Coral Sun Drifters

Session 15: Search and Rescue

Part 1

Our heroes meet with the representative of the Kiwa family at their dockyard house and agreed to travel to Babis to find and rescue the heir, Kemba.

Enroute, Stitch started a fight club among the crew. He failed to convince the kittens to join, but did face the First Mate in the championship round. Sako was angry that he threw the fight, and she said he’d better bring it next time.

They sailed past the floating wreckage of the Lithic warship they’d once boarded, and battled a group of floating constructs before docking at Babis.

Part 2

They made short work of the constructs awaiting them on the docks, grappling and dragging them all of the dock to plummet to their doom.

Seeing a strange flash of light, they made their way through the wreckage of Babis to the central Temple, where they found a strange elf from another world.

Though relations were tense at first, an attack from more constructs made for uneasy allies.

Part 3

Agreeing to work together for the best chance at survival in this warzone, Aeren joined with the other heroes to search for signs of Kemba Kiwa. Elthing conducted a strange ritual to find a bearing on the nearest green heron emblem of House Kiwa.

Elthing led the heroes stealthily across town toward the forested hills rising away from town toward the island’s central peak. As they neared the edge of town, a fight between rival constructs spilled out from a nearby building. Finn tried to separate the constructs and identify them, but the others sprang into the fray.

Luna filled the building with flames and then examined the construct shells after the other heroes helped finish them off. One group had intricate, curving runes whereas the other’s were angular and regimented. Finn didn’t recognize them, but could tell neither belonged to his patron.

As the dust settled from their battle, a dark airship swooped overhead, releasing discs like those used to board the First Light in their first trip to Babis, and seemingly human shouts of warning arose from deeper in the woods.

Part 4

The party split into two groups on their approach to the hills, with Mordecai and Aeren sneaking off into the woods and others following the path. At one point, as the path wound around a steep hill, they were confronted by human sentries, asking them, “Thoth or Astarti?”

They explained they were with neither and surrendered their weapons to robots who seemed to be working with these humans.

While the robots escorted them up the path, Aeren and Mordecai approached the sentries stealthily. Though Luna cautioned against it, they seized the opportunity for surprise and attacked. Magical darkness shrouded their initial assault, and Aeren dispatched one while Mordecai dragged another into the air and intimidated her into cooperation.

The others heard yells and seized the opportunity to seize their weapons and fight their way free. Uh, probbbbbably, that’s where we paused 😩😂

Part 5

Drop and Jack caught up the party to help dispatch the construct guards that were escorting them, but snuck further into the forest when they received no word from Mordecai and Aeren.

Tracking the path further up the hills they came upon the enemy camp, a wooden fort constructed in a clearing. They were spotted by a sentry, but rather than raise an alarm they calmly spoke to one another on the ramparts and then came out to meet the party.

The leader of the human guards introduced herself as Sora, and after discussing a bit about their alliance with Astarti and the overall situation, led them into the camp, through the masses of constructs standing idle and into one of the 3 tents.

There, one of the other guards began to play the lute (poorly) to cover the noise and let them discuss the situation more candidly. Sora was Kemba’s first mate, and he was being kept in the mines, where he was ostensibly in charge but also somewhat of a hostage.

She warned them that they must get word to their ship, that it would not be safe at the dock. What remains of Kemba’s crew would gladly help rescue Kemba and make an escape.

Part 6

Elthing sent a little bird to first mate Sako on the First Light and warned her (in full creepy Elthing voice) to leave the docks and wait for their signal.

Luna and Elthing performed some competitive alchemy, having gathered some ingredients earlier to use in crafting some poisons.

Drop and Stitch made their way to the crash site of the Kiwa ship, finding fabulous attire and other minor treasures abandoned about the Captain’s quarters and throughout the hold, but the only traces of magic remained in the engine room.

There, Stitch could feel the powerful but dormant magic of the engine dodecahedron, and of course he tried to eat it. As he drew upon the magic contained in the engine, its runes began to glow again. He felt the immensity of the magic, and when it began to threaten to overwhelm him, he chose to drink deep.

The engine began to float again, and then the ship shook as it too began to lift from the ground. Drop dashed out of the room as Stitch and the engine began to slowly rotate and float back toward the center of the engine room where the engine is normally suspended.

Stitch began to lose his sense of self, feeling only the incomprehensible depth of the magic washing over him. Drop’s heroic nature overcame her survival instincts and she turned back to try to rescue her little goblin friend. Her boomerang wasn’t enough, so she dove into the room and tackled him away from the engine.

