The Ashen Company find themselves underwater, trapped in the clearly broken teleportation chamber at the Order of the Arcane Eye in Zazuza. Cade thinks quickly and casts Oasis, while Lotty casts Alter Self, giving the party some time to catch their breath (literally) and assess their surroundings. Their eyes scan the walls, looking for a way out. Eventually they find a large pile of rubble - a collapsed wall with passages on the other side. The way is shut. They try to dig their way out, but the work is too much (especially underwater) and so Berrik steps in to speeds things along with a couple castings of Arcane Hand. The beefy spectral hands makes quick work of the task and soon the party is able to move through a tight but manageable escape tunnel. We exit the tunnel and find ourselves in a large stone complex full of corridors, doors, rooms of all sizes and more water. The chambers reveal evidence of scholarly pursuits. Are we at the Order of the Arcane Eye? Are we at the University of Zazuza campus? Are we at the combination Order of the Arcane Eye/University of Zazuza campus?
We don't get to wander for long before we are accosted by hostile seafolk (sahuagin)and their sharks. Battle begins! The first few we encounter are dispatched quickly, save for one. The fish priest flees and lets out a scream, surely warning any others nearby. Null shotguns a waterbreathing potion that Lotty handed to her earlier and gives chase, followed a bit behind by the rest of the party. Rushing ahead on her own proves to be a BAD IDEA. Null chases the priest down a hallway, through a set of door and into a cavernous chamber filled with enemies. At the far end of the space Null can see a light shining down from above where the room opens up at the top - a way out? She tries to hold her own but is quickly surrounded. A baddie closes and bolts the door to the chamber, blocking the rest of the party from following. Stuck in a hallway on the other side of the barred door, the rest of the party is ambushed by more enemies that were waiting in the adjoining rooms. Berrik grabs Cade and Dimension Doors to the other side of their obstacle. Flynn grabs Lotty and does the same. Poor Silas and Nessie do their best to keep from being overwhelmed until someone can open that door.
Inside the large chamber things get chaotic. Null's waterbreathing gets dispelled. Cade gets marked as a target for his Oasis spell. Flynn gets manhandled. Some people get frightened. Null is eventually able to make her way over to the door and unbar it for Silas and Nessie (who are thankfully still alive on the other side). Flynn gets fully Flynn-napped at this point - drowning, he is grappled and dragged up and away towards the light at the top of the chamber. Cade drops Oasis and Wildshapes into a giant Octopus to give chase. Everyone else follows as quickly as they can, trying to get their friend back and finish off the baddies in the room. Eventually it comes down to one fish priest remaining, nearly out of range. Though Lotty is the furthest away, she is able to end him with an immaculately placed Firebolt. We did it! Flynn is recovered and everyone lived. Time to leave this horrible, soggy place.
The Ashen Company follows the light above them and find themselves at the bottom of an even larger room than the one previous. This tall, cylindrical space has seemingly endless shelves of books spiraling their way up the walls and all the way to the top. This is the largest library any one of them has ever seen and, like the rest of this complex, it is completely submerged in seawater. Berrik wonders if this place might hold the key to making his spellbook more durable. Nass is an immediate looming threat but this is perhaps one of the largest troves of knowledge in all of Altisha - Are there more answers to be found here?