Maldo Comrynn

## **Early Life**

Maldo hasn't mentioned much of his life before Rinasa. He has made mention of a friend who had a pet cat named, "Shredder," who in his own words looked similar to Appawllo. He wears a pendant with a lapis lazuli in the middle which he mentioned is a family heirloom.

## **Warlock Apprenticeship**

Maldo has no understanding of his own abilities. Those knowledgeable of the arcane identify his feats as magic yet he has not been instructed in casting spells nor has he learned incantations on his own. Much of what he can do comes to him almost instinctually, his abilities manifesting after surviving the shipwreck that led him to this island. He recalls almost drowning in the sea and in the darkness felt a mysterious presence. He ended up surviving, having washed up to shore, and he thinks that what ever that presence was, it must have saved him.

He has so far manifested the magical ability to produce water and control it to some extent. He mostly commands water to form a 10-foot tentacle to strike enemies and shoot high pressure water blasts from his palms with enough concussive force to damage creatures. He has recently discovered the ability to grow deep blue tentacles from his body in moments of distress. Some of them capable of injecting humanoids with a paralyzing toxin.

## **Life In Rinasa**

### **The Elder Woods**

While poring over the map in the tavern wondering what lead to pursue, Maldo was approached by Zektauri with a simple proposition. Help him with his experiment and there might be some coin involved along the way. At the mention of possibly obtaining coin, Maldo was all ears. Talk of hunting sentient plants were had and an expedition concerning the dryads in the forest south of Rinasa was agreed upon by both including Jay and Bean.

The party was only a short distance south of Rinasa before encountering a horse-mounted warrior in plate armor trotting towards the party's path. Hesitant as to the individual's intentions, the party asked the warrior to halt which he did. He then asked for 40gp or he would attack. Zektauri expressed his disdain and fired his crossbow. Combat erupted, and in the middle of it, to Maldo's confusion, the warrior's mount turned on its owner, beating him with its hooves and in return was slain in one swing by the warrior for its treachery.

The party continued down a forest path. Bean, in an already precarious condition from the first battle, is attacked by a small group of thugs and a scout. Bean fell unconscious for a second but impressively jumped right back up and returned to fighting. The party defeated the small group and begin to search their bodies and rest, but soon hear another horse-mounted warrior approaching. The party after some discussion came to the conclusion that hiding would be the best course of action, unfortunately, the warrior found the fresh bodies they were looting and seemingly deduced that the group must still be near as it started to look around. Bean and Zek lead a surprise attack against the warrior and mount, and the group barely manage to take them out without losing a party member. Zek called out to the group that he found a map with trails/marks leading out from the native village to various areas on the map that our tavern map shared.

Due to their wounds, the party decided to rest in the woods for the night, the party took turns to keep watch. Maldo took the second watch, being woken up by Jay, which was very uneventful. He proceeded to change shifts with Zektauri and went back to sleep. The morning brought excited chatter as Bean and Zek tell the rest that last night Zek apparently killed an old woman during his watch and Bean discovered the body. Zek explained that his watch was interrupted very early in the morning by an old woman surprising him and offering pie. Zektauri, wary of the woman, shooed her away, studying her to try and determine if she was what she appeared. She did not like Zek's staring and, after some words and a misplaced kick of a piece of pie, the old woman charges Zek who deftly deflects her hit and clubbed her skull in with a single blow. He hid the body and then went to switch watches. Bean finds the body and Zek explains that he felt she was a threat, she attacked him, and he dealt with it. Didn't need to alert anyone or disrupt the rest. Bean ended up eating what could be salvaged from the ruined pie and Maldo looked on in envy.

After leaving the resting grounds, the party encountered a man looking for his mother, who he described as exactly the woman Zek murdered. Maldo convinced and distracted him enough that he doesn't suspect the party of any foul play and he leaves. After some more walking, the group found a clearing with a gigantic tree and two dryads. Jay peacefully approached and met them diplomatically, allowing Zek a chance to explain his purpose. They communicated in a language unknown to Maldo and just did what was asked of him. The conversation seemed to have not gone down as well as they hoped however as the dryads asked the party to leave after serving them a delicious meal.

The group pushed forward to hunt a plant creature for themselves outside the dryad grounds, to avoid conflict with a group of people. They stumbled upon a cave bear atop a large hill, which was slain quickly and harvested it for meat and pelt. They decide to take a rest since the party had traveled quite a bit that day and set up watches for the night. During the second watch, two men approached Maldo asking for refuge and he let them stay at their camp for a bit of coin. Maldo was replaced by Zek, bedding down again for the night and wakes up to six panthers ambushing the camp. Maldo was rendered unconscious before he could even make a move and woke up at sunrise to his wounds tended to and everyone relatively safe, and one of the men he allowed to stay with them dead but all the panthers as well. At sunrise, the group spotted a caravan heading right near them and hid, leaving behind their new guest. The caravan woke him up and offered to take him along.

Finally, after some more wandering, the group came across some mushrooms in a cave. After Zek collected a few of them, a shuffling sound was be heard coming from deep inside the cave and some walking corpses covered in mushrooms shambled forward towards the group. The party fought several moldy zombies, and Zek obtained the sample he needed. They proceeded to go deeper into the cave, where a slumbering young red dragon lies. Deciding that approaching the dragon would most likely be a death sentence, the group heads back to Rinasa with plans to visit it again in the future.

### The Fortress Ruins

We left in the early morning and went through the woods, encountering a rabbit with the head of a duck. Jane attempted to demonstrate a mating call to the creature, only for it to run away. We saw the goblin camp near the shipwreck and elected to steer clear after the last encounter with that camp was explained by myself (Illias.) I noted that the goblin camp seemed more developed than last time, with goblins cutting down trees and building structures. As night approached, we set up a camp by the beach and took watches. During Maldo's watch, we were attacked by a Peryton - after it was killed, a silver necklace fell from one of its antlers (it was later sold for coin.) After our rest, we awoke to hear beautiful singing from further along the coast - upon investigation, it turned out to be 2 harpies, who charmed the party with their voices (except Maldo!) We eventually broke free of the charm and killed the harpies. Afterwards, Greg ate some seaweed and Maldo dived into the water. I attempted to gather some seashells, but luckily Jane warned me about the fearsome Dragon Turtle that would hunt me down if I kept the shells. Instead, Maldo and I created a sick figure on the sand made out of shells (in a smiley-face shape) and frozen water.

As we continued on, I felt a small tug on my leg and looked down to see a small flower crown/ring on the sand. After some deliberation and testing by the party to see if it was a way to get a "Korok Seed," I took the flower ring with me. After, we encountered a small cave with glowing blue mushrooms. Greg ate one, causing him to grow, shrink, then return to normal size. Maldo collected and froze 10 of the mushrooms to bring back. We traveled to the edge of a peninsula, where we found an old fortress inhabited by kolbolds. Though they spoke words of hospitality, some party members sensed they were not being entirely truthful, leading to us attacking them first. During the fight, we discovered that the fortress has an anti-magic field. Ultimately, Maldo intimidated the remaining Kolbolds into running away. Afterwards, we had a discussion on whether what we did was justified/whether we should be honest on what happened. It was ulitmately decided that the truth (that we attacked first) should be told to the rest of Rinasa and that people can determine what to make of that. Within the fortress, we found an Immovable Rod, and we decided that I would keep it. Maldo, Greg, and Jane, in fairness, split the gold rewards found among themselves. After, we returned to Rinasa.