Johara spins up into a dangerous dance once more and steps next to Baltazar and the injured grindylow. She whips her scimitar out and slashes again with fury.
Nivian moves up through the murky water, past Baltzar and Sandman and aims her crossbow right for the Whale's eye . The bolt buries itself in the enormous grindylow's skull. As fluids escape through the wound, the body slides down scraping the sides of the tunnel before splashing into the water below. The Queen shrieks in hideous agony as her beloved child dies before her eyes. Johara is able to dispatch the grindylow that Baltzar had been locked in an epic battle with.
Brinewood Queen - full health; barkskin
Whale - dead
Devilfish - full health, squeezing, misfortune, entangled
Grindylow #1 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #2 - dead
Grindylow #3 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #4 - dead
Grindylow #5 - full health, misfortune, entangled
Grindylow #6 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #7 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #8 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
"That is what happens to those who cross us, B*tch!", Nivian states as the Queens child vanishes into the depths.
The mask's otherworldly double-voice echoed through the wet caverns.
"You were warned. Nothing can save you now."
The Nightmarish Sandman made an angry rending motion toward the Devilfish ripping at it's consciousness.
The devilfish begins to snore as Sandman snatches away it's consciousness.
Brinewood Queen - full health; barkskin
Whale - dead
Devilfish - full health, squeezing, misfortune, entangled, asleep (3 rounds)
Grindylow #1 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #2 - dead
Grindylow #3 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #4 - dead
Grindylow #5 - full health, misfortune, entangled
Grindylow #6 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #7 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #8 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Fargrim gasps as he is skewered from behind and staggers away from the assault. He quickly stretches out the chain on his weapon and attacks the queen from a distance in hopes of keeping the foul b~&%# away! Unfortunately his blood coats the weapon and his attack bounces off the nearby cave wall... And he suddenly begins to sag with exhaustion as the last vestiges of his bloodrage wear off.
Fargrim's chain finds no purchase on the Queen. Baltzar unleashes her fury at the remaining grindylow, ripping it's throat out. The queen retreats a little further into the cave before hurling her harpoon at Fargrim. It flies through the air before contacting the cave wall, missing Fargrim's face by inches.
Brinewood Queen - full health; barkskin
Whale - dead
Devilfish - full health, squeezing, misfortune, entangled, asleep (2 rounds)
Grindylow #1 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #2 - dead
Grindylow #3 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #4 - dead
Grindylow #5 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #6 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #7 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #8 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
I am moving into the room, next to Fargrim, trying to use Water Sense to pinpoint Saranda, the Rahadoumi, and any other things that may still be in here: (Aquan)"You fail, your child fails, your clan fails. You will all die, for your insolence. You doomed them all. How does it feel, being responsible for the extinction of your people?"
Johara dances closer to the devilfish and prepares to deliver a fatal blow to it.
Fargrim flings his weapon towards the queen as she opens herself up to attack while throwing her trident. He then continues to press the attack from a distance!
Nivian and Johara close ground on separate targets, both ready to act at a moment's notice. Fargrim's chain dances around the chamber but just can't find perch on the grindylow queen.
Sandman attempts to move, but the entangling kelp keeps him in place.
Having moved next to him, Nivian touches Fargim, and some of his wounds heal.
The flung harpoon mystically returns to the Brinewood Queen's hands as she continues her tirade and threats. She steps up to impale her child's killer, stabbing into Nivian with furious force.
Brinewood Queen - full health; barkskin, shaken (2 rounds)
Whale - dead
Devilfish - full health, squeezing, misfortune, entangled, asleep (1 round)
Grindylow #1 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #2 - dead
Grindylow #3 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #4 - dead
Grindylow #5 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #6 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #7 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Grindylow #8 - unconscious, disabled, bleeding to death
Johara lines up her strike on the devilfish and delivers a scintillating cut as she spins up into the air and then descends, thrusting the curved point of her scimitar straight into the mass of the creature's limbs.
(Fort save DC 24)
Johara's blade comes down into the sleeping devilfish with practiced precision. Breath escapes the large beast one last time, extending its slumber into eternity.
Brinewood Queen - full health; barkskin, shaken (2 rounds)
Baltzar will for now hold back, saving her spells for healing and her movement in case she needs to rush in for an emergency heal.
Sandman brought his will against the grindylow queen
"The best you can do?", Nivian laughs, despite the deep wound. She WAS used to pain, after all.
The Brinewood Queen topples over face first into the shallow water. Her lifeless body floats on top of the water, small bubbles escaping near her head every few seconds.
