For the next day and a half the party made their way through Khyber, hoping they were drawing closer to Orisis' lair. In the pitch black, only Maak Tol could see clearly, while the rest of the party relied on Tselem's magical lights to feel their way along. The passage of time was hard to gauge, but their trip was thankfully free of encounters with monsters.
By their reckoning it was evening on the 21st of Sypheros when they entered the cavern. It was a huge room, so large that even Maak Tol could not see the other side. They could all feel the breezes blowing through, and they could also see, hear, and smell the massive lake filling the chamber. The water was rank, but calm, and lapped gently at the shore only a few feet from where they stood.
The party couldn't see any way through but across the lake, but were wary of what might be lurking beneath it, so they weren't about to swim. So Azeri cast her cloud chariot and they all boarded for the trip across. They skimmed a dozen feet or more above the surface, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of trouble.
And sure enough it wasn't long before they found some. From beneath the dark surface emerged a half-dozen fish-like humanoids with bows and arrows. Warbling in Deep Speech, they began shooting at the party. Their arrows didn't pose much of threat, but these few attackers did not remain few for long. More began to emerge, these with harpoons. And as they continued to shout in their gravely voices, a huge monster rose from the water in front of them. This abomination looked like a cross between a slug and a fish, and dripped with foul-smelling mucus. At its appearance, the attackers began to chant, which Maak Tol recognized as praise to 'the glory of Aboleth!'
Tselem blasted the creatures in the water with chain lightning, using their environment against them. In retaliation, one of the harpoon-armed creatures struck Taumir, pulling him into the water! As he surfaced, another half-dozen creatures surfaced, surrounding him! But Taumir was having none of this - he launched himself back onto the chariot, sending out a blast that blew away almost all of the attackers surrounding him.
Tselem, ever the inventor, cast a portal that opened underneath their attackers and exited to their side. It effectively created rapids beneath them and a firehose in their faces. They were still fish, so it didn't drown or hurt them, but it did slow them down.
Maak Tol, using one of his flying forms, flew down a few feet towards the water to do his part in the fray. Since the slime monster had appeared the whole party had been feeling a certain amount of psychic pressure, and now Maak Tol felt himself falling under its control. Thankfully he was able to throw it off.
More fish creatures surfaced and tried to get to Maak Tol. Tselem used an ice attack that killed them all. More surfaced and began attacking. Azeri burned them all to death. The water was now as thick with corpses (some frozen) as it was with attackers.
Rewards
(Nothing yet, encounter is still on-going)
