23/06/2020 - Mystical mists, red-sky raging and Titanic terror

## TL:DR

* The group are given their next mission by Dr T . Told to travel to an island called Khladaria to investigate rumour of a powerful ancient artefact and beast located there.
* After 8-days of sailing, the group were accosted by mysterious mists in which appeared strange illusions of themselves. When the mists cleared, they saw a beautiful sky above an iceberg covered bay and snow-covered mountain arc – presumably the island of Khaldaria.
* The skies suddenly turned red, inducing a carnal rage in most of the group. Eventually everyone was calmed down, but not before Narko  and Azurial  caused some damage.
* The group just about avoided a terrifying Titanic-esque collision with an iceberg.
* The next day Trimaeus  expertly guided the Wildmane  through the icy bay near to the shore, which was covered in penguins and walruses.

## A new mission!

With most of the guilds stolen vault gubbins now recovered, Dr T gave the group their next mission. The old book (The Gilded Diary ) found by Kunai  at the Hags cave had been partially restored and translated. These exerts were written by an Iysgarthian  General approx. 150 – 200 years ago during the Iysgarthian  Civil wars and consequent Island rebellions.  These exerts spoke of an ancient artefact powered by sacrificial means and a great beast that had been lured for ‘testing’ and ‘deployment’. The exerts suggested that the artefact and beast were located on a small, apparently unsettled, island roughly 70 miles south-east of Cypropa . However, this island, most commonly referred to as Khaldaria, was only shown on pre-Isygarthian hegemony maps and it was unclear why it didn’t appear on modern maps. The groups mission was to travel to Khaldaria in order to investigate whether any evidence of this artefact and/or beast could be found and to work out why Khaldaria didn’t show on any modern maps.

As the refreshingly sensible combo of Ves , Brena, Azurial , Narko , Caitlin and Pierce (and Rocky ) readied themselves for departure to Khaldaria, the few members of the Cypropa  crew who had actually returned set about various tasks. As promised, Ash  immediately began preparing and writing letters to the Trifecta about the Halflings conditions on Cypropa . Tamsin  aided Ash  with the letter writing and began doing much useful research into all manner of arcane and historical shenanigans. In contrast, Blagden  decided to spend his time being generally irritating. Seeking out a still grumpy Kunai  he made sure to tell him that Khrom  called him a dickbag for bribing the captain, before also making up a load of other stuff that Khrom  definitely didn’t actually say.

## Captain Rocky

The journey to Khaldaria took the best part of eight days, with most of the group spending this time doing general training. Rocky  was very excited to continue learning sick new ship skillz from Captain Trimaeus . His training went so well that Trimaeus  even allowed him to temporarily be Captain and navigate the Wildmane . To everyone’s surprise Rocky  excelled at this, even pointing out to Trimaeus  that the Wildmane’s  previous heading was slightly off target. Trimaeus  was amused to have his heading questioned, but Rocky  was adamant he was correct, betting Trimaeus  a bottle of wine that his heading was better.

## Mystical mists

On the eighth day of sailing, having passed Cypropa  a few hours ago, a mist began to descend upon the ocean. The mist started out thin, though chilly and moist. Then suddenly, out of the mists appeared strange mystical figures. As a concerned Trimaeus  wrestled the steering wheel back of Rocky , Caitlin and Leo  realised that these mystical figures were formed of coherent patterns, like large dancing cartoonish snowflakes. In awe, the group watched as one of the dancing figures morphed into the unmistakeable cheeky goliath face of Rocky , whilst another depicted Ves  riding a horse that transformed into Narko . Irritated that even the mists were mocking him, Narko  lobbed a rock straight at his own misty form. His aim was true and the rock hit his own misty head, seemingly passing through with no impact. Proclaiming that the mists must either be a miracle or the work of the devil, Leo  cast detect magic and determined that the mystical mists were simply a very large illusion. For the next few hours the dancing mists persisted, with the colours and flashes creating an almost party-like atmosphere. Then, as dusk began to set in, the mists suddenly reformed into words that said, “Welcome to Coldaria, remember to slip into something warmer”. The mists then cleared to reveal an astoundingly clear twilight sky above a huge arc of snow-capped mountains. In the centre of the mountains was a huge glacier that flowed down into an iceberg covered bay. Trimaeus  seemed very concerned by the icebergs, but reckoned he could navigate it slowly during the daytime if the weather was good. After Ves  used her druid skillz to confirm that the weather was indeed looking clear for the next 24 hours, it was decided that they would wait until tomorrow morning to tackle the icy bay. As night fell, the temperature dropped significantly and Brena retreated to the hold, keen to get back to her potion making. With Pierce taking watch up the crows-nest, the rest of the group gathered on deck to watch the starry sky, which was filled with a mixture of blue, green and purple swirls and illuminations. However, suddenly, the blues and greens exploded outwards to bathe the sky in red-crimson light…

