Porthca Landing II: Lost & Found

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The trip down in the water was surprisingly relaxing for Valerie. She had little experience swimming, seeing as Emberhallow is a landlocked city, but that hardly mattered, seeing as it was a simple matter of climbing the rope and holding her breath. It brought her back to one of Grandfather’s favorite activities, scaling the many mountains near the capital. She had never been particularly fast or skilled at it, but she knew how to persevere like no other. Short, shallow outtakes... I have more than enough breath, I only need to make sure it is properly regulated. Her arms were growing tired, weighed down by the heavy shield on her back, but finally, she breached the surface in the cave.

Gasping for breath, the young warlock pulled herself out of the water and lay face-first on the cold ground in a rather unladylike-like manner that would cause Grandfather to roll in his grave. After a moment, she pushed herself up, her exhausted arm muscles groaning in protest as her claws scratched against the cave floor. It felt as if Virra or Magnolia, and either one truthfully would be an equally likely culprit, had jumped onto her back. “Pardon me, but would you mind...” She froze as she saw the people now accompanying her in the cave. It’s okay, Valerie, it’s fine... clearly this is some sort of misunderstanding. Then, something touched her leg, and she yelped and jumped her height into the air. Landing, Valerie looked around wildly, feeling an awkward shifting from... something on her back before she finally craned her neck back over her shoulder.

Someone shrieked. It was probably her, come to think of it. Then again, it would be almost impossible not to, staring at the large fiendish bat-like wings that had fused themselves to her shoulder blades. The wings flapped wildly in response to her panic, the powerful strokes knocking her off of her feet, and landing painfully on her long tail.

A tentative hand came up to confirm her fears, and brushed against the tip of a sharp horn. Shaking slightly, the former human pushed herself to her feet, her worry evident in her voice despite her attempts to temper it. “Okay... so I am a tiefling now... We... we will be turned back, right?”
 
Eliza tried to swallow back her tears, this was such a mean trick to play. A glance at her reflection in the water confirmed her suspicions.

“No,I don’t believe the thief is powerful enough to turn this many people permanently. Doesn’t mean we have to play his silly games.” The wizard waved her wand around herself covering herself with shimmering fog. Out of it the familiar looking figure of the half-orc stepped out, albeit with more grace than before.

“That’s better. Shall we move on?” She tapped her staff impatiently dreading what else the trickster had cooked up for them.
 
Swimming down the rope, Tyrius had no idea that Virra was in trouble until he saw Niradnam rocket past the group with the inquisitive young woman in tow. Starting to feel a little tired himself, Tyrius concentrated on just pulling himself along the rope, getting tunnel vision where all that mattered was the rope ahead of him and keeping his breathing calm and under control, exhaling only a little and holding onto as much breath as possible for as long as he could.

As he broke the surface of the water and climbed out of the pool, Tyrius closed his eyes as he took big greedy gulps of air, resting a little while he could. Hearing the panicked sounds of some of the others, Tyrius opened his eyes and thats when he noticed a large red protusion running just where his nose usually was. Going to poke at it with his finger, he noticed a red scaled hand rise up in front of his face. 'What the?' thought Tyrius as he looked into the pool and saw a red scaled dragonborn staring back at him. "Oh - my - gods!" cheered Tyrius, amazed at the sudden change. Poking at one of his scales with a claw, ready to see if it was just an illusion, Tyrius winced a little as the claw dug in. "That is amazing. Wonder if its random or if there's some deeper magic involved?"

Looking to Niradnam and the others and seeing how they'd altered, Tyrius was comfortable with his change, even as he noticed he had an additional appendage as he almost tripped over his own red tail. "Wonder what else this place has in store?" thought Tyrius, giving a toothy grin as he reached down and undid his shoes, his feet feeling a little constricted by the black leather. Kicking them off, Tyrius left them where they were, figuring he could retrieve them on the way out.
 
