Get Kraken
The weather is strictly speaking, terrible. Snow, ice, and rain fall from the sky in sheets, and the wind makes the former hit everything between sky and earth with all the gentleness of a giant hitting the hay. The boat that you are all on is headed into the middle of the ocean. The tenuous statement is that _something_ has been causing the untoward weather of late. You've been chosen to discover the source, and do something about it. Already your escort ships have been forced to turn back. It's just you, your crazy captain, your companions, and the crew.
Headed into the dark midnight waters as they threaten to swallow you whole.
Giantborns don't understand the concept of qualifying weather in terms of temperature; It's just windy or not. All weather is no shirt weather for Kaj and his brethren, but that doesn't mean his hair isn't all over the place while he holds on to the wheel. Helping the captain with her efforts to keep the ship beating tack, sheets close-hauled now that he's helped reef them. He may or may not have a crush on her, but regardless, his massive muscles are straining as the hull insists on trying to bear off. Those who might be perceptive enough to see such things in these conditions would see a joyous grin on his angular face.
If the amount of water above grows near as much as the water below, does that make the ship submerged? Kira doesn't really want to find out. She has a strong hold (and possibly some lashing) to something solid on the ship as it heads out into the dark waves and other flying water. "Can you tell that we are going where we need to?!" she asks, politely-ish yelled over the sounds of crashing and rain.
Ordinarily, when bad weather comes, Alba would rather be anywhere else, rather than out under it. These lands are simply too *wet* for comfort, and the very existence of snow is proof that the gods hate mortalkind.
But when the call came out to take a ship into the teeth of the storm, Alba was among the first to arrive, silently seething.
During the entire journey into the bay, the Witch has lashed herself to the prow with her own hair, floating scant inches off the railing. The free tendrils of her long black hair writhe like rabid snakes, as she works herself up into a truly terrifying fury.
The other ships turning back simply serves to heighten her threat posture, and before long the razor-fingered Veyshanti is screaming into the face of the winds.
"THINK YOU THIS IS ENOUGH TO STAY US?! THINK YOU THIS FEEBLE MAGIC WILL DELAY YOUR DOOM?! I HAVE SURVIVED STORMS THAT WOULD STRIP THE FLESH FROM MY BONES, *LESS THAN NOTHING YOU ARE!* PLUCK YOU LIKE TICKS WE WILL!"
Falling silent for a moment to catch her breath, the Witch summons all of her strength to shout a challenge to the sea. "COME TO US, BRINE-SOAKED SLUG! *I WILL PEEL YOUR FACE AND WEAR IT FOR A CLOAK!*"
Apparently on this day, Alba woke up and chose *double violence.*
"Yea!" Yells the captain, her hat threatening to blow away (it wouldn't dare) in the fierce wind. She points to where the clouds are.... Funneling? Oh that looks dangerous. There's... a hole in the ocean over there. The waves beginning to churn in the shape of a circle and your mad captain is... Ordering her crew to head right for it. "That's the center of it for sure! Can you do your thing from here, or do you need closer?" She's not talking to Alba... because Alba is screaming at the ocean. She's not THAT crazy.
"We need to be closer!" Kira answers the captain. They still don't know exactly what is causing this, if it is there, and so not even what 'thing' they need to be doing. She has to trust that the captain knows what she's doing; that her crew is competent.
Kira also dares think that Alba is just highly self-motivating! If not, she is pointed downrange in a safe direction, at least. "Can you see anything?" Also, Alba is conveniently at the front.
"I SEE NOTHING THAT MATTERS!"
Apparently that excludes the twisting clouds, the hole in the water, the waves, or the winds, from being consequent in Alba's eyes. "WISH YOU A SCOUT TO GIVE THE VIEW FROM ABOVE?!"
GAME: Alba rolls perception: (5)+14: 19 GAME: Kaj rolls perception: (13)+11: 24
The captain nods to the command and orders her crew to drive further into the dangerous waters. The ship itself lists back and forth violently. The waves threaten with every second to knock you off the ship and into the ocean. Well most of you. The crew seems to know what they're doing even if they look more than half terrified.
