Astrianna impatiently taps her foot. "Are we ready to fight some sharks now? I'm not jumping in by myself."
"Ok, so, I'm sure there's no surprise that there is a strong magical aura coming from the altar. Do you guys think that I should try to lay a Dispel spell on the altar just to see what it will do?"
After hammering the alter several times with divine magic and not seeing anymore sharks, Chell finally gives up. "Ugh. Stupid alter."
Chell nearly smacks herself in the face at her own stupidity. Of course the alter wouldn't be harmed. I was divinely protected. That would have to be countered to do damage. Thankfully she had the holy water but not the silver or spell. This would need to be seen to tomorrow. "Let's just leave it for the day and make sure the wyverns didn't go back on their deal."
Sorrin is quiet. Not much for him to do, but pay attention. Perhaps after spreading to the rescues, he's scout ahead.
Astrianna shakes her head about the dispel. "I'd save your magic. Besides, if everyone's dead there would be no one to use the altar."
She again points at the water. "We're here to kill the cultists, remember? There is probably a hybrid or two mixed in there."
"Regardless of any cultists left, I'd say we still need to destroy that altar. Not the kind of thing that we should just leave around to be found again later."
"Is there any way of using any magic sight to tell any hybrids from the regular sharks?"
"I can do both but I am short on spells," Chell responds to Bri. "I can detect diseases with a spell which should tell the difference but it requires concentration. For the alter, I need to consecrate it with Quell's divine energy to weaken Dajobas' protection first. And for that I need 5 pounds of silver dust. I am not sure we have that."
Ptahh eventually leads the former prisoner back down and into the main cavern. There the former captives will advise they came in through a strange statue garden. They know of no other way out of the cavern system. although one will advise that he heard some talk about a "Sharkery, that lies below. The BIG black visits there." He points to the one of the lakes.
Astrianna clicks her tongue as she thinks. These folks can't breathe water, we can't swim fast enough to stop them from drowning, and I doubt Chell has any spells on her that would help.
Sighing, she looks into the lakes. "Regardless of what we do, I don't think we can do it today. We're going to miss the eclipse either way, I fear. Though I'd like to clear out these sharks here at least."
"Did you have to swim to get in? Can one of you guide us out? We have a ship outside I would like to get to before resting," she asks of the prisoners.
"They enspelled." Commenting about the breathing underwater. "We didn't 'ave a choice."
"It's really too bad that I can't Dimension Door more that a couple people. I guess I could touch everyone as they go past me and give them a minute of water breathing, but I don't know how much good that will do for everyone."
I've little if anything helpful, save my arm and silvered steel.
What resources have we? And are we satisfied naught else left but to return to ship?
Without water breathing most folks will drown, its just too far to swim. I'd suspect that most people will need at least 1 minute plus their constitution scores. People have to swim down the tunnel then navigate through the statue field and then up. What makes it difficult is movement is half. Ride the waves will help one person swim faster.
Of course, there could always be more combat on the way out which would put a kink in the breathing.
Swim
Make a Swim check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to half your speed (as a full-round action) or at a quarter of your speed (as a move action). If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater.
If you are underwater, either because you failed a Swim check or because you are swimming underwater intentionally, you must hold your breath. You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to twice your Constitution score, but only if you do nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If you take a standard action or a full-round action (such as making an attack), the remainder of the duration for which you can hold your breath is reduced by 1 round. (Effectively, a character in combat can hold his breath only half as long as normal.) After that period of time, you must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round to continue holding your breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If you fail the Constitution check, you begin to drown. The DC for the Swim check depends on the water, as given on the table below.
"I see two option. I can prepare a lot of Stone Shape and burrow us out. No sharks to deal with that way. Or I can prepare a single different spell and swim everyone out. Embri's enchantment would last long enough but enemies in the water would hamper us. But I can do neither until tomorrow. Unless Embri wants to brave the water herself for more ways out?"
Astrianna shrugs. "Shaping a tunnel sounds the best bet. Just remember, Dalang is still here... somewhere. Hopefully he won't attack the ship or us while we're resting. In any case, we have to do something, so choose. I want to kill more sharks but no one seems behind the idea, and I'm not jumping in by myself."
She raises a finger to make a point. "Also, you need to cure Saegen. If Dalang attacks us, his aid would be invaluable. Quell has a lot of prayers to answer, it would seem."
