Frida pays a lot of attention to Ederion, clearly sizing him up as she swims slowly around him like a shark. She's far stronger than the Elf, with toned muscles, visible abs, and a powerful tail. Ederion gets the feeling that this behaviour is only in part a sexual curiosity. It's also predatory. Rillia is nearby, looking at Ederion and Frida with excitement.
After everyone exchanges weapons and pleasantries, they head out of the 'goo room'. Everything is silent on either side of the long, submerged tunnel. To the right, the tunnel turns sharply to the north, while to the left, the tunnel keeps running until it reaches the spider webs and kelp field. Surely Menotheguro has had time to prepare, but no ambush seems to present itself, at least for now.
Ederion's movements in the water are not bad for someone not native to the environment, the elf being naturally nimble and agile.
Being surrounded by the beautiful twin mermaids swirling about them, he just allows his body to swirl also, slowly moving along, their bodies barely (or sometimes slightly) brushing against each other - the wonderment and tension bring a big smile to his face.
As Frida focuses on him however, his body languages changes - she may be obviously stronger than him, but the elf can be no less predatory at times. He ponders reaching for his mutagen, but decides against it feeling his instincts should be more than enough for this. After all, the mutagen only pulls forth something which is already there...
He keeps his eyes locked on Frida whenever she circles within his line of sight, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. He does not swirl to meet her gaze as she moves around, instead simply swaying softly in the water, showing no fear by allowing her to roam outside his field of vision while he stands there, relaxed but naturally ready to react as always. And eager for something to happen.
Frida lingers for awhile to study Ederion, then slowly approaches him and takes the warhammer he offers without a word. She then swims over to Rillia to talk. Ederion happens to understand the Sylvan tongue she speaks in, perhaps foiling her plan for secrecy. For a mermaid, Frida may be very powerful and agile, but her singing voice surprisingly leaves something to be desired.
She sings to Rillia that "he's" a good choice, and that Rillia has her blessing, but "he" isn't quite her type. Rillia actually protests, singing that "he" looks really interested, and it'd be fun. Surely Frida would want to become a Mother. But Frida shakes her head and swims away in a rush. Rillia looks concerned as she holds her arms to her chest and looks downwards.
Ederion understands what just occurred. Rillia is sterile as a half mermaid / half elf, and both physically and culturally is unable to become a Mother. This weighs on her heart heavily. Yet Frida, who's completely capable of becoming a Mother, shows little-to-no interest in doing so. In fact, she's resenting how Rillia tries to convince her otherwise. Rillia is likely trying to live vicariously through Frida. It doesn't seem like this is the first time something like this has happened, given the intensity of the emotions. The fact that they're lovers only adds fuel to the fire... a phrase that Ederion suspects that mermaids would not be able to conceptualize...
---------------------------
Everyone heads out the narrow hallway single file, a fact that worries the more magic-savvy people. A single lightning bolt would be very dangerous, and perhaps that was the plan in these narrow tunnels. Thankfully, there are no surprises when rounding the sharp corner. Tasha is taking the lead, and sees an entryway part way down the tunnel and to the right. Just as they're about to round that corner, a mermaid Skum with claws and partial coral armour emerges. She seems just as surprised as everyone else.
"It's a mermaid version of the creatures, in coral armor" Aster tells Rexi who is behind the corner.
"As much as you know I would appreciate the thought of siring offspring with such a beautiful creature as Frida, there are many children in this world without parents or love" - he smiles - "I am sure it is the same under the waters Rillia. Have you ever considered speaking to her about fostering a child, and make him or her your own?"
"Long I've thought of children so bright
One of my own would be a sure delight
But t'is not me for whom I worry
But Frida who chooses not to carry
She is a dear love of mine
But our views do not align
All I wish is what's best for her
But refuse Motherhood, she'd prefer"
The group starts getting ready to move out, but there's a moment to say one last thing.
-----------------------
Ederion and Aster may have been aware first, but their awkward positions lead them to be unable to really do anything. The mermaid Skum darts to block the entrance, then slashes at Tasha with her claws and fangs. Unsurprisingly, Tasha's armour protects her from the Skum's assault. Spells are being cast from beyond the entryway, but currently are unseen.
The mermaids Melody and Harmony begin a duet of inspiring courage.
Since there's not much she can do yet from the back, Rexandi grants Aster guidance.
Tasha steps to the side a bit as she flurries with shield and dagger. Most of her attacks are harmlessly deflected by the partial coral armour, but she does get a minor shield bash to draw some blood.
Lekmek slinks closer to Bazzle, since the two of them can occupy the tunnel with their short stature.
Nope
Stepping forth after Tasha, Ederion lunges forward at the mermaid skum with a grimace.
