Snuki tracked the crabs to a cave and we stood at the mouth trying to see in for an embarrassing amount of time. Snuki wanted nothing to do with the "hand-bitey-fish"--and the crabs were clearly hiding in the cave--which also had water in it--and reacted when Wilfram shot fire bolt into the cave, but didn't come out
Eventually, Vivenna decided to sneak in and wait by the water, and then have Wilfrem fire bolt to make them come to the surface--the significantly less sneaky Nico came with her, and the crabs presented themselves without Wilfram having to lure. Nat 20 for the rogue--who then couldn't hit crabs for anything.
The crabs were described as "vibrating" and we were like "displacer crabs?" Their eyes were "unnatural"--eventually Willfrem got a better look and saw the pupils were dilated--and then the crabs attacked us with 2-3 attacks and we were like "we're going to die here" We knew they didn't have a lot of hp, because a few came charging out of the back of the cave at blinding speed and Vivenna managed to one shot one with a sneak attack of opportunity as it passed her and Nico But when they started doing things like, being stunned for a turn, or randomly careening off the walls (dm rolling on a table each turn) we realized they were hasted coke crabs who had been steeping in water holding the gang's crate of drugs--we could see the lid of the crate floating in the puddle, but not the crate itself.They almost carried off Vivenna deeper into the cave, she was almost bloodied, but Wilfram magic missled the crab to the edge of death and she fINALLY hit the gorram thing
.
Nico was quite useful--he's able to increase the AC of someone next to him, and was good at stabbing crabs Snuki sniped crabs with magic stones from the cave entrance, and we did eventually prevail.
We could see the crate floating in a deeper pool deeper in the cave, and none of us wanted to get into the water, but Snuki walked up eating a crab leg (making con saves, and making the saves, but describing the crab as "spicy" ) and was like, "that box we need?" We said yes, and Snuki sent a little horde of bees for the box. Snuki thus collected the box--clearly full of packets of white powder, much water logged--the packets loose in the water, and a few other things we saw floating: a silver necklace with a crystal pendant (non magical) a dagger made from stingray tail (Vivenna pockets that) a bottle wrapped in twine. We harvest the legs off two crabs, and the three strong people (Nico, Wilfrem, and Snuki) carry a crab each while Vivenna takes the legs and walk back to Drop Town. Snuki wanted to hide the crab somewhere, of the belief the crab keeps indefinitely--the rest of us were unsure about that and thought it would be better to sell immediately.
But pretty much as soon as we hit Drop Town a thug with 4 other guys stepped out and told us they would be taking the crab Wilfrem firebolted at their feet and told them to get lost--rolled below a 10 on intimidate Vivenna tried to crazy her way out of it--think something between Laudna and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn--head at a weird angle, acting excited about the possibility of killing and eating these guys and drinking their blood that roll was like...an 11.
Thug boss:"why don't you bring the crabs and we'll have dinner together and I'll get us something to drink?"
Vivenna then flirts back, also wanted to make sure that the drink was actual drink and not...you know....something icky...he promises to get wine--so she hands him her armload of legs and says she has an appointment but will come back and meet him
He demands the three crabs, too, and she says they are already spoken for
if there were more rolls, they were also too mediocre to matter. Looking at the crew, they want to fight, because if we let them take the crabs, we will never get to keep anything ever again, so Vivenna says "I was so looking forward to dinner...but you got greedy" (or something like that) and we rolled for initiative
Thug boss got her down to 5 hp on his turn (her initiative was embarrassingly low for a rogue) Nico ran up behind her and bandaged her wound (healed her 8 hp? which at level 3 is pretty great) and then took a defensive pose between her and Wilfrem--super helpful dude
Snuki dove under a nearby house and cast entangle on the thugs behind us, and so on V's turn she disengaged and ran over to the entangled guy and very dramatically one shot him with her new stingray dagger--she called on the spirits of the dead to deal damage to leader man (class ability) and turned to him with her head an unnatural angle to ask "How many men is the crab worth?"
Wilfrem was fire bolting, Snuki was throwing rocks from under the house
the leader told his people to pull back, and they ran--with some fire and rocks chasing them while Nico stood over the abandoned crab legs and looked intimidating and Vivenna stood next to him looking psychotic.
Once it's clear the fight is over, Wilfrem lets the last entangled guy go, (after asking him some questions about what he'll do when he's freed--the guy was trying to guess what the right answer was, agreeing to never be where Wilfrem was ever again) and then went through the pockets of the dead man.
He didn't have much, but he did have the tattoo of a bird of prey--we groaned at that, probably means he is with the Hawkhurst gang, the one run by the criminal folk hero and with all the connections off island.
