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"Wonderful! Then it seems that our business here is almost concluded - leaving us plenty of time yet to enjoy the rest of the day," Morvena remarks as the purchases are made. She raises an eyebrow at 'Pug' as he prattles on about smooshing bugs and the like but doesn't say anything.
He seems to be even more 'on' than usual. Perhaps our forays into the Lucky Bones have rattled him more than he is willing to say. Or perhaps he is simply excited about the influx of funds. Yes, that must be it.
"Oh, can I see this Masterwork Chain Shirt?" Issil plops the old suit of armor on the table.
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The Shellets bring in earnings of 70 gold pieces to the Tooth and Nail for the tengu family to accept into the coffers, but the earnings are quickly spent providing incentive to new supporters. Four more hopefuls from the poorer Old Kintargan area pledge their support to the cause.
In fact, Morvena, Padraig, and Issil are so successful in their "marketing" of the Silver Ravens and opposition of Thrune that another five locals also agree to spread the word.
With another fifty gold removed from the treasury, the dwarven street performers drop their tankard-flipping antics and instead begin to whisper among the locals all manner of provocative false truths. This week, Nox gave birth to three one-eyed half-devils. The father? High Priest of Shelyn, Zachrin Vhast. Apparently.
. . .
It's a new day, and the armigers have returned just as you are finishing up breakfast. "The Seers send their regards," they say, holding out a wand of water breathing to take. "They said it has 10 charges left."
Octavio nods. "Well done. Now then," he turns to you. "You should have what you need to make it through the bottom floor. We'll continue to watch things here and wait for your word. We'll need to organize a Silver Ravens' council to discuss our ongoing strategy once we have a proper headquarters, and we'll need to properly defend that headquarters too."
"Wonderful! I believe that this should be enough to allow us to explore the remainder of the Lucky Bones," Morvena smiles when the armigers return. "And of course I still have my air crystals and one or two other tricks up my sleeve as well, just in case."
Turning to her companions, she asks, "Are we ready to resume? Sooner begun, sooner done, you know!"
3rd - Haste x2, Summon Monster III
2nd - Glitterdust, Stone Call, Summon Monster II, Web
1st - Air Bubble, Burning Hands, Grease, Mage Armor, Magic Missile + Pearl of Power
Cantrips - Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Message, Read Magic
"Yeah, yeah. I'm ready." Issil checks her new armor.
Victor lifts his head from the table, looking still pretty sick "Ya fine, whatever. I think I'll live, especially if my girl here can help me out..." He looks at Issil with his bloodshot puppy-dog eyes.
"I don't know what I caught down there, but two days isn't long enough to run its course I guess." He stuffs a handful of cold fries into his face hole, along with some cold coffee.
Geoffrey nods in understanding, "No problem Victor. No telling what sort of diseases were uncovered down there!" As he readies his equipment he motions for victor to take the lead here. "I have been practicing my breaststroke and I think I can keep up with you now underwater." "With this new blade I should be able to keep those fish-men off your back."
"Sick, huh?" Issil raises a curious eyebrow. Well, I've been wrong before...
"We could buy a scroll of cure disease or something. Let's explore the ruins some more and if you're not up to shape by them we'll cheat with magic."
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The wand of water-breathing in hand, you make for the Lucky Bones once more. You pass by Lorelu's grave, and you're sure you hear her giggle. Then you're descending down the first level, through the halls and past the room with the colorful tiles.
Finally, you're back above the shaft leading down into the watery depths of the Lucky Bones.
"Alright. Time to use that wand." Issil readies her dagger. "And then we go for a swim. Well, you guys go for a swim, I'm bad at this."
As the group reaches the well Victor grabs his stomach and groans "Ugh, stomach still isn't right, gimme 5."
He rushes off back for some privacy to deal with his new stomach issues.
Victor heads back to the small rooms with the cheap hookahs and smokes up before we continue on. Getting rid of those penalties will be helpful. Can you post the benefits for the opium again?
Five to ten minutes later Victor returns, a smile on his face as he rubs his stomach. "Feelin much better. Let's roll... er swim?" He attaches his new buckler and waits for the others to ready themselves.
"Hmm...let us shed some light on the subject before we descend, shall we?"
While they wait for Victor to return, Morvena conjures some dancing lights and sends them down the shaft to light the way.
"While those creatures down below will know that we are here, at least we are aware of their presence as well...so there will hopefully be no nasty surprises."
Geoffrey nods in appreciation of Morvena's thoughtfulness, yet also knows the underwater denizens would know they are coming long before he and his friends could react. Reaching into his pouch he is relieved to see the potion vial is still attached to the pouch.
"This will give us an edge in case they have a caster who can dispel our light source," Geoffrey downs his potion of darkvision once Victor returns. Blinking a couple of times as he adjusts to the new vision he awaits Victor's signal to follow behind.
Issil lights up her family brooch.
