#107 - A Bear among Nagas

From the writings of a druidic stranger...

Upon waking, the first thing I remember was the shock of seeing the corpse of my companion, Duran. His arms and legs had been chewed off. I quickly understood that it wasn't the collapse of the ceiling that tore him asunder, but rather a most foul creature. The creature returned shortly after I awoke. It had the body of a serpent, easily twenty feet long or more, but the head that seemed to depict both human and demon in one. I have never seen one in person, but I knew it to be a naga.


I was in quite a predicament. If I didn't act swiftly, I might suffer the same fate, for I was sitting waist deep in a stagnant pool of brackish water, my hands were bound and sticky tendrils of some sort of water plant were fixing my in my current position.

The naga slithered towards Duran and continued to finish its meal. Perhaps Duran could still save me. Despite the gruesome sounds of my friend being consumed by a monster, I calmed my mind and focused into a meditative trance. This brief rest allowed me to regain my spells. I now had a choice, stay and fight, or flee.

Naga are no easy prey. They are immortal. The slay one is to merely forestall the battle, for legend says they will return swiftly: but when? A day later? A week? Mere minutes? I do not know. What's more, they are intelligent spellcasters, gifted with the magic of their creation. Perhaps with Iowerth at my side, I could best this unnatural abomination, but alone, I had no real choice. I had to escape.

My training saved me once again. I was able to meditate and prepare my spells even with my hands tied, some of which I could even cast. Freedom of Movement allowed me to escape my bonds and traverse the brackish waters with alacrity. I quickly discerned that a section of wall covered with the sticky kelp like substance was, in fact a passageway and I proceeded with as much speed as I could muster.

Luck was on my side, for the naga did not pursue me, though it reared up like a cobra, alarmed by its escaping meal. Perhaps I was too fast, or perhaps it was too full. I did hear it screeching out the Draconic language. I do not know precisely what it said, but the gist was clear, I was to be stopped.

Several small tunnels that I had not noticed before began to emit kobolds, minions of the naga. These kobolds were not nearly as fearsome as the creature that they served and I was able to dispatch them readily, but to my great dismay, I learned that I had not escaped unscathed. At some point during my unconsciousness, my most prized possession was taken from me. I must recover it. The rest of me had clearly been given over to the naga.

As I cut through the ranks of kobolds, they began to see their impending doom. One towards the back  climbed up the stone wall of the passage we were in activated an unseen level in the stone. Stone grated upon stone and a new passage was revealed, from whence came several gricks.

Gricks are large wormlike creatures with four tentacles at one end and a razor sharp beak. I have fought them in the past many times and always emerged victorious. Generally, they like to ambush their prey by blending in with the surrounding stones. This time, they had no such advantage.

I transformed myself into a cave bear and dispatched the gricks quickly. While I had a brief moment of respite, I knew that more kobolds would be coming, so I knew I had to press onward. Down the passageway was a set of stairs, at the bottom were two skeletons and the sounds of another battle.

Another battle meant my enemies had enemies. A trace of good fortune, that.

I paused for a moment to try to discern what was going on, but there wasn't a better way to gather information than to get my eyes on the situation. I charged down the stairs and launched myself into the room. Unfortunately for one of the skeletons, he was in my path. With one bite, I returned him to the ground from which he came.

In the center of the chamber was a jailed area with four doors. Beyond it, another passageway similar to the one I had entered from and a set of stairs. There was a track on the floor surrounding the jail. In the center of the jail was a large chest and across the way, several of the bars seemed to have been bent.

To my right was a badly-injured viridian naga, a female, slightly smaller than the one that I would have been feasted upon in the other chamber. There were a few kobolds near it with bows and arrows.

To my left was an all out war. A fuscous (more precisely, brown-, gray-, and black-banded), male naga was coiled and manipulating a strange, wheeled contraption. The contraption held the large, central eye of what is very likely a beholder, but where the body was and how they kept the eye alive is beyond me. Beside the naga was another skeleton. On the far side, engaged in battle with the naga was a towering human with tribal tattoos and bits of scale embedded in his skin and wielding a large bone of some sort. Next to the barbarian was an armored soldier wielding some sort of pike, a strange choice of weapon for such an enclosed space. To the left of her was a tall warforged unlike any I have ever seen. This one had pipes of varying sizes protruding from its back.

