Terana tries not to look directly at the shining children as she swims in and it seems to do the trick as the light no longer threatens to burn her.
She closes into range and summons a spirit to bond with her glaive.
Victrix manages to avert her eyes from the shining brilliance before stoking her wrath and lunging alongside Simon.
Simon and Victrix badly wound one of the shining children. Seeing the aasimar as the bigger threat, the wounded one reaches out to touch her, corrupting the positive energy inside her body into burning light, while the other fires a beam of energy at her!
With her glaive empowered Terana gets to work!
Victrix roars in response to the burning and keeps on swinging!
Ema was still terrified because she couldn't see but she knew she could still summon something to fight for her. She focused and her blinded eyes flashed as a hole tore in reality above her. The hole was big enough for something gargantuan to swim through and a strange ominous music almost seemed to erupt from the hole as she yelled out in the celestial language for the thing she summoned to attack the shinning ones.
A sudden swelling crescendo came from the hole as a gargantuan shark lunged out and attacked one of the shinning ones with a massive chomp!
Fortunately, you are able to make quick work of both creatures, the summoned shark biting one and grabbing a hold while Simon stabs and Victrix and Terana slice and dice. Soon, the strange beings have been hacked to pieces!
A grumbling Victrix goes to sit in the dark to extinguish herself.
"These stones are very useful." Terana says, "If you do not have one already then take one." She suggests to Simon and Victrix. Upon seeing that Emma is suffering Terana swims over and places her gauntleted hands gently on the sides of the arcanist's face.
Hearing the last of the shining ones die and the shark munching on the one it chomped on before swallowing it Rahella tore open the gateway and sent the shark home again. She didn't want to leave the hungry predator unsupervised since she couldn't control it.
With that Rahella floated there in a near panic as she couldn't tell where she was, which way was up, nor anything else. She said nothing but simply whimpered in fear as she tried to control her panic.
"There is much beauty left in this world. Shelyn gives you eyes to see it once more." Terana says gently. A rose coloured glow surrounds Emma and when it fades her sight is returned.
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With the creatures taken care of, Simon frantically looks around, trying to find a way to take care of his wounded friends.
With Victrix already headed to the hallway, he turns to Ema, scanning through his known formulae in his head. Realizing he doesn't know the formula to cure blindness, he starts panicking until he sees Terana tending to Ema.
As Ema's eyes are restored, he sighs deeply. "Terana, your god provides you with wonderful powers. Thank you."
Retrieving a wans from Valentin's belt, he hands it to Terana. "Perhaps you could use this to heal Victrix?"
"How is everyone? Ema, do you still have magic reserves? We don't want to go much further here without your magical support."
"Of course." Terana replies, swimming off to do just that.
Ema calmed when she felt Terrana's hands on her eyes and heard the other woman's voice. She began to see the rose colored light and then slowly her vision came back to her. Ema found herself floating upside down when she saw clearly again and smiled at Terana before shifting forward to try and give the paladin a very thorough kiss in thanks.
Once finished with rewarding Terana, Ema turned her focus back to Simon and began to move her tail to turn herself back upright again. Her eyes flashed once, twice, the she said, "Yes, I think we can push on a little further. Having said that though I am reaching near the end of what I can manage if we are forced to retreat so it might be wise to leave and return when we have rested and gotten Valentin back with us. I should be able to set a marker in that observation room that showed us the map of the tower so we can return there. It's memorable enough that it should serve as a teleporting location for us as long as there isn't something blocking it completely."
Terana seems momentarily taken aback by the kiss, and then reciprocates, although somewhat tentatively.
Ema watched as Simon prepared to scout ahead and began to swim in place as she looked at Terana for a moment. "You know," she said, "something seems different about Shelynites from what I remember. She has been around a long time but I don't recall her being the goddess of love until recently. When did that happen and what happened to her brother Dou-Bral and their father? I thought that Dou-Bral went off into the darkness between the stars or something but never really heard what happened from there."
Victrix paddles back to the rest of the group as Simon leaves to scout.
Simon scouts out the rest of the level:
C12. This spherical room appears to have been constructed using magic. It has a single entrance at the end of a short hall. A circle fifteen feet in diameter is carved onto the floor, surrounded by luminous runes that flicker erratically. This room feels cooler than others on this level. Simon realizes that this once was a teleportation circle, but it is no longer functional.
C13. Most of this room has suffered a catastrophic collapse, tumbling stone throughout the southern half. A dozen mannequins bob in the remainder of the room, connected to the floor with wires. The mannequins depict elves and merfolk, each with pieces missing to show cross-sections of musculature, bones, and circulatory systems in a comprehensive anatomical display. Some of the mannequins are battered or scratched. A wide opening leads north out of the room.
C14. Sturdy weapons racks line the walls of this rounded room, holding polearms with oddly curved blades. A large pipe juts from the curved northeast wall. A metal cube as large as a wagon stands against the west wall, its top lid open wide. A wide opening leads south out of the room. Two shining children pick through the black sand in the cube, pulling out bits of shell and coral.
