The whirl of blades and the thrill of near misses and last second parries halts much of the argument on the Peregrine's deck as people turn to watch.
By the time the sparring is over many people applaud, including Ramona, and Faedwyr comes pushing through the crowd to latch on to Aurelian's arm. "That was wonderful! Wonderful! With strong, handsome men like you to protect us I know we'll be safe!"
Faedwyr influenced.
"Yes, yes, this is what Aurelian has been saying all along," the swordsman responds before his voice grows louder, clearly speaking to everyone:
Ashlyn claps and cheers along with the demonstration. As Aurelian boasts loudly Ashlyn blushes and smiles while clapping her hands.
Elizar scowls at Ashlyn, then drifts right in front of her, blocking sight of the great Aurelian Fache.
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"What?!" Ashlyn asks him, blushing brighter. "His... bravery's inspiring!"
Elizar looks severely unimpressed.
Patting Faedwyr's arm with a warm smile, Aurelian remains completely oblivious to Ashlyn and Elizar's actions.
Fleur takes advantage of the distractions caused by Aurelian and Sarine's demonstrations and, after a quick word with Evie, sidles over to Harcourt. The conversation is fairly long and seems somewhat fawning on Fleur's part but it does the trick. Harcourt smiles, pats her condescendingly on the shoulder and says loudly "Don't worry my dear. I can certainly persuade the others that the dangers are overblown - don't worry yourself about it!"
Harcourt - Influenced.
The combined efforts of the party have just about defused the situation on board the Peregrine eases. Ramona, sensitive to the mood, seizes the opportunity and makes a rousing speech about how all the colonists signed up for a life of adventure and excitement, that this is a quasi-religious mission - Talmandor is invoked repeatedly as well as cries of Freedom! and Liberty!
She concludes with "Tonight we shall stay here, safely anchored as we are. Tomorrow we'll sail back to Talmandor's Bounty and begin our new lives. Three cheers for our heroes!" The cheers are reasonably loud and it appears that the mood has swung decisively in Ramona's favour. Antona is still scowling at the colonies leader but everyone else seems to have calmed down.
Ashlyn gets wrapped in in Ramona's speech. She cheers loudly, and pumps her fist in the air. "Freedom!"
When everyone starts cheering for her and her companions, Ashlyn blushes and smiles brightly. She gives a curtsy while Elizar dips into an elaborate bow.
When the crowd thins and speeches are done, Ashlyn moves over to speak to Ramona. "Congratulations, Ramona. All seems well!"
As the speeches continue, Elizar sobs and weeps quietly, dripping ectoplasm all over the deck.
As Ashlyn curtsies, he bows grandly, then stands tall an proud--for a moment. A few seconds later he begins to drip and sob again.
Noticing the mess all over the deck--and that Elizar's supposed to say inside her aboard the ship--Ashlyn suddenly blushes.
"Oh, dear! I'm SO sorry!"
Turning to Elizar she remarks,
Then she gives Elizar a big hug, and pulls him close, until his entire form disappears inside of her. Ashlyn is left dripping with goo, but smiling sadly.
She quickly glances at Fleur and smiles sheepishly. "We made a mess." she points out.
Once she's cleaned she turns back to Ramona. "There! No harm done, right?"
Sarine attempts to get the attention of Lyra Heatherby, intending to show her one of the strange fish that had been attached to the hull of the Peregrine. "Is there anything like this in your books, Lyra? If not, maybe you could sketch it...we have a lot to learn about the creatures in this area."
Aurelian, oblivious to Antona's scowl, smiles and enjoys the rest of the evening, quite willing to be the center of the celebration as long as the other colonists want.
Eventually, he retires for the evening.
Since Ramona doesn't seem interested in speaking with her, Ashlyn wanders off to grab a bite to eat, then retires to her cabin. She greets her room mate, Alba, with a chipper smile and a wave.
"Hi Alba! How are you?"
Evie tidies up after Elizar with a wry smile and a muttered incantation to restore the Peregrine's deck to its usual pristine condition. Exhausted by the days adventures she heads straight for her cabin, pausing at the galley for some hot food, before settling down into the hammock with a new book. When Perrell arrives Evie puts her book down and chats with her for a while, making a point to talk down many of the dangers and talk up the wildlife and interesting plants that she's seen instead.
"There are some fascinating fauna and flora on the island - I don't think I've read about them in any flora guide, even Titus Gallus III didn't record them in his Herborium!" After chatting to Perrell for a while Evie puts her book away, rolls over and falls asleep.
