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Leave the crab. I have plans for it. Anaxian said.
Dris charges the two armored Karkinoi but before he does that, he blasts the entire group with a lightning bolt.
Since Drisquar had brought the fight to the reinforcements it was unlikely that they were going to progress much further. Anaxian knew Illia would be fine on her own and could regroup with them instantly.
He followed Drisquar, his crab-ogre body glowing with cinder flames from within a roiling black cloud of ink, leaving a boiling, sooty wake behind him.
From within the hollow crab shell, Anaxian reached out with his spirit-sense and found the massive undead crab.
so 39 damage.
Anaxian gains control of the Great Reef Crab skeleton, though none of his enemies seem to notice.
Drisquar's Lightning Bolt behaves erratically underwater, widening into a cylinder that hits three Chuuls and both Karkinoi, though they scatter with surprising agility, and only two Chuuls takes full damage from the attack. Meredian sends an empowered lightning blast that strikes one of the most injured Chuuls, targeting its neighbor as well through electric diffusion. Drisquar's follow attack hits one of the Karkinoi squarely, and yellow ichor bleeds into the water.
Sir John prepares an attack against the first enemy to come into range. Sure enough, three of the Chuuls charge him, but their claws fall short. The first Chuul is torn to pieces by a prepared attack and an attack of opportunity. The second is hit by only a single hit, but succumbs to John's paralyzing touch. The third Chuul is hit by attacks of opportunity from both Sir John and Big Anaxian, and is knocked unconscious, bleeding heavily out into the water.
Drisquar is swarmed by the remaining Chuul and two Karkinoi, which nimbly scuttle into a flanking position. Dodging a flurry of claws and blades, he is hit four times. The claws barely penetrate his defenses, and are completely unable to grab his swiftly-moving form, but one strike delivers a small scratch. Try as they might, none of the crab-men can get any sort of purchase on him with their claws.
Illia is surrounded by a cloud of floating bodies, and a single, injured ordinary aboleth. After sitting still for a few seconds, as though concentrating on something, the aboleth throws its tentacles up in the air and shouts "Spare me! I was your prisoner!" in shrieking, nearly incomprehensible burbled Undercommon.
From the other side of the well, a second formation of Chuuls and Karkinoi step forward, surrounding another large crab, though they seem to hesitate as they see their distant compatriots torn to shreds in an instant.
Far away, eight other battlegroups of skum, gillmen, and aboleths slowly move towards Illia-'s position high above the city.
On the currents, you hear a growing murmur from across the city—it is the sound of chaotic chattering in a strange tongue, similar to that Hungry Doom produced, but... higher pitched, and spoken with far more voices.
The music you've faintly heard in the city since arriving is changing—rather than a few scattered tunes, the distant points of sound have united into a single melody some time in the last dozen seconds.
Shoggoth? Jiator calls out telepathically, as the party pulls ahead of him. You mean you got to the Gibbering Mouther pits, right? I know the Master of Souls was experimenting on them, but I didn't realize any of them had grown large enough to be mistaken for something truly powerful.
Still, he muses, Any sonic distractions might be welcome here.
Idly, he strums his violin, and one of the Karkinoi in the more distant groups stumbles, blinded.
"There's some strange chaotic chattering akin to Hungry Doom, but higher and with more voices coming from the city" Dris says as he dances around his foes feeble attempts to strike him.
"You guys are really rather pathetic." He then lets loose a whirlwind of strikes, targeting the injured Karkinoi.
for
Gonna re-roll.
Possible crit.
if that confirms
for
dagger. Possible crit.
for
for
Drisquar takes down the most heavily injured Karkinoi in two strikes, Shimsil slicing effortlessly through chiton and bone. Whirling, he strikes out at the other Karkinoi, injuring it heavily with sword and dagger.
Shoggoth? Jiator calls out telepathically, as the party pulls ahead of him. You mean you got to the Gibbering Mouther pits, right? I know the Master of Souls was experimenting on them, but I didn't realize any of them had grown large enough to be mistaken for something truly powerful.
Still, he muses, Any sonic distractions might be welcome here.
Idly, he strums his violin, and one of the Karkinoi in the more distant groups stumbles, blinded.
Perception
Wisdom"well, whatever it is it said it'd eat us last. That or we just kill it. Either way.
Meredian casually shrugs as she points and fires a long range jolt of lightning at the enemy, hitting two if she can.
Touch then half again for empowered total 46
"did you hear that? It sounds like there are more of them or something
I believe I know the difference between a gibbering mouther and a shoggoth. Anaxian said with dry arrogance. I possessed the creature briefly. It's capabilities are well known to me.
