Loose threads
What exactly caused the dragons to go berserk?
Why were the Iruxi forbidden from exploring the underground dungeon?
How to remove the dragon scale in the underground dungeon and help Steve revisit his city?
Participants
Illean Millis, Jean Berée, Nasdac, Raziyah (w/ Regina) and Seeker of the All
Locations Underground Dungeon, Zar-Mothet
Short summary:
Sailed to Zar-Mothet. Were attacked by enraged dragons on the way (red glowey eyes). Jean used magic to calm them and we parted on friendly terms.
Arrived on shore. Fought a T. rex, it came back as a Skeleton because we forgot to burn its corpse. Destroyed it for good this time.
Met the Iruxi, explored the Underground Dungeon at their behest. Met a Skeleton, Steve, and discovered ancient elven murals and reliefs. Steve wishes to visit his city further down but his path his blocked by an enchanted dragon scale. Explored elsewhere in the dungeon, fought ghostly priestesses and snagged a cool sword in the process.
Full Report
Determined to investigate the sudden eastward migration of animals, I gathered a crew and set out towards Zar-Mothet: an island inhabited by Kobolds and Iruxi. The reports mentioned prehistoric animals living there as well as a strange phenomenon where corpses would come back to life if not completely burnt out.
To this end, we travelled to First Landing Port and enlisted the services of Shiora, Captain of the Wagabond, who mentioned the last guy who visited the island didn't come back. Alarming!
The first two days at sea were unremarkable, which we soon learned, was the calm before the storm. On day 3, the temperature drops and seas start to rebel. The day after, we are beset by a terrible storm and soon after, three dragons roared at us from the waves and the skies: one of the Sea, one of Brine and one of the Sky.
We were not ready for the ambush, not one bit. Before we could hardly process what was going on, our bodies give in to dread as we are assaulted by sea water, acid and lightning breaths. Seeker, Jean and the Wagabond's crew ensured our survival through this opening assault.
Things were still quite grim, as the dragons, eyes gleaming red, swooped in closer and bared their fangs and claws. I remember losing consciousness at some point in the pitch of battle, until a gentle feeling woke me up. Jean, noticing the dragons' unnatural behaviour, used a casting of Calm Emotions to quell their rage. Once calmed down, the Sky Dragon, introducing himself as Caelivar, was open to dialogue.
While the Brine Dragon and Sea Dragon, Cyrmara, left after recovering their wits, Caelivar stayed back to listen to what we had to say. He confirmed that the fish in his territory had also migrated eastward recently and that it's unlikely that Zar-Mothet was the source of this phenomenon.
Caelivar told us that the Mother's wrath is strong on the island, a force that opposes the Ancient Entities. He seemed offended when Seeker mentioned the Earth Mother (a spiritual concept, I believe, not another entity) assuming he was referring to the Verdant Mother. Anyway, in conclusion, Zar-Mothet was under the influence of the Dragons' Mother (Caelivar refused to name her) and it seems the beasts living on that island have been agitated due to her influence. As for the eastward migration, he believes its either the Verdant Mother or the Weaver who is responsible for that.
We bid the dragon farewell and continued on our journey, eventually arriving at the island later that day. The heat and humidity reminded me of home, but I don't think the trees back home were usually this tall. We spotted an Iruxi riding atop a Shotalashu, but they disappear quickly before we made landfall.
We ventured deeper into the jungle where we came face to face with one of its apex predators: an honest to goodness Tyrannosaurus Rex! We had a moment to prepare and Seeker used it to Enlarge me enough to fight the creature somewhat evenly. It was barely enough. The dinosaur trampled over us, amd while I was able to get some decent slashes in, we were far from done here.
With Jean focusing on healing and Seeker balancing defense and offense, we were able to bring the fight to a close, but the beast managed to clamp its jaws around me and sent me flying across the terrain. Finally it was Illean, her blade imbued with flames, that critically struck the creature, bringing it down low. Dead. For now.
We patched up quickly and set out. I don't know if it was the sight of the small flames dancing on the corpse or plain forgetfulness on my part, but we didn't think to burn the body fully at that time. Eventually we ran into an Iruxi, but before we could get to talking the T. Rex's skeleton came back to avenge its own death.
This fight was a lot worse. Not only was I too small to wrestle it now, my sword proved ineffective against its exposed bones. Illean's spell were also blocked out, making her resort to fisticuffs, though her spell did manage to get it to bleed out its essence. The T. Rex lashed out with a vengeance, pinning Nas Dac to the ground with a spiky leg bone and chomping at each and every one of us. At one point, I found myself unable to act, trapped in its jaws.
I shifted my sword into a Warhammer, Seeker enlarged himself to restrain its movements and Jean took charge of keeping us alive. Finally, once again, Illean finished off the creature, this time with a strong right uppercut straight to the mandible.
We conversed with the Iruxi, Rabbia, as an older Iruxi, Gussa, riding a Shotalashu joined us. He was worried their leader had secretly fallen under the influence of the Dragons' Mother and was working against their own people's interests. As their leader had forbidden the Iruxi from exploring the underground dungeon, Gussa asked us to do so in their stead.
We pushed aside a slab covering one of the entrances to the dungeon, patched up from the last fight and plunged into its depths. Gussa informed us that there is a similar entrance within the Kobolds' territory too and that the tunnels maybe connected. We did find a split path that would have taken us towards the Kobolds. If it weren't deliberately collapsed, that is. It seems the Kobolds did not want to leave such an obvious vulnerability in their defenses.
