Session 16: Happy Birthday to Goo!
An ongoing adventure of the Mary Lin D&D Club
Depressed over the disappearance of Celeste, and worried over what Kreppelie’s presence in the village might mean, the party headed back to Mia and Jane’s home to figure out what to do next. There, they ran into Warwick who was still busy planning his carving of the dragon turtle shell. He reassured them that tomorrow was likely to be a better day.
The next day while heading to the fish market, one of their friends ran by dressed for a party. “Where are you off to,” Mia asked. “Celeste’s birthday party! It’s just about to start!” Confused how there could be a birthday party for a girl who died yesterday, the party decided to investigate, but undercover! Stopping by the village bazaar, they picked up random bits of gear and put together some disguises. Faerun dressed as her extroverted cousin, Falin, who had recently gone off to the academy but left behind her poisoned throwing knives; Faerun took those too. Minnie put on a clown costume. Avani dressed as an acrobat from the Momota village, which everyone pointed out was unnecessary as no one in the village knew her. Mia dressed as Avani. And Jane found a jacket and a new hat.
Arriving at the birthday party, the group continued to be super confused. Not only was everyone happy and celebratory, but standing in the middle of the mayor’s family’s courtyard was the smiling mayor and his presumed but not actually deceased daughter, Celeste. While they were relieved she hadn’t died, the group was worried she hadn’t died and what it might mean about Kreppelie’s plans for the village. The party began to investigate, talking to the various guests. For some of them, this was easy. No one knew Avani, and she made her way through the crowd investigating the contents of people’s bags and pockets. While she learned nothing about Celeste, Kreppelie, or any nefarious plots, she did accumulate a healthy pile of coins, keys, and small fishing gear. Mia and Jane wandered, talking to the different guests. Everyone was thrilled about Celeste’s birthday, happy to support the mayor, and found nothing at all strange about either’s comings or goings. Minnie took a break, sitting on the fountain. Again, there was that strange, toxic smell. Alarm bells going off in her mind, Minnie started to worry about the water, feeling like something was imminently wrong.
Just then, the mayor called the party to attention, clinking on his glass. “Thank you all for coming,” he started, “to celebrate Celeste’s birthday.” Coming forward, Celeste looked happy, but almost like it was about something other than the party. While the rest of the crowd was watching the mayor, Minnie was watching the fountain, and something definitely wasn’t right. Turning to interrupt the Mayor, she asked, “Does that fountain look strange to you?” “Strange,” the Mayor replied, perturbed at the interruption to his speech. “No. New, and maybe a bit overdone, but it’s what Celeste wanted.” “Wait, what — “ but with that, the Mayor turned back to the crowd.
“Before we get to the celebration,” Mayor Finn continued, “I have an announcement.” Behind him, the fountain began bubbling. “I’ve decided that this will be my last year as Mayor. I’m retiring to spend more time with my family.” One eyebrow cocked, Celeste looked almost amused at the announcement. Behind them both, the fountain water turned black, the surface roiling as it began to spill over the stones. “It’s not that I don’t love our wonderful, peaceful village — “ And with that, Minnie shouted, “Get away from the fountain!” and everything went berzerk.
The fountain erupted forming a geyser of black effulgent arcing high into the sky. The force of the eruption blasted the nearby guests off their feet, all but Celeste. She looked to the geyser, hands raised, and began chanting, as behind her, rising from the riverbank, came the green-hued form of Kreppelie the Sea Hag. While the sea hag walked towards Celeste, the geyser solidified, turning into a towering black slime, pseudopod like tentacle-arms waving in the arm.
Unsure who to fight first, the party prioritized getting the villagers away. No one questioned why Faerun’s cousin was back, since everyone loved the gregarious extroverted ranger, nor why there was an acrobat and a clown quickly ushering people back over the bridge away from the party-turned-disaster. They were too concerned with escaping the ever-growing animated black slime monster emerging from the Mayor’s new fountain. Falin, Faerun in disguise, done with flagging villagers toward the bridge, turned towards Kreppelie. “This is your doing!” he shouted, charging the sea hag. Kreppelie, meanwhile, clasped hands with a jubilant Celeste, and the pair turned away from the chaos, heading towards the river. Mia, Minnie, Jane, and Avani each turned towards the black slime and started casting and hurling whatever they could at it. Mia called down a moonbeam, Minnie threw motes of glitter at it that tailed off into magical missiles, Avani launched arrows, and Jane threw knives. It seemed to be working, slowly, or at least, slowing the growth of the slime monster. Kreppelie, seeing their efforts, waved her hands, whispered something, and blew a mote of dried seaweed towards the monstrosity.
As the sea hag and her protégé reached the river, the black slime melted, its color fading, clean water appearing in its place to splash about in the fountain. The party, though victorious, was somewhat confused, but thought they might have Kreppelie to thank for the easy win. Except for Falin, convinced Kreppelie had brought the monster to the village. As Kreppelie and Celeste began to step in to the river, Falin pulled a poisoned dagger and threw it at the sea hag. Mia and Jane screamed no, but it was too late. Falin’s aim was good, the dagger nicked the sea hag, and as she collapsed in Celeste’s arms, looked at Falin, saying, “good luck protecting the village on your own.”
“Um. What?” Falin said, as the pair slipped into the river and were gone. And with that, from off in the distance, towards the village market, the rising sound of screams of terror could be heard.
