Tochi of course followed his comrades down the hall and looked closely at the pillar when Mina touched it and caused one of the runes to glow. He had a smile on his face as he said, "Of course it's a wyrm." he didn't seem worried by the prospect of fighting potentially undead and a dragon, in fact he seemed... Excited.
Following behind Baris into the next room he saw the halfling attempting to climb to the other side and was about to ask him what he was doing when he caught sight of the faint glimmer on the other side of the chamber. He smirked, knowing now that chances of turning back to talk to King Fatmouth would have to wait until the shinies had been recovered.
He did, however, ready his weapon and say to the others. "Looks like for now we move forward."
A large pool of water dominates this chamber. On the far side of the pool is a small island, on which something glitters in the faint light.
Wilhelmina felt the magic flow through her and knew what it was. "You were right, Sefyr." She found a small recess in the floor and let the rest of the water created by her orison fall into it, making a small puddle. "The water should be safe to enter for whoever touches all four runes. I don't know if having wet hands helps so that's there just in case."
Panic-stricken, she shouted back at the others, "Come quick! There's a monster! Baris needs help!"
Without waiting another second, Mina dove into the water. Though she knew that exposure to water would probably rust her armor, there was no time to take it off. She knew she had to get to Baris, if nothing else to help free him from the monster's claws. She wished she had a dagger, with which she would have been able to fight more effectively underwater. Her sickle would have to do.
Tochi nearly ran into the water himself when he saw the monstrosity rise out of the water claws first and snap around Baris. He wasn't sure the halfling could last long in that thing's clutches, but if everyone drowned trying to save him then the end result would be the same. Tochi considered himself a strong swimmer but even he could only last so long, it wasn't like he could breathe underwa-
He heard what Mina said just before she had come close enough to see what had happened, something about the water being "safe" for those who touched the runes. Without a word Tochi ran back to the pillar as fast as he could and slammed his palms, still wet with sweat from the previous fight, against the runes. He then ran back and plowed into the water behind Mina.
Tochi hesitated for only a moment after seeing Baris get snapped up by the giant claws, steeling himself for the hard swim and fight ahead of him before he plowed into the water, swimming as fast as he could. once he was close enough to the creature, he stabbed at it with his halberd as hard as he could.
Baris exclaims in surprise,"Ahhhh, noooo, you should not have..." At that point being pinched by the claw. Baris then attempts to wriggle free from his captors claws
If he is free he attempts to strike it with his elbow using one of his stunning fists
If he is not free he attempts to further escape.
Tochi, you did hear Wilhelmina, but when you ran back all the glyphs were dull and you felt no power come from them or the water.
Baris, still caught in the clutches of the monster, manages to reach down and smack Reefclaw around a bit. When he hits him, the monster goes into a daze and releases Baris!
11/13
Buoyed by the power from the glyphs, Wilhelmina quickly covered the distance between the shore and the monster, managing to stay afloat. This enabled her to reach above the water and swing down at the monster with her sickle. She hoped it would help Baris get clear. If she could sink it in deep enough, maybe she would even be able to use it to pull herself up on top of the monster where she could attack it and use it as footing at the same time.
Wilhelmina swims out to the beast, not concerned for her own safety, and connects with her sickle, causing a bit more damage to the beast.
Sefyr moves into the room and fires another blinding ray at the creature.
Though the creature is stunned, it seems that the blinding ray has no effect.
Baris is hurt and a bit scared, he takes a full retreat action, and moving away from the creature swimming across. Follow the red line. Swim Check.
Indrick rushed into the next room at the sounds of pitched battle... Only to stop when he was greeted with the messy scene before him. Perhaps it would be wiser to hang back here on dry land. "Come, my friends!" Indrick cheered as if he were to begin singing a grand ballad. "We can defeat this monster!"
Using his rage to fight the spider must have tired Bladecatcher out more than he thought, he hardly keep up with his companions, especially the energetic halfling.
But when Mina cried out, he set off to confront the monster with the rest.
Sefyr gives the creature an annoyed scowl. Hold still!
Tochi gathered his strength into his legs and leapt as hard as he could over the water to reach the creature faster. It appeared to be stunned, and he wanted to take advantage of the creature's confused state while he could.
Leaping the required ten feet ahead to put the monster within reach, he then kicked his legs as hard as he could to keep his upper half above water so that he could stab forward with his halberd.
And Tochi, with a flying leap of amazing, jumped into the water and slew Reefclaw like it was nothing! The battle is over.
Still being under the urgency of helping Baris, It wasn't until Wilhelmina was up on the island with the halfling that it hit her just how truly amazing Tochi's deed was. Now she held the young fighter in even higher esteem, and it further improved her attitude toward the group as a whole, which was already good, even though Baris had almost gotten himself killed going after the shinies just now.
