Casting green flame blade, Cyrus immediately rushed the nearest skeleton, slashing it and scorching the one next to it with green fire.
Muttering, “Escudo de fuerza!” Bernardo deflected another with shield.
Three dwarven zombies were upon me, but I shrugged them off and held my holy symbol aloft, commanding, “In the name of the Soul Father, be gone from this plane!” As a bright light washed out from my shield, two zombies and seven skeletons crumbled into the water and a heavily armored skeleton turned to flee, leaving only two zombies and four skeletons, one heavily armored.
“There’s still a few left!” Ulfgar stated, smashing two skeletons to pieces with his quarterstaff and punching the heavily armored skeleton in the jaw.
“Perno de fuego!” Bernardo shouted, and shot a fire bolt harmlessly into the wall.
A skeleton slashed Cyrus, who slashed the nearby zombie twice.
One of the heavily armored skeletons disappeared around a corner at the end of the corridor.
Ulfgar smashed the heavily armored skeleton with his quarterstaff and shattered it with a flying roundhouse kick. The he flanked the zombie in front of me, swatting it with his staff.
Bernardo blasted the zombie in front of Cyrus with a fire bolt and it sank, headless, into the water.
Dodging a shortward, Cyrus cut down a nearby skeleton and then the last zombie.
“We should hang up on that one that fled,” I advised.
As we dashed down the corridor, Ulfgar breezed past us and disappeared around the corner.
As Cyrus and I turned the corner and caught up to the skeleton, Ulfgar had it cornered and punched it against the wall.
Cyrus slashed into it with his longsword.
The skeleton slashed Ulfgar with its longsword.
“You should have waited for me,” I grumbled, helping to surround the skeleton.
As Ulfgar bashed the skeleton with his quarterstaff, it exploded, sending shards of bone flying into the three of us.
Behind where the skeleton stood was a door.
I asked “How is everybody feeling?” and we all expressed that we were a little nicked and beaten, but okay to continue.
I cast guidance on Cyrus as he scanned the door for traps.
Not finding any traps, he opened the door
Cyrus led the way into what looked like a lobby overlooking a submerged lower level. A railed bridge crossed over the lower level to stairs across the room leading down. Four doors lined the eatern wall. On the south wall was a spiral staircase leading up.
Ulfgar crossed the room and began listening at the doors.
Cyrus shined his light down into the water, but could not see much through the dark, briny sea water except for a single door on the west wall.
I examined the spiral stairs and found that the ceiling had collapsed around them, leaving them impassable.
As Cyrus moved toward the stairs going down, Bernardo said, “It looks like there's some light coming from the door down there that I can see.”
Shielding his light, Cyrus was able to see that the door was ajar and there was a hint of a soft glow emanating from it.
“Hey,” Cyrus shared, “there's a light coming from the door over here.”
Ulfgar shared that he did not hear anything from the doors and I asked, “Cyrus, do you want to check those doors for traps?”
“Sure, I'll check them for traps,” Cyrus replied. “Bernardo, you wanna help me look for traps on these doors?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bernardo replied, “of course.”
As Cyrus searched the rotted doors, I cast guidance on him.
Not finding any traps, Cyrus asked, “So do we wanna continue checking this level or do we wanna go down to the door with the light?”
“I think we should check these doors,” I suggested. “We don't want something coming down behind us.”
“Alright,” Cyrus agreed. “Good point.”
Opening the doors one by one, he found that the two in the middle appeared to have been bedrooms, with now dilapidated furniture, while the other two must have been some kind of closet based on their small sizes.
Considering a descent into the water to get to the doro below, we took stock of our potions of water breathing. “I have the one that Xireas gave me for this mission,” Berbaro disclosed.
Just to be cautious, I handed Ulfgar my potion and tied a rope around his waist, bidding him, “the Soul Father's blessings be with you.”
Ulfgar hopped over the bridge’s railing into the murky water below with a splash.
The water was immediately churning with activity as two creatures bit Ulfgar and something else stabbed him with a spear.
Feeling the ropes tug, I heaved, but the waterlogged rope slipped from my hands. Cyrus tried as well, but had no better luck.
Swinging his quarterstaff through the water, Ulfgar connected, but then dropped it and pulled out his spear while patiently dodging.
Withdrawing his dagger, Bernardo clenched it in his teeth and dove over the side of the bridge, splashing into the water and stabbing at a creature.
Ulfgar and Bernardo were both bitten and clawed.
Working together, Cyrus and I easily hoisted Ulfgar up to the bridge’s railing.
Ulfgar climbed over the railing and yelled, “There's three mermen-creatures down there and we need to help Bernardo!”
“Can we attack them from up here?” I asked.
“I don't know,” Ulfgar gasped. “It might be too deep. I think our best course is to draw them out by the stairs.” Moving toward the stairs, he quaffed his potion of greater healing.
Trying to avoid the creatures, Bernardo swam and came to the surface next to the stairs.
