The Pisspots had arrived at the final destination of their hastily accepted and poorly planned sailing excursion: A small island alleged to contain vast wealth guarded by deadly beasts and nefarious traps. An unmoving storm cloud shrouded the island and was their last obstacle to making landfall.
Emboldened by their recently acquired Revivify diamond, some members of the Pisspots believed they were nigh invincible. What force could stop them when they were so protected from the frail clutches of Death? Hell, not even Devin would stand a chance!
Not one hour later, their hard-won insurance against eternal posthumous torment in the plane of madness was expended, and it was not long before they would need it again.
You see, as they were discussing how to circumvent the storm, Rune suddenly recalled Mierdras’s advice: Approach the island from beneath the waves. Though they were only 300 feet from the cloud, the sea was calm and no dangerous waves were in sight. Still, after his experience with the ice wall in the mountains, Rune dared not try to pass through the cloud directly. Selflessly fearing not for his own safety, the foolhardy Rune declared he would approach the island alone, with the others following later if it was safe. Before they could protest, the non-buoyant warforged leapt into the sea and began to plummet to the ocean floor, hundreds of feet down.
In the abyss the waters were devoid of light, so Rune used dead reckoning as he trudged through the ocean muck toward his target. But before long he began to sense he was not alone in the deep. He cast Daylight on himself, and the brilliant light revealed that he was being stalked by a pair of ferocious shark-mounted tritons! Aggravated by the unwelcome radiance, the beasts attacked. Though Rune fought back bravely and even felled one of his aggressors, he was outmatched.
Meanwhile, from their vessel above the waves, Braxis was sending periodic requests for updates from the doomed warforged. When he received no response, the party went into a panic. They quickly quaffed their Potions of Water Breathing, lathered their salves of Alter Self, bid Flav keep the ship safe, and dove into the ocean in search of their friend.
Unharried by enemies, the Pisspots were fortunate enough to find the body of their friend Rune, lifeless and ravaged by his attackers. Though time was not on their side, Ragon decided to attempt to Revivify him. And lo! By the grace of the gods, the spell worked, and life returned to the warforged! They were whole once again, but they were also diamond-less again. With their hubris somewhat tempered by their palpable vulnerability, they continued their march across the seafloor.
They surfaced once the waters became shallower. To their amazement, they had passed beyond the exterior of the storm cloud and found it to be nothing but a hollow shell! It was apparently an artifice contrived to dissuade would-be explorers from venturing near the island. The interior was dark as night, so Remi bestowed Darkvision to those who needed it, and they climbed onto the rocky shore.
The island was small and inhospitable, with few conspicuous landmarks upon its craggy surface save for a cave entrance. Like one they had seen months before, this cave was warded by magical runes. From their prior experiences, the Pisspots knew that those among them branded with Devin’s soul anchors — Remi, Mav, Ragon, and Kaicho — could pass the threshold, but Braxis and Rune could not. They tried every trick for bypassing the barrier that they could think of before Braxis used Dimension Door to teleport himself and Rune into the cave. Unfortunately, whoever designed the defenses of this place had prepared for this tactic, and the pair found themselves trapped within a four-sided room with no way out.
Time passed, and soon the other four decided they could not wait any longer for their friends to find their own way back. Clearly they needed assistance, and wherever they were imprisoned must have been inside the cave. They advanced inward cautiously before finding a stone room. Along the far wall was an altar, much like the one they saw in the other warded cave guarded by Devin’s “pet” aboleths. Between them and the altar was a pool of murky, stagnant water.
Seeing no other paths out of the room, Kaicho volunteered to investigate the altar. Remi tied a rope around the Boss’s waist and held the other end firmly as Kaicho approached the edge of the pool. A tendril of water suddenly lunged at him and pulled him in. As the others tugged on the rope, a massive black dragon emerged from the water, the very same that followed Devin’s command to destroy the undead hydra! Before they could react, it spat acid at the three standing intruders. Kaicho climbed out of the pool and flung daggers as Remi and Ragon moved in to strike. Mav, having suffered the most from the acid breath, began to slowly back out of the cave while loosing arrows at the beast.
