Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7560168" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 58: IN OVER YOUR HEADSPC Roster:  Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 16             Castillan Ivenheart, elf bounder 16             Darrien, half-elf ranger 16             Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 16             Gilbert Fung, human wizard 16             Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 16NPC Roster: Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 4             Jinkadoodle Dundernoggin, gnome illusionist 6             Malrin Ivenheart, elf druid 10             MARCI, humanoid constructGame Session Date: 2 February 2019 - - - Gilbert was awakened from a sound sleep by somebody talking directly into his head.  "This is Pentaclus," the voice said.  "You should come immediately.  The mountains are flooding!  We may be dealing with a breach from the Elemental Plane of Water!""This lousy way to start day!" Gilbert grumbled as he got out of bed.  Nonetheless, he threw on his robes and went to rouse the others.  While they were strapping on their armor and gathering up their adventuring gear, Gilbert opened his Omnibook and prepared the spells he figured would be the most useful for a potential excursion into the Elemental Plane of Water.  Castillan was sent to fetch his little sister Malrin and Gilbert had him pick up a scroll of freedom of movement while he was out.  By the time the two Ivenheart siblings were back at Battershield Keep, Helga had whipped together a quick basket of breakfast pastries for them to eat on the way there.  "You take care now, all of you!" Helga scolded the team."Who all's coming?" asked Finoula.  "I think I'm going to leave Wrath behind.""Into the Elemental Plane of Water?  Yeah, I don't think I want to bring Obvious into that environment, either," Binkadink agreed."Mudpie not going, that for sure," Gilbert added.  His familiar was an earth elemental who would want absolutely nothing to do with being immersed in an aquatic environment that stretched out to infinity in all directions.  "How about you, MARCI?""Please forgive me, but I am unable to continue functioning when immersed completely in a liquid environment.  That exceeds my design parameters.""Yeah, that what I think.  You stay here."Darrien likewise opted to leave Grumps Junior behind, and, after much hemming and hawing, Hagan finally decided that the risks were likely to be too great to bring his weasel familiar Wezhley along.  "You stay here and play with Obvious," the half-orc sorcerer suggested.  Wezhley put on his best hurt face and slinked sullenly away from his master.Finally, all that decided, Binkadink unrolled the carpet of teleportation he kept in his room and the team used it to enter the dragonfly spelljamming vessel they kept parked on a cloud island.  Within moments of boarding, Jinkadoodle had them flying to the northern edge of the Clatspur Mountains where Pentaclus the Weaponcrafter had his shop.The trip only took a quarter hour or so.  Jinkadoodle landed the vessel on its leglike struts near the weaponcrafting buildings, bringing the blacksmiths rushing out, away from their anvils, to see the amazing sight.  Not even the wizard Pentaclus nor his apprentice Sabra had ever see a spelljamming vessel before.  The team climbed down the rope ladder from the ship's deck and stood before Pentaclus's group of smiths."Where be Miss Ingebold?" asked Sturgar Ironbeard, one of the two dwarven weaponsmiths Pentaclus employed.  He and the other dwarf, Nuldurn Bladesmith, had both evinced a desire to get to know the cleric of Moradin better the first time the adventurers had been by this way."I'm afraid...she's passed on.  She's with Moradin now," replied Finoula."Were it a good death?" Nuldurn asked."She died saving the world," Finoula answered.  "Quite literally.""Well then, good fer her!" Sturgar grinned.  "That's all a good dwarf c'n ask fer!""I'm sorry to hear about your loss," commiserated Pentaclus.  "And thank you for coming so quickly.  We just got word of the event this morning.  I've already been out to examine the site myself, and the reports were no exaggeration.  About six peaks over to the east, there's a small mountain village called Honeycomb Valley – so called because of all of the natural caves along the area.  I've been there once or twice in my life.  The place supports some amateur mining in the caves, but it's mostly hunters and trappers, the same as you'd see in any mountain village around these parts."This morning, a pair of rangers came through the pass and told us of the rising lake that hadn't been there a month ago.  I thought they were just joshing me, but I teleported out to Capman's Peak and took a look for myself and sure enough: there's a lake where Honeycomb Valley used to be – or still is, for all I know, underneath the water."Now, I'm not sure what would cause a lake to just suddenly show up like that, but I figure a breach from the Elemental Plane of Water would make sense.  Problem is, I'm not sure just what to do about it.  Any ideas?""Guess we better check it out," agreed Gilbert.  "Which way lake?"  Pentaclus showed him which of the visible mountains was Capman's Peak and explained the newfound lake was just on the other side of it.  "We take dragonfly ship there," Gilbert decided.  "Back into ship, everyone!"Minutes later, Jinkadoodle sent the dragonfly vessel flying straight upward as the weaponcrafters waved up at him.  Then he spun the vessel on it axis and had it flying in the direction of Capman's Peak.  Sure enough, there was a lake there all right.  The fact that along the edges of the water were the tops of submerged pine trees indicated that this lake had appeared rather abruptly.Gilbert had the team assemble on the deck of the ship and ensured everyone who needed them got both a water breathing spell and a freedom of movement spell cast upon them - the two rangers took care of the second spell for themselves, having prepared them that morning for that very purpose.  "Not only will it make it easier to maneuver underwater," Binkadink explained, "but it'll certainly come in handy if we meet up with any chuuls!"  