If the grindy-ghouls could raise the metal bars of their prison, you all figure they'd have done so by new. It seems safe enough to leave them behind.
After clipping away the snagging hooks in the eastern tunnel, the group takes a few steps that way before everyone sees movement in the deeper waters beyond: tentacles, larger than a grindylows! Some sort of purplish octopoid/squidish horror is beginning to stir, but your delay in the previous cavern apparently kept it from detecting your presence earlier.
You recognize the thing to be a devilfish, a semi-intelligent magical beast (not an animal) known for its powerful and deadly tentacle and bite attacks.
"Le' it come t'us," Culder snarls as he finally pops the top off his pungent mutagen and gulps it down. Then he takes a step out in front of his comrades.
Stowing his trident and loading his crossbow, Aghon takes bead on the tunnel where the monster showed its presence.
Jordan swears and launches an arrow before Culder steps in the way. "It had to have tentacles." he mutters.
As Culder and Aghon prepare for battle, Jordan looses an arrow that finds one of the creature's many tentacles. The missile doesn't look like it caused much damage, but it's pissed the beastie off!
Jarvis breaks into another of his oddly inspiring sea shanties while Vincent touches Culder's oar, causing its length to dance with waves of bluish-white electricity. "Devilfish! Kill it! Quick!" the sorcerer suggests strongly.
Not quick enough. A cloud of darkness (ink?) spreads in the water around the creature moments before the devilfish's barbed tentacles burst from the water and try to grab Culder and tear him apart. Several tentacles rip into the sailor but miraculously fail to latch onto the bleeding man.
Culder scowls as the tentacled creature tears into him. "Bit o' healin' iffin ye would," he calls out to nobody in particular as he swings his oar hard at whatever part of the creature happens to be nearest to him.
,
Vincent will once again cast thunder staff on culders oar
"Woopsies!" Aghon hoots as he takes a step back and, hopefully, out of the way of that barbed tentacles of the beast that just gave Culder the once over. He then obliges Culder's call for healing by summoning another channel of healing energy, mentally selecting out their devilfish enemy, so he doesn't benefit.
Covered in his own blood, Culder nevertheless gives as good as he gets...and then some, thanks to Vincent's electricity magic. Jordan seems pretty much healed by Aghon's latest positive energy channel, but it's debatable whether or not Culder can withstand another tentacle mauling like the one he just endured.
Seeing Culder get injured, Jordan draws his short sword and moves up to to the front lines to give the Cap'n a chance to back off and heal up.
"I'll spot ye this one, Cap'n, but I'm gonna need y'to get back up here!"
Jordan's blade flashes and digs into the creature's rubbery flesh not far from its eye; the beast shudders in pain and anger. A decent amount of blood now mixes in briefly with the ink in the water before the darker liquid swallows the red up.
Jarvis works a healing spell into his shanty, touching Culder on the back and healing some more of the big man's injuries . The devilfish, sorely wounded, withdraws, swimming up the NW passage. Its bulk makes the task slower and more difficult. The deeper water the beast just fled remains dark as night, making it impossible to judge its depth, but the water seems more shallow closer to the walls.
Your light source briefly glints off a piece of metal hooked into a great fish's jawbone on the western wall. It appears to be a band of tarnished brass.
"Cap'n, if you and the crew will keep an eye out for me, make sure that fish don't come back and surprise me." Jordan requests, sheathing his sword and making his way to the brass in the fish's jawbone.
"This is gonna make me sound like a coward, but the deeper we get in these caves the worse and worse feeling I get about it. I don't know about ye'all, but I'm ready to get the hell out and back into the sun." Aghon says rubbing his finger and thumb across this trident holy symbol.
The devilfish makes its escape to the northwest as the party weighs its options, licks its wounds a bit, and explores the object on the wall. This item turns out to be an engraved dull metal bracelet or bracer of some kind.
The devilfish's ink in the water dissipates after about a minute, revealing that the water where it lingered is 10-12 feet in depth. If you stay near the walls, however, the depth is only about 3 feet.
Jordan will pry the bracer out of the wall and brings it back over to his companions. "What does anyone make of this? Seems to have endured quite well for getting stuck in such a wily beast's maw."
Culder scowls as the fishbeast escapes, but is a bit relieved to not take another hit like that first one again. He stands guard, oar at the ready, while the others deal with the bracer.
"I'm inclined to agree with you Aghon, I've never been a religious man but if we run into any creatures worse than that devil fish we may need to rely on something a little more than luck and skill"
once Banner brings over the bracelet Vincent will cast detect magic "I'll see if there's any magical aura on this"
Kojima looks at Culder's blood dripping into the water and squawks something about hoping there are no sharks lurking in the sea caves. Meanwhile, Vincent casts detect magic and suddenly begins to closely examine the bracer Jordan recovered.
The bracer does indeed radiate magic--faint transmutation. You're unable to identify its purpose, and suspect that the bracer is one of a set of two and is useless without its companion piece.
"hm this braclet is indeed magical, and it also appears to have a companion peice, but until we find its twin I can't tell what it does and won't work unless we have its companion"
Culder scowls. ”Th’way iz goin’ in here, th’other half’s prolly inside tha’ fishbeast...”
