A Fishmas Carol

A Fishmas Carol is the 7th Oxventure episode and the final episode of Season 1, in which the Guild investigate some strange disappearances.

Synopsis
A mysterious visitation leads the Oxventure crew down an adventure hole to a town plagued by sinister disappearances, and they try to find out just what the heck is going on in this spooky seaside burg. And as night falls the Oxventure crew square off against strange, kidnap-doing enemies. Their arrival raising many questions, such as, what is their deal? Can they be stopped? Why does Egbert smell that way?

Summary
A few hours after the events of the last episode, and after Dob threw most of their treasure in a lake, the Guild are celebrating their victory in a pub. Corazón is annoyed at Dob for throwing their winnings in a lake, particularly because he can't remember which lake he threw them into, and makes Merilwen the treasurer of the Guild. Suddenly everything freezes around Prudence, as a fog smelling of blood, seaweed and other such smells surrounds the patrons. Suddenly her Guild Mates tell her, in unison, to head to Tanner's Folly and "right the wrong", clearly influenced by some force. A slime covered pit opens in the floor, before everyone snaps back to reality. Prudence tells them all what just happened and tells them to jump into the pit. Everyone is unsure if the slime-covered hole of tentacles is safe, not knowing if they'll get digested over a thousand years, and send Dob in to test it. Dob falls for a while, but eventually lands in Tanner's Folly. He yells down the hole that it's safe, but they'd best bring a book to read. Everyone follows him, leaving Merilwen to pay the bill.

Having arrived in Tanner's Folly, they immediately notice that there are a lot fewer people and everyone looks less sociable than their last visit. Dob suggests they go find Alfred Strangetide and ask him if he knows what's going on. They find him in a tavern called the "Rusty Callback", lecturing people about something. Dob picks him up and aeroplanes him around, but he doesn't seem to notices Dob's presence until after he burps him. Alfred is delighted to see them, although still a little annoyed that he got no money from their last adventure together, and invites them to drink together with him, chugging his drink before they can take it away from him.

Alfred explains that the excitement for the Winter Solstice in Tanner's Folly has suddenly stopped because people have been disappearing, due to something kidnapping and possible killing them. He says that people are really scared and asks for the Guild's help, to which they agree, Corazón hoping to get an epic tale out of it. Alfred tells them that the first victims lived near the docks but the more recent victims have gotten more and more inland, which makes Dob and Egbert think the culprits are sharks. Corazón gives Alfred a map to show where the victims lived, which shows that they didn't live too far from a body of water. The Guild decide to help, theorising that it is either one of Cthulhu's rivals or Cthulhu wanting to show them something cool.

They go to find a place to stay around the area they think the next attack will be, and find a place called "Franklin's Flophouse". Once booked in, they set up traps and trick Dob into being the bait. Corazón and Merilwen hide in the room with Dob, while Prudence and Egbert act as patrolmen on the streets. That night, a mist covers the streets. Egbert sees what he thinks is a sword wielding sea turtle cartwheeling down the street and chases after it, thinking it's the culprit. Although Corazón and Prudence don't see anything due to the mist, Merilwen hears something climbing the wall. Corazón heads her warning and looks out the window with his beard trimming mirror and sees a bunch of fishmen climbing the walls. Meanwhile Egbert catches the sea turtle and smashes it, discovering that it's actually a barrel full of urine and gets soaked.

Meanwhile, back with the group, Prudence gets the attention of two of the fishmen. She asks who they serve and what they're doing. They say they worship Blibdoolpoolp: The Sea Mother, and they are on a rite of vengeance. Prudence says she's down with vengeance, and wants to help. Suddenly Egbert arrives, announcing he got covered in urine again, embarrassing Prudence. But out of the fog comes another figure, a Chuul. While Prudence distracts it, Dob sends two fishmen, who were in the middle of kidnapping someone, to sleep, and he and Merilwen jump out to room to tie them up. The Chuul notices this and speaks to Prudence in Infernal. He explains that an artefact was stolen from their temple and no one listened to their demands to have it taken back, and as such they have resorted to kidnapping. The Chuul admits that they could have been more obvious in what they wanted, as the demands they sent were codes made from seaweed, but the window of time had passed nonetheless. The Chuul then makes a deal that if the group find the pearl they'll stop kidnapping people, at least until they cross them again.

