Braelex quaffs an extract.
As you get close to the shore to bring the boats along, Levelle gets and overwhelming sense of longing muttering, "I can't take it ... i have to find it!"
She strips down and dives out of the boat and swims for the beach, ignoring your pleas and shouts to return especially as you see two massive snake-like streaks darting toward her from the other side of the lake. Luckily she swims quickly and makes it to the beach and runs to the wall where she spotted the door, pawing and clawing at it.
After restraining her and opening the door, the sense of longing dissipates ....
Levelle and Talaay move into position while Andel recites the creature's weaknesses.
With a hiss, Daefu shouts, "Moisten them up, my loves!". She makes a vicious face and the horrifying image dismays you all turning your knees to water.
"Look into my eye, dearie!" The hag shouts at Relan as she moves away from the island swimming through the water with ease, pulling down her lower lid with her finger nail. The warrior gets a chill and a sense of foreboding shakes his bones.
The lobster clawed gremlins yip excitedly and wave their tiny red claws around in anticipation moving closer in the water.
The rest of the party positions itself.
Andel will cast allegro on himself.
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In no hurry to get close to the water Relan advances and readies to attack the first creature that closes with him. If he is somehow aware of the staggering stare he will pretend to be staggered. As all he did was move he may seem that way regardless.
Levelle shakes her head but seems to shrug off the effects of the look. Sensing it is best to think the gremlins, Levelle signals Talaay to attack as she lobs an arrow at the nearest lobster clawed creature.
Levelle fires at a gremlin and while her shot is true the arrow skips off the gremlin's hide causing it no harm. Talaay is equally frustrated as her claws can't seem to penetrate the evil fey's magical skin.
Andel casts a spell as the hag eyes the bunch warily.
The hag eyes Relan's blade warily and then grins and squeals at her gremlins, "Drown him, my pretties, he's hurt!!" She gazes on the warrior once again with her other eye,
Two of the gremlin rush Relan.
Two of the others wave at the water and serpent like lashes whip out at the defending warrior.
The last two swim out of sight into the room to the east.
Vuloo casts his burst of radiance and catches the hag with her eyes wide open. The little gremlins all get incinerated by the fire.
; fail; rounds
; success
; success
; success
; success
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Braelex shifts around Andel for a clear shot and fires her crossbow at the hag.
;
Holding his breath Relan 5' steps up and attacks the hag. I tire of this. he gurgles.
Vuloo extends a life link to Relan.
Andel takes a 5' step and fires on the hag with his bow.
; extra attack from allegro
The party's arrows and bolts bounce off the hags near harmlessly scratching and nicking her, but when Relan steps forward with a series of lighting fast thrusts, the cold iron causes the hags skin to smoke upon contact and knifes into her like butter.
Within seconds the hags lies dead on the beach. The remaining gremlin flee into the water.
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A quick search of the hag uncovers her magic longspear and a necklace made of bones that also radiates magic.
The scarred woman on the post is unconscious.
Around to the north you find another room that requires you to swim in. The ceiling in this watery cavern dips down to a mere couple of inches above the water level. Something under the water itself glows brightly, causing the water to shimmer and shine.
A net of woven seaweed is attached to the wall in the eastern part of her cave. This collection consists of a large number of beautiful but otherwise worthless seashells, two potions of cure moderate wounds (both with watertight seals), and a sack containing 36 gemstones worth a total of 900 gp as well as two fire opals worth 1,000 gp each, 2 magical gems (one is a clear opal, the others is a light brown topaz), and a pale blue rhomboid ioun stone
Braelex smiles at the sight of the ioun stone. "This might come in handy should we locate the shard here."
Vuloo will come to the aid of the unconscious woman. He unties her and heals her until she regains consciousness. "You're safe now. My name is Vuloo and these are my friends. What is your name and why are you here? What can you tell us of these caverns and your captors?"
; if necessary
Vuloo helps the others secure the gems, potions and ioun stone. He attempts to discern the properties of the ioun stone.
He eyes the glowing light under the water nervously. "Relan, do you want to risk investigating? I'll keep the life link up to aid you."
Taking advantage of the remaining haste Relan scrapes off the watery gel and breathe deeply. After a moment he helps gather the treasures and attends the woman
I am a good swimmer. Of course I will investigate. Can you tell me of these magic items first?
Vuloo shares everything he knows about the magic items with Relan.
Levelle will look over the halflings shoulder as he assess the magical items in the cache, correcting or adding any information she notes...
Levelle also stands by as Relan attempts to navigate the water, SHould I rope you to me just in case?
Relan swims down with aid from Levelle. He finds a high concentration of the glowing algae and a narrow tunnel that unarmed he could squeeze through. It appears to head west into the large lake.
The warrior is about to head back up when an extremely serpentine creature swims by the opposite end of the tunnel. With eyes the size of dinner plates, the creature is too big to fit through the tunnel, but is unnerving nonetheless.
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Relan studies the creature before returning the way he came and reports what he saw.
Vuloo helps Relan out of the water. "I guess all that glitters is not gold. Shall we keep moving?"
"Uhnn", the woman groans as she comes around. "What, where? Oh, right ..."
Slumping back as reality of her plight dawns on her, the woman finally focuses on Vuloo and listens to his questions, "You slew the hag, huh ... healed me, too? Thanks for that," she speaks with a gruff, clipped voice. Confident, yet tired.
"My name is Helanda Martien, I serve under Commander Oriana of the Maidens of the Lady's Light company of the Gray Maidens, Ileosa's Avengers we call ourselves. We came here looking to find the Lady's Light treasure and magic to aid in reclaiming the Crimson Throne of Korvosa from its current “pretender.” Seemed like a good idea at the time," she groans and indicates she'd like some of your water.
