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Isaac the Captain of the Manta Rays frowns at the sight of this and the grazing hit of the crossbow bolt. He swings his cutlass in a fanciful display, the light from the sun above the surface glinting against the blade. He hopes to try and put cowardice into them.
Isaac twirls his cutlass menacingly, and the sahuagin falter as they begin to reload their crossbows. They continue to do so, though, and one of them hisses at the sharks. The sharks surge forward toward your group, jaws snapping! They swim up toward you, each snapping at a different target, and blood quickly spills into the water. Diana manages to dodge the shark that's snapping at her, but sharp teeth sink into both Isaac and Jaina's sides, leaving jagged wounds!
Arhiel, meanwhile, darts quickly upward through the water, getting some distance from the sharks, and begins casting a spell.
Initiative
Isaac
Sharks and sahuagin
Rest of the party!<------
Sahuagin: HP: 15 each | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15 | all shaken until Rd. 3
Sharks: HP: 22 each | AC/T/FF: 14/10/13 (this round all 12/8/11) | Fort +7 Ref +5 Will +2 | CMD: 18 | all shaken until Rd. 3
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Edward focuses turns his attention to the shark near Diana.
"Doesn't overeating ever bother those animals?"
Shot by a crossbow bolt but not bitten Diana concentrates to cast defensively and succeeds.
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With blood swirling around her in the water, Jaina's eyes flash with rage and she flattens her palms into points before jabbing them into the shark's fleshy bits!
Her second strike feels like it's being assisted by Edward's guiding spell...
As Arhiel begins casting her spell, Edward and Diana cast spells of their own that devastate the foes before you! The sahuagin reel and grapple at their ear-holes as Diana's spell completes, thought two of them manage to shake off the lingering effects of the spell. The shark that's bitten into her reels too, in a very similar way, as Edward's spell nauseates it!
Jaina, meanwhile, lashes out and, though she misses her first strike, she lands a glancing blow on the sharks nose that stuns it long enough for her third blow to stab directly into its gills!
Initiative
Isaac<----
Foes (and Arhiel)
Rest of the party
Sahuagin: HP: 10 each | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15 | all shaken until Rd. 3; red stunned until rd. 3
Sharks: HP: 22 each | AC/T/FF: 14/10/13 (this round all 12/8/11) | Fort +7 Ref +5 Will +2 | CMD: 18 | all shaken until Rd. 3, red nauseated until ?
Isaac swings his cutlass at the shark with the greenish pallor to its skin.
Isaac follows up with a slap from his spined tail.
Isaac flails at the sharks ineffectively with both blade and tail, but they mostly ignore him--until they turn to continue their feast, that is! Fortunately one is too nauseated to do anything but drift slightly forward, circling Diana; the other lunges at Isaac again, but the captain's magically toughened hide repels its teeth!
The sahuagin, having reloaded, level their crossbows--at least, the two who aren't stunned by Diana's spell do. One swims out to take a shot at Jaina, and one darts below the writhing sharks to fire up at Diana, but both miss badly. You can see their sharp-toothed mouths moving--presumably in curses.
But Arhiel's spell is now complete, and a squid appears in a flash of light next to the stunned sahuagin. It lunges at the sahuagin, but can't quite get a grip on the creature's hide. Arhiel herself sends a cluster of magic missiles streaking into the shark closest to Isaac.
Initiative
Isaac
Foes and Arhiel
Party!<-----
Sahuagin: HP: 10 each | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 (Red 13/10/13) | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15 | all shaken until Rd. 3; red stunned until rd. 3
Sharks: HP: Green 15, red 22 | AC/T/FF: 14/10/13 | Fort +7 Ref +5 Will +2 | CMD: 18 | all shaken until Rd. 3, red nauseated until rd. 8
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Hoping to stun again Diana casts another sound burst, hitting the two sharks and the sahuagin between.
Edwards starts a performance, of which the first word flies at the red shark like a torpedo.
Too bad, it being the 1st time he attempts this new learned trick...it fails to hit.
Jaina cuts through the water like a flaming dolphin and bears down on the shark harassing Isaac with a vengeance. She stabs at the shark with her hand...
Diana makes good use of the three-dimensional terrain as she unleashes another sound burst that stuns a sahuagin and pains the sharks, while Edward's attempted sonic strike misses narrowly, rippling the water! Jaina has much better luck as she dives through the water and lands a crushing blow on the shark menacing Isaac; there's a snapping sound and it starts to bleed profusely from its head, twitching but not quite unconscious...
