The vision of the scrying bowl

Bellandra stood still a moment, absorbed in the grim vision. It revealed much of where she had come from, but laced its revelation with sorrow and despair, and the cold and darkness of the sea floor.

But then she lifted her head. "Nay... 'tis shall not be," she whispered. "The weaver of destinies says this be real - but 'tis not a fate I have chosen, 'tis what others would choose for me. Nay, I say. I shall not be bound - I shall not be bound! Not to the prow of a ship, and not to this fate either!"

Life where none was expected. Yearning for freedom fulfilled. These are what delighted her, what fueled her. She had been gifted a chance at both, and she had thought she had seized that chance in full. But now, it seemed, she was in a world where the chance had passed, and a part of her had remained behind - still there, to be rescued from this bleak end.

She knew that unlike her own remembrance of her beginning, sinking alone in a dark sea, she was not alone now. The crew was with her, and she was with the crew. And she had found kin besides. "We shall find where I lie," she swore, "and restore meself, restore us all. I live, I shall live, we shall live!"

(More to be added later.)

Gilius walks away from the scrying ball and is partially surprised of his discovery.
Knowing he's dead made him feel an urge to be alive again.
"I can't be dead. I be a servant o' nature. I 'ave to use me powers to defend its balance. There's no way I can do that if I be dead. I 'ave to prevent me own death. I 'ave to become alive again !"

Count Karnstein reluctantly looked into the scrying bowl.
What the blazes was all that 'bout? - he wondered - An' why did it show me that wench? I remember her clearly now, it was real. Could it... Could it mean the ol' Orlok's tomb wasn't cursed after all an' I been cruelly played all along? How dreadful...ly curious. Can't help meself, always been a sucker fer wicked ones.

He's expected to make a choice but he can hardly see any. Before embarking on the Ship he thought that "maybe something good come out of it", and by that he most definitely didn't mean some sentimental hogwash, "final journey" sort o' things. Nay, he didn't come all the way here just to perish. Certainly not like that. Even if this would be his plan, he'd rather choose his own terms than handing it over to some oversized lamprey pretending to be god. The last thought made him momentarily furious and disgusted when he realized the sheer insolence of Aboleth playing with them like that.

In the temple he looks into the rooms with traps. If it seems like there might be something worthwhile, he may use spiderclimb oil to access it if it could help bypassing traps.

After disabling traps, Count gives signal to the crew (if anybody is watching) to get ready. He doesn't want risk damaging threads in the room, but if he can reach one of the spiders without being seen, he will pierce and cut open its abdomen, before moving out backwards and keeping saber ready. He will go that way out of the room, luring spiders out, so they'll be exposed to crossbow bolts, and trying to use opportunities to attack.
If he can't reliably attack any spider in the room, he will try to provoke them to follow him out and doing as above.

After teleportation he is very displeased to see vampirates. "Not these clowns again!" He goes to face them. Encouraged by his previous success, he will try to surprise one of the opponents by disarming him with a quick whiplash aimed at the hand. If successful, Count will rush to kill unarmed vampirate.
Other than that he will engage in the usual swordfighting, trying to avoid exposure to any ash 'cause he wouldn't be immune this time.

All the sleepless nights seem to finally have caught up with Grog'tial. First it's as if he's having some bizarre dreams - illusions, he recognizes - and then his minds starts drifting off for real, until Argy slaps him on the ass with more strength than he knew she possessed.

What is her deal?!, he thinks to himself, It's totally fine if she's into that sort of thing - and who knows, in other circumstances mayhap he might be willing to experiment with that as well - but hasn't she ever heard of consent??

He doesn't have much time to continue that line of thought, as they shift once more into a realm with these weird jellies, which seriously sting as they fall on him. "Ouch!" Grog'tial applies his Heal Wounds bandage. And then Aylar does something with some mechanism, and they're once again in some new place. He's finding it very hard to keep track of what's happening. "Bloody magic!" he mutters, as Aeshma says something about it all being the Aboleth's doing. He's starting to get really annoyed at this fish.

Suddenly there's an old woman telling him he's dead? That they're all dead? He can't be dead! He's been silently enjoying Argy's cooking on the ship far too much to be dead. Besides, he needs to be getting on with rescuing grandma and killing his half-brother. Clearly this woman must be another illusion.