He stifled a shudder at that thought; he still had bad dreams of that chuul almost drowning him when they had been up against the kuo-toa and their lobster-goddess."Do you think that's likely?" asked Darrien."You never know," answered Binkadink.Gilbert cast a Rary's telepathic bond spell on all but Castillan; the bounder volunteered to be the one left out of the link since the heavyset mage could only link together six of the seven with the spell.  So they'd be able to see underwater, Finoula activated one of her sunrods and Gilbert cast a light spell on the tip of his staff; Binkadink still had two everburning torches tied to the antlers of his helmet, which would also be useful.  Then the two rangers each cast their traditional barkskin spells and declared their readiness; on Gilbert's signal everyone jumped overboard into the water.  Jinkadoodle, seeing everyone had made it safely overboard, swung the dragonfly vessel back around and headed back to Pentaclus's workshops; it would be as good a place as any to await the signal that the team was ready to be picked up.Sinking down through the water, the team estimated the depth to be about 20 feet before they hit the ground.  Visibility was dim; the high mountains on all sides of the valley kept much of the village in shadows even before it had become submerged, and the 20 feet of water did nothing but make it even murkier.  But Castillan, taking the lead as usual, could see the outlines of buildings ahead and pressed forward.  The bounder stifled a smile as he saw movement ahead and recognized it as - sure enough - a chuul: a lobsterlike creature with a mass of writhing tentacles at the front of its mouthparts.  He'd also once almost been killed by one of these creatures, but he knew the freedom of movement spells that made it as easy to travel through the water as it was to walk on land would also prevent them from being caught up in the chuul's paralytic tentacles.  Still, he kept a good grip on his weapons as he advanced.Hagan's orcish blood provided him with full darkvision, with which he was able to see a second chuul on the other side of a large building.  He mentally warned the others of what he'd seen, but of course Castillan wasn't a part of the Rary's telepathic bond spell and thus didn't get the advance notice.  He did mention that Castillan was moving toward another chuul, though, and Finoula started heading toward her fellow elf - she couldn't yet see the chuul Castillan was approaching, but she could see him just fine in the illumination provided from her sunrod.  Behind her, Binkadink and Darrien advanced as well, the little gnome with his stilt-boots fully extended to increase his stride.  How he missed his jackalope riding mount already!Once Castillan got close enough the chuul sprang forward, snapping at the bounder with its outstretched pincers.  But the elf was quicker than the lobster-thing and easily avoided the jagged set of claws.  Darrien wasn't as lucky; the second chuul caught him in its pincers but the ranger's freedom of movement spell allowed him to easily extricate himself before he could be transferred to the chuul's paralytic tentacles.  He was breathing easily on his own, without the aid of a water breathing spell, as his father's aquatic elf heritage allowed him to breathe air or water with equal ease - although he didn't get many opportunities to perform the latter.<Are chuuls normally found on the Elemental Plane of Water?> Finoula asked over the mental link.<Fight now, ask questions later!> Gilbert chided her, casting a magic circle against evil spell upon his prodigious form.Behind him, Malrin dropped her staff of healing to the ground.  She was still holding the breath she'd taken before plunging into the water; now, she channeled transmutation energy through her body and wildshaped into a squid for the first time in her life.  She'd summoned them before using summon nature's ally spells and thus was familiar with their forms; it seemed particularly suited to a druid who was going to be serving as the group's only source of healing while down here underwater.  She scooped up her dropped staff with one tentacle and scooted forward, close enough to the others to be able to dart in to heal any who needed it but far enough away she hopefully wouldn't be a primary target for either of the chuuls.Castillan performed a quick double-stab with his blades, penetrating the chitinous armor of the chuul that had attacked him, then skipped backwards out of immediate retaliation range.  Hagan targeted the chuul snapping at Darrien with a disintegrate spell, but while he managed to hit his target the spell was not as efficacious as he'd hoped it would be.  The chuul's chitin showed damage where the spell had struck it, but it hadn't actually disintegrated into nothingness as the half-orc sorcerer had anticipated.  Oh well, that was the good thing about channeling arcane spell energy instinctively: sorcerers could fire off many more spells that could wizards of the same general magical power.  He'd have plenty of other chances to disintegrate their enemies during this aquatic expedition.Gilbert caught a flash of motion from the rooftop of the building before him and looked up to see an ogre-sized creature barreling his way.  Instinctively, he lashed out with one of his more powerful prepared spells: a maximized cone of cold that turned the merrow instantly into an ice statue; it fell onto the edge of the roof and shattered into dozens of pieces.  "That probably overkill," the wizard lamented.Finoula had her flaming whip of thorns out and was attacking Castillan's chuul with it; she was surprised to see that despite the fact the flames weren't manifesting underwater, the whip itself was still as hot as ever and it left a trail of bubbling steam in its wake.  Not only that, but it left burn-marks on the chuul's carapace with each successful strike.  She could certainly live with that!At her side, Binkadink stabbed at the chuul with his magical glaive, scoring a groove across the chitin of its head and slicing through a paralytic tentacle or two in the process.  