Edward utilizes the sharp senses of his Familiar Artax and narrows the possible locations of Teo Ramu. He fires two Eldritch Blasts, one of which comes so close that Crom can see the visual distortion of his location from the adjoining tunnel. The totem warrior charges up and swings his axe in a large arc, it connects with the necromancer as blood sprays the wall. In an instant he is revealed, doubled over in pain, his greater invisibility lost. Teo responds in turn and casts a second ice storm, targeting the chamber containing Edward and the two familiars. Huge shards of ice crash down toward Edward, but he dodges the worst of it, taking minor wounds to his limbs. However, both Artax and Mornington's Familiar Spook are not so lucky, both perishing under the avalanche. Both warlock and bard feel the telepathic link to their familiar severed. Amarion and Mornington close the distance, and all four of the party have now maneuvered to surround the evil wizard. Teo takes a beating of both spell and sword, driven back and downed in a heap of robes.
As the party approach to check if he still breaths, his body twitches. Violently the mage's body flips over, and they see his hands are splitting between his fingers, down the palm, and up his arms. His jaw too, a cracking, squelching sound unfolds as a line travels down his chin and throat. He begins a terrible transformation, one that Mornington and Edward have witnessed before, he is transforming into his true form, one of a Unknown. Teo stands, and as he does his robes fall away, revealing sickly blue skin and arms that separate at each elbow into two distinct forearms. The split down his chin has now worked in the opposite direction up his face and his whole head suddenly snaps open into a huge gaping maw full of curved teeth. The aberration before them emits a terrible psychic screech and Edward finds himself frozen in place, stunned. Crom and Amarion draw the distance to take him down for good, but despite his monstrous form, he is still able to conjure forth his death magic. A terrible darkness forms in his hand as he extends it towards Crom. The barbarian, quick on his feet, manages to dodge to the side, missing the majority of the spell. However, a tiny breath of this darkness brushes his skin, and blackness spreads as his flesh falls to necrosis, pain coursing through his nerves. But it is not enough to bring down the axe wielding titan. Amarion stabs the necromancer through the back with his Dawn Shard longsword, Crom follows up, felling the once meager Servant of the Weave, his aberrant body falling to the glacial floor.
Teo's face closes up, a jagged scar running from chest to scalp, it's supposed thread made of daggered teeth, yet his human mouth still functions. Defeated, he has but a few breaths left, and he chooses to use them to taunt, to scare, to warn even. He claims that they stand no chance against that which he has discovered. He was ready to turn from The Tarnished after he found the death stone, and more importantly, the Unknown that guarded it. He was shown a wider cosmos by this creature of the deep, he was gifted, changed into something more. Once the death stone was destroyed and the Aboleth slaughtered, he regrouped with cultists of the tarnished. All to make a voyage, for he knew the way, as something called to him from beyond. So they commandeered a ship from New Cresthill and found themselves following the rumours of the great iceberg. Once they arrived, Teo found more than he had hoped for, the voice that turned him from the cultists of death was ever stronger, and he must leave them once more.
"None of you stand a chance, you are less than ants to those that lie beyond, and there is much worse things than death waiting for you."
A loud crack silences Teo's words as Crom's axe removes his head.
As the adrenaline of hard fought battle subsides, they search the necromancer's body. They find two magic scrolls, one to inflict wounds, and one to alter someone's mind into servitude. In addition, they find a red crystalline skull with silver in its eyes, something that had been mentioned by Captain Gregor. His soul was pulled back from the Ethereal Plane trapping him as the caged skeleton he is now. The party are worn and start taking steps to rest safely for the night. They walk into the destroyed ship hull and gather at the prow as Mornington weaves magical music to form a spherical hut, one that will cloak them from others that may be lurking nearby. They all sleep soundly, feeling secure in the magical structure and Amarion is the first to wake, his elven heritage only requiring a couple of hours of meditation to recover. In the couple of hours that passed, something changed. From the dim light of his glowing sword, Amarion can see two piles of large slimy eggs resting on the floor just outside the hut. They start to quiver as he extends his sword outside the hut for a better look, so withdraws and waits for the others to rise.
Once all are awake, they don armour, and pack their adventuring gear. Amarion warns them of the strange eggs, no one can tell where they could have come from. They must move, the magic of the hut fades and the barrier falls, eggs begin to quiver, some tumbling from atop the pile, strings of slime stretching and breaking. The party can now see shapes writhing within the eggs, long worm like creatures, and realise these must be the same abominations that infected the sailors they encountered. They all rush forward, brandishing weapons against the eggs on the verge of hatching. Edward draws on his patrons power, and with a few dark words engulfs himself in flames, shielding himself from anything that might get too close. The others hack, slash, and stomp their way through the eggs, but cannot stop the inevitable. Many start hatching, and thick fleshy worms gather into swarms, their mouths lined with hundreds of teeth and their bodies lined with small legs, allowing them to move surprisingly fast.
