With astonishing speed, Rhialla surges forward to strike at the merman, descending on him like grim death.
With her reloaded crossbow ready, Ashlei circles the fascinated sharks to get into range to shoot at the merman!
"Yeah baby! See that! That's WOOD! It grows on LAND! Now eat it! I SAID EAT IT!"
The merman steps back with a 5' step. And then casts Dispel magic on Rhialla
The shark next to him also attacks.
The Green shark attacks Herzag
And misses.
Purple and Orange are still in the Hypnotic pattern.
The party may now act?
Cass keeps the two hypnotized sharks in a stupor.
Rhialla's eyes widen for a moment before narrowing as she feels the magic strip away a layer of her defenses, the shimmering field around her blinking out. As the water around her clouds up with her blood, she swims back just enough to be out of immediate danger.
Quickly calling out to the mistress of the deeps for the power to punish her enemies, she glares at the shark, eyes glowing with power, before pointing her blade at the merman.
Cranking the bow, Ashlei moves up a bit to keep the fish-man in range and quickly shoots again!
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Swimming forward between the hypmotized sharks only partially cringing at the insanity of that action under normal circumstances He paused gauging the distance between himself and the merman with a smirk.
He saw Rhialla use her magic he thought on the shark.
"Open wide."
He said as he thrust the spear torwards the merman.
Percy & Ashlei miss the merman, who smirks at you. :)
Cassiopeiap hold her spell, keeping the sharks under her control.
The large shark fails to withstand Rhialla's magic and turns to lunge at his friend.
Wiping the smirk off the mermans face.
Enraged by what just happened the Merman lunges at Rhialla wanting revenge. Stabbing her with his trident.
The party may now act.
Ashlei immediately drops her crossbow to the depths when the merman attacks Rhialla, then quick draws her magical starknife as she swims down to flank him with Captain Percy!
"Don't turn your back on me water-boy!"
Twisting to painfully off of the trident, Rhialla's new aquatic form attacks viciously with both her blade and tail sting, seeking to bring swift death to the merman. As her blade bites deeply, his flesh cracks and withers from dehydration as salt crystals form around the wound.
Herzag swims closer to the fight, and stabs at the shark.
AC: 25 (with combat Expertise)
HP: 60
Percy slams his pike into the merman.
Ashlei slashes deeply, the water bubbling from the heat of her starknife.
Rhialla stabs him with her rapier.
Herzag wounds the bull shark following the merman.
Cassiopia holds the remaining sharks in thrall.
The bull shark twists and bites at Herzag.
The Merman, going mad with the blood in the water keeps up his murderous blows on Rhialla. Even going as far as biting her with his sharklike teeth.
The party may now act.
As before, Cass keeps the sharks enthralled, letting the team concentrate on the monstrous merman.
Letting out a cry of agony, Rhialla glares hatefully at the merman, Rhialla's eyes flash as a pulse of energy bursts from her, washing over the combatants and healing some of her and her companions' wounds, as in the background, the faintest trace of wild feminine laughter echoes through the water.
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He growled in anger as the strange Merman focused its fury on Rhialla. He hesitated for just a moment before she slid back enough to get the pike in play. On land he would have just dropped it and started to wrestle with the Merman to protect her, in the ocean like this with sharks all around it was probably just best to end it quickly.
Full ATTACK(Melee Starknife!)
+
"By Besmara's well-endowed bodice! Face me fish-boy!"
Percival ends the badly wounded Merman with a deadly strike from his weapon.
Herzag guts the bull shark companion.
Loot on the merman:
Trident +2
Bracers of armor +2
What are you doing now? The ring still indicates that what you seek is down deeper with the stern.
Ashlei curses and wonders where her crossbow went...
"Damn fish-man made me drop my underwater crossbow! Do you know how much that thing costs? This bloody ring says we have to go lower down."
Cassiopeia finishes her rave-dancing and the lights flicker and fade from her hands.
"We could use a spell to locate it later. It probably just floated down by the wreck anyway," she says of the missing crossbow.
"We'll keep an eye out for it on the way down Ash." Rhialla says as she sends forth another wave of healing energy, preparing for the swim into the depths.
Loot found on the bow:
An expertly crafted sextant inlaid with silver (worth 1,000 gp)
A oil of slipstream
The ships payroll. 156pp, 1,486gp, 3,172sp, and 781cp.
