Victrix doesn't bother to dodge most of the javelins, barrelling through them and into the nearest skum!
Valentin rushes up behind the party to be ready to support them. He casts Sanctuary on himself.
Though the skum dodge some of Ema's fireball this time, Terana and Victrix move in to mop up the survivors, slicing them to pieces. As one troop dissolves, Simon moves up to the next one, impaling a pair of skum on the end of his longspear with one brutal thrust. The remaining skum fight back, doing some minor damage to the investigator, but with all of you focusing your attacks on them, you quickly lay waste to the remaining warriors. Ema's elementals have done their job as well, and the few survivors from the initial wave of attackers flee back into the water of the bay.
A cheer goes up from Talmandor Bounty's defenders, but you're sure the battle isn't over yet...
"Let's get back behind the walls to better see what is coming next."
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Returning to the town, Simon uses the brief time remaining in his huge form to hoist the bodies of the purple worms and toss them onto the beach, hoping to slow the approach of the next wave.
As his body returns to normal size, he sits and drinks an extract, sending forth an Arcane Eye to scout out what other enemies are arrayed against them.
Ema landed on the wall with the retreat of the skum and shifted back into human for a moment. She grabbed her spellbook out and focused on a spell in it. Her eyes flashed as she converted power into changing out a spell and then she changed pages and did it again. Finished she quickly put her book away. She cast a spell to turn back into a dragon and flew straight up to get some height before she cast a couple of spells conjuring several spike lined pits between the walls and the shore at irregular places to help break up the next charge. She just wished she had a way to hide them from the oncoming skum.
Terana vaciliates on the beach, half tempted to head into the ocean and take the fight to the enemy. Unfortunately her allies are significantly better on land so she retreats like the rest.
Simon's arcane eye reveals several more legions of skum mustering just off-shore, preparing for another assault on the colony. Leading them is a hulking skum with an oversized two-bladed sword, accompanied by a pair of blank-eyed gillmen. Perhaps if you take out the leader, it would send the remaining forces into disarray!
Ema heard Simon's message and considered before responding in a much deeper voice than normal due to her current form, "I worry about getting overrun if we do. I can fly over and thin them first."
"I'm in." Terana says. "I've got a debt to repay to the skum..."
She seems quite happy to charge straight into the ocean and deal with him there!
Ema makes a few strafing runs, spewing her breath weapon down into the ranks of skum to wound and disorient them. While the troops are scattering and diving for cover, she returns to the group, then Valentin teleports the lot of you right up near the leader of the army! The large skum bellows with rage and brandishes his sword as his gillemn compatriots begin to murmur spells!
"You die today." Terana says firmly. Her glaive moves unbelievably fast and the skum is rendered into small chunks.
Watching the enemy spellcasters, Valentin prepares to disrupt one of them.
Watching them and Victrix carefully, he begins casting, waiting until the right time to send a beam of light at the gillman that Victrix is not engaging.
Victrix lunges at the nearest of the gillmen, swinging her axe like crazy!
The enemies were truly unprepared for your sudden fury. Terana makes swift work of the lead skum, her holy blade slicing him apart as she smites the evil foe! No sooner has the skum fallen then Victrix hacks and chops at one of the gillmen sorcerers, cutting him down.
The other gillman casts a spell, maintaining his concentration as Valentin hits him with searing light, and the sorcerer unleashes a blast of cold that washes over you. It's not nearly enough to slow you down, though, and you make swift work of the second sorcerer before he gets another spell off!
The leader's defeat sends the remaining skum into disarray. They rever to baser instincts without their seasoned commander’s presence and break from combat shortly after their leader's death. Their retreat removes the immediate threat against Talmandor’s Bounty, though the greater threat of Ochymua—not to mention the veiled master’s goal of entering the Spindle Solution’s compound—remains!
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Congratulating the party (and eyeing Terana's glaive with newfound trepidation), Simon begins gathering up the loot before heading back to shore.
Once they have checked on the well-being of the townspeople, and the party have gathered together, he states the obvious. "While I am glad we were here today, we have wasted enough time here. We need to get back to the mission of stopping this veiled master before it destroys the world.
We know where this compound is now. Let's go."
Tapping his array of extracts, he sighs. "I can be persuaded to wait until morning, but I am also ready to go right now."
Terana nods. "We can afford to waste little time. Clearly the Veiled Master is ready if he is dispatching minions in an attack like this. We need to take the fight to him and quickly!"
Before you are able to charge off, Simon receives a message via sending. He recognizes the haughty tones of the voice as those of Nieran Codali, the Mordant Spire elf you rescued from the aboleth Onthooth's prison.
"Take heed! Algollthu forces are on the move. Ochymua's agents have awakened the beast Ruinquake, which advances on the city of Talasantri. "
After a few moments, a second message arrives. "And a vast army of ulat-kini and aboleths musters on the island of Kalas-Ti, preparing for war. Meet me there when you can!"
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Simon briefly acknowledges receipt of the message, indicating they are deciding which issue to respond to first.
Passing along the information, Simon fingers Seaspike.
"Ruinquake again? I don't want to be caught chasing phantoms again. Ema, do you have the ability to cast Sending to talk to Rillikimatai? We should confirm this information before rushing off."
"What is Ruinquake?" Terana asks. "Sounds ominous."
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"Ruinquake is a massive abberation known as a plankta. It is more a force of destruction than an actual creature. This particular plankta attacked Taladantri a hundred years ago, before being beaten back through the concerted efforts of many elven mages and a mythic human hero known as Wavewalker, using this artifact." Simon hoists Seaspike, the legendary short spear.
