To the Fangs of Wolfbron Report

General Summary

From the journal of Anduro Taeri : Fierce Fishfolk & The Bubbling Depths     We awoke at the break of dawn with the song lapping of waves against the hull of the ship. Some of us collected our consciousness as we ate some breakfast, a couple of us hummed the melody to Drugog the Mighty’s song from the previous few nights. A catchy tune to carry our spirits in the times of trouble ahead in case we needed it.     I gathered my equipment from the bunk and began to make my way to the deck to watch the early sun rise on the horizon. The crew whispering tales of the sea creatures and various hushed tones told me there was a slight nervousness for our destination, but a strong confidence from our group gave the rest of the sailing staff the fortitude to trust in our safety. Whether or not that would prove true would remain to be seen.     A huge truss held our sub-vehicle of victory. I briefly glanced at the mechanics of the device, which I’m sure Randuras would be more familiar with by our journey’s length, but it operated by way of a series of valves and levers. Most of it was beyond me but it looked sturdy enough for our purposes.     Randuras was inspecting the technological wonder in front of us, gleaning what he might before attempting to operate it and relying upon it to protect us from the depths below, and after a short semi-official naming ceremony, we christened the sub as the ‘Deep Mercy’, short for submersible. Afterwards, I left him to his studies as we approached the Fangs of Wolfbraun.     We approached our destination and began to prepare for deploying the vessel. The sun had risen to a higher position as it approached noon. The Fangs off in the distance, a ring of fog surrounding the base of each spire and enveloping all visibility near them. We were next to the wall of fog that had obscured the Galean coasts and plagued the region. Jakuul had offered to opt out of the submersible and help scout in case we needed to defend on our journey downard. I decided to join him since that would free up the interior space for the Mercy, and two pairs of eyes would be better than one.     The rest of our group piled into Mercy, and Neoon distributed her magical reeds that allowed for water breathing just in case anything went awry. As we awaited the launch of the sub, Jakuul and I saw a form rush past us toward the surface at the boat, a magical illusion obscuring their advance. A group of yells from the crew and captain and a flurry of activity ensued as they rushed to push and slide the sub into the water, as a group of 8 Sahaugin began to climb the nets of the side of the boat up onto the deck. The captain saluted the sub and us as they prepared to defend themselves, and we ventured forth as they handled their own.     The murky water’s depth was obscured except for a white form of the spires ahead. We continued towards for a short while and dove deeper, Jakuul and myself following in flank while we descended. We came to a sudden bubble of clear water and suddenly all was visible and our destination clear, as if we had reached a clearing in the forest and came to a field. A cemetery of sunken ships, debris littering the sea floor. A few Sahaugin swam in the distance of the various structures visible, but not able to notice us from being so far away.     We situated the sub to be positioned behind an old wreckage, the friction of getting too close to one of the sub’s sides causing the metal to wronk in pain. The rest of the sub crew waiting patiently, and watched for activity. Jakuul and I found a source of light and a central motion in one of the structures and moved slowly but steadily closer with the sub group watching, and quietly made our way toward what appeared to be a bubbling threshold. We stepped forward through this gateway to reveal a dry entry room, with a double door at the opposite side. With no disturbance or patrols present yet, we waited for the rest of the group to find us.     The others exited the Mercy one by one, Magnus being the last out, struggling to squeeze out from his enormous form, he did his best to secure the vessel before leaving it in place. One by one, they emerged through the bubbling watery door. Opposite the chamber, a double door from repurposed ship doors had been made to make this room into a pseudo airlock for entry into the rest of the chambers.     We opened these doors and ventured into the next room. Scattered tools covered in both rust and blood littered the workroom, with various tables and chests for processing ore. Randuras recognized this as a mining operation, and found various chunks of iron and silver ore in the nearby containers.     We began to creep along each room slowly but surely. Magnus spotted one lantern that had been unlit, and pried the fixture from its fastening, revealing a different glittering of metal behind the lamp in a somewhat crudely hidden space. Randuras inspected the ore, and identified it as a piece of Mithril, which I had only heard of before but never encountered firsthand. I’m sure as a rare metal goes, it would fetch a very fair rate if not fashioned into something useful for our group.     