"Yes, of... of course. Clearly, I could still slay you where you stood if I so wished, but you have defended yourself honorably, and so I will reward you," replies the "dragon," lying through his teeth. "I have a vast hoard of treasure, to which I can lead you, though it is located far from this city." He clearly doesn't.
"I'm actually good friends with a dragon, and I know they are never truly far from their hoard. Which means, you don't have one. This is clearly your lair, so either its here, or your lying. I'm betting on the latter"
He shifts his weight slightly "I'm tired of the games, which means it's time to die. Worst case, I scour this cave and locate your treasure on my own. Shouldn't take me but a few moments"
The room is roughly spherical, perhaps 30 feet wide; you're both swimming near the center, about 10 feet apart (Drisquar hovering above the dragon, as he had moved to intercept him).
Dris becomes a whirlwind of motion, moving so fast that the aboleth has trouble keeping track of him, despite being so close. However, that's the least of it's concerns as suddenly he is struck by a blast of silvery light.
Teleportation would better cover our movements. Anaxian says, placing his portable hole on the floor against the hull of the ship.
With a bloop the air trapped inside the hole was released and water rushed in. Anaxian stepped in after, gesturing for Meridian to follow, and pulled the Hole shut.
Take us. his mind-voice came through just before the extra-dimensional space severed communication.
(fixed by miss increment)
Drisquar's ranged attack slices through one of the dragon's five mirror images, which disappears the second it is struck; but by the time he has recovered from the attacks, several of the symbols on the wall have resumed glowing, and the shredded image re-forms in the span of several seconds. It's hard to see, but the dragon does not appear to be bleeding, and its wounds seem to be very slowly closing up.
The dragons counter-attack, a flurry of wings and claws and teeth, tearing dozens of slashes through the water. Four of Drisquar's images are hit; and these, like the dragon's images, re-form quickly.
It's somewhat apocryphal, but Drisquar thinks through stories he's heard of fellow azatas who fought aboleths and illusionists, and remembers hearing something about fighting in blindness—if he were to close his eyes and fight the creature blind, using Perception checks, he might be able to see through the constantly swirling illusions and pinpoint its location.
Once again, Illia- jumps into the sealed black silo, this time taking care to teleport to the side of the structure furthest from the black goo monster. As Anaxian and Meredian stick their heads out of the portable hull, the creature lets forth another burst of maddening sound that Anaxian recognizes as a random assortment of words spoken through a dozen mouths in warped and broken Aklo.
The creature lashes out three pseudopods of black slime, one at each of the party members, each of which immediately recoils just before they would make contact. , its thoughts cry out, audible to Illia- and Anaxian's telepathy, and Anaxian recognizes it as the loudest mental voice he has ever heard.
The creature is a shoggoth—an ancient, massive creature of slime and madness. You've heard stories of shoggoths living deep within the darkest places of the Darklands, but never heard of a first-hand account. What you do know is that they are rumored to have some connection to aboleths, and are known for their endless hunger and inhuman madness.
The creature is a shoggoth—an ancient, massive creature of slime and madness. You've heard stories of shoggoths living deep within the darkest places of the Darklands. What you do know is stories, some reliable and some not: the shoggoths were servants of the first aboleth empire, created by fleshwarping magic run-away to the point of creating a truly amorphous creature. Shoggoths are known for their endless hunger and inhuman madness, but there are no accounts of the creatures acting out of malice or violence; while dangerous, unpredictable, and slow, they may actually be willing to cooperate and plan in their own way..
Meredian alone is not currently immune to the maddening cry of the shoggoth. Will save of DC 22 (mind-effecting, enchantment) or suffer 4 rounds of confusion.
Anaxian froze.
Anaxian was a difficult one to read. He had almost nothing in the way of body language, and none of the usual physiological responses that came with emotional stimulus. He did have emotional responses, they were simply muted by his undead nature, which when coupled with his cold, calculating disposition made his true feelings even more subtle.
His companions has learned that one of the only ways of picking up on Anaxian's feelings was to pick out faint empathic undertones in his mind-speech.
"Do not approach it. Give me a moment.
Right now, Anaxian was... worried.
Anaxian's four minds unraveled from their gordian knot to separately consider the situation in front of him.
Inside his small lair built into the Graveknight's chest, Anaxian's smaller body wrapped his wings around him and spoke a few phrases, bringing up a plethora of collected notes.
His eyes quickly scanned.
