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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9236435" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 66: THE WICKED WATERSPC Roster: Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 14             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 8             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 7/paladin 7             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 8             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 14NPC Roster:Bat Fiercehunter, halfling ranger 4             Croc Swiftlizard, halfling ranger 4             Crow Straightspear, halfling ranger 4             Mouse Quietmoon, halfling ranger 4             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 4             Rose Brightpetal, halfling druid 8             Snake Slytracker, halfling ranger 4             Spider Greenbow, halfling ranger 4             Squirrel Fleetfoot, halfling ranger 4             Talon Farseeker, halfling ranger 4Game Session Date: 1 January 2024 - - -It was several days later, a mere handful of hours past sunrise, when once again the monotony of the ocean voyage was interrupted by an underwater denizen.  What looked at first to be an elven woman with blond hair appeared on the port side of the halfling barge, perched on the wall with her weight balanced on her elbows and lower arms.  "You must help us!" she called out in the Common tongue with an indescribable accent."Varvastor seeks our lives!" added a second one, popping up beside the first, water still flowing from her red hair."What would you have of me?" asked Rose Brightpetal, advancing to the two women - three, now, as another elf popped up beside the blond.  The halfling druid was trying to figure out how these women were appearing at the top of her wall, for they were well away from the three curving struts that reached down to the barge's stabilizing pontoons on either side."We seek sanctuary!" spoke out another, this one with a distinctly greenish tone to her hair."Granted," announced Rose, and the women - six in all, as others popped up to the wall after having leapt out of the ocean waters below - scrambled over the top of the wall and fell to the ship's deck.  The glistening scales on their piscine lower bodies identified them at once as mermaids.  Thurloe's eyebrows rose in appreciation as he noted the women were all unclad.  He stood on the roof at the back of the ship, where he got a good view of their guests as they clumsily tumbled onto deck - the mermaid form was not well-built for climbing over walls."Who is this Varvastor, and why is he after you?" asked Xandro, stepping up from the lower deck, with Robin coming behind him.  Some 180 feet in the air, Wakuren - who had been riding upon his air element heavy warhorse Nimbus - noted the commotion on the deck below and had his aerial steed lower them back to the ship's wooden planks."Varvastor is a plesiogigan," the red-haired mermaid answered, and when that only brought looks of confusion, she added, "he is built like us, but with the upper body of a storm giant and the body of a paddle-finned dinosaur below the waist.  He has merfolk delivered to him as tribute by his darfellan servitors, and we are expected to sing pleasing songs in his honor as he devours us.""Pleasant fellow," Xandro scoffed."But we escaped from the darfellans and fled before we could be presented as a meal."  When the heroes looked puzzled at the unfamiliar term mentioned twice now, the mermaid added, "A darfellan looks much like one of you, with the head and coloration of an orca.""These darfellans gave chase?" asked Xandro."They were not far behind us," agreed the blond mermaid.  Robin took that as her cue to begin playing the song of inspirational courage on her lute, expecting imminent battle.  Zander, having heard the tale as well, cast a mage armor spell upon himself.  Thurloe did likewise as he climbed down from the roof at the rear of the ship.Alewyth approached the port wall of the barge.  "They're here," she announced, as two dark heads popped up from the waters below.  The mermaids all frantically pulled themselves along the deck with their arms, getting as far from the port wall as they could.  Rose stepped up onto the footrail along the inside of the wall so the three-foot-tall halfling could see over the side of her vessel."Gather up!" Wakuren called to the other heroes.  "I'll cast a water breathing spell on us!"  The halfling crew looked over at Rose, who nodded briefly, and then they gathered up to Nimbus's side, awaiting the half-orc's spellcasting.  