"Princess... You first. I'm much better at helping than doing it myself" she holds her claws ready to go help Aella as soon as she engages the beast
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Aella hesitates, looking back and forth between the beast and Robert. She decides against her judgement to engaged the beast instead of tackling her friend, convinced by Kit's plea.
"Aye, kill it first and kill it fast!"
Right behind her more frontal attack inclined companion, she moves and tries to tumble past the creature to get a better advantage point
Aella and Kit'Arr both rush at the huge creature blocking the tunnels... but, in their eagerness to stop Robert's mental domination, they both mis-time their attacks. And, now within reach of the flapping tentacles of the monster, they are slammed with by hard muscular limbs... and are smeared in a clear jelly...
And again, Robert brings his weapon up - and, in a flash of light and sound, shoots at Heirang.
Harry grunts again in pain, raising the wand again he calls upon its magic to break the mental control.
Aella brushes off the blow, spinning back with a counterattack of her own - first a tentacle, then the creature's eyes.
"Harry, whatever you're doing, do it fast!"
Try as he might, Heirang still can't tear the enchantment from Robert's mind... and, feeling around the aura befuddling the gunslinger, it becomes more obvious that this is a very powerful effect...
Aella, planting her feet firmly amongst the detritus of the corridor, slams her blade - singing with purity against the wrongness of the creature before her - into the beast. It cuts through blubber and muscle before, as she pulls the sword clear, spewing black blood across the floor... Kit'Arr, unable to get around the flanks of the beast as it fills the corridor, slashes hard - hitting twice but with less vigour than she might otherwise have done.
Smashing its vile tentacles around, the creature crashes into Aella twice... whilst Kit'Arr ducks just in time.
Turning, as Heirang retreats, Robert fires on Kit'Arr... the gun shouting a loud retort within the passageway.
The noise is the last thing that Kit'Arr hears before she slams forward against the soft flesh of the beast... a gaping wound in her shoulder hissing as burnt flesh is immersed in the shallow water.
Och, that did not work verra well...
Harry abruptly changes direction and heads towards the battle after weaving a spell, which causes a crackling field of electrical energy to infuse his hands. "I be comin' as fast as me legs kin carry me..."
"KIT! Don't. You. DARE!"
Aella harnesses her fear and her fury, funneling it down into her blade, forming a holy conduit to Sarenrae.
As Heirang bustles his way towards the aboleth, Kit'Arr lying unmoving in the water beside it, he sees Aella swing her sword backwards... and unleashing a furious scream, hack into the beast. Twice she swings... and twice her blade sinks deep... For the briefest fraction of a momentary silence, it seems that the beast is down - that Sarenrae's vessel has pushed the abomination towards the boneyard of Pharasma - but, no sooner has it slumped into the water, then the sinewy tentacles are raging once more...
...and, as the creature continues its assault upon Aella, Robert realises that the heinous wounds and momentary lapse of consciousness that the paladin inflicted upon the beast has lifted the mental domination that saw him fire upon his friends.
Harry immediately charges the beast trying to get close enough to touch it, knowing the end is nigh...
Aella takes the first hit stoically, gritting her teeth through the pain. The second one she prepares for - the tentacle slams into her with exceptional force. She lets it in, then reaches down and wraps her own arm around it. With the tentacle trapped by between her breastplate and bicep she tugs, pulling the beast into the path of her righteous blade.
Heirang, splashing forwards through the murky, ankle-deep water, pressing an electrically charged palm against the flank of the beast... and sending a spider's web of blue spark across the wet surface of the creature. It wails in agony at the affront... and is abruptly, and permanently silenced by Aella's blade. Its threshing tentacles finally stilled, the group have time enough to take stock of the situation - the beast - maybe even the source of Blackcove's troubles - is slain, various skum - workers and a sorcerer - are dead... and Kit'Arr, injured in the fight, slowly regains consciousness.
The room, previously disguised by an illusory effect, from which the huge creature emerged is ancient... the organic walls of this chamber appear diseased, peeling away from the bedrock walls in large flakes whilst the desiccated carcass of some huge, aberrant sea creature lies atop a large bier-like growth rising in the center of the room. Dried husks composed of what looks like discarded, wrinkled skin lie scattered about the floor, which is coated in a thin veneer of slime.
...and now, having turned around upon themselves in this partially collapsed network of tunnels, the group have finally reached a dead end, the chamber containing the alchemical equipment being the last of the rooms worthy of exploration. It is here, in this last room, that the group are able to deduce that the skum sorcerer must have - at some recent time - been the human Gerlach... and that he had drawn close to unlocking the secrets of alchemically reversing the effects of the island's warping energies...
Harry staggers over to the alchemical equipment table and looks over the equipment carefully. "I mebbe able to reverse this warping which be affectin' all o' us."
