Lunch is served - of lamb salona with potato and carrot crust, chicken mugalgal, Rice boukgari, falafels, shorba and date dessert.
Al Ashouriah is served as a drink.
Once back in the city, Mr. Whiskers goes over to inspect the maps of the island some more.
"I know that I originally suggested the beach, but is there a choke point there?" he asks, gesturing down at one of the maps he was examining. Tracing along the beach, he says "It looks like there is around 4000 feet of beach they could approach from, depending on exactly how quickly the cliffs form."
Pointing to so trees depicted along the edge, "There are areas where they could get to good cover not far from the beach."
"We will want to talk to one of the guides, but perhaps this area would be better." he says, pointing to an area just south of the city.
"We would be closer to the city if their flyers attacked, and have an area that appears to be clear and only about 800 foot wide."
Looking to the others and the Queen, he asks "Unless there is a better choke point somewhere else I am not aware of?"
"Do you propose we cede the rest of the island to them, and we hold this area?" Rajet points at the area on the map.
"I don't really like the idea - I'm not sure what they'll do to our hunting grounds. But I suppose in war we may need to make sacrifices." Queen Esmyra sighs.
Frustrated, Mr. Whiskers admits "I would much rather fight them on the beach. I am just concerned about how many could slip past us into the forest, and the possibility of them splitting their forces so that popobala could attack the city while we are fighting on the beach."
Nodding to Crummock, he says "He would know if you gave warning, but there is still the problem of travel time."
"Perhaps I'm thinking too defensively." he admits, spreading his paws.
He then looks to Einar and Crummock, asking "Do we try to engage them on the beach before they can get a foothold? The wider area will mean I will not be able to restrict their movement as well."
”Would it be possible to booby trap the forest in case they get past the beach?” Rajet suggests.
”We can inform the Maftets on where the traps are so that we won’t run into them – since we fly, anyway.” The Queen adds.
Nodding, Mr. Whiskers says "I like that idea!"
Looking at the map, he suggests "We could position Einar with the Maxim here" pointing to the southeastern point of the woods at the edge of the beach. "He should be able to cover a large area there."
Looking to Dmitri, he asks "Do you think you could find a good place to set up at the edge of these woods?" pointing to the ones just northeast of there.
"The range of most of my spells isn't as good as the guns. We will have to see how much they group up for us."
Gesturing towards Greta, he adds "We will want to start in the same area so I can use my spells to improve your combat abilities. Perhaps close to Dmitri's position?"
"We also need a plan for the retreat, one that leads anyone following into a concentration of those traps that Rajet suggested setting up."
"Well - I only know the most basic traps...like the trip wire." Rajet admits. He turns to Mr Whiskers, "Do you know others?"
"Trip wires will have to do. I've done small game snares, but that is it."
Rajet asks Mr Whiskers about the game snares he knows and orders the Maftets to trip wire and game snare the forest and the locations of the trip wire and game snares are also told to the party.
The afternoon passes uneventfully. The party has time to do whatever they want to do - there are no reports of Nuckelavees. Dinner is served to the party lounging around in their on villas, and it consists of Mofatah, Margoog, saleek, sanboosa, thick chicken and vegetable soup and Umm Ali. A drink of Sweet Hibiscus tea is served to the party as well.
During the meal, Rajet apologizes for the interruption and informs that Sefu's scouts have reported that there are Nuckelavees sighted off the coast of H, with some sea trolls, sahaugin. There are greater numbers this time, but they ducked beneath the waves before any Maftets could start shooting at them.
The party heads off to bed, with Crummock standing vigil. Sometime past midnight, Crummock hears Sefu's voice in his mind, ”Crummock-i-phail, Crummock-i-phail, Crummock-i-phail”. He knows that Sefu is at Beach H. Crummock wakes the party up.
About mid-afternoon Mr. Whiskers announces "We know that nuckelavees prefer to attack at night, so I'm going to try and get some sleep in now. I expect we will be awoken in the middle of the night."
Getting out of bed, Mr. Whiskers quickly dresses and splashes his face with water to fully awaken himself. He then gathers with the rest.
"Ready to fly?" Mr. Whiskers casts overland flight on himself.
Mr Whiskers goes for an afternoon nap and skips dinner. The maftet that served dinner passes the party a note, telling Mr Whiskers there are doner kebabs in the kitchen if he gets hungry.
While Einar is putting on his armor, Mr. Whiskers quickly uses his runestones and rod to cast spells on himself, Greta and Dmitri.
The party moves through the jungle, avoiding the trip wires and game snares. They hear the sounds of fighting as they approach. The sea South of the coast is filled with obscuring mist, and already they can see Sahaugins, sea trolls and nuckelavees engaged in fierce fighting on the beach, with the Sahaugins and sea trolls trying to javelin Maftets out of the air. The once pristine sandy beach is now stained with blood.
Mr Whiskers and Greta recognize the 4 nuckelavees that break off to attack the party as different as they have long tresses, but cannot tell what they actually can do.
They converge on the party then breath their breath weapons of withering foulnesss on them.They look kinda scary, really.
