It's to late for the person on the alter then... The spines of the devil getting that close scares Wendel but he keeps the fear at bay for now especially since Carmen just destroyed the thing that sent them flying. Instead he grips his fist tighter, shifts his curse from the dead fish creature to the fleeing one instead, and throws another air punch beam of earthen force aiming to knock the creature back. He then turns and runs back along the cave wall.

Bonus Action: Shift hex to Spined Devil
Action: Eldritch Blast AC 19 for 12 Force, 2 Bludgeoning, 6 Hex damage
 (Repelling Blast push SD 10' back)
Move: to A14

Wendel rolled 9,14,6 using d20+5,d10+3+2,d6.  Eldritch Blast, Damage+Genie's Wrath, Hex damage.
Wendel rolled 19 using 1d20+5.  Disadvantage.
Wendel rolled 23 using 1d20+5.  Inspiration re-roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:18, Fri 26 Mar 2021.

Carmen was surprised to see the spined devil appear from nowhere, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. She just didn't expect the summoning to be so short. She stepped out from her illusionary blockade, casts a few spells to devastating effect, then moves back behind her cover.

HP: 15/15 | AC: 18 | Spd: 30ft. | Hexblade's Curse 1/1 (SR)| Divine Soul 1/1
Action: Eldritch Blast at SD hits AC 21 for 10 force + 2 necrotic damage | Move: Out of cover then back in  | Bonus: Cast Hex on Spined Devil (disadv on Dex)
09:10, Today: Carmen Diaz rolled 10,2 using 1d10,1d6.  EB damage + Hex. – [roll=1616721045.7165.352983]
09:09, Today: Carmen Diaz rolled 21 using 1d20+5.  Eldritch Blast. – [roll=1616720988.48865.352983]

Turn 1
Victor swings his greatsword at the fleeing fishman, wounding it on the way out. Then, while moving forward, he calls divine fire down on the devil, but the nimble creatures darts out of the way.
Chelsie's parting gift to the fishmen doesn't get accepted, and she fares no better against the devil.
Nutcracker draws and loads the crossbow. The magical bolt strikes true! The devil is wounded!
Carmen steps out of cover, hexes the devil, and blasts him to smithereens with a powerful beam before stepping back behind her illusion.

Wendel if you want, you can fire at the fleeing fishmen, though at disadvantage because of the darkness.

INITIATIVE!
Victor 14
Chelsie 11
Nutcracker 10
Carmen 20
Wendell 17
Devil 17

Devil has taken 22 damage and is dead!
E1 has taken 35 damage, and is dead!
E2 has taken 13 damage
E3 has taken 8 damage

Carmen finishes things up by entering the lit cave and looking around to see what she can find. She doubts the sacrifice is saveable, but she checks anyway before moving on to treasure hunting...

"I doubt we can swim after those natives, so we should be wary on our way out. They could easily pull us under."

Victor moves over to the devil's body, driving the tip of his sword through the creature's heart as if making doubly sure that it is dead. Once done he then looks up to the body on the altar.

"We should take the body with us back to Smith's Gambit, someone may want to give them their burial rites. I can carry them across my shoulders if someone can help me get them up there. We should also destroy the altar if possible, it might prevent the fishfolk from making a later attempt."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:42, Fri 26 Mar 2021.

Seeing that the threat had been dispatched and the remaining fishmen were out of sight, Nutcracker put the crossbow away and retrieved his bow, making sure to check it for any damage from being dropped before keeping it handy in the event of an ambush.

Afterwards he couldn't help but take a look around the cave interior still lit by the arrow and lantern. Was there anything else significant in here?

OOC: Searching the cave.
22:36, Today: Nutcracker rolled 11 using 2d20+2, dropping the highest dice only.  Perception with Exhaustion.

Chelsie catches her breath a little after the whirlwind of activity, looking back to see if she can spot where the fleeing fishmen have gone.

Perception: 5. Not seeing anything, but at least disadvantage didn't hurt me?
08:51, Today: Chelsie Primrose rolled 5 using 2d20+2, dropping the highest dice only with rolls of 3,3.  Perception of fishfolk.

Wendel finishes off one of the fleeing fishmen. As Victor approaches the spot where the devil fell, he finds that there is no body. As he well knows, fiends never truly die, they simply return to the hells, often to face punishment for their failure.

The altar is made of stone, with a "cage" of bone around it. The bones make up a magic circle, inscribed with the spined devil's name:  The victim on the altar is dead.

Congrats you each get 310 xp The dagger the priestess held is on the ground where she fell, along with a purse containing 55gp and 16cp.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:14, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

Seeing the final fishman had probably made it's escape he walks over to where the priestess had fallen, he picks up the dagger looking it over, and tosses the pouch of gold to Victor. "Maybe some of that can go to the family of the fallen."

He then approaches the altar. Gently he closes the eyes of the deceased and then starts to get his blanket off of his pack to wrap the body.

While there he tries to understand this altar a little more. Obviously it is a rudimentary summoning circle of some kind. But is there anything beyond that? Probably not.

Arcana: 5
This message was last edited by the player at 19:20, Sat 27 Mar 2021.

Convinced that the fishmen are, for now at least, gone, Chelsie joins the others in checking out the altar and the ritual area.

