Previously: Chapter 76: Beyond the Sea
The Guardian
The party carefully makes their way through the tunnel, towards the opening on the other side. Kal briefly considers to cast some spells to prepare the group for the inevitable combat they are about to face, but stops as both she and Thistlethorn notice water elementals floating on the edges of the tunnel. Not wanting to wake them, she keeps her spells to herself, making both Relic and Penny aware of the dangers lurking in the periphery. But, thanks to Thistlethorn’s pass without trace, they manage to sneak past the elementals without notice. Soon, they find themselves at the bottom of a large ravine, spanning hundreds of meters in each direction, while above they see the flashes of lightning strikes penetrating the surface.
They carefully and quietly swim upwards towards the edge, hoping to catch the kraken off guard, passing skeletons of various animals and bits and pieces of whatever shipwrecks have been unfortunate enough to get into the kraken’s territory. Approaching the edge, they stop, and carefully peer over it, watching for dangers, finding a large natural nest for the guardian, protected from all sides by rocky underwater cliffs.
The runes of the arcane locks glow with a soft, green light, revealing the guardian’s position. She is trying to rest, but the party can hear the thumps resonating from the locks, which must be disturbing her sleep. It doesn’t appear that she has noticed them, so they decide to make a plan. As they do not want to hurt Velyria, the kraken, they decide to sneak up to her, casting some spells at the chains while she is unaware of their presence, hoping to get them all before she has a chance to do anything.
Penny, using her book of sorcery, quietly casts invisibility on Kal and Thistlethorn, while Riff sneaks up to the guardian along the ocean floor, trying to act natural. Kal and Thistlethorn manage to reach Velyria, but just as they are about to deliver the spells, Relic shifts a rock, alerting the kraken that something is wrong. In a panic, Thistlethorn lets off her spell, managing to break one of the shackles. As it disintegrates, the fragments coalesce into three shadows that stare at her, as her invisibility drops.
Kal, invisible, puts her hand on Velyria, asking her to return to Udall. The kraken, in a panic, looks around, clearly in pain, while Kal delivers the second spell, breaking another chain, this time summoning four more shadows. The kraken, frightened, summons a large cloud of poisonous ink, and tries to avoid the attackers, but they unfortunately for her have the ability to see through the cloud to some degree.
Penny begins playing a motivational tune, granting the party increased mobility and protection while they can hear her, while the shadows focus on the two who released them from their task. They surround the firbolg and the aasimar, draining them of their strength. Relic rises from the ravine, attacking a couple of the shadows, but finds his attacks to be ineffective. They all find that the inc cloud that surrounds them is poisoning them, so they try to move away, but can’t without having the shadows drain them even further.
The lair awakens, summoning a whirlpool, catching both Relic and Penny within it. Thistlethorn summons a bear totem, granting everyone apart from Relic some temporary hit points, hoping to stop anyone from dying, while also bolstering their strength. The kraken sees its opening and tries to get away from her assailants, lashing out at Kal and Thistlethorn, before attempting to flee. She is struck by another greater restoration from the firbolg, breaking another chain. This time, seven more shadows appear, and they begin to hear whispering from them.
Kal, being a cleric, decides to do away with a few of the shadows, using a turn undead to vanquish them. She manages to destroy half of them, with the other half striking back at them, this time also attacking Penny, who has managed to escape from the whirlpool. As the kraken calls down lightning from the storm above, wounding the party, she yells out in celestial.
“...Help… me…”
One of the shadows who are draining Penny of her strength taunts her, by saying that she should return to him. She decides to retaliate by using a vicious mockery on it, giving some psychic damage while also distracting him, as she tries to get away. As she has been targeted harshly by the shadows, she can feel that she doesn’t have much more strength to give, and manages to get away from it, thanks to her distraction. Relic, in the meantime, has found the kraken hiding in the ink cloud, and tries to hit the final arcane lock that remains. The spell hits true, but it is not enough to shatter it. The kraken feels this, sending more lightning strikes at the party, while trying to escape further into the cloud of poisonous ink. Thistle, not seeing much more she can do, changes her totem to that of a unicorn, allowing her to heal everyone in the party at the same time.