"I told you its not possible at this point," Chell says getting rather annoyed. Did they think she could heal anything? "And I'm not sure anything can. Monks are supposed to immune to disease. And a cleric of my own faith is the Chosen of Dojabos. Do you realize how far outside my element we are? The one that gave us these potions is the only one strong enough in the area that might have a chance. I have a sliver of the ship so we could find him but Port Shaw is in imminent danger right now. And so are we for that matter. Unless you can draw them to the surface or want to swim with them, I think we are done for the day." Her piece said she goes over to the prisoners and sits with them, asking about the events that lead them here. She also tends to their wounds and tries to give them a fighting chance against the lycanthrope. Maybe they could use less potions.
Sorrin nods to Astrianna. Ptahh and I can kill some sharks...
I don't mean to second guess Priestess, but could a scroll from Father Zalen help the monk? I'm certain you've considered this and answered, but my head is swimming. Forgive me.
Chell sighs. When would they get it? "Not belittle his abilities but I can cast stronger spells than Father Zalen. Unless he knows someone or has prepared ahead of time, he cannot help."
"If we need to plan to spend the night here and then prepare for tomorrow, perhaps we could discuss what proper spells to prepare? I mean, it does seem like a poor idea for everyone to swim back out right now and I could only attempt to teleport a couple people out."
None of the PC's are infected. I'd have to check but if memory serves there are three prisoners one is infected. He si the one that was kissed as you entered the cavern. Sorrin watched it occur (there really wasn't anything he could do alone.) That was when you caught a glimpse of the massive black shark
There are plenty of rations in the cavern. They were stockpiling goods.
Ptaah plops down int eh doorway and watches the tunnel while the others rest. The evening is uneventful but the monk does wake up and he is not thrilled with being hog tied.
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Bri will double check the ropes after he wakes to make sure he hasn't shifted them lose at all.
"Smile big guy, some of my best dates have started this way."
His large wereshark frame thrashes as Bri tightens a rope.
Astrianna awakes from some terrible sleep on the hard ground of the cave floor. "Ugh. Remember when we stayed the night at The Captain's Wheel...? I'm staying a night there again when we get back to Shaw."
She sighs and rubs her eyes, taking out her coffee maker and a bag of beans to brew up a cup or two of thick, black coffee. "Well, are we going to track down Dalang, or are we getting out of here? Personally, I think we should end the Chosen now, else the curse will continue to spread." It occurs to her that Dalang may have escaped, which would be highly unfortunate.
In the morning, Chell stretches until joints pop and re-dons her armor. Since she was still alive, she assumed Seagen stayed put. Unfortunately he was still a wereshark. But maybe that could also be fixed. That could wait a moment though. Instead, she tries to visualize their journey through the island and the lay of the land as she remembered from above. Stone shape could only go so far. The bridge was worked because it was thin. The hole to get out would need to be much bigger.
Astri wakes up with that terrible, she shivers a bit when he notices the monk laying on his side eyeballing her. "Should I kill you today or just give you to him for a Kiss?" He whispers confidentially.
Chell you are pretty confident that the closest way out is through the ceiling here, tunneling to the surface.
Astrianna is momentarily startled when she notices the monk is staring at her, but quickly regains her composure. Ugh. Creepy. Sitting up, she runs her hands through her hair, fluffing it out while pretending to speak casually. In reality, she hopes he doesn't make good on his words. "You have your pseudodragon friend, Tao to thank for us coming to find you. We'll figure out a way to cure you... perhaps the first of many."
The bard grabs a brush out of her haversack, and starts to get the knots out of her raven hair. The half-elf takes a moment to probe for some remaining humanity- she's skeptical, but something happened when they were fighting him yesterday that makes her believe he's resisting somehow. "... wouldn't you like to continue your journeys with Tao? He misses you dearly, and would certainly be saddened by these threats you're making."
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After a hardy breakfast of hardtack and jerky from provisions she had in her pack, Chell bows her head in supplication, asking for guidance and the strength to do her duty. In this place infused with the energies of an evil god, she figured Quell's strength would be diminished. Instead, she found strength overflowing and she had to will it to slow down. There was time still in the morning to test a few things before gathering all the power she could hold.
One spell in particular seemed to jump into her mind. She walks over to Astrianna who is trying to reason with the monk turned wereshark. "Let me try something," she says placing a hand on Astri's shoulder. "Embrianna can you help?" she calls over to the witch. "Can you use that one ability you use? The one that makes enemies less confident? I'll tell you when." "And Astri, can you keep him focused on Tao? I am going to try and suppress the wereshark but he might resist the spell." She then reaches out and places a hand on the monks head, holding firm against his thrashing. In her other hand she pops the cork on a bottle of holy water. White mist seeps out of the bottle and wraps around his head as she prays. She attempts to push the curse back, back into the corner of his soul and into a locked cage made of holy ice.