Terana calls to her goddess to heal her wounds and attempts to gather up her glaive.
"Terana!"
Weyve rushes over to Terana's side and presses his hands to her wound. Inky fog pours from his arms over her body.
The ice elemental continues to hammer at the creature.
"Stay out of its range!" Gideon warns as he fires another shot at the mound.
Tobar reloads and fires mechanically. He barely seems to notice as Terana falls, completely focused on felling this enemy before it can kill them all.
Weyve heals Terana, rousing his cousin. She stands up and recovers her glaive while laying hands on herself.
The summoned elemental's fists bounce harmlessly off the shambler'smthick body and Gideon's arrow gets lost in its vines, but Tobar scores another solid hit.
The shambler turns on the elemental, delivering two powerful slams that shatter it into ice chunks!
*clack clack* goes Tobar's crossbow with its now-familiar sound, though he brings it up again too hastily and his bolt goes into the dirt.
"This thing is tough!" shouts Weyve. He begins chanting, and as he does so, he gradually becomes visible. He flings a cloud of inky darkness at the shambler, which roils around the shamplers limbs.
"Too tough!" Gideon agrees, deciding to focus his attention on keeping his allies off the ground rather that continuing to blink away at the enemy. Making sure that he is behind Terana and out of the mound's reach, he sends more healing energy surging into her.
Feeling much better thanks to her companions ministrations Terana steps forward and unleashes her glaive again.
The shambling mound succumbs to Weyve's spell, the plant's shadow pinning it to the murky water.
Tobar's bolt splashes harmlessly in front of the creature, but Terana manages to strike the entangled monster. Gideon heals more of the paladin's wounds.
The shambler smashes Terana again, her armor protecting her from what might have been a fatal blow!
Oorka tries to staunch Terana's bleeding wounds, but the chaos of the melee causes her to falter. "You guys can do it! Come on!"
Terana hisses in pain as the plant creature smashes into her again and allows her vision to flicker for a second, trying to see if the creature is evil or simply vicious.
Her strike, powered by desperation, hits the creature hard!
Tobar growls and mutters, "I only have one trick, but it's a good trick!"
A good trick indeed, as Tobar's bolt slams home. The shambler is not evil, but it doesn't matter for Terana this time as she tears into the plant monster with her glaive. At last, the mound collapses into the stinking bog and lies still!
Scattered around the base of the tree, amid heaps of animal bones and numerous humanoid skeletons (primarily gillmen and at least two locathahs) are suits of rotten leather and hide armor and other gear that has decayed to the point of uselessness, as well as two sunrods, a magic amulet, a masterwork handaxe, a masterwork light wooden shield, a potion of enlarge person, a magic wand, a suit of magic leather armor, and assorted coins in moldering pouches totaling 670 gp and 80 sp.
"Well this looks like a good haul!" Terana says with a smile, and a grimace or two. "Anyone going to tell me what it all does?" She asks, sorting the things out into piles as directed by those with magical sight.
"Phew...well that was fun...I didn't know shambling mounds could leave wounds like that. I hope we don't ever meet another one." Gideon comments as he goes to work examining the goods they found.
Weyve tends to Terana's wounds.
"Should have cast that shadow right at the start," he muses.
With the items identified, Terana hands them to anyone that wants them and stows the rest away for carrying.
"So, where to next?" She asks, checking to see if Oorka is still ok.
"You're worried about me?" Oorka asks Terana. "You're the one who almost got turned into mulch! I'm just glad that you're okay."
"You're worried about me?" Oorka asks Terana. "You're the one who almost got turned into mulch! I'm just glad that you're okay."
"That happens most days." Terana responds with a smile. "It's how we do things - I stand in front of the boys and they make sure I stay standing... Don't believe the stories, Oorka, girls are much tougher than boys really!"
She rolls her shoulders and hears a loud *pop* which causes her to wince and look at her cousin.
"Maybe a bit more healing if you can spare it Weyve?"
"You're not complaining about this little scratch, are you?" Weyve asks with a smirk as he prods Terana's wounds with his finger. "Let's see about what we can do here."
Weyve presses his hand to Terana's wounds, and dark mist seems to pour from his hands, soothing the wounds.
"There. How's that?"
"Because you're so big and tough!" Terana responds, sticking her tongue out briefly. "I'll stand back and let you lead if you like..."
