DND Netherdeep Vol 26

 

The underwater cavers we explored so far

Jazco is way in the front. Rangu checks out the cavern and finds that the vents are sort of breathing water. We catch up with the group. 

Redrawing all the caverns. 

Jazco is far ahead of us. We want to take a short rest. Jazco reaches the end of the corridor, and finds another grotto. There is ruidium corruption everywhere. Skeletons and bones are strewn on the ground everywhere. The remains are vaguely humanoid. There is a shining spear jutting out upright in the middle of the room, emerging from a pile of bones and weapons. 

Jazco throws a rock at the spear, but the rock slows down. The rock makes contact with a skeleton whose ribs fall off. It tilts weirdly and just slumps there. Jazco heads back and hears Woolf's message. Jazco describes the grotto with the skeletons and the spear. 

We rest in the corridor. We then head towards the grotto. Jazco tries to use mage hands to displace the spear, but they are not strong enough. Rangu says fuck it watch my back, and sticks his hand inside, it is cold. About 80-90 feet away, Rangu spots an exit from the Grotto. Rangu then goes and tries to grab the spear. Rangu casts speak with the dead. 

Nothing happens. 

Rangu casts it on a number of skeletons, and there is no answer. Rangu then touches the spear, nothing happens. Rangu picks up the spear. The entire grotto starts reverberating, and fades. Everyone hears a soft voice that says "you shouldn't have done that", and above Rangu, a pale blue figure of a young child materialises out of nowhere. A sculpture of a man that that seems to be carved out of ruidium spawns next to the boy. It is a stern, sullen man. The man introduces himself as Theo Nathope. 

He asks us if we want to rescue Alyxian and the Apotheon. Ruidium man says baby Alyxian will kill us all if he leaves us for any reason. Floating about 20 feet above the room is a giant ruidium sphere that is slowly rotating on a tilted axis, about 50 feet in diameter. Theo puts his finger to his lips and points even higher. There are a pair of giant sharks swirling around the top of the sphere. 

The Apotheon tells us not to touch the red moon. Rara is a bit crazy, but Rara does not touch the sphere. Theo tells us that we have to walk very slowly towards the end of the grotto. Yazhi casts identify and finds out that it is a spear of warming, a magical weapon that warns you of danger. 

Jazco is cursed, and anyone around them has a disadvantage on saving throws. Woolf peaks into the small chamber, which has a half buried stone statue of Alyxian. Tendrils of ruidium are growing out of the damaged areas. In the chest of the statue, there is a hole, inside which there is a dull red key with a moon shaped handle. 

Rangu touches the mote and absorbs the fragment of abhorrence. Everyone gets a vision. We see a market with monsters. A woman is kneeling, tensely holding a weapon. She stands up, with an expression of disgust and anger and spits on your face. Harbringer, Omen, we sheltered you and you gave us death. Rangu takes damage if they start a turn when frightened, and can push away anything that gets attacked. 

We take the key and follow Theo. Theo goes through a secret door. We cannot find the door. Wolf kicks the base of the door and the wall opens up. We see Theo resting on the ground with his head resting on his arm and says, "you guys took a long time didn't you?"

There is a ruidium archway in the centre of the room. The walls are expanding and contracting like the insides of a beating heart. Theo goes through the arch. We hear a roar. We see an axe stuck in an orc. We kick the cloven orc down and breathe heavily from vanquishing another foe. We are surrounded by soldiers and followers, who take a step back at our gaze. There are whispers around us about omens and harbringers of death and malice and bad luck. The whispers culimnate in a white noise and we snap back to the arch. 

Theo tells us that the visions are a manifestation of his suffering, and all of that suffering has made him evil and malicious. But Alyxian can be helped and he has goodness in him. We then hear a howl, a human howl, like a person wailing. We are engulfed by darkness, and we all see visions. Of Ankharel, Wildmount, corpses and ruins. Theo tells us that this is what awaits us in the heart of despair, and all the visions are a metaphor for something. 

Alyxian was a damn good warrior, but never was a poet or a writer or a creative type. We go to a darker, colder place, with tendrils of ruidium rising around the walls. We see a small, pale, white light hovering six feet above the ground in a crevice on the wall. Rangu touches the mote. 

We find ourselves kneeling before a temple of Avandra the changebringer. We hear ourselves muttering to ourselves. "Fight for the Freedom of others" The hand is shaking. We feel the ground shaking beneath us. We here the clack clack of claws as these aberrations with claws and and tentacle faces burst out of the ground. 

Theo crouches in a foetal position in the centre, while we fight the three aberrations. He talks about the creatures sharing the rage and sorrow of Alyxian, who also have some peace submerged beneath his anger. 

