Session 29 – From Zargon to Xanathar
General Summary
Donning the golden masks of Zargon as disguises the troupe continues exploring the lower ziggurat.
They enter a cave where smooth, wet tissue coats the walls. Cankerous lumps protrude from the flesh, dribbling caustic fluid into a sickly-hued pool of gastric juices. A rough stone pathway cuts through the bile.
In the cave, six dwarves with white hair and gray skin use severely corroded pickaxes to excavate an inflamed section of the wall. The chamber gurgles in agitation.
Two of the duergar are arguing over the quality of their tools, as the acidic emanations of the cave have corroded them. The acknowledge the party as they pass, but as they are wearing Zargonite masks they pay them no heed.
The next chamber they see a twenty-foot-deep pit which takes up most of the floor. A stone staircase curves down the wall of the pit, which holds three enormous stone vats brimming with differently colored liquids. Four cultists in dark purple robes pile armfuls of humanoid bones into each cistern.
Deciding that they would rather not involve themselves in whatever the cultists are doing, they instead choose to go down a set of stone stairs to east.
The chamber at the bottom of the stairs is filled with a lake of green slime which even seems to climb up the wall. They begin to hear a guttural voice in their minds. At first, its words are unintelligible, but slowly the gibberish gives way to a question: “What worlds have you destroyed?”
And then a towering abomination rises from the slime. Three long tentacles tipped with bladelike barbs writhe from each of its shoulders, and six more slither below, propelling it forward. Beneath the two-foot-long black horn jutting from its hideous head, the creature’s single bulging, red eye gazes down at them. They have undoubtedly met the fearsome creature, Zargon, of which they have heard so much and is worshipped by some as a god.
Zargon then sends a wave of green slime at the party which knocks out Feebs , Gikhesh , and Sylbella's wolf companion, Bucky. Gunkyn and Sylbella manage to remain conscious but are severely shaken.
Recognizing that they are hopelessly outmatched, Gunkyn casts mass healing word then, as everyone regains consciousness retrieves the scroll of teleport from Feebs’ Bag of Holding and uses it to teleport them all to safety, even though they never determined to where the scroll teleports.
They find themselves back in the desert, although instead of being in the surface ruins of Cynidicea - The Lost City , they are several hundred yards away from a huge walled city laid out in a star pattern, an enormous golden domed structure dominating its center.
Gikhesh recognizes it as Xanathar City , a city run by crime factions, the largest of which is the Xanathar Guild. He cautions that this is no place to let their guard down but at least here they may be able to find transportation to Library of the Cobolt Soul, which was their original intended destination and only a few days from here.
They enter the city and find accommodations at a place called The Cursed Axe which is run by a surly dwarven woman named Jora Borgidotr.
They soon find that Gikhesh was right about Xanahtar City being expensive a single room, barely big enough for the four of the plus baths cost them around 7 gold pieces for just one night. But they settle in for a much-needed rest, thankful that they survived Zargon, but recognizing that they are now in a place controlled by the Xanathar.
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