The tresses of those Bunyan Nuckelavees is very long...like 15 ft...
They also seem to be slightly blurred after moving in.
Crummock casts Quickened Remove Fear, then attempts to envelop the two central beasts with another Archon's Trumpet.
Geist snarls, and pounces!
Dimitri unleashes a hail of bullets.
Both Nuckelavees are paralyzed and freeze in place!
Geist's attacks don't seem to be fully effective and one of his claws misses.
The one Dimitri shot at looks about to fall over.
Greta movescharges forward to finish it off and the nuckelavee uses its tresses to strike at her.
It misses her, and she stabs at the creature, killing it.
Einar stabs the nuckelavee with his longspear, injuring it.
Mr. Whiskers flies down to where Greta is and casts a spell on her.
She and all of her equipment start growing. Her skin turns rough and green. Her fingernails turn into claws. "See how this works for you!" he says.
The only Buyan nuckelavee capable of moving tumbles backwards trying to avoid both Geist and Einar. "The Aasimar is dangerous! He paralyzed two of us at once!"
It handily leaps over Einar and Geist, then tries to obscure its position, as well as those of it's comrades by obscuring mist.
But it makes a better leaper then a caster.
Greta stabs the only moving nuckelavee.
She badly wounds the creature, despite her ranseur not having full effect.
Mr. Whiskers flies straight up and readies to cast a spell.
Dimitri attempts to finish-off the (still moving) one.
Crummock then calmly attempts to slit the throat of one of the paralysed nuckalevees.
Dimitri fills the still moving one with bullets and it collapses.
The Buyan nuckelavee's blood stains the ocean red as it shudders and dies.
Greta stabs the remaining living paralyzed one through its skull, killing it.
The party makes short work of the Buyan nuckelavees and helps the Maftet forces mop up the invaders. Several Maftets have been slain in the invasion but the number is little compared to the number of enemy dead. Sefu thanks the party for the help, then gets his troops to deal with their own bodies as well as the enemies.
Then Crummock hears Rajet’s voice in his mind, ”Crummock-i-phail, Crummock-i-phail, Crummock-i-phail!” and realizes that Rajet is at the golden city.
The party hurries back to the Golden City, where Rajet reports that some of the Nuckelavees had gotten past Sefu – but ran into the trip wire and game snares that had been earlier laid, and most of them were finished off by Oshar’s troops. However Oshar’s messenger said there was a small batch that got away and was headed towards the city. After Mr Whiskers has transformed Dimitri into a half orc, Dimitri takes his place behind the positioned maxim, and mercilessly guns them down as they approach.
Despite the victory, Queen Esmyra is convinced they have not been defeated, but only temporarily repulsed and cautions her people and the party to be prepared for more attacks.
After it is clear that Dmitri will be able to take care of any Nuckelavees approaching the city, Mr. Whiskers cleans himself off and checks if he can get some breakfast.
When the group gets back together, he suggests "We should probably plan for the attacks to continue to come at night."
Looking to Einar, he asks "Do you think it is worth trying to track those who made it into the forest? Make sure we killed them all?"
Looking to Dmitri, he asks "Do you want some sort of bunker to fire the Maxim from? When the flyers come in, having some protection could help a lot."
He also asks Greta "I know the battle didn't last long, but does troll form work better than the gargoyle? Or is there a different type of giant you would prefer?"
Rajet receives a messenger from Amare that his scouts have combed the forest, but have found no living nuckelavees. The party stays awake for until 6 am, but sees no sign of nuckelavees or the Sahaugins or Sea trolls. Reports from the four commanders, Jafri, Amare, Sefu and Oshar also state they have not seen any nuckelavee presence. Rajet admits he is bushed, and will ask his second, Adofo to take over command, while he catches a few winks. He also gives the party the names of the second in command of the four commanders, Jafri's second in command is called Bakari, Amare's second in command is Darius, Oshar's second in command is Masud and Sefu's second in command is called Tarik.
He urges the party to catch some sleep when they can, and he's going to catch as many winks as he can before he gets woken up for the next wave. He asks if the party wants some fava bean stew and pita bread for breakfast. He apologizes for the poor food - but with the city on high alert - there will be only the basic foods available for the period of the siege as no one can be spared from the city's defense to do fancy cooking.
Greta admits she prefers gargoyle - more maneuverability, since gargoyle form can fly, and more claws :)
"If there is a bunker - should there be an attack from another direction, would it be a problem to change the facing of the Maxim?" Dimitri questions Mr Whiskers back.
The party goes back to their villa, has a quick bath, then goes to catch their winks. When they wake up at 6 pm, there is a note slipped under their villa door, saying there are Shawarma's available in the kitchen should they feel hungry.
Seeking out Adofo - he reports that he has no word of any nuckelavee activity from the four quadrants of the island. The party then returns to the villa.
The party hears screams outside their villa, followed by the sounds of battle. "ma fi asm allah hu 'an finid? iinaha ryks mithl almajari almaftuha"
What in the name of God are those fiends? They reek like open sewers!
