The storm of attacks raining down from all sides confuses Tattooed Shoulder, who manages to deflect a slam with his harpoon and nimbly dodge Rocksaucers' massive saucer. However, he is brutally shaken by Khelbluen's electric touch—too stunned to dodge Mival's second slam, which shatters his ribs.
The last Merrow also slides to the bottom, dead.
Paqen takes advantage of this to try to improve Zevriel's condition with a healing spell.
Gratz! Combat won! You can act outside of the rounds now.
Zev wipes the blood-tinged water from his chin and hitches his pack higher. “Ugly lot—but they’re done,” he says, voice still tight. “Could use a breather—just a short one. Patch the hole proper, catch breath.” He pats the bandage he applied after Paqen just healed the worst of it. (He's at 23/37 HP)
He squats by the closest corpse, testing the balance of its barbed harpoon. The haft is heavy but serviceable; the point is wicked and meant for thrusting through water. “Blade’s fine on land, not so much down here,” he mutters. He slips the weapon free, gives it a trial stab. “This’ll punch better. I’ll keep it.” He gathers any spare harpoons the others don’t want, then nods back toward the corridor. “Short break and refreshing the prayer, then we press on? I’m good after that.”
(Can we make use of the harpoons? I'm assuming they work like javelins? I would argue for a short rest and refresh of our water breathing.)
[[ OOC: Yes, you can use the Harpoons as if they were Javelins. There are three of them. ]]
"All right, Zevriel!" Mival agrees. "I see this fight has taken its toll on you. Especially since you performed the heroic act of jumping into the middle of the room and keeping all those merrow busy... I think you deserve some rest!"
"If it's just your wounds, I can heal you further" Paqen offers.
Meanwhile, Elias waits to hear Zevriel's thoughts on the druid's offer — and also to hear Tarysaa and Ardana's opinions, should they wish to express their own.
Zev gives Paqen a grateful half-smile and shakes his head. “Save your spark, feather-friend,” he says, tightening the last strap on the fresh bandage. “Steel’s patched, bones are sound—just need a sit and a drink of air. Magic’s better kept for the next thing that bites.”
(For me, we can just skip forward to when we're back here after a short rest near the shrine. Unless something happens during a short rest. Or we just press on without a rest, it's not really a big deal. There were stairs here that go down in the lower left corner, right? And what's the greenish corridor straight ahead?)
Once again in the last conquered room, the party has the opportunity to examine it better than they were able to do during the fight. A spiral staircase occupies the southwest corner of this room, leading upwards.
Part of the ceiling has collapsed, so this area is now in communication with the upper Level.
In addition to the stairs (and the collapsed portion of the ceiling), there are several exits.
On the north wall, there was a 5'-wide opening that the collapse has now widened to a width of 10'. This opening leads to a corridor (which has also been affected by the collapse and therefore has a floor cluttered with a lot of debris). This is the way the characters entered.
On the east wall, in the southernmost section, another large opening (10'-wide) leads to a solemn 10'-wide corridor that is paved in marble. In the northernmost section, however, although there were originally no openings, the collapse has created one (also 10'-wide), which allows one to continue through large quantities of debris towards the east in a direction initially parallel to the marble-paved corridor.
On the west wall, in its northernmost section, there is a 10'-wide breach in the wall, which connects the room to the course of an underground river. This is probably the opening, which, according to Rephis' account, was opened by Lombulluth during the battle that cost her and Rajmund their lives.
The room is devoid of furniture, but some of the fallen stones have been fixed with macabre festoons made from bones tied together with string (a careful examination will reveal that they are mostly humanoid bones and that one of the large skulls, probably belonging to an ogre, contains a multitude of small gems—the tribe's treasure). The walls are frescoed, but the long stay underwater has faded the frescoes; it can be recognized that they mainly represented a noble couple, a lord and a lady, in different environments and situations (although always together), but not much more.
"Well, it appears we have located the breach to the underground river system," Tarysaa made an effort to NOT stick her head into the breach as she examines it. "I doubt just blocking it with stones will keep the merrow (and worse) away."
"A hole about 10' in diameter..." Mival agrees with Tarysaa's analysis. "Yes, fixing it would certainly require either a lot of manpower or a lot of magic. And having to work underwater would make everything even more difficult. It's probably beyond our strength."
"Work doesn't scare me, descendant of Rajmund!" Rocksaucers declares.
At which point Mival becomes thoughtful... A construct... Strong... Tireless... That doesn't need to breathe... The doppelganger smiles as he imagines Rocksaucers with impressive commitment retrieving blocks of stone and positioning them, then sprinkling them with mortar or other material, then beginning, bucket after bucket, to empty the entire flooded level, as regularly as the rising and setting sun, indifferent to its efforts...
"Indeed, all in all, who knows what the future holds?" Mival then smiles.
"The present holds a wedding ring yet to be found..." Elias then recalls.
Mival muses aloud: "I think the only directions we haven't explored yet are either north of here, or up this spiral staircase... Where might it be best to look first?"
