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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7042786" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 30: LAKE IT OR NOT</strong></p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 25 February 2017</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The group picked up their enhanced weapons from Pentaclus and his crew of weaponsmiths. Binkadink was overjoyed to say the least; his masterwork glaive had been given a magical augmentation that would not only guide his strikes but also cut deeper into his foes. It practically glowed with power and the little gnome could hardly wait to put it to good use. Nuldurn and Sturgar, the two dwarven smiths, each pointed out the features they had personally worked on with Ingebold's <em>light mace of healing</em>; the cleric blushed once again by the attention.</p><p></p><p>"You forget something, Bink?" asked Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Oh! Right!" said the gnome, asking Ingebold for the <em>portable hole</em> she kept at her belt. She passed it over to him and Binkadink started unfolding it. Rather than open it up on the ground like they usually did, he - with the help of his <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em> - spread it out against one of the shop's outer walls. He entered the vertical hole and returned with several pull-ropes, which the others helped him hook up to Castor and Pollux, their black draft horses. Aithanar led the pair as they strained to pull out the preserved corpse of the juvenile red dragon the group had slain days before.</p><p></p><p>"You guys make armor, by any chance?" the gnome asked hopefully. They didn't, as it turned out - but they had contacts with several good armorers who would be able to craft the gnome a suit of dragonhide plate mail. Pentaclus agreed to set everything up for the price of the dragon's head - he figured mounting the head of the red dragon that had been terrorizing the local area on a pole outside his shop could only be good for business.</p><p></p><p>"I'll see to it myself," Pentaclus promised, and the group hitched the draft horses back up to the Vistani wagon and were on their way.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The group opted to head north to go check out Lake Quag. It connected to the Velverdyva River, a familiar landmark as its waters south of the Clatspur Mountains acted as the western border to the kingdom of Kordovia. As they ambled along north, they met an elderly fisherman standing on a rickety old pier, his line in the water. "G'mornin’ to ya," he nodded in way of greeting. "As y'look t'be strangers t'these here parts, I'll give ya a warnin' ya'd best be told 'bout: don'tcha be strayin' too close t'the lake, lest <strong>Li'l Nick</strong> be a-grabbin' ya!"</p><p></p><p>"Thank you for the warning," smiled Finoula at the old man. "But are you not in such danger yourself?"</p><p></p><p>"Pshaw!" scoffed the fisherman. "I'm in no danger from Li'l Nick! He prefers strong folks in the bloom of their youth, not a wizened old codger like meself!"</p><p></p><p>"Well good luck with your fishing, sir," said Finoula, setting her pony Daisy back to the road.</p><p></p><p>"Name's <strong>Samuel Fisher the Second</strong>," replied the old man with a tip of his battered cap. "But you kin call me <strong>'Junior'</strong> - everybody roundabout here does." The elf gave him a friendly wave as she caught back up to the others, who had continued on down the hard-packed dirt road during her brief chat with the fisherman.</p><p></p><p>They didn't see anyone else for the next half hour or so, when Binkadink and Finoula, at the head of the wagon train, saw two figures off to the side of the road. It was a sad sight: the body of a woman lying motionless on the ground, while a girl who could be no more than 10 or 12 years old cried forlornly over her body. Both figures wore matching tan hooded cloaks - mother and daughter, likely.</p><p></p><p>Finoula spurred Daisy over to the crying girl, her wolf Wrath following as customary. The ranger dismounted as she approached, the better to comfort the girl. However, she also scanned the vicinity for danger, for at this point she had no idea how the woman had come to be killed - if she were in fact dead, although her immobility didn't give the ranger much hope on that front. Finoula unsheathed her sword <em>Tahlmalaera</em> just in case, but kept it at her side. She noted that Wrath wasn't snarling in warning but his fur was raised, as if he sensed something wasn't quite right.</p><p></p><p>"Honey?" she called to the girl. "Are you all right?" Behind her, Obvious trotted up and Binkadink dismounted, leaving his glaives in their harness on his jackalope mount.</p><p></p><p>The girl ignored the heroes' approach, her small frame wracking with sobs. Finoula approached closer, her left hand reaching out to comfort the girl. And then she noticed something strange about the woman's body: it was unusually lumpy in odd places. Behind them, Ingebold brought the mule wagon to a halt; Aithanar did likewise with the Vistani wagon just behind her. Darrien jumped down from the back of the open mule wagon and trotted over; from his angle of approach, he could see a strand of what looked like seaweed sticking out from the woman's pants leg.</p><p></p><p>Before Darrien could voice any concern, a dozen forms popped their heads up from the waters of the lake. They saw six potential targets: Finoula, Binkadink, Darrien, Ingebold, Aithanar, and Castillan (the latter sitting on his usual perch on the roof of the Vistani wagon, and just now catching sight of the twelve newcomers to the scene). With silent hand signals, each selected their target and let loose with their magic. Judging by the sudden shock and jerk of their heads, it looked like Binkadink, Darrien, and Aithanar each succumbed to whatever magic had just been released.</p><p></p><p>The twelve continued walking to the shore, more of their bodies revealed with each step. They stood about four feet tall, with blue skin and hair of various shades of blue or green. One of their number had a skull painted over his face; it was this one who called out to the group in the Common tongue.</p><p></p><p>"Friends!" he called. "We mean you no harm! Set your weapons aside and approach, that we may talk!"</p><p></p><p>Binkadink responded immediately by meandering over towards the edge of the water. Obvious, curious about what was going on (and not understanding anything that had been said), dutifully followed his master. Darrien dropped his <em>Arachnibow</em> to the ground and followed suit; having brought the Vistani wagon to a halt, Aithanar dropped the reins and leaped down from his perch in the driver's seat, then headed over that way himself.</p><p></p><p>The door in the back of the Vistani wagon opened up, and Gilbert Fung stepped down to the ground. "What going on?" he asked irritably. The wizard had heard the commotion from the open windows at the front of the wagon, had noticed they had stopped, and now saw a dozen blue-skinned halflings leading half of his friends over to the lake's edge.</p><p></p><p>"Oh no you don't!" he cried, following this pronouncement with the words to an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell. He centered his spell in the midst of the dozen lake-dwellers, who had lined up in two loose rows. Scores of oily, black tentacles rose up among their ranks, entwining around limbs and torsos. Yelps of surprise turned to howls of pain as the tentacles began constricting along their targets' bodies.</p><p></p><p>At the screams from her tribe members, the "little girl" crying over her mother whipped off her robes and faced Finoula. "Stop!" she cried out, and the ranger saw this was no human girl but another being from the lake, with the same webbed fingers and the bluish skin as the small men who had raced up from the water. "Let there be no bloodshed – we cannot afford the lost lives!" added <strong>Amilonna</strong>.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert looked at Finoula, and she shrugged at him in return. The portly wizard didn't dismiss his spell - he didn't want to shut it off and then find out it had been a mistake to do so - but he did use the power of his will to prevent the tentacles from crushing their victims to death; instead, they continued to hold their writhing captives just tight enough to prevent their escape. "Get talking," he advised the blue-skinned girl.</p><p></p><p>"Please, forgive our attempts at subterfuge," Amilonna continued. "We are nixies, and that is our way. But I see now that you are no common people of your respective races, but adventurers. We sought to charm you into temporary servitude, to help us find and destroy our enemies, but some of us – myself included – believe you would be more effective if fighting voluntarily, of your own volition. Will you listen to our story, and then decide whether you'll help us?"</p><p></p><p>Reluctantly, Gilbert dismissed his spell. The black tentacles shrank down to nothing, releasing the dozen nixies to fall to their hands and knees as they gasped for breath. "There more where that came from," warned Gilbert, although that was actually the only such spell he currently had prepared - but they didn't need to know that. At the direction of the skull-faced nixie, the three adventurers who had been ensnared in <em>charm person</em> effects were released from their involuntary servitude.</p><p></p><p>Amilonna spoke for her group - the "dead woman," the group could now see, was nothing more than a human woman's clothes and boots stuffed with seaweed as a lure. "Some years ago," she began, "our tribe charmed an adventurer much like yourselves, a human wizard. He carried an unusual stone with him, which allowed him to communicate with others in the vicinity of its sister stone, which was away on a distant plane.</p><p></p><p>"The wizard was unfortunately slain defending us against an attack by a freshwater chuul, and the <em>gatestone</em> was kept by our tribe." If Amilonna noticed any grimaces on the faces of the adventurers at the mention of a chuul - a creature that had almost killed two of their number in previous months - she didn't comment on it. "The <em>gatestone</em> was silent for years, but recently a malevolent voice entered the minds of anyone nearby. This voice demanded we nixies join him in activating the <em>gatestone</em>, opening up a gate between his world and ours, that he and his minions could swim into our own waters here." She visibly shivered at the thought of the voice coming from the stone.</p><p></p><p>The skull-faced nixie, a necromancer named <strong>Maidreth</strong>, picked up the tale. "Fearing this voice - it felt ancient, and undeniably evil - we buried the <em>gatestone</em> in a hidden location. We continue to guard it to this day, but do so in an inconspicuous manner."</p><p></p><p>"In recent months," continued Amilonna, "we have seen scrags and merrows actively scouring the lake bottom, in search of something – possibly the <em>gatestone</em>. They are occasionally accompanied by small, winged demons made of water. These forces have slain any nixie they've been able to get their hands on, but so far nobody who knows the <em>gatestone</em>'s location has been captured, so its whereabouts are still unknown by our enemies."</p><p></p><p>"What measures have you taken to counter this threat?" asked Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"We've searched for the home base of the scrags and merrows, to no avail," replied Maidreth. "I know a limited number of spells, but no divination spells capable of finding the lair of our enemies. We're hoping you might be able to assist us on that front." Here he looked up at Gilbert, who had already demonstrated his considerable spellpower. But the wizard merely rubbed his chin and looked over to Ingebold. "You got anything like that on hand?