He dismisses the woman's words from his active mind (though a small thread in the back of his mind keeps worrying about how well it all fits), and goes investigate the place where they are now - this large temple chamber as it once was? - judging distances, angles, corners and hiding places. If he were to arrange an ambush here, how would he do so? How would he counter that? If he ignores all this magic, is there anything out of place? What's his exit strategy? For that matter, what's the Aboleth's exit strategy?
If during this he notices any spiders (either being lured into his sight by the Count or otherwise), it's only his distance from them that allows him to keep a panic attack at bay, and he takes vicious pleasure in shooting bolts at them from a safe distance.

Far too soon, there's a gong, and then a teleport and a shift right after each other. As he spots the Denuvo - which he very distinctly remembers being sunk by them! - and the enemies all around them, he groans, but once more makes ready for battle. He's basically bunkering down, ignoring the overwhelmingness of everything, and just focusing on the here and now. His priorities are vampirate officers, regular vampirates, chuul, drowned ones and merrow last. If he can mesmerize at least half a dozen enemies at once, he'll blow his shell. If he can stun at least half a dozen enemies at once without endangering crew, he'll fire one of his stun bolts (still keeping one behind for the aboleth). Otherwise he'll shoot enemies in priority order when he sees the opportunity of a back shot, or heart-shots for vampirates (with his stake-bolts), and otherwise fire hardened bolts at chuul, explosive bolts at either vampirates or drowned ones, and regular bolts in all other cases. He'll defend himself with his dirk if any enemies engage him in melee fighting.

"We be dead? But.. Durik breathes and sings, how could it be?
Me don't like this evil bowl. Also saw Tiny there :(
Durik not accept dis, he be part of the crew and we fight together to live! "

Durik then bandaged his hand hurt by the jellies' acid and followed the others searching for any remaining enemies in the temple (but he waited for the Count to disable the traps before passing over them).

Durik thought that the plane shifting was over, but then all the crew appeared into a giant cavern.
He was confused to see all the past enemies again and said:
"Can dis be real too? Me think is illusion for sure!."
"Is Ablet in purple water?"

He waited for Bellandra to use her mirror.
If the foes were real, he went to attack them with the crew.
He'll attack the closer ones in order (first the vampirates, then the merrow if they exited the water. Chuuls and drowned ones only later)

If the Aboleth ever appeared, he was determined to shoot it immediately with Dakka.
(if it wasn't too underwater or protected)

Mighty

Mighty got tired by all the swinging and bashing. He leaned on his cudgel and observed as each of the other crew members looked into the bowl and saw anger, sadness. He remembered all the adventures and lighthearted moments he had so far with them felt bad for mateys and Captain Aylar.

Cracker - keeping in mind reprimand from Aeshma and seeing half-orc lost in his thoughts decided to poke him with beak.
"Prepare for battle!" Cracker squawked.
He heard a gong and firmly grabbed his cudgel ready for fight.

Pugwash is dead. Preserved ever after by the curative of salt and briny water. Like the dead sea, there can be no life where there is salt.

All that effort to avoid salt, on a ship, in the ocean - all for nought.

Pugwash struggles to accept everything, and sits motionless in a stupor, the time to act having already passed.

Roused from his stupor, Pugwash has enough initiative to load the crossbow with a stun bolt bomb and fire it at the chuul within the cavern.

Mission 4 - Turn 5
*Next turn starts 3 AM UTC, 11 December

NOTE: The Gillyweed will expire at the end of this turn.

It could not find the temple. It had lost the fix on it right before the last plane shift was supposed to deliver them, befuddled and confused. It checked again ... nothing. That bedamned to eternity FAE!! In its rage nine servants died instantly and another now dangled from a tentacle as it probed through its mind for possible answers. Then it summoned more, and waited. There had been one more portal programmed in before it had left the temple to his minions to prepare. Another servant comes to report. Ah, they have arrived. The Aboleth reaches out through its waiting servants, searching for an appropriate mind. (roll dice)

-----
Clíodhna can feel Aylar being ported again, and this time the link grows stronger. She feels his anger, something has him deeply disturbed and angry, but she is in the midst of battle herself managing the Ship's energies and guns. Within the stronger link she feels him reach for his Charms with forceful intent and throws more power to him to assist. Then she turns back to the Ship and the enemies pushing hard to assault it. She sends an inquiry to the Dragon Turtle and is assured Kyp is still safe.

