Turtle Soup

The party stood on the hills overlooking Namidakame Lagoon. A mile offshore, an island rose out of the mists gathering as night approached. This was Shinju-no-Ie, the purported home of the sinister pearl merchant, Yugureda Shosaito, who they suspected was holding the missing geisha, O-Sayumi. A stifling cloak of silence hung oppressively over the land and water. Perhaps it was a trick of the setting sun, but the colors of the island seemed washed out, their hues drained by an unnatural gloominess.

Below them, a ramshackle dock extended into the water, with a small boat tied to it. The kappa, Numataro-sama, had told them this had once served as a ferry to the island, but it had fallen into disuse years ago when locals stopped visiting the supposedly-haunted island. They discussed using the boat to reach the island, but feared that would be too obvious. Instead, they decided to wait for full dark, then use Marie’s Water Walking spell to let them approach the island on foot.

The night was moonless, and soon they felt it was dark enough to cover their approach. A much smaller island rose to the east of the main island; their plan was to start from the Jikko River delta, cut across to the smaller island, then head across the narrow channel to Sinju-no-Ie. The sea in the lagoon was calm, and they had no difficulty crossing its surface. As they neared the small island, they could see the low waves breaking on a coral reef just offshore.

Suddenly, the reef began to rise. A huge barnacle-encrusted mound rose out of the sea, followed by a spine-covered head with cruel, snapping jaws. It was an enormous Dragon Turtle, and it opened its vast maw and breathed out a cloud of scorching steam that enveloped the entire party.

Though badly blistered, the party sprung into action. Bella fired off a volley of arrows, but most of them bounced harmlessly off the creature’s nearly impenetrable shell. Zhustin zapped it with a Ray of Enfeeblement, hoping to weaken it sufficiently to negate some of its size advantage. Sawyer and Bella, taking point, were right in front of the beast, and it narrowly missed Sawyer with an ear-splitting snap of its jaws. Bella was not so lucky, as one of its claws raked her.

They felt the water swell as another Dragon Turtle surfaced behind them. It, too, breathed out a cloud of steam, and everyone was scalded again. Shinjiro knew he could not survive another such attack, and called upon his ki to augment his defenses before launching into a furious flurry of blows against the new attacker. Most of his punches were ineffective against its shell, but a few found softer, more vulnerable parts. Sandoval began singing his inspiring song, then launched an arrow into its throat. Marie unfurled her wings and took to the air, climbing to get out of range of their breath attacks before calling down a Flame Strike on the turtle at their rear. The spell’s divine light burned the creature, but its flames seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

Sawyer activated Suishen’s Air Walk ability and climbed up in front of the first dragon turtle, hoping to distract it away from the others. Suishen cut deep time and again, but the turtle was impervious to its blade’s flames. Nicki, wanting to distance himself from the rest of the targets … er, his friends … dashed off to the side and then fired off a Ray of Exhaustion at the turtle in the rear, leaving it panting with fatigue.

But Nicki’s attempted dash to safety backfired. He felt the water beneath his feat begin to rock, and heard the rush of water running off something extremely large right behind him. He turned, and found himself staring directly into the open mouth of yet another enraged dragon turtle. Finding a bite-sized target right in front of it, it ignored the rest of the party. Nicki’s panicked duck avoided its attempt to bite his head off, and he skipped/stumbled over its first claw swipe, but its second claw slashed him from nipple to navel.

Bella darted past the lumbering dragon turtle at their front, using her Spring Attack to stab it in the rear before dashing out of its reach. It ignored the pinprick from behind, and kept its focus on Sawyer, clawing him once again. The other turtle attacked Shinjiro, who evaded most of its attacks but still was slashed by another claw. He knew he couldn’t survive much longer, especially if it used its steam breath again. Desperate to make it harder for the thing to hit him, he launched himself off the water’s surface, planted one foot on its nose for a second jump, and landed squarely astride the dragon turtle’s back. As he struggled for balance on the slippery, seaweed-covered shell, he felt a sudden touch on his back, and felt many of his wounds close; he looked up to see Marie swooping past, giving him a wink and a Cure Critical Wounds.

Sandoval suddenly felt a rush of air and heard the beat of wings, and spun to see a small black dragon flying up from right behind him. Zhustin, who had been there just seconds before, was nowhere to be seen – had the dragon shot up from underwater and swallowed him whole? He had no time to worry about him; the dragon’s dark form was already nearly invisible in the night sky. Keeping his song going, he drew his echoblade and charged to attack Shinjiro’s new mount. One of his blows slashed beneath the turtle’s massive jaws, opening  a wide gash in its throat.

Sawyer climbed farther into the air, positioning himself directly above the dragon turtle’s head. He stabbed Suishen straight down, and the blade pierced the creature’s thick skull and tiny brain. With a dwindling roar, it sank beneath the waves. Bella, her bow already drawn to fire at the lead turtle, immediately switched targets and sank a pair of shafts into the turtle beneath Shinjiro’s feet. Shinjiro was still struggling for balance when he heard a roar from the sky above him. Looking up, he saw a black dragon diving straight down towards him! He prepared to meet his ancestors, and had a brief instant to wonder why the seawater soaking his pants had suddenly become so warm. But the dragon swept past him, and sank its fangs into the neck of the badly wounded dragon turtle beneath him. Shinjiro was thrown from the turtle’s back by its death throes, and as the black dragon rose back into the sky, he heard a distinctly Zhustin-like giggle escape its throat.

