It was *how* big????

We finally reached the source of the river. It’s a strange formation that could almost be manufactured, but it’s too hard to tell.

And like a plug in the top of the source was a water elemental that made all the others we’d seen look miniscule. I didn’t see much point in trying to talk to it but Ren walked up and tried to engage it. Somewhat surprisingly it didn’t attack him, and actually seemed to be capable of speech.

I went up to talk to it but it was like talking to a young child—it had no real understanding or concern for the problems it was causing. Suggesting it move to the ocean where it would have abundant water without taking the island’s water source; pointing out that it was killing us; ... Nothing mattered—it had enough water where it was and if we died that was just tough.

Those that could attempted to summon water magically, but it failed. They said they could feel the water being summoned, yet it wouldn’t materialise.

I think it was Leshrac that pointed out that something bigger was probably going on (duh!)—water elementals everywhere; summoned water disappearing; the waves with originally threw us into chaos aboard the Blessed Wind—it was a bit beyond coincidence.

We scouted the area to look for some other way to tap the water from beneath the source but we didn’t have any success. We did meet some lizard men but they were on the same mission as us—they too had been affected by the drought and were seeking the cause of the problem. They were happy to stay and watch us attempt to restore the river but apparently unwilling to aid us. Our suggestion that we should bring back some soldiers was even less popular; they suggested that it would be seen as an act of aggression to bring soldiers up here and would likely lead to hostilities.

Ren then mentioned that he had some spell to soften earth, which if he could cast tow or three times should be able to break through. And indeed it did, though by the time he’d cast it twice the elemental had become suspicious and commanded us to stop.

We refused, of course. I knew of several ways to provide some water for our group, but they would only go so far and certainly wouldn’t help the other inhabitants.

The elemental was certainly formidable. It struck Ren and he was knocked unconscious. The same for Rabinus. Valkor’s magical web was relatively ineffective as well. We were only saved becase the elemental is unable to travel far from the portal it sits over. Eventually it was forced to retreat and we were able to collect everyone and withdraw to a safe location.

Ren’s spell had enabled some water to leak out into the river, though only on one direction. It’s not the flow it should be, but it’s better than nothing. As a result we decided to head towards Able (where the water was headed) rather than back to Seawell. We know the towns have birds for communication so going to one is largely the same as going to another, but I expect a better reaction if we accompany some water.

I think it’s clear that we will have to come back with some armed men and destroy the elemental. But as Leshrac says, this are all symptoms and at some stage we need to go in search of the cause, though anything that can summon all these elementals can probably squash us like bugs.

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink....

I never would have thought that in the middle of an island chain water would be such a problem. I was even thinking about drinking my own urine i was beginning to be so thirsty. Yuck!

We finally came upon the source of the water, in an almost mountainy area. Inside the source of the spring, a gigantic water elemental was lodged. He peered out of the crater a bit, but he seemed to be basically apathetic to the world around us, enjoying sucking up all the water. At first it appeared that the elemental was sucking up all the water, but then Leshrac detected a portal underneath the elemental. The elemental could have been summoned or could have just decided to come here -- it seemed to have little knowledge (though according to Edmund it seemed that he/she/it? had a bit of an obsession with Ren's chest... could have just been Edmund though, all the time in the woods alone might cause some weird fetishes). Anyways after a lot of prodding, Edmund was finally convinced to try to talk with the elemental. He very cautiously edged towards it which started some sort of 10 minute long conversation -- all in Aquan, which sounds a bit more like a bubbling bowl than a real language. That's when the Ren obsession started.

Then the bizarre really started. Whenever anyone tried to make water, it was like the water was sucked away (though if i remember correctly, Jimoko tried to see if he could create water without it being diverted -- it wasn't).

First, we tried to find another place that the water could be plugged at -- one we might be able to dig up another spot to let the water flow out. That pretty much failed, and we wound up coming upon some lizard men, who i wound up talking to. I really need to shore up my speaking skills though, I wasn't being too convincing. They were also trying to find the source of the drought. Not as if they'd really be able to, they didn't even understand what an elemental was.

Well - Ren had just figured out how to soften earth to mud. So - we figured that if you could soften away some of the earth, the water might flow out underneath the elemental. The first casting didn't do too much -- the area got pretty muddy but no water leaked out. Now after that, the elemental figured out what was going on and wasn't too happy about it -- but, 2 more castings and we've got water flowing again! And then the elemental flowed right out along with it. We managed to get away after some distracting castings, some not so effective weapons, Ren unconscious and Rabinus(sp?)'s guts spilt out on the valley floor. We pushed them back in, healed him up a little bit, and after 2 days they weren't quite good as new, but no major organs were missing.

