The Lake of Eyes (Mission)

"At dawn we left the Last Chance and headed out with Fenric leading using his skill and expert knowledge of the wilderness. Myself, Wulfred, and Theodwin followed as we wound up the uneventful coast. We did discover the body of a very unfortunate woman with some sort of spines sticking out of her. Wulfred surmised it was the work of fish people. He seems old and wise, and I trust his judgement and expertise a great deal.  The way he describes these fish people makes them sound utterly terrifying. Surely not a beast I would ever wish to face.

As we walk further we also came across a castle on the coast. Seemingly abandoned and run down. A dreary state to see a castle in. We elected not to explore further because it detracted from our goal of exploring the lake, and it was very likely inhabited by the fish people who it seems may have actually carried the castle to this location with their bare hands. At first I thought the concept seemed preposterous but Wulfred and Theodwin both seemed to agree. Truly terrifying.

The trip up the coast was short, only taking half a day to reach a wall of enormous cliffs impeding our path. Once we hit the cliffs we moved west. We stopped briefly to investigate a body it seemed was killed by a scorpion, and moved onward until we were exhausted and couldn’t travel more. We stopped ready to set up camp just as the cliffs grew shorter and came to an end. Wulfred the crafty stoic he is climbed a tree to get a better sense of our location only to realize the lake we sought was right behind us! And our dashing ranger Fenric got us there without issue. Theodwin. Well Theodwin mostly just spoke with his owl (a miss Sarah Finly I believe the name was)but in his defense he has incredible conversational skills and it was a pleasure just to be nearby.

We set up camp as I very successfully taught Theodwin how to play Gin to the point that I lost the last five hands to him. Fenric insisted I teach him then refused to play. I really should’ve stopped dealing him hands once he walked away. Oh well.

During watch that night we all noticed something in the distance of the lake. Sarah Finnly died following up on this lead. During the next day there was no sign of it. Completely prepared to swim out to the lake and back in to draw this beast to shore, Theodwin had the lovely idea of instead using an illusion to see if it was still active in the vicinity. It worked well and before we knew it a large mechanical shark 25 feet long was desperately attempting to devour an illusion of a trespassing gnome. Theodwin and I quickly returned to shore where I asked Theodwin if he could possibly lure it to shore so we could beach it. Even more miraculously after a few tries THAT worked. The beast was beached, trashing about seemingly unable to return to the lake. With the expert combination of Theodwin’s magic, Wilfred’s unbreakable body keeping it busy, Fenric’s aim, and my slightly better aim we beat it down enough for me to deliver an expertly aimed finishing blow as it fell to pieces.

Inside the Machination we found a large steel key. And with nothing but will power and lung capacity I dove below the surface of the lake some 300 feet over and over again to find the corresponding lock that the shark was surely guarding. Once I found it in the depths of the lake I quickly discovered some kind of chamber that locked off and filled with air. I dove back up to the surface and informed the others, and we all proceeded to the depths to this air-lock.

Within we found a statue of a featureless figure wrapped in scrolls of numerous languages. Before it a pedestal with a magic ring. We heard a cryptic warning or prophecy of some kind in our minds. We were certain the magical statue would attempt to kill us if we took the ring. We prepared and rested and on the next day, we snatched the ring and…….nothing.

And so we made our way back that same day without issue."

― Fidelius Alfawyn's adventure log