Evening of the Sixteenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Banrigg huffed off to the side, his voice more rumbly than it was before, "What in th' hells is goin' on here?" He attempted to stand up straighter only to hit his head on the top of the rocks, grunting in pain. "... Have ya lot shrunk or ..." moving a hand to rub his bumped head he paused at the dark tint of his skin, and eyes suddenly focused in on the others, realizing finally they were not the same as they had been. Rowanne off to the side looked panicked, attempting to keep her shifting hair out of her face, "I don't -- I don't understand --" her voice sounded faint but with a breezy sound underneath, "What happened to us?"

Bringing his hands up in an attempt to calm the group, Niradnam paused as he noticed the tint of his skin, almost paling as his eyes widened, "I ... ah ... uuh," he stammered momentarily stuck in his thoughts before the shriek from Valerie brought him back, "I don't know about this!" Hands shaking slightly he put them back under the water where they returned to looking like his skintone from before, he coughed, "I ... none of my notes said much about any of the stuff within the cave, it was difficult enough to even find the entrance, okay ...?" The dark elf moved to the edge of the pool and started working to pull himself out, working to dry his clothes before circling to the others, muttering the commands for Prestidigitation.

Banrigg glanced at the scholar, figuring the shaking hands were tied to the group panic, while Rowanne seemed to watch more intently before checking over her gear and helping anyone else into theirs. Clearing her throat, "We ... we should be careful. If there's magic this powerful just at the entrance, we can assume there's likely more to come." She offered a hand to the depressed looking Kobold, "The sooner we finish here, hopefully the sooner we can leave, yes?"

The goliath hefted his weapon, nodding, "Aye, this perspective is interestin', though. Not used t'seeing th' tops of heads instead'a up everyone's nose." He chuckled loudly, "Anyways, lookin' forward t'seeing what this bigger body can do," he patted the firbolg on the shoulder, the only one a similar height to him, "... yer Ander right? Must be, think everyone else's accounted fer."

Standing with the others Niradnam messed with his hair, hand still unsteady, "Yes ... we should get moving, once everyone gets used to their ... changes I guess." He looked towards Valerie, "Uhm, I suggest thinking of your wings as a set of arms, and then, ah, imagine them sitting like this--" he closed his fists and brought his arms back against his chest, fists upward, "-- it'll help keep them out of the way." Creating the glowing lights again he explained, "I've been ... experimenting with a spell to grow wings temporarily -- I can't fly, but I've often spilled things by hitting objects with them."

Starting to move past the others, Banrigg and Rowanne stepped in front of him, the goliath speaking first, "Nah lad, if we're headed in, we need to figure out our order too. Doubt this place'll be all open spaces."
 
Eliza was momentarily distracted by Niradnam’s overreaction. “This is just temporary. You know that, right?” Everyone had been turned to look different so why did he seem especially upset.
 
Seeing Niradnam's distress but not realising the true reason, Tyrius walked over and gave Niradnam a smile, "Eh, don't worry Niradnam. So your skin is dark and ashy and your hair has no colour while your eyes are lilac - so what? It's still you under there. Heh, and the ears make it easy to see where you are." said Tyrius, trying to cheer Niradnam up a little, "You'll be alright Niradnam, like Eliza said this is probably temporary. May as well enjoy it right? I mean it isn't every day your body suddenly changes into something new."
 
Ander looked around, slight panic on his face as he tried to process the situation. He stepped forward slightly, but even the slight difference in height had him feeling ill. He quickly sat on the floor of the cave and nodded to the goliath in front of him, "Yeah, 's me." He forced himself back to his feet and said a prayer internally that this state wouldn't last as he made himself smile, feeling completely different teeth doing the work and wincing at that realization. "Let's go, 'haps if'n we go in deeper, this will end and we'll be back ta ourselves once more." He grabbed his waterlogged backpack and slung it over his shoulder. It nearly clattered against the ceiling as he kept having to remind himself that he needed to get used to the change in elevation.
 
Not to be left behind again, Magnolia took a running leap for the pool. Still fully in her armor, "cannon ball!"

Wait is that Seilach? Her train of thought cut short by the water breaking around her. Thankfully her necklace provided her with light as she sank further and further down, holding the rope in reverse as she slid further into the depths...