Wakuren just frowned down at them, as he'd only been planning on casting the spell on the six heroes, as the duration of the spell was diminished by each additional person it affected."You have our catch on your ship!" called up one of the darfellans from the sea below.  "Throw them back to us, or face the wrath of Varvastor!"  Zander, Alewyth, and Xandro stepped over by Nimbus and Wakuren.  Robin merely shook her head and continued singing; she had no intentions on leaping into battle in the ocean - she'd stay here on deck and continue on with her magic song.Thurloe stepped up beside Alewyth and once the heroes were all in position, Wakuren cast his water breathing spell on the five dreamwalkers.  "You men keep the ship safe!" he called down to the halfling crew, trying to assuage their feelings at not having been selected to enter battle with the darfellans in their own environment."I have provided sanctuary to the six young women you failed to keep a sufficient grasp upon," Rose called down to the darfellans.  "You must look elsewhere for your master's next meal!""Varvastor will not like this!" warned one of the orca-men."Varvastor can learn to hunt for his own meals!" countered Wakuren, sending Nimbus flying down at one of the darfellans as the half-orc cast a shield of faith spell on himself.  Behind him, the four halfling rangers on duty scrambled up onto the foot-rails and sent a volley of sling stones hurling at the orca-man closest to their position.  Aft of the halflings, Xandro put a leg over the wall, lowering himself down onto the middle strut so he could walk down to the port pontoon.  His rapier Deathwhisper was in his hand, ready for use.In a coordinated attack, both darfellans threw their harpoons at Wakuren, who deflected them with his shield of Cal.  The darfellans yanked back on the ropes bound to their weapons at one end and their right wrists at the other, reeling them in for another throw.  But as they did so, Zander cast a scorching ray at the one the halflings had targeted, slaying him instantly.  Petey launched himself from his master's shoulder and flew at the sole remaining darfellan, scorpionlike tail-stinger arching over his back to strike.  While the stinger found its mark, the pseudodragon's venom was not up to the task of putting the whale-man to instant sleep.Alewyth cast a magic circle against chaos spell on herself but then looked down and decided the combat with the remaining darfellan was already well in hand.  Thurloe used his wand to cast a shield spell on himself, as always seeking to protect himself as much as possible before entering combat.  Rose, looking down at the sole foe, called for her rangers to save their sling stones and ensure the mermaids were safe.  And sure enough, Wakuren and Nimbus took the darfellan out with shield and hoof, then the cloud-steed flew his master back to the ship's deck.  Xandro, having readied himself to dive into the ocean to fight the darfellan, found his blade was not needed after all; he started climbing back up the strut to scramble back on board.  He was fine with not having been needed, for the waves were getting choppier as he watched.That wasn't all that changed, either.  The sky grew suddenly overcast, the wind kicked up, and it started to rain - a little at first, and then a great deluge as sheets of water poured down from the sky.  "This isn't natural!" called out Rose, who had occasionally cast weather-altering spells of her own in the past, but had none currently prepared that could try to counter the thunderstorm that had suddenly cropped up."Varvastor, no doubt!" suggested Alewyth.  "We'd best be ready for his arrival!"Wakuren cast freedom of movement spells on himself, Thurloe, and Xandro.  Xandro reciprocated with a heroism spell upon the same trio.  Alewyth cast a prayer spell upon the group, as the winds continued whipping and the rains poured down as if from a bucket.Ten minutes later, Varvastor made his appearance.  Rising up to chest height in the pounding waves, he held a massive trident in one hand whose three prongs pierced the air above him.  "I WOULD HAVE MY TRIBUTE!" he called over the sound of the storm."I GOT YOUR TRIBUTE RIGHT HERE!" Thurloe called back, casting a ray of exhaustion spell that struck the plesiogigan in his bare chest.  He grunted under the unexpected attack, amazed that these upstarts would dare to strike a self-styled ruler of the seas.Rose cast a call lightning spell that brought a jagged bolt of electricity down from the skies to strike Varvastor, causing his long, white hair to stand out from his head.  