Sandman's body sagged and he breathed a sigh of relief, the mask on his face hardening back to normal wood and becoming less lifelike as it fell off his face and into his hand.
"I did not think that would work on her. Spellcasters often have too strong of minds for me to overcome."
He trudged forward through the muck, straining against the grasping kelp, slowing making progress until he reached Sandra and the Radahum sailor.
"Are you two alright?" He said, not entirely sure if they were conscious or not.
Breathing heavily, Johara comes down off her battle dance, then rushes to rejoin her allies. She stows her scimitar and pulls her damp hair back out of her face, then leans forward to give Sandra a healing caress.
Through ragged breaths, Sandara looks up at you with a slight grin. "I never thought I'd see your ugly mugs again, but I must say I'm happy to see you. Besmara bless you all."
Most of Sandara's wounds close up at Johara's magic. It seems that the grindylows preferred slowly torturing their prisoners before they ate them. The queen was especially vicious when she felt like showing off.
Sandman glances around, his eyes going white as he scanned for magic auras.
"We found your hat." He told Sandra.
Nivian moves up to Sandara, and embraces her tightly:"I am glad you survived. I owed you. It would have been awefully disrespectful of you to die without letting me repay you.", she jests.
When Sandman mentions the tricorn, Nivian produces it from inside her clothes, together with her symbol:"Not only the tricorn, I've also managed to find your holy symbol.", she states, a slight smile showing around her eyes on seeing Sandara's reaction, the first since the night of the kidnapping.
Fargrim slumps against the nearby cave wall, exhausted for a few minutes while the rest of the crew catches up with each other. "Thanks for the healing, Nivian." He gets out between breaths.
Once recovered he walks over to the Brinewood Queen and crushes her skull for good measure. "Durkath!" He spits a vile curse in dwarven before he spends some time searching the cavern for any valuables or gear they could use.
"I never thought I'd be glad to see your ugly mugs. Well met."
Sandara smiles at having her hat and holy symbol returned. She takes a moment to adjust her hat making sure it fits snug. With her holy symbol back, she returns the favor. Grasping it tightly with both hands, she lets the warmth of healing energy radiate out from her several times.
This also brings the Rahadoumi sailor back to consciousness. He climbs to his feet, inspecting the leg where the Whale took a huge bite from. "Remarkable" is all he can manage to say until he notices everyone else. "My life is yours...again" he pledges.
Looking around the chamber and the bodies of the dead reveals several items. The Brinewood Queen herself still clutches a small harpoon, a wand, and a potion. In a small nook in the northern wall is a lobster pot containing grindylow flensing knives including two masterwork daggers, a master silver dagger, a rusting masterwork cold iron sickle, a scrimshaw blade of great workmanship depicting an octopus, and a dozen other small-sized blades.
The chamber itself is littered with numerous items including a jawbone of a shark carved with scrimshaw images of a vast octopus eating whales and containing a dozen silver and gold rings hammered into it, a huge hooked tooth from some colossal sea creature with a seaweed-plugged cavity containing six pearls, a whale skull weighing 25 pounds whose scrimshaw carvings function as arcane scrolls, eight 4-pound silver ingots, masterwork manacles, four mw crossbow bolts, a silver spearhead, a pair of bracers, 211 sp, and 136 gp in assorted coins.
The scrimshaw blade with octopus = 125 gp
Eight 4-pound silver ingots = 20 gp each
jawbone with silver and gold rings = 250 gp
huge hooked tooth with pearls= 75 gp
Arcane Scrolls of
Alter Self
Black Tentacles
Blur
Color Spray
Daylight
Enlarge Person
Hypnotism
Slow
Touch of Idiocy
Vampiric Touch
Wand of Summon Nature Ally II - 11 charges remaining
Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
+1 Returning small harpoon
Four +1 crossbow bolts
Bracers of lesser archery
"You're crew." Sandman said to the Rahadoumi sailor. "We take care of our own."
"After this, you're going to need a better name than the one you were born with though."
Sandman starting carving Whale's teeth out of his giant mouth with his obsidian ritual knife. He held one up and took a look at it, the three dancing lights orbiting him swirled to give him a better view and cast his monstrous torn shadow in triplicate all over the back of the cave. He tossed a bloody tooth to the sailor.
"Lucky." he chuckled.
"That leg looks like it will need to come off. It will have to wait until we are back on the ship. This is no place for such things."
In fairly short order, Sandman had the majority of Whale's teeth pried free of it's upper jaw and stored in a pouch. The lower jaw he removed completely, teeth and all.
