Expedition 164: Kraken Fishing

**Expedition 164:** *Kraken Fishing*

**Date:** 25th of Monova, The Green Week

**Roster:** Bea’Savac, Clarity Callisto, Confidence, Ellie, Valorie Vayer, Yezra Stormfriend Vaxilondrav

We headed out in the Javelin Submarine to Refuge, where the Understorm is, presumably, gathering a Mote of Undoing. As we know the Understorm will deal lightning damage, we have Mother Dalxar provide us with her Thunderguard Blessing to grant us resistance.

No problems emerge en route to Refuge. Valorie uses Enhance Ability to bolster Yezra’s and her own Wisdom for the fight.

We meet with Fso on the way to the fight, as Valorie organized with him to provide aid. He uses an illusion to communicate his plan to us: He has gathered exploding fish to harass the Kraken before we get into battle, which will deal a small amount of damage before the fight proper.

We consider casting additional spells before going into battle, but ultimately decide to go in as-is. As we approach the Kraken, we can see it has churned up silt across a mile of Refuge, and we can barely see the seafloor. We only know we’re getting closer by the increasing density of the storm.

Eventually, the Kraken spots us first: We catch a glimpse of an eye the size of a cart, and then the storm ignites with electricity. The battle is joined.

Ellie and Yezra quickly reverse our poor initial position: Ellie uses the Javelin’s spyglass to locate the Kraken’s main body, and Yezra maneuvers the ship into a better position. The rest of the crew light the Kraken up with our long-range weapons and Fso’s exploding fish. The Heavy Turret, Arcane Disruptor, and Frost Torpedo through the Kraken’s body, and its initial, prideful attitude turns to caution.

The Kraken sends several minions to breach our hull and board the ship, and tries-- but fails--to outmaneuver Yezra. We win the maneuvering contest and get into position at short range with the Kraken, but two of the Kraken’s minions, a Roper Tentacle and its Triton Champion, enter the sub.

As we finish our maneuver to get into short range, Ellie opens fire with the Rafter Rifles. The Roper, in the rear of the ship, manages to bind and restrain three of the crew, Yezra, Bea, and Valorie, and would have kept us from operating any ship systems effectively. Yezra throws the Roper off of us with Stormguide and her Tempus magic, and the crisis is averted. Bea then slashes the Roper apart, finishing it off with a bit of help from Valorie, who goads it into making a futile and dangerous opportunity attack against her while Bea plays sentinel. .

The Kraken, however, literally throws us for a loop. Manipulating its Maelstrom, it hits the Ship with a huge, charged blast of water that spins the ship and deals lightning damage to all of us, thankfully absorbed by the Roil’s Blessing. Clarity uses the Overdrive Engines to right the ship, then Confidence and Valorie use the Wailing Whale and Everglow Expulsor to further injure the Kraken. It begins to truly panic, throwing attacks at us with incredible speed.

The Kraken then began to use single-target, incredibly high-power bolts on individual crew members, powerful enough to down a mid-tier Compacter instantly. Miraculously, Confidence and Clarity dodge almost all of them, leaving the Kraken floundering. The Champion of the Understorm, apparently a sorcerer, throws a Hypnotic Pattern over Yezra, Bea, and Ellie, but only Ellie is hypnotized. With the Overdrive Engines chugging, we again outmaneuver the Kraken and keep up with it at short range.

The Kraken continues hurling high-power bolts at us as it runs, injuring Confidence, but even without Ellie, our victory is nigh. With Valorie’s magic helping her, Yezra feeds the Kraken a mine. The Kraken begins attempting to move to retreat, but Bea is able to strike it with Sailpiercer, slowing it. Recognizing that the Overdrive Engines’ cooldown period will let the Kraken escape anyway if we couldn’t kill it soon, Bea then surges with action and discharges the Heavy Turret. As the Kraken desperately thrashes, Clarity uses the Toxin Spewer to finish it off, and it collapses onto the seafloor in a huge heap.

Valorie throws a Hypnotic Pattern on Champion of the Understorm, and the battle is over. We take the Champion’s spell focus and let his Blink spell run out while he’s hypnotized, and then demand his surrender when he’s cognizant again. Phlbmtz, Champion of the Great Understorm, surrenders when he sees that our victory is inevitable.

We pat each other on the back, but a wrinkle emerges. Phlbmtz tells us that, as his magic has not dissipated, the Understorm is clearly still alive. Looking it over, we see that it is, indeed, twitching on the seafloor, and keeps twitching even after we empty several rounds of every weapon on the Javelin into its body.

As we get closer, we see what is happening: The Understorm is regenerating, regaining health each turn, but whenever it regenerates, it blinks, driving a long piece of iron in its eye into it and immediately bringing it back to zero. After some figuring, we recognize that as the knife Auton had us bury in the sea. In a grand defiance of the probability and chaos theory, Auton had predicted this exact scenario, and had us place the knife to effectively slay the Understorm. We praised his name.

The Kraken was still Regenerating. Through Yezra’s Divination, we determined that it was an Arcane effect of some sort. We had no Dispels among us, but Phlbmtz did. We supplied powerful buff magic to him, from Valorie, Yezra, and Clarity, and he agreed to cast the spell in exchange for his life.

Phlbmtz thanked the Understorm for all he had learned and gained from it, from the time the Understorm had conquered his freedom from a Marid slave-lord, through years of battles and victories. But the Understorm had always taught Phlbmtz to flow like the water, and now he flowed again as the tides turned against the Great Kraken. He cast his spell, and despite the strength of the effect, ended the Understorm’s regeneration and its life.

Victorious, we returned to Port Vrall with the Kraken’s beak towed behind us, and one more titan was dead.

**Expedition Result:** Success

**Expedition Level:** 15, Reduced to 14 due to a six-person party, but benefiting from the Vrall Adventurer’s Guild

**Expedition Loot:** The Kraken’s beak.