"It looked painful, huh? Can't image why." Sercha snarks with a shake of her head.
"Thank you," she says after Shadrach extends his healing magic to her.
"I bet that water's cold," Sercha says as she attaches her staff to her back. She then lowers herself into the water.
"Sucks to be right."
Shadrach stood at the edge of the water, and looked dubiously into the depths. "I'm really not very good at swimming in this armor. Are we sure we need to go in?"
"Irori teaches us that constant striving for physical perfection is a holy act," says the goblin. They dive into the pool and swim across easily.
Elly and Lilata leap to the nearest stone while Anklebiter and Sercha start to swim. Shadrach stays on the stairs.
Suddenly, the water to the north coalesces into the shape of a foamy, wide-mouthed fish! At the same time, a pile of rocks on the southernmost island rises up in the shape of a stony jackal!
Before you can react, the watery fish swims up and critically smashes Anklebiter with a powerful wave!
"The water doesn't look very inviting!", Shadrach commented; he cast a spell, blasting the fish with force missiles.
"Woah! Careful!" Lilata quickly draws her bow and, eyes narrowed on the water elemental, shoots off a pair of arrows in rapid succession.
Sercha attempts to swim over to the nearest rock and pull herself out of the water.
Anklebiter lashes out with their teeth before scrabbling atop the same rock as Sercha. "Bad fishy, bad!"
Elly lets loose with an Acid Arrow at the Jackal to the south. "There's another one besides the water guy."
Lilata grazes the water elemental with an arrow, while Shadrach blasts it with magic missiles. Sercha swims for the outcropping of rock and pulls herself out. Anklebiter chomps the elemental twice before following the half-elf. Elly's acid arrow splatters harmlessly against the rock beside the earth elemental.
The stony jackal sinks down into the rocky island, only to reemerge a few seconds later behind Shadrach! It tries to bludgeon the half-orc, but his armor keeps him safe.
The water fish batters Anklebiter with a wave, dropping the goblin. It turns to Sercha, but she dodges its followup attacks.
For the third time in three days, Anklebiter is out cold. It's embarrassing, frankly, and won't do for a monk of Irori to caught with their pants down like this: they would simply have to improve and get better.
They stand and, leaning forward, attempt to bite the creature again, incredibly frustrated.
Sercha's hands move in arcane gestures, flinging water from her wet garments. At a barked command, a jet of black fluid flies towards the elemental.
Lilata shoots a flurry of arrows at the water elemental, hoping one of them actually does something.
Shadrach started to sing:
Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world
Don't be afraid to try the greatest sport around
Those who don't just have to put it down
You paddle out, turn around and raise
And baby that's all there is to the coastline craze
You gotta
Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world
He turned around and swung his sword at the stony jackal.
Elly concentrates and lets a Heal fly at Anklebiter. "It's murder keeping you healthy."
Teeth in the semi-permeable membrane of the elemental, Anklebiter spits the water creature out upon being healed. "I am a very healthy individual. Also thank you."
Lilata grazes the water elemental again with one arrow, the others splashing into the water around it. Shadrach's sword grates against the earth elemental's rocky body. The water fish dodges Sercha's acid arrow, but after Elly heals Anklebiter, the goblin hops up and manages to hit the fish with another bite.
The stony jackal attacks Shadrach, scoring a solid blow.
The water fish crushes Anklebiter with another wave, then slams into Sercha as well, though she is able to dodge its finishing strike.
Sercha makes a quick hand-waving gesture over her bruised limbs. She then continues moving in an entirely different pattern and, with a bark of arcane words, sends another acid arrow at the elemental.
Shadrach continued to sing:
Not just a fad cause it's been going on so long
They said it wouldn't last too long
They'll eat their words with a fork and spoon
And watch 'em they'll hit the road
And all be surfin' soon
And when they
Catch a wave they'll be sittin' on top of the world
He cast another spell, putting up a shield of force, and swung again.
Lilata grips her bow in frustration, wishing she could actually do any damage with it, and fires off another volley of arrows.
Elly casts Heal on Anklebiter again. This time she does it at a heightened spell level. "See hard to keep healthy."
Anklebiter stands up and hops the 15 or 20 feet to the next island with ease and grace.
"Bad fishy," they say, arms outstretched.
Lilata hits with another arrow, this time landing a more substantial blow. Sercha heals herself but misses with her acid arrow again. Shadrach misses with his sword. Elly heals Anklebiter, who leaps away!
The earth elemental slams into Shadrach again.
Meanwhile, the water elemental turns to attack Lilata. It swims over and strikes her once with a crushing wave.
Lilata spits out a bit of water that had gotten in her mouth and drops her bow, careful to not let it land in the water where it might float away, and draws her blades, and tries to cut through the weird semi-membrane of the water elemental.
Shadrach sang the instrumental part of the song.
Buh buh bu-buh bu-buh buh.
Buh buh bu-buh bu-buh buh
Buh buh bu-buh bu-buh buh
Buh buh bu-buh bu-buh buh
Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world
He recast his shield spell and attacked again with his bastard sword.