He looked over the spoils that the others had collected and smiled at scrimshaw blade and the carved whale skull. "Impressive work."
"I believe we are done here. We can sort the spoils when we are shipboard again."
Johara goes over the valuables with a fine eye, sorting the treasure from the dross. "These things are valuable," she says, putting the various trinkets in a bag. "The rest is trash."
Having packed up many of the trinkets, Johara says, "So what now? We should get some fresh water and our crew back to the ship, but... do we want to leave some treasure here, or take it with us? And where are we going to go? We are going to need more crew, aren't we? Our ship won't survive a storm or an attack if we're undermanned like we are now. Where could we go to hire on more hands?"
"Thinking like a pirate already." Sandman chuckled at Johara's enthusiasm. "Do you know how one eats a whale?"
Johara's brow furrows and she says, "In small bites?"
"Precisely." Sandman smiled "One at a time, preferably with help."
"We need to repair the ship, so we cannot afford to leave anything behind at the moment. A good idea for the future though. Anything valuable here we should take."
"So, I think we should pay that eel a visit and see if there is anything in that sunken ship worth salvaging."
"After that, we can return to our ship and discuss our destination."
"As long as I don't wind up trapped in a cage or enslaved," says Johara, "I'm willing to go anywhere the wind blows." She grimaces as she squeezes some water out of her hair and glances down at her salt-water-drenched silken clothing. "Though a change of wardrobe is in order." She checks her scimitar and realizes that it, too, will need to be cleaned and oiled. "Or a good cleaning in general. And a nap."
"How do we repair the ship, anyway? I've never done carpentry like that. Do we have to send someone who can breathe water underneath it to fix up the hull?" she asks, curiously.
"You will never be a slave again, Johara. Those days are behind you." Sandman said with fierce conviction.
"Let me take a look at these magic items..."
"A wand of summoning creatures...that's how she called the Octopus. Little surprise, there."
"A potion to heal wounds. More potent than the common basic variant."
"It's magically enhanced to return to it's wielder, as we have witnessed previously. As a magic weapon, it is also more powerful than mundane harpoons...but the small size is a hindrance."
"Magically empowered bolts...4 of them...I think I'm the only one of us to use a crossbow, so I'll keep them."
"No idea about these bracers. There is something magical about them, but I can't pinpoint what."
Having done all that, Nivian joins the conversation regarding their future goals:"Leave it to me. I have a pretty good idea of where we can go. Any fixes we do here just keep her afloat, but the improvised nature will slow us down by increasing drag, or make our ship steer into either direction by itself. We need a proper dry dock, and specialists. I learned a little bit about ship building, and I can work underwater, but honestly, you want that kind of thing done by professionals. As you said, we are also short on crew. We need to hire additional hands. And just to make that perfectly clear: I don't think press-ganging the kind of capable hands one wants is a very good idea. I believe Scourge and Plugg would agree. We are free, we retrieved our crew, and we found this island deserted.", Nivian walks up and down while monologuing:"We also liberated our ship right as a storm loomed on the horizon and had no time for festivities. I think with these 3 lucky turns of fate, celebrations are in order. I say we claim this island for our own use. We can stash some emergency supplies, repair materials, rum, and even some money or plunder here, eventually. And I think we just took out the opposition that previously depopulated this island. We fully secure it, then we celebrate with the crew, most of the rum that's left, fresh food as we can find on the island, a evening worthy of our victory. When the crew starts sobering up again, we set sail for a certain port I have in mind. I'll plot a course once we're back at the ship."
"I like that plan," says Johara. "So... what do we do with the ship in the long term? I suppose if we hire more hands we are planning to stick to pirating. Regardless, I like the idea of having a secret island retreat paradise."
"We keep it. I see no reason to hire on with someone else if we have a ship of our own. And piracy is the life I know. It's a honorable profession...in it's own way...also I have no home to return to, no place I belong. Any of you who wish to leave, we'll drop off at a port of your choice, of course - or you can settle down here on this tropical paradise once we took possession of it.", Nivian responds.
"We will discuss that with the crew when we rejoin them. Sandman nodded.
Fargrim leaves the planning to those more inclined to such things and goes about gathering up all the supplies they can carry. "Strip all these creatures of their gear, everything. Then we should drag the bodies out and clear the rest of these caves. Perhaps post a few of their heads around the entrances to dissuade anymore interlopers from coming here."
Even if you don't speak Varisian, you might notice that the words she says are underneath the pirate flag tattoo on her breast.