If the creature felt the pain of the severing of its tentacles it gave no vocal notice of the fact; chuuls, in the gnome's experience, were silent throughout their entire lives.  It was a shame, really - he'd liked to have heard it scream.Realizing the general ineffectiveness of arrows underwater, Darrien kept the Arachnibow strapped to his back and attacked his own chuul opponent with his magical scimitar.  But then he stiffened in mid-swing, his mind overcome by a host of alien thoughts; the one, most powerful thought was that he had to submit to his new master's will and present himself for processing.  Fortunately, this new information was transferred over the Rary's telepathic bond spell and the other heroes in the link with Darrien could tell he was being dominated by some unseen force.  And then Hagan saw the "unseen force" moving towards the combatants: it was a large fish with waving tentacles coming from the front half of its body and a pair of three long eyes stacked one above the other on the top of its elongated head.<Aboleth!> the sorcerer called out over the link.  <It's dominating Darrien!>  Hagan cast a polar ray spell at the fish-creature, but missed.In the meantime, the first chuul had changed targets from Castillan to Binkadink, apparently figuring it would have a better chance at someone who didn't move as quickly as the bounder had demonstrated he was capable of.  The gnome felt the pincers crush his arm, but the freedom of movement spell helped him extricate himself from the creature's grasp.  Then, surprisingly, he stepped back from combat with the beast - something the gnome who proudly considered himself the "meat shield" of the group seldom did - and pulled the horn of goodness from his belt.  Taking a deep breath full of water, he blew into the horn, causing a cascade of bubbles to emerge from the instrument but - more importantly - covering himself in a magic circle against evil effect.  He then scooted up beside Darrien, catching him inside the radius of the spell's effect and temporarily negating the domination effect of the aboleth.  Darrien's mind and will returned, and the ranger knew it would stay that way as long as he stayed close enough to the gnome fighter - or took out the aboleth that was trying to control him.Castillan saw another aboleth moving up to the group of combatants.  Determined not to allow it to get within spellcasting range, he activated his magical ring and dimension doored behind the armored fish.  The aboleth didn't seem to notice him, so he readied his blades with a smirk.  But then two fish-men swam up on either side of the bounder; Castillan recognized them immediately as skum, an aboleth's normal slave force.  They struck at the elf with clawed hands, which he was just able to avoid in time.Finoula was still focused on the first chuul, striking it again and again with her magical whip; she didn't want to move in close enough to use her longsword Tahlmalaera for fear of the creature's paralytic tentacles causing her to freeze up.  (She either didn't realize or had forgotten that the freedom of movement spell prevented her from becoming paralyzed.)  Darrien renewed his attacks on the second chuul with his scimitar, wanting to get these chuuls out of the way so they could all concentrate on taking down the aboleth - or aboleths, now that he got a good look at where Castillan had gone.The first aboleth targeted Binkadink with its mind, trying to sap the gnome's will and make him his own mental slave.  But Binkadink was having none of it, shaking his head back and forth as he concentrated on keeping control of his own mind.  The second aboleth didn't bother with a mental attack; instead, perhaps warned by its skum slaves, whirled around and sent all four slime-coated tentacles darting at Castillan, who was able to dodge most but not all of them.  The slime felt cold and cloying against his skin and he immediately felt a queasy sensation; with a panic, he tried to recall just what it was that aboleth slime did to its victims.  And then he remembered: it turned them into skum, given time!  In a panic, the bounder activated his ring for the second time and used a dimension door spell to get him away from the aboleth and close to where he had been before when battling the chuul - but more importantly, close by his sister (although she was now in the form of a squid) and her staff of healing.While the chuuls struck at Darrien and Binkadink with their serrated claws, Gilbert cast a haste spell on everybody but himself - there was no way around it, the group had spread out far enough that making sure he was within the spell's radius would prevent several others from gaining the benefits of the spell.  He saw Malrin the squid touch Darrien with her staff and saw the worst of the wounds - caused by chuul pincers - heal up.  She then spun about in place and approached Castillan, staff held high, to heal him of his recently-acquired affliction.The first aboleth felt a burning sensation on its flank and saw, with its triple eyes, Hagan snarling in fury that another disintegrate spell was having a less-than-hoped-for effect.  The half-orc seldom swore - in fact, he was the first among the group to warn others about their language - but he was getting pretty close to uttering an orcish curse or two.With Castillan now nowhere close, the two skum chose Binkadink as their next target.  That proved to be a mistake; the gnome skewered one straight through the midsection, then twisted his glaive to extricate the first skum corpse from his blade before sending it to pierce the second skum through the head.  In seemingly as many seconds, both skum were sinking lifelessly to the ground.At about the same time, Finoula took out the chuul she'd been fighting.  Soon thereafter, with his fellow ranger's help, Darrien killed the other chuul that had been attacking him.  But the elf had left her flank unprotected when she went to help Darrien and the first aboleth took advantage of the opening, attacking her with its tentacles in an attempt to turn her into a skum servant.  