With Weyve done she rolls her shoulder again with a satisfying lack of noise. "Thanks cuz, perfect!"
"Let's press on, I don't want to get caught out here without light!"
You continue following the trail through the marsh, and after another thirty minutes or so, it leads back north towards the island's shore. A narrow beach lies at the base of several cliffs. The jagged mouth of a partly flooded sea cave is decorated with the splintered and gnarled bones of sea creatures and humanoids alike, held aloft in a tangle of netting and seaweed. Other gnawed bones litter the rocky shore around the cave mouth.
"Looks like some kind of maneater lives here," Weyve says.
"I could use invisibility and scout ahead if you want," Weyve says to the others. "We'd need to have some kind of signal though for you guys to follow me in."
"I think we should go a bit closer as a group." Terana says, "I don't like the idea of you getting too far away for the rest of us to help you... especially given what seems to live around here."
"Yeah, I'm with Terana on this one. I don't think splitting the party is a good idea at this point. We have no way of knowing if whatever's in there can see invisible things anyway, and that would just put you in a very bad position. We should stay together."
"Well, knockin' down maneaters seems to be a specialty of ours now," says Tobar. "Ain't nothin' for it at this point. If we leave and camp nearby it'll likely catch our track or scent and come after us. We better get this over with."
"Yeah, I'm in agreement here. Don't split the party, and let's get this thing done. Terana, I can still cast that spell of heroism one more time before I'm tapped out for the day. If you want the boost before we head in, I'll be glad to provide."
"Given that something nasty seems to be in there, I'll take it." Terana replies with a smile. "So, go in, find whatever lives in there and take it down as quick as we can? Hopefully this one won't explode..."
Once her companions are done preparing Terana will lead the way into the cave.
"I don't have a lot of spells left either," says Weyve. "If it's a big complex we may have to fall back and camp. But I can give us a boost as we go in..."
As the group is about to enter the cave, Weyve calls up a bit of dark fog, which expands in a circle around the group, lingering on each member as it passes.
As Terana crosses the threshold of the cave, her foot snags in a tripwire! It releases a bundle of netting hidden above her, dumping sharpened bones and heavy rocks onto her head with a loud clatter!
"Guess they know we're coming now..." Terana comments, extracting a femur from a gap in her armor. "Ouch..."
"Let's keep moving... we can fall back if we need to."
Four caves branch off from the entrance. The entire cavern smells of brine, sweat, and rot. The floor of the cave is littered with humanoid bones and filth. A wall of driftwood tethered together stands wedged in a narrow tunnel in the south wall of this chamber.
Four snarling gillmen stalk out of the shadows. They have a feral cast to their features and a crazed look in their eyes. They wear tattered lamellar armor and wield tridents and short swords.
Since she's already got a good defensive position Terana flings one arm out to stop Gideon moving further forward.
"Weyve, can you talk them down?" She mutters before raising her voice.
"We don't want to hurt you - we're just like you! Put down your weapons and let us help!"
Tobar raises his crossbow menacingly but waits to see if the enemies rush forward before he fires.
"Whoa!" Weyve holds up his hands. "Easy there, brothers! Look!"
Weyve slowly pulls off the scarf around his neck leans his head to the side, showing his gills to the gillmen.
"ይታይ? እኔ እንደ እርስዎ ነኝ! እኛ እየሰራን ነው, እና ሰላምን እንመኛለን!" he says in a strange alien tongue.
The gillmen do not cease their advance at Weyve's words. One of them responds in the same strange tongue.
As the gillmen rush towards you, Tobar shoots one of them in the gut. Terana slashes him twice more, but though badly wounded, he still stands. Two of them stab at Terana with their tridents but don't pierce her armor, while the other pair hangs back, grinning with serrated teeth and waiting for a chance to move in.
"They're demon-worshippers! Too far gone!" Gideon says to the others, using his shorbow to take a shot at the same gillman savaged by Terana.
Tobar reloads and blasts the offender with another shot!
Gideon chops at the wounded gillman, and Tobar brings him down with another crossbow bolt!
Unable to fight effectively with her glaive in the cramped quarters Terana drops the weapon and pulls her trident from the sheathe on her hip before lancing forward, putting both hands behind the blow.