Still wary of spooking the crew and passengers, to the phantom's annoyance, Vasia calls Jenica back from the water to reside within herself.
After a quick internal debate, she leans down to press a quick kiss on the halfling's cheek. "That's from Bunica," she whispers. "She says she's very proud of how well you handled yourself."
'I didn't say on the cheek.'
You can deliver that message yourself.
Morgana shakes herself rather vigorously when she returns to the deck and then lets out a sigh of relief at Shaumatiel's ministrations so that the water running off her stops having a slight red tinge to it.
"Falayna provides." She agrees, having been able to retrieve her spear as they returned to the surface. "It looks like you sorted everything out up here." She adds, wrapping an arm around Vasia and pressing a kiss into her hair. "I knew you could."
Vasia smiles, but pushes Morgana back slightly. "You're all wet!" she protests. She doesn't push very hard, though. "It was mostly Melody."
"Do you think we've made the village itself safe enough for everyone to stay there?" she asks the others.
Melody has a strange perking up and awkward deflating at Vasia's kiss. Shuffling a little she says "Tell her thank you." as the heroes come back on board she rushes over. "What was it? Can you describe it, in detail, please??" a storyteller cannot tell stories without details.
"They were fish! Two of them!" Shaumatiel tells Melody. "Long and skinny and almost translucent. They were sucking on the ship, draining its speed somehow. We fought them off!"
Melody's eyes turn wide, as her mouth works into biting quirk, her thinking face. "Ship Speed Sucking Sea Serpents? Hmm... a better name is needed, not sure how to do translucent in fabric either... hmm..." she then realizes she should pay attention to the entire discussion "I never had any doubt." she smiles to Shaumatiel's declaration of victory.
Morgana grins at Vasia and restrains the urge to shake water all over her.
"Rainbow leeches?" She suggests. "They looked quite pretty until it latched onto me. It felt like I was swimming through treacle, or mud."
She glances back at Vasia. "Yes I do know what swimming in mud feels like. Now stop thinking about it." Her wink belies her words however.
Ramona waves you all onto the poop deck. "Thank you for your help. Thanks to you everyone seems a lot calmer and I want to sail for the main site at once to take advantage of the positive feeling. There is one problem though." She turns to the captain, who frowns.
"One of me' men saw those grindylows again. Came near the boat when they were looking for fresh water. He chased it away but it went into some sort of cave system. There's probably a dozen of the little buggers there."
Ramona continues. "I'm sorry to ask, but can you head over to investigate? If we can come to some sort of peaceful accommodation that would be best, but if not then we need to make sure they won't be attacking our ships again. Not everyone on board could defend themselves the way you did... We'll give you one of the boats so you can sail back and not have to trek through the jungle again."
Thus you soon find yourselves entering into a submerged cave system. Reflected sunlight from outside flickers across the water and reflects on the stone ceiling in this mostly submerged cave. The waters are cold, but not to a life-threatening degree, and the motion of the surf outside sends mild, rocking waves across the chamber. A passageway extends to the north, and to the south is the cave entrance.
Morgana, being the tallest, has no trouble keeping her head and shoulders out of the water, but Vasia is walking on tiptoes and Melody cannot stay above water at all without swimming. This is not going to be your easiest task to date...
Melody was NOT about to miss out on seeing another of the stories playing out, since it is so much harder developing dolls for them when she doesn't see it. So she goes with the heroes this time, and remembers her pledge to herself on the epic ship journey when she was surrounded with water at all times, To learn to swim better. This memory is especially strong as she starts to drown at in the five-foot water at the entrance of the cave.
Shaumatiel grabs Melody by the collar and hauls her out of the water. ”None of that, now! You will ride on Morgana’s shoulders!”
While coughing and sputtering, Melody cannot argue with the logic of Shaumatiel's suggestion. But tries "I. Don'..t... want to get in the way." the halfling wheeze pants out.
"And we don't want you drowned either." Morgana replies firmly. "Now, up. Hold onto my hair if you have to, but I'll need both my hands if something comes to get us." She does squat somewhat so that Shaumatiel can put Melody on her shoulders and then stands easily, even soaking wet the halfling barely weighs anything at all.
"Don't get used to this though." She adds with a grin over her shoulder. "I think Vasia and Jenica would get cross if I let you ride me too often!"
"Then why doesn't she ride on my shoulders," Vasia says with a raised eyebrow. "You wouldn't want anything to interfere with the use of your weapons, now would you?"
The manifested phantom laughs.
"Yes, and this way she can keep my nepoata safe," she says. Her smile fades just a bit. "You can do that for me, right, my lovely?"
"What do you think Melody?" Morgana asks, choosing not to mention the various reasons (greater height, greater strength) for her to be the one carrying the halfling.
With Melody safely ensconced above the waterline you press on. The water is cold but doesn't get any deeper for now as you push into the caves. Suddenly two grindylows erupt from the shadowy water by the walls!
Melody winces a little at being a bother, and having to be treated like a child, especially by Jenica, but nods to them about the transfer of carrier.
As the Grindylows appear she exclaims "They're like goblins whose back ends exploded in tentacles."
"Interesting image!" Morgana replies stabbing at the rather swift creatures to no avail.
Morgana's spear misses its mark as the Grindylow's tentacles start pushing them through the water in order to retaliate with their own spears but both are as ineffectual as Morgana
Shaumatiel attacks, but her aim is off!
This time Morgana has the measure of her foe and impales one clean through.
"Oh, don't let them, yes, like that, ouch, no, maybe, to the left?" Melody's inspiration lacks something today, but it is enough to keep the feeling going.
