Edit last post: When Donomsail sees that she will need to go underwater she stays close to her group and casts the spell on those in the chamber instead.
Edit last post: When Donomsail sees that she will need to go underwater she stays close to her group and casts the spell on those in the chamber instead.
Polli drops down into the cool water of the chamber and begins swimming towards the exit while her red-skinned companion casts an enchantment on everyone's weapons. Tessa summons her boat and then dives under the water in the direction Valeria went. Her betrothed drops down into the boat. Marisan propels herself forward, following Tessa with strong strokes.
Round 2
Valeria stabs at the creature that swims between her and her allies, drawing blood that begins to billow through the water. The wound seems to throw the creature into a frenzy.
The frenzied sahuagin stabs at Valeria with its trident along with the three others, a number of them getting past her defenses. The ones not surrounding the lone scout, move to attack the approaching red-headed captain, but she avoids their vicious tridents.
Tessa sees two foes before her, so she tries to stab at them with her rapier.
"Gozreh! Laat my toe om ma bondgenote te help, twee kettings Ah moet ons vyande slaan." With that two barbed chains appear from the floor of the cave, one by the Sahaguin in front of and to the left of Tessa the other in the square to the left of the first one.
Donomsail casts Barbed Chains. On a successful hit or combat maneuver check, the target must attempt a Will save. If it fails its save, the creature is shaken for 1d4 rounds.
If possible she will move into the chamber using the ring of swimming.
Polli dives down into the water to try and send some of them in the back running.
Mariana swims down beneath Tessa to attack the sahuagin she is targeting.
Val winces as her blood colors the water around her. Wishing she had someone to flank with, she continues to stab at the creatures.
Harmony, who can't really get involved helpfully at this point, starts singing a jaunty tune about a pirate captain and the strange things he takes from other ships. The jolly music helps!
Polli creates a spell of fear and one of the creatures turns tail and flees through the water. Donomsail's spell of chains strikes one of the others, causing his morale to plummet. The one next to it avoids the chains, but not Tessa's blade, which she plunges right through the middle of it. Her second misses the one that's unsure if he wishes to continues the assault. Harmony begins her song, which seems to carry though the water just fine. Marisan swims up and takes advantage of her foes unsurety, kicking it in the head and ending its quandary.
Round 3
With quick flashes her her blades, Valeria finishes off the enemy between her and escape.
The remaining unengaged enemy rushes forward in the water with its trident out-thrust towards Tessa, who parries the weapon aside without even a thought and runs her blade through the creature, leaving it to sink to the bottom with its compatriots. The other three attacking Valeria can't manage to get past her defenses.
Marisan swims over and kicks the closest enemy.
Tessa also swims over to the creatures attacking Val and tries to thrust her rapier into them. Repeatedly.
Polli swims up and tries to jolt one of them.
The pirate has just discovered a giant tortoise packed in old boots as Harmony continues her song.
Val continues to slash away...
Polli moves up and hits one of the remaining attackers with a jolt of electricity. Tessa strikes with Wayfinder, taking two of them out of the fight and Marisan moves i, but can't reach the single sahuagin and still attack.
Round 4
Valeria makes quick work of the remaining attacker with her shortswords leaving the waters free of enemies.
Combat Ends
Each of the sahuagin had a non-magical trident (x7).
Val frowns and points back where they all just came from. As her companions start swimming back, she stays with the stragglers to help them.
Polli pulls her body halfway into the boat, water dripping from her everywhere. "So we know where the Sahuagin are then, don't we..."
Marisan helps the wounded Val into the small boat Tessa conjured. She looks over the slayer’s injuries with concern. ”I am glad you are okay,” she says sincerely.
Tessa nods "I'm glad you were able to get out of there Val, that could have gone very poorly. Excellent work staying alive."
She looks back to Polli and the others "And thank you all for getting down here so quickly."
She makes sure to thoroughly scout the area for anything else useful or interesting before sending everyone up the rope, dismissing the boat back into her hat and climbing up herself.
"I guess we check the other cave now?"
"Or perhaps we try and talk to the sahuagin first?" Harmony suggests. "I know a peaceful resolution isn't likely but we've defeated them three times now. It might be enough to make them respect our strength without further killing..."
"... as I said before I only have one water breathing spell, so I don't know who'd we'd all get down there." she busies herself drying off anyone who wants it with her magic and adds "Given a couple of days I could write some scrolls that could be enough to do so though."
Val looks at Marisan in stunned silence. She just barely starts to open her mouth as if she might muster some reply when the captains begin talking.
"They were waiting to ambush us, ma'am..." she reports to Harmony. "If someone can talk to them and wants to try, I'm more than willing to go down there with them--although, some healing first would be much appreciated--but they didn't seem very interested in anything but attacking."
