Chakam flails at the creature but misses.
Kahuranga orders his sharks to attack, then attempts to hex this new foe.
Threnody slowly floats upward, though at such a slow rate you will not easily lose track of her.
The new foe, despite its massive size, seems much more difficult to get a strike in, as it writes about menacingly, tentacles flailing. It swims backward 5 feet and focuses, wriggling its tentacles toward Kahuranga, though not in the manner of an attack.
Kahuranga suddenly feels an alien presence in his head. Serve me, it commands, and for a moment you feel yourself slip... but buoyed by the friendlier presence of Taniwha in your mind and the sight of Threnody floating upward, you shake off the compulsion.
Sandara swims over to where Thren floats and tries to revive her.
Chakam flurries his Rusalka tresses, still impacted by Kahuranga's hex. He's able to connect one of his attacks!
The aboleth flinches although it seems well fit to continue going.
Kahuranga slips sideways in the water, gaining an angle on the evil fish monster. He rubs a glass rod and magnifies the charge, infusing it with magic. Lightning leaps out at the creature.
'Tis not here, mates! Another illusion! - says Chakam, immediately pushing his tresses to help him swim inside the ship, full speed ahead.
The lightning bolt flies right through the solid wooden wall, because as Threnody suggested, it is neither solid nor wooden, nor a wall.
You all hear something alien and nasty scream inside your minds.
As the wall fades from your awareness the true Uthiggmaru (hopefully) emerges from the rear of the hold, lashing out with tentacles at Chakam.
A cloud of slime also spreads around the immediate area, adding to the odd layer of slime already in the hold. With the aboleth moving about it fills the water around the creature, including around Chakam, causing the water to seem choking.
The bard reorients herself after getting pummelled. She sees the newly-arrived tentacled monstrosity and begins moving towards it, raising up her voice in song, bringing One Reason to Live to play.
Knowing how fighting goes with Thren, Sandara prepares for the worst.
Chakam keeps flurrying his tresses against the enemy, now that he's free from the misfortune hex.
The enemy is a lot harder to hit than others before, but the druid feels now more confident after being freed from the mind control.
Chakam feels certain he is actually hitting solid... if disgusting and slimy flesh, and the aboleth is injured.
Kahuranga squints at the alien fish creature. He presses his will against the will of the creature. He can't overcome it completely, but for a moment he penetrates its defenses.
While Kahuranga squints at the aboleth squints at Chakam.
Chakam feels an exertion of will on his mind again, but manages to shake it off at the last moment.
Chakam also, still remaining within the cloud of slime surrounding the aboleth's body, still has to contend with its effects, but he seems to resist the horrific ooze and whatever it does.
Seeing things move south for it, the creature pushes its way through a hole in the wall of the ship beside it, that had been previously hidden by its various illusory augmentations to its lair, attempting to swim 60 feet toward the darkness of the deep seas.
Chakam takes the opportunity, but his attack isn't too well succeeded.
Chakam holds to see what his companions will do before proceeding.
"Let that thing go. I'd say let's finish looting and get out of here. I don't know if it will hold a grudge, and who knows what other magic it can throw at us to play with our minds."
"Yes, let us see if there is anything else of value here and return to the surface."
Kahuranga and Taniwha move into the hold recently vacated by the aberration. "Who knows what an evil psychic fish thinks is treasure, but there may be something left from the ship's cargo."
The slime that the aboleth exudes has aided in the disintegration of much of the ship's supplies, but in the corner of the area where the aboleth was hiding, you can see something smooth and white that has evaded rot. Swimming closer, you see several polished bars of ivory, the sealing lacquer put upon them still keeping them preserved in the deep seas. The quantity here is highly valuable, worth three points of plunder.
The trickier bit is ensuring you avoid touching the aboleth mucus as it is probably not good for one's health. Magic of various kinds may work, or someone with deft fingers may probably extract the ivory safely.
There is also an actual real wall behind where the aboleth waited, marked by a thick wooden door with a metal grille for a window, suggesting it likely leads to the brig. The door is partly ajar, but a chain with a padlock prevents it from fully opening. The padlock looks extremely well made and hard to open--although a key is likely with the remains of the ship's master-at-arms or other officer. You could also try your luck at breaking the rusting chain. Peering through the partly open door you can see iron-bound crates with the mark of some kind of shipping company; obviously they were smuggling something in their jail cell.
You have only explored the topdeck and this cargo hold; there are other levels and rooms to explore. Threnody can feel the tug of her ring still wanting to lead her further into the ship, likely toward the upper mid deck, toward the remains of Dr. Fitch's unfortunate legless patient. However other servants of Uthiggmaru may also lurk here, and who knows how long the aboleth will stay away before it recovers and returns to fight again?
Thren just manages to get the ivory free of the fish-monster's slime.
She looks at the locked brig. "I don't know a spell for opening locks. I don't suppose someone brought an adamantine axe to pick the lock?" She suggests brightly.