They open their villa door to see several Maftets fighting off four armored fiends each with a large, toothy mouth and a pair of hungry, reptilian eyes. "I don't know how they got here! All I saw was a puff of smoke!" One Maftet guard yells. "And our weapons are totally ineffective against them!" One of the fiends casually backhands the Maftet into a wall, where he lies motionless.
Mr Whiskers recognizes them as Hezrous and they have 10 DR/Good, and are immune to electricity and poison.
"Daj ni kralica, i nie ḱe zamineme. Inaku ḱe go uništime ova mesto." The party hears telepathically a low, bestial voice in their minds.
Give us the queen, and we'll leave. Otherwise we'll wreck this place.
Mr. Whiskers casts haste on the group and any Maftets in the area.
He yells to the guards "Run! We will handle these creatures!"
He then moves over to the side.
The Maftets flee for their lives. The Hezrous, seeing the only people who aren't fleeing, and hoping to beat some information out of the party, move to attack.
They all throw chaos hammers through the door.
The one approaching really reeks like a rotten sewer.
No one is sickened by the smell.
One of those hammers bounces off a golden shield that arises from Geist.
Dimitri seems most affected by the multicoloured hammers that explode among the party.
Seeing that Dmitri is having the most problems with the spells, Mr. Whiskers flies over and casts Greater Heroism on him.
Einar slices a deep cut into one of them but it seems his sword is not fully effective.
"It's as if whatever hammers they're throwing is inimical to me!" Dimitri yells out, annoyed at being singled out again. "None of you are affected as badly as I am." He grumbles,"Crummock's perfectly fine."
The party continues to hear voices in their heads."Našite majstori pod moreto ni naredija da se vratime so kralicata. Predadete kralicata, i nie ḱe zamineme. Inaku ḱe se raduvame da go prekineme vašeto malo postoenje."
Our masters under the sea ordered us to return with the Queen or her dead body. Hand the Queen over, and we shall leave. Else we will take joy in ending your puny existence.
Looking to Dmitri, Mr. Whiskers says "Hopefully the spell I just used will help somewhat."
He then asks the group "What language are they projecting? It sounds horrible!"
Greta moves up and trips the nearest one, then stabs at it while it’s on the ground.
Greta is not affected by the stench.
The party hears the voice in their mind repeat, this time in a different language. "Meistarar okkar undir hafinu bauð okkur að fara aftur með drottningunni eða líkama hennar. Gefðu drottningunni yfir, og við munum fara. Annars munum við taka gleði í því að binda enda á refsinguna þína."
Our masters under the sea ordered us to return with the Queen or her dead body. Hand the Queen over, and we shall leave. Else we will take joy in ending your puny existence.
"Well, that is much more understandable."
Then he calls out to them "Segðu okkur hvar þessi þrælar eru og við munum heimsækja þá með gjafir. Tegundin sem kemur í veg fyrir að þau þjáist þig aftur."
The voice answers to everyone's mind in both languages.
"O, tie se od pod moreto, dlaboko dlaboko, kade što mekite koži nikogaš ne možat da stignat ... i ni dadoa tolku mnogu ubavi nešta za da presečeme. Nie gi sakame. Tie velat deka koga ḱe gi doneseme kralicata, tie ḱe pokažat dokaz za nejzinata smrt na Maftets, koi ḱe bidat tolku demoralizirani od nejzinata smrt. Togaš tie ḱe go napadnat ova mesto i ḱe ni donesat mnogu životinski mafteti za da gi izmačuvame i praznicite vo našeto odmor. Koj bi bil tolku prekrasen! "
Oh they are from under the sea, deep deep, where you soft skins can never reach…and they gave us so many pretty things to smash. They say when we bring them the queen, they will show the proof of her death to the Maftets, who will be so demoralized by her demise. Then they will invade this place and bring us lots of LIVE MAFTETs to torture and feast on at our leisure. Which would be wonderful!
"I am heartily sick of those voices in my head." Greta glares at the Hezrous. "I know toads that sound better!"
Geist pads forward, and with a disgusted growl, claws at the lead hezrou.
Dimitri adjusts his position, and opens-up on the one off by itself.
Geist claws into the hezrou, but it does not seem to be very effective. The fire and acid on his claws are absorbed harmlessly by the scaley hide of the hezrou.
Dimitri riddles the one off by itself with 4 bullets and it falls to the ground, a decomposing lump of scales and flesh. He fires the fifth bullet at the prone Hezrou, wounding it further. Like Einar’s greatsword, Dimitri’s bullets are fully effective.
The Hezrou attempts to bite and claw at Einar from the floor.
2 of Einar's doppelgangers pop.
Another Hezrou comes up, and throws a chaos hammer, trying to catch as many of the party as possible.
The other Hezrou moves up and also throws yet another chaos hammer at the party.
Greta stabs at the prone Hezrou.
With her final stab, she finishes off the prone Hezrou.
Dimitri attempts to blow-up the Hezrou that is hanging back...
Crummock casts Divine Favor on Geist.
Geist, unhappy that his claws aren't working that well, smites (and pounces upon) the closer Hezrou.