Ederion calmly watches the scene unveil - he does not understand the context from some of what transpires, but other pieces of information are quite useful.
Once the Reefclaw attacks, the elf simply chuckles to himself, and enters the fray without hesitation - "Oh no you don't..."
Ederion jets forth with a sudden burst of speed and stabs the reefclaw right through its head. As he remembers from his encounters earlier with the spiny eel, it continues to fight on despite its mortal wounds. Kahli sings a raging song, growling and shrieking in rage.
The priestess however, gets calmer. She looks Ederion in the eyes and sings a seductive tune. Her ragged red hair trails behind her, her sharp teeth bite her lip, and she sways from side to side.
"Stay your blade, Ederion dear
There's no reason for you to fear
Nature's course within these crevices
But I have need of your services"
However, Ederion notices the subtle enchantment in her song, and manages to shake off the magic effect.
"She is trying to enthrall me Kahli, this priestess... What would you wish me do?"
Mother Kahli is having trouble concentrating when raging and wrestling with the reefclaw. It's quite clear that she's not used to being in melee combat, likely resorting to spells from a distance. All she manages to get out is "Do not... kill her."
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Crone Serpentslayer has the group gathered around as she and several other elderly mermaids pass out items for the group. A few younger mermaids sing in the background, which Ederion identifies as a ritual of hope and prayers for brave souls.
Aster also is presented with a shawl made purely of ocean foam. While this shawl would normally be used by a mermaid to gain legs, Aster can instead wrap the shawl around her legs to transform into a mermaid's tail.
Tasha also receives a pair of... fish eyes. She's told that she can simply pop these in, and she can see in dim lighting.
Rexandi is also presented with a pearl necklace. She's told that it will keep her safe should the worst happen.
Ederion also receives a bulbous bottle made of smoked glass, which twinkles like a starlit night. He immediately knows what it is, a vial of efficacious medicine. The mermaids explain that this was found in a treasure chest they once found from a sunken ship.
Mother Kahli is having trouble concentrating when raging and wrestling with the reefclaw. It's quite clear that she's not used to being in melee combat, likely resorting to spells from a distance. All she manages to get out is "Do not... kill her."
"Ok... But I do feel like poking her some.." - he snarls, attacking the Reefclaw again - "What about facing me, and leaving the Lady alone you ugly lizard... Thing..?"
Ederion smiles and nods as the gifts are handed out. To the mermaid who 'offered' him the tattoo, he bows and winks - "Even more important, it looks awesome. Thank you Miss..?"
Ederion skewers the reefclaw through the heart, this time it dies for good. The reefclaw disappears, with water rushing in to fill the space. Mother Kahli has suffered a bit of pain, but overall she's doing okay.
Mother Kahli sings
"I thank you for aiding me
I fear I might have died
This test will not set me free
I failed, though I have tried"
However, the priestess growls out
"You've interfered with Mother's test
And thrown away my charm
If you're here but to protest
Leave and suffer Lamashtu's harm"
The tattooed mermaid introduces herself as Crone Gubtrala Inkstinger. She's an elderly woman who started out as an illusionist witch, then pursued her passion for tattoos. She offers to answer any questions Ederion has about mermaid culture, as she's one of the few who's walked in the world of earth and stone.
Bazzle darts around in mantaray form. "This is fun."
Astser's emerald eyes go wide at the spectacular shawl made of foam bubbles. "Thank you" said with awed appreciation as she wraps it around her shoulders. Plop! a wide-hipped mermaid tail suddenly pops down from her midsection. Her legs are gone, though one of her fins is malformed as she wiggles it in exploration.
Rexandi handles the gift from the merfolk with wide-eyed surprise. "Oh! I... no, we came here to help you, I couldn't take something like this," she stammers. "I... I'll tell you what, I'll hold onto these as we try to finish off the skum and Ederion um... re-plants your village, and we can decide on what to do once the crisis is dealt with, all right?"
