Tales from Toril- The Adventures of Critical Bumbersnoot: the Odd Company: A Yawning Portal Novella (Book One), Chapter Eleven

When Good Genasi Go Bad

Dramatis Personae:

Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer

"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct

Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Werewolf Sea Sorceress

Steve, Quinn's Octopus familiar

Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin

Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk
Carmina, the Human Knight
Amara, the Human Noble
Sylvia, the Human Rogue

Gill O'Darby, the Human Ranger

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Mirtul 6, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Somewhere in the Sea of Swords

       Oskar told us that we were in cavern near the sea, we were just above sea level, he could just make out the sound of waves hitting the cavern. We were trying to figure out how exactly to escape, but since we were pretty badly wounded, we needed to rest before we could do anything.

       After several hours, a group of figures appeared outside of our cell, and told us that their lord had requested the presence of some of us. They took three of the crewmen, Oskar, and Sylvia.

       Oskar's group was led to a throne room, and a pale female sea elf was perched on it, flanked by giants. Oskar and Sylvia were stopped at the throne, but they crewmen were taken to a separate area, where there were already several crewmen being held. The woman told Oskar that the group had been caught in her waters, and that Ctenmiir- the dwarf who had been guarding Whelm in White Plume Mountain- had told her that Oskar had stolen Whelm from him, and he wanted to know where Oskar had hidden it. 

       She would be letting Ctenmiir deal with Oskar, and if he cooperated they might let him live. The ship and crew were hers now. Oskar asked what they wanted in Sylvia, and the elf told him that Sylvia's father was looking for her, and was very unhappy that she'd been kidnapped- implying that the party had kidnapped her. Oskar told the elf that they had already buried her father, but the elf said that the man wasn't actually their father, Lord Neverember was and he has a bounty out for Sylvia. 

       Oskar said he hadn't kidnapped Sylvia, he'd just been taking care of her, which Sylvia readily confirmed. The elf said that she would make sure Sylvia was returned to her father safely. Oskar attempted to explain that he goes where she goes, and was told if he survived Ctenmiir, they might permit that. 

       Oskar saw one of the crew members being drug into another room, and heard chanting and screaming, before he emerged as a skeleton. After that Oskar and Sylvia were taken back to the cell, and Oskar was warned to behave, or something would happen to Amara and Carmina.

       While Oskar and Sylvia were gone, Jak worked on getting himself free of the shackles. I tried to get myself free, or at least to grind enough powdered iron off mine that I could cast an enlargement spell. I hadn't been put in the shackles that prevented spell casting- I'd been unconscious for the majority of the battle, and since I've got weapons, I think they thought I was a fighter type. When I tried to grind the powdered iron off, I was reminded of my lack of physical strength, that was Bumbersnoot's department. I gave up before I hurt myself and hoped Jak would be more successful than I was- which, he was.

       By the time Oskar and Sylvia were brought back to us- without the crew members who'd been taken with them- Jak had broken free. The great thing was, as soon as they got back, Sylvia started picking the locks on our cuffs. We had nothing we could do except bide our time, we were all still drained from the earlier battle.

       After several hours, the hall outside our cell got hazy for a moment, like when looking through a hot desert, and a dwarf appeared, wearing all of Oskar's gear. He demanded Oskar tell him where Whelm is, and he simply could not believe that Oskar would get rid of that ax. Oskar tried to explain to him that we'd been hired to find it for the Coldfire Initiative, and that he'd given it to our employers, but this dude didn't believe him. He told Oskar to come out and talk to him, and Oskar's demeanor changed- then he was shrouded in darkness, and we heard the door open and close. Not only was Oskar gone, but so was Sylvia.

       With both of them gone we needed to get out of here, so I grabbed lockpicks from Bumbersnoot's hidden compartment, and started working on the door... and I broke my fucking lockpick off in the stupid door. Since my air forge spell doesn't require any materials, I cast it on the door to the cell, heating the metal so we could get it open. There was a second door down a short hallway, which we'd heard squeak before, so I got some oil from Bumbersnoot's alchemy jug to lubricate the door before heating it up. Unfortunately the skeleton guards noticed, so Quinn hit both of them with ice bolts.

       I wasn't much use in combat without my dog or my stuff, so I had to stay mostly out of combat range, just using what little healing I was capable of to keep people up. At first it seemed like the fight was going okayish, since we had a lot of people on our side. But then Quinn blinked.

       Ctenmiir had charmed Oskar to get him to talk, but Moradin broke the charm, allowing Oskar to attack the vampire. Things would have gone well if Sylvia hadn't decided to follow Oskar. Ctenmiir caught her just as she reached for a dagger on his belt, and put her in front of him as a shield, and vanished. Oskar went after the now invisible Ctenmiir, but Weston- the ship's mage- hit him with Tasha's hideous laughter, and got between Oskar and Ctenmiir, slowing down the infuriated holy man once he'd shaken free of the spell.

