"I think it is the same light on both ends but I can't be sure. Let us press on!"
Malakar is right in his assessment. You realize either tunnel does not stretch very long and each leads to the same destination, a chamber in the distance offering a soft white glow.
The cavern floor continues to slope upward and eventually leads you out of the water and into a roughly round chamber with a dome-like ceiling. Something grows on the stone walls providing the white light. The floor is covered in a mixture of sand and coarse stone. Rising from the ground, near the center of the room, is a massive statue of a hand carved from a smooth pearlescent, sea-green marble. The hand is bent back at the wrist and posed as if to catch something or to cradle something in its palm. If anything more exists of the statue, it is buried beneath the sand and stone.
Poised on the hand, as if it were a throne, is the largest Grindylow you have ever seen. Her tentacle-like legs slither off of the hand as her body glides down to the sandy floor. She wears a starfish amulet around her neck and a giant clam shell protects her chest and back. In her hands is a two-handed spear with runes along its length, meeting in a sharp, jagged tip. She is easily eight feet tall and towers over two Grindylow in front of her. They are using a jutting five-foot stone in the sand for cover. Several throwing spears stand upright in the sand near them, giving the appearance of a gate.
The Queen makes several solemn, yet stern sounds as her tentacles reach forward. The Queen becomes quiet, takes her spear in both hands, and levels it your way. Then she lets out a shout and her servants ready spears and follow with high-pitched, guttural screams.
Brannart doesn't speak Aquan, but the meaning is clear.
He readies his Ranseur to strike the first Grindylow within reach, while also being ready to strike any that try to close within his reach.
Note that these attack rolls might happen after party buffs (such as Bless) happen, so factor those in if they occur.
Malakar will use his standard action to use his totem Transformation. The bolded sharskin part.
"Kings and Queens of the deep grant me your form."Malakar exclaims as his skin becomes thick and pointy.
I will then move behind Brannart as to not deny him his tactical stance, Razor will swim up the other waterway and ready an attack agaisnt anything that may move into the water.
Oh hey! The big one! Can anybody understand her?
The halfling quickly takes aim at one of the grindylows up front.
Sho’s arrow flies true and punctures the Queen’s clamshell armor. After coughing up a spittle of blood, she glares at Sho, points her spear, and commands again in Aquan.
she says "Die", essentially. What did you expect?
The halfling shrugs. I dunno. Maybe a lengthy monologue of evil plot. Or a knock-knock joke.
she says "Die", essentially. What did you expect?The halfling shrugs. I dunno. Maybe a lengthy monologue of evil plot. Or a knock-knock joke.
"On what doors?"
Kowal will run up and shout out
You unleash a powerful scream, inaudible to all but a single target. The target is dazed for 1 round and takes 1d6 points of sonic damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6). A successful save negates the daze effect and halves the damage.
The Queen briefly grabs her head with her clawed hands and bares her teeth with a clenched jaw. Growling, she shakes her head, and wards off the spell.
Listening to their Queen's orders, the two smaller Grindylow grab spears from the ground and launch them at Sho. One spear misses wide while another grazes her leg.
The Queen deflects two strikes from Brannart as she slides along the ground toward the warrior. One of her tentacles lashes out and grabs Brannart's leg. With a powerful tug, Brannart is taken from his feet and lands hard on the ground. The giant Grindylow jabs her spear at the fallen fighter to finish him off, but the veteran has just enough strength and wits to deflect the blow with his ranseur.
Malakar will drop his spear and move up to the queen and draw his Scimitar as part of his move action because of his BaB of +1 of more so he can fully benefit from his Buckler. He will than attack with his Scimitar.
Razor can't do anything unless the monsters come to him. My ac with Shield and Skin is 21 and CMD 19
Seeing Brannart taken down shakes Fenna so sure. But there's no retreat the queen would be even worse in the water, and there's a lot of water between them and the exit.
She begins a call to arms and courage in the face of the threat, and lunges at the queen with her pike.
Vexas winces as he watches weapons fly by towards his companions. He very carefully moves to load his next bolt, gingerly as if he had some advantage of stealth on the battlefield. Really, he's just used to being overlooked, and operates quietly until the next strike...
Brannart uses Total Defense and stands.
This will provoke an AOO, and his AC will be 18 against the AOO (-4 from prone, +4 from Total Defense). Once he is standing, he will be AC 22. (I think getting tripped counts as "getting hit" and so the Ward hex ends.)
Kowal will call out "not yet" as he notices Brannart move to stand but catches it too late. however, he continues his incantation chanting "Gu fortanach a bhith nad bhean" using misfortune on the queen DC15 will save
The witch can cause a creature within 30 feet to suffer grave misfortune for 1 round. Anytime the creature makes an ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or skill check, it must roll twice and take the worse result. A Will save negates this hex. At 8th level and 16th level, the duration of this hex is extended by 1 round. This hex affects all rolls the target must make while it lasts. Whether or not the save is successful, a creature cannot be the target of this hex again for 1 day.
and then runs up to near the front line.
