The jellyfish swims underneath the still-floating boat and tries to keep it from sinking further while pushing it a little bit toward the ledge the party left from.
Fang clambers across the rocking boat, hissing at the other elemental.
As Jakscar continues to take a beating, he notices Shabbezz struggling. Stepping delicately along the sunken boat, he whirls his blades in a defensive net of steel, trying to hold the elemental at bay.
"Angelica, get Shabbezz out of here, I will hold it off. Zaph I could do with any help your goddess can offer here!
HP 21/48
AC 22+4 (T14+4/F18)
Black cat 0/1
Cat's Luck 1/1
"Right! Hang on!"
Zaph's summoned starknife keeps jabbing at the elemental while he steps to the tip of the prow on the remaining boat, holding his symbol aloft.
0--create water, detect magic, light, read magic
1--command, magic stone, sanctuary, shield of faith,
2--
3-- dispel magic, stone shape,
Channel Energy 2/9
Haste 0/1
Agile Feet 4/6
With one boat sunk and the other rapidly approaching the same fate, no one knew precisely what to do. The webbing held the stern of the remaining boat fast, but the prow was already underwater and the rest of the boat was almost full of water. Harbug the jelly tried to push the boat back upwards, but with the weight of the water already filling it, he didn't make any headway. Angelica shoved hard, and the webbing tore, allowing the boat to move a little ways farther downstream. Zaphomil's healing energy kept the group topped off on their health, but the wounds they had received still ached.
The elemental blasted through Jakscar's defense, as the catfolk was well and thoroughly in the creature's element, so to speak. The black catfolk was knocked under the water with the force of the blows, and kicked back to his feet, spluttering and hissing as he tried to stand on his toes and keep his head out of the water.
Boat 1 is sunk! Boat 2 is nearly sunk.
Jakscar takes 2 hits for a total of 19 damage
Initiatives:
Zaphomil 3
Jakscar 20
Shabezz 18
Harbug 17
Angelica 11
elementals 4
Here's the map
web is shown as white template
current hit point status:
Zaphomil -0
Jakscar -37
Shabezz -0
Harbug -0
Angelica -0
While the rest of the group did their best to stay in the fight, Shabbezz tried once again to swim to the second boat.
She broke the through surface and sputtered, but her thrashing was unable to keep her afloat and she sunk beneath the water once again.
Zaphomil converts one of his highest-level spells into healing energy which stays ready on his hand. Then he dives into the water and using his goddess's gifts of freedom, he effortlessly moves through the current to come right up behind Jakscar. He places his hand on the catfolk swashbuckler and the wounds instantly mend.
0--create water, detect magic, light, read magic
1--command, magic stone, sanctuary, shield of faith, remove fear(B)
2--aid, shatter, spiritual weapon, remove paralysis (B)
3-- dispel magic, stone shape, fly(B)
Channel Energy 2/9
Haste 0/1
Agile Feet 3/6
Unable to safely move out of the elementals range without opening himself up or endangering Shabbezz, the battered and exhausted Jakscar prepares to meet his fate. Realising that defence doesn't work against this creature he drops his short sword and focuses all his remaining strength into a big overhand blow.
However fighting in the water and his already exhausted body, rob him of accuracy.
Under his breath he curses Angelica and his greediness as he prepares to meet his doom.
Angelica accepts her lack of ability to affect the fight in a positive way, and works to help the others that can. She pushes off of whatever solid surface remains from the sunken boat, and moves toward Shabbezz.
Jakscar continued his lone fight as his companions raced to his aid, landing a glancing blow. The catfolk felt some of his wounds close as Zaphomil knifed through the water to heal him. It was a good thing, too, as the water elemental slipped another watery limb through his defense, slamming his head under the water briefly before Jakscar managed to get his feet under him again. Angelica swam to Shabbezz' aid, helping lift the arboreal frog-like grippli above the surface. Harbug the jelly stroked through the water to aid Jakscar as Fang yowled loudly in the stern of the boat, the only remaining portion of the craft still above water.
