Calaithes struggles to get free of whatever is holding him. It hurts but he knows not to scream....
Nicolette struggles to make effective progress down, but isn't off balance like Bohrs.
Calaithes breaks free!
Feeling whatever was holding him slip Calaithes swims upward in a total panic!
Seeing the action unfold before him, Kayle waits for Calaithes to break the surface before he reaches out his club for him and helps pull him from the water. "Are you okay Cal?" he asks him, "How badly are you hurt?" He puts the fluttering sound out of his mind, focusing on his brother.
The faithful dog follows his nose, sniffing curiously at the air. When he reaches the statue, and the source of the scent he paused to look back to Kayle. The others were distracted by something, so being the curious animal he was Owens gave a firm woof to whatever was hiding behind the statue.
He would wait a moment to see if whatever it was would come out, and then would follow his sniffer to try and flush it by other means.
Owens doesn't see anything or anyone, but woofs, fairly confident that something or someone is around the statue. Kayle reaches out his club and offers it to Calaithes, who makes it to the surface and takes a big gulp of air.
The watery blob swims up towards Nicolette and she feels something swing through the water, just barely missing her leg. That was close.
Right after he barks, Owens begins feeling confused and uncertain.
Elf
Calaithes
Kayle & Owens
Bohrs
Nicolette
Watery Blob
Map
01-25 Act normally
26-50 Do nothing but babble incoherently
51-75 Deal 1d8 points of damage + Str modifier to self with item in hand
76-100 Attack nearest creature (for this purpose, a familiar counts as part of the subject's self)
A confused character who can't carry out the indicated action does nothing but babble incoherently. Attackers are not at any special advantage when attacking a confused character. Any confused character who is attacked automatically attacks its attackers on its next turn, as long as it is still confused when its turn comes. Note that a confused character will not make attacks of opportunity against any creature that it is not already devoted to attacking (either because of its most recent action or because it has just been attacked).
Bohrs manages to get his bearings, and realizes that jumping into the pool with his armor on was a foolhardy decision. He scrambles out of the water and back up onto the stone floor.
Calaithes scrambles out of the water and to his equipment, digging for his magical dagger. "Something in the water. Grabbed my leg. Burns. Gotta help."
Once he has his blade he moves back toward the water's edge, the fear in his eyes replaced with concern and anger.
The ooze tries to attack Bohrs as he opens himself up to attack, but Bohrs escapes unscathed.
Nicolette will shift to the side, so that she is no longer above the creature directly. Then she will swing her hammer in such a way that she is piercing through the water with ease.
"What is it?" she asks her knowledgeable companions.
After fumbling around for a bit, Nicolette finds her place in the pool and brings her hammer down. Although there is no audible sound, she sees through the murky water as the spike of the hammer punctures into the watery blob, cleaving through a dark nucleus. In a moment the movement of the creature ends, as whatever tiny bones existed within begin to spill back out into the water. The creature discorporates.
With a swift strike, she saves the day. The water almost boils with bubbles at the speed of her strike, leaving only a slimy mess descending down into the depths once more. Instead of struggling there with her hammer, she lifts it out of the water and onto the floor of the room, then climbs out, ready to engage the woman should she seem threatening.
"Did she bring forth that creature?" she asks Bohrs and Kayle.
As Nicolette climbs back out of the pool and asks a question of Bohrs and Kayle, she can no longer see the elven woman of whom she offers an accusation. There is a light giggle, though, which seems to come from the door to the east. "No, of course not."
Owens' poor head is swimming, but after quickly looking about and taking a breath his head clears and he gives another woof to assert himself. Then he begins to bark angrily at the statue and the not good thing that confused him.
Kayle blinks as he turns away from the combat, noticing the elf woman was gone. Though her pointless chatter remained. "Well, she did seem keen on wasting our time." Kayle reasoned, "So it's possible." Being overly loud as if wanting to be overheard.
In a quieter voice he added, "How about we get dried off and decent then?"
Calaithes is just about to dive back in with his dagger in hand. The rage across his face quickly changes to confusion. "You destroyed the...." "thing? I wasn't really sure. I saw bones, then they were moving and I turned. I didn't want to try and fight them underwater and with no weapon. Then it grabbed my leg as I was swimming up. And it burned, like acid."