As Malakar approaches, a tentacle lashes out. The undine jumps out of the way to avoid the attack, but it does disrupt his scimitar swing. At the same moment, Brannart stands and prepares for an attack that does not come since the Queen has focused her attention on Malakar. With this distraction, Fenna punctures through the Queen's hide, digging her pike deep into huge Grinylow's innards. Vexas's bolt and Sho's arrow joins the assault to turn the Queen into a bloody mess.
The Queen's roar echoes off of the domed ceiling after the barrage of attacks. The Queen lifts her spear just as Kowal's magic hits her. Her pupils constrict and her movement seems to slow.
The other Gridnylows scream in anger and throw spears. Fenna and Sho, having their focus on the queen, do not see the attacks coming. Fenna feels a terrible pain in her gut as a spear breaks through her armor while Sho feels her leg give for a moment as a spear punctures through her thigh.
Malakar dodges another tentacle while Fenna turns her attention to the spear that just dug into her gut. The Queen uses this distraction to spear the Bard with another gruesome hit. Fenna could feel her ribs being cracked and ripped apart as the Queen's spear quickly slams through her and is ripped back out. Blood spurts from her mouth after the attack. Brannart watches on in disbelief at what he sees and misses the Queen's giant maw descend upon him and bury sharp teeth into his shoulder. Luckily, his armor took the brunt of the vicious attack, but he can feel the trickle of warm blood soaking into his clothing.
Brannart curses his slow reflexes for getting first tripped and then bit. Can't stay rusty forever or it'll get me killed.
He stabs at the queen with his Ranseur.
Malakar angry at his last miss makes a large slash with an angry snarl.
Brannart's experience kicks in after seeing his friends take some hits. With a measured jab of his ranseur, the weapon stabs through the Queen's throat. Her wide eyes look down on him as he removes the weapon. She grasps her throat to no avail, as she falls over sideways.
Malakar launches himself over the queen, looking at her dull eyes as he does, and slices through another Grindylow.
As Malakar cuts down its companion, the remaining Grindylow starts to inch away. With its focus on the Druid, the Grindylow forgets about the Ranger. Sho pulls back and takes the shot. The arrow explodes through the enemy's head, dropping it in an instant.
The surrounding sand and stone slowly turn a sickly red as the floor soaks up Grindylow blood. The cave is now eerily quiet.
Malakar is interested in the queens equipment.
Brannart looks at the severe wounds on Fenna.
She is still conscious, at least.
"Can anybody heal Fenna?"
The pain from two such brutal stabs coming almost simultaneously is so overwhelming that Fenna loses her sight. For a couple of seconds all she can see is purplish black.
She drops her pike and wraps her arms around her torso, falling to her knees. Her sight clears to blurry, but Fenna is very light-headed. She spits out a bunch of blood pooling up in her mouth.
As she slumps over onto the the ground, laying on her side, it occurs to her that she may be holding her own guts in, and also that she can't draw a good breath. Fenna is quite certain she's about to die. She's oddly detached about her doom.
Well crap, I really thought I'd get old...
Brannart rolls Fenna over onto her back, and she vaguely sees his face floating above her.
Oh, he's going to pray over me, Last Rites. He's so nice...
Fenna smiles a weak, bloody-toothed smile at Brannart.
Then Fenna experiences a moment of clarity and realizes if she hurries she might not die.
She adjusts her hands slightly, to where it hurts the most and croaks out "välitön kivusta".
Her hands glow warmly. It doesn't help much.
I'm still dying...
But she seems to keep not dying, at least not quickly, so she tries again.
"Välitön kivusta".
Fenna can breathe easier, and her head's a little clearer.
She looks at Brannart and asks "can we go now?"
Brannart nods. "In a bit. We should look around.
I don't know what we'll find - hopefully not the remains of any of the colonists, but we should look."
"'Välitön kivusta,' is that it?" Brannart's inflection is all wrong and the words have no power, but he speaks with admiration. "Magic is astounding. Without such power, a wound like that might fester and kill you.
Why don't you take a rest here for a few minutes. Then we'll all go back to the ship. And get you some rum."
He will remain on guard while those with keener eyes search the place.
That was close... I have to remember my training. To take the blow. I know it can't save everyone, but to buy my friends one more chance...
"From my experience, the magic comes as much from the intent and state of mind as it does from the dictation. Though that is certainly a portion of it. If you'd like I could try to show you some of how mine works. Though I admit I don't know much of how Fenna's works."
after Kowal looks around and sees the state of the party he asks. "does anyone feel they are in dire need of healing now or should we save our strength in case of further danger?"
Intention... good. Because that's all I'll have at first when I start learning it.
Vexas watches the healing intently until it's clear Fenna is not worsening.
Searching the area thoroughly, you find no other exits or evidence of colonists.
The Queen possessed a long spear with runes down its side, a starfish amulet around her neck, and a dark green ring with red etchings along its surface.
