Calvin meets the big Grindylow's bellow with one of his own and charges forward, thrusting out with his sword as he crosses the open ground swiftly.
Gideon advances and turns his shortbow against the single small grindylow, hoping that he can bring it down and leave them only one creature to worry about fighting.
"So if a grindylow is a sea-goblin, and a hobgoblin is a big goblin, does that make this big guy a hob-grindylow?"
Weyve levels his crossbow and takes a shot at the smaller grindylow before it gets engaged in melee.
Tobar sloshes out of the water and up onto the sand, where he veers to one side so that he can have an unobstructed line of fire to the massive grindylow.
Calvin charges forward, delivering a powerful slice across the large grindylow's chest. Gideon follows in his wake, dispatching the smaller grindylow with a single well-placed arrow!
Weyve tries to trap the giant grindylow with her own shadow, but she resists the spell.
Tobar moves up and shoots the grindylow in the arm, further wounding it.
The creature roars and slides across the ground to get next to Calvin and Gideon. Her tentacles tangle around the gillman's legs, tripping him, then she cleaves through both him and the bard with her spear!
Tobar reloads and fires again, figuring that finishing off this enemy quickly is the fastest way to keep his allies safe.
"Oh, no!"
Weyve's eyes turn black as he throws another cloud of shadows at the Giant Grindylow.
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Tobar curses under his breath, reloads as fast as he can, and fires again.
Calvin slashes at the creature from the ground, but it easily dodges his clumsy swing.
Weyve attempts a shadow trap again, and again, the creature resists the spell.
Tobar fires another shot, but the attack goes wide.
The grindylow leans down and bites Calvin with its razor-sharp teeth. It comes inches from tearing his throat out and killing him instantly, but the devastating attack drops the gillman all the same.
Turning to Tobar, the creature quickly slithers over and stabs the crossbowman with its spear, another powerful strike! Then its tentacles warp around his legs and drag him to the ground!
Knocked down, Tobar ditches his crossbow and lashes out with his spiked gauntlet.
(no penalty for prone because this happens while being subjected to the trip attack)
Weyve murmurs something and his fingertips begin to glow. He steps forwards, and reaches down to touch Calvin.
"Come on, brother."
Weyve moves over to heal Calvin. While the spell stabilizes the other gillman, he doesn't regain consciousness.
Tobar punches desperately with his spiked gauntlet, impaling the grindylow. It shrieks in rage!
The grindylow retaliates, stabbing down at Tobar and biting at him, but he manages to dodge both attacks!
Weyve leans over, his hand glowing again.
"Wake up, Calvin!"
Weyve steps back a few steps. "Come on, you slimy beast!"
The grindylow snarls at Weyve and stabs him as he rushes by her. He staggers from the vicious wound, barely managing to stay on his feet.
Weyve places his hand over the wound, trying to stanch the bleeding. His hand glows for a moment...
While still unconscious, Gideon's wounds don't seem to be bleeding as heavily as they were.
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Calvin rises to his feet desperate to finish the fight.
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Tobar grabs his crossbow again and, still on his back, draws down and makes the best shot that he can.
As the grindylow stabs Weyve, Tobar calls upon his grit and fires his crossbow up at the monster. The bolt buries itself in her neck, and she gurgles and staggers back as blood pours from the deep wound!
This gives Calvin the opening he needs to rise to his feet. With a desperate cry, he drives his sword deep into the grindylow's back. She shrieks and spasms as he yanks the blade free, then collapses to the cave floor, tentacles twitching feebly before at last falling still.
*gargle....splut...*
Calvin moves to drag the fallen out of the water, and only after they're stable will he look through the gear. Bashing the chest open is easy enough.
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Tobar lies on the muddy sand for a while, simply panting and holding his empty crossbow. Finally, he pushes himself painfully to his feet.
"Best not to stick around, 'less some more of those things come back from huntin' or whatnot," he finally says. "C'n we get Gideon back up?"
Calvin will look over at Weyve. "Got any of that healing mojo left? Gideon could use it."
Now he's under some kind of care, Calvin leaves Gideon to Weyve and sees about getting the chest open.
The chest opens easily as Calvin flexes his muscles, revealing the treasure within.
Weyve slumps down.
"He was... very strong. Was that a he? I thought we were doomed. Even if I ran... those things can swim a lot faster than I can."
Weyve shakes his head, trying to clear his mind. He goes over to the others, looking to treat their wounds.
"I have no healing left. We should see if we can find more berries to use with that wand."
Weyve turns to the magic items, and his eyes turn blue.
Weyve is able to identify a few of the magic items.
Gideon opens his eyes when the healing magic washes over him, immediately rolling to one side, his eyes darting wildly. "Wha?! Where's the grindy..." he trails off, looking at the corpse for a moment as he trails off, "...low. So... guess we won?" he asks, then looks down at himself as the adrenaline and healing magic wane, leaving him profoundly sore and hurting.
"Nngghh...geez... so..how close did we come to losing, exactly?" he asks, looking around to see the others in not much better condition.
