Veltariel continues unleashing arrows at the nearest sinspawn.
Sapher screams her enthusiastic scream AGAIN.
[ooc]DC 14, to blue[/dice]
Sapher casts her spell again at the closest one to her. The pain is too much though as the scream on the same one ends up killing it. Mok finishes his spell as a water elemental comes into existence attacking the sinspawn between it and Drask, finishing the creature off. Caroliss bless Drask once again while Vel lands an arrow in the last remaining sinspawn. Drask then proceed to bite it in the throat, killing it as it lets out a blood gurgle and falls into the water.
"Well, that went better than last time," Veltariel says snarkily as she steps into the water and makes her way across. Once on the far side, she takes up a position at the far corner and looks around.
After everyone gets across, with no issue now that the sinspawn are dead, you are faced with a hallway leading east. Heading down the hall you see it turns to the south before ending in another staircase leading down. A short flight of stairs leads down to a thirty-foot-square chamber with a cistern filled with dark water taking up most of the floor. Troughs of this dark water run east, west, and south through hallways alongside five-foot-wide walkways. Soggy timbers have been draped over the gaps to provide unstable looking bridges over the troughs. An ornamental torch made of onyx burns in a sconce next to a hallway heading east, from which the distant sound of someone singing with a raspy throat wafts down the hall.
"Does anyone have a preference on which way to go?" Sapher asks "Not crossing those 'bridges' would be mine."
They do not look like they will hold her weight.
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Mokhasi watches, surprised, as the remaining sinspawn are relatively quickly dispatched, and calls the water elemental over to him briefly before the time expires. He kneels to the elemental, closing his eyes, and whispers some things to the elemental.
"તારો આભાર મિત્ર. તમે છૂટી ગયા છો."
Mokhasi heads across the pond, carefully, and retrieves his longspear from Drask. "I hope it served you well, my friend. Different tools, right?" He smiles at Drask. He dries himself off, and the others, using prestidigitation, and then nods, withdrawing the wand of mage armor, and booping Esrisi with it.
Mokhasi also waves his hands and looks to have sharpened his senses.
"I am ready."
"Okay, no disagreements than? To the east." Sapher will start that direction keeping to stone instead of soggy wood, and watching for bad things in whatever form they might take.
Drask propels himself out of the water in a very unnatural way for a bulky humanoid thanks to Mok's magic. He wipes the wet blood from the spear, handing it back. "Yes, although I've never liked long-shafted weapons. If they had cornered me I would be unable to use it."
Drask nods. "Onwards."
Sapher looks up at Ez, and returns the "hi" then adds a "feeling better?"
"makes sense. too much time off and I'd eat so many potatoes I've fatten up into a big ball."
As you start moving down the hall and Es and Sapher start talking in whispered tones they realize the sound carries really well. All of a sudden the singing ahead stops. Caroliss and Drask hear the slightest sound of a splash of water ahead. When you finally reach the room you see a stone bridge supported by stone pillars curves through this cylindrical reservoir. A few feet below the bridge, dark water fills the room. The walls within a few feet of the water’s surface have been painted into a remarkable mural that depicts the skyline of Magnimar, complete with numerous ships seeming to float on the waters of the room. Some of the paint near the southern side of the room appears to be fresh.
"This is beautiful. The detail is amazing." Sapher breathes in wonder. "Hello!" Sapher calls out, assuming that they were heard, voices and heavy stumping feet and all and whoever did this is hiding, or swam away.
"We don't intend anyone harm" which is true, even if they do seem to kill most things in their path.
Drask decides his presence is probably not helpful in this situation. He stays quiet, letting the others take lead in this diplomatic situation.
You hear a brief splash of water somewhere under the bridge and you hear a man call out from below you "I'm glad you mean no harm, but in my harsh existence I've come to learn people's intentions don't always match their words, especially those who judge a book by its cover... There are many of you it sounds? What brings you to these sewers?"
You can't see who or what is talking without getting down and trying to look under the bridge, but at the very least, who or whatever it is isn't trying to attack you like much of the other denizens in this place.
Mokashi does not detect any magic anywhere he can see, but if something were under the bridge and magical the stone would likely be blocking it. Kiir doesn't seem to sense and invisible creatures.
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"To be upfront with you, yes there are many of us. We are a group of peaceful individuals intent on exploration of this facility. One of the core tenets of our society is cooperation, I can assure you that while we are completely capable of defending ourselves we do not seek out aggressive actions and instead would rather peacefully commune with the inhabitants."
"It brings me great satisfaction that you are willing to hold a civilized conversation rather than use magical means to assault or attempt or inflict bodily harm to my companions. By name what are you called, I am Esrisi Derexhi. Are you alone or are you with others here?"
"We are a group of peaceful individuals intent on exploration of this facility."
Drask quietly wipes the blood off his axe and hides it behind his back.
Veltariel remains quiet, keeping an arrow knocked and her eye on the edge of the light for any signs of danger.
Sapher slips her hammer in its loop. "Your painting is breathtaking. Really! And Ez is right, we'd love to just talk to you and not fight at all." the dwarf moves to the mural gawking at it.
Long claws attached to tight blue skin reaches up onto the bridge as the creature lifts himself out of the water. This humanoid creature has long, sharp teeth, and its pallid blue flesh is stretched tightly over its starved frame.