Initiative
Isaac<-----
Foes and Arhiel
Rest of the party
Sahuagin: HP: 10 green/red, 4 blue | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 (Red 13/10/13) | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15 | all shaken until Rd. 3; red stunned until rd. 3, blue stunned until rd. 4
Sharks: HP: Green 0, red 16 | AC/T/FF: 14/10/13 | Fort +7 Ref +5 Will +2 | CMD: 18 | all shaken until Rd. 3, red nauseated until rd. 8
Captain Isaac Silver-Ray once again attacks the green tinted shark. He swings his cutlass and slaps his spined tail.
Isaac's first blow skewers the shark in front of him, sending blood into the water and leaving the shark drifting, twitching but harmless. His tail slap whirls through the water to deal a stinging blow to the shark behind him, which remains nauseated and unable to return the favor!
The two sahuagin who aren't stunned by Diana's spell toss aside their crossbows; the one next to the octopus snaps and claws at the summoned creature with its bare teeth, rending its rubbery flesh. The other one darts through the water toward Jaina, drawing its trident, and stabs into the brawler's side!
The summoned octopus returns the favor to the sahuagin near it, still failing to grapple it but inflicting a nasty bite with its hooked beak. Arhiel's silvery missiles take down the stunned sahuagin, and the tide of the battle turns decisively!
Initiative
Isaac
Foes and Arhiel
Diana, Edward, Jaina<-----
Sahuagin: HP: 10 green, 5 red, | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 (Green 14/9/13) | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15 |
Sharks: HP: Green -9, red 0 | AC/T/FF: 14/10/13 | Fort +7 Ref +5 Will +2 | CMD: 18 | red nauseated until rd. 8
Ocotpus HP left: 8
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Edward drops inspire as a free action before this turn comes around, and starts a new one, aiming for the shark again.
Diana shoots an enemy hoping to put one down.
Jaina grunts and lays a beatdown on the shark-thing!
Although Edward still hasn't quite gotten the hang of this performance underwater, punching things and sticking them with sharp weapons still works fine! Jaina takes down the sahuagin that stabbed her, and Diana shoots the one entangled with the octopus, sending it drifting in the eddying currents. With the only remaining shark still nauseated from the earlier spell, it's a simple matter to dispatch the shark and any bleeding-out foes.
With the sahuagin dealt with, you find yourselves in the midst of this blue hole. Hundreds of feet below, in the deepest blue water, you can see the hulks of wrecked and ancient ships; otherwise, there is little to see beyond the schools of brightly colored fish and jellyfish. About 160' below the water level--as far down again as you are from the surface right now--you can see a number of small natural caves in the walls of the formation, including one that has an unusually large cloud of jellyfish hovering about it.
Isaac nods at his officers and looks around. He points at the conch shell with one of his weird human/manta ray hands.
Isaac says (in an odd bubble speak), ”This her’ conch shell doesn’t hav’ any sea creatur’s inhabitin’ it. Also, it be lookin’ lik’ it be set her’ on purpos’.”
At trap maybe? Diana postulates.
Isaac shrugs. "Coul' be." He then looks over the shell and area.
Swimming over to the conch shell--which feels uncomfortably close to the cloud of jellyfish--Isaac inspects the area. The shell itself doesn't seem to be trapped, and he doesn't see anything threatening (though the jellyfish could probably be painful) in the area.
He does, however, notice now that he's closer that one end of the conch shell has been hacked or sawn off, leaving it open. With that change, it seems like it would be easy to blow into it like a horn. In fact, that seems like it would be the only reason to make such a modification...
Isaac narrows his eyes at the conch shell in interest. He swims back to the others. "It be odd. Th' shell doesn't appe'r to be trapped. Howev'r, one sid' o' it be sawn off. It be seemin' lik' it be modifi'd to work lik' a horn."
"Let's not try using the horn.", Edward muses.
"They're often used to call for reinforcements, or a great scary minion beast."
Diana will cast Detect Magic and study the horn hoping to learn if it is magic, what school if magic it is enchanted with and its relative strength.
Diana scans the horn, but it appears to be nonmagical; just a conch shell horn, which would probably make a decent noise even underwater. As Edward said, it probably serves as some kind of signal.
The jellyfish continue to hover around the nearby cave entrance, drifting about in an amorphous cloud.