## Red-sky raging

Seeing the sky turn red, those on deck suddenly felt an inexplicable carnal rage fill their minds. Thankfully, Ves , Leo  and Pierce managed to shake-off this rage, but the rest of the group and crew did not, so all hell broke loose. With a roar, the already naturally angry Narko  laid into Azurial , thankfully missing most of his rune-imbued strikes, whilst Rocky  used his sneaky magics to scare off Trimaeus  with Rosie. On the other side of ship Caitlin took a shot at Ves  (luckily missing) whilst the crewmate Comstock ran away to hide, terrified at this sudden show of violence. However, not all the crewmates were so placid, with the ginger haired Travenor joining Narko  in laying into Azurial . Seeing Azurial’s  eyes fill with violent vengeful intent, Leo  bravely ran forward to try to grapple him, shouting “there’s no need for retribution friend!”, whilst also casting shield of faith on Travenor. Unfortunately, Leo’s  grappling attempts were meek and Azurial  easily swatted him aside before literally eviscerating Travenor with a smite-infused blow of his Warhammer. Seeing the danger posed to everyone by Narko  and Azurial , Ves  raised her staff and attempted to paralyse both. With a grimace Narko’s  entire body froze, but Azurial  angrily resisted her efforts.

As Brena continued to happily make potions, completely unaware of the chaos above her, Trimaeus  struck out at one of his crew, causing them to jump overboard in terror. Up on the crow’s nest, Pierce decided that with Narko  held by Ves , Azurial  was the main threat and attempted to neutralise him with grease. This went well and Azurial  fell prone to the deck in a slippery slather of oil. Furious that his previous combatant had jumped into the sea, Trimaeus  strode forward to strike at the paralysed Narko , slicing brutally at his substantial rump. This damage provoked Narko  to even greater fury and with a roar (neigh) he broke free of Ves’s  hold and turned to face Trimaeus  head-on.

As the carnage continued, both Rocky  and Caitlin managed to free themselves of the rage. Caitlin promptly trained her bow on the mountains ahead, looking around for any unknown entities to fire at, whilst Rocky  suddenly yanked at the ships wheel in an attempt to throw everyone to the floor. Unfortunately, this inspired manoeuvre did not have the desired effect, with Trimaeus  and Narko  remaining on their feet as most of the non-ragers fell to the floor. However, the sudden ship-tilt did at least notify Brena that something was amiss and after stabilising her potion kit she headed upstairs to see what was occurring.

Seeing Travenor bleeding out from Azurial’s  strike, Leo  quickly healed her back to stability, before commandingly yelling out at Narko  and Azurial  to halt. Unfortunately, both ignored him, with Azurial  taking the opportunity to throw a hunter’s mark on Leo  before striking at him. With Leo  clearly in danger, Ves  once again tried to paralyse Azurial , this time succeeding. At that moment, a huge clasp of lightening struck the Wildmane, igniting part of the deck in a burst of blue flame. With Azurial  held by Ves , Narko  posed the most imminent threat, so Trimaeus  and Pierce both jumped forward to grapple him. However, with his strength imbued by the runic power of his giant ancestry, Narko  shoved both aside, before striking his glaive furiously into Trimaeus , doing significant damage. Thankfully, this explosion of anger proved the end of the weird rage effect, and both Narko  and Azurial  felt the red-mist evaporate from their minds.

## Titanic terror

It was at this moment that Brena arrived on deck to see Trimaeus  bleeding heavily, Narko  standing next to him guilty with his glaive covered in blood, Azurial  and Leo  lying in a pool of grease, Travenor barely conscious on the deck (which was partially on fire) and a man screaming for help in the sea. “What the hell! Honestly, you guys are useless! I can’t leave you alone”. Brena also realised that Rocky’s  turny-manoeuvre had put the Wildmane  on a terrifying titanic-esque collision course with a massive iceberg!

