Elebrin's bolt of force blasts the remaining mutant pirate. The creature is not down, but the spell has obviously grievously wounded the thing.
With a savage howl, it attacks Uro with redoubled fury:
Gwl stabs savagely, trying to impale the pale pirate. His thrust punctures cloth, with a great ripping sound. He yanks the spear free, looking for blood.
Uro silently thanks his ancestors for shielding his from the creatures blow while he retaliates with one of his own.
Gwl interferes again, aiding Uro.
No action from Jym other than maintaining the inspiration.
Elebrin will stand by thinking at this point the fight is set to be done.
Even with Gwl helping, Uro's second blow isn't up to the task of finishing the mutant, which continues its mindless, bloodthirsty assault:
Gwl tries another stab, still looking a bit unnerved by the twisted pirate.
Gwl's spear-point encounters resistance from the mutant's gray hide, but expecting this, the fish-man holds tight and stabs harder, skewering it through the abdomen. The mutant flaps angrily at the end of the spear for a few moments, mouth gaping wider than it would seem possible, and then finally realizes it's dead.
Elebrin's mouth opens into a mix of pained skeptical concern and disgust with her eyes narrowing to almost slits as she manages a, That is extremely unpleasant.
Jym looks around to see if there is anything else that noticed their fight. Hopefully someone with a Perception score that's not negative will do the same thing.
Gwl seems transfixed by the transfixed corpse. He tentatively reaches a claw out and touches the twisted, tentacled face, tracing the turns of the warped flesh. He withdraws his talon and touches his own face mournfully.
"Knew not Zuoken, these malformed misfortunates. Baleful blasphemies beget terrible transformations. Melted men, frenzied fish, sinister simians. Shadowshore studies ward wisdom, without which Gwlybwr gone. Body broken but mind mine. Find filth, cut quickly. Forget forgiveness, death deserving."
He looks to Uro, plaintively.
"Ask ally, provide promise. Presence precious, rationality required. Clouded clarity, succumbed savagery. Entreating end, Uro understand?"
Gwl is still concerned about his own transformation; Elebrin squints against the bright sun, but looking around, estimates the beach is 50 feet wide; the cave opening to the northwest, at the base of the cliffs, is about 10 ft. wide. Uro, who unlike most of his race is untroubled by bright light, also spots a small, crude bridge to the northeast, crossing a tidal pool to what is presumably a smaller cave entrance.
There are plenty of mangled corpses scattered around the beach, along with bloodstains and bits of bone. A few of the corpses are horribly mutated, like the pirates; most of them are of other creatures (some exotic and/or dangerous) that were torn apart and, in many cases, eaten. You count a total of approximately 20 dead humanoids, including the two you just dispatched.
For anyone with any knowledge of ships (i.e., at least 1 rank in Profession (Sailor)):
DC 15 Survival:
Survival: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
"Quite astute, Jym. That blood does look fresh, and couldn't have come from the pirates we just ... released. The bridge is a key. The bloody trail goes right up to it, but I can't see anything past with this blazing sky. Once we get into the cave, things should be clearer."
Gwl occasionally pauses to lick his spear shaft as he speaks, and his tongue glistens in the bright sun. Soon enough, he has built up a film of oily mucus, and he holds the spear to his back, where it sticks fast.
"Before that, though. Elebrin, I saw a great blight on the seabed. It might also be a key. I think it was the locus for what happened here. I don't think I can show you with all the swarming below, but I could bring you a piece of the corruption. Since you are versed in the mystic arts, it might help us. Somehow."
Flexing his shoulders to ensure the spear has set without interfering with his movement, he takes a deep breath and dives into the waves. Navigating back to the voided area, he searches for something significant he can bring back.
"I'm beginning to figure out Gwlybwr's new language, I think," Jym says, rubbing his hairless chin while the group waits for Gwl to return. "I knew I'd figure it out, eventually. I've got an ear for such things.
"I still have no idea what he's going on about, though."
Gwl has no trouble finding the location again, about 40 feet from shore -- the seabed there is devoid of life; the rocks and sand gleam, and there is no trace of seaweed. In the center of that area, lying on the bottom, is something that looks like a fist-sized black pearl, shattered into jagged chunks.
DC 20 Survival (apply favored terrain: shipboard or underwater):
Gwl looks at the area, but the only thing that strikes his eye is the shattered pearl. Something tickles at his mind, but he can't quite recall, so instead he just grabs all the shards and brings them back.
