Ashlyn leaves her backpack on the shore, kicks off her shoes and overclothes, and dives into the lake with only her swim suit, belt, dagger, and minimal gear. She swims for the cave.
Jenner grimaces at the dunk ahead, shouldering out of his pack, and securing his shield to his back, but he does not leave his armor behind....
Sarine enters the water first and is just striking out from the edge when a lobster-like creature with a mouthful of tentacles erupts from the water!
HP 47/47; Hero Points 2/2
AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 17
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 1/4 charmed life; 0/1 defiant luck)
CMD 16 (18 vs. disarm)
Panache: 5/5 (0/1 deed reroll)
Effects: protection from evil
Aurelian jabs at the thing, unsure what it is or -- yet -- the best way to attack it as he closes in.
"You should not have come alone if you wish to beat Aurelian Fache," he blurbles in the water, using his sword to be able to breath as easily as if he were on land.
Sarine casts Touch of the Sea on Jenner and begins swimming toward the large creature.
"That's a Chuul!" Sarine sputters after listening to her familiar. "Don't let it grab you!"
In awe of the intimidating creature, Tettia just paddles in place wishing she had her sketching materials.
"And its tentacles will paralyze you, so don't ... um ... you know ... get caught by them," she adds.
Seeing a monster erupt from the water, Ashlyn focuses her mind, blocking out Elizar's jealous telepathic wailing, an the shrieks of her companions. She imagines a massive trident stabbing the beast in the eyes... Sweat drips down her forehead from the effort, until a magical trident manifests in front of the beasts and stabs at it.
Then she walks to the water's edge.
Suddenly there's a familiar howling sound... A shield of ectoplasm that looks shockingly like Elizar's wailing face appears between Ashlyn and the creature.
"Oh, now... this is nice!" Jenner exclaims as he realizes Sarine's made him able to swim. He plunges in with a grin, kicking hard for the 'chuul'-- whatever THAT is. He tries to get on the other side of the creature from either Sarine or Aurelian
Sarine's sword begins to glow with a threatening blue light and the chull hisses in surprise and anger as blows rebound from its thick hide before lashing out at the blade and the person wielding it!
Sarine dodges the first claw but the Chull is more at home in the water than she is and snags her legs with its other claw - crushing them in its brutal grip! From the creatures mandibles, thick slimy tentacles begin to protrude, questing towards the thrashing bloodrager...
Sarine cries out as the chuul begins crushing her. "I think this thing doesn't like me!"
HP 47/47; Hero Points 2/2
AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 17
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 1/4 charmed life; 0/1 defiant luck)
CMD 16 (18 vs. disarm)
Panache: 5/5 (0/1 deed reroll)
Effects: protection from evil
"No, creature, she does not consent to this!" Aurelian scolds, stabbing the chuul again and hoping to end its threat before it can hurt Sarine more.
Aurelian's ancient rapier scores a light groove in the Chuuls hide but does not damage it in any way. Sarine's frantic writhing meanwhile is not enough to break the chuul's vice-like grip.
Jenner swims through the water to flank with Aurelian and chops roughly at the watery abomination!
...roughly, but hard. If he weren't underwater he'd be yelling some choice Dwarven curses that roughly translate to 'in yer face, b*~$~!'
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Jenner kicks in from the side and, bellowing a dwarven warcry - the famed *gargle bubble gargle ROAR!*, cuts deep into the chuul's rubbery flesh!
Ashlyn's magical ghost trident continues to stab at the chuul!
Tettia looks around as if seeing who will engage next and then realizes that she hasn't done anything herself. "Oh, uh, I guess I should ... " she says before moving through the motions of her arcane missle spell.
Suddenly assailed by angry dwarves and mytic weapons the chull bellows in pain! It's long mouth tentacles assail Sarine and its large claws grab at Jenner in the water.
Jenner, thanks to his magical grace in water, avoids the questing claw but Sarine is grasped by the mouth tentacles and she feels her limbs freezing in their grasp!
Ashlyn's trident presses the attack...
Worried over Sarine, Ashlyn centres herself . She takes a deep breath, and imagines healing Sarine's wounds.
