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7 Rhonus 1120
Chain of Command
The passage was twisted and narrow, making it difficult to nagivate quickly. Swimming was no faster than walking even for the natural swimmers because of the zig-zag formation. Soon a final turn showed an opening that lead to a large cave beyond. Loki went first, poking his head through the opening for a look. He was attacked immediately by a trident from above and withdrew to warn the group that they were expected and formed his two-bladed mind blade. Tika had cast freedom of movement on him and herself as tentacle insurance, but it would also allow him to freely use the slashing weapon under water. Tika went next, deliberately walking backward so as to face the enemy and firing her crossbow on the move. She struck a mutant warrior and dealt it a nasty blow before it could land an attack on her. Vondran followed and took an attack of opportunity from the other warrior that was waiting above the entrance but still cleared the opening. Those inside could make out four enemies, all the standard-looking half-illithid sahuagin they were used to. Others could be hiding in any of the many openings in the cavern wall, but for now they focused on those present. Karu used his ghost step ability to move through the rock and surprise Tika's victim for a second devastating attack and Loki took advantage of the distraction to slip past into the main battle area, landing a solid strike against the enemy. The heroes were clearly overpowering the mutants physically but the tide turned when one of the mutants unleashed a mind blast that stunned Vondran and Karu, taking them both effectively out of combat. The creature Karu had wounded turned and wrapped its tentacles around Karu's head, preparing to extract Karu's brain. Ash prevented that by casting baleful transposition, swapping the stunned Karu's position with that of another enemy. Tika grabbed Vondran and dragged him away from danger but was then attacked by a fifth enemy who came charging out of one of the many side caves. Ash targeted that creature with a sonic scorching ray attack only to find herself in danger as another enemy materialized directly behind her. Loki fought hard to protect the still-stunned Karu and felled both of the nearby warriors in a single round. This made him the primary target for the survivors, of course, who closed in to attack both him and Karu. Ash had to flee the leader who had appeared behind her and moved to Tika, who helped everyone with a mass cure light wounds. Meanwhile, Loki was hurting badly. As much as he wanted to stand with the stunned Karu he had to withdraw long enough to use a healing potion. As Tika cast an obscuring mist to provide some cover for Ash and the still-stunned Vondran, Loki moved into the area as well seeking more healing. As a result, none of them saw one of the remaining mutant warriors grab Karu and attach its tentacles to his head. Loki emerged from the mist, healed and with a psychic strike charged, only to watch Karu's lifeless body drop to the floor. Ash emerged, saw the same thing, and responded with an empowered sonic fireball to the area that vaporized Karu's killer and the other enemy caught in the blast radius. The leader came out behind Ash and grabbed her head in its tentacles as Loki used his psychic strike on a lieutenant. Tika, determined not to see another comrade fall, reached out and touched the leader with a slay living spell. Seeing their leader killed with a touch after Ash's devastating fireball, the remaining two warriors ran as quickly as they could. The heroes let them run -- their first priority was to find the coral circlets controlling the siege crabs outside. One was on the head of the leader; Tika took that and put it on in time to see, through the siege crab's eyes, the fleeing enemies entering the other crab and taking off. Clearly one of them had the circlet for that one. Tika also saw that Waldo, their captured siege crab, had been destroyed in the two-on-one combat. They still had possession of one working siege crab so they had not lost anything, but they felt momentarily sad for the loss of a faithful if non-sentient servant. Karu was, of course, the more immediate concern. The half-illithid had extracted his brain, making it impossible to use raise dead on him. It would take a full resurrection spell to bring their friend back, and that was beyond Tika's ability at the time. They carefully moved the body to their new siege crab and planned to take him back to Marhaven. First, however, they needed to search the cave for clues to their next move against the underwater army. Most of the side caves were empty or contained nothing of interest, being apparently used as temporary barracks for recruits before they moved on to ... somewhere. In one of the larger ones, however, the party found a chest with gold and valuables -- the recruiter's funds for paying bribes and buying supplies -- and, on the wall, a map drawn in watersafe pigments. They studied the map and recognized it as a rough representation of the eastern seaboard. A large red dot marked their current location. Then, further south along the coast, they saw a similar red dot. The location of that dot was very familiar: it either was, or was dangerously close to, the cave where they had first met the bronze dragon Athesto and where Vondran had performed his ritual to unlock the first powers of the Arm of Telomir. Was their friend in danger or worse? They