As Virra flew passed, being carried by the mer-mage. heh mer-mage. Anger boiled inside her, winning doesn't count if you get a lift! She shouted telepathically, unsure if she was heard or not.
Breaking the surface, her head suddenly felt cold... Almost as if... She were bald...
Looking into the water, she say greyish skin and a distinct lack of hair.
"What in Yondalla's name is going on, also... I can see in the dark?!"
 
Valerie was far too busy dealing with her own mess to begin to take notice of Niradnam’s identity crisis. Her wings continued to flap behind her, luckily weaker than before. When Niradnam spoke to her, however, she listened and nodded. “Very well... I suppose it is worth a try?” She mimicked the same gesture with her hands, and after a few moments the wings followed suit behind her, tucking awkwardly against her shield.

The warlock grimaced and slung it from her back, thinking to herself for a moment before affixing it to her arm and nodding. “Thank you, Mr. Niradnam... I suppose I should be towards the front with Ander. Hopefully these... wings-“ She shook her head to herself, still somewhat unable to believe it. “-will not be too much of an impedance in battle.” She dropped a hand to her side and rolled her fingers, salt drifting off of her ring and forming into a wicked looking battleaxe. She looked to the others, still somewhat hesitant. “So... shall we be off?”
 
Virra hesitated before putting her hand in Rowanne's and letting herself be helped up. Everything felt so strange with these scales covering her hands, and she was worried about puncturing Rowanne's weird blue skin with those claws. She even felt a little more diminutive than usual. Apparently the gods couldn't handle me being the second smallest member of the team, she groused to herself.

She was quickly distracted from her woes by Niradnam's own reaction and how... worrying it was. Even Virra hadn't felt as terrified as he seemed to be in a different body, and she wished she could have been an elf. Maybe he just didn't like losing control over what his body turned into? She turned to the half-orc-turned-angel-turned-half-orc and frowned. "Lay off him, Eliza. Some of us got it worse than others."

She followed Tyrius to the mystic's side, trying to look a little more upbeat herself. "Yeah, what he said, kind of," she said. "Why don't we try and do this quickly, then get out and back in our own bodies again?" Mentally, she continued: "You can talk to me if you like. I know this sucks." She laid a hand on his wrist, but quickly let go. If she were in his position, being touched by a hideous, scaly cave-dweller wouldn't have done much to soothe her nerves.

Suddenly embarrassed, she went to move away from Niradnam and take up her usual place at the middle of the pack, but caught sight of a glint of metal near his head as she turned. It was unusual enough to make her stop and think. "That's a nice earring, by the way," she added as gently as she could.
 
Eliza bit her lip before she said anything she would regret. She had promised Niradnam She would keep his secret and she wouldn’t stop now.

His reaction didn’t add up but she chalked it to his weird elf thing. Maybe he simply didn’t like to look like any elf at all. Period.

Rolling her eyes at Virra’s comment, she moved beside Ander. Show of hands...who has to go back to being a tusked green creature after this game is over? That’s what I thought. Yeah some have got it worst.

No matter, she decided. She was already stuck in this place, might as well make the most of it. Maybe she would see some cool magic on the way. The thought comforted her as well as the sight of her familiar looking hands as she started setting up the ritual for detect magic. “Give me ten minutes to prepare this ritual. Let’s not fall into more magical traps.”
 
Evening of the Sixteenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Hearing Eliza, Niradnam glanced her direction, "Er ... yeah, temporary. Hopefully." At Tyrius' attempt to be encouraging the dark elf looked over his arm again, "... right." He glanced at Virra's scaled hand, not seeming bothered by it, but as she mentioned the earring, his hand shot towards his ear with a startled look, Virra catching a brief telepathic message of, "Is it broken?" before he seemed to remember to cut the link.

The group appearing to be settled, arranged themselves into a rough formation, Ander being the point of the squad with Valerie and Rowanne to his flank on either side, Magnolia trailing behind him, still attempting to get used to her vision in the dim lit caverns, Eliza behind her, trailed by Niradnam, Virra and Tyrius with the large Banrigg acting as rearguard -- Niradnam kept the four orbs of light surrounding the party as they started to move, a faint glow along the ceilings that went about twenty feet up, the elven scholar muttering, "Glow worms ... pretty sure anyway. Wonder what keeps them alive ...?"

