Episode 13: A Night on the Beach

With Bingle under siege from an unknown enemy, the team must race to gather information and find a way to defend the island’s survivors before the sun sets, and terrifying creatures emerge from the sea to attack once again. Will Lily’s family last another night on the beach?

### **DM/GM Intro**

*It started as a simple dungeon run…*

*Five adventurers emerged from the dungeon with an incredible relic*
of chaos magic.  An amulet that allows them to communicate with you, the
watchers of the time stream, and serves as a conduit for your forces of good
and evil.

*That amulet also set them off on an adventure to save the great*
Wardens of Ain - towering protectors of the realms, who seem to have been
captured, one by one. The search for one of these Wardens has led the team to
the sea, aboard a sailing vessel known as The Tardy Plunder. The ship, and her
crew, were hired by a wizard of the Natural Order, a group that has been
tracking the disappearance of the Wardens.  Specifically, a mage named
Claudiette Mormthallow believes the path to the next Warden leads into the Deep
Reef, a stretch of dangerous waters in the eastern part of The Lost Sea.

*But when our team arrived on the Tardy Plunder and began adjusting*
to life aboard ship, they soon learned devastating news.  Bingle, the
resort island home of Lily Dumblestuck, had been suffering under a series of
attacks. The ship’s own cook had lost a hand on Bingle, and four crew members
died rescuing him from the carnage.  Shocked and horrified - and worried
about her family - Lily summoned the power of the amulet to grant her influence
over the ship’s captain, Mervis Blowhard, forcing him to turn the ship around
and plot a course back to Bingle.

*But that journey was not without its own perils.  A storm*
ravaged the ship, nearly costing Uggo his life when he was cast overboard by
turbulent waves.  And just as the seas calmed, a group of harpies emerged
from the clouds, using their luring song to entice members of the crew into the
icy waters as well. Siv only narrowingly escaped the ocean’s deathly embrace,
but the ship’s helmsman, Loudmouth the Mute, was not so lucky, falling into the
raging sea, and drifting off to his final resting place.

*Though casualties were suffered, the team weathered the harpies’*
vicious attack, and made it within rowing distance of Bingle.  And row
they did. Setting off from the ship in a dingy, Uggo single-handedly heaved the
team through the water, as the rest of them... attempted to speak to seagulls
and troll for fish. The fish they caught was an odd one, indeed.  A
fearsome hybrid with razersharp teeth and a crustacean’s legs, that they
eventually turned into an enjoyable meal.

*But that joy was fleeting. Though a hastily scrawled sign warned*
them to Turn Back, the team arrived on the shores of Bingle to find the jovial
resort boarded up and empty. Not a soul was in sight until Lily sang her Bingle
greeting song, which caught the attention of two of her sisters, Karit and
Goldie. They took the group back to the residence of Grammy Willowisp
Dumblestuck - the matriarch of Bingle island - where a small group of survivors
were holed up, hiding out in the basement.

*Lily reconnected with her father and shared a song with her*
grandmother, who, even having suffered grievous wounds and the loss of her leg
to the attacks, seemed optimistic about the future of her beloved home.
The beach gnomes, battered and bereaved, nevertheless remained defiant and
courageous. They offered our heroes as much information as they could about the
attacks, gave them a mighty iron harpoon that they had retrieved from the
beach, and pointed them in the direction of Old Pal, the island’s longtime
custodian, who claims to have bested one of the creatures that emerges from the
sea every night in search of new victims. As we ended last week, our team
emerged from the dark basement into the tropical island morning, a sense of
urgency gripping them as the sun made its way across the sky, bringing night…
and night’s terrors, ever closer.