ONG: Phantom of the Deep

Military: Battle

The Iron Wolves dive into the Shid's Shrine to attempt to treat the god for better or worse.

Rowing overtop the opening maw of the lakebed, the Iron Wolves readied themselves. Gregor incanted out his light while Daniel utilized their staff to place protective wards around themselves and Lyle. Splashing into the water and swimming beneath, they dropped into darkness. Passing through the entirety of the slacked maw to the chamber beneath, the companions felt the rage of the entity within. The light from Gregor's hammer revealed a temple chamber supported by pillars with a pit in the center with large sculpted tentacles of stone that arched out of it wrapping about the environment. Feeling a telepathic rage surge through the area, the Bunolsid's control of the Maw wavered and it slammed shut under the Shid's will.
  Currents tumbled through the waters as a behemoth surged in the shadows raging of betrayal and tirading about treasonous actions of past and present. The companions fought the currents as Zeran attempted to move inward to take point to lead the companions onward. Surging through the shadows was a gigantic piscine creature with a beard of six large tentacles, three red eyes stacked atop one another
    Kain and Gregor began attempts to locate the closest source of orichalcum but first had to separate from Zeran's blades for the divinations to point elsewhere. As the companions encroached in, the Shid's demand for any remaining loyal servant to be known was answered by a vaccuuming impolosive entrance in the shadows across the chamber. The companions sprung in to begin their tiring assault to get a hold on the Shid for surgery but were interrupted by the arrival of Usfan the Giving, the marid servant the Iron Wolves had started this entire conspiracy with back at the Glistenknell Atoll . Attention became split.
  Usfan's water jets damaged and disoriented the party physically as the Shid began digging through minds. It was slow work, but it trudged out darkness, desires, horrors, and the unknown past attempting to both sway and destroy those who worked against it. Lyle had summoned in giant octopods to grab and bind at the Shid to allow for surgery.
  The surgery was more problematic that expected though. The Shid wasn't some large whale-like leviathan or kraken with excess flesh and blubber for the the orchicalcum to be hiding in. The companions magically located it in line with the scaled scars along its back, along its spine underneath the dorsal fin. The surgey would be digging in deep towards the creatures vital organs and a misstep would kill it outright. In one moment, Gregor nearly did kill the Shid in his speed to get through the packed cartilage as he knew the citizens above were dying by the second. More Magic was spent trying to mediate the Shid's vitals while not healing it so much to powerfully fight back (stay under Bloodied). The delicate work was interrupted by Usfan's Waterjets and Whirlpools attempting to either shove the surgeons off or pull them off into the vortex.
  To make matters worse, the Shid managed to gain firm holds into Lyle and Zeran's minds. While not dominating, it was deadly. The Shid sapped mental fortitude from the pair while summoning up phantoms of the deep to tear the men apart. Lyle became assailed by a contorted likeness of a physalia while Zeran found a small cohort of faceless scientists surrounding him to prod with needles, pry with plyers, and generally tear the man apart. Daniel's priorities shifted to attempting to manipulate these phantoms into imagery the two men could more easily control and block out of their thoughts. And once more, this said nothing of Usfan's assaults that had Kain torpedoing across the battlefield to try to keep him busy.
  As the Shid was cut open, blood spreading in the water like a fog, Zeran, Lyle, and Gregor began to see the horrid weapon within: an orichalcum harpoon with hooked barbs all down the shaft taller than a man and ingrained into the cartilage underneath the spine. Lyle, druid of the Bramble Thicket, carefully twisted and pried the harpoons barbs out from around the spinal column. Despite this, the battle was not over. The Shid and Usfan the Giving saw only assailants.
  The Shid was easily knocked out in his weakened state but the Marid was still fully present, summoning in an elemental and wreaking havoc with a chilling trident. The companions began the retreat as Daniel's work began to allow their companions to finally dispel their dreaded phantoms over time.
  The Maw in the ceiling remained closed though it ever so slowly slackened it's clench of fanged doom. Zeran used his spectral arms to leverage open a starting point for the claustrophobic and piercing climb. Kain dug his way through first, using his extendable rod to pry open the beginning portion. So the companions would not have to have their forms raked across all 25 feet of pressing fangs through the rubbery muscled tunnel. Lyle went next while shrunk by Daniel to ease the movement through though they found the climb difficult. Gregor followed in next to grab and hug around Lyle to help get him through.