Dream Diary dreamwalker edition

IDK what is happening here, spate of intense, powerful dreams. Eating a lot of fruits and drinking a lot of fruit juices, that is what is different. Also on a tox break. 

So this one was a bit weird. I was on street level, and saw the real world around me in the dream. I sort of floated - drifted through the city and I saw the whole environment like a library of dreams, with volumetric colour visions visible through the transparent walls of apartments. Most of the windows were dark in meatspace but lit in dreamspace, while some windows had their lights on in meatspace but were totally dark in dreamspace. The living rooms and kitchens were dark too, only the bedrooms were lit up. Some colours were hazy and diffuse, a few colours were more clear and bright. I floated upwards through my own apartment, and was tempted to enter other people's dreamspace, but I felt walls like the wills of people, and sensed that it would be impolite or cruel to intrude, and was also scared of what would happen as it was something that I do not know. I rose up to my own home, and woke up, with the dreamspace and meatspace blending together. 

Not exact, but close enough

65

Just saw 65. 

Okay first of all meteors are the space rocks that burn up in the atmosphere of the Earth... asteroids are the space rocks in space. Asteroids struck the ship, not meteors. Jeez. 

Really like the geometric alphabet. They are like digital versions of runes. 

Great so the velociraptors were more size accurate. Not as tiny as chicken, but still better. 

Still there are a few things that you need on dinos now. 

1. Feathers for theropods. 

2. Coloration similar to birds. 

3. More skin and muscle on the bodies. 

Nice to see some four legged predators bucking the trend of centaurism in carnivorous dinosaurs. 

Still movie hit me right in the feels, despite being campy and cheesy. Cried, laughed and clapped, so all good. 

Such a great story lol, shows loss and restoration in a family, of two families actually. Would have been nice if the movie had a bit of a focus on Koa as well. 

Time to decipher the alphabet now. 

Fruits

I am a eat to live kind of guy. I just hate eating, and don't like to waste time on it. It took forever for my parents to wean me off spoon feeding. I am a slow eater, and just hate eating. In fact, I used to just flush down half my food down the drain. The watchman cleaning the drain, Tulsi mama once saw new idlis getting flushed and complained to my Mom, and directly scolded me for wasting food. I used to just let other kids eat my tiffin in school, and the mini idlis were especially popular. 

My mom always keeps a variety of fruits in the house, and insisted that I consume them as snacks. I never did, maybe a banana or a grape here and there, but never the apples, pears and chikus. Now, when Im living alone, especially in the Delhi summers, fruits have become something that I just love to eat. They are so nutritious, so healthy, so tasty. 

I keep ordering from this place called Falhari. They showed up on Shark Tank, and people thought that they were just an online version of the corner fruit cutter. They are so much more than that. They have variable pricing depending on market rates. The bad, ugly older fruit become juice. The fresh fruits are diced up and served to customers. You can choose which fruits you want, and there is granular control over the quantity. I love the chia fresca, coconut water, watermenlon juice, and the smoothies. There is banana, chocolate, mint, spinach, cucumber, grapes, and you can order any combination. NGL, it is pretty epic. Many times my breakfast is just coconut chunks. Order more than a grand worth of stuff, and they throw in a watermelon box. I ordered five different types of mangoes. It is just awesome. 

I ordered three litres of juice today. One litre of coconut water, a litre of watermenlon, a banana and spinach smoothie 500 ml, and shikanki 500 ml. I went to the local tapri and got two big bags of ice to cool the juices. After drinking most of the coconut water, I felt so thankful and fulfilled, that I did something I had not done in a long time. I prayed for the first time after a long time. I prayed to all the gods. Shiva, Vishnu, Laxmi, Brahma, Jesus, Allah, Buddha. I prayed to Krishna even though I knew he is not a god. I prayed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster knowing that it is a fake god created by atheists to prove a point. I prayed to some demiurge in case something like one created the universe, although I highly doubt it. I prayed to the universe itself. 

:) feelsgoodman.jpg

DND Into the Netherdeep Vol. 25

When we take the names of the ghosts, we are addressed by the sisters as Alyxian. They tell us that they would save us again even knowing their doom. We go to another cavern, and Rara touches a mote again. 

We go to another cavern, and there is a fallen creature. Ayo and their gang is around the creature. Irvan is missing his arm, which has been replaced by a metal arm. We almost have a fight, but they leave us alone after hurting us and breaking our hearts. Galsariad shows his true colours. 

We find 750 gold and a dual potion. We then go into a crevasse. We see a vision of Alyxian looking over a wild grassy expanse that transitions to a charred landscape. We also see a monstrous fish with streaks over its body moving far above us. 

Rara touches the shiny, yells out, fish attacks. Rara casts darkness, but the fish swats rara with tail and swallows rara whole. 

We fight with the fish and start running away. 

