Editing Efferendil (section)

==Underwater Journey==

We were only gently rotating after emerging, although the pressure seemed significant so we were deep underwater wherever we were. Because of the darkness we had no idea which way to go, so I quaffed a potion that gave me a sense of which way to go, and held on to Tak's shoulders so that I could guide him as we swam. It was a little disconcerting to be swimming in endless water without seeing or knowing where we were going, and after an hour Silanna had to quaff another potion to ensure she wouldn't run out of breath. At last we started to see something in the gloom - there was a rocky floor below us, but I had the sense we just needed to keep going. After about another hour, Tak noticed that there were rocky walls to the sides of us, so we were in a kind of canyon, but also noticed a current acting against us. He swam slightly above it so that we wouldn't be slowed down too much. About half an hour after that, Tak noticed that the colour of the rocks beside us had changed, and up ahead there was an opening of some kind. The current against us was strong there, so we tied rope to each other, faffing a little as the current took us apart, but eventually were ready to continue.

Tak swam through the roughly circular "entrance", and was confronted by the evil fish folk (Sahauagin he called them) on the other side. I launched flechettes at the centre foe as they started to close, but even more emerged from the gloom - maybe a dozen in total! Streaks of light flew into me from below, causing me some pain, and Silanna quaffed a potion to enable her to fight more easily. That had an unexpected effect, though, as it stopped the potion that was allowing her to breathe from working! Now she was just holding her breath. Tak swam forward and thrust his blades into one, killing it, but then I was put to sleep by dweomer. Tak killed another foe, then noticed that I was drifting in the current and tugged sharply on the rope until I woke up. Silanna drank another potion to sort her breathing issues out, but it no effect! She ended up quaffing another of the same kind, and thankfully this time it worked.

Tak was suddenly distracted by coloured lights in the water, which was concerning because he was definitely the best fighter underwater! I grabbed my weapon and stabbed at one in front of me, which did some damage, but I was taking a lot of hits and seemed to be beset from above and below. Silanna was trying to swim down whilst fighting, so that she was harder to surround, but I couldn't swim so I was stuck. Tak eventually came to, swimming straight into action, paralyzing one and killing another. Silanna was targeted with dweomer next, with electricity dancing in the water around her and causing her to spasm with pain. Tak and I healed some of our damage, trying to stay in the fight, but then Tak was blinded with more dweomer - if only we could reach the Shaman! Things were a bit desperate, but we were fighting hard and manage to land a few blows - Silanna ran one through, and Tak got lucky as he thrashed around, cutting the throat of one that got too close. I finally killed the one I'd been hurting, and that gave us a little space.

Tak came towards me, as he knew I couldn't move, and put his head inside my bubble of air to ask for a target, letting me know that he was blind. I pointed him down towards one foe, and he ferociously slashed in that direction, managing to kill another one! I fought on against another opponent, doing some damage, but it was Silanna that might save us as she had finally reached the Shaman. Once she killed it, and I managed to kill another, they started to flee. Silanna cut one down as it swam past, but we were quite glad to see them go as we were all hurt badly. After a minute of doing what we could to treat our various wounds, which unfortunately did not include restoring Tak's sight, we continued - Silanna only had so much air, after all.

Because Tak couldn't see, I had to "ride" his back, holding his shoulders to direct him as he swam forward. Silanna swam as well, just about keeping up with Tak, as we followed the current onwards. After some time we reached a rock face in front of us that contained a familiar looking stone door. It had a similar serpent symbology and bridge of souls as the one we had seen in the mountains, as well as the eye and pyramid symbol above it. The six sconces had glowing bluey/green gems instead of flames, which made sense underwater. The serpent heads on the doors seemed to be looking at a plain circle between them, which was different to being wrapped around two circles as the last door showed.

Silanna went ahead to approach it, and there was no reaction, but then as I got closer there was a massive shockwave that pushed us both back painfully, and straight into Tak! Tak managed to grab me, but it was a very unflattering hold as I ended up with my head between his legs - thankfully he couldn't see anything! Silanna managed to grab hold of me somehow, and Tak and Silanna eventually stabilised us enough that we weren't tumbling around. Tak was running a hand over me, trying to work out what had hit him, so I deliberately didn't fight him so that he wouldn't think I was a threat. He eventually found my throat, and relaxed as he realised it was me. Then he was able to turn me the right way up so that we could communicate, and I told him what had happened. As I was temporarily deaf it was a bit of a faff, but I got the gist that he was suggesting we approach from above, using the ring to activate the symbol above the door. He was also able to ease some of the pain the shockwave had caused, which was a welcome relief.