climbed into the remaining siege crab and headed south toward the cave. Tika used minor magic to preserve Karu's corpse, as she had every intention of bringing him back to life as soon as they got to civilization. On the second day they came to the area, a former darfellan settlement off the Tumari coast, and prepared themselves for the worst. Inside the entrance tunnel they found signs of recent battle: weapon scars on the walls, debris, and traces of bone left by vermin who would have eaten any flesh. They reached the main chamber, however, and were relieved to find Athesto still in residence. The dragon looked in fair shape, perhaps a little bit scarred and more muscled than when they had last seen him but healthy and strong. The monument built by Vondran had seen better days. Athesto greeted his friends and explained that yes, the mutant warriors had tried to take this cave to be a base camp. He had easily turned back their first assault, consisting of lower-level fighters, but instead of giving up the enemy had come back in force, with stronger fighters and psychic warriors. Athesto had been forced to flee the place. Rather than give up, however, had returned a few days later with help in the form of two more dragins: Ryetta, a clutchmate of his, and Ladon, a young gold dragon. The three of them were able to expel the mutants from the cave and repair the monument, which the invaders had broken. Athesto's companions came out to meet the party and they shared a friendly meal. Over food, Athesto revealed that he had a good idea where the mutants had settled after being evicted from the cave. It took no more than asking from the party for Athesto to volunteer not only to show them the location but to accompany them on the raid. The dragon seemed quite eager to draw a little more blood from those who damaged his home. Leaving Karu's remains behind, safely tucked away for later, Athesto and the party entered the siege crab and headed for the base camp. It proved to be an abandoned sahuagin village set into a protective outcropping of rock in the coastal shelf. Knowing the enemy to be telepathic, the party simply took the crab right into the settlement and parked it outside the largest building. The enemy was waiting for them inside the building, which had apparently been a sort of town hall for the settlement. Athesto and Vondran entered first, with Athesto reverting to dragon form, followed by Tika and Loki. Ash left the safety of the crab but stayed outside. The waiting soldiers attempted to mind blast them but failed to stun anyone. Vondran, Loki, and Athesto let fly with physical attacks and quickly began to wear down the opponents. Then, summoned by magic or psychic ability, a pair of dire sharks appeared in the chamber as well. The quarters were cramped for these huge beasts but they moved in circles around the battle, biting at the heroes as they could. The summoner, a psychic warrior, also put in an appearance and engaged Tika. Ash constricted the battlefield with Evards's black tentacles, which grabbed at the enemy but were no threat to Athesto because of his size. Tika used corona of cold and then frost breath to discourage her opponents, then summoned a celestial shark of her own to join the fight on her side. Athesto continued to claw, bite, and beat on multiple enemies, landing hits with ease in support of the other fighters. Soon the enemy sought to escape the close quarters of the building. The psychic vanished after taking nasty blows from both Loki and Vondran and the sharks closed in to grab them both before slipping out through a large opening in the wall. Ash welcomed this development and directed the siege crab -- dubbed Waldo II -- to attack. The psychic had disappeared from view, but moments later a new enemy appeared in its place: a 10-foot-tall four-armed sahuagin mutant, bearing two spiked bucklers and two swords. Its eyes glowed pale green to match the crystal pendant around its neck, and the power of its mind blast was enough to stun Tika. Ash redirected Waldo to attack the mutant and sent a scorching ray volley his way as well, but the creature's spell resistance was formidable. Physical attacks from Waldo kept it occupied long enough for Athesto to finish off the minions inside and come out to treat the leader to a dose of his electrical breath weapon, which finished the job. Loki, finding himself swallowed whole, had cut himself free just in time to witness the end of the battle. Vondran, though he was not swallowed, miscalculated -- he thrust the Arm of Telomir into the belly of the shark, got it stuck, and was dragged several hundred feet as the shark sought to flee the battle. By the time he returned it was all over. A search of the compound turned up the mutant leader's war chest and a cache of weapons, but no solid lead on where the next link in the chain of command might lie. Loki took the crystal pendant from the mutant's neck and slipped it on. For a moment his eyes took on the same green glow and Loki felt a foreign, alien presence probing his mind. He was unable to resist, but the rest of the party noted the glow and yanked the pendant from his neck almost immediately. Loki was unable to tell what, or who, had been in his head but it was clear that this was their only link to the next level of command. They retrieved the body of Karu, gave Athesto a fair share of the enemy's trinkets, and returned to Marhaven to consider their next step.
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