Zhi slips out of the creatures tentacles as if she were greased. Landing on her feet, she positions herself to give Sara the best chance to strike.
Realizing that there's no way that she can break loose, Zhi tenses and considers her options.
Seeing her wife trapped Melodie strides forward and cuts at the creature's tongue, her voice sending powerful vibrations through the Scion's Dagger.
As Melodie and Zhi struggle vainly against the monster, Sara kicks at it with her heels, scoring two solid blows. Undeterred the thing pulls Zhi into its gaping maw! It swiftly swallows the rogue, its powerful stomach muscles crushing her and breaking bones. The warm, dark gullet is terrifying, and Zhi's mind rebels at the thought of being digested alive! But the sahkil's fell influence twists this fear, intertwining it with thoughts of Melodie...
Just as quickly as it swallowed her, the sahkil vomits Zhi forth, leaving her bloody and slimy on the ground. With a slobbering laugh, it winks out of existence as it slips back into the Ethereal Plane.
Groaning and in pain, Zhi feels the external influence begin to twist her thoughts. Instinctively, she calls upon Koriana's Blade to negate the effect.
She coughs out more of the slime and struggles to her feet.
"Is everyone ok?" she manages to spit out when she notices the creature is nowhere in sight.
"Are you ok?" Melodie responds, clasping her wife's hands. "That thing was foul!"
"The inside was worse," Zhi grumbles, leaning against Melodie. "But why did it leave? We weren't doing spit to it. What's its game?"
Noticing that Zil and Maria are moving further and further away, she tightens her grip on Mel's hand. "We need to go get those two and figure out what to do."
Zhi shakes off more of the residue of the abomination and leads the others down the path to intercept Maria and Zileska.
"Do you have a way to remove the spell?" she asks her wife. She then turns to the two ladies under the spell. "Zil? Maria? You're under a spell of some sort. Do you have any way to remove it?"
"I can try." Melodie says, "Or we could try and wait the spell out. The effects usually fade after a while..."
Melodie's spell is successful, and Zileska regains control of her senses as the compulsion vanishes.
It takes three more attempts, but Melodie is finally able to dispel the suggestion from Maria. By this point, you're on the outskirts of Hyden. Your true foes lie back in the town, but that monstrous sahkil is no doubt still lurking nearby...
"I think we need to fall back and regroup," Zhi says to the others after the compulsion has been removed. "We need something better to deal with this insubstantial ... thing."
"I want to take us back to Birdsong. What do you think?"
Melodie nods her agreement, "We need some more ways to affect an incorporeal creature. Perhaps some scrolls or something similar. We'll have to come back quickly though, first thing in the morning perhaps."
As you are debating what to do next, the horrible monster suddenly appears behind Melodie! Its wounds appear to have vanished. Its tongue slices her skin, causing her to begin bleeding profusely as it wraps around her and holds her tight. "You should have fled when you had the chance! Now I shall feast on your terror!"
Zhi steps up next to the creature and engages it in the way she knows best.
Having already failed to banish the enemy, Zil sticks to deploying a heal spell to keep Zhi in fighting trim.
As Zhi hammers the creature, Melodie focuses her voice and will and commands the creature. "Freeze!"
The creature resists Melodie's spel!
Maria had at least managed to get her Greater False Life extract down her neck while the others were talking and moved in with Zhi to start attacking it.
Sara only manages to land one good heel strike on the monster, while Safina scores a critical hit! Zhi and Maria stab at the beast, further wounding it, but not enough. It opens its maw wide and yanks Melodie inside with its tongue, swallowing her whole! The creature's stomach crushes the unfortunate mesmerist while her mind fills with fear! After a few seconds, it spits Melodie back out and slips back into the Ethereal Plane.
Melodie collapses on the floor as the creature regurgitates her, although the psychological effects do not do any more damage than the creature's vomit.
"Go!" She manages, "I'm right there with you." The shadows pool around her and she vanishes.
