Yuto takes to the air, striking at one of the two remaining giants with his sword. She shrinks back, trying to defend herself, but Suishen cuts through her limbs, leaving one arm on the ice as she stumbles, then collapses with a whine of pain, the ice hissing with steam as she bleeds onto it. Another heavy crack forms, and chunks of ice begin slipping into the waters.
Ritti, relying on the magic of her boots, steps out of the freezing storm and onto the ice, unleashing a barrage of attacks. The first one goes entirely wide as she nearly slips anyways, but she manages to strike a heavy series of blows to the creature before snapping her neck with a sharp kick.
The remaining merrow bellows her rage, but rather than fighting, dives down into the icy water, past Torra. The dwarf realizes their peril just as it attacks her with a rapid slash to her feet. Fortunately, the merrow misses, but now it is beneath her - and it's ready to strike.
Coming up closer, Atsuko realizes Torra is out onto the ice and in the water. She quckly digs in her pack for a length of rope, but the only thing she finds to tie on to the end as a weight to help with a throw is her grappling hook. She ties it on.
Atsuko shouts an alert to Torra. "Rope and grappling hook incoming Torra!" Then she throws at the hole in the ice.
Their limbs heavy, Torra manages to not sink to the bottom of the lake, but climbing back onto the ice - especially as it is currently crumbling from the various assaults upon it - proves still beyond the dwarf's ability.
Atsuko steps out of the icy whirlwind and, thinking quickly, hurls a rope out to Torra, which splashes into the water nearby. She pulls herself back towards the ice, but even with the rope's aid, she can't get back onto shore. Her desperate flailing, however, does allow the creature beneath her to claw at her again.
The claws tear into her legs and hips, and she finds herself held fast by the aquatic giant below.
Atsuko can't see or hear anything for Torra or the ice hole, only feel a strong pull on the rope. She tries gripping the rope as tightly as she can with both hands and walking backward.
"Ritti! I think I need help!"
Ritti abandons her desire to stomp on the hag a few times. Instead, she grabs the rope and lends Atsuko a hand at trying to drag the water-logged dwarf from the icy sea. If that fails, she wraps the rope around her arm and tries to use her body weight to get Torra out. When that fails, she offers a prayer to Irori and uses whatever strength she has left yet again to pull Torra free.
Sanity Score: 39 / 40 | Threshold: 3 | Edge: 20
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xx
Shozoku (1):
Inspired (1): x
Shuriken (30):
Shuriken Earthfire (2):
Scabbard (1):
Pot Mage Armor (9):
Pot Blur (2):
Pot Cat’s Grace (2):
Pot Invisibility (1):
Serene Ring (1):
Cat Boots (1): (if worn)
Effects:
Protection from Evil - +2 AC
Scabbard—Butterfly Sword is xxx
Mage Armor – AC +4 – 1 HR
Yuto sheathes back Suishen, and with the hand now free, grabs on Torra and pulls her back out of the water and into the air "Leave that fish be!"
Realizing the danger that Torra faces, Ritti hastily grabs hold of the rope to help pull Torra back towards the shore, while Yuto floats above her to reach out and grab ahold of her.
Beneath the water's surface, the merrow attempts to pull the dwarf deeper into the waters below, dragging them with her. Unfortunately, despite the heroes' best efforts, she is dragged below - Yuto's hand slipping off the soaked surface of Torra's clothing and the two women's efforts merely causing the ice to scream and crack even more. The rope goes taut, and they feel it pulling them towards the frigid waters themselves.
Torra loses grip on the rope, and is dragged down into the icy waters.
Torra doesn't know if her powers work underwater, but it is the last thing she can try. The creature's grip on her feels like iron, and she doubts that she can break the hold.
When the line goes slack on Torra's end the sudden release send Atsuko back onto her butt. She almost panics, but fights back against the urge enough to calm herself and think.
What, what, what...
Atsuko has no weapons that can help, nor can she think of any spell that will be of use. Only one thing comes to mind, and it's a forlorn hope.
Digging through her pack, Atsuko has to go to the bottom to grab something she didn't at all expect to use anytime soon. She pulls out a vial and holds it up as she crawls forward toward the hole in the ice.