GAME: Kira rolls perception: (2)+26: 28
That is a really good idea. A higher vantage point would help in seeing something, though much less helpful against the wind. Kira moves as best she can a bit higher on the ship to look ahead and down. She peers, then points at the giant hole in the water, even if it isn't exactly necessary. "There is something there, in the water! It's big!" she calls out. Now she starts moving again, for the bow of the ship. Even if that puts her closer to it, the whirlpool, and Alba.
The half-giants mane also snakes out, some tendrils grabbing the wheel for additional leverage, some lashing about the captain lest she get swept overboard, and others providing additional purchase for Kaj.
Over the maelstrom and general chaos, he shouts to the captain and to Alba, "There's something HUGE in the water--it seems to be the SOURCE of the Whirlpool!"
"THEN LET US BEGIN," Alba roars, her unburdened hand drawing a winged sigil in the air with short, violent swipes. Once her work is done, she grabs hold of the magical construct, and slams it to her own chest.
Black-green rune bands wrap around wrists and ankles, and the witch doesn't float higher so much as... appear in three different places sequentially, then stop about a foot in the air above the railing. "WHAT COMES TO SLAUGHTER THIS CITY, SHALL BE STREWN ACROSS THE WHOLE OF THE WATER'S BED. LET IT BE A WARNING TO ALL WHO WOULD FOLLOW ITS PATH, TO SEE HOW IT ENDS."
GAME: Alba casts Overland Flight. Caster Level: 12 DC: 20 GAME: Alba rolls fly+6: (17)+10+6: 33 GAME: Alba rolls intimidate: (9)+17: 26 GAME: Alba rolls will: (2)+13: 15
The captain nods her thanks to Kaj. Holding onto the steering wheel for dear life as the ship starts to get dragged into the pull of the whirlpool.
A voice rises from the ocean like the tolling of a giant bell. It's voice is so deep that it shakes your bones. "WHO DARES THREATEN MANKUKAH!?! WHO DARES RIDE THE STORM?!?"
GAME: Kaj rolls diplomacy: (8)+1: 9 GAME: Kaj rolls intimidate+6: (1)+12+6: 19 (EPIC FAIL)
Kaj winces at the counter-challenge.
"WE DARE, MANKUKAH! We DARE!" shouts Kaj, but he's not fooling anyone, even though he untangles his vine-like-blue hair and floats into the sky, towards Alba, foolhardily attempting to bolster her wrath.
Kira blinks at the voice. That changes things a bit. If it can speak, it must be intelligent. If it's intelligent, it must have a reason for doing things. If it has reasons... it can be reasoned with?
Bracing herself on the bow, she calls out, "We're not here to threaten the storm or ... Mankukah" She isn't sure if that is a person, place, thing, or something else. "The storm threatens us and many others! We are here to find the cause, to protect others from the storm! Why is the storm here?"
GAME: Kira rolls diplomacy+4: (15)+29+4: 48
"...*I* dare," Alba answers... but with much less sincerity, and not a little petulance. "Stupid creature thinks because its voice is so much greater, it can murder who it pleases. Creature is *wrong,* and it will *pay* for its wrongness..."
Alba jitters in place, as if teleporting inches at a time to stay in the same general spot in the sky.
There is a moment of silence - if one can call the sound of storms silence, and the storm begins to abate somewhat. The whirlpool slows. "ARE YOU THE TRIBUTE?" It asks curiously, a tentacle rising from the ocean to grasp the ship. The ship groans in protest at being stopped so abruptly, and those on it are jostled harshly. "MANKUKAH WAS AWAKENED A CENTURY EARLY, MAGIC IS WEAK. WHERE IS THE TRIBUTE?"
