Previously: Chapter 75: The Battle of Centahelm
Winding Down
Recovering from their close encounter with The Dread Enclave, the party takes the rest of the day to recuperate and relax with their families as best as they can. Penny helps her aunt Valthrae adjust to their new temporary home by using a programmed illusion to make it more resemble her home back in The Emerald Earth Sanctuary, much to her appreciation. Thistlethorn has a heartfelt one on one with her blood-father who promises to look out for everyone as long as she looks out for herself, while Kal has a moment with her brother Valerion, explaining what is happening and who she really is. None of them can give any guarantees about how long they have to stay here until it’s safe, but it seems like their families understand the danger.
After having a good night’s rest, the party gets up bright and early to head north to the god touched place where Faunus granted Brónach the Heartwood Staff, in order to attempt a divine intervention to cure some of the ailments that plagues some members of the party, knowing that the chances are higher there. Morgan joins them, as he promised to help them teleport to their next destination in order to help them save on resources. The whole community says goodbye to the party, hoping they will return soon. On their way out, Hawk wishes them luck, saying that Thistlethorn is much braver than he is for doing what she is doing.
Reaching the stone circle, Kal sits down in the middle of it to try to get more attuned to the place, hoping it will bring her success, but it soon becomes apparent that the gods are too preoccupied to help at the moment. Frustrated, she does a commune and divination, hoping to learn how long Thistlethorn and Penny will have to endure their lingering effects from Leshanna Lathalas’ experiments. She realizes that it should vanish in a fortnight. Which is a lifetime when it comes to their current situation, but she figures that she can just try again later.
Penny, curious and frustrated, decides to draw a card from the Deck of Many Things, hoping to get something that can help her in a way. She draws a card, seeing three masks on the cover, before the card vanishes. She instinctively knows that she can erase an event that has happened to her, potentially removing one of the curses that have befallen her. She considers what she will do, but decides to bide her time, realizing that she must do something before too long, lest she loses the effect. Kal, inspired, decides to also draw from the deck, pulling a card, finding a picture of the sun on it. Suddenly, her body starts to shift, as her legs grows slightly longer, while also her arms gains small fins on them. Her body is now faster and more versatile in water.
Morgan sees this, and warns the party not to dabble too much in the Deck, having heard of the dangers it poses. Penny offers him to draw a card, but he declines, thankfully. As there is no more to do for them in the forest for now, Morgan asks if they are ready to depart. Kal picks up a small rock from the shrine itself, giving it to Relic, so that they can swiftly return here if needed. Thistlethorn offers up a replacement rock for the shrine, which Kal puts in place. Everyone gathers around Morgan, as he casts a teleportation spell, sending them towards their destination.
Kal, between their destinations, get a vision of where they are meant to go. She stands at the top of a cliff in the middle of the storm. Peering down she sees a large boulder sticking out of the water, as a marker of sorts, while a large cave opening directly below her leads into what she suspects is the shrine itself. She begins to fall, but before she reaches the water the vision ends.
The Shrine
Emerging from the teleport, everyone realizes that they are off-target. In the middle of a massive storm, the air is electric and wet, while visibility is poor from all the water flowing and splashing around them, while the dark storm above blots out the sun. Relic begins to sink, so Kal thinks quickly, using her Storm Stride spell to get them towards the coast, grabbing hold of everyone, as they are dragged across the sky on a bolt of lightning, ending up at the bottom of the rocky cliffs, drenched and shaken.
The party considers how they will venture forth, after Kal tells them about the vision she had of their destination. Morgan says that if she would be able to explain in detail what their destination looks like he might have a better chance of getting them there. Relic says to hold on, sitting down to cast a spell. After 10 minutes, everyone is sharing a telepathic bond, allowing Kal to convey exactly what she saw. With a better view of their target, Morgan casts another teleport spell, and they end up standing outside the massive shrine.
Near the opening, a large standing stone looms over them. A massive part of it is missing, and the rest of the standing stone is barely holding itself upright through magical means. But where they previously have seen and felt the emanation of magical energy, faith, there is nothing. The standing stone is dead, and can only be brought back to life if the missing piece is replaced.
All of them notice movement from further inside the cave, and with their darkvision, Kal, Penny and Thistlethorn all see two figures huddled behind a couple of braziers that are standing in front of a large statue of what they assume is Udall. Penny sends in Riff to get a closer look, and sees that the figures are dragonborns. Finding that the groups requests for the figures to make themselves known go unanswered, Kal uses thaumaturgy to give herself a booming voice, demanding that the figures within reveal themselves in the name of Udall. Morgan takes a que and decides to leave the party, as it seems they have it handled.
