-
Er hem!
(Oh wait. Nevermind.)
Search Posts
“Woohoo! Nice escape guys!” Jason calls out to Breach and Donkor, impressed with their collective savvy. Then it suddenly dawns on him that he is left closest to the hydra. “Oh ^&%#!” He discards his glowing crossbow and hurriedly tries to climb for more altitude.
---------- “It’s OK guys, I got this!” calls Jason, “Yo! Lizard-breath – over here!” The sorcerer taunts the creature as he races into the air, up and away from Deca-Jaws. (hit!) (applies!) Jason laughs as his lightning fast flight speed enables him to dodge the creature’s bite. What the youngling fails to realize though is that the hydra’s attack was a feint, setting him up for a strike from behind. The second head catches Belleson’s robe with its teeth, ensnaring the flying sorcerer in place, preventing his escape. A third head then lunges upwards for Belleson’s dangling leg and clamps down - hard. The hydra should have removed his leg at the hip but instead there is a brief flash of fiery light in the creature’s jaws as Jason struggles free. The protective ward cast earlier by Halstadt invokes the faith of Angradd and spares the sorcerer’s life. Jason takes advantage of the brief respite and wriggles out of the remains of his shredded tunic, leaving it dangling in the second hydra’s mouth in order to get free. Jason then reverses his course, executing a dangerous barrel roll, diving straight down for the oasis. As soon as he drops below the protective layer of fog he levels out, making it look as though he has dove into the water when in actuality he is cruising through Donkor’s magic layer of fog. Those watching closely can see faint ripples marking Jason’s true trail, but it does not appear that Deca-Jaws is able to follow his true trajectory. Seconds later, Jason pops up from a totally new location just above the middle of the pool, a fair distance behind the hydra. In his arms he now holds a massive ballista composed of a glowing solid energy. Gritting his teeth, he fires a burst of shots, almost like an eldritch machine gun. “Yeargh!!!!!! Take that and that and that and that!” (applies!) The hydra rocks forward as the bolts blast against its spine, but the mighty lizard’s unnatural healing ability is already acting to compensate, knitting the tears of its flesh back in seconds as though there were no injury at all. . .
“Oh boy!” “You still got that spear, right Karek?”
Jason takes to the air once more as the writhing heads whip towards him.
“And you did say something earlier about Pharasma saying that someone was going to get sent to the Bone Yard if we went to the Tumen Gate,” he says. “Maybe we should back off then so it’s not one of us.” Jason seems relieved to be let off the hook as he slowly turns for shore. “No offence, but I was rather hoping not to have to meet your goddess in person for some time yet.” Belleson flies Donkor to the shore to drop him back off.
Still want to go diving for lost treasure, sorcerer? Hurgah rumbles dryly. A sopping wet Jason smiles back at Hurgah as he hovers in the air ten feet over the oasis. He then looks behind him to the Pharasman on his back. "Actually," he says slyly, "I'm still in, if you are." His attitude is as confident as ever, but Sooron can see the faint tremor in his wrist as the sorcerer readies his wand.
Jason ignores Breach's words of caution, happy that Donkor is in agreement to take a shot at the treasure. "Best be quick then, whilst my elemental friend is still around to intercept this Deca-Jaws." "Oh! Good point. Have him cover our backs!"
"You're my kind of people Moon - willing to look out for a friend and pick up some loot - never a mutually exclusive concept." "But perhaps the time is not right to attempt a retrieval if the magical means for getting down to the cave has worn off. A true pity, since it would seem that this horrible Deca-Jaws is currently elsewhere. Surely, if we return, it will be a menace to deal with once again." I think we still got a few minutes on the water breathing and I can always fly through the water so locomotion is not an issue. But I don't know where I'd be looking, I'd need help with that - and are we really sure that Deca-Jaws is gone?"
Sooron will share everything he has seen and surmised about the treasure. Jason swoops down to try to fill in Moonpate and Hurgah as to the significance of the Star Tribe. "The only reason we're here instead of still stuck in water world is that Schmoosh hooked us up with two Janni from the Star Tribe. They, and their giant swim-beast, whatever it was exactly, got us back here."
