westwhere | storm at sea

Thar she blows — part II of the Storm at Sea travel arc, lasting until 5 August.

RELEASE THE KRAKEN

SUMMARY: as allied pirate ships Pariah and Queen Zanyra sail onwards, mad captain Quicksilver Sam uses the artefact of the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company to call out to the notorious power of the haunted Crossing seas. He craves retribution from the crew of his former, drowned ship, the Storm at Sea — which rises up along other sunken vessels, all manned by undead sailors. With them is a vicious kraken. They attack, seeking Quicksilver Sam’s relic. So should you. Some characters dragged underwater reach a deserted dimension where time behaves aberrantly. To survive the two-three-day skirmish, keep your ship afloat and moving, hijack a few other vessels, fend off the undead and kraken, capture Quicksilver’s artefact — and breathe.

SAFE AT WA(TE)R | NAIL’EM TO THE MAST | STICKY FINGERS | THE STRANDING

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SAFE AT WA(TE)R

Quicksilver Sam’s Pariah continues into the black waters of the Crossing seas, escorted by ally Caladan Kreil’s Queen Zanyra and distantly pursued by Maximilian Hawk’s Concord of the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company. Characters can cross between the Queen Zanyra and Pariah by rowboat, until great storms darken the skies. Afterwards, reckless fools can risk their necks in the growling winds and drumming rains and traverse the rattling, thick chain that binds the two ships.

Quicksilver Sam joins the deck of the Pariah with a small box he opens to reveal a cut-out, impeccably preserved and warded human tongue. Once unwarded, the artefact seems to intensify the storms, while Quicksilver shouts out:

”Two years be, when the seas, them… they… broke’n’sundered and… was then. Then, when all of you! All of… all of you dead under the briny deep, you watched, and you plotted, and you… was then! We all broke bread under the black flag, and we were brothers… brothers of the Storm at Sea. Was enough coin in the coffer for everyone, but you, you had the greed in you, thicker than blood of our covenant, or water of any womb! You turned! You put me out to die, and now, look where you are? You lily-livered scurvies, you wake up now, look around you! You put me to sea? Left me to die? Samuel Vane, you thought me, I was for drowning? You look me in the eye, and you tell me so again, because I’m here for you! I’ll be ruin for you, Storm at Sea, I’ll cleave you!”

■ The tongue artefact summons up dozens of sunken ships from the Crossing, which take under an hour to fully emerge. They are manned by reanimated sailors — many whom you may have encountered as cored bodies underwater.

■ The Storm at Sea also rises, staffed by Quicksilver Sam’s now revenant crew. The vessel spearheads the undead offensive and approaches the Pariah — leaving her within reach for infiltration. Wei Wuxian will report back after engaging undead first mate Augustus Silvering.

■ The tongue relic also calls up an immense kraken, whose tentacles can be recognised as the ‘coral’ strings that had bound the sunken ships. The kraken is neither living nor dead and composed of the coagulated dark water that characters have previously encountered. Kraken meat is comestible but not seafood. It unexpectedly tastes of succulent white fish, best paired with a Sauvignon blanc and served generously with lemon, rosemary and dill. Do not overcook on the bonfire of your sinking ship.

■ You may end up locked inside cabins or brigs, whether ‘for your safety’ or at the first sign of insubordination against the on-edge captains.

■ You’re in danger as long as you remain within the Crossing seas. To steer the boats, take occasional shifts from exhausted pirates and learn to helm your vessel with navigational help from your companions.

■ (Wisps of) agitated spirits linger in the Crossing — some maliciously seek to push you overboard, while others protect you. Most are petrified. These remaining spirits are more akin to afterthoughts of emotion, which you can calm down, exorcise or ignore.

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NAIL’EM TO THE MAST

When you can’t beat’em, try again with a torch, a harpoon and a better attitude:

■ The kraken and undead violently attempt to reach the tongue artefact and sink the Pariah, Queen Zanyra and nearby Concord. Your enemies have hardened skins that require extra hacking, but regular weapons still work. Fire is especially efficient.

■ The kraken slams and sweeps its tentacles across the deck to drag ships underwater — do use cannons and primitive explosives.

■ The undead mount rowboats or swim to climb onboard. Fortunately, the storms impede your attackers, earning you respite between fresh assaults. Assume one-two hours' rest between attacks.

■ Extensively touching the living kraken tentacles slowly depletes your stamina and/or magical strength.

