Mirabella keeps her litany going, but adds a small taunting verse about how a mighty aboleth suddenly found all its clever plans falling apart.
Jack grunts in pain as two more thrashing tentacles club into him. Gritting his teeth, the ranger again does his best to slice the enemy into pieces.
for and
for and
for and
for and
for
for
for
Logan tried to concentrate on a minor cantrip but the goo around the creature was seriously irritating him and his spell fizzled.
He tried to stab it with his sword but that too was thwarted by the inevitable power of the dice bot.
with a very annoyed manta growl she fired off her next shot quickly reloading and hovering in the creatures direct path trying to keep its attention
Frustrated by the horrible gel like substance surrounding the creature, Logan didn't bother to try and cast anything. Instead he lashed out with his rapier in pure frustration.
Breathing a small sigh of relief as the aboleth slumps towards the floor, Mirabella maintains her distracting performance as long as the hypnotic spell lingers. She watched Logan continue to stab the unconcious creature with mixed feelings of accomplishment and concern.
”Be careful! It seems that creatures who perish here have a nasty tendency to return as undead. The last thing we want is an angry aboleth ghost on our hands while we try to fix this mess. On the other hand, we have no safe way to restrain it, so slaying it is probably the safest thing to do.”
Once the combat is fully over, Mirabella helps the others search the caves thouroghly (using detect magic).
.
She was not about to let that thing get away. She manta followed it and took careful aim...
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"Poking and shooting it a few extra times seems like a fine idea. I'm light I spells that can finish it off."
Jack takes an opportune stab at the big monster as it starts to sink into the depths. "Shall I pursue and make certain it's dead?" he asks the shorter (and smarter) party members, Bicks and Mirabella.
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As you make sure to finish the creature off, those of you who had it's pressence in your mind for a while now feels it's domination magic leave your mind.
Mirabella looking around finds some magical items equiped by the aboleth along with a heap of loot kept in the northern part of his cavern. While looking around the Jack feels one of the wounds from the creature start to transform his skin and flesh into a clear slimy membrane making his health compromised on these new areas.
Aboleth:
Ioun stone, ring,
1st—chill touch, magic missile, ray of
enfeeblement
Cantrip—bleed, detect magic, prestidigitation,
read magic
Heap:
Magical mithral chain shirt, magical greatsword, a rusting longsword with a golden jeweled hilt depicting prancing swans mounting lustful mermaids, a waterproof golden hip flask set with an opal stopper, a silver pillbox inset with a miniature depiction of a woman with two heads
Logan shivered when they where sure the thing was finally dead, "Horrible! That was an aboleth wasn't it... I do hope there's not any more of those around. Anyway lets see what it had in it's horde."
Logan hummed the centring mantra that attuned him to any magic that might be present before examining the Ioun stone and the ring.
He then leafed through the spellbook and remarked, "This is quite a prize. I'm not sure all of these spells are ones I could master but some of them look like ones I could learn."
Mirabella points out the various magic items, then resumes her examination of the caves.
”We should make sure we have identified and neutralized the source of the malady plaguing the village. It may have been the aboleth or perhaps something in this location itself. Logan and Bicks, I could use your magic knowledge in searching for possible signs of necromancy. I suggest we gather all the treasure and items and wait to examine them closer until we are back on the surface.”
She looks at Jack’s injuries with some concern.
”If I recall correctly, we can counteract the effect of the aboleth slime with Cure Disease. Fortunately, we have prepared and have several potions. I’ll give you one when we are out of the water.”
Jack looks at his hands, the skin of which has started to transform into a clear membrane. He nods at Mirabella's talk of a cure and desperately tries not to pick at or peel off the growing slime-skin.
"Better me than any of you," he says quietly. To take his mind off his uncomfortable situation, Jack picks up the rusty longsword and examines its hilt. "Well...that's different!" he comments.
Clearly concerned for her Jack the manta ray canacha fluttered about him semi protectively and only paused her circling when he was examining the sword and ...interesting hilt. That seemed for the moment to hold her mesmerized
Logan nodded to Mirabella and tried to figure out if the Aboleth was the source of the malady or if it was something else.
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Logan is fairly sure the aboleth could have cause the malady by channeling the innate necromantic energies in the eye for whatever purpose it was down here for. While looking around Logan notices some magicsl runes in the cavern where the magic in them are dissipate as he is watching the runes. Logan is sure that once the runes are conpletely gone the malady in the village should be gone.
Logan identify the ring as a +1 ring of protection, the ioun stone needs more studying.
