Changing Currents

The session begins in the wharf in Nok Harbor, which often serves as a daytime marketplace. People are selling general goods. Omar, a gnome with red curly hair, is talking to someone about hammers. At another stand, a purple tiefling named Oracle is chatting up a guy while eating a large amount of sushi, with a strange 1' tall creature next to him on the ground. At the end of the dock is Spítha, a short white-haired air genasi with elven heritage, walking around looking quite confused yet determined. A large warforged named Remedy is standing near her, entirely still and looking out at the water. Suddenly, the still atmosphere is broken as an angry water elemental rises up from the ocean.

 

Spítha jumps into action and casts Hunter's Mark on the elemental before shooting an arrow charged with lightning at it. Oracle, seeing her reaction, follows suit and casts Lightning Bolt with his staff. The elemental then moves into Spítha's space, trapping her underwater. Remedy immediately turns and strides down the dock, placing itself between onlookers and the elemental before striking it with a spear. Omar walks over, annoyed at having their conversation interrupted, and hits the elemental with a hammer. Spítha fails to escape the water elemental, and the tips of her hair go dark as she casts Shocking Grasp on it.

A blur of cloth shoots in from a rooftop, slams into the water elemental, and pulls Spítha out and out of sight. She finds herself in an alley face-to-face with another air genasi, Makani, who questions what she's doing running into combat and drawing so much attention to herself. Oracle initiates his starry form, an archer, and begins slightly glowing and floating while casting Moonbeam on the elemental. It reacts by letting out a roar, distorted even for its kind, and its base begins to turn black with swirls of purple. The ocean seems to undergo a similar transformation. Omar and Remedy land a few more hits on it, but Oracle begins to look bloody. In the alley, Spítha pushes Makani off of her and shoots at the elemental with another lightning arrow, killing it. The water elemental seeps into the ground, the place where it stood looking mysteriously dry.

 

Remedy kneels next to Oracle to begin dressing his wounds. Makani slips into a different alleyway to look out towards the ocean. Oracle also approaches the water, taking out a vial to get a sample. His hand and arm turn the same pattern as the water as it creeps up his arm, though he feels no different. A Detect Magic identified both his hand and the ocean as pure Transmutation magic.

Spítha asks her fox Marída for Makani's location, which she leads her to. She is sitting by, watching the waves, and a little bit of her hood moves as she fumbles to put it back on. Spítha notices, and Makani asks who sent her and where she is from. Spítha replies that she is just passing through and is confused why Makani is in hiding. She drags Makani to the others as the group is approached by a triton, Princess Meralyss Selthaya.

 

Meralyss identifies the group as the ones who killed the water elemental and asks for their help. She is looking for capable people to form a task force. The westernmost island of Venithos was once flat land but has become a mountain over the course of the past week, elementals are sprouting up in cities, and the country is beginning to fall into chaos. Her family tasked her with mitigating these problems, since her brother, the heir, has better things to deal with. She cannot hire the royal guard as she needs people not allied with the Falthras, the other royal family, and they are allied with both families.

The group's first task will be to prove themselves capable to Meralyss' family. They must retrieve the source of the wild magic burst in the south: a scale. The island is built on the corpse of the dead god of chaos, and a reanimated scale appeared towards the tail of the island. The party agrees and some go to get their belongings.

Before leaving, Oracle shows Meralyss his marbled hand. She casts Prestidigitation on it, to no effect.

 

Makani concludes that Spítha is not "them" while walking around and inspecting her and Omar. They are unpleased with her looking through their things without asking. Oracle returns and willingly t-poses to let Makani thoroughly inspect both him and his belongings. Among them is a fox mask that Spítha created; the latter recognizes most of what is on his person but not Oracle himself.

 

The group is then led by Meralyss to a park towards the center of the city, where she presses down on the base of a statue that represents union and harmony between the two royal families. A staircase leading down opens up in the cement and they walk to a large room with four doors, each signifying an island in the archipelago. Meralyss gives the group a coin with a trident on it, saying it will ally them with her family. They step into a teleportation circle that takes them to the tail island and they exit, seeing smoke in the sky.

 

The party finds themselves in a more developed town. Remedy wants to find a vehicle, which they do in a building with a sign reading "carages" in bad handwriting. A green spring eladrin supplies the party with a carriage, two horses (Cotton and Rags), and some apples to help them behave.

As they set off, Makani informs the group that there are people after her, which may or may not be trying to kill her.

"You are expertly crafted!" -Omar to Remedy

 

"I can cure almost any disease" -Remedy

"Is it a disease?" -Oracle

"No" -Remedy

 

"We fought one water" -Makani

• In-game, it is springtime give or take in the year 6204.
• The first rolls of the campaign were for initiative, on which Makani and Spítha both rolled a 23.
• Makani rolled the first natural 1, for the perception check to notice the darkening of the ocean.
• Oracle rolled the first natural 20, for a history check to know about the bursts of wild magic affecting lands to the east.