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She groans. She felt like a wagon rode over her. With at least 100 horses.. Maybe more
"That... was not pleasant" she kept her eyes closed. Gritting her teeth
"Did we win...?"
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Aella rushes to her comrade's side, pressing two healing-hands to her chest.
"Are you okay? Can you stand?" Aella fusses over the catfolk, checking her unnecessarily for bumps and bruises. When she is content, finally, that Kit isn't about to keel over dead, she stands up and shakes her head.
"Silly girl. You weren't paying attention." Her tone was reprimanding, but she revealed a smile upon her lips as she tugs off her helmet. Aella is simply happy that everything seemed to turn out well.
Eventually she takes stock of her surroundings.
"This place has been desecrated... and yet... he seemed to have been working towards some kind of cure..." She frowns, not appreciating the sudden self doubts.
It seems that Gerlach was closer to unlocking the secrets of the island's warping powers than he may have realised... it doesn't take all that long for Heirang to extrapolate the final steps in production of the alchemical elixir. And, putting the theory to the test, the salt-bearded wizard soon has a concoction ready to test... it is Robert, whose transformation seems most advanced, who volunteers to try the first of the prepared solutions... and, even though the liquid is foul, the effects are staggeringly fast... Robert's skin losing the damp consistency it had gained and, as his flesh dries, the transformation is reversed.
With several doses retrievable from the equipment here, Heirang takes what he can... and now, having exhausted the options available, leads the group retracing their steps around the ancient network of caves. One thing is immediately apparent, the constant hammering of iron against stone - the attempt to breach the wall that had kept the aboleth within this prison of sorts - has ceased... in fact, there is no movement of any kind down here beneath the island and it is quite a relief to clamber back up the ropes that lead to sunlight, fresh air and the gentle noise of waves washing against the shore...
The natatorium itself seems abandoned... and so, watching as the levitating towers continue their lazy orbits around the island, the group make their way back to the beach where the Blackcove villagers had previously been slaving away beneath the eyes of their skum captors. The scene, as the group reach the top of the path that leads down into the bay below, could hardly be more different - the villagers, smiling and no longer befuddled beneath the mental domination that subdued them before, are tossing their tools onto a blazing pyre... and, of the skum, there is no sign.
Hailing Heirang and the others as they draw close, an elderly man asks what has happened... and whether they know of any way to return to Blackcove.
Harry nods in relief that the villagers seem to have recovered. He strokes his scraggly beard in thought. "Aye, that be a right tale to tell...once we be off this bloody rock! As fer how to get off 'ere, that be another riddle. I do have spells that kin help 'ere, but I kin only affect a few people at a time. We may need ta build some sort of raft."
Periodically, these gillmen heed some call from the depths and disappear, a fact of life accepted by the citizens of Blackcove. The terrible secret unknown even to many villagers, however, is that while the gillman traits come from the villagers’ Azlanti heritage, their true beginnings lie in an ages-old pact of foul interbreeding between their ancestors and a race of abhorrent, aquatic fish-men. These ancient creatures, once called ulat-kini but more commonly known as skum, still live offshore in a secluded colony. So the people of Blackcove live as they always have, concealing their nature from outsiders and fearing the dark creatures their legends tell them will someday return from the sea to reclaim the gifts given.
On the nearby ruined island of Nal-Kashel lies the wedding rock, the crumbling remains of an Azlanti altar. Here, young newlyweds from Blackcove traditionally come to consummate their marriage vows, only to fall victim to an ancient deception. The rock’s hypnotic aura clouds the eyes and minds of the young lovers, and brides are led away by strange shapes that are not as they appear. Thus, the seed of the ulat-kini is perpetuated among the fishermen of the village, and most never learn that the gifts their children carry come from anything other than their Azlanti blood.
Recently, a gillman sorcerer named Gerlach discovered the truth—that villagers like him are doomed to eventually change into the true form of their disgusting heritage. Seeking to reverse his seemingly inevitable transformation, Gerlach worked to find an alchemical solution. Plagued by conflicting, dark thoughts and increasing symptoms of his ulat-kini heritage, he desperately searched the mysterious island for a cure for his people.
Among the island’s ruins, the sorcerer discovered the dried-out husk of the hibernating aboleth Mohl’omog, the lost lord of Nal-Kashel, trapped beneath the island by his peers since Earthfall. Gerlach slowly nursed the conniving aboleth back to health in exchange for the promise of a cure for the villagers’ impending metamorphosis. But under Mohl’omog’s influence, Gerlach eventually transformed into a skum and abandoned the cure for his people he’d discovered, instead working to restore the island’s observatory to amplify the aboleth’s mental abilities. Like the ringing of some great undersea bell, the aboleth issued a mental summons to the off shore ulat-kini, who willingly came to serve their old master.
