Hearing the approaching cries from the wanna-be ambushers, Vasia (and her halfling rider) move away from the current cavern's entrance and to the side as she flings another wet rock, dragged up from the depths, at one of the approaching gobtapusses.
Jenica moves to put herself between Shaumatiel and the newcomers, snarling and readying her weapons for the onslaught.
Shaumatiel cuts a whole bunch of the octopus's legs off and Melodies scream causes its bulbous head to burst in a brief, but unpleasant splatter.
Morgana misses the grindylow, but Jenica and Vasia are on target, felling two of the three grindylows rushing towards you all. The remaining two prove little threat and you are soon surrounded by corpses and slowly dispersing blood. A short investigation turns up an inflated fish bladder containing 13 pieces of polished red coral worth 10 gp each. In addition, a waterlogged backpack contains a bottle of air, an ever-burning torch, a rotted coil of rope, an empty flask bearing the initials “E. M.,” a
hammer, six pitons, and a dented flute.
You push on and after a sharp switchback in the tunnel, a gradual upward slope leads out of the water and into this roughly round chamber with a dome-like ceiling. The floor is covered in a mixture of sand and coarse stones. 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 earth.
A huge grindylow, the same size as Morgana, is seated on the hand on some sort of driftwood throne and when she sees you all coming she lets out an angry roar and slides down on dozens of tentacles, wielding a long spear. It seems that negotiation is out of the question with this one.
Quick off the mark the giant grindylow surges onwards and stabs at Morgana with her large spear.
She lands a brutal blow, letting a great spray of Morgana's blood out as she withdraws her weapon.
"Falayna!" Shaumatiel cries as she leaps into the fray!
"Oh! a titanic tentacled tyrant? Maybe a glove with extra flippy bits sewn on. With a big head and um... middle bits." the doll maker in her is discussing with no one how one would make a giant grindylow for the next puppet show, which oddly is inspirational.
The spectre moves up out of the water and onto the sand, her blades dripping ectoplasm as she approaches the bloated figure.
Vasia forgoes her telekinetic attack to touch Morgana with a healing hand.
Despite the comforting warmth of Vasia's magic undoing much of the damage almost immediately Morgana's beast roars in anger at the challenge presented by the grindylow queen. Morgana lets out a feral sounding snarl before thrusting forwards with her own spear as fur rushes down her arms and her fingers elongate into fearsome claws. Sadly this ruins her aim.
Morgana's blow strikes a rock with a nasty clanging sound but both Shaumatiel and Jenica cut into the grindylow's rubbery flesh. Roaring in pain the creature wheels around and attempts to skewer Shaumatiel the way she did Morgana!
Neither her blade nor her teeth achieve anything.
"Fall before our fury!" Shaumatiel shouts as she slashes again.
Morgana is more than happy to contribute fury, dropping her spear and rending at the grindylow with claw and fang!
Melody screams at the big bloated grindylow.
"You'll look so much better as a puppet!" Jenica declares as her ghostly sabres slash this way and that.
"Oh, please don't make a puppet version," Vasia argues, glancing up at the halfing on her shoulders. "That sounds almost obscene."
With a frown of concentration, she sends another stone through the air towards the tentacled creature.
"But..." Melody looks down to Vasia with all the stricken-ness her round little face is capable of (which happens to be a lot) "... that is... what I do"
The grindylow warrior shakes off the effects of Melody's scream, but Morgana opens two large gashes in its rubbery flesh. No-one else is able to land a blow however and the warrior, who isn't dead yet, continues its campaign to fell the shape-shifting woman.
Luckily for Morgana the creature is bleeding heavily so its blows, while powerful, are not enough to fell her.
Roaring in pain, Morgana has no time to devote to the puppet debate while she is fighting for her life! She strikes out with a clawed fist, swiping at the grindylow's eyes.
Shaumatiel swings and misses!
Seeing the way the battle is swinging, Vasia touches Morgana with a healing hand.
"Fight it if you will, but immortalization in felt and wool is all that's left of your future," Jenica continues with a laugh.
Melody sends out another scream as the lingering magic of her inspiring doll making skills starts to wane.
Morgana's lashing claw and Jenica's spectral blades cut deep and the grindylow finally collapses, thick green-ish blood running sluggishly into the water. Vasia's examination shows a magical amulet as well as a magical ring on one of its tentacles which has to be extracted with a minute or so's unpleasant and slimy work. The creature's spear was also magical, which might explain how it was able to do so much damage.