Into the Rift:
While the Brine Banshee’s bow holds some treasure, it provides no clues as to the secret of the ship’s speed and maneuverability. In addition, the ring of the iron skull indicates that Vargus’s remains lie within the rift in the sea floor.
The PCs must journey down into the rift, which plummets to a depth of 180 feet. The water temperature drops as they venture deeper, light from the surface far above fades away into darkness, and the weight
of the water above crushes against the PCs’ bodies—the lightless depths are a hostile and alien environment.
At the bottom of the chasm, the rift’s walls narrow and slope inwards, forming a ravine of pitch-black freezing water. The floor drops away at the northwest end into a vast sinkhole that continues even deeper underwater.
At depths below 100 feet, the temperature and pressure of the water deal damage to unprotected characters. The pressure deals 1d6 points of damage per minute to creatures unused to the depth, and the water is very cold, dealing 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute to those without endure elements or some other magical protection from cold. Freedom of movement, or magic items such as a pearl of the sirines or plate armor of the deep can help mitigate these effects. See page 445 of the Core Rulebook for more details on deep water dangers.
Feeling the shifting pressure, Rhialla casts a swimming spell on herself and Percy, to alleviate some of the effects.
Ashlei tries to find her dropped crossbow before the group goes deeper.
"Unfortunately I don't have spells designed specifically to mitigate deep pressure," says Cassiopeia.
The Brine Banshee’s Grave
The stern of the Brine Banshee rests at the bottom of the underwater rift 180 feet down, a lost ship that will never sail the waves again.
Very deep water is not only generally pitch black, posing a navigational hazard, but worse, deals water pressure damage of 1d6 points per minute for every 100 feet the character is below the surface. A successful Fortitude save (DC 15, +1 for each previous check) means the diver takes no damage in that minute. Very cold water deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage from hypothermia per minute of exposure.
Leading the way down in her altered form, Rhialla holds her weapon in-hand as she effortlessly dives, shivering slightly as the cold permeates her flesh, traveling deeper into the alien world that at the same time feels a part of her destiny.
"Did I mention how much I HATE swimming!??"
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Cassiopeia says, "Give me a moment."
She takes out her book underwater without a care and flips it open, then references a line. She incants a spell and touches each member of the group.
The pull of the ring leads you deeper and deeper, the darkness combining with the pressure to leave you feeling cold and alone. Even the faint light of the spell only makes you feel more alone and lost.
Suddenly a monstrous creature swims out of the dark waters and immediately attacks. Armored in dense, bony plates, this four-armed creature drools wretched strings of black bile from its fanged maw.
Charda
CN Small monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 120 ft.; Perception +13
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+2 Dex, +7 natural, +1 size)
hp 85 (9d10+36)
Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +7
Defensive Abilities ferocity; Immune cold, poison
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., swim 60 ft.
Melee bite +13 (1d6+3 plus 1d6 cold), 4 claws +14 (1d4+3)
Special Attacks black bile
STATISTICS
Base Atk +9; CMB +11 (+19 bull rush and trip); CMD 23
Feats Combat ExpertiseB, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Trip, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Intimidate +6, Knowledge (religion) +4, Perception +13, Stealth +18, Survival +10, Swim +18
Languages Aklo, Undercommon
SQ amphibious, cold vigor, overwhelming
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Black Bile (Su)
A charda’s body seethes with freezing black bile. Its supernaturally cold, black bile is the source of the additional cold damage when a charda bites a creature. As a standard action, a charda can expel its full store of bile as a breath weapon that can take the form of a 60-foot line or a 30-foot cone. All creatures in this area take 8d6 points of cold damage (DC 18 Reflex half ). A charda can use this breath weapon once every 1d4 rounds—while its black bile is recharging, it does not deal additional cold damage with its bite. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Cold Vigor (Ex)
When a charda is in a cold environment, it becomes more animated and gains a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls.
Overwhelming (Ex)
A charda gains a +8 racial bonus on bull rush and trip attacks.
Strangely this Charda is far too large for it's kind? It is at least 16' tall.
It breathes a cone of freezing cold bile at the party.
The party may now act.
"Ships BURN. Alcohol burns! My enemies...burn! Regardless how much my mom hated me as a priestess of Besmara, she never questioned my choice of profession! Why do I Have to keep explaining this to...Gah! What's that!"
"By Besmara's icy bottom! That's cold!"
Raising her crossbow, she swims a bit closer into range...