C15. This small, circular room contains stairs leading to a large metal hatch, fifteen feet wide, set into the ceiling. Next to the hatch is a small panel with three indented shapes: a triangle, a pear shape, and a rectangle.
C9. Several dozen chains extend from the walls of this rounded room, each hooked into the flayed form of an aboleth. The ichthyic beast has had its skin peeled back and secured in place by the chains, displaying the layers of muscle and cartilage below with clinical precision. Despite being submerged, the creature has a desiccated appearance, as though its internal fluids had been completely extracted. Steel pipes run along the rear wall of this room, disappearing into the walls to the north and arching into the ceiling to the south.
C10. Eight metal cages, each sized to fit a humanoid creature, line the rounded rear wall of this room, against a series of pipes that disappear into the east and west walls. Several tubes and nozzles protrude from the pipes into the cages, each ending in a thick syringe. Air bubbles from some of these tubes and pipes, while others seep strange liquids into the surrounding water. Each cage contains a dead merfolk with tentacles grafted to its back and tubes running from the pipes along the wall to its spine. It seems like these creatures have yet to animate as undead guardians.
C11. The rounded south wall of this room contains a large and complex machine made of glass, metal, and stone. Gears whir and pistons pump back and forth, sending shuddering vibrations through the room. Long metal hoses protrude from the machine, quivering and undulating in the water. Two of these hoses are attached to shriveled, pallid humanoids bobbing near the room’s ceiling, while others wave lazily back and forth like blind serpents seeking sustenance. Several pipes lead out of the machine into the east wall. The northeastern corner of the room contains a large statue of a stern, robed man with a severe widow’s peak.
A strange aboleth with a pale, drawn appearance works here. Two ioun stones orbit its head--a blue pear-shaped stone and a green ellipsoid. It seems to notice Simon's presence, but as it turns to confront him, the investigator rushes back to the rest of the group!
Ema watched as Simon prepared to scout ahead and began to swim in place as she looked at Terana for a moment. "You know," she said, "something seems different about Shelynites from what I remember. She has been around a long time but I don't recall her being the goddess of love until recently. When did that happen and what happened to her brother Dou-Bral and their father? I thought that Dou-Bral went off into the darkness between the stars or something but never really heard what happened from there."
"It is a long and sad story." Terana replies. "I will tell it you another time if you truly wish to hear it."
The news of an aboleth has her springing up, glaive appearing in her hand out of nowhere. "Let me lead." She demands. "I am resistant to their trickery!"
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"This was not an aboleth like the one we encountered before, and we are severely depleted. We should regroup and hope it is still working here when we return.
However, we are well geared to take on aberrations, so it might not be such a risk. I can make sure the rest of you are protected from mind control."
Ema considered whether they could proceed or not and after a moment's thought said, "I'm loathe to leave the aboleth alive but we will be in serious trouble if it turns out to be a tougher fight than we expected. I can try to be ready to counter any spells it casts but I will need to be exceedingly careful not to use too much of my magic and leave us unable to teleport out of here." Ema lapsed into thought again as she tried to figure out how to mitigate the danger this posed if they went ahead. After a moment or two more she said, "I can cast several spells on myself to help protect me and hit us all with haste after I summon something to help us fight."
"If we move in and attack fast and hard we can probably take it out quickly using the element of surprise. That said I don't know if it is wise to advance as we are now," Ema looked at Viktrix and asked, "What is your take on this? You will be one of the ones bearing the brunt of the assault, do you think that we can manage it or do you prefer to retreat and regroup and attack it when we are fresh?"
"I know that if I'm protected from mind-f+@%ery, I can rip that thing apart before it can do much." Victrix growls. "...but... we expended a lot of our resources fighting our way through here. As much as I hate to admit it, I think discretion would be the better part of valour here."
"And... we need to bring Valentin back to life."
With the rest of the group outvoting Terana, you quickly retreat from the vaults, returning to the map room in the tower above. Fortunately, no monsters appear to disturb you rest, and you are able to pass the night underwater in safety, recovering from the day's ordeals.
The next morning Terana spends a long time in prayer over Valentin's body. Finally she bends over and kisses him on the lips, withdrawing as a flush of colour shoots through his body. The cleric opens his eyes and coughs horribly.
With their return to the room they planned to stay the night in Ema cast a spell and left a sigil on the floor in a cleared out area. Once she was done she said, "Alright, I will be back as soon as I have the materials we need. At worse I will be back in the morning but I doubt it will take that long." With that Ema chanted and gestured and with a pop of displaced water she was gone.
When she was shown to where Anemora was Ema said, "I am sorry to barge into your home like this Anemora but the room I stayed in was the best place for me to teleport to in the city. I kind of left an invisible mark on the floor in case I needed to teleport here in an emergency. If you wish I will obtain the spell needed and remove it as soon as I can." Ema sighed wearily and said, "Unfortunately I don't have the time right now. We ran into significantly more trouble at the tower than we expected and..." Ema shook a moment as she remembered the horror of seeing her friend struck down, "We lost Valentin to a banshee's wail. We can't press on without him so I had to come back here to get the material components needed to bring him back. Do you have any idea where I can obtain eleven hundred gold worth of diamond dust, two fifteen hundred gold piece diamonds, and one five thousand gold diamond? I have the money here and as soon as I can get them I will be heading back to the others."
