12 Chirreb 4385 (6 Chirreb): Escape!

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Squidge

We'd hoped to be able to just walk out after deactivating the water-trap with the code phrase but NO. Stupid Sharone had made us kill her and none of the three bandits who'd surrendered knew how to disable it. ARGH.

We talked about what to try or rather the others did. I fell asleep because planning is boring and by then it was really really late and also I'd been dead earlier and that takes a lot out of you.

Purrzhon woke me before dawn to take a last shift on watch because the plan turned out to be 'wait until after dawn when we're all full on cley and try something then'.

But Mirhandrax said we needed to have two of us on watch in case the surrendered bandits tried anything and Outcast and Branner (Faefen's father) and Squidge couldn't count as being on guard.

"Squidge?" I asked.

Mirhandrax nodded his massive bearish head (the Become a Pocker spells had worn off on both him and Nightbloom while I was napping) towards Purrzhon. The big black cat had curled up around the scawn he'd rescued and was snoring already. "His scawn."

"He named it?"

"I believe she came with a name," Mirhandrax rumbled.

I wrinkled my nose. The scawn did have tentacles -- seven of them, long and grey-rubbery like a sleeping Khtsoyis's. They'd been secured by the bag and ropes when we'd first seen her. "He didn't really hire a fast airship and four prime adventurers and two nonprimes and some expensive adventuring enchantments just to rescue a scawn, did he? Because if he reeeeeally wanted a scawn there's lots easier ways to get one. Not that I understand why he'd want a scawn in the first place."

Mirhandrax shrugged and heaved a sigh.

"Although I guess I've never seen a scawn with tentacles before. Maybe she's special somehow?" I sighed too.

Mirhandrax shrugged again. "I think he was telling the truth about wanting the bandits gone from Ulmarn Mene. We did see them extorting that Rassimel family."

"Yeah."

"He could have told us about Squidge. It would have been helpful in planning," Mirhandrax rumbled, annoyed.

I didn't tell him about it being traditional to omit the most important details when you hire adventurers because I hadn't found that out from Sythyry yet.

Once it was dawn we got everyone up because it wasn't like the strongroom littered with corpses and prisoners was actually a comfortable place to get a good night's sleep anyway.

Escape From the Water-Khtsoyis of Drowning: First Attempt

After a couple of tries, Nightbloom managed a Destroc Illusidor spell to make the image of the door knob disappear so we could see if the Khtsoyis-Aquador-elemental and the flooding waters were still there. They weren't!

So we opened the door and I stepped out.

The trap went off again. Water flooded the stairwell and a giant blue-tinted waterKhtsoyis re-formed from the waves, all lashy tentacles and gurgly roaring.

Mirhandrax had already closed the door so I teleported back into the strongroom before the waterKhtsoyis had a chance to wrap its tentacles around me. "The trap goes off when you leave too," I reported unnecessarily. We hadn't really expected that to work.

Escape From the Water-Khtsoyis of Drowning: Second Attempt

I peered through the invisible doorknob into the stairwell. The waterKhtsoyis was patolling up and down the flooded steps. I cast Nowhere Prison on it. It swam out of sight. We waited several seconds. It swam back into sight, so it must have resisted. I tried to cast Nowhere Prison on it again and botched because I was still woozy from being dead yesterday.

So I accidentally imprisoned myself for a little while. I just waited it out because it doesn't last that long. I mean, it seems like a long time when you're fighting for your life but if there's no deadly combat to save your friends from it's not a big deal. And this day already felt like it was going to use up a lot of cley.

The others hadn't come up with a better plan while I was imprisoned so when I got back I tried Nowhere Prison on the waterKhtsoyis a third time. It resisted again. On the fourth time it swam out of sight and then didn't show up again. "It didn't resist that time!" I said.

"Or it learned. To stay out of sight of the door," Nightbloom said dolefully.

"I'll check which!" I teleported back out to the stairwell. A green-tinted waterKhtsoyis materialized. I teleported back into the strongroom.

"Another one?" Nightbloom said incredulously.

"Rrai! How many charges is that trap having?" Purrzhon lashed his tail in annoyance.

I peered through the doorknob at the enchantment on the stairwell and tried to figure it out. "Ummm. A lot? Twelve?"

Purrzhon cursed.

Mirhandrax spread his big paws. "Wait, I think we can make this work. Can everyone hold their breath long enough to make it up those stairs?"

"Sure but there's no way we can all get past that elemental or kill it if we're fighting under water -- "

Mirhandrax grinned. "There's a reason that trap only conjures one elemental at a time."