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Given how easily they can take command of that guy, are you sure that's a good idea?
I do not mind playing tug of war with them. I have means of asserting control with little to no effort. To contrast, if they are asserting control, it means they are not doing anything else at the time.
Next round Meredian fires again, at the same Alboleth if
It's still alive.
then half again for 44
Drisquar swims forward, swinging Shimsil as he does so and cutting one Gillman spellcaster clean in half. The other Gillmen around him withdraw, but he is swarmed by eight Skum and one aboleth. One trident attack hits him, but completely fails to pierce his protective aura; the aboleth also hits with one of its tentacles, but fails to damage Drisquar, and he shrugs off the effect of its slime.
Illia's circle of razor feathers hits 13 Skum and 2 Gillmen. One of the Skum survives with heavy injuries; the others drift, in a cloud of dismemberment, partially obscuring vision. Switching tactics, no further Skum charge her; instead, the clouds of enemies appear to be circling away from her, while the Gillmen sling spells. Rays and vapors and illusions and sprays of grease whiz by her with little effect, though she is outlined in sparkling glitterdust.
Meredian hits an Aboleth, hard, though it promptly withdraws out of her range, leaving an unconvincing illusory duplicate in its place. However, she is close enough to target the Aboleth threatening Drisquar, and does so with her next attack, frying two adjacent Skum in the process.
Big Anaxian and Sir John move closer to the second group of crab-men, who huddle in place, readying their claws against a charge.
Small Anaxian finishes summoning his dolphin, which carries him to Drisquar’s position.
A distant building, perhaps three hundred feet away from the party, crashes to the ground, and as it does so is crested by a wave of black and gray slime. Pausing for a second at the top of the rubble, Hungry Doom raises a twenty-foot pseudopod and roars in Aklo, and around him surge forty Gibbering Mouthers, babbling madly. The two battle groups that have moved towards the Mouthers circle over head, as Gillmen and Aboleths fire off rays and flashes of light, with all save a single attack spell bouncing off the Shoggoth's spell resistance.
In the distance, a faint melody plays, though it is hard to hear over the crashes and shouts of the approaching oozes.
The Master of Souls wriggles out of his tower with surprising grace, and, undulating his 80-foot body like a gigantic eel, swims forward towards Illia- at impressive speed, emitting a low, rumbling sound from his sides as he does so. The sound, coming in pulses, is echoed by a few chattering cries in the Aboleth tongue, as across the city humanoid skeletons begin to step into the streets, grabbing improvised weapons and construction tools.
Towards the edge of the city, a bright light turns on in the City Council building.
"That... that is a shoggoth," Jiator calls out, nearly stammering in surprise. As the Giant Reef Crab skeleton passes, he climbs on top of it. "This thing won't outrun a hungry Shoggoth, though, so 'eat us last' isn't too comforting," he adds.
Drisquar creates several illusory duplicates of himself, then speeds towards Anaxain, shifting into wind form once he's gotten the little dragon.
Illia- will teleport next to the really big really far away creature.
"Hii!"
Dris scoops up Anaxian, shifts into wind form, and then speeds towards the Master of Souls and shifts back to Bralani form upon arriving next to the aboleth.
As the smaller dragon jetted away, the larger dragon was a bit at a loss. This particular facet of Anaxian's personality was comprised primarily of ambition and malice. This one lacked the creativity and clarity of vision of its smaller counterpart. As such, the chaotic situation left this Anaxian at a bit of a loss. It had not existed long enough to feel completely confident in its own abilities.
Anaxian's malicious nature stemmed largely from a deep-rooted inferiority complex. In the the smaller dragon it drove him to become all that he currently was. It was a relentless whip on the back of his mind pushing him to ever greater knowledge and power. It gnawed at him, and when he'd first put his dream of splintering his personality into multiple psyches, he could not help but want to shunt that part of himself, at least in part, off onto the new being he had created.
As such, Anaxian the Second was feeling... overwhelmed.
He was still a proud, powerful tyrant of a creature so the recognition of his own internal weakness made him furious.
He barreled toward the group of crab-men like an inky, roiling comet, roaring out his hate with a voice straight from some burning nether. His roar boiled out from him in a wave of super-heated water that crashed over the huddled group, cooking them in their shells.
Behind the streaking cloud of ink, the dead Chuul and the enormous crab skeleton continued their charge, plowing into the line of living crab soldiers with hidious recklessness.
The undead Chuul were leaking partially cauterized fluid the color of iodine and crackling at every joint.
Full defense if nothing is close, if something can charge me i will ready a melee attack. But i imagine nothing can see me in the cloud of smoke.
"That... that is a shoggoth," Jiator calls out, nearly stammering in surprise. As the Giant Reef Crab skeleton passes, he climbs on top of it. "This thing won't outrun a hungry Shoggoth, though, so 'eat us last' isn't too comforting," he adds.
"You know we could just ... You know... leave. " Meredian indicates herself and Jiator
"They're after you and the clean up crew..." indicating her companions "...seem to have this well in hand." Meredian waves her hand in a wide arc indicating the total chaos around them.
"I mean we could literally just fly away. How far above the water do you think they can follow? Probably not much. "
Meredian gives Jiator a moment to think then asks, "Shall we?"
