16 Norstan 1120

Under Siege

After the meeting at the Adventurers' Guild, the heroes made quick preparations for their next move, the search for Aria's parents. There were two pressing issues to handle first, though: a weapons and protection upgrade for Caenus and some insurance against magical mind control.

Master weaponsmith Melchior Fordney took care of Caenus. The young warrior left Fordney's shop the proud owner of a new +2 aberration bane halberd and a helm of iron will +3. Strontium procured two wands of protection from evil, keeping one and entrusting the other to Melian.

A late discussion aboard the Chimera resulted in a slight change in plan. Instead of setting off immediately in search of Aria's parents, the group instead chose to begin with a visit to Yulach. They hired a retired wizard, Desmond, to gate them directly to the Clerk's Ward in Sigil where they presented themselves at the front gate of Yulach's villa.

The mercane was at home and in an agreeable frame of mind. The party explained their need to learn more about Azazel and the legend of his imprisonment and asked for the use of Yulach's library. They agreed on a fee of 5,000gp for up to three days and Yulach provided a staff of his keepers to locate materials and provide assistance. Aria, Strontium, and Mrs. Wilkins did most of the research work and came up with some new information to add to their store of knowledge.

The heroes' next step was to locate Aria's parents. To do that they would need an item belonging to one of them and a discern location spell. Aria had nothing that she know of that would serve the purpose, so they returned to the monastery at Seastar Colony and sought out Relvin. They presented the head monk with the ivory statuette they had received in Corbanos (Follow the Money) when they tried to clean out the accounts of the Servants of the Beast Below.

As luck would have it, Relvin recognized the figure immediately. It was carved years ago by Kallaebri Seastar and given to Lord Tagren when the two of them were dating. Relvin had kept it at the monastery since their disappearance, but the figurine had gone missing shortly before the invasion.

Armed with this knowledge the party returned to Marhaven and their new friend Desmond, this time for a discern location. Desmond held the little statuette, cast the spell, and announced that Kallaebri Seastar was one mile west/northwest of Deep Elandrin, the home city of the aquatic elves.

The party took this as very bad news. A hasty discussion of options led to their paying Desmond more gold in exchange for a teleport without error to send them directly to that location immediately. They paused only long enough to cover everyone with protection from evil and for Mrs. Wilkins to cast freedom of movement on herself before having Desmond send them to battle.

They materialized in open water at the requested location. There was no immediate sign of Aria's parents, but there was no time for recon because the party was spotted on arrival by a gargantuan crab. It changed direction and charged at the group on sight.

Strontium launched an opening magic missile volley at the crab and was dismayed to see the creature absorb them with no apparent damage. He searched his memory and came up with the realization that this was not a standard oversized vermin -- it had to be a siege crab, a living creature converted into an armored carrier for soldiers. Part of a siege crab's protections included a force carapace that gave it an obscene armor class and immunity to Strontium's beloved magic missiles.

Mrs. Wilkins recognized the physical threat of the crab and out of habit cast greater invisibility on herself, forgetting momentarily that it would simply create a human-shaped and very visible bubble in the water. The crab surged forward and closed its huge claws around Mrs. Wilkins and Aria even as Caenus learned firsthand how tough the creature's shell was.

Fortunately Strontium knew the solution. He cast dispel magic on the force carapace and sensed the magical protection weakening. For a short time -- exactly how short was uncertain -- the crab's defenses would be that much less intimidating.

Aria used her crane tattoo to invoke the firey breath ability, which under water created a gout of scalding hot steam, to attack the crab as it held her. Mrs. Wilkins, thanks to her freedom of movement, slipped free easily and cast another freedom of movement on Aria just in time for her to avoid being crushed in a claw.

The crab reached out and grabbed onto Quinn and Caenus. The gargantuan claws proved sickeningly powerful; even Caenus found himself hopelessly pinned in the creature's grasp. And then, to makes things worse, a hole opened in the crab's underside and two half-illithid sahuagin warriors swam out to join the melee. One stunned Audas with a mind blast while the other went after Melian, who had stayed well away from the crab's claws.

Mrs. Wilkins cast freedom of movement on Quinn and the crab moved a claw to grab Strontium. He cast a stilled Isaac's lesser missile storm and took great pleasure in seeing the energy missiles punish the crab's softened shell. Aria, now free from the claw's grip, pummeled away at the crab and felt her gloves adapt to the creature's formidable damage reduction. Quinn, also free now, entrusted her adamantine trident to Caenus and turned her own attention to the half-illithid warriors.

One of those warriors made an attempt to get Melian in its tentacles but Melian managed to avoid its grasp. Another made the mistake of charging Caenus and received a bellyful of Quinn's trident for its trouble. The crab prepared to crush Strontium in its claw but once again Mrs. Wilkins was ready with a freedom of movement. As Strontium slipped free she used swift etherealness to move inside the crab and out the other side. She was then able to report that there were no more of the half-illithid soldiers waiting in the crab.

The party's tenacity began to pay off. Strontium's next lesser missile storm put an end to the crab's role in the combat and it began to sink to the bottom. Without the use of the monstrous claws the half-illithids quickly succumbed to the party's firepower. Even Mrs. Wilkins landed a sword thrust before the fight was over.

Soon one half-illithid stood alone against the seven heroes. Aria subdued it with nonlethal damage and the group formed up to interrogate the thing. What they learned, while little, was nonetheless disturbing. Deep Elandrin had been under siege for several days already, with several hundred of the half-illithid troups and dozens of siege crabs forming the bulk of the force. The command post was a few hundred feet away to the north, and there the group would find the army's leaders.