"Drink this and you can swim as if you are a fish! Who can go get Torra with this?!"
Atsuko knows she isn't the right person to chase after Torra under the water, but maybe Yuto or Ritti is the right person.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Torra unleashes a blast into the waters beneath her, but the merrow takes advantage of her grasp on them and jerks her out of the way, sending the projectile down into the depths below.
Atsuko offers a potion to the others that would allow them to dive into the waters much more effectively, aware that she wouldn't be the best person to do so personally.
"I-I think I can go for her!" Yuto states with resolve "Suishen, does your air walking magic work underwater?"
Assuming the katana answers yes, Yuto walks down into the waters, double moving below to reach both the merrow and Torra.
As the young man touches the waters, something strange happen, all of a sudden the stars and the butterflies blink around him. Touched by Desna for a second, the waters seem to move aside from his body, letting him fully move in.
With a full move of 60 feet, he gets ready to strike if the merrow tries to move with Torra more than 5 feet away.
Ritti grabs the potion in passing and sprints to the edge of the ice. She hyperventilates as she prepares to dive into the water.
Sanity Score: 39 / 40 | Threshold: 3 | Edge: 20
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xx
Shozoku (1):
Inspired (1): x
Shuriken (30):
Shuriken Earthfire (2):
Scabbard (1):
Pot Mage Armor (9):
Pot Blur (2):
Pot Cat’s Grace (2):
Pot Invisibility (1):
Serene Ring (1):
Cat Boots (1): (if worn)
Effects:
Protection from Evil - +2 AC
Scabbard—Butterfly Sword is xxx
Mage Armor – AC +4 – 1 HR
"No, but we must save your friend." Suishen replies to Yuto's question as he dives into the depths of the icy water. The sword's burning aura sputters out in the wet, leaving him without a light source, but he is reasonably sure he's pretty close to the merrow now.
Ritti, meanwhile, takes the potion and slips into the water, trying not to be overwhelmed by the darkness below.
The merrow keeps ahold of Torra, tearing at them with her claws.
Atsuko isn't sure what's happening below the ice in the water. Since she must now guess what might help, she figures it could be good for the way out to the surface to be lit.
Atsuko goes out to the ice hole and casts Light on the grappling hook after she pulls it up. Then she lowers it back down into the water several feet.
Since she doubts she would be able to pull anyone out except under the best of circumstances, Atsuko plays out the rope as she goes back to shore to find something sturdy to tie it to.
Yambul is surprised by the light of dusk not reaching the depths of the lake, but still he has a good measure of where the merrow is, and slashes with all his strength, trying to finish it off before it gets Torra.
Yuto's eyes bright with hope as Atsuko's light is brought down to the lake depths.
Getting desperate, Torra attempts to strike at the merrow holding them again.
In a moment of clever inspiration, Atsuko pulls her grappling hook back to the surface, casting light on it and sending it down into the depths to help illuminate what's happening below.
Torra, meanwhile, attempts to blast the creature with another surge of earthen might, but the water and the merrow's grip on her prevent it from doing more than tearing into the lakebed.
Yuto, now able to see the creature who is holding Torra beneath the waters, slashes at her with Suishen. Thanks to the gifts of his understanding of the planes, he is able to slice through the water as though it is air, cutting into the aquatic giant's shoulder. She wails, a sound that seems to come from all around both of the lake-dwellers as her blood stains the waters.
Ritti gulps the potion then dives into the frigid water and begins swimming down into the depths.
Sanity Score: 39 / 40 | Threshold: 3 | Edge: 20
Stunning Fist (4): x
Ki Pool (4): xx
Shozoku (1):
Inspired (1): x
Shuriken (30):
Shuriken Earthfire (2):
Scabbard (1):
Pot Mage Armor (9):
Pot Blur (2):
Pot Cat’s Grace (2):
Pot Invisibility (1):
Serene Ring (1):
Cat Boots (1): (if worn)
Effects:
Protection from Evil - +2 AC
Scabbard—Butterfly Sword is xxx
Mage Armor – AC +4 – 1 HR
Drinking a potion, Ritti drops into the water and begins swimming down towards the merrow and Yuto.
