The first Savage Tide has already touched the mortal world, yet none who live today recall this terrible time of red ruin. It swept over an ancient city, transforming beggar and noble, merchant and thief, resident and visitor, one and all into feral, ravenous fiends. What took the ancients hundreds of years to build came crumbling down in a matter of days. When the final ripples of the tide faded, only ruins remained.
Now, after a thousand years, the hidden architect of the Savage Tide gazes upon new targets. This time, the doom will not be limited to one hapless city. This time, all of civilization is perched on the shore, blissfully ignorant of what the tide is about to bring in.
Wavedancer backs up again and once more summons two blue orbs of energy. As with the first two, these strike the mutated pirate doing terrible damage. Blood flows freely from what must be a mortal wound in the pirate's belly, and bone can be seen poking out from a wound in the creature's leg. Yet somehow, it fights on!
Fin then steps out from the narrow passage he's in and finally has the room to swing. His sword strikes the pirate a powerful blow to the side. But despite the force behind the blow, it barely scratches the creature's skin. Whatever has happened to this pirate, it's made him much tougher.
The pirate continues to ignore Fin and focus its hunger on Wavedancer. Once more the scimitar strike goes wild. But this time its bite connects. Again, it's shark-like teeth bite into the half-elf's arm. And again, Wavedancer
Round 5: Mutated Pirate 22.8, Wavedancer 22.0, Fin 14
Characters in bold have acted this round.
Wavedancer casts MM (two missiles for 3rd level caster) for 7 damage
Wavedancer's Fort Save: 23, no disease! (You have been a fiend with those Fort saves!)
Fin must take a five foot step to reach the pirate.
Fin attacks P-1: 20 (+2 flank), hit for 6 (-5 DR) = 1 damage
P-1 moves and attacks Wavedancer with bite: 18, hit for 4 damage
P-1 attacks Wavedancer with scimitar: 13, miss
Wavedancer ducks and moves, the scimitar misses, but is bitten again.
"This is growing tedious, very tedious," the aquan says. He does what seems to bring him some sort of success, moving away, then blasting the creature with magical energy. He seems focused on bringing the unnatural pirate down at last.
5-Foot W. MM at P1
"Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies."
Once more Wavedancer backs up, and once more he calls forth two blue orbs of energy. They hit the creature's arm and leg, shattering both. Yet still, almost as if it didn't realize it was dead, the rest of the pirate leaps forward and attacks one last time. And it's only Wavedancer's magical protection that keeps him from getting hit.
Then the pirate's body hits the ground, motionless. And for a moment the two former captives think it's all over. But suddenly, the creature's flesh bubbles and shakes until it explodes in a spray of acid, leaving only a clean skeleton behind.
There's no sign of immediate danger for the moment. But both Fin and Wavedancer can hear motion back within the twisting caves.
Wavedancer casts MM for 7 damage, killed
P-1's death throe attacks: 17, 17, both misses.
P-1 explodes: 3 points acid damage
Wavedancer's Reflex save: 21, success, no damage
The elf lets out a deep sigh. He's sweating badly at the exertion and looks at the worthless sword in his hand. "If we have to deal with anything like that again, we are in trouble, Fin." Wavedancer takes a few moments to catching his breath. "My magical strength is almost exhausted."
"Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies."
I'm not sure where Max_Powers is. But I'll keep things moving.
The mutated pirate destroyed, both Fin and Wavedancer step back to the relative safety of the trophy room. So far they've identified five exits from the room. The first leads to their former prison, a place with little future. The second leads to some mutated cat creatures, thankfully on chains. The third leads to a dark chamber with a mutated crazy woman. The fourth leads to a room of mutated slaves. And the fifth leads to a maze with mutated pirates. None seem particularly promising, especially given how much trouble the two had with just one pirate. And it's made all the more difficult by the fact that the pirates took all of their gear away. All in all, it's not the position they'd want to be in. But at least there was hope. Nothing was trying to kill them right now. And for the moment they had time to think and plan.
Wavedancer slowly looks down the path they were treading when attacked. He does not ask the priest what he sees, knowing the human probably cannot see anything but shadow and darkness.
So, NE, there's no way passed? We are completely screwed at this point. If I can't know out the cats (seeing as I couldn't with Color Spray on the pirates, I don't expect I could) we'll probably get hamboned. Hrmm
"Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies."
Wavedancer ponders their options. The winding passages to the northeast offers no clear view of where it leads. The half-elf can hear sounds of movement within, however. Likely at least one more pirate is wandering its dark twists and turns. And after fighting the mutated pirate, the crazy lady to the southeast seems to be more of a threat than she had before.
The passages to northwest and southwest offer their own problems, but at least they give some hope. There are more and worse creatures in those areas. But the ones to the northwest are in cages, while the ones to the southwest are chained up. It might be possible to get past either of them. Though the consequences if any of them freed themselves would be terrible to contemplate.
Of course the trophy chamber and the storage closet offer some hope. Bot are free of enemies at present. It might be possible to barricade themselves in the storage chamber using materials from there or the trophy room. No one seemed to be actively looking for them. It might be that the various mutated creatures in these caverns would kill each other, or just wander away before they found Fin and Wavedancer.
You are entirely correct about one thing. Wavedancer and Fin cannot fight their way out of this problem. No way, no how. But there's more than one way to skin a mutated cat.
Where is the storage closet? Is that where we came from?
"Let's keep looking," Wavedancer says, abandoning the hope of moving northeast. The half-elf thinks the likelihood of finding another pirate that way high. He walks back to the trophy room, seeing if he can find anything of true interest there.
Looking around here first
"Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies."
Fin follows Wavedancer back to the trophy room.
"Which way do you prefer next? Do you want to visit the chained cats?
Maybe we can walk past them without a fight."
Max Power - "Kids, there's three ways to do things; the right way, the wrong way and the Max Power way!"
Children - "Isn't that the wrong way?"
Max Power - "Yeah, but faster!"
Pulling back to the trophy chamber, Wavedancer finally decides to give the room a proper look see. He's gone past it twice, rushing to the left and right. But this is the first time he's given its contents proper consideration.
Most obvious is the six-foot-long lizard skull that takes up the center of the room. You've both heard of the giant lizards that inhabit some of the remote islands and jungles of these parts, and you've seen some smaller versions. But this is from the biggest creature you've ever heard of - on land, at least. Near the skull you see similar keepsakes - shark jaws, a sahaugin head, a set of dragon turtle teeth, and some jars with enormous fragments of tentacles suspended in an unknown liquid.
Along one wall are the nameplates of a variety of ships. You see names like St. Asmod's Hope, and Wavereaper. There's also a waterlogged mast that reads "T...M...AUT," and a rusted ship's bell engraved with the name Sea Ghost.
But the real treasure is found sitting alone on a small shelf. Both of you are skilled enough sailors to recognize some of the finest nautical charts you've ever seen of the local seas. They seem very old, but incredibly precise. Someone with a great deal of time and even more skill put an amazing amount of effort into these charts. Much of the information they contain has no doubt been rendered obsolete by changing coastlines. But even so, the information about wind and currents would be invaluable on the open sea.
Then, of course, there are the four solid wooden chests that are tucked in a corner of the cave. The largest of the four is latched, though not locked. Inside you're immensely relieved to find all of your gear. Apparently whatever happened occurred before they could divvy up your gear among themselves. The smaller ones are, unfortunately, locked, which only served to tantalize you with what might lie within.
You have your gear now! That means Fin can cast spells!
Also, the charts grant a +4 circumstance bonus on any Profession(sailor) checks made to plot a course on the open sea.
The storage closet is the cave marked as your old prison.