Three sahuagin emerged around him, one biting him as he easily shrugged off another’s attempt to pull him under.
Cyrus leaned over the bridge railing and stabbed down with his longsword, piercing the nearest sahuagin twice, darkening the water further with blood.
Ulfgar maneuvered next to Cyrus and did the same with his spear, killing the sahuagin, and returning to the stairs, donning his claws.
Bernardo climbed over the railing and pushed past me up the stairs.
Two sahuagin emerged onto the stairs, one biting me and the other stabbing Ulfgar with its spear.
I smashed one with my warhammer, knocking sharp teeth into the water.
Dropping his sword into the water, Cyrus drew his handaxe and threw it toward the sahuagin, then recalled it back into his hand and threw again, catching the creature in the chest with a mortal wound.
As it splashed into the water, Ulfgar stabbed the last sahuagin twice with his spear, and finished it with a kick to the face.
“Thank you Bernardo, for jumping in to save me,” Ulfgar said when he returned. “I thought I was a goner there.”
“Yes, of course,” Bernardo replied.
I gave Ulfgar one of my potions of healing.
“If necessary, I have two as well,” Bernardo shared.
Cyrus recalled his longsword back into his hand and Ulfgar retrieved his quarterstaff from the water.
With the rope still around his waist, Ulfgar peered into the underwater door below.
Swimming back to the surface, Ulfgar shared, “Looks like there's another room. All I can see is crates.”
“Is it all still underwater,” Cyrus asked, “or is there anywhere to surface over there?”
“All I could see was underwater,” Ulfgar replied. “I didn't see any air bubbles at this point, though there might be, but I didn't go in. I just kind of peered through the door. I can go back down and check.”
“Do you need some help?” Bernardo offered.
“I don't think so yet,” Ulfgar quipped, “but get ready for the tug.”
Ulfgar swam back down, opened the door, and swam through.
“Bernardo,” Cyrus suggested, “could you message him to see where the light is coming from?”
“Of course,” Bernardo replied and cast message. Then after a moment he said, “My apologies. He might not be able to reply underwater.”
Emerging again, Ulfgar described, “There's a strange red object in the room. It’s a twenty foot square room. And there appears to be an air bubble where we can refresh our breaths.”
“Okay, that's good,” Cyrus replied. “In case stuff happens down there.”
“And you didn't see anything hostile in there,” I asked.
“I didn't see anything else in the room except for three crates and this strange red object,” Ulfgar clarified.
As we prepared to follow Ulfgar, I prayed, casting detect magic.
Cyrus and Bernardo jumped over the railing into the water while I took a deep breath and descended the steps and swam through the door after my companions.
The completely submerged room, containing three rotted crates, was dimly lit by a fiery glow coming from a five foot wide hole in the ground at the far corner, where the water was noticeably warmer. A large pulley was set up to lower a rope down the smooth shaft that descended beyond our vision despite the glow from beneath. A domed bubble of air hovered over the surface of the hole. Magic emanated from the doom.
Squatting, we circled the dome and stuck our faces into the hot air within so we could breathe and speak.
“Bernardo,” Cyrus asked, “do you have the ability to make somebody invisible?”
“I do,” Bernardo grimaced, “but not today. My apologies.”
“We're gonna have to go down one at a time,” Cyrus suggested, considering the dimensions of the hole.
We discussed various ways of descending into the hole, such as lowering each other down one at a time, or climbing down all at once. We discussed sending Ulfgar down first, being the fastest and stealthiest, or sending me down first due to the heat, even though I’m the least stealthy. If Ulfgar lowered us, he could safely climb down afterward. Meanwhile, Cyrus was stronger and could lower more people at once. Cyrus offered to cast featherfall so we could all jump down.
Ulfgar gave each of us a stand the heat potion. I gave Ulfgar another potion of healing, which he drank right away.
Lowering the rope down, we determined that the shaft descended one hundred feet.
Ultimately we agreed to climb down the rope, one right after the other, with Cyrus prepared to cast featherfall if necessary.
I started climbing down first, immediately followed by Cyrus.
As Cyrus descended into the hole, a little wire stuck to his shirt and I heard something fall with a dinging noise off the walls until it hit the bottom and exploded loudly! Looking around with his light, he found the wire he had tripped.
We continued down, Ulfgar and Bernardo following immediately behind us.
After descending down one hundred feet, the bottom of the shaft opened into the ceiling of a huge chamber split in two by a river of lava flowing from a tunnel to the south. A massive warding circle was etched into the stone walls of the tunnel, its runes glowing with intense heat. It looked solid, but somehow flames were visible beyond it, and a slow flow of lava seeped out from the edge of the ring, as if it were holding back a greater fire. A bridge spanned the river of lava flowing across the chamber.
On the other side of the bridge, were six Ragesian soldiers lined up in two rows, one holding up their shields and the other about to launch volleys of arrows upon us.
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