Three of the four tentacles struck her, but the elven ranger managed to turn her body in such a way that none of them touched her skin, and she avoided the creature's vile slime in that way.  The look of disgust on her face said she realized what fate she had just narrowly avoided.The second aboleth tried dominating Hagan for the effrontery of attacking it with a disintegrate spell in the first place, but the fish-beast found the half-orc's mind to be stronger than anticipated, and Hagan easily shrugged away the spell's intended effects.  He responded with another disintegrate spell, but the aboleth seemed as adept at shrugging off the half-orc's spells as he has been avoiding the aboleth's domination attempts.  Needless to say, neither combatant was particularly pleased with the success rates of their own efforts.Then another combatant entered the melee.  This was a new creature, fully the size of the merrow Gilbert had slain, but thinner and lankier - a scrag, Binkadink realized as he scrambled back to prevent the aquatic troll from slicing his face off with its wicked claws.  He'd fought them before, too, up in Lake Quag - where, he suddenly realized, he'd first come under the horrifying sway of a sea hag!  He desperately hoped there were no sea hags about, as he'd just about had his fill of the foul creatures!  But he let his mind focus on the combat at hand, scoring a deep groove in the scrag's chest with the blade of his glaive - a groove, he noted with irritation, that almost immediately began healing up.  Stupid trolls and their stupid regeneration!Gilbert hit the first aboleth with a ray of enfeeblement that seemed to drain some of the fight out of it, judging by the relative listlessness of its tentacles.  Castillan looked about and judged his friends could handle the current situation and opened the door to the nearest building - a three-bedroom boarding house, as it turned out.  He surprised a pair of skum that had been just inside, apparently searching through the main living area.  In fact, he really surprised the closest of the two skum, seeing as how he ran his short sword of wounding through its brain before it could even register the attack.  The second skum swam in a charge at the bounder, but even without the haste spell in effect it was likely Castillan would have been able to dodge its clumsy attack.Finoula swung her whip at the aboleth that had attacked her, striking it across the eyes (and, she was pleased to see, causing a stripe of burning steam scalding the middle of each eye), then ducked under the writhing tentacles and stabbed deep with Tahlmalaera.  The aboleth spasmed and sank in place, unmoving and Finoula called <Got it!> in triumph over the shared mental link.Suddenly, another chuul scuttled up to Binkadink, catching the gnome by surprise - he'd been facing the scrag and keeping the other aboleth in the corner of his eye.  But rather than use his glaive (which, admittedly, he'd put to fine use thus far), he plucked a crystal from his necklace and aimed it at the approaching chuul.  Activating with a thought, the crystal disappeared and became a lightning bolt, striking and killing the chuul which had been its primary target, but expanding in size in an unprecedented way, zapping the scrag, the aboleth, and Binkadink himself as it took form and ran its course.  The gnome shook himself off, determining he'd remember that side effect when using his necklace of lightning crystals underwater from now on!The scrag was the first to resume battle after the surprising shock of the lightning crystal, and it caught the little gnome with its wicked claws.  Before the aboleth had a chance to recover from its surprise, Gilbert was pumping magic missiles into it, killing it before it had a chance to retaliate.  Likewise, Castillan easily slew the second skum in the boarding house before deciding to head south, towards the rest of the small village's buildings.As most of the immediate threats had been dealt with (and it looked like Binkadink could handle the scrag), Hagan opened the doors to a small temple of Pelor.  The building was one big, open room, filled with pews on either side of a central aisle.  Hagan walked the aisle's length, coming to a pew in the back of the building, behind which he found a couple of potion bottles, each labeled "CMW" in the Common script.  He knew what that likely meant - cure moderate wounds - but he also knew that drinking them underwater would be problematic at best.  Instead, he pocketed them in a belt pouch for now and exited the building.Exiting the building just to the east of the half-orc were three more skum, apparently made aware of the recent combat with two of their brethren that had ended with their deaths at the end of Castillan's blade.  They swam straight at the bounder, who seemed oblivious to their impending approach.  But even if he wasn't tied into the Rary's telepathic bond spell, sound traveled just fine underwater.  Hagan called a warning and Castillan spun around, just in time to skewer the first of the three skum on the point of his blade.  Finoula raced up and took care of the last one in line just as easily.  Binkadink was too busy with the scrag to worry about the last remaining skum, but he handily cut the aquatic troll down, watching the streams of blood stain the water red as the creature died.  But Binkadink knew that the scrag would simply regenerate over time, and life would return to the wretched beast.Hagan took care of that with a simple acid splash spell, scarring the scrag's bloodied corpse and ensuring it wouldn't rise again.  In the meantime, Castillan brought down the third skum that had trailed him.  Even here in their own environment, the fish-men weren't that much of a threat to seasoned adventurers.As he pondered what to do about the situation, a merrow swam up from behind him, claws ready to rend.  But Binkadink felt his approach at the last moment, swung around, and stabbed the blade of his glaive right through the aquatic ogre's midsection.  It died even faster than the scrag did, and there was no possibility that the merrow would return to life as it didn't have the troll's regenerative powers.  