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Aeshma had been told the Denuvo had been sunk. So this was either another time shifted incident, or they had somehow raised and rebuilt it. Seeing the vampirates and Drowned Ones, she draws a rune of protection around the group (roll dice =10'/3m for 3 turns) and whispers very softly beneath her breath.

*... Do remember to be yer Charming self, Aylar.*

(via PM] Aylar is greatly angry and of a mind to see to it that nae vampirate be having a chance to explode anywhere, and that any draining from any party, be it poison or vampiric, will be swiftly and ruthlessly prevented. (roll dice) He concentrates on his Fae Charm, with perhaps more anger and force than be needed, and feels a surge of power coming through the link with Clíodhna. (roll dice) The results with the vampirates are immediate, as Aylar focuses the Charm's necromancy side to lethally turn back any life drain upon the Crew with an intensity that is surprising, striking the non-officers down almost immediately and driving two of the vampirate officers to their knees. As far as he is concerned, nae foe presently stationed in the cavern be anything more than a distraction and an obstacle for him and his Crew on the way to something actually worth killing properly - the fish. Aylar's focus now be to tear through whatever obstacles be between him and the eel, within reason and the safety of the Crew. Thus to his mind those enemies have to simply be destroyed.

"So we meet again," Bellandra swears upon seeing the Denuvo. They had lost their first crew member there, and she does not want to repeat that now. Bellandra uses the mirror to try to see if there are any illusions being used here, and to see if any of the paths looks more promising than others. But to do so requires she turn her back to the enemy and look over her shoulder, and by doing so there is no time to load and fire her crossbow or stun any before the enemy is upon them. (roll dice) She is struck by a Chuul tentacle reaching for the magic item and the mirror is knocked from her hand before she can retaliate. (roll dice) The paralyzing poison does not affect her, but the Chuul itself is suddenly staggered as Aylar's Charm ward through her rabbit's foot lashes out. (roll dice) Bellandra quickly recovers and uses her cutlass to cut two of the Chuul's legs out from under it, making a note that perhaps she is depending too much upon the mirror instead of paying attention to the immediate danger of battle, and it's best to leave the magick of detecting and dispelling illusions to the magick users when there is fighting to be done.

Count Karnstein is very displeased to see vampirates. "Not these clowns again!" He goes swiftly to face them, (roll dice) dodging the single bolt from the hand crossbow one sends his way before it is suddenly brought down by some magick. Encouraged by his previous success, Count tries to surprise one by disarming him with a quick whiplash aimed at the hand. (roll dice) Only to miss as the vampirate officer goes to its knees. (roll dice) Count quickly beheads it, leaping back from the ash, but it does not effect him. Turning to the Captain, Count sees a look of horror on the once confident Captain's face and he turns to run from the Count. (roll dice) The Count uses the whip to catch the Captain by the throat and pulls him back into Frostbite, causing the torso to freeze before he pulls the saber back to behead the vampirate. (roll dice) Again, the ash does not affect him and Count notices he has a slight starlight glow about himself when he is near the vampirates. (roll dice) He quickly beheads the fallen vampirates and returns to fight the other enemies with the Crew, wondering if it was something Aylar did or is it something else?

There's a gong, and then a teleport and a shift right after each other. As he spots the Denuvo - which he very distinctly remembers being sunk by them! - and the enemies all around them, Grog'tial groans, but once more makes ready for battle. He's basically bunkering down, ignoring the overwhelmingness of everything, and just focusing on the here and now. (roll dice) Grog'tial loads and fires a stake-bolt at the only vampirate officer still on his feet and running from the Count with his back turned. The bolt goes home in that sweet spot Grog'tial knows so well, and he begins to feel better. Seeing four Chuul and several Drowned Ones beginning to mass around them, he blows his shell to mesmerize them. (roll dice) Nothing happens. Grog'tial blows again, harder. (roll dice) Fail! His siren emerges from the shell, spins around and slaps him with her tail, sending him sprawling, then disappears into her shell again.

