View source for The Sword and the Cistern

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== Log Info ==
*Title: The Sword and the Cistern
*Emitter: Solar Flare
*Characters: Delilah, Donna, Ashes, Elyanna, Illiara
*Place: Alexandrian Sewers
*Time: Monday, February 14, 2022, 8:29 PM
*Summary: In the aftermath of the fight with the fisherman, they are thanked by the mermaid. Illiara was searching for an ancient blade of theirs, which the Fisherman has corrupted. It lies cursing them all. Ashes attempts to purge the corruption by cursing the curses. It silences the weapon and she's able to pick it up and clean it off. They all board the boat and the mermaid guides them out to sea and then back into the sewer system. They emerge inside a giant cistern, and a giant cube falls on them.</div>

<pre>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  Appearing  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Delilah      5'4"     106 Lb     Human             Female    A golden haired human girl in white robes.
Donna        5'4"     106 Lb     Human             Female    A black-haired human girl in black robes.
Ashes        5'11"    177 Lb     Hobgoblin         Female    A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face.
Elyanna      5'11"    153 Lb     Half-Orc          Female    A grim, Arvek-blooded woman in raven feathers.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=</pre>

The Fisherman has been defeated; his body lays where he fell, broken, bloody, and vanquished. The rusty blade he weilded is still locked firmly in his grip, covered in fresh blood and quietly muttering curses, as though it wants to hurl the most dire imprecations at the heroes who have slain its wielder, but also doesn't want to be noticed. 
 
Still sitting on the Fisherman's killing table, the Mermaid Illiara beams at the four adventurers who have just saved her. "Donna, Elyanna, and Ashes," she repeats, after the introductions. "I am overjoyed to have met you. You have saved my life, and you have the depths of my gratitude." She lifts a hand to brush away the tears on her cheeks. "Please... what is it you seek, down here in this vile place? If there is anything I can do to aid you on your quest, I would do it gladly." She pauses, and nods towards the gnome. "And who is the little one? She fought valiantly, as well." 
 
Sirri, meanwhile, is sitting down in a corner. The gnome looks a little bit shell-shocked; like she's just witnessed her own death, or near enough, on the end of a rusty blade that very nearly decapitated her less than a minute ago.

"Pleasure," Donna grunts, as the spell wears off and she resumes her normal size. "And uh... we're lookin' for a hideout down here. Wizard's lair; illusionist, horrible woman, wouldn't be surprised if she was draggin' puppies on a chain just in case she wants to kick somethin' cute an' helpless..." The brawler trails off, shrugging, then turns to crouch next to Sirri.
 
"Deep breaths," she says, wiping a bloody hand clean before laying it on the gnome's shoulder. "You did great, girl. You didn't have to be half so brave, but y'were."

"This is Sirri," Ashes says, gesturing at the gnome. Her screech owl adds, "WhooOooOoooo." The Mourner stares at the mermaid, then points at Donna, "What she said."

The babbling blade gets a look from her, "Can you tell us anything about that?"

In the wake of all that, Elyanna breaths steadily, enforcing a slowing of the cadence. She seems somewhat disquieted, almost absent as Donna pays her compliment, but she nods nonetheless, with a soft, "Perhaps... you did well also, Donna."

The assurances of heroism seem to slightly trouble something in her eyes momentarily before the glaze is blinked from her eyes and she rejoins the present, "We are glad to have gotten here in time, Madame Illiara."

SHe bows her head a touch and eases back, stepping back to her braided lash, passing the falchion to the other hand as she stoops over to pick it up. With little more than a sour look to the murmuring machete, and a rolling flick of her wrist, the Keeper ensnares the hilt in the ensorcelled braid and starts to unceremoniously walk further from the others, no doubt prompting little scrapes, tings and perhaps compaints from their prize.

A weapon much like one of their recent acquaintance.

Sirri gulps in a deep breath on Donna's urging, and snorts it out her nose. She repeats this several times, before looking up at the Brawler. "How'd you... Like, you didn't lose your chips and run for it or anything, even while he was busy trying to hack you to bits," the gnomes whispers. "He *missed me* and I still almost ran for it. I don't know if I'm cut out for fighting, I like exploring and sneaking way better." 
 
"Well." Illiara bobs her head, "If this Veren has attracted the wrath of those such as you, I do not imagine she stands a chance. I'm afraid I do not know her... but there are, perhaps, things I can do for you, that may help?" 
 
