Aenian shouts out,
Ven hears Aenian call out to the thing in its own language. It walks over to peer at Aenian through the grate.
The fish-man clicks his talons together in a tic-tac pattern and licks his toothy maw.
Not that you can see.
Ven will taunt the creature the best he can. "Hey fish guts, I got something for you in here!"
He blasts the creature with a magic missile and then backs away from the door.
Aenian spits at the beast through the crack.
Aenian's spit ball hits the creature square in the nose. It appears hardly perturbed, licking slowly at the saliva with a long, wormy tongue.
Then Ven blasts it with magic missiles. It recoils, snarling some curse in its tongue, then walks out the door to the side.
Ven calls out to Aenian through the gate, "What now? Can you pick your lock?"
He gives the door a kick to check how sturdy it is.
"Lemme look around this cell shortly ... which room are you in? I'll send you some light ... stick your arm out the window."
Searching the room for something he can improvise thieves tools with.
Ven bounces off the sturdy cell door. As far as he can tell, it is locked and barred from the far side.
Aenian looks around the cell but finds it empty but for the chamber pot. The door across the cell block is remains open. You hear a clink of chains, and you can partially make out what appears to be someone hanging by their arms.
"Oi, you! Hanging there. What are you about?"
Initially there is no response from the other prisoner, but the chains clink again. After a few moments, a familiar voice responds. "Ae-Aenian?" Winter asks, groggy and disoriented.
Ven responds with surprise. "Winter, what are you doing here? Did Melisenn capture you also? Lowls is going to pay for this. Any ideas on how we can get out of here?"
"I... I don't know," she replies, sounding dazed. "I was jumped on the street. I was on my way to meet you at the Sleepless Agency."
"I'm chained to the ceiling. I tried to get Autumn to break me out, but they beat me senseless when I try. Trillis Mavaine is in here with me, but she's been unconscious, maybe in a coma."
[B]"We need to get out of these cells and recover our stuff. We may be able to help you. Tell us what you've observed. Do you have any spells left you can cast?"[/b)
As she talks, she steadily becomes more awake and vigorous. "I've been in this cell block since I woke up. The deep ones have a leader -- a sorcerer I believe -- calls itself Itsquaal-Thoal. And there's something else, a humanoid ooze.? I don't know... I never got a good look at it."
"No spells... I might be able to call Autumn, but I need an uninterrupted minute. But I'm in no condition to fight anything."
Ven sighs, "I may be able to charm a guard into letting us go, but I don't speak whatever infernal tongue that fishguts speaks. We may have to wait and see what they want from us. If they we're going to kill us, they would have done so by now."
"Start calling Autumn, Ven and I will distract the guard should it return."
Winter starts her ritual, drawing on the intense emotions of her half-sister's life and death in a ritual summoning. Even from the next room, you sense waves of jealousy and bitter anger.
The door at the end of the cell block opens and the fish-man returns, now carrying a wand and a long dagger.
"Heya fish man, you coming to answer my challenge? You're gonna need more than a stick and a kitchen tool. I'm ready!"
Aenian will move the dancing light over to bob right in front of the gaoler.
Ven will summon his dark half as he calls out to the guard. "Came back for more, eh Fishguts?
He blasts him again with another magic missile.
; +1 bleed
The creature ignores the dancing lights, waving his arm through them as if they were a swarm of flies. The distraction gives Ven a moment to blast it with another volley of missiles. It snarls viciously then raises the wand and retaliates with force missiles of his own.
Ven collapses unconscious and bleeding.
Aenian will smash himself up against the wall out online of sight.
After Ven gets blasted to the floor, Aenian ducks and hides in the corner beside the door. There is heavy breathing at the grate for a few moments, then the fish man laughs.
A loud metal clank and thump, then the cell door opens with a squeak.
Autumn steps in, flexing her fists. "I assume you wanted to get out of here."
Aenian goes in quickly hoping the gailer doesnt spy him and tries to wrest the wand out of his grasp.
Aenian slips past Autumn and into the room... and finds the fish man lying on the floor, black blood pooling around its head.
"You're welcome," Autumn quips.
"Huh, that was quick." Aenian looks up to see if Winter is still on the wall and then quickly grabs the dagger, wand and keys and goes to Ven to stabilize him.
"Get Winter out, quickly ... and thanks, you're a lifesaver"
Autumn smiles grimly then moves to free Winter. Aenian grabs the gear and unlocks Ven's cell. There are no keys, just a mechanical lever barring the door. He is able to stabilize Ven. Winter comes to the door a minute later, wearily leaning on Autumn. Beside them is a middle-aged woman, pale blue eyes and graying, shoulder-length hair, wearing a tattered black robe and covered in bruises and abrasions.
"Don't move," the woman says, voice croaking dryly. She dabs an open wound and scribes a spiral symbol of Pharasma with the blood. Holding a hand over it, she channels healing energy over the four of you.
