Tobar listens to Gideon's plan as the team is off to one side, then says, "Aight, you can probably sell it as a necessary attempt to deal with their 'condition.'"
"Uhm... Weyve? I don't trust them." he says quietly. "But we need to tell Tobar and Gideon."
Weyve looks at Calvin for a moment, and sighs.
He turns to Gideon and Tobar.
"How much do you know about Gillmen?" he asks the two.
"Gillmen are the last remnant of living humans descended from the Azlanti. Well, that we know of. Our people survived the catastrophe by becoming aquatic creatures, since most of the land was destroyed."
"What most people don't know is that it was the Aboleths that gave our ancestors this ability long ago. I suspect most of our ancestors were prisoners of the Aboleths, and in order to serve them better the Aboleths made us able to survive underwater, where they dwelt. The language of the gillmen is actually the language of Aboleths."
"In the time since then the Aboleths lost interest in us. We don't know why. But there are those who believe that the Aboleths may one day try to claim us again, and pledged to fight against that. They call us slimehunters and I am one of those. In the deep realms where my family lived such training was considered necessary, for the Aboleths yet live."
"We had thought that for the most part the Aboleths had lost interest in the world. Perhaps we were mistaken."
After conversing with the others, Weyve returns to Eliza and Rayland.
"You needn't worry about water... I have the ability to conjure water out of the air. I would have been loath to leave the sea without it, for my people need water same as you now do."
"But we may have a tonic to remove this curse right now if you wish to try."
Weyve brings out the soul soap and offers it to them, explaining its use.
"I don't know," Eliza says. "Perhaps it's better to try it once we get back to Talmandor's Bounty? Every minute we linger here is another minute when more skum might arrive."
Gideon looks to Eliza with a quizzical expression. "We've tangled with the skum on the way here, and killed all the skum that were guarding you. There's no reason for any force to think that the status quo has changed here, so I sincerely doubt there will be any hostiles arriving. It will only take a moment to use. A minute or two, tops. And again, this is only a precaution. Are you refusing to let us use it?" Gideon asks, unable to keep a hint of suspicion out of his voice.
Calvin will, in his suspicion, tighten his grip on his sword, but not raise it.
Rayland suddenly takes a step towards the small tank in the room and pulls the blanket off of it, revealing a strange symbol. The symbol begins to glow, and both Eliza and Rayland seem to split in two as illusory duplicates appear of them!
Eliza seems annoyed. "It almost worked," she mutters.
Before he can even react to the strange symbol on the wall, the two "prisoners" split into duplicates of themselves! Taking advantage of the moment to act before the apparent enemies can react, Gideon moves forward and tries to get behind Eliza before she can react, drawing his machete as he does, and strikes at Eliza with the flat of the blade!
"Ehhh... does it matter which one I shoot?"
Gideon moves around Eliza and swings his machete, but it goes through her mirror image, destroying it. That clears the way for Calvin, though, who delivers a powerful blow to her head with the hilt of his blade.
"Ah! You shouldn't have done that..." Eliza says ominously as blood drips from her forehead. The symbol pulses, and another mirror image of her appears. Her eyes suddenly turn black, and she tries to concentrate on activating a power defensively, but Gideon's presence is too distracting and she loses the ability. "Damn it! Rayland!" she growls.
Rayland steps up to get Calvin's attention. He swings twice with his longsword, then tries to bash the gillman with his shield! Calvin manages to parry and dodge each strike!
As the situation turns into another chaotic mess, Tobar raises his crossbow and takes a shot at Eliza. Well, one of them, anyway.
Weyve's eyes turn black. He pulls out a strange black object resembling the silhouette of a man, and black mist seems to pour from his hand.
"Darkness hold you!" he shouts. The inky cloud flies from his hand and wraps itself around Rayland.
He then darts behind the water tank, and his vest seems to glow with light for a moment. With a burst of speed he comes around the far side of the tank.
Gideon continues his attack, hoping that He and Cal together can bring Eliza down now that they are both flanking her.
Tobar's crossbow bolt skips off the far wall of the tower. Weyve's spell takes effect, though, pinning Rayland's shadow to the floor and entangling him.
Both Gideon and Calvin attack Eliza, luckily hitting the real woman instead of her mirror image. She grunts and staggers as she's badly beaten by the flats of their blades.
She steadies herself and concentrates again, and this time she is able to cast her spell. Her eyes flare with energy briefly before she suddenly vanishes, turning invisible!
Rayland continues to attack Calvin, despite being entangled. Once more, Calvin blocks and parries all of the other man's attacks.
Weyve darts forward, clanking in his armor.
"How about this then?" he calls out.
He concentrates for a moment, and there is a dark flicker around his hands. Then, a spectral hand appears, and pulls the curtain back down over the magic symbol!
When the blanket conceals the symbol, Rayland's mirror image winks out of existence.
With Eliza disappeared for the moment, Gideon switches to Rayland, hoping that the dark entangling mass will distract him enough to let Gideon move to a position opposite Calvin to give them both an added edge.
Gideon tumbles behind Rayland and smacks him with the flat of his blade. Tobar and Calvin try to hit the armored man as well, but his breastplate keeps him safe from harm.
Rayland turns on Gideon and attacks, still hampered by the shadow trap. He manages to hit with his sword, though, slicing deeply into the bard's belly and badly wounding him!
The door to the tank suddenly opens, and you can see the water displaced as the invisible Eliza enters it and starts swimming down to the lower level!