A bit chagrined over his failure to be as smooth-tongued as his companions, Jenner offers a rueful smile and starts stripping off his armor en route to his bunk. Later, he appears on the deck offering to lead a dusk service of Abadar-- and to help with any healing that may be in need on the ship-- but after that the dwarf finds himself wearied by the day's various events, and turns in early.
The next morning, as breakfast is being served out, and the sun shines on a new day Ramona comes on deck and crosses over to where you stand by the railings.
"Thank you all for what you did yesterday. It was touch and go at one point - I thought we were going to have to sue force and that would have been a disaster for the colony. You saved the situation though, and now I have a much better idea of how to handle Perrell and Harcourt. Thank you."
Her face turns grim however at her next words. "I'm afraid that's not all though. Those creatures that attacked you yesterday when you left the ship - there's a whole nest of them just down the coast, between here and Talamndor's Bounty. The lookouts saw them yesterday, but we didn't stop - frankly it didn't seem like a good idea at the time. I was hoping you would be willing to go and clear the place out. If we catch them in daylight I don't think they'd be too much of a challenge, but leave them and let them raid the colony at night..." She doesn't finish the sentence, although the prospect is obviously unappealing.
"Will you do it? One of the Peregrine's boats is at your disposal and we have a few spears if you need more weapons."
"We can't very well quit now after what we told everyone last night, can we? We'll take care of them, Ramona. If we get going now, the Peregrine might not even need to slow down!"
"Yes, Aurelian Fache will teach these things a lesson," he agrees, smiling broadly. "His sword has not tasted blood in hours, and it is hungry!"
He thinks for a moment.
"But first Aurelian Fache needs to break his fast. He is hungry too."
With a hearty breakfast sandwich in hand, Ashlyn nods. "Mmmff crumph!" She pauses, nodding her head as she chews and swallows the food in her mouth.
"Of course, Ramona! Elizar and I will be happy to help!"
She takes another bite of her sandwich and looks across the horizon, watching for any sign of their enemy.
As soon as she's finished her sandwich, Ashlyn climbs down into the rowboat, and lets Elizar out. He sits beside her on the bench, dripping goopy ectoplasm all over the boat.
"Course we'll help," Jenner adds cheerfully to the other agreements. "'s part of why we're here, ain't it?"
He conducts a short on-deck morning prayer to Abadar for those interested in joining, asking the favor of the vault master upon their labors today, and then dons armor and hurries to the rowboat with the others, grabbing one of the shortspears.
The rowboat sets off, heavily laden with well armed adventurers and begins the relatively easy journey down the coast. With the tide on the ebb it takes Sarine and Jenner relatively little effort to keep the boat moving correctly to the far side of the northern outcropping which protects the bay.
On the far side of the cliff a narrow crack in the cliff shows behind a low reef. The small level of surf makes beaching the boat easy and the party clambers out into shallow water. Everyone but Jennet is barely knee high at this point, but the dwarf is submerged up to his waist and the occasional wave breaks across his face.
Entering the crack in the cave the water level increases and Jenner finds himself paddling with the occasional toe touch on the floor to keep his head above water. The reflected sunlight from outside flickers across the water in front of you and reflects on the cold ceiling of this mostly submerged cave. Two recognisable heads protrude from the cold water, standing either side of the passage to the north. They snarl at you and level their spears, swimming forward to strike at Aurelian and Sarine, although the two experienced combatants easily avoid their blows!
HP 21/21
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 0/3 charmed life)
CMD 14 (16 vs. disarm)
Panache: 3/3 (0/1 deed reroll);
Effects:
"Ha! You are silly," Aurelian taunts. "Have you not heard, you get nothing but death if you attack Aurelian Fache!"
He slashes with a quick flourish, still flashing like a flicker in the water, and quickly reestablishes his defense in case that first blow didn't lay the creature down.
Perfect. You do your teachers proud, though what else would they expect with such a student?
Elizar let's out a fierce howl, then surges forward through the water and slams into one of the grindylow
In his haste, Elizar misses completely!
"Let's get him Eli..." Ashlyn begins, before realizing Elizar's already sped off at the enemy.
"Right! Coming!"
Ashlyn hurries over to the battle and tries to stab the one attacking Sarine in the head with her dagger.
Sarine lashes out at the grindylow that attacked her with her shortspear.
