”Sadly, I am beyond useless down here. As much as it hurts my ego, it is best for us to leave while it is possible for all of us to do so.”
"And I almost had him."
"Yes, and I almost passed the Starstone Test." Caldariel said, annoyance and frustration in his voice. "Either way, it doesn't matter. Let's just get out of here before that wizard comes back with reinforcements."
"Don't worry we'll definitely be back, and things will be quite different." Arani says, leading the way back where they'd entered.
RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (17 Desnus)
Proverbial tails tucked between their legs, the Silver Ravens temporarily concede defeat and leave the flooded tunnels to regroup and plan for better dealing with the skum spellcaster and other potential water-savvy threats.
THE TOOTH AND NAIL TAVERN (Old Kintargo; 17 Desnus)
With Setrona Sabinus's tavern being the closest safe house to the ruins of the Lucky Bones, your party heads there to discuss potential next steps. Setrona's cousin--the Hellknight of the Torrent lictor, Octavio--is in a makeshift meeting room in the tavern's cluttered cellar, and he seems a bit upset at your party's failure. "Great--because of your poor planning, It looks like I'll be returning a chargeless wand to the good guardians of the Shrine of Saint Senex!" he fumes. "Good planning is essential to any mission, and it appears...."
At that moment, his cousin Setrona arrives, bearing a tray of empty steins and a pitcher of ale. "Did you suggest that they have some magical ability to better move underwater?" she asks her cousin, the short woman showing absolutely no fear of her rather grim and imposing relative. "Well, no...but." As your party details the frustrating fight against the spellcaster, she asks the lictor, "And does your magic halberd grant you reach so you'd be able to strike that spellcaster each time it swam back a ways?"
"Again, no, but that's not my point," the lictor retorts. Setrona defends your group expertly and mercilessly to the point where her cousin actually sighs, admits she's right, and apologizes to you all. "What I was trying to say was that we've all got limited resources to work with, and every little bit wasted hurts, especially with trade restricted so badly under Barzillai Thrune's thumb. A second foray into the flooded tunnels will use up the last of the charges from the wand of water breathing I borrowed from the shrine's guardians. That, in turn, limits what they can do in their own duties, and...."
"And they'll find a way to adapt," Setrona cuts in before asking what sort of food the party would like and if anyone wants something other than ale to drink. "We all do our part," she comments. Then her eyes light up a bit. "Hey--doesn't that naval captain owe you folks some favors? Maybe you could cash one or more of those in, eh?"
Caldariel listened to the arguments and sighed. He appreciated Setrona's assistance, but hated that it was needed. "I am loathe to say it, but I believe that Setrona is right. We need to get into contact with Captain Sargaeta. If we can all get potions that would allow us the 'touch of the sea', as mariners put it, then we could turn the tide on this damnable mage. Hopefully catch it by surprise as well. Another option that we could do is a wand which summons arcane monsters. A squid or two, to grapple the mage, would come in handy, would it not?"
Falina was aggravated at their failure against the mage but there was little that could be done just then. It was definitely time to be planning how to deal with it. The lichtor's attitude raised Falina's hackles and she wanted to do something to get back at him for it but she managed to swallow the urge because he was right.
As they began to discuss solutions Falina said, "I think that summoning is not going to work out too well. Unless we can get a higher level wand or scroll it won't last long enough to do us much good. Getting ourselves some kind of ability to move underwater would work better I think."
"Alright so we need to find items that would allow us to breathe freely underwater and aid with swimming. Calling Captain Sargaeta is definitely a valid options, and we should probably unload some of the stuff we've accumulated, to raise additional funds." Arani says, considering their options.
KINTARGO (ARGO ISLAND {Southern Half of the City} (Desnus 17 through ???))
Topside, as the discussion turns to collected treasure and possible sale of some of it, Jessibel tries to ID the magical bottles found in the barrels in the sunken dock chamber...but without success. She seeks out her frenemy, Sabrina Sarini, to help with that small task, but again there's nothing but frustrating failure. Perhaps the Solstine wizard, Jolena, can be brought into confidence to solve this riddle?