The two dragonborns come closer to the edge, weapons drawn, demanding proof that Kal is a cleric of Udall. Weary and annoyed, Kal requests assistance from her god, who grants it by shooting down a bolt of lightning from the storm above, making its way inside the cave, and setting the two braziers that stand behind the dragonborns alight. This seems to calm them down, and so they descend to join the rest of the group, introducing themselves as Sarthis and Kaelira Flameheart, siblings, and Rangers of the Wild.
The rangers know not what destroyed the shrine, or how to fix it. They explain that they came here with a bigger group, but the rest of their group have been taken by some fanatics that appear to be a type of fish people. They came every other night, dragging away whomever they could get their hands on, unconscious. The rangers started out as a group of five, but the siblings are all that remain.
Kal approaches the destroyed standing stone, putting her hand on it to get a feel of whatever has happened. She gets a vision, like a flashback, where she sees a massive tentacled monstrosity emerging from the calm sea outside in the night, making its way to the shrine, before slamming its tentacles into it, shattering it, and then dragging away a large part of it. She relays the images of this using the telepathic bond. Both Thistlethorn and Relic recognize it as a kraken, albeit not a fully grown one, only an adolescent. The most disturbing part is that it seemed to be covered in dark chains bound together by an arcane looking lock. Something is terribly wrong.
Meeting the Natives
The rangers suddenly get more weary of their surroundings, readying their weapons. “They are returning” they say to the group, as they move to get in position. Outside, the others can hear several footsteps from a large crowd of people making their way down the rocky edges of the cliffs towards the shrine. The Kuo-Toa emerges, shouting at the group and rangers, seemingly displeased with the intrusion.
The head Kuo-Toa casts spirit guardians on themselves, stepping forward while shouting something at the party. A fight breaks out, but the Kuo-Toa has seemingly bitten off more than they can chew. Sarthis gets greatly wounded in the fight and has to retreat, with his sister looking over him, while the rest of the party deals with the invaders. Although they shout for reinforcements that appear from the coast, the party has no issue dealing with these beings, who was hoping that their sheer numbers would be enough to deal with whomever had entered this place. In the end, most of the Kuo-Toa lies dead, fried or bludgeoned to death by the party’s various spells, while the head priest has been badgered by a moonbeam, lightning bolt, arrows, before finally being taken out by a well placed spear to the eye by Kal. His death prompts the rest of them to flee, but a lieutenant of sorts which had placed himself between Thistlethorn and Penny gets trapped in a web cast by Relic, and is forced to surrender.
Kal casts tongues on herself, and begins to interrogate the captured fanatical Kuo-Toa. Apparently he and his people refer to the Kraken guardian as the “Provider”. He seems to fear the Kraken as far as Penny can tell with her detect thoughts, but is unable to peer deeper into his mind. He turns to Penny, saying that she dabbles inside her mind like the Provider does. He goes on to explain that the Provider has been “cured of his madness”, by being its own master, not a slave to Udall, pointing at the statue. He seems to hint that this shrine originally belonged to his people, but it was taken from them, and with the Provider “cured”, they are finally free again, and have come to reclaim it.
The group explains that they must have been deceived, asking who has told them these things. He says that the “silver haired squid” was the one who “freed” the Provider from his bonds. The party immediately realize that Nezznar is involved in this, and that they have to reverse it, otherwise things can go very bad if the Kraken is allowed to roam freely under his control.
Penny steps outside, using disguise self to turn herself into Malice, and then walks back inside, thanking the Kuo-Toa for his service, but that he is even more enslaved now than he was before. He seems to buy it, and is convinced by the party that he must warn the rest of his tribe to leave the shrine alone, telling them that they face only death by opposing the will of Udall, pointing out the massacre of the Kuo-Toa that has happened around them. He tells them how to reach the place where they sacrifice to the Provider, before being allowed to leave, taking the corpse of their leader with him.
As they have no magic prepared that can help them venture into the depths, they decide to stay in the cave for the night, and prepare better in the morning. Relic opens up the magnificent mansion, making a guest rooms for their dragonborn companions, before venturing inside to rest. Penny spends a few hours on the coast trying to find some nice seashells, but finds only broken ones due to the storm. She instead finds some beautiful rocks that have been polished by the ocean, deciding to give one to Thistlethorn.
Thistlethorn spends some time looking for pretty rocks herself inside the cave, coming across what appears to be broken pieces of the shrine itself. She discovers that she can piece together the shrine to a certain degree by placing fallen stones back where they belonged, being held aloft magically. After finishing with the stones she found, she sees the large piece missing to complete the shrine, but now they don’t have to worry about that later.
Kal sits down next to the statue of Udall, between the two lit braziers, casting a legend lore in order to learn more about the Kraken guardian. She is pulled into Udall’s domain, who regales the tale of the Kraken.