As the group ponders its next move, a gurgling voice chants something from a distance down the same passage the devilfish fled. The slimy seaweed growing out of the floor of the sea caves seems to come alive, trying to seize your legs and slither upward to grab at your arms! More quick chanting sounds, but this time there's no visible effect from whatever spell may have been cast. Likewise, the caster has yet to show him- or herself.
The seaweed is too quick--you're entangled.
Entangled creatures can attempt to break free as a move action, making a DC 14 Strength or Escape Artist check.
Aghon's ankles and calves get all twisted up in the disgusting slimy seaweed. "Well, great. This just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?!"
”Ye gotta be sh!ttin’ me“ Culder grumbles as he drags his thick muscly legs fifteen feet forward across the chamber.
Culder's glowing oar reveals about 40 feet of the northwest passageway; there's no sign of the chanting creature nor the wounded devilfish, however. The big man can spy, however, where the churning mass of the entangle effect ends in that particular tunnel .
Jordan cuts at the seaweed around him and keeps his sword drawn. "Forward or back, cap'n. Say the word, and we'll be right behind ye."
Nothing comes into sight in the northwest tunnel, but more gurgling chanting hints that there's likely a whole lotta buffin' goin' on somewhere in the darkness beyond the light spell's reach. Jarvis manages to stay clear of the writhing seaweed fronds, but Vincent finds himself tangled in the clinging plants.
Vincent will try to disentangle himself
Invoking Hanspur's blessing to ignore difficult terrain, Aghon runs through the water and weeds as far as he can, trying to reach safer ground.
Aghon uses his god's blessing to escape the area of the entangle effect. He's either brave or foolhardy, moving down the same tunnel the wounded devilfish used and where strange chanting still emanates. Although the chanting seems quite close now, Aghon finds himself at the far end of Culder's glowing oar and cannot see further into the murk to the northwest.
Jarvis splashes up to the big man, barely avoiding the writhing plant life, casting a healing spell on Culder .
Culder grits his teeth and, still grumbling, presses on down the tunnel...
Culder pushes forward in Aghon's steps, sticking close to the wall and avoiding any deeper water. Jordan follow's in the Captain's wake. Unfortunately, right at the edge of the swarming seaweed, Culder's feet are entangled, though Jordan manages to avoid a similar fate.
Culder's glowing oar reveals more of the cavern at the tunnel's end, however. The chanter proves to be a female grindylow with a harpoon waved in one hand; twin bandoliers--holding a variety of daggers, knives, and maybe even a wand or two--crisscross her chest. Beyond her, the wounded devilfish thrashes in what appears to be deeper water.
The grindylow seems surprised that you powered through her entangle spell; with a hiss, she hurls her harpoon at Aghon. He almost dodges, but one tine digs deep into his leg .
for
"Squiddy b!tch!" Aghon yells as his flesh is rended by the tine of her harpoon. He then wills the magical ether to flow out of him centered right on the devilfish, the area explodes with a burst of thunderous sound.
Aghon's spell reverberates throughout the chamber and back up the tunnel. The grindylow and devilfish are both stunned by the sonic burst, the former losing her grip on the trailing rope of the harpoon she'd speared Aghon with.
A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent.
Culder bellows in frustration and yanks his thick leg forwards trying to rip the magical seaweed with brute force...
Just barely breaking free with an off-balance lurch, Culder moves to close the distance with the stunned spellcaster.
Culder yanks free of the sea vegetation and staggers forward, nearly bumping into Aghon. His glowing oar reveals a little more of the cavern: In an alcove to the north, sitting with their backs to the wall and their legs hidden underwater, are Sandara Quinn and Fishguts Kroop. They are bound and gagged--almost mummified in fact--by tightly-wound strips of seaweed. Meanwhile, Jarvis struggles forward slowly through the grasping seaweed. He calls out for the others to yell if they need an inspirational shanty.
Jordan presses forward and tries to squeeze and arrow past Aghon, aiming for the grindylow spellcaster. The shot grazes the grindy's shoulder (which seems strangely rough and uneven) but doesn't draw any blood.
for
There's a large shadow in the water underneath the wounded and stunned devilfish; something else lurks here (and may be stunned).
"Some more healin' 'd be nice..." Culder grumbles as he steps past Aghon and attempts to squash the stunned spellcaster with his oar.
,
Culder sloshes forward and bashes the spellcasting grindylow 'oar' the head; she likely won't survive a second blow of that caliber.
Realizing that the team's best option to dispatch these baddies is to have them immobile. Aghon uses his last bit of powerful magic, summoning another cacophonous burst of sound.
Aghon's second sound burst is even louder than the first. Again, all foes in the chamber are stunned; the devilfish may even be dead. Its body floats a bit deeper into the room and you can see a creature (perhaps a giant grindylow) nearly as big as an ogre submerged beneath the water's surface. It seems stunned and has one of the devilfish's tentacles dangling from its open mouth like a piece of spaghetti.
Jarvis presses onward, breaking into song to inspire his faster friends in their battle. Poor Vincent's unable to pull free from the weeds that have ensnared him and follows slowly, but Jordan closes on the grindylow behemoth while it's still stunned, negating any reach advantage it might have later, diving into the water and submerging.
going to continue to try and break out
Not wanting to miss the opportunity to finish off the injured spellcaster before she works anymore magic, Culder, for the first time since any of his current companions met him, doesn't swing as hard as he can but instead tries to be more accurate in his swing...