"Ha!" shouts Jason triumphantly. "I guess old lizard breath really has had enough."
Belleson flies in a broad arc sailing over the oasis. He answer's Breach's call making his way to the Southern oasis shore, safely behind the defensive line of the three giants (Hurgah, Hal and Breach). As an after thought he then rockets back up into the air hoping to get a better view of his surroundings.
"Belleson, get the hell to shore you damned fool! We need to leave this place soon. There is a mission to complete and some monks to kill. I plan on rippin' that snide bastard boss of their's in two an' I canna do it playin' come an'get me with some over grown water monitor." The sorcerer hears the elder-dwarf warrior calling for him, but desperate to clear the oppressive fog, he instead continues his trajectory straight up. Once he flies free, he waves to the Dune Squad gathered at the shore, signalling he's alright. He then casts a further spell, enhancing his vision to mimic the talents of the subterranean races. He registers a puzzled look though, even his magically enhanced sight can't seem to penetrate the dense fog below. He again thinks better of his scouting mission and turns to join Shattershield on the shore.
Having escaped the fresh floating viscera, Belleson's heart rate is slowly recovering-- --when all of a sudden out of nowhere a thick blanket of fog suddenly envelops his position. He cannot see more than an inch from his face! He quickly flies up to escape the magical attack. Unfortunately his bearings are off and he reacts by flying down instead of up. He hits the water with a damp "sploosh!", making contact with the horrid flotsam of floating guts a second time. "Argh!" he cries in frustration before reflecting on the wisdom of remaining quiet. The sorcerer now finds himself blinded, lost and all alone - save for perhaps a gigantic pissed-off hydra that may or may not be stalking the water at this very moment. Belleson resolves not to make anymore noise and studies his bearings. Once he confirms which way is up from the hang of his clothing he reverses course and quietly floats back up. He reminds himself that if he can only get high enough he should be able to escape the oppressive fog and - more importantly - the chorus of snaps of a hydra's maws. ----------
Karek breaks the surface of the darkening water, his deadly spear no longer just a beautiful relic of an ancient doomed city, but a battle-tested weapon of proven destruction. Jason and Donkor, still on the giant dwarfs back, poke their heads above the water, seeing land for the first time in a very great while. While Belleson gets his bearings he notices strange dark shapes slowly floating towards him. They do not float on the water though, they float just above it. "What the. . ." When the sorcerer sticks out his miniaturized hand trying to figure out what sort of strange aquatic plant is encircling him, he finds his arm and face suddenly enmeshed in a tangle of freshly sliced hydra innards. "Ah! AH! %*#&!!" While normally valiant, and self-assured to the point of cocky, the floating hydra guts are more than he can take. "Aerialis! Verticulis!" Jason quickly casts one of his more potent spells, granting him the gift of flight. He then blasts for the night sky, escaping the gut bog pooling around him and his allies. One he's ten feet up, Jason gets a better look at the hollowed-out hydra-head corpse floating in the center of the oasis and calms himself, seeing the guts for what they are. The descending dusk has played a trick upon him. Refocusing, Jason decides to place his new altitude to work and takes up a position as a sentry staring straight down into the water to see if he can spot Deca-Jaws. "Get for the shore guys, I'll watch for him. I've got a spell which should let me see all the way top the bottom." However, shortly after he surfaces, the lapping waves of the now disturbed oasis slowly surround him with the floating guts of the eviscerated hydra. A tangle of sliced innards wafts into his face and the sorcerer momentarily freaks out. ----------
Jason sees Donkor swimming over towards him and smiles. "Woah! Getting crowded over here - get your own dwarven steed!" He motions Donkor over with his hand so there is no mistake that he is joking. Then he turns his attention to the shark-like creature still swirling overhead in a figure-eight pattern. "Blasterius Cruevellas!"
