Session 31: Into the Watery Sanctum
General Summary
Our heroes made their way down a silty ridge to a maze of ruins at the ocean’s floor. Aatavi slid through the water above, keeping watch, as the rest of the Shore’s Light wound their way through the ruined labyrinth, trekking ever onward towards the large dome in the distance. The waters above were replete with undead fish, but our heroes were careful to avoid the most menacing; sneaking and hiding when they needed to.
This stealthy action soon brought them to the shell of an old Pantheonic Temple, where Keokan spied a green glow from within. Entering cautiously, they soon discovered the source of the light coming from the cracks of a giant mollusk half buried in the muck. The temple’s interior was briefly lit with dim green light as Aaura pried open the shell, discovering a large pearl, marbled with faint green lines.
Still hurting from their encounter with the aboleth spawn, the heroes decided to take a long rest within the temple confines, a respite made all the more comfortable by Adockus' tiny hut. The interior of the wizard’s dome was dry and comfortable, and allowed the Shore’s Light to regain their energy – as well as helping to confirm with Aaura that the pearl was a magical Pearl of Power.
Setting off the next morning the heroes continued through the ruins, eventually finding themselves at the base of the large dome, a coliseum type structure that towered over them. Shadow stole between the large barnacle encrusted pillars, and scouted the gloom ahead. The interior of the dome was vast and dark. Her tabaxi eyes strained in the blackness. Many feet below, in the pit of the old coliseum a large trap door was open, a ramp extending far beyond her line of sight. Above her, its true form hidden in the darkness, a colossal shape bobbed against the peak of the dome.
Moving quickly, the Shore’s Light floated down to the Coliseum’s floor and moved through the trap door into a long tunnel underneath. The tunnel soon ended in a runic gateway through which a dry chamber could be seen beyond. Illuminated by Adockus dancing lights and Shadow’s driftglobe, the party made their way into the ancient Ymmari ruins.
The air was thick with a cold humidity, the curved walls of the tunnel covered in a thin patina of dark slime. The passage continued past a junction ahead, and extended into the gloom where a hulking shape could be seen in the shadows. As they cautiously approached, they discovered that it was a statue, looming over a chamber littered with corpses and body parts. The statue was nearly 15 feet around, a large bulbous spheroid with a giant eye bearing two pupils. A maw of needle like teeth was frozen in a silent scream. At its base, a long fish like tail curled around its bottom, and two spindly arms ending in talons stretched out into the chamber.
Dried bloodstains on a mother of pearl altar indicated that this was a sacrificial chamber but the havoc in the room told a different story. Smashed furniture and overturned pedestals, as well as bloated and eviscerated corpses washed the room in carnage and gore. Faelyn pocketed a sharp looking sacrificial dagger that he found at the statue’s base. Through divine magic, Shadow became aware of the presence of a Blightstone Orb. Although it wasn’t in their current chamber, her magic aligned her senses and reassured our heroes that the orb was somewhere within these ruins.
Throughout the ruins the Ymmari carvings and reliefs had been broken, rubbed away, or replaced with aberrant aquatic motifs in praise of Lith-Cyak. In some chambers, long tubes of water seemed to hover in the air, their currents pushing to and fro, serving as odd transports from one area to the next. Delving further within, the Shore’s Light discovered an odd chamber with a submerged floor. Thick, ropey chains of bubbles clumped on the surface of the water and clung to the surface of the walls. Scattered throughout the room and stuck fast within this organic mass were a number of desiccated zombies, who gasped and groaned as Aatavi and Faelyn made their way into the room. From somewhere within, a voice had croaked out a plea for help and our heroes moved to investigate.
They soon found her, a terribly thin half elven woman, stuck to the wall in a mass of hardened bubbles. Taking a moment to break her bonds, Aatavi held her against his body and began wading back to the room’s entrance. He had not gone more than a few feet when the woman began to vomit up lungfulls of seawater. With each step she spewed forth more brine, her eyes bulging and lips splitting from the force of the water. Faelyn watched in horror as her neck suddenly inflated like a balloon, her lower jaw broke at its hinges, and a bulbous oblong mass covered in silty hairs emerged from her mouth. It fell from her ruined face and landed in the water with a plop before emitting a head splitting psychic scream. Wincing through the pain Faelyn watched as the monstrosity began to slide away under the surface.
Recognizing this as the wriggling thing the hag had requested, Faelyn took out the jar and quickly snatched the disgusting oddity from the water. The sides of the glass jar vibrated with energy once the wriggler was secured within, and Faelyn placed the jar back within his backpack.
With the woman beyond help and no other exit from the room, the heroes made their way back into previous chamber and used one of the magical water transport tubes to move further into the ruins. They took note of a strange pattern of circles on the floor in one of the chambers: Adockus identified them as ley coordinates for arcane teleportation. He explained that a powerful enough wizard would be able to use this pattern as a focus and could teleport to this location from anywhere. The heroes also moved through a large evocation theater, its walls still bearing scorch marks from magical practices from centuries ago.
As the party continued through the ruins they found themselves in a long hallway whose walls were covered in black slime and where the temperature began to drop precipitously. Shadow’s earlier divine inspiration seemed to confirm that the Blightstone Orb was somewhere in the chamber ahead.
A small ring of magical runes encircled the portal to another chamber. Negative white hues danced across the slime covered walls. Halfway across the expansive chamber, another runic portal held back an immensity of water stretching from floor to ceiling. From within this arcane tank our heroes could see the source of the flashing negative light, a Blightstone orb, pulsing with menace. But something was awry… A vision suddenly appeared in Shadow, Faelyn, and Aatavi’s minds; a tall figure in a black and aqua colored robe with the lean Shantyman’s look. He stood near the orb, struggling against its power. In their minds they clearly heard his voice. “Thank the Gods you are here. Please help me. I don’t know… how much longer… I can contain this!”
Aaura, Keokan, and Adockus however, only saw a large shape cut through the water in front the orb. When their friends moved closer to the tank’s edge, shouting things about helping the stranger within, the rest of the Shore’s Light hastened to stop them. Keokan wrestled with Aatavi but it was ultimately Aaura who broke through the spell and brought the barbarian to his senses. Shadow was too fast however. Seeking to help the stranger she focused her divine power on the flickering orb, blasting it with a sacred flame. The orb flickered wildly for a moment yet its negative pulses continued.
Whether it was Shadow’s actions or some other unknown reason, the runic portals in the room began to hum and glow. All at once the mass of water being held back by the runes broke from its containment. It rushed into the second half of the chamber, slamming into Shadow and Faelyn with tsunami like force before halting at the portal to the chamber's entrance. The sudden rush of water did nothing to clear their minds of the image of the man at the orb but their compatriots saw something far more sinister.
Moving through the water between Shadow and Faelyn was Yith-Katar . Like Yith-Tula before, Yith-Katar was an aboleth, an aberrant fish creature with alien features; nearly 12 feet long and 4 feet thick with long tentacles and a circular maw of wickedly sharp teeth. Unlike its broodling though, Yith-Katar bore signs of the orb’s corruption; patches of blackened necrotic flesh mixed with the mottled blues and greens on its skin; many of its eyes had lost their fearsome red color and turned to a glassy grey; and it the tips of its tentacles were alit with the negative glow of the Blightstone Orb. Its tentacles wavered in the space between Faelyn and Shadow and its eyes focused on the rest of our Heroes, tucked back in the hallway.