The merrow's clawed fingers dig deeper into Torra's flesh as she attempts to escape her captor. With a roar that surrounds the three deep divers, she rips into the kineticist's hardened skin.
Atsuko peers down into the water through the hole in the ice, but she can't see or hear anything except for she light spell glowing a few feet down.
She can't think of anything she could do to help, so she waits.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Unable to escape the vice-like grip of the merrow and not knowing if any of her friends even realized she's been dragged underwater, Torra's only recourse is to try to kill her captor - or to die.
Finally managing able to unleash their blast in an accurate way at her foe, Torra slams earth directly into the creature's face, shattering her skull and sending all sorts of unpleasant fluids spraying through the depths.
With some effort and without the hindrances of the merrows or their strange compatriot, the trio are able to get Torra - and themselves - out of the icy waters.
Yuto's hand closes around Torra's arm as the merrow's corpse drifts, lifeless. Profiting the last impulse of his freedom of movement, he pushes up trying to safe his friend.
As they breach the surface and the cold air bites again, he turns over the dwarf to see if she is ok "Yo-you are my only real friend. Yo-you are not allowed to die until I do, Torra San. Tha-that's the deal"
Then, silently, he takes grip of Suishen and makes the katana burn once more, letting the warmth extend from him to Torra, and letting her magic pour from him into her, banishing the chill, banishing fear.
Ritti crawls out of the water looking like what she is... a waterlogged, skinny, redhead. Her boots keep the worst of the chill off, enough that she is able to drag the hag's corpse (none-to-gently) off the ice. It seems the thief is in 'professional' mode but her trembling isn't entirely due to the cold. She'd offer Torra some dry clothes but she dove in with her pack on so everything she's got is soaked.
She busies herself searching the hag and the other creatures so she doesn't have to consider how close Torra was to death.
Torra's teeth are chattering too hard for the dwarf to get any intelligible speech out, but they do nod shakily. As soon as they are on more-or-less-solid ice they crawl away from the water as fast as they can manage.
Stripping the sodden furs and woolen layers, Torra seems to enter the same businesslike mode as Ritti; mechanically going through the motions of what they need to do to survive. Dow to cotton underthings, the dwarf methodically rips planks from the buildings and walkways, trying to start a fire.
Aksuko is relieved, and honestly a little surprised, to see all three of them make it back to the hole. She isn't exactly a pessimist, but the situation seemed really bad to her.
She helps them out and gets them all off the ice. Then she sets about drying them and their clothing out with many castings of Prestidigitation.
Slowly recovering, Yuto helps the others stand up "Well, most probably we found the reason the village was abandoned. Not sure this will help, but they should not be an issue anymore"
The young man checks if they left any item that must be of use, then helps the others move back into the houses "Let's complete our search and move back to the caravan"
The hag-like creature that enchanted Ritti doesn't seem to possess anything other than the clothes on her back, which Ritti (wisely) decides to leave alone.
The rest of the village is entirely uninhabited, and there remain no signs of any corpses or the like - the people here seem to have left everything behind for one reason or another. There's nothing like the supplies the caravan had been hoping to trade for, and all the fishing equipment is either broken or missing.
When the party returns to the caravan to report, Shalelu, Sandru, and Ameiko are present and waiting for them. Koya arrives shortly thereafter, as they are reporting.
"There's no one there?" Sandru's expression darkens, but he smiles slightly sadly. "You're all safe enough, at least."
"I'll heal you, as well." Koya volunteers, unleashing several bursts of positive energy to heal Torra in particular.
"Still, you fought some sort of hag?" Ameiko looks troubled. "And only a handful of merrows... that doesn't seem like enough to force an entire village to flee, does it?"
Shalelu glances around the caravan, laying eyes on Ulf, and beckons him over. When he arrives and hears the news, the guide's face crumples slightly, perhaps remembering what the village once was. "I've never heard of merrows this far north before. They typically don't even show up in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings."
"So what happened? And, moreover, how can we be sure that it won't happen to our caravan?" Sandru asks aloud.
Atsuko feels uncomfortable asking the question because of its implications, but it needs to be done.
