​C1 - Titans of the Demon Wastes - 2015 - 10 - 04 Season 1 Episode 8

s1 e8 - Spellstorms and Jellyfish In attempt to earn enough favor with the mayor to claim land from the town, the team follows up on the rumors of mermaids cutting nets of fishermen lately. There's competition because The Daring Pirates want that favor for themselves. Loper's falcon catches sight of a merman lurking under the hull but he crit fumbles and gets caught up in the nets. pulled in, the merman is tied to the mast and talked to peacefully.. h'es happy to divulge that Mad Falconer showed up in a cave they were squatting in one day and gave the queen unusual elixers in exchange for him hanging out there as long as he wants as often as he wants. whateer she's takings, it was worth him being around. the queen spoke of speaking to someone topside that MadF knows... she left with 4 warriors and has been gone a week. they don't know where she's gone, they don't know if she's alive. None of the warriors returned, MadF never returned either. the queen produces jellyfish that bubble her tribe's people to let them communicate at a distance and in a near hive=mind effect.. the jellies are dying and they have lost the connection to each other. they started attacking the fishing boats to 1. get easy food.. hunting out of sync is difficult. 2. size up the enemy... if they can confirm the weakness of "men" they will attempt an overland attack (they've never been topside more than 24 hours... though the 5 warriors they sent to go look for their queen have not returned either... they are damn-near panicing at this point and this one is ready to admit they need Help.) this is the kind of conversation that will definitely earn favor with the mayor and sheriff because it explains the goat ball.. kinda.. and definitely exp;ains the fishn problem. wanting a trusting relatinoship the team cuts squidman free and he inkfarts all over everywhere and jumps ship to move independently.. this is about when two Daring Pirate crews in false fishing boats also show up and start to open fire on the squidman a nasty free-fall chase gets them dangerously close to a brewing storm when they finish off the pirates and get squidman back in order.... the storm bubbles up right under the team's ship as all the fishermen are clearin gthe ether to seek safety topside... upon touching ground, the weather reveals itself as a Conjur Animal spell storm, pulling fey-spirits into the physical woorld animating whatever is hit with spirit energy ... all they want to do is break stuff. Racing to town alerting ... everyone.. to watch out for the storm, the tempes fill with scared citizens as the priests of the devourer head out to form a Glyph of Soothing to disperse the storm. Team fights animaged cobblestones, broad sides of barns, lamp posts, anything hit by the lightning including Graal's vyvern. the wyvern sprouts an extra head, wing, and now has 5 tails thrashing uncontrolled INTO the temple of the keeper throgh the deathbell tower wrecking that place inside out. Team figures, kill the wyvern, weaken the contest... but after attacking the winged creature Graal and friends come rescue it... a standoff results n the team letting graal take his pet -- his friend -- to safety. After that, the Glyph is completed and disperses the storm shunting it southward (towards Blood Cresent and inland) Feng finds a stray kitten hit by the storm's warping effect into a sort of pocket-sized displacer beast. Mel the vet technician charges Feng favor for the growth potion used by The COmbine to better their odds in tomorrow's match.

It's important to note that Graal took a large amount of constitution damage because he was stung twice since we were contemplating trying to keep him awake overnight so he couldn't recover that. Also, I don't think I'd agree with the characterization of "his pet -- his friend".  I don't think we've seen anything to indicate that he sees these wyverns as anything more than creatures to use in what are essentially dog fights to take lands from locals.  I know we've been calling these Pokemon battles, but Pokemon don't die (or murder people) in their battles.  Frankly, I wouldn't routinely put a creature I care about in fights to the death.  Additionally, to the extent it was ever his pet, it was then his mutated fey-possessed pet that had killed some people and injured dozens of others. My character at least, and I assume the ranger, definitely want that wyvern to be killed.  It was already an evil creature used to dominate poor people.  Now it's a mutated fey-possessed rampaging evil creature used to dominate poor people.

an insight roll would help establish whether your characters recognize team Graal's feelings for Graal's mount if you wish... this is the mother wyvern that rescued Graal on its own accord when Graal was incapacitated.  In "Return of the Jedi", the Rancor's master wept when Luke felled the beast.  Remember: these challenges were supposed  to be pushover fights.

this wyven is an abonomation that and is no longer a natural animal and shopuld be elimated and desposed of. I the elf motion that the wyvern be  elimated along with these crazy goblin that shoot magic blowdarts.... along with the creator of these darts....

yeah.. i figured you'd say that. I just wanted to be sure you got the right vibe off of what will become a soul-cleaving defeat for Graal if you kill this wyvern.  If you want to hurt him , this is the way to do it... and taking efforts to fuck his Long Rest for the day is brilliant.

Oh, Fil, always with the vivid imagery.   Just to be clear, as someone with good alignment, it will never be my character's goal to cleave someone's soul.  If, however, someone has decided to become besties with an abomination of a creature and enter them into death matches to steal land from farmers, I am absolutely fine with killing that creature. To state it as an even broader point, it will never be my character's goal to kill anything or inflict pain.  That being said, pain and death may be necessary means to get to ends which trump those, such as saving the lives of others.  Or it could be more basic, like being willing to kill an animal for food.  Obviously this means that I can defend myself.  And I feel there's a fair assumption that killing people and creatures which attack us without provocation is preventing them from killing more innocents later on.

lol glad you like Mahewa!  I believe one of the duties as a DM is to put as much gray into a black or white decision as possible. and thanks for clarifying your perspective on "good".  this all makes sense to me.