Turning around the corner, a route to the part's right continues, while off to the left a pool of water sits in the corner of the room, moving even without any apparent air that the group can feel.
 
For the first time since jumping into the water, Virra smiled at Niradnam's small blunder. As annoyingly competent as he was, it was nice to see him making mistakes sometimes. She could only guess at what exactly his reaction meant and whether it might have something to do with the earring, but she resolved to let them lie for the time being. After what happened in the water, she owed him a little space.

Walking in formation felt faintly ridiculous now that all the familiar faces were replaced by strangers, so Virra distracted herself by examining the cave walls. She suspected her vision was a little worse than before, but it at least allowed her to make out certain things -- like that strange pool of rippling water. "Ohh." Virra stopped where she was, practically under Banrigg's foot. "Eliza, do you wanna head over there? See what your magic sense has to say?" she asked, already approaching the pool herself.
 
Eliza followed Virra to the lake, her staff making a thud that vibrated off the cave walls with every step. “I sense some conjuration magic from the water so be careful. It might not be friendly.”
 
Watching as her companions begin to examine an odd pool of water, Valerie watched the surface for a few moments and unbidden, thoughts crawled into her head. This doesn’t belong here. It’s away from its home... As Eliza struggled with the creature for her stick, Valerie saw the distinct form of a face appear in the pool. It must be an elemental! She walked over and spoke in a strange, wave-like language that came naturally to her tongue. “Hello there, friend. My companions and I are here seeking to return something that was lost. What are you doing here in this world?”
 
Stumbling along with her "night vision," Magnolia was having the time of her life.
this sure is cool mags!
I know right? We can see so far in the dark now...
...this sure is cold on our head. I wish we brought our toque... Wait we did it's in our backpack!

Rumaging in her bag as they walked mags pulled out a home knitted cap with a pompom on top. Quickly she made the addition to her bald head... Secretly glad no one had rubbed it for luck yet...

Hey look, a fork in the road! Which way should we take?
I dunno, let's see what Yondalla thinks. "Hey Yondalla, lil help here friendo. Which way looks better?"

The half hearted response came as a ssurprise. huh, maybe she doesn't recognise us? Ohhhh look magic water that's pretty cool.

Hearing Val speak primordial for the first time shocked her, it was so rare to hear it out loud. Noticing she was talking to the water, the only logical conclusion was sentience. Running over to the puddle, she knelt right down. "Hi! I'm Mags, what's your name? Also do you like checkers?"
 
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"Someone conjured it here. It was probably the thief." Eliza took a few steps back, she had had enough of water for now. She did not want to punched by it now.
 
Evening of the Sixteenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Rowanne and Banrigg both took defensive positions, watching the rest of the cave while some of the party investigated the strange water.

When Valerie spoke in Aquan, she almost felt like the water had shifted to get a better look at her, then the sound of flowing water echoed through the room as it replied, "Woaah! I haven't haaaad someone to talk to in soooo loong!" The water rippled slightly when Mags spoke up too, "Two people! Sooo nice." A few of its "words" lingered, almost like waves that had released their energy flowing back into the ocean.

Swirling around a little bit the pool continued, "I don't haaaave a name, what are checkersss? I was brought looooooong ago, by a man who grinned aaaaall the time."

Eliza ended up standing next to Niradnam who seemed glad to have something to think on, taking his focus from everything else going on with the party, "You know," he muttered, tapping his chin, "if I recall, one of the 'legends' was the Thief taking things like the shine of the sea, or the sound of the ocean ..." He looked towards Tyrius and Eliza, "You don't think ... maybe that's what we're looking at?"
 
Valerie smiled for the first time in the cave at receiving a response, although she was somewhat shocked to learn that Magnolia spoke this strange language as well. Turning back to the others, she quickly translated. “Our little friend here is rather lonely. He was apparently brought here a long time ago by a grinning man. Likely our thief in question. If anyone has any questions, I would be glad to translate them.” Turning back to the watery creature, Valerie asked him curiously. “How were you brought here? And do you know why? Did the grinning man have a name?”
 