"I know its not my call, but I'd suggest waiting until tomorrow, when Polli and Donomsail can plan their spells accordingly, and then we can assualt whatever else is down there without having to worry so much about someone drowning. Ma'ams."
Harmony nods in agreement at Val's eminently sensible proposals and pats her on the shoulder, conveying appreciation and healing magic in one simple gesture.
"Wait! Slow brain due to a sleepless night... (for some f+#@ing reason I was in a flea-ridden hammock surrounded by worthless untrustworthy knobs)" Polli rattles on for a moment with at least one glare at Harmony. She finally corrects herself. "My spell can be divided up among each other. Two hours of breathable air underwater if we wanted to parlay with the murderers that have killed at least four of our crew." she gives her corrected quite diplomatic unbiased report to her captains.
”I say we find the sahuagin leader and I will kick him until he surrenders. It is a good plan,” Marisan says. Sure, it is the same plan she pitched before, but it worked last time!
Tessa shakes her head "This isn't the time for negotiations, Vi. We will avenge our lost crew and make sure no others will fall victim to these creatures ever again."
Turning to Marisan she nods "It is a good plan."
"It worked last time," Val adds with a shrug and almost half a smile.
Turning to look at Polli, she delicately remarks, "well, that certainly changes things... what about something to help people swim? Even in this calm water it's got to be hard for Donm to swim in that armor, and if we hit any currents or anything I think there might be a few of us who could have trouble keeping up... You offered to make me a better swimmer before I came down here, if we go in now how many people could you do that for?"
"I have only one spell memorized for that, touch of the sea. One can have that, the other can have the ring." gesturing to Harmony and Dony.
Marisan gives Val’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. ”You are still hurt. I will take the lead. Stay close to me, everybody,” she says before swimming down the tunnel.
After the application of water breathing to members of the group unable to do so (which is pretty much everyone), you continue forward in the direction Valeria was originally headed with Marisan in the lead. Moving down the northwestern passage, the passage begins to climb and you get a glimpse of light above.
The tunnel rises above sea level here, creating an air pocket in this series of chambers. The floor is sand and a few items of furniture are scattered about, including a table, a poorly repaired chair, a bed with a sagging frame, and a crude fence of driftwood in the rear of the chamber. The entire cavern is overgrown with vines bearing tiny violet flowers that fill the room with a cloying fragrance.
Searching the room produces few personal items with one exception. Beneath the bed is a large glass jar filled with alcohol that holds the preserved, severed head of a vicious-looking Tian man with pockscarred cheeks, a tattoo of a kraken on his forehead, and all his teeth broken out.
Beneath the bed, a small coffer holds three potions of water breathing.
Moving back out into the central underwater chamber you continue your journey southwards. You pass through another chamber that seems to be serving as a communal sleeping area for the underwater creatures, but is currently unoccupied. Perhaps this is where the ambushers were dwelling? There is a side chamber off from it that looks to be an abandoned. Continuing further southward the tunnel descends deeper and curves about to the east.
The tunnel eventually opens up into another cavern. This one is not empty of occupants. Five of the fishmen and a shark are here and it seems that they intend to hold the line.
Combat Begins!
Round 1
"Hmm..." Polli ponders as she looks closely at the severed head in a jar, taping it with her finger as she thinks. "Reminds me of someone... just can't put my finger on it."
"one second...' she requests from their fighters before they charge. The wizard swims in front of them, mutters her words, and then points. A stunningly bright arc of lightning shoots out of her finger and into the shark (and fishman behind it)
Marisan flexes into her underwater combat style, then swims up to kick a sahuagin.
Val sheathes her shortswords and draws her bow as she takes up her assigned position as the rearguard.
"It smells like the tattooed woman in here," she remarks, "the Sea Witch's former captain... I think this might have been her room. But, since the way we enter was still buried, there must be another passage leading out." Then she walks over to the bed, flips back a corner of the sheets, picks up a wand and tosses it to Captain 'Vi'.
She follows along at the rear until they encounter the next gang of enemies. Taking aim at the unprepared shark, she quickly studies it and looses a surprising volley of arrows.
"Soshi... Soshi... Captain of a ship named after a dragon." Harmony adds, hoping that her scraps of knowledge can prompt the wizard.
Checking under the mattress (because people always hide things under the mattress) turns up a wand, which Harmony easily identifies.
"Web. Still mostly charged too." She says, before returning to the water with a resigned look.
------------------------
Thanks to the water-breathing spell Harmony takes up her song right where she left off.
