", which gave me a celestial serpent for a familiar.
I named her Opal. I love her.
Next up, was the Interactive (larp)!