Meredian floats into the hole as well
Poof.
"Today is just not your day, is it?" Dris taunts as he unleashes another barrage of attacks.
Activating Murderous Insight to re-roll.
Ugh, keeping the 25, for
Seriously?
Jeebus, re-rolling that too.
Possible crit.
for
Dagger 1 Another possible crit.
Gonna re-roll that as well.
and keeping the 19, which is likely a non crit, for
for
Three of Drisquar's attacks connect, for a total of 57 damage. Its shriek of pain at the critical hit is a wholly alien, grating sound, and causes Drisquar to briefly open his eyes; after Drisquar's last attack, the Dragon apparently reverted back to its natural form, a ten-foot, toothy tentacled fish similar to the Keeper and Mayor you've already met, some sort of strange, small, and vicious aboleth.
The mirror images do not change, making it suddenly very easy to see which of Drisquar's opponents is the real one. The toothy fish lashes out with teeth, tentacles, and four claws, landing seven strong and vicious attacks... every single one of which lands squarely—and each of which destroys a different one of Drisquar's seven images, each of which reappears a second later. The fish creature reels backwards with rage, and though its wounds are slowly closing up, Drisquar can clearly see that in its natural form the thing is ragged with slashes, filling the room with a murky cloud of its sticky green blood.
Illia- and her crew make stealthy, short hops in the direction of the Architect's "palace." In the distance, audible only to a careful listener, is a quiet thrumming sound that may well be the echoes of a shoggoth barreling through abandoned streets at forty miles an hour, though the creature is likely still a minute or two away from reaching the inhabited quarter of Voshgurvaghol.
On the way to the well, Illia- finds Sir John walking through the city, and signals for him to jump into her portable hole as the timetable has moved up. The fit is tight, but manageable, as no one sitting inside actually needs to breathe. Finally, the party emerges to look out from the shadows about a hundred feet away from the architect; the Keeper, in his gray and toothy fishiness, hovers above the well pensively, though no other creatures are nearby.
Dris reels slightly at the anguished cry of his foe, but his evil grin belies the truth of his reaction. The stalker is enjoying this kill.
Possible crit
Confirmed! for
for
Re-roll!
Possible crit
normal for
Dagger 1 for
for
Drisquar's first slice takes the creature's head clean off, as Shimsil's diamond coating slides through rubbery fish flesh with disturbing ease, but he stabs the thing a few times for good measure afterwards, waiting to see if it regenerates. It does not.
The water in the room hangs thick with sticky, half-congealed green blood. After about thirty seconds, a shuffling sound becomes audible from somewhere above the open ceiling hatch.
Once Illia thinks the Shoggoth's attack should be momentarily
Hello, keeper! There's a supercharged Shoggoth about to start killing everyone in the inhabited quarter of Voshgurvaghol, do you want to go do something about that?
She teleports next to the keeper while she says this, both shield and weapon drawn, cheerily smiling.
Or do we get to play while everyone else dies?
Regardless of response, Illia intends on full attacking him as soon as she can after the teleport, simply planning on buying time or instilling fear and doubt.
Dris shifts into wind form, and races up to the ceiling hatch, curious as to what's making the sound.
Anaxian ignored the keeper, heading straight for the well. The purple lights receded and the craggy lava glow returned beneath the scales. A billowing smoke plumed from his mouth spreading like octopus ink, clouding the water.
The water began to hiss around him, He began to dig.
The smaller Anaxian slithered free of his counterpart, unseen.
Meredian exits the portable hole, stretches, and looks around.
"These fish people are boring as all hells. I'm glad we're eradication them. This place is depressing. They don't even seem to have anything worth stealing. "
"I can see why Jiator was so distressed. All these years and this place looks like a slop trough."
"I can see why Jiator was so distressed. All these years and this place looks like a slop trough."
"I know, right? I'd have lost my mind a long time ago."
In wind form, Drisquar flies through the hatch and through several connected rooms. Shuffling sounds and words in a language he does not understand grow louder, and as he travels upwards he recognizes the acoustics of the room and the sound of several huge aboleths shuffling; it seems he is in the currently-vacant private quarters of an important aboleth, located directly below the Council Chamber where the party previously met with the Mayor.
In a coordinated surprise strike, Sir John, Anaxian, and Meredian step out of the hole about 100 feet from Jiator's prison structure, while Illia- teleports next to the Keeper, sword drawn—but before she gets a hit in, the creature wheels and attacks like a squid, lightning-fast, with tentacles and claws and teeth striking forward in one wriggling motion. While the teeth and clawed tentacles bounce off her armor and shield, three of the four tentacles connect, releasing jolts of energy that hit Illia- for 35 points of electricity damage (although she is able to shrug off the disorienting effects of the energy bursts).
Illia-responds by counter-attacking, but every one of her attacks goes wide, as the Keeper twists and dodges, malevolently smiling.
Big Anaxian takes a double move to reach the top of the slime bubble beneath which Jiator is imprisoned. Small Anaxian turns invisible and covers about half the distance.
The Master of Illusions is dead, whispers Jiator's voice to the party. The Keeper here was asking me why. I assume things are moving quickly.
