Sunday, June 21st -- hot-blooded counter-attack!

[David]

Moments after Mang and Erik limp out of the cave, Dion, Sky, and Pepper lead Sherrif Dor, Corvin Oakmead (dwarven lord of GnomeHome), River, and Soren back into the cavern. The kuo-toa are on alert, but the ferocious attack quickly overwhelms them. Corvin and Sky create a fighting wall with Dor showering arrows of death from above the water's surface. Soren unleashes a lightning bolt in the back of the room and very quickly the heroes are able to surge forward. Pepper does multiple color sprays which drop swaths of fishmen, although her phantasms prove completely ineffective. And, ironically, the kuo-toa seemed particularly interested in killing the little gnome...!

During the battle the heroes face a pair of kuo-toan monitors, quickly discovering that while Sky can slaughter nearly any other fishman with impunity, these monkish "gogglers" are capable of fighting back AND hurting the young salamander! Corvin, on the other hand, is fully capable of chopping such creatures down, especially when the monitor is already full of arrows from Dor and River. A few clerics arrived and unleashed spells, holding Dion and invoking a prayer but otherwise totally ineffective.

After vanquishing the entryway / chokepoint /guardpost, the heroes tend to their wounds and continue. Dion begins to search, but Corvin reminds him of the need for speed in this mission. The group moves into the next partially-submerged cavern and down a hallway. After a long walk in a passage with a freshwater stream on one side eroding packed earth around strange ancient columns and a dry level path of solidified silt on the other. It is as if a long-lost human city submerged beneath a wave of mud centuries and centuries ago.

The party comes to another guard post, this one with a massive underwater lake on one side (feeding the stream which in turn feeds the Jewel River) and a pair of passage in smoothed stonework on the other. Clearly, this is the ruins of a once-magnificent city!

The party battles a smaller contigent here and while this monitor gives them a little trouble, in just a few minutes the heroes have clear access to the subterranean city of the kuo-toa ahead...

Current Status:
Dion: 21 of 53, water breathe, cast four 1st, three 2nd, one 3rd, two 4th
Sky: 13+4 of 67, prot E, bark, 18 Str, aid
Corvin: 30+8 of 86, free act, water breathe, cast all 1st, two 2nd, two 4th
Dor: 34 of 61, free act, water walk
Pepper: 15 of 38, naked, water breathe, cast four 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd
River: 39 of 57, free act, fly
Soren: 18+2 of 49, 18/10 Str, cast one 1st, two 2nd, two 3rd

[Jeff]

VERY impressive!! Hopefully, they will be able to reach the prisoners...

[David]

Very true, Jeff. Keep in mind that Dor is a great hunter and River a great tracker, so between the two of them, tracking three wounded and bleeding humanoids shouldn't be too hard, unless the kuo-toans licked up the blood. But, speaking of that, Dor suggests that we "hold" the hallways to this point.

Waiting outside the cave are a number of the heroes who've already attempted to attack this lair PLUS a number of other characters who are simply guarding the cave mouth so no more kuo-toan can attack the town. Dor suggests we could pull in Esmerelda, her owl familiar, Drusilla, and her two dire wolf pups Rota and Skagull, Billi (the StrongArm's cooshee), Kristoph, Meagan, Rhiannon, Jockie the "tree goblin", Jasmine and her dire wolf pups, Barley and Hopps, Erik and his weasel familiar, Faust, Martello and his wolf companion, Amarillo, and maybe Cliffy (he still has hit points and a few spells), Saanau (if she hasn't flown off yet) to "hold" what we've taken so far. Since they're so wounded, Alec, Mang, and Mikhail are back in town resting and recovering.

With access to Billi, tracking down Daj, Marc, and Helga shouldn't be too hard, since he's an elven dog and therefore a particularly smart animal with loads of experiencing hunting and tracking with Dor. Of course, this is just what Dor is thinking...

[Jeff]

I think that that is an EXTREMELY good idea. The main thing that keeps stopping us is the water in the first chamber. If we can hold that area, than it is much easier for us to continue to counter-attack. With Dor, River, and possibly Billi (With the StrongArm Kids consent), it should be simple to find the most direct way to the prisoners and free them. With a little luck, we will actually rescue the fallen party members.