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.