Knowing Baris was going to now want to dig through the pile of said shinies, Mina didn't bother to try to make him stop so she could look at his wounds. She just began another channeling of healing energy toward both Baris and Tochi (knowing Tochi still had a few scratches.
She frowned at the poor result, but it was probably because of the shock of having had to suddenly go into and out of the water. Regardless, she didn't want to try channeling again at this time. Instead, she would wait for Baris to be willing to let her try to treat him with her healer's kit.
Tochi, after having managed to slide his halberd directly into the creature's spinal column, swam around the carcass and up to the tiny island where Baris and Mina stood. He scowled a bit thinking about how not fun it was going to be to get his armor completely dried so it wouldn't crack.
Baris actually does not go for the shinies, he turns to Mina in a cowed posture with shoulders sloped down, "I am sorry I couldn't help myself, would you please fix some of these wounds please."
Once Mina has fixed his wounds he thanks her again and turns to Tochi slightly more perky, "Thanks Tochi you saved my hinney, Mina thank you again."
Then he goes over to inspect the shinies! To get a quick survey of the items and collect what he can, also passing a portion to Mina and Tochi. Next he will take a 20 on perception --> 29 to make sure they got all the treasure and to see if there was anything missed or hidden covies.
Once the treasure is close enough to examine,
Pleased that Baris let her see to his wounds right away, Wilhelmina acknowledged his thanks with a soft, "Of course."
The monster had managed to amass a tempting pile of treasure, obviously meant to lure in greedy prey, but Mina wondered if the monster might have anything valuable on itself, whether perhaps a part of its body could be worth something or if it carried anything in its gullet from a recent victim. She dragged the corpse onto the shore so she could start cutting open its fatal halberd wound with her sickle and look inside, while asking the others at the same time, "Would anyone know if any part of this thing's body might be worth something?"
"Hmm let me take a look." Tochi wasn't much of a creatures expert, but he looked over the corpse, thinking back to the tales he had read as a boy.
With the others moving in to methodically take care of the treasure and dead crab-thing, Indrick felt... A bit useless. Hovering over Wilhelmina, he peered at the creature. "Dunno. Could be edible?"
In the pile of treasure you find a +1 Dragonbane Longsword, two potion viles, one with blue liquid, one with yellow, and 175 pieces of gold in a leather sack.
As you look over the body of the monster you see large claws in the shape of a lobsters, a head like a dragon, and a body like an eel. You find nothing of value on the body.
[b]"anyone good at swimming? To go looking for loose treasure down there?" Barks asks meekly.
Sefyr continues to examine the treasure.
Much as the monster would be good to eat, this probably wasn't the time to start butchering it. Wilhelmina heard Baris' suggestion that there might be more treasure down below and thought about it. "The monster probably would have picked up anything that fell into the water so it could add that to the tempting pile up here. Still, if you think there could be more, those runes gave me the ability to breathe underwater for a little while. I would need Sefyr to cast Light on some stones and throw them in the water so I could see down there, though."
She didn't think there was anything to find, but if the others wanted her to try and were willing to aid her with the Light, she would remove her armor (asking for help from Tochi or Baris to do it faster) and dive down for a few minutes of searching or until she found all there was to find, whichever came first.
Happy to help. Sefyr casts light on a stone and tosses it where Wilhelmina directs.
Baris stands next to the ledge, ready to jump in if need be but is anxiously waiting.
With the others moving in to methodically take care of the treasure and dead crab-thing, Indrick felt... A bit useless. Hovering over Wilhelmina, he peered at the creature. "Dunno. Could be edible?"
[dice=Bardic knowledge]1d20 + 2
Bladecatcher wrinkles his nose at the strange creature's corpse.
"Bah, I don't eat anything I can't identify."
"Hmm I don't know, it looks like it could actually taste pretty good." Tochi said with a smirk.
He blinked several times when Mina turned her back to him and asked for his help to take her heavy armor off. His cheeks scarlet and his eyes looking anywhere but at her made his fingers fumble at first over the buckles and laces, but they did manage together to doff the scale mail from her in only half a minute, and he once looked much relieved to see her modest shirt and trousers underneath. Soon after, Mina dived back into the water after Sefyr's lit stones.
"It's good eating in some regions, if I recall correctly," Indrick mused. Pity he didn't have much of a way to cut up or transport the meat. He was curious about the taste.
Sitting back on his heels, he let the others do their work. As the cleric dove into the water, he quietly conjured up four little dancing balls of light of his own, directing them to float down into the water for further illumination. It wouldn't last too terribly long, but it would at least help.
"Oooh, so thats how armor is taken off.. interesting, I prefer the mobile suit of silk or linen myself. We could leave the body in the cold water and grab it when we leave, just don't tell the goblins about it they will come get it."