■ Consider taking Viktor’s steampunk boat and setting up primitive dynamite to sink these ships before their undead crew can reach you. Beware the storms.

■ You can infiltrate undead ships at any point, but can only commandeer one if you group up to man it.

■ Use diving suits that let you breathe four hours underwater and light up white for alert, red for danger, yellow for the urgent need to return on land and green-blue otherwise.

■ Bad news for the Pariah: on top of the undead, the kraken and the mad pirate, you are dealing with the incensed Hawk and Caladan Kreil, both whom send men to stop Quicksilver Sam’s summons at all costs.

■ Magical communicators are prone to glitches or disruptions amid poor weather conditions.

■ A school of mermaids is drawn to the kraken and the Pariah — warn them off with lights or lure them away with baits of food or blood. Speaking with them reveals they want Quicksilver’s artefact.

■ Those wishing to avoid violence can head to the more distant Concord by rowboat, under a white flag. Maximilian Hawk believes you are refugees aboard the Pariah and Queen Zanyra and will offer sanctuary. The sleek, highly disciplined and martial Concord faces significantly less attack, and you can spend a more peaceful time below deck. Alternatively, pair up to persuade the crew to give up chasing the Pariah, and convince Hawk and first mate Lattimore the ‘ancient power’ pursued by the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company should arguably never be found.

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STICKY FINGERS

Moments after his speech, a rattled Quicksilver Sam retreats with the tongue relic in his heavily guarded and magically warded cabin.

■ Group up to capture the tongue with minimal damage to ship and crew. Ideally, some characters can distract the guards or attempt to lure Quicksilver out.

■ Helpful tips: despite his questionable sanity, Quicksilver Sam has shown high regard for manners, women and his ship. The pirate guards are loyal, but skittish before the supernatural.

■ During the diversion, lift the wards or forcibly infiltrate the cabin by breaking the door in. Careful, as Quicksilver appears to have purchased a Taravast special — a small caged white owl, which paralyses in place those who meet her gaze. Someone should distract the bird or cover her cage to break her trance.

■ Everyone can hunt, but Five and Wrathion get final joint custody of the tongue. They have decided to ward and box it. This will see the kraken and sinking ships gradually lose power, then submerge within two days. The tongue stays with the duo. Given Kirk’s previous reveal, the group could choose to trade the tongue in with Maximilian Hawk and the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company.

■ If the tongue is ever brought near the heart possessed by Kaneki Ken, the two artefacts will briefly thrum in synchrony.

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THE STRANDING

Some characters captured by the kraken’s tentacles and pulled underwater lose consciousness, only to mentally wake up in the dimension of a perfectly silent, deserted and seemingly interminable beach island.

■ Characters experience time differently here, shifting between younger and older states every few hours. Up to you whether these changes are mental, physical or both, and whether your character is aware this isn’t their natural form.

■ Several mute, humanoid tar figures roam aimlessly. They largely ignore newcomers, but peacefully stop them from entering the dark sea waters.

■ The island sky is despairingly grey. There are no animals or plants.

■ Characters find they lose more of their memories, the longer they linger — particularly if they start to be politely but incessantly followed by tar figures, which gradually assume their form.

■ You can occasionally find human footsteps and writing in wet beach sand. The writing spells out children’s limericks.

■ Time passes differently on the island — dealer’s choice whether faster or slower than in the real world for your character.

■ Characters can wake up into the real world, if their bodies are rescued from where they’ve sunken underwater, remaining alive for up to two days in the vicinity of the kraken.

■ Characters may initially experience light amnesia and a sense of listlessness and estrangement from their bodies, once they have left the island dimension. This dissipates within a day’s time.

■ You can only reach the island once. Characters can be brought underwater by the kraken without entering the beach dimension.

QUESTIONS

NPC CONTACT

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. YO HO, YO HO
Anduin watches in dulled horror as the captain produces -- not what he had presumed to be the fragment of a mirror -- but what instead appears to be a human tongue. Jim had said that it was a fragment, had he not? The fragment of a whole? Something that he would be looking for, out here in the Crossing.

Anduin's mind works furiously to try and piece it all together, but time is not on his side. (It never seems to be, does it.)

With a sudden jolt, the Pariah rocks suddenly, as if struck from beneath. It's all he can do to keep himself on his feet before there it comes again, and -- there! The curl of a giant tentacle pushing its way up through the water, as what seems like the mast of a ship begins to emerge from below the waves in the middle distance.