Looking around for other foes and seeing none, Binkadink moved southwest, headed towards the door of another building.  There had been skum in the boarding house; there could well be aquatic menaces in any of the buildings in the submerged village.Darrien headed to the southeast.  A small building was labeled "SHERIFF" on the door - that might be a good place to look for clues as to how this whole underwater immersion began.  The encroaching water couldn't have happened all at once, the ranger felt; it must have been a gradual process, so surely the townsfolk would have had time to evacuate?  He wondered briefly why they hadn't found any bodies, but then he realized they'd likely already met up with at least some of Honeycomb Valley's residents, assuming the aboleths had converted them into their skum servitors.  But did that mean that the aboleths were from the Elemental Plane of Water?  He asked Gilbert over the telepathic link, but got a brusque reply: <Busy here!>Gilbert had opened the door to a dwelling and startled three skum who had been inside.  They turned to face him, but Gilbert's attention was drawn to a back room - it looked like a library - that was completely inside a pocket of air!  That was definitely worth investigating!  But first the skum would need to be dealt with; the portly wizard stepped back and let Binkadink take his place in the doorway, leading with his glaive.  The skum tried rushing the gnome, but they hadn't counted on the quickness he had with his glaive: it sliced through the water at an amazing speed, slicing a belly here, stabbing a throat there, and skewering the third skum before they realized the danger they were in.  Three-to-one odds against an opponent half their size hadn't been the tactical advantage they had assumed!Finoula, in the meantime, seeing no enemies near her, spread her arms out to the sides, closed her eyes, raised her head, and concentrated on feeling the current.  It was faint, very faint - but it seemed to be coming from the south.  If there was water pouring forth from a breach to the Elemental Plane of Water, it was from somewhere south of the group's present position.  She moved south, Malrin trailing behind her, approaching the Sheriff's office just as Darrien was about to open the door.  But then he was distracted by sudden movement from a large building nearby - a tavern, by the look of it - and tuned to face the merrow approaching him at full speed.  The half-elf ranger raised his scimitar and met the aquatic ogre head on, slashing with his blade.Another merrow swam from behind the tavern and headed in Binkadink's direction; the gnome had stepped back from the dwelling to allow Gilbert to go check out that air-pocket room.  But the gnome preferred combat over investigation any day and turned to fight the incoming merrow.  While the gnome and the merrow fought, Gilbert stepped inside the library, amazed that the room kept out all water - his own body became as dry as if he'd just rubbed himself down with a towel just by entering.  There was a shelf of books and a small desk and chair, with a closed book on top of the desk.  Gilbert started there, flipping it open and discovering it was a journal or diary.  He flipped to the last entry - likely to be the most important - and skimmed an account of the writer having discovered a flask covered in magical runes.  He planned to bring it with him to "the little fortress in the lower cave" where he'd try to decipher its glyphs and runes and see if he could work out the command word to activate it."Idiot!" Gilbert hissed under his breath.  He now had a good idea of what had caused the sudden lake in Honeycomb Valley.  Spotting a book of maps on the library shelf, he flipped it open, trying to get a good idea of the cave structures of the valley.Outside, Castillan, Finoula, and Hagan were moving toward the two merrows in combat with Binkadink and Darrien.  If they had hoped to assist the gnome they were too late; with a final stab of his glaive he slew the beast outright.  Finoula snapped her whip at the merrow attacking Darrien and killed it; she was surprised to see it fall until she saw the cuts on its body Darrien had already inflicted with his scimitar.Binkadink, no longer in combat, looked about for more foes to kill.  He opened the door to the tavern and stepped inside, but saw at once by the light of his everburning torches that it was empty of enemies.  Darrien turned back to what he had originally been doing before being attacked by the merrow and opened the door to the sheriff's office.  There he got a surprise, for the back half was a jail cell, inside which floated the body of a human, and standing just outside it were two scrags trying to snag the corpse with their claws.  They spun at Darrien's approach and apparently decided a half-elf would make just as good a meal as human carrion; they sprang to the attack.  But Darrien met them half-way, lashing out with his scimitar and cutting a wide gash across the lead scrag's face.  That didn't stop the wounded troll, though - both scrags clawed at the ranger and tried closing their toothy maws around his limbs.Castillan heard the sounds of combat coming from inside the sheriff's office, but it was cramped quarters inside the small building and he feared entering it would mean just getting in Darrien's way.  So he held his blades at the ready just outside the building, certain the ranger would back off outside the building, at which point Castillan could get in a surprise attack on the scrags.Gilbert, in the meantime, had figured out the cave elevations by the map and had figured out which one was likely the "lower cave" referenced in the diary.  His attention was also drawn to a set of ten volumes along the bottom shelf that somehow seemed wrong; in trying to pull one volume out at random, he discovered the ten-volume set was one unbroken item, likely a disguised chest.  He decided once they'd dealt with the primary threat he'd get Castillan to come check out this hidden chest.  But then, finding all he needed at the moment from the room, he steeled himself and stepped back through the doorway, immediately becoming sodden once again.  