Tof-240320-eric

We manage to successfully get out of the area with the various shipwrecks, without getting any additional black goo on the ship
- We don't see any more survivors, but we do see the occasional body
  - They seem to have some shiny items on them
    - Ell notices that these are essentially traps, there are some sort of squid creatures trying to entice us
      - After Ell points this out to me, I ask Crawn to keep the crew from trying to reach any of these bodies or their loot
We sail for two more days, and come to the mouth of the river
- We decide to wait for the next day to take the longboats up the river
  - We set up watches, I take 4th watch
    - Avercrumbie Finch wakes me up a little early, and let's me know that Ell said something is going on, and that he looks like he's been struck in the face
      - Ell describes two glowing green things that looked like eyes, and made a weird noise, then moved off. We no longer see them, though
        
        I go back to bed for the time being
I wake up for 4th watch
- Ell is still up, and Milhouse is up as well
  - They discuss what Ell saw, and Milhouse says he thinks it's some god of undeath who lives at the bottom of the sea
    - He says it's a fairly new god, “who dwells at the bottom of the sea, with the dead who walk”
      - Ell seems to be slightly convinced by Milhouse's weird suppositions, I'll have to keep an eye on that
        
        Milhouse says he wants to murder gods for some reason
We get ready to leave, lower the longboats, etc.
- Crawn says she slept poorly, she had visions of the weird thing that Ell saw the night before
We get to the town up river, and there is a giant hole in the middle of town, like it got scooped up and carried off
- Hapcheon is fucked
  - Most of the builds that are still here seem to be on fire
    - We head into town and check the nearest building
      - We find blood dripping from the boards in the ceiling, we head upstairs and find skinned bodies and some strange arcane sigils drawn on the floor in blood
        
        There's an orca person, one of Crawn's race
        
        The runes on the floor are glowing softly
I ask Milhouse to come up and look at the runes
- He believes that this was some sort of ritual that exchanged something for something else
  - Possibly a summoning?
    - Milhouse points out that there may be survivors in the fires
We head out, splitting up to look for survivors
- Suddenly, Crawn finds someone who hits her across the face with a chair
  - She manages to talk everyone down briefly, and shouts for me to get there
    - I run over, and the bird man looks vaguely familiar
      - He's very flamboyant, and calls himself a captain
        
        Avercrumbie Finch seems to recognize him, calls him Riven Acciperan
        
        The fight is over, Riven Acciperan has been talked down
Riven Acciperan says he came here to help some of his “associates” retrieve their belongings from the rubble
- There were some “ruffians” here, and some cultists? There was a fight, and that seems to be how the fires started
  - He's not sure what happened to scoop out the middle of town
We go back to searching for survivors
- We find one place that seems pretty undamaged, there are no survivors but we do find food supplies. They are not poisoned or anything, so we decide to take them with us when we leave
  - We find another house with sacrificial runes in blood, complete with hanging dead bodies
    - The bodies include two of Crawn's race
      - I use detect magic to determine that the ritual used Necromancy, and Conjuration
        
        The magic is still active, there are tendrils reaching out to other places, including the first set of runes – the other is leading east
We go to the house right next to that one, to the east
- We find another ritual room, but this one has a dead cultist and a half-skinned orca
  - It looks like the orca was able to kill the cultist at the last minute
    - Crawn says she might recognize the dead orca, and she collects his sword
      - He might have been part of her family
        
        The ritual magic looks like it's done, but it hasn't triggered yet
        
        I warn everyone to be careful
We discuss possibly clearing out the runes, or burning down the buildings that they're in
- Just then, we see a pink puff of smoke coming from the three warehouses where the runes were
  - There is a rumbling in the ground from the southwest, where the pit is
    - It seems like something triggered the magic
Drex starts shouting “it's huge, it's massive, it's clawing its way out of the pit through nothingness”
- Crawn, Fish-Kicker, and I move over to the edge of the pit and see the strange white monster in there
  - It's rather enormous
We take up position around the edge of the hole and start shooting
- It works its way up as we continue shooting it
- Fish-Kicker blasts it with control water to keep it off balance
  - Suddenly, when it looks to be about dead, it teleports up behind Drex and throws him at me
    - Drex is out cold
I start to run in to attack the monster in melee
- Before I can, Ell casts a wall of fire and kills the monster
We check the rest of the town, but there are no other survivors
- We find some minor, rather worthless loot
  - We do take the food with us, though
Riven Acciperan does give me a circlet of human perfection, by way of thanks for taking him to Binsogim
We sail back to Binsogim
- On the way back, the burning ships are completely gone

session, TOF