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Pádraig Henry casts message on everyone, "We've plenty of light between Issil and Morvena, I think. With the wand from the Seers, we'll be able to breathe underwater, but I'm not sure I'll be able to offer much support beyond that, except with my rapier."
Before getting wet, the bard casts heroism on himself, Geoffrey, and Victor.
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After ensuring you're all able to breathe water - whether via the wand of water breathing or the cloak of the manta ray, you descend down the shaft and into a heap of rusting, algae-caked rubble. The ceiling of the entirely flooded chamber is fifteen feet high, supported by square columns of stone that measure five feet to a side and are crusted with algae. Ruined doors to the south and west provide further access. The water is cold and still, but only slightly murky with mud and silt.
The scaled creatures that Victor had seen here earlier are now absent. Pádraig finds a secret, rust-lined door in the southwestern pillar, and the hollow pillar looks as if it descends another 20 feet in depth.
Current Map
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Issil feels disgusted. All of this water is ruining her dress, and she's gonna smell like last week's catch once this is over.
Still, It is kind of cool. She keeps her buckler and dagger ready, and points at the secret door, indicating she wants to check it out.
Geoffrey shakes his head at Issil, pointing at the door to the west.
I'll use my potion of lesser restoration to cure the fatigue this time.
Victor gives Padraig a funny look as he casts a spell on him, not quite sure what it is. "Hey, what's that all about? Not trying to turn me into a newt I hope?"
With his stomach settled for the time being an a new outlook on life thanks to Padraig's spell, Victor quietly climbs down into the water and turns into a Manta. OOooo baby, floating around down here, flicking this tail around and swimming fast and furious? I could get used to this... my new hobby.
He watches Issil and Geoff point in opposite directions, but the choice is clear: butter up to Issil and her healing magic. He waves for the others to follow him as he explores the secret door...
Geoffrey shrugs silently as he takes a position where he can eye both doors, along with Victor and the others, his new-found blade at the ready.
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The secret passageway leads from the hollow pillar east along a long corridor, then north along a set of stairs, which soon emerge just above floodwater level. The air smells old and stale. Water drips from glistening walls in the relatively dry hallway. A stout iron door with a complex, gearlike lock bars progress to the north.
The skeletal remains of a man with goatlike horns lies slumped against the door. The skeleton wears a gleaming silver chain shirt, and one skeletal hand is clutched in a fist held against its chest. A dagger sticks out of his boot.
He also wears a ring, and in his clutched fist are three small keys. A bag lies next to him.
Inside the sack is a small fortune of coins and jewelry.
Several pages from a book written in Infernal, along with notes written in Common are also in the pack, but studying these notes and their associated text could take some time. A cursory glance reveals severals mentions of conjuring and binding devils.
"Man, it reeks in here!" Issil coughs as she climbs out of the water. She glances at the skeletal figure. "Sucks to be him."
"Wow, this dagger is really good on... law-aligned outsiders? I think that's what you call 'em."
"Oh hey, a Ring of Protection. Double strength!" She plucks that off. "Can I have it, or...?"
"I don't know about the rest of the stuff." She shrugs. "But who cares about that? Look at this jewelry!"
"Three thousand gold pieces worth, wow!" Issil rifles through the jewels.
"Can anyone read that quickly, or should we keep moving? I don't have an hour to spend in this air pocket."
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Pádraig Henry examines the skeleton's gleaming silver chain shirt and the bag lying next to it. "Nope, I'm not sure what the properties of the chain shirt or the bag are."
He takes a closer look at the skeleton, trying to guess what it once was and how it died. "A tiefling, maybe?"
"Issil's right, we should probably keep moving. Let's gather up these pages and notes, keep them dry, and study them later. Victor, you got the three keys it was clutching?" The bard points his chin toward the complex door to the north. "Might want to check that door for traps, before you try the keys."
He takes a careful look himself at the door and its lock bars.
Victor can't take his eyes off the chain shirt and the dagger, he knows mithril when he sees it. "Holy hells. After all this time I finally afford to buy one of those shirts and we find one the next f@$@in' day!" He slaps his forehead with a dull thud.
Once Issil identifies the dagger though he quickly loses interest in the chain shirt "Now THAT screams devil sticker if I've ever heard it." He picks it up and tosses it from hand to hand to check the weight and balance, as well as gage the reaction of the others...
After a small chance to refute his claim to the devil sticker he nods in agreement with Padraig and grabs up the keys before taking a long hard look at that complex looking door.
"Infernal? I can read that when we've got more time. How are we going to keep it dry to get outta here though?"
After some time browsing the door Victor points back to the wet stairs "We shouldn't take too long here or you guys will be back to holding your breath, not to mention my stomach ache could come back..." He says worriedly.
After studying the chain shirt and the bag, Morvena whistles. "While I am afraid I could not divine the nature of this bag, the armor is most certainly forged of mithral and bearing quite a strong protection enchantment."
