Wamblee, you must admit that the feeling of floating on a piece of ice in a rushing river is a novel sensation to your feet. You find not the slight tremors and whisperings of the still earth, but a torrent of fluid information. It takes hours of meditation to sort through and quiet the flow, slipping into the feel of the current rather than resisting.
And this afternoon, you feel dark, toothed creatures attach themselves silently to the hull of ice, the shadows of lampreys and eels slithering oily in the cold water.
Iniga immediately transforms, triggering her rage song at the sight of the aggressive water creatures.
In a blur of movement, Wamblee leaps into action! Seizing his spear, he calls:
"Eels latching onto the boat!"
Then rushes over and stabs down hard!
Though they are nearly silent underwater, the eels do not fool the senses of Wamblee Firenze. Several wet, segmented shapes flop and slither onboard all at once, but Wamblee and his cousin Iniga immediately react -
Iniga instinctively surrounds herself with flame and anger at the first hint of danger;
Wamblee lashes out at the nearest creature - seen more closely, they resemble slick black worms, lumpy and cold like rotten congealed porridge. Before it even has a chance to reach the deck of the boat, it is skewered midair, and it falls back into the river.
The eels do not even register the attack upon one of their number. In near-unison, they simply slide forward to the closest piece of flesh they can find.
daughter 1
daughter 2
marianne
samen
iniga
Đầu Tiên and Samen are both bitten by one of the eels. Their teeth feel like burning needles in your flesh.
Samen charges up his staff (+2), casts (fire)Frostbite, and lays into them.
Wamblee circles north, to threaten the eels assaulting Samen and Mar. He tenses - then strikes! He does this thrice in swift succession.
Iniga swings her blade into the nearest (living) eel, trying to take it down
Wamblee slays one eel with his first two strikes, then wounds another with his third.
Iniga connects with her eel, damaging it badly.
Marianne takes a 5 foot step back, and fires two arrows north to help the western sister - the eel is slain.
Samen, with no eel adjacent to him after Wamblee's attack, helps Iniga finish off the wounded eel.
The sisters attack with curved spears, damaging the two remaining eels to the north.
The watersinger remains calm despite the chaotic surroundings, continuing his song to ensure the party does not fall into the roiling, eel-infested waters below.
Seemingly attracted by the deaths of their own species, more eels burst from the water, latching onto the southern end of the iceboat. The boat, becoming slippery with blood, takes the eels a longer moment to climb, leaving them no time to attack.
daughter 2
marianne
The second daughter cries out in pain - both sisters have been injured now.
From small disturbances in the water, you can tell there is a deeper, bigger presence below that may be starting to notice the surface battle.
Wamblee wades in to support Samen and Iniga, jabbing left and right!
Samen brings his staff down hard on whatever lamprey happens to be closest.
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Iniga swings hard at the nearest lamprey
The combined fury of sword, staff, and spear utterly destroys the group of eels to the south. Marianne, wet hands slipping on her bow, missing once but then kills the eels biting at her legs. The two sisters, accepting the unfamiliar rage song, redouble their efforts to clear the north. (all deleted)
As the waters below churn with blood and corpses, the disturbances that were missed earlier boil to the surface -- a huge, three-headed eel, slick tongues writhing, bursts from the water.
Without a word, one of the heads snaps up Marianne and swallows her.
The sisters shriek and run in front of their father, defending him rather than actively attacking.
"MAR!!!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Wamblee charges directly at the huge newcomer, aiming to pierce it below where Mar is struggling.
With eyes large as saucers, "Well isn't that something."
Samen zips over with his brother to aid his sister.
Iniga watches in alarm as Mar is promptly swallowed at the sisters retreat backwards.
"No! Acting as a human shield will not save anyone, attack it in unison before it swallows someone else" she instructs them, before shouldering her greatsword and swinging again.
The sisters shout back at Iniga, "Our father's iceboat is the only thing stopping us from plunging into eel-infested water! You take care of the monster, and we'll take care of him!"
