Turtle and Snake

19th – 21st Day of Fireseek, CY 592

The Pool
We searched the body of Naquent and found among other things a strange medallion with a faint divination aura.  At this point, we had to decide whether to pursue the fleeing nagas, or return to the dwarven temple to rest.  We decided that we should take care of the nagas first, so we made our way down to the double doors at the eastern end of the chamber.

Within moments of opening the door, we began to question our decision to continue.  One of the nagas charmed Uthgar, but Creden called upon his god to give Uthgar another chance to resist it.  The other naga cast a crackling, black ray of negative energy at Creden.  Safadin shot a sonic orb out of his staff damaging one of the nagas.  The “turtles” that the bugbears mentioned were actually powerful extraplanar beings known as tojanida.  They came up out of the pool that dominated the room, and attacked Creden and Uthgar.  The one on Uthgar managed to lock its powerful bite down on him, and Victor was not able to break the vice-like grip.  Delvanos cast haste on the party, and Vannay began summoning a creature to deal with the tojanidas.

One tojanida pulled Uthgar into the pool, while the other one split Creden’s maul in two with its bite.  It also filled the northern half of the pool with an inky black liquid obscuring all sight.  Before Vannay was able to finish his summoning, one of the nagas fired two scorching rays at him.  Luckily, they both missed their mark, and a huge orca whale appeared in the pool next to the tojanidas.  The other naga paralyzed Creden with an enchantment, making him easy prey for the tojanida.  The orca and Safadin combined their attacks to take out one naga.  Delvanos began inspiring our courage with one of his memorable epic tales.  Victor cast Righteous Might and moved into a position to attack the tojanida.

The tojanida saw the giant orca in the water, so it dropped Uthgar, submerged out of sight and attacked the whale.  It also shot its inky black jet into Victor’s eyes blinding him.  Creden’s second chance to resist the paralyzing enchantment worked just before the other tojanida attacked him.  One of its claws managed to hold onto Creden pulling him closer to the turtle.  Victor tried to attack the tojanida near Uthgar, but the blindness rendered all of his attacks useless.  Safadin’s magic and Delvanos’ arrows took the other naga down.  Vannay began summoning a celestial griffon.

Now we had one visible tojanida left to kill.  It pulled Creden into the water and dropped him.  Uthgar managed to pull himself out of the water, and Creden was able to as well with a little help from the griffon.  Vannay and Safadin cast energy missiles, while Delvanos fired a number of arrows at it.  Then Victor went to work on it.  His first punch cracked the shell, and he followed up with a flurry of blows in the breach.  The tojanida was dead.  We considered waiting for the other one to surface, but decided to go ahead and get out of there.  We returned to our sanctuary in the dwarven temple, and the next day we teleported to Verbobonc.

Verbobonc
Creden found a master craftsman, who said he could repair the maul in two days.  A number of people were making preparations to travel to Chendl for the funeral of King Belvor.  After some discussion, we decided that we would attend the funeral before resuming our assault on the fane.

When we checked in at the Rook’s Cove, there was a letter waiting on us from Canon Heldenster.

Dear Friends,

We expect that you are making plans to attend the services of our departed sovereign.  This is of course acceptable.  There are a number of groups within Furyondy and without that have interest in the progress of your quest.  We do not wish to distract from the honor due our king, and we do not want other complications to arise related to that most holy of relics that you hold.  Please take all necessary precautions, and you should consider arriving “in cognito”.  Only contact the council if you have news to report.  If you do not contact us, we will assume that the quest is proceeding as planned.  I am sure you realize that with recent events, this has taken on an even greater importance.

May the Invincible One protect you,

Canon Heldenster
Prelate of Heironeous