A rusted sea chest, seemingly stolen from a sunken sailing ship, is tucked behind the stone hand that serves as the grindylow's throne. The lock is rusted beyond use, so the chest must be broken open but it proves to contain a +1 mithral chain shirt, a ring of swimming, a wand of flaming sphere with 9 charges, and 470 gp minted in Cheliax before the ascension of House Thrune.
With this battle over you have defeated the grindylow tribe and whatever survivors may be hiding elsewhere will pose no more threat to Talmandor's Bounty! You rejoin the Peregrine and set sail for the colony in triumph! After dropping anchor in the bay's shallow water everyone sets to work unloading and ferrying things to the shore. Ramona collects you all for a tour of the colony and asks you to point out any hazards as yet unsolved.
The bugs in the tool shed are a minor problem but the haunting in the chapel is a much more significant issue and Ramona frowns. "Well, we'll keep everyone out for now but we'll need to find a solution soon, unless you don't mind patrolling in there every couple of days Vasia? Speaking of which, you should all pick yourselves out a house before all the good ones go. We need the smithy, the chapel and the goverment house but you can have any of the other ones!"
"Ooh, pretty," Shaumatiel says, running a hand over the fine mithral of the cahin shirt.
***
The elf proves useful in driving the bugs from the tool shed, conjuring a localized flash flood within the shed until all of the insects have fled.
Regarding the haunted chapel, Shaumatiel says, "Maybe we can try to talk to the spirit to find out how to put it to rest? It's a dangerous proposition, but likely the only way to make the chapel safe to use again."
"Almost as pretty as its new owner." Morgana replies with a wink as her hair reverts to its normal length and her hands regain their individual digits. She picks up the spear and tests its heft. "I'm keeping this! Stupid thing hit really hard, so now I can return the favor!"
Then she turns to her girlfriend, the woman responsible (once again) for keeping her alive. "Thanks cara, you kept me going there." She helps Melody dismount and then presses a kiss onto Vasia's forehead. "I don't know how I managed without you really." She says with a grin. "I'm glad I don't have to any more though."
With the threats dealt with she offers to act as the halfling transport and they leave the cave with a little more ease than they entered.
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Later on, back at the colony, Morgana proposes that their little group take the farmhouse atop the nearby hill.
"It's a nice place." She says with a shrug, "And I'd prefer to keep a close eye on that well until we're ready do deal with whatever's down there - it's not fair to leave anyone else doing it. It has two bedrooms as well, which is better than most of the other houses. Perhaps we can do something about splitting that into three?"
For the first night however she doesn't worry too much about the arrangements, beyond ensuring that she and Vasia have a half-way decent pallet to cuddle up on together. Knowing that her girlfriend will be up as late as possible to give Jenica her time with Melody, Morgana tries her best to stay up but the hard work and blood loss of the last day conspire to make her sleepy and she is soon unconscious, letting out oddly animalistic snuffles every so often and radiating enough heat to keep Vasia warm with little more than a single blanket.
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Over the next couple of days Morgana pitches in with a will. She is more withdrawn than she used to be, not mingling and giving orders the way she used to in Sandpoint. Instead she takes on one task at a time, working it to completion quickly and quietly. While she has smiles and nods for the other colonists she discourages conversation by working almost constantly, carrying larger loads than any other member of the colony and not even pausing to wave the Peregrine off on its return journey to Magnimar apart from entrusting the crew with a letter to her family to inform them of her safe arrival.
"Talking to the spirit might work..." She agrees. "Probably better with Jenica there and maybe Father Eamon and Father Kurvis? Just in case..."
With the threats dealt with she offers to act as the halfling transport and they leave the cave with a little more ease than they entered.
The paladin's offer is rendered null as Jenica slips between the two and, without preamble, lifts the small woman onto her own ectoplasmic shoulders. She turns to Morgana and raises one eyebrow. "I've got her. You worry about your own," she says.
Once back at the village and presented with the challenge of cleansing the chapel, Vasia nods at Morgana's suggestion.
"Yes. With Bunica's presence, I should be able to find out what this trapped soul desires and free it to move on."
With the phantom in her incorporeal form, the young woman approaches the haunted building. Taking deep breaths to keep her emotions settled, she steps through the doorway. "Hello?" she calls out as Jenica moves through the wall next to her. "Are you here? We only wish to help."
Melody might have complained about being shifted about like a doll, but Nope,
Instead, she snuggles into the softly cool mound of ectoplasmic tresses.
Unfortunately it seems that the spirit has yet to re-manifest and Vasia and Jenica's investigations come to nothing. On the fourth day in Talmandor's Bounty Ramona comes out to your new house and asks to be shown the well.
