Alsah pulls out a scroll of mage armour and casts it on herself. She then makes sure any gear that could be damaged by water is securely in her waterproof bags
She makes sure Seline, her familiar cat, is secure in her pouch.
The cat murrs, looking uncertainly at the water
yes I know precious. But it is necessary. I'll make it up to you anon.
The cat looks put out but settles down.
Alexandra nods to the Tanya and looks to the others, "As I have informed my colleagues, if you have not been to Axis Island before, you should be aware that there is some nasty wild magic all across the island. Last time I was here during the war, magic tended to backfire and it was as if the island was attacking friend or foe alike." she looks across at the four agents, "Be aware of your surroundings."[/b]
She than nods, "No questions."
"That's the advantage of using a sword - one less thing to worry about."
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Finishing up your last minute preparations, you wait for darkness to fall. Black sails are raised and the Impossible breaks off from the fleet and sails into a sheltered cove. Letmas takes the scrolls of water breathing and cast the magic on everyone. "Once we've secured the entry point, one of us will come back to give an update and lead your team in."
After one last check of their equipment, the infiltration team grabs their end of the rope, and slips over the side of the ship and into the dark water. As they slip below the waves, you see their sunrods activate and then dim, as they swim deeper, eventually disappearing completely.
Several minutes pass. You wait, tense with anticipation, as the rope plays out slowly. All of a sudden, you reel, as a strange wave of vertigo washes over you. You hear a faint rumble, as a vibration runs through the ship and the sea begins to ripple. The vertigo and vibrations continue for only a moment, but as it passes, you notice the rope has gone slack. It remains that way for a heart stopping minute before you start to feel a faint series of tugs.
Regaining certain command of his stomach, for the most part, Messer focused on the tugging on the line. That seemed like a sign to move on, so he did as instructed and started following along, once he was mostly
Alsah starts at the tugs.
Alsah slips into the water after Messer
"Did anyone else feel that?" asks Bryn after the odd disorientation.
...
After prepping with potions, Bryn grabs the rope and says, "See you guys at the bottom. Make haste and don't dally," and jumps in.
Recovering from the anomalous actions from Axis Island Alexandra shakes her head, "It has started already... I do not think that," the tugging of the rope, "Is what we think it is..."
The woman takes up her gear and follows after the others. She instinctive takes a deep breath as she jumps off the side of the ship feet first. Once within the water she starts after the others. following along the rope.
"That was... Peculiar." replied Preach. When Alexandra questioned the origin of the tugging he asked, "What else could it be? Actually maybe don't answer that..." Images of sea monsters was the last thing he needed before following the others as they hauled themselves along the rope.
While they wait, Juliet draws a vial of salt and makes a precise circle on the ship's deck, chanting quietly to herself, a simple hnn-ah over and over. Closing her eyes, she falls still and focuses and first with a ripple, the space within the circle grows a little darker, and the coalesces over the next half-minute into the form of a young woman, not older than her mid-twenties. The space around the woman pulls at her features, as if she's folding into it, trailing, wispy tendrils spiraling into nothing. The woman's features are muted, her figure and clothes shades of greys, blacks, and purples.
"Everyone, Matilde. Matilde, everyone. Matilde will be joining us on this journey. An extra set of eyes and ears never hurts."
Grabbing the rope, Juliet plunges into the water, Matilde following behind. As the others struggle, the phantom simply sinks into the water and floats through it.
Splashing into the cool water, you dive beneath the waves, following the rope down into the dark depths. Eventually, you come to the mouth of a large sea cave and follow the rope line into its maw. Strange shadows are thrown off of the irregular stone growths, as you swim along the claustrophobic passage.
Out from the darkness in front of you looms a scene of destruction. A section of the ceiling has collapsed, partially blocking the tunnel. At the edge of this ruin, the rope ends. Burton, the goblin rogue holds the rope feebly, its end continuing on beneath the stone rubble. He is nestled among the fallen stones and streams of blood cloud the water around him.
At your appearance, he begins to frantically wave at you.
Alexandra takes out her ioun torch and lets it loose and it floats about her, it seems more sluggish under water. Along with her half-fey senses she attempts to see out as far as she is able.
The coolness of the water is firstly a shock, than she became used to the feeling it is all too familiar and rewarding. Being able to stay below the surface and breath is odd but also an interesting feeling.
That is what I was afraid of! Alex thought to herself as she spotted the goblin. She continued onward.
Eyeing the blocked tunnel and the scene of carnage, Bryn turns to the last man standing and asks, "Triton's arse man, what happened?"
An earthquake? Where are the others? Are they trapped or... Alsah trails off as she looks at the tunnel. She shakes herself, pulling out a wand.
