Danica sheathes the dagger back into the scabbard which shuts off the light being emitted. In the darkness of the water Danica allows her eyesight to shift to her Darkvision. She gets ready to unsheathe the dagger when the creature comes back.
Andjela prepares to skewer the creature with the powers granted her by Desna.
Danica is able to see the creature thanks to her darkvision. She is then able to guide the others toward it.
Hold for Haste Danica. he advises.
Manning the crossbow weapons of the submersible, and hearing where it is, Anna yells to Tolvan, "Right! I mean, starboard! That's right, isn't it?"
Sonny mans the second crossbow and waits for a shot. "Not much else I can do while we wait for that thing to die."
Danica continues to point in the direction where the creature went. The dagger is still in its scabbard so there is no light being emitted. Danica continues to keep using her Darkvision to track the creature.
Quickened by Tolvan's arcane influence, Andjela's head swivels and as she tracks the creature's movements, taking three shots.
Anna best-guesses her shot and sends another crossbow bolt at it.
The volley of bolts from Andjela and Anna speed toward the target. Unused to fighting underwater, only one of the them hit the creature. The creature swims toward the front of the ship and after some of its tentacles move in a strange way. After a some of the gestures end, a bolt of lightning erupt from the creature and strike Danica and Andjela.
Sonny waits for the creature to come into his arc of fire.
Tolvan will turn the ship to face the creature and try to identify it.
The creature looks like a variant of a Devilfish called a Gutaki. They are social devilfish, completely aquatic, possessing heightened intellect, and devoted to the worship of the demon lord Dagon. Aside from the fact that this particular one can cast magic, the species also possess a poisonous bite that sap the strength of its victims.
They can also emit a night-black cloud of foul liquid filling a 20-foot-radius cloud. The liquid provides total concealment for everything but a devilfish (which can see through it with ease). Anyone who enters a cloud become nauseated.
They also have a resistance to cold. They have a good defence against both magic and physical attacks. (High saves and AC) On the offense, they have a better reach then expected from something it size.
Danica stays with the ship realizing that a mere dagger may be nothing for it.
Frustrated, Andjela takes two more shots... before having to reload.
Tolvan turns the ship, giving a clear line of sight to Sonny. Danica avoid the lightning bolt and tries to identify the creature. She just can't put her finger on it is however. Andjela holds on to the ship as it turn and once it is stable again, fire two more bolts at the creature. The first one misses, but the second sink deep in the main body of the target, releasing a good amount of blood in the water.
Sonny takes a shot at the creature and then reloads.
Danica opens the her left hand out, palm towards the creature. She calls upon the power of the Bright Lady to focus her divine energy through her body and focuses the divine energy of the sun, projecting a sun blast from her out stretched towards the creature.
"That lit him up!" Anna shouts as the blast of light streaks toward the underwater monster.
She uses the light to aim the ship's harpoon.
Anna and Sonny miss the target with the harpoon, but Danica stream of light score a good hit. The creature contract itself and then release a powerful jet of water and ink. As the cloud of ink is forming, you glimpse the creature fast retreating way past the sight of any of you.
Well done friends. I sense that creature is evil and the world would a better place without it, but this ship is not equipped for such pursuits.
"Yeah, if it comes back, we should be ready. But I don't want to go after it."
She peers out of the porthole. "Where to next?"
Andjela returns inside, taking a deep breath... I'm sorry, this is literally not my element.
Danica returns back inside the ship. "I agree. I'm in no mood to pursue the creature. Our paths may cross again."
Danica then goes over to Sonny and returns the dagger. "Thanks for the dagger. Once I was out there I realized that this was going to be ranged combat. Gladly, I had a that spell up my sleeve. Good opportunity to use it."
"Let's continue on our journey."
Tolvan turns the craft back to the original course and continues to explore.
After some more time in the submersible, the group finally reach the bottom. From the bet estimate that you can make, you are now about four hundreds feet below the surface. Out the window you notice a faint glow in the rock. More intriguing are the bubbles that appears once in a while from the stone. It is hard to tell the exact distance, but you are about sixty feet from those rocks, give or take a few feet.
Anna peers out into the inky gloom at the faint glow. "Well, that's something new. Tolvan, can you get us closer?"
A little closer, sure. But we should not risk the vessel. We will need it to leave. Tolvan moves the fish 30' closer and then dances his lights to illuminate and expose the glow and bubbles.
Moving closer, you can clearly see the entrance of a tunnel. Air bubbles escape from it once in a while and a blue glow come from deeper in. With the illumination provided by the dancing light, you estimate the distance between you and the vessel to be about sixty feet. Something that would be easy o cross if it wasn't for the thousand of gallons of water in the way.
I can move us from here to there with little difficulty Tolvan states. I will try to find a place to park the fish.
Danica looks at the bubble coming from the opening and begin to ponder.
"It's almost as though there is something breathing."
Anna peers through the gloom. "No way of doing this without getting wet, huh?"
"Looks like we will be getting wet again and performing Extravehicular Activities. The person or persons that head outside is going to have to be really quick about it.....do some quick recon." Danica looks over to Angela and says, "Ready to head out again?"
after communicating the plan to the owner of the fish Tolvan parks the ship as close to the cave entrance as he can and dances his lights inside to better understand the layout of the cavern. Prepare yourselves. I will transport us across the divide and into the cave. My hope is that there is air enough there.
Tolvan uses his ability to teleport and tries to make it in the cave. He appears in the cave in front of a weird force wall. You are still in the water on one side of the wall but has you look through the wall, it almost feel like looking through a lens. On the other side, you see a completely dry natural tunnel in the rock. The lens feels rubbery and warm to the touch, and one almost feel like you could just push through it.
In desperation, or the will of trying not to drown, Danica puts her hands on the force field and tries to push through.
Tolvan tries to push through as well, wondering what prevented the teleport function from moving them all past this barrier. What manner of wall is this? My 'ports will normally move me through even a wall of force.
As Danica presses on the magical wall, Tolvan tries to understand it. He digs quickly through all the arcane knowledge that he knows, but what is in front of him is really old magic, something that probably haven't been seen since before the Earthfall. From what he knows, this isn't elven magic, so that leave only two possibilities: Azlant or Aboleth. The few air bubbles that escape the wall once and a while could be a sign that the wall is slowly loosing its permanency and will one day disappear. When, however, could still be a matter of centuries.
In the few seconds for Tolvan to come to that conclusion, Danica managed to push herself slowly through the wall. The effect is weird and a bit disturbing, but she is making progress. The best description she could think of as she is doing so is that she is walking through some sort of slime or jelly. Eventually she reaches the other side. Oddly enough, not only is she completely dry, but there is no slime or jelly anywhere on her.
Anna doesn't waste time in the strange waterlock. She's a competent swimmer, but doesn't trust the water. She follows Danica as she passes through the membrane.
Danica looks down at her arms and notices that her body is dry. She looks at the others and wonders if she could lend a hand.
She tries to push her hand through the force field and tries to help pull anyone who is trying to push forward.
Tolvan continues to push through the membrane, wonder on his face. This is old. Very old. Of those who might have made it, well I fear the worse. Considering the location I suspect it is an Aboleth creation.