Session 5: Sisters!
After a long night of running along the forested tributary leading from Esther’s Pond to Lucy’s Estuary, hoping to avoid the giant bat riders, shark-people, and any other enemies who might be chasing them, the group returned to the shoreline. With their newly rescued, diminutive dragon turtle friend, Esther, safely ensconced in one of their seemingly infinite buckets, Indigo called out to Lucy announcing their return, expecting a joyful reunion. Instead, the two sisters instantly started arguing, one, the size of a loaf of bread, the other, the size of a bakery. Esther wanted to adventure. Lucy thought their parents would be worried, that adventuring isn’t safe, and wanted them to return home. Esther, once she knocked off the magical shrinker the party had attached the day before, quickly grew back to full size, and the argument started getting physical. The party found themselves tossed about in the waves kicked up by the two turtles as Indigo pushed forward and yelled a solution in draconic: “go home, let them know you’re safe, then go back to your adventures together.” She was surprisingly persuasive, calming Lucy and Esther. They agreed, thanked the group for reuniting them, gifting them title to both the shrinker, and one of the shells of their ancestors as a reward. Lucy provided them with an oddly shaped stone about the size of a hand, saying it would help them locate the boon. With that, the sisters disappeared into the lake, and the party turned to board their …
… missing boat. At some point since they arrived, their boat had also disappeared, and all surrounding where it had been tied to a tree were the webbed footprints of the Kuo-Toa. Fish-people had stolen their boat. Somewhere, out on the lake, there must be a group of fish going sailing. The party groaned, then as lifelong sailors of Great Bear Lake, quickly got to work building a new boat for themselves. With axes, trees, vines, and many spells of mending, the party by the next day had a working sailboat with which to return to the village by way of Warwicks. They set sail.
On their second day sailing home, they spotted on the shore another vessel, a larger sailing ship, one that didn’t belong on a lake. Curious, they pulled closer, noticing then a group of sailors on the beach, armed, defending themselves from a group of attacking giant rats. These rats, three feet high at the shoulder, looked to be winning, and the sailors looked doomed. The party leapt to their defense, swarming the rats, fighting them back, off the beach, up to the ridge, towards where two half-human half-rat people stood squeaking out orders. The rats, and their rat-masters fled in the face of the party’s weapons and spells.
Returning to the sailors, the party tended wounds, and heard the story of how their ship, The Mighty Scratcher, got caught in some odd water and ended up trapped here, on this giant lake. They also heard how the rats had attacked them as they came ashore for provisions, taking much of their stores, and making off with their two precious cats, the Princesses, Cam and Badoura. Hearing about cats in distress, the party loudly and quickly promised to rescue them, and took off in pursuit of the rats and their rat-human masters.