Diana reports her findings. Seems like a bad idea to blow it. Might give the alarm that we are here or even call up some defender. She thinks for a moment and adds But these evil fish men would need a way past the jellyfish. Perhaps this clears the way? I have changed my mind. Lets prepare to fight and blow the damn thing.
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Isaac scratches his weird manta ray chin with his weird manta ray hand. "Hmm... It be makin' sens'. They do need a way pas' th' jellies. So, ge' ready. We're seein' wha' will happ'n when we blow th' horn."
Edward shrugs....
"Don't say we didn't warn you."
I am not looking forward to a giant kraken responding to that thing.
Jaina floats nearby, already feeling the urge to punch something else.
...except I don't think I could punch that many jellyfish.
F*!+ing hell, those things are creepy. The way they move, the way they just float in the water, and the stings...
She winces and averts her eyes from the jellyfish.
Crossbow loaded Diana nods ready to her captain.
Edward casts guidance on the party, just in case.
Isaac nods back at Diana and, keeping his cutlass at the ready, blows into the conch shell horn.
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Isaac blows the conch shell, and a stream of bubbles rush out the end followed by a barely-audible (to your land-dweller ears, at least) deep, groaning tone. For a few moments, it seems as though nothing is happening.
Then, all of a sudden, there is a swirl of movement among the jellyfish. As they swim away from the cave entrance, you can see a black cloud of ink--like a squid's or octopus's--billowing out from the mouth of the cave. The jellies clearly dislike this ink cloud, because they swarm away from it.
The ink hangs in the water, completely obscuring the cave entrance and what might lie beyond it. It's also, however, opened the way forward to you: the jellyfish hover on its periphery, clearly ready to move back in if and when it disperses.
Diana smiles, her theory proven right. We go in now. she recommends and prepares to move.
Jaina breathes a quiet sigh of relief and goes in.
Isaac nods and swims into the cave.
Gritting your teeth, you swim through the cloud of ink that obscures the cave entrance. For a few seconds, all is dark--and surprisingly cold. Then, more suddenly than you'd expect, you're out of the cloud of ink once more.
The cave here in the entrance is a tube carved from the limestone rock, roughly 10' in diameter. The light fades quickly as you get away from entrance, but the area immediately in front of you is at least dimly lit by the light filtering through the still-dispersing cloud of ink. The tube you're in slopes sharply upward, rising about one foot for every foot it travels forward.
The bad news is that you're not alone. In the dim light, you can see, swimming away from you near the top of the tube where it opens into a larger chamber, a six-foot long monstrosity that looks like a cross between a turtle and a crab, with flippers instead of legs, a snapping beak, and two pincers. It freezes near the top of the tunnel, clearly having detected you, and burbles something in Aquan. "Phuakkhao boaemn nakthongthiav! Phu luanglamoed daima!"
With that, it spins and rushes toward you, beak and pincers snapping!
Jaina is the only one who manages to react more quickly than the freaky creature to its spotting of you!
Initiative
Jaina<-----
Creature
Arhiel, Diana, Edward, Isaac
Tojanida: HP: 51 | AC/T/FF: 21/12/19 | Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3 | CMD: 21 (29 vs. trip) | resist electricity 10, fire 10
Sahuagin: HP: 15 each | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15
A bewildered Jaina gets ready to punch the crab-thing as it approaches!
Jaina prepares herself for battle, and is rewarded (?) when the monster launches itself forward through the water, bubbles streaming from it as it charges her! She lands a solid blow on the creature's back, but its tough shell protects it entirely from the blow. Its jaws connect with her leg, letting a stream of blood into the water!
Up at the top of the tube-like tunnel, two sahuagin appear, drifting just above the lip of the descent. They snarl and level crossbows at you; one bolt whizzes past Edward's head, while another sinks into Isaac's stomach! Arhiel, seeing that things have started badly, swims lithely over Diana's head and casts a spell on Jaina, who feels water suddenly swirl around her, propelling her in the directions she wants to go.
Tojanida: HP: 51 | AC/T/FF: 21/12/19 (all -2 until its turn rd. 2) | Fort +8 Ref +6 Will +3 | CMD: 21 (29 vs. trip) | resist electricity 10, fire 10
Sahuagin: HP: 15 each | AC/T/FF: 16/11/15 | Fort +4 Ref +4 Will +4 | CMD: 15
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