Satisfied that the threat to Acisazi is ended, Mirabella is overwhelmed by an urge to once again breathe air and feel sunshine on her face.
”Let’s get out of here! Jack needs treatment and the aquatic elves await news of our encounter. With the magic of the runes gone, it should be safe to leave the carcass of the aboleth here, although we might consider tying a rope around it and hauling it after our boat if we want to make absolutely sure it won’t somehow reanimate. What do you think?”
Her transformation spell has expired, so she hitches a ride on Canacha’s manta back for the trip to the surface.
Logan identify the ring as a +1 ring of protection, the ioun stone needs more studying.
Back on the surface, Mirabella administers a potion of Cure Disease to Jack as soon as possible.
Once everyone are healed up, Mirabella suggests heading for the closest shore and following the same land route back to the village.
”I think I have had enough aquatic adventures for the forseeable future!” she says, grateful to be back on solid land.
Jack thanks Mirabella for the potion and quaffs it down. After examining his hands, he turns to Canacha. "Do I look all right? I think my skin turned globby and gelatinous for a few minutes there...."
Logan examines the other magical items they found.
"I can get everyone fully healed. Any really bad aliment we need to get to so you don't die in your sleep or get a permanent affliction?"
"A fine shirt of mail" remarked Logan, "I guess the mithril is a bit wasted on me, but it's certainly better than the plain old shirt I'm wearing. Anyway shall we head back up?"
Manta noises! Canacha squeed in manta noise at the mention of the chain shirt. She calmed quickly enough though and helped her little friends move faster throught the water for sure.
Logan started swimming back up, once they had reached the surface he said to the others, "I doubt we'll reach the village before dark, let's find somewhere to camp? I'll take first watch. Doubt I'll sleep easily after today's nightmare fuel..."
"Good idea, Logan. If we camp here, we can regains some strength and should be able to make it all the way back to the village tomorrow. I figure we can spend a day with the aquatic elves to make sure everything is all right and strengthen our alliance, then head for the warship and push on to Vyre."
As night falls, Mirabella sits by the dying embers of the campfire, watching the moonlight reflect off the dark ocean and listening to the gentle sound of waves splashing.
”It’s so quiet and peaceful. Seem hard to imagine that just a few hours ago, we fought the living dead and a member of a malicious aquatic race that has sought to dominate Golarion for millennia. We certainly have come a long way from being just a ragtag bunch of rebels. Makes you wonder what else we will have to face to reach our goal, doesn’t it?”
"Quite possibly that dragon we saw..." replied Logan softly, the thought of fighting that monster scared him deeply.
”The dragon!” Mirabella exclaims. ”By all the gods, I’d almost forgotten about that! And of course, there’s all kinds of devils, a mysterious assassin and the Queen’s entire army. I suppose it’s a good thing we’ve been somewhat succesful at securing allies, because we sure need all the help we can get.” she says with a somewhat strained laugh.
Then she sits silently for a moment, the weight of the task still before them bearing down on her.
”You know, I sure could use a drink right about now. Anyone got any hooch? What about that hip flask we found at the bottom of the sea? Don’t suppose it’s filled with 200 year old whisky or something?”
She lay half sprawled against Jack. She liked the feel of him against her. She liked being her too. Manta's were fun as well but she couldnt sneak kisses from her jack as a manta.
"I need to finish my rifle then i'll shoot that old dragons eyeball out."
She muttered glancing over at Mirabella. She thought about the idea of whiskey. She wasnt a fan really but.... She glanced up and behind her torwards Jack...
"I don't know about whiskey but i would kick a thrunite in the bum for some mint tea right now..."
To distract herself, Mirabella digs through her pack and pulls out her journal to refresh her memory about any information connected to the city of Vyre. After a bit of reading, she digs out a second book from her Handy Haversack.
”When we cleared out the Lucky Bones, I found this ledger containing a set of deeds of warehouses and warerfront buildings in Vyre own by one Molly Mayapple. Other notes indicated that these deeds are stolen and that the Gray Spider thieves guild had intended to use them to blackmail the owner before the Hellknights put a stop to it. One note lists: "Mayapple may be a fellow rat, but that doesn’t exempt her from being fed on by a Spider!"
”We may also run into some survivors from that guild. Other notes indicate that in case of an assault onthe Lucky Bones, Guildmistress Hei-Fen's were to attempt an escape via the smugglers' tunnels and bring news of the assault to their allies in Vyre. Fortunately, we have some idea of what she looks like. I made a sketch of the painting of her that we found in the meeting room”
Mirabella shows the others a rough drawing that depicts a stern looking young Tian-Shu woman with a narrow face and short hair.