After Dob and Merilwen rescue, and accidentally scare off, the kidnapped victim, they all gather in the hotel room to hear the situation from Prudence. After explaining the situation, Prudence proposes that they kill them and take the item for themselves, but Corazón suggests they better find out what the artifact is before they kill anyone over it. Egbert then asks Dob to clean the urine off of him, but he accidentally makes him wee himself instead. The Chuul explains to Prudence that the artefact is a pearl, an "absolutely ginormous pearl", and it went missing eight days ago during a party. They wake Alfred up and ask him if he knows anything about the pearl. He says that he doesn't, and suspects that the culprits are trying to keep their crime quiet, suggesting they go to a secret Thieves' Market in the sewers. The Chuul offers the Guild to take one of the fishmen, who got attacked by one of their traps with an iron, to which they agree, thinking it can identify the pearl. The Chuul asks the fishman his name and it, in a daze, says "Iron".

Corazón says he can find the market, but it turns out to be much more hidden than he expected. Dob gets to idea to have Iron act as a sniffer fish, but getting the scent of human off of Corazón and finding the market that way. To everyone's surprise, this works, although no one smells great as a result of walking through all the sewage. Corazón takes this opportunity to sell his Merilwen's Meatgrinder t-shirts, which sell very well. They then go to find the pearl, but find loads of vendors selling "massive pearls". Corazón talks to one of the vendors in Thieves' Cant and eventually charms him into telling him to find a thief named Katie Delacour, saying she should be in the Twisted Harpoon. Dob then buys a fake pearl as backup in case they decide to betray the Chuul with a gold bar, Corazón tackling him before he can give him a second. The vendor then destroys his stall, clearly not planning on coming back ever. They then leave the sewer and Dob uses Prestidigitation to clean them all and makes them smell of cinnamon and festive spices.

They arrive at the Twisted Harpoon. The inhabitants look at the weird looking party with disgust, but are oddly pleased by their smell. They spot Katie and Corazón goes to speak to her. Corazón pretends to be a "pearlman", who is interested in her pearl. She tells him that the thief who told him about her will be dead by the next, but reluctantly agrees to hear their offer. She demands eighteen gold bars for it, and everyone except Egbert leaves to "go get it". With them gone, Katie tells Egbert that all of her crew members have been cursed ever since she got the pearl and she's worried that she's next, and is desperate to sell it. Egbert tells her that they might be able to lift the curse. Meanwhile, the others decide to use Minor Illusion to make it look like they have more gold bars. Upon seeing the "gold", Katie agrees to show them the pearl.

She leads them down a few twisting alleyways until they reach her hovel. After Iron confirms it to be the pearl, they make the transfer. But Katie looks inside the box and sees that she has been tricked, and draws her pistols in fury. Dob then takes the fake pearl and whacks her on the head with it, causing the hollow pearl to get stuck on her head. With her vision obscured, the Guild cheese it as she tries to get the pearl off, Corazón blocking the door on the way out. Iron laughs at all of this.

The Guild discuss whether or not they should keep the pearl now, knowing that it's cursed. Dob wants to understand why it's cursed but Corazón doesn't want to risk it. They then wonder how they are going to find the underwater temple, and Dob realises Iron could show them. Dob then asks Iron consider the life they have shown him, a life outside of killing and kidnapping, and asks him if he wants to help him. Iron shrugs. They then wonder how they are going to breath underwater. Dob suggests that Iron gives them each a kiss of life every few feet, which no one agrees with, not even Iron. They eventually come up with a plan to use a boat as a diving bell. Merilwen uses Animal Friendship to summon two sharks to help weigh the boat down. The sharks ask if they can eat Iron as compensation, which Merilwen says they can if he betrays them.