He shows the burn on his leg. "Should I eat that berry now? It might make my leg feel better." He goes back to his equipment and gets the berry to eat, also getting his belt and the sheath for the dagger. If he encounters something else he doesn't want to be unarmed!
"If you think it's gone for good I can swim back down and collect the rest of the keys. I really think we should just clear all of whatever is on the bottom. There may be more than one important key. Maybe one is magical and opens one door. But maybe one of the non-magical ones will open another door.... I mean, if I can't open it with my picks!"
The Elven woman's voice now resonates from the west. "Wasting your time, is it, Kayle? Well I never!"
As Calaithes lays out his plan, the voice comes from the south. "You could eat the berries. And you definitely don't have the right key yet."
Bohrs tries to see if he can place the voice, or perhaps the speech pattern. Does it sound like someone from town?
"Someone's playing with us," Bohrs mutters. "If it's someone from town, I don't recognized their voice."
She shakes her head to Kayle, almost in a way to say, "Get over it" and to be more focused about what is going on. Does she feel exposed? Yes. Is she going to worry about it when their lives are on the line? No.
"Eat the berry. And no, don't dive back down, not while there is someone or something up here," she answers Calaithes. "Let's find out who it is."
She hears Owens barking and relies on his instincts, moving over toward him.
"What is it?" she asks the dog as it seemingly barks at the statue. Her eyes suspiciously move over its form and around it.
"Reveal yourself!"
After quickly eating the berry Calaithes joins Nicolette, dagger in hand again. "Why are you here? We understand that one of the keys is important. That's why we were swimming. Do you have a better way to get it?" He looks around trying to figure out where she might be while talking, possibly distracting? "Or was that amoeba thing yours? A magically summoned or created creature?"
Kayle will put aside the distraction for the moment and also move over to the statue to see what Owens is barking at. "Oi, quiet down buddy." he coaxes Owens, "We're looking. We're looking."
Owens looks back to Kayle. Quieting his last bark to a growl. Then he makes a disquieted sound and sits. Waiting patiently for the others to discover whatever it is he found.
The voice bobs and weaves, appearing to come from the southeastern corner of the pool.
"Well, when you are all drawing weapons and hurling accusations, it doesn't make a girl feel very welcome. But I suppose I can say hello."
A tiny woman steps from behind the statue, perched on the weeping maiden's shoulder. She whistles to draw attention to herself and waves a delicate hand. If anyone was feeling awkward by being nearly naked in front of each other, the lithe form that emerges is quite immodest, though her long, luminous hair cascades down around her and offers a modicum of decency. Her face looks like the full-sized elf, as do her long pointed ears. But she is only about one and a half feet tall. Stranger yet, she has thin, butterfly-like gossamer wings.
"Your dog is very clever, yes he is," she says, gently flapping her wings and blowing a kiss towards Owens. "And I told Kayle: I like the night sky in this valley."
She looks over towards Calaithes, whose leg still looks badly injured, frowning. "That's not something I would summon," she scoffs. "But I can think of some ways to help. Like with your leg. Or with the key." The frown twists into a wry smirk. "For a price."
"I know what you are, but not who you are," the fey-emboldened woman speaks. Her history in the forests hint at what this creature is from the depths of her memory, or was it past experience? How does she know? The thought bothers her. Clearly before the creature, she can see a woman of great strength and perhaps a touch of her plane of existence in nature. Who can say? What is communicated is that Nicolette lowers her hammer a little.
"My name is Nicolette. What is your price?"
"Oh, you do, do you?" the creature says, curtsying.
Elusive, flighty, and ebullient, sprites are what many villagers first imagine when they hear the terms “fey” or “fairy.” While their dispositions vary from the benevolent grig to the trickster pixie, all sprites share a connection to magic and diminutive size. This family of fey shares its name with its slightest and most populous member, the common sprite.
Pixies live in the deepest, most pristine forests, but their insatiable curiosity often leads them far from home.
"I request a story, or a song. Preferably one I haven't heard before."