The mermaid brushes back her hear and plucks a small earing out of her right earlobe; a bit of metal, probably gold but tarnished from the sea, displaying a gleaming white pearl. She whispers to it, then offers it in her palm, hand outstretched. "Please... take this. If the light of life leaves one of you during your quest, this will bring it back. 
I'm afraid the magic will fade after a few days, but... I hope you will not need it, yes?" 
 
The blade, meanwhile, goes from grumbling to being absolutely apoplectic at the way Elyanna treats it. "You... YOU BITCH! YOU WHORE!" it screams at her, "Find me a proper champion at once! You are NOTHING you seditious goblin filth! I hate you! I HAAAAATE YOOOOU!!"

<pre>GAME: Ashes rolls knowledge/religion: (5)+20: 25
GAME: Ashes rolls knowledge/arcana: (6)+20: 26</pre>

It's the fact that it speaks Celestial that tips Ashes off. The blade is definitely corrupted; it might be beyond a remove curse to fix.

"Hey check it out," Donna whispers in Sirri's ear, nodding toward the blade. "Elyanna's made a new friend. Wanna go up top, get some cupcakes, an' while away the night mashin' em into its blade for a tea party?"
 
Her lips split in a wide grin for a moment at her joke, but falls away soon after. "I do what I do, cos' it's what I know. Mebbe as I'm a Guild adventurer, but it's my job, puttin' myself between the big guy an' the little guy. I'm okay with that, cos I don't know much else as I could do for a livin' 'cept maybe a library assistant or something. An' I'm a little too angry, most days, to sort books."
 
Patting the gnome's shoulder, she lets her hand fall away. "So I'm'a tell you straight. You did real good. But we ain't gonna ask you to take chances. You feel like you wanna hide behind me next time... Don't be ashamed to hide behind me. That's m'job."

The ashen Arvec watches as her hobkin whips the blade closer if not into shape. She exhales, and stares, "It speaks Celestial, as well as Infernal and other tongues. It is corrupted. A remove curse might fix it."

She contemplates the blade some more. "Might." She taps her finger on the shoulder strap of her satchel, "Lady Octagna at the City Library would like the help. People keep stealing her books."

"Your hate is as nothing." Elyanna rumbles in a language that scratches the ear and chills the spine, one she seems to reserve for talkative weaponry, "Now, be still, or be sealed into the deepest pool of sewage we can find to corrode. Forever." <Infernal>

She knows greater hate than any font of spite most could ever summon.

The red woman looks to Sirri as she wonders aloud about Donna's constitution, glancing then to the brawler herself, curious how she would respond.

Then, Illiara and Ashes are having their discourse, and when the conversations turn toward her new friend and she rejoins the conversation at large, "It also bitches in Infernal."

That said as she looks toward her countryman.

"There is one cake at the Black Diamond that needs due portioning."

Ashes looks at the mermaid's earring, then holds out her hand, "Do they have to be wearing it, or can it be applied as they expire?"

Illiara drops the earing into Ashes' waiting palm. "Press the pearl against the chest of one who has fallen, with a few minutes of their death, and all will be undone. Provided the soul wishes to return, of course; if it does not, my magic cannot force it." She leans back, resting on her hands, and flicks her tail. "The blade... if you cannot help it, then I know one who can. It once belonged to my people, and I was searching for it. I... did not expect to find it in this... state. It was foolish of me." 
 
The mermaid pauses, "If you can help me back to the water, the Fisherman had a small boat. It is old and shabby, but still floats, and is moored nearby. I could bring it to you, if you would like it." 
 
"...Oh!" Sirri looks up. "The Cistern we need to get through used to empty into the sea, near here... that's one of the reasons it isn't really used any more. Too much, uhm... too much.. emptying into where... people... like swimming..." 
 
The gnome turns bright red as she trails off. "Thank you," she adds, looking up at Donna. "I totally will, if I get scared like that again. You and Elyanna and Ashes are all so brave, I wish I could be more like you."

"Okay." Ashes nods, receiving the earring and the instructions. Her sleeve ripples, and Chippen, her large house centipede familiar emerges and picks up the pearl in his mandibles. His head turns and he stares, his beady eyes to the hobgoblin's. She nods, "Press it to my chest if I go down, hold onto it otherwise."

Instructions accepted, he disappears into her clothes. "WhooOooOooo?"

