Hello, Everyone!
I remind you that we currently have a different schedule - episodes of Mary's story will get out every Monday and Thursday for the forseable future. Hope you can forgive me.
Last time, our heroes stopped at the shore of the Misty Sea, to wonder what's been going on recently. There were many things they didn't remember or couldn't explain, but nothing could be done at this point. So, they decided to get on with the seadch for the magical bells.
Breathing water was weird but it was easy to get used to, and soon it started feeling just as mundane as breathing air. Mary, Bruno and Aurum walked along the bottom of the sea, stroking their arms in a half-swimming motion to help move a bit faster. Over their heads, where the dulled down daylight came through the water, they could see the silhouettes of passing boats.
Mary’s Guiding Hand pointed straight forward. The more they moved into the deep, the clearer the water became, but it also got a lot darker. Soon, Aurum--the only one without darkvision--wasn’t going to be able to see anything. He had the magic lamp from Belfast but they all agreed that shining it here would attract too much unwanted attention. They tied a rope to each other and carried on, undisturbed.
Small currents swayed the seaweed under their feet, fish swam around their heads. A few small sharks encircled them but Bruno slapped one of them with his armored glove and they went away.
The trio walked for almost an hour in a constant downwards slope before the terrain changed. It became rockier and rose higher and higher with every step. Broken planks and other debris lay scattered all around, and there was a general eeriness that Mary couldn’t quite shake off. No human remains of any kind could be seen, only wood and the occasional glimmer of a long lost coin on the seafloor.
A movement ahead attracted Mary’s attention. A humanoid figure, bluish-green and scaly, with thin membranes between its fingers and a lot of spiky fins. It was holding a long pole and poking it into an alcove. It looked at them with huge round black eyes, showed its teeth and continued what it was doing.
Mary pointed it out to her friends.
“That’s called a Sahuagin,” she said. “I’ve read a little about them, they’re supposed to be intelligent and some even speak Common.”
Soon, they found out what it was poking at. There was a human body, freshly dead, inside of the alcove. The water around it swirled as if moving on its own accord.
The Sahuagin managed to pull out the body--its pole turned out to have a hook at the end--snarled at the trio once more and swam away with its booty.
“Let’s follow it!” Mary said. “If I remember the elven prophesy correctly, it said that the bells lay with Pyron’s body and if that Sahuagin is stealing corpses, it may have his as well!”
“Wait, there’s a chest back there,” Bruno said.
Ever since they’d started seeing parts of shipwrecks, the dwarf’s eyes were scanning the seafloor for loot. He’d already picked up several silver and copper coins. Mary looked at the Sahuagin swimming away and sighed. Why did they have to waste time with a stupid chest when they had a clear purpose ahead?!
“Where?” Aurum said, still staring blindly in the deep.
“Over there! Look!”
Aurum shone his lamp towards the alcove. There was indeed a chest there, but there was something weird with the water around it. It was still swirling, like an inky whirlpool.
“It’s not budging,” Aurum said, concentrating on a spell. “Either it’s too heavy for my Mage Hand, or something is holding it back. Maybe those strange waters?”
“I have an idea,” Bruno said.
Mary sighed again. While her friends were discussing what to do and were untying the rope from everyone’s waists, she gazed after the Sahuagin. She wanted all of this over as soon as possible. There was something she desperately needed to check back on shore.
Bruno and Aurum were now pulling the rope which had somehow--most probably by the bard’s Mage Hand--been tied around the chest. It was still not moving. Mary shook her head. This was taking way too long! Eager to get it over with, she sent a series of Eldritch Blasts towards the swirly water. If it was dangerous, now was the time to find out.
And--oh, boy!--did Mary find out!
She had just pulled her hands back to recharge her magic, when she saw the inky water move. With a staggering speed, it closed in on her and slammed into her body
Once, twice...
Mary felt the burning pain on her body and suddenly felt very, very afraid. With a blink of an eye, she vanished and reappeared in a safer position.
She was on top of a nearby rock formation, high above the scene. Now that she could see the inky blot properly, she recognized it as a Water Elemental.
She saw Bruno light the creature with his Guiding Bolt and recognized a Thunderwave in Aurum’s gestures. A boom spread through the water and where the elemental stood, a ten foot air cube appeared. The water, suddenly displaced by the spell's force, stood still for a moment and then collapsed on the entity, filling the empty space with the full force of its mass.
The Elemental's form twisted. It dispersed and flowed back together but this time it was considerably smaller than before. It rippled, took the chest in its grip and started swimming away.
Why would it…
Mary blinked into her Eldritch Sight. There was a green glow from the chest. There was something magical in it.
We're fighting a Water Elemental in the water. How is that for thematic? Let's see how we're going to deal with it!
See you next time!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossary and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.