Ocean D&D Session 11
Session Date: 09/23/2026
Players The Great Beast - Weird Writer
Mikele Colucci - Prometheus
Xocolatl - Bue
School Locker - Bubblegum
Coral Kid - Podunke
Lots of Little Stripes - Mistuh
GM - Spuk
Recap:
The reefers planned their day around scouting and charting some of the areas south of the Reef. The Great Beast took the lead as caller. South of Clown Town the reefers found the home of a school of barracuda. After the carnage of the last few expeditions out of the reef, this batch of reefers were not too keen on being massacred so they left the cudas well alone. However, the evasion attempt would have been unsuccessful had Xocolatl's nanite not saved them.
The cudas came back for the reefers while they rested but did not engage. The next morning the reefers kept exploring the uncharted areas in the near southwest of the reef. They all felt chills down their spines(?) as they heard the dreaded clicks of dolphins in the distance. Feeling brave (for no good reason), Polpo Ultimo decided to scout ahead, using his camouflage to not catch attention. He saw dolphins gleefully torturing a nautiloid they dredged up from the depths. This was a dolphin den. Naturally, the reefers steered clear.
However, algae bloom in the water made traversal difficult the next day and they spent a great deal of time lost in the water. They stumbled back into the dolphin den and later into the barracuda den. The reefers spent days drifting like this until they finally reached the kelp forest with the aim of charting it. When they arrived they encountered an eel, but did not wait to find out if it was friendly and so evaded.
Further charting the kelp forest, the reefers encountered Kelp Crabs who had heard of Magnifico and Davy Crabcakes who they idolized. The reefers told them Magnifico was dead... The crabs offered to help navigate the kelp forest. The reefers later encountered bluefin wrasse who xocolatl charmed with his nanites. They were friendly, if not particularly helpful.
The reefers then returned to the reef for a rest. They gathered their strength and honed their skills before venturing out again, this time with the intention of checking out a rock field. They encountered two lion fish who had a bad attitude that needed correcting. The reefers battled and killed the lionfish, though it easily could have turned sour on them. Lionfish have a nasty toxin that's hard to avoid in melee. Mikele Colucci and the Great Beast were paralyzed mid fight and had to be rescued by Xocolatl and Stripes. Colucci lost 2 of his bros.
Futher exploration of that are led to the discovery of a natural rock formation shaped like a tower. Steaming bubbles blew out of the top and there were tubeworms feeding around the entrances. Some of the entrances emitted a great heat and so the reefers opted for the cooler one. Shortly after walking in they discovered some Yeti Crabs who weren't too happy to see them, but not immediately hostile. Their hatred was saved for a group of eels who also inhabit this dungeon.
Thoughts:
Careful logistics paid off today. Charting and crossing hexes granted us plenty of XP especially for some of the lower level party members (like Polpo). It also worked well as a plan for this session given the group size.
That said, I am very intrigued by Ocean D&D's dungeons. There is a lot of potential for unique spaces to be designed around the conceit of all players being fish. Then again, I was happy to spend the session in open water and not trapped in a room with a big angry crab who was racist towards octopods. I hope I can keep Polpo Ultimo alive at least long enough to unlock some more limb utility. That would make him a beast in combat.
He'll probably die next session. Octopods are in that unfortunate niche that OD&D thieves occupy, which makes them best suited for trap disarmament and scouting. A thought just occured that I should probably find myself a 10' pole of some sort next session. It does look like the octopod can grow significantly in power though, so worth keeping Ultimo alive as planned. I also think there is a bit of an octopod shortage in the player pool, at least for the Wednesday game, so I am happy to stick with the role.
For now it is nice to play a class that can actually grab things.