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"Nay," replied Ingebold. "But I could pray for such spells t'morrow, if'n ye like." That was ultimately agreed upon, and the group made their camp there at the side of the dirt road. The nixies, for their part, said their goodbyes and promised to return the following morning. Amilonna gave the group a smile and thanked them for not hurting her tribesfolk; the other nixies, embarrassed at their humiliating defeat, were more than eager to return to the lake's waters.</p><p></p><p>"Tomorrow, then," Finoula said as the last of the nixies disappeared beneath the water's surface.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Ingebold had prepared three <em>divination</em> prayers, the maximum amount she could hold in her head at one time at this stage of her training.</p><p></p><p>"How long this take?" demanded Gilbert, unfamiliar with the specifics of cleric magic.</p><p></p><p>"Ten minutes or so of castin', per spell," replied Ingebold, "and then the askin' of the question itself. An' there be no guarantee that th' spell'll work, in any case. That's why I've got three of 'em at th' ready."</p><p></p><p>It turned out that having prepared three <em>divination</em> spells had been a good precaution, as two of them had no effect. "It happens," shrugged Ingebold. "These questions're being offered up t'th' greater forces of th' cosmos. Sometimes they've got better things t'do than answer ev'ry question what gets sent their way. I'll give it one more shot, but that'll be it fer the day, I'm afraid."</p><p></p><p>The third time, though, seemed to be the charm. After ten minutes of chanting and supplication, a voice boomed through the air, startling even Gilbert, who had not actually expected a response this third time around.</p><p></p><p>"ASK YOUR QUESTION," the voice declared.</p><p></p><p>"What be th' best approach to find the merrows and scrags seeking the <em>gatestone</em> th' nixies've hidden away?" asked Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"SEEK YE ALONG THE CLIFFS TO THE EAST," the voice boomed, then was silent.</p><p></p><p>The nixies were able to direct the adventuring band to the cliffs to the east of Lake Quag: they were a mere few miles north of their present location. The group broke camp and the wagon train headed further north, where the nixies greeted them upon their arrival, having traveled the same distance underwater.</p><p> </p><p>"Are you ready?" asked Maidreth.</p><p></p><p>"Actually, no," answered Finoula. "If you don't mind, we'd like to wait until tomorrow morning, so we have a full complement of spells available to us. Ingebold burned through her most powerful spells in finding the location of your enemies." The nixie necromancer was disappointed by the delay, but Amilonna helped convince him that they had had no success on their own after months of searching and that it made sense for the adventurers to have every advantage in taking on those who would do the nixies harm. Eventually, Maidreth had to bow to the logic. "Until tomorrow, then," he said, and led his people back below the water.</p><p></p><p>"He a grumpy fellow," declared Gilbert, returning to the back of the Vistani wagon to continue studying his <em>Omnibook</em>.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The following morning all was finally in readiness. The nixies bestowed <em>water breathing</em> upon those who would be seeking out the tribe's foes underwater, it having been decided that Aithanar would remain with the wagons and draft animals as usual, and that Wrath and Obvious would likewise remain on land. Gilbert's familiar, Mudpie, also opted to stay behind, the earth elemental not relishing a visit to the underwater realm. "I stay here, Master," he informed Gilbert, and the portly wizard agreed.</p><p></p><p>"Before we go, though, Ingebold cast <em>freedom of movement</em> spells on you four," Gilbert declared. The dwarven cleric cast the designated spells on the others, opting to forego herself and Gilbert, the latter because he could always cast a <em>fly</em> spell to propel himself through the water, and the former because she'd be primarily performing a healing role, which she could now do at a distance since regaining her <em>light mace of healing</em>. It was more important that the others, the likely front-line combatants, be able to move about without restraint. (Besides, as Binkadink and Castillan passed on from personal experience, a chuul relied upon its ability to get a good grip on its foes before paralyzing them with its tentacles, and a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell should make it all but impossible for them to pin down one of the heroes in such a fashion.)</p><p></p><p>"Okay, we ready now," announced Gilbert, stepping down into the waters of Lake Quag. The others followed. The nixies offered to accompany the heroes, but Gilbert waved them off. "Too many, we get seen. We sneak in better with smaller numbers." The fact that Maidreth was so easily convinced demonstrated his race's predisposition to allow others to do their heavy lifting for them. As they left, Binkadink used his innate gnomish powers of <em>prestidigitation</em> to turn his own skin color blue; now he looked like a nixie himself - albeit one with a yellow beard and similar-colored hair, striding along the lake floor in <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em> instead of swimming like a true nixie would. <em>Still</em>, thought the gnome to himself, <em>you never know.</em></p><p></p><p>Lighting was not a problem underwater, for enough sunlight filtered down from above to make it a non-issue. The two <em>everburning torches</em> tied to the antlers of Binkadink's helmet gave off their normal light, although it seemed somewhat incongruous to see apparently flickering flames burning unhindered underwater. The gnome, elves, and half-elf had better-than-human vision and Ingebold could see perfectly in absolute darkness; Gilbert opted to temporarily upgrade his vision to dwarven levels with a quick casting of a <em>darkvision</em> spell on himself. It wasn't his only recent vision upgrade in the past two days, either; he'd just spent part of the previous day casting a permanent <em>detect undead</em> spell upon himself. Now he could see the auras of undead creatures simply by concentrating; having been raised by his mother to revere the spirits of his ancestors, he hated the idea of one's remains being animated after death to pursue the goals of the animator and was quick to mistrust those who painted skulls on their faces. Gilbert was eager to find out more about this Maidreth fellow after they had dealt with the nixies' foes.</p><p></p><p>Approaching the cliff from beneath the water, the group saw it was shielded from view by a row of kelp beds, the tall, leafy fronds waving slowly in the currents. Whether they had grown there naturally or had been placed there deliberatively as camouflage was immaterial; peeking his head through the kelp, Castillan saw three caves at floor level of the cliff side, the two outer ones significantly smaller than the central one. Squinting through the shadows of the smaller caves, the bounder thought he could make out a familiar silhouette. "Chuuls!" he said to the others, as they poked their own heads through the fronds to get a look for themselves.</p><p></p><p>"Let's go!" Binkadink said enthusiastically, his newly-enhanced glaive pointed directly ahead of him as he charged the chuul to his right. Behind him, Darrien, Castillan, Finoula, and Ingebold followed, while Gilbert remained hidden behind the shielding row of kelp and cast a <em>stoneskin</em> spell upon himself.</p><p></p><p>The chuul scuttled forth to meet its attacker, and Binkadink's magic glaive made its first stab into a foe. The chuul snapped out with a claw in response, catching the gnome between its sharp, inner edges but unable to get a good hold on him due to the <em>freedom of movement</em> spell. As he was concentrating on the puzzling, hard-to-grab gnome he was struck on the side by a series of thorns; Finoula had approached to within striking distance with her magical whip and had put it to good use, her own <em>freedom of movement</em> spell preventing her weapons from being impeded by the water's resistance. With her other hand she struck out with <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, her blade still attuned to dealing sonic energy, which vibrated cracks into the chuul's carapace. While the chuul wheeled around to deal with this new threat, Darrien stepped out and stabbed at the beast with his scimitar; it wasn't a powerful magic weapon like his fellow ranger's, but it got the job done in a pinch - and he knew that his <em>Arachnibow</em>'s power was greatly reduced underwater.</p><p></p><p>The chuul was obviously frustrated at its inability to gather either of these three foes in its claws, and its irritation factor rose even higher when Ingebold cast a <em>spiritual weapon</em> in the form of Moradin's warhammer to crash down upon its shell. Castillan bounded up to the side of the beast and stabbed at it with his short sword; despite its home advantage, the chuul was overpowered by such numbers and quickly slain.</p><p></p><p>Having missed out on the action thus far, Gilbert stepped through the kelp bed, casting a <em>mage armor</em> spell upon himself as he did so. Then, satisfied with his current level of protection, he sauntered over in the direction of the others. They, however, were already in motion, heading over to the second chuul crawling out from his cave to the west. Darrien headed over to meet it and saw motion from the central cave. Turning, he saw a massive, humanoid creature swimming his way, an oversized spear in one hand. It had green skin and webbed fingers; Darrien wasn't sure if it was a merrow or a scrag - never having seen either creature before - but he was certain it was one of the two. Scimitar held at the ready, he readied his weapon and awaited its approach.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold, meanwhile, had repositioned her <em>spiritual warhammer</em> to attack the second chuul and was making her way in that direction as well. The green-skinned giant stabbed at Darrien with its spear and caught the half-elf ranger in the side. Darrien swung his scimitar at the beast in retaliation, cutting a gash along its arm. Seeing this, Binkadink charged across the lakebed floor, skewering the merrow with his magic glaive. Darrien, wounded, stepped back out of the way as the dead merrow drifted to the ground - and found himself the preferred target of the remaining chuul.</p><p></p><p>Finoula, in the meantime, had passed Ingebold and struck out with her whip at the second chuul as it cut at her friend's body with its serrated claws - and finding itself just as frustrated as its counterpart at these intruders' strange ability to avoid being caught in its embrace. Ingebold pointed her <em>light mace of healing</em> in the half-elf ranger's direction and fired off a <em>cure serious wounds</em> spell. The beam hit Darrien and sealed up the worst of his wounds, allowing him to concentrate on stabbing the chuul with his scimitar. Castillan did likewise with his own short sword, and the two - aided by Ingebold's <em>spiritual warhammer</em> - brought the second chuul down.</p><p></p><p>"These things just guard beasts," announced Gilbert. "Real enemies probably inside big cave." Together, the group entered the central cave from where the merrow had emerged. As they got a couple dozen feet inside the cave - where the sunlight from above failed to reach, as the group noticed quickly - another merrow stepped into view. Behind him, two other green-skinned creatures stepped into the radius of Binkadink's illumination; these were taller and lankier than the merrows, and thus likely scrags.</p><p></p><p>As the merrow was the closest to the group, Binkadink struck out at him first with his glaive, giving it every ounce of strength he had. The merrow was skewered like his partner had been moments earlier, and he too died at the end of the gnome's blade. Castillan ducked into the shadows of the small side cavern from which the merrow had emerged, waiting for the approach of the oncoming scrags. He used his <em>stonepiercer dagger</em> to help him climb the stone walls of the cavern, then leaped down upon the head of the nearest scrag as the creature ran past. He had intended to impale the scrag through the skull with his dagger, but the creature dodged at the last minute, causing the bounder to slide down the scrag's back and onto the stone cavern floor; only his innate training prevented him from falling prone in a heap. But the scrag, now alerted to this enemy, spun around and gave Castillan its undivided attention. This attention came in the form of slashing claws and snapping teeth, and streamers of red elven blood started seeping from numerous wounds on the bounder's body.