Wamblee, Iniga, and Samen all leap to Marianne's aid, butchering the head that swallowed her. After Iniga and Wamblee open gashes in the thing's neck, Samen's staff whomps the head clean off. Marianne tumbles to the floor of the iceboat, covered in scratches and viscous drool.
Head 2 and Head 3 immediately turn their blind attention to the fast-moving target that just killed their brother-head.
Rather than being swallowed whole by either head, the tug-of-war simply sinks their teeth deeper into Samen:
Wamblee speeds up, trying to fatally pierce the remaining heads, one at a time!
"OW!"
Samen twists around, trying to get as much leverage as he can, and jabs at the jaw that has his leg.
As the fire fades from his staff, he charges his fist up with frost energy and delivers it through the staff to whichever head he can reach.
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Iniga, seeing the success her friends had, follows up with a wild slash of her own, trying to eliminate yet another head.
Marianne vomits, then picks up her bow, screaming in revulsion.
But the bow slips in her bloodied hands, both shots going wide.
As the greatsword connects, the last head turns toward Iniga, bearing its needlemouth,
but, weighted down by its dead brethren, moves clumsily and misses.
Iniga dances away from the head, and slashes again, trying to bring it down.
Wamblee keeps up the speed and power of his strikes, eager to see this monstrosity dead!
And with a snick-crack of sword and spear, the beast is no more. The fishy-smelling blood runs wetly down the side of the iceboat as the mutilated eel slides slowly, mutely, down, down.
Plop. It sinks into dark depths, like the thing never even was. Marianne vomits again.
And the old watersinger sings on, blissfully oblivious.
Wamblee glares briefly at the water, seeking any more lurking threats.
If there are none, he will try to find a cloth or somesuch to help Mar clean up.
"Damn. Thanks brother. I feel like the old bow and arrow doesn't do much compared to Samen's magic, hell, Iniga's magic, or your elemental fists. Mine got away, and now I don't feel like much..." She smiles sadly at you, and tries to find a private corner on the narrow boat.
"You would have done fine - if we all had not been blindsided by that creature. As it was, you got a little distracted."
Samen, still held in jaws of the last head, is dragged toward the inky blackness as well. Reflexively, he activates his flight mode to escape whatever remains below the surface. He lands on the deck of the ship, panting and bleeding.
huff... huff... Is that sort of creature common to these parts??
"I hope not, but that creature had three brains and was still dumb enough to try and fight us" Iniga remarks dismissively, trying to change the tone after a harrowing encounter.
Đầu Tiên frowns. "We've been up and down this river dozens of times over the years, and I've seen maybe two of those eels. The small ones. Lucky the four of you were here." Her voice is not enthusiastic.
"Many strange and deadly things are on the move these days, elementals, fey. Darkspawn in particular have been a rising plague."
The watersinger flinches at your mention of darkspawn, making the spinning sign of the Whirl Mother against bad luck.
"Yeah... lucky." He checks himself over to see if there's any permanent damage before struggling to his feet.
Samen turns on his elemental vision to try to get an idea if these are elementals of some sort, and if so, what sort of elemental ecosystem is below them.
"I'm happy continuing this conversation, but we should probably be moving quickly on. This battle was not particularly quiet, and its best we leave this immediate area least something else comes to investigate." Iniga contributes
Đầu Tiên relates this last remark to the old watersinger. He nods at you with a relaxed, agreeing smile. In Undine, he sings, "As you say! A wise elen knows when to move!"
He redoubles his volume, loud enough to cause your ears to ring if you stand too close. The iceboat fairly leaps through the water, eager to obey the song of its maker. Soon, the patch of oily, bloody water is far behind you.
After camp is made for the night, Thứ Hai looks around at all of you, evaluating you. "So, we almost died today. Anyone have a story for the campfire? I bet you guys have all sorts of tales! Magic and princesses and stuff right?"
Wamblee waits a moment for another to speak.
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Iniga tries to recall any local tales or stories that she has heard during her travels that would be appropriate and welcome for the undine to hear.
"I haven't really come across any princesses and stuff in my time but I'll have a go"