Tobar purses his lips tightly, then rests his cheek against the stock, breathes out, and takes a careful shot.
"Oh, there you are!" calls out Weyve.
He steps over to the door and begins concentrating. Black clouds form around his eyes and hands. He pulls out a silhouette of a dark woman, and points towards Eliza. Shadow leaps from his eyes and surrounds her form.
With a cry of pain from the hard hit from the sword, Gideon takes a step back away from Rayland, knowing he can't take another hit like that, dropping his machete and switching to his shortbow; even with Calvin right there, he's much more confident in his skills with a bow. "We'll heal him if he needs it!" he calls.
Weyve's spell takes effect, trapping Eliza in place. Calvin fails to land a good hit, but Tobar snaps off a crack shot that hits Rayland between the joints of his armor. Gideon backs off and fires an arrow point-blank into his chest! It punches through the breatsplate, badly injuring the big man, but he's still fighting on.
Rayland steps to follow Gideon, straining the limits of his trapped shadow. He tries to exact vengeance, bashing the bard with his shield and leaving him staggered and struggling to stand! The shadow trap dissipates as its duration expires.
Meanwhile, Eliza becomes visible, her eyes dark pits as she stares at Weyve. She places two fingers to her temple, and Weyve suddenly feels his mind being overloaded by a glut of psychic information!
Tobar nods almost imperceptibly as his crossbow bolt lands precisely in the seam in Rayland's armor. He pulls down the crossbow to reload it with startling alacrity, then raises it and sights down toward the weak spot that he hit before and does it again.
"Uhhkkkk!"
Weyve staggers back as his mind comes under assault.
Weyve presses his hand on his temple.
Weyve steps behind Gideon, and glowing mist enshrouds his hand, as if sunlight is trying to penetrate a dark cloud. He reaches out to touch Gideon...
And Gideon's wounds begin to close.
Weyve quickly staunches his wounds to keep from bleeding further, then steps up to heal Gideon.
Tobar scores another good hit with his crossbow, leaving Rayland bloodied but still fighting strong. Calvin tries to slice him, but the warrior blocks the strike with his shield.
"I don't think we can afford to play nice any more. No more knockout blows!" Weyve shouts.
In complete agreement, Gideon steps away from Rayland again, pulling out the color spray wand as he does so, and activates the wand, directing the magic toward the man.
Rayland resists the color spray and steps up to Gideon again. The bard dodges the fighter's sword, but his luck runs out when Rayland bashes his head with his shield. Gideon falls to the ground, bleeding.
Eliza turns to Calvin and focuses, trying to scramble his brain like she did Weyve's! The gillman warrior cries out in pain as blood starts streaming from his ears and nose!
Weyve steps back and pulls out a wand. With a wave, he conjures up a ball of fire beneath Rayland's Feet!
"That'll give you something to think about!"
He presses a hand to his temple again, trying to soothe the blow to his mind.
Tobar pivots and takes a quick shot at Eliza instead.
Rayland is too slow to dodge the flaming sphere. He cries out in pain as the fire scorches him, and he falls to the floor, unconscious and bleeding out.
Tobar moves to get a shot off at Eliza, but it whizzes past her, slowed by the water. Calvin steps out of the woman's line of sight and drinks a healing potion to stop his bleeding.
Eliza focuses on Tobar and repeats her powerful attack!
Tobar grits his teeth, tries one last shot, and prepares to collapse and die.
As usual in clutch situations, he becomes completely useless.
With a gesture, Weyve causes the ball of fire to roll right into the water of the tank! There is a splash and a hiss and steam boils everywhere.
He then leans down and places his hand over Gideon's wounds. Black mist spills from his hand and covers the bloody marks, closing them.
"Gideon... can you hear me?"
Weyve then presses his hand to his head once again.
No longer bleeding before, and now back to consciousness again thanks to Weyve, Gideon rolls to the side until he can just see Eliza and raises the wand again, knowing that the chances of it working against her are likely a good deal worse than against Rayland, but even so, it was worth a shot!
Tobar fires another shot at Eliza, but it skips off the mage armor tha surrounds her.
Weyve rolls the flaming sphere into the tank of water, causing it to boil and hiss. The fire is extinguished, and a cloud of steam temporarily obscures your view. The oracle then moves to heal Gideon.
The bard grabs the wand and fires a color spray into the mist. You're unable to see the effects of the spell, however.
Calvin takes the opportunity to drink another healing potion.
You can't see what Eliza is doing, but when the mist boils away, there are several illusory duplicates around her.
Paranoid about that mind-stabbing attack again, Gideon quickly casts a healing spell on himself to bring him back to the point where receiving it merely means unconciousness instead of outright death.
Weyve begins to concentrate, pressing his hand to his temple. He mutters some words in a guttural language, and his eyes smoke with black mist.
Tobar's brow furrows, as he's not entirely sure what the heck is going on with the mirror images underwater, but then he just shrugs and shoots randomly anyway.
Tobar fires into the water, his bolt managing to catch the real Eliza in the gut! She groans and doubles over, blood pouring into the water from the wound.
As Gideon heals himself and Weyve starts to summon, Calvin draws his trident and hurls it at Eliza. The weapon sails harmlessly past her.
Eliza's eyes return to normal as her dark half recedes back into her psyche. She presses a hand to her stomach and swims down to the door of the tank on the lower level, opening it!