Boat 1 is sunk! Boat 2 is sunk, except for the part still held in the web.
Jakscar receives 18 healing.
Jakscar is hit for 11 damage
Initiatives:
Zaphomil 3
Jakscar 20
Shabezz 18
Harbug 17
Angelica 11
elementals 4
Everyone is up!
Here's the map
web is shown as white template
current hit point status:
Zaphomil -0
Jakscar -30
Shabezz -0
Harbug -0
Angelica -0
The jellyfish wiggles madly at the water elemental, largely with little effect whatsoever.
;
;
;
;
;
;
Fang, seeing the boat slowly sinking in the water shifts back to her tiny housecat form to prevent her weight from hastening the oncoming water.
Gasping for air once Angelica brings her to the surface, Shabbezz sees Jakscar locked in single combat with the elemental.
"Th-thank you!" she sputters to the changeling. "Just take me to one of the walls, I can hold on to it! Jakscar needs your help!"
Feeling the somewhat lighter blow from the elemental and the healing rush from Zaph, Jakscar dares to hope he might make it through this. With nowhere to retreat to he continues to hack at the creature, in big two-handed swings.
Angelica continues to try and swim with Shabbezz in tow, "Sorry, little one, but my attacks are almost completely useless against it. The best I can do is be helpful to those that can. Right now, that may just mean helping you and Zap through the water." She tries to continue to swim while still helping Shabbezz stay above water, and at least back away from the thing to give them a safer distance.
Zaph's summoned starknife keeps up its attacks while he applies more healing to Jakscar.
0--create water, detect magic, light, read magic
1--command, magic stone, sanctuary, shield of faith,
2--
3--
Channel Energy 2/9
Haste 0/1
Agile Feet 3/6
In desperation, Harbug and Jakscar threw themselves at the water elemental, splashing pure water from the creature with every strike. Howling, the elemental dispersed, leaving the combatants soaking wet, with no boats or means of traversal, other than swimming. Shabezz' web still held the stern of the second dory out of the water, Fang barely able to stay mostly dry by perching on the palm-width of wood still above the surface.
The water where you are is only about five to five and a half foot deep, making it slow going for most of you. Shabbezz and Zaphomil are forced to swim or hang on to the others to keep station in the slow, but inexhaustible current.
"I think--" Zaphomil shouts as he bobs up and down in the water, "I think we did it!"
He then casts a spell and touches the side of the cavern, causing the stone to melt and flow into a ladderlike arch that stretches across the water leading back to the platform. "Grab hold of this!" he shouts, using it to climb back to the stone platform.
He pulls himself out of the water, dripping and sputtering. "So, who's up for a break?"
When he helps Jakscar out of the water, he casts another healing spell to make sure his friend is healed.
"Thank you, Zaphomil!" she calls out to the priest.
She turns in Angelica's grasp.
"Angelica, if you can take us to the bridge, I can get myself up."
As the water elemental collapsed back onto the water it came from, Jakscar almost slumps in near exhaustion, but pulls up short as his face nearly sinks below the waterline. Struggling to the stone bridge, he slowly pulls himself to the platform and practically collapses.
"Well, I'm certainly not moving for a while. I will try and retrieve my short blade in a bit, but I need to rest first."
Harbug transforms back into an orc and pulls himself from the water. "Anyone want some blood? I'm doing well but I couldn't exactly grasp what was going on above the water. Jakscar you look especially bad." Harbug taps the catman on the shoulder, and some of his wounds seal up.
He turns and sinks himself back in the water; retrieves the clearly unhappy cat from the last floating part of the boat, and lets it off onto the stone platform. "I'm not sure if we can repair it, but we can see about that last boat since it's still around. I'll tie some ropes to it and we can haul it up here. Anyone have a mending spell prepared?" He gets two ropes out and leaves the ends with anyone willing to hold them, then tries to tie the other ends to the boat that is still slightly afloat before returning to help pull it up to the platform.