The captured soldier refused to cooperate with any ruse, and the party knew it could telepathically alert its comrades well in advance if allowed to live. They slew it, healed themselves, and formed up to march on the command post.

Their destination was a flattened hilltop amid what looked to be a hastily-cleared patch of sea bed. There was no cover for a good 100 feet and the party could see half-illithid soldiers and a pair of the siege crabs surrounding the hill. Knowing invisibility is of no use under water, let alone against a telepathic enemy, they opted for a straightforward frontal attack.

The enemy wasted no time meeting their advance. Several half-illithids came forward to meet them. Audas tried a couple of baneful blasts but failed to overcome the enemy's spell resistance before he and Caenus were stunned by a mind blast. Quinn thrust at the leader but lost her grip and accidentally sent her prized trident sailing past it to land softly in the ground some 30 feet behind.

While the group was still clustered together Mrs. Wilkins cast a haste on the party. Aria recognized the coral circlet on the lead warrior's head as a control device for one of the siege crabs and managed to grab it for herself. She felt a mental connection with one of the siege crabs and focused on it, ordering it to attack the other crab, and was pleased to see it obey.

Well off to the side, a pair of humanoid figures emerged from a cloth tent and took to their mounts, a pair of monstrous-looking hippocampi. They floated above the tent, clearly watching and probably judging the party's strength.

A second warrior wearing a coral circlet ordered the other siege crab into action. Rather than fighting the one under Aria's control, however, the crab instead came after Aria directly. She was still under the effect of the freedom of movement and so managed to escape the crushing grip, but the claws still clubbed at her mercilessly. Aria focused and had her siege crab attack the controller of the second crab.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wilkins took some delight in having non-mindless warriors to play with. A string of friend to foe spells got the guards attacking each other and even caused two fatalities, providing enough breathing space for Quinn to quickly heal Aria between crab hits. Strontium and Melian took turns trying to pry the circlet off the warrior's head but it used its tentacles to fend them off.

It was the enemy warriors themselves who ultimately took the siege crabs out of the battle. The second leader, after dodging the grasps of Melian and Strontium, used its tentacles to take the circlet and break it in two, causing the siege crab to go still. Another warrior swam inside the crab under Aria's control and disabled it from the inside.

With the siege crabs out of commission it seemed relatively simple to mop up the remaining soldiers. That was enough to bring the two distant leaders into the fray. The first, an aventi woman in shining crystalline-looking armor, cast a spell and Evard's black tentacles filled the space where Caenus and Melian stood. The second, a male aventi, swam forward and separated from his mount, both taking positions to intercept any attack on the female.

Strontium moved forward as well and was greeted with a blackwater tentacle that swiped at him and tried to drain some of his energy. When his Otiluke's resilient sphere missed the target the rest of the group swarmed to his aid. Aria breathed a prayer to Aventernus asking for any kind of help he could provide to avoid killing her parents.

Caenus broke free of the tentacles and swam toward Kallaebri Seastar. She responded by spurring her mount and charging Caenus with her lance held out. Caenus tried to counter with his halbert but the longer reach and higher speed of his charging opponent overran him. Caenus was struck by the lance and knocked backward 30 feet as Kallaebri passed him by and turned to prepare another strike. Her husband, Lord Tagren, dashed forward and delivered a Stunning Fist to Caenus.

Quinn's first instinct was to charge Kallaebri with her trident. The fallen paladin easily blocked her charge with the lance, striking Quinn and halting her movement. Audas landed an eldritch blast against Kallaebri, and in return she blasted him with a darkbolt of evil energy.

Tagren proved to be the softer target. Strontium favored him with a lesser missile storm that forced the monk to step back and use his self-healing ability. Strontium followed up with more missiles and chipped away at Tagren's strength. Caenus landed blows but was severely outclassed by the monk's flurry of blows. Kallaebri proved maddeningly difficult to harm. Melian missed repeatedly with flanking attacks, as did Quinn from the front, and even Audas's eldritch blasts hit only sporadically.

While the rest of the party battled the leaders, Aria and Mrs. Wilkins focused their attention on the mounts. Aria pummeled her father's mount with her fists while Mrs. Wilkins used phantasmal strangler spells to beat down their minds.

Through tenacity and a little good fortune, the heroes wore down Kallaebri and Tagren by degrees. Caenus got a heal from the Rod of Health and re-engaged Tagren while Strontium continued to harass him with magic missiles. His last prepared lesser missile storm was just enough to end Tagren, who fell to the ground in front of Melian and Quinn and groaned his last words: "Save her."

Seeing her husband fall to Strontium's missiles enraged Kallaebri. She ignored the enemies around her and cast flame strike on Strontium, scalding him to almost into unconsciousness. Audas responded with a well-placed eldritch blast and then, as if triggered by an event, Kallaebri faded into nothingness.

The heroes were nearly exhausted, both physically in in terms of resources. There was no way they could do anything more about the siege that day; the best they could do, they figured, was remove Tagren's body and hope that the sudden deaths of their leaders would break the army's resolve. A quick search of the tent turned up a pearlsteel strong box containing the army's operating funds for the siege, and taking that also seemed like a good way to weaken the aggressors.

After much discussion, they opted to take Tagren with them back to Marhaven. It had seemed in his last moment as though Tagren may have become free of (presumably) Azazel's control. Raising him from the dead might result in a valuable ally, or at least a source of information, and seemed like the right thing to do for Aria.

They made best speed eastware toward the city.

<MR>
1/29/08