Dream diary superpowers edition

Okay so this was good. It was as if my brain granted me some extra DMT lol, because I was waking up, drinking water, walking around, having a smoke, and then quickly sleeping and going into a deep dream XD. 

Was lucid enough to control myself, but not lucid enough to know Im dreaming. I visit a lot of cool urban exploration stuff, and now the camera app on my phone and the phone itself works and looks well enough to make me thing its real. This is because the phone not working properly is one of the cues that lets me know Im in a dream. 

I went past this place from Bandra to Kurla to Sewri, but it was all some dream version. Was in some complex in Andheri, got a random lift from a guy to Bandra station, took a train straight to Kurla and got out. There was some guy sleeping on a gadda on top of a tapri at Kurla station, who invited me for a smoke. I said no, and carried on, taking a rickshaw to Sewri. I passed some nice colourful buildings, that looked a bit like Sarojini market. Then I came to this vast theatre like place, but it was just the sides of buildings all around, like the windowless sides of compartment apartments in Delhi when one building in middle is demolished. The entire thing was done up in spectacular murals and graffiti. I happily took many photos. 

Then I took a rickshaw back, smiled again at the guy on the gadda but politely refused a smoke, Then I went to a friend's place in Mulund. There was a party going on with some friends I knew in dream, but no such people exist. They were actually mashups of random people on Instagram. The party was taking place in Yogi hills, in some guy's bungalow in the forest, who lived with his granny. 

Uh. There were a bunch of complex plans made, but basically, I flew back and forth between my home and the Yogi Hills place a bunch of times, then got bored of flying. This is where the cool thing comes in. For the first time ever, I teleported in my dream. I understood somehow that I was following Nightcrawler rules, of having to know the place before I could teleport. First time though, I ended up in Gandhinagar instead of Vasant Vihar. Second time, I was able to roughly teleport to a location even without having been there before. 

Then I did something even more strange. While hovering over a friend and telling them bye, I shapeshifted briefly! It was like Junoon, but instead of a weretiger I became a wereleopard. I could feel my eyes growing larger and getting night vision. I could also feel my canines growing longer and fur growing all over my body. But it was for a fleeting moment, because I smiled and teleported again right then. 

Fun all around. Did two things that I have never done before, teleporting and shapeshifting. 

Lets see what happens today. 

DND Into the Netherdeep Vol. 24

We pick up two owlbear statues and rubies from a treasure chest, then go on to explore the cavern system. Everyone gets rooted to the spot. In the vision, every step anyone takes leaves behind ruidium corruption, and everyone has a red glow. The people fight a bunch of evil warriors attacking commoners in a village, in a vision. 

Jazco and Woolf go into a crevasse that opens up that has a mote of crackling red light floating over a pedestal. They hear some message from Alyxian, asking them to give up hope. On the pedestal is a stuffed Moorbounder. They see a Rara hears a faint whisper, 'Maeska, my old friend'.

Rara reaches out to touch the sphere. Yazhi is not fast enough to cast resilient sphere. The moat gets aborbed by the ruidium hand. Bright red light shoots from Rara's eyes, and Rara is transported to the child's room, cleaner, fresher and without toys. The murdered woman is giving birth to Alyxian. Her husband is holding her hand. A midwife is helping her give birth, and the child comes out. It is silent make no noise, but its eyes open up and looks everywhere. 

The midwife immediately hands over the baby to the mother in disgust. "Even he knows, he is preparing for the dread omens that will haunt him for the rest of his and your lives". Rara has absorbed a fragment of despondence. Rara cannot help people anymore but is immune to being charmed. 

My consciousness starts to meld with Alyxian, I get very brief visions of seeking shelter as I am travelling, and reach late in the evening to an abode of three women. There are visions of laughter, and being welcomed for food and a bed to sleep in. The vision changes, you are standing outside the same home, with three gravestones, made of jagged red crystals. In my mind Alyxian says, "They welcomed me into their homes. Why can't I remember their names or their faces. Please help me remember."

Jazco and Woolf see a vision where Alyxian's parents are trying to seek help from a priest of Pellor, but the priest tells them there is no cure for the mark of the red moon and that they will find no help there. 

We dig three graves and head inside. The furniture is strewn around the ground floor of the houses. There are corpses everywhere, including the three women, and five very rough looking, malformed humanoids, dressed in rags. There are also two men clad in bloodstone chainmail. 

Woolf remember reading about the creatures. These are Grimlocks. Rangu clears the space, finds a cushion, and casts speak with the dead. There is a faint breeze, but nothing happens. We look around the house and find out the names of the three sisters, Meri, Marisa and Celeste. Once we learn all the three names, the bodies get swallowed up by the floor, and three ghosts emerge. We start fighting them.