</p><p></p><p>The other scrag slashed out at both Binkadink and Ingebold, calling out as he did so in a burbling language, "<strong>Slitherscale</strong>, wake up and get out here! We got intruders!" From the back of the assembled heroes, Gilbert cast a <em>magic missile</em> at the scrag who had just spoken, and was disappointed to see the missiles do a minimal amount of damage to the water-troll's hide. Ingebold, having been caught by a rake of the scrag's claws, smashed at his form with her own warhammer and then stepped back, sending her <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell forward in her place.</p><p></p><p>While the rest were concentrating on this scrag, Finoula skipped up to combat the one attacking her fellow elf, Castillan. She brought the creature down with her whip and her magic longsword - and down it went, its dead body toppling onto Castillan before he could get out of the way. But as the bounder crawled out from underneath the fallen scrag, Finoula was disappointed to see the wounds she had just inflicted already starting to heal up. "It's dead - but it's healing!" she called out to the others.</p><p></p><p>"It a troll - they do that!" replied Gilbert, stepping up and channeling a <em>burning hands</em> spell into his right hand, causing it to glow. Touching <em>Tahlmalaera</em> with his glowing hand, the energy of his spell was siphoned into the variable-energy blade. "Stab it in head now," he advised, and the ranger did just that - and was pleased to see the head-wound she'd just inflicted failed to heal up as the scrag's other wounds had been beginning to do; the creature apparently stopped regenerating once it had been irrevocably slain.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink was facing off with the sole remaining scrag when the water naga swam onto the scene from a ledge above. It bit at the hapless bounder, injecting its venom into the elf's wound, but Castillan fought off the poison's effects with a sheer act of will. As Binkadink's glaive found yet another victim and Finoula hurried to finish it off with her fire-attuned blade, Gilbert killed Slitherscale with another <em>magic missile</em> spell - this one, he was happy to note, dealing a significantly higher level of damage than the one that had practically fizzled away on the first scrag. Finoula, still not trusting the scrags not to regenerate, used <em>Tahlmalaera</em> to decapitate the water-trolls, before looking up and seeing that combat had apparently been finished while she'd been attending to this detail. Ingebold's <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell silently vanished.</p><p></p><p>With no enemies currently facing them, Castillan scrambled up to the higher ledge from where the water naga had swum. "Chests!" he called out, seeing a pair of closed metal treasure chests sitting along the back wall of the ledge, which was otherwise empty of all but some small boulders. After determining the chests were neither trapped nor locked, the bounder opened the first of them, saddened to see its empty contents. The second chest was similarly empty; after a moment's thought, the elf realized this wasn't a treasure hoard after all but a makeshift jail - potential captives could be placed in the trunks and the boulders piled on top of the lids to prevent the captives from escaping on their own.</p><p></p><p>The caves off to the sides provided better results: while the small merrow cave contained only a pair of meager nests made of kelp and seaweed, each of the two scrag caves provided a chest of coins or jewels and a large fisherman's net used as an impromptu hammock. The group opted to leave the chests where they were for now - Ingebold not wanting to open up her <em>portable hole</em> underwater and have it fill up with lake water - and moved on.</p><p></p><p>There was only one other tunnel leading from this central cavern, so Ingebold headed straight to it. It narrowed as it rose in elevation, but the stone floor formed a set of natural, if irregular, steps. After curving to the right, it opened into a small chamber with another chamber 10 feet higher at the top of a stone cliff. The higher chamber was empty but for a large rock back a bit from the opening to the chamber below. As everyone scrambled up to the higher cave, a figure stepped out from the back shadows of the higher chamber.</p><p></p><p>This was a figure unlike anything any of the heroes had seen. Binkadink, the self-appointed "meat-shield" of the group. took a step protectively in front of the others and lowered his glaive to point at this unknown enemy, the flickering light from his <em>everburning torches</em> illuminating the figure as she stepped into full view. An uncharacteristic whimper of fear slipped from the doughty gnome's lips as he looked full upon <strong>Jarmoa</strong> the sea hag and all of his muscles locked up. Jarmoa pointed at the gnome fighter and hissed a curse at him, the power of her evil eye causing the gnome's mind to lock up as tight as his body, as a horrifying paralysis coursed through his system, leaving him standing as motionless as a statue.</p><p></p><p>"Return to me, my pretties!" called out Jarmoa, and Finoula, to Binkadink's left, was close enough to see an amulet around the sea hag's neck glow as she said the words aloud. The elven ranger's horror at the hag's appearance prevented her from attacking immediately, but Darrien stepped up, swinging at her with his scimitar. She was just about the ugliest thing the half-elf had ever seen, but he shunted the horrified thoughts away and concentrated at the business at hand. Perhaps seeing her friend attack despite the horror of their foe, Finoula mentally shrugged off her disgust and stepped up to attack the sea hag with <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, still fire-attuned as a result of Gilbert's spell.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert realized he had a perfect opportunity in front of him: with Binkadink out of the fight and both Darrien and Finoula protected by their <em>freedom of movement</em> spells, the portly wizard had no compunctions against casting an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell right in front of Jarmoa. Once again, writhing, ebon tentacles sprang up from the ground, entwining tightly around Jarmoa and sliding around both Finoula and Darrien but never quite managing to get a grasp on them.</p><p></p><p>Unseen by the heroes, just outside the entrance to the cliff side cave system, four water mephits were swimming at full speed, answering the spoken summons by their horrid mistress. Behind them were the other two merrows and an equal number of scrags, those who shared the living spaces with their slain compatriots on alternating shifts. They had been searching the lake floor for the hidden <em>gatestone</em> until Jarmoa's amulet sent her words to the ears of her summoned mephits, and they in turn rounded up the rest of the search team. The heroes were under the impression that they were fighting their last foe in this underwater cavern, unaware of the reinforcements rushing up behind them.</p><p></p><p>Despite the tentacles binding her into relative immobility, Jarmoa was far from helpless. With Finoula standing immediately before her, trying to hack at the hag through the ebon tentacles, Jarmoa made the obvious choice of second target. Focusing a curse through her horrifying body, Jarmoa focused the full force of her evil eye at the elven ranger. A scream broke off from Finoula's lips, her body instantly paralyzed to the point she couldn't even finish the cry of absolute horror that had escaped upon the application of Jarmoa's curse. Trapped within her unmoving body, Finoula's mind underwent a torrent of images, each more horrific than the last, overwhelming her senses as Binkadink's had been similarly overwhelmed just moments before.</p><p></p><p>"I think it time for <em>fly</em>," Gilbert announced to himself, casting the spell that allowed him to glide through the waters unimpeded. He picked up Ingebold - the only other hero without a <em>freedom of movement</em> spell preventing the reaching tentacles from engulfing her - and flew above their reach, over to the small side cavern from which Jarmoa had emerged. As expected, this was her sleeping quarters, with a crude bed of woven kelp and seaweed sitting upon the floor in the back, and scattered fish bones apparently the remains of recent meals. Of further interest was the small chest along a back wall; not wanting to set off any traps, Gilbert called Castillan to the room and the bounder slipped past the grasping tentacles. The chest was untrapped and inside was a bunch of black, oily-looking pearls. Seeing no further exits from the room - the last one they'd seen in the whole complex - Gilbert was satisfied that the whole place had been cleaned out. "We kill hag, we done!" he announced with great relish.</p><p></p><p>Darrien was moving around to attack the hag from the back with his scimitar; he'd seen what a mere look from her could do and didn't want it happening to him as well. Gilbert, off to the side in the hag's bedroom, was irritated by the delay and fired off another <em>magic missile</em> spell he had prepared that morning, striking Jarmoa unerringly. The sea hag cried out in pain, perhaps from the darts of energy he had just sent her way or perhaps from the crushing tentacles; regardless, with a final snap of breaking bones, her body was crushed by the constricting appendages and Jarmoa was no more.</p><p></p><p>However, from his position behind Jarmoa's body and thus facing the way the heroes had entered this part of the complex, Darrien was able to see the first of the water mephits rise up over the ledge into these two back chambers. They called out for their mistress at the same time Darrien called to his friends that there were reinforcements arriving. Then, seeing that Binkadink's paralyzed body was just outside the range of the ebon tentacles, the ranger dashed forward and grabbed the stricken gnome, pulling him back inside the radius of the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell's effect. Despite his general immobility, the <em>freedom of movement</em> spell still protected him from being grappled by the writhing, black tendrils. Watching over from the hag's bedchambers, Gilbert approved at this unorthodox use of his spell; he'd never have considered <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> to be a defensive spell, but magic was what you made of it, and this made for a great defense!</p><p></p><p>The four water mephits approached as close to the tentacles as they dared; the appendages were only 10 feet long and the ceiling height of the chamber was 15 feet or more, but the mephits were unsure if the tentacles could reach any farther than they could at the moment. Behind them came the two scrags, who swam straight up to the edge of the tentacles' reach and peered between them. They could see Binkadink, Darrien, and Finoula between the waving, rubbery limbs, but were likewise hesitant to enter the spell's area of effect.</p><p></p><p>Castillan, Ingebold, and Gilbert were all in the doorway to the hag's bedchamber, and could see the newcomers to this fray. Ingebold cast a <em>holy smite</em> on the scrags and mephits lined up on the far side of the tentacles, blinding the aquatic trolls and causing all six of the enemies a bit of physical harm. Gilbert flew up to the cavern's ceiling, over his writhing tentacles, and cast a <em>cone of cold</em> spell down at the six, killing the mephits outright and further damaging the blinded scrags - although not, he realized, in a manner from which they could not regenerate the damage done over time. Darrien and Castillan, using the writhing tentacles as protection, stabbed out at the scrags with their blades, catching them completely unawares and slaying them both, even if only temporarily. But by then, the slower-swimming merrows had risen up from the ledge. They took in the scene - dead mephits and scrags, writhing, black tentacles, no sign of Jarmoa - with fearful looks.