Session 38 - Under the Sea
General Summary
35 Amberspell - Contd.
The ride out into the bay was smooth with clear skies and calm waters. As Captain Stormwave steered the party gather on deck and discussed the upcoming dive. Looking over at the witch, Ell asked, "So, Janora, how exactly does this water breathing spell of yours work?"The witch gave a small shrug, "More or less exactly how it sounds. It's a spell that I know that will allow us to breathe underwater. I can cast it on up to 10 creatures at a time and it should last for 24 hours. That should be more than enough time for us to complete the dive, find what we are looking for, and get back to the surface."
"And what if it's not?" asked Jilken, looking nervous.
Janora chuckled, "Then I cast it again. I'm pretty sure we'd be fine even if we took a long rest down there."
Ell nodded, "Excellent, that sounds like the spell will sort one problem. Now for the really important question, will the spell teach people how to swim? I'm pretty good in the water, but I'm not so sure about everyone else."
"No idea," replied Janora, "I guess we'll see when we get into the water. In truth, at least for the first part, your ability to sink will be more important. If everyone can do that reliably, we should be in good shape." Stopping to think for a moment, the witch added, "The other issue is the depth, 40 miles to the bottom is going to take quite a while if we just swim down."
Vellikar shyly raised one hand before saying, "I think I might be able to help with that, that is if folks are okay with my help. I have certain...animal forms that I can take. One of those might be useful to help hasten our decent."
With the immediate challenges dealt with, the conversation drifted and Jilken began scanning the bay itself as well as the far cliff face. One notable change was that there was a now a large cave mouth in the rock wall not far from Cliffside. Pointing it out to Denye, the wizard confirmed that it was likely the bandit's cave and that the illusion must have been broken.
The Aiel fighter grumbled, "We should have gone after him sooner. Those damn guards let them get away and now who knows when he'll pop up again."
Looking off in the direction they were heading, Vellikar, squinting in the bow of the boat, pointed out a speck on the horizon that was just discernable as a building or ruin of some kind. That caused a stir among the party with several suggesting that they take a detour to investigate further. Turning to face Captain H'ralk, the Firbolg druid asked what he knew of it.
Squinting into the distance, the Captain answerd, "Oh aye, that be the ruins of a lighthouse or somesuch. There are a couple of small islands, more just rock bits that stick above or just under the waves. From what those who dive tell me, they are the remains of the old coastline. You all know how the bay was created, yes?"
"Absolutely," said Vellikar with a fake laugh, "everyone knows that."
"It was the Cataclysm, yes," replied Denye, "or at least that is what my studies suggest. I'd love to hear about the local stories however."
With a smile and nod, the older orc launched into a much abbreviated tale of the end of the mage war and the how the magical explosion cut scars into the land forming both bay and basin. "So ya see, those were just outside the edge of the storm and survived. Now they just be a hazard to sail around."
Vellikar nodded and asked, "How about creatures? Does anything live out there?"
The captain scratched his head for a moment, "I've heard some wyvren live on a couple of the islands, but like I said, I generally avoid the place."
"Interesting," mused Denye.
Ell leaned forward and added his two coppers, "Considering the things we've seen lately...maybe that's where we should head."
Denye started to nod, but then shook her head, "I agree, we should go there eventually. But we still need to check out that chasm as well. We should finish this and then go take a look at the lighthouse."
It wasn't much longer before the Captain announced that they had reached roughly the center of the bay. "So how long y'all think you will be gone? It's quite a ways to the bottom from they say."
Janora nodded, "We'll likely be gone for a while, most of a day I would imagine. I apologize, we hadn't give that part of the plan much consideration before we set sail."
Captain Stormwave let out a deep laugh, "Not to worry, I'll do some fishing here in case you run into any immediate trouble and I'll come back out this way about dawn."
That seemed reasonable and so, plucking a piece of straw off their hat, Janora gathered the entire party around their self and cast Water Breathing. One by one, the party dived off the side of the boat, some timidly and some excitedly. Vellikar leapt up in a cannonball leap, but WildShaped into a long-finned pilot whale on the way down.
The wave of water almost capsized the boat and sent his compatriots bobbing about in the water. While not the largest of the whales, Vellikar's form was almost 15ft in length, and looked more than powerful enough to make this dive. Swimming up around to his friends, they all grabbed a fin and began the dive down into the depths.
The light of the sunny day above penetrated the water, but after an hour or so of swimming it was much dimmer and there wasn't a great deal of visibility. Using sonar calls, Vellikar became aware of something swimming below and to the right. At the same moment, Denye caught sight of something red, but only long enough to identify the color before it was gone again.
