“It sounds like something is coming from the altar room,” Guo Gan said as they began to crack the eastern stone door. Peering into the room where they had just battled the death-frog demon hezrou and its dog-like detche minions, the monk poked his head back.
“There are a bunch of guys coming.” Peeking back and returning. “Oh, they have a couple of ogres with them.”
“Close it off! We’ll set up a choke point there!” Kai ordered.
The stone door groaned loudly as it closed. A loud boom echoed. Dust floated from the ceiling.
Kai took the northern position, with Kildo in the south. Guo Gan took the middle and readied his sentient quarterstaff Qiekamis. The entire length pulsed, as if eager to feast.
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life,” Kildo chanted. A low, rhythmic pulsing began to emanate from the ground. White light came from cracks in the stone. Fog rolled out approximately fifteen feet from the cleric. It went under the door to the east. Tiny wisps of air arched out. Longer tendrils began to form. They became a substantial barrier to any foes attempting to push through.
The hurried sound of clawed feet clacked on the other side. A great weight slammed into the stone door. It pulled open. A multitude of massive and muscular lizard folk pressed the entrance. They screamed in their guttural and freakish language. Their sharp-clawed hands gleamed. Their snarls rivaled that of a vicious dragon. Their scales were deep green and striped with black and red lines down their body. Their large yellow eyes, surrounded with black face paint, had vertical slits for pupils. They went wide an instant later as the tendrils from Kildo’s spirit guardians blasted into each one like a stabbing dagger.
Outside, someone bellowed in their lizard folk’s language driving them on. Pushing in, the first one was instantly gutted as Kai thrust with Wave. The paladin pulled the body in and flung it out of the way. Another took its place. A crude club came crashing down. Throwing up his shield, Kildo blocked it, but the force drove it down. The lizard folk’s mouth came over and sunk into the dwarf’s right arm. The pressure was immense like a clamp, but his chain mail held against the creature’s sharpened teeth. Grunting through the pain, he maintained concentration on his spirit guardian’s spell. It had to hold or they’d be overwhelmed.
A moment later, it let go and screeched in agony. Kai skewered it with Wave. He pulled it off Kildo. He slammed the lizard folk’s body against the unforgiving stone driving the trident’s prongs deeper. It gargled blood as it slumped to the ground. Yanking the weapon free, he brought the blunt end down. It smashed into the head of another lizard folk pushing its way in. Its body collapsed as its skull shattered and shards penetrated its brain.
A bright streak sailed over everyone’s heads as Scomatch threw a fireball. The whooshing sound of fire igniting came from the other room. Kildo saw the flash of intense light, but couldn’t see what the halfling, turned goblin, was aiming at. However, a moment later a multitude of panicked screams of pain followed. There was nothing short of a small army coming their way.
In return, a whizzing of javelins and arrows plinked against the stone, like angry wasps. There was a thud as two bolts embedded themselves into Kai’s breastplate.
A gap through the reeling lizard folk opened. Kildo saw an older, wild-looking cultist armed with a simple dagger. Bald with an untamed grey beard, dressed in furs, he had a patch over his right eye. As he stared at Kildo, he ripped the covering away. The cultist’s eye socket sizzled with power. It was almost like there was a gem embedded inside. An azure beam shot out and straight over the dwarf’s head. He missed! Glancing back, the stone had frozen over where the ray of frost struck. The cultist was staring straight at him. He had no idea how he missed. Snorting to himself, Kildo thought he likely had a depth perception problem with just one good eye.
“I want that gem in that cultist’s head!” Scomatch bellowed.
The One-eye shiver’s view was blocked as another lizard folk pressed in. Kildo swung downwards with his war hammer. A club stopped it. It was precisely what the dwarf wanted. Barreling forward, he slammed into the lizard’s legs, knocking one right into the other. The creature went down hard to the stone floor.
“Whoooo- Whaaaaaa!” Guo Gan came flying through the air. His foot smashed into the throat of the downed lizardman. Its neck snapped. Bashing Qiekamis’s end downward, it smashed into another lizard folk coming through the door. Another took his place. Bringing up the other end, it crashed into its mouth, breaking its jaw. Thrusting the quarterstaff like a spear, it blasted through the back of the creature’s throat. A sickening sucking sound emanated as the sentient weapon began drinking like a vampire.
The monk looked up. He saw someone he recognized in the room. Guo Gan stepped forward.
“Be holding the line!” Kildo shouted.
Looking down at the dwarf, Guo Gan yelled, “Fat Homer! You and the league of evil will suffer!”
A beam of energy from an eldritch blast spell streaked into the room and struck Guo Gan in the chest. The monk stood there and took the pain.
Glancing at the burnt mark, the wood elf’s voice became more profound and sinister as he said, “I’ll take your soul!”
A glowing, one-foot diameter ball of emerald acid streaked from Scomatch into the cultist’s altar room. Numerous yells bellowed in pain as they were burnt by the liquid.
Horribly scarred and with scales melting, a lizard folk rushed in to escape the sizzling acid. Kildo’s spirit guardians skewered it. Its body lifted off the ground. Kai seemed to pity the creature as he thrust Wave through its heart, killing it instantly.
