Heal the Kraken

Once Ketrak the Kraken had everything going for her. She owned one of the larger islands that made up the Kraken states, and was one of the few close friends of Big Red one of the most powerful Krakens of them all. In fact, the two of them were at the courting stage and were slowly falling in love. Big Red liked the fact that Ketrak, rather then sit all day on a pile of amethyst and be fed by the humans she commanded, liked to go out and find her own food in the old way, chasing down whole schools of fish and munching on them. This habit had kept her healthy so she rarely needed to have cleaner fish or her humans clean her. From the point of view of a male Kraken, she was a true beauty both inside and out. As much as her body, Big Red loved her personality and her mind and her tales about what she had seen when she went on her trips into the deep ocean.

One day she was jetting after a shoal of mackerel, when she came across what seemed to be a large, dying flatfish and opened her beak to devour it. But when she bit into it, a whole host of black wormy things burst out of it and swam around her face and into her gills, from where they rapidly wiggled up to her brain and attached barbed spiny tentacles into it, taking control of her. Unknown to her, a De Madden Company ship returning home from the Firehole River had accidentally discharged a polar parasite that had got into the drinking water but been thrown out before it could reach an infectious stage. They had drifted down to the sea-bottom and formed an egg-case that looked like a dying flatfish as it flopped around in the currant. When something bit the *fish* it would be infected, and the unfortunate Ketrak happened to be the victim.

Her skin turned jet black, a sign of Kraken fear and pain, and she suffered a horrible headache coupled with a raging desire to eat anything edible. And yet she was still aware and to a certain extent in control of her body. The parasites were not intelligent beings that wanted power for themselves. All they wanted to do was to eat. She found herself eating everything remotely edible in sight…fish shoals, dolphins and the like, her own subjects after she pulled down their fishing boats, and her beautiful body ballooned. Eventually Big Red got to hear of what had happened, and he decided to send a band of humans to see if they could cure her, with a promise of a rich reward should they succeed.

Plot Hook-The PCs have to try and find a way to cure Ketrak from her infestation. Powerful magic might do it; alternately they might need to look for one of 30 Legendary Antidotes/Cures, which could be a quest in itself. Getting close enough to Ketrak will be a challenge in itself, driven half-mad with hunger and agony by the parasites, Ketrak will attempt to grab the PCs with her tentacles against her will and eat them. Should her skin be cut, a worm will wriggle out and try and infest a PC, with perhaps fatal results, as it will just choke him or her. Should the parasites be killed, it is up to the GM what damage they have done to Ketrak’s mind.

Should the PCs successfully heal Ketrak and her mind is intact, they will be rewarded with by Big Red as much amethyst as they can carry, as he will be deeply pleased to be reunited with his beloved one. Should Ketrak’s mind have been damaged and/or her body harmed, he will still grant them a reward as they did their best, but it will be small. Should the PCs kill Ketrak outright, Big Red will put a price on their heads and they will have to flee the Kraken States.