Chapter Eight: The Virid Coronation

Sep 11, 2020 5:16 pm
The path down to the cove is narrow and twisting, but centuries of use have left a well-trod trail that provides sure footing. The cove itself, a small, sheltered semicircle fine gray sand and calm lapping waves, is quiet and still in the cold, foggy night.

Farfar has spoken little on the walk down. but he remarks that Gorham was in a strange mood during this evening's negotiations -- even more jovial and madcap than usual, but at the same time more insistent that the family yield up the Sphere, and more direct in his threats and intimidations.

"I am no fool. It became clear to me that he had run out of patience with these negotiations, and I had stalled him for as long as I could. 'Tonight I will claim my prize,' he said to me at one point, and I knew that he believed it."

Down on the beach he takes a few steps into the water and withdraws a large conch shell from his bag. He takes a few long, slow breaths, then inhales deeply, raises the conch to his mouth, and blows out a long, eerie note.
Sep 17, 2020 5:45 pm
For several long minutes, nothing happens. Then a head surfaces from the water, several meters out.

The thing that slowly emerges has the color and translucent sheen of bull kelp, but its form is human. It crawls out until it is about six feet away from Farfar, and you can see the lower half of it is long, smooth, and finned. Farfar begins to speak -- a short, musical phrase in a language none of you recognize. The merfolk in the water croaks a few words in reply and reaches out to offer its hand.

To be continued...
Sep 20, 2020 10:20 pm
Farfar steps aside. "Only the hand of a merfolk can guide you to the temple," he reminds you as he begins rummaging through his bag. He pulls out a tin flask. "You'll need to link hands in a chain. But first, drink this. It'll last one full day, so...don't get stuck down there any longer than that."

Who wants to be first to drink from the flask and grasp the mermaid's hand?
Sep 20, 2020 10:37 pm
Zangua steps forward to take a swig of the flask. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can bury Gorham."
Sep 23, 2020 7:24 pm
Zangua takes a drink of the salty potion and recalls his brief sojourn in the Plane of Elemental Water. He reaches for the mermaid's hand and she grasps it tightly. With his free hand, Zangua takes the hand of the next party member to drink, and so on.

Once the chain is formed, Farfar takes a step back. He starts to stammer what probably would have been a few words of encouragement or well-wishing, but the mermaid starts to crawl back toward the ocean, dragging the party along with her. As soon as she is able to submerge she begins to swim in full, her long and powerful tail propelling them along a downward angle to the east.

She soon accelerates to a tremendous speed, forcing you all to grip as tightly as you can to hold on, and levels off as her descent takes you to just a few meters above the ocean floor. The darkness is total here, but after a few moments the mermaid's skin begins to emit a curious glow. A phosphorescent tattoo consisting of labyrinthine spirals appears on her back.

The mermaid slows down and comes to a long, sliding stop in the soft seabed. Thick clouds of silt rise up, obscuring what little you can see from the glow she emits, and she begins to crawl along the ground for a few meters. Then, quite suddenly, she plunges headfirst into the silt.

Half-swimming, half-crawling, she pulls you through a long, narrow, twisting tunnel that descends, curves, and rises up again. Whatever mechanism the potion uses to allow you to breathe underwater is affected by the silt; it is harder to draw breath here.

Finally you emerge and the mermaid lets go of Zangua's hand. All you can see around you is darkness, the mermaid's skin only illuminates a few feet of space around you, and there is nothing to see but silt. She makes a few short, high-pitched cries and gestures, then begins to burrow back down into the silt, her duty apparently discharged.

Your move, players!
Sep 23, 2020 7:49 pm
Zangua tries to orient himself with the way up, and he starts to swim to the surface. He will pull the hand of whomever he holds.
Sep 23, 2020 8:23 pm
Who wants to swim up with Zangua? Felor has not turned his spear lamp on yet; those of you without darkvision can't see a thing.
Sep 24, 2020 5:15 am
As soon as it becomes apparent what they were about to do, all color drains from Leth's face and his stomach sinks.

Forests, mountains, caves, swamps, I can handle. But that? He regards the inky blackness of the water in front of him with unease and shudders.

"Let's get this over with."

He tries to fight off a rising tide of panic as they're all swept into the depths, beyond the reach of light and all normal humanly-livable environments... and has to do so again as their guide leaves them behind, blind and all alone in this alien world.

As soon as he feels a tug on his hand upwards, he eagerly joins the ascent as fast as he can swim, ready to be able to walk again.
OOC:
I don't suppose a bow works underwater?
Last edited September 24, 2020 5:16 am
Sep 24, 2020 7:28 am
Zangua and Leth ascend for more than 500 feet before swimming into a ceiling of smooth, flat stone.

Apparently it does, you just shoot with Disadvantage!
Sep 24, 2020 10:22 pm
Zangua has a brief moment of panic, forgetting that he can breathe underwater. He tries to talk, at least in hopes of getting Felor to illuminate the area.
Oct 5, 2020 5:18 am
OOC:
I was waiting to take a turn in hopes that we might get some light hahaha
Oct 5, 2020 5:16 pm
We'll say Felor turned the lights on for you, because it'd be kind of nuts if he didn't.

All you can see in the glow cast from Felor's spear is the featureless ground you emerged from, a vast plain of sediment that seems to extend in all directions. Looking a northeasterly direction, however, the ground seems to incline somewhat.
Oct 5, 2020 5:17 pm
Zangua points northeast and up, and tugs Leth in that direction as he swims for the ascending slope.
Oct 6, 2020 12:51 am
Zangua leads the party up the slope.

Soon, the tops of broken pillars can be seen emerging from the substrate, massive and evenly spaced about sixty feet to either side of you. About a quarter mile ahead, there is a faint glow that silhouettes a broad dome-shaped structure.
Oct 6, 2020 2:32 am
"Anyone know where we are?" Zangua asks. He looks back to see what could have presented them with a ceiling of flat stone.
OOC:
Are we underground, or is there a sky?
Oct 6, 2020 4:01 am
You seem to be inside a vast undersea cavern.
Oct 9, 2020 9:07 pm
Leth shakes his head and gestures towards the dome.

"I just want to find the sphere and get out of here." He says, and begins tugging whoever he's still holding on to towards the structure.
OOC:
Assuming for now that if we can breathe underwater, we can talk underwater too lol
Oct 9, 2020 9:20 pm
Zangua continues on to the dome.
Oct 9, 2020 9:50 pm
You approach the dome, which crowns the top of a large stone structure half-buried in the sediment.

A small object drifts in the water about 100 yards ahead of you, not far from the structure.
Oct 10, 2020 12:16 am
Leth swims over to investigate the floating object.
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