"You can't because you're not my familiar." Ashes answers her owl, and then nods at Illiara and looks along her length. Her lips squeeze together, she glances at Donna. "You could piggy back on her, and we carry your tail? We need the boat."

"I can try to banish the blade first, if you wish."

"No," Donna says, rising to her feet. "Don't down y'self for bein' somethin' you're not. Y'don't seem t'understand, Sirri... Outta the four of us? You're the only one who's able t'get us where we need t'be. I won't say you're the only one who ain't expendable, but..." Glancing at the Hobkin, the dark-haired human shrugs. "Puttin' our lives on the line's what we do. If it ain't what you do, there's no shame in that. Nobody ever been so strong they don't need help, y'know?"
 
And that, it seems is that, and with one final pat on Sirri's shoulder, she moves to the cluster. "Sounds like we're all goin' the same way for a bit, then? Is it too foul t'swim alongside us, until we're where you need to split off? An' if it ain't gonna take too long, I expect we got time to make the attempt at least, Ash."

Elyanna eventually sheaths her falchion once she's opened what she feels is enough distance, then uses that hand as kind of a pulley, drawing Maidenhead up enough to leave the blade in a controlled dangle off to one side of her. It's more to protect her than any real concern over the cantakerous cleaver.

She turns back toward the group, watching the conversation, though she wonders, "Why would you seek such as this? Do you know where it came from?"

"It was once a blessed blade," Illiara replies. "It once belonged to one of our heroes of old, and was passed down from father to daughter, mother to son. It was known as Ezeran, and could cuth through water -- and foes -- as readily as air." The mermaid shrugs her shoulders lightly. "But it was lost, almost a hundred years ago. I heard that it was here, and came looking, only to find it grossly corrupted. ...I must save it, and I intend to try... but you should try first, Ashes. You are a hero, it might respond to you." 
 
Sirri stands up slowly, and dusts herself off. "Ain't nobody expendable," she asserts. "You three are all absolutely wonderful. I just watched you charge the Fisherman and fight to save someone you didn't even know. So... when I get home to my kids, I'll have one hell of a bed time story for 'em, about how awesome my new friends Donna, Elyanna, and Ashes are." 
 
As for the blade, it has largely reduced itself to angry simmering, accepting that there seems to be little it can do about its newfound captivity. Other than to loudly denounce Illiara as a whore, a bitch, a liar, and a painted anchovy -- the last of which earns a cocked eyebrow from the mermaid.

<pre>GAME: Ashes casts Ill Omen. Caster Level: 12 DC: 15
<OOC> Ashes says, "Evil Eye is -4 on saves"
GAME: Ashes casts Remove Curse. Caster Level: 12 DC: 17</pre>

"Set Ezeran on the ground, please." Ashes tells Elyanna, and then crouches down beside it. She reaches into her satchel and takes out a piece of chalk, grey chalk. She marks a circle around the weapon, ticking the outer edges with symbols of her goddess. After this, she holds her small holy symbol, the little silver scales and shakes them.

'Tink', "Feiu of the Tears, a corruption grips this. Weaken it's hold."

After which the hobgoblin simply glares at the weapon. Her expression is simple and unwavering, her lips move almost soundlessly, words hissed under her breath. Things that Nan Mochtrath would mutter, curses from her childhood, to draw out its power and weaken its hold.

Finally, she shakes her holy symbol again, a bell-like chime ringing as she prays, "Feiu of the Tears, break it's hold." As the dire energy flows from her, the Mourner picks up the weapon and calls on her goddess a third time, "Feiu of the Tears, let me be your instrument."
"
The Keeper jostles Maidenhead just a little bit, with a crisply chiding, "Behave."

The mermaid's words prompt a glance to the warped weapon, another twisted against it's purpose.

She regards Ashes as she starts to make her preparations and nods, stepping closer. She lets the weight of the blade unspool Maidenhead's coil through the controlled grip of her 'pulley' hand to ease it to the floor. With a deft trick of that wrist, somehow uncoils the tresses of her weapon from the haft of the tainted other and steps back to flank the Mourner, coiling the lash once more.

There is a gentle, "Ashlee, be careful." <goblin-talk>

Knowing the influence such... spirited weapons can hold, she watches her friend for any sign that things have gotten away from her.