</p><p></p><p>As one, Darrien and Castillan leaped out from the tentacles, each focusing his blade on a different merrow. From his position along the cavern's ceiling, Gilbert cast a <em>magic missile</em> spell down at Darrien's foe, slaying the merrow. "Go get Finoula's sword, deal with scrags!" commanded Gilbert, and the ranger dashed back in amongst the tentacles to comply. By the time he had grabbed <em>Tahlmalaera</em> from Finoula's hands and returned back to the scrags' regenerating bodies, Castillan had already dealt with the last merrow. Darrien used the fire-enhanced sword to decapitate the healing scrags, and then that was the end of any threat the two of them might pose.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert deactivated his <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell, then cautiously approached Jarmoa's body. He took the amulet from her neck - it appeared to allow a spellcaster to talk to any personally-summoned creatures over great distances, and Gilbert was eager to find out whether it would allow him to send such messages to Mudpie - as well as an evil-looking, twisted, black wand from her belt. This he passed on to Ingebold; she examined it briefly, saw that it was a <em>wand of inflict wounds</em>, and with a look of distaste snapped it in half and tossed it aside.</p><p></p><p>Treasure movement was going to be a problem, Gilbert realized. Usually they would just toss everything into the <em>portable hole</em>, but Ingebold was reluctant to open it underwater and let it fill up with water. Plus, both Binkadink and Finoula were still immobilized with looks of horror on their faces. Ingebold knew the <em>break enchantment</em> spell and was fairly certain it would return the two to their normal awareness and mobility, but she'd have to wait until the next morning to prepare those spells. That not only meant two less people to lug treasure, but two that would need to be lugged away themselves.</p><p></p><p>"We do this old-fashioned way!" Gilbert declared. He had Castillan and Darrien gather up the fishing net hammocks from the scrags' caves, then piled the assorted chests onto them. On a whim, he sent the two out to go check the chuul caves, and they each returned with a handful of loose coins and gems to add to one of the chests. With a <em>bull's strength</em> spell to increase his physical prowess, Gilbert was the designated treasure-dragger, flying through the water pulling the nets of accumulated valuables behind him. Darrien carried Binkadink's immobilized form, while Castillan grabbed up his fellow elf and hoisted a frozen Finoula over his shoulder. With Ingebold trailing behind to ensure nothing got dropped along the way, the group made their way back across the lakebed floor to their camp along the shore, where their treasures were stored away safely in the <em>portable hole</em> and Aithanar was put in charge of watching over the two immobilized heroes. (Upon seeing Finoula's frozen grimace of horror, he gently placed his fingers on the side of her face and quietly said, "Bindocky cremidulong," which of course nobody could understand.)</p><p></p><p>The nixies approached the camp, a scout having seen them return. Maidreth regretted he had no spells to restore the frozen heroes, so they parted ways again until the morning.</p><p></p><p> - - -</p><p></p><p>The first thing after preparing her prayers for the morning, Ingebold used two <em>break enchantment</em> spells to restore Finoula and Binkadink to normal. "By the Goddess!" exclaimed Finoula, the look of absolute horror fading from her face. "What <em>was</em> that hideous thing?" Without a word, Aithanar passed over a cup of hot tea he'd prepared over the campfire and the ranger gladly drank it down.</p><p></p><p>"Sea hag," replied Gilbert, eager to meet up with the nixies again now that they'd finished half of the job.</p><p></p><p>"This is a lake, not a sea," argued Binkadink, looking around and seeing nobody had prepared a cup of warm tea for him upon his restoration. Bugger.</p><p></p><p>"Lake hag, then," amended Gilbert distractedly, looking out along the waters of the lake. "Ah, here they come!" Following his glance, the others saw a dozen nixies rise up from Lake Quag and approach the heroes' camp. "I see your friends have been restored," said Maidreth.</p><p></p><p>"Yes, they fine," agreed Gilbert. "We take care of foes looking for <em>gatestone</em>. But whoever on other side of stone, he can always get others to start looking. You need to give us stone so we destroy it."</p><p></p><p>Maidreth had come to a similar conclusion. "Very well," he agreed. "We will fetch it." He turned to his two most powerful warriors and began to give them orders to gather the <em>gatestone</em> and bring it here.</p><p></p><p>"We come with you," interrupted Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>Maidreth turned to look up at the wizard. "That won't be necessary," he said.</p><p></p><p>"We want to see where you hide it all this time," countered Gilbert. "Plus, we be able to guard it from anyone try to steal it during transport."</p><p></p><p>The nixie necromancer again tried to convince Gilbert that his men could handle the retrieval, but the wizard was adamant that the heroes would be coming along, with or without the nixies' approval. "We can cast our own <em>water breathing</em> spells," pointed out Gilbert. Eventually, Maidreth had no option but to concede. "You may come with, but my men will be the ones to take the <em>gatestone</em> from its hiding place," he said. Gilbert agreed with a nod.</p><p></p><p>Once again, the six adventurers were granted the ability to breathe the fresh water of the lake by the nixies. They followed the trio of blue-skinned humanoids, for Maidreth had all but him and his two top warriors stay behind. This seemed somewhat suspicious to the adventurers, for if the tribe was going to pass the <em>gatestone</em> over to them for safekeeping, what difference did it make where it had been kept thus far? Why couldn't the rest of the tribe learn of its location?</p><p></p><p>Gilbert got his answer when they approached a mass of waving kelp fronds. Maidreth ordered his men to go fetch the stone, but Gilbert's gaze didn't fail to notice three human skulls standing on spears that had been embedded into the lake floor nearby. "And why these here?" he asked Maidreth.</p><p></p><p>"They're just a warning, to keep people away from the dangers of the area."</p><p></p><p>Realizing he'd not likely get a straight answer to his next questions, Gilbert simply cast a <em>fly</em> spell on himself and jutted up from the lakebed floor. Soaring faster through the water than Maidreth could keep up, he glided up past the tops of the kelp fronds and over what he could see from above was a virtual maze - either the kelp had grown that way naturally or it had been helped into its current form, but there was a maze of twisting passageways and dead ends formed by closely-growing strands of kelp, forming barriers as thick as any hedge maze - and much taller! Looking down over the maze before him, he could see the two nixie warriors approach a sunken canoe turned over on its side. They tipped it out of the way, dug beneath it, and pulled out a rune-carved stone before heading back the way they'd come.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert also saw the hunched figures approaching the nixes from a side passageway of the maze. He recognized their ghoulish natures, and realized these were lacedons - underwater ghouls. The lacedons snarled at the nixes as they approached, but backed off and let the warriors swim past. Having seen enough, Gilbert rejoined the skull-faced Maidreth and his own adventuring companions.</p><p></p><p>"Why there lacedons guarding your maze?" demanded Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"They're merely an additional level of protection," insisted Maidreth. "I didn't create them, I merely...repurposed them to my own ends."</p><p></p><p>Gilbert turned to Ingebold. "You have <em>zone of truth</em> spell ready?" he asked her. Before she could even reply, Maidreth panicked. "Okay," he admitted, "I may have fed the odd victim or two to the lacedons to boost their numbers, but it was for a good cause!" He looked back and forth at the other heroes, hoping to find an expression of understanding and support, but the heroes all looked at him in horror.</p><p></p><p>"So, rather than charm innocent people into doing your work for you for a mere 24 hours..." began Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"...he turn them into undead," finished Gilbert. "Then he control them forever." He turned to Maidreth, who was beginning to understand just how dangerous a position he was in. "Where these victims come from?" demanded Gilbert. "Local villages? Travelers?"</p><p></p><p>"It...doesn't really matter," responded Maidreth. "Their lives on land were nothing compared to the service they're providing now...." The necromancer looked desperately at the kelp maze, hoping his warriors would return. Three-to-six odds weren't great, but they certainly beat the one-to-six odds he feared he'd be facing any moment now.</p><p></p><p>"I think you know what happen now," said Gilbert, flying up above the nixie necromancer and motioning for the other heroes to back up out of the way. With a few spoken arcane syllables, Gilbert once again caused writhing, ebon tentacles to rise up from the lakebed floor and encompass a foe. "No!" cried Maidreth, trying to escape the tentacles' crushing embrace.</p><p></p><p>When the two nixie warriors emerged from the kelp maze, unharmed by the lacedons who had been trained not to attack nixies (but had been fed enough humans at a sufficient rate to keep them sated and compliant), they saw their leader being crushed to death. Weapons sheathed, Finoula stepped up and held out a hand for the <em>gatestone</em>. Realizing they had nothing to gain but a swift death by resisting, the nixie warrior silently handed it over.</p><p></p><p>After Maidreth had been crushed to death and Gilbert dismissed his spell, he turned to the nixies. "We going inside kelp maze now. We kill every lacedon we find. You follow us in there, we kill you, too. Now you go back to tribe, tell them no more dealing with undead!" Mumbling assurances, the two nixie warriors swam off, glad to have survived with their lives. Then, after they had left, the six adventurers turned as one and entered the kelp maze, eager to slay every undead creature in there they saw.</p><p></p><p>There were only six lacedons, and they didn't take long to find and kill.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>"So what're we gonna do with th' silly stone?" asked Ingebold, once they were back at their camp.</p><p></p><p>"I tempted to go to Kozakura, open up <em>gate</em> there. Let stupid new Emperor see how he like ruling country under water."</p><p></p><p>"If the other <em>gatestone</em>'s underwater, but on an infinite outer plane," pointed out Castillan, "then opening it up on land here would dump an infinite amount of water onto our world. Probably not your best idea."</p><p></p><p>"I just thinking out loud, elf boy."</p><p></p><p>Darrien started chuckling to himself. "Hey, here's an idea," he said. "What if we went inside the <em>snow globe</em> and opened it up in there? Then the water would fill up the interior of that spherical section of the arctic and possibly freeze it solid." That thought brought a smile to the others' faces.</p><p></p><p>"Ah," decided Binkadink, "it's probably best to just destroy it. King Galrich's undoubtedly got a few ideas about how we could do that."