Zev stoops beside the ogre-skull 'treasure bowl,' sifting the loose stones and bone tokens with the point of his dagger searching for the gold band, turning a few pebbly gems in his palm before dropping them back and suggesting to Mival, “Share it out, I say. Eight hands now: you, me, Paqen, Elias, Tarysaa, Ardana… and Rocksaucers, Khelbluen. Everybody gets a bit.”
With that settled, he gestures to the yawning corridor north. “Let’s clear that way first. If nothing’s hiding there, we know this whole level’s safe behind us. After that—” he gives the stairwell a wary look— “we’ll climb. Merrow came from above, not below; odd for fish-folk. Best we find out why before more drop on our heads.”
Twin-blade ready, he moves to the northern passage, pausing long enough for anyone who wants a second look at the bones—or who disagrees with the plan—to speak up.
The division into 8 is problematic... because there are only 5 gems (1 translucent brown with a golden center, 1 opaque gray-black, 1 with translucent circles of blue, and 2 translucent striped red).
But the two constructs (Rocksaucers and Khelbluen) decline the reward ("Our reward is to serve Rajmund's descendant! We couldn't save our original Lord, we owe him at least this!") and Mival then assigns 1 gem to each character, declining in turn: "I've already gained two invaluable servants, it seems..."
The path north soon leads to a crossroads of corridors. The light brought by Tarysaa allows the advebnbturers to determine that: - The corridor to the north continues for 15 minutes, turning west shortly after. - The corridor to the east continues for 15 minutes, only to then enter a doorless room, where debris can be seen. - The western corridor immediately leads into a sort of small triangular room, inside which, sitting on a pile of junk, is a large bipedal crustacean horror!
The creature, upon seeing the visitors, emits unsettling noises and stands up...
Khelbluen quickly moves just north of the intersection, floating easily through the water, which slows the movement of those walking. [[ OOC: Let's remember this time that for those walking, one square costs two movement points. ]].
The 'court wizard' extends his arms around the corner, toward the Crustacean Horror, and a sudden bolt of lightning strikes, hurtling toward the monster.
Round 3
The storm of attacks raining down from all sides confuses Tattooed Shoulder, who manages to deflect a slam with his harpoon and nimbly dodge Rocksaucers' massive saucer. However, he is brutally shaken by Khelbluen's electric touch—too stunned to dodge Mival's second slam, which shatters his ribs.
The last Merrow also slides to the bottom, dead.
Paqen takes advantage of this to try to improve Zevriel's condition with a healing spell.
Gratz! Combat won! You can act outside of the rounds now.
Paqen heals Zevriel for 10 HP
And Zevriel dresses the worst wounds using second wind for 7 hp.
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
Zev wipes the blood-tinged water from his chin and hitches his pack higher. “Ugly lot—but they’re done,” he says, voice still tight. “Could use a breather—just a short one. Patch the hole proper, catch breath.” He pats the bandage he applied after Paqen just healed the worst of it. (He's at 23/37 HP)
He squats by the closest corpse, testing the balance of its barbed harpoon. The haft is heavy but serviceable; the point is wicked and meant for thrusting through water. “Blade’s fine on land, not so much down here,” he mutters. He slips the weapon free, gives it a trial stab. “This’ll punch better. I’ll keep it.” He gathers any spare harpoons the others don’t want, then nods back toward the corridor. “Short break and refreshing the prayer, then we press on? I’m good after that.”
(Can we make use of the harpoons? I'm assuming they work like javelins? I would argue for a short rest and refresh of our water breathing.)
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
[[ OOC: Yes, you can use the Harpoons as if they were Javelins. There are three of them. ]]
"All right, Zevriel!" Mival agrees. "I see this fight has taken its toll on you. Especially since you performed the heroic act of jumping into the middle of the room and keeping all those merrow busy... I think you deserve some rest!"
"If it's just your wounds, I can heal you further" Paqen offers.
Meanwhile, Elias waits to hear Zevriel's thoughts on the druid's offer — and also to hear Tarysaa and Ardana's opinions, should they wish to express their own.
Zev gives Paqen a grateful half-smile and shakes his head. “Save your spark, feather-friend,” he says, tightening the last strap on the fresh bandage. “Steel’s patched, bones are sound—just need a sit and a drink of air. Magic’s better kept for the next thing that bites.”
(For me, we can just skip forward to when we're back here after a short rest near the shrine. Unless something happens during a short rest. Or we just press on without a rest, it's not really a big deal. There were stairs here that go down in the lower left corner, right? And what's the greenish corridor straight ahead?)
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
Ok, what could go wrong, after all? 2
The party has no trouble in coming back to Eldath's Shrine, taking a breather, renewing the blessing and coming back.
Once again in the last conquered room, the party has the opportunity to examine it better than they were able to do during the fight. A spiral staircase occupies the southwest corner of this room, leading upwards.
Part of the ceiling has collapsed, so this area is now in communication with the upper Level.
In addition to the stairs (and the collapsed portion of the ceiling), there are several exits.
On the north wall, there was a 5'-wide opening that the collapse has now widened to a width of 10'. This opening leads to a corridor (which has also been affected by the collapse and therefore has a floor cluttered with a lot of debris). This is the way the characters entered.
