Ed: DMing; Paul: Zoozeki (high elf wizard 9); Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 7 / barbarian 2) and Martin (dwarf cleric 9); Matt G.: Roscoe (halfling bard 9).
Last time, we decided to sail to Big Orange Key with the hope that the tidal wave we caused (oops) using the Apocalypse Rod disrupted Anaxagorus’s fleet.
Smudge asks our ape myrmidons if anything is on Big Orange Key. They tell us the island was traditionally just orange groves, but fifty years ago speculators from the far north discovered something under the ground and bought up land. Oranges are still grown there, but there’s some kind of secret delving now. One ape says there’s something weird about the oranges from Big Orange Key now; they’re different than they were years ago and tainted somehow. [Oil erupting from the ground?]
We see ships in a little bay. Two ships like ours and one cog (Christopher Columbus style ship). The rigging of the latter is messed up. People are running around on the decks trying to repair things and work pumps. The flags and insignias confirm these are Anaxagorus’s men. The crew are a mix of humans and ape men. Each war galley has a ballista on the bow (as do ours).
Martin casts control water to open a fifty-foot deep trench under all three enemy ships. The ships are all swamped. Martin turns the control water into a whirlpool.
Meanwhile, our apes fire missiles at the people in the water.
We ask the myrmidons what the best mopping up strategy is. They say to hold until the vortex to stop.
Zoozeki will watch our myrmidons to gauge their reactions. So far, everybody seems pleased with the victory. Zoozeki plans to later privately ask our captains if any of our apes have relationships with the houses whose insignias we saw on the enemy ships.
Zoozeki sends out his blue-footed booby to scout on and above and under the waves. Flying high the booby sees another fleet on the north side of the island, a fleet of twelve gallies and three cogs. And two fast sloops. They’re packing up and heading out. The booby also sees a circling hawk, likely an enemy familiar.