</p><p></p><p>"Me father says th' kings got a <em>vorpal axe</em>," pointed out Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"THAT WOULD BE FOOLISH," boomed a sudden voice in everyone's head. "OPEN THE GATEWAY TO YOUR WORLD, AND YOU WILL BE HANDSOMELY REWARDED. I WILL TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO." Along with the telepathic voice came an unwanted image, of a multiple-limbed beast, much like a vast octopus, with horns and ridges along its body and eyes that blazed like underwater suns.</p><p></p><p>"BECOME A WILLING THRALL TO <strong>MENDATHUZALIN</strong>, AND RICHES BEYOND IMAGINING WILL BE YOUR REWARD!" insisted the mental voice.</p><p></p><p>"We think about it!" promised Gilbert, gesturing for Ingebold to open up the <em>portable hole</em> now that they were safe on dry land. He dropped the <em>gatestone</em> into the <em>hole</em> and Ingebold folded it back up. As soon as the stone entered the extradimensional space, the telepathic voice broke off.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert made a face. "That about enough of him!" he said, and nobody argued otherwise.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: Lacking anything more thematically appropriate, I wore a simple blue T-shirt, to reflect the blue waters of Lake Quag.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7042786, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 30: LAKE IT OR NOT[/b] Game Session Date: 25 February 2017 - - - The group picked up their enhanced weapons from Pentaclus and his crew of weaponsmiths. Binkadink was overjoyed to say the least; his masterwork glaive had been given a magical augmentation that would not only guide his strikes but also cut deeper into his foes. It practically glowed with power and the little gnome could hardly wait to put it to good use. Nuldurn and Sturgar, the two dwarven smiths, each pointed out the features they had personally worked on with Ingebold's [i]light mace of healing[/i]; the cleric blushed once again by the attention. "You forget something, Bink?" asked Gilbert. "Oh! Right!" said the gnome, asking Ingebold for the [i]portable hole[/i] she kept at her belt. She passed it over to him and Binkadink started unfolding it. Rather than open it up on the ground like they usually did, he - with the help of his [i]gnomish stilt-boots[/i] - spread it out against one of the shop's outer walls. He entered the vertical hole and returned with several pull-ropes, which the others helped him hook up to Castor and Pollux, their black draft horses. Aithanar led the pair as they strained to pull out the preserved corpse of the juvenile red dragon the group had slain days before. "You guys make armor, by any chance?" the gnome asked hopefully. They didn't, as it turned out - but they had contacts with several good armorers who would be able to craft the gnome a suit of dragonhide plate mail. Pentaclus agreed to set everything up for the price of the dragon's head - he figured mounting the head of the red dragon that had been terrorizing the local area on a pole outside his shop could only be good for business. "I'll see to it myself," Pentaclus promised, and the group hitched the draft horses back up to the Vistani wagon and were on their way. - - - The group opted to head north to go check out Lake Quag. It connected to the Velverdyva River, a familiar landmark as its waters south of the Clatspur Mountains acted as the western border to the kingdom of Kordovia. As they ambled along north, they met an elderly fisherman standing on a rickety old pier, his line in the water. "G'mornin’ to ya," he nodded in way of greeting. "As y'look t'be strangers t'these here parts, I'll give ya a warnin' ya'd best be told 'bout: don'tcha be strayin' too close t'the lake, lest [b]Li'l Nick[/b] be a-grabbin' ya!" "Thank you for the warning," smiled Finoula at the old man. "But are you not in such danger yourself?" "Pshaw!" scoffed the fisherman. "I'm in no danger from Li'l Nick! He prefers strong folks in the bloom of their youth, not a wizened old codger like meself!" "Well good luck with your fishing, sir," said Finoula, setting her pony Daisy back to the road. "Name's [b]Samuel Fisher the Second[/b]," replied the old man with a tip of his battered cap. "But you kin call me [b]'Junior'[/b] - everybody roundabout here does." The elf gave him a friendly wave as she caught back up to the others, who had continued on down the hard-packed dirt road during her brief chat with the fisherman. They didn't see anyone else for the next half hour or so, when Binkadink and Finoula, at the head of the wagon train, saw two figures off to the side of the road. It was a sad sight: the body of a woman lying motionless on the ground, while a girl who could be no more than 10 or 12 years old cried forlornly over her body. Both figures wore matching tan hooded cloaks - mother and daughter, likely. Finoula spurred Daisy over to the crying girl, her wolf Wrath following as customary. The ranger dismounted as she approached, the better to comfort the girl. However, she also scanned the vicinity for danger, for at this point she had no idea how the woman had come to be killed - if she were in fact dead, although her immobility didn't give the ranger much hope on that front. Finoula unsheathed her sword [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] just in case, but kept it at her side. She noted that Wrath wasn't snarling in warning but his fur was raised, as if he sensed something wasn't quite right. "Honey?" she called to the girl. "Are you all right?" Behind her, Obvious trotted up and Binkadink dismounted, leaving his glaives in their harness on his jackalope mount. The girl ignored the heroes' approach, her small frame wracking with sobs. Finoula approached closer, her left hand reaching out to comfort the girl. And then she noticed something strange about the woman's body: it was unusually lumpy in odd places. Behind them, Ingebold brought the mule wagon to a halt; Aithanar did likewise with the Vistani wagon just behind her. Darrien jumped down from the back of the open mule wagon and trotted over; from his angle of approach, he could see a strand of what looked like seaweed sticking out from the woman's pants leg. Before Darrien could voice any concern, a dozen forms popped their heads up from the waters of the lake. They saw six potential targets: Finoula, Binkadink, Darrien, Ingebold, Aithanar, and Castillan (the latter sitting on his usual perch on the roof of the Vistani wagon, and just now catching sight of the twelve newcomers to the scene). With silent hand signals, each selected their target and let loose with their magic. Judging by the sudden shock and jerk of their heads, it looked like Binkadink, Darrien, and Aithanar each succumbed to whatever magic had just been released. The twelve continued walking to the shore, more of their bodies revealed with each step. They stood about four feet tall, with blue skin and hair of various shades of blue or green. One of their number had a skull painted over his face; it was this one who called out to the group in the Common tongue. "Friends!" he called. "We mean you no harm! Set your weapons aside and approach, that we may talk!" Binkadink responded immediately by meandering over towards the edge of the water. Obvious, curious about what was going on (and not understanding anything that had been said), dutifully followed his master. Darrien dropped his [i]Arachnibow[/i] to the ground and followed suit; having brought the Vistani wagon to a halt, Aithanar dropped the reins and leaped down from his perch in the driver's seat, then headed over that way himself. The door in the back of the Vistani wagon opened up, and Gilbert Fung stepped down to the ground. "What going on?" he asked irritably. The wizard had heard the commotion from the open windows at the front of the wagon, had noticed they had stopped, and now saw a dozen blue-skinned halflings leading half of his friends over to the lake's edge. "Oh no you don't!" he cried, following this pronouncement with the words to an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell. He centered his spell in the midst of the dozen lake-dwellers, who had lined up in two loose rows. Scores of oily, black tentacles rose up among their ranks, entwining around limbs and torsos. Yelps of surprise turned to howls of pain as the tentacles began constricting along their targets' bodies. At the screams from her tribe members, the "little girl" crying over her mother whipped off her robes and faced Finoula. "Stop!" she cried out, and the ranger saw this was no human girl but another being from the lake, with the same webbed fingers and the bluish skin as the small men who had raced up from the water. "Let there be no bloodshed – we cannot afford the lost lives!" added [b]Amilonna[/b]. Gilbert looked at Finoula, and she shrugged at him in return. The portly wizard didn't dismiss his spell - he didn't want to shut it off and then find out it had been a mistake to do so - but he did use the power of his will to prevent the tentacles from crushing their victims to death; instead, they continued to hold their writhing captives just tight enough to prevent their escape. "Get talking," he advised the blue-skinned girl. "Please, forgive our attempts at subterfuge," Amilonna continued. "We are nixies, and that is our way. But I see now that you are no common people of your respective races, but adventurers. We sought to charm you into temporary servitude, to help us find and destroy our enemies, but some of us – myself included – believe you would be more effective if fighting voluntarily, of your own volition. Will you listen to our story, and then decide whether you'll help us?" Reluctantly, Gilbert dismissed his spell. The black tentacles shrank down to nothing, releasing the dozen nixies to fall to their hands and knees as they gasped for breath. "There more where that came from," warned Gilbert, although that was actually the only such spell he currently had prepared - but they didn't need to know that. At the direction of the skull-faced nixie, the three adventurers who had been ensnared in [i]charm person[/i] effects were released from their involuntary servitude. Amilonna spoke for her group - the "dead woman," the group could now see, was nothing more than a human woman's clothes and boots stuffed with seaweed as a lure. "Some years ago," she began, "our tribe charmed an adventurer much like yourselves, a human wizard. He carried an unusual stone with him, which allowed him to communicate with others in the vicinity of its sister stone, which was away on a distant plane. "The wizard was unfortunately slain defending us against an attack by a freshwater chuul, and the [i]gatestone[/i] was kept by our tribe." If Amilonna noticed any grimaces on the faces of the adventurers at the mention of a chuul - a creature that had almost killed two of their number in previous months - she didn't comment on it. "The [i]gatestone[/i] was silent for years, but recently a malevolent voice entered the minds of anyone nearby. This voice demanded we nixies join him in activating the [i]gatestone[/i], opening up a gate between his world and ours, that he and his minions could swim into our own waters here." She visibly shivered at the thought of the voice coming from the stone. The skull-faced nixie, a necromancer named [b]Maidreth[/b], picked up the tale. "Fearing this voice - it felt ancient, and undeniably evil - we buried the [i]gatestone[/i] in a hidden location. We continue to guard it to this day, but do so in an inconspicuous manner." "In recent months," continued Amilonna, "we have seen scrags and merrows actively scouring the lake bottom, in search of something – possibly the [i]gatestone[/i]. They are occasionally accompanied by small, winged demons made of water. These forces have slain any nixie they've been able to get their hands on, but so far nobody who knows the [i]gatestone[/i]'s location has been captured, so its whereabouts are still unknown by our enemies." "What measures have you taken to counter this threat?" asked Finoula. "We've searched for the home base of the scrags and merrows, to no avail," replied Maidreth. "I know a limited number of spells, but no divination spells