"What do merrows eat?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"The hag is dead" Yuto nods once "Whatever foul magic lingered there, it died with her. The merrows too, whatever force controlled them is broken. It's as safe as we can expect, for now"
"But let's not linger near that place. It's empty, unnaturally so. No sign of the villagers, and none of the supplies we hoped to find. The fish, the nets, the tools... all gone. There is nothing left for us there but questions and cold wind" looking to Sandru, then to Ameiko and the others gathered "We'll have to push deeper into the Crown. Find game, timber, anything that can burn or be bartered. We'll need to travel smart and ration well, every mile from here, we're stepping into harsher lands"
He glances skyward, narrowing his eyes at the biting wind "Let's not give this place a second chance to haunt us. The sooner we're moving, the better"
"Meat, usually. Fish, too." Ulf replies, then grasps why she's asking. "But they're not very... clean eaters. You'd've found signs of that, I think."
Inuliak arrives before he can continue. "I... understand a bit. May I speak?"
Ameiko nods. "Please."
The Erutaki speaks rapidly in Skald, shaking his head.
Ulf looks distinctly disturbed, and offers a brief translation. The heroes recall the screams of the merrows, how they sounded almost... childish, and are left with dawning horror.
Ritti is horrified by the revelation but it is still somewhat eclipsed by her memories of the sickly fishy embrace of the disgusting hag. She steps away from the group for a moment to collect herself. She holds onto her sanity and her breakfast. She returns a minute later. ”OK. That’s all good to know. Let’s get dry and get moving.”
Good to know. Yep. In case they encountered another Quali- Qellep- whatever that thing had been. The one with whom Ritti had been so friendly for a bit...
Torra shudders.
They had never seen the villagers before they were turned into merrows, had never spoken with them. But Ritti, the thought of her being turned into one of those creatures, and the rest of them being forced to kill her-
Head between the knees. Deep breaths. In, out. In, out.
Muffled: "Yes, let's go. Let's get far away from here."
"W-we did not know... We-e couldn't have known" there is no fire in Yuto's voice, no desperate defense, only the steady solemnity of a man who has shouldered too many burdens to flinch from another "If what you say is true, th-then what we fought was not only monstrous... but tragic"
"T-this place is horrible" he turns pledging the caravan leadership "Let's get moving. The Crown might be full of hardships but the unknown is better than t-this horrible tragedy..."
Atsuko doesn't need to wait for Ulf's translation. She listens to Inuliak with pursed lips, nodding her head once in understanding when he's finished.
"The villagers lost their future. There was no purpose in remaining any longer. May they find peace somehow."
The caravan's leadership is silent for a time. "Yes. I think we should move on swiftly," Sandru begins, "but I think we need to look into seeing if there are any supplies we can get from the lake, if nothing else." He thinks. "Unfortunately, I think we only have one or two people who know how to fish at all, and that in much warmer waters."
Ameiko closes her eyes, silently contemplating. "Our supplies are stable, for now. Ulf, how risky is it to pass up this chance?"
Ulf scratches his chin. "Riskier than I'd like, especially as we're heading into winter." He sighs. "It's... theoretically possible we'll be able to find food and water to help us continue on if we don't take this chance, but I recommend against it."
Torra looks in the direction of the lake, then turns away, fervently hoping she's not one of those people Sandru is talking about. Instead, she prods at the fire with a stick. "We can smoke the- the fish. If we, um, catch anything."
What was she doing?! Cowering by the fire when the others needed her? The hag was dead, the m- everything that could threaten them was dead. Reaching for her drying clothes, Torra climbs to her feet and puts a few more layers on before stomping purposefully towards one of the buildings on the docks, where they had seen some fishing equipment earlier.
"Thi-this place is just so abandoned... I-if we can take something back, fish, tools, even just clean water, then let's do it. The dead have no more need of it, and the living always will"
He eyes the still, gray waters uneasily but does not flinch. "I will stand watch while those who know the nets do their work. The spirits of this place may not rest easy still yet..."
Atsuko will help where she can as she's needed. She doesn't really have any foraging skills, nor any clear knowledge of fishing and so forth. Probably she'll end up carrying things.