Decided that it was probably an animal of some kind, the party avoid the crimson giant octopus and continued their descent. Another couple of hours and the team found themselves startling a huge school of long thin fish with iridescent scales that flashed and shimmered as the school broke and fled around them. Vellikar managed to catch a couple in his mouth and chewed carefully, thankful for the snack while he was working so hard.
Not long after that encounter, the party hit the four hour mark and Vellikar reverted back into his firbolg form. More that halfway to the bottom, he looked to the others and said, "I can do this one more time. That should get us to the floor of the basin, but I'm going to need a rest before we can go back up." At the others assent, he WildShaped back into a pilot whale and began swimming downward again.
As the party drew ever closer to the seabed, Jilken spotted a translucent milky film that floated in a 20ft patch below them. The elf called the others attention to it, and as the group drew nearer Denye prodded at it gently with her quarterstaff. As she did so, a milky white tendril whipped out of the mass and curled around the wooden staff.
The mass itself broke up and revealed itself to be three enormous jellyfish that had been floating together in the water. Seeing this, Vellikar swam up and around, giving them a large berth. The jellyfish didn't follow and the party soon found themselves at the bottom of the bay.
There was indeed a large crack here at the base, at least 150ft long and probably 70-80ft wide. The water coming out was quite warm, raising the temp of the water for some distance. As the party approached, Jilken pointed out a shipwreck near one end of the chasm.
As they approached the wreckage, Janora warned, "We should be careful about spells and such, especially lightning. Fire probably won't be great either, but I'm not sure how lightning will travel."
Ell chuckled, "I'm sure Jilken will find out soon enough."
As the elf nodded and smiled brightly, Denye put in, "If she doesn't, I will." Seeing Janora's scandalized look, she added, "What? The critical difference between fucking around and science is writing it down."
Janora just sighed and shook their head, "Things like that explain so much about you." Getting closer to the ship, the witch warned, "We should be careful, there is some kind of undead around. I would suggest not messing with any bones you find. On the other hand, if anything it's probably more of a reason to explore the shipwreck."
"The bell we are looking for," said Ell, "is named the Binder. Maybe it can bind undead spirits or something."
Janora nodded, "It very much can in fact. Over the last season, I did quite a bit of research into the bells and how they are used in the Lost Kingdom."
There were in fact several piles of bones, both on the broken upper deck as well as in the hold. Denye, using Helenwye's eyes to see in the dark, and Jilken began circling the ship around the outside as Janora and Ell moved into the hold. Ell was immediately distracted by a large waterlogged book that proved to be the ship log. It was mostly destroyed, but the young man was able to discern that this had been a Darnet ship, lost some 70 years ago. Janora on the other hand found a medium chest half buried under decking.
Clearing the debris, Janora called over the link, "We've got a treasure chest, folks." Putting the book away, Ell came over and bending down, took a moment to pick the rusted lock. Opening the chest, revealed a foot long dagger made of some black stone like obsidian or volcanic glass. Small red sparks glowed and glittered at the heart of the weapon.
It didn't look like the bell, but Ell reached down and picked it up. As he did so, a flash of energy washed over the shipwreck and all of the various skeletons leapt up to attack the party. In total there were almost a dozen normal humanoid skeletons, but one was much larger, the bony skull that of an ogre.
Vellikar was the first to respond, swimming toward one of the skeletons to take a bite, but the undead creature danced back, evading his teeth. Ranunkel WildShaped into his elemental form and tried to slam a heavy stone fist into another of the skeletons, but added resistance of the water blunted the blow.
Janora grabbed hold of Ell's collar and hauled him up onto the husky's back before sending the dog swimming out into the open away from ogre skeleton. Denye backed up behind the treasure chest for cover and sent out a Storm Sphere that caught several of the smaller ones as well as the big guy. The high winds whipped the water into a whirlpool. The two smaller skeletons struggled to remain standing, but the big guy stood his ground. In response, Denye sent a bolt of lightning out of the cloud at the ogre, but it dissipated before striking him.
One of the skeletons took a hit at Ranunkel, but only managed to chip a bit of stone off his ankle. Two more tried to hit Vellikar, but only one connected as the other was battered by Denye's storm. The others advanced on the party, but none of them were in range. They were however in range of Jilken's bow. The first bolt slammed into the ribcage of the skeleton and exploded outward as the creature collapsed and the skeleton behind it got slammed with bits of stone and debris. Switching crossbows, Jilken downed the other skeleton with a shot from the Rainbow Reaper.