GAME: Alba rolls knowledge/nature: (4)+13: 17 GAME: Kaj rolls knowledge/arcana: (15)+9: 24
Kaj emits a blood-curdling challenge!
"Not tribute!
DOOM!”
He says, then sprints down the length of the boat, arms out, claws growing as he launches himself /into/ its maw.
"On me, Alba!!" shouts the insane giantborn, screaming, “DEATH BEFORE TRIBUTE!” As he flies through the air!!!
"Know not we, who Malkukah is," Alba says, setting her shoulders. "The world has forgotten him. What pact was made before, died with the people who made it."
And then Kaj is diving right into its face.
...
Welp.
Loosing a long-suffering sigh, the masked witch curls in the air, stuttering at a good clip in Kaj's wake. "If survive this we do, Sarathrazz," the witch mutters, "perhaps *your* face I bite. Truly this is a good idea?"
GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d8+10: (11)+10: 21
The man jumps into the whirlpool and is duly sucked straight into the creature's open maw. It closes its mouth with a satisfied noise and drags the ship a little bit closer. "MUST BE TRIBUTE!" Hungry whatever-it-is.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (8)+11: 19
"THERE IS NO TRIBUTE!" Alba shouts, fear thrown off for a moment in the face of towering frustration. Out of one of her mask's eye sockets, a blood colored light shines, a pinprick that somehow hurts the soul to look at. "THE WORLD KNOWS YOU NOT! RELEASE THE FOOL AND SPEAK OF THAT WHICH WOKE YOU!"
GAME: Kaj casts Vampiric Touch. Caster Level: 6 DC: 15 GAME: Kaj rolls weapon0: (13)+12: 25 GAME: Aftershock rolls 4d8+18: (16)+18: 34
"WHAT?" Asks the creature that is within the whirlpool of Alba. "HOW CAN THEY FORGET MY TRIBUTE?" It asks her curiously. Meanwhile Kaj is NOT having a good time inside the beast, being digested like the meal he's become.
"ALL WHO WOULD GIVE YOU TRIBUTE ARE DEAD," Alba roars, equal parts fury and frustration. "YOU NAME IS NOT KNOWN IN ANY BUT THE DUSTIEST OF FORGOTTEN TOMES. STRANGER, *I KNEW YOU NOT.* SIMPLY ANOTHER MONSTER, YOU WERE, YOUR STORM A MINDLESS THING TO RAGE AGAINST. RELEASE THE FOOL. SPEAK OF YOUR CONTRACT. PERHAPS ONE MAY BE FORGED ANEW."
GAME: Kaj rolls 4d8: (17): 17 GAME: Alba rolls diplomacy: (8)+2: 10
Kaj is constricted inside the Kraken, the vile acids and contracting muscles thwarting all his attempts at causing it any trouble at all. Things are getting dire, so he invokes the blessing the monk placed on the belt he gave him all those years ago...
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (15): 15 GAME: Aftershock rolls 4d8+18: (22)+18: 40
"I WILL RELEASE THE NOT-TRIBUTE." The creature says, releasing the ship and allowing it freedom. The creature turns its attention on Alba. "WE WILL DISCUSS TERMS FOR A NEW CONTRACT." It seems to have forgotten about Kaj.
GAME: Alba rolls intimidate: (9)+17: 26 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+8: (19)+8: 27
"AND THE MORSEL YOU HAVE SWALLOWED. HE WAS NOT TRIBUTE EITHER," Alba says sternly, as a small vier slithers out from the mask's eye socket, bobbing its head. "NEW TERMS SHALL BE DISCUSSED, BUT I HAVE NO HEAD FOR BARGAINING. IT IS BEST THAT IT IS NOT *I* YOU TRUCK WITH."
"I WILL KEEP THE FOOL, AND RETURN ON THE MORROW TO NEGOTIATE." The creature sinks beneath the waves, the storm abating as it leaves. Kaj, unfortunately, is not to return. Those ominous words echo into the day, leaving Alba and the ship behind.
-End