I believe the gibbering mouthers are incoming.
As he spoke, he tore into the pathetic creatures in front of him.
"Were you? I forgot." Illia swims into the Aboleth's slime to lay attacks into it, recovering her maneuvers via saving throw and regening to full health in another surge of black and red infernal themed energy.
Meredian's lightning spout fries the remaining Chuul and damages the last Karkinoi, which Crab-Anaxian proceeds to grab with both claws, tearing the ogre-sized crab man into three pieces as its eyes go wide with horror, yellow ichor spouting from torn gills and arteries.
Illia- hits the aboleth in front of her with three square attacks, leaving its unconscious form bleeding green slime heavily into the water.
The faint sound in the distance has grown loud enough to be faintly heard by anyone in the party who concentrates—the sound of chorused, gibbering mouthers slowly making their way across the city.
Two of the aboleth-skum groups heading towards Illia- turn towards the sound, but the other six keep moving towards her, the closest squad now 120 feet away.
The second group of crab and crab-men continues to hold in place, nervously waving their claws, as Big Anaxian and Sir John move towards them.
From within the Possessed crab, Anaxian telepathically communicates with his Familiar, instructing it to assert control just as Anaxian released it.
Anaxian himself, back inside his own body and surrounded by all these useful corpses, did what he does best.
Faint, ghostly specters of snake-like dragons brought onyx dust pouring out of the larger dragon's cloud of smoke, reaching into the corpses and filling them with a dark reflection of life.
All around Sir John and the larger dragon corpses began to twitch, rise, and move again. They moved as one within the cloud of inky blackness, following Anaxian their dead crab overlord.
Illia- will port next to another aboleth, preferably one with lots of minions nearby, but if not, she prioritizes the masters over the slaves.
Dris fires off another lightning bolt at the largest group or groups of enemies, then dashes off towards Illia to assist his friend. Upon closing the distance, he casts a spell to increase his defenses.
46 damage
Drisquar's lightning bolt cuts through two groups of minions, widening and branching over its 120' length, instantly frying 17 Skum and 5 Gillmen.
Meredian drifts ten feet towards the living crab group, and idly flings another one of her lightning touches, hitting both of the distant Chuuls hard . The three armed Karkinoi appear to be casting spells, though from a distance of over 200 feet none of the party are close enough to identify what spells.
The enemies near Drisquar scatter, fanning out and apart from their clumps after the first lightning bolt. Clouds of Skum and Gillmen keep moving towards Illia-, but the closest aboleth withdraws away from her. Spells whiz harmlessly by her, but a few claws and tridents find purchase, dealing small scratches. . A few enemies move towards Drisquar, the closest a hundred feet away.
In the distance, the maddening chatter intensifies. Six gibbering mouthers roll over a nearby building, the smallest only a foot across.
In a distant ring around the city and high above you, each about 800 feet from your current position, twelve swimming figures and one aboleth have arranged themselves in an even ring.
Drisquar also notices a very large aboleth—the one Meredian previously spoke to as the Master of Souls—waving its massive tentacles from its tower a thousand feet away.
[ooc]sorry. Busy weekend.[\ooc]
There he is. That rude bastard needs to go down.
Meredian fires at the master of souls
plus half for 51
"Aw.... Come back... That'll make this a lot quicker."
The black cloud continued to move toward the next giant crab.
"Uh, guys, there's some sort of ring of a dozen creatures and aboleth in a ring. Perhaps some sort of ritual magic? Or something equally unpleasant?"
Dris charges the nearest wizard, striking him hard.
"We can leave whenever we want. Do we want to leave for a half minute and come back to hit them from another angle? The most dangerous fight is against an enemy fighting the way they want to." Illia cheerily points out, as presumably another wave of claws and spells assails her.
"Drisquar, can you get me near to the Master of Souls?"
"Illia, I believe leaving would be premature. If I am unable to neutralize the master of souls, then perhaps a retreat to regroup is in order. I need a few moments more to find out. However, I think it is time to bring more of our own forces to bear. Will you please teleport to our shark and instruct it to come to me. Then return. It will follow in its own time."
"Sure thing Boss, hop aboard the Drisquar Express and I'll get you to him in mere moments"
Anaxian crawled out of his larger body's Karkoloi shell and into the inky cloud. He looked up, and broke a small scale on his chest. An ectoplasmic dolphin appeared next to him. He grabbed it and it towed him near to Drisquar.
Given how easily they can take command of that guy, are you sure that's a good idea?