The blade hisses and sputters, and its protests grow louder and louder (and increasingly rude) as Ashes performs her ritual amongst the muck strewn about the floor. Once the Keeper has finished (and endured a number of rude comments about her heritage, tattoos, familiar, and gender), the blade goes silent; no less rusty and horrible than it was before, just... more quiet. 
 
"I think," Illiara muses, "I think you have... put it in conflict with itself. Its true nature is trying to undo the corruption that was inflicted on it. The corruption resists." She pauses, and taps her lips. "It should be safe to pick up now, at least." 
 
Sirri clasps her hands behind her back, and looks up at the Mermaid. "Hey, you said something about a boat, right?" the gnome inquires. "'Cause I think you're right, that would save us a lot of time." 
 
"The water here is... brackish, and not very pleasant, but clean enough these days. Still, I would accompany you as far as I can, but... in the boat, once I have fetched it." She pauses, leaning forwards to look over the edge of the table. "I...If one of you would not mind, helping me back to the water... I would prefer not to crawl over... over that. The floor here is horrific."

"I gotchu," Donna says without hesitating, picking her way around carcasses and worse to the Fisherman's blood-stained table. "Here... get an arm around my neck, I'll do the rest." And so saying, she stoops enough to give the mermaid room to grab hold. "You think once you get that sword back to your people, you can fix it? Cos whatever happened, it's in de--" The brawler trails off, as a thought occurs to her. "...Any way of telling how long a curse has been on a thing like that, by the way?"

<pre><OOC> Ashes says, "I have Lore Master, which means an appropriate knowledge roll, so 31"</pre>

Ashlee nods, to Elyanna and Illiara's warnings. "I think it will be ok." She glances at Elyanna, holding her gaze, then dropping to look at Maidenhead, "in case it isn't." She reaches out to take the now quiet blade, with only a moment's hesitation. The gore dissuades her. Her hesitation past, she closes her hand around it.

"Ezeran, repel the nature that overcame you," she instructs. Whether it will listen or not is unknown.

Elyanna nods grimly as Ashes meets her eyes, then slides her foot back slightly as her friend reaches for the blade, her whip silently uncoiling to the floor in case the worst comes to pass.

It sounds as though Donna has the mermaid's travel arrangements covered, and Sirri is back into what is presumably her proper humor, but she doesn't dare shift her focus until she knows how Ashlee's efforts turned out.

Ezeran is warm in Ashlee's grasp; partly from the blood it is still slick with, but partly it is a warmth inherent to the blade. But it doesn't bite or burn or anything of the like. It merely... is. And it feels at turmoil with itself, as suggested by Illiara. Briefly, two voices echo through Ashes' mind; 'Die, goblin bitch', snarls one. 'Bless you, mortal,' whispers the other, before the two are lost in a whirlpool of thoughts and struggle once more. 
 
"Thank you," murmurs Illiara, as she puts an arm around Donna's neck as instructed, and pulls herself in fight against the Brawler's chest. "You land dwellers seem to to much better in the sea, than we do on land," she observes. "Perhaps I would swim circles around you in the water, but... well." She smiles softly as she's picked up, resting her other hand on Donna's shoulder. "It's been missing for almost a century, as I said. And, it won't be so much fixing it, as... helping it. It has been corrupted, but the spirit inside it is still good, I... I think. I hope." 
 
For her part, Sirri has walked to the edge of the water, and has turned her goggles back on as she strains for a look. "Water looks calm," she muses. 
 
"Careful," cautions Illiara. "Don't fall in. I can deal with the sharks, but they have big mouths."

"Just a thought," Donna mutters. "Like... The person we're after... corruptin' a priceless treasure'd be just th'kinda thing she'd do for fun. Was wonderin' if there was a way to know how new the curse is, is all. C'mon..." And with that, she carries Illiara to the boat, placing her in gently. "Unno about doin' better, though. Like, if you really *needed* to, you could probably figure out some kinda trick. We're just too stubborn an' too surrounded with stuff to keep from goin' where it ain't good for us to be."
 
Looking over her shoulder at her Hobkin friends, the brawler's eyebrows rise. "Everything okay, over there?"

"It is," Ashlee confirms, feeling the dual consciousnesses in the blade and the struggle. "Ezran has been corrupted for decades, two, maybe five. A long time." Almost a goblin's lifetime.

"It might have started and Veren continued it." The Mourner muses. There are spells to determine the history of an object, ones she might be able to use later. Or, ask Merek. "It's quiet for now."

