Zetty reaches for Aesephna's brooch of Erastil, where it rests on its lanyard around her neck. It shines with divine light for a moment, before blasting forth a lance of positive energy. She directs the blazing light at the greater shadow, hoping to destroy it before it can steal more shadows.
She follows by painting a thin veil of ink to shield herself.
Bella could tell that Kragga was badly wounded. She tumbled over and quickly laid her healer's gloves on the orc, and followed it up with more emergency healing.
Eyenia conjures a starknife of magical force and directs it at the shadowy foe.
Bella heals Kragga's wounds as the orc feebly swings her sword. She misses, but she follows up with another force-fang blast that batters the greater shadow. Vengis pummels it with more magic missiles, then Zetty disrupts its spectral form. Eyenia's starknife of force delivers the finishing blow, and it dissolves into nothingness!
Kragga's stolen shadow continues to fight, though it isn't much of a threat, and you quickly vanquish it. The orc magus remains weakened, but she will recover with enough rest, at which point her shadow will return to her.
Zetty invokes the pendant a couple more times to disperse the minor shadow, scrunching her face up at the idea that this is Kragga's shadow she's breaking. She hopes that won't be a permanent problem. Once the foes are both destroyed, she takes a step back into the room. "I'd guess we should call ourselves lucky that our mummy friend on the other side of this floor didn't turn into something like this. That would have been a pretty horrible surprise."
While Kragga's wounds are tended to, Zetty takes a quick look around the western room to see if there are any other threats hiding inside any walls. She also checks to see if the rusted western door is stuck or movable. Then, if things look pretty safe, she takes a quick break.
Bella treated Kragga's wounds.
[
[
"Perhaps we should return to town and rest; I've used most of my healing abilities for the day."
There do not appear to be any more threats in this area. The double door to the wast leads to a passage that ends at a cave-in behind a door. Clearing the cave-in will take quite a long time--a total of 40 hours of manual labor.
The two guard chambers and archer stations were looted centuries ago but still bear empty weapon racks. One of the rooms has a secret door in its west wall that opens by manipulating a hook on the room’s weapon rack. Beyond is a bedchamber, and another hall that connects to the balcony of the arena to the south.
You have fully explored this level of the Abomination Vaults! You feel that your recent experiences have prepared you for the greater challenges still to come.
After poking around the remaining western rooms, Zetty joins the group currently healing from their injuries. "I'd say you're right Bella! Past time we got on out of here and into some place cozy. I could go for three or four mugs of hot chocolate and a good comfy blanket."
Unless people object, Zetty starts leading the way back up stairs and to the teleporter on the library floor, the deepest one she'd managed to awaken the previous day.
You make it back to Otari without issues. There, you are able to rest, recover, and perhaps trade for new gear to prepare yourselves for further exploration of the Abomination Vaults...
----------------
As she suggested back underground, Zetty heads straight to the Rowdy Rockfish for hot drinks and encourages the rest of the group to join her to unwind from the harrowing trip. It had been what felt like an exceptionally long day and Zetty starts snoozing almost the moment she reaches the bottom of her cup. Her inky familiar dances around her head, leading a parade of ink drops in time with her dreams.
The following morning, she heads to fill Wrin in on the events of the previous day, mentioning "A whole run down training area and arena, with fleshwarp experiments and ghosts and mimics and more. Plus a mummy that says he'll help us if we help get him revenge against some seugathi on the floor below. I'm not sure if I super trust him, but it's better than everyone down there being an enemy... right? What do you think?" Before the group heads back down, she asks for a new reading of the stars - though that might be the following night.
She also heads over to the town's library and shops to see if she can find a few scrolls.
Wrin listens to Zetty's story with great interest. "Fascinating! This mummy you spoke to, Chafkhem, was it? He may or may not be trustworthy, but it seems your goals align, for the time being. I'd suggest you try to stay on his good side and hope that he follows through with his end of the bargain."
"That's what I was thinking too Wrin! And hey, you haven't been wrong yet." Zetty promises to return for the star reading with the rest of the group, then heads into town to see what the rest of the team is doing.
Wrin looks up into the skies in an attempt to provide guidance for your next foray into the Abomination Vaults. Unfortunately, the clouds obscure most of the stars tonight, and the tiefling shakes her head. "I am sorry, my friends. I cannot get a clear reading for you tonight. You will have to trust to your own wits and skills as you proceed!"