A true storm giant would have been completely immune to the attack, but as a plesiogigan, Varvastor's immunity to electricity was gradual - it took a moment for it to take effect.Nimbus flew down at the plesiogigan, battling the rushing winds with the expertise of one born on the Elemental Plane of Air.  Wakuren cast a greater command spell, calling out "HALT!" to the plesiogigan as they advanced, but the spell had no effect.  But then Varvastor cast his empty right hand forward, and from it was flung a massive lightning bolt - a chain lightning spell - that struck Wakuren full force, then arced off to strike Nimbus, Zander, Petey, Rose, and her puffin animal companion.  Puffy practically exploded in a puff of burning feathers from the blast, and Rose screamed out the name of her loyal companion as he breathed his last.In retaliation, all eight halfling rangers stepped up onto the foot-rail, slings swinging overhead, and let loose with a barrage of bullets that went striking at Varvastor like so much buckshot.  Xandro copied the maneuver he'd performed when preparing to go fight the darfellans, lowering himself down upon the port pontoon with Deathwhisper in hand, while Robin tried to play the song of inspirational courage on her lute loud enough to be heard over the howling winds and pouring rain.Zander cast a lightning bolt spell at the plesiogigan, but already his water-slick body was reconfiguring its defenses, his electrical immunity kicking in.  Petey opted to remain perched on the elf's shoulder, not trusting his little wings to be able to maneuver in these high winds.With a powerful thrust of his paddled lower limbs, Varvastor surged over towards Wakuren and Nimbus and brought his massive trident stabbing at the half-orc, nearly thrusting him from the saddle.  Thurloe sought to weaken the plesiogigan's attacks even further by casting a ray of enfeeblement down at the bearded foe.  The spell hit him, even further draining his strength away, but he had plenty of strength to draw from and still stood stronger than any of the heroes, even in his diminished state.Rose brought down a final, harmless lightning bolt on Varvastor's head before turning away and tending to her fallen puffin friend, scooping his burned corpse in her hands and placing him inside the map room, where no further damage could be done to him.  Later, there would be time for a burial at sea.Wakuren, bleeding profusely from where he'd been struck by the trident's tines, knew he had to heal himself quickly or he could easily face death.  He cast a cure serious wounds spell upon himself, but in so doing he held himself open to another attack from Varvastor's trident, which all but undid the healing he'd just received.  Fear in his voice for the first time in a long time, the half-orc called for Nimbus to retreat, at least far enough to be out of range of the trident's reach.  The cloud steed did as bid, skipping sideways over the wave-tops.Another volley of sling stones came whistling down from the barge's side, as Xandro plunged into the ocean waters.  Underwater, the storm was less visible, and he easily swam beneath the plesiogigan's gargantuan body, sliding up between his back set of paddle-fins.  He stabbed up with all of his might, driving Deathwhisper's blade deep into the plesiogigan's innards.  From the ship's deck, Zander cast an enervation spell down at Varvastor, weakening him even further.  And then Alewyth cast a spiritual weapon spell, causing a weapon made of force energy looking very much like her own Sjondra to manifest, striking the side of the plesiogigan's head with its own.Varvastor's retaliation was swift and effective.  Charging forward through the crashing waves, he stabbed at Wakuren with his trident, nearly knocking the half-orc into unconsciousness, then sunk below the waves and snapped his teeth at Xandro, unexpectedly catching the rogue in the shoulder.  Xandro cried out in pain, then panicked as water flooded his lungs before he recalled the water breathing spell was still in effect.  But Wakuren had Nimbus retreat straight up this time, casting not a healing spell upon himself but an attack spell upon his tormentor: a blindness/deafness spell that successfully took the plesiogigan's sight from him.  As Nimbus rose to safety, Wakuren thanked Cal and figured he'd have plenty of time to see to his own healing now that the blasted trident was no longer an issue.  Varvastor was soon cut down, not only by Xandro's Deathwhisper but Thurloe's Spellslicer, once the spellsword activated the fly spell in his celestial armor to maneuver through the water as easily as he did through the air.  