Arma takes the hit, but instead of faltering, she has a rush of adrenaline. She releases her knives and tears into the sahuagin with teeth and claws.
Abgiail's thrust goes wide again. While Relia heals herself, Tessa calls forth the pearl dolphin figurine, which swells to full size. It slams the frenzied sahuagin, and Arma finishes it off with her teeth and claws.
Koloshkora swims to help Relia, but she narrowly misses the sahuagin menacing the cleric.
The crossbowmen fires at Tessa, missing the elf yet again. The other sahuagin manages to stab Relia again, reopening her wounds. One of the sahuagin trapped in the web breaks free and swims out next to Arma.
Tessa drifts behind her allies as she works her magic once again, trying to land any kind of spell on the monsters harrassing them, but failing.
Meanwhile, she directs the dolphin to swim behind the creature attacking Relia and to slam it, but it doesn't fare any better.
Arma curses at the sahuagin that comes up behind her and furiously attacks, her swings erratic and wild.
Relia curses as her wounds reopen and stabs at the sahaugin in front of her.
Once more, most of your attacks fail to hit the furious sahuagin. Relia drives the tines of her trident deep into her attacker's chest, though, slaying the wounded creature. Koloshkora moves to take some pressure off of Tessa, attacking the crossbowman and stabbing him with her spear.
He swims backwards a bit and shoots at her with an enchanted bolt, but he fails to hit. Arma's foe attacks her but doesn't hit either, and the last one is still stuck in the web.
Relia moves up and attacks the remaining enemy.
"You move like a beached whale!" Arma snaps at the sahuagin, and attacks with her claws.
Tessa fires off another ray of frost, largely annoyed with just how hard of a time they all were having underwater, and directs her dolphin to give Arma a flanking partner, which it does, moving through the water at an impressive speed as it makes its way across the battlefield.
Once more, Relia and Abigail miss their mark. Arma and the dolphin both wound the sahuagin attacking the alchemist, and Koloshkora breaks off to assist, impaling it on her spear. Tessa chills the crossbowman with a ray of frost.
The crossbowman misses Koloshkora again, and the sahuagin in the web fails to escape!
Tessa mentally sighs as they continue their assault, slowly making progress.
I hope we don't attract sharks, she muses, and directs the dolphin to attack the crossbowman as she shoots it with another bolt of frost.
Arma quickly judges the situation and goes after the crossbowman, cutting right through the water and snapping at it.
Relia attacks again.
Arma finally scores a good hit, stabbing her polearm right through the ensnared sahuagin's face and killing him in one blow!
Arma and Relia swim up to the crossbow-wielding sahuagin, biting and stabbing him. Then Koloshkora scores a critical hit, finishing off the warrior! At last, the waters fall still as all of the enemies have been defeated!
Tessa finally relaxes, allowing her tense muscles to relax and letting herself drift with the current slightly.
"Oh... I swear we're more competent on land. Abi, are you all right?"
Azil pops out of Tessa's bag and floats around with the danger gone, studying the stone dolphin with some interest. After a minute, Tessa 'jumps' back into action, "Right then, what else is around here?"
SLOT neck CL 7th WEIGHT —
AURA moderate transmutation
This necklace grants an aquatic wearer the ability to breathe air, and renders it amphibious as per the universal monster rule, allowing it to survive on land indefinitely. The necklace also gives the wearer a base speed of 30 feet (or a +10 enhancement bonus to its base speed, if the wearer’s speed is already at least 30 feet).
Relia will channel healing on the group. She does this twice. "That is an amazing treasure. Can we get all of it to the surface?"
Koloshkora nods. "Thank you for your aid, friends. Now that the sahuagin are gone, my people will be free to travel to and from Talasantri again. We can officially begin trading with you and your fellow colonists."
She helps Abigail drag the statue to the shore, where Vriskirsa waits for you. She narrows her eyes when she sees the statue. "That's mine," she says with an edge to her voice. When you tell her that the sahuagin are gone, though, she hisses happily, her tail lashing back and forth. "Excellent! At last, I can return to my proper home. You have my gratitude. I suppose I will let you keep the statue as a reward.
"Please, feel free to visit any time. I would be happy to share knowledge or magic with you. If you discover any historical relics and trinkets from the time of ancient Azlant, I would relish the opportunity to study them."
"Most certainly. I'm certain that there is much to be gained from us sharing arcane knowledge, from both the land and the sea. Knowledge learned does little good if kept all to oneself." Tessa thanks the naga, giving a half-bow in gratitude.
Relia will help move the statue back to town. "I'm glad we were able to help and make more allies. Thank you all for your assistance."
"There are all sorts of ruins of the old world sunken beneath the waves," Vriskirsa says to Abigail. "I've only explored around the shores of this island, but perhaps in time, I can dive deeper in search of even greater relics."
Once your buisness is concluded, the naga swims down to inspect the wrecked ship in preparation of moving her possessions back to her old lair.
Arma spends a little time looking over Carver's notes and the stone tablet. "I kinda want to keep explorin', too. We could try followin' this inland route, or we could look into the Ulfen settlement--Joskadalr. Could use the dolphin to send a message back to the colony, too."
"I'm tired of swimming for the moment. Let's go inland and see what we find." Relia is happy to be on solid ground again. "We did well, but I'm just no comfortable under the water yet."
Abigail does her best to navigate across the island, but she ends up getting a bit turned around, leading you further north than the path indicates. As you try to get your bearings, you find yourselves atop a high, earthen ridge covered in scrubby vegetation that soon gives way to a steep descent thick with tall, ancient oak trees of a strange, bone-white coloration. The vibrant, scarlet foliage of these trees gives the impression that the entire forest is aflame. At the center of the bowl-shaped valley stands a massive white tree with bowed branches like those of a weeping willow, but feathered with long, vibrant, red leaves.
Abigail is unsure what the tree might be. It bears some vague similarities to a dangerous plant known as a yellow musk creeper which has a frightful method of procreation--it slays the living, infests them with its seeds and pollen, then animates them as zombies which eventually wander off and break apart to release the seeds. This tree may be a unique offshoot of the creeper.
Tessa doesn't have much in the way of new insights about the plant, and shrugs.
"Agreed. No point in picking fights that we don't need to. Still, best we mark this place on the map so we can take care of it later should the need arise." Tessa comments.
The description of the plant creature makes Arma wrinkle her nose. "Ah yeah that's horrifying. Maybe carve signs into the trees around here warning people off."
"That sounds horrible. It's very pretty, but seems to dangerous to deal with at the moment. Let's continue on, and keep an eye out for undead."
As if in response to Relia, four rotting corpses emerge from the treeline. Dried blood cakes their mouths, and tendrils of twisted red vines emerge from their arms, legs, and torsos. They stare at you with dead eyes as they rush towards you!
Abigail realizes the creatures must be the spawn of the crimson musk creeper. That means they are plants and not undead! They resist weapons unless they are slashing ones.
Tessa, happy to have use for it again (but not terribly happy about another fight after the last one went so poorly), whips out her wand and mutters its command word, causing a ball of fire to materialize right in front of the closest of the corpses, rolling into it.
The lead plant zombie surges forward as Tessa conjures her flaming sphere, deftly avoiding it. As it rushes in towards Abigail, the ranger swings her axe, but its thick natural armor blunts the force of her blow. All four zombies converge on Abigail and attack, two landing heavy blows.
Relia Channels to harm undead. "I'm sorry I was right."