Between Jessibel's spells and Caldariel's more mundane healing, the group's soon back to full strength. Now it's just a matter of gaining the ability to move better underwater.
Works for me. Welcome to the resistance Jolena!
RETURN TO THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
The Silver Ravens--this time with two potential junior members, the Solstines Sisters, in tow--return to the gambling hall ruins, trigger the capstone seal above the shaft that leads to the flooded tunnels, and prepare to carefully descend into the first flooded chamber.
The ceiling of this 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, while to the north, a heap of rusting, algae-caked rubble lies below a ten-foot-diameter hole in the ceiling. The water is cold and still, but only slightly murky with mud and silt.
Quickly consuming a potion that would give the the ability to see in the gloom below, Arani turns to Jessi and the Solstine sisters. "We'll go in and try to maintain a stealthy approach for as long as possible. If you have a spell that'll allow us to communicate, we can call for back-up once stealth goes out the window, so a light spell won't be giving anything away...or if there's something that needs some serious magic." she says, emphasizing the important role the sisters played.
Falina was relieved they had come up with a workable plan and was ready for their next attempt to finish exploring the underwater area. Hopefully they could finish it off this time without any further issues. As they got ready she nodded in agreement with Arani and said, [b]"That makes sense to me. She made sure what preparations were needed were done and indicated her readiness as she waited for the others.
RETURN TO THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Jessibel casts a message spell (affecting Arani, Caldariel, Falina, T'chazzar, and Jolena) and waits at the top of the shaft with the Solstine sisters. Below, all seems silent. Only Arani spots two shadowy forms hiding behind the two farthest pillars in the watery chamber until the pair of skum sentries break cover and swim quickly back to the cavern with the sunken dock in it.
Seeing the sentries take off, Arani quickly snaps off a shot, just managing to graze one of them.
"Well, they definitely know we're here. A pair of sentries up ahead, they swam back to the camber we fought that last one in." she informs her companions.
"So what do we do? They can just avoid us and swim away if they want."
"They swim faster than we do but there's only so far they can go. I'm sure they're retreating to where there are more of them, but they don't know that there are more of us right now." Arani replies. "We move in and strike tactically, fall back if we must. They will lose if it comes to a battle of attrition."
Falina was not amused that the scouts got away, nor that they could swim faster, and said, "We need to slow them down, if I can get close enough and you can keep them off of me I can try to use my magic to accomplish that."
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Arani's shot barely clips the paddling claw of the second skum before it swims out of sight to the left ; the first one swam in the opposite direction. In any event, you've got no targets to attack. The question seems to be: Fast pursuit or a more cautious one?
Jessibel and the Solstine sisters are still at the top of the shaft awaiting orders.
"Since they know we're here, we may as well go in decisively." Arani says swimming forward. " Be ready to make your way down if we call, if they show up en masse we'll need you sooner than later." she says across the message spell.
Empowered by his mask, the elf eagerly heeded the call for decisive action. Swimming as it though he was born for it, he gave his all to the pursuit.
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THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
"Understood," comes Jessibel's reply to Arani's message.
T'chazzar and Falina swim after Caldariel, but the elf-tiefling outpaces them a bit, thus he's the first to enter the submerged dock cavern and see that the two skum sentries have indeed tried to lead your group into an ambush of sorts (though T'chazzar's superior darkvision spots the trap moments thereafter): The familiar skum sorcerer lurks in the mouth of a narrow tunnel to the southwest. It swims out a bit before casting a spell, the effects of which are not immediately apparent.
Arani swims into the open chamber, targeting the skum she'd hit before as the isolated target.
Being much better prepared, Caldariel moved with a surprising amount of speed. Shooting through the water, he went in head first, slamming his head into that of the skum. His horned mask cut deep, causing the water around them to run red.