She follows after, picking her way across the gore on the floor, avoiding the bones, bile and guts. Ashes gets in the boat, "There are spells for that too."

"I think I am a stronger swimmer than I was when we met." Elyanna asides to Donna with a little shrug, then seems to relax as Ashes chimes in with an acceptable prognosis.

Hrm.

More indifferent to the carnage, the red woman moves in her friend's wake, offering Sirri assistance if she should need.

Sirri accepts Elyanna's offer of help, and the gnome takes up a position at the front of the boat; after the fight with the Fisherman, she's already regaining a measure of her boistrous, optomistic curiosity. "Shouldn't be hard by boat!" she declares. "I mean... going straight from here to over there without going through tunnels is pretty good. You usually just can't get at the cistern, or this area, by boat... trying to get past the rocks is... Well, the sailors have told me the last four times I've asked that it's not going to happy. They like having boats, and aren't in the toothpick business." 
 
"I know not this Veren," Illiara muses, as she settles into a spot at the back of the rickity but apparently seaworthy boat. "But she sounds... Well." She dips one hand over the edge, to wet her fingertips. "It sounds as though she's not only a villain, but someone who has done offense to all of you, personally?" 
 
Casting off the boat proves not to be hard. It has a sail that's full of patches and even more holes, but without wind down here, operating the oars (there are two available) seems to be the only real option.

"Do you want to row?" Ashlee asks Donna. They might as well make the most of the Bull's Strength spell while it lasts, and once it wears off the brawler would be a better choice. "Veren framed her sister. She was going to be executed, and the rest of us also."

The Mourner looks up at the sail, with all its holes. She finds it oddly comforting, the way it wafts in the still air as the boat moves. "She makes things that control the mind."

"Yeah," Donna says, taking the oars. "Ain't gonna be a problem."
 
The first stretch is... more experimental, than actual forward progress, because Donna is still a city girl who has never rowed a boat in her life. But it's not *terribly* long, before she figures out the rhythm of the act, and they start to pick up speed. "Veren... I mean yeah. Wouldn't have known who she was, until she got paid to make it look like my sister killed a girl she was sweet on. An' the more we find out about her, the more it seems like it'd be a kindness to burn her like a tick off the ass of the world. But... we need her alive, t'prove that my sister ain't a murderer. An' seein' as she's way stronger than us, we're lookin' for her hideout here, while she's good an' out the country."
Elyanna never developed a particular fondness for boats, not the least reason of this being that thus far with this exception, every one she's ever been on has directly involved her former trade.

She settles Sirri in as carefully as circumstances allow, and keeps her ears open for hints of potential complication.

"You have a sister?" Illiara looks up at Donna, and smiles, "It is good to know there is another among you, who is so heroic, then. I pray for your success against this Veren... and for Veren's soul." She pauses. "It sounds as though she is going to need it." 
 
The trip through the undersea doesn't take overly long; and the views are a definite change from the sewer tunnels, as they pass by rocks infested with glowing insects and luminescent lichens and mushrooms, and the water, once you really look, is teaming with fish and squid and sharks. But eventually, the small vessel arrives at a yawning cavern, lined with bricks, forming a passage that disappears into darkness. 
 
"That'd be the tunnel we'd be wanting," offers Sirri. "It looks... a lot more spooky than I'd imagined. But I think we can sail the boat down it." She pauses. "Barely."

Ashes is happy to ride and watch, and keep hold of Ezeren. She makes an effort to clean the blade, dipping a rag over the side and wiping it down. An action for her comfort as much as the weapon's. She finds the glowing insects captivating, Chippen emerges to look at his cousins, and Carbuncle, Minnie and the Owl have hungry thoughts. They stay with the Mourner.

She also peers over the side, at the fish, squid and sharks. "I wonder if the vermin shape spell has aquatic versions. Some of that looks fun." A glance at the Illiara, back at the water, and a further understanding of an odd interest of a friend's is achieved.

Ashes peers into the tunnel as the boat orients at the front of it. "I can sit in the front if you like."

A skeletal grey woman in threadbare clothes, riding at the prow of a ship with moldy sails, seems utterly appropriate for this passage.