He then headed over towards the sheriff's office, since that seemed to be where everyone was congregating.Hagan, Finoula, and Binkadink had arrived at the sheriff's office, ready to assist in the combat with the scrags.  They saw Darrien backing up, moving his hands as if spellcasting, and then he stepped back out of the building and closed the door.<What happened?> Finoula asked over the link.  <Are they dead?><Not yet.  I just summoned a shark in the room with them.  That ought to give them something to do for awhile.>  Sure enough, growls and trollish curses could be heard emanating from inside the sheriff's office as the hungry scrags fought the shark with teeth and claws.  In the meantime, Malrin swam up to the wounded ranger and cast a few healing spells on him, sealing up the worst of his wounds.But combat with the scrags would have to wait, for swimming up from the south came another pair of aboleths with a merrow swimming at their side.  Castillan seemed unaware of their presence until Finoula called out a verbal warning, then he turned and faced the approaching foes.  Hagan cast a polar ray at one of the aboleths, hitting it broadside, and while it failed to kill the thing outright the half-orc was at least pleased with the amount of damage he'd apparently done to it, as his underwater spellcasting thus far wasn't as powerful as he would have hoped.  Maybe it was the fact he didn't have Wezhley with him - the little weasel was probably a good luck charm for the sorcerer.Finoula pulled back her whip to strike at the merrow, but it had made the fatal mistake of going for the gnome and found out too late that Binkadink's magic glaive was more powerful than it looked, and the little fighter a bigger threat than he could have ever guessed.  Before Finoula could strike, the merrow was already dead.Darrien backed up, heading back north - he wasn't ready to get into a fight with an aboleth that could take over his mind.  He looked about for Binkadink, realizing that it had been the gnome's magic circle against evil spell that had allowed him to retain his own mind once he'd fallen under the sway of his first aboleth opponent.  Malrin backed up with him, realizing her primary role was that of healer, not combatant.With a flicker of powerful tail-flukes, the aboleths split up, one heading toward the assembled group and the other darting behind the sheriff's small office building to approach from another direction.  Each sent waves of mental energy targeted at a potential mind-slave, but Finoula and Darrien both managed to shrug off the domination effects by mere force of will.  But Gilbert could see the aboleths' respective positions just fine in the light from Finoula's sunrod, and positioned himself such that he could catch both of the fish-things in a single spell-cone.  Casting a prismatic spray spell, the wizard was pleased to see one aboleth falling to the ground, dead, a deadly poison seeping from its gills, while the other's scales started getting burned off by a powerful blast of steam that suddenly encompassed its body.  But before it could retaliate Hagan killed it with a polar ray spell, the sudden combination of scalding steam and freezing cold apparently too much for the fish-thing to handle.  It too sank lifelessly to the ground, as Hagan yelled a triumphant <Yes!> over the link.But then the door to the sheriff's office burst open and the two hungry scrags spilled out, their shark bites already healing up.  It hadn't taken them long to get the best of the shark, but once they had slain it the fish simply disappeared before they could eat it!  Unforgivable!  Furious at their vanishing meal, they went in search of the half-elf they'd seen.They found him, all right - and then some.  Darrien stepped forward and stabbed the first scrag in the belly, then leaped back out of range of the creature's slashing claws and dropped something onto the ground before the scrag.  It grew rapidly in size, becoming a frog as large as the scrag was tall.  Darrien's opal frog leaped forward and bit the scrag's arm - all of which disappeared from view inside the frog's prodigious mouth.  Castillan then sprang forth and delivered a surprise attack straight through the scrag's kidney, driving his blade in deep and yanking it out with enough force that the creature died immediately.  Before Hagan could approach and ensure it wouldn't regenerate by coating its wounds in acid, the other scrag exited from the sheriff's office, ready to rend and tear at anyone it saw.  But the first to attack was the opal frog, biting down on this new threat now that the first scrag was down.Castillan applied his short sword of wounding to the current scrag foe, slicing an "X" across the beast's torso with two quick strikes of the blade.  Finoula flanked the scrag with the bounder, attacking from behind with Tahlmalaera and her magic whip while it was facing Castillan.  She slew the creature, and the steam from her whip prevented it from rising again.  Hagan moved in and cast an acid splash spell on the other scrag's head, ensuring it was too eaten away to regenerate as well.With slain foes all around them, the group scanned in all directions but didn't see anything else approaching.  Malrin swam up and applied healing spells from her staff to those who needed them, and then Gilbert led the group to the air-filled library he had unearthed.  While Castillan applied himself to examining the disguised chest, Gilbert read everyone the diary entry and showed them the maps of the caves.  "This where we need to go," he said, pointing a stubby finger on the lowest-elevation cave on the map.  "There a little fortress down there - that where the water coming from.""From a fortress?" asked Binkadink, skeptical."You see when we get there, gnome.""Guys: check it out!" exclaimed Castillan, directing everyone's attention away from the book of maps.  He'd opened the "ten-volume set" to reveal a chest full of gems.  "Leave it," Gilbert directed."What?  We can put it in the portable hole!" countered Castillan."Then we get hole full of water!  Leave it here - we get it on way back!"  