Tidal Blades: Eaten or Be Eaten

Last night we played some Tidal Blades. Here's last time. On we go!

It's been some time since the characters defeated the Brotherhood of the Forgotten Hunger and lulled the Dire Suchid back to sleep. They've been hanging out in Angler's Cove, each kind of pursuing different ends.

Faesli has decided that she needs to be more effective in a fight, or at least, needs to get out of the way rather than taking it on the chin so much. She's been learning about adventuring and sparring with folks. 

Hobie has finished their book about the Dire Suchid and sent it back to the Library of Time. Since then, they've set up their cart and acted as a kind of scribe/mail post for Angler's Cove. They've also been thinking more about Garnet - why is this mantis shrimp so smart? (You know, for a shrimp.)

Bait wasn't going to send his dads back to the ship that didn't even notice they were missing. Instead, he wants his own ship. He's been trying to construct one! It...hasn't gone well. Bait is a competent sailor, but that's a very different skill set than being a ship-builder.

Sobek has been helping Bait to try and build the ship, and also putting out feelers for where to buy one. In the interim, he's been arm-wrestling at various bars. 

On this particular day, the crew is washing up on a beach (as we all do from time to time). They were out on a boat that Bait built, and this one was more successful than any of the others - it made it out of the harbor! But two things kinda went wrong. First, the rudder was installed wrong so the ship took them north around the coast (they were trying to get back to the Shattered Reefs). Then, the material Bait had used to lash the ship together disintegrated in the salt water, and the ship floundered.

As they're swimming to shore, Hobie notices something cool - a ship seemingly hovering above the water-line! This is an optical illusion that you can sometimes see on the water...or IS IT?!

Anyway. They wash up on the beach, and Bait grabs a glob of mud and throws it at Hobie. "What was that for?" they demand. "'Cause it's fun," replies Bait. "SAND FIGHT!"

The others oblige. Faesli, who washed up a little further down the beach, walks up and catches sand in the noggin, and Far Steps behind Bait, pouring sand down his shirt. Bait huffs and goes to wash his shirt out, and the Garnet, who'd been exploring around the beach, comes running up to Hobie and jumps into their arms, shaking. 

"What's the matter?" Hobie asks, and Garnet turns one eyestalk back down the beach. Hobie sees something very large start to pull itself out of the sand...

GIANT MUDCRAB! 

The immense crab emerges from the sand and scuttles toward them. Faesli is familiar with these things - they're ravenous, and they're sometimes used as opponents in Colosseum fights. Also, their meat is delicious and they fetch a high price...if you can kill one. Faesli yells out as much of this as she can, and the others try to get running. Sobek, characteristically, gets between the crab and his friends, and the crab snaps him up into its claw and pulls him toward its mouth.

The others spring into action! Bait tries to smack the thing in the eye to give Faesli an opening, Hobie tries to distract it to do the same, but the monster is too focus on its croc-dinner. Faesli focuses and fires a beam of cutting light at it, hoping to sever its claw, but misses. Something in the distance explodes, but the characters don't have time to worry about that.

The crab stuffs Sobek into its maw and starts chomping! Faesli runs up and tosses Sobek a cypher, and slides under the crab. Sobek activates it - it gives his skin hard, crab-shell like properties (and protects him a bit from the teeth). Hobie tries to yank Faesli out from under the crab, but can't get past the legs. Sobek smacks the crab with his hook, and Bait hits it in a joint, forcing the crab to drop Sobek.

Bait dances around to get the crab's attention and it obligingly snaps him up with its claw and stuffs him in its mouth. Faesli scans the creature and remembers that it'll go for the easier source of meat - maybe they could trick it? But Sobek has other ideas. He unsheathes his hook and bashes the thing in the face. Bait wriggles free (fish mucus!) and Hobie yells "CLOSE YOUR EYES!"

Hobie hurls a cypher at the crab and it bursts in a bright flash of light. Sobek and Faesli manage to look away in time, but Bait doesn't, and so both he and the crab are blinded. Hobie tries to yank him out of the way, but the mucus makes Bait too slippery. Faesli, now with a tarn the size of the broad side of a barn, fires her cutting light again and hits the crab on the underside. A sizzling sound, and a delicious smell. "HOT CRAB DIP!" she yells.

Sobek follows up with several blows from his hook, and the crab collapses dead. The characters plop down heavily on the sand, and after a brief rest, decide to stay here for the night, rest up, build a fire, and eat well.

They decide, in the morning, to build a litter and drag the crab carcass back to Angler's Cove - there's still a lot of good meat, and the shell will be worth something, too. As they're getting underway, Garnet wriggles out of Hobie's grasp and heads for the water. Hobie follows, figuring Garnet's just being obstinate again, but she makes a noise that Hobie has never heard.

Hobie can now communicate with Garnet in a very simple fashion, and asks what's up. "Home!" responds the shrimp.

Hobie is startled - they have no idea what "home" is to Garnet. But they don't want to go out on the ocean without a boat. They manage to convince Garnet to come back to the Cove, get a boat, and then go investigate. Garnet might not understand all of that, but she agrees, and the party gets to draggin' the crab.