The ogre skeleton skirted around the edge of the Storm Sphere and swung down at Denye with a javelin. The wizard let out a squawk and a column of light and golden feathers swirled up around her as she cast Shield. Turning to see the large skeleton, Ell sent two Eldritch Blasts at the creature pushing it back into the roiling waters of the storm.
Vellikar spun in a swift circle and slammed his tail into the two skeletons that had tried to hit him. It was enough to knock both sets of bones loose and they began to tumble away in the maelstrom. Ranunkel looked down at the one who had attacked him and slammed both fists down at the creature. It danced out of the first blow, but the second popped the skull off the skeleton and the rest of the bones crumbled into a pile. Turning to regard the party, he yelled in Terran, "We need to take off the heads." Unfortunately none of the party spoke Terran so it just sounded like rocks grinding against one another, although Jilken did manage to puzzle out something about heads or skulls.
The large husky barked loudly in the direction of a couple of the skeletons, sending one of them stumbling. Janora followed it up with a Firebolt that blasted the skull off the retreating skeleton. Denye poked her head up and sent a Ray of Frost at one of the skeletons, ice beginning to form around the bones. She sent another lightning bolt at the ogre skeleton. This time it hit and as the electricity sparked around the creature, another nearby skeleton also got shocked. Ducking back into the dubious safety of the hold, the wizard sent Helenwye out to act as spotter.
The remaining skeletons advanced on the party, but the only one close enough to take a swing attempted to strike Vellikar, but stumbled and fell over debris in the sand. Jilken stepped around to get a better view and sent two bolts into the large skeleton. The second shot was another bursting arrow that sent the skull shattering as the large creature broke apart and drifted to the ground.
Seeing only a few left, Ell sent a few more Eldritch Blasts at the skeletons, pushing two more back. Vellikar advanced on the nearer skeleton and bit the head off it as Ranunkel charged up and smashed his friend into the sand.
Janora, still on their mount, backed away from the fight holding an action. Denye stepped forward and sent another Ray of Frost at one of the skeletons before following it up with a bolt of lightning from the storm, bringing down another skeleton.
The last remaining skeleton charged at Vellikar and sliced into his whale shape. A moment later, however, Jilken's crossbow bolt slammed into its skull dropping it. Looking around there were no more of the enemies and the party began to relax and catch their breath. Jilken turned to Ell and asked, "So what did you take that triggered that attack?"
Ell held up the knife before bringing it close to his chest again, "My new knife. But I don't know why they would attack us or why they were set to guard it. But let's go look and see if there is anything else in the chest."
The chest proved to be otherwise empty and it was the only chest or box down there. Rifling through the bits of cloth that still covered some of the skeletons and the nearby sands, they did manage to turn up a few copper and silver coins.
Not wanting to waste the remainder of Vellikar's Wildshape, the party headed back to the chasm and began descending once more. The team didn't see any signs of the crabs that Avieal had warned about, but she was right about the water. As they descending into the chasm, the water began to grow warmer the deeper they got. About the time Vellikar's Wildshape wore off, they were roughly 4-5 miles down the chasm and the water was hot-tub hot...not yet uncomfortable but nearing that point.
The chasm itself was strange. The walls were fused glass smooth and the only thing growing on them were the occasional patch of orange and red seaweed that glowed softly. The party continued to dive for another hour or so, but there was no sign of changes other than a slow narrowing of the crack. Finally Janora called to the others, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starting to not feel very well. It's too hot and I don't know if I will be able to keep going much longer. I can't see anything below us, the walls haven't changed much either. I'm starting to think that this may not be what we are looking for after all."
Ell nodded, "I may be forced to agree with Janora, this water is proving to be a problem."
Denye began to rummage around in her bag to see if she had anything that could help. As the team stopped and hung in the water, Vellikar caught the flash of movement in the depths below them. He wasn't able to get a good look at it, but as it swam briefly back into sight, Vellikar pointed it out, "I see something down there, moving in the water. Should we go take a look?"
With their attention called to it, the others could see it, just at the edge of their vision. It was difficult to make out exactly what it was, but whatever it was, it was clearly heading for the party...rather fast actually. Once that was pointed out, the group began swimming up as fast as they could. Denye popped a Resilient Sphere around the party.
Realizing that it was still gaining on the party, Janora cast Water Walk on the entire team. This had the effect of shooting everyone upwards at a much faster rate, but still the creature continued to gain on them. As the sea monster drew closer, the party realized that it was some sort of large metal construct, with a long thin body and a writhing mass of articulated tentacles.
As it got close, Jilken fired off a crossbow bolt at it, in an attempt to Banish the creature, but unfortunately the bolt bounced of the heavy metal exterior. The second bolt however managed to find a crack between two of the plates and buried itself inside. Vellikar looked panicked for a second and then called up an Ice Knife that he threw at the creature.