With a frown, the bounder closed the lid on the disguised chest and pushed it back into place on the bookshelf.  "I suppose nobody's going to come looking for it in the meantime," he sighed.The haste spell wore off as the group made its way south to the caves indicated on the map, and Gilbert didn't have a second such spell prepared.  He did throw a stoneskin spell upon himself, just in case they encountered anything dangerous in the caverns.  After all, depending upon how deep it went, the cave system could easily link right up with the Underdark - which would explain the aboleths and skum, Gilbert realized.  They generally lived in Underdark lakes; if a source of constant water were introduced in the lowest cave, it would flow down into the Underdark and any lakes it met up with would start rising, eventually spilling out onto the surface world.Eventually the group found the right cave entrance and this time Castillan led the way.  Binkadink rode the opal frog just behind him; Darrien had gracefully allowed the gnome to use his frog as a riding mount, knowing that once activated the creature could remain in its living form for hours, and Binkadink had the most experience of the group riding mounts into combat.  (Not normal mounts, though: instead of a horse or even a pony, the little gnome seemed to prefer jackalopes, giant flies, and now giant frogs....)The cave passageway veered downwards for a good stretch before opening into a large cavern, all of it completely underwater.  Hagan, with his darkvision, could see the "little fortress" at the back of the cavern, a squat thing of black stone, some 20 feet on a side and 30 feet tall.  Before it were two aboleths, although one of them was much thinner than the other, seemingly parchment-thin skin stretched tightly over its bones.  Gilbert gasped in astonishment as his magically-enhanced eyes identified the thin aboleth as being undead - a lich, most likely, given its physical makeup.  Both aboleths seemed intent on finding a way inside the fortress; there was a wooden door facing the cavern entrance but it must have been securely locked, leaving the two arrow-slits on each of the three levels the only openings into the tower, and those were far too thin to allow more than the very tip of the aboleths' tentacles entry.Unseen by the heroes was a tojanida resting upon the roof of the tower.  While the two aboleths - one living and one undead - had their scaly backs to the cavern entrance, the tojanida was facing that way and saw the adventurers' approach.  It immediately passed that information on to its master, the aboleth mage trying to find a way into the tower, as would any good familiar.However, before the aboleth mage could react to this information, Castillan used his magic ring for the third and final time of the day to dimension door himself to the top of the tower.  Startled by the elf's sudden appearance, the tojanida dove over the top of the tower's flat roof, swimming down the western side of the building.  But then the aboleth lich, warned by its living companion, spun around and cast a lightning bolt spell at the intruding adventurers, who were still all bunched up in the cavern's entrance.  Only Castillan, safe up on the tower's roof, avoided the shock of the spell.Darrien stepped forward, the magic scimitar now sheathed at his hip and his Arachnibow in his hands, for he had seen what they were facing and realized he had in his quiver two arrows of slaying, one geared towards undead and one towards aberrations.  He had the former arrow notched and ready; letting fly with it, the arrow bridged the gap between archer and undead abomination, striking the lich alongside its row of eyes and lodging in the bone of the creature's skull.  Unfortunately, the arrow's magic wasn't enough to slay the aboleth lich outright.  Darrien frowned and pulled the other arrow of slaying from his quiver, deciding to give it a try next against the living aboleth.Finoula opted to fight lightning with lightning and moved up beside Darrien, activating her necklace as she did so.  She immediately transformed into a living bolt of electricity herself, blasting through first the aboleth lich and then the aboleth mage before resuming her normal appearance over on the eastern side of the tower.  But then the aboleth mage spun around, rose above the lich in elevation, and cast an empowered lightning bolt spell at those heroes still in the cavern's entry tunnel - which, by the angle involved, included Darrien even though he had stepped fully into the cavern to get off his shot at the lich.Then Binkadink urged the opal frog forward, sending it into a hopping/swimming charge directly at the aboleth lich, his glaive held out before him like a lance.  The blade sliced through the parchmentlike flesh and deep into the bone of the lich's skull, almost becoming lodged before the gnome gave it a tug sufficient enough to break it free.Gilbert had a quickened dimension door spell at the ready and chose that moment to activate it, using it to get inside the tower - specifically, the top floor over in the rightmost corner from the wizard's point of view.  This ended up being the best place to end up in the tower, for it was the site of the cause of the sudden flooding: a man in wizard's robes lay on the floor with his head at an awkward angle, his neck having obviously been broken.  The likely culprit was a decanter up by the ceiling, bumping along the corner of two adjoining walls and held more or less in place by the geyser of water spewing from its opening.  <Just as I thought: it a decanter of endless water behind whole problem!> Gilbert informed the others over the telepathic link.But the others were too involved in combat with the aboleths to answer the portly mage.  Hagan decided to drop a wall of fire smack-dab in the middle of both aboleths, taking heart from the fact that Finoula's flaming whip of thorns worked just fine underwater, even though the actual flames were suppressed.  The spell worked like normal, although the wall was technically made up of scalding steam than actual fire; still, the bodies of the aboleths burned just as well by the spell's heat energy.  