Love on Mermaid's Rock

"Escape from the Labyrinth"  is the fourteenth episode of the Dungeons and Dragons campaign Sword of the Godslayer. It follows episode 13,  "Escape from the Labyrinth".

Synopsis
''After being shipwrecked, the adventurers recuperate at a small fishing village. Things, however, turn for the worse.''

Plot
Since they were tired from their battle, the adventurers were allowed to sleep in the hut of a kind fisherman named Hans. The room was very small, so Lira sent her griffin to shelter in the nearby forest.

They parted with their allied githzerai and the surviving Sloan crewmen, who were all escorted into neighboring huts.

The next morning, the group woke and found Hans tending to a casket just outside the hut. He explained that his son had recently drowned, and that today was his wake. Nearby, other villagers were gathering to offer candles and coins.

Hans quickly served everyone a breakfast of fish and bread. As they ate, the adventurers explained that Minos was missing. Hans assured them that a fishing fleet had just left to search for survivors, and the group agreed to wait in the village until they returned.

After eating, the group noticed one returning boat, but realized that it only held two people. They came over to help it to shore, and discovered Rob and Firroth coming toward them.

Rob explained that he had set sail from Soliton, and Firroth had joined him at the dock. At sea, they had also been attacked by the black dragon and their ship had been lost.

The two had narrowly escaped the shipwreck, and had come across the fishermen search party that morning. The rescuers had then directed them to their village.

The adventurers welcomed the sorcerer and barbarian back into the group, and decided to relax in the village. They spent some hours talking with the villagers and sunbathing. Nearby, Marley also stole one of the many fishing nets.

Later in the morning, Lira remembered her griffin but realized that she was unsure how to call it. She tried whistling, and was happy when she saw flocks of birds fleeing the forest. The griffin emerged, hovering overhead for a moment before landing next to her.

Lira greeted it happily by rubbing its feathered head, taking note that it was a male. However, the ranger realized a bit belatedly that the villagers behind her were panicking and screaming. A handful of them were also running over with spears.

The ranger quickly blocked them, assuring them that the griffin was tame. An elder approached her here, asking her to keep the beast in the forest to keep him from eating the children. Lira laughed at first, but suddenly remembered that griffins did live on medium-sized prey, including horses and children.

Lira consented and sent the griffin to hunt far from the village.

The village elder introduced himself to the group as Saul, the father of Hans. They thanked him for the village's generosity, asking whether they could offer anything in return.

Saul asked them to keep an eye on Hans, since he was worried about his son's mental state. Hans had nearly drowned, but had claimed to have been rescued by a mermaid. Hans' wife had been drowned some time after, followed by his son.

Saul explained that their village was called Mermaid's Rock, named after a sixty-foot monolith between the village and the ocean. However, the elder assured them that no mermaids had been seen for hundreds of years.

Curious, the group traveled to the monolith, which was easy to reach since it was low tide. They stood at its base and were just able to see the ruins of a small stone house on top of it.

Firroth attempted the climb first, but fell from ten feet and bruised himself. Lira followed suit, reaching around twenty feet before losing her grip. Adept at climbing as a rogue, Marley climbed up halfway and though he slipped as well, he managed to grab a vine and swing to safety.

Firroth tried again and very nearly reached the top. However, he fell heavily and lost consciousness.

Unwilling to try again, Lira instead gave Scout the end of a very long rope, instructing him to dangle fifty feet of it on their side and the other fifty feet off the far side. The weasel climbed easily, dragging the top of the rope over the rim, but he too slipped. Lira swiftly ran forward and caught him, cushioning the damage.

As Marley prepared to try again, the group was surprised to see that the long rope had not fallen. Lira tugged on it, and realized that someone on top of the monolith had anchored it.

They climbed up and found a gnome bard sitting next to the rope, which he had evidently tied to the ruins. He greeted them, explaining that he had heard their climbing attempts and had wanted to help.

As the group settled down to rest, the bard explained that he was writing a song about the legend of Mermaid's Rock and wished for an audience. They consented, and the gnome told the tale.

Long ago, the bard sang, a young mage named Soliton had traveled to this fishing village. He had come from the Mage Academy in a nearby citadel; a settlement he would later reform and name after himself.

In the village, Soliton met a mermaid and they fell in love. However, after several weeks, he told her that he needed to return to his studies. Jealous by nature, the mermaid cursed him as he left.

Some years passed, and Soliton lost his young wife Leona to a storm. The bay in which she had drowned would later be named after her.

Knowing of Soliton's loss, it was said that the scorned mermaid would watch from this monolith for her love to return to her.

As the gnome finished, the group thanked him and briefly explored the nearby ruins. Finding nothing, they decided to climb down. Lira was unwilling to abandon the rope they had used, so she sent Scout and the others ahead.