Attacking the soldier from the other side were two blackish oozes on the ground—black pudding, Iowerth called it. It is an especially caustic variety of monster that leeches up from the depths! Further back was yet another naga, only this one was bound to the wall with a myriad of metal straps and bands. A second warforged, smaller than the first, had scaled the wall and was applying some liquid to the metal.

I had only a moment to decide, left or right. I went right to finish off the more injured, viridian naga and raked through its body with my bear claws, sinking them deep into its flesh.

At this point a kobold, larger than any I have ever seen, stepped out from behind and launched an arrow at the adventurers. Luckily for them, it missed and the arrow sunk into the beholder eye instead. To be sure, I was uncertain of this one's loyalty. The soldier woman surprised me by whipping her polearm to and fro, cleaving the two kobolds in half and using the blunt end to smash one of the oozes. She is a formidable warrior indeed. The oozes retaliated by forming pseudopods and lashing out at her. One of the pods connected a mighty blow and she crumpled to the ground.

The brown naga was quite dismayed by the large kobold's shot and quickly closed a shutter over the eye, screaming "no, no, no!" I think that if we don't kill this kobold, he surely will. With the beholder's eye shuttered, he spat a fearsome spell at the large-piped warforged, creating a flux of dark energy. The warforged simply collapsed to the ground under its effect. Slain or merely incapacitated, I could never say. I do not understand the physiology of constructs.

This fight was not going well. I knew I had to dispatch some of these enemies quickly so that I could at least try save these potential allies. I launched an attack at the injured viridian, chomping with my jaws and slashing with my claws, but the serpent beast was to agile for me to actual do any damage.

The barbarian, enraged by the falling of his comrades, unleashed a fury the likes of which I have never seen. He swung his massive bone-mace over his head, twisted his entire body, and smashed the bone into the side of the male naga's head. White light trailed the attack. The naga's eyes seemed to roll back into its head and the sound of bone cracking was clearly audible, despite the noise of combat. The naga was dazed for a moment, which the human used to his opportunity to hit the naga once again, yet the mighty serpent did not fall.

The oversized and strangely-clad kobold, as if sensing that the armored soldier woman was near death, attempted to finish the job and aimed his bow at her, but he missed and hit the black pudding instead. Perhaps the naga need better minions, this one seems to be doing more harm than good.

The oozes once again formed pseudopods and surged at the unconscious woman. Even without looking at it, I could smell the metal armor she wore dissolving beneath their touch. Meanwhile, I was busy evading the attacks of the kobolds protecting the viridian naga.

At this point a strange metal dog-like creature scurried across the walls and ceiling and descended behind the female. The construct sank its fangs into the naga, eliciting a shrill scream, then climbed back up the wall. What manner of strangeness is this?

The brown male naga that refused to die lashed out in retaliation at the large human, spitting some vile poison at him. The glob of poison landed in the middle of his chest and with a single gasp, he also fell to the ground.

It seems that I may have signed my own death warrant by throwing myself in with this lot, but if this is how I am to die, then so be it. The female naga cast the same spell that the male had, this time directing it to me. The air rippled and the light dimmed, and I felt my energy sucked away. This banished the cave bear altogether, reverting me back to my normal form.

There were still many foes about, so I summoned the power of Eberron herself, conjuring a dark storm cloud just below the ceiling of the chamber. Connecting to the cloud, I brought down a bolt of lightning upon the brown naga and its nearby allies. The remaining skeleton was splintered into bony fragments and the naga received a nasty scorch mark, but still did not fall. Then, something truly unbelievable happened...

The oversized kobold withdrew a gemstone from his pocket and cast it upon the ground. In an almost familiar burst of telluric energy, a fearsome earth elemental rose from the worked stone! The kobold was too far away for me to hear what he commanded, but it did not bode well for those of us battling the nagas.

The second, smaller warforged, however, quickly climbed back down from the wall where he'd been working and, with a spell-like gesture, laid his hand upon the other warforged, reviving him in an instant. I now suspected the metal dog was bound to this smaller warforged.

If we can at least fell the two nagas, then we'll have a chance against the earth elemental. If we cannot, then I may see Iowerth sooner than I expected.