A little further, and a few broken fixtures later, whether by accident or previous state, Neoon heard the shuffling and sloshing of footsteps in the flooded floor of the chambers to our east. We all began to take cover and hide ourselves from patrols heading our way. As we readied ourselves, Randuras let loose a booming blast from his blunderbuss, and a cracking thunder erupted from his weapon. It rocked past his target in an unfortunate miss, but struck the wall behind and made a small crater in the rocky surface. Magnus rushed ahead to meet our foes, who were finned and scaled, assuming these were our Sahaugin foes, they were certainly very ugly as they advanced towards our group.     Kico began with summoning her spiritual weapon to protect and serve, while conservatively staying behind protective cover. Jakuul brandished his blades and moved with a furious speed towards the front line to assist Magnus in classic form. Our group exchanged aggressive blows between us and our fish-like enemies, with their cleric accomplice in their backline. They struck much harder than our foes from before, and for once I may have actually witnessed Magnus being challenged by an opponent. Whoever these entities were, their might was markedly stronger than most of what we had seen before, but eventually fell as many have before.     After collecting ourselves after battle, and short respite in the cave chambers, we continued onward and found a large room with several sleeping cells. We unlocked one of the cells and met a small dwarf female by the name of Amias Montoya. She was apprehensive at first, and clearly on guard, but once we introduced ourselves as infiltrators and no friend to the Sahuagin, clarified her origins as being a slave of the mining operations in this fortress. She also told us, not only confirming our suspicions that the giant serpent that had presented itself to our ship was an illusion, but that she and the others had been held captive by a Sahuagin leader known as Baron Ojit. She elaborated that she had come from Clairemont Harbor in search of her father named Antonio, and found that Ojit had imprisoned him for years and killed him, and she now had sworn to avenge him only to find a similar fate.     She had been captured and imprisoned about a week or two, but she and the other prisoners quickly acquiesced and agreed to follow us as we continued our way through the rest of the underwater fortress. We agreed to help her track down Ojit, as he would sensibly be a source of answers for us as well. He was described as not your average Sahuagin however, as he apparently had four arms and relied on the loyalty of a cohort priestess by the name of Acorzhi, most likely in his company at all times. Apparently the two of them ran this entire mining colony, in search of what we were not sure yet, but using the elemental spirits we had scryed before, were terrorizing and taking prisoners to further their interests.     One of the prisoners shakily ventured and spoke up, ‘They feed us to Vha’Shjeek’. And while I’m personally not familiar -- the group was aware of the origins of this name being a minor deity of the sea. Sacrificing imprisoned souls being completely unacceptable, we continued to investigate the rest of the chambers and halls in search of more Sahuagin to answer for their crimes against these people.   We found another open area with flooded water, and as Magnus stepped forward, he spotted a large towering tentacle rising up and out in front of him. Another Sahuagin covered in bioluminescence floated into view, the tentacle reaching up hundreds of feet above the creature, absorbing light cast in its direction. The form made a few strange gestures, with other Sahuagin now visible in the surrounding wall areas of the room and appearing to witness some sort of a ritual. Not only water, but air elementals being created from this ritual. They began speaking in some strange sort of language and appeared to be acknowledging each other in a friendly reunion.   Amias noticed they were armored, and told us this was highly irregular. The priestesses were nowhere to be found, and this central figure with shiny algae was not a normal occurring event. The elementals began to greet other fishfolk, and the lights around us in the coral near the reef, glowed vibrantly for a brief moment. The tentacle began to reflect and then absorb the same light, emitting a brief dread of psychic energy as it consumed the energy from the light. The elementals began to recoil in pain, while the Sahuagin produced a small vial of what appeared to be dark red thick liquid. They poured this concoction into the elementals, which were permeated by the potion, briefly shuddered and began to sulk, slowly drifting off to either side of the room.   The tentacle began to recede into an unseen crevice, and the elementals came to a mindless posture. One of us, I can’t remember who -- whispered something unimportant a little too loudly to another member as we watched the procession, slightly drawing the attention of the inhabitants of the adjacent room. They slowly moved away from view, and the acolytes at the far side of the chamber seemed to direct unseen figures to either side of the door on the opposing side. They seemed alerted and poised to attack for some reason. Maybe something had caught their attention?   How could that be, we were so well hidden…?