Session 26: The Hidden Hatchery Report

General Summary

You were battered and tired, but alive. The guard beasts lay still across the cave, their ivory and pale green blood pooling around the base of the glowing blue fronds that waved slowly back and forth as the air swirled behind the waterfall. You breathes heavily and summoned your reserves to venture below to save a friend.   No sentries emerged from the stairs at the back of the cavern during your rest and the rushing of the waterfall drowned out any sound that might have given you a clue of what lies below. Steeling yourselves, you effected some disguises and planned to make the descent under the guise of delivering Etsudo and Willona as prisoners. Mizuho, in her guise as one of the cultists, led the way and as she rounded a corner in the worked stone stairwell that descended from the back of the cave she froze; her foot barely stopping before stepping on a thin wire spread across the step.   Controlling her breathing, Mizuho moved her foot back onto safe ground and examined the trap she nearly set off. It was crude and seemed to only hold a curved, wicked looking shortsword on the ceiling. Mizuho attempted to disarm this simple trap but accidentally cut the wire before applying a tension to the trigger; releasing the blade. Mizuho jumped back easily avoiding the blade as it swing down like a pendulum.   The blade impacted the opposite wall and rang out with a strange dissonant ringing. It swung back and forth in mid air on a cord from the ceiling continuing to resonate long after common sense said it should have quieted. You all held a collective breath before a low bass rumble started to shake the ground and a giant mouth and tentacles burrowed out from the wall in the stairwell and started trying to engulf all of you. Mizuho heard a shout from below in the drow tongue, "There here! Quick finish the ritual!" followed by the sound of muffled screams.   The battle was in tight quarters. The monster took your strikes and arcane volleys and was eventually felled but, not before the cultists in the chamber below were able to complete their bloody ritual. Aja tried desperately to stop them with a hail of arrows from her short bow but was unsuccessful. She watched in horror as the cultists slit the throats of three of their captives, bathing a pulsing orange egg sack in their blood before chanting some eldritch incantations and spilling some of their own blood from their outstretched arms into the pool feeding the egg. Aja rushed over to one of the several locked cells containing various prisoners around the room after seeing Morgan as one of its occupants and began trying to force the door.   The orange orb stretched as the larval creature inside grew and matured rapidly until it burst from the sack with a ferocious roar. The cultists grinned and ordered it to attack Aja but the beast merely roared again and bit one of the cultists in half with it's mighty jaws. The cultists began to scramble backward in horror, repeating their commands as the Carnivean rent them limb from limb with its powerful, clawed hands. It's immediate targets dispatched, the beast turned its attention in the direction of Aja.   The monstrosity of spines, claws, and teeth charged Aja but her preternatural situational awareness allowed her to dodge the brunt of the attack just as the rest of you descended the stairs having triumphed over the intervening Hellmouth. The beast thrashed and snapped at Aja, Richard, and Etsudo as they tried to pin it down while Mizuho and Willona peppered it with spells from a distance.   Willona extended her left hand towards the beast and focused her mind on the softly glowing opal lightshard that, during their rest, she had hurriedly attached to one of the settings on the back of her arcane focus: The Silverhand of Haldis. Under her arcane sight, the gentle glow of the shard expanded in her mind and revealed itself to be a tightly packed matrix of geometric sigils and runes. The arcane syntax crystalized in her consciousness and instantly she understood the workings of the spell invested into that tiny glowing gem. Flushed with the excitement of her new understanding, Willona twisted her hand, curling her fingers into the rictus of a claw and intoned the incantation that only moments ago she had not known.   Willona let out a short gasp as the Silverhand flushed a stygian, midnight purple as the fingers of her hand elongated and shot out ensnaring the Carnivean in ropy tendrils of necrotic magic. Seizing the opportunity, Aja ducked under the bound arm of the beast and made several quick punches to the underbelly of the beast, interrupting the flow of signals through its nervous system. Stunned and bound, the beast was little match for your combined onslaught.   Your opponents lay at your feet so you turned your attention to your imprisoned friend and the some dozen other prisoners held in what appeared to be a tomb of some kind.  You freed your friends, learned some disturbing things about what had gone on in the tomb and recovered a few interesting items including one of the small obsidian spheres that you had observed the drow carrying.  Only this one was somehow different.  Suspended in this little black marble were hundreds of tiny points of light reminding you of something you had seen back at the beginning of this whole endevor.   Disturbed by all you had endured here you resolved to destroy the many more egg sacs in a roughly dug out second room and Willona set about the grim task of slowly and steadily burning them to ash.   You brought the prisoners to the surface, some left to find their own way, including Aja along with another surface Elf by the name of Braern, and some stayed with you.  After a short discussion with Morgan, you realized there was much to discuss but you were all exhausted.  The next step was unclear...

Rewards Granted

• A wooden chest banded with green metal (900CP, 5000SP, 2100GP, 100PP) 
• A Spidersilk bag of mundane gems (Amethyst, Jade, Jet, 2 Pearls, Tourmaline - 100gp each) 
• A web of fine silver chain that fits over the head with pearls attached to the ends of the radial strands
• An ivory light crossbow with a gossamer bow string
• A Dunohin Soulshard with tiny lights suspended in it

Character(s) interacted with

Aja left the party