Session 27 - Fall of the Fishpeople
17 Yarthmont 1010 - 19 Yarthmont 1010
General Summary
The party decides that they really need at least a short rest before going on into the second level of the Sahuagin lair. This lets them all get back to full health, though not totally fresh, and it allowed Elincia to call forth her Bear Totem to refresh their temporary hit points.
After the brief rest, the party heads down into the water, hoping to catch up with Black Jack. They find themselves close to the hallway they had explored (unsurprising based on the maps) during their scouting mission. Unfortunately they could not tell what direction Black Jack took with his crew. The party decides to check out the situation at the temple, working up the western hallway along the side of the temple. Once again, at the first door on the left, they can hear what seems like working. Stavos gently opens the door in the hope of surprising those inside. They find a Sahuagin and a several sharks. On the table they see a bone handled dagger. They make their move, and quickly engage the Sahuagin and the sharks, and are able to take this small group down relatively quickly. They make a quick search of the room, and move on down the hallway.
In the second room they find no Sahuagin, but this time they take a closer look at the objects in the room. The altar like structure that looks like a shark's maw reminds Leofingol of the last words of Emlo, the human slave from Darokin "The teeth, teeth in the temple!" As Tork walks by the altar, he notices what appears to be a panel or a drawer. They open it and find some small treasures along with something that seems to be seaweed wrapped into a bundle. Unsure what these may be, they take them and move on to the next room, which also seems to be empty of occupants, but upon closer examination, here too they find more hidden treasures, though nothing seems to be magical. Coming up the hallway toward the northeastern entrance to the temple, they find a very similar ceremony to that which Leo had witnessed through the eyes of the crab on their last visit taking place. A handful of priestesses are performing ritual sacrifice of baby Sahuagin to another(!) two-headed shark. This time the party strikes to end the ceremony. They are able to quickly take down two of the three priestesses before they are even able to respond. The shark does eventually start it's process of frequent and violent attacks on the party, but the third priestess flees the scene to the east, and out a doorway to the south, allowing the party to concentrate on the shark. Being a little better prepared for the shark's attacks, the party is much more adept at dealing with it, though it does do some damage to everyone in the process.
After dealing with the shark, they decide to retreat to one of the rooms they have cleared out, and close the door behind them to catch their breath, allowing them to restore their health a bit, and gather resources for whatever may come next; Elincia also Wild Shapes into a shark, to better maneuver in the water. At the end of their short rest, they can hear someone approaching the door with some muffled discussion. The door swings open, and to everyone's relief it is a group of Lizardfolk led by Redfin. He also seems relieved that it is them rather than Sahuagin. They share information both ways about the status, and it seems the priestess that fled the battle with the party was intercepted by the Lizardfolk. There have been some casualties, but things seem to be stabilizing. They are only able to spend about 15 minutes exploring and fighting before they have to retreat upstairs to rebuild their oxygen reserves, which it is time for them to do so and report back upstairs. Redfin and the Lizardfolk head back south toward the stairway, and the party continues exploring around the temple.
They check the room at the north end of the hallway, and find that once again there are no signs of occupants, but they find some more seaweed wraps and small treasures, which they take. Searching the corpses of the priestesses, they do find a key, and after further exploration of the other rooms on the east side, they find a lock that goes to the key. They collect more small treasures to take away, but leave behind some larger pieces that seem awkward to carry with them.
They eventually work their way back down to the main east-west hallway and elect to follow the eastern path back north to the throne room where they saw what appeared to be the leader of the Sahuagin, along with priestesses, and many sharks. By the time they arrive at the throne room, however, it seems that Black Jack and his crew have already been here, and the throne room is only ruled over by the corpses of the Sahuagin and the sharks. They spend a little time exploring here, but it seems most obvious valuables have already been looted by the victors of the battle.
In their exploration of the rooms, they do find a secret passage that opens onto the western hallway close to the stairs down to the lower level. They decide to head down, to see if they can help with the main assault. As they pass through the hallways they had been down before, they find no live enemies, but several corpses. As they work down the western morth-south hallway, they are able to see into the great arena space, and find allies gathered there including Black Jack. They greet them and explain that the shark is actually Elincia, who changes back to elven form, to the relief of the battle weary allies gathered in here. They work their way down to Black Jack, and give him a rundown, and he brings them up to speed.
It appears that the alliance has succeeded in the destruction of the Sahuagin forces. Black Jack explains that the underwater contingent brought in whales to chain to the gates, and rip them right off the lair. This strategy was successful, and while there were many casualties, the upstairs attacks were successful at pulling off some of the attention, as Black Jack held off on calling in the full attack to be sure that enough attention was pulled away first.
All that was left to do was tend to the wounded and clear out the Sahuagin and shark corpses. The party pitches in where they can, healing as much as they can, and helping the clean-up crews. Eventually, after much of the dirty work is finished, they head back to the surface, bade their farewells to the various members of the alliance invasion forces, and went back to the Everlasting Light to take a long rest; Captain Kazimir sails them home to Saltmarsh.
Eventually full reporting comes back to Saltmarsh, and the victory in hand, the town Council rewards the party with a 1000gp award, along with a very special magical gift, a Bag of Colding! This very magical bag is able to not only store legendary amounts of goods in a pocket dimension, but can also keep these items cold indefinitely. It is the perfect place to store ale as well as treasure, while not occupying much space or weighing much!
The party decides to take some well deserved R&R, catching up on sleep, and recovery, and, as the saying goes, what doesn't kill you does in fact make you stronger, as everyone is feeling battle-hardened from this experience.
When they arrive at the Wicker Goat to relax, it seems that Tork's message has been received, as there is a note back from Tomas about boxing matches. The bartender (Kolya) knows a bit of the fighting, and gives Tork a bit more information about these, as well as where he can find the farmhouse mentioned in the note.
Character(s) interacted with
Report Date
24 Aug 2020
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