Snorri moves to one of Torvi's healing squares to mend his wounds before gathering back with the others.
"Okay, cousin, so we cannot destroy the machine because that would result in the annihilation of pretty much everything within a hundred miles. A fair enough argument. And this creature within the confines of this tank is responsible for... what exactly? And there must be some way to eliminate the machine. We cannot allow it to exist from now until we ourselves become ancestors from long ago. There must be a way to destroy it."
”We could put it into a portable hole and then that into a bag of holding.”
"If the device in the other room was meant to hold a being of power, mayhaps the purpose of this one is to counterbalance it in some fashion? Bringing forth some dark horror?"
"Patience, my King. It will take time to unravel the machinations of such a great artifice. Once we have negated the active threats we may move to the passive ones." Dasur replies evenly as he inspects the tank-bound fish to the south. "Earlier, we determined the main purpose of the device in this room is to enslave the surface star itself." Is his reply to Gunnar.
To Erebos, he asks: "Indeed, how do we know this fish is responisible for the the plans and assorted foulness we have encountered thus far? What is your explaination?"
Erebos smirks and turns to Dasur, "Because I am studied in the deep things of the Earth. Unless I miss my guess, that creature is a Baahg, possibly even a Deep Baahg. It will have amazing arcane psychic powers. We must not leave it at our backs while we bash this artifice to bits."
"We can just drain the water from its tank, right?"
"Hmm, hmm..." Dasue muses over the infromation Erebos has delivered. "I am unfamilar with psionics, but it surely can be no more dangerous than a possed Umbral Dragon. I wonder if this creature too is influenced by the Black Flame?"
Musings aside, he shrugs at Torvi. "It resembles some sort of lungfish, which can exist outside of water for some time. Smashing the tank is merely one step in the process of its elimination, but it is also the first. I suggest our King's destructive energies be directed towards the tank, rather than yonder deadly monolith."
"Thou talkest of dark energies of a negative nature, wizard. Mayhaps a channeling of blessed force such as the Lady Woundmender can bring forth will wither those energies?"
Dasur has suggested cracking the case open, and then we smash it, I guess we'e waiting to se if that course of action gets followed.
"Be ready." Snorri gathers his greataxe tightly in both hands and raises it high before bringing it down hard upon the tank.
Garnet charges in behind her king, striving to use the momentum of her charge to plant an overhand smash in exactly the same spot Snorri hit!
Snorri and Garn stride toward the unusual tank, smashing the thick clear glass edged with iron. The glass shatters, spilling slimy thick almost water across the dirt.
The massive fish spills out onto the ground as the water spills. The fish, surely almost half a ton if weight, gasps and gulps in air as the water around it soaks into the dirt.
As the fish spills out on the ground, you might be surprised to find that it floats up off of the ground as though it were still in water. Suddenly, you lose your hearing as though a spell or a cannon has gone off in your ears.
The mind of the lungfish creature presses into your own mind. "Children of Earth, there is no reason for us to oppose one another. We are an ancient people, a people of darkness. Surely you can understand Darkness. We seek to hold back the darkness that you face. Do not make me oppose you!"
Torvi charges and attacks the creature...
Bludgeon
”Does this creature oppose the Black Flame, or is it merely trying to deceive us?” asks Garnet, though her voice sounds only in her own mind due to the silence spell.
As Torvi charges, a single bullet from Gunnar joins her, aimed straight at the fish's forehead.
"HOLD!!!" the paladin yells, hearing nothing from himself before quickly resorting to shooting a fist in the air to get the others to hold a moment before attacking.
He then looks toward the fish and attempts to speak to it telepathically. ::"Speak, creature. What are you about? If you know a way to destroy the Black Flame that poisons this land then I am listening. But be warned, if you dare betray us in any way, then we shall no longer hold any quarter."::
Torvi's attack splat's into the creature. It is covered in a thick gelatinous slime, and that seems to absorb some of the impact, but not all of it. It's fishy flesh shakes violently at the blow.
Gunnar's bullet slams into it, again slowed by the slime but still punching a hole in its flesh.
The fish has 8 barbels hanging catfish-like from its chin, like the beard of an ancient philosopher. Each of them glows a different color or lack of color, lashing out at Garnet.
With the rage suddenly gone, Garnet stands indecisively, poised on the knife edge of combat when her king signals for a halt...Then suddenly, a torrent of attacks come in at her!
Surely this creature was aligned with the Blackfire as a ray of the stuff impacts Garnet, Dasur's spell ameliorating the fire damage but not the negative energy (10 hp damage)
Bone slivers hit as well (5 damage and bleed)
An electrical ray and an enervation ray narrowly miss.
The venom ray hits, and Garnet tries to fight off the effects with her dwarven resilience, but is still momentarily blinded.
Bludgeon
Torvi kept laying into the disgusting creature...
Bludgeon
Bludgeon
Haste attack:
Bludgeon
Blinded, Garnet lashes out at the massive creature with her Dwarven Longhammer!
With the fish lashing out at Garnet, Snorri no longer finds any interest in speaking.
The thick slime coating the creature seems to be absorbing much of the impact of your blows, save for that of Snorri's greataxe (infused with his holy power).
Gunnar let's loose one more bullet aimed at incapacitating, hoping to prevent the creature from using its most destructive abilities.
Dasur watches in silence as his companions attack the lungfish-like creature, his eyebrows lifting slightly at the telepathic communication. He wonders of the creature is in league with the Black Flame, but seeking to control it for its own ends as the Drow do their their orcs and demons.
It mattered not, for the wizard was dedicated to purging the sacred halls of their ancestors of the corruption lingering within.