    Underneath, the octopods distracted the Marid loosely up until this point but as Gregor began his ascent, Usfans attention came up as he assail Daniel and Zeran at a distance. Daniel went next following the same minimizing play as Lyle thought the teeth on the way through broke their concentration. Despite that, they still managed to emerge from the other side. Zeran followed up last after dodging a few more assaults of the marid.
  On the topside of the maw, bottom of the lake, Lyle felt his octopods get torn apart by the marid below. Breaching the surface and returning to the boat, the Iron Wolves looked upon the white-fleshed Bunolsid as it urged them to leave this chamber while they had the chance. Looking around, the companions witness the campfire lit megachamber darkened by the death of roughly half of the kuo-toa. Nearly half of them had not survived the telepathic ire of the Shid's perceived betrayal. The fish people clutch the dead around them, some numb and in shock, others in sorrow. One by one the Iron Wolves watched as they rowed through the cavern as the kuo-toa began to gather the dead towards their debris piles. Slowly, the survivors began laying the dead into the blue-green sludge just the same as the detritous that they had been netting out of the currents that had survived the Maw of Q'Nor.
  Looking upon the plight of the kuo-toa, the companions knew they did not have time nor energy to tarry. Gregor began the process of rowing the companions back up stream from whence they had come. The Bunolsid knew of no other direct route out except for that. While some of the companions began to tend their wounds and steady their minds, Daniel began incanting through a ritual. Similar to aiding Kain upon the ship, Daniel was now producing a rotating supply of Unseen Servants to aid in the rowboat's propulsion up stream. What took 45-60minutes down stream took nearly two hours to fight back up.
  Approaching the Maw of Q'Nor they let it go through one entire slamming cycle before Gregor elevated back up into the air, Enlarged by Lyle and gifted Flight by Daniel. The giant slowly began moving towards the maw as Kain and Zeran peered ahead into the darkness on the look out for incoming debris. Kain was ready to telekinetically shove the possible incoming triggers for the maw. As Gregor began his sprint through the center of the Maw after getting the initial all clear, Kain heard something that didn't fit.
  Back behind them, Kain heard a trickle of falling water. There were no falling streams of spouts from where they came. Wheeling around, Kain saw dissolving into existence the fish headed marid hovering with his water vortex lower half. Kain loosed a bolt from his crossbow that strayed to the side as the marid conjured a swirl of water in his hands, the very action that had dropped his invisibility. With a call of alarm from below, Gregor turn his head just in time to see the gout of water exploding towards him, the first time Usfan's Water Jet had been seen above water. Gregor dropped 10 ft suddenly to avoid the stream of water meant to blast him from his companions, meant to drop the rowboat into the center of the Maw of Q'Nor. The rest of the Iron Wolves crumbled into the bottom of the boat at the end of their sudden drop'n'stop. Gregor skidded them out of the monstrous tunnel right before it slammed shut.
  With only moments to spare before Usfan's portal would open for him again, the Gregor rushed to the ship behind the illusory wall and dumped his packmates onto the ship. Calls of alarm to get everyone moving were doubled over as Usfan made his was into the Worldbreach's core tunnel. Conjuring up the might of his magic to drown the Iron Wolves and Dash their ship along the walls of the undersea, Usfan drew up the waters that flowed deeper from the tunnel to reverse the tides and form a destructive wave of doom.
  Lyle saved the crew and companions by anchoring everyone to the deck by vines to save everyone from being swept overboard and smashed against the rocks. Despite that, the reversed tides yet remained, threatening to destroy the ship on the walls, rocks, guardians, and all else they had spent two days slowly navigating. The whole crew would end up spending the next 24 hours straight operating the vessel, guiding, battering, and laboring to not be smashed to tinders. Exhaustion wrapped itself upon the party but they did not give under and would find themselves gushed from the World Breach with a still waterworthy ship in the end thanks to their skill.
    Operation: No Genocide had been successful...