3,384 Megasphagion 12,
K,
Pericles convinced Aribantes to lead a full on assault against the Shorestalkers in the Triton village! And it was our job to infiltrate the temple in advance and take out the Wave Priest!
It was a windless evening when we departed Neolantika to invade the Triton village once again. Pontreus and the Polemarch were taking their army by land as Pericles, Hellen, Arktouros, Anekdotos, Kleon, and I traveled by sea, using the dinghy we retrieved from the Triton Lair.
The moon was almost full, shedding enough light for us to see the shore and after six hours of rowing, we could see the temple. I was pumped!
As we approached the temple, huge sea creatures emerged but they quickly descended as we dumped urchins into the sea.
The temple was a magnificent marble building overlooking the beach from atop a thirty-foot-high bluff. A canal led to a dark cavern beneath the bluff and on each side was a slope of sand leading up to the village.
We followed the canal to a high-ceilinged sandstone cavern blocked by poles too close together for boats to pass. Kleon sent his owl, Gust, inside to scout out the area. Kleon reported fungus just beneath the surface of the water. We tied the boat to the poles and with Arktouros and Pericles lighting up the canal and Pericles casting Water Walk on us all, we ventured in.
After thirty feet, we ascended ten-feet of stairs leading to a grand chamber held aloft by great pillars. Five small pools surrounded a large central pool. A mural on the ceiling depicted Kiora as a Triton under the sea surrounded by fish of various sizes and colors. Across the chamber were more stairs.
Kleon took cast a ritual to Comprehend Languages so he could read the Primordial writing around the mural. It said: “When one’s eyes are deceived, the path is found by those who truly believe. Within the water is the key. Only Kiora can set you free.”
While Kleon was preparing the ritual, Anekdotos first noticed that the pools were opaque. The twenty-foot diameter central pool was a reflection of the mural, but the four-foot smaller pools differed. Peering into them, we saw:
1. Kiora riding a kraken 2. Kiora standing inside a giant clam 3. Kiora holding a bident 4. Kiora with an army of tritons 5. Kiora commanding giant sea snakes
I knew the key must be the bident, because the weapon must be the key. I offered to dive in and grab it, but Kleon cast a ritual to Detect Magic, detecting illusions in all the pools, as well as transmutation, evocation, and conjuartion.
Anekdotos banged his head trying to stick it in a pool with the army of tritons and realized the pool was an illusion. Arktouros touched the pool with the bident and verified it was wet. Anekdotos gently stuck his head in the fourth pool and saw that the bident was a lever.
Kleon cast a ritual to summon an Unseen Servant and had it pull the lever. We heard a rumbling from the wall atop the stairs revealing more stairs.
I knew the bident was the key!
We ascended the stairs, which soon split into three directions.
Kleon sent Gust ahead where it found the left and right stairs led to wooden doors after twenty feet and a koral door up the center stairs.
Based on Pontreus’ map, Pericles led us to the right. Kleon had his Unseen Servant open the door and Gust disappeared as a Triton thrust a spear ahead. We rushed up the stairs.
At the top, seven Tritons were waiting in a dining hall with. Pericles blasted them all with a Fireball, incinerating three of them. The Tritons filled the room with a fog cloud and Kleon suffered a horrible scar trying to quickly sneak through it but Pericles and Hellen killed them all before I could even enter.
We passed through a door at the left end of the dining hall, quickly passing through the empty bed chamber to the temple sanctum.
Pericles cast Protection from Poison on me as we prepared to enter the sanctum. Inside, a large hemispherical chamber with a sunken floor was filled with water. Against the wall, in the center of the hemisphere, was a statue of an open clam. In front on the statue was a jade statue atop a marble altar. Between, the statues was the Wave Priest, waving his arms as if casting some ritual.
As we rushed into the chamber, still walking on water, the wave priest’s two summoned Water Weirds emerged and attacked us. Pericles cast Hold Person and the Wave Priest was paralyzed. Even though Pericles was soon grappled and submerged by a Water Weird, we charged and assaulted the Wave Priest. After fatally plunging my spear through his chest, we turned to the Water Weirds and quickly put them down, freeing the resilient Pericles.
As we were caching our breath, more Shorestalkers arrived with their two pet octopi. We killed half of them and the other half fled.
I grabbed the jade statue of Kiora and we searched the rest of the temple. In the Dining Hall, we found a dirty but valuable set of glassware for twelve and a defaced mural of Thassa where the tiles of her were missing. In the library, we found many scrolls with Primordial writing, one of which turned out to be a picture-making stamp that displayed a triton in a constellation. In a glass-topped driftwood desk we found a box with magical dust. In the crypt, we found a mint containing 5 ingots of electrum, 10 sacks of coral coins, and 1 sack of electrum coins.
Once we were done, Pericles cast Sending and signalled Aribantes to advance his troops toward the village.
As the alarms sounded, I severed and grabbed the Wave Priest’s head, and we dashed out of the temple.
The village was in chaos as everyone ran away from the walls except the Shorestalkers who ran to fortify them, often forcing civilians to join them.
Pericles and Arktouros shouted for the civilians to surrender and follow them, urging them join with the forces from Neolantika so they could resume trade and prosper.
As we ran to the nearest tower, Pericles set it ablase with a Fireball, incinerating everyone in the vicinity and bringing the wooden structure crashing down.
We dashed through the breach and saw Aribantes leading his troops in our direction. The Shorestalkers tried to put up a fight, but they were outnumbered and were routed or killed.
Pontreus was devastated to see what the Shorestalkers had done to his temple. The civilians were cooperative as the remaining Shorestalkers were rounded up.
We had one the day and defeated the Shorestalkers of the Triton village!
We soon returned to Neolantika with Aribantes, who had Arktouros stay behind to lead his forces until it was appropriate to depart.
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