It seems to be searching, somewhat mindless. Destruction doesn't seem to be the goal but it is certainly the end result.
Jennifer holds up the chest. "Anyone have an alarm or illusion or something for this thing? I will lose my shit if someone takes this while we're dealing with Lobster-Face over there."
"Ri can watch it, louder than any alarm..." Nurai suggested as she tried to get a look at the 'lobster-face'. She had been meaning the learn the alarm spell, but other things had just been more interesting.
As the party approached, with Ri on guard, the strange crab...thing...turned. "FoOoooDD?!" the thing asked as it turned towards them. "FOOD!" It charged.
"FOOD!"
"Nope," Jennifer says before Syar'ammag takes over and she charges in return.
Nurai gave a quick command to her ghost wolf before she and her shadow eidolon stepped forward to flank around with Jennifer. "Not that kind of a snack...
The eidolon groaned as they reached out and slashed at the beast with long claws...
The bulky crab...thing...took the blows on its shell. Nurai's failed to punch through, although Jennifer had more luck in finding soft, squishy bits. If it troubled the strange creature then it didn't give much indication, only lashing out with its own pincers.
Snarling in pain, Jennifer tries to pry the pincers apart.
Kaelic was a little late to the party as the savagery exploded around him. But he decided to take a different approach, to the disappointment of Izami, and channeled a fey curse. "You look tired." He said simply as the words carried a haunting and compelling depth.
Nurai growled at the hit, pushing her energy through & taking the pain to keep her eidolon stable. She wasn't sure how much more of that after this long...however long they had been there...but enough to at least get Jennifer free and then maybe they could make a fun for it.
Her eidolon mainly wanted sweet up-close revenge while the ghost wolf attempted to move the shiny box towards the exit away from the all the fighting.
The strange crab blinked, then made a strange bubbling sound. It took a moment to identify the noise as laughter, even as Nurai tore into it. Then it squeezed.
Kaelic looked annoyed as the thing shrugged off his curse. Or, rather, laughed it off. How insulting.
He decided to back up Jennifer with a little bit of magic by way of revenge. "Come on lady, show him who's stronger." He suggested, sincerely hoping the angry librarian was indeed stronger.
Jennifer comes to the realization that she may not actually be stronger. So instead she sets out to prove that she's deadlier.
Nurai attempted another flurry, hoping it would be at least enough so that everyone could get the hell away. Maybe someone with bigger guns should deal with whatever this is...not that she would say that to her eidolon who was more than a little annoyed at it.
Jennifer tore into the monstrous form with vigour and passion, tearing the thing a new one, but it was almost put to shame as Nurai's shadow-laced form ripped through the armour on the things stomach. It roared in pain and fury, but apparently being suddenly deprived of its internal organs needed to eat didn't seem too important to the thing, and it continued to try and get something to eat - the party.
Several of Jennifer's ribs crack beneath the pressure of the thing's pincer. When she can breathe again, Jennifer spews forth a string of colorful profanities involving the phrase "all faeries," "ocean cockroaches," and things that this board will censor out.
Needless to say, she continues to try and kill this thing before it kills her.
Kaelic resented the faery remarks but decided to let it go in the name of bringing down their mutual foe. He moved to get a good angle with Nurai and then, brandishing Izami and his wakizashi, he strikes out with wild fury.
,
,
,
Nurai winced and the eidolon snarled while trying to claw enough to at least get away from this whatever.
The monsters roared again, but this time it came with a gush of blood. It's intense grip slackened and the thing looked down at the gaping wounds, apparently noticing it for the first time. With a crunch it collapsed to the deck with a metallic GLANG!!
Kaelic hesitated for a moment as the thing collapsed, then he sheathed his weapons and layed his hands upon Jennifer and Nurai. "Nature's blessing." He offered simply as the magic whipped up winds around them.
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#NotAllFaeries
With the crab thing dead it was a simple matter to get the box back and climb out of the derelict submarine. The question was whether it was wiser to take it back to the ship, or try and open it here where it couldn't put a hole in anything vital.