HP 47/47; Hero Points 2/2
AC 21, touch 14, flat-footed 17
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will -1 (0/1 set mind; 1/4 charmed life; 0/1 defiant luck)
CMD 16 (18 vs. disarm)
Panache: 4/5 (0/1 deed reroll)
Effects: protection from evil
"Let her go!" Aurelian orders, thrusting again with his rapier.
"You're supposed to roll over and die now like the monsters in the stories!" Tettia shouts out at the creature as she continues her assault of magical missiles of force.
Sarine freezes up in the creature's grasp, unable to move.
Even as Sarine's limbs freeze up Aurelian pierces the chuul in its open mouth and Tettia batters its head with a second barrage of spectral missiles. The creature does as commanded and crashes into the water with a great splash - dragging Sarine down with it.
Behind the waterfall is a cave, lit by wriggling blue worms and inhabited by four larval chuul feasting on the body of a winger humanoid. Fat and slow they pose no threat and are quickly dispatched. The winged body still possesses its magical longbow, with a hefty draw (composite for Str16), 10 arrows and an amulet of carved crystal.
At the back of the cave a passageway leads downwards into the earth.
"Eww," is Tettia's response to the contents of the cave. "That's not what's supposed to be here. There should be ..." She trails off when she realizes that she's imposing fiction upon the real world. "Nevermind."
"What have we here?" she asks, holding up the crystal amulet.
At the revelation of the cave her eyes get wider. "That's not in the stories." She pronounces an arcane phrase and a dim light emanates from the end of her staff. "Where does it go?"
Jenner grabs Sarine's motionless form and kicks immediately for the surface! "Easy on! We've got you!"
"Got munched there pretty hard, Sarine, you alright?" the dwarf asks once Sarine can breathe again.
When they get around to investigating the cave, Jenner shakes his head at the body of the dead winged figure. "Anyone know what this poor fellow was? The cave goes further back, worth checking out, but we ought to try to say a few words over the body, at the least."
After she can move again, Sarine sputters on the shore as she tries to exhale the last of the water from her lungs. "No, I'm not alright. I was just crushed and drowned. I feel like a lemon."
Despite her complaining, Sarine is little the worse for wear after being rescued by her friends.
Sarine looks at Narue as she is getting up and preparing to enter the cave. "Yes. Fine, I did deserve that. Can we keep going?"
"I need to start packing a shovel with me for these burials."
Ashlyn's magical shield that looks suspiciously like Elizar's howling face wavers and wobbles in the air, before losing its form and falling to the ground with a loud squelch, splattering green ectoplasm everywhere.
She mutters something to herself –– or to Elizar, perhaps –– and moves to inspect the dead winged thing.
"It looks like it was an angel, or perhaps even an avoral like Talmandor himself," Aurelian notes.
He bows his head in respect as a few words are said, but then is ready to move on deeper into the cave.
"It was a strix," Tettia says as if it was self-evident. "See the flight feathers? The barbed portions go almost all the way down. And the contour feathers are flat rather than rounded."
She looks up at the others. "Have you seen others here?" she asks. "I mean, they're usually only found on the edge of Cheliax so it would be interesting to find a colony of them here."
"We haven't," Sarine says. "It's probably too much conclude that Cheliax is involved, but we can't ignore that as a possibility either. If House Thrune has followed us to Ancorato..."
"It's probably just a local strix colony we didn't know about before. We should make plans to check the coastline. For now though, let's see what is in this cave. Maybe we'll find some answers inside."
Sarine picks up the bow. "This will be better than throwing javelins, at least."
Noting nothing magical about the amulet, Tettia shrugs and hangs it around her neck.
Aurelian nods as he sees the others are ready and proceeds deeper into the ground.
"It doesn't seem like these strix would live here, right?" he says, gesturing ahead of them. "There is nowhere for them to fly. Maybe the chuul caught it outside and brought it here, but maybe there is something else..."
The creature has clearly been serving as dinner for the larvae, that seems to be the most likely reason for its presence.