Crone Oshen Serpentslayer offers to give Rexandi a long hug as she thanks her.
"Thank thee so much. These art our treasures, but f'r thee we shall giveth. If 't be true thee defeat the aboleth, then peradventure thither shall beest enow treasure yond thee shall returneth our heirlooms? Either way, we understandeth and thank thee.
Thither is much to break with, and nev'r enow time. Mother Kahli shall guide thee Menotheguro's lair, but we shall tryeth to answer any questions thee has't ere thee leaveth."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ederion nods at Kahli - "I would not leave you to be attacked so" - then turns on the priestess.
"What Mother is this?
Which endangers her daughters so
Instead of a loving and tender kiss
In the waves embracing flow?"
"Why such a brutal test
Upon her daughters she would lay?
Does it prove them worse or best?
Or will it simply push them away?"
----
"You will apologize my bluntness" - Ederion nods at Crone Gubtrala Inkstinger - "But the curiosity is killing me... How is it that... Huh... More mermaids are... Hmm... Conceived?"
The priestess sings in reply
"Mothers coddle not their children so
They perish at a shark's first bite
Rather the conflict makes them grow
They survive and learn to fight"
----------
Crone Inkstinger says "I understand. Our ways must seem very strange. You see, it is said that mermaids came from women who no longer wished to live on land. They dreaded walking without ups or downs, and wished to swim within the sea. The Gods cursed them, save a few, because they defied their very nature. Mermaids shall always rely on man, or else their race shall end.
Mermaids who are maidens or mothers must swim to the surface and lure a man into the water. They do this with their song, which enchants the mind. Then they mate with the man, and swim back to the village. For us, after a few weeks we lay our eggs and shelter them. Our sharker cousins however give a live birth.
On occasion, a mermaid has seduced an elven man. This is harder since the man naturally resists the enchantment, which is fine. Unfortunately, those born of mermaid and elf cannot rear children. No matter their age or achievements, a half-elf shall never be a mother."
Tasha holds up the shawl in her hands. "So that's...", she blurts out, before cautiously tying it to her belt. As the magic transfigures her legs into a mermaid's tail, she watches incredulously as the waters move around. "This... is so strange...", she blurts out, beginning to dart around in the water on her armoured tail, following Aster. Holding onto the fish eyes cautiously, Tasha puts them on her head, and the murky waters transform into a bright, colourful village. "Is this how you see in the dark all the time?", she turns to Bazzle? "Damn, we humans have really bad eyes, it seems.", she adds.
Swimming towards Crone Serpentslayer, Tasha sends a determined look in her direction. "We'll face Menotheguro, and we'll free your village. But... Have you faced such a creature before? What should we watch out for? How should we defend ourselves?"
"I think he might've been asking more about the mechanical bits," says Rexandi, making the universal loop-and-finger gesture. "But um, doesn't this mean that you are just dooming your people here to one more generation, and then extinction? If half-elven merfolk can't have children of their own, and Ederion is your only source of, uh, chowder..." She trails off.
"Can you mate with gnomes?" Aster offers as she swims around, FAST, a word so does not normally get to relate to her movement.
"And if they take longer to learn
Maybe a sweet soul, more peaceful?
Will a Mother then let them burn?
At behest of destiny, even if hateful?"
-----
The elf smiles and takes in all the information and details provided by Crone Inkstinger - "Feels like the elves are out of luck" - he jests with a smile - "Jokes apart, thank you for being so candid, and for all the explanations" - and bows politely.
"I think he might've been asking more about the mechanical bits," says Rexandi, making the universal loop-and-finger gesture. "But um, doesn't this mean that you are just dooming your people here to one more generation, and then extinction? If half-elven merfolk can't have children of their own, and Ederion is your only source of, uh, chowder..." She trails off.
"Naaaah Rex, no mechanic details for me - I like to improvise and let nature take its course" - he winks at his companion - "But wait... Why are you assuming I am going to..? Rexandi... So many questions and curiosity... Is that jealousy I am starting to sense?" - the elf adds, still smiling.