Seeing a slight opening, Aster slides past here and there to be behind Ed.
The shield clanging against the armoured mermaid, the spirit of the mermaid, shimmering around Tasha digs its trident deep between the coral. "Menotheguro, we're coming for you!", she snaps at the corrupted mermaid's face.
Bazzle swims through his manta ray stomach gliding along the ceiling. He moves next to Tasha and attempts to stab the skum.
Ederion tries to stab the mermaid Skum, but the tip of his rapier fails to stab through her armour of coral. Bazzle glides overhead, and and Rillia takes the opportunity to quickly cast a spell on him, making him look distorted to the untrained eye. Despite this, he still takes a claw attack from the mermaid. Unfortunately, this disrupts his plan and his dagger stabs are dodged and deflected. Lekmek follows after Bazzle and tries to stab from below. It is a hit, but with such little power it barely does anything worthwhile.
Further into the room, Tasha can spot a Mermaid Skum crackling with electricity, much like the ones she fought in the goo room. This one however has a tail that's been split into weird frog legs. That Skum casts a spell that surrounds Tasha and those around her with freezing cold water, which hurts and staggers them. Even the clawed mermaid at the front gets hit with it.
It isn't easy to see the others in the room, but more spellcasting can be heard. They're preparing themselves with buff spells. The mermaid in the front swims backwards slightly and braces for impact.
Resist 5
Being caught in a funnel is not good for them one little bit, so Aster spends a moment shifting into her big rat person, and rushes past the waiting mermaid skums, to hopefully open a bit more of the room.
Rexandi swims closer but all these tight tunnels mean she still can't get a line of sight to the enemies.
Shaking the drowsiness away, Ederion follows suit after Aster, trying to go to the other side of the room - "Right behind you!"
Bazzle swims further down the hall. "Painful cold. I am dying here. I don't think we are a match for this." He puts one of his daggers away as he swims.
The freezing cold sends Tasha into a brief shock. So much magic! Following the retreating mermaid, she swings her shield to catch her in the chest.
The mermaid Skum refuse to attack Aster as she swims past in wererat form. Tasha comes in and delivers a powerful, but ultimately just annoying shield bash. Ederion easily dodges past the mermaids, while Bazzle retreats from the freezing water. Meklek swim in right behind Ederion, but he's not quite as nimble. He gets slashed right up the belly, but it looks like he's doing okay. Frida also rushes in, and thankfully the mermaids do not have the reflexes necessary to attack her.
Rexandi identified the lingering spell as Frost Fall. With her Tiefling resistances, she feels safe moving closer to Bazzle in order to help him in a moment.
The largest of the Skum, an ogre with a mouth for a stomach, opens his third eye of Menotheguro. The eye stares at Tasha, but nothing happens other than a flash of red light. Tasha isn't sure what happened, if anything happened at all. Meanwhile, the ogre Skum lurches forward at Aster and tries to shove her into its stomach mouth for a bite. It grabs hold of Aster and rips side to side to shred her fur, even drawing a minute amount of blood, but Aster is quite nimble in this form and manages to wriggle out of the grab at the last moment.
The mermaid skum with crackling lightning around them casts a spell to envelop her hand in electricity. She tries to grab hold of Meklek, and manages to hold him right on the top of his head. It isn't all that flashy. The Kobold's eyes go wide for a brief moment, then there's a visible discharge of electricity, and then he drops rapier and shield as he slowly floats upwards.
Another mermaid skum spellcaster swims back a bit and casts a spell on Ederion. Though he can feel the water around him turning cold, he easily resists the spell.
The two clawed mermaid skum claw and bite at Frida, who's unarmoured flesh is left vulnerable to. She's losing a fair bit of blood.
Rexandi easily resists the cold water.
Since the cold doesn't seem to be strong enough to affect her, Rexandi moves into a position from which she can see much of the fighting, and she raises her hands in a spoooooky gesture to cast a hex of misfortune upon Frida's enemy - one of the clawed mermaid skum.
Bazzle swims nervously a look of desperation he looks hopelessly out of place. "I am nothing but dead weight here. Not even sure I could survive the cold water much less what's in that room." Whether he is speaking absently or to Rexandi its hard to tell.
Rexandi curses the mermaid Skum (Teal) that tries to rend Frida apart.
Bazzle takes 3 deep breaths hyping himself up for action. He darts into the cold water stealthily peeking around the corner to blast the skum. He then slinks back to the warmer waters.
Aster is not a warrior, she's a middle-age merchant with an adopted daughter. Why in all that is sane is She Here.
Tactics, you old fool, pay attention. Hit the thing Tasha is fighting and kill it first. Ignore the massive thing that is trying to put you in its belly. Yes ignore it! Now!