Dris reverts to humanoid form, and scours the room(s) he is in, looking for anything valuable or useful.
Knowing the Aboleth had means of reading Jiator's mind, Anaxian ignored him. Explanations could come later.
Invisibly, his spectral skull lunged out from his head and brushed Sir John.
Not bad... It'll take better though..
Illia's Dodge AC increases by 4, and another 9 against the keeper, due to her defensive strike. She then moves around him (and has mobility for another +4 Dodge) to be ready to flank if Sir John manages to get in close combat.
Meredian glares at the creature and attempts to wrap it in telekinetic bands
Telekinetic combat maneuver - grapple
grapple vs CMD
If successful the creature has the grappled condition.
Meredian's telekinetic grapple appears to have little effect on the large, lithe fish.
The Keeper attacks Illia- again, this time hitting with its toothy bite as well as one tentacle, for a total of . The Erinyes feels waves of slime roll over her, but manages to shrug off the creature's alien chemistry and keep fighting.
Illia- circles around the Keeper, dodging a tentacle as she does so, and hits it with a defensive gambit, while Sir John charges the creature from the other direction, though his paralyzing touch fails to slow it.
Little Anaxian casts invisibility and swims another 30' closer to the action. Big Anaxian casts Soften Earth and Stone—which does not seem to effect the hardened slime forming a dome above the Architect's prison, and then begins digging, heading 40' straight downwards through hardened goo.
Mer tries again to grapple
Meredian's telekinetic grab again fails to find any hold on the big fish. The Keeper in turn, seemingly knowing of Sir John's immunity to electricity, lashes out at the lich with his claws and teeth while swiping at Illia with the flashing electric tentacles. But with Illia-'s diabolic training and focus on her dodges, she nimbly avoids all four tentacle attacks, and the Keeper is left flailing ineffectually.
, Big Anaxian keeps digging straight down. After ten more feet, he hits the flat side of what appears to be a thick box of wrought iron alloyed with mithral. Regardless, the underworld dragon's adamantine claws dig straight through the metal, slowing only slightly, and Big Anaxian falls down through the water inside into the center of a 20' wide metal box. Against one side is chained a small skeleton—perhaps that of a child, or a halfling, though the bones have yellowed and warped with age—bound in glowing, runed chains.
"Hum." Meredian frowns.
Then flicks her fingers causing a large rock to fly at the creature
To hit
plus half again for empowered for a total of 75
Illia-, now with Sir John handy, takes advantage of her Tactical Flankiness.
Well, I'm not sure, but it looks like your death will be less painful than a shoggoth. I imagine that hurts a lot.
Full attack:
Not finding anything of particular value, Dris grabs several trinkets that he hopes are magickal, resumes his wind form, and attempts to make his way to his companions.
I am in. the larger dragon said in his mind, looking around a bit. "The entire cell is made of mithril. Quite a trove of riches."
He knew the manacles were probably trapped but he didn't much care. He simply dug his claws in like glass cutters and cut away the mithril wall where the chains anchored to the cell.
"oohh shiny." Meredian thinks "out loud" in response to big anaxian
98 damage to Keeper...
The Keeper remains extremely nimble, though Illia manages to strike it once for 22 damage, and Sir John hits for 34. Meredian's boulder sails through the water with a massive shockwave, but just barely misses the creature's head.
Noticing its sudden inability to injure its attackers at all, the Keeper shrieks loudly and folds inwards, currents of water rushing together as it collapses from a ten-foot tentacled fish into a five-foot squid. With a second burst of water, it shoots upward, jetting 240 feet above Illia and John in a burst fast enough to evade attacks of opportunity.
Drisquar, in his wind form, catches up with the party after a minute or two's swim from the chambers of the Master he killed, arriving just above the prison beside Illia and John in time to act with the rest of the party on this turn.
Anaxian spends a round snapping through metal and chain; the shackles, while magically-strengthened, fall to the ground with no obvious effect other than a dimming of their runes. The small skeleton nods with a metallic glimmer, showing a small circlet of jagged steel that has been riveted into its skull, and then swims upwards, taking a full round to reach the hole in the top of the metal box.
What now—fight, or flee? asks Jiator telepathically. The Masters are swift, and we'd never escape without teleportation. If we fight, I can improvise something, but the city counsel has my best instruments and jewels.
"Dris! Sic em." Meredian says pointing at the squid. "Show him he can't out run you."
we need to find your tools.
Indeed, once it's time for us to retreat, we teleport out, but for now, let's get your stuff back.
Illia- then teleports in front of the squid,
Nyeh nyeh nyeeeeh nyeeh! Can't run from us.
"Do you play the Lyre?" Anaxian replied to Jiator, watching the mobile battle between his allies and the keeper.
It appeared the fight was outside the range the Sir John could easily contribute. Anaxian's mind raced through contingencies.
"Sir John, the Shoggoth is a significant distraction, but I expect at least one of the other Aboleth Masters will be arriving shortly. Let us prepare you. Allow me to possess you a moment."
This city's lyres were once mine replies Jiator telepathically, still within the silence field. As were its bards. And my wish-stones—but the Mayor took those personally, when he took my phylactery.