"No mending, but in the morning I could ask Desna for make whole." He pauses, thinks for a moment, and adds, "That's make whole. W-H-O-L-E. Not, ahem, a hole. The boat doesn't need another one of those."
it did not take long for everyone to make their way to Zaphimil's ledge, and from there to the original platform at the end of the hallway. Tired, wet, and sorely injured, you collapsed on the stone floor.
Examination of the boats from the relative dryness of the ledge confirms Zaphomil's estimation that nothing short of a make whole spell would see those hulls above the water again.
"Do we want to explore the other end of this waterway? I don't think we'll be able to get up through the water and metal grate that block the way we went before."
Angelica deposits Shabbezz on the makeshift stone walkway that just manifested, then from hanging on the edge with a dour look on her face, drops back into the water after Jakscar mentions his blade. "I'll get it." she offers morosely curt, and moves toward where he dropped it without another word.
"Shall we rest here? I've expended most of the powers Desna has granted me this day. I think we'll be stronger in the morning."
"We may as well," Shabbezz answers, wringing some water from the edge of her robes. "It may just be wishful thinking, but I don't think that those elementals will be coming back anytime soon."
" I could do with a rest, all the healing has fixed all the broken bits, but it takes it out of you all the same. Thanks Angelica, I appreciate it. I don't think we had many choices, but to continue. Any one for some soggy trail rations?" Jakscar even manages to force a little smile at the last point.
"Jakscar's right. Any of you have something we can use to make a fire? It's not exactly warm after being in that water."
Shabbezz sets her pack down and begins rummaging through it.
"...Flint and steel, tindertwigs, candles, torches...take your pick, assuming they're not too damp after all that. And we'll need some sort of kindling."
Zaphomil's eyes twinkle in delight as he holds up a small bead. "Relax, everyone. Desna's faithful come prepared when we go traveling."
He sets the bead in the center of the ledge and speaks the command word, "Smores!" Instantly, the bead turns into a small but delightfully warm campfire.
He plops down cross-legged and starts to warm his hands.
Look, Zap, I don't know how long this magic ledge you made will last, but I would rather we settle in for the night on that sandy patch we found the boats on. More room to move if needed, and less risk of rolling off into this blasted river. If nothing else, at least I can feel like I'm on vacation at the beach." She growls with the same temper she had when offering to retrieve the weapon. Sulking back toward the 'beach' without another word toward the group, she begins to examine the gems she had pried from the statue to look them over once again.
Angelica returned the blade to Jakscar, then set about leading them all back to the beach where Zaphomil's fire kept them nice and toasty as they dried out their things. Angelica peered at the gems in the firelight, knowing that they were worth a great deal. She was almost positive.
Jakscar thanks Angelica for his blade, lays what he can out to dry by the fire and heads to bed. His mind wanders briefly over the fact that he nearly died, but sheer exhaustion save him from a restless night.
Jakscar pauses a moment by the fire, Angelica, are you ok? You seemed a little off after the fight. They were pretty brutal, but there wasn't anything else you could have done.
Shabezz sits by the fire, laying out as much of her gear and clothes as modesty will allow in order to let them dry faster. When she deems that enough time has passed, she unrolls her bedroll and settle in for the night, noting to her chagrin that it's still somewhat damp.
Harbug uses most of his watch to dry his various clothes and gear, especially his bedroll, before waking Jakscar. Fang, still small, curls up by the fire.
As Angelica tries to hand him the Jakscar closes her hands back around them, in a surprisingly gentle manner for the fighter.