Bazzle leaps out from behind the wall to deliver a bolt of lightning at the isolated Skum in the back. It doesn't see the attack coming, and is zapped. Despite all its electrical magic, it doesn't seem to absorb any of the attack. But now it has a chance to retaliate, and Bazzle is sitting dead in the middle of a freeze zone.
Aster bashes the mermaid skum with her mace, but her bite doesn't dig through the coral armour.
Ederion snarls as the kobold is instantly killed - "Damn this... Frida, you are too exposed" - he adds in Aquan, piercing ahead at his opponent.
Ederion scores a solid hit by stabbing the mermaid skum in the side. Another hit like that, and they won't be still in the fight.
Growling, Tasha pushes forward past the wounded mermaid, before turning around and swinging viciously with her shield. "Come on, you big hag!", she shouts.
Tasha moves around the mermaids without a care in the world, as their claws do nothing more than scratch her plate armour. She faces the ogre skum and bashes it with her shield. Several magical enchantments come to resist her, but she presses forward. With her incredible strength and training, she stabs the spikes of her shield into the monster. While the pain inflicted could kill a common man, this monster looks like it can withstand a lot of pain.
Frida swims closer to Ederion for protection. She swings at the clawed mermaid skum with her hammer, feeling the intense drag of the water upon the weapon. An unlikely hit, but the hammer connects! Unfortunately there's a burst of gold magic around the Skum, and no harm seems to befall her. Frida is clearly surprised and isn't sure what to do.
Mother Kahli races in and tries to stab a clawed mermaid Skum, but her dagger does almost nothing. Melody swims into the cold water and sings for Bazzle as she runs a hand through his hair. Harmony stays a little ways behind and keeps up her bardic performance. Ondisso follows behind, still far away from the action. The rest of the survivors stay around the corner, just in case.
The ogre says in the human tongue it has never spoken before
"Do not refer to me as a pathetic surface spellcaster. One that relies on others to cast anything of even cursory notice."
The ogre focuses on its third eye, giving Tasha an opening which she delivers a brutal shield bash. She assumes that's enough to break concentration for the spell, but to her dismay, the spell completes regardless. A tiny red blip shoots out of the pupil of the eye, and swims directly to Tasha. The familiar rumbling of stone occurs, and suddenly the floor opens up beneath Tasha to reveal a devastatingly powerful red light. It hits Tasha from below, and she feels her armoured mermaid tail stinging like crazy and falling apart like layers and layers of dead skin. When the spell is finished, Tasha is relieved to still be alive.
The electricity using mermaid Skum with frog legs hits herself in the face. The mermaid Skum in the far back seems to act normally. They take all the rubble from the hole below Tasha and animate it into a swarm. Everyone in the area gets battered, except for Aster who resists the damage. Even the clawed skum gets battered.
The mermaid Skum caught up in the swarm starts emptying out her stomach, while the other clawed one turns wildly onto Ederion. She claws and bites, but each one fails to connect. There was one claw that looked like it would get him, but there must have been some turn of fate.
Bazzle and Melody both feel the water warming up, but not without a final parting gift. Rexandi remains unaffected.
Aster takes no damage
Ederion
"Fight defensively" - Ederion advises Frida - "Then we can take them together!" - he adds, the Aquan language rolling better off his tongue with the practice.
Bazzle draws his dagger as he approaches hoping to shank ruthlessly the surrounded skum. He barrels in with the spear an unaccustomed attack for him used to lighter weapons. Yanks the spear back following his strike half spinning in the water as he continues forward. Bringing his dagger in for a bite as well.
Ederion stabs the mermaid Skum in the chest with his rapier. It's almost certainly a mortal wound, but the Skum gets ready to tear at Ederion. Suddenly there's a look of shock on the Skum's face, as from behind, Bazzle stabs her in the back. Despite the shield glowing gold to prevent him, Bazzle manages to power just barely through it. From there, the tip of the lightning spear breaks through skin, around bone, and right through the heart to come out the other end.
Then Bazzle uses his off-hand dagger to stab at the other mermaid Skum right up through the rib cage and into the heart. She dies immediately as well.
Rexandi takes up a spot behind Bazzle so that she can see the other foes through the blood-clouded water and flings her twisted rune again, throwing a hex of misfortune at the ogrish creature.
Rexandi feels her hex take hold of the ogre Skum.
Suddenly things are looking a little better. Foes are falling, but there is still that thing trying to eat her and then it uses that magic again on Tasha.
"These eyes really hate you" she points at to the warrior at her side as she tries to smash the bloated sack of guts.
Trying to focus everything she's got on staying conscious, Tasha moves out of the whirlwind, standing next to Ederion. "I'll gouge them out... eventually.", she adds with a hiss, trying to gather her momentum.