Zetty puts her sketch of the clouds parting to reveal the stars to rest with a sigh and a "I hope that's not a bad sign, then..." before leading the way back to the trail to the Gauntlight. She leads the group to take the awakened portal deeper into the dungeon, then cautiously steps through the arena floor to reach the mimic room.
"So I was thinking- we probably don't want to go back down the same set of stairs we did last time - that thing would be expecting us that way. So why don't we try these?" She pushes the sticky mimic bodies she'd used to hold the trap doors closed aside. "These ladders should lead down and maybe be less obvious?"
The ladders descend down into a large cavern below. The southern end of this cavern is entirely flooded. A walkway encased in transparent stone runs along the eastern wall, 10 feet above the water’s surface.
An overhang above the deepest part of the pool is pierced by a well capped by a sturdy iron grate. The grate’s bolts appear to have been broken from underneath.
Zetty is not at all happy to be splashing around in the southern end of the cavern. As quickly and safely as she can, she makes her way to the shore. Once she's there, she takes a careful look around for any monsters being kept around for observation. At first glance - given the walkway looking down at the water - this is another room designed for that creature to observe what's happening within.
She ponders the geometry and her own maps for a moment before coming to the conclusion that the grate in the southern end of the cavern leads back to the same room the party had already accessed. Instead, she turns her attention more to the north and west.
Quietly she whispers "Is coming in through the sewers too old-hat? We could try that other staircase above - maybe that leads somewhere less wet."
Bella examined the grate, looking for clues about what manner of creature managed to force it open from beneath.
Bella doesn't have to wonder long about what creature might have damaged the grate, because as she approaches, a horrible fiend emerges from the water! Frail, fin-like wings erupt from the back of this serpentine creature, whose head resembles that of a ram-horned, four-eyed fish, and whose muscular arms end in masses of writhing tentacles like fists made of sea anemones.
The creature raises its arms and tries to fill Bella's lungs with murky water!
Success: The target coughs up water and is sickened 1.
Failure: The target is holding its breath. The only action it can take is to attempt a Fortitude save against Drown to expel the water, which is a single action.
Critical Failure: The target falls unconscious and begins suffocating. If the target succeeds at its Fortitude save while suffocating, it coughs up the water and can breathe again.
Bertolt launches forward to Bella's rescue, swinging at the creature!
Bella held her breath and tried in vain to expel the water.
Zetty's eyes go wide when the serpentine beast emerges, spraying everywhere... all while her writing equipment is safely stored away in her pack to protect it from the water. She doesn't have more than a moment to worry about that before Bella starts struggling, and the danger of the situation amplifies dramatically. She spends a second on two trying to understand what this monster is.
Zetty focuses her magic, painting ink in the air with her finger rather than relying on her writing slate. She delivers a wave of protective inspiration, and with her other hand draws and tosses a bottled lightning to try to throw it off balance.
Eyenia murmurs a few words in the language beyond the stars in an attempt to banish the water from Bella’s lungs.
Eyenia is unable to dispel the water filling Bella's lungs! As the halfling struggles to clear her airways, Bertolt moves in and strikes the creature with his hammer.
Zetty recognizes the creature as a sarglagon, or drowning devil! Sarglagons dwell in Hell's myriad waterways, lakes, and oceans. Mortal spellcasters sometimes bind sarglagons as guardians of precious secrets or treasures, particularly in aquatic areas. They are immune to fire, resist physical damage except from silvered weapons, and are weak to good.
Zetty hurls bottled lightning at the devil, only injuring it slightly, but leaving it off-balance. Vengis's projectile goes wide. Kragga casts a spell, teleporting behind the devil and slicing it with her blade, then enters her arcane cascade stance!
Roaring with fury, the fiend whirls on Kragga, attacking with its fangs and tentacle arms! The orc magus is injured, but she resists the venom from the creature's tentacles.
Bella coughed up the water and took a deep breath of precious air.
With Bella recovered, Zetty changes gears, sending threads of ink in spiraling patterns into the air. The ink forms vague images of angelic hordes, radiating with goodness, which menace the devil. Simultaneously, she splits off a section of ink and briefly turns it into a rippling wall. The wall bursts and a tiny lyrakien azata bursts forth, its wings sparkling in the light.
---
The fairy-like celestial flits in the air above Zetty before sending two rays of starlight down at the devil.