"Twin," Donna says. "An' yeah, I'm hopin' like hell that we get what we're after, cos--" The brawler bites off the rest of it, and shakes her head. "Could you, Ash? Show that dark tunnel it oughta be afraid of *us.*"
 
She continues to row in silence for a bit, then looks up at Elyanna, tilting her head. "So, like, you swim? For fun? On purpose?"

The Mourner nods and moves up to the prow beside Sirri.

Elyanna watches Ashes at work for a few minutes along the ride, still spending a fair amount of time in her own head.

She finally breaks her silence with a few flickered gestures, and a whistle of one of her mystical diddies, and she invokes some of her magic to help clear away some of the more... tenacious stains on the blade.

The process finds itself on pause as Donna directs a question her way and it takes her a second to parse it, "What? No, but... that... occasion was one particularly lending itself to glorious recount, was it?"

A pause, then a hasty, "Accomplishments, nothwithstanding."

Illiara looks at the tunnel, and bites her bottom lip. "As long as there is water, I will come with you," she murmurs. "When the water runs out, I... Well, I would like to see you find what you are looking for. You saved me, and I would like to help, so we shall... we shall have to see how far I can go, I suppose, yes?" 
 
Sirri is all too happy to surrender the forward position to Ashes, and takes a step back to where her goggles can still peer into the darkness, and the yawning tunnel that the boat is carefully rowed into. There is enough water in the tunnel for them to proceed, so long as one is careful not to stray too close to the edge, as learned with a few awkward, teeth-rattling scrapes. 
 
"Don't worry," Sirri whispers after a little while, wandering back to talk to Donna as the teaming life and bioluminescence of the under sea recedes, leaving only the musty dankness of the tunnel. "We'll make sure we get what you need to save your twin!" 
 
Brave words might have to hang in the air for a while; it's hard to keep track of time in the dark, and hours might melt into each other, but eventually the tunnel abruptly ends, entering into a grand space, with a high ceiling. 
 
The place looks deserted, on the whole, though there are pipes and tunnels that emerge from the walls. The water runs through the middle, apparently just deep enough for the boat to pass, with the occasional hull-scrape.

Ashes diligently peers ahead as the boat moves through the tunnel, and occasionally she reaches out with her parasol to push off from one wall or the other. Her directions are terse and simple, "port, startbard, slow".

As the small boat emerges into the cavern she straightens, peering up with a gasp. It's impressive in the gloom, like an ancient cathedral, a relic of engineering languishing in the deep. She leans over the bow to peer into the water. The way seems clear, "No obstructions. Forward slow."

"Oh shit, yeah, the jungle boat," Donna says, chuckling against the dark. "Gods, feels like forever ago that happened. Yeah that was a good job, an' well done. *Fun* at the end too, bein' rabbit to half the damn slavers in that town."
 
As the tunnel stretches on, and the water grows shallower, Donna eases back on her strokes and navigates as directed. "Be good to have you along too, Illiara, if we can manage it. But if we can't, well... We can meet up under the bridge in a week, an' you can hear the whole story. You too, Sirri; *definitely* owe you a round or three just for gettin' up the nerve to shank that sunovabitch."

The mourner nods, looking back at the mermaid. Her words are monotone, unintentionally lacking warmth, "I'd like to see you again too. I have a friend that would like to meet you."

The Mermaid smiles, and bobs her head. "I'd like that," she acknowledges. "I can linger around Alexandria for a while. Now that the Fisherman is dead and Ezran is started on the way to recovery, I have... no particularly pressing matters that I need to shake my tail into action over." 
 
At the front of the boat, Sirri is, meanwhile, getting quite concerned. "Hey, everyone," she declares. "I remember hearing from more than one source that there's supposed to be predators in this cistern. But, I mean... I don't see anything. No predators, no bones either. Do any of you see anything?" 
 
The gnome pauses. 
 
"I'm worried we're either in the wrong place, or missing something important."

"We ain't lucky enough to just be wrong," Donna mutters darkly, halting her rowing for the moment. "Ash, you got a spell for this?"

<pre>GAME: Ashes casts See Invisibility. Caster Level: 12 DC: 16</pre>

"I ... have a spell... or two." Ashes says, looking around. She touches the holy symbol on her breastplate, "Feiu of the tears, let me see invisible things."

Her eyes start to glow a faint purple colour. She stares into the darkness of the cistern, examining high and low, "Nothing... invisible nearby."

She makes a small 'hmm' noise, "I can locate a creature, if we know what to look for. Or a divination."