Varvastor's belly was soon cut wide open by the two swordsmen, who had to rapidly scramble away in opposite directions when the plesiogigan's sinking corpse threatened to fall on them.The thunderstorm took several hours to wear itself out, during which time the mermaids were safely released back into the sea.  Rose waited until the sun shone once again in the sky before setting Puffy down into the ocean from the starboard pontoon, after saying a few words over him.  And then, the excitement of battle over with, things returned for normal for a few days.It was several days later that another group of elflike creatures caused a commotion aboard the halfling barge.  The two whales were towing the vessel behind them as normal, when two lithe figures pulled themselves up onto the starboard pontoon, made themselves comfortable, and began singing.  The heroes and crew aboard the vessel heard the song immediately, as did Wakuren and Nimbus patrolling the skies above the barge.  Alewyth and Nimbus were immediately struck by the beauty of the song and began moving closer to the blue-skinned sirines sitting upon the pontoon, Alewyth walking in a daze and Nimbus flying down to the water's surface to the consternation of his half-orc rider.Xandro was not captivated by the power of the song but recognized, with his bardic background, the magic imbued in their singing.  Grabbing up the Dardolian Lute, he lowered himself down the rearmost strut on the starboard side and positioned himself at the aft end of the pontoon, beginning a countersong to try to negate the sirines' singing.  Up on deck, Thurloe cast a protection from evil spell upon himself.One of the halfling crewmembers, Mouse Quietmoon, became transfixed by the song and happily leaped over the side of the vessel, swimming over to the nearest sirine.  The other three rangers on shift scrambled along the wall, calling for him to stop his foolishness, but Mouse ignored their entreaties.  Further down the deck, Alewyth did likewise, ignoring the weight of her heavy armor which was sure to drag her down to the ocean's bottom depths.  But upon hitting the water, she devoted her full strength to swimming over to the other sirine, exactly as the song commanded her to do.Rose followed her crew over to the starboard wall, looking down at her swimming crewman, who by now had reached the pontoon, pulled himself up beside the sitting sirine, and received a kiss from the blue-skinned woman.  A wide grin broke out upon his face, he nodded his unspoken agreement to whatever the song was compelling him to do, and then he leaped back into the water, this time swimming down to the ocean floor with all of his strength.Nimbus flew down to the other sirine, but that close to Xandro's countersong he was able to shake his mind free from the sirine's embrace.  Zander cast a mage armor spell upon himself and Petey, expecting the group would soon be entering combat with these blue women, if only to undo whatever mental sway they seemed to hold over Alewyth, who was pulling herself up onto the pontoon and receiving her own kiss.  Thurloe came down the strut over by Xandro, and the bard took a moment from his countersong to cast a heroism spell upon the spellsword before effortless picking his song back up where he had left it.  Thurloe then cast a shout spell over at the sirines, accidentally catching Alewyth, Wakuren, and Nimbus in its area of effect as well.  His sonic spell knocked one of the sirines out and deafened the dwarven priestess, but the deadly harmonics hurt everyone in its radius, regardless of their status as friend or foe.It now seeming as if their song had captured as many minds as it was going to, the other sirine let herself fall backwards off the pontoon, hoping to reach the relative safety of the water, but Nimbus kicked out with a hoof and knocked her senseless before she went under the ocean's surface.  Up on the deck, Xandro could hear Robin starting up her own song, the tune dedicated to inspiring courage in her fellow heroes, and let his own tune stop, as there was no longer any sirine charming song to defy with the strings of his own musical instrument.Wakuren bent over Nimbus's side and grabbed the unconscious sirine his mount had knocked out, pulling her up onto the saddle before him.  He cast a cure light wounds spell that woke the sirine to sensibility, then demanded to know what was going on.  "Why are you charming us?  Where have our two friends gone?"  For by this time, Alewyth had followed Mouse's lead and stopped fighting gravity, allowing herself to be pulled down to the ocean floor.  