With the diving bell prepared, with Dob weighing it down with gold bars, the Guild wade into the sea. With the sharks pushing the boat under the water they follow Iron until they reach the temple. They all swim out and look at the tentacle-themed gothic temple, noticing a relatively new heroic statue of the Chuul. Iron leads them into the temple, and they emerge in an air pocket. Prudence looks around and realises that the temple used to be dedicated to Cthulhu, and realises this was the wrong Cthulhu wanted them to right. Corazón scouts the place out and sees the Chuul surrounded by ten fish people. Egbert admires the Chuul's leadership skills, which makes everyone want to get rid of them more, fearing Egbert will join the fish people's cause. Dob asks Iron to explain his people's history, but he is unable to, so is told to mime it. Iron eventually explains that his people found the temple empty generations ago and didn't know it belonged to anyone. Dob suggests that they could convert the fishmen to Cthulhuism, which Prudence agrees with. They convert Iron first, make him a bishop and task him on converting the other fishmen.

With all of the fishmen converted, they then confront the Chuul. They expose him as a person who is exploiting a religion for his own gain, proving that he doesn't even know the name of the god he's supposed to be worshipping. Merilwen casts Entangle to trap him in seaweed and other plant life, but he breaks free. She then uses Create Water and surrounds the Chuul in a cube of water, which Dob electrocutes with Thunderwave. With the water still there, Egbert uses his Flame Breath to boil the water, evaporating the water. Corazón hides behinds a rock and fires his shortbow in the Chuul's underbelly, before Prudence Agonizing Blasts it, pinning it against the wall. The fishmen are excited by all this. The Chuul then charges at Egbert, but he blocks the attack with his shield.

Dob then inspires Merilwen before using Heat Metal on the bolt that Corazón fired into the Chuul, seriously hurting it. With Dob's inspiration, Merilwen feels like she should do something cool in the temple and summon a Moonbeam, which the Chuul avoids. Egbert throws a bomb to try and blast the Chuul back into the Moonbeam, but he misses and damages an altar instead. Since it wasn't a Cthulhu altar, Egbert plays it off like it was intentional, which the fishmen love and wave a banner that reads "Egbert". It is at this point the Chuul realises the fishmen are no longer on his side. Corazón uses Mage Hand Legerdemain to whack the Chuul with an incense burner, which looks cool but barely damages him. Prudence then jumps onto the destroyed rubble and launches an Eldritch Blast at the Chuul. This does a fair amount of damage to his face, but he charges at Prudence and uppercuts her and grabs her midair, seriously damaging her. Corazón is unable to help, as he is preparing to cook the Chuul, making the battle arena smell very nice. Dob tells Iron to show the power of Cthulhu and, while Iron is babbling some incantation, secretly Dob reactivates the Heat Metal and kills the Chuul, making it look like Iron killed him with the power of Cthulhu.

The fishmen celebrate the defeat of their former leader and bring out tables to eat him on. Prudence poses dramatically on the altar and tells them Cthulhu is pleased and they may eat the Chuul. Egbert lightly heals Prudence and Dob uses Prestidigitation to give the Chuul flavour that complements what Corazón has cooked. Prudence leads everyone in a prayer to Cthulhu, and the candles around them explode in a way that destroys any decorations related to the usurper god. Everyone then eats the Chuul and enjoys the winter solstice with the fishmen.

Notable Events

 * The Guild convert an entire society of fishmen to Cthulhu.

Guild Hijinks

 * Egbert chases after what he thinks is a ninja turtle, and gets covered in urine.
 * Dob accidentally makes Egbert wee himself.

Character Development

 * Corazón makes a deal with Alfred and honours it when Alfred fulfils his half of the bargain.

Trivia

 * In part three of the adventure, when the guild were preparing to head into the underwater cathedral with the makeshift diving bell, Merilwen summons two French sharks to help guide them through the way, and while she speaks to them, she also compliments the sharks in French saying, "Tu es très beau" which translates to "You are very handsome/beautiful".

Behind The Scenes Trivia

 * The title is a play on "A Christmas Carol"
 * Parts of this campaign may have been inspired by "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and other stories within the Cthulhu mythos.