A quartet of miniature comets lance through the water and strike the hydra-head, causing it to roll over several times from the concussive force. For a fraction of a moment, the comet trails light up the oasis with a flash of gold. The beast though quickly recovers and spins around correcting its trajectory so that it's ready to attack once more. "Hardy buggers, aren't they."
(success!) (saves) ---------- As Karek powers through the rift, at the last moment Jason turns and summons one of his most potent spells and fires it at the hydra, seeking to sap the beast’s strength and prevent it from escaping the watery cyclone below it. "Reductio Velocia!"* A wave of magical force flies from the sorcerer’s hands and envelops the hydra. The creature screams with its five-heads in protest. It appears that the force of its sheer rage proves enough to repel the magic of the blast, as the creature’s struggles do not lessen. *Moffidy's Jason always had the Harry Potter faux Latin thing going on.
"Wooohoooo!" "Take that you scaly *$#!" ---------- Whooops! I may have missed someone in the initiative count.
Jason readies an action to fire a slow spell at Deca-Jaws main body should it come within his range of 40 feet. He further prepares to use his rod of metamagic (focused) to augment the spell.
Deep in the distance ahead and above, Gandel spies another creature in the water making a bee-line towards them. "Carefull guys, I think there's another one ahead of us. . ."
"Those are two of Deca-Jaws' heads! Look out for eight more!" Gandel announces to his companions. “Yeah, maybe he’ll decide to see what he can come up with if he puts his heads together.”
As mini-Jason climbs aboard shimmering, glowy giant-Karek, he inquires: "I don't suppose there's any chance I could talk you into swimming in front of the dung bag eh?"
"Wohoo! Double fisted! It's like I'm back in my arcane college!"
"I'll take one of your spells there, Jason. I think that we need to stay near each other so I can cover us as best as possible with the cloud. If we spread too far apart it will be impossible to all benefit from the concealment." "You got it!" "Eldritchi Anamarius!" A soft azure glow flows over the elder dwarf and then quickly vanishes, the magic leaving its invisible protective field in place. "Can't say I'm looking forward to this Shi!t storm, Shattershield." ----------
"Wasn't there a bunch of swimming potions or something?"
"So!" says Jason looking around, "We going with the poop plan?" ----------
Belleson relaxes as the dense water suddenly becomes easier to breath once more. He fires off another message spell to indicate his appreciation, adding: "I guess Bunky weaseled out of this one.”
Jason fires his message spells back and forth trying to keep everyone up to speed as Karek and Hal grapple with the gravity of the situation. "Well whoever the recipients are going to be, I think we're going to need that next casting soon. The water's starting to feel a might stuffy again. There isn't much time!"
For Breach Shattershield: On hearing Breach's offer of self-sacrifice, Jason gets a little misty, but quickly covers it over: "Forget it, old man. I'm not leaving anyone behind this time." "Besides, I need you well in front of me when we face that hydra!"
"Still you make a good point. I do not wish to condemn Bunky to death but an hour could mean the difference between life and death. On top of that we will need all the aid we can get against our foe. Remember this is the easy part of our journey". "We are just talking about a fuzz ball, right? I mean, if we have to, I'll buy him a new one. Heck, we get out of this, I'll buy him a whole pack of em. Maybe get him a bag of tricks and he can draw 10 new weasels a week. How about. . ." Belleson sees Karek's death glare and abruptly stops. Then he sheepishly adds: "Of course, that's a totally unacceptable way of looking at it." And then: "Hey! I did say, I was cracking jokes."
"Very well, then let us allow Bunky to draw straws if that is how you feel Jason I am sure Karek would agree with you. Hopefully the Gods will be with us". "Hey, I'm just cracking jokes to release the tension, my friend. I don't think badgers actually can draw straws." ----------
"So pass the short straw to the badger? No draw for him, eh?" "Too bad my powers don't include haste - I'd love to soup up the Vonovoxen and just get us there faster." "I could try using slow on all of us. Maybe if we were slowed we'd breath slower and use less air. Not sure that would work though, I imagine Hal's spell simply ends when it ends, regardless of how much air you have used." "If times of the essence, why don't we have this discussion while the Vonovoxen is moving. Gandel and I can relay messages to keep us in communication while it swims."