“Char! Char!” Scomatch’s familiar Charmander barked franticly in alarm.
A shimmer of silver light preceded a man, bald with an untamed grey beard, dressed in furs with an uncovered patch over his right eye. The cultist’s eye socket sizzled with azure power. He appeared in the party’s back line. The One-eye Shiver began casting. A wave of thunderous force swept out from him towards the halfling mage.
Snapping his fingers, the soundwave dissipated just as it reached Scomatch. It barely ruffled the halfling’s hair.
“Counterspell,” One-eye Shiver snarled.
Back at the eastern entrance, two nine-foot-tall ogres loomed in the far room. Each wore thick, blue-tinted leather armor of surprising quality for such a beast, which covered their chest and shoulders. Not known for intelligence, let alone craftsmanship, it was protection they would likely never craft themselves. Thick hides guarded their legs. Their feet were wrapped in heavy cloth, with toes sticking out. Black toenails, which probably had never been cut, curved downwards into jagged ends that scratched the stone. A series of three human skulls acted as belt buckles, with three severed hands tied through the eye sockets. The pair was armed with a handful of javelins, which they threw.
Coming straight at Guo Gan, he flicked Qiekamis. The sentient quarterstaff broke it in mid-flight. The other sped past the monk’s face. It missed by mere inches. The missile weapon sank into the stone wall behind the wood elf.
The ground shook as heavy footfalls approached from the alter room. Two thin, nine-foot-tall, five-hundred-pound, bipedal blue-skinned giants with long, ungainly arms with powerful hands, sharpened claws, and bulky legs ending in great three-toed feet, appeared. Their hides were rubbery and colored in shades of green moss, their hair was thick black and ropy, and it seemed to writhe with its own energy. Although they walked upright, they possessed a severe hunch. They resembled trolls, but something was different. They were wet, as of just getting out of the water, as long gills opened and closed along the sides of their necks. They were aquatic trolls.
The massive beasts roared using their bulk to bully their way in. Kildo’s spirit guardians blasted rubbery flesh from their carcasses, but its elastic skin reached out and began to stitch itself together. They were already regenerating. Seemingly unaffected by pain, the first aquatic troll slashed a massive claw raking Guo Gan’s front. A crossbow bolt also flew in. The monk pivoted to the side as the missile cut his stomach.
The second aquatic troll also pushed in. Its clawed hand grabbed Kai’s arm, and its massive mouth opened. Rotting teeth crunched down on the paladin’s bracer, denting it deeply. His one arm pinned, he swung the blunt end of Wave up and under, connecting with the troll’s nether regions. Radiant damage blasted, lighting up the area. The creature’s eyes went wide as it released its grip. While any damage would regenerate, it seems it was still a sensitive spot on any male.
Freed, Kai lunged with Wave. The prongs went into its chest. However, the creature didn’t die. The paladin pushed it away from him as far as it could. The troll thrust itself deeper onto the trident. It reached out, swiping wildly with its clawed hands. They were inches from Kai’s face.
A vertical column of divine fire ignited from the heavens. The flames engulfed the impaled aquatic troll. If it screamed, they were drowned out by the roar of the fire. It reduced the creature to ash in a matter of moments. The troll’s arms dropped to the ground. They began to squirm independently.
Kildo kicked both limbs into his Flame Strike spell, burning them to a crisp. The second aquatic troll ran howling from the doorway. It ran in circles, with half of its form burning.
“How about a little more fire scare-troll!” Scomatch called out as he threw a fireball into the other room. Flames roared to life, incinerating the last aquatic troll. Other shouts of pain erupted as the evocation spell impacted the other cultist followers.
In response, javelins and crossbow bolts flew into the room. A spear from a heavily singed ogre impacted Kildo’s shield knocking it back into his face. Dazed momentarily, he continued to concentrate on his spirit guardian spell.
At the back of the party, One-eye shiver turned its head toward Scomatch to blast him with his magical ray of frost from his eye. There was a tap on his shoulder from a green glowing quarterstaff. Turning, Guo Gan thrust Qiekamis right into its sizzling blue eye socket. It popped as the azure energy dissipated. Spinning the staff, the monk scrambled One-eye shiver’s brains. The end of the sentient weapon burst out the other side. There was a suckling sound as it drank his opponent’s blood.
“That was my eye!” Scomatch lambasted.
Scrunching his face in confusion, Guo Gan said, “Sorry.”
A gurgling pool of water seeped up from the floor. The liquid formed a blue-skinned human with burn marks across his front. He was bald on top with thick black mutton chops. He had snake-like tattoos on his left arm. He held a three-pronged dagger-like weapon in his hand.
“You won’t escape my icy touch,” Fathomer said as he grabbed Scomatch. The halfling seized up in pain as the water-cultist burns began to heal.
“Fat Homer!” Kai yelled. “Feel my icy touch!” The paladin thrust Wave into the belly of the cultist. Water sprang from where the three prongs penetrated.
The cultist continued to lose more and more water. Turning toward Kai, his form fell apart as he gurgled, “It’s Fathomer, you ass...”
