Session XV: The Third Donkey

General Summary

Upon beginning their day, Wiinken determined to finish her work on the Third Donkey's commemorative statue as quickly as possible -- and in her own very unique way.

Rather than focusing on restoring the statue as Berin Forubron-Demescu had asked, she instead chose to focus her time and energy on converting the content of the plaque & pamphlet into pre-recorded amulets which she plans to embed in the statue, imbuing it with the power to tell its own story.

While she focused on that, the rest of the party wandered about the village, with Zenora opening the first door she reached after hearing a commotion of raised female voices within.

Upon entering, she discovered two women screaming at one another. Utterly dumbfounded at her presence, the brown-haired woman (Tasha Cragwhisk) at first didn't know what to do with Zenora and ended up explaining that the redhead, Kila, had seduced her husband, Brae, and was now pregnant with her husband's child.

In the strangest attempt at reconciliation anyone in the village of Advenere had ever seen, Zenora tried to convince the ladies to be her friend. Flabbergasted, Tasha instead decided to kick Zenora and Kila out of the house just as Retired Captain Calico Jack entered the scene and quickly ushered Zenora out.

In a desperate bid to keep Zenora from causing any more chaos, Calico convinced the rest of the crew to head towards Advenere's salt ponds -- somewhat of a curiosity in these parts.

On their way, they ran into a bedraggled and downtrodden fisherman pulling a wagon filled with destroyed fishing nets. He turned out to be none other than Brae Cragwhisk, womanizer extraordinaire. He explained to the party that ever since his wife Tasha discovered his affair with Kila, he's been finding innumerable holes in his fishing nets, and that he stands to lose his livelihood if the phenomena continues. He also told the group about how two fisherman have recently gone missing, and the party convinced him to take them out to the area where the missing men were last seen.

They sailed out for about an hour when suddenly Zaki spotted a long, glowing shape moving through the water. With the help of Dancing Lights, she illuminated the water enough to make the shape visible: an extraordinarily large, bioluminescent barracuda. The party killed the barracuda, inciting a feeding frenzy among countless others of the strange creatures, which eagerly devoured their brethren.

As the water turned red and clouded with blood, the party heaved a sigh of relief, thinking they'd found the source of both the ruined nets and the disappeared men. However, off in the distance, a large section of the peninsula lifted up, sprouting legs, eye stalks, and claws, revealing a gargantuan Crystacean.