On the east wall, in the southernmost section, another large opening (10'-wide) leads to a solemn 10'-wide corridor that is paved in marble. In the northernmost section, however, although there were originally no openings, the collapse has created one (also 10'-wide), which allows one to continue through large quantities of debris towards the east in a direction initially parallel to the marble-paved corridor.
On the west wall, in its northernmost section, there is a 10'-wide breach in the wall, which connects the room to the course of an underground river. This is probably the opening, which, according to Rephis' account, was opened by Lombulluth during the battle that cost her and Rajmund their lives.
The room is devoid of furniture, but some of the fallen stones have been fixed with macabre festoons made from bones tied together with string (a careful examination will reveal that they are mostly humanoid bones and that one of the large skulls, probably belonging to an ogre, contains a multitude of small gems—the tribe's treasure). The walls are frescoed, but the long stay underwater has faded the frescoes; it can be recognized that they mainly represented a noble couple, a lord and a lady, in different environments and situations (although always together), but not much more.
"Well, it appears we have located the breach to the underground river system," Tarysaa made an effort to NOT stick her head into the breach as she examines it. "I doubt just blocking it with stones will keep the merrow (and worse) away."
"A hole about 10' in diameter..." Mival agrees with Tarysaa's analysis. "Yes, fixing it would certainly require either a lot of manpower or a lot of magic. And having to work underwater would make everything even more difficult. It's probably beyond our strength."
"Work doesn't scare me, descendant of Rajmund!" Rocksaucers declares.
At which point Mival becomes thoughtful... A construct... Strong... Tireless... That doesn't need to breathe... The doppelganger smiles as he imagines Rocksaucers with impressive commitment retrieving blocks of stone and positioning them, then sprinkling them with mortar or other material, then beginning, bucket after bucket, to empty the entire flooded level, as regularly as the rising and setting sun, indifferent to its efforts...
"Indeed, all in all, who knows what the future holds?" Mival then smiles.
"The present holds a wedding ring yet to be found..." Elias then recalls.
Mival muses aloud: "I think the only directions we haven't explored yet are either north of here, or up this spiral staircase... Where might it be best to look first?"
Zev stoops beside the ogre-skull 'treasure bowl,' sifting the loose stones and bone tokens with the point of his dagger searching for the gold band, turning a few pebbly gems in his palm before dropping them back and suggesting to Mival, “Share it out, I say. Eight hands now: you, me, Paqen, Elias, Tarysaa, Ardana… and Rocksaucers, Khelbluen. Everybody gets a bit.”
With that settled, he gestures to the yawning corridor north. “Let’s clear that way first. If nothing’s hiding there, we know this whole level’s safe behind us. After that—” he gives the stairwell a wary look— “we’ll climb. Merrow came from above, not below; odd for fish-folk. Best we find out why before more drop on our heads.”
Twin-blade ready, he moves to the northern passage, pausing long enough for anyone who wants a second look at the bones—or who disagrees with the plan—to speak up.
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
The division into 8 is problematic... because there are only 5 gems (1 translucent brown with a golden center, 1 opaque gray-black, 1 with translucent circles of blue, and 2 translucent striped red).
But the two constructs (Rocksaucers and Khelbluen) decline the reward ("Our reward is to serve Rajmund's descendant! We couldn't save our original Lord, we owe him at least this!") and Mival then assigns 1 gem to each character, declining in turn: "I've already gained two invaluable servants, it seems..."
The path north soon leads to a crossroads of corridors. The light brought by Tarysaa allows the advebnbturers to determine that:
- The corridor to the north continues for 15 minutes, turning west shortly after.
- The corridor to the east continues for 15 minutes, only to then enter a doorless room, where debris can be seen.
- The western corridor immediately leads into a sort of small triangular room, inside which, sitting on a pile of junk, is a large bipedal crustacean horror!
The creature, upon seeing the visitors, emits unsettling noises and stands up...
Time to roll for initiative!
Crustacean Horror: 17
Paqen: 10
Elias: 3
Mival: 6
Rocksaucers: 5
Khelbluen: 17
Zevriel 22
|| Oriace - Halfling Bard - Dragon Heist || Valerian - Elf Rogue - Wildnis || b'Reh - Stig Cleric - Humblewood || Rowan - Halfling Giant - Runewarren || Khazela - Spiritfarer Dervish - Tribute || Arista - Frost Sorcerer - Old Keep || Zephirah - Demonic Bard - Sands || Merry - Gifted Surgeon - Short || Marasatra - Blood Mage - Avernus || Lan - Dwarf Dragon - Wuxian ||
Tarysaa Initiative: 21
Ardana is back to her old initiative rolls: nat 1. 1+1=2
Round 1
Khelbluen quickly moves just north of the intersection, floating easily through the water, which slows the movement of those walking. [[ OOC: Let's remember this time that for those walking, one square costs two movement points. ]].
The 'court wizard' extends his arms around the corner, toward the Crustacean Horror, and a sudden bolt of lightning strikes, hurtling toward the monster.
Crustacean Horror must make a DC 14 DEX saving throw taking Damage: 19 (lightning) or half on a success (9)
Crustacean Horror's DC 14 DEX Save: 7