94828-2 RAA Outer Seas TEXT R1 Proof

Val Carter’s Guide to Merfolk

teeming with massive schools of deep sea coral snakes, who all seemed to watch him with anticipation as he swam past. Bill, using the vision of the Foehunter (a boon passed on to him by his deity), said he saw, as if under the light of the golden sun, the magus floating in an egg shaped chamber so large it could have housed a three masted ship ten times over. From top to bottom, the chamber was covered in small, detailed, script-like writing that looped and coiled into itself like the serpents Bill had seen in the rooms before. Malick said there, near one of the walls of the room, the magus was illumi nated by the scepter of translation he had pulled from the depths months before. What was more horrifying, though, was that while he was seemingly using the scepter to read the strange script, there, coiled around him, was a serpentine merfolk, with four arms, and a belt of skulls. As far as Bill could tell from his vantage point, the merfolk was advising the magus on what he was reading. Bill, not wanting to confront the magus or the strange creature he was in congress with, slipped back through the webwork of tunnels, past the seemingly increasing numbers of venomous snakes. Once back on the ship, he quickly related to Malick and the rest of the crew what he had seen. When the magus returned to the ship, tired from his day below the waves, the crew confronted him about his dealings with the creature below. The magus threatened to use his magic on the crew if they did not continue to maintain the ship so he could carry out his studies, and he demanded that they speak of it no more. That night, with heavy hearts, the crew crept into the magus captain’s chambers and, through force, subdued him, locking him in sea stone chains of the kind that dampen magic. They immediately set sail for less strange waters. Malick said that the wailing of the magus was incessant, as he cried to be released back into the sea so he could return to his Elapso muse and his studies of how to move the very stars in the sky. He screamed out so much to return his voice became nothing more than a gurgled rasp, and by the time they reached a raft city where they could put the magus in the care of a healer, it seemed he had aged thirty years and was nearing death’s door. While the crew had no idea what the Elapso were, the healer was able to regale them with even more stories of these serpentlike folk who haunt strange forgotten spaces and deal in blood and secrets—creatures that Malick said he wished to never cross paths with again. Elapso Reef Stalker Medium Humanoid (Elapso Merfolk), any alignment STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 16 (+3) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) Armor Class 14 (natural armor)

Languages Shanx (Common), Elapso Challenge Rating 3 (700 XP) Abilities Amphibious. Elapso Merfolk can breathe both air and water.

Hit Points 52 (8d8+16) Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft.

Damage Resistances poison Skills Stealth +5, Survival +3 Senses Darkvision 80 ft., Pas sive Perception 11

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