First things first. Speaking a word of command, she uses the wand to heal the stricken goblin
Now we have to free him
Messer nodded, and began moving rocks in the hope of freeing the trapped constable. He wasn't terribly strong, and it was going to be difficult underwater, but maybe he could find a lever...
Messer had the right idea Preach thought, although he too wasn't the most athletic of builds either and moving bounders was difficult. Still perhaps if the smaller stones where shifted it would do some good.
Alsah tries to help
Bryn will attempt to move the boulders as well...
"The Island already has struck out," the woman says as she looks over the devastation as the silt begins to settle.
Alex watches as four of her colleagues moving boulders from on and around the goblin she looks around for anything else that may be in the area.
While the others move rocks, Juliet stands as close to the rubble as she can get without climbing atop it. Looking to Matilde, they exchange a meaningful glance, and the Juliet says, quietly, "Go, to the end of our tether and back, no further."
Matilde nods, her expression inscrutable, and disappears into the rock, as if following the rope.
As you near the trapped goblin, you see that his leg is pinned beneath a large rock.
When you get closer, a panicking Burton says, "They're dead, all dead. Squashed like bugs... Everything was fine then all of a sudden it was as if I was somewhere else, a swamp with bright yellow frogs and a purple sky, and then I was back here and the ceiling was coming down."
He reaches out and clutches at Alsah, "You got to get me out of here before the sharks find me. Take the leg off, I don't care. Just don't let them eat me."
Driven by adrenaline, you manage a herculean feat of strength, shifting the boulder enough to free the trapped constable. Though stabilized by Alsah's quick use of magic, you now see that Burton's leg has been shattered. Repairing the bones will take more magic than you have at your disposal.
"My leg's all messed up. There's no way it'll support me."
Alsah looks at the damage, and shakes her head. This mission has gone south fast.
we'll get you back to the ship. They may be able to save your leg
She looks at the others
And then we should continue. We must complete the mission
Preach nodded, "Wouldn't be right to take a wounded man into combat."
"I'll take him. Hit me with that swimming wand and let me take a sunrod with," volunteers Bryn as he starts to remove his armor.
Alex looks to Bryn, "If you are sure?"
Once the man answers in the affirmative she looks to the others, "Lets keep going. We will wait for him at the cave entrance."
She starts forward... watching for anything more dangerous or the Island lashing out once again.
Messer nodded. "We'll secure the cave entrance, then we need to talk. The mission has changed." With the strike team down it suddenly seemed like hiding out until the city was taken was not going to be an option. They'd need to get the gates open themselves.
Well, ****.
Still, anything that could send an entire team to a swamp with a purple sky was going to make it challenging. Maybe they'd get lucky and it had caused the renegades problems as well.
Before he goes, we take any spare mission gear off the goblin. He won't be needing them.
With the line in place, it's not difficult for Bryn to help Burton back to the ship. He's more than happy to pass along the two potions of aid that he has, but unfortunately the rest of the mission load out was with Tanya and now buried under tons of rubble.
While Bryn is on escort duty, the rest of the party pushes on to establish a beachhead. The tunnel continues on for another 200 yards before opening up into a large vertical chamber.
The 80-ft. diameter, 60-ft. high cave at the end of the tunnel has no light sources, but the air is pleasantly warm for being underground. The water at the bottom of the cave ranges from 10ft. deep to just a few inches. Wooden platforms anchored to the walls form a makeshift dock and stairs, which lead up to a wide tunnel that intersects horizontally with this chamber some 35ft. above the water line.
A 20-ft. diameter pillar of dull gray stone rises from the water line to the ceiling. A dramatic splinter of white marble extrudes from the gray stone, 5ft. wide and rising 17ft. above the water. Ages of surf have eroded its surface, but in places one can still find hints of ancient pictogram carvings. It looks like once the splinter was part of a longer column, but something snapped free its top.
As Alex emerges from the water, the sounds of water dripping from her and her fellow Constables she looks around the excavated cave they now find themselves. Looking higher at the edge of her sight of the light and her fey senses allow there was, something. We are not alone she whispers to her colleagues. “Sort of figure up in that direction, ascending. she points in the direction and than draws a finally crafted short bow and and and arrow from her wrist sheathe.
Juliet steps from the water and shakes her head, flipping her wet hair back from her face, and concentrates as she draws her scythe. A wick of light flickers from the tip of her scythe, casting long shadows around the room. As Alex points out the figure, Juliet curses, quiet under her breath, and she's off, sprinting, talking over her shoulder as she moves towards the stairs, looking for the closest route to the figure. "Good eyes, Alex. If we catch it, maybe we keep the element of surprise."