As expected, the undead aboleth took more damage than did its living companion, its leathery skin blistering and peeling away to reveal the bone and cartilage beneath.Castillan suddenly leaped off the tower, using the fingers of his left hand to steady himself and slow his fall back down to the cavern floor; as he happened to pass the aboleth mage on his way down, he made sure to give it a good surprise stab with his sword as soon as he got within range.The aboleth lich was the first of the tentacled fish to respond to the pain of Hagan's spell.  It circled away from the wall of scalding steam - burning other parts of its body as it did so - and made a dash for Finoula, lashing at her with its four rubbery tentacles.  But even as the elven ranger was dodging out of the way of two of them, the other two were suddenly blocked by Binkadink's flashing glaive - which then plunged deep into the lich's body, piercing the bottom and coming out at the top of the skull, between the creature's first and second glassy eyes.  It fell to its side as it died, allowing Binkadink to extricate his glaive from its body before it was yanked from his grasp.Darrien sprinted to the western side of the wall of steam, targeting the aboleth mage's broad flank with his arrow of aberration slaying.  Once again his aim was flawless but the power of the arrow was not quite up to the task: despite being buried to the feathers in the fish's body, the arrow failed to instantly slay it.  Finoula used her whip on the aboleth, not wanting to get near enough to use her longsword, since that would put her well in the reach of the thing's tentacles.  She grinned as a burn-mark appeared on the creature's scales, indicating where her whip had struck, but then the great fish-thing exited the wall of steam bisecting its body and made a dash for Darrien.  The half-elf ranger was struck by two of the flailing tentacles, but he managed to overcome the slime's horrible effects.Gilbert, in the meantime, was satisfied he had solved the mystery of the sudden appearance of the lake but decided he wanted help getting the decanter of endless water free from its position in the corner by the ceiling.  He therefore took the stairway down to the lower level, passing a well-stocked bookcase whose tomes had sadly all been rendered unreadable by the total immersion in water.  (Apparently the unnamed wizard hadn't had time to create the same anti-water barrier here in the fortress that he had done for his library back in his Honeycomb Valley residence.)  He then went down to the front door and opened it - despite it being virtually impervious to intrusion from the outside, it opened quite easily from the building's interior.  He noted a nonsense word carved into the wall above the front door and wondered idly what it was there for.Hagan cast a disintegrate spell at the hapless aboleth mage, who by this time was covered in welts and burns, and this time his spell managed to do what it was intended to do: break up the physical structure of the creature it hit.  The aboleth mage's body bubbled away into nothingness, leaving no evidence it had ever existed.Gilbert ushered the others inside the tower, and Malrin - still in the form of a squid - was able to swim up to the ceiling, grab the decanter of endless water around the middle, and spin it about such that its geyser-jet brought it down to floor level.  Then she steadied it against the wall, allowing everyone to see the words printed on its side.<Can anybody read that?> Hagan asked.<It's Dwarven,> Finoula replied.  <The Dwarven words for 'stream,' 'fountain,' and 'geyser.'><So how do we shut it off?> Darrien asked.<It in geyser mode.  Repeat command word for 'geyser' - that do it.>  Finoula obeyed Gilbert's request, holding onto the decanter of endless water and saying "hurmfaraun" - the third word carved onto the item's side - and immediately the decanter fell still.  Malrin released it from her tentacle and it just lay there on the floor, unmoving.<So what's this guy's story?> asked Binkadink, indicating the dead wizard with the broken neck.<This the idiot who cause all this problem,> Gilbert explained.  <He probably activate it in geyser mode, it throw him against wall, he break neck, and now nobody around to turn it off until we show up.  Water spill out of tower, fill up Underdark lake, and aboleths and mind-slaves go check out village above once it flooded.  This idiot responsible for deaths of everyone in entire town.><Well, at least we got some treasure out of the deal,> Darrien pointed out.  <We can go back for that chest of gems now.><And we have the decanter,> pointed out Finoula.  <An endless supply of water's not a bad thing, and we know how to use it safely.><That not only treasure we get,> smirked Gilbert, leading the team back down to the first floor.  He pointed out the word carved above the door then ushered everyone outside.  Once everyone had exited, he repeated the word carved above the door and the entire tower shuddered - and then shrank down to the size of a small cube.  Gilbert said.  <They called Daern's instant fortress.  We take it with us, we always have place to stay.><Dibs on not cleaning it out!> called Binkadink.<Dibs!> <Dibs!> <Dibs!> <Dibs!> <Dibs!> repeated Darrien, Finoula, Gilbert, Hagan, and Malrin over the still-active Rary's telepathic bond spell.  They all looked at Castillan, the only one not linked into the telepathic bond, and smiled.  "Looks like it's you!" Gilbert laughed."Looks like it's me what?" Castillan asked, confused. - - - That Daern's instant fortress will definitely need some cleaning out, as right now it's filled with water, waterlogged books, and there's a nasty cloud in the privy that's likely to cause filth fever in anyone unfortunate enough to breathe it in while underwater - not to mention the dead body of the "idiot" wizard that's been pickling for who knows how many days or weeks.  Poor Castillan's going to have quite a job in front of him! - - - T-Shirt Worn:  A solid blue T-shirt with no design, to represent the unending expanse of water that an uncontrolled decanter of endless water could eventually produce.</blockquote>

Verification