"And yes, I agree we should save the perusal of these documents for a later - and safer - occasion than this," she adds, looking about rather uneasily. "We still do not know how this man met his end...though hopefully Padraig will be able to tell us when he finishes his examination."
Geoffrey nods a little impatiently, "Yeah we should return here once we have cleared out the rest of the complex. Our breathing magicks won't last forever, like Victor says. I do think," He smirks slightly, "that dagger suits you to a T!"
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Pádraig finds that the bag's contents do indeed get wet when brought into the water. However, he notices that no matter what he puts in the bag, it never seems to get any heavier.
Both Pádraig and Victor find a trap on the door: several razor-sharp disks are placed inside, and seem as if they will lance out and slice away at anyone attempting to force the door open.
"Ick...more traps," Morvena sighs when both Victor and Padraig discover the trap. "Then again, it is not very surprising considering the sort of people that the Gray Spiders were. Perhaps this area was some sort of storage or treasury, then."
"Don't try forcing this open, we need to use the proper key and codes and stuff. I don't want my fingers cut off if I can help it here." He checks to see if any of the keys they got so far seem like they'll fit.
If not.. "Maybe we should double back and look for a lost key or clue before risking life and limb here." He head bobs towards the wet stairwell. "Maybe we need to leave these papers here for now too. Unless one of you have some crazy magic to keep 'em dry."
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"Hmm...surely there is a reason this level is partially flooded as it does not seem to me as if it was intended to be. Perhaps we will be able to find a way to drain the water if we explore further?"
"I have no objections Padraig," Geoffrey nods in agreement, "Let's finish what we came here to do."
With that Victor slips back into the water and into his cozy manta form, swimming as quietly as he can to check out the larger southern opening.
"Back to the fish smell we go!" Issil holds her nose and continues breathing... after she tries the new ring out.
Geoffrey slips in quietly behind Victor keeping up as best he can.
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After retrieving the goods, you all turn back towards the watery mess and swim through the hollow pillar back to the main room. Victor floats south, and sees a submerged ancient wooden pier and boardwalk extend into an entirely flooded cavern, suggesting that at some point in the past the cavern was not so inundated with water. A pair of strange, barrel-shaped objects sit in the northeast corner of the flooded boardwalk, while long beards of algae hang from the cavern ceiling here and there, waving languidly in the slow current.
From where he stands, just at the edge of the darkness, Victor peeks and can see three other creatures in the water ahead. Two of them are the same green-skinned creatures he had seen earlier, but one is a crustacean monstrosity with the head of a lobster and the body of an eel.
Victor holds up the stop sign to the group behind him, or he tries to now that he's a manta ray. He also tries to give them the number 3 but who know if they can understand him in this form...
A ray of acid shoots out at the lobster thing and he tries to duck and hide so it doesn't see him...
Rogue's Edge: Stealth: With sufficient ranks in Stealth, you earn the following.
5 Ranks: Reduce the Stealth penalty from sniping by 10.
Geoffrey can tell by Victor's agitated movements there are enemies ahead of them. Nodding grimly he draws his mithral shortsword and swims into a position ready to ambush the foes once they swim into the room...
Observing that Victor seems agitated about something and that Geoffrey is moving into an attack position, Morvena begins to cast a spell of protection on herself...
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I don't know how to read Manta Ray. Is that tail a mating dance? Is he coming onto me? Issil isn't completely sure of what to do, but Victor's acid splash and Geoff's fighting stance can mean only one thing.
She readies her dagger and buckler. And the shiny new ring!
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Manta Ray-form Victor fires a blast through the water and finds its way to one of the reefclaws. The creature melts into a thick slimy goop that further murkys the water.
Then there's a mad blast of bubbles in the water as the flooded room ahead comes alive with movement, the lizard-like creatures rushing over to investigate...
-- Bold is up --
Pádraig, Victor, Morvena, Geoffrey
Black, Blue, Yellow, Red dotted, White
Issil
Red, Purple, Orange
Nice job Victor! Geoffrey thinks as he throws the enemy into confusion. Seeing a chance to coordinate his team further he motions for them to position themselves properly...
Benefit: Whenever you and an ally who also has this feat are flanking the same creature, your flanking bonus on attack rolls increases to +4. In addition, whenever you score a critical hit against the flanked creature, it provokes an attack of opportunity from your ally.
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Through the murky water, Pádraig Henry sees Geoffrey gesticulate wildly left and right. Bubbles escape the warrior's mouth when he says something unintelligible. Pádraig Henry frowns, trying to understand the man, making an effort to read his lips. 'I stank'?
The halfling delays making any preemptive moves until the tactical situation develops a bit.
Unable to tell exactly what's happening ahead of her, Morvena also waits for the situation to become a little clearer before acting.
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Issil dreams about how much gold these sewer sharks must be hoarding!