For the briefest of moments, there is a cry building itself in Anduin's chest ("To arms! Hold your positions!!"). But he stops himself short. These are not his people, and he is not their king.

And so instead he swings around to the person next to him and exclaims, "I would suggest you arm yourself -- quickly!"

He, of course, does not need a weapon. As is demonstrated when he calls upon the Light and sends a blast of Holy Flame through the undead sailor who had climbed on board the ship right behind his companion.

II. A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME -- aboard The Red Rooster
Anduin has, for better or worse, found himself on board The Red Rooster, out amongst the chaos. Arguably, being away from the Pariah is a somewhat safer place to be, given that the kraken and the dead seem to have most of their attention focused on attacking the ship itself.

The condition of the ship, however, is... Less than desirable, and he can't help but wonder if it might not sink on them, despite all the well-intentioned ladling the undead sailors have been doing.

Maybe he should... Help? His assistance is needed elsewhere as well of course, he can help in many ways with blasting the tentacles or scaring the mermaids away or healing his companions or shielding them from threats. But if the ship should sink...

He's apparently stood there for long enough that even the undead have noticed him, one thrusting a ladle into his hand and making the decision for him.

So that's where you will find him. Looking a bit caught out as your eyes meet over his ladling.

"I -- ah..." he tries to explain.

III. WHAT DO WE DO WITH A--
((wildcard option!! anduin is available for any number of interactions: he can use magic to blast the kraken, he can pin the dead in place, he can shield you, he can heal you, he can have a conversation with you about wtf is going on??? he's on the red rooster but he starts off on the pariah. just shoot me a pm or find me on the discord and lets make something happen!!))

Ah. Ah yes, of course, this day couldn't stay funny for long, could it.

"Why did it have to be more rotting undead?" he complains, begrudgingly pulling out a shortsword and dagger. "They always leave such a mess--"

A searing heat roars past him, and he leaps aside like a startled cat. "--Though I suppose that tidies things up a little." The flame has a sickening light to it, one he can't stand to look at for long. Oh hells, the man's a cleric. Well. Best not get caught up in that.

And now, blinking afterimages of holy fire out of his eyes, he finally notices the tentacle. "Oh no. Not again." Clerics, zombies, and--well, at least it's probably not mindflayers this time, but the tentacle's big enough to be from one of their ships.

Today has officially slid from aggravating to terrible. "This all has something to do with that tongue, right? Where's that demented captain got to?"

The one good thing about a Holy Flame (seeing as how they are on a wooden ship) is that it is not actually fire. Being that it is actually powered by the Holy Light, and therefore not really fire after all.

Anduin can go into the details of it later if anyone's interested, he had to study these things for years in order to master them and therefore could go on for ages if called upon. For now though, there are more pressing matters to attend to.

"From what I can recall, the Captain made a hasty retreat below deck at the first sign of trouble," Anduin replies, eyeing the tentacle himself.

"Do you suppose -- he meant to summon that creature?"

"I don't think it just happened to be in the neighborhood," he replies, edging away from the railing. "If we can find him, get control of that thing, we might be able to stop this... whatever this is."

"Besides, I don't want to be within reach of that," he gestures toward the tentacle. "I've had enough of tentacles to last ten lifetimes." Although come to think of it, the tadpole in his skull's keeping up its suspicious silence so far. Whatever this thing is, they don't share any kinship.

Which just means this is some other giant, tentacle-bedecked monstrosity that's rising up from the depths. Lovely.

Anduin glances aside at his companion at that, a questioning look on his face at the last bit. This is the first they're encountering anything of the sort on their journey. As far as he is aware, anyway.

"No, it does not seem wise to let that creature get anywhere near," he agrees. "But I have a feeling that -- it had been here, before. I had a dream, or. Something of the sort. While I was unconscious..."

He shakes his head; it doesn't matter. It's too much to explain the business with the arrows and knocking himself out with them now. Though he supposes that if Astarion had been on the Pariah at any time during the Ghost Storm, then he might have heard about the incident when he drained all of his magic then knocked himself out for two days.

"If it is what the ghosts were after earlier, then it is the object itself that is drawing them."

storm at sea | part ii

Anduin Wrynn | OTA + Red Rooster

yo and a couple of hos

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