Episode 42: Bigger Fish

As they try to make sense of the complex controls inside an Apparatus of Kwalish, the Heroes of Bingle encounter a giant shark! Will they be able to work as a team and operate the confusing contraption to survive the attack? And even if they can, there’s always a bigger fish...

##### DM/GM Intro

It started as a simple Dungeon Run, that brought together a team of adventurers who had begun to unravel the greatest mystery of their world.

Just as they were about to set foot into an ancient Dwarven Fortress that promised to reveal more about their fates, they were magically transported back in time into the bodies of five non-descript sell-swords. A group of mercenaries that they learned were integral in securing a grand treasure said to be locked inside a vault in the city of Terlis. What is this treasure? The tale they are living out promises to reveal the answer to that very question if they are able to stay alive long enough to see it through.

They know that they were hired by the infamous pirate Whitebeard to help him track down and capture a fugitive of the Shaxen Gao empire. They know that the prisoner was transported in chains across the Deserted Island in the middle of the Lost Sea as they arrived. Then they discovered that this man, a Triton named Cho'Ran, earned the bounty on his head by doing something that greatly angered the Dynasty. He told them that his wife and son were in danger as well. If they spared his life and helped him rescue his family, he could lead them to the most prized processions of the Shaxen Gao. "The treasure cache of the Crown", he said, "was kept hidden and relocated every few years." But he knew the secret of its current location. For a demonstration of the power it held, he told them to get him to the water. A feat, easier said than done it turns out as the heroes had to deal with a deadly sandstorm, and an onrush of competing mercenaries desperate to collect the bounty in their own right.

Through a mad dash across the desert in Whitebeard's Ship, retrofitted for maneuvers atop the island's sandy dunes, they managed to fend off the attacking reptilian Yuan-ti long enough to launch the vessel off the edge of the island and down onto the crystal blue water. At that same moment, Cho'Ran affixed his strange turquoise bracelet to one of Siv's arrows and asked to the rogue to fire it back at the Desert Island. As the projectile made contact with the sand, it unleashed a torrent of water, transforming the arid landscape into an impossibly unending series of waterfalls. Cho'Ran offered the now lush and beautiful island to Whitebeard as a gift of good faith and told him more wondrous and valuable items awaited if the pirate would help him save his family.

"They were hiding," he told Whitebeard, "In the port city of Bostor on the Isle of Rum."

So the ship set sail for Bostor, and the Heroes of Bingle attempted to integrate themselves with the crew, helping with labor at sea and organizing an after-hours card game in the ship's hull. Unfortunately, a clumsy bit of slight-of-hand revealed James' attempt to cheat in that game. A larger fight was only avoided thanks to Siv's surreptitious relationship with the ship's boatswain, Loudmouth.

The next morning, things were further complicated when the vessel was forced to come to an abrupt halt due to an unusual set of barnacles attached to the hull. The bulbous, glowing, pink globules threatened to sink the ship if they were not removed. Luckily, this kind of work was exactly why Whitebeard had brought these five sell-swords aboard. Their expertise and their strange attraction were made for this situation. The problem? The Heroes of Bingle didn't have that expertise or understand that contraption.

While Fahima was able to find a hidden release to turn the 500lbs. iron barrel before them into a full-blown, five passenger, Apparatus of Kwalish, operating it was another story. A notoriously complex and obtuse device, this heavily modified and weak Apparatus of Kwalish found the five of them each in their own station, each with their own set of cranks, levers and buttons before them. Through trial and error, they managed to sort out how the mechanisms contributed to the operations of the machine and worked together to stripping a large portion of the pink pustules on the side of the hull.

As James held his breath inside a cage that descended from under the center section of the apparatus, he watched the dislodged barnacles plummet down through the thick murky water; their bio-luminescence casting faint dots of light beneath them. Suddenly, as those glimmering specks sank deeper and deeper, he saw a large form rise up to meet them. Strange antennae, connected to the surface of a wide cephalofoil, a massive hammerhead shark-like creature was feeding on the barnacles as they sank. The predator gobbled up the last of the pink bulbs, and turned to face James. Massive jaws stretched open, and giant razor-sharp shark teeth gleamed white and jagged in the water. And then, it began to advance.