Tof-240313-eric

We're on a boat!
- Specifically, The Gaping Maw
- The dragon, Vistrathian, decided not to come with us right now
  - He doesn't want to be in a confined space
  - He also wants to go find his mom
- The undead puppy, who we named Zup, is with us
  - Ell was able to remove the bugs and parasites, and Zup is now more healthy (although he has some exposed bone)
    - Zup doesn't seem to get along with Milhouse, but they avoid each other so that's fine
      - Fish-Kicker and I are pretty sure we've seen Zup teleport
- One week has passed since we fought the cult and adopted Zup
  - We haven't heard of any other cult activity in the city since then
    - We do hear of some weird, possibly cult-related, events in other cities
      - There is some especially weird shit going on in Harrogate
    - We also know that the cultist that Milhouse is tracking suddenly moved to the northeast
    - We also wanted to try to go find Johan Baraxus who is out raiding
We're still having to wait for a week before we can set off
- Myungja Guanyin finally comes to talk to us
  - They've been investigating the Kraken cult, and have heard of weird shit happening in a lot of places
    - She wants us to investigate for them, starting in Hapcheon, a city in Kamangara to the East by Southeast of Binsogim
      - Myungja Guanyin wants a first-hand account of what happened there, so they can assess the threat level
    - I agree to go and investigate
      - She agrees we should kill any cultists we encounter
We set sail
- Going for two days, things seem smooth so far
  - It almost seems a little suspicious
    - The next morning, the sky seems off
      - There’s something about the way it’s glowing, as if the sun’s first light were permeating the entire sky
        
        The light is definitely artificial, it seems to wobble and shimmer and shadow where it should not
        
        The longer we look, the stronger it seems to get
        
        There’s smoke at the edge of our vision, too
        
        We see a brief vision of ourselves, sailing through a sea of thick black icor
        
        I check my Kraken Compass, which is pointing to the east
        
        Some of this black seawater splashes up on the deck, but doesn’t hit anyone or our items
        
        I cast detect magic and examine where the water splashed up
        
        The magic lingers a bit after the visual fades, but I can’t identify the type of magic that it is
- We continue on, in spite of the possibly bad omen
  - The smoke still seems to be there, even after the rest of the vision fades
    - The air also feels unusually warm
      - I send Fish-Kicker up to the crow’s nest to take a look
        
        He sees the remnants of two burning ships, one of which is directly ahead of us and the other to our starboard
        
        I call for us to swing hard to port
We can now see the other ships, somehow our vision had been clouded before
- The ships are in very bad shape — masts knocked down, sails and flags burned, and carnage everywhere
  - Once the ship is clear, I have the crew drop anchor
    - I order Crawn to pick two and take a boat over to check the ships
      - I want to see if either of those ships belonged to Johan Baraxus
- Drex, Ell, and Fish-Kicker notice that a body floating has some sort of starfish thing attached to its face, and it then goes upside down and sinks like a stone
  - I look to see if other bodies have similar things on them
    - There seems to be too few bodies in the water, but we spot a survivor clinging on a barrel
      - Drex uses his rope of climbing to head down for the survivor
        
        We're able to pull up the survivor, who is unconscious and does not have one of the weird starfish on him
        
        I use lay on hands to heal him, but it doesn't seem to do anything
        
        Drex and Fish-Kicker look him over, but Drex falls unconscious when he touches the guy
        
        Fish-Kicker realizes that he has some of the black ichor inside him, in his wounds
        
        We try cauterizing one of his less lethal wounds
        
        There's a horrible smell that comes from the wound, and a scream comes from the man – but it doesn't sound like it's only coming from him
A small drop of black ichor leaps out of the guy's wound and rolls off along the deck
- Crawn is able to blast it
- I cast protection from good & evil on the guy
  - Ell and I get splashed by the weird ichor that sprays out of the guy
    - There's some sort of black ooze creature
      - We fight it, but my sword attacks seem to make the creature grow
        
        It dives down into the hold
        
        Fish-Kicker uses control water to move it back out and throw it into the ocean
        
        He's also able to get the gunk off me and the others
I am now able to heal the survivor
- He seems to be doing better now
  - I tell him which ship we are, and that we're sailing out of Binsogim
    - He says he's from “The Good Ship,” which I've heard of before – it's actually a real name
      - They're sailing out of Zhengheim, which is part of The Sogim Council
- He says they came across another ship that was burning, they were headed to Kuga
  - They found one survivor
    - It sounds like their survivor was also infected with that black goo
      - Fire seemed to hurt it, but magic did not
        
        Milhouse comes up asking what is going on
        
        We explain the situation to him, he doesn't trust the survivor
        
        He says he managed to get rid of the black water creature below, but he kept a sample of it
We go below to check the ship and make sure there aren't any other problem areas
- We don't find any, so I head back up to talk to the survivor
  - He says his name is Skavney
    - He's a cook
      - His uncle is Chef Exposition!

session, TOF