Wendel, I'll give you a Help on that arcana check, unless the DMs rule helping doesn't work for knowledge.

DMs, was the name of the devil supposed to be illegible or inconsequential? With the Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocation, Chelsie can read all writing, so I'm just checking whether she should be able to read something the others cannot read.

Victor takes the pouch and bends down to rub his fingers gently of the the infernal inscription on the altar, "Tezzeroth," he translates, "they say speaking a devil's true name gives you power over it. If we cannot destroy the altar we should at least remove the name or change it to something else."

“There are five of us, so if we give 5gp and the silver to the family, we will have earned a solid ten gold for our efforts. Plus a dagger and the spears of course.”  suggests Carmen. “Do we have the ability to test for magic? Perhaps there is something we missed?”

With the danger passed, Nutcracker's curiosity was beginning to get the best of him as he began to examine the fallen fishmen. He had never seen anything like these in the forest or the city. They were apparently a dominant species in the area if they had tools and magic at their disposal. There probably wasn't much he could really tell about them by looking, but he felt the need to check for weak spots or surprisingly hard points so he knew where to or not aim. They probably tasted awful, too.

With Chelsea's help examining the alter, a few more ideas filter in to Wendel's mind.

"Good thinking Carmen, that should be more than enough for a proper burial. Now, how do we get back across that water?"

Wendel rolled 13 using 1d20+3.  Arcana advantage.

"Now we have the advantage of time, perhaps we can go the long way around instead of wading through that icy water?" suggests the warlock.

Wendel is confident that destroying the bones and defacing the engravings on the altar itself would be enough to render the altar useless for this ritual. Alternatively Chelsie could, in fact, make strategic alterations to the instructions on the tablet to ensure that any attempt at a summoning would fail without the would-be summoner knowing why.

Unless one of you (or a familiar) can fly/ jump with a rope, 100' to the top of the cliff above, the long way around only works the other way.

"Defacing or altering the alter could work, I think altering it might be the better option so as to continually confound any future use rather than encouraging someone to build somewhere else and try again. Unless we plan to stay here the night I don't think the long way is much of an option. And if I recall correctly staying here for to long might run the risk of rising tides, so that's probably straight out. We've got to come up with some other means of getting across. Warming your clothes seemed to help a little no? If one of you would show me how to do that then I could help in that regard as well."

Forgot I also had Prestidigitation last time around. With the three of us casting that's 9 total chunks of material warmed magically for the crossing. Almost enough for two apiece.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:25, Sun 28 Mar 2021.

Looking up at the climb, Carmen regrets her previous words. "Perhaps the climb looks a little too much. I did ok wading across the last time. Do you all feel up to wading across again? Warming your clothes really helps." she says, agreeding with Wendel.

Victor nods, "Just as soon as this altar is dealt with we should go straight across lest the tides rise any higher. On the other side we can build fires a set up a camp if we are unable to return to Smith's Gambit tonight."

Hearing the rest of the group talking about vacating reminded Nutcracker that the journey back involved another crossing through that frigid water. But they were not going to get back any other way. Once they got back it might be good to scout the area around the town to know where features were and how they might be overcome should another job involve something like this.

The altar would be left to someone else since they wanted to do something odd to it rather than destroy it. It was all gibberish to him, anyway. Arcane things that didn't make a lot of sense. Instead, Nutcracker collected up the dropped spears for possible use later and made ready to help anyone cross the waters.

OOC: Maybe bunching together could work as an assist on making checks? Huddle for warmth with Prest. helping those on the current side?

"Let's see," says Chelsie, as she examines the altar and tablet. "I don't know how, but I seem to understand these engravings. Larazel blesses me with growing abilities. Hmmm, yes, I think we can change that. And that, the syntax doesn't work without that verb ending. And that's a totally different word...." Her voice trails off, as she works to alter the tablet's engravings to surreptitiously drain its magical utility.

As they prepare to cross the frigid water again, Chelsie shivers. "The clothes helped, but it was still an ordeal. Yet we must cross, so we'd better get to it, before those fishmen come back with friends."

Huddling together seems smart, too, hopefully that helps. I'll warm three articles of clothing again, two of them mine if that's alright.
If I fail two more saves, I will set myself on fire to warm up. A bit rough, but I should be able to put it out with an action and then heal up any damage. Better than dying of hypothermia.

Carmen waits for the alter to be dealt with but as she does she expels water from her winter blankets using prestidigitation. "These are much larger than a single item of clothing, and warmer too. They may provide a better form of protection."

Noticing the tide is actually receding somewhat, Carmen suggests that the group waits it out for a few hours before crossing.

Carmen's idea was much better than going through that water again. Setting down the spears he had picked up, Nutcracker found a nice spot to settle in and inspect his gear in the event anything might have been overlooked or otherwise damaged in the encounter or by the biting cold.

OOC: Ready to camp out long enough for the tide to go down.

You pass the hours until low tide in peace. All who inspect their equipment find it unharmed. The return trip to Smith's Gambit passes quietly, with no other signs of fishmen. You still have a few hours until sunrise, but Carmen knows a good place to kill time.

Congratulations! Once you report in to Smith, you will each receive 100 GP, 450 XP, and 1 downtime unit. You may all take a long rest in time for the start of the tournament!