“Velyria, the young guardian of the Shrine of Udall, is a century-old daughter of the legendary Immortal Kraken, whose name reverberates through the eons as the sovereign of The Sea of Faces. Though youthful, Velyria embodies the promise and might of her ancient lineage, steadfast in her sacred duty beneath the tranquil waves.”
She tries to cast a divination in order to get some guidance for how to release Velyria from her bonds, but gets a little helpful reply that she has to remove the chains. This she had already figured out herself. She eventually joins the others inside the magnificent mansion to kill time until dawn.
Inside, they get to have a more personal talk with the dragonborn siblings. Apparently they know of Granny, having spoken to her a few times, who has told them of her previous adventuring party. They offer to give Granny a message from them if they wish. They tell them that they miss her, and hope she is happy with whatever she is up to now.
More disturbingly, they tell of several villages and hamlets having been attacked and destroyed by drow attacks. Apparently several places have been attacked at night, with the drow forces kidnapping or killing villagers, before retreating underground. The queen seemingly is trying to keep quiet about it, sending out troops to from nearby strongholds to protect exposed settlements, but there are too many to cover them all. Disturbingly, Chasten Crossing have also been attacked, where they found Chester, with most villagers being taken or killed.
Penny asks the party why the officials of Ravenforge decided to hold the execution of Glasstaff at dusk, instead of high noon which is the custom. They all give each other a look of concern, realizing the weirdness of the circumstances. Penny sends Thervan a message, asking who made that call. He is unsure, but promises to look into it, asking if she suspects foul play. She replies that she thinks it’s suspicious, considering they knew of the drow. Thervan agrees, and promises to look into it.
Kal tells the others of what she learned from the legend lore on Velyria. The Immortal Kraken that the lore refers to is a well known titan below the Sea of Faces, who only attacks when provoked, because he knows he will always win. Sadly, a few brave or foolish souls regularly seeks him out to kill him, forcing him to defend himself, reinforcing his reputation of violence.
Into The Sea
The next day, having prepared spells to help them out, that can be useful in an underwater scenario, they set out to the coast, leaving Argus and Ira behind to look over the shrine with Sarthis and Kaelira, who awaits their return. Thistlethorn casts a spell allowing them all to breathe underwater, while Penny turns her familiar into a tiny squid. Thistlethorn then wild shapes into a giant octopus, taking hold of each of her companions and sets out into the depths.
They have gotten some vague directions form the Kuo-Toa that they captured, but luckily, Thistlethorns new form is more than suited for this environment. After several miles underwater, they reach the first waypoint that the Kuo-Toa spoke of. A shipwreck, split in half, bearing the name “Paragon”. Seemingly a merchant vessel, it met with a grim fate long ago, having already been plundered by whomever came across it. Penny uses her wand of adventuring to seek out hidden compartments, finding one in the captains quarters. Once trapped, now inert, she opens the compartment, finding a healthy pile of platinum and gold within. She pockets it, as the party continues onwards towards the next marker.
After some time, heading west away from the coast, they come across the distinctive hooked stone that their guide described. Thistlethorn realizes that they should be fairly close now, and so clings to the stone after releasing her companions, before reverting to her normal form. She places herself on top of it, taking out a few stones from her bag of holding, casting a ritual of commune with nature. To their south, an underwater village, most likely the Kuo-Toa lies, with several people within. To their west, a large coral reef, their final marker, can be found, along with several sharks and water elementals. To their north, a massive whale is drifting calmly through the deep.
Knowing that there are potential enemies ahead, they decide to take a stealthy approach. Thistlethorn casts pass without trace, allowing them to sneak past, through shipwrecks and fields of kelp, while a massive shark floats by unknowing above them, flanked by several smaller sharks. They thank their lucky stars that they managed to evade them, and continue onwards.
Eventually they reach the coral reef, and see that it appears to be of a rainbow coloration, quite distinctive, but their eyes are not accustomed to this underwater environment, and so they do not get to enjoy its true splendor. In either case, they see their destination ahead of them. A large crevasse stretches into the depths. Before they get a chance to move closer, a large shadow appears over them. The guardian, Velyria swims past them about 40-50 feet above, ignorant of their presence. She makes her way through the crevasse, before disappearing into a tunnel further ahead.
The party looks at each other, and confirm that they all saw the arcane locks bore the rune of the Forgotten One on them. Confirmation on who has been interfering with the shrine once again. They sneak stealthily ahead, not disturbing the ocean floor other than to pick up pretty rocks and shells, before making their way through the crevasse, finding the opening to a tunnel, which they enter. Darkness surrounds them, but they see light ahead of them, emerging from the end of the tunnel, and their quarry.