VicsHacienda
Explorer
The Sunken Prison
When we reach the edge of Old Seaquen on the eastern side, we can see its ruins from a centuries-past earthquake. We can make out the eye head of the storm, and find a path blocked by a half-open rusted gate with a placard: Carcer Tevensum. Beyond is a cliff and the crash of waves. Lightning cracks over the sunken city, stretching away from the coast. Water roils twenty feet below.
Rusty guard railings line the side, and nine stone pillars along the wall, with gargoyles perched above. The ground feels stiff, like slate stone. Viggo realizes this isn't ground, but a roof.
Fafnir spies stairs ahead on the cobbled shore, leading downward into the earth. The stair turns, and we find ourselves in a buried building, the water waist-high. Osnald bard casts dancing lights. I lift my quiver higher on my back and keep the Taranesti bow above the water.
Fafnir and Viggo spy something moving in the water, and I sweep my bow flat across, aiming downward. Strange chitinous monsters with small tentacles around their mouths approach. Viggo raises a hand and the water buzzes with energy, freezing one of them in place. Osnald mocks them, which seems odd since they are unlikely to understand us, but his brutal barb lands none the less.
One of the creatures erupts before us, and I snap an arrow into the water. Trevor wraps his whip around it, scraping its chitin, but it still grabs me with a pincer and tries to poison me with its tentacles. I draw away.
"What are these things?" I sputter, trying to yank my bow upwards out of the thing's reach. It's grappled by Trevor, and I'm grappled by it.
Fafnir splashes past me to the one paralyzed by Viggo's magic, and slams his hammer down into the liquid, on its armored head, and again. Dark green blood spreads. Osnald taunts the one involved with Trevor and me, and I send two arrows down its gullet, past the waving pincers and tentacles. Viggo does something magical and painful to it, and it gives a tinny shriek.
Trevor moves away, hauling on his whip, trying to disengage it from me. It lashes at him, and Osnald throws cutting words its way, but its pincer still connects, holding Trevor in place. It tries to paralyze him with its tentacles, but he shrugs it off.
The one before Fafnir snaps at him, getting through his armor, and tries to haul him past me through a doorway, but the cleric's indominability makes it move slowly. He bonks it twice in response, and I can hear its shell make an ugly crack as he opens it up. It releases him and slips underwater, leaking green. He grins.
Osnald hurls Tandrial at the one grasping Trevor, and it whips back into his hand. Taking advantage of the hole opened by his blade, I send an arrow into its back plate, killing it. Trevor spits out chum and pieces of shell.
Studying the carcasses, Viggo believes these were created by biomancy, and that their blood might be used for potion-making.
Doorways lead from the room to the south, west, and north, and an open passage west. We go south. It appears once to have been a storage room for the prison. Inside lie the recent remains of a person, slumped in the corner, perhaps a mage from the Lyceum.
We return to the water-filled room and I stand, guarding the passage. Fafnir looks through the door to the north, seeing rotted shelves and lumps floating in shallow water. He moves to open one of the west doors, revealing a dining room full of half-digested fish and liquor bottles. A metal chest has avoided rusting. The party moves excitedly among the ruined detritus.
When we reach the edge of Old Seaquen on the eastern side, we can see its ruins from a centuries-past earthquake. We can make out the eye head of the storm, and find a path blocked by a half-open rusted gate with a placard: Carcer Tevensum. Beyond is a cliff and the crash of waves. Lightning cracks over the sunken city, stretching away from the coast. Water roils twenty feet below.
Rusty guard railings line the side, and nine stone pillars along the wall, with gargoyles perched above. The ground feels stiff, like slate stone. Viggo realizes this isn't ground, but a roof.
Fafnir spies stairs ahead on the cobbled shore, leading downward into the earth. The stair turns, and we find ourselves in a buried building, the water waist-high. Osnald bard casts dancing lights. I lift my quiver higher on my back and keep the Taranesti bow above the water.
Fafnir and Viggo spy something moving in the water, and I sweep my bow flat across, aiming downward. Strange chitinous monsters with small tentacles around their mouths approach. Viggo raises a hand and the water buzzes with energy, freezing one of them in place. Osnald mocks them, which seems odd since they are unlikely to understand us, but his brutal barb lands none the less.
One of the creatures erupts before us, and I snap an arrow into the water. Trevor wraps his whip around it, scraping its chitin, but it still grabs me with a pincer and tries to poison me with its tentacles. I draw away.
"What are these things?" I sputter, trying to yank my bow upwards out of the thing's reach. It's grappled by Trevor, and I'm grappled by it.
Fafnir splashes past me to the one paralyzed by Viggo's magic, and slams his hammer down into the liquid, on its armored head, and again. Dark green blood spreads. Osnald taunts the one involved with Trevor and me, and I send two arrows down its gullet, past the waving pincers and tentacles. Viggo does something magical and painful to it, and it gives a tinny shriek.
Trevor moves away, hauling on his whip, trying to disengage it from me. It lashes at him, and Osnald throws cutting words its way, but its pincer still connects, holding Trevor in place. It tries to paralyze him with its tentacles, but he shrugs it off.
The one before Fafnir snaps at him, getting through his armor, and tries to haul him past me through a doorway, but the cleric's indominability makes it move slowly. He bonks it twice in response, and I can hear its shell make an ugly crack as he opens it up. It releases him and slips underwater, leaking green. He grins.
Osnald hurls Tandrial at the one grasping Trevor, and it whips back into his hand. Taking advantage of the hole opened by his blade, I send an arrow into its back plate, killing it. Trevor spits out chum and pieces of shell.
Studying the carcasses, Viggo believes these were created by biomancy, and that their blood might be used for potion-making.
Doorways lead from the room to the south, west, and north, and an open passage west. We go south. It appears once to have been a storage room for the prison. Inside lie the recent remains of a person, slumped in the corner, perhaps a mage from the Lyceum.
We return to the water-filled room and I stand, guarding the passage. Fafnir looks through the door to the north, seeing rotted shelves and lumps floating in shallow water. He moves to open one of the west doors, revealing a dining room full of half-digested fish and liquor bottles. A metal chest has avoided rusting. The party moves excitedly among the ruined detritus.
