Team MeFight Thirty-Fifth Session

Nik and the Sable Drake

• Having learned a bit about their plight, the group decides to retrieve Nik and company
• While rowing in on the remaining dinghy, three very large sharks attack
• Gil and Kib swim out to engage. Two sharks start on the dinghy (destroying it, of course), the other makes a beeline for Gil
• They resist damage, and they change shape. Weresharks!
• Gil gets a bit, but manages not to catch lycanthrope. Nik and his remaining crew manage to keep from dying immediately. Anise summons a porpoise for Kib, who rides it out to engage the weresharks (to distract them from the very vulnerable others)
• Thoven lets fly with Magic Missiles. Gil wails on his shark and kills it with critical hits. Anise does steady (small) damage, as does Thed.
• One of Nik's remaining crewman dies horribly. The Doctor starts drowning and is left alone. Kib manages to get out and is immediately beset upon, taking massive damage and very, very barely resisting contracting lycanthrope.
• Unable to do any damage, Kib withdraws, bringing a wereshark with him. The other engages Tenpence, who manages through amazing grace of Alexandria to stay alive.
• Thoven lets fly with an electric scorching ray, then with fire, finding that fire is just as unresistable.
• Kib on the porpoise swims back out to distract the other wereshark, leaving the one to engage Gil. He takes more damage, then jumps onto Tenpence just as the porpoise disappears.
• Rays and magic missiles defeat that wereshark, and the other falls to bolts and Gil's axe.

Journey Across the Archipelago, and the Goblin Redoubt

• The team rests up and manages not to be molested.
  • There is now an almost embarrassing amount of heals to go around, with Tana and Marrwyn
• They head East, fashioning a raft to cross longer stretches to aid the bad swimmers.
• Eventually, they run into a group of Goblins.
• The Goblins insist that they are actually Gnomes, cursed with Goblin form. Alexandria knows if this is truth, or a story they have accepted. In any case, they're very friendly.
• They exchange some words with the group, and offer to take them home
• The party arrives at the Redoubt, which is evidently a magically warded fortress. The leader is called the Goblin Oracle. She probably has an actual name, too.
• Triggers historical knowledge in Kib:
  • The Elves used to have bases everywhere, and this was likely one. Most likely, they were starved out of existence when the Dwarves ran an enormous Adamantine chain across the straits to the North.
• Long conversation happens both before and at the Redoubt:
  • Sahuagin appeared about fourteen days ago
  • Was an explosion from faaaar to the East over empty water a couple of weeks before that.
  • Has killed roughly 50% of the Gnomegoblins. Steady attrition since then, no victories on the Goblin side
  • Wards evidently keep the fortress hidden. Gnomegoblins have no doubt that they would perish if the Sahuagin found it by non-magical means.
  • Other locations of note:
    • Tower of Light, slightly South, "Mysterious Haunted Lighthouse" (the Gnomegoblins can't fathom a use for a lighthouse)
    • Ruined shipyard, Westish
    • Some place I can't remember
    • The Stink, Human smuggler settlement seen by the team (completely overrun by Sahuagin)
  • Sahuagin are looking for something. Gnob's Folly confirms, mentions the Table of the Stars. This name has no meaning to the Oracle.
• Kib resolves that the mysterious, haunted place that nobody is supposed to go to is the natural next location to visit, being both close and a place the Sahuagin have evidently not overrun, making it a likely location for more information about the Table.
• The group spends the rest of the day at the Redoubt. Kib tells Nik to make himself and his crew completely available to the Gnomegoblins, and to try not to get killed. Kib also involves himself heavily in strategic and tactical discussions with the Gnomegoblin leadership.
  • Kib can inject some much-needed expertise into the situation. His primary goal is to keep the Gnomegoblins out of skirmishes when possible, by organizing optimal exploration routes, providing tips for technique (aided by Anise, if she is willing), and setting up the beginnings of drills and other organizational systems to begin shaping up Gnomegoblin discipline ("more than zero" being preferable to "zero", if it's possible). His secondary goal is to have the Gnomegoblins perhaps win a skirmish or two, training them to recognize odds and to engage only when they are absolutely overwhelmingly in the Gnomegoblins' favor. His tertiary goal is to set up a framework to actually turn the group into passable guerilla fighters to support the inevitable conflict ahead, which means a lot of things, including setting up duty rosters (including those for training and sparring), and extensive discussions with the community elders to identify leadership talent and formalize a command hierarchy.
  • Kib will also take this moment to get a complete inventory of Gnomegoblin resources. This includes
    • Food sources, availability, stores
    • Weapons, including proficiency of the various troops (expects this to generally be "none", but is happy to be surprised)
    • Magic-using capabilities
    • Non-fighting skills (construction, cooking, procurement, etc)

Awards

The sharks:

• 5s: 500
• 6s: 350
• 7s: 300 (150 for bot-Thoven)
• 8s: 300
• 9s: 225

Finding the Redoubt:

750 flat