Road to Kiev, Chapter Seventeen

Traveling
Thursday, November 10th, 987 AD

We get back to the fork in the road and rake the southern route. After six miles we see a magical underwater tunnel ahead of us. The tunnel cuts through the water as far as we can see; the water is held back by magic. We decide to rest before going in.

Under the Sea Brings Death
Friday, November 11th, 987 AD

We are awoken by the sounds of large thumping feet, so we quickly gather our things and plunge into the underwater route. We walk quickly and then get sideswiped by a large fish looking for a meal. It slams through the magical walls, quickly answering the question of is water the only thing kept at bay. We quickly kill it, but not before Edward is slammed out into the cold ocean, and make part of it our meal. Edward walks back into the air. We continue and find the end of the corridor. We quickly guess that this must be the break in the route that the magical ceramic map foretold. We assume the next piece of corridor is nearby, so Reynaldo strips down, ties a rope around his waist, takes a deep breath, and walks into the water holding only the Reynaldo's Axe. He goes forward as much as possible, but runs into some clear tentacles or something. He quickly tugs on the rope, but is then charmed. He cuts his own rope and walks around for an indeterminate amount of time, and when he comes out of the confusion, he is lost on the bottom of the ocean floor with no light and quickly running out of breath. Meanwhile, back in the corridor, we feel the tug on the rope, so begin pulling in, but then feel it go slack. Gunther senses trouble and he and Thalia go in after Reynaldo, taking only a glowing apple with them. They run into the same clear tentacles, but not before Reynaldo notices their light and rushes towards it. He gets to them in time to see them being brought up nearer to a giant jellyfish's head. He tugs on the rope and uses it to get back to the corridor. Back at the corridor, Anna, Edward, Ivan, and Catarina are charmed, and they charge through southern side of the corridor. Reisha acts quickly and tackles Ivan down. He is quickly tied up. Then she joins Nicolae and Wong, who have figured out that the continual light stones work once outside the corridor, in chasing after the others with a loan of Reynaldo's Axe so that she can get to them faster. Conrad pulls on the rope to try and retrieve Gunther and Thalia and feels resistance. Reynaldo comes back into the corridor just in time to breathe and helps Conrad pull. In the jellyfish, Thalia and Gunther feel themselves being tugged and Gunther accidentally takes a breath underwater. Instead of drowning, however, he finds he can breathe underwater just fine. He deduces it's the magic tooth just as Conrad and Reynaldo succeed in pulling them away from the jellyfish. Once they are safely inside the corridor, Reynaldo sends Conrad after the three charmed folk and waits for Thalia and Gunther to un-paralyze (a side-effect from the giant jellyfish). Conrad succeeds in retrieving Catarina, but Edward and Anna are proving especially difficult to corral (that was almost a pun). Reisha, Wong, and Nicolae see what the charmed folk were all intent on rushing towards:a squid with two legs. Gunther and Thalia finally come out of paralyzation and go after the remaining charmed people, once again, weaponless. Gunther sees the creature and takes the Reynaldo's Axe from Reisha to fight it, since he can breathe underwater. He fights valiantly, but the creature's six tentacles prove too much for him. The Squid-Man rips him in half and rushes away with our dead friend. It also takes the Axe. Anna and Edward are finally subdued and brought back to the air corridor, but not before Edward takes a lungful of air. We get to breathe again. Thalia says we have to get to the other corridor that she knows is out there and plunges in with a rope tied around her waist. She finds the corridor and stakes her end of the rope in it. She comes back and we all follow the rope to the new corridor. We rest.

Let us here give a moment of silence to our fallen warrior, Gunther of Leezenburg, a most valiant ally.

He gave his life to save those of others.

Strange Things and Planning Revenge
Saturday, November 12th, 987 AD

During the third watch, another large fish attacks, but we quickly fend it off, Ivan making good use of his fallen friend's spear, heretofore known as Gunther's Spear, and Edward using the Roman shield just as ably. We all go back to sleep except Ivan. During this watch, he sees a school of fish carrying a glowing piece of coral. He shoots at them with an arrow, trying to make the disperse and maybe drop the coral, but succeeds only in killing one of them and making the rest of the school swim away faster. The rest of us awake and begin formulating a plan to find and take down the Squid-Man. This plan involves casting find object on Reynaldo's Axe and casting water breathing on the party so that we can spend more than two minutes in the ocean proper. We rest again.

More Planning and Revenge Enacted Upon Us
Sunday, November 13th, 987 AD

We wake up and we realize that those charmed by the Squid-Man may still be charmed. We quickly find out this is true and Ivan, Edward, and Catarina are quickly de-charmed, but Anna once again shows her stubborness. We rest again. We decide to rest with the apples hooded because we think that's what's attracting all the large fish. During the third watch, Catarina gets backstabbed by an unknown assailant. We take off after it and see that it is a bipedal humanoid, but lose it. We see that the long sword sticking through Catarina has a note with Irethazan's name on it. We come back and rest again, and Anna is able to de-charm herself after much cajoling. The clerics rest again.

Our Revenge Partly Achieved
Monday, November 14th, 987 AD

We rest one last time and get ready to go after the Squid-Man. Conrad comes with a brilliant plan to cast a rope trick, put all our non-water safe valuables in it, and then have Isabela drag the rope up behind her. This works and the clerics cast water breathing and find object. We walk south in a circle around Catarina as she sings of Gunther's valiant deeds as we trail rope behind us and shine our continual lights as brightly as we can, but our clerics quickly realize they're useless down here because blunt weapons don't work underwater. We finally get a bearing on the Reynaldo's Axe, but run out of rope. We put it down, put a light stone next to it, and hope for the best. We continue in a southward direction and find a cave. We fight off some eels, most of which Nicolae sleeps and then barrel in. We see the jellyfish again, but Ivan stabs it with Gunther's Spear and it runs away. We find the Squid-Man with six merlions surrounding him. Conrad is the only one to succumb to the Squid-Man's charm this time. Edward casts prayer and the clerics attempt to keep the merlions busy while Thalia, Ivan, and later Wong beat up on Squid-Man. Nicolae is able to blind a few of the merlions. It tells us that "She" told it we would be a challenge. He is killed, but not before half the party is downed. The last remaining party member who can still stab at the remaining merlions, Catarina has to basically kill them all herself, with the help of Edward and Anna acting as bait. Edward finds Reynaldo's Axe and Gunther's head and other belongings. We take everything back to the corridor, but have a bit of trouble when we can't find the light stone or the rope. Isabela comes out of the Rope Trick and we retrieve all our stuff. She tells Reynaldo that while we were gone, a veiled, naked woman came into the corridor looking for us. She gave up and took all of our rope instead. We finally put two and two together and realize this must be Veronica, come to take her revenge for Irethazan. We also assume that she contracted the Squid-Man to come after us. We plan on tracking her by tracking the rope. Reynaldo, being an opportunistic bastard, quickly claims the magic tooth, saying he had second dibs on it anyway. Also, he asks when Gunther's money would be divided. We scold him, but he quickly reminds us that this is how thieves honor their dead: by putting the dead man's treasure to good use. Edward prays for both Gunther and Reynaldo and we rest.

End Chapter Seventeen