"I give you my word, that the item we seek if evil and must be dealt with. On this I swear to Torm.
The only question I have is that we are told that the item is a disk, not a shell. Could this shell have a disk about this size" Holding his hands out to about the size of the last disks that were retrieved. "With in the shell?"
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Tana looks into the Ghost Kings eyes. In a sympathetic and supportive tone she tells him,
Yes, your Highness, we refer to the shell. If we can remove the shell from this place we can free you from it's hell.
She pauses and asks,
Do you want to be free of the effects of the shell, and will you allow us to remove the shell from here to end your hell and bring you peace?
Listening to his answer Tana uses her insight,
Holding her side with one hand, Shaldinari simply stays quiet. Her fingers gently pressing against her ribs, testing for any sign of a crack or break. It didn't feel like anything that serious, but it still felt like that blasted undead mer-thing hit her with a tree trunk.
As the former king reveals his story, she has relatively little sympathy for the pathetic creature. After all the I poisoned all my people but botched the job on myself defense really wasn't very endearing. But if King Pufferpot could lead them to the shell quicker and with little trouble, all the better, because her ribs really did hurt.
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King Garnon shakes his head slowly, Follow me and you will see...
The ghost swims to the west, leading you into a chamber. The crowned remains of a merfolk skeleton rest upon the stone altar before you. Its left hand clutches a bone trident, unblemished by its time in the sea. Beneath its right hand lay a large scallop shell carved of stone . Elaborate flowing text adorns its surface.
Each and every one of you can feel that familiar feeling of the Tenets of Bane, creeping into your heart. It is subtle, and you think it could take months to take hold.
Thank You. Sehr tells the ghost king.
Tana will move the hand gently and examine the shell.
Tana will then share it with whomever wants to examine it. If she discovers something or feels something she will share that information with the group.
Noticing Shaldinari's wince, Jarprax makes his way over and roughly grips her shoulder. The wood elf first feels a faint vibrating hum from the dragonborn's palm, which quickly spreads as a mild, clenching shock through her body. It probably isn't pleasant , but it quickly fades, taking the pain in your side with it.
Tana offers the shell to Shaldinari,
Die you want to examine the shell?
Jarprax takes a look at the stone shell, taps it with a claw: "Huh - smaller than I thought. It's got some funny markings on it, but I imagine we can just ignore those and crack this open. Anyone have a crowbar?" He will start to test the edge of the shell with a javelin tip until he's told to stop.
Taking the shell from Jarprax, Blacklock, and the offending crowbar, Shaldinari looks closer at the shell.
"Huh?" Is all she says at first, while taking a few more minutes to examine the writing on the outside of the shell. She turns the object over several times, brings it closer to her eyes, then taps it against her chin while her eyes stare at the far wall. Finally seeing the growing annoyance of the others, she breaks out of her study, blushing slightly. "Uhhh....sorry." She says. Then points to the elven writing. "But this reads 'Sympathy.' Not a word I would have expected on an object of Bane. These outer letters must be the key." She points out each one while saying the letters as she goes. "O N S C P O S M I A"
Flipping the crowbar back around and handing it to Blacklock: "Ha! It's really stuck. Let's go smash it open - my warhammer's on the ship."
Then, hearing Shaldinari's interpretation: "Oh! So, do we spell something out with the individual letters? Uh..." counting on his fingers as he spells things out: "Um, Hatred? No... no. What was his name - Shadow-water? Hmm... Oh Wait! It must have something to do with Sympathy!"
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Thinking about the riddle. "With the last one, it was hidden by using the Dwarven throne in part to hide the disk. Maybe they are using the shell like the throne and the shell has nothing to do with Bane or the Tents. But the word to open it is something like Sympathy. Lets see sympathy is like kindness, empathy, concern, caring, compassion...C.O.M.P.A.S.S.I.O.N.
That uses all the letters, what do you think?"
Zar nods in agreement. "Antonio I think you solved another one. Have you been spending time in the library and not telling anyone? It would appear that the letters form some kind of combination to open the shell. Try it," he says, encouraging the paladin.
Nodding at Antonio's suggestion, Shaldinari taps out the word 'compassion' on the letters carved into the shell.
Jiro chimes in quickly, ”Compassion! Yes, excellent work, Antonio! I was thinking the same exact thing but wanted to give you all a chance to solve it. Yes, precisely, that’s it.” The kobold chuckles nervously as he looks at the others.