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
The combination of a second crossbow bolt from Arani and a swimming spiked headbutt from Caldariel and his helmet is more than enough to leave one of the skum twitching, bleeding, and dying in the water.
T'chazzar swims as fast as he can into fighting range.
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
T'chazzar swims forward, close enough to engage the familiar skum spellcaster. At the same time, Falina swims forward as well. Remembering that the last time the Silver Ravens fought this spellcaster he had a shield spell that negated her magic missiles, the sorceress instead blasts his nearest bodyguard.
As some of you feared, the first two sentries have indeed led your party into an ambush: Two more skum swim out from underneath the sunken dock to engage and stab at Caldariel and T'chazzar with their tridents. Even worse, four more of the creatures squeeze out of one of the narrow openings in the wall of the previous chamber and get the drop on Arani! Fortunately, due to their efforts to be stealthy, these four are unable to attack at the moment, but they swim up to the ranger unnoticed.
The spellcaster points at his bodyguard before unleashing its teeth and claws on T'chazzar. All three attacks--likely aided by some buffs, due to the damage they inflict--leave the drow paladin in dire straits . The caster glubs something to his two nearest underlings before making a 5-foot swim along the wall to the southeast. The skum bodyguard he pointed to a moment earlier also manages to stab T'chazzar , but fortunately its secondary attacks fail to connect with the badly-wounded drow.
The only other skum to get an attack this round barely misses Caldariel.
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Caldariel found his head stuck to the corpse of the skum he had killed. He barely ripped it free in time to meet the next one that came at him. Dodging more by luck than anything else, he swiped at it with a closed hand, aiming for it's neck. It was made purely out of reflex, with the elf moving in, hopefully getting with in it's reach so that it would be hard to use its weapon effectively.
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Falina saw a superb chance to try and affect their attackers when the group came up behind them with only Arani to stop them from reaching her. Faline cast a spell that settled settled down on the nearest sahuagin and made everything around them seem to move much faster than they were and then shifted back slightly to get some space between them.
"Godsdammit!! It's an ambush, we need you all NOW!" Arani sends frantically as the skum begin to swarm them. Looking around and realizing she is about to be mobbed by a collection of skum, Arani thanks the gods as she recognizes Falina casting her time distorting spell, hopefully slowing down the enemy.
Taking a risk, she swims back 30ft to hopefully give her some breathing room, turning to fire a shot at the leader of the pack.
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Caldariel punches his newest foe hard in the throat with his mailed fist, causing it loads of distress but not quite killing it...until his follow-up attack also connects. T'chazzar fares well also, scoring two hits to dispatch his wounded enemy before scoring a third on his other foe. He swims away a bit but is followed by a greatly-slowed fish-man, who misses with a weak trident jab.
Meanwhile, Arani waits until Falina has cast before trying to swim away from the skum that crept/swam up on her, dodging all opportunity attacks save one that grazes her shoulder . She, in turn, grazes the skum caster with an underwater bolt. Her target reacts by pointing again (this time at the skum still threatening T'chazzar) and then swimming up to and past Arani as she prepares to reload. Its teeth dig into her the flesh of her leg painfully .
Falina's spell may well have turned the tide of the battle, however: All but the farthest skum fall to her slow spell. The unaffected one turns to engage your reinforcements. It stabs at the light-bearer, Jessibel, but misses. The other slowed skum can only reposition themselves, closing on the intruders.
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"Good!" Caldariel exclaimed, as his fist connected with the back of a skum's head. "Saves us the effort of hunting them down." He had a good feeling about the situation. Between being better prepared and Falina's magic, he was certain that this would become a watery tomb for their aquatic foes.
Finding herself in a dire situation with no room to use the crossbow, Arani takes a gamble, letting go of the crossbow and drawing her shortsword to stab at the skum caster for biting her.
Falina swam back from her attacker, letting the ugly bastard claw her if it wanted, to open up some space. Once she had she cast a spell and a lflurry of magical bolts slammed into him.