"With teleportation?" Jiator asks. "It's not easy to out-swim an aboleth otherwise... "
"With teleportation?" Jiator asks. "It's not easy to out-swim an aboleth otherwise... "
"no. Just fly to the surface and leave. They seem sufficiently occupied to me. "
The Master of Souls backs five feet away from Drisquar, and casts Greater Invisibility. The Giant Octopus zombie jets past Drisquar and swivels, flanking him and HQ Anaxian, its tentacles and barbed beak unfurling menacingly.
Illia- teleports directly next to another large Aboleth—not quite the size of the Master of Souls, but still over 60 feet long, larger than anything she's ever directly fought. The demonic, plated fish calls out something loud and grating in a language she does not understand, and slides sideways through the water , as one of its tentacles retrieves a 5-foot long leather banner, which it reads as though it were a scroll. Orbs of green energy fly forward, orbiting around Illia- in a glowing blur, and she is suddenly no longer able to teleport.
More spells bounce harmlessly off of Hungry Doom, with only a single Magic Missile connecting. A wave of eighteen Skum dive at the Shoggoth with their tridents, each one failing to noticeably injure it; the creature responds by swimming forward, engulfing every single one of them inside of its ropey black mass as it stretches and ripples. A few of the smaller gibbering mouthers are picked apart by spells and attacks, and the rest seem too distracted by attacks, burrowing randomly into the stone around them now that their leader and commander has moved upwards instead of forward.
The undead in the street continue to gather, and a few more stragglers appear to join them, though they move forward only slowly.
Big Anaxian's fire hits the crab group hard, and they scatter into a semicircle, but refuse to come within 20 feet of Big Anaxian/Sir John and their superior reach.
Drisquar, Illia-, and HQ Anaxian, from their vantage points above the streets, hear faint string music, as the stones of the city begin to ripple and shake in a wide ring far around the party.
"You do know you aren't truly hiding from me, right? You're right there" Dris taunts the Master of Souls. "I mean, come on, at least make this difficult for me."
He swiftly covers the distance between them, and strikes with Shimsil, delivering a precise, surgical blow.
Your Deathwatch thinks the Master of Souls is still living.
Lamarchand, Glitterdust. Anaxian commanded his familiar, zeroing in on the general location of the Aboleth as Drisquar engaged it.
The Master of Souls and Drisquar were immediately covered in silvery sparkling dust.
Once the Aboleth was visible in the dust, Anaxian's purple-flame eyes swirled and he whispered a truth into the ancient fish-creature's mind that reached back to its memories of life and brought its faint, nearly forgotten infancy to overwhelm it.
Illia- moves forward and strikes.
Belay that.
Anaxian picked the healthiest looking crab-person and lunged.
Sir John swings the nearest two enemies fool enough to be within 10ft of him.
Sir John cuts apart the two injured Chuuls, while Big Anaxian tears into one of the Karkinoi. The creature strikes out at him with a prepared attack, but misses by a large margin. The crab-folk counterattack; six attacks bounce off of Sir John, while a longsword hits him surprisingly hard, failing entirely to penetrate his lich protections. Big Anaxian similarly shrugs off several attacks, but is hit hard by one of the 20-foot Great Reef Crab's large claws, grabbed and crushed.
Anaxian illuminates the Master of Souls with sparkly dust, allowing Drisquar to hit the Master hard, sinking his entire arm into the cut, although with the creature's large size, it's hard to see the extent of the injury. The big octopus zombie follows after Drisquar and stretches its tentacles, making eight attempts to grab him. Twenty-foot tentacles fly forward, bludgeoning, but none hit hard enough to injure Drisquar, and none even come close to grabbing him. The Master of Souls swims sideways, and hits Drisquar with an Enervation spell—the Fallen Bralani feels his limbs go sluggish, as he takes 2 temporary negative levels of damage.
Somehow, information about the success of this attack is conveyed, and as Illia- stumbles in the water, missing widely, the new Master hits her with the same spell. Far around her, music grows and swells in intensity.
The skum and gillmen change tactics, wheeling around in the water and now all moving towards the incursion of slimes. The mages circle and wheel, firing off a barrage of slow spells. Twelve trident-users get close enough to charge one of the larger Gibbering Mouthers, cutting it to pieces, and Hungry Doom takes the bait, swimming backwards to crush and consume every single one of them, though several Mouthers are injured by the onrush. Around the Shoggoth, the stone crackles and shifts, as great earthen walls begin to slowly form, rising 10 feet out of the city streets in a large circle around the Shoggoth and Mouthers. The aboleths within the cloud move to follow, pulling farther away from the party.
Skeletons and zombies continue to gather in the streets, marching into formations of 10-20 and drawing whatever weapons and construction implements they can find. The shark-riders, on the other hand, circle around, and begin swimming towards Drisquar.
Approximately 20' away from Big Anaxian/Sir John, in a semicircle (and 160' away from Jiator, as he rides Anaxian's crab), two Chuuls and three armed Karkinoi point their claws forward in a defensive semicircle. All are injured, one of the Karkinoi is blinded, and both of the Chuuls are near death
"There's over a hundred skeletons gathering," Jiator calls out to Meredian, Sir John, and Big Anaxian, from the back of his skeleton crab. "Join me on this crab or get behind me, and I'll clear them out."
"Well... This is starting to get irritating. I may have to start calling in favors."
If the chuul and other assorted rabble close to 5ft distance of me, I get up to nine AoOs by virtue of my increased AoO area. In case that comes into play.