Again, Sercha attempts to hit the water elemental with her strongest spell.
Anklebiter throws a flask of alchemist's fire at the magic fish and focuses on their life energy flowing through them.
Elly lets loose with a burning hands at the water creature. "It might make steam."
The agile water elemental deftly avoids the majority of your attacks. It dives briefly under the water to dodge Elly's burning hands, while Sercha and Lilata both narrowly miss. Anklebiter hits it with a flask of alchemist's fire, but the flames are snuffed out almost as soon as they appear.
Shadrach fares better, finally hitting the earth elemental and cracking some of its stone body.
Both elementals retaliate, the stony jackal attacking Shadrach and the watery fish attacking Lilata. The fish smashes Lilata twice, once a critical hit that leaves her battered and bleeding on the stony island!
"This is ridiculous," Sercha snarls in frustration.
Not wanting to waste her last powerful spell, she joins her hands together and sends electricity arcing towards the water elemental.
Shadrach could tell the battle against the water elemental wasn't going so well, but the best he could do to help the others was to continue his song.
So take a lesson from a top-notch surfer boy
But don't you treat it like a toy
Just get away from the shady turf
And baby go catch some rays on the sunny surf
And when you
Catch a wave you'll be sittin on top of the world
He kept his shield of force going and swung again at the earth elemental.
Elly reaches down and heals Lil. "This is not good."
Lilata stands up unsteadily and attacks with her swords once more, assuming a defensive stance as she does so.
Elly casts Acid Arrow on the water creature.
Anklebiter takes a long jump () and dives into the water, behind the fish. It may eat them, but they cannot just stand idly by while the fish assaults their friends!
Treading water, they lash out with their teeth in a furious flurry.
The water elemental is too slow to dodge Sercha's lightning. Though Elly's acid arrow misses, she heals Lilata, who hops up and stabs the elemental. Anklebiter leaps back into the water and bites the fish twice. It shudders and collapses in on itself!
Shadrach hits the earth elemental, badly damaging it. It retaliates, biting the half-orc, but it's a simple matter for the rest of you to gang up on it and finish it off.
Upon their defeat, both elemental's condense into glittering gems. Each one bears a glowing rune of power.
Anklebiter takes deep drinks of the water, expressing domination and mastery over the elemental, out of both respect and pride.
They sit on a rock and heal themself further, meditating on their pride and ability.
"Wot's this rock?" they ask, tossing the rune to Elly.
At the last second, Shadrach blocked the elemental's fist with his force shield.
Shadrach healed Lilata, who was badly injured.
He also healed Anklebiter.
You fall back from the tomb. The elementals proved quite tough, and you decide to take the time to rest and recover from the grueling fight. You know the Night Heralds will likely be inching closer to the tomb, but there's no sense in getting yourselves killed before then.
You are able to identify the gems as elemental gems for water and earth, respectively.
After resting overnight, you delve back into the tunnel. Past the water and earth room, the passage splits in two. You can go northeast or southeast.
Before the group rests she gathers everyone around her and casts heal at a heightened level.
After camping for the night, Shadrach rose in the morning and made breakfast. Once everyone was ready to go, he continued the exploration of the tomb. At the split in the passageway, he continued along the northeast branch.
A straight hallway separates an ornate stone door on the western wall from a circular room to the east. The door has no latch or lock and depicts a sagacious man in relief. He wears a robe and holds a book and quill across his chest. Golden accents inset in the stone give him a sense of majesty, but his eyes are gone—gouged out of the stone and filled in with tarry black paint.
The circular room has a low ceiling and four concentric circles on the floor around a dais in the center. Each of these circles features a glowing object or phenomenon within its ring. The outermost ring emits an orange flame from a small spout. The next ring has a protrusion—a translucent purple stone that glows faintly. The third ring is inset with a small, circular basin that shines with green light from below the water. The innermost ring includes a small vent that pours forth vapor shot through with white light.
The dais inside the fourth ring supports a complex device of brass atop a metal pole, covered in dials and complex runes.
A close examination of each dial’s decoration reveals the presence of dozens of strange runes and a small faceted indentation that seems to be built to house a single (but missing) gemstone. It looks like the elemental gems will fit in the indentations.
Shadrach studied the circles and symbols for a few minutes. Eventually he said to everyone else, "It look like we're missing a fire and air elemental gem. We can either tr to solve the equations without them, or we can go and fight some more elementals."
"Ugh, not again...." Lilata says, annoyed at the prospect of fighting more elementals.
Anklebiter looks down at their feet, ashamed. "Back before I was rescued by the nuns, I was a thief. They caught me stealing from their monastery and I attacked them. They were impressed by my strength and invited me to stay and study with them. I could probably sabotage the statues, if no one else wants fighting."
The robed man is not Irori. Anklebiter is able to sabotage the air and fire dials so that they are easier to decipher.
Shadrach watched as Anklebiter's efforts made the fire and air equations easier to solve. "That helped a lot! Try doing that for the water and earth emblems," he suggested.
Anklebiter nods and sets to work on the next two, handily disabling one but failing at the other.