Mornington and Crom have worms writhe up their legs, teeth latching on as they attempt to burrow into flesh. Amarion's armour and Edward's flame shield have made them unfavourable targets for the parasites. Edward spots something at the other end of the ship, out of the darkness another sack of eggs flies through the air, landing on the rotten boards with a squelch. He realises something is making more of these things, and rushes towards the source to try and stop it. Amarion, Crom, and Mornington continue to carve through the swarm of worms that ripple over each other as well as them. However, they are slowed by the need to extract worms from their bodies, a burst of pain, a spray of blood accompanying each. They do not want to succumb to whatever hell those sailors had been subjected to. But with a third pile of eggs beginning to hatch, one that Edward completely bypassed, they need to hurry.
Edward moves to the stern of the ship, and where one of the two staircases is destroyed, he sees something move into the icy caverns below. He follows, his fire wreathed body lighting the way, as he descends he finds a warren of twisting tunnels. Down here more ship parts are wedged into walls and ceilings, and it feels like this is an extension to the twisted shanty that was found around the ship. Edward can see a fork in the tunnel and as he approaches something emerges into view. Barely recognisable as the human it once was, Edward is confronted with another doomed sailor, this one however has been twisted to such a degree that Edward feels his stomach lurch. It's limbs have extended to grotesque proportions, it walks hunched over, yet is still as tall as Crom. It's skin is sickly blue, and a huge robe of filthy, tattered cloth covers it's bloated torso. The lower half of the sailor's face is now a mass of fleshy tentacles, squirming as it breathes. Out from it's back, a huge eruption of darker tentacles writhe uncontrollably, and latched on to the lower half of the creatures torso and back is a giant mucusey sack of worm eggs.
Edwards shock at the horror before him is paired with a sharp pain as the creature slashes him with a rusted hook, designed to gut large fish. Edward is stood alone, toe to toe with this creature, so calls upon his eldritch powers to make as great a dent as he can. He unleashes an immense fireball at point blank range, into the face of the abomination. The tunnel is filled with hellfire and a tortured screech escapes from the creatures warped face, it is badly hurt from the fire unlike Edward. Luckily, he was already shielded in flames, only suffering minor burns from the intense heat of his destructive magic. The creature turns and shambles into the darkness of the ice warrens, and Edward pursues, unsure if he has truly frightened it or if he is being lured further from help.
The others hear the roar of flame and see the bright light illuminate the stern of the entombed ship. They dispatch the remaining eggs and hatchling worms, before rushing to help fight whatever it is that Edward faces alone. As they rush into the tunnels beneath the ship they follow Edward, who leads the chase after the creature. Between them they have three light sources, Amarion's Dawn Shard, Mornington's Lantern of Judgement, and Edward's flame-licked body. This makes it far easier to find the creature as it moves deeper into the dark, but it pulls from it's slimy underbelly, throwing down more egg sacks between it and it's pursuers. The party manage to surround it in one of the larger passage ways, Mornington brings the creature to its knees with his bardic magic as it sputters and convulses in hideous, torturous laughter. Amarion slices a gash along its side, Crom cracks it in the back with his shadow maul as tentacles lash out at him, purple magic lights up the surroundings as eldritch blasts sing through the air and collide with its many appendages. Eggs start to hatch near Mornington and he unsheathes his briney coral blade to try and keep them at bay. Thunderous booms reverberate through the chamber as Amarion unleashes divine elemental powers on this most unnatural of creatures. Crom swings again with his shadow maul, unleashing necrotic energy from the black dragon's tail, but the tentacles writhe and wrap around the weapon. Despite the barbarian's strength, it manages to wrench the weapon from Crom's hands, leaving him empty handed.
Mornington can see the others struggling, and sees Crom dismarmed, he focuses and casts a spell to inflict psychic damage to the creature and hamper its ability to fight effectively. This gives an opening, and Crom draws his great axe before he, Amarion, and Edward continue the assault. Further down the corridor, more of the eggs have hatched and Mornington is being swarmed with parasitic worms, many burrowing into his legs. He struggles to pry them free in time and feels a deep pain in his gut, he looks down to see a bloody rip in his tunic and a worm slip into his innards. His eyes roll back in his head as the pain becomes unbearable, and he falls limp, worms crawling over his body. The lank, bloated, writhing mass of tortured sailor is slowing, a garbled sentence spills from it's tentacled face. "Mother... will not... be... pleased." The final blow is struck as axe, sword and infernal magic bring the creature down into a pool of its own dark blood. The tentacles upon its back finally stop their writhing and then a new sense of urgency strikes as they look over to Mornington, a dropped lantern illuminating his grim situation.
Between the three of them, they quickly destroy the remaining parasites, Amarion then kneels down to channel his divinity and heal the poor nobleman. Mornington wakes with a start, his companions sitting him up, and he's white as a sheet. He coughs and splutters, still in great pain despite the worst of his wounds being healed. He then feels something within, something moving, writhing beneath his skin.
Next Session. 101
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