       Quinn reappeared in hybrid form and attacked the nearest crew member, killing him before vanishing again. Quinn had been turned into vampire spawn after the party had been taken captive, and had been put in place as a sleeper agent. Once she'd blinked, a hag had activated her, allowing her to begin working against the crew. After another few seconds, Jak called out that Quinn had gone feral, so now we'd have to put her down. Temporarily anyway. One of the crew crumpled at my feet, so I was able to revive him. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do much of this, I have hella limited magic energy, and what little I'd already done was quickly draining me.

       When Quinn next appeared she did a thunderwave at the crew. Apparently she can still do magic when she's feral, which I didn't think was possible. As much as I loathe cowardice, I tried to keep hidden in the hallway that leads to our cell, it seemed the only safe place for me. I cursed at myself for not learning more combative magic. When Quinn next appeared, she hit me, Amara, Gill, and a crew member with her ice bolts. Apparently she'd decided to go for easier targets, instead of those who were actually doing things in the battle. I thought that being feral made you a savage beast, incapable of higher thought, which should make you unable to cast spells. Something was off about Quinn being feral.

       I used the last of my magical energy healing Carmina, and ducked around a corner. Glimmering spots had begun dancing in my vision, and my head was pounding. I hoped this fight ended soon. I was a sitting duck now. Quinn's next appearance made her seem even more feral. She didn't seem to be able to cast magic after that, and was instead mauling what few crew members we had left alive with her razor-sharp claws.

       After what felt like forever, we were finally down to a single skeleton and Quinn, who was trading blows with Jak. The skeleton dropped Gill, so I braved going out in the open to stabilize him. He didn't need it though, he was just unconscious. I called to Carmina to get him out of sight, and in doing so, drew attention to myself. I got shot by a crossbow for my efforts. There was a pretty clear shot to the other doors in the room though, and I had a feeling my stuff was behind one of them. Carmina came out and shattered the final skeleton.

       Jak was still beating on Quinn, and he now gripped her in a Bigby's Hand. She broke out, but he managed to grab her again. Quinn broke out again, and went to run, Jak grabbed at her and stumbled, she punched him, and he went down. Carmina dropped her as she ran for the doors, then checked her pulse and announced that Quinn was dead. I was having some trouble stabilizing Jak, but after a moment I got it.

       Then Quinn got back up and ran smack into Oskar. Carmina yelled out in surprise, since Quinn had definitely been dead when she checked her pulse, chased her and finished her off. With all of our visible enemies- and Quinn- down, I focused on the silvery dots on my hand that lined up with NATAS, focused on them, and tried to call to her. After a few seconds, I sensed where she was. As Carmina barricaded the doors, I went to collect our belongings; though neither Oskar's or Quinn's gear was in the pile.

       After our items were found, Oskar removed the barricade, and said he and Jak would go look for Sylvia; then somehow, they decided it would be Jak and Gill, since he's stealthier than Oskar. They found several pools of blood, and a chest that contained Oskar's stuff- except for his armor and shield, which Ctenmiir had been using. Then Jak and Oskar went to check on the vampire's thralls, and Jak woke up the sleeping vampires... We had to rapidly barricade the doors again.

       Jak and I inspected the huge bookcase behind the remains of the throne, and he found a bunch of books in Abyssal, one of which made him start speaking Abyssal, and suddenly the opening to a magic mansion appeared before us. We drug our wounded bodies, along with Bumbersnoot and Quinn's bodies, into the mansion to sleep securely.

Tales from Toril- The Adventures of Critical Bumbersnoot: the Odd Company: A Yawning Portal Novella (Book One), Chapter Ten

The Storm

Dramatis Personae:

Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer

"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct

Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Werewolf Sea Sorceress

Steve, Quinn's Octopus familiar

Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin

Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk
Carmina, the Human Woman-at-arms
Amara, the Human Noble
Sylvia, the Human Handmaiden
Gil, the Human Farm Boy

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once. 

***** Tarsakh 28, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), Luskan

       Before heading to our ship in the morning, we decided to hit the shops really quick. I grabbed a ton of brass, bronze, and copper for an experiment I had in mind- I think I may be able to create a healing potion for Bumbersnoot, using the metals he's made of and the magic I use to repair him. It was expensive, but hella worth it.

       Quinn decided she needed a bigger bag of holding for Steve, and beat me to the only shop that had one. I was annoyed at first, but it turns out she had a bag of devouring instead. Steve got sucked into it, and she got sucked in right after, but Jak pulled her out. Quinn frantically turned the bag inside out, sending a mini wave splashing out, right in the middle of the street. Much to her relief, the octopus hadn't been sucked into the bag yet. Quinn tossed it onto the street and Oskar whacked it with his hammer.

       A bit after that, we headed to the ship and set sail for Waterdeep. Quinn bunked with the crew, and the rest of us bunked together in a state room. My hammer of warning didn't go off in the middle of the night, but at the time that it was supposed to go off, we heard commotion in another part of the ship- Wave had still gone off. Oskar confronted Quinn, but she had no idea what about her would be doing it. Wave was quiet after that night, he didn't raise alarm again during our journey.

***** Greengrass Holiday, Sea of Swords

       Quinn started having nightmares, and wasn't getting any rest while she slept- she ended up spending the entire day asleep. I wonder if whatever was setting our weapons of warning off was what was doing it to her.

