Category:A tale of sea and tentacles

'We were less than a days sail from the coast of the Frostfell and we were still unused to the fierce winds that seemed to cut at our bones like icy claws no matter how many furs we wore. But, we were in good spirits thinking the voyage would soon be complete without any misfortune. Sometimes it does seem like the gods watch from above looking for those with cheery and high spirits to rain calamity down upon them. For no sooner that we had convinced ourselves that we would soon be walking upon solid, albeit frozen ground, the ship lurched violently as if a giant hand had suddenly halted our progress. There was a terrible sound as the wood of the ships keel and hull groaned in protest. We all were thrown from our feet violently as ship stopped as surely as if it had run aground. I remember hearing a scream followed by a splash. Poor Jann was thrown from the crows nest into the icy black sea.

I myself almost joined in his fate as I was catapulted over the ships rail. By some extraordinary luck i managed to grab ahold of the rail by one hand. My grip was slipping, but I was saved at the last moment by Navchuk, one of the sailors, who grabbed me and pulled me back over the side.

I got to my feet and turned to thank Navchuk, but the sight that greeted my froze the words in my throat as sure as any winter wind could have. What appeared to be a giant serpent had come over the ships railing and wrapped itself around Navchuk's head and chest. Before I could say anything of move at all, it hoisted him off the ship as casually as your would pick up a morsel of food off a table. With swift smooth motion he was dragged down into the depths without a sound. I opened my mouth to cry out in horror, but was interrupted by screams of terror all around the ship. I turned around and quickly realized they were not screaming in protest at Navchuks fate, but rather were trying to save their own. Several more of these serpents had emerged from the water, and everyone was desperately running about trying to avoid being grabbed.

I made my way toward the stairs to the lower deck to call for help from my companions. Along the way one of the deck hands fell at my feet, and before I could help him up one of the serpents had wrapped itself around his legs and began to drag him overboard. Thinking fast, I raised a hand towards it spoke the words of power to unleash powerful bolts of magic into the thing. It was surely stung, for it immediately released the young lad and flailed in the air as your would flail your finger after having missed the nail head and striking your own finger with a hammer. Strange that it made no sound. As it flailed I managed to get a better look, and could see no head on it, no eyes, no mouth. My horror grew as I realized that we were not being attacked by many serpents, but these were all the appendages of a single beast.

The Kraken had come calling.

The ship began to rock from side to side violently. I struggled to keep my footing as I made my way to the ships hold. My efforts where thwarted when one of the tentacles smacked me from the back and sent me flying towards the aft of the ship.

The tentacle reared up as if preparing to smash me flat against the deck while I struggled to get back on my feet. But before it could move the valiant Eric Bloom emerged from below decks and unleashed a ray of piercing frost at the tentacle. More annoying than anything else, the ray distracted it from me and turned to its new enemy. With a thunderous crash, the tentacle slammed into the deck. Eric dived out of the way and came back up swinging his great sword, and carving deep gashes into the flesh of the creature

Screams to my left alerted me to another crewman being dragged overboard. A couple of his fellows were trying to free him, but the suddeness of this attack left them ill prepared. Armed only with small knives, or clubs, they were ineffecitve against the tough and rubbery flesh of the tentacle. In a flash, I dashed forward drawing my blade Venom,

I dove into a roll to quickly close the distance while dodging another tentacle, and came out of it with a flourish of my blade before slicing cleam through the tentacle, and freeing the poor crewman.

Two more tentacles emerged from the water and began to sweep across the deck forcing us to move toward the centre of the ship. Eric was also forced back, barely able to keep the tentcales at bay with mighty swings of his sword. soon I was back to back with Eric and it seemed like we were about to be ensnared by the beast. But then we heard voice cry out "no one expects the Solud Inquisition"  Matt had managed to get on deck and raising his holy hammer in a prayer to Solud called down the wrath of the sun in the form of avenging spirits of light which surrounded Matt and struck out to burn and rend the kraken with holy light.

The beast then changed its tactic. Tentacles shot out of the water to wrap around the mast and sides and the ship began to list badly. Grabbing onto whatever we could to prevent from sliding over the side, we looked toward the water and could see maw of the beast who had now surfaced to consume us as we slid down the deck.

The creature let out a terrible bellow as a stream of arrows rained down upon striking its mouth and around the eyes. The bellow changed to a high pitched scream as one of the arrows pierced its eye

Looking up we could see that Haxx and Keiian had scaled the rigging and we're sending arrow after arrow down into the beast.

A sudden calm came upon the beast and the ship stopped listing as bad. The reason soon became aparent. Popo Loambottom, our intrepid rogue, had wielded the wonderous trident we were awarded by the ruler of Southwatch. He was using its magic to entrall the beast. Its attention was drawn to Popo as it felt the waves of magic washing over it. A calm seemed to emanate from the creature as the magics took their effect. Alas though, it's will was stronger than that of a simple beast, and a tentacle lashed out to wrap itself around Popo, who was now the focus of the monsters ire

Popo was lifted into the air and pulled toward the mouth of the creature to be consumed. Eric jumped to action. Twirlling his great sword in the air and chanting the words of power to cause a glowing bright blue sphere of elemental cold to shoot out from the tip of his sword at the tentacle, which promptly froze solid and shattered dropping Popo to the deck.

The ship listed again violently as the creature renewed it's attack on the vessel itself. The rain of arrows lessened as Haxx drew upon his connection to nature and the very wood of the ship answered his call. great thorny vines and spikes erupted from the deck, hull and railings to pierce and ensnare the great kraken. The shaking of the ship increased as the creature desperately tried to free itself

by now, the deck of the ship was almost vertical, and we were all holding on for our lives to prevent from falling into the beasts gullet. My hold was precarious and I was attempting to cast a spell when I lost my grip and went tumbling down toward horrible death. As luck would have it though, my cloack was snagged on one of the thorny vines, and I was suspended not an armspan from the maw which was snapping desperately for its dwarven snack

I realized that this was a perfect stroke of luck. I was up close, and the creature was trapped itself as surely as I was. I leveled my staff towards it open mouth and unleashed a roaring ball of flame which shot straight and true down the creatures throat and into what I suppose was its stomach. Thought it could have also been its brain I suppose. Its mouth snapped shut at the point at which the fireball would have exploded.

There was no visible flash of fire, or explosion, or puff of smoke immediately. But suddenly the shaking stopped and ship stsrted to right itself and the tentacles became limp in their spiky embrace, and the creatures remaining good eye clouded over

There was no great cry of victory, only a hollow sense of relief and as we quickly collected oursleves and immediately went to fishing the injured from the freezing waters, and attending to the wounded.

The magic of the thorns wore off, and the ships hull returned to its regular shape. The creature was still securly wrapped to the hull, and it took all the skill of the ships captain and crew to bring us to harbour without capsizing under the uneven load

The good Captain Flailslayer and her crew were as much heroes as any of us. More so. Were it not for them, the ship would not have made it, and the kraken would have had its revenge from the beyond'

- Halbrecht Lofus