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Caldariel ends another skum soldier with a mighty strike and then swims close to the caster to complete his attack routine. His second attack is awkward and misses, but the horned headbutt seems destined to hit...until the skum leader isn't quite where it seemed to be--apparently, it has again cast displacement in preparation for the rematch!
T'chazzar, still gravely wounded, opts to try to finish off his wounded foe rather than heal himself. The gambit pays off--barely--as his third strike finds the creature's black heart. He swims back a bit to give himself a bit more space should another foe decide to target him.
Falina dodges a slow and predictable opportunity attack from her foe before blasting it with a volley of magic missiles. Back to the north (likely unseen by your party), Carli and Jessi flank the not-slowed skum and stab it with their rapiers. Both hit but do minimal damage. Luckily, Jolena swims forward and blasts it with 3 magic missiles, putting it close to death's doorway. Jessi deftly dodges the skum's counterattack. Alas, the beast has succeeded in slowing the arrival of reinforcements....
The spellcaster opts to use claw and tooth against Arani while it still has the ranger flanked. Its teeth find her throat and it shakes her violently; then its twin claws rip into Arani's midsection. The caster then takes a 5-foot swim away from Caldariel, but the damage is already done: Arani floats lifeless in the water in a cloud of her own blood.
The other skum, slowed as they are, can only reposition to better attack next round.
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Arani was dead. It shook Caldariel to see her go down. While he did not really know anyone here quite that well, it was a reminder of how this was a life and death struggle. His attacks were not quite as accurate as they otherwise might have been, as her brutal death gave him a moment's pause. But the moment passed, as he focused back on the task at hand. Mourning would have to come later. He was a good enough doktor to know a fatal wound when he saw one..
THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Caldariel does a good job of temporarily suppressing the shock he feels at Arani's swift and sudden death, taking out another minion and putting the first wound on a second. The noblewomen reinforcements have apparently eliminated the skum that had cut them off, as all three swim quickly into the submerged dock chamber. Jessibel swims toward Arani while drawing the healing wand with her buckler-arm hand, telling the Solstines to help Falina. Meanwhile, T'chazzar sheathes his offhand blade, uses his healing powers to lessen his own grievous wounds, and then swims over to engage the skum threatening Falina.
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THE RUINS OF THE LUCKY BONES--FLOODED TUNNELS (20 Desnus)
Seeing T'chazzar heal himself some, Falina decides that the drow can probably finish off her nearby foe...if she at least wounds it some more. Taking a chance, the sorceress tries to swim out into the middle of the cavern, hoping to semi-surround the spellcaster for the anticipated final showdown, before blasting the minion with a barrage of three magic missiles. Unfortunately, her opponent seems to be expecting the move, and despite being slowed, it jabs her in the shoulder with its trident before Falina can get out of range . Her vengeful magic strike hits hard, hard enough to knock the skum unconscious! The sorceress tells T'chazzar to accompany her in limiting the spellcaster's escape options.
But the skum leader isn't thinking escape...not yet, at least. Drawing a wand, it points at Jessibel and a lightning bolt streaks toward the approaching bard. Jessibel performs an impressive twist to somehow dodge the attack, but the Solstines aren't quite so lucky, taking a partial hit from the attack . The caster scowls a bit at Jessibel's escape and swims back 5 feet.
Caldariel's foe tries its best to rip into the tiefling, but all its attacks miss.
T'chazzar again uses his lay on hands ability to further heal himself before positioning himself in front of Falina. Jessibel tries to use the healing wand on Arani and is horrified to see it has no effect. "She's gone!" the bard cries out in horror. The Solstines react in opposite ways: the older Jolena hesitates to consider her options (including how badly the lightning bolt hurt her); Carlissa swims forward with her teeth clenched in anger and violence in her heart, stabbing at the caster in an attempt to avenge her heroine and role model. Her attack misses badly, and the murderous skum leader begins sizing up his likely next victim.
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