Rexandi folds her arms and replies, "Not all of us are 'desirable partner material', thank you very much. But I am legitimately concerned that this is just dooming these poor people to extinction one generation later."
Crone Serpentslayer gazes back into her memories, and says to Tasha "I has't hath felt the presence of an aboleth ere, but nev'r seen one myself. They art rare and terrifying creatures, so all life tries to encave 'r flee. Doth not underestimate its intelligence, n'r its strength. Its tentacles can melt flesh, and t can swallow a mermaid in one gulp. Their magik is ancient and powerful, and can doth things yond our magik cannot. They believeth themselves to beest gods, so they worship none but themselves. We sayeth yond if 't be true a mermaid sees an aboleth, the lady wilt killeth herself, f'r capture from an aboleth is a fate worse than death.
If 't be true thee see a skum with an eye of red in the center, stab t. All skum shall flee from thee and returneth to their master."
-------------------------------------
"Should a child die from wild or test
A new child shall rise to be the best
What once was spent upon the weak
Shall raise the best unto a peak "
-------------------------------------
Crone Inkstinger laughs "Such things aren't hard to find, if you know where to look." as she casually touches her backside. "It's true that having half-elven children is not the best choice, but it is not common for young men to stray into our home, and amongst you are solely an elf and a gnome. I mean no offense to Mister Bazzle, but he will not do. One thing I learned on the land is that mating seems to be part of love, and this is not so below the waves, at least not with men. There is a story from many years past where a little mermaid did fall in love with a man, but this is not common in our culture. I am hopeful that once Menotheguro is vanquished, that our Maidens and Mothers may swim out to the ships and shores for the next generation."
"I can see this will go for a long time..." - Edrion chuckles - "And my skill at rhyming does not match yours" - he adds - "Perhaps we agree to disagree, and call it a tie?"
Rexandi folds her arms and replies, "Not all of us are 'desirable partner material', thank you very much. But I am legitimately concerned that this is just dooming these poor people to extinction one generation later."
"True Rex, not everyone is" - the elf nods - "But you..." - his words are cut short, as he suddenly realizes this may all be a mistake - "Wait... Nevermind, we can discuss it later. Or not" - then turns obviously distracted as Crone Inkstinger touches her backside...
"Then we are sure what needs to be done - Menotheguro must be stopped"
Rexandi nods in agreement. "Yes, let's focus on stopping the looming evils."
Aster the fish wags her tail legs back and forth "As ready as we can be then..."
The Priestess tries this strange concept of singing without rhyme
"Very well... I see you shall not be swayed... Alas my people rarely see... Just know that we do not grow... without conflict. You will grow when you fight... Menotheguro... or you will die. Blessed be the mother."
With that, both Ederion and Mother Kahli exit the cave of Lamashtu.
---------------------------------------
Mother Kahli touches the tattoo on her neck again, allowing her to speak in the common tongue with all the societal norms. Ederion knows that normally spell tattoos are a one-time use thing, so this is a very powerful ability.
"I will take you out of the shores, towards the Drowned Eye. We will have to fight our way through their blockade to access Menotheguro's lair. After we enter the Eye, I do not know what we will face. No one has entered that place and lived."
Bazzle's eyes go wide when the idea of mating with gnomes comes up. "Ahh what now?" He looks around at some of the mermaids. "Has research actually been conducted?"
"That sounds intense. What sort of numbers are we talking about. I mean we are a strike team sure but how many baddies are in a 'lair'."
Crone Inkstinger grins at Bazzle's comment. "You're free to frolic if you so desire, but in all my years, I have never heard of a mermaid born of Gnome."
Bazzle of course would be aware that Humans, Elves, and Orcs are all capable of interbreeding. There are occasional rumours of half Dwarves, be they Human or Halfling, though this has never been proven. It would seem that Gnomes are left out of this racial breeding circle.
Mother Kahli answers Bazzle's question.