And then a really tall, willowly, fellow with pinstripe pants, a long suit jacket, thin gray hair and a skinny top hat came up to us, hop-walking from foot to foot as he came up, offering to help us with the body. He starts like measuring the body
He's gaunt, super pale--Vivenna wonders if he's undead (can't tell?) but he's at least not a spirit. He's very cheerful, and eager to take the body off our hands for free.
Wilfrem is paranoid, but when it became clear that normally people do pay "The Undertaker" to take the body, this one is so fresh he will do it for free. This is...concerning....but ultimately we decide it isn't actually our body, so he can do what he wants
He's delighted, we walk away, he puts it in a wheelbarrow and heads NW--inland, probably toward the body pit we were warned about
We make it back to Col Plump's restaurant where Muse is waiting for us--news travels fast, apparently, not only were we unmolested the rest of the way but Muse knew about what happened and was like, "Bold of you to make enemies of Hawkhurst on your first day."
Vivenna: They did not identify themselves.
Muse: The Island isn't the real world.
Muse has secured us lodging at Plumps, and extends an offer to Vivenna (and I guess the others) to come find the Reapers if she wants a more permanent safe place to sleep at night. We spend the night at Plumps--it apparently turns into the Purge in Drop Town at night, screaming, obvious murder, people trying to taunt us out of the restaurant so they can kill us. Snuki sleeps on their crab. we trade our crabs for rations from Plump--that persuasion roll was also super bad, so we got 3 days of rations per person
Muse had also been flirting with Nico, and pretty much just invited him to join her if he ever wanted, but he stayed with us at the inn that night
In the morning--early--we wake up to the sounds of Plump banging around in the kitchen, and we head out to the beach to find the rocks where our supplies were left
When we approach, there is the smoke of a cookfire. When we get closer, we see an old woman with greenish skin happily talking to herself and cooking something in a large cook-pot. She is right next to the only clearly disturbed sand in the area--Vivenna sneaks around to be sure of this, and Snuki sneaks close to the woman to see if she has anything Snuki wants
We'd just decided to walk up and talk to her right when she caught Snuki with their hands in her pack
Snuki hands her the thing she was looking for from her pack "here it is!" she is a
little confused, but totally charmed.
Then Vivenna walks up and says good morning
The old woman reacts with fear, being conciliatory and willing to flee rather than fight--Vivenna assures her we mean her no harm
V introduces herself "you may call me Vivenna, what may I call you?"
and the woman says "well, normally people call me AHHHHH GET AWAY WITCH!"
V: Is that your preferred address?
Green woman: Well, no....you can call me Circe.
V: I was framed for murder. Why are you here?
Circe: I'd rather not say. I try not to give personal information to people I've just met.
Wilfrem: That's very sensible. .....
V: what's in the cauldron?
Circe: I don't prefer to call it a cauldron, that has pejorative connotations. It's a pot!
Once Circe believes us that we are just there to pick a fight, she offers us soup--W declines, V doesn't answer, Snuki enthusiastically agrees and downs 3 bowls--the bowl is definitely a skull--much to Circe's delight
Circe isn't affiliated with a gang, she lives in the salt marsh, moving around, she sells potions and tries to stay out of trouble
we eventually dig up the chest in front of her, but W won't let V open it in front of her, so we decided to sit there and talk more before opening the chest
V asks if she has potions that heal, and she enthusiastically says yes--and asks if we have anything to trade--Snuki produces the necklace we found last night and V and W about have a heart attack--we hadn't yet had it confirmed that it wasn't magical
oh--Circe also offered to give us each a free gift in exchange to future business--Snuki and V were like "sure" with different degrees of enthusiasm (W (outburst): WE DO NOT GO INTO DEBT TO STRANGERS ! (weeps internally with frustration))
She gave Snuki a tiny cage with no door...and Vivenna a pair of socks--Snuki has already tried to steal the socks once and failed. The necklace is just a necklace, and Circe offers us a potion for it, Snuki asks for three while holding up two fingers and rolls high on persuasion, so she agrees to three potions for the necklace
The potions don't look like much, so W asks how we know they are real healing potions, C offers to demonstrate their power, W says no one is hurt right now and Snuki immediately beans him with a rock doing 2 pts of damage, and Circe gives him a potion--looks and tastes like swamp water, but heals him right up. We tell C we're on a dangerous mission we can't tell her much about, but if she wants to hang out with people we'd be happy to have her travel with us, she is charmed by the idea of friends and agrees. She then introduces us to her--familiar?--a poison tree frog named Nibs that has been sitting on her shoulder, obscured by her black shawl this whole time. (she had seemed like she was hiding something on her shoulder, we were all super worried it was a second head. Could not be more relieved it was a frog)
So we open up the trunk and get suited up in our starting gear--AT LONG LAST