Bella saw that Kragga was in a dangerous position; she swam next to Bertolt and tried to stab the fiend with her rapier!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bertolt slams the devil with a double strike. Eyenia blasts it with searing light, the fire not burning the fiend but the holy energy proving quite effective! Bella and Vengis miss with their attacks. Kragga channels electricity into her blade as she delivers a powerful strike, then follows up by turning her sword to force and battering the fiend some more! Zetty's illusory lyrakien misses the fiend, but her dirge of doom frightens the devil enough that it drops its guard slightly. It's just enough to allow Kragga to score a critical hit, channeling lightning into her blade! She eviscerates the devil, and its entrails spill into the water as it falls!
After the battle was over, Bella performed her usual post-battle routine: healing Kragga's wounds.
Finally finished, she searched around the area herself.
"Ooh." Zetty has the lyrakien swirl around her head for a moment before vanishing into a splash of ink. "Kragga, not sure what we'd do without you exploding everything like that!" She backs off a bit, concerned about the devil's fiendish blood filling the water.
She mentions to Vengis "I think that leads up to where we fought that other monster last time. And its also the place the seugathi was watching us. I'm not sure we want to show our faces there in case they brought a bunch more to defend it. Maybe better to go the long way around and see if there's an easier way to the seugathi."
Zetty refocuses once she's back on shore.
Once everyone is healed up and the group has peeked under the water in the deep end of the pool, Zetty leads the way up the shore and toward the northwest, unless someone really wants to push up through the grate.
"My pleasure," Kragga grunts, giving Zetty a toothy grin. She nods her thanks to Bella for patching up her wounds.
Searching the deep pool here uncovers a few pieces of rusted equipment and humanoid bones. However, among them is an intact +1 resilient scale mail with lion motifs.
Heading along the shore to the northwest, you come to another part of the cavern. A rocky shoreline drops steeply into a large pool beneath several stalactites. Five square shafts in the stony ceiling lead upward. To the south, a barrier of transparent stone protects winding raised ledges that run along each side of the cavern. A short bridge, similarly encased in transparent stone, crosses over the pool to connect the two ledges.
The pool ends, but the cavern continues. The mossy walls of the pebble-strewn cavern extend upward to a ceiling 30 feet high. A wide, rounded window 15 feet above the floor overlooks this cavern.
Before you get too far through this room, however, several earth elemental rise up out of the ground to block your progress! Three are smaller beings that resemble hounds made of sod, while the larger one is vaguely humanoid in shape. They all have ethereal shackles visible on their limbs.
The elementals quickly move forward to attack Bertolt and Kragga! The humanoid elemental punches the dwarf, while one of the hounds bites him and drags him to the ground. The other two hounds dogpile on Kragga, knocking her down as well!
Bertolt recovers from the assault, leading with his shield to shove the dog's earthy teeth away. "Focus that one down!" roars Bertolt, swinging at the elemental standing before Kragga!
Bella assessed the situation and offered advice to her companions.
Bella can tell that these elementals are not very agile. As elementals, she knows they're also immune to bleeding and paralysis effects.
Bella hurried over to help out Kragga, and struck at the same elemental as Bertolt.
Now on dry land and with her art supplies out and ready, Zetty sketches out an ominous wave of water dissolving the earthen hounds and the humanoid. The spell strikes fear of being washed away into the earthen creatures.
She calls out "Vengis, think you could break those shackles with some magic? Maybe they're fighting against their will!" before inspiring the team with a flourish.
Eyenia steps forward and lays a hand on Bertolt's shoulder, "Fight on, brave warrior. The stars foretell that flame is nothing before steel."
Zetty begins to inspire the team before unleashing a fear spell. The larger elemental resists it, but two of the sod hounds are shaken while the final one turns to flee!
Vengis, Bertolt, and Bella all focus their attacks on one of the sod hounds, causing it to crumble to rubble! Eyenia heals Bertolt as Kragga gets to her feet and attacks another hound, badly damaging it.
As the fleeing hound glides into the ground to escape, the other elementals attack Bertolt. The large elemental pummels the dwarf twice, the protection from Eyenia's lay on hands preventing a critical strike!
Drawing her ink back, Zetty sketches the aftermath of the flood on her slate with a few bold strokes. As she does, a globe of water from the pool behind her rises up and jets toward the remaining sod hound.
Bertolt holds his position, eyes sharp. "Bella, strike the large one!" He roars, and shoves back against it, forcing it to a knee and making it vulnerable!
As Bella moves in Bertolt circles around, hammering down the last dog creature.