Look, you hang onto the expensive stuff, I'll probably lose it and then we will all be worse off. Zaph is probably the guy for a pep talk, but this is how I see it. Without you, we wouldn't have made it this far. These shards are getting harder to get to and we are in a dangerous business. We all signed up to this and we all know that the group we have here will do anything to protect each other, that is as safe as we can be. We all make mistakes and if we survive them, we learn from them. In that last fight it took me far too long to realise that I could hurt them more striking two-handed. To be honest Shabbezz's web was a great strategy if we were going to smash them, not so good when it blocked our escape route as they smashed us. I could have stopped you taking the gems, I didn't. Don't beat yourself up, let us do it for you !
Jakscar's speech is broken by pauses as he puts his thoughts into words. His stilted speech finished he turns in for the night.
Angelica paces around the group on the beach during her watch, thinking about the events of the day, and being unable to sit still with her thoughts. At the end of her watch she wakes Zaphomil. As he gets up, leans over to give him a kiss on the forehead, with only a "Thank you." before returning to her bedroll.
The night passed peacefully enough, though the rushing of water from deeper in the caverns made it hard to hear anything. Those on watch were constantly wary of the sounds from the water, but the morning came without incident. Zaphomil and Shabbezz together announced the dawn of a new day as they felt their depleted powers returning, and sat to prepare their spells for the day.
Shabbezz gave a little squeak of alarm when she turned to the water to gaze out on the underground river to see another pair of boats tied to the posts, bobbing gently in the current. As far as she could tell, they were the exact same as the ones you had ridden in yesterday, and had seen sunken in the river, only these were whole.
Angelica packs up her gear, and marvels at the new boats. "Wow, Zap, you were busy on watch. You got those fixed up and looking nice. That spell of yours is pretty sweet." She finishes stowing, and settles her pack, "So... up the river was a bad move," she shrugs with an apologetic smirk, "I guess we go down river now."
Shabbezz held a hand to her head, dumbfounded.
"If it's our priest's doing, he must have cast that spell in an eyeblink when my back was turned. I can't explain this, and quite frankly it's making me very uneasy. Zaphomil, what happened here?"
Zaphomil awakes to the extremely pleasant sensation of a kiss on his forehead.
He looks somewhat puzzled at the spontaneous thank you, but smiles earnestly at her. In the crackling firelight, he nods. "You're welcome, Angelica."
Zaphomil rubs his chin in thought. "Is it possible that the magics that does things like keep the body of the Runelord preserved also keep things like these boats? Everything gets repaired after a while? I'm always fascinated by the Thassilonian ruins that seem better preserved after thousands of years than present buildings that are a hundred years old."
Shabbezz rubs her chin with a long finger, her unease temporarily replaced with intellectual curiosity.
"You may be on to something there... Some sort of self-renewing enchantment that resets itself daily. Intriguing. Do you suppose we have time to take notes?"
As morning breaks and Jakscar comes awake to the scholarly chat he stretches and pipes up. "I think not. We have ruined food, we are all still a little on the damp side and currently we don't have a way out of here, let alone found the shard. I think we had better press on, unless either of you can magic me up a full Ordellian breakfast and hot, strong coffee."
"That's amazing and creepy, but Jakscar is right--we should press on, if only because we're still days behind what's-her-name and I was thinking last night about what that crazy old guy Jasper said--about not finding the Doomsday Door? Maybe we found it, and maybe she's already opened it..."
Harbug spends some time communing with Fang, and also spends most of half-an-hour documenting his recollection of what they had seen so far in the Lady's Light.
When the group is ready to go, he pulls out the Rod and casts Mage Armor on himself and Fang, then offers it to Shabbezz. "Best we get ready for a busy day."
Shabbezz was mildly disappointed that she couldn't record this new evidence, but they were right; now was not the time.
"Right," she agreed, taking the Rod from Harbug. She likewise cast mage armor on herself and handed the implement back to the orc for safe keeping.
Seeing that the boats do not need to be repaired, Zaphomil takes a different selection of spells than planned that excludes make whole.
"Are we ready, everyone? There's a lot more to explore here. Obviously, the ladies who got here first must have taken a different route, but I'm hopeful we can find the entrance to the statue itself, rather than being stuck in these underground chambers."