Godsday - 4 Sunsebb - Early Evening
Previously, the
Try-hard Misfits sailed from outside
Saltmarsh westward along the
Hool Marshes. During their travels, they mostly avoided a small fleet of
Hold of the Sea Princes while driving off their sailing ship,
Skyward Swan. After two more days of travel on the outskirts of the sahuagin fortress, they defeated two water elementals that seemed to be guarding the area.
As the party catches their breath, they look across the bay. Rising a hundred feet out of the sea, a rocky outcropping forms an island stretching five hundred feet in diameter. A foreboding structure that purportedly hosts a looming force of sahuagin.
"We be an open target," Capt O'Donahue states. "Best we hide around the bend there. Just a bit up the inlet and anchor where we nay be seen. "
The party quickly agrees and the captain gives orders to maneuver and anchor up for the night. Preparing for a long day on the morrow, the party asks the crew to maintain a vigil while they get a full night's rest and preparation.
Waterday - 5 Sunsebb - Sunrise
Rising before the sun, the
Tryhard-Misfits start gathering on deck. Last to arrive, Adlia comes cheerfully up from below stating, "I've communed with Ehlonna and she bides me bring this blessed wine to inspire our actions this day."
Each member takes a sip and Capt O'Donahue orders the jolly boat lowered. Ducky reacts immediately, "You want me to row her? That Devil! Over to that island filled with Sea Devils? No way! "
Staring at him, Capt O'Donahue responds, "You're a member of this crew and you knew the job when you signed up. You can either row them there or you can swim back to Saltmarsh. Your choice."
Grumbling, Ducky slides down a rope into the jollyboat, "Well, I'll row you, but I am not stepping onto that island."
As the rest of the party joins the deckhands, Kyra draws a complicated sigil within the confines of the boat summoning the arcane energies to power her will. She then taps each of the party members as well as dabs Ducky nose while stating, "And now you can breath underwater."
Karia dips her head covered with the helmet of underwater action into the salty brine. "Works for me!" she states after pulling back up.
Kyra smiles while lifting the helm off Karia's head, "Now try it again when you don't already have the ability to breath underwater."
Karia smiles, "Ooops!" then quickly pushes her head back under to confirm.
Ducky and Chuck row around the marshy peninsula bringing the rocky outcropping into full view. No wildlife appears present nor any vegatiation except for mosses, lichens, seaweed, and the occasional clump of grass. As the boat sweeps along the marsh edge, the party can see a long causeway leading from the
Hool Marshes southward to a stone outcropping that seems to penetrate the island.
Pointing toward the marsh headland, Kyra states "Let's head to the marshes over there. It seems to be the natural entrance."
The Chuck and Ducky quietly and efficiently land the boat into the marshy ground allowing the party to hop ashore. Turning south, Nar looks at the rest of the group as she places a finger across her lips and then melds into the shadows cast by the rising sun. She then climbs the escarpment to survey the causeway. Seeing no surprises or resistance, she waves for the party to come forward.
As they do, Karia summons the mystical energies of her surroundings allowing the rest of the party to pass without trace within her sight. The party quickly, but quietly, crosses the bridge looking at a couple of sharks milling aimlessly beneath them.
Arriving at a large rock ledge about thirty feet wide that narrows between the vertical rock face and ends at two ten feet tall by five feet wide stone doors. One of these doors has a rectangular aperture roughly four inches by six inches with a metal plate at the back of the stone door. Creeping forward, Kyra channels her energies into the depths of all languages as she and Nar carefully investigate the doors.
Nar sees a hairline gap between the doors where light streams through except about midway up a shadow blocks the view. She also sees shadows moving in the light cast out under the doorways with faint growling that sounds like words of no known language. However, Kyra's magical mysteries deciphers the words faint as they are as bored idle chat between guards.
Determining this entrance to be guarded, Nar activates her spidery boots and quickly descends from the rocky outcrop. Just as she reaches the water line, Kyra flits down beside her and hands her a pebble that glows brightly in the morning sun. "It's dark where you are going, take this."
Nar slips beneath the calm surface of the inlet as she continues to climb toward the bottom. Holding the pebble and shifting it, she sees a dark split between the rock face below her.
Surfacing, Nar waves toward the party that quickly lowers a rope for the other members to use as a guide while climbing downward. Kyra stays on the causeway until the last of the party slips beneath the muddy water before retrieving the rope and flying downward herself.
The party swiftly approaches the crevice that continues into the rock face. The party moves through the five foot opening into a ten by fourty foot room with another passage continue southward. Barely pausing in the desolate room, the party moves further down the passage that angles left and then eventually back right coming to a stop with stone slab blocking progress.
From beyond the next room, Nar hears the unmistakable sound of torture along with a babbling of noise that clearly indicates an individual experiencing massive pain.
Jane steps forward and shoves the slab inward allowing the party to enter a room crowded by an giant decaying dead eel over twenty feet in length. Pushing the dead body out of the way, Jane then rams against the outer door snapping the crossbar holding it closed as she continues outward into a large room that has three sahuagin as well as a locathah in a rack.
Surprising the torturers, Nar leads the party onward by gliding like a manta ray over the top of one sahuagin before surprising another with her rapier sneaking between its defenses before disengaging and hiding in a corner. Jane immediately takes Nar's attack point as her and Karia flank one of the champion sahuagin. In a flurry of strokes, the first sahuagin drops dead.
Seeing the invading party, the fishfolk screams in common, "Help me! Untie me!" while it shakes its arms within the ropes.
Adlia responds and sidles up against the rack and struggles as she unties one of the arms.
The battle ends as quickly as it started as the other two champions fall beneath the superior martial skill of the
try-hard misfits. Three corpses rest against the hardened stone floor while the party searches them. The locathah says, "I'm Borgas of the Locathah. I'm thankful for your timely release, but I'm quite worried for my partner, Eegath. Do you know where he is? He's a giant eel."
Karia responds, "I don't know how to say this, but he didn't make it. He tried breaking out of his cell just there and died several days ago."
"Afraid of this I was," replies Borgas. "Why have you come?"
"We've been tasked by an alliance of peoples out of Saltmarsh," explains Karia. "Queen Othokent told us that her home had been invaded and she needed help driving forth the sahuagin invaders. Do you know her?"
"Of the lizardfolk?" Borgas inquires. "Yes. My people sent a delegation, but they were sure the sahuagin were no threat. Alas it appears my people were wrong. I'd like to help, if I can."
Kyra looks up from one of the dead sahuagin and tosses him a spear, "Here. This'll help you."
Having scavanged the corpses, the party explores the remaining four doors in this torture chamber. Each apparently leading to a different cell. The first cell is empty and Borgas states, "There's nothing in there that was my cell."
They then open the second cell and encounter a tall humanoid with deep bluish-green skin. Startled, he quickly examines the party before introducing himself, "The name's Kysh. I can see by your faces that ye have never met a Triton. We protect the depths of the water from wrongdoers like the sahuagin. My partner and I were captured and taken here many moons ago. I believe I will help you."
A slow smile spreads across Kyra's face as she hands another spear to Kysh, "Here! Take this."
As Nar approaches the fourth cell, a growling is heard behind it. Jane prepares to strike as the crossbar gets flipped and door swings wide exposing a large sea lion. It rushes forward to attack, when Kysh calls out. The giant sea lion pauses and then lunges exuberantly toward Kysh who states, "My companion." The two nuzzle a moment.
The party checks the final cell and finds it empty like the first. They then turn toward the open passage leading south from the room.