Mathilde floats wordlessly beside Juliet as the mystic runs, the phantom having no need for stairs.
"Agreed lets get after it!" nodded Preach as he carefully removed his gear from the allegedly waterproof bags. He prayed that his powder had stayed dry, it would be awfully inconvenient if his guns where rendered useless.
When they'd started heading up Preach noted the presumably ancient pictograms and mused, "I wonder what the significance of these was? Somebody went to a lot of effort here."
Focus preach. Worry about the possible hostile
With her drenched cat looking balefully at others in her carrying pouch, Alsah looks upward, seeing nothing much
Messer looked around, but wasn't clear what the others were talking about. He knew his eyes weren't the best, however, and cheerfully followed along with the other constables. He slipped off the swim suit and fins he'd brought along to aid his venture through the water first, however.
Not waiting for Bryn, you clamber out of the water and onto the man-made platform. Hustling after the shadowy shape, you climb up the scaffolding, bringing you past the stone pillar. As you pass, a glint of metal catches your eye. In a tiny nook carved into the tip of the marble splinter sits an oversized gold coin. About three inches across, it has primitive designs of birds, clouds, and dots that might represent stars.
You recognize the constellation of The Eagle, said to hold great influence over the planet Avilona, which affects weather and air magic.
Standing by the pillar, it seems that you can hear faint voices, muffled as if you were separated by a thin wall.
Seeing the coin, Alsah says
That coin. It's...important. I think. Can we get it?
Alexandra did want to wait for Bryn, secure the entrance but she had to go and mention some shadow she managed to catch higher up and now they were on the move.
She consider stealth but she was the light sources for the group at the moment. made it difficult for sure. She move up behind the group, she whispers to Aslah, "We can come back and look these over for a few moments. If you can grab it, otherwise, we best be sure that whomever or whatever I saw up above, is not letting some friends know where we are."
She focuses on looking upward to see if the shadowing figure was more...
Juliet moves up the stairs as fast as her legs will carry her, her phantom floating next to her, one hand gripping her scythe.
As you continue up the scaffolding, a voice yells out from the darkness beyond of the tunnel at the top of the cave. "Killing my men wasn't good enough for you? You've come back for me have ya? Well you'll never take me alive you damned dirt worshippers!!"
Combat
22 Messer
22 Preach
20 Bryn (in transit)
16 Baddies
12 Alex
9 Alsah
6 Juliet
'What the devil is he on about?', thought Preach, 'We haven't killed anyone and what's all that about dirt? Could this be a ruse?'
As he cautiously approached, Preached replied "Woah there! I think you've made a mistake friend! We haven't killed anybody and nobody's taking anyone. Let's just calm down and talk about this like sensible people, what happened here?"
Messer began to head up the ladder and towards the enemy. His lack of long ranged spells was a problem that he was going to have to resolve at some point.
Alsah looks at the human, and moves closer
This is not your lucky day. I suggest you surrender
This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.
Evil eye, DC 14, directed to AC
As the group is spotted from above Alexandra moves in the opposite direction from the others, crossing the laddered bridge the ledge across from her colleagues.
She considers calling out but perhaps the person will be more distracted with them.
Bryn just keeps swimming...
As Messer and Preach move closer, the light of the sunrods reveals a disheveled man in miner's leathers aiming a pistol in your direction. Beside him is small creature made of earth and stone, holding a barrel over its head.
Hearing Preach's words, the man holds his attack, but keeps his weapon on him,
"Stay where you are, or I'll blow you all to smithereens! If you're not here to kill me, then who are you and what are doing sneaking into my mine?"
If anybody moves:
Lob firegem cast.
Shoot Preach.
Preach answered at once, "Well my friends and I are into diving! We were exploring a sea cave when uh well there was this sudden sense of vertigo and then it all got chaotic with a partial collapse or something. One of our friends got a bit busted up, he went back. Rest of us wanted to see where the cave went, a proper long one I can tell you! Anyway we found ourselves here in what you say is a mine... What sort of mine is this anyway friend? I have no idea about such things!"
Alsah looks at the human, and moves closer
This is not your lucky day. I suggest you surrender
This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.
Evil eye, DC 14, directed to AC
The woman waits as the other Preacher starts off with the lie to this person. Sure, telling him they were on a secret mission to capture the Duchess was not out of the question, but lies are hard to take back. She remain quiet and standing where she was beside the pillar with Alsah. Her grip on her bow does not lessen, but she does not raise the weapon either. She watches as the situation plays out... for now.
Juliet stops as commanded, and raises an eyebrow at Preach's explanation, interested at the man's approach of blurring the truth around the edges. A small wave behind her back tells Mathilde all the phantom needs to know. Stay back.