"This was in the center of the blight. Something killed all life on the seafloor, in an area the size of Seaward Square. Must be important." He hands the others a piece to look at, if interested.
While Gwl is away, Uro checks out the blood trail leading to the bridge, trying to determine any sort of timeline.
Uro looks at the tracks and bloodstains in the sand. Shuffling about the beach and swatting at flies (small, mutated, and viciously hostile), he begins to reconstruct a sequence of events.
The burning ships are almost down to the waterline. Uro is no expert on shipbuilding, but he's burned plenty of wood before, and given the size of the ships, he thinks they were set on fire first, before the fighting. The signs of people pulling themselves onto the beach are unmistakable, and those signs are cut across by signs of violent struggle, confirming his guess.
The sheltered cove funnels water in, and is likely to have large tidal changes -- the tide is currently coming in. Uro estimates that, at high tide, many of the signs he's seeing would have been obliterated. Therefore whatever happened here, happened within the last half-day or so. Having felt the wave of rage, he can pin down that occurrence to the nearest half-hour (about 1:00 am; it's still morning now).
Looking across to where Gwl is swimming, he draws a mental line back to the burning ships. If another ship had been present, it would logically be anchored further down along the curving beach. Drawing a straight line between the burning ships and that ship, Gwl's location is more or less on that line, about a fourth of the way to the other ship.
So, pirates anchored their ships and started unloading crates of exotic animals, close to the main cave entrance. Someone else sailed in and anchored further down, unmolested, so the pirates knew that ship. Then it seems someone from the new ship snuck aboard the anchored ships amid the confusion of unloading, and set them afire for reasons unknown. Heading back to the new ship, he or she was evidently intercepted or had some other mishap; something happened, and a wave of Abyssal energy blasted the cove. Creatures mutated by the exposure started killing everything else; at least one survivor fled into the small cave -- if still alive, they've been in there for hours. There is evidence that at least one other humanoid went into the main cave entrance after the Abyssal event as well (there was a lot of traffic in and out beforehand).
In better ground, Uro would be able to estimate the race, body weight, and height of the survivors, but the sand isn't as good at holding tracks. The amount of blood indicates that the person entering the smaller cave was lightly wounded, and the one using the main cave was uninjured.
The orc will relay his finding to the rest of the group. "I think we should check in the smaller cave first. If whoever escaped into there, they may not have long to live."
Uro will let the more scholarly and arcane inclined handle the black pearl.
Driven to more distraction than normal the elf simply watches the others while the investigate and look around. The black pearl itches at the back of the wizard's mind however and Elebrin pulls herself from her daydreaming to consider it more carefully and plumb its arcane secrets...
Elebrin gingerly touches a fragment of the black pearl, knowing before touching it that it will have a residual magical aura. And so it does -- Conjuration, she soon assesses, like a gate. And it was overwhelming when activated -- although now dissipated to the point where she is merely dazed 1 round as it washes over her again.
The pearl was, in essence, a device to open a 1-way instantaneous gate to the Abyss, allowing that plane to encroach on the normal world for a brief moment. Combined with Uro's information, she surmises that the nature of that power made the object unstable; apparently it was damaged and "went off" accidentally -- surely no one would set one off intentionally and get caught in the blast, or, if it was intentional, why not set it off on the beach instead of off in the cove?
Disturbingly, she believes that such an object need not be unique; anyone with access to a gate spell, some basic metamagic (Widen Spell), and enough raw numen could conceivably craft one.
Elebrin has read that exposure to portions of the Abyss can kill a mortal outright, transforming him or her into a bodak, an undead monster with a gaze that kills others. She believes that abrupt exposure to other parts of the Abyss, although potentially less lethal, is equally dangerous: the mutations and rage imposed on these victims were the effects of primal chaos and evil on mortal forms.
Elebrin relays the information her investigation reveals, ...unstable, you can see here the crack in the exterior layer...I would surmise accidental discharge why use it here and not over there?...sadly all too common to create...a bodak at worst but other mutations would be possible...
Elebrin frowns at the remnant piece, Sad really. Death and pain is all too common a thing in our world but to have it happen this way. In service of or on the receiving end of it. Truly sad.