"You say that creatures came out from there? And there are caves under the hill? We need to make sure that whatever is down there is gone for good. Do you mind investigating? We can get you torches, rope, anything else you need, and I can lend you this." She hands over a small stone which burns with a heatless flame. "I'd like it back once you're done but until then I hope it will be useful. Good luck."
Going down the rope once more you emerge into the same caves as before - thankfully the corpses of the ambush predators you killed are still present and only missing one or two tentacles.
As you return to the forking tunnels you notice that the walls glint strangely in the light, suggestive of interesting stone veins present in the walls - there might be potential for the mining of precious stones here. If you can clear out the current inhabitants...
Heading down the other tunnel you find that the cramped tunnels open up into a larger cavern. Its irregular walls open to dark spaces. A suspicious-looking pile of bones sits in the center of the floor, while the faint scent of blood and viscera has almost—but not quite—faded away. As you enter a chorus of high pitched screeching is sent up by the quartet of small, gangly creatures who start scampering towards you.
”Chill out!” Shaumatiel shouts as she conjures a momentary blizzard around the oncoming monsters!
The small creatures seem fairly hardy and ignore Shaumatiel's blizzard, leaping forwards in ungainly strides. Two find themselves just short of the party but the nearer two make it into range of Morgana, one of them scampering up the rough walls in order to do so.
One lands a blow to the woman's midriff and the creature snags her clothes, inhibiting her range of movement.
"Oh... loud, numerous, and they bite... kind of like, hmmm... kids around Sweet's when she had fresh cookies?" Melody wonders aloud, in her kind of nervous way, as the creatures start to try and eat one of the heroes. Her nervous meandering musing does have a bit of magic in it as it always should.
Shaumatiel moves up and slices at the arms of the creature grabbing Morgana!
Morgana doesn't take being punched well and retaliates with a huge bite of her own as her head shifts seamlessly into a mouth full of teeth!
Under Vasia's furrowed brow on concentration a loose stone flies through the air, but misses the one attacking Morgana.
... as do Jenica's spectral sabres.
Morgana rends the creature grappling her in two - these creatures seem to be juveniles, or at least considerably weaker than the one you fought above ground. Sadly the ex-paladin is the only one to land a blow as the others reach out to grapple and impede both Morgana and Shaumatiel.
Morgana takes another blow but manages to avoid being grabbed this time.
Shaumatiel swings her sword again!
Morgana continues biting and tearing as the transformation which started at her head spreads further down her back and shoulders...
Melody continues her inspirational comparison between these creatures and kids around sweets as well as throwing in a ear peircing scream at the nearest one.
"You do know that you're making me hungry with all this talk of sweets, My Lovely," Jennica calls back over her shoulder.
Another rock flies. "How can you be hungry?" Vasia questions. "You can't eat food."
Jenica's only response is a wide smirk.
"Oh," the spiritualist replies, her cheeks reddening.
Melody and Morgana combine to fell another creature, while Vasia and Jenica inflict minor wounds on a third. Shaumatiel holds her opponent at bay, but cannot hurt it.
Morgana continues to prove popular as she is clawed again, getting a whole new set of scars to go with her much older ones.
It’s a swing and a miss for poor Shaumatiel!
"Oh..." the little halfling turns red, fumbling a little with what to say next, her brain distracted by other warm thoughts. "blue berry pie. Pecan ice cream. Double fudge cookies." she can't think of sentences so just listing desserts is all she has.
She also takes a moment to scream at the creature grabbing Morgana.
Morgana, getting thoroughly annoyed by the whole process, continues biting and ripping at the small irritations. The transformation seems to have stopped somewhere around her torso leaving her some sort of strange tiger-woman hybrid.
It doesn't help her combat ability though.
"Oh now you're just teasing me. I'll get my payback in flesh later," Jenica says with a laugh, swinging her spectral weapons at the beast grappling Morgana.
"Can you for just once focus on the task at hand?" Vasia snaps as she sends another stone flying uselessly at the creature with its arms around her lover.
Shaumatiel and her opponent continue to fence without effect, but Melody's scream finally leaves Morgana free and the shifter moves quickly to take Shaumatiel's opponent from behind. The element of surprise is crucial and she rips the creature in twain with an angry growl before silence falls briefly.
Morgana shakes the blood off her claws and peers around to retrieve her spear, holding it awkwardly in clawed hands.
Shaumatiel lays hands on Morgana to heal some of her injuries.