BBG: Chapter 26

I moved to clash with Krevok and his closest two Sahuagin Guards, parrying a Trident with Aremeg's Wisdom, even as a second scraped across my breastplate. I lashed out with Aremeg's Fury, cutting for the Sahuagin Officer, who leaned away from the blow just enough to prevent the cut from taking his head off, instead taking a graze across his gills. His riposte took a chunk out of my thigh as I tried to backpedal a moment too late. Instead of allowing him to press home another strike with blood in the water, however, I lashed out in a thrust that crunched through his face, killing him. His two former grunts, however, sensed blood and, though I dodged one strike of a trident, the other grazed my upper arm in a blood-frenzy-fuelled burst of speed, spilling yet more of my blood into the water.

I roared and cut out, cutting one Sahuagin damn near in half, while the other managed to avoid my backswing, but the damage was done. There was blood in the water and that drove the Shark Men fighting around me into a frenzy. I took up a Swordplay Style Stance, Aremeg's Fury held in a modified version of the Italian Iron Door Guard from back on Earth. Immediately, as the Sahuagin bulled forward, limbs buoyed by frenzied strength, he thrust, allowing me to bring my blade up into a parry before cutting out for his head in a riposte that bisected the Sahuagin's head like a ripe melon.

To my right, Shavariel was likewise bleeding from a puncture wound to her calf but had four Sahuagin Corpses around her as she dueled a fifth Sahuagin. To her right, Selima had slain two Sahuagin with her hammer and was blocking the frenzied blows of a third on her shield, even as she bled from a wound to her right bicep. A flash of light to my left drew my attention next, as a Sahuagin burst at the seams, blood boiling in his body thanks to a spell from Janessa, even as two other Sahuagin ignored their suddenly burst apart comrade to charge me from the side.

I lashed out with Aremeg's Fury, cutting the throat out of one even as I parried the second's thrust, bringing the Trident down to the floor and allowing me to riposte with a blow from the hilt of Aremeg's Fury. The strike from my hilt slammed into the Sahuagin's face, bursting one of its eyes with a sickening pop and plume of viscous fluid. The Sahuagin dropped his trident and I bulled forward with a cut that practically bisected the shark man, killing my fifth of the fight so far just in time for Shavariel to do likewise, punching her trident through her opponent's coral-studded, sharkskin, armor and into his foul heart, killing him. To her right, Selima staved in the ribcage of another Sahuagin, even as yet Another Sahuagin cut into her calf with a graze from the razor-sharp tines of his trident. That Sahuagin soon found himself struck by five magic missiles from Janessa and slain on the spot.

With five Sahuagin left, their blood frenzy began to fade, the sudden realization of their situation hitting them and cutting through the red haze. Unfortunately, at the same time, so too did the realization that if they surrendered, they would only be killed by Xommyrru later, likely eaten as punishment for desertion. Trapped between the Brine Dragon on one hand, and the band of still very much alive adventurers on the other, the Sahuagin fought on with grim determination. It was ultimately futile, however, as we slew them quickly, with my taking one's head off before cleaving another from shoulder to hip, Shavariel spearing one through the face while breaking another's neck with a sideways strike of the haft of her trident, and Selima shattering the last one's skull.

As the fluids and blood disappeared, whirling away in the ocean currents into insubstantial wisps of nothingness, we looked about and realized that we were the only ones left. Now it was time to loot and heal, before plunging further down into the belly of the Coral Citadel. This we did, stowing usable enemy gear into our bags of holding or handy haversacks while Selima did her work on our wounds. After ten minutes, we had gotten everything we could stashed away and our wounds healed to the best of our capabilities.

"I will warn you that I will have to convert many of my other spells into healing spells in order to have the ability to heal us during the fight with the Brine Dragon." Cautioned Selima.

"You can do that?" Questioned Shavariel.

"Deneir Provides a method to do so for his faithful." Nodded Selima.

"Is that anything like how I cast spells?" Queried Janessa.

"I don't believe so." Mused Selima.

"Not unless you're secretly a Cleric or something and you just haven't told us." I smirked.

"I don't think I could handle being cloistered." Grinned Janessa.

"You do not have to be to be a cleric. Am I stuck in a convent?" Asked Selima, wryly.

"A fair point, you have to admit." I chuckled.

"Regardless, we should try the tunnel next. I doubt a Brine Dragon of Xommyrru's purported size would be capable of living in the towers." Interjected Shavariel.

"Right, back on the mission, then. Keep your eyes peeled, something tells me we haven't seen the last of the Sahuagin." I warned.

"Indeed. A holding like this would usually have at least eighty Warriors, with an equivalent number of civilians." Concurred Selima.

