Ten of +1 Swords

Ocean D&D Session 14

This is the account of School Locker the Hermit Crab. I promise to only do this once, it is not very useful as a reference of events. Feel free to jump to the Reflection!

Crab Friends

"I'm School Locker, I am a crab.
I just went on a new crab adventure. I left with some friends to find sea horses who want "ancient knowledge" (crab clicks are great for quotation marks)... Which sounds fake and evil and I probably won't like them. But I will be nice and protect my friends anyway."

"As the smartest crabs do, we got lost a lot! Don't worry, this is all part of the crab process. We were strong crabs and didn't cry about the bad weather or the hundreds of makrele! We met some sad, weak fish and they told us that they swam away from a big scary fish. I like the sound of that, but I am a nice crab, and helped my friends swim back to the reef so that these weak fish could stop crying. But on our way we ran into some shark bullies! They made me so mad, I wanted to pinch them. But The Great Beast scared them instead. They were lucky, and I was not scared."

"After the weak fish were safe, we tried again to find the evil seahorses. We were smart again and got lost, and this time we found the dumb horse nerds! They were hiding as kelp. Who hides? Not me. Anyways, they were not nice but they didn't want to fight. They thought we were dumb. They kept talking about "history" and "memory". More fake evil stuff. AND they threatened to kill us if we are ever mean. My friends wanted to help find their lost friends and that seemed like a nice crab thing to do, I guess. So we left the evil nerds to go back to the big red and white rock from last week."

"After we found the big rock, I helped my friends break the see-through water shell at the top. We found more of the dumb nerds >:(. But I guess that why we came here. These ones talked about more fake evil stuff, but it sounded less evil. They don't like the other horse nerds back in the kelp because they stole their "history". Whatever. My friends decided to help them explore the big rock, and I joined. Why? Because I'm super nice."

"In the cave below we found some shiny shells, but they're a weird shape. Hannibal Crabba was excited, because he is little and weak and needs a better shell. While he was moving into a new home, a big pile of algae opened its mouth and tried to swallow us! Once again, The Great Beast handled it, she punched it to sleep. I didn't get to pinch it! I was mad, but I hid it because I am a nice crab."

"As we went deeper, everything got weirder and I wasn't scared a single time! First we met a big Pulpo with two hats. I did not know there could be more than one Pulpo at once. But just like the Pulpos I have known, this one is crazy. They're name is Thomas and Thomas, and I think they're having a "mental breakdown"; that's something I've heard axolotls say. They didn't eat us which means they're kind of nice. They told us we should be scared of what is deeper in the rock, but I was not."

"In the cave under the Thomases we found some weird black kelp in a box, the seahorses were calling it a "journal" and they said they could "read" it. Whatever this kelp said, it was funny enough for all of them to laugh, but I could not hear it. We kept going deeper in the rock to make the horse nerds happy enough to join us. Next we found a cool shiny fork. It isn't stuck to my body, so it's not that cool (claws are really cool). Pulpo Ultimo took it and now we have two armed Pulpos in the Reef. The cave was stinky and some of my friends got sick because they are not strong like me."

"At this point we were really deep, the horse nerds were happy, but we quickly checked out a shiny stick stuck in the ground. Pulpo Ultimo tried to pull it out and it made the whole rock shake and bright lights started to shine. I wanted to take the stick, but I was nice and didn't show off my strength; it would have made my friends feel weak. We stayed the night with the Thomases and they told us they both want to kiss the ocean. Their boring story about love was interrupted when we saw a HUGE Pulpo outside the big rock. It was dumb and didn't see us, and once again my claws went unused."

"We headed home the next day, and we noticed the big rock was shining a big light all over the place. That light made me think: "that might be useful, since we go in dark places." My brain is so strong that I held onto that thought all the way home without dropping it. Before we got home, we ran into some sideways Pulpos. Pulpo Ultimo told us that they're evil and that they like to control the minds of fish. I was not scared because my mind is strong (I already explained this), but we were in a rush to get home, so we let them live for now. In the end, I didn't get to pinch anyone, but I'm glad I could help my friends feel safe and I get stronger every time I explore the ocean with them."

Reflection

Even though I've been playing TTRPGs for a while, this is my first hex crawl. There is much new I've enjoyed discovering in this game, but this session really highlighted the fun of hooks/rumors.

Before I started playing OD&D my fellow players met some seahorses and were told they could find more further northeast in some kelp forests, and that they are seeking ancient knowledge. I was there when we got the "crab" robot from the Thermal Vent dungeon in a later session. This was like finding a key to a far away door, and it sparked excitement for future sessions.

Sure enough, next session we tried to find the seahorses the ENTIRE time. It was us, the players, that decided to tirelessly search, and we had fun failing over and over again. We still received a ton of XP and had quite the adventure getting lost. That session encapsulated the main thing this campaign has been about; exploration. So today when we finally found them AND we got to bring some home to unlock the class, it felt very satisfying! That kind of gratification is really special, and it wouldn't have hit as hard without the effort of charting the entire area.

As always, I had a lot of fun. The players are all eager to explore and I have been really impressed and excited to see the shared interest, decorum, and collaboration during sessions (and out of sessions). It's really cool to see this game and the world come together as Spuk runs it. I leave every single session feeling like a little sea creature in a big ocean, and that's really special.