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"The maze existed to slow people down so that the Thassalonians could defend the space with their hell creatures, I expect. The circular shape was built to focus the planar energies. Beyond that, it seems like a waste of time." Mokhasi thinks. "I say we check that out, in case the shard was there, first, but I am just one vote."
Es takes charge and decides to lead the group south the passage goes south then east then south again before coming to a set of double doors set into the western wall. Checking the doors to make sure they are safe, the group finds no threats and Es throws the doors open.
Two flights of steps descend into a wide pool of deep murky water in this room. Pillars carved to look like coiling tentacles support the vaulted roof, rising from the pool to the north and south. At the other end of the room is another hall leading west.
"Oh look, a room built with tentacle pillars! That doesn't seem spooky at all."
Caroliss searches for magic, and looks for signs of life or movement in the water.
If there's no visible threat from that inspection, Caroliss tries lighting up a rock and throwing it into the water, both to get a sense of the water's depth and get a better view of what's down there.
Caroliss doesn't see anything in the murky water, but she swears that she hears a brief splash from somewhere in the pool.
Tossing a lit pebble into the water, it looks as though it is about ten feet deep.
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Esrisi eyes the pool suspiciously. Since there are no signs of trouble, she takes her time using her great eyesight and scans the room and the water.
If it's clear she nods and looks to Drask. "You should swim across. You're big and if there is something that is going to swim up and eat us, best it start with you."
"Rude, but true." Drask decides to swim with armor, since there are no waves and it is calm. He sits, then slides his way in and starts making his way across, senses alert for danger.
"I swear I heard something splashing in there before I threw that pebble in. Let's not stray too far while Drask goes across."
Ez looks around the water and as far as she can tell she doesn't see any signs of danger. When Ez gives the all clear and prompts Drask to go ahead he obliges and moves into the water. He makes it half way across, swimming with relative ease when all of a sudden he feels something brush up against him, before he has a chance to react something tries to pull him under the water.
Several creatures burst out of the water and attempt to drag Drask into the watery depths. Only one manages to get a hold of him. They look an aweful lot like the sinspawn you had seen caged before but these ones have gills and webbed hands and feet.
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Esrisi grimaces when hands start bursting from under the water and pulling at Drask. "Oh no! There IS something under there! Quick, help him!" she says as she rushes into the water to catch up to him. As she splashes into the water she calls for a blessing, trying to catch everyone with the magical assistance.
"F**-" Drask explodes when the creatures rise up to attack him. He was in a massively compromised position and he knows it. He attempts to rip the hands off him and swim to shore.
"we could pour our oil flasks into it and light it... flush out---" Sapher is mutter thinking when suddenly Drask is in the water and then yelling and then Ez is in the water and yelling.
Sapher is not getting into the water, instead she opens her mouth and does a yell of her own.
Veltariel steps up and lets a pair of arrows fly at the sinspawn. She was really getting tired of these ugly bastards.
Caroliss concentrates on one of the sinspawn, trying to compel it to attack one of its allies!
Her longspear is ready if an enemy approaches!
;
Sapher steps up to the edge of the steps and casts a spell as she acts like she is screaming but no one else can hear anything. However, it seems to effect one of the sinspawn who grasps his ears in pain. Drask manages to get himself free of the sinspawn and starts to swim for shore opening himself up to all sorts of attacks and not quite making it to dry land as he heads toward his group.
Two of them land a bite on Drask as he swims away but something feels off.
Vel looses two arrows at the swimming sinspawn, but only one hits. Mok casts a spell to cover Drask in grease in hopes of keeping the swimming sinspawn from grabbing a hold of him again.
Caroliss casts a spell at one of the sinspawn, but it seems to shake off the effect. Es moves up close to where Drask is swimming to try and help defend him if the things attempt to follow him onto the dry land. The things swim after him with ease and attack, while one goes after Es standing near the edge of the water.
While the one attacking Es misses and most of them on Drask do as well, but one bites into Drask again.
Veltariel sends two more arrows at the one directly in front of her.
"We got your back, Drask!" Caroliss creates an illusory Esrisi, while stepping over to heal Drask!
Sapher pulls her hammer and goes after the she can reach.
But with slick steps comes and disastrous slamming into Ez with nearly sends them both into the water.
Sapher moves up to attack the one that went after Es but misses as she catches herself to stop from tumbling into the water. Drask feels sick from whatever is in the saliva of these sinspawn and he has an overwhelming sense of wrath wash over him. It is so bad it makes it harder for him to swim, but he manages to finally get out of the water, but not before provoking attacks from the creatures near him.