The lack of sound would be anathema to many spellcasters, as they relied on the arcane utterances of dragons to give their spells form in the material plane.
Using the butt of his obsidian staff, Dasur begins to draw sweeping patterns of boggling complexity into the dirt, walking backwards and never pausing to look back.
Glenda moves up by Torvi and says, "Give me a moment."
She lifts her holy symbol of Magrim, and Torvi's weapon flashes with holy light.
Erebos and Iverna hang back, sensing that this is a moment for their dwarven companions to show their mettle.
You blows slam into the fish-like creature, but the thick slime covering it seems to absorb much of the damage, though not that of Snorri's axe blows. Even worse, those wounds close, bones mend, slime covers bloody gaps quickly.
The creature's "whiskers" twitch and writhe, sniffing the air.
It turns its attention to your (literally) fearless leader.
The soil beneath your feet shifts and then undulates. In your mind, you hear what you have come to understand as the voice of this strange floating fish creature.
"A shame. My forebears believed that the dwarves were un-reachable, that you could not be brought into the fold, but I had different hopes. It seems that truly you have lost your identity as creatures of darkness and must be wiped from the surface with the rest of the surface creatures. Just so, your forebears will join me in the quest to cleanse you from the world, for they know the dark places of the earth."
At that, hands burst from the earthen floor, grasping at you.
AOO if appropriate:
Bludgeon
Torvi evades the hands, and while she could move, she wouldn't be able to deliver three attacks, so she will stay where she is and lay into the fish.
Bludgeon
Bludgeon
And the Haste attack:
Bludgeon
Garnet’s sight returns just in time to see the creature unleash its attacks on her king. Screaming in inaudible fury, she launches into a frenzied attack on the creature!
Dasur dances around the grasping hands, wondering if they were truly the bodies of their ancestors buried here, or if the effect was a similar magic to how he moved energy from different planes.
Well, he figures, he could just ask.
Excuse me, but are these necrotic hands actually buried here and actually descended from dwarven flesh, or is this a localized magical effect utilizing solidified negative energy into a corpse-simulacrum framework? If this is the latter, why choose hands when you lack similar grasping appendages? Surely tentacles or jaws would be just as effective and far easier for you to visualize for the effect?
It was a simple matter for the wizard's enigmatic mind to hold a telepathic conversation with the eel as he weaves his own spell, sending up a testing puff of acid to eat away at the mucus covering its skin.
Torvi and Garnet smash their weapons into the fish creature's rubbery flesh. Black blood spurts, a smell of ammonia floods the air around you, burning your nose and lungs. These massive wounds begin to close almost immediately, but then Dasur conjures his magic.
A puff of acidic fog surrounds the creature, interrupting the flow of the thick coating of mucus around it. Where the mucus fails to reach, the damaged flesh dries and desiccates. Garn's hammer slams into a gap in the creature's flesh torn by Torvi's spherical blow, finding within a magical bladder. The bladder bursts with a hiss of released gas, noxious fumes filling your nose.
The fish thing sinks to the floor as its bladder is smashed.
In your mind, its voice is feeble, [smaller]"So you choose the flaming sphere over the darkness that throbs in your blood. So be it. Recast your throne as a throne of light. My Master sits upon a Throne of Night, and nothing you can do can prevent his coming..."
The gasping mouth of the fish thing opens, closes, opens, gasps, and a wet rattle escapes from the massive grouper-like lips. The grey grasping hands cease to claw at your ankles, fingers twitching and then growing still. The machine of darkness continues to hum in the background, but the combat seems to be over...
Torvi will smash the thing a couple more times, just to be sure.
"That was one of the more disgusting things we have seen down here."
Garnet adds her own few bashes on the dead creature, then turns towards the fish in the pit, saying, ”Isn’t there another foe trapped in the magical pit?”
Garnet jogs over that direction, waiting for the pit to rise up before she gets too close.
Dasur sighs as he wathes the creature expire, and sound returns to the surroundings. "Now it will never answered my question." Bemoans the wizard before he starts digging in the dirt with the end of his staff to look for remnants of the undead hands.
"Yes, there was a Deep One stuck in the pit. I estimate you have 30 seconds until the field stabilizing the extradimensional space collapses and brings it to the surface."
He does not seem to be coverly concerned by this, and continues digging.
"Erebos, it seems that creature had its own master, indicating it was in fact not solely responsible for the events that transpired here, nor was it controlling the Black Flame. I'm afraid your assertation was premature. Regardless, will you assist me in examining the magical monolith behind us before the King of Dammerhall decides to test his axe against it once more?" By the time he had finished droning the dwarf had dug a small hole several inches deep in the soil around one of the hands that had been trying to grab his ankle.
Glenda is able to avoid the grasping hands, but the matter becomes moot once the creature is destroyed.
"Had I the skill I would simply attempt to banish it back to the other realm from whence it came, but alas."
"Dasur is correct. Find out what you are able for soon it will be time to put an end to that demonic machine."
Erebos moves toward the machine, "No, Dasur. The master that creature speaks of will not be here in Dammerhall, for it is a being unthinkable, and not inclined to move about overmuch. That...blob-fish-thing will have been the ultimate mastermind of whatever was underway here. Not that there is no more threat. This...machine seems to contain whatever remains of the fire that ripped through your home. I find myself strangely inclined to the truth, so I will tell you that this machine would win me back my place among my people. It would restore me, and even elevate me. Unless I am wrong in my analysis, this machine is designed to bring darkness to the Surface. These Deep Ones must have thought to bring their domain to the surface unbothered by the burning light that would dry their skin and sear my eyes. My people would see this as a great treasure..."