Upon seeing the fairy creature reveal itself Owens perks up. Great head lifting and ears tilting as it speaks. The dog's head moves to follow each movement, and his tail starts wagging. When he hears "dog" and the fey creature blows Owens a kiss he moves up to the statue and bring his front paws up on it to bring his nose closer. Sniffing the air and wagging his tail. His tongue lolled out in a canine smile as he struggles to get close enough to properly sniff and or lick this new creature.
Watches his dog with bemusement, and as Nicolette speaks to the fey creature he says nothing. Though he can see where this is going. "A story a fey would like..." he reasons, "Well, maybe my master would have known one. She always did tell me wonderful stories when camping out during training. Calaithes, do you think it would be okay to share one of them?"
He favors the rogue with a wry smile. It was clear he now saw a chance to jerk the fey's chain as well.
"I know a few drinking songs, some of the Seven Silvers' fireside favorites, you might say," Bohrs offers. "Mind you, my singing voice matches the locale: common. I am no traveling bard, minstrel or musician. I am a man who loves drink, gambling and good company. Nevertheless, I will do my best to entertain, if you so desire!"
Nicolette says nothing except that she mutters disapprovingly at this fae wasting their time while she freezes in the cold air of the tomb. Instead, she will gather the wool blanket once more and will wrap it loosely around her. Meanwhile, she does know it is a pixie of some kind, she can't pinpoint exactly what it is, so she thinks about that while others construct stories...
Calaithes hardly notices the edge of the pain reduced on his leg. He is focused on finding the invisible, person?
Seeing the little... woman Calaithes sheaths the dagger. It is a bit rude after all.
"Yes, my leg still hurts. But our healer can tend it fine. And unless there are more of those giant amoebas in the water I can just bring up all of the keys."
Calaithes consider Kayle's question, then grins. "Sure. Maybe you can tell the tale of my father? I'm sure I've complained about him enough over the years that you know that one! And a fine fish he was!" He winks at Kayle to let him know that he's free to make up anything he wants. Kayle surely knows that he doesn't harbor any bad feelings for his father.
Bohrs clears his throat, takes a sip from his tankard, and begins to sing:
"Blame it all on the ale,
I showed up in mail,
And challenged the King to a duel.
He thought it was droll,
So my head didn't roll.
Instead, he declared me his fool.
And I saw the surprise in the Chamberlain's eyes,
As His Majesty demanded a song.
I sipped my brew, thought for a moment or two,
Then decided I couldn't go wrong!
And I sang songs about vicious dragons,
About gold and gems and gilded flagons piled in a hoard.
What a rich reward!
And I told a tale of endless caverns,
The kind you would hear about in rural taverns, Oh
I sang songs...of vicious dragons!"
Bohrs begins to caper about the room, performing an clearly improvisedd and unscripted dance, while raising his tankard at appropriate moments in the song.
Invisibility (Su) A pixie remains invisible even when it attacks. This ability is constant, but the pixie can suppress or resume it as a free action.
Special Arrows (Su) When a pixie fires an arrow from any bow, it can decide to change the arrow’s properties by sprinkling it with magical pixie dust. Doing so is a free action as long as the pixie is the one who fires the arrow. A pixie can generate a number of uses of dust equal to its Charisma score each day (16 uses per day for most pixies)—the dust is useless to another creature unless the pixie gives the dust freely. In this case, the pixie chooses what effect the dust will have on an arrow when it is applied, and it takes a standard action to apply the dust to the arrow. Once pixie dust is applied to an arrow, the pixie’s chosen effect persists on the arrow for only 1 round. As long as an arrow is altered in this way, it does not inflict damage when it hits—it only causes its new effect. A pixie can choose any one of the following three effects when dusting an arrow. Save DCs are Charisma-based.
Charm: The target must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be affected as though by a charm monster spell for 10 minutes.
Memory Loss: The target must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be affected by a modify memory spell (this effect can only eliminate the previous 5 minutes of memory—a pixie typically uses this ability to make the target forget it encountered the pixie so it won’t chase the pixie when he flees).
Sleep: The target must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or fall asleep for 5 minutes.
This pixie, however, does not appear to have a bow. Pixies are also not particularly known for an appreciation of the humanoid arts. But she looks so much like a pixie!
When Kayle begins a back-and-forth with Calaithes, the tiny woman giggles. "Yes, indeed, what story would a fey like? Talk, talk, tick tock, weary travelers." She reaches a miniscule hand out to gently ruffle Owens' muzzle as he tries to sniff her out.