After the third channel, she sets down on one knee, exhausted.
As Ven gets up, Arnian gives him the wand, "I heard the command word, it was in Aklo. Goes something like, Aggkhhhg."
Adjusting to his new surroundings he checks on Winter and then heads to the exit quietly to see if anyone else is around, dagger in hand
Ven rubs his head as he marvels at the wand. "This should come in handy."
He follows Aenian to the exit.
Aenian checks to his right to see the other cell and if anyone is in it,
Aenian moves in to check on the priestess, "Your holiness, any idea why they took you? We will need to move quickly and quietly. Are you able to walk? We arent out of danger, yet. And we need to find Vaustin."
Aenian checks the third cell, finding Vaustin there, bound and gagged. There is also another young man, cowering in the corner.
The priestess introduces herself as Trillis Mavaine. She shakes her head at Aenian's first query. "I'm not even sure who 'they' are, or how I got here. The last thing I remember, I was sleeping in my home. I heard a noise downstairs and got up to check. Something cowled me from behind, then... then they must have knocked me out." She winces in remembered pain. "I can walk, but I'm afraid little else."
She eyes the fallen fish-man and shudders. "What is that?"
Vuloo nods at the other prisoners, "Let's work together and we may still get out of here alive."
He looks down at the dead fish creature with disdain.
"No idea, but it isnt the first strange thing we have seen here.", while he frees Vaustin, Aenian explains what happened to them on the way here to include the strange deja vu memory and the bat creatures.
Trillis and Winter listen, and the cleric shakes her head again. "Living in Thrushmoor for several years, I've heard tales of deep ones, a race of evil man-fish hybrids who dwell in the dark depths of Lake Encarthan. They are said to worship Great Old Ones or some vile abominations of the deepest waters. I would be skeptical if I were not looking at such a creature."
Vaustin thanks you for freeing him. The young man remains cowering, watching you with wide eyes.
Ven listens at the western door before opening it up. "Let's get out of here."
Aenian shudders before nodding to Ven and taking point. He checks to make sure Vaustin is coming with them and isnt oberly paralyzed with fear.
Vaustin nods thanks as he regains his feet, rubbing his wrists. "Water?" he grunts with a frustrated croak. "This one was here when I woke up," he says, gesturing towards the young man.
Trillis looks into the cell and lets out a remorseful sigh. "His name is Sholn. He is a dock worker. He and his sister Holissa were orphaned a couple years ago." The cleric moves to check on the man, who eyes her warily but does not flinch away.
*
Leaving the cell block, the adjacent room is used for wood storage. The walls are lined with sturdy shelves laden with chopped wood. A couple of axes sit propped in the corner, and a small hatchet is driven into a stump used to split smaller logs and make kindling.
The door to the north lies open, revealing a wooden staircase going up. The southern door is heavy and metal-framed. It lies open an inch -- you hear strange voices and rummaging from beyond, and a heavy fishy stink hangs in the air.
"Boy, you OK? Tell us what you've seen here."
Aenian puts a single finger to his lips and moves to collect the axes and hatchet. He gives an axe to Vaustin and holds the other 2 out to Winter, the priestess, and the young man offering.
He then moves to the metal door to listen in and see if he can see inside.
Ven watches with trepidation as Aenian approaches the door. He tries to make out what the voices are saying.
Sholn shakes his head, makes to speak a few times but then just shakes his head again and remains silent.
*
Vaustin takes the axe, and Winter the hatchet. Sholn takes the second axe but remains in the back with Trillis.
Aenian sneaks up to the door and peeks through the opening. The many wooden shelves in this pantry are stacked with wooden crates, paper-wrapped packets, and small clay jars sealed with wax. Smoked trout and other dried fish hang from metal hooks fixed to the ceiling. A number of boxes and containers have been emptied and smashed, and now lie in pieces on the floor, along with discarded fish bones and other refuse.
Three of the deep ones are busy ransacking the place, speaking agitated in their gurgling alien tongue. Ven does not understand the words. Like the jailer, they are in Aklo. One tears into the side of a large smoked trout, while another is using a small pry bar to open a crate of dried figs.
"How long until we can feast on them?" another asks, nodding back towards the jail. "The young one looks quiet delicious."
"At the new moon. Then their flesh will be ours."
"Ugh, so long to wait..."
Aenian waves the others back and indicates the stairs and then heads there himself.
You quietly back away from the pantry and move up the stairs. They end in an angular hallway. The walls are of thick, blocked stone. There are three doors leaving the hall -- north, south and east -- and a shuttered arrow slit.
It is dark, but there are unlit torch sconces beside each of the doorways. A couple of small, empty crates sit the corners. You notice dirty, webbed footprints leading from the stairs to the door to the east.
Ven searches the area and then listens at each door.
Ven hears some muffled voices through the eastern door, but he cannot make out what they are saying.
Aenian opens the arrow slit to see if he can get a sense of where they're located and then checks the other two doors to see if they're open.