Jason just smiles and shakes his head. "Crazy old coot," he mutters to himself under his breath.
"Uh, sure, but aren't you the guy who we need to cast the next batch of breathing spells?" "I don't think it works if you or Hal draw the short straws - then none of us make it." ----------
Perhaps they still have that ol' harpoon in the keep armory." "A harpoon? Where are you going with this Breach?"
"So is there anything we know of this Deca-Jaws that might give us some dort of tactical advantage? I understand it has more or less blocked travel through its territory for some time, but obviously someone has made it through to tell of its existence. Any of you book worms heard of it 'fore now?"
----------- After he finishes expending his last water breathing scroll, Jason responds to the eldest dwarf: "Well, I've never heard of Deca-Jaws before but from the Janni's description - multiple heads, regenerating flesh - I'd guess we're looking a hydra. A ten-headed one no less." "Only. . . only if it's somehow an amphibious hydra that we're dealing with, we've got major problems. In legends, one stops the beast from regrowing their severed heads with fire. That doesn't seem to exactly be an option here." He gestures to the infinite water surrounding you all. "If we had a better choice, I'd say pack up our toys and go home. But I never could give up my air addiction." "Looks like Donkor's just about finished. Guess it's time to get back on board - Hope Pharasma had some good ideas."
"I'm going to go out on a limb here - literally, I suppose since I'm re-boarding the Vonovoxen - and guess that Deca-Jaws has 10 heads."
Karek completes his journey with far fewer rage rounds and strength checks than he had assumed on beginning. He moves over to Jason and presents him with his bag, with a slightly embarassed look on his face. "Good one Gandel!" Jason unstraps himself, accepts the bag from the dwarf and fishes out the glass scroll, hoping it hasn't been damaged in transit. Belleson doesn't look so good - he's a bit pale from motion sickness, but the scroll at least is in one piece. "Here goes nothing," he says as he begins to recite the arcane words. "Akna, Aqua, Azia. . ." As he reads the strange words, the etchings on the glass plane slowly disappear. His spell is a success! You feel it become noticeably easier to breathe again, as though the water were suddenly less viscous. Jason looks at the now plane square of glass he is holding and decides to store it back in the pack just in case. "That's about two more hours people. After that I'm gonna need the pack again to use the last scroll." He passes it back to Karek. "Maybe I should swap places with Hal, just in case". "As he swims back to the Vonovoxen he adds, "And after that, I dunno what the plan is. Hopefully we'll be home by then."
Eh, Belleson? Any chance I could borrow dad bag o' yers? Karek gazes at the huge creature before them, his prize still in his hands. "You got it!" He passes the bag over. "Hey, anybody else feel like it's getting harder to breathe out here?"
---------- Jason flies throughout the complex’s lower levels, ultimately settling upon the library in the bowels of the tower. Casting detect magic once more, he finds several of the glass-plate books are magical. Remembering he has only minutes before Faren makes good on his threat to leave, Belleson wastes no time in pouring through each of them. One of them blows up in his face in a sudden burst of orange and purple electricity, a violent sunset of color. He bites through the pain and swims away from the newly formed cloud of glass shards from the destroyed tome, determined to try the next one. He hopes the others are faring better than he is. Next up is one of the larger glass tomes. It proves to be a genuine wizard’s spellbook, one apparently belonging to someone with the name “Highlord Loaquin”. Marid wizards had such pompous names. “If he’s so important”, thinks Belleson to himself, “what’s his spellbook doing left behind in the middle of a private library.” Loaquin’s book though was not truly unprotected. It was guarded by a complex lock, one composed of a strange chitin, as strong as steel. Fortunately, it was not one that could resist the power of his knock spell. Belleson knew that he wouldn’t be able to take the entire book, so he focused on the spells that might matter most, in this case waterbreathing. Would there be such a thing? He flipped through the glass pages as quickly as he could without shattering them. There was not one—there were two. This nut bar had inscribed the spell twice. “Eureka!” he cried. Maybe that could be his new tag line. It seemed to be working out for him. There was little time so he carefully removed the glass plates, transferring them to his pack. Without thinking, he took advantage of the remaining room in his pack and grabbed a couple more glass plate etchings. Then he flew back through the water, making a beeline for the rally point. ----------
There I think that's everyone. Anything else anyone want to cover before the Dune Squad leaves this place?