"That's interesting, maybe we should try taking it back with us. I would hate to live someone alone in this dingy place." Eliza looked thoughtful at the idea as she tried to come up with ways of transporting water without a vessel, "What other things did the legends say. Maybe they will give as an idea what to expect moving forward."
 
Following the group guided by Niradnam's lights, Tyrius kept his eyes focused ahead of him, feeling his leathery red tail drag over the dust on the floor. It was a strange sensation, but Tyrius didn't mind it at all. Feeling the dust and the dirt under his new clawed toes, Tyrius was surprised when Valerie and Magnolia suddenly started speaking in a new tongue that Tyrius didn't recognise, the sound of rippling water coming from their throats. Seeing the way the pool moved and the same sort of sounds coming from the pool, Tyrius stared at it hard as Valerie and Eliza spoke up.

"I agree with Eliza," said Tyrius as she mentioned bringing the creature back with them, "Maybe The Sea will look favourably on us if we return not only the pearl she sent us after - but sentient water that the thief stole as well." Looking to the pool, Tyrius asked "Hmm, don't suppose our new friend knows how they were brought here in the first place - or how long its been since the thief was last here?"
 
Evening of the Sixteenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

"I waaasss brought in a bottle, he aaasked if I waaaaaanted to see the laaaand." The water swirled up slightly in a very strange attempt at a shrug, "Don't know naaaames."

Niradnam hesitated as he looked at Eliza and Tyrius, "Uh ... back with us to ... where? And how? Most of us left our waterskins and similar with the cart," he patted himself down, his fins starting to shrink as time went on, and gills close up, "I know I don't really have anything beyond my spellbook and rapier."

The dark elf shrugged, "The question is, is this water even meant for this plane? Or for the ... Sea? With regards of what to further expect, there's likely some magic items if my theory was correct. Most of the legends talked about abstract things ... wind from trees," he gestured towards the water, "that, uhm ... the heat from fire. A lot of elemental stuff now that I think about it, but perhaps because that seemed the most impossible, beyond merely taking things. Of course some 'things' could have their own challenges or have warped over time." Crossing his arms again, "There's a reason at Azarad magical items are kept separate -- even spellbooks if they're old enough get to be ... finicky. If things were just tossed together in here ..."
 
"Woah!" Seeing the water grapple with Eliza's stick, Virra's first assumption was that the creature was an enemy set on attacking them. But before she could try to crush its mind, Valerie suddenly started talking to it, and then so did Magnolia. Totally lost in the bizarre wailing noises, Virra relied on Val and Niradnam for interpretations about what this water could be -- yet another treasure stolen from the Sea, apparently. She gave Ty a dubious look. "Hey, don't forget the Sea is a total jerk," she said. "We shouldn't give her any more satisfaction than we can get away without." Niradnam's objections seemed reasonable, though Virra was curious enough about the speaking water to explore the issue a bit further. "Why don't we ask what it wants?" she suggested. "Then we can go find those other things."

She moved out from behind Eliza's leg so that the water could "see" her, if that was how its body worked, and tried speaking into its mind. "Hey, these other people and I were wondering if you'd want to leave here if you could? I don't know if it's possible yet, but I wanna know if you like the sound of it." Then she knelt down by the pool and began to lower her fingers towards the surface. "Oh, and can I touch?" she asked hopefully.
 
Ander looked on with an incredibly puzzled look on his newly grey face. Why must my friends try to bring along every creature we encounter? He thought about what Niradnam was saying, and realized that he might be the only one with a waterskin on him. Ander didn't feel like carrying a container full of elemental around with him, so he stayed quiet about the subject and let the others figure out what they wanted to do. "We do got a pearl ta find, friends. And hopefully some form of de-firbolgin', too," he mentioned, trying to get the others back on track.
 
Evening of the Sixteenth Day | Faded Knoll Forest | The Cave:

Reaching into the elementals mind, Virra would feel a strange sensation, almost dizzying, of not being solid, but almost loose and unstructured, as if at any moment she might melt away onto the floor. The small pool of water seemed to study her in surprise, replying, "This place is booooooring. Want to see new laaaand." At her question of touch, the water reached upwards towards her scaly claws and started to surround her hand and arm like it had Eliza's staff, slowly moving up the limb.
 
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