"Though it sounds like Xommyrru's been eating some of them." Pointed out Janessa.

"Sixty Warriors, Four Officers, and a Chieftain would be the bare minimum to keep a fortress such as this properly defended." Mused Shavariel.

"And we've already slain fifty-two warriors and three officers, not to mention Eldraxis, who likely counted as the Chieftain. Granted, Xommyrru himself counts for a lot in terms of defenses, but I think there are probably at least a few others down below. Maybe as few as eight warriors and an officer, possibly more than that if Xommyrru didn't eat this tribe down to the bare minimum." I summarized.

Getting three nods of assent from my companions, I steeled myself before making the move to the cavern opening in the floor. Immediately, I spotted a pair of Deathblade Scythe Wall Traps on the cavern mouth. They were set one on either side so that anyone who didn't have the proper instructions for how to pass through the cavern opening would get hit by at least one. Fortunately, I had my tools and with a brief bit of work managed to disable both of them, finding the hidden mechanism in the stonework and fiddling with it till the scythes would refuse to be sprung.

As we descended down a level, with no traps remaining in the tunnel, we came out into what appeared to be a dungeon level. However, instead of prisoners, the cells had been repurposed as a larder. Bloody hunks of unidentified meat hung from hooks suspended from the ceiling, curing in the briny seawater. I tried not to think about what exactly those pieces of meat came from as we moved forward through the dungeon-cum-larder and down into a tunnel that was bored into the living rock of the plateau. It was a difficult task, especially as one of those hunks of meat ended in a clearly human hand. Thankfully, I wrestled the gorge that was rising in the back of my throat back down as we continued on down into the depths of the plateau.

In fact, I was so consumed with the queasiness that seeing human body parts used as meat in a larder had forced on me that I almost missed the pair of Acid Arrow Traps because of my need to wrestle with my suddenly rebellious stomach. Almost, but not quite, that is. Fortunately for us all, I was able to wrestle my gorge down and spot the first Acid Arrow Trap just in time to prevent Shavariel from walking into the line of fire, grabbing her shoulder, and physically hauling her backward up the corridor several paces. She rounded on me, a scowl on her face.

"Just what was that for?" She demanded, hotly.

"Look there, you see that coral pillar there?" I questioned.

"A trap?" Queried Selima.

"An Acid Arrow Trap, there's a wand of Acid Arrow embedded in the pillar. I almost missed it, but if you'd taken another step forward, you would have walked right into the firing line." I insisted, pointing.

"Was it cause of those meathooks back there?" Asked Janessa.

"Yes. I didn't care to look too closely at the dungeons because of the grisly larder they'd made it into. It almost cost us, but I think I see the trick now." I nodded.

"Well then, you should get to disarming the trap." Intoned Shavariel.

"Quite, after all, you yourself said there are likely more Sahuagin down here." Agreed Selima.

"Try to recover the Wand if you can. It might come in useful down the line." Hedged Janessa.

"I'll try. I make no promises, though." I cautioned.

And with that, I got to work, looking for a way to unlimber the wand of Acid Arrow from the pillar in such a way that it wouldn't go off while I was doing it or explode or something. Unfortunately, even with my tools, I wasn't familiar enough with this sort of trap just yet to both disarm the trap and recover the wand, though now that I knew what to look for, I easily spotted the second wand of Acid Arrow affixed to the second pillar. This time, with the practice from disarming the first trap, I was able to not only disarm the second trap but recover the wand as well, handing it off to Janessa who promptly stowed it away in her Bag of Holding.

Once we were past those traps, we came to a locked portcullis. This was unlocked after five minutes of effort on my part and we came out into a small guardroom. Inside were the remaining nine Sahuagin that I had been wary about, eight Warriors and an Officer. Thankfully, we had managed to take them largely by surprise as they hadn't been expecting us. I rushed the officer before he could do more than turn toward us, hacking out at him with Aremeg's Fury in a pair of blows that saw him carved up like a roast chicken. Shavariel followed suit, slaying a pair of others, with Janessa slaying one via her Onyx Dagger and Selima breaking another's skull open with her hammer.

However, as we downed their officer and half their number, the remaining Sahuagin Warriors began to react, grabbing tridents off the racks on the wall, one of which was thrown my way, cutting a line across my neck, but failing to penetrate deeply enough to do a mortal blow. I still clamped a hand against my neck to prevent myself from bleeding out, but fortunately, Selima was there to heal me, even as Shavriel ran one through on the tines of her Trident before disemboweling another. Janessa slew one with a trio of magic missiles while wounding the last Sahuagin, who grabbed another trident off the rack hurriedly. However, Selima had finished healing my neck wound and I strode forth, cutting the Last Sahuagin down with a powerful stroke of Aremeg's Fury as he turned to try and gut me.