Zhi fights against the urge to follow her wife into the shadows, but she knows that she needs to get everyone else home.
"Everyone! Gather 'round," she says before beginning the words to the spell of teleportation.
In spite of her ankles killing her, the rogue stays standing and pacing until Melodie arrives home safely.
"Now how do we keep the creature from appearing here?" says Zil as the team appears. "We have no special defenses against planar interlopers."
"That thing was defending something," Zhi says in response. "I'd be surprised if it would just leave it undefended to come after us here." She frowns. "At least I hope it wouldn't." Her eyes begins searching the surround area.
Whether she's looking for her wife or the plane-hopping horror is anyone's guess.
After nearly an hour the shadows coalesce in the corner of the room and Melodie collapses into the room. She's white as a sheet and falls to the floor as her thin blood pools up around her hand and starts welling over.
She looks up and gives Zhi a pale grin before she faints.
Zhi is nearly frantic by the time Melodie reappears. "Zil!" she calls out as the woman collapses. She races to her side and takes her in her arms. "Hey, you. No sleeping on the job," she says in a soft voice.
Zil doesn't hesitate but moves to kneel down next to Melodie. "Glad I keep two of these handy," she murmurs as she draws forth her holy symbol and casts another heal spell. A low buzzing sound is heard as a golden light seems to reflect from Melodie's skin for a moment and her bleeding wounds knit and heal perfectly, leaving no blemish, and she takes on more of her usual color.
"Holy f%~+," says Sara, out of breath. "Maybe we should head to Oppara, supply up in a bigger market?"
”Agreed - maybe do some research into just what we’re facing and how to protect ourselves. And keeping it from constantly fading away from us all the time.”
Using magic, you travel swiftly to Oppara to shop for supplies to use against the monstrous guardian of Hyden. You return to the Palace of Birdsong, and after resting and recovering, you teleport back to Hayden the next day.
You arrive on target and quickly cast preparatory spells. Only a few minutes later, the horrifying outsider phases into reality a few feet away! "You return for me to torment you further! I will teach you the meaning of terror!"
As they approached, Maria made sure to down her shield, greater false life, barkskin, and blur extracts.
With the creature before them, Maria made the first move.
As soon as the group appears in the correct location, Zhi begins casting spells upon herself.
Sara stands there waiting with a brace of arrows and one of Maria's infusions, ready to drink it as soon as she sees or hears the thing.
Zileska knows that this fight is worthless if the creature can just vanish, so she's prepared a special treat. In addition to throwing down bless, remove fear, prayer, blessing of fervor, and freedom of movement on the ladies, and nine lives on Sara, she casts a powerful spell that generates an emerald barrier as soon as the creature appears.
There is no escape: The creature cannot avoid the spell as long as it is in the area of the dimension lock. Of course, creatures of this sort have spell resistance; the spell could just wash off of it like it's nothing.
Zileska throws up her hands in frustration and prepares for the creature to escape only to kill them later.
As Maria moves in on the monster, its tongue slices at her, but it is unable to grab hold due to freedom of movement. The tiefling drives her blade into the monster's shuddering bulk, wounding it.
But its injury starts to quickly heal as its tongue wraps around Maria's feet and knocks her to the ground. It assaults her with a flurry of attacks, clawing and slamming her. The monster seems unfazed by Maria's blur spell, unerringly striking the tiefling! Luckily, the investigator's other magical defenses protect her from some attacks, but she is still badly wounded!
Zileska calls forth a dimensional lock, trapping the fiend on this plane!
"No running away this time," Zhi says in a cold voice right before casting a spell to enhance her capabilities.
She then moves in to give Sara flanking assistance.
Melodie whistles at the creature, a remarkably jaunty tune, and the creature finds itself tapping its feet!
Cursing in pain, Maria quickly got back to her feet and lashed out.
Before the fight begins Melodie applies her powers to her friends.