I am sure i have mentioned it several times before ⸴ but i do not like travel by water · At all · So it should come as no surprise that i was almost unbearably nauseous during our recent voyage back to the kalinthian isles · Upon hearing that ardos was not accompanying us to the kalinthian isles because he allegedly suffers from seasickness ⸴ i have begun to think it might be a selunari trait · We are nomads ⸴ not buccaneers ·
But i digress · My return to kalinthas was part of a sort of unofficial promise i was fulfilling to zane al᾿vera ⸴ who when last i saw him in early brumar told me ⸴ «you don᾿t grow where you are comfortable and safe ·» it is a lesson i have been slowly coming to terms with ፥ and although i had not been given to opportunity to return the islands until now ⸴ i wanted to demonstrate to the werebear my willingness to adapt and overcome my own weaknesses ·
So i sailed to bastion·by·the·water with my friends · And the fact that i had to spend an hour emptying the contents of my stomach in a private copse of trees ⸴ and regaining my footing before joining the other adventurers at the luckless dragon ⸴ does not change the fact that i sailed willingly of my own accord · But it did necessitate copious consumption of the free drinking water that the barkeep sympathetically supplied ·
I was joined at the table by the also visiting familia i had met upon reaching the front doors of the luckless dragon ⸴ a cousin named tolib and his young ward jake · Once familia greet each other simply ⸴ they are immediately familiar with one another and converse simply and easily ⸴ so we promptly began talking about our respective sela emergences and about the islands we had just returned to (or in their case arrived on) · I did see zane ⸴ and link ⸴ and other persons i wanted to speak with later on ⸴ but i figured we would have a few days before the boats returned us to dragonreach and i did not need to interrupt them at the moment ·
I truly believe i was on my eighth glass of water when a portion of the shadows in the dimly lit tavern pulled away from the wall and began attacking me -- with my weapons still sheathed · I got away while my compatriots beat the shadowthing into dissipation ⸴ and hastily repaired my beaten armor before pulling my weapons out ⸴ as more of the creatures were emerging from around us ⸴ and even outside the tavern · The force of we adventurers was a solid defence against the incursion ⸴ although nobody seemed to understand exactly what the shadowthings were or where they came from · We did realise that they could phase in and out of our shadows ⸴ vanishing behind someone and reappearing behind another to attack again swiftly ·
Of this long and patient defence i noted some special tactics from my friends · Finch had come with us ⸴ and knowing his voracious appetite ⸴ i joined several of our friends in encouraging him to try and eat the shadowthings ፥ however ⸴ upon «defeating» the shades ⸴ they dissipated too quickly for him to get even a taste · A high orc named thudd was in possession of a remarkably heavy and large shield ⸴ like a curved door that more than covered him ⸴ and in addition to wielding it like it weighed nothing thudd also utilised it to allow us all turns in healing our wounds and repairing our armor · Lastly but certainly not least ⸴ young jake was in possession of an amulet whose magic powers he apparently did not know the extent of ⸴ and one of its abilities was that he could «see» or at least sense the shades when they had phase into someone᾿s shadow and hadn᾿t emerged elsewhere yet ·
Eventually the incursion died down for the time being ⸴ and since nearly all of us had congregated outside the tavern so we were in a more open fighting space ⸴ we returned inside the luckless dragon · We had noted that the gentleman with the contract magic already left several contracts for us to possibly fulfil during our stay in kalinthas · Jake expressed his curiosity about one that asked us to clear out «sahaguines» from a cave near a settlement · Tolib by this point knew our combat capabilities ⸴ and asked several of us to accompany them so we could satisfy jake᾿s curiousity ⸴ and help out other people at the same time ·
While we waited for the contract magic to activate there was some discussion about what a sahaguine actually was · I recalled fragments of a children᾿s tale that made me think of aquatic birds ⸴ while others thought it was a fish or lizard thing · Lo and behold ⸴ when the contract activated and rifted us to the location ⸴ sahaguines turned out to be nothing more than amphibious goblins (or «fish goblins» as thudd called them) ⸴ including the annoying high-pitched voice and reckless ⸴ sometimes childlike behaviour ·
This bunch were mostly idiots (so the same as normal goblins) but there was a lot of confusion involving different sahaguines all taking the captain᾿s hat ⸴ which belonged to a sahaguine captain that was significantly more reasonable than his underlings · At some point jake ended up with the captain᾿s hat and several of the confused sahaguines decided that meant they had to sit down and listen to a story ⸴ which is when we discovered jake has an amazing bardic talent for storytelling · But of course ⸴ like all goblin encounters ⸴ it ended with us eliminating the troublesome amphibians ·
The contract magic naturally rifted us back to the tavern the very moment that the sahaguines were eliminated · We were returned to the tavern where i remained one of the many casual defenders against the shadowthings ⸴ although mercifully the creatures did not return in quite as much force as their first incursion · Our job was actually made easier by another group of the adventurers who apparently went out into the area around bastion·by·the·water to see if something in the surrounding environment was attracting or spawning the shades · When they came back they reported that they had discovered a «shadowportal» from whence the things were coming ⸴ and they had also learned it could be dispelled by magic · (And they did so ·)
With at least that one shadowportal destroyed ⸴ though we suspected there might be others around the island ⸴ our defences were able to loosen a bit and we were able to relax · In fact i felt superfluous ⸴ and also very tired ⸴ so i excused myself and went to bed so i would be well-rested for whatever adventures came the next day ·
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