Pugwash is dead. Preserved ever after by the curative of salt and briny water. Like the dead sea, there can be no life where there is salt. All that effort to avoid salt, on a ship, in the ocean - all for nought. He struggles to accept everything, and sits motionless in a stupor. Roused from his stupor, Pugwash has just enough initiative to load the crossbow with a stun bolt bomb and fires it towards the Chuul. (roll dice) He manages to stun four Chuul and five Drowned Ones (1d4 = 2 turns). He moves to reload for next turn.

(roll dice) Argy was ready for the fight with her lantern still turned up on high, but the Drowned Ones are starting to ignite and drop as they come up against Aeshma's protection field. She uses the protection from the field and her lantern to quickly run and pick up the mirror before it can be lost or broken.

Aeshma's eyes widen as she sees the Drowned Ones ignite and takes a moment to examine her field with her inner eye, then spins about frantically searching. There! Near Aylar, of course, but it shouldn't be that strong here ... unless .... She casts a summons and whispers to the air. There is hope!

Durik thought that the plane shifting was over, but then they all appear into a giant cavern. He is confused to see all the past enemies again and said, "Can dis be real too? Me think is illusion for sure!." He is waiting for Bellandra to use her mirror when a Chuul attacks her, reaching for the mirror and knocks it from her hand. Meanwhile the Count has already beheaded one vampirate and is now using the whip on the vampirate captain. (roll dice) Durik decides this is indeed real, and uses his cudgel to knock back a Chuul trying to reach Aeshma while evading its tentacles, cracking its armor.

(roll dice) Aylar sees Grog'tial knocked to the ground by his furious siren, and slices off the tentacles of a Chuul before it can reach either of them, feeling the Charm lash out before the poison can affect him. (roll dice) He reaches down and pulls the half-dwarf to his feet, pushing him towards the more protected center where Grog'tial can reload, before he finishes that Chuul and turns to cut down another.

(roll dice) Captain Baldbeard is listening when all of a sudden Aeshma's protection field snaps up around him and he feels the tendrils of something slimy and awful being forcibly expelled from his mind. (roll dice) Angered by the uninvited invasion, he sends the sharks in to assist against the Chuul and Drowned Ones, while he himself presses forward. (roll dice) In his disgust and anger, Captain Baldbeard cudgels in the face of a Chuul, killing it instantly, and hefts his cudgel again, ready to do the same to the next one that comes near to Aeshma, Gilius or Aylar. [Per previous post and PM intent]

Mighty got tired by all the swinging and bashing. He leans on his cudgel and observes as each of the other crew members look into the bowl and saw anger, sadness. He remembers all the adventures and lighthearted moments he's had so far with them and feels bad for mateys and Captain Aylar.

Cracker - keeping in mind reprimand from Aeshma and seeing half-orc lost in his thoughts decides to poke him with his beak. "Prepare for battle!" Cracker squawks as a gong sounds.

Mighty firmly grabs his cudgel ready to fight. (roll dice) Once the portal has delivered them, Mighty cracks the skull of the Chuul Bellandra had cut the legs from. (roll dice) He then uses his claw to pincer the head off an ignited zombie.

(Continued below ...)

(... continued from above.)

(roll dice) Captain Baldbeard's sharks have chomped the heads of several Drowned Ones that were not yet ignited by the protection field, (and some that were) and are turning back towards the two other stunned ones.

(roll dice) Aeshma listens then suddenly turns to Aylar. "It's in another cavern down a cave tunnel behind the iron door!" she shouts to him. "There's another lake connected there and a way up to a ledge on one side overlooking it."

(roll dice) Bellandra, Durik and Mighty are starting in on the stunned Chuul, (roll dice) having killed two of the four while Aeshma's protection field combined with a the mysterious fire shield from somewhere continues to ignite the zombies trying to penetrate it.

(roll dice) Through the wooden door from the cavern up the path to the right charge nine more Chuul, led by what looks like an Ogre with with Chuul tentacles coming from its mouth and a huge hammer in its hands. While from the water come twenty more Drowned Ones. They still cannot pass Aeshma's protection with the fire shield attached to it, (roll dice) but they now seek to pull Argy and an unmoving Gilius from the protection and back down toward the water to drown them. (roll dice) Argy's lantern is freezing one as it tries to grab her.