Neither of them worried about air, for the sirines' kisses had imbued them with the ability to breathe underwater.  Now they sought out what their song had promised: a rising mound upon the ocean floor where perfect bliss awaited them."We are merely assisting a friend," replied the sirine."Who?  What friend?""A morkoth.  I do not think you would recognize his name."  The word was a new one to the half-orc; he'd never heard of a "morkoth" before - it was apparently some obscure sea creature."Help him do what?" Wakuren pressed."Get food," the sirine replied.  "What we do is no different than when you surface-dwellers catch fish for your own meals.""Then this morkoth is going to eat the halfling and dwarf you sent his way?""Of course.  That is the way of the morkoth.""What the Hell does this morkoth look like?" demanded Thurloe, holding Spellslicer in a threatening manner.  He'd walked along the pontoon and menaced the sirine held on Wakuren's lap as Nimbus hovered in place."You would see him as a kind of octopus in the shape of a man," the sirine replied, "but he is twice your height.""Gather up!" Wakuren called to the other heroes.  "I'll cast a water breathing spell on those who would follow Alewyth and Mouse and rescue them from this morkoth!"  Xandro and Thurloe were already at hand; Zander scrambled down the nearest strut, while Petey and Robin opted to stay aboard the halfling vessel.  Xandro took the opportunity to cast another heroism spell, this time on Wakuren.  Thurloe cast a shield spell upon himself with his wand, and then Wakuren cast his own spell, allowing the four assembled heroes the ability to breathe either air or water at will.  That done, he had Nimbus plunge into the ocean, his wings now propelling him down through the water.  It got darker the further down they went, but they could still see the occasional bubble trail left by Mouse and Alewyth as they swam down to their destination.  With a look of determination, Thurloe, Zander, and Xandro followed suit, the spellsword snagging the other unconscious sirine on the way down and dragging her behind him by a narrow wrist.Mouse and Alewyth, with their head start, were the first to hit the ocean floor.  Just ahead rose a mound of coral, with a hole pointed their way along its bottom.  This, they knew, was the gateway to the heaven promised by the sirines' song.  They hesitated not a moment before plunging forward into the darkness within.  They were met with an immediate wall, forcing them to turn either to the left or to the right; they had no idea as to which way was the correct way, but they were compelled to hurry to the mound's center, so they randomly went to the right.  The tunnel was narrow, a mere five feet in diameter and round in cross-section, forcing them to travel in single file.  Alewyth, with her greater stride, soon left Mouse Quietmoon behind.As the heroes made their way to the ocean floor behind their charmed friends, Wakuren cast freedom of movement spells upon himself, Xandro, and Thurloe, and Xandro hit the spellsword with the last of his heroism spells for the day.  Wakuren had awakened the other sirine with another cure light wounds spell, after having detected their auras and found no evil.  Once they arrived at the entry hole and being told the morkoth lived in the center of the labyrinth within, Wakuren dismounted from his aerial steed - as an elemental creature, Nimbus did not need to breathe and found remaining underwater no great burden - and, after the the blue-skinned women admitted they helped the morkoth gain his meals in this fashion because he shared the flesh of the victims with them, got the sirines to promise not to eat the meat of sentient land creatures like the heroes any more, limiting themselves only to fish and other underwater animals.  The sirines begrudgingly agreed, although for the life of them they couldn't see what the fuss was all about.Wakuren, Xandro, Zander, and Thurloe stepped into the coral labyrinth and noticed there was no ambient light within.  Knowing of the human inability to see well in dim lighting, Zander wordlessly passed over his everburning torch to Thurloe, who eagerly took it in his free hand.  Xandro activated his goggles of night and granted himself darkvision as powerful as that of any half-orc or dwarf, while Zander did likewise using his scout's headband.  Xandro went to the left, while Thurloe headed off to the right.  Wakuren, however, came to a quick decision, which he voiced with his unasked opinion, "Mazes are for chumps!" and used his gauntlet of Cal to summon forth a javelin of lightning, which he used on the coral wall immediately before him.  