They all fell back to the floor of the engine room, the engine itself cracking in half… but the ship remained afloat. As the glow faded from Stitch’s body and he began to regain his senses, he realized that the Lithic magic from the engine – far more magic than he had ever held before by several orders of magnitude – had completely wiped out the Undead magic he’d previously absorbed, and his loyal companion Drumstick was no more 😭🥁💀🥁😭

Part 7

The ship followed Stitch back to camp, where the Kiwa crew anchored it and began working on repairs.

Luna polymorphed into a raven and scouted the mine, finding a large force of robots including 2 elephant sized cannon-robots who shot down enemy ships that came within range.

Elthing accidentally got in contact with Astarti when trying to contact Thoth, and learned that she will release Kemba if the party disables Thoth’s flagship.

Mordecai made contact with Ghost Girl, who said she’d send forces to deal with the portal in the mine… and that Old Magic is really strong in High Nest.

Dr. Steiner almost killed everyone swinging around a mast like a baseball bat.

Part 8

Our heroes travelled to mine and met with Kemba Kiwa… and Astarti. They asked everyone to pledge themselves to Astarti’s service and bend the knee. Mordecai declined, instead piquing Astarti’s interest with the challenge of a duel. After dodging around the chamber and dealing quite a bit of damage, Mordecai put on an entertaining enough display that Astarti agreed to accept his service without kneeling.

Drop could sense that the portal to the Fade was in this very room, but the party agreed to go along with a daring assault on Thoth’s flagship, following a dropship back to it with Kemba and a sizeable boarding party supplied from Astarti’s army.

Part 9

While waiting for repairs to complete on the Kiwa ship, our heroes made their way back into the city of Babis to scavenge for supplies for the mission. Drop scaled a tall tree at the edge of town and located a quartet of expensive-looking homes West of the temple, as well as a patrol of Thoth’s minions. Our heroes managed to evade the erratic patrols, escaping a close call after some noisy climbing hijinks with Dr. Steiner.

Luna investigated a well-appointed corpse in the wide lane and gathered some fallen gemstones from a broken necklase, then most of the party entered the first house on the right while Dr. Steiner made her way into the more extravagantly appointed dwelling on the left. The party searched the abandoned home, looting fine clothing and jewelry, a model airship, and marveling at the ornate bathroom.

Meanwhile Dr. Steiner explored the library, finding evidence that she was in the home of the (former) Mayor of Babis, a former military commander. Up the stairs, she found herself face to face with the new Mayor, a brigand who’d laid claim to the finest house in the city in the aftermath of the war. After tossing him off the balcony she fought him and his crew, and after a time the rest of the party noticed her absence and ran across the street to help her finish the job.

Part 10

On the way back to camp with the scavenged supplies, another witch named Delthea made contact with Luna, hoping to escape Babis with them. Luna met with her later that night, and helped Delthea sneak in to accompany them without causing any kind of confrontation with Astarti.

Stitch was drawn to the Kiwa ship again, wanting to test his newfound control over it like flexing a new limb. Some get extra arms, some get plant arms, some get… airships. He placed his hand on the outer hull amidship, and once again began to float, rising along the side of the ship and glowing with magical energy. The others began to gather, curious and ready to intervene if things began to awry again.

Though the magical energies began to overflow again, Stitch thought back on the previous time and realized that he was now the source of the magic and so was able to get a handle on it. He found that he could shift the ship in any direction, whereas typically the engine only provides levitation, with the sails and rudder providing speed and steering. What else will his connection with the ship mean?

The next morning, Kemba arrived with hordes of construct soldiers in an ostentatious show of force. Repairs completed, the constructs began marching onto the ship while Kemba demanded the knee once again from all but favoured lieutenant Mordecai.

When Luna tried to explain her new friend Delthea to the party and the Kiwa crew, they were scared and suspicious at first, worried that she may be a spy or saboteur. After an anxious greeting and search for traps, everyone was set at ease more or less, as long as Delthea agreed to join them on the front lines of the attack.

With Kemba adopting a striking captain pose, Darius at the helm, and loads of constructs stowed below, the daring flagship assault was ready to begin.

Part 11

The bulk of Astarti’s forces crashed aboard the Kiwa ship into Thoth’s flagship. Our heroes split up and made their way below decks via various methods, ultimately meeting Thoth’s captain in battle. After defeating the captain, Stitch took control of the creature and used it to take control of the ship. They dropped off the Kiwa crew and Delthea with the First Light to be returned to Aynuk safely, agreeing to help Stitch take the flagship to the lab that had experimented on him to settle an old score.

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