Session 13: In first by a flipper!
An ongoing adventure of the Mary Lin D&D Club
Confused by the Mayor’s lack of interest in the nascent Sea Hag threat and the number of disappearing village children, the party started to strategize. As somewhat unruly teenagers already at odds with authority, they quickly decided the Mayor was complicit, possible a plant by Kreppilie the Sea Hag, and the best thing to do is depose him before he could exile them from the village. That was, until they realized it was race day!
Race Day is the most exciting festival at Great Bear Lake Village. After a year of training their favorite fishes, the village gets together for an afternoon of fish racing, snacking, wagering, and the occasional chicanery. Deciding to try and keep a low profile so that the Mayor wouldn’t kick them out immediately, the party stuck to a less popular part of the wharf for the first event of the day, the boat races.
Watching the race of the corner of their eyes, the party barely noticed their friend and Faerun’s cousin, Avery sailing her way to an easy victory. Instead, the party got curious about the main event, the fish races. Wanting to take part, but not having a fish of their own, the party started to get sullen. Until, of course, Indigo remembered her bucket and its resident, an adorable axolotl. Naming her Notalotl the Axolotl, Indigo and the team started strategizing how best to enter and ride her in the race. The competition looked fierce. Between Bonecrusher the Giant Quipper, Banana Candy the Alligator Gar, Paul the Paddlefish, and the rest of the field, Notalotl wasn’t looking very competitive. The party, however, had other ideas. Mia ran back to their home for wayward animals and borrowed Esther’s shrinking token so that Indigo could ride the tiny Axolotl. Indigo cast a spell to help Notalotl swim faster, and Faerun shaped a tiny dagger for her to use while astride the cheerful amphibian. Minnie, seeing an opportunity, sought out Melville to place a wager. Avani, seeing a different opportunity, took advantage of Melville’s distraction to help herself to some of his belongings. Not wanting to risk too much exposure, Avani contented herself with a shiny set of brass binoculars.
As the race commenced, things looked dire for the tiny Notalotl. Bounced between the larger fish, threatened by their sharp teeth, and kicked relentlessly by the other kids riding their much larger mounts, it didn’t seem like Notalotl and Indigo would survive, let alone finish the race. But with a stab from her tiny rapier, a clever illusion of a school of sardines going the other way, and a magical burst of speed, Notalotl raced across the finish line just ahead of Banana Candy. And as she splashed out of the water onto the dock, a wall of water enough to drown a rowboat followed, crashing down on the wooden dock and sweeping the nearby race fans off their feet. As the water cascaded down and everyone’s vision cleared, they could see, standing behind the adorable amphibian, a phalanx of fish people decked out in their finest shells, kelp, and weaponry.
It was then that Mia and Indigo, seeing the fish people, looked to each other, realizing that they needn’t have raced Notalotl; they could have turned into fish and raced themselves.