Ell threw out a pair of Eldritch Blasts, but only one managed to connect pushing the creature down another 10ft or so. Denye tossed out a Fireball around the creature, but strangely the fire seemed to have no effect on the construct. As the clockwork leviathan shrugged off the blast, the wizard looked confused and alarmed for a moment.
Seeing this, Ranunkel held up his staff again and sent a Lightning Bolt at the construct. This appeared to be super effective as the clockwork creature stiffened and shook as the lightning coursed over and through it. As the druid dropped his staff, Denye called out, "Be careful with it, I want to study it." In response, the leviathan spat out a column of boiling water up at Ell. The young man went pale as his skin reddened, but he pulled himself together.
Janora sent their husky to bark at the construct, but it managed to resist being pushed back. Angrily, the witch sent a Witchbolt at the creature, but it overshot and vanished into the water below. Jilken fired off two more shots. The heavy bolt punched through one of the plates and vanished inside, while the second shot lodged itself into a tentacle before bursting into flames.
Vellikar tossed off another Ice Knife as it hit and then exploded in shards of ice. Taking inspiration from the ice, Ell attempted to shoot a Ray of Frost at the leviathan and hopefully slow it a bit, but the bolt of arcane power went wide.
Denye, with a determined glint in her eye, held up both claws and cast Magnify Gravity. Similar to the Fireball spell, a small black orb shot toward the creature and expanded into a miniature black hole. The leviathan managed to resist the pull, but several of its tendrils were crushed.
Quite happy with how it had worked the first time, Ranunkel sent another Lightning Bolt coursing through it. Shaking off the blast, the clockwork leviathan dashed past the party, managing to get 40ft above them. Seeing this Janora attempted to touch Chill Touch on the creature as it rushed past, but the spell couldn't connect.
Spinning around Jilken fired off the heavy crossbow, but the sting of the bow snapped under the pressure. Looking at the bow in disgust she dropped and brought up the Rainbow Reaper for a second shot, that did manage to find a crack in the hull.
Vellikar threw another Ice Knife at the creature and Ell followed up with two more Eldritch Blasts after downing a health potion. Happy with how the new spell had worked out, Denye cast Magnify Gravity once more. This time the construct was unable to resist the pull and was dragged closer to the party once more.
Ranunkel smiled at the construct and sent another Lightning Bolt slamming into the leviathan. Looking quite rough, the clockwork creature spat another jet of boiling water down at the party, this time surrounding Janora in a cloud of super-heated water. The witch's skin began to blister and redden, but they managed to maintain concentration on the Water Walk spell and the party continued to shoot upward through the water.
Pissed off, Janora pointed a finger at the construct and called up a shaft of Moonlight that skewered the sea monster. The soft radiant glow was tinged with black light as the witch wove in a Curse of Pain. As the light touched the construct, it caused the joints to seize up and the leviathan went completely still. A moment later, the light in the eyes went out and it began to fall past the party.
As it fell, Denye let out a squawk before sighing, "I guess I can go find it's pieces later if I want to study it. I'll need to find some way of dealing with the heat."
Reaching the top of the chasm without other complications, the party found a clear open area of seabed a ways away from the crack and Janora ritually cast Tiny Hut. Collapsing inside, the team began to patch up their wounds and discuss what they had learned.
"So we came down here looking for the Binder," began Ell, "and the undead and that guardian construct kinda made it seem like we were on the right track, but maybe we just aren't ready for this yet."
"I agree," Janora said, "perhaps we need to readdress the poem and see if there was another clue or something we missed."
Ell nodded, "I'm betting it's in that tower we saw."
"Or maybe we're looking in the wrong place," mused Jilken with a thoughtful look on her face. "Remember Lonlos, back on that river barge, he told us stories about a strange fog or something at the center of Wolfworth Basin."
Denye nodded vigorously, "Oh...you are right, there were two sites of Cataclysm, maybe we went to the wrong one. But then what is down in that crack?"
Ranunkel asked, "So then are we staying down here and exploring further or going back up to surface?'
"Back to the surface, I think," said Ell. Looking at Denye, he went on, "I know you want to go find that clockwork thing and whatever it was guarding, but I don't think we can do that now. At the very least we need to find some way to cope with the heat."
Denye nodded, "You are probably right. This wasn't a failure, we've learned several things. And I am coming back here, this is going on my list of research projects."
Regaining the ability to WildShape at the end of the short rest, Vellikar once more took on the shape of a pilot whale and began swimming upwards toward the surface and the boat that should be waiting when they got there.
Report Date
17 Dec 2021
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