The threat of an imminent Titanic moment stymied the group into action. As Trimaeus  ran back to the helm to take the wheel off Rocky , Brena readied herself to reduce the size of the iceberg and Azurial  ran over to apologetically heal Travenor. Seeing the other crewmember still in the ocean, Pierce grabbed some rope, tied it around his waist, handed it to Narko  and Leo  and jumped in.  Swimming furiously, Peirce managed to get to the man with great haste and Leo  and Narko  were easily able to pull the two back on deck. Ves  rapidly put out the fire whilst Caitlin hopped down to apologise for firing at her. Ves  wasn’t too bothered, but marvelled at how crazy-ferocious Narko  and Azurial  had been. Caitlin admitted she hadn’t really been watching the fight as she had been looking out for entities on the horizon. Hearing this, Brena sassily asked how she’d missed seeing the massive iceberg then!

As the iceberg got closer and closer it became apparent it was going to be a very tight fit for the Wildmane to pass by. Thankfully, Brena’s reduce spell just about allowed the ship to pass undamaged.

## Evening chatter

With the titanic moment avoided, talk turned to what the heck just happened. As Narko  and Azurial  apologised to all those they had harmed, Ves  suggested it was something to do with the red sky explosion and that they should all avoid looking at the sky from now on. Narko  then realised that the crewmate Comstock was still huddled terrified, so offered him a few puffs of his joint to calm down. Leo  then offered Comstock some kind words before literally carrying him to bed.

Travenor then stomped angrily over to Azurial  to ask why he had been so violent towards her. Azurial  was not impressed with her tone, pointing out that she had stabbed him first, and warned her that if she was going to threaten him then she had better do it properly. With a huff Travenor stomped off, chuntering furiously as she went. However, feeling bad for his sternness, Azurial  followed after her with pie and ale to try and make amends. Eventually, the offering of pie and ale calmed Travenor down and she and Azurial  spent a while drinking and playing cards.

Back on deck, Caitlin approached Pierce and reprimanded him for jumping into the sea so recklessly. Pierce reassured her that he was fine before somewhat concernedly murmuring that he thought they’d got themselves in with a really weird bunch of people...

## Centaur anatomy

Leo , Narko , Ves , Rocky  and Azurial  spent the rest of the evening drinking and smoking, with Narko  taking the opportunity to ask Leo  about his history. Leo  explained that he was a cleric who worshiped both nature and smiths, and that he had been raised by Elves.  Their conversation then turned to the strange anatomy and physiology of centaurs. Thankfully, Narko  was too stoned to be offended by their occasionally border-line racist queries and actually answered most of their questions:

* How do centaurs have babies? (question avoided)
* Where is his penis? (question avoided)
* How do young Centaurs breast feed? (more like a horse than a human)
* How many belly buttons do centaurs have? (inexplicably they have two)
* How many spines? (also two, one for the horseback one for the human back)
* Do reverse centaurs (human body horse head) exist? (rumour of them exists, but only through horrific forced experimentation, not naturally)
* Can centaurs have children with other races? (not advised as this would be very dangerous for both parties).
* Are there evil centaurs who would try to have children with other races anyway? (there are evil centaur herds, but they consider themselves “pure” so would be even less likely to attempt this)

## Bay of Ice

As promised by Ves , the next day was clear and bright so Trimaeus  began guiding the Wildmane through the bay of ice towards the mountain arc. Leo  and Ves  noticed from the crow’s nest that the bay seemed to have less icebergs to the left and that the mountains to that side also seemed less craggy. Using the telescope, Ves  also perceived that despite the bay and shore looking nicer to the left, there appeared to be some sort of spire poking above the glacier to the right. Eventually, Trimaeus  guided the Wildmane as close to the shore as he dared, with Rocky  confidently proclaiming that they could make it the rest of the way to shore in the rowboat. Rocky  also thought he could see weird creatures on the shore, so asked Ves  to pass him the telescope. For some unknown reasons, Rocky  told Ves  to just drop the telescope from the crow’s nest for him to catch. Seeing the potential for impending disaster, Leo  quickly cast guidance on the goliath, whilst Narko  invoked his foresight rune to further assist Rocky’s  catch. This guidance proved above and beyond what was required, and Rocky  caught the telescope in a one-handed flourish like an absolute legend. Rocky  then excitedly described that the shore was covered in many many penguins and walruses!