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"Lets put it this way," Calvin replies. "The only one who wasn't on the ground at least once was Weyve, and not for lack of trying."
He looks over the items found and holds out the ring. "Either you or Tobar need this. Help you swim better."
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"Geez...a lot closer than I'd like us to have gotten, that's for sure..." Gideon answers, reaching up to rub the back of his neck while looking over the corpse of the creature that was very nearly the end of them all.
Looking over at the ring that Calvin presents, Gideon fingers it for a moment, then looks at Tobar. "What do you think? It'd be useful for either of us, for sure. Kinda got my eye on that spear over there, and I don't wanna be greedy...what were you not able to identify, Weyve? I'll take a crack at whatever you're missing."
"In the meantime, does anyone need healing? Probably ought to use a Cure spell for me, 'cause I think the spear wound in my stomach needs a bit more work...but I'll still have two other spells I can cast before I need to rest again. If anyone's in bad need of more healing, I'll have that." he offers, going ahead and casting the aforementioned healing spell on his own wounds.
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"Ehh, I'm a fair enough swimmer, and I don't need to be as mobile to use my crossbow here," says Tobar. "Do what you need."
"Do we want to try to head back to the ship now? Or should we rest up here? This area seems fairly secure."
"We should head back to the ship as soon as possible. I think we've broken the back of the Grindylows, but there might be stragglers we would have to deal with." Calvin suggests.
"'s what I just said."
"Yeah I know." Calvin says with a chuckle. "But Gideon was unconscious then. Bore repeating."
You leave the cave and return to the ship to report your success. "Well done," Ramona says, though she looks at your wounds with concern. "It looks like it was a hard-fought victory. I am glad you all made it back out of there! Father Eamon? Father Kurvis? Some healing, please?"
"Ah, the adventurers require healing!" says Eamon Caranth as he steps out of the crowd. The tall half-elf has straw colored hair and an infectious smile. He wears green robes and the holy symbol of Erastil around his neck. "Come, Father Grouse! It's time to stop being a curmudgeon and earn our keep on this expedition."
Kurvis Nurpico, a relatively short man with slightly stooped shoulders and short steel-grey hair, emerges beside him. He wears black robes and the holy symbol of Abadar. "Yes, yes, Father Easy. I'm coming! They do have coin to pay for my services, I hope."
Eamon laughs. "Payment? Where is your sense of community spirit, eh? We're all on this crazy expedition together. We all need to do our part to ensure its success."
Kurvis grunts. "Fine, fine. I'll send the bill to the Bountiful Venture Company later."
Both clerics grasp their holy symbols and channel healing energy until your wounds have vanished.
Gideon takes a look at the artifacts that have yet to be identified.
After making his attempts, Gideon will also inspect the hand that is in the sand at the cave as thoroughly as he can; what it's made of, if it's broken off or something more buried, dimensions, any other qualities of note, and also makes a sketch of it in his journal, before the group departs.
"Thank you very much, gentlemen; 'hard fought' is quite an understatement, I think...we almost didn't make it back out of that cave. Not that I was conscious for most of the fight to really give you a report on what happened. I'll have to leave that to the others." he admits.
When a moment of peace can be had, Gideon will take any of the magical things they haven't been able to puzzle out yet to the two clerics, hoping their own knowledge of spellcraft will be able to reveal their workings.
Gideon is only able to identify the spear.
The hand sculpture is feminine in form and made from a pearlescent sea green marble. It appears to be part of a larger statue buried underground, but unearthing it would take powerful magic or a significant amount of hard labor.
On the ship, the two clerics study the remaining items and are able to identify them.
"Much thanks, fathers." Calvin says, nodding gratefully. "That was close, but we took care of the Grindylows and removed their leader."
"There's some kind of statue in the cave down there, too. All that was above ground was a feminine hand, seemingly made of a pearlescent marble. It seemed like there was more buried under the sand, but it would take heavy equipment or heavy magic one to unearth it." Gideon adds.
"Interesting," Ramona says. "I don't know if it would be worth the effort to see the rest of the statue, but we can definitely note its location and return some point in the future."
The Peregrine sails south back to Talmandor's Bounty, making the journey in a couple of hours. Upon arrival, the ship drops anchor in the bay and both the crew and colonists work together to begin unloading the ship using the ship's boats.
"The Peregrine will depart tomorrow morning," Ramona says. "If you have any treasures you wish to sell, you can leave them with Captain Markosi, and he will send the proceeds of your sales back with the next supply ship. You may also place an order for equipment and special provisions."
"Now then, why don't you show me around the colony and point out any areas of concern?"
"Interesting," Ramona says. "I don't know if it would be worth the effort to see the rest of the statue, but we can definitely note its location and return some point in the future."
"Actually, there may be some magic that allows a person to tunnel through the earth. Such a spell would allow a single person to examine what was below without digging the whole place up."
"Now then, why don't you show me around the colony and point out any areas of concern?"
"Captain, I should point out that while we may have eliminated the obvious threats, we still have no idea what happened to the colonists. We found no human remains or clues in the Grindylow cavern... unless any of you recognize these items? Did they belong to the first group of colonists?"