capable of finding the lair of our enemies. We're hoping you might be able to assist us on that front." Here he looked up at Gilbert, who had already demonstrated his considerable spellpower. But the wizard merely rubbed his chin and looked over to Ingebold. "You got anything like that on hand?" he asked. "Nay," replied Ingebold. "But I could pray for such spells t'morrow, if'n ye like." That was ultimately agreed upon, and the group made their camp there at the side of the dirt road. The nixies, for their part, said their goodbyes and promised to return the following morning. Amilonna gave the group a smile and thanked them for not hurting her tribesfolk; the other nixies, embarrassed at their humiliating defeat, were more than eager to return to the lake's waters. "Tomorrow, then," Finoula said as the last of the nixies disappeared beneath the water's surface. - - - Ingebold had prepared three [i]divination[/i] prayers, the maximum amount she could hold in her head at one time at this stage of her training. "How long this take?" demanded Gilbert, unfamiliar with the specifics of cleric magic. "Ten minutes or so of castin', per spell," replied Ingebold, "and then the askin' of the question itself. An' there be no guarantee that th' spell'll work, in any case. That's why I've got three of 'em at th' ready." It turned out that having prepared three [i]divination[/i] spells had been a good precaution, as two of them had no effect. "It happens," shrugged Ingebold. "These questions're being offered up t'th' greater forces of th' cosmos. Sometimes they've got better things t'do than answer ev'ry question what gets sent their way. I'll give it one more shot, but that'll be it fer the day, I'm afraid." The third time, though, seemed to be the charm. After ten minutes of chanting and supplication, a voice boomed through the air, startling even Gilbert, who had not actually expected a response this third time around. "ASK YOUR QUESTION," the voice declared. "What be th' best approach to find the merrows and scrags seeking the [i]gatestone[/i] th' nixies've hidden away?" asked Ingebold. "SEEK YE ALONG THE CLIFFS TO THE EAST," the voice boomed, then was silent. The nixies were able to direct the adventuring band to the cliffs to the east of Lake Quag: they were a mere few miles north of their present location. The group broke camp and the wagon train headed further north, where the nixies greeted them upon their arrival, having traveled the same distance underwater. "Are you ready?" asked Maidreth. "Actually, no," answered Finoula. "If you don't mind, we'd like to wait until tomorrow morning, so we have a full complement of spells available to us. Ingebold burned through her most powerful spells in finding the location of your enemies." The nixie necromancer was disappointed by the delay, but Amilonna helped convince him that they had had no success on their own after months of searching and that it made sense for the adventurers to have every advantage in taking on those who would do the nixies harm. Eventually, Maidreth had to bow to the logic. "Until tomorrow, then," he said, and led his people back below the water. "He a grumpy fellow," declared Gilbert, returning to the back of the Vistani wagon to continue studying his [i]Omnibook[/i]. - - - The following morning all was finally in readiness. The nixies bestowed [i]water breathing[/i] upon those who would be seeking out the tribe's foes underwater, it having been decided that Aithanar would remain with the wagons and draft animals as usual, and that Wrath and Obvious would likewise remain on land. Gilbert's familiar, Mudpie, also opted to stay behind, the earth elemental not relishing a visit to the underwater realm. "I stay here, Master," he informed Gilbert, and the portly wizard agreed. "Before we go, though, Ingebold cast [i]freedom of movement[/i] spells on you four," Gilbert declared. The dwarven cleric cast the designated spells on the others, opting to forego herself and Gilbert, the latter because he could always cast a [i]fly[/i] spell to propel himself through the water, and the former because she'd be primarily performing a healing role, which she could now do at a distance since regaining her [i]light mace of healing[/i]. It was more important that the others, the likely front-line combatants, be able to move about without restraint. (Besides, as Binkadink and Castillan passed on from personal experience, a chuul relied upon its ability to get a good grip on its foes before paralyzing them with its tentacles, and a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell should make it all but impossible for them to pin down one of the heroes in such a fashion.) "Okay, we ready now," announced Gilbert, stepping down into the waters of Lake Quag. The others followed. The nixies offered to accompany the heroes, but Gilbert waved them off. "Too many, we get seen. We sneak in better with smaller numbers." The fact that Maidreth was so easily convinced demonstrated his race's predisposition to allow others to do their heavy lifting for them. As they left, Binkadink used his innate gnomish powers of [i]prestidigitation[/i] to turn his own skin color blue; now he looked like a nixie himself - albeit one with a yellow beard and similar-colored hair, striding along the lake floor in [i]gnomish stilt-boots[/i] instead of swimming like a true nixie would. [i]Still[/i], thought the gnome to himself, [i]you never know.[/i] Lighting was not a problem underwater, for enough sunlight filtered down from above to make it a non-issue. The two [i]everburning torches[/i] tied to the antlers of Binkadink's helmet gave off their normal light, although it seemed somewhat incongruous to see apparently flickering flames burning unhindered underwater. The gnome, elves, and half-elf had better-than-human vision and Ingebold could see perfectly in absolute darkness; Gilbert opted to temporarily upgrade his vision to dwarven levels with a quick casting of a [i]darkvision[/i] spell on himself. It wasn't his only recent vision upgrade in the past two days, either; he'd just spent part of the previous day casting a permanent [i]detect undead[/i] spell upon himself. Now he could see the auras of undead creatures simply by concentrating; having been raised by his mother to revere the spirits of his ancestors, he hated the idea of one's remains being animated after death to pursue the goals of the animator and was quick to mistrust those who painted skulls on their faces. Gilbert was eager to find out more about this Maidreth fellow after they had dealt with the nixies' foes. Approaching the cliff from beneath the water, the group saw it was shielded from view by a row of kelp beds, the tall, leafy fronds waving slowly in the currents. Whether they had grown there naturally or had been placed there deliberatively as camouflage was immaterial; peeking his head through the kelp, Castillan saw three caves at floor level of the cliff side, the two outer ones significantly smaller than the central one. Squinting through the shadows of the smaller caves, the bounder thought he could make out a familiar silhouette. "Chuuls!" he said to the others, as they poked their own heads through the fronds to get a look for themselves. "Let's go!" Binkadink said enthusiastically, his newly-enhanced glaive pointed directly ahead of him as he charged the chuul to his right. Behind him, Darrien, Castillan, Finoula, and Ingebold followed, while Gilbert remained hidden behind the shielding row of kelp and cast a [i]stoneskin[/i] spell upon himself. The chuul scuttled forth to meet its attacker, and Binkadink's magic glaive made its first stab into a foe. The chuul snapped out with a claw in response, catching the gnome between its sharp, inner edges but unable to get a good hold on him due to the [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell. As he was concentrating on the puzzling, hard-to-grab gnome he was struck on the side by a series of thorns; Finoula had approached to within striking distance with her magical whip and had put it to good use, her own [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell preventing her weapons from being impeded by the water's resistance. With her other hand she struck out with [i]Tahlmalaera[/i], her blade still attuned to dealing sonic energy, which vibrated cracks into the chuul's carapace. While the chuul wheeled around to deal with this new threat, Darrien stepped out and stabbed at the beast with his scimitar; it wasn't a powerful magic weapon like his fellow ranger's, but it got the job done in a pinch - and he knew that his [i]Arachnibow[/i]'s power was greatly reduced underwater. The chuul was obviously frustrated at its inability to gather either of these three foes in its claws, and its irritation factor rose even higher when Ingebold cast a [i]spiritual weapon[/i] in the form of Moradin's warhammer to crash down upon its shell. Castillan bounded up to the side of the beast and stabbed at it with his short sword; despite its home advantage, the chuul was overpowered by such numbers and quickly slain. Having missed out on the action thus far, Gilbert stepped through the kelp bed, casting a [i]mage armor[/i] spell upon himself as he did so. Then, satisfied with his current level of protection, he sauntered over in the direction of the others. They, however, were already in motion, heading over to the second chuul crawling out from his cave to the west. Darrien headed over to meet it and saw motion from the central cave. Turning, he saw a massive, humanoid creature swimming his way, an oversized spear in one hand. It had green skin and webbed fingers; Darrien wasn't sure if it was a merrow or a scrag - never having seen either creature before - but he was certain it was one of the two. Scimitar held at the ready, he readied his weapon and awaited its approach. Ingebold, meanwhile, had repositioned her [i]spiritual warhammer[/i] to attack the second chuul and was making her way in that direction as well. The green-skinned giant stabbed at Darrien with its spear and caught the half-elf ranger in the side. Darrien swung his scimitar at the beast in retaliation, cutting a gash along its arm. Seeing this, Binkadink charged across the lakebed floor, skewering the merrow with his magic glaive. Darrien, wounded, stepped back out of the way as the dead merrow drifted to the ground - and found himself the preferred target of the remaining chuul. Finoula, in the meantime, had passed Ingebold and struck out with her whip at the second chuul as it cut at her friend's body with its serrated claws - and finding itself just as frustrated as its counterpart at these intruders' strange ability to avoid being caught in its embrace. Ingebold pointed her [i]light mace of healing[/i] in the half-elf ranger's direction and fired off a [i]cure serious wounds[/i] spell. The beam hit Darrien and sealed up the worst of his wounds, allowing him to concentrate on stabbing the chuul with his scimitar. Castillan did likewise with his own short sword, and the two - aided by Ingebold's [i]spiritual warhammer[/i] - brought the second chuul down. "These things just guard beasts," announced Gilbert. "Real enemies probably inside big cave." Together, the group entered the central cave from where the merrow had emerged. As they got a couple dozen feet inside the cave - where the sunlight from above failed to reach, as the group noticed quickly - another merrow stepped into view. Behind him, two other green-skinned creatures stepped into the radius of Binkadink's illumination; these were taller and lankier than the merrows, and thus likely scrags. As the merrow was the closest to the group, Binkadink struck out at him first with his glaive, giving it every ounce of strength he had. The merrow was skewered like his partner had been moments earlier, and he too died at the end of the gnome's blade. Castillan ducked into the shadows of the small side cavern from which the merrow had emerged, waiting for the approach of the oncoming scrags. He used his [i]stonepiercer dagger[/i] to help him climb the stone walls of the cavern, then leaped down upon the head of the nearest scrag as the creature ran past. He had intended to impale