-----
2 Chuul are still stunned as well as a couple zombies not yet taken care of by Baldbeard's sharks. 9 more Chuul are coming from the path ahead of them to the right with 1 Chuul Ogre leading them. 20 more Drowned One zombies are trying to grab and pull Crew into the water to drown them. Aeshma has found the Aboleth beyond the barred and locked iron door to their left, which leads down a cave tunnel to another cavern with a path to a ledge on the right overlooking another lake or body of water.

-----
Your current inventory can be found in Post 2 (loaner books are read and returned)
Argy = Cavern, edge of protection field (got mirror), by frozen zombie
Aylar = Cavern, edge of protection field
Bellandra = Cavern, near stunned Chuul - outside protection field
Captain Baldbeard = Cavern, edge of protection field
Count Karnstein = Cavern, edge of protection field
Durik = Cavern, near stunned Chuul - outside protection field
Gilius = Cavern, edge of protection field, being pulled out by zombies
Grog'tial = Cavern, inside protection field
Kyp = Dragon Turtle
Mighty = Cavern, near stunned Chuul - outside protection field
Pugwash = Cavern, inside protection field

NPC
Aeshma = Cavern, inside protection field

Denuvo, a cavern, an iron wrought door... Portals, likely to the places the fish had best control over... "Oi, Mighty! Do ye still have those guard keys? Can ye pass em to Cracker and send him me way? Got an idea!" Aylar calls out, as he slices at the zombies trying to pull Gilius and Argy into the water.

Once he gets the keys and is sure that those grabbed be able to safely get away, adding a bit more magick into the wards if be necessary, he is going to weave and dash his way to the iron door and try those out.

Mighty

Mighty searched the pockets of his leather armor. In one of them among several pieces of eight and old banana peal (Mighty will need to talk about this with Monkey) he found set of keys and passed them to his parrot.
"Cracker will take those keys and fly to Captain Aylar, he needs them."
Parrot not thrilled by the idea of delivering smelly keys, grabbed them with hesitation and took off in Aylar's direction.

(roll dice) Aylar cuts down the zombie trying to pull Gilius away and beheads the one Argy's lantern had frozen while remembering the last place the Crew had run into the Denuvo, and a certain door in a tower that led to another tunnel. Denuvo, a cavern, an iron wrought door... Portals, likely to the places the fish had best control over... "Oi, Mighty! Do ye still have those guard keys? Can ye pass em to Cracker and send him me way? Got an idea!" Aylar calls out while concentrating a bit more magick into the wards.

Mighty searchs the pockets of his leather armor. In one of them among several pieces of eight and old banana peel (Mighty will need to talk about this with Monkey) he pulls out a set of keys and passes them to his parrot. "Cracker will take those keys and fly to Captain Aylar, he needs them."

Cracker, not thrilled by the idea of delivering smelly keys, grabs them and drops them off in Aylar's direction.

(roll dice) Aylar grabs the keys out of the air and weaves and dashs his way to the iron door, cutting down another zombie on the way. (roll dice - Luck) Studying the keys briefly, he finds the second one he picks works. The door is unlocked.

Beyond the door is a cave tunnel that looks to wind around with a faint glow in the distance and the smell of the sea.

Count leaves the protective circle and stands in the ogre's way. He jumps back, nimbly dodging the wide hammer swing, and waits for the right moment. There it is. Hammer fell down with ground-shaking force. In split second Count is already on the hammer and running over the giant's arm. He cuts off the tentacles sent to catch him with one swing of the saber and uses the momentum to stab beast right in the eye. Not slowing down he jumps off the ogre's shoulder, landing behind it and instantly rolling to the side, while enraged and half-blind beast turns around just to sweep off the chuuls instead. Count finishes the job by piercing ogre's back, driving the blade though its heart. Next he fights any remaining chuuls if they didn't run off already.

Or something like that. After the chuuls, if there are still any zombies around, he will fight them like he did when they entered the temple. Prioritizing ones threatening the crew.

Finally he will go to the gate. If Aylar decides to initiate the "teleportation plan", Count will comply. Otherwise he will cautiously move down the corridor with the others.