Loose threads:
Where is the new continent?
Locations:
First Landing Port, as-of-yet-unknown continent
Short summary:
Negotiated business, fought a sea giant by the coast, fought a tentacle monster in a cave, found a teleporter, teleported somewhere unknown.
Full Report
Our shakedown group-- She-Who-Lays-Among-The-Jagged-Rocks-And-Feeds-The-Wandering-Crabs-As-They-Scuttle-Past-Her, Calador "Cal" Lomin the sailor, Maimasu, Zia, and me, Racathra--set out with the intention of finding and studying the preserved dragon corpses that a previous group had encountered.
We made our way to First Landing Port, where, as is tradition, we overpaid for delicious fried fish. Mai went looking for local rumors, and I leave it to her to share what she learned if she wants to. Zia introduced the group to a sprite named Mr. Gino and made arrangements to meet with him later on to discuss some sort of collaboration between his organization and FLOAT.
We stayed the night in First Landing Port, in a tavern called "The Goblin's Belly." Nothing bad happened, so future groups visiting First Landing Port can probably consider this to be a safe place to stay. The next morning, we headed south to the coast. We climbed down a steep cliff to the beach, where some kind of troll or possibly giant came out of the ocean and attacked us. Cal beheaded it after a difficult fight, and She-Who-Lays-Among-The-Jagged-Rocks-And-Feeds-The-Wandering-Crabs-As-They-Scuttle-Past-Her played beautiful music to calm our nerves before we moved on the cave that the previous group traveled through on their way to the preserved dragons.
We came to a fork in the cave a few hundred feet from the entrance. The left-hand path was narrower and sloped upward, while the right-hand path was wider and sloped downward. We chose to continue down the right-hand path, which eventually opened into a large cavern with a pool at its center. This cavern matched one described in the previous group's report. When we entered the cavern, a horrible tentacle predator attacked us from the ceiling.
I don't know the predator's name in Common, but it is a type of monster that has killed many Athamaru land-explorers. It moves slowly, but it can move around just as easily on walls and ceilings as it can on the ground. It is bad at dodging attacks but can grab many people at once with its tentacles and pull them to its mouth, where it bites them. Also, Cal says fire is effective against it. Hopefully this information will be useful to other groups, but I really recommend just not being anywhere near this creature at any time. If Mai hadn't struck it a heroic killing blow, it would have eaten everyone.
There is one more thing about that fight that I need to add here, but I want to be clear that I don't intend it as criticism. Every member of our group gave their all in a terrible situation and did everything they could to support each other. I mention this only because I'm concerned for Zia's wellbeing: toward the end of the fight, while the monster was grappling her alongside most of the rest of us, she became unresponsive for several seconds. Mai cut her down, and after they both fell into the water, Zia returned to herself and healed all of Cal's wounds (which were bad, I'd thought he was going to die) with a single spell. The next time she cast a healing spell on me, her magic felt different. Out of respect for Zia, I won't speculate on what this could mean, but I hope that those FLOAT members who know her better than I do will keep a close eye on her and make sure she's okay.
After we killed the monster, we searched the cave for runes like the ones the previous group found. She-Who-Lays-Among-The-Jagged-Rocks-And-Feeds-The-Wandering-Crabs-As-They-Scuttle-Past-Her and I swam down into the pool and found an underwater stone table, about thirty feet square, with thousands of runes carved into it. We couldn't understand the runes and didn't know what to do with them, so we returned to the surface. The rest of the group found the same set of runes described in the previous report. Zia manipulated those runes in some way to turn the pool into a teleporter, and we jumped in.
Instead of emerging where the previous group had, we found ourselves near a tropical beach. We swam to shore and explored the area, which consisted mostly of a humid jungle with lots of plant and animal life. Based on our observations, we concluded that we were on or near the southern coast of an unmapped continent to the east of First Landing. We waited until nightfall and made camp inside an enormous hollow tree lit by bioluminescent tendrils, then went outside to map the stars. We found footprints and damaged plant life consistent with a gigantic creature with taloned feet moving through the jungle, as well as a nest with five eggs in it and a dead reptile next to it. Since the parent was dead, we took the eggs with us in hopes of hatching them and drew our maps of the stars, then recalled before we could run into whatever left the trail of destruction.
Now that we are back in First Landing, we hope to compare our star maps to the local night sky and get a better idea of where the unmapped continent is. Although we didn't achieve our original goal of studying the preserved dragons, we're very excited to have found a new landmass. Eventually, we might be able to find a sailing route there, although I think only an experienced and well-equipped group should try exploring that place.
--------
Siobhan's Ballad
(translated from Thaslassic)
A salutation to you all
Perk up your ears as I recall
A tale must true, though yes, I gloat,
Adventures had from us at FLOAT.
...
First, introductions!
Enter Zia, sharp of mind and tooth!
Once finned, but now of foot, Maimasu!
The tempestuous and odiferous Racatha!
Calador, resourceful and unafraid!
And lastly I, Siobhan, your humble narrator.
...
Our story doth begin as we depart from First Landing,
On the path that we traverse, to First Landing Port, set upon by inclemency of nature
For t'was not beast nor bandit that set foul sight upon us, but the heavens themselves!
A tempest, blown by the King of Dragons, Ragadhan.
Water, yes, deluged upon us, and the winds did whip into a fury, yet the last laugh would form a screaming pinion of energy.
A bolt of lightning, sure as my heart doth beat, did make a most earnest attempt to quell the latter.
If not for the quick hand of my compatriots, I shall still be still in that ramshackle camp, with carrion flies abuzz!
Perished, aye, yet the story calls for more, and I therefore oblige to persist.
...
To follow the sights and sounds, and in truth the flavors most temptuous, we sally forth from the port,
Richer in stomach and morale, if lighter in coin.
And as we stride until the ground give way to the rock give way to the sea, an oceanside cliff face proved no challenge to descend.
No sooner than our prints were press'd to the sand did from the water arise a mast;
And clung to the mast, a Jotun most sour.
The battle commence, and while blows were traded and blood shed, t'was yours truly- the heroes of FLOAT- that stand tall and proud as the victors.
...
Abreast of the waves, there rest a cave, and bold we doth tread inside.
As sunlight yield to the calm of the dark, a soothing pool of water dwell in the shadow.
As pool below, on ceiling above does dwell another.
No respite in this cave, no, instead there shall be violence;
And the violence shall be the triumph of the invert'd beast, whose arms lash and constrict from it's perch amidst the weeping rocks.
The outlook grim, our party overmatched;
We were in the element of the creature, and we flounder as it dances.
And then, as the last fleeting hope of victory were fixed to wane, there it arose...
A god from the machine.
With wounds sealed and conviction firm, the erstwhile koi found truth in her blade and vanquished our attacker, 'ere the favor be repaid.
We float along the currents, we swim against the tides.
We sink into the silt, and from the ashes, we will rise.
...
Composure regained and a most earned rest later, an exploration of the cave which would not be outlr tombs did commence.
Diving into the darkness, we came upon not the dragon we sought, but a wall of mystery.
Runic symbols, above and below, and once the proper incantations made, our band wast deliver'd afar.
No longer in the dark, but into the bright warm sun of a tropical island.
No, an island not, but a full land stretching horizon to horizon.
This brave new world, to explore?
Perhaps, but that shall be another time, dear friends.
...
And now, alas, I do suppose
This yarn I spin must draw to close.
'Til next we venture thither, yon
We take our leave o'er at the Pond.