Heading down the passage is a long, dark walk that eventually emerges into a large cavern composed of natural cave features and hand carved stone in roughly equal proportion., as if the very stone of the walls is reclaiming an ancient structure. Enormous calcite pillars stretch from floor to ceiling, surrounded by bristling stalactites and stalagmites. Amongst the mineral ringed pools of still water can be seen, buried under layers of calcite, mold and fungus, delapidated digging tools, picks and shovels.
Strangest of all is in the back corner of the cave. This is apparently where the Chuul nested and contains its 'wealth'. Amongst a neatly sorted pile of mouldering gear is a steel shield filled with river rocks, including eight emeralds worth 25gp each. Even more curious is the circle of helmets surrounding a full face helm seemingly carved from a single block of white stone. It radiates a powerful aura of magic and is a relic!
Beyond that the cave is devoid of interest, except possibly to an archaeologist or scholar of ancient excavation techniques.
"That is a very fine hat," Aurelian notes, as it steals most of his attention.
"How long ago was this mining project, I wonder?" Sarine muses to herself as she looks about the chamber. "Somebody thought this place was worth digging around in. And...building maybe? Any ideas Tettia or Jenner?"
Beyond that the cave is devoid of interest, except possibly to an archaeologist or scholar of ancient excavation techniques.
Oblivious to anything else, Tettia gushes over the digging tools and the portion of the cave that's been worked. "They were using the Sanderson technique combined with Warmquartz methodology," she says as her hand brushes over the carved stone. "It was assumed that the two couldn't be used together, but this is proof that ..."
She pulls her sketching materials from within her waterproof bag and begins a quick study.
"What is it, Wallace?" she mutters to her pouch. "Well, you should have gone earlier." With a huff, she puts away her implements and produces the toad from his bag and places him on the stone floor. "Find a private corner somewhere, please."
Burrruupp!
"I'm sure it's very interesting - some bug or another."
Burrruupp!
"I am not being condescending! Fine! What is so interesting?" Tettia snaps and stomps over to where the toad was taking care of his business. Her tones changes almost immediately. "Ooooo..." she says, her hand tracing over some of the calcification. "There are glyphs here. 'Safe Haven', 'Historical Significance'. Someone's explored here before. There's also directions to another site."
She picks up the toad and gives him a kiss on the head. "I'm sorry for dismissing what you had to say," she apologizes and puts him back in his pouch.
Burrruupp!
"Didn't you already do that already?"
"Historical significance you say? That sounds like something Durvin Gest might have left behind. Does it say what this other site is?"
"Not really," Tettia says with an air of disappointment. "It calls it 'Site C', but other than the fact that it's southeast of here and directions, nothing else."
"Well then, we should go and find it and learn for ourselves," Aurelian says with confidence.
The white-stone helm is carved with a forbidding visage that seems to gaze disapprovingly at everyone, it's empty eye sockets looming darkly amongst the exquisite carving of the face. On its brow sits a circlet with a glyph that Tettia recognises after a few moments. It means 'justice' and was worn by Arbiters, Judges and other agents of the law in ancient Azlant.
----------------
"I doubt we'll be out this way for a while. Why don't we see to this area C that we have directions to. It was at least a site of interest a long time ago."
"Yes, please. Let's at least see what this 'Site C' holds for us. Perhaps it's more things that contradict history," Tettia says, gesturing towards the digging equipment.
"Speaking of which, Tettia...what should have been here anyway? That sounds interesting?"
Tettia's face lights up as the chance to expound presents itself.
"According to Spitzwell's Manual of Excavating, there are three general approaches for expending existing caverns; The Sanderson technique, The Ming'ta technique, and using Walder's patterns.
"Now Walder's patterns are almost never used except in cases of a high appearance of sandstone, but the other two are used with almost equal frequency. Sanderson's is slightly more prevalent east of the city of Korvosa, but only marginally.
"Both of them, however are really exclusive to any of the dwarven patterns." She rolls her eyes. "The dwarves are centuries ahead of any of the human understandings, obviously. So it's been pretty much accepted academically that no one that would use a dwarven method like the one the Warmquartz clan uses would mix it with something as primitive as Sanderson's."
She looks around at the cave again, considering something she hadn't thought of. "Unless there were two different groups at different times," she says finally. "I'll have to think about that."