Finally Bohrs gets to singing and dancing, and the woman produces a tiny lute to accompany the man.
Although she isn't trying to show up Cayden's chosen, she seems to be enjoying herself a great deal as she picks up on Bohrs' melody and offers a delicate counterpoint and harmony to go along with his singing and dancing.
"Oh yes, delightful!" she says as the song concludes, stowing her lute and clapping with a smile. "One more, please! Another story!"
LICKS THE HAND!
"A story it is I guess." Kayle admits, "So I guess I'll go with my own story, since you're so humdrum about my master's stories. I was walking a game trail in the woods..."
When he finishes he steps forward to pet Owens on the back of the head, momentarily getting the distracted canines attention as he looks down into the gentle gaze of his loyal companion. This shows off his cute expressive ears, a feature unique to his breed for the most part.
After the song finishes, she stands in marvel at the lute-playing of the tiny creature (where did she pull the lute from!?)
"Magnificent story, and magnificent playing, dear," she titles the pixie, not knowing her name. She patiently waits, actively drying off while Kayle tells his story. She's not heard it before. At the end, she shakes her head at the silliness of it. After wrapping the blanket around her waist, she then looks to their guest.
"Alright, we sang a song, which fulfilled our promise, and as an extra bit, we told you stories. I think that constitutes even some good grace from a powerful and deadly cute being like yourself. Now, someone's life is hanging in the balance while we stand here. Please, fulfill your end of the bargain. Help us, and as long as you stay in this form, we'll let you ride the dog if you want."
Her offer might seem a little zany, but then again, the group might not realize they are dealing with a possible chaotic being known for pranking and being generally wild. Sometimes you have to appeal to their wild side. Nicolette suspects this isn't a fey, but rather someone appearing as one. Why not give them the wild experience of riding a damp dog?
Calaithes listens to Kayle's story and wonders why his brother is having trouble with the delivery. "Wait! We've time for one more story. A story of a love.... A young maiden, tired of dealing with the local young men seeking her attention runs away, to the shores of the huge lake near here. She's comfortable in the wilds but soon realizes that she doesn't like being alone. Looking out over the waters she wonders about her future. While she ponders things a large fish swims up to the shore and, oddly, calls out to her. The fish claims to be a prince, cursed in the shape of a fish until a beautiful maiden graciously kisses him. Laughing she asks if perhaps she could roast him and eat him instead. They talk for awhile but eventually the lass leans down and picks up the head to the fish, lifting it to her lips for a kiss. She is surprised when she finds that indeed the fish changes into a very handsome man. He still has scales and shiny skin, but he is indeed a handsome elven man. Thus starts a whirlwind relationship and soon they both realize that they love each other. Sadly, the man is in fact a prince among his people, and he cannot stay with the maiden. And the maiden soon discovers that she is carrying his child. They part, sad that the fates have dealt them such sorrow, but they have to continue with their lives. The maiden returns to her home and settles down, raising her son, and a few others of the village that have needs that she can supply."
"Care for a sip of Godsbrew, Miss...?" Bohrs asks, holding out his tankard towards the fae creature. "Err...my apologies, but by what name are you called?"
"Powerful and deadly and cute?" the creature says as Nicolette puffs up her ego. "I might like you after all, Nicolette." She smiles and shakes her hand to get some of Owens' saliva off of it.
And although Kayle had struggled to deliver his story with aplomb, Calaithes pulls out yet another story. As he launches in, Bohrs offers her a drink, which she gladly accepts.
"Oh yes, of course," she says when Bohrs offers her some ale. "Cayden is a dear." She takes hold of the tankard, which is almost half her size, and takes a good steady drink. "And thank you for asking, Bohrs dear: my name is Tulia."
When the storytelling and singing are complete, Tulia claps and flutters her wings. "And now for the grace. First, Calaithes, you're going to have a hard time swimming with that leg all burnt."
She takes off from her perch and flies gently over towards Calaithes. She reaches out a hand, which glows with sparkling lights and gentle rainbow arcs.
"For a good story."