She untied the rope and climbed down the cliff face on her own. She slipped about halfway down, though Marley graciously caught her and kept her from being knocked unconscious.

The group returned to Hans' hut and found a middle-aged woman there preparing lunch. They noticed that she was somewhat disfigured by a patch of close-set warts on her face and neck.

The woman greeted them kindly and gestured that lunch was not done yet. Here, they realized that she was mute, though Azula recognized her movements as the sign language of a certain monk order. The cleric translated that the woman was saying she would bring out the fish stew later.

The group settled just outside the hut to wait. Saul later arrived to join them for lunch, and he introduced the cook to them as Aleri.

As Aleri carried out a precarious pile of bowls, Lira hurried to help her. Afterwards, the ranger also helped her bring them back into the hut to be cleaned.

Inside, Lira realized that Hans had been slumped in a corner of the hut, stinking of alcohol. The fisherman moved drunkenly toward Aleri, but Lira blocked him. He tried to push her out of the way, but she overpowered him and the fisherman collapsed in a stupor.

The ranger stepped over him and continued to help Aleri clean up. Noticing the unconscious man, Marley carried Hans to his bed.

Before they slept, Marley and Auren helped Lira hunt deer as rations for her griffin. After she had skinned their catch, Lira offered the hide and antlers to her comrades in gratitude.

As dark fell, Saul invited some of them to stay with him to keep Hans' house from being crowded. Lira, Auren and Firroth went to Saul's smaller hut, while the others remained with Hans.

Some time in the night, Azula woke suddenly and realized that a spell had been cast over them. Groggy as she was, she could not identify it, so she kicked Rob awake. After some study, Rob discovered that someone had cast a Sleep spell.

Azula quickly checked her pack and found that the Godslayer was missing. Rob ran to call the others, while Azula looked for clues.

The cleric found a set of tracks in the sand, and the group followed them until they disappeared into the high tide. As they slowed down, they noticed a figure in the moonlight and recognized it to be Aleri.

Aleri told them - through Azula's translation - that she had seen Hans carry a long package into the water. Lira instructed Scout to wait on the beach, then the entire group dove in and swam to the now partially-submerged monolith.

Underwater, Aleri pointed out a tunnel in the monolith's base, which the group had not noticed previously. Marley led them through and they emerged in a narrow grotto.

Far above them, they could see the hollow shape of the monolith ending in a wooden trapdoor. A raised island in the center held a table, and wall shelves displayed neatly arranged shells.

Suddenly suspicious, Lira looked around for Aleri and realized that she had not followed them in. She dove back underwater and found the tunnel entrance barred. From the opposite side, Aleri made a gesture before swimming away.

Lira returned to the others and tried falteringly to mimic what Aleri had signed. After some thought, Azula told them that Aleri had said "sorry".

The group then began to search for a different exit.

Nicolas transformed Rob into an eagle and Marley rode him to the roof overhead. There, the rogue found a rope dangling from the trapdoor with a palm-sized sphere attached to it. Attracted to the valuable crystal, Marley cradled it in one hand and cut the rope.

However, the sphere was unexpectedly heavy and the rogue dropped it. Lira reacted quickly enough to catch the sphere, but it was also too heavy for her, and it slipped from her fingers.

The sphere shattered on the table to reveal a small, squid-like creature. Lira leaned over it curiously, until the creature began to swell and grow alarmingly. In moments, it towered twenty feet over them, a four-headed hydra.

Rob, still in eagle form, dived and attacked the creature with his talons. One of its heads was severed, but two more grew in its place. The sorcerer changed back to his human form, and joined the entire group in a circle surrounding the hydra.

Unable to back away and use her bow in the cramped space, Lira instead attacked with a shortsword.

After analyzing the beast, Marley discovered that it was vulnerable to fire. He brandished a torch and the creature recoiled from him. Lira and the others copied him, successfully repelling the hydra's heads and attacking its body instead. Soon, Rob finished it off with several Magic Missiles.

After the hydra collapsed, Azula examined the conch shells along the walls. She discovered them to be enchanted with Message to act as letters, though they needed to be listened to underwater.

The group listened to a few, learning that a mermaid had indeed rescued Hans and they had fallen in love. The letters from the mermaid eventually revealed that she had sacrificed her voice and beauty to join Hans on land.

Here, they finally realized that Aleri was a mermaid.

The group took a few of the shells as evidence, before turning again to escape. Since it had been the rogue's fault that the hydra had been released, they turned Marley into an eagle to act as their ferry.

Marley carried each of them up in turn. However, when they had all reached the peak, they heard screams and blazing fire coming from the village.