One of them bites at Drask but ends up hitting his image instead causing it to disappear. Vel unleashes two arrows which both hit the sinspawn in the water. Mok attempts to lob some acid at one of the creatures but it moves at the last minute and the acid just dissipates in the water instead. With Drask out of the water, Caroliss heals him, causing most of his recent injuries to close up. Es tries punching and kicking the one near her, but almost slips herself and misses the creature.
With everyone out of the water the creatures growl in frustration and back off, disappearing beneath the murky waves. Eventually the waters become deceptively still once again.
Drask flops down onto the ground, coughing and sputtering. He forces the air out of his lungs, eventually standing and wiping his jaw. "Alright, well, swimming won't work."
Drask frowns at her. "And since when have you been so bloodthirsty? No reason to fight, we can use my climbing kit to get around this. Slow but we won't risk being drowned by those creatures."
"Mhmm, on second thought I don't think I have enough pitons to pull this off. Alright, guess we'll do this your way." Drask sticks the end of his weapon into the water, waving it around to make it splash.
With combat concluding, Caroliss heals Drask once more.
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As frustration mounts with how to cross this area, Caroliss seems ready to try something else. "Maybe we should double back and explore the area with the fire elemental? If we do anything fancy to cross here, we'll need to do it again on the way up, and that will be a hassle."
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Esrisi thought it was a stupid idea to go back when Mokhasi suggested it, but now that Caroliss brings it up she finds it more appealing. "That's not a bad idea Caroliss. We could just treat this like a set of stairs leading to another level and clear all of the easier to access rooms first."
Making up her mind for everyone, she leads them out of the room and back north to the way Mokhasi suggested earlier. "Come along, let's follow Caroliss's plan! We'll come back later."
Caroliss smiles when Esrisi agrees with what was originally Mokhasi's plan. She gives Mokhasi a wink.
Sapher walks besides the elf, "I still think pouring oil on the surface and lighting it on fire is an idea. Depends on whether those things can feel fear through. What are your ideas, Mok?"
"We could have Vel drink it all. She's been pretty thirsty lately."
"Thirsty?" Sapher realizes its a jab, but is confused on the context. "I could sit on the edge and put my feet in the water.
Like bait. After we tie a rope around my waist to make sure they pull me in." while her feet getting attacked by sinspawn doesn't seem to phase her, being pulled into the water makes her shudder.
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Mokhasi nods, ticking off his fingers ”As we walk, I can catalogue our ideas. One, Sapher, aberrations usually have emotions. Fire might make them afraid, but they would be safe under the water, and we would lose air to breathe and make a good amount of smoke for ourselves. It depends on how smart they are.” He pauses. ”We could also try to evaporate it, but this would be a time consuming process.”
”Two, as Drask mentioned, Veltariel, or all of us, draining the water. Though that makes assumptions about the underlying hydrology - if it is in a steady state in regards to inflow and outflow rates, removing the water would just cause it to fill up again, possibly quickly. There may be ways to soak it up with an alchemical sponge or dry dust or use a Thassalonian screw to draw it down.” He says this last thing as if he assumes everyone knows what a Thassalonian screw is. ”A water elemental might be able to displace much of it quickly, though we would need a place to dispose of the water. Yes, and a water elemental.”
”Three, freezing the entire pool, but our magic would likely not be strong enough to do so quickly, though we could do a little with alchemical items. Only on the surface, and the ice would be weak.” He glances at Drask and Sapher. ”some of us are more dense relative to our size - due to armor, to our benefit, most of the time- and the ice I am reminded of would not easily hold.” He smiles meekly after hurriedly adding disclaimers.
”Four, there is also making the water much more acidic. Acid which would be difficult if the water had some existing alkaline buffer, as might be the case next to the stone here - though I am hardly a geologist - it might be quite expensive to buy enough acid salt, and then we’d then have to cross a pit of acid.”
”Five, If the water is mineral-rich, though, it might be prone to electrification. If I could find some way to pile a grounding pole into the water, on the other side, I could introduce a electrical differential. Except that I doubt I could generate sufficient differential to harm them.” He exhales again.
”Sic, we could buy...” and he does a mental calculation, ”640 gold pieces worth of Alchemical Cement and dump it into the water, and then wait a few hours.”
He pauses, ”Lastly, we can also just hit them with weapons until they die and then swim across. But with more preparation. We have scrolls to breathe water, along with another use for said scrolls on this level.” He points toward the old ship.
Es back tracks with the group as they talk about their plans. Heading the room with the wall mural the group heads up the short staircase leading west. The hall turns north for a bit before branching of to a small room to the east, a closed door to the west or continuing on to the north.
From what you can see of the room to the east, it appears to have once been an ancient alchemical laboratory, but most of the equipment here has been smashed.