We pressed on down the main path till we arrived at a stretch of the corridor, faintly lit by fungi. The walls were carved to tell a story, Elven architecture, Drow to be more specific: figures bowed in worships, ensnared by webs carved out of stone. Repeating patterns that continued for several hundred meters. As we went deeper, the carvings became more distinct, Elves bowing before something. Something that been defaced, though we could identify an arm holding an eye under the defacement.
We arrived at a room at the end of the tunnel with an altar on the opposite wall. It had a domed ceiling, I had to activate my Obsidian Goggles to see it in full as the faint light didn't reach the top of it. The defaced carvings on the wall continued from outside. Seeker believes they were defaced intentionally at the time of creation, perhaps to symbolise practices falling out of grace in society.
I examined the altar next. It was worn smooth by use and eroded over time. Figures of Elves kneeling and bowing were carved on the walls around it, just above the floor level.
The wall behind the altar depicted a ring of Elves standing around a largely defaced entity. We could only identify a scant few details of this mystery figure: a long arm with offset joints, an open palm holding an eye and several extra limbs, jointed backwards. Surrounding this, we had another scene: several figures walking backwards into cities, suns tied by chains pulled by shadowy figures. Near the edges, we saw a set of largely intact figures, perhaps depicting the Ancient Entities:
A man with backwards legs walking midway across a split disc, the sides representing Day and Night.
The Verdant Mother crushing humanoids.
The Weaver depicted as an eye within a web surrounded by its trapped victims. The eye seemed to follow you no matter where you stood.
An purple and silver alchemic circle with a body in the centre with its skin and flesh ripped off. From what I could gather, this one is the Unbound or as the Elves call her "That Which Life Holds No Grasp Of".
Then a tall faceless figure holding an open book with no pages and another figure completely engulfed in flames adjacent and behind it.
And lastly, a figure deliberately scratched off and carved over several times. Perhaps this refers to Monday and her dominion over change.
The ceiling had a series of stories depicted in a spiral. Near the base and up to the second storey, we saw villages, courts and battles in a loop. Similar events with slightly different details continuing over and over, terminated by a blank space and restarted by a joyful mask. According to Jean, the joyful mask represents the storyteller.
The next three storeys depicted suns and stars being pulled towards a maw, their light being devoured away. A single long limbed silhouette strided along this sky, an undetailed black hole in a background of stars.
The last of the storeys featured a gargantuan creature, sea green in color, creating other creatures. It had waves for ribs and currents for arms. Around its legs, several smaller humanoids seemed to transform into fish, coral and other aquatic life. The light from our torches got cut out by light-absorbing obsidian, perhaps placed interntionally to cut out light before it could illuminate the "unseen future".
As we were pondering the meaning behind these, we were interrupted by the opening of a hidden door and the appearance of a sapient skeleton. He spoke Sakvroth, Elven and Fey and introduced himself as Stevenarith, or Steve. We discussed the island for a bit. He attributed the spontaneous revivals on this island to the Unbound, though he referred to her by her local name only. He then asked us to follow him deeper, down the doorway he emerged from.
Next, we found ourselves in another room, this one with a giant dragon scale blocking the next door that led further down the dungeon. Apparently Steve had been trying to open this door and re-enter his city but his efforts were constantly thwarted. A forcefield of vitality originating from the Dragon's scale prevented him from seeing his own kin. We tried to remove it but to no avail.
Meanwhile Seeker and Steve discussed spiritual philosophy, I think. I kind of tuned that out after a while but they did mention another deity, not depicted in the previous carvings, called "The Light That Remains Once All Has Perished."
We bade Steve farewell and continued our exploration. Steve opened a door for us, stating this was the last place he knew of in this part of the dungeon: the High Priestess's chambers. He warned us that High Priestess Shae had lost her mind a long time ago.
We made our way down and were attacked by Shae plus two more of her clergy, all ghosts, while a sword on an altar kept screeching at us. Shae attacked us first with a harrowing screech and a burst of deathly cold. The other two floated closer and raked us with their deathly fingers, imbued with the void's essence. It would have been a pretty horrific encounter if we hadn't come prepared.
I used one of my vials of Ghost Oil on my Shifting Warhammer while Illean coated her sword with another vial. Seeker enhanced Nas Dac's rifle while Jean moved in for an all-out spell assault.
Our frontline endured deathly fists while our backline sustained a barrage of telekinetically propelled debris. Under enemy fire, Nas Dac got a couple of good shots in. Jean unleashed a ray of moonlight followed by a damning curse at the High Priestess and a burst of pure vitality, healing us AND harming our foes. Seeker prevented the ghosts from setting up an organized offense while Illean and I hacked away at them as well as we could. With time, we made handy work of the lesser priestesses and soon after, Jean's curse promising Shae's end bore fruit: the screeching sword suddenly unleashed a sonic explosion permanently silencing her wails.
With all ghosts annihilated, the sword stopped screeching too. We had some time to look around the room. This room's wall had several stone carvings too. First, a city in a swamp centred around a temple with an arena inside. In the arena, several warriors prepared for battle, facing each other in pairs. In the next panel, half of them were dead and the other half, crowned victors, were kneeling to their king.
Four temples lined the city's inner ring, each with a "Hero" on it: a tall man with a glaive in the North, a priestly woman in the South, a cloaked man in the East and a man with a massive greatsword in the West. Animals moved in the water and among the reeds, making their way to the central temple. And above it all, at the very centre, was the King of the Beasts, atop his throne.
It seems my initial objective wasn't completely defeated coming here. The Hunt was only just beginning.