The aboleth also dominated the gillmen of Blackcove and awakened the corruption hidden within them. Most of the village’s gillmen have now transformed into skum, and many of the previously ungifted villagers have developed gillman traits as well. With their dark desires released and their attentions warped toward freeing the aboleth, the enthralled skum have taken to raiding the village and enslaving more of their kin, forcing them to help excavate the aboleth from the ruins of its former residence.
With the sun having burnt away the doom laden clouds which seemed to have anchored themselves above the ancient isle for the entire time that Heirang and his compatriots were here, the task of salvaging wood and lashing together a number of rafts is hardly unpleasant. Eventually, as the impromptu vessels are deemed seaworthy, the villagers - well over two dozen of them - and their liberators finally push away from shore... the coastal currents carrying them quickly away from Nal-Kashel towards the Chelish coast and Blackcove.
Looking back at the receding isle, there is a moment to consider Lorne... and Marcus who fell even before the group were made aware of the island and the mysteries that it posed...
...but these thoughts do not last for long - as the rafts wash up on the beach at Blackcove, the minds of the friends turn towards their future - with Marcus gone, were Kit'Arr and Heirang truly prisoners anymore? And, if not, where would they go? What would they do? ...and what of Robert and Aella? No longer led by the Chelish Inquisitor, would they feel compelled to enact the justice that Marcus believed he was leading his prisoners to? Or are they too, changed by their experiences on the Azlanti island?
Aella, as idealist paladins are wont to do, stubbornly demands she be the last to leave the island. She stands upon its shores and, looking back, ponders her journey so far. Was this to be her life now? One adventure after the next, gaining and losing friends along the way? Was it all worth it? She clutched at the red scarf draped around her neck, running the fabric between thumb and forefinger, and turns toward the raft.
***
It is a few days later that Aella is finally prepared to leave, confident that the townsfolk could handle themselves from here on out. With her things packed, her greatsword polished, and a full belly, she goes to find a lazing Kit. At first, she simply stands at the door, struggling to think of the right words. In time, she steps up and says, "Through our time together I've come to know the true merit of your character. Whatever you may have done in the past, it is forgiven and forgotten. The way forward is open... would you care to join me? At least until you get bored of me..." She coughs and scratches at her nose, glad for her scarf's coverage of her cheeks.
Harry gazes out over the horizon lost in thought. While settling here would be appealing to a part of him, he also knew this was not his home.
Aye, it seems me journey continues...as least fer now...
Knowing Aella and Kit'Arr would be travelling together, and probably not on a sailing vessel any time soon, he turns his attention to the gunslinger. "Aye, seems like the sea be calling me once again. I be makin' me way back to Westcrown, tryin' ta catch on wit' a ship. A water mage always be useful to a ship's captain, if'n he be willin' ta pay. You would also be useful ta fendin' off pirates and sea monsters too. Whaddaya say? Join me?"
Robert stops for a moment, suprised at the dwarf's offer, before responding with a genuine smile.
Aye my friend, it seems that what I seek is not here, so it best be that I move on to search elsewhere. I'd ve glad to return to service on the sea. He stops for a second, and seems to consider his words for a second, before finishing, And I'd be honored to serve with you.
And with that, Robert stops talking, and after a moment of silence, turns away from the dwarf to go and find Aella.
When he finds her with Kit'Arr though, he feels the need to leave the two of them alone, and so instead, he slips two handcrafted powder horns, one of ivory and the other of steel with three rings of gold placed in it. He leaves the ivory one in Kit'Arr's bag, and the other in Aella's. On each is engraved a short message.
Kit'Arr, the claws in the shadows. Lethal and graceful all the same, death in the darkness. Though no matter how hard you try to conceal yourself, you can never hide in my memories, and I shall never forget you. We shall meet again, even if that time is not until the sea claims us for eternity. ~Robert
Aella, defender of friends and bane of abominations. A whirling hurricane of power and steel, yet oddly serene when friendly faces are shown. A bold and golden heart, with its innocence still undestroyed, you while always be a friend first and a battle companion second in my fortress of a heart. We will meet again, whether in battle as companions or among the fallen in the halls of the Gods which have blessed you so. Farewell my friend, may glory be yours. ~Robert
With a final smile, and what might be mistaken as a tear by many, Robert rises, an returns to his dwarven, offering him a drink from his own bottle of rum. Robert will stay there for a while...until love and adventure call again...
[Ooc] Thanks so much Zed, sorry I couldn't be there to play the last bits. I really found myself enjoying this story and the group of people we have here. I'll miss you all, happy gaming ;)
Aww, so sweet. :) Thanks guys.
Was a lot of fun. Becoming a dad made me miss the last bit. But it was a lot of fun gaming with all of you. Hope to do so again in the future
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