The horrid creature eyes you all a moment before smiling, though it is rather unnerving, at Sapher "I'm glad you enjoy them. Not often I get someone that can appreciate my work." He turns to Es and bowing its head slightly and continues "My name is Lockerbie Brast, I am... was... the captain of the Liza Jane. I am alone here, but there are others who use this place to their own devices..."
Sapher looks worried but the goddess of love accepts all, to a degree at least "Nice to meet you... I'm... Sapher Mornshire." she introduces herself hesitantly "The Liza Jane... is that the ship sunk near here? Were you bitten around then?" she sighs, feeling a little embarrassed "Sorry for the interrogation..."
Lockerbie sits down on the bridge and cross his leg and points toward one of the paintings as he frowns "Yes... there it is before it was ruined. My beautiful Liza Jane..." He reaches down toward his neck, as if instinctively grabbing at something but relieves it isn't there and sighs.
Looking back toward Sapher he shakes his head "I was suffering from ghoul fever due to a prior attack at sea, and in my fever-induced delirium, I wrecked my ship against the Crow. After returning to life as this..." he motions to himself and his horrid appearance, "I have lived a lonely life split between periodic hunts of the depths of Outcast Cove for meals of the drowned dead and working on my painting of Magnimar here in my lair."
He pauses and looks at each of the group again "Wait! Did you come from upstairs, past all the devils and sinspawn? They just let you past?"
"Um... no. They were not the most friendly about it either." Sapher admits. "As Ez mentioned they just attacked us and we had to defend ourselves."
The ghoul jumps up with a grin "Oh, so you dispatched them all then?" He claps his clawed hands together somewhat excitedly "Well that makes my life easier, no more having to sneak around up there to get out of here when needed..."
He moves over, unnaturally quickly toward Sapher and bends down eerily close with his alarming grin. "If you can do that then maybe we can strike a deal? You do me a favor and I'll tell you what I know about the rest of this place down here?" He quirks his brow wondering if the dwarf will agree.
Sapher manages not to flinch too badly and looks back at him "Depends on what the favor is?"
As Sapher hesitates he slowly starts to stand with a frown but as Es promptly agrees to his 'favor' he grins again and nods "Wonderful! I lost a valuable broach when I sunk my ship, the Liza Jane, just to the east of the Crow. If you can recover my broach and then show it to me, I promise to tell you what I know about the other threats down here and, even better, something important about what you’ll encounter to the south."
He stops a moment thinking and then adds "Actually, if you will go one step further and deliver the broach to my wife in Magnimar, for whom I named the ship, with an explanation that you found the broach in the shipwreck but found no sign of me so she can move on with her life instead of wondering... I’ll even agree to aid you against the dangers to the south."
"oh" Sapher says softly in sympathy. "Of course, we can do that." a servant of Bolka do not ignore a request like that.
"It's not on the ship, is it?" the dread screams from her voice.
Lockerbie nods "It is indeed. I just... after everything that has happened, I can't bring my self to go out there and retrieve it."
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Mokhasi’s eyes shine, the joy evident on his face. ”The ship. I cannot say that I am unhappy.” He pats Sapher on the shoulder and then rummages through his bag, until he finds the scroll of water breathing.
”Do not worry, we will breathe water and you can swim with magic. I have never searched a sunken wreck before! Perhaps there will be a pirate ghost! That would be fun.” He smiles, quite delighted at the possibilities.
Sapher groans, but doesn't argue. "[b]Back upstairs to where we saw it through the magic bubble wall? Or is there an easier way from here?[//b]" the last part of the question she pointed at Lockerbie.
Lockerbie nods "Oh, I don't think you can get out of the observatory, but the stairs leading down in the room just outside the observatory, you can walk through that barrier to get the the outside of the crow. That is how I leave to feed, though I always had to sneak past all those damn devils, thanks to you at least that will no longer be an issue."
"Okay..." looking to the others "Ready?"
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Mokhasi nods, "let us return to the watery exit."
When they get their, he carefully retrieves the old scroll of water breathing that they found earlier. "I can split this up amongst us - mostly equally. Breathing in the bay will be akin to breathing on land. Caroliss and I can ready additional 'touch of the sea' spells that she can use during fights. Otherwise, Sapher, do you have any lighter armor perchance? The 'touch of the sea' spell will only last a few minutes, and we have a limited quantity. We may want to save them for emergencies."
He shrugs unhelpfully. "You can also just walk along the bottom until we get to the wreck, instead of trying to swim. If we can see it from the exit, it is close enough to be not more than a few minutes walking or swimming."
Everyone makes their way back upstairs and to the room at the other end of the complex where the stairs with a shimmering barrier over them descend into water. Mokashi pulls out his scroll and casts it on everyone and is the first to pass through the barrier into the water, to show that it does indeed work. The ship is reasonably close, but the unnatural environment you find yourself in hammpers your progress double what would normally only be a five minute walk.
Ahead, the wreck of a fishing trawler lies nearly upright on the floor of the harbor. Seaweed has overgrown its rails and deck, and barnacles encrust its broken mast that rises above the green mound of its hull.
Es, spots several reefclaws nearby and they take note of the approaching group as well.
+2 In dungeons