Once she had the needed components Ema returned to the others, honing in ont he mark she left on the floor, and reappeared. "I have what we need for the morning to bring back Valentin as well as the dust to remove the weakness he will be suffering. I also obtained another of the diamonds for my spell so that we can make sure that graveknight doesn't reform in the armor."
Ema rose and prepared her spells before they brought Valentin back. She used her first limited wish so that they could bring Valentin back from the dead and while Terana took care of that she cast the spell on Victrix's armor to forever banish the graveknight. With that accomp;ished Ema cast her usual preperatory spells before she ate. When she was done with all of that she gave the nwely risen Valentina smile and said, "Thank the god's we could bring you back to us Valentin!" She had activated her belt to gain the form of a mermaid again and swam over to pounce tackle him in a hug.
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Changing back into his Enchanted Eelskin, Simon nervously waits through the night. Still uncomfortable in the cold, dark depths, the added worry of being discovered by monsters and wondering if the raising will be successful leads to a restless night.
Preparing new extracts in the early hours, he then sits and begins reciting prayers to Desna as he watches Terana work.
Valentin rouses with Terana's kiss, his eyes not focusing at first. "Yes, mother, it is always good to be back on the seas. The catch was good today, best I've seen in some time." As his color rises, his voice grows louder, and he calls out. "Mother? Father? Where are you going? No! I won't leave again! Come with me this time." With a violent shudder, he begins coughing and registers the submersible around them and sighs heavily.
Hugging Ema, he gives her a weak smile, and then reaches out to grip Terana's hand, his hand shaking a bit as he does so. "Well, then. I remember this. I suppose there is still some dancing to do before the night is over."
Checking over himself, he uses the curing wand on himself a few times, then declares. "I'm as ready as I'm going to be. Shall we get this over with?"
"Good to have you back Valentin." Terana says, clapping the man on the back in a friendly fashion. "Try not to make a habit of it, ok?"
With several defensive spells in place, you make your way to the chamber where Simon saw the strangely withered aboleth. The creature is still there, and its tentacles thrash as it turns towards you. Its fins are ragged, and its pale skin is blemished with bruises and mottled spots. Its three red eyes are large and bulbous, seeming ready to pop out of its head.
The creature quickly casts a spell, filling the room with a thin, green cloud that saps your willpower.
Ema immediately counters the aboleth’s mind fog, dispersing it harmlessly.
Ema knew that spell and knew just how vicious it was. Fortunately it was nothing for her to worry about as she deftly countered the spell almost before it was cast. Her eyes glowed briefly as she expended some of her reservoir and the spell and then again as some of the energy from the spell she negated was taken for her own use replenishing her reservoir slightly.
Ema's elemental charged the thing without missing a beat staying high so the others could come in below it. The elemental slammed into the thing fiercely with a great fist of water.
Ema, meanwhile, positioned herself and sent a bolt of lightning lancing out at the aboleth. She wanted it dead and dead right now.
Holding on to his limited spell reserves, Valentin snaps out his wand of Bless, then swims back out of range of the combat until he sees where his impact might be needed.
Terana eels into combat, as Shelyn condemns the ugliness before it!
Victrix roars, draws her aberration-killing sword, and moves to engage!
The aboleth lashes out with a tentacle as Terana closes but misses badly. You all swarm around the undead menace, stabbing and slicing at it and leaving it badly wounded. Ema's lightning bolt hits it full blast but doesn't hurt it very much.
Its injuries slowly start to heal as it concentrates on a spell. It tries to invade your minds with its psychic presence.
Terana throws off the aboleth's influence with the ease of long practise and applies her glaive with vigor.
Ema caught the aboleth trying to cast yet another spell...
...and it was a very nasty one. She knew that most of her friends should be able to resist it fairly well but that her elemental probably would not and she didn't want it turned on the others. That in mind Ema quickly burned of a bit of her reservoir and drained the power for a spell, and attempted to counter what was being cast.
She successfully countered it and then drained off some of the magic that had been cast to replenish her reservoir a bit.
The elemental lashed out with two powerful blows at the thing.
Ema got the feeling that the aboleth wouldn't last much longer and decided to hold off on spending any more magic on it unless her friends failed to kill it in the next few seconds.
As the situation appears to be in hand, Valentin hangs back and restores the wand to his wrist sheath.
Victrix starts ripping and tearing!
The unfortunate aboleth is simply not prepared for the amount of punishment you are able to dish out! With numerous critical strikes and smites, the creature crumples in on itself and dissolves into a swarm of translucent jellyfish! The jellyfish rush past you and out through the door, heading down the hall towards where you saw the two shining children guarding the case full of sand, which Simon intuits is likely the vampire's coffin!
The pipes in this room are attached to several incapacitated ghouls. It seems like the machinery is drawing necrotic fluids and gases from the undead creatures to fuel the horrific experiments in the other rooms on this level.
"Right. I'll be back."
Victrix turns back and goes to smash the case.