Spleen Attack
Following the waterlogged tunnel that led out of the cavern we were soon in another cavern. On inspection, there was movement in the water, but from smaller beings than the Sahaugin we had encountered. Getting closer revealed these creatures to be the young of the Sahaugin, timid enough to keep away from us at all times and presenting no threat to anyone. Even so, our intrepid Mage, who was 'bravely guarding' the rear, by standing at the back of the party whenever we entered a new area, was keen to slaughter the helpless young. As he and the Ninja considered tactics on how to do this, and the rest of us trying to work out the most effective way of stopping them from even getting close to the young without outright killing the pair of them, the Mage's bold defence of our rear came in to effect, as several adult Sahaugin, most likely come to protect their progeny, charged him aggressively.
Remembering how effective the wand of Colour Spray had been on his own summoned porpoise, effectively sending it to its doom, he once again drew the wand and pointed it in the Sahaugin's faces, uttering the command word. Two of the three he could see were knocked out, giving him valuable time to get to the new back of the party where his valiant defence could once again be called upon, and the Fighter, Ninja and I readied ourselves to despatch our attackers. The one creature that resisted the Colour Spray, and thus proved itself hardier than a friendly porpoise, charged in to our front line, and a further Sahaugin followed behind him. These two were killed with some swiftness, with the Cleric coming in to deliver the killing blow to one, after the Mage waved a dagger in its direction ineffectually, pretending to help in the fight.
This just left the two unconscious creatures to deal with. The Ninja pressed on, and attacked with his trusty rapier one of the unconscious and helpless Sahaugin. Looking very pleased with himself, I asked him what vital spot he had pierced to gain the full effect of his skills. 'Um, his arm, or thereabouts', was muttered back to me.
'But he was helpless. Surely you could have poked his spleen, if Sahaugin have spleens, to deliver a more deadly and sneaky blow.' Now realising that the Sahaugin was in fact helpless and not just faking it, the Ninja stopped trying to defend himself from the legendary, mortal bite attack of an unconscious Sahaugin and stabbed somewhere that his keen Ninja senses told him would leave quite the scar if the victim survived. In this case, the victim did not wake up, so I guess Sahuagin do have spleens. You learn something new every day.
7th October 2005 at 12.18 pm
I think a better wording of "slaughter the helpless young" is "rid the world of the Evil Sea-Devil spawn, thus saving future generations of the townsfolk from revenge attacks in later years".
7th October 2005 at 1.16 pm
I think by sparing the young and thus sparing the females and leader, we solved the problem in a peaceful, loving way. Violence is not the answer to all of life's problems. Though in dealing with a certain mage, violence does seem to be the ideal solution.