Roleplaying table top games make for great stories! The Envoys of Spark is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign created by Elyse T. Join hilarious and entertaining player characters on their voyage in an unknown world, as they try to accomplish an enigmatic mission.
The Envoys of Spark Chronicles are published every Monday! Check back for new adventures!
Check Out Part I of The Envoys of Spark
Check Out Part IX of The Envoys of Spark
In One Hole
Unafraid, the heroes dove into the giant fish’s throat, sliding down a slimy shaft that led to a warm and soggy landing surface. The inner stomach of the fish was an acidic cesspool of floating bits and pieces of swallowed ships and cargo. The air was thick with bitter poisons and was painful to inhale.
Though the liquid the Envoys stood in was not salt water, to the benefit of Kohmai, it was heavily acidic and would burn normal skin. Beatrice jumped to sit on Kohmai’s shoulders, who was impervious to this substance. Regor III, in his floating magical chair, was safely out of reach. Virgil dug in their packs and found a pair of bright pink rubber boots, and decided that delaying burns to his feet was worth the fashion statement. Medea stood on a pile of rubble, jumping from burnt wood planks and rocks to the best of her abilities. She discovered a tunnel going deeper inside the fish’s entrails, but it was very narrow, with its walls made of clingy, slimy flesh. By the time they heroes passed though they were covered in acid burns and dripping with vicus gunk.
Kohmai advanced in the next area and spotted a large larva-looking pile of slime ahead. It quickly reacted to his presence and darted away through a tunnel further ahead. Finding no other signs of life, the Envoys explored this large space between the fish’s ribs and uncovered a large cube of jelly-looking material. Inside this gelatin cube were many objects, and possibly a skeleton. Kohmai playfully poked the jelly, and quickly regretted it as his finger was sucked in and pulling with uncanny strength to swallow the rest of his hand. Thankfully, he was strong enough to pull his finger out before it was too late. Medea studied the strange occurrence, and detected that this was a corpse of what would once have been a living and possibly meat-eating gelatinous cube. It was now dead, but still not fully decomposed and the qualities of its consistency not yet evaporated.
Regor wanted the objects, possibly treasure, trapped in this gelatinous corpse. Beatrice, the clever Hobbit, had and idea and convinced Medea to help. The Wizard of the First Order began pushing stones and debris inside the cube, nudging at objects towards the outside of the jelly cube, where Beatrice with her agile fingers, caught them and gently pulled them out. The harvest, at first, wasn’t as good as they have imagined. They found a few common items, including a rusted pulley, and a soggy leather army boot. They, lastly, uncovered a fuchsia jewel, about the size of a baking egg. Medea wondered if this was perhaps the jewel she had faked by accident, and offered to a band of LizardFolk. They were no doubt very angry right now, considering how the gifted jewel would have disappeared a few hours after being conjured.
“Evil Glue”
They followed the trail of oily paste left behind by the slime creature who had run away. It led them to a wide wet pool of thick and sticky rubber, blocking their passage. The fluid seemed to be oozing from the ceiling, tumbling in large droplets into the mass below. The Hynerian, in his floating chair, passed without concern, but did get a large goop of the gluey material on his robe; upon trying to smudge it away, his hand became stuck to his breast.
Meanwhile, Medea attempted to jump across and landed a bit too close to the pool, loosing a shoe to the sticky substance. Regor, smirking, offered her the army boot, still slippery with jelly. Beatrice easily jumped across the pool, nimble as ever.
Kohmai was too curious and could not resist putting both feet in the pool, while Virgil completely failed his jump and landed almost face first in the glue. Trying to help him, Medea was caught again in the sticky mess, trapped.
The two magic workers, Virgil and Medea could feel magic in the decomposing fish around them, in the very goo that imprisoned them. As the fish was dead, no energy should be flowing through it… yet something powerful, and sinister, seemed to curse these pathways. Medea and Virgil unleashed their magical teachings and dispelled the dark aura from their immediate surroundings, cleansing the pool of glue and freeing themselves and Kohmai in the process.
“Was this seriously just Evil Glue?” Medea shouted rhetorically.
