2166 XP
Gooseneck makes shields out of the crab carapace. The first two he makes are no good, but the third one should work. Abran takes it. They think it might confer some protection against lightning, given that the crab seemed resistant to Gooseneck’s lighting ability.
That evening, I’m on first watch. It’s pretty active tonight, as another ship came in to port. On second watch things are still a little rowdy, but winding down. On third watch, a heavy fog rolls in. CornCob hears a sound like iron being rent or bent, or maybe a hinge being stressed. He and Pujol look out the window. They think the sound is coming from far enough away to be out past the mud flats on a rocky outcropping they see in the bay.
They don’t wake us, as it doesn’t seem to be an immediate problem, but then CornCob wakes up Gooseneck to go investigate. There’s no way to walk out to the rocks, but there are a number of small boats they can borrow. They row out. Pujol sees a spot in the rocks that looks like crude stairs, and sees a flicker of what might be torch light from wherever the stairs lead.
Gooseneck hears sounds like maybe someone is mining – picks on stone.
Pujol stays to keep an eye out while Gooseneck swims back to get the rest of us. Clearly, someone mining at night must be up to no good.
It’s daylight by the time we get out to the rocks. I see where a chunk of wood was ripped off a boat, but hasn’t washed out to sea yet – it must have happened pretty recently.
We get off the boat. It’s obvious people don’t come out here regularly, so the boat may draw attention.
As soon as the sun started to rise, there were no more sounds from inside. CornCob thinks the stairs and some other non-natural shapes are very old, and may have been of elven make. He thinks there might have been a religious element to the carvings but isn’t sure. He sees a spot where it looks like some of the rock was melted. He also sees a grate where foul water is coming out; maybe a sewer drain?
Abran and Pujol think we have about six hours before the tide comes in.
We go in. Light is coming from a hold above. There’s a grate we force open; it definitely leads to a sewer. It doesn’t seem to be hooked up to anything, but also is clearly in use (ew). It looks like the tide probably comes in to this sewer pipe up to a depth of a foot or so, and probably washes the sewage out to the bay.
It’s dark in here, so Gooseneck lights a torch. Everyone except Pujol notices places where there was some plant growth in the water that has been disturbed and torn away, like someone waded through recently.
As we move forward, CornCob uses his staff to swish the water ahead of him to find any critters or maybe chase them off. Whatever came through here, want down a tunnel to the left. We turn that way, and Abran sees eyes and movement ahead. He signals us, and then moves forward with his bow drawn. The water gets a little deeper.
CornCob walks on top of the water. Gooseneck hangs back a bit with Pujol. Abran, up ahead, doesn’t see anything moving now. He passes by a tunnel going left, then asks which way we want to go. CornCob thinks the left passage goes downward slightly and may not come out of the rock, but below and to town.
As Abran turns back, I see a ripple in the water heading toward CornCob. I shout to him to look out. CornCob sees a long, snake-like creature in the water, and hits it with his staff. The snake-thing attacks CornCob, but misses him…barely. It’s covered in algae and plant growth. Under the green goo there is some colored banding – this thing is probably venomous, probably hallucinogenic.
We manage to fight it off without too much trouble. Pujol tries to collect the venom, but scratches himself in the process and is exposed. He starts trying to eat the sewage. CornCob casts a spell on him to try to neutralize the poison, and it seems to do the trick. Pujol spits out the sewage and rinses his mouth out.
The poison is a random madness poison; the effect will be variable. Pujol managed to collect enough for three arrows.
We go down the side passage, following what we think is the trail of whoever came in here before. We go quite a long way, until we think we must be under the town. Ahead, we see a small platform. The platform has been hammered into the wall. There’s fresh stone work above it, and maybe some flickering light.
Abran climbs up stealthily and ends up in a church. He sees a figure in the shadows, working on casting some sort of spell. It’s a humanoid with wings. He’s in the church of Apara, and looks like the place has been tossed.
Abran drops back down into the tunnel with the rest of us and relates what he saw. We think it’s an Incubus, and we decide it needs to die. CornCob blesses me, Gooseneck, Abran, and himself. Pujol makes Gooseneck and CornCob invisible.
CornCob goes up, and the Incubus starts casting his spell faster. The rest of us each go up in turn, trying to be as stealthy as we can. Even so, the Incubus must have noticed us, as he continues to speed up his casting. Gooseneck moves up and hits the Incubus, but he still manages to finish his spell. A large pair of wings starts emerging from the summoning circle. Abran and Pujol both shoot the incubus and he falls back into the portal, dying. Not that it helps – the damage has been done and the bigger demon climbs out.
Gooseneck and Abran start attacking this large demon. Pujol casts Protection from Evil on Gooseneck. CornCob casts Spike Growth right under the demon’s feet. The demon casts some kind of spell at Gooseneck, but he is raging and doesn’t care. Goose neck does notice the physical attacks when the demon bites and claws him, though. He is badly injured.
Everyone continues attacking. Abran’s hands start to glow, and mushrooms start growing out of them (more ew). However, the mushrooms produce spores that get on the arrow, and when it hits the demon it seems to hurt him quite a bit. Pujol casts a Wall of Thorns at the demon, and the wall comes out kind of mushroomy. It also hurts the demon a lot.
The demon turns its attention to Abran and Pujol, for obvious reasons. He bites Abran and hurts him badly, but apparently even Abran’s blood has become mushroomy poison to the demon. The demon claws at Pujol, but has not learned his lesson and takes more damage as Pujol’s flesh harms him back.
Gooseneck attacks it while Pujol casts healing on Abran. Clerics start arriving from other areas now, and start casting…something. CornCob uses the stone he grabbed when we fought the water elemental to summon his own water elemental, which starts going to town on the demon. That does it – the demon dies, turning to watery ash.
The portal is closed, and the clerics heal those in our party who are injured. Abran investigates the summoning circle and learns that it was specifically meant to summon a demon of that type, but that it looks like the summoning was originally intended to activate later.
Abran’s arm has a mushroom ridge, but it seems to be receding. He thinks this can only happen a limited number of times, and only against demons of that type.
Gooseneck looks for anything the incubus left behind and grabs a pouch of spell components. CornCob has the water elemental wash away the summoning circle.
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