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The night passes on without anything happening except for a few smaller animals trying to scavenger leftovers from the night’s dinner. The weather in the morning is foggy and you can only see about 150 ft. ahead of you as you traverse from the beach back to the road, it shouldn't impede your travels to much but it adds another hour to your travels back to Acisazi.
In the late afternoon you meet up with Aava, who has been out scouting for your return, she seems to be in a good mood as she greets you. ”You really did it my friends, everyone back home is starting to feel normal again. Even the speaker has been feeling better, although still in an infirm state, she was rather frail before so she might not recover completely from this. But I’m sure she’ll still be leading us for years to come.” Aava says as she takes the lead the remainder of the travel to the village.
Back at the village you encounter Nerrenn once again, but he is less aggressive towards you. ”I must apologize for my behavior when last we met, while I am normally vary of foreigners coming here, the aboleth’s dominating made it much worse in an attempt to keep outsiders away from the village. I feel free once again and will offer my support to your cause along with whatever aid the speaker will grant you.” Nerrenn says bowing to you before opening the door into the speaker’s hut. Once everyone is inside the speaker addresses you. ”Once again you have helped out village, and in no small way this time. Saving our village from the strange malady which affected us, is no small feat and deserves a reward. We will offer the assistance of our village to your cause, but small as we are, we have contact in other settlements of aquatic elves under the ocean. Nerrenn will travel to these and explain the situation and ask for their help, we will come to your aid once the time is right. Also, Aava and her scouts wishes to return to Kintargo and support you as unseen scouts who can traverse the harbor and canals unnoticed. Lastly we wish to offer you a magical item one of our crafter made years ago making whomever wears it more agile and tough.” she says the last bit as she points to an attendant holding a belt of physical might (+2 dex and con).
Thrilled that their efforts have not only cured the village inhabitants of their strange malady but also secured them a valuable ally, Mirabella feels her sprits rise.
"I'm so glad to hear that we really did succeed in defeating that evil plan. It was an aboleth, like we suspected, in command of all manner of undead and able to dominate even the strongest minds. It was only due to our magical protection that we escaped becoming helpless puppets ourselves." she says, shooting a glance at Nerrenn.
"You assistance, both in contacting the other aquatic elves and Aava's team, will be invaluable in securing a free Kintargo. But we need more allies, so as much as we would like to remain here a while to rest and celebrate, we must press on. The Scoruge of Bileal awaits our return, so we can move on to Vyre and work to gain their help as well. I pray to Shelyn that our paths shall cross again, in more peaceful circumstances."
Once everyone are done talking she bids the elves farewell and joins the rest of the group as they head for the boat.
"I can't be certain what awaits us in Vyre, but from what I have heard, it is a veritable den of debauchery and sin. All manner of entertainment is available and they guard their independence fiercely. I may be able to recall more once we get to the ship. In any event, one thing I do know: You will be able to get all the mint tea you can possibly drink, Canacha..."
"Though it is a long shot, it is not only allies that we need. Information is equally important. If you happen upon any knowledge, or leads...anything really...and you can get it to us safely we would be grateful."
To the speaker, Logan replied gratefully, "Thank you! That Aboleth lurking like a spider is stuff of nightmares, I'm glad to have been able to help. Sadly we have our own spider lurking in Kintargo, but with luck we'll be able to deal with him too."
"Also, Aava and her scouts wishes to return to Kintargo and support you as unseen scouts who can traverse the harbor and canals unnoticed."
Logan replied, "That would be greatly appreciated. In time, I expect Kintargo will be placed under embargo so having an alternate supply route will be essential. When peace finally reigns in Kintargo, I hope this will be the beginning of a long an fruitful friendship and trade between our peoples."
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"Go with peace in mind my friends, we will send any infomation we are collecting aswell as news to Aava and her team as we learn anything. Have a safe trip to Vyre." the speaker says as she bids you farewell.
The trip to Vyre goes quite uneventful, and on the second they you are called to the deck to see the sights as the Scourge of Belial is getting closer to Vyre. "We are about an hour away from the city now, do you know how to behave yourself around town? And more important do you have any idea of whom of the five kings and queens of Vyre you plan to plead your case for?" The captain says as we arrive on deck.
She blinked at that bit of information and half turned to her copatriots. She hadnt been aware there was one king or queen... let alone five. That seemed inefficient.
Hmmm..."
She began acting like she was thinking but truth was she was panicking.
"You travel a lot Captain... your thoughts?"