She then walks over to the pile of keys. "None of these are magical, but there is one magical aura deep in the pool. Now unfortunately I'm a rather poor swimmer and I'm not keen on drowning. I could try to describe its location, but it would be easier if whomever swims down can detect magical auras. Perhaps the Lucky Drunk or the Song of the Spheres would see fit to bless one of you."
"If Cayden sees fit to do so, may he grant me the eyes to see the magical auras of which you speak," Bohrs replies, raising his tankard and taking a sip.
Cayden sees so fit. Amidst the light bubbles of the brew, Bohrs feels a shifting of magical capabilities within him.
"Well then, it seems time for me to take a proper swim."
Bohrs removes his armored coat. Chuckling at his own stupidity of not taking this simple action before jumping in the last time.
Bare, but for his still glowing silver tankard. He empties the cup with a quaff, and says "Everyone else has skinny-dipped today. It's my turn!" Following this pronouncement he jumps into the water.
As Bohrs jumps into the water, he sees a single glowing key in the northwest corner of the pool. It shouldn't take too much effort to swim down and grab it.
It takes Bohrs almost a minute of swimming down and around, but he manages to find the one key glowing amidst the dozens littering the ground and returns to the surface with it. There must be something about drinking contests and holding your breath that allows the priest to manage without too much difficulty.
Now nearly everyone in the group is in some state of dripping wet, and their blankets are beginning to become soaked. The dampness of the crypt is not helping matters either. But at least they have a magical key, hopefully answering the "Magic is the key" riddle that Calaithes had heard upon entering the room a few minutes before. Maybe it will fit into one of the locked doors that they have come across.
Tulia sits on the headless statue of Kassen overlooking the pool as the party dries off. "Well, you have a magical key, a magical dagger, and a few magical berries--you're welcome for those, by the way--so what are you going to do now?"
"We will dry off and continue on looking for a girl who was taken. We'll try this key in the door here and hopefully, it works and we can continue our search. What an undead wants with a child, I don't know. It can't be good."
Nicolette eyes the nude, healing pixie and considers:
"What about you? What are you going to do? This place is hardly natural, and the opposite place a fae would want to go. I'd say you are here on a mission, or are here out of your own self-interest. Does that self-interest mean you are going to come with our merry group?" she asks with aplomb.
Now that Bohrs is going directly for the key, Kayle won't have to endure her being so bare for much longer. She will take the blanket and dry herself off as best she can (Kayle can look away). Whatever modesty was there has been cast aside now that the fully nude guest is more shamelessly attired before them.
Wearing armor wet is no fun. When finished drying off, she will wrap it around herself and will stand there drying under the garment for as long as it takes to be mostly air-dried. No doubt, the others will take longer still unless they wring out their clothing. Eventually, she will bare herself once more, will hand off the blanket to the others to dry off, and will instead wrap herself in her bedroll for the sake of Kayle. The others will find that the blanket is fairly wet, but it will do to wipe the water off to some degree. When she is mostly dry, she will begin to slide on her clothing once more, and finally her armor. After fighting, sleeping in smoke, and only having a mere sponge bath, it felt good to be mostly clean.
Bohrs clambers out of the pool, magical key in hand.
"This's the one!" he exclaims holding out the key to his comrades. "Where's that torch? I'll trade ya the key for it!"
With the touch of the little lady completely healing his leg Calaithes accepts that she isn't an enemy. "Thank you lady. That feels much better."
As she instructs more on detecting magic and such, and Bohrs follows through, he accepts that he is done swimming. He isn't really concerned about his state of undress but knows that he'll need to dry off before putting his clothing and tunic back on. While Nicolette uses the blanket he just wipes and shakes off the water and waits for the water to drip and evaporate before getting dressed.
He listens as Nicolette talks with the little fey. She seems curious about the motives of the little fey lady. Would she follow along with them? If she disappeared again would anyone in the group know if she was following? He stays quiet about his thoughts though.
"I'll carry the key. I'm the one that should be checking the doors for traps anyway."
As Calathais points out the next move Kayle nods along. Having never gotten wet himself he passes the time trying to help Owens dry himself off. Hopefully by the time the others were dry their discarded clothes would be as well. When Calaithes goes to check for traps Kayle will cast light upon the half elf's hand and do his best to assist him. Mostly by looking over his shoulder. Owens at his hip to make it a crowd.