Kal tries to strike out at even more of the shadows by casting spiritual guardians, greatly hurting her foes that are weak to the radiant energy that now surrounds her. Relic makes a final attempt at the arcane lock, hitting the kraken from across the cloud of ink, and they can all hear a great shattering. The cloud of ink disperses, and they see the guardian slowly descend to the bottom of the ocean, unconscious. The broken chains coalesce into eleven more shadows that turn their eyes at the party.
Free of the corruption of the evil god, the lair now turns against the shadows, summoning a whirlpool to catch them where they linger, getting about half of them, while Kal moves in to clean up the rest with her spiritual guardians. Riff is destroyed by the whirlpool, conveying a single thought to Penny as he passes: “Hurt.”
As she faces down the shadow that has been taunting her while draining her strength, she has a choice. Succumb, and be free of the contract with Raam, or persevere, and fight to the end. She decides on the latter, sending out a prismatic spray at most of the remaining shadows, making sure not to hit Kal who is in their midst. The one in front of her is blinded, but she manages to greatly wound the rest of them, although not enough to take them down completely. Seems like these shadows are way more robust than the ones they have previously faced.
Thistlethorn swims up next to Penny, using a greater restoration in order to bring back her strength. Relic appears next to her as well, shooting out a radiant lightning bolt, taking down most of the remaining shadows. The lair gives a single boon to the party, making the remaining shadow vulnerable to lightning. Kal moves up close to it, takes out Stormseeker, telling it to return to his master, and to tell him they’re coming for him. The shadow replies that “He will be waiting”, before Kal strikes him down.
Aftermath
With the danger over, the whirlpools dissipate, and the remnants of the shadows drift quietly down to the bottom of the ocean floor. The party descends to the kraken, Kal allowing her armor to sink her down slowly. The guardian seems to be alive, albeit unresponsive. Deep wounds tell the tale of the chains that bound her, with Thistlethorn and Penny both using healing spells on her, closing some of them. Kal uses a greater restoration on herself, bringing her back to full strength, before doing the same to the kraken.
The guardians eyes open up, and she looks around in a panic. She talks to Kal, in celestial, saying that she is surprised, but happy that the party helped her. Kal tells her that they need to restore the shrine, which triggers the guardian who looks around in a panic, before desperately starting to dig for something. The party realizes that she is searching for the missing piece, so they decide to help look for it.
Penny stays close to the kraken, finding a pretty shell, but Kal, while searching through the sediment, comes across a big dark stone. Thistlethorn comes over, helping clear away the debris. They get the attention of the kraken, who turns to them, and hurries over to carefully take the stone. She looks at it like a child looking at a broken toy, and they can see the pain in her eyes, as she recounts what she did while under his control. The party can now understand her, as she speaks to them telepathically in common, and tries to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, but the pain persists. Resolute, Velyria hides the stone among her tentacles, while carefully taking hold of each of the party members, as she shoots upwards and then eastwards, back to the shrine.
As they are carried with great speed towards the coast, the party sees that the ocean surface is calm. The storm is over, and rays of sunlight can be seen peering through the scattering clouds. When they finally reach their destination, they see the dragonborn siblings, Sarthis and Kaelira readying their weapons at the approaching titan, but the party assures them that it is safe.
The guardian looks over at the destroyed shrine, and recounts her memories, feeling like she wanted to destroy it, that she hated Udall, and that she did a good thing. Kal and the others assure her that she wasn’t herself, and so shouldn’t blame herself. She looks at them, with great sadness, but seems to accept their words, although it may take time before she properly can absorb them. She carefully takes out the missing piece, and hands it to Kal. Thistlethorn casts guidance, while Penny begins playing music to inspire her, as Kal accepts it. Valyria carefully makes her way back to the ocean, saying that she is unworthy of repairing the damage she has done. Kal gives her a final kind goodbye as the guardian disappears beneath the surface.