It seemed that spells would be very useful here.
In a final, large section of the giant fish, the Envoys found an altar, seemingly magically active. Getting close to it was difficult, unless one heavily concentrated their magical power on resisting the power imposed on the area. As they looked around, they did not notice the large amounts of gunk dropping silently from the ceiling, forming into gooey slime creatures that slid around like giant slugs.
The ambush was surprising, but the heroes managed to properly defend themselves from the attackers. Beatrice did her best to try to communicate with the creatures, if they were in any way animals, but soon clearly understood that these slime monsters were agents of the curse at work within this entire fish. The Envoys were burned by acid attacks and splashed with thick disgusting mucus, but quickly defeated of the slimes.
Each Etching, a Curse
The dark magic at work here would need to be dealt with. Medea, Virgil and Regor used their full mental capacities and fought the altar’s magic in order to approach it. Once they were within reach, a strange, dark, ghostly figure of a middle-aged man with an austere and cold face appeared out of thin air. It spoke:
“This war will be won with the power I gift to the sea.”
On the altar, a small spec of light drew the attention of the Envoys- the same hint they had perceived gleaming down the fish’s throat while it had been alive! The Etchings in their palms tingled.
Beatrice approached the ghostly image, which Medea identified as an imprint tied to the curse cast on the entire giant fish. This person was a ghostly remnant of the original caster.
“We are the Envoys of Spark, here to claim his Etchings,” the Hobbit said proudly.
The dark figure registered the information, starring at Beatrice.
“Envoys…of…SPPPPAAAAARRRRRKKKKKKK?” The ghost wailed, shaking the inner entrails of the giant fish. A powerful magical push threw Medea, Regor and Virgil away from the altar.
“The Etching is MINE, I create a magnificent creature to destroy all navies who dare to oppose me. I will rule the islands of the North, the path to Dunnri is open to me!”
Beatrice’s jaw dropped. “You’re… Duzuaac, you’re Spark’s former apprentice! The one who we must stop!
Medea took hold of Regor and Virgil: “We have to dispel this curse before he shows us more of his special personality!” The three advanced again, focusing to battle Duzuaac’s oppressive power. They each managed to put a hand on the altar that held the Etching, and used the best of their mental abilities. All around them, debris was sent flying through the air, flammable gasses exploded, destroying mounds of rotten cargo, but Duzuaac’s curse finally faltered, and faded away.
“This Sea, will forever be haunted by the ghosts of ENTIRE ARMIES I will have drowned. The path to Dunnri is now open to me!” The strange figure yelled out before disappearing completely, taking the sinister aura with it.
“Yup,” said Regor to nothing, “you sure did just that”
Out the Other
The Envoys knew they didn’t have much time to escape the giant fish before would collapse from decomposition. Virgil claimed the Etching of Strength, granting the ability to grow, or make something grow, stronger, bigger, tougher. A bit of searching revealed a “back exit”, which the group could easily interpret with their various knowledge of fish anatomy as the logical way to leave a corpse. Virgil insisted on exploring a last tunnel, and was not disappointed. He returned with a well-enough preserved painting titled “Winters of Dunnri” and some sort of air-tight metallic and leather suit, worn by a dusty skeleton.
Kohmai emptied the suit and put it on, happy to have some protection against salt water in exiting the ship. They Envoys climbed out, cabling Kohmai’s belt with a rope to the Waveweaver’s mast, thus ensuring that his heavy weight would not make him sink to the bottom of the ocean as they all balanced on fish scales. All back onboard their ship, the heroes pushed away the giant fish and let it slowly sink, noticing that it shrunk gradually, returning to it’s pre-Etching size.
Beatrice noticed that the Lantern Sharks that had previously attacked them now seemed to keep well away from them, probably out of fear. The group took this opportunity to relax and explore the ship graveyard. They uncovered fully wasted, filled to the rim cargo-holds, rotten sails, and a great many skeletons, resting in their watery graves. Making away with some modest amounts of Solems that would help no one in the afterlife, Regor also found a flag, perfectly preserved.
A burgundy flag, with a golden, tall tower.
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