the scrag through the skull with his dagger, but the creature dodged at the last minute, causing the bounder to slide down the scrag's back and onto the stone cavern floor; only his innate training prevented him from falling prone in a heap. But the scrag, now alerted to this enemy, spun around and gave Castillan its undivided attention. This attention came in the form of slashing claws and snapping teeth, and streamers of red elven blood started seeping from numerous wounds on the bounder's body. The other scrag slashed out at both Binkadink and Ingebold, calling out as he did so in a burbling language, "[b]Slitherscale[/b], wake up and get out here! We got intruders!" From the back of the assembled heroes, Gilbert cast a [i]magic missile[/i] at the scrag who had just spoken, and was disappointed to see the missiles do a minimal amount of damage to the water-troll's hide. Ingebold, having been caught by a rake of the scrag's claws, smashed at his form with her own warhammer and then stepped back, sending her [i]spiritual weapon[/i] spell forward in her place. While the rest were concentrating on this scrag, Finoula skipped up to combat the one attacking her fellow elf, Castillan. She brought the creature down with her whip and her magic longsword - and down it went, its dead body toppling onto Castillan before he could get out of the way. But as the bounder crawled out from underneath the fallen scrag, Finoula was disappointed to see the wounds she had just inflicted already starting to heal up. "It's dead - but it's healing!" she called out to the others. "It a troll - they do that!" replied Gilbert, stepping up and channeling a [i]burning hands[/i] spell into his right hand, causing it to glow. Touching [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] with his glowing hand, the energy of his spell was siphoned into the variable-energy blade. "Stab it in head now," he advised, and the ranger did just that - and was pleased to see the head-wound she'd just inflicted failed to heal up as the scrag's other wounds had been beginning to do; the creature apparently stopped regenerating once it had been irrevocably slain. Binkadink was facing off with the sole remaining scrag when the water naga swam onto the scene from a ledge above. It bit at the hapless bounder, injecting its venom into the elf's wound, but Castillan fought off the poison's effects with a sheer act of will. As Binkadink's glaive found yet another victim and Finoula hurried to finish it off with her fire-attuned blade, Gilbert killed Slitherscale with another [i]magic missile[/i] spell - this one, he was happy to note, dealing a significantly higher level of damage than the one that had practically fizzled away on the first scrag. Finoula, still not trusting the scrags not to regenerate, used [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] to decapitate the water-trolls, before looking up and seeing that combat had apparently been finished while she'd been attending to this detail. Ingebold's [i]spiritual weapon[/i] spell silently vanished. With no enemies currently facing them, Castillan scrambled up to the higher ledge from where the water naga had swum. "Chests!" he called out, seeing a pair of closed metal treasure chests sitting along the back wall of the ledge, which was otherwise empty of all but some small boulders. After determining the chests were neither trapped nor locked, the bounder opened the first of them, saddened to see its empty contents. The second chest was similarly empty; after a moment's thought, the elf realized this wasn't a treasure hoard after all but a makeshift jail - potential captives could be placed in the trunks and the boulders piled on top of the lids to prevent the captives from escaping on their own. The caves off to the sides provided better results: while the small merrow cave contained only a pair of meager nests made of kelp and seaweed, each of the two scrag caves provided a chest of coins or jewels and a large fisherman's net used as an impromptu hammock. The group opted to leave the chests where they were for now - Ingebold not wanting to open up her [i]portable hole[/i] underwater and have it fill up with lake water - and moved on. There was only one other tunnel leading from this central cavern, so Ingebold headed straight to it. It narrowed as it rose in elevation, but the stone floor formed a set of natural, if irregular, steps. After curving to the right, it opened into a small chamber with another chamber 10 feet higher at the top of a stone cliff. The higher chamber was empty but for a large rock back a bit from the opening to the chamber below. As everyone scrambled up to the higher cave, a figure stepped out from the back shadows of the higher chamber. This was a figure unlike anything any of the heroes had seen. Binkadink, the self-appointed "meat-shield" of the group. took a step protectively in front of the others and lowered his glaive to point at this unknown enemy, the flickering light from his [i]everburning torches[/i] illuminating the figure as she stepped into full view. An uncharacteristic whimper of fear slipped from the doughty gnome's lips as he looked full upon [b]Jarmoa[/b] the sea hag and all of his muscles locked up. Jarmoa pointed at the gnome fighter and hissed a curse at him, the power of her evil eye causing the gnome's mind to lock up as tight as his body, as a horrifying paralysis coursed through his system, leaving him standing as motionless as a statue. "Return to me, my pretties!" called out Jarmoa, and Finoula, to Binkadink's left, was close enough to see an amulet around the sea hag's neck glow as she said the words aloud. The elven ranger's horror at the hag's appearance prevented her from attacking immediately, but Darrien stepped up, swinging at her with his scimitar. She was just about the ugliest thing the half-elf had ever seen, but he shunted the horrified thoughts away and concentrated at the business at hand. Perhaps seeing her friend attack despite the horror of their foe, Finoula mentally shrugged off her disgust and stepped up to attack the sea hag with [i]Tahlmalaera[/i], still fire-attuned as a result of Gilbert's spell. Gilbert realized he had a perfect opportunity in front of him: with Binkadink out of the fight and both Darrien and Finoula protected by their [i]freedom of movement[/i] spells, the portly wizard had no compunctions against casting an [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell right in front of Jarmoa. Once again, writhing, ebon tentacles sprang up from the ground, entwining tightly around Jarmoa and sliding around both Finoula and Darrien but never quite managing to get a grasp on them. Unseen by the heroes, just outside the entrance to the cliff side cave system, four water mephits were swimming at full speed, answering the spoken summons by their horrid mistress. Behind them were the other two merrows and an equal number of scrags, those who shared the living spaces with their slain compatriots on alternating shifts. They had been searching the lake floor for the hidden [i]gatestone[/i] until Jarmoa's amulet sent her words to the ears of her summoned mephits, and they in turn rounded up the rest of the search team. The heroes were under the impression that they were fighting their last foe in this underwater cavern, unaware of the reinforcements rushing up behind them. Despite the tentacles binding her into relative immobility, Jarmoa was far from helpless. With Finoula standing immediately before her, trying to hack at the hag through the ebon tentacles, Jarmoa made the obvious choice of second target. Focusing a curse through her horrifying body, Jarmoa focused the full force of her evil eye at the elven ranger. A scream broke off from Finoula's lips, her body instantly paralyzed to the point she couldn't even finish the cry of absolute horror that had escaped upon the application of Jarmoa's curse. Trapped within her unmoving body, Finoula's mind underwent a torrent of images, each more horrific than the last, overwhelming her senses as Binkadink's had been similarly overwhelmed just moments before. "I think it time for [i]fly[/i]," Gilbert announced to himself, casting the spell that allowed him to glide through the waters unimpeded. He picked up Ingebold - the only other hero without a [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell preventing the reaching tentacles from engulfing her - and flew above their reach, over to the small side cavern from which Jarmoa had emerged. As expected, this was her sleeping quarters, with a crude bed of woven kelp and seaweed sitting upon the floor in the back, and scattered fish bones apparently the remains of recent meals. Of further interest was the small chest along a back wall; not wanting to set off any traps, Gilbert called Castillan to the room and the bounder slipped past the grasping tentacles. The chest was untrapped and inside was a bunch of black, oily-looking pearls. Seeing no further exits from the room - the last one they'd seen in the whole complex - Gilbert was satisfied that the whole place had been cleaned out. "We kill hag, we done!" he announced with great relish. Darrien was moving around to attack the hag from the back with his scimitar; he'd seen what a mere look from her could do and didn't want it happening to him as well. Gilbert, off to the side in the hag's bedroom, was irritated by the delay and fired off another [i]magic missile[/i] spell he had prepared that morning, striking Jarmoa unerringly. The sea hag cried out in pain, perhaps from the darts of energy he had just sent her way or perhaps from the crushing tentacles; regardless, with a final snap of breaking bones, her body was crushed by the constricting appendages and Jarmoa was no more. However, from his position behind Jarmoa's body and thus facing the way the heroes had entered this part of the complex, Darrien was able to see the first of the water mephits rise up over the ledge into these two back chambers. They called out for their mistress at the same time Darrien called to his friends that there were reinforcements arriving. Then, seeing that Binkadink's paralyzed body was just outside the range of the ebon tentacles, the ranger dashed forward and grabbed the stricken gnome, pulling him back inside the radius of the [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell's effect. Despite his general immobility, the [i]freedom of movement[/i] spell still protected him from being grappled by the writhing, black tendrils. Watching over from the hag's bedchambers, Gilbert approved at this unorthodox use of his spell; he'd never have considered [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] to be a defensive spell, but magic was what you made of it, and this made for a great defense! The four water mephits approached as close to the tentacles as they dared; the appendages were only 10 feet long and the ceiling height of the chamber was 15 feet or more, but the mephits were unsure if the tentacles could reach any farther than they could at the moment. Behind them came the two scrags, who swam straight up to the edge of the tentacles' reach and peered between them. They could see Binkadink, Darrien, and Finoula between the waving, rubbery limbs, but were likewise hesitant to enter the spell's area of effect. Castillan, Ingebold, and Gilbert were all in the doorway to the hag's bedchamber, and could see the newcomers to this fray. Ingebold cast a [i]holy smite[/i] on the scrags and mephits lined up on the far side of the tentacles, blinding the aquatic trolls and causing all six of the enemies a bit of physical harm. Gilbert flew up to the cavern's ceiling, over his writhing tentacles, and cast a [i]cone of cold[/i] spell down at the six, killing the mephits outright and further damaging the blinded scrags - although not, he realized, in a manner from which they could not regenerate the damage done over time. Darrien and Castillan, using the writhing tentacles as protection, stabbed out at the scrags with their blades, catching them completely unawares and slaying them both, even if only temporarily. But by then, the slower-swimming merrows had risen up from the ledge. They took in the scene - dead mephits and scrags, writhing, black tentacles, no sign of Jarmoa - with fearful looks. As one, Darrien and Castillan leaped out from the tentacles, each focusing his blade on a different merrow. From his position along the cavern's ceiling, Gilbert cast a [i]magic missile[/i] spell down at Darrien's foe, slaying the merrow. "Go get Finoula's sword, deal with scrags!" commanded Gilbert, and the ranger dashed back in amongst the tentacles to comply. By the time he had grabbed [i]Tahlmalaera[/i] from Finoula's hands and returned back to the scrags' regenerating bodies, Castillan had already dealt with the last merrow. Darrien used the fire-enhanced sword to decapitate the healing scrags, and then that was the end of any threat the two of them might pose. Gilbert deactivated his [i]Evard's black tentacles[/i] spell, then cautiously approached Jarmoa's body. He took the amulet from her neck - it appeared to allow a spellcaster to talk to any personally-summoned creatures over great distances, and Gilbert was eager to find out whether it would allow him to send such messages to Mudpie - as well as an evil-looking, twisted, black wand from her belt. This he passed on to Ingebold; she examined it briefly, saw that it was a [i]wand of inflict wounds[/i], and with a look of distaste snapped it in half and tossed it aside. Treasure movement was going to be a problem, Gilbert realized. Usually they would just toss everything into the [i]portable hole[/i], but Ingebold was reluctant to open it underwater and let it fill up with water. Plus, both Binkadink and Finoula were still immobilized with looks of horror on their faces. Ingebold knew the [i]break enchantment[/i] spell and was fairly certain it would return the two to their normal awareness and mobility, but she'd have to wait until the next morning to prepare those spells. That not only meant two less people to lug treasure, but two that would need to be lugged away themselves. "We do this old-fashioned way!" Gilbert declared. He had Castillan and Darrien gather up the fishing net hammocks from the scrags' caves, then piled the assorted chests onto them. On a whim, he sent the two out to go check the chuul caves, and they each returned with a handful of loose coins and gems to add to one of the chests. With a [i]bull's strength[/i] spell to increase his physical prowess, Gilbert was the designated treasure-dragger, flying through the water pulling the nets of accumulated valuables behind him. Darrien carried Binkadink's immobilized form, while Castillan grabbed up his fellow elf and hoisted a frozen Finoula over his shoulder. With Ingebold trailing behind to ensure nothing got dropped along the way, the group made their way back across the lakebed floor to their camp along the shore, where their treasures were stored away safely in the [i]portable hole[/i] and Aithanar was put in charge of watching over the two immobilized heroes. (Upon seeing Finoula's frozen grimace of horror, he gently placed his fingers on the side of her face and quietly said, "Bindocky cremidulong," which of course nobody could understand.) The nixies approached the camp, a scout having seen them return. Maidreth regretted he had no spells to restore the frozen heroes, so they parted ways again until the morning. - - - The first thing after preparing her prayers for the morning, Ingebold used two [i]break enchantment[/i] spells to restore Finoula and Binkadink to normal. "By the Goddess!" exclaimed Finoula, the look of absolute horror fading from her face. "What [i]was[/i] that hideous thing?" Without a word, Aithanar passed over a cup of hot tea he'd prepared over the campfire and the ranger gladly drank it down. "Sea hag," replied Gilbert, eager to meet up with the nixies again now that they'd finished half of the job. "This is a lake, not a sea," argued Binkadink, looking around and seeing nobody had prepared a cup of warm tea for him upon his restoration. Bugger. "Lake hag, then," amended Gilbert distractedly, looking out along the waters of the lake. "Ah, here they come!" Following his glance, the others saw a dozen nixies rise up from Lake Quag and approach the heroes' camp. "I see your friends have been restored," said Maidreth. "Yes, they fine," agreed Gilbert. "We take care of foes looking for [i]gatestone[/i]. But whoever on other side of stone, he can always get others to start looking. You need to give us stone so we destroy it." Maidreth had come to a similar conclusion. "Very well," he agreed. "We will fetch it." He turned to his two most powerful warriors and began to give them orders to gather the [i]gatestone[/i] and bring it here. "We come with you," interrupted Gilbert. Maidreth turned to look up at the wizard. "That won't be necessary," he said. "We want to see where you hide it all this time," countered Gilbert. "Plus, we be able to guard it from anyone try to steal it during transport." The nixie necromancer again tried to convince Gilbert that his men could handle the retrieval, but the wizard was adamant that the heroes would be coming along, with or without the nixies' approval. "We can cast our own [i]water breathing[/i] spells," pointed out Gilbert. Eventually, Maidreth had no option but to concede. "You may come with, but my men will be the ones to take the [i]gatestone[/i] from its hiding place," he said. Gilbert agreed with a nod. Once again, the six adventurers were granted the ability to breathe the fresh water of the lake by the nixies. They followed the trio of blue-skinned humanoids, for Maidreth had all but him and his two top warriors stay behind. This seemed somewhat suspicious to the adventurers, for if the tribe was going to pass the [i]gatestone[/i] over to them for safekeeping, what difference did it make where it had been kept thus far? Why couldn't the rest of the tribe learn of its location? Gilbert got his answer when they approached a mass of waving kelp fronds. Maidreth ordered his men to go fetch the stone, but Gilbert's gaze didn't fail to notice three human skulls standing on spears that had been embedded into the lake floor nearby. "And why these here?" he asked Maidreth. "They're just a warning, to keep people away from the dangers of the area." Realizing he'd not likely get a straight answer to his next questions, Gilbert simply cast a [i]fly[/i] spell on himself and jutted up from the lakebed floor. Soaring faster through the water than Maidreth could keep up, he glided up past the tops of the kelp fronds and over what he could see from above was a virtual maze - either the kelp had grown that way naturally or it had been helped into its current form, but there was a maze of twisting passageways and dead ends formed by closely-growing strands of kelp, forming barriers as thick as any hedge maze - and much taller! Looking down over the maze before him, he could see the two nixie warriors approach a sunken canoe turned over on its side. They tipped it out of the way, dug beneath it, and pulled out a rune-carved stone before heading back the way they'd come. Gilbert also saw the hunched figures approaching the nixes from a side passageway of the maze. He recognized their ghoulish natures, and realized these were lacedons - underwater ghouls. The lacedons snarled at the nixes as they approached, but backed off and let the warriors swim past. Having seen enough, Gilbert rejoined the skull-faced Maidreth and his own adventuring companions. "Why there lacedons guarding your maze?" demanded Gilbert. "They're merely an additional level of protection," insisted Maidreth. "I didn't create them, I merely...repurposed them to my own ends." Gilbert turned to Ingebold. "You have [i]zone of truth[/i] spell ready?" he asked her. Before she could even reply, Maidreth panicked. "Okay," he admitted, "I may have fed the odd victim or two to the lacedons to boost their numbers, but it was for a good cause!" He looked back and forth at the other heroes, hoping to find an expression of understanding and support, but the heroes all looked at him in horror. "So, rather than charm innocent people into doing your work for you for a mere 24 hours..." began Finoula. "...he turn them into undead," finished Gilbert. "Then he control them forever." He turned to Maidreth, who was beginning to understand just how dangerous a position he was in. "Where these victims come from?" demanded Gilbert. "Local villages? Travelers?" "It...doesn't really matter," responded Maidreth. "Their lives on land were nothing compared to the service they're providing now...." The necromancer looked desperately at the kelp maze, hoping his warriors would return. Three-to-six odds weren't great, but they certainly beat the one-to-six odds he feared he'd be facing any moment now. "I think you know what happen now," said Gilbert, flying up above the nixie necromancer and motioning for the other heroes to back up out of the way. With a few spoken arcane syllables, Gilbert once again caused writhing, ebon tentacles to rise up from the lakebed floor and encompass a foe. "No!" cried Maidreth, trying to escape the tentacles' crushing embrace. When the two nixie warriors emerged from the kelp maze, unharmed by the lacedons who had been trained not to attack nixies (but had been fed enough humans at a sufficient rate to keep them sated and compliant), they saw their leader being crushed to death. Weapons sheathed, Finoula stepped up and held out a hand for the [i]gatestone[/i]. Realizing they had nothing to gain but a swift death by resisting, the nixie warrior silently handed it over. After Maidreth had been crushed to death and Gilbert dismissed his spell, he turned to the nixies. "We going inside kelp maze now. We kill every lacedon we find. You follow us in there, we kill you, too. Now you go back to tribe, tell them no more dealing with undead!" Mumbling assurances, the two nixie warriors swam off, glad to have survived with their lives. Then, after they had left, the six adventurers turned as one and entered the kelp maze, eager to slay every undead creature in there they saw. There were only six lacedons, and they didn't take long to find and kill. - - - "So what're we gonna do with th' silly stone?" asked Ingebold, once they were back at their camp. "I tempted to go to Kozakura, open up [i]gate[/i] there. Let stupid new Emperor see how he like ruling country under water." "If the other [i]gatestone[/i]'s underwater, but on an infinite outer plane," pointed out Castillan, "then opening it up on land here would dump an infinite amount of water onto our world. Probably not your best idea." "I just thinking out loud, elf boy." Darrien started chuckling to himself. "Hey, here's an idea," he said. "What if we went inside the [i]snow globe[/i] and opened it up in there? Then the water would fill up the interior of that spherical section of the arctic and possibly freeze it solid." That thought brought a smile to the others' faces. "Ah," decided Binkadink, "it's probably best to just destroy it. King Galrich's undoubtedly got a few ideas about how we could do that." "Me father says th' kings got a [i]vorpal axe[/i]," pointed out Ingebold. "THAT WOULD BE FOOLISH," boomed a sudden voice in everyone's head. "OPEN THE GATEWAY TO YOUR WORLD, AND YOU WILL BE HANDSOMELY REWARDED. I WILL TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO." Along with the telepathic voice came an unwanted image, of a multiple-limbed beast, much like a vast octopus, with horns and ridges along its body and eyes that blazed like underwater suns. "BECOME A WILLING THRALL TO [b]MENDATHUZALIN[/b], AND RICHES BEYOND IMAGINING WILL BE YOUR REWARD!" insisted the mental voice. "We think about it!" promised Gilbert, gesturing for Ingebold to open up the [i]portable hole[/i] now that they were safe on dry land. He dropped the [i]gatestone[/i] into the [i]hole[/i] and Ingebold folded it back up. As soon as the stone entered the extradimensional space, the telepathic voice broke off. Gilbert made a face. "That about enough of him!" he said, and nobody argued otherwise. - - - T-Shirt Worn: Lacking anything more thematically appropriate, I wore a simple blue T-shirt, to reflect the blue waters of Lake Quag. [/QUOTE]
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