Within his chest a small gearbox turned, it too scanning with eldritch sightless senses.
Further within the box, another layer of the mind concentrated on drawing connections, acting as a placeholder and mental highlighter. Activating mnemonic triggers long engraved as memory enhancement tricks.
The three had worked together unknown by those around them for years. It wasn't only that Anaxian's mind was incredibly sharp. It could also process three times as much information at at once.
And now there were four of them...
The many minds of Anaxian re-braided themselves and spoke their conclusion.
"Shoggath. This is likely the most dangerous creature any of us have ever seen."
Anaxian detects a strong evocation barrier woven into the stone of the silo; the way it forms a flat plane where chunks have been knocked from the walls suggests a permanent Wall of Force, though the strength of the aura implies that such a spell would likely be boosted in its defensive capabilities to reach the strength he has detected.
Will
Dris pauses a moment to recall some ancient stories he's heard, then closes his eyes, trusting in his incredible senses to guide his strikes.
The fallen Bralani then attempts to slay his foe outright.
Attack 1 for
Attack 2 for
Attack 3 for
Attack 4(dagger) for
Attack 5 for
Drisquar's first attack hits, the rest missing through a combination of armor and concealment. The dragon's counterattack completely misses Drisquar, hitting his images instead.
"So, do we know how to free it?
Anaxian moved clear of his allies while they struggled through the Shoggoth's madness.
...Yes.
Shoggoth, tell us what you want.
the Shoggoth replies in a telepathic scream, before calming down slightly and continuing. comes the second half of the message.
Shoggoth is the only name we know to call your kind. No offense was meant. What would you prefer instead?
, replies the shoggoth,
Hungry Doom it is. I am Anaxian. With me is Meridian and Illia, who you were speaking with earlier. We too want this place destroyed. Are you willing to cooperate with us?
Aw, we don't need to bother with thinky long promises right? We all want some mayhem! So, when we let you out, it's your job to kill all the fishy masters fast as you can, and it's our job to get all the loot out as fast as we can! If we win, we get to leave with everything we want, and if you win, you get to try to eat us! But only if you've already killed all the aboleth. Sound fun?
Aw, we don't need to bother with thinky long promises right? We all want some mayhem! So, when we let you out, it's your job to kill all the fishy masters fast as you can, and it's our job to get all the loot out as fast as we can! If we win, we get to leave with everything we want, and if you win, you get to try to eat us! But only if you've already killed all the aboleth. Sound fun?
**Drools**
Meredian drools, babbles, and pounds his fists harmlessly on Illia-'s wings; the Erinyes ignores him, and keeps on talking.
"Hungry Doom" responds,
Anaxian waited until Meridian was finished raving, arching a single reptilian brow at usually dignified Drow.
If you are finished...
He returned his attention to the Shoggoth, approving of Illia's negotiations. Agreed.
Anaxian examined the force wall that caged the creature. I can get you out. You will need to submit to a spell which will put me in control of your body.
Mer regains her senses and wipes the drool from her mouth
"Well that was...undignified."
screams Hungry Doom in response.
Magic Jar. It is a kind of possession, so that I can teleport out of the prison while in your body.
Hungry Doom replies, possibly agreeing with the plan.
I rarely lie. I would also make an unsatisfying meal.
Hungry Doom, true to his word, lowers his spell resistance and allows the spell through.
Anaxian had never been a Shoggoth before. It took him a moment to adjust. Then he chuckled a burbling laugh.
He warped out of the prison appearing near the others.
The shoggoth's terrible protoplasmic form took on a shape that looked like an immense dragon's head was pressing out from beneath it's rippling skin.
He began casting spells.
His smaller body inside the Graveknight's chest began activating scrolls.
"It is always a pleasure to watch myself work." The larger dragon bragged. "I believe it is time to end the charade. Let us return to Jiator's well and free him."
"Sic em." Meredian grins
With arms crossed Meredian turns to look to her nearby companions as the Shogoth begins to do its thing,
"If you were an arrogant fish creature where would you keep your prize possessions? "
"These arrogant fish creatures have a rather different definition of 'prize possession' than we do. I suspect that we have just freed one of them, and are on our way to free another."
Anaxian sorted himself out, the water around him no longer hissing like a thermal vent as the Graveknight's fires were suppressed by his other soul. Then he crawled into the portable hole again, ready to travel.
"Illia, if you wouldn't mind."
Righto! The Lady'll be surprised we got it done so quick.