Most of Elebrins explanation goes over Uro's head, though one thing sticks out. The Abyss. That is where the creatures came from that destroyed the orcs tribe. "I have experience with the inhabitants of this... Abyss." The orc almost spits the word out as much as pronounce it. "They are truly monstrous and extremely dangerous. If the shard is connected with that realm, it should be destroyed."
Uro extends a hand, as if to ask Elebrin for the pearl.
Elebrin hands it to Uro without hesitation.
After Uro settles his proxy-grudge with the pearl, Jym ponders, "Big cave or little cave? If we were to flip a coin, I'd suggest the little cave, mainly because Uro already suggested it. Honestly, the coin flip would have little to do with it."
Jym politely indicates that anyone other than him (probably everyone, to be honest) should go first.
Uro drops the pearl shard onto a nearby rock and whispers a prayer to Gwynharwyf. He slams his axe down onto it, shattering it even further. Then something unexpected happens, his axe, itself an artifact of the abyss, now becoming a tool of his goddess, absorbs the remaining latent energy of the pearl. It's curves and points grow sharper and more streamlined and its wooden haft darkens to a blood red. Uro is surprised at first, but he notices that the blade is lighter and more balanced in his hands. Uro says another prayer to his goddess thanking her for her blessing and begin to move toward the smaller cave.
Uro will stay back a bit from the mouth of the cave and try to get a good look in with his darkvision.
Uro will stay back a bit from the mouth of the cave and try to get a good look in with his darkvision.
The passageway inside is from natural rock and curves slightly; Uro will need to enter the cave and move about 20 feet into it to get a view further than the edge of the curve he can see.
Uro will head a bit further into the cave and makes his way around the corner.
Rounding the corner, he sees first flickering light coming from up ahead and, inching a bit further along, the opening into a large cave. Someone has spilled a good deal of oil in the tunnel in front of the cave and lit it ablaze, blocking the entrance; the smoke mostly gouts into the cave, where it wafts up and (presumably) out of some holes in the cave ceiling; little ends up in the tunnel.
A side tunnel leads to the west.
Past the side tunnel, directly ahead of you and standing in front of the flames, staring into the cave beyond, is a malformed humanoid with a hunched back, wide hands writhing with additional hook-shaped fingers, and a twisted jaw full of shark's teeth. Approaching the fire as near is it dares, it wails in a voice that was once female, "Is that you, my love? ... Put out the fire, darling... I knew you wouldn't leave me! So hungry... please... feed me...."
Uro takes in the strange sight and assuming he isn't spotted by the mad woman, will creep back to the others and relay what he found.
"So what's the play? She's clearly been mutated but seems to still be sentient. Not like those things that we fought on the beach. Should we try to talk to her?"
"Well, as you say, she's been mutated. Would it do any good to talk to her? What if she rambles on about irrelevant things or switches between topics without proper conversational transitions?"
Jym sighs. "I suppose we should talk to her, though. It might be our only chance to get information on Vanthus while we're here."
Words take but a moment. Killing her silences her forever. That said...
Elebrin kisses her ring intoning the incantation her mother taught her long ago. The ring hums and the shimmering armor of protection flashes and fades from sight around the elf.
Elebrin holds her sword in hand and nods at the others to proceed...
Gwl, recalling the reactions of the other twisted people, ponders and nods. He enters the cave and approaches her.
"Cursed, the gods have us. Burns, this hunger you? Release, sleep seeking of?"
The mutated woman whirls quickly, hesitating when she sees Gwl -- again "recognizing" him as a fellow mutant.
Assuming Gwl would have torn apart and eaten any unaffected companions, she fails to look for the others, turns her back on Gwl, and resumes howling through the flames into the cave.
Gwl steps forward and places this claws on her shoulder.
"Are you Brissa? Is Vanthus past those flames?"
She continues yelling into the flames: "Vanthus! Come out! I'm so hungry...!"
It's clear she retains only a shred of sentience at this point.
"Zuoken, walk with you to peace."
Gwl raises his spear and attempts a mercy blow, aiming for the heart.
His hands are trembling from the haunting vision of his potential future, and his mortal strike is thwarted.
Even flat-footed, these hideous mutants are apparently not so easily killed. The thing that used to be Brissa Santos whirls, a mass of hunger and rage.
Jym intelligently mumbles "what" when Gwl stabs at the woman.
Then, as fast as he can, he'll cast ghost sound, centered deeper in the cave behind the woman, of a man calmly talking.