Jenner is getting a great calf workout by having to touch off the bottom every few seconds.
Kicking through the water despite the weight of his armor, Jenner manages to get into position to attack a grindylow with his short spear.
Evie sloshes through the water, holding her bow high, to try and find a reasonable opening to shoot at the tentacled monstrosities.
A flurry of attacks from the defenders of Talmandor's Bounty leave the Grindylow's floating face down in the water as their ink-like blood stains the water, gradually flowing out of the cave mouth.
With the guards gone the party proceed onwards, the cave continues forward as the water deepens until it laps at the shoulders and necks of the humans. Another, larger and wider cave opens to the right. Three large stone pillars are the only features in the cave.
Aurelian continues on, planning to lead the party straight ahead.
"If these goblins are anything like the ones back in Andoran, all of these tunnels will be swarming with the things." As she looks about the area, she swims forward to put a hand on Aurelian's shoulder and shakes her head.
"There's some sort of trap that way, Aurelian. Does anyone have any skills for dealing with those safely?"
"There's something hiding over to the right. Look at the movement of the water. Those ripples aren't coming from anything."
"Ah, yes!" Aurelian agrees. "You have the beautiful eyes!"
"Should we go teach whatever is in there that there is no reason to hide from Aurelian Fache? Flee, yes, but hiding is pointless!" he whispers.
Ashlyn nods at Sarine. "Yeah, it looks like a rope of... seaweed? That is awfully suspicious."
She turns her gaze to the right, then squints and keeps looking. "I don't see the ripples..." After a moment she adds, "But, if you think there's something hiding there we should go that way first, right?"
Elizar glides through the water like he was born for it. Though it's far more likely he died in it...
He looks both ways, but sees nothing strange. At hearing talk of hidden monsters, he glares angrily and mutters something to Ashlyn.
Then he dives under the water and swims off to find and murder the 'hiding monster.'
Jenner is a little too busy working on keeping his head above water and cursing his short legs to notice whatever the others do. Eventually he swims to a spot next to the 'wall' of the tunnels, using a hand there to steady himself as he swaps out his new borrowed shortspear for his proper dwarven axe and buckler. "Losin' my mind, I am, it's like I've forgotten all the tricks I was taught for wet fightin'," he mutters into his now-sodden beard.
More loudly, he says, "If there's a rope it's likely some manner of trap laid by these little tentacled blighters, aye. Can't say I know much about taking those apart, though." He looks to Evie as do the others.
Sarine swims after Elizar as he hunts for the hidden creature.
Aurelian waits a moment as the others rush off, sure more foes will come his way.
Evie notes the seaweed, but not the ripples that the others discuss. "We'd best go around - if there's a trap rigged we should probably avoid it!" She treads carefully over to the wall, trying to find a firm foothold that she can shoot from.
"Well, damn, seems some folk are swimmin' off solo," Jenner says uneasily as Sarine follows after Elizar. "Er. Sarine... do you really want to go after... the..." (he looks sidelong at Ashlyn) "...our... wet... companion....?"
But she's already off in the drink, and the dwarf grimaces at the cavern ceiling. "Right, I'm sticking my head under to try and keep an eye on them."
Ever impetuous Elizar and Sarine pre-empt the discussion of the group and rush (wade?) forward into the larger cavern. Just as they close on the pillars there is a co-ordinated splash as a vertiable horde of grindylows pours from cover and attacks them!
Even caught by surprise Sarine and Elizar are more than capable of defending themselves and suffer no harm from the ambush!
However the little blighters are fast and before the adventurers can react the creatures surround Sarine and Elizar, striking again!
This time their attacks hit home with rather more force, and although Elizars insubstantial nature saves him much of the damage, Sarine begins to bleed heavily.
Party Up!
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Rest of party
"El!" Ashlyn calls out with worry. She focuses her mind on a nearby stone and sends it flying at the grindylow behind Elizar.
Missing horribly, Ashlyn swims forward, closer to the battle.
HP 21/21
AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 0/3 charmed life)
CMD 14 (16 vs. disarm)
Panache: 3/3 (0/1 deed reroll);
Effects:
"Sarine!" Aurelian cries out, and rushes forward as best he can in the water, bringing his sword to bear.
In his rush, he lets his lessons on defense slip his mind for a moment.
"Foul little water rats," Sarine grunts in pain as she readies her spear for an attack.
Elizar howls madly and attacks the grindylow in front of him