That finished, we took in the scene of the guardroom. We had taken the last Sahuagin largely by surprise, before they'd had time to don armor or grab weapons, at least for the most part, barring that one lucky throw of a trident that took a chunk out of my neck. Most of the Armor was still on their racks, as were multiple tridents and shields. We looted what we could, before continuing onward through the doorway on the other side of the Guardroom.

This led us down through a long gallery that wound deeper into the plateau that the Coral Citadel had been built atop and into. As we walked, however, it felt like the pressure was starting to equalize as we moved further into the gallery, until finally, the water had receded to our waists and we were once again moving up into a cavern that contained an air pocket. Shavariel put her ring of Air Breathing back on and Janessa and Selima allowed their spells of Water Breathing to end as we emerged into air that smelled tangy like ammonia, the telltale signs of alkaline, which meant we were closing in on Xommyrru's Lair.

Before we arrived, however, we were forced to pass through one more trapped section of tunnel. I spotted the fusillade of spears traps from the telltale, spear-sized, holes in the walls of the gallery. One set on the right side, and the other set on the left side. Ten minutes of work later I had their shared trigger, a series of pressure plates, permanently jammed shut in the off position. We continued forward after that, exiting the Gallery into a vast chamber.

The Chamber was filled with piles of gold coins in dozens of denominations, Waterdhavian Dragons, Amnian Danter, Calishite Bicenta, Moonshae Crowns, Baldurian Double Eagles, and Neverwinter Lords all piled high along with gemstones of varying kinds, from Chultan Fire Rubies to Gundarlun Amber and Ruathym Jet, from Moonshae Pearls to Amnian Laeral's Tears and Baldurian Horn Coral. The wealth of coins and gems alone must have been damn near fifty-thousand Danter in Worth. There were other things there as well, an entire library's worth of scrolls, a number of magical items, and even the Cloth-of-Silver and Pearl-studded Banner of the Watchpost that Knight-Lieutenant Melarue had wanted us to retrieve for her.

Unfortunately, this giant pile of loot was not the only thing present in the cavern, as the entire rear third of it was taken up by a pool of water, which was now bubbling and foaming as something came up from the depths. We all knew exactly what that something was going to be, and as the triangular, finned, head rose from the depths of the pool, atop a sinewy neck of pale yellow scales, fang-filled maw open and dripping with sizzling alkaline fluids, I knew that we were in for a fight.

Xommyrru slithered out of the pool, serpentine, scaly, bulk winding around the pile of loot protectively, his slit-pupilled eyes locked onto our group. With a snarl of disdain, Xommyrru addressed us as he reared his head back fifteen feet into the air, almost touching the ceiling of the cavern.

"So you are the ones who have trespassed in my Domain and slain my servants? You should know that you have sealed your doom by doing so." Snarled Xommyrru.

"I do not fear you, Wyrm. I know your kind and know that my Companions and I will vanquish you!" I exclaimed.

"Is that so? I know your kind too, Northman. A would-be hero, hoping to slay the Longtail and have Sagas written of his victory. In three hundred years of life, I have sent so many of you would-be heroes to the grave that your Skalds would weep if they knew the true number! You think to slay me? I am Xommyrru! My Teeth are as swords, my coils send the very waves roiling, my tail a maul fit to capsize ships, and my breath has flensed the flesh from a necropolis' worth of would-be Heroes! You will fare no better than all the rest!" Boasted Xommyrru.

And with that, Xommyrru belched out a cloud of acrid, alkaline, substances, and the final battle for the Coral Citadel began in earnest. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. I wanted to get to the Xommyrru Fight before the Month Ended, so expect at least one more chapter for this before the month is out.

Here we see Robar and Company make their way through the Coral Citadel, slaying the remaining Sahuagin, disarming various traps, and winding their way toward Xommyrru's Lair in the center of the Plateau that the Coral Citadel was built on and into. Notably, Xommyrru is a CR Thirteen Mature Adult Brine Dragon with the Giant Creature Template. He is by far the toughest opponent that Robar and Company have faced yet, but if they win here, not only will they get the loot, not only will they gain Seahearth as Allies for Jarl Finehair's Counterattack against the Umberlants that have taken over Cadfael Island, but they will also get to figure out why the Umberlants are doing all this to begin with, as Xommyrru has scrolls detailing Umberlant Efforts in the Jannath's Tears Archipelago amidst his hoard.

At any rate, the next chapter will include the showdown with Xommyrru and will likely be out before the end of the month.

Stay tuned. . .