Kal makes her way over to the shrine, and with the assistance of the dragonborns, manages to replace the stone into the shrine. The magic that was gone returns, and it begins to repair itself. Kal can feel the faith beginning to flow through it once more. Behind them, they suddenly hear the sound of stone grinding against stone, as the statue of Udall in the back of the cave begins to move. Argus and Ira, who was using him to sit on, fly down to Thistlethorn.
The statue expresses great pleasure at the party managing to save yet another of his shrines, and offers them a boon for their help. He reaches out his hand towards them, with water emanating from it, drenching the party. Relic feels the power of lightning within him, having finally been granted the blessing of Udall, while the others get a boon of waterwalking, allowing them to shift between different bodies of water.
The dragonborns wonder what happened, seemingly not having noticed that the statue moved or spoke, but Relic figures that it wasn’t for them to see. They compliment the party for saving the shrine, saying that they realized they were successful when the storm suddenly stopped in a heartbeat. They ask if they were able to recover the bodies of their fallen, but the party disappoints them, saying they didn’t have time. Relic send a sending to the Kuo-Toa they interrogated, asking if the other rangers are alive. He replies that none survived. Penny sends another sending, begging them to bring back the bodies at least, which the Kuo-Toa accepts, saying they will be brought back at noon the next day.
As their business is concluded, Relic asks if everyone is ready to return, preparing to teleport them back. The siblings thank the party once more, wishing them luck on their further adventures, promising to bring word of them to Granny, complimenting their strong companionship. Argus remarks that it is nice to be part of a group, surprising the dragonborns at being an awakened animal. Relic asks if they haven’t heard of this magic before, but the rangers say that it is a rare, but good thing, to grant a beast the gift of true life. Argus and Ira both agree, snuggling closer to their mother, as Relic casts the teleport spell, bringing them back home.
Home Sweet Home
The air is musky, and the room is dark, but it is unmistakably their own basement. As soon as they land, they hear footsteps from above running across the living room, before coming down the stairs. Arin greets them, happy to have them return and is pleased to report that both Tome, Jen and Oakenward have kept her safe, as there have been no more attacks. Penny and Relic both uses prestidigitation to clean themselves up, as Tome appears on the stairs as well, expressing his joy at having the party return.
After catching their breath, the party checks up on their home in whatever way suits them best. Relic is updated on what has been going on with Tome, while Thistlethorn goes out to speak to the horses and Oakwenward. The awakened tree opens its eyes, greeting its maker fondly, saying he is happy that she still lives. She asks him how things have been going, so he tells her that he has overheard that several villages and hamlets have been attacked by someone, but the house is fine. The horses seems to be content as well, so she goes over to greet them.
Penny decides to send a sending to Thervan, asking him if there has been any updates on what they talked about. He tells her that he is having difficulties, as nobody seems to remember who gave the orders to have the execution at dusk. He also hints at other problems, but doesn’t elaborate further, but requests that all of them should meet him to look into it, the following day.
Kal goes upstairs to her room to change, finding her entire bed, duvet and pillow having been completely ruined. Berry is frolicking on her bed, happy as an owlbear can be, but as soon as she sees Kal’s reaction to the destruction, he retreats and hides behind the bed. When she carefully sits down, he jumps up again to join her, looking up at her with his big, innocent eyes. Kal pets him, saying that if he continues to ruin her stuff, she will make him into a pillow to replace it. As he can’t understand her, he just snuggles up to her as she leans on him, relaxing for a moment.
Thistle goes over to the horses, who seem to be fine, but disappointed when she tells them that there doesn’t seem to be any more chances at the moment of going on another adventure, as the places they are about to go are the most dangerous they have been so far. She does however promise them that when they are finished with their mission, she will take them all on a grand adventure far away. This seems to be enough for them for now, and with her offer to take them out to run in the field, they seem to have forgiven her.
As she jumps onto Speed and starts riding him into the grassy fields surrounding the city, the other horses follow them. Penny looks out the window at them, seeing Argus and Ira both frolicking near a small puddle. Suddenly, Argus turns to water, and reappears from another puddle, with Ira doing the same.