Beiinors Campaign/Session 14

## [ Session 14 — 09/03/2023 ]

**Several months later**

*“She dove under water and did what?”*

“Chirped like a dolphin, right before gutting that bastard fish just like a… fish.”

He laughed uproariously.

*“I thought you were supposed to be the eloquent one!”*

“Even the—”

We both turned around as a glass sailed through the air and landed with an almighty crack on the wall, inches from our table.

“Even the best of us have off days,” I finished. “Now, let’s head outside so I don’t die before the end of the story.”

The consul and I stood up and made our way towards the back entrance, weaving our way through throngs of drunken dockworkers. The cool, foggy air of the port washed over us as we slipped out the door.

“Remind me. What exactly was your intention in meeting here?”

*“You know as well as I do. Sometimes you want to escape the trappings of your job, alright?”*

“I think you mean ‘escape notice that you’re still associating with shady characters like me’, I imagine.”

He flashed a wry grin in my direction.

*“You say ‘shady character’, I say ‘maintenance of professional contacts’.”*

“Do you always take your *professional contacts* to sailors’ taverns?” I asked, making the same face back at him.

*“Guilty as charged. Now, where were we?”*

We slowly walked towards the cargo pier. The docks were reasonably safe these days, but the tall piles of crates still left me a bit on edge.

“Back in the cave. The watery, swampy one. Couple of kuo-toa, including a priest or cleric of some sort. Statues. And—”

*“—and some sort of undead monster—”*

“—undead, yes. The wizards have termed them Beholders. Big eyes and all that.”

*“So, the lot of you have engaged with them by this point?”*

“They weren’t exactly happy to see us, you know. I’d managed to temporarily weaken one of the fishies, and our resident wizards had put a bit of a dent in the Beholder. We were still on shaky ground though.”

*“It sounds like a lot, even for that group you were running with.”*

“You’re telling me. The Gorth boy, he was on death’s door by this point. Our paladin friend was on his last legs having been paralyzed by the priest.”

*“That’s not very holy of him,”* he deadpanned.

“Neither was the spectral cross that he summoned to attack us,” I replied.

*“Cross—it’s that cult, right?”*

“I think they’d prefer ‘religion’, you know. Anyways, we were in dire need of assistance, and that other paladin of ours—the gambler—tried to nail me with his boot for some unfathomable reason.”

*“That doesn’t sound very holy of him, either.”*

I cracked a smile—despite being a politician, he still had an ounce or two of humor to draw from.

“But, despite it all, he did make a big difference. Rousing speech to us all, got us off our behinds and back in the fight. I honestly think the kid missed his calling… and same with the wizard as well. Should have been a sportswoman.”

*“I’m sorry?”*

“Our bugbear friend was down for the count, then she absolutely rockets a potion across the cave, breaking it directly over his wounds. Arm like a sharpshooter.”

*“You’re making that up.”*

“Entirely factual.” I put my hands up in the air with a shrug. “That signaled the beginning of the end, anyways. Back up on his feet, the bugbear was *angry.* He grabbed the priest and tried to drown him in the water."

I looked over at the consul. He was peering over the edge of one of the docks, distracted by the moonlit water of the bay.

*“It’s a fish.”*

“You’re very observant. Even still, he managed to restrain the kuo-toa long enough for the others to put it in a bit more pain. Afterwards, I could tell that he took real satisfaction in finishing the job with his blade.”

*“Skin of your teeth on that one, huh?”*

I took a seat on a nearby crate and sighed.

“I’d wait on that comment until you hear about the ominous aura emanating from the statue.”