***** Mirtul 1, Sea of Swords

       A heavy rain began to fall today, it looked like a storm was starting up. Quinn's nightmares persisted.

***** Mirtul 2, Sea of Swords

       The storm got worse today, and two crewmen actually went overboard. Oskar spotted a storm giant playing in the distance, but it didn't come near us, thankfully.

       I finished my experiment on making a healing potion for Bumbersnoot! Now I have a way of healing my baby during battle!

***** Mirtul, 3, Sea of Swords

       Oskar said that the storm giant seemed closer to us today, as the storm raged on. But it never engaged us, thankfully.

       Jak was itching to punch things, he'd gone too long without killing anything. Weston, the ship's mage, let Jak kill his familiar, which made Jak happy, even though it didn't curve his lust for violence.

***** Mirtul 4, Sea of Swords

       The storm intensified, it was nearly a hurricane now. I couldn't even work on my projects, with as rocky as it was. It was also colder now, it had been a humid storm up until now.

       Quinn was a mess. She hadn't gotten a decent night's sleep in several days now. Oskar gave her a dose of drow sleep poison to knock her out and prevent her from dreaming. That kinda backfired. She ended up practically comatose, and didn't wake up at all today.

***** Mirtul 5, Sea of Swords

       The storm was a full blown hurricane today.

       Oskar managed to clear up Quinn's nightmares, and she finally got some sleep. She awoke at the right time too.

       We were sailing in the rocky waters, when suddenly the water calmed completely. The storm was gone, the sky was clear, and there was no movement of the water or wind. There was a fog swirling around the ship, and one of the crew called out that he could see another ship in the distance. That didn't fucking sound good.

       Oskar and Jak decided to go investigate, Jak swam and Oskar flew. We could hear splashes around us, but we couldn't see what they were doing, or make out any real details of the ship. When the ships finally got close enough for us to see what was on them, we discovered the ships were full of undead; there were two ships, moving to flank us.

       A voice rang out as the ships moved into position that if we them the "fish sticker" and the crew, they'd consider letting us live. I had a feeling Wave was the fish sticker they were referring to- that stupid trident has brought us nothing but trouble.

       Oskar dropped a fuckton of skeletons on one of the ships right away, and I blew up the hag on the other ship with NATAS' charged plasma shot. Quinn was dropped instantly by another hag. Then a vampire grabbed me, and though Bumbersnoot tried to yank him off of me, it didn't work. The vampire quickly drained me and I slipped into unconsciousness.

       The others told me bits and pieces of what happened during the fight after that:

       The ship's crew began dropping slowly, one by one. Bumbersnoot ran around our ship, taking out undead as he went, and trying to get me to Oskar. Bumbersnoot spent a lot of the fight with the girls, helping them take out the undead that approached them.

       As the fight raged on, a much larger ship arrived which Oskar said was an ice giant great ship, and it looked like it had been sunk... it was full of fucking undead giants. In a few moments, they grappled our ship.

       Quinn had been revived at some point during the fight, and she was charmed by a vampire to give it Wave. The giant ship managed to knock over our mast somehow, and it fell on Quinn, dropping her again. Weston tried to create a current for us to get away, but with no mast or wind, and being grappled by the enormous ship, it didn't work as well as he'd hoped. Weston kept at it though, hoping it would work and free us before we all died.

       Jak had gotten in the water, and found himself swarmed by vampiranhas- vampire piranhas. I thought they were fucking with me when they told me that, but Jak insisted he was quite serious. An explosion on one of the smaller ships broke us free of that one, but we were still grappled by the big one. The skeletons were approaching quickly- so the group decided to go below deck to get some cover and bottle neck the invaders on the stairs. They heard some gears and whooshing- it sounded like they'd taken our entire ship on board of the giant ship. 

       Oskar revived me just before a red mist began seeping down into the hold where we were. The rest of the group who was still alive began falling unconscious from the red mist. Within seconds everyone except Oskar, Jak, Bumbersnoot, and I were down. I helped us find some secret compartments to stash our people in, and just as we were finishing, I succumbed to the mist.

       Oskar began throwing insults out at their unseen foes, and his mouth filled with blood- he couldn't speak for one minute. Jak was grappled by drenched hair, so all three of them attacked the woman who the hair was attached to. Critical Bumbersnoot took a big chunk out of the woman, and Oskar and Jak got some good hits in as well. 

       The hag peeled off half of Jak's face, and it floated to her, attaching itself to her face. It now looked like there were two Jaks. Oskar and Bumbersnoot went for her again- the mechanimal was confused about who to attack, so he followed Oskar's lead. The hag did something that made fluids begin leaking from everyone- including Bumbersnoot; so Bumbersnoot tripped her. 

       The scuffle continued for a few more seconds, with Jak going down, then Bumbersnoot, and finally Oskar. 

***** Sometime later...

       I came to in my small clothes, in a large cell with everyone, apparently none of the crew or group were dead. We were all shackled to the walls, and Bumbersnoot was inactive in a heap in the corner of the cell.

       We could hear someone shouting in dwarvish that Whelm was his, and he wanted to torture Oskar until he told him where it was. That didn't sound fucking good.