Seeing Shaldinari start to tap out the word, he involuntarily swims back several feet towards the nearest exit.
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King Garnon watches you deliberate with a growing agitation. As you discuss the possibilities, he seems to be losing some internal struggle.
Upon Shaldinari's deft opening of the shell case, and laying sight on the platinum disc, King Garnon’s ghost begins to shudder and sob. When the ghost regains its composure, it speaks in a peaceful voice. All of this... all of the hate... all of the death. Why would a god inflict such cruelty upon this world?
Looking at you and your companions, the ghost continues, I do not expect you to have an answer. You have already done much in showing me the truth. Take my trident, my crown, and my jewels. I do not need them. I am finally ready to depart this world.
Before I go, I ask for an act of mercy that I surely do not deserve. Bury my remains in the coral reef above the city so that my soul might find peace in the afterlife.
With a heavy sigh, the merfolk ghost fades from existence.
Tana will assist anyone who needs help carrying these items.
So there's a lot of stuff here. I can help carrying it back if you want. Just let me know what you want me to bring back for you.
"Because the gods are all basically #!@%^# up in one way or another." Shaldinari says with a shrug to the former king as he fades away.
She then looks around the throne room, ignoring most of the treasure. "Anyone see these remains he wanted buried?"
Jarprax begins to formulate a lecture on Bane's drive to foment mistrust, evil, and chaos throughout the realms, but stops short of saying anything aloud at Shaldinari's comment - obviously a more in-depth theological discussion is required if one of his companions is actually an atheist!
Instead, he inclines his head in the direction of the king and promises that his remains will be well cared for. So saying, he will gently gather the king's skeleton into his Bag of Holding.
Jarprax will also have a quick look about the chamber, in case any other magical items are about.
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You all collect what you can, and head up the cliffs to the coral reefs. Several schools of fish feeding, give you the sense that they are a larger creature, but as you approach, they scatter!
Among the reef, you find a little alcove that is perfect for placing the king's remains. In all, the search and 'ceremony' take almost an hour. You each shudder as you start to feel the cold chill you to your bones.
After you are satisfied with your handiwork, you head back to the ship. It takes you another hour to get back to sight distance of the anchor chain, but the sharper-eyed of you manage to spot four creatures sort of circling in the vicinity. They cut through the water, and those that accompanied the merfolk on the tour recognize them as reef sharks. They seem to be showing the behavior that is associated with feeding, and you think that if the crew was dumping any chum after the cook begins prepping dinner it would explain why they are circling under the ship...
Zar eyes the chest and the coral wondering if any of it would entice Halara to teach him some spells. He makes sure to take one of the pieces before they leave to bury the king's bones.
The wizard spends the entire trip back to the boat thinking about what spells the elf might know. When Blacklock points out the sharks, his shoulders slump. "Seems they forgot we were down here. Not the brightest move dumping food overboard with us still needing to surface. I imagine fighting 4 of those will be harder than the 2 octopi the other day. I could try to put them to sleep, although I don't know how many I can get at once. I'll also need them to be closer. I could cast a fire bolt at one to see if we can draw them to us. Maybe we could take one out before they get to us but they seem fast," Zar comments.
”Good idea, Zar. I can assist in putting some to sleep as well to hopefully get more of them. I can also make some illusory loud noises to try and scare them away.”
"If we have to fight the fishes, then someone should use that magic trident, it might be of use."
Antonio loads his crossbow to get a shot off when all the spells go off to his any sharks that were not effected before using his spear.
Jarprax has a sudden chill that has nothing to do with the cold water: "I have a doubt, friends. It strains belief that our good captain would be so foolish to dump meat overboard. I worry that something has happened aboard ship. Also..." looking doubtfully at the speeding sharks, and thinking back to the conversations he had with the merfolk - did he discuss sharks with them?
"I was asleep when you were scouting with the merfolk but... those fish seem to be moving very quickly. Are you sure it's a good idea to fight them? Maybe we could just distract them or drive them off?"
"Yeah, I'm not liking this either, so before we start shooting sharks and making them angry... let's see if we can get some to take a nap. Then we can shoot the rest of try to scare them off. Blacklock, I'll try not to get that one, but this spell isn't real exact. Sorry."
"Oh, and Antonio, you are awesome and totally got this. Those sharks are going to dread they day they crossed paths with you!"