As she sees one of them lining their spear up for another jab, she screams at it. It is rather unpleasant if anyone but the slipt ends of a goblin could hear it but happily, they cannot.
Jenica considers moving through the wall to flank the creatures, but thinks better of it knowing that the battle will most likely be finished by the time she can manage it.
Vasia moves a little to allow Melody a clear view of what's happening, but lets the two ladies in front handle the strange goblin creatures.
Morgana impales one octo-goblin and Melody's magical scream makes the other one explode - quite literally. Guts fly everywhere, but luckily there is an abundance of water to get them all off again.
Having survived the ambush you can proceed directly ahead or head to your right, into what appears to be a larger (and possibly deeper) cavern.
"Yuck!" Shaumatiel says, spitting out pieces of exploded gobtopus. "Let's not risk the deep water. Forward?"
"Forward." Morgana agrees, scooping up a handful of water to get octo-guts out of her hair. "Sweetheart, Jenica, would it be best for you to go in front in your ghost form? These things don't seem to have any magic so they wouldn't be able to hurt you and we'd get some advance warning..."
With a slight air of disappointment, Jenica's sabres vanish into the ether. She turns and stretches up to press a kiss to the halfling's cheek. "Watch over her for me," she whispers in the halfling's ear before giving the delicate shell a playful nip with her teeth.
Moving past the others she pauses for a moment and slowly shifts to her incorporeal form before continuing straight forward.
Incorporeal Jenica glides forwards through the water and through a string of translucent seaweed that it strung tightly across the cave and seems extremely suspicious. There are also three gobtopussies waiting behind it! Since Jenica is staying under the water however they don't make her immediately...
Since Jenica is a thorough lady of excellent taste she checks the other way as well. There are signs of habitation, as well as three more gobtopussies playing with a pair of octopuses. Swimming back to the group she reports in.
"Shall we head into the living quarters, take out the reinforcements and then attack the trap from behind?" Morgana asks, "Or leave them and hope to get in and out without fighting them? Any we leave might be a threat to the colony in future..."
"I've rarely heard of a story where the hero's managed to slip past the guards and didn't have to fight them eventually." well she had but they made little sense.
"Let's take them out!" Shaumatiel agrees, holding her fists forth to show off her rings in praise of Falayna.
Since Jenica is a thorough lady of excellent taste ...
"I don't think we'll be able to get behind them," the incorporeal woman offers, her voice faint. "Attacking either group will bring the other into the battle behind us. Unless we wish to fight them on two fronts, I would suggest we draw the ambushers into battle and then fall back past the junction to bottleneck them."
"I can splash about in the water to draw them in?" Melody offers with more than a bit of hesitation, but not knowing how else she could help.
"Let's head to the right, away from the traps." Morgana says, making decisions because no-one else is. "That may slow them down and it will certainly give us a little more breathing room."
"Are you two going to be ok?" She asks, looking at Melody and Vasia. "I'll try and stay close by where I can."
The phantom shrugs and takes a moment to return to her ectoplasmic form, her sabres reappearing in her hands. Following after Morgana, she prepares to bring spectral justice upon the vile gobtapusses.
Clutching Basis's head, the wet halfling nods her readiness.
With a plan in mind the adventurers push forward and to the right as quietly as possible in the dark water. Distracted by their games the water monsters are slow to react, giving Melody and Shaumatiel a chance to get the jump on them!
"Oh... Oh, oh?" the soaked mess of halfling tries to think of something, ANYTHING to fuel her muddling babbling magic as it is. And finds something at least " Needless of worry and wort, please oh water goblins flee from the death that awaits you from the HEROES. Surely even ones like you, so far from taverns and good wine, know that Heroes Never Lose!" she lowers her voice into as bass booming as her lungs allow her to, somewhat spoiled by the addition of a correcting whisper "[smaller...]unless that is the point of the tale and definitely not part of ours. I hope.[/smaller]" with nothing else to do she clutches to her girlfriend's grand-ish daughter's head.
Not wanting to rush forward and get surrounded, Shaumatiel stays back and blasts a gobtopus with lightning!
Melody babbles in a way that would be confusing to lesser minds, but fortunately our heroes are made of sterner stuff!
The grindylow spasms as Shaumatiel fries it with electricity and collapses into a boneless floating goo... thing. The remaining warriors take umbrage at their friends death and jet forward to attack!
Both Morgana and Shaumatiel are well used to fighting grindylows by now and avoid their spears with ease.
Unfortunately it turns out that the octopuses are rather more cunning and one latches on to Morgana!
Shaumatiel wildly swings her glowing sword!
Morgana shakes off the poison and grabs hard at the octopus, attempting to turn it into a delicious kebab.
Jenica moves to support Morgana, hammering away at the octopus with her spectral weapons.
By Vasia's furrowed brow, a wet rock is dragged up through the water and flung at one of the grindylows.
Melody lets her babbling stop (but the magic lingers) as she tries to befuddle the mind of one of the part goblins.
Morgana skewers an octopus on her spear and Jenica is not to be out-done, clobbering another grindylow with her semi-spectral blades. Shaumatiel however is unable to fell her foes and the two monsters continue to attack her, unaware of their comrades falling beside them.
The remaining grindylow is befuddled by Melody (possibly because he can't understand how she has a second head and some spare legs) and stares vacantly at the halfling while the octopus tries to grapple with Shaumatiel once more. It bites her hand, but cannot keep a firm grip.
Faint cries come from the other passage, the grindylows you bypassed seem to have realised that something is up!
Morgana turns her attention to the second octopus, aiming for a double kebab!
”Ow!” Shaumatiel curses, slashing the octopus!
With more of the bad things coming, Melody switches to her screamy attack.