Searching around the stone hand, almost buried completely in the sand, is an old chest. The lock is rusted together and beyond any type of use. Fenna stands and takes in a deep breath. She is covered in dried blood and sand, but her wounds have closed. With her pike, she stabs at the chest until it breaks open revealing a very light chain shirt, a ring swirling in several shades of blue, and a slender red metallic rod about a foot in length. Under this treasure is a pile of gold coin. Each coin is minted with the same etchings. Many of the etchings are too worn down but piecing a few coins together reveals an encircled cross under a depiction of a large cat-like creature.
The light chain shirt catches Vexas' eye.
May I have a look at that? Is it... mithril? A rogue's best friend if so.
When Fenna finally dares the look down and feel around, she finds she's not in as bad shape as she had expected. Once she gets to her feet and slowly walks off some of the lingering pain, she doing alright.
Since Brannart had brought it up, Fenna gives him her take on magic in reply.
"It's hard to explain how to do it. I did certainly learn magic, but it's almost impossible to describe how to do it someone who doesn't know how. It's kind of like doing an arial somersault. Before you learn to do one, it seems impossible. Then you practice a lot and fail. Then you can, and once you can you just do it."
"I'll second what Kowal said about intent and state of mind. Just saying the words right doesn't work. They need more than that to have power. For me, I can do it because I know I can do it. The knowing isn't detached, rational knowing though. I know it fully and absolutely throughout my whole body. I can't really explain it better than that."
When Fenna makes out the stamping on the coins, she lets the others know about them with excitement.
"You know what about these coins? They're pretty darn old!"
"Gold is gold, Sho. I assume even ancient gold coins will be accepted in Andoran. If we are sending back for more supplies, we can send these as payment."
"I don't think magic is for me, Fenna. I prefer to wear heavy armor, and I don't have the patience to be a priest. But I do find it fascinating."
Another pass through the coins with better light and Fenna finds one that's still of sufficiently good condition to show all of it's detail as a newly minted coin.
"Huh! Old is right! I think these were minted to commemorate the founding of Cheliax as a Taldan province! That means they were made around 1,700 years ago! Gold might not just be gold here Brannart. This one and any others in good enough shape to be positively identified might be collectible antiquities, worth more than the gold they contain alone."
Kowal seeing a ring among the contents of the chest will quietly incant "Nochdaidh na dìomhaireachdan agad" and cast detect magic.
Vexas raises the chain-link shirt and is momentarily mesmerized by the fine mithral links reflecting light from the nearby wall.
Meanwhile, Fenna searches the pile of gold for potential antiquities and continues her conversation with Brannart about magic.
Kowal gets Brannart’s attention when he begins to chant his own form of magic, causing his hands and eyes to glow a misty white. The Elf scans his surroundings and focuses in on several items they just found.
Vexas takes the chain shirt over to Fenna.
Can you take a crack at it? I assumed it was mithril chain, but Kowal seemed to be trying to identify some magic in it. I... cannot yet do that myself.
Either way...
Vexas looks back at the place where the queen lay, asking out loud I don't know about the rest of you, but I tire of this dank place. Do you think there are more of them to root out deeper below, or have we taken care of the problem in eliminating their queen? Or was this even the queen?
I too wish to be free of this place but I would feel better knowing the job was done and taking a quick dive into the deeper waters. I can go myself with Razor if you want to make haste back to the ship.
Fenna takes the mail shirt from Vexas. "Sure, I'll give it a look over"
"We might as well be thorough while we're already here" she opines, though without great enthusiasm.
Fenna soon hands the armor back to Vexas. "No idea. Sorry."
"Yes, Malakar, if you and Razor could scout quickly, that would be helpful. And I think the spear is yours if you want it.
If there are enemies in that deep-water area, please do come back and get us.
I'm not Razor, but I can swim decently well even in my armor."
Brannart looks at the rings. "Who is most in need of this Ring of Swimming? Vexas?"
Kowal will share his findings as he makes them.
”It seems the wand would lie best with you Malakar, possibly also the spear. I agree that the ring of swimming probably ought to go with Vexas, the second ring seems of negligible use for us, I think it might be best to sell it. In terms of the amulet I think it could go with either Fenna or Brannart.”
"The second ring could well come in useful. I will take it."
"Fenna should have the amulet."
Malakar reenters the water, intent on moving toward the deeper uninvestigated areas in the cave system.
Now that there seems to be no more danger, Razor nudges Malakar in a playful manner before swimming away. He slows down briefly and turns to look at the Undine, then swims away again. Malakar has played this game before and chases after his friend.
The Druid moves into the tunnel with the deeper water. It leads to a small cavern where the water is ten feet deep. Malakar scans the depths as he slowly swims around, then something catches his eye.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ring of swimming? Yes, that does also sound useful.
The halfling accepts it and lets it magically size onto his right index finger. No more shoulder rides in the water for me!
With the party moving on, he stows the mithril shirt for now, and enthusiastically wades into the water to try out his newly bestowed abilities.