"What do we do with a drunken shark man? What do we do with drunken shark man? Up there on dry land?"
"Soshimira!!!" Polli exclaimed in surprised glee at remembering, with Harmony's help :)
"I saw him once a few decades ago, right before he disappeared on the Fever Sea. On the... Dragon's Dishonor. Gods, he is just as ugly as I remember." she gives the ebony-haired captain a smile before she remembers she is pissed at her and goes back to frowning.
From a distance, Tessa spots the head with a kraken and gasps loudly "No, it cannot be!" and moving in to study it closer. Upon closer inspection, she breathes a sigh of relief and points to the tattoo "That's eerily similar to the man that killed my family. That tattoo. That's too much of a coincidence, is it not?"
---
When trouble arrives, Tessa moves to the front and strikes. Unfortunately for her, she swallows a mouth full of water and chokes and gags as she closes in, throwing off her attack.
The warriors hold as Polli sends a blast of lightning through the water causing everyone's muscles to twitch slightly. The shark takes the brunt of the blast with the sahaugin behind it managing to dodge some of the energy. Marisan follows up with a kick to one of the creatures that rocks it back. Harmony continues her song where she left off leaving the fish-men confused, but her team inspired.
Even with the difficulties of learning to breath underwater, Tessa manages to down one of the creatures. Valeria's first arrow finishes off the shark, so she sends her others out to drop two more of the fishmen.
Of the remaining two sahaugin, one attempts to stab at Marisan and the other moves up to target Tessa, but both fail to strike with their tridents.
Two of them against the six of you doesn't present really any challenge and they fall to your blades in short order.
Combat Ends!
Two passages exit this chamber one to the north and another descending even more to the south.
Marisan leads the way to the north!
Moving north the passage widens out again. Numerous strange, organic filaments fill this chamber, running from floor to ceiling like columns. Fist-sized pink ovoids float from the filaments, bobbing in the lazy current. Closer inspection reveals the ovoid spheres to be slightly translucent and to contain small tadpole-like creatures twitching within.
Continuing a little farther north leads you to a smaller chamber where, restrained via rusty shackles, you find a pathetic creature. It's a fishlike humanoid of a different species with crested fins and an orange coloration. This individual looks as though its legs have been savagely removed and crude stitching used to close the wounds. There are scars and tattoos carved into its body as well. The creature doesn't acknowledge your presence.
Apparently Polli's studies of fish people have been deficient. If anyone looks to her for answers she just snaps "I have no f*@#ing idea."
She'll float/swim over to it and check his stitching, make sure there is no infections.
"We are not friends of the creatures keeping you here. If the screams and blood trails following us are not enough proof of that, I don't know what the hells would. They came at us, killed some of our friends, and now face the reckoning because of it." the wizard says simply. "So that is why we are here... why are you?"
Looking over the prisoner, Polli is a skilled enough healer to tell that this individual is suffering from severe trauma and is almost catatonic. Consequently, it doesn't respond to her overtures.
"Dony..." Polli looks up at her love "Could you spare a small bit of your magic to heal him a little?" she looks back at the abused creature "I don't know if it would bring him out of his state though."
"I'll do it." Harmony offers, kicking forward awkwardly.
"Locathah eggs." She says after studying the eggs closely. "Locathah are underwater dwellers but much more peaceful than sahuagin. These might be hostages or something." Then the prisoner is found and she steps in to help.
"We found the eggs." She says gently as the locathah matriarch's wounds close. "We'll help you get them out of here once we've dealt with the sahuagin. Did they do this to you?"
Donomsail moves beside the strange creature it's unknown heritage of no concern to her, she only sees the injuries and pain. "Gozreh, laat my toe om hierdie arme wese te help, neem die energie Ah 'n 'vermoë wat U my gegee het om mistige wolk 'n' draai dit in helende energie 'te maak om hierdie arme wese op te los."
Donomsail casts Cure Moderate Wounds by giving up Fog Cloud.
The creature shifts her gaze after Harmony's healing and questions, but after Donomsail provides even more healing, she seems to finally notice you.
"Toothed ones captured me," she says in broken common. "Forced to egg. They want slaves." She shudders a bit. "And food."
Grateful for the other's ability to heal with a touch, she nods to Harmony, and squeezes the hand of Dony. After the Locathah tells her tail, she promises in a flat deadly rage "They will NEVER do that again, to you or anyone."
"Do you know where their leader is?"
"We will stop them. Free you and your eggs." Harmony promises, her tone calmer, but her eyes reflecting exactly the same rage that's in Polli's voice. "Anything you can tell us about them would be a great help."
Val studies the injured fish woman, watching her body language for any signs of deception or enchantment as her companions speak with it.