I started to get my hearing back as we approached the rock, moving carefully to be above the symbol without cross in front of it by accident. I helped to guide Tak's hand down and in front of the symbol slowly. As his had passed in front of the triangle, a light seemed to project the shape forwards, and as the ring passed over the centre of the eye a bright blue light shone from it, and we noticed light from the door below as if it had cracked open slightly. Silanna moved down to investigate, but as she passed over the soul bridge on the left it drained some of her vital energy... she had approached the wrong door! She had to close it and open the other door (on the right), and I helped to guide Tak down until we were beneath her and we were able to enter together.

Tak sensed that the water was more aerated, and the current subsided as we entered. There was a faint light up ahead, but Silanna thought she saw something move in the darkness, so I got my metal torch out to shed some light around as we moved forward. There was a floor below us, so we put our feet down and jogged forward, relying on the potions we had imbibed to allow us to move freely. I went first, and found that there was a door at the far end of the room we were passing through. Just one problem, though... there was a gnarly old fish-like serpent guarding it! It was huge, at least nine feet just raised above its coils, and it had red hackles sticking up, with patterned green and brown skin that looked quite beautiful if you forgot they were attached to an angry looking snake creature.

I turned to warn Tak of what was ahead of us, as he couldn't see it, as Silanna drew her swords. It circled around on Silanna's side, disappearing into the darkness again, so we paused as Tak spoke a strange language into the water. After a few minutes of nothing happening, we walked forward cautiously until the door ahead was illuminated by my torch. It looked like a single door version of the previous one, still with six points of light around it, and serpents either side and above. This time there was nothing on the door itself, and no bridge of souls above it, though. In the middle of the door was the familiar eye symbol. We approached carefully, with Tak ahead this time. He tried touching the circle, but there was no response.

As we approached, thinking that this door seemed to be benign, the huge snake creature darted in front of me, screaming in my face and making me jump backwards. It held its position, though, and didn't attack. Silanna moved around slightly to be closer to me, swords at the ready. Eventually it screamed once more in apparent frustration and slithered off into the darkness again. Tak, unable to see what had just happened, was focused on the door and was moving his hand around the triangle. As his hand moved towards a point on the lower right, the gems on that side seemed to glow brighter. I touched him to get his attention and described what had happened to him. He was frustrated that he didn't understand how the symbol functioned, and smashed his fist into the door with such force that it buckled and the whole door came away from its frame, floating backwards, and the gems all stopped glowing.

There seemed to be a gentle current flowing away from us, as it carried the door slowly backwards, but before I could move the serpent creature returned and stuck its head in front of me again. Silanna shoved Tak through the door and tried to grab me as well, but her hand slipped off and I was stuck. The creature's fangs looked nasty, but it still hadn't attacked in any way. It swayed in the water and suddenly I found that I couldn't move at all - I had been paralysed! Silanna returned, leaving Tak just inside the next room apparently meditating, and we had to wait for several minutes before (thankfully) I was able to start moving again. It seemed that the creature was dead set on stopping me (and just me) from continuing.

I was forced to drink a potion that we had found and identified that would allow me to travel to the border Ethereal plane, which would let me walk through walls and hopefully continue our journey. I told Silanna to continue with Tak, assuming that I was with them, and that I would reappear once the potion wore off. I wouldn't be able to communicate with them once I had made the transition, so she would need to guide Tak as well. Once I had quaffed the potion, I could see the room and those within it, but as if through a grey fog. I was able to walk through to the next room undisturbed, though, and I could see the heat of the creature frantically searching for me and then blocking the doorway. Silanna was only just able to swim through a gap, but that was enough to be reunited with Tak and continue.

Silanna guided Tak forward again, although they now had no way of talking without the air bubble around my head, making it even harder for them to communicate in any way. I was able to follow easily, even though I wasn't able to join them physically. It was a strange experience, although quite wondrous in its way. To go where you pleased, unseen and unhindered, was quite empowering. It was temporary, of course, and probably not without its dangers, but interesting. We continued for thirty minutes or so before Silanna noticed there might be a surface to the water above them and swam up to investigate. Once their heads were above water she was able to talk, and described to Tak what had happened. Tak was concerned that they shouldn't continue for too long without me, and they decided to wait underwater for a while to see if I appeared, tying a rope between them in case anything happened that might separate them.

