Ruins of Azlant Gameplay I

"I'll try to talk to it," Aisha agrees, slowly approaching the blinded giant. "Hello? Can you hear me?" she asks, looking it over to make sure it's not too wounded to be conscious.

The cyclops nods, shuddering as it moves as far away from Aisha's voice as allowed by the chains. "Y-yes, hear you," it says in a deep, fearful voice. "Aeroclyse will serve, but please, no more hurting," it pleads.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Aisha assures the cyclops, shaking her head without thinking that he can't see her. "We just got here."

"Sorry, sorry," the weakened cyclops says immediately, still quavering with fear.

"It's okay, it's okay," Aisha adopts the tone of voice she'd use with a scared child. "We're here to help. What did they do to you?"

"No eye, no rest," Aeroclyse answers. "No escape, only pain."

Aisha immediately turns back to the others, face twisted in a deep frown, "Help me get these chains off so we can free him," she insists, her voice breaking a little bit, and without waiting for discussion or a decision moves to one of the supports with the spikes and tries to figure out how to detach the binding.

Even once the chains have been removed, Aeroclyse remains in a huddled position, still afraid and making no effort to leave.

Once he's freed, Aisha moves over to Aeroclyse, placing a hand on his side gently and speaking softly, "It's okay Aeroclyse, you're safe, you're free. We're here to help you."

Aeroclyse jerks away from Aisha's touch. "Not safe. Not free," he insists, shaking his head with conviction. "No help for Aeroclyse."

"I want to heal you," Aisha insists. "But I can't help you if you don't let me."

Aeroclyse doesn't reply, just drawing his knees into his chest as he sits, shaking and shuddering.

Aisha approaches again, channeling healing magic into her hand as she does, though she keeps her shield ready in her off-hand in case he swings unpredictably at her. Once several of his wounds close, she next explains, "I'm going to do a little more for you, but it'll take a few seconds," in her calm, soothing voice, then spending about 20 seconds channeling restorative magic to take the edge off his exhaustion.

As Aisha works her magic, the cyclops's shuddering slows to a halt, and his breathing becomes less labored. "Thank you," he says quietly, appearing to have calmed down a bit. "Friends?" he asks, unsure of where he stands with everyone.

Kaimana nods, then remembering Aeroclyse can’t see, says ”Yeah, friends.”

"What brings friends here?" the cyclops asks.

"We're part of a new village on the island, mostly humans, but we accept everyone, and we're trying to make the island into a safe place to live, so we're hunting a hag we think lives here," Aisha explains.

Aeroclyse shudders. "Yes, bad hag here," he says. "Has magic, friends need to be careful. Also followed around by blood mists, suck the life away from things. Like friends."

"That sounds like a vampiric mist," Amissa says with a frown. "I doubt it'll have much in the way of weak points, since it has an amorphous body, and it'll likely be resistant to anything that isn't magical."

"Do you have... anywhere you can go on the island, Aeroclyse?" Aisha asks the cyclops with a worried frown that he can't see. "Where did you live before you were imprisoned here?"

Aeroclyse shakes his head in response to Aisha's first question. "The Shackles... My tribe is in The Shackles..." he says, his expression growing pensive as he remembers a life he had years ago.

With the direction of Aisha’s questions, Kaimana can guess why she seems concerned and puzzled. ”We can probably figure something out later, right?” he comments with a small smile he’s not sure he’s feeling. ”Aeroclyse, do you feel okay resting here while we finish exploring, or do you want to move somewhere else?”

"Move somewhere more comfortable," Aeroclyse requests. "I will wait there."

After moving Aeroclyse downstairs and reapplying defensive magic, the group moves upstairs, where they find a colossal device of jeweled, copper-lined globes, steel rings, and dazzling lights filling the room. The contraption—an elaborate orrery—rises from an octagonal dais at the center of the tower peak. The instrument surges with phantasmal depictions of constellations and cosmic phenomena. Periodically, a lens pauses, briefly concentrating the light of some distant star upon one of the glowing glyphs circling the perimeter of the massive orrery. Around the room, windows twenty-five feet tall and five feet wide allow a spectacular view of the crater lake outside. The copper plates forming the dome of this chamber form a mechanical iris engraved with arcane sigils.

In the middle of the room stands the sea hag, flanked by two vampiric mists, which surge in and strike Kaimana and Jax, causing them to bleed profusely. Knowing she'll have to help them shortly, Aisha turns her gaze to the hag, locking eyes with her. "Eye for an eye," she hisses in Celestial, and her violet eye glows bright. A  bright flash of that same colour appears in the hag's eyes in a sudden burst before they turn a milky, sightless white.

The sea hag screeches, as her already clouded eyes lose all sight. "You filthy little fools!" she wails, as she reaches up to her eyes with her clawed hands. "How could you interfere with destiny! How dare you attempt to stop me, the vessel of prophecy, from returning true divinations to the world!" She grabs a hold of the railing around the octagonal dais, using it to guide her to the edge nearest the stairs. With one raised hand, she sends a burst of clashing lights at Amissa and Aisha.