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life,” Kildo chanted as a wave of healing energy washed out from the cleric to all the members of his party. Their most grievous of wounds began to seal themselves. He then saw their cultist leader, Gordol. His blue-colored armor consisted of a rounded helm resembling an open clam. The shoulders were round and small, while the breastplate was made of one large piece of metal. In the center was edged the image of an oyster with a pearl in the middle. Greaves and a skirt of chain mail covered his legs. Various areas were blasted black by fire.
“Push!” Guo Gan called out and rushed into the room. Qiekamis spun with blurring acceleration and bashed into two waiting lizard tornscales, killing both with crushing attacks. The sentient weapon quickly absorbed their blood and ichor.
“Yeah!” Scomatch yelled as he sent another fireball ahead of the monk into the room. The remaining two ogres’ bodies were blown apart, taking the full blast.
All that remained was the plate-armored Gordol. Snarling, he drew his short sword and charged Guo Gan. Slashing, the monk easily dodged the attack.
Right behind the wood elf, Kai lunged with Wave. Its points pierced through the armor.
Mortally wounded, Gordol spat, “May Strassha drown you.”
“I can already breathe water,” Kai replied.
A disparaging look appeared in Gordol’s eyes as he died.
* * *
“I can’t believe there isn’t any magic on any of these sods,” Scomatch bemoaned, kicking the hilt of Gordol’s short sword, which was encrusted with barnacles. The weapon clanged across the stone floor.
“They be cultist. Of course they be poor. The leader will be hoarding all the good stuff,” Kildo explained as he had just finished scanning the room with his detect magic spell.
“Where’s that guy then?”
“Hold on there. Before we go tramping around the rest of this place, we need to take a breather,” Kai said. “That cultist bed chamber seems to be a good spot.”
* * *
Kildo drifted in and out of consciousness. Partial dreams of walking on the Sea Ghost to complete a task mixed with earlier times as he searched for something forgotten. A loud knock on the door to the cultist’s bedroom sped him back to reality as all eyes turned to the door.
Rising from a chair, Kai approached the entrance and said, “Announce yourself!”
A soft feminine voice with an unusual accent answered. “My name is Thuluna. I’ve come to negotiate with you.”
“For what?”
“I’ve come to see what you want. Having invaded our home.”
“Well then. Let’s start with your total and unequivocal surrender,” Kai responded.
“To clarify, do you mean me or everyone?”
“Everyone and everyone you know.”
“We don’t know you, so we don’t know whom we surrender to,” Thuluna said.
“This conversation be bullocks. I’m opening the door,” Kildo said. The dwarf lifted the latch and pulled it open. The cleric’s eyes widened at the most hideous being he had ever gazed upon. She was a sea hag and abysmally grotesque. She had an emaciated appearance with blue flesh rife with warts, oozing cankers, and a complexion like that of rotting fish. Her eyes were devoid of any semblance of goodness, with deep, black pupils surrounded by red. Long hair that resembled rancid seaweed covered half of her face. Just looking at the hag caused an almost overwhelming urge to flee. He threw up a little in his mouth. It was then that he felt of hand of Kai fall upon his shoulder to give him the strength to stand his ground.
“Aren’t you a plump morsel? Why don’t you tell Thuluna why you are here?”
Tightening his fist to reassure himself, Kildo said, “We be trying to get to Gligan’s Isle. We be trying to recover a body for one of our friends.”
Tilting her head in curiosity, Thuluna said, “This isn’t Gligan’s Isle. You are on Rilandria.”
“We are also trying to recover our captain Quint Halfbeard from Shatterkeel, who may have captured his soul,” Kai informed.
“Oh, Shatterkeel!”
“You know him?” Kai asked.
“No, not directly. That’s just the first name I recognized. He’s a pirate and a very bad man. He’s probably right downstairs,” Thuluna said.
“Why would he be downstairs?” Kai questioned.
“That’s where the portal is.”
“The one in the waterfall?” Kildo asked.
“No, that one leads to the Dark Council Chamber. The portal I speak of leads to the Elemental Plane of Water, where Strassha, the Water Princess dwells. I would encourage you all to worship the water hydra,” Thuluna said and then turned to Kai. “Her will benefits your people triton.”
“Can you show us where Shatterkeel is?” Kai inquired.
“Yes, I can lead you, but it looks like you could use some rest.”
“Why would you help us,” Kai asked.
“When life gives you lemons, you make swamp juice. Let’s say it would be to my benefit for you to succeed in your endeavors. So, stay here and rest up for let’s say, eight to ten hours. That’ll be enough time to heal wounds and regenerate any missing limbs,” Thuluna said.
The party looked at each other. Kildo wondered if this was too good to be true. Working with a hideous sea hag? It seems she’d benefit from Shatterkeel’s passing on to a better life. Maybe she’d take over the blue cult. Perhaps it’s a case of an enemy of my enemy, is my friend. He was about to say he’d have to keep an eye on her, but the horror. She would have to somehow earn a bit of trust to show she was actually willing to help the group.
Thuluna then said, “I’ll bring you some potions I have lying around. That’ll perk you up.”
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