"The blockade usually has a half dozen Skum, lead by an Eye. They stop us from leaving these shores, and attack ships that dare approach. I don't know how many live within the lair. Out of the six messengers we sent past the blockade at the beginning of this, only two have survived."
"I will take you out of the shores, towards the Drowned Eye. We will have to fight our way through their blockade to access Menotheguro's lair. After we enter the Eye, I do not know what we will face. No one has entered that place and lived."
"There always has to be a first time" - Ederion winks.
Mother Kahli and Rillia lead the group out of the shores, where the beautiful coral grew. Now everything is barren sand, with only a few scraps of vegetation sprouting here and there. A few small turtles swim between the vegetation, grazing like goats in the grasslands. Soon the wildlife and vegetation cease, and everything becomes ever unchanging water and sand. It stretches on for as far as the eye can see. Later still, islands begin to appear in the distance. Small islands that one could walk across in less than a half hour. They dot the waterscape as the group passes by. Life begins to show signs again, with scraps of seaweed growing upon the sea floor.
A wide trench scars the seabed here. Sprawled along its northern slope is a wrecked sailing ship, while the pit below is thick with seaweed.
The sea floor drops away into a vertiginous black pit here. The water above the shaft seems colder and darker than that around it, while the smooth-sided walls drop straight down into the depths, almost as if something had melted through the earth long ago. A ring of shattered coral growth surrounds the rim of the chasm. A current of water rushes down the chasm at a powerful pace.
Fifty feet above the chasm are four Skum. Each of them turns around and begin swimming towards the group quicker and quicker.
What was originally a mermaid has slowly shifted into a deranged dolphin Skum. Her arms have shortened into proto-fins, and her face has elongated into a reinforced snout. Her hair has mostly fallen away, leaving only a few patches here and there, while her skin is sickly translucent, revealing her inner organs. A massive bulge exists on her skull, with tons of skin growth and hair.
Similar to the other dolphin Skum, but this one has eye stalks like some snail creature, all covered in weird little eyes rather than one large one. It possesses no lips, bearing a large mouth, and a very long forked tongue that drags behind it. It doesn't seem to have any ear holes.
Much slower than the dolphins are these scaly humans with webbed feat. Their heads have split open from the mouth and have grown a huge array of teeth. Their hands end in inward-facing claws. This one has rubbery skin and twisted joints. It's albino in colour, and has both an inflamed neck and cranium.
Similar to one of the dolphins, this Skum has eye stalks and clusters. It also has sores that weep a yellow fluid, and its skin is twisted and gnarled like tree bark.
"If nothing else, our enemy appreciates diversity" Aster says, beforing giving a quick prayer to the goddess that seems to be listening at the moment.
As their enemies approach without hesitation, Ederion prepares to meet them, his rapier at the ready.
"Let them come..." - he nods, staying side to side with Tasha.
With a flap of her tail, Tasha moves closer to Aster, shield raised. "Hold the line, and then we'll push forwards!", she shouts, drawing her dagger and waiting for the attack.
Rillia sings as swirls of water converge into a ring around her hand. She swims behind Ederion and touches his legs, to which a ring each swirls around. Ederion finds it much easier to swim properly.
The dolphin Skum launch themselves towards the group with incredible speed, but very little resilience. Ederion skewers one upon his rapier, leaving it dead in an instant. Tasha bashes the other enough to give it some head trauma, but not enough to kill it. The attack didn't even leave a dent in her shield.
The reptilian Skum seem a bit more cautious. The approach quite slowly, and defensive.
Bazzle moves to where he can blast the blue dolphin without hitting his friends.
Grunting as the dolphin impacts her shield, Tasha redoubles her efforts, striking at the creature with vicious blows. The glowing red dagger pierces the creature's skin, and blood starts to pool in the water.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bazzle swims using his cloak to get a shot. He throws the spear at the dolphin creature, and the spear turns into a bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, the dolphin is quite nimble, and dodges the attack. The lightning immediately returns to Bazzle's hand as a spear.