If we're splitting up, Gandel and I can probably keep everyone in contact with our magic, but only if you stay within 150 feet of at least one of us.
"You're, ah, sure that was a recommendation as opposed to a warning right?" Despite his flippant cynicism, Jason is actually quite glad to get moving. Secretly, he's no coward. "Well then, I don't suppose we could get ourselves a plan? We seem to do marginally better when we have one - half the time anyways."
Taking a deep breath,if that is what you do underwater, Breach says"Boy,I think that the best bet we 'ave here is to go with the tunnels. The coast 'ill be too far away an' the other is likely to get us killed. We gotta fin' what 'appened to our lost companions and we gotta do it quick. It's likely they don't 'ave much time left. But, I guess the same could be said of us.", he finishes with a somewhat amused smirk. "What is it with you dwarves and tunnels?" Belleson rubs his neck in thought. "I guess becoming eternally lost in an under-sea maze is better than being eaten by a monster with ten jaws. Why do the fates hate me so much?"
“Guys, guys, please – leave the man alone.” “Can’t you see Faren’s got important work to do here?” “We’ll just find a way out of this mess on our own. I mean sure, we’ll probably wind up stuck here, trapped in some room breathing ejected air off of Schmoosh when a hoard of aboleth slaves busts in and slowly tears us apart wave after wave, but it’s not Faren’s problem.” “It’s not like we’d do the same for him were our situations reversed. Okay well maybe Hal as a cleric of a holy deity would be morally obligated to do the right thing, but the rest of us would probably just mind our own business and let him die – no? Just because we shared a moment as fugitives hiding from the authorities together doesn't make us obligated.” ----------
"Oh not this again." Belleson looks to the others to see how they want to handle it.
"You're yourself, Schmoosh," answers Jason with a paternalistic slow shake of his head. Then brightening he adds, "Good! So problem one is down, now all we need is a way home before all hell breaks loose around here."
. . . The slaves will be very loyal to their masters as the slime 'hey extrude is what sustains them.....Grief."[/b] Sneering a little, Breach has an unpleasent answer to their problem, [b]"Any of the stuff kept in a laboratory or wizard's study. If we expose ourselves to it, we can breath water for a couple o' hours, boys. But....it comes a the price of not bein' able to breath air for the same amount of time. Not a happy alternative, but one which 'ill save us from ah drownin'." "Uh, aboleth slime? Can we maybe call that "Plan B"?"
"Hold on, hold on - Gandel, you scared the crap out of me. Warn me before you do that again." Turning to Faren and Orchid, "Are you saying nobodies home and we're all trespassing?"
Jason's eye's widen. "Oh no - is he still out there? What's coming?"
Returning her smile, Jason says: "I'd come here more often if I knew that you-" Belleson suddenly picks up on the look from the female's companion and stops himself, "-two nice folks were here." Hoping to recover, he keeps his voice low while he adds, "I'm Jason - a pleasure to meet you. Maybe later I can give you the tour and you two can tell me where I am exactly."
Belleson borrows a trick from Gandel's playbook and uses a message cantrip to quietly join the conversation. Meanwhile he starts poking deeper into the antechamber. "Can you get us out of here Donkor? I thought whatever you did was a one way trip. No offense to Schmoosh, but I'm with Hal - we can't rely on the fruhgen. He's seems kinda childlike." "Mmmmm, there's magic in this chamber, by the way. I can sense it."
|