Game night Jan 28th – Camus the Catoblepas… and a kraken

Hi Im Camus the Catoblepas, I ll be your harbinger of doom tonight.

The Isle of Dread was a realm of mystery and danger. After the battle with the undead ritualists, Thokk began training his pet displacer beast, using his natural athletics and some measured diplomacy on the quivering creature. The body of the succubus evaporated with a shriek when she was slain by Poppy, and all that remained of her was the black iron rod she was holding. Sharia picked it up and found that it had strange magical properties allowing it to hang immovably in mid-air. The vampire witch-doctor disembodied head still wore the crown of coral, which Hex knew to be magical, along with the sacrificial dagger (+3) still clutched in her hand. The crown allowed water-breathing, which would prove useful later on. Two paths led out of the clearing. The western path was lined with halfling statues every twenty feet or so, and the southern path ha none. The clearing itself was ringed with twenty or more outward-facing halfling statues.

Even before they had caught their breaths from the exertion of combat, another long lowing sound, as of cattle, was heard. They listened as the swishing of the branches to their north revealed a large dark beast who slowly shambled into the clearing. He was cow-like, somewhere between bison and mammoth in size, with a long neck that hung low to the ground. Its skin hung loosely from its bony body but its eyes flashed brightly. Many of the heroes were susceptible to the doom-dealing glance of its eyes, and were thus drained of strength while in its presence. Only Poppy, who was a devotee of the Raven Queen, the same deity as the catoblepas, was immune to its weakening affects. Two other figures darted between the trees behind the catoblepas, not revealing themselves. “I am Camus, reaper of souls in this land. You have upset the balance and your lives are judged forfeit.”

Seeing the carnage they had wrought upon the undead, Camus was convinced to suspend judgment, as long as they killed no more lawful living creatures of the island. They then learned from the catoblepas that their were other undead on the island,and they were an abomination that he would look kindly upon if they were destroyed. He could not interfere with their fates by telling them where they were located, but he did tell them that they were led by a fearsome draco-lich. He also let slip to Sharia that there were indeed living creatures on the island of the mansion in the great western lake. Finally, when Poppy gave him one of her gems, the catoblepas left one more message – the undead were not the only abomination on the island. He then knocked over a halfling statue with a swish of his tail. The stone halflings were also spirits lost to his mistress. One final agreement between the harbinger of doom an the heroes of WInterhaven granted them the right to kill as long as they killed more undead than otherwise.

So saying, they continued on the southen path, leading towards the lake and not lined by the unusual creepy halflings, each standing at attention or slumped over his spear, with little more than loin-cloths and a few bone adornments. The path followed a small stream that grew until it was a rivulet as they stepped out of the boggy forest to the lakes edge, which was a smooth grassy lawn in either diretcion as far as the eye could see (2.4 miles) Searching the area they found the week old remains of a camp, and spent a peaceful night under the blaring stars. The displacer beast, after another bout of half-orc athletic diplomacy, spent the night guarding itself against the guard who was on guard duty. Furious but afraid, it was not taking well to captivity, and its tentacles slithered and smacked.

The next day, Hex went for a walk along the lake bottom. At a depth of 100 feet, it became very deep and very dark. He began his return to the surface, and for a moment, felt he may have disturbed something… ominous. On shore, the island was just visible by the tallest member of the group, and thus it was estimated to be 11 miles away. (( \kappa=\sqrt{\left(\frac{R+h}{R}\right)^2-1}\ . )) They needed a boat, and Hex didnt see any sign of habitation on his underwater tour. Neither was anything found on shore, other than a week old work site, where the tanning of hide and the stretching of sinew was performed. They needed to make a boat, and Felipe leapt into the woods to find the perfect wood – strong, but flexible, and she found a stand of bamboo like trees right near their camp. She and Thokk performed the harvesting, while Poppy tied the bamboo together with her knotting skills. Ria took a leadership role, and spent her time inspecting the boat. Sharia and Hex also did important things to help. They wound up with a twenty foot square raft, with bamboo stakes pointing out of every side. It also had a small sail, but was meant to be rowed. They camped another night, and on the net sunrise, they began their journey across the lake.

Great lake kraken - devourer of rafts

Hex was underneath the boat, and at the halfway mark, he was the first to see the dark shape rising from the bottom, a large open mouth, two black rolling eye, and enormous spiked tentacle reaching up towards them. When it was fifty feet down, he knew its maw was big enough to swallow the raft whole. He climbed up onto the raft. And so began a doubled up effort to paddle the raft out of its trajectory. Ria cast her spell of non-agression down at the kraken, buying them a moment which she used to temporarily blind it. Most spent the time paddling as hard as they could. A part of the lake surrounding them had turned into crashing thrashing waves, and they sought to pull ahead. Hex, Felipe, Thokk, and Sharia all paddled, but Poppy used her magical skills to cause distracting, shimmering images in the water behind them.

The kraken was quick to shake of the divine peace from the cleric, ad it resumed its blind charge upwards, to broach the surface and smack it huge beak-like maw where the raft had been. They had managed to paddle just out of its reach. In blind rage, it thrashed its tentacles, but Thokk and Sharia both managed to dodge them. Now the counter attack began in earnest. Hex was first to react and in pure swordlock madness, he launched himself (while images of green devil faces danced in his mind) across the ten feet of thrashing waves to stab maniacally into the kraken and hang precariously from its mega beak. Thokk paddled while managing to convince his captive displace beast to lash at the kraken with its own tentacles.

The rest of the crew spent their efforts either paddling furiously towards the beach 5.5 miles away one square at a time, or attacking with their scant ranged powers, until the kraken regained its sight and launched itself at the raft. Its maw and tentacles latched onto the raft and began to crush and devour it. The raft buckled, split, and snapped, but somehow survived the initial clenching attack. But the next act of the kraken burst the raft asunder, sending them all into the lake, Those with metal armour had to expend all their effort to remain afloat, Ria in her chain, began to sink, but amazingly managed to swim close enough to Hex , that he hatted her with his coral crown. Poppy hacked away at the tentacle that held her, severing it and dropping he into the water. Thokk was also held by a tentacle. He went berzerk and in two swipes of his axe, severed the tentacle that held him and bit deep into the hard shell beak of the kraken. (Over 70 and 50 damage by the two raging attacks.) He began to sink, but held his head above water. The panther screeched like any feline dumped into cold water and paddled away. Sharia also began to sink, but with a burst of effort she pulled her arm up and out of the water, launching Skarn across the chopping waves. Like a streak of flame it struck the cracked beak of the kraken and blew it apart like broken crab-shell. The kraken shook and went limp, sliding down into the depths.

Over the waves, they heard the echoes of a despairing death cow, and without a second thought Poppy unked her head beneath the waves to grab the severed tentacle of the dying kaken. Calling on the Raven queen she transferred some of her life force to the kraken, healing just enough of its wounds that it might survive. When she resurfaced, she saw the bamboo gathered into bundles and everyone hanging on, while Ria read her water breathing ritual. They paddled on towards the lake and made landfall on the island, dripping and exhausted, in the late afternoon.

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