Doesn't... seem to be anything invisible in the immediate vicinity of the boat.

The Mourner is quiet for another moment, and then adds, "I can send a magic eye to look about ahead of us too."

"You missed the sticky part." Elyanna remarks obliquely. Probably referring to the ruddy crust that had flaked off the party when they reunited.

When their errant ship captain met his fate while Donna led the others off on a merry chase.

With the query, she peers about, trying to catch any errant sign of incoming misfortune.

<pre>GAME: Ashes rolls perception: (15)+4: 19
GAME: Elyanna rolls perception: (2)+8: 10
GAME: Donna rolls perception: (6)+13: 19</pre>

It is quiet. 
 
It is far, far too quiet. 
 
There's nothing invisible around the boat, either. Nothing on the ground, either, really; just like Sirri said. But, then, there's a faint sound, from above; something that both Donna and Elyanna pick up on, a soft sccchhloooorrp sound, like something sticky finally letting go of whatever it was sticking to. 
 
And then something is hurtling downwards, towards the boat. 
 
Something big.

"SLIME," Donna shouts, less rowing backward then shoving the oars down until she hits solid, then *pushing* backward. "Fuckin' sewer jobs, if it ain't slime in your boots it's slimes eatin' your face!"

Ashes looks up. Movement, darkness, spreading. Something large plummeting towards the boat. She does the first thing she thinks of.

She unfurls her parasol and clutches it tight, crouching low beneath it at the prow of the boat.

"Incoming," she says. It might as well have been 'Yipe!'

<pre>GAME: Donna rolls reflex: (16)+8: 24
GAME: Ashes rolls reflex: (17)+5: 22
<OOC> Elyanna says, "i'll blow a charmed life on this one. ok, so for this day, i have 2 more"
<OOC> Elyanna says, "the +2 is to compensate for the stat damage i till have"
GAME: Elyanna rolls reflex+3+2: (4)+10+3+2: 19
GAME: Delilah rolls 1d20+8: (15)+8: 23 (Sirri Reflex)
GAME: Delilah rolls 1d20+8: (12)+8: 20 (Illiara Reflex)</pre>

To reverse the boat and get out of the way, there is not time. Not nearly enough time. There's only barely enough time for everyone to bail out of the small vessel -- Donna, Ashes, and Sirri out one side, and Elyanna with Illiara out the other -- in a sudden panicked burst. And then, the thing lands. 
 
A gigantic mass, around thirty feet tall, lands in the center of the boat with an ear-splitting crash that echoes through the cistern, snapping the mast and smashing the gunwales to splinters. Thirty feet to a side; an imposing cube, mostly transparent and filled with bones, skulls, bits of armor, coins, and various other bits of detritus, now sits on top of the boat. The wood isn't so much destroyed, as it's starting to pop and hiss as it turns black.

Not just a Cube, but a *Colossal Cube.*

"ShitshitshitshitSHIIIIIT!"
 
Not exactly a war-cry to unnerve the hardiest of foes, but a logical reaction to having almost thirty thousand cubic feet of ravenous dessert whistling through the air toward your head. There's no time to make sure *anyone* else is okay before Donna catapults over the side to safety, but as she levers herself up from the shallow water, she's *extremely relieved* that there are no fresh skeletons around the base of the thing.
 
"...Boat's gone," she says. Perhaps a unnecessary observation, but, naming a thing makes it a real problem to solve, and not something that blind denial can wish away.

The explosion clearly must have messed up her ears.

Her eyes....

But, somehow, Elyanna missed the enormous mass that decides to detach from the ceiling.

Thankfully, she doesn't miss the call of alarm, and any reflexes toward escorting her fellow travellers out of the boat are preempted by anyone even near her already well into abandoning ship as she starts moving.

She finds herself fleetingly wondering if she jinxed herself by mentioning swimming, breaking the surface of the water to see what just dashed their pleasure cruise.

Upon sight of the behemoth, what else can the flabberghasted noble intone but the most reasonable question:"What... the.... fuuuuuuuuck....?" <goblin-talk>

The parasol is a bad idea. Diving for safety is a better one. Donna's movement prompts Ashes to follow and she bails out over the side, aiming for some dry, or dry-ish surface.

The boat is gone, crushed and dissolving beneath the creature. And inside it, things that done easily dissolve.

"We don't want to be touched by that." Ashes is moving back as she speaks.

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