"The story of how I came to be here, ..." she indicates the whipping post, "... specifically, is a long one. If you intend to help me get out of here, I will share it with you in hopes it aids you to facilitate my escape."
While we are happy to save you Helada we have a mission also and cannot make getting you out of here our primary goal. If we arm you will you fight with us?
Levelle tilts her head at Relan and then nods at his sentiment looking at the woman...
Vuloo cuts the woman free. "Pleased to meet you Helanda. I care little for Korvosa politics, so good luck with your revolution. You're welcome to join us, but as my friend Relan says, you'll have to take care of yourself. Now, please answer his question, can we trust you to fight with us and not against us?"
"You have weapons and armor for me? If so, I'll take up the fight with you as long as I get my revenge against my backstabbing sisters and there is an opportunity to kill this "Sorshen" who caused us all our problems. You'll need info, though. What can I tell you?"
Offering her his hand Relan says I believe we have liberated a few items that we can lend you until we recover your gear, which I think likely that we will do. As to information, best start at the beginning. [ooc]Unsure what loot we have, but Relan will be generous in equipping the woman.[/b]
As the party sorts through the gear they have, Helanda points out the things she's comfortable with and tells her story.
"I've followed the commands of Commander Oriana for years. Like I said, her plan to come here seemed like a good idea at the time. We came through the boggard village after our Commander made an arrangement with them, using the strange orange pheremones to avoid the bugs. The statue guardians ignored us once they saw the symbols of lust painted on our shields and we moved along down into the dungeon, riding the boats to the little island off the beach. There we were assaulted by the glass statue, which slew two of us. We buried them on the beach." A look of pain and grief flashes across Helanda's face. She pauses to recompose herself before continuing.
"We progressed through a battery of rooms, again avoiding fights with the lust symbols, but were accosted by four demonic men who were obsessed with a raging lust. Two of them disappeared at the beginning of the fight, and we'd thought they'd fled. We cut down the other two, but were then attacked by a beautiful woman who looked and sounded and certainly acted like the Runelord Sorshen reborn. It was wonder! We rejoiced at getting a reborn runelord on our side. We were certain it would guarantee retaking the Korvosan throne, after all!" Her face takes on an almost wistful and nostalgic look which fades back into anger near immediately.
"Sorshen teleported us one at a time using a wand from the room in which we'd fought the winged demons and into a small collection of rooms and living quarters. It's just on the other side of that wall there. I can give you details if you're interested."
She clenches her fist as she proceeds to the next part, her voice taking on a tremor of controlled anger, "Oriana, her second-in-command Quenelle, and some others were taken away to serve “Sorshen,” although I'm now fairly certain that most of those sisters ended up in the sea hag’s clutches. I came to be here after I grew suspicious of “Sorshen.” So I attempted to lead several of my sisters in a revolt to contact Oriana and try to find out what was really going on."
With bitterness she spits out, "The others sold me out. “Sorshen” herself arrived to punish me and took me to this cave, stripping me of my gear, and left me with “that horrible sea witch.” She shudders involuntarily.
"I'm convinced that this woman isn't the real Sorshen. She has to be something else. Some sort of deceiver, but I think the crazed creature believes she actually is the runelord of lust. I think she's unstable and if one could prove that she wasn't Sorshen, it may distract her enough to free the others. At least that's what I though and was one of the things I thought we could find to aid our rescue/escape attempt. Maybe find out who it actually is ... her name or something."
She indicates her current state, [b]But, you can see what trusting my so-called friends got me."
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Braelex's brow furrows in confusion, "You say this Sorshen pretender appeared and attacked you, then you were suddenly her allies. What happened to end hostilities so quickly? Perhaps you and your sisters were charmed?"
The woman's face twists in confusion, "Yes, that's what I said. She attacked us ... and ... and ... then we became allies. Gods! Why were we happy about it? It makes no sense, but still a piece of me feels it ... was right? That makes no sense."
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"From what we've seen so far, this place is filled with charmers and mind-benders. It is a fair bet you and your companions were affected by some ensorcelling magic."
She ponders for a moment and nods as Braelex speaks, slow realization coming through followed by a pained look and then she whispers, "Then ... they're not responsible for betraying me?"
Tears well in her eyes that she quickly wipes away, regaining her composure, "I will go with you, and my sisters will try to stop us. We can't kill any of them. They aren't in their right minds based on what you just stated."
Braelex frowns, giving a small shrug. "It's still just a theory. I wouldn't trust anything at this point."
Vuloo strokes his beard as he absorbs the story. "We've followed in your wake for much of our journey. There are the remains of other prisoners in the next cavern over - perhaps those were your sisters. Let us see if we can find Oriana and any remaining sisters that may be alive. Yes, let's investigate the living quarters that you speak of. What additional information do your have on those chambers?"
The woman stares at Braelex for a long time before she shakes her head and then begins to answer Vuloo's request, "Immediately beyond the door in the cavern is the dining hall and attached sleeping chambers. The baths are through that room and then beyond their is the golden hallway. It's from that room that Sorshen and the others come and go. I know not how, but they transport into and out of that room itself. There's a door in the east side of the room that's been sealed shut. We recently found a secret door in the southern part of the Golden Hallway, but I left before they explored it."
She ticks off her fingers, muttering a few names under her breath and then adds, "There are 10 Maidens left within the quarters. Sorshen took 10 others with her, including Oriana and Quenelle. The rest are dead."
I've no desire to kill these maidens but I will defend myself. We also found a secret door earlier but ignored it to come to your rescue. And there is the path through the water, but I would explore the rest of the cave before we choose that way.
"Do we have any means to subdue them should they prove 'uncooperative'?" Braelex asks. "I have noxious bombs, which might help temporarily, but we may need to bind and secure them."