It crumbled to pieces and he stepped through the breach, now one ring closer to the center of the maze of concentric circles where the morkoth was said to live.Before the other heroes got too far apart, Zander cast a haste spell upon three of the men seeking Alewyth and Mouse (Thurloe had already walked around a curve and was out of range), then followed Wakuren through his newly-created hole in the coral wall.  Xandro sped up as he traversed his own tunnel, then skirted to a side tunnel when he saw the unmistakable form of a shark headed his way down his original path.  Thurloe quickly caught up to Mouse and grabbed the halfling by the shoulder, only to have Mouse try to wrest himself free and continue on his quest.  But the spellsword wasn't having any of that; as he outmatched the little ranger in size and strength, he was soon stomping down the tunnel in Alewyth's direction once again, only now with a halfling tucked helplessly under one arm.  Mouse continued his struggles to free himself, to no avail.Alewyth reached a dead end in the coral maze just behind another shark, who turned her way and started advancing.  But she was more concerned with the dead end than the hungry shark; as it was not the way to the center of the maze, she spun about and retraced her steps, looking for a side passageway that might take her to her destination.  The shark followed at a leisurely pace.Wakuren used another javelin of lightning to blast his way through another wall, stepped through it, and saw the passageway ahead made another turn towards the center one circle further, so he skirted around the corner and got himself that much closer, if the smaller arcs of the tunnel passageways were any indication.  At this rate, he estimated he was only about another two to four rows from the center, depending upon how big it might be.  Zander took up the routine, pushing Wakuren aside and casting a lightning bolt spell at the coral wall before them, blasting a hole through it and the next one in turn.  Xandro, however, was doing things the longer way, by simply speeding down the winding corridors and keeping a mental picture in his head about where exactly he was in the maze.  But he too was approaching the middle of the maze, on the far left of Zander and Wakuren.Thurloe was on the complete other side of the maze, but he managed to run into Alewyth.  "There you are!"" he called out.  "We've been looking for you - and this one," indicating the halfing still struggling in his arm.  "Come on, snap out of it, woman!"  But Alewyth ignored him, pushing her way past him to try another passageway that might lead to the center of the maze.  He sighed in frustration, then stabbed Spellslicer into the trailing shark's head to help vent his irritation at the stubborn priestess, before following Alewyth's trail.  If he couldn't break the charm effect, at least he could see that she came to no harm.Using his last javelin of lightning, Wakuren smashed his way through another coral maze wall.  The residual electrical energy of the blast went arcing into the open space of the maze's circular interior, where it hit a pile of junk stacked in the middle of the room.  There was no other way into the room that Wakuren could see, but then he registered what his ears had just picked up - a grunt of pain coming from the trash pile.Looking back over at the assembled chests, urns, and barrels, Wakuren was surprised when the whole lot started rising up from the floor of the room.  The reason for this became apparent once he saw the room's center held a pit in its floor, and the morkoth - for surely that was what this monstrosity rising before him must be - had been blocking the pit with its body, its "treasures" somehow adhered to the top of its squidlike head.Zander raised his metamagic rod and channeled a maximized chain lightning spell through it, enhancing its power even further with a charge from his ring of lightning strikes.  The powerful burst of electricity arced over Wakuren's head and struck the morkoth straight in the center of its body - as it continued rising the elf could see a number of tentacles sprouting in the place of arms and legs - and then a strange thing happened: rather than expend itself on the morkoth, the spell's energy backtracked and retraced its path, headed straight for the sorcerer!  It took all of the elf's willpower, but he managed to get the spell to dissipate before it fried him on the spot.  "Don't use spells against it!" he called out to his friends, well aware that he'd almost inadvertently killed himself with his own attack spell.An octopus slithered along the ocean floor of the corridor Xandro was traversing and he absently stabbed it through the head with Deathwhisper as he moved on, turning a corner and practically running into Zander.  The elf, still shaky at how near he'd come to having his own spell reflect back upon himself, reiterated "No attack spells on the thing!" to Xandro, then added, "I have a better idea...."Thurloe, Alewyth, and Mouse were still on the other side of the maze, running afoul of multiple dead ends and meeting up with more wandering sharks; Thurloe took one out with a scorching ray spell before it could reach the dwarven priestess, who seemed oblivious to her own safety.  It seemed as if this morkoth were to be brought down, it was up to Wakuren, Xandro, and Zander.  The morkoth cast a chain lightning spell of his own, which struck Wakuren in the chest and arced off to strike the elf sorcerer as well.  Both cried out in pain, realizing the morkoth could pack quite a punch with its own spells.  But then Wakuren entered the room fully, taking a swipe from a lengthy tentacle as he did so, and slamming the morkoth with his shield of Cal.  Zander, meanwhile, cast a displacement spell on Xandro and sent him on his way.  Xandro sped into the room, appearing to be several feet or so from his actual location, and ran counterclockwise around the chamber, setting himself up to be on the other side of the morkoth from Wakuren.  Then, once in a flanking position, he dashed forward, stabbing deeply with his magic rapier, burying the blade to the hilt into the squidlike body of the morkoth.  Wakuren once again attacked with his shield, and then Xandro finished it off with a flurry of stabs and slashes with Deathwhisper.As the morkoth floated slowly to the floor of his own maze, Zander cautiously entered the room.  Seeing their foe slain, they started pulling things from the creature's assembled bits of treasure, finding one chest full of ancient coins and another filled with black pearls.  When Alewyth and Mouse - the latter still slung under Thurloe's arm - entered the central chamber, they felt their minds clear once they'd met the conditions of their charm effect.They weren't the last ones to enter the central chamber, either.  Several minutes after the morkoth had been slain, the two sirines popped up out of the hole in which he'd been hiding - said hole leading to a wider tunnel more suited to the morkoth's girth, ending in a hidden opening in the ocean floor covered by an overturned rowboat - and cried out a warning to their friend.  "Look out!" one called, while the other added, "There are land-dwellers from a surface ship--" and then their voices broke off as they saw the heroes standing there in the chamber, the morkoth dead at their feet.  Instinctively, they began their charming song, but Deathwhisper and Spellslicer soon put an end to that.  Their heads spilled to the ocean floor, followed soon thereafter by their headless bodies."Shall we return to the ship?" asked Alewyth once the morkoth's treasures had been placed inside Hesperna's lamp.  There were no objections, and they retraced their way through Wakuren's force-blasted shortcut through the maze. - - -This adventure was admittedly just an opportunity for me to use some aquatic monsters I don't normally get to use.  I had forgotten the plesiogigan's immunity to electricity (shame on me - I had even created the monster as an example in Mongoose's Encyclopaedia Arcane: Crossbreeding - Flesh and Blood) until after it had already taken damage from a lightning-based spell or two, so I retroactively made its electrical immunity something it had to consciously will into existence.  And in all of my many years of DMing (I started in the AD&D 1E days), this is the very first time I've ever used a morkoth.  Their spell reflection is pretty nasty; had Zander not made his caster level check after having his maximized chain lightning spell thrown back at him, his full-to-the-max 50-hp sorcerer would have have taken 96 points of electrical damage, slaying him on the spot!Joe was still home from Christmas break, so he got to run his own PC, Zander, for a change.  Next session, the PCs finally step foot on Talonia for the first time, but Joe will be back at college, so Dan will be back to running Zander as well as Thurloe. - - -T-shirt worn: Once again, my shark T-shirt, as I don't have anything that better symbolizes an underwater adventure.</blockquote>

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