Nurai thanked Kaelic as she checked herself and motioned for her ghost wolf to start heading for the exit...
The party heads back to the shop and finds the captain.
Taking the box back to the ship didn't prove to be a problem. Nor did dropping it, when one of the crew members managed to do. It turned out that the box was rigged with a potent enchantment rather than a traditional bomb, and only opening the box would cause a detonation.
Although the ship's demolition team was...less than adept at magical evocations designed to reduce the mortal form to something significantly more charred and crispy than anything living should be, but the science team knew enough about magic to circumvent the problem. It did involve a tank designed for extremely high-pressure testing being cracked like an egg, but it worked.
The box contained the second part of a sextant, which when combined with the first created...more of a sextant. There was clearly a piece still missing. But there was a power to, a certain gleam, that spoke of its potential power even in this incomplete form.
"I like where this is going, but there's still something missing. And the closer we get to putting this thing together, the more unwanted attention I'm afraid we may attract. I'm not totally sure what time it is, but I think I can make another trip before the day is done. What about the rest of you?"
"But can we even use this, anymore? We blew up the other part of it."
Nurai looked it over as she starts to carefully cast Detect Magic to try to learn more about the magic the device had, "Depends on a few things...the metals are pretty resilient so I don't think they were damaged much if at all by that and sometimes part of a magic device can be enough. It will take more effort with missing parts than if we had all of them - maybe there is something here that could give it more juice. If those other bits are on other ships brought through..." Nurai let out a sigh that she very much did not like the idea of going digging on any more ships...
...magic had never been Nurai's strong point, at least magic beyond what she used herself, but maybe something could be figured out to get them back sooner rather than later.
"Well, we know where the other pieces are, even if they looked too charred to use..."
Although both parts had exploded in impressive fashion, they seemed fine. There mithral construction and magical nature had protected them.
Nurai guessed that the fragment, as it was, would be enough to bunch a small hole back to there world. With some work and time it might be made large enough to return the Blackwing as well, although the how of that wasn't clear. The complete instrument would be needed to completely undo the spell, returning all the vessels.
Jennifer asks around, seeing if she can find someone who knows how much of a working sextant they have.
"Okay..." Jennifer begins, trying to use her brain the way she used to before she decided brute strength was a better way to solve problems.
"Can we head back to Camilla's to ship to salvage a sextant part? It made it here, right?"
"Didn't we pass by a ship on the way here that we didn't explore? And has anyone checked the hold of the Blackwing?" Kaelic pondered aloud in hopes that someone had a better picture of what was going on. "I bet we can find another part and finish this artifact. I'm not sure if that's actually smart, but..." He trailed off. He didn't really like messing with magical artifacts, but they didn't have a lot of options here. That crew needed to get home.
"Let's just finish this."
Nurai nodded in agreement, "There was that first and several other ships. Maybe we'll have a bit of luck and the other piece will be here..."
The ghost wolf wandered off after Nurai told them to start searching for something like this. She then asked the crew, "May we please search the holds for anything related to this piece? As it is, it will work somewhat to get some of this through, maybe, but having all of it will make things significantly easier to get everyone and everything back safely."
The captain readily agreed, although he added, "I can't imagine how we would miss something like that. We've had a pretty complete look through the ship for any supplies that might be useful."
"Illusions can trick a mortal mind, but I think we have the magic necessary to uncover such a thing. Right Nurai?" Kaelic was being a bit hopeful, but he was sure they could figure it out somehow.
"I will go to the shadows one day, but hopefully - if it is here - I or Ri will be able to locate it. If it's not, we'll have to decide whether to try without the final piece..." Nurai said as she started to move and cast, looking for signs of similar magic to the sextant.
It took time to find the box. Unlike the others it was in a side cabin, one that hadn't been in use before the ship set sail. With the crew rapidly reduced there had never been any point in opening the room up. Unlike the others, as well, this one didn't have an explosive trap hindering it being opened.