The dragon focused its attacks on the teenage ninja tortle shanking its flank. Remi was fast and fierce in spite of his massive shell, but he was also surprisingly squishy despite it. In mere moments, the monk was mauled and marred and fell flat face first to the floor. Kaicho and Ragon were only seconds away from pumping some healing into him, but the dragon had smacked him so hard that he ruptured an aortic aneurysm and died right there.
Seeing that the situation was dire, Mav called for retreat and fled without looking back. Kaicho, filled with desperation at the sight of his adopted son falling, rushed to Remi’s side and searched in vain for a pulse. As despair began to wash over Ragon, he recalled the promise of his patron and shattered the vial she gifted him at his feet. From the shards erupted a deva, a servant sent by Galistris to aid him. Ragon asked if the angel could do anything to help Remi, and in an instant he swept the tortle up in his arms and flew out of the cave on feathered wings. Kaicho and Ragon gritted their teeth and looked at the dragon one last time with fury in their eyes. As they too fled, Ragon heard the dragon whisper, “I’ll be seeing you…”
Outside the tunnel, Ragon and Kaicho found the angel on the beach praying over Remi’s cold body. Mavmeros stood there, looking terrified. The rage the others felt toward the dragon quickly shifted to Mav. His retreat was too quick. In the past he had promised to look out for himself first when things seemed hopeless. That selfish admission angered Kaicho when it was merely hypothetical. Now Mav had kept that promise, and because of it they were unable to fight at full strength. Remi was dead, but Mav fled before he knew that, and so he had proven himself prepared to abandon his allies when they needed help most. To Kaicho and Ragon, this was unforgivable.
Over the next hour, tempers flared hot and relationships grew cold, and all the while the angel prayed. Rune and Braxis discovered the key to escaping their magic prison and reappeared on the beach. They were shocked at all that had happened in their absence, but there was little any could do but wait. Finally, the angel stood and declared he had done all that he could before vanishing to his home plane. And lo! In the same moment Remi drew breath and began coughing violently. He was alive!
What happened to Remi’s soul during the hour he was dead? What mind-warping torment must he have suffered at the hands of the Mad Tyrant’s dread horrors? Fortunately for Remi, he couldn’t remember any of it, or even the last 24 hours. Perhaps his amnesia was a blessing from Ragon’s patron, a boon to preserve his sanity. For now, the young tortle was just confused about where he was and why his body hurt so very badly.
All were overjoyed to have their favorite party member back, but they couldn’t celebrate for long. They were all so exhausted from their trials that they needed to find a place to rest, and right outside the dragon’s cave certainly didn’t feel safe. Kaicho and Mav swam around the perimeter of the island in opposite directions. Where they met on the far side they found a small hole in the rock face, barely large enough to squeeze through. It was just above the water and led into a descending tunnel. The theme from Jaws began to play, and just as they scurried in a great shark leapt out of the water, snapping at their heels. They were safe, but now the others needed to join them. After a difficult climb, they arrived at the hole by going over the sheer rock exterior of the cave. They narrowly escaped another close encounter with the shark, and Remi had to quickly Shadow Step inside, becoming uncomfortably wedged in the small tunnel. Rune was able to dislodge him, and they were at last able to take in their surroundings.
They were in a claustrophobia-inducing antechamber with a low ceiling and a short branching tunnel that dead-ended into two doors protected by magical combination locks. They knew the tide would come in eventually and probably flood this space, so they determined they needed to pass through these doors. As Remi sat in the corner nursing his wounds and taking notes, the rest took turns trying different combinations on one of the doors. Every failure unleashed a dangerous spell that cumulatively, over the course of the next hour, caused serious injury to most of them. It wasn’t until they tried the 21st out of 24 possible combinations that the first door finally opened to reveal a massive pile of treasure…
Countdown to Devin’s rendezvous: 8-9 days?