"When we first entered Taladantri, the veiled master made people believe that the creature had awoken and that we were at fault. It was only a distraction then, but the possibility that it has awoken the plankta for real exists."
Terana nods with a frown. "Many threats at once. This is the Master's doing. We must move quickly or else we will not be able to move at all."
Ema was pleased to see the fight ended so abruptly with the death of the lead skum. Her summoned elementals sent a few big rocks flying at the retreating army to spur them along as she landed and shifted back into her real form.
When Simon asked if she had a way to contact Rillikimatai she shook her head and said, "Me, no, but I can likely summon something that can. It might just be easier to get ready and teleport there though."
Ema noticed the staff that someone found and her eyes lit up as she said, "Oh I haven't seen one of those in a long time." She took it and looked it over as she realized what it was and said, "Oh my, a staff of frost. I'm not sure how useful it will be against underwater threats but it should be useful in some way regardless."
Shifting her focus back on Talasantri's plight Ema said, "I think that going to Talasantri directly would be our best bet, we need to warn them and it would be a good idea to look for a couple of spells I need as well."
Victrix bounces from foot to foot. "Sounds as good as anything. Let's get going!"
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Nodding, Simon begins changing back into his underwater armor.
"Ruinquake does seem like the bigger threat, and one that we should deal with more urgently. I simply fear that we are chasing shadows again."
His face scrunches up in thought as he begins grumbling to himself. "Or, is that the veiled master's plan? Fool us once and then we won't believe it when the real attack comes? But, then, he probably knew we would suspect that..."
You make preparations for underwater adventuring before teleporting to the city of Talasantri. Suddenly appearing deep underwater is a bit of a shock to the system, as your bodies work to adjust to the cold and the pressure of the depths. Arriving in the city square, you discover the populace in a state of panic. Rillikamatai quickly emerges from city hall to greet you.
"It is good to see you, heroes. I fear that our city needs you once more! When Ochymua's agents first proclaimed that Ruinquake was awakening once more, my own sight grew cloudy as I was unable to determine the truth of their statements. It seems that the doomcriers have proven to be correct, as the massive plankta is even now on the way to Talasantri! It is currently only a few miles from here, and there is no force within the city that can stand against such a threat. We need you, and Seaspike! Will you aid us in our hour of need?"
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Groaning at finding that the threat is real, Simon grips Seaspike and steps forward, squaring his shoulders.
"I had hoped that this was another diversion, but it appears those thoughts were in vain. I am no Wavewalker, and we are still depleted from battling an army of Skum who had attacked Talmandor's Bounty. Regardless, we cannot allow this threat to remain unchallenged.
I will go forth to battle this threat."
"Of course." Terana says, there is no question in her mind on the subject.
"Thank you!" Rillikamatai says. He tells you where to find the approaching monster, giving you time to prepare before you head out to confront the massive creature...
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Before battle, Simon will hand his extract of Displacement to Victrix.
He will use Fluid Form, Enlarge Person, Blur, and Long Arm on himself.
Immediately before engaging he will use the wand of displacement on Terana.
Valentin will cast Freedom of Movement on Victrix (in case you want to use that aberration bane longsword)
Terana nods her thanks to both Valentin and Simon before heading straight for the mighty creature. Her glaive shines with radiance from the celestial spirit that has been summoned into it as she smites the beast!
Despite the disorientation of the sudden water preassure Ema was glad to see the city was still standing. She liestened as they were filled in on the situation and quickly pulled out her spell book. Ema's eyes flashed as the book flipped to the right page and she converted one spell to another. She put the book away and her eyes flashed twice more refilling her reservoir. "I am as ready as I can be. Anything further needs to wait until we are closer to Ruinquake."
Victrix takes a moment to appreciate her full-plate's underwater enchantments before nodding. "I'm ready as well."
You swim out to confront Ruinquake. As you draw near the site where it was last spotted, a gently moving bloom of jellyfish drifts past you. However, you belatedly realize that the bloom conceals the presence of two deep merfolk, their semi-transparent forms nearly invisible in the dark water! Before you can react, the pair fire off spells, blasting you with cones of cold!
Terana shrugs off the magical cold easily enough in the depths of her deep sea home.
]
Ema didn't realize the threat from within the jellyfish until it was far too late. She saw only a brief flash as the first cone of cold hit her and she started dodging far too late. Fortunately for Ema her movements allowed her to avoid the worst for the second burst of cold. Her flesh blackened badly from the first spell and even morr so from the second. If she had been a bit slower Ema knew she might have been killed. She was glad she still had the buffer of energy from her earlier defensive spell to help negate the injuries to a degree.
Ema began to move through the pain and opened a portal below her feet allowing her to sink through it and appear again outside of the range of the blast of cold and getting the two merfolk lined up in her sights. She then glared angrily at the concealed deep merfolk and cast a spell of her own.
Victrix roars in response to the icy magics and swims out to hack one of the merfolk to bits!
"Nothing can stop Ruinquake! So the master commands!" shouts one merfolk in response to Simon.
Victrix lands a hit on one of the merfolk before they strike back, imbuing their icy spears with spells of force. Victrix takes two hits, the second one shoving her a few feet away.
Breathing once again, Valentin channels to ease the effects of the cold magic, excluding the merfolk from the effect.
Terana swims forwards to cleave her way through the merfolk.
Victrix swims back into melee range and swings again!
Though one of the merfolk is barely fazed by Ema's lightning bolt, the other takes the full brunt of the blast. Victrix brings her axe down in two devastating chops, slaughtering the jolted merfolk.
Terana swims up to the second one and slices it with her glaive as Simon and Valentin focus on healing. The second merfolk stabs back at Terana, augmenting her spear with lightning!