Two of the turtles were down, but Nicki was in deep trouble. The lone remaining turtle was right in front of him, and it was mad. Thinking he should have done this a long time ago, he activated his Boots of Levitation, and began to float upwards with maddening slowness. As he rose, he pointed his finger, and a tiny blue globe streaked from his fingertip and hit the water some 50 feet away. The instant it hit, it exploded into a Freezing Sphere. The dragon turtle was caught in its blast of subzero cold, and then found itself trapped in the thick sheet of ice that now floated on the surface of the lagoon.

Nicki had about ten seconds to congratulate himself on his cleverness. Then, the dragon turtle snorted out a blast of steam. This time it was trying to free itself from the ice encasing it, but the cloud expanded quickly. Nicki saw it rising towards him, and tried in vain to jump just a little bit higher with his boots, but it was no use. The scalding steam cloud enveloped him, and when it cleared the others saw Nicki’s lifeless body plummeting back down into the water. Sandoval was also close enough to be caught in the cloud, and he stumbled away as fast as his burned legs would carry him, barely clinging to life.

Sawyer charged through the air, stopping just outside the turtle’s reach and Lunging forward to stab at it. Shinjiro rushed to Nicki’s side, anxious to defend his body, but his blows rebounded harmless off the thick shell. Bella feathered it with arrows, and then they heard a cry from above. “Take this!” they heard Zhustin’s voice shout, and then the black dragon swooped down, strafing the turtle with a jet of acid. The turtle made one last vicious attack on Sawyer, and its beaked mouth clamped down on him. But his armor prevented the bite from cutting him in half, and he stabbed Suishen in two quick thrusts, one into each of the creatures eyes. Like its brothers, it rolled on its back and sank out of sight.

Marie flew down and landed beside Nicki. It didn’t take much examination to determine he was beyond all but the most extreme measures. She cast Breath of Life, and Nicki scrambled up in panic, trying to run from the dragon turtle he feared was still trying to eat him. Once they’d settled him down, Marie set about healing the others. There was a lot to do.

While she worked, Zhustin was enjoying his new dragon form. He decided to take advantage of his newfound abilities to do a little aerial reconnaissance of the island. Flapping his wings, he set out, counting on his black coloration to make him all but invisible in the moonless sky. He flew over the small village first. It was little but a handful of crude huts – a fishing village perhaps, or maybe home to Yugureda’s pearl divers. But there were no lights in the huts or any smoke rising from fires, despite the chilly night air. He flew on to the hilltop building. It was a small walled compound, with an open courtyard and one large building and several smaller ones. Like the village, there were no signs of life, and all was eerily silent. Only the island’s dock showed some signs of habitation; a large barge was moored at the dock, and a thin stream of smoke rose from a stovepipe at one end of its cabin.

Zhustin returned to the party, still in mid-lagoon, and transformed back into his human form before recounting what he’d seen. Sandoval had used the Deathwatch ability of his Ghost Mirror Armor to confirm that the turtles were truly dead, and in the process determined that the ocean floor was only about 15’ below them here. They briefly considered looking for the turtles' lair, but decided the risk just wasn’t worth it at this point, considering how much damage they’d already taken. So they continued on to the island.

It would have been difficult to get a boat through the coral reefs surrounding the island, or to find a place to land it on its rocky coast, but with the benefit of Water Walk they were able to make landfall without difficulty. As they set foot on the island, it was as if a cloud had just passed in front of the moon – except there was no moon. Everything was just ever so slightly darker, shadows just a little deeper, colors just a little duller. Deciding to avoid the village or dock for now, they made straight for the house.

Yugureda Shosaito’s house, Shinju-no-Ie, must once have been a beautiful seaside villa with a colorful tile roof, surrounded by pleasant gardens. As with everything else on the island, however, it seemed as if a cold shadow had crept over the place, leaving it a dull, gloomy husk of its former splendor. A plastered brick wall surrounded the house, with two gates, one to the north and one to the east. Both gates were slightly ajar, giving the house an abandoned look.

As they crept quietly up the path towards the northern gate, Shinjiro heard a soft sound, like the rustle of wings in the air. Bella heard it, too, and nocked an arrow as she walked. Sawyer moved out ahead of the rest, drawing up beside the open gate. Peeking through, he could see a deserted courtyard. Nicki, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise, hung back, and turned Invisible.

Suddenly the air was filled with shrieks and flying forms. Grotesque figures came rushing out of the darkness all around them. They were women – or at least half-women. Their upper torsos were clearly female, with pendulous breasts and tangled hair. Below the waist, there was nothing – only a tangle of bloody entrails dangling from their abdomens, as if they had been ripped in two. They were propelled on leathery bat-like wings, and they flashed in with numbing speed, snapping at everyone in sight with yellowed fangs and snatching at them with filthy claws. They raked Shinjiro and Marie, but sank their claws deeper into Zhustin, Sandoval, and Bella. As they clutched their victims, they felt their blood begin to drain out of them, and they began to grow weaker as the horrible creatures reversed course and began to carry them away!

The party earned 4,114 XP for the night, putting them at 283,548 XP, with 315,000 required for level 13. We’ll be at Joette & Rich’s next Sunday, although Roger will be on call.