Thankfully they were undisturbed and eventually I felt the world becoming more real around me as I transitioned back, appearing in the water where Silanna could see me. Once we had worked out how to get me up to the surface with them, we were properly reunited and set about swimming forward again. The rock floor kept rising until it reached the surface up ahead. We could see heat sources where the rock emerged into the air - possibly humanoid lizard shapes? One placed a torch into a holder on the wall, and then they gathered in a circle. It was a natural cave, but had narrowed and rose out of the water. I noticed that Silanna and Tak were both badly hurt, so I used my mind to help Silanna, gesturing that I'd like to speak. We raised our heads out of the water and I whispered that we needed to warn Tak what was ahead. We both tugged gently to urge him to come up to the surface (he was keen to stay in the water), but when he finally did so he asked what was going on really loudly!

Unsurprisingly, this caused a reaction up ahead. The lizard things rushed towards us, and I hurriedly used my mind to help Tak with some of his wounds. The creatures drew large, curved swords and Silanna moved forward to reach solid ground so that she could meet them before they reached the water. I tried calling out in Common that we were sorry for intruding and meant no harm, but there was no sign that they had understood me. I let Tak know this, so he tried speaking a different language... but that only seemed to enrage them! I urged him to move forward to help Silanna, and to get me close enough to get out of the water myself. He deposited me in the shallows, and I was able to wade forward until I could use my arms.

The, now rather angry, foes closed the distance quickly, though, and I was struck before I could defend myself. Silanna cut into one of them, and I thrust up into the one that had hit me. They were quite large, at least ten feet high, so my height was an advantage and I was able to find a weak spot in its belly. My staff penetrated and cut up into its innards, causing it to collapse and writhe around until it died shortly afterwards. Silanna finished her first foe off, a little more cleanly to be fair, although another stepped in to take its place. I moved forward to engage another, as the last focused on Tak. I called a warning to him, saying that he had a foe to his fore and right. We all suffered blows, although we were holding them short of the water's edge.

I struck my new foe a glancing blow, but Tak managed to land one of his wild swings and killed his foe outright (possibly without even knowing it). My second blow was better placed, and my foe fell. I tried to move behind the last one to cut off its escape, shouting that there was only one left so that Tak knew the situation. Silanna punched it twice, trying not to kill it, and both blows struck its head powefully. It collapsed, out cold, allowing us a moment to catch our breaths and remove the rope that the others were connected by. We had been waiting to get out of the water so that Silanna could use a scroll to help Tak, and sure enough she was able to dispel the blindness that had afflicted him! Yes!

Now that he could see, Tak took a moment to study the cave we had entered. He reckoned that water had once flowed here, so the torch holder must have been a more recent addition. We move forward to examine that area, looking left to see a steep slope and narrowing of the passage to become a tube leading upwards. The main cave continued straight ahead, though, and it seemed that water had flowed along the main shaft we were in. Silanna noticed a symbol shimmering on the roof where the cave junction was - it was the eye and pyramid symbol we had seen before. There was also a very faded set of markings on the ground - a star around a circle with three old gods marked. We could barely make it out due to the water erosion, but it seemed like this was what the lizard creatures had been gathered around. The torch sconce itself was metal, and shaped like a serpent.

Tak examined it and then tried to take the torch, not wanting to leave fire in a place of water. As he did so, though, the sconce came alive and bit him! He collapsed on the floor, and the snake kept getting bigger! It was about five feet long, and partially curled around Tak, when Silanna use dweomer to slow down its growth somehow. I ran forward and smacked it solidly with my staff, but that wasn't enough to kill it. It was still growing, but it had certainly slowed down and we both set upon it, slashing and whacking it until it released Tak and collapsed, shrinking back down to the metal form it had started as, although no longer attached to the wall. Thankfully Tak came around shortly afterwards, so we explained what happened. He seemed to be upset that he was being a burden, but the only reason he was bitten was because he was the only one that knew what to look for when someone had set a trap, so not a burden at all!

Tak took the torch from the floor, which didn't seem to have been burning for long, and extinguished it after I offered to use my infused torch instead (because it has no actual fire). The creatures had clearly been conducting a ceremony of some kind, but we didn't know how the torch interacted with the star and symbols. We explored a little farther and found that there was another star symbol on the other side of the junction, although it had one different God and a different orientation to the first. We didn't want to change what we didn't understand, so we decided to continue along the main shaft instead. There was no real change for an hour or so, although it did seem to get drier and slightly warmer as we traveled. Eventually we reached a further narrowing in the shaft just before it veered to the right.