Tasha's shield bashes the Skum's bulbous head inwards, and it starts to float up to the surface belly up.
"First wave... second on the way..." Aster says ready to hit whatever comes.
Ederion nods at Aster with a wink - "We got this"
"If they don't come to us, pepper them from afar - Rex, can you attack them with spells?"
"All my spells are short in range." Mother Kahli says
"Will I ever," mutters Rexandi. She extends her hands and there's a migrane-inducing flash of light. A jagged bolt of lighting extends instantly in a line through the water, leaving bubbles of steam and a blackened afterimage in its wake, as it blasts through one of the incoming mer-skum.
In a result of pure luck, the lizard-like man-Skum flinches at the last moment and ducks. This is all it takes for him to avoid the entire lightning bolt.
Mother Kahli yells out a primal cry, creating a shockwave of emotion that washes over everyone. Then she begins swimming forwards, stopping next to Ederion. "They are cowards. We will wash over them like a Tsunami over a fishing vessel!"
Rillia resists the song of rage and hangs back tentatively. She decides to take a look at all her surroundings, but doesn't seem to find anything useful or important.
Out of the sand bursts forth an insane monstrosity. A dragon with blue scales and giant wings, with two heads and stubby legs. While one of the heads looks healthy, fierce, and bears the red eye of Menotheguro, the other head looks limp and barely living. A collar is secured around its neck, and it wears a ring large enough to make a belt for Bazzle. It shrieks a high-pitched cry, and then the two heads mutter arcane words. Bazzle, Tasha, and Mother Kahli fall prey to the magical attack. They're movements are slow and their reflexes are blunted. The eye glares at Tasha, and she feels her defenses weakening.
The lizard creatures tentatively approach, but are still a ways out of reach.
An affected creature moves and attacks at a drastically slowed rate. Creatures affected by this spell are staggered and can take only a single move action or standard action each turn, but not both (nor may it take full-round actions). Additionally, it takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves. A slowed creature moves at half its normal speed (round down to the next 5-foot increment), which affects the creature’s jumping distance as normal for decreased speed.
Multiple slow effects don’t stack. Slow counters and dispels haste.
oh I feel bad. He has evasion
Rexandi weakly swims back behind cover, since her magic is useless and she can't fight.
Suddenly, Tasha's senses blur and slow, as if the water itself becomes thick like honey. "Whaa...", a deep-voiced confusion erupts from her mouth, as the dragon-beast speaks its eldritch words. What the Hells is that thing?, the unspoken words echo in her mind, as she feels the beast's gaze upon her. Rillia's song once again sending her into a frenzy, she whips her tail, charging shield first towards the beast. "For Kintargo-o!"
"Oh goodness" she whispers in awe "That's... that's a dragon. The eye! We have to take it out!" Aster moves forward and whacks the lizard fish man.
Rexandi finds a patch of wild seaweed to hide behind, though it operates more like concealment rather than real cover. Tasha meanwhile charges at the dragonic monstrosity, and gives it a good bash with her shield. A translucent trident appears next to her, and stabs into dragon. Aster swims over to one of the lizard Skum, and bashes it between the eye stalks.
Mother Kahli draws a dagger made of bone, while Rillia begins singing. Her song doesn't seem to be having any effect on the characters, but rather, she's animating the water around the dragon. Concentrated balls of dense water swirl around, and strike the dragon in the chest.
In a result of pure luck, the lizard-like man-Skum flinches at the last moment and ducks. This is all it takes for him to avoid the entire lightning bolt.
Mother Kahli yells out a primal cry, creating a shockwave of emotion that washes over everyone. Then she begins swimming forwards, stopping next to Ederion. "They are cowards. We will wash over them like a Tsunami over a fishing vessel!"
"That we will" - Ederion smiles as the uplifting emotion ripples through his body, but he steadies himself a moment later.
Swiftly moving forward, he engages the blue dragon-like creature.