To break the very wet, reinforced wooden door it would would require a Str check DC 24 or you'd need to do 30 hp of damage with a hardness of 6. I would rule the tidepool dragon breath does not ignore hardness because being utterly soaked with water heat is going to take some time to damage it, so if 2d6 averages 7 with every use of breath, then it will take 30 applications of breath every roughly 2 rounds, so that's 60 rounds or six minutes.
To break the rusty chain, where the rust has eaten away much of the toughness (hardness) of the chain, I would say that it has a hardness of 5 (instead of 10) and 5 hitpoints (standard chain hit points). Any person with a decent weapon is likely to do that damage in a few hits. Its break DC is, let's say, 18 for being very rusty.
Chakam, in his Rusalka form, tears the chain apart with his tresses.
Realizing that getting through the door is not anywhere near as difficult as they were expecting, they open the brig to find several wooden crates, reinforced and nailed shut. (hardness 5, hp 15, break 23). If you try to lift the crates they are very heavy.
A seal is stamped on each box, likely indicative of some kind of company seal. It does not match the ensign of the pirate ship you are on.
This is the seal of the Sargava Deeptreasure Mining Company.
Thren looks around to see if there's something convenient nearby to use to open the crates. "Last resort, you can break the top of one Chakam. I'd rather not risk smashing the contents too much. Assuming it isn't waterlogged."
Threnody discovers that the seat in the brig has a crowbar hidden beneath it, likely stowed by whoever put the crates here.
With a little elbow grease and Chakam's powerful hair, you pry the top off one of the crates, and discover gleaming out at you pure silver and gold ingots. Presuming all are filled with the same, you likely have 12,000 gp worth of valuable metal (). The downside is that all told this stuff weighs at least 250 lbs, and you are in the deep sea so it feels even heavier, so transdimensional storage is your friend right now.
Quinn lets out several bubbles as she attempts to whistle underwater. "Sweet Bes... she's definitely had her hand in this. That is a gift and a taunt at the same time. Let's take what we can, but especially as she's been good to us so far, leave her a little of what's hers."
Kahuranga takes his pack from his shoulders and reaches inside, tossing out candles, pens, ink, and other assorted bits. He tosses as many ingots into the bag as it will hold."This won't hold much, but it will make it easier to carry."
"If we have to make several trips, we'll probably be all right. Let's get what we can."
"We should be able to carry all of this up in two loads. I suggest Thren and Sandara take what they can and we all head to the surface, then Chakam, Taniwha, and I will come back for the remainder while you stow everything. The three of us are unaffected by the depths. Then we take what we have found and depart as fast as the winds and Besmara's favor will take us."
"Not a bad plan. Do we want to look around any more before we go in case there's anything else valuable?" Thren nods and muses.
Chakam shrugs. "I'd kinda like ta see the other half of this ship's gun deck... but let's hope that thing doesn't decide ta come back any time soon. I kin handle it in fighting... but what if it gets in our heads again?"
"Let's look into that then Chakam. Maybe we'll find something else useful." Thren agrees. Once the party has packed up some of the ingots, she swims off in search of gun rooms and treasure.
"Gun deck it is, then..." Kahuranga drops the last ingot he can fit into his haversack and slings it over his shoulder before moving to follow Thren.
You swim, either through the hatch leading up to the next deck or out and around.
The other half of the gun deck is littered with a mixture of tiny, translucent crustaceans that skitter harmlessly around the ship. Many shells of those creatures are piled high toward one side of the ship toward the center of the deck, not far from where you swim if you came up through the hatch. Kelp and seaweed hang down from the ceiling, a strange underwater jungle.
The remaining ballistae are the same or in even worse rotten condition as on the bow dozens of feet above. The doorways leading aftward seem to be reasonably intact, and probably head to the ship's armory and/or private quarters.
Oh. That's not a giant piece of kelp; it is not really a plant at all. That's a giant sea anemone of the "darkforest" variety. Like most anemones it is poisonous and like most denizens of the deep, it is flesh-eating and nasty, however mindless this plant-like creature may be. It is probably responsible for all the dead shrimp shells all around, but it would be happy to entangle and absorb something larger. Compared to the other more intelligent creatures you have dealt with down here it is much less of a threat, but you will need to either destroy it or find a way to slip past it if you want to explore the deck further.
As Kahuranga moves toward the kelp, his draconic companion grabs him and pulls him to a stop.
"Careful, that is a patient predator just waiting to grab prey."
Chakam nods in agreement, "Yes, this is a giant anemone. Its sting is dangerous, but it is unintelligent and slow. If we keep our distance we should be fine."
Kahuranga's mouth quirks into a frustrated smile. "Such a creature won't have a strong sense of will to resist my hexes. Give me a moment to see if I can weaken it."
"I'd never have seen that." Thren notes. She nods to Kahuranga. "Thanks, and thanks to you too Taniwha. Now, if you're going to try something, go for it."