You all watch as Wilhelmina swims to the bottom which is well lit in the clear water. You see her go for something, but you can't tell what it is. She manages to get back to the top with no problems.
So I am assuming we collect all the stuff, the new stuff Mina finds if any, then we get over to the passage near the column that glowed. How warm is it in this cave?
"Should we go back to the goblins... *he cringes*, mayhaps they have a fire where we can dry off better, I sure hope! They have acted better than most goblins I know, I sure hope they have good information for that toy."
"No complaints here," Indrick replied to Baris' comment. "If we have what we came for, I see little point in getting into any more trouble...." As if that would stop them, really.
Wilhelmina brought back up a sack with 100gp in it and gave it to Tochi to hold onto for the group.
Soaking wet and shivering, but satisfied from having found something worth the trouble, Wilhelmina put in her two coppers' worth about their next action. "Fatmouth didn't steer us wrong, on the spider or the water. However, he might have just been warning us so we could succeed at retrieving the valuables the goblins couldn't, intending to kill us for them later. For now, he's earned our goodwill, but we should still be ready to react to a betrayal when we return to him."
She hoped Sefyr had some magic that could dry her and her armor off. Much as it was uncomfortable to re-don the scale mail while still cold and wet, she was not going to leave herself undefended in this place. With the occasional sharp breath from the cold contact, she began re-armoring. She was anxious to continue on, both because movement would help her dry off and because she wanted to proceed on the trail of Black Fang.
You remember that King Fatmouth said that the water was on another path out of his cave, so you walk back that way and emerge on the northeast corner of his cave. Walking back into the goblin camp you see them surrounding a warm and inviting fire, with the smoke drifting up and over the small, sheer cliff on the northwest side of the cave. The Goblins immediately notice you and all look over to see what you are doing. King Famouth is sitting on his throne and looks expectantly at you, and asks "Did you find dragon toy? We heard many screams and splashing, what happen in water?" Seeing a few of your party dripping water, looking a little cold, he says "If you have dragon toy, you warm yourself by goblin fire. If not, you go away!" Once again at the mention of the dragon toy all the goblins looked very expectant, like children waiting for a surprise.
One would never expect to feel relief at the sight of a tribe of globlins, yet never theless Indrick was pleased to see them. Despite what his companions had warned, they certainly had seemed friendly enough. Breaking into a broad grin was far easier to force this time around as Indrick stepped forward to greet the goblins.
"King Fatmouth!" he exclaimed with an only partially false ring of cheer. "We have indeed returned with your toy dragon! We had to fight several terrible monsters, but as you can see, victory favored us on this day!" Not having the toy personally, he motioned for it to be brought forward for the goblins.
King Fatmouth squealed in delight as the dragon toy was brought forward. All of the other goblins cheered, ran over grabbed their hands and led them over to the fire, a very strange and sincere gesture from a group of goblins. They all started fighting over the dragon toy and King Fatmouth started yelling at them too, to which they all got frightened, calmed down, and played with the toy for a few seconds and passed it around their little circle with only a few elbow jabs and tugs trying to get in more time with the toy.
Satisfied that the longshanks had kept their words, he decided to keep his. "This Black Fang you say is a big, mean, nasty dragon. He make us pay moneys to stay in cave. He live in room over that way," you see him point to the small cliff on the other side of the cave. Then you see him looks around to Tochi, who has the sword you found in the pond area, and his eyes light up. "Oooooo you have special dragon. Other longshanks come before, say they gonna kill big, mean dragon, but never got dragon toy. He show me shiny sword and say it special for killing dragons. Black Fang's belly is very soft, hit there with sword and hurt dragon very bad! You longshanks can come through our cave as much as you want!" And with that King Fatmouth turns and takes an extended turn with the dragon toy, which you can see upsets some of the other goblins but they won't say anything.
Wilhelmina was satisfied with the outcome of their having worked with the goblins. She allowed herself to come closer to the fire so she could dry off, but motioned for Tochi, the other wet group member, to come with her so they could stay together in case the goblins turned hostile. While warming her hands, she asked the rest of the group, "All right. We've got what we need to defeat Black Fang. Anything else we need to do before we move in on him?."
Tochi looked at the sword they had recovered from the cave, wondering what past adventurer had come through here before and left it behind. He nodded to King Fatmouth in thanks for the tip and then followed Mina's lead over to the fire to warm himself. He contemplated her question but came up empty. With a shrug and a shake of his wet blonde hair, he replied "I see no reason to delay before going to meet and destroy the Black Fang. However this will undoubtedly be our last opportunity to rest or ready ourselves for the fight ahead of us. I for one am ready." He said with a grin.
"I am ready, but a bit hurt still, who would be best at using that sword?" Baris is in the circle with the rest of his companions trying to soak up some heat.