We decided we needed to head to the city. Which city was a bit of a quarrel -- did we go back to the old one or on to Abel. Well, after a bit of a discussion (me, Ren, and Edmund walking towards Abel and the rest of the party realizing they wouldn't know where to go), the remaining members came to their senses and we headed down in the direction of Abel. Hopefully since the return of the water we will get a pleasant welcome.

Valkor

Valkor:
"...by the very next morning, I finished scribing a new spell into my book, and a variation of one I could already cast."

"We continued up the mountain, hoping to find a path to the source of the river. Along the way, we came across a shimmering water-like creature. I immediately recognized it as a water elemental, though I didn't know what it was doing here on the material plane. By some strange twist of fate, Edmund knew how to speak aquan, the language of these beings. He approached and attempted to negotiate passage, but it appears as if the small elemental was not intelligent enough to understand. We tried to pass it, but it immediately attacked, lashing out with its watery appendages. I guess it really wasn't intelligent, attacking a group of adventurers all by itself. It didn't take long before the rest of the group rendered it into a puddle of water and we moved on. However, before we left, I noticed a small twinge of magic in the air, and I noticed that a small portal I hadn't seen before was closing fast. Strange...That means the elemental had to have been called, or binded, by some force."

"I tried to puzzle this out as we continued forward. How did someone bind these creatures here, and why? Are the just guardians as they appeared to be, or something else? I didn't take long before we encountered another one, and then another. These creatures seemed literally to be a fish out of water, I noticed, as the rest of the party turned them into piles of water with ease."

"We soon came across a cliff face, and there seemed to be no easy way up. However, I was surprised as Jimoko, the monk, took a running leap at the wall. After a few tried, he managed to leap what must have been seven or eight feet into the air and grab onto a ledge about 15 feet up. He dropped drown a rope, and we continued forward."

"It wasn't long before we encountered another elemental, this time a bit larger. We had Edmund negotiate with this one as well, but to no avail, and we attacked this one as well. We then came across another, and defeated that one as well. We finally came within sight of what must have been the source, but there was a large elemental in the way. I conjured up a mass of sticky webbings to impede its progress as the others blasted it from range. I noted that these creatures were called, not summoned, so destruction here on the material plane was final death. It was regrettable but necessary."

water, water everywhere

Did you ever have one of those days when you just felt like you did a lot but accomplished nothing? Today was one of those days...

We worked our way towards the source of the river. Ren caught up with us and we often stopped to discuss the best way to proceed—the rise was quite formidable and had been severely eroded in many places to provide almost impassable obstacles. At one point we encountered an overhang which lowest point was 15’ above the ground. Jimoko tried several times before he could jump high enough to catch hold of a protruding rock from which he was then able to pull himself up and climb to the top of the overhang, lowering a rope for the rest of us to climb—it was quite impressive to see.

While we had little to drink, there was no shortage of water on our long climb—occasionally we would encounter water elementals. I tried to talk to them but they lacked the intelligence to interact meaningfully.

Valkor said there were portals of some kind linking them back to their home plane, but I could see nothing. According to him the elementals had been “called” rather than summoned—a distinction important only to him, apparently. What was important was that they were bound, and thus we could not have negotiated our way past, even had they been able to speak with me.

The first few were quite small and provided little obstacle. The next couple were slightly larger, but we were also able to take them without much damage to ourselves. We were concerned about using magic as it appeared that someone (or something?) would be at the end of this path that would require all our power to defeat.

Thus we were quite concerned when we came across an elemental even larger than the others we had encountered. It would be almost certain to wound someone gravely if it made contact.

I was sent forward to try to negotiate passage, as Valkor thought that being larger it would be more intelligent than the others. There was no way to tell what effect my words were having as I moved forward and attempted to reassure it that we were happy to pass without fighting if it could indicate a path it approved of. With the encouragement of the others I continued to step forward while talking in reassuring tones. But then I took one step to far and the elemental swirled violently and rushed towards me.

Fortunately the sudden increase in turbulence tipped us off and I was able to move out of its range and we all opened fire with ranged attacks.

It was quite a hit and miss affair—Rabinus missed with his crossbow more often than not, even Leshrac’s usually infallible destructive magic was missing occasionally. I’d already heard him complaining of being sick of blasting these water elementals, so perhaps lack of volition was also an issue. Valkor’s magical web was probably the crucial factor in the battle—he caught it with the initial cast, and completely obstructed the passable ground between the elemental and us.

It was intelligent to back out of the edge of the web where it had initially been caught and attempt to pass through at the side where the web was least dense but it was still enough to slow forward progress while we continued to pepper it and just as it looked like it was going to break free it was struck by a couple of arrows, trembled slightly, and then collapsed into a puddle.

We have been climbing now for several hours and are all dirty, sweaty, tired and irritable. The source of the river appears to be finally within our grasp, but we need to pause and collect ourselves.

there is no justice

We waited a while on the ship but the winds failed to shift in the direction we needed. I studied the clouds and the water, from which I determined that we would have no luck for at least three days. We had adequate food and water and in hindsight should have waited for the weather to change but we thought we would be clever and travel overland to the nearest town, Seawell.

The path we had previously followed to the lighthouse had a fork leading south which we knew would take us to the river. What we would do when we got there I don’t know as it would be running through a deep gorge.

Before we reached the river we saw a cave of to the side. There was really no reason to explore it but there was always the hope that it would somehow result in a tunnel running under the river. We worked our way into the cave and just as it was narrowing to the point we would have to squeeze through I noticed some abnormally large centipedes and realised there must be a nest of some sort further in. I warned the others that we should withdraw but some of them thought they could fight through. They soon changed their minds when the centipedes started swarming in reaction to our presence.

We beat a hasty retreat and continued our trek along the path, arriving at a gorge about 20 feet across. Remembering that we had taken some potions of Jump from the pirates we sent one person across with the end of a couple of ropes to set up a makeshift bridge that everyone else was then able to use to cross the gorge. Looking down at the river it looked like it had seen better days—the level was lower than it probably should have been, and certainly lower than it had been.

As we continued on we came to farmland which let us know we were almost at the town. We spoke to a farmer and collected some information about the town, but in reality we didn’t learn much that we wouldn’t have either guessed or learned very quickly. Had we learned anything useful we probably would have turned around right there.

Instead we continued to Seawell and as we reached the edge of town a guard approached us, and escorted us to the mayor’s office. I probably should have been suspicious already—officials don’t take an interest in anyone unless they think they can either profit from it, or they’re afraid.

We decided to let Leshrac do the talking, and that was another mistake. It turns out he’s some sort of royal bureaucrat, so perhaps it was deliberate sabotage to get us all imprisoned—I’ll be keeping a closer eye on him in future. He told a credible tale of the shipwreck, but for some reason decided to keep quiet about the pirates and the lighthouse. I don’t know why, there was no reason. And of course it went horribly wrong because somebody else made reference to the lighthouse and that was all it took.

The mayor ordered us locked up and having tasted “justice” already I wasn’t ready to subject myself to its vagaries again so soon. I drew my weapons and said I would defend myself if needed, offering that if they didn’t want us around I would happily leave town, but pointing out that they had no right to lock us up. I have come to think that the less fair the legal system, the more formidable the guards are. Certainly when my father died Percy put a lot of effort into both beefing up the guards and adding many new laws. Here it was no different—the guards were able to flick my weapons out of my hands with ease while I was unable to make any impression. A couple of the others just sat down like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. At least one of them was smart enough to make a run for it (though apparently not smart enough to avoid giving himself away by taking a room in the inn wwhen there are no other strangers in town).

I finished up having the crap beaten out of me almost ot the point of death but better that than volunteering for “justice.” When I came to we were all crammed into a cell that should not have held more than one or two people. We were there for days before being summoned into their court.

The mayor was after something, and I wonder whether the ink was even dry on the page for the laws we’d supposwedly broken. Sure, I’d attacked a guard, but I’d given fair warning that I would defend myself. Maybe I should have taken care of the mayor instead when he was hiding under his desk. He made a big fuss about not being sure what to do about us, and not being sure who were the pirates and who were the victims. Blah, blah, blah. Eventually he claimed that he would forget he’d ever seen us if we helped them out—the water supply was drying up and they wanted us to restore it.

He didn’t leave us much choice so we agreed to do it. For my part, I just wanted to get free. Sure I’ll see if I can find their problem, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back here in a hurry. I’d rather head back to our ship and sail to another island—I don’t trust these people to keep their word no matter what we do for them. I wonder if I can work out some way to drive that nest of centipedes this way?

We tried to equip in the marketplace and despite our mission to help them the traders were completely uncooperative. The only way we could get anything was by trading water.

We headed back to the river, and then started following it inland looking for its source. The light was starting to fade so we pulled back a bit and established a camp. As we were getting ready to settle down to sleep a group of dire bats flew into our camp and attacked us. I wasn’t fully recovered from my fight with the guards and was once more rendeder unconscious. By the time I was healed the fight was over. Apparently Valkor had been casting spells to put the bats to sleep or knock them out, and then it was a comparitively simple matter to dispatch them.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully and now it’s time to find out what is affecting the town’s water supply.

Valkor

Valkor:
"...But unfortunately, the winds would not blow our way. We headed back to shore and decided to trek on foot. We found a curious cave along the way, filled with large numbers of centipedes. Jimoko, our monk, I believe, said that he heard water at the end of the tunnel. We weren't able to proceed too far, however, because the centipedes there were vicious, and quite dangerous. I made a note to return here one day. Clearly there was magic at work."

"We crossed the gorge at the middle of the island by tying a rope across, and we proceeded to the town of Seawell. We were immediately stopped by the guards, and were taken to the mayor for questioning. During the conversation, I must have let slip the fact that we discovered the keepers of the lighthouse dead, and we were hauled off to jail without trial or evidence. Some of our more belligerent party members tried to fight their way out, but were overpowered or quickly found and captured."

"After a few days, a quick trial took place. I explained exactly what happened, and it appears as if they believed me. We soon were given an offer that we couldn't refuse: if we were able to find out why the river was running dry, we would be free to go. I guess desperation is a powerful force."

"We set off right away, and followed the river uphill, toward the source. However, just as when we were setting up camp that evening, a group of huge bats approached. I guess I've seen much stranger things by now, but at the time, they were quite frightening. I quickly blasted several of them with a spray of bright colors (yes, you can laugh, I was also not as powerful back then compared to now). Though several of our members were seriously wounded in the melee, we managed to kill them."

"I was quite happy at this point, because with those distractions gone, I could finally get some time to pour over my books. I was really close to a breakthrough..."

Today was at least interesting, though it was definitely not the best of days. In the morning, it was as if i had been sleeping the previous day, or at least in a deep haze. Then we decided to cross the island. First, we were defeated by a bunch of bugs... fairly large centipedes, but still, bugs. Ick. Then we wind up crossing a chasm and end up at the town. Everything seemed to be going all right with Leshrac talking to the mayor of the little town and informing him of our "situation" andleaving out some less savory details, but then Valkor had to open his mouth and ruin it all. Suddenly, we were about to be thrown into the hold. Edmund drew his weapons, but I was hoping to escape imprisonment by throwing up my hands and backing away to the wall. Guards in full plate aren't exactly good sparring companions. While I wasn't pinned to the floor, I still wound up with my hands bound, a rather undignified position.

We were thrown in a very tiny jail cell for a few days, during that time they discovered our ship, the blessed wind, which must be a rather well known prisoner transport vessel and discovered the bound pirates and the remaining crew. Long story short, their water source has been drying up and if we can renew the river, we can get away without any troubles.

Valkor

Valkor:

"...after the battle we searched our new captives. For a bunch of bandits, they were surprisingly well equipped. Their camp was close by, and we proceeded to search it. We found a few trinkets, but more importantly, we found some maps. One was a rough diagram of the island. It warned of a tribe of lizardfolk, and also marked a lighthouse. The other map was much more strange and difficult to decipher. The following morning, I cast a spell that allowed me to understand almost all languages, contemporary and ancient, written and spoken. Yet still, I could not make heads or tails of the map. I knew that only a wise sage would be able to help me here."

"That morning, the rest of the pirates returned, paddling in. The other brutes that I was with opened fire without hesitation. What happened to things like dialogue and diplomacy? The bandits were obviously not in a position to fight back, and we could have easily forced their surrender. I guess the subtle aspects of negotiation and discourse are lost upon my less civilized friends. The pirates surrendered after the archers slain two of them."

"Afterwards we headed to the lighthouse, in hopes of warning or rescuing the occupants, and perhaps reactivating the lighthouse. There wasn't much to be found there, except a letter that bore the same symbol as a pendant we found in the camp. We also found the corpses of the lighthouse keepers. Those fiends must have killed them all, including the two children we found."

"I wasn't in much of a mood to do more afterwards. I just wanted to head to town and turn the pirates in to the proper authorities. Leshrac wanted to immediately execute them, though I think it wasn't because he wanted justice, but instead expedience, as watching after these captives was quite draining. I reminded myself again that I would really have to watch him. Just how much control did the demonic blood flowing inside him have?"

"In any case, we negotiated with one of our captives, and in exchange for his eventual release, he took us to the